EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Finally made a long awaited trip down to Mike Cauley's for a hunt in the marsh, needless to say it was a totally new experience for this old man from Okla. Also along was our friends from WV., Joe and Vernon Walker. Mike Cauley, Mike The Knife, and Larry Smith had their hands full wrangling a bunch of old wore out hillbillies on and off the boats and through the marsh. Many thanks to that crew for the hospitality.     They tell me the numbers of hogs are off this year due to all the hurricanes that hit pushing the hogs out but for what I am accustomed to it  was an exceptional hunt. We hunted 4 days and caught 16 hogs (day 1/ 6 hogs, day 2/ 2 hogs, day 3/ 3 hogs, day 4/ 5 hogs and Cauley wants to count the two striped bacon bits he saw swim the canal and caught bare handed with no catch dogs nor bay dogs haha) with lots of dogs getting the usual cuts and pokes but the last day two really rank boars seriously whacked up 4 dogs, they weren't studs for size but had those good cutting teeth, lots of attitude and were big enough yet small enough to be dangerous for the dogs. I did not have my camera that day so cannot show you those boars but maybe the guys will e-mail me those and I can add them later. Or even better Mike can put them and some more up in a response to this post so an old tech dinosaur won't have to haha.
                                                                                                    THE CREW
                       MIKE CAULEY AND I SITTING ON THE BOAT- JOE AND VERNON WALKER STANDING-LARRY SMITH AND MIKE THE KNIFE KNEELING
      L TO R DOGS ARE CAULEY'S SHOWTIME-YELLER-HANK   MY YOUNG CATCHDOG GRIP   LARRY'S CATCHDOG ICE   AND MIKE THE KNIFES GOOD YOUNG DOG

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                          IN THE CENTER ON THE BOAT IS JIMMY THAT WAS HIS BOAT HE HUNTED WITH US A DAY OR TWO AND HELPED HAUL.
                             WE HAD JUST LOADED THAT GOOD RUSSIAN SOW, THAT MARSH IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT TERRAIN THAN ANY I HAVE EVER HUNTED
                                                 IT LOOKS LIKE A WALK IN THE PARK TO TRAVEL BUT IT AIN'T HAHA
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                                                                  LOOKING DOWN THE WEST PEARL FROM THE BOAT
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                                                    HWY 90 DRAW BRIDGE/SOMETHING AN OLD COWBOY HAD NEVER SEEN HAHA

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                                  MY COMPADRES FOR THE WEEK-2 MOUNTAINEERS ON THE LEFT AND 3 CAJUNS ON THE RIGHT

                                          (https://i.postimg.cc/9MNfSKVh/RIMG1028.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

JOE OUT IN THE GRASS HOLDING HIS TWO DOGS RAVEN AND SATAN-NEXT TO THEM TWO OF MINE, LITTLE JOE AND FANNY,  ONE OF MIKES YOUNG FEMALES AND A VERY UNFORTUNATE HOG.

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CAULEY'S BIG BOAT USUALLY HAULED 4 MEN AND 9 DOGS AND SOME HOGS- THANK GOODNESS FOR LARRY'S MUD BOAT IT SAVED US LOTS OF STEPS IN THE MARSH BY BEING ABLE TO GET UP THOSE SMALL SHALLOW DITCHES TO GET CLOSER TO THE BAY MAKING A SHORTER DRAG WITH THE HOGS AND GETTING US AND THE DOGS OUT AS WELL. ON THE LAST DAY WE ALSO INHERITED ANOTHER YOUNG MAN "HUNTER" THAT ALSO HAD A MUD BOAT, HE GOT TO SEE HIS FIRST HOGS BAYED AND STICK A COUPLE, HE WAS REALLY GOOD HELP AND SEEMINGLY HAD A BALL, HE MAY HAVE BEEN CONVERTED HAHA.
ONCE AGAIN THANKS TO THE ENTIRE "CAJUN CREW" FOR THE INVITE AND THE HOSPITATILITY

Clue, We were glad to have y’all. The swamp and marsh have an allure that is very unique until you have to walk through it. Then it fades pretty fast when you go up to your waste in it. While we did not catch the numbers of hogs we usually catch due to 3 hurricanes that pushed the majority of the hogs to higher ground and the fact that two of our hunts were cut short. One day we had to leave about 10:30 because I had to work and the last day we were cut down by two of the boars we caught. Here are a few pics. of the last day and one of the others. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210206/2f2cff43d3c75543cd3fac1f50da0228.jpg)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210206/8f1463e762f01fb61c4eadfa2d157d3d.jpg)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210206/e9b07454e494df8b121901d664cb2bdf.jpg)


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I’m glad y’all were able to catch a pile of hogs...sounds like one heckuva good time for sure!

Good to see all the grey beards gettin it done. Much respect from another grey beard.

Clue - glad you had a good time.  Marsh hunting is completely different.

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Man that sounds like a lot of fun. The tribal council of the Plott community, I’m betting y’all had the world’s problems solved on day one and telling tall tales on days 2-4! Glad y’all had a good time and hope those wrecked dogs get well soon.


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Man that looks like one heck of a fun day!
Plott dogs talk I’m sure most of the time lol
Really nice nice pics


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Heck of a hunt.  Thats some nice hogs and great looking dogs! Good job men!

Fine hunts rite there.   Hope them dogs heal up too. 


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Thanks yall. Wayoutwest, I like the grey beards for the storytelling but I sure like the black beards for the dragging and the gutting, lol We for sure had a good time.

Heck of some hunts hope everything gets healed up I bet it was some good story telling going on there

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That young fellow "Hunter" in the first picture that Mike posted was a newbie and he ate it up like good cake, he is probably ruined for life and might be trading his bird dogs for some hog dogs, and as a bonus he has a mud boat haha.
Speaking of cake Vernon makes a lemon cake that is famous, has even made it for the pentagon no joke. He'd made one to bring to Mike's and it was a big hit.

Cajun, I hear what your sayin!

Should have gotten video of one of those boars in the first picture Mike posted, Joe and I had left the boat to go get the blond colored sow, Hank, Joes John pup and my Piney pup had struck and ran that hog, Mike turned Steel in to them and they had her caught and squealing as we were going to them we saw one of the good boars come between us and the dogs, we stuck the sow and Larry along with Hunter came up a small ditch in the mud boats as we were putting the dogs on the boars track, Larry says for us to get them going and he and Hunter would take care of the sow. They got rolling on the boar and  bayed him another 6 hundred from us after running a pretty good circle and when we got around closer to them in the mud boats he was backed off in a big mudhole with the 4 dogs all 2 feet from him looking him in the eye barking every breath, my catch dog was in the boat with Mike, Larry had his catchdog and when he went in the mudhole on the hog all 4 Plotts went as well, this slop was about 4 feet deep, the catchdog came off, Larry was already  in with them, it was western there for a minute but we got him stuck, one of the dogs almost drowned in the mud after the hog climbed over him, and my Go-Pro was in the truck, DANG MY HIDE HAHA. I can still see it-but you'all can't.
When we got back around to Mike and the big boat he had caught 2 bacon bits all by himself, the little fellers had swam the canal right by him and hid in the grass.

Looks like fun!

What is the breeding on the two catchdogs? Dogo? They are good looking dogs.

Looks like y'all had a big time! I bet that marsh was roaring with all them hounds sure looks like a good time.

Mine "the one with ears" is out of a PPC female via Bob Cox and Dr. Grant, and a La Cocha male of Chris Scott's, looks like he will be a good one. The one with ears belonged to Larry.
And yes we had some noise going on, and a couple days could hear some more dogs running and bayed on over in the marsh as well. 

I meant to say the one with ears "trimmed" belonged to Larry.

X2...great hunt and thanks for posting...

Sounds like a good time, the hogs numbers are down all the way the pearl river valley basin area, I hunt all up and down it from Columbia Ms to Bogalusa La and live right on the edge of the swamp less than a mile or two from the river, for about the last 5 year’s we’ve had bumper crops of acorns, this year they didn’t produce as well and even up further north from where y’all were hunting we just don’t have the numbers after this winter as we have had in the past...

Goose, One reason the numbers are not as high in the marsh as they normally are is because of the three Hurricanes we had that pushed most of the hogs to higher ground. the farther south we went the less hog sign we saw. The majority of the hogs have not dispersed back in the marsh yet.

Good hunts fellas... looks like y’all had a real good time!

Yep from what I’ve gathered from folks over the winter that have been hunting around the diamond head area said the numbers were sparse after the storms, top it off with it not being a good mast year up into the hard woods all the way up to our area, luckily we didn’t have to deal with High water and the river getting out of its banks and flooding the swamp, would’ve sure enough put a hurting on the new litters...

Looks like a great hunt with some good people Clue. I had to take a second look to recognize you with that cap on. Maybe  we can get together and make a hunt soon. Hope the dogs all get healthy quick.

Never saw me without a hat huh? I had to wear orange to be legal, and in the summer when I am rigging and walking  I wear a cap, and also wore a cap to work. Since I am old and blind I need a cap to soak up the sweat so I can read my dog tracker haha. When the weather straightens up some holler and we'll take a journey.

And yes we did have a real good time with some really good folks, in a totally different environment.

Looks like y’all had a time


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