Fifteenth straight hunt - No Hogs

[Land_Owner]

Deer season is usually marked by more hogs than deer.  This season, there were no hogs and it has remained no hogs for MONTHS.

Tropical Storm Fay dumped 36 inches of rainfall in 36 hours.  The river exceeded its normal banks.  Wildlife was congregated on the high ground.  Deer and hogs were plentiful, as in previous unflooded seasons.

Fay departed and the river has subsided.  I suppose the wildlife departed in the way of the river and are all out on the State owned flood plain eating new shoots, corms, and forbes instead of in the former uplands - as in years past.

My hunting partner and I have logged a lot of days and more hours on stand seeing little to NOTHING by way of hogs since November.  Ordinarily, you can't shoot enough of them to keep the land from becoming a hazard to the tractor with so much rooting.

I suppose an attractant is now in order. 

[Graybeard]

Sounds about par for the course for open range fair chase hog hunting in areas not over run with them. I have long since lost count of the unsuccessful free range hog hunts I've made and seen no hogs and some times no sign either. At Hollins WMA I've seen more dang sign than you can imagine and have yet to spot a hog there. Folks kill them there every year but you sure put in a lot of time for each one you bring home.

[jmayton]

Glad to know I'm not the only one suffering hoglessly.

[halfbreed]

Land_owner, ever try planting sweet potatoes or sugar beets? the crop that just keeps growing and needs very little attention.
Just a thought, John

[Ditchdigger]

Same thing has happened to me. I hunt on Lake Texoma here in OK. and it flooded for a few months,and the hogs stayed around for a month or 2 and then left.All of the pecan,oaks,and berry vines died and the hogs left. They moved up onto private lands and the owners want them trapped,not shot.I usually kill somewhere between 20 to 50 a yr. on this land,and I hav'nt shot one in 5 months now.  Digger

[Land_Owner]

Land_owner, ever try planting sweet potatoes or sugar beets?

I am interested in Sweet Potato.  We don't get enough frost to help the sugar beets sweeten.  Am I correct...they do need frost?

I suppose these plants are desirable to hogs?  HOW ABOUT DEER?

[rickt300]

If you want to plant something for forage it's hard to beat radishes and wild onions. Plant them in a fenced enclosure and let them seed out.  After a while they will be impossible to eradicate and hogs love em.  Regular potatoes greenery is supposed to be toxic to us so I don't know if this will help wildlife and I don't know about the greenery from sweet potatoes.  This sounds funny but when I planted some catnip in my yard in Wyoming it grew really well and deer were always coming into my yard next to my front door and porch eating it. I gave the catnip no care.  I would hate to say the number of times I stepped out of my front door and spooked both a big mule deer and myself considering we were less than 3 feet apart.

[Wynn]

Land_Owner. I shot two yesterday evening out of a herd of 40 or so over here in Polk County. I passed on the big ones and shot two 70 pounders for meat. Our 500 acres is over run with them. Even the poachers haven't made a dent in them this year. I was out all of hunting season with a back injury and surgery so it was nice getting out even if it was just a tailgate type hunt/harvest.

[Land_Owner]

Sorry to hear about your back Wynn.  The hogs are beginning to return at night.  Hunting Pharmacist (HP) and his Father in Law (FIL) hunted my place last Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.  No hogs seen but there continues to be an increase in sign...prints, rootings, corn disappearing under feeder, Hog Wild decimated where HP placed it for his FIL's hunt. 

I was there Sat. afternoon with a niece and two of her friends tuning up some handguns...about 750 rounds worth and back again this afternoon (Sunday) with three boys and my hunting partner and shot the long guns about 300 times.  Those pigs are in the woods thinking we're gearing up for them now...and they would be RIGHT!

We had a ball shooting NOTHING BUT TARGETS this weekend.