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Water Wabbits

by Harvey Cain :: Featured: June, 2003

When hunting the swamps of south Mississippi, you will normally find an abundance of water. If you are in pursuit of that jumbo jumper called a swamp rabbit then lots of water is a good thing. Find a little cover around water and there is where Mr. Swamp Rabbit will be. This web-footed bunny will often use water to escape a pack of hot nosed hounds. This presents a challenge to our four legged hunting buddies. They have to develop special skills to stay after a critter that takes to the water. We must also be prepared to meet the many challenges of hunting around water.

Swamplands in the south, not only have an abundance of rabbits, but they are home for many other critters. The site and sounds of all the swamp creatures that you may encounter are a big part of the overall experience. The beauty of the sun shining on a giant spider web as a large banana spider makes his way across the web is something to behold. You may forget just how awesome it all looked, when you feel one of those three inch spiders crawling across the back of your neck. Some spiders are poisonous while others are not. There are 40,000 different species of spiders in the world, and during an early season hunt in a Mississippi swamp you will encounter a few of these eight-legged creatures. In addition to spiders, you will find warm days are filled with mosquitoes and ticks. These pest, will take some of the fun out of a hunt, but more importantly they may be carriers of West Nile or Lime Disease.

The swamps also serve as home sweet home for a number of reptiles. I have not seen that many snakes in the swamps while hunting, but be assured they are there. Both the rattler and the cottonmouth are still on the move during the October and November season. The cold days of December will normally send them all into hibernation. I have seen a few gators, but mostly in the summer time when fishing in some horseshoe lake. The snakes and gators are the original rabbit hunters of the swamp. While hunting on a warm Thanksgiving Day, a very large Eastern Diamond Back Rattler was killed. This snake was more than six feet long and it had a large lump in its mid section. We cut the snake open and a full-grown swamp rabbit dropped out. You may encounter or in most cases, hear the sounds of bullfrogs and turtles. The loud bellow of a giant frog or the splash of a turtle falling from a log can break the silence. Top all this off with a good crop of poison ivy and you are ready to meet the challenges of a swamp hunt in the south. Well one more thing, you will need to learn to walk in, around and sometimes on water.

The abundance of water found in a swamp will present challenges to both dog and man. This same water that serves as a magnet to draw swamp rabbits to an area is also their source of survival. The little show they put on for hound and hunter is nothing to compare to the run for their life that they must make when they are pursued by a pack of hungry coyotes or a sly old fox. Any swamp rabbit that has lived to the ripe old age of 1 ½ or 2 years has mastered the art of surviving around water. They will jump over streams and bayous. They will swim down sloughs and across lakes to leave a pack of hounds or coyotes behind.

While hunting in the Pascagoula Swamp Management Area, my dogs jumped a rabbit near a small lake. The forest floor was clean, but there were a number of large brier patches. These heavy saw briers exist to rip the hide of a hound or the flesh of a man. They are the kind that Mr. Rabbit likes to lead a pack of hounds thru. The rabbit slides right thru and the hounds get a case of the red tail. The dogs pushed this rabbit out of a tight brier patch that bordered the lake. They were putting a lot of heat on this critter. He was sure to hurry back to the safety of the briers or the water.

I waited near the lake, thinking that he would run the water’s edge on his way back to the brier patch. As I stood there enjoying the sound of my hounds, I looked out over the lake and about 100 feet out I saw a large V moving across the lake. My first impression, was, I was looking at a gator. A closer look reviled that this rather fast swimmer, had ears. Yes it turned out to be the rabbit and he was putting one giant lose on my hounds. About the time they arrived at the spot where he had went into the water, the rabbit turned and swam back towards me. About 20 feet from the bank, he climbed up between two cypress trees to wait for the dogs to give up. I slipped up the bank and saw the rabbit setting there acting as if he may have done this before. A successful headshot brought me to my next challenge. I had to do the slow wade to cross the 20 feet of 16 ½ inch deep water with my 17 inch boots.

These water wise bunnies will do what ever it takes to shake our hard hunting hounds off their trail. Some will jump over a slew or stream that may be eight to ten feet wide. They can only hope that the hounds are water shy and will not follow. The experienced hound will follow their nose across the water and continue the chase. On more than one occasion, I have noted where the dogs crossed and then waited for the rabbit to return to this same spot for another giant leap. I normally, take a shot after the rabbit is back on my side of the water. If you shoot before they jump, the dogs may get to the rabbit before you do. It is not so bad to try and run across a short span of water that is a little over your boots, but not a good idea to try and tread water that may be three feet deep. If you are wearing rubber boots and snake chaps, you may be able to hurry across water that is a little over your boots. If you are lucky the chaps will close down around your boots and keep you from getting wet.

Many of these swamp bunnies will enter a span of water, swim out for a short distance and then swim down the bank for 100 feet or more where they then leave the water for parts unknown. You absolutely must have a good water dog to help find where the rabbit left the water. If you don’t have one, then you need a friend that has one. John is my neighbor and the other member of our two-man hunting club. He has a fine old dog who’s name is Missy. I call her, Missy the Water Dog. She has lots of nose and lots of rabbit smarts. When a hot trail ends at water, she starts to work down the bank. She will go in one direction for 100 feet or so, and if she don’t pick up the trail, she will work the other direction. If the rabbit came back out, she will find it. If it crossed over a very wide span of water it may have escaped to run another day. I have seen Missy the Water Dog follow a wounded rabbit off into a swift river. She caught the rabbit, drug it up on a sand bar and had a back leg for lunch. I guess swimming builds up an appetite.

Some years ago, I was hunting in the branch, behind my house. Heavy rains had left the branch full of water. My dogs were running hard and seemed to be pushing the rabbit back to me. The water was spread across the branch. I was standing near the center where the water was deep. As I waited for the rabbit to show, I looked down at the water and saw a black nose moving thru the water towards me. The only part of the rabbit out of the water was its nose. It swam up to the edge, climbed out, shook off and got shot.

The last Saturday of the 2002/2003 season, (24 Feb 2003), I was hunting with John and another neighbor named Bruce. We were hunting along the Pascagoula River, very near Alligator Slough. We started at a brier patch, where the week before John had killed two rabbits. He got to shoot the second rabbit before he ever picked up the first one. I am sure this is not a first for him, but it was the first in a long time. As in any good swamp area, there was lots of water in and around these briers. We were able to run a number of rabbits in this area, but they all used the water to cut the races short. These rabbits must have been taking survival classes.. We did jump one rabbit that stayed out of the water long enough to cross the road and run down the slough right into Bruce’s gun.

Our next stop took us to a very wide and very long grass strip. It looks like it is big enough to land a plane. Along the edge of this grass is heavy woods on one side and briers and water on the other. We soon had a rabbit up and moving. The dogs pushed the rabbit across the grass and into the heavy briers that separated the grass from the water. As I stood ready for the rabbit to break out of the briers, I looked out over the water and saw Mr. Rabbit taking a swim. We had a quick radio vote and agreed that I should shoot the rabbit in the water. It was a long shot. I fired and could see the shot hit the water all around the rabbit. I shot again but the rabbit continued to swim. When I fired the third shot, the rabbit flopped around like a fish and then started to float.

Here we have a rabbit floating some 100 feet out in the water. The water looks deep. How will we retrieve this rabbit? The wind was blowing the rabbit in to us but it was a light breeze and was going to take a long time for it to drift to the bank. I decided that my dog Shorty had some experience retrieving and that all I needed to do was to show him the rabbit and he would swim right out and get it. Now if I could get him to do this, I would really have something to brag about. Bragging is almost as much fun as rabbit hunting. I called Shorty over and talked to him in my most excited voice. The wind was blowing just right for him to smell the rabbit. With the smell of the rabbit and my encouragement, he started to get a little excited. He whined a little and then pushed through the briers and jumped into the edge of the water. About this time John and Bruce chimed in with “Go Shorty, Go Shorty”. The water dropped off about three feet from the bank and that is where Shorty made a u-turn.

We were all trying to come up with a solution to our problem. I said, “What we need is rod and reel, so we could cast out and hook the rabbit.” John said, “We need the wind to blow the rabbit in.” About this time Bruce said, “What we need is a boat and here one is.” There a few inches under the water was a boat. We all got busy pulling this boat up out of the water. It was not only a boat but it was a very good boat. The floor and the hull were in excellent shape. We put it back into the water and it was a floater. Bruce could not find me a paddle. He found the boat, and it stands to reason he should be able to find an outboard or at the very least a paddle. No paddle, so I broke off a limb and used it to paddle out and pick up the rabbit. This boat may have been washed in from the river and been here for a number of years waiting for this day.

By now, you may think I am complaining about swamp hunts. That could not be farther from the truth. I will always prefer hunting swamps over all the pine thickets in south Mississippi. In the open swamps you get to see the rabbits, your hounds and other hunters. There are lots of brier patches, but there are also a lot of open areas.

Before we leave this never-ending story here are a few bullet statements to consider:

· A good repellent is a must. Carry it with you. When the afternoon temps go up, the mosquitoes will be out for blood.

· Rubber boots are a must. Hip high Frog Legs are a good choice.

· If you are prone to allergies, do not lean on, sit on, or touch trees with poison ivy attached. You will be sorry.

· Don’t walk wet logs or those that have loose bark. You will get wet.

· Don’t walk small or rotten logs. If you hear the sound of breakfast cereal. (Snap, Crackle and Pop) you are about to get wet.

· Beaver Dams may serve as a crossing, but proceed with caution. Most beaver dams have deep water on one side and some-what less on the other. If you must fall in, try to fall towards the shallow water. You may have a little farther to fall, but you won’t get as wet.

· If you are carrying any electronics or other valuables, that you may have had to purchase on the installment plan, you should also carry a very large zip-lock bag. When there is any chance that you are about to do something risky around water, put said valuables in the bag.

· Always keep a set of dry clothes, to include socks and underwear in your truck. When you use them, and you will, replace them.

· For a successful hunt, be sure to bring your water dog. If you don’t have a water dog, call John and invite him and Missy to join you. Works for me.