Hunting south dakota?

pudeltopointer · Post by **pudeltopointer** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:11 am

I am looking to plan a trip to south dakota in october with my new pup that will be 10 months when we go. I am looking to do some unguided waterfowling and upland hunting just wondering if anybody has any advice as to where to go and where to stay i am starting from scratch.

birddog1968 · Post by **birddog1968** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 10:27 am

Better put in for your waterfowl licence now, its a mid summer lottery for non residents.

There is plenty of public land the NE quad of the state should have what your after.....

jimbo&rooster · Post by **jimbo&rooster** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 10:49 am

I have never bird hunted SD but I spend a week every summer Prarie dog hunting. If you are after Phesants I have been told by residents out there that you need to stay east of the Missouri River. We generally Hunt around Wall SD and see a few Prairie Chickens and sharptails when we are out there. Sorry not much help.

Jim

ibbowhunting · Post by **ibbowhunting** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 5:25 pm

pudeltopointer wrote:I am looking to plan a trip to south dakota in october with my new pup that will be 10 months when we go. I am looking to do some unguided waterfowling and upland hunting just wondering if anybody has any advice as to where to go and where to stay i am starting from scratch.

i think you read my mind great post, my pup is about the same age as yours just thinking mostly upland for me, not sure she will be ready but we will see, north dakota maybe good too

pudeltopointer · Post by **pudeltopointer** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:15 pm

Yeah my group has already changed there mind due to the whole lottery thing North Dakota it is. Maybe somewhere around drake

birddog1968 · Post by **birddog1968** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:32 pm

pudeltopointer wrote:Yeah my group has already changed there mind due to the whole lottery thing North Dakota it is. Maybe somewhere around drake

I wouldn't sweat the lottery, most years you will get it, there is a way i believe to list all who will be with you so that nobody in your group gets left out.....The duck hunting can be phenomenal in SD and the Phez hunting is better on average than ND.

JIM K · Post by **JIM K** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:02 pm

pudeltopointer wrote:I am looking to plan a trip to south dakota in october with my new pup that will be 10 months when we go. I am looking to do some unguided waterfowling and upland hunting just wondering if anybody has any advice as to where to go and where to stay i am starting from scratch.

that pheasant forever group from sd can help you a lot.
wish i could go along but my lab is sick from LYMES .

Bberry20 · Post by **Bberry20** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 5:40 am

I cannot personally speak for SD, but in ND we had a great winter this year. From the recent walks, we also had a great hatch which is very nice after the lst few years. the birds finally got a break from the harsh winters and should be plentiful both here and in SD. Good luck!

trailsend · Post by **trailsend** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 7:21 am

Pretty much any place in south dakota you can find water you will find good duck hunting. We live in southern part of the state, hunt quite a bit in the northern part of the state and there are ducks everywhere in between. Lots of public land as well. I lived in the ND for awhile as well. Unless it has changed, I have been gone awhile, there was a lottery system there as well. My biggest concern for this year maybe in where the water will be. It has been pretty dry. I know some of the spots we hunt are almost dry now. Good luck.

deke · Post by **deke** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:27 am

We went for the first time to miller sd, hunted all public land and shot our limits most days. The best advice i can give you for sd is hunt small pieces of public land north of miller. Most guys wont go hunt them because they are to small so you wont see many hunters and the birds are not so jumpy. Also, ditch lines and any swayles when it is windy. The last day we were there we shot four roosters out of the same swayle in some nasty wind.

cjhills · Post by **cjhills** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:23 am

Bberry20 wrote:I cannot personally speak for SD, but in ND we had a great winter this year. From the recent walks, we also had a great hatch which is very nice after the lst few years. the birds finally got a break from the harsh winters and should be plentiful both here and in SD. Good luck!

What is hatching already out there CJ

baileydog2007 · Post by **baileydog2007** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:35 am

deke wrote:We went for the first time to miller sd, hunted all public land and shot our limits most days. The best advice i can give you for sd is hunt small pieces of public land north of miller. Most guys wont go hunt them because they are to small so you wont see many hunters and the birds are not so jumpy. Also, ditch lines and any swayles when it is windy. The last day we were there we shot four roosters out of the same swayle in some nasty wind.

Thats exactly what we do in Miller. Last fall was the worst we have had, and it was still pretty darn good, I thought. Is that pic in your avatar taken at the Dew Drop Inn???? We stayed there for one of the weeks and stayed in a camping cabin at Lake Louis the other. We do hun at Lake Loius in addition to the other smaller stuff too, its pretty good sized but always get birds there.

bumper52 · Post by **bumper52** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:58 pm

I, too have done the public hunting thing. The locals (the few that hunt) have their own places to go. The out of staters go through outfitters. Public areas are under hunted. Google South Dakota public hunting and a map will come up showing the areas. I personally like to find several in close proximity in order to have a back up plan if necessary. South central areas are very good.

bumper52 · Post by **bumper52** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:03 pm

The other thing is a 10 month old pup can be very "overwhelmed" by the number of birds and all the scent. I feel that public areas can allow you more control of the situation.

deke · Post by **deke** » Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:48 am

bailey, yes that is the dew drop inn, good eyes. That was the second day that we were in sd, we didnt shoot any birds the first day because the dogs were running wild, but they calmed down the second day. I guess a 24 hr car ride will do that to them though. We hunted lake louise, and two of the birds in the picture are from there, but we mostly focused on small sections with strip cover for two dogs and two guys. It worked out though we came home with a full cooler.

Bberry20 · Post by **Bberry20** » Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:46 am

CJ,

Should have stated the hatch from last year was great and maintained well through this year's mild winter. Lots of young and old birds this year. Should help out with the hunting this year.

BigShooter · Post by **BigShooter** » Wed Apr 18, 2012 6:56 pm

Bberry20 wrote:CJ,

Should have stated the hatch from last year was great and maintained well through this year's mild winter. Lots of young and old birds this year. Should help out with the hunting this year.

Last year's ND hatch was down throughout most of the State due to the third cool wet spring in a row, with total birds down 14%. The only area up in birds was the SW corner of the State (up 5%). ND Game & Fish said those numbers were up primarily due to the high numbers in the SW the previous fall. After three brutal winters in a row, upland hunting was about the poorest in a decade. Last year's lower than normal numbers of birds did have a mild winter which helps survival. However, recently there's been some cold & wet conditions so the jury's still out on the ultimate success of the 2012 hatch.

Bberry20 · Post by **Bberry20** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 11:39 am

well considering in i am around the southwest area that would make sense, and if you know where to hunt there are plenty of birds around here. I have seen more birds this year then in the last decade. So, it all works great for me. just like deer hunting is the worst in the last 10 years but we were able to harvest a 170 muley in velvet the opener of bow season. I guess its where you hunt and not what people say!

Tania_C · Post by **Tania_C** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:59 am

I am also planning a trip to SD, Ft. Pierre Nat'l grasslands, at the start of grouse season. I'm planning on pulling a trailer there and camping. Any advice would be welcome.

bently · Post by **bently** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:06 pm

I pheasant hunt around the Isabel (NE) and Faulkton (N central) part of SD each year. There is more public ground around the Isabel area than you can imagine. You can stay at "The Bunkhouse" in Isabel. Individual rooms, couple of cabins and a house next to the motel for larger groups. Not sure about the waterfowl since I don't pay attention to that part. Plenty of pheasants. Good thing about the public ground is that the grass isn't too tall, you should be able to keep track of the dog easily.

gspallliver · Post by **gspallliver** » Mon May 07, 2012 3:15 pm

Alright well I will be the first from SD to bite.

We have tons of both upland and waterfowl areas to hunt and most of the really good areas are in central SD. You would want to stay somewhere between Mitchell, SD and Presho, SD if you want to focus on the upland stuff for the pup. Like mentioned before if you get to far west (ie: Wall) you will end up in Mule, prarie dog, coytoe land where you will work harder for less birds. Some of the very best places for pheasant are around the Winner/Gregory/Burke area which is just west of the river in the southern part of the state. A lot of the more rural areas west of Mitchell have good phesant numbers as well. You should be able to find plenty of places to stay in the smaller towns just don't expect any Holiday Inn's. If you want to hit the waterfowl a little harder I would go NE like Watertown or Aberdeen and then work out from either of those towns. If you stick to the NE or Central part of the state your going to find phesants no matter what, they are all over. When you get to central SD there are a lot more private farms that make their entire living off of the phesant hunting industry and you need to be more careful about where and how you are hunting because they protect their birds like they are there livelyhood (because they are.) I don't know anything about the lottery system that we apparently use for out of state hunters nor do I know anything about what you pay for a license, I know it is considerably more than I have ever paid obviously but I am sure you can find all of that information on the

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