JFT Turkey Tour 2021

[ClayW]

PSA

TSA at Bangor Airport requires every “lock hole” in your gun case to have a lock.

An hour later…..I was purchasing additional locks from the gift store

[ClayW]

Bird #1

My flight arrived in Maine shortly after 2:00, I grabbed my gear, and then I was on the road to begin scouting.

This part of Maine has 3 different types of terrain: rolling hill farm land, rolling hill hardwoods, and steeper terrain forests. I told myself that I would take the first bird that presented an opportunity…regardless of how or where. If I was lucky enough to get the first one, my 2nd would come from the rocky steeper terrain. All my day 1 scouting was in the farmland and rolling hills.










That evening, I found several birds but I was unable to hear any gobbles on the roost. I assumed and hoped the birds wouldn’t be far the next morning and made my plan

Sunset was a little after 8pm and sunrise was right at 5am….roosting birds and early wake up calls allowed for about 4 hours of sleep each night.

The next morning had me in the field and setup just after 4am. I wasn’t sure where the birds from the previous afternoon roosted but I was hopeful they were close. To my surprise, I didn’t hear a peep on the roost. I don’t remember the exact time but at some point I decided to stand up and start glassing the field. That’s when I noticed a strutter on the far end about 400 yards away. I yelped to him and he immediately responded. Then another gobbler appeared. I watched em as they covered about 100 yards in my direction and then something caught my eye. On the brush line perpendicular to where I was sitting, I saw a guy crawling towards the birds with a tail fan.

At this point, I knew my hunt was over but I wanted to stick around and watch what happened. 1) It was entertaining and 2) If he spooked them, it may be an option to come back later. The grass was about shin high and the ground was super saturated. Mosquitos and big gnats were thick as well. I can only imagine how uncomfortable that fellas crawl must have been. I’d bet he crawled close to if not over 150 yards.

From my vantage point, he looked like he was right on top of the 2 birds but I guess it was further than it looked. The birds started to spook and the dude let out 4 or 5 shots. Not sure if a plug is required or not but he definitely shot more than 3 times. One bird took flight and the other ran to the woods. Before I left, I whistled at the guy and told him “good shootin” just so he knew I was there. It’s public land so I wasn’t mad but I at least wanted to let him know that someone saw that circus he was part of.

When I got back to the car, I knew where I was headin. This was a spot that had a gobbler and hens the evening before. The only reason I didn’t go here first was because I am not familiar with the area and I didn’t want to spook any birds wandering through the foreign woods in the dark. I pulled into the parking spot and nobody else was there….I liked my chances. As I neared the edge of the plowed field, I could see a few hens out towards the middle of the field. The field was only 15-20 acres and had a nice roll in the middle. I knew a gobbler had to be with them but I couldn’t see him. I made a soft yelp and he hammered to my left at CLOSE range. I hunkered down expecting to spot him at any second but he didn’t appear. A few minutes (felt like an hour) later, I yelped again, he gobbled but he was leaving. I’m pretty sure I boogered the hens and they were on their way out of the field. Either way, I used the change in elevation and sprinted towards the far end of the field. I yelped to check his location and confirmed that I luckily got in front of him. A few seconds later and he was strutting in front of me. He was well within range but I watched him until he got to about 30 yards.

It wasn’t the “perfect” turkey hunt by any means but the pressure was off and I had a Maine Eastern in the back of the rental car on the first morning of the hunt!





When I cleaned him, he had several BBs from a prior encounter with a hunter.

[Aggiebush]

Great write up! Still think you should’ve videoed dufus trying to tail sneak those gobblers, would’ve been great entertainment for us. Come on with the story for bird # 2.

[ClayW]

Great write up! Still think you should’ve videoed dufus trying to tail sneak those gobblers, would’ve been great entertainment for us. Come on with the story for bird # 2.

Haha

Just landed in SA. I’ll get the rest of the story out tomorrow

[MooseontheLoose]

Great write up and pics Clay. Looking forward to more pics and the rest of the story.

Any good spurs on them lobstah-eatin' birds?

[ClayW]

Great write up and pics Clay. Looking forward to more pics and the rest of the story.

Any good spurs on them lobstah-eatin' birds?

Actually, the first one had some 3/8" nubs which I thought was weird. 2nd bird had some hooks

I'll get some pics/stats of the beards and spurs here in a bit.

[Passthrough]

Congrats on a great season Clay. Sucked on my end...lol
Well, except for the money I made guiding on a few trips. I gotta quit that...I love pulling the trigger too much!

[ClayW]

Congrats on a great season Clay. Sucked on my end...lol
Well, except for the money I made guiding on a few trips. I gotta quit that...I love pulling the trigger too much!

Appreciate it man…thank you.

To be honest, my season was made during youth weekend and all the other birds were just bonus.

Traveling to turkey hunt is something else and I’m afraid it’s going to be a common occurrence from now on.

[ClayW]

JFT Turkey Tour 2021

Bird #2



The rest of Tuesday morning was spent covering some ground and checking out new land. I had a few more WMA’s I wanted to hit but I spent some time on the roads first. If I couldn’t find any birds in the WMA’s, my backup plan was to knock on a few doors of the farmers. Dang near every farm or spot that looked like it should have birds, had birds on it.



After Tuesday’s bird in the rolling farm land, I wanted to concentrate on the higher hills for the remainder of the week. Most of the fields and farm land were around about 200’ elevation and the areas I was heading were anywhere from 850’ to 1100’.



Tuesday afternoon was spent walking, glassing, and covering about 11 miles on foot. I found a lot of good sign and spots but I didn’t hear a single gobble. That evening found me on a high point, with zero wind, and I could hear for miles. I thought I heard a turkey fly up but nothing was talking on the roost.



Wednesday morning wake up was at 2:45am, at the gate by 3:30, and at my vantage point by 4:00. Birds didn’t start gobbling as early as I’d hope but they started talking a little before 5:00 and they were NOT close. It sounded like 2 birds and they gobbled twice. I did the best I could on getting a pin on them and started walking. About 1 ½ miles in, I found a beautiful creek bottom with fresh scratching. I was confident I hadn’t spooked anything so I decided to sit down and give it about an hour to see if the birds would fire up again…no luck.









I made a big loop back towards the car (5+ miles) and hit one of the logging roads a little after 9am.






At this point, the plan was to head back to the car, relax for a little bit, and then go back to the area with fresh scratching to kill some time. I was going to sneak back in there and take a nap...to be honest. I was a tad surprised (and confused) when I saw 2 fresh gobbler tracks on top of my 3:30am tire tracks!






I slowly followed the tracks along the road to within 100 yards of the car where they veered off into the timber. It was now almost 10am and I still haven’t heard another gobble. I knew these birds were close, but they were not talking or interested in my calling…..yet



The area where I parked was in a low spot and the timber was full of underbrush. I assumed the gobblers weren’t hanging out in the thick stuff so I headed south a couple hundred yards where I knew the timber opened up. This area was on a high point and had a few food plots scattered throughout. It was one of those spots that just looked like it had to hold birds.



As I neared the top of this hill and before I could make a call, I heard a gobble. A quick glance on OnX confirmed he was in a plot perpendicular to the logging road I was walking. This area was fairly open so I decided to wait a few minutes hoping he would give away his location again. No idea what caused it but all of a sudden, he began gobbling every 30-45 seconds.



I slowly worked my way towards the food plot and I found a spot to sit down. He was well within 100 yards and I was confident I could call him back towards me. After getting situated, I wasn’t too happy with the spot and I needed to move. I was on the same side as him and I was worried that he’d come through the timber towards me instead of using the open food plot. With my East Texas mishap fresh on my mind, I decided to make a move. I had the higher ground and I was confident he couldn’t see me over the rise. I quickly ran across the food plot and setup behind a fallen down tree in the shade. I liked this spot MUCH better. All I needed was for him to come out of the timber and into the plot…and he’d be in range.


(Where I sat)


(My view)

It seemed like forever, but less than 30 minutes had passed since I left the car. I let out the first yelp and, as I was hoping, he cut me off mid-yelp. I gave him a few seconds and yelped again. Same response and he was coming in quick! Then I could hear him drumming. A few seconds later I saw his big red head popup over the rise. The color and size of his head gave me all the confirmation I needed and I took the 41 yard shot. With the elevation of the food plot, had he spooked, he could have easily spun around and left without giving me a shot. I didn't want to take that chance



It was 10:26am when I looked down at my watch…I left the car that morning sometime around 4am. I hiked all over the WMA and ended up killing this beautiful bird a couple hundred yards from the car 6+ hours later. This was another one of those “better be lucky than good” turkey stories.

[ClayW]

And man was he pretty!

[ClayW]

This photo sums up my trip to Maine pretty well [emoji23]

[eradicator]

Great experience and congrats!!

[.243 WSSM]

So did you sleep in the rental car in a camping area or at the gate? Any other hunters besides the guy fanning? Did you have grilled turkey for your dinners or did you check in a cooler with meat/fans/spurs? Great write up, sounded like a heckuva trip

[ClayW]

So did you sleep in the rental car in a camping area or at the gate? Any other hunters besides the guy fanning? Did you have grilled turkey for your dinners or did you check in a cooler with meat/fans/spurs? Great write up, sounded like a heckuva trip

I slept in a couple different camping areas.

I saw the fanning guy and then a vehicle parked at one other public spot. The WMA's had some tire and boot tracks but those could just as easily be hikers. I did not see a turkey hunter on any of the private ground I drove past. I was there Monday through Thursday but I still expected to see a little bit of pressure.

I actually gave the meat away to some construction workers at the hotel I stayed at. They were grateful and I was glad to do it. I protected the tail fans with some cardboard and brought them home in my gun case....worked very well

[Aggiebush]

Man, that’s awesome. I need to start hitting some other states, I really want to get my slam. My NY spot is no longer, in-laws are moving down here.

Heck of a season for everyone, we flopped a lot of birds!