Went back to ND in Dec and the birds have rebounded slightly in the Mott area. Easy winter so far. Could be great in ‘21 but doubtful it will be like the golden era. Too much habitat lost. Only 5 more months to decide that fate really.
Go as late as you can, weather will be better for the dogs and there won’t be as many people. Typically you are much more likely to get permission to hunt later in the season than early (after deer season). Approx 10-20 miles either side of Highway 21 from Flasher to Regent is the pheasant belt in ND. The further away from there you get, you will probably encounter fewer people. Also there will be less pay to hunt operations. You can only shoot 3 a day, but if you want to see hundreds of birds a day stay closer to that band. If you are ok paying for access you should be done by 8:30 every morning. There are places in ND that have great pockets of birds that resemble that stretch, but not on that scale IMO. Harder and harder to knock on doors and find a place to hunt but with persistence it can be done. Going solo will help. Use OnX and google. Lots of the landowners still have landlines. This year we scored big by hitting up the phones with out of state landowners to secure permission. 100% chance when you ask permission they will ask where you are from. If you lay claim to having grown up or lived in any other state in the union I would consider sticking with that place vs saying California. Unless you say “unfortunately CA” and state your reason for being forced to live there, then you may have a glimmer of hope. Bring a crockpot, you can’t take ‘em all home with you. Good luck!
