Hunter Kills Gobbler With Crankbait in Its Snood

At the advice of his friends, Hunter Wood set his expectations low for his public land turkey hunt in Kentucky last spring.

I'd hunted turkeys for six or seven years, but I'd never hunted public land for the birds. My friends had been telling me all year how hard it is and to not get my hopes up, Wood says.

The season started on a Saturday, so Wood and his friends went in on boats the day before to do a bit of scouting near a lake. Surprisingly, they located some turkeys right away that morning, so they decided to return to the same area the following day.

That next morning, they took the boats back to that same area, climbed up the rocky mountain where they'd heard the birds, and set up some decoys.

At first light, I started hearing some leaves crunching and crackling, Wood says. My buddy said, 'I think they're coming.' Sure enough, a tom came out in full strut just five feet from the decoy. As soon as I saw him, I had to move a bit to get a shot. He stuck his head up and I shot him. I hadn't noticed anything unusual at that point. It was an awesome experience. We ran up to him and were all celebrating and passing around a victory cigar. Then my buddy said, 'Oh my God, Hunter, you're never going to kill a turkey like this again.' He held up the gobbler's head, and I saw a crankbait attached to its snood. The lure had a BB hole from the shot.

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Wood says the turkeys hang out around the lake. He guesses that a fisherman broke off the lure in a tree, and when the turkey was either flying up to roost or flying down from the roost, it must have run into it. Or, he said, the bird may have even thought the crankbait was something to eat.

I've talked to so many people and no one has ever seen or heard of anything like this happening before, Wood says.

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