Planning SD trip, will be our first

RoosterBuck

RoosterBuck

New member
Greetings all. The season is fast approaching and my best bud and I have decided to stop talking about going to SD to hunt and finally do it! (Well, honestly, we both finally got permission from our other halves and we are booking before they change their minds).
My reason for starting this thread is to ask for some advice. We have never been and dont know the areas. Dont worry, i wont be asking anyone for the honey holes. We would like to know some general areas with plenty of public hunting. Is north near Aberdeen best or south towards Mitchell? We will be coming from Kansas City (Go Royals), so anything south to cut down travel time would be great but not mandatory. Where are some good places to stay (pet friendly preferred). Good places to eat. Or any other advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!:thumbsup:
 
Buck,
Good Luck! I'm sure you will have a great time! Wait until late August when the bird counts come out. There has been a terrible drought in parts of SD and bird numbers will be severely affected in some areas.
 
Much appreciated advice. Do you know which area of the state was affected?
 
It's wide spread. We hunt 45 minutes SW of Aberdeen and my reports from farmers and people in town is a ugly forecast for this year. Time will tell. Google SD drought monitor. It will give you a good idea
 
Good ideas: Check the state drought monitor and review the August brood surveys.

You may want to sign-on to a Pay-to-hunt this first year ; their cover and bird populatin may be better than public. Apparently some CRP areas are being cut, due to the drought.

Good luck to you!
 
The roadside surveys will be out later this month. They can be found on the Game, Fish & Parks web site. Due to the drought conditions in some of the normally prime pheasant territory the birds number could be down. To further compound the issue the government has opened up all CPR acres to haying thus there may be a lot of WIA's (Walk-In-Areas) that will have been hayed. Plus I have personally seen one GPA (Game Production Area) in my area that had been hayed. Not sure about other GPA's across the state. If you are planning to hunt just land open to public hunting this could be (and I emphasis "could be") a bad year to plan a pheasant hunting trip to SD. So make sure you do your homework before you come.
 
RoosterBuck said:
Greetings all. The season is fast approaching and my best bud and I have decided to stop talking about going to SD to hunt and finally do it! (Well, honestly, we both finally got permission from our other halves and we are booking before they change their minds).
My reason for starting this thread is to ask for some advice. We have never been and dont know the areas. Dont worry, i wont be asking anyone for the honey holes. We would like to know some general areas with plenty of public hunting. Is north near Aberdeen best or south towards Mitchell? We will be coming from Kansas City (Go Royals), so anything south to cut down travel time would be great but not mandatory. Where are some good places to stay (pet friendly preferred). Good places to eat. Or any other advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!:thumbsup:
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Im from Pa. so i can t speak on bird populations in areas this year. We hunt basically the 1 hr radius of Aberdeen. Get or download the atlas to see where public land is. Our best luck was in brown yellow or red areas. If you can find food, water and cover in an area togther you will usually find some birds. DO NOT HUNT SAME AREA ON CONSECUTIVE DAYS unless you like to waste time. Took a long time to figure that out. If birds are your priority maybe u should hunt a outfitter at least one day. Our first year we had 6 guys and 2 dogs. We got about 6 birds in 4 days going out blind. Since then we added people and about 10 dogs, we do considerably better now. Your first time keep expectations low, do some homework prior to trip ( as much as you can.) We always hunted ducks in the mornings, which probably kept us from scouting areas or getting out to resteraurts to talk with locals, so you may want to do some of that in the am, or bars in the pm. With only two persons i would hunt cattail sloughs, or ditches maybe smaller patches of cover, would probably stay out of large grass fields. ( fields are immense, they can be big for a pack of hunters.) It will be more of a learning experiance your first year but you will love every minute of it and wish you stayed longer. On the way home you more than likely will be laying the ground work for your next trip out. You can get som good general info on this site.Casey Westmantle from huntfishsd.com helped us out some his number is in contacts on the site. Good luck. Most of all Enjoy the hunt.
 
Last year was my 1st year heading to South Dakota from Ohio. We hunted all public ground and got up many birds to which we could have easily bagged out each morning if the excitement didn't get to us. My wife and I are going again the 2nd week of November. I fell in love with the state and if I don't see a bird I don't care it is GOD'S Country there. Go have fun and if your lucky you can take home a few birds. I did a lot of reading on various sites and it was doom and gloom last year. They said last year would be poor hunting, let me just say if that was poor I can't wait to get there on a good year. A few tips from a rookie. If the field isn't waist high move on. If there are ponds around with waist high cover or higher jump in. Rooster don't hold long for points but hens do so if your dog is on point more than 15 seconds it's a hen (99%) . We hunted north eastern part of the state. We were east of Aberdeen and North of Watertown. Plenty of public land and water. I'm personally not worried. I can't wait to kick back against the truck after a 3hr hunt and a full belly and soak up the fresh air and quiet. Take a camera you'll find little treasures everywhere. Good luck!
 
Dcast said:
Last year was my 1st year heading to South Dakota from Ohio. We hunted all public ground and got up many birds to which we could have easily bagged out each morning if the excitement didn't get to us. My wife and I are going again the 2nd week of November. I fell in love with the state and if I don't see a bird I don't care it is GOD'S Country there. Go have fun and if your lucky you can take home a few birds. I did a lot of reading on various sites and it was doom and gloom last year. They said last year would be poor hunting, let me just say if that was poor I can't wait to get there on a good year. A few tips from a rookie. If the field isn't waist high move on. If there are ponds around with waist high cover or higher jump in. Rooster don't hold long for points but hens do so if your dog is on point more than 15 seconds it's a hen (99%) . We hunted north eastern part of the state. We were east of Aberdeen and North of Watertown. Plenty of public land and water. I'm personally not worried. I can't wait to kick back against the truck after a 3hr hunt and a full belly and soak up the fresh air and quiet. Take a camera you'll find little treasures everywhere. Good luck!
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Hell of a first post, Welcome!
 
From what the USDA drought monitor showed, the drought is focused in the central to North West part of the state leaving the eastern third dry to normal.

Don't let this talk change your mind go you won't regret it. Take a rifle if pheasant hunting is going good prairie dogs and varmints are always an option. Deer are options also if there are leftover tags, regardless you will have fun and experience relaxation like never before if you truly like hunting the great outdoors. I come from a town of 20000 plus which is to big for me. You don't get that there, big towns might be 1000 residents and that's few and far between.
 
Roosterbuck, I think you have gotten some really solid advice from everyone. The drought may affect the bird numbers, but I have learned not to worry about negative reports. You guys will have the trip of a life time regardless of how many birds you see or bag. The open land and beautiful scenery is half the trip to me. I am a non-resident that makes the pilgrimage from Florida every year to hunt for a week or so. My first year making the trip was in 2013 and it was that year that SD game and fish released the brood report in late August that said they expected a 64% decrease in the bird numbers from the previous year. We almost cancelled our trip because of the report. Fortunately we continued with our plans that year and had a great time. Because of that first trip, I fell in love with pheasant hunting and the state of South Dakota. I bought my first pointer when I got home and I have made the trip every year since. We have moved around to different areas every year and we have hunted a mix of private and public land. I guess you could consider all of my previous trips "scouting trips", but they have all been successful. All of our hunts have been fair chase wild birds. We have consistently done well every year despite moving around. Like others have said, if you want to find birds look for good cover, with food and water nearby. Search the public land atlas and drive around putting eyes on the pieces that you think look promising. I would not tell you to hunt in a mowed ditch but, I am always amazed at the places a rooster can hide. I have found them in short grass, tall grass, no grass, fence lines, tree lines, next to a barn, in a mowed ditch, next to a rock, you name it and they may be hiding there. Just when you think the hunt is over, one will flush out of the most unlikely place. I have learned to stay ready all the way back to my truck. With all of that being said I think you will have a wonderful time regardless of the bird numbers. For the most part I have found the people of South Dakota to be friendly and hospitable. Don't be afraid to talk to people and ask questions. Happy hunting!
 
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