Callin' all SawGrass experts!!!!

[Noah]

Most of the good places I have to hunt are because of sawgrass bottoms that the hogs seem to come out of... I've always avoided hunting too close to the stuff, as I've heard a lot of bad stories about it.. not to mention what I've seen with my own eyes...

For those of you that hunt large patches of it regularly... what advice can you give?

From what I've seen, my dogs are too big to safely move in the tunnels beneath that stuff.. get a bad hog bayed in it and he could run a dog down easy... not to mention gettin' a CD in to the bay....

One friend that hunts it occasionally down by Okeechobee, told me they walk the CD in on top of the stuff as close as possible, then slip the dog beneath, into a tunnel when ready to catch...

Trying to weigh the merrits of tryin' to hunt this stuff....

Thanks, Noah

[sfboarbuster]

Fire does wonders

[Noah]

... I was thinkin' the same thing... 

[Reuben]

Do you have rattlers in that saw grass?

[Noah]

Not that I've seen... usually just gators and moccasins...

Got 4K acres of it bordering one of our ranches... the old timers tell me stories of when "they were kids" and seein' old timers burnin' the sawgrass so they could access the gator holes out in it... said they used to kill some sure-e-nuff dinosaurs usin' that method...

The stuff is like razor blades.... imagine a thousand paper cuts to all exposed skin and you get the picture...

[JDJP]

Only come across it a couple times, and the tunnels were wide, and tall enough to stand up straight, easy walking one way, but try to turn around and walk against the grain and you get snagged. Id carry a machete if I thought id have to get into it, but I wouldn't want to hunt it on purpose. Sugarcane is bad enough, add marsh bottom and searated leaves, no thanks.

[treeingratterrier]

They call it saw grass too i think becasue it saws off all of the hide on front legs and the head and ears when dogs run in it, when i used to buy gray fox dogs from Florida those guys who ran in the orchirds and in saw grass told me it was hell on earth to catch a bobcat in it due to thickness and hard to close gap on smart ol cat with bag of tricks.  I seen some dogs with tails bobed due to running in it and never healing up right.  Burn it off sound like the thing to do, cows cant eat it can they, i think it worthless, i sold choppers from south texas to guys who were chopping plamettos and saw grass to air seed with some kind of grass at one time, there dogs were sanded looking i remeber from it, it ws Lykes Brother Steam Ships lines way south florida seems like, we hauled bulls to them and a chopper of 2 when they were still going, i think they went out of business with the freighting but still might have cattle but not sure, i go back and forth to Lakeland Groveland Florida and been looking to hookup to watch some hunting one of these days.  Wife has a horse ranch there and border a refuge i cant think of name of right now, see lots of hounds during deer season but not run into hog hunter yet, I usuallu just work on fencing an dbuild a house an another horse barn when i got over, its full of those giant sand turtles so hard to get a lot done as they always build  nest bout time i come over, they got turtle watchers over there since its next to county road or i just load them up and bring them to texas to my ranch to be not botheredlol i hear that like a murder to mess with one so was just kiddinglol

[rdjustham]

Noah try getting with hogaholicswife on here.  I know they hunt the cane near okeechobee and i think clewiston.   I imagine it would be kinda similiar with the tunnels. 

[sfboarbuster]

Noah try getting with hogaholicswife on here.  I know they hunt the cane near okeechobee and i think clewiston.   I imagine it would be kinda similiar with the tunnels. 

But at least the cane is planted in rows and the blocks aren't 4000 acres. The cane is tough but a sawgrass marsh is something you don't wanna fool with.

[rdjustham]

Noah try getting with hogaholicswife on here.  I know they hunt the cane near okeechobee and i think clewiston.   I imagine it would be kinda similiar with the tunnels. 

But at least the cane is planted in rows and the blocks aren't 4000 acres. The cane is tough but a sawgrass marsh is something you don't wanna fool with.

John i couldnt agree with you more.  I hate when the dogs bay up in places i cant run into.  better chance of having cut down dogs and me. lol

[sfboarbuster]

Hell, just cut the bulldog loose and he'll be sucked up when ya get to em'

[cajunl]

Carhart jacket and leather gloves.....even when it is 90!

I caught some in a spot last year. It was so thick you could walk on top of it. But when they caught it you had to dig about 3' underneath you. Like digging a armadillo out of a hole.

I will take the sawgrass over greenbriars anyday but they all suck.

Someone is trying the fire method over in Brevard County already! LOL

[lakecountycurs]

cajunl has the right idea put your carhart on and your head down and start truckin thats the only way i have done it

[rdjustham]

Someone is trying the fire method over in Brevard County already! LOL

Kinda early for them to be burning the cane isnt it?

[tompkinsgil]

there aint no science to it turnem aloose and see what happens

[cajunl]

Kinda early for them to be burning the cane isnt it?

Not burning cane just a bunch of woods and marsh burning over on the east coast. I dont think it was intentional

I hate to hear it around peoples houses...but fire really does the woods good.

[Marshall]

We had a hog bayed up in some around the edge of a lake one time and I was tired of him swimming to the other side on us, so when he turned to swim I dove through the saw grass and grabbed him by the back legs and cut all my fingers to the BONE. I still have scars going across my fingers and in between my fingers from that. Lesson learned. Caught the hog though!! 

[Noah]

Yall ain't makin' me feel no better... 

...Goin' back Sunday... we'll see what happens....

[hogaholicswife]

I am not an expert at anything but I can tell you that although the cane is planted in rows it doesnt make it any easier and the stuff we hunt is a few thousands acres of back to back blocks only separated by a ditch/road or butts up to some nasty retention pond that will wear a dog out in a few hours.  I grew up in Okeechobee hunting cow pastures lined with palmetto heads and nasty ponds and there isnt a hunt goes by that still doesnt amaze me at how rediculous this stuff is!    

When it is standing straight and never had a puff of wind blown through it, it is still some nasty stuff but the older it gets the longer the leaves get and the more tangled it becomes....and it will cut you if you while running through it (I always wear my jacket...only to later regret it).

I will agree that a smaller dog has a much easier time running through the tunnels that the hogs have made but the bigger dogs get it done they just have to have a little more stick to them because they cant manuver like the smaller dogs.  I know from watching some of our young dogs and from what I have learned from my husband over the years is that most dogs not brought up in it will have a harder time adjusting to hunting it and some will flat out not even bother.  As far as a catch dog, we try to get as close to them as possible but even then it may still take him a few to get there because he has to pick his way throught it.

Most of those that hunt around us either hunt the open fields or the short cane, once it gets about 5 ft tall or if the wind has blown it around a little they are done with it until it is time to harvest....we hunt it regardless of the shape its in and I can recall climbing through it or having to run down the ditch bank because a) I cant manuever through it like the guys and b) I am a little boogered of what I may be walking on top of or up on.  

The frost this year made it really bad, I have some pics some where that I will try to find and post.

This probably didnt help much but good luck with your trip!

[Noah]

Good info!  Do you guys have much actual sawgrass down that way or just cane?

The sawgrass we've got up here is old-old... we caught two hogs in it, maybe a hundred yds deep each... took us 15 min to even get that far into it... like tryin' to walk through 4 foot deep snow that's hot and cuts you!!!