Turkey season 2016

I got my 3 day draw down at Mississinewa Res. and the forecast was cold with rain. Not weather that is conducive to hunt Turkey's in, but I can't pick the weather just the dates of the hunt. So with the forecast fair to partly crappy I decided to make the hour long drive everyday instead of camping out for the three days.

WED: I was able to do some scouting before season hit and I had an idea about where I wanted to start. So I packed in all my gear set up well before dawn and just listened to the wind blow. Around 9:30 am I decided to break "camp" and head to another location. Just when I got up I saw a freakin' mushroom hunter walk within 20 yards of me, wearing of all things a black and red flannel shirt-a turkeys head is blue,white, and red- Idiot. So I went to the other side of the section I was on to see if anything was happening over there. I did strike a gobbler but when I tried to move on him to cut the distance he went silent. I had found a spot to call and hunted him til time was up. I didn't see anything on this day nothing except that stupid mushroom hunter. On the walk back I almost tripped on these.

 At least I didn't leave empty handed.
 My lucky underwear didn't help today.

Thurs:

It rained all the way down and stopped just long enough for me to get to my spot (differ than Wed) and set up my pop up blind. Now apart for the rain this was a better day. I saw a deer, 2 coyotes, and a coon all on my first set.

 The only thing missing was a Turkey not even a gobble. So when the rain stopped I packed up all my gear and went back to chase the Tom I was chasing the day before.
When I was walking in I heard this bird let out a gobble so I changed course as to not spook him out. When I got far enough back to where I thought he could hear me I set up and started calling. I don't think he could hear me as the wind was blowing away from him. But I could hear where he was by his gobbling. He sounded like he was walking back and forth. I never saw him but figured this would be a great spot to start in the morning.

My lucky underwear didn't help today either, gotta change my underwear and my luck.

Fri: I started right where I left off the day before, I stayed put until 9 am no Tom, no gobble, the only action I had was when a couple limits of geese flew right over me. Since this was my last day I decided I had to make a couple moves so I went to a spot I had seen birds at but hadn't tried yet. I got there and gave her an hour or so. Since I didn't hear a bird I moved back to a spot I had been at on Thurs, just on the other side of the property. This was when the magic happened.

I'll let the map tell the story

From the first gobble to dead bird was less than 4 min.
 By the way I'm not missing a tooth... I have my call in my mouth.

16 pounds, 9 3/4" beard, 3/4" spurs little small for a 2 year old

All the Coho gone?

I've been watching the forums for LM and it seems the Coho have all gone offshore and the Lakers have taken their place. Since I am not a fan of catching grease I went to an area lake this week. This is a lake I usually hit once or twice a year, later in the summer it gets pretty weedy.
So with a strong E wind I loaded the boat grabbed a couple rods and off to Lake Hamilton I went. My first fish was both awesome and sickening. I hooked into a really nice female largemouth but when I got her to the boat I saw she was bleeding from the gill. When I looked to see I noticed I had ripped off one of her gills and she was bleeding out. After 20 min of trying to revive her she was dead and for the second time I had to fillet a largemouth.

The really sad thing was she was full of eggs, she didn't go to waste but it still sucked pretty bad. This wasn't the only bass or fish that I caught this day.

I hooked up this little pike on a X-Rap, he was the only pike I caught.
Well not sure when I'll be able to get back on here, I have my turkey draw next week 27-29 so depending when I get back I may or may not post until after next week.
Wish me luck.....

Windy but good day on LM

We started at Gary Light pulling all the old faithful lures hooking up 5 before moving out to troll back to Pastrick around 1pm. On the way over there was some scuttlebutt about some fish being caught on the wall so trolled to the wall and hit a fish, then another trolled E and W until we went 9 for 13. Had a great time but the ESE,E wind certainly felt like it was straight out of the N. From the direction of the smoke out of the steel plant was straight out of the North..... really hate the weather guy. Even checking the weather on the water said ESE,E what a crock. They can't even stick their head out a window to give a proper report.
Anyway my buddy Mike said he had a great first trip up to the big lake and that he would love to go again. So looks like I got a new fishing buddy.