Not to be outdone by our eastern counterparts, the Central Texans set out with a goal of eight hogs in mind! We fell slightly short of our goal, but had a dang good time and made a heck of a run at it! (j/k)
The landowner called and said he had a canned hunt lined up for us. He has a place with probably close to 2,000 head of yearling cattle on it that they've been feeding silage and the hogs have been staying near and feasting as well. Until yesterday, I believe he had been reluctant to let us run our dogs around the cattle until for fun he had joined us on a hunt last weekend and watched our dogs work in and amongst some cattle on another place.
When we pulled in the gate yesterday morning, we spotted a group of hogs standing across the field. Rex grabbed his jag'd out of the box and put him in his lap in the truck as we drove closer. When we got close, and the dog spotted the hogs Rex pitched him out the window and the race was on. I ran back and cut two curs out of my trailer, Richard threw down a dog or two, and the first hog was caught and tied before the trucks were turned off. The dogs immediately rolled out, and within a few minutes had another bayed on a creekside. Got2catchem sent his two bulldogs in, and when they hit the whole group went off the side and into the water. Unfortunately, I was next on the scene and took the plunge. As you can tell by the pic, I didn't think the water was that deep, but at the point I realized it was chest-high I was committed. Got the hog killed, and dogs rolled again. After a while I kept trying to track one dog that had gotten way on out there when we decided to load up in the trucks and try to round this dog back up. When I got in the truck, I had a missed phone call which happened to be a guy who had picked up one of my dogs about eight miles away. Went to this guys place and picked up my dog. A few minutes of talking revealed that this guy was also a fellow ETHD member. THANKS "AARON BMC" FOR YOUR HONESTY! Sad as it is, in today's world there are people who would have tossed my tracking collar in a ditch and had themselves a new hunting dog. Apparently the dog had a nice sow bayed when they found him.
Anyhow, back at the property we were easing down the creek when Rex's jagd bails out and heads for the woods. As I came over the hill behind the other guys I could tell by the commotion something was going down. As I came to a stop, Darrell was hollering "HOGS EVERYWHERE!!" He ran back and turned three of my dogs out and it was a race to the woods! Within minutes and with AWESOME teamwork by three good teams of dogs, we had three more bayed and caught and a couple dogs had rolled for more. After a while, the last two dogs came back in and we decided to grab a few pics and call it a day while we were ahead!
First Pic..."The Race!" (If you look in the background to the right, you can see the rest of the hogs headed out!)
"The Tie"
"The Bay" (Even stuck waist deep in mud, Rex was still able to get a few pics snapped)
"The Swim" (Makes me start shivering just re-living the moment!)
And Luke the Jagd.
