Indoors for an outdoorsman

With all the rain this past week, Luke was forced to stick pretty close to home. He did manage to do a little outdoor cooking out by his little cabin. PHOTO BY LUKE CLAYTON

Unless you are reading my column this week online from somewhere in the middle of the Sahara Desert, chances are pretty good that Ole’ Luke doesn’t need to tell you it’s been wet, plenty wet! I’ve tried very hard to get ‘out there’ several times this past week, between rainstorms. I watched the weather radar closely and when I saw a break between storms, I loaded my CVA Muzzleloader in the truck and headed to a nearby hotspot for wild hogs. My goal for the past week was to film the smokepole in action on a hog hunt and later, spend time smoking the meat on my trusty Smokin Tex electric smoker under the shelter of the covered porch on my little cabin, while watching it rain. What’s that they say about the best plans of mice and men? My plan was an old one that had worked on many occasions. I would simply nestle myself behind some freshly cut cedar limbs that I’d laced into a hog wire fence of a fence corner about 60 yards from a corn feeder that has been throwing corn for the past month precisely two hours before sunset. The hogs would come out and I would shoot one.

On my first hunt, I’d been setting quietly for a little over an hour, watching the woodline behind the feeder, where the hogs usually appear. Precisely ten minutes before ‘feeding time’ the sky darkened from the west and I could hear almost constant thunder with bolts of distant lightening.  I’ve been kicking around the outdoors way to long not to understand fully the danger of lightening; I’ve witnessed a couple of people killed by this powerful force of nature through the years. I packed up my gear and made it back to the truck just as the sky began to dump buckets of rain. I could hear an occasional small hailstone hit the roof of the truck. Back home I headed in a downpour the likes of what Noah might have encountered!

A couple of days later the radar indicated a temporary clearing during late afternoon. Back to my little blind I headed. The feeder went off right on cue but no porkers. Something told me to get up and slowly work my way back to the truck, keeping an eye on the wood line and adjacent field of lush clover. Hogs absolutely love clover and they graze on the lush vegetation just like a herd of cattle. There was about 15 minutes left of shooting and filming light and I might just get lucky. Sure enough, about halfway back to my truck, I noted about 20 hogs coming out of the woods and feeding their way to a the end of a tree line. I decided to move as quickly as possible and attempt to get within shooting/filming range in the last few minutes of daylight. With lots of trees and brush to use for cover, I made my way to the end of the trees in good time, set the camera up and focused on the hogs, waiting for them to move into a little clearing where I would have good visibility. I was all set, when the porkers cleared the brush, they would only be about 40 yards away and I would be able to get a good, tight video of not only the hogs but the discharge of my muzzleloader.  As the first hog cleared the brush, I reached over to hit the record button the camera and the screen went black. Shooting light had just faded. There I was with a fat young porker in the crosshairs of my CVA at very close range and I couldn’t capture the moment on film!

With the number of hogs present in my area, I vowed to wait until I could capture the hunt on film rather than just shoot another hog. Besides, I already had plenty of pork I the freezer and didn’t really wish to butcher the hogs after dark. I will try again this week and with good fortune, I will hopefully have accomplished my challenge by the time you are reading this. After this second unsuccessful attempt, I decided to wait for clear weather to head back for round three!

I thought of trying to get to a local pond that I have access to and do a bit of fishing from the bank, with a little feeder creek at the head of the pond and current from recent rains, I thought I might do well on channel catfish but the walk was a long one through my friends hay meadow and driving was totally out of the question because of the wet access road. I was afraid I might again find myself a long way from the truck when lightening began cracking. I usually enjoy a fish fry after one of my outings to a stock pond around home. Nothing like very fresh fish right out of a clean, clear water farm pond.  I usually don’t care much which species I catch and often fry a smorgasbord of small bass, crappie, catfish and sunfish. The more I thought about fishing the hungrier I got. It was mid-morning and I had plenty of time to defrost a bag of frozen catfish fillets. This I did and by noon had the fish fryer going out in front of my little cabin situated in the trees behind our house. The fish were very good but not as good as those I might have caught and eaten fresh out of the pond. I did note that my supply of fillets is getting frighteningly low, only a couple of bags left. A trip to Lake Ray Hubbard for white bass or Tawakoni for catfish might just be in order… when the wind and rain allows!

The week wasn’t a complete loss, I did manage to put fresh line on my reels and give my rifles and shotguns a thorough cleaning and oiling. I even made a run to the outdoor store and replaced my Muck boots which had finally began leaking after one of my treks for wild hogs, probably cut the lower portion of the boot on a locust thorn.

Oh yes, one other very positive thing happened! On one of my unsuccessful hunts, I discovered the mother load of dewberries. I returned and picked a couple of gallons and later turned some of them into a tasty Dutch Kettle cobbler. Of course, cooked the cobbler outdoors in my trusty old Dutch Oven.

Hoping for a more exciting week and wishing all of you good times in the great outdoors!

Contact Luke Clayton via email through his website www.catfishradio.org