Ok......I'll give you a little more of the story.
I invited Derek to come hunt with Mike H and myself Monday afternoon since my wife was on the IR from a bump on the head (she had an atv accident during the WW hunt Sat.
). Well, Derek asked if he could bring Logan one of his hunting buddies along and I said ok. Hind sight is 20-20 but I am glad Logan came along as one of the other hunters on the trip was not at many of the bays/catches I am not naming names but Logan and I did most of the work
.
I think that Derek told Logan as we pulled into the gate "oh yeah, I've been here before I think it's like 200 acres we should be done in 30 min!" I assured the two if there were hogs here by the end of the day they would think we covered 10,000 acres. We turned dogs loose and had a bay in no time. There was what sounded like a fight so I sent my catchdog in and told Derek to hold his as there were split bays. Cotton got to where the bay was and bam caught hog. Logan and myself navagate through the rosehedge patch on hands and knees to approach the sow which is not caught by anything I convnce the bay dogs to catch and we dispatch her and hurry out to find my catch dog which is running loose. We make our way back to the bike and Cotton is several hundred yards away and not moving. We made it within 100 yards of him 45 minutes later and were able to find him wore out in a mud hole. He looked like he had swallowed a watermellon. Took his vest off and made our way back to the bikes. I was so glad to find my catchdog that I had not paid any attention to the baydogs. Logan and I were catching up with Derek and Mike when I noticed there were no dogs with us. I looked at the Garmin and they were showing bayed 600 yards away and Mikes dogs showed 700 yrds the same direction. We stopped Mike and Derek and told them the dogs were bayed. We split up and went to the dogs. Logan and myself went to my dogs we got there and they sounded caught I sent Logan ahead and told him to tell me when he saw the hog and I would send Cotton to help out. We caught a nice sow. Derek had gone to Mikes dogs and dispatched a smaller hog. We started to make our way back to the area where the hogs were supposed to be but the dogs had already gone we tried to cut the distance to the dogs but ran across hogs before we got to them. Derek sent his pup to a bay I sent Cotton and we had hog #4. I walked up the hill to get my bike and give the dogs some water Nugget bailed while I was giving Dolly water and we had a small hog caught 15 yards from my bike. I dispatched it and headed to the others who were wondering where I was. We stopped for a minute to BS a little and let the dogs rest. We had been there for a few minutes when Nugget, Dodge, Dolly, and Chief took off in a hurry. We decided to give them a couple of minutes and head toward an old water trough to let them drink. They went 600 yards and we had split bays. Logan went to one and killed a young hog Derek and myself went to the other this time Derek turned Comet loose and caught a really good sow. This time we loaded the dogs on the bikes and took them to water. We decided to call it a day and head toward the truck. I convinced Derek to let his pup run on the way back to get him some exercise. I noticed Nugget hit a track and Logan and I watched her on the garmin roll out so we stopped. Derek was too busy texting to notice we were stopped and they kept on going. Nugget bayed we waited for a second dog to get there and once Dolly did we headed toward them. Derek's ham heard the dogs when we got close and joined the bay. Logan and I walked close to the bay cut Cotton loose and tied a sow. Derek showed up just in time to lead dogs out and help drag the hog. We put the sow in the Rhino and headed toward the truck. I had to practically beg Derek to let his pup run on the ground with the big dogs on the way back but he finally put him down. The dogs hit a track and Ham was running right there with them when they opened up. The hog was baying and breaking but was stopped 928.5 yards later
. Logan and I were making our way to him when I told him to stop. I said "we better let Derek leg this one since he had missed most of the action
." Well Derek was still "fresh" and took care of the hog in no time. We loaded up and headed to a tank to water dogs. I noticed Ham was gettin awful tired and told Derek now would be a good time to let him ride. Dodge, Chief, and Nugget hit a trail from the tank and Mikes other two dogs were trailing the opposite direction. We made it a few hundred yards and I stopped while Mike and Derek kept driving gabbin. Soon after Nugget opened up Dolly was already heading her direction and we had a solid bay. Mikes dogs opened up and were bayed. Since we didn't have a catch dog (on the buggy with Mike and Derek) and Dodge was with Mike and Derek all Logan and I could do was listen to the bay and wait on Mike and Derek to stop and realize there were dogs barking. We walked within 100 yards of Dolly and Nugget when Mike and Derek noticed we were not behind them. They headed toward us we unloaded catch dogs and went in. We got close and I sent Cotton, Derek sent Comet and we had a hog caught. It was right by the road and we were going to tie it but Derek couldn't handle the hog so we stuck it. Well, maybe it was because it was missing its entire back L leg but I must use "It's too big to tie!" once a hunt so we stuck it.
Logan it was nice meeting you. Derek put the phone down and you would be more productive
. Can't wait to do it again. MattAggie I like that old Ham dog of Derek's I believe he will make a dog.
