mikegranger
Active member
I know some of you have been waiting awhile for the next Bubba installment so here it goes.
I’ve spent a total of 12 weeks supervising various wildlife recovery and cleanup efforts at the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. My first of three assignments began in late June and my last just wrapped up 3 days before Thanksgiving. Needless to say, I’ve had plenty of sand, sun and oil to last me awhile. I was ready to go hunting and so were the hounds. Finally, on December 4, 2010 the dog box was loaded, trailer hooked up, enough food to ensure myself and the dogs could survive for a month,and two bawling, anxious dogs hit the road for another glorious coyote season. The forecast was good for the next few days and I was cautiously optimistic. Wind is the big killer of calling here in eastern Montana but none was forecast for 4 days or so. We drove for a few hours but the more I drove, the more anxious I got. Winter began with a bang here in Montana. While I was soaking up the sun on barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi, it was snowing in Montana. Snow isn’t so bad but when it’s accompanied by “blow”, roads and trails get drifted in something fierce. Well, that’s what I was seeing, fierce drifts and 6 inches of snow on the level. Yikes was the predominate word going through my brain. We get to one of our trusty parking spots and almost got stuck trying to park the trailer! Oh, this isn’t good!! It’s dark by now so the evening was spent tidying up the trailer and looking over the maps. I like studying maps and can spend hours doing so. Bedtime finally came around as the temperature dropped to -8 below zero outside.
On December 5 the sun did not rise!!! What, that’s impossible. Well, let me be more specific, I’m sure the sun rose, but it was not obvious at all where I was hunting. A blanket of dense fog covered the area and stayed the entire day. Seldom does eastern Montana have such a thick layer of fog. Visibility was below 100 yards and not a single coyote was seen. We tried calling several spots but nary a coyote, deer, rabbit or raven made it’s presence know to us. Heck, I almost got lost and was real close to turning on the GPS, imagine that!
Anyway, by days end we had worked our way back to the camper and while slowly driving down the highway but what do I see but a stripped skunk walking in the middle of the road? I couldn’t believe my eyes, skunks are supposed to be denning this time of the year. I slow down to avoid the skunk and pull over on the side of the road in order to call my lovely wife. I’d hunted this area enough to know I was sitting on the last spot that had a cell signal. While I was calling Shelly something moved outside the passenger window and this guy appeared.
He milled around for several minutes while the dogs stared with great interest. I don’t know if they’ve ever been on a badger, Dash for sure hasn’t. Pretty soon this guy came waddling back.
The skunk and badger saw each other and the skunk went back out into the field with the badger following.
Eventually the badger decided it was time to come back and crawled into his hole, not ten feet from two super anxious dogs whining in the back of the pickup. That was it for day one. Well, I did forget to mention getting stuck going into the second stand of the day.
Day two was going to be beautiful. No wind, no fog and plenty of sun. I saw two coyotes on the way to the first stand and four coyotes on the first stand! Unfortunately, they went the other way at the first report of the predator calls.
Two more coyotes were seen going to the next stand, another going away at stand two, and three more coyotes that wouldn’t respond to the call at stand three. If your counting, that’s 11 coyotes seen and it’s barely past 9 am! Well, the entire day went just like that. All in all we saw 20 coyotes and not one would respond to the call. On the very last stand a badger popped it’s head up out of the hole not 50 yards from me and that was that! He’s now on the fur rack.
Day three was just as beautiful as the previous and results were the same! Oh, and we got stuck again! I did get some nice pictures of the dogs.
The Wonder Dog in all his glory.
Dash is looking pretty darn good too.
And a nice sunset.
[img:center]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1162709/HOM%20-%20Banner.jpg[/img]
I’ve spent a total of 12 weeks supervising various wildlife recovery and cleanup efforts at the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. My first of three assignments began in late June and my last just wrapped up 3 days before Thanksgiving. Needless to say, I’ve had plenty of sand, sun and oil to last me awhile. I was ready to go hunting and so were the hounds. Finally, on December 4, 2010 the dog box was loaded, trailer hooked up, enough food to ensure myself and the dogs could survive for a month,and two bawling, anxious dogs hit the road for another glorious coyote season. The forecast was good for the next few days and I was cautiously optimistic. Wind is the big killer of calling here in eastern Montana but none was forecast for 4 days or so. We drove for a few hours but the more I drove, the more anxious I got. Winter began with a bang here in Montana. While I was soaking up the sun on barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi, it was snowing in Montana. Snow isn’t so bad but when it’s accompanied by “blow”, roads and trails get drifted in something fierce. Well, that’s what I was seeing, fierce drifts and 6 inches of snow on the level. Yikes was the predominate word going through my brain. We get to one of our trusty parking spots and almost got stuck trying to park the trailer! Oh, this isn’t good!! It’s dark by now so the evening was spent tidying up the trailer and looking over the maps. I like studying maps and can spend hours doing so. Bedtime finally came around as the temperature dropped to -8 below zero outside.
On December 5 the sun did not rise!!! What, that’s impossible. Well, let me be more specific, I’m sure the sun rose, but it was not obvious at all where I was hunting. A blanket of dense fog covered the area and stayed the entire day. Seldom does eastern Montana have such a thick layer of fog. Visibility was below 100 yards and not a single coyote was seen. We tried calling several spots but nary a coyote, deer, rabbit or raven made it’s presence know to us. Heck, I almost got lost and was real close to turning on the GPS, imagine that!
Anyway, by days end we had worked our way back to the camper and while slowly driving down the highway but what do I see but a stripped skunk walking in the middle of the road? I couldn’t believe my eyes, skunks are supposed to be denning this time of the year. I slow down to avoid the skunk and pull over on the side of the road in order to call my lovely wife. I’d hunted this area enough to know I was sitting on the last spot that had a cell signal. While I was calling Shelly something moved outside the passenger window and this guy appeared.
He milled around for several minutes while the dogs stared with great interest. I don’t know if they’ve ever been on a badger, Dash for sure hasn’t. Pretty soon this guy came waddling back.
The skunk and badger saw each other and the skunk went back out into the field with the badger following.
Eventually the badger decided it was time to come back and crawled into his hole, not ten feet from two super anxious dogs whining in the back of the pickup. That was it for day one. Well, I did forget to mention getting stuck going into the second stand of the day.
Day two was going to be beautiful. No wind, no fog and plenty of sun. I saw two coyotes on the way to the first stand and four coyotes on the first stand! Unfortunately, they went the other way at the first report of the predator calls.
Two more coyotes were seen going to the next stand, another going away at stand two, and three more coyotes that wouldn’t respond to the call at stand three. If your counting, that’s 11 coyotes seen and it’s barely past 9 am! Well, the entire day went just like that. All in all we saw 20 coyotes and not one would respond to the call. On the very last stand a badger popped it’s head up out of the hole not 50 yards from me and that was that! He’s now on the fur rack.
Day three was just as beautiful as the previous and results were the same! Oh, and we got stuck again! I did get some nice pictures of the dogs.
The Wonder Dog in all his glory.
Dash is looking pretty darn good too.
And a nice sunset.
[img:center]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1162709/HOM%20-%20Banner.jpg[/img]
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ang it. You think someone has been calling up there a lot or the coyotes just are not hungry? What gives?
