Jeff Olson

neat video B-W, that was a bunch of birds! looked like a lot of fun ,good for you.

never easy to talk about. sorry for you and your family's loss. they sure are special and the memories priceless! may the lord bring you peace, take care.

well guys, I can vouch for the state of Iowa getting hammered with wind and snow! drove through it all night last night.hit southern Iowa at6 pm,didnt get to the inlaws in elk river ,mn. til 5 am this am. not fun,but made it safely.( think I will have to go to Cabelas in rogers,mn. to recover!) anyway,hope your christmas wishes come true,looks like they will, so no reindeer will be shot! lol. wont be back in hollister til the 28th,so im looking foward to some good reports! good luck to you all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

nice hunt BH, I was out on the rock wed am & this am,very slow.I saw quite a few birds come in last night, all right at dark until i couldnt see any more through the binos. and then they are heading out and gone by 6:30 in the am. and then nothing new coming in after daylight. only a few divers scattered around lake. did manage 1 nice drake goldeneye on wed. nothing today. need a new push of birds!

out on the rock today,with the clear skies,most of the birds I saw were moving 15 minutes before shooting time. then pretty slow,did manage a loner mallard & a loner scaup that came in to the deeks nice with wings set! was out yesterday also, and saw more birds for about the first hour,but the high winds were no good for my spot,saw very few divers.no birds bagged yesterday.will try again tomorrow morning. good luck all!.

very nice buck Harps! congrats.

what do you guys mean QUILLS ? never heard any geese called that, thanks.

very nice buck Harps! hope you get a crack at him!

with the weather forcast saying the low last night was supposed to be 32, I thought i would try the rock this am.well I had 41 at 5;30 and that did not bring any birds down. didnt see anything flying. did had 2 sm flocks of goldeneyes that were on the water work there way into about 150 yrds of my deeks .for about a hour I watched them diving around,that kept it interesting! did see 3 flocks of local geese flying.( might have to chase them down on land until we get some cold weather to come through) taking a friends young boy fishing tomorrow,hopefully find some crappies up long creek.

a little to add, with the temps dropping mon night I thought I would try the rock again. monday hunted 2;30 to close, very strong north wind !, only saw a few flocks and a few loners, no shots fierd. tue am 27 degrees ,from 6;45 to 7;30 saw about 15 nice flocks migrators, and about another dozen sm flocks working my area.missed a diver going warp speed with the wind and had 3 mallards decoy nice and dropped the 2 drakes. not much moving after 8;30, quit at 10 . only a couple shots but a fun hunt just seeing a good # of birds!

Thanks F&F for the recepie,I have been wanting to make some goose jerky,as I never have before.will this work on vennison also?

nice reports guys, I tried tablerock sat afternoon,and sunday morning. saturday only saw a few birds,but did have a sm flock of scaup come in 5 minutes before closing and dropped 2. and sun. am was slow also, but had a flock of mallards and another flock of scaup come into the deeks,and pulled 2 out of each flock. didnt see many birds, but very nice days just to get out. ( my green bay packers sure are stinking it up tonight.)

WOW ! that must have been awesome! good for you F&F!

Good luck to all who will get out thur for the opener! Im in Illinois for turkey day, hope to get out this weekend. I will be anxious to hear some reports! enjoy!

thanks for the update! hope you are having a good day out there today!

Hey F&F,thanks for the report.I was wondering how you would do today. that is what I have been seeing up here on the rock.quite a few birds one day,and then only a few the next. im out of town now, so I wont be able to get out until next sat in Mo. hope to hear more reports on how everyone is doing. ( did you hunt all day today?) happy hunting everyone !

I was blessed with a nice 7 pointer at 8:30 opening morning.fun hunt as this was my first season here in mo. he was passing through about 80 to 100 yrds out,to thick to shoot, but after 3 different sets of grunts,he turned and came right at me.ended with a 18 yrd shot! fresh venny in the freezer! on a side note,how does the deer population seem to be this year? are you guys seeing alot of deer? did the blue toung hit the Branson- hollister area? thanks.

I forgot to mention that if any of you guys use pheasant tail feathers for tying flies,I saved a bunch and would be happy to give them to you. I live by tablerock dam. just personal message me on here if you want some.

Hey NXS, I was in the area so I stopped by river run today.the ramp is still under water so getting in will be fine.about 150 yrds below the bridge looks to be the narrowest point that I could see and was about 50 yrds wide. I fished that area about 3 months ago and that area was about 7 ft,to me now, the water looks about 3 ft lower than then, so i would estimate 3 to 4 ft at shallowest.just a guess though! no boat trailers in the lot at 4 pm, but it was misting out.

Hey Quillback, we did not hunt anyWI areas in aberdeen,although we were hunting right next to some and noticed hunters in them getting some shooting.we have always hunted them in the past and usually do ok.you just have to cover alot of area on the public land because they are so spread out because of the pressure.I assume you got a free sd hunting atlas to show all the different types of public land to hunt.if not they are at most places that sell licenses. most of the areas I noticed really cut off were the WIA,CREP&school and public lands.IMO the best cover areas and usually left alone cover wise are the green shaded,waterfowl production areas,and then the red,game production areas. especially now with the drout,the birds are around water! hunt the long grass and cattails around the lake and creek shores,especially if it is near any crops. im not to familiar with the NE part of the state but on page 10 of the atlas it looks like there is alot of green and red areas to hunt.I used to hunt the watertown area about 15 yrs ago, you could check out the Dry Lake area,or stop at the cowboy store in watertown and ask the guys there where to hunt.nice guys and they have very good prices on shells. good luck and let us know if you go! just a little more info,in miller,sd after I left we had 7 new hunters come out and they hunted 4 days,on private land and had only 21 birds total. so it is just a tougher year!

Well,I got back to Hollister tue pm the 30th after 2 - 5 day hunts in SD, first 5 were in the Aberdene area,and the 2nd-5 days were around the miller,sd area. both areas were quite a bit slower than normal years.we did ok,I shot 23 pheasants in 10 days,so I guess a 2.3 bird per day avg. but I usually avg my 3 bird limit out there. the total #s of birds saw were down alot ,but we got most of the birds flushed, mainly because you had to find thick cover to find some birds,and they held tight thus most flushes were nice and close! thick ditches,fence lines,creek bottoms and shelter belts were the best. and if you can find that cover near crops or water,all the better! and I agree with Quillback,there sure was alot of very bare fields out there,and crp fields that were not renewed. almost all the crops have been cut also. overall still a very nice hunting trip with family and some old friends,saw more deer than ever before and I wish SD did not have the lottery draw for waterfowl licenses,as there were alot of ducks all over! and I saw alot of migrating flocks of specks! now looking foward to our duck season down here in southern mo.! good hunting to all!

hey guys, sorry for any confusion on my wordage to Kyle,I meant if he is still out here on this website if he liked SD as much as I do ,he could still be out there,LOL. anyway,Phil I have wanted to get up to ND also to hunt,I think with some scouting a guy would do real good because unlike SD if the land is not posted you are able to hunt it,as where in SD you need to get permission and that can take quite some time to find out who owns the land. I have mainly wanted to go to ND to hunt waterfowl ,but I hear there are some real good areas for pheasant. Quillback,I used to hunt out of Mobridge about 10 yrs ago,nice area ,different terrain to hunt ,check out the raviens along the missouri river banks, they can hold alot of birds. but you will have to check on some of these areas as some are on Indian corp land and you used to need a corp land license? not sure if it is still that way. also something to keep in mind is there is some real good walleye fishing on the missouri river right there in Mobridge. oh,and be ready to shoot some sharp tail grouse,there used to be alot in that area. and are included in your license.

Kyle are you still out there and if so how did your trip go that year? Im am from wisconsin,but moved to hollister this spring, and was courious if guys around here go to sd for pheasants also? I have been going for 25 yrs now and really enjoy it! im heading out fri am for the sat the 20th opener! private land usually is very good and public is ok.(usually all day to fill your limit) of coarse a good dog really helps! I hunt about 50-50 private-public. I will post my results in a couple weeks and welcome all others to post to compare notes. also I have always saved the tail feathers for my sister for her flower shop business,but she has now closed the doors so if anyone would want some for fly tying or anything, let me know on here and I will be glad to give them to you! I hunt in the aberdeen area for 1 week and then in the miller,sd. area for the 2nd week.2 different groups of guys. good luck to all !

hey F &F, sounds like you had a awesome day on the water. I had a pretty slow day on bull shoals, very windy! sounds like I should get over there to scout for ducks and do some fishin! thanks for the great report.

hey F&F,I had not seen that you had an attack,very sorry to hear that. happy to hear that your check up went that good! take care of yourself and keep getting that fresh outdoor medication! ( which we all know you will! ) so you can keep the reports coming!