BOWHUNT FOR THE RIO GRANDE
by Robert Hoague

Apr 22 - How Many Gobblers Are Up There!

Ready to go and in the blind at 6:05. Twenty minutes later they began gobbling. In a few minutes I turned on my camera and pointed it in the direction of the trees on the river and punched the video button to see if I could record the sound. The time was 6:27. I played it back on the camera and it worked just fine. (Here it is.)

As you can hear on the video clip the Toms were eager to start the day. At 6:34 I videoed while called at them and received multiple gobbles. (Second video.)

I was ready to start the day off strong and it sounded like the gobblers were too. There were several gobblers in the trees down the ridge from my blind. Plus there were gobbles from the dam area to the east and the canyon to the west. And the river makes an "L" turn to the south here and there were gobbles in that direction. I think there were at least a dozen different gobblers in the area.

More daylight eked in and the sound we were all waiting for vibrated in the tree tops, a fly down. This morning I used the Woodhaven Doug Crabtree signature call and hopefully teased the gobblers with sweet talk. Gobbles from the canyon, the dam and the "L" on the river were getting louder ... as in closer.

A hen came out of the trees at the crest of the ridge and a proceeded to walk right by the blind. I could only imagine how many Toms she had in tow.

BLAM !!!

A shotgun fired closeby on the rivers "L". Heck, I didn't know anyone else was hunting turkeys in this area. In a minute another shot rang out. And shortly after a third. The sounds of gobbles moved further and further away from our area.

Nothing else happened and at 11:00 I moved the blind 65 yards to a bottle neck that overlooks the area I have been hunting and the hillside where I hear gobbles, plus it is the place that Super Jake and the longbeard I saw yesterday came from. 

We will see what happens this afternoon.

On the way out I stopped at the Point and took the memory card out of a new CamTrakker unit that I set up the day it rained to watch that area. 

AFTERNOON: Back in the blind at 3:32. 

Currently it is 5:57 and nothing has happened. Here is a look at the hillside where the gobblers came from. 

I have only one decoy out today, the Hazel Creek taxidermied jake and it is covering the hillside area.

After the big show yesterday at roost time I was optimistic that at least a few gobblers would be around in the late afternoon. But ... they didn't. However I did hear a fair amount of horn honking, people talking and a couple of shotgun blasts.

Tomorrow I'm gonna give it a rest and let the weekend turkey hunters enjoy themselves. 

Oh, By The Way ... A Bearded Hen!
When I looked through my pictures for today I noticed some I missed for yesterday of a bearded hen. Here those pictures are:

The time was 

I wanted to see if I could get a closer pic of the bearded hen called softly on the Woodhaven cherry slate. The hen wasted no time and struck out in my direction.

She stopped on the opposite side of the cedar limb across from me and ogled both my decoys. 

Then, with the sounds of nearby gobbles filling he air the hen walked down the ridge to roost. But you already know that story

To This Hunt's Home Page