Patoka trip

Just had a pointless weeklong trip to Patoka. Went and tried some crappie fishing and only managed a few small crappie each day. Also went and scouted the woods for turkey, found their roosts...but as soon as opening day hit, the toms seemed scared to death of everything. I even saw a tom run like the wind when a real hen opened up yelping at him. Ive never seen anything like it. The toms that did come near me were grouped together and wouldnt separate. Since the turkey hunting was so bad as well, I decided to do a little mushroom hunting while...didnt find a single one! We even took a short trip up to the casino and lost a hunk of change pretty darn quickly. Was not very productive, but it was still great to be out in the wilderness and not at work!!!

Bet you can't wait to get back down here. :biggrin Just found my first greys of the year this evening. Only three though. Me and a friend caught around 100 yesterday with only two being 11 inches. One thing to consider is they are pulling the lake down pretty hard and it usually makes the fishing tough.

Been finding the mushrooms really well this past week as many as 68 on one outing. Most of them were greys and dog peckers found a big yellow one yesterday evening. Found a turkey nest too with 14 eggs in it. That's why turkey hunting so tough in southern IN the season is more appropriate for central or northern IN. I did see a picture yesterday of two happy hunters they set up where there were 6 turkeys roosting not sure if they were all toms. They flew down too them and the rest was history. They shot them Wednesday morning.

Seen a lot of hunters out in my area north of Patoka about 30 miles. Hear no birds gobbling at all as I have been out hunting. Not found any shrooms at all yet..not sure if the black ones will even come up in my area as seen this happen before. Birds are screwie as all get out but have heard couple of shots and feel like someone has scored. Don't give up as later season can be productive on birds even if it ever geets hotter weather. Water temp on East Fork of the White early this week,,was still 56-57 for moving water. Cold nites are really keeping it up from warming,,and the last rain was 59-60 as well. I'm giving the birds a chance of surviving by using a black powder shotgun. :biggrin

Got a feeling all the hens are on nests around me. Had turkeys galore until a couple weeks ago, now only a jake or two or a solitary hen.

This was by far the weirdest turkey hunting experience I have ever seen. Thought for sure I was going to tag one Fri. I got right up close to a roost thanks to the rain. He flew down and was within 25 yds of me but was just out of sight due to a slight ridge in front of me. Was gobbling and stirring around for 15 mins. I sat quiet since hen sounds have been spooking birds...I couldnt take it anymore and gave a few soft clucks to mimic a hen off in the distance...he took off like a bullet in the opposite direction. Saw alot of turkeys but they werent interested in mating