Slow day for seeing the gobblers

I got some turkeys to gobble at Lafayette County Wildlife Management Area on Monday, so I consider the hunt successful.

After failing to get the permit I wanted in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s controlled hunts permit lottery, I scored a leftover permit for Lafayette County WMA in the AGFC’s online surplus permit sale. I was happy because the WMA has a good reputation for turkey hunting. The AGFC issues 40 permits for the area annually, but in 2013 hunters killed only four birds there. Surely I could crack the 90th percentile.

The test was harder than I expected.

I spent a day scouting portions of the WMA last week and marked several promising areas on my GPS. I didn’t hunt there Saturday because I wanted to avoid the opening day crowd. I couldn’t hunt Sunday because that was Easter and, well, we’ve already covered that. That left Monday, which I thought would be a good day. I’d probably have most of the area to myself, and I figured the other hunters saved a gobbler for me.

The WMA was very wet and soggy when I scouted it. It was even wetter and soggier Monday from rain. Areas that were more or less dry when I scouted had standing water Monday. That might not have bothered the turkeys, but it sure bothered me.

I finally found a spot that I liked. It’s a thin strip of older pines between a younger pine thicket and an overgrown cut over. The ground is open, with long sight lines and a fair amount of young, fresh greenery for turkeys to pluck. It’s a natural travel corridor for wildlife, and it’s really pretty. I expected to see turkeys there.

I set up a small chair among a clump of bushes with overhanging limbs that created a little cockpit. I placed a ground screen of tufted camo fabric in a V in front of the bushes. My hide was in the shadows, so I was invisible to even the wariest bird. To make them feel more comfortable, I set out three hen decoys about 20 yards away.

Even there, the ground was soupy except on top of the pine rows. Every step seemed to unleash a cloud of mosquitoes from the muck. I was ready for that. I rubbed some OFF Botanicals insect repellent lotion on my face, neck and hands, and then I fired up two ThermaCells. I placed them on both sides of my chair, and I spent the afternoon unbothered by mosquitoes.

As is my custom when blind calling, I brought three box calls, three pot calls, a can striker and my mouth calls. I use them all to sound like a lot of different turkeys, but also so that I might hit on one call that the turkeys like. This year, the turkeys seem to like two in particular. One is a walnut call made by Bill Rhodes of Sheridan. It has a raspy tone, with a little “yawp” at the end of the stroke that gobblers don’t ignore. The other is a laminated box made by Eddie Horton of Camden. It is a beautiful call with a beautiful tone, and it makes any sound I want.

All afternoon I used every one of those calls every 15 minutes, but I got no response. I didn’t even attract any crows, which is unusual. I can almost always count on calling up at least one deer, but that didn’t happen either.

I took a couple of catnaps between calling sessions. The old sleep taunt often summons a turkey, but not that day.

At about 5 p.m., a gobbler unloaded at the sound of the Bill Rhodes walnut call. I continued through the progression. The bird didn’t gobble often, but when he did, he sounded like he was getting closer. Another bird gobbled from the opposite direction. There’s no better place to be than between two hot gobblers.

A hen yelped from the other direction. I suddenly felt very alert. The birds were moving, and they seemed to be converging on this little patch of paradise.

And then, as sometimes happens, the turkeys went silent. My gun was up. I expected a gobbler to appear any second. They never showed.

By 5:30 p.m., I sensed it was over, and thunder heralded an oncoming storm.

I gathered my gear and slogged back to my truck. A giant copperhead greeted me there. It was stretched across the road, about 3 feet long and luminous. I got some nice photos before it slithered into a tangle beside the ditch.

I take my consolation prizes where I find them.