The Catahoula Hog Dog: The Philosophy Of Hunting And Fishing

`This post will be philosophical beause;

I believe there are a lot of people who need to be reminded that they are on the right track. Reminded, because there are a lot of newbies who have made hog hunting a competitive sport. And worse a lot of people are lately calling hunting and fishing a bloodsport.

What is important is being in the woods with your dogs communing with nature. And if you luck out and find fresh sign, and your dogs luck out and can stop these running s.o.b.'s, you might get something tied and put meat on the table. Or it may be the great pleasure of catch and release. Why catch and release? Because you can, last I looked it was a free country.

More importantly if you hunt hogs, you have the opportunity to get some young ones out of the house, away from the computer and the virtual world, and into some real all American adventure.

You can do fishing, tubing or jetskiing too. The point is; spend some time with your kids, or any ones kids and use hog hunting or fishing to do it.

I want to share an email with you:

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To: marcus@delahoussayes.com

Hello Marcus. I live in Irving, Tx, a suburb of Dallas.

I made a recent post on your blog under the name of Weaseldog2001.

I've enjoyed reading what you have written.

Until coming across your blog, I believed that hunting in the USA had simply turned into a point and shoot sport, where you wait for your game to come eat at a designated place and you simply shoot it. Then you get to go back to the lodge and brag about what a great hunter you are.

That's not how I used to hunt with my grandpa in East Texas, many, many years ago. Of course, with a kid in tow, my grandfather didn't get much game.

These email is leading up to a point... :)

Do you know of any outfits in my area that support hunting as you prefer to do it, with a dog and a bit of hiking?

Could you refer me to someone in your neck of the woods that can be my guide on such a hunt?

I'm not interested in a guaranteed kill so much as getting out and spending some out in the wilderness again. As an adult it's been twenty years since I've done multi-day wilderness hikes with a dog and I miss it.

Further, I have a two year old Catahoula that is my faithful sidekick. I've taken him hiking in some of the wildlife preserves in my area. He's not prone to running off. Would it be a bad idea to take him on a hunt with his (and my) relative inexperience?

Your swamp tours sound interesting.

Thank you for your time in reading this.
I appreciate any time you can take in answering.

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What is interesting about his email is that he remembers how his Grandpa took him hunting and comments that they didn't get much game because a kid was factored in to the hunt. I have to wonder if that really mattered to grandpa. Because what may have really mattered was grandpa spending time with a young one. And not just for grandpa's sake, but for the pleasure of grandpa to share with a young one the experience of what seems to be a way of life many of us today have lost.

Being in the woods with your family and your animals. And for me animals is plural because I want to hunt from a saddle on a mule or horse. At 55 years old, I can't keep up with these dogs like I used to.

Too many of us have grown up using machines to do everything for us. Cooking and storing our food, washing our clothes, cutting grass, transportation, and communication. Hell, I love my cell phone, but I am getting to a point of hating email, because too many of those is a waste of my time. And I am getting sensitive about cell phone time too. Especially when my daughter, complains that I am spending too much time on the phone, and not with her.

Folks, I am talking about relationship, with nature, our dogs, and more importantly our family and neighbors.

Here is a photo of a couple of kids, I took on a fishing trip recently.

What is the point I am trying to make here? Well several; because not only is this about our dogs and our children, it is about a way of life presently threatened that needs to be preserved. Simply put; use it or lose it.

Many vitual reality minded city slicker people today claim that hunting and fishing is not a necessity as in the old days, but a luxury, and we are being cruel to animals purely for our pleasure.

Hey, I understand their logic, because there is a Winn Dixie right up the road with meat and seafood. But being a commercial fisherman and a recreational hunter, not to mention growing up am a farm with chickens, cows, hogs and a garden, I hate the overpriced, radiated, chemically altered, over-priced junk being sold up the road.

Call me crazy, I don't care, but there may be a time and sooner than you might think, when gardening, hunting and fishing is once again a way of life, and not purely recreational.

If you are womdering why your dog is not motivated to hunt, may be he knows that it is not a life support system, but just something you want to use him to brag about how great of a hunter YOU are. Why don't you try hog hunting without your dog and see how great of a hunter you are.

Let us not forget the time honored traditions of hunting and fishing, and share that with the younger generations purely for their benefit, because the time may come when thsy need to hunt and fish for survival.

And what a shame it would be if they didn't know how.

I don't have time at the moment, cuz my truck is going in the shop this morning, but there is a whole lot more I want to say about our relationship between us our dogs and our children and the natural environment out there.

Those who say it can't or shouldn't be done,
need to get out of the way of those doing it!

And hey be careful out there, here is a 15 foot eastern diamondback rattler which was caught in a suburb of Jacksonville, Texas.