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National Wild Turkey Federation Annual Convention & Sport Show

Published by Steve Hickoff | February 8, 2012 | 0 comments

Realtree is heading to Nashville. Are we listening to music at the Grand Ole Opry or visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame? Nope, not this time around.

It's site of the National Wild Turkey Federation Annual Convention & Sport Show. Why should you consider a road trip too? You can't wait for spring gobbler season to start either, right?

Attend convention seminars presented by turkey pros.

Check out the Grand National Calling Championships.

Enjoy exhibit hall activities and auction events, plus much more.

Look for turkey blog posts, tips and new gear reviews on realtree.com in the coming weeks.

As for the National Wild Turkey Federation Annual Convention & Sport Show: I'll be there grinning like a strutting gobbler with a bunch of hens. Be sure to say hello.

– Steve Hickoff

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Fly-Tying Tips for Off-Season Turkey Hunters

Published by Steve Hickoff | February 7, 2012 | 0 comments

You can tie many patterns from a wild turkey's wing feather. Not into fly-fishing? Pass turkey feathers along to somebody who is. They'll appreciate it.

Fly-tying tips? You heard right. You rednecks have likely cussed me by now, calling me a fishing nerd. You fly-tying purists have probably too, thinking I’m a redneck.

I’m a little of both; an educated hillbilly if you will. Yep, I’m a lifelong wild turkey hunter and closeted fly angler. You have to do something all summer, and yeah, I even published a book on the subject (don’t hold this against me either).

More importantly, I like to use as much of my wild turkey kills as I can: breast and thigh meat, wing bones for making calls and wing feathers – especially the quills – for tying flies. You can tie other patterns with the feathers, but this post is about a fly left of the usual center.

There, you cussed me again for calling something made from a turkey quill a “fly” pattern. Don’t bass anglers dub floating lures with treble hooks “baits”? I rest my case.

Anyway, before I make both sides mad at me, here’s a fly pattern you can tie on your own using the hollow tip of a turkey’s wing feather.

Now for the fly-tying tips to make this thing come together:

Step 1: Kill a wild turkey in season. Pull intact feathers from the bird. Clip off the hollow wing tips where the feathers end. Eat the rest.

Step 2: Coat the quill tips with clear fixative to prevent cracking, making sure not to close off the open end where you cut it. Let dry.

Step 3: Gently insert fly-tying tubing inside the hollow quill. After making a small hole, run a size 8 long-shanked hook forward through the quill. Thread colors can vary from white, black, brown or red (you choose). Wrap tightly behind the hook eye. Glue in place. Let dry. Some experimentation is required.

Step 4: Add additional glue to create a head or use other fly-body material (this is the fun part). Let dry. Use adhesive eyes and glue in place – or paint your own on the head. Use a permanent black marker to draw a line, then cover with a fixative or glue again in places that need waterproofing and firming up.

Step 5: Go fishing.

This pattern acts like a struggling baitfish and floats (if the waterproofing efforts worked). You can skitter it between lily pads for bass and pickerel, or fish it in chatty riffle water for trout. It catches stuff. Try it.

Try this turkey quill pattern too.

– Steve Hickoff

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My Dog Watches Turkey Hunting Videos

Published by Steve Hickoff | February 3, 2012 | 0 comments

My dog Luna watches turkey hunting videos.

Seriously. My guess is your dog probably likes 'em too; especially the audio vocalizations, which to a canine, must seem odd coming from a square hunk of plastic with little turkeys running around on a flat screen. Like you, the off-season (and especially the pre-season) is nearly unbearable for both of us.

In fall, my setter girl and I are outdoors all the time, ridge-running and river-bottom busting autumn turkey flocks where legal (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York on my GPS unit). Once scattered, we set up on the gregarious birds and I try to call them back to the gun. It's addicting. Then it stops.

I'm not alone in saying it's all systems go right now as the spring season approaches: I run mouth and friction calls most days, write on turkeys steadily and most certainly slip a spring gobbler hunting DVD into my 'puter (or try to find a new one I haven't seen online).

I did it this morning and this picture of my Luna says the rest.

Steve Hickoff photo

As the video (and sound) plays on, she turns her head left and right, puzzling over the deal. Where are the turkeys? Why can't I see them? Now that I can, why are they so small?

And if it's a bunch of guys sounding as good (if not better) than real turkeys it must be truly confusing.

Excitement builds. And then, as she does on a fall flock break, she barks. Poor girl. Won't be long now . . . just a spring turkey season (when I sneak out in the dark to avoid you in a grand act of hunting infidelity I'll repeat as a habitual offender), and summer (when you'll have to stay home as those poults put on weight and figure the whole survival deal out). October's coming, after I take care of a little business with some spring birds in a half-dozen states . . .

So are you in turkey video mode right now? Does your dog watch with you? Let us know in the comments section below and thanks.

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New Gobble Calls for Spring Turkey Hunting

Published by Steve Hickoff | February 1, 2012 | 0 comments

Spring turkey hunting might include a range of calls, including the gobble.

Gobble calls can make male turkeys sound off with shock gobbles in the spring, revealing their roosting or standing position. Gobble calls can pull in territorial birds fixing to fight the interloper (you, gun or bow ready to rock). Gobble calls can interest late-season spring turkeys re-forming gobbler gangs. Some might say, yeah, but gobble calls can also pull in hunters. True enough.

Here’s word on three new gobble calls for the 2012 spring turkey season:

Hale Fire Gobble Call

Knight & Hale’s “Hale Fire Gobble Call”: I caught up with company rep Mike Mattly recently who told us: “We have a total of 12 new turkey calls for 2012. The Hale Fire Gobble Call will be the big hit for this year. It blows like a feeder goose call when saying tooka, tooka, tooka, tooka, tooka, tooka and cupping your hands over the bell, closing them at the end of the sequence. It really is an easy call to blow and retail is only $19.99.”

Haint Gobble CallDown-n-Dirty Outdoors’ “Haint Gobble Call” (retail $59.99): 

This video tutorial shows you how to run it.

Flextone’s “Thunder Gobble”: Flextone Thunder GobbleAccording to the company: “This call has a shaped mouth piece that not only fits your mouth comfortably, but it directs 100% of your wind through the tube. This produces super loud gobbles. The double reed construction allows for raspy tones which add realism to your gobbling that you won't get out of shaker type gobble tubes.” (Call 877.993.4868 for retail information.)

Gobble calls. Do you use them, avoid them or ignore them like a telemarketer's call? Let's get this online turkey camp conversation started. Let us know in the comments section below and thanks.

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Turkey Hunting Is Easy (Just Ask the Hens)

Published by Steve Hickoff | January 26, 2012 | 0 comments

Turkey hunting is easy, some say. All things considered, it’s pretty simple:

  • The spring gobbler wants to breed hens – as many as possible.
  • The spring hen wants to feed, breed and find nesting habitat where she’ll later graze along with her field-bugging brood.
  • The hunter, you and me, we want to ruin her little party and kill the gobbler. With any luck, she’s already bred him, so he’s done the job at this point, right?

Often enough though, we tag a gobbler who also wanted to breed as many hens as possible, but hadn’t been, and came running to our calls and died for it.

If it’s so easy (especially with the kamikaze birds) then why’s it so hard sometimes?

The thrill of victory doesn’t always last long. Often enough, if we hunt a handful of states, we don’t kill jack in a few of them.

Here’s a turkey hen I photographed this week wearing pre-season false eyelashes and eyeliner. And you wonder why it’s so hard to kill a spring gobbler.

One reason? Hens.

Pretty ones – birds that couldn’t get out of the first round of a calling contest. Ugly ones – scraggly sweet talkers who could win it all. Hens with feather-covered heads and others with beards (I’ve seen my share over the years and even killed a few in the fall).

The gobbler wants them all and isn’t all that picky. We want HIM. She’ll put a stop to it if she can.

Yep, she’s our main turkey hunting competition. She’ll steal our gobbler away and hold his hand as they walk right on down the hollow.

He may even courtesy gobble a goodbye.

She’s also got a big role the future of the turkey population, so we tend to be forgiving – especially after killing some gobbler, any gobbler, maybe not the one she’s running with, but . . .

And sometimes she’ll drag the gobbler right in to you as she challenges the new hen in the area (you).

Yep, turkey hunting is easy. And hard as steel shot. And we love it – even the gobbler-stealing hens.

 – Steve Hickoff

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