A WATERY WEEKEND IN SOUTH DAKOTA
By Mike Yurk
We were pushing through a cut over corn field when the rooster pheasant exploded out of a small spot of weeds. As the bird gained air I heard one shot and then a second. The bird crumpled and collapsed, hitting the ground.
Doug had fired the second shot that dropped the bird. Gunner, the black lab belonging to Nathan, charged across the field to retrieve the bird.
Rain pounded down on us and it was getting to be late afternoon. Doug’s pheasant was the last bird we would bag for the day, closing out our weekend of pheasant hunting in South Dakota. We would see one more rooster but it got up half way across the field and sailed over the road to another field without any attempt on our part to shoot. It was way out of range.
It was the end of a watery weekend of pheasant hunting. Doug Hurd, of Eagan, Minnesota, Howard and Nate Johnson of St. Paul, Minnesota and this writer of Hudson, Wisconsin left the Twin Cities for our weekend of pheasant hunting in South Dakota. We left on warm and sunny mid-November day. The weather forecast promised us warm, sunny weather for the next day with some warnings about a light, intermittent rain the second day.
Doug Hurd shows off a pheasant taken on a rainy weekend in South Dakota.
A group gathered at the farm of David Melland for the weekend pheasant hunt. Coming also from St. Paul was Bret Godfrey and his son Samuel. Evan Vogel was there from Morris, Minnesota, Nathan Stearns of Huron, South Dakota and Jeff Berg from Leola, South Dakota. David’s farm is north of Aberdeen on the South Dakota/North Dakota boarder. David raises beef cattle but his farm is also home to a large population of pheasants which is what we were after.
It didn’t take long on the first day of hunting to find out that the weather forecast was way off. Dark gray clouds rushed overhead and cold winds and rains slashed at us as we walked through fields and wood areas in search of pheasants. For those of us that wear eye glasses the rain was a major nuisance.
On the first day we found a few birds in patches of heavy cattails where the pheasants were deep into cover to escape the harsh weather. At one spot of cattails, less than a quarter of an acre in size, we flushed seven roosters and bagged three.
On our second day of hunting it continued to rain although the wind had dropped a bit and the temperatures seemed somewhat warmer. The pheasants were still tough to find. We hit all the areas where we have been successful in finding birds in previous years and cattails where we had found birds the day before. We saw very few roosters.
Our lack of birds had nothing to do with either South Dakota or its pheasant population. South Dakota had a mild winter last year with a significant survival numbers of birds through the winter. On top of that, South Dakota had ideal hatching conditions resulting in a lot of birds. Many of the hens had more than one hatch. David told me that in some cases there were as many of three hatches from spring through early fall.
Pre-hunting season forecasts and surveys showed that South Dakota was going to have a very good hunting season. The forecasts and surveys were right. Once the pheasant hunting season started reports showed a high success rate for hunters in South Dakota. Pheasant hunting in South Dakota continues until the end of December which means that there is opportunity for great hunting yet. OWO is sending a group of Wisconsin hunters beginning December 12.
The lack of birds we found on our trip had nothing to do with South Dakota and their pheasant population. The weather was our single most detrimental factor. Birds are hard to find and flush in rain. I have never done well hunting in the rain, even for ducks, and that weekend was no different. On top of that we had a snow storm on the last evening. The next day we drove home with the ground was white, roads slippery and temperatures in the single digits.
We found our best hunting in the thickest of cover but then we still had to almost step on the birds to get them up. So the key to hunting in the rain is to find the heaviest cover and force your way through it to find birds.
However, like with any outdoor activity the success of a hunting or fishing trip has little to do with the game or fish taken. It has everything to do with the people you are with. The food was good, the companionship was great and it was wonderful fun. The laughs, the jokes, the stories, the memories were all there. We are already looking forward to next year.
Editor’s Note: Mikes Yurk’s column is sponsored by Warner’s Dock in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Warner’s Dock is the premier marine dealer in northwestern Wisconsin. They have a complete supply of new and used boats, motors, and trailers as well as other marine supplies plus a complete maintenance staff for all your boating needs. They can be contacted through their website at www.warnersdock.com or by telephone at 1-888-222-3625.