LAKE OCONEE — It is hard to think about hunting when the temperature has been hovering in the middle 90s for the last several weeks. However, the annual squirrel season has already been under way for a couple weeks and the dove season will begin shortly.

Squirrel season does not garner the attention given to other wild game like dove, deer and turkey, but it still has its loyal following. There are some squirrel hunting faithful who will tell you that squirrel hunting with a good squirrel dog is better than going to a Georgia Bulldog football game. However, being an Alabama Crimson Tide fan, I can understand how hunting squirrels might be the better choice.

Squirrel hunting was big when I was growing up in south Alabama over 50 years ago. We did not have any turkeys and there were very few deer at that time. We hunted squirrels for two reasons.

First we hunted for the thrill of the hunt. Daddy had a small feist dog (probably a little of something else was mixed in) named Shorty, and he was phenomenal at treeing squirrels and tracking down a rabbit. Occasionally a skunk or a possum would get the dog off the intended quarry, but not for long. Daddy and us boys usually brought home some squirrels and/or rabbits thanks to that little black and white dog.

The second reason we hunted was for food. When we hunted, everything we harvested ended up on the kitchen table. Mother could prepare a great meal of baked squirrel, dove in rice or fried quail. Those were hard times and hunting brought many a meal to our family table.

I can’t say that today I would get excited about a meal of cooked squirrel. Today I see them as an overgrown rat. They are so prevelant now that getting a limit could be done without a good dog. In fact, I think I could limit out every day for a week in my own yard and not put a dent in the squirrel population.

For those of you that still get a thrill out of squirrel hunting, the 2010 season began back Aug. 15 and will run through Feb. 28 of next year. The bag limit for squirrels is twelve. While reading this year’s edition of the Georgia hunting regulations, I read something that caught my eye for the first time.

 Our dog Shorty would probably turn over in his grave if he knew the state of today’s hunting.  On page 28 of the Georgia hunting regulations it states that trail dogs used for hunting rabbits is limited to beagals, bassets and dachshunds.

Now if I read the regulations correctly and you have a feist dog, you can still use your feist to hunt squirrels but only squirrels. I am still a little confused as to why a hunter is limited to just three dog breeds for rabbit hunting.

Now I know Shorty would not have taken kindly to being told he could only go after squirrels.

I am not experienced to speak on the subject, but I just can’t imagine taking a dashshund in the woods to trail rabbits. My daughter has a dashshund, and that has to be the meanest little dog around. Her yard has rabbits and squirrels and I really do not remember him chasing either one.

I do not know any avid squirrel hunters personally so I don’t know if hunters still use feist dogs or not. The only breed of dog I read about in squirrel hunting articles seems to be beagals.  The feist was a breed specifically bred in the south to hunt squirrels but I can’t remember the last time I have even seen a feist.

For you dove hunters that have been eagerly waiting for the 2010 dove season, the season officially begins on Saturday, Sept. 4 at noon. Dove season will have to compete with the fall football season which begins that same day.

Hunting doves is also an area that has changed drastically since I hunted as a young boy. Dove season always opened on Wednesday at noon and my entire hometown shut down on that day at noon whether you hunted doves or not. Opening day of the dove season was as much a fellowship event with neighbors and family as it was a hunting event.

We could never hunt doves until noon the entire season whereas you can hunt doves mornings and afternoons now except on opening day. There were dove fields all over the community where I grew up, so finding a place to hunt was never a problem. Today, the number of dove fields in this area is limited, and it will likely cost you a minimum of at least hundred dollars to hunt with no guarantee that you will see doves.

The dates for the 2010 dove season are Sept. 4-19, Oct. 9-17 and Nov. 25-Jan. 8 and the daily bag limit is fifteen. So if you can take the heat, you can go squirrel hunting or dove hunting on Sept. 4. Otherwise sit in the recliner and watch the Georgia Bulldogs or some other football team (like Alabama) that begins their new football season that day. See you next week.