Had a nice little trip last Sunday
Took my crossed pup (patterdale/bulldog) out with me for a little early morning bass fishing, brush bustin, and squirrel chasing. We started off fishing just before sun-up. With in about 10 minutes I get a nice blow up on my 6” lunker punker. The fish swirls but doesn’t commit so I do the magic pop, glide, pause,….. pop, glide, pause and BOOM!!! FISH ON!!!! He takes off hard towards the weeds and goes airborne, charges across to my left and goes airborne again, followed by a few more side-to-side darts. Meanwhile my pup sees the fish jumping and is going ape [beeep] barking and lunging. I get the fish landed and had to fight the dog off to keep him from getting hooked. Ended up dumping the fish without a picture. He went at least 5lbs maybe 6.
We worked our way down the levy fishing and checking out berry bushes and other brush piles. We found some coon tracks to follow but didn’t end up finding anything. We cross a field and hit the forebay (this is where all our precious northern California water gets pumped south). Right as we hit the water I hear a Coyote Yippin. He sounds pretty close. I keep looking back up the levy and see him running and yipping about 200 or so yards away. He keeps stopping and looking at us and yipping and then soon disappears (I figure that he saw my pup when we went over the levy and was trying to lure him away). We go back to fishing and my pup gets wound up and lets out two barks at my lure. The coyote answers back with a few yipps. We work the shoreline for about another mile or so then head back up top of the levy to cross back to a slough that holds some good bass. Right away I see a coyote coming through the brush towards us from about 50 yards or so. I didn’t get a good look at him to see how big he was but he was coming towards us and covering ground fast. I swoop down and grab my pup just as the coyote comes out of the brush about 30 yards away. He’s taller than my pup but not too much bigger (maybe 10lbs) so I decide to let my pup go and see what happens. My pup sees him right away and charges down the levy towards him. I jog down following as they engage right in the first bush. I hear barking/baying/fighting so I drop my rod and charge into the brush. I see glimpses of the mayhem. I could hear them engage and then it would get quite. I could hear my dogs collar and he would come back and check on me every so often and then the coyote would come back and they would engage again. This happened about 3 or 4 times. The field that this was happening in was pretty big and the grass and brush was 4-6 feet high. I knew there was a spot just down the way where the field narrows down to about 30 yards wide. It gets quite so I call my pup and we head over to the narrow section and just as I thought, the coyote follows us. We get a good ways from the big field and the coyote comes running up and hides behind a tree/bush. I tell my dog “check” and he is off b-line towards the coyote. My dog heads toward the south side of the bush and the coyote bolts 20 yards out the north side, turns around, sees my dog and b-lines back at him. This time all [beeep] breaks loose. They engage behind the bush so I can’t see what happened but I hear fighting and then barking/baying. I am running towards them as this is going down and they both bolt over the levy towards the water. By the time I hit the top of the levy, they are 70 yards away and almost back to the big field. The coyote seems to be running from my dog, so I call him off. He comes right back to me again and the coyote stops on the top of the levy looking at us. He is standing about 15-20 yards away from a fisherman and doesn’t seem bothered by him. I stand there with my pup for a minute and the coyote heads off back to the big field never to be seen again. My pup had a good scratch on his nose and a good puncture on the top of his head but that was it. I head back across to the slough and continue fishing while my pup continues working over berry bushes and chasing around rabbits and squirrels. Eventually we made the hike back to the truck. During the hike, my pup came close to catching a couple of ground squirrels but they were able to put the moves on him when he was right on top of them. Just before leaving, I pissed in the forebay (like I always do) and said drink that L.A.!!!! and hopped in the truck and went home.
The coyote was a young one. I would say a yearling but he was definitely NOT full grown. Definitely a fun outing!!! Thanks for reading.
Mike
Took my crossed pup (patterdale/bulldog) out with me for a little early morning bass fishing, brush bustin, and squirrel chasing. We started off fishing just before sun-up. With in about 10 minutes I get a nice blow up on my 6” lunker punker. The fish swirls but doesn’t commit so I do the magic pop, glide, pause,….. pop, glide, pause and BOOM!!! FISH ON!!!! He takes off hard towards the weeds and goes airborne, charges across to my left and goes airborne again, followed by a few more side-to-side darts. Meanwhile my pup sees the fish jumping and is going ape [beeep] barking and lunging. I get the fish landed and had to fight the dog off to keep him from getting hooked. Ended up dumping the fish without a picture. He went at least 5lbs maybe 6.
We worked our way down the levy fishing and checking out berry bushes and other brush piles. We found some coon tracks to follow but didn’t end up finding anything. We cross a field and hit the forebay (this is where all our precious northern California water gets pumped south). Right as we hit the water I hear a Coyote Yippin. He sounds pretty close. I keep looking back up the levy and see him running and yipping about 200 or so yards away. He keeps stopping and looking at us and yipping and then soon disappears (I figure that he saw my pup when we went over the levy and was trying to lure him away). We go back to fishing and my pup gets wound up and lets out two barks at my lure. The coyote answers back with a few yipps. We work the shoreline for about another mile or so then head back up top of the levy to cross back to a slough that holds some good bass. Right away I see a coyote coming through the brush towards us from about 50 yards or so. I didn’t get a good look at him to see how big he was but he was coming towards us and covering ground fast. I swoop down and grab my pup just as the coyote comes out of the brush about 30 yards away. He’s taller than my pup but not too much bigger (maybe 10lbs) so I decide to let my pup go and see what happens. My pup sees him right away and charges down the levy towards him. I jog down following as they engage right in the first bush. I hear barking/baying/fighting so I drop my rod and charge into the brush. I see glimpses of the mayhem. I could hear them engage and then it would get quite. I could hear my dogs collar and he would come back and check on me every so often and then the coyote would come back and they would engage again. This happened about 3 or 4 times. The field that this was happening in was pretty big and the grass and brush was 4-6 feet high. I knew there was a spot just down the way where the field narrows down to about 30 yards wide. It gets quite so I call my pup and we head over to the narrow section and just as I thought, the coyote follows us. We get a good ways from the big field and the coyote comes running up and hides behind a tree/bush. I tell my dog “check” and he is off b-line towards the coyote. My dog heads toward the south side of the bush and the coyote bolts 20 yards out the north side, turns around, sees my dog and b-lines back at him. This time all [beeep] breaks loose. They engage behind the bush so I can’t see what happened but I hear fighting and then barking/baying. I am running towards them as this is going down and they both bolt over the levy towards the water. By the time I hit the top of the levy, they are 70 yards away and almost back to the big field. The coyote seems to be running from my dog, so I call him off. He comes right back to me again and the coyote stops on the top of the levy looking at us. He is standing about 15-20 yards away from a fisherman and doesn’t seem bothered by him. I stand there with my pup for a minute and the coyote heads off back to the big field never to be seen again. My pup had a good scratch on his nose and a good puncture on the top of his head but that was it. I head back across to the slough and continue fishing while my pup continues working over berry bushes and chasing around rabbits and squirrels. Eventually we made the hike back to the truck. During the hike, my pup came close to catching a couple of ground squirrels but they were able to put the moves on him when he was right on top of them. Just before leaving, I pissed in the forebay (like I always do) and said drink that L.A.!!!! and hopped in the truck and went home.
The coyote was a young one. I would say a yearling but he was definitely NOT full grown. Definitely a fun outing!!! Thanks for reading.
Mike
