In Memory of Uncle Donnie Jock

Don Rotert (R) with son Jim while pheasant hunting in Nebraska at Prairie Sands Hunting.

One of the great benefits of being a guide is getting to take people like Don Rotert hunting. I can only imagine what it would have been like hunting when he was young. Waterfowl that would fill the sky with beating wings, covies of quail that could be hunted all year, and pheasants that would cackle at your feet with almost every step.

I have had the pleasure of taking many great pheasant hunters hunting but none greater that Don. The first several years of hunting with Don brought back painful memories. You must first realize that Don, his son, and grandson are plumbers. Unless the weather was really bad they had work to do. On several of these hunts I really thought about going back to engineering. Sure glad I did not do that!

The only other person that I have known that had the same passion for pheasant hunting was Uncle Donnie Jock. When I was a kid growing up in Nebraska, Donnie taught me more about pheasant hunting than I could ever have learned reading a book. We would shoot more pheasants than most men with dogs. Every time we visited he took us hunting. I still see the same glimmer in Don’s eyes as I use to see in Uncle Donnie’s.

Don Rotert is slowing down but I still enjoy the time we get to spend together. I only hope that in the future I can take my son and grandchildren hunting and fishing and that they will pass the same passion on, so that one day a child looks at them and sees the glimmer in their eyes.

Some time in the future I know Don Rotert will pass on, but I only hope that he and Uncle Donnie can meet up and go on one more pheasant hunt.

Jay Longacre-Head Guide & Hunt Coordinator
Prairie Sands Hunting -Sutherland NE