BOWHUNT FOR THE RIO GRANDE
by Robert Hoague

Day 1 - Afternoon

Rio Grande Opening Day - Afternoon
Fred Lutger Hunt | Robert Hoague Hunt

April 1 - Afternoon - Fred's Hunt - After lunch Fred moved his blind close to the Gate. He left to hunt at 2:34. Donald Duck manned the video camera. And I went to the River. A large hen  walked through the area after 4:00. 

We are hunting on a working cattle ranch and they use the gate to go from one pasture to another. There are only a couple dozen cows on the ranch these days but since Fred's blind was near the gate he saw a few. One saw the Hazel Creek real decoy (named Henny Penny) and investigated it. 

A few more cows were with it and one checked out the blind.

Then it went to see what the other cows were looking at.

Fred called on the hour every hour and called in a hen. It went to Henny Penny and walked a circle around it. 

Then it squared off in front of the Henny Penny and puffed up. 
 
Fred called on the hour every hour and got gobbles every time. But they didn't come closer.

My Hunt  (Robert Hoague) 
Meanwhile I hid my care in some cedar trees and walked to the ledge hp above the river and set my blind and decoys up. At this year's NWTF Convention & Sport Show I bought the new Hazel Creek jake decoy. It is a real turkey and looks great. Here is the setup in front of the blind, the taxidermy jake (I think I will call it Boston Blackie) is looking at a a Buckhorn hen mounted on an arrow, so it can turn if the wind gusts.

Here is a close up of Boston Blackie. His feathers are puffed up and and the head and detail of this decoy is is incredible.

When I got to the blind I realized I had made a mistakes. My mouth calls were not in my fanny pack. But I did have my slate calls, so not to worry. I called every half hour on the Woodhaven sherry slate call. Twice I heard hens putting behind the blind. They walked past the blind and into the trees of the nearby draw.

The river where wild turkey frequently roost is 150 yards away and I expected to hear some gobbles at Turkey Thirty. But I had not heard a single gobble in any direction and at 6:50 I started to put my calls back in my fanny pack and got ready to go.

Without a sound, three longberds walked around the opposite side of the same cedar tree my blind was against. They were on the move, they saw my decoys but never broke stride. They were gone by the time I got my bow in hand. A fourth longbeard came around the same cedar tree and walked a foot from the blind to look at Boston Blackie. But now he was below my line of sight and I couldn't see him. He was too close!

Then he darted to the edge of the ridge where the other 3 birds were. In two minutes I heard them fly up.   

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Billy Don Van Cleave

Billy Don Van Cleave's Wild Horse Prairie Ranch Rio Grande Wild Turkey hunts. Home of the Bowhunting.net Annual Bowhunt in October. Bowhunts for trophy bucks, does and wild hogs. Exotics: black buck, red stag, rams, aoudad and more. Billy Don, P.O. Box 199, Satin, TX 76685 Call: 254-749-6119 Fax: 254-546-2709 Email: bdvanc@aol.com Web: Wild Horse Prairie Ranch

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