Pheasant Reports

[rundrave]

I hunted north of Coleman and around the Madioson area on Saturday with 2 other guys. Weather was absolutely perfect, 50degrees sunny and just a light wind. We got a light dusting of snow recently that had just melted and was great for keeping the condtions from being too dry.

The birds were not hard to come by at all, we saw tons. They were just really spooky and wild. Most birds were flushing before we even started walking.

It seemed like most of the birds were out moving quite a bit. Im sure they were sunning themselves and enjoying the warm weather just as we were doing ourselves.

We didnt find birds in the usual places like thick sloughs, cat tails etc, but in short reed grasses and other grassy areas. I even kicked up birds in open plowed fields.

We ended up with 7 birds for the day and should have had a limit but lost a couple. My dog had trouble tracking downed birds with all the scent at times.

I also have to note I had a special moment I have been waiting for all season. Its the first year hunting with my dog(14mos) and although I have shot alot of birds this year with him we havent had that one bird that was truly just mine and his. He has pointed alot but they either dont sit and just flush or he points and somebody else shoots or another dog retrieves etc, or I tag team a bird with another guy.

We walked one small dried up creek area that had alot of grass cover. My dog got birdy and locked up about 20 yards ahead of me. He held a perfect point the entire time until I was able to get close enough to flush the bird with my foot. He never even moved an inch to bump the bird or anything until after my 2nd shot to retrieve the downed bird. It was unfortunate that I had to take 2 shots as the first was a away shot that left a leg hanging and busted off most of the tail feathers, 2nd shot dropped him finally. It was a very young bird and that probably played a role with him sitting so tight and not being spooky like some of the other older "experienced birds".

Needless to say a it was our first bird together and it will be going on the wall. I was hoping our first bird would be some nice big rooster with a nice tail but we will take it anyway.

Sunday I went by myself with just me and my dog and hunted about 15 miles north of Sioux Falls on some land that hadnt been hunted all year. Saw about a dozen birds and got 2 more to cap off a good weekend of pheasant hunting.

I really hope the weather continues to be mild as it makes for some fun hunting. It sure beats freezing your tail off and walking through snow drifts to find birds. I will be out again a lot more this year yet and got some late season hunts planned with some out of staters.

Hows everyone else been doing?

[rundrave]

finally had a chance to upload a couple pics so thought I would share one from Saturday.

Here is my GSP named Wrigley with a couple birds from this last weekend:

[Rost]

Nice looking pup RR! I'd like to see him work some day!

[rundrave]

I emailed you last week did you get it? We still need to get out sometime this year.

I planned on going ice fishing this next weekend but the way weather is looking I might just hunt some more instead. plus with mild weather all the lakes will probably be a zoo like they were last weekend. And probably a little messy.

Let me know.

[LABS4ME]

Got out to Eureka 2 weekends ago for our 1st hunt of the year. Bird numbers are down dramatically. The drought really hit them and the cover hard. My buddy lost 6000 of his 6600 acres of crops! The grass was short and sparse and a lot of the crops didn't even set seed. Luckily he left 2 bigger food plots from last year standing that still had corn on the plants and a few of the fields planted this year had very stunted ears of corn or small sunflower heads that will get the birds through the winter. They really need moisture out there AND BAD! His Dad was out with the excavator digging holes to bury rock piles and many of the holes still had dusty soil down 8-12'! They only recieved 5.5" of precip for the entire year... snow and rain combined.

We put in 3 full days of hunting and managed our birds. They came from a variety of cover... cattails, short grass, shelterbelts, standing corn (if you can call knee high corn 'standing corn'), and some newly planted hedge rows that were very weedy.

One of our best techniques was to find pieces of cover that were 50-100 yards wide x 1/4-1/2 mile long and send three guys down it and then 1 or 2 guys would go around to the far end and instead of just posting it, they would slowly zig-zag back and forth towards the on coming 'drivers' to pinch the birds off. Everyone got in on the shooting as the birds didn't know where or when to bust out... they already had their escape routes figured out on the normal drive and post technique utilized by the entire fall's worth of hunters, but this way we kept them bumping into hunters back and forth till they had to make a decision to fly. It worked extremley well.

One thing that I really enjoyed this year was using my buddy's 'short bus' to get around hunting... he bought a used short school bus to move guys and dogs around when hunting, boy is that slick! 4-5 guys and their dogs load up and move field to field all in one motion... It was the way to go! Many nice bucks were seen while driving and out bird hunting... as my buddy says 'that figures' as I walked into a small cattail slough and jump a bedded twelve point 5 yards ahead of me not 30 yards form the bus, he had an open buck tag, but unfortunatley a shotgun... we also kicked up a respectable 8 off of a rock pile at about 20 yards... many were seen out in the fields still chasing does while we were moving field to field. Coyotes seem to be up in numbers and boy do they look bigger than average in size. Need some snow so they can get hunted back down in numbers.

As always it's great to get over to South Dakota to hunt and catch up with old friends... we started a 'new' tradition last year... on the second day of hunting we clean our birds and put on a grand pheasant dinner, this year we had 'forbidden thighs' and smoked venison finger sandwiches for an appetizer, pheasant Cordon Blue and pheasant and gravy over noodles for an entree along with salad, rolls and veggies for dinner follwed up with a carmel apple crisp for desert... man was that good! It's a great way to show your appreciation to the land owners to put on a big spread like that for them... they really enjoy it! and guess what? it gets them eating some game again... I think they eat it the same way every time they cook it, so they never eat it anymore... now we have them trying new ways to make their game and they are starting to eat it again.

We hope to make it back out again for the last week of the season to use up our second half of our license... we may try a different area of the state to spread our wings a little more. If there is ever a time to meet new landowners and secure permission to hunt exceptional property, from now till the end of the season is the time to do it.

Good Luck to those still out pounding the ground for birds!

Ken