I think the weatherman is a PETA member

 Monday it was suppose to rain, Tuesday it was suppose to rain, Wednesday was the best day of the week and the winds were scheduled to blow hard NE. It didn't rain any of those day's and the wine was half what was forecast......What's a fisherman to do?????... 

Go to a smaller lake, preferably closer to home?? Well, that's what I did, I packed the boat and headed 15 minutes to Lake James. I didn't catch anything huge.. or for that matter big? but I did catch fish. It actually was a pretty good way to spend 5 or so hours. I caught all kinds of bass, (remember.... nothing big).

smallmouth

largemouth

even a couple rock bass

Like I said I caught nothing big, but it was fun to do a little casting. Next week I'll be moving to Erie for a while. The coho are moving out on Lake Michigan so it's time to catch some walleye.....if the weatherman has a break in the rain.....

Long but fun

 Did alot of stupid stuff yesterday... like.... thinking my phone and wallet are in the truck only to go 5 miles from home, stop and look for them. Get back in the truck and go back home, only to finally find them on the side of the boat.... FUN. 

looking back at it, that was really the dumbest thing I did do... thought there was more. 

Anywho, finally got to the lake and fishing by 7ish (really late) boated my first coho around 7:30 and thought this was going to be a quick day. I was wrong... I only had 1 SDR, and 1 LDR which was a really nice fish. I think I lost him cause he was hooked weird/snagged maybe? He just wasn't fighting "right" he felt like a big fish but came unbuttoned on a lure, hook configuration that I just don't have fish come off. Still scratchin' my head over that one. I was able to put 4 fish in the boat only missing my limit by one, and I really wanted that 5th fish, but it was not to be.I fished until 5ish before I finally threw in the towel.

 Nothing broke, nothing lost this trip so it was a good day.

Looks like it's back to fishing....

 Let's go through the numbers here....

Monday I went up to Mongo for the no-show draw at 5:30 just like last Wed, and Thurs. I didn't get drawn so I stopped at option C, hooted a couple times and didn't hear a gobble so I moved on to... well, what we'll call my F spot. I stomped over the whole area and only caught a glimpse of what I thought was a turkey. I did manage to rub the skin off my heel.

It was a little painful to start.... shoot it still hurts, but it's turkey season so I gotta power through it.

Tuesday I did the B plan and actually got drawn, so I went back to the spot I was on last Thurs. The most excitement I had was a Jake molestering my first decoy.

 I was videoing from my phone cause my damn gopro died after a disappointing 21 seconds. Even though it was a Jake I was still pretty excited, hence the shaky video.

 

I didn't get a whole lot of video or pics cause my decoy was behind this tree. 

After he had his way with the avian X, he set his attention on decoy #2, my smoky baby. The decoys were in line from left to right.

This video was a little better because by this time that Jake had been in my decoys for 35 minutes. I'm not sure why he stopped but before he molestered my second decoy his head popped up, he did the old wing flip, and skulked away... the same direction he walked in. After I was sure he was gone I got up, picked up my decoy and put her back on her stake.

It was hilarious watching him try and mount that decoy, since she was on a stake she kept spinning and so did he. From where I was sitting all I saw was her head, his head, her head, his head, and so on, pretty funny, until he knocked her off and knocked her up........Not funny.👿 

After a couple hours and nothing else happening I went for a stealth walk to try and get near a gobbler from the morning. All I found was this butterfly.

Yep... nothing else to report for Tuesd..... crap wait a minute I headed out to my D spot after I went home and got something to eat. I only saw 1 turkey.....

Vulture, Turkey Vulture.... I did see more, but I saw this one up close. He's sitting on the floor of an old deer blind that I was sitting below.

That was the end of Tuesday.

 Now for the day we've all been waiting for.... WEDNESDAY     

Just in case you didn't get it by the title of this post I got a Turkey today. So I'll get straight into the story. 

I started the day with the usual option B and once again I didn't get drawn for the no-show. So I ran down the road and hooted at my C spot with the only response being across the street. Due to past experience I opted not to try for that bird. Since I lost the skin on my heel I was itching to get back on my option F spot for some payback. 

I knew where I wanted to start so I headed east. When I got to my spot it's a mile and a half walk to where I thought I should be. 

Just to keep the timeline here, it's a 15-20 min run to C spot then 5-10 min there, and another 15-20 min to F spot. For all of us keeping track that puts us at about 6:20ish and I still have the walk in. 

Back to the action.....

Well, on the way in a gobbler said good morning, and he's only about a hundred yards still on roost to my right. Fortunately the hill I was walking up offers some cover to the left so I go left and drop in elevation and start looking for a spot to ........GOBBLES, GOBBLES. There's 2 gobblers in front of me about 2-300 yards. Now I have the 2 in front and the 1 to my right. I figure I can get up the hill 10 or so feet and set up in a clump of trees and scrub and hope nobody's seen the idiot with the gun. As I'm setting up on the 1st gobbler, I'm already thinking about my next set up on the other 2. I know where they go and where they will come back to, so I've got a solid plan B. 

After a couple soft yelps and putts he gobbles like he heard me. We play that game a couple more times, keep in mind he's still roosted. 

After a couple more minutes I hear him fly down, now he's on the ground... and quiet. I'm keeping a steady eye on the other side of the small deer trail. Nothing.... gotta listen harder.... hear him walking in the leaves in the deer trail..... now he's to my left.... still can't see him..... behind me... get the gun around back.... there he is... small opening..... 10ft...... SHOOT... 6:49 dead turkey     

  What he doesn't have in a tail fan he makes up for in Weight- 26 pounds

I'm sitting in the chair I was in and I shot him behind me to the side of the tree my gun is resting on. I got pretty lucky I shot through some poopy but he was REALLY close.

 

Double Bearded- this is the first double bearded turkey I've ever shot, really cool. 

Beard 1- 9 inches and Beard 2- 10 1/4 inches

Spurs are 1 1/2 inches

 This turkey was a beast.

 

After I got home and started to get him cut up I saw he had, for lack of a better word, "roadrash" on his left side. I didn't get a pic of that but I did get a pic of the toe missing a toenail.

Pretty sure this was the dominate bird or at least the old dominate bird, he was definitely a fighter. He was a hunt I'll remember.
 

Next week... more fishing.