And More Turkeys!!!

I have now stumbled into my best Turkey season ever by the numbers... Today makes 2 doubles for Paul and I in the last 6 days and 3 in the last 2 seasons... I really dont know where to begin...Im exhausted....cant wait to sleep....but will be back behind the camera tomorrow Am and the next day and the next.................... Paul had been watching his bird for weeks....he has footage of him strutting numerous times...I would hear about him daily...We knew he was a good one...We knew where he should end up after fly down....Paul called sparingly but the bird was a no show....or so we thought...maybe hunting preasure around the area  shut the gobbler up as Paul ran two jackaloons off of the farm two days ago...Luckily they were on the other side of the farm but today all was silent after the birds feet hit the ground.... Patient Paul actually got up to creep over and see if he was strutting over the rise....I took the opportunity to take a whiz...I zipped up and turned around just in time to see a hen cresting the hill less than 15 yards from Paul who was now crawling up the hill.....I whistled and motioned frantically for Paul to bail out....he dove in a ditch and scurried back behind me as the birds came over the knoll.....Their view obstructed by brush and the swale that Paul had run down in to....Paul could not get back to his original spot in front of me so I grabbed his gun and pushed it back to him...I readied the camera and plugged my left ear with my finger as the gun was right beside my head now and we had no other choice........ The bird made his way into view and did something I had never seen....got all the way to the decoys and kinda freaked....he putted and turned around....I heard Paul swing left and I let go of the cam.....Boom......Dusted....Im pretty sure the wad went through its face.............. We quickly went in search of another bird........ I really thought the chances of another double were slim to none but we were gonna give it hell.....we slapped a high five when we spotted a strutter in a field and quickly formulated a plan....we got a jake fan out of the truck and proceeded to run...crawl...scurry...climb...call...belly crawl...sweat....huff and puff.....and call some more...for an hour....This stud had a hen with him and they put on a show....we got cool footage of the most awesome mating ritual....including this ole boy dry humping the ground in front of the hen after he bred her as if to show her what he had just done to that thing!!!! Paul threw a super raspy call at the pair and the hen freaked......he ran after her but kept stopping to strut...he was lovesick and confused... I put a final stalk to within 35 yards of him with the jake fan....Im pretty sure his mind was blown....he seemed to hide in the grass.... I handed the fan to Paul and told him to hold it up and distract the bird...we rose up together with cam and gun....and we finished the day with 17 minutes left!!!! Unreal end to an unreal day!!! And then to top it all off....Andy finally scores on a dandy....After repeated attempts and numerous people trying to help call to some of the most unkillable birds on the planet...Andy packed it up and headed to a farm where he has had great  success in the past...He and Paul capped off a great weekend of Turkey hunting with this big old Gobbler!!!

Turkeys Turkeys Turkeys!!!

I had been scouting hard on a farm on the shore I have hunted for years and had never even seen...let alone killed a turkey. Paul and I were there shed hunting and came across a ton of turkey sign. I made the trip back down setting up a Primos DPS cam (reason being...Turkeys are so quick I didnt think I would catch many on cam...this one takes a pic every few seconds like a plot watcher so I figured I would get more.) They were there alright...not a ton but enough....and pretty regular in the oaks...I even had them passing by a few times on cam on the WYLD mineral site!!!

We hit that farm for the opener....and we were done by 7:30!!! Right after fly down I got a little more aggressive than I thought I would have to on the calling because of the distance...(they were roosted on a farm I cannot hunt so we got as close as we could) As the Gobbler first came into view he was calmed and intrigued by the hen scratching in the leaves behind....kind of a perfect storm....But when he caught a peek of the pair of Zink dekes...He lost his composure (and then his life) The dude walked up and basically winked at the hen deke....how you doin....and continued a few yards to take care of his light work.....

I will never forget the look on this birds face when he looked back over his shoulder at the fakey jake....right around the 10 yard marker he looked like he wanted to kill that lil dude....and I couldnt take it anymore....

I freakin missed!!!! the first shot.....he flew up and hit the ground gittin it!!! I cut his legs out from under him as he started to fly again and hit him in the face with the third shot dumping him like a goose.........

Below is the GoPro angle...

I have never missed a gimme like that before....The shot looked good....Im blaming it on the super tight pattern....Its the size of a baseball at 20 so who knows at 10?!?

After some pics we hit the road toward our second spot an hour away....Public ground that we doubled up on last year mid morning....We got some play but nothing commited....

At noon we were haulin azz even lower on the shore to scout some more public property for the next day and hopefully find a prospect. Just about the time Paul was whining about being to far to drive in the am he spotted a strutter....I spotted the dude at the house on the property and pulled in.......... We were in business and had a plan for the next day!!!!

2AM came awful early but we were ready to get on with it!!! I had every intention of only videoing but when we were gearing up at the truck the sound of multiple birds was too much to handle so I brought the gun for back up.....

Long story short........cuz it is long.......4 hours long........4 hours of watching these gobblers strut, fight, spit, and attempt a little love with two hens that only wanted to eat and dust.......before finally heading into our corner where we had seen the afternoon bird the day before........We were waiting with a plasti hen....... It looked real good to the biggest strutter and he came over to flirt....Paul made quick work of the bird and commenced to cutting and purring on the mouth call......

And then the craziest thing happened.........with only a few minutes remaining.....a bird we had been hearing across a paved road came running across to check out the commotion.......I knew he would hang up on the flopped over gobbler so I belly crawled out into the tall grass almost 6 feet from the hen decoy....Paul seduced the bird and I shot him as he picked the head of Pauls dead gobbler up in his mouth!!!! Bam....2 birds in a heap...2 doubles 2 years in a row!!!

Above is Pauls view on the cam and below is my hat mounted GoPro video angle...

Pauls bird made it easy for pics as we just hung him from his dagger spurs on a limb......I was stoked to have just taken my first double bearded Tom and tag out in Md. for the first time!!!

Fishing with the kids!!!

First let me start by saying that this one "kid", Tyler Wallace should be in some pro class somewhere because he straight up embarrasses me when we have a fishing rod in our hands at the same time....

In the last couple days we took the gang out to a local trout stream for some action... I am by no means any kind of trout fisherman but with Tyler and his Grandfather's advice I bought some stuff to take a couple of my kids out...I am more of a bass fisherman so this is all new to me.

The kids had fun...The youngest spent most of the time chasing each other around and picking flowers only to come by and try their hand at fishing every once in a while. This area is off limits to adults (although I saw quite a few stringers of trout being filled by fathers with less than enthused kids) so while Riley was out running around I had to just look for fish and wait...

I struggled at the trout thing...I can see these things and hit them in the face with lures or bait and they don't want to play....meanwhile, Tyler is reeling them in left and right in the same hole...I must not be holding my mouth right???

I did however, manage to help my little sweetheart Riley catch her first trout....She was pretty excited...I was surprised that she did not want to touch the fish at first...This is the kid that wanted to touch the deers heart when we shot one this year....She finally gave in and then she wouldn't stop and just wanted to play with the poor thing.

Rileys little buddy from preschool was up at the creek fishing with his Dad at school the next day and he could not wait to show off his prize as well!!!

I was telling Dawson how much more fun I thought bass fishing was and he agreed so we headed to a local pond and had at it!!!

That night I got the pics from Doug showing what was done with the giant mess of trout and it looked fantastic...Ill be ready for those suckers next time!!!!

Wyld Mineral site refresh

Angie found her first ever Morel!!!

Im definitely in the middle of getting ready for the thunder chicken opener...But now is the time for a few other things as well...I had started a few new WYLD Mineral sites a couple weeks ago as well as replenished a few old ones...I had to get back out and hit them again so we made a family day out of it. Angie and I took the youngest and the oldest out and looked for sheds and shrooms all the while sprinkling minerals in all the spots in between!!!

Dawson and Madi both loving taking pictures as much as I do...Its great that I can let them use these awesome cameras to capture images and learn by taking a ton of pics...Digital makes it so nice so there is no wasted film or wait time!!!

Abby is such a great dog...she just runs circles around us and hangs out....

Dawson found a crusty ole peckahead shroom....

Helping Riley up the cliff...

WYLD CHILD