South Dakota Public or Iowa Private: Comparing Pheasant Hunting Opportunities

South Dakota Public or Iowa Private: Comparing Pheasant Hunting Opportunities

By Troy Hoepker

Ace worked the fence line with ever-increasing zest, confident in his nose, he zig-zagged through the switchgrass as we moved further into the field trying to decipher the scent. Finally, it seemed the trail went cold and Ace was again looking for the essence of pheasant. The fence line seemed an obvious place to start with bean stubble next to this large tract of 240 acres of solid switchgrass. The vast field needed to be attacked with 5 or 6 guys and a straight-lined column approach of hunters and dogs, but Ace and I would be happy if we could put just one rooster down by ourselves. Halfway across the property Ace again began to move with that sharpened, fixated concentration that is solely inherent to bird dogs when they’re on their quarry. Within a moment he was frozen, motionlessly staring through the grass forward his nose as if to say “He’s right there boss!”

I slowly moved up in front of my hunting companion and looked down on a rooster hiding in the grass making himself as small as “pheasantly” possible! There sat this bird folded flat as a pancake, his head twisted sideways and backwards buried into the feathers of his back with one eye looking up at me. In a heartbeat he sprung, blasting off from the earth right by my face! Swinging to my right, I stepped aside and shouldered drawing aim on the rooster as it flew straight away from me. The next moment left me bewildered as I watched the bird sail harmlessly away wondering how in the world I had promptly missed my first South Dakota rooster of the trip.

A few hours earlier I had anxiously traveled four hours to Sioux Falls and purchased a hunting license and then came another hour before settling on this public land spot that looked promising. Ace only worked another bird or two out of the grass before we gave up and went in search of another spot. After looking over a few places I decided to try a 160-acre spot of CREP west of Farmer, SD. The switchgrass here was thicker and taller and as soon as we were in the field a couple roosters flew in the distance. Ace finally pointed a bird after working the heavy switch and at the shot, the advancing bird advanced no more and splashed down in the dense grass. It took a while to locate the bird when finally, Ace pointed him directly between us. As I reached down to pick him up, he lunged upward at my touch. The chase was on! I watched as the rooster and Ace went on a 40-yard spree in a complete circle around me seeing glimpses of the rooster rising 3 or 4 feet out of the grass repeatedly ahead of the dog and then disappearing again just as Ace would attempt to tackle the elusive ringneck. Ace finally locked his jaws on the bird once and for all and our first South Dakota rooster of the trip was in the bag!

My plan for the trip was to hunt my way through the James River Valley area in East-Central South Dakota, an area so rich in pheasant hunting tradition. I’d hit the areas of the most famous pheasant hunting destinations in the world, beginning around Mitchell for a day and then advancing to Huron the next. Day three would find me near Hitchcock and on to Redfield before ending the last two days near Aberdeen. I was determined to get the most out of the trip with Ace and do it all on public hunting land. South Dakota has long been known as the best pheasant hunting state in the nation and one of the reasons is its availability to hunt. South Dakota offers millions of acres in public hunting and in that respect there is no comparison between Iowa and South Dakota. Although some of the public isn’t well suited for pheasant hunting from year to year, there is still plenty of places to find to hunt. I chose to make my trip several weeks after the opener so there would be less hunters in the field and it was a decision that proved wise. The week before Thanksgiving was almost ideal, featuring good weather, and limited interference from other hunters. I saw plenty of other hunters and sometimes a field was occupied but most of the time I could find a piece of public hunting to have all to myself easily enough. South Dakota offers many forms of public hunting. There are WPA’s (Waterfowl Production Areas), CREP (Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program), GPA (Game Production Areas), BLM (Bureau of Land Management), CHAP (Controlled Hunting Access Program) and WIA’s (Walk-In Access Areas to name a few. For the most part I hunted CREP lands and WIA’s.

Day one and two was hard hunting, with lots of footwork in the Mitchell area. Birds seemed hard to find even on ground that looked promising. And when I did get into birds by late afternoon on day two, they were spooky and flying far ahead for a shot most of the time. The fields I hit near Huron proved to be similar only netting the occasional bird. Expectedly so, birds were spooky from being hunted hard and the warm, dry days didn’t help my cause. Still I was enjoying the hunt and seeing the different terrain. Most areas in that country are tabletop flat and I quickly taught myself that if you wanted to find the birds, I had to get in the cattail patches. Hard work and hard walking but that’s where they were. As I moved up to Hitchcock, it wasn’t uncommon to see a dozen birds or so per field but most were spooky. Occasionally though, one would sit tight enough for a shot and occasionally I’d hit a field where it seemed no birds existed. I was getting just enough action to keep me hunting all day but not the waves of birds that I’d dreamed of when thinking of South Dakota pheasant hunting.

The next day I drove to Redfield, SD, “The Pheasant Capital of the World.” This was where the first successful stocking of the pheasant took place between 1908 and 1911 as well as the first hunting season for pheasant in South Dakota. As I finished my third field in the area I questioned if the stocking of pheasants had ever been successful as I had seen zero pheasants. Frustrated I headed for Aberdeen.

Things looked much different in the Aberdeen area. Birds seemed to be everywhere, standing beside the roads and out in the open fields feeding. The first field I hunted witnessed no less than 200 birds continuously rising ahead of me and Ace. This was what I had envisioned South Dakota hunting to be only I wasn’t shooting. I never fired my gun that day being blanked at Redfield and never having had a bird hold for a shot near Aberdeen. But I found the big bird numbers I was looking for. The next morning, I awoke to a partly foggy, colder morning and as Ace entered the field, he quickly pointed. The bird held until I was almost there and presented a beautiful passing shot.

The first one of that day was in the bag! Soon after Ace and I worked into the cattails. We had gotten fairly good at working together as I moved along the edge of the cattails paralleling Ace’s movements inside the wide cattail strips. As he’d flush birds, I’d try and out-flank him and get the occasional shot at a rooster. It worked and I downed number two shortly thereafter. The sounds of two shotgun blasts were all it took and even on that cold, crisp morning, the birds knew they were being hunted. In waves they would rise from the cattails escaping our danger way ahead. Even if frustrating, it was a sight to behold. Number three came but took more effort.

On the last day, we entered a beautiful spot and walked nearly half of it without seeing a thing. Pheasant tracks littered the skiff of snow in the cattails so I knew they were there and Ace’s actions showed me that they were running ahead. I had the feeling that when one bird finally flushed there would be an explosion of birds hitting the air from everywhere. And I was correct. We managed to get one to hold and as we walked the last few hundred yards of our last hunt Ace’s telltale tail wiggle combined with his scurry left to right to follow scent told me he was on one last running bird for the trip through the warm season grasses. That bird ran for over a hundred yards with Ace working his trail the whole way. Finally when he showed himself, he also showed me what a veteran South Dakota rooster looks like when he’s been hunted for several weeks, day after day on public ground. He rose as low as possible, not waiting for Ace to point and then like a fighter jet in a defensive dive, he dropped from his highest point, banking low and away to gain speed as he turned away from me. In turn, he sank back down to grass top level almost skimming the tops of the grass luring the dog to chase behind him directly in line with my shot. I was forced to hold off once I acquired the target and watched my last chance at a South Dakota rooster sail off to safety.

I had shot birds on the trip and had my share of misses as well. Overall, I was pleased with the amount birds I saw and the results of hunting South Dakota public lands but I was anxious to get back to the farms I hunt in Iowa. I hunted a mixture of public and private here in Iowa last season with varying degrees of success at either. While there are plenty of public spots here in Iowa with great pheasant numbers, hunting pressure from low public hunting acres statewide really leave no comparison between us and South Dakota. But when you compare South Dakota public hunting against privately owned land to hunt here in Iowa, the difference may not be what some people think it is.

In fact, I saw places here that held as many or more birds than some great South Dakota public spots this year! If you found the habitat it usually meant finding birds. I was able to limit out on several occasions this year and sometimes did it fairly quickly. I really believe, after hunting both states this year, that there wasn’t a lot of difference between the public grounds of South Dakota and the private lands of Iowa hunting wild birds as long as you found good habitat. That’s not to say that every corner of Iowa has the same abundance of birds, however the same can certainly be said for South Dakota. I would give the nod to South Dakota in terms of sheer numbers but when you take into consideration the hunting pressure public lands see in South Dakota, you may have a better hunt on private ground in Iowa against less flighty birds. Think of it this way, does it really matter if you see 100 or 200 birds on a 160-acre farm? Either way, you’re probably going to have plenty of opportunity to shoot your limit. So when speaking of highly pressured wild birds versus low pressured wild birds sometimes less is more and the quality of the hunt can be better even if you see less pheasants overall on the hunt.

While the trip to South Dakota was a great experience for my young bird dog to get on scent, he had more birds hold for a point here in Iowa on average than on South Dakota public ground. A trip to South Dakota is a lot of fun and should certainly be on any bird hunter’s bucket list. In fact if you haven’t had the chance to go to South Dakota to pheasant hunt you need to make it a priority. Many hunters that go out of state to hunt South Dakota do so on public ground and if you do your homework, you’ll find great public land spots to hunt. I’m not going to compare their privately held ground to ours because let’s be honest there is no comparison, South Dakota is the hands down pick. However, when comparing our private ground hunting to their public hunting, don’t sell Iowa short. We don’t have the abundance of out of state hunters that we used to but great pheasant hunting can be found right here and our hunter’s dollars stay here locally doing so.

Walking the field after returning from my South Dakota trip, Ace and I felt at home again as a ringneck broke out above the grass and set wings! A moment later walking out across the corn stubble retrieving the bird, I couldn’t help but think as I added him to my hunting pouch that there’s no place I’d rather be than right here in Iowa hunting our Iowa roosters!