quanah labs
New member
Come on guys lets here some opening day reports! I want to here how the dogs worked, how the birds flushed, pretty much anything that has to do with opening day.
So how did opening day go?
- Thread starter quanah labs
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gsphunter23
New member
Hunted the Kimball area. Flushed about 6 hens. No roosters. Very disappointed in the Walkin areas. No cover whatsoever. I would say 95% of the walk in areas in Kimball county are unhuntable.
How are the walk in areas in southwestern NE?
How are the walk in areas in southwestern NE?
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Bird Buster
Active member
Sw ne
So I did venture down to see how bad it was. Well lets say the first 2 hours Saturday morning I heard a total of 5 shots... Horrible cover and all dry land corn is like sticks. Here are a couple pictures of the mowed CRP fields as they told me it sells for $100 a ton. Great now hunting will be all screwed up for who knows how long. People at the motel all had same results, few birds and lots of walking. Didn't see any hunters out this morning, appeared people went home early.
So I did venture down to see how bad it was. Well lets say the first 2 hours Saturday morning I heard a total of 5 shots... Horrible cover and all dry land corn is like sticks. Here are a couple pictures of the mowed CRP fields as they told me it sells for $100 a ton. Great now hunting will be all screwed up for who knows how long. People at the motel all had same results, few birds and lots of walking. Didn't see any hunters out this morning, appeared people went home early.
CowboyBirdDogs
New member
What area were you in?
double trigger
Member
double trigger
Member
gsp,
I'm not debating that the walkin areas are in sad shape, but I have hunted the Kimball area for years and drought or not - it is not known much for pheasants. I have always gone there for sharptails. The walkin areas are generally pretty thin cover and don't support phez very well - just a few around. For phez you're probably better off in SW NE or go further north in the Panhandle....
Just going to be a tough year in many areas, good luck.
prairiepork
New member
my normal opening day spot was 2/3 hayed, but I did get one out of the remaining grass, but even that was very thin and sparse, looked like old brome. saw 2 more hens, many less than have been there in the past. sunday I got a couple roosters but only because my 5 yr old red setter is tearing it up. 1 young rooster was burrowed under a pile of branches. i kicked and walked around it, tried to break her off(she also likes rabbits,doesn't point them though, oops; bad training) but she wouldn't budge. finally he flushed; 1 bird in the bag. went to another spot that was also hayed, but I saw a couple roosters along an uncut waterway. 1 landed in a grassy/wooded area. beautuful dog work as she followed his running trail, back and forth, stopping where he stopped, finding the scent again, then finally locking solid where he hunkered down. under my foot flush, 2 birds in the bag. no way I would have even seen those birds if I did not have a dog. love it, so much fun watching them work. long message for a small amount of success, but i think this year it will be small victories. a few birds here and there; getting the dogs out, enjoying all the other parts of hunting. still optimistic, but this weekend sobered me up a bit. here's a quick poll. which one would you rather have happen; limit of roosters or Nebraska wins? blessings and good fortune hunting.
double trigger
Member
prairiepork,
Good on you, it sounds like you had a great time with some excellent dog work. I'm going to focus on getting my dogs out this year and just enjoy each outing for what it is, which is a damn good time!
As to your poll, I'll have to pick limit of roosters because football is just a game but hunting is a way of life. :cheers:
Upland4Ever
New member
Hunted Central Nebraska, PF said greely county was holding good birds. Um yeah saw more quail then pheasants. Saw alot of habitat loss, not do to the drought but do to farmers. Opaning day really made me think i should chase the ducks this year.
pheasantquailhunter913
New member
We got into Neb. about noon on friday. First 4 fields we checked were cut then we started finding some good fields. After driving by 20 spots and seeing no birds we let the dogs out one. Harvey went about 100 yards and went on point. Walked over 1 hen flushed, then another point and 2 more hens. So we thought maybe there is hope. Then at 5.45 we turned the corner of a field and out of a winter wheat field we couldn't believe our eyes. We counted 78 pheasant fly into a crp that was walk in a lot of them were roosters. So we got very excited and couldn't wait until morning. We got up at 5 and got there early, we were the first ones there. By 7am. 3 other groups pulled in and said there locals and that there hunting here. We were pretty upset, once we started walking we got a couple then the huge groups came in we just let them go. We saw about 50 a lot of them were flushed by other groups. 2 of us got four birds 3 of which were pointed right after a group of 10 or more just walked through. At one time there were 5 different groups in the first field at one time. It was a mess, when I hunt if someone is hunting a spot we move on. It is apparent that a lot of other hunters do not hunt like us. Overall we had a great time like we always do. Two of us ended up getting 6 pheasant and 3 quail on sat. We hunted until about 2 and went back and took a nap. Sun we got up and went east to some spots we knew. We hunted until noon and ended up with 5 pheasants and 6 quail. Tons of hunters everywhere the most i've seen in 15 years. There are not as many birds as last year but there are still plenty to hunt. We saw birds in every field that we hunted and all of them had been hunted several times. If you have good dogs you will find some birds but be ready to do some walking. My dogs are so sore that I had to carry them out of the truck. I got home about 6 pm. yesterday and harvey won't even get up to go outside. Its just amazing to me how hard the dogs work and how much they love it. I just feel sorry for them how sore they get. Well I have rambled on too much already. Good luck to everyone and i'm looking forward to hearing everyone else's hunt as I shared mine. Take Care
CowboyBirdDogs
New member
What area were you in?
We hunted a waterfowl production area at sun up on Sat. I would say that I was pleasantly surprised with the birds that the area held. We hunted there until about 10AM and flushed probably 20 birds total. About half were roosters and we ended up doing OK. Many actually flushed fairly wild as the cover was kind of spotty. It looked good from a distance but was kind of thin in places down low. The only downside was that it was soooo crowded. I was kind of nervous when a group of 10 guys came out of some really tall stuff about 100 yards directly in front of us. I don't like that kind of hunting much. I was much happier to walk a few small 10 acre patches later in the day, however we didn't see much there. My theory is that with so much CRP hayed and grazed the pressure on the public land was especially intense. Even so, I was happy to get out and do some hunting. Looking forward to going to the in-laws in KS later this season as well. Maybe I can go during a K-State game and have the county to myself
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.I drove through three counties on Saturday and Sunday and can triple-confirm that the situation is none too good. All but one of the CRP/WIA were hayed. The one that wasn't cut had what looked like 4 groups of at least 3 hunters wondering around all over it. That was at noon; I can only imagine what 9:30 looked like. Many of the CRP fields that aren't in the walk-in program have also been hayed and it has really hurt the area. I have access to a couple corners across from a half-section of CRP. In the past, I would typically move 15-20 birds out of those corner, regardless of when I hunted it. This year the CRP across the road had been hayed shorter than my lawn and I only moved two hens. SW Nebraska has always been fringe pheasant country because much of it is canyon country that is for mule deers, not pheasants. Plus, unlike Kansas, that part of Nebraska has no milo. So remove some of the decent and good cover and it doesn't have much to offer. I am justing hoping we have a mild winter - I am not sure where the birds would huddle up during a good snow storm.
Sounds about like KS only maybe even worse. I'm traditionally a duck hunter but do some upland hunting. Not sure what I am going to be this year. No water = no ducks. And we all know what the pheasant situation is here in KS this year. Maybe I will turn to squirrels!!
Upland4Ever
New member
From what you all said, do you think people still hold that they want pheasant hunting around?
BritChaser
Well-known member
Hunted walk-in NW and SE of McCook and it was marginal with too many competing for too little. Most of the CRP had been either grazed or hayed. Had two quality shots in a day and a half of hunting. Neither were off points because the birds could not hide in the skimpy cover. Most flushed out of range or ran away. Tough going.
Bird Buster
Active member
I have hunted 18 years in the same area as him and would totally agree with your friend. It is not just some of the land is bad it is like most everything has little or no cover. Prepare yourself for lots of miles and long shots as the cover is so sparse they don't hold tight at all.
HeavyC
Member
Interesting it is mowed and bailed and just sitting there
Normally it does have to dry up some.
Sad for us hunters most definately, but we have to remember, that those farmers make there living this way! With all the losses they have had due to the drought and other weather, allowing them to harvest some of the crp helps them get through these tougher times.