TURKEY SEASON 2004 |
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April 26, 2004
Piff and I went down to Adams Co. to hunt the season opener. We have permission to hunt 80 acres of land that has a mixture of pastures, woods and hay fields. The back 35 acres is mostly rolling pasture that borders woodlots where the turkeys roost. After a close encounter with an albino skunk we set up under one of the numerous cedar trees that dot the pasture with the anticipation of the birds eventually coming out to the open field to feed. I set up facing east while Piff faced south. Shortly after 7:00 were heard a few gobblers sound off behind us in the distance. We did not hear any Toms in the area where we were set up but we did hear some hens clucking and yelping in the woods in front of us. After about an hour a lone hen appeared about 50 yards in front of me. She fed her way from north to south of our position and eventually headed up to the woodlot behind the owners’ house. A short time later Piff nudges me and points out a short black furry critter heading our way. As it got closer it turned out to be another skunk. (It must be Piff’s aftershave that attracts them!) Not long after that Piff again nudges me and points out two deer that came up out of a draw behind us to our west. They appeared spooked and were in a hurry to get away from whatever kicked them up. Not long after that we could hear another hunter yelping with a mouth call as he walked the property line. Sometime after 9 o’clock another lone hen appears in front of me. She is a little more cautious that the first and stands around a few minutes while surveying the pasture in front of her. She finally decides that she didn’t like what she saw and putts a few times and heads back into the woods. That was two different hens that were alone that we saw. We figured that they were done fooling around with the Tom and that maybe in a little while the big boy would run out of hens and then he would be looking for more. We hoped that he would come to our seductive calls. Another hour or so goes by with out any action until I spot still another hen in the same area in front of me. Eventually another hen appeared and they both spent a few minutes pecking away about 60 yards in front of us. They too became suspicious of either our presence or the decoys, or of our light calling of purrs and clucks and soon nervously left the area and headed back into the woods. At 11:00 Piff headed out toward the west end of the property to see if he could spot any birds out in that end of the rolling pasture. We heard a gobble off and on all morning somewhere in that direction and hoped that maybe a Tom was ready for a new hen to show up (Piff). I soon heard Piff yelp a few times and I heard a Tom way off answer him. About 10 minutes later I thought I heard a gobble behind me somewhere between Piff and me. It sounded like it was a different bird than the first one that was answering Piff. I got up from my tree and snuggled up next to another cedar that was in the draw behind our original position. After about 10 minutes of calling with no answer I felt uncomfortable with the set up so I returned to my tree. Well, that was a mistake because around 11:45 a tom gobbled behind me in the draw. His loud gobble nearly made me jump out of my skin. I couldn’t turn around for afraid of being busted so I just sat there and made a few purrs on my “Easy Yelper” box call hoping to lure them up out of the draw. A few minutes later the Tom gobbled again. It was going on noon and you can only legally hunt until noon in Ohio. In a do or die situation I crawled around the cedar tree and peered over the lip of the draw. I looked around but didn’t see any birds. They gave me the slip and the opening day hunt was over. After meeting up with Piff at the gate he confirmed that he saw a gobbler with 4 hens head my way. He said that they passed in front of him but were will out of range for a shot. He also said that another Tom was gobbling in the distance at that time. Well, needless to say we will be going back down for another attempt to bag a big longbeard. |
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April 28, 2004
Piff and I went back down to Adams CO. and set up at the same cedar tree in the pasture. We heard a bunch of birds fly down in the woods about 250-300 yards from us. Only heard one gobble all day and it was a long way off behind us. We did hear one hen yelp to our north and then a bird flew down toward her from a tree about 75 yards from us. This was after I made a series of yelps. I couldn’t see if it was a Tom or a hen. We passed the morning watching deer that were eyeing our decoys. |
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May 4 & 5, 2004
Craig and I went down to Hocking Co. to hunt for two days. Upon our arrival on Monday evening we climbed one of the ridges to see if we could hear any birds flying up to their roosts. We didn’t hear any and also I couldn’t get any Toms to respond to my locator calls. Tuesday morning we both climbed different ridges hoping to hear a gobble from a Tom so that we could set up on him. I only heard one gobble in the distance and Craig said that he didn’t hear a thing. We both were surrounded by deer off and on all morning. I did manage to find a few mushrooms that morning and marked the spot. Later on that afternoon we went back and found a total of 35. Wednesday morning I had a Tom gobbling on a ridge across from me but I couldn’t get him to come my way. He eventually gobbled off around the point on his ridge and returned about an hour later. I again tried to get him to respond to my calls but he went silent. I called softly on and off for about an hour but he didn’t show. Craig again didn’t hear/see a thing. Turkey sign was scarce. Things were so slow it looked like the turtles were backing up! |
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May 12, 2004
Went up to Shelby Co. today and hunted the place where I deer hunted this past season. I placed my decoys in a green field and then I tucked underneath some Hawthorn bushes at the fields’ edge. I didn’t hear a gobble all morning! I stayed there until about 10:45 and then I walked the back property line through the woods, calling every now and then. At around 11:15 I busted 2 or 3 birds. I got a good look at one of them and it was a hen. It has been another tuff season so far! |
May 15, 2004
Bill “Weebe” Davis and I went up to Shelby County and hunted a property that had a powerline running through a wooded area. We positioned our decoys near an opening in a fence that crossed the right-of-way. Shortly after daybreak a deer approached the opening and spotted the decoys. It snorted and ran off. After a couple of hours of sitting in the rain we decided to pick up our decoys and walk the quad paths through the woods and stop and call every now and then. While walking down one of the paths we heard a cluck. Just then two turkeys rounded a bend in the path. Both us and the turkeys spotted each other at the same time and the turkeys jumped straight up and flew off in to the treetops. I got a good look at one of them and it appeared to be a hen. We didn’t get a chance to see what the other one was. That was all the action for the day. |
May 16, 2004
Piff and I went back down to Adams Co. again to try to bag us a big Tom. This time we had permission to hunt the adjacent property where we had heard turkeys fly down off the roost in our previous trips. The pasture that we previously hunted had cattle in it. As we made our way across the fence to the other property at daybreak we had to avoid an encounter with yet another skunk. We sat up in an open field and called. I could hear a tom gobbling in a woodlot to my right. I tried to get him to come my way but it didn’t happen. We did not hear any other gobbling in the area. It was a quiet and calm morning. We reposition ourselves about mid morning but didn’t have any luck. Well that was it for my season. Time to put the hunting gear away and start fishing…..Steve |