An Outdoorsman's Journal

A Great Youth Turkey Hunt

Hello friends,

       Once again this week I have more to write about than I have space. For the 3rd year in a row, I headed down to Dodge County near Burnett and spent a very positive weekend with 6 young turkey hunters and at least as many mentors. The action was good as well as the wildlife viewing.

       Saturday, April 12th
       High 58, low 30

       Yesterday I made the 2-hour drive to the Jeff and Melissa Pausma farm near Fox Lake where I would be hunting with 13-year-old Conner Thiede. After that I would head over to Burnett and join the entire gang for a turkey camp type of a weekend. I had just parked my truck in a very picturesque field, pasture type of setting when I realized that I forgot my turkey blind. Good thing I have friends in the area.
      So here is the deal, six mentors would be heading out with six hunters and 2 parents, long before daylight and we would be scattered all over Dodge County. Conner and I have hunted together several times, and we had a blind to set up long before daylight. Pretty bad luck struck when we arrived at the same spot where Conner whacked a massive tom last year when directly above us was a flock of turkey in a burr oak tree. Turkey flew off in the dark and when it started getting light we could see a tom that was out of range and sitting in a tree.
    Meanwhile Tanner Weber was mentoring his 15-year-old cousin Joey Reifschneider on the Horicon Marsh. Tanner is 21, Joey had a baseball game the night before and on Sunday morning was scheduled to shoot 100 rounds for the Beaver dam high school trap shooting team. It took Tanner and Joey about 40 minutes to call in a tom and Joey put it in the frying pan.
    My stepson Joey Dushek was mentoring over in Juneau County and had a golden eagle attack his jake decoy as in crushing it.
   Near Waupun 13-year-old Griffin Visser was hunting with his grampa, Jeff Visser and working together, Griffin bagged his first turkey.
     The entire day Conner and I watched sometimes a flock of crows, sometimes a single crow that would find an owl that seemed to live by us and harass the heck out of it.
     By 10 am the team of Jameson Klug, his mentor Jerrod Braun and father Jim Klug had been successful in getting Jameson who is 9 and came all the way from Greely, Colorado his 2nd tom in as many years. In other words, by before lunch, we were at 50 percent for our kids.
     Another wildlife story is that of a hen mallard that we watched last April and then on September 1st for the Early Teal/Goose opener. She raised a brood of 9 or 10, she always seems to hang out in the same 20 square feet of marsh and she never quit quacking, the old girl was there again today.
     During the middle of the day and after dark all of the mentors share meals and a ton of laughs, these guys all grew up together near Burnett and were avid with plinking 22s and harvesting lots of game.
     Perhaps the most unique turkey whacking story of the day was for 14-year-old Carsyn Thiede who I have enjoyed many quality deer, duck and turkey hunts with. Justin "Beaner" Braun was her mentor, and her dad Tyler Thiede was also a part of the hunt. Beaner as he is commonly called has an obsession for turkey hunting and this trio spent much of the day chasing the same gobbler which just before dark made the mistake of getting to close to Carsyn.

    The following morning Conner and I and chose no blind and hunted on the ground at the Pausma farm. We hunkered against a deadfall and Conner was asleep, about 20 minutes into daylight. I was working my dad’s call "dad passed away in 94," and just like that 4 jakes flew down from the roost and were within 20-feet of us. Crazy thing is that Conner could only hunt till 8:30. The jakes knew something was wrong and were wondering away pretty steady. Conner Thiede made an excellent shot and just like that our group went 5 for 6.

   I think Youth Hunts are a beautiful thing!

   Sunset