coonhunter

The road may or may not be an issue. I've never had a turkey hang up on a road, but know people that have. My nemesis seems to be creeks and fences. You sound like you can set up just about how I like to start the morning. I want to be above them if at all possible, and I never worry about getting real close to them in their roost. Just be patient, and it may not work out the first time. If you can hear them gobbling every time you go, you will get an opportunity or two. It may be work, or, the very first call you make may have 2 or 3 toms coming at a dead run. You just never know. I do a lot more watching and listening than I do calling. Some guys call a lot more than me, and they do seem to get their birds every spring, but I always seem to get more action in the long run.

I have tons of them in my area as well. That's why i could never understand why people were having trouble finding them. Just drive down the road after a warm rain in the spring, and we can smell them plain as day. I never realized they didn't always grow like that. During turkey season I pick a bunch of them for eating and freezing. Mostly we just put them in a jar with water just to eat. I like to pickle a gallon or two of eggs, kielbasa, and leeks. And, the ever popular, potato and leek soup. They are just a good, versatile free food.

With a 20 ga. no less. That is an awesome load you dialed in.

My area finally had a decent hatch and survival rate last year. We are seeing more turkeys this year than we have in quite awhile. It has just been year after year of wet springs for us. i thought last year was more of the same, but come the fall, we were seeing nick groups of hens and youngsters. As for guys running hounds, it is a dying sport. You can't run coonhounds without trespassing. In the old days, you would just leave your gun, get in and get your dogs, and get back to where you could hunt. Now, with all the professional deer hunters, you put your dogs and sometimes yourself in danger. I gave all my coonhunting up before my dog got treed on someone's property and they got it in their head to go out and shoot him. I had a few dogs that were worth more than some of my vehicles, and lets just say, I wouldn't have taken it well. Times and traditions change, and I had to change with them.

Those 3 1/2 shells are too much for me. My brother loves them, but he is about 75 pounds bigger than me. I went back to 2 3/4 a few years ago. All I remember is that they were Winchester and only cost 15 bucks for ten, and they shoot fine out of an old Westernfield with a modified choke at 30 yards and under.

Great job. They are the toughest little buggers for me to spot on the ground.

Unless I get them for a Christmas present, I always get the Quaker Boys with the aluminum "U" frame so I can bend it to fit better. I also trim a lot of them off. It is what works for me. I have never figured out how they claim the single reed calls are the easiest to use because they vibrate so much in my mouth that i can't use them. Best bet is to buy a pack of calls and try them out. The worst you will be is out $20.

All I can say is I lived outdoors as much as possible. I pedaled bike all over to get to the river, the woods, or the park 5 miles away to play whatever sport was in at the moment. During trapping season I lived at my buddy's house and deer season he lived at my house. At 14 years old, we both made over $1000 on mink and muskrats. This was at a time when a good paying job in the area was a little over $200 a week. I wish i could tell you it was all spent wisely, but that would be a huge lie. I was a pain in the ass and got my share of whoopings. There were some memorable ones that my mom and I laugh about now. It didn't ruin my life like they claim nowadays. It was part of learning respect, manners, and that there were consequences for my actions. I can honestly say that I loved my childhood and teen years, and I feel sorry for the majority of youngsters today.

There's a pretty good starting point even if a person doesn't agree with all this man said. Instead, like he says, nobody wants to work together to get to the reasons why this country is going to hell faster than I can remember ever happening. Instead, we keep getting feel good crap that does little to nothing to solve anything.

Add me to the list for redheads. I also married one. I am also a sucker for the smell of gun smoke and race fuel.

This may be a little more serious than was intended, but I am a sucker for kids having fun playing. No matter how bad a day I have, how tired and grouchy I am, or just down on the world in general, seeing and hearing young kids laughing and raising cain can make the troubles of the the day go away and a smile come to my face.

That video was great. They were having a ball

Man! Going to the dump to shoot rats was great. All the great things we did as kids that the youngsters today never get a chance to do

When i was a kid, the 4-H Club and the church used to have family sledding parties at night. It was just outside of town with bonfires, food, drinks, and a ton of people. Somehow, I assume it was generators, we had lights. I just can't remember that part. There were snowmoblies and 3 wheelers with ropes with handles to drag all us kids back up the hill, and once the machines went down, we weren't allowed to go until they all got back. It was good, clean, family fun, and it is a fond childhood memory for me.

I'll just say that I have a great wife. I hunt, fish, ice fish, and go to the races and demo derbies. It just is not in me to sit around and do nothing. But, this was well known before we got married. I make it up the best I can by taking her out to dinner during the winter every Friday night. She finds concerts or shows to go to, and checks with me to see if there is a special race or derby. Either way, I buy a couple tickets so she can go with me or a friend. We usually take a couple shows or PBR events and stay in a nice motel room for a night or two. Other than that, I hand out money for her and her friends to enjoy themselves while I am out with the boys. Not a day goes by that I don't remember how fortunate I am. We don't have a lot of money, but I make enough for our hobbies.

I'm done for now. Shores gave up Friday while we were at work. It's nice doing business with the bait shops, so they are nice enough to give me a heads up. Saved us travelling an hour and putting ourselves in danger. Tried a closer lake, but that was already open 6 feet around the shore. Might be done for the year, but I hope not.

Big Val, we were in the same boat yesterday on Eaton Brook. We Got on the ice just about sunrise, and couldn't hardly mark a fish in our normal spots. We were on foot, so I had to figure if it was worth a big move. From fishing open water in the past, I knew of a 5 foot shelf that doesn't show up on the maps, that rises up on a flat in between two steep drop offs. The only problem is that it is a lot deeper water than we usually find the perch at. We packed up and dragged our shanties out to it and immediately started marking fish. The only problem was they would follow but not bite no matter what we tried. I had a small batch of 4mm tungsten jigs that I just got that were smaller than anything we were trying. That was the ticket. We never caught a fish until 9:30. After that, we were in the perch heavy til we left at 3:00. And these were quality fish in the 11-13 inch range. I honestly believe we may not have caught a fish if it hadn't been for those little jigs.

My wife and I hit up Turning Stone for dinner and a show a few times a year. Nice, small setting for some great country or classic rock acts, and some great comedians perform there also. Neither of us are much for gambling, but the place almost always looks full to me.

I sure have caught a lot of both smallmouth and largemouth bass on a perch colored Pop R. I would have to say that at least 50% of my fish are caught on some sort of jig. It may even be more than 50%.

I travel all over the state for dirt track races, demo derbies and fishing. These are mostly just going with the boys. My wife and I will go out to Rochester in September for a bullriding where the riders are trying to make enough points to get to the world finals of the PBR. We also will go to a touring pro event in Elmira. It's funny, my wife absolutely hates all sports, but loves to go to bull riding.

Nice mixed batch of fish. I wish I had a youngster to drag my shanty yesterday. We went to a new place yesterday and had a long drag out. Come to find out, people were parking about 50 yards from where we were fishing in a little side pull-off that we didn't know about. We did get into a big batch of 10-12 inch perch, with my brother's girlfriend catching the most by being patient while we drilled holes trying to stay on fish.

I'm right there with you on loving ice fishing. My brother and I have had some great luck this year already. Seems nice to have good ice early, and it has stayed so far. For the first time ever on Sunday, my heater wouldn't work because we had a long drag at -1, and the propane bottle got too cold. I had to put it in my coveralls and then shake the hell out of it. Thankfully it fired up and we were able to stay out.

Funny thing for me is that it isn't even a hunt that I would like to do. I would like to go to Alaska to fish salmon and halibut. At the same time, I would like to see the giant bears working the rivers for salmon.

I tell people," Don't worry so much about killing a deer that you forget to enjoy the hunting and friends."

It's supposed to warm up this week too, so other than water on the ice, the fishing will continue to get better and more comfortable outside the shanty. We will be after perch this weekend on a couple small lakes/reservoirs. We have a bunch of crappies in the freezers and it is time to get a couple good batches of perch and a few walleyes.