Gobbling up other opportunities while fishing for better weather in OTC

Boats are sitting dusty in garages and storage facilities wondering when and if open water will come again? Nobody knows? Even as an avid ice fishermen, I feel fine when I say, “Go away ice!” I think most fishermen would agree with me when I say, “Lets go turkey hunting.” This morning, rather than ice fishing, my 11 year old son and I did just that! We went turkey hunting.

Spring turkey hunting is a great spring activity that normally comes when our lakes are transitioning from ice to open water. It’s the perfect timing and a perfect sport for youth! This is our 4th year of spring turkey hunting, so we are not professional-grade turkey hunters—and we are just fine with that.

Each spring, we learn something new and Jonas (my son) has even taken a couple of turkeys. While Otter Tail County is primarily known for it’s lakes, it also has super populations of waterfowl, deer, and turkey.

This morning, we had 4 nice Tom turkeys strutting in our view who were much more interested in the live hen turkeys than our rubberized decoys, and they completely unresponsive to our call. At one time, all four gobblers were strutting and gobbling 15 yards away—behind our tree!  Jonas wasn’t in the right position to get a shot and they decided that our decoys weren’t worth investigating, so we spent the next three hours calling, waiting, hoping, and watching them follow the “real” hens around the field. They almost made it back to our station but stopped short. The hunt was very exciting  and it was refreshing sitting in the grass against a tree watching all the spring wildlife celebrate the return of another warm season.

If you’ve had enough of winter and ice get outside this week in lakes country and enjoy some trails in our state parks, go on a bike ride, or head out on a spring turkey hunt—enjoy the warm weekend.

By Ross Hagemeister, meisterguideservice.com