This is going to be a long post, so thank you to anyone who reads through to the end. I think you will enjoy it if you do.I'm finally home after a long 3,200 mile road trip to Florida and Georgia for six days of hunting including a three day public land quota hunt in south Florida (my first time hunting FL). I left NY back on the 21st and covered 800 miles in 12 hours on my way to a buddies place near Charlotte. I spent the night there and then on Sunday it was another 8 hours to my destination in Frostproof, FL. The trip was relatively uneventful aside from spring breakers clogging the highway around Orlando. I arrived at about 5PM Sunday and had enough time for a quick run onto the WMA for an initial look.
One of my first views of the WMA.
I jumped a large group of hogs after a short drive up this road.
I tried some owling as well as cutting on a box call as it got dark trying to elicit a gobble but didn't have any luck. I returned to base to get some sleep. The hunt started on Tuesday so I had one full day to scout and intended to make full use of it. Dawn on Monday morning found me walking a trail that paralleled a creek in an isolated corner of the WMA. I covered about 1.5 miles but my owling and crow calls failed to produce a response. Shortly after beginning my walk back I heard a vehicle coming up behind me which surprised me because the road I was on was not supposed to be open to vehicles. I turned and saw a white pickup approaching which I at first thought might be an FWC employee, but as it got closer it was plain to see it was another hunter. It was a local guy (ignoring the closed to vehicles signs) but he stopped and offered to give me a ride out. I accepted and made a mental note that this "isolated corner" was clearly not so isolated after all.
I spent the rest of the morning checking out several other spots on the WMA that had looked promising on Google Earth. I also saw my first Osceolas, I jumped four hens in about twenty minutes in one area.
I had a tip from a member here to check out this oak head. I did find quite a few tracks here.
The back side of the oak head led into some nice live oaks along the lake.
I also swung by the check station to see where it was and found that as of 8:30 Monday morning there was already a full contingent of people waiting in line for the 5 walk on permits that were available for Tuesday. They camped out all day and all night, crazy! I took a quick nap in the afternoon and then went back out to check one more area and try to roost birds. I spotted another hen near the area where I had seen the others earlier and found lots of sign including fresh gobbler tracks, but did not manage to roost any birds. I figured my best bet was the area where I had seen the hens, so that became my plan A and I headed out to get some sleep.
I got to the check station early Tuesday morning and had to wait while the 5 guys in line for walk on permits were taken care of. Once I checked in I headed for my spot, but quickly found that I was following another truck. I kept hoping they would turn off, but they continued right up to the area I had hoped to hunt. I turned around and headed back to the oak head where I had at least seen some tracks the day before. Unfortunately I did not hear or see anything other than a couple of deer the rest of the morning. At about 10AM I got up and decided to cover some ground while doing some more scouting on the fly. I found a really pretty spot along a creek that fed the lake that borders the WMA, but the sign was sparse. Too bad, because I really would have loved to kill a bird there and it was also at least 10 degrees cooler in the shade of those oaks.
When I checked out for the day I learned one bird had been taken that morning, it was one that some of the locals had scouted out and they gifted it to a friend because they had several located. Another guy told me he heard birds in the distance that morning but they headed toward private land and he heard shooting soon after that. In all, 7 of 10 possible quota permit holders had shown up, and all 5 of the walk on permits were used.
By Tuesday evening I was feeling discouraged about having not even heard a gobble yet. My plan was to try to get there earlier Wednesday and get up to my original Plan A spot. I decided I owed it to myself to get out there and make another attempt at roosting a bird that evening though and it ended up being the best decision I could have made. While heading up to "my spot", I happened to look over as I drove past a recently burned area and saw another hen standing in a side road. A split second later I noticed the gobbler following her. I didn't slow down, and they seemed to not be bothered by my vehicle as I drove past. There was about an hour of daylight left and they appeared to be heading toward the big woods behind the burn. I continued down the road, made note of more fresh turkey sign at the spot I had wanted to hunt, then came back to where I had seen the birds just as it was getting dark. I got out and started to walk down the lane they had been on with my owl hooter in hand. I got about halfway when the gobbler sounded off from the roost without me even having to make a single call. I was suddenly much more excited for the next day's hunt.
When I got to the check station Wednesday morning I was the 2nd vehicle in line. Apparently nobody had camped out for a permit this time, I guess a lot of guys were discouraged by not hearing anything the first day. I chatted a bit with the guy ahead of me and gave a vague answer when he asked where I was headed that morning. I got a little nervous when he mentioned the area that had just been burned and how it might be good, but as we left he pulled off into another parking area almost immediately. I now knew I would be the first one to the spot where the gobbler was roosted. I got in well before light and listened for the bird to gobble. The road I had seen him on the night before ran along the edge of the burn and intersected another road that ran between the burn and the bigger woods where he was roosted. I planned to set up near that intersection, but when he finally gobbled he was a couple hundred yards south of where I thought he was so I moved down the road in his direction. He gobbled probably a dozen times from the roost and I got set up a little ways off the trail back in the burn. Just before flydown another bird gobbled off to my right where I had roosted the bird the night before and I realized there were actually two gobblers, and I was now set up more or less between them. I did some soft tree yelping and then went silent.
The birds quieted up a bit once they hit the ground, but the first one that had been gobbling was still sounding off from time to time. A little before 8 the bird on my right gobbled from what sounded to be no more than 70 yards up the lane. I gave a few clucks and got my gun into position. After a few minutes I saw movement and watched as a group of hens came down the lane from the direction of the gobbler. They were slowly making their way along when I suddenly heard a loud PFFFT-VRRMMMM from over my right shoulder. The gobbler had left the road and was slipping through the burn. I strained to see any sign of him out of the corner of my eye and finally picked up a bit of motion, he was now almost directly behind me and within 30 yards. The gobbler spent the next 5 minutes spitting and drumming up a storm while his harem of four hens milled around on the laneway in front of me. Eventually one of the hens began to pick me out and started acting a little nervous. The group of hens slowly left the lane on the opposite side while issuing several concerned clucks. The tom ripped out a gobble from no more than 15 yards to my right, but he was on my off side and there was a tree preventing me from swinging that way even if I could get my gun to the opposite shoulder undetected. He stepped into the lane 10 yards to my right and gobbled again, then stepped across to follow the hens on the other side. His thick paintbrush beard left me pretty certain this was the bird I had seen the night before. I quickly switched shoulders and got my gun around the tree but by the time I got the sights on him he was twenty five yards away through very thick brush, I opted not to take the shot.
Now that there was some distance between us I started calling again and got the hens fired up. For the next 10 minutes we went back and forth and I could hear the gobbler spitting and drumming almost non-stop. I was unable to coax them back out though and they finally drifted off away from me. I didn't think I could follow them or get around them because of how thick it was where they were and we were close to the edge of the WMA. I also knew the other gobbler should still be in the area so I got up and moved about thirty yards to a spot where I could better cover birds coming from either direction on the lane.
No sooner had I sat down than the second tom gobbled in the lane off to my left. I yelped a few times and again got my gun up. After a minute or so I saw a turkey head moving behind the scorched palmettos at the edge of the lane. It was a hen and I watched as she slowly worked her way from left to right down the lane. I was prepared for the gobbler to come along behind her at any second, but was also keeping an eye covering the burn to my left. Seconds turned to minutes, and five minutes later there was still no sign of the gobbler. Then PFFFT-VRRMMMM, from behind my left shoulder this time. He must have swung well wide into the burn and for the second time in half an hour I had an Osceola gobbler spitting and drumming behind my back inside of twenty yards. To make things worse, I would have had an easy shot at him from my original setup. I'm pretty sure I muttered a few things under my breath at this point that aren't repeatable here. He was crossing behind me from my left to right, and about the time he got directly behind me he went completely silent.
Ten minutes went by and I had no idea if he had seen me or what had happened. I let out a few soft yelps and he immediately hammered back from about 60 yards behind and to my right. I quickly shifted around to face his general direction and got ready. Within a few moments he was behind a thick screen of burned palmettos and brush and was in a spitting and drumming frenzy. After several minutes of this I saw motion and another hen came from behind the screen of vegetation and walked out to the lane. She turned to her left and followed the lane past my position, just before leaving my line of sight she yelped three times. The gobbler fired back and I knew this game was almost played out. Less than a minute later I saw his white head coming and when he stepped into the clear at 25 yards he met a swarm of 7's and I had my first Osceola. Back at the check station my bird quickly became the center of attention, and more than a couple guys cracked good natured jokes about the Yankee driving down from NY and showing them up on their home turf. It was the only bird checked in that day, and unless someone brought something late on Thursday it was one of only two taken on the entire hunt.
16lbs 10oz, matching 1" spurs, and a 9 ½" beard.
My MacDaddy trumpet proved deadly again.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. I hunted the next morning for the other gobbler but it was very foggy and although I heard him it sounded like he flew out into private pastureland bordering the WMA. I got him fired up a couple times but he wouldn't budge. I called it a day around 10:30 because I wanted to get an early start on my drive to Savannah. The birds in GA were not particularly interested in playing the game while I was there and I only heard a little bit of gobbling one of the three mornings I hunted there. It was still a good time and a chance to catch up with some friends, and really anything more would have just been icing on the cake, but it wasn't to be this time. After a quick hunt Sunday morning I drove back up to Charlotte and early Monday morning I was on road back to NY (and 12 grueling hours of highway later I was home).
It was a great trip and an awesome feeling to kill a public land Osceola on my first try. I'm really glad I went this route instead of just using an outfitter, I would encourage anyone considering it to give it a shot. A quota hunt was a great way to go, I never saw another hunter while I was out hunting and everyone I did have a chance to talk to was very friendly and considerate. Now it's time to plan a trip out west for Rio's and Merriam's.
Random ThoughtsI still can't wrap my head around the idea that people spent over 21 hours in line to get a walk on permit for the first day, but by the 2nd day only one person was there waiting before the check station opened. If you are dedicated enough to wait an entire day in line, how do you only hunt one day and then not come back? Why not just come the 2nd and 3rd day and not do that long wait?
There were nowhere near the mosquitos I was expecting. I'm sure I just got lucky somehow, but I was almost disappointed, like I missed out on part of the experience!
In addition to seeing my first Osceola turkeys I also saw my first armadillos, swallow-tailed kites, wild hogs (heard them and saw sign plenty of times before, but hadn't actually seen them), and a gopher tortoise (which sadly was dead on the side of the highway).
This hunt provided several examples of how quickly things can turn around in the turkey woods, and also the importance of just getting out there when you are on a new area. I never saw anyone else scouting in the afternoon or trying to roost birds, putting in that extra bit of effort made all the difference for me. A little luck never hurts either, but a lot of times you need to help make that luck happen.
You certainly meet some interesting people when traveling to hunt. I had a conversation with a couple guys that started with them telling me about the Florida wolf they had been seeing, and continued on with them talking about how Osceolas have now been stocked in almost every state, including Alaska where they are apparently thriving. This conversation involved a lot of nodding and smiling on my end.
It was nice to get out of the snow and the cold for a while, but on the other hand it was March and I felt like I was melting. I don't know how you Florida boys do it. I suppose you say the same thing about us when it's -20 up here.
If you ever need a place to stay near Frostproof, FL, hit up Lake Reedy Lodging. Their accommodations were fantastic and the price was very reasonable. They have what is essentially a basement apartment which is where I stayed and also a separate building that will house a larger group. They're on a lake and have a private dock too.
The burn.
I shot my bird as he walked in front of these oaks on his way to this lane.
