One of the hardest turkeys to set-up on is the turkey that’s across a body of water. Turkeys generally don’t like to fly-across water to meet a hen, and most of the time they won’t. But if there’s a turkey gobbling on the other side of a creek that you can’t swim or refuse to wade, there are two techniques you can try.

• Start calling aggressively with cuts, cackles and excited yelping. Put some emotion in those calls. You want to make the gobbler think there’s a hen that’s so excited about breeding that she just can’t stand it. Frequently, a gobbler will become just as excited and drum and strut in hopes of getting the hen to fly across the creek to him.

Once you’ve got the turkey fired-up and know he can’t see you, start calling and moving away from the edge of the riverbank to create a picture in the gobbler’s mind of a hen that’s ready and wanting to breed. But since the tom won’t fly across the creek to meet her, she’s walking off and locating a gobble on her side of the water. Hopefully, the gobbler won’t be able to stand the pressure of the hen walking away, and will fly across the creek. Be sure to listen for the gobbler’s beating wings, because sometimes a longbeard will fly right to the caller.

• Imitate a one-man band, cutting and cackling with a diaphragm call, while yelping and cutting on a box call, if a turkey’s hung-up across water. You must paint a picture in that gobbler’s mind of a harem of hens that are excited and ready to breed. Then change calls, and sound like a whole flock of hens, each with a different voice and excited about mating. Often, a gobbler that hears that much hen talk on the other side of a creek just can’t stand the pressure. He believes that some gobbler will breed those hens in a short time, and that it may just as well be himself, even if he has to fly across the creek for the date.

To learn more about hunting turkeys successfully, visit John E. Phillips’ Amazon book page at  https://www.amazon.com/John-E.-Phillips/e/B001HP7K6O. For even more information from many of the top turkey hunters and callers, go to the book, “Turkey Hunters’ Bible,” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HT1IUS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p2_i7 available in Kindle, print and Audible. You may have to copy and paste this link into your browser. (When you click on the book, notice on the left where Amazon says you can read and hear 10% of the book for free). On the right side of the page and below the offer for a free Audible trial, you can click on Buy the Audible book.

Tomorrow: What Setups Work for Strutting, Walking & Talking Turkeys