I learned a couple of things about hogs at the Sweat this year that I would like to share with any of you that are planning to go on one of these hunts.
Robert (Son of Texas) and I hunted together and we both put up double bull type blinds on a corned roadway. The hogs had been hitting the corn on this road before we got there. After we put up those blinds the corn was still there two days later. The hogs wouldn't go within a 100 yards of those blinds. My advice is leave your blinds at home unless you can leave them up for more than a week to let the hogs get accustomed to them.
Third day late in the afternoon I glassed a big boar hog feeding toward the blind. I was about a mile away. I hot footed my way through the mesquite to get close enough to stalk this big pig. The wind had just changed direction as this stalk was beginning. About the time I was 150 yard from this hog feeding towards me the wind picked up my double blind and carried it across the road. It was horrible, almost slow motion as that blind tumbled across the road scaring that hog away. Never saw the hog again. I folded up the blind and put it in the truck that night, not to be used again.
The other thing is lights. The first night, well after sundown a big black boarhog came into the waterhole. I was positioned behind some thorny scrub about 15 yards away, the wind was in my face perfect. It was dark and I could only see the sillouette of the boar, busy eating the scattered corn on his way to the waterhole. I could not see to shoot even though he was 15 yards or less from me. I had attached a fenix flashlight with a red filter to my headband and was accustomed to shooting at night with this light. I touched the on switch for a nanosecond and the big hog buggered off about 50 yards, unsure of what he had seen. He fed back towards me and I hit the light again and he was gone for good. You cannot use a light with these big old boars. I tried to use one of Curtis's hog lights on the last night but did not have any hogs come in. Leave your blinds and redbeam lights at home.
I hunted a lot after sundown and I spent a couple of nights out real late staying out until 4:00 one morning and going out at 4:30 another morning. These big boars come in at all hours during the night. I never saw one during the day. You can stalk up on them if they are making some noise, chomping on corn and blowing bubbles in the mud. I was able to get within 8 yards of one in the middle of the night while he was preoccupied eating and drinking but he was able to skyline me in the pitch black darkness by my shadow cast by the glow of the lights from the refinery 3 miles away. They are touchy about the most minute little noise, real touchy if they get a nosefull of you and they can see movement or light as good as most game I can think of. They are on full alert at the water hole and you will probably have a better chance at drawing on one of these while they are on the trail. In the future I will rely more on ambush of the hog before they get to the waterhole. A ghillie suit hides you pretty good in the thorny scrub and if you prepare a good hide where you can draw on them without making noise you probably have a better chance than sitting right on top of them where they go to drink.
As far as corning roads is concerned, you can put out a lot of corn and there are critters out there that will eat it, all of it. I didn't figure out until later in the week I need to pare down the size of the area that I corn and make sure I have a good quiet hiding place set up in the middle of the corned area rather than trying to corn a mile of road and stalking Javelina and hogs as they randomly mill about up and down the length of the road. Need to focus and plan better.
Treestands. First I didn't see a substanial tree in our part of west Texas that would hold me up but that did not dissuade me from trying to use one. I figured that a hog keeps his nose to the ground and has no reason to look up. That may be true but I spent the better part of 2 days and one night in a cold blowing wind trying to ambush a pig on a well used corned trail. The corn would always disappear but when? If I couldn't cast a light on a hog in the dark I couldn't execute this plan. I abandoned the powerline pole treestand ambush after a couple of days. I will stick to the ground and a ghillie for a good hide. I will be leaving my treestand at home next trip too.
There is a learning curve on hunting these animals and I made some more progress towards understanding them this year. I am looking forward to exacting some revenge on them next year.
Topic: Texas Sweat 2009 - photos & stories (Read 3164 times)
