S. Wis. pheasant #'s

1pheas4

1pheas4

Moderator
Just wondering how you guys have been doing in the southern portion of the state on pheasants.

I'm hunting N. Illinois. A few spots are next to your border and I've only seen two-three year old birds. Are you guys seeing younger birds at all up there? --1pheas4
 
I saw 5 cocks on my land in Fond Du Lac County. Wasn't hunting them, just out scouting. Not sure the age but they looked real healthy! I usually only hunt that ground one time per year and the past two or three years have been great. Not sure about this yrs hatch though.
 
There's a few in certain area's but not much unless you have an in. I had a nice hot spot by Evansville a few years ago, lots of birds but the farmer took his lasd out of CRP and planted corn.
 
I hunted wild birds only this fall didn't hunt at all where birds were released and the numbers in south central wi were pretty low. Did find another part of the state where the numbers where pretty good even had moments that a person would think were south dakota.
 
Southern Wisconsin pheasant numbers were lower this past fall than years past. It wasn't southern Wisconsin where we found good numbers of wild birds on public land. Thats as specific as I can get. We hunted all day one saturday and seen about a half dozen birds all day but found a ton of tracks in one cattail marsh. Last 20 minutes of light no less than 50(100 wouldn't be a stretch probably) birds got up at the end as we stepped into the marsh. Across the road from there we counted over 30 birds in a picked bean field mid day mostly hens. You can spend the gas money,do the research,and work your ass off or not. Not going to say Wisconsin has as good of pheasant hunting as other states like Kansas,South Dakota,or North Dakota, but I've seen enough birds in the air at one time to totally change you mind and give a guy flashbacks to farther west hunts. Knowing what I know I wouldn't hunt another state for pheasants unless another bird like sharptails was on the menu.
 
wisturkeyhunter said:
Southern Wisconsin pheasant numbers were lower this past fall than years past. It wasn't southern Wisconsin where we found good numbers of wild birds on public land. Thats as specific as I can get. We hunted all day one saturday and seen about a half dozen birds all day but found a ton of tracks in one cattail marsh. Last 20 minutes of light no less than 50(100 wouldn't be a stretch probably) birds got up at the end as we stepped into the marsh. Across the road from there we counted over 30 birds in a picked bean field mid day mostly hens. You can spend the gas money,do the research,and work your ass off or not. Not going to say Wisconsin has as good of pheasant hunting as other states like Kansas,South Dakota,or North Dakota, but I've seen enough birds in the air at one time to totally change you mind and give a guy flashbacks to farther west hunts. Knowing what I know I wouldn't hunt another state for pheasants unless another bird like sharptails was on the menu.
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You must have access to some private land with exceptional cover and a reliable food source to see those kinds of numbers in WI. Ya lucky bastid! Several properties that I have access to used to have excellent bird numbers but sadly too many farmers and landowners in WI have rotated their expired CRP back to crops (or leased it to area farmers who rotated it back to crops). It's a common tale.
 
I didn't get a chance to hunt in Wi this year but a friend did (I live in IN). When I huntmy land in Fond Du Lac and Washington counties I usually exepct to see 5-25 birds a day. Never get skunked.

I've have also done quite a bit in SW WI in Lafayette Co. and have seen close to 100 in a day but buddy told me this year was down but he hunted by himself so I would expect him to see far fewer.

Lafayette and Grant Co have great cover and has held alot of birds but I know they have had some tough winters with some ice storms which I think are really tough pheasants.

I expect to get up again next fall and I want to hit all of our properties. I've kept good fence rows and have some CRP and wetlands.
 
My friend has a farm north of Lake Mills and he saw about 5 to 10 birds on his set a side land.
 
DNR upland game person said three deep snow and abiding cold Winters, followed by three wet Springs has done some serious damage to bird pops.

There was an extended interview on some outdoor TV show with a Wildlife guy from Iowa, who had specific numbers on that state's season, indicating a dramatic reduction over that same time period.

We had pretty much the same weather.

With corn prices up, I'd imagine a lot of CRP is being put back in production as the contracts expire.

One other factor may be that fewer people (in this area, at least) are trapping or fur hunting. The older guys are getting past that time in their lives and fewer younger folks seem to be interested in the amount of work for the return on investment.

More foxes and coyotes=fewer birds.

dunno for sure, just sayin'
 
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