Food Plots

Strut Their Stuff for Spring Turkeys

By Monte Burch

I knew right where they would be, but they still weren’t easy. For a week before the season, three toms had been strutting in a four-acre Imperial Whitetail Clover food plot. In the evenings they flew up into a stand of white oaks bordering the west side. My son, Michael, and I moved into the woods on the south side well before daylight on opening morning.

As we moved quietly through the slowly lightening woods, I spotted a hen roosting almost overhead, and knew we were in trouble. We stopped and simply sat down to wait. We didn’t call; we were attempting to blend into the “woodwork” as best as humans can. Several excited chirps let me know we had been made. When fly-down time came, the birds flew to the opposite side of the Imperial Clover patch and began their daily morning ritual. I let them go about their business for about 30 minutes then gave a tentative call on my old hand-made box call. An immediate thundering gobble, followed by two more made both of us grin. The old boys were definitely interested. Thirty minutes later, now with a full “debate” going on between an old boss hen and me, the gobblers were still interested but not getting any closer.

I decided to do a traditional “pull-back and entice” maneuver, so I whispered for Michael to stay put. I belly crawled about 50 yards behind him and began calling again. This time the response was slower, but I got a couple of gobbles. The next 30 to 45 minutes were made up of silence, occasional calls from me and occasional gobbles from them, with a scolding hen or two adding to the mix. I was just about to doze off, as us old-timers are known to do when the turkey woods become boring, when I saw Michael stiffen slightly. I immediately began a series of soft purrs on my slate call and heard a series of closer-in gobbles. Yep, this was definitely no time to sleep.

Another 30 minutes of soft calls and an occasional gobble went by before I saw Michael slowly lift his gun. At the shot he was on his feet, but it took my stiffened legs a moment or two to get underway. Didn’t matter, by the time I got into the field Michael was hefting a big gobbler with an even bigger grin on his face.

Gobblers are like a Broadway “dandy.” They strut for only one reason, to be seen and admired by the ladies, and some of their favorite strutting areas are open fields, where available. With about 12 years of planting Imperial Whitetail Clover food plots for the deer, I quickly discovered wild turkeys like the plots as well as deer. My first scouting each spring season begins in my Imperial Clover plots. Gobblers don’t like tall grasses for strutting, although they will quickly move through these areas to get to hens. The clover plots provide just the right height for gobbler visibility and they also offer other advantages.

Clovers are some of the first plants to green up in the spring. In February and March, you won’t find the typical turkey droppings on my place. Instead you’ll find bright green soft piles that resemble miniature cow pies. These are primarily the result of the quick green-up of the clovers. That means the birds get on these patches first, and they tend to stay there. As the season progresses, these plants are some of the most liked by insects, so they provide fantastic bugging areas, especially important to young polts, again due to the height of the plants.

If you are a turkey fanatic, you can plant Imperial Clover plots for turkeys, and the deer will come as well. If you are a deer fanatic, you can plant Imperial Clover plots for deer and the turkeys will also find them. Or you can enjoy the best of both worlds and plant the plots with the idea of great spring turkey and fall deer hunting in mind. There are some things that can sweeten the pot for turkeys, yet don’t deter from deer attraction and huntability. I like to add a strip of annual grains to the food plot.

These strips don’t have to be wide, only about a disk width. Milo is a good choice. Soybeans are often used, but the deer will eat the plants down before they can produce seeds. Browntop millet is also a good choice. PowerPlant, with a mixture that includes soybeans, sorghum (milo) and other plants, is an excellent option that turkeys and deer will utilize heavily. Actually, I like to create two strips. One is the annual strip; the second is simply disked up and left fallow. Weeds such as ragweed will quickly come up the first season, and they provide some of the “cheepest” bird seed. The following year, cultivate the ragweed strip and plant it in the annual forages and leave the previous strip to revert back to ragweeds. Incidentally, quail and deer also love these relatively “bare ground” areas as well.

As with any food plot, the turkey plots should be planted and managed correctly. Take a soil test, lime and fertilize as needed, and plant according to the plant species directions.

For maximum turkey use, the plot should be somewhat close to a roost area of mature woods. It doesn’t have to be right next to a roost area as in the plot Michael and I hunted. Even a wooded area a half mile away or more will roost the birds, while the plot will attract them for strutting, but this depends on the terrain and habitat between. The closer, the better is true. The ideal situation is a wooded area on a hillside above such a food plot. Turkeys, just like us couch potatoes, prefer to take it easy to get their food, and they’ll fly down every time to a plot located in such a place, rather than having to work uphill from their roost site.

Another sweetener is to provide brushpiles around the plot edges, preferably along the wood’s edge. These don’t have to be, and shouldn’t be huge “rabbit piles,” but loosely tossed branches that hen turkeys love to hunker down in and lay their eggs. If you provide these areas, the hens will stay around the food plot. And the gobblers? They’ll be right there as well.

The final “cherry on top,” is to provide and maintain a bare-ground dusting area. Turkeys, quail and rabbits like to scratch in the dust and toss the dust on their body to help rid themselves of parasites. At one end of the field, or in a corner next to cover or a wooded area, spray the vegetation with herbicide to kill it back and keep it in a bare ground situation. If there are turkeys in the area, it’s guaranteed they’ll use it and appreciate it. 

If you like wild turkey with your venison or are addicted to the thundering of a gobbler coming in to your calls, consider planting an Imperial Whitetail Clover food plot this year. Even if the turkeys are dancing and prancing around in your food plot every day for a week before the season, don’t, however, think your wild gobbler will come easy.  

Hunting Turkey Food Plots

Hens are attracted to the quality of the food in clover food plots and the hens bring in the gobblers. Or, gobblers may hit the food plots and strut in hopes of attracting hens. In most instances, however, you’re going to have hen competition, especially early in the season. As the season progresses, the hens begin heading to the nest by mid morning and the same gobblers you couldn’t call away from the hens will be more receptive to your calls. Quite often, gobblers will stay in the field most of the morning, or sometimes all day, strutting. But they often take a break and drift into any woods or cover along the field edge. Even if you don’t see gobblers in the field after early morning, carefully check the edges before venturing into sight.

One of my tactics for gobblers with hens is to get as close as possible to where the turkeys want to go before they fly down. You have a better chance of calling hens to you, with the gobblers following, or having gobblers drift closer to you from the hens if you’re calling them in the direction they want to go. Watch the field a morning or two before hunting from a distance with binoculars and locate a good “ambush” spot.

If you have a small plot with a house deer blind, you can sometimes use it as a turkey blind as well. A small portable blind, set up where you have patterned the birds, can also be of help, especially when hunting with youngsters or beginning hunters.

Decoys are tough to use if the birds roost over or near the plot, unless you’re in position well before daylight and can set the decoys on the plot edge without being seen. In many instances you’re going to be calling to “henned-up” gobblers and they may gobble their heads off, but not move to you. Then again, they may simply suddenly look up after what seems like an eternity of calling, and run toward you. If the gobblers and hens remain in the field just out of range, try throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them. Quite often you’ll get a hen ticked off, and she’ll decide to come and give you a good scolding. That will often bring the entire flock in your direction, including the gobblers.