TRICKS IN THE TREETOPS

The Cadillac of Squirrel Dogs

Editor's Note: Regardless of how many years you've hunted squirrels, each season you tend to forget some of the basics. You even may refuse to learn any new skills, believing that you've always taken squirrels with the hunting tactics you use.

Fox Haas, Toxey's dad, once told me that, "Toxey was raised on squirrel hunting. He started going squirrel hunting with me right after he learned how to walk. He always loved to squirrel hunt and still enjoys going today." Toxey Haas never hesitated when I invited him to accompany me on a dog squirrel hunt at White Oak Plantation near Tuskegee, Alabama, the week after we'd stalk hunted squirrels at his hunting club. Every year in February White Oak Plantation holds a celebrity squirrel hunt on its more than 30,000 acres. On this fun squirrel-dog hunt, some of the finest tree rat chasers in the world come to show off their talents. Several years ago, several men brought their world-champion-class squirrel dogs. Most of these dogs had earned their reputations by competing in the American Treeing Feist Association's certified squirrel-dog field trials. But BJ, owned by Jimmy Warren of Castleberry, Alabama, won my award for the most unique dog. "BJ is the Cadillac of squirrel dogs," Warren told us. "He was trained in the national forests in Arkansas to run down woods roads and logging roads while the hunters drove his car behind BJ. When BJ smells a squirrel from the road, he'll break and go off into the woods. After you stop your truck and hear BJ bark tree, you and your hunting companions can get out of your truck, walk away from the road, load your guns and go to the tree. Once you've taken a squirrel, you can pick up the downed bushytail, walk back to the truck with BJ following you and begin to drive down the road again."

For many years when I've gone squirrel hunting and driven down woods roads, spotted a squirrel and bailed out of the car to go and take the squirrel, I've found the squirrel has tricked me and either has kept on running or gone up a tree where I can't spot him. But with a road-runner like BJ, those squirrels that run across the road won't trick him. BJ doesn't even have to see the squirrels run across the road to report their location by barking. If you like to squirrel hunt, but don't like to walk, especially in mountainous terrain, then you need a dog like BJ. You also won't waste time when you hunt squirrels with a dog. You can listen to the radio, talk to friends, drink soft drinks and eat snacks until the dog moves off the road to tree. Then you can go to the tree, take the squirrel and get back into the truck. The ease of this type of squirrel hunting particularly benefits older hunters or very young hunters who have a hard time walking or can't walk great distances in a day.

Once you start hunting squirrels you'll find it a lifetime sport. For instance, Fox Haas started hunting squirrels as a young boy and still had rather hunt squirrels today than any other game. He taught Toxey not only how to hunt squirrels but to love the sport of squirrel hunting. Although most people know Toxey Haas primarily for his turkey-hunting and deer-hunting skills, he learned his woodsmanship from taking a .22 rifle into the fall woods with his dad to hunt bushytails. That love of the outdoors and squirrel hunting that always belonged to the boy, Toxey Haas, today still figures prominently in the life of Toxey Haas, the man, the creator of Mossy Oak camouflage.

No matter your age or whether you prefer to slip through the woods silently with a .22 or hunt behind a short-legged, chop-mouth feist squirrel dog, you always can learn new tricks to take the high-flying bushytails of the tall timbers.

Tim Cosby
Route 2, Box 330
Ramer, AL 36069
Phone: 334-562-3124

Jim Rhea
215 North Wilson Street
Wynne, AR 73296
Phone: 501-238-9110

White Oak Plantation
5215 County Road 10
Tuskegee, AL 36083
Phone: 334-727-9258
www.whiteoakplantation.com

Danny Williams
5548 Old Liberty Road
Clinton, LA 70722
Phone: 504-638-4598

Jay Williams
Squirrel Dog Trainer
P.O. Box 62
Harrisburg, MO 65256
Phone: 573-815-9308