On the morning of November 19, 2016 Justin and Jessica Eisma headed out with their hunting dogs for a day of chasing the wiley ring neck pheasant. The brother / sister team from LeMars, IA. are avid hunters and enjoy getting out in the fields of NW Iowa regularly. Having recently received the first snow of the season and cooler temps, the weather conditions were good.
The first hunt of the day started in a woolly draw with areas of cat tails. The hunting duo put their dogs “Oakley” (a black lab), “Star” (a German shorthair), “Sid” and “Gunner” (both Brittany’s) out in from of them as they worked thru the cover.
With plenty of dog power it didn’t take long and the first pheasant of the day was located. Star and Oakley got birdie an soon after a single cackling rooster erupted from the frosty cover near Justin and he downed the bird. Not long after another rooster erupts near Justin and again Justin makes the shot and two birds are down. They continue to work the draw when the dogs go on point, this time near Jessica. A single rooster flushes and Jessica makes the shot count and a third bird was harvested. As they continued on the birds got jumpy and started to flush well ahead of the dogs. Jessica decided to cut across the harvested corn field and posted at the end of the draw. When Justin gets near the end of the draw the dogs got birdie and minutes later several birds flushed with Justin and Jessica both downing roosters.
A CRP field with a creek running thru it would be their next hunting challenge. With the dogs again out front they slowly worked thru the thick waist high cover.
With 5 beautiful ring necks already taken they needed just one more bird to finish their daily bag limit. After covering approx. ¼ mile Gunner went on point and Justin walked over to flush the bird(s). A single bird flushed, they both hesitated to shoot as the coloration appeared to be strange to say the least. Jessica was first to clearly identify the bird as a rooster pheasant and called “rooster” to encourage Justin to take the bird. He too was finally positive the bird was a rooster, shouldered his gun and dropped the pheasant. Oakley retrieved the bird and upon closer inspection they were in awe of the very unusual coloration of the pheasant. The bright white markings were unusual indeed. A partial albino rooster, what a trophy! After admiring the bird they headed home to share the unique bird with family and friends. It didn’t take long to decide to give Kyle Schlesser (Owner of Schlesser Taxidermy, LeMars IA) a call to make arrangements to have the uniquely colored pheasant mounted.
A beautiful fall day in the field had rewarded Justin and Jessica with a limit of Pheasants and a truly rare trophy.
Clark Schmitz
Brunsville, IA.
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