Shortly after I graduated from Clemson I was invited to go on my first turkey hunt. To be honest I really was not that excited about sitting behind a tree in the woods and attempting to call a bird to me. The guy I was hunting with was a high school principal for over 20-years and he lived in the woods every afternoon from August to May either hunting, planting, scouting, setting up stands, or moving blinds. Hunting was his life and his trophy room showed it.
As we walked into the woods I was quite relieved when I found out we would be actually walking and stalking turkeys. We were hunting in the upstate and my friend had scouted out several hollows (pronounced holler by those in the upstate) over a period of a couple of weeks where the birds were gathering to feed in the afternoons. We would tip toe through the woods, then down into these valleys attempting to get within shooting range of these skittish birds before we were detected. We saw several birds that day and got close enough for me to get in one shot, but came up empty handed.
I do very little turkey hunting these days but still really enjoy doing some walking and stalking. My walking and stalking is no longer for turkeys through the woods, but through short Spartina on flood tides for Redfish.
There has been a lot of discussion recently under the CharlestonFishing.Com Inshore and general Fishing Discussion on wade fishing and I have read each post in hopes of being able to improve my walking and stalking skills. I do not claim to be an expert wader by any means and to be quite honest I really do not get to enjoy this type of fishing nearly as much as I would like; however I thought I would share a few pointers here on what little I have learned over the years.
Tide: Spring Tides, those that approach 6 feet or better, are the best for wading the grass. Obviously full and new moons in the summer time will produce tides in this range, but don’t forget about the possible effects of the wind outside of these moon phases. Strong easterly winds