Larry A. Smail's Blog

Fog

I woke up to thunderous booms and bright lightning around 3:45 this morning. Wow, I thought this may place a damper with my turkey hunting plans.

After the morning’s rain.

I watched the weather at 4:30 and the radar looked as if these storms should be passing through quickly. I hurriedly prepared and took off towards one of my hunting spots to listen.

   I arrived towards the top of the mountain by 5:35 A.M. and anxiously awaited that first gobble of the morning. Nothing!! At 6:15 I began searching for morels and I was pleased to find some. One can never have enough of these tasty mushrooms.

Dogwoods in bloom.

I crossed the hollow and made a listening and calling tour of the area and had one gobbler answer my calls. He was far down over the hill and I wasn’t sure of property boundaries and decided to head to the car and transport to another area to search for more morels and maybe call and listen for turkeys.

The humidity and temperatures made for some very warm woodland maneuvering. I called some as I walked and I received an answer shortly after nine o’clock. The bird was way off in distance. The morels would have to wait as I hurried towards where I believed the bird was. He started gobbling occasionally on his own now. This is always a good sign to the turkey hunter.

I edged around a slope and called and immediately heard his reply. He was below me in the wetland area. I set up and called a few more times. He would answer every few minutes. I waited. His approach was certain, but extremely slow.

I clucked a few times and he answered again and became silent again as did I.  I spotted some movement among the mayapples and a turkey head appeared. The gobbler was within range, but I couldn’t see a beard yet. A second gobbler appeared behind the first one. The lead bird stepped again and a nice beard was visible and the bird was down. The 32 yard shot was at 10:00 A.M. and I was over a mile away from my jeep. I would be shedding moisture as I walked!

Wood Turtle

   The walk back was, indeed, a hot one and I knew cleaning the bird would be a priority. At home I weighed the gobbler and he was almost 24 pounds. Another heavy bird! The beard was mostly at eleven inches, but six strands reached the thirteen inch mark. The spurs were, both, one inch each.                                                                       

My step-father, Bob is getting better and he hopes to hunt soon. Cousin Donny and I will get out together someday too.