I’m going to give you a piece of advice, based on your question about flashlights that may receive some HARRUMPHS! from the others, but I think it’s valid just the same.

Last year was the first time I did not bother to hunt flydowns. I’ve been hunting flydowns for 25 years now. I’ve had rotten luck. Most years, I concentrated on flydowns and I was usually so dejected by 0800 that I felt like my day was over.

This past year, I had two things happen. One was that the weather was unnaturally cold. The second was that I was having chest pains and a numb left arm. I promised myself that I’d go see the doctor after season, and that I’d stay out of the deep creek bottoms until I could get to see him. Notice my priorities here– I was worried about my health, but turkey hunting came first.

Well, my strategy for last year was to stay up on top of the ridges and pick off gobblers that were following hens out into the sunny pastures, trying to get out into the sun and warm up. It worked. I filled both my tags in a week. The other thing it did was make my turkey hunting a lot easier. Before season, I scouted to make sure I knew where the flocks were roosting, then I set up at the best places to see them come out into the fields. We nearly had two more with my two sons and their youth tags.

My point is this: For 25 years, I’ve been banging my head against flydown and having some success, but not what I’d be proud of. I’m about 30-30-30. A third of the time the turkeys would fly down and walk off somewhere besides where I was set up. A third of the time they’d come my way and be interested. A third of the time something else happened that kept me from having a chance. For once I laid flydown aside and concentrated on ambushing mid-morning gobblers and I had really good luck. In fact, I felt like I could not fail. I finally realized that I’d been going about my turkey hunting backwards. I’d do all my serious work setting up to meet the demands of flydown and being disappointed when the turkeys decided to go the other way. Now, I was not worrying about flydown and remaining fluid at sunrise. I was engaging the turkeys later in the day and having much better success, because I did not have to scramble after they’d flown off the roost and walked off to do their morning routine.

Here is my new prescription for beginner success: Concentrate on where the turkeys are going after flydown. Set up ambushes there and wait for the turkeys to come to you. Save flydown for later, it’ll come. I know it’s probably the most exciting part of turkey hunting– having a big ol’ gob pitch down and come running in. I leave puddles when I think of the good times I’ve had. However, it is a time of the morning that is fraught with pitfalls, and it took me 25 years to figure that there is an easier way.

I finally went to the doctor and my EKG was perfect. The chest pains were coming from a dislocated rib from slipping on the ice while trying to get turkey camp ready. The sore left arm was because I’d been sleeping wrong on it. I bought a new pillow and the problem went away.

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