thoughts... quick!!!

[MEbeardlover]

Season opener tomorrow, was not holding out much hope early as scouting has not revealed much. However, tonight I was able to put 8 birds to bed on a field edge, four jakes, one tom, and three hens.

Very interesting hour and a half spent watching. The birds were feeding along in the field for quite some time. Suddenly, the four jakes turned on the tom and beat him pretty good and drove him off. The hens made their way to another part of the field and were joined by the jakes. Two of the jakes immediately went into strut. The tom made his way towards to the group, very cautiously. Several minutes after the hens and jakes had made their way into the roost, the tom picked his way toward the roost area and flew up. I waited several minutes and did not hear a ruckus, so I left.

Suggestions for how to approach this situation? I'm curious as to how this entire group will react on the roost in the morning to any calling on the ground.

[silvestris]

There is no pat answer, only the experience of finding out.  Hopefully the jakes will be busy with the hens and the adult gobbler will find your calling seductive enough to check out the lone hen, you.

[FL-Boss]

+ 1.. sounds like a good opportunity.  Get set up real early ... set up in the area you think they will fly down.  Maybe use a hen decoy

[MEbeardlover]

An interesting morning! Got set up early, about 150 yards from roost on field edge. Put out a jake and and a hen dekes. Did some soft calling to let them know I was there. All the birds flew down to the field, and jakes and toms went into immediate strut. They began to move away and I realized they could not see the dekes. I figured hen calling was no good, so I gobbled a few times. ( I hunt the area alone.) they turned to explore. When the jakes got far enough to see the dekes, they came running!

They surrounded that jake deke and strutted and gobbled, then they pummeled it pretty good! That lone tom stayed back at about 60 yards. After several minutes they moved off.

No shot, but pretty exciting hour and a half! Now I am trying to figure out the behavior of those jakes and that tom. He is clearly dominated by those jakes. Is this because there are no other toms around? Is the tom just a weak bird? Those jakes are clearly running the show.

[jbrown]

Try the decoys 35yds on the side away for where they fly down, so they must come past you. That way if jakes go to the decoy and the gobbler stands back he should be in range. I'd go in the dark, set up closer so decoys can be seen.