My season started off slow. Ended with a bang. Loking forward to next year.
Left for SD Christmas Day for a 2 day hunt with my daughter, son in law and granddaughter. Brad and I hunted Saturday and Sunday and limited west of Mitchell. Headed home on Sunday night to prepare for the incoming storm that was scheduled to dump 14 inches of new snow. Monday was pretty much waiting out the storm so I could move snow on the acreage and head back as soon as things were in order to leave the wife home. I shut the skidloader off at 1230 and was westbound by one, hoping I could get to bird country in time to get a short hunt in. Arrive at the farm at 3:50 only to find every pheasant in the section feeding in the corn field on the property. I geared up and took Breez down a treeline. 30 yards in, she points. I walk up and a rooster breaks out of the snow. A quick shot sends him tumbling and at the shot, a second rooster breaks and he finds himself surround by a 1 oz load of 6s. He falls in the snow while Breez is bringing number 1 back. We get number 2 picked up and continue onward. 50 yards later, Breez is again locked up. I walk up and rooster #3 is on the ground and being brought back by ms Breez. Looked at my clock and it was 4:23. Wow, that was fast.. I had two other hunting partners for the remainder of the trip and they were slightly behind me on the road and going to a different property. I loaded up and headed where they were. Drove around the section, and couldn't locate them, so I parked on the west side of the section, and let Sky, my 8 month old pup out for a run to get him stretched out. Heard a few shots to the east, so I knew they were at least into some birds too. Met them at the truck at sundown and they had connected on 4. Stood around shooting the breeze and finally decided to head west to Chamberlain.
Got up in the morning and headed to the dam to test the ice, and if that cooperated, maybe fish a little. First time on the ice is always a little spooky, so we waited for full daylight before venturing out. Didn't have much luck, but the electronics told us we were in the right area, the fish didn't want what we were offering.
Had breakfast at the casino, and headed back to the cabin. From there, we headed back east to hunt. We had an incredible hunt north of White Lake and got back to Chamberlain in time to refine the presentation and see if the walleyes were hungry.
Tried a different spot the next morning and dialed them in a little closer, and headed to Presho about 1030. Got to the property and was disappointed at how much snow there was south of Presho. The deep cattail creek that is always so good, was completely blown full. Now, we probably could have hunted it, but truly, it looked like a heart attack waiting to happen, and it didn't really feel like having my daughter life flight me out of the section
. We drove around a bit to see if we could see where the birds were hanging out and it became readily apparent that the farmyards, trees and food plots were holding the majority of the birds. Made a text to a landowner telling him our dilemma , and he said, I'm stuck in South Carolina, but go hunt my place. I told him that I'd go look at it, but if there was as much snow north of town, as there was south of town, I probably wasn't interested and we'd go back to fishing for the rest of the day. Bagging the hunt. Drove up his driveway, and decided that even though there was a lot of snow, it wasn't as much as down south and we were there so let's give it a short try. 7 birds later, we were headed back to Chamberlain, pretty happy to have salvaged the day with a nice hunt.
Friday found us heading east again to try a different property for our final day hunting. As the week drew on, the soft fresh snow was getting packed down with deer, bird and rabbit trails and the birds weren't as cooperative at holding, and we had to move them a couple times to break them up a bit before we could really work on them very well . We spent most of the day moving birds that didn't want to cooperate and headed back west with 6 in the truck. Ice fished that night, and was going to ice fish the morning (Saturday) and head home around noon.
I met the Presho landowner at the rest area and sent him home with some fresh fillets. He invited me to come hunt with him on Saturday with a small group of family and friends they were putting together. I did not tell him we were going home on Saturday, because I really had no reason to go home. The 2 guys with me had to go home. When someone that farms 20k acres invites you to come hunt, I figured I probably should go..... And I did.. I was a little under choked with my 20 guage skeet/ IC but as long as I stayed in my range of 30 and less I was fine. I just had to answer "Why didn't you shoot" about a dozen times throughout the afternoon. I think we shot 18 for 7 guys by the time everyone was beat and I headed back to chamberlain.
Best part of the trip, was we never lost one bird hunting with our pointy dogs and 20s.
I headed for home Sunday morning about 10 am.
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The pup Sky.
