colorado cover advice

G

gman

New member
seems i posted this in the wrong forum a few min's ago. i'll get better at this.

Hello Everyone-
I'm new to this site and have a long list of Q's for you. Hunting in Colorado is a 'bucket-list' item of mine and now that my daughter is going to grad-school in Denver theres no stopping me, at least for the next few years. I've hunted the upper midwest and south forever but never hunted in your neighborhood.
First Q(of many to come) is: when your talking about the area you hunt in CO.,, are CRP and WIA's always synonymous? or is it a 'sometimes' thing?
I've been all over the DOW information but have missed anything concrete about that.

Regards and Thnx in advance.
 
CRP is Conservation Reserve Program ... basically natural fields, unplowed.

WIA or Walk In Access is land that the property owner has granted access through the Department of Wildlife or now Department of Parks and Wildlife.

WIA property can be CRP, wheat stubble, pivots, etc. basically anything. :)
 
snipet said:
yup what CO_Weimar said

ive learned

WIA can be:
Corn field (C)
Wheat field (W)
Tree lines or trees in general (O)
Grass (G)

CRP can be:
Tall Red grass clumps (good)
Tall Yellow grass (good)
Light brown grass (eh if its long enough its good)
Wild Sun flowers (good but can be tough to walk through)
Tumble weeds (still not sure about this one yet)

give this video a watch http://wildlife.state.co.us/NewsMedia/Videos/Pages/PheasantHunting.aspx
Click to expand...

Tumbleweeds can be great, if there's food nearby. Find yourself a corner packed tight with tumbleweeds, near corn or sunflowers, you'll find birds.

It's tough to walk through and it's tough on dogs, but it's hard for a rooster to build up a good head of steam running in there, too. If you find 'em, they hold in there hoping the cover's thick enough to keep them hidden. If your dog is protected with boots & vest, get in there and watch the roosters jump!
 
Speaking of tumbleweeds - we had real good luck in a field of tumbleweed and grass near McCook, NE. It was really thick, and practically everyone drove right on by it, or just walked the edge by the road. We kicked up ~8 roosters and 10 hens, bagging 4 roosters. It was tough going, but there were lots of birds in the tumbleweed. The field had corn on one side, and corn across the road - so, perfect cover with food nearby.
 
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thanks for clearing up that CRP could be included in the WIA program for me. wondering... do you run your dogs with boots on them?
 
I don't run my dog with boots. He hates them. We live in Broomfield, and we exercise our dogs over at the Westminster Hills Open Space Park, just east of Rocky Flats - it has lots of hard dirt, rocks, cactus, etc. and their feet are really tough. We only have trouble with goat heads in the field. Dakota will stop and hold up a foot or just stop if he gets one ... or a dozen. I always carry my Leatherman with me when hunting to pull them out.

The tumbleweed tends to scratch up noses, legs, chest, bellies, etc.
 
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