Any E. WA Pheasant Opener Success?

[T-Bone]

The wife and I got out on Opening Day with the Springer (Walter The Wonder Dog) for a short morning, local hunt…ZERO pheasants seen, but Walter did provide us with some quail shooting opportunties. How was the hunting on wild birds for the rest of you? Locally, I'm just not seeing the pheasants.

[merkelman]

Heading out tomorrow. Let ya know!  My buds have shot a few thus far!

[GoBeavs85]

I too will report tomorrow. Going to put in a couple hours in the morning. I messed up and scheduled myself out of town for the pheasant opener, that won't happen again:) haven't done much scouting so this will be a guess hunt but I can't shoot a rooster in my living room

[buglebuster]

Flushed a few a little out of range, 1 my lab flushed perfect, I missed the 1st shot and hit the 2nd. Watched him go down sideways with 1 wing flapping knew he was gone. Spent 20 min looking for him with both dogs and no luck. I know he ran off.

[GoBeavs85]

Blind squirrel finds nut. My first wild rooster and on my bday! Dakota pointed five other times, all hens. One wild flush hen. Was a very fun hunt. Never seen my dog work running birds so effectively. Cover seems to be plenty thick and saw more hens today than all of last year combined. Good sign I guess. 

[L-ofalab]

I have seen quite a few all 3 times I've been out. Sunday we were by Rockford and saw at least 20 pheasants. We quit at 10:00 with 4 roosters for 2 of us. It was getting too warm for the fat old labs and the fat old owners. Today I took my even older 12 year old lab out and she flushed a couple hens and 1 rooster. I was happy to get that rooster for her. I only hunted her 1 1/2 hours. I think this year looks like the best hatch in several years.

[T-Bone]

I have seen quite a few all 3 times I've been out. Sunday we were by Rockford and saw at least 20 pheasants. We quit at 10:00 with 4 roosters for 2 of us. It was getting too warm for the fat old labs and the fat old owners. Today I took my even older 12 year old lab out and she flushed a couple hens and 1 rooster. I was happy to get that rooster for her. I only hunted her 1 1/2 hours. I think this year looks like the best hatch in several years.

Congratulations! Seriously, I'm just not seeing pheasants on my daily trips up&down HWY27 and my drives in the near countryside. I live in Rockford and the locals aren't seeing BIG #'s either.  My short 2-2 1/2 hour hunt is hardly a great barometer of pheasant #'s; sounds like you have a good spot and have given it more effort than I. So again…CONGRATULATIONS!

Tom

[dwils233]

We bagged three between three of us hunting without a dog down in the St. John area. Sorry to hear others were having a hard time finding them. We saw probably 15 roosters throughout the day but all on private land. hatch looks like it should be a great year!

[Forks]

Decent in Othello.

[HookedOnQuack]

we had good success just outside of Othello also. Ended up with 10 roosters and 7 quail. Could have had a few more pheasants but we were trying to get our buddy his first "flying" bird! 

[L-ofalab]

I have reports from all the farmers that the first hatch wasn't very good but then they did great 2nd hatch. My hunting partner teaches drivers ed so  he drives kids all over the place and he has not seen any birds along hwy27 either. But hunting close to 27 we found lots of birds. Maybe they are smart enough to stay away from the road.

[dustysags]

Me and a few friends hunted all sat. , sun. and most of monday in the public land in potholes. We saw like 4 roosters got 2, saw probably 10+ hens and got 6 quail with like 5 ducks mixed in. We hunted hard with 5 dogs 6 young guys 6+ hours a day. Next time were bringing alaskan seafood and talking to farmers haha. Dogs had fun though and it was nice to head over to hunt east side for a first.

[jetjockey]

Just talked to my dad.  He's hunting private property near Othello.  His Brit has pointed 1 hen and 1 huge rooster that he totally whiffed on.  Sounds like bird numbers aren't too bad where he is.

[L-ofalab]

I got 3 today, the vizsla was good and pointed 3 hens and a rooster but the 8 year old lab was a machine. She found a bird that I was sure would be lost, it wasn't hit real hard and landed where I couldn't go help. I saw 18 pheasants today, 7 roosters. On the drive home saw a big covey of huns.

[merkelman]

A lot more birds this year, but very flighty!  We put up 6-8 wild birds Tuesday, but again most would not hold for the dogs. Disappointed with the quail populations thus far...

[GoBeavs85]

I agree with very flighty. Put up 7 birds this morning. 2 hens were in range all the rest were way out in front or way off to the side.

[jackson7]

nice pic merkelman, beautiful bird, beautiful gun.

[wonder]

I had a great day, seen 7 roosters, shot at 3 dropped 2 and had a runner that we couldn't catch up with.  Numbers seemed very good in my opinion.