2023 pheasant reports

We had a great time in South Dakota the last few days. In the area we hunted, there were lots of crops still in which made things a little more difficult but we still managed to get limits a few days in a row. Both the young pup and the gray faced vet impressed me a lot on this trip. The young pup made 4 really incredible retrieves and did about as well as you’d hope a 1 year old pup would do on their first rooster road trip. She also found a couple cripples that usually my older dog is great at finding, so I don’t know if I can say the torch has officially been passed but its darn close. The 10 year old blew me out of the water as far as my expectations… I figured she’d for sure slow down and not be able to hunt every field of the trip but she sure as heck did. It almost seemed like she had more energy this year than previous years. Not sure if its the glucosamine I started her on or the extra drive she gets with the pup around. Either way, both dogs did awesome – no better feeling!

Man, pheasant hunting is so much fun.

Great pics Gitchi!!

Nice pics. I can never get pics like that.

Nice work Gitchi! I need to get a trip planned…

Man are the orange crowds out in Iowa this weekend! The pheasants don’t stand a chance, especially if and when I’m shooting at them!

LabDaddy1 wrote:

Man are the orange crowds out in Iowa this weekend! The pheasants don’t stand a chance, especially if and when I’m shooting at them!

I see that. Luckily we filled by midday.

Holy cow have I seen a lot of pheasants while deer hunting this week. Even with massive fields of standing corn around. They all fly from the grass/brush in the morning into the corn and then back around 3-4pm. Once one rooster starts cackling, another dozen join in and the chorus starts. Pheasant hunting is going to be good after I’m done deer hunting.

love to hear that gim. are you deer hunting in southern MN?

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

love to hear that gim. are you deer hunting in southern MN?

East Central zone on the pheasant map

Took a break from sharpies and ruffies this weekend to get away from the orange army… or tried at least.

Got a solo public land limit yesterday and another 4 birds with my dad today. Was a great two days with the pup. She just turned 1 this week. Different patches each day.

Beats ice fishing every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Went out for a short walk yesterday for the first time this year. Didnt flush a bird, but saw one rooster on the drive home. Didnt help the piece I hunted had deer hunters in it earlier I am sure. Last year I saw quite a few birds in there. Vast majority of the crops are out.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Vast majority of the crops are out.

Where I deer and pheasant hunt, I would say that more than half of the corn is still standing. It really inhibited my deer hunt last week. And there’s still some fields with beans too.

With the mild weather on tap through Thanksgiving, there will be no reason to harvest it either. Its likely to affect my pheasant hunting success until at least December.

That stinks Gim! I would say where we were it was maybe 15 to 20 percent of corn and 5% of beans. The beans we saw would likely not even be harvested because they looked terrible.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Vast majority of the crops are out.

Where I deer and pheasant hunt, I would say that more than half of the corn is still standing. It really inhibited my deer hunt last week. And there’s still some fields with beans too.

With the mild weather on tap through Thanksgiving, there will be no reason to harvest it either. Its likely to affect my pheasant hunting success until at least December.

Yup our fields are still standing as well.

Its been kinda nice in Iowa. With corn still coming out its like a controlled release of birds throughout the main hunting season.

I was hunting around Spirit Lake Iowa over the weekend and we had a tough hunt with the wind. Saw lots birds but had a hard time not spooking them to get a decent shot. I was able to see my pup flush and retrieve her first wild pheasant. That alone made for a great trip!

I kinda feel like when it is cold and snowy like this (well not this week) they really don’t like to be in the standing corn as much. Sure they go in it but by mid day they are back in the jungle.

Anyone notice this too? Early season I just don’t hunt them because of the corn but this time of year to the end it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

All the birds this weekend came out of the nasty late season cover adjacent to corn regardless of it was standing or cut.

Charlie W wrote:

Anyone notice this too? Early season I just don’t hunt them because of the corn but this time of year to the end it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

I usually start pheasant hunting right around noon and finish when its getting dark out. Generally, this time of year the best areas are adjacent to recently-harvested corn. Don’t remember the last time I started hunting right at 9am. Maybe 10 years ago, at least.

When I was deer hunting last week, I watched all kinds of pheasant activity every day from my stand. Those birds would fly from the grass/roost every morning around 7-8am directly to the corn and they didn’t come back until 3-4pm. It was like clockwork for a week straight.

Yup, just getting one bird can make the whole trip in my opinion. I was down that way and the wind, warm weather, and dry conditions made it tough!

We had fresh pheasant stir fry last night and it reminded my wife and I both why we love hunting them so much. Unique and delicious. I have made them all 3 ways I know how so far this season. Next up is white pheasant chili using a recipe I heard about online. I know it will be good but its one of those recipes that will partially mask the true pheasant flavor more or less. Sorry. Should have posted this in the Recipes forum! Back to hunting. My 4th weekend in a row to Iowa coming up then its over until maybe Dec.

gim, why do you wait to start hunting til noon? I’ve always hit it right away as soon as I can, especially in the late season hunts when there’s only 5-6 hours of daylight to work with

suzuki, pheasant/grouse stir fry is one of my staples. what are the other 3 ways you prefer cooking them? I’m always up for new recipes. On our last SD trip, we did a version of a friend Nashville hot chicken sandwich but replaced the chicken with pheasant and it was incredible!

I generally start around noon because I don’t have the energy to hunt all day long. About 4 hours is my max, and I want to be out there during the last hour of daylight.

I hunt almost all day long usually. Often a little bit of a late start, maybe 930 or 10am and often hunt till close. The last 1.5 hours of the day is usually best. White pheasant Chilli is really really good. It’s one of my top pheasant dishes, everyone gobbles it up.

I hunt further north than most do too. The snow is pretty friggin deep come December. There’s no way I can hunt all day in warm temps or deep snow. Sometimes I only hunt the last 2 hours of the day because that’s all I can physically do.

I used to be more gung ho about it when I was younger. I’d go every opener, start right at 9, during all kinds of weather conditions, etc. I don’t have the time or will power for that anymore. All my outings are local about an hour away.

Got out yesterday for the last few hours of daylight. Walked a very large public piece about an hour west of the cities and put up 10 birds. Most the birds I saw where right near the edge of cover and cut fields. The three roosters I saw all got up wild at least 80-100 yards ahead of me. It was super windy and I was hunting into the wind. baffles me how they can hear us coming. Still lot of fun to watch the old dog work!

thanks for the report dhpricco. late season rooster hunting will humble even the best of hunters. getting rootys on public late in the season is an accomplishment

Starting to really consider getting another dog to bridge the gap. My springer Gus is going to be 11 in January. Have three little kids at home so adding a puppy to the mix sounds daunting, but I don’t want a gap once Gus is no longer able to hunt.

dhpricco wrote:

It was super windy

Ya it was. It was a hurricane out there yesterday.

dhpricco wrote:

Starting to really consider getting another dog to bridge the gap. My springer Gus is going to be 11 in January. Have three little kids at home so adding a puppy to the mix sounds daunting, but I don’t want a gap once Gus is no longer able to hunt.

Ive done that for a long time and it works. Now getting older my wife and I are tired of two dogs all the time. My oldest still has hunt in her BUT her hearing is failing and I couldn’t call her or stop her last weekend. It was frustrating. I want to take her to Iowa this weekend but I dont want to lose her or see her get injured because I cant stop her.