Zach's Pages

Monday, April 16, 2012

Turkey Hunt/Fishing This Weekend

Lately, my dad has really gotten into turkey hunting. I can see the appeal, for sure. I just haven't been able to make the time to do it. But, with the "turkey bomb" that our family land in Tennessee has seen, it has gotten to where it would be silly NOT to go up there.

So, I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some camo, since I have no warm weather camo. Turns out, Wal-Mart (as usual) is THE place for cheap stuff. While the selection was terrible, I was able to score a pair of camo jeans and shirt for 6 dollars! Their Ammo was HALF PRICE from Dick's.

So, we got up to Humphrey lake and started doing some fishing. I was determined to catch my first frog fish for the year. I wanted to try out my new BPS Extreme 7:1 reel
I was throwing my Spro Dean Rojas frog.

They were deff hitting it, but I could not get a hook up! I mean, 20 or so hits in the first 30 minutes. Almost EVERY cast! So, I stuck to my game plan and started throwing the old shakey head. As you may recall, I am throwing the Spot Remover Pro series hooks with a zoom trick work,


That paid off in spades and I quickly (first 2 casts) caught two fish. we fished a little more and something became very evident: The size of the fish have dropped again. I probably caught 20 or so fish that afternoon and none of them were over 12 inches. The lake has had a leak for some time, but you would think that would have more of an affect on the spawn. So, if you manage a lake/pond, I would love some help. I have a suspicion that all the sizeable fish are being kept/killed.

So, dad and I went to Papa Boudreaux's for dinner. Folks, I am sure you are all aware that some of the best food comes from holes in the wall. This place is the definition. It's a 30x10 concrete block building. It has the finest cajun food. you can go read about them on their site:

http://www.papaboudreaux.com/menu.html


Incredible food. I had a bowl of gumbo, the seafood etoufee with the redfish, and rounded it out with a bread pudding. Dad had their new special, fried green tomatoes with etoufee. I think he got the better end. It was crazy good!


So, fast forward to the turkey hunt! Dad and I got up before daylight, headed to one of our cousin's land and set up our blind. Dad had hunted it enough to know that they roost very close to a set of hay bails on top of the hill. almost immediately we started hearing them cluck and carry on from the trees. Dad started calling to them and we heard them fly out of the trees. Let me tell you, there is not debating what they are doing...if a butterfly can start a monsoon another continent away, I'd hate to know what a flock of turkeys can do! The turkey hens walked out in front of us, followed by 5 jakes. We had already decided that I would not be picky and take the first male I could. However, another group of turkeys started calling and the newly landed group started walking away from us!

Luckily, dad started calling to them and the jakes, despite being over 75 yards away, started back! He knew that they liked to walk along the edge of the knoll, so they would drop out of site and likely reappear right in front of us. True to his word, the 5 jakes popped up less than 15 yards from us. But, I was facing the wrong way! I ducked down and turned to face them. I targeted the rear bird, as he was much closer. As I stuck the shotgun out the window, you could see him take notice. His neck stretched to maximum length about the time that I fired! Man, those 3 inch shells have a punch and I didn't even see the bird go down since I was knocked on my butt! But dad did. He laughed like a little boy...knocking the blind over! Sure enough, the bird was bagged. Not big...but he would be good eating!


What a great trip!

To round the weekend out, Josh and I fished the Publix pond yesterday, despite the 20mpg sustained winds. Didn't catch anything big, but we did catch some. Ole shakey head did it again for me while Josh caught them on a T-rigged brush hog. We also fished the back pond and found some real interesting under water structure that seems to hold lots of fish.

All in all, great weekend...thanks to good ole Dad!

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