I wasn't sure what to expect for
the opening day of
Spring Turkey season in Missouri. I knew the weather
was going to make a change for the better after a
couple of weeks in which winter refused to realease
it's grip. I spent Sunday (the day before opening
day) brushing in my blind and making sure I was ready
to go for the following morning. Sunday evening, I
hopped in my blind a 4:00 p.m. armed with my favorite
turkey calls and my digital camera.
I wanted to put the odds in my
favor and do some
calling in hopes of roosting a tom or two near my
hunting area; and give myself a head start the next
morning. At 6:30, two jakes approached my set up and
continued to stick around feeding on the clover plot
for 40 minutes or so before heading further down the
field. I knew I had a good chance of seeing them again
tomorrow. As last light approached, I heard another
set of turkeys roost in a set of woods below my blind.
I reached my blind by 5:15 a.m.
the next day, making
sure I had plenty of darkness to slip into my set up
undetected. With the first hint of the sunrise, a
gobble thundered less than 100yds in the patch of
woods I heard the turkeys roost in the night before.
I eased my slate call out and gave a few yelps
followed by come cutting to quickly get the birds
attention. Before I knew it, I had a couple of toms
gobbling reapeatedly off the roost.
After about 20 minutes of calling
back and forth, the
toms quickly went silent as I anticipated them moving
into my set up. 10 minutes later, more silence. I grew
a little nervous, but was anticipating the toms to
circle my set up and appear with out warning. As I
sat patiently, I looked up the field and spotted the
two jakes that I saw the previous night, moving
quickly down the field to my set up. With in 5
minutes they closed the gap from 100 yards to 25.
With having three straight seasons of missed
opportunities and some bad luck, I didn't hesitate to
place the bead of my 12 gauge on the lead jake. As
they cautiously approached my decoys, I squeezed the
trigger and hammered the unsuspecting jake.
My tag was filled at 6:30 a.m.
and I was more than
happy with the my bird as I was already heating up the
deep fryer in my mind. The jake weighed 17 lbs and
sported a 4 1/2" beard. A great start to the spring
season, and I still have one tag to go.
