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DES MOINES – The story was repeated by conservation officers across the state, pheasant hunters had moderate success on Saturday, but the weather kept many out of the fields on Sunday.
Nearly every part of the state hunters found more birds than last year, even in areas rated poor. The only exception was northeast Iowa.
Lower pheasant estimates contributed to fewer hunters being in the fields said Steve Schutte, DNR conservation officer for Cerro Gordo County. But that didn’t stop many non-resident hunters from filling Iowa’s fields from as far away as Florida, Colorado and Arkansas.
"The non-resident hunters know the pheasant population is lower than in past years, but the ones I talked to said hunting in Iowa during the opening weekend is a tradition. They have been coming here for 15 years and know the area," he said. "But they are definitely noticing the number of pheasants are down."
Hunters had more success on public ground than on private ground in north central Iowa, Schutte said. Most of Iowa’s land is privately held and the lack of grass on private land is a major factor in the lower number of birds.
"Hunters with good dogs seemed to have the best success, but it wasn’t like four or five years ago when hunters were averaging two to three birds per person," he said. "This year, hunters were averaging less than a bird per person. We just don’t have the cover anymore. But overall I’d say hunting was fair."
Most of the crops are out of the fields, and many fields in Schutte’s area have already been chisel plowed. He said hunters had better success further west in Calhoun County because there was better pheasant numbers and more cover to hunt.
Marc Roberg, officer for Union and Ringgold counties had similar experiences.
"Hunters did pretty well on Saturday, especially in northern Union County and into Adair County," he said. "That area has a good mix of CRP ground with a lot of crop ground nearby. That seemed to be the place to hunt.
"The guys who got the birds really had to work, and it helped to have a good dog," he said. Hunters commented they were seeing more birds this year, he said.
"There was also a lot of quail getting up," he said.
Perhaps the best area to hunt was northwest Iowa where hunters were getting their limits.
"We had as many hunters as last year and they had similar success rates as last year," said Dennis Phillips, supervisor for the DNR’s conservation officers in northwest Iowa. "We had a large number of out of state hunters and quite a few people were getting their bag limit."
Phillips said the public hunting areas were busy with hunters and the birds were holding tight because of the weather. Even though it was a busy weekend, he said hunting violations were down.
Mike Sells, supervisor for the DNR’s conservation officers in southeast Iowa said hunters in his area fared better than expected.
"They did better than what I thought they would based on what we had seen for birds," he said.
"We have always had lots of non-resident hunters in our area," he said. Hunters from Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arkansas hunted in southeast Iowa last weekend.
Craig Cutts, DNR conservation officer in Warren County, said hunters were seeing a lot of birds, but not a lot were harvested.
"Hunting was fair," he said.
Officers cited hunters for taking more birds than allowed, having a loaded firearm in their vehicle, open container, hunting without a license and trespassing, but overall the number of violations was low.
Reports of hunting accidents are still coming in, but so far, none of the four reported are considered life threatening, said Sonny Satre, DNR recreational safety coordinator.
Uploaded: 11/6/2000
Uploaded: 11/6/2000