Well the quest has finally ended. On Sunday we left NC at 2am so that we could make it up to Michigan in time to do a little glassing of the fields on the land that we would be hunting for the week.
We never did see or hear any birds that afternoon, but we had high hopes since this property had produced well for us in the past. We made a quick stop into Cabela’s to pick up our licenses and chat with some old friends, then it was off to where we would be staying to get some rest.
We hoped that we would have great weather for this week’s hunt after hearing about all the rain Michigan had the week before. We went into it knowing there was going to be a ton of water on the property which we love. When this land gets flooded it makes hunting much easier. Flooded timber effectively limits the places the turkey can move through and areas they will hang out.
Day One
Day one saw us get up very early, and we had a threat of rain setting in on us late in the morning. We pulled into the property and started listening for birds. At about 6am we heard our 1st gobble and the bird was fired up. So we got geared up and headed out in the woods. The bird was on the other side of a creek from where we walked in. Creeping through the woods nearly silently, we got as close as we could without bumping the bird. We chose to set up along a ditch running into the creek right across from an opening. The opening across from us seemed a likely spot for the turkey to show himself at light, so we settled in and started calling. Any true turkey hunter loves hearing the response of a gobbler after every loud series of yelps, but I tried to keep the conversation to a minimum to not sound so eager.
After a while, it was obvious the bird was on the ground and his constant gobbling got closer. Knowing he was getting close enough to see, I kept my eyes open for movement. The bird sat on the other side of the creek from us a mere 60 yards still out of sight. His gobbles made a thunderous sound all through the woods, so loud that it drowned out all other sounds in the woods.
During this time a small raccoon wandered up to my buddy set up along the creek, the raccoon got within mere feet of him before he was able to scare him away. The bird hadn’t moved an inch from where he was gobbling, and seemed to have no intention of walking down the creek into the opening. I set down my call and let the bird decide to come find us.
At first we thought he was moving away from us out into a field, but then I heard the sound of wings as the bird jumped the creek and knew he was on his way. Rather than taking the path of least resistance, the bird decided to approach through thick brush. I tried to get my buddy’s attention to have him turn around, but due to the noise of running water from the creek he was unable to hear me. Kyle had dibs on the first bird in Michigan, so this bird was supposed to be his.
I was set up 10 yards behind Kyle facing the direction that the bird was coming from, and I had a lot of thick cover between me and him. I began to see an outline through the woods as the bird moved closer. The gobblers glowing red, white and blue head finally came into view in the dark woods as he searched for his new lady friend. The bird would stop momentarily and gobble, followed by spitting and drumming and his best half strut footwork. He slowly made his way closer to our position, within 10 yards of me. With large trees and brush in front of me, I needed the bird 10 feet to my left to get a clear shot. Seeming to know this the bird remained behind the brush in front of me for 20 minutes gobbling and drumming but never moving from that spot.
At this point I had ditched my slate on the ground next to me, but with a bird so close and my gun still across my lap I needed to move quick to get the gun up and into position for a shot. After such a difficult hunt down in NC I didn’t want to let a chance like this pass, but it never was meant to be. The gobbler back-tracked a little and went around us in search of a hen he thought was in the area. I gave him a chance to move off before I walked over to Kyle, who had witnessed the whole display unfold behind him. We collected our gear and tried to work back in front of the bird but we never could reconnect with him before the rain set in.
We spent some time listening and glassing, and eventually chose to set up in an open hardwoods area for a few hours but nothing came of it. We had a whole week to hunt here in Michigan and we were both very tired and worn out, so we called it a day.
Day Two
Day two met us with lots of rain in the morning so we decided to sleep in and head out after the rain left the area. We got to the woods around 2pm, and had a land owner from down the road stop to talk. He soon mentioned the 25 to 30 turkeys in his backyard every morning, but wouldn’t let anyone hunt after being disrespected by some other hunters in the past. We decided to do some bush whacking deep into our woods getting us within 200 yards of the birds using his property.
After a 30 minute hike through thick undergrowth, we wandered onto some high ground that was covered in old turkey and deer sign. The high ground was surrounded by swamp, but had plenty of access for approaching gobblers if we setup there. We picked out an old oak tree to setup on and Kyle set out his Avian X feeding hen about 15 yards out and to the left of our hide. We sat against the oak for about an hour when we thought we had heard gobbling off in the distance. Curious if our ears were playing tricks on us we used our slate calls to make our presence known.
Still ever so often we would hear something off to our left that sounded like squirrels chasing each other through dry leaves. Suddenly a loud gobble at close range sparked out of no where we hear a gobble towards that guys property. It wasn’t much longer when two jakes started walking in at a very good clip to us. They walked right in front of us, then suddenly stopped on a dime when they spotted our Avian X decoy. My buddy picked out the biggest one and laid the hammer to him and dropped him right there.
We didn’t move after the shot cause we still could here a bird gobbling and lots of movement off to our left.I did a short series of cuts and a yelp.My calls was soon followed by a whole heard of birds running to kick the butt of the bird that was just shot. I set my call down slowly and raised my gun , picked out a bird and when he came clear, I let the hammer drop on my Benelli Super Nova and dropped a second bird in less then 30 secs.
The birds that came running in just sat there has we highfived each other and got up to go take a look at our birds. This was the 1st time we both filled our tags for Michigan in the same day, and it was also our 1st double, and to add to it, it was our fastest hunt in Michigan we hunting maybe 8 hours total between the two days.
Has we made the walk out we wondering what we would do with our selfs the rest of the week.We settled on Smallie fishing and after a quick phone call to a buddy of mine who works for Mizmo Lures we had a trip out to lake Erie for smallies lined up for the morning. We would be in the boat with the owner of Economical Bass Baits. We caught a few smallies but that story is for another time.
After a hellish hunt in NC we where both super happy to be done, but at the same time wanted more.
