IBEW Hunter Matches Wits with Sharp-Sighted GobblersWatch on the Sportsmen’s Channel’s Brotherhood Outdoors
January 5, 2012
As a turkey hunter and guide, Terre Haute, Ind., Local 725 Business Manager Todd Thacker know birds; he knows where they hang out, feed and roost. He also has family and friends watching and patterning local turkey behavior, which they pass along to him. Someday he hopes to have his own hunting guide service in Illinois.
Thanks to their excellent vision, turkeys are challenging to hunt. And Murphy’s Law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, never has a better chance of proving true than when you combine cameras and turkeys. Day one of the hunt found Thacker and Ackerman listening to the gobbling of roosting birds as the first rays of light filled the Eastern sky. But as is often the case, the toms went silent after hitting the ground. As the morning drew on, Thacker spied a group of birds in a field. Knowing their feeding pattern, he made his way around them, thinking they would spook and run toward Ackerman. They ran, but the shot he expected never came. The birds gave Ackerman the slip. Day two didn’t produce a bird either, but on day three, Thacker and Ackerman looked up to see a hot gobbler heading toward them. Does Ackerman close the deal? Tune in to Brotherhood Outdoors on the Sportsmen’s Channel at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19 to find out. A descendent of six generations of Illinois farmers, Thacker enrolled his property in the federally funded Conservation Reserve Program, which provides agricultural landowners with annual rental payments for establishing long-term, resource conserving covers that reduce water runoff and sedimentation and improve water quality and wildlife habitat. Wildlife biologists agree CRP is the best and most beneficial wildlife program of the last 50 years, and it benefits all of us, especially hunters. Thanks to conservation efforts and the reintroduction of wild turkeys in Indiana, Thacker was the first in his family to tag a spring turkey on his ancestral hunting grounds since his great-grandfather took a gobbler in 1915. That success spurred him to reintroduce his brother, cousins and friends to turkey hunting. And later, he passed it on to his sons. Like so many hunting mentors, Thacker found that introducing new hunters to the sport is “very rewarding and gives you a totally different rush” than when you’re the shooter. Thacker, who a trustee at his local United Way and a member of the National Wild Turkey Federation as well as the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance, enjoys spending as much time as he can in the outdoors with his family and friends. Hosted by noted outdoorsman Tom Ackerman, Brotherhood Outdoors puts the spotlight on union members, taking viewers into their homes and communities, on their job sites and on exciting hunting and fishing adventures across North America. Along the way, viewers learn about unique blue-collar characters, their passion for the outdoors and their desire to make a difference. Union guests on the series have the opportunity to join Ackerman for an outfitted North American hunting or fishing adventure or to act as his guide, taking him to their favorite hunting or fishing locations. In addition to calling gobblers, union guests this season will chase hogs, tangle with gators, stalk deer and elk, reel in trout and track big Canada moose. The thrill of the chase and all the joking and storytelling in between come together for an action-packed season you won’t want to miss. Check out the full Brotherhood Outdoors Season 2 schedule.
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