Many turkey hunters are so conditioned to early-morning hunting that they won’t go afield unless they can be in their favorite spot before daylight. However, mid-season hunting often rewards the dawdler, the sleepy-head, or the multitasker with other obligations at daybreak.
Jeff Harrison of Frederick, Maryland, fills that third slot. He dropped his son off at school at 7:30 one morning and then drove to a local semi-suburban area where he’d previously heard gobblers. Harrison was not only defying the arrive-in-the-dark commandment, he carried a bow and arrow, making the challenge all the greater. He knew of a 10-acre field around which turkeys often fed and roosted, so he tucked a jake and hen decoy under his arm and moved to the middle section of the field. There he placed the decoys 10 yards in the open, with his concealment equidistant into the trees.
He didn’t expect to call in a gobbler or even call very much, just make enough turkey talk to prompt a cruising gobbler to the field. In mid-season, hens are often nesting and gobblers begin to roam, seeking other hens. Around 11:00, before his son could eat lunch in the cafeteria, a longbeard spotted the jake and “came on a rope.”
Late morning and early afternoon (where legal) are excellent times to lure a gobbler with a decoy, and afternoon gobbling is notoriously productive. Once the hens have nested, a gobbling tom is looking for action, so you can make the most of his lust, decoy or not.
