I was fortunate enough to get invited up to Sibley, Iowa to hunt the pheasant opener with my good friend Tim Ellerbroek again the year. Wade, Donna and Jim Ellerbroek rounded out the hosts. Jim’s friend Derek flew in from Seattle to Denver and they drove the rest of the way to join us. We also had Kurt and his son Keenan from Nebraska. Last but not least, Drew came along who is friends with Tim and I. In total we had nine pheasant hunters and five well-trained and experienced bird dogs.

We started Saturday morning on public

ground where we combined forces with a group of five hunters and two dogs. The public land we covered yielded twelve ring-necks. We gave the other group three birds and proceeded to hunt the private land. The weather was perfect and we got into some really nice shooting opportunities and had our limit by 11am. The local DNR stopped by to say hello when he drove by and noticed our picnic table full of birds. He said that he had checked thirty hunters and they only had three birds between them! Obviously it makes a difference having the dogs and well-managed private land.

Sunday we hunted some of the same ground and some new ground as well. It took all day but we rounded out another limit. Monday Tim, Jim, and Derek had their nine bird limit in an hour.
Special thanks to the Ellerbroeks for their great hospitality and a wonderful weekend!