Went to an area where there are SOME pheasants but by no means is it North Dakota, Montana or even eastern Oregon. There are a few. Enough that some of us North Idahoans like to challenge ourselves occasionally with them, knowing that there is a better chance of not putting up a pheasant than putting one up. So regardless, I didn't feel like making the long drive south for chukar, nor did I want to hunt local ducks or grouse, so Rowdy and I headed out to a spot that is cattails and switchgrass mostly, chasing roosters. These are marsh pheasant. No grain nearby. And they are wily. It took us 2.5 hours to hunt the piece of land and about 2 hours in Rowdy finally got really birdy. He was tracking, nose to the ground and I could see pheasant tracks in the skiff of snow on the ground. While he was tracking, a hen wild flushed at 30 yards, followed shortly by a rooster. I dropped a leg on the rooster on the first shot, and knocked it down lightly on the second shot. Right into 10 foot tall cattails, and about 20 yards into them. They were thick and I knew the rooster was alive. Rowdy went in and after a couple of minutes came back out, without the bird. I sent him back in again saying "Dead bird, fetch" and he went back in. A few minutes later he came back out with the still very much alive rooster. He got lots of praise and since we had pretty much covered most of that piece of land, we headed back to the truck, he and I very happy campers.
You have to be smarter than the dog to train it.
by RowdyGSP » Sat Oct 24, 2020 5:14 pm 
