Saturday May 27, 2006

I wish I had some pictures to post on this thing. This is getting kind of old. Who wants to read all this without something cool to look at. Anyway, I got to hunt with Bill Lang today, for the first time this year. We started up behind Putnam's house going after the two birds I tangled with when my dad was down. We went straight up the hill before first light. I wanted to be in position to move on them from above when they gobbled. I hooted early to see if we could raise one, and my second hoot did. It really gave me some confidence with my voice hoot. We moved into postition and those birds gobbled some more. I heard four birds fly down, but never saw one. They gobbled 12 times total between the two of them this morning. Once they hit the ground they shut up and walked off. Story of my season so far. We tried to swing up and over the top to cut them off, but I don't know where they went. We couldn't even get them to shock gobble. We were on our way to The Corners after that when we saw three longbeards cut across the road and head right into where I killed my second bird last year on the last day of the season. I have to knock and ask every time for that spot, and I wasn't willing to go knock at 7:30 on a Saturday and risk making them mad. So, we went and worked the corners. We made a call at the bottom of the pine plantation below the road and got a raspy, slow series of yelps in response. We setup anticipating a jake to come in. We didn't hear anything after that. We were about 50yds back up into the pines when I spotted the bird about 60-70yds out in the field adjacent to the pines. We used the dark pines, and quiet footing to back up and set up again. The bird paid us no attention and walked back out into the field. As we neared the road, I put the binoculars on it and was able to witness that is was indeed a hen, so we didn't feel so bad. After that we went and asked for my spot where we saw those birds, but we couldn't because he had just dropped off his son-in-law from New Jersey, who had been hunting all morning and heard the birds gobbling up there. We moved on to Sausage Hill, where we covered the front and back sides well, with no action at all. We decided to head back over to the Corners to see if we could get a rise out of the bird Aaron and I heard yesterday at noontime. On the way I thought we'd stop and give a few calls down on that new spot where Sayers killed his bird on opening day. That was a wash, there were people bombing around on dirt bikes and four wheelers in the woods. So, we spent the remainder of the morning set up in the field above the pond at the Corners. As noon rolled around, Chinese food sounded really good. So we headed to town. Bill made a good point when we were waiting for Gen. Tso to show up......"It's a good thing NY state shuts us down at Noon, cuz we are like stupid gold fish, we'd just keep going 'til we killed ourselves." And yes, he has made the stupid fish face a few times while saying that today. I'm thinking ambush on the strutter with all the hens with him up by Sausage Hill at first light. Hopefully I'll have some visuals for the next post!