Nice report Jackrabbit, sounds very similar to mine.
Dad and I met up around the Madison area on 12-13 and drove around to some public areas trying to find something "fresh" that hasnt been hit within the day. This was a tough task; anyhow, first WPA, some tracks, but no flushes. Cattails were borderline walkable but did break through, had to keep to the shallow side; thick enough for the pup though.
towards the end of the day, we found one GPA that had great cover, lots of tracks, a few wild flushes. Did walk a small 1 acre cattail slew that we saw a bird land into, ended up being 5 or so birds but they were also all wild flushes.
Day 2; similar situation to Jackrabbit, family farm with some historically nice CRP, this is south of huron about 40 miles. they usually have hunters hit it opener and on and off during the season. This year, only on opener was it hit since we were there. We got really excited to go out, but very sadly, we pulled up to the crp chunks that used to be lush, thick, and provide great habitat only to pull up to see it all laying down as it looked like it had been hayed (although it had not). Not sure why it didnt grow well it all this year; our family farmer said the snow did knock alot of it down, but still should have been some good cover. First time since the 90's we did not kick up a bird int here since it was so sparse not even a track...
we then tried walking some shelter belts nearby the crp with the same results
drove to a cane field, there were 5-6 birds in there that flushed wild (alot of cane in the area this year)
Drove to the last CRP chunk, here again, historicaly the thickest stuff you could walk/find, used to be a bird factory with large numbers of pheasants (160 acres), but sadly, driving to the field, it might as well been a golf course, same thing, grass was not thick at all, laying down, no sign of life besides one flock of sharptails for the first time ever.
this 160 also has a shelter belt next to a corn field we walked, some old tracks in there but no birds; also a 1-2 acre cattail slew we saved for the evening hunt. flushed 2 roosters out of there at sunset along with a handful of hens. got the 1 rooster.
day 3; dad and I decide to drive back home as I had to go north and he went south. I drove by some public areas on the way home and did find one near the MN border that was the thickest piece of public land I've been in wild sunflower and some other woody type brush I can never remember the name of, but it does a number on the pup... anyhow, the small area i did hit, had the birds you'd expect to see in SD, managed to get 1, while the others flushed wild.
some takeaways; regardless of the numbers, still a great time to be with company, telling old stories of the good old days. still some corn standing, but not a whole lot. alot of cane fields, public land areas had plenty of hunting pressure-I do not buy into the adage of "Hunt late season and everyone has hung it up for the year"--this may have been the case int he early 2000's but not now, everyone else has caught on.
all in all, we do plan on hitting it again after xmas but we will be driving more to new public areas as the private stuff doesnt have the birds anymore..