trophy-hunting: Florida Spring Gobbler Season Report

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Florida Spring Gobbler Season Report - #3 Second Weekend

. Saturday, day #8:

I just had to go back to the dried up duck pond. I figured with all the hens and everything a turkey could want there a gobbler's got to be there. Well, he was there but he was roosted all the way in the N.E. corner and deep outside the pond as best I could tell. There was another bird gobbling a little left of him and much further away. I expect he was across the road in the next block. The problem here is there is only the road and the pond to be able to actually hunt and call a bird. The woods are bad thick except to the West and S.W., where its a high hill and somewhat open. However, how the turkeys come and go from the pond is a mystery! It's so thick on the edge that you would not believe a turkey could get out of there except to fly.

Anyway, the roosted gobbler that morning responded to me from the limb a little but only gobble one time from the ground. He was a lot closer and to my left but outside of the pond in some thick pine and bay flat woods. I hunted until 10:00am and only saw a couple of hens.

That afternoon Steve and I drug some black jack wood up to the camp for a cook fire and hauled water for our shower house. Steve named it the "Neapolitan Bath House"! as it had red, white and chocolate metal panels on the side kind of like Neapolitan ice cream. Sounds swanky too. We heat our water in a wash tub on a gas burner and run a 12v bilge pump off our truck battery to pump the water to a shower head inside. Man, does that thing feel good after a 90+ degree day during bow season.

Steve had hauled the water barrel to a blow well down in the swamp to get water and I went around the other way to scout the low road. I found the mother load of strut sign where an old road tees and goes down to an overgrown clear cut. I mean the road was cut to pieces from gobblers dragging their wings strutting. I took some pictures and headed for the well. Just as I crossed the creek I ran up on two hens in the road. They took off running and were headed right for Steve. When I rounded the corner they were flying right past him parked in the road. I don't know who was more surprised him or the turkeys!

The mother load of strut sign!

That evening I got to the pond early enough to set up some decoys for an afternoon hunt. I not really an afternoon turkey hunter as they won't gobble much but I guess I'm desperate at this point. I was (3) hens and that was it.

I left just enough time to run to the strut zone i had found and owl but got no response. However, it was breezy and not a good evening for roosting. I did flush a hen roosted in some short pines along the road where it comes into the clear cut.

Sunday moring, day #9:
I took the atv and headed back to the strut zone thinking the gobbler had to be there and just did not gobble. Well, I was right. I had walked all under him on the roost that night and he never flushed. That morning however was a different story. I moved down the road to the edge of the clear cut and waited for gobble time. A bird started gobbling in the creek in the distance. Then another and another and another. Four in all but there was no way to get to them, I tried! I decided just to set up there where the road met the clear cut and just as I was about to set down a bid bird flushed about 40 yds from me on the other side of the road! Damn the luck!

I ended up leading about 8:00am as I believe the gobbling birds were jakes. They were not gobbling at anything I could here and would not respond to anything I did, owl, crow, cut, cackle, nothing and only gobbled 3-4 times each. I headed back to the duck pond. Again, I saw some hens but no gobblers. I did hear a bird gobbling up by some houses and went that way but he was off the club and would not really respond to me gobbling maybe every 20 minutes or so, real cold.

That pretty much ended the 2 nd weekend of hunting. A lot of bad weather and rain is forcasted for the rest of the week so I expect I will not be hunting to much this week.

I discovered some bear tracks in a small sink hole pond that was just about dried up. Not a huge bear but made some nice tracks. Here's a few pic's.