Iowa Opener

  • suzuki
    Woodbury, Mn
    Posts: 18621
    October 27, 2011 at 1:22 pm #212259

    Heading down Friday night to stay in motel near hunting area. Birds are down but it’s Iowa so hopes are high.

    kooty
    Keymaster
    1 hour 15 mins to the Pond
    Posts: 18101
    October 27, 2011 at 1:32 pm #113239

    Good luck! Take some pics. Lee going with you?

    suzuki
    Woodbury, Mn
    Posts: 18621
    October 27, 2011 at 2:36 pm #113242

    Mikey cant make it this year so I am tagging along with his relatives. I’m sure him and I will hit it in Nov. And hopefully Dec in SD..

    kooty
    Keymaster
    1 hour 15 mins to the Pond
    Posts: 18101
    October 27, 2011 at 4:07 pm #113254

    We are still trying to work out some dates for December. Tough coordinating so many schedules.

    suzuki
    Woodbury, Mn
    Posts: 18621
    October 31, 2011 at 12:32 pm #113481

    Reports were true. Never seen it this bad in the areas we went. Weather means everything in pheasant country and last winter/spring really did a number. Ended up with 4 on opener between 3 guys and 3 dogs. Anyone else hit Iowa this past weekend?

    kooty
    Keymaster
    1 hour 15 mins to the Pond
    Posts: 18101
    October 31, 2011 at 12:49 pm #113484

    Bummer. Hopefully we have a mild winter and spring. These birds can rebound so fast with 2-3 hatches a summer.

    mbenson
    Minocqua, Wisconsin
    Posts: 3842
    October 31, 2011 at 4:48 pm #113501

    Quote:

    Reports were true. Never seen it this bad in the areas we went. Weather means everything in pheasant country and last winter/spring really did a number. Ended up with 4 on opener between 3 guys and 3 dogs. Anyone else hit Iowa this past weekend?

    This is actually the third year in a row that the ringnecks have endured nasty cold wet springs that have decimated lots of birds from the landscape at this time. The loss of CRP lands is starting to hurt as well… I went to school in the NE part of the state and still have friends from LaX going down and its been tough the last two seasons for sure.

    Mark

    suzuki
    Woodbury, Mn
    Posts: 18621
    October 31, 2011 at 5:54 pm #113507

    I fear for the future of pheasants with CRP programs shrinking.

    kooty
    Keymaster
    1 hour 15 mins to the Pond
    Posts: 18101
    October 31, 2011 at 6:44 pm #113511

    In states with very rich agriculture land like Iowa and Minnesota, I suspect there will be very little pheasant hunting in the future.

    Dad has about 12 more years on his. As far as we are concerned, it will always be CRP in some fashion or another whether we are getting paid or not.

    mbenson
    Minocqua, Wisconsin
    Posts: 3842
    October 31, 2011 at 7:21 pm #113515

    Kooty:

    Your family and families like yours will be the future of wildlife.

    I haven’t been close to this as I should so there may be other reasons (budget) for CRP disappearing, but hopefully the government will find other renewable fuels to help take the pressure off the desire to put crops back into fields…

    Mark

    nittany_lion
    Posts: 44
    November 2, 2011 at 4:17 pm #113680

    We definitely had a slower opener than in the last 10 years. However, we were pleasantly surprised with how many total birds (especially hens) that we saw, as we were expecting the absolute worst.

    10 guys ended with 20 birds on Saturday and 15 on Sunday.

    The locals were telling us that there is some major speculation that a new soybean insecticide (Warrior?) is killing birds (robins, starlings, pheasants?). Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

    Left the camera at home, so don’t have any pictures to post. Hopefully Whatsa can add a few! Jeff

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