4-13-2013 Sat

4-13-2013 Sat. 6:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Weather:
(0753) W8, overcast, 32 ˚,
Location:
La Crosse Experimental Forest
Bagged:
Nothing, I saw approximately six birds
Partners:
none

Comments:

I was scheduled to be off on vacation Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for turkey hunting, but since the weather was forecasted to be so crummy I cancelled my vacation and put in for Monday and Tuesday instead. I had not done any pre scouting and I had no idea where the turkeys were going to be where I planned to hunt, but I knew they would be someplace in the vicinity.
I got to the area I planned to hunt a little late and as soon as I got out of my car I could hear gobbling going on towards the top of the hill. I now had a destination in mind. Since the valleys had no snow, but the hills had about one inch of new fallen snow, I donned my snow camouflage and headed up the hill and into the snow.
I trekked half way up the hill, found a good sized tree to lean against and was ready to call in and ambush a big old tom. The turkeys were fairly vocal this morning, every time a crow or owl would give voice the turkeys would respond. I called in a tom fairly quickly this morning but the problem was he came in silent and he came from the opposite directions than where I had expected him to come from.
It is a rather weird experience when they come in silent and you do not see them, but you can sense or feel them when they are strutting. It is almost a tingling sensation that you can feel at a rather long distance. I watched and tried to coax him in for about twenty minutes, but he got bored of me and wandered off.
With the freshly fallen snow I found his tracks and followed him into another ravine. I was able to spot other birds and get some hens and toms to respond to my calling but I could not get any turkeys to come me.

Observations:

The weather for this first season has been just horrible, it is a very late spring and the first three days of the season have been cold, windy and rainy. Surprisingly the toms were rather vocal this morning, but none wanted to be called in.