First hog of the year

Went out last weekend and caught the first hog of the year. The new girl, Gizmo (full sister to my Woolly and Keeper dogs from one litter before them, daughter to Duece) did very well striking a hog her first time out with us. We had just dropped dogs at the bottom of a hill that had some hog sign and waited for about ten minutes before we heard Gizmo start barking, immediately followed by Woolly. My Buddy's dog Black had just gotten back to the pickup when they started and he took off for the bay. My old Blue dog, who is going deaf but can still find a hog was just coming in so we tossed him up on top of the dog box and drove toward the bay. We got about 150 yards out and could hear it really well. We decided not to walk the catch dogs in but just drop them from the box right there. We turned out Beetle and BA to catch and started through the cedars toward the barking. Before long we heard the catch dogs hit, and a few seconds later we broke out of the cedars into a bog open field where we could see the dogs caught at the edge of a pond. The mud was really slick and we were falling all over the place trying to get him flipped. Makes you glad for catch dogs that you know will hold when it's like that. We finally got him flipped and stuck and headed home. Never got him on a scale, but I would guess him at 140-150 lbs and had about 1 1/2 inches of tusk. Not a bad little boar to start the year off with.

First hog of the year