High Plains Outdoors

Setting on a hillside in Palo Pinto County last week on the Dale River Ranch, I overlooked a little valley that led down to a creek that joined the Brazos a half mile or so to the north. My goal was to use my trusty old box call to entice a gobbler out of the heavy cover.

In today's show, Luke gives an account of a turkey hunt earlier this week that morphed into a bass fishing trip/ hog hunt.

This past week on one of those cool clear mornings, the urge to do a bit of campfire cooking hit me. I had fashioned a couple of ‘pot hangers’ from a dry cedar limb and another from a deer antler and was anxious to put my old cast iron Dutch kettles to work. My wife saw me rustling around the fire pit in front of my little cabin situated in the trees behind the house and asked what I was up to.

About a year ago, Luke's newspaper column quoted some words from Robert Rourke, the famous outdoors writer, about sportsmen putting the fish and game they catch and kill to good use on the table.

One of Luke's readers replied to the column with an apology for not butchering and eating all the wild hogs he kills. Luke sent a reply explaining that wild hogs are not considered game animals, although they are excellent eating - even better than venison, in Luke's opinion.

This week, Luke discusses making pea meal Canadian bacon from a kit. Butcher Packer Supply www.butcher-packer.com offers an economical kit with everything needed to make this tasty breakfast treat, with the exception of the pork loin. 

The Rocky Mountain Rendezvous was an annual gathering that began in 1825 at various locations held by a fur trading company at which trappers and mountain men sold their furs and hides and replenished their supplies. The fur companies assembled teamster-driven mule trains which carried whiskey and supplies to a pre-announced location each spring-summer and set up a trading fair—the rendezvous—and at the season's end, packed furs out to the British Company to Fort Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest, and to one of the northern Missouri River ports such as St. Joseph, Missouri.

Spring turkey hunting at its core seems pretty basic; the hunter goes to the woods or fields where turkeys live, mimics the sounds of a love sick hen with his call and ultimately shoots a big gobbler. While this is text book turkey hunting, I can tell you from almost 40 past springs hunting them, it just ain’t that simple! After all these many springs spent in pursuit of gobblers, I can honestly say no two hunts have turned out the same,  maybe this is what keeps me coming back year after year.

Many folks share my inherent feelings about predator; we dislike them because of their nature but know they are an intricate part of the natural world. They are genetically programmed to kill to survive. I detest the idea of a coyote pulling down a newborn whitetail fawn or a northern shrike biting through the spine of a cardinal at our bird feeder, and then impaling the song bird on a thorn while he rips him apart.

I recently saw 30/30 ammo going for $85 a box at a gun show and folks were standing in line to purchase it.  I’m not talking about some specialty wildcat rounds that are hand loaded, I’m talking THIRTY-THIRTY rounds, arguably the most common and widely used of all centerfire ‘bullets.’ Just try to find a box of 9 mm or .223 ammo, it’s as scarce as hen’s teeth. If you can find it, it might be necessary to take out a loan on the homestead just to purchase a few boxes! Even rim fire .22 rounds are tough to find and pricy.

For one who spends time outdoors through all the seasons in pursuit of fish and game and the simple elation of being ‘out there’, I must admit I love the dead of winter best of all. I know there are those that favor Autumn when the leaves are aglow or spring when the woods are coming alive but it’s a cold, crisp winters day spent hunting with great friends that I will probably remember most when one of these days, I am relegated to a rocking chair, dreaming of past adventures.

Standing on the side of a mountain on the Eason Ranch, way out in Pecos County, I found myself somehow caught up in a time warp as I glanced across the vastness of distant mountains, just as the morning sun began to light them up. The day before, during the middle of the day after the morning hunt for mule deer, John Eason had given my friends Jeff Rice, Larry Weishuhn and I a tour of some of the ancient campsites that were scattered throughout the ranch.

Standing on the side of a mountain on the Eason Ranch, way out in Pecos County, I found myself somehow caught up in a time warp as I glanced across the vastness of distant mountains, just as the morning sun began to light them up. The day before, during the middle of the day after the morning hunt for mule deer, John Eason had given my friends Jeff Rice, Larry Weishuhn and I a tour of some of the ancient campsites that were scattered throughout the ranch. The feeling is difficult for me to describe but I felt almost as though the ‘ancients’ as Mr. Eason refers to inhabitants of his ranch many years ago, were calling out to me through the years. I’m sure my buddies were probably experiencing the same feelings.

Join Luke this week and learn a new way to put that wild pork to good use. Smothered steak with mushroom gravy and jasmine rice! YUM YUM! 

Winter is an excellent time to hunt wild hogs. They come readily to corn feeders and most in Texas and Oklahoma are 'corn fed'.

The topic of Luke's show this week is late season muzzleloader season for whitetail deer.

Many states, including Texas, offer late season hunting opportunities with muzzleloader hunts for spike bucks and doe. These late season hunts provide a great opportunity to harvest more tasty venison for the freezer.

Join Luke this week as he recaps one of his outdoor prepared meals of venison steak and freshly caught crappie and bream.

My longtime friend Bill Carey with Striper Express has a saying, “Remember December” that he often mentions. He’s referring to the awesome striper fishing that occurs during the winter months at Lake Texoma. Earlier this week, my good friend Jeff Rice and I joined Bill for an awesome day on the water.

About this time last year, I took one of the largest free ranging whitetail bucks of my life with my Texan big bore air rifle on the Dale River Ranch, situated on the Brazos River in Palo Pinto County.

I dearly love hunting this area and have through the years amassed a storehouse of great memories here, both hunting and fishing with my friend Randy Douglas, the manager of the ranch.

Wild hogs that receive little hunting pressure can often be hunted successfully at all hours of the day but put a bit of pressure on wild porkers and they are quick to become almost entirely nocturnal. Ask any veteran hog hunter when he has taken the majority of his hogs and chances are very good he will say, "during the last 30 minutes of daylight, just before dark.”

It’s once again time to think about Christmas gifts for sportsmen/women on your shopping list. I can guarantee you that those of us that love spending time in the outdoors would relish a gift that we can use in our outdoor lifestyle but choosing the ‘perfect’ gift can be a daunting task. First, it’s obviously important to decide what ‘type’ gift will work best.

With a title such as the one accompanying this week’s column, you are probably scratching you head and wondering what ole Luke has up his sleeve this week! Well, let’s begin by backtracking a quarter century to a hot June day at Lake Ray Hubbard where I was first introduced to my first ‘mechanical’ fishing lure. I had heard of this mechanical shad invented and by a gentleman named Frank Pearce. I was elated when Frank contacted me and asked if I would like to meet him at Lake Ray Hubbard to catch some largemouth bass on his new mechanical top water shad baits.

Luke spent a couple of days hunting deer and hogs this past week and let his Dutch Kettle and B & B Charcoal do the cooking while he was in the woods.

In today's show, Luke details an easy recipe for Dutch Kettle baked pork loin with potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic.

This week, Luke shares one of his favorite recipes for preparing venison backstrap.

Granted, it's hard to beat 'good ole' chicken fried backstrap with cream gravy, but Luke thinks once you give this recipe a try, it might just become one of your favorites.

Remember, you can always contact Luke via his website www.catfishradio.org

This week Luke tells about an awesome outdoor destination situated about 1.7 hours east of Dallas in east Texas.

Cedar Creek Ranch www.cedarcreekranch.com is an outdoor paradise that offers excellent trophy bass fishing and hunting for deer and wild hogs 

Luke talks antler rattling for big bucks in today's show. For several years, Luke had the privilege of hunting with Steven Ray, maker of the rattling forks www.rattlingforks.com.

These 'forks' perfectly mimic the sound of two bucks fighting and they carry sound farther than any rattling tools, including the whitetail buck antlers Luke has used. 

Contact outdoors writer Luke Clayton via his website www.catfishradio.org

Wild hogs numbers must be controlled. This is an absolute fact. I’ve read that over half the population must be removed each year just to maintain current numbers. I get it, but probably because I spent my younger days on a small farm where my Dad raised hogs for meat and to make a few extra dollars each year, I have always considered hogs to be a valuable commodity.

This week, Luke discusses just how important spending time in the great outdoors -- there really is no better place to 'clean one's head.' 

Forget the craziness in the world today and recharge your batteries. 

This week, Luke discusses wild hogs; how to hunt them and ways to cook them. Luke also gives some thoughts as to how the explosion of wild hog numbers can be controlled.

His book, Kill To Grill, the ultimate guide to hunting and eating wild pork is available at www.catfishradio.org

In this week's High Plains Outdoors, Luke shares a dutch kettle recipe for cooking quail. Pheasant, or domestic chicken can be substituted if you are like Luke and don't have a 'mess' of quail in your freezer. 

I was recently recording “Campfire Talk”, the weekly radio segment that Larry Weishuhn aka.”Mr. Whitetail” and I have produced for the past 11 years. The topic of hunting blinds, aka ‘deer stands’ came up and we reflected upon just how much ‘deer stands’ have changed since the sixties when we both began hunting deer.