Hunting
At Willow Creek Kennels and Hunting we intensively manage our property for pheasants, Hungarian partridge, ruffed grouse and woodcock.
Early Season Youth Rooster Hunt will begin Sept 1st. Special pricing for youth will be $12 per rooster on the harvest. Upland hunts will begin September 1st as well with Pheasants, Hungarian Partridge and Red Leg Partidge. All hunts will be on the harvest. We have more birds than ever in our fields, we only ask the hunters to be ethical and count any hit birds as part of their bag.
We live trap year round for raccoons and skunks to provide the best nesting environment we can. We have a slow release of 8-12 week old pheasants from our recall pens, which allows the birds a gradual transition to the environment. Our hunting operation has year-round management, providing our hunters with truly wild experience. The setting is a farm founded in 1893, which goes back 6 generations in Chad’s family. The land has evolved from Grandpa’s dairy and beef farm to Dad’s wildlife management to Willow Creek’s intensive wildlife management and super sized 4,000 pheasant surrogator!
Our cover is designed for Pointers and Flushers. By seeding corn in the center, and sorghum sudan and buckwheat on the perimeter of the food plots we have a good variety of food and cover. The round up ready corn is essential to produce enough late season food to get the birds though the winters. The sorghum sudan and buckwheat provide insects early in the year and good food value through about November and cover through the winter.
Good portions of the cover we hunt are fields which have not been farmed for twenty years. With young aspen, willow brush, and many other pioneer species beginning to take hold, this makes great cover for the birds.
We have planted fruit bearing shrubs and pines which also provide food value and winter cover.
We have removed almost all the perch trees from the property to make predation for Avian Predators more difficult. This also stimulates pioneer species, mainly aspen, to regenerate. This is ideal ruffed grouse and woodcock habitat, and offers our upland hunters an opportunity at ruffed grouse, woodcock, pheasant and hungarian partridge all in the same day. The pheasants, red leg and hungarian partridge also utilize the brushy areas we have created.
Our Pheasant Hunts are roosters only. We have a good population of wild pheasants established, and passing on the hens is a very important part of our management plan.