Weekend Recap - 5/8/11

With the weekend tied up with helping out at a local fishing derby and Mother's day I decided to spend a few hours on Friday before work chasing some gobblers.  Problem was there were no gobblers to chase just 4 hens and some deer.

I was hunting a piece of private land where my daughter shot her first bird earlier this season hoping to find a smartened up long beard.  I was out before those first slivers of light waiting in anticipation for the gobblers I was certain I would hear, but not a single gobble was heard the entire morning.

My first visitors on the morning were a pair of Whitetail Deer that popped out of the woods just about 40 yards from my setup.  Once they got comfortable with this big camouflage blind they turned their attention to the stationary turkey out in the grass.  They walked around the decoy I had out there and every so often would stop and give it the once over.  If they weren't trying to smell it, they were giving it the old head bob routing.  Here is a small video clip of this show.  Sorry for the quality but all I had was my cell phone as my video camera was still in the truck.



As the deer were heading off to my right I looked back down the field and noticed a turkey moving in my direction.  After a good look with the binos I noticed it was a hen so I gave a few soft clucks and she kept working my way.  She got into the decoy and got a little nervous and worked within 20 feet of the blind and off into the woods. 

 

As the above hen was sitting in my decoy I could hear another hen yelping away and with this hen sitting right at the decoy I decide to wait a bit and as she moved off int he woods I let out some more sweet turkey talk hoping that hen making all the noise would come my way with an old tom in toe.  Well she came my way, but she was alone.  When she popped around the brush on the side of the field and into my view she was close and I swore I saw a beard.  Hmmm.  Grab the binos and sure enough she had a beard.  No in CT the spring regulations allow for the taking of a bearded bird and I must say I did think about it at one point but I decided to enjoy her and hope her requests for courtship would be answered by a tom but no luck.

I then saw two more deer and two more hens but not a single tom or even a gobble.  I was definitely enjoying the great morning and the activity but Busch Pilot texting me and telling me he was working birds wasn't helping my cause.  It wasn't long past 8:00am when I got a picture message of Busch Pilot's third bird of the season.  At one point he had 7 jakes come in on his setup but just couldn't get them separated enough for a shot.  so he moved his setup and called in a lone Jake and decided to end his season so he can partake in the spring striper run in the river.  So I am still sitting at zero, but not discouraged yet.

They were making sure I read the scale correctly.

Saturday I had the pleasure of helping out my pals at JT's Fly Shop weighing in fish for the kids at a Vernon's 42nd annual fishing derby.   It was a great morning but the turnout was light.  The families that did come out found some cooperative trout and had plenty of fun.  I love to hear the kids screeching with excitement as they reel in a fish and then run over to have it weighed in.  We had a trophy for the overall heaviest fish and awards and prizes for the top 3 in all categories.  We had kids not only out with their families having fun catching trout but winning some great prizes like new rod and reel setups, nets, tackle boxes and some tackle.  My daughter even decided to come and help out and we both agreed that the smiles on their faces made missing a morning of chasing turkeys well worth it.