Decoys Anyone!!!!

Anybody have any really great stories about decoys?????

Here is one I found...

Outdoors: Decoys can be a hunter's best friend

Imitation turkey calls, plastic hens good for catching prey & laughter

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Sitting long enough in the woods waiting for deer or calling turkeys, hunters are likely to get surprised, even entertained.

We disappear into the landscape via camouflage and quiet well before dawn, see the woods come to life as night turns to day and hear the sounds of real turkeys responding to our imitation turkey sounds made with callers. Then the fun starts, especially if Henrietta's there.

Some hunters use decoys, hens that can divert and attract the attention of toms looking for a mate. They can attract more than gobblers. Craig Lemon, superintendent of the Hayford Fish Hatchery in Hackettstown, found that out opening Pennsylvania's turkey season.

He met his dad at their Pike county hunting camp at 4 a.m., hiked an hour up a mountain with him, then they separated for 20-minute walks in separate directions.

"I arrived at my annual turkey hunting spot, been hunting the same ridge for 30 years." Craig said. "I set my hard life-size plastic decoy about 10 yards away, found a nice big pine tree to rest against.

"At 5:30, I gave a nice soft series of yelps on my 30-year-old Lynch box call and sat down to relax," he added. "Within a minute I catch a flash out of the corner of my right eye and here comes a 30-pound coyote at full speed low to the ground and drills my decoy right square in the chest.

"Guess he got a surprise when he tried to sink his teeth into that hard plastic," Craig said. "He hit so hard that he bent the metal stake that supports Henrietta, my decoy, bounced back and vanished into the foggy morning."

Craig said it's surprising any turkeys respond to calls these days with coyotes hunting them, but he heard lots of gobbling in the first hour, thought it was his dad working birds a half-mile away, so he left them alone, walked a couple hundred yards from the coyote crash, set up Henrietta, gave a few yelps on the box call, got a response from a bird not far away, talked it in with a Quaker Boy Old Boss Hen mouth call.

The bird was just below a ridge line, so he aimed, not wanting the bird see him move the barrel, and when the turkey's white head popped up 25 yards away, he bagged the two-year-old 18-pounder at 7:30 on opening morning, the only time he'll be able to hunt Pennsylvania turkeys this spring because the fishing derby season was about to get busy. Hackettstown supplies fish for derbies around the state.

"I met up with my dad and we worked some birds after that, came out of the woods at quitting time with my bird only, but a lot of great stories," Craig said. "When we got back to the cabin, Henrietta's roll with the coyote was a bigger hit than my shooting the turkey. Another great day for me and my dad."

Full Story at the Daily Record