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OUTDOORS: Grouse opener hints at reboundFoliage still too heavy for success
September 16, 2006
Email this Print this BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
A Hunting We Will Go
What: Ruffed grouse and woodcock hunting.
When: Grouse season runs through Nov. 14, closes until Nov. 30, then reopens Dec. 1-Jan. 1. Woodcock season runs Sept. 23-Nov. 6.
Where: Statewide.
Requirements: Small game license.
Bag limits: Grouse limits are five per day, 10 in possession in the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula, three per day and six in possession in the southern Lower Peninsula. Woodcock limits are three per day and six in possession statewide.
Special restrictions: When hunting woodcock, shotguns must be plugged to hold no more than three shells.
KALKASKA -- How's this for an opening morning of ruffed grouse hunting: nine grouse and 11 woodcock flushes in less than two hours. No birds were shot, but a couple of grouse were sent on their way with a stern warning.
The woodcock weren't shot at because their season doesn't open for another week. Most of the grouse escaped because they came out of such heavy cover that the nearest hunters didn't see them, or the birds disappeared into the greenery before anyone could shoulder a shotgun.
Bill Ross of Grayling and Don Schulz of Bloomfield Hills joined their pal Tony Petrella of Grayling for opening day of grouse hunting behind two very wise and experienced English setters, Ross' 13-year-old Ben, and Petrella's 9-year-old Ghost.
The dogs found birds quickly, but they almost all flushed out of waist-high ferns and bracken, and pines and popples so densely covered in leaves, the hunters were lucky to get any more than a glimpse of some tail feathers.
The nine grouse flushes seemed to confirm the Department of Natural Resources report that grouse numbers are on the rebound after reaching the bottom of the 10-year population cycle. The ruffed grouse season runs through Nov. 14, closes for the 16-day firearms deer season and reopens Dec. 1-Jan. 1.
The hunters were surprised to see so many woodcock (whose season runs Sept. 23-Nov. 6), since statistics show their numbers down nationally.
"Last year, we averaged about eight flushes an hour between grouse and woodcock. I did a lot of preseason scouting, and I think this year could be considerably better," said Petrella, who lives nearby on the Manistee River. He spends the summer and fall in northern Michigan guiding for trout and grouse, and the winter guiding for tarpon and other saltwater species around Sarasota and Port Charlotte, Fla.
After flushing a half-dozen birds in 45 minutes, Ross' setter was still pointing as eagerly as a pup, despite being the equivalent of about 90 in human years. "Last year, we had mediocre luck with woodcock and no luck at all with grouse. Ben just loves to be out here. He can still do a great job," Ross said.
Schulz said, "I almost came up to hunt yesterday. Whenever I ask Tony about fishing or hunting, he always tells me, 'You should have been here yesterday,' so I thought, what the heck, this time I'll come yesterday. But they wouldn't open the season until today."
Petrella can be reached at 231-585-7131 or at www.tightloopsflyfishing.com.
Contact ERIC SHARP at 313-222-2511 or esharp@freepress.com. Order his book "Fishing Michigan" for $15.95 at www.freep.com/bookstore or by calling 800-245-5082.
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