Rooster Reports!!!

Well? Now that the weekend is over did everyone find bird numbers to their liking? Myself…I hit the Marshall area and was impressed watching over a WMA as pheasant after pheasant flew from the grass to the edge of the corn prior to 9am. Not a good sign I thought My fears came true when the areas that they were landing did not produce. They had headed to the safe confines of the standing corn! If only the season could open at 8am (like Iowa!!!).
This trip was not about me though. It was about getting my 6 month old british lab on some birds and getting some “on the job training” done.
During the day it absolutly amazed me as time after time she would get birdy and just knew what to do! This dog had never been on live birds, just me and her at the park with a dummy with pheasant sent. Got one bird by 10am then headed into town for breakfast. After some mid day walks and only hens to show for it we headed back to spot #1 hoping to watch the birds fly from the corn to that same grass they had spent Friday night…They didn’t disappoint! Bird after bird and more importantly rooster after rooster flew in as if they had reservations at a motel! Simply put it was an awesome show. Me and Teegan were able to harvest our last bird in only 10 minutes and left many behind for some incredible December hunting (with a limit of 3 ta’ boot!!!) DS

Nice report Soby
The best is yet to come
Good luck
cheers

Does this mean you are actually going to hunt pheasants this year Bro? You can always join me on Phil’s happy acres if you want. We can even jump some potholes if you get to missing the quackers.

Nice report RR!

dd

Me and the hound went just west of the metro to try some state land close to town since I had to be home early. I got to my spot nice and early and parked and waited with the dog. About 5 minutes to 9 I see a truck pull down the road to the west of the WPA I was parked in. Well, in that last 5 min two other trucks pulled down that same road and sure enough at 9am they were all walking my way . This WPA is only about 50 acres and I picked it because I was alone. Maybe I am alone, but I would have moved on if someone was parked in the one car lot of this small WPA .

Anyways, I walked it the best I could without getting shot. I passed on two roosters that the dog flushed within 20 yards of me due to the other group driving right at me. I heard them shoot as the bird flew over them and saw it sail 100 yards to the side of them. I continued to hunt already heading back to the truck. The dog flushed one more rooster and I was now on the board . As we continued towards the truck the dog got very birdy again, but he could not get the bird to flush. A few seconds later he came out with the injured bird the others had shot. I walked over to them to give them the bird that they never attempted to follow . They first said they didn’t hit that bird, but later told me they didnt go after it because they didnt have a dog After a brief conversation regarding how many hunters I felt could hunt this WPA at the same time safely and no thank you for the bird, I was on my way.

Pulled up to another WMA and spoke with the guy who was leaving the lot. He said he did not see anything, but heard birds before shooting time. I hit the north side of this area near the bean field and quickly flushed 5 birds along a thicket and nailed down my last bird . A very young and small bird, but a rooster none the less.

All in all it was a great hunt! A little hot for both me and the dog. Im not sure I would have hunted my dog much longer than the hour and a half I did. He was getting very hot. Im heading out local again in the morning due to the rain and will be trying somewhere else on Tuesday.

Going to be a great season

On a side note, I only saw roosters and thought that was odd!

I got out Sunday at about 4. I hate early season with a passion, but wanted to get out and go for a nice walk. Man was it WINDY. Worked a large private slough and worked the edges next to standing corn hoping for that one stupid bird to move out of the corn.

I was pleasantly surprised. Managed to pick up 4 birds for the Brother in Law and myself. Dogs worked good for early season, but they were hot. All the areas that normally have standing water for them did not, and me like a big dummy did not bring any water.

I don’t think it will be a great year for numbers, but not the worst year ever.

I too was out in the Marshall area. Just after sun up I saw about 20 birds fly out of a WMA in to a corn field. So we pulled in a waited until 9. We did flush a few hens at that spot. I had one rooster flush while I was giving my dog some water. We had a few more rooster flush but We did not get any. I was tring to let my son shoot his frist bird. Over all we did see a lot of birds but I can not wait for the corn to come down. I wish my son would hit one so dad can start shooting again.

Hunted Central MN and it was not that great. Usually our group of 6 is done within an hour. This year we baged 6 birds. Not a lot of birds in general. Lots of corn in and lots of really young birds. It should get much better but it will be a while before the corn starts to come out.

It was tough where I was also in SW MN. They just started on Saturday evening doing a lil’ corn. All the beans are out and some already disced. It was 80 degrees on Sunday and just as hot on Saturday. Good thing we had a pond to keep the Dogs cool. Not wanting to push the Dogs too much we opted for a very short day on Saturday. Not very many birds seen during hunting hours. Different story at Sunrise when I was in the deer stand the Roosters were every where. Found our biggest concentration or action of birds in the CRP next to corn and water.

Like I said they were just starting to hit the corn so hopefully in 2 weeks when I get back there most will be gone. I did talk to quite a few Farmers and they all said that with Fuel prices many guys were going to wait to take corn out until they had to, so they did not have to pay for propane to dry it as much.

Next weekend is SD so I’m pumped to hit another opener out there! My 3rd time! Just hoping for more seasonal weather!

I was in the Benson area for the opener and the rooster report is not as good as years past. For me it was the best opener I’ve ever had. My dog at 3.5 now I can finally say did fantastic. She was the oldest dog in camp this year and it showed. She was throwing birds up left and right and made the retrieve on every bird we shot. I think in the end our small group of 5 ended up with 10 birds over the 2 days and the whold group with about 25. The frustrating part was the 16 shots I fired all weekend connected 1 time! 1 time! It was so bad that my dog even gave me the look. I had a blast Saturday afternoon when just her and I set out to hunt a field that 6 people just hunted. I just decided to follow her and in an hour she put up 4 roosters and 6 hens. It was a blast trying to keep up with her and luckily I was able to connect on 1 bird so she could get a retrieve.

Once I get my problems figured out, we should have a very good season this year.

Quote:

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It was so bad that my dog even gave me the look.

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You just need to get use to that, Dan

Glad to hear the the pup is coming into her own

Headed down towards Windom. We managed to see alot of birds and were lucky enough to get our six birds. We had to really work hard for them birds. But as the corn goes so does the pheasant hunting. I will have to disagree with the roadside count as I saw more birds this year then I did the last 5 years. I really felt bad for the guys who got the thunderstorms. Can’t wait for the late season.

I did not get out on Sat as I spent the day with my family.

Sunday, a friend and I headed out to hunt some grouse in the morning and into the afternoon then pheasant hunt private land in the evening.
We got to the grouse woods and followed a trail the normally puts up good numbers of flushes. We arrived at an area that I trek off the trail which we did after locking the trail into the GPS. With the warm weather we have had I wanted to work the lowland swamp edges or any thing close to water. We found some great looking cover and started busted through some nasty young aspen, it was so thick you could not have shot if you had a chance. The leaves have just started to fall in this area but the undergrowth is still standing tall, man do we need a few hard frosts.
We had our first flush, a startling sound of thundering wings, a brief glimpse, and it was over.
We heard or seen 9 grouse in a few hours. I did get one shot off and connected with the only bird that we shot at.
We returned to the truck, with a lot of help from the GSP, and switched out the ammo and headed off to our private pheasant land.
As we drove we saw a boatload of birds. We arrived at one section of our land and saw about 15 birds, 7 which were roosters, standing in a bean field
We park in the farmers driveway and unload the dogs. After chatting with the farmer for awhile, we start hunting. The dogs working each area thoroughly, they pointed a few hens but no roosters. My dog, Star, came back to me for some water and laid down panting heavily after just 40 minutes. It was extremely thick cover and too hot for them. I decided to place my dog back in the truck after plenty of water and a swim in pond. Fifteen minutes later the other dog started acting weird, we cooled him off ASAP and made sure that he got plenty of water also. We cut our hunt short. Its better to be save than sorry and there is always next time
We spent the last hour of daylight BSing with the farmers that allow us to hunt their land and telling hunting stories of years gone by.
I can say that I never hunted pheasants in a t-shirt before yesterday and I hope that I do not get to do it again any time soon.

Ron

Went down to some Faribault WMA’s Saturday morning and only saw 2 hens get up and fly. There was a lot of people hunting, but we didn’t hear much gunfire. Had dogs with and they never got birdy. Almost got runover by a nice buck that came running out of the woods right at me though.

Great reports guys! I get the season started off this Saturday. Keep those stories and photos coming.

Drove west yesterday. Started hitting WMA’s from Brownton to Granite Falls. Ended up with 1 bird. Corn is the problem but still fun to get out. Rarely saw another car parked at WMA’s. Weekdays are hard to get but they are the best. Saw 2 bucks. Funny how you see so many bucks pheasant hunting. I see most that way for sure.

Thanks for the reports. Anybody else have any hunting/crop reports from the weekend? The pup and I are headed somewhere next Thursday.