[el Toro]

After scouting last weekend and not seeing anything in our area and very little sign, we set up our blind in the dark Saturday without expecting much. We were in a spot where we could look over two large meadows. About 20 minutes after light we hear a distant gobble a few hundred yards away. We heard a few more gobbles in the next few minutes and they seemed to be getting a little closer. I'd like to think it was my calling but he wasn't real hot and didn't seem like he was really responding. A little later we hear a hen yelping in the same general direction. I look over at Brent (not Fresh One) and say "that hen is going to screw this all up." Sure enough the gobbler paired up with the hen and would not leave the creek bottom. We sat in the blind until 10:00 hoping that the hen might go to nest and the gobbler would come looking for love. At 10:00 we made the decision to go to them. We got down into the creek and started working their way. Having never seen them we did not have the location pinpointed and really didn't know how far away they were. I'd call every 75 yards or so as we were working our way down the creek. Nothing for the first 2 or 3 calls. The next time I hit the call I got an immediate gobble and it was close. We quickly set up behind a deadfall with Brent a few yards away. Brent gave me a "PSSST, PSSST" and an excited point. I turned around to see two heads haul ass through the grass. Busted! We were just too close and they had us made before we even got set up.

That was it. Nothing seen or heard the rest of the day. We tried a few different set ups but nothing. The other guys struck out too, as did the Wed. hunters. Those birds were just too educated. Most of them seemed to have moved out of our hunt area and the ones that were there were very smart.

Oh well, it was a nice day and the lake was beautiful.