Originally Posted By: weekenderDang good read and pics, congrats most of all to the time spent with your son, memories to last forever. I would gladly give everything I own for just one more day afield with my Dad.
I have called coyotes off and on for 25 years. A whole bunch of that was with my father, before he passed away. Unfortunately as it often happens in life, in those later years it always seemed I was too busy to go with him. My boys were in high school playing sports, all kinds of things like that. My father passed away in July of 2013, and that fall my youngest son's football team won a state championship. That was his senior year of high school. Once he graduated, all of a sudden I had a whole lot more time again.
That is when I really got back into calling. Dad logged every coyote he ever killed in a couple of journals. I hunt many of those same places he did. Every now and then I read his logbook, trying to reconstruct exactly where some of his stands were, and that kind of thing. The ranchers tell me where they used to see him parked, and that gives me clues as well.
What I would give for one good weekend of calling with him now, running his old stomping grounds. Hitting his stands, using his methods, just watching and learning. Most importantly just talking and being there with him.
Probably it will be the same with my boys someday. Life is busy, and I understand. We don't get to hunt together near as much as we would like to. But I do have a map of the county up in my office, and every time I kill a coyote I stick a pin in it. They aren't exact locations, but pretty close. It isn't a big deal or anything, just something I do because it interests me. And maybe, someday, it might mean something to someone. Or not. In which case they can throw it away.