Well After Freddy and I toured the WMA wed eve we would hunt Thur I had high hopes of some good action. Thur am it was COLD (about 36) and so foggy you could barely see the hand in front of your face. It did not lift until about 10 am. On this piece of public land you can only hunt till noon so that did not leave a lot of time. We heard about 6 or 7 birds Thur but nothing real close. One responed to us but someone else beat us to the puch so we backed out. Then we called up a bunch of jakes at closiing time. After scouting out a new place we had hhigh hopes for Fri am. Friday when we woke up it was POURING. We set up on a small field edge in our rain gear and put up the buckwing tree umbrellas. By the way these were life savers. At about 8 we see a white head coming then some red ones. All total 5 jakes and 2 hens come to our lone hen. We had called very light so they just came in slowly. 2 of the Jakes were larger and had good 6" beards. First time I have ever seen a Jke with that much colloring in his head. We decided to pass and just played with them and watched them. Tried to strike another bird till noon but the weather was just plain Nasty. We could still hunt on Sat but the forecast called for 40 mph winds and rain so we headed home and hunted VA. Heard one gobble this am in the rain but he did not really want to play the game. Will most likely try this trip again, and hope for better weather next time we get drawn. The weather really had the birds shut down during this hunt.

sounds like you guys had some fun anyway.

Man that stinks about the weather. Better to be out there than not at all though. Sounds like maybe that gang of jakes had gotten the upper hand on the longbeards given the fact the hens were there and the heads were lit up? Hard to figure. Next year should be really good down there!

Wish you guys could have scored on some birds but at least you saw some and went out in the crappy weather we are having around here.

It seems that the Jakes are in abundance in Tennessee this yr. Everyone i talk to has seen several along with a good amount of Longbeards. Next season will probably be a great yr for longbeards.

Tim, how many had they checked out Friday when you left?

Zero. Heard 2 shots sounded like one was limb fruit for sure. Sent you an e-mail also.

Know the feeling. Took friday off and went to the lease in Va, Thursday night. 2 days of hunting, heard 3 gobbles, saw 2 jakes and 5 hens.
Saturday hunted and got on a bird that we heard on the roost gobble twice. He hit the ground and we never heard from him again. At 2 PM he was 50 yards from camp in our 5 acre wheat field strutting around by himself. Should have waited and come this week to take advantage of al day hunting.

Will hunt one more time this weekend here in TN to try and get my 3rd. After that, hanging up the calls for the year. My list of things the wife wants done around the house looks like a kid's Christmas list !