4-15-13 Mon

4-15-2013 Mon 6:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Weather:
(0753) SE7, mostly cloudy, 38 ˚
Location:
La Crosse Experimental Forest
Bagged:
Nothing, I saw approximately ten birds
Partners:
none
Comments:

I was back to the experimental forest this morning with a new plan that I thought might get me a turkey dinner. I was hunting the same area, but today I was going to stay by my vehicle until the turkeys started gobbling, and their vocalizations would dictate where I would start hunting.
Of course for a third day in a row they were gobbling from a different area and on the other side of the road. I tried to get in closer to the birds as they were sounding off from the roost, but almost as soon as they started gobbling they fell silent.
I did climb to the top of the hill hoping to hear a bird on either side of the valley, and I did hear some birds several hundred yards out on a ridge from where I was. I snuck to the edge of the woods and out in the field was two distinct groups of turkey; one held jakes and hens and the other held toms and hens.
I set up and began trying to call the hens in with my pleading hen calls, for I knew if I could get the hens in the toms were sure to follow. My plan did work, but instead of calling the group of hens in with the gobblers I called in the hens and jakes. I did have about four jakes within about 35 yards, but I passed on pulling the trigger. I was tempted, and was ready to push the safety off several times, but I talked myself out of it.

Observations:

The weather was not too bad today, but I only hunted a little bit in the morning. There were still a few remnant patches of snow on top of the ridge that were left over from yesterday’s snowfall.