waterdog09
Active member
Just returned from our last trip to SD of 2018. First trip was 2nd week of November and we did very well, brought home 55 birds for 5 guys hunting 4 days. We lost 3 birds that trip and 3 were not salvageable after cleaning them back at the house. A lot of the crops were still up for that trip so we did very well considering. Now this 2nd trip was much different in terms of crops and conditions, all the crops were out with the exception of a couple fields that were still water but iced over now and covered in snow. We drove out Friday morning after the storm, driving conditions were horrible took us almost 6hrs for a normal 4hr drive and that included being stopped on 90 just west of Soiux Falls for a jack knifed semi blocking the entire hwy. We finally started hunting Friday at 1:30pm and within 200 yds of the truck we had 5 birds in the bag, conditions were extreme. Temps in the single digits and winds at 30-40mph so the birds were sitting extremely tight with the snow and wind, walking was miserable and trying to keep hands warm next to impossible. We ended the day with 10 birds for our group of 4 guys so 2 short of our limit. 2nd day we hunted a piece of public that we have hunted late season in years past and done very well, this year we saw birds but not close to years past. We managed 3 at our first spot and had a chance at 2 others. We ended the day at a public piece that you could not drive down the access road to get to it due to the road being drifted over. We had 2 vehicles and 2 guys in each truck, my buddy and I started walking to this piece down the road and watched birds pile into the piece of ground, we quickly called our friends and told them to meet us so we could tackle the spot together, we ended up seeing a massive flush after the first shot was taken and we shot the remaining 5 birds we needed for our limit during that golden hour. The last day we started back at that spot and of course didn't see near the birds as the previous night but still managed 4 after all the birds were flushing from the trees out ahead of us. We ended the day at a beautiful piece of walk-in ground and shot our last 7 by 2pm. The birds were starting to bunch up and we shot the majority of our birds out of thick grass cover and some cattails. We saw a lot of birds and the south Dakota roads were tough to navigate to say the least. I lost my entire front valence on my truck to a hood high drift that was about 30yds deep. As long as the winter doesn't get to bad from here I for see a great carry over to next season! 2nd trip dog work was great, 1 lost bird and a total of 4 for the entire two trips. We ended the SD season bringing back 89 birds and really only hunted 6 1/2 days total for both trips. We only hunted 1 day of private land on the first trip and none on the this 2nd trip. All other land was public, either walk-in, crep, gpa or wpa. Can't wait to get back at it next season!
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