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Doubling Down With Alpen in the Spring
 Editor’s Note: With Alpen binoculars, you can improve all your springtime activities, including hunting for turkeys and crappie fishing.
A hunter moved in close to a gobbler on the roost. As the light of day peeked out from under the clouds, he picked up his Alpen binoculars and saw the long-bearded tom strutting on a limb of a big, live oak tree. He could see that the bird was a large, mature gobbler, and the one he wanted to take home. The tom’s head shook as he gobbled, and the hunter watched the turkey as the bird anticipated his rendezvous with his harem at the coming of first light. He gave a light tree call to let the gobbler know he was in the neighborhood, and immediately, the tom talked back. By now, the woods birds were waking up and singing like a church choir, making this springtime hunt even more perfect. He gave the tom a couple more tree calls on his diaphragm mouth call and listened. But his confidence waned when he heard several hens calling in the little draw on the side of the river. The hunter decided that the best way to get the turkey to come to him instead of going to the other hens was to give a fly-down cackle and let the old gobbler think he was the first hen on the ground and the first one who wanted to meet him for a date. He patted his leg with his hand and gave a cackle like a hen pitching off a limb. Then he picked up his Alpen binoculars to watch the gobbler’s reaction. The bird quit strutting and looked in the hunter’s direction, which made him think, “It’s about to happen.”
With a 20-gauge Thompson/Center 3-inch Magnum shotgun on his knee and his finger close to the trigger, the hunter expected the gobbler to pitch down in front of him. The longbeard shook himself as though he was about to fly to the ground. Suddenly, the hunter heard heavy wings beating the air and tree limbs. At least one-dozen hens pitched out in front of the tom after coming from behind him and landed right at the base of the tree where the gobbler was roosting. The longbeard shook himself one more time and helicoptered down to the base of the tree where he’d been roosting. The hunter laid his gun back down, got his Alpen binoculars to his eyes and watched the flock mill around the base of the tree for 15 to 20 minutes. Finally, the flock wandered away.
 When the hunter knew that the turkeys could no longer see him, he started clucking and cackling like a demanding hen. Every time he’d call to the gobbler, he’d respond with a gobble. But he kept getting further and further away. The hunter had chased turkeys before and lost them, so when the bird was on the edge of hearing, he yelped to the turkey one more time to let him know he was staying in this area. Because the time was late in the hunting season, he knew the gobbler would breed the hens that were ready to breed. By 10:00 am, most of the hens would go to the nest, offering a very-good chance that the gobbler would return to his stand site.
The weather was warm, the hunter had eaten a good breakfast before he left camp, and he had a comfortable tree to lean up against. So, he took a nap and planned to talk to the turkey later in the morning. There’s no better sleep than the sleep you get early on a spring morning out in the woods after you’ve been bested by a gobbler. Within 5 minutes, the hunter was sound asleep, but started waking as he heard voices saying, “That’s a good one, get ‘em in the boat.” “Hey, I’ve got one, too.” “This one will be at least 1-1/2- to 1-3/4-pounds.” “Mine’s bigger. I believe he’ll weigh 2 pounds.” The hunter opened one eye and peeped to see two fishermen crappie fishing in the slough below him, just off the river. Both fishermen rebaited their hooks with live minnows, and as soon as their baits hit the water, each man caught another big crappie.
 Although this hunter loved to hunt turkeys, he also loved to crappie fish and fry up some tasty crappie filets. Because of the hunter’s total camouflage and quietness, the men never knew he was there. Through the binoculars, he watched the men catch really-big crappie in only about 1/2-foot of water. Focusing his binoculars to get maximum range and clarity, he saw that the men had their bobbers no more than 2-inches above the eyes of their hooks and were baiting with live minnows. They were swinging their baits right up against stumps, logs and limbs next to the bank. Each time their floats landed on the water, the floats sank, and more slab-sized crappie would be hauled into the aluminum johnboat. The sun apparently had heated-up those logs and stumps in that shallow water. After studying the fishermen and the fish even more carefully with his Alpen binoculars, he could see the backs of the crappie sticking out of the water. The men were 30 to 50 yards from him and never saw the hunter as he studied their actions with his binoculars.
 After the men moved out of sight, the hunter gave a few clucks and yelps very softly, waited for about 5 minutes, and after getting no response, gave some louder yelps. Less than 200-yards away, he heard a turkey gobble, picked up his Alpen binoculars and searched for the gobbler. In less than 5 minutes, he saw the cotton-white head of a long-bearded bird snaking through the hardwoods coming toward him. When the turkey stepped behind some brush, he mounted his shotgun and introduced him to the T/C 20-gauge, 3-inch Magnum No. 6 shot. He left the woods that morning with his gobbler.
Then the next morning, just after daylight, he and his buddy had a johnboat in that slough where he’d seen the crappie fishermen fishing the previous morning. Using the crappie-fishing tactics he’d learned with his binoculars while turkey hunting, they limited out on big slab crappie by 11:00 am. Thanks to Alpen binoculars, the hunter not only got his gobbler on this early-spring morning hunt but also learned a deadly spring tactic for catching big crappie.
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