We didn't see too many people the whole time we were there.

The motels were full of hunters but still not enough hunters to overrun the wiha areas it sounds like?

Hotels were full and the WIHA's located near the hotels were also busy. However, if you drive out to the more isolated WIHAs, chances are you won't run into many folks.

I had no idea this thread had gotten so long over here! Good times await regardless of bird numbers!

I looks like the official bird forecast is out for those that haven't seen it.

http://www.kdwpt.state.ks.us/news/KDWPT-...FORECAST-ONLINE

We get there on a Tuesday and the season opened the Saturday before and from what the lady at the hotel and other pheasant hunters we see say that there is a considerable drop off after Saturday and Sunday. A lot of guys that march the fields and don't really hunt over pointing dogs like to head out for opening day and have to get back for work. We get there on Tuesday and leave Sunday and it does pick up from Friday-Sunday but there is so many fields its never been too much of a problem.

Thanks. I am just trying to see if the drought has made enough of an impact to keep a lot of hunters from showing up.

It kind of has. A lot of guys that march and use blockers won't go now. Guys that hunt just because we love dog work will still go. You going to try and make it?

I am keeping my options open . Someone mentioned they were driving 2 hours a day. Telling me that motels are full everwhere. I want to pick a time when I can relocate to another motel as I am looking for bird numbers. I don't even know what part of the state your group is targeting

The NW part of te state. The hotels aren't full, the first floor tends to fill up so guys don't have to carry their gear upstairs. There are 3 towns around we're we'll be based out of if you decide to move to another hotel. Last year we were finding birds around our town but some of us like to drive a little bit during the day.

Just got back from scouting S. Dakota. Things were so bad up there we decided to check out other states, including NW Kansas.
South of I-70 at Wahkeeny looked bad but north of I-70 wasn't so bad. We will be there opening weekend thru wed. or thurs. depending on what we find. Locals told us it will be busy as all the lower Kansas hunters have moved north because the conditions are so bad in the south. Expect crowds. They also said the bird count will be down.

One thing you might be interested in, we hunted Nebraska last year along H-283. Just North of the Kansas line. Hunted that area for 20 years when Nebraska was great. The farmers have taken out most of the draws/cover that held pheasants so pheasant hunting wasn't to good. But we found quail every where we went. Hopefully some of those birds will move south into Kansas.

Lots of Kansas WHA is in grain this year and all of it was still in the field. Some,if not all, should be cut by season opener. Good luck and I'll be looking for those car tags from Baha-Oklahoma (That's Texas for you guys that don't know geography). Might even say hello, but that depends on how much grief I get for that last comment. Don't like to take chances with people I have pissed off and who are carrying loaded guns too.

We'll be there. We hunted all the way up to the Nebraska border last year and found some birds at most WIHAs we hit. Most hunters moved north last year and the crowds still weren't as bad as you'd find around the DC area on a normal year.

Are you staying in WaK.?

This year we will be in Hill City. Got lucky and got the last two rooms in the only Hotel in town.
Checked 90% of the WHAs from Norton to Wahkeeny and a little south of I-70 (all in Trego, Graham, and Norton counties) most of it didn't look to bad. As always some of it was more suited for deer hunting, pasture and no cover. Best cover for midday hunting will most likely be tall wheat stubble, some of it is almost a foot high in some fields. Plenty of grain WHAs for the morning and late evening hunt.
South of I-70 will be tough, fewer WHAs than in the past and less cover. But we didn't look at all the WHAs. We knew that area from past years and what we saw told us we had seen enough.

You'll only be about 25 min north of us. Yall should come join us for a steak dinner at Western Kansas Saloon and Grill! When you come down 283 our hotel is on the right side as the intersection of 283 and I-70. Most of that territory looked pretty good last year and we were definitely getting into birds consistently. The first year I went we stayed Meade and DC and got into a ton of birds everyday. Then the drought hit so we headed north and we still got into a good number of birds. Thanks for the excellent scouting report!

What day and time is the dinner? I know the Super 8, stayed there before. We got lucky to even find a hotel room as late as it was. Most are booked solid by now. We had planned to go to S. Dakota but after scouting it we decided to look south again. Kansas looks a lot better than S. Dakota this year.

Normally we hunt around Liberal but the drought has forced us to look elsewhere the last two years. My only concern is that they will disk and drill the wheat stubble before season starts and turn those fields into green wheat. You might consider keeping the group together, instead of splitting up, as alot of fields are large and will be hard to work in small groups. There will be only 4 of us and that may be a problem.

I prefer to hunt with a couple guys and 4 dogs. I don't do the march and block method. Some of our guys do and they may hook up with you and do it. We usually go to dinner somewhere every night. I'll swap numbers with you do we can stay in communication. Last year most of the fields we hit held some birds, a few fields were loaded with them. Some guys are staying home because of the bird numbers, I'd prefer a bird in the bag and being out there to staying home and working. The forecast isnt that bad and we usually get into some quail. I hope it snows while we're up there, we always get some birds with snow on the ground. It's definitely a game changer.

40 days til take off! Can't wait!

I'm heading up the 13th if anyone is interested in catching a ride. I could use the driving partner and I'm coming back Sunday!

sigav8r, are you going alone? I may be interested. I have a hotel up there the same time.

Yep G, just me. Matt said we should get together. Would love to see Izzy work!

I'm going to be bringin my small grill to grill out a couple of nights at the hotel. Not sure if anybody wants to do the same, just thought I'd give y'all a heads up. I'm going to bring some pork chops and maybe some steak. If I shoot a deer opening weekend I'll have some backstrap, and I have some quail too. Not sure what all I'm bringing yet but I think 1 or 2 nights we're goin to cook dinner at the hotel. Probably earlier in the week cause later we'll be so tired it'll be nice for somebody to set a plate in front of us.

Ok I think I've talked to everybody that's going so far about the possible changes to the trip. Some of us will be leaving earlier and if we get to Kansas and we aren't seeing the bird numbers we're hoping to see, Tuesday evening we will load up and keep going north to Pierre, South Dakota and finish the week out there. Obviously, we'd like to find decent numbers in Kansas but, if we don't we'll call an audible.

I'd give a word of caution about S. Dakota this year. I scouted S. Dakota in mid-Sept. this year and we were not happy about what we saw. They have had a drought up there this year and the public lands were in bad shape. School lands were bald, no cover at all. WIHAs were heavily grazed down. Only east of Aberdeen did we begin to see decent cattails and marsh reeds but very little on public land. Public lands looked as bad as Liberal and SW Kansas last year.
You can hunt private lands on a daily fee in most of S. Dakota, but it is not cheap. And it would help if you knew someone, the Chamberlin area is suppose to have a lot of pheasants but its all private land. Expect to pay.

Now if sharptails are your game the Fort Pierre grasslands are suppose to be good. Its just south of Pierre on the other side of the Missouri River. Its open to the public.

Only thing that may be good in S. Dakota this year is road hunting and its legal with some restrictions.

I talked to the wildlife biologist and 3 hunters that just hunted that area and they said most of the cover was pretty good to the W, NW of the city. A lot of sharptails and huns in that area and most were getting their limit on pheasant. I guess the cover just varies?