November, 2010;
Tom Logue and his guest Todd Consbruck; winner of the 2010 ProPattern’s fantasy fishing event enjoyed an exclusive South Dakota pheasant hunt with the ProPatterns’ Pro Team staff; Me, Jami Fralick, and Matt (dead-eye) Reed.
In conjunction with my win at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic, ProPatterns’ is offering a chance to win a guided fishing trip with me on Table Rock Lake here in Mo.. All new members; joining ProPatterns by year end are eligible and automatically become eligible to compete for the 2011 South Dakota pheasant hunt.
Below is the account from this years winner. We had a great time and didn’t shoot each other; another plus!
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Someone pinch me. I think I was dreaming. I hope you guys will indulge me. I’m just so excited and I wanted thank these guys publicly for the hunt of a lifetime.
Tom Logue, a long-time friend of mine asked me to go on a pheasant hunt he won near Gregory, SD. He won it through http://www.ProPatterns.com in their fantasy fishing contest. I got to hunt with Tom, BASS Elite Pro’s Brian Snowden, Matt Reed and Jami Fralick.
We saw over a 1,000 wild pheasants in two days, I got to spend time with good friends, and made new ones.
Chad Ekroth, the ProPatterns owner is from Gregory, SD and we hunted on his family land and over at his good friends land – http://www.dakota-skies.com.
Tom and I met the guys Thursday night and after a fun night we had a big breakfast and had a hunt “huddle” with Joe from Dakota Skies. Joe was leading the hunt. He did a great job with outlining how we’d hunt – walkers and blockers, and all safety aspects like only shooting from “10 to 2″ – in other words never shoot low, don’t take any risky shots and so on. I’ve been pheasant hunting for over 30 years but I really appreciated they took the time to make sure everyone was on the same page saftey wise.
Like the rest of us though, Joe is still not sure what a “Peezunt” is. That’s what Matt Reed thought we were hunting. Matt is about the funniest guy alive. Not to mention the pics of the 14 lb bass he was showing us from Lake Falcon, one of the places he guides (Toledo and Rayburn too).
Off we went at 10 am, when shooting hours start. “Dead-eye” Reed dropped a double on the first 2 red “peezunts” he’d ever seen with 3 shells.
Joe did a great job with everything and had 3 great chocolate labs, we lost 1 shot bird (a runner) in 2 days, that’s amazing in that type of habitat and winds.
Chad and Joe
Joe with one of the many pheasants his dogs retrieved. Tom is behind and Jami is in the hoodie
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Matt showing Brian one of his "double"
Brian and Jami in a "sea of grass"
Jami, Chad and Joe
End of Day 1
NO MAS!
A Pile of Birds!
After we all pitched in cleaning our limit of birds we relaxed and hung out for the afternoon, ate a great supper in town and went back to the lodge. I loved hearing a lot of stories from their fishing careers and Matt kept everyone rolling.
Saturday morning dawned like the artic circle according to the bass fisherman (I’m from Nebraska so it was definitely long sleeve shirt weather. It was a brisk 11 degrees and windy.
Friday we hunted within a mile of the Ekroth’s house at all times. Saturday we headed to Joe’s place. He has his entire family farm managed for pheasants, his habitat and the Ekroth’s is breathtaking.
The wind and clothing affected the boys shooting a little bit on day two. Those pheasants were leaving con trails going downwind.
The end of Day 2 (Just the pheasants from that habitat strip behind us)
Actually, it was so cold my camera battery’s quit. So I didn’t get many pictures. Over 2 days of hunting we saw well over 1,000 pheasants on 1,000-1500 acres of ground. It was jaw dropping. ALL of these pheasant were wild, no “preserve” birds. We saw some huge deer and the spectacle of waterfowl in full migration. All the guys were great and I can’t thank Tom, Chad and Joe enough.
Jami, Matt and Brian are all great guys. Root for them if you follow the tour. Brian is on FoxSportsNet tonight winning the PAA in Texas.
THANKS GUYS! This was awesome!!! If you want to go to pheasant heaven, I’ve been there. It’s Gregory, SD.
Jami, Brian and Matt are some of the nicest guys alive. I’m sure going to root hard for them on the tour. They were all extremely genuine, nice and likeable guys.
All I can say is wow. I was told they are planning a hunt or fishing trip for a lucky winner every year for any of you guys as pheasant or fishing crazy as me – which I assume is about all of you!
