Team Fowl Mouth

Taking things down to the wire coltin.holladay.5 filled his turkey tag on the next to last day of the season. Work obligations weekend rodeo, and a missed opportunity where his shotgun only clicked had an empty hand heading into the final days. Braving the weather paid off as he left the wood soaked to the bone with a spring gobbler in hand. Making the story even more special is the fact that he took the bird with a 20 gauge shotgun that had belonged to his great grandfather. Coltin had the gun redone and she now looks as good as she shoots! What a way to wrap turkey 2026. We had a lot of success, a few failures and a lot of laughs. Only 47 weeks till turkey season!

Off the roost success! Sometimes you get lucky. After a blind set up on a property that had produced nothing this season, Adam was startled by a sudden gobble about 45 minutes after light. The bird was only about 75 yards away, and after 15 minutes he was still 75 yards away, and after 30 minutes well… you get the idea. Suddenly wing beats were heard and then more, with a jake soaring into the decoys. A long bearded Tom landed at about 45 yards but wasn’t showing a lot of interest. After shying away from the set, another jake came in full strut. Feeling confident, he went to work beating his supposed rival, attempting to claim the rubbery prize that was his love interest. This the Tom simply would not put up with. He himself had to see what the fuss was about and came in to challenge both Jake’s, not knowing the imposter was his demise. After strutting and posturing to the pair, he was a mere 17 yards away where the 11 and 1/4 inch bearded gobbler was laid to rest. The end of the most amazing season to date.

“D Week” started as a struggle but Justin Misero punched his final tag on quality gobbler with plenty of chaos to go along with it. While not a true running gun style hunt, he stopped the call at a couple likely locations on the way to his predetermined afternoon set. Despite only moving 50 or 60 yards, he decided to let out one series of yelps before cresting the final rise. Much to his surprise, the yelps were answered by a thunderous gobble in the tall wheat and grass to his immediate right. A mad scramble to the nearest tree ensued. A few clocks and light yelps and then nothing. Just as doubt began to sit in that perhaps he had been spotted the blue grey head of a hen appeared, and then another. Followed by a big red head in tow, all coming with a purpose. Suddenly, hen putted and made a break for it, but too late the Browning had already found it mark. At the shot a redhead and two hens headed for the hills, but a fourth lie motionless in the grass.

Turkey hunting can be like that sometimes. Hours or even days of nothing punctuated by minutes of heart pounding action. These are the moments that fuel the madness and keep us coming back for more. The gobbler had apparently run himself ragged weighing only 18 1/2 pounds despite sporting a 10 7/8” rope and 1” spurs.

On Monday evening Adam hit a wood block after work. A pair of Tom’s had been hanging around the area and late in the season had separated, giving a golden opportunity. Despite it being around 6 pm, this bird was ready to go! Some mouth calling and boxing had him going at around 300 yards, and after a 15 minute stalemate he eventually gobbled at about 150 yards. This bird put on an absolute show, double and triple gobbling sometimes unprovoked! Strutting, walking, gobbling, strutting again, all without even seeing his love interest. Eventually he hopped up onto a fallen tree and lifted his head high, trying to find his late season love opportunity. Here he was anchored, the continuum of a fantastic spring gobbler season. He sported a thick but shorter 8 3/4 beard, with 7/8 spurs.

This past Saturday Foster Hunt punched his E week tag.
With a slow morning providing nothing promising a final move produced.
Standing on the field edge contemplating what to do the decision was made for him. A hen stepped out of the woods just over 100 yards away with a tom full strut right on her heals.
Foster quick dove into the woods. Barely separated by a small hill in the field he snuck out his decoys just feet away. Some careful calling got her attention and pulled her in to 15 yards before she turned and worked back out in the field. After a grueling 45 minutes the tom finally decided to investigate closing the distance with only minutes to spare in the day.
Foster’s tom had an 11 1/2” beard and 1 1/8” spurs.

“C Week” has been good to is in recent years and we continued our good fortune with a text book spring gobbler hunt. The birds were quiet with a single gobble on the roost several hundred yards away. After the better part of an hour the toms started gobbling a couple hundred yards away. Suddenly a hen worked into the decoys yelping from across the street. Calling back and fourth to the real hen must have peaked thier interest because suddenly 3 longbeard appeared cresting the hill at full strut. Inside of thirty yards they split up and shotguns sang out. The boss ran for the hills but his two rivals flopped in the hay. The clock said 6:45. Perfect time for a diner breakfast!

Adam struck again B week. After a good scouting tip this tom and his harem of hens had been successfully roosted. After fly down the field was alive with yelps, cuts and the occasional gobble. The hens were talking and moving every which way, sending the gobbler one way and then another, not sure who to follow. Eventually one of the hens was ready for a fight, and yelped her way into the feeder hen, ready to fight. This brought the tom closer, and a jealous older hen decided it was her turn, driving off the young hen and strutting up to the decoy. This brought the Tom closer yet again, gobbling to the clucks and purrs occurring during the battle! At this point the Tom had strutted close enough and he was anchored there!

Beards 9 3/8 and 6 1/2
Spurs 1 1/8

On Friday morning Mike was able to punch his A week tag. Mike and Adam set up in the corner of a field before light. As the sun was rising the guys heard some distant gobbles. Adam began soft calling with his trusty pot call. This tom could not resist, he made a b line straight for the decoys. He came to around 20 yds and Mike placed a great shot stopping him in his tracks. Great public land bird, sporting a 9.5 in. beard and spurs measuring 1 in. and 1 1/8 in. The 2026 Turkey Season is off to a great start Team Fowl Mouth!

On Thursday Adam connected again with some of the best action the turkey woods has to offer! Around sunrise a bird sounded off with a thunderous gobble only about 150 yards out. After a quick reply from the slate, the bird had been duped, firing back quickly. Another sequence produced another response but this time there was a challenger. Another gobbler was closing fast from another direction and the race was on! The original bird got to the field first, but wasn’t thrilled about closing the distance, possibly from the heavy steam that was coming from every breath on the unseasonably cold morning. This did little to slow down his rival who at this point was nearly running to get his chance! It turns out, the rival was two rivals, a pair of toms that were as mesmerized as a pair can get. The one tom marched right in and got to work beating the Jake that had no right to take his hen. On the other hand, the nearly beardless tom he was traveling with, well, he decided to do unspeakable things to the lay down hen while he had the chance. After about 2-3 minutes of action the bearded one of the pair finally took a break from beating the poor Jake decoy, and was easily anchored at about 10 steps. He sported a 9 5/8 beard, with a thin secondary beard of 4 3/8. Spurs 7/8.

The cold weather and crusted snow and have slowed down animal movement but we have been doing our best to keep our lines going and have had some decent results. Over the last 2 weeks Adam was high man with 13 racc**ns. Foster caught 5 furbearers, two of which were in cable restraints, a racc**n and his first red fox. Justin set his first short line of the year and caught a nice boar c**n the first night to sneak on one on Saturday before the weekend ended. Adam had the misfortune to catch a whitetail doe in a cable restraint. The relaxing lock did its job and after a few tense moments she was released unscathed.