Took my youngest (16) up to South Dakota for fall break. We spent 9 days up there hunting birds and fishing. SD has a youth pheasant season first week of October. After that we went after grouse (prairie chickens and sharptails).
We had a great time despite the horrible hot and dry conditions. Weve done this trip before so we had an idea on places to go but by no means are we pros. I wouldnt even classify us as good we just love hunting birds. We took our two dogs both Wirehaired Pointing Griffons. Teal is 7 and Prairie is 1.
We started up in the eastern half camping at Lake Thompson and hunting pheasant on public lands. We found a few birds but The dry conditions had the birds really spooky and flushing way out front. And most of them were hens. My boy was able to connect with a few over those first 5 days.
We fished from shore and caught walleyes, white bass and pike. Nothing extravagant but plenty to feed us while there. My son did catch a nice pike the first might though.
We then moved to Lake Oahe area and switched to hunting the prairies. We found birds! We saw lots of sharptails but they would flush 100 or more yards away each time as they saw us coming. We did get Prairie Chickens. My boy shot his limit each of the three days. I scratched out a few but always seemed the birds would flush on his side. Like most parents I enjoy watching my kids be successful more than me.
We fished the river/lake after hunting each day and caught some more white bass and pike. Most of our fish were caught on live bait. Some were caught and small swimbaits.
We had a great time despite the horrible hot and dry conditions. Weve done this trip before so we had an idea on places to go but by no means are we pros. I wouldnt even classify us as good we just love hunting birds. We took our two dogs both Wirehaired Pointing Griffons. Teal is 7 and Prairie is 1.
We started up in the eastern half camping at Lake Thompson and hunting pheasant on public lands. We found a few birds but The dry conditions had the birds really spooky and flushing way out front. And most of them were hens. My boy was able to connect with a few over those first 5 days.
We fished from shore and caught walleyes, white bass and pike. Nothing extravagant but plenty to feed us while there. My son did catch a nice pike the first might though.
We then moved to Lake Oahe area and switched to hunting the prairies. We found birds! We saw lots of sharptails but they would flush 100 or more yards away each time as they saw us coming. We did get Prairie Chickens. My boy shot his limit each of the three days. I scratched out a few but always seemed the birds would flush on his side. Like most parents I enjoy watching my kids be successful more than me.
We fished the river/lake after hunting each day and caught some more white bass and pike. Most of our fish were caught on live bait. Some were caught and small swimbaits.
