Doug Fala with Logger, an English setter, and a nice brace of ruffed grouse taken from Tucker County. Photo by Bob Fala.

Over the past two to three seasons, grouse hunting in the Mountain State has become somewhat of an exercise in futility. However, we are now starting to see a minor rebound in grouse populations in several areas around West Virginia. This trend could be improved substantially by a dry late spring/early summer brood season, which we have not had over the past couple of years.

There are a number of wildlife management areas (WMAs) that can and do provide some decent grouse hunting. Up in the northern end of the state the first place I would consider would be Pleasant Creek WMA, which has 3,373 acres of area and has had some habitat development work ongoing for the past decade. The habitat work, which is being done in conjunction with the Ruffed Grouse Society, is in the form of small clearcuts, 4 to 15 acres in size that are in various stages of regeneration. Gary Foster, District 1 game biologist, said that they were hoping to continue their program of putting an additional two or three small clearcuts in every other year for the near future in order to favor grouse and early successional stage wildlife.

Foster stressed that the habitat work that had been done to date covers approximately 100 acres in a patchwork design on this public-hunting area. In addition, he said that so far the bulk of even aged management, which was started in 1992, had been well received by hunters who had been using these areas. Foster went on to state they had done some additional firewood type cuts on some smaller areas. In these areas, managers are trying to increase and accentuate their edge effect on a smaller scale where a timber sale wasn't feasible. The Ruffed Grouse Society had put up a little seed money for the chainsaw thinning work that had been carried out.

Pleasant Creek WMA is approximately eight miles south of Grafton, off U.S. Route 119/250 south. This WMA borders the southwest corner of Tygart Lake.

There is a substantial amount of old fields that are converting from old pasture fields back into sapling size hardwood stands and hawthorn thickets. The grouse hunting has been spotty here the past couple of seasons. However, cover habitat is coming on strong here and all that is needed is a decent hatch. The area is mostly rolling hills with a few steeper finger ridges.

An added bonus of this area is that you can easily mix in a little fishing or waterfowl hunting at nearby Tygart Lake. Personally, I prefer this area later in the season, as it does not have the deep snows associated with my home county. This area gets a fair amount of bowhunting activity in October/November, so be mindful of this when making plans for a hunt here.

Short Mountain is much like Sleepy Creek, as it usually stays somewhat warmer and drier than areas just half an hour west of here.

SLEEPY CREEK WMA
Another area that does not get much exposure since it is over in the Eastern Panhandle is Sleepy Creek WMA. This WMA contains 22,928 acres and is located about six miles west of Martinsburg. If you are coming from the west, you can access the area off U.S. Route 552 south and then use county Route 13. Coming in from the east, you will have to use either state Route 9 or county Route 7/13. Sleepy Creek has also had some extensive habitat management ongoing on approximately 2,000 acres, which is focused primarily on increasing grouse numbers.

A few years ago, a hunting associate called me one night somewhat unexpectedly. We had been finding sporadic hunting for grouse in my home coverts in and around Monongalia, Preston and Taylor counties. He related some news about a foray he had made over to Sleepy Creek late in January when we had 10 to 12 inches of snow in our area. While he did not jump a large number of birds, he did put up about 12 to 13 grouse in a little less than four hours of hunting. Not spectacular hunting, but given the general scarcity of birds around the state, this was an encouraging report.