Great turkey hunting trip to Central California and Western Sierras with Otto...Otto has relatives here and we arrived on Thursday...The property isn't all that big (50 acres), but the surrounding area looked turkey rich driving thru it...After settling in, we walked the property to get a lay of the land (Otto has been here before)...We soon found a nice roost tree and turkey sign...Nice!...After talking to his uncle and aunt awhile, we went to dinner...We got back to the house at about 7:00 pm and we heard our 1st gobble...Not on our property, but most certainly close enough to call to in the morning...We also decided where we would set up the next day..
We went to bed pretty early and that night the weather rolled in...I could hear gobbles to the bolts of lightning and thunder thru out the night...Rained like crazy...Didn't sleep much to say the least...
5:00 am came early, but our walk was short and how fate would have it...The rain had stopped...Otto wanted to hunt over a strutter...So, I set up the motorized DSD jake along with a DSD upright hen in front of him...It wasn't till at least 6:00 am before we heard our 1st gobbles...Some were within a 150 yds of us, but they didn't sound quite right and I suspected jakes...As flydown got near, we could hear gobbles from a number of directions...Otto started some soft calling and the gobbles were getting more frequent...Right after flydown, I hit the Flydown Custom single sided box one time...Every turkey in this valley knew we were there per the amount of gobbles!...
Within about 15 minutes, we see our 1st birds...A 6 pack of jakes and they beelined it to the decoys...As normal, they attacked the fake jake 1st...A few minutes go by and the dominant jake starts mounting the hen...This goes on for at least 20 minutes...We know, if these jakes keep hanging around, no single tom will attempt to come in...Finally, after 35 minutes or so, they start moving off...It's now after 7:00 am...Otto starts calling some and we instantly get gobbles from down in the bottom land...A few minutes go by before I see the top of red heads moving above the grass down the hill...Soon, I see the up periscope...This is really the moment of truth...Will they like the decoys or turn and go away...They must of liked them, because they both start hot footing it in...After a couple minutes of back and forth, we had them separated enough...1,2, BOOM!....
Two the most beautiful LONG beards, you'll ever see...Almost like twins...Thick, 10 1/2" beards and both had a little 2nd beard...Otto's bird was almost 19 lbs...Mine was really thin and only weighed 14-11...Spurs were about 1" for both...
Pretty long drive and traffic coming home was brutal, but I'd do it again tomorrow...Otto and I are now both done for the season individually, but lots of turkey hunting still to be had with friends and family...
We went to bed pretty early and that night the weather rolled in...I could hear gobbles to the bolts of lightning and thunder thru out the night...Rained like crazy...Didn't sleep much to say the least...
5:00 am came early, but our walk was short and how fate would have it...The rain had stopped...Otto wanted to hunt over a strutter...So, I set up the motorized DSD jake along with a DSD upright hen in front of him...It wasn't till at least 6:00 am before we heard our 1st gobbles...Some were within a 150 yds of us, but they didn't sound quite right and I suspected jakes...As flydown got near, we could hear gobbles from a number of directions...Otto started some soft calling and the gobbles were getting more frequent...Right after flydown, I hit the Flydown Custom single sided box one time...Every turkey in this valley knew we were there per the amount of gobbles!...
Within about 15 minutes, we see our 1st birds...A 6 pack of jakes and they beelined it to the decoys...As normal, they attacked the fake jake 1st...A few minutes go by and the dominant jake starts mounting the hen...This goes on for at least 20 minutes...We know, if these jakes keep hanging around, no single tom will attempt to come in...Finally, after 35 minutes or so, they start moving off...It's now after 7:00 am...Otto starts calling some and we instantly get gobbles from down in the bottom land...A few minutes go by before I see the top of red heads moving above the grass down the hill...Soon, I see the up periscope...This is really the moment of truth...Will they like the decoys or turn and go away...They must of liked them, because they both start hot footing it in...After a couple minutes of back and forth, we had them separated enough...1,2, BOOM!....
Two the most beautiful LONG beards, you'll ever see...Almost like twins...Thick, 10 1/2" beards and both had a little 2nd beard...Otto's bird was almost 19 lbs...Mine was really thin and only weighed 14-11...Spurs were about 1" for both...
Pretty long drive and traffic coming home was brutal, but I'd do it again tomorrow...Otto and I are now both done for the season individually, but lots of turkey hunting still to be had with friends and family...
