OnStand : The Sportsman's Watchdog

Hunter: Ron Richards

Season: Spring Shotgun

Method: Calling to decoys

License Requirements: Resident: Turkey Stamp $28.00, Habitat Stamp $13.00

Weaponry/Gear: Shotgun (10ga.), Full camo clothing, 2 hen decoys

Guide: None used.

Agency Contact: Nebraska Game & Parks Department
2200 N. 33rd Street
Lincoln, NE 68503
(402) 471-0641
http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/

The Tale:

Spring Turkey Season – Capitalized! This is becoming my favorite hunting season as it encompasses calling, decoying, and getting very close to your game.

This year in Nebraska had been tough. Very tough! The birds busted up into small groups in a warm March so the archery hunters were having a great year but just before shotgun season opened a cold front rolled in.

Maybe “rolled in” doesn’t cover it… “trampled in” would be closer. The temperature dropped to 10 degrees! No lilacs, no spring flowers, no fruit blossoms and the darned ol’ turkeys all bunched back up.

Mother Nature at her worst.

Then my work took a turn for the better and I wasn’t able to go to Turkey Camp with our group of guys who gather every year. Our camp is located in what is normally a slam dunk location so what happened there pretty much painted how poor the season had been – four of them killed two turkeys.

Then it rained for four days. It was needed but…

I had planned on hunting this particular weekend and then work reared its head, again, and I didn’t get home until late Friday night. I never set an alarm; don’t need to. Uh-huh. Guess I was tired because the robins’ singing woke me up – too late for a roost hunt.

I decided to get some things caught up around the house and try an afternoon hunt.

At 2:00pm I was setting my decoys in the blazing sun with a temperature approaching 80 degrees. So much for the cool spring rains!

I got set up on a log in the shade, pulled on my head net and gloves and made my first call. Fifteen minutes later I made my second call. Nothing.

I was about half asleep and nodding and happened to look down between my feet. Oh Dear Lord!!!

Directly between my feet, within striking distance, within picking distance was a three inch morel mushroom. A Shroom!!!

I reached down and plucked it from the boggy bottom. I caressed it. I smelled it. I placed it carefully in my extra head net.

Then I made another call.

Why? Beats me.

I already knew what I was going to do next. Darned ol’ turkeys weren’t answering the call anyway. It’s 80 degrees and I was now on a mission!

You have to understand that out here in western Nebraska we don’t get that many morels. It is rare. I have hunted this particular section of the Platte River for spring turkeys (and morels) for three years and this was the first time I’d found a morel!

So… I pulled off the gloves and started “hunting”. My efforts were rewarded with a pair of small ones. Then another decent one. And then with what my buddy Ray called a “Hickory Chicken”; what had to be the biggest morel I have ever found.

Two more positive notes; cleaning was a lot easier than a turkey would have been and supper was absolutely incredible! Steak is cheaper than wild turkey anyway!!