The cool crisp morning air is enough to make any serious turkey hunter roll out of bed and slip out for a chance to hear an ole Gobbler sound off, letting the whole world know he is there.
There's just nothing else like it.
I have chased just about every kind of game there is in Arkansas at one time or another. Turkey Season is still my favorite.
Hunting turkey in Arkansas isn't for the faint of heart. Low populations of turkey with extreme pressure from predators and hunters makes turkey hunting success that much more challenging.
My side kick Graycee is all grown up and off in college so this weekend will be bittersweet. All across Arkansas youth hunters will be taking to the field to try their luck. I hope they all get a turkey.
Now is as good a time as any to remind all of you to get your youth hunter a Customer Identification number from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC). Don't forget to get this year's new turkey permit. You can get it here.
Also, something else you need to do is get a turkey tag from the AGFC licensing. It's free.
Hopefully this information will help out a hunter. Often the AGFC rules change and the public, for whatever reason, simply are unaware.
Let's go on a hunt, read on!
That Gobbler up above at the top of this article belongs to my daughter, Graycee. She was able to harvest that particular bird in April 2021. What a hunt.
We had listened to him for days; I strongly want to express that we listened only. No crow calling, no owl hoots. We don't do that stuff. Another thing that I will not do is make one single call to a turkey unless season is open, and we are after him.
Everyone has their own way of doing things when it comes to hunting. Here's a little bit of my opinion on do's and don'ts. Why you may ask. Well, the turkey here in Arkansas are already hard enough to find much less hunt.
I don't see any reason to do anything that might give the old bird any advantage. If you start calling to him and make one mistake it can often leave a hunter eating tag soup instead of harvesting the bird, they messed with before season. Ask me how I know about this in the comments. 😂
Graycee and I patterned that bird, knew where he was roosting on any given morning. You know these Eastern Wild Turkey in Arkansas are not like the Rio Grande Turkey of Oklahoma and Texas. Those Rios will be on the same limb every day or close to it. They are a lot easier to pattern. Eastern Wild Turkey, not so much.
He may be anywhere along his corridor of travel. I've hunted birds on a Monday that were 2 miles away on my buddies lease the next morning. That's Arkansas birds for you. Early season listening helps a lot. That's why I do it.
So Graycee and I got up way before daylight, made our way back to the fields hoping this bird was close by that morning.
As we have done for years, we let the world wake up on its own. First the songbirds start talking. It won't be long, and the crows will light up the morning air. That's usually when the ol' Gobbler will start talking. The first crow is almost magic at making a Gobbler sound off.
Sure enough, the crows lit up and this ol' boy came alive. He must've been pointed east that morning because he sounded like he was a quarter of a mile from us the first few times he let loose.
I was anxious. Graycee and I have hunted birds in Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and one thing she knows is that I'm going to move if I can close the gap on a bird. We aren't deer hunting, turkeys, we move in.
This one almost made me screw it up. After a few more moments he must've turned towards us, I was gathering up our stuff to move in on him and he rattled my chest the next time he gobbled. I quickly sat right back down.
I put out a couple decoys in the dark earlier that morning. I was sure glad I hadn't pulled them up yet. I may have blown the whole deal if I had.
He flew down. We could hear him as his wings cut loose leaving the tree. I yelped three times real soft; he hammered right back. We had him on a string I thought. I cut at him. He let loose and now he was just steady gobbling. Talk about fired up. He was headed straight to us gobbling every time he picked up his foot to take a step.
I glanced over at Graycee, and she was up on that 12-guage ready. He kept gobbling, he was coming. We waited, and then he got quiet. What seemed like hours we waited to see him enter the field. Nothing.
I fought off the urge to call to him. We were in the edge of the field, the decoys 50 yards in front of us. I was sweating as much as I was trying to sweat him.
See in nature, the Gobbler usually flies down and gobbles until his hens come to him and they take off together. If you can get him to come to you while he is alone you can often close the deal in short order. If he gets henned up you may not get a chance until they leave him to go to their nest.
The temptation overcame my will. I cut at him again. He answered immediately. But he was headed south, he had slipped past us and was headed to the little food plot a quarter of a mile away in the wrong direction. There was just no way to move, we were stuck. My heart sank a little.
I cut at him again, he answered. So, I just lit him up and threw everything at him. He had stopped moving away from us. He was just hammering away, now this bird was gobbling at every sound. But he didn't move. He was hung up.
Had he already crossed the creek? I thought. Was he behind the fence? Why wouldn't he come on back? The thoughts were racing. I had no idea what he was doing all I knew was that the longer he stood there gobbling his head off the more likely he was to get a hen to come to him. Like I mentioned, a Gobbler alone can be hard to kill, when he gets with the ladies you may never get a chance that day.
I dug around in my vest. I thought, can I make him jealous? I glanced over at Graycee and I cut (a call) at him again. He cut me off. I had pulled my old Gobbler tube out, and I gobbled at him. He cut loose again. I called to him soft again and gobbled with that tube at the same time. He answered again, only he had made some ground. He was coming. The ol' Gobbler tube changed his mind.
I laid the gobbler tube down and got ready to video. When he came into the field, he immediately saw those decoys and started strutting. He dragged his wings and danced a figure eight all the way across the field. Now we had him on a string!
Scroll down and watch the video to see what really happened!
