The PA turkey opener started for me at 11:30pm the night before when my alarm went off for me to wake up. I left for Bob’s house by 12:00am so we could be on the road to the northern PA woods by 1:30am. The plan was to hike several miles in to hopefully find birds that are rarely pressured.
As we pulled into the parking lot there was one guy setting off on a bike and another on foot, that would be the only time we saw anyone until we ran into the same guys on the way out. We hiked a few miles in, using our head lights we could see the guy’s bike track so we followed it until we got to a good spot to split off. From there we posted up on the nearest high point for sunrise but didn’t hear anything so we continued deeper.
Once it was light enough out we began noticing there were red efts, the juvenile stage of the eastern newt, all along the trail. We also kicked up two grouse, one in the middle of the trail and the other in a low tree along the side.
After a while of hiking we reached the first food plots we were headed to. We heard a distant gobble but decided not to pursue this one and instead carry on to more food plots that were deeper still. Upon reaching the next one we came on it rather quickly and saw something in the middle of the field as we approached. We dropped down and back but by the time we were able to look again it was gone. It definitely a turkey but we couldn’t tell if it was a tom, jake or hen.
Since that bird spooked we didn’t waste much time there and headed to the next food plot close by. From far out we heard a gobble in the direction we were headed so we cautiously continued on. We heard it several more times as we approached and eventually decided we should post up. It would respond to Bob’s call but wouldn’t come closer. We crawled up another 20 yards or so and could clearly tell he was out in the middle of the food plot at this point. From there I crawled up as close as I felt I could, so close I could hear him flap his wings while gobbling. Bob circled around in the woods all the while calling and getting responded to but still he just stayed out in the field without coming closer. At some point it was apparent to me that he had gone silent and just a moment or two later I could see him far away, crossing the field and slipping into the woods. He spooked but it was definitely some good exciting action.
We kept hiking a little more, had a little snack and since it was about 9:40am we decided we should turn around and begin hunting our way back. As we came to the food plot that we spooked the first bird out of we heard a loud gobble. There was one in the field and fairly close. I grabbed my funky chicken decoy, crawled to the edge of the field and into it a few yards. From there I could see him down the field about 50 yards right along the woods on the side we were coming from.
I set the decoy there, backed out and we setup. He immediately responded to Bob’s calls but didn’t come closer. I began calling too just to see if that would intrigue him. After some time Bob stopped calling and since I had the woods almost as a wall in between me and the tom I was able to use my box call, which I’m more confident with. After another little while I used a few fainter calls, and just a moment later I could barely make him out through the thick woods between us but I could tell he was headed this way. Eventually he saw the decoy and came right for it, I had a clear shot at about 25-30 yards and dropped him right there.
After about 5 years of trying it felt pretty good to hike out of there with a turkey in hand.
