Grouse Reports

[Scott M]

Was around Bigfork last weekend and talked to a few locals, they aren't too excited about grouse numbers. One guy worked on a crew that clears telephone poles of trees. He hadn't seen much for birds, and I would think he sees a lot of edge habitat. The good news for early season hunters is there was an early frost. Ferns were turning brown in a hurry, some of the leaves were starting to fall, and leaves in the underbrush had browned edges. Best part of the frost - I never swatted a single mosquito!

Anyone else have reports on birds or what the woods are starting to look like? Down in southern Minnesota it seems like fall is coming ahead of schedule.

[bmc]

Yep, fall is definitely in the air!!!

With the dry weather the last couple of months, vegetation is starting to die/change colors earlier than normal.

From some of the deputies I've talked to, grouse sightings are few and far between. I think the wet weather in May/June took it's toll on the chicks.

Granted, there's always pockets of birds for those hunters that get off the beaten path. Probably gonna have to put on a few more miles than normal to get some flushes.

Brian

[Johnny_Magellan]

Hunted half the day or so, Saturday, with a buddy of mine by the Bigfork area. We each got one bird, and saw probably another 8 or so birds total. We hunted on and off the trails with our two dogs and didn't see even close to what we normally do for flushes.

Still worth getting out until the heat took a toll on our pooches.

On a better note, the big gills were biting and the Maker's Mark was smooth...

Maybe we'll do better next weekend when more of the leaves are down and it's, hopefully, a little cooler out.

[Scott M]

Thanks for the report Johnny. That sounds like a good day in anyone's book.

[bmc]

Hunted last weekend with 5 other guys and 5 dogs.

13 grouse and 13 woodcock in 2.5 days of hunting.

We were off the beaten path, busting brush, and compasses were required!!

Brian

[kingkobbla]

Went out for 1.5 hours today went one for two and missed a woodcock. Also saw a fox and owl

[cribbageboy]

Hitting the Warba area this weekend. Temps and Winds look to be like they'll cooperate. Only thing I'm worried about is the underbrush. I'll keep you posted on how we do.

[Scott M]

Thanks all. Heading up next weekend to check it out, looks like I'll get some comfortable cooler weather.

[cribbageboy]

What a beautiful weekend. Temps were a little high, but at least it wasn't raining. Hunted sun-up to sun-down on saturday and just a couple hours on sunday morning. Me and and 4 other guys flushed a total of 22 birds, but only bagged 3. Our shooting was deffinitely sub par. Still a lot of underbrush, and without dogs it was easy to be caught off guard. Still had a blast as it was the first time hunting for one guy in our group.

[Scott M]

Tough, tough weekend. Our foursome bagged 4 birds. Probably had a dozen flushes total. We duck hunted mornings, and hunted grouse from around 11-sunset. Bigfork to north of Marcell. Lots of people out and about, lots of guys riding ATVs. I think those guys are wasting a lot of $4 gas. We broke brush, tried mixed forests, young forests, meadow edges, food plots on private land, low spots after the snow and wind...and ultimately couldn't' put a pattern together. 2010 and 2011 were good to me, but we really dipped down this year. Not sure if it was weather, bad luck, low bird numbers locally, or what.

Still had a great time. Beautiful scenery, crisp air, exercise, apple pie libations, what do you have to lose? Grab some pizza in Bigfork, it's still good stuff.

Good luck grousin'!

(Duck numbers were better than expected. Lots of mallards surprisingly. We werent' able to coax any of the big flocks down to us but they circled high and looked us over...wood ducks are still around too, and of course ringers)