We tried 2 days last year and got blanked. We got to the northeast edge of the CNG in the late morning on our first day. Our first walk was as much about stretching legs and letting the dogs air out as it was hunting. We made a few other walks that day and kicked up one pheasant. So clearly we were in the wrong kind of habitat. The CNG office advised me to look for Cholla cactus, and we saw almost none of it.
At the restaurant in town that evening we saw a couple other groups and talked to one. They had travelled from KC to hunt bobs, and had some success close to river among the salt cedar. It seemed to have been a nearly annual trip for them. So we got distracted and did a walk along the river among the salt cedars. Again, we were probably in the wrong area. It was crazy thick, thicker than any pheasant CRP I've ever hunted. It was right up there with a South Dakota cattail slough. No bobs were seen.
After that we went up hill to thinner cover that had some structures that looked like teepees made of fence posts. Based on my reading about scaled quail I thought they might be habitat projects. In general that area felt a lot more "quailie" than anything else we had hunted. My dog got birdy and even established point relatively close to the teepees, and then started her slow, rolling relocate. After 100 yards or so she seemed to lose the scent. In the year since I've wondered if that was a covey of scaled quail that ran off. That slow, cautious trail/relocate often works for pheasants and bobs didn't cut it with whatever that was.
