Gabe and his dogs

Gabe and his dogs

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Chatting with good friend Gabe Rodriguez, I learned how he developed his passion for hunting wild pheasant. Gabe went out a lot with his grandpa and they hunted their own corn and soybean farming operation.

They were down in the corn belt of Illinois and the Corn Belt is down there in southern Illinois and that's where they say that corn and soybean grow the best they can harvest the most crops each season. But that being said that's where the wild pheasant are. And that area is where my family had large corn and soybean farms. And so all the wild pheasant that's all I grew up hunting. I didn't go to any outfitters with him. Of course we did that a little bit but our priority was doing it out on the family farm. Not surprisingly so that's why I think I gained such a love for it because it's not that easy. It's not that simple as it is when you're doing it through an outfitting company outfitting company of course they take you right to it and the way they go. But the wild birds are definitely different they act different they have different types of instinct and you actually got to hunt. Imagine that! Imagine that! So when you hunted, presumably it was with your grandpa.

Did you guys just stalk the fields or did you use dogs or where do we go with that.

Well we used a combination of poodle pointers and German short hairs. My grandfather was a big fan of the German short hair as well as my uncles as well as sportsmen spotlight pheasant hunter and team member Tommy Allen.

Previous ReportTommy's Bear Hunt
Next ReportNational Fishing and Boating Week