It happens to me every day. I strike up a conversation with a stranger and we talk about Michigan's great hunting opportunities. Maybe we talk about deer hunting. Maybe the topic is duck hunting. It doesn't matter -- regardless of the game, I'm always eager to discuss it!
Each conversation always culminates with me asking, "What about pheasants? Do you like to chase roosters?"
Without fail, I get an answer that goes something like: "Oh, I used to, but there just aren't any pheasants anymore."
I'm ready for their answer though, because I hit them back with: "I shot nine roosters last season. If I could shoot straight, I'd probably have twice that many!"
They either ask me where I hunted or accuse me of going to a pheasant farm. Either way, I am excited to tell them about the Michigan Pheasant Hunting Initiative's hard-fought success in securing legislation that directs the DNR to release roosters on public lands for hunters to pursue.
Ken Dalton, president of MPHI, made it happen. Now just under 10,000 Michigan pheasant hunters are hunting thirteen state game areas throughout Michigan's Lower Peninsula's pheasant territory - and finding roosters! Dalton, also known as "The Pheasident," is an avid pheasant hunter. When the population dwindled, he took notice of what other states were doing about it. He discovered that other states were releasing pheasants specifically for hunters to pursue - not for breeding purposes, but for actual hunting opportunities!
Dalton went on a crusade, lobbying Michigan's DNR to implement a similar program, but it fell on deaf ears.
Dalton tells me, "They tried habitat improvement. The pheasant population didn't boom.
"They tried releasing Sichuan pheasants and closing the season for a few years, but that didn't pan out because they didn't breed either.
"They even had a "put and take" program that had the DNR raising pheasants and releasing them, but everybody was disappointed in the quality of the birds.
"They tried so many things that I think they washed their hands of pheasants and decided to let hunters go to pheasant farms to get a pheasant. The DNR stopped making those hunters even buy a license."
You can hear the shift in Dalton's voice when he gets to this part: "The DNR said no and told me to quit trying, but that just wasn't going to happen. I figured if all those twenty-one other states are doing it, why couldn't Michigan do it? The solid "NO" didn't stop me; it fired me up."
He continued, "I got hundreds of pheasant hunters together to talk about implementing this in Michigan. I had help along the way as people and organizations saw the value.
"One of them was Mike Thorman, the president of the Michigan Hunting Dog Federation. He was instrumental in our success. We had Pheasant Forever members ready to pitch in.
"We partnered with Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC). A state legislator introduced a bill, MUCC was there to lobby for the idea, but so were the hunting dog owners and the pheasant hunters.
"There were people calling me from all over asking what they could do to help get this into law. I may have started this program, but these people put the ball in the endzone," he said
I had a feeling that "The Pheasident" could talk all day about this, and I was right!
"Although the DNR didn't want anything to do with releasing pheasants, we did an end-run around them. We got both the House and the Senate to pass the bill, and Governor Whitmer signed Public Act 262 into law.
"The first release took place in 2019. Now the DNR is working with us, and they're doing a really good job. Just a few months ago, they testified in a Senate Committee hearing that they were in favor of extending the program."
Sometimes I think I can talk as much as Ken Dalton when it comes to Michigan's pheasant release program. I couldn't be happier with it! Those random conversations that I spoke of earlier usually have the other hunter saying, "I didn't know about this. This sounds great," and that's one of my pet peeves about the program. There are too many hunters who still have not heard of it. It only succeeds if people know about it and go pheasant hunting!
The program is self-funded via a $25 pheasant license. Pheasants are purchased from licensed game breeders. Those same breeders drive to 13 State Game Areas twice a week, and release ringneck roosters into the fields. This is only done during hunting season, as these birds are meant to be hunted. Most fields get 20-30 roosters released each time during the first part of the week, and the second release is toward the weekend.
The roosters are released at night, after hunting has closed. The day of the week varies, but I can assure you, no matter which day you go pheasant hunting at one of these release sites, there are roosters in that field!
Pheasant season starts on October 20th and pauses for the rifle deer season. On December 1^st^ the season open up again, and rooster pheasants are once again released. The season ends on January 1^st^. I've hunted that last day and I can tell you that I still saw roosters. Hunters just don't get them all (which, by the way, I didn't hit the ones that I saw Jan 1^st^ either!)
I have pheasant hunted the Lapeer State Game Area, Crow Island State Game Area, Dansville State Game Area, Rose Lake State Game Area and Townline 16 in Bay County. Of all these, only Townline 16 has just one release site. Dansville has three. Lapeer has two. Although there are 13 "release sites," there are closer to 30 fields that the roosters are released in.
Last year, I bagged a rooster at the Crow Island State Game Area. I was in the Panko unit. Crow Island has another area in which pheasants are released -- the Stork unit. The Stork unit is on the other side of the Saginaw River, just a short drive away. I decided to give that a try as the cover is a little more friendly to an older man's legs.
As my lab and I pulled into the parking lot, a young man and a young woman waved to us as they were headed toward a field. I asked if they had a dog (they didn't) and offered to let them hunt with me. We had a great hunt, became good friends, and brought home no birds!
The young man said that he was going to come back in the morning and I told him how I would hunt it if I didn't have a dog. "The roosters like cover, but they will run when pressed. That scrub tree line that borders the property looks like an easy place for them to run to. At the end, there's a grassy patch. After that, they have nowhere to run. I'd push that strip."
The next day I received a text photo of two roosters lying on the tailgate of his vehicle. Today I received a text photo of a trout that he caught with a fly that was tied using the feathers of those roosters. "Can't wait for pheasant season," the text message read.
I mentally agreed. At that moment, I was telling someone else about the program. I was explaining how $25 for 58 days of pheasant hunting beats spending over $300 for a half-day at a pheasant farm.
Wouldn't you agree?
Check out the MPHI website and also the Michigan DNR's website regarding the pheasant releases. I hope to see you in the field this October/November/December/January!
