From 1954-1990 Indiana Outdoorsmen were fortunate to have Bill “Bayou Bill” Scifres as the outdoor editor for The Indianapolis Star. My job with DNR at Lake Monroe afforded me the chance to meet Bill in person several times. I can vividly remember the first time I saw Bill. The lake was about 5-6 ft high and had flooded the little bay east of the Paynetown Gatehouse. Some call that bay VIP Cove because the Conservation Officers keep their boats in a pocket of the bay.
Anyway, I was driving past that bay and saw a guy out among the trees in cold 50 degree water wearing chest waders and casting. Upon closer examination I figured out that he cast throwing a Johnson Silver Minnow with an inverted spinnerbait skirt on it. I thought he was crazy, but parked to watch for a little while. After about 10 minutes he set the hook on a really nice bass and brought it to his side. I was hooked and waded this area several times over the years when we had high water.
However, what does this have to do with bird hunting? My boss at the time, Tom Weddle, was a good friend of Bill and had told Bill about some of my grouse hunting exploits. Bill was a friend of Bob Knight, and Bob was wanting to do some grouse hunting, so Tom & Bill arraigned for us to meet. At that time my friend, Jack Brannon, was primarily a fishing buddy, but he hunted with Bob, so he set our first hunt.
To preface anything I write about Bob I want to say he has been as good of a friend for 40 years as any that I’ve known. He’s not at all like he’s sometimes made out to be by the media. He’s loyal and honest to a fault. He is especially kind to the “little guy”. Nothing that I write about Bob should be misconstrued to be negative.
I’d be lying if I told you that I was not a little intimidated by Bob in the beginning, but he couldn’t have been more congenial and put me at ease. This was taking place during the winter of 1980-81, and the Hoosiers were not playing well. Of course, they would end up winning the National Championship that year but on the day of our first hunt Bob was obviously tense.
We went to a place I called Deerlick. Deerlick was a classic old home site with lots of honeysuckle, autumn olive, partially open, partially so thick you couldn’t walk through it without coming out bleeding. An old road divided in into two parts. It held grouse and migrating woodcock. Jack’s setter Reb became birdie almost immediately, but the grouse came up out of site and flew across the road. We kept following Reb and he pointed 3 different woodcock, of which Bob shot two.
Jack called Reb in to check out a thicket and Reb went on a classic point. We tried to encircle the thicket but the grouse got nervous and took off. Jack took a quick shot with his little Franchi 20 gauge and dropped the grouse. Jack Brannon was one helluva good wing shot!! From there we hunted around one side of the road and across the road in the direction the earlier flushed grouse had gone.
We had gone about 200 yards and were spread out in a fairly open area when suddenly the grouse came up pretty much right in front of Bob. I’ve seen Bob make some amazing shots, but on this day his aim was not true. As I said, he was obviously already tense because of his team’s struggles, and missing that open grouse was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He said it’s time to take me to Assembly Hall!
And thus went my first of many hunts with Bob Knight.