Too much cover? You are not going to hear that mentioned too often around here, that is unless you are someone, I have helped enroll ground into CRP or some other grassland planting. I think most of us have heard it in reference to early season hunting when a good portion of the row crops are still in. Just as I’m trying to make headway on what good grassland habitat is and to get more of it, perhaps it’s time to address our, I mean some, of our approaches to hunting tactics when it comes to pheasants.
There are two main groups of pheasant hunters I converse with on a regular basis. One is the landowner hunting their own ground, and the other is the public access hunter. I have a lot of interaction with the public access hunter as it is part of my job to sign up private land into public access for which the landowner voluntarily enrolls their land for payment. Sorry, in todays world of misinformation I always feel the need to say that any land enrolled into Walk in Area or CREP is getting paid well for it and it is only for a short term, usually 10 years.
Ok back to those hunting these areas. A public land hunter is used to lots of grass, usually they are devoid of mow breaks, food plots or strips of any kind. Now take the landowner’s approach, food plots and stripped up corn fields are the mainstay. There is often the discussion of how to cut down on all that grass to make it easier to hunt as well (mow strips for hunting still aren’t allowed). Like I said many of those I help enroll land into grass have the shock now of how do I hunt all of this cover. Now once the grass is established you could plan accordingly on what to hay in different years (grazing is also allowed and better). While I do encourage the use of the grass especially through grazing as a way to a healthier plant community, do you really need to plan that all out just to hunt your ground successfully?
I know this is going to sound crazy but no, you don’t even need food plots. Ha, I know there are many of you that cuss when I make that statement but how is your prowess as a hunter if you have to have well-manicured strips to hunt. Last I checked it was called hunting not shooting. Now that I have the food plot club riled up, how then do we hunt all that cover? I’m going to pick on some people here, not all as I know this is what you do already but believe me I have seen it time and time again in my life and it is still happening now.
Get closer together! 100 yards, 50 yards, whatever it’s too far apart! I don’t care how good of dog you have when you actually have habitat, you have too many birds for that dog to locate all of them. Slow Down! It isn’t a race, and like I just said you are overwhelming your dog and both you and they are running right past so many birds. Chill, stop and relax for a while, allow your dog to work and make the birds nervous that are so used to being walked past. You may have to make multiple passes! Maybe some of those passes don’t yield much, but the pay off will come if you have done your due diligence to move the birds into an area they can’t escape on the ground anymore. Shhhhh! Pheasants can hear you, yelling at your dog isn’t helping anyone. If this is your situation, maybe leave the dog in the truck (or at home). Your buddies don’t want to say anything but when a dog has to be constantly yelled at or whistled at it’s at the very least annoying but most importantly its scaring the damn birds away. Remember they are ground birds that run first, so just because you don’t see them flee don’t think they haven’t already gotten out of Dodge. Stealth can be just as important to pheasant hunting as it is to deer hunting.
Getting back to hunting without food plots or strips. It has been very warm to start this season, even though there is snow on the ground as I’m writing this it’s going to get warm again. So, what is the complaint when it’s warm? The birds aren’t in the heavy cover, i.e. the grass. So, this is a perfect example of how changing our view on what good habitat is, can also change our view on our hunting tactics. Yes, probably not going to be a lot of birds in the 100% Switchgrass, but what about the nesting and brood rearing habitat? The diverse cover with ground space? To the food plot or bust club, what do the forbs become in the fall? Or more importantly their seed heads, oh that’s right food! By planting diverse mixes with forbs, you have entire fields of food and cover.
Do I currently have some corn strips (only because I’m still combining) and food plots to hunt right now, sure do. But do you know after jumping from food plot to food plot and not getting many birds my hunters came and asked for some advice. I said, “well you have all of that diverse CRP you are jumping around; I think it might be worth your time to check that out.” Two passes later they were done for the day, and guess who stopped jumping from food plot to food plot the next time out.