Taggin Out Hunting

Hey all,

You will all be glad to know that the website is nearing completion. Our final dvd order has been placed and is about 50 days from being in our hands. It has been a touch since I have gave you all the report from the field so lets back this up.

The second week of April, I spent an entire week with dad along the Big Manistee River. This river is highly noted for its excellent fishery of steelhead. For those that do not know much about steelhead, they are an extremely hard fighting fish that naturally spawn in the river systems. It is not uncommon for a fish to fight itself to death during their apparent struggle with man. To get a grasp on just how hard these fish fight, during that week, I hooked 25 and only land 5 fish or about 20%. That rate is lower than some of the seasoned fisherman that I am glad my daddy met on the river. These guys were truly an absolute pleasure to fish aside.

Turkey season got of to a bang. First it was Mr. Russ Vandercook taking a nice bird off of Steve Lovasz property. The footage was great being that the birds nearly ran all the way in after leaving a group of 3 real hens. Then it was my daddy’s turn. He had a giant come into the decoys and the gun went click. If you have seen the footage from last year you would oh boy, another one of those seasons. With the gun jammed up and 10 minites later we had an additional 2 toms and 1 jake pay us a visit. Of course, once that was resolved we never seen another bird that day. But a couple days later dad got his chance at redemption. A bird come in from behind the blind and never did commit to the decoys. We shuffled around the blind and dad took a very nice tom. He sure was glad to redeem himself of the past couple of years… Once that bird was harvested, I took Mr. Rocky Cummins our for some bird action. Now Mr. Rocky has never ever tagged a turkey in 3 years of hunting, and with only 1 day left we were determined to change that. Rocky is a different character though, he wanted his first turkey to be done with the bow. So we got setup and with some miscommunication he threw an arrow through the low back feathers after we called in a pair of jakes. Disappointed and bummed, we eventually seen another pair of birds. A hen and jake worked slowly into the decoys and when the moment came Rocky pinned the donkey! Congrats Mr. Rocky on your first bird! With the action peaking out, I then met up with Mr. Todd Collins. The action continued when the birds were gobbling in the dark. Not too long after, one of those gobblers was making its way to the decoys. Was… Then a big coyote entered the field and it looked like that bird would be a goner. But the bird came back and Mr. Todd centered an arrow though the big tom. It ran off and after a long track job we let it lay for awhile. Luckily, we picked back up on the trail later that evening and found the bird. The Mr. Schumann, the wife, kid, and I went out for a day of moral mushroom picking and found a few. Those babies sure eat good with some batter and deep frying. By this time, my wife was itching at the bit to get out and give it a run. Did I mention with her bow? Mr. Paul Connelly invited us to hunt his piece of turkey field one afternoon and a long while later, guess who showed up? You guessed it, another gianormus tom. Her placement was a touch off and the arrow flew through his wing feathers and out his front breast feathers. It stung a little, for my wife anyway… we have been trying to get her back in front of another bird and I sure it will happen before the end of the month. I got the opportunity to get out a couple days back and had a tom come 30 yards to the side of me. I hit the record button and waited and waited. Smart bird kept about its marry way and left me with my tag in the pocket! Don’t worry I will be “Taggin Out!”

Good luck on all your outdoor quests,

Team Eaton