| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| teamasc |
Posted - 10/05/2008 : 10:28:17
Back from our UP grouse hunt. We stayed in the town of Curtis in a cabin owned by our Henry County property owner. Gorgeous place on South Manistique Lake. Our crew consisted of ASC members Greg Kuchenburg, Jeff Lachman, Don Dolph and myself. We rounded off the group with my buddy Glen Massey and Alex McDonnell. We had 6 dogs to start off, and later in the week, Greg's wife was gracious enough to meet him halfway so he could work his new dog.
We arrived at the cabin on Saturday 10/27. Don was already there and since he had been hunting for three days he opted to cook dinner and the rest of us head NW of Curtis for a quick hunt. I took Glen and Jeff around one side of a small lake and Greg and Alex went the other way. I ran my setter, Cooper, and we weren't more than 10-15 minutes into the hunt when he stopped in a small depression. I thought he was getting a drink, but he was actually on point, and a grouse flushed and landed 15 or so yards in front of us. Glen and I worked into the area with Cooper creeping along knowing the bird was close. It flushed and Glen shot, but was sure he missed it. Cooper circled out of sight and came back to me with the bird in his mouth.
We worked our way deeper into the cover, and came to a small meadow full of blackberries. Jeff had a wild flush on the edge of the meadow, and Glen missed it cleanly. Then Cooper bumped another bird, and eased into a point. We moved in, but the birds were in the trees, and 2 squirted out past Glen who missed both.
At this point, we hit a two track and followed it down toward a small beaver pond and we flushed another bird wild. Gave Cooper time to cool off at the pond, while flushing 8 or 9 teal, and decided to circle back toward the field and the truck. Near the field Cooper locked up in a small cover and we circled it but no bird. Working the field edge, had a point and the bird flushed, but no one saw it. I heard the tell tale chirping of a bird landing in a tree and walked slowly in. Found the bird and prepared to try to flush it toward Jeff. It flushed, but straight away from me in the wide open, and he didn't live to learn not to do that. We headed back with one more unproductive point, but two birds. Greg and Alex came back with two of their own. Not a bad start to a trip with only 2 hours of hunting in.
Todd Alexander
ASC Membership Services Manager
talexander@team-asc.com
www.team-asc.com
734-552-4839 |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| frank |
Posted - 01/26/2009 : 23:20:19
I don't know about a lodge, but I know when I went to the U.P. several years ago we stayed at a motel. Due to the many different types of hunting with dogs that a person can do in the U.P. most of the motels/hotels allow dogs in the rooms. Any part of the U.P. has birds its just a mater of getting out and looking for them.
You can find some real good grouse hunting in the northern lower if you look for it. I hunted up in the Mio area in September and we had lots of fun and flushed some birds. We hunted state land that was hit prety hard by the bear hunters and grouse hunters alike and still managed to flush birds. I plan on going back up that way again this fall. Like Todd stated in his post we didn't flush that many woodcock but we did flush a few.
Good luck to you guys when you go.
Frank Manning
Mid Michigan/Thumb Area
LandManager
frankm1968@hotmail.com
(810)347-5292
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| JimmyC |
Posted - 01/26/2009 : 19:15:39
Thought I'd revive this thread during my winter doldrums to talk bird destinations for next fall.
I really miss hunting birds and am determined to make at least one trip for grouse/woodcock this fall with some new found friends at church that also enjoy it.
I was thinking of heading to Drummond Island where a friend of mine has a place but was wondering if there are any suggestions for other parts of the state? Any one know of a quality lodge located in good bird country? |
| teamasc |
Posted - 10/06/2008 : 08:26:35
I'm not sure on all the totals, but we had between 25 and 30 birds killed on the week and most were grouse. I killed 4 1/2 grouse and one woodcock, but missed some absulute easy shots. In fact flushed very few woodcock the whole week. Numbers weren't nearly what I expected. We worked a lot of excellent cover with no birds in it. When we did find birds, they cooperated very well. Very little pressure and they sat tight for the most part, aside from getting into the trees on occaision. There were way too many leaves on the trees, still. We would have done much better hitting birds if we were 1-2 weeks later. We had 2 days of 20+ grouse flushes. I'll give more details from my meager memory (lost my journal and haven't replaced it, yet). The best part of the trip, was watching my new Britt go from oblivous to birds, to stopping after a bumped bird, to chasing them, to finally pointing on Friday.
Todd Alexander
ASC Membership Services Manager
talexander@team-asc.com
www.team-asc.com
734-552-4839 |
| frank |
Posted - 10/05/2008 : 11:40:25
Sounds like you guy's had fun and some good grouse hunting to boot. I have only hunted the U.P. once in my lifetime for grouse and we had a blast. It was 10 years ago or so and we ended up flushing about a hundred birds (both grouse and woodcock) that weekend and only brought home 5 grouse and 3 woodcock if I remember correctly. What was the grand total of birds you guys brought home?
Frank Manning
Mid Michigan/Thumb Area
LandManager
frank1968@tds.net
(810)347-5292
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