First 2011 bird and Bay Area turkey show

[kj]

So I finally found a local landowner who let me hunt his land if I (i) don't tell anyone else, and (ii) pay his price.  I live in the suburbs so while we have turkeys everywhere the public hunting lands are 2-3 hours away.  So I usually have to stay overnight.  But not today, I left home at 5:40am and was there at 6:00am.

This morning they were gobbling up a canyon with a nice creek coming out of the middle and grassy hills on both sides.  I set up my DSD hen by the creek and sat under a big Eucalyptus tree on the other side in the grassland at the end of the canyon.

I started calling with my Lights Out slate call and they immediately gobbled back and slowly started heading down the creek.  After a little while they shut up and would not respond to my call. 

I waited a while and switched to my aluminum call to give them a slightly different sound.  Instead of a gobble,  I had an aggressive hen yelping back at me.  All of a sudden I was really concerned the gobblers would stay henned up.  I called back and forth a few times with the hen and then waited.

After several minutes a flock of about 15 turkeys popped out of the trees a little farther than I hoped, maybe 150 yards away and up the hill to the left.  They were led by a big gobbler who could see my decoy but was walking back and forth trying to call her to him.

So  I gave him some yelps to encourage him down the hill.  Must have ticked off the hens because two of them took off towards me with a Jake in tow.  The hens ran right to the decoy and started to attack it.  But the Jake got there and shoved them out of the way.

The Jake mounted my decoy and started to mate with it.  I let him keep going at it as I was hoping the gobbler would come chase him off.  After a long time he knocked it over but was still having his way with it.  What a show.

He finally rolled off of the decoy and stuck his head up, still no sign of the gobbler, my decoy was knocked over in the open and one of the hens had started getting nervous and was putting lightly.  So I let him have it. 

Not the bird I wanted but the only one I was going to get today and #1 to start the season (14 lbs with a 4" beard and nubs).  I'll be more selective with #2 and #3 (or so I say now).

I was home by 8am in time for church and a bike ride with my wife.  All is good and the Jake is prepped and ready to go into the oven.  All I need to do now is go over to the "Would you shoot a Jake thread?" and answer yes.  All in all a good way to start the season and the rain has stopped to boot.


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[Gold Spur]

Congrats kj, great story also...

[furtracker]

 

[kansas hooks]

Congrats on a great bird and nice story

[timbrhuntr]

 

[hookedspur]

Congrats kj, great story also...

[turkey slayer]

Congrats!

[JVA54]

   Congrats!!

[Dan Mallia]

congrats 

[bowhunter84]

congrats

[njdevilsb]

Sounds like a fun hunt.  Congrats.

[socalturkeyman]

YA KJ way to go buddy! Love the story!

[TRKYHTR]

WTG KJ. Congrats on a nice turkey.

TRKYHTR

[RutnNStrutn]

Jake or not, sounds like a heck of a hunt!! Congrats!!