another what would you do

[harvester]

Ok here is the senario. You have a bird gobblin below you (its fairly steep) on a creek but everytime you call, he will not respond. However, he will respond to every crow that flies over him or the occassional owl hoot. What do you do, he is 80-100yards below you and will not respond what so ever. You can go up or down river to get on the same bench as he is on but still nothin.


This happens to me at least once or twice a season. After I hear most of the suggestions, I will tell my theory on why it happens.

Tip: you can hear the roar of the creek from you position above the bird.

[ElkTurkMan]

I would hang tight, because he is close, and he has heard you.  I would maybe try another call, and see if he likes that. I would be hesitant to call at him to much, because he will expect to you  to come to him, (thinking your a hen).  I would purr very lightly, and scratch leaves, and do my best to let him know I'm there, but I'm not the least bit interested and hopefully the reverse phsicology, will get him to come in.  I am still a work in progress when it comes to chasing these great birds so I hope I don't sound stupid.  I just would have a hard time moving on a bird so close.     

[gob09]

I would hang tight, because he is close, and he has heard you.  I would maybe try another call, and see if he likes that. I would be hesitant to call at him to much, because he will expect to you  to come to him, (thinking your a hen).  I would purr very lightly, and scratch leaves, and do my best to let him know I'm there, but I'm not the least bit interested and hopefully the reverse phsicology, will get him to come in.  I am still a work in progress when it comes to chasing these great birds so I hope I don't sound stupid.  I just would have a hard time moving on a bird so close.     

ill take the chance of sounding the way you describbed yourself shane LOL.... and agree
i would not be too interested in moving mostly cause of laziness

[harvester]

I would hang tight, because he is close, and he has heard you.  I would maybe try another call, and see if he likes that. I would be hesitant to call at him to much, because he will expect to you  to come to him, (thinking your a hen).  I would purr very lightly, and scratch leaves, and do my best to let him know I'm there, but I'm not the least bit interested and hopefully the reverse phsicology, will get him to come in.  I am still a work in progress when it comes to chasing these great birds so I hope I don't sound stupid.  I just would have a hard time moving on a bird so close.     

I added a little bit more details.

[unclerick]

If I could move with out him seeing me, I would move to where he wants to go, calling every once in a while and maybe even scratching some, trying to sound like a hen on the move, I would even do some gobbling, not alot but enough to make him think a tom was moveing in. Once I got got to where I thought he wanted to be, I'd get a little agresive on my calling, maybe sound like 2 hens and a gobbler, I'd try to get in his head. If this didn't work, I'd go back another day when he is more willing to play.

[turkeybow]

I would continue to use the owl or crow call for him to revel his location as I used the noise of the roar of the creek to made a move.  I would get on the bench with him and then use some clucks, purrs, and scratching in the leaves to make him think I have started coming to him.  Hopefully I would have moved close enough it would be to irresistible for him to not take a closer look.

[harvester]

Here is what I have figured out, soft calling is out because you are above the bird and the river drowns out your calls. Its like the calling never makes it to the bird, goes over him so to speak. You have to call LOUD  just too get a response. Most of the time the birds will never hear you, even if you are on the same bench as he is on unless you bust his eardrums with loud whatever. For some odd reason the creek drowns out almost all of the calling you do. Regardless of location. Most people will go after them only to spook them off because they get to close. The birds sound farther off than they actually are, leaves on or off, doesn't matter. Now for what I do, 90% of the time the birds will go straight up after flydown, they take their time. May take 2 or 3 hours for them to go 100-200 yards. I move on to the next bird, if I hear one or just wait awhile and see if I can get a response from him bout 2 hours after light. This has worked the best so far. I don't know why or how it works out the way it does with the creek and all. Has anyone else experienced this around creeks and fairly steep ground?

[harvester]

Dustin is there a trail or an old farm road there

Yeap but they won't use it for struttin or anything. It rare that I see any scratching on it.

[mfd1027]

Hey, how did I miss this thread.    Must have been posted when I was out of town Fri. night.     

I "hate" friggin' creeks/running water  etc.    Anything that makes a lot of constant noise.  In this scenario I'd keep him gobbling with a crow call and make a move on him in  a hurry.    I wouldn't use turkey sounds because I wouldn't want him to think there's a hen above him.    I'm always going to try to get on the same level as any bird i'm working.     Do you carry a longbox?   They carry farther than any other call by quite a bit and once I got on his level I'd have to break out the ol longbox (this one as a matter of fact):
   

I know that if I can hear him gobbling he can hear my longbox and if I get him going so be it.   We're in business.   Sooner or later he'll be close enough to work with a mouthcall and I switch at that point but at first it's gonna be the longbox.   If I can't get him going I'm heading out looking for somebody that's a little more cooperative.     

 

[harvester]

Those are some NICE lookin boxes. I need to get me another box call. Had one a couple years ago but lost it somehow. It was in my vest and then it wasn't. You got any you would be interested in sellin?