Nebraskaland Magazine
LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska youth got to experience an upland hunt as adult mentors took them afield for the state’s special youth pheasant hunt Oct. 21-22.
The special hunt took place on 14 wildlife management areas (WMA), where the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission released 5,445 roosters Oct. 20.
In total, 313 adult mentors accompanied 392 youth hunters on the hunt this year. Youth and their mentors harvested more than 600 roosters on the special hunt areas, including 34 wild roosters and 572 released roosters.
Pheasants were released at the following WMAs: Pressey (Custer County); Sherman Reservoir (Sherman County); Oak Valley (Madison County); Branched Oak (Lancaster County); Twin Oaks (Johnson County); Hickory Ridge (Johnson County); Wilkinson (Platte County); Peru Bottoms (Nemaha County), Yankee Hill (Lancaster County), Cornhusker (Hall County), Arrowhead (Gage County), George Syas (Platte County), Randall W. Schilling (Cass County), and Kirkpatrick Basin North, (York County). Kirkpatrick Basin North WMA was a new addition to the list of hunting sites this year.
The special hunt, which takes place annually during the statewide youth pheasant, quail and partridge season, was for youth ages 15 and younger. Youth could take two rooster pheasants per day while adult mentors were allowed to harvest one per day. Only one adult mentor per youth was allowed to hunt.
This was the seventh year of the pheasant releases during the special youth season, which is intended to increase youth participation in upland game hunting.
The statewide pheasant, quail and partridge season is Oct. 28 – Jan 31. Permits are available at OutdoorNebraska.org.
