2016 PHEASANT HUNT OPENER

It's Good To See Long Tail Feather Sticking Out Of Our Packs.

Like I’ve said many times before, the Pheasant hunt opener is the “Christmas Morning” of my adult life. I love it. The past few years my enthusiasm for Utah pheasant hunting has been lessened by sub par hunts and sub par birds and overall the experience was not what I had become accustomed to. However, this year was a blast. My brother limited out on wild birds in heavy cover behind good dogs and good dog work. It once again lived up to my hopes and expectations.

Nice Young Wild Rooster

We didn’t go out until about 12:30 in the early afternoon. My brother went out for the opening morning circus with his sons and his boys bagged their 4 state released birds in about 45 minutes. I personally don’t enjoy that circus so I like to sleep in and avoid the mad-rush to get to the easy birds in the morning. My brother’s boys enjoy it and love getting into birds and getting the hunt done early so they can have the rest of their day to do whatever.

Shawn and I like marathon hunts that last for hours and covering a lot of ground following our pack of bird dogs. We like to hunt cover that most people aren’t willing to walk to and we have our spots around the state that we like to hit each season. Some years we do good some years… not so good. Saturday was a good day. We saw plenty of WILD birds and the dogs created some good opportunities. We limited out and ended the day with a nice rooster off Chief’s point just before dusk. It was a great way to end a enjoyable day.

I probably need to apologize to the Utah DWR. I’ve been harsh the past couple of years because of the added pressure and lack of wild birds that releasing birds seemed to have created. For whatever reason this year was much better. We saw more wild birds than we’ve seen in a few years and the cover was thick and able to hide the birds well. If we added some food plots the place would be awesome. If the DWR has a plan and this is the end result I’m stoked. Maybe this is just an up year. I don’t know.

Chief's Bird. He's Forgiven

Last Bird Of The Day

Chief had a strong day and did really well. He started the day getting lost from ranging out to far. I found him after 30 minutes but he immediately did it again but I was able to get him back pretty quickly. He started to run off a third time and I was able to catch up to him and corrected him with a few harsh words and a hat spanking. After that he was a rock-star. 

Hazel had a good hunt as well and hit the cover hard. She had some good moments and a solid retrieve. The trip to South Dakota did the dogs a lot of good. It was a warm day and the dogs were able to work long and hard because they were in good shape and were able to handle the heat and conditions. Pheasant hunting in the areas we hunt is hard on dogs and our dogs did great and had the stamina to last the day.

We had a ton of fun and we can't wait to get out and do it again.