A few slow days

The internet has been down over the weekend. Time for some catch up.
Tried out two new places. A 98 acre farm just up the road and a 124 acre property owned by some friends.

Up at 4am, get to the barn and park around 4:40. I hike up to the top of the field in the rain. I saw two birds feeding in the other day. I set my decoy out on the edge of the field and sit just in the woods.




About an hour goes by and there is a deer standing 15 yards away. I have no idea where it came from. It is just staring at my decoy. I reach for my camera and it sees me. The deer makes a quick run up the hill and stops. It turns around and starts walking back to the decoy. It stops at about 30 yards and just looks at the decoy for another 5 min and walks away.









 I wait one more hour and move to the other end of the field. Sit there for one hour and then move into the woods. I want to check this place out. I make my way up a steep hill side and find a nice deer trail. that leads me to a V.A.S.T. trail. This looks like a good spot. Big maple trees for birds to roost in. The turkeys seam to like the path of least resistance. I find a nice spot to hide on a small hill looking down on the road and put Wilma in the road. I call on and off for a little bit. Still more to see so I move on up the hill to the power line. Just about at the top of the hill two quick shots come from the field followed by the sound of a car speeding away.  Fucking road hunters. I hat lazy good for nothing road hunters. I get over that and walk out on the power line and have a look around. the fog is thick so not much to see. Make a few calls and nothing answers. I start heading to the west side of the property and find a network of trails. I set up on a five way intersection. I only last twenty min or so. the black flies are bad.

I follow a road back up to the power line and sit just inside the woods. It smells like onions? Wild Leeks! I dig out a bag and look at the time on my cell phone. Shit it is 11:50. I need to be out of the woods at 12:00. I throw a few in a ziploc and beat feet to the car. Made it back at 12:05.

I made two new calls

Copper over glass and birds eye pot and Aluminum over glass and birds eye maple pot and copper in white oak pot. 

.
Next day.

Up at four and head to the Cochran's. I park at Shaun's shop. I head to the field first and make a few owl hoots. Nothing. I try again. I have a owl respond then another one starts going crazy. That was fun but no turkeys. I jump on a trail and head to the back side of the property where I have see birds in the past. I get set up on the edge of a hemlock stand where it meets a mix of hardwood trees. I put Wilma at about twenty yards. I sit quiet for about twenty min before I start to call. I am using aluminum and copper calls I made the night before. It is very quiet in the woods today. I start to call soft. With a few yelps and clucks. Nothing. I try again in fifteen min. This time some one talks back. Sounds like a hen about seventy five yards out.

I cluck and yelp. She kee kees and purrs back. She is closing in. I catch a glimpse of her and she is headed straight for me. Then she notices Wilma. She heads straight to her clucking and purring all the way. As she is checking out the decoy. I grab my camera. I really need to do something with my camera it is chrome and the small tripod is florescent orange. She sees my camera but not to startled. She stops clucking and purring.

Wilma does not have much to say so she starts to feed in my direction. The hen comes with in ten yards and walks right past me. I have been dead still for almost twenty min now and my back, but and legs are killing me.I need to readjust. She does not like this and makes a few putts and moves off.  Sitting around for another hour I hear nothing. I grab my decoy and start working my way back to the car. I find a nice spot where the turkeys have the ground all scratched up. I call for a half and hour and nothing. It is not raining but heavy fog and all the leaves are wet. I am cold and damp so I head for the car. At least I called a bird in.

Sunday

I hunt the 300 acre farm. I set up where I saw a hen last week on a trail and call. A tom gobbles back.

He is far. I close some ground and call again I hear a hen or another hunter. I work my way around them and try and get closer to the bird. The tom is answering a rooster crow and the rooster is answering the tom.

Kinda funny. He shuts up around 5:30 and that is all I hear and see for the day. I walk back to the corn field and see some turkey tracks in the corn field.   

I go and check my trail-cam. Just a few pics

of a deer and a fox. I pull it. I found a old pop up blind a few weeks back when I was scouting. 

I go and uncover it and see if I can save it. It is in bad shape. I salvage the pols and drag the skin and chair out to the logging road so someone or I can grab it the next time I'm in here.

I make it home and have Amber check me for ticks. She finds two. Both imbedded and both deer ticks.

Deer ticks

Make sure you check your self. I found two in me the other day.

Second Saturday in the PA. Turkey woods

Second Saturday in the PA. Turkey woods

So This hunt wasn't quite as exiting as the first day but it had it's moments.

  I met up with Kyle at 5am. he was going to do the calling for me in hopes to have a repeat of last weekend. We hit the woods at 5:15 expecting the birds to be roosted in the same trees again. We swung out and around the ridge we bumped them off of the first day. sat up on the top of the ridge looking back to the location of the roosted birds. 

    We sat for about 20min before we began to hear them on the roost gobbling at every crow's caw. We thought that since he was so hot on the roost it would be a easy  morning. Boy were we wrong. after 10 min. of gobbling on the roost he fell silent. with all the noise of traffic, gas well's and birds waking up we were not able to hear them fly down. So after sitting for about a hour we packed up and started working along the top calling form time to time just to locate them. We had a good idea where they had gone but knew we couldn't get in to the area with out them knowing. 

  On our way back to the truck we did spook a single hen but did not see any other birds. we suspected she was on a nest. so we moved on with no more luck. With a couple more sits with no results we headed out to get some food the same as we had done the first day. After some bacon and eggs. We set out again. hoping to repeat our first day adventures, but when we arived at the location Kyle had bagged his bird, we noticed the farmer was moving equipment and cows around so we didn't stay to hunt. 

   Now back on the same ridge we started on early that morning we began walking the trail out when we heard a yelp of a hen out in front of us. We suspected that it was the hen we had jumped earlier and figured we would use her calling to our advantage. so we sat just out of site of the calling bird. Sitting facing the direction of the calling bird we began to notice the calls were not moving about like we would suspect would happen with us calling to it. At that point i was having a feeling we were talking to another hunter. So we fell silent with out calls and waited to see what would happen. All of a sudden we hear "GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE" just out of sight.  So we let out a light call and he was even closer. then we noticed the bird about 80 yards and running. not at us or away from us but into our direction. we suspected it was spooked by the other hunter. once it was just to our right kyle called out and he gobbled right back. 

  I looked to my right and i could see him standing in a spot that i could only see a small amount of his neck and that was it about 35yards away. Not wanting to mess up the hunt again by missing i waited hoping he would take a few steps to the right which would have presented a nice clear shot, But he didn't. we didn't know where he went. After a few quick yeps he reviled to us that he had sadly moved off some. So i had Kyle slide back some and i would stay at our current location in hopes of drawing him back. Sadly this didn't work our. I sat for nearly 45 min. watching him strut and gobble just out of range. While after working our hardest we lost sight and sound of the bird along with Kyle and I both having a coughing spell felt we had scared him off. It was then we also found out that it was indeed another hunter. as kyle was walking back to me he saw him working back the trail we had walked in on. So while standing there we began to hear that same yelping we had been talking to down below us. and as soon as it started he came that gobbler running right at us again. With only a few minuets left to hunt we sat down hoping he would run right in but it didn't happen. We have no idea where that bird with but we do know as of noon Saturday he was still alive.

   sadly i wont get getting a chance to get back in the woods till the 19th. but on a positive note by the time that weekend rolls around we will no longer be restricted by a noon quitting time. hopefully he will still be alive and in the area by then. 

Crappie Fishing With Liam!

  Crappie Fishing With Liam!

   I took this Thursday and Friday off to be with Aliya while she was having tubes in her ears and her adenoids removed. So since she was taking a nap, Liam and I packed up our fishing stuff and headed to Ives run.  I had herd that the Crappies were biting so we had to give it a try!

 Liam and I headed to our normal spot we like to catch crappies.

We caught close to 30 or 40 fish in only two hours of fishing!

landing nearly a fish a cast.

We ended up keeping 15 or so for dinner tonight!

YUM YUM YUM! FRESH CRAPPIE!

Heading for the Turkey woods tomorrow for what I hope to be a repeat of last weekend!

Rainy day blues

Went out last night and tried to put some birds to roost with no luck.  So up at four again. Rain and drizzle all morning that is what accu-weater is saying.

 I hemmed and hawed about where to go. Finlay decide on the three hundred acre farm. I decide to try the east side that has a large hay field and even bigger corn field. I get set up at the end of the hay field and let out a few yelps. Nothing around. I try again after fifteen min. I hear a yelp back from down the field. Another fifteen goes by and I hear a truck now. There is a public old road/tractor path  that splits the property. It is just off the field behind me. They stop about fifty yards away. Turn off the truck and get out. I can hear them talking. " well what do you think? go for it." He hits the box call hard and loud. It echoes down the valley. I stand up and walk out and grab my decoy. Stuff it in its sack. It takes me about thirty seconds. to cover the ground to the truck and say good morning. They about turned inside out when I walked around the tree line.  We talked for a few min and they apologized for ruining my hunt and they got the hell out of dodge. I don't think they had permission to hunt. It was just the way they came across.


Now what? Well the corn field sounded good. It had just had manure spread on it and plowed. I cut across threw the woods and poke my head out in the field. Nothing. Walk over to a apple tree and there is someones popup blind stashed there. I move on.


 Down to the large maple at the middle of the field. I see some old turkey tracks in the mud. It gets my hopes up.  Get setup and sit for about and hour.
Nothing. The birds are tight lipped today with this rain.

























 The rain starts to pick up. So I stuff Wilma in her
   bag and head north along the field.









I make it about two hundred yards into the woods and see a hen beatin feet down the trail in front of me.
Working my way along the trail I stop set up and call about every three hundred  yards. Still nothing.
Turning east at the property line. The timber switches from hemlocks a mix of oak, birch, and pine. Some old scratch marks here and there but not much sign of turkey.




I pull Wilma out of the bag and stick her near a big old oak and I take a seat. thirty minutes and nothing.
I need to keep moving I'm wet and cold .Still working east along the power line. Staying fifty to one hundred yards in the woods. I find my self back at the same place I called in the tom yesterday.
I have not heard a bird all day. So my hopes are down. I let out a few yelps and start to cut. Gobble!! My heart jumps. No way. Take a look at my watch 11:12. Okay I have forty five minutes to do this. He is way out there again. I let him know I,m there again and he gobbles back. Okay take it easy today, I tell my self. I'll try my best not to over call. Look at the clock again 11:.30 I can hear something moving  from the power line. I can't see it but it is no turkey. I am right on the property line. He starts yelping. No!! #$@*. I do everything I can to get the tom to come to me. Boom!! only one hundred and fifty yards away.  I am pissed. Grab my things and make the long walk back to the car in the rain. Day three is over.

Can't get it done.

Put one bird to bed last night. He was about four hundred yards past the property line on the wrong side.

There was a truck parked just up the road listing as well. So I came up with a plan. Up at four out the door by 4:20. Parked by the old farmhouse and started the long hike to the top of the ridge. Walking with out a flashlight on one of the trails I hear a strange sound of rain. But it is not raining. Three lawn sprinklers. A quick game of pitfall and I'm on my way. My plan was to try and call him off the roost to my ridge, about 1/4 mile away.  Checked my trailcam on the way by. A few deer and the long beard was back on the 29th. I think he likes to have his pic taken. There were about 15 pics of him only 5 yards from the camera.

I get set up with "Wilma" my decoy about 20yards to my left. Digging threw my bag I find my calls and let out a few yelps and clucks. He gobbles right back at me. He knows I'm here. About 20min pass and a turkey flies down off to my left and Does not make a sound. I can here some one down the hill from me with what sounds like box call. Sounded more like a dying hen. The Tom is all fired up now. Answering every time the guy calls. This gos on for about 30min. and then the tom shuts up. I let out a few more calls and nothing.

7:00am time to move on. Gather up my things and I make it bout 100 yards and jump three deer.

I stop and take a look at them as they run away. Making my way back to the field I see a hen run across the trail. Maybe this is the bird I herd fly down.

I set up back at the power line again.  Just down from yesterdays spot. Make a few calls and not much going on.

I sit for about 20min and hear a distant gobble. Then a shot. Damn. But he gobbles again.

 I get out my copper pot call and hickory striker and just start wailing away. He responds. This bird is out there. I mean out there. I get up and close about 200 yards to the property boarder and set up on a ridge between two draws with a even bigger one in front. Hit the call again and he is closer. Now my heart is going. I put Wilma just down the hill from me.  He is just on the other side now. I take a break from the call for about 10min.

 I get out my mouth call and cut aggressively at him. He hammers back. only 80 yards now. The last time I had a tom this close I called it away form my brother and shot it :-). He is still out of sight. Take a break again and he starts working up the left draw. Not good. I am just down on the right side of the ridge. I do everything I can to get him to come over the ridge but he wont. I call for about 15 more min. He is not as hot anymore. So I try and sneak up to the ridge and get a look. 

 I poke my head up and there he is. Moving away slowly at about 100 yards.(red x is where he was) 

He is just about to go out of sight. I call and nothing. he just walks away. I walk back to my things and get packed up. Start walking back to the car. Boom a shotgun sounds off about 200yards from where I just was. 

Spring showers

Was up at 4am to the sound of down pouring rain. Checked the weather and went right back to bed.
Up again at 5am. This time no rain. Rushed around to find everything I need and out the door at 5:15.
 Hunted the 300 acre farm just up the road. There were no other trucks at the old house. So I thought the odds were in my favor. Just about 400yrd from the car I herd the only bird of the day gobble. Followed by the ring of a 12 gauge. One less bird.

Made my way to the back side of the property and got set up on a power line. As I went to sit down the heavens open up. I reached in an pulled out my pot call and it was drenched. So all I had was my mouth call for the rest of the day.  After 1.5hrs it was time to move on.  I still hunted the till ten o'clock and decided to try my luck on carpenter hill.




The rain had let up some and the fog was getting thicker. Parked at the end of our old drive way and worked my way up the hill. 

 

 Made it to the top of the hill and heard the second shot of the day. prob 1/2 mile away down past the pond.

 Found a spot on the top of the hill and set up. I have seen many turkeys up here before. I had high hopes for this spot. With only two hours to hunt there was not much time. I yelped, purred and clucked on and off for an hour and a half and nothing. So I packed my things and went home to dry out.  Back at it again tomorrow.