Michael Waddell is one of the most talented turkey callers on the planet, but this 13-minute YouTube video proves that calling talent alone doesn’t always translate into a slam dunk hunt.
Waddell is in Florida to start off the 2025 turkey season with his good friend Troy Link (CEO of Jack Link's Protein Snacks, the company founded by his father, Jack). As you’ll see, the birds are playing hard to get. The two veteran turkey hunters expect to be into birds prior to sunrise, but morning gobbling from the roost is few and far between.
The guys finally make a move on a distant gobbler or two, and eventually get at least one of the toms to respond regularly, but it won’t come to the call. So Waddell and Link go to plan B, then C, then D. If you’ve hunted turkeys before, then you likely can empathize.
By noon-ish, the guys spot a tom strutting far down a logging road; it’s with two hens. The hunters close the distance, then slip to the logging road’s edge and try calling, but the tom won’t gobble or move toward them. Finally, Waddell rolls the dice and crawls into the logging road, presenting a strutting decoy to the tom (photo above). FYI: Waddell is using a Bone Collector Quarter Body Tom Decoy and he added a real tail fan.
The tom’s response is immediate and intense! It comes running — at least it runs as fast as it can while strutting — until Link drops the hammer at close range.
Lesson learned: Sometimes a tom or jake decoy is needed to close the deal on a stubborn gobbler.
