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....My favorite band...uh...not really. 
Aneal keeping tuned up at camp. As my good friend Matt and a newbie English chap headed out for Kansas, I really wasn't thinking about the recent 2 podcast episodes we were fortunate enough to record with Chris Roe several weeks before. I was thinking more about if I had enough room in my cooler for 3 Toms (2 in Kansas and 1 in Nebraska) and whether or not I still had that dusty old bottle of Wild Turkey 101 in the bottom cabinet of my camper to slug and do a celebration dance after we put down some turkeys. But once we got into the field, it became apparent to me by the large flocks of turkeys that were roosted above our heads on opening morning, that we were into some henned up winter flocks. "Early phase" as Chris put it....and his advice to "Crowd the Roost" was illustrated to a tee. First morning, all 3 of us picked a spot on a field about 500 yards long and 50 yards wide. Matt and I were caddy cornered in blinds across the field from each other so we could capture some video. I was on the wood line under the roosted birds, and Matt was across. As light came, the turkeys started raining down....approximately 40 in all and it was a magnificient display. They got down, hens were cacklin, Toms were strutting, jakes were walkin around in their normal goofy form, and my adrenaline was pumping. We watched that flock break up and reconvene several times before 2 subordinate Tom's came in from right behind me. I knocked over the camera trying to get in position for an akward shot...and then realized they were headed right for Matt's B-Mobile strutter decoy. They stopped about 25 yards from the decoy (about 40 yards from Matt), and just stood there for what seemed like an hour (probably only 4 minutes). Finally, one of the toms made the move, and headed right for the B-Mobile. I am smirking right now thinking about that Tom running back towards me with the arrow sticking out both ends of his ribs after Matt slinked him with one. 1 Tom down. Matt took off to take care of his game, and I moved slightly down field and settled in for a nap. Around Noon, I caught movement out of my right (the far corner of the field. 3 hens popped in and 2 Toms followed right behind them. I had a Magnus Broadhead nocked, and the Toms crossed the blind at about 22 yards. I aimed low (knowing my Maguns broadheads flew high with a stiffer arrow at 20 yards) and I swear the turkey ducked (in reality I shot about 3 inches too high). Oh well, it was only the first day. Unfortunately, the next day high winds blew in and the temperature dropped to just hovering over freezing. While we got under the birds again the next morning, the fatal mistake was we set back up in the field. Those turkeys wanted nothing to do with open country in that wind. I counted 7 strutters marching up and down that field only 5 yards into the woodline. At 1 point, 4 strutters came to a clearing in the woodline (across the field from my blind) and took turns displaying for my hen and B-mobile setup. They finally moved off.......that morning's action was done. The rest of the trip was really about fighting the wind. We moved our setups into the woodline of this popular area, and Matt was lucky to get a great Tom come in all by himself at 3pm in the afternoon. The Tom strutted for about an hour before Matt's purring was able to bring him in to 35 yards. Film revealed Matt's shot was low, and when he went after him, the sinking feeling of watching a wounded bird glide in the wind became embedded in Matt's stomach. Good news (well really amazing news) is Matt found that bird still alive almost 20 hours later laying in a field with 2 broken legs. He got another arrow in him and headed back to camp for that wild turkey 101. As he put it, sometimes it is better to be lucky than be good. 
Nebraska riverbottom the week before the Kansas trip. While Matt was putting an end to his crippled bird, I found a truck in the spot I was planning on heading out to that morning (this was public land after all), so I had to go in blind to another area I knew was legal to hunt but had never walked on before. I walked the river bottom calling every so often...not a sound. Finally after heading in about a mile with my blind on my back, I heard some gobbles about another mile away. Unfortunately as I followed them, I realized I ran out of public land 1/4 mile up and was stuck. What to do? I back tracked and started paying a little closer attention to sign. The ground was hard and dry, but there was turkey droppings EVERYWHERE. Nothing fresh, but a lot of droppings. So I went back and butted up next to the private land and setup on a high plateau overlooking the riverbottom and the farmer's alfalfa field. At about 9:30 AM (I promised myself I would give it until 10:00 AM), I started hearing gobbles slowly working closer. I yelped relatively soft, and the gobbles got closer. They were heading my way, and I was going to get a good shot. The first 10 turkeys poured into the field and it was 9 hens and 1 jake.....not so good. The next 10 poured into the field and it was 5 jakes, 4 hens, and 1 tom. 20 Turkeys in front of me and only 1 Tom! The next 10 (yes 10 more coming)....1 jake, 2, hens and 7 Toms! This is getting good. Unfortunately, the winds were still high and none of the Toms went into strut. They didn't even make an attempt to get closer than 50 yards while the jakes and hens all crowded my jake/hen decoy setup at about 20 yards. After doing everything I could think of to convince those Toms to come in, I finally thought about coming home empty handed last year. I put an arrow through a jake at about 12 yards and then chuckled while the other jakes all started attacking the carcass and fanning out. The Toms and hens wanted nothing to do with it and moved off. With 3 birds down (for the whole camp) I headed solo into Nebraska for a change of scenery. Unfortunately that change of scenery was high winds, hail, and snow/sleet mix. I thought that was my sign, and headed home to the family. A great early season hunt! I encourage all you Turkey hunters to go back and listen to Chris Roe's recipe for early season success. I had many more encounters with Toms that I roosted, and then got right under them (within 50 yards) of when they flew down. As is the case with Turkey hunting, not all of these "crowded roost" strategies ended up with shot opportunities, but each time there was plenty of action. My two daughters b-days are coming up here at the end of the month, so I'll be staying close to home for a couple of weeks. I will then head into the Colorado high country with some of my good friends to chase Merriams around. Hopefully early may will bring a second breeding frenzy and we'll have some great action. As always, I'll keep you all posted. Matt's second bird (the amazing recovery)! 2008 Success!
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