Planning/Tips for prospective traveling turkey hunter

[wkyhunter]

Hi Prohunter....
Congrats on the slam!
Wish you much success next spring. Maybe our paths will cross in Tennessee next season!

[joey46]

Thanks for the replies!
Hobbes, I live outside of Kuttawa, not too far from Barkley and Kentucky Lakes.
Closest fair size town would be Paducah.
You may have heard of Land Between The Lakes on this and some of the other hunting forums. I'm about 10 Miles from the north entry.

Small world.  I lived on Kentucky Lake (Marshall County, KY) for nine years and hunted LBL extensively.  Still miss it but "if she ain't happy you aren't happy" came into play.  Most of her remaining family is in Florida and western KY winters are no picnic at times. 
The information available on the Kentucky Telecheck system is state of the art.  States with functioning telecheck systems have all the info you'll ever need.  County by county harvest results are available and updated daily in KY.  Best tool going.

[wkyhunter]

Hi Joey! My Daughter is moving down to Florida this weekend to start a new job.
LBL is where I started turkey hunting in the 70s as a kid.
Was fortunate to have a Dad who was eat up with it! Dad's still kickin, but his drive to hunt isn't there. 
Even now I'll leave private land behind to hunt LBL. Usually spend most of the season hunting either the KY or TN side.
It's tough, but I sure love it!

[joey46]

If you can find a copy of "Hunting the American Wild Turkey" by Dave Harbour read chapter 6.  The author describes an early LBL hunt where he met a very young Harold Knight when Harold was developing his tube call.  This hunt was probably in the mid 1970s.  Well worth the time to read.  If I'm remembering correctly this author died while walking out of the woods carrying a freshly killed bird.  Probably worse ways to go.  That could be an urban legend story. 

[wkyhunter]

Joey...

Read the book many times, checked it out so many times in the 70's from the library I thought I owned it.If I remember correctly the title was something to the effect of "How a New Tube Killed an Old Kentucky Gobbler"

Harold and David both gave much credit to Dave Harbour as major boost to their business. If I remember Mr Harbour wrote an article on Outdoor Life about LBL and Harold and David.

In the 70's we knew most to the local folks hunting LBL and there were few traveling turkey hunters.

[Tail Feathers]

I really enjoy traveling to hunt turkeys.  It's a pleasure to see new territory and get to know a bit walking all over hunting.  My travel experiences haven't always resulted in lots of dead turkeys, but that's hunting.  I've enjoyed them all.

[joey46]

Joey...

Read the book many times, checked it out so many times in the 70's from the library I thought I owned it.If I remember correctly the title was something to the effect of "How a New Tube Killed an Old Kentucky Gobbler"

Harold and David both gave much credit to Dave Harbour as major boost to their business. If I remember Mr Harbour wrote an article on Outdoor Life about LBL and Harold and David.

In the 70's we knew most to the local folks hunting LBL and there were few traveling turkey hunters.

The Dave Harbour article and his book probably got me started hunting LBL.   Went from camping at Hillman Ferry to buying land, building a home and moving to western KY.  Good memories.
I've posted this before but this is the tube call I bought at Knight/Hale's Cadiz barber shop.  Must have been in the early 1980s.  It is cleaned up and I still use it today.

[simpzenith]

My favorite tactic to ensure that there are birds in an area that I think looks good via satellite imagery is to get on Google maps, click on the nearest business (to get contact info) and call them. Especially in the very rural areas of western states, these folks are eager to talk to anyone about anything. Because, in most cases, these folks are not turkey hunters, they'll tell you all you need to know about the area and the local turkey population. I can usually go to a new area and get on birds the first day due to this.

[wkyhunter]

Thanks for the continued discussion.
Joey46... somewhere I have a wood prototype of your call that Harold sent me as well as the original turned wood tube that they started with.
In 1976 (I think) I won the KY Jr calling contest using that call.

[tal]

 Between the Rivers..... A hard school. But ain't it special?

[tal]

 A quote from Harold... If you can kill birds between the rivers, you're ready to hunt anywhere else.

[joey46]

Took me a while but I knew I had a picture of my first LBL bird. It is over 30 years old. This pic was taken by the TVA employee manning the Golden Pond check station.  It was the first day of a quota hunt.  We had driven down from Ohio three days early to scout and find a vocal bird.  While we were talking at the check station a bird was gobbling in the nearby tree line.  He said he'd get him during the general season.  I'm sure he did.  People that know this area won't be surprised to hear that while this bird pictured was working in I was watching cars/trucks going by on the Trace.  A little LBL tip.