This is the first post of the 2026 pheasant hunting season covering preparations leading up to the season as well as two hunts during the first week.
Season Preparations
Like the last three seasons, my focus throughout the summer was to rehab after yet another joint replacement. This time it was my right knee. In addition to PT, I also set a goal to walk 239 miles before the season started. (There were 239 days from surgery to season start.) I ended up with 209 miles, which I am okay with, considering how hot the summer was and the Cat Island fishing trip I did. After a preseason walk plus a couple hunts the knee works, although not as well as I hoped. But, the reality is it takes over a year for knees to completely heal. My left knee, which I replaced in 2025 is now working well, so I am hopeful that by this time next year my right knee will be fine.
Stella is almost 11 but still seems to be getting around well. I almost always took a dog when I was doing my rehab walks so both dogs put on a lot of miles throughout the summer.
Willow was doing well until she tore her CCL (equivalent to a human ACL.) She had surgery about 10 days ago and will be recovering for months. Trying to keep her quiet has been a challenge.
The weather leading up to the season has been a challenge. I like to get the dogs out on the field a few times before the season but it has been too warm. I only got Stella out once and that was a short run because of the temperatures.
The other things I do to prep for the season include:
- Shooting sporting clays
- Conditioning and waterproofing my boots. At the end of a season I clean and condition them. Before the season I condition and waterproof them.
- Replaced my GoPro hat mounts after all the problems I had last year.
- Charged the collars, handheld, spare batteries, etc.
- Setup for my trip logs in Garmin Basecamp and OneNote.
- Updated my statistics spreadsheet for the new year. Added a new hunter to the spreadsheet.
The other item of note is that Iowa is considering changing their non-resident hunting licenses to something similar to South Dakota. It doesn’t appear to impact us this year but if it goes into effect next year then we will stop hunting Iowa and focus on Minnesota. The supposed reason for the change is that non-residents are out competing residents for access. The reality is that Iowa has failed to create enough public access for their residents. Minnesota does a much better job of creating habitat and public opportunities. If we stop hunting Iowa, that will negatively impact the small businesses that we support when we travel to and hunt in Iowa. It should be noted that we hunt mid-week throughout the season. We seldom see any other hunters, resident or non-resident.
With the Iowa issue in mind, I have been starting to investigate other areas in Minnesota. It turns out we have been ignoring some areas in Minnesota that are actually closer. Plus, we have never explored the SW corner of the state. I have already started looking for and scouting new locations.
10/14/2026 - Minnesota WPA
The last few years, early in the Minnesota season we have been challenged with too much heat. This year was the same. Opening weekend was in the high 70s, which was fine with me because I don’t typically hunt public ground on weekends. By Wednesday of the first week temperatures were finally low enough that I was comfortable going out.
Stella and I went to a WPA that we have hunted before. They have had a lot of rain and the cover was very thick. It was slow going for both Stella and I. This particular WPA has always had a problem with willows growing across the fields. Over the last couple of years the feds came in and mulched the willows and burned the field. The willows are back with a vengeance. They are still small enough to not interfere much but by next year they will be a problem.
We were about 15 minutes from the truck when Stella got birdy. We spent the next 40 minutes tracking and flushing three hens. With the cover so thick they were creeping around in circles. All three hens were within 75 yards of each other.
We continued across the field with Stella getting birdy but not finding any additional birds until we moved along a cattail slough. At one point a bird flushed wild out of some willows. So after, Stella got birdy and was actively tracking a bird through some scattered willows. As se got closer a rooster flushed about 5 yards ahead of us and I dropped it. Stella retrieved it and we had our first bird of the season.
From there, Stella pushed another hen up before heading out into open prairie. There she went on point. As I walked up, another hen flushed. From there we went back to the truck and finished a successful day.
10/16/2026 - Minnesota WPA
This hunt was on a Friday with temperatures in the low to mid 40s, but a really strong (22-24 mph) wind from the NNW. Wind this strong is always tough and it was especially challenging all day.
On this trip I was joined by Chris who is a new pheasant hunter. In fact, this was his first actual hunt. We have been shooting sporting clays and he did a mentored hunt put on by the Pheasant Forever chapter I belong to.
We started out heading into the wind. About 500 yards from the truck, a rooster flushed wild near Chris. He took a shot but missed. That was the only rooster we saw all day.
From there we continued north. Stella would get birdy, track and then lose the track. She was never really excited. I assume that the wind was making it hard to follow the tracks. We did see two hens.
While we didn’t see many birds and Stella never got real birdy , it was still a good day. Chris was exposed to what a real hunt is all about.
Video
In another post, I talked about how I had changed the GoPro mount on my hats. After a training run and two hunts I am happy with the new mounts. I finally got some decent video clips.
On my first hunt, I forgot to bring extra batteries. I ended up using the emergency battery I carry in my vest.
When I edited the videos I noticed that I was moving my head too quickly. That makes the videos tough to watch. I forgot about making slow, smooth side to side movement, when possible.
This week’s video is mostly from the first hunt. It contains tracking a hen, the rooster clip and a point of a hen.
Summary
This wraps up the season preparation and week 1 pheasant hunting post.
Lessons Learned:
- Bring spare GoPro batteries
- Move my head slowly when recording video
