Where's everybody at?

reddog

reddog

Well-known member
Ive spent the better part of 2 weeks in the central part of the state and have to date, only seen a few people in the field, and very few on the roads. I worked fields in Plankinton for Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday (opening day) before needing to go home for two weddings Saturday afternoon. I headed to the weddings with my dogs on the truck from the reception in Hawarden Ia Saturday evening headed back to Plankinton. (no gun) I fished Sunday thru Wednesday in Chamberlain with two classmates from Oklahoma who come out prior to their hunting which started on Thursday.. I spent a considerable amout of time in town, and at the restaurants, and yes, there were some hunters, but not what I would have expected. I drove by a prime piece of walkin area monday at 1145 and no one was there. I drove by this same piece several time late afternoon heading home, and again, no one home, or any sign of anyone ever being there.

I made the drive home (3 1/2 hours) Thursday morning for little work that got in the way, and traded the fishing gear for hunting stuff and headed back west to Plankinton about 5 the same day. Activated a license to hunt Friday - Tuesday. Did more tillage at Plankinton in the morning and headed out to hunt around noon. again. I did not see anyone out in the fields, or even on the road. I only hunted an hour Friday, and got one bird over a beautiful point.

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Finished the day in the tractor. No road hunters even at dark.

Cabelas looked like a ghost town everytime I went by. Wierd.

Friday evening I headed to the cabin in Chamberlain. I was going to meet up with my classmates for a guided hunt in the Seneca/Hoven area. I had an enjoyable drive up 47 watching the sun rise over the South Dakota prairie.
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1 duck hunter in the slough south of Highmore. Stopped in Highmore for a cup of coffee. No one around at 8:45 on the first day of the season opening at ten am.. again, wierd. Continued north to Seneca. stopped at 9:30 at a large tract of walk in area to air the dogs out before heading to the ranch. Honest to pete, Im pretty sure my tire tracks into that walk in area were the first for a long, long time.. aired the dogs out and continued on my way. Nobody around.

Had a nice hunt with my buddies. Not my style of hunting, and I kind of stayed in the background. Left my dogs in the truck and never fired a shot all day. We had 13 guys and bagged 24 roosters. lost 1. The drive and block, just isnt my thing, but it was a good time to see everyone else have fun. I did have my first contact with other hunters on Saturday when we passed two truck from Wisconsin.

Headed back to Chamberlain about 4ish. Stopped at the walk in area to put my young dog on the ground, since theyd been crated all day. Hunted about 50 minutes there, and seen one hen. Again.. No one had been in it for the day, as my tracks going in were evident from both ways in and out.

Drove back a ways towards High more and decided to do a little road work with my Breez. Ran her a mile down the road with her working the ditches. no birds, but that OK, its conditioning.. Spent the rest of the day zig zaggin across 47 till dark. Seen one guy in the walk in area at Highmore at sunset with a yellow lab. :)
Seen a few birds in the ditches..

Left for Presho Sunday morning about 630 to hunt with another friend on a 3 person guided hunt with Ringnecks out of Presho. I have access to some ground out there, and decided to leave early and watch the sun come up out that direction. drove around till about 9 when we were going to meet. Never seen another hunter out and about all morning. Had a great hunt with Ringnecks, We shot 7 birds for 3 hunters... I did see one other group of hunters out in a field around Presho for the day and one group drove by. (possibly the same group)
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Headed home Monday morning.. Cabelas at 8:15 had no one there..
Met a few guys on the way out on the interstate.

Talked with two other hunters that I knew were out there during that duration, and both indicated there was no one around. One stayed in Mitchell for 3 days, the other hunted from Sioux Falls to the Grasslands over 4 days.

Not that it matters to me, but this just seemed wierd to me.

I know lots of guys wait for later in the season, but..
 
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I think we are living in very uncertain times, causing many people to sit on what used to be expendable income. I did one-tenth the amount of business at Sturgis Bike Week that I do in any average year. The local Harley dealer laid-off 20 people after Bike Week. They have never had a layoff that I can recall since the early eighties. Harley sales off 21% in a year they produced an all-new powertrain has them very nervous, I am sure. I only draw the parallel because if there are two things in this world that I am qualified to speak about, it's what happens at Sturgis, and what happens during hunting season. Been doing both since age 10.
Throw in a couple Presidential candidates who are pure scoundrels, health care costs predictably exploding, etc, etc and people are just sitting on their wallet. A large amount of SD out of state hunters come from places like Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, ect. Those people, many of them, are in dire straits.
Fortunately, here in SD the economy plugs along, never great, never as bad as the industrial states, or the States where ultra-liberal politics rule.
You mention Cabelas being empty, well, that's where hunting and consumerism meet. If nothing is going-on there, nothing is going-on.
I did see one truck from Texas, and one from Michigan opening weekend. Since then just SD plates on the few rigs I have seen, but I hunt in very remote areas that aren't well-known by out-of-staters.
 
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I talked to a big group of guys in MN over the weekend who aren't going to travel to SD this fall. They don't pay for access, and the private land they used to hunt has had a lot of land conversion back to row crops; and bird numbers are rebounding where they hunt in MN. They feel that they can have some quality hunts in MN and not have to travel & spend more money to shoot the same or less birds in SD.
 
One bird contact an hour isn't very good pheasant hunting IMHO. Partly explains the lack of hunters, as well as the economy. Have heard the walleye fishing isn't too good this year either due to smelt shortage.
 
Had things been like I had planned, I would have just gotten back from SD but as a handful of you know, I lost my dog back in May. It was just me and my dog mostly on my annual trip to SD, and it stung to have to cancel the trip this year. I made more memories in SD with that pup thank I can even say. I've got a new pup now and am working with her, and hope perhaps to make the trip again next fall, but my level of interest in hunting just isn't there this year without my dog. Even though I can hunt locally for put and take birds, I've only went one time so far.

That said, I also think that Ranchodeluxe has some good points about the economy and peoples uncertainty about the future. My employer here in Wisconsin has announced another 225 salaried layoffs to occur next month. This will make the third layoff in 3 years and the future could be even more bleak depending on how the election goes. I also know 2 other guys that didn't go to SD this year their priorities have changed and they've been disappointed with what they feel are declining numbers of birds.

I, and probably a lot of others, don't post much anymore, but we do lurk, so keep the reports and stories coming. :cheers:
 
519vx said:
Had things been like I had planned, I would have just gotten back from SD but as a handful of you know, I lost my dog back in May. It was just me and my dog mostly on my annual trip to SD, and it stung to have to cancel the trip this year. I made more memories in SD with that pup thank I can even say. I've got a new pup now and am working with her, and hope perhaps to make the trip again next fall, but my level of interest in hunting just isn't there this year without my dog. Even though I can hunt locally for put and take birds, I've only went one time so far.

That said, I also think that Ranchodeluxe has some good points about the economy and peoples uncertainty about the future. My employer here in Wisconsin has announced another 225 salaried layoffs to occur next month. This will make the third layoff in 3 years and the future could be even more bleak depending on how the election goes. I also know 2 other guys that didn't go to SD this year their priorities have changed and they've been disappointed with what they feel are declining numbers of birds.

I, and probably a lot of others, don't post much anymore, but we do lurk, so keep the reports and stories coming. :cheers:
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Sorry for the loss of your dog and I hope your employment is secure.Good luck with the new pup. I won't hunt without my dogs either.
 
I think there's some good points mentioned and the warm weather probably has something to do with it too. Our group of 4 was planning on heading that way Thursday, but with highs in the upper 70's we've decided to cancel the trip. We didn't have hotels or licenses yet, so we're not out any $. Temps are too hard on the dogs.
 
My son and I just got back from hunting around Presho and had a great trip.

Saw hundreds of birds and limited out every day.

Very hot and dry but kept dogs by water every other stop.

Call or write me if you wish.

Steve
 
I drove from Minnesota to SD this past weekend and hunted for 4 days.

Was a little too warm for my liking but was a lot of fun. Most we had in our group was 9 guys, and as little as 2 of us on the last day I hunted.

Times are tough these days!!!! I'm sure it's had an affect on hunters.......
 
I am one of those Indiana hunters you mentioned and we are headed out for our annual trip around Winner tomorrow. Hope to have some luck. Wish the temps were better but it is what it is.
 
declining bird numbers, reduced cover, warm weather......many folks are staying closer to home, figuring the hunting won't be good enough to justify travel to SD......I am afraid the "hay days" for SD pheasant hunting are over.:(
 
Thats not what we are seeing. We are seeing averages running at 2 birds per person per day to limits in 3-4 hours time.

Things keep improving everyday as corn crop comes out.

For those that manage for pheasants the hay days are here and now!:cheers:
 
The group I hunt with hunts private ground and we just returned this past Thursday. We did very well with limits everyday. The last day was the toughest but that is to be expected since we hunt the same places pretty much every day. I was worried the hail had impacted the bird numbers but there were plenty of birds for us. The warm weather did not phase us. I think there were less birds than last year, but certainly plenty to go-around.
 
A group that hunted here yesterday told me they saw a hundred bird flush. That suprised me as I told them they would not see that this year. I have had two small groups get there limit at two different satelite spots. It is not the old days but there are birds if there has been habitat developed.
 
From what I have read and heard directly from friends living in SD, overall, the bird numbers are down as well as the bird harvest. While the pheasant hunting is still good, the "Hay Days" of hunting on public land may very well be a thing of the past.

Of course commercial "Pay to Play" areas always do well in order to sustain their own "Pay Day".
 
My family in SD that hunt in Central SD said they haven't seen this many birds in years.

Now, where I hunted 45 miles South West of where they hunted, there was still a lot of corn in, but we saw a decent amount of birds. We did walk one public land area and didn't see but 3-4 birds in that area, but we only had 3 of us walking, with two dogs, and it was a large area so they were probably just running around us.


We had a great time as usual!!!!!!!
 
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