Headed out in the morning on the first trip in 8 years, unfortunately dogless since the ex got them. Looking for any reports relative to water, crops and hunting pressure from Ortonville to the Iowa Border. Obviously will be strictly road hunting but have to get out and back into the game.

I was out in Hutch area the other weekend for a few mins. The birds we flushed were off the corn fields in the thick stuff. Their was still almost 100% of the corn still in the ground and that made things a little more difficult and every where we walked it was soaking wet so bring a good pair of boots if you plan on venturing in some public land. Good luck bud.

John

tk,thats great,get out there and clear the cob webs out,w/o any sun it might be a tough hunt for ditch chickens, BUT make sure you have your waterfowl stamps,birds are on the move south,you'll see plenty of geese in the ortonville area,pheasants will be a challenge with the weather and crops in the field,walleyes should be biting around Lac Qui Parle as well,a guy has to ready to adapt... Goodluck and report back.

Yeah, it will be tough road hunting with all the rain. My old man estimates they've had 15"-20" of rain since Sep 1 in Ortonville, beans are between 30-50% out at best and almost no corn has been taken in the area. Lots of standing water in bean fields, too. As such, no one's been hunting pheasants much.

Like snow said, ducks and geese should be good to chase and you should be able to catch eyes after dark at the foot of the lake on Big Stone and at the Milan bridge on LQP, though eye #'s are down on LQP . Pink jig/white gulp tail or fathead is usually the weapon of choice on Big Stone, I know lots of guys use suckers on LQP. Good luck!

Pheasant hunting will probably be tough. A couple of our group were down near our family farm in Lake Benton over the weekend. They did manage 7 roosters for the two of them, but this was hunting over two dogs. Farm report as of yesterday was 3% of the corn crop removed. Sounds like most of the farmers are now hoping for hard frost to get crops out. It should make late season rooster hunting great this year, might actually get use of that 3 bird limit in Dec.

Thanks for the quick feedback and since the concensus is rain and more rain, I'll strap the goggles on so my eyes don't water by the time I get done running them down.
And since it looks like wind as well, the trusty 10 auto will be coming with for those strategic yet ethical reach out and touch em shots.

Was out west this weekend. Hunted from Montevideo to Camby and all around that area. We walked our asses off. 2 of us and 2 dogs. We kicked up a total of about 20 hens and 5 roosters. SO WET AND SO MANY CROPS UP STILL it really was alot of work... We put in 2 full days. I won't be hunting Pheasants again until Thanksgiving it was so bad. Heard the same thing from everyone we talked too. Alot of people road hunting vs actually getting in the field.

Around the appleton area where I live the report is poor.

Farmers that I have talked to who have gotten some crops off aren't seeing any birds to speak of.

According to the body shop guys the deer activity is starting to increase

Willmar area has also been slow. the best weekend was the sunday monday tuesday the week after opener. we managed 5 birds with 2 guys and 2 dogs. we really had to work for them. other than that been picking up a bird here and there.

as for recently, it's been slow. way too many crops up still. been seeing hens and a couple roosters here and there but it's slow. the best time is right before sunset. right at 9 am has also produced but not like at night.

like others have said, it should be a good year late in the season.

went out last night for about 45 minutes. managed to see 1 rooster and got him. other than that no hens