Right now in central Iowa and west, early snows flattened a bunch of productive cover making it very difficult for pheasants, so they have concentrated in cattails - which are frozen "early" this year. As a result they are getting pounded hard. Lots of hens but roosters are declining faster than they have in recent years - or at least that is my personal observations.
The CRP cover I hunted a week ago Friday, north of Ames, was in excellent shape. The big storm that hit Iowa early was south of there. The worst, from what I saw as far as snowfall totals, was south of I-80. Southeast getting the most. The storm that followed that one was mostly up along the MN border.
