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Let’s
turn back the clock about 35 years. Now, remember some good television
theme songs. For example, “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” or
“Hawaii Five-0.” So here’s your assignment: if you had to
suggest a theme song for a television show dealing with hunting blue
quail, what might it be? Such
was my dilemma as I headed for Big Spring last week about 5:30 a.m. My
answer came prophetically across the San Angelo oldies station. I
can’t recall the group’s name (maybe the Dave Clark Five?), but
the refrain is “catch us if you can.” And it’s surely a blue
quail’s anthem; they know every word by heart. Several
months ago I was approached by Wade Middleton of San Antonio about
what kind of quail hunt might be an appealing show. Middleton produces
a show called “Hunting and Fishing Texas.” I’d had the good
fortune of working with him two years ago on a bobwhite hunt at the
Aiken Ranch to tout the Bobwhite Brigade. This time I suggested a blue
quail hunt with dogs. This
is reality TV at its finest, and the reality is that trying to catch
up with blue quail on foot is always a challenge. When you handicap
your effort with a cameraman lugging a 45-pound camera on his
shoulder, it’s downright sporty. Our
hunts would take us to the Rocker Ranch near Gail and the McDowell
Ranch in Glasscock County. Both ranches are cooperators in the Texas
Quail Index, a program that I wanted to highlight during the show. And
both ranches were eager to cooperate for the exposure about how
exciting a blue quail hunt can be. A
“made for TV” quail hunt should proceed something like this: the
brace of bird dogs strikes a portrait point with tails high, the
late-afternoon sun highlighting them against a classic Texas
background. The two hunters move in on the point as the cameraman
aligns his lens just over the shoulder of the featured hunter. The
birds flush exactly on cue and the hunters coordinate their shooting
to drop three birds, all cocks. Each is delivered artistically by a
soft-mouthed retriever. Well,
at least that’s the way I remember Phil Harris and Curt Gowdy doing
it on “The American Sportsman” show of my youth. So much for
choreography. Blue
quail march (run?) to their own drummer, and they don’t read
scripts. If you’ve never seen a blue quail hunt on television,
there’s a good reason for that ... it’s called mucho
trabajo. But
we did have some luck. We saw plenty of birds on the Rocker; 20 or so
coveys, all but three of which were blues. Several times we thought we
had them trapped, but it seems that blues are the Harry Houdinis of
the quail world. We’d start off as fast we could, cameraman in tow,
only to have them give us the “shizamm” (i.e., they skunked us). Occasionally
we’d hear the barking of blue quail off in the distance. Their
two-note “chip-chur” call has sometimes been referred to as
“chuck-ker,” but I proffered they were saying “suck-ker, suck-cker!”
as we made the long walk back to the pickup trucks. The cameraman, who
was now relegated to a perch on the pickup truck as he’d twisted an
ankle earlier that day, would tape us walking back with the Caprock in
the background. While
we never taped a covey rise on blues that day, we did get tape of
perhaps eight birds being taken over dogs. I’ve learned that an
outdoors television show can make a show on quail hunting with as
little as two covey rises, so I felt good about what we’d
accomplished on Day 1 of the hunt. The
remainder of the show was taped at the McDowell Ranch north of Garden
City. Another dawn met us that was tailor-made for quail hunting.
Temperature about 45 degrees with a tint of fog and a light wind;
conditions couldn’t be better for the dogs. One
of the ranch’s guides, Howard Hornsby, a chiropractor from Big
Spring, joined us. As we drove the ranch roads, I had a chance to
visit with Howard, and found him to be as big a fan of blue quail as
am I. Our conversations were interrupted only by birdy dogs and a
frequent scamper for scaled quail. We put up 10 coveys before lunch,
and garnered several more birds under the watchful eye of the camera. There
are several ways to have success in hunting blue quail. One is an
all-out assault where the dust flies. There’s a saying that “if
you haven’t shot a blue quail on the ground, you’ve never shot a
blue quail.” Another way is what I’ve come to know as the
“Midland loop,” where a covey is surrounded by three Jeeps with a
total of nine hunters. The “loop” surrounds the quail and then
flushing dogs are sent in to push the birds into taking wing. But
when hunting blue quail with pointing dogs, one has basically two
strategies, and the better is impossible to plan for. If you can catch
blues on the first day of a nice snowfall (before it crusts over),
their running defense is limited, and you can have remarkable dog
work. But alas, no snow fell during our hunt, so we went to “Plan
B,” i.e., a “divide and conquer” strategy. Get the birds
scattered and they’ll hold for a bird dog. Well, more or less,
especially when they’re in cover like we found on the McDowell and
Rocker ranches. But
even with good weather, and beautiful cover conditions, there are no
guarantees. I think it was General Norman Schwarzkopf who said, “The
enemy always has a vote on the battlefield.” And blue quail
must’ve tutored under the Desert Fox. But we hold no malice against
their getting the better of us most of the time, indeed just a greater
appreciation of them for being the survivors they are. We
had great hunts against backdrops that would have been befitting for
“The American Sportsman.” Good walks through great quail habitat
with good folks and dogs who shared our passion. Our postscripts were
typical West Texas signature sunsets. Curt
Gowdy, where were you? P.S.
The show will air sometime next August or September; watch for it. |
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Questions? Comments? Suggestions? |