Category: Hunting and Outdoor Stories

Alligators and Anniversaries

November 20th, 2023

I’m sure that if you google top things to do or places to go for your anniversary, alligator hunting is not at the top of the list, or even on the list at all. For Shaun and me, we could think of no better thing to do, however. We had had a gentleman who came to our house with the easement company to explain that they were going to have shredders and mowers on our property clearing the pipeline easement that runs in front of our house and down one side of the property. He was talking through how it was going to go and assuring us that they would pay attention to our horses and cattle and make sure that our gates were closed. As we were talking to him, he told us the story and showed us pictures of a 10ft alligator he and his wife had just harvested as standby hunters on a Texas Parks and Wildlife hunt. He was incredibly excited and had even typed up the story which he let us read.

That was it for us, we figured if these two 60ish year olds could go unprepared with no bait or anything and set their line out with rented kayaks that we could improve on their preparedness and do it too! He took us to the website and helped us find the drawn hunts page and the information about showing up to put in for the standby drawing if you weren’t drawn prior to the hunt. We read and re-read his story, watched every episode of Swamp People that was available at the time just in case any of that was actually like reality, and did a ton of research and read forums.

We ordered large hooks and paracord from eBay and practiced setting the line out. While my dad was visiting from Georgia, we returned home from a fishing expedition at the Trinity River to discover a message left on our answering machine. A guy from TPWD had tried to call us about a drawn hunt we had put in for. I returned his phone call and much to our delight, learned that we had been drawn for the alligator hunt on September 15 and 16^th, no need to go down on standby we were already in! He said our letter had been returned as undeliverable, but a quick search of our customer info showed the same address, so he was doing his last due diligence to inform us. We also discovered during our conversation that we had both gone to Stephen F Austin State University for forestry and wildlife management and bonded over different amazing assignments and professors as well as crazy assignments from professors. Lumberjacks are instant family in the same way Aggies are even if they’ve never met! He was familiar with the area we were going to be hunting and told us how the hunt would go and where to request to get to hunt based on where he had seen a lot of gators!

When I got off the phone Shaun and I were literally giddy almost to the point of jumping up and down with excitement. My dad, on the other hand, was not nearly as sure. As it turned out, most of the family wasn’t as fired up about us going alligator hunting as we were. Shaun’s dad, of course, was elated for us but he had been in the trenches hog hunting with us for years at this point and he never shies away from something just because it might be dangerous and would never encourage us to. Be prepared and ready, be afraid even, but do it even if you’re scared! My mom volunteered to watch the kids overnight and bring them down the morning of the hunt when the lines had been set out all night over the water so they could be there to see us come in with a gator if we got one.

About a week or so before the hunt, we bought some small whole chickens and left them in a bucket with a lid on it and some other juices and things that when left in the sun for that length of time would be pretty rank. It was, we had gotten to where you could smell it before you reached the bucket! We rented one of the winterized cabins and brought our air mattress and set up camp, launched our little river boat, and went out to do a little scouting. An older pair of gentlemen saw us as we headed out to scout, and we told them it was to be our first time and how we had prepared. They were veteran alligator hunters and shared some tips with us. When we came back in from scouting it seemed they were waiting on us and debating whether or not to go looking for us. They’d been worried about us and upon our arrival, insisted that we come back to their camp to eat dinner. There was no telling them no, and no reason to either. I’m not sure how we ate some sort of alligator soup that night, I didn’t ask questions about it other than what spices he used because it was delicious, he only explained what part of the alligator it had come from and how to cut it up and prepare the crock pot. They were only too happy to share a meal with us and exchange hunting stories and when I shared several hog hunting stories of my own, they visibly relaxed and determined audibly to us that we were going to be alright. We thanked them profusely for the dinner and fellowship and returned to our cabin for the morning’s orientation and release to hunt!

After we were called in to show our licenses and be assigned hunt compartments or areas to hunt which we got to choose, we actually got the area that my fellow alumni suggested, all the hunters sat through orientation and demonstrations so we would all know what to do and how to do it to keep us safe as well as legal. Shaun and I grabbed our bamboo poles and headed out! We set two lines in two separate areas as we each had a tag and came back in to wait. Since we were close to the ramp and staging area we saw a hunter come in with a gator that afternoon and went to investigate. We ended up making friends with him and told him where we had put our lines, he was familiar with the area and thought we had good spots. The next morning, he met us at the boat ramp and told us and the biologist that he passed one of our lines on the way in and that it was down. At the biologist’s suggestion he volunteered to follow us to our line and observe and only help if we were in a bind. I’m not sure if this was out of an abundance of caution for first timers or because I’m a girl or that I was wearing my life jacket and flip flops or what, but I was grateful for someone watching out for us.

As we reached the line, we could see the grass on the bank was pretty torn up and the water around was muddy. When Shaun grabbed the line and slowly began pulling it in fist over fist into the boat, he felt something huge and heavy on the other end. Slowly he pulled the alligator until his head broke the surface of the water as I readied the .410 shotgun standing beside him. In hindsight, my flip flop clad foot being propped on the side of the boat that the alligator was being pulled up on was probably not the safest choice but fortunately I didn’t lose any toes and as his head broke the surface and he began thrashing and fighting to get away, I put it down and we redoubled our efforts. Shaun pulled him back up again as I readied the gun and when his head slightly breached the water the second time, I took aim directly behind his skull and squeezed. Instantly the alligator stilled and water splashed up around us from the shot. Our hunter friends in the boat observing us whooped and hollered, clapped, and congratulated us telling us it certainly did not look like our first gator! Shaun and I tapped his mouth out of an abundance of caution and pulled him into the boat as well as retrieved our pole.

When we got back to the biologist check station at the boat ramp, we were grinning from ear to ear and all three of our kiddos were standing their being tightly held onto by my mother looking on with huge eyes and maybe a little admiration for their parents. We drug him out and the biologist took his measurements and tagged him, he was an 8 foot 9in bull, and we sent him over to the skinners who were there in case anyone needed their services but let us watch and help too!

Our second line had been empty, so we had reset it on the way in with the first alligator. It was time to head back out and check it. Since we had only set it up a couple hours ago, when we tried to go find the area looking for the white line hanging, we couldn’t find it. After trolling around for a few minutes, we thought, what if the line has fallen or we have a second alligator and began looking for the pole instead. We quickly located it and slowly drifted in. Shaun grabbed the line to see if it had just fallen or if we had something on it. To our surprise, as he began pulling in the line and it got tight, a very fresh and active alligator tugged back against him as he tried to get it closer to the boat. This guy was a fighter and drug our boat around a bit as Shaun fought him in. Like the last gator, I began loading and readying the shotgun, when Shaun got the alligator close to the boat and his head breached the surface of the water, it was on me to shoot. In my excitement and fidgeting, I accidentally separated the receiver of the gun from the buttstock. It’s a very old gun and I knew if you torqued it a certain way that would happen. It wasn’t unsafe, just inconvenient. I began apologizing profusely and remember Shaun, who was fighting a very live and very fresh 9 foot 8 inch bull alligator, responded in the calmest and kindest voice, “its ok babe, he’s not going anywhere, just get ready and I’ll pull him up again.” His calmness in the middle of that battle was so comforting and reassuring to me! I quickly slipped the gun back together and got into position to shoot as he again pulled the alligator up. Just like the first one early that morning, the alligator instantly stilled, water rained down around us, and we grinned and high fived….and maybe kissed because, hey, it was our actual anniversary, and then pulled him in to head to the check station where our kiddos were again waiting.

Since this hunt, we have tweaked a few things, but each of our kiddos has been able to harvest at least one alligator from either being drawn for this hunt or going down on standby. Our daughter harvested a 10-foot 10-inch one in a whirlwind of a standby drawing some years later. We have made so many memories hunting alligators together as well as so many friends. Shaun and I were even drawn to hunt another location near the Texas coast some years later which ended up on our actual anniversary date again and we basically had a remake of the first trip and made another lifelong friend! To say that alligator hunting holds a special place in our hearts would be an understatement!
Memories in the Mountains

October 30th, 2023

While definitely not in chronological order, as I sit in front of this computer, this is exactly the time of year we usually leave along with our family and friends who are family to hunt, fellowship, and explore Colorado. I wrote most of this article when we came home from our very first trip from there in 2013, it was published by the company I pro-staffed and instructed for, and since I’m reminiscing and missing the mountains terribly, I decided to skip the chronological order of things and go with the way my mind wanders.
The Great Colorado Adventure 2013
In 2013 my family and my best friend and I had the opportunity to adventure to Colorado with the goal of harvesting an elk in our sites. This trip turned out to be so much more than just a hunting trip. I was actually apprehensive and nervous about going because we seemed to be so alone, I kept using the term “winging it” since we were doing a “do it yourself” (DIY) hunt on public land. Just over halfway there from Texas my fears were strengthened as our truck broke down in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. My hubby, quick to diagnose the problem and realize he had the replacement part at home in Texas, sprung into action and got us safely into the cutest little RV park while his dad drove the part up to get us back on the road. I’m leaving out that it was a holiday weekend and all of the part stores said they’d have to order the part and it wouldn’t be in until the following Tuesday or Wednesday, this was Thursday!
That next morning after Dad arrived was a rough one as all 3 of our kids woke up throwing up in the middle of the night and now, with Shaun’s dad, the 7 of us weren’t feeling much better. We had headaches and brain fog and later discovered it was acute carbon monoxide poisoning from the propane refrigerator vent! Many medical professionals have told us how close to death we all had been. I’m not typically grateful for my kids vomiting on me, but this night I was!! Had we been able to get on up into the mountains we might have mistaken this for altitude sickness and never returned!
Back to the truck, stranded-ish all the way in Santa Rosa. We were not really actually alone because God says He’ll never leave us or forsake us and as God would have it, the manager of the park was a certified diesel mechanic who looked over Shaun’s shoulder and provided the confirmation Shaun needed during the fix. Only God does stuff like that! So, the next day we were back on the road before lunch! I was soooo nervous!

I don’t really know what my expectations were for how it should look once we finally reached Colorado, but as we got closer, the beauty of New Mexico began to amaze me and I was itching to get out and explore. Just when I thought the views couldn’t get any better, we hit Durango, Colorado. The most beautiful little town with the Animas River winding and snaking all through it. It was about 7:00pm as we started winding up into the mountains just north of Dolores towards our camp. As we came around the bend, mountain on the left side, river on the right, we were facing the largest mountain I’d ever personally seen whose slope was covered in the most beautiful Aspen grove. As the sun shone down piercing in spots through the low-lying clouds that were clinging to the canopy of the Aspen grove my breath caught in my chest and tears moistened my eyes. I’m a military brat so I’ve been A LOT of places and I had never seen landscape so beautiful that it made me want to cry. Reliving it as I’m writing now brings tears to my eyes. Standing at the base of the mountains in that breathtaking scenery caused me to reflect on how big God is and how small I am. The majesty of God staring you right in your face has a way of putting you in your place!

I managed to tear my eyes away from my first look at those mountains and capture Shaun’s forever. So many thoughts.

We reached a flat pasture-like area near the top of the mountain where it was time to get out and set up camp. When I say pasture, you think grass but no, this pasture was carpeted by the thickest most glorious squishy healthy fern! A sticker-less fern pasture as large as a football field! To my 3 children’s delight, if you took a shovel to it, every scoop of earth yielded the fattest healthiest fishing worms….or “I dare you to eat that, worms”! I digress! We set up camp and cooked dinner that night and began to get butterflies about seeing elk and exploring the splendor of this new country we were calling home for a week.

The next morning, we awoke and dressed in our hunting gear, packs and bows, and safety orange, kissed the kids goodbye and wished my bestie Shelly good luck with them and set out! My hubby and I were in such awe as we began hiking, I’m not sure if we even looked for elk for the first little bit of the hike. I seemed to be too busy catching flies with my mouth gaping open at all the newness and glory like I’d never seen before! Part of that was a little breathlessness too but not too bad. We started training as best we could back in April for this adventure, we knew we were going to embark on in Aug/ Sept so 23lbs lighter and in the best shape of my life, I knew I could handle quite a bit. We didn’t see anything but a couple of coyotes and some turkey vultures that day but the next day, OH the next day!
Noticing that the part of the mountain we were hunting had trails that were open to motorized vehicles we opted to go down our little mountain and over to the next one which had a trail winding up it that was not open for motorized transportation, and we were walking so no worries there! We figured less traffic and noise might mean more animals, we figured correctly! Nearly to the top of this 5mile consistent incline trek I saw my very first grouse! Guess who happened to have a small game license and knew that grouse season had just opened! ME! After I’d harvested it, my hubby just stood in amazement at my confidence. He was shocked that I had taken the shot but incredibly glad for it! Onward and upward though! As we reached the top and broke over the ridge, we descended into a large valley between the peaks of 3 mountains with a decent sized lake on one end teaming with ducks! My breath caught again…for both of the before mentioned reasons! We hiked across and over onto the next mountain and stopped for breakfast just the two of us, him propped up against a tree eating a pop tart and me with my head laid on his leg in an Aspen grove at nearly 9000 ft elevation with the morning sun filtering through the leaves and painting yellow rays all the way to the ground.
We set out again after our little breakfast break and it was then, just 100 yards later that we beheld the most amazing site and one we had come so far to see. As we hiked partly up the ridge and around, just below us were 5 elk. A cow and calf, a single cow and 2 small bulls grazing among the aspens. With our eyes as big as saucers and breath we didn’t know we were holding, we crept closer and closer. I snaked the range finder off my neck and slowly passed it to Shaun as I stared on in amazement at the biggest game animals I’d ever seen in the wild. The closest elk, a smaller bull, stood at 62.5 yards quartered away in the “v” of two aspens with gnarly bushes in between. As my husband began to draw back his bow I softly whispered, “do you want to try to get a little closer and get a cleaner shot?” He let it down concerned because it really was a trashy shot. As we began to creep closer, we took exactly 4 steps, one of mine landing on a small twig that snapped, and out of NO WHERE a doe mule deer jumped up just to the left of us and ran into the group of elk screaming in her language “RUN RUN THERE’S HUNTERS UP HERE!!!” and off they went! As we followed them over the ridge, we ran into another hunting party who were all on mules and in pursuit of the elk they had just seen run over the ridge.. On foot there was no way we could compete with them so we decided to hike over to the other peak and see if we could pick up another group of elk.
As we hiked around the rest of the day stopping for breaks and snacks and sometimes just to gawk and the sheer splendor of the country we were exploring, our souls just hummed with praise for God and His ability to create. It was getting late by this time, and we headed back for the valley and over to the adjacent mountain with the trail to lead us down. I literally collapsed in camp when we finally returned so grateful to smell that my bestie was fixing dumplings! It had been a 15-mile day through some rough terrain and most of it had been at a huge incline with a 30lb pack. It was more than I’d ever pushed myself before and I was tired but feeling a HUGE sense of accomplishment. Just seeing elk on a DIY was a success in mine and Shaun’s eyes!
The next morning, we rested and spent time with the kiddos and that evening we decided to go back up and give it one more shot. We packed up sleeping bags and food and a little two-man tent and decided to camp the night out there just the two of us at 8900 feet in bear country. How exhilarating! No marriage retreat on the face of this earth could facilitate the kind of bonding experience we had on the hunt. We didn’t see any more elk but saw at least 40 mule deer which we had no tags for and were also not speaking to due to the previous ruined elk harvest because of one of their kind!
Waking up that high in the sky that morning, the pink of the horizon as the sun began to wake and rise over the peaks to begin burning off the clouds that had nestled themselves among the tops of the aspens, we knew this was not just going to be a one-time trip. This was a hunt, an adventure that had caused us to leave a piece of ourselves there and embrace a new one that would summon us back year after year. I actually did leave a piece of my leg on a barbed wire fence up there but that’s not what I’m talking about!
In later years we were invited to join a group of friends to go a little farther in during rifle season and we’ve bought horses and mules and a new to us living quarter horse trailer. We long for the fellowship, food, fun, fins, fur, and overall laughter and adventure as we return together year after year. We don’t always fill our tags but we do always fill our hearts and restore our souls! If you’ve never experienced this before and you are given the opportunity, you should seriously, hit the door running! This adventure changed our whole family’s lives. We learned so much about ourselves and what we were capable of. We learned just how much we enjoy the outdoors and how we have instilled that in our kids so much so that they were totally in agreement of turning off the satellite and redirecting the money we were spending on television to a hunting trip fund so we can continue to experience the splendor of God’s country. For us it’s not just about the harvest, it’s about the adventure!

Seems like a lifetime ago as the youngest here is now 16 and the oldest 21!
And then there was Archery

October 23rd, 2023

My First bow season

My first season bow hunting for deer was absolutely magical, but if it had ended the way it started, there wouldn’t have been a season at all. Shaun had been into bow hunting for a while, and I watched the guys shoot but I stuck to my guns! This was way before I became a firearms instructor…seems like that was sort of in my DNA now. I went bowfishing with him but just held the light mostly or occasionally fell asleep in an awkward and embarrassing position in the boat, also I occasionally drool a tiny amount.

Anyway, Shaun wanted to get me a bow for our anniversary which is Sept 16, but he decided to get it early because he wanted me to have at least a month to practice and build those muscles before the season opened in October.

We had heard RAVE reviews about a bow shop in Nacogdoches and I had just transferred over to SFA to finish up my undergrad so I was excited to go. When we walked inside there were a bunch of dudes in there standing around talking, and we made our way up to one of them to help us. They were talking hunting, food plots, and hunting gear and my husband told the tech he was hoping to buy me a bow after finally gaining his attention.

This got the whole group’s attention, while there are plenty of female bow hunters, in 2008 we still weren’t nearly as plentiful as the guys. But I wasn’t a bow hunter yet. To my absolute horror (because I’m insanely nervous/anxious and awkward when doing new things) one of the guys that was in this group and turned was none other than Dr. “Deer” Kroll, who at the time was somewhat of a celebrity in the Forestry Dept which I had just transferred to. I was already nervous and the archery tech started asking me questions that I didn’t know the answers to at that time and I was becoming WAY intimidated.

It was made worse by the fact that the tech, who was trying to measure my draw length by getting me to stand a certain way and hold my arms out but without ever communicating to me why or demonstrating, finally became frustrated and dropped the tape asked, “haven’t you ever held a bow before!” It was rather loud and he was rather exasperated. Every guy in the group laughed except my husband who was trying to explain and demonstrate for me so I could be measured. My shoulders sagged, my chin dropped, and I clenched my teeth to fight back tears and told him I had been around them but mainly just tagged along and I apologized for my lack of understanding. He was gruff and short with me, probably wanting to get back to the celebrity and the conversation, he ended up not having anything in my draw length anyway and we got out of there pretty fast. The hubs knew I wasn’t feeling it, I felt a little humiliated and kind of wanted to punch that guy in his adams apple.
Fast forward a few days to a little archery shop in Palestine, long closed now, my husband called and asked if they had anything in my draw length and the guy said he had both new and used bows that I was welcome to come try. When I arrived, the guy greeted us so warmly, we told him we had called about a bow in my draw length and then I just told him I had sort of had a humiliating experience with another bow shop because there was a miscommunication of me literally not knowing anything. He remeasured me to make sure my draw length was correct and literally baby stepped me through every little thing. The how and why of all the important parts of the bow, the necessary equipment, and found us a used Bowtech Miranda bow that he set up right then and there for me and let me get comfortable shooting it.

I practiced every single day, most days twice a day, until we got my draw weight maxed out and I was accurate.
Shaun and I hunted A LOT during bow season and either didn’t see anything or didn’t see anything legal or in my bow range. The last week of bow season he was working nights and the kids were all at my mom’s which was near the deer lease. I finished my Monday lab early and made it to her house in time to beg her to let me go hunting. The absolute craziest thing happened when I drove up to the gate. I was sitting there in the truck putting on my release and a doe came walking up and jumped the fence right beside the truck. She walked on the other side of some tall bushes and briars and began to browse like the truck wasn’t RIGHT THERE.
I decided to see if I could slip out of it and stalk up close enough to her to get a shot. I eased the door open slightly and slipped out of the driver seat. I hunkered down leaving my fingers in the door as I eased it closed but not shut, I eased the back door open and carefully slipped my bow out and hid behind the back tire with her between the shrub/brush pile, then the truck, and me. I was trying to get control of my breathing, my shaking, and my heart rate! I could hear her moving down the lane at a leisurely pace stopping to nibble random things. I crept out from behind the truck watching her and moved from concealment to concealment thankful for the dense carpet of pine needles to quiet my steps. I managed to advance, always keeping trees or bushes between us so she couldn’t see me as I stalked closer to her, but I was running out of foliage. I eased barely around the last tree just enough to range her because I still wasn’t, and honestly still am not great at guessing distances, and started to shake even harder when I realized she was only 25 yards! I eased back, slowly lowered the range finder down, and drew back as I slowly eased out behind the tree. She walked a couple of steps forward browsing on some foliage and was perfectly broad side.
About the same time I squeezed the release, she spotted me, but at that distance she didn’t respond fast enough as I had already let the arrow fly. She ran off and I watched until I could no longer see her and waited several minutes, not because I was cool and collected and knew I’d made a good shot and needed to give her time. I waited because my legs were shaking, and my heart was racing, I couldn’t breathe and my ears were pounding. I slowly crept to where I shot her, looking around for blood and my arrow and I found both. According to my arrow I had made a great shot. I tried to wait longer and slowly tracked the blood and ended up jumping her because I didn’t wait long enough.

I backed out and went back later and was unable to track her.
I was heartbroken and felt so dumb. I knew better. This was not my first deer. It was just my first with a bow. It was incredibly cool that evening thankfully, and there was a hard frost that night. After telling the hubs and wanting to cry, we got up the next morning and drove out there and I took him to where I shot her, where I tracked her to, and where I jumped her. My husband has blood hound DNA I think, and he managed to find her blood “trail” (maybe a drop here or there) immediately and her in a mere few minutes! It was plenty cold enough to save the meat and after we celebrated, and I cried happy tears, and Shaun swore she had to be deaf and blind, we loaded her up to take her back and process her. I knew she couldn’t have been blind because she A- jumped the fence and B-finally spotted me! I was excited and feeling confident with a cooler full of venison!

After happy tears for finding her in time to save the meat!

Fast forward to Saturday which was actually opening day of gun season. Even though the moon was full we still went out before daylight and got in our stands. I call this the butt-crack of dawn, later when I was introduced to duck hunting I began to experience the pre-butt-crack of dawn. We both decided to stick with our bows and as I started off in the direction of my stand, Shaun told me that since the moon was full, it was more likely for the deer to move later in the morning since they likely moved in the middle of the night. So he wanted me to sit as long as I possibly could. I took that as a challenge to stay longer than he could, and it paid off.

I was sitting in my “lucky ladder stand” that morning and listening to what sounded like deer chasing each other near my stand. Suddenly, a decent sized buck popped out long enough to get my attention and then right back in the thicket. I was excited and a little bummed because I wondered if I wasn’t watching the stupid squirrel dance up and down to my left would I have seen him sooner. I was also figuring that was probably my one and only chance at a legal buck in my range.
I’m sure it’s not physically possible but it felt like I held my breath for about 20 or 30 more minutes so I could hear better, and a different buck popped out and started quickly walking across my area. I had to use the concealment of the trees to rotate my body around on my ladder stand and into a shooting position so he wouldn’t bust me. I’d rotated all the way around from right to left with my bow up and I was running out of space. He was about to go behind me where I wouldn’t have a shot. I hooked my feet into the sides of the ladder and twisted around as far as I was comfortable with and drew back hoping he would stop, he seemed intent on passing through like he was trailing something, so I did what all of those hunting show dudes do. I gave him a MEEEHHHH.
He stopped with a stomp and jerked his head up looking right at me just like the doe, but again, I was ready, he was slightly quartered but I knew I’d hit him based on the wild way he leapt up. As he was trotting off, I actually saw the arrow come out and fall and could tell it had blood. Instead of having a repeat of Monday, I sat, and I sat and I sat, I was shaking and doing the heart pounding breathless thing anyway. About 30 minutes had gone by and Shaun came walking up and asked me what the heck I was doing because it was well after 11 by this time.

I told him I was waiting on the buck I’d just shot. He looked at me incredulously as I began to recount the story to him. We waited another 30 minutes and the ole bloodhound went to work. We were both trailing and at one point sort of lost blood and decided to circle in opposite directions from last blood. Shaun yelled to me when he found him, still in disbelief, not because he was a monster deer, he wasn’t, but because I had had an incredible week hunting! Bow hunting for me has been both exhilarating and down right frustrating when what I can see is outside my bow range and way in my rifle range, especially when the freezer is empty. I still love the challenge and especially the food! I’m still grateful to the hubs for introducing me to archery hunting too and for buying me that first bow!

My first bowbuck and food for the fam!
The Genesis of my Love for Hunting

October 9th, 2023

Chapter 1: The Beginning

I was asked to write a bimonthly article for a local magazine to represent women in hunting. The following is most of what was produced for the first article, although the magazine’s funding fell through, and it was never produced. After re-reading it several years later, I decided it would serve well as an a different muse for blogging.

DISCLAIMER: It was produced AFTER duck and deer season closed….right now we are all happily hunting all the things but since it is the genesis of my love for hunting I decided to go ahead and leave it in tact and post as is!

As duck season and deer season have officially come to a close and we are missing the excitement and adventure of being in the woods, not wanting to patiently wait for turkey or alligator season to come, we have to think of things to pass the time! Texas is full of options! The weather in East Texas tends to alternate seasons during days in a single week and sometimes even on a single day you can experience both spring/summer and fall(and what we call winter! This can work to a hunter or fisherman’s advantage because the change in barometric pressure and temps helps spur activity!

Predator hunting with the use of a mouth or electronic call is always an option! It’s always fulfilling when you are able to call something in and harvest it, even more so when you are able to do it with a mouth call, mimicking the sounds and creating the right conditions yourself! Since it’s not miserably cold and we are experiencing the labor pains of spring, fishing for big blue catfish can be a great way to pass the time and fill the freezer! In fact we have been more successful in March and April jug fishing for big blues and ops in a lake or line fishing in the river than any other time except possibly the transition from summer to fall while we are waiting on archery season! If you’re a night owl you might be thinking this weather is the perfect time for coon hunting!

Another option to continue hunting right through to turkey season is hog hunting! Since hogs aren’t particularly easy to pattern because of their inconsistency, stand hunting for them can sometimes be uneventful and seemingly not as rewarding. Hunting with dogs on the other hand, can be absolutely exhilarating, fulfilling and can also help to fill the freezer as well! There is nothing better for breakfast than fresh homemade sausage, biscuits and gravy and fresh yard eggs! This makes me reminiscent of my very first hog hunt which was also my first opportunity to hunt anything larger than a squirrel or rabbit! It was the awakening of the hunter I was born to be, like adding gasoline to smoldering fire!

As a shooter enthusiast who had only ever been squirrel and rabbit hunting before, 2000 held some new adventures! After meeting my husband, Shaun, in April of 2000 and listening to him and his dad tell and retell hog hunting stories I was sure I had to experience it for myself! We fished and bow fished during the hottest part of the summer and he would go out with his dad and brother at night to hunt hogs. Not ever having participated in a hog hunt I wasn’t sure the pitch black of night was the way I wanted to start out. I convinced them to go early in the morning and let me see what it was all about!

We collared, vested, and loaded bay dogs and vested and loaded catch dogs, gathered our gear and set out. When we stepped out of the truck and unloaded the bay dogs they began running around and using the bathroom clearly excited and ready for work. I was handed several mule tape tie strings, an extra dog lead, and one end of a lead that had a vested catch dog named, Spot, on the other end of it. Spot was small for a catch dog and had the greatest disposition, he was incredibly friendly and just yesterday I had seen him laying on his back in the yard playing with several Airedale pups who had wandered into his area. I couldn’t imagine that he was going to willingly catch a hog let alone be large enough to hold it.

As we walked down into the bottom we saw fresh hog rooting which the dogs had already been across and had disappeared into the woods ahead. Some of the young pups trotting not too far in front of us threw their noses to the ground and seemed to be energized and trailed very quickly into the woods in the same direction the older more experienced dogs had already gone.

Just as Shaun’s dad was pulling out the tracking system to track the collars of the bay dogs we had placed on them that morning the largest commotion I had ever heard met my ears! Dogs barking (baying) a whole rally of hogs! How did I know it was a rally? Well at the time I didn’t, Shaun’s dad later explained the vocabulary to me because at that time THERE WAS NO TIME! All of a sudden Shaun and his brother, took off sprinting in the direction of the bay after having already grabbed…snatched…Spot’s lead out of my hands! Thankfully his dad stayed with me at that moment to give me directives!

As we ran in the direction of the bay and the group of hogs it became louder and louder!!! Running up to a large group of hogs rallying and cackling as they are being bayed by dogs is something that will get your blood pumping(even faster if you have just been running) and shoot adrenaline through your veins quicker than anything I had ever experienced before! We weren’t yet close enough to see any of the dogs or the hogs but we were so close it was nearly deafening! All at once the dogs stopped baying because the hogs began to break and run. Shaun’s dad and I were just about to catch up to Shaun and and his brother when we saw hogs running through the woods in all directions.

Ok so this is my first hog hunt remember, we have no guns what so ever and I don’t even have a dog anymore! I had heard stories about hogs charging people and truthfully was seriously starting to rethink this adventure because Shaun’s brother, who had been hog hunting many times started running around looking for a larger tree to climb screaming, “they’re coming this way!” I’m not sure how much of that was actual fear and how much of it was to freak me out! Boys! There was no time to find a tree to climb though and really the hogs were more interested in getting as far from where we were as quickly as possible. The dogs bayed a hog down in the creek not 45 yards from us! The catch dogs were going CRAZY! Calm little Spot was transformed and it was clear he was more than willing to catch! The boys unleashed both dogs who ran straight to the bay and then as if we couldn’t make any more commotion in the woods the loudest sound I’d ever heard (which later in my hunting career has become music to my ears) began emanating from the creek…..the fabulous most musical squeal of a CAUGHT HOG! Later I learned from experience that larger hogs don’t always squeal they sort of make a grunting cackle sound(this sound later took the place of that adrenaline upper I mentioned from earlier because catching a 330lb boar hog by hand is a RUSH!) Of course the boys rushed down the bank and into the creek first and I ran in to see my husband holding both back legs of a totally live squealing hog with 2 catch dogs attached to each of it’s two ears! Shaun and his brother flipped the hog and climbed on top of it while I was instructed to pull the catch dogs off. They were both very reluctant to let go and then I had to tie them to two separate trees not close to each other or the hog and us as they were still very interested in catching again!

As Shaun was tying up the hog he was sitting on, I heard the bay dogs baying again which sped up the tying process and we were off again!

This hunt was amazing to watch, it was so interesting to see the dogs work and to observe the relationship between Shaun’s family and the dogs. To see them work as a team each relying on the other to do their part for all of the pieces to fall into place and everything to work like a well oiled machine. I wanted to be a part of that and to build those relationships too, not only with the dogs but with the guys too. I wanted to prove myself and be one of them, not just an observer that could lead a dog or pull one off but someone you were going to have to run faster than if you wanted to be the first to get your hands on the hog at the bay! (I’m happy to report I achieved that and more, successfully immersing myself in various different types of hunting and loving every minute of it!)

Holy Moly! HOW FUN! Needless to say I was hooked! We caught 3 hogs that morning and gathered them and the dogs up and were back at the house by 10:30 unloading the hogs in the pen and putting up the dogs. I can say now that that was by far an incredibly easy absolutely perfect hunt because they aren’t always like that! Sometimes you don’t catch anything, sometimes you walk/run more miles than you thought you were capable of! Sometimes the dogs get cut by hogs and need doctoring. Sometimes you get cut..by branches, briars and such….sometimes you push yourself to the point that you get to see what you’re made of. You come back wet and nasty, hungry and thirsty but full of stories and memories that can never be stripped away because you actually got up and experienced it for yourself rather than watching it on a screen and thinking you know how it feels! I’m still so grateful to my husband and his father for awakening this love for the outdoors and hunting in me!

Reliving that story in my mind has me longing to get out from behind this computer and hit the woods! Whatever you choose to do to satisfy your hunger for the outdoors for a bit, until it’s time to call in thunder chickens, take a friend! Maybe you haven’t experienced hunting before and are feeling inspired to go….CARPE DIEM!!!…..seize the day!!!!….bug your spouse, mom, dad, friend, cousin, or neighbor and get out and enjoy the beauty of what God has created!

As with all hunting and fishing activities, proper state licenses are required and all state and federal game laws should be observed. Please visit your state’s website to familiarize yourself with laws and regulations! Just because you don’t have a hunting lease don’t count yourself out! Most states have a lot of great public hunting land for you to enjoy with the purchase of an Annual Public Hunting Permit! For Texas Visit http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us