Spirit Lake - coming alone with Lab - After Thanksgiving Weekend

M

MichiganLabs

New member
Been to SD twice this year from Michigan and I am a little tired of the 17 hour drive! So, I’m headed to Spirit Lake Area instead. I was there a few years ago late December and had a really nice hunt. Nobody else was hunting! Well, this time I’m headed out the Monday - Thursday after Thanksgiving.

Anybody know how the pressure will be during the week? Any update on bird numbers would be helpful as well. Thanks!
 
It's looking cold! Iowa and MN are strange. One day there will be hunters all over, the next hardly see anyone. Being the cold weather and hunting weekdays I don't think it'll be very busy. Two big spots I tried in Iowa this year were devoid of any roosters. Then I hit a third, and it had birds galore. Cover ground and hunt hard I guess.
 
Myself and my two dogs are headed in that general area this Saturday through Monday. Saturday looks to be interesting weather wise, but between kids and work, those are the days that I can fit in, so that’s when we go! Hopefully I can find the birds galore field that Bob speaks of!
 
Sunday morning I drove to the Lake Park/Round Lake area to get a set of rear tractor tires, I never saw any bird hunters...going up or back. I did take 60 much of the way, but still...it would have been an awesome morning to be out....and I also missed it.
 
Just got back from hunting Saturday through this morning. Hunted all public lands, and saw one rooster for every thirty hens. Dogs had a great time with the number of overall birds, but seemed to be annoyed that none of them were being shot at! Managed to bring a few home though at least.
As for other hunters, didn’t see a single person Saturday or Sunday. Some areas had tracks in the parking areas. Then this morning, the area I was going to stop at on my way home had 4 trucks in the parking area at 8:45 🤷‍♂️
Question for those in the know…is the lack of roosters on public lands the result of that much hunting pressure earlier in the season? Saw plenty of roosters out pecking around in cut fields, just not on the public lands.
 
It does seem like Iowa gets absolutely pounded the first three weeks of season. I hunted Friday a half day only saw one hunter. Tried my honey hole mid day and it was a dead sea, lots of cattails there, but couldn't hunt them, not frozen. I'm thinking all the birds were in there.
 
mod71 said:
Just got back from hunting Saturday through this morning. Hunted all public lands, and saw one rooster for every thirty hens. Dogs had a great time with the number of overall birds, but seemed to be annoyed that none of them were being shot at! Managed to bring a few home though at least.
As for other hunters, didn’t see a single person Saturday or Sunday. Some areas had tracks in the parking areas. Then this morning, the area I was going to stop at on my way home had 4 trucks in the parking area at 8:45 🤷‍♂️
Question for those in the know…is the lack of roosters on public lands the result of that much hunting pressure earlier in the season? Saw plenty of roosters out pecking around in cut fields, just not on the public lands.
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When I hunt Iowa public lands in the latter half of the season, it is much like your experience. I see many birds and the vast majority are hens. The surviving roosters tend to flush at long range.

I used to tell my hunting companions, we are going to see 75 birds today. Only one rooster will be in range. Don't miss!
 
Bob Peters said:
It does seem like Iowa gets absolutely pounded the first three weeks of season. I hunted Friday a half day only saw one hunter. Tried my honey hole mid day and it was a dead sea, lots of cattails there, but couldn't hunt them, not frozen. I'm thinking all the birds were in there.
Click to expand...
Can confirm lots of birds in the cattails. Also can confirm very much not frozen yet. My wet feet will also say that things are somewhat frozen up enough to where you don’t know you’re on the ice under the snow until it’s deep enough to go over your boots once you finally break through.
 
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