Opening weekend hunt recap

[Redstar]

My friend Hawksfan and I spent a long weekend turkey hunting in southeast Washington. We came frustratingly close to filling our tags all three days. Cliff notes of the trip:

Nearly hit a flock of turkey’s trying to cross hwy 12

Ended up inside 100 yards away from bighorn sheep. This was awesome, prior to this trip I’d only ever seen them as fuzzy dots in my binoculars

Saw two toms fight over a hen

Saw over 20 bearded turkeys

Saw three herds of elk, well over 100 head total!

Had a very un-stealthy hunter (bow hunter at that, wtf?)  bust our Friday morning hunt. He ended up drawing down on my hen decoy…

Had an epiphany that if the WDFW really wanted to make money they’d start selling draw tags to allow a lucky hunter to hunt the day before the season opens (that’s when all the animals are out taunting you)

Got to watch a cow and an elk disagree on who got to eat grass in an area, surprisingly the cow won

Hawksfan caught a smallmouth bass

Had a 40 minute “talk” with a gobbler, but he managed to stay just out of range.

Saw a cow defy gravity by walking and eating on a hillside I don’t think I could stand on it was so steep

Had an encounter with two hens at about 5 yards and they didn’t see or hear me, hooray camouflage. About half an hour later had a tom gobbling behind the tree I was set up in, they’re loud!

Turkeys can run fast, and fly faster. I cannot fly or run uphill very well.



We'll hopefully be able to get out again soon... We're definatly getting closer to filling our tags! Good luck to all the other turkey hunters out there!

[piledup]

It seems you guys had fun. Stick with it and you'll eventually get one.

[Skyvalhunter]

Glad to hear he didn't actually shoot your decoy!!

[rosscrazyelk]

Sounds like a goodtime to me..

[hawksfan75]

The mountain cows were definitely a sight to be seen.

I still have visions of the jake that walked up on me from behind. He poked his head up just high enough for me to glimpse his beard before he ducked back down out of site. Damn...

Gorgeous country, but until we make friends with a helicopter pilot, it's going to be a while until I'm ready for 15 hours in the driver's seat again...

[scottcrb]

i went out to NE WA for the second year. got there Friday to scout Walked up on a tom at 20 yards and put it to bed that night. Got to the hunting spot( public land) at 3 am to make sure we were there first to get the bird. Set up a couple decoys and got ready for him to come out of the roost. Made a couple calls he replied. 2 min after shooting time we heard a shot and grabbed our decoys and went to see what happened. 3 guys walked in behind us and shot the bird out of the tree. we were more than a little pissed but let it go and went to find more birds. Took 3 more days before buddy's bro got a bird then after i left yesterday my buddy got a nice tom. still no bird for me. turkey hunting is tough especially on public land. We literally saw guys calling out of their trucks driving up and down logging roads. saw 6 rigs on one hill side on sat one guy was hunting in blue jeans a white shirt and a nice over under upland bird gun.  I think WDFW needs to make it illegal to slouse a bird out of a tree. Guess ill just keep trying.

[Seatown5]

scottcrb, it is stupid, but even guides in this state will drive, turn there car off and call. Its a proven tactic. The terrain is just to steep and open in some places to do it any other way.  Obviously everyone would love to have a five mile walk where they can call for turkeys.  Its just not a reality most of the time.  Shooting out of the tree, now thats just stupid.  Where is the fun, thats worse than a jump shoot out of a car. Which isnt always awful