The Escanaba Wrecking Crew at Hog Heaven!

[Izzy]

Love these tales. Hog Heaven is a modern day Little Delta except with a whole lot more comforts of home. Ya just gotta get there at the very least once in a trad bowhunters lifetime.

[Ray Hammond]

Doh!!!!!!! The spirit of Charlie lamb once again causes gnashing of teeth!! Oh the inhumanity of it all

[doug g]

Ok I'll start..... Saturday evening hunt, Thom and I  walking west of the bridge leading over into the Swamp. Just had rained everything real slick, walking real slow headed to Hawg Lake. Watching the road and peering down into the swamp. Almost immediately Thom motions to me, he see's pigs. Thom's on the near side I'm on the pigs side. I creep over to the swamps edge and put a slow stalk on. Stalking was great so quiet from the rain. I stalk closer Thom's carefully guiding me as I can't yet see them. Then I spot 2 coming my way. I'm nestled in good and tight hog # 1 comes around the curve I see it at about 20 yards. Winds not to the best to my advantage but it keeps coming, slowly I raise the bow, Thom has his binocs up and watching it all from maybe 40 yrd if even that. I got my Widow up arrow knocked, hog keeps coming 18, 15, 14, 12 finally I draw it comes to about 8 yrds my hearts ready to pop...... I don't like the angle gonna have to shoot through the front shield as it quarters at me then...... I PASS it winds me and is gone. The look on Thoms' face priceless.  

[doug g]

Thom you want the next one?

[ChuckC]

Is that spot up near Soadie ridge ?  Or down by M-35 ?  Youse guys didn't see a sighting. .  didja ?  Did someone bring da porshapine . .  stuff ?

ChuckC

[Squirrel Bait]

Oh good lord ! Get on with it !!! Heck I drove 900 miles,pampered the wife, killed pig ,dragged two, a skinned 2, before you can tell a story about walking down the road !

[doug g]

ChuckC, We did have a little Sweet Sap Whiskey!

[wapiti792]

  One of my favorite places on the planet! This is gonna gonna be great.

[sticksnstones]

I'll do one version of the story just for Squirrel Bait: there it was, I shot it, it died, now I'm gonna eat it.

Doug, did watching you pass on the chip shot look something like this       ??? I'll keep going on the Friday story, I'm thinking you got the Saturday one covered.
Thom

[doug g]

SSSqqquirel Bbbaaiitt don't get me flustered and make me stutter.

[MCNSC]

It was my first trip to HH. I have hunted hogs a little but it has mostly been finding a good looking area and baiting it with corn for a couple of days and then sitting in a tree stand. So this stalking was mostly new to me. The only pigs I saw I was working my way up a creek into the wind, the creek had split and I saw pigs coming down wind toward me it was a sow with piglets and another sow a little smaller. Had to get the binoculars up to identify which one was mama, didn't want to shoot mama. So, with mama identified I slowly crossed the first creek but the pigs had got ahead of me and were getting down wind. I backed out cut thru the woods and worked my way back toward the creek only to have the pigs beat me there. Again not wanting them to get down wind I back out again and cut thru the woods and head back to the creek. Same situation they got there right before I did. So I look down stream and see that the creek makes a bend thinking if I get around the bend I will be ahead of them I back out again. I stopped to see if I was far enough away from the creek and mama pig was giving me the stare down, then they spooked.
I did learn something from all that, pigs cover more ground than it seems.

[Pokerdaddy]

"there it was, I shot it, it died, now I'm gonna eat it"

This made me spew coffee!  The yin to Charlie Lamb's yang...ok, that sounds weird.

[kbetts]

Pigs cover ground like turkeys it seems.....weird.

Ok, so Mike not only sent one of my arrows through a hog, but he killed it too?  I'm smiling......

[sticksnstones]

Friday continued:

The very first entrance point to get  back into the spot I had in mind was completely underwater. I grabbed Rick and I showed him an alternate route through some rooting areas and funnels.  It was really tore up, first really promising fresh sign we'd seen as of yet. We worked up what was always a dry creek in the past but now it was a sloppy muddy run about 80 yards long. Every square foot of it was torn up all the way to an old feeder field.

Coming up to the top of the run I caught a whiff of something and turned to Rick and pointed at my nose. He sniffed the wind and nodded in agreement, we were in pig country! We compared notes and agreed to try to sneak back out of there without disturbing any that might be very close by. I'd say it was about 3 steps later I crunched a branch under my foot and two shot out from under a bush about 10 yards from us        We moved back down to the logging road and took a few mental notes along the way of different rooting sites and active trails.

Rick had picked this as his first spot to start hunting, I planned to go all the way to the far end of the section, and Doug planned to hunt the section in between us as he'd covered the territory a few times in years past and was comfortable with the lay of the land.  This might sound like we were kind of tight to each other, but the hogs seemed thick so the idea of hunting slowly and purposefully in a small area seemed to make sense to us.

With a new plan in hand and pigs sighted we headed back to camp to make preparations and let the place settle back down.

I hate to say this, I'll need to get some pictures together before I continue any further.
Thom

[DGF]

Congrats to you fellas! I couldn't think of more deserving individuals to take home the bacon from the SC swamp.

I'm surprised my wife didn't strangle me. Over the weekend she heard my ramblings:

"This is the weekend I was going to be hog hunting at Ray's."

"I'll bet there in the pigs thick now"

"I wonder how the weather is down there"

"I think they stuck one!"

Congrats again. Wish I could have made it.   :(  

-Dan

[Ray Hammond]

We missed you Dan.  Hope all goes well with the new additions to the family !

[MCNSC]

Doug, I sent you a PM. I am thinking about making some of your frozen desert to take fishing this weekend.      
Thanks..

[Cyclic-Rivers]

[doug g]

Mike, I sent you a pm on the slush.

[rbcorbitt]

MCNSC - when I read earlier that a Southern boy came and added some class, I was confused    :confused:   .  I thought they were talkin' 'bout Squirrel Bait.  Mike (Squirrelie) is full of somethin' but I don't think class is it       !!

Sounds like a blast!!  These trips will stick in your chest of memories forever!  Where else, but Hog Heaven, can one find a sign stating "Do not sit on stove - HOT"