Passing through SD…Pheasants Galore

Bob Peters said:
One rainy period does not a season make.
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That's not true. A flood can obviously wipe out an entire clutch of chicks if they are less than a week or two old. And drought creates its own set of problems with emergency mowing/haying and a lack of bugs, which are a primary food source. You'd have to naeve to think that weather doesn't affect pheasant or wildlife reproduction in general.

That being said, I didn't realize that July and August were dry in South Dakota though. Its been wetter than normal virtually all summer here in MN so I just assumed it was the same to the west, but apparently not.

A lack of roadside count in SD is so they don't "market" bad news. They specifically stated they stopped doing them because it was clearly affecting the number of non-residents coming to hunt there. When it was a good count, they had more "tourism" and when it was poor, they had less. By simply not marketing this data, they can't broadcast bad news when it happens and now just market the state as a whole as being a pheasant hunting mecca, whether it is or not during any specific season.
 
Wind River said:
You don’t really know until you and the dog walk it.
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I've found that talking to people when I seek permission to hunt the area is a good source of information.

I've also found that success is highly dependent on the majority of the corn harvest too. Seems like the bird population doubles right after the majority of corn goes down...
 
gimruis said:
A lack of roadside count in SD is so they don't "market" bad news. They specifically stated they stopped doing them because it was clearly affecting the number of non-residents coming to hunt there. When it was a good count, they had more "tourism" and when it was poor, they had less. By simply not marketing this data, they can't broadcast bad news when it happens and now just market the state as a whole as being a pheasant hunting mecca, whether it is or not during any specific season.
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I find it a just irony that once they stopped the roadside count the majority of the state experienced several of the best years of the last 15 or so (except 2021 drought) in terms of bird numbers. And they took away the means to show that improvement prior to the season start each year - The flip side of hiding bad news is that you also lose the opportunity to showcase good news.

Now I am sure there are those in Pierre pointing to the uptick in hunters/harvest in recent years as evidence that taking away the survey 'worked' when in reality they have had a few good years of reproduction and hunters will come when the hunting is good. May have had even more hunters coming in if they could have shown (real data, not marketing hype) that bird numbers had improved.
 
Woollybob said:
The flip side of hiding bad news is that you also lose the opportunity to showcase good news.
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Exactly. Some years its good news, some its bad. That's based on habitat and weather.

Now they just broadcast everything as good even though that may be a completely false narrative.

The posters on here don't represent the casual upland hunter. We're generally a more dedicated crowd than that. But a lot of casual hunters base their hunting on road side counts and the weather. Last season it was so mild and snowless that the average joe just kept hunting right through the entire season.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Even in a bad year, as we know, SD is still 2-5 times as good as MN, IA, ND, KS, NE, & MT. In general. So to promote SD as the best place to hunt pheasants really isn't a stretch, with or without the meaningless brood count report.
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I don't think anyone would argue with that. But it also comes at a cost, plus they limit you to 5 or 10 days at a time which I think is BS.

You're in a particularly specific position being that you're a resident of the state. Most of us aren't. I find it hard to justify the costs associated with an out of town trip for 5 days on end. I personally prefer to spread my hunting out once or twice a week during most of the season than bunch it up into one or two long trips. Same with my fishing. I like going about twice a week instead of taking one 7 day trip to Canada every year. But that's just me.
 
gimruis said:
I don't think anyone would argue with that. But it also comes at a cost, plus they limit you to 5 or 10 days at a time which I think is BS.

You're in a particularly specific position being that you're a resident of the state. Most of us aren't. I find it hard to justify the costs associated with an out of town trip for 5 days on end. I personally prefer to spread my hunting out once or twice a week during most of the season than bunch it up into one or two long trips. Same with my fishing. I like going about twice a week instead of taking one 7 day trip to Canada every year. But that's just me.
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Not uncommon for high price to be attached to the highest quality. Supply & demand I guess. If a full season non-resident license was $100, can you imagine the competition I'd have from Minnesotans? 🤣 But no, just because it's the best doesn't mean it's justifiable for everyone. Am I awfully lucky to live here? Obviously. But it's not by accident.
 
gimruis said:
I don't think anyone would argue with that. But it also comes at a cost, plus they limit you to 5 or 10 days at a time which I think is BS.

You're in a particularly specific position being that you're a resident of the state. Most of us aren't. I find it hard to justify the costs associated with an out of town trip for 5 days on end. I personally prefer to spread my hunting out once or twice a week during most of the season than bunch it up into one or two long trips. Same with my fishing. I like going about twice a week instead of taking one 7 day trip to Canada every year. But that's just me.
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As a NR the two 5 day works fine for me - 3 birds per day, 15 possession limit, it's been a good trip. 1200 miles one way. At the end of 5 days hunting, I need a rest.
I suggested to SDGFP in their survey a yearly NR license but suspect it would cost about the same as two 5/10 licenses. My normal year is 3 to 4 trips.
Smoky Mountains are showing some color and that's a great sign.
 
dakotasj said:
I suggested to SDGFP in their survey a yearly NR license but suspect it would cost about the same as two 5/10 licenses.
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At least you made the suggestion. Buying a non-resident license should give the purchaser access to hunt the entire season, not limiting it to a specific number of days consecutively. I think that's a bunch of nonsense. This is where other states have an advantage. You buy a license in Iowa, you can hunt the entire season with that license from beginning to end.
 
dakotasj said:
As a NR the two 5 day works fine for me - 3 birds per day, 15 possession limit, it's been a good trip. 1200 miles one way. At the end of 5 days hunting, I need a rest.
I suggested to SDGFP in their survey a yearly NR license but suspect it would cost about the same as two 5/10 licenses. My normal year is 3 to 4 trips.
Smoky Mountains are showing some color and that's a great sign.
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You’re right on the price point, they can structure it however they want but the money will be about the same. I had enough fun last year to pay double the price
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Not uncommon for high price to be attached to the highest quality. Supply & demand I guess. If a full season non-resident license was $100, can you imagine the competition I'd have from Minnesotans? 🤣 But no, just because it's the best doesn't mean it's justifiable for everyone. Am I awfully lucky to live here? Obviously. But it's not by accident.
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It totally depends on how far you travel. For me it is 8 hours give or take each way. That doesn’t lend itself to day or even two day trips. Counting travel it is a 6-7 day investment regardless of how do it. I have made 4 trips in a year but now usually twice. The 150 license is the least of my costs. If I lived four or less hours away, my perspective would likely be different.
 
The only change I would like to see, being able to pick 5 days in a 7 day period. My reasoning behind that is give dogs a rest day, maybe day driving and scouting a new area. Also in case you have major storm come through, you can sit out. Just my 2 cents.
 

Redmoose said:
The only change I would like to see, being able to pick 5 days in a 7 day period. My reasoning behind that is give dogs a rest day, maybe day driving and scouting a new area. Also in case you have major storm come through, you can sit out. Just my 2 cents.
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Yes, we travel 1300 miles and hunt four days the first week. We sometimes come back later and hunt a few days but we could hunt the whole five if we could have a break after day three. We are wiped out after four straight days so we lose day five of the license.
 
Here is a boots on the ground report. I have been in South Central, Sd the last 2 days and will be out here a few more. Been driving morning and evening prime time and the birds appear to be up quite a bit in my area I hunt. Saw several different hatches. An average morning I would see well over a couple of hundred chicks. If there is good cover I typically saw several broods.
 
SD is a 14 hour drive from where I’m from. When i first started traveling to SD, I only used 3-4 days of a 10 day license. It never sat right with me that I was leaving days on the table. When i got a dog for Christmas 2020, I decided I’d go at least twice a year.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to hunt 13 days -5 (oct.)+5(dec)+3 (jan) the January hunt was in shin-to-knee deep snow.

This was the first time in 10 years that, on the way home, I felt like the itch had been scratched and I was satisfied with the amount of time in the field.

That lasted about two months. Since April, I’ve been paying attention to weather reports and thread posts about the general state of affairs in the plains to get a feel for how the season may shape up.

only 8 more Fridays until we depart. Last year, we drove 11 hours in pouring, non-stop rain and arrived in Sioux City to find a blanket of snow in October!

Here at home, We’ve been at 95 to 100+ heat index for a few weeks now and I can’t wait to feel sub-50 degree weather.
 
I was just in South Dakota last week and drove south from the North Dakota border to Aberdeen. I spent the next two days driving ~375 miles around a three county area scouting public land and counted exactly 24 hens and one rooster. From there, I went through Pierre and then to points west, seeing no other birds along the way.
 
I will be traversing the Aberdeen area the last week of September for work and will report back here.
 
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