pierre

larue · Post by **larue** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:11 am

anyone hear on the conditions of the pierre national grasslands?
I hear it might have rained some recently.

JakeDD · Post by **JakeDD** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 7:58 am

I'm heading out there tomorrow through Sunday - will let you know when I get back.

sdgord · Post by **sdgord** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 7:35 pm

Larue, it has rained some out there recently but not as much as the east river area. A friend of mine lives in Pierre and runs his dogs on the grasslands. Some areas have close to normal vegatation and the rest is deplorable. At least the rain has lessened the fire danger. The bird numbers should be as good as last year or may be a bit better. The down side is that they will see you far sooner than you will see them. He also mentions that he has seen more snakes this year, probably due to the lack of vegatation. Watch out around prarie dog towns, stock dams and stacks of hay bales. His young gsp got tagged by a rattler a few weeks ago. She had been given the vaccine and with antibiotics and vet care was back to normal in three days.SDGORD

thorson · Post by **thorson** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:04 pm

sd gord where can i get it and how much is the snake vaccine for the dogs

Wagonmaster · Post by **Wagonmaster** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:44 pm

Send a PM to QCBirddogs. He can get you some vaccine and is the best deal around. Hard to get if you live in a state that does not have the snakes, because your vet will not stock the vaccine. Two shots for the first dose, if memory serves they are 30 days apart. QC can tell you. You can have it shipped to your vet and then he can do the shot if you want.

JakeDD · Post by **JakeDD** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:40 am

Spent Thurs/Fri/Sat just east of Pierre running my DD. According to the people I was with out there, they've gotten 3-4" of rain in the last month, so everything is pretty green and healthy now. A month ago the prairie grass crunched under your feet. Nice improvement.

I didn't see as many birds out there as usual, but when we got into them, we REALLY got into them. I think they'll be more concentrated in certain areas this fall. Think WATER and you'll do just fine.

JDD

sdgord · Post by **sdgord** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 5:25 am

Larue seems like the weather should be a bit damp for the opener which is just fine with me. And a bit cool, also fine I have never seen a rattlesnake out there on wet or cool cloudy days which makes sense since they are cold blooded. The grasslands should be just fine, I was told they closed most of the trails to vehicle traffic due to the fire danger previously. You may have to drive a bit out of the way to get close enough to not have to walk too far in unproductive areas. The Viet Nam vet memorial is being dedicated this weekend so either you need to camp or have had a motel res from months ago. SDGORD

JakeDD · Post by **JakeDD** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:18 am

Word of caution, though - I talked with a couple local fish & game guys last weekend who both said they've seen more snakes in the grasslands over the last 5 years or so. They said it used to be they'd only find em along the river, but now they're coming across more snakes further away from the river. Also talked to another guy who stepped on a rattler just outside of Mobridge earlier this summer. Fortunately, he did the "crap-your-pants dance" and got away before the critter tried to strike. Luckily, he and his dog were safe.

sdgord · Post by **sdgord** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 8:31 pm

Saw lots of sharptails this weekend unfortunately they were all wild flushing ahead of the dogs on point. Most of the birds were getting up at least fifty yards ahead of the dogs. May have been the wind or the impending weather change. I wound up shooting two rattlesnakes, we saw nearly a dozen dead on the roads, which tells me they are moving more now. Probably to their den sites. A few guys were taking limits of birds and quite a few had one or two. SDGORD