I battled a hardened bird this morning; almost had him.
Didn't hear anything at all this morning until about 10 minutes before sunrise. I started with some quiet tree yelps on an "Able Assassin" from Foot On Da Head Game Calls. once I could see pretty clearly, still nothing. I switched to a "Trinity" from the same fella and still nothing. I went ahead and did a fly down even though turkeys around my parts don't cackle when flying down.
About 5 minutes later I heard a single gobble and I responded and was cut off. Gobble was around 75 yards away on the ground in a creek bottom. The food plot I had setup on just to get somewhere close to the creek bottom was full and thick with wheat and oats.
There was a tractor turn around that emptied into the bottom a bit so it was a slight opening that was less thick than the rest of the 10 yard buffer between the creek bottom and the food plot. After about 10 minutes, I saw him slipping in on the creek bottom side of the food plot just inside the creek line to use the cover. Not once did he gobble until he eyeballed the food plot, didn't see anything, then slipped back off deeper into the creek bottom which was really open. There he started gobbling pretty hard. He started slipping away and I called a little and he kept gobbling and walking away.
The lesson learned, is in a food plot, you better have a decoy out to keep his attention. On the other hand I have seen a gobbler come to the edge of a food plot, and slip away gobbling at the decoy because he wanted her to come to him.
I have seen this work both ways. What is the general consensus here? Should I or should I NOT have a decoy out on these late season super edumacated birds?
I almost always use a hen decoy
Decoy for me too if I know I will be hunting a open area (rainy or windy day).
If I wind up in an open area where I was not planning to hunt, I try to sit away from the open area, pretty far back in the woods, to sound like a hen that will not come in to the field. I have had that work a couple times.
On a field edge, I'll always have a deke out. Otherwise, what's his motivation to go out in the open. In the woods, you can move your calling around or use changes in elevation to trick him to coming in and taking a look.