“Johnie Wood Hunts Turkeys with ThermaCELL All Across the Country”
Part 5: Mr. Ed Takes His Tom
Editor’s Note: Johnie Wood of Montgomery, Alabama, teaches classes on turkey hunting and another class, the Total Hunt, for the non-profit organization, Outdoor Women Unlimited. Wood, who hunts turkeys all over the nation, has taken more than 200 birds and has put together a World Slam of wild turkeys. Wood has hunted with ThermaCELL for 3 years but was one of those hunters who initially resisted this new technology in insect repellent. However, today Wood is a ThermaCELL disciple and teaches everyone he meets about ThermaCELL.
 Question: Johnie, tell me about the turkey you took with Mr. Ed.
Wood: Mr. Ed, a good friend of mine, had been hunting turkeys for a couple of years but never had bagged one. One day he invited me to come and hunt his place with him and try to help him take a tom. Mr. Ed had been nice enough to let me come and hunt his property before, so I was really excited about having the opportunity to return the favor by helping him get his first bird. On this particular morning, Mr. Ed and I decided to sit down beside each other against the same tree. This hunt took place fairly late in turkey season. We had taken a stand right on the edge of a power line and were both leaning up against a big pine tree.
As soon as we sat down, the mosquitoes started swarming around us. In the spring, our section of the Deep South also has what I call black flies, but I think the proper name is deer flies.  These flies will bite you voraciously and show no mercy at all. Just as we sat down, I heard Ed say in a loud whisper, “Shoot.” I turned to him and said, “Ed, what’s the matter?” He fired back, “I forgot to bring my bug spray.” Ed and I had never sat so close together on a mosquito-infested morning for me to have an occasion to tell him about the ThermaCELL. So I reached into my hunting vest and pulled out my ThermaCELL. When Ed whispered, “What’s that?” I answered, “It’s a ThermaCELL.” Ed kind of scratched his head after a fly had bitten him and asked, “What’s a ThermaCELL?” I smiled under my head net and said, “Watch this.” I turned the ThermaCELL on and laid it between Ed and me. Very shortly, there were no black flies and no mosquitoes near us.
When I started calling that morning, the gobblers were about 1/4-mile away from us out on a power line right-of-way. But the power line right-of-way ran through a piece of property that had just been clear cut. There was no way we could go to the turkeys without being seen. I explained, “Ed, we can’t move. We are just going to have to try to call those gobblers to us.” As I began to call, the turkeys started coming to us. Ed was sitting a little bit further around the tree than I was, so he could see two gobblers moving to us before I could see the birds.  As the turkeys got closer, they went behind a big fallen pine tree, and Ed couldn’t see them, but I could. So when Ed could see them, he would tell me what the turkeys were doing, and when I could watch the turkeys, I’d tell Ed where they were.
The turkeys had to cross two small creek branches to reach us. Most hunters think you can’t call turkeys across a little creek. But we not only called those two toms across those two branches, they also had to cross two green fields too to get to us. Finally they got into range for both Ed and me. But because Ed and I were both looking at the two gobblers from different angles, Ed was waiting on me to take a shot at them. Since I was his guest, I didn’t want to try to take one of those turkeys until he took his. Ed would say, “I can shoot now, can you?” And I would say, “No, I can’t see my gobbler.” A few seconds later, I’d say, “I can see my gobbler, can you?” And Ed would say, “No, I can’t see them.” We were trying to double-up that morning and take both turkeys at the same time. But by the time I got a clean shot at my gobbler, the gobbler Ed had planned to shoot was out of range. “I’m not going to shoot my turkey if you don’t get to shoot yours,” I told Ed. And, he said, “I’m not going to shoot mine unless you shoot yours.” So the morning ended with neither of us taking a turkey.
 However, later on in the season, Ed and I got to hunt together again, and we both got turkeys. Now, that morning, on that spot, other than calling, neither one of us moved for 45 minutes. And I never will forget what Mr. Ed said when we started to get up to leave our stand. He picked-up my ThermaCELL and asked, “How does this thing work?” I said, “I don’t have any idea. All I know is you turn the knob and push the button, and it strikes up. You lay it down beside you, and don’t worry about mosquitoes and flies anymore.” Mr. Ed looked at the ThermaCELL and then looked at me and announced, “I’ve never been on this property in the springtime hunting when black flies didn’t try to tote me off. Before dark tonight, I’ll have me one of those ThermaCELLs.”
Part 1: Thank God for ThermaCELL and Snake Boots
Part 2: My Adventure into Mosquito Heaven
Part 3: What Happens When You Don’t Have a ThermaCELL
Part 4: Taking Mr. Leonard’s Tom
Part 5: Mr. Ed Takes His Tom |
