A quick recap of week 2 of the 2026 pheasant hunting season. As is often the case, early season hunts are dictated by the weather. This week was no exception. It was just too warm. We did get out once but only for a couple of hours and even then it was just too warm.
Willow Update: She was too active the first week. We struggled with keeping her from licking the incision and she ended up with an infection. A culture showed an really bad bacteria that is very resistant to drugs. So, we have been changing her bandages twice per day. She saw the vet on Friday and things are looking better. We try to keep her drugged, so that she doesn’t overdue it. She is using the surgical leg and putting some weight on it.
10/19/2026 - Minnesota WPA
This was a solo trip with just me and Stella. The temperatures were marginal plus I made a strategic mistake. Instead of picking a place to hunt the night before, I planned to scout out a new spot. Big mistake. Using Onx, I located a new spot. When we arrived, it turns out it is a new area that is being restored and wasn’t open to hunting yet. So I found another new spot to check out and it wasn’t worth hunting.
After wasting time scouting, I decided to hunt a known location. But because of the scouting I lost the first hour of lower temperatures. By the time we started hunting it was already starting to warm up.
We got into the field and within about 15 minutes Stella got birdy. We tracked for about 10 minutes to some tall weeds. All of a sudden she charged forward and two birds flushed about 15 yards ahead. I couldn’t tell what gender they were. She will charge like that if she sees or hears a bird. We regrouped and she immediately tracked a hen within about 20 yards for the first birds.
At this point she was already pretty warm. We continued hunting and she started tracking multiple times but didn’t see anything for quite a while. At one point she was pretty interested and we tracked into a clump of willows. She lost the track. We were taking a break when a rooster flushed about 20 yards away which I missed. My guess is that she was tracking that rooster before she lost the track.
After that, she tracked a hen. It had gotten quite warm by this time. I was hunting in a t-shirt and Stella was taking breaks in shady spots. We headed back to the truck and headed home.
Video
There is no video this week. I captured a lot of tracking but no real good shots of birds.
Lesson Learned
Hunt first, scout later.
Summary
Another early season week when it was just too warm. A strategic mistake caused us to lose an hour of reasonable temperatures. Plus, I missed the only rooster we saw.
