It’s April 15th before sunrise, your alarm clock blares out a below of unwelcome early morning joy. The smell of the timed coffee maker however is very soothing, and after you wash the morning sleep from your face you become giddier than a kid about to enter the gates of Disneyland.
It’s Spring Turkey Season!
You gather your gear and head for your favorite creek bottom or ridge. The sun is rising fast with a hint of blue in the horizon, and you find yourself racing against it.
You reach your destination in perfect timing, even with your hunting buddy not being ready when arrived at his A.M. doorstep.
You both gather your wits and your gear and make for the roost. Now it’s time to shine!
Gear – The first thing we are going to go over in the turkey woods in Idaho is the gear you will need. The temperatures in Idaho will tend to be milder than most states where turkey hunting is passionate accept of course Montana. You will want to have a turkey garment that you can break down, perhaps sleeves that zip off or removable pant legs. The mornings will tend to be cold and most of the time damp and by 10:00am the temperature rises, so that is when you will want to shed.
Next is the type of camo you will be sporting, forget about cool or what looks nice on you, the turkeys could care less. While you’re scouting take a look at your surroundings of where you will be setting up. If you plan to setup on the ground with little cover accept brush clumps, you may want to employ the real leaf pattern which is very effective for making you look like a clump of brush. Notice the bright greens and browns of the season, the leaves on the local forage and simply match your camo to that. For Northern Idaho where there are a lot of big red firs and beautiful green strutting fields, we recommend Realtree HD Hardwoods Green; this matches the local surroundings beautifully.
Now you will need a method of dispatch, and everyone has there own druthers. Remember that turkey hunting is pretty similar no matter where you hunt them, so your task isn’t to beat the turkey; it’s to beat the turkey’s environment. In most parts of Idaho you will be hunting turkeys on up and down ground not always your traditional field or flat. If you are running and gunning you don’t want a cumbersome firearm or bow. Use help aids like a sling for your favorite firearm or bow and you may not want to employ the biggest bow or shotgun in your arsenal.
Hunting with a bow – I f you plan to hunt with a bow, we strongly recommend a ground blind there is nothing like it. You will get more great shot opportunities than you ever would with out one. We (TheIdahoSportsman) tried the bow thing last year from the ground like you would with a shot gun, and unfortunately with a bow you must move to draw, and take aim; this results in a lot of moving away or long 40yrd pokes when you could of shot at 10 to 20yrds.
The Ground blind will allow you to move to draw and thus you will get a lot better shot opportunities. However be sure to pay close attention to your surroundings before buying a blind. You want a blind that blends in not sticks out like tent or man made structure.
The Lay of the Land – There is a lot of great turkey country all through the state of Idaho, but and yes here is the “big but”, although a lot of Idaho is not privately owned turkeys like fields, horse and cow pastures, and basically the farm life. You will most likely need to get permission to hunt turkeys, and hunters please get permission. Most land owners will let you hunt without a problem, but some will not and it’s because hunters got a bad reputation from unfortunate trespassing in the past.
Setting Up – The setup for turkeys is an age old art that in some cases have been passed down family lines for generations. However if you are like us turkey hunting isn’t in our family’s hunting history, so we need advise. If you are an elk hunter you will have a unexpected edge. Turkey hunting is a lot like elk hunting, so if you are an elk hunter who has decided to turkey hunt employ most of your techniques for setup, placement, and calling.
For those of you who have never elk or turkey hunted, you fist need to find the turkeys. Look for track, droppings, feathers, and actual birds.
Next understand what turkeys do all day. In the early morning before sunrise turkeys are sitting on their roost which in Idaho is usually a tamarack or a red fir. Look for these trees and look for droppings under and around them if you find a roosting tree you will find turkeys. After daybreak the turkeys fly down from the roost usually to an open area where they gather for mating. These open areas are called strutting zones look for these areas near roosting trees. After their courting session around 8:30 the hens leave the toms and jakes to go to their hatching area where they lay the eggs. If you find a hatching area setup around this at mid day because when the hens leave the toms become lonely and they go look for susceptible females. Late in the day the hens move from their hatch areas to feeding grounds and this is where you will find the toms strutting away. After they feed they begin to move back to their roosting tree for another night. Setting up on these paths can also be effective.
Calling – Learn to call and have a lot of different calls on you. Again just like elk hunting there is always a different call for different situations. No one call always works. Turkeys like different sounds and if you hear a specific call sequence from a tom to a hen try to position your self somewhere in the middle and imitate the hen.
Know when and when not to call for example we learned last year not to call at all when the turkeys are on the roost because if you used the wrong calling sequence then they now know your location and will avoid you. Our success has been from calling as soon as they hit the ground. When you are close make your calls soft because they can pinpoint you very well and they don’t like easy hens “ha, ha”.
Tag your success and make sure to report your harvest to the fish and game, because that is where we get a lot of the info that we share with you.
