JFT Turkey Tour 2022

[Aggiebush]

Had 3 jakes come running in and proceeded to whip on my Jake. I got JJ ready and waited for one to separate himself for a shot. I finally just whistled and one raised his head. Boy made a great shot at 15 yards and dropped him. We’re both on cloud 9, so proud of him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eradicator]

Had 3 jakes come running in and proceeded to whip on my Jake. I got JJ ready and waited for one to separate himself for a shot. I finally just whistled and one raised his head. Boy made a great shot at 15 yards and dropped him. We’re both on cloud 9, so proud of him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very cool! I bet that was a show he'll never forget, congrats!!

[Aggiebush]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ClayW]

No gobbles this mornin

Took off walkin along the creek and got into birds pretty quick.

Had 4 gobbling jakes come in and then had 2 Toms get to 65. They had hens and weren’t interested

[ClayW]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great job buddy!

Congrats

[ClayW]

Got back in front of the flock and could have ambushed em pretty easily

Decided not to and headed back to camp. If this was the last hunt of the season, I’ll be good with it.

[ClayW]

East Texas Recap

PoPo has been on 2 other trips to get an Eastern but he’s never been able to connect. Couple close calls in Kansas followed by a missed opportunity in Iowa a couple years later. With the crazy schedule for this spring, I told him that we wouldn’t be able to travel much, if at all. I left it up to him…If we can make one trip, what do you want to do? His quick response was “go after an Eastern”.

With our season winding down, one of the last options was a trip East. PoPo knew it wouldn’t be easy but he was all for it!

We left NB the early morning the day before the season opened. The plan was to scout a couple of our areas and then make a plan for opening morning. As luck would have it, my first stop produced several tracks (both hen and gobbler). We got out of there and hit a few other spots before dark. The rest of the afternoon’s scouting didn’t produce anything and the plan was to be at spot #1 at daylight.

Sunrise was somewhere around 6:45 (I think)
With PoPo in the dark, it would take about 45min to hike in
With it being opening morning, I felt like there was a chance of someone beating us to the gate.
With all this, we set the alarms for 3:30 and planned to be at the gate by 4:15. We’d leave the truck and start hiking by a little after 5am

Opening morning sunrise found us about 2 miles deep into the forest anxiously waiting a gobble….it never came. I wanted to give the birds plenty of time to turn on so we stayed in the area unitl 9:30 or so. After that, we hit another spot until noonish and called it a day. A Daddy/Daughter dance Friday evening and soccer game on Saturday afternoon had us heading back to NB. The plan was to head back Saturday after the soccer game.

I spent a couple hours studying the maps and trying to come up with a gameplan for our return trip. We’d be hunting Sunday through Tuesday morning. PoPo and I had about 5 ½ hours of driving to discuss and finalize the gameplan. We needed to find a gobbling bird. As if the hunt wasn’t hard enough, PoPo was only good for 4-6 “easy” miles per day. We decided our best option was to split up. We’d hike into a spot where PoPo would still hunt and then I’d put the miles on trying to find a bird or put some puzzle pieces together.

Sunday morning produced zero.

Sunday evening we found some gobbling birds but rain was moving in on Monday. With the forecast calling for heavy rain all day Monday, we decided to play it safe. Finding birds is tough enough and we didn’t want to risk blowing an opportunity with the unknown forecast.

Monday morning was similar to Sunday….wake up early, hike PoPo in, then plan a 6-8 mile loop and work back to get him. I heard (I think I did) a single gobble at 6:10. He was a very long ways off so I closed the distance as fast I could. He never made another sound so I got back to my loop. Weather man was pretty accurate and the thunderstorms started about 9 or 9:30. PoPo and I were headed to the truck around 10am.

We ate some lunch, sat around camp for a little bit, and then PoPo said “There ain’t no point in sitting here. We might as well be in the woods”. So we grabbed our rain gear and headed back to the forest. There was word of a nice clear cut nearby so we headed that way. We hiked the mile+ road, set out a decoy, found a nice tree, and sat for a few hours that evening. Highlight of that evening was the look on PoPo’s face when I handed him a chilled Busch Light I snuck in the vest.

The rainy trip Monday afternoon wasn’t a total bust. We liked the area and we both agreed that we’d give it a shot on Tuesday morning. With this being our last hunt, I asked PoPo what he wanted to do. I had soccer practice at 5:30 in NB. We had to be on the road no later than 11:45. At this point, PoPo prolly had about 20-25 miles on his boots so he was not too interested in following me around all morning. The plan was made to hike him into a spot, then I would make a loop and be back to get him with enough time for us to hunt the 1 ½ miles back to the truck.

Tuesday morning had us leaving the gate about 4:45. We had a 45 minute hike to PoPo’s spot, a few minutes to set him up, and then I needed to be at my spot no later than 6:05. The hike in went as planned. The storms were gone and it was a BEAUTIFUL morning. Only problem was the turkeys weren’t talking. One thing I’ve learned about Easterns is you can’t rush em. You gotta be patient. That usually means me staying put for a while after first light.

With this being our last hunt, I decided I’d give em a little while to wake up but not as long as I usually would. A little before 7:00, I started my loop and knew I needed to be back to PoPo by 10.

An 1 ½ later, I struck a gobbler!

[ClayW]

It was 8:30 on the 5th (and last) day of our hunt, I’ve walked almost 50 miles, and now I have a very fired up Eastern within 100 yards.

There’s a few things in life that get me jacked up to the point that I make stupid decisions…my 153” buck at 17 yards, a huge axis at 130 yards, a fired up Eastern, and a few other things that aren’t related to this story

I don’t do a lot of runnin and gunnin for turkeys. Most of my birds are well thought out plans taking place against Rios that I’ve hunted my whole life. In this case, I might as well have been a rookie running around out there. This bird’s first gobble was in response to a few clucks and I was a mess from the start. I was walking a fire break…basically a 12’ wide sendero through the forest. After hearing the gobble, I pulled up my maps to see where he was and where I think I could kill him. After a couple of minutes, I hit him with a soft yelp, he immediately responded, and was working to my right. At the time, I was afraid of him skirting around me and missing an opportunity so I decided to hunt him right where I stood. I checked him again and he gobbled back CLOSE!! As if I wasn’t making enough bad decisions, I immediately jumped in the bushes off of the fire cut. I was hidden really well but the problem is I could only see about 20 yards in one direction and only had a clear shot at about 12 yards.

Well guess what….he comes in like he’s supposed to, pops up at 12 steps, and I missed!

When I heard the first gobble, I was on the point of the fire break as it was about to make a hard 90. I have no idea why I thought that was a good spot to call him into. All I had to do was back up 20 steps and he would have been at 25-30 yards when he came walking down the break. Looking back, I don’t remember much of the decision making process or the shot.

The feeling was interesting. At first, I was very mad…but that only lasted for a minute or 2. Then it was just a feeling of “oh well, he won”. I laughed it off a little bit, thanked God for the opportunity, made a few phone calls, grabbed my stuff, and got back on the hiking loop!

[ClayW]

It was now a little after 9:00am and I had about a 1 ½ mile hike back to PoPo. I headed his way calling every couple hundred yards or so but never heard a gobble. I arrived to PoPo greeted with a disappointed look and 1000 questions. I assured him I’d give him all the details later but for now, we weren’t done hunting. We started our walk back towards the truck.

It was about 10am and we were down to the last stretch of our hunt. It didn’t take long and we came across some fresh gobbler tracks in the mud. These were about 800 yards from where PoPo sat so they wouldn’t have been able to hear each other. We spent about 10-15 minutes following the tracks trying to figure out where he came from and where he went. To be honest, I was already back in scouting mode and trying to figure out how I could make a return trip later in the week.

We continued down the road towards the truck and Chelska called me at 10:21am. Chels is fairly supportive of my spring trips, however, she won’t miss the opportunity to take a shot or 2 when the opportunity presents itself. Our conversation only lasted a couple minutes and it ended when I told her I wanted to come back later in the week. Her response, “It ain’t our fault you had your opportunity and you blew it. You get home and get your stuff done!” I relayed the message to PoPo and we both had a little laugh.

It was now almost 10:30, we have been walking/talking down the road, and we are within 400 yards from the gate. I reached into my vest, grabbed my call, and told PoPo “Last Call!”. I then proceeded to crank out a very loud (way too loud) yelp. We were immediately cut off by a gobble. PoPo and I looked at each other and bailed off the road into the ditch grown up with young sweet gum trees.

As we sat, the gobble was at our 11 o’clock position and probably within 100 yards. PoPo and I were shoulder to shoulder and I was on his right. The forest in front of us was open but we could only see about 60 yards before it fell off towards a creek bottom. PoPo shoots left handed so I needed the bird to either stay in the 11 o’clock position or, better yet, work to the right and show himself in the 1 o’clock. We would be in trouble if he went any further to the left. I remember looking down at my watch and seeing 10:33. Using my mouth call, I let out a soft yelp and tried to cast it towards the right…no response. 10:40…same thing…no response. Its been 10 minutes since we heard the gobble and PoPo and I started talking back and forth…. “Were you sure that was a gobble?” “Where’d he go?”

When we first jumped in the brush at 10:30, I told myself I’m going to give this bird at least 30 minutes. Not only did we have nothing to lose, but I suspected my obnoxious yelp may have surprised him a little bit. 10:44 and I let out another yelp. This time I used the crystal pot….BAM! He gobbled at our 1 o’clock and PoPo immediately said he could see him. There was no discussion about distance…just that he could see him walking in the trees. PoPo and I then commenced to arguing about getting ready. A minute later I spot him coming onto the road dang near at our 3 o’clock. I tell PoPo to get ready (again) and he finally raises up his gun. He asks me if he can shoot across me and my response was soemthign along the lines of “shoot as soon as you can”.

The gobbler stood in the middle of the road, 50 yards away, and partially obstructed from PoPo’s view. He stood there for a few seconds seeming to contemplate either continuing to look for this hen or to head the other way. I let out another soft yelp and that was enough to persuade him come our way. He was in ¾ strut, solid white head raised high, snood as relaxed as possible, walking down the road towards us. I heard PoPo switch the safety off, I closed my ears the best I could and PoPo took the shot at 34 steps!

[ClayW]

10:46 and PoPo had his first Eastern.

Before I could even get my hands on that bird, I started to tear up. PoPo finally made his way to us and the high fiving and hugging started.

PoPo and I have shared some pretty good turkey hunting memories over the last 25ish years but this one takes the cake. Crazy tough week of hunting ending with a rollercoaster of a morning.

Looking back...its crazy how everything played out that morning to put us in the exact right spot at the exact right time. If anything changes, we probably don't get his bird.

[Smart]

Freaking awesome write up there Clay! Even after hearing it on the phone previously! That's how its done! Good stuff man! And congrats to Popo again!

[ClayW]

[ClayW]

[ClayW]

[CTR0022]