Gobbler
Corpus Christi, Texas
May 11, 2010
Joe De Santos, Sr.
After canceling our planned trip to Rocksprings for spring turkey the week before, we finally took off on Friday afternoon, April 16. My son from the Houston area and me from Corpus Christi. It was sprinkling in CC when I took off and by the time I was about 65 miles out, the rain came hard and never stopped. I hooked up with my son in San Antonio and left my vehicle at my cousin’s house. He (my cousin) was planning to go with us but he got smart and stayed home. We kind of had an obligation since our buddy, retired first Sergeant Kenny, was coming from Colorado. Our usual 6 hour trip turned into close to 8 hours. It rained on and off all the way to our destination. When we got to the small town of Rocksprings, we stopped at the local Super S to buy groceries. We didn’t buy the customary grillin’ meat cause we thought we weren’t going to be able to grill outside because forecasters were predicting rain through the weekend, so we got some lunch meat and stuff. One of the folks working at the store warned us that the creeks were overflowing and running across the highway. The local school buses were forced to turn back about 25 miles outside of town. Our place is 29 miles from Rocksprings on that same highway. It was still raining lightly when we left town towards my son’s place. Apparently it had stopped raining for awhile before we arrived in town because when we got to the several creeks that cross the highway, the water had receded quite a bit. We were able to cross all of them (about 4 or 5) rather comfortably. It was similar inside the gate where my son’s tract is situated. There are several creeks in the place, always bone dry….not this time. The 1st Sergeant met us about halfway into the place and he told us that the creeks were flowing pretty swiftly, however, we could cross without any real problem. He had been there since 4:00 A.M. that morning and said he had hell getting across, however, no problem on the highway. We were able to drive across all the creeks, two of them were flowing rather fast, however, they were shallow enough. When we got to my son’s place it was muddy muddy muddy, Even though the ground is covered with rocks. We slogged through that stuff all weekend. The Sergeant had shot a baby hog with his pistol and he was getting it ready for supper. He and my son skinned it and got it ready to grill. I was real tired and I went to bed early. The sarge and my son stayed up late shooting the breeze and catching up with the latest. They ate some of the hog meat and my son said it was quite tasty. I really don’t like to eat fresh kill. I rather it be frozen for awhile before I eat it. It sprinkled rain all night long and continued until mid morning. On Saturday morning, the 1st Sergeant left before daybreak to bag his turkey. I waited until the rain subsided and got myself all camo’d up and took off to my favorite spot. My son took off to another area. I set up in a cozy corner and commenced calling with a lot of anticipation. In about a half hour, my eagerness turned to disappointment. All that calling and not one response. I guess I stayed for about an hour and a half, finally giving up. I was the first one back in camp. My son showed up a little later, dejected, unable to get gobblers to respond. Our friend finally showed up. He was really down, stating that he had called at a stationary spot for a long time. After not getting responses, he started walk calling with no results. He did jump a turkey hen, nothing else. In times past, we had always heard gobblers while we were relaxing at camp. Not this time. The sarge and my son went out that afternoon, I stayed in camp. When they came back, same results. No Turkey noise, nothing at all. It was pretty sad, especially for the Sergeant. All the way from Colorado Springs and no luck. For me, I was glad he came. He brought his usual giant pork ribs and grilled them that evening. Man, I can’t do justice in describing how great he makes those ribs taste. I think I ate three and I mean they are huge, meaty ribs. We went to bed late and it drizzled all night long.
Sunday morning, the Sarge took off again before daylight. My son and I stayed in bed. It wasn’t raining anymore, however, we gave up on the turkey. I turned out to be a good move. The sarge came in about 9:30 A.M., again disappointed that he did not see or hear anything. I had made coffee and cooked a large breakfast. We ate, cleaned up, packed up and left around twelve noon…….disappointed as heck. We’ll just have to wait till next year. I’m wondering if turkey just don’t move when it’s soaking wet and drizzling? Anybody out there know?
Red Bluff Creek raging 4-16-10
1st Sgt Kenny B
Muddy rocks
umm umm good!
Good tastin' water!