Road Survey

Chip

Member
I'm sure the much awaiting road survey is close to being published. As I remember the past few years it came out the Friday before Labor Day weekend. It might be delayed a little this year because the chamber of commerce will want to review it to see if they have to beat the crap out of the GF&P:p Anyway I'm sure there are several groups out there waiting for the survey to come out to make a decision on whether to make reservations or not. From what I have heard it should be an improvement from last year. We will see in a couple of days.
 
lets just hope they drove the same routes they did the last 2 yrs and come back with another down year report keep them fair weather only go on up year groups at home again this season...

i booked my lodgeing in sd damn near a month ago who needs a road side survey to know there is pheasants in the pheasant capital???

think they say they will be out by sept 1???

if you look on line there has been a few bad reports sd was not 1 they even named exact countys wear top harvests would occur aka countys to avoid hunting on the 1st few wks of season it will be crowded there im sure...
 
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Forgive me for being a dumb ohioan. I agree i will be coming to South Dakota no matter what the survey says. (anything is better than pheasant hunting in Ohio!!) What exactly is the road survey? as it sounds? someone drives up and down roads in SD and counts birds??
 
It's actually called the "Pheasant Brood Survey". Employees of the GF&P travel certain roads at a particular time of day the do a count of pheasants.

Here is a link to the 2013 Survey.
http://gfp.sd.gov/hunting/small-game/pheasant-outlook.aspx

On the GF&P web site they stated that the 2014 Survey will be available the first week in September.
 
SD pheasant counts are out - 76% increase statewide for 2014. Go to Dakotazeb's post - it will take you to the updated survey.
 
SD pheasant counts are out - 76% increase statewide for 2014. Go to Dakotazeb's post - it will take you to the updated survey.

They must have just changed that after I was on their site. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Make sure you look behind the number 76. Almost all areas of the state are still nearly 50% below the 10 year average. However, it is a start.
 
oh yeah any un booked hunts or rooms will fill up by the end of the wk im sure... the guides are drooling i bet $ signs in eyes...

hope the crops stay longer into the season i know when ill use my 1st 5 days and save the other for when its cold weather...

maybe with all the crp being lost the remaining birds were that much easier to spot on the survey this yr??? lol
 
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numbers up 76 perecnt statewide

Good for the folks that make a living , from our enjoyment of their land and birds. :10sign:
 
Great to see the birds are up, but as someone already stated look at the 10yr average. Numbers still aren't even close! This will be my 20th year heading to SD and I've seen the highest of highs and hopefully this will be the end of the lowest of lows! I'm sure a lot of guys on here remember the good days of 15-20 yrs ago!! But like I said there up and that's a start just need to get more habitat in the ground! Looking forward to another fall of memories with great friends and dogs in the field!
 
I had loads of fun in 2013 and had TONS of action! If things improved this year, which is what my contacts have indicated, it will be a fun year no matter...may be heading out there tomorrow to take a gander....
 
Well that is sure good news---the cover and all the crops are going to be real factors in the early part of the season. :cheers:
 
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