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Dove Camp: Setting up for a tranquil time in the rugged country
Dove season is again at hand. Consider setting up a dove camp near your hunting area.
By Luke Clayton, Special to Star Local News
I always try to make the most of every outdoor outing.
About the time you're reading this, I plan to be enjoying a quiet evening at dove camp, situated on a remote stretch of the Brazos River up in Palo Pinto County.
I'm packed and ready to roll.
I learned long ago that planning is of paramount importance on fishing and hunting trips, especially when these outings incorporate overnight campouts. My little camp will be five or six miles from the nearest public road and another five miles to the nearest store. Once I arrive and get camp set up, I don't plan to break the tranquility by having to drive out and pick up an item in town I might have forgotten.
On outings such as this, I make a list a couple days before the trip.
On trips where one plans to hunt and fish, it's necessary to take a smorgasbord of items.
Forget your shells, game bag or even something as minor as a zip lock bag for keeping dove breasts fresh in the ice cooler and you've got problems. Likewise with fishing; nothing worse than planning to use Texas rig worms to trick those river bass only to look in your tackle box to discover you forgot the worm weights. I usually set up a pretty Spartan camp, but even when only the basic of items are used, there are a lot of things to remember. I'm planning a meal of wild turkey fajitas the first evening, so I can easily count six items necessary to prepare this relatively simple meal.
I will join some friends for the morning dove hunt, but the afternoon and evenings will be spent in solitude fishing, cooking and, later in the evening, watching the heavens for the nightly display of our universe in motion.
The late-summer night sky is stunning this far from artificial lights; it does the soul good to spend time contemplating just how huge the universe is and how small we are.
A half-mile or so up the river from where I camp is a huge section of rock, 50 yards long and 30 feet high that is removed from the nearby mountain by about 30 feet. It looks as though it was sawed from the face of the mountain an eon ago and moved out to create a prefect dwelling place for ancient hunters and fishermen that call this Brazos River country home.
I never spend time in this rugged country without reflecting on the people before me that had the privilege of spending time in this beautiful, but rough cedar county.
I also think of noted author John Graves, who traveled this stretch of the Brazos in his canoe, stopping each evening to camp and fish. The details of his days spent alone on the Brazos are in his book, "Goodbye to a River." The spirit of Graves and every other adventurer that has camped and lived in this country is somehow embedded in the rocks, water and ancient live oaks.
Not far from my camp are the remains of an old wagon road.
Well over 100 years ago, this deeply rutted trail served as the only means of land travel in what must have been a pristine wilderness.
This is Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving country.
In truth, these famous cowmen began their cattle drives from this area, rather than deep south Texas as depicted in the movie Lonesome Dove. Loving is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in nearby Weatherford.
I'll bait a couple rods for catfish in hopes of catching some fresh fish to enjoy with a meal of dove breast wrapped in bacon and grilled over hot mesquite coals. Hopefully by sundown, I'll have a few river bass on ice. I have a lure of frayed nylon rope that I plan to use to sight cast for gar. The deeper holes in the Brazos are good spots to target these good-eating and hard-fighting fish.
If you love the outdoors as I do, I'm certain you share my anticipation for getting out there for a couple days.
Here's wishing you great times in the great outdoors this fall. As a wise old fellow once said, "my health is always better in the fall."
I agree wholeheartedly.
Outdoor tip of the week
Despite the oppressive heat lately, crappie fishing has been very good on several lakes.
The better catches are coming from brush piles and standing timber in water 18- to 25-feet deep situated on lower lake points. Night fishing under bridges has also been producing good action. Lake Fork guide Seth Vanover says jigs have been producing well on his late-afternoon and early-evening trips. He's using one-eighth ounce jigs in various shades of green, black and red.
Lake Lavon guide Billy Kilpatrick says minnows are producing best.
He suggests using a yo-yo method of vertical jigging with the minnows, moving the baits vertically through the water column a foot or so. This method accounts for hook-ups with crappie that bite softly.
Listen to Outdoors with Luke Clayton at: catfishradio.com. Contact Luke with fishing and hunting information from your area at: lukeclayton@prodigy.net.
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