Report from Turkey Camp — Angus Scores

Turkey Season 2015 is under way. Saturday was The Opener. I went to the Honey Hole. Angus went to the rock pile up on top of Gobbler’s Knob. SuperCore went to his usual place at the Jagende Hutte overlooking Dead Skunk Hollow.

Flydown Saturday was somewhat subdued. I had expecte better, being that it was so warm. The turkeys hopped off their perches, crawled in a hole and pulled in the lid. Angus had better luck. He had a gobbler come in close. He worked him for a while and finally got a shot, but it was at an odd angle and he missed.

Supercore got quite a floor show. Deer, turkey, squirrel, but nothing close enough to shoot.

Along about 0830, I heard a sound that was one of the strangest I have heard in the woods. It sounded like a roar from a rather large animal, or perhaps a piece of farm machinery starting up. Three times it went off in the woods beyond Midway. I was trying to make up my mind if it was worth being worried, when it started to resolve into something resembling a turkey gobble. Whatever it was, it was huge. It sounded like a 10-foot gobbler, and it sounded like it was coming my way.

I moved around the dead tree where I was sitting and got situated so that I could see out into the pasture. About 20 minutes later, I began to spy turkeys. The roar kept up. It was behind the ones I was seeing. When they got within 150 yards, I began to see shaving-brush beards; these were all jakes, seven of them. Finally about 100 yards out they all let loose at once and I could see what had been making the roar. Seven jakes, all going off at once, made a terrible noise.

They came down to my end of the field and stayed for a half hour or so. There was nothing there I wanted to shoot. Calling just made them get more worked up. I pulled out my tablet, and grabbed a few minutes of the show.

On Sunday, we knew it was going to be dicey whether we got any hunting in, but the rain stayed south of Cynthiana at least through flydown. The gobblers were extremely obstinate for me. Hens were kicking up a fuss, but could not get a gobbler to honor their calls. Over on Gobbler’s Knob. Angus had better luck. A flock of jakes came in and . . .