Sunday, December 18, 2011

DOG TALES

The book we mentioned in the print column, "The Best Hunting Stories Ever Told," is joined by a heap of hunting and fishing books at Skyhorse Publishing in New York.
Go to www.skyhorsepublishing.com.
A terrific book if you're a bird dog fan is "Afield - American Writers on Bird Dogs" also from Skyhorse. This is a pleasant surprise as most of the contributions are not from the usual suspects - outdoor writers, but those outside the field, so to speak.
There is, for example" a wonderful story by Tom Brokaw and his Labradors.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

BEARS GALORE

"The bears have taken over."
That was the word I got from an old colleague still hunting my former club in the Catskills up in Neversink River country.
He said he had a sow and cub right below his deer stand, but having no desire to shoot a bear shooed them away.
A neighboring camp tagged five black bears and one buck.
I just got back from Pennsy Sunday morning. Never saw a buck on my hill, but in truth I only sat in my blind about a total of six hours during the two week season since I had already filled my doe tag.
Of course there were deer tracks in the snow all around it when I went to take it down...must be the midnight shift of whitetails.
It was 12 degrees Sunday morning. Opening day, Dec. 5, it was pushing 70.
A friend, in his 61st deer season, killed a five-pointer in Mendham, but he knows the good spots and they're sure not on public land.