There’s been several tracking dogs over the last 5 years or so that I remember…….One of them was dog that I actually got to hold the leash on and track with years ago……Gut shot deer went into the water in a south Georgia swamp and swam across…..Dog went in behind it and a gator got her on the way across……..

The reason it really sucks as someone who runs tracking dogs is that virtually every deer we deal with is going toward the water and if we jump and have to bay one its 100% headed straight to the nearest water hole if it has one to go to…..its just what they do without fail nearly every time…… I find myself constantly being in unfamiliar territory around all these backwaters off of Eufaula and the Alabama River, etc waiting to jump one of y’alls wounded deer and it and my dogs bailing off into a gator hole together……

It typically happens fast too because the wounded deer are usually held up right on the side of the water…..So its jump deer, kabloosh, splash……… and the dogs are in the water as quick as you just read that sentence……….places where you don’t even think about it either…..like in Shorter between the dog track and the river……or in a cypress swamp along the Alabama river just north of the city…. or in some swampy area out in Waugh…..or in someone’s pond in Little Texas just outside of Auburn……ALL of these little holes being places I’ve tracked that are slowly filling up with gators…..We’re not talking about the dogs getting into the waters of the Okeefanokee where there’s thousands of acres of swamp……We’re talking about isolated holes where the bastards are just sitting there waiting on something to slip up……

Last edited by CNC; 08/02/26 02:09 PM.
Folks that know don't shoot old does........ wink