Reports

kick them up said:
Well we hunted south of Hays and here is my take. I kept notes on each fields numbers.

1) Very limited CRP as most have been mowed and baled.
2) If you find grass by stubble you better hunt it if you can.
3) WIHA way down and what I saw was poor habitat.
4) Good quail numbers!!!!
5) Rooster acted like late season bird flushing out of gun range.

Here is the numbers from my notes.
Field 1- Sunflower thick with weeds and stubble. 6 roosters 1 killed
Field 2- milo stubble next to private CRP 0 roosters 1 covey of 30 birds
Field 3- grass and shrubs surrounded by green wheat- 6 roosters 1 covey 1 rooster killed. (poor blocker positioning)
Field 4- weed patch next to cut milo 2 roosters both killed by me.
Field 5- CRP and Milo stubble 3 roosters which all lived.
Field 6- Weedy bottom next to milo and wheat stubble 6 roosters 4 killed.

I feel good about the quail numbers but think we got along way to go on the pheasant side.

Kick!
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Good report Kick, thanks!
 
Hunted Rooks County (private ground). Pheasants were hard to find but some are there with work. Quail were pretty decent. Cover is not good. Interesting observation, I saw 3 coyotes from Friday through Sunday (more than usual) and many more cotton tails than usual. Are the rabbits there because of the sparser cover and is that what has increased the coyotes? Just an observation. I heard the same thing about more coyotes from farmer friends btw.
 
Headed west tomorrow. Will hunt Friday and Saturday (maybe Sunday depending on results). Small amount of private but mostly public. Expectations are low, but I'm looking forward to getting out there and watching the dog work. I'll report back when I return.
 
My buddies are back from a three day look around. Things looked bleak . t
The last place they hunted was the most promising, back on the land we always hunt. First 10 minutes of the first walk, they saw and shot two roosters, hunted the rest of the day, never saw another rooster.
 
Abysmal, one covey of quail. Zero pheasants. Lots of deer a few coyotes and rabbits. Hunted all around Russell. Hunted north of Hill City. All public and it was just dismal. My Dad and I with a dog each. First day in the snow, zero tracks. Second day zero beds or crap. Folks we talked to were in the same boat. Most everyone was seeing a few quail. However, talked with fellas at restaurant and they were doing good-all private with a local guide.
 
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Thanks for sharing. All private with a local guide. Seeded birds or do you think they were hunting wild birds?
 
My buddies and I have been coming to Kansas for 15 straight years. During this time we focus our hunting areas in the Goodland to Grainfield and south. We usually hunt for three days. We do a lot of traveling between WIHA and a couple private areas. We had 8 hunters and 2 dogs. It was tough. Our first day we were able to be fortunate to get three birds. The rest of our trip we got skunked. It’s pretty disheartening to see how things have regressed. Between the crop loss and lack of water it seems it will take 3-5 years to make this trip worthwhile. The reality is that getting out and walking a couple miles with the buddies makes it worth it. One question I want to pose is this: when the drought ends, how can KDW do better to help the pheasants? I believe with good conditions it will still take quite a while to bounce back.
 
I agree, to a point about habit loss. Farming practices need to change, to me, that's the most important thing.
Way, way, back, didn't have very much CRP, Just stubble, stalks and weedy corners. Seems like most fields always had weeds, lots of fence lines full of birds.
This isn't the first severe drought the pheasant population has gone through, but this is the worst bird situation I can remember
 
birddude said:
Thanks for sharing. All private with a local guide. Seeded birds or do you think they were hunting wild birds?
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gsh lover said:
I agree, to a point about habit loss. Farming practices need to change, to me, that's the most important thing.
Way, way, back, didn't have very much CRP, Just stubble, stalks and weedy corners. Seems like most fields always had weeds, lots of fence lines full of birds.
This isn't the first severe drought the pheasant population has gone through, but this is the worst bird situation I can remember
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I know in the 70s most of the birds we shot in NA Kansas were shot out of knee deep stubble fields full of weeds and sunflowers. Very little grass was hunted. Those fields were full of birds. Otherwise it was milo stubble.
 
Loss of habitat is more of a problem than drought IMO. Fence row to fence row farming and loss of CRP and every water way being hayed.
 
Yes I’d agree with that. Some ditches would help for sure. I was watching an old home movie from 1997 and all of the ditches were thick and weedy.
 
One thing we've noticed is the amount of hawks that are around as well. The birds are easy pickings since the feed fields don't have much for weeds now a days. Was in South Dakota last weekend and I made the comment to my hunting buddies how we weren't seeing very many if any hawks. Kansas is hurting, hope it can recover but at this point not sure.
 
I'm a pretty novice hunter but my family has some land and an old farmhouse in thomas county that I have been hunting for the last 3 years. Between family land/neighbors/WIHA there is a couple thousand acres I can hunt(crops/crp/pens/pasture/etc) within a couple miles of the old farmhouse I stay at.

Its not great bird area but usually you can get some birds, last opening weekend I got 6 birds in 2.5 days....this year was rough. Had a buddy join me this year (two hunters 1 dog) and we saw 1 rooster and 4 hens in 2 days of hunting in the same area, only fired my gun once.

On sunday afternoon we went about 15 miles away to a large WIHA that had alot of CRP and hunted it for about 2 hours. We at least saw some birds (5-10) but the only ones that flushed in range were hens, still better than walking around and not seeing any birds.
 
I live in KC and am a glutton for punishment so I'm heading out there again thanksgiving weekend. Will probably hunt some WIHA in the Russell area (saw a rooster fly over I-70 at dusk last friday when I was driving out) on the way out to Thomas county then make some day trips to the Wakeeny/Plainville area while hunting in thomas county in the morning/evening since that is where the home base will be.
 
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