Birthday Gobbler!

This morning I guided Vinny for his annual birthday turkey hunt that his brother Donald set up for him. I met the guys bright and early and we got to the ranch and set up well before daylight. As legal shooting time came we could hear birds and the hit the ground and went quiet. I knew where the birds were and we closed the distance a few times and set up on them but they had hen's and didn't want to cooperate. We gave up on those birds and went to find some others. As we traveled through the ranch I would stop and call hoping to get a response, on a couple different occasions we got a gobble but as soon as we set up and tried to call again the birds would go silent. At each set we sat patiently for what I deemed long enough and then moved on. On our third attempt we had 2 birds gobble and they sounded HOT so we set up and waited before giving them another call. At the sound of the call the gobblers we nuts and before long I could see them headed down the hill towards us. They would come down the hill to within 100 yards or so and then head back up. I would wait awhile and call again and they would do the same thing!! After the third time I got pissed and decided to make a move(as some of you may know, patience isn't exactly my strong point!). The plan was for Donald to stay put and Vinny and I would make our way up the ravine towards the birds. We closed the first 50 yards fairly quickly but as we got closer I slowed down and we would go 5-10 yards wait 10 minutes and then give quiet clucks and purrs, trying to sound like a couple hens headed up the hill. Each time I called they would answer and we played this game for quite awhile until we finally reached the top of the draw. This time we waited several minutes and I told Vinny to be ready as I thought they would come running at us! As soon as I purred both birds gobbled not 10 yards from us but they stayed but and wouldn't move! I knew right where they were so we crawled up a little higher and I told Vinny to stand up as soon as I started calling. I hit mouth call and we both stood up and watched as one of the toms gobbled not 10 feet from us. All we could see was his big red head and beard when Vinny put the hammer down!! It wasn't exactly how I had imagined it happening, but that seems to be the story of my life when it comes to turkey hunting!!! Either way the results were the same and Vinny headed home with his birthday TOM!!!   

Sacramento River Stripers

Today I had Les, Bob, and Cade on the boat. We launched out of Tisdale and headed all the way up to the rope swing and then worked our way back to the ramp. It was a fish here and a fish there the whole way down the river. All of our fish were taken on live minnows today, and we had a mix of shakers and keepers!

Casey

Back on the water!

Back on the water and out of the hills! We got a late start this morning due to a licensing problem and as I sat at the 76 station in Sutter watching boat after boat go by headed towards Tisdale, I decided that when the guys got back we would head to Ward's and skip the traffic jam. We launched and headed up stream and began working the banks with the rubber worm. It didn't take long to realize that they were not wanting the worm so we switched over to minnows. We began working our way down stream and picked up several shakers but no keepers!! We worked at it until noon but it was slim pickings! Guess Ill head back down stream and get back into the fleet of boats!