The backwater was almost to the road and was predicted to rise another 2' in the next couple of days, so it was now or never to hunt this place. The next morning, I was in position to listen at 5:15 and by 5:30 there were at least six scattered gobblers sounding off. Taking a position about 100 yards from the nearest one, I snuggled in the opening I'd snipped into the briers on the edge of the picked corn field now displaying a scattering of yellow mustard plants. After several rounds of gobbling, I opened with some light tree yelps to which the nearest bird quickly responded followed by a chorus of responses by the other toms. Hearing other hens on the other side of the gobbling indicated to me that, in all likelihood, the longbeards would go with the real hens since they were calling from near a weedy thicket, a natural nesting area. To hopefully combat this situation, I used my Primos gobble tube to give the impression that there was not only a new hen on the block but a new gobbler was present to challenge the real toms to his place in the peck order. As expected, the real hens pulled several of the gobblers their way but in about 5 minutes after the last gobble, three longboards came running toward my full-strut gobbler which was positioned over a hen on the ground in the breeding position. When they got about 30 yards away, the three quickly reversed their direction, but a load of #5 shot dropped one as he attempted his escape. I can only assume that I was over-decoyed and the strutter was too much of a challenge. Next season when in this similar situation, I plan to use a jake decoy. Turkey hunting is an ongoing learning situation.
