Turkeys, Walleyes, Morels, and Nostalgia

[TrevorByrd]

I took off from work April 21st-29th with the hope to fill my freezer with turkey, walleye, and morels. 

April 21st- The turkeys evaded me but I had my best day walleye fishing on Stockton I've ever had. See the link for the report. 

 

April 22nd-23rd- I had a great time turkey hunting getting on several birds but nothing wanted to cooperate. The 23rd I slayed the walleye 2 hours before sunset. No monsters but I filled my livewell with a limit in 30 minutes or so 

 

 

 

April 24th- At 5:00  I wake from the back of my pickup. I have a platform under a camper shell that serves as my hunting and fishing mobile. My propane coffee maker hisses as I put on my hunting gear, eventually providing me with a type of coffee I refer to as "black death." I drive my boat to the ramp just as the first rays are sailing over the horizon. While launching my boat, turkeys are already gobbling from across the lake. I launch my boat and head over to the direction I heard them. I stop in a familiar cove I fish for walleye and let out an owl hoot. The turkey gobbles so close I'm sure he could see me. I quietly idle my boat into the deepest pocket of the cove and find a spot to access the bank. I grab my old Winchester 1300 and splash onto the wet gravel. I'm not familiar with the area ,so I whip out my cell phone to check the Corps boundaries as well as the a topo map to get an idea of the relief of the terrain. The terrain is steep and I have to climb some serious hills before I can get to the hammering tom. I set off as the woods start to come to life, a different bird joins in the morning song every minute or so. I approach the gobbling tom and set out my decoys about 100 yards away from his roost tree, and let out a few soft yelps. A few crows start pestering him and he lets out a loud commanding gobble I could feel in my chest. I look at my watch and know its about fly-down time. I hear his wings beat and glide in the opposing direction. He gobbles as soon as his feet touch down to let the hens know where he is. I stay where I am hoping he will come my way but his senses are leading him elsewhere. I pick up my decoys and try to  head him off on top of a peninsula that juts out into the lake. I set up again and instead of coming on top of the peninsula he skirts the lake bank gobbling the whole time.  As he passes my location I pick up and try to head him off on the very end of the peninsula keeping about 50 yards from the bank on each side of me. I wait there making soft yelps every 5 to 10 minutes. I wait for 25 minutes as he goes silent. As I am about to get up, he lets out a gobble directly behind me just under the rise of the steep embankment. I slowly turnaround and wait. A white and blue head just peaks over the the top and I line the bead up with his head. He makes it a few more steps closer as I can just see the base of his beard. I pull the trigger and the bird falls to the leaves. It took 2 hours of cat and mouse before I finally got him. He had a 9" beard and 1" spurs, not my biggest by any means but definitely one of my best hunts. It's been 2 years since I harvest my last turkey and I had almost forgotten how good wild turkey is. I took him back to my campsite and made some turkey schnitzel. I now believe there is no better breakfast. I headed home after my hunt to drop off the pounds of turkey and walleye and restock on some supplies. 

April 25th- Rain, Rain, Rain

April 26th- I chased turkeys until 1pm then headed back to the boat. I decided I wanted to look for mushrooms and scout some areas for the upcoming deer season. I put on 14 horizontal miles with only 1 morel to show for it but I did find and awesome piece of nostalgia. While walking the Corps land I found an abandoned shack. There was still calenders hanging on the wall from the 1970's as well as an old rusted out wood stove. There was also what looked like a tacklebox on the floor. Upon further inspection there was 4 old lures in the box. Those lures are now hanging with my collection on my lamp I made. 

 

[CoolHandFluke]

1 hour ago, TrevorByrd said:

I took off from work April 21st-29th with the hope to fill my freezer with turkey, walleye, and morels. 

April 21st- The turkeys evaded me but I had my best day walleye fishing on Stockton I've ever had. See the link for the report. 

 

April 22nd-23rd- I had a great time turkey hunting getting on several birds but nothing wanted to cooperate. The 23rd I slayed the walleye 2 hours before sunset. No monsters but I filled my livewell with a limit in 30 minutes or so 

 

 

 

April 24th- At 5:00  I wake from the back of my pickup. I have a platform under a camper shell that serves as my hunting and fishing mobile. My propane coffee maker hisses as I put on my hunting gear, eventually providing me with a type of coffee I refer to as "black death." I drive my boat to the ramp just as the first rays are sailing over the horizon. While launching my boat, turkeys are already gobbling from across the lake. I launch my boat and head over to the direction I heard them. I stop in a familiar cove I fish for walleye and let out an owl hoot. The turkey gobbles so close I'm sure he could see me. I quietly idle my boat into the deepest pocket of the cove and find a spot to access the bank. I grab my old Winchester 1300 and splash onto the wet gravel. I'm not familiar with the area ,so I whip out my cell phone to check the Corps boundaries as well as the a topo map to get an idea of the relief of the terrain. The terrain is steep and I have to climb some serious hills before I can get to the hammering tom. I set off as the woods start to come to life, a different bird joins in the morning song every minute or so. I approach the gobbling tom and set out my decoys about 100 yards away from his roost tree, and let out a few soft yelps. A few crows start pestering him and he lets out a loud commanding gobble I could feel in my chest. I look at my watch and know its about fly-down time. I hear his wings beat and glide in the opposing direction. He gobbles as soon as his feet touch down to let the hens know where he is. I stay where I am hoping he will come my way but his senses are leading him elsewhere. I pick up my decoys and try to  head him off on top of a peninsula that juts out into the lake. I set up again and instead of coming on top of the peninsula he skirts the lake bank gobbling the whole time.  As he passes my location I pick up and try to head him off on the very end of the peninsula keeping about 50 yards from the bank on each side of me. I wait there making soft yelps every 5 to 10 minutes. I wait for 25 minutes as he goes silent. As I am about to get up, he lets out a gobble directly behind me just under the rise of the steep embankment. I slowly turnaround and wait. A white and blue head just peaks over the the top and I line the bead up with his head. He makes it a few more steps closer as I can just see the base of his beard. I pull the trigger and the bird falls to the leaves. It took 2 hours of cat and mouse before I finally got him. He had a 9" beard and 1" spurs, not my biggest by any means but definitely one of my best hunts. It's been 2 years since I harvest my last turkey and I had almost forgotten how good wild turkey is. I took him back to my campsite and made some turkey schnitzel. I now believe there is no better breakfast. I headed home after my hunt to drop off the pounds of turkey and walleye and restock on some supplies. 

April 25th- Rain, Rain, Rain

April 26th- I chased turkeys until 1pm then headed back to the boat. I decided I wanted to look for mushrooms and scout some areas for the upcoming deer season. I put on 14 horizontal miles with only 1 morel to show for it but I did find and awesome piece of nostalgia. While walking the Corps land I found an abandoned shack. There was still calenders hanging on the wall from the 1970's as well as an old rusted out wood stove. There was also what looked like a tacklebox on the floor. Upon further inspection there was 4 old lures in the box. Those lures are now hanging with my collection on my lamp I made. 

 

That Hot-nTot you have on your lamp is a Walleye catching machine. My go to trolling lure on Stockton! The older ones seem to work even better than the new ones.

[JCreek]

Neat.

That Mitchell is newer than the ones I use, but still better than you can buy these days.  Thinking back to all the steel rods and wooden lures in my dad's and granddad's sheds.  Wish I'd kept more of that stuff, but where on earth would I keep it.  There is a decent bamboo fly rod in the man cave.  One of these days it needs new wrappings and replacement of missing guides.  Another hobby waiting in the wings...

Interesting that there were 70's calendars.  I thought they ran folks off the land in the 60's, but fortunately none of my family was involved by that time having fled during the depression.

[MickinMO]

I am surprised there was anything left in that old shack in any kind of recognizable condition or that the shack is still there. I can recall coming across what was likely an old milk barn one time during deer season, but it was falling in and over grown with brush. You could tell from some trash and writing on the walls plenty of people had been by it over the years. And it seemed to be in a pretty remote area. About 1/2 mile through the trees after a boat ride and over 3 miles from the closest road. It wasn't even along an "old" road.