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HSO TEAM #9..........Jakes or Better


FrontenacPike

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Grey:

I think you're right, esp. just a shotgun blast. You did the right thing by just packing it up and moving out.

I'll let Jonny tell his story about spooking turkeys grin.gif

At times, in the right spot, you can booger them bad and still come up with a turkey.

Joel

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Good job Vator.

Sounds like a great bird. I'm anxious for the story and pics.

Two down, three to go. grin.gif

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I have one more morning and feeling the rainy weather blues. I had one working this morning but as soon as the rain came everything shut right off, not a single gobble in the woods. I stuck it out until noon with nothing but soaking wet gear. I hunted out of my blind this morning so I wasn't absolutely miserable. Well I'm gonna give er heck tomorrow and hope for the best.

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Hang in there Frontenac.

Everything can change in an instant. You just need to be persistant.

And one good thing about a rainy weather Gobbler...all those wet feathers make 'em weigh more. \:\)

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Joel,

FYI, when I was scouting about a week before season, I saw a partially white turkey. Not an albino, but one with large white patches like a piebald. It was a couple hundred yards out but I had the binoculars on it for a while. I didn't see a beard (although it may have had one), but never could tell for sure if it was a male or a female.

That was the first I've ever seen one that looked like that. Have you ever run into that in your neck of the woods?

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SKUNK!!! Sat in the rain this morning, set up within 100 yards of a roosted gobbler. He gobbled and gobbled in the tree. The rain started shortly after he flew down. Once on the ground and with the rain, I never heard him again. Rain sux!!!

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dsc0131210012348jw4.jpg

He's not on our team, but here's a photo of my son's gobbler from last weekend. The weather was lousy Saturday and the birds were silent. Called in seven quiet birds, but only jakes and hens. My son had his mind made up he wasn't going to take a jake, so he passed.

On Sunday, it was a differnt story. The temp was cold, but the sun was out, and the birds were extremely vocal. After about an hour of calling, a trio of identical gobblers came in to the decoys. All three took turns strutting. They came to within 5 yards at one point. After watching the show, my son had all he could take and nailed one, and the other two decided to pound the snot out of it. You can see by the photo, they did a good job. grin.gif

A nice two year old. Beard was 9.5", 20 lbs with 1/2" spurs.

This is his third Gobbler. One with a bow, and two with a shotgun. Not a bad start for seventeen year old.

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Well guys here he is..

1000743sc5.jpg

Well I have hunted the Black Hills now 7 out of the last 8 years. And I can say that I have worked very hard chasing them birds out there. And this year I can say I am one of those lucky guys who litterally was walking out to his spot and stumbled onto a bird and got him. Well we left Perham, MN at about 5:45 am and arrived in Rapid City, SD at about 2:00 pm Mountain time. After checking in to the cabin and picking up a few things we headed out to where we hunt. I know a guy who lives in the edge of the Hills and the land is all private in the area with National Forest behind him and not much hunting pressure. None of his neighbors hunt or let people cross to hunt the National Forest. So he lets us cross his land to hunt the National Forest behind his place. And there are alot of turkeys in the area. Last year I ran in to a guy walking his dogs on the NF and he said that anywhere from 25 to 70 turkeys went through his yard almost every morning. So anyway there are 2 ridges and valleys to cross to get where I have hunted last year. My dad was ahead of me and my friend going down the 1st valley at the bottom and we were just headed down and my friend spotted turkeys. He claimed to see a tom but all I saw were 2 hens. So we cross and get on the 1st ridge about where my dad was gonna set up and we chatted and me and my friend then headed across the ridge and just as I crested the top I saw a turkey run. I took a few more steps then noticed a full fan. I thought no way it can't be this easy. As I stepped aside he stepped out from behind a tree and bang I rolled him at about 50 yards. Tagged my bird about 15 minutes into my hunt. Not how I really wanted to get one cause nothing beats having them come in gobbling and strutting but I will take some luck once and awhile. I have hunted hard and long out there and have had a ton of bad luck so I thought it is all good to have it go my way for once.

We ended up going 2 for 3. We hunted where I got my bird maybe a 1/4 of the time we were there. The birds were really henned up bad. We saw birds at 3 or 4 in the afternoon with many hens and that is not a good sign. We were able to work a few gobblers in the afternoon to only have 1 hang up and another circle around us and bust us. We also set up on some roosted on private land in a patch of woods. We set up about a 1/4 mile from the truck down the fence line hoping to get them to come over only to have them cross over about 80 yards from the truck. The only reason I know that is that is where they were after we sat about 3 hours and all went quiet and as we were walking out we could see the truck and oh there was about 15 of them between us and the truck.

Anyway another great year in the Hills. I can't wait for next year already. And I will be bowhunting down by Houston,MN on the 16th of may so I hope to get 2 this year. And maybe get the monkey off my back and stick one with the bow..

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That's one beautiful bird.

Gotta take those easy ones when you can. It makes up for all the hours you put in over the years.

Great job Elevator.

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Holy cats Elevator......great work. Nice hooks on that Merriams!

Joel

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Congrats Elevatorguy on a great bird!

I'll hope to connect on one easy or hard this week out there.

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The white fan, ponderosas, and bushels of pine cones tell it all! Glad to hear your party had some luck - that's a great bird. Congratulations. Different hunting out there that's for sure - you take 'em when you get an opportunity.

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Thanks guys and I do love hunting the Hills.

And Joel on those hooks, I wanted to take a pic with him hanging off them and I completely forgot. He was a limbhanger and I wanted a pic of that so bad. I am bummed I forgot.

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The one spur was rock-damaged and still around 1"!!!

Joel

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no bird for me this year. next year has to be my year.

woody1975 thanks for the use of your blind --that thing was a life saver on saturday in the blowing snow.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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