I'm wishing I was back in Texas already.... anyway I'll spare you the details on the travel to Texas, same old stuff when trying to fly any where these days. Somehow I missed the notice from said airway informing it's passengers of the new baggage size policy. Old rule was 72" length new rule 60". Needless to say I was 1# over weight so I had to removed some items and stuff them in my carry on. Nothing I could do however on my duffel bag that measured 63". Cost $49. extra.
Not to ruin my trip, I paid the fee with a smile on my face and continued on. We arrived in camp just as the sun was sitting.
Not long after we arrived the Twins (Barry & Gene) showed and they gave us our assigned area and told of the plans to meet in the a.m. to get a quick tour of the area. Sharing camp for this hunt: Ron Tandy from Florida, Bill Terry from Connecticut, Bo Slaughter & his son Buddy and myself. The rest of the hunters had been scattered around the ranch due to the previous weeks weather. John Nash did join us on the final night.
The rest of the evening was spent unpacking and getting our gear ready for the first day of hunting. Some where in there we gulped down some chow. If memory serves me we had Chicken & Dumplings.
Day 1
we meet with Barry & Gene around 7:30 and followed them out to our hunting area. They showed us some bait sites and we helped them pull some tree stands and freshened up all of the active baits that had been started in the weeks before. Due to all the snow and rain in the previous weeks many of the areas had not had very much hunting pressure. We didn't see any hogs while getting our tour of the hunting area but there was plenty of good sign and spirits were high and we were all chomping at the bit to get in the bush.
After our tour of the area Bo, Buddy and I hiked to the top of the highest point in our assigned area to get a better look at the terrain and lay of the land. The peak you see in the background is where we hiked. The base of this hill runs right down to the base of the Brazos River.
After glassing for close to an hour we started down on the west side of the hill where I found the first of several sheds. Then we headed back to camp for some lunch and to prepare for the evening hunt. Next time we will have topos of the hunting area. The maps provided by the ranch were, well let's just say not worth the paper they were printed on.
Back in our hunting area Buddy was dropped off first. He was hunting a site across from Stone House that the Twins had showed us. It was very active and the wind was right for it to be hunted. After dropping off Buddy, Bo and I headed towards the river crossing (we named it that). As we were coming up on a cattle gate Bo said "Pigs". I stopped the vehicle and we watched as the made their way down into a draw, crossed the bottom and headed up the opposite side. The wind was wrong for us to follow and even if we had, I doubt we could have caught up to them.
We quickly crossed the cattle guard and made our way up on tip of a ridge that parallel to the direction the hogs were traveling. Once on top we were able to see them just for a second as they dissapeared into a thicket. Looking at the terrain we decided if they continued in the same direction they would most likely cut through a saddle about 300 yards to our North West. So grabbed our bows and beat feet behind the ridge that separated us, down through the bottom then we had to climb over the barbed wire fence and travel along the edge of the thicket just below the crest of the ridge.
As we made our way around the ridge to the saddle there were several well used game or cattle trails that were used by game to exit the thicket. Bo took up a position behind some brush at the first trail and I went about 50 yards farther just past the next game trail. The wind was perfect blowing from the draw up to us. If the pigs were coming this way we would have the advantage.
Topic: Pig Gig week 3 (more snow) (Read 1911 times)
