"Now We're Talkin'"

Hi everyone;

As promised we really did go to South Dakota to do some Pheasant hunting and thanks to the graces of God and good weather we had a successful hunt. While there won't be any recipes on this installment, we will talk about Ike and what he loves to do. Ike did good job on Public ground the first day. For those of you that don't know South Dakota has about 4 MILLION acres in varoius public access areas for hunting. Hunting in general and non-resident hunters generate an estimate 12% of the gross income for the state-so it is big business. Public gound is more difficult and usually need BIG groups of people to hunt them as many times you are walking in 300+acre plots. There were just us 3, Bryan, Ken and myself and Ike. While we saw a couple roosters (you can only shoot roosters) right out of the box, they were too wiley and flushed too far out for a shot - I considered that a good omen... But after that we saw only Hens.. Ike did really well finding them - one field he found 4 but again we couldn't shoot them.. (Man did I get a dirty look from him after the 3rd one -like, "Hey I did my job -now do yours!"

But we did have a pretty good day at the Private Ground on Friday. On the left you see part of are group as well as Ike with our harvest of our "limit". Pictured front and center is Ike, although I think he was still looking for one more bird- but flanking Ike and I are our two guides Larry and Lowell, (and Mocha) great guys and wonderful dog (Larry's 2 labs are in the background in his truck)

Here is a pic of Ike with his first retrieve in South Dakota - He extracted the tail feathers in the process but he brought it back to me - so that is a good thing.

He was a tired puppy every night but he was rearing to go the next morning. What he lacks in size he makes up for in determination!!

Next Blog - Pheasant Chilli.... Mmmm..

Until then, "Ike, Find that bird!"