SD Pheasant Forecast--Looks Good

[huskminn]

Just returned from grouse hunting in South Dakota--the pheasant population appears to be very high. I know this was reported by the GF&P, but it never hurts to see it with your own eyes.

I think it is safe to say that over the course of Friday, we saw over 150 roosters...that's right...just roosters. For the whole weekend, the total is probably over 250 roosters.

I've got a line on some private land hunting, in case anyone's interested.

[marknamy]

What area were you in. Heading to the Aberdeen area the end of the month.

[huskminn]

I was West River.

[BLACKJACK]

huskminn, sounds good! 12 days til the SoDak opener! I'll be heading out south of Redfield. And inbetween we get to hunt a few MN birds! Yes!

[BDR]

just got back from S.D. for the youth pheasant weekend. Started around Aberdeen tons of birds, driving around in the morning sat. checking roadsides of public land saw easily 300. Hunted 12-2:30 flushed 75 maybe 15 fair shots.(kid needs some practice) Drove to Huron to check out that area. Flushed around 40 Probally 6-7 easy shots.(kid needs some practice).
Sun. morning we decided to drive torwards the border to shorten the drive after hunting. Flushed around 10 in 2 hours(kid needs some practice) way less birds as we went East.
3:00 sun. got out of truck for one last stomp, dog took a leak and peed watered down blood?I was freaked I never seen this before so we didn't hunt anymore and rushed home. Stopped on the wat to the cities let him pee again and it was perfectly clear? I planned to take him to the Vet first thing Mon. morning but he seemed perfectly fine. Watching him closely! Am I not bieng cautious enough by waiting? The vet is the worst thing in the wourld to him I litterly have to drag him through the door,that is why I am hesisant. Anyone ever seen this? Thanks Brian

[Dano2]

How far into southdakota does one need to go for some half way decent hunting?
is sisseton area not far enough?
Or would it be just as good to hunt the MN side?

Where can I find SD hunting info. as far as license fees, rules and regs. etc. and public hunting lands info?

thanks

[This message has been edited by Dano2 (edited 10-06-2003).]

[marknamy]

Dano2,
Here is the SD Game and Fish link.

http://www.state.sd.us/gfp/

All license info can be found here. They also have a Pheasant Outlook thread. Numbers look good to me.

[BLACKJACK]

Dano, heres the link to the SoDak wildlife page. It will give you all the licence and map info.

http://www.state.sd.us/gfp/

BDR, if it was my dog and pheasant opener is 4 days away, I'd have them at the vet to get checked out ASAP!! Unless you want to go dogless sometime during the season.

It was warm last weekend, maybe the dog just got dehydrated, but I'd still check it out.

[huskminn]

I think BDR's report says it all.

Also, there is a surprising amount of cover. They had rain early in the summer so everything grew. The drought since then has just made everything extremely dry.

Good luck keeping gravel road dust out of the back of your truck.

[BLACKJACK]

Just so that it doesn't get so dry that they start cutting every bit of forage and lowland that they can get into. We ran into that problem last year where spots that had held birds in previous years were 4 inches high becasue it had been cut.