The voice of experience

[netfull 0]

Evening all,

Unable to handle this period of ildlenees due to the widespread outbreak of mixi here in the Cheshire/Flintshire area, I decided to get off the subs bench and to have a crack at a area that normaly would be bursting with coney but because of the layout of a warren overgrown with thick blackthorn and gorse I usually give it a miss,In times of Mixamotosis no matter how widespread,there will always be a resiliant number of rabbits who,either escape infection or contract it and recover from the ravages of it,to become the breeding stock after the outbreak,

My favourite spots of the last 20 years or so were I knew I could bag rabbits as a cert, are now sadly full of leaves or water,so I decided to give this difficult area a go this is were the resiliant rabbits are going to be hiding out.

This "Hedge" with a water filled ditch was slightly higher on one field side than the other, the rabbits had dug plenty of holes on the high side so laying purse nets would have taken a month!

Instead I tipped in my two hobs and let the rabbits bolt at will, my two terriers a Patterdale and a J.R.T. earned thier crust by chasing the bolted rabbits further up the hedge were they in turn marked the holes the rabbits had just entered,It is a this point that the advice and experience of an old man came to mind,"dont worry about the one that got away,if you can see which hole its gone down then you can pencil it in for later,cos' they don't usually bolt twice" he would say.with this in mind I dropped a ferret into a hole that the Patterdale was trying his best to enlargen with his mouth,and bang one rabbit nailed at a 1ft dig.this soon became a pattern that the terriers picked up in no time(how do people ferret without dogs I thought)and it would have been hopeless without them.

The rabbits were reluctant to vault over a flooded ditch and to sprint over very wet fields,instead taking the above action which worked out great for me! My tally came to 6 today,all caught in the above way,I went home happy and with no wet nets to hang out! I will look differently at that area in the future and will never forget those words of wisdom.

Sorry no pictures,as I ferret alone (due to my father now in his eighties,and my son is less capable because of his teenage years!)I have to carry/hold I ferret box,1 bag of nets,secataures,knives,food,1 spade,6 rabbits and 2 terriers,so no room for any thing else!

Regards, Netfull

[Brimmer 220]

Can relate to quite a lot of that of Netfull.