Opening day reports?

J

JHoch00

Member
Tough start for me by Burlington. Just didn't seem to be that many birds around. Residual snow from last storm lasted half the day, and saw very few tracks even. Others I spoke to seemed similar results.

Managed to scratch 1 out on 3 chances. Always good for exercise and good time with the pup.
 
Same story for me, without the success. Hunted in the Haxtun area, flushed 1 hen and 1 rooster all day. The rooster flushed about 10 yards from the edge of the road and flew across the road so no shot.

I have a 7 year old experience lab who is a very good pheasant dog. Didn’t see much for sign and only saw one bird driving in early this morning. Must have been some hail this spring/summer.
 
Can't speak to the Holyoke area but can talk about the Yuma area. There were a ton of hunters out there and I saw some WIA's getting trod upon 4 or 5 times during the day. I heard quite a few shots early but they lessened as the day went on. Most people I met had no luck and there was a few singles and doubles here and there. I did a lot of driving and looking for some new spots, basically went from Anton to Burlington and from Hwy 34 to Hwy 36 and I can tell you that there is a ton of corn still standing. I watched a friend of mine while he combined a corn circle and I saw a lot of pheasants pop up in front of the tractor only to drop back down into unharvested corn. It will get better when the harvest is complete but until then you will need to burn some shoe leather.
 
We saw a lot of birds. Scratched out three. Only three guys and one dog. Hunted my first hemp field. Kicked around 30 birds out of that.
 
Hunted the Burlington area, saw 2 hens all weekend and did not hear much shooting at all. Saw very little sign in the snow, looks like another tough year in that area.
 
Saw a lot of birds but only got 3 between three guys? Where the birds you saw in fields you could hunt or just saw them while driving? Generally I see a lot of birds on lands not open to hunting, but I did not even see that this weekend.
 
Started near Fleming, drove up to my first WIA 20 minutes before start time and there were hunters already out in the field.... same story on the next 8 WIA properties. This was the first time I've gone on opening day in 6 years and I think I'll pass in the future. It was an absolute zoo in Logan and Sedgwick counties all day. Kicked up a few hens and 1 rooster way out of range.

Was on the corners of a crop circle after noon, 1 of the corners was private. Finished up on the 3rd corner and both dogs got real birdy heading into the 4th. Saw my dog lose a bootie so I went to go snag it and sure enough, both were on point and as I called them off a big ol rooster flushed. Absolute layup shot. Could have thrown my 12ga at it. Anyone ever had a crisis of morals? I chose the holy path, although that rooster is still haunting my dreams.
 
smdmz said:
Started near Fleming, drove up to my first WIA 20 minutes before start time and there were hunters already out in the field.... same story on the next 8 WIA properties. This was the first time I've gone on opening day in 6 years and I think I'll pass in the future. It was an absolute zoo in Logan and Sedgwick counties all day. Kicked up a few hens and 1 rooster way out of range.

Was on the corners of a crop circle after noon, 1 of the corners was private. Finished up on the 3rd corner and both dogs got real birdy heading into the 4th. Saw my dog lose a bootie so I went to go snag it and sure enough, both were on point and as I called them off a big ol rooster flushed. Absolute layup shot. Could have thrown my 12ga at it. Anyone ever had a crisis of morals? I chose the holy path, although that rooster is still haunting my dreams.
Click to expand...

that was a huge deal.........you did the right thing.
 
Stel67 said:
Saw a lot of birds but only got 3 between three guys? Where the birds you saw in fields you could hunt or just saw them while driving? Generally I see a lot of birds on lands not open to hunting, but I did not even see that this weekend.
Click to expand...

All the birds were seen while walking the fields. Probably saw 70+ birds but not many in range other than hens. Walked a small corner and had 15-20 hens all get up together. We hunted all private between Akron and Yuma. The birds we did get all came up at once in a small treeline just south of Otis.
 
Smdmz. Good job on the morals. 5 years of loss of hunting privilege is penalty for hunting while trespassing. No rooster is worth that. :)
 
Thanks hunter94 and JHoch00, the encouragement is appreciated. That's a good point about the 5yrs - that makes me feel a lot better about the choice. I plan on knocking on the landowner's door next weekend to see if I can't find that damn rooster again.
 
Hunted the Holyoke area for two days and kicked up around 25+ birds, mostly hens. Harvested 4 roosters over the two days. All the birds were flushing early 50-60 yards out had only one bird that would hold to point. We were hunting three dogs and five Hunters.
 
Hey Guys, I hunted around the Burlington area and did find some birds but all were in standing corn, there were three of us and we each shot 2. I didn't get any video opening day but when I went back on Tuesday a little further south of Burlington then I did video and also found some Quail which I had forgotten how fast those buggers are. 6 shots 1 quail 5 shots three pheasant. The last pheasant came up after my battery died.

https://youtu.be/9Une2l9cooQ
 
EddieMc said:
Hey Guys, I hunted around the Burlington area and did find some birds but all were in standing corn, there were three of us and we each shot 2. I didn't get any video opening day but when I went back on Tuesday a little further south of Burlington then I did video and also found some Quail which I had forgotten how fast those buggers are. 6 shots 1 quail 5 shots three pheasant. The last pheasant came up after my battery died.

https://youtu.be/9Une2l9cooQ
Click to expand...

Great video. Corn looked like it was hailed out. Good job on limiting out!
 
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