Wavefan

Alabama opener was last Wednesday. Hunted close to the camp because of obligations later in the morning. No gobbles. No turkeys seen or heard. Entertainment consisted of watching two coons then later a fox. Thursday I went to some land away from the camp and heard gobbles. Got a ridge away from the closest and settled in. Bird steady gobbled from 630 to 730 but didn’t seem to be getting closer or moving at all. I got up and creeped to the ridge to see if he was strutting or with hens and he was still in the tree. From the limb he saw me. Didn’t really spook just flew down slightly out of range and walked off tonking. Lesson learned. Turkey one me zero.

Friday I was close to that spot and heard nothing. About 830 I was fixing to leave and saw a hen walking up, clucking now and then. After she wandered off I waited until about nine and was getting ready to leave again when one gobbled pretty close down the hill. I yelped and he didn’t answer but I sat tight. After what seemed like thirty minutes but was probably fifteen I slowly reached down to pick up my box call and yelp again. You can guess what happened. Loud putt from my right and there he goes running off. Turkeys two me still zero. Another lesson I should have learned long ago.

Saturday was windy as all get out and I heard nothing and the only two I saw were running down the dirt road while driving back to the camp. Sunday I hunted a different property and heard several but nothing close enough to matter. Sunday was the best weather day - still, clear early, and cooler than it had been. I thought that would be the day. But game set and match to the birds.

It’s amazing to me how attractive old tin on the ground is for snakes. Boards, old appliances, etc. yield a few, but a tin pile in the country is way more productive. I know of a bunch of half buried tin from a collapsed shed on a high point in the woods in Monroe county Alabama that is home to more black racers and canebrakes than any other place I’ve seen. I don’t even have to flip there. Just wait for the day to warm up and they come out.

Years ago when they stocked the pond at Fritchie Park in Slidell I caught a few fly fishing just floating a #12 royal wulff but did better slow stripping a #8 olive woolly bugger. I’m sure I could have caught them faster on spinning gear with power bait or corn but if I’m going to catch a rainbow trout I at least want to pretend like I’m doing it for real. Don’t know why they stopped stocking them around Slidell.

You know why Alabama was the first Southern team to play in the Rose Bowl? Because Tulane declined the invitation. Not saying Bama hasn’t become a bigger brand in college football, but if you’re gonna spout history from the first half of the 20th century to support an argument, may want to dig a little more into the facts.

Oats and wheat. But not until October. Army worms ate up nearly everything planted last September.

There was an historic rivalry game in Louisiana on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for most of the last 100 years. It needs to resume.

The best thing to plant for turkeys is chufa. What comes in second is far behind. Unfortunately chufa is expensive and unless you plant a lot of it the birds will eat it out. As will pigs if they are present.

Sounds like you may be south of the red hills but on the Alabama or Tombigbee River. Get one before the bugs get too fierce!

Don’t know the terrain our newbie is hunting but I’ll add that if it is like the places where tuthill and I hunt in lower Alabama, don’t expect the birds to flock in the spring into the green patches planted for deer near as much as they do in the fall. I hunt hilly terrain with pine tops and hardwood bottoms and most of the green patches are on the ridges. Spring turkeys, gobblers in particular, seem to do most of their strutting and relations with hens in the oak bottoms or along little streams. Sometimes they come out into the deer green patches, but setting up for that to happen lowers the overall odds at least where I hunt. Exception is if you plant chufa. They come into those patches. But not so much in the spring into the wheat/oats/rye green patches on deer hunting grounds. If you find an obvious strut zone with wing drag marks and feathers that’s where you need to be and occasionally that might be in a deer green patch but it’s usually not.

I’ve been doing it for 25 years and each passing season I realize more than the season before that turkey hunting is hard and I am not nearly as good at it as I used to think I was. The best advice I can give is figure out where the turkeys are and get in a spot nearby where you can see but you are hidden. Go out right at dusk and carefully walk woods roads or trails and use an owl hoot. Sometimes this will get a gobbler to gobble back on the roost. Once he does, figure out the best you can where he is and shut up and quietly leave. Most of the time all you will do is get real owls to hoot. When you figure out the spot you need to be in, get there quietly and with no white flashlight well before dawn. Hide. I think camo and a headnet are important but being against a tree and with something in front of you that breaks your outline is more important. And being perfectly still and silent is even more important. Being comfortable like on one of those padded or webbed turkey seats will help you be still longer. As a beginner you probably don’t want to call at all unless you hear a gobble. When you do call use a pot or slate call and keep it to a simple three note yelp. Then shut up. Sometimes they come in gobbling. Sometimes they come in silent. Usually they don’t come at all or stop too far away to shoot. Accept that even the best turkey hunters fail more often than succeed. Do not yelp every time he gobbles if he gobbles. Maybe yelp 15 minutes apart for a bird that seems interested and is gobbling but doesn’t seem to be getting closer. If and when you know a Tom is coming, shut up, don’t call. He knows where the yelp came from. All you will probably do by continuing to call is spook the bird by movement or by making a bad sound. Try to have your gun in a ready position across a knee before the bird gets within sight. You don’t want it leaning against the tree or laying on the ground. And realize that even if he comes within range he is just as likely to sneak up behind you. That’s just how it is. Final words- be where the turkeys are and be still. The rest is subordinate.