This is the week 10 recap of the 2024 Pheasant Hunting season. This is proving to be a tough season between the weather, lack of birds and the worsening condition of my knee.
Wind and cold temperatures have limited when and where we can go. Early in the week we had some snow although that did not deter me from going. In Minnesota, it is tough to find a bird, even hens. In Iowa, we saw a lot of hens and even a couple roosters.
December 17th - Minnesota
When I got and checked my schedule I realized I had a free day so I decided to go hunting. The weather forecast was for moderate wind until about 2:00 PM when it would start to snow. I figured I could hunt for a while then head back when the snow started to fall.
I arrived at a new (to me) WPA that I have driven by but never hunted. So, Stella and I gave it a shot. The property had a mix of cover and terrain with prairie, marsh, and thickets. It really was a good mix of cover and I was encouraged. About 2 hours and 2.3 miles later not so much. Stella only got birdy once and we never saw a bird.
We then moved about 7 miles away to a WPA that I have hunted successfully before. As it started to snow we marched across a prairie to an isolated depression filled with cattails. Stella got a bit birdy but soon lost interest. We continued to an area filled with cattails and proceeded to work through it. Stella got birdy in a couple spots and eventually pushed out a hen. About a mile of hard walking with just one hen was a bit discouraging and it was snowing harder so we headed home.
December 20th - Iowa
Kevin and I headed down to Iowa for a two day hunt. We arrived around noon and headed to one of our favorite spots. We started out heading across the wind along the road and immediately Stella found several hens. They were in low (knee high) grass and sitting very tight, which surprised us.
We worked into the wind towards an adjacent field. On the way, Stella did a long track on a hen. After the hen flushed she continued tracking but then lost the track. Shortly there after, she flushed a rooster that flew very low, right in line with her so there was no opportunity to shoot. We continued into the other field, saw a couple hens and then headed back to the truck just at sunset.
By the time we finished we had seen 10 hens and 1 rooster. At least we saw some birds.
December 21st - Iowa
The next morning was cold but with minimal wind. We arrived at the WMA and set out right when shooting time opened up. We worked through the field which was a mix of upload prairie and low ground grass and reeds. There was minimal snow in some spots and we saw a few pheasant tracks, but not many. We flushed one hen. When we got back to the truck we decided to try another location.
At the next location there is a big cattail march right off the parking lot. We started walking the edge but Stella decided that the birds would be in the middle. Soon enough she was on point. Kevin got there and was looking around while I struggled to get through the cattails heading for them. A rooster flushed right near Stella and Kevin. He yelled “Rooster” but there was no immediate shot. Eventually he fired and the bird appeared to be hit but sailed a ways before landing. He was late shooting because he could not get his finger on the trigger due to a glove issue. We spent 30+ minutes searching for the bird but did not find it.
Stella then proceeded to track and point three hens including one that sat so tight that Stella pulled a few feathers when it flushed. (On the video). We continued working through the marsh and at one point I flushed a rooster right in front of me. I dropped it with one shot and Stella, Kevin and I all vectored to where it fell. Stella sniffed around and then stopped. She dove into some grass and up popped the rooster with an obviously broken wing. Stella went after it but missed. We spent another 45 minutes searching for that bird and did not find it. Very disappointing. Stella is usually very good at catching cripples.
We hunted for another hour and saw a couple more hens. The wind grew stronger and the terrain was tough to walk so we hung it up. By the time we were done we had seen five hens and two roosters. Better than our recent Minnesota trips.
Video
The video this week has several clips of Stella working hens. None of the roosters were captured on video. In fact, I had a lot of trouble capturing interesting video this week. I continue to have issues with the GoPro ignoring my voice commands to start or stop recording. As a result, sometimes I miss something because I forget to start recording (seldom) or the camera ignores my voice command. See my “Hunting with a GoPro” post that talks about the challenges.
Lessons Learned
Lessons this week were either pheasant related or GoPro related.
One thing we learned was that pheasants will use short, dense grass as thermal cover. We were assuming that they would be in cattails yet we found most of the birds out in the grass.
On the GoPro front there were two main lessons. The first lesson is that I need to be more rigorous about starting the camera. I think in a couple instances I just forgot to start it. The second lesson is that the GoPro voice commands just do not work that well when it is windy.
- Sometimes I tell it to start but it does not start.
- Sometimes I tell it to stop and it does not.
- If it does not stop recording then next time I tell it to start, it will stop. (The camera is not smart enough to differentiate between start and stop)
- I need to be very cognizant of the beeps, which tell me what it is doing. That is tough if I am focused on what Stella is doing.
Summary
In the week 10 recap I covered the trips we took and what we learned. The season is way behind almost all stats from previous years. The biggest problem lately has been the lack of birds in Minnesota and the weather in general.
The following graph shows the comparison in the number of roosters seen, between this year (green line) and previous years.
