Setting up on a roosted bird with no hens

[bnew17]

I know where a few birds have been roosted in a head of woods on some property i hunt. A few weeks ago i heard hens with them but the last 2 time i have set up on them i havent heard hens but they still seem to go the other way. Which leads me to think they may still have hens but they just arent vocal. I have tried a fly down with a wing and light tree yelp. This past weekend I tried a fly down cackle along with a wing and he stayed in the tree until well after 8, pitched down without me knowing and headed away from me. Nothing has worked on this bird. So Wednesday  morning i was going to try to get in the general area of where these birds have been ,preferably on the opposite side of them as i have been , and set up, not say anything until i knew they were on the ground. Unfortunately walking in i walked under both their trees and they flew out. This property is real tough to hunt because its thinned mature pine trees so it is pretty open with most of the cover being low to the ground. Especially tough when they are still in the tree.  When the birds took off i didnt see any hens fly off with them, which gives me some hope! This weekend i planned on getting in there about an hour earlier and trying the same thing of not doing any fly downs or tree yelps and wait until i know they are on the ground and then hitting them hard with some stuff. What yal think?

[mightyjoeyoung]

If you know where a bird is, to within 50 yards or so and you know he doesn't have any hens, you should have a slam dunk on your hands...I say should because if he is an old bird that's been hunted before he's maybe not gonna be as responsive to calling as would a 2 year old.  If you have a GPS, mark where you are when you roosted him and get back there the next morning EARLY (ZREO DARK THIRTY!!) and try not to make a sound doing it.  Or, try to shock gobble him on the roost...but DO NOT use a turkey call.  Get within that magic 100 yard zone of his roost and if you have them, try putting out a hen low on the ground and a half-strut jake decoy within sight of his roost.  If he sees other birds on the ground he may just fly down right to you to check out this chick and that dirty interloper trying to get some action.