Swamps

tuna

tuna

New member
Anyone have any experience with hunting pheasant in swampy areas?
Finally got two today, one was in cattails about 10-12 feet high, and she flushed about 10 yards from me. The second was a rooster that was trying to get into the cattails when I got him.
The area I hunt has a lot of marshy / swampy areas, but even more fields that look like the classic pheasant habitat. While I like the feel of hunting in this type of cover, it seems that I always get birds in wooded areas or swampy messes.
It seems like cattails are a big attractant to them, but it may just be that the cat's grow on actual soil, and offer a place to perch. I think I may just ditch the boots and wear waders for hunting. Anyone have experiences similar?
 
Tuna, usually the cattails don't produce until late season. Woody cover and sloughs provide the best winter cover for pheasants. The colder weather has been pushing birds into this cover. When it is real windy, head for the sloughs, the fairer the weather the more the birds spread out in search for food.
 
Thanks, that makes sense. It was real windy yesterday, and we had just had a bunch of rain over the weekend. To clarify, when I say swamp, what I am referring to is the muddy, mucky area on the edges of ponds - not the everglades.
I think that we here in New England are trying to immitate the hunting opportunities that you have out in real pheasant country, what we see on the hunting shows and read about in magazines. I think that our birds have better forage, and less pressure in areas that don't look like the grasslands and will seek those areas as hiding places. At least I know now where to look when the weather is colder.
While I have fair sucess here in Mass, I have to look to you guys out West as the "experts" for tactics. As you have more shooting opportunities in a day than we typically have in a season here.
Thanks for the advice.
 
The swamps are really good in SD this year if they have water in them still. With the drought, any water nearby makes an optimum place to try to find birds. Messy, yes, but that is the price to pay!!
 
Yeah, they really make me understand why people bring dogs hunting. I do as well or better hunting as many folks around here do with their dogs, but it is the retrieve that the dogs beat me on every time! For some reason around here, everyone is afraid to get into the thick stuff and find the birds. I really think everyone is hung up on what pheasant hunting is supposed to look like, and don't realize that the birds don't have a subscription to Field and Stream.
While I love getting wet, muddy and smelly as a most good dogs do, the wife's patience is starting to wear thin. Of course, I've been known to come home from ice fishing with mud on my boots (we had a fire on the shore).
 
"I really think everyone is hung up on what pheasant hunting is supposed to look like, and don't realize that the birds don't have a subscription to Field and Stream."

That is one of the greatest quotes I have ever heard!!!!!!!!!:D
 
Watching the dog work is half the fun for me. In fact if I didn't have a dog I might actually see my wife during pheasant season.
 
what bird?

shoot all the fun for me is watching the dog find and point the bird and if not a pointerr any flusher is fine . most of the time i dont even take tthe game i reeally enjoy the dogwork .
 
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