carpshooterdeluxe

I'd wager that the GFP is working harder than ever to persuade private land owners to enter into the walk in program or attempt to enroll into various conservation programs. There are quite a few land owners out there who have attempted to enroll acres into programs, but unfortunately due acre caps, all but the very best scoring land is denied right now. Plus with the drought, we're seeing the disappearance of more heavy cover as waters continue to recede from sloughs and operators are able to convert once flooded land back to cropland. And it's no secret that we've lost a bazillion acres of wildlife habitat, but the drought really put a massive dent in chick recruitment early this summer. I have friends that work both for government agencies and private organizations involved with grassland habitat and they are honestly surprised that chick recruitment was as good as it was given what they were seeing in the field. But, the more habitat we have, the more we can bolster bird numbers over time and have a better "buffer" against weather conditions. So many are quick to throw blame at the GFP for something that they really cannot control.

Been putting my new Marcum M5 through the paces over the last 2 weeks. Love the 8/20 ducer. Had a minnow on a rattle reel that kept swimming into my 20 degree cone yesterday so I switched to 8 to eliminate. SFL feature won me a bet when I said "we have 3 perch under us right now" and my buddy said "no it's just one big one." popped the camera down quick and I was right. His FL-18 only showed one mark and our ducers were 2 feet apart at the time. My vexilar is now my backup, taught my 6 year old how to use it yesterday, so it will have many more days on the ice. I demo'd a helix 7 earlier this season but was underwhelmed between the lack of target separation and the battery life. If I was in a wheel house all of the time and could hard wire to a larger battery I'd definitely give the helix more of a chance, I do like the graph mode, very little lag compared to a lowrance graph I've used in the past.

What can the GFP do different in regards to pheasant management?

Hotspot wi-fi from your phone and use a fire stick/roku/chromecast, etc.

The birds seem to be doing good on food where we were hunting. Most had all soybeans in their crops. Lots of standing soybean stalks around wet spots that didn't get combined this fall, easy meals for the birds.

hit some spots in eastern SD over the weekend. Had numerous flushes of 25-50 birds on public land. It's not all doom and gloom.

That map is misleading, as we were in moderate drought up through august all the way to the MN border. Emergency grazing and haying of CRP/CREP was unfortunate for hunters, but it was needed for the producers. Land owners who enroll their land in WIA are getting paid very little. Many tracts only pay $1/acre. And on Waterfowl Production Areas, since those are managed for waterfowl, and we had drought, a lot of maintenance was able to be completed on them this summer. Mowing, bush hogging, and grazing all play a part in grassland management for ground nesting species.

Speakers need enclosures to get that full range sound.

Are you surprised there is an option for land owners to mark off their water within the bill? Look at the political climate in SD. Even on the democratic side, the representatives and senators are VERY pro-property rights. A few things to consider: This bill requires research, review, and public testimony in 2019 to determine the effectiveness of the bill This bill sunsets July 1 2021. If it turns out to be a bad bill, it's not permanent and we can work to get something better passed. Land owners cannot close water over their land to the public then turn around and charge a tresspass fee Land owners have to verify their property lines, and use defined and approved markers or buoys. Given the freeze/thaw cycles, they would likely have to place buoys every spring and stakes every winter. how many do you really think are going to go through the hassle, especially if they cannot profit from closing their access? Now, a few issues I see with this bill: No appeal process for the public to petition to re-open waters closed by land owners, no funding for increased GFP hours for publishing & updating maps, no funding for increased tresspass enforcement, no funding for water access leases or lakebed purchases. Is this bill the best thing going? No. Is it a good start? Yes.

Put 4 houses with SD registrations grouped tight together out on Bitter or Waubay on a Thursday and see how many MN registered houses are right next to them by Saturday afternoon. Happens every weekend. We've done it just for laughs...set our wheel houses in 2' of water on Bitter and had 10-15 non residents come into the area and set up without even checking the depth. What's even more fun is tightly clustering portables similar in model as the ones used by a well known guide service. Guys get their Iowa fish finders out and see that cluster of portables and think "XXX guide service must be on the perch there." you can have 20 new neighbors real fast doing that.

4"-6" sucker minnows are turning walleyes on a lot of lakes right now. Seems to be an underutilized method lately.

Same one I use.

I wouldn't consider 8 pounds more being a "heavy beast." Electrics certainly will have their place, I see them consistently gaining market share with the wheel house crowd. Unless you were referring to the drill plates or k drills?

What starts out as a few people accessing legally and respectfully, always eventually attracts the slobs, doesn't matter if it's a slough in Day County, or a big lake like Poinsett, or Upper Red, or wherever. Slobs do what slobs do...ruin things for the rest of us. It's the same reason land owners now mow their ditches here in SD. Or now post all of their land in ND. We as sportsmen continually sit back and do little to nothing to police our activities. Sure we pick up the occasional bait container or beer can from a fishing spot or shoreline, but why aren't we lobbying for tougher laws for tresspassing? Poaching? Littering? We are our own worst enemies.

Do you use the teflon glide in lieu of ski wax? or do you put it ontop of an existing layer of wax?