It rained hard all night and the temperature had dropped considerably. Hoping things would dry out by the afternoon, I didn’t head into the woods until 1:00 p.m., but foul weather wasn’t the only reason for the late start. Predators were thick, and combined with the wet, cold spring, they had claimed nearly all the turkey poults in the area. Hens and toms were spread out and on alert. The situation forced me to cover more ground than usual, reaching secluded timber patches where hens were nesting and re-nesting, and where a few toms had followed them.
I traveled light, making my way through the wet forest with only my shotgun, two diaphragm calls and a cushion to sit on. On my fourth setup, I finally got a tom to reply
