A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Me and my buddy Nathan got on em by kayak!! Started the morning before light and slipped on the water starting off the morning with some owl hoots and after about 15 minutes we get a response! About 75-100 yards away a gobble rang out, the first one of the morning. We knew how close he was so we quickly beached our yaks and set up at the base of tree yelping and clucking, letting the gobblers know we were there. But still no response since the first gobble to the owl hoot. We tossed ideas around like, "maybe he has hens with em". or maybe he heard us walking through the mud. About 10 minutes pass and Nathan hits the slate call one good time and GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLEEE! Our questions get answered with a loud DOUBLE GOBBLE! That's right two gobblers hammered about 30-40 yds. away through the swamp! Nathan and I look at each other eyes wide open. Scrambling to get the GoPro on I figure out the battery is dead :twisted: and before we knew it we heard splashing in the water on the other side of the trees so we knew it was about to go down weather we were ready or not. They come strutting in like they own the place and BOOOMMM! (right next to my ear not to mention) the bird buckles over and goes to flapping. Nathan hands me the shotgun to get the second gobbler but he disappeared. Amazing experience. Im behind the hammer tomorrow
He hadn't had enough so we hit the flats for about an hour and he stuck a nice 23" red (the 2nd he has ever caught and definitely biggest) He was a happy camper.
Last edited by skitterwalk on March 21st, 2013, 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Congrats. Next time let the other gobbler start whooping up on the shot bird before moving to get the gun. His attention will be on fighting and not you as much.
I don't want to be a killjoy, because y'all sound just like me and my bud's at this age, however, be careful that you have permission to hunt where every you leave you kayak. There is some guys here from Brooks Co. that floated the river to hunt and then when they got out of the boat, they were on someone else's land that did not appreciate the intrusion.