Noob Opening Weekend Report
03-21-2004, 04:43 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 5
Noob Opening Weekend Report
Hey guys, first weekend of turkey hunting and nothing; didn't see or hear a single bird, so I was hoping some would be able to critique what I did...
I wasn't able to do any scouting due to flight school, so it's not very surprising I wasn't finding any birds, anyway...
Got out about 20 min. before sunrise, moved into the woods, mostly tall pine with an occasional oak and after listening gave a few hoots, didn't hear anything. Found an uphill spot to settle down and yelped, but no response after 30 min os so. Heard some owl hooting and woodpeckers, even found a bunch of tree slugs (joy
). Spent the morning going from rolling hill to rolling hill yelping and cutting on the downhill side. Set up uphill from a semi-open area calling occasionally and listening to the crows hoping they might antagonize a gobbler into gobbling for another 30-45 minutes, but no good. Went back to the truck and ate lunch. The ground cover in these areas was mostly dead leaves and pine needles with knee to waist high brush/vines and an occasional open area. Looked for tracks and poop but didn't find any, even on the dirt roads in the area. Only found some small deer tracks.
Around 9:00 I moved into another area with mostly hardwoods following a semi-dried up streambed with small stagnant pools and an occasional slow-moving intermittent narrow stream. I followed the hardwoods downhill, yelping and cutting every 30-50 yards. Also checked for sign and didn't see any tracks or turkey poop. Spooked a deer though. Day ended just before 1:00 (end of shooting day on public land).
Sunday I made it out about 30 minutes before sunrise and went through the same hooting/calling ritual moving across a narrow dirt road with openly spaced tall pines with very low ground cover, again mostly needles and leaves with some green growth coming through. Opposite side of the road was more open pines leading to a densly covered semi-wet area with a dense mix of pine and oak. Ground cover was mostly willows and leaves. Moved back and forth across the road calling every 40 yards or so between yelping and cutting. Would wait about 5 minutes after calling to move on. Called it a day early due to lack of sleep and caffiene depletion. Again, didn't hear any birds or see any sign or tracks on or off the road.
Obviously if there aren't any birds in the area I won't hear or see anything from them, but are there any tips you can offer on where to find Eastern Turkeys, what kind of habitat they might like here in NW Florida.
Should I keep looking around the pines or try to focus more on finding the oak and other non-pine trees?
How about water, are streams, lakes and rivers a good place to look for birds?
Is there anything or lots of things that I did wrong when I got out there that could have spooked the birds and killed my chances?
Will turkeys dig for food? Found a bunch of scratched-up dirt that focused on one point about 1-2 inches deep on day one. Dirt was in about a 90 degree spread from the hole and the disturbed dirt was maybe a foot in diameter.
Thanks,
Mike
I wasn't able to do any scouting due to flight school, so it's not very surprising I wasn't finding any birds, anyway...
Got out about 20 min. before sunrise, moved into the woods, mostly tall pine with an occasional oak and after listening gave a few hoots, didn't hear anything. Found an uphill spot to settle down and yelped, but no response after 30 min os so. Heard some owl hooting and woodpeckers, even found a bunch of tree slugs (joy
). Spent the morning going from rolling hill to rolling hill yelping and cutting on the downhill side. Set up uphill from a semi-open area calling occasionally and listening to the crows hoping they might antagonize a gobbler into gobbling for another 30-45 minutes, but no good. Went back to the truck and ate lunch. The ground cover in these areas was mostly dead leaves and pine needles with knee to waist high brush/vines and an occasional open area. Looked for tracks and poop but didn't find any, even on the dirt roads in the area. Only found some small deer tracks.Around 9:00 I moved into another area with mostly hardwoods following a semi-dried up streambed with small stagnant pools and an occasional slow-moving intermittent narrow stream. I followed the hardwoods downhill, yelping and cutting every 30-50 yards. Also checked for sign and didn't see any tracks or turkey poop. Spooked a deer though. Day ended just before 1:00 (end of shooting day on public land).
Sunday I made it out about 30 minutes before sunrise and went through the same hooting/calling ritual moving across a narrow dirt road with openly spaced tall pines with very low ground cover, again mostly needles and leaves with some green growth coming through. Opposite side of the road was more open pines leading to a densly covered semi-wet area with a dense mix of pine and oak. Ground cover was mostly willows and leaves. Moved back and forth across the road calling every 40 yards or so between yelping and cutting. Would wait about 5 minutes after calling to move on. Called it a day early due to lack of sleep and caffiene depletion. Again, didn't hear any birds or see any sign or tracks on or off the road.
Obviously if there aren't any birds in the area I won't hear or see anything from them, but are there any tips you can offer on where to find Eastern Turkeys, what kind of habitat they might like here in NW Florida.
Should I keep looking around the pines or try to focus more on finding the oak and other non-pine trees?
How about water, are streams, lakes and rivers a good place to look for birds?
Is there anything or lots of things that I did wrong when I got out there that could have spooked the birds and killed my chances?
Will turkeys dig for food? Found a bunch of scratched-up dirt that focused on one point about 1-2 inches deep on day one. Dirt was in about a 90 degree spread from the hole and the disturbed dirt was maybe a foot in diameter.
Thanks,
Mike
03-21-2004, 07:45 PM
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ripley TN USA
Posts: 284
RE: Noob Opening Weekend Report
If you were hunting public land was there any other hunters? If not, that should be your first clue that if there is maybe no birds. It's early in the season maybe they are not gobbling. If you find trucks during turkey season on public land then you'll find birds.
