Day 1 Florida Adventure

MLBob Furia

MLBob Furia

Well-known member

Guys,
I posted many of the pics from my trip to Florida earlier in december, on my "Ropes & Tools" Facebook page a while back (link below). A while ago, I posted pictures of a pickleweed project that was my gift to the good friend who organized this trip. But since I know many of you are not on Facebook, I'm going to post up a sampling of pictures here that somewhat documents the trip.
This first set of pictures was taken at Oak Lane Farm, the Citra, FL property of an old, old friend who was best man at our wedding 34 years ago. Oak Lane Farm is a 750 acre horse farm that up until recently was the winter home of the US Olympic Equestrian Team. (Obviously, my buddy made his living doing something different from being a high school teacher, coach, & counselor )--- but our friendship is one of those stories that unfolded because I was a decoy carver & waterfowl hunter. We met at a carving demo I did for the Parks District close to 40 years ago, and he invited me visit to his rented warehouse space just before he took a small business loan from the state of Ohio to build his own building. Within 3 years, his company ( custom Tradeshow & Advertising displays) had gone international. Many trips with me to hunt the River followed, and we became friends for life.

The main house at Oak Lane:


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Chuck & me:


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A few of the resident eagles just to the East of the main house:


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Instead of having our own rooms at the main house for the first night of our stay...... we had our own 3 bedroom house:



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This house right across from ours is Chuck's "Man Cave." It houses close to 100 big game mounts that he has taken while hunting all over the world;
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The next morning had us hitting the road early and heading North to Knox County, where Chuck had arranged for us to stay at one of the houses at the Phipps family holdings. I believe someone told us they still own 5,000 acres. Here's where we stayed while at the Phipps holdings - one of the main houses, Orchard Pond Plantation.



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Just off the gun room:


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Got to love folks who welcome your hunting dogs anywhere in the house!











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Scooter had the run of the place , especially after they saw her work on the first morning duck hunt.
 
The next morning saw us head out to shoot a collection of blinds that surround resting ponds a good ways from the main Lake on the property.
The shoot begins with guests and lease-holders eating breakfast prepared in the woods by one of the cooks from the Orchard Pond house. A real good local sausage, biscuits, and your eggs cooked hot & right on the spot.

Then, blinds are assigned and every one heads out. Chuck and I were assigned a blind of our own with Scooter as our pick- up dog.
No decoys involved. A horn blows to signal the start of shooting, as birds start to filter in to the ponds Then the action gets fast & furious. About an hour later, the horn is blown again and everyone unloads.. We saw ringbills, wood ducks, & teal. They're pretty strict about not over-shooting the resource., and these ponds are only gunned 1 day a week. Looks like it's a policy that works well for them
In fact, waterfowl hunting in all of Knox County is restricted to Saturday, Sunday, & Wednesday. We would move to other acreage on our next two morning duck hunts.

After watching Scooter work at our blind ( she was rock-steady when guns started going off and birds were falling; handled to all birds we had knocked down as well), Jenni Phipps, one of our hosts at Orchard Pond, asked me to take her around to the other blinds in case anyone without a dog needed pick-up help. Scooter was in hog-heaven!

Scooter sitting just outside our blind:


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Chuck. Recently turned 80 and is still going strong:



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Once the shooting started, there wasn't much time to take pictures until it was pick-up time


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Back at Orchard Pond for that "second breakfast."


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After time to clean guns and catch a nap, we headed to another section of the property where the Phipps have been staging " European-Style Tower Shoots."
Shooting stations (butts) ring the area of the shoot, and again, at the sound of the horn, pheasants are released. There are 4 segments to the shoot, and 50 birds are released at intervals during each of the segments.
Shooting was very sporty in dense cover, with mature trees making shots difficult.

Again, strict ruled regarding where your shooting lanes are, and the second horn signals the end of shooting for that segment.

Scooter had never been on pheasants before, but again, her steadiness to any of the falls she could see from our butt was exemplary and she had no problem picking up this new (to her) game bird and delivering it to hand with enthusiasm.



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After a snack & drinks in the field following the shoot we retired to the Orchard Pond for appetizers, prior to dinner in the main dining room. I cant even to begin to describe the awesome food that was prepared for us all through this stay! Drinks, fresh oysters, cheese platters, pheasant dishes, swordfish steaks....Wow!





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[size]Day 4 saw us on another duck hunt. This time, our party shot as individuals out of a series of 5 blinds strung out along a levee. I was duly warned not to send Scooter into one of the "holes" to the left of my blind, as they had seen a big gator in there they'd not had time to remove..... duly noted!

At daybreak the wood duck gunning was fast and furious; but, once again, a strict one hour limit was enforced as the came twisting through the gaps in trees surrounding the levee on the way to a sanctuary pond somewhere in the distance behind us.



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Back to Orchard Pond for breakfast and a quick nap; then we got to go along to witness a wild hog hunt. A treat to see the "Marines" of the dog world (Catahoula Hounds) decked out in their "flack" vests, fearlessly bring a hog to bay and pin it for the handler to move in and dispatch it with a long knife. With as much acreage as the Phipps Plantations have, there are plenty of wild hogs running in packs. The one the dogs took was about 115 lbs. Fairly small, but not something I'd want to wade in and knife at close quarters. They have killed some boars on the property that went well over 400 lbs. (That 480 pounder was dispatched with a Glock 40, not a knife.


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Bob,
How cool was that! I might even be thinking that Scooter had a better time than you did. Looks like everyone had a grand time. Thanks for sharing.
 
After the hog hunt, we headed back to the woods and heavy cover surrounding the area where the pheasant shoot had taken place.

Again, Scooter had never done this type of pheasant hunting; however, she responds well to the little spaniel whistle I've always trained her with, and it was no problem to get her to quarter in close in a nice winshield-wiper pattern between the guns in our group.... Me in the middle and two others out on my right & left. About 10 minutes into our hunt, she locked up prettier than a picture on a pheasant in dense cover and made the retrieve when it was flushed & shot.

After that, she had this new "game" figured out and continued to find birds through the rest of the afternoon. She even put up a covey of quail and two singles which we didn't shoot at, as we didn't know if that would be OK with our hosts. Turned out it would've been.


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Some more scenes from the Phipps Plantation. The "Big House" where the grandparents lived:



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View out the back of Orchard Pond





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The formal dining room where we had a great sit down dinner served to us every evening:



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Perspective on the grandparents "Big House" .... view from rear.



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Our next day of hunting, saw us headed over the Georgia line where an awesome quail hunt awaited us.

Scooter got to hang for the day with Jenni Phipps back at Orchard Pond, as I figured the quail hunting was best left to the professional pointers. I was right.

Just an awesome all-day experience.... am & pm hunts, and so many coveys pointed that I lost count. We rode on the back of a mule drawn wagon, and rotated down in shifts of two whenever a covey was pinned. Between the 5 of us, we took 26 quail and got to witness some magnificent dog work.



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What were the odds of someone pressing the button and catching this shot!

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One of our party, the renowned taxidermist, Tony Gilyard, took 3 quail with a traditional black-powder hammer gun !







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Final morning saw us out & back for another wood quick duck shoot, then back to Orchard Pond to pack the car. pack the cooler, and head for Thomasville, where we were given admittance to the second floor fine-gun room at Kevin's
Holy crap! There were shotguns worth more that my house up there!! Quite a treat to be let up into the "inner sanctum."

After a quick lunch at George & Louie's in Thomasville, we hit the road north.


All in all, the trip and the opportunity of a lifetime. As Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff said in Henry IV Pt I : "Blessed are those who have been my friends!"


Lots more pics for those who are interested on my " The Ropes and The Tools " page on Facebook. Including some great pictures of our visit to Tony Gilyard's personal taxidermy collection. while we were en-route to Knox County
 
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Bob that looks like one heckuva time!

Someday I wanna do the mule drawn hunt like that. And I'd love to watch a dog hunt...whether for deer or hogs.

Love that flying quail shot

Dani
 
Dave,

If Scooter had her druthers, I'm sure she could adapt to that kind of a life....... especially curling up in those big leather chairs in front of the fire [;)]
 
That is something to write home about for sure. Looks like your pup was also having a wonderful time.
Al
 
Very cool Bob. Thanks for sharing. If I hadn't read Florida I would have thought you were in Europe at one of those majestic hunting estates. Much different and more civilized than crawling and slinging mud all over you from head to toe sneaking and jumpshooting ducks on backwater ponds.
 
As I read through your rendition of shoots, I couldn't help but tally-up your species take as table fare...not a clinker in the bunch: wood duck, pheasants, quail, wild hog! Have you eaten wild quail before this? How about wild hog, or as the new moniker implies...heritage pork?
 
I hand around the wrong friends.... need a new buddy?

That looks like in heck of a fantastic hunt of a lifetime. The first ?house? picture looks like it could be heaven.

Thanks for sharing.

MRk
 
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