Bear Hunt Aug. 2026

[Cajun]

  Can we have a bearhunting with dogs in this section.  anyway Larry Smith and I headed north to hunt with my buddy Andy Becker, He comes down in Feb. to hog hunt with me. We had a great hunt and dog work. We also hunted with Jonah Place and Travis Dalhberg. We hunted 15 days straight and they were having a major drought up there. A lot of the shallow lakes were completely dried up.
   We were on a total of 27 bears. We treed 20, pulled dogs on three races due to heading for the highway or private property, had two bayups and got outrun twice. We had a close call, the bear crossed the highway with the dogs 50 yards behind it but oncoming traffic saw the bear and dogs and stopped and I stopped the traffiic coming and we were able to catch the dogs. Hwy 53 is a busy 4 lane hwy.
   The weather was fantastic except for being dry. We had some mornings in the mid 40's, to 50's. The hottest it got was 82.

8 month old Maple and 16 month Showoff have it figured out.

[Cajun]

Showoff


Andy and my dogs


BC Brindle


BC Cypress and BC Razor




8 month old BC Joey


BC Joey

[Cajun]

[t-dog]

Man that’s awesome Cajun. Ole showoff is a show piece. That’s a really fine looking bunch of brindle dogs and I don’t say that just to be nice. They look tight made and leggy which is definitely my type. Those highway encounters will make your back side grip the seat pretty tight trying to get around to them before tragedy strikes. To me it’s the worst way to lose a dog. Those dogs that are always on the bubble of being culled can get out there and dance on the yella stripe and not get a scratch but you let that dog your fond of just look across to the other side and they’ll get ran over, so I’m glad y’all were able to stop it.


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[NLAhunter]

Some good looking hounds cajun looks like yall had a heck of a time to glad everything made it back to louisiana

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[Hollowpoint]

Awesome pics Cajun, the dogs look lean and mean, like they could run for days.

“We had some mornings in the mid 40's, to 50's. The hottest it got was 82.”

man I don’t even know what that feels like anymore, it’s been hot and dry here, the creeks have turned into sand washes.

[make-em-squeel]

good stuff congrats

[WayOutWest]

Sounds like a good time but I am not sure I could hang with y'all. Hunting everyday will get you in shape or kill you. That's a fine bunch of plotts.

[Cajun]

Thanks everyone. The only downside to that trip was coming home. Andy would stress to me that we would get up at 4:30.  I was always up at 3:45 or 4:00 am. It takes me longer to collar up dogs and to get ready.
  If I want things to go wrong, all I have to do is leave town. My dog Yellow got loose and I had pictures of him headed out the driveway. He came up to a guys house around 2:00pm and he called me. He lives about 2 miles north of me. We dont hunt to close to my house because the hogs always run north and the club's boundary is about 3/4 of a mile north of me .  I called Cheryl and she went and got him. Well she does not know enough about dogs to tell that he was having a heat stroke and she put him up. Anyway when she came out to feed him about three hours later, he was dead. He was 6 years old. Fortunately I have several dogs off of him.
  Then a couple days before I came home my better half Cheryl gets snake bit while cleaning out a old doghouse. She was wearing gloves and jerked her hand back when she felt the bite and heard it rustling in the hay. When she pulled her glove off there was only one puncture that had a few drops of blood. My daughter drove her to the hospital where she received 3 doses of Crofab anti venom and she spent 2 days in the hospital.



One hour after bite


2 1/2 days later when they released her

[t-dog]

Man I hate to hear about the hardships there. I’m glad you got some dogs out of him. At 6 years old, was he showing any signs of slowing down any yet?

My wife’s hands look like that all the time but it’s because she’s always banging them on my Angelic head. I’ve tried telling her that the good Lord encompassed all that wisdom in a hard case, but she’s impulsive and forgets.


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[Cajun]

T Dog he has slowed down some but more from the fact that I have heat stroked him twice. I dont hunt him in the summer but in the winter you could never tell. He's a pretty nice dog.

[t-dog]

Makes sense


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[cajunl]

Good hunt Mike. Glad to see you back in action! That looks like a load of fun and good dog work.
I know the luck around the house everytime you leave. Sounds like my luck.

Hate to hear about the dog. I have a cur dog that I can barely hunt anymore for the heat. It gets her down quick but she bounces back quickly....so far! I know one time she won't.

Sorry to hear about the other half. What do they think got her? Copperhead? You are gonna have to go back to work.....they think that crofab is liquid gold and price accordingly! Glad she is OK

[The Old Man]

  Boy that's an outstanding hunt, just doesn't get much better than that. Hate to hear about Cheryl getting snakebit, but it appears she is healing up well, Hope there aren't any ongoing problems,  Was it a cotton mouth? Sorry about the your losing the dog to heat.

 I recently had one to die and one is ruined from the heat, I had dogs split and could not find one set of them. Went back the next day and found 2 of them fairly quick but looked most of the  day riding my mule in the big country and driving miles with the long range antenna, finally found them 2.2 miles from the last point I could think to look. They were 2 pups not quite 9 months old that were really showing out, one of them I caried out in my lap on the mule he was dead the next morning, the other one did not eat a bite for 4 days but did mend up. He had a chunk bitten out of one shoulder and the foot on that leg was crushed, aside from having been overheated.

[Cajun]

She didnt know what kind it was but the Hospital staff were the ones that confirmed snakebite after doing bloodwork. she was lucky she was wearing gloves and only one fang penetrated.
  Hate to hear about your dogs Clue. seems like a lot of good dogs have died this year. My Primetime dog got hit in the femoral artery and he bled out right next to where we caught the hog. That boar took two more with him.