Bear Hunting With Hounds in the Appalachians with Houston Valley Plotts

Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast

MeatEater

Sports, Wilderness, Leisure, Hobbies

4.8 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2018

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bear hunting with hounds in the Appalachian mountains of Eastern Tennessee is a cultural experience. On this podcast we sit down with long-time Plott breeder and bear hunter, Tracy (TL) Jones of Greeneville, Tennessee to discuss some plot history, what he looks for in a bear hound, and we’ll tell some bear hunting stories. Even if you aren’t a hound hunter, this podcast is for you! Our hope is that you get a glimpse into this unique hunting niche and end up with a respect for it. Hound hunting is one of the most misunderstood types of hunting, but I think you’ll see why it’s important that you support it, even if you don’t ever care to be a part of it. Bear hunting with hounds is one of the most traditional methods of bear hunting. Many of the iconic American hunters of the past including Daniel Boone and Teddy Roosevelt were avid hound hunters.

It’s anything but the lazy man’s way to hunt, and would rival any of the hunting styles on the planet in terms of difficulty and skills needed to consistently take game. The hunters have to be tough, dedicated and have intricate knowledge of the area to be successful. But most importantly, a good bear houndsman has to consistently produce dogs that will “catch” bear. Whether it’s treeing a bear or baying one on the ground, it takes a tremendous animal with a very unique skill set to do it day after day. Great bear hounds are few and far between even in good lines of hounds. As you listen to this podcast I think you’ll grow in appreciation for the bear houndsman and what he does. Check out www.bear-hunting.com for more great bear hunting content.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an I-Heart podcast.
0:05.4	You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network, powered by Interstate Batteries.
0:11.5	From your truck to your trail camera, interstate batteries has you covered.
0:15.0	Visit your local interstate batteries store today or online at interstatebattaries.com.
0:21.9	Interstate batteries, outrageously dependable.
0:29.9	My name is Clay Newcomb, and I'm the host of the Bear Honey magazine podcast.
0:35.1	I'll also be your host into the world of hunting the icon of North American wilderness.
0:41.6	The bear.
0:42.6	We'll talk about tactics, gear, conservation, but we'll also bring you into some of the
0:47.6	wildest country on the planet chasing bear.
1:11.6	Oh, my gosh. chasing back. Well, we were walking down through here, and a bunch of dogs free ranging and we looked down, seeing the track, but they took off, where we didn't really want all of them to go but they're gone.
1:17.6	Thanks for checking out the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I want to give a little bit of history, a little bit of background about this
1:29.7	podcast and why I was where I was at and what had actually happened even that day and the day
1:36.4	before. I just got back from being in eastern Tennessee, Tracy and Ben Jones. They are a father and son that have a long family history of hunting with plots
1:50.0	from the Appalachian Mountains for bear.
1:53.0	I'd contacted Ben several weeks ago and said, hey, I'd like to film a hound hunt.
1:57.0	He said, well, come on, and I said, well, I've got two days,
2:00.0	and that's a short time to be on a successful well, come on. And I said, well, I've got two days. And that's a short time
2:01.4	to be on a successful hunt. But the day before I left was when they had the massive snowstorm
2:07.8	over in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. We hunted for two days. And it had some
2:13.4	tremendous bear races. And I really got to see some fantastic dog work and we had a
2:20.3	race that started at 10 o'clock in the morning on the first day I was there that lasted until
	...

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