Opening weekend reports?
- Thread starter Hockeybob
- Start date
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
The areas about an hour west of Sioux Falls I've been hunting for 3 weekends (youth, residents, regular opener) have had good numbers, even with all the corn around. My initial thought on those areas is that numbers might actually be up a bit. Young birds have had a pretty broad age range. Saw more hunters out Saturday than I've seen in many years.
SDJIM
New member
I think that the numbers are up a little in my area but the number of hunters are down. I talked to several landowners that said they had LONG time hunters that never missed an opening day but delayed their hunt.
We had 4 to 6 hunters with 4 dogs and worked big 30 to 40 acre patches of CRP and averaged 2 birds a day per hunter---we had a bit of trouble making the shot pattern go to the correct place in the sky at the right time or those numbers would have been better.
All in all it was a good 3 days of hunting.
We had 4 to 6 hunters with 4 dogs and worked big 30 to 40 acre patches of CRP and averaged 2 birds a day per hunter---we had a bit of trouble making the shot pattern go to the correct place in the sky at the right time or those numbers would have been better.
All in all it was a good 3 days of hunting.
Roosterslayer
Member
My thoughts exactly Bob! Been waiting on reports but very few reporting. Maybe Friday and this weekend more will post about their trips after returning home.
Nice to hear that bird #'s may be improved Jim. You sure that those barrels weren't bent a little.
Nice to hear that bird #'s may be improved Jim. You sure that those barrels weren't bent a little.
Yessir, the guys who hunted the full 5 days of a license are still out there, an acquaintance of mine is coming home today. I plan on talking to him tonight before our group leaves tomorrow morning -
I also will report next Tuesday or so. Good luck to all. I took the pup out in MN last Sunday and he did very well, I did not shoot well though. Oh well, it was a tune up for the next few days.
I also will report next Tuesday or so. Good luck to all. I took the pup out in MN last Sunday and he did very well, I did not shoot well though. Oh well, it was a tune up for the next few days.
Email from SD GFP:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October, 15 2016
CONTACT: Emily Kiel at Emily.Kiel@state.sd.us
Traditions Remain Strong for South Dakota's Pheasant Opener
PIERRE, S.D. ? Cities and towns rolled out the orange carpet to pheasant hunters today for the traditional pheasant season opener. While the annual pheasant brood survey showed a decrease in the statewide index from 2015, hunters were successful across the state and made memories to last a lifetime.
?Standing crops were an obstacle in some areas, but hunters found decent bird numbers across the state,? said South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Secretary Kelly Hepler. ?The tradition of the opening day of South Dakota?s pheasant season is special. Whether it?s a first time hunter putting their first rooster in their game bag, or a grizzled vet meeting up with long-time friends and sharing a hunt, this is what we live for?.
Reports from across the state indicate the following:
Central Region, Nathan Baker, GFP regional game manager
o Average bird count per person: 2 birds in Lyman, Tripp, Hughes and Brule Counties 1 bird per hunter in most other areas.
o Pierre, Chamberlain and Mobridge areas.
Northeast Region, Nick Rossman, GFP regional game manager
o Average bird count per person: ? to 1 bird per hunter. Lots of standing crops in the Watertown area. More crops out as you head toward Aberdeen and west.
o Most populated area to hunt in region: Aberdeen area; south and west from there. Public lands were busy in many areas.
Southeast Region, Brad Baumgardner, GFP regional game manager
o Average bird count per person: Ranging from ? a bird per hunter in the east to 1.5 birds in the west. Lots of standing crop and ?hot? dogs
o Most populated area to hunt in region: western side of the Region; Mitchell to east of Chamberlain was busy and had success.
Western Region, John Trenton Hafley, GFP regional game manager
o Average bird count per person: ? bird to 1 bird in traditional pheasant areas.
o Most populated area to hunt in region: Bennett, Haakon and Perkins Counties.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October, 15 2016
CONTACT: Emily Kiel at Emily.Kiel@state.sd.us
Traditions Remain Strong for South Dakota's Pheasant Opener
PIERRE, S.D. ? Cities and towns rolled out the orange carpet to pheasant hunters today for the traditional pheasant season opener. While the annual pheasant brood survey showed a decrease in the statewide index from 2015, hunters were successful across the state and made memories to last a lifetime.
?Standing crops were an obstacle in some areas, but hunters found decent bird numbers across the state,? said South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Secretary Kelly Hepler. ?The tradition of the opening day of South Dakota?s pheasant season is special. Whether it?s a first time hunter putting their first rooster in their game bag, or a grizzled vet meeting up with long-time friends and sharing a hunt, this is what we live for?.
Reports from across the state indicate the following:
Central Region, Nathan Baker, GFP regional game manager
o Average bird count per person: 2 birds in Lyman, Tripp, Hughes and Brule Counties 1 bird per hunter in most other areas.
o Pierre, Chamberlain and Mobridge areas.
Northeast Region, Nick Rossman, GFP regional game manager
o Average bird count per person: ? to 1 bird per hunter. Lots of standing crops in the Watertown area. More crops out as you head toward Aberdeen and west.
o Most populated area to hunt in region: Aberdeen area; south and west from there. Public lands were busy in many areas.
Southeast Region, Brad Baumgardner, GFP regional game manager
o Average bird count per person: Ranging from ? a bird per hunter in the east to 1.5 birds in the west. Lots of standing crop and ?hot? dogs
o Most populated area to hunt in region: western side of the Region; Mitchell to east of Chamberlain was busy and had success.
Western Region, John Trenton Hafley, GFP regional game manager
o Average bird count per person: ? bird to 1 bird in traditional pheasant areas.
o Most populated area to hunt in region: Bennett, Haakon and Perkins Counties.
UGUIDE
Active member
Slowly have some numbers coming in.....limits in a couple places.
http://www.uguidesdpheasants.com/news/category/pheasant-outlook-forecast-report/
http://www.uguidesdpheasants.com/news/category/pheasant-outlook-forecast-report/
After a case of the stomach flu putting my opening weekend hunting on hold the dog and I finally got back out yesterday. Decided to try and find a few new spots. Things did not go as planned as we struck out except for one lone rooster on three different spots and decided to pass on about a dozen more that did not look promising. Had a spot close by that I did well last year. We pulled in the last hour and a half and they were in there pretty thick. We got a total of 16 birds up in that hour and a half. Picked up our second rooster and had the opportunity on the third but I didn't shoot as straight and I brought him down but after a quarter mile trail by the dog we saw him twice but never could grab him. Glad to see there were some that stayed there over from last year. Back at it again on Saturday.
Day 1 (Sunday) of my 5 day hunt was great. 5 of us flushed 3 hens and 18 roosters in 2.5 hours and shot 15 roosters. Great first day. We're in the Redfield area. Saw plenty of other birds up route 281 from Mitchell. Drove around quite a bit just north of Mitchell and saw roosters in ditch right before sunset. Stay tuned.
benelli-banger
Well-known member
That's an interesting ratio...are you on a pay-to-hunt operation? Either way, sounds like fun!
Could have been a few more hens on the other side of the field. I know we saw a lot of birds and only a few escaped.
Pretty much same deal today. Limited out in half a day. Birds are mostly in corn which is too big for us, or in tree lines. Not too many in the shorter grass. Saw a couple people waiting at the end of a corn field as the combine came towards them. Man what a flush they had.
We have 5 guys and 4 dogs on private land. We doubt anything got past us. But you never know.
Crops are still getting harvested. Lots of standing corn. Haven't seen a lot of hunters. Doesn't mean they're not here. I've seen more in the past.
Drove to one farm and saw a rooster on the road really close to the car. Started filming him and looked to my right and saw a swarm of pheasants in the cattails. Then looked left and there must have been 50 roosters and hens in some low cut grass. Got to find out who this land owner is.
Pretty much same deal today. Limited out in half a day. Birds are mostly in corn which is too big for us, or in tree lines. Not too many in the shorter grass. Saw a couple people waiting at the end of a corn field as the combine came towards them. Man what a flush they had.
We have 5 guys and 4 dogs on private land. We doubt anything got past us. But you never know.
Crops are still getting harvested. Lots of standing corn. Haven't seen a lot of hunters. Doesn't mean they're not here. I've seen more in the past.
Drove to one farm and saw a rooster on the road really close to the car. Started filming him and looked to my right and saw a swarm of pheasants in the cattails. Then looked left and there must have been 50 roosters and hens in some low cut grass. Got to find out who this land owner is.
waterdog09
Active member
Just returned from 5 days out in the miller area. We hunted in the miller area for 4 days on public ground and 1 day on private ground just north of Mitchell. For the most part I would agree that #'s are down, even though in a couple public areas we did see great bird numbers. For the trip we shot 51 with 6 guys and 7 dogs well we will say 6 dogs as one of them was my 9 month old puppy who is still getting the idea of what it's all about. We lost roughly 10 birds for the trip, scenting conditions were tough for the dogs on cripples due to how dry it was. We easily should have come home with 75+ if there would have been better shooting by a couple guys in our group. We did well on the private ground shooting our limit but loosing 3 cripples that ran but easily saw well over 100+ birds on a 160 acre field. It seemed on public ground it all came down to what kind of crops were out around it, if it was standing corn on all sides it was a tough hunt but if you could find a field with a couple cut fields around it you did well. We did have a public spot on our last day that had well over 100+ birds on it and that was just the portion we walked which was roughly 80-100 acres. All in all I would call it another good trip, got a lot of shooting and got to see some great dog work by our labs and hang out with some good guys. I think as the season goes on and the crops come out things will only get better for everyone. We did see a lot of hunters considering the reports of birds being down but that didn't surprise any of us in our group. I'm now looking forward to this wknd and Iowa opener and my next trip to SD after Xmas for another 5 days weather permitting!
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Waterdog, glad to hear you had a fun trip. One question though. When you say you lost roughly 15% of the birds, does that include the ones that got tickled & didn't hit the ground?
We returned from the great state of South Dakota last night - was a pretty decent trip, all things considered.
The hunter numbers seemed average where we were, and the farmers were going like gangbusters everywhere you looked. I would guess 50% of corn is out now and within 2 weeks it may be all gone. Dry Dry Dry! All the smaller slews were dried up and the only place you found water was the big holding areas. So being that we aren't the smartest bunch it took us a day or two to figure out that you needed to hunt near the water that had corn nearby.
We shot 34 for 6 guys and 5 dogs. Would have had more but a couple guys wounded themselves with the bottle and didn't hunt much :cheers:
Good times again
The hunter numbers seemed average where we were, and the farmers were going like gangbusters everywhere you looked. I would guess 50% of corn is out now and within 2 weeks it may be all gone. Dry Dry Dry! All the smaller slews were dried up and the only place you found water was the big holding areas. So being that we aren't the smartest bunch it took us a day or two to figure out that you needed to hunt near the water that had corn nearby.
We shot 34 for 6 guys and 5 dogs. Would have had more but a couple guys wounded themselves with the bottle and didn't hunt much :cheers:
Good times again
waterdog09
Active member
No, those were birds that went down and had dogs literally almost on top of them within seconds of hitting the ground. It's a strange thing to see birds hit the ground and bounce and have a dog literally feet away and poof the bird is gone!? Drives a guy crazy when you have that many dogs and loose birds especially when 4 out of the 7 dogs have 4-7 years experience hunting SD roosters and the other 3 dogs are no slouches either. it was dry and made for tough conditions for finding cripples that ran.
Ya crops are being harvested and ground was very dry...until today. Got lots of rain today. Going to be sunny and warm for a few days now.
We got our limit again today. Had to hunt several strips. Had a field with cattails surrounded by cut corn. Flushed several deer, who then flushed about 50 pheasants during their exit. Didn't get a bird in that field.
Did some scouting of public land up near Aberdeen. It was between 4:00-6:00. Saw several roosters along the road at a WPA. Saw many more in ditches along the way.
About 50% of the roosters didn't have tail feathers yet. May be from a late hatch.
One more day and then heading home.
We got our limit again today. Had to hunt several strips. Had a field with cattails surrounded by cut corn. Flushed several deer, who then flushed about 50 pheasants during their exit. Didn't get a bird in that field.
Did some scouting of public land up near Aberdeen. It was between 4:00-6:00. Saw several roosters along the road at a WPA. Saw many more in ditches along the way.
About 50% of the roosters didn't have tail feathers yet. May be from a late hatch.
One more day and then heading home.
Gettin Birdy
Member
Hunted Pierre area on private land. Limits for 4 days. Had 10guys first 3 days then 5 guys 4th day. Land we hunt seemed to be up in birds compared to last year. Had almost all crops standing. Another great hunt. When we go back and crops are off we will see for sure how birds compare year to year.