It may have seemed like a dumb question to you guys but when I've hunted Nebraska early season there have been flocks of 20 to 100+ birds. Most of the groups have 2 to 10 toms in the large flocks. In fact, I followed around a group of almost 200 one entire day that had over 25 toms in the group last year. I've never heard so much racket in my life...especially early in the morning when they first fly down and in the evening when they gathered back up. All through the day the toms never left these large groups...until later in the season when they started breaking up. If the lead hens can somehow be coaxed to a large set of decoys maybe that would work?
They seemed almost terrified of my decoys with a jake and hens. Once I pulled the jake decoy I had a few straggler jakes and hens that I coaxed away from the large groups but the toms stayed with the hens. I had 0 luck with small groups of decoys...and tried just about every scenerio other than a large flock of hens with a couple strutting toms....which was a common sight that time of year! The groups of 10 to 50 turkeys tended to come together in the evenings and roost in the same tree. I know it isn't commonly even considered but I'm still wondering if a large group of hens and a couple strutting toms may work...especially early in the morning when they first fly down and in the evening when they gather back up. Anyway, I'm all ears as to what might work. I've almost come to the conclusion that toms that stay with large groups are almost impossible to decoy early in the season.
