Its been a long old season here in Florida. The weather here also has played with the turkeys and how they have worked over the season.
The first week of the season was the best by far as the birds did talk well and they could be worked as a hunter could hear the calls from the birds wether it was a hen yelping or a gobbler gobbling.
As the season progressed the birds quieted and in the last week and a half / 2 weeks the birds did not make a sound in the woods from day light to dark. If you think the hunt is tough when you can listen to the birds and know they are there , wait untill you spend everyday in the woods and never hear a peep.
Over all we did well and came up with another good success rate here in Florida. The rate did drop a little as this season was not like the rest and the 2 year old birds were near gone completely.
The hurricaine they had two years ago sure made an impact on the birds in the area this season. The Plus that I seen was that there was a very large population of Jakes this season so , next year will off a good chance at longbeards yet again.
With a 85% success rate and a big surprise this season of taking a bird myself- ( yes I never expected to kill a bird myself this season) and what a story behind it..
One Saturday morning after finishing up with a Client early I had the offer/chance to join a Indian chief in the area to share the woods on a hunt. As we joined in the early hours I showed up with a Video camera and that was all. The chief asked where my gun was and I said I was asked to come along, not asked to shoot , so I will not miss with a camera LOL we laughed and away we headed out.
As the morning light came across the sky , the low floating fog hovered about a pasture we sat and waited out a gobbling bird.
The gobbling started late and at the right time as the fog lifted and Palm and cabbage trees all came into view and oak hammacks stood out across the pasture.
I started with some soft calling on a pot call keeping my calls short and suttle. After a few minutes I gobble roared out behind us and we made a fast movement to a large oak boardering 3 different pastures.
The setup had a gate way 20 yards from the oak and the decoys were set with the bobbling head looking through the gate.
The gobbling got loader and not long after I see two gobblers running towards us and displaying as they strutted their stuff to the bobbling head. As they make the 40 yard mark they moved to their right nad worked up behind a strand fence seperating the two pastures.
I move the camera slow as a follow the birds and keep them in focus with the grasses along the fence bottom. The Cheif stands up behind me and behind a large oak trunk and suddenly the bast of the gun echoed across the pasture.
With the camera running I turn and asked - Did you shoot his ass ? and the chief says Yes. I jump up and shake his hand and he says , you better hurry and kill that other bird or he'll be gone.
The cheif handed me his gun and lifted, pushed off the safety and held firm with the pistle grip benelli and squeezed off.
Down goes the second bird and two Longbeards lay flapping in the pasture. I hand back the gun and thank him and liftbthe camera to film the birds out there flapping as we just did something not heard of all at all. Two Osceola longbeards, One Beneilli 12 gauge and one video camera that filmed the whole hunt.
Great season for me and made some more friends to share the woods with....
Hey this is close to where you were at. This is from the Florida Forum.
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 3:40 pm Post subject: j w corbett update
[hr]
As of 2pm Sunday, April 8th the unoffical count of Osceola turkeys harvested in the Corbett WMA stands at 40. This is a tremdous increase over last year's total of 24. Eight years ago the harvest of turkeys in the Corbett area was 8 to 10 bids. The reason for the increased harvest is from the hard work of the FWC personnel and the Florida Chapter of the NWTF. Hopefully next year we can increase this harvest. I encourage all Florida residents to join a local chapter of the NWTF and attend a Hunting Heritage Banquet. This is where the funds comes from to mow and plant the food plots in Corbett and other WMA in Florida. There was a 130 acres of food plots and 300 acres mowed. Hopefully next year we can put in some more food plots. If anyone would like to help they can contact me at joeturky@aol.com.
Joe Brennan, South Florida State Board Member, NWTF
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