Miforester
Well-known member
Finally getting around to posting our hunting trip report. My son (Thomas), his friend (Jaden) and I hunted the week of Dec 18th. You couldn't have asked for any better weather for middle of December almost too good for hunting. This was the first time my son's friend has ever hunted pheasants, he has hunted with us for grouse and woodcock. I'm still trying to get some videos/stills from the hunt can find a user friendly free video editing. This will be somewhat long post.
Day 1
We started out at a WPA that historically has held alot of birds during December, however, with all the water in the area much of the ground that once held birds was under water/ice. Needless to say we managed to move a dozen birds and bagged 2 roosters. My setter (River) had a very nice point on a rooster and I winged the bird and we were not able to find it, after about 10 minutes of looking we moved on. Remi, birtt pup, had a great find on a another rooster I winged that we recovered. My older britt (Bella) had was on point while my other two were tracking birds by my son. I called his buddy to me to move in on the point, then birds starting flushing by my son and he missed a rooster, after the shot my britt broke to retreive his miss. I had birds flushing on the other side of me just out of range, my son's buddy took a step and the rooster my britt was on point on flushed and startled him, my son was able to down the bird. We traveled to another historically good WPA, but this time we couldn't locate any bird, well shoot-able a couple flushed ahead of us just out of range. We spent a fair amount of time at these sites and daylight was getting short so we traveled to a ditch I like and T and Jaden walked the ditch with Bella, she went on point and Jaden flushed and shot the bird, his first pheasant. It was pretty cool to watch my son, dog and new hunter bag a bird, everything went as it should. Ended first day with 3 birds, my trip was made just watching the last bird of the day and all three dogs had points.
Day 2
We hunted private ground. River pointed and we connected on the rooster and good retrieve by Bella. We had several hens flush either vial point or wild flush. Hunted a very small cattail patch and Bella went on point, the bird flushed and Jaden was able to connect but winged him. After a short search River located the bird and the chase was on, the rooster headed back into the cattails and I thought we were done. Bella and River did a great job and were able to locate him again but couldnt produce him. Bella keep bouncing around and digging in but no luck, finally I started peeling back the grass and finally spotted the last 6" of his tail, I reached in and pulled him out, he was buried under at 2' of grass ( have all on video). We traveled to another private parcel and Remi was doing her thing she had points on a few hens and was tracking when a rooster flushed that we bagged and she also had a good point on the edge of cattails on another rooster that we harvested. We moved to another private parcel and river pointed a rooster for Jaden that he connected on, the rooster probably flew 400 yards and folded over the hill from us. Daylight was getting short so he hit the road. The boys walked a ditch with bella, she pointed and the boys hit the rooster but it didnt drop but landed up the road. They followed up and again bella pointed, T thought it was a dead bird and was reaching down to pick it up when if flushed and came out between his legs, both he and Jaden connected hard on this bird. It was a funny sequence to watch. Ended day two with 6 birds.
Day 3
We decided to road hunt to give the dogs a break and we are down a dog as Remi sustained a sizeable laceration on her chest, I stapled her up Tueday night and determined her hunt was done. We hit some historical ditches and were fairly successful. Both River and Bella had points that produced roosters and we didn't miss to many. I lost a rooster in cattails that I thought was a good kill. We have some good video of points and both connections and miss from this day. While road hunting came across a WPA that I didn't realize was there and we said we would hunt later in the week. We ended the day with 6 birds.
Day 4
We went back to private ground and had marginal success, we hunted a medium sized cattail swale that held a ton of birds but really couldn't hunt the middle because it wasn't frozen. First group came up with about 15 birds and Jaden didn't know what to do.....Thomas did connect on a rooster. We hunted some tree lines and pot-holes in the picked fields, Thomas missed two roosters that River pointed, it was pushing 50's and I believe many of the birds were loafing in the picked fields as we hunted great cover with tons of tracks but no birds. I did pick up a rooster over a point from Bella. We ended day 4 with only 2 birds.
Day 5
They say save your best for the last day and we certainly did that with the help of River and Bella. We hunted the newly found WPA, dogs were getting birdy as we approached a nice area and 4 roosters ended up flushing individually, I killed 2 missed 1 and couldn't get reloaded quick enough for the 4th bird, great video. We continued on and pointed/flushed several hens. Thomas winged one that we couldn't locate. Jaden connected on a rooster by a point from River, bird flushed on its own and I connected on another rooster that flushed next to Thomas. All these are on video from both my cameral and Thomas'. First spot 4 in the bag, good start to the day. We moved to another WPA adjacent to the private I can hunt, WPA didn't produce so we moved to the private. Bella had 2 nice points that produce roosters that Jaden and I each connected on. We continued on and River pointed a rooster in the cattails that the boys connected, 7 birds after 2 spots. We were traveling to our next spot and saw roosters cross the road. The boys got out with Bella and she pointed they bagged one. The last bird was a roady as well. We finished the day at 3:30 with a 3 man limit.
I had a few goals, one was at least one day we limit out and we hit 30 birds harvested. We hit that mark with our lost birds, we came home with 26 birds and for lost. Jaden wanted to get one of his mounted and his second bird was a mature bird with nice tail and spurs, we kept another if Taxidermist need additional feathers. This trip was about getting Thomas and Jaden into birds. I was happy after the first day. We shot and missed vast majority of our birds over points. We really had a good rooster to hen ratio and most of our shootable birds were roosters. Dog work was exceptional. Sorry for long post will be getting videos up soon.
Day 1
We started out at a WPA that historically has held alot of birds during December, however, with all the water in the area much of the ground that once held birds was under water/ice. Needless to say we managed to move a dozen birds and bagged 2 roosters. My setter (River) had a very nice point on a rooster and I winged the bird and we were not able to find it, after about 10 minutes of looking we moved on. Remi, birtt pup, had a great find on a another rooster I winged that we recovered. My older britt (Bella) had was on point while my other two were tracking birds by my son. I called his buddy to me to move in on the point, then birds starting flushing by my son and he missed a rooster, after the shot my britt broke to retreive his miss. I had birds flushing on the other side of me just out of range, my son's buddy took a step and the rooster my britt was on point on flushed and startled him, my son was able to down the bird. We traveled to another historically good WPA, but this time we couldn't locate any bird, well shoot-able a couple flushed ahead of us just out of range. We spent a fair amount of time at these sites and daylight was getting short so we traveled to a ditch I like and T and Jaden walked the ditch with Bella, she went on point and Jaden flushed and shot the bird, his first pheasant. It was pretty cool to watch my son, dog and new hunter bag a bird, everything went as it should. Ended first day with 3 birds, my trip was made just watching the last bird of the day and all three dogs had points.
Day 2
We hunted private ground. River pointed and we connected on the rooster and good retrieve by Bella. We had several hens flush either vial point or wild flush. Hunted a very small cattail patch and Bella went on point, the bird flushed and Jaden was able to connect but winged him. After a short search River located the bird and the chase was on, the rooster headed back into the cattails and I thought we were done. Bella and River did a great job and were able to locate him again but couldnt produce him. Bella keep bouncing around and digging in but no luck, finally I started peeling back the grass and finally spotted the last 6" of his tail, I reached in and pulled him out, he was buried under at 2' of grass ( have all on video). We traveled to another private parcel and Remi was doing her thing she had points on a few hens and was tracking when a rooster flushed that we bagged and she also had a good point on the edge of cattails on another rooster that we harvested. We moved to another private parcel and river pointed a rooster for Jaden that he connected on, the rooster probably flew 400 yards and folded over the hill from us. Daylight was getting short so he hit the road. The boys walked a ditch with bella, she pointed and the boys hit the rooster but it didnt drop but landed up the road. They followed up and again bella pointed, T thought it was a dead bird and was reaching down to pick it up when if flushed and came out between his legs, both he and Jaden connected hard on this bird. It was a funny sequence to watch. Ended day two with 6 birds.
Day 3
We decided to road hunt to give the dogs a break and we are down a dog as Remi sustained a sizeable laceration on her chest, I stapled her up Tueday night and determined her hunt was done. We hit some historical ditches and were fairly successful. Both River and Bella had points that produced roosters and we didn't miss to many. I lost a rooster in cattails that I thought was a good kill. We have some good video of points and both connections and miss from this day. While road hunting came across a WPA that I didn't realize was there and we said we would hunt later in the week. We ended the day with 6 birds.
Day 4
We went back to private ground and had marginal success, we hunted a medium sized cattail swale that held a ton of birds but really couldn't hunt the middle because it wasn't frozen. First group came up with about 15 birds and Jaden didn't know what to do.....Thomas did connect on a rooster. We hunted some tree lines and pot-holes in the picked fields, Thomas missed two roosters that River pointed, it was pushing 50's and I believe many of the birds were loafing in the picked fields as we hunted great cover with tons of tracks but no birds. I did pick up a rooster over a point from Bella. We ended day 4 with only 2 birds.
Day 5
They say save your best for the last day and we certainly did that with the help of River and Bella. We hunted the newly found WPA, dogs were getting birdy as we approached a nice area and 4 roosters ended up flushing individually, I killed 2 missed 1 and couldn't get reloaded quick enough for the 4th bird, great video. We continued on and pointed/flushed several hens. Thomas winged one that we couldn't locate. Jaden connected on a rooster by a point from River, bird flushed on its own and I connected on another rooster that flushed next to Thomas. All these are on video from both my cameral and Thomas'. First spot 4 in the bag, good start to the day. We moved to another WPA adjacent to the private I can hunt, WPA didn't produce so we moved to the private. Bella had 2 nice points that produce roosters that Jaden and I each connected on. We continued on and River pointed a rooster in the cattails that the boys connected, 7 birds after 2 spots. We were traveling to our next spot and saw roosters cross the road. The boys got out with Bella and she pointed they bagged one. The last bird was a roady as well. We finished the day at 3:30 with a 3 man limit.
I had a few goals, one was at least one day we limit out and we hit 30 birds harvested. We hit that mark with our lost birds, we came home with 26 birds and for lost. Jaden wanted to get one of his mounted and his second bird was a mature bird with nice tail and spurs, we kept another if Taxidermist need additional feathers. This trip was about getting Thomas and Jaden into birds. I was happy after the first day. We shot and missed vast majority of our birds over points. We really had a good rooster to hen ratio and most of our shootable birds were roosters. Dog work was exceptional. Sorry for long post will be getting videos up soon.
