North Idaho Turkey Advice

[MTimberN]

I'm looking for some advice on my turkey hunting situation. I'm real green when it comes to turkey hunting so any advice would be helpful. I'm hunting North Idaho mountains and I've located about half a dozen gobblers in a 5-10 year old clear cut. I've been hitting this clear cut for the past three Saturdays and the same thing keeps happening. About a half dozen turkeys gobble for about two hours from first light and I can't seem to get them to come to me. The clear cut is on a steep hill side so there's about max 30 yards of line of sight. I always setup up hill from where I believe their roost tree is. I setup one Jake and two hens. I've tried different calls. Primos bombshell, mouth Reed, and slate. The turkeys respond to the calls with gobbles but seems like they never move. I've tried to sneak up on them several times but I just push them. I've tried to go silent on calling to see if that would move them but nothing. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[TNsavageman]

It sounds like these toms are henned up. I mostly turkey hunt here in the east but I have turkey hunted out west with some success. Different states have different laws but if you are able to hunt them all day then I would try setting up close to the roost (like it sounds like you are) and don’t call as aggressive at first light. Call enough early to let them know where you are. Let the toms fly down and do their thing with their hens. The hens will break away from the toms mid morning, and I have killed more birds between 10am and 2pm than any other time. You know where they roost so if you hang tight, they will be back in there at the end of the day to fly up. I hope this is helpful but the main thing to remember is patience. It’s fun to chase gobbling turkeys around “running and gunning” but a lot of times hanging tight in an area that you know holds birds will offer you a better chance of success.
The only other thing I can offer is that you talk about it as being thick woods. Turkeys are weird and they get spooky around fence rows, brush piles, creeks.. etc. This what guys call “hung up.” Pick your setup carefully, and find a nice easy spot for that turkey to get from where you think he is to where you want him to be. Good luck! I know they ain’t elk but they sure are fun!!​

 

[MTimberN]

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to try that strategy out next weekend. Would you be calling throughout the day or just early morning?

 

[deerhunt1988]

I'd roost them in the evening. With that many gobblers, one should gobble after fly up. If not, use a coyote howler to try and make him gobble. Get a compass bearing and sneak in super tight the next morning. I'm talking 100 yards or less tight. Don't use decoys. If you are successful on getting really tight, I wouldnt even call to him on the roost unless I suspected he was about to go the other way. Even then, itd just be a couple clucks.

The above method has put lot of western birds in my vest over the years. My success rate goes up drastically on roost hunts when I have him roosted the evening before.