Change of Plans Monday

After we found that both our primary spot and secondary spot for duck hunting this morning were iced over (along with everything else in the county!), we decided to pack up & leave Lily. We were able to check into our hotel in Chamberlain a day early, so we decided that would be the best thing to do. Better to cut our losses & go to hunt something with a better chance of success... Since we were up at 4am, even after the 2:45 min it took to pack, we were still on the road by 9:45am.

We arrived in Chamberlain around 1:45, grabbed lunch at Pizza Hut & then headed over to talk to the SD Game & Fish Officer to ask some questions about the local upland hunting & some suggested places to hunt. The WCO there was very helpful & suggested around a half-dozen spots in the vicinity that he thought might be good. We then checked into the hotel, unpacked & got back out the door to hunt as fast as we could.

We got to the field (a 1/2 section Walk In Area - WIA) about 20 min SSW of Chamberlain. It was crisp and 31 degrees with 5 mph wind & about an inch of fresh snow on the ground. We hunted from 5:15-5:45 through a series of brushy draws that looked like they could/should hold birds. Winnie was VERY excited to get to finally hunt & Jax worked out the kinks, and did a nice job. We saw some hen pheasants flush wild a couple hundred yards ahead of us out of the shin-high grass, which was everywhere except the draws. The dogs also both got birdy once in the cover, but produced no bird.
Here are a couple pics of how they traveled from Lily to Chamberlain...