My Mosquito Creek Hunt experience
02-25-2004, 10:33 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: milford Pennsylvania USA
Posts: 140
My Mosquito Creek Hunt experience
No one noticed ole Juniorpc's name at the top of the leader board did they now.......well, that's because it wasn't there. The best laid plans sometimes go a glib!
Only three of us hunting on Friday of the contest. One of dogs took a track outta the swamp, across the road and worked it for a time slowely. Staying on top of the snow crust at that time. Went in and brought her out and took her around to the swamp we suspected the yote was headed to. Right off the bat she starts one. Temps in the low twenties, clear a little wind and the crisp sound of barking in the air! two hours later she had brought it up and down the length of the long swamp 5 times. Only one loss of about 8 minutes, otherwise just a few times of a minute or so when she had to figure track out. All three of us had her close a bunch of times but never saw the animal. Finally at 9:30am a shot.... a beuatiful red fox..just beautiful, but no yote. She worked the swamp for several more hours and nothing. Plenty of coyote sign, no coyotes. Over to the next swamp where we worked her for several hours without a pick up. Day one was good, but not on the board.
Day two- Met the troops at 6am- Eight of us total (yes, all registered for the hunt) Set the guys up in position and brought the dogs into the swamp to work it. Conditions were horrible. Coyotes did not break through the crust overnight, dogs were breaking through all over the place right from the get go. One of the dogs starts one, runs it for several hours, but keeps making losses and just real slow going even after picking it back up. Like a chase in slow motion. Coyote got by one of the guys and she never picked it up again afterwards. After some work trying to figure things out we headed to the next spot. Worked the dog through a really thick but small swamp.... Nothing. Nothing in the next area as well. Just real hard going for those in the group who didn't have snowshoes and for the dogs. Weren't going to hunt on Sunday, but on the way out of the woods, the troops decided we could start, run and kill one in time to make the trek from the Northeast to Frenchville in time for the weigh in! Snow was also coming!! Man what a plan!!
At 5:30 am only Tim, me and my brother were at the meeting place. We wait and wait, finally decide to go scout for tracks. Two other folks meet us late. We have several tracks going into the swamp were planning to run. Take the dog in and boom she starts cold trailing. What a stinkin plan, man we rule, what am I going to buy with my money!!! She cold trails it out of the swamp onto the ridge and then jumps it. It hightails it away from us into the next swamp in the series. We set up it leaves the swamp in a place no yote has left before and spends the next three hours in between a highly travelled side road and a major highway. We send two folks in to see if they can get into the chase, one goes to a likely crossing spot, and the other two of us patrol the roads to make sure we don't lose a dog to traffic. At that point we weren't making the weigh in anyway. The dog we had running was older and eventually got chased back. Checking tracks on top we found she was chased back by two coyotes. Lots of fun and exercise, but no prize money. We'll be running some of pups from here on out working with them on picking up a colder than "Just made" pen track. So we don't expect much in terms of kills, but should gain the pups some great experience and get them on thier way.
For anyone that's interested I loosely figured out that of the coyotes killed during the hunt 43% were between 30 and 35 pounds and 26% were between 35 and 40 pounds. 13% were bnetween 40 and the 51 pound plus winner. Don't have my figures in front of me but I think that's pretty close to what I figured. The prize money is great for the top three yotes. WOW, but you can't have folks signing up thinking it will be 200 dollars per coyote and make it 50 dollars after folks have already signed up. Don't have an issue with it being 50 dollars and realize it makes the top three prizes more just do it from the get go. Enjoy, Juniorpc.
Only three of us hunting on Friday of the contest. One of dogs took a track outta the swamp, across the road and worked it for a time slowely. Staying on top of the snow crust at that time. Went in and brought her out and took her around to the swamp we suspected the yote was headed to. Right off the bat she starts one. Temps in the low twenties, clear a little wind and the crisp sound of barking in the air! two hours later she had brought it up and down the length of the long swamp 5 times. Only one loss of about 8 minutes, otherwise just a few times of a minute or so when she had to figure track out. All three of us had her close a bunch of times but never saw the animal. Finally at 9:30am a shot.... a beuatiful red fox..just beautiful, but no yote. She worked the swamp for several more hours and nothing. Plenty of coyote sign, no coyotes. Over to the next swamp where we worked her for several hours without a pick up. Day one was good, but not on the board.
Day two- Met the troops at 6am- Eight of us total (yes, all registered for the hunt) Set the guys up in position and brought the dogs into the swamp to work it. Conditions were horrible. Coyotes did not break through the crust overnight, dogs were breaking through all over the place right from the get go. One of the dogs starts one, runs it for several hours, but keeps making losses and just real slow going even after picking it back up. Like a chase in slow motion. Coyote got by one of the guys and she never picked it up again afterwards. After some work trying to figure things out we headed to the next spot. Worked the dog through a really thick but small swamp.... Nothing. Nothing in the next area as well. Just real hard going for those in the group who didn't have snowshoes and for the dogs. Weren't going to hunt on Sunday, but on the way out of the woods, the troops decided we could start, run and kill one in time to make the trek from the Northeast to Frenchville in time for the weigh in! Snow was also coming!! Man what a plan!!
At 5:30 am only Tim, me and my brother were at the meeting place. We wait and wait, finally decide to go scout for tracks. Two other folks meet us late. We have several tracks going into the swamp were planning to run. Take the dog in and boom she starts cold trailing. What a stinkin plan, man we rule, what am I going to buy with my money!!! She cold trails it out of the swamp onto the ridge and then jumps it. It hightails it away from us into the next swamp in the series. We set up it leaves the swamp in a place no yote has left before and spends the next three hours in between a highly travelled side road and a major highway. We send two folks in to see if they can get into the chase, one goes to a likely crossing spot, and the other two of us patrol the roads to make sure we don't lose a dog to traffic. At that point we weren't making the weigh in anyway. The dog we had running was older and eventually got chased back. Checking tracks on top we found she was chased back by two coyotes. Lots of fun and exercise, but no prize money. We'll be running some of pups from here on out working with them on picking up a colder than "Just made" pen track. So we don't expect much in terms of kills, but should gain the pups some great experience and get them on thier way.
For anyone that's interested I loosely figured out that of the coyotes killed during the hunt 43% were between 30 and 35 pounds and 26% were between 35 and 40 pounds. 13% were bnetween 40 and the 51 pound plus winner. Don't have my figures in front of me but I think that's pretty close to what I figured. The prize money is great for the top three yotes. WOW, but you can't have folks signing up thinking it will be 200 dollars per coyote and make it 50 dollars after folks have already signed up. Don't have an issue with it being 50 dollars and realize it makes the top three prizes more just do it from the get go. Enjoy, Juniorpc.
02-27-2004, 03:35 AM
#2
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 25
RE: My Mosquito Creek Hunt experience
Well Junoir, I had about the same luck as you. One of these years I'm gonna place in that hunt.
I'm thinking about getting a yote dog. What kinda dog are you using?
How do you go about getting one started? There's not too many yotes in my area. I used to have coon hounds. I loved it. I think a good fox or yote hound would be a blast.
Scrapper
I'm thinking about getting a yote dog. What kinda dog are you using?
How do you go about getting one started? There's not too many yotes in my area. I used to have coon hounds. I loved it. I think a good fox or yote hound would be a blast.
Scrapper
02-27-2004, 09:16 AM
#4
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: milford Pennsylvania USA
Posts: 140
RE: My Mosquito Creek Hunt experience
Mike, Mike, we have a July/Croghan Bitch, a full Trigg bitch, A bunch of walkers, Some pups off of the July/Croghan Bitch and some pups off the Trigg. Pups are either approaching two years old or just over a year depending on the litter. All are running and can start thier own game at this point (not true- we have one pup we kept that isn't worth a nickle, but is being kept because the fellows kids are attached to it. None are for sale at the present time. Four of us own the hounds and four or five others hunt with us regularly. We usually run in Gene Melaneux's Pen in Endicott NY- 5 dollars a dog, up to max 50 dollars. Sometimes tough to get in, but if you can schedule ahead a bit it works out. 240- 270 acres or so, fox and Coyote. Don't have the number in front of me. There's a bunch of folks out thier I'd buy a dog from and a bunch I wouldn't so. Where are you located? If your in the Northeast and want to give me a hollar let me know and I'll get my phone number to you. Enjoy, Juniorpc
03-01-2004, 12:55 PM
#6
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: milford Pennsylvania USA
Posts: 140
RE: My Mosquito Creek Hunt experience
Scrapper, they run both Fox and coyote. We have one that is coyote crazy, a bark a step like a machine gun and will leave a fox run for a fresh coyote track. Some others will do the same. We do have several that were broke on foxes and didn't run a coyote until they were two and they tend to have less losses when running fox than some of dogs trained on coyote and fox from the get go. We've run bobcat also, but not all dogs we have can start one, though they will all join in a chase when the one or two dogs we have that are cold nosed enough freshen a bobcat track up do. If I were going to run bobcats more I would get a treeing walker, plott, or some other hound better suited for it. Some of our hounds will be allow themselves to be chased back by a coyote, others will stand thier ground and send the yote to coyote heaven. Speed isn't as much an issue on the outside as is the desire to hunt, which contributes to getting one going and picking up losses, and sticking with a track in tough snow conditions. We've got a bunch of young dogs were really trying to see what they will be in terms of long term deer proof, how cold a nose, how much desire to hunt, willingness to check in and be picked up if necessary, etc. etc. We put more time in training on the inside and outside than we do actually hunting over them, but that's part of the fun! Scrapper there is a pen in NY just over the border from Tioga County, PA, not sure how far that would be for you. Don't know the name or number of that one, but could do some leg work if it would do you some good. Enjoy, Juniorpc.
