Hunters gearing up for spring turkey season By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
It was almost daylight and the tukeys were still in the trees. Every few seconds one would gobble and this would set off the others.
Occasionally, I’d do a soft yelp and get the booming answers from the big toms.
I was so close I could hear them flying down from the tree limbs and they continued the gobbling and yelping.
But the sounds were fading as the whole bunch walked away.
More often than not, that’s how it is in today’s turkey woods. There are so many turkeys that it is a rare occasion when toms go to roost without hens.
And, come dawn, the toms go where the hens go and if you are not on that track, you will not bag a tom.
That’s why preseason scouting is so important.
We used to scout just to determine where the toms were roosting and then depend upon our calling to bring them in.
Now, however, you have to determine where those turkeys will go when they fly down and you must be set up on that track to even have a chance.
It is a fact that many of today’s turkey hunters no longer get up early to be in the woods at dawn.
Instead, many hunters prefer to take their chances later in the day when many of the hens go to the nest and leave the toms. When that happens, the soft yelps of a hen call will bring a tom running.
Another change is aggressive calling. In any group of hens and toms, there is a “boss” hen.
If you can get the boss hen riled up, she’ll come looking for you thinking it is another upstart hen.
She’ll have kicking your butt in mind and she will be in a hurry to do it. The tom or toms will just follow along and walk right in.
Turkey hunting has also become very popular. Each spring the woods are full of hunters.
It doesn’t take surviving toms very long to learn some valuable lessons that just might save their hides later.
One of those lessons is, “Never approach a decoy.”
In fact, I rarely use a decoy when hunting on public lands. I’ve had too many toms either hang up a hundred yards out or scurry off at the sight of a decoy.
High turkey numbers and high hunter numbers are causing some changes in the turkey woods. Knowing that will help you bag that trophy tom.