Well, what a great morning! I harvested my first Ohio Tom this morning as I finally set aside some time to hit the woods this year rather than spend it all in the boat every spring! The bird was twenty one pounds, with one inch spurs and a nice ten and a quarter inch beard. I have now successfully harvested gobblers in WI, IL, MI, SD, and now OH, which is pretty cool. A big thank you to my good friend Ron McKasson for allowing me to hunt his property this morning near Hillsboro. Here is the story:
Got into the woods around six in the morning with Ron (he wasn't hunting, but wanted to see what turkey hunting was all about) , just before light, and set up in an area adjacent to a grass field that turkeys frequented a lot last fall during bow season. Ron brought his two man chair blind for us to use, and I placed one hen and one Tom decoy out about eighteen yards or so in front of us. We heard a few distant Toms gobbling off the roost, but nothing close to us. I did a fly down cackle and started some soft calling, and after about an hour, a lone hen came in and we got into a cutting match, matching each other cut for cut, and Ron thought that was pretty cool! She eased out into the open field, yet still no Toms. Well, about twenty minutes or so went by and I heard a distant gobble off to my right but several hundred yards away. I aggressively yelped with my slate call (a Mojo by River Valley Game Calls) and he answered, albeit he was a long way off. I waited a few moments and called again, and he answered again and was closer, and I said to Ron, "things are starting to get interesting". Well after another five minutes or so, I called again and the Tom cut me off, and was much closer! I said to Ron, "Game on, don't move!" and I got my gun ready and had a diaphram call in my mouth. Within minutes, I saw the gobbler easing down the ridge towards our set up spot and moving steadily but quietly. There was a small creek bed that is usually dried up, but after the heavy rains the past two days, it was a fast flowing creek. Initially I was concerned the bird might hang up, and he came to the edge of the creek, and I had the safety off but it would have been around a forty yard poke, so I waited. He must have seen the decoys, and he flopped his wings and sailed across the creek towards us, and was out of sight for like five seconds. Suddenly he popped up at about thirty five yards, and moved in a few steps and took a hard look at the Tom decoy I had out, and let out a deafening gobble!!! Ron was amazed by this whole ordeal, and watched excitedly as the bird started to close the gap, and I pulled the trigger at thirty yards and bowled him over. The bird rolled backwards and flopped a bit, and ended up in the edge of the creek! I had to dry him off before pictures, as he was pretty soaked, but it was an absolutely awesome hunt! My set up spot worked out perfectly, and I harvested the bird at ten minutes to eight. It was sunny and calm when I got my bird, and the wind really picked up a half hour later, so I was lucky with the weather. Ron said he is now hooked, and wants to go next year!! It was a blast!
I have enclosed pics of my bird and my decoy set up with the full body Jake decoy.
