Larry A. Smail's Blog

  I missed the last two days of gobbler hunting. The weather became quite bad on Friday evening causing a lot of flooding in my back yard. I had work to do!

However, this morning I was back to the hunt. The temperatures was down into the upper twenties as the morning walk began.  We would have a frost with ice visible well after nine o’clock in shaded areas.

I was almost to my listening site at 5:30 A.M. when I heard the sharp PUTT! I immediately looked towards the sound’s source to watch a turkey fight to clear the limbs and head across the big hollow.  I couldn’t identify if this was a gobbler or a hen, but such accidents are always something the gobbler hunter wishes to avoid. I completed my walk to listen.

Killdeer

Morel

Normal gobbling time arrived and began to move on. I never heard any gobbling. I was puzzled. I moved along the side of the hill to

Wild Geranium

further add to my hearing range and nothing was the result. Deer, on the other hand, were abundant. I couldn’t eight deer move past me. they were about twenty-five feet tops!

I began a walk, listen and call style of hunting, but failed to stir up anything. I returned to the jeep about nine to go a couple of hills over to “kill the day.” Again, deer were the norm. I managed to get a lot of photos of deer. I saw some buck deer sporting the early growth of their antlers. All in all I had 27 deer sightings by the end of my morning hunting. I saw a lot of squirrels, too. I did receive some answers from a hen for a time. I set up, but she lacked enough interest to pursue. I was walking along and spotted a deer. As I watched the doe bedded down. She was about 30 yards from me.                                                                                                  

I found a few morels this morning. I was at the jeep at 11:30. I never heard a gobbler.