About me

Monday, April 25, 2011

I am a turkey-addict!

I am DJ…… and I am a turkey-addict!
Never thought I would make that admission.  This blog was not intended to be so hunting heavy.  In fact, for balance, I will force myself to discuss my garden in the next post.  But for now………… this has become an obsession, not just for me but my boys as well. 


Fishing is my passion.  Bow hunting was to be a 'little something else' to get outdoors.  Something I always wanted to pursue during the winter and/or pre-spawn spring before the bass get off the beds.  Turkey hunting is not passive. It involves calling, moving, chasing and watching……… the call and response.  The anticipation of a response to every call, searching out every rustle and crackle, the flutter in your chest when that bird comes up from behind.   These birds are brilliant or at least smarter than me!  Via my inaugural blog, I introduced you to the Screamer. Saturday, we went back after him: same place, time, and conditions.  Figuring he might be “educated” I brought two different calls with different pitches AND a decoy.  Late again, we arrived in the Screamer’s realm just after 11AM and called for two hours.  Nothing.  So we packed up and headed out.  Instead of calling it a hunt, we searched out a new spot about 2 miles away and found a long ridge overlooking a nice run of bottom-land hardwoods a small stream and a farm. 



We set up the decoy about 20 yards out, from the blind, in a cut line.  Twenty yards was a distance at which I was VERY comfortable, but far enough away for the bird not to be distracted by the blind.  It was perfect, becuase if I were 10 yards off in either direction I would still feel comfortable with the shot.  Our blind was off in the cover of a stand of trees, fallen branches and shadows.  The mix really made the camo pattern blend in.  We called and called and heard a couple of responses but they seemed far off.  We heard what we thought might have been faint clucking, but no visual confirmation and so we joked that we were being circled and observed.  About two and a half hours in (following conventional wisdom) we packed it up and called it a hunt assuming the gobblers were done for the day.  As we left, we found tracks and as we put two and two together………… we came to the realization that we were being circled and that wily old bird probably got behind our blind and we scared him off?!?!?!  Proof?  See below:



Yes, it is a picture of turkey prints, but if you look closely, you’ll see it is superimposed OVER my six years old’s foot print.  That bird not only circled us but had the audacity to walk in our footsteps along the ridge and up to our set up. Seriously, the evidence really suggests we left a few moments too early and probably scared him off as we emerged from our blind……… 

I am DJ, I am a Turkey-addict.

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