BY BOB AND GINNY RIEGE

As we drove onto the ferry at Cave in the Rock in Illinois we noticed that the Ohio River was flooding. In fact, we remarked as to how much higher the water would get before they would have to shut down the ferry for traffic.

Ginny and I had just spent three days in the turkey woods here in Minnesota and we had a lot of experience with wind, snow, sleet, and rain. We had the perfect set up, but the birds had another plan altogether. You would get the occasional courtesy gobble from a few jakes trekking across the fence line in bachelor groups, but no gobbler was interested in answering our clucking or yelping.

As we entered into Lyons county on our way to Crittenden county Kentucky we took in the warm, humid weather and the advancement of the early summer season that seemed to have missed us here in Minnesota. Western Kentucky had received a great deal of rain already, but we noticed a few flocks of turkeys on the field edges and the anticipation of connecting with one of these toms quickened our drive to WingHaven Lodge.

WingHaven Lodge is situated in Crittenden county Kentucky not far from Providence, Kentucky. WingHaven was going to be our “Turkey Headquarters” for the next few days in preparation for the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers spring “Cast and Blast.”

AGLOW holds a spring event — Spring Mega Media Cast and Blast. This unique, working event pairs attending media with participating corporate members for two days of fishing and / or turkey hunting with local guides. The focus is “hands-on” in the field and on the water with corporate member representatives, pro staff and their products — as well as the promotion of our host community’s exceptional outdoor resources.

We arrived at WingHaven a few days earlier than the rest of the crew. We decided that we would help Russell and Michele prepare for the opening night events to take place on Tuesday evening April 19th when all the corporate sponsors and media would meet their guides for fishing or hunting. My guide was Von Summers who lived in Marion, Kentucky and he informed my hunting partner Mike Capps of Howard Communication that we were probably going to “run and gun” for our hunting tactics in the morning. (Von, my guide, if he had put a cowboy hat on would look like Brad Paisley.)

The weather was very warm, humid and windy. The weather channel was predicting storms to move in throughout the night and they did. The wind blew, hail and about three inches of rain fell overnight. As the turkey hunting guides gathered the next morning the talk was all about washed out driveways and wind damage to their property.

Needless to say, weather like this does shut down turkeys from responding to the call. We slipped into a ravine below the ridgeline and waited for the turkeys to wake up. No calling was done until we heard the first gobble from the roost. Mike Capps who represents a number of outdoor companies started calling with his Hunter’s Specialty slate with soft tree yelps. Finally we had a gobbler that at least responded as Mike clucked and purred. Suddenly the woods went silent and we could see some turkeys gathering out in the field about 150 yards away. They were flocked up and did not heed our calls, so we moved on to plan B.

Plan B to was to run along ridge tops and call hopefully to get a lonesome tom to respond. After about four hours of not getting one to “light up,” we heard a distant gobble on the next ridge. For the next hour or so we called and scratched the leaves, he would courtesy gobble, but no tom came to the top of the ridge. Finally about 1:00 p.m. we headed for WingHaven for lunch and maybe a nap.

Wednesday morning found the three of us entering the fields in ankle deep water with no wind and a moonlight walk to our original set up below the ridge. This time we decided to move closer to the roosting toms and we had a few moments in the woods before we heard the first one gobble on the roost. As soon as we heard the first one we had two more start to fire up the woods with gobbles that seemed to be in our back pocket.

Von quickly placed Mike facing east and I was facing a little northwest looking into the ravine that we had set up on the day before. Guns were ready and Von let out his best fly down and cackles. One “boss” tom responded the other two feel silent. For the next twenty minutes or so we could only get a response from “boss” tom, he wasn’t coming in but he was still responding. We all could hear walking and rustling in the leaves to our backs and then to my right. Von was positioned right behind me and yelping when I whispered here he comes. Von didn’t hear what I had whispered but as he turned in my direction he could see a gobbler coming in at a trot and looking for the hen. As he cleared a small sapling that my gun was next to, I heard Von say to me “kill ‘em.” Without hesitation I anchored that gobbler within twenty-five yards. He didn’t flop, move or twitch, of course neither did I until Von shouted out and said that was great. “I was looking right down the barrel at that turkey and I knew we had him in the bag,” said Von with a slap on the back and a lot of high fives.

This is my first Kentucky longbeard, but it won’t be the last. He weighed in at 24.5 lbs. had a 10 inch beard and 1 inch spurs. More importantly is that he wasn’t the “boss” tom. My bird was sneaking in to see if he could mate with a hen before the boss arrived. I made a lot of friends at the AGLOW Cast and Blast but my guide Von, is now one of my best friends. Without a doubt when you share a hunting or fishing experience with someone you have a lasting bond. I learned a great deal from both Mike Capps and Von. But more importantly, I put my guide on to an even bigger tom in that woods. I’m sure that he is also experiencing some turkey hunting success in Western Kentucky.

For more information about hunting and guiding turkey trips contact Von Summers at 1-270-965-4141 or Russell and Michele Edwards WingHaven Lodge, 15616 State Route 120 Providence, KY 42450 (270-836-7998) or info@winghavenlodge.com http:// www.winghavenlodge.com