Hole hopping
If you’re familiar with ice fishing, you’re familiar with hole hopping — if the fish aren’t biting in one hole, you hop over to another hole to change your luck.
Pheasant hunters can hole hop, too, be it on public or private land. In fact, being able to hole hop is one of the main strategies I employ when scouting for public land, ensuring that the areas I hunt are in close proximity to several others. It doesn’t ALWAYS work out that way, but more often than not, the public lands I choose to hunt usually are within a few miles of others.
This assures me of a couple things. First, if another hunter or group of hunters are already at one public area, I can quickly move on to the next. And second, if the dog doesn’t get birdy or if I’m not seeing pheasant sign (think fresh tracks in the snow or droppings in roost areas), I can hop on over to the next spot and see if my luck changes.
That was the case the second weekend of South Dakota’s pheasant season, when my son, Gavin, and I only had time for a quick hunt to close out the day. A blast of winter had descended across the Upper Midwest, and the combination of snow flurries and cold temps made it feel more like December than late October.
The first area we hunted was a half-section of CREP ground with cut corn bordering its western edge. For the most part, the CREP area’s cover was marginal, and because of the cold, we focused on some patchy thermal cover that was sprinkled here and there across the property. After only kicking up a couple hens and the dog acting disinterested, we had a decision to make: Stay and hunt the rest of the CREP area’s sparse grass, or head to another public spot with more thermal cover.
Because temps were in the mid-20s and it was roosting time, we opted to hole hop to a different CREP area that was bordered by corn already cut for silage. We had hunted this particular public area earlier in the year and found success in the grass, and now we were banking on birds being tucked in the thermal cover of the CREP’s slough bottom. We only had about a half-hour of light remaining, but we liked our chances.
A nice, big rooster was waiting for us almost as soon as we entered the thermal cover of the slough bottom.
Our decision was almost immediately rewarded, as Gavin dumped a big longtail two minutes after entering the slough. When this bird flushed, the sound was just different — its deep, thunderous, pulsating wingbeats echoing off the backdrop of cattails and cane. It was the first rooster we shot this year that was 2 years old. The others we had killed so far were all yearlings — some with only a small percentage of their adult plumage — that hatched earlier this spring/summer.
A couple minutes and about 50 yards later, Gauge locked up and pinned a bird in a mat knocked-over cattails. The rooster tried to flush twice before it finally was able to break free from the thick cover. And just like that, we had two birds in the bag after hunting for a total of five minutes. We were able to shoot and retrieve a third rooster — we actually heard it fly in to roost in the heavy grass — to cap off our hunt.
When scouting public land, look for areas or regions with plenty of options. That way, you can quickly hop from one spot to the next if you’re not flushing birds.
Gavin and the ol’ yellow dog hold up three beautiful birds taken on this hunt.
If you’ve never tried hole hopping or using it to your advantage when you pick places to hunt, give it a try. Having options never hurts, and being able to hop to another spot can sometimes turn your day around.
Check out the Hit List video from this hunt! If you like our Hit List videos, subscribe to the @DakotaPheasantHunt YouTube channel for more entertaining and educational content.
Hunt stats:
Date: Oct. 28, 2023
Time: 5-6:20 p.m.
Temp: 25 degrees
Wind: Slight Slight WNW breeze
Birds harvested: 3
Birds flushed: 8 hens, 3 roosters