Hunting Sugar Cane and the Wet Tropics - Gord

Sugar cane hunting and the wet tropics in general for hunting pigs is a difficult task. I find the most difficult being finding the right hunting dog to suit the area to be the hardest. Except for winter which isn’t so cold in the north, the rest of the year’s climate really knocks the dogs around up here. The rainforest is thick in most parts of it and 9 times out of 10 if the pigs know they are being prowled upon they head for the thick stuff. That of coarse being a trait for all pigs Australia wide almost and unfortunately we have every bit of cover, Steep hill, hot humid weather and anything else a pig can utilise for an escape.

Rainforest National parks are no go zones for hunters but there are plenty of private property rainforests attached to farming properties and also regrowth scrubs in cattle pastures and around other primary production area’s. This combination of cane, banana’s, cattle pasture, scrub and the intense heat and humidity mixed together strains a hunters physical and mental well being when out to catch that elusive pig. In saying that there are times when you do nothing right to plan and you easily catch a nice boar but that doesn’t happen often enough.

Of all the crops in NQ that I have hunted, sugar cane is by far the worst. Hundreds of acres and rows and rows of cane , tangled in a mess like a wall of giant grass is the only way I can describe it.

At different stages of cane’s growth and harvesting stages, this can determine the hunt. At full growth and sugar sweetness it is at its messiest but it is the time when pigs just can’t refuse a feed of it. Young cane the pigs cover more acreage because of lack of sticked cane so what seems fresh to the eye and nose could put you to a pig a kilometre away. Half way through the harvest is the best as you see pigs exciting paddocks, crossing cut cane or newly planted paddocks heading for cover but unless you have a fresh dog with good legs forget it too.

If it is summer the heat inside the cane is a few degrees more and few levels higher on the humidity scale. Pigs love cane and the cane feeds pigs into some awesome looking boars and also makes them cunning.

Sugar cane is also very noisy. The cane leaf as it grows drops down and dries out so a dog moving through it sounds like a rake continuously stirring up a pile of dried out leaves. It alerts pigs and dogs keep running to each other because of that noise and suspicion of it being a pig. Soon you end up with exhausted dogs that have been chasing each other around the paddock and it always seems to be at that time your dog comes back with a very long tongue and a side walk and you see a huge boar passing off up a headland or off in an open paddock.

Taking this all into account, I am going to try and get back to a Bully Cattle X, a Bully Boxer X as a pair of hunting dogs for the cane itself. Scenting for pigs in cane isn’t a major issue as the scent lingers in cane. A pair of dogs you can rotate for the hunting part, that can have a good lash at a pig, good enough to find, agile but aggressive, and not cook itself in 10 minutes. I don’t see a need for a long range scenting dog. That sort of dog can have you waiting for hours on a big cane property and also run you the risk of losing them in the scrub for a good period or full stop. To me there is nothing worse then missing a pig as there is getting onto pigs first thing in the morning and waiting till the arvo for the dogs to return or not even find them till the next day. If I miss out I would rather find a creek let the dogs have a rest while I drink a cuppa from the flask and move on to another paddock to try again.

To cover the last angle I would have a fast leggy dog that can bail hard or lug up hard. Cane paddock headlands don’t go in a straight line to where you see a pig cutting across an open. Farmers do not appreciate a 4wd flying across there paddocks so a fast dog can do the trick. If it is going to plan you will have one in the cane, One running flat strap across to a pig and one in the cage as you work your way around in the vehicle. In the cane if the dog has struck a pig you can let one or two go depending on what sort of struggle you are hearing. A second Hunter at the ute may bag you another pig while you go in and he keeps an eye outside. Two utes and a few hunters and more dogs is handy as it is not uncommon to see a dozen pigs filing out. I like to be with a mate and his and my dogs only if I go with someone else. I have seen a dozen a few times like many cane hunters and we have all seen a nil result.

My whole theory is from experience only and I can happily point out that cane has out done me plenty of times but mainly through not using common sense and not being patient. I enjoy it for the hunt and the challenge.

An area where I hunt in Tully. At a guess there would be 10 000 acres of cane that pigs eat in . I have permission to hunt around 2000 acres of it. It is the only place I have locally where I need a ute finding dog as it is to big an area to walk and the general idea is to drive around letting the dogs find fresh pigs and then walk. Often, if the dogs don’t pull a pig up straight away the pigs keep crossing drains and creeks into another paddock and so the whole hunt has come back to base one. It is better to put the dogs up and go look for new pigs that you never disturbed.

This cane hunting ground has creeks and thick rain forest tree lines dividing the area and lowland swamp creek beds. These beds make it possible to hunt anytime of the day in this area. Again tho if the dogs don’t stop the pig they sometimes head into a nearby cane field and it can be all over.

One way to catch a pig out of cane is shoot it on the way out. Obviously the firearm has to be used safely with a person who is conscious that there are dogs, other hunters, and perhaps the farmer and some of his domestic stock in the range of the bullet. Usually a shot gun with buckshot or a 3030 is what we carried. Like in this picture a slug slowed this pig down long enough for the dogs to get hold of it.