A little while ago, I mentioned a new site called Huntandfishguides.com.  It’s a site where hunters who are looking for a guided hunt can go to enter their criteria and then wait to be contacted by qualified guides.  Guides, on the other hand, can sign up with the site to be contacted with leads whenever a hunter is looking for a hunt in their area. 

At any rate, the site is still getting up and running (if any guides are interested in being listed, please contact me and I’ll get you squared away), so the listings are a bit limited, particularly in TX.  Which brings us to this particular request.

A prospective hunter signed up the other day… a serviceman from Afghanistan.  He’s looking for a hog guide near Corpus Christi, probably in the October timeframe.  Here’s what he listed in the comments section:

I’m in Afghanistan. I should be stateside in approximately oct 2011. My wife will come down to texas to meet me. I want to hunt like crazy. No daily limits, no bag limits. I want to use my night scope too. I should be in the Corpus Christi area so she can show me off to her relatives.

It’s a pretty simple request, and I’m sure there’s someone down there along the Gulf Coast who’d be able to take care of this guy.  If you have a hog hunting operation down there, and you’d be interested, shoot me a comment or an email and I can put you in touch with the folks at Huntandfishguides.com.

When I first arrived in California I was lucky enough to have a friend help me get started hunting.  He turned me on to what has become my favorite blacktail hunting area, and also showed me some excellent duck hunting on and off of the refuge system.  But the one thing that we never had the chance to do was hunt pigs. 

“If you really want to hunt pigs in California,” he told me, “you’ll need to hire a guide.” 

Instead, I stubbornly devoted several years to hunting public land.  I learned some areas and hunted them hard and diligently.  As a reward, I found lots of sign and even had brief sightings of a couple of pigs.  I never fired a shot. 

So began the process of locating and securing my first guided hunt.  I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, and it was really a crazy process.  As it turned out, I got lucky and didn’t get ripped off.  As it also turned out, despite the guide’s ads and the fact that I’d inquired about a deer/hog combination hunt, the guided hunt I ended up going on had nothing to do with hogs. 

I expect that my experience wasn’t that different from a lot of hunters who are looking to book their first hunts.  I read a lot of ads in the back of local hunting magazines (the Web was still coming into its own as a resource), and made a whole lot of phone calls… many of which resulted in leaving lots of voice messages.  The process took a lot of time, and any guide who didn’t return my calls got scratched from my list. 

The problem is, there are an awful lot of guides who don’t advertise.  Maybe they can’t afford to advertise, or maybe they don’t know how to take out an ad.  Some get enough traffic through word-of-mouth and repeat customers that they don’t really need to put out ads.  The Internet has done a lot for both hunters and guides by providing an easy-to-use platform for guides to offer their wares, and a relatively easy way for hunters to search for them.  However, there are still a lot of guides and outfitters out there who haven’t yet learned to utilize the Internet or simply don’t want anything to do with worrying about setting up websites, much less getting into social media. 

So how does a hunter find a guide?  What if you could just go to a central website, enter the criteria of your hunt, and have qualified guide services come to you? 

That’s exactly what Huntandfishguides.com is all about.  The idea behind the site is to connect hunters with guides in a fairly unique way.  The hunter simply enters some basic criteria: 

1. Where do you want to hunt?
2. What species do you want to hunt?
3. When do you want to hunt?
4. How many hunters will be in your party?

Once you’ve entered the data, you’ll get a listing of guides that match your criteria.  On top of that, you’ll get quotes emailed to you directly from guides who can offer what you’re looking for.  Once the guides have made contact, you can follow up with them to discuss details, get references, and answer questions about their services. 

For guides, it’s free to register with the site.  You pay a small fee for each lead that’s sent to you.  It’s up to you to close the deal with the prospective clients by following up quickly. 

Hunt and Fish Guides dot com is a brand new site, and still in the very early stages of rolling out.  If you go over to check them out right now, you won’t find a ton of listings.  That’s yet to come.  For now, we’re sort of wondering what you folks out there, the potential customers and guides/outfitters think about the idea. 

So do tell.  As a hunter looking for guided hunts, would you use a service like this?  How about any of you who are guides or outfitters… would you be interested in a site that sends you leads on hunters? 

The floor is open.

In the best tradition of social media, I’ve “stolen” this post from my friend, Al, over at The SoCal Bowhunter.  I don’t think he’ll mind, because it’s a notice about a raffle for a guided, Tejon Ranch hog hunt and the money is being raised to benefit the Hunter Education Instructors’ Association (HEIA) of Southern California.  A little extra publicity can’t hurt, can it? 

Anyway, the flyer is below.  Summarized details are straight from Al’s site:

Hunter Education Instructor Association of Southern California is selling raffle tickets for a Guided Wild Pig Hunt on Tejon Ranch, CA. Tickets are $20.00 each, 6 for $100.00 & 13 for $200.00. Only 500 tickets will be available and the winning ticket will be drawn at their annual conference on March 12, 2011. 

 

To purchase tickets contact Derek Fong by emailing him at or you can call him at 661.733.1740.

 

OK, so let’s keep this short because I’m still trying to get back into the real world… 

Yes, we killed pigs this weekend at Native Hunt… and no, we did not go 100% (we did go 100% shot opportunity).  Just further proof, I guess, that no matter how much of a “sure thing” you think it might be, hunting is still hunting.  Things can conspire against you.  Nevertheless, the clients had a blast, and the guides did too.  I don’t think you could ask for a better weekend than that, right? 

Sorry for such a short, crappy post… but I’ve still got to get settled into this hotel room.

Just got back from a week on the job up in Spokane, and turning it right back around to head back to guide at Native Hunt for another weekend.  Monday evening, I’m right back on the plane to the Pacific Northwest. It’s beautiful country up there, and wish I had time to get out and enjoy some of it.  Unfortunately, most of my time is in an office while I’m there, and that far north, it gets dark pretty early. 

Meanwhile, I get to look forward to the weekend with some friends and regular clients chasing hogs.  If all goes well, it’ll end up like last weekend!

While I was out helping out with our hunters at Native Hunt this weekend, some Hog Blog friends were out getting it done on their own.

First of all, my friend David was back up at the Golden Ram’s Hedgepeth Ranch last week, and managed to make the past tense out of a sow.

In his own words…

I went back up to the Hedgepeth on Thurs after missing a MONSTER on Tues.  Was walkin through the same area and heard them russlin around in the leaves below me.  I circled down below them and started walking up the hill.  I could see some small ones under an Oak tree and then a good size sow walked out and presented a good shot.  As Im raising the rifle I felt a slight breeze on the back of my neck.  She started to sniff the air, and right when I had her in my scope she looked at me.  I let the 30-06 rip and she never took another step.

Meanwhile, away down south in Dixie (Mississippi), my friend Rex and the Christmas Place Gang were having a regular hogathon.  While they should have been shooting deer, they fell into my bad habits and everyone shot hogs instead… and some pretty danged nice ones too!  Check out the story at Rex’s Deer Camp blog.

For my own part, our hunters at Native Hunt did pretty well.  By the end of the weekend, we had eight hogs down for seven guys (if I counted this right).  The rain made things a little tricky, and despite some minor adventures in the clay, mud, and fog, we were able to get in there and get it done! 

I’m heading back up to Native Hunt this coming weekend, as soon as I get back from a work trip to Spokane.  Wonder if there are any hogs up in Washington yet?

Heading out in a minute or two to meet up with the guys at Native Hunt.  We’ve got a group of regular clients coming out this weekend, so it should be big fun (if the rain holds off). 

The weekend should hold some big pigs, if things keep going like they’ve been down there.  Back in a couple days with pictures and maybe even a hunting story or two.

Well, I’m back from the last of my major trips for this year.  Following a few weeks of Coon Camp Springs action, I was fortunate enough to be invited out to Catalina Island to hunt desert mule deer (brought in decades ago from the San Diego area). 

I can’t thank Hank Shaw (Hunter Angler Gardener Cook) enough for facilitating the invitation… even if he did bail out on us at the last minute.  I’m also short on words to thank my hosts, Charlie and Vycki (did I spell that right?), over on Catalina.  The hospitality they showed me, a total stranger, extended all the way to giving up their bed and moving into a tent for the four days I was on the island.  Charlie’s eagerness to show me the island and some primo deer hunting also went well beyond my expectations.  There’s no way I could have asked for more in that department!

So what about the hunt?

It was a big transition, coming down from the frozen elevations of Coon Camp Springs and boarding the ferry in Long Beach in 75 degree heat, but I couldn’t ask for better weather for the hour-long ride across the channel.  I’d been to Catalina once before, as a stopover on a cruise.  That time, I’d only been there long enough to do a kayak tour around some of the island and stop into a local bar for a couple of drinks.  Even then, I couldn’t help but dream of getting a chance to hunt the interior of the island.  This would be my chance.

Charlie de la Rosa is one of the guides, and would be my host for the three day hunt.  Charlie’s regular role on the island is working on the invasive plant program for the Catalina Conservancy.  I never did think to ask how he went from that to guiding hunters.  However, I did learn that the Conservancy had taken on the hunting program after several years in the hands of a private outfitting company.  The plan, as I understand it, was to try to increase the take of does as opposed to the prior focus on trophy bucks.  This would help keep the population at a manageable level.  On this hunt, I’d have two tags, one antlerless and one either-sex. 

The new program includes significantly reduced prices for the guided hunts, but apparently there wasn’t much advertising this season.  Like many people, I was under the impression that the hunting program at Catalina was ending, so I was surprised to find out that hunting was going strong, with no end in sight.   I didn’t get as much info about the hunting program as I should have (where was my head?), but I intend to rectify that soon.  Stay tuned.

At any rate, Charlie met me at the ferry landing, moving through the crowd of sight-seers with the loping stride of someone who spends a lot of time walking in steep country.  Within moments of meeting him, I felt right at ease.  As Hank had mentioned before, Charlie is “good people,” and a pleasure to be around.   We tossed my gear in the truck and headed to the Middle Ranch, where we’d be based for the duration.  (Regular clients, by the way, stay in well-appointed wall tents on a high bluff, with a killer ocean view.) 

First things first, we headed over to the shooting range to check zero on my 30-06.  The Savage has been bouncing around in the back of the truck for a couple of months, and sure enough, my first two shots were about two inches left and an inch or two low.  I made the adjustments to get it back to dead-on (I zero at 100 yards), and we were ready to hunt.  I was feeling pretty confident with the rifle shooting so well.  (more…)

Well, as the A-zone deer season fades into memory, hog hunting in the area is picking up steam again.  I just got an email from regular reader and commenter, JR Young, about a great hunt he just had with his dad.  I’ll let JR tell it in his own words:

Phillip I thought I’d share my good fortune with the rest of the Hog Bloggers.  My wife and I recently had our first child so planning parental and other family visits has taken a fair amount of coordination.  However, my Dad’s visit took a little extra.  He lives in northern Idaho and while I really wanted to coordinate an elk camp this year with him and my brother it just wasn’t in the cards, so I thought planning a pig hunt while he was here would be the next best thing.  So I began looking at dates, the moon cycles and the ever important possibility of plentiful acorns on the ground.  A little over a year ago I booked a hunt with a guide who owns property near Pacheco Pass and had a great time so I had him set us up for this past Thursday night and Friday.
 
I haven’t hunted with my Dad in close to ten years since we both moved out of Washington so I was pretty damn excited to head out and chase some hogs.  We grab a license and tag for him, some snacks, water and hit the road.  We met our guide John at Casa de Fruta at 5pm and were quickly off to the property.  He filled out his paperwork and we were off.  I rode on a hay bale in the back of his truck while my Dad rode in the cab.  Right off the bat we were surrounded by blacktails who were pretty thick in the rut, I was wondering where they were three weeks ago.  After watching the blacktails chasing does we were on our way for real and not three minutes later into the drive we spotted a nice boar about 400 yards off feeding on acorns.  We drove up to the next bend in the rode and bailed out of the truck to stalk in on him.
 
As we got closer on foot and the bend opened up to the hillside he was on we found him obscured by the trees.  He was across a small ravine and a hillside sloping toward us.  As we watched his movement behind the oak trees we saw he was inching toward a small shooting window, my Dad took a knee and raised his rifle.  As the boar was on his quest for acorns he came closer and closer to the narrow window and finally presented himself.  Now I’ve only hunted pigs once before but the first thing I notice about them is that they rarely stand still.  With their nose leading them they are always moving.  My Dad wasted no time and squeezed the trigger as soon as there was a shot.  The 7 mag roared, the boar took a couple of hops and he was down, we’d only been out about 15 minutes.  It wasn’t much of a “hunt”, but it was a great shot, and a great looking boar. 

We got him cleaned up and back in the truck and we were off to see if we could fill my tag.  We kept following the road working out way up the canyon rim to an area that has a large spring that had been hosting several pigs before dark recently.   On our way up we spotted five hogs working their way down a spine of a ridge and we were sure they’d drop right down to us as there was watering hole in between us.  We jumped out of truck and worked our way towards them but another couple of deer had us busted.  They were focused on us and we were pinned to try and make a move.  The hogs never made it our way; we figured they dropped off the other side.  So we headed back to the truck to make it to the spring before dark as last light was approaching.  Nearing the spring we rounded a bend and had four hogs at 150 yards.  I jumped out of the truck, cranked up my scope and got myself a good rest.  I needed to wait for the hog I had chosen to clear the other and I squeezed off a round.  We heard her squeal, and watched the others bolt.  As we were near the spring (we were about 400 yards below it) the hills came alive with hogs scrambling as the sound of my 30-06.  Both my guide and I got distracted for a moment by the hogs running and came back to notice the pig I shot (or so I thought) running away.   “Is that my hog, is that her”, I said.

“Yeah,” said John, hit her again.”

I fired again but clearly missed and we watched her duck off into the trees.  We got on her trail through the tall grass which was clearly marked by the trampled stems but could not find any blood.   I couldn’t believe I missed, but there wasn’t a lick of blood.   As darkness arrived we planned to call it a night and see if we could find any indication that the hog was hit.
 
We headed down the hill, skinned my Dad’s boar under the headlights of the truck and got him ready for the butcher.  After we dropped him off at the butcher we headed home to San Jose, and awaited the 4:30am alarm clock.   In many ways I had hoped I missed on the first shot to avoid having a wounded animal.   I was a bit frustrated, as I had spent a lot of time at the range over the summer sighting in handloads that my Dad had been making for me.  Unfortunately most of that time was on the bench and I didn’t shoot much free hand, but I was pretty well anchored for the first shot.
 
The alarm clock came and the coffee flowed soon after and we were on our way once again.  This time the landowner and guide Wyatt was going to take us out.  He got a download from John the night before so we jumped in the truck and headed back to where I missed.   We confirmed that I had missed the pig as I must have pulled right over her back, or maybe grazing her neck fat causing her to squeal.  Either way, I missed her and that was a bummer.
 
Wyatt took us out to a point where we could see the entire valley and we glassed for several minutes.  The pigs were not out in force like the night before, but I spotted one about a 1,000 yards off and we made our way to him.  On our way we spotted a group of seven feeding in a small bowl on an open hillside and we were closing fast.  The road turned and we were out of sight as we closed the gap.  One final bend and a hillside in front of us Wyatt turned the truck off and we were on foot.   We crept around a little knoll on the open hillside just out of site of the group.  As we began to crest the top and coming into view we came down on our hands and knees and soon I was on my belly.  The group was about 60 yards away in a small depression allowing me to only see the top of their backs.  I inched my way forward on my belly fearing that I would be busted or they would stay in the depression.  Slowly they started to work their way toward me and two were in sight.  There was a calico in the mix but a nice small sow was standing broadside at 50 yards.  This time I had the 7 mag in my hands for fear of the 30-06 being out of zero.  I raised the rifle, let out a breath of air and squeezed the trigger; this time there was no doubt.  She made a bolt for it with the rest of the group but you could see she was hit hard and didn’t make it 100 yards.
 
We cleaned her up, skinned her and decided to pass on the butcher as she was small enough dressed out that I could manage.  I brought her home, carved out the backstraps and tender loins and boned out every thing else but the hind quarters.  I tossed those in a brine for 24 hours and smoked them today for 9 hours.   It was a great dinner tonight and a great time getting out hunting with my Dad again.   Elk season opens in Idaho today so I hope this was a sufficient trade off this year.   Next year we’ll have our elk camp, but for now I got to take my Dad to shoot his first pig, a welcome role reversal.  I even made a little video of my Dad getting his pig, even though I had a pretty crappy angle of his shot.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0FfKLckb2k
 
Regards,
J.R. 

Nice work, fellas!  That’s a nice boar and a great way to spend some time with your dad!

Got the camper loaded and the camera charged… heading back down to the Native Hunt ranches in a couple of hours.  We have two more clients coming in this weekend who have appointments with Tatonka.  These guys are looking for trophy bulls, and we have a couple of really nice ones on the ranch. 

I’m also planning to do a little more experimentation with some hog calls while I’m there.  It’s a great environment to try out the calls, since I can see how they work on both Eurasian wild boar and feral hogs.  So far, my limited trials haven’t really been too promising, but I don’t want to give up too soon.  More on this later!

Have a great weekend, everybody!  And remember… if you’re hunting, make sure and send me some pix of your success, along with a short write-up about the hunt.  I’ll make ya famous.