Is the fishing always this good?" Alex asked. "No," I replied, "sometimes it's better! Right here the fishing is good because of the high water. When the water goes down, the fishing will shift to other areas." Just for fun and the promise of a platter full of smokin' hot fish filets and fried potatos I had taken Alex Rutledge and Danny Barker, both of Hunter's Specialties (H.S. Strut) on a midday fishing trip to North Arkansas, not far away from my home in Hardy. "Tomcat, I'm gonna take a power nap," Alex said as he headed for the shade of a tree in a nearby grassy area. It wasn't long before Danny headed towards the same grassy spot in the shade where the soft, ankle deep green grass looked too inviting to pass up. Several days of turkey hunting had already taken its toll on this pair of sportsmen. Alex is a long time Pro Staffer for Hunter's Specialites and Danny is a Field Producer. They had come to experience the good turkey hunting that Sharp and Fulton Counties have to offer and hopefully to capture the harvest of a big Ozark gobbler on video.
Earlier in the hunt, Alex and Danny had experienced a rare display of nature's wonders as they called in a group of 16 jakes. Though jakes, which are immature gobblers with short stubby beards and incomplete tail fans, are legal game in Arkansas they were not what Alex was hoping to find. Instead of shooting one of the jakes, the camera rolled while Rutledge intimidated the youngsters with a vast array of turkey talk. Excited by the unseen receptive hen talk, the jakes strutted and gobbled while keeping a sharp eye out for the dominate gobbler who would not take kindly to having his turf invaded by a group of juveniles. Eventually, the flock of shortbearded gobblers decided to depart but not before Danny had shot several minutes of video tape documenting the unusual encounter. A bit later a hen and an old longbearded gobbler were called in but never offered the shot that Alex felt comfortable taking.
Just this morning Alex, Danny and I had found several gobblers roosted near the Spring River. I elected to stay back and try to console the group of cattle which had swarmed around the truck in the pre-dawn light while the H.S. duo disappeared over the hill in hot pursuit of the gobblers. I could hear some other gobblers roosted in an unnamed creek bottom which snaked its way through a wooded area nearby. I thought that I would leave them alone in case things didn't work out with the river bottom toms. I caught up with Danny and Alex later in the morning. Alex explained that the gobblers gobbled good on the roost but shut up after flying down. This is what has been typical so far this year in the Ozarks. This is due in part to the large number of hens present almost everywhere in this region. When gobblers are "henned up" most of the time they do not gobble well for the first hour or so after fly down time. Also, the hens are still bunched up at this time which is a bit unusual for this time of year. We went over the game plan and decided to give the river bottom gobblers another try. Alex, who is a Grand Champion Turkey Caller pulled out a yelper tube and produced a line of excited hen talk that caused the distant group of gobblers to respond. With renewed enthusiam we grabbed the gear and headed towards the gobblers with high hopes. When we reached the end of the property which we were hunting on we realized that the gobbler gang was still several hundred yards away in the distance. We set up near the fenceline before calling to the late morning turkeys. With several different calls, Alex worked the group of at least 5 gobblers into a gobbling frenzy. Though I have hunted with some of the best callers and turkey hunters in the country, I have never heard such a wide varitey of turkey talk in my life. Not only did Alex use all manner of turkey language but he would take the time to explain to me what he was doing. After hearing some of my calling he realizes that I need all the help I can get.
After an hour of pleading with the vocal group of gobblers Alex says, "There are four superjakes and an old longbeard in this bunch. The superjakes are gobblers that were jakes last year or 2 year old birds. They like where they are and they don't want to come over here". So we stood listening to the unattainable gobblers which would have been easy to work if we could have been able to set up closer. But we could not get closer to the gobblers because we did not have permission to hunt on the adjoining property. The gobblers did not want to cross any obstacles to get to where the wonderful turkey talk that kept them gobbling for so long was going on. So a late lunch and a midday fishing trip followed by a power nap in the shade rounded out the day. Chasing longbeards, catching fish and visiting with friends while enjoying the wonderful spring weather is just part of an ordinary day in the Ozarks.
