Late Season Hunting

[Gobble!]

The late season vs early season topic and guesswho's response got me thinking. He brought a good point up that if you don't know how to hunt the late season you won't have much luck. How do most of you typically hunt the early season and how do you hunt the late season?

[guesswho]

Early season I try to appeal more to his weakness for hens and his lack of tolerance for males equal to or lower on the dominance scale than he is.

Late season I'll try to peak his interest in hens.  Sometimes I find he may be more interested in getting back together with any survivors of his ole buddy clan, but remember dominance can still be an issue.  So I'll change gears and try to appeal to that interest.

Basically early season for me equals more aggresive hen talk.  Late season equals more passive hen talk, if that doesn't keep his interest I'll move on to more gobbler vocalizations trying to figure out if he wants a turf war or if he just wants to hang out wth one of the guys, not in a funny way of coarse, most of you know how I feel about that.

[El Pavo Grande]

Early season I typically call a little more aggressive, but I always call patiently.  Usually, gobblers are more apt to have hens early season, so I often focus on calling to the hens especially if they are vocal and concentrating on where the hens may lead the gobbler.  If turkeys aren't gobbling due to hens, I like to find sign, call only sparingly, and wait them out if time allows. 

Late season I usually tone down my calling a little due to effects of the season's hunting pressure and if possible use what knowledge I have learned from patterning the gobbler throughout the season.  I try to focus on the gobbler and where he feels comfortable locating a hen. 

I don't really change my approach that much from early to late, because I always try to tread light and be patient.  I guess for me it's more of just an understanding of what phase in the breeding cycle the turkeys are in.