Current Rooster Reports

[123fish]

You are 100% correct muc. We walked my buddy's 10 row cedar strip yesterday that is five years old and just about died. The dogs could barely make it through it. Very, very tough walking. The cattails are just as bad with all the snow just laying in them. The vast majority of the birds we are seeing are in the farmer's groves and pretty inacessable. We did see several birds at mid day that were srounging for food. The fields that were blown clean after last Saturday's blizzard are now lying 8" deep with snow. They are already talking about a storm for next weekend and it possibly could be a biggie. It's going to be a tough winter for the birds unless something positive happens weatherwise. muc does Pheasants Forever have corn in Worthington yet?

[2thepointsetters]

I will be making the 500 mile round trip journey tomorrow morning to give it one more try this year. Me and the dogs did a 3 hour long grouse hunt yesterday in knee to waist deep snow. I could hardly walk when I got the snowshoes off. I said that was it for the year, but 24 hours later I am ready to do it again. Hopefully I will have some rooster pics when I get back.

[muc33]

Not sure on corn as of now, if they do get it, I assume the trailer will be in the Rune's parking lot again.

[Arago]

Well point setter, you may be a tougher guy than me! Not sure if I'll brave the deep snow (or my dog). I'd love to try because it's a loonng time till next season. Good luck! Where you heading?

[2thepointsetters]

8582 miles put on pheasant hunting this year and yesterday was the first trip I came home empty handed. I was hunting within a 30 mile radius of Willmar on private land and the amount of snow down there is incredible. The woods and cattails are knee to waist deeper everywhere with some spots even worse. My cousin and I hunted hard for 5 hours on snowshoes and I never saw a rooster. We tried everything from standing corn to the thickest woods you can imagine with no luck. The roosters most have found better cover near by and left the land I have permission to hunt. We only put up around dozen hens, which is about a 1/3 of normal. I still had a blast on the snowshoes and the dog work was great, especially with the amount of snow they were working with. Probably the last trip of the year. If I would have seen some roosters I would have went the last weekend of the season. Only 10.5 months until it starts again.

[Capt'nMorgan]

Well I'm gonna go give it one last try tomorrow before the rain comes later this week and the season is over. I want to get my GSP pup out one last time. She had an excellent season, shot many birds over her. Tomorrow will be interesting with the deep snow, hopefully we see some birds. It's a long time till 10/15/11.

[Scott M]

I hung the gun up for good. Shot my last bird for 2010. Hit one spot, missed once, hit the other, and flushed a fair number of birds. Had to practically step on them a few times. My brother in law went 0 for 4 or 5, so we could have done okay, but it was good to get out and get some exercise.

Good luck to anyone else heading out in this final week. Like cap. morg. said, it's a long wait until October 2011.

[Arago]

Great Picture! I may travel west Wend. before the weather [PoorWordUsage] comes again. Hope the birds make it this winter!

[CodyDawg]

I had a great hunt last Thursday. I had 2 roosters in the bag and then a big ol' rooster blew up in my face. As I was lining him up, ANOTHER rooster busted up! A perfect double opportunity...the first one dropped and I lined up on the second and ........ said "BANG! You are dead!", but left the trigger unpulled as my limit was filled with the first bird. Oh, man, there are not many opportunities for doubles on late season MN roosters and it is not often you can shoot 3 birds in a day, let alone 4! It was an easy double too. Oh well, pretty bad luck on one hand, but pretty darn good luck on the other and what fun! The first bird? A 25" tail with 5/8" spurs!

[Capt'nMorgan]

Made it out today for my last hunt of '10 and shot the only Rooster in range. Flushed him out of the the cattails along w/4 hens, saw 12-15 more birds along a tree line with standing corn on 1 side, but they manage to flush outta range. It was the perfect final hunt, nice day sun shinning watching the dog run and hunt in the 2-4ft deep snow, seeing birds and even bagging one. Until next year

[MNpurple]

The sloughs I was in yesterday were so full of snow, I didnt flush a bird from the cattails. Most of the birds I saw were in treelines which is tough when you are by yourself. A quick word of caution....ice that held me a couple of weeks ago didnt hold me yesterday. There are some very thin spots so be careful, especially if alone. When the birds didnt work out we switched to predator control.

[grab the net]

Great photo, nice job on the yote. I made my final trip yesterday also. Did not bump a bird. Saw a doe, a rabbit and an owl. Same deal in the cattails. areas that were fine a week ago are now treacherous. Dog fell in at least 4 times with one or two feet at a time. I was out on the ice and did not have any problems but saw open water at the edges of the cattails on several occasions. Saw some open spots with minnows in them. Was starting to wonder about getting back to shore. Found a narrow spot and headed in after seeing some open water about 40 yards out on the open ice, could see where a mink had been making several trips back and forth to hunt. Was wearing the snowshoes, and did not want to take a dip with those on. I made it out dry, but the dog fell completely in about 15 feet away from me. He scrambled out but it was enough for both of us after about a 1.5 mile nature walk. A friend on the other hand was out with his son and grandson on a private property. He estimated seeing over 150 birds in a willow lined drainage ditch area. 45 mintues and they had six in the bag. This rain is making the snow settle. Much better than an ice storm.

[HookEmHard84]

A buddy and I went out Tuesday. It was definately the most eventful day of Rooster hunting I've ever had. On the list of lowlights were falling through the ice in a creek (up to my waist, didnt even know it was there with all the snow), and both dogs getting skunked! Luckily I had some extra socks and sweats, so we pushed on. We saw a TON of pheasants after that, should have filled our bags, but between the young dogs and some bad shooting we only got two. Glad I got out one last time!

[no bait nate]

Nice pic John, your dog looks like a stud. Glad your day ended up somewhat successful. Lucky Pete and the dogs got skunked instead of you! Let me know how the skunk potion works out for that...

[Arago]

Cleaned the shotguns today. Bittersweet because that means 10 months untill hitting the fields again. Layed off for Winter, so lots of time to hunt but the last 3 to 4 weeks weather has made it tough. It's funny how quick the season goes! Don't have the patience to stare at a ice hole so I'll just have to read about hunting stories and wait till next year. Good job to the guys who made a last push in this snow!!

[Walleye Guy]

Hunted near Starbuck on Tuesday and Wednesday. Four of us got 12. The land we have is primarily used for deer hunting so it doesn't get touched much for pheasants. We had the best luck pushing the brushy and cane filled areas and chasing the birds into the snow filled CRP fields. We had three unusual birds in the bag. Two roosters that were at least 2.5 years old. Spurs were 7/8 inch long with white tips. Very large birds. One is going to end up on the hunting shack wall. The other weird bird was one that was very small as pheasants go. It was mostly colored like a rooster but had some weird dark and light coloring on the tail feathers and breast. The head was plumed like a rooster and it had fairly long tail feathers. It did not have any spurs. It was not a hen but there was something funky going on.

We had two times where a dog pointed a rooster where we could see the roosters head sticking out of the snow. The bird busted out of the snow. Way cool to see.

Hopefully this rain will help expose food and minimze the effects of the deep snow.

[scsavre]

Get some pics up Walleye guy. I love to see any pheasant pictures, much less the ones that you have to go through 2 feet of snow, oh and 7/8 inch spur, I gotta see it. How long was the tail, if you measured?

[scsavre]

By the way, I hunted not too far from that area and shot kind of a funky bird too. Mine was early season so I grouped it as a young rooster. Darn near looked like a rooster had its way with a chukar.

[Walleye Guy]

A guy in our group took some pictures. We took a close up of the long spur. Hopefully it turned out. Not sure if there was an individual picture of the weird looking rooster. I do know it was included in the group shots however. I'll post once they are emailed to me.

[123fish]

Went out and closed the season on a giant WMA in Murray county. Jumped a bunch of birds out of a group of cedars and managed a nice longspur to end the season. Tried to reflush some of the birds that busted out of the cedars but to no avail. If you weren't walking a deer trail through the cattails you pretty much weren't walking at all. Tough going for the old dog and me both. Nice to get the dog one last retrieve. There was a small food plot of corn close to where I shot the rooster and he had a full crop of corn and was absolutely layered in yellow fat. Hopefully the remaining winter won't be too tough on these guys.

[chub]

Ended the season on a decent note.

Over and out.

[Arago]

Perfect picture! End of the season roosters. Let's hope the birds survive this winter and have a good nesting season. I can't wait till next Fall.

[Rooster Chaser]

Last week was some of the best hunting of the season for me. Great dog work for my partner and I on Sunday. Just have to scout around to find the birds.

[muc33]

Good stuff crew!

[Arago]

Now I wished I had got out one last time!