# pheasants in grand forks????



## Chris Schulz (Sep 7, 2004)

if anyone has had succsess in grand forks can you please tell me. I dont want to know where you got'em i just want to know if they are here or i have to go to another county to find them. Thanks!


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

Schulzy -

I have seen a few out north of Thompson and west of GF, but that's pretty rare in those parts. There is a gamefarm there that has pen-raised birds, and my theory, along with NodakDuke's was that they were escapees. I have flushed a couple hens while hunting doves out in that area, but have only seen one roodie with my own eyes.

By the way, if you really want some action try dove hunting in that region west of GF. Take off a nice afternoon from studying or working and walk some treebelts around that area. Find the Thompson/English Coulee diversion ponds out south of Emerado, and walk some of the treelines there. If you don't get any birds, take some tubes or spinnerbaits and fish the bass in those ponds, they are getting BIG!

Ah, I miss last fall.  All school, no work, and free afternoons to walk for doves and fish bass! If you are in school, enjoy it while you can. You can always cram for finals, but you can never get back a hunting trip you never went on!


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

C'mon NJ, Grand Forks is right up there with Regent in pheasant population! All the plowed grain fields, turned over 3 times, every slough
has been burned and plowed under(and they wonder why we have flooding problems) not to mention the butt crack of state when it comes to weather! Always 10 to 20 degrees colder than Fargo & Bismarck! No CRP or very little! Seriously, No pheasants around here except ones that escape from the pheasant farm and the owner of that place doesn't like it when you shoot his birds, even when it's on someone else's land! We call him the pheasant NAZI! You have been warned!
NJ any smallies still biting? I will be spending a lot of time in your neck of the woods in the next few weeks! Hope to see you around! Cast & Blast!


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## jamartinmg2 (Oct 7, 2004)

Schulzy.... I can speak from some past experience, albiet from the late 80's. I went to school at UND and did some hunting around that area. I think I saw more moose than I did pheasants. We used to have some decent duck hunting around Minnwauken, but I understand that it is pretty tough to get on the land around there anymore... but I could be wrong. You might have better luck finding pheasants (stuffed)over at the local Cabella's in East Grand. Take a weekend and head toward the SW... you will run into some birds.


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## wishiniwerefishin (Sep 15, 2004)

Did happen to see one around manvel on sunday, very very immature bird, had the lookings of color starting around the face though, so it was prolly a rooster. Must have gotten lost or something to be this far north.


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## BandHunter (Dec 17, 2003)

I got three pheasents by Mayville last Thursday.. Seen a flock of huns and went after them and ended up jumping three roosters/two hens..Even though before that I have only ever seen two pheasents in the area before in the last four years. Was a nice suprise..I didn't get the Huns though.. :eyeroll: Oh well...
Bandhunter


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

I shot one pheasant and have seen a few others between Mayville and Buxton (West of Cummings). I believe a person raises them and lets them go to hunt them. The one I got was very young, but the others looked older. I have also seen many sharptail grouse west of Buxton and Reynolds in CRP and PLOTS. They are there if you are willing to get out and look hard. Nothing like out west though.


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Guys and Girls...Any pheasants around Grand Forks have been released! Either by the Gamefarm or farmers...Don't kid yourself, the birds are not expanding this far north! However, there used to be a decent population around the Hope-Cummings-Mayville-Portland area's! That was 10 plus years ago, and once again, I believe it was the Hope Wildlife association that released the birds! Believe me, I wish it was true...I wish we had pheasants! It's probably a good thing we don't or I would probably lose my job!


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## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

I don't see why there couldn't be some wild pheasants around GF. I'm not really disagreeing that most around here are released though. I think I heard that Grand Forks county has the highest % of CRP acreage in the state, and from driving around in GF and Nelson counties, there certainly would be enough habitat for them. IMO if a large-scale stocking effort were done up here, the pheasants would do pretty well in some areas. Winters in GF can't be much worse than they are in Valley City or somewhere like that. Just a thought...


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Grand Forks winters are by far worse than V.C. More snow and temps colder by 10 degree's or more! Yes, there is cover, but there is no food! Farmers turn over the grain fields over 3 or 4 times! For pheasants you need Food, water and Cover! 2 out of 3 ain't bad, except with pheasants! The weather doesn't help either!


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## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

OK. I don't really agree that GF gets more snow than VC, and 10 degrees may be a bit of an exaggeration, but OK.


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## DJRooster (Nov 4, 2002)

A few pheasants in Grand Forks county? Yes! Pheasant hunting? 
Wishfull thinking!


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## yotebuster (Dec 3, 2004)

i agree with rick. the winters are too harsh as far north as grand forks for pheasants to thrive. and i think rick's snow and temp differences are pretty close too. cover is not a question, there is enough cover. i think there would be enough food for a small pheasant population on some areas up there if the winters weren't so harsh. but there still isnt nearly as much food for them as there is in other parts of the state. i guess just by coincidence i did see one hen today south of michigan-lakota area. but thats the first one ive seen in 10 years, and it was probobly rasied and released.


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## strand (Sep 29, 2004)

Rick is correct, precip in the RR Valley is substantially higher than the rest of the state averaging about 20-21 in/yr. I believe a large scale stocking effor could be successful if the NDGF and USFWS coordinated some unharvested food plots of an acre or larger on all or most WPA's, WMA's, PLOTS, etc along with some landowners waiting until spring to cultivate. The only other problem would the be the cold wet springs that would put a hamper on the nesting season...but they could always push the opener back a couple weeks or even open them when the refuges open to upland birds to let some of the juvies mature a little more.

Just a thought, just as long as the pen raised birds don't intermingle too much...drastic changes and possible mass death may occur, domestic poultry carry so many diseases.


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

There's a few you'll see out of the game farm and that's about it.:run:


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## taddy1340 (Dec 10, 2004)

Hello everyone, I am new to the site. I recently moved to the Grand Forks area (a year and half ago) and agree with Rick. As a matter of fact, I raised this same question to a good friend of mine that has been hunting pheasants for over 30 years and usually harvests 75-100 birds per year. He too said the main problems were cold temps, but more importantly that farmers don't leave enough crop. They got to have food! Rick is correct in that the farmers till the crap out of the land each fall. I wish they were here in GF so I wouldn't have to drive 2 hours south, but oh well. At least I can hunt wild birds here. When I grew up in WI, we hunted all pen raised birds and literally had to kick most of them to fly.

Look forward to chattin' w/ y'all.

taddy


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