Anyone hunting?????

Leaving Thursday

Doing the annual Father/Son Hunt with four of the dads from our group, we all have teenage sons. Really looking forward to it, reports from my area (Central S.D) are getting better as the season progresses. Will report back after trip. Then will turn around and go back out again the following week.
 
Out for 2 days hunting private. Haven't seen another hunter. Had an absolutely incredible day yesterday with the pointers. 3 GSP and 1 Britt . 2 guys and a 12 year old. Trying to get the youngster a deer with his bow in the morning and evenings hunting birds mid day. I think the youngster walked up on over 20 solid points yesterday. Gotta get him settled down a bit. :)
 
I will be headed out Wednesday after work and plan on hunting till Monday. Looks like the weather is going to be a lot more mild than I'm used to this time of year. Can anyone tell me if there is any snow still left around the Phesho? When I get back I'll post a report, hope it will be a good one.
 
just got back

My brother and I just did our first trip ever to SD and got back 2 am SAT. The storm last week on TUES put about 8-10" around Presho. When we left FRI not much had melted the highs W,TH were mid 30's. Not sure that helps much...also saw most of our birds down around Winner vrs Presho. Course they all flushed pretty easily and far out once we entered a field.
 
mlf3882 said:
My brother and I just did our first trip ever to SD and got back 2 am SAT. The storm last week on TUES put about 8-10" around Presho. When we left FRI not much had melted the highs W,TH were mid 30's. Not sure that helps much...also saw most of our birds down around Winner vrs Presho. Course they all flushed pretty easily and far out once we entered a field.
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how are the dirt roads??? dirt or mud??? ill stick to main roads with homes on then etc. i figure minimum mag roads be slick mud... also figure cattails are a mess now & rubber boots or hip boots a must... see many other bird hunters???


ill be heading out mid wk i thinking??? or early next wk??? head more central east central snow mostly gone that way i thinking... snow cover maps give a general idea...

also anybody know the date when we can buy our sd license & use our 2nd 5 day hunt next season cant find the info on sd game & fish site...
 
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Gravel roads are slow and nasty. Minimum maintenance roads I did not try but gotta believe they're bad. Gumbo roads are impossible
 
roads

On thurs the dirt roads were begining to soften but still drivable, we hunted all public land and not much competition from other hunters mostly i imagine due to the weather. We saw hunters everyday at resturant we ate at in Winner. But I believe they were being guided, there is a few lodges around Winner. Most birds were found on the GPA's (game production area) next most was WIA's if they had heavy cover. The snow filled in the ditches and covered any grass shorter then 2 feet. North of Winner up by Ideal are a couple of GPA's on main roads like on SD49 and 265th street. Street equates to either a maintained non-paved road to a dirt two track...from what i could tell at least.
 
I dunno, weather has been very warm up here in ND and still some snow from a week ago's snowfall. Road this weekend on dirt and minimum maintenance were solid to just a little slick. Still frozen and so are sloughs. Dogs running accross and me walking on ice still on sunday. But may be different story by wed/thursday with the 50 degree days until friday/saturday when it goes back down to 32 for a high temp.
 
After having phenomenon dog work on saturday and Sunday I had to return to work for Monday and Tuesday but couldn't pass up another trip out last night. What a gorgeous day! Picked up a limit also!

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Made it back out after a couple weeks away chasing deer and holiday obligations. Went around Mitchell and between three of us managed four roosters. Pretty nice day out with 50's and light wind. Roads have become very slick.
 
Just got back from our 2nd trip out and we struggled compared to early November. My fear of the snow seemed well founded. Half the birds had relocated to farm lots and we lost a lot of cover in the ditches either by drifting or flattened by the weight of the snow. The cover that held birds was quickly burned out after a couple of days of hunting. We ended up with 1/2 our limit for two guys. Did see an awesome sight near a large family run farm which had operations on both sides of a oil road. Over a hundred roosters standing on the road, in the ditches, in the front yard, on the porch.... Quite the sight! Weather was great and even got up to 64 on Wednesday, almost all of the snow is gone except in some severely drifted ditches. Stay off the black dirt roads until they dry out, they were treacherous!
 
3car said:
Its gone for the most part. Maybe a little in the ditches and tree rows.
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Great, thanks for the report! Leaving tomorrow for that part of the state to hunt for 5 days. Sounds like Saturday there is a chance for 1-3" of snow. I hunted last year and saw TONS of birds but it was hard to get close to them. :thumbsup:
 
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