Sam Wrasse with spring gobbler harvest. Author submitted photo.

Thirteen-year-old Sam Wrasse has always shown an interest for hunting, which is unusual, since he comes from a non-hunting family. My brother Grant, and Sam’s father, Clayton, have been business partners for a long time, so Sam was always around to hear our hunting adventures. With his dad’s blessing, Sam started going with us on our hunting scouting trips.

Every story and scouting trip just fueled a fire inside him. So, finally it was agreed between Sam, his dad, and my brother that if Sam would continue to get good grades in school and stay out of trouble, that when he turned 10, he would be able to take the hunter education course. Grant took Sam to every class and made sure he understood everything the instructor was teaching. Needless to say, Sam passed with flying colors and was now able to apply for upcoming hunts.

After two unsuccessful years of trying to draw a spring turkey tag, Sam finally was drawn for a juniors-only spring turkey hunt.

On opening morning we picked Sam up at 4 a.m., and he was already up and ready to go. Grant asked him what time he got up, and Sam replied that he didn’t want to oversleep so he got up at 2:45 a.m.

We arrived at our spot at 4:30 a.m. We eased out of the truck closing doors as quietly as we could, when all of a sudden, my brother locked the truck and accidentally set off the truck alarm, and two loud alarm noises echoed through the woods! The response we got was six gobblers announcing their presence with thundering gobbles in the darkness.

We quietly eased into our calling location and set up the decoys. As daylight approached I started calling. With every yelp and cluck the six toms would gobble, but there were hens calling everywhere. I was doing my best to compete with the hens when all the gobblers flew down.

Five of them headed up the creek away from us towards the hens, while one stayed on the point where he roosted. As I continued my impression of a love-sick hen, the tom came to our direction. As the tom approached, Sam finally got to see him at 40 yards just to his right. At that point, the gobbler puffed up and ran right at our decoys. As he passed behind a big tree Sam raised his gun into position. The gobbler began to spur and beat one of our jake decoys.

Sam, being as calm as he could be (I could see his knees shaking from 10 yards behind him) tightened down on his gun, I clucked one time to raise the tom’s head, and at 20 yards Sam laid the hammer down on him! Immediately Sam was hooting and hollering!

This hunt only lasted for one hour as it was over at 5:30 a.m., but the experience and memories will last a lifetime. There is nothing more rewarding then seeing the smile on a young man’s face when his dreams come true.

By Brian Fish, friend and hunting mentor