S. Dakota tag opportunities?

mporter012

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
237
I currently live in Laporte CO, but have a friend that has been going up to Rapid City area and working quite a bit (we're both carpenters) and he said i should hightail it the h e double hockey sticks out of CO. I'm also a fly fishing guide in the summer (1-2 days a week) and so I'm somewhat reliant upon living around trout fishing, and I know there is some trout water there, but don't know much about it. Anyway, CO has become obscenely expensive, and crowded and I've about had it. The public land duck and pheasant areas are so crowded (I have an 11 month old GSP and want to be near better bird hunting), you may as well not even go. And i still go, waking up at 3am, driving all the way out to public, and there are 659 trucks already there. It's a mob scene and it's never gonna change here in Cali/Texas, I mean Colorado. I think I counted 58 guys on 3rd rifle opener!! Archery Elk was like something out of Braveheart. Let's recruit more hunters!

Anyway, I don't want to get into the debate over crowding, etc, just curious what the public land hunting opportunities are like in SD. Here in CO, I feel like i don't really hunt as much as i used to. In CO, for example, you get 7 days to hunt deer, or 30 days with a bow. In PA, where i grew up, you get about 4 months with a bow, or 1 week with an inline, 2 weeks with a rifle, and then 3 weeks with a flintlock. In OK, where I hunt some, you get 6 tags as a non-resident, similar to PA, 4 month with a bow! So I'm looking for more "opportunity" or whatever you want to call it than CO offers. Yes, CO has incredible OTC Elk, and the Mule Deer hunting here is really good, I understand that, it's just all things considered, you don't get nearly the time afield here chasing deer you do elsewhere.

Otherwise, just curious what everyones thoughts are a guy moving up to S. Dakota from down here in N. CO. How many deer tags can you get? Can you hunt elk every year? Mulies every year? Is the public land bird hunting a mob scene? Also a fishing nut, I fly fish for trout a lot, but do it all, ice fish, smallies, pan fish, etc. Cost of living seems considerably better from poking around online, but curious thoughts on that.

Feel free to PM me.
 
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KurtR

WKR
Joined
Sep 11, 2015
Messages
3,533
Location
South Dakota
Elk hunting is once every 20 years or so. Archery for deer whitetail or muley is state wide from September to January you have to apply but it’s like otc. Rifle is three weeks and split up east and west river can always get tags just have to figure out what county you want to hunt . Pheasants are what we are known for and after first few weeks lots of public and kinda depends on what part of state. Trout in the hills and not much any where else walleyes are king with world class fisheries. Waterfowl is really good(my favorite by a wide margin). Can hunt antelope archery every year rifle every other. There is something to hunt from august till April not counting predators. My problem is usually trying to decide what to do and not enough time. Plenty of public where we consider crowded if one vehicle is parked there. Where I live I am hunting 1 mile from my house but I’m also 100 miles from the nearest Walmart.
 

Smallie

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 11, 2019
Messages
298
Location
Illinois
Please don't blow up SD I plan to move there eventually. By the way it can get really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter. Also windy pretty much all the time so I would advise not even bothering looking :LOL:
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Messages
1,323
Location
Tulsa Ok
West river deer tags have been tough to draw, seems like, If you are not picky then not so much. I have a bunch of preference saving for a unit I used to be able to pick up leftovers for. Lots of public and walk in/state managed land. I grew up in the hills and would love to get back there, but have been gone much longer than I actually lived there. As far as trout, there are great stocking programs in the hills lakes, but IMO stream fishing is fun, but not much size to anything. FWIW, the hills are getting really expensive as lots of folks are moving in from other areas now. My parents have several Cali transplants in their neighborhood, and they are bringing the politics with them.
 

KurtR

WKR
Joined
Sep 11, 2015
Messages
3,533
Location
South Dakota
Please don't blow up SD I plan to move there eventually. By the way it can get really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter. Also windy pretty much all the time so I would advise not even bothering looking :LOL:
It does get really hot like 90 are normal and last week we had days in -20 with out wind chill. Today is 40 and 40 mph winds and in 2 days back to -10 again. The mosquitoes in the summer can carry you away and carry west nile. Ticks are crazy thick . I see lots of people come and go after one year.
 
Joined
Nov 15, 2017
Messages
381
West river deer tags have been tough to draw, seems like, If you are not picky then not so much. I have a bunch of preference saving for a unit I used to be able to pick up leftovers for. Lots of public and walk in/state managed land. I grew up in the hills and would love to get back there, but have been gone much longer than I actually lived there. As far as trout, there are great stocking programs in the hills lakes, but IMO stream fishing is fun, but not much size to anything. FWIW, the hills are getting really expensive as lots of folks are moving in from other areas now. My parents have several Cali transplants in their neighborhood, and they are bringing the politics with them.

Komifornia transplants ruin everything.


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