Burlington

Disappointing report. We are heading to Yuma, CO then NE and KS this weekend. I was hoping to hear things had improved from last season. We will hunt mostly public with some prime private. This is my last season with Pride. He is in good shape but I question if he can go for three days straight. We will see.

I will provide reports each day.
 
Nice report on the Opener in Burlington

Its nice to strike up a friendship with the locals when you're out in their neck of the woods - and as you say - you never know what will result. Too bad the birds had such a hard time there this year, but at least you know that farther north is probably going to be more productive. The hail can be really intense in some areas and 50 miles away - nothing bad has happened. Some snow and cold this week should help gather the birds into good cover, and keep the crowds at home.

I'm looking to get out in another week or so and enjoy a day pursuing the pheasants.

Thunderstick
 
Hey SDTEv,
We might have passed each other on Saturday out there. I was hunting with 4 others and 1 youth and 4 dogs. Some of these guys have been hunting that area for 20 years, sometimes RR, sometimes not. I did the RR two years ago and I share a lot of your thoughts about the good cause and fraternity. We also did the breakfast and turkey dinner that year. This year we hunted private land and a few WIA areas--there are not many due to the enrollment in RR. Like you I saw some real nice cover areas, just not many birds. The birds we did kick up were in shelter belts and offered poor shot selections. I think we expended about 10 shells, a couple of nicks but no birds in the vest.

Part of this crew is heading to SoDak this Wed. so it was a chance to get our dogs some exercise, and us, let the dogs get their sniffing out of the way before SoDak, and check the reported slight pheasant rebound. Hen-Hen filled me in about your trip on the drive back Sunday night.

After returning from SoDak I'll be trying to hit the fields often to work out my 1 yr old pointing lab (maybe) Brady. So far we've just worked planted birds at Kiowa Creek.
Pair-of-Labs
 
I sat out opening day and headed up on Sunday and Monday in Yuma county. Sunday was still pretty busy so I hit some of the out of the way WIA, saw a couple of hens in the first field and the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Found a field that had a tail water pit and sure enough there was one rooster in there, one shot later one rooster in the bag. The rest of the day no birds.

Monday headed out to my spots that where occupied on Sunday. No birds in the first field but did see a rooster and hen 50 yards up the road from a WIA. Got to one of my favorite crop circles and had quite a time. Saw 8 roosters bagged two should have had 3 but one of them flushed when i was walking between the crop circle and I just watched him go kinda in shock. Got in my truck to drive to the other corner, this corner had no cover on the edges so i parked kinda in the middle. Got out and 3 rooster flushed just out of range, they where hiding in the ditch right off the corner that had no cover at all. Just as I start walking into the field I see a pheasant fling right at me was like watching a duck come to a decoy. He landed about 60 yards in front of me. It took quite an effort to get that rooster to flush, I do not hunt with a dog so I just zig zaged all over the spot I saw him land. 20 min later I had him. Hunted the rest of the corner with no birds. Went back to the truck and was putting my gun away when I see another pheasant flying in land in about the same spot. Headed back out and got him too. This all happened before 9 am in a span of 45 minutes. About 30 min later all hell broke loose with the wind and the temp dropped 20 degrees in less than an hour. I hunted for another hour or so in that wind and called it a day.

Had it not been for Monday morning and seeing the birds I did it would have been a pretty slow outing. The cover is better but I do not think the bird numbers are much better than last year if at all.
 
Hmmmm. Saw 8 roosters and bagged 2. That's 2. 20 min. later I had him. That's 3. Saw another rooster flying in---got him, too. That's 4. Weather changed, I hunted another hour. Sounds like 4 birds and still hunting. If so----better read the regs a little closer.
POL
 
I got 1 rooster Sunday and 2 on Monday and should have had a 3rd but I never took a shot. When I say I bagged 2 that is all I got 2 out of 8 that I saw on Monday re reading my post I can see how it got confusing I am a better shot than a story teller LOL
 
Last edited:
sdtEvergreen said:
It was a walk in the summertime this weekend in Burlington. Did the Rooster Round-up with Hen-Hen (My 7th year), got my map and marked my spots. Hit the Knights of Columbus Hunters Breakfast at 5:00 am then went out to wait at my favorite spot before sunrise. There was a truck already there, drats opening day rush. I drove by and decided to back up and chat with guy. Turns out he was hunting alone with his Yellow and invited me to join. We hunted at sunrise (love the Prairie Sunrise) covered the spot and nary a scent of bird, not good. Spent the rest of the day dodging traffic and covering land. Total Count 2 Hens, no shots fired and tired. Went into town for lunch at 2:00 pm and struck up a conversation with a farming couple in Subway. Turns out he farms 9000 acres in the area and he set us up actually at a spot we had seen earlier in the day and wished we could hunt. It was about 80 acres of wonderful CRP surrounded by corn, wheat, a stream and sunflowers. We decided to hit it on Sunday. For Saturday night, as the custom we went into town and had Hunters Turkey Dinner at the Christian Church. Love the small town communities and their graciousness to outsiders. Enjoyed the meal and friendship. Sunday got up early and hit one abandoned farm surrounded by CRP and wheat. No birds. Went to the "private" spot and was stunned by the cover and food available around it. While there we met another group who had permission to hunt this area so we teamed up. They indicated that it had not been hunted all year. So with 5 guys, 1 young lady, and six dogs we hunted and hunted covering this beautiful land. Tally: No birds, No shots. Talking with the locals they got hit hard with hail during the spring hatch and the birds did not recover. I love this event and the groups putting it on and will give it a shot again next year (and maybe once more this winter) but will more than likely head North and as Hen-Hen would say "scratch a few out up there". Total tally 2-Hens, No Shots, Couple new friends, I'll take it. P.S. Starting my beard today.
Click to expand...

Nice piece of writing Steve! I thoroughly enjoyed catching-up, meeting new peeps, hanging out & hunting together, sharing in the opening day tradition/nostalgia, church-sponsored hunters turkey-dinner & all. Was good to be out again, although sure do wish in hindsight we would have taken a warm season pass & waited just a few days until the PERFECT CONDITIONS on Weds & Thurs of this week AND went further north! :10sign: :cheers:

Still scratching my head at walking some of the best cover/habitat I have ever seen anywhere in pheasant country (definitely the best anywhere around Burlington in years) & putting up nary a bird out of any of it. Not a good sign at all when EVERYONE is scratching & clawing for a few roosters at best on opening day like it was late-season January! It's gonna take the birds in that area a lot longer than a year or two to recover from the past few years desert-moonscape & devastation, IF there is even enough brood stock left to get the job done. SAD to think how many birds we used to get up & put down in the exact same area only a few yrs ago... :(
 
Last edited:
Decided to forgo the pancakes and crowds and head to the RR on Mon. with hopes the weather would make for better hunting. This was my first RR.


Teamwork!



Mon was so windy I could hardly stand up. I would guess them at 40-60 knots.
I hit all of the holes and deep cover I could find and did find birds. One hole put up about 20. They were all going straight into the sun and with all the blown grit on my sunglasses I could not honestly pick out one for sure rooster. With a little different sun angle I would have limited out then and there as they were all fairly easy and close shots. I did knock down a rooster out of another hole a little bit later.

Handsome boy!


Tues was a bit nippy at about 20 for the high but very little wind. Tried another quadrant and saw nothing for most of the day. Then decided to head back through town with a quick stop at Subway and then back to the previous quadrant. That was a good move and was into birds several times.


Had some awesome dog work in very large cornfields and chased birds for the remainder of the day. The dog work is where it is at for me anyway, I don't need to kill a ton of birds to have a good time. The only shots I had were hens. If we had some guys to push into some blockers it would have produced pretty well I think.

Stella Blue working a bird,



A bourbon or two, hot shower, chicken fried steak and eggs made a pretty good finish for the day anyway.



Wed am was about 0 with a few snowflakes. Probably would have been the best day for hunting but I needed to get back to Denver for some work stuff plus the dogs were moving awful slow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top