iowa drought

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blackcloud27

New member
what does it look like in your areas? i live in mason city. we only got 3/10ths of an inch of rain in july. our lawns have been brown for over a month 1/2. corn looks terrible. trees are dropping leaves. acorns are falling and are pea sized. marshes are dry and rivers are only 6 inches deep. went to des moines and ames today and saw green grass. forgot what green lawns look like. looks like fall already.
 
SE Iowa looks about the same way as you describe your area. The corn is short and brown. The small ears that are there are already hanging. Eastern Iowa looks a lot better, but still doesn't look good. I was up around the Waterloo area about a month ago, and it didn't look good then, so I imagine it is terrible now. This is just what our economy needed...
 
I just returned from a road trip through Nebraska (I-80) to NW Iowa and over across hwy 18 to Garner. Nebraska looks very bad if you didn't have irrigation. NW Iowa doesn't look too bad, seems they have had some rain and it steadly gets worse as you go east. Didn't see any birds the whole trip!
 
I live in Cedar Rapids, and it's pretty hit an miss from what I see in the eastern part of the state. Agree that the best stuff is NW. Been getting some rains recently in our area, but too late for the crops, maybe the beans but not the corn. that stuff is cooked. yea, it looks like the middle of september not august. Been seeing a few birds. there is a big park where I run my Brittany (bout 40 - 50 acres), it on the edge of the city and is a recreational park, so no hunting. but there is plenty of birds out there to keep my pups nose full of scent. seen a couple good size flocks of youngins. planning a couple trips to NW iowa for hunting this fall though. people around here don't understand conservation, the news of numbers being up 40% will bring out every hunter with a shotgun, and we will be back to nothing in the blink of an eye. my two pennys anyway
 
Lucygoosey,

IMHO, I think most hunters (especially out of state hunters who drop lots of coin to go to Iowa to hunt) will realize even if Iowa post a good percentage increase, there will still be few birds to shoot. 40% increase of very little is still a little. It will take IA 2-3 more good years of easy winters and good springs to make it worthwhile to have the return of hunters that used to be not so many years ago. BTW, my cousin (DNR employee) did his route (SC) and it was as bad as last year. This count may have been skewed by the drought conditions however as they have been seeing more birds than last year doing their daily work. I'd love nothing more than to see IA return to the state I grew up in hunting pheasants.
 
Oh, i agree 100% that the population sucks, and it will for longer than I would like to admit. but there are a lot of part time hunters out there that don't read more into these things like we do. All they see is 40% and they can't get to walmart fast enough to buy their $2 orange vest. It will be interesting to see what the license numbers sold this year will be, compared to the last couple years...that will be a good indicator of whether i'm right or wrong on my little theory, lol.
 
You're probably right when it comes to resident hunters (any positive news is a big draw) but I'm hoping after the last few years they have found other "hobbies" since they put up their guns. The one positive about the bad numbers is that if you are dedicated, you should be able to secure some lands that were previously unattainable.
 
That is true. I have found the NW corner of Iowa is still pretty OK. Hunted in SD last year for a week, and we hunted NW IA on the way out and on the way back and saw just as many birds as we did in SD. So i'm gonna save the money on the SD license and just do NW IA. I did find another way to get my local fix though...duck hunting...man that stuff is addicting...not too confident about this fall though, as you know, it's pretty dry round here
 
You must have hunted eastern SD. I grew up in IA and hunted there all through college and beyond but started to go to SD when IA #'s went south. Started out in eastern SD the first year and now hunt the central part of the state. No comparing SD and IA IMHO (I have hunted some of the best ground in IA imo). Yes, that duck hunting is addicting and not in a good way LOL. I do tons of it here in TX as I'm limited on upland to my few trips a year to the midwest. It is a very, very expensive hobby to say the least but it is a ton of fun. Texas could be a mecca this year as there is no water throughout the midwest. Time will tell. Good luck with your new addiction!

PS I grew up in DBQ and hunted the great Mississippi for ducks and all over for pheasants (graduated from ISU so hunted alot in central).
 
it was central, even spent one day west of the river. but it was late in the season, saw a ton of hens, so that was good for the dogs.
we do a lot of duck hunting on the Mississippi up around Guttenburg. Have a family friend that lives on Mays Island. Love it up there, always a good time on the BIG RIVER
 
Were you hunting public or private? Late in the season, you need to be hunting private as the public stuff gets the stuffing beat out of it nearly everyday.

Guttenburg is where I did most of my duck hunting as well. We use to walk in along the railroad tracks and cut through some woods north of town or get in the boat and travel to the many islands. Stayed at the local park there (frenchtown, I believe). Had some great hunts up there. My father has a camper up in Harpers Ferry and said the duck hunting is great up there as well.
 
We were hunting public ground. Never paid for private ground. not my style i guess. We will hunt public ground in NW IA as well. There is a ton of it too...I'm not afraid to walk that extra 5 miles, and my dog is well conditioned, lol.
 
LOL. I'm with you. Growing up in IA, we never even thought to pay but living down in TX, everything is pay to play. We did the late season deal first trip out west river also and ended the trip paying for 1 day of land access. It was unbelievable as the birds were flying from one shelterbelt to the other over the wheat field. I thought they were blackbirds at first there were so many. Now we go out that way early (a whole new set of problems to deal with) while there are still birds on the public land.

Good luck this year. Hope NW pleasantly surprises you.
 
lucygoosey and roosterslayer

that was a great chat to follow:cheers:. the best way to get ia bird#s up is to hunt in s.d. :D but i will be in some ia honey holes also.
 
IL,

You may be in luck this year hunting IA. Everybody I talk to up there are saying they are seeing more birds than the survey would indicate. I never did hunt the Green Island area as we always went north so we could hunt other species (grouse, squirrel, whatever) the rest of the day. Hope all is well and good luck chasing roosters this fall.
 
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