John Burrell has guided hunting and fishing in world-class locations, from Zimbabwe and New Zealand to Uruguay, Alaska, and Argentina. From fly-fishing in Patagonia and wing shooting in South Dakota to hunting big game in Africa, Burrell’s High Adventure Company has assembled the finest collection of sporting lodges worldwide. One of his favorites is Tipiliuke in Argentina, a wing-shooting and fly-fishing paradise that recently hosted former President Jimmy Carter and was named top lodge in Patagonia with an Anglers Choice Award.
In the headwaters, cornfields in the valleys nudge against sycamores and mountain laurel as the river, here little more than a creek, twists through banks clad in vine and wildflowers. Farther downstream, it gathers flow from limestone springs, and its rock-ribbed pools are cooled in the shade of soaring hemlock groves. The Soque River (pronounced so-quee) flows for about thirty miles contained in a single county—Habersham, merely four counties northeast of metro Atlanta—an intimacy that lends it a homey, winsome, tucked-just-out-of-sight appeal.
John Burrell drops two shells into his over/under as deftly as he would plunk Alka Seltzer into a glass of water. Plop, plop. He eases closed the gun and slips into the grass, stopping shy of the staunch setter. At the handler’s command, the pin is pulled from the waiting cocker, which launches like a grenade into the cover, blowing the covey of quail skyward.