Collins Doughtie: Take the word ‘work’ out of your vocabulary and go fishing or hunting

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. I don’t know about y’all, but being an avid outdoorsman the biggest dilemma I’ll encounter in the next few weeks is “What should I do?”

If you are thinking the answer is “Go to work,” then you seriously have your priorities out of whack. Deer and dove season are in, shrimp are finally beginning to scamper out of the creeks with those tiny little legs going a million miles an hour and fishing of every type is about to be as hot as it gets.

For me at least, the word work barely makes its way into my top 10 things to do.

I have never been a big-game hunter, but if the phone rings and someone mentions a dove hunt, it actually confuses me, especially if the decision to go comes down to choosing between a fishing excursion or a bird hunt.

It used to be easy to find good dove hunts, but nowadays with so many hunters out there willing to spend ridiculous amounts of dough to lease bird and deer hunting rights from farmers, a good old-fashioned dove shoot is hard to come by.

I can remember when all you had to do was knock on some farmer’s door and politely ask them if you could shoot a few doves in his just harvested cornfield, and they would almost always say, “Go right on ahead.”

But as the years went by, more and more farmers either got out of the business and planted pine trees instead of corn or worse, lost their gracious manners when hordes of wealthy hunters from Florida offered these same farmers big bucks to lease hunting rights.

It was such a shame because some of my best hunting memories revolved around dove hunting with friends. It was as much a social event as anything, and tall tales and endless bantering would have me laughing so hard my stomach would hurt and tears would run down my cheeks.

On one such day I invited the late Herb King, one of the funniest people I have ever known, on his very first dove hunt. The birds were pouring into the field by the hundreds, and when it was clear that everyone had their limit and it was time to go, I walked over to Herb and asked him how he did.

So that you have a visual, he was knee deep in spent shotgun shells, and his answer was simply this: “Well, Collins, I didn’t hit any but they sure knew I was here!”

I was fortunate enough to go offshore fishing recently, and two days later headed up country to a dove hunt with Craig Everetts. The dove hunt wasn’t a barnburner, but it was still fun. Having hunted with Craig for many years, it was great getting back out in a dove field.

Had we been paying attention a tad better, we could have gotten a limit, but them little birds were sneaky. It was like they knew when nature called.

You can’t hold a gun when you’re doing your business. Needless to say, there was no shortage of laughter.

The offshore trip was with my friend Dan Cornell and locals Brian Larsen and Bill “The Sponge” Sanderson.

The ocean was so calm we were able run at 45 mph. We were hot as blazes and sweating like crazy, but the bite was incredible. Gag and scamp grouper, loads of triggerfish, big vermillion snapper and red snapper some huge were everywhere we stopped.

The moratorium on red snapper has definitely worked, and though they aren’t going to open any days this year when you can keep them, I found a gadget for releasing bloated snapper suffering from decompression that works way better than a venting tool. It’s called a “SeaQualizer” and it works like a charm getting snapper back to the bottom unharmed.

Looking somewhat like a bogagrip, you simply clamp the device on the snapper’s lower jaw, turn a dial to the depth you are in, add enough weight to carry the fish down to the bottom and, pressure activated, it releases the fish unharmed ready to fight another day.

I ordered mine from capt.harry.com.

Speaking of gadgets, I met with Capt. Ross Taylor last week, owner of Taylor Offshore Company. He has developed a new gadget that makes changing baits while offshore trolling quicker and easier.

This two-part stainless steel gadget eliminates the need for snap swivels and long wire leaders that always seem to kink after catching one or two fish, making it necessary to rig a new one.

I was impressed. With his new quick snaps, you can pre-rig baits using at most a foot of wire, making it easier to store your baited rigs. And when it comes time to put a fish, like a thrashing mahi, in the fish box, one pull on the collar of this new clip is all it takes. You can have the fish in the box and a new rig in the water in seconds.

Check these things out at www.taylor-offshore.com.

So drop the word “work” from your vocabulary and replace it with “outdoors,” because from now on the choices are endless.

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