Well the only good thing about turkey season versus this long drawn out ice season is that turkey season has a date set in stone when it will start! So, which to concentrate on? Since the end of Feb. I have been dreaming of long casts and running jerkbaits and crankbaits and catching those big egg filled green monsters of Spring but I don’t think it’s in the cards before April 15th. Actually that’s still a long ways out and looking at the extended forecast we are definitely heating up. However, turkey season is quickly approaching too and that’s where my concentration should head. I should be practicing my clucks and purrs, I should be organizing the Wild Thing pack to make sure nothing is broken and everything is stowed away neatly and where it should be. I should also be practicing with the bow. Getting my sight picture converted from the big vitals of a deer to the small baseball sized money spot on a slobbering love sick Thunder Chicken! I should make sure my batteries are primed and charged and ready to go on Robo-Hen and Robo-Tom and make sure the controls still work with a year of sitting around. I should setup the blind and make sure nothing is ripped or got eaten by a mouse. That’s what I should be doing! But I have some time. This weekend is Easter and I will be scouting though. I will be up early (not as early as in season) but out on the highest ground I can find and will be listening and counting. I have found the last couple years my success from Gobble Scouting has definitely improved my success. Well, it has helped on the properties where the birds actually roost on the property I Hunt anyways. I have one piece that the birds have NEVER roosted on but it is a travel corridor and thus it almost always pans out for an opportunity. On these other properties it has helped because I have gotten a fairly good count of the birds and have found roost trees that save me guessing where the birds might be early in the mornings during season when I show up in the pitch black. But what about putting birds to bed the night before you may ask? Well, I have never been any good at it at all! I know lots of people do it and have success doing it but I am not one of them. Maybe I go too early or stay too late but it just doesn’t work for me. That doesn’t stop me from trying but I don’t have the faith in the process. Maybe someday I’ll stumble across the magic formula. But anyways, this weekend will be the start of Gobble Scout 2013. Watch for the tweets and I will do my best to keep everyone updated. This turkey season is hopefully turning into a busy one for me and hopefully a successful one too. As of right now I have the possibility of filming 6 turkey tags with 4 hunters. I’m hopeful to add 2 more to each of those categories but we shall see how things pan out. I suppose I should switch gears and get thru that to do list before April 15th arrives. Hope everyone has a safe turkey season and i will wish for ice to melt where you are!
Mike
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