HogBiz is a better writer then me!
"I'm Quoting hogbiz here "
Well, I guess I'd have to start with the hunt as the reason that Field and Stream Magazine picked Jughead (of all people) to do a write up on is a whole ‘nother tale in itself. Suffice to say they were doing a write up on the Atchafalaya Basin and it's people, and the hand of fate was laid on Jughead.
It will be a 3 part story that probably won't publish until late 2010 or early 2011... hogs, deer and ducks. We got picked for the hog portion of it because Jug said he ain't to good with a gun .
The 1st hunt was 1-7-10, a blustery day with cold winds whipping up off of the crawfish ponds of Catahoula, LA as Jug and I waited for the crews to arrive, Eddie with Field and Stream and Mrs. Toni, the Forester for the entire Atchafalaya Basin from the Gulf of Mexico to Marksville... it was her property we were about to hunt.
After the meet and greet it was about 4:30pm when we dropped the dogs, Jugs dogs Jake and Scout and my dogs Stan and Cammo. Within 2 minutes it was on the dogs hit a nice little sounder of 100lb and under shoats and Jugs dogs picked one out of the group and grabbed some fur. I legged the sow and had her flipped... we had to figure out what the writer Eddie wanted to do as he had been saying he wanted to shot one.
He looked at me and said "I want to knife this one, slide off of her, I want to do the whole thing". So I slid off the pig, handed Eddie my knife, showed him the placement and he went in. Watching him knife the hog was something to behold in itself, I have never seen anyone stick one with as much enthusiasm as Eddie, you could see in his face and body language that he was soaking up everything with all the intent and want you would expect out of a writer.
"Well now, that wasn't exciting!" Eddie exclaimed to Mrs. Tony with a smile on his face. "I still want to shoot one though." Cammo and Stan had took off in opposite directions after the rest of the sounder and Jug put his 2 dogs up as they are still young ang gritty and would have kept any hopes of shooting over our dogs from happening.
I checked the GPS, Stan was to the North of us and moving and Cammo to our South and stopped at about 700 yards. "Jug, Eddie... let's head this way, Cammo's stopped and she doesn't do that too often". We all headed toward Cammo and when we got within about 200 yards you could hear her barking. "Here's you chance Eddie" I said as we moved to a jog. "There Eddie, take your shot!" It was one of those picture perfect scenes that I will never forget, Cammo had a boar and a sow bayed up.
POW! Both the hogs broke and it was off to the races again... until about 5 yards into it one of the hogs studder stepped and down it went. "Good shot" I yelled, as Cammo took off after the other hog. Now me personally... I wasn't about to let that 3rd hog get away and if you'd have seen the spot we were hunting you would have understood why.
I checked my GPS again and Stan was headed back to us after hearing the shot, I knew Jug would be staying behind to help Eddie so I ran to the Ute and let Coon go, after about a minute or 2 of trying to get Coon lined out in the direction I wanted him to go, we were heading to another bay.
Cammo and Stan had the Boar bayed in a beautiful bottom, Coon was about 50 yards ahead of me when he dove off into the woods when I heard a heavy grunt. Cammo and Stan both joined into the catch, and I was right behind... legged the hog and dispatched it after Jug and Eddie arrived to see the action. I looked at my phone, 5:25PM. 3 hogs in less than an hour is pretty good in my books!
We also hunted Friday 1-8-10, but it was uneventful as running the dogs the day before had pushed the hogs deeper into the woods, but we did have the photographers with their tricked out cameras there to take some pics of some beautiful Louisiana scenery and indigenous dogs, or said to be, known as the Catahoula. They took so many shots of Cammo I think I’m going to re-name her “Cover Girl”.
All in all this was a great two days for Jughead, Louisiana, Field and Stream Magazine, the property owners, and the dog hunting community as well since we were on top of every catch which kept the dogs from mauling any of the hogs and leaving a bad 1st impression.
We met some great people and some friends for life… not to mention as soon as deer season is over we are invited back as the “Hog Removal Specialists” for “Svendson Farms” of Catahoula, LA.
the sow Mr.Eddie Shot 
the boar HogBiz knifed and the Sow Mr.Eddie knifed 
Mr.Eddie and his Knifed sow 
T-Boy and Lucas , Skinning Crew 
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