Whats up guys. before I get into the story I just wanted to say I am an avid turkey hunter in my home state of Florida and more specifically South and Central Florida where the TRUE osceolas are at. (we wont get into that debate right now lol). Its been a pretty successful year so far in the south opener and with the north opener coming soon Im real excited for it. Scouted all weekend and got on a heap of birds! Ive got an instagram and youtube where I post all updates and success and failures on when it comes to hunting not only turkeys but everything Florida has to offer. From turkeys to hogs to deer to gators to ducks and some offshore fishing I do it all and am trying to grow my accounts and fan base to show what it takes to be successful consistently in Florida and the things we do that others from other states would find crazy hahaha. Id love if you checked them out my instagram is @tootalloutdoorss and my youtube channel is TooTallOutdoors. I will put a link at the end of this story to my most recent video which is of this story. Thanks!
STORY TIME
This all started with a cousin of mine winning an incredible tag for a great public property. He's got a wife and three girls under 2 so he was limited to scout but tried every chance he could. So me and his brothers went out every weekend of February to find as many birds as possible to have multiple options for him. Of all the cousins and family he is the only one that hasnt killed a turkey yet so we were trying to get him on his first bird. We knew based off every other year down here that public lands can get crowded and the goal is to get away from people because sadly down here people dont care about who was there first or if your working the bird already or if they see you hunting. They walk right over your decoy to get to the gobbler fifty yards on the other side of it. So we always would split up and find multiple birds. We each were able to get on tons of birds every weekend in February.
We had a total of 15 birds roosted and found. A lot were pairs of two and one even pair of 3. Sadly we had one tag so we could only get one bird which sucked cause a public land double for the second year in a row would have been crazy! Check out my instagram to see that. Well the youth hunt happens and we knew of some other guys that also had a tag i there and one of their spots they were looking to hunt was one we had been scouting. So of the four core areas we found 2 were a bust. And then as we are game planning we realize the spot I had found the trio of gobblers was closer to the parking area then we would like and did not want someone coming in at first light and ruining it all so we really had one spot left from the month of scouting (hence why scouting to me and down here is VERY important and I will die on that hill).
Week leading up to opening day my cousins were able to take friday off so they went up thursday after work to check on a new area to see if there was potential and then friday morning listen one more time and then friday afternoon roost one for opener. I was able to meet up with them friday after work to roost one. Thursday afternoon they find a new area and see one strutter in there so it looked promising. In all the times of driving in the property we never saw a car parked at the gate so we though it could be promising. Friday morning comes and man it was on fire!! I included some clips of it in my youtube video but man it was insane! Birds hammering everywhere. Woke up friday morning before work to a face time call of a strutter 20 yds from my cousin hammering in his direction. Friday afternoon comes and I get there and we pair up and check out the new spot and our only spot that hadnt been blown out yet.
I go to our old spot and see two longbeards and watch em get up in the tree and as we are walking away from the tree I turn a corner and see a guy standing not 20 yards from me in camo. We make eye contact and I go to talk to him and see what his plan is like I always do as to not ruin each others hunts potentially and as I approach him he just turns around and walks away from me.... At that point we were maybe 10 yds max from each other and he decided he did not want to say hi or talk at all and left. He gave me the vibe of not wanting to speak because he was convinced he was hunting here no matter what and he did not feeling like arguing wit me about it. Well too bad for him cause I was texting my cousin that was checking out the new area he found and he sent me a video of two long beards in a pine tree strutting accross a field with the text saying "I know where we are going". I was ready to talk to the gentleman and tlel him the exact tree I saw the birds roosted in. He had no idea where they were because they didnt make a sound the entire afternoon and I only saw them because I watched them fly up. He wouldve got a pin to the exact tree branch they were in but oh well.
Morning of the hunt comes and we walk in to the new area my cousin saw the birds roosted and setup across the field about 120 yds away from them but directly infront of them. Placed a jake and hen decoy out and waited for the sun to come up. Sun comes up and we hear multiple birds around us firing off except for the ones they roosted. Finally with our binos we could see they were still there and sturtting up a storm just not talking. Finally they let out a double gobble after I hit em with some soft yelps and clucks. Made the connection between em and shut up till they pitched down. Gobbled only one more time after that interaction meanwhile the other birds are hammering so if they didnt come in we still had other options. We keep watching em and one of them keeps strutting hard to his left at the trees next to him which was suspicious in mymind but I stayed quiet. Sure enough he flies down and we are waiting for the other to fly down and sure enough my suspicion was right we see a hen from the direction the bird was strutting fly down. It all made sense as to whyt hey werent gobbling as much. Watched the other gobbler fly down and hit em with a couple calls and silence. We began getting worried cuase we could not see them across the field due to taller dried up cattails so we sat in silence. Finally after a couple mins my cousin whispers "there he is from the left!!" and sure enough we see a bright white head making his way around the cattails and coming to us. Gets to about 70 yards and makes eye contact with the decoys and began strutting and drumming like crazy. Strutted the entire way to the decoy and the rest is history. I thank god I wasnt the shooter that day because Ive never shook so much in my entire life and I could not stop it haha. But thats the feeling that keeps us coming back everytime!
We start celebrating and high fiving and look at the time and it had only been 20 mins of legal shooting light and our days and days of scouting all came down to 20 mins of shooting light. Take photos and on the way out we take a detour to check out an area that the other gobbler and hen that didnt come in might have gone and sure enough theres the strutter and no hen. We hide and I start hen calling and hes hammering at it and the only way we could tell is with the binos him throwing his head forward. he was too far to hear. He started getting closer and hung up due to not seeing the hen in the field that was calling to him and we brought out a pop up strutter fan and to see what would happen and he saw that fan he made a beeline to us. got 10 yds from us drumming and purring to fight and eventually walked away slowly still gobbling at any sound he heard. Made it back to the truck and headed on home. Love when a plan comes together and enjoying the lords creation with family and friends!
Now its time for me and my brother and sister up to bat on a lease we have in the north one. Be on the lookout for that story and post coming on my instagram and youtube! Ive added on my instagram in the account highlights my scouting success from this passed weeknd yall can go checkout!
