Florida Spring Gobbler Season Report - #4 Second Week & "The April Fools Bird!"

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Monday March 28, 2011

The weather forecast was not looking good, overcast, breezy and a good chance of rain.

I got up at 5 AM and stepped outside to see what it looked, miserable! but....I thought, with the rain, turkeys are going to want to be in the open, either on a graded road pasture or.....an dried up duck pond! It was a long shot but I loaded up and headed for the duck pond I have been hunting.

I was actually a little late getting there and I had to set up with daylight breaking on me. I set up a couple hen decoys in front a a small grass island with one lone, young cypress growing on the edge. It had some low limbs I could  crawl up under and use the trunk for a back rest. I pulled some moss over the limbs and settled in for the wait.                                                                                                   

                                                                                                               Big Gobbler track!

Of course with the overcast, I heard no gobbling but I felt good about the chances of a long beard being close.

After about a half hour I looked over to see two hens easing out from behind a grass island. I got to see one more hen before I called the hunt and that was it. No gobblers.

Tuesday: called for bad weather

Wednesday: called for bad weather

Thursday: I have a 4 day permit for Ocala, Lake Delancy that started today but when I woke up this morning it was flashing lightening, thundering and had been raining all night. I decided to bide my time an waite and see what the weather would do. We had been under tornado watches over night and there was more severe weather forcasted for the day. By 2 PM though it was starting to clear. Since it had rained most of the day I did not figure much sign could be seen so I decided not to try to scout the spot I planned to hunt. I have killed a turkey here just about every year for as long as I have been hunting Delancy. I'll just go there cold in the morning and see what develops.

                                          A pair of big footed birds walking together, Jakes!
Not more than 45 minutes old, you can still see their toe texture, I bumped into the birds just down the road.

Friday day #10, "The April fools Bird!"

Man, I just can get out from under this black cloud that is following me around! From the title you can probably guess the ending of this hunt but here's what went down.

It's over an hours drive for me to get to this little honey hole I like to hunt in the Ocala national forest.

I was a little nervous about what I would find when I got there as I have not been there in a year. I am always worried someone is going to be sitting there when I arrive.

Well, once again I lucked out and had the spot all to myself. The forest service had just recently burned the area and had blocked the road to I had to hump all my gear in an extra 1/4 mile or so. Since it was going to be so far I decided to leave the decoys. That turned out to be a mistake that could have made a decidedly different out come to the hunt.

I waited down at the swamp and the second time I owled a bird responded right beside me! I mean 50-60 yds! I probably looked like the cat who just ate the canary. I have been here before and It has always gone bad for the gobbler. I just knew I had this one in the bag.

As as the day creatures started to wake up and call, the gobbler really got going. He was gobbling at anything that made a sound. I put a palmetto fan blind together on the opposite side of the road and set back for the show.

When the gobbling started to tail off I knew he was getting ready to fly down. I had no more whispered that to the camera; he's getting ready to fly down, when I heard him take wing and saw him come sailing into the road. The only problem was the canopy was such that it caused him to fly diagonally away from me and land some 50 yds distant. He was out of view of the camera so I decided to be patient and wait on him.

He went into full strut as soon as his toes hit the dirt and only got out of shotgun range one time over the next hour. Strutting and drumming non stop and I only got two glimpses of him.

From his gobbling I could tell he was getting close to the edge of the hammock. About then I heard a couple hen flutter down back in the hammock. You know what he did! He headed that way strutting and gobbling.

I called up a hen that got to about 10yds. and then faded back into the hammock.

The tom gobbled off in the back in the hammock and I thought he was leaving me but I made the right call there and stayed put. In a few minutes he was coming back and I thought once again I was just about to kill him. He hung up just on the edge of the right of way and moved back and fourth drumming the hole time.

I had seen him pass through a small hole behind a fallen cabbage log when he came up there but he did not stop for a shot and I thought he was coming to the road anyway. Well, after a short time I saw him step back into the opening but all I could see was his white head and the top of his fan. I swung the gun over the camera and fired!

It was a swing and a miss! I still can't believe I blew such a sweet setup. That was one lucky bird is all that I can say.

I would add this; after I watched the footage I saw some stuff that I missed due to the camera and having to worry with that thing. I don't think it really had much to due with the failure but it can and will. There was a hen that I called up in the thick bushes that I did not know was there until I watched the video and I had the camera pointed in the wrong shooting hole when I pulled the trigger. With over and hour of footage I never saw the gobbler for more then about 3 seconds and he was basically in gun range the hole time! Amazing.

I have to say, despite the disappointment of the miss, it was one exciting hunt! To have a bird that close for so long with him drumming and gobbling like that.....it's pure excitement. It was still an outstanding hunt.

I will try to roost him tonight but I expect he is going to be as wild as a run over dog. He won't leave but whether he can be called in is a different story.

I have two days to make it happen. We'll see.

Best of hunts,

Larry S.

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.

                                                                    Bear tracks!

                                                                     Gator tracks!

                                                                 Gator tracks!

                                              A gator cave under the bank and sunning spot!

                                                                       Gator slide!

                                               Turkey paradise in a dried up duck pond!

                                                                     Hen dusting sign!
Good Luck,
Larry S.

Monster Osceola Gobbler Spurs!

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Now this is a limb hanger if ever there was one! "Better than money from home" as one of my old fishing buddies used to say.

My good friend Rick Edwards stopped by my office today to show me a set of monster Gobbler spurs he took a few years back. They were so large I wanted to share a few pictures of them with everyone.

They are the largest hooks I have ever seen in person with the longer spur measuring a full 1 11/16" along the curve. These are as long and sharp as they come.

Don't know how Ricky managed to take such a monster. Obviously, the bird was older than dirt and had to be in declining health. Probably just came limping by, looking for some hunter to put him out of his misery......sorry Ricky! couldn't resist that. Probably just my envy showing thru.

All joking aside, if your a turkey hunter, you know just how special a bird this is. A Gobbler that has lived this long has seen it all and is one of the wariest creatures in the woods. No sense of curosity. If something don't seem  right, he packs his bags and leaves, no questions asked. 

The following is a short recount of how Rick felled this magnum sized Gobbler.

Rick was invited to hunt a private ranch near Green Cove Springs, Florida. Recognizing this could be a hunt of a life time, he jumped all over the opportunity.

In the pre-dawn darkness, the ranch's hunt master took Rick to a promissing spot where he knew a number of turkeys were likely roosting along a large rolling pasture.

As daylight began to crack in the sky and the red birds started to sing,  Rick was able to just barely make out the gobble of a distant tom roosted all the way on the other side of the pasture. Eventually, the tom pitched down to a big flock of hens on the back side of a rise in the field. After a considerable time the hens finally began to top the hill. Ricky pleaded as loud as he could on his slate call to try to pull the flock his way. Just as the hens were nearing a road along the field, the hunt master showed up and split the hens off from the gobbler.

Rick was pretty worried that this had just ruined his hunt but decided to stay put and play out the cards he was dealt. At least the Bird was split up from his hens.

Rick let things settle down and started calling again. A period of time passed and a big white head finally appeared beyond the rise in the pasture. The old king made his way in at a painfully slow pace as many wary Gobblers will. Strut, step and look, strut, step and look.....Ricky was eventually able to hold out and coax him in close enough to roll him up.

As most turkey hunters do, Ricky raced to the bird to make sure he was down. He grabbed the still flopping gobbler by the ancle but the old bird managed to exact a measure of revenge before he gave up the ghost. The big beating wings rolled the gobbler's almost 2" dagger in Rick's hand and just about punched all the way through between his thumb and index finger.

Rick came out on top but he was bloodied!

There's something about a floundering gobbler that just makes a hunter want to grab a hold of him every time. His beating wings causes his body to spin in a circle. If he's got sharp spurs, they'll catch in your glove and before you know it your cut and bleeding and can't let go! Gobbler's revenge! I can't tell you how many times I've done it myself. Guess i'll never learn.

I hope when I grow up, I can shoot a turkey like this!

Great job Rick, a Limb Hanger to be sure!

Best of hunts,

Larry Stephens

Primos Diaphragm Sonic Dome Turkey Call Review

Another Spring Gobbler season is upon us and its time to be tuning up your calling and getting all your gear right and tight.

In my opinion, the mouth diaphragm call is the best turkey call ever invented for turkey hunting. Any call that a turkey makes can be duplicated on this type call including a kee kee.

Most of my Diaphragm mouth calls are in need of replacement so did some poking around and picked up some news calls to try.

One of the better calls I found was the new Primos "Sonic Dome Series", double reed, no cut. Right out of the box it fit my pallet better than any other call I have tried to date. In fact it fit so well i used it as a pattern to trim my other call to.

My personal preference in a mouth call is a twin reed with no cuts. I find the cuts make it difficuly to purr on which is a finishing call I rely heavily on. Also, more than two reeds or cuts are almost impossible for me to gobble on.

This call can make both raspy and clear calls and a range of soft and loud calls. Cuts are also nice and sharp.

My method of gobbling on a mouth call does not work with the dome style call but then again, I do not incorporate that call to much.

If your looking for a new call give this one a try, it a winner!

Best of Hunting,
Larry Stephens