by Roger Sabota - Northwoods Notebook

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Ask most anyone who has hunted turkeys in Wisconsin about their hunting experiences and you will get a variety of answers. For example, if you ask my hunting partner of many years, “The Osseo Jinx”(Tom Twesme), he will most likely respond that there isn’t anything to it. His usual answer is that you do not need much time to kill a turkey. Ask our son, Craig, or me and our response might be something like “Heck, the darn things must wear armor and they are nearly impossible to kill.”

Tom and I started our turkey season one week ago yesterday. We could have begun hunting on Wednesday morning but our schedules did not permit that. We were both in position shortly after 5 a.m. just as the eastern sky was giving off some light. We were about 150 yards apart and set up so our decoys were on a small ridge so that they were sky-lighted.

The morning was mild with heavy dew on the grass in the CRP field we were hunting. Just as it began to get light we were hearing some gobbling all around us. There were pheasants crowing on two sides of me and the world was coming to life. Although I do not enjoy getting out of bed at 4 a.m. my favorite time of the day occurs at daylight, when I am sitting in the woods.

Each time the voice of a turkey could be heard we would respond with a series of purrs. I was watching several deer feeding in front of me and thinking about how rough they looked as they are shedding their winter coats.

A check of my watch showed that it was 5:40 a.m. and the stillness of the morning was shattered by a gunshot in Tom’s direction. Not long after that blast I heard Tomās voice on the radio. He said, “That was easy.” When I saw Tom he was carrying a large bird and had an ear-to-ear grin. The bird had a ten and a half inch beard and pulled the scale down to twenty-three pounds. Following breakfast Tom went to work and I hunted the rest of the day. Although I was able to watch over twenty turkeys none were close enough to shoot at. Watching deer and pheasants during most of the day helped the time to pass quickly.

Thursday at dark our son-in-law, Shane Arneson, arrived with his pick up camper and tent. We set up camp and the two Kingsfield brothers, Kip and TJ, from Wisconsin Rapids arrived.

Friday morning was misty and heavily overcast with a heavy wind out of the east. I was entertained by deer, pheasants and turkeys in the CRP field in front of me but the turkeys, as usual for me, did not come close enough for a shot. It was interesting to notice the turkeys come out of the woods and onto the fields as the rain increased. We have been told that turkeys cannot hear danger approaching when the rain is falling in the woods so they head for open areas.

When we got together for breakfast Kip was showing a twenty-five pound gobbler with an eleven and a half inch beard. His bird came sneaking out of heavy cover near where he was set up.

Saturday morning Tom took Craig to the place where he shot his bird on Thursday and called for him. Right on schedule at 5:40 a.m. Craig shot at a large gobbler in almost the same spot where Tom’s gobbler had been. The bird fell over backwards and lay on its back. Craig stood up and the bird jumped and ran into the thick cover.

On Saturday, early in the afternoon, Craig had the opportunity to try something that he has frequently thought about. He was set up in an extremely brushy fencerow with a hen decoy on each side of him and perhaps 30 yards out from the woods. He was in full camo with a facemask and gloves. As he sat on a boat cushion he could see two deer feeding toward him in the fencerow. When one of the deer paused within arm’s length from him he reached out and touched it. According to Craig the deer didn’t waste any time leaving the area.

Late Saturday afternoon Craig, Tom and I were getting ready to go trout fishing when Tom received a phone message.

Tom is a custom homebuilder and the message was that his work trailer and the house under construction were broken into and most of the tools were gone. Rather than going trout fishing we went out to the house, took inventory of the tools and filed a report with the authorities.

Sunday morning I sat in the blind where Craig and Tom had their shooting. As unbelievable as it sounds I had a repeat performance of the incident Craig had experienced on Saturday morning. Apparently it is father-like-son in our family.

Saturday morning TJ watched a gobbler for almost an hour before it came in to look over his decoy. TJās gobbler weighed twenty-three pounds and was a satisfying experience after so much calling.

Since we have returned from Turkey Camp we have talked with quite a number of area anglers who fished for walleyes. Most of them said that they caught one or two walleyes and that was it. Every one of them talked about fighting the wind to hold the boat in position.

We have always had a lot of wood ticks on us when turkey hunting and this year was no exception. Normally at breakfast everyone was picking ticks off themselves except me.

In previous years I usually had from 8 to 12 ticks on myself each day. This year I wore a Buzz-Off shirt and Bug Skinz long underwear and only had two ticks on me in four days of hunting. One was crawling on my pants and the other was on my hat. I believe that clothing is effective as a tick repellent.

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