About this time last year, I had been watching up to 18 longbeards at my "honey hole" farm the week before Juvy weekend. By Saturday morning, EVERY one was GONE - moved off on the neighbors, just far enough to be out of reach. So I spent a very quite morning in the blind with my 2 girls & my buddy Lee. Both of the girls did manage to kill birds later in the weekend, but Opening morning was a HUGE disappointment for everyone involved.
Fast forward to this year, the week before Juvy weekend. I have been watching a flock down in the river bottom behind my house practically every day this week. So I ease down to the bottom well before daylight this morning. I have no doubt that they'll be there - I just want to see where they fly down so I can go back & set up a blind mid-day. I started to get a little worried when they hadn't gobbled by 6:15. I got real worried when they hadn't gobbled by 6:25. I felt sick to my stomach when they finally gobbled at 6:30 - about 300 yards on the OTHER side of the river. 
NOT AGAIN!!! I know they'll come back, but it sure is disappointing thinking that I had a "slam dunk" all ready for one of my girls.
After I got over the shock, I hit the road about 7:30 to start checking my other farms. Found these guys about an hour later:
Much harder to get to than the river bottom birds and lots more hens, but at least it's a place to start. If nothing else, we should hear lots of gobbling fairly close (as long as the thunder storms hold off) so it should make for an exciting hunt! Stay tuned....
UPDATE
Well I saw the forecast for Friday night / Saturday morning, but for some reason I thought if I ignored it, it might not happed :) WRONG! I awoke to heavy thunderstorms & a radar picture on my phone that was lit up like a Christmas tree. I knew that I didn't want to get caught out in a storm with the kids so I decided to let everybody sleep & try again about 10.
Lee had graciously agreed to hunt with us & try to get some video. He met us at the farm at 10. I'll condence the rest of the day into 1 word - WET! The girls were real troopers - never complaining - even when we spent 5 hours straight in the blind. We saw some birds - heard some birds - but had no shot. Still, I think everybody had a pretty good time considering how bad the weather was.
Sunday morning we got up extra early & loaded up the Kawasaki mule. I knew we wouldn't be able to get to the blind I set on Friday in the truck after all the rain. The rain had stopped, but temps were in the 30s with a COLD North wind! Once again the girls were real troopers even when their Daddy made them walk through a herd of cows in the dark without a flashlight! :)
We were settled in extra early & shocked when we heard the first gobble well before daylight! Not sure how many gobblers were over us, but we were treated to quite a symphony as daylight approached. We soon had sevaeral Toms strutting & drumming in front of us. They hammered back at every yelp, but never came quite close enough for a shot. Just when I was thinking that we were going to have to leave to get to Church on time, 1 of the Toms broke away & started strutting in our direction. Sensing some division, 3 Jakes started chasing the Tom... in our direction!
The rest happened so fast it surprised everyone. Elizabeth nailed him at about 10 yards (with more than a little encouragement from her Daddy to pull the trigger)! :))
We went back Sunday afternoon to try to get Molly one. We saw several gobblers, but none came quite close enough for a shot. I don't think she was too disappointed, but she is already planning for our next hunt!
It was an awesome weekend spent with my girls, despite the dreary weather!
That's an all round amazing piece.
Posted by: Dripable | 10/28/2011 at 10:07 PM