Eddie Trapp
Editor's Note:
AS SOME OF YOU HAVE HEARD, MY EMAIL QUIT WORKING AND I HAD TO GET A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS. THE NEW ONE IS etrapp327@hotmail.com
FRIDAY NIGHT, NOVEMBER 30, I HAD A BRAINSTORM WHILE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET MY ARTICLE TO ALL OF YOU 450 OR SO WHO HAVE ASKED FOR IT. MY NEW EMAIL WOULD PROBABLY CRASH LIKE THE OLD ONE DID IF I CONTINUE TO TRY TO SEND “ON THE RIVER” TO ALL 450 OF YOU. BOBBY McDONALD OF SULPHUR SPRINGS HAS A GREAT WEBSITE THAT GIVES LOTS OF INFORMATION ABOUT THIS ENTIRE AREA. MY “ON THE RIVER” ARTICLE IS POSTED EACH WEEK ON HIS WEBSITE AND YOU MAY ALSO READ ANY THAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED. SIMPLY GET ON THE INTERNET AND SEARCH wwwfrontporchnewstexas THAT WILL GET YOU TO HIS WEBSITE THEN CLICK ON “FRONT PORCH NEWS TEXAS” AND THAT WILL OPEN THE “TOP NEWS.” SCROLL DOWN AND ON THE RIGHT IT SAYS, “THE TRAPPINGS OF EDDIE TRAPP.
THIS CERTAINLY DOES NOT MEAN I DON’T WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU READERS. I LOOK FORWARD TO CHECKING MY MAIL EACH MORNING TO HEAR FROM YOU. PLEASE CONTINUE TO EMAIL ME ALTHOUGH I REQUEST NOTHING POLITICAL, NOTHING RELIGIOUS, AND NO CHAIN TYPE LETTERS. I KNOW THAT MOST OF YOU HAVE MISSED THREE OR MORE OF MY ARTICLES SO PLEASE GO TO BOBBY’S WEBSITE WHERE ALL OF THEM ARE LISTED IF YOU WANT TO READ THEM, OR ANY FROM MONTHS AGO.
HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON. HAPPY TRAILS, EDDIE TRAPP....903 439 8110.
FISHIN’ FOR DEER
#1259
Our Jack Russell terrier, Zack, really pouts and is disappointed any time I go hunting and don’t let him go. Six or eight times this season I have deer hunted near our cabin south of Charleston. He goes with me to the cabin where I leave him inside. He whines as I cross the river while he watches from the window. If it is an afternoon hunt I get back to the river about dark. When I get near the cabin I shine my flashlight and there are his little eyes reflecting as he looks for my return. Jean has been fussing about me leaving him in the cabin. “He wants to go” she says. Years ago Peedee would get to go and sit in the stand with me. For some reason Wednesday I let Zack go and carried a light weight camouflage shirt to cover his white body. As I sat with my back to the Sun I put the camo shirt on him. His little head was sticking out and it looked like he had on a nightgown.
After telling Zack to “Stay” we settled down to wait. Twenty yards in the northeast I could see a little tree that had been polished with deer antlers. Only ten minutes had passed when I saw movement seventy yards north. Then I saw antlers. Quietly I took my deer call from my fanny pack in case the deer moved away I could try to lure him within range. The call was not needed however as the little buck slowly walked toward me, stopping every few steps to smell for an acorn. Zack had seen the buck by now and was shaking with excitement. I whispered for him to stay again and raised my 30-30 as the buck passed behind a tree. It was a spike buck, only one point on each side. As the buck came toward me at ten yards I set the sights on his chest and squeezed the trigger. The little buck turned just as I fired and the bullet scraped down his side to hit his hip.
Zack took off after him, turning three flips until he somehow got out of his nightgown. Imagine trying to run in a long nightgown and your feet stepping on it. I walked to where the deer had stood and found a lot of blood. Walked fast the way the dog and deer had gone because they were headed east toward a cedar thicket, prime coyote country. They love little dogs for supper. After five minutes I stopped to listen and heard Zack bark. While rushing to him the barking stopped and I knew the deer was moving again. Would it get away? After waiting a few more minutes I heard Zack barking in the north and knew the deer was trying to cross the river. Running to the river bank I saw Zack barking while the buck tried to get up the bank. Zack was chest deep in water at the edge and the deer would sometimes paw at him with a front foot. With his bad leg he couldn’t get out of the river and “Old Marlin” spoke again.
Deer have hollow hairs and usually float when they die in the water. Zack swam out to the spike and climbed up on him. Water is being let out at the spillway at the rate of four cubic feet per second, enough to slowly move downstream. The little buck floated down to a log in mid stream and the current held it there. In the northwest I could see the cabin only ninety yards away so I texted Jean and told her to come help. Back at the cabin I met Jean and was rigging up some cord to try to rope the antlers to pull the buck to shore. Then we remembered there was a rod and reel with fifty pound test line in the pickup. Here we go to fish for a deer. Jean fussed as we walked beside the water and seeds like cuckleburs and stick tights stuck to her clothes. Said I was gonna have to pick all them off. On the third throw the hook found the buck’s ear and I slowly reeled him toward the edge. As the deer got almost within reaching distance Jean got a good picture of the deer, Zack, and me. The rod was bent double as Zack waited for me to “land” the buck. What is the daily limit when you are fishing for deer?
Biologists say spike bucks are genetically inferior and will never have a trophy rack so harvesting them helps us have more big bucks. I usually try to kill a spike to have some meat while saving the bigger bucks for grandkids. But now if a really big one came by ??????
What are the odds that this was the first time I took Zack and was able to kill a deer? Without the little dog this meat would have been wasted.
With schools having mascots like bulldogs, tigers, and eagles it is easy to make a costume for someone to wear at ballgames. But as I watched the Alabama – Georgia game Saturday I wondered how someone could make a costume to look like “Crimson Tide.” Apparently Alabama fans longed for a mascot on the field like all their opponents because in 1930 Alabama was playing and somebody referred to the other team as having a bunch of “hosses” on their team. You know, big tough guys. A ‘Bama fan said, “Hold your ‘hosses’, here come the elephants.” He was saying the Alabama players were bigger and tougher than the other team. A sportswriter heard the elephant comment, printed it, and the nickname stuck. Now you can see “Big Al” at all the Alabama ballgames.
Cream colored Jupiter still shines brightly in the east as darkness arrives. December 12-13 the Geminid meteor shower is at its best after midnight.
You may have eaten too much if ……….volunteers start to stack sandbags around you. Doctors tell you your weight would be perfect for a man seventeen feet tall. You decide to take a little nap and wake up in mid-July. Every escalator you get on comes to a stop. You sweat gravy.
etrapp327@hotmail.com
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