Pheasant hunting north west Wisconsin

[Caleb Frank]

Hi, my dad and I were out pheasant hunting in north west Wisconsin on Saturday for 5 hours and only saw one hen. We hunted our best spots and had seen many pheasants this spring turkey hunting. Did anyone else see very low bird numbers? I know the bird numbers aren't great but last year we must of saw 8 and 4 of them were rosters. Did the few hail storms kill a bunch over the summer? Or did we just have bad luck? On Sunday we went to dunnville bottom and got our limit but the state stocks most of those birds.

 

[Jleclair]

Hi, my dad and I were out pheasant hunting in north west Wisconsin on Saturday for 5 hours and only saw one hen. We hunted our best spots and had seen many pheasants this spring turkey hunting. Did anyone else see very low bird numbers? I know the bird numbers aren't great but last year we must of saw 8 and 4 of them were rosters. Did the few hail storms kill a bunch over the summer? Or did we just have bad luck? On Sunday we went to dunnville bottom and got our limit but the state stocks most of those birds.

I was out, didn’t see many birds either. Did get into three different broods that were very small, maybe grouse sized, no color yet. Didn’t see many people either, which was nice.

 

[SDinWI]

It all comes down to habitat at the end of the day. That’s why pheasants forever and local habitat work need support. Great pheasant ground can get you 10 birds in a walk, others not so much. The problem for the most part in WI is the lack of the quantity of the former.

Weather wise, the winter was particularly rough snow-wise, but the spring/summer were nothing of concern.

I got into 3 wild birds over the weekend. I’m sure a lot are tucked away in corn where they can stay all day still.

 

[grossklw]

Killed one young rooster yesterday and lung hit another that sailed a mile before piling up over a ridge into a slough that we never did turn up. Hunted hard and flushed 3 birds, last one may have been a rooster but couldn't tell until a profile from 80 yards away. I wasn't hunting the golden hour and it was mid-day hunting; happy with 3 birds flushed with mid-day hunting around home. Had 6-7 different trail-outs that led to the corn, in 3 weeks those may end up with pheasants in the bag. Talked to a buddy who hunted opener and flushed one big brood killing one young barely turned rooster.

Be patient, it's early and there are still a lot of crops up; the hunting will get better. Saw a few trucks yesterday AM and Sunday PM out hunting, I'm kind of hoping the crops stay up a little longer to save a few birds from the fair weather crowd that always hunts early.

 

[lubers]

Went out this morning with a friend, he missed the first two roosters that the dogs kicked up and was feeling dejected. About an half hour later the dogs flushed another one and he nailed it. While walking back to the truck the dogs flushed another one that he downed. He's all smiles again. We're on the South eastern part of the state.

 

[grossklw]

Hunting has really picked up in the last week, killed limits twice and had a couple days of 10+ hen flushes without roosters. Multiple young brood flushes and a few dumbies still sitting tight. Most of the pressure seems to have died off from people. I’m up to 8 on the year with 6 being in the last week.

 

[SDinWI]

Hunting has really picked up in the last week, killed limits twice and had a couple days of 10+ hen flushes without roosters. Multiple young brood flushes and a few dumbies still sitting tight. Most of the pressure seems to have died off from people. I’m up to 8 on the year with 6 being in the last week.

Well dang nice work! Nice looking golden too. Was this all on public land in NW WI? I must be going to the wrong spots.

I haven't been out too much recently but that's selfishly good to hear about the pressure. I think it will all be downhill from here on out, too, especially with deer on the forefront the next two weekends and December weather afterward.

 

[grossklw]

Yup- I haven't hunted any of my private land spots yet. Most of my permissions are for after rifle season.

I think there were some late broods, I killed one this week that had barely any color, if he didn't cackle I wouldn't have shot him. He had a buddy that I couldn't tell on as well.

 

[SDinWI]

Gotcha, thanks for the update! Keep them coming.

I went to some private and public on Saturday and saw 2 hens. Quite a bit of corn around the private still so that could be where they're at. We then went to an empty public spot with cut corn around that looked promising but didn't move a feather.

 

[grossklw]

Up to 14 on the year. Hunted Saturday in the rain without moving a bird. My dumbass didnt bring my gun in overnight and it froze. Sunday we flushed a big brood with 4 staggered roosters in it and I could only watch helplessly as they all flew away unharmed. I did get it thawed out and killed an easy one in another slough but a quick rare WI double would’ve been ok too.

On to my private spots now; first one was loaded and killed 2 pretty easily. Unfortunately I shot waaay too close on a crossing shot and almost cut one in half. even thought to myself don’t shoot dumbie, it’s too close and then poof a puff of feathers. counted it as one of my limit, but it’s the first time I didn’t bring a shot bird home. Literally nothing left. Was a little funny though that it died in a tree and my golden pointed the base of it for a few seconds even though it was 2 feet above him, confused the hell out of him, he dashed around for a few minutes frantic before I let him in on the joke.

Career rooster #200 for my pup, and 108 in Wisconsin which I’m pretty proud of, 90% or so on public.

 

[SDinWI]

200 is quite the feat Congrats!

The birds have been teasing me recently. On opening morning gun deer, I was sitting in my blind and saw/heard 6 roosters. Then this past Saturday, I'm driving to go pheasant hunting and three roosters flush 30 yards ahead of me. Of course they're on someone's private property, and I ended up only flushing one hen where I went.

I was kind of surprised on that. I hunted some nice thick cattails that birds normally love in winter, but maybe the relatively decent December weather and lack of much snow so far doesn't have them bound to the winter cover yet.

 

[grossklw]

200 is quite the feat Congrats!

The birds have been teasing me recently. On opening morning gun deer, I was sitting in my blind and saw/heard 6 roosters. Then this past Saturday, I'm driving to go pheasant hunting and three roosters flush 30 yards ahead of me. Of course they're on someone's private property, and I ended up only flushing one hen where I went.

I was kind of surprised on that. I hunted some nice thick cattails that birds normally love in winter, but maybe the relatively decent December weather and lack of much snow so far doesn't have them bound to the winter cover yet.

I think you're right on the cattails. We flushed a lot in really thick switchgrass and cattails Sunday, but even in December we've been doing fine in the grass. Until we get some actual snow they're not going to be forced to hit that thick cover yet.

 

[SDinWI]

Well today marks the end of the season. I was able to get out this weekend, and I got into 4 or 5 hens and one rooster flushing wild far ahead. As I'm walking back, a local farmer came over. We get to talking, and he tells me he’s planning on taking one portion of one of his properties out of CRP when the contract is up in a couple years. That was a bummer to hear…it was my first year hunting that property, and I saw a decent # of birds. He said that he hasn’t seen many pheasants this year…”maybe it’s the foxes”, he said.

Just wanted to share some takeaways from the season. Would be fun to hear some others, too.

• Obviously, it was a really mild weathered season. Didn’t see them grouped up or in the heavier cover like normal this year with the much colder & snowier weather we usually get by now. Oh well, just shows they aren’t stressed as much I would think, but it was a bit hard getting into them sometimes with most all cover available to hide in.
• Hunted by myself 95% of the time this year. I kind of wish I had some close buddies to hunt with. My dad can’t make it as often, and I’m sure a lot of birds escaped us this year with my one man crew.
• I’d love to try different lands next year. Felt myself going to 2-3 spots after a while and would like some new spots.

All in all a fun season and hope others enjoyed it as well.

 

[grossklw]

Well today marks the end of the season. I was able to get out this weekend, and I got into 4 or 5 hens and one rooster flushing wild far ahead. As I'm walking back, a local farmer came over. We get to talking, and he tells me he’s planning on taking one portion of one of his properties out of CRP when the contract is up in a couple years. That was a bummer to hear…it was my first year hunting that property, and I saw a decent # of birds. He said that he hasn’t seen many pheasants this year…”maybe it’s the foxes”, he said.

Just wanted to share some takeaways from the season. Would be fun to hear some others, too.

• Obviously, it was a really mild weathered season. Didn’t see them grouped up or in the heavier cover like normal this year with the much colder & snowier weather we usually get by now. Oh well, just shows they aren’t stressed as much I would think, but it was a bit hard getting into them sometimes with most all cover available to hide in.
• Hunted by myself 95% of the time this year. I kind of wish I had some close buddies to hunt with. My dad can’t make it as often, and I’m sure a lot of birds escaped us this year with my one man crew.
• I’d love to try different lands next year. Felt myself going to 2-3 spots after a while and would like some new spots.

All in all a fun season and hope others enjoyed it as well.

I had pretty much the same sentiment. I've got 4-5 absolutely dynamite late season spots that I didn't even bother with, no snow to push pheasants in there made for some tough hunting in December. November was great, I had one week during my normal bowhunting vacation where I killed 7 in 4 hunts which is really good hunting by my standards.

I hunt by myself pretty much all the time as well, brought some nephews with a couple days to get their feet wet but they're a little young for the big walks.

I passed on WI this last weekend for SD and we had incredibly tough hunting. Crusty snow made for some really spooky birds. Most were up 70+yards out. We did find a couple dummies that still sat tight, but it made for tough dog work when 40 would get up and scent was everywhere. Still fun, combat hunting in the cattails made for a tired pup.

We ended the season with 29 birds, 15 of those in WI and 14 in SD. Strangely enough I killed the same last year where I had a really slow November and dynamite December (at least until we got 3 feet of snow).

 

[AtTheMurph]

Anyone hunt SE or Eastern Wisconsin? I haven't done so in several years but always saw birds (private land). About the only WI hunting I have been doing is waterfowl. Right before Thanksgiving we had 6-700 geese and ducks on my 7 acre lake. about half and half. Ducks were a mish mash of mallards, teal (that late?) woodies, pintails (almost never seen any in 45 years), blacks, a few mergansers and brother said he saw some red heads. also saw a few blue bills and coots, which we haven't seen in years. used to have hundreds of coots then they disappeared, probably because of the delicious meat they provide.

 

[lubers]

Yes I hunt Eastern Wisconsin, my brother in law leases some land around Fond du Lac with a real nice pond on it. We do ok on it but its not like it was years ago. Son in law has about 80 acres just west of Sheboygan and when the crops get taken off we get a lot of geese that come in.

 

[grossklw]

I got my wild public rooster from December 2022 back this week. Turned out pretty well.

I’ve shot 200 pheasants over my golden, but this one crossed all the boxes for the most part of what I wanted (plan to get one over each dog mounted). Color was ok, but it was a late season bird and a tail feather crossing 26”, long 60 yard blind retrieve in the cattails, wasn’t shot to shit, had to pull the trigger.

 

[Wind River]

It should make you smile

 

[SDinWI]

Sweet, nice mature bird! Didn't realize taxidermy work took that long but I've never had anything mounted.

Much like there are target bucks, I'm calling this guy my target rooster this year

 

[wingsnfins]

Anyone hunt SE or Eastern Wisconsin? I haven't done so in several years but always saw birds (private land). About the only WI hunting I have been doing is waterfowl. Right before Thanksgiving we had 6-700 geese and ducks on my 7 acre lake. about half and half. Ducks were a mish mash of mallards, teal (that late?) woodies, pintails (almost never seen any in 45 years), blacks, a few mergansers and brother said he saw some red heads. also saw a few blue bills and coots, which we haven't seen in years. used to have hundreds of coots then they disappeared, probably because of the delicious meat they provide.

I'm in Fond du Lac County......I've stomped Eldorado Marsh, Mullet Marsh, Sheboygan Marsh, Theresa Marsh and Horicon Marsh for ducks and pheasants over the last 20 years.
Ups and downs for both on each of those marshes over the years. There is alot of potential, but not much management in the right direction, in my opinion. Horicon Marsh has been a shell of itself recently for the waterfowl factory it has been, even for birds using the refuge portion of it.
The pheasants for those properties are mostly planted. Some do make it and have been successful at reproduction or relocation, but habitat is the issue for sustainability of any population in numbers. It's just not a priority on anyone's radar.
I harvest enough of each typically, but this year and last year were tough for both. The properties have and are changing, got to be adaptive to be successful, and the pressure from others has increased significantly too.