BOWHUNT FOR THE RIO GRANDE
by Robert Hoague

Apr 20 - Super Jake

Only some distant gobbles at daybreak's gobble time --- and I wouldn't have heard them if I wasn't wearing the Pro Ears. They are definitely the thing for hearing what you can't hear. Not long after full daylight it began pouring rain. It slacked into a drizzle in half an hour and a deer walked through as the sun began playing peek a boo.

I moaned at it with my Woodhaven Sadler McGraw sting team call and watched its legs as it came toward me. Ever so slowly it appeared behind a cedar tree 10 yards in front of my blind and only two steps from my hen decoy. It was a buck and those lumps on his head are the humble beginning of his 2006 rack. He watched the decoys quietly and timidly for ten minutes and finally faded into the brush.

A hen came from the woods in front of me and I yelped softly. It walked over closer and took a look at the decoys. 

Noon came and I left to eat lunch at the Red Barn Restaurant. At 2:00 I was back in the blind. Now it was overcast and soon it began to drizzle. Here is my decoy setup. The Hazel Creek taxidermy jake is on the left and a plastic Carry Lite hen with realistic legs is on the right. Today I have the hen looking toward the river and the jake facing the hen. (I change their positions every day.)

Rain. The real thing too. I was sure glad the blind is waterproof. When the hard rain ceased it continued to drizzle. I was a hen 40 yards away and adjusted my camera settings to get its picture. Below is the only one that had enough light to come out. I clicked the camera on Automatic to see if I could get more light in the picture and took a pic. 

Bingo. Another turkey -- one with a red head -- moved into the picture. I gave him a little Sadler McGraw/Woodhaven and he stepped behind the bush ahead of him.

I checked the area with my binoculars ( Nikon Monarch 10 power) and yelped, not loud but not soft either. The waiting game was on.

In two minutes the red head came around the edge of the tree in the picture above and walked briskly in my direction. I took a pic as he approached. He can see my Hazel Creek jake and has puffed up his shoulders to look larger and more menacing -- a real Super Jake. I slipped off my chair and set the camera down and scrunched in the back of the blind --  which was gonna prove to be a mistake -- and got ready to do the BowTech boogie.

Super Jake stopped 8-10 yards from my taxidermy jake and eyed it. I touched the release's trigger and my arrow turned sideways and hit Super Jake on the right shoulder and then popped up into the air.

He must have thought my jake decoy did something to him because he quickly advanced toward it and then walked away for about 15 yards. Meanwhile I was just finishing up knocking a second arrow.

Now Super Jake was peeping around a cedar tree at my jake. I drew in case he showed enough of him for me to shoot. 

He didn't.

The rain picked up and four more hens came through, signally, on their way to roost on the river below. My arrow was sticking up out of the grass, 80+ yards away. And the blind had a slice in it where a blade had cut it and changed the arrows course.

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