Youth find adventure in turkey hunting profitable, fun and exciting

    With spring wild turkey season at an end, many youth had the unique experience of bagging a bird this season on Youth Day held on May 1.
    Alexis Ireland of Littleton went hunting with her father, Jeremy in Ellsworth, and brought home her first turkey, which weighed 20 pounds, sported a nine-inch beard and one-inch spurs. Then there is 10-year-old Jessica Drew of New Limerick who downed her first turkey, a 20-pound Tom, shot while hunting with her dad Mark in Newport.
NICE JAKE – Jessie Tanner of Houlton bagged a Jake, weighing 12 pounds, with a four-inch beard. She went hunting on Youth Day with her father Dan Tanner.
    But, Dan Tanner wrote about his daughter’s experience on a turkey and turkey hunting forum.
    Tanner and his daughter, Jessie, awoke on Youth Day about 2:30 a.m., had breakfast, dressed and then after an hour’s ride, they reached their blind.
    “It wasn’t too cold out,” Tanner wrote. “We got settled in the blind by 4:35 a.m. and we heard a gobble.”
    With the sound coming from a few hundred yards out to the right, the Tanners had to wait for the sun to rise to light up their decoys.
    “We heard gobbles all around us,” wrote Tanner. “By shooting light, we heard two gobblers behind us, two in front of us and two to the right of us. All of them were 150 yards or more from us.”
    The Tanners had scouted the day before the hunt and set up on a ridge top, on the edge of a clearcut, where they saw four birds about 35 yards away. The birds slowly walked away from the Tanners, not spooked at all. One stood tall and did a wing flap, said Tanner.
    The morning started off with the Tanners doing some tree yelps, which made the woods roar with gobbles from all directions.
     “Then, we gave them some fly down cackles. All the gobblers, in all directions, seemed to be getting louder,” Tanner wrote.
    The Tanners switched to soft purrs and clucks, alternating young hen yelps about every five minutes.
    “The gobbles slowed down,” wrote Tanner. “We would hear a gobble every five minutes.”
    Answering back, the Tanners could hear close drumming behind them about every 10 minutes, Tanner wrote, but they couldn’t see anything.
Contributed photograph
GOOD SHOT – Ten-year-old Jessica Drew of New Limerick displays her first turkey, a 20-pound Tom, shot while hunting with her dad Mark on youth day in Newport. Drew is the daughter of Mark and Melanie Drew of New Limerick.
    “We played this game for a little while,” he wrote. “When I looked to the right, I saw a big Tom in full strut about 150 yards down the logging road headed our way. He would gobble, I would yelp. He would start moving closer at a faster pace. I called him all the way to the bottom of the hill, which was 10 feet to my right, and then it’s a steep dropoff.”
    Almost sensing his fate, the Tom didn’t come up the hill.
    “While he was close, I gave some soft purrs, but he went around the clearcut leaving us,” Tanner wrote. “Jessie was ready, but the bird wouldn’t take the last 10 steps into sight.”
    During the episode, as the Tanners “talked” to the Tom, all the other birds quieted.
    “They went silent. I mean the woods died when he came in and left,” Tanner said. “So, I decided to move ahead of him.”
    The Tanners moved from the blind, as the Tom was now about 300 or more yards away in the woods, heading away from them.
    “We ran across the clearcut and stopped to yelp,” wrote Tanner. “I knew where he was as he gobbled. We planned on circling around him. But, when I looked across the clearcut, I saw movement 30 yards in the woods.”
    Tanner heard purrs and clucks behind the hill the Tom wouldn’t come up.
    “I told Jessie to get down,” he wrote. “We ran back across the clear cut to get to the hill. We did it unseen. I continued to purr and out comes two Jakes and a hen. They were nervous. I’m guessing they were looking for that big Tom.”
    Coming closer, about 25 yards away, the Tanners positioned themselves on the side of a dirt mound.
    “I told Jessie to take the safety off, but don’t shoot unless she sees a beard,” Tanner wrote. “I could tell two were Jakes, but I couldn’t see a beard or spurs.”
    The birds were 15 yards and approaching when the wind blew just right revealing a beard.
    “I told her the one on the left,” Tanner wrote. “Put it on his neck and squeeze slowly. The birds were still approaching. I said again, the one on the left, take him. Just as I said that … thunder exploded from my Stoger and back down the hill the bird goes … back flipping while flapping his wings … the other two ran off.”
    Jessie didn’t give up her hunt, as she tried to get a bead on the other two, which were 10 yards out.
    “I stopped her,” Tanner wrote. “I didn’t want her to shoot the hen and I wasn’t sure if the other Jake even had a beard.”
    The duo retrieved the prize from the logging road.
    “She was estatic,” Tanner wrote. “She had a smile from ear to ear. We gave each other probably 10 high fives and a few hugs.”
    Tanner looked at his cell phone … 6:59 a.m.
    “It was truly a great first turkey hunt for my daughter,” he finished. “She wanted to continue hunting, as she is allowed two. But, we have a small bird population in northern Maine. So, I decided to let the population grow and we called it a day.”    
    Jessie Tanner’s Jake weighed 12 pounds, with a four-inch beard.