The last time that my son, Ryan, and I went big game hunting together was on the 11/26/04 – 11/27/04 Deer and Hog Hunt on the Haun Ranch. I got a hog during that venture but Ryan was skunked. Shortly after that hunt Ryan went to Iraq with the Army. During the year that Ryan was in harms way I developed a deep longing to spend time with him in the woods again.
We went to the Cottrell Ranch on Friday night, 12/16/05. Our plan was to hunt all day Saturday and also Sunday morning. Our mission was to get Ryan his first deer. For this hunt we had something new with us – babes! My wife, Chris, went deer hunting with me for the first time in 14 years. Ryan’s girlfriend, Beth, also came along.
On Saturday morning Ryan and Beth hunted in Tim Price’s stand and Chris and I hunted in the tall tower blind. This blind is really a one man blind but Chris and I were able to squeeze in using small chairs. We saw a couple of does at the feeder an hour before sunup with my night vision monocular but they left shortly there after. After sunrise the shooting started. I counted nine shots (two of which were Ryan’s). It wasn’t an hour after sunrise that Ryan called me on our two-way radio. He had taken a doe (yearling) and a gnarly seven point that had one antler significantly longer than the other and with the points going where they shouldn't. As we were the transportation and we weren’t seeing anything moving we went to go get them. About 10 minutes away from the stand Ryan called and informed us that he had just shot a third deer - a spike (that he thought was a doe). Ryan and Beth also saw a couple turkeys. They were perfectly still and they thought that they were decoys (until they walked away at sunrise).
I’ve been hunting deer for 29 years and the best that I have ever done was two deer during a weekend. Ryan bested me on one morning! We loaded his deer and headed back to camp. On the way back I showed everyone three of the remaining stands.
We cleaned and skinned the deer and then ate brunch (which the ladies fixed). We then went to dump the deer guts and I also showed my companions the remaining four stands. There wasn’t a single kernel of corn under any of the feeders. Hogs had hit the feeder by the windmill blind heavily. It looked like there had been a convention there. We put half a bucket of my hog bait mixture at the tower blind feeder. Chris and I then took a much-needed nap while Ryan and Beth scouted around.
We awoke at 4:30 PM, which got us to the stand a half hour later that I had planned. We switched stands for the evening hunt. When I got to Tim’s stand I put out the remainder of the bucket of hog bait. About an hour before the end of shooting time a yearling came out. She was very cautious and took several minutes just looking around. I passed my binoculars to Chris and she spotted two hogs that were about 40 yards past the doe. I saw them to and got my rifle ready. They might have seen the movement because they turned around and ran away. I mentally kicked myself for not moving slower.
At the end of legal deer shooting time a herd of about 15 hogs descended on the feeder (I guess the first two were scouts). It was like someone had rung a dinner bell. They ran to the feeder like a heard of hungry lumberjacks to a pancake house. They congregated in one big blob. There were two big hogs on the right that I wanted to shoot but they were constantly moving and they always had hogs in front of or behind them. Finally a big one in the front gave me a broadside presentation that I took. He fell without taking a step, as did another hog behind him that I hadn't seen.
There were several times where I could have probably gotten three with one shot but my chest freezer was already half full and with Ryan's three deer it was going to be very full. I also can't bring myself to just shooting them and letting them lie and didn’t want to risk just wounding an animal and causing it to suffer.
Chris and I loaded up the hogs and headed back to camp. Ryan and Beth didn’t see any hogs. Ryan and I cleaned my hogs while the ladies fixed sirloin steaks, corn-on-the-cob, and new potatoes.
The temperature was right at freezing so we enjoyed a nice fire. We turned in at 11:30 PM.
When I shot the two boars our hunt was over (I already had three deer in our chest freezer at home and with Ryan's three deer and my two hogs I knew that we had no more room). Everyone, except for me, planned to sleep in (I was going to get up before sunrise and go fishing at Wade’s lake). The operative word is “was.” I actually woke up at 10:00 AM (I was the first to get up). I loaded up the gut bucket from the previous evening and dumped the hog guts at our usual spot. I then went to the lake and started to fish.
In about 45 minutes I had caught six bass. I started fishing with a Rattlin Shad Rap but lost it on a cast (a bass must have weakened the line). I then switched to a Suspending Shad. Beth pulled up in Ryan’s truck and watched me pull in my seventh bass (she came to get the tortillas out of my truck). She told me that breakfast was ready but I stayed and caught four more bass. The 11 bass included three four pounders, five three pounders, two two pounders, and a pound and a halfer. I released them all.
We ate breakfast, broke camp, and headed back down to the lake. Beth caught four bass (her first fish) including a five pounder, two three pounders, and a two pounder. I caught three more (a three pounder, a two pounder, and a one pounder). Chris had on a large bass on her line but it threw the hook. Ryan got skunked. We released them all and headed home.
I’ve been bass fishing on and off for 30 years (including almost two years as a member of the Austin Christian Bass Club) and the best days fishing that I have had until this day was four bass. Catching 14 bass in 1 ¾ hours made me feel pretty good, although to be fair, just about anyone could have done the same (throw crank bait, reel, set hook, reel in bass, repeat). In February, during our first trip to Wade’s land his lake was at about 10 acres. Now, due to a drought it’s down to two. The bass are all congregated and are hungry!
This was, by far, my best outing in the outdoors. Sure I’ve shot bigger and better animals and I’ve had great times with my FCS friends but this weekend spent with my wife, son, and his girlfriend made them pale in comparison. And best of all I didn’t have to cook a thing!
