Rainy Morning Success on a Gobbler!!!

I stepped out the door with enough gear to support a small turkey assault army and squinted as a heavy, cool mist tickled my face.  It was a strange mix of cool mist and extremely muggy air and 55 degree temps.  Thoughts of the past few days of scouting were rolling through my head, I had scouted heavily and had not heard a single bird gobble for four straight days.  The morning prior I had sat overlooking the very field I was headed towards now, and had not seen or heard a bird.  Soon after, as I made my daily scouting runs in the truck, I observed a group of turkeys that were over two miles away in a field I could not hunt.  To my amazement, I watched as two separate groups of birds covered over two miles in less than twenty minutes and as I left them, they were approaching one small farm I can hunt.  That tid bit was my only positive scouting info from the past week, so I went with it.

I parked the truck and made the long walk through the misty darkness with nothing but my thoughts and the trill calls of toads in the swamps to accompany me.  To my dismay I found several areas of standing water in the field and wondered if I could even get a bird to come to my set.  For the first time ever I set a Best Turkey Decoy, along with my Dave Smith Hen decoy.  I was not confident that a bird was roosted in the area, but based on my observations of the birds the weekend before during the youth hunt, I set up as if a gobbler would be roosted to my right in or near a big cottonwood tree.  I set the decoys with the jake decoy facing the hen and only a few feet apart, with the decoys being 15 yards from my set up on the field edge.

The last time we hunted this area during the youth hunt, the birds were roosted near the big cottonwood tree and flew down on the wrong side of the creek.  Though they eventually worked back to our side, they skirted us and disappeared into the timber.  Based on that hunt, I had adjusted my set up 40 yards farther AWAY from the suspected roost, but closer to where they crossed into the timber the weekend before.

I eased back in my seat and listed to the toads and tree frogs and I thought to myself how quiet it was with a heavy rain over night and heavy mist in the air the moisture almost seemed "wearable."  Finally a few Robins began to serenade the coming day and as I sat totally relaxed, and not expecting any gobbles at all I told myself, "it was 7:30 A.M. when birds headed this way yesterday, so I need to stick it out no matter what."

Just then a coon let out a squall and a gobble erupted from the timber 125 yards to my right, near the big cottonwood, just as I had not expected.  Though he was in a common spot, he had not been there for a few days and it just about knocked me out of my seat.  My heart rate immediately jumped up and and breathing increased.  He gobbled again and then a third time before I got hold of myself and began to control my breathing!!!  The bird ripped off a few more thunderous gobbles over a ten minute span as I waited for the right time to announce my presence.

A hen let out a quiet tree yelp and he immediate hammered back.  Great!, I thought, he has live hens with him, no way he will walk across this soggy field to get to my decoys!  I decided I would call aggressively and see if I could convince the hen to fly down on my side instead of across the creek.  I let out a series of quiet yelps and was cut off by the gobbler, then the hen.  The hen was never real aggressive, so I followed her lead and only cutt a time or two just to make a point.  She finally had enough and let out a cackle as she flew down...AWAY from me across the creek way out in the adjoining field.  A second bird left the roost and headed the same way, and I thought I was done for.  I let out one more semi-aggressive cutt and yelp sequence and to my surprise the gobbler responded still in the tree.

The beating of heavy wings sounded his lift off and he appeared in glide mode landing on the edge of the field that I was in, 100 yards away.  I hit him with a quiet series of yelps and he hammered back, his gobble echoing through the bottom and rattling my bones!  He was in no hurry, popping into strut, then "periscoping" to check out the decoys, as I called sparingly he worked closer painfully slow.  One of the hens that had pitched down across the creek returned and flew the creek and as he turned towards her, I hit him with another call, he stopped, looked, and then gobbled again.  He flipped his wings and started my way, closing to 75 yards, with the hen in tow, he was more interested in my set up and the "imposter" than he was in the live hen trailing along with him.

As he reached 50 yards, I eased the gun into position and watched him approach ever so cautiously working along the edge of some standing water in the field.  At about 40 yards, it was like he flipped a switch, he suddenly decided he wasn't going to be careful anymore and that he was gonna whoop this intruder.  I am not sure what changed, but he turned 90 degrees, and walked straight through the water right past the hen decoy and went into strut within a few steps of the jake.  I eased the gun up and he jumped back like he was gonna get hit, then dodged and weaved, before popping into strut on the the right side of the decoy.  I am sure he was about to attack but I was not taking any chances and pulled the trigger, dropping him at the "feet" of the jake decoy!!!  Day 1, Bird 1 in the bag!!!

The bird was a nice two year old that weighed 20 lbs 1 oz, had a long, skinny 11 1/16" beard, and 15/16" spurs.