Two-time world champion turkey caller Lewis Stowe’s advice helped Garrett White prepare to bag a wild turkey.
Stowe says, “Luck meets preparation and opportunity in the middle of the road.”
Around 7 a.m. on opening turkey hunting day, Garrett and his father, Dale, set up under a row of cedars. Before they had time to position a decoy, seven turkeys ó five toms and two hens ó arrived. But they didn’t get one of those.
They later tried decoys, calling softly, scratching leaves and waiting for the hens to go back to their nest.
They finally decided to follow a logging road into the woods. Five minutes after first calling, they heard rustling in the leaves.
“We immediately sat down, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the gobbler,” Garrett wrote in an e-mail to the Post.
But it was a deer.
Disappointed, they began walking back to the truck.
“Standing in the middle of a field, I just so happened to look back just in time to catch three toms stepping into the same woods we had originally come from,” Garrett said.
They moved back to the edge of the woods, set up, and enticed the turkeys with some soft clucks and yelps. Within minutes, the gobblers showed up.
Garrett used a 12-gauge Browning A-5 to bag the 18-pound bird with a 9-inch beard.
A little luck helped the West Rowan High School senior. “Without the deer to stall us for an extra 10 minutes, we would have left before the turkeys were in sight,” he said.
If you’re trying to outwit a wild turkey, Garrett says remember C.U.P.P.: Confidence, Understanding, Patience and Persistence. Add another “P” for prayer, and you’ll bag one.