First, I don’t. Ever. So I’m not here as an ambassador to sitting under a tree from 6 am until 8 pm. But I learned a lesson yesterday. I stopped by a private lake around 11:00 to try and shoot a few fish before heading for home after a thoroughly unsuccessful morning turkey hunting in Missouri. 30 minutes into my carp killing a friend stopped by after seeing that someone had left the gate opened. We talked a few minutes about our respective season results and then he said he was headed up a nearby hill to hunt. It was about in the noon and while I didn’t say anything, I thought he was nuts. It was cloudy, rainy, and mid-day. I wondered if his wife had kicked him out of the house or something.

I shot until around 1:00 and then headed for home. At 1:15 he called and told me he had a big tom down. Apparently he heard 2 toms firing off in different directions when he got on the hill. After a gobble that sounded closer, he yelped aggressively and a minute later the tom was sneaking in silent. The other tom was still gobbling when he left.

So stick it out. Or if all you can do is hunt from 11-2, go for it. After all, you won’t kill any turkeys on the couch (or on the bank of some carp infested lake).

Even if you’re not planning to hunt Colorado this year you should still consider getting preference points. A few points can make all the difference when you are putting a hunt together and they don’t cost you much, particularly in Colorado.

You can apply for elk and deer online here.

… and it’s April 2nd! This afternoon after work I grabbed the bow and hit the creek. I’ve never seen as many carp on this particular stretch. In about an hour I shot a nice batch:

The whole time I could here a tom getting closer. Every few minutes he’d gobble again and be closer. Finally I had to pack up or risk spooking him right where I want him to roost. With a few more minutes before I had to get dinner going I grabbed rod and took a spin in my canoe:

I caught 3 crappie in 3 casts, all in the exact same spot. The third one was so shallow I could see him strike the little crankbait. Until today I had no idea they were even in the pond. I suspect this is a biology problem for the future… For today it was a fun way to pass the evening.

I’ve been hard at work in the office lately. And when I’ve had a few free hours I’ve been working on various habitat projects I’ve got going on. Aside from bowfishing in the flood I haven’t really done anything fun in a few weeks. The good news is that turkey season is right around the corner. The bad news is that with this warm weather, the best of the season may be passed before we ever get started. Still, I headed afield with my bow on a part scouting/part hunting mission to a place where I can see most of a large drainage that holds turkeys year after year. This is as close as I ever got, but there were 6-8 toms along the creek. Good info for the coming weeks.