EdB

Have lot's of fun with her!

Nice catch, they are going to fry up good!

I had the 2nd general hunt here in the Waterloo area. Looks of cool and damp weather like the first week. Opening day started good and I thought I’d be done early until a hen sneaked in behind me, saw me working my slate and started alarm putting while I had a gobbler getting close in front of me. After that it rained. Tough hunts on Tuesday and Wednesday with more rain, wind and birds that did not want to gobble much. Thursday dawned with pouring rain and high winds. I had the day off from work and the rain was going to end so I waited till it did at 8:30AM to head out and make a day of it. Got set up and the sun broke out briefly around 9:30. When that happened, 4 different gobblers sounded off in 4 directions all around me. I’ve seen this happen lots of time after it rains, birds will sound off when the sun breaks out for the first time at any time of day. If your hunting rainy weather and see it’s going to break, get out there for it. None of these birds where close and I’d normally make a move on one of them but I decided to sit tight and see what developed. A couple of them liked my calls and responded a few times but it got windy and cloudy and the woods got quiet. Looked like it was going to be another tough hunt like Tuesday and Wednesday. I struggled with the urge to move but I had a good set up with a great view and decided to be patient. It was early yet and I figured the birds where still henned up. The damp windy weather wasn’t the best to try to find responsive birds either. Since I knew I was in a good spot, I wanted to stay here till at least noon. I’m glad I did. At 10:45, a gobbler answered back to my occasional loud yelps. It was still windy and I was throwing out some louder than normal calls just to be heard. I finally found a hot one for the first time since opening morning! I’d call, he would answer and then he gobble 3-4 more times on his own between my calls. He was still a long ways off and I’d normally move closer but I could tell he was coming. This bird really liked the loud yelps and was moving closer with every call and kept up with his hot gobbling. I toned down my calls when he got inside about 200 yards and he kept gobbling to my clucks and purrs and gobbling on his own. He kept coming and I finally saw him at 60 yards. As he went behind a big tree and brush pile and I made one last cluck, cluck, put down the call and got tight on my gun stock. He stopped and gobbled 4 times at 35 yards. I let him keep coming into a wide open spot at 20 yards, gave him a mouth putt to raise his head and shot him. It was 11:20AM and he had gobbled about 25 times during the hunt. Couldn’t believe it for the weather we had. I used a new Quaker Boy hurricane box call made to work when wet. You don’t use chalk on it. I picked it up when I saw how lousy the weather was predicted to be. I never did get it really wet to see how it worked then but it sounds good dry. This tom really liked it. Henned up birds are tough but when their lonely like this one, they get a lot easier. Another nice Waterloo gobbler down! He had a 10-¼ inch beard and a 1 inch and 7/8 inch spurs.

Great hunt and pics Adam, sure have been tough conditions this spring for turkey hunting, well done!

I thought the Schwartz's came from Germany. Wish my great great Grandpa would have married an Indian so I could own a casino and be a super citizen with special rights in the greatest nation in the world.

That's a mounter for sure, what a nice "wall" eye!

Congratulations, first one on the board this season!

Amish Outfitters bags are great, had mine for about 8 years, they have held up very well. You'll probably only need one bag out at time, I never run both of them at the same time. Two will help a bit more on the rocking but not that much, you'll burn a lot more gas with 2 bags out. I have a 21 ft boat.

Got this and thought it was worth sharing: This link to a spring launch check list contains some items that apply to all every kind of boat. Not everything applies to every boat, but every boat will have at least one thing to check on the list. I thought it was interesting. You may or may not agree. Just some ideas to consider: http://http://www.boatus.com/magazine/2011/april/checklist.asp

Bet you love the back deck of that boat Matt!

Thanks for the report, weather and conditions sure have been tough lately, real skunky weather. Nice job!

Very nice!

TGA is right but it's a good idea to have one should you be disabled and burn up your flares.

Good luck Erik, glad your feeling better just in time for turkey season.

Life jackets Throwable device Flares, check date to be sure they are not expired Distress flag for daytime Sound device/Horn Fire extinguisher Navigation lights Back fire flame arrestor Engine compartment ventilation system Good link here: http://boat-ed.com/mi/handbook/toc.htm

Nice walleyes, thanks for the report and the pics are great! The coho's have been keeping us busy but I need to get over to Erie for that early bite. We usually don't bring the boat over till the end of May. Way to go on putting some nice ones in the boat Matt, that keeps the clients happy! Too bad this east gale we got going now is going to screw up the lake for a few days.

Nice catch!

Nice job, eating my heart out at work today, sure looked nice out there.

Nice when the boat runs great first time out and you slime the box!

Nice box!

Way to go!

Nice catch Jarod!

Nice steelie!

Figured it would be real busy in the morning so we did an afternoon trip. We started at pier and trolled south to the retaining wall, worked that area for a slow pic and got 9 and it died. After about an hour with no hits, we pulled lines and ran 7 miles south and set back up. Didn't take long and we found them and really lit up the rods. Hit 15 and got 11 more in 45 minutes to end up with 20. The same lures were best in both spots, red and blk thin fins on boards, small orange dodger and purple coho fly on a diver out 45, the other diver has a DW SS steelie stomper out 40 to 50ft. The riggers had a j-11 orange and gold rapala on one and a anti freeze DW on the other 4 ft off the bottom. We fished 20-35 ft of water in both spots. Good luck!

Nice job, how many kings did you hit?