![]() Morgan and I were in the process of almost sending out an owl hoot to shock any roosting gobblers into responding, when we saw an orange cap moving through the brush and assumed it was a morel hunter. If they were, we would set up on the hillside before daybreak the following morning. One evening during our 2015 hunt, Morgan and I went to a particular public land spot entailing a very steep and tall hill, where he was certain a bunch of gobblers were roosting in some tall trees at night. The marvelous topography there actually reminds me somewhat of the Smoky Mountains. However, I was there to once again run and gun gobblers in a rolling and woodsy terrain, which Montmorency County has plenty of. There was no question in my mind that the cabin’s backyard alone offered excellent turkey hunting opportunities, as turkey sign was evident all around. His Atlanta “turkey camp” is a comfortable cabin located right next to Crooked Creek, at the end of an isolated trail. Morgan runs guided hunts for wild turkeys, deer and black bear around Atlanta, as well as for deer and black bear near Eastlake in the Upper Peninsula (just south of Rudyard). Then in the spring of 2015, I received an invitation from Gary Morgan, who owns and operates Eastlake Outfitters ( to join him on a turkey hunt in the Atlanta area in northern Michigan's Montmorency County. Being able to pursue wild gobblers close to home certainly worked for me, and my annual spring wild turkey sojourns to northern Michigan took a hiatus of sorts. ![]() I witnessed the first wild turkey release in the Thumb during the mid-1980s, and remember the first Thumb-area spring turkey hunt in the early 1990s. Spring turkey hunting would remain an outdoor pastime in strictly northern Michigan during the 1970s and most of the 1980s, but other areas would eventually open as turkey numbers became viable enough to allow it. I do believe the bear was as stunned as I was at the suddenly brief and silent encounter! I thought it was a large German Shepherd at first glance, but when we locked eyes, I knew it was a bear, and then the brisk current whisked me by. I was rounding a bend in fast water when a large black head and shoulders popped up out of some tall ferns lining the riverbank. One of my favorite areas to pursue wild gobblers was around Fairview in Oscoda County, and I sure loved to “run and gun” in this very woodsy and hilly terrain which offered plenty of elbow room.ĭuring those early days, turkey hunting was strictly a morning affair, which allowed me to do other adventures in the woods, such as morel hunting and relaxing fishing opportunities to assist my camp larder.Įspecially memorable was being in a rental canoe on the Thunder Bay River and having my first Michigan black bear encounter.
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