At the time of this writing, it’s the end of March, 2010, and turkey season is about 5 weeks away! It’s a time of excitement for most turkey hunters, as we dig out all the gear, unpack the decoys, and play with our calls. For me, turkey hunting has become a passion and there’s nothing I’d rather do than watch the spring woods wake up at dawn, with my back against a nice big tree. Maine is still relatively new as far as turkey hunting goes, and it seems like only yesterday when we were given our first chance to go chase the wily gobbler. Actually, my area, (the Midcoast region of Maine), didn’t open up to public hunting until 1996 and though many seemed interested, few hunters were successful those first couple years.
I didn’t take an interest until 1998 but back then we were under a lottery system for tags. Sadly, I wasn’t chosen the first few times I entered but that didn’t stop me from hitting the woods to see what all the fuss was about, and I simply traded my weapon for a set of calls and a good pair of optics. The turkey population was sparse in the early days and to hear a distant gobble made my heart race and my blood boil as I took off running through the woods, hoping to get close enough to watch and observe. Having no turkey hunting experience whatsoever, I literally had to learn by trial and error, and one thing that really helped me was to watch them at any and every opportunity, studying their habits, calls, and flock interactions. I even learned enough to become involved in calling in turkeys for friends who were fortunate enough to secure a tag in the beginning when I had none, and so no season afield ever went to waste in my book.
Suffice it to say I’ve come a long way since my initial start in 1998, and the past 12 years have seen a lot of fine-tuning on my part. One of the many things I’ve had to struggle with is the use of decoys and decoy set-ups on turkeys. Like I said, it’s been trial and error mostly, but by trying new strategies each season, I’ve learned what works for me and what doesn’t. Now mind you, nothing is guaranteed in turkey hunting, and no set-up is by any means fool-proof, but if you use a little common sense and Yankee ingenuity, decoys can greatly enhance a hunters spring success.
The ‘Three-Phases’ of Decoy Use
Many times, during the early days of my toying with decoys, there were accepted scenarios already abroad, such as using a single hen, or the infamous ‘love triangle’ approach, in which two jake decoys were placed, (a passive model and an aggressive model), in conjunction with the hen. Unfortunately, the triangle, though it worked well for two back-to-back seasons, abruptly stopped producing for me. In fact, many times the decoys seemed to spook the turkeys, a problem many turkey hunters today still argue about. I won’t forget the first time it happened to me either. I was being filmed for a DVD series and things were looking pretty good. We had struck a gobbler and my calls had managed to lure him some 350-400 yards, through a small patch of woods, across a brook, and up a steep hill, and as the producer readied the big camera for the final scene, the gobbler hung up when he stepped over a stone wall and saw the decoys. He had been gobbling at every call and coming on a string but on looking back, it was the aggressive jake that shut him up and made him run. As soon as he saw it he went the other way…in a hurry!
For me…and through 3-4 seasons of experimentation in which I had nothing to lose…I discovered what I’ve come to call the “3-phases” of decoy use during the spring season. Here in the extreme northeast, our turkeys start to gobble and strut generally in or around the end of March, and active breeding commences in April. Biologists claim that, on average, a hen could pretty much have a full clutch of eggs laid by May 1st, however many factors come into play that could cause these averages to fluctuate. That being said, here is what I, personally, consider to be the best decoy arrangements and when to implement them.
Since our season opens around May 1st and runs for five consecutive weeks, ending the first week in June, I find that putting out a strutting decoy, (and I prefer a tom over a jake), works best for the first week and a half, to two weeks, depending on conditions. This works especially well if used in conjunction with a sitting or breeding-hen decoy, placed nearby. About 2-3 weeks into the season, I’ll swap out the strutter decoy for a standing jake and a standing hen…or even two. As the fourth and fifth weeks come along, I’ll often switch to just a few hens, and depending on the way the breeding season has taken shape, I might only use one.
The reasoning is fairly simple. At the onset of the season, toms and jakes are ready for action and ready to breed; dominance and territorial urges, coupled with the need to mate are strong and so a strutting decoy over a sitting hen often ignites raging jealousy, amidst toms and jakes alike. A boss gobbler who sees a strutter over a hen in his domain will absolutely not tolerate it, and will oftentimes come to the set-up at a full run. If left to see what happens, the boss tom usually tries to fight the decoy before trying to breed the sitting hen.
As the season hits about half way, many toms and jakes have been in so many battles they’re about wore-out, and many times a strutting decoy will scare off a subordinate tom, who just doesn’t have it in him to fight what appears to be another boss gobbler. That’s why switching to a passive jake and a standing hen works well, because the combination of both, especially with a jake who isn’t showing aggression, often allows a sense of security for another tom, even a subordinate, to come in and investigate without the fear of being immediately run off. As to the final week or weeks of the season, I’ve seen incoming toms freeze-up and hang back, even in full strut, if I have a jake decoy near my hen(s). That’s when I switch to only hens in standing or feeding positions. The afore-mentioned hunt in which the gobbler hung up at my decoys happened at the end of the season, and when I had an aggressive jake decoy in the mix.
The scenarios are far from foolproof, as I mentioned earlier, but for me this is what I have found to be a fairly reliable series of set-ups. And of course, with weather conditions and flock sizes, population fluctuations and other contributing factors, the timing could be off a few days either way as to when to switch-out my decoys. But… I’ll know when it’s time merely by watching how the turkeys react. And as to explanations concerning aggressive and passive jakes, keep this in mind… A passive jake will have less red coloration in the head and neck, being almost blue or white. This not only signifies submission, but a breeding attitude as well. An aggressive jake will have a full or mostly red color about the head and neck, and this is, as us rednecks would put it, is a sign he ain’t gonna put up with much from an approaching intruder.
Hopefully, this will give you the confidence you need in trying new decoy strategies this season. Decoys can play a major role in the success or failure of a turkey hunt, and only by experimentation can one become familiar with what to do and what not to do. Good luck in the coming weeks and above all, be safe! Carry your decoys well-concealed in a vest or bag, and when possible consider using a blaze orange hat when transporting both decoys or your harvested turkey.
(Blaine Cardilli is a freelance outdoor writer from Warren, Maine, and is currently on Prostaff with Hunters Specialties and Ameristep Quality Hunting; Blaine is also the vice president of the Midcoast Maine Chapter of the NWTF. He enjoys conducting spring & fall seminars on deer and turkey hunting)
No related posts.
