Bear Hunters Seeing Grouse??

I know this is the bear forum but bear hunters always have a head start on grouse numbers since they are out there early. How’s it looking in your area guys? Thanks.

In th north central area of Wisconsin, within the Chequamegon National Forest, I would say that we are seeing fewer than we did last year.

Just the kind of honest feedback I was looking for. That does not bode well for that area. We hardly saw any hunting their last year. Hopefully we luck into some. I would really like to hear from somone about north central MN.

Suzuki/bearplotts:

plotts, I got a chance to talk with my buddies out there yesterday as I have a beaver taking down trees on my neighbors’ shoreline and he takes care of problem beaver for the government. I needed to find out what I needed for a private trapper or if I tried to kill it/them on my own, when do they do most of their moving (afraid nocturnally).

At any rate they have run bear every day in five days and have not taken anything at this time.

Regarding the grouse, his travels as a government trapper as well as training bear during the training period are not boding well for grouse numbers. One of his family members who hunts grouse heavily, only had something less than 30 flushes last weekend. Last season on the opener, I think he said something just shy of 80 for the two day opener. He also mentioned that he didn’t think that this year’s first hatch survived because he is seeing robin sized grouse when he is seeing them now. He also said that in the last week, he has seen more than all of the summer. He wonders what took the first hatch, and I told him more than likely the cold didn’t allow the grasses and insects to flourish in time for the baby birds to eat enough or they froze with all that wonderfully cold June weather we had.

Mark