Its October, the weekend opening of Muzzle
loading hunting in the Big Cypress National Preserve. The rains of summer have
filled the Big Cypress Swamp. Everything is very wet out there right now.
Most of the pine and palmetto islands have water in them. This greatly
affected our hunt. The usual places we would go, were too much of a chore
to get too, in the high water. Its a good thing that hunting is not the
most important part of the going.
On our weekend trip we took two of the new owners of Camp Kanawha. Camp
Kanawha was owned by John Woodrum and was used by Jim Sharbono (Whiskers)
the last many years. The new owners are Matthew Taylor, Jason Groover,
Peter Mackey and Kyle Pennington (whom didn't make the trip). They are sportsmen,
familiar with the Big Cypress, as Matthew and his family lost their first
Big Cypress Camp to the NPS years ago. They are going to be a welcome
addition to the owners of camps in our area of the Big Cypress. |
Jason, Matthew, Tony, Steve, Rich |
Big Cypress Sunrise |
While new owners are like the sunrise, at the
beginning of the day, it also means the sunset of somebody's time in the
Big Cypress Swamp. This is a change that is inevitable. Life always has a
beginning and an end with a variable time in between. So does the time in
the Big Cypress. In our area of the Big Cypress, we have seen this change
in the last years. Most of the original sportsmen in our area are gone.
Wayne Drake, Ed Stewart and Jack Kavanaugh remain. Not that we don't have
good people following them, its just the ending of an era of the original
settlers.
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We have decided to restart one of the traditions in
our area of the Big Cypress. That tradition is to hold a cookout opening
weekend of general gun season. We have invited all the camps in our area
to join us Saturday night, including the Game Wardens and National Park
Service. There are a few camp owners in our area that I have not met, so
this a good time to meet new people and renew old acquaintances. Looking
forward to everyone coming.
I did hear that Franklin, over at Bears Den got the first deer in their
camp. Seems like that happened last year also. Franklin is still showing
those younger guys how it is done. Franklin also got the thrill of
watching a black bear rip up a log for about twenty minutes, while he was in
his stand. Too bad he didn't have a camera. Bob over at Big Pine Lodge got
a nice 7 pointer Monday morning. Story by Steve - October, 2003
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