Dove season and archery season are both in season and hunters are trying their best to cope in this still warm weather. When we have long fall and winter hunting season,s we are going to have some days that are extremely warm because we really don’t have that much time during the winter for the major seasons. Dove and deer season is just in for a few weeks after the winter season starts. In talking and comparing our deer season to Alabama’s and Florida’s, the main contention we have here is the amount of days they have during the cold weather as compared to ours. That perception is true, but we seem to have more days for hunting and you can still get a license to hunt in the other states if you want to extend your season.

Mr. Varnum was telling me this week that he went dove hunting over the Labor Day holiday and got two birds, while his son got the limit and the grandchildren wanted to play more than hunt. It won’t be many years before the playing will be over and they will shoot more shells than any grownup. Shells will probably cost a lot by that time. Mr. Varnum is running into eye problems, what a lot of us have as we got older. Cataracts and eye surgery are not good for a shooter and any other eye surgery may not help in the long run. It is a good thing we have those grandchildren coming along, so that they can hunt for us and we can still have a good mess of doves to eat.

A group of hunters can kill a large number of doves in an afternoon, go to the house and in just a few minutes have them frying. It kinda depends what you intend to have to go along with the birds, but usually a right good meal can be prepared in just a few minutes. About as easy to prepare a good meal is to wait until the suckerfish season comes in and drop a few hundred feet of webbing in the water. Give it a few hours and with luck, you will have enough suckers to feed a mighty big crowd. Some swamp gravy to go along with the suckers and there is no way that it can be beat, except with a really big stick. I have to watch my blood sugar and it is going up just thinking about food like that.

Squirrel is something we never ate after hunting. My Dad said that our luck would be that all we killed would be old squirrels. Those are good to put in rice, but too tough for frying. We didn’t make a habit of going deer hunting and eating what we killed. A lot of times there is not a deer killed regardless of how good a hunter you think you may be. You could nearly starve to death like that. Smart folks, or really experienced cooks, take along plenty of potatos and bread so if the main course runs thin they will have something to fall back on. The stomach falling back on the backbone is not something you want to experience more than once, but everyone needs to experience hunger at least one time. At all costs, you will avoid it again.

With three seasons in and several more on the way, we can see that the Southwest Georgia fall hunting seasons are here upon us and more seasons will be opening up as the days go by. But with that, remember that most fish have no season and you can go any time that you get the urge. Fish are biting pretty good for those that go. If you don’t go, you will not catch many, probably none. Hunting or fishing, whichever you prefer, it is there for you right now. Attack.