Anybody Else Experience Lock Jaw Today ??

[Thunderhead]

Birds gobbeling their heads off on the roost, after flydown, not a peep the rest of the day. Weird. They wouldn't respond to anything I threw at'em on 3 properties. The birds were there, just lock jawed. Never saw that happen on opening day before. Usually they will respond to something..............

Anybody else see this today ?

We'll be back at it at first light.

Congrats to all you guys that got a bird !! :coolgleam

[wildcoy73]

my bird would not answer my owl call this morning but i still set up in my spot about 6:15 some tires screeched and they sounded off for a bit but nothin like last year watch a few fly down they made a few gobbles as they walked away from me at 6:30 so i figured i was in for the long day than about 6:40 i notice a fan comming up the ridge and than a whole turkey a minute latter a hen came up while i was still calling but not a sound from either on. the hen hit the top of the ridge and seen my decoys and she came a running in and mr tom just kept up with his strutting as he walked down the trail that put him 15yards in front of me. tried a pup out of my mouth for i left the mouth calls at home and the hen did not like it and the tom never raised his head he turned straight at me and the hen was getting upset that my decoys would not fight back and look like she was ready to alarm so i let him have it the hen ran off 5 feet and just milled around but even the gun did not get a responce from anyother birds

[Sprytle]

Im glad you posted that Tom...not 1 gobble all day 5 diff spots saw some birds and had a hen real fired up 1st thing in the morn but the rest of the birds i saw didnt make a sound.
At 6:30 pm tonite we spotted a group of hens with a BIG boy with them.
He did the typical with hens, back and forth , back and forth, gave the hens all i had on the glass but just couldnt get them my way, the whole time not one made a sound.
I was actually going to ask you about this tonight, because this is the first OPENING Day i have experienced this. Was it the weather..too nice??:D

I sure hope they dont stay in this pattern....

So what do you think...?

This was eastern Ottawa county

-Bob:)

[madmike22]

They were fired up all around us till about 10 am.

[Zeboy]

Yep!! I hunted a couple hours in Barry county. An area with lots of birds. I heard two different birds gobble one time each off the roost. Not a peep after that.

I have birds right near my house and often wake up to gobbling. I noticed this weekend already that the birds were not talking nearly as much as they were earlier last week.

Congrats to all of you who scored this morning!!

[Fred Bear]

I had 5 of them gobbling on the roost before day light. Then after sun up they gobbled there fool heads off.
I called in 2 different birds. One on my left about 40 yards out and right in between me and the other guy that hunts the property. I didnt feel comfortable shooting in his direction and just couldnt coax him to come closer to the deeks. Then I got another gobbler to come out of the woods and he hung 50,60 and 80 yards out.
I think that it was because of a real weird hen deek that I was using. I got it at wallmart for 8 bucks and it looks like some kind of alien turkey. Trust me she wont be going hunting with me any more. I got a she-mobile to replace her and I use a B-mobile too.

[jeffthedj]

seen 12 toms today and didnt hear one gobble even the one that came into 60 yards dont say a thing! just walked off and ignored everything i threw at him!

[wildcoy73]

jeff not good to hear, to get my few to talk this morning i had to use three diffrent calls the slat the box and the push button but than again i was not out long enough to see how the day would shape up. need to get some birds on the board i see half our team is up to bat this week and if correct the next group is not till may

[FREEPOP]

I called for a guy yesterday. I heard one gobble on the roost, he said he heard four. I was about 70 yards behind him. I called sparingly and thought I had a hen talking to me but no gobbles, he missed at about 35 yards. It was so foggy that it was hard to see past the end of the gun barrel.

[Critter]

They gobbled their fool heads off on the roost and for the first half hour they were on the ground. After that nothing til 11:30 or so(the bird I took) and then nothing the rest of the day. I have noticed, at least on our properties, that bluebird days are not the best for daytime gobbling. Give em a light rain or mist and overcast they gobble all day long. Hard to figure, I used to have them come in silent but since I cut back a lot on my calling they ussually fire up before coming in.

[jackbob42]

There was a little bit of gobbling on the roost yesterday , but not much. And today was even less. Not sure if it's the damp air ( light fog ) or the full moon. Got a couple of them to gobble on the ground , but couldn't pull them away from the hens. The grandson to put on a stalk yesterday evening. When I heard him whistle , I knew what was coming.:)

[codybear]

Lockjaw here in section J as well.

I had it happen last year Tom and it took a front to move through before they became more responsive. Its really frustrating when you know they all have lockjaw in your area and your only resolution is patterning them until things change. I stayed home this morning becasue all I'm doing is educating them. Hopefuly the small front moving through later today will turn things around.

If you find somethng that works, let us know. I am dying to put my son on his first bird.

CB

[stillwaiting]

when I went scouting three days before opener they were quiet, then coyotes starting howling about 6:45 in the morning, and the birds were going nuts, didn't know I had so many turkeys around me. They wwere gobbling for at least an hour after that. Saturday gobbling on the roost and then quiet. Same with Sunday.

Yesterday they were gobbling off the roost but not real loud, a gobble here, gobble there. Ended up getting one though. Crow and owl calls didn't work.

[chris_kreiner]

This morning they were going crazy on the roost. When they came down from the roost there were a couple gobbles but not much. It was pretty quite. They were only a 100 yrds away and I couldn't get them to peek over the hill to see the decoys.

[bowhuntr81]

I had 4 different gobblers going off this morning, none of them came in to the calls. I had 3 hens come through, check out my decoys, mill around, wander off...never saw a tom with them. I'm not sure if the toms couldn't see the decoys, and if they were never with the hens to begin with that would explain why they didn't come along. toms sounded to be a good 150 yards away, not exactly sure.

I'm interested in what you guys are going to do this early in the season. Lighter calling? Heavier calling? Change up your decoy presentation?

I was glad that the hens just milled around with my decoys, they never got close enough to fight, 15-20 yards from them, but close enough had they brought in a tom. Unfortunately work yesterday, and this afternoon has cut my season short so far.

Good luck guys!

[Fred Bear]

I got there late today. A guy has to sleep in sometimes. (I work 3rds) anyway I got to the field at 8 and they were already in the field gobbling. I could see them from the truck. I made the mistake of trying to skirt the hedge row and set up on them. There were 4 deer that saw me ,smelled me and when they took off they took the birds with them. I sat there for 3 hours and only got one gobble about 200 - 250 yards away.
It sure was hot in the blind today.