I am dismayed at the negative atmosphere for this series of posts. I have been pheasant hunting Colorado for abut 10 years, so not an expert and not a novice. Here are some of my obsrevations relating to the posts and my season:
1) I don't think charging a fee for WIHA will help. I have been approached by a game officer in eastern CO only once in 10 years, and that was on opening day. The "bad" hunters won't pay extra and won't heed the restriction anyway.
2) The DOW (game and parks now I believe) uses any money for their own pet projects. Charging a walk in fee does not guarantee that money will help to lease better properties. I, like anyone that uses the walk in areas, find so many properties useless for pheasant hunting. I have for years gave the benifit of doubt to the DOW thinking farmers made package deals, pay me for lousy land, and I will put up some decent land." Or, maybe the rain avoided this area. But now, I think most of the acreage is there just for statistics, that is, "look how many acres we are providing."
3) Rude hunters? There have always been rude hunters. I was a fishing guide and an avid fly fisherman, and found 95% of outdoorsmen (women as well) are very nice and respectful. But, this is changing. Too much promotion of the outdoors has led to many non-outdoorsmen to participate. They haven't been taught ethics or safety. It only takes 1% to make it bad for the rest, but if 5% (this is arbitrary or couse) of rude and thoughtless hunters will definitly give the rest of us a bad name.
4) The Yuma county "joke." If someone gave me permission to hunt poor land, it would be obvious to me that the land was poor. If anyone thinks this is funny, then they are not, and I mean absolutly NOT, a decent human being. To waste a person's time, pretending to be nice is not a decent act, nor is any practical joke. If the farmers are not welcoming hunters, just don't talk to them. I find differnt counties treate me differently. Yuma county is typically not friendly, while Phillips county is. None of the Colorado hunting counties is as friendly as SW Nebraska. Most of the Kansas counties are more friendly than Colorado counties. Colorado, over the last 20 years, has become more and more rude and inconsiderate. Is this our fault? No, but it is reflected on our outdoor activities.
5) The times they are a changing. I recently read a report on trends in NE hunting profiles. Over the last ten years the motivation for hunting pheasants has moved from sport to harvest. That is, from a sporting activity to a means of harvesting meat for the table. This does not bode well. I would think anything as difficult and expensive (per meal) as pheasant hunting would discourage all meat hunters. The implications of this study is astounding. This means that more than half the people you see hunting are out there for a meal. And when they don?t get it, almost always, these types will disrespect the land and the people that provide the land.
Ok, a more informative post. I have seen a lot of birds this year. I have not had much luck as the birds are almost always hens or very young. It is hard to recognize a young rooster flying into the sun with a hen next to him. I use a pointing dog, so I always refrain from shooting unless a solid point is made. I also hunt alone. For these reasons, I don?t mind getting skunked, but of course do like to bag a pheasant once in a while. The pheasants I have seen are in Sedgwick and Phillips counties. The cover looks better there than any other place I have checked out, even better than Nebraska. The idea of a second hatch seems to make sense as many birds are small, mixed in with regular size birds. This makes you hesitate, not knowing exactly what flushed.
I hunted NE on opening weekend, around McCook. The cover is very poor, much poorer than last year. The drought is a long term event, and each year the land looks drier. Locals around McCook told me that they haven't seen birds, any birds. One pheasant hunting farmer was skunked on his own land that weekend. He is getting old and thinks this would be his last year hunting as he felt it will take 4-5 years of good weather to bring back the brids. Nicest fellow, gave me hints and ideas, and names.
There are states that have pheasants, and states that make money from having pheasants. Colorado is not one of them, but could be a lot better. Our state makes a lot of money off big game hunting, but practically none on bird hunting. Will Colorado be a destination for pheasant hunting? No, but at least the DOW could make it better for its residents. Maybe study the programs that South Dakota uses, even Kansas. We can't do anything about the drought, but we can improve our hunting opportunities here. The drought will break eventually, how our DOW is works in the mean times to provide a better hunting experience for the state?s pheasant hunters. Our money is being wasted, or funneled off to other areas of the game and parks division. If we are obligated to leasing poor land, I would like to see a publication justifying those leases. If we have to lease poor plots, what do we get out of it? Is it just propaganda, touting how many acres we offer in the walk in program, or is there really some useful purpose for these poor plots?
What can we do? Picking up trash and shells is of course good, being friendly, etc., but once a famer has been burned, there is no turning him around unless an event happens that changes his/her mind about us. Since most of us here are avid sportsmen, we can only try to educate any friends or novices we bring into the field. All of us probably do. A hunter education program does not guarantee that a person will become ?ethical? after the course. Our society is made up off mostly good people, but there is enough bad eggs to make it hard on the rest of us, not just in the field, but in our daily lives. I really don't have a solution, but would be willing to pay for better quality pheasant hunting though more fees and tags. And, again, no guarantee that our dollars will be converted to better hunting quality. I wish the game officers would enforce the game laws. I bet 25% of hunters don't have licenses. And when you see people hunting private land, what, 25% don't have permission. I don't know
Hope to finish out January with some quiet pleasant hunting. If you see a blue Subaru Forester with a white English Setter, say hi, love to talk bird hunting and dogs.
Thanks for your time
