2012 Pheasant reports

[Stcloudangler]

I am sorry your hunting wasn't as good as normal. But seriously, I think someones living is much much more important than someones hobby, and its not even close. I think people fail to realize how serious the drought was out here.

I am 100% in your corner if the haying was used to feed the cattle on SD residents' lands. But it is in the book that you can grab at any license station that the reasoning for the lack of cover is to ship this product to Oklahoma and Texas, where they had much worse drought than SD. I guess my post was aimed at the government, which had to be making a buck off the ranchers in the panhandle. Instead of keeping the money stream in their home state from tourism happy. Maybe I am misunderstood on this. What irked me was driving section roads that were mowed to an inch, while on some bordering lands they had cut corn next to waist high grasses. I would like to know if those same landowners cut the ditches and sold this to the state, to sell to other states.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Emergency hay cuts off of CRP/CREP can only be used by the land owner/operator. That grass is not supposed to go on the open market. Never in my life have I seen so many corn fields get baled after combining this fall. That right there tells me how severe the drought was, as there is usually little market for baled corn, and most guys hate doing it anyways because it is hard on the balers.

I've talked to dozens if not well over 100 residents and non residents alike since pheasant season has opened, and there is a fundamental difference between the guys that are having success and the guys that aren't. WATER. The pheasants are grouped up near water sources. We've been shooting plenty of roosters off of the sloughs we duck hunt, and we don't even take a dog 75% of the time. There are plenty of places where bird numbers might appear down, but when you get near that stock pond or slough, you'll see that there are still plenty of birds around...especially compared to last year. It's getting tiring to hear the same old line lately about "the GFP better do this" or "the GFP better do that". If you think it's bad this year, wait a few more years, and if we don't get some serious changes to the farm bill and ethanol mandates, you'll be happy to even see a pheasant, let alone see a wild flush of 50 at the end of a milo strip.

[reddog]

Emergency hay cuts off of CRP/CREP can only be used by the land owner/operator. That grass is not supposed to go on the open market. Never in my life have I seen so many corn fields get baled after combining this fall. That right there tells me how severe the drought was, as there is usually little market for baled corn, and most guys hate doing it anyways because it is hard on the balers.

I've talked to dozens if not well over 100 residents and non residents alike since pheasant season has opened, and there is a fundamental difference between the guys that are having success and the guys that aren't. WATER. The pheasants are grouped up near water sources. We've been shooting plenty of roosters off of the sloughs we duck hunt, and we don't even take a dog 75% of the time. There are plenty of places where bird numbers might appear down, but when you get near that stock pond or slough, you'll see that there are still plenty of birds around...especially compared to last year. It's getting tiring to hear the same old line lately about "the GFP better do this" or "the GFP better do that". If you think it's bad this year, wait a few more years, and if we don't get some serious changes to the farm bill and ethanol mandates, you'll be happy to even see a pheasant, let alone see a wild flush of 50 at the end of a milo strip.

CRP land owned by a banker, business man, hobby farmer etc.. There is no "operator" per se. There are thousands of acres of grass that has been mowed, that had no ties to livestock.. Where does that hay go? In this case, the "operator" is probably the guy that approached the landowner about harvesting his hay. He may have livestoock to feed it to, or he may have just wanted to harvest and market it.. because he could. Now, Im not saying that this is in any way a freebie for him, because Ive seen it both ways this year. Sold the acres for a fixed price per acre, or gave the hay away to a livestock producer..

I was having some cocktails at the BareFoot Bar in September and visiting with a acquaintance from South West MN. They had been baling every acre of crp they could get their hands on since the release date. They were marketing 67lb regular bales, steel banded into cubes for trucking, and sending them to Colorado for $7.00 per bale and an additional $5.50 for transportation costs to someone that was remarketing them to those in need. Thats $210 per ton for the hay, with $165 trucking costs fpr a total of $375. What the reseller was selling them for, I dont know..

Regarding the bird situation, I agree wholeheartedly with what you said... but, they may be alot of birds associated with water/sloughs.(and I cetainly cant blame them, or even wonder why),Im sure you understand, that this is the greater population of birds that are left.

My style of hunting is to turn my dogs loose on prairie grasses and watch them roam, and this year is not going to be a good one for me and my style. Sure, I could adapt, and go pound the cattails, or push the foodplots. but its not my style. I want to hunt, the way I like to hunt.. just like I like to fish the way I like to fish, If the fish arent hitting on my style, I could care less, Im not going to tie on a bottom bouncer and a spinner, even if it means getting bit. It matters little to me what I harvest, but it does matter how much contact my dogs have with birds, which is going slim in the prairies/crp grasses...this year.

With that said, I also agree with what you said about the future...

[reddog]

Glutton for punishment. Leaving to go west now.. Lifes too short to second guess..

[rundrave]

Glutton for punishment. Leaving to go west now.. Lifes too short to second guess..

lol good luck reddog, looking forward to your report.

long points and long tailfeathers to you!

[rundrave]

well I am heading out shortly and will hit it hard daily until Sunday.

will post up a report when I get back and maybe a teaser post from the phone lol.

[Scott M]

Was out in Jerauld county bopping around last week. Hunted all day, 50/50 mix of public and private grounds worked, birds bagged was probably ~65/35 private/public. We worked till sunup just about every day, all 5 days. Went home with 27 roosters for two guys. Cattails were the ticket and that was before we got all this cold weather and wind; it was 60 degrees all 5 days, by early afternoon a couple days I hunted in short sleeves.

Got up lots of deer. My buddy and his resident kid had two tags and we had those filled Sat and Sun of East River opening in no time...Lots of deer to be had and we did see some nice bucks. If non-residents had a shot at East River buck tags I'd probably be back with a rifle.

Was really depressed when one of our private spots got burned to the ground the day after we hunted it. It was a rental and I don't think the owner we got permission from will be very happy. He's retired in AZ but hunts quite a bit. He won't have much of a place to hunt next fall as the cattails and weedy low spots were burned and disced. A number of shelterbelts that my buddy that I went with used to hunt are gone too.

I'll come back some day, but if you are waiting for bird numbers to peak, the new highs aren't going to be as high...we're starting into a downward-facing long term trend. Less low spots, less cattails, less shelterbelts, less CRP, less cattle grazing pasture = LESS BIRDS.

[reddog]

Nice report 31..

It is extremely dis heartening to see the habitat destruction that is going on across the countryside.. Its happening in in every state I drive thru, and is not exclusive to SD, its just that SD has more to begin with..

I got out on Saturday, and tackled a slough.. I hunted from ten to noon, then went fishing till 3:30 and went back to hunting. Managed a limit of birds and eyes..

Sunday found me on the water at sunrise again... didnt make it hunting, as I ran out of time..

Theres birds there..but youre going to have to earn them, one bird at a time..

[rundrave]

Saw snow in the forecast so took the day off and drove to Huron last night.

Woke up this morning all giddy with sight of snow on the ground. It's literally been 2 years since I have been able to hunt birds in snow and it's a blast.

First spot I walked had lots of bird encounters but unfortunately they were all hens. The birds were really sitting tight so tight that I knew we were walking right by some. So many that I literally walked the same piece of land twice and flush more birds the 2nd time around.

Next few places didn't yield many birds at all if any which was really puzzling. No tracks prior. To my arrival so I know they hadn't been hunted yet.

I had another area in mind I knew would hold birds and boy I was right. If your quiet enough you can get close to bird's. It paid off and I had several opportunities but I'm in a horrible shooting slump.

[rundrave]

Sorry having trouble posting from my phone

Long story short I saw lots of birds many are wild and extra spooky.

Good news is bird's are also really bunche'd up and if you do it right can get into some fun shooting. I should have had 3 birds today and blew it.

[reddog]

Shooting slumps seem to come and go, but its particularly rotten in a year like this when every op counts..

Ask me how I know this....

[rundrave]

was a slow last month of the season for me. Just didn't get out as much as I would have liked. So the reports have been slim and nothing great to report.

I hunted this last weekend on some private land just north of Sioux Falls that hadn't been walked yet this year. I had been kind of saving it for a late season walk when I knew I would be short on time as it was only a few acres.

As all birds have been, the birds were spooky. It was all we could do to try and sneak up on them only to watch them bust out by the dozens just out of gun range. It seems the few birds that decide to sit tight always ended up being hens. We chased after one rooster that flushed wild. I saw where he went down, watched the dogs discover the tracks and scent him to his next hiding spot. I ended up blowing it as I expected the bird to flush one way, and he ended up doing the exact opposite and I will use the sun for an excuse this time but I missed him more than once

I don't like the party hunting it just isn't for me, but I know that's the price I pay when I hunt alone late season. You need bodies, and more importantly you need blockers to head off those birds that flush wild.

I had one dog get into it with a coon though (story of the year for us it seems) and he got into it pretty good. Usually its just some wrestling and rolling around but my younger dog came out yelping after this encounter. I wasn't about to just leave after our walk so we went and busted out some .22's with the land owner and headed back out.

Went back where we found the first guy and man was he hunkered down in the grass. There really wasn't a hole but just a tight little area of bent over grass and I was amazed how he was packed in there but it wasnt enough to save him.

It began to get crazier as we were walking back about 100 yards from where we found the first coon, the dogs got birdy again and I just had a feeling it was coons again. We ended up getting 3 more of those stupid things so at least we were productive in some aspect. Too bad it was fur and not feather.

So long 2012 season, I am not looking forward to the future and I am afraid the glory days are going to be a thing of the past. Enjoy it while you can even if the hunting isn't as good as it used to be. From what I can see its going to get much worse before it gets better...if it ever will.

[Mr.Seaguar]

You wanna kill birds after they get spooky you gotta leave the dogs home. But nobody wants to do that.

[rundrave]

You wanna kill birds after they get spooky you gotta leave the dogs home. But nobody wants to do that.

Not happening, I would much rather leave my gun at home than my dogs. I am not out there for the kill. I am out there to watch my dogs do what they were bred to do.

[reddog]

Not happening, I would much rather leave my gun at home than my dogs. I am not out there for the kill. I am out there to watch my dogs do what they were bred to do.

[bturck]

I agree guys, more fun to watch the dogs work. If a bird or two falls that's the bonus. Numbers don't make the trip a success or failure, it the hunt. No doubt though. Some blockers sneaking in can up the success ratio. To bad so much good CRP has gone by the wayside, that will definitely have an impact on the future numbers. Have hunted near Redfield for years and have seen the change happening. MN screwed up years ago and thats why I come to your state to chase the long tails