Bird Dogs Afield host Paul Fuller is the gun dog columnist for Northwoods Sporting Journal. The Journal has granted permission to re-print Paul’s articles. Thank you Northwoods Sporting Journal.

Good Grouse Year

This has been a banner year for New England grouse numbers. Most professional guides feel it’s the best year in the past ten. Your writer hopes you’ve had an opportunity to enjoy this peak of the cycle. Here’s how I spent two weeks in October.

On October 9th, I arrived at Sturtevant Pond Camps, Wentworth Location, ME, with my friend and fellow Journal columnist Stu Bristol. Arriving just minutes later was our friend Will Buchan from Vermont. And pulling into camp shortly after Will was Tom Sobolewski and Charlie Spigner of upstate New York. These are all seasoned bird hunters.

I like Sturtevant Pond Camps. Owners Tom and Martha Rideout have three rustic cabins right on the shore of Sturtevant Pond. It’s a housekeeping arrangement so bring a friend with suitable cooking skills. This Maine location also provides a tremendous variety of grouse cover. Traveling south from Sturtevant Pond will get you into more settled areas with old overgrown apple orchards and traveling North will get you into the “big woods” where you’ll seldom see another hunter. Traveling East and West will also provide almost unlimited logging roads for exploration.

Owner Tom Rideout is at the top of the ranking when it comes to guides and understanding grouse. If you decide to try this destination, and he’s available, you need to hire Tom for your hunt. I don’t think anyone in this area knows grouse and grouse cover as well as Tom. He’s been guiding grouse hunters for close to 40 years.

Over a fine Stu Bristol dinner on Sunday night, we planned a trip to the Dead Diamond area between Pittsburg, NH and Aziscohos Lake in Maine. It’s big country but that means very few, if any, hunters. We explored a few new covers early in the day, without great success, and then moved on to known covers. Dillon, my shorthair, did some great dog work and we had numerous flushes. Misses on grouse far exceeded hits but isn’t that normal for this bird?

The next day we again hit the “big woods” east of Pittsburgh, NH. In the trio of myself, Will and Stu, Will was top gun. He had two admirable grouse kills on the wing…he’s pretty smooth with his old Parker side by side. Tom and Charlie did very well the second day also. They hunted a huge alder run which gave up two grouse and three woodcock to the cooking pan.

Wednesday morning we hunted old apple orchards, however, despite over a dozen flushes in just two hours, these birds had been pressured hard and flushed far front of the dog. We would hunt these orchards differently in the future.

Our stay at Sturtevant Pond Camps was much too short but huge in camaraderie, birds and good dog work. Checkout Sturtevantpondcamps.com. You’ll discover a true “grouse camp” plus much more…like incredible smallmouth fishing.

The third week in October found my wife, Susan, and I headed to the North Maine Woods. There is a magnetic lore, which draws folks to this fishing and hunting paradise. The beauty and abundance of wildlife in The North Maine Woods have been attracting sportsmen since the 1800s. Prior to 1900, sportsmen from the big cities of Boston or New York would take the train as far north as Bangor and then had to travel by horse and buggy to an access point such as Oxbow, ME. They would then meet their guide at the Oxbow flats and spend another two days reaching their wilderness camp.

Although horse and buggy travel is no longer required, the outdoor traveler still encounters a feeling of remoteness when traveling the North Maine Woods and I like that. Our destination was the legendary Libby Camp (libbycamps.com). The Libby family has been hosting sportsmen for over 100 years and has certainly learned the process of satisfying their guests. It’s the ultimate North Maine Woods camp.

Our party consisted of my wife, Susan, my shorthair Dillon, Susan’s shorthair Dena and your writer. We hunted for three days. We averaged 12 points per day; most being grouse. There were other sports in camp with 20 or more flushes per day, which I would rate as excellent. On our third day, we had 14 quality flushes in front of the dogs. In fact, we located a new and highly productive logging road to add to our inventory of GPS waypoints. In about ¼ of a mile, we had five separate finds by the dogs with subsequent flushes…not bad for Maine.

There was no pattern in locating birds. They were high, low and in-between. If adequate cover was present with a good food source, then birds were plentiful.

In the first paragraph, I mentioned the grouse cycle. The cycle has peaked and is traveling a plateau. The grouse cycle has a history of, for unknown reasons, tumbling quickly after peaking. Wouldn’t it be joyful if habitat improvement has broken the back of the historical cycle and we maintained the high side plateau for a few more years? Only time will tell.

Next month look for a story on pheasant and quail hunting in Kansas.

Paul Fuller is host of Bird Dogs Afield TV which may be seen in New England on WBIN (Comcast Ch. 18) and Fox 23 in Portland beginning on November 5th at 6:30 AM and running through December. Previous TV broadcast episodes, and dozens of videos of training and hunting videos and Paul’s previous Sporting Journal columns may be seen or read on Paul’s website which is www.birddogsafield.com. Paul may be contacted at paul@birddogsafield.com.