Yep I got the chance to go out Wednesday and hunt with an awesome dog. We put up about 14 ruffies and 3 doodles. I got lucky and shot two, he got one and a doodle. It is pretty nice going out and not seeing cars at every trail head. We ran into one lone hunter in the woods and one guy pounding the forest road in his car, and a couple deer hunters repairing stands.
The grouse crop contests were all three empty and they were all three shot after 4 p.m. They were near oak trees and my oak connection seems to hold water this year. The wind was picking up pretty good and we had 3 wild flushes off an oak plateau without much ground cover. The dog would get real birdy and 50 yards away one would flush! We re-flushed them out of the low land alders and pines after that.
It was a great day to hunt behind a well trained dog and not be at work! I still haven’t seen a single dogwood berry or any other berries for that matter. It’s dryer than a popcorn fart out there. The alders are barren as well in two areas 45 min apart. Gonna be a tough on on em this winter.
Ferny.