"Rough" Grouse

[Jackfish Piper Cub]

Made it up Thursday night on Rainy. Went out first thing Friday morning on the Arrowhead Trail. It was a hot one! Kicked up 2 birds, the first would have been an easy first bird for the year if i hadn't been wiping the sweat off my face. Second bird had held it's ground and flushed well behind me. Heard no Dumming. Friday night was the Ruffed Grouse Society banquet on the Ash River. Prime-Rib was good. About all to say on the banquet. Saturday headed West on 11 and walked the RGS management trail along the Rainy River. Got one early, walked the loop flushed another. Quick miss. Came back and fished 8-mile and landed handfuls of cigars. Nothing worth bringing back. Jig n Minnow. Sunday morning, nothing. Came in at noon, watched the Vikes. Headed home. Grouse season's still early. Upcoming weeks should produce more birds! Good Luck Ya'LL

[monstermoose78]

It was hard spring on babies

[bobbymalone]

I heard it was a hard spring, but man I was kicking up a bird every 50 feet driving around on dirt roads in Itasca County a few weeks ago.

[leech~~]

9 minutes ago, bobbymalone said:

I heard it was a hard spring, but man I was kicking up a bird every 50 feet driving around on dirt roads in Itasca County a few weeks ago.

Get any?  Off the 4 wheeler or out the window?

[bobbymalone]

1 hour ago, leech~~ said:

Get any?  Off the 4 wheeler or out the window?

Ha!  Unarmed.

[tacklejunkie]

It was a cool, wet spring but the Grouse are on the early upswing end of a 10 year cycle

[birdguy]

Hunted the Isabella area a week ago for three days,  got four birds. It wasn't easy as the cover was pretty thick and the birds were few and far between.

I'll be hunting the Crane Lake area next week and the cover should be thinned out much more in that area as they've had a couple of frosty nights already this fall.

[JBMasterAngler]

My dad was in the Snake/St. Croix River area on Friday. He got 1 grouse, and saw another.

[birdguy]

We got 14 in the Crane Lake area last week. Monday and Tuesday were slow but things picked up by Wednesday when it warmed up a little. Birds were far and few between and we figure it was an average of about 8-10 miles of trail walking per bird taken although, I did take four on one trail on Wednesday morning.

[Cheetah]

Population is up in NW WI where I hunt public land for deer.  I see grouse every time I go to deer stands or scouting, which is much improved over even a couple years ago.  I just can't get one to stand still for a bow shot, they are very skittish over there.  

[JBMasterAngler]

My dad made a return trip to the same area yesterday. He saw 3 birds, but didn’t get any shots off. Pretty encouraging he’s seeing a lot of birds in that area. We’re heading up to Grand Marais on Monday for the week, should be good times!