USA: Grouse Camp 2024

[Altitude sickness]

Well the 2024 Ruffed Grouse camp hunt is over. We had warm weather and another great 4 days hunting grouse and woodcock. Fly fishing Brook and Brown trout. Our camp is at Squirrel bend on the Main branch of the Au Sable river East of Grayling Michigan.

This

 

[Altitude sickness]

The fall colors are a little late. It’s still green and thick.

 

[Altitude sickness]

We had a great first morning. 5 bagged birds. At least that many missed. And more flushed.

 

[Bearkat]

Nice! I’ve made it up north twice in my life to grouse hunt and hope to go again some day. Are you using dogs or just walking them up?

 

[Firebird]

Sounds like heaven. Your birds are in much better feather than our birds are. The mountains truly are fantastic this season. Forgive Me for adding to your post with some pix of my own, just adding to a common interest we share.

No woodcock here but lots of blue grouse. Rainbow and cutthroat trout after grouse hunting

 

[Altitude sickness]

No problem here Firebird.

Bearcat. We are just walking. No dogs.

We only killed two woodcock. Flushed a lot

 

[Altitude sickness]

Caught several small Brookies and had one good strike. “Mousing” for Browns at night

Tricky casting in pitch black. The bigger 20”-25” brown are a little Wiley

 

[Altitude sickness]

A classic northern Michigan hunting camp

 

[gillettehunter]

Looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for the report.

Bruce

 

[uplander01]

What a fantastic set up and hunt. Michigan is a beautiful place once you get away from the cities.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Uplander, It’s a quality hunt and very low cost hunt. We hunted primarily federal lands.

The trout fishing is ramping up. The salmon runs are nearing the end soon.

 

[Gsprague44]

Looks like an awesome trip. My family has a cabin West of Grayling towards Kalkaska. We normally go up for the smallmouth and trout fishing. Was planning on doing a grouse hunt in December this year near Grayling, have you ever been up that late to hunt?

 

[375Fox]

I missed this report last year. Looks like a beautiful area to hunt and good trip. Question, have you seen any changes in grouse numbers from 10,20,30 years ago? I miss seeing grouse in western Pennsylvania. I haven’t seen one in years sadly. They use to be very common, then localized to good habitat, and now mostly absent sadly.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Gsprague, no I have never grouse hunted in December. May try it later this year.


375Fox, the numbers wax and wane. But also as the habitat matures you have to move. You can’t necessarily hit the same honey holes for decades if the Aspen growth is too mature for example. So you’re looking for good roosting near 7-10 year old Aspen growth adjacent to low swampy ground. The age of Aspen is relative to your latitude. The farther north the older the Aspen growth will be to be at the same size and trunk density.