Danielle's First Turkey - Illinois
Danielle's first turkey.
Hunter: Danielle Wozniak
Cameraman: David Wozniak
April 11th had finally arrived. Our bags were packed and we were headed to Illinois to hunt with our good friends Ted and Tina Sprague of Eagle Lakes Outfitters. I was on a mission-to kill a turkey early in the week, film my husband David taking a bird, then hang out with Ted and Tina and their daughter Ella. I was looking forward to having the week off from work and to the first hunt of the spring, but not to getting up at 4:30 in the morning. Unfortunately, I’m just not a morning person. I was hoping David and I would have our birds by Tuesday.
We took our 6 month old daughter, Aleah with us, along with a friend of mine to watch her and Ella so that Ted, Tina, David and I could hunt. Monday, April 13, was opening day and we awoke to rain. David and I heard a number of birds gobbling throughout the morning, but none of them were close. As we sat in our blind, a single shot rang out from across the road and we knew Tina had shot. An hour or so later, we heard a second shot from the same area. As it turned out, Ted and Tina had both shot nice gobblers, so it ended up being a great day afterall.
David and I had high hopes for the rest of the week, but by Thursday, Day 4 of the 5-day 1st Season, we were still without a bird. We had planned on leaving Thursday, as our youth season back home in Ohio was starting Saturday and David wanted a day to scout. But since neither one of us had yet to take a bird, we decided to give it one more crack.
Ted decided to have us set up in a new area Friday morning. Around 5:30 a.m. we got settled into the Amerstep blind. Soon we had birds gobbling their heads off from their roosts a few hundred yards away. We could also hear several hens yelping nearby. We waited until we were sure they had flown down, then David began calling. It wasn’t long before we noticed 2 big longbeards headed our way across the clearing. When they got to within 100 yards of us, they suddenly veered to our right and marched right over to another big longbeard strutting for a group of hens. About 10 minutes later, David glanced to our left and saw 3 birds running straight toward us. He pulled up the binos and confirmed that they were all jakes. As they crossed a small drainage, 7 more jakes appeared behind them. The second group caught up to the first group and within seconds we had 10 jakes within yards of our decoy. I already had the TC 20 gauge up and was ready to shoot. It was the last morning of the hunt and it was now or never. When one of the jakes separated a safe distance from the others, I aimed and squeezed the trigger. He dropped and birds scattered everywhere, but they quickly ran back in to harass their fallen buddy. I was shaking with excitement. I had just shot my first turkey and it was incredible.
I would like to thank my husband David for filming me all week and Ted and Tina Sprague at Eagle Lakes for another great week in Pike County, Illinois!