Derek Sears
New member
Dad and I made our annual trip out to several SWKS counties this past week, scouting Monday evening and hunting Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday evening's scouting yielded one un-lucky rooster who we happened to catch on the edge of an irrigation pit that belongs to my wife's family. One quick sweep with the dog flushed the rooster and a large covey of quail(20 birds). I made a nice shot on the rooster and also caught one of the slower quail.
Tuesday morning found us a little optimistic, even with the loss of a large amount of CRP (private ground) that we usually hunt. I'm sad to say it didn't get re-enrolled
and I may never see it in grass again. We spent our morning on a quarter of grass near town that has been good to us in the past. The 'ol African Duck Hound (aka Cole) did an excellent job working the field, flushing 7 hens on our first pass. We brought home the bacon on our return pass, dispatching two roosters a piece that held very nice. There were 4 more hen flushes as well, which bodes well for the future:thumbsup:
We then moved north to check out 2 quarters of CRP (family ground) that has always been our 'honey hole'. One pass through the first quarter finished out our limit, with two single flushes for dad and a nice double for myself. We felt very fortunate to have our 8 birds by noon with such poor habitat conditions. Much of the milo that didn't get cut for insurance purposes was not good cover, the wheat stubble was poor cover, and pretty much all of the CRP was at least partially baled or was not even ankle high. Luckily, what little CRP we had access to was still fairly good cover, though not near as good as in the past.
We decided to let our private ground rest on Wednesday and try our luck in some WIHA. This was a mistake! We pretty much wasted the entire morning, only flushing 5 hens and one beat up rooster. The rooster did make the mistake of sitting a little too long and ended up in the truck.
After stopping at the local diner for lunch, we headed back to the 'honey hole'. We decided to walk the other quarter of CRP and the edge of the milo field next to it. This proved to be a good move, as we picked up 2 roosters on the first pass. The decision was then made to rest this spot until the next trip, as it was holding more birds by far than any other place. Given our significant loss of huntable ground, this may be our only hope later in the year. We spent the afternoon hitting small cover and my dad killed one more rooster out of another honely hole, an irrigation pit in the middle of a section. Cole is not a pointing lab, but he locked up on this one. One of the many moments I wish I would have been holding the camera instead of the gun.
It was an interesting first trip. Ended up with 13 roosters and 1 quail. All of the roosters were old birds with LONG tailfeathers and impressive spurs. We usually have a large group (9 guys), but with the bad reports and lack of areas to hunt everyone else stayed home. I can't say that we would have killed anymore birds with more guys and a few dogs. This was my father's 32nd consecutive year hunting this area on opening week and my 15th. We had success, but the conditions have left us wondering if we'll even go back for a second and third trip as we normally do. There is a definite lack of birds in most areas, and the habitat is poor at best. A hard winter will be devastating to the population.
I'll post the few pics I did take ASAP. The dry and dusty conditions made it almost impossible to get the camera out.
Emil, pm me for GPS coordinates to the honey hole
Tuesday morning found us a little optimistic, even with the loss of a large amount of CRP (private ground) that we usually hunt. I'm sad to say it didn't get re-enrolled
and I may never see it in grass again. We spent our morning on a quarter of grass near town that has been good to us in the past. The 'ol African Duck Hound (aka Cole) did an excellent job working the field, flushing 7 hens on our first pass. We brought home the bacon on our return pass, dispatching two roosters a piece that held very nice. There were 4 more hen flushes as well, which bodes well for the future:thumbsup: We then moved north to check out 2 quarters of CRP (family ground) that has always been our 'honey hole'. One pass through the first quarter finished out our limit, with two single flushes for dad and a nice double for myself. We felt very fortunate to have our 8 birds by noon with such poor habitat conditions. Much of the milo that didn't get cut for insurance purposes was not good cover, the wheat stubble was poor cover, and pretty much all of the CRP was at least partially baled or was not even ankle high. Luckily, what little CRP we had access to was still fairly good cover, though not near as good as in the past.
We decided to let our private ground rest on Wednesday and try our luck in some WIHA. This was a mistake! We pretty much wasted the entire morning, only flushing 5 hens and one beat up rooster. The rooster did make the mistake of sitting a little too long and ended up in the truck.
After stopping at the local diner for lunch, we headed back to the 'honey hole'. We decided to walk the other quarter of CRP and the edge of the milo field next to it. This proved to be a good move, as we picked up 2 roosters on the first pass. The decision was then made to rest this spot until the next trip, as it was holding more birds by far than any other place. Given our significant loss of huntable ground, this may be our only hope later in the year. We spent the afternoon hitting small cover and my dad killed one more rooster out of another honely hole, an irrigation pit in the middle of a section. Cole is not a pointing lab, but he locked up on this one. One of the many moments I wish I would have been holding the camera instead of the gun.
It was an interesting first trip. Ended up with 13 roosters and 1 quail. All of the roosters were old birds with LONG tailfeathers and impressive spurs. We usually have a large group (9 guys), but with the bad reports and lack of areas to hunt everyone else stayed home. I can't say that we would have killed anymore birds with more guys and a few dogs. This was my father's 32nd consecutive year hunting this area on opening week and my 15th. We had success, but the conditions have left us wondering if we'll even go back for a second and third trip as we normally do. There is a definite lack of birds in most areas, and the habitat is poor at best. A hard winter will be devastating to the population.
I'll post the few pics I did take ASAP. The dry and dusty conditions made it almost impossible to get the camera out
.Emil, pm me for GPS coordinates to the honey hole
