The three gobblers looked like last year's litter mates. All had beards between nine and 10 inches long, and all were within 40 yards of my parked car as they headed toward the road.
They were young birds, regardless of beard length, and were full of themselves. They would stop, spin like feathered tops in the field, fan and strut and gobble. They were lusty voiced, but they didn't have that deep timbre of a fully mature bird.
The birds dallied just short of the dirt road, and then took their time crossing. No cars came toward me, none came from behind, and I was the only person who saw them cross the road, which was a good thing. There's no sense in revealing a potential hotspot, even if the opener is still a short time away.
The birds didn't seem concerned by my car unless I was to step out or open the door, which would never happen. I'd been driving the opposite direction, saw them 150 yards away, strutting out in the field, and then drove down the road. I did a quick U-turn, creeped back, and sat alongside the road with the motor off.
The gobblers came prancing over a hill, stopped, looked for a long moment at my car, pecked around in the gravel and eventually crossed the road and disappeared into the woods. My car windows were down, and there was no gobbling and no hens were within sight.
Our on-again, off-again, spring weather is doing some odd things with our local turkey flocks. It seems the birds are moving, as they usually do, but the only gobbling I hear is first thing in the morning. The birds, in this soggy and water-soaked fields of cold mud, aren't gobbling very much.
I've got a basic idea where those Mesick-area birds had roosted. They've roosted in much the same locations as they used 20 years ago, but the area continues to build up with people. There's a bit of state land in that spot, and if a hunter hits it right roosting area, they can take a bird.
What happens is the gobblers gobble a bit from the roost, flies down, gobbles once or twice and then they shut up. They move through the strutting areas, and head for the woods. They aren't moving very much or very far.
Finding the birds will become a bit easier as the weather stabilizes. Cool and crisp mornings are great times to locate the birds. Two things -- your ears and a car or truck -- are the two best scouting tools to use. Here is what I told a friend who just wasn't seeing birds.
The trick is to be out in your car an hour before daybreak. Drive within a half-mile of where a bird may be roosted, stop, roll the windows down but don't turn on the interior light. Listen for the distant gobble of a bird answering an owl call.
Move on, and keep checking trusted spots, and listen. If birds are heard, stay in the car with binoculars and spotting scope, and see if the birds can be located. If possible, try to spot them from the road by scanning the trees as the morning sky starts to lighten up.
Look for a limb-walker on a big limb. Don't call from the car but study those beards. It's vitally important that you are not heard or seen.
Locate two or three key sites (more if you can find them) and see which way the birds head after fly-down. They may move through thick woods, pine tree plantations, but they will soon be in an open field after they pitch down from the roost.
Note how they approach these early-morning strutting zones, and figure out how to set up on the birds so you will be between the roost trees and the strutting zones. Often this will make the birds fairly close to you with just a tiny bit of calling.
Daytime scouting follows once the hens and gobblers disperse. Some hens will be sitting on nests. The gobblers may poke around in the woods but a patient hunter who doesn't have any morning success may find good fortune in the early afternoon as gobblers sound off near where they heard a hen at dawn. They often come back, but here are tips to follow later in the day.
Hunters can check sandy places where birds come to dust on a warm spring day. Look for feathers on the ground below roost trees, and scratching in the oak leaves will sound like a hen feeding. A hotspot may be found in one of those little areas where two people is one person too many. I know where I can park and where I can't, and I often try to roost one or more gobblers just before dark. No matter how much you scout, check roost areas from a distance just about sundown. You may not see the birds fly up to roost but sometimes a keen ear will hear them.
Here's a tip that many savvy turkey hunters never reveal. Given the chance, turkeys prefer to roost in hardwoods near water. Birds often will roost 100 to 200 yards from a field with a key strutting zone, but nearby water can be a key to your success.
Gobblers seldom sound off, or if they do gobble at dawn, it's one call and then they shut up. I've seen birds come to the call in such locations, and almost every time they move in without making a sound. The area is empty of turkeys one moment, and suddenly a gobbler or two will be out in front of the hunter.
A key spot can be a mix of farmland and patchy woodlots, and birds often gobble from the roost, and then get close-lipped. They may circle the call, stop to study the area for danger, and keep moving through thick cover.
I've had an excited jake reveal the presence of he and a gobbler traveling together, but it's not something I plan on. One of my spots backs up to a swamp, and many birds roost in the swamp and near the creek.
Once the season opens, hunters who hear a roosted bird gobble should get within 75 to 100 yards of it, and call sparingly. Listen to the gobblers.
If they gobble like crazy, keep working them hard. Vary calls but use only those calls the birds respond to, and as long as the birds gobble, a hunter can try calling although it frequently pays to shut up and let the gobbler hunt for you. This tactic is a knife that cuts both ways: some birds respond to excited calling, and others cue in on an occasional soft call.
Hunters can try, if the gobblers are henned-up or hang up at a fence or water, to work closer. Change direction a little bit, and keep moving slowly, and then stop to call. Sometimes a gobbler will move to a stationary call, and it's usually the hunters best bet. A moving bird, one that seems to be approaching, may be called by not making a sound. Let the bird find you.
All of the calling stuff comes after a bird has been located. Try not to call too much during the late season, and cue in on any gobbler that answers. It's my intention to be coy and fairly quiet, with minimum calling, and hopefully it will toll in a bird looking for a hen.
The trick now during these last several days of scouting is to cover some ground, and my travels often mean covering 60 miles every night to put gobblers to bed. Knowing where a gobbler is roosted in the morning can be one of the major elements of a successful hunt.
Just remember: cruising the back roads and listening at dawn can be the two best turkey tactics of all.
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