DENTRY: Tradition in hunting isn't dead

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

It's an American tradition, though you might not know it if you've taken up hunting in recent times, when it seems everyone is expected to pay their way.

Landowners once granted hunters permission with good-natured greetings and "good luck." It still happens, though rarely.

Take the rancher named Viola, near Brush. Two dove hunters were so intent on asking permission - and so taken aback that it came with a generous smile - that we failed to get her last name.

Thank you, Viola.

With a wave of her arthritic hand and a "good luck," she went on her way, driving the old pickup across the road to her other pasture, where the water needed to be turned on for the cattle.

She said she appreciated the offers of help but needed none. She hadn't seen the doves, but they swarmed out of a patch of sunflowers near the old, abandoned house and yard.

We were just driving by and there was Viola, parked by the homestead fence. It's rare to find a landowner to ask anything out on the wide and grassy.

Viola is 80, with curly, white hair and the weathered look of someone who has worked under the sun her whole life.

She pointed across the rolling hills to the high school she graduated from in 1941. Then she floated on memories for a moment.

"I haven't seen any doves," she said. "But you are welcome to hunt here. The birds surely aren't mine."

There it was: the old way.

Everyone owns the wildlife. It's an axiom of American wildlife law. The forefathers and mothers made sure there were no "king's deer" in this country, though you would hardly know it from the profiteers these days.

On the other hand, earlier the same day, there was the farmer on the ATV who rolled into the Walk-In Access Area he had leased to the Division of Wildlife for public access.

It was just a modest scam and not very imaginative, but it couldn't hurt to try. He parked 20 feet from the sign that clearly announced public hunting.

"I get $20 a gun," he said.

We informed him that we already had paid our $20 for Walk-In Access permits.

So he tried to get $20 a gun to let us hunt behind the sign that read: Safe Zone, No Shooting. "We just don't want anyone shooting the satellite dish," he said.

It was tempting. The doves were pouring into that windbreak orchard of half-dead trees. But we declined - didn't like the looks of that sign.

Viola's hospitality reminded me of the late Dick Geesen, who delighted in hosting antelope hunts for the handicapped and others on his family ranch near Agate.

He refused offers of money. "Why should I charge hunters?" he would ask. "The antelope aren't mine."

Here's to the old-timers and to an American way that is rapidly going south.

Fishing hot spot: Pueblo Reservoir

• Why here? The reservoir offers potentially good fishing for a variety of warm-water species in a state park setting. Much of the heavy summer boat traffic is gone.

• What's hot: Fishing for crappie and channel catfish has come alive the past few days.

• Tackle box: For catfish, stink baits, night crawlers, dead shad and hot dogs; for crappie, traditional one-eighth-ounce jigs.

• Best times: For catfish, early mornings and late afternoons into the night; for crappie, midmorning into afternoon.

• How to get there: From Denver, travel south on Interstate 25 to Pueblo. Head west on U.S. 50 and, after four miles, turn left onto Pueblo Boulevard. Go four miles to Thatcher Avenue, turn right and proceed six miles to the lake. Or continue on U.S. 50 to McCulloch Boulevard, turn left and follow McCulloch through Pueblo West to a marked turnoff leading to the lake.

• Ask the experts: North Shore Marina, 719-547-3880.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com