NY Catskills grouse guide recos?

[Corey Barrette]

I’m interested in any recommendations for grouse hunting guides in the Catskills. Hunted in ME in early October and way upstate outside Malone NY over Halloween weekend. Any ideas based on your experience would be most welcome and much appreciated. Thanks!

[Louis Rotelli]

how did you do in Malone? Grouse numbers in the Catskills are way down over the past 7 or 8 years

[Andrew Sacco]

how did you do in Malone? Grouse numbers in the Catskills are way down over the past 7 or 8 years

I have done pretty poorly in the Catskills this year.

[Corey Barrette]

In addition to recos, I was also interested in prospects of finding grouse so very helpful.

Regarding our trip to Malone, limited on woodcock on Day 1 and flushed three grouse when we went further into habitat in the afternoon. On our second day, we were rained out with a day-long downpour which was meant to be a grouse day.

[James L. Martin]

So far this year grouse and woodcock hunting in the Catskills has been very disappointing. I keep trying different locations with the same poor results.

[James L. Martin]

A update, my hunting partner and I went grouse hunting today in the Catskills and had zero flushes. Sad

[Stephen Hodges]

As a registered hunting guide I know most guides will not take local clients. This as a common practice among guides . Me also

[Dean Romig]

As a registered registered hutting guide most will not take local hunters to guide. This as a common practice among local guides . Me also


Steve, please explain your statement "as a registered hunting(?) guide most will not take local hunters to guide."

What the heck does that mean exactly???
Why shouldn't "local" hunters expect a quality guided hunt?

Dean





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[Mike McKinney]

I believe I understand that, my guess would be because the local guide doesn’t want his hard worked for coverts ruined with other locals.

[Daniel Carter]

Dean when i worked as a mate on a charter boat we would see clients putting our numbers in their GPS all the time. These were cod trips and a week later we would see them in their own boat on that spot. After spotting that we would only go to marginal spots.

[Dean Romig]

I get that but up until Steve's post that possibility had never entered the conversation....
So why interject it?





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[Daniel Carter]

Dean you asked for an explanation of why a guide would not take a local hunter. Not an exact duplication of a hunting guides situation but close, some folks will try to shortcut the learning curve by using others hard won experience.

[Kevin McCormack]

Probably "interjected" for the same reason the captains with the call signs "Hoopeye Shoopie" and the "Prime Beef" talked to one another in cryptoslang when they hit sea trout hotspots off Indian River Inlet DE. Used to hear CB traffic like; "Yeah, we're about a half mile south of where 'Dagwood' near got run over last week by a container ship coming out of DE Bay with full way on after he ran out of gas right by the spot we saw the Leatherback turtle we thought was a drifting hatch cover." LORAN was fairly new then but they knew enough to stay away from having other guys do the math and pile on.

[Dean Romig]

Or back when fishermen referred to striped bass (rockfish) as "ol pajamas" in reference to their stripes. "Hey Frank, any action over where you are?" and the answer would be "Naw, nothin' over here but some ol pajamas floatin' by."

Hence the name of my boat back in the 90's and early 2000's...



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[Stephen Hodges]

I believe I understand that, my guess would be because the local guide doesn’t want his hard worked for coverts ruined with other locals.

Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!!

[John Dallas]

I know of a guide who demanded that the Sport erase the GPS points on the phone or it was going to be thrown overboard

[Corey Barrette]

For the record and for what it’s worth, I’m not ‘local’ as I live in CT. Bought a license and only used it for one day so far. Don’t have a dog and was legit looking for a guide to possibly extend the season. May head back up to Malone area. I know a great guide if you’re looking for one. Thanks for all the helpful and other random thoughts so far. Much appreciated.

[Andrew Sacco]

Good luck Corey. Sorry I couldn't be of some help as I'm 20 minutes to the Western Catskills, but I just haven't been finding birds. I have access to a gorgeous piece of private property in Delaware County but have only put up a couple birds there over several trips.

[Louis Rotelli]

Corey, I'm from CT as well. I hunted grouse here since the early 70's and they began to disappear after the re-introduction of the turkeys around the mid 80's BY the late 90's they were all but gone. I then began hunting the Catskills and there were plenty of birds around all of the old farms but around 10 years ago they started disappearing. The last time I went was 2016, hunted al day and my dog only pointed one bird. I know a guide that said he didnt find a bird all year last year and only ine this year.