I joined some friends last year at the TPF and while it was a good experience it was real cold the first day. -18c first morning and we didn’t see a live bird. I had two first time pheasant hunters and we’d driven 1000km, but that’s hunting. We did find birds over the next couple days and harvested a few.
Roll the clock ahead to this year, my son was drawn. The two of us and a good friend headed south along with our dog to chase roosters. Full disclosure: I’m a bird dog owner, so I don’t care if anybody shoots a bird as long as my dog finds and flushes birds in range. I’m sure the bird dog owners will agree it’s about the dogs and not necessarily the harvest.
Day 1
We hunted a private property NE of town with a lot of tall grass and a cattail marsh. Met some real nice ACA fellas completing a release. It was sunny and cool to start, and sleet set in later in the day. It’s sure fun as a dog owner to see the dog pick up scent and flush. Nonetheless, the barrels must have been bent from the drive. Then we got our first bird. We finished with 3 as snow set in.
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We had a great dinner that was put on by culinary professionals that night at the local hotel. Excellent meal by some true professionals at their craft.
Day 2
The snow overnight made things interesting. It was above 0c in the morning, but we got wet real quick. Note to self: bring rubber boots if it rains and if you’re hunting sloughs. We put on a lot of miles at an ACA site. Lots of cover, but we only saw 1 bird. After returning to the truck, soaked and somewhat dejected an ACA truck pulled in. We had a good chat with the fellows releasing and they explained “birds are birds”, and they don’t always go where we’d like. We watched them walk several hundred yards into the property and release another 20 birds. 5 flew to an adjacent property and it appeared the rest flew into the cover in the distance. We decided to give it another go as it had warmed up substantially and had several nice flushes and harvested a couple. This was a beautiful ACA property with plenty of cover and water. While tough walking it was neat to see such a beautiful property that held a lot of other birds and wildlife.
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That evening Brad Fenson did a phenomenal job presenting a range of pheasant recipe “how tos” at the local curling rink. Check out his site at
www.harvestyourown.ca
Day 3
We hunted another private property primarily around a marsh. The weather was much warmer, so much comfortable for walking. The marsh edge was nasty. Cattails were thick. We flushed a bird and managed to knock it down. After almost giving up on the retrieval I was so proud of my dog for finding and bring out. This was a classic case of having zero chance of flushing or retrieving without a dog. We flushed 1 more bird that didn’t present a shot and called it a day.
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Gotta love pheasant hunt road tripping. The burrs down here are nasty. Furminator and good bath and it’s time to chillax.
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We had a fun time. Kudos to all involved in hosting this event. I’d like to come back again.
Taber Pheasant Festival 2.0
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