We were welcomed by cousin, Wayne Singleton and wife Diane at the Singleton Bed and Breakfast in Parkston. They had arrived yesterday from West Lafayette and will be staying through Thanksgiving. After unpacking, we settled in for some college football, visiting and lounging.
The official pheasant count for the season is down, statewide almost 45% because of the heavy snows, harsh winter and wet spring. Although down considerably the populations should still provide us with plenty of good hunting.
On Sunday, seven of us (Pat Bowar, Ed Bowar, Mike Bowar, Al Brech, Jay, Wayne and I) hunted around Parkston. Pat and Ed are Diane’s brothers. Mike is the son of Pat and Al is a good friend of Ed’s from Sioux Falls. Al and Ed both have good German Shorthairs. We hunted some very good areas and were rewarded with 11 pheasants. It was obvious that the pheasant numbers are down. On this day I left Tripp in the dog box until late in the afternoon. I wasn’t comfortable turning him loose with a large group of hunters and 3 other dogs. The weather was unseasonably mild with winds blowing at 15-20 mph. The rest of the week looks to be more of the same with a little cooler weather coming in at mid-week. This will be the only day that Al gets to hunt with us. Ed will join us again later in the week. This is a picture of Al’s dog – Gabe, pointing a rooster that Al flushed and shot.
On Monday, Jay, Wayne and I hunted mostly private land around Parkston that Pat had lined up for us. We also hunted Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). These are private lands that have been enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) that are open to public access. There are several of these in a 10 mile radius of Parkston and are of various sizes and quality of habitat. We hunted hard and long for 3 birds – but still had a very good day. Tripp hunted with Cork all day and made two really nice retrieves. This is the first opportunity he has had to be exposed to live birds. Right now he is doing a lot of running, jumping and aggravating Cork. Slowly he is learning to use his nose. Again, the weather was very mild and very windy.
Jay, Tripp and Cork with his first S.D. pheasant:
Tuesday was more of the same. All told, we were in the field for 6 hours, another hard day of hunting with limited success – 4 birds. We saw several birds but because of the dry, windy and mild temps – they were flushing too far in front of us. Age, conditioning, and warm and dry hunting conditions are taking a toll on Cork. At 10 years old he is still a very good pheasant dog but I just don’t have the time nor do we have the hunting conditions to replicate that of S.D. On this day Jay shot his first “road hunt” pheasant. At the end of the day I saw a rooster cross the road in the rear view mirror. Jay jumped out and made a nice long shot into the setting sun. A good ending to a beautiful day. Here are a couple pictures of our successes.
Joe and Jay:
Jay's first road hunt pheasant:
Joe, Cork, Jay and Tripp:
Wayne, Tripp, Cork and Jay:
Ed returned from Sioux Falls to hunt with us on Day 4. We met about 20 miles NE of Parkston to hunt road ditches, CREP ground and some private farm land. We bagged 4 birds on the day but had some excellent dog work and retrieves. Cork took the day off. He was really struggling with sore muscles and stiff joints. Tripp is starting to get the hang of it – using his nose more. He is well behaved and covers a lot of ground. This is a picture of Cork from last night – too tired to even stand up and eat.
Pat took the day off on Thursday to hunt with us. We drove 2 hours NW to the Gann Valley area to hunt roadsides, eating breakfast at Kimball. This part of the state is dominated by cattle ranching, hay ground with some row crop production. We saw a lot of deer, two eagles and some pheasant. It was a challenge to find good cover in the roadside ditches, but when we did there were pheasants. With 4 hunters and two dogs we would split up with two hunters and one dog together finding a long stretch of good ditch cover and play “leap frog” (let out 2 with dog and drive up ½ mile, leave pick up and the other 2 with dog would work the roadside ahead until the other pair would arrive at the pickup and drive to meet the group ahead). Jay received the sharpshooter award today. All told, 7 birds. Cork worked hard and did a very good job for us today. In past years it was typical that when birds were flushed that multiple rises occurred. Until today we rarely had more than one bird flush at a time. Today Jay and Pat had 8-10 flush together with most being roosters. We had a great day. Although all of S.D. is wide open – this part of the state was “big country”. We could see all around us for many miles. There could be several stories worth sharing of today’s hunt but I will only highlight two.
Jay and I were hunting a wide section of an abandoned road right of way when a rooster flushed between us. Both of us shot bringing the bird down but he hit the ground running with dogs and me in pursuit. The bird ran onto private ground in a fence row with standing corn. Hunters are allowed to shoot birds over public right of way and retrieve them on private ground if they do not carry their firearm. I was into the field 50 yards before I realized I was still carrying my gun. I laid the gun down and continued to watch the dogs work for the downed bird. Cork tracked the bird along the fencerow for several minutes until he lost the scent and we turned to walk back to the right of way. I reached down to pick up my gun and noticed tail feathers next to my gun. Thinking that the rooster had definitely traveled through that area, I reached down to pick them up and discovered that they were attached to a bird. The live rooster had burrowed into the cornstalks and the only thing that was exposed was about 4 inches of tail feathers. This retrieve belonged to me.
On the same day, we were in the pickup driving around looking for good road ditches when we saw a rooster cross the road in front of us. I stopped to let Jay, Wayne and Pat out. I drove on down the road to provide a block. I let Cork out and the three began to walk towards me. No rooster flush. We surmised that the rooster ran out of the ditch and into the field. Cork began to work the area and started tracking in the opposite direction. When a bird is running and a dog has the scent he is running to keep up and if the bird is going to be bagged, the hunter has to keep up with the dog. I ran behind Cork for 150 yards and finally he stopped and pointed then relocated about the time the rooster flushed. The result was a low, left to right shot and a retrieved rooster. This is a picture of Corks bounty and the two of us with the much deserved bird.
Other pictures of our day.
Jay and Joe:
Jay, Wayne and Pat:
On Friday, Wayne, Jay and I hunted near Parkston. It was another mild, windy day. Several stories could be told but I’ll summarize with: A road ditch bird; two out of a head high cattail slough; and two out of a grown up pasture. Tripp made a nice solid point on a hen and two good live running bird retrieves. Cork was his usual steady self but by the end of the day was completely spent. We stopped by the following fencerow to get this picture of Jay – he was fascinated with this style of “No Hunting” sign.
In the evening, we visited Michael, Audrey, Grady and Cohen’s new home and said goodbyes to Pat and Cathy. Jay and I packed the pickup for the trip home. We left Parkston at 3 a.m. and arrived 12.5 hours later back in Indiana.
It was a great week. Wayne and Diane were outstanding hosts. We enjoyed great accommodations, good food and fellowship, memorable hunting moments, great dog work, saw some beautiful South Dakota country, visits with Wayne and Diane’s family and friends and even bagged a few pheasants. Wayne and Diane are special. Jay and I can’t begin to thank them enough for all they did to make this such a great trip. Thanks to Jay for being a hunting and traveling companion and sharing all the experiences. We’ll have to do it again.
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