Where to hunt pheasants in South Dakota: Part 1

South Dakota is a big and diverse state, and pheasant country over here isn’t the same as pheasant country over there.

Everybody knows South Dakota is the Pheasant Capital of the World. But South Dakota is a big state, and the ability to chase wild roosters in a wide variety of landscapes and habitats is also why South Dakota remains the world’s premier pheasant hunting destination. In short, it's like four states in one. 

With that in mind, here’s a rundown from east to west of South Dakota's primary pheasant regions and the opportunities you can find in each.

Part 1: The Prairie Coteau

The Coteau des Prairies, or “hills of the prairie,” is the most dominant land feature in the easternmost part of the state. The coteau is a flat-iron-shaped plateau of sediment that was left behind by a glacier thousands of years ago. From its tip just across the North Dakota border, it spreads out to roughly 100 miles wide and gently slopes for well over 200 miles south-by-southeast until it blends in with James River valley lowlands to the west and loess prairies down toward Sioux Falls in the southeastern part of the state.

The surface of this ecoregion is pocked with large glacial lakes and tons of small, seasonal wetlands. This is especially the case in northeastern South Dakota, an area often called the Glacial Lakes region, where the coteau is more of a wetland-based ecosystem. The area is marked by a large abundance of cattail sloughs — more than other areas of the state. Those cattails and the upland grasses surrounding those smaller wetland areas are keys to not only producing birds, but also finding birds come fall. Pheasants are an edge species that like that blend of grasses, shelterbelts and croplands, all of which are also plentiful across the coteau.

For public land hunters willing to do the work, this area boasts plenty of opportunities. For starters, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department manages habitat on over 40,000 acres of state Game Production Areas across northeastern South Dakota. In addition, there are also upwards of 40,000 acres of federal Waterfowl Production Areas managed by the Waubay Wetland Management District, as well as thousands of acres of Walk-in Areas, which are private lands leased by the state for public hunting.

Even better, pheasant hunting in eastern parts of the state gets better as the season wears on. Because smaller areas of cover dominate the landscape, pheasants run out of options when the crops are gone and snowfall lays down or drifts over marginal cover. This forces more birds into smaller chunks of thermal cover (aka cattails) that are manageable for smaller groups of hunters with close-working dogs to tackle.