Skye Goode: 2014 Spring Turkey Season in Wisconsin

I had a very rewarding spring turkey season this last year. I was fortunate enough to take out a youth hunter, harvest a bird with a hero of mine, and even call in and bag a gobbler all by myself. I spent many hours in the woods, became sleep deprived, risked my relationships and work performance, and spent whole paychecks on gas to run from spot to spot, but it was all worth it. It would take me days to write up all the anecdotes from this season's adventures, so instead, here's my 2014 season in pictures:

My first turkey encounter of the season when I was out calling coyotes.

A week before the regular season, I had the thrilling chance to take out my first youth hunter for the Learn-To-Hunt program. He witnessed a nice gobbler come thundering from that far ridge on the right, all the way into the decoys, spitting, strutting, and gobbling the whole way. A live hen came in and intersected the gobbler at 40 yards, so I had to give my hunter the green light. He took a long shot and missed, but was very excited to witness a bird in the rut and have a shot opportunity. I think he's hooked.

One of my blind setups for the youth hunt.

I had my chance the next week, season 1, but ate tag sandwich.

My cousin Adam called in this nice 3 year old on public land, season 3.

He ended up being 19#, but I found out that someone had been baiting on public land.

Not 2 hours later, Adam called in a beautiful gobbler for Ricky. I was able to sit and film on this hunt.

One of the best days of my life.

Back at it for season 4, in the cow pasture.

The cow pasture was one of my favorite spots all year, but the birds are finicky.

On weeks that I didn't have a tag, I still ventured out to see what I would encounter.

Hunting the ridge underneath a roost site. Had 3 hens fly up shortly after this picture was taken.

One of the last weeks of the season. Vegetation helps with concealment, but decoys are hard to see, birds are hard to spot, call sounds don't travel as far, and the bugs are awful!

I tried filming all my hunts, but self-filming is hard! Here's a stillshot from a fun hunt where I encountered a fisher, a skunk, and had a hen within feet of me.

The next afternoon, I filled my last tag. Here's the exact setup and the scene showing how the gobbler got between the jake fan and the feeding hen decoy. He was at half strut when I shot him.

He had a shorter beard than my first bird, only 8 inches and was 2 pounds lighter, but was older and had really burned off the weight chasing hens. His crop was completely empty and dry when I cut it open.