On the board opening day in AL - my first public bird

[uarobert]

The day before the opener, I had checked my plan A spot. I drove into the WMA and made a hike over an hour to get away from the crowds. He gobbled right where I thought he would be, plus a few other birds on other ridges in the area, so I was all set.
I got there the next morning with plenty of time to spare to make my coffee and do my hike. When I got to the forest road: "Road and area closed for prescribed burning." I was completely shut out.
I quickly rushed to plan B spot, which is in an area that was going to get slammed with hunters. Fortunately, my original plan got me there early enough to beat them.
No gobbles before it got light, so I set up on a small food plot with a trail going out either end. After a few calls I heard him cluck once when he flew down just down the trail going out the opposite end of the plot. After about 10 min, I had turned my eyes to the woods and when I turned them back to the trail, he was standing there, looking for the Jake fight I had been imitating. Three day hunt and I had this closed mouth bird in the 1st hour.
19lb, 10" beard, 1" right spur, broken left spur. I wonder what kind of trouble Ol' Stumpy got himself into.

Oh, and thanks to Gooserbat for the PLS that called him in.

[taylorjones20]

Congrats!

[zelmo1]

Nice bird and Congrats bro 

[daddyduke]

Congrats! Always good to have a backup plan.

[Gobbler428]

Congratulations - Sometimes you can make lemonade out of lemons - Really nice bird!

[turkeymanjim]

Congrats on a nice gobbler.

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[surehuntsalot]

congrats on a well earned bird

[buckmark13]

Nice job and a great way to start the season!

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[jblackburn]

Congrats on a fine bird!

[harleytom]

Congrats

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[Sir-diealot]

Congratulations to you.

[grnhead1312]

Congrats! Not much more rewarding than a public land bird.

[uarobert]

Thanks everybody for all the encouragement.

[tomstopper]

Congrats

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[cbhunter15]

well done, congrats!