How to ... find pheasants when populations are down

It's no secret that pheasant numbers in Minnesota have suffered in recent years. The reason: lack of habitat and, to a lesser extent, severe winter weather.

But a hunter with a good dog can still find a few roosters. How? By using the gray matter between one's ears.

It helps, of course, if the hunter possess strong legs, plus a healthy heart and lungs. When the pheasant population is low, hunters are often forced to spend long days afield.

A hunter's knowledge of his prey's habits and habitats can be equally valuable.

I'm reminded of a pheasant hunting trip a friend and I took to a popular public hunting area. The roosters had been chased daily for a month or so. They darted across a cattail marsh upon hearing even the faintest sounds from a nearby parking area.

However, the night before we arrived, the temperature had dropped near zero, and a river system that fed the sprawling cattail marsh was now frozen.

The pheasants got used to being hunted in the weeks before the cold front came. Upon hearing footsteps from an upland cornfield, the birds would simply rush for the expansive marsh, staying far ahead of any approaching hunters. It was safe out there, thanks to the knee-deep marsh that kept humans at bay.

The ploy worked. Not only did the birds get up within shotgun range, but some actually flew toward us — remember, they had been escaping in this direction for several weeks. In an hour or so we had our limit of colorful roosters.

Midseason pheasant hunters will confront other difficulties: It can be daunting to face the endless sea of grasses you might find in, say, a Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) field. But there's an upside to hunting these areas: They can be especially productive during late afternoon when pheasants are filling their crops before nightfall. If you find yourself chasing pheasants in a large, infinite ocean of cover, it's wise to concentrate your efforts on areas interrupted by patches of weeds. Those weedy spots usually contain food sources such as sunflowers, smartweed, foxtail, sweetclover and other seed-producing weeds that pheasants relish.

Yes, pheasant numbers are down in Minnesota, but that doesn't mean a mindful hunter (with an experienced dog) won't put a rooster or two in the bag.