Cochran's Cartoons

Category: Outdoor Sports

  • Catch More Trout

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  • Cocker Spaniels

    The other day my wife played bridge with a woman who brought along a Cocker spaniel. She said it was a service dog. When my wife asked what kind of service a Cocker spaniel could provide, the woman said the dog was trained to pick things up off the floor for its owner. You know, for old geezers like us who can’t bend over…and get back up.

    Most service dogs I’ve seen have been Labs, goldens, or German shepherds. My Labs have all been smart dogs but I can’t see them being trained to pick things up off the floor and give them to me. When any of my Labs found anything on the floor they would automatically eat it, roll in it, or try to have sex with it.

    Cocker spaniels were once upland hunting dogs but down through the ages their hunting instincts were bred out of them. I know people like that. I call them Human Cocker Spaniels. They think meat is something you buy wrapped in paper at the grocery store… or they don’t eat it at all.

     

    That’s why, when people refer to me as a Neanderthal, I take it as a compliment.cocker_edited-1

     

  • Bill Mauldin

    I said this blog would be about outdoor sports. Well, world war two was mostly fought outdoors so it qualifies.

    When I read Bill Mauldin’s “Up Front” at the tender age of nine I knew I had to become a cartoonist. After all, I was qualified: I was a smartass and I liked to draw.

     

    Mauldin claims he had at least one ancestor fighting in every American conflict since the Revolutionary War. He’s been quoted as saying he is most proud of the fact that every one of them was an enlisted man. Not a single officer in the whole bunch!

    Surely his characters Willie and Joe still resonate with today’s GIs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Mauldin cartoon 1 Mauldin cartoon 2

     

  • The Return Of Bambi

    Remember the classic Disney movie Bambi that we all saw when we were kids? If memory serves me correctly the cruel hunters shot Bambi’s mom. Normal kids were horrified but personally I thought the bitch had it coming.

    This little clip is from my book Antlers Away, available on Amazon.com  or you can order one from me and I’ll sign it and draw a little picture of a deer inside the front cover at no extra charge.

     

  • Orvis and Bead Head

    Remember Beavis and Butt Head? Could you identify with them? Me neither, but I thought they were funny in a junior high school sort of way. Maybe I would’ve liked them even more if they had been fly fishermen… like Orvis and Bead Head.Orvis & Beadhead

  • A New Year’s Eve Celebration

    Scott Morgan and  friends celebrated New Year’s Eve flat on their backs in layout blinds in a field near Baldwin City, KS. Using only fourteen shell decoys, they had hundreds of Canadas checking them out all afternoon. Conscientious hunters that they are, Scott said they could easily have limited out but didn’t want to clean that many birds so they quit with six honkers in the bag.

    Good dog work is at least half the fun of a waterfowl hunt and Scott’s Lab Kola did her part by dragging one goose on a 1/8-mile retrieve. The big gander weighed in at 15.5 lbs. and had a vise grip on Kola’s ear all the way.

    Now these guys know how to celebrate!

     

     

  • Lone Oak Duck Club

    Good opening weekend at the Lone Oak Duck Club, then tapering off. Now we’re iced up but hopefully not for long thanks to climate change. This cold weather should bring new birds down from up north (or push the ones that are here on down south). We’ll see what the rest of the season brings.

    Speaking of climate change, the current issue of Delta Waterfowl magazine has an article about waterfowl migrating later than they used to.

    Short answer:less severe winter weather and more acres of corn being planted in the Dakotas.

    In fact the last few years some mallards and Canada geese haven’t migrated’t all.  They don’t do it just because they like to fly.

    Meanwhile we’re having fun and that’s what it’s all about.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Oh deer!

    Even though I don’t deer hunt in Missouri anymore I think it’s fun to play with my Bushnell trail cam just to see what’s sneaking around our Bates County property at night. I keep hoping I’ll catch something exotic like a mountain lion or bear, but this eight point buck will have to do for now.

    He may even make it through the coming deer season as he seems to be pretty nocturnal. But if anybody bags him, can I have a couple of loin chops?M2E1L0-0R350B300

     

  • It’s Tweener Time

    Once again it’s Tweener Time when we are treated to one of those cartoons that’s too raunchy for outdoor magazines but too outdoorsy for Playboy.

    The full moon that occurs in the fall is often referred to as a harvest moon or hunter’s moon. Maybe if I redraw this and put undershorts on the guy someone will buy it. Or maybe it just isn’t very funny.

    Tweener

  • Rockbridge Trout Ranch

    Want to feel like you’re a real hot stuff trout fisherman? Spend a few days at Rockbridge Trout Ranch in southern Missouri. Nice people, beautiful scenery, comfortable accommodations, and millions of huge, hungry rainbows finning lazily in the clear water, hoping somebody will throw them a woollybugger or zebra midge. But you’d better use 6X or even 7X tippet because the day of reckoning comes at check out time.  You have to keep every fish you catch. They clean them for you and charge by the pound.

    With the picturesque old mill and the excellent dining room with full service bar, Rockbridge isn’t a bad way to spend a few days. We were a little early for the full fall color display but it’s a beautiful area any time of year.

    You don’t fish? Just go to Rockbridge anyway for the food, scenery and relaxing atmosphere. For reservations call (417) 679-3619.