Grouse anyone

[sparetime]

Anyone chase grouse today? Any positive news?

[2thepointsetters]

Spent two hours this morning with 2 dogs in good grouse woods and we had ZERO contact. I did see a dead one on the highway.

[jparrucci]

Leaves are still green up here in the lake vermilion area. Spent the morning in the woods and the afternoon driving. Saw two on roads. ZERO birds moved in the woods. Not a good start.

[Dusty]

Saw 2 shot 1. Not many birds around

[MahtowaDave]

I went hunting with my son in two areas yesterday. No grouse heard or sighted in a private spot near mille lacs wildlife management area. Hunted for an hour or so there after a morning squirrel hunt. Saw a coyote, a doe, forkhorn buck and 5 turkeys. Flushed two woodcock, but they are safe for another week. Hunted our private land near Mahtowa for about 2 hours. We flushed a dozen young birds in a covey and they played with us for a while after initially bagging two of them. Some of the birds helped us out by drumming a lot. Got some shooting and had a blast, but there are several miles between groups of birds. Seems like you are either into them or u definitely are not. The going was very rough, as is usually the case on opening weekend. The area we found birds in was a low cedar swamp near the edge of a clearcut. Most were on the ground, but some were hanging in the trees above. We got out of the woods minutes before a significant downpour. The woods seemed completely devoid of birds until we ran into that one covey. Funny thing was, I had just told my son that when we will likely find of bunch of them together if we do find one, when they all busted out!

[onthefly]

Was scouting a river for ducks and my dog flushed 3 - no shotgun! That was Sauk Center area.

[jparrucci]

Gave it another go this morning. Flushed one and whiffed on an easy shot. Dogs were both locked on the bird which was good to see

[Neighbor_guy]

I know early reports usually spell out how a season will go. I have a feeling my annual October trip to Ely will be a lonely one...

[MrSchrute]

Tried a few spots in Pine county yesterday and didn't see or hear a single grouse. Did see a bunch of turkeys and a few deer.

[tacklejunkie]

Still alot of leaves on the trees, yet. Even with the low numbers, it seems that later in the season improves

[laker1]

If we didn't get a mega hatch it is going to be tough going this year.

[WalleyeDrifter]

Hunted several areas yesterday. Flushed 2 and shot 1. No other grouse or woodcock flushes. Heard only 2 other shots. Kind of a dismal start but things always get better as the leaves come down.

[vman11]

Hunted the Beltrami State Forest yesterday with no luck. Didn't even see a bird. Put on quite a few miles scouting 2 weeks prior and didn't see any either. Another guy I spoke to out there saw 2 and had a shot at one, but didn't bag any.

Last opener 2 of us shot 7 and had many other opportunities. Yes it's early, but based on a year ago, this season might be tough.

[ETH310]

I hunted hard from sunrise till 3pm on saturday in an area that was very productive last year. I saw 0 grouse and a half dozen woodcock. Pretty discouraging.

[tybo]

I had 4 grouse points and 5 wc points Saturday morning with my 2 setters. I moved a few broods and estimated 10-12 grouse plus the 5 wc. My hunting partner and his wife only moved two birds in a different area. I missed one and bagged 1 over those 4 points. This was in just over two hours so I was pretty happy. On two of the grouse points I couldn't see the flushed birds due to the thick cover. On Sunday we moved a brood of birds but my partner and his wife missed a few times and I never fired a shot. We moved around 6 birds Sunday and saw a few broods of 5-6 birds along the side of the road.

[sparetime]

Thanks for the update. Hopefully things will get better as the leaves start to change. It will be my son's first year coming along. He is pretty excited about it. I'll have to explain the grouse cycle to him before we go.

I honestly don't care if I get one or not. Late September early October are great time to be outside. We will be tent camping, so I have to try and go as early as possible to avoid really cold overnight temps and be late enought to get some leaves on the ground, or at least dried up some.

Bemidji, Ely, Grand Rapids, Isabella - all destinations are currently being considered.

[fivebucks]

Hunting 3 hours Saturday and had zero flushes but we got a bit of a workout so it was still good.

[TRZ II]

2 guys with a dog 4 hrs on sat. and Sun. near Moose Lake. Never seen or flushed a grouse. Did see ALOT of cocks. I may not spend much time on grouse this year. Just fun to be out though. Turkey population is in fine shape......

[cribbageboy]

Keep the reports coming guys!!! I LOVE this time of year. I can only afford to take one weekend for grouse this year, and I opted for October 11th. I'm gonna miss shooting at the September dummies, but hopefully we will see more in October.

[certified jumbo]

I haven't hunted yet this year, but I spent every wkd all summer in northeast mn. Saw a grand total of 3 groups of little ones. Bleak would be my guess.

[tacklejunkie]

I haven't been out yet but those I've talked to all say the same thing. It appears the cycle is on the low end.

[charliepete]

I went out for two hours on Sunday. I put up one grouse, but never got a look at him in the thick stuff.

[Matt Breuer]

Spent a couple of hours chasing ruffs and sharps on Sat. and Sunday. We moved a total of 25 birds (7 ruffs) and bagged 7. A couple of the birds had almost no tail feathers past pinning stage. Hoping it's an indication of possibly a 2nd hatch, or a late hatch which could be our saving grace...

[WalleyeVision]

I haven't been out yet, but plan to take my little boy out this weekend. We live a few miles away from Beltrami State Forest and I jumped a covey of 4 partridge behind my garage yesterday when doing yard work - so that's a good sign I guess.

Still a lot of cover up here, but it's getting cold at night now, so shouldn't be long and we'll be dropping leaves.

[bonehead99]

Southwest of Remer. Saturday AM 3 hours 0 flushes,Sunday PM 3 hours 0 flushes. Last year 6 birds on opener. Still have 3 months to find them.