I decided to play hooky from work on Wednesday and make a trip south to where the MN DNR predicting better pheasant numbers this year. I mapped out a few promising public areas and hit the road with Ripley.
First stop was a parcel of WIA land. The southern portion looked a little wet, but with a north wind, we worked our way into the wind. Ripley got hot on a strip of brushes, so I let him do his thing and followed along. He followed a bird for 50 yards or so before a hen took off. We worked our way back to the truck, and just as we were getting close, I saw a rooster poke out of the long grass past my truck. We headed that way. Ripley stopped and pointed the bird, but unfortunately, it was in some thick stuff. I flushed it, but my shot(s) did nothing more than thin out the vegetation. 
Next stop was a WMA. This one looked nice. Corn was being harvested on an abutting field. We worked a fence row, and as we came toward the property line, I heard a cackle and saw an injured rooster jump up. Ripley took off after it. The bird took off running. I followed it (I thought). Ripley took off in a different direction, and about 40 yards away, I heard the bird again. Ripley was on it! This was a feisty rooster, and it managed to fight off Ripley and make it’s escape, but it was cool to watch. About this time, we must have make another rooster in the area nervous because one took off not too far away, presenting me with a terrible shot. 
So, we kept plugging away. As we worked the fence line adjacent to the cornfield, Ripley hit a beautiful point. I came around and flushed another hen. 
We had about 45 more minutes before I had to hit the road to pick up the kids, so I stopped at one last WMA. We plodded through some windbreaks. Ripley pointed a bird (I assume), but we would have had to leave the WMA and trespass to flush it, so we moved on. I’ll just assume it was a hen. 
We worked through some thick, tangled, and wet grass on the way back to the truck. Honestly, we were both getting tired and I wasn’t holding out much hope in that cover, so I let my attention stray and assumed that Ripley was just lagging behind me a bit. Nope, he scented a bird! Fun to see, but it left me with another terrible shot. Lesson learned, though. Trust your dog!
So, we went home birdless and tired, but we both learned from our day. I would say that there was more corn harvested than not in the area, and there was a lot of corn being harvested that day, so things will get better. I was surprised at how many other hunters I saw on a Wednesday morning. I had about 7 areas picked out, and at least half of them had a hunter on them. The weather was fantastic, so I guess a few other guys had the same idea as I.
