Show Notes
In this week’s [UNCENSORED] podcast by GoWild, Brad is back and talks about his weekend camping and fishing trip with his son and the Boy Scouts. They slept in bunks, caught a ton of fish, and had a blast. We’ve got a hot secret to catch big largemouth bass. They also did well on bass that hit plastics and artificials over worms.
Arica and her family went camping and had a better time without any tornado warnings. She reminds us how quickly prime camping spots get booked up. They set up a lemonade stand and were a huge hit at the campground. Starve Hollow State Recreation Area in Indiana comes highly recommended!
Jacob went turkey hunting and explored a large area to get a better handle on the terrain. He took a gamble and had some interactions with some gobblers … find out how it ended. Dan Johnson got back out and has been very pleased with what he’s seeing, with the turkey population making a comeback. He had a challenging morning but made the best of it and rolled a big one. He reminds us how beneficial it can be to call to and follow hens. We talk about the thrill of being so close to a gobbler and how the sound changes and has many more layers that you can feel. Have you had success backing off the call when the longbeard gets in close? What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen turkey do with a dead one on the ground? We also talk about a few non-traditional ways to kill a turkey.
We also announce the winner of the tricked-out Polaris Ranger UTV. In case you missed it, Cole Bishop of Illinois took it home. Thank you to everyone who participated, we appreciate your support!
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a rate and review!!
[UNCENSORED] by GoWild kicks off your week with shameful nonsense, inappropriate convictions, and unfiltered tales from the woods, waters and whatevers. [UNCENSORED] is a behind the scenes look at our adventures, failures, wins, embarrassing moments at trade shows, hilarious tales from the warehouse, and a good rant or three about the most recent tyranny from the Dark Lord of the Sith himself.
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Show Transcript
[00:00:00] I've been on a long hiatus. You have? Yeah. You haven't been here? I haven't been on an uncensored in since the last time Dan was on, I guess. Well, no, Dan's been on more than me lately, so it's been a bit. I've been busy. You've kept your seat warm, been busy, not doing anything outdoor related. So I was like, I don't need to be on the podcast.
I haven't done anything. So sad. Like sad. Yeah. It's really sad. Sad Brad. Sad Brad. Sad face. Uh, but I got into some stuff this weekend. You did man? I did. Dude. You'll be So, I texted, I I was not kidding when I said the other day that I always text Jacob, Hey, I'm fishing here. It's, uh, this, this is, if I know conditions I'll tell him.
If I don't, I just did what I did on Friday or Saturday morning maybe. So I'm going to a lake. It's near this city. I don't know, like, just to give him some semblance of area. Um, I said, um, we're going to try to catch some bass. Here's my plan, wacky rig cinco. And he's like, yeah, that'll work. Or [00:01:00] told me to do a weedless rig, uh, no weight.
Um, and we ended up, I used those exo ribbons that I bought. Yeah, I saw those big worms. Yeah. Um, And because I thought I had some cincos and I did not, but we ended up, so we, we get to, I, I was at a Cub Scout camp on Saturday and Sunday with my kid and we, we got there, get set up. We actually stayed in, uh, bunk houses, which was cool.
Mm-hmm. We hadn't done that yet. So they're open air bunk houses and, um, And my, my son really wanted the tent camp at first, but I knew it was gonna rain in the middle of the night. And if you've ever been camping, you know, that means drying out a tent the next day, which is just sucks. And so I was like, I don't know, buddy.
I think this could be fun. Like, we haven't done had this experience yet. And so he, he kind of thought about it. He's like, yeah, let's do the bunks. Oh, so we, we did bunks. I set up my cot and then we went fishing and. Uh, most of the dads brought, you know, typical kids stuff to fish with if you're not like Jacob.
Right? They brought night crawlers and one [00:02:00] guy even brought hot dogs, and, uh, which he slays the bass up here at that pond by Derek's firehouse. Absolutely slays with hot dogs. It's so, I can't even fault him for like real hotdogs or dude, he just goes and buys a pack of hotdog. He slices 'em up, puts 'em on a hook, and he has pictures holding three pound bass with his kid.
So he doesn't even, he's, I wouldn't call him an angler. He doesn't realize how challenging it is when you get on a lake scenario where you, you like, that's a small lake where Derek's the one we're talking about with Derek close to Derek's. Yeah. It's not as, not as pressured. No, it's not pressured. And so this one, uh, I, I think kind of he was shocked that the fish weren't biting his hotdog.
Oh. And so, but a lot of the kids started. Um, we had a 30 minute period, man, and this is always fun as a dad, like I wanted to fish too, but I had 30 minutes where I had, I had set my rod down and not touched it again because I was constantly, um, somebody else would show up. I would set them up on what we were doing.
We had figured out, you know, two feet down the blue gill, were just slamming [00:03:00] these night crawlers and they are, I mean, it's some of the biggest bluegill I've ever caught in my line. Well, I didn't catch any, but the kids were Wow. And they, they were bigger than your hand. They were heavy as all get out.
They were absolute pigs. Uh, they had that old like nabby head, you know? Yeah. Uh, than when they get Frank Franken gills. Yeah. The, yeah. So, so the kids are just freaking out cause they're having so much fun and I'm just constantly changing stuff out and fixing, you know, taking fish off. Um, Inevitably, there's always a, a fish that s swallows hooks like nonstop cause the kids don't know when to set the hook.
And so had a lot of that. We didn't, I don't think we killed any fish. We actually did a good job of getting everything out. But, um, then 30 minutes in, I finally had a little bit of a, like, it kind of slowed down a little bit and I went and, uh, put uh, uh, green pumpkin on and threw it first cast boom.
Immediately. I had this fork of two dead trees. And, uh, I just first cast, hit it, pull up this fish, this ba little, it was a little bass, uh, but he [00:04:00] saw that and he's like, I wanna do whatever that was cuz that he could tell. You could just see the difference in catching that and catching those blue gill, you know, it, it's just, you know, the kids are just kind of standing there.
They're 10 feet out, it's just reeling it straight in. Mm-hmm. But this, this bass was fighting and, you know, he watched the whole thing and he's like, I, I want to ditch my bober and do that. And I was like, oh, that's awesome. Cause I've been trying, I've tried to do this in the fall with him and get him excited about bass fishing.
I could not do it. He was out playing with rocks, which is fine. Whatever He is outside, not on tablet. Right. Um, but dude, he, uh, he got, I got him set up green pumpkin, he throws, um, and I think he got one first cast too, if I remember correctly. Um, and I posted on Go Wild. You can see the little, I mean they weren't big, you know?
Mm-hmm. But they're fun. Uh, it was super fun cause they were hitting so fast and I, I have a theory that the bass might've been a little bit less pressured on the artificials than like, cuz cuz kids dads come out there and fish with night crawlers. Bob sit ups all the time. Right? Like it's Boy Scouts, you're just camping with your young kids.
But there's probably not a [00:05:00] lot of people go out there and hit it really hard tar like with artificial. So that was my theory on why the bass were just hitting like crazy. Um, and, and at least on, I don't know, I've never had it where it was just boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, it could be they were up on beds too.
Maybe. Um, that like size class of bass that you guys were catching will many times be the male bass that are guarding the beds. And so, A worm falling down on a hook they're not as worried about. Mm-hmm. But something moving, coming down towards their next, maybe that's it too. I have no idea. Cause I'm not, I'm nowhere near as skilled as you.
But, uh, the, um, it was super fun, man. Uh, my son caught. Two really good bass. And um, then he had a blue gill that day. And then we went back out the next morning cuz they said at night they were like, man, it was nuts over there. All the kids went back out. We had one kid catch his first fish ever, which was awesome.
Aw. Uh, but the fish they said we're just flying outta the water. It, it really active at night. And I was like, oh man, we're going back out there in the morning Then. So my son and I packed up, uh, and got all our cut [00:06:00] stuff in the car, walked out. We walked two miles around this lake. Well I guess it was one mile, one direction and.
He by the midway through his cast is good for, as like, for his age with the Zco 33 as good as you could get. He was getting it where he wanted it. His retrieve was good. I, I had him, you know, reel it a couple times, let it sit, give it a little pop, reel it in, and which is I think was aggravating those bas to your point.
I was trying to tell him. I'm like, sometimes they'll see it and they just don't like it, so they'll hit it and he's like, okay, okay. So he, he's getting good at that. Uh, we walk all the way around and on the last quarter of the walk, I said, uh, he said, can I start picking the spots? Because we had talked about, he's like, why are you picking this and that?
Mm. And I, I kind of told him like, well, when you see those trees going down, that structure and you know, there's a lot more under the water than what we can see. And that's where those bats like to hide. Uh, and also bait fish hide there than the ethos. And I was trying to explain everything to him. So he's starting to get, like, understand why we're picking spots now.
And he picked like the last two spots and I was like, dude, this is great. I mean, [00:07:00] that's where I would've. Put us in. He had a blast. He didn't wanna stop until all the rain came, and then we were done. That's awesome. Yeah, it was fun. I love those guys. Blast with him. The, the raw thumb from, you know, liping fish and taking 'em off the hook all day.
Man, those were the best things. I know, man. These were so lightweight that as, even with as many as I caught, I didn't even get bass thumb at all. But, you know, because I, I got to show him the teeth though and everything. Um, he thought it was really cool. Yeah, so we had a good time camping too. Um, I have one kid.
Who was a grade younger than us, it was his first time camping. Um, he's a really picky eater. It was the first time eating a hamburger, first time eating a hot dog, first time catching a fish. I was like, dude, this is awesome. That's what scouts is all about, is getting kids out of their comfort zone. They get around a bunch of other kids doing this stuff and even if they normally wouldn't have done it, you know, they start to get, uh, really peer pressure themselves into it.
Mm-hmm. Cause other kids, if they're catching fish, they're not paying attention to anybody. But this kid can see everybody catching fish. And he was starting to get mad at his dad cuz they were 50 yards down. He's like, Why aren't you [00:08:00] catching fish? I wanna go down there where they're catch fishing. So he came down and he's like, what are you guys doing?
I was like, we're on a hole, I guess, man, just two feet down, 15 feet out, you're gonna catch fish. And uh, they didn't catch any that at like two or three when we were out there. But they went back out there that night and did the same thing and they started hammering them, which was awesome. Man. Scouts was awesome.
I love dude. It's so great. I loved it. I loved it when I was in it growing up. Were you guys in scouts or girl scouts or anything like that? We didn't have it where I grew up. Yeah. I did it until. Probably middle school. Yeah. Yeah. I did brownies for like a year or two. Oh yeah. Before you could sell the cookies.
I just wanted to sell the cookies. I never got there though. I wasn't patient enough. I'll tell you this about something about Scouts man. Um, I went to four years of college and didn't, I feel like I didn't bring anything out of college other than like cool beer tricks. But I can tell you that I went to scouts.
And I've retained more information at my time in Boy [00:09:00] Scouts and we blows and just like outdoors that I've taken with me my whole life. That ha I, I guess that had, has made a bigger impact on me than just about anything, any other activity that I've ever been associated with. Well, Deedee, there's all those stats out there about, you know, people that play sports tend to be better leaders and that kind of stuff.
Uh, there's the same kind of SC stats. I wish I could remember it. I heard it last year. I went to the banquet for Boy Scouts. It was a big fundraiser. Johnny Bench came in and spoke, which was awesome. Ooh. Yeah, it was really cool. I got invited this year, but I was just so busy. I was like, I can't, it's like a three hour ordeal to go downtown, you know, commit, and then you gotta donate.
You can't go down there and eat for free. Right. Um, but, but the, uh, The stat they had on Eagle Scouts was amazing. Like the, the kids that go through an eagle are generally just tremendous leaders, great workers. They're worth, work ethic is great. Um, so I'm really hoping my son, my son wants to [00:10:00] eagle right now.
And actually he's more interested in scouts than anything. He plays soccer, but it's, it's very social. You know? Yeah, yeah. I think they're gonna start cutting kids next year. And I'm like, this would probably be your last year playing soccer. Cuz he's just, he's not, um, he just does it for fun. He does it for fun.
And then like, so he's at that age where like, I, I got one kid on my scouts that is, uh, he's, he's like, we were yesterday or on Saturday, he was showing me his agility training that he does. So you can start to see the real athletes are breaking out from the pack and we were throwing football and this kid's got like a 30 yard perfect spiral and the other kids are like heaving footballs with two hands.
It's just funny cuz that age you start to really see the, the difference between them. Yeah, we're going through that right now as well, where it's time, especially for my son and my, my oldest son and my daughter, where it's time to. Start picking a sport that you're gonna be serious in. Because if, if you go and try to do a little bit of everything, you're gonna get passed up and you know, yeah.[00:11:00]
Then, then you're just a bench writer. I mean, there, there are people that are investing thousands and thousands of dollars in their kids, um, sports training, I guess you would say. Yeah. So my, my in-laws are really into it, but you know, my nephews are really good at baseball and soccer. Yeah. So that, that's kind of what they, and then the other one is one of the best swimmers for his age in the city.
Um, so I mean, that's what they've picked though. Like you said, you kind of gotta go all in on something. Erica, you got into some camping and fishing this weekend too. Yep. We, um, Went on our second trip of the season. I think I told you guys last time, we camped a couple weeks ago, we had to evacuate cuz there was like tornadoes coming in.
And um, so that was good. But this time, uh, we went to a place in Indiana called . Starve Hollow, which I've never been to before, have always heard about it's on a lake, got these beautiful sites that you can actually just, you know, walk outta your tent or RV and you're actually on the lake and you [00:12:00] can just throw in right there.
Um, those book up as soon as they go available. So we didn't get those, but, um, so you're saying people are hungry for Star Hollow? Yes. They weren't starving. Ugh, starving. Sorry. Um, but anyways, yeah, so, uh, Friday night it was kind of drizzling, um, when we got up there, but, um, still a good time. And then Saturday we, um, It was beautiful weather.
It was like 78, 8 degrees sunny. I was hot. I to say it's beautiful for you. I was a little sweaty at camp. Oh, I loved it. Yeah. I was like tank top short sandals. Um, well we were in Tick City, so I had pants on, but Oh, I'll take a tick for 80 degrees. Oh, actually I got a tick in a very, uh, sense. It was getting up the old thigh this weekend.
Oh. So it was a little cozier than I would've liked, but well, Glad you caught that. Yeah, I'm glad I shared that too. Mm-hmm. We've all been [00:13:00] afterall,
uh, but they, my daughter has always asked to do a lemonade stand on our property. Mm. And like at home. And we're just like up the hill. You, we just can't, at our house like one potential customer an hour. Yeah. Like it's just not a place anywhere. Our driveway is on this really curvy part of this back road and it's just not a good spot.
So I'm only like, no, no, no, no. Anyways, so I was like, maybe we can do it camping, like I don't know if it's faux Paul or whatnot. But anyways, we took lemonade. Stuff there. It was a hit. They were all four of the, my two nieces. And then, um, son and daughter, they were like, okay, you're gonna, you're gonna get the ice in the cup and you're gonna squeeze the lemon and you're gonna pour it and you're gonna hand it to them.
And like they were just making their little entrepreneur stuff and then they were yelling across the King Fran Lemonade. Sense, and I mean, people were coming to grow. And then, um, my daughter, there was these like little boy [00:14:00] bike crew coming by. It was like our first customers, and all of a sudden she goes, I'll give you a dollar if you go tell everybody about this.
Oh yeah. And I was like, look at her. Yeah. You know, you're so proud. And I said, but also just give them free lemonade. You're cutting into our margins. That's four lemonades people will work for product. Yeah. I was like, or that's two lemonades each. And I was like, just get the free lemonade. And anyway, I was just really proud that she did that.
That's funny. Um, and then later on that day, we all went fishing. Um, so like 20 of us hit, hit the area. We were, we were a little, uh, tight in there, but, um, My little boy didn't catch anything. And so after about 15 minutes he was done with that. Yeah. He was just gonna ride his bike. Um, Tim gave away my fishing pole to someone else, so I was just, I was like, what?
Who, who are you? Why would you do that? You know that I wanna do this, but whatever. I'll let it pass. Someone else could fish. Um, and then anora, reeled in a couple. And finally, I, when, uh, my son was done fishing and he was riding his bike, I [00:15:00] took the bobber in the. And, uh, his worm off. And I told me to use like a little crappy jig.
Um, so I used that and then I pulled in a, actually it was a small mouth that pulled in, but me and an Nora were the only people that caught anything that day really. So it was real muddy. I. I don't know that name. Yeah. But yeah, it was a great time. Star Polo is beautiful. Highly recommend it. And then there's always like, uh, Tim gets out the guitar and like the campfire and all that stuff, and he, yeah.
And when Tim gets Tim, Tim's like, actually good for anybody listening, because if it was me, it's decent. It'd be like, Not mentionable, but Tim is good. Tim plays, you know, wineries and stuff, so, uh, I've, I've, I've heard him. He's, he's great. Yeah. You, you guys, now you, you and Dan got into turkeys. Why don't we start with you?
Uh, how, how did that go? Cause I haven't talked to you. I've been, I was outta cell phone service for most of the weekend. And then when I also kept it kind of quiet. Oh yeah. I was trying to save it up for the show. You gonna tell he shot one? Nah, nah, I didn't shoot one. Sorry, I just pulled the bandaid off real quick.[00:16:00]
Yeah, so, um, there's the two farms that I have access to. One my mother-in-law lives at smaller 20 acres. The other farm is about 55 acres and. I haven't Turkey hunted out there yet, so I went out Saturday afternoon. Kids had soccer Saturday morning, so I couldn't go opening morning. So planned to go out Saturday afternoon, kind of walk around the entire area, just listening for birds, seeing if I saw anything.
Um, really did the entire perimeter of the property, walk through a back field that I hadn't really explored yet. Uh, found a shed, which was cool. Um, and then, My plan was to try to roost them, see if I could find out where they were going that night, come back Sunday morning. So, uh, I'm out in this very far back piece of the property and I hear a Turkey gobble at five or so, and so I kind of get as far as I can where the property line is and I'm calling, trying to get a [00:17:00] response.
No response. You know, I've waited around for a little while. No more gobbles. So I went back up to this spot where, These trees just look like roosting trees. Mm-hmm. And there's a creek that comes through. And so, you know, we've talked before about how they like to roost around creeks and, um, I had seen a Turkey track in the mud by this creek, so I knew that's the area I wanted to be in.
Come evening, come sunset. And so I'm over there and I hear, hear some gobbles. Um, I don't see any turkeys. I don't know the exact trees that they went into, so I. You know, I sit it out till the sun goes down and just make a gamble that that's where they're gonna be when I come back Sunday morning. Mm-hmm.
And get there at dark. There's deer everywhere the entire weekend, by the way, like, I couldn't believe how many deer I saw out there. Um, so I come in at, at dark, I get my spot set up. I threw it a, a couple decoys kind of [00:18:00] acrossed. The field kind of hoping that it would get 'em to come and I could buy, you know what type of de Like a hen Jake.
A Jake, and a hen. Okay. Yeah. Uh, and so I set those up across the field, and then my plan was to hunt kind of between them and the, you know, where the birds were. And so I'm sitting there, it's still dark out. I start hearing gobbles. There are three distinct Toms that I can tell. Um, one of 'em sounded like a, Jake still trying to figure out his gobble.
Yes. Yeah. It was really choppy and kinda sweet. Yeah. Choking. Yes, exactly. He's choking on his gobble. And then the other one just sounded normal. And then there's a third that is like raspy. Yeah. He sound, uh, king Kong and yeah. And so I'm like, all right, perfect. I'm in the right spot. I, I've gambled and guessed and I did it right for once.
Uh, and now at this point, sun comes up. I'm still hearing them. They are [00:19:00] like ripping. Mm-hmm. They're responding to my, my Yelps They're responding to any, you know, I, I had a gobble tube with me. I'm, I've got them talking and I hear them kind of making their way. Almost away from the direction I thought they would come or I wanted them to come.
And so at this point, I moved into another spot. There's a dried up pond. I was on one side and moved around to the other side, and I'm sitting there and I'm calling. They're responding, you know, I'm just waiting them out to see if they're gonna come my direction. They don't really have any reason to. And so at this point, 7 32 of them shut up.
I've just got one of 'em still calling the, the basic bird. I'll say like the basic gobble. And so I can tell the direction he's moving and I have the ability to get down and around to try to cut him off coming to that creek. And so he keeps gobbling for probably another 15 minutes later, shuts up. So, you know, like this [00:20:00] point in Turkey hunting, it's like, okay, well I'm just gonna move yeah and see if I can stock one or find one.
So I make my way down around the edge of the field, get to where that creek is, and as I'm getting ready to cross the creek, I see a bird up the hill. And so at this point I'm like, okay, I have a path to get around the edge of this field where that bird doesn't see me. I get it to a spot where I can see it better.
It's a hen, but I'm, I'm still gonna follow it. So I, I went up around that knee. Did you track calling her? I did. Oh, I did. And she didn't acknowledge at all. Mm-hmm. Just kept walking. Um, taller grass. She's feeding, not paying any attention to me. So my goal was to get around the edge of that field, kind of cut off where she's going and see if a tom comes out of the other section of woods.
Didn't happen. Um, she was going where I heard the Burt gobbling Saturday afternoon. Um, but it was good. I kind of got out and mapped out the property. First time been out there with them. You're kind of [00:21:00] figuring out where they're at. Yeah, I know right where they are. They're where I thought they would be.
Um, you know, just looking at OnX and the trees that are out there, what I did is I moved a camera to about five yards from where I hunted the longest that morning, and I left the farm at about nine o'clock, 10:00 AM A hen walks in front of that camera, so I'm in the ballpark. I just gotta figure out how and why those Toms would come up a hill to where I'm sitting.
Um, Unless I get permission from the neighbor. So if I get permission from, might try Evening Hunt too. See if they, cuz you don't know what their path is in the evening yet. They might be coming back around. Right. So what, what I'm hoping the, the way the tracks were pointing, they're coming from the neighbor's property over down the creek.
Mm-hmm. Across our property, towards the cow pasture. And um, I'm gonna try and cut 'em off there, see if I can't see, you know, if they're coming through there at some point in the afternoon or day or [00:22:00] whatever, but, It was cool. I mean, it was, of all the years I've been Turkey hunting, I will always say getting out, listening to the birds, gobble, getting them to respond to you.
I was talking to my dad about this. I was like, it's frustrating as I'll get out cuz it's not like deer where you can, I don't, I'm, I'm not able to pattern them as easily. And to just get 'em responding. Get 'em talking to you. You get fired up early in the morning when they start gobbling. Yeah. Well, Dan will tell you that you just go where the turkeys are and shoot 'em.
Yeah. Uh, what, what's your problem, buddy? I mean, it's cool. It's pretty simple. Yeah. The uh, but in that kind of scenario, that time, I've, I've talked about this before when I was hunting with, um, Tony. The professional guide. I mean, it was such a finesse game for him, of watching him go through all of his tactics and it was ours.
That's, I think that that was what he would've said. Like, he left too soon and I know you had stuff going on. Mm-hmm. But it was hours of him working that well. That [00:23:00] bird we dubbed gobs Godzilla on our property, killed, killed the second biggest bird he's ever guided on that property. And. You know, but watching him with the patience of like, they went quiet and you just, you know, he, he's like, we're gonna wait 'em out and like, make 'em wonder where the bird is.
So we're gonna shut up for a while. And then he's, you know, moving back and forth between getting aggressive with the hen and it's just like this whole playbook that he did. Or we can do what Dan does. Dan, you did a good hunt, uh, this weekend, right? Yeah. Real quick, Jacob, what was the weather like that morning that you went?
Um, the morning I went was cooler. We had a cold front starting to come through, so. The, it was warmer when I got in the woods that morning than when I left at Okay. Nine o'clock. So, uh, it was, it actually was fairly sunny, kind of overcast at times, but fairly sunny. Um, little bit of wind. Um, yeah, it was, I would say mild.
And then they, they were gobbling after fly down [00:24:00] too. Yeah. Yeah. They were ripping for a good, you know, Two hours or so, I think. Oh really? Wow. Yeah. Wow. So they must have been hen up pretty, pretty bad. Yeah, that would be nice when those two shut up. I figured they were locked up. Yeah. Yeah, man, I'll, I'll tell you this.
That's what I thought I was gonna have to deal with. Let's see, we, it was Wednesday morning of last week when I went out, or I don't know when this is gonna launch, but it was a Wednesday morning of the, the Iowa first season shotgun. And so I really didn't have any time scheduled to Turkey hunt. I, I took my daughter out the previous weekend and we got real close.
But, uh, man, I, I went to a property that I know has Turkey on it, but over the, over the past years, um, and I think I talked about this before, man, the Turkey population in Iowa has just not been there. I mean, I can remember years where I would go out. And I'd [00:25:00] cut a call or, you know, an owl hoot in the morning.
And, and this is no joke, I would hear 50 Toms sound off. Wow. Across, across the whole river, like a river bottom. Right. And, and now last year or the year before I heard one, one Tom Gobble on some of these properties. So with that said, this year, man, just driving the roads and seeing the amount of turkeys that I saw on the properties that I had access to, you know, having close encounters with Tom's man.
I had a really good energy going into this season because I felt like the Turkey population has had a little bump and was making a bit of a comeback based off of, you know, the previous, I would say four to five years of, of just. Garbage if you ask me. And so I, I, uh, knowing that I kind of had this confidence going into this one night, I went in on Wednesday and, and so [00:26:00] I said I had a meeting at 10 that morning, so I had to be back home, which means I had to leave the woods by about nine 30.
And, uh, I, I pulled my truck into the farm, uh, the, the farm driveway. And the sun. I mean, it was light, but it wasn't sunny, right? I mean, if you could just see the light peeking over the horizon. And so I shut my car door and I was loading my gun and I heard a gobble, and it's probably one of the earliest gobbles I've ever heard of, all the times I've ever been Turkey hunting.
So I was like, man, that is strange. Like, A gobble this early and I didn't, you shot gobble it with the door, or was it No, because I shut it real quiet. Yeah. Plus it, plus it was a little windy, and so I don't know what made this Turkey gobble, but ultimately that said, okay, there's a Turkey down in here and that's, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna walk this field edge, basically right to where I, I feel like he was.
[00:27:00] And, and so I walked, I did, I got outta my truck. I walked this field edge. And I stood at the, at this, uh, field edge, where a field edge meets a two track, uh, that kind of loops back into a hidden field. And the, the loop of where this two track is, there's all these big roosting trees that are all there just from, you know, previous years and, and seeing 'em during Turkey season or deer season, uh, you know, fly up and out of these trees.
And so I'm sitting there waiting and there's, they're. I heard that one gobble and then nothing. So I in, so I thought to myself, oh geez man, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna end up not hearing anything cuz the wind was starting to pick up. Well, I picked up the call, uh, and I made my first pen Yelps, and sure enough, instantly a hand yelped back at me and she was in the tree.
And so, but I didn't hear any gobbles and so well, I said, oh man, there's these hens down here. I, I really don't want [00:28:00] to get in position where the hens. Come in and they bust me and then I'm, then I'm screwed. Cause if there is a time with 'em, they're going in a different direction. Well anyway, I loop around down on this two track.
I'm just kind of creeping my way up. I got a, I got my slate calls in one hand and my full strut, like a min, it's not a, it's like if you were to take a regular Turkey and just shrink it down a little bit, it was a full strut, decoy, and. I start walking down and I'm calling again, and every time I called, the hen would respond.
And then another hen kind of, so there was two hens that I knew were down there, and so I called one more time. The hen responds, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to, I'm just gonna go down this footpath down to this hidden field, and I'm gonna set up as I take a step to turn around that. Tom Gobbles, or there was, there was two Toms in there somewhere.
All right. One of them gobbled. And I was like, okay, it's time. [00:29:00] And so I start making my way further down this two track. And the sun's, you know, it is starting to get lighter in the sky. And I look in a tree and I can see a, he moving around in the tree and I'm like, it's over. Like, I'm screwed. But so, I mean, so what I did is I took that, that, uh, Tom Decoy stuck it right in the middle of the, uh, Two track facing that hen.
And then I hopped into like the, uh, I hopped in behind a mult, plower rosebush right off this two track where this two track would curve around. So if they came down onto the two track and started making my way, uh, towards me, not only did I have the bush, but I had the corner, uh, of the two trap kind of hiding me from where I, I felt these turkeys were coming.
And so I sat down there for a little bit and then that pen, I didn't, I didn't call right away. That pen started making a lot of noise, which caused the other hand to make some noise, which then the Tom started [00:30:00] gobbling, just the one Tom started gobbling. And so I started calling back to him and just basically letting him know, Hey, I'm, I'm here.
And, uh, that other hand that I could see, so there's three hens now. The one I could see, she was nervous. Uh, she saw me and she did not want to, like, she wasn't sounding off like these other ones were. And eventually she flew down the, the top, the, uh, he that I saw. She flew down and she came to the two track, but went the opposite direction.
So I don't know if she saw my Tom Decoy or not. Like it's hard to tell. But then the other hens were still sounding off. The Tom was still gobbling. I could hear the two hens fly down. I didn't see them, but then I, then I heard a couple other turkeys fly down, so I said, okay, there's more. There's probably four or five turkeys back in here.
And you know, you know when the Tom, uh, gobbles in the tree, it's like this [00:31:00] direct line of sound comes to your ear, but then he flies down to the bottom of this little hollow and it just echoes. Through. Yeah. He like, it's not direct. It's echoing off the bottom. Yeah. And so I call, he responds. I, I know he is in the bottom.
And I said, dude, he's gotta come up here where all the other ones are coming up. Cuz I could hear these other hands yell. But I, and then they started working their way away from me and I go, God, this is gonna suck cuz I, I feel like these Toms are fired up and, and they're gonna follow these hens. Well I started calling and the Tom went quiet for just a little bit.
And the next time he gobbled, he was like inside 80 yards of me, but I couldn't see him yet. It was real, it's thick in there. And then, but he was, he had closed a big distance and then I called one more time, he gobbled and then I knew he was in the open somewhere. He wasn't in the woods, he was on the two track, but further back.
And it didn't [00:32:00] sound, it sounded like he was facing me when he gobbled. And so I, I called one more time. He gobbled, and it was so close. I mean, you guys know, you've heard turkeys gobbled before, like it, they're so close, you can feel it. Mm-hmm. Like, there's just an, there's, there's additional layers to the sound that you can hear when they're, when they're gobbling.
It's really like a complex sound. Oh, it is. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's the gobble, but then like you can almost hear the air being pushed out of their lungs. Yeah. Yeah. That's how close this one was. And then, um, I, I saw a black dot coming down the two track and sure enough, he blew up and he started strutting and he wasn't like sta he wasn't staying in full strut.
He was blowing up and then coming out of it, taking a couple steps, then blowing up, and then taking a couple steps. And so I, you know, took the safety off and uh, I just stopped calling. [00:33:00] And I think that made him more curious. And he started working his way towards me. And, uh, then he turned that corner and I just ha ped him right in his face.
And it was cool because, you know, so lot of times when I, whenever I've shot in Turkey, they'll flop around and they'll fly. This dude went down like a ton of bricks. I mean, he just went and it was over. I mean, he flopped for maybe a little bit when I put my boot on his, you know, boot on his head. But, But it was over and it was like 6 25 in the morning.
And so, yeah, I, I, I just, I made that story sound like it took hours, but it happened. I mean, I was gonna say, I saw your post on Go Wild and it was, you were like, walked out, sat down under Tree Shot Bird back at Truck by seven. I mean, my coffee was still hot in my, in my, the, it wasn't, it hadn't been cooled down a bit.
Yeah. And so, uh, of course, [00:34:00] The first person I send a text message to is Paul Campbell, because Paul takes Turkey hunting so serious. I mean, kind of like I, I take deer hunting serious, so I, I sent him a picture of my boot. I don't know if this is, I don't know, bad taste or anything of me. Putting my boot on this Turkey's head, and it's just like this downward shot and you can see the beard and everything.
I go, this shit's too easy. It's like, and he is just like, I could tell he is just like, you son him. You know? Like, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, he congratulated me and, and, uh, I just got, I have to give him, uh, crap because I make it sound like Turkey honey's this real nonchalant, real easy thing to do. Yeah. And he takes it serious.
Like, like you were saying earlier, the, the finesse game and you know, all the strategy. And here this red net comes outta nowhere and just shoots one right off the roof. So. Yeah. Well, you had a good, uh, put yourself in a good spot there, it sounds like. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it's [00:35:00] luck having those birds move off.
And if they get quiet, the, you know, and you're yelping, the, he probably thought you were them. Oh, it could have been. Yeah, cuz it's thick down. So once you, once you fly away or once they fly to the ground on, especially on this property, it's not open timber, it's old cattle pasture that there's a lot of big mature trees in there.
But from ground to six foot up is all like wallflower rows. Um, yeah, like that, uh, honey lo uh, honey locust, or not honey locust. Uh, it's that, it's that bush that stays green all year round. Like a roto dendron or a laurel. Yeah, something like that. That's what we have here. I don't know what you have out there.
Yeah, so they stay, they stay greed pretty much all year round. Uh, and uh, and you can't see very far in it. So I mean, they have to come out into the open to, to investigate. And by that time, I think that the hens had, uh, moved on. But the cool part about this was the second [00:36:00] I pulled the trigger, he drops and four Jakes.
Come in and start stomping on him and pecking it this side. Yeah. I, and I, I had never seen that before. Ever happen before. I mean, you would think they'd run away from the shotgun. You might've been bullying him. I shot at Jake a few years ago. I think it was 21. Uh, I shot at Jake, uh, amid. I, I had three Jake's come in.
I hadn't killed a tur, I didn't kill the Turkey the year before. And I was like, screw it. I'm shooting this Turkey. Cuz turkeys, Jakes eat well too. Right, right. And, uh, He was with two others. And dude, they just looked around and it was kinda the same thing. It's like, all right, we just went one rank up. Cuz I shot the biggest Jake obviously.
Yeah. Uh, they didn't really run away until I got up and then they were like, oh, snap something now. Which is why I still argue turkeys aren't really smart. They're just really perceptive. Yeah, cautious. You, you see that in a lot of animals though. Uh, I watched a buffalo hunt once where a guy went out in Wyoming or somewhere and he shot the [00:37:00] dominant bull.
Out of the, out of the herd. And it caused the stampede because instantly the, all the other bulls saw a, uh, saw the, the cane get taken down and there was some kind of trigger and they all started fighting each other. All of 'em started fighting each other for dominance ins like instantly. And so that's great.
I don't, I don't know what that is, you know, in evolution or nature, but it's, it's pretty, uh, interesting to see. I've seen that with deer a bunch too, but it's usually, I, I, when I've seen it, it's, well, usually if it's like peak rut season two, they're not really hanging out around a lot of other bucks, but the dough will come back out.
Oh yeah. Yeah. That always amazes me. I'm like, there's a dead deer laying there. You heard a very loud boom in gun season. Yeah. And they all like, I mean, when I went to, I told you this year, When I went to get my SUV to load up the deer, I came back and I had deer all in the field. I'm like loud, boom. [00:38:00] Lots of noise, uh, with, with all my, you know, shuffling around and everything.
And then I'm driving back and I spotlighted with my headlights, multiple, multiple deer. It's kind of interesting, which I guess they're just hearing it all over the place and like, Like those turkeys and the river bottoms, it echoes around. They don't necessarily know what, what's going on. Yeah. I mean, in a loud boom too, the who knows how often they hear loud booms and they don't really Yeah.
You know, think that that is a threat and they don't smell something at the moment. Yeah. Well, congrats to Dan. Uh, I'm gonna try to get out this weekend. I've got the first permission, which is property owner. Now I gotta get the second, uh, permission, which is the most important permission. The West Spousal the Lady.
Good luck buddy. The weekend. Yeah, I know it's a big weekend. We got a lot going on, but I'm gonna try to sneak out for a few hours and then after that it's probably gonna be all evening hunts. So. Yeah. You know that, that's one thing about Turkey season. My hunts are shorter. I feel like I can cram 'em in.
Yeah. Here and there. Um, the Turkey hunting, I mean like the most quality part of it is the morning. Mm-hmm. You, you'll get big birds walking [00:39:00] around. It's just, it's a lot harder to find them cuz they're quiet and. I feel like you really gotta know their behavior if you're gonna get one midday, like you gotta know where those birds are typically going.
Um, cuz midday on my property, if I set up when, where would be a good spot in the morning, it's not a good, they're not hanging out down near that tree line on that rolling bank. And uh, you know, they've, they've moved a mile from where they roosted or so, and uh, I feel like you gotta know where they go midday to have any luck there.
Yeah, I'm still a fan of the evening though, af after last year I've told that story of me shooting a bird that didn't die. Um, had some brush in between, but that's, that's probably the play I'm gonna go to again this year if I don't get one on Sunday. So we'll see. And I'll just offer, uh, to both of you guys if, I mean, if you're looking for some expert level advice, I mean, you guys have my cell phone number.
Feel free to, I'll, I'll text you like, Hey, hey man, uh, there's a Turkey and a tree. Should I sit close to it? Or what would you do? Yeah, right, right. Just shoot it right [00:40:00] outta the tree. I do. There's, there's states where you can shoot, uh, turkeys in the roost. That's wild. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't, there's also states, I think you can hunt Turkey with rifles.
Yes. Yeah. Air rifles is legal in several states, uh, which I feel like that's just a, almost like a loophole that hasn't been updated yet, but yeah. Yeah. I don't know if that's true or not, but I know there's several states cuz Jeremiah shot 'em with a, a rifle or like an air rifle. Uh, I, I'm reading a book currently that talks about, no, this is an older book, so I don't know if it's changed since, but in Alabama they shoot 'em with rifles, do they?
So I don't know if they still have that or not. Hmm, that's interesting. Like where if your rifle. Are you shooting in the body? Yeah. You shoot for the lungs vitals. Really? Hmm. I would, well, I guess it depends on the rifle. You have a golf ball. I mean, that would be I, well, yeah, it's like, it's, it's a, yeah, I'm just, I don't know.
It's interesting. I've never thought about shooting a Turkey with a rifle. Like [00:41:00] really? I mean, I don't, you always wish you could when you see one, like Dan said at 80 yards. Yeah. Do you ever archery hunted Dan? Okay. So, um, I've archery, hunted. Turkeys two times my whole life. And in that, in that few hunt period, I think I lost eight arrows.
Yeah. I was just like, that would be me. Oh, oh God. They're at, you know, he, you know, they busted me draw. Cause I don't ever use a blind, so I'm always, yeah. I'm trying to do this off the ground and try to be as mobile as possible. And so the two times that I went, I was just, Man, I was launching arrows at Jake's that were probably 60 yards, and so it was stupid and I just said, you know what, uh, I'm gonna save the bow hunting for the whitetails.
Yeah, man, they're so finicky. It's hard enough to get a shotgun up. I can't imagine these guys, I met a guy a couple years ago, I think it was up at, might have been an N W T F, or maybe it was up at a great American outdoor show, but he just telling me this story, he [00:42:00] spot and stocked a Turkey and open ground, like rolling open ground, but he.
Took his shoes off, crept up on this Turkey. He got 10 yards on this thing and then shot it with a bow. I'm like, all right, man. That's like the, the ultimate story with the Turkey. Hey, to get that close on one, they can hear so well, they can see so well, and then he drew on it and shot it. It's a lot of movement.
Did he have a fan? I mean, was he fanning them? No, no, no. He belly crawled on him. Um, yeah, fans are a whole new level, but anyways, uh, sounds like everybody had a great weekend so. Good. Good. Wrap up. It's perfect weather. Good to be back up on uncensored, I guess. Uh, well, should we, by the time this releases, we'll have announced to won the utv.
Should we say it? We didn't plan on this, but might as well. Good. Do it. Do you, uh, you, you tell the news? Yeah. So, um, if you've seen in the platform we've been getting everybody to enter to win this sweet Polaris ranger that we tricked out to the nines. Um, and so we finally [00:43:00] drew the winner. It was Cole Bishop out of Illinois, so he and his father came down this weekend, picked it up.
They were pumped. He had actually, what, you know what's cool about the story is that yeah, it's awesome he got it for utv, but he had already been looking at some, they've got some property and they were, you know, Had already been thinking about getting one. They needed one. Yeah. Just like this, not the, you know, the fast, fun, you know, sport, uh, utility vehicles.
This was like, no, we need one to work the farm. And I'm like, dude, well you just, this is the best one. Yeah. It's got everything you need. So it was cool. He, uh, he, he was really pumped. Um, I was joking with him when we called him. He called me back and I was, uh, he's like, Yeah, I mean, I remember the UTV thing, like he didn't even, hadn't connected with him yet that he won.
Mm-hmm. And that's why I was calling him. I was like, what did you think? You were getting some free stickers or something? He's like, yeah, I mean, I just assume something like that said he's never won anything in his life. You up? Yeah. Yeah. He, uh, he said he had never won anything in his life. He was so pumped.
Um, you know, we, we talked through some of the logistics and we were like, you [00:44:00] got 48 hours to decide if you want it. And he's like, I want it. I want it. I want to. Yeah. They're like, don't, don't even, there's no more thinking about it. I'm coming. And then he came. Within a week. Within four days. Yeah, within four days.
So we, Dan, we should have seen us cramming this thing. Uh, we had it safely stored at a non-disclosed location, uh, for the last few months and, Undisclosed dis whatever, uh, whatever that is. Redacted secret. Redacted. It was stored at redacted, uh, then we had to bring it over here cuz we was picking it up on the weekend.
So they, they stuck this thing in our warehouse, which is a glorified garage. Mm-hmm. And we have all this product in there and Dan and Jacob had to move everything around and, uh, I can only imagine the Austin Powers moment of getting out of the car by myself. Yeah. Yeah, so Dan was here Friday when we moved it and got it into the garage, but then I was here solo Saturday, so I was trying to be extra careful not to hit the dumpster.
That's Oh, right, right off the quarter panel. Yeah. The, the dumpster. And then there's a bar to protect the garage. That The garage itself. Yeah. Uh, I called it the car because [00:45:00] it, in my head, this thing is, so, I mean, when you see it, you can't really, until you see a person next to it, it's the size of a small car.
Yeah. It'll hold six people. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. He's gonna have a fun. All right guys, thanks for, uh, thanks for listening. This is, uh, Brad Lutra. We got Jacob Knight, Dan Johnson. Erica Johnson, unrelated, and, uh, make sure you log this on. Go Wild. Hit Plus, uh, log time. Go to outdoor podcast and you'll find this podcast and lots of other Sportsman's Empire podcast where you can search for your favorite podcast.
When you log those podcasts, you get points. When you get points, you unlock rewards. Like the sweet vexing reward we just launched. What's the deal with that one? So if you buy a strike back rod, which I cannot recommend enough, they're really sweet rods for the price point. You will get a free crank bait and a free neck gator.
Yep. Sunshade. So we've launched a ton of these recently. We had a really popular, uh, Turkey kill kit bundle that went out. We've had, uh, Badlands Bino deal. That was a great deal, uh, that that went out. So make sure you're logging time, make sure you're logging trophies and [00:46:00] all that good stuff. Uh, Uh, thanks for listening guys.
We're out.
