UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Outlook Reports

UGUIDE

UGUIDE

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In an effort to curb the misleading reports from newspapers, forums, and other sources, UGUIDE has attempted to combine the absolute best sources of field reports on habitat conditions in the state of South Dakota.

A case in point that while Game and Fishes 2013 forecast numbers pointed down the experience of hunters that hunted late season in 2013 would agree that it was some of the best in recent years history making the point that local knowledge is really the determining factor.

Habitat and weather condition's vary widely across the state and so no one outlook report suffices to give hunters the information they need to make intelligent planning decisions about making travel plans for their annual pheasant hunting trip.

To keep up to date on the best South Dakota Pheasant Reports GOOGLE "UGUIDE OUTLOOK" and click on any of the first few links to come up.
 
I'll give you guys A South Dakota chicken report:thumbsup: I went through there on my way to awesome fishing at devils lake a couple weeks ago. Guy at the lake said north central SD has huge numbers this year. I don't hunt there so you guys hunt there and tell me if he was telling the truth or not. Can't think of the town he said right now. It was close to the ND border.
 
captaincoot said:
I'll give you guys A South Dakota chicken report:thumbsup: I went through there on my way to awesome fishing at devils lake a couple weeks ago. Guy at the lake said north central SD has huge numbers this year. I don't hunt there so you guys hunt there and tell me if he was telling the truth or not. Can't think of the town he said right now. It was close to the ND border.
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I live in north central South Dakota and I can tell you that we had an early hatch which I would think that should produce more birds per hatch as opposed to last year. We had a lot of birds survive the winter. There were spots that had big rains at the wrong time not far from here that probably hurt some areas. My best guess is that we will be up 10% to 25% from last year. Last year my last group on their last day of hunting limited out early enough to watch the second football game. So we had birds last year and as Chris said where there were birds last year there should be more birds this year.
 
Was out in the Mitchell area the past two days saw a total of 7 broods all with 6-8 birds. Did also see a number of birds that were starting to get color which means they are from a early hatch. Most of the birds I saw were about the size of a chukar maybe smaller and some could barely fly. I was surprised at how many birds I saw for the little amt of driving I did and missed the golden hour on Monday night so it could have been even better?? Season is looking up!
 
More brood sightings

Out planting firebreaks last night and this morning. Saw 2 broods last night and one was large about 12 and good sized.

Saw several broods this morning of various sizes and numbers. Nor colors yet.
 
My friend just got back from S.D. last night cutting wheat. He said in Kansas a hen has 3-4 chicks behind her, while in S.D. a hen has 10-12 chicks behind her. Also that the number of hens seen was about 15 to 1 from S.D. to Kansas. He scoffed at the number difference and said it has been a long time since he has seen so many birds. But realize he is from SW Kansas and it has been a while since the weather has cooperated down there.
 
BleuBijou said:
My friend just got back from S.D. last night cutting wheat. He said in Kansas a hen has 3-4 chicks behind her, while in S.D. a hen has 10-12 chicks behind her. Also that the number of hens seen was about 15 to 1 from S.D. to Kansas. He scoffed at the number difference and said it has been a long time since he has seen so many birds. But realize he is from SW Kansas and it has been a while since the weather has cooperated down there.
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not surprising, what birds left in Kansas are very stressed...even with good weather, it will require 2-3 years to regenerate.:(
 
I just left a wheat field and as I did I kicked up 18 pheasants. I doubt that was one brood but it was fun to watch them get up over a period of10 seconds.
 
I Had a similar experience. Going back and spraying the firebreaks just planted and rolling up thru an area long my main road I haven't seen and birds on all summer and got a 20 bird flush and they were good sized. They all seemed to be together but hard time believing it would be one brood. About 100 yards further down the break flushed a brood in the break that was just a few weeks old.
 
Back out spraying early this morning. Very foggy and dewey. Saw most birds yet. No big number broods but more bird sightings. Still have no clue as to how many roosters the property will produce until the end of Dec.:cheers:
 
Visited our Meadow Creek and West River Adventures Pheasant Camps today with my PF Biologist. He took a picture of me and the landowner in some recently established CP42 Pollinator Habitat.

The PF guy was impressed.

We also proposed putting in about 100 more acre of CRP and food plots in a similar mix.

 
How old is that CP42 stand? That alone is impressive.

The grasses look like western or intermediate wheat grass. If that's a round headed bush clover in between your two heads. I'm even more impressed..
 
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UGUIDE said:
Visited our Meadow Creek and West River Adventures Pheasant Camps today with my PF Biologist. He took a picture of me and the landowner in some recently established CP42 Pollinator Habitat.

The PF guy was impressed.

We also proposed putting in about 100 more acre of CRP and food plots in a similar mix.

Click to expand...


Chris, that looks impressive! Kudos!!! Yeah, I would have to strap a 4 foot bike flag on the dogs. Kick up many greenhorns (Young Birds). I have heard nothing but Holy Cow from guy's up in S.D. this year.:cheers:
 
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