With the finding of the bird flu in several different locations in Wisconsin. What are everyone's thoughts on what the DNR will do for production and release numbers. May your dogs work good and your shot be true come October.
Upland/Small Game
2022 Pheasant Hunting
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That’s a wrap for me this season. Snuck out yesterday morning for a few hours with the boys. No one else around, it was glorious. No birds, no tracks even. When leaving, heard the boys cackling across the road on private property. Then saw a rooster feeding on private property. Morale of the story- there are still birds to be had.
Saw a ton of birds this year. Made memories that will last forever. And only one nightmare for me this year of thinking how I missed that shot!
Until 2023, be safe, be kind, shoot straight, and always trust the point!
My point is just because someone is getting 25 pheasants in a season doesn't make them a person who is overharvesting or only following the bird truck. Some of us just love getting out as much as possible and working with our dogs.
Good for you, but I still stand by my statement that folks shooting this many birds are probably over their possession limits. You would have to eat birds several times a week to stay ahead of the limit. I also hunt as often as possible just to see my dog work. They released in our area last week and there were hardly any hunters out. We let our dogs work for awhile after we bagged our 2 birds.
I have bagged 18 pheasants this year and should have upwards of 30 if I would have hit everything I shot at. I do not follow the truck and dont know when they release birds however I go out maybe 5 times a week. In fact if i stumble on the truck i usually leave the area because I dont want my pup getting too excited at a young age. Trying to work on her steadiness. (have a young pup who is doing really good for her first year). I never over harvest and in fact only like one each time as I dont feel like cleaning two! I go on weekends or weekdays and try to go to out of the way places to avoid crowds. I do eat all of them. My dad who is older loves the legs and I use breasts to make pot pie which requires quite a few pheasants.
My point is just because someone is getting 25 pheasants in a season doesn't make them a person who is overharvesting or only following the bird truck. Some of us just love getting out as much as possible and working with our dogs.
Good luck to all on the last few weeks of the season.
I also like the idea of tags to prevent over-harvest.
CC- With all due respect, I don't believe violators/slob hunters will stop abusing the resource just because of tags. Still makes me upset when I read Shellfish's post about guys shooting 25-40 birds year. We all know what these guys are doing and someone dumb enough to brag to a stranger about over bagging is not going to care/stop due to tags. Once again, I am in agreement with you that the DNR should allocate more birds to other parts of the state. Maybe bring it up for the Spring Hearings?
I do support the 12 noon closure for smaller release sites (several are in my area) but like the option of hunting all day on the larger sites down in my area (Kettle Moraine North etc).. Just my opinion/preference
I like the noon closure for pheasant hunting properties.
Maybe it should include more properties.
In our area, Killsnake has a noon closure but the Brillion Wildlife property does not. Brillion 1300 acreage and 800 birds. Killsnake 2000 acreage and 1120 birds. Why not noon closure for both?
If the birds are released after the noon closure the pheasants have an entire day to spread out and get used to the area. No shooting the birds as they are released from the truck or chasing them down before they know the area. Common sense.
I also like the idea of tags to prevent over-harvest.
Wisconsin DNR, please be fair with our state-raised pheasants.
f you are concerned about snowfall in the upper half of the state. Please release our fair share of the state-raised birds in a larger final release before deer hunting.
Wisconsin DNR, please don't give all the state-raised birds in a Christmas release only to the bottom half of the state.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all
I sometimes learn that some hunters harvest from 25 to 40 birds a season. Some mentioned that 25 birds a season was a bad year, and the DNR needs to release more birds. Let's just go with 30 birds harvested per season by one person.
Assume you know the possession limit for pheasants is 6 birds (3x the daily bag limit of two birds). Either those guys are eating a lot of pheasants during the season or are over bagging. I would ask guys like this what they are doing with all their birds?? Of course I know guys can say they are giving them away etc and this gets into the same issues discussed on fishing limits/possession.
BTW- Having pheasant enchilada's tonight. A favorite recipe of mine for birds.
Imo. Pheasant releases are spread out enough, but hunters are not. Being that the largest majority of Wisconsin's pheasant hunting is released birds, the harvest of those birds should be spread out among all the hunters. By my observations and questions to other pheasant hunters over many years of Wisconsin pheasant hunting. I would say 20% of the hunters harvest 80% of the birds.
When you show up to pheasant hunt in the middle of the week (and it doesn't matter where you hunt) and the parking lot looks like a foot ball game lot. You know the word came out that a release happened the afternoon before. If you go the following day, the parking lot will barely have a vehicle in it. I have observed that many of the vehicles in the lots are usually the same vehicles. (I am not saying these hunters are over harvesting) but unless you are available to hunt the morning after a release. The odds go way down on collecting a bird. There just will not be many birds left. I feel bad for weekend hunters if the release was a Thursday afternoon. The Friday morning group will harvest most of the release, leaving few, if any birds for the weekend folks. Saying that. There will be a few hunters with exceptional dogs that can still find a few stragglers that made it through the onslaught of hunters that follow a release.
I think most pheasant hunters are looking for a quailty hunting experience for themselves, their dog, their family and friends. Occasional success does improve that hunting experience. It should not be a battle of who can get there first after a release.
The DNR tries to do their best releasing pheasants so more hunters have an opportunity at success. I am not sure their present method is the best. I am not sure what would help to spread the resource around a little better.
In the past, when pheasant hunting in Iowa county, lower Wisconsin river public hunting area. You would get 10 pheasant tags with your license. When you harvested a pheasant you placed a tag around the leg. The daily bag and possession limit was still the same. If you used all your tags, you were done harvesting pheasant in that area. Does any hunter need more than 10 pheasant to eat for one season? I really like pheasant and 10 would be more than I would like to eat. I think pheasants tags (state wide) could help spread out the resource. The DNR could decide how many a license should get. Maybe 10 tags is too many. Maybe 5 or 6 is the correct number.
If we look at spreading it out in a financial matter. I believe the cost to raise a pheasant in Wisconsin (to release) is around 7 dollars a pheasant. Every hunter puts down 28 dollars for the privilege to hunt pheasant. If you harvest 4 birds, that cost the dnr 28 dollars. You got your money's worth. Interestingly, while talking with other hunters in various parking lots. I sometimes learn that some hunters harvest from 25 to 40 birds a season. Some mentioned that 25 birds a season was a bad year, and the DNR needs to release more birds. Let's just go with 30 birds harvested per season by one person. At 7 dollars per bird x 30 birds, that would be 210 dollars worth of pheasant. Way more than your license cost. I want to believe that is just a small group of hunters, but I worry that the 20% that can hunt the day after a release are harvesting 80% of the birds. Thus using a majority of the financial resource. (If you want to look at it financially. These folks hopefully are eating all these birds and not possessing more than allowed or breaking any regulation. Or, are they giving many of these birds away because they just can't eat that many and they need to stay in their possession limit, so they can continue to hunt. Everyone pays the same amount to pheasant hunt. Everyone should get a fair opportunity at the same resource.
Thanks for the rant. Maybe others have ideas that would help spread out this wonderful resource that Wisconsin provides us. Shellfish
Well, the season is wrapping up but there are still some ditch chickens to be had. Saturday got out for about 2 hours in between the rain and fog and struck out. Didn’t see anything. So wasn’t expecting much on Sunday.
Sunday got into the the field at 8:15. By 8:17, we had seen 9 roosters. Unfortunately, they all busted across the road to private land. Almost looked like a quail covey. It was awesome to see. Got into the thick areas and the one rooster that popped up in the swamp we got.
If this was the last hunt on public land this year, it was a great year all and all. Saw a ton of birds, missed a lot of shots, harvested a few birds, and made memories I’ll never forget.
Cheers and Merry Christmas
Chris I agree about they should spread it around. I just started hunting around 15 years ago, kind of later in life, and really didn't pay too much attention to where it was done. I'm lucky also that I have several places from 5 to 45 minutes away. I don't hunt the opener or the opener of the holiday season for the same reasons that Kona doesn't. My dog will go into anything to find a bird, and probably wishes i was a better shot. I retired this year and can go when my arthritis let's me. Have a good year. John.
CC- I certainly understand your point and may feel the same if I lived in your area. I am fortunate to live in SE and am within 30-45 minutes of several release areas . I will tell you the Holiday hunt is almost as crazy with guys down here as opening day and I don’t even bother hunting it. Like most die hard pheasant guys I do love late season hunts in cattails and other harder to get to locations . A lot fewer opportunities but certainly rewarding. I would have no issue if they just did a single late release with no set dates and spread the birds around the state.
Pool8
Until 2010 there was a Christmas release/end-of-season release or whatever you want to call it. 2010 was the last December pheasant release around here.
Ask the old timers like me, or, perhaps call Jeff Pritzl, DNR’s New Deer Program Specialist. He lived here and knows me, Chris Thomas, DC, retired.
Merry Christmas (?) to all
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