Late season public lands, N. Kansas

M

MrRedNWhite

New member
I would like to do one more trip with the dog before season end. Considering Hays and N. Central Kansas area for pheasant.

How is the public land in that area - have a setter, so need pretty good cover. If I'm willing to drive and walk, which I am, is it worth the time and license for one trip? Can probably commit 3-4 full days.

My other options are public lands in Western Oklahoma (already have license) for quail. Have already been there this year - got a lot of pressure early and the sand burrs were brutal. I also like exploring new areas with the dog.

Thank you for any suggestions.
 
You will probably do a lot of walking and not much shooting. Treat it like an exploring/hiking vacation and try to find a plat book. I'll be there next week doing just that. My expectations are low, but I need a new area. It usually takes us about 3 or 4 years before we've knocked on enough doors to ground for two guys for a week. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
birddude said:
You will probably do a lot of walking and not much shooting. Treat it like an exploring/hiking vacation and try to find a plat book. I'll be there next week doing just that. My expectations are low, but I need a new area. It usually takes us about 3 or 4 years before we've knocked on enough doors to ground for two guys for a week. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
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What is the plat book? Is that like South Dakota's public hunting atlas?

I've looked around online for anyone offering private land for self guided, but haven't seen much
 
MrRedNWhite said:
What is the plat book? Is that like South Dakota's public hunting atlas?

I've looked around online for anyone offering private land for self guided, but haven't seen much
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A plat book is a hybrid of an old school phone book with a land ownership map. It's sort of a paper version of onX, but WITH a phone number (often) and without the imagery. The ones I have cover one specific county, and they are quite old. There is a section with a map of each township with land ownership noted on each tract--for finding out who owns a particular tract. There's another section that alphabetically lists owners and the tracts they own--for finding out what other tracts "Joe" owns. Finally there's a section that looks like a phone book. The ones on my shelf date back to a time when many people still had landlines.
 
matto said:
A plat book is a hybrid of an old school phone book with a land ownership map. It's sort of a paper version of onX, but WITH a phone number (often) and without the imagery. The ones I have cover one specific county, and they are quite old. There is a section with a map of each township with land ownership noted on each tract--for finding out who owns a particular tract. There's another section that alphabetically lists owners and the tracts they own--for finding out what other tracts "Joe" owns. Finally there's a section that looks like a phone book. The ones on my shelf date back to a time when many people still had landlines.
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Ahhhh. I have an OnX membership I need to redeem - do you know if the Kansas WIHA and public lands are mapped in OnX? I'm willing to drive around - I know what kind of cover I'm looking for and assuming something with some surrounding cut corn/sorghum is best. My challenge is knowing what part of the state to work in.
 
MrRedNWhite said:
Ahhhh. I have an OnX membership I need to redeem - do you know if the Kansas WIHA and public lands are mapped in OnX? I'm willing to drive around - I know what kind of cover I'm looking for and assuming something with some surrounding cut corn/sorghum is best. My challenge is knowing what part of the state to work in.
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To answer your question, yes OnX has WIHA's and public lands mapped in Kansas you just have to choose what you want to see.
 
MrRedNWhite said:
Ahhhh. I have an OnX membership I need to redeem - do you know if the Kansas WIHA and public lands are mapped in OnX? I'm willing to drive around - I know what kind of cover I'm looking for and assuming something with some surrounding cut corn/sorghum is best. My challenge is knowing what part of the state to work in.
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The part you are talking about is about as good as any in central Kansas. If your hell bent on hunting WIHA's find a Walmart and hope they have some WIHA maps left. Remember that when you pick the area with the most WIHA a thousand other guys have done the same. Hunting all WHIHA can work fine IF you've searched for a few years and found some places with good winter cover, (they may be 30 miles apart), then watch the weather and pick the coldest nastiest week to go. A friend of mine went out there last year the day after that big snow went through. Came back with what I thought was a lot of birds for WIHA. Sent me the locations. We went a week later. Hunted the same spots with the snow almost gone but could still see his tracks. It was pretty much a bummer...
 
I was about an hour north and east of Hays hunting Dec 31-Jan 3. I was targeting quail, but moved several roosters and a few hens each day. I hunted all WIHA. only saw 1 other group of bird hunters during my trip. Lots of duck hunters, but not many upland folks.

I relied on OnX, its so much nicer using that vs the paper maps especially if you can link it to a screen in your vehicle.
 
birddude said:
The part you are talking about is about as good as any in central Kansas. If your hell bent on hunting WIHA's find a Walmart and hope they have some WIHA maps left. Remember that when you pick the area with the most WIHA a thousand other guys have done the same. Hunting all WHIHA can work fine IF you've searched for a few years and found some places with good winter cover, (they may be 30 miles apart), then watch the weather and pick the coldest nastiest week to go. A friend of mine went out there last year the day after that big snow went through. Came back with what I thought was a lot of birds for WIHA. Sent me the locations. We went a week later. Hunted the same spots with the snow almost gone but could still see his tracks. It was pretty much a bummer...
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I'm not necessarily hell bent on hunting WIHAs just for the sake of it...just seems like that's the best option
 
I’m out here in Kansas for the past week. I will say that these WIHA’s make it challenging. Most of them are not very good cover, or any cover at all. I’ve been finding enough spots to get all the dogs (English Setters) ran each day, if there’s cover you’ll find some birds. I’ve been targeting quail and am kind of new to that, seeing 1 or two coveys per spot. I did get into some good looking stuff yesterday and saw 4 big coveys.
I started in the northeast and worked my way down and west. Today I was an hour or so northwest of Hayes, tough to find anywhere to turn a dog loose - saw 3 pheasants. One of the dogs got stabbed in the eye, so a visit to the vet was in order. Had some very windy and hot weather, at least it seems hot to me coming from Wisconsin.
All in all it’s been fun, more of a learning experience for me than a rack em up affair.
 
Jleclair said:
I’m out here in Kansas for the past week. I will say that these WIHA’s make it challenging. Most of them are not very good cover, or any cover at all. I’ve been finding enough spots to get all the dogs (English Setters) ran each day, if there’s cover you’ll find some birds. I’ve been targeting quail and am kind of new to that, seeing 1 or two coveys per spot. I did get into some good looking stuff yesterday and saw 4 big coveys.
I started in the northeast and worked my way down and west. Today I was an hour or so northwest of Hayes, tough to find anywhere to turn a dog loose - saw 3 pheasants. One of the dogs got stabbed in the eye, so a visit to the vet was in order. Had some very windy and hot weather, at least it seems hot to me coming from Wisconsin.
All in all it’s been fun, more of a learning experience for me than a rack em up affair.
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Stabbed in the eye by what?


And yeah, my concern is finding cover.
 
MrRedNWhite said:
Stabbed in the eye by what?


And yeah, my concern is finding cover.
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Not sure, I’m assuming either a yucca or a locust thorn. Happened yesterday late afternoon, the dog was on fire! She had four covey finds, then followed up with a bunch of singles. The singles were sitting tight in some pretty thick and gnarly stuff, see photo. Last night I flushed her eyes, assumed she just had something in it. Looked worse today so off to the vet.
 

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All the public WIHA land is published by the state in an online atlas, you have not needed a plat book in years.

The area around Hays is probably the best if you are looking for both quail and pheasants. If you go much further west towards the Colorado border the quail numbers drop significantly.

ArcGIS Web Application

ksdot.maps.arcgis.com ksdot.maps.arcgis.com
 
birddude said:
The part you are talking about is about as good as any in central Kansas. If your hell bent on hunting WIHA's find a Walmart and hope they have some WIHA maps left. Remember that when you pick the area with the most WIHA a thousand other guys have done the same. Hunting all WHIHA can work fine IF you've searched for a few years and found some places with good winter cover, (they may be 30 miles apart), then watch the weather and pick the coldest nastiest week to go. A friend of mine went out there last year the day after that big snow went through. Came back with what I thought was a lot of birds for WIHA. Sent me the locations. We went a week later. Hunted the same spots with the snow almost gone but could still see his tracks. It was pretty much a bummer...
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The above-mentioned guy who had a big time in the snow last year, called my hunting buddy last night while I was at his place developing an attack plan for next week. He was on his way out when he got side swiped in St louis! Totaled his truck but him and his dogs are ok! Cops caught the guy after he hit someone else down the road. He said he could see two car dealers from where he was, so after all the paperwork was done he walked down the road to the dealer and bought a truck. He was back Kansas bound when he called. That's some dedication!
 
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