Encouraging SD Pheasant Observations

1pheas4

1pheas4

Moderator
For those of you who haven't hit SD yet (this season) I'd like to share a couple points/observations with you:)

-(as of Tuesday Nov. 11th) hen to rooster ratio was very-very-good. On average I'd say for every 6 hens the dog flushed---4 to 5 were roosters. So in other words, there's still many roosters out there for you to chase!

-the 2014 hatch was very good:thumbsup: Those wild hens got it done;)--though it was obvious many birds came from late/2nd nesting attempts. Out of the 15 wild roosters I bagged, only 2 were older birds.

-Limits were met on public land, all within a hour or two each day. The birds seemed to be everywhere, that is; Both in the habitat, crop land, and ditches.

Hope this was encouraging news for those of you who are heading out in the coming weeks.

Here's a photo taken last Saturday. Notice the rooster on the bottom right. He isn't colored out yet. There were a few of those out there. Happy and safe hunting to all of you who will be making the trip this year.

P.S.--I'll post more pheasant photos in the "photo contest" thread if anyone is interested.

Nick

 
Very, very encouraging! I'm as excited as I've ever been about any bird season of my life. I've never hunted SD in December and I'm really looking forward to it.

Thanks for taking the time to post!!
 
Went out today east of Watertown. With the 8-10 inches of snow we got along with 20-40 mph winds it has made hunting in this area very difficult. Lots of deep drifts and hard packed snow. As for me I'm done in this part of the state. At 68 I just can't truck through that crusted snow anymore.

I'm not sure how the snow is west of here or in the Aberdeen area. I think the Watertown area got the worst of it. I know the further south you go there isn't much snow. It doesn't appear there is much snow in the forecast. Maybe some on Saturday. But the cold it staying around for awhile. Going to be -8 here tonight and -15 in the Aberdeen area. Highs in the teens for most of the next 10 days. That's not bad as long as there isn't a lot of wind.
 
Thanks for the report Nick. I'm in the same boat as KB right now, chomping at the bit ready for December!
 
And I'm chomping at the bit for a week from tomorrow. A week from today is travel day! Hoping for a good hunt. Forecasted high for a week from tomorrow is 31 in our area. 29 on Sunday.
 
It's my pleasure guys;). I would normally be out there late season too, but I had a last minute window so it was now or never. I pulled the trigger on it:thumbsup:

Have a safe and enjoyable time out there:cheers:
 
Where were you at

Nick,

Where were you hunting at? I'm heading up in 3 days to hopefully get it done in plankinton to kimball area. Anyone else hunt around there?
 
For the most part Mitchell was my "hub". I covered some ground on this trip though. That is I went north, south, east, and west. Everything was good.:thumbsup:

The last day I tried chasing the snow storm that Dakota was talking about. Unfortunate I was working on some business matters in Mitchell that day so I only got a little more than half way to the storm hit areas (last Tuesday) and had to turn around due to time/light constants. Still hunted snow though:thumbsup: The pooch seemed to find them in the Cattails for the most part that afternoon.:)

Nick
 
Fyi

Took my second trip up to SD this past week and hunted Tuesday thru Saturday. It was cold and windy with a little snow on the ground the first few days. Most of the corps are out except for some sections of corn still standing. I hunted solo with my two PLs. I had some big flushes from the selterbelts but the birds were coming out 200 yards in front of me. I would then hunt the heavy grass cover that the birds flew to and try to pick up some of the singles. Found a few in the catails but no big flushes. Over all I saw a lot more birds this trip and came home with 15 roosters. I would like to get back up there at least once or twice more, but time will tell.
 
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