I've had a frustrating past week or so. Season started off good with me getting a nice tom. Classic hunt with birds gobbling all morning, then it all fell apart! Made a trip to Southern ILL to hunt the Shawnee Natl Forrest with 2 buddies to try and get their first birds. We hunted hard for 5 days, stuck it out in the rain and all. Seemed the birds had moved off of the public land, which could be expected but we covered some ground and moved way back in the woods. Common factor every day was that they would roost gobble and then nothing for the rest of the day. Made for tough hunting! Had a great time but didn't bag any birds.
Now that I'm home, I'm trying to get my son his first bird and it seems the tight lipped toms followed me. I'm sure they are with hens in the morning but then breaking up later, saw a lone hen yesterday go into heavy fence line cover at about 10 a.m. for about 15 mins and then leave. I'm sure tending to her nest and laying an egg. I was thinking this should make for lonely toms and we should hear some late morning gobbling and responses to calls-but thats not the case! Same thing was going on in S. IL, mid day hen sightings, but NO gobbling.
Wondered what to do for calling to birds on the roost and calling tactics throughout the day. We can only hunt till 1 p.m. Also, is a DSD jake/hen set up effective this time of year, or better off with a lonesome hen? We are going to keep at it, but it is starting to get into my head!
