well today was finally the opener...went to that small strip of woods that is hit or miss weather or not birds roost in it...sure enough im about to where i wanna sit..553 one lets loose. i set up in a small little grassy area in the woods..the one i heard was 100yds infront of me. threw up a hen decoy and sat down, got out some calls and got situated...gobble obble obble....jeeze oh man hes closer than i thought..about 60yds infront of me. then another one...there ended up being 2. good long deep throaty gobbles..about 620-625 i let out a soft tree yelp...they went BONKERS double and triple gobbling...another 15 minutes or so pass..i let out another series of soft yelps..couldnt tell sounded like they hit the ground...nope..just must been facing the other way or something..they gobbled an honest 100 times a piece give or take before about 7am when they finally flew down. i hit the box call cutting hard..nothing. waited a while..looked down the 50foot creek highwall to the open field and there they were...both longbeards strutting. still gobbling at me.

oh man...what to do...that creek is high and swift and 30 foot across...my chest waders are in my truck....theres a bridge about a mile down the road....ahhh no time for none of that...found a spot JUST over my rubber boots...oh well im goin to get me one of the birds...snuck about 100-150yds from where they were and they were last seen putsing around towards that area...waited an hour or so and calling occassionally..nothing. so before i left i snuck through the creek edge and peeked around the fields..nothing. theres only a tiny section of woods for them to be in...but too close to houses and i would got spotted walking through the field...

talked to the farmer later and it turns out a guy feeds them down in that little section of woods[:@] i couldnt figure out WHY they flew that way...that field is a flood plain and had a foot of water over most of it!

ive never in my life had lone longbeards double and tripled gobble and not come in. i figured the close one should seen my decoy...but now that im thinking about it i doubt it...there was a big bush between the decoy and him...he must not been able to see it

ohhhh well...wont get out till atleast thursday or saturday at the earliest...