Thunder Chicken Hunting With Stick and String

I recently returned from a successful WI turkey hunting season and was able to take my bird with my Mathews bow. It was one of the best hunting adventures I have ever been a part of. My bird did not come easy and I was very thankful on the 4th day when a bow shot finally presented itself. I had opportunities at Toms every day I hunted, but nothing that had come inside of my comfortable bow range. This bird was inside 40 yards-32 to be exact-and I thanks to lots of practice and being able to judge distances quickly I was able to draw my bow and put a shot on him. Feel free to like or share this video out. I had to watch many hours of video to find the few frames I really wanted to use. It has been fun learning how to edit and work with video. It just offers another aspect to my adventures....trust me, there are many more great adventures, stories, and things to come! Thanks for watching.

Seeing Black

It is official....   After consideration and lots of work I have inked a deal and teamed with Team Mercury Outboards!  My new 2012 Ranger Z521 will have a black motor hanging on the back-a 250 HP Mercury Optimax Pro XS to be exact.  I can't tell you the endless hours I spent working on this project.  As many of you know I have been with a competitor of Mercury's for many years and have been pleased with that partnership-but unfortunately there was no room for growth and they had no answer for me.  

After this opportunity with Mercury presented itself I really did not have a tough time making the move.  Mercury has always been a leader in innovation and performance.  They have been building a great product for years and it seemed like it would be a good fit for where I am headed with my career.

Mercury was very receptive to my accomplishments and hard work in the business.  They recognized that and felt they would be a good fit for years to come and to grow together.  Watch for a 2012 Ranger Z521 with a black motor on the back coming to a town near you!  Gonna be a sick rig.  

Matt teams with Mathews

Excited to announce that I have partnered with Mathews Solocam bows and they are going to be a sponsor of fishwithmatt.com for the 2011-2012 season and for many years to come.  I have always been a fan of their bows and shot them now for many years.  When the opportunity presented itself to partner with the greatest bow manufacturer I was speechless.  I was in disbelief that I could have a company get behind me that makes a product that I have always been such a fan of.  This is crucial and is what I base all my partnerships on-morals and pride.  Companies contact me often to promote or represent them and I have to turn them away because I don't use or believe in their product or service for some reason.  If I personally purchase the product and believe in it-then I will put my name on it and represent it.  

Putting my stamp of approval on this partnership was a no brainer.  This allows me to align with what I feel are personally the best products offered in my line of work.  It makes my job of promoting and representing them so much easier.  When people ask me for my opinion on fishing and hunting products and what I use, I want to be able to look them in the face and tell them the truth.  I want to tell them to support my sponsors because they are good companies with good products.  

Needless to say I am excited to have this Sparta, WI company supporting me and coming into the fishwithmatt.com family.  You will see them featured now on my website, on my boat wrap, truck wrap, and also my jersey for the coming season.  I will be shooting some of the new bows this next week and will take a few short videos to explain what makes their products so great and innovative.  Stay tuned for more BIG news coming ever so soon.  More exciting announcements to come.  ;)    

Thunder Chicken Down

Spent this past week chasing Turkeys aka Thunder Chickens in Central WI and was able to harvest this dandy 21 lb bird with a 10" beard via my Mathews bow.  It was far from easy....probably one of the most challenging animals I have harvested with a bow.  

Judd was also able to harvest a great big bird-weighing in at 24 lbs and having a 10" beard.  Judd took this bird at 25 yards with his Benelli shotgun at about 11:15 on the same morning as I shot mine.  He was able to work around and get in front of this bird after he saw it and set-up on it.  It came right into him on the ground and he was able to put a whoop'n on him with some tungsten.   

It was a great week in the woods with Pete, Mike, and Judd.  The emotions and energy was like a roller coaster.  The confidence around camp stayed high for the better part of the week but there were times when we were all in the dumps wondering how an animal with a brain the size of pea could out smart us!?    

They have incredible vision and when you are on the ground in their "home" you have to be invisible to even have a chance to get close enough to shoot one with a gun much less a bow.  I hunted all week out of a Primos Vision ground blind which when set-up correctly can greatly increase your odds of getting a bird into range without it seeing you.  The birds were not responding to the calls very well at all.  The toms we had been seeing were all "henned" up as some might say.  They were with hens and you could not call them off....go figure.  

The first morning of the hunt brought ideal conditions and we had 3 great toms work to about 60 yards before they hung up and didn't ever present us with a shot.  They slowly worked off into the woods and wanted nothing to do with us.  That evening we saw one hen and that was it.  The second morning Pete and I opted to sneak into an area where he had heard birds roosted the morning prior.  After getting set-up we realized we were surrounded by birds.  After a few hours of not hearing or seeing anything they all of a sudden appeared at 70 yards coming out of the woods into a cut corn field we were set-up on the edge of.  4 toms and 3 jakes fed while one hen milled around the field.  After 30 minutes we tried to call them into our hen decoy to get a shot-but they didn't want anything to do with us and skirted back out of the field into the woods at about 50 yards. That evening we made a move to another set to try and get at a tom coming back into the woods to roost.  With-in 5 minutes of being in the blind we had a dandy tom at 85 yards-but he was busy strut'n to a hen it looked like.  He strutted in the same 5 yard area for close to 2 hours before the hen finally snuck out the back of the woods and he followed.  

At this point I was starting to get frustrated and was wondering how we were ever going to get a bird in range with a bow.  It is tough enough to get them into range, but now I also was going to have to make a shot through the thick woods at a bird on the ground.  The field edges just were not working for us and had committed to the woods-not the ideal way for me to shoot a bird with a bow.  

The next morning we sat another new set very close to where we had the birds come out to the cut corn field and once again we had birds all around us, but nothing we were able to get close enough to shoot with a bow.  3 jakes wandered by us at about 35 yards but we just weren't happy with the shot nor shooting a jake-I was being greedy.  I was committed to shooting a tom or going home eating a tag sandwich.  That evening I once again returned to the same blind hoping to catch a tom working his way to roost coming by-but I saw nothing more then a few squirrels and chipmunks.  I was hearing a few birds gobbling so I figured it may be a good spot to sit again in the morning.  

On 4th morning of our hunt I returned to what had become my magical spot.  I had lots of confidence but was starting to doubt myself with only one day left and no bird with-in range the first 3 days.  Shortly after getting to my blind I saw 3 dandy toms skirt over a ridge at about 50 yards and had them strutting in when all of a sudden they turned and walked straight away from me.  They saw something they didn't like.  I was hunting over a Primos Killer B decoy with a real fan on it and a Primos She-Mobile hen decoy.  This didn't seem to entice them like I had hoped but wasn't about to give up on my set-up yet.  Like I said, I was committed and confident I was going to get it done.  If not I was going to be ok going home knowing I tried my best, hunted hard, and stuck to my guns.  Doubting yourself will destroy your chances of accomplishing any tough task.  

At about 8:15 I woke up from what had been a short nap and I saw the tom I shot and one other one making there way around my decoy.  At that point I realized the birds were going to work there way out the back of a small chunk of pines they were in and present a shot in a small clearing on the far side.  The clearing turned out to be 32 yards and when the birds stepped into the clearing I let the arrow fly out of my Mathews and smacked the front bird with an arrow flying 330 fps!  It all happened so fast I wasn't sure what to do or think.  The bird ran about 30 yards and just stood there.  I watched it for a long while and eventually it went out of sight.  Now I had to find my arrow and figure out where my bird had died.  I grabbed the boys and after a short search we located the bird and I was overwhelmed with the feeling of accomplishment.  Setting my mind on taking a tom with my bow was not hard to do-actually accomplishing that task was where the challenge came in.  It was not easy, but was worth it.  I had accomplished what I set out to do.  The hunt will all be documented in a video that I am working on and should have done later today or tomorrow-so stay tuned.   

I will be chasing thunder chickens in MN for the next 2 weeks-hopefully my success continues.  I will leave you with this comment....  If you have dreams and aspirations don't ever give up on them-pursue them now or you are allowing yourself to die a little every day.  Hard work and persistence will pay off-I promise!