Rookie Season – Belated and soggy report.

I begin this report by saying that I can’t come even close to Kooty’s, “Hey, that’s not a cat sleeping in our blind!” story. Maybe I have to switch to a different brand of jerky snack.

So I had the Screwball B season with no weekend days and due to work commitments, etc, I could only hunt on Thrus/Fri of last week.

Well, you have to work with what you have, so I loaded up the Hottie Hen and the Funky Chicken, and off I went to the great white north.

I’m hunting near my deer hunting property in Pine County. A high school friend of mine now runs the family cattle ranch with about 2000 acres and over 1000 head.

So we had pretty good intel and of course all winter when coyote hunting up there I had seen dozens of turkey standing in the feed bunks and in the fields. The big problem is the same there as everywhere: Wet, wet, wet. They had over 20 inches of snow and then almost 10 inches of rain in the past 3-4 weeks.

Wednesday night I drove up and it rained like a hurricane all the way up. On Thursday, I guess I got a little lucky as there was no rain falling at 4 AM, so dad and I went out and tried it.

We set up on a oak ridge near a known roosting area comprised of a shelter belt around an old farmstead. I called, but there was simply dead silence all around. Not turkey sound was heard the whole morning. It started to rain shortly after sunup, so we did some field checks hoping to spot some birds and then try to position ourselves, but not a single bird was spotted except for one lone bird out in a gravel pit. He saw us and ran for it, so that was a bust.

Friday, in retrospect, I got lucky with a damp, but rain-free start. The gobblers were already fired up when we got out and we set up along a long, narrow ridge that runs toward a pine plantation that is a roosting area.

Immediately we could hear a gobbler going off in the pines, but after a brief set and calling session, it was evident that we were too far away. So we picked up the spread and moved up the ridge toward the gobbler.

We found a new clearing and set up. I started calling with a little hen cluck and purr action. The gobbler went off immediately! We’re in business!

I tried not to overplay my hand, giving the gobbler plenty of time between calling. At every call, he’d thunder right back and he was clearly getting closer.

Then to my left, I looked across a large pool of standing water. Now this is on top of a ridge, so that’s a good indication of how wet it is. On a ridge 30 yards wide, I had a 15 yard wide by 30 yard long pool of standing water!

And there on the other side, strolled a single hen. At this point, I thought ok, less than optimal shot, but it’s only 20 yards away so if the gobbler comes, I’m in good shape.

The problem was that the gobbler never came. After the hen passed through the clearing and out of sight, we heard one more gobble that was tantalizingly close. Then silence.

Silence, silence, silence. After about 10 minutes with occasional careful calling, it was obvious that we had been busted somehow. Either the hen got nervous and tipped off the tom, or for some reason the tom took a 90 degree turn to the west and walked off the ridge. No telling, but to me the fact that he went silent may well be a sign that we did something to tip him off.

Other gobblers were going off in the distance, but about a half hour after sunrise, they hit the “Gobbler Off” switch and everything went quiet again.

We tried some other spots, but spotted nothing and had no likely setups. They turkeys that were so plentiful during the winter had scattered widely and the wet ground made getting around the ranch difficult.

I would love to hunt with someone more experienced to improve both my calling and tactical skills. I feel like a big gap is what to do after the dawn “rush hour”. My only thought was to spot turkeys in fields and then set up back in the woods in hopes of calling a tom away from the field edge.

I’ve learned that weather in Northern MN is very fickle and the last two years the A season has been almost unhuntable. I’ll continue to put in for the B or even C seasons.

Thanks to all on this forum who gave advice.

Grouse

Don’t feel too bad. C season also stunk. Todders and I hit the woods early on Sat AM. Lots of gobbles across the river on state land. As the wind kicked up, we decided today was a good day to freshen Nutra Deer sites and pull cameras. Although the temp got to 51, that strong east wind never did let it feel like it. It didn’t help I went knee deep on a little walk about on some nearby state land.

We had a great time though. I continue to learn more and more of this piece of land which I believe can only make me a better hunter. Saturday late morning we did stumble across 1 confirmed Tom on Todd’s land. We both snuck in from different directions and waited him out. Nothing he vanished. The birds just aren’t “ready” yet.

Sadly we found another 6 feather piles as we shed hunted and moved throughout the land. Only 1 deer carcass that was fairly fresh. Saturday night I looked through 10,000 pics. The birds are there occasionally, but not like they were up until January. Since then, they have left the land.

As we were getting ready to head home Sunday afternoon, we spotted a bird on some state land. Todd got into position and was able to whack him. Well, with the 2nd shot anyway. This was far from your typical spring hunt, but hey, Todd got to punch his tag and the new girl got to witness her first hunt. Me, I was just happy to be in a dry truck cab. Another year in the books. This early season hunting up there is for the birds….

I’m looking forward to taking Jocelyn out again in a few weeks.

Great read Grouse. It’s pretty obvious that although that was your first turkey season, you’re an experienced hunter and can take skills from other hunting scenarios and apply them to turkeys.

Hear you on the “gobble-off” switch they’ve been hitting after fly-down. In the past, for me this has typically meant they’re henning up, and during the peak of breeding it’s so bad that they rarely gobble after hitting the ground at all. Some of my best seasons in southern MN have traditionally been E & F. Spring greenery is up and blooming, giving you more latitude to sneak closer before setting up. More importantly, some hens are nesting almost constantly, with others off around 9-11AM away from the toms to tend nests. This makes for lonely and more killable gobblers after that mid-morning time-frame, but that 7AM and on lull feels like forever at times.

MN 5-day seasons never used to seem so bad, but with the weather we’ve had lately, it seems like half of it gets donated to the weather gods off the bat anyway. Sounds like you’ve got good land, and the important part is that you got really close to killing a tom. That adrenaline rush of the close-gobble and anticipation of when/where he’ll come out is what keeps me coming back.

Joel

Appreciate the tips Joel.

Given the weather situation the past few years, I’m tempted to move back to Season C next year. Keeping in mind I’m in Pine County so on average it’s 5-10 degrees colder there every day compared to the Cities.

Time is a factor, to be sure. Scouting this year was cut way back by the amount of snow that was still on the ground even as of the A season. More scouting would have helped, to be sure.

Grouse