With the opening of the 2012 youth turkey season April 1, I invited Dakota Bush, 14, to go to the youth hunt Doc and Jim Hinck were having at the Turkey Creek Outfitters southwest of Burlingame. The hunt was to raise funds for the Harveyville Methodist Church that was destroyed by the February tornado.
I set my alarm for 3:30 a.m. for the drive down from Topeka. Dakota was up at 3 a.m. and was sitting on the couch waiting for me. He was very excited and thanked me before we even left the house.
Shortly after we headed out, Tyler, my grandson, called Dakota and said he got a call that the hunt was off. As I was grumbling under my breath, he said, "April Fool!" He really got us.
We arrived about 5 a.m. and met the other youth hunters, John Smith, of Harveyville, and Brett Miles and his father, Rob, of Tulsa, Okla.
Dakota and I jumped into Jim’s pickup and headed to our setup on a hill in a pasture north of Pomona Lake.
Doc had cut cedar branches and put them around our blind. There was a small creek or ditch west of us that curved around to the south with large cottonwood trees along the bank. A great place for turkeys to roost.
When it started to get light, the toms began to gobble and we could identify six toms in the trees around us and many hens.
Soon we heard the crackle of fly down and Jim started calling. We had two toms to our left that gobbled and gobbled, but would not come near the blind.
Dakota spotted a tom to our right that had come in silently. He would not get close enough for a shot. A bearded hen and other hens were near the blind but no toms came close.
Next, nine jakes came along in single file, but we were after a mature tom for Dakota’s first turkey.
Jim and Dakota decided to run and gun for a bird and I stayed in the blind and took a short nap.
I heard a noise and looked out and there was a nice tom in front of the blind within shooting distance. He was checking out our two decoys. It was not legal for me to shoot, so the tom lived for another day.
About 20 minutes later, a shot rang out. Jim had called up a 20-pound eastern tom with a 10-inch beard and 1-inch spurs. A fine bird for Dakota’s first turkey ever.
As we headed back, Doc Hinck called and we met up with the other hunters. We shared some snacks and talked about the early-morning successful hunts.
Brett, 16, had shot a 23-pound eastern after a stalk and crawl. His dad, Rob, stepped it off and it was over 60 yards. Brett was shooting a 3½ inch load of No. 5s.
Later that afternoon, John, 16, shot a Reo Grand turkey that weighed 24 pounds and had two beards of 6 inches and 8¾ inches. I’d like to have a bird like that.
The boys had a super time, and so did the adults.
That was a great way to start the season and we saw lots of turkeys as we drove around in Osage and Wabaunsee counties.
I hope you had a fine youth opening, and maybe I’ll see you in the turkey woods this spring.