When I crossed the Red River north of Paris last week, heading north to spend a couple of days at the Choctaw Hunting Lodge with some great old friends and a few new ones, "Ole’ Red" was as high as I’d seen her in a long time. The swiftly moving water was not really red but more of a chocolate color from all the sediment it was carrying downstream.
After spending a couple days hunting the awesome land owned by the Choctaw Nation, I again crossed the Red just north of Denison and the gates at the Eisenhower Dam that impounds Lake Texoma appeared to be wide open, releasing a tremendous volume of water. I have a friend that owns riverfront ranch land downstream from the dam and he’s been worried about the high water tearing fences and wrecking the water wells he uses to feed his stock.
But between the two river crossings, I enjoyed a couple of fine days with some great folks. That’s what I want to tell you about this week. The Choctaw Hunting Lodge is a very special place. The Choctaw Nation owns around 45,000 acres in southeast Oklahoma, comprised of mini mountains and wide valleys. The land has for years been intensively managed for deer, turkey and, yes black bear! There is a very healthy population of bears in this country and an abundance of food to keep them and all the other wildlife well fed.
The hunting land is managed by Dusty Vickrey and a team of well experienced guides. Dusty’s wife, Nacolh does a great job managing the lodge, scheduling hunts and a great many other behind the scenes tasks that insures everything runs smoothly. I tell Nacolh that even if the hunting here wasn’t world class, I’d still come for the food and fun!
Turkey season was still open in Oklahoma and my friends Edgar Cotton and his son David had been planning their hunt for eastern turkey for several months. My buddies Jeff Rice and Larry Weishuhn were also onboard. Larry was in the blind with the Cottons, recording their hunt on video and Jeff, who produces our weekly video show “A Sportsmans Life” had all his camera gear to film a segment of the show which will be hosted on YouTube and Carbon TV www.carbontv.com this week. Van Eversull had purchased a turkey hunt at a past Dallas Safari Club Gala and brought his two sons to do the hunting; each took a big eastern gobbler.
Regular readers of my column might remember me writing about a Choctaw Mule foot hog I took on the Choctaw in later winter. I informed Jeff that he would have to relinquish cameraman duties to me on this hunt, I wanted him to do the shooting and with any luck he might just harvest a mule foot hog. I had an article to write on using my AGM Global Vision Thermal Scope.
Our goal was to harvest Jeff’s first mule foot hog. When actually hunting, it’s next to impossible to look at the hog’s feet, but the pure-breed Choctaw hogs have waddles on either side of their jaw. With any luck Jeff would get his first mule foot. If not, chances were very good he would have an opportunity to take a fat feral hog. Choctaw hog or not, we were looking for a fat young porker that would provide pork to blend with some venison we had in the freezer. Our supply of Kuby’s spicy breakfast sausage was getting low!
This was the Cotton’s first time to visit Choctaw Hunting Lodge and although they didn’t manage to harvest a gobbler (they had Mother’s Day plans and had to head home after a full day of hunting), both went home singing the praises of the beauty of the country, abundance of game and above all the new friends they had made on their short stay. They have plans to hunt bear this fall and after enjoying a meal of bison hamburger steaks smothered in gravy with all the trimmings, I think Edgar might just be convinced to put one of those tasty bison in the freezer this fall! I had to head back home before the dinner that evening and David texted me a photo of his plate of smothered steak with asparagus on the side. What a friend to share such glimpse of what I was missing!
Nacolh is a master cook. I’ve had the pleasure of sampling her cooking many times but this bison hamburger steak is a true masterpiece. I’m not sure if I can duplicate the dish but I do plan to try with beef hamburger. It won’t be the same I know but maybe I can convince Edgar to go for one of those bison this fall! This was my first time to meet Sue who helps Nacolh around the lodge. What a nice lady. She was buzzing around during the meals making sure everyone was well fed and happy. There’s a sign at the lodge that states something like, “Come as a guest, leave as a friend” which pretty much sums up a visit here.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Van Eversull and his two sons. It is refreshing to spend time with folks that share my love of the outdoors and hunting. The younger Eversulls related many of their experiences in Africa hunting for a variety of game. The tradition of hunting was definitely passed down by their father who is a veteran of many African adventures.
While the guys in camp were pursuing eastern gobblers, Jeff and I were directed to an area of the ranch where hogs had been showing up on trail cameras on a regular basis. We left the lodge just after the turkey hunters and followed Dusty’s excellent directions to a spot a mile or so from camp. There was a feeder on the edge of a clearing with a heavily used hog trail leading back into a creek bottom. We had baited the trail with Vineyard Max Deer attractant in hopes of stopping the hogs long enough for a shot before they made it to the feeder. We didn’t wish to risk the chance of climbing into an elevated blind and spooking hogs coming to the area for an early breakfast.
There was a grove of oak trees downwind from the baited area and our plan was to set up there and wait for the porkers. Our plan worked perfectly; just after daylight, we spotted several porkers coming out of the bottoms.
When they arrived at the spot we baited, just as predicted, they stopped and began gobbling up those dried grape skins, rice brand and corn chops. No time to look them over closely for Choctaw Hog traits -- Jeff picked a fat young sow and squeezed the trigger on my CVA Cascade VH in .223. Our hunt was over quickly and we were back at the lodge quartering the meat not long after sunup.
To learn more about Choctaw Hunting Lodge, visit www.choctawhuntinglodge.com. The video of our visit to the lodge will be available to watch, just search “A Sportsmans Life” on YouTube or www.carbontv.com.
Email outdoors writer Luke Clayton through his website www.catfishradio.org.
