new york guys....

[tomtaker123]

so this is going to sound kind of dumb but im still kinda new to this so here it is. what phase of the breeding season is upstate new york in? they seemed pretty slow today but that could be weather. also, is it to early/late right now to use a strutter? and if so, what decoys would you use in this phase of the season?

                                                                                ,apreciate any advice
                                                                                                      thanks

[TauntoHawk]

What part of up state you from?

The hens are laying eggs right now, they are still roosting in trees and spending some time with the gobblers in the a.m. but then leaving them to go to the nest. Unfortunately I don't live in NY but simply do the bulk of my turkey hunting there, I won't be back until Friday evening but I was up for youth season. The reports I heard from yesterday was a slower morning because of weather but they were a good bit more fiery this morning. In my experience strutter decoys work best on birds that are grouped up, like several Toms together. When using decoys I generally use hen and Jake decoys far more often than a strutting one. I do think the birds will start grouping again soon as the hens move into the nesting stage and spending most of their time sitting on the nest. The jake/hen combo was working well during youth season I know that.

I'm hunting Greene County by the way.

[mikes]

I'm in Genesee County (WNY).  Yesterday was bad for me as well.. rain and cold was no good for the gobbling (no birds at all.. was out until 12).  I know where the birds have been roosting most mornings, so today I setup a single hen decoy 25 yards in the field about 150 yards from the roost.  Birds were on today.. VERY fired up.  at fly down, I let out 2 clucks and a yelp.  Had immediate answer.  Heard some cracks to my right and theres a hen putting at my decoy.  As she walked off, the gobbling bird went along with her unfortunatly.  After I realized he was leaving  I let out a couple clucks and get answered by several birds in front of me about 100 yards out.  I cutt at them and 5 jakes come running into the field and straight to my decoy.  I shot the "biggest" jake at 35 yards...  So from personal experience, the hens are still actively with the toms in the morning.  I like to use a single hen for a early morning setup, and a hen and jake setup for a mid morning setup.  I'm never a big fan of strutting decoys because I feel they scare off more birds than they bring in.  I think it was just the weather that had most of us down yesterday if you are concerned about the lack of gobbling, no worries.

[Turkey Call Maker]

As a former guide in Central NY, you can try after 9 am (if the birds have a normal fly down), usually after this time...  the toms and hens have had their "fun" and the hens are off nesting. The toms and jakes are still looking for girlfriends...  best time to hunt "henned" up "boys"

[tomtaker123]

so there still hunting the ladies, im thinking maybe just my zink feeding hen? this mornin my dad had a few toms spook of my jake deke but its basically a black body with  a bright, and i mean BRIGHT blue head lol, i think that im just gunna use the single hen and see what happens, maybe when they bachelor up again put the strutter out and piss'em off? idk.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

Word on the street is the gobblers haven't even separated yet up around Pulaski.

They are still very much with hens, as well.

I'll be making my pilgrimage to NY within the next two weeks but it sounds like there is plenty of good hunting left to be had.

[mikejd]

I'm not up yet be there on Fri for 9 days. But my dad is already there for a few days. And he said there seams to be more birds around then the last few years. He said he worked a gobbler that was with hens and jakes. The gobbler ran the jakes off. So they were out roaming and gobbling there heads off. Hopefully they keep up the noise until I get there. Oh yea I'm I'm Madison/ chenango.

[NYGobblergetter]

Opener was a bust for me too, i did not see a turey until I was leaving the property and it was only a single hen. They were gobbling good on Sunday when I was scouting and a buddy of mine said they were gobbling good on the 2nd, but the ladies took the birds away from him. he was only able to hunt early so hard to say if they split up. My trail cam pics from the last week have shown 2 gobblers hanging out together and another lone gobbler by himself during late morning, i have only seen hens early and late in the day

[WNY Bowhunter]

THEY ARE HENNED UP BIG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I've had gobblers within shooting range for the past two mornings (too thick to shoot) only to have hens draw they away at the last minute.  Starting to see more and more lone hens now, it won't be long until the boys are single and vulnerable. 

The good news is that we appeared to have had a really good hatch last year as there are jakes everywhere. I saw a flock of 20 jakes this past weekend picked around a cornfield on one local farm...