Just got home to Denver this afternoon from a 9-day road trip through the pheasant hot-spots in Colorado - Burlington, Yuma, Holyoke - trip was decent but tough-going as expected. I'm walking through my house like I just finished an ironman with a heifer strapped to my back. You should see our dogs, I don't think they're gonna wag tail at us ever again, they've figured out how to lock themselves in their kennels. Anyways, we know it's another drought year and there are also reports of a 2nd hatch this year. (2nd hatch isn't necessarily good. It means the first hatch didn't survive so the birds' instincts led them to have a 2nd hatch) Our group hunted both WIA (walk-in access) and private land and every single rooster harvested came from private land. The WIA land was in such bad shape, we drove past most of them, but I'll get to my thoughts on that in a bit. Over those 9 days we took 15 roosters and saw a total of 26. We only saw 19 hens.
In all the areas, I would say about 85% of the corn is down/harvested. Surprisingly, we found a lot of fields with standing corn and you could hear the roosters in there, laughing at you every evening when the sun went down. If you come across standing corn, my advice is to go somewhere else where there isn't standing corn or get permission to hunt the standing corn, the birds are in there and have no reason to leave. I would also advise everyone to hunt with a dog, even if the dog isn't a professionally trained bird dog. With numbers so low, you need every advantage you can get.
Burlington - 3 days, 4 roosters. WIA land was nothing to brag about, we found 3 locations that were barely worth walking, didn't kick any pheasants up. WIA we hunted was all around Stratton, one by Kansas on G. Roosters that we harvested all came out of private land wind-rows, adjacent to corn fields. Seems to be more milo in this area, a magnet for pheasants. Farmers I spoke with are not seeing anything close to what they consider average pheasant numbers. Burlington area is definitely hurting.
Yuma - 4 days, 8 roosters (well we only actually shot 7, my catahoula grabbed a rooster as it rose from the field). 4 roosters came from a corn field being harvested that we got to sit at the end of, 4 came from a milo/grass mix field that we hunted two days in a row. WIA land was abyssmal, it seems to get hit so hard that there are actually "hunter trails" that look like game trails going through the ragweed. We took a two hour lunch break one day after walking a grass WIA field and watched a group come walk it right after us, then another group, then another! It got pounded by 4 groups within 2 hours, and it wasn't close to any towns or main roads. This was very typical for all the WIA in Yuma County - close to Denver so it attracts day hunters, brats, rich folk and newbies. At another field we watched a group pull up in a mercedes SUV, a guy leaned his shotgun up against the car, it fell over and fired off pointed down the road! Lucky for them it wasn't pointed in our direction or we would have had a serious problem. We were at the Main Event Bar and Grill in Yuma one night with 3 landowners I know, I asked them how often they get approached by pheasant hunters and how they feel about it. Well, the locals have a little game they like to call 38 L (that isn't the name because I don't want to ruin the joke), and they walked me through it. They get asked permission to hunt private land, "Yes, thanks for asking first, I have a great spot, hunt the southwest corner of the intersection at 38 L, you're sure to bag a handful of roosters there." They informed me that it's just outside of Yuma right next to the big feedlots and no one has ever seen a pheasant in there. Thin, grass field riddled with cactus, we drove past it on our way to Holyoke and sure enough, the pungent aroma from the 100k head of cows next door was too much for us to handle. I'd rather stick my nose inside a turtle shell. The Yuma area provided us with the most birds, but we also had perfect land to hunt. Pheasant numbers in Yuma are way, way down.
Holyoke - 2 days, 3 roosters. WINDY! What a brutal couple of days we had in Holyoke. The tumbleweeds actually hurt when they hit you because the wind was whipping so fast. The dogs were even dodging the tumbleweeds! WIA land around Holyoke was much more pheasant friendly than other areas of the state, but every pheasant hunter knows this and boy do they get pounded like a cold one on a hot day. We spent 1 full day hunting WIA land to bag zero roosters and we hunted it hard. We saw a lot of pheasants bombing out of fields because they probably winded us, but we're not counting them in our numbers due to how far away they were and we couldn't tell the sex anyways. The roosters we harvested came from 3 different fields. One in the habitat corner of a corn field, one from a narrow strip of corn that our friend left standing, one from the terrible thorn bushes behind a wind row. The pheasant numbers are OK in Holyoke, but still nothing like they used to be. It was not a fun or exciting hunt in Holyoke at all, we were all pretty saddened by how badly the numbers have tanked.
As I mentioned before, the drought and weather conditions are obviously taking a heavy toll on pheasant numbers, but I don't put a majority of the blame on the weather. I'm very close with a number of large farms and landowners in all three areas, we are extremely fortunate to have their permission to hunt their land. After having dinner or a conversation with all of them, the general consensus is that landowners are fed up with pheasant hunters and especially ones who hunt WIA land. They leave shells, trash and beer cans, drive through fields, hunt fields while cattle are present or hunt while farming operations are going on. All things that pheasant hunters should absolutely never do! Farmers and landowners have had it with these "trashier, disrespectful" group of pheasant hunters and they are beginning to only donate their worst and most useless parcels to the WIA Program. WIA land used to only be accessible if you paid an extra WIA fee, and I thought this was great. The land was incredible, we usually limited out every day and only came across a couple other groups of hunters every trip. Colorado DOW should never have let everyone hunt WIA land for free, they need to go back to charging a fee. All you responsible, mature, respectful bird hunters out there need to help spread the word because these dingbats are going to ruin it for all of us. If you see this kind of behavior going on, grow a pair and say something. If you know someone new to pheasant hunting, take them with you so you can teach them proper etiquette! They also need to know to NEVER hunt private land without asking, not even a ditch along a road. Only a few years ago, most farmers would gladly give permission when asked, but that is changing drastically. Most doors and phones are slamming now. Quit pissing off the farmers, without their support pheasant hunting is doomed, period.
Ok, sorry for the rant, I had to. Hope my report gives some good info to you guys, I'd love to know how anyone else does. It's going to be a very rough year, don't plan on limiting out and do plan to work extra hard for the roosters you do happen to come across. I plan on making another short trip the first week in December and early January (if the dogs will come). Happy Hunting.
In all the areas, I would say about 85% of the corn is down/harvested. Surprisingly, we found a lot of fields with standing corn and you could hear the roosters in there, laughing at you every evening when the sun went down. If you come across standing corn, my advice is to go somewhere else where there isn't standing corn or get permission to hunt the standing corn, the birds are in there and have no reason to leave. I would also advise everyone to hunt with a dog, even if the dog isn't a professionally trained bird dog. With numbers so low, you need every advantage you can get.
Burlington - 3 days, 4 roosters. WIA land was nothing to brag about, we found 3 locations that were barely worth walking, didn't kick any pheasants up. WIA we hunted was all around Stratton, one by Kansas on G. Roosters that we harvested all came out of private land wind-rows, adjacent to corn fields. Seems to be more milo in this area, a magnet for pheasants. Farmers I spoke with are not seeing anything close to what they consider average pheasant numbers. Burlington area is definitely hurting.
Yuma - 4 days, 8 roosters (well we only actually shot 7, my catahoula grabbed a rooster as it rose from the field). 4 roosters came from a corn field being harvested that we got to sit at the end of, 4 came from a milo/grass mix field that we hunted two days in a row. WIA land was abyssmal, it seems to get hit so hard that there are actually "hunter trails" that look like game trails going through the ragweed. We took a two hour lunch break one day after walking a grass WIA field and watched a group come walk it right after us, then another group, then another! It got pounded by 4 groups within 2 hours, and it wasn't close to any towns or main roads. This was very typical for all the WIA in Yuma County - close to Denver so it attracts day hunters, brats, rich folk and newbies. At another field we watched a group pull up in a mercedes SUV, a guy leaned his shotgun up against the car, it fell over and fired off pointed down the road! Lucky for them it wasn't pointed in our direction or we would have had a serious problem. We were at the Main Event Bar and Grill in Yuma one night with 3 landowners I know, I asked them how often they get approached by pheasant hunters and how they feel about it. Well, the locals have a little game they like to call 38 L (that isn't the name because I don't want to ruin the joke), and they walked me through it. They get asked permission to hunt private land, "Yes, thanks for asking first, I have a great spot, hunt the southwest corner of the intersection at 38 L, you're sure to bag a handful of roosters there." They informed me that it's just outside of Yuma right next to the big feedlots and no one has ever seen a pheasant in there. Thin, grass field riddled with cactus, we drove past it on our way to Holyoke and sure enough, the pungent aroma from the 100k head of cows next door was too much for us to handle. I'd rather stick my nose inside a turtle shell. The Yuma area provided us with the most birds, but we also had perfect land to hunt. Pheasant numbers in Yuma are way, way down.
Holyoke - 2 days, 3 roosters. WINDY! What a brutal couple of days we had in Holyoke. The tumbleweeds actually hurt when they hit you because the wind was whipping so fast. The dogs were even dodging the tumbleweeds! WIA land around Holyoke was much more pheasant friendly than other areas of the state, but every pheasant hunter knows this and boy do they get pounded like a cold one on a hot day. We spent 1 full day hunting WIA land to bag zero roosters and we hunted it hard. We saw a lot of pheasants bombing out of fields because they probably winded us, but we're not counting them in our numbers due to how far away they were and we couldn't tell the sex anyways. The roosters we harvested came from 3 different fields. One in the habitat corner of a corn field, one from a narrow strip of corn that our friend left standing, one from the terrible thorn bushes behind a wind row. The pheasant numbers are OK in Holyoke, but still nothing like they used to be. It was not a fun or exciting hunt in Holyoke at all, we were all pretty saddened by how badly the numbers have tanked.
As I mentioned before, the drought and weather conditions are obviously taking a heavy toll on pheasant numbers, but I don't put a majority of the blame on the weather. I'm very close with a number of large farms and landowners in all three areas, we are extremely fortunate to have their permission to hunt their land. After having dinner or a conversation with all of them, the general consensus is that landowners are fed up with pheasant hunters and especially ones who hunt WIA land. They leave shells, trash and beer cans, drive through fields, hunt fields while cattle are present or hunt while farming operations are going on. All things that pheasant hunters should absolutely never do! Farmers and landowners have had it with these "trashier, disrespectful" group of pheasant hunters and they are beginning to only donate their worst and most useless parcels to the WIA Program. WIA land used to only be accessible if you paid an extra WIA fee, and I thought this was great. The land was incredible, we usually limited out every day and only came across a couple other groups of hunters every trip. Colorado DOW should never have let everyone hunt WIA land for free, they need to go back to charging a fee. All you responsible, mature, respectful bird hunters out there need to help spread the word because these dingbats are going to ruin it for all of us. If you see this kind of behavior going on, grow a pair and say something. If you know someone new to pheasant hunting, take them with you so you can teach them proper etiquette! They also need to know to NEVER hunt private land without asking, not even a ditch along a road. Only a few years ago, most farmers would gladly give permission when asked, but that is changing drastically. Most doors and phones are slamming now. Quit pissing off the farmers, without their support pheasant hunting is doomed, period.
Ok, sorry for the rant, I had to. Hope my report gives some good info to you guys, I'd love to know how anyone else does. It's going to be a very rough year, don't plan on limiting out and do plan to work extra hard for the roosters you do happen to come across. I plan on making another short trip the first week in December and early January (if the dogs will come). Happy Hunting.
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