South Carolina Canal Gobbler

by Josh Grossenbacher
Zink Calls
4 April 2009

Vital statistics
Weight - #21
Beard - 11 inches
Spurs - 1 inch

Today started a bit differently than yesterday. CJ White and I hadn't roosted a bird, but Mark Hoke and Walt had a gobbler all but tied up. Morning came, and while CJ and I only heard a handful of gobbles, a single shot at 7:30 signaled Mark's success!

After a quick photo session and a bit of breakfast, we hit the trucks to do some scouting. Soon, we were spying on several gobblers strutting on the edge of a water canal that runs through the property. Gearing up, we headed in, and soon had a big strutter pegged at roughly 150 yards. Suddenly, two mature birds began chasing the lone tom; as luck would have it, he eventually wondered within 30 yards of where we lay, camera rolling. The Beretta spoke once more, and another South Carolina longbeard was down with nary a flop.

It was then we realized our problem - we were on one side of the canal, and the bird was on the other. Driving around was an option; however, we were losing light quickly, and it would be most of an hour before reaching the bird. The only other alternative was a swim! Fortunately, the weather had been warm in recent days. Translation? The water wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. Unfortunately, though, the soaking wet longbeard wasn't quite the photo model we had hoped, but we had our bird AND our footage.

The Bottom Line

I've got to admit - there really wasn't any trick or tactic that we employed in this situation, but rather just plain old-fashioned luck. It just goes to show that it does pay to be in the right place at the right time!