How do things look after the 12/23 Midwest snow blow?

remy3424

remy3424

Well-known member
I haven't been out yet, but only work a half-day today, so I should be able to check things out. At least it happened during the day so the birds could hopefully find cover where they wouldn't get buried. Single digit temps now and tonight, but tomorrow looks to be 30s. Not sure how much snow there was. Waterways might be completely filled-in. I am hoping just the windward side, 50-100 yards or so will be filled on the CRP fields. I know many don't like having some cedars around, but this is when they were needed. Might have to reassess our plan of hunting a new tract of CPR saturday morning. Snow with that strong wind just completely fills cover, it would have made nice hunting with a few inches of snow without the wind, but we can't control mother nature. Post what you find.
 
Scouted southern Plymouth & Cherokee IA counties, not near the snow I feared we might have. Yes, it blew like heck all day, but after the first 30-40 yards or so, the cover doesn't look filled-in (from the road). The ditches would not have been good places for the birds to have tried to ride out the storm or creeks/waterways without filter strips. Even where there were decent filter strips, in places the cover was filled-in upto the waterway. I am thinking the bigger parcels of heavy cover will be good for them yet. I will be going out Saturday and have a better look.
 
Went out Saturady (yestersday), it looks like where I am located, was on the southern edge of the snow that came and blew. Hunted a new place, straight east of Sioux City, was hardly any drifted/blown snow. Diving south, it was a noticible difference after only 5 miles. We started started in a small tract of CRP, lots of birds, a little skiddish, but 3 of us got 7 there. Finished-up a little further south, in a big block of CRP-IHAP (first on any public this season), it took a while, but we got the last 2 to fill our limits by noon. Not many birds in the IHAP, the driveway was beaten down hard, guessing it gets pounded often. Recovered all the birds we shot at, nice cool morning, very light wind, some cloud cover...very nice moring. It was one of those days everything seemed to be going slow, 4 shots and 4 birds for myself, my old GSP did great. Boned out a deer afterward and today is the wife's birthday, my normal hunting buddy is not feeling well, so the birds will get a day-off today. I will get the day back on New Year's day...a day off at work.

It was not foggy as my pic depicts, maybe it was my camera lens that was fogged-up12-26.jpg
 
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Where I am in Western Nebraska, the wheat stubble fields are full so no cover there and a lot of the CRP pivot corners are full.
 
Well, this week there is a lot of snow, much of the cover is filled and has 6 to 8 inches settled in it. Looks like the switch grass in our CRP will still be holding birds, plan on hunting that in the morning. Struggled to get one this morning, hitting the pockets with heavy cover.
 
We only found one rooster yesterdsay and maybe 5 hens. Today was much different, started around 9:30, heavy fog, no wind. I called a couple cousins and a couple friends, we hunted our CRP and shot 14, lost a few, a few were hit that didn't come down. My buddy had a sky climber, we were yelling to him to watch it it would die. Well, he watched it climb and lost sight as it diappear through the fog and never did see it come down! Fun morning for sure. Dogs all worked great, many great shots and recoveries. We had 5 hunters and 5 dogs, with the deep heavy cover the dogs were kept close. Had a nice triple, one landed across a vacated dirt road into bean stuble and took off running, one of my cousin's 2 labs saw it, naviagated the fences and ran it down, another one landed in the dirt road that my other cousin's dog retreived and the last one the same dog that made the retreive from the dirt road found the one that landed in the CRP cover. Best action I have every had. I had 3 prior and 1 more minutes after this. At this point one of my friend's gun jammed and he couldn't get it shooting again, so I swithched guns with him, I had more that my share of shooting/birds at that point. The birds did hold pretty well. Try to get a pic up later.
 
airmedic1 said:
Where I am in Western Nebraska, the wheat stubble fields are full so no cover there and a lot of the CRP pivot corners are full.
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Where about in Western Nebraska are you? I'm headed to Nebraska in a week and I'm curious what the snow situation looks like there.
 
Munster927 said:
Where about in Western Nebraska are you? I'm headed to Nebraska in a week and I'm curious what the snow situation looks like there.
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Munster, I would suggest looking at the Nebraska 511 Roads website/App. The road cameras will give you an idea of snow on the area you plan to visit. It is melting fast. Drifts in ditches and along shelter belts. It was much needed moisture in that country. Pray for more.
 
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