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irish1

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Tough hunting, all private ground, bird numbers way down form past, very warm, got up to 73 one day. virtually all crops in, should have been perfect, only thing missing was the birds.

Anyone else have this experience?
 
Dumb questoin for you. Were about are those areas? Which state?:)
-1pheas4
 
Thanks. Yeah I noticed the farther west I went the better the bird #'s seemed to get, though they were good everywhere I went. Good Luck with the birds! :thumbsup: --1pheas4
 
The four of us hunted around Bruce, SD(NW of Brookings) on October 19, 20, 21(2 1/2 days. Crops were about 50% out. We knew going in that #'s were going to be thin - and they were - not exactly overflowing into the roads - felt like you needed a 10 foot pry-bar to root out "the few and the proud". We found a few little niche areas that made it fun. We don't hunt with dogs.

Results around Bruce, SD:

3 1/2 hour day: 5 birds
Full day-noon to dark: 7 birds
Full day-noon to dark: 9 birds

On the last day(October 22) we went west to the Doland/Frankfort area. Spent a lot of time obtaining free permission but when we got it, we hit it BIG and got our limits quite easily.

Once you got west of Hwy 25, the #'s began to rise. Kingsbury and Minor Counties are probably "on the bubble" so to speak.
 
I am absolutely shocked by these reports. The SDGFP said that the numbers were higher than last year and it was going to be one of the best years ever.
 
We were told that most of the I-29 corridor was hit badly with hail last spring which reduced modest #'s to low #'s. This area has not been "prime" pheasant country by South Dakota standards for many years. There was a jump in 2008 in this area but it has now regressed again to the mean.
This area has 3 major problems:

1) Overpopulated with people
2) Farmland is too fertile so it is too intensively farmed
3) Not nearly enough CRP grass

If you find marginal(but still barely farmable) farm soil with lots of craggy, sloppy, unfarmable terrain(cattails, ravines, etc.) as evidenced by a lot of abandoned farmsteads and very few people together with large tracts of CRP, DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT get out of your vehicle or you will be trampled to death by herds of roosters.

All of SD was only up 3% on average from last year - some areas way up(Mobridge to Pierre, for example) some down significantly(Brookings).

IF, you can get on land in the circle created by connecting the following towns, you will be "shocked at the high # of birds:

Frankfort - Doland - Carpenter - Hitchcock - Tulare

I am sure, however, that there are areas in SD that have even higher #'s.
 
moellermd said:
I am absolutely shocked by these reports. The SDGFP said that the numbers were higher than last year and it was going to be one of the best years ever.
Click to expand...

Where did you read that the SDGFP reported that the birds numbers were higher in Kingsbury and Miner countries? I read that SDGFP reported higher number of birds in the central part of the state and lower number of birds east of the James River Valley. SDGFP reports "what it sees", which I believe it pretty spot on over the years.
Thanks SDGFP- I think you do a great job.
It isn't their fault that the birds numbers in eastern South Dakota will look like Minn in a few years. Farming Practices!!!!!! Over 80% of the 2010 CRP Signup went in around the Missouri River and western SD. Thats where the birds will be in years to come.
 
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irish1 said:
Tough hunting, all private ground, bird numbers way down form past, very warm, got up to 73 one day. virtually all crops in, should have been perfect, only thing missing was the birds.

Anyone else have this experience?
Click to expand...

Just got back from SD. You got to get on the west side of Hwy 281. Lots of birds. They are starting to group up however, so its walk, walk, walk, then 50 birds get up at once and hopefully you get a shot at one or two.
 
couger71 said:
Where did you read that the SDGFP reported that the birds numbers were higher in Kingsbury and Miner countries? I read that SDGFP reported higher number of birds in the central part of the state and lower number of birds east of the James River Valley. SDGFP reports "what it sees", which I believe it pretty spot on over the years.
Thanks SDGFP- I think you do a great job.
It isn't their fault that the birds numbers in eastern South Dakota will look like Minn in a few years. Farming Practices!!!!!! Over 80% of the 2010 CRP Signup went in around the Missouri River and western SD. Thats where the birds will be in years to come.
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem with the accuracy of the report, I grew up in Brookings and my folks still live there I even do some hunting that way. My problem is how the tourist people/outfitters always spin this information to make it look like numbers are up everywhere.
 
Moeller, I'm with you and am skeptical of reports. Most are very conservative to put on a positive spin so as to not turn away tourists. One of my brothers came along on my first two SD pheasant hunts. The first was a phenomenal year, the best I've ever seen it. The following year was a bad drought and the results in the area we hunt were catastrophic. But the reports were for great pheasant numbers. The year before we shot limits every day. That year we shot 10 roosters, between 3 guys in 4 days. The next year while planning for the trip out, the reports were good again and he didn't want any part of it. Has never been back. he's the baby of the family and spoiled, so you have to take what he says with a grain of salt. That trip was a lot of tough hunting, but I still enjoyed myself. Unfortunately for him, if he's not given a decent chance to shoot his limit, he's not going as it's too far and too expensive to be getting skunked.

Here in N WI, the local radio stations will not give a bad weather forecast in the summer for fear of turning away tourists. DNR in WI is horrible with their deer population forecasts. That's why I'm on this forum, to see what real people are seeing on the ground. That personal information is much better than something compiled in the office and published by a bureaucrat who never sees the field. Besides, even in really good years, there are local areas experiencing poor reproduction. So for me, I'll listen to the advice of you guys and the hell with the government.
 
We live a couple hours southwest of the Brookings area but our numbers are still great. One of the biggest problems that we had this year was flooding. There has been several weeks of hunting where we were seeing extremely young roosters that did not have all of their feathering in. I think some hens in certain areas had probably had to lay atleast 3 times just to get a hatching. I like the comment about drawing a circle around certain towns by Doland, Frankfort, etc. I guide for a hunting lodge northeast of Redfield and the numbers were really good. You could limit on the road but now with the weather and crops out getting on some private land with good cover is your best bet. There are very high numbers of birds out there, 50+ in bunches today when I was scouting deer. You just have to know where to find them!
 
The I-29 corridor is in the early to middle stages of "eastern cancer" aka "agri-burbia" or "michigans' syndrome". When the city-slickers start to see farmland as a great place to build their dream home and there are actually a lot of cottages and houses on the shores of lakes(example:Lake Poinsett) making it look swanky and resorty, pheasants will most surely concede these areas to the invasive species that "WE" are.
 
Last week's hunt

FWIW, and that's not much--this was our first trip to SD--I'm inclined to echo the opinions above; we hunted two days east of Wagner, including a new WIA down near Yankton; we didn't kill a bird, the first day didn't even fire a shot! Then we moved up west of 281, and had a great final day that made up for it, for newbies like us. That's where we'll go, next year.
Beach004
 
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