LFTTW 4/20

Headed in after the one I messed up yesterday.

Raining a little here

Dang work. Good luck fellas

Should have just stayed home and smoked a doobie for 4/20. My turkeys haven’t been doing crap all week.

Had two real close but a group of hens came along and messed it up

Silence here again in Prairie

Good luck to u guys hunting - go kill him - I headed to work

Just think when the state goes to a 4/1 opener we will have about 10 days of good to decent hunting. Our area is infested with bull gnats and has been the last couple weeks. When those devils show up you are in for some tough hunting in South Alabama. The turkeys literally go into hiding and don't act right. The hunting has got tough in south Alabama from what I am hearing.

You got that right. Last year the gnats were so bad opening day that I couldn't hunt. I was thankful that I had a place to hunt further north. We had cooler weather early in this season and I was able to hunt a couple of weekends.

Well, we tried hard to stop them from destroying turkey hunting, but we lost. It's time to just move on from turkey hunting and management. I am having my timber cut right now and am giving up. I plan to still go some, but it's not gonna be my my main hobby any longer.

My goodness. I forgot just how good an extra hour and an half of sleep can make a man feel! Y'all have a great day no matter what y'all are doing!

Dr. B

same - saw a coyote this morning - that's been it

Saw 3 strutting for about 10 hens beside a trailer park about 5 miles from my house this morning. My birds are getting henned up again and not saying much. Every bird I fooled with this weekend had hens again!! So much for declining g turkey population!!

Watching a single with a hen blowed up in pasture. Waiting on work to get here.....................

As for the gnats, I was working in south bama last week and the gnats were terrible. Guy gave me some gnaughty gnat(sp?) spray. Think it was geranium oil. It worked wonders and pleasant smelling

And he goes to gobbling. SONOFA

Zone works well for them gnats too. Smells like vanilla and has no harmful stuff in it.

We got up at 0400. 34° and wind howling around 20mph. Needless to say we slept in. It is BRUTAL out there this morning. Thinking about driving around looking to see if we see some close to some of this public land

Probably similar stuff. It had a vanilla smell to it

that hurt my eyes to read this, Steve - you gonna start fishing w/your grandchildren more?

Went to one that gobbled early in a good spot. He never gobbled again. Moved to another gobbler and same thing. Not sure if I am moving in too close or these birds have heard my crap before.

Um, do what? You aren’t slowing down and I won’t let you. If you need somewhere to hunt to get away from gnats you just holler. We will trespass on every place I can find up here Mr. Steve! 😂

I hunted in coosa this morning and heard two turkeys gobble two times a piece close to the lake. I was on a high point too so I could hear forever.

Started off great and then just died about Easter here.

I have spray and head nets that keep the gnats off me but I haven't been able to catch any of my turkeys to spray them down. I can deal with the gnats but when they are so thick that your turkeys will not act right it makes it tough. For those that have never been affected by swarms of bull gnats by the thousands count your blessings. They are miserable for any human or critter that encounters them, that I can assure you!!

I would love to drop Chuck Sykes off butt naked in the middle of our property about this time of year and come back a few hours later to get him. I bet he would be singing a different tune about opening season in south Alabama in April and season running into May.

I hear ya. On my Portland Landing hunt in 2019 and it was absolutely brutal. I had scars from the bites months after that weekend. So far we've had only a mild smattering of them this year. Maybe this cold snap coming will kill a bunch of them. I got hit on my forehead by two of those bastages last week and now I'm sporting 2 dime size whelps on my noggin.

Dr. B

Y'all are making me scared to go to Portland Landing this weekend lol.

I told ya man. I don't know if it's the swamp or the river but they are terrible. If you do manage to smash one, you will hear him crunch. They got some wildlife there tho! I even saw a baby alligator on my hunt.

Dr. B

Best stuff I've found to fight bull gnats is vicks vapo rub. The vapor acts like a force field, they'll still be close not close enough to mess with you. Maybe bring a jar with ya this weekend

i'm sensing a business opportunity here LOL

I got to hunt with my Dad this morning and we found a lonely two year old gobbler about 8:15...He gobbled good on his own for a few minutes (from a pocket of a hay field) and we were about 500 yards from him. I knew where the bird was at and it was going to be a good set up as long as he stayed in that spot. I thought we could probably call him to where the woodline made a point and kill him when he tried to round the point...As we hurried his way, I called to him from about 250 yards and he cut me off! I already had Dad easing up further on up the road to get into position near that point. When I could see that Dad was in position, I walked on up the road and called to the gobbler again: he answered me again and was only about 150 yards now that we’d moved on up the road. When the gobbler answered me this time, I shut up! And so did he!! Since he’d gobbled 30-40 times in 30 minutes, I figured his sudden silence could only mean one thing!? Sure, enough!! After 5 minutes of silence, Dad could see the bird strutting and slowly heading our way. I was about 15 yards behind Dad and was able to video the shot...Another awesome memory to add to another great season!!!

Video:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/8kHD2Jq.mp4[/img]

4 longbeards together. No hen. Is that normal for this time I never see it at my place

Congrats you two!!

I kept waiting for the gun to go off, but it never did in the video.

God Bless,
David B.

I think I’ve got the video corrected now...apparently, the Imgur app will only allow you to upload 60 seconds of video, so I had to condense the original by about 10 seconds...hopefully, it works now

I feel better now.
I heard the boom and saw the bird go down.

Great video and hunt with your dad!!

God Bless,
David B.