Alright fellas. I had one hell'ish first trip in late april... and then got busy. Needless to say I was not having the year that I was expecting. I was able to put in some time for a Memorial Weekend trip. Friday night I did a quick and quiet walk around and heard a few birds talking in some timber in a deep and narrow canyon.
I THOUGHT I had their location figured out so Saturday morning I walked the ridge of the canyon on a grassy, bear bench. I went to set my decoys at 3:45am and all hell broke loose. I was setting a jake decoy on the edge of the canyon "cliff" for the birds to see from a distance, when all of the sudden at least 15 birds start sounding the ALERT noise. I was standing on a cliff, and they were sitting in a few tree tops, eye level with me, at no more than 30 yards. Needless to say I backed out as soon as possible, and quietly. I set my deeks up anyhow and sat down. Stayed quiet and the birds calmed down. They made a few gobbles, and when the first hen flew down, I spoke up. That entire group of birds hit the ground RUNNING the other direction from me.
I was down, and flustered, but gave another call. From about 1/8th mile away across a larger valley with a hwy at the bottom sounded a bird. I gave him an answer and he cut me off again. This went on for a few minutes and I could tell he was MOVING. I repositioned myself so he would come in from a doable spot. I went silent and let him call the shots. Still sitting near a cliff, I am able to see this little black dot literally running, running straight up the canyon wall. He gets to about 100 yards and stops. I let out the weakest, whimpiest call i could manage and he erupted and went back to a run. He popped out from behind a large stand of brush in full strut, running as fast as he could. He went by me at about 3 yards, and proceeded to destroy my Jake decoy at 6 yards. The rest is all in the photos!
Thanks for reading.
