wiha south of hays

[kscountryboy11]

well just got back from a 1 day trip (that was supposed to be a 2 full day trip). hunted some wiha south of hays around lacrosse/rush center. it has just been pounded on for a week straight. birds are gone and hiding in private ground. birds spent almost alll day in the milo, which we did not find to much wiha milo. so needless to say we had a very rough day hunting. two guys and a dog, came up birdless. only saw about a dozen birds yesterday and only 4 were roosters. it was a long tough day for all 3 of us. but we did see a ton of deer which was really something neat. hunters were everywhere pounding the same fields all day long. guess ill have to wait till it cold and the weather turns bad and most hunters have put the guns away before ill be returning..

 

[cheesy]

There was a stark contrast between opening day and the second day as well in the same areas. All the public hit hard, and like you're saying, most moved onto private.

The last two years we lost our opening weekend private ground, but can hunt it after the opener. I guess that isn't a bad thing now that I think of it. Last year was limits by noon on the second weekend, two days in a row on the private ground, while guys at the hotel said they weren't seeing anything on WIHA's.

 

[Team68]

I herd of hunters getting alot of birds south of hays all the way to ness city. I think what hurts the hunting is all these big hunting groups that have 15-30 hunters. We used to hunt with groups like that when i was a kid but now its around 8 people and 2-3 dogs.

 

[kansasbrittany]

There was a stark contrast between opening day and the second day as well in the same areas. All the public hit hard, and like you're saying, most moved onto private.

The last two years we lost our opening weekend private ground, but can hunt it after the opener. I guess that isn't a bad thing now that I think of it. Last year was limits by noon on the second weekend, two days in a row on the private ground, while guys at the hotel said they weren't seeing anything on WIHA's.

You're right, it is not a bad thing. Comparable WIHA cover is just as good as private that first morning. Having some good private land to hunt later in the season matters most to me.

A production supervisor at my plant moved here from IA recently. He hasn't been hunting in years, but his son has gone a couple of times and just loves it. They tried some public land at Tuttle last week (w/ the boy's 7mo old GSP) and didn't see a bird....the boy was disappointed. The dad caught me at work and said, "My boy seems to like bird hunting more than I do. We didn't see a thing last week. I know you go a lot, can you help me get him on a bird?" I gave him some pointers and sent him to one of the many WIHA's I've found over the years.

I called him about 30 minutes ago to check in. He said they'd put up 5 hens and 2 roosters (in range) and dropped one. He said the boy was "in hog heaven" at the moment and they're headed to the next field. I sure hope that boy gets his first bird today

 

[kansasbrittany]

I should add that this hunt is not taking place south of Hays. The point of adding that post to this thread is that there are still a few huntable areas away from Hays.

 

[rattman]

According to the kdwp upland bird forecast, this area of Region 3 was predicted to provide some of the best quail opportunities in the state. I had never hunted south of Hays but headed out on Wednesday to give it a look. All of the motels were filled with hunters and the rain/sleet/snow made conditions difficult/uncomfortable. I stayed through Friday and found the WIHAs being pounded both by large groups doing the traditional push and block and by somewhat smaller numbers of hunters who were pulling 8-10 unit dog trailers. The amount of dog power was impressive. It was difficult to locate a field which provided access with any confidence that it had not been already worked at least once earlier in the day. Even when in a field, the numbers of vehicles slowly cruising by was reminiscent of circling sharks. Due to the wet conditions and the onslaught of all the hunters, the roads took a beating.

Almost equally disappointing was the very significant number of the WIHAs on Map 15 which were either (1) had the CRP grass mowed and bailed, (2) had been planted into winter wheat or (3) had conflicting signage as to whether the it was, in fact, a WIHA or required written permission for access. Situations 1 and 2 provided no huntable cover/habitat and situation 3 created questions of accuracy or potential deceit (intentional) in order to lessen or eliminate pressure. The loss of these WIHAs increased the already intense pressure on the remaining tracts.

What concerns me even more is the potential that some of these mowed and planted WIHAs had been enrolled in the CRP program and the contract had recently expired and not been renewed. With the very real prospect of many more acres being soon lost to the CRP program, both reduced WIHA access and diminished bird habitat may quickly change the upland hunting prospects in Kansas. The walk-in program has been highly successful but is it rapidly reaching the point of being loved to death?

Suffice it to say that my dog found considerably more wounded birds (with a startling number of hens) than I had shot opportunities. I saw no quail. The pheasants may have taken refuge on nearby private land but any quail- having a much smaller home area- had to have taken a beating by the intense hunting pressure. I did have some success hunting roosters as I headed home to the west.

 

[kscountryboy11]

yes we did saw alot of big groups... we did see a few groups of guys hunting some private milo fields and we stopped down the road aways and watched they kicked quit a few birds up and shot a quit a bit. so there are alot of birds down there, just on private ground. we just tought we would give it a shot, oh well still had a good time gettin out, beats a day sittin back home watching tv.