Hens, Hens, More Hens... and One Rooster

Royal Flush

Royal Flush

New member
Just returned home tonight from a two day trip southwest of the Twin Cities. The goal was to get my little BLF on a few birds. Spent both days working a handful of WMA's in Lincoln and Lyon Counties and then hunted a WMA in McLeod County this afternoon on the way home.

The good news. - the dog did great, found a number of birds and suffered no mishaps. The bad news - all were hens except the first bird of the trip. A big, old rooster on the edge of a corn food plot about 5 minutes into the hunt... which I promptly missed. :D

I really enjoyed seeing her continue to develop - but had mixed feelings watching hen after hen get up and fly away. I got a few 'Why aren't you shooting' looks from her. All birds, except that first rooster, came out of the praire grass. Cattail edges yielded nothing... though discretion being the better part of valor, I decided not to drag her out into the cattails. All in all, a great time though.

Seems I've got a bunch of time off this month since the Vacation request was approved. Guess I'll throw a dart at a map and try again. .. although I've got a few ideas.

Anyway, hope some of you guys are finding a few roosters. :cheers:
 
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My last two trips, all the birds were in the cattails. 90 percent were hens. With almost 100 percent of the corn out on opener, late season hunting will be a lot worse than previous years.
 
Corn has been almost out the last 2 years. I know what you guys are saying we saw a lot of hens compared to roosters. To me it seamed when you did find the roosters there was more than 1 we would find 3-5 at once. Optimistic I hope those hens all make it so we can have a great hatch next year!:thumbsup:
 
mnbirdchaser said:
My last two trips, all the birds were in the cattails. 90 percent were hens. With almost 100 percent of the corn out on opener, late season hunting will be a lot worse than previous years.
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Yeah, I guessed most roosters must be in the cattails already. Definitely had a good time, though - and we did find quite a few birds. But I lacked the motivation to tear off into the sloughs with dog in tow. As dry as it is, it's tempting... but the dog really takes a beating. And it defeats some of the upland fundamentals we were working on. We did walk through some of the smaller cattail spots - without finding anything.

She's almost two years old now, and doing great. Didn't expect much from her last year since she was pretty young. The poor bird numbers last year really hurt and limited her experience but gave us time to get her a solid training foundation. It's just tough when all the birds are hens - since there is no 'reward' for her following the flush.

She was impressive during Early Goose this year. But that translates poorly to upland work. Luckily she's pretty smart and is putting it all together pretty quickly.

Thinking about a possible South Dakota trip over the long Thanksgiving weekend in addition to the our frequent MN excursions.
 
Royal Flush said:
Yeah, I guessed most roosters must be in the cattails already. Definitely had a good time, though - and we did find quite a few birds. But I lacked the motivation to tear off into the sloughs with dog in tow. As dry as it is, it's tempting... but the dog really takes a beating. And it defeats some of the upland fundamentals we were working on. We did walk through some of the smaller cattail spots - without finding anything.

She's almost two years old now, and doing great. Didn't expect much from her last year since she was pretty young. The poor bird numbers last year really hurt and limited her experience but gave us time to get her a solid training foundation. It's just tough when all the birds are hens - since there is no 'reward' for her following the flush.

She was impressive during Early Goose this year. But that translates poorly to upland work. Luckily she's pretty smart and is putting it all together pretty quickly.

Thinking about a possible South Dakota trip over the long Thanksgiving weekend in addition to the our frequent MN excursions.
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take her to SD, it will be worth 4 trips out in Minnesota.
 
we have never hunted a MN opener with this much corn harvested ever!!! last yr there was 80% of the corn still standing on opener out in lincoln & surrounding countys??? this was a rare yr for the harvest of corn by pheasant opener...

even on opener my family found 95% of the roosters in cattails already & in big bunches guess the lack of corn cover dose that??? my brother just came back from out on the MN/SD border but on the MN side & he missed his 2 roosters both coming from cattails along with a gang of hens!!!

he seen about 80% hens on this last trip & no other pheasant hunters but there was armys of deer hunters & there family out doing deer drives & that moved alot of the pheasants out of there safe zones...

when i go back out mid week to western MN i will only hunt thick cover next to water & near crops... even up near fergus fall MN if you hit the cattails you start seeing birds & roosters to boot... i have learned that many many fare weather hunters skip the cattails for what ever reason each yr & thats wear the birds are this time of yr & later into the yr if your not willing to work for mid-late season pheasants you will do a lot of walking in between gun-shots in my experience...

i keep reading storys of seasoned SD pheasant hunters having a hard time even get n into decent cover in SD let alone get n into good numbers of birds??? they are killing pheasants there but for every 1 good hunt posted there is like 6 that say there hunt sucked & so did the cover??? & how hard it was to locate birds??? i hope they are only B/S reports as i really want to get my father & young dog on good bird numbers this yr but it sounds like a wild goose chase in SD this yr??? & tons of hens in MN this season man hope things get better next yr!!! & our winter is mild this yr!!!

i think it would be better for my dog & i to just hit a preserve & get her on roosters for a change a lot of walking in between roosters for us this season i want her to be hunting not just going for long walks with a few breaks to hunt hear & there when we see & dump birds...
 
The roosters are there, probably running like heck to the thick stuff with the sound of a door slam etc.
 
I hunted Lyon and Lincoln counties yesterday. Saw 5 roosters and 8 hens along with 412 other hunters. I had to bail out of Marshall because by the time we were half way through our favorite spot there were 3 other groups on it. Not to mention two deer hunters sitting in trees. The cattails are so thick down there and I've been seeing a lot more birds per trip further North.
 
Some hold tight. Others run out the side. Others run right around you.

I have watched birds run out of the side of cover and cross chisel plowed fields. I once watched about a dozen birds run out of a small cattail slough, cross a road - past the hunter's pickup truck and into a posted field :eek: ... the two hunters and their springer put up a pair of hens at the end of the little slough ..

Good dog, luck dog ... maybe both are sometimes needed to get the "pressured / experienced" rooster to take flight.

I have told this story before. I have walked a small slough / grassy area of a MN WMA back and forth (4 passes total). About an inch of fluffy snow on the ground. Each time bird tracks would be new. Some would actually be imprinted over mine. Knew they were in there. 4th pass and picked up a pair. Without the snow, I would have made one pass.
 
I will take my brother who hasn't hunted mn preasants in 50 years. Sounds like me and my 2year old GSP will walk cattails and brother will stay on the edges. I will start some place near marshall and spend 3 days of fun.
 
I kicked up about 17 birds today. 11 hens and 6 roosters. Today was the the first day I got to hunt all day. I saw most of my birds in the afternoon, near thick brush. I was very impressed with how well most of the birds held. I only managed 1 bird but it was great to see that many birds.
 
Me and 2 other buddies got out today. Put up about 20 hens and 10 roosters. Ended the day with 4 birds I missed 2 shots at 10ft:confused: It was a great day to be out and nice to see there are still some roosters around.
 
Heres a pic of our best bird of the day.
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It's nice to hear some stories/hunting reports from you guys. And nice to see some of you guys are getting on the birds.

I finally broke down and took the dog to a nearby Game Farm yesterday and today - since the rooster contacts have been kinda scarce this fall on our Public WMA/WPA excursions. We've seen lots of hens... but relatively few roosters. She did awesome - and found all the birds that we had put out. We fine-tuned some range issues, and she made some impressive retrieves today after finding a couple cripples that sailed 100-150 yards before going down. The snow/cold temps put a new spin on things for her - and was pretty fun to see.

Since I've done all of her training myself, it's hard to describe the sense of satisfaction I felt to see it all come together. Pretty cool to say the least. You could almost see the pieces fall into place and the look that said 'So that's what all this training is for!' .

It wasn't hunting... but the dog had a great time. And that's what it's all about. :D
 
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This year I decided to hunt some public lands. Normally I don't much. I have gotten a bird each trip out so far. And I have flushed about a dozen hens as well each time. Except yesterday, we flushed 20 hens, and only the one rooster. But that can change any trip out. Next time it will be the opposite. LOL

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