Field Notes:
 

What a great season 2011/2012 has been so far and we still have a couple months left!  Extremely mild weather for South Dakota coupled with a high number of out-of-state hunters made for a record breaking season for us.  We hope with the scheduled hunters coming these next two months that we will break the 5,000 birds harvested barrier.   After visiting with other operators in the state, it appears many of the preserves saw their best year this season.   I believe the reason for this is the native pheasant population took a huge hit in certain areas of the state.  The eastern part of the state was hit the hardest and people that traditionally hunted this area sought a new place to hunt this season.   We, in the central part of the state, actually benefitted from increased bird numbers (missed the bad weather) and any preserves that concentrated on keeping great habitat, saw incredible bird numbers this season.  I predict it will be even more of an issue this upcoming season. Hunters will go to where the birds are and we have them in central South Dakota.  Our habitat along with our management philosophy has certainly paid off as we are currently wintering around 5,000 birds!

We hope next season is another record breaker so please take a minute and get your group together and guarantee your hunting dates this fall. W e definitely don’t want any of our veteran groups to find the dates they want to be filled already.  Julie will make the booking process as pleasant as possible with only requiring a completed reservation form and a 50% deposit.  Don’t overlook the early season hunts if your favorite dates are already filled.  The end of September and first part of October hunts can be very enjoyable with beautiful weather and birds that sit tighter for the pointing dogs.

If anyone has any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the office and talk to Mark or Julie @ (605)224-7580.  Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you.

 

Mark