But summer is over, cooler weather is here and its time to get back in the woods!
I loaded Monkey, Spur and my two red young dogs (and the 4 of them squated my 3/4 ton truck...tells you how out of shape they are.....
), and went last week.
I let Spur and one of the young dogs out at daylight and let them run ahead of the 4 wheeler more to get in shape than anything else. We had gone about 1/2 mile past a feeder that still had untouched corn on the ground (not a good sign) when Spur put his head up and left out. We went around a curve in the road and no Spur. We turned the scooters off and waited about 15 minutes then heard Spur baying about 200-250 yards or so west of us out in a palmetto flat between an oak scrub and a marsh. The young dog didn't go with him and since these hogs are bad to run, we turned Monkey loose to go to him.
We waited to hear Monkey get there, but it seemed like it was taking him a long time, so we started to Spur. About halfway there we heard Monkey bark 1-2 times, try to catch then silence. We hurried to the area, dogs all over the chest high palmettos, but they didn't have a hog caught. Then they pulled out headed south. We went back to the 4 wheelers and headed that way. Since both dogs are silent you don't really know where they are. Got back and beeped them. I couldn't even get a beep on Monkey but Spur was southwest of us......a pretty good ways.
We loaded up, headed that way, stopped after about 1/2 mile and could hear both dogs bayed. Headed that way, got to where we thought the dogs should be and listened. They had moved again, further south but we could hear the hog squealing this time. We drove as close as we could, I turned the two young dogs loose and headed that way. Got there and they had this big old sow in a crotch deep canal. I jumped in, bogged to my knees in mud and to my crotch in water, then realized the hog wasn't caught by anything but Monkey...and she was mad and coming to me! Not a good thing when you can't move your feet! But the two young dogs were there in the water and baying every breath, which is what I wanted to see.
Luckily Monkey had her caught on the jaw and I was able to get her tail then a leg. Got her to the bank and it was about 10' up....backwards, dragging a 150 lb or so sow and a 60 lb dog pulling the other way.......that may have been easy 25 years ago...not as easy now.......
My buddy got Monkey off and tied him, came back to help pull the sow up the bank. Got her up, other dogs back and got her tied and to the 4 wheelers.
Not a big bad boar hog but first hog after a long summer and the dogs did a good job.Thats what I like to see. As near as we could figure the dogs ran that hog over a mile before stopping it. So at least two dogs got some exercise!
