b"HUNTINGShawns Top TipPig hunting is a bit like fishing - you don't catch the big ones sitting atThis photo shows the razor-sharp tusks home on the couch, you have to geton the boar which inflicted a nasty cut out there and do it! to Blue during the fight, luckily Shawn managed to stem the bleeding.DUNE SWAMPwas head-less, and it was obvious by thebashing going on as we made our way The wind was blowing westerly whichfresh-looking pig tracks all around thethrough the bush.After a short while wasnt ideal for hunting these swamps,eel that a pig had recently attacked thewe were a few hundred meters into the but we were keen to get out of the houseeel and eaten its head.This most likelyswamp, we came out into a clearer area after lockdown so decided to go anyway. occurred the night before we arrived. and my main dog Ghost indicated that The drive down the beach towing trailersThe head was nowhere to be found andhe could smell a pig in the swamp out with Rays side-by-side on one and mythe intact body of the eel had been lefttowards the back of the sand dunes in the quad on another is tide dependent, sobehind, I presumed it was intended to begeneral direction of the headless eel.after researching the tides we decided todinner for the pig the following night.We drive down the beach at half-tide in. estimated by looking at the pig tracks inTOUGH FIGHTAfter reaching the general area wethe sand, that it was a boar around the 90- Ghost began hunting, looking for the wanted to hunt, we parked the utes on100lb weight range which is a reasonablypig using the wind scent to guide him.the beach and unloaded our transport. good- sized pig for this area. None of the other dogs that were with us The dogs were released, and we put GPSIt wasnt immediately apparent whichseemed to realise there was a pig around.tracking collars on them.We drove to thedirection the pig had gone in, but logicWe waited a few minutes and then Ghost back of the sand dunes and after a shortdictated it would be in the swampsbegan to bark, he set up a beautiful bail while came upon some relatively freshsomewhere and hopefully not too faron his own, the other dogs immediately pig sign on the edge of the swamp in theaway.Ray decided that we should doran toward his location and shortly sand.There was fresh looking tracks anda big loop in the swamp around whereafterwards we could tell from the noise pig rooting in the sand where the pigs digwe thought the pig might be bedded upthat they had caught a pig.up the sand to find food.We then sawfor the day and hopefully the dogs couldIt was obvious by the sounds of the something that I have never seen in overget some wind scent from it and catch itdogs barking and the pig grunting that 30 years of pig hunting. for us. the dogs had caught a reasonable pig that We found a massive eel that was stillThe swamp we were hunting is verywas fighting with them.All three of us ran partially stuck in the back of the sanddense and the going is slow with no trackstoward the noise and found the dogs had dune where it meets the scrub, this eelthrough it.There was plenty of busha nice boar around the 100lb mark.86FISHING IN GODZONE MAY/JUN 2021"