"SD IS ENJOYING INCREASED PHEASANT ABUNDANCE!" (blaze orange, all caps, large font, GFP website...)

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benelli-banger

Well-known member
Knowing the brood county survey ain't happening, I looked to see what the 2021 season forecast looked like on the GFP website...it's all good! Shaping up to be better than 2020! Blah, blah, blah...sure, I'll be there...alot...but the dumbing-down irritates me mightily. Been discussed here already, I know, but this is the time of year I normally am awaiting the report and sitting on pins and needles...editing this as of about 3 pm sunday...Dennis Anderson of the Star Trib wrote an article about this very topic...check it out, Outdoors section, have to click on Sports, then find the column to the right and click on Outdoors...he used words like "GIMMICK" to describe the "2021 ringneck outlook"...yeah, that is a blinding flash of the obvious! Good article that details the history of SD pheasants since the late 50's....I recommend it.
 
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I ordered my pheasant hunting packet a few days ago… The itch is getting bad..
I know you danny downers will poopoo it. I’ll take anything I can get my hands on this time of year!
 
The amount of CRP baled and cattails mowed off is heartbreaking. The birds will take a beating this season. I pray for another mild winter to ease the burden on what survives the season.
 
Not a Debbie Downer, I don’t like being jerked around, that’s all! As if most of us aren’t acutely interested in the #’s, the conditions, the impact of the drought, etc. Speaking of surveys, inspect my typical post over the course of a full year…don’t think I’m negative…I think I attempt to be helpful. I’ll probably buy 4 NR licenses on top of the 1/2 I have leftover…probably hunt closer to 40 days than 30…the SD survey was just one more source of info that I found interesting…on top of several of my own spring/summer visits, constant monitoring of the weather in 3 states, and frequent chats with farmers to get boots on the ground reports. I’ve worked for a Fortune 500 company for 31 years, I hate untruthful propaganda, perhaps just me! More importantly, spent the last 2 hours cleaning garages, truck, van, etc prepping for departure of first hunt in about 2 weeks, which will be about that very length of time between MT/ND…can’t wait, will have more intel about things in general…coming up fast!🤪
 
Look at the “2021 ring neck report” on the GFP website…think from the perspective of a first timer who has to take time off work, not go somewhere else that could be better, closer, cheaper, etc…I doubt a huge % of novices hang around here and get decent intel…I’m in the advice business, if I spewed out such stuff as that the regulators would shut me down, after my clients would have fired me first. I’m a stickler for candor and truth. OK, I’ll allow Coke or Papa John’s, etc, to declare supremacy, but I know better in that slice of consumerism.
 
I give honest posts as well. I am seen as a negative or downer type because I don't sugar coat what I see on the ground here, especially as to habitat. I also believe the dislike of my posts also stems from my opinion that residents and non-resident landowners should be prioritized more by the state. Somehow that translates to many that I don't like them as a person.
 
benelli-banger said:
I frequent a few other sites, the contributors tend to be more friendly with one another. Seems like friction occurs here fairly rapidly, as though we’ve all had several shots of tequila or whiskey before our first post!🤬
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Just a sign of the times. I liked the survey because it let me know relatively which area to go to . I'm flexible and mobile and hunt only land anyone can get on so maybe the survey points me to one region over another, not as to whether I'll go hunting or not. That said it sounds like the governor was a used car salesman in the past. No facts just colorful talk. Never did buy a car from someone like that.
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
Just a sign of the times. I liked the survey because it let me know relatively which area to go to . I'm flexible and mobile and hunt only land anyone can get on so maybe the survey points me to one region over another, not as to whether I'll go hunting or not. That said it sounds like the governor was a used car salesman in the past. No facts just colorful talk. Never did buy a car from someone like that.
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Right. There are some terrific weather-related tools out there that can basically lead a guy to the same info that the brood count survey provided…one area has extremely wet, cool June vs another that may have been less wet, maybe warmer?….that kind of info..amazing degree of specificity available…very helpful.
 
I guess it's impossible for me to resist commenting on a post that begins by mentioning the brood count survey & report.

I miss it too, but not because I thought it was useful year-to-year to a person like me, who can pretty much hunt whenever & wherever he wants between the opening & closing buzzers of the season. It didn't in any way define my season, a weeklong trip, or even a single hunt. I'm lucky to be a resident. But I've also been around long enough, hunting the same or similar areas long enough, to have realized that the survey wasn't real accurate in the short-term, especially when you compare years worth of survey data to estimated results & populations developed POSTseason. It's pretty clear that the brood count was a much better indicator of long-term trends than it ever was in the short-term.

But as I said, I miss it. I miss looking forward to it, analyzing it, discussing it, & picking data from it to add to other data & playing numbers games with my own spreadsheets. It wasn't meaningless, & I know why some people used it to help decide where to hunt. But I think a BETTER tool might be the "Pheasant Harvest Map". (But beware, a couple dark blue counties are only blue because Ace & I hunt there. Otherwise they'd be yellow.) ;)

I guess I also don't see the "2021 Ringneck Outlook" as being too disingenuous. Is it dumming-down? Sure. But it's advertisement - exactly what the State said they'd do with the money previously spent on the brood survey. It gives a little interesting info, & I don't see that it tells lies or twists the truth much. But it's not even intended for people like me, or for that matter, for most of the people who frequent this site. We know basically what SD has, what we want, & how to get it. If we need something the "Brood Survey Report" once offered, the vast majority of it is still available in the "Pheasant Harvest Map" & "Past Pheasant Statistics". About the only statistic I really miss (not even in the brood report though) is the adjusted preseason population, produced by combining brood count data, hunter surveys, & other info gleaned during &/or after the season. My guess is right now we're in the 8 million ballpark, really not too far below what people consider true "haydays" type numbers.
 
More than anything, I devour anything pertaining to the upcoming fall bird hunting seasons...it was something to look forward to. It did provide confirmation, basically, of what I was already seeing, hearing, observing. Like I said earlier, the advertisement that has supplanted the brood county survey may not be seen as an advertisement by all who are looking at the GFP website...
 
I love SD 511…click on cameras, and get a real-time view of the sky in 2-4 directions…look at the road for evidence of rain.,.nice way to see what’s really goin on…I have no life, I realize…🤓
 
benelli-banger said:
I frequent a few other sites, the contributors tend to be more friendly with one another. Seems like friction occurs here fairly rapidly, as though we’ve all had several shots of tequila or whiskey before our first post!🤬
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What are some other sites you like, I’ve tied a few and to me this one is pretty good. It’s pretty active. Ive come to realize there’s gonna be more friction on forums. People are more cordial face to face. But I love discussing bird hunting so some griping isn’t going to stop me.
 
check out the Mpls Star Trib...click on sports, then click on Outdoors (from the column to the right)...Dennis Anderson wrote about SD not doing the annual survey, and instead, supplanted it with a "gimmicky" ringneck outlook full of superlatives and misc crap...right on, Dennis!
 
benelli-banger said:
I love SD 511…click on cameras, and get a real-time view of the sky in 2-4 directions…look at the road for evidence of rain.,.nice way to see what’s really goin on…I have no life, I realize…🤓
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I always wave at those cameras hoping to make someone's day. Maybe you'll see my hand out the window someday. Ha.
 
I have never held much fath in the pheasant forcasts put out by various states.... but i also couldn't wait till i could read them. In Kansas it is a very broad forecast and always ends with " pockets of birds" . Whatever that means.

As to the prickleness of the site... It is prety calm compared to 5 or so years ago. We had some pretty colorful characters on here for sure.
 
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