Warm + No Snow

C

cyclonenation10

Well-known member
Just thinking out loud, but the mild temperatures + increased hunting pressure throughout the State has made for some pretty slow hunting (relatively speaking) for me over the past couple of weeks. Roosters are relatively rare (probably 8:1 hen/rooster ratio on average) right now, and the roosters than I have been seeing are awfully jumpy.

Looking at the 10-day, that doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. I am thinking we will be in for some pretty tough hunting (generally speaking) until if/when the temps drop considerably and we see some snow to push the roosters back into the better cover.

With that said, I love seeing this mild of a winter so far, event though it is still early, hopefully the birds are essentially 100% heading into January/February.
Still, selfishly I wouldn't mind some nastier weather to help with the hunting during the final few weeks of the season.
 
Its been extremely warm with almost no snow up here in MN too. Last year by this date I was trudging through 13 inches of snow already.

Most of my pheasant hunting is in the second half of our season, so cold/snow is what I'm generally hunting in. This is very unusual though. Its gonna be almost 50 degrees here today. Apparently its EL Nino which funnels mild air in from the Pacific rather than colder weather from Canada.

There are virtually no changes coming either. Maybe a little rain tomorrow here, definitely too warm for snow. And very mild basically through the end of the month. Gonna be a brown Christmas.

As you stated though, this is good news for wildlife. The deer, turkeys, and pheasants could use a mild winter after the near record snow we had last year. I just hope its not the beginning of another drought.

January could be a good month in SD to pheasant hunt. Last year it was probably almost impossible in many areas.
 
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cyclonenation10 said:
Just thinking out loud, but the mild temperatures + increased hunting pressure throughout the State has made for some pretty slow hunting (relatively speaking) for me over the past couple of weeks. Roosters are relatively rare (probably 8:1 hen/rooster ratio on average) right now, and the roosters than I have been seeing are awfully jumpy.

Looking at the 10-day, that doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. I am thinking we will be in for some pretty tough hunting (generally speaking) until if/when the temps drop considerably and we see some snow to push the roosters back into the better cover.

With that said, I love seeing this mild of a winter so far, event though it is still early, hopefully the birds are essentially 100% heading into January/February.
Still, selfishly I wouldn't mind some nastier weather to help with the hunting during the final few weeks of the season.
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I agree 100%. We do have some rain in the forecast Friday/Saturday for Central Iowa which should at least help the scenting conditions for the dogs on Saturday. I'd much prefer snow though.
 
Not a fan of shirt sleeve pheasant hunting in December. Been tough on the dog dry and windy make for some tough scenting conditions. I leave the house with a brown and white springer and come home with a grayish brown one.
Definitely need colder weather to get the birds back in the cover after the morning feeding.
 
Ditto Cy, same thoughts...nasty weather, just give me 3 inches of powder over the last couple weekends, that melts during the week. The birds have been very jumpy for the most part, all season, except for the weekend we had snow on the ground. When they did sit tight, it was a quick morning, it is nice to hunt until noon or hit a couple honey holes before limited. I still have one good farm we haven't hunted yet! Maybe this weekend, but they are usually wild there, might need to recruit a 3rd shooter for that place.
 
Three days straight of no birds until this morning. Last Thursday we saw lots of hens and one rooster that flushed well out of range. Sunday my pup pointed and I flushed at least 6 hens but we didn’t see a single rooster. The hens were running in a way that almost every time I went in to kick up a bird, I was near certain it was going to be a rooster. Yesterday we went south mostly focusing on quail and we didn’t find a single covey let alone see a single pheasant (to be fair, we only hunted two spots given that people were already at the spots we had intended to hunt and we spent as much time driving as hunting). This morning, we went back to the spot we went on Thursday and had our limit in two and a half hours with almost the exact opposite numbers of last Thursday (we saw one hen and four roosters, three of which my dog pointed and I shot). It’s been a weird year.
 
Was out today, north-central area. Hunted three public areas, 8 miles walked. A total of three roosters, all of which flushed 150 yards ahead. Also saw two hens, both of which my griff pointed.

Roosters were super spooky. It didn’t help that the morning winds were really calm.

Interestingly, I did not see another hunter in the field the entire day. But the grass in all the parking areas was flattened tighter than an April green at Augusta National.
 
I been having better luck in MN than iowa the last few weeks. I'm sure I'll still try the hawkeye state a few times this year.
 
Bob Peters said:
I been having better luck in MN than iowa the last few weeks. I'm sure I'll still try the hawkeye state a few times this year.
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Yeah - I grew up in western MN, headed back there for the holidays. Looking forward to getting a few days in the field.

This was my third IA trip this year. The first two were really productive. Oddly, south-central was the best. First week in Nov, had a limit in one hour, one field. Mid-day, nonetheless!

A unicorn moment, for sure. IMG_5107.jpeg
 
Kennedymil said:
A unicorn moment, for sure.
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I'm still looking for my unicorn. I've gotten two 3 bird limits in Iowa this year, but they both took all day! I need to get better at the whole ballgame. The hunting part, the shooting part, the finding productive land part, and also door knocking. I'm not giving up though.

WPG or puddle pointer?
 
Bob Peters said:
I'm sure I'll still try the hawkeye state a few times this year.
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The advantage hunting in Iowa this time of year is that the season goes for another 9 days beyond MN. With the mild winter, those are two very huntable weeks too. Wish MN would extend its season a little further into January rather than starting so early in October.

You could pack it in and try some ice fishing on some really sketchy soft ice lol
 
Bob Peters said:
I'm still looking for my unicorn. I've gotten two 3 bird limits in Iowa this year, but they both took all day! I need to get better at the whole ballgame. The hunting part, the shooting part, the finding productive land part, and also door knocking. I'm not giving up though.

WPG or puddle pointer?
Click to expand...
WPG
 
I have limited fast and early many times in Iowa. The downside is you have the rest of the day to kill if you are hunting the next day. We usually just drive around and get cleaned up for dinner early. AND wish we had brought fishing gear.
 
MinnHunter said:
I have limited fast and early many times in Iowa. The downside is you have the rest of the day to kill if you are hunting the next day. We usually just drive around and get cleaned up for dinner early. AND wish we had brought fishing gear.
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I think this when people want to visit here, I will hunt with guys all day, but when we are limited at 10:00, I am not going to be a tour guide for the rest of the day. Not much fishing right here.
 
I'm giving it one last shot this week once the rain clears. I can only assume they will be in the same places as last month since nothing has changed.
 
Looks like the forecast is going to change in a big way down there early next week. A massive, slow moving, low pressure system is supposed to churn across the middle of the country. Chicago is the bullseye.

Right when the Iowa season ends too.
 
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