| April 11, 2002 Hi Folks, Well spring is finally here and you know what that means. No, not lawn mowing time. No, not golf season. No, not time to plant your garden......."It's Turkey Hunting Time"!!! Although the season does not open until the 22nd Craig and I snuck out of town for a day of scouting. We went down to Hocking Wednesday afternoon and spent the night camping out under the clear starlit sky. After a steak dinner, cooked over an open fire, we hit the sack for a 5:30 wake up call. About an hour later I finally fell asleep only after putting in my earplugs to help drown out Craig's snoring! Around 6:15 the next morning we headed up the South ridge. It was already light enough to see. After only climbing up the hill about 50 yards a loud gobble startled us. It came from up the hill to our left. We sat down against a couple of trees and settled in to see if we could see the gobbler fly down. We hoped that maybe he would come our way along the hillside. He gobbled occasionally and soon a second Tom joined in with him from a nearby tree. About 6:30 they both flew down and gobbled their way over the ridge top and that was that. We then worked our way up to the ridge top and walked along the ridge West a few hundred yards when we heard scratching below us. We stopped and listed for about 1/2 an hour and it became apparent to me that they we not going to come our way. I decided to backtrack and swung around the other side of the ridge and made my way in front of them. I managed to slip up on them within 40 yards. I could see two Toms and about 6 Hens working over the leaves in search of acorns. After about 15 minutes Craig made his way to me and we both got a good look at the birds. Soon we heard a gobble along the ridge to our left and the two Toms headed that direction. We again dropped off the other side of the ridge and made our way West about 300-400 yards, spooking yet another Tom, and then climbed up to the top of the ridge. We then heard more gobbles coming from the other side of a finger ridge. In a few minutes the gobbles became closer and soon two Toms appeared and headed in our direction. All the while there were Hens below us scratching in the leaves. The two Toms stopped and gobbled for about 15 minutes but the Hens did not give them any attention. The boys finally gave up the gobbling after the girls went in the other direction. That was end to all the action for the morning. We had heard other toms gobbling here and there throughout the surrounding hillsides. It appears to us that the boys are ready to do the tango but the girls are playing hard to get. We might slip down next week for another sneak preview. Steve |
| TURKEY SEASON REPORTS 2002 |
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