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Hunters work harder, but pheasants are out there


Although the numbers of birds are down from previous years, it hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of pheasant hunters who traveled to the area for the annual season opener.
Harsh weather conditions wreaked havoc on the spring hatch according to the annual South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks brood county survey, but it didn’t keep the hunters from coming to the Mobridge area. Heavy snow and ice during the winter months and extreme drought until late July, knocked the bird numbers down to lower than the 10-year average.
According to Shawn Madison, who hunted near Pollock with a group from out-of-state, the hunters worked harder than normal to get birds.
“The numbers are down, but there are still birds out there,” he said. “It was windy and that makes it harder. On the first day we should have limited out, we saw the birds, we just didn’t shoot well.”
Madison, who took his six-year-old daughter Sophie with him on the hunt, said he saw several younger birds that were just turning color. He said they were from broods that would have hatched later in the summer and benefited from the end of July, early August rains. Madison took his six-year-old daughter Sophie with him on the hunt,and said she surprised the adult hunters on the trip. She kept up with the hunters in the field and proved there is hunting in her blood.
Kelly Kemnitz, who with her husband Brent own and operate the MoRest Motel in Mobridge, said the hunters that stay at the hotel have been coming for years and with a couple of exceptions, they came to Mobridge again this year.
“I would say they had low expectations so they were happy with the birds they got,” she said. “Some days were better than others and some areas better than others.”
She said those hunters that went West River had better luck than those on the east side of Lake Oahe.
“For a lot of people this is a tradition. It is time to spend with friends and family,” she said. “They said the numbers were down but they still got more birds than they would have back home.”
Kemnitz said the brood count number information has impacted their business a bit, as they had one large group cancel reservations, but other guests are keeping the hotel full.
“The pheasant hunting here is best in the country,” she said . “The bird numbers may be down but the hunting is still good.”
GF&P reports from the fields across the state indicate the hunters who hit the fields in Central Region of South Dakota on opening weekend averaged one bird per hunter.
In the Northeast Region, where Day, McPherson and Edmunds counties had the most hunter traffic, the average was 0.5 bird per hunter.
– Katie Zerr –

 

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