Well the final season in Wi, would only allow 4 morning trips of a couple hours each, for me to fill my last tag of the year, would it be enough?
Wednsday found me in a familar spot, looking for Tommy. Rain and wind, don’t make ideal conditions, and I actually only heard one gobble.
After essentially 6 weeks of only getting by on 3.5-5.5 hours of sleep per night, it finally caught up. Thursday morning, the alarm went off, at 3 a.m, next thing I remember is the birds tweeting at 5 a.m, to late to hunt now, back to bed until 7, then to work.
Friday morning found me back in the same area as Wed., even though there was virtually no gobbling, can’t tell I like the area, can you. Although conditions were ideal, same results, no gobbling. I was headed to the truck by 5:00 to hit another area, as I didn’t have to be driving towards work until 6:30. I made the move, and immediately upon exiting the truck, heard gobbling. I loaded my gear, and started towards the birds. Two gobbling about 350 yards apart. Plan was to get in between them, and closer to one. Once I was within 100 yards, I set-up next to a big oak, and the game began. It was just before I set-up that I realized the birds were still in the tree. The bird to my South, gobbled a lot on his own, so although I couldn’t hear them, I knew he had hens in his company. Long story short, I was set on these birds at 5:20, and left at 6:45, and they were still in the trees! Unreal.
My dad had a close encounter about 5 miles away, the same morning, he just couldn’t get the beads lined on the Tom, as he followed a hen through the brush at 40 yards. He got a pass that day.
The rest of that day found me taking out the camper and all “necessary” camping equipment to the campgrounds (Lake Wissota State Park). After getting camp set-up, and the boat hauled out, we had a good supper and called it a day around 9:00 pm.
The alarm rang early Saturday morning. My dad and I each would be heading to the areas we hunted the morning before. As I went in I stopped short of my previous day’s spot, to fine tune exactly where the birds were, so I didn’t bump them. I wanted to hunt the North bird today, hoping he wouldn’t have the hens the South bird, had the previous day! It was about 4:45 and the South bird started in, gobbling about every 45 seconds again. At 4:50 the North bird started, so I closed the distance, to about 175 yards. I wanted to get closer, but I found myself stuck in treed hens all around, so much for that plan!
By 4:50 both of these Toms, had flown down, along with at least 3-4 other gobbling birds. I was kind of in the middle, what could be more perfect I thought. After about 15 minutes of intense gobbling, I could finally see my first birds, they were paralleling me, 4-5 hens, with some strutters in tow. I worked them hard, finally breaking two of the hens towards me, with two fanners following them. It was fun to watch them come out of strut, and chase those hens around the woods, faster than heck. The lead hen continues my way, but the Tom’s seemed interested in the back hen. One Tom was at 50 yards, head up, but still following the hen my direction. I passed the shot, knowing they would get closer, and I could enjoy the show a bit longer. At which point they ended up chasing the hen, and she headed back towards the main group, which was AWAY from me 
. A tom in the hand is better than 5 in the bush 
That lead hen ended up walking past me at 4 yards, and continued on behing me towards the South bird, who was starting to heat up his gobbling now, about 200 yards away. I know had one group of turkeys again to my North, and the were in and out of sight, but they seemed to be heading South. After seeing about 8 of them go through a more open area to my front left, I figured that was all of them, and that I knew where they were going. I waited about 2 more minutes, seeing no more birds, I decided to loop around them, and set-up again. I threw all my calls in my vest, and zipped it shut. Literally exactly as I was going to stand, I seen movement through some trees, a little behind, where all the birds had crossed. About 70 yards away. It was a fan, it was 2 fans, they were coming my way. I got the freak, and the gobble shaker back out, very slowly. 60 yards, behind some trees, gobbling, they were looking for me. A couple of light purrs, and they each gobbled. A wimpy jake gobble out of the shaker, again they each gobbled. That was it, silence from here on out for me. Spitting, drumming, and fanning, they closed to 45 yards, and were in the open hardwoods. Two toms, all by themselves, both putting on a show. I learned from my earlier experience, BOOM the Winchester HV #6’s, driven by the Benelli SBE, did there job on the lead bird at 45 yards. Man, the big guy did well when he created this spring show, for those that don’t spring hunt these gobbling birds all I can say is, what the heck is wrong with you?! 
The South bird was 150 yards and gobbling hard and getting closer. I zipstripped my tag on, and headed for my dad, to see how his hunt was going.
About 35 minutes after getting my bird, I was talking to my dad. He hadn’t heard a gobble. I told him we needed to get back to where I had been, and we were off. I shot my bird at 6:50, and we got set-up about 170 yards to the North of where I was at 7:25. The walk in was quiet, no gobbling.
After positioning myself, about 30 yards behind my dad, with us both facing NW, I let out a few yelps. One answered from about 3/8 of a mile. My dad is 63, so the plan was to sit this spot out, my thinking was they would be back through here at some point, hopefully by 9:00, as that was when Dad had to leave. I got the next answer at 8:00, about 300 yards away. 8:05 250 yards, two birds gobbled. 8:10, both birds gobbling, 150 yards away, and a hen now yelping, very vocally. 8:12 Big dark fan spotted about 125 yards away, a minute later, another fan and a big red head. The hen stayed over the edge of the ridge, and never did come into sight. The two birds continued to gobble, and do the dance, until to me it looked like the closer bird was getting to the edge of gun range. At about 8:25 I heard an alarm putt to our right and forward, about 45 yards from the two hens? I had no idea there was a bird there, but I hit the calls fairly hard, trying to calm them a little. The bigger of the two, about 70 yards out remained in strut, but the closer one broke strut and stuck the head high, at 49 yards. That was all dad needed to see and hear. Boom, I seen one bird fly, and could hear another fly, and also could hear what sounded like flopping. Dad was on the run, actually pretty quick, for an old geezer . I just sat there, and thought, wow, how lucky I am I to basically get to witness 3 shows like this in one day! To say we were pumped is an understatement. Not sure what bird was putting, either the hen, or dad said that there was a Jake that had also been up there for quite awhile, he wasn’t sure which one.
I believe the birds were two year olds. 9.5″ beards, 7/8″ spurs, and both about 19#’s. I believe this was the other bird that was with the one I had shot earlier.
Now that the hunting was over, we would try Wissota for a little fishing action.
Sunday morning, found us out with the plastics, catching a fair number of Walleye. Nice to see lots of slot fish again this year, and some overs as well.
Sunday evening found my wife, son, and daughter out chasing Walleye, and panfish. With lots of smaller fish going back, Hunter ended up keeping a 21″ Walleye, and two 8.5″ bluegills, and Alyson ended up with a 13″ and a 12″ crappie, all for the fry pan. Plus a beautiful evening on the water it was. All in all, another great Memorial week-end. Thank-you veterans.
