2019 Pheasant Reports

I know there was an opener thread, but since there is a long season left it seems we need a dedicated thread for other reports.

I was in West Central MN this past weekend. Most all crops are still in, although a few tractors are working in the fields. For my in-laws it was still too wet they were just about to start harvesting but now we are getting even more rain – doh!

I shot two roosters for about 4 hours of hunting. Had some nice dog work on some hens. Seems like most of the roosters were hiding in the corn midday and then would come out to the grass in the last hour before sunset. Didn’t hunt too hard… Did some family time and will hit it harder in the coming weeks

Pic of Macy with one of the roosters. It was warm also with some annoying mosquitoes and gnats in the field

Nice!
I did not get out this weekend.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Nice!
I did not get out this weekend.

As you know, it should get better as more crops come down. Could be shaping up to be a good November.

Amazing how many hens you can flush midday, but the roosters seem to be in the corn, LOL. She had one really nice point, when a group of 5-6 hens just exploded right around me. Was literally surrounded! That was fun.

lindy
Thanks for the update and interesting posts and pic
of Super Mutt ” Macy”.
Pointers sure are fun !

tweed

My lab and I got out Saturday morning for the Wisconsin opener, along with about a million other folks and their dogs – some of whom were unaware or ignored the 9:00 AM shooting start. We worked 3 public land fields in St. Croix County and pretty much just got drenched from the rain – oh, and her taking a couple dips in various ponds we encountered. Given how much pressure there was we considered it a success when she finally tracked down and flushed a [sigh] hen.
Later that day, after the usual bath, I noticed that her tail was drooping, limp, unable to wag. I learned that is an actual condition of overly strenuous exercise, like 3-4 hours of punching through tall pheasant habitat. I had tried to condition her before the season, but unfortunately apparently failed miserably.
After a week to rest, we’ll be up north hitting the grouse woods this weekend.

Im in Iowa the next two weekends and am dreading the standing crops but plans are set. Ill get down there when the crops are out too.

lindyrig79 wrote:

As you know, it should get better as more crops come down. Could be shaping up to be a good November.

Yes! We drove down to Mankato for our nephew’s brithday yesterday, and while there was a lot of standing corn, it was coming down.

It’d be nice if it could dry out a bit.

Nice Fella wrote:

I had tried to condition her before the season, but unfortunately apparently failed miserably.

You’ll have to add some tail curls to her exercise regimen.

I will be hunting for pheasant for the first time starting Thursday through Sunday in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Reports are that it is very wet for that area and there are a lot of crops still in the ground. I am looking forward to my first experience though. Looks like it should be a nice second half of the week.

As expected the standing corn in NW Iowa was like nothing we have ever seen on opener. It as much as ruled out all ditch hunting and the fields had to be hit right away in the morning. Also saw more hunters than ever before however with the conditions most birds were saved for the remainder of the season.Looking forward to the next two weekends to see the transition.
Party of 7 got one bird on Sat then 11 right away on Sun morning.
Spent Sat afternoon scouting for the remaining season. All of our dogs did a great job.

Just got back from 3 days in Chamberlain, South Dakota. This was my first time so I didn’t know what to expect, but is was very slow. A lot of standing water in the fields and most fields still had crops in them. Our group did get a few Thursday but we really had to work for them. The typical locations our group has had success in the past didn’t produce anything. Farmers in that area will probably be able to do some work in the fields later this week since things are drying out now.

Iowa opener wasn’t bad at all. Corn is going down rapidly. I just hope the weather moderates so some nice sunny days can be enjoyed afield.

I was in SW MN hunting yesterday. My best guess is over 50% of the corn has been harvested and most of the beans. The farmers have really been hitting the fields with the dry weather. Finding birds. Seems like quite a few late hatchers.

Wow what a tough day in the field for me. The worst in years, I guess I was due. Drove out to the MN / SD border early this am and hit a bunch of public land on the MN side. Found standing crops and wet conditions (as expected). Dog got birdy but lost most trails at the corn edge.

Had a borderline disaster at field number 3, I flushed some hens and then saw a rooster land in some cover I was approaching. Turned out to be a trap, I followed the rooster past the point of being smart got into deeper and deeper water into catttails… ended up using a ton of energy just to get out and was soaked from the waist down.

Ended up hitting a couple other areas after I changed clothes and recovered. Saw some birds but no roosters. Ended up tucking my tail and going to my in-laws farm where I have some private.. turned out one of the family members had let some friends out so I had people hunting on my normally exclusive area. Didn’t really matter, only had hens flush until about 15 min before sunset when I approached an area that still had standing corn adjacent to it and put up 25-30 pheasants but only hens within range and all the roosters out of range.

Kinda knew conditions would be tough but haven’t had a day go sideways on me like that in awhile… oh well, that’s hunting, lol

Corn is approx 50% out in NW Ia. Im not very impressed with numbers. We limited Sat but didn’t see many more birds than that. Only 1 shot yesterday morning. We’ll keep chipping away at it and find out if its all corn related or not. Heading back this weekend before taking a break. Then again Thanksgiving weekend.
Our dogs are doing very good. We are in the spoiled mode with 8 year old dogs. They know their jobs well. Sucks they only have a few years left to be this good. Mine is actually getting pretty beat up. 5 days off between hunts is not enough for all her abrasions to heal. She’ll have cool scars….:)

The wife and I had 2 hours to hunt on Saturday morning while the MIL watched the kids. I picked out a WIA that looked good to me, and it was empty when we arrived at 8:40–yippee!
Got the pup out in the the field at 9:00. We scared up 2 deer right away, so when Ripley got worked up, I was figuring he was smelling deer, but he went on point, and I had rooster #1 in the bag at 9:05. It was a big, beautiful one in really nice shape. I can’t remember ever having a quicker start!
It was very wet and frozen. We didn’t end up even seeing another pheasant, but Ripley was all over the woodcock. I think we flushed 6 and could have had a few, but I won’t eat them, so we let them fly.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. I wish we could’ve got one for the FW, the that’s what next time is for.

Six of us hunted west river SD Monday thru Friday last week. We have a lot of private land we can hunt and have killed our limit for many years. This year has been much different. Spring blizzards killed a lot of birds. Wet conditions prevented planting of many acres in the spring and harvest is delayed this fall. Last week was cold and they got snow just before we arrived. We averaged 2 per man for the five days but hunted 10:00 to 5:00 each day and covered a lot of ground. Many of our honey holes didn’t produce due to no food crops and or blizzard kill. Found our birds in cattails near crops and in standing crops. We’ve delayed our second trip a week hopeing crops get harvested. Will cancel out if crops not harvested or weather is wet and cold.

Overall numbers do seem lower than last year in the west central MN area from what I’ve seen so far. Still expect some decent hunting in 2-3 weeks once more crops are down and some of the wet areas freeze up

I spent Friday in West Central MN hunting some new-to-me public land/WIA. The first WMA looked good from the road, but I really didn’t care for it once my boots hit the ground. Saw two hens. Next up was a WIA. I really liked this chunk of land. I ended up seeing 6 hens, got one really young rooster, and whiffed on a big fatty.

Conditions were wet (imagine that). Lots of corn was being harvested yesterday, too.

Still amazed at how small this rooster was. These were his longest tail feathers!

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Still amazed at how small this rooster was. These were his longest tail feathers!

I shot a rooster here in SD on saturday that was called out as a hen by the 3 other guys in my group. Sun caught the head just right and I saw the red patch around the eye. I bet it was hatched sometime in august.

tornadochaser wrote:

I shot a rooster here in SD on saturday that was called out as a hen by the 3 other guys in my group. Sun caught the head just right and I saw the red patch around the eye. I bet it was hatched sometime in august.

Yeah, this one was very similar. Thankfully, it cackled when it flushed, or I may have passed on it.

This was my backyard in Ham Lake on September 11th. Some really young birds out there.

Man did I see a ton of pheasants when I was deer hunting last week. Musta seen 40 or more every single day. The whole countryside was an orchestra of roosters cackling when the sun came up. No doubt there is a lot of birds out there and with corn harvest finally making headway, the second half of the season looks awesome. I am really looking forward to many successful hunts between now and New Years.

Sounds good gimruis…. I will be back at it this coming weekend and will report back

After many years I finally talked my wife into shadowing me on an Iowa pheasant hunt. I wanted her to see our pointer in her prime. It’s going to be up early both days. (She doesn’t know how early yet) I hope the trip is rewarding for both of us. And I hope I limit out early both days!!!!

I think I am going to take off Friday and chase some longtails…

I just sent a letter to the DNR with regards to the loss of an hour of hunting time when daylight savings time ends. The day we move the clocks back in the fall (early November) we lose an hour of hunting time. We also lose about a half hour of sunset time in the month of November. I would like to see an 8:00 AM start when we go back to standard time. I don’t think it is being greedy, I just don’t like losing an hour to hunt just because we change our clocks.

Dennis Williams wrote:

I just sent a letter to the DNR with regards to the loss of an hour of hunting time when daylight savings time ends. The day we move the clocks back in the fall (early November) we lose an hour of hunting time. We also lose about a half hour of sunset time in the month of November. I would like to see an 8:00 AM start when we go back to standard time. I don’t think it is being greedy, I just don’t like losing an hour to hunt just because we change our clocks.

I think the season needs to start later on in October and finish later in January too. Our climate has changed and crops are harvested later on. Its time to adjust the seasons accordingly. Not sure about you, but I’d rather hunt in January when its 20 degrees out than in October when its 65.

gimruis wrote:

Not sure about you, but I’d rather hunt in January when its 20 degrees out than in October when its 65.

I usually hunt the last day of the season just for fun and with a 10 to 20 MPH wind it is all I can stand. Gettin’soft, but am fine with a latter, longer season.