Well to start with I almost stayed home yesterday afternoon, glad I didn't. I went yesterday morning, but I could only stay for 2 hours, because my wife had planned something that I had to do at 9:00. (I have got to get her a hunting calender.) Any way I make my appointment, go to softball practice and then come home and hit the couch. This brings us to about 2:30. I have talked myself out of going hunting to stay home and take a nap. The thunderstorms are pretty bad here at this point. Around 4:00 I turn it over to watch some of the Masters and they are showing the storm radar instead. I notice that the storms have passed Lee county and I know that if I don't go hunting, I'll end up watching other people hunt on TV. So I gather up my things and head back to the woods.

Fast forward to 5:00, I am set up at the same place that I was in the morning. This time I decide to put out a hen deke.I start my first series of calls. I am very careful not to over call because that cost me an opportunity at my first bird last year. So every 15 minutes I hit some combination of the slate, the box and the diaphragm. Now it is 6:15 and I am about to start my next set of calls. I always scan the area before I start calling. When I look to my 1 o'clock there is a blue and red head that sticks out like a sore thumb.

He starts back to the right where I can't see him and gives one half-hearted gobble, I guess to tell my deke to come along. About 30 seconds later another weak gobble, but this time he sounds further away like he is following one of the alleys in the thinned pines. I lightly hit my mouth call and he instantly responds. In my mind I keep telling myself, "Swallow the call. Be patient." A few seconds later another gobble, only closer. He is circling around to my right. Then I see him to my right. I keep my eye on him and when he gets into the lane over my right shoulder he breaks into full strut. At this point he is about 30 yards away, but there is no possible way I can swing around and get a shot. It is also at this point that I realize that this is a Tom, I had thought that it may be a Jake due to his weak gobble and timid nature.

He continues on his path and disappears behind some brush between me and him. I give him another light call and again I get an instant response. I realize that he is making a large circle around the deke, so I use the opportunity to shift my position to be ready when he comes out on my left. He comes out of the pines and enters the hardwoods where he breaks into full strut again. If I had not changed my position he would have been over my left shoulder, but I was ready to shoot when I got the opportunity now. I could see him well, but there was a lot of brush between us and I was not comfortable with the shot.

Now he takes another good look at my deke, gobbles and turns back the way he came. When he gets behind the brush again, I know that my time is running out. I give him another light mouth call and then I quietly slip out of my vest. I get to my feet and turn toward the tree that I am leaning on and then kneel on the seat pad from my turkey vest. He continues to backtrack. When he steps into the lane where he was doing his strutting I dropped the hammer on him. He went straight down and I started jumping up and down like I was 5 years old. I would have yelled, but there were other guys hunting the lease and I didn't want to mess them up.

Final number are:
Weight: 16 1/2 lbs.
Beard: 9 1/2"
Spurs: 1"[/align]