If grouse, woodcock and trout are your life...

[Andy]

....where would you retire?

I am about 10-12 years from retirement, maybe sooner and I'm starting to fret over this. I love my home, my land (88 acres) and some family is still here. But I'm growing weary of NY State. Our kids will not come back here. Taxes go up and up. Our home is nice, not a million dollar home by ANY means, but my property taxes are $18,800 a year. I don't think out West will work for my wife and we want to be near kids, a day's drive but we don't know where they'll end up. Everyone is moving to Tennessee these days (or Florida ugh..). I want trout fishing, grouse and woodcock hunting, any upland birds in addition. I am a stone's throw from the Catskills so trout fishing is amazing. Anyone care to share their dream location whether you live there or not? I don't mind winter but mind it more and more every year.

[Quigley97]

Andy,
Try looking at Central South Carolina. Trout fishing in the Western part and bird hunting just about all over the state.

[birddogdoc]

Originally Posted by Tom Pellegrini

Andy,
Try looking at Central South Carolina. Trout fishing in the Western part and bird hunting just about all over the state.

Shhhhhh! Just kidding. My wife and I love SC. We're gonna go between Tucson AZ and SC in a couple years. I just sold my practice this past December and if Colorado continues to head the direction of CA...I'm out of here sooner than later!

Taxes at 18K/YR ought to be a crime!

[Harold Pickens]

Andy, you posed a great question that I have pondered for years. Back in 1983 when I graduated from optometry school at Ohio State, I was adamant about wanting to move where I could hunt grouse and have good fishing for smallmouth and walleye. To that end, I took the board exams in Michigan and Wisconsin, and took a driving/camping tour thru Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. I was also going to take Minnesota boards. I was then offered a position in an HMO Medical clinic eye dept just 10 miles from where I grew up. Well, everything I wanted was there. eastern Ohio had phenomenal grouse hunting with a season that came in around Oct 10, and went thru the end of February . The woodcock migration was good in November. Hunting 2 1/2 days/week with good dogs( we shot pointed birds only), it was common to shoot 40-50 grouse per season. Flushes of 30 birds/day--not counting reflushes--were not unusual. Then in 1986, I made my first trip to the UP, and have not missed a year since. The grouse hunting wasnt better in the UP than it was in OHio and West Virginia, but it sure is a hell of alot easier. Flat ground and lack of blood letting briars was a welcome change to us brush worn Appalachian grouse hunters. One week trips ,turned into 10 day trips, then 2 weeks and now 3.
Then the plummeting of the grouse population to almost endangered specie levels happened. The DNR said poor habitat, thats bull, I spent the day today in fantastic grouse cover, no birds. In 2009 I told the DNR it was West Nile virus--have a MS in Microbiology, and was working on PhD--now look what they have suddenly come up with--WNV!
Well , I digress. Good fishing is certainly easier to find than good grouse hunting. I love the UP, and the great northwoods of Wis. and Minn. Idaho offers such a wide variety and really piques my interest--I believe I'm going to have to go there in upcoming years.
Congrats Shawn on your retirement. My wife loves South Carolina also, esp around the Hilton Head area--cant really see the bird hunting very good in SC, what with the demise of wild quail and dearth of grouse in the mountains now.
Andy, tuff choice. My heart draws me to the Northwoods, but my wife wants to head South. Good luck on your decision.

[birddogdoc]

Originally Posted by Harold Lee Pickens

Andy, you posed a great question that I have pondered for years. Back in 1983 when I graduated from optometry school at Ohio State, I was adamant about wanting to move where I could hunt grouse and have good fishing for smallmouth and walleye. To that end, I took the board exams in Michigan and Wisconsin, and took a driving/camping tour thru Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. I was also going to take Minnesota boards. I was then offered a position in an HMO Medical clinic eye dept just 10 miles from where I grew up. Well, everything I wanted was there. eastern Ohio had phenomenal grouse hunting with a season that came in around Oct 10, and went thru the end of February . The woodcock migration was good in November. Hunting 2 1/2 days/week with good dogs( we shot pointed birds only), it was common to shoot 40-50 grouse per season. Flushes of 30 birds/day--not counting reflushes--were not unusual. Then in 1986, I made my first trip to the UP, and have not missed a year since. The grouse hunting wasnt better in the UP than it was in OHio and West Virginia, but it sure is a hell of alot easier. Flat ground and lack of blood letting briars was a welcome change to us brush worn Appalachian grouse hunters. One week trips ,turned into 10 day trips, then 2 weeks and now 3.
Then the plummeting of the grouse population to almost endangered specie levels happened. The DNR said poor habitat, thats bull, I spent the day today in fantastic grouse cover, no birds. In 2009 I told the DNR it was West Nile virus--have a MS in Microbiology, and was working on PhD--now look what they have suddenly come up with--WNV!
Well , I digress. Good fishing is certainly easier to find than good grouse hunting. I love the UP, and the great northwoods of Wis. and Minn. Idaho offers such a wide variety and really piques my interest--I believe I'm going to have to go there in upcoming years.
Congrats Shawn on your retirement. My wife loves South Carolina also, esp around the Hilton Head area--cant really see the bird hunting very good in SC, what with the demise of wild quail and dearth of grouse in the mountains now.
Andy, tuff choice. My heart draws me to the Northwoods, but my wife wants to head South. Good luck on your decision.

Thanks Harold!

We could be neighbors and head southwest to AZ for the winter to chase desert quail!

[Sheepherder]

Up state or central Pennsylvania !

[Reggie B]

I have a good friend who has in-laws in northern Idaho. According to him it’s a bird hunters paradise there!

[OH Osthaus]

getting to be a common conversation for upstaters

[Andy]

My wife wants NC near surf city and the coast. Carolinas seems logical. But Idaho is what I hear for fishing, hunting, biking, skiing and just being out there.

[Dean Romig]

The western Maine mountains. You might have to travel an hour or two for woodcock but everything else on your wish list can be easily found there... and then some!





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