I made a reservation for the third week of the pheasant hunt, October 26-29th, 2020, at Whiskey Butte Lodge, Flasher, North Dakota. The reservation was made in January 2020 after reading the Whiskey Butte Website and discussing with the proprietor the "great pheasant" hunting on the lodge property. I specifically asked if my group would be successful the third week of the hunt (any birds left?), and was assured that there were plenty of birds. I was also told that the lodge rested the hunting grounds for a couple days between groups and that pheasants from surrounding properties would move onto the lodge property during the rest period.
I called and spoke to the same proprietor in October to confirm that the Lodge was operating during the COVID pandemic and asked about the spring pheasant hatch. I was told that the lodge would be open and that conditions in the spring were good and that there was a good hatch.
With this information, myself and three buddies made the 950 mile trek to the lodge. When we checked in, we found that the lodge was quite nice, very comfortable, impeccably clean, and well stocked with kitchen amenities plus bed and bathroom linens. If I was to rate the lodge alone, minus any pheasant hunting considerations, I would give it four stars.
However, the objective of our trip was pheasant hunting. One member of our party arrived before the others and the proprietor's spouse drove my buddy around the property and identified the areas that we could hunt and stated that there was a poor spring hatch contrary to what his wife had told me. The proprietor's spouse said some birds were harvested opening week-end. He also related to my buddy how another party had hunted the lodge property the day prior to our arrival, contrary to what I was told in January, and that this group had only harvested one bird. He was quite discouraging and further stated his belief that there were no more birds.
This was all quite disappointing, but after driving that far we were not going to turn around and go home without trying. In short, over the course of the next four days, walking about 6-7 miles a day with two highly experienced dogs and one moderately experienced dog, we harvested only five roosters and had shots at maybe eight roosters. During this period, we got up no more than twelve hens pheasants which we of course did not shoot. I only mention the hens because this very low number is indicative of a poor pheasant population.
It was made very clear to the proprietor that the objective of our stay was pheasant hunting. The reason for the one star rating is due to the poor hunt and misrepresentation of the hunting conditions. read more
