Turkey hunting is a pursuit which for me is planned and prepped a whole year in advance, only to be executed in a few short weeks during the busy spring months. It should come as no surprise then that the idea for a hunt with legendary walleye tournament angler and freshwater hall-of-fame fisherman Ted Takasaki, came at the St. Paul Ice Show of all places. With some hard-water talk in the mix, I came to find that Ted had that year enjoyed his first turkey hunt ever. It was a successful one in the Black Hills of South Dakota for Merriams birds, and with the experience stuck firmly in his mind, he described with detail the finer points of his spring hunt in the pines and rolling hills. I was willing to offer a change of pace, a Midwestern hunt in his home-state, for hard-gobbling Easterns during the coming spring.
For Ted’s second turkey hunt, I was following his exceptional first-time experience with a difficult challenge; nothing was working according to plan. Minnesota’s “E” season is typically a very successful season for me, with a secondary peak in gobbling occurring while hens spread out to nest, leaving lonely toms willing and vulnerable. That’s of-course during a “normal” spring with “typical” weather over a five-day hunting period. With an early spring, coupled with extremely cold, windy, and rainy conditions, we had to accept the possibility of facing birds that would be unwilling to gobble or come to the call. Ted would have four days to hunt, and we would also be hunting one afternoon and one morning with his daughter, Kristi, in the hopes of taking her first turkey. Did I mention that there was snow in the forecast, and we would add even more challenge to the hunt by attempting to capture the whole thing on video?
A forecasted windy morning broke calmer than expected as we put-up our blind in a proven pinch-point between two roost areas. As Ted and I both looked at the aerial photos the previous night, Ted’s walleye-mind kicked into overdrive while thinking about how good our spot looked if we were talking a lake-bottom contour map and walleyes. Both of us had confidence in the location for entirely separate reasons, Ted because of how he felt the birds would relate to the “structure” and me because I’ve killed several birds here before. Toms fired-up in both directions, admittedly more meager to our left than our right, and so began a few soft calling sequences. I did my best to get them to fly-down into the open, but they sought the cover of the deep ravine they were roosted near the top of. Not a problem considering the bird I was working seemed pretty hot. He’d cover some ground, gobble, then cover some ground…..you get the picture. Slow but steady. Then, as so often happens in the turkey woods, things get exciting quickly. Three gobblers that were previously un-interested double and triple gobbled about 300 hundred yards away in the opposite direction. Climbing the hill in less than 3 minutes, and gobbling only twice, they were all of the sudden at the wood’s-edge, a mere 40 yards from the blind. As they continued left to the side of the blind, we had to make our decision quickly, and seemingly 7-seconds later, Ted was grinning ear-to-ear as he stood over his first Eastern.
With Ted’s bird killed roughly 15 minutes into the opening day, we had some time for relaxation and also for scouting Kristi’s bird. The weather turned from bad to worse in that time, making us happy to have a bird in the bag already. Winds gusting to 51mph, with rain, sleet, and snow moving into the weekend would make for a turkey nightmare. However, luck again seemed to be with us as we were about to depart for Kristi’s afternoon hunt. The skies parted if only for a bit. The rain stopped, and the weary birds were out in fields, taking advantage in the first break in over 72-hours of poor weather. So were we. Upon moving along an open field-edge 20 minutes into our first spot, I decided to take advantage of an old tree stand and climb up higher to get a better view of the field. 300 yards away in tall grass were several red-heads. That’s all I needed to formulate a plan of attack. While we were lucky as could be the previous days, and even now, Kristi decided for her first bird we’d take any legal turkey and not push the luck that had been so gracious to us already. A short loop-around and sneak to the best available piece of cover that was nearest to them, afforded us a great calling location with one exception. We’d be close to them, but would be unable to see them until they were within range. 20 minutes after my first call, with no response, I decided to slowly stand up and get a better view, hopefully tipping-off Kristi to the birds that had surely heard us. There they were, 7 jakes of various sizes and beard-lengths, all standing at attention nearly 50 yards out, looking for that hen which called out a short time ago. Kristi was handcuffed as the birds slid closer, but moved like a veteran of the turkey woods; slowly, and only when they were walking or had their heads down. When the shot rang out, her first turkey lay on the ground and our hunt was over. Congrats Ted and Kristi, I had a great time hunting with you!
Joel