Handful of decoys for unpressured areas and migrating birds. I would just pick-up some GHG early season mallards and rig them Texas style for walk-in hunts. Old established beaver flowages are generally easily accessible, but newly established ponds have a lot of newly felled trees and canals that are generally a couple of feet deep, but can be deeper. Waders area must. Alder, ash, birch and leather leaf generally line the banks. I used to hunt one when I lived in the eastern UP that held gadwall almost exclusively, why I was never able to figure-out. I used to hunt it on VERY windy days, approaching the dam from downwind. Once the dog and I broke the horizon the birds would jump, with most of them flying down across the other end of the dam offering good shots. This was an old flooding with mature conifers on both sides with a mix of birch and black ash. We recieve a very strong goose migration as well, so canadas are often using these as roost water.
Some GEMs closer to Traverse City and Marquette see a fair amount of hunting pressure, that said, when you consider several other factors: 1.) Four of these have been established near areas where i hunt grouse based on habitat and bird concentrations I have found; near but not on "MY hunting coverts"- a lot of habitat exists outside of these sites.. 2) Note the acreages of the individuals units scribed...that's a lot of "dirt" to hunt-out. 3.)The data on EEE and grouse mortality indicate that grouse that are reared in optimal habitat exhibit the highest disease resistance as well as best recovery and survival rates. Subsequent generations possess amnestic immunity, based on study data. Michigan appears to be recovering slightly faster than Wisconsin. I have no idea what our very low snowfall winter has had in terms of grouse carry-over. I did hear birds drumming two weeks ago.while I was out hiking a new clear-cut edge to look for deer sign.
The Horton Trespass law states a parcel has to be posted to be enforced, so essentially you get one trespass by mistake. I have a friend who had an artist friend of his paint him a sign that features Yosemite Sam with pistols drawn on it. The caption states: Back-off Hombre! This mud's mine! He swears that he has never had a tresspasser on his acreage because his signs are not intimadating and authoritative!, but humorous! You can hunt the sand roads if it is State land on both sides. /
As an out-of-state hunter, you can avoid having to risk dog loss due to wolf depredation events by avoiding the U.P. since they are absent below the Bridge. One of the top tier wolf pup rearing habitats is old beaver pond meadows...Pointers and big running breeds are the most frequently killed, particularly bear dogs and beagles running hares. When I run into a lot of scat, tracks and bones, I just pull the dogs in to walk at heel. When my labs smell wolf the generally get visibly submissive, so I get a near-instant heads-up to whistle them in. I have never had an issue with them.
I don't know how well you shoot but I average one hit for every three flushes on grouse with most of my "interval of improvement" after leaf drop. In full foilage, my hit ratio is more like one in four to five, but I am hunting over labradors. With woodcock, the tighter you are to water the more birds you will see. They tend to be in younger aspen that grouse which prefer wrist thick ten to twelve year old stands, dense enough to provide avian predation protection, yet with some understory cover as well. Woodcock generally juke-and-jive a lot prior flying away once the break the understory canopy. so reserve is the key to consistent hits.
There is a ton of publi access land to hunt, be it Corporate Forestland Reserve, State, or Federal Forestland in both the northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula here in Michigan. Just be prepared to see a llot of Ohio plates. Tom Huggler once joked that we should change the motto on our auto plates to: Michigan, the state Ohioans go to hunt and fish!
