Feedback on water?

G

gspx2

New member
I hunted Southern Brown and Northern Spink counties opening weekend and was happy/pleasantly surprised that we ran into minimal to no water in the fields. We even had some cattails that were walkable vs. the last 2 years. However, just got a report back from a few buddies that were just out there and said it is wet in these same areas now. Did I miss a big rain you got out there?

I am looking to focus more on Brown County or West of there this weekend and am curious where some dry spots may be. Is North or West of Aberdeen fairly dry? Mobridge area dry?

Thanks for any input.

Greg
 
We haven't had any significant precipitation in this area since the season started so I don't know how your buddies ran into water in the places you didn't. It is soooooo much drier than a year ago that water is really a non-issue. I just can't imagine the conditions have changed in the areas you hunted opening weekend.
 
Yeah, I was surprised, but they are reliable guys I hunt with. There is a drainage/overgrown old creek bed in one of the public pieces we hunt that was completely dry opening weekend that they said has water in it now.

Had another group of guys out there that hunted a different piece of public with a lot of cattails on it that I could walk through opening weekend, that also now had water in it.

So couldn't figure out where it would have all came from.
 
gspx2 said:
I hunted Southern Brown and Northern Spink counties opening weekend and was happy/pleasantly surprised that we ran into minimal to no water in the fields. We even had some cattails that were walkable vs. the last 2 years. However, just got a report back from a few buddies that were just out there and said it is wet in these same areas now. Did I miss a big rain you got out there?

I am looking to focus more on Brown County or West of there this weekend and am curious where some dry spots may be. Is North or West of Aberdeen fairly dry? Mobridge area dry?

Thanks for any input.

Greg
Click to expand...

Just got back from hunting west of Aberdeen. I think SD is turning into a duck/goose magnet, not that it hasn't already. So many of the sloughs are now lakes. The sloughs have lots of water in them and lots of birds. They are sitting up on the humps just out of the water. Either you bring hip boots or wait until they freeze. I would concentrate on the shelterbelts. They are holding lots of birds until the snow comes. They are also grouped up, which seems a bit early. The smaller sloughs may be manageable with knee high rubber boots and 3-4 hunters coming from different directions. Someone will get shooting. The smaller the slough the better and they have to be next to picked beans or corn. Good luck.
 
I was out there last weekend and the area around Sand Lake Refuge and around Hecla was wet. Only the smallest of cattail patches were what I would call walkable.

West towards Frederick & Leola were a little better. Also went west of Leola didn't see a lot of good pheasant cover or at least good pheasant cover for me and my dog.

I have hunted a lot in the northern tier counties (Marshall, Day, Brown, Mcpherson etc.) over the last several years and the changes I'm seeing don't look good.

Lots of lost walk-in areas. Lots of big block CRP gone even on private parcels. The quality of the grass in what CRP is left is very poor for pheasants. Seeing the same thing with the quality of the grass on many of the GPA's & WPA's.

Probably the most disappointing thing is the new CREP parcels. 4 out of 5 of them are nothing more than big duck sloughs. Impossible to hunt until late season and though good winter cover will do very little for nesting success. I had been hearing for a couple years now the James River CREP land would buffer the loss of CRP. From what I'm seeing it will do little more than improve public access for the waterfowl hunters.

All in all things are looking like I better start hunting for a new area of SD to freelance in. Hell, based on the new CRP sign-up numbers just might need to diverify and start prospecting in Nebraska & Kansas too.
 
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