Last Chance Tom

I was down at Mautz paint yesterday and seen a guy pull a catfish about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds over the handrail on the west side. I’ve heard thier hitting other places too.

there’s been some nice ones being caught on the west side of the 5 and 1 dam.

Went down to the last day of third season before filling my second permit this morning.

It had been a tough go after bagging a nice bird on opening day of the second season. Hunted 4 of the 5 previous days but battled toms that didnt want to gobble, henned up toms and pressured birds.

Hit it well before daylight this morning and toms i had scouted a week and a half ago had moved and the only gobbling was way off in the distance. Snuck off the ridge down to a crop field and saw 2 hens. Set up there for about an hour before deciding to circle a couple hundred yards to the other end of the field.

Eased up to the edge and saw several birds, including a tom and jake about 75 yards away and some other birds just over the rise. They hadnt gobbled all morning.

I wasn’t in the best position – kneeling by a small tree. But I popped in a mouth call and hit a couple of soft yelps that caused the tom and jake to raise their heads. No gobbles, but a couple more soft yelps had them moving slowly my way.

Took about 15 minutes and a few more calls before the tom closed to about 40 yards and met a load of double X magnum No. 5s.

Just a 2-year-old 20-pounder, with 8 inch beard and 3/4 spurs. But I’ll take him.

I’d take him everytime! Congrats on your bird, sounds like you worked for him. As far as I’m concerned any longbeard is a trophy, and that one is particularly good considering morels are popping and there’s other seasons to come!

Joel

Great job!!!
I have found it amazing this spring that there is such a lack of gobbling birds. This bird I got came in to my calling but never gobbled at all. I went out with the neighbors boy and even the one bird we heard gobbling back to us would never show Today is his last day and his dad’s out with him. I hope he nails one, but it been an interesting year.

Again, congrats!