Timbrhuntr

I agree with JW if you worked into 50 yards of the tree in daylight it is very possible the birds saw you. It could also be that the bigger tom doesn't gobble now because he knows where the hens are and they know where he is so he just waits for them. Then when he sees them on the ground he flys to them. I have a spot I hunt in the spring where it is similiar. The toms roost together on the property I can hunt. The hens roost on the other side. The toms fly down to the hens and they head off to somewhere that I can't go. THis is especially bad early in the seasson when there are lots of hens around not nesting yet. I have done what JW says and hunt at night trying to catch the toms returning to roost. If you do this you must be very careful as the are very cautious when returning to roost. For me unfortunately when they came to roost they would fly up from the other property. I decided to try a different tactic. I waited until the toms where on the ground and then tried to fire them up with lots of cuts and yelps to get them gobbling. One morning I was able to pull a tom over to me. But usually they all just walked off following the hens. I decided to wait around until 10 then start callng again. I was able to get a couple gobbles and had 2 of the toms come back through looking for me. Good luck its trying to figure out different situations like this that make this so much fun !