Well I went out Turkey hunting for the first time this weekend, didn't bag a turkey but learned a lot and had a great time nonetheless.
Friday we left Seattle area and made the drive over to Tonasket. Stopped at 40 north in Omak and the guy behind the gun counter there gave us great tips about locations and techniques so that really got us excited. So excited in fact that WSP Officer Hook had to stop us and remind us to slow down. We made it up to our camping spot off of Aeneas Valley road around 3PM and got suited up to do a little scouting. We stayed close to our site the first night and found a little public land using our map, the area looked pretty turkey friendly but we only ended up seeing a couple coyotes and a few deer. Back at camp that night we planned out some more scouting for the morning time.
Saturday we were up as early as we could after a few whiskeys from the night before and left camp around 5:30 in the morning. Went up Cape Labelle road and early on heard a couple gobbles but traced them to some private land and couldn't get anything to come our way. Was exciting to hear something at least. We drove further up into the national forest land, hiked around saw some real beautiful country. Heard a couple far away gobbles but didn't end up with anything from there. We stopped back by camp to have some lunch then planned out our next route. We drove Aeneas valley road until it ended and ended up going through a little bit of the tribal land that was burned out, but did see a Bald eagle fishing a stream so that was pretty neat no turkeys seen or even heard. We came out and headed up to Republic and stopped into the Knotty Pine for a couple of cold ones and we able to talk to a couple locals and got some more tips. After that back at camp and a few more whiskeys planned out or next morning.
Sunday Morning we got up (early) as we could and headed out to try one last time before we had to head back. This time headed out toward crawfish lake. First stop along the road got a real good gobble response from one of our calls, but it slowly moved away from us so no luck there. We continued on and finally saw our first turkeys. Saw about 5-6 hens, but no toms. We hiked around a bit then drove all the way to check out crawfish lake and definitely decided we want to come back there some time to maybe camp or fish. So no luck in bagging a turkey but the amount that we hiked/drove around felt like we have a good idea about what we will do next time. Overall a great first hunting experience with friends and even though we didn't bring anything home, did not feel like our time was wasted.
Might need to go try again in a week or two before the season ends.
