The Ben Lee Catechism states that turkeys go to water after flydown. It also echoes the first book I read on turkey hunting. It simply said that you get between the roost and the closest source of water and ambush them– in fact, that was all it said about turkey hunting. I have tested that theory and it just does not seem to pan out– at least as a surefire thing.

Once long ago, I was bowhunting on the last day of season in January and heard a flock come down off the roost and go to the creek. The gobbler banged his way through the ice and they all loitered about the hole getting water. I figured the orthodox view was correct and never questioned it. That was until I moved onto the farm and started hunting my current flocks.

I generally have my turkeys roosting on the sides of the ridges. I can do a fair job most mornings of listening to one or more flocks fly down and begin their morning ritual. They usually move parallel to the roost along the ridges and then generally work their way to the top to begin their late morning activities in and around the pastures. When I catch them moving down the ridge, they aren’t stopping to water. Rather, they are hopping over the creeks and gullies and moving along the other side.

One of the flocks I was watching last Sunday had roosted less than 40 yards from a stock pond. They had a bunch of choices. They had their choice of a clean pasture, an overgrown pasture, an oak grove, the pond. You would have thought they would go to water. Nope. They angled slightly downhill and moved off down the holler. I checked out the roost on my way back in. Not only had they not gone to pond, but I could not find any turkey tracks on the edge– plenty of deer tracks and coon tracks, but no turkey. Just about ditto for the other three flocks I monitored that morning– parallel to the ridge, angling slightly downhill and down wind.

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