My turkey hunting honey hole in northern Grant County has gone dry.
Nothing great lasts forever, but I keep hoping it will. Places change physically, and turkeys change accordingly. The changes have been rapid, substantial and negative. That's a hard pill to swallow in a place where you killed seven gobblers in eight years.
On the other hand, the bounty also made me a little lazy. I grew so accustomed to success that I started taking it for granted. The drought has forced me to go on the offensive. I'm scouting more aggressively and more frequently, seeking more secluded quarters where turkeys might go to escape hunting pressure that accelerated dramatically in 2020.
I attribute increased pressure to my failure to see or hear a gobbler in 2020. I did not encounter any feathers or droppings. The only sign I saw was a wet track in a sandy roadside after a rain.
During a turkey hunting Zoom seminar for Arkansas Democrat-Gazette subscribers on March 6, a participant asked whether I thought it would be productive to call turkeys from an elevated box stand. I actually tried that last season. I was so frustrated over lack of feedback that I called from a box stand in hopes that a broader view might show turkeys poking their heads out at thicket edges or surveying my spot from a distance.
Scanning the woods with binoculars, I saw only crows and squirrels. It figures. I only see turkeys from box stands in the fall, when I'm hunting deer. Ironically, during my years hunting turkeys in Missouri, I called up almost as many deer with turkey calls as I did turkeys. Once, I called up a deer while sitting amid the branches of a fallen oak tree. Hair bristling, she stuck her nose right in my face. I was tempted to blow her a "raspberry," but I was afraid she might thrash me with her hooves.
She started blowing. I waved at her, which made her blow louder. I lunged at her, which made her back up a few steps and blow louder still. Finally, I lurched to my feet and ran at her swinging a stick. She ran about 50 yards and set up shop, blowing and stomping.
That became a pattern, and I vanquished several deer by swinging or throwing things at them.
I thought this would be an excellent application of reverse psychology during archery deer season. I even asked a wildlife officer if it were legal to call up deer with a turkey call, considering that fall turkey season is closed in Arkansas.
"Well, it's not illegal, but it wouldn't look good," he said.
Which reminds me of the time at lunch when I baited Terry Roberson, a law enforcement supervisor at the Missouri Conservation.
"I'm gonna buy me one of those hot air balloons at Walmart and take it to Lamine River Conservation Area and tether it to the ground and use it as a deer stand," I said.
"You can't do that. It's illegal," he said.
"You show me in the Wildlife Code where it says I can't," I said.
One hour later, Roberson burst into my office, pounding his finger on a paragraph in the Wildlife Code that forbids using motorized vehicles on conservation areas.
"Oh, come on, Terry!" I said, laughing. "There's no way a judge is going to believe that a balloon is a motorized vehicle!"
"It most certainly is. It's got a burner that makes it go up. That's a motor."
"Well, I'm gonna do it, anyway."
"You go right ahead. And I'll write your butt a ticket, too!"
We ate lunch together every day, and we were in some kind of absurd squabble at least once a month.
Back to my Grant County honey hole. The woods have been clearcut on two sides, with a 10-year-old thicket on a third side. Last year's clearcut eliminated the best roosting area on that portion of the property, and I believe they relocated, maybe even off our property.
Worse, feral hogs have moved into my area. The rooting sign is everywhere, and it is quite pronounced in some places. Hogs might have helped displace turkeys, as well, and I wonder if they are why I saw a lot fewer deer in my area last fall. Still, I have not seen a hint of a turkey in March.
If I have another turkey season like 2020, it will reinforce my suspicions.
If I kill a gobbler or just work a gobbler, all of that will go out the window. We turkey hunters do tend to entrench in untenable terrain.