Golden Hour
Well-known member
The 2025/2026 Season
As the season is now officially over, I thought I’d take a look back at this past season.
Lots of birds – Most importantly, conditions have been pretty much ideal for the pheasants. For the past three winters, pheasants have been able to scratch for their food and have not been reliant upon finding food plots and other sources of nutrition. This means that they don’t have to go very far to find food, which allows them to get through the winter with less stress and greater fat reserves, which then translates not only into greater rates of survival, but it also sets the stage for increased nesting success. And when the hens have adequate moisture that creates quality nesting habitat, fewer nests fall victim to predators and greater numbers of eggs hatch. And with decent moisture, insects are abundant and greater numbers of chicks reach maturity. As you can see, the current trend has led to some incredible numbers of pheasants throughout most of the eastern parts of South Dakota.
Lots of places to hunt – I see greater numbers of pheasant hunters early in the season. I do encounter hunters all season long, but it seems that after Thanksgiving, the number of guys and gals out chasing pheasants drops noticeably in the areas I hunt. I would venture to say that I’ve encountered two or three people already hunting the public land I wanted to hunt over the last five years after Thanksgiving. Granted, I don’t drive around looking for the most optimal areas to hunt, I make decision on where I’m going to go before I leave the house and if someone is there, I’ll just head to a different parcel. I used to have a real concern about other hunters shooting “my” pheasants, but the truth is, for our sport to continue we need more hunters. If that means I must find a different spot, then so be it.
Clothing – The only thing I need is a pair of gloves that will get me through the cold/windy hunts. I do use handwarmers in my palm or on the back of my hand, but I still had a couple instances this past season where my index fingers on both hands get too cold to effectively operate my shotgun. Otherwise, I’m comfortable in temp and movement with the clothes I currently wear.
Dogs – This year was a huge adjustment for me. For over a decade, it was Sage and me out there chasing pheasants. Last year, I hunted with both Sage and Nila for the vast majority of hunts, but later in the season when Nila started to get the game figured out, I was often swiveling my head side to side and on more than a handful of occasions was watching the wrong dog when a rooster flushed. With Sage’s age taking its toll, I limited her to a couple short hunts each month. Fortunately, she still remembers what to do and had some fantastic moments. Nila’s growth from day one until the last was remarkable. While I did catch her tracking bunnies a couple times, she is starting to hone her skills in finding pheasants and getting them up in the air. Her style is much different from Sage, who prefers to work on the edges of cattails and only going in when she knows there is a pheasant nearby versus Nila who absolutely loves crashing through the thick stuff in search of the next pheasant to harass. Perhaps she will gain some wisdom in the coming years that she can use her nose and experience to hunt a little smarter rather than relying on her youth and athleticism to cover a ton of ground in her search. Overall, I was very pleased with where she is at for a year and a half. I’m planning to work on cleaning up her “plucking” in the offseason but was happy to see that lessen over the past season.
Videos – This season went alright, but my ShotKam really let me down and I’m going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade this offseason. My GoPro still works well, but I need to address the lens as there is a reflection sometimes that shows through on the videos that bothers me. Otherwise, things were pretty standard.
Time moves so quickly anymore. Summer will come and it will go. Before you know it, we’ll be back at again.
As the season is now officially over, I thought I’d take a look back at this past season.
Lots of birds – Most importantly, conditions have been pretty much ideal for the pheasants. For the past three winters, pheasants have been able to scratch for their food and have not been reliant upon finding food plots and other sources of nutrition. This means that they don’t have to go very far to find food, which allows them to get through the winter with less stress and greater fat reserves, which then translates not only into greater rates of survival, but it also sets the stage for increased nesting success. And when the hens have adequate moisture that creates quality nesting habitat, fewer nests fall victim to predators and greater numbers of eggs hatch. And with decent moisture, insects are abundant and greater numbers of chicks reach maturity. As you can see, the current trend has led to some incredible numbers of pheasants throughout most of the eastern parts of South Dakota.
Lots of places to hunt – I see greater numbers of pheasant hunters early in the season. I do encounter hunters all season long, but it seems that after Thanksgiving, the number of guys and gals out chasing pheasants drops noticeably in the areas I hunt. I would venture to say that I’ve encountered two or three people already hunting the public land I wanted to hunt over the last five years after Thanksgiving. Granted, I don’t drive around looking for the most optimal areas to hunt, I make decision on where I’m going to go before I leave the house and if someone is there, I’ll just head to a different parcel. I used to have a real concern about other hunters shooting “my” pheasants, but the truth is, for our sport to continue we need more hunters. If that means I must find a different spot, then so be it.
Clothing – The only thing I need is a pair of gloves that will get me through the cold/windy hunts. I do use handwarmers in my palm or on the back of my hand, but I still had a couple instances this past season where my index fingers on both hands get too cold to effectively operate my shotgun. Otherwise, I’m comfortable in temp and movement with the clothes I currently wear.
Dogs – This year was a huge adjustment for me. For over a decade, it was Sage and me out there chasing pheasants. Last year, I hunted with both Sage and Nila for the vast majority of hunts, but later in the season when Nila started to get the game figured out, I was often swiveling my head side to side and on more than a handful of occasions was watching the wrong dog when a rooster flushed. With Sage’s age taking its toll, I limited her to a couple short hunts each month. Fortunately, she still remembers what to do and had some fantastic moments. Nila’s growth from day one until the last was remarkable. While I did catch her tracking bunnies a couple times, she is starting to hone her skills in finding pheasants and getting them up in the air. Her style is much different from Sage, who prefers to work on the edges of cattails and only going in when she knows there is a pheasant nearby versus Nila who absolutely loves crashing through the thick stuff in search of the next pheasant to harass. Perhaps she will gain some wisdom in the coming years that she can use her nose and experience to hunt a little smarter rather than relying on her youth and athleticism to cover a ton of ground in her search. Overall, I was very pleased with where she is at for a year and a half. I’m planning to work on cleaning up her “plucking” in the offseason but was happy to see that lessen over the past season.
Videos – This season went alright, but my ShotKam really let me down and I’m going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade this offseason. My GoPro still works well, but I need to address the lens as there is a reflection sometimes that shows through on the videos that bothers me. Otherwise, things were pretty standard.
Time moves so quickly anymore. Summer will come and it will go. Before you know it, we’ll be back at again.
