The Easy Art of Cricket Flickin’

The Easy Art of Cricket Flickin’

He slowly pulled the hook, line and cricket toward his cheek, the pole’s tip bending back, and released the missile. Donald was my father-in-law way back in the ’90s. Or you could say it was the “past century.” He didn’t live to see the new hip millennial century....
A Hurricane, a Double Gun and a Pilgrimage

A Hurricane, a Double Gun and a Pilgrimage

The hurricane roared through like a runaway train, like a Seaboard freight with a stuck throttle. Fifteen inches of rain in fifteen hours, wind a-hundred-plus-Jesus, tornados on the back side, it tore hell out of the piney ridges and swamp-ground hardwoods in between....
Hunters’ Adventures: Our Reason for Being

Hunters’ Adventures: Our Reason for Being

For the true hunter, the adventure never ends. Instead, it permeates our lives and becomes a reason for being. Montana’s big game opener just came and went. I spent the day working through miles of good country and didn’t see an antler, not even a...
Good Dogs Buried

Good Dogs Buried

How many good dogs you gonna bury before one buries you? Blue weighed 90 pounds, with webbed feet big as biscuits, long legs and a deep chest, the biggest Lab bitch I ever saw, out of Tomahawk, Wisconsin, from a kennel of field champions. An undertaker gave her away....
Monarchs with the Curling Horns

Monarchs with the Curling Horns

“Ram!” It kicks you in the heart when you hear it hissed by your guide, or better yet, when you whisper it to yourself on a solo hunt. They surely do have a hold me, those monarchs with the curling horns. Always have, at least since I can remember. Over...
Texas Treasure: The Axis Deer

Texas Treasure: The Axis Deer

With their magnificent antlers and beautiful dappled coats, axis deer have become one of the Lone Star State’s most coveted trophy animals. A good hunt lingers in memory with more satisfaction than nearly all other sweet reminisces. I recall hunts with friends – the...
Heidi, The Record-Breaking Retriever

Heidi, The Record-Breaking Retriever

No dog, to anybody’s knowledge, has done what Heidi did and racked up all the upland birds and all the migratory birds. In the late 1990s, on a beach in Vancouver, British Columbia, George Calef’s eye was caught by a smallish chocolate Lab. The dog was...
Born in the Carolinas: Catfish Stew

Born in the Carolinas: Catfish Stew

There are a million ways to create the culinary concoction known as catfish stew, and almost as many ingredient variations. If one were to Google the origins of catfish stew, the first thing you will likely see is an image of the American flag. Hell yeah, born in the...
Celebrity Fishermen and Women

Celebrity Fishermen and Women

The chances of running into Jimmy Buffett at the dock or President George W. Bush at the fly shop are pretty slim, but there are a lot of celebs who enjoy wetting a line like the rest of us. Here are a few notables who could be working the same waters as you one of...