Nebraskaland

42 Nebraskaland • March 2025 urkeys were already gobbling in their roost trees when Gabe Sovereign and his mentor, Greg Hesse, walked to the blind they had set up in a wooded creek bottom east of Verdigre 40 minutes before sunrise. About 30 minutes later, the birds began to leave their roosts, making even more noise in the woods, clucking, purring and gobbling to the left, right and even over the hill in front of them, answering most of Hesse's calls. "Geez, they're everywhere," said Sovereign, a 13-year old from Coolridge. "Be careful not to move," said Hesse, a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission conservation offi cer based in Long Pine. "We've got a hen close to us somewhere. I can hear her clucking." After that hen made a brief appearance next to the two-track road where they had set up their decoys, Sovereign settled the barrel of his shotgun into a shooting stick, and they waited. Soon, turkeys appeared on the hillside, scratching their way across it in search of food. Thirty minutes after sunrise, Hesse's calls fi nally coaxed fi ve of them, three hens and two toms, closer. As the hens cautiously approached the decoys, stopping at 30 yards, the toms strutted across the draw 50 yards away for fi ve minutes before they all continued on their way. The hunters moved their blind a few hundred yards east to the edge of a feedlot turkeys frequented and cows weren't currently using, Sovereign losing a boot in the mud on the way. As he got lessons from Hesse on how to use a slate call, the residents of the feedlot returned, curiously gathering around their decoys and even licking and nibbling on them. "I wish turkeys were like this, just walking up here and staring at us," Sovereign said. Sovereign had hunted ducks and deer with his father, harvesting a buck the previous fall. But this was his second day of turkey hunting ever, a guest at a mentored youth hunt hosted by conservation offi cers from northeastern Nebraska at Niobrara State Park. The previous morning, opening day of the youth turkey season, he passed on a chance to fi ll his tag with a bearded hen that came to Hesse's call. "I thought there would be a bigger turkey come in," he said. "It was cool. It got me really nervous." Sovereign was one of six youths who took part in the mentored hunt and one of four who didn't harvest a bird. But on this weekend, conditions were less than ideal for turkey hunting. With plenty of hens talking, toms don't respond to calls like they might later in the season. And with winds gusting to 50 mph, some couldn't even hear the calls. But whether or not the hunt was a success depends on how success is measured. Conservation offi cers from northeastern Nebraska began hosting mentored youth hunts in 2010, when Jeff Fields, then the superintendent T A Niobrara Turkey Hunt Story and photos by Eric Fowler

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