Last weekends Pig Hunt, long on story, short on death!

[Jared D]

After last weekends successful hunt, I was eager to get back into the swamp. Brad told me to meet him at 7am on Saturday for the hunt. Two others were going to be accompanying us into the muck, Brian (Brads buddy/ partner w the fishing boat) and Ward, a LEO friend, (his son got a pig with Brad two weeks prior). We all met up on a glorious morning. The bank sign read 51 degrees. With the clear sky and bright morning sun, it was a very comfortable 51. We loaded up and headed off to a new location (to me) for the days hunt. With the new moon being the night previous, and high tide at 11:15am we were set for a good hunt…. So we thought!
As soon as we reached the first spot, we were greeted by the melody of dogs barking signaling a group of dog hunters were already working an area near us. We guessed them to be with in a mile of us. While the barking was sure to make any pigs in the open clear out, the dogs which were up wind could actually push pigs onto us as they tried to escape the dogs. We spread out and stalked across an open flat 50 yards wide by 400 yards long. After thirty minutes, three of us (Brad, Ward, and I) gathered to discuss what the conditions were showing. Brian had remained behind at the boat to get his mud shoes (home made snow shoes) on. He was using these to keep from sinking too deeply in the mud, which at this point was pretty solid… I was only sinking ankle deep.
As Brian enters the flat we are on, he sees us huddled together talking, and then sees two pigs amble out right behind us, which none of us see. So he calls us up and has us move down on the location he saw the pigs run into. We get there; Brad goes one way, and immediately spots two, Ward and Brian head another, and I stay about where I was. After 30 minutes of futile hunting, I hit a creek I can’t ford, so I head back towards the others. Brian waves me over, and as soon as I get to where he is, Brian spots one where I just was. I turn just in time to see it feed into a stand of tall grass. We try to motivate that pig out onto someone, but to no avail. By this point, the tide is coming in, and everything is getting wet. Brad decides now is the time to check out another area. So off to the boat we head. We get there, and begin running canals looking for bacon out in the open in areas they have rooted flat.
The way we do this style spotting, is we go up canals, which are bordered by 8 foot tall cattails, and find a tree that is big enough for us to climb.



Most canals have one or two. We get up there, and then just put in a few minutes searching out fresh sign or spotting critters. This day, we had run up three canals, and climbed 4 trees before we finally spotted a group of pigs. They were down wind of us, so we were going to have to run back up the canal towards a finger canal, then make a big J flanking the pigs getting down wind of em. Sounds easy enough…. Unfortunately, that’s where easy ended!
As soon as we got the boat moored at a suitable spot, I stepped out the boat and sank up to my knees. No big deal, except my boots only come up just over my ankles. Well, I have been drenched before, so I wasn’t too bothered by this. We set off trying to find a place to cross the canal we had the boat moored in, and literally wound up walking 300 yards through knee deep water until we found a place to cross. The other three were all relatively dry at this point, so once we got into position, it was decided that we should fan out and try to move in on the group of pigs. Because I was the wettest at this point, I took the far side of the flat. After 40 minutes of trudging, I got to where I wanted to be. Unfortunately, that meant I had to get wet from the waist down. My handgun was soaked, as was my wallet and my binoculars. I had to clip my cell phone on my shirt at the neck, and was holding my bow and camera over my head. Brad and Ward decided that didn’t look like fun, so they moved inland out of the marsh. Brian was sent to go get the boat and pick me up at the main canal, as now it would be over my waist to get back (Damn spring tides). I was getting aggrivated. I spent 3 hours in waist deep water trying to get out of there. I lost my quiver full of arrows during this time, and there was no way in hell I was going to sneak up on pig splashing along, cursing water for all it was worth.
Eventually I make it to the main canal where Brian picks me up. He had fallen into a hole he didn’t see, and sank up to his neck, so his day was worse. His brand new $500 phone was ruined. We ran to the main river, picked up the other two, then headed up some new canals.

Brad was standing on the bow pulpit chair in one of them, when we hit a submerged bar, causing him to hit the drink! There goes another cell phone, and for good measure, an expensive range finder. This pig hunting is getting expensive. We now have three soaked hunters, and a bunch of ruined stuff.
We decided to check out one more flat. Apparently while Brad was doing the back stroke, the pigs were on this flat gorging themselves with fiddler crabs, cuz we find really fresh rooting. The other three hunted the flat, while I climbed a tree in hopes of spotting a pig to guide the others in on.


Unfortunately, no more pigs were spotted. What a day! Last week was so easy, and this week was so…. Ummmm…. Well it was a hell of a work out! Scary thing is, I can't wait to get into the mixer again!

[xxmacplherexx]

man thats awsome.good story!!!I wish I was there..

[weekender]

man that almost sounds like fun, pics are awesome, they really help the rest of us to get "the picture". Please keep the posts coming as long as you have the will. GOOD STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jared D]

Thanks guys. Brad's best friend Marty just sent me a story of his hunt two weeks ago with Brad, and if I get permission, I will post his story. Its really good!
I am sure we can keep the stories coming until it warms up enough that none of us want to mess with it any more. Brad and Marty are hunting about 2xs a week up there!