Jan 23, 2016

Jan 23, 2016 11:00AM-5PM Hare hunting with Zeta, Roxy and Dick’s dog Lacy
Where: Gilman, WI
Weather: Nice, partly cloudy, 25°, N 10-15, 8 inches of snow cover
Bagged: Two hares

Today I was hunting solo. I was however accompanied by my dogs Roxy and Zeta and Dick’s dog Lacy.
The first spot was a smallish area off Cemetery Road. I did not want to try and keep track of all three dogs at once, so Roxy and Zeta got the first period. Things started out relatively slow, but it did not take long to heat up. The girls did a pretty good job of running two different hares and I was able to bag both.
The next stop was Hooker Road. Lacy got the call for this second period and I ran her by herself. Things started off well with Lacy staying in contact with me for about the first three minutes, then she was gone! Thank goodness for GPS tracking collars. One look down at my display and I could see she was already two hundred yards away and moving farther out. The chase was on for me to catch her or at least catch up to her. Lacy is able to chase a rabbit, but she is not much of a search dog. She tends to hunt way too fast and just tries to cut a track and not necessarily jump a rabbit. Luckily for me she crossed a hot track and proceeded to run a hare for the next two hours. I did get a couple of glimpses of it and even managed to get a shot off at it, but I never did bag it. I actually had to catch Lacy and drag her through a tag alder swamp from hell.
For the final period I ran Roxy and Zeta. We managed to get a small run going just before dark, but I never saw or connected with this hare. I ended up pulling them off and getting them back to the truck. The conditions were quite good today. The snow was about eight inches deep with no crust. The temperature was also very comfortable with a high in the mid twenties. The area did not seem to have any new snow within the last couple of days and hare sign was very apparent and abundant.