Today's the Big Day

[Dave S]

I couldn't sleep worth a hoot lastnight in anticipation of this weekends Youth Mentored hunt. I've been up all night thinking over different scenarios, "trying" to come up with Plan A, Plan B and, well......hopefully we don't need a Plan C.

I did a little scouting yesterday and saw a very nice Tom, all by himself. My hopes are that he is still in the area and hasn't left. A little later I saw the biggest turkey of my life. I've heard of the possibility of 30 lb birds and I think this was it. This guy was an absolute behemoth. Unfortunately, he's on other land that I already have relatives hunting.

Well, it's getting down to crunch time and my company for the weekend will be here shortly. The blind and calls are packed in the truck and ready to rock the gobblers this AM.

Good luck to all.

[DRH1175]

Hope you had luck. It is a nice morning and in the last week I have seen a big time increase in strutting. And in the afternoon a lot of moving turkeys hopefully this morning worked out for ya. If not hopefully tomorrow. I hunt the b season so a couple more days for me!

[Dave S]

Half of our group has tagged out so far. Our NWTF Chapter is mentoring 14 kids, of which 8 have gotten their birds today. What an awesome program. There was even a bearded hen in the group.

The boy I mentored today did manage to put the smack down on a jake after one great show by a large tom that just wouldn't come into range.

I will try to post the pic with more details later.

[DonBo]

Good job Lep! An awfully good feeling guiding a kid to his first bird. Way to go.

[Borch]

Awsome job Lep!

Sounds like a lot of happy kids.

[Dave S]

Our day started about 5:30. We trandeferred the gear over to my truck and hit the road. It was only a short drive of 2 miles to get to the hunting area. But we had a half mile walk to our final destination.

We were happily seated and slightly chilled by 5:50. I started the day off with a few soft yelps but the birds didn't appear willing to cooperate. We heard one tom off in the distance. Other than that, we were treated to 2 hours of silence. No gobbles, clucks, yelps......nothing.

We kept ourselves busy by cracking a few jokes, small talk and watching the deer across the field and a fox squirrel that made a pass through to check out the decoys. Then we finally got a response from a hen in the ravine behind us after Dave and I doubled up on the calls to raise a little ruckus. It was game on. For as active as the birds have been the past week, there was no way this hen was alone.

I challenged call for call, trying to entice her to move into the field. She did come within 5 yeards of the blind but stayed in the woods. We went back and forth with her for 10-15 minutes before she started moving out. Once she was back into the ravine, I cut loose with more ki-ki runs. Then the big tom sounded off. He was moving in fast and made it to the edge of the field and stalled. After turning back into the woods and bring the hen back with him, he jogged back in the field, never to offer a shot. We did get to see an incredible display. The sun was just right, and the different hues as the sun gelamed off his feathers was amazing.

We did manage to get him within 50 yards, but we weren't about to risk a bad shot and let him get away. So off across the field with 2 hens he went. The whole time I was trying to draw the hens back with no luck. They had enough.

A few minutes later, all that commotion had more birds coming in. We heard another gobble behind us so we turned our focus on that bird. After a few gobbles, it was clear there was more than one. I could make out 3 distinct birds, but it turned out to be 4. 3 jakes stepped into the field to our right. One call and they turned and came right to the decoys. It was cool to see 3 birds extend their necks and give us that "Triple Gobble". They had a fix on us the whole time and were grouped together too tight to make a good shot. Once the larger of the 3 split away,.........well, I'll let Daniel's smile tell the rest of the story:

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[Gordie]

yes the smile tells it so well Lep great story and congrats to Daniel

[Muskie456]

So cool for him! Congrats on a fun hunt!

[harvey lee]

Congrats on a great job for the young lad.