Chuck Gallo of Pulaski County sent me some great pictures of his daughter Mya after an exciting turkey hunt early last week.

This was my favorite shot. You can't really see the turkey that well, but that's not important. What you can see is that incredible smile on Mya's face. You can't fake that kind of joy.

Chuck wrote up the story of the hunt and I didn't see any reason to boil it down. So here it is:

"Of all the hunts and all the success, nothing tops this one.

I went out this morning with Mya and Cologero. The plan was that Mya would take the first shot at any turkeys and Cologero would take the first shot at any coyotes. She was shooting a 20 gauge Remington 1100 youth model, and Cologero was toting a .22 rifle. With these two shooters I didn't see any need to take a gun myself.

We set up a blind in the 5-acre field on Sunday afternoon and planned to hunt Monday morning but the rain and winds convinced us to wait for a better day.

Although tomorrow would have been even better there was no delaying it any longer. We woke the kids up at 4:30 a.m., fed them, packed plenty of snacks, drove out to Doe Mountain and loaded our gear onto the 4 wheeler.

Both kids did an incredible job of staying quiet as we parked the 4 wheeler at the bottom of the field and walked up to the top of the field where the blind had been staked down.

We set out our decoys, put our gear in the blind, got everyone situated, and waited for the first gobble.

We waited as long as we could wait with my two anxious hunters before starting our calls. On the first call we got an answer from high on the Finger Ridge. After a short while we called again and got a response from much closer than the previous gobble. It sounded like a Jake and it sounded like more than one.

Just a minute or two later and heads could be seen coming up the side of the ridge and into the field. It was six jakes in all with one obvious stand-out. The largest Jake strutted and gobbled right there at the blind as all six got ready to flog the Jake decoy we set out.

Unfortunately I don't have this on video as I was focused on Mya and getting her in position.

She was extremely excited and stated that "she had the fever again" which was a reference to the "buck fever" she got in the fall while deer hunting.

I whispered to her to pick one and shoot. Seconds later the gun roared, and turkeys flew......... all except for one. Mya made an outstanding shot on the large Jake and he crumbled to the ground.

Cologero, who was such a huge help all morning, did a great job of helping with everything and he didn't make a sound when the turkeys were upon us. He congratulated his sister and we headed to the check station where they were both a huge hit.

Mya carried her turkey in over her shoulder and walked through the store aisles and back to the scales -- 13 pounds 6 ounces with a 2-3/4 inch beard.

As the song goes, "I saw God today" - which, by the way, was playing on the radio on the way out. It was truly an experience of a lifetime for all of us."

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• Posted by Mark Taylor in Turkey ::
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Here's the video from my turkey hunt with Freddy McGuire on May 1 in Bedford County.

Based on this video I am not expecting Will Primos to call and ask me to join his video team any time soon. I also fully expect my brother to tell me the video (particularly my ultracheesy voice over), is "more than I can bear."

But I hadn't killed a turkey in two years so that was my priority on this day. Given that and the general challenges of this hunt, I think this turned out as well as we could have hoped for under the circumstances.

Two details about the video. At one point in the voice over I say "I decided to belly crawl..." That's not true. As we were trying to figure out how to get this bird, Freddy -- who is an expert at this stuff -- suggested that I belly crawl over to try to peak into the hollow. I was going to give him a signal if it was clear for him to get over there with the camera. But it was clear the turkey was only 50 yards away and there was no way we could risk it.

Also, this video is quick, but at least 15 minutes elapsed between when I started crawling and when I finally shot.

I think the average viewer of outdoors videos would be surprised to know how many hunts those pro video teams go on to get the great footage that makes the cuts for their shows and DVDs. The more I lug cameras along on hunts, the more appreciation I have for the teams that get great footage out there under fair chase conditions.

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The last time I notched a spring turkey tag was in 2005 and after a couple tough hunts this year I was getting pretty disheartened. Fortunately, the drought came to an end yesterday thanks to my good buddy Freddy McGuire, who helped me kill this nice longbeard in Bedford County.

It had a thick 10-inch beard and weighed 23 pounds even on Freddy's digital scale. The spurs were between 3/4 and 7/8 of an inch, although the tip of one was broken off. So, I'm not sure if it was a 2-year-old or 3-year-old. Not that it really matters. It is a heck of a trophy and was a great, exciting hunt.

Freddy actually already wrote a story about the hunt and posted it on his Vaturkey.com Web site. He told the story so well I don't feel any great need to try to duplicate the work.

Freddy was shooting video. We didn't get the kill on tape but I'm working on a little video I hope to post here a little bit later today.

The short version is this guy started gobbling on his own about 8:45 a.m. We heard another one gobbling a ways off after the hunt. If you can hunt late, now is a good time to find lonely gobblers after hens head off to nests.

Keep the reports and pictures coming, and thanks for reading.

mt

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I'm doing some research for a story on the Cave Spring Optimist Club's 40th annual fishing tournament at Smith Mountain Lake and have been digging through some old newspaper clippings.

Yesterday I looked at a bunch of clips from 1969 and 1970 and one type of story stood out: fish kills.

As frustrating as the recent kills we've seen have been, it was a lot worse back then.

Unlike many of the kills we've been dealing with lately, the kills back then were most from point source pollution. Somebody put something bad in the water and it killed a bunch of fish.

Just a basic search turned up stories on kills on just about every stream in the region, including the New, James and Smith Rivers. A kill on the Clinch River in June of 1970 wiped out most life in the river in a 10-mile stretch. The kill was caused when an equipment failure at a hydroelectric plant allowed acid into the water.

I also found stories about anglers complaining that fisheries managers were unfair about the attention they gave to certain species and fisheries. It's safe to say that's one thing that hasn't changed.

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• Posted by Mark Taylor in Fishing ::
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Barry Arrington, who coordinates an annual spring turkey excursion for disabled hunters each spring in Bedford County, sent in this shot of 79-year-old Harold Ford and his first-ever gobbler.

The hunt is an offering from Virginia's chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation's Wheelin' Sportsmen program.

Here's Barry's story about the hunt:

"The predawn hours of Saturday, April 26 were wet and foggy as we gathered for our 3rd annual Wheelin’ Sportsmen hunt. Five hunters and their guides spread out across Bedford County in search of Mr. Longbeard.

Daylight greeted most of the groups with very little gobbling on the roost. Three groups were able to eventually work birds later in the morning. Those three groups had birds close and two hunters even pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, one had failed to put a round in the chamber of his gun. The other gun did have a shell chambered and the load of Winchester # 5s found its mark.

The gun was mine, BUT… it was in the hands of Mr. Harold Ford.

Continue reading "At 79, Harold Ford kills his first gobbler" »

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