Early season thoughts

I just got hunting the last 4 days. I was pleasantly surprised how great the cover was where we hunted. There was a public land area just across the road from our private land that we hunt, and last year it was in bad shape. I was amazed how good it looked this year. A few places we stopped, just to walk down a minimum maintenance road, or by lakes/ponds, or in the ditch, the cover was outstanding.
Bird numbers were good. Better than last year for sure. The weather was perfect for the dogs. One night it dipped down to 16 degrees.
There were a few large corn fields still in around there also.
 
gps4 said:
isnt that the truth? we strike out before dawn on saturday and hope to step in the first field sunday at 10:00 am.

I havent been this early in the season since 2016. not much "work" getting done this week on my end....
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We are on the home stretch on the return trip from SD. We hunted public access only and put more than a 2-man limit in the air 4 out of 5 days.

Got lucky to hunt day 1 in the snow.

I plan to go back later in the season, weather permitting. IMG_8480.jpeg

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Always a great time to be on the prairie…
 
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So far its been a great year. I've hunted almost every day of the season so far and have been pleasantly surprised at the numbers considering this past winter. I've also been very surprised at the number of hunters out there. Glad to see so many guys out there but definitely most guys I've seen on public land in last five years.
 
IMG_1649.jpgwe spent 4 nights 5 days is se sd.. been going to same area for 8 years. We show up 10-26 to 10-31 . All public access land except for a couple, 4 -6 road birds in between, I get it I get it. Have dogs for a reason, but If you've ever been cruising down the road and someone yells rooster well... ya. I don't need to tell rest of story. I thought bird numbers were good. I'm not gonna tell ya what and where to hunt but after a day or 2 and you havnt figured out not to hunt around tall yellow stuff or 2 ft tall brown sticky crop. then yea,go look for info on Facebook. Pretty simple. Stay away from crop in morning. Not saying they not there but odds way better with out.
I thought more hunters in recent years but all that we ran into on road or around areas seemed super friendly. Got to see some big 8-10 wide pushes with 10 -15 roosters getting shot , but jumped in the same spot soon after and finished our night.

Weather for warm , windy, snow, cold, cold wind. So. Pretty good. See ya in December!!
 
Hunted opening week either side of a line from Doland to Cresbard on private, public and lots of ditches in three different groups so we covered lots of land. Never seen so many birds hold so tight to cover and refuse to fly from day 1 across all the places we were in. Sure all the corn was still in and half the beans too but they are normally birds going back and forth and coming out to the road but they never showed up. Getting into heavy cover way off the road produced every time but they ran first unless trapped and then held tight until you about stepped on them. Weather was not that windy or cold to make them hold that tight. Didn't even see them come out at dusk any of the first 4 nights.

I did see a hawk in every single quarter so those numbers were 5x what we normally see which could account for having smartened them up. When the corn was getting picked it was moving a lot of birds. General observations about bird numbers could be under selling the actual amount unless it was from hunters directly in the field.

Conditions were mixed- most ditches were mowed and everything low or cattails had standing water from recent rains. However access roads and fields were firm, just much of the area had runoff still around. CRP and CREP in this area was not mowed due to wet conditions but high ground around WPAs was cut most of the time.

Harvest in this area is still behind due to snow/frost at night that has been preventing corn from getting done all the way up until this past weekend.
 
So far, so good on eastern SD public land, & it's just starting to get better with corn coming out quicker now. And this when "the snow killed them all" & "it'll take YEARS to recover from the winter". The vast majority of my hunting has been on WPAs. All with a 1990 Browning Sweet 16, MOD choke, & Boss 1 oz loads of bismuth 4s.

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Hunted central SD, west of the James River last week: Monday-Friday.

  • 3 guys
  • public land only
  • lots of crops still standing
  • LOTS of hunting pressure
  • limited each day
  • Usually done by 1-2 o'clock, but a couple days went right down to the wire
  • Can't wait for the next trip in December
 
Kre said:
Hunted central SD, west of the James River last week: Monday-Friday.

  • 3 guys
  • public land only
  • lots of crops still standing
  • LOTS of hunting pressure
  • limited each day
  • Usually done by 1-2 o'clock, but a couple days went right down to the wire
  • Can't wait for the next trip in December
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Nice! That's great to limit on public land 5 hunts in a row. For 3 guys to do it is really, SUPER great!! Did you all hunt together, or did you split up sometimes & hunt separate spots?
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Nice! That's great to limit on public land 5 hunts in a row. For 3 guys to do it is really, SUPER great!! Did you all hunt together, or did you split up sometimes & hunt separate spots?
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We had 2 GSP's and a lab, so it just depends. I prefer to hunt alone, but hunting those 2 pointers together is pretty efficient.
 
Made my first trip out to SD last week with my 1.5 year old Boykin Spaniel. After driving better part of two days from North Carolina, got on the ground late Sunday and got two birds right before sundown. Was supposed to hunt through Friday but a house of sick kids and wife brought me home a few days early.

Ended up with five birds Sunday-Tuesday.

Was so rewarding watching everything click for the dog. Tuesday afternoon she tracked a bird probably 75 yards with me running behind her, searched hard when she determined it had stopped running and flushed it right in front of me. It was perfect, I may have yelled.

Already planning a return trip next November. Hope the honey hole we found Tuesday afternoon will be just as good next year.

Realistically should’ve had a limit both Monday and Tuesday, so no issue finding birds. Think we only went to one spot where we didn’t flush any birds.

Was hunting out of Aberdeen. Saw hunters on the road/in the hotel but never had any issue with folks already in a spot we were heading to or anything like that.

Can’t wait to get back.
 

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charlottehunter said:
Made my first trip out to SD last week with my 1.5 year old Boykin Spaniel. After driving better part of two days from North Carolina, got on the ground late Sunday and got two birds right before sundown. Was supposed to hunt through Friday but a house of sick kids and wife brought me home a few days early.

Ended up with five birds Sunday-Tuesday.

Was so rewarding watching everything click for the dog. Tuesday afternoon she tracked a bird probably 75 yards with me running behind her, searched hard when she determined it had stopped running and flushed it right in front of me. It was perfect, I may have yelled.

Already planning a return trip next November. Hope the honey hole we found Tuesday afternoon will be just as good next year.

Realistically should’ve had a limit both Monday and Tuesday, so no issue finding birds. Think we only went to one spot where we didn’t flush any birds.

Was hunting out of Aberdeen. Saw hunters on the road/in the hotel but never had any issue with folks already in a spot we were heading to or anything like that.

Can’t wait to get back.
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Nice boyken
 
charlottehunter said:
Made my first trip out to SD last week with my 1.5 year old Boykin Spaniel. After driving better part of two days from North Carolina, got on the ground late Sunday and got two birds right before sundown. Was supposed to hunt through Friday but a house of sick kids and wife brought me home a few days early.

Ended up with five birds Sunday-Tuesday.

Was so rewarding watching everything click for the dog. Tuesday afternoon she tracked a bird probably 75 yards with me running behind her, searched hard when she determined it had stopped running and flushed it right in front of me. It was perfect, I may have yelled.

Already planning a return trip next November. Hope the honey hole we found Tuesday afternoon will be just as good next year.

Realistically should’ve had a limit both Monday and Tuesday, so no issue finding birds. Think we only went to one spot where we didn’t flush any birds.

Was hunting out of Aberdeen. Saw hunters on the road/in the hotel but never had any issue with folks already in a spot we were heading to or anything like that.

Can’t wait to get back.
Click to expand...
Did you go to yhat redfield area?
 
Goosemaster said:
Did you go to yhat redfield area?
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Yep

On Sunday we hunted south of Bristol since it was on the way. Most of the birds we saw were very young but where the habitat was good saw plenty.

On Monday we went down to the Redfield area. Had a couple of big flushes and I sucked at picking a bird so should’ve limited pretty early but only ended up with one.

Tuesday we went further west, out towards Onaka and worked back towards Aberdeen from there. Saw less birds around Onaka though the weather was pretty foggy/misty early in the day and had a couple of big ditch flushes by accident. As we worked back towards Aberdeen saw more and more birds. Place we ended up at golden hour was covered in them, flying everywhere, crowing, etc.

Everything was CREP and WPAs. When the habitat was good on CREP land I think we probably saw more birds there. Seemed like maybe the WPAs got hit harder, though both were pretty good.
 
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