Deer River MN Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock - Saturday October 1st 2016

 

Deer River MN Woodcock

We left the Twin Cities Saturday morning and made the drive to the Deer River, MN area.  By the time we hit the woods it was 1 PM and it was already warming up.

Tina, the 14 yr old, got the first spot.  It is a shorter hunt and we have had luck at this spot in the past.  The cover was thicker this year than in the past and she had some issues getting through the tall grass in the trail.  We worked the area for 40 minutes but didn’t move anything.

Tasha got the next area.  This spot is one of our two favorites.  As we went down the second set of trails she gave me a flash point and a grouse took off out of a tree.  It surprised me so much I didn’t even get a shot off.  A few minutes later I heard her bell stop and then a grouse flushed.  As it cleared the woods it was coming right at me down the trail.  I spun around as it passed me and took a shot but it just kept going.  It was in the mid 60’s and next to no breeze so I wasn’t going to get too upset with a bumped bird.  I’m hoping that it won’t continue.  As we went down the trail we had a wild flush that again came from a tree. arrgg, no shot taken again.  The next section of trail was flooded out so we tried to work our way around it but ended up looping back to the original trail.  We went to an area that was lower but not too wet and ended up moving two woodcock.  One was a nice point but no shot and the other was another bumped bird.  We wrapped up this area after about 90 minutes and took a break to head to the cabin and get checked in.

I’ve rented the cabin for the month of October and will come and go over some long weekends.  It is a bit expensive but this lets me leave a fair amount of gear at the cabin between hunts.  Two main drawbacks though.  No internet.  No wifi at all and fairly slow mobile hot spot.  It is good enough for email but no streaming.  The second drawback is that after this year they won’t allow dogs any longer.  We got checked in, got the dogs plenty of water, and unloaded some of our gear.

We made it back out to the woods with about 2 hours of light left.  We went back to the 2nd spot that we had hunted and I took Tina out first again.  We worked a great looking section of trail.  This was much easier walking and the cover has grown nicely since being clear cut a few years ago.  She got birdy a few times but we didn’t move any thing.  Tasha got the call to close out the day.  We ended up moving 4 more grouse 2 of which came out of trees.  She did get a nice point on 2 woodcock.  I didn’t get a shot off at the first one but the second one was a nice point and when I stepped into the woods it flushed and went right down the trail and I hit it on a nice going away shot.

We got out of the woods with a little light left.  We ended up moving 7 grouse and 4 woodcock for the day.  It was great to see birds even if we didn’t do too much shooting.

Deer River Mn Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock Hunt 10/21/2015

Tasha and Tina with a limit of Ruffed Grouse and a bonus Woodcock

I’ve been slacking off on keeping the blog up to date but we had such a good day hunting that I thought today would be the right time to get it all rolling again.

We drove from St. Paul up to the Deer River area this morning.  It was gray and kind of gross looking when we started at 2 pm.  I wasn’t too hopeful. 

I put the 13 yr old setter Tina down first.  We started down the first trail and she was working scent pretty quickly.  She made a nice point on a woodcock but I couldn’t connect.

The trail comes to a T and we usually go to the left but Tina decided to go to the right and locked up within 15 yards.  I walked in and could see the grouse holding tight by a pine tree.  Three steps in and it jumped up and with one shot it came down.  As we doubled back down the trail we worked for a good period of time.  We had a tailwind and Tina was working hard but wasn’t having much luck until we hit an area that is a bit wetter and Tina swung to a stop after she had passed by the area.  I walked in and the bird went straight away and I was able to bring it down.  100 yards later it looked like the situation was about to repeat itself but as I walked in for the flush I only managed to shoot a tree in half…  We made it to the end of the trail and turned around and worked our way back.  Towards the end of the trail Tina went into the woods a little bit farther than usual.  I heard her beeper go off and I started to walk towards where I thought she was on point.  I couldn’t see her but I thought I was getting close.  I was about to activate the beeper again to get a better idea of where she was when I heard a leaf make a crunchy noise and the grouse came up and I was able to snap off a shot and bring it down.  When I picked up the bird I could tell that I had just hit the wing.  Covering the last bit back to the truck I missed on a wild flush.

After loading Tina into the truck and swapping out the 12ga for a 20ga Tasha and I started back into the woods.  The first spot that we hit was an area that had been cut over 4 or 5 years ago.  We haven’t moved many birds out of this area yet but it doesn’t take to long to hit it.  A short walk into it Tasha pointed and then relocated.  When I walked in a woodcock went up and I took an off balance shot and was lucky enough to connect.  Tasha went right over to where it went down so we didn’t lose this one.  She has been getting better about going to where the bird has gone down.  We finished up this area and hit a spot that usually holds a few woodcock.  She had a nice point but it flushed low and straight away from her so I didn’t get a shot off.  We continued to work the area and at the very end of the cover she locked up again and the grouse came up and offered me a straight away shot and I was able to hit it on the 2nd shot.  We doubled back and started to work part of the area that we don’t hit too often.  It is a bit older growth but we have been seen birds in this type of cover in other areas that we have hunted this year.  We hunted this area for quite awhile but didn’t get any action.  We worked our way back towards the area that I had hit with Tina in the hope that more birds had moved in.  Just a few minutes down the trail and I got a nice point and I brought down grouse number 5.  We hunted for a bit more trying to get Tasha some more woodcock points but didn’t move any more.  About 50 yards from the truck Tasha busted a grouse. Oh well, it wouldn’t be a hunt without one busted flush.

I checked my hunting log and the last time that we had filled out on grouse was 4 years and 1 day earlier and it was in the same spot.

 

Lake Winnibigoshish, Deer River, and Pennington MN Ruffed Grouse Hunt October 21st and 22nd

Lake Winnibigoshish Ruffed Grouse

Tuesday October 21st 2014

After taking a recovery day off the dogs and I decided to try a different area than where we have been hunting lately.  We took off to the Lake Winnibigoshish area.  There were a couple of trails that we had hunted last year that I wanted to take a look at.

About 15 minutes into the hunt Tasha went on point at the intersection of two trails.  One step towards her and the grouse flushed straight up in the air and I was able to connect on the first shot.  Two hours later when we were about 10 minutes from returning to the truck she went on point along the side of the trail.  As I walked up the trail the grouse got up and flew straight down the trail and it still took both shots of the O/U to connect.

Just over 2 hours of walking and both birds were flushed within 15 minutes of where we parked.  Lots of good dog work but no birds to show for all of the time in the middle.  On the plus side when I reviewed the GPS tracking afterwards I did find that I had come within about 5 minutes of a different forest road that would have cut down on the time it took to walk back.

We drove down the Forest Road a few minutes to a trail that we had never hunted.  Tina got the call.  It ended up being 30 minute out and back walk.  She did get one nice point on a woodcock though.

I decided to head closer to the cabin for the late day hunt.  As we drove by the spot the dang pickup with a dog trailer was in our spot again...  I went to a nearby area and there was another truck there.  On the way to yet another area I saw that the pickup was at now at that spot so we went over to the spot that we had wanted to hunt.  Like most people I prefer to hunt an area that hasn’t just been hunted by another party but sometimes you take what you can get.

Tina got the call again as she had gotten short changed earlier.  I had switched over to my new Berreta a400 28ga semi-auto.  I had gotten a woodcock with it earlier and was hoping to take a grouse with it.  It didn’t work out that way.  Tina had 6 nice woodcock points of which I shot at 3 and missed all 3.

Wed  October 22nd Pennington Mn

Tasha got the call first and within 10 minutes she went on point at the edge of a small clearing.  I stepped in to the cover just to her right and the bird flushed just to her left.  I quick shot ( are there many slow ones when grouse hunting? ) and the bird was down.  It was another smaller bird.  I am seeing way more small ones than usual.  Another 10 minutes, another grouse but a miss this time.  10 more minutes and repeat the process with yet another miss.  We walked for another hour without moving another bird.

Tina got to hunt the next area.  This trail was cut in half by a forest road.  Tina went on point just 5 minutes in.  She was on point near a small rise as I moved in the bird flushed on the other side of the hill and I wasn’t able to get off a shot.  This pattern of not getting off a good shot repeated itself 4 more times before I pulled the plug on the hunt.

I’ve been changing guns almost every time I switch out the dogs because I am trying to make sure that each gun gets used.  I think I am going use one gun for the whole day to try to get a little more consistency.

We took Thursday to give myself and the dogs a rest.

Tasha and her Pennington, MN Ruffed Grouse

Deer River and Cass Lake MN Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock Hunt Oct 17-19 2014

Sunday's Harvest - Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock - Deer River MN

Friday Oct 17th 2014  Deer River MN.

My friend Mark and his 15 yr old son Martin drove up from SE Iowa to join us for a few days of grouse hunting.  We got to the woods at about 4.  I put both dogs on the ground since we’d only have about 2 hours to hunt.

About 20 minutes into the hunt Tasha went on point about 20 yards off the trail.  As I bobbed and weaved my way in the grouse ended up busting out another 15 yards ahead of her, I didn’t get off a shot.  200 hundred yards up the trail the same scenario repeated with Tina.

We came up to the edge of the field and Tasha locked up tight.  We sent Martin as the cover was pretty thick and we figured his young legs could handle it.  One step into the woods and the bird took off.  On the far edge of the field Tasha got another point and the result was pretty much the same.  One step in and 2 yards out a bird flushed and no shot was taken.

Tina got two nice points towards the end of the trail and I at least got my gun up both times but it was the old “it flushed behind the one pine tree in the area” trick.

We didn’t move any birds on the way back.  We moved a total of 6 birds in the first hour, took no shots and didn’t move anything on the way back.  It would have been nice if Martin had been able to at least take a shot but he did get to see some nice dog work and see that hunting isn’t always like they show it on TV.

Sat Oct 18th - Cass Lake MN.

The team was in full force as our friend Tony arrived with his two GSPs.

After a meal of homemade breakfast burritos we headed north of Cass Lake.  Tony was running both of his dogs and I stated with Tasha.  Within 15 minutes all three dogs started to work the same area and with a couple of flash points the grouse got up.  Three of us took a total of four shots and the bird was done.  We all could claim that we hit it so it was a win all around.  Tony was especially excited as his 2 yr old Beau Jack made a nice retrieve to hand.  Until this bird he would find the downed bird but then just stand over it and not retrieve it.  After another 15 minutes on the trail Tasha went on point about 10 yards off of the trail.  I was able to work my way in and the grouse gave me a straight away snap shot and I was able to connect.  At the time I thought I had barely hit the bird but when I was cleaning it I found that I hit it better than I thought.  Tasha made a nice retrieve to the trail and when she dropped it one of Tony’s dogs picked up and made a nice delivery to hand.

We split into 2 groups with Tony and Martin hunting together so that he could see how someone else hunts and Mark stayed with me.  About 15 minutes into this stretch I saw a grouse flush when Tasha over ran it.  She didn’t see it flush and continued to work the area.  She went on point about 10 yards farther up the trail.  I was hoping that there was another bird.  There wasn’t.  She moved another 20 yards to an small area of ferns and went on point again.  I figured it was still scent from the bird that got up but found out otherwise as I took a step into the cover a bird got up, shot miss, a second bird got up, shot miss, three more birds got up. I kept pulling the trigger on the over under but nothing.  I reloaded and walked in a step or two more and another bird got up, shot miss.  By this time Mark moved in and as I was telling him what happened another bird got up and we both missed.  7 birds and no hits.

We walked down 2 more branches of the trail towards a section of lower elevation.  We saw a grouse run across the trail so I guided Tasha towards the area.  She locked up solid and as I moved towards where the bird should be two other grouse flushed from the other side of the trail.  As I turned to try to get a shot off the original bird got up behind my now turned back.

On the way back to the car we had one more nice point but the bird got up just a little too far out.

After moving to another trail I put Tina out and she got 2 nice points but they were in areas that were so thick I couldn’t even get my gun up.

We moved 15 birds and put 2 in the bag.  We walked about 4 hours and our birds moved per hour was pretty decent but almost all of them came in two batched.

Tony had a couple of homemade soft tacos and drove back to the Twin Cities.  He had to get up at 4ish the next morning to run the Mankato Marathon.

Sunday Oct 19th 2014 Deer River

We only had a couple of hours to hunt in the morning before Mark and Martin had to head home so we went to my favorite spot as it is close by.  The was a pickup with a dog trailer ( never a good sign ) in the spot that we wanted to hunt so we went to the other side of the WMA.  The side that we went in on has habitat that is a bit older and I haven’t seen as many birds on that side the past 2 years.  We put Tasha down and after about 25 minutes she locked up on the side of a field and then relocated 10 yards farther up the clearing.  I took one step in and the bird gave me a nice straight away shot and I promptly missed the easiest shot that I’d seen all weekend.  We didn’t move anymore birds on our way back to the truck and we pulled the plug for the morning.  We had a quick lunch, headed back to the cabin, they loaded up and took off for home.

I went back out and by the time I got to the trail the pickup was gone and I decided to give the trail another try.  Tasha got the call and within 10 minutes she had a point and I was finally able to connect on the shot.  It was an over the head “duck tower” kind of shot so I was extra happy to have connected.  20 minutes later I was able to repeat the process.  At the end of the trail she gave me a nice point but I was not as lucky this time.  On the way back to the truck I was able to harvest 2 woodcock over points.  It was Tasha’s best outing to date.  She hunted hard but in control and was really confident on her points.

Tasha got the call for the last bit of the hunt.  We hit the edge of the field again and she got me a nice point and I was able to take my first woodcock with my 28ga.  On the way back to the truck we had a wild grouse flush but I was not able to connect.

It was a good 3 days stretch.  Not a lot of birds the first 2 1/2 days but it was great to get out and hunt with friends.

Mark, Martin, and the team harvest

Tina, Tasha, and I with our solo Cass Lake MN Grouse

Oct 2-3 2014 Ruffed Grouse Hunt Deer River MN

Thursday October 2nd 2014

Deer River MN Ruffed Grouse & Woodcock Oct 2 2014

I’ve rented a cabin near Grand Rapids, MN for the month of October with the goal of chasing ruffed grouse for as many days as possible.  I am planning on hunting Every Thur - Sunday and an additional week right after mid-month.  I’ll be driving back to the Twin Cities each Sunday evening and then heading north on either Wed evening or early Thursday morning depending upon the weather.

I got back home from a work trip at about 12:30 am Thursday and hit the snooze a few times in the morning.  By the time I wrapped up a few things it was about 10:30 before we hit the road.  After checking into the cabin and unloading a few items we hit the woods at about 4.  There wasn’t much wind at all and fortunately the rain had stopped as we were ready to hit the woods.

Tina got the call first.  At 12 1/2 years old she has plenty of experience but is starting to show the miles.  20 minutes after starting she went on point.  Unfortunately I walked past the bird and when it got up I didn’t even get a shot off.  We were almost to the turnaround when she locked up again.  This time it was a straight away shot and I was able to connect.  On the way back we hit an area that is a bit lower than the rest and got 2 woodcock points and I was able to take one.

After a quick snack I let Tasha have her chance.  A short way into the trail she took off running hard and bumped a grouse.  I had a left to right passing shot but did not connect.  I was a bit worried as the blasting through birds was something she did all too frequently on grouse last year.  We hit a number of side trails but didn’t move any more birds until we got closer to the start of the trail.  She had 2 nice points on woodcock that I again was not able to finish off for her.  It was nice to see her hold her points on the woodcock as she had not pointed any last year.  On the last stretch before we got back to the truck she locked up hard along the edge of a field.  I started to walk up the side and a grouse broke too far out for me to get a good shot.

In 3 hours of hunting we moved 4 grouse and 4 woodcock taking 1 of each.

Friday October 3rd

We woke to 35 degrees and rain drizzles.  I decided to not hunt so in the morning we went into Grand Rapids and got some groceries and lunch.  After lunch we drove to an area south of Deer River to look for some areas that we had not hunted before.  We did find a few places that did look promising but there were also a fair number of trucks parked along the trails.  Clearly there are a number of hunters who are more hard core than I.

Tasha and Tina Ready For The Start Of Grouse Immersion 2014

How To Miss A Ruffed Grouse Shot - Video

I went 0 for 8 on quality shot opportunities this day.

I was able to recover over the next two days but am still missing some easy ones.  The previous couple of weekends I was hitting some of the tougher shots.

Grand Rapids / Deer River MN area.

Deer River - Grand Rapids MN Grouse and Woodcock Hunt Oct 13 2013

4 Grouse and 1 Woodcock

Sunday October 13th 2013

The dogs and I were back in the Deer River area to try our luck at finding some more grouse.  It had been a long drive the day before to get there.  We had started Saturday by heading up to Willmar, MN to talk with a farm owner about getting access to his land to try some pheasant hunting.  He agreed and we spent just over an hour making a quick pass to see if we could get a rooster.  All the corn was still up and it was starting to rain so we pulled the plug and made the drive to Deer River.

We went to what has become our favorite spot in the area.  There was already an ATV parked in the spot that we like to start out at.  It is a large area so we drove to a secondary parking area.  Tasha got the call to be the first one to hunt.  At 17 months old I am just wanting to get her into birds.  I’m hoping that she will handle them well when she finds them but I won’t get bent out of shape if we get more bumps than points.

After about 5 min she started to get birdy and a grouse broke from the cover.  I fumbled with the safety but didn’t get the shot off.  While I was cursing myself another bird got up and was away before I could get on it... We approached an area that is a bit lower and wetter than the other cover.  Tasha made a nice flash point on a woodcock and I was able to take it on the second shot.  On the way out Tasha bumped another grouse.  I wasn’t upset as we were working with the wind and as soon as she scented it she spun to point and the bird got up.  It was a little bit farther out than I am comfortable shooting so I passed on it.

Our second spot is an area that Marge ( my setter who we put down this spring at 17 1/2 ) had good luck hunting at 16 years old.  It was a shorter trail and she usually was able to get a good point in the first couple of hundred yard or so.  Tina got to hunt this one.  We worked the trail that we normally do but then were able to check out a new cut.  As we hit one spot I was saying to myself “ how can there not be a bird here “ and sure enough Tina locked up and I was able to take it with a single shot.

The third spot is another small area.  This is my third season hunting this area and we have always seen a bird here but have never taken one.  I was hoping that Tasha would break the streak and we could take a bird.  We worked the trail out and then bushwhacked it back.  She moved well through the woods and was working the cover but we didn’t move a bird.

For the last hunt of the day we returned to the first spot and were able to park in the spot that we wanted to start out.  About 20 minutes into the hunt Tina made a nice point a ways into the cover.  As I started to move up towards her the bird came charging out and I made a quick right to left swing and took a shot.  I didn’t see the bird go down but it did look like it maybe bobbed a bit.  We went in and looked around a fair amount and didn’t see anything and as we started to walk out I happened to look down and it was tucked into some brush.  It had gone an amount farther after my shot than I had thought.  As we neared the turnaround on the trail Tina made another nice point and I was able to take it on a straight away shot.

On the way out she made another point and I walked past her a good distance to try to trap the bird between us.  As I walked in Tina held steady but I didn’t move a bird.  As I got right next to her a bird broke a good 25-30 yards behind me.  I hadn’t gone quite far enough up the trail before cutting in.  About 5 minutes later she went on point again so I went even farther up the trail this time hoping to not have a repeat.  I got to within 5 or 6 feet of her and started to think it might be a woodcock holding tight and then right between us was the grouse.  I could have thumped it with my barrel.  I finally got it to flush but didn’t hit it until the second shot.

We ended up taking another grouse on the way out.  It was a nice flush and a easier shot but I’ll take an easy one as I know most are not that way.

For the day we moved 13 grouse and 8 woodcock.  As far as shooting I went 4/6 for grouse but only 1/5 on woodcock.

Another Hunter Beat Us To Some Prime Cover

Grand Rapids - Deer River MN 2013 Ruffed Grouse Hunt 2nd Weekend

Tasha and Tina with our first grouse of 2013

Friday Sept 20th

The weather forecast was for clearing in the afternoon but driving in rain all the way from Forest Lake, Mn to Grand Rapids, Mn wasn’t too encouraging.  The clouds started to break as I arrived in Deer River and my mood improved.  I met up with my hunting buddy Tony.  

We hit an area that I’ve had good luck at for a few years.  I put my new setter, Tasha, down to give her a chance to get on some wild birds.  Tony went down a different trail to work his two dogs.  We worked the area for about and hour and didn’t move any birds.   Tasha did get birdy a few times and gave me 2 or 3 unproductive points.  Even though we didn’t see anything I was happy with the way she was working the cover.  When we got back to the trucks I asked Tony if he had gotten anything as I heard a couple of shots.  He said that 3 had flushed wild ahead of him on the trail but that he hadn’t gotten them.  As a bonus though one of his dogs did roll in a dead skunk that was on the trail...  I’ll be skipping that area this year.

We continued to work our way around the Winnie area and found lots of good looking areas but no birds.  It started to drizzle as we hunted the last area and as we were walking out I had two grouse flush from under some pine trees.  I didn’t get off any shots but it nice to actually hear something.

Saturday Sept 21st

It was going to be just me and the dogs today as Tony decided to hunt closer to his cabin. 

If the lower bird counts were going to be keeping hunters out of the woods this year you wouldn’t know it by how many vehicles were on the forest roads this morning.

We started on the trail that we left off at the previous evening.  The cover was wet with the previous evening’s rain.  The area had the right cover and we hunted even farther down the trail than the day before.  Unlike the day before we didn’t move any birds.  We continued hunt some of the areas northwest of Lake Winnie but still were not having any luck.  We stopped in Black Duck for a late lunch and decided to head to a different area.

Our next spot was an area the my first dog, Marge, had good luck hunting in her 15th season.  I put Tasha down hoping that somehow Marge would have passed some of her mojo to us and that I’d be able to get Tasha her first bird.  The area looked even better than before as there had been a new trail cut through some birdy looking cover.  Tasha worked the cover well but still we were not able to get a point.

At the last spot I hunted my 11 year old setter, Tina, by herself.  One of the reasons that we added Tasha to the family is so that I wouldn’t have to hunt Tina all day long.  She would do it if I let her but she does better if I don’t run her into the ground.  I also switched guns to my 16ga in the hopes of changing our luck.  This area was where we had started yesterday but I decided to enter it from a different point.  The path we took was a newer cut path and a bit tougher to follow but it still looked good.  About five minutes into the hunt Tina locked up solid.  As I moved forward the grouse got up from right in the middle of the trail.  It was an easy shot that I actually connected on.  It was a young bird.  It felt good to finally harvest one.  As we moved along the trail she went on point ten minutes later.  I could see the bird on the ground about 10 yards into some thick cover.  I moved past the bird and then angled into the woods to get the flush.  It held longer than I thought it would and when it flushed I lucked out as I was in a spot where I could actually get my gun up and get a shot off.  Tina went and stood by the downed bird.  She doesn’t always like to retrieve but will usually go to the bird if she sees it fall.

We got two more flushes but no more shots.  After returning to the truck I started to feel the effects of getting caught in the cool drizzle from the night before.  I fed the dogs back at the motel while I cleaned up and got all of my gear into the truck.  I decided to pull the plug a day early.  It turned out to be a good move as by the time I got back to the Twin Cities I was coming down with the chills.

Additional notes:

When I first started hunting I didn’t like using bells as I don’t care for the extra noise in the woods but this year I’ve been using them a lot more often.  I am finding that with a young dog and the thick cover that it just makes it easier to keep track of them and I end up using the beeper a lot less often.

Bigfork - Deer River MN Grouse and Woodcock Hunt

10/6/2012

Tony, Quetico and a Bigfork MN Grouse

The weather in the Grand Rapids, Mn area was supposed to be wet snow on Friday so I decided to head up early on Saturday morning.  I met my buddy Tony and his dog Quetico in Deer River and we decided to head up to Bigfork to try an area that we’ve had good luck with in the past.  This area can be entered from two different roads so we thought that we’d try parking one vehicle and then driving to the other side and hunting our way back to the first vehicle.  This way if we got into birds we could always hunt out and back and if the birds were scarce we could bail at the first vehicle, swing back to the second and then head to a new spot.

We put the two dogs on the ground and started down the trail.  It looked to be a good morning for a hunt as there were still spots of snow on the ground.  Within the first 5 minutes we got a wild flush and didn’t get a shot off.  The trail comes to an intersection with two side trails and if you go forward you hit a clear cut that has started to have islands of growth.  It the past few years these islands and the edges of the field have held good numbers of birds.  We worked the area pretty thoroughly and did not move a bird so we headed down one of the side trails towards the parked car.

As we hit the main loop on the lower portion of the trail the dogs started to get more excited.  They started to work an area of newer growth when you could hear them slow their search.  Tony went into the area to check on the search when a grouse got up in front of Quetico ( Tony’s GSP ) and he was able to drop the bird.  We kept moving along the trail to an area that was an awesome hotspot in 2009 and 2010.  There is a large beaver pond along one side and a small pond on the other.  In ’09 and ’10 I’m certain I moved multiple birds in this small area every time that I hit it.  Tina started to get excited first as I’m guessing that she remembered all of the birds that we had seen there in the past.  We were close to the end of this area when the dogs started to tighten up their casts and narrowed their search to some softer ground.  A lone woodcock decided to make its escape and I was able to bring it down and put it into the game bag.

We finished up this trail and decided it wasn’t worth hunting our way back so we loaded up the one vehicle, swung back for Tony’s truck and decided to head to an area close to Deer River that I had excellent hunting a number of times last year.

The dogs worked the cover well but we only moved on woodcock and we didn’t take a shot at it.  I found it odd that we didn’t move any other birds from this area.  As we were leaving I did notice that the cabin across the road had 3 or 4 trucks at it with lots of guys wearing blaze orange and I don’t recall seeing any vehicles at it last year.

Even though we didn’t move a lot of birds it was still a great day to be in the woods with the dogs.

Tina and I with our Bigfork MN Woodcock