Public lands that are crawling with hunters on Saturday and Sunday may be all but empty throughout the rest of the week. For those who have the option, Thursday and Friday hunts can be productive because birds spooked the previous weekend have had a chance to move back to the cover and may have settled down a bit. Choosing your hunting conditions can affect how well you'll do on public birds. Warm temperatures bring out more hunters and always have pheasants scattered and ultra-spooky. Rather than going afield in shirtsleeve weather, hang around the house, get your chores done and be ready to go when cold and snow come calling.
Nasty weather helps public hunters in a variety of ways.
Pheasants often will come from nearby private lands to utilize a public area's dense cover and rich food sources. The worse the weather, the more birds will be attracted to the stellar coverts. The colder it is, the easier it will be to find birds, because at this time they cling to the thick cover. Several inches of snow can cause even highly pressured birds to sit as tight as they did on opening day. Remember, the fresher the snow, the better you'll do.