Feeding the Addiction

KBell

KBell

New member
Had a great morning in the Bancroft area today. Flushed 19 roosters and 16 hens. I actually saw a rooster crossing the road at 8:20:).

Sophie had two nice points on the older birds. The young rooster in the middle flushed upon her approach and flew at me on the opposite side of the cover.:eek: He paid for the mistake.

It appears that the more west and north in Iowa one goes this year the better the bird sightings are. Back out tomorrow! Sorry Coot, you have three less but my family will have a treat for Thanksgiving.

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I must be living right!

After yesterday's Bancroft success, I decided to stay over at a local motel and hunt a little more north and west today. I was having dinner at a local eatery when a elderly woman asked if I was a pheasant hunter. The pheasants forever cap and shirt give it away every time!:)

I told her I had a great day hunting and she said that was good for me. As she got up to leave, she walked by my table and explained that her husband had passed this past year and that she had land in the area. Turned out it was two towns north and west of where I was staying. I stopped chewing and started listening!:)

She stated that her brother n law normally hunts but had heart surgery this year and would not be going out. I asked if she allowed hunting and she stated that if I was safe I could hunt several of her parcels. It took this generous woman 15 minutes to write directions and land lines on a napkin!:)

After a little more small talk, I gained permission for myself and my son. He drove from college during the night to make it to this mornings hunt. Now that's dedication!!:DWe hunted some of the best cover and land I have ever seen in Kossuth and Emmet counties. All birds were this year's hatch except for one. I am sharing this story because there is still hope for us out there. What a great state Iowa is and the same goes for Doris that I met this weekend! I hope she will enjoy the Webster City ham I am having delivered to her tomorrow.:cheers: We saw over 30 birds during the morning hunt. I am heading home now-work tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you my friends!!

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Nice to know there are still good people out there! Great Story! and that tail on the bird on the left looks HUGE! How long was it?
 
Bancroft

Nice, KBell, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. From what I've heard from the locals in Bancroft there are birds in the county and surrounding area.
 
Hello Spence,

24 and 6/8 inches. I shot a 29 in Kansas last year and have a 32 and 3/8 incher mounted with 1 and 1/2 inch spurs that I look at daily. We need the motivation don't we?
 
Rugardave,

You will not be disappointed! This was my best weekend this season. I saw a good number of birds and was surprised by the lack of hunting pressure. Even the first public I hunted on Saturday was undisturbed-other than by me and it appeared as though it had not been pressured for at least a week.:thumbsup:

I did receive several "turn downs" by folks who want to save the remaining birds this year:(. I do not argue--I just shared that they need to pray for "good winter weather" if they want the birds to carryover to next year. I have never had a problem with the occasional landowner wanting to "refuge" birds. We need those folks in the "hunting equation" too!:)

Just finished eating-back on the interstate to home. I wanted to add that the cattails areas are all dry in the Bancroft area. I walked through several cattail patches that had no water in them at all.
 
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Great story Kbell:10sign: See we in Iowa are nice:thumbsup: You can send me a ham anytime:D Nice to know theres still good people out there. Little less talk about good hunting in iowa guys:thumbsup:
 
Very nicely done . . . and I too like the looks of that tail feather on the far left most bird! I haven't shot any that long this year.

A number of the private fields I hunt have been acquired through very similar means as you experienced with Doris. I love stopping, eating, and chatting with folks in small town diners. The vast majority of us Iowans are good, kind, and generous people.
 
Thanks guys!

Hello Nate and Coot,

I am just reinforcing what Nate has stated about some hard work and knocking on doors. If we put some extra effort in this year, we can have some success. Don't worry CaptainCoot, like Nate I am purposely leaving birds in every area that I hunt this year. How can I do this? I purposely am not shooting the first bird or two that I see in a parcel. I am practicing the logic that if I flush more birds and miss or no shots, then I can follow up on the landing site of the first couple of birds. I feel better practicing this logic this year!:) I am aware like all of you that the weather will make us or break us like it has the past three years.

Coot, you may recall that I saw many roosters on Saturday and did not hunt that area on Sunday. Your next meal is at the public spot you know I visited. Thanks again for the kind words and support guys! Good hunting.:thumbsup:
 
Great story; thanks for posting. If I saw that many Roosters in an entire season where I live it would be a miracle. Obviously the movie quote was spot-on . . .

"Is this Heaven?" "No, it's Iowa."
 
KBell said:
Hello Nate and Coot,

I am just reinforcing what Nate has stated about some hard work and knocking on doors. If we put some extra effort in this year, we can have some success. Don't worry CaptainCoot, like Nate I am purposely leaving birds in every area that I hunt this year. How can I do this? I purposely am not shooting the first bird or two that I see in a parcel. I am practicing the logic that if I flush more birds and miss or no shots, then I can follow up on the landing site of the first couple of birds. I feel better practicing this logic this year!:) I am aware like all of you that the weather will make us or break us like it has the past three years.

Coot, you may recall that I saw many roosters on Saturday and did not hunt that area on Sunday. Your next meal is at the public spot you know I visited. Thanks again for the kind words and support guys! Good hunting.:thumbsup:
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I have said this for years. You are living proof that integrity, and just guts to ask pay off, mixed in with common courtesy. A page from my play book and the reason I have no problem hunting private land any where I go. Glad to see you doing well. With the way you hunt you will always reap the rewards.:thumbsup: Take care.
PS God I remember all those good times at the gosh valley night hunt club out at BlairThompson'ss place. And Growing up In BE and Rake, I stumbled out of the BC Ballroom many times. Still wish the Iowa women were better lookin then Coot though.:D
wait, I thought there was no birds in IA:confused::cheers:
 
HaHa FCSpringer,

I don't think there is enough alcohol to grant your wish concerning the women. I appreciate your responses concerning myself and others on this forum. This year definitely brings out the conservation and ethics in all of us. What I have noticed about our forum is the passion and love we all have for our sport, birds, and dogs.

There are birds but it is worth noting that hard work, luck, and persistance are keys to this season.:) Let's not forget that you have to be in the right places as well. The birds are definitely hit and miss across the state. My southern brothers are not doing well or seeing many birds. The north and east is the same. You have to be willing to travel, stay overnight, and walk, walk, and walk even in the northwest. I believe if we get lucky with weather that they "rebound" will be slow in the areas that I have seen poor rooster to hen ratios. Where I live in the center of the state I have been seeing 5 to 1 ratios of roosters to hens and the few roosters I have harvested are for the most part, older birds. Reports from friends confirm my sightings for this area.:(

In closing, we still have some birds in Iowa but where they are and where they might possibly continue to be in the future is becoming quite clear.
 
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Ratios

Beginning the process of reviewing my journal from the beginning to the end of the hunting season. Decided to post ratios based on geographic areas that I visited or live in. These are the actual birds I saw. I did not include any other counts in the data. Hope to have my other counts up here soon.

Central Iowa--including Grundy, Hardin, Butler, Franklin and Hamilton counties.

Private and Public was hunted in all five of these counties. I did hunt one morning in Marshall county but felt it was appropriate to leave those numbers out for analysis. I hunted 11 times in these counties consisting of either full or at the least 1/2 day hunts. I did hunt several parcels that did not yield a single flush!

Roosters-13
Hens-10
Coyotes-1
Red Fox-1
Partridge-2
Quail-0

For the first time in my history, I did not shoot a rooster in Grundy county-I just couldn't bring myself to do it. As you can see, the ratio's in this region are poor and most likely even with ultimate winter and spring conditions will still be poor next year. There was some habitat loss during the fall but minimal overall.
 
KBell said:
Beginning the process of reviewing my journal from the beginning to the end of the hunting season. Decided to post ratios based on geographic areas that I visited or live in. These are the actual birds I saw. I did not include any other counts in the data. Hope to have my other counts up here soon.

Central Iowa--including Grundy, Hardin, Butler, Franklin and Hamilton counties.

Private and Public was hunted in all five of these counties. I did hunt one morning in Marshall county but felt it was appropriate to leave those numbers out for analysis. I hunted 11 times in these counties consisting of either full or at the least 1/2 day hunts. I did hunt several parcels that did not yield a single flush!

Roosters-13
Hens-10
Coyotes-1
Red Fox-1
Partridge-2
Quail-0

For the first time in my history, I did not shoot a rooster in Grundy county-I just couldn't bring myself to do it. As you can see, the ratio's in this region are poor and most likely even with ultimate winter and spring conditions will still be poor next year. There was some habitat loss during the fall but minimal overall.
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Not even a lot of predators? I notice you didn't count deer, which I assume were in the dozens or 100's. Great report, even if depressing. Hoping for great conditions and a hyper compensating breeding season. I'm south of you in Missouri and those are numbers I expect here for pheasants.
 
Good reminder for me to post my journal notes too. I may have some time tonight . . . if not, this weekend for sure.

Summary, off memory alone, will look something like this:

Pheasants: 700+ (I have ratios written down)
Roosters Shot: Near 70
Coyotes: 10
Fox: 1
Rabbits: < 10
Partridge: near 20 (one covey flush)
Quail: near 20
Deer: > 500
Miles Traveled: 4,000
 
This is something that I will try to do from now on as well. This was our first year hunting so we didnt really log anything.

But from memory I hunted Tama county 4 times 1/2 day hunts and saw 1 rooster and 12 hens.
20 deer

One place that we hunted in NW iowa we had seen 30 plus hens that day. It was possible that there were 1 or 2 roosters mixed in that flushed ahead and we couldnt ID. I kinda remember thinking that day that I wasnt sure if I would have killed a rooster cuz something has to be left to breed.

I will make more of an effort to log this kind of info next year.

Just say that from the time I started hunting hard here in Iowa (2 months) I bagged 1 wild rooster. Pretty sure my shooting skills will help the pheasants rebound!:p

In fact, my pup was so disgusted with me that when I came home one day all of his equipment was gone and there was a pug where he would normally sleep!:eek:

Need to hit the clays I guess.
 
Ratios

Beginning the process of reviewing my journal from the beginning to the end of the hunting season. Decided to post ratios based on geographic areas that I visited or live in. These are the actual birds I saw. I did not include any other counts in the data. Hope to have my other counts up here soon.

Northwest Iowa--Pocahontas, Buena Vista, Cherokee, OBrien, and Clay counties.

Private and Public was hunted in all five of these counties. I hunted 17 times in these counties consisting of either full or at the least 1/2 day hunts. I did hunt more private than public in these counties. Saw more racoon in this area than is usual for me and shot nine. I do not want the dog to be injured. I shoot the offenders when needed.

My son or I shot 29 of the roosters sighted in this area.

Roosters-74
Hens-147
Coyotes-3 2 are dead
Red Fox-0
Partridge-11
Quail-0

As you can see, the ratio's in this region are promising and with a mild winter and spring the potential is there for this area to be decent next year. Sadly, I witnessed the most habitat loss in this area. It is true that I spent most of my "hunting time" in this area but the habitat loss was distinct and noticeable. It is reasonable to assume that habitat loss will have some negative impact on hatching success this spring.
 
Ratios

Beginning the process of reviewing my journal from the beginning to the end of the hunting season. Decided to post ratios based on geographic areas that I visited or live in. These are the actual birds I saw. I did not include any other counts in the data. Hope to have my other counts up here soon.

NorthCentral Iowa--Webster, Wright, Kossuth and Hancock counties.

Private and Public was hunted in all four of these counties. I hunted 4 times in these counties consisting of either full or at the least 1/2 day hunts. I hunted the same amount of public and private in these counties.

I or my son shot 13 of the roosters sighted in this area.

Roosters-32
Hens-39
Coyotes-1 And he is still running
Red Fox-0
Partridge-21
Quail-0

As you can see, the ratio's in this region are just about dead even and with a mild winter and spring the potential is there for this area to be decent next year. Sadly, I witnessed more than usual habitat loss in this area.

On some of the private land I hunted owned by friends, the comment made of the financial pressure being too great to resist habitat loss was heard often. One of my college friends stated the slough would be tiled, leveled and prepared all at the cost of the renter. In addition, the per acre rent increased by $55 dollars if this was allowed to happen. That friends, when totaled is a large investment by the renter into this land. It is reasonable to assume that habitat loss will have some negative impact on hatching success this spring in these counties.
 
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