Great Plains Game & Fish checked in with a number of quail hunters and biologists and found opinion as to how the bobs are faring in our state to be divided.

"I think hunting was good last year," said John Savicky, a 66-year-old trucker from Lincoln who shoots a 20-gauge 870 Remington bored modified and goes afield with a Brittany. "And previous to the season this year, I saw a lot of broods -- quail as well as pheasants. I think there are more quail this year than I've seen for a long time.

"I do most of my hunting in southeastern Nebraska. I hunt some public wildlife management areas, as well as CRP land. January hunting can be good if you know the areas you hunt. The CRP grounds, as well as the wildlife areas, have pretty good cover. When we get some snow, the birds are going to use these areas."

Jim Pinkerton, another hunter from Lincoln, guns over a shorthair. He agreed that bird numbers were up last year. "The last couple years have been pretty good for quail," he stated. "The hunting was better than it has been for about 10 years.

"I hunt with a friend -- Dan Peterson of Beatrice. We do most of our hunting on private land down in that area. We hunt along the woody draws, hedgerows and CRP lands."

Nebraska's rural mail carriers participate in an annual April survey of small game for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. In the six quail management areas, the count was up 25 percent from the 10-year average. Five units tallied percentage increases: Republican, 77; East-Central, 54; North-Central, 38; Northeast, 9; Southeast, 22. The only unit with a decrease was West Platte.

Prior to the season, a few NGPC wildlife management area managers were asked what quail numbers looked like on their respective tracts.

Brad Seitz of Alexandria, who manages the Meridian, Alexandria, Alexandria West, and Little Blue WMAs, conducts quail "whistle" counts at his areas. He reports that the count prior to the season indicated a population 35 percent above the five-year average.

"On the 600-acre Alexandria area, our count has averaged 14 whistles over the past five years," he offered. "We also log the whistles coming from adjacent private property; that count averaged six.

"We also log hunter numbers -- and they have gone down steadily over the past few years. The number of quail taken has been very poor on the Alexandria areas, and we think that is because most hunters target pheasants. Our pulse on their hunts indicates the hunters aren't seeing many quail. A lot of them do not have dogs, and some admit to being poor shots on quail.