Rooster opener pressure?

[MNpurple]

I've never hunted the pheasant opener, choosing to avoid the crowds and get in a final fishing weekend for the year and wait for the opening day pheasant guys to get their fill and go home for the year.

This year with rain forecasted all weekend where we fish, I'm considering pheasants. So exactly how busy is the pheasant opener (around the slayton, fulda, shetek public land areas)? Are there vehicles waiting for 9am at every public property, multiple parties packed into the same public pieces, is it overall frustrating?

Help me decide...

[Jaspernuts]

yes, yes, and yes.

[123fish]

Yes they are all busy but if you were ever going to hunt the opener it would probably be this year. If it rains like they are predicting that will take the pressure down big time. They had Worthington at a possible 1.5" of rain on Saturday on tonight's weather. You have to be pretty hardcore to stay out in that kind of carp.

[Ryan_V]

I'm skipping opening morning. Last few years you can't go to any public land and not look in any direction and see a dozen orange hunters and half a dozen dogs. Rounds flying everywhere. Not worth it anymore. I agree with letting the opening day crowd disperse and hunt the rest of the season.

[CaptainMusky]

With in upwards of 80% of the corn gone, this opener will be like shooting fish in a barrel. I hope one of two things happens. 1) it rains like a mother keeping people from hunting or 2) We get nasty cold weather soon so all those fair weather hunters who pounded the birds on opener stay home and sit by the fireplace.

Both would be nice, but I wont be that picky.

I will walk a few areas this weekend. Take 2 of my boys out in places that usually see little pressure. Last year that had a blast seeing my dog point 5 hens in an area 6 hunters with 5 dogs had just walked.

[22x]

My son & I are going to give it a go on Saturday. We will be hunting public & plan to be at our spot no later than 7:30AM. I'm hoping that the rain will deter a few folks, but am still expecting the public areas to be pretty full.

Everybody be safe & stay dry!

[x1957x]

I live in S.W. mn. and 7:30 isnt going to be early enough 22x!! About 95% of the grain is gone here.. Hope it rains to!!

[raymondk]

Best thing that I want is a good rain so the dogs will smell better and keep the weekend warriors home . let it pour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave S]

I gave up on SW MN on opening weekend. Way too many people IMO.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I live in SW MN and I'm heading to Rochester to visit my daughter and son in law in a few hours. The opener can be a bit of a zoo.

It's windy as heck, raining right now, and a bit on the chilly side. The die-hard guys should be able to bag a few if they can beat the crowds. The crops are pretty much gone, things are as dry as a popcorn fart, and the birds have had to move around a bit to find cover. Cattail sloughs are dried up so if it were me, that's where I'd go first.

I'm taking Monday off work.

[22x]

I live in S.W. mn. and 7:30 isnt going to be early enough 22x!! About 95% of the grain is gone here.. Hope it rains to!!

We got there around 7:15 - 2 trucks already there. Both were duck hunting...1 turned out to be a guy that I graduated from HS with!! They offered to let us hunt with them. It was great! 5 of us, shot 5 by about 12:30 & saw probably 30-40 birds!! All public. We ended the day shooting a really young bird, barely any color. It was the first wild bird for our young dog, so it was a fitting end to a great day!

[HawgMan]

Doesn't really matter if your there at 5:00AM or 9:00AM courtesy this day in age is out the window. We've had people pull in just before 9:00AM & literally bust out of there vehicles let the dogs loose & jump the fence just to get ahead of us. It's a sad deal, and to think, these morons are teaching there kids to grow up to be the same way.

[jdog]

lol isnt that soo true we got to are public spot at 7 and the people in the private land next to it drove out into the public land at 9 we started at 9 walked for about a half hour and the next thing we knew there was 10 people walking 50 yds behind us and they acted like we were the rude ones

[crothmeier]

We hunt a public patch and each one of us drives seperate to fill the lot at 7am. It usually works! after that patch is done we go home its not worth trying to find another place to walk.

[brittman]

Doesn't really matter if your there at 5:00AM or 9:00AM courtesy this day in age is out the window. We've had people pull in just before 9:00AM & literally bust out of there vehicles let the dogs loose & jump the fence just to get ahead of us. It's a sad deal, and to think, these morons are teaching there kids to grow up to be the same way.

Largely an opening day thing. Although I have found Minnesotans in general more likely to crowd than those hunters in neighboring states. The attitude that this is public land anything goes is all too common.

If your annual success is driven largely by what you can kill in the first three hours of any opener, than that is rather sad.

[brittman]

You would be surprized at how fast some pheasants adjust to hunting pressure. The feeling that they were all killed opening weekend prevails when in fact they are running or sitting tight all around you.

[raymondk]

if i see hunters leave an area i don't have a problem going over the area again for how dry it is most dogs will miss alot of birds.

[jjz]

Best tatic I have found is to wait till late in the day to get out. My best luck is the last few hours of the day hunting between standing corn and roosting cover. By that time most guys have hung it up or their dogs are wore out. While I have fresh legs and a fresh dogs and all the birds that got pushed out usually try to come back before dark. Much less pressure and plenty of birds usually.

Good Luck

[crothmeier]

Problem this year is there is ZERO standing corn, unless its a food plot.