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Author: Jamie Satterfield M.D.
Title: Crescent Lake Oseola

The SOE team headed to Crescent Lake Preserve in Florida in late March in pursuit of Osceola turkeys. Jacob, Matt Smith (Camera #3), Matt Young (Matt’s Taxidermy), and myself were off to Crescent Lake. The area was founded as a utopia society by an English king with the citizens being prisoners, prosecutes, and lowers class.  The area is one of the oldest townships built in Florida. The area where we will be hunting is about 8300 acres. The land has about 11 miles of Lake Frontage with hard woods and pines. And of course there are the life oak trees with the moss. There are food plots throughout the Preserve. There are deer, hogs, and our favorite the Osceola turkeys. Jacob and Matt Young were on the guns and Matt and me on the cameras. This is Matt Young’s first hunting experience with the SOE team. He does all of our mounts and it was a good chance to show him our thanks for all his help through the year.
The first morning Matt Young and I was off. While walking into our hunting area we had spotted a bird roosted in the pine trees. We set up and started calling. We had gobblers answer with almost every call. Within about thirty minutes we had the gobbler fly down into the decoy. Of course, I missed the fly down by I was on him the minute he hit the ground. He was fifteen yards away at the decoy. He stayed there for about three minutes then started walking off and Matt took a shot as he was walking off at a distance of forty yards and missed. The problem was, he thought I was going to give him the signal to shoot, so he waited too late. Now if that had been Jacob, he would have been shot on the fly down on film or not on film. Nevertheless, we regrouped and changed locations. With a short walk we had another gobble and we set up and this time there was no communication problem. We were going to shoot fast. However, the gobbler came walking up behind us. Matt had heard him drumming about fifty yards away. Now, I will tell you that boy can hear. So I had changed my positions and was ready. When the gobbler showed up I was on him but Matt had to move and we got busted. This time it was his fault. So I guess you could say we were even.

Mean while Jacob and Matt were watch a pair of toms with long beards at about 75 yards with a bow. Sorry Jacob but a bow was not going to cut it. So they came in and exchanged for a benelli and went back out. This time within about thirty minutes in the blind a long beard came in to the Dave Smith decoy with a grin on his face thinking with the wrong head, if you know what I mean. Once there he realized that was a critical mistake. This time a bow would have been great. But don’t worry the comp-n-choke about bit his head off. Jacob and Matt Smith had a 9.5 inch Osceola without spurs. What the! That we found out was not uncommon, but it did give Jacob an odd look on his face.

That evening we were off on a boat ride across the lake for some fried shrimp dinners. It was so good and with all the Coke I drank I was ready for bed and dreaming of a big old “thunder chicken” for Matt. The next morning we set up and had them gobbling again. We must have changed location about twelve times. Every time it seemed the gobbler was coming our way and then would move further away. After about two and half hours of that we finally got his mogo coming our way. Matt was ready to fire away. We agreed to let him get close. This bird was coming and didn’t care what he saw or heard. Finally he was in sight. He crossed the road and was moving through the timber toward us stopped to fan out and gobble. On camera it seemed like he was within ten yards but once Matt dropped the hammer on the Savage model 10 shotgun with the comp-n-choke he was really at 45 yards. Matt rolled him over. Finally, his first kill on film with SOE. We had finally redeemed ourselves. He was a mature tom with inch and quarter spurs (and yes Jacob, ours had spurs) and 9 inch beard. That was exciting to watch a gobbler in strut being lured in by mouth call. Now that’s what I am talking about.

That morning while we were out Matt Smith and Jacob changed jobs and they went after hogs. Matt stalked up on a group of hogs bedded down. Once they jumped them up it was a shooting show. Matt nailed one with the benelli using turkey load with the comp-n-choke. This group of guys they are killing machines. The video was hilarious. They definitely have a great time in the woods. It is a pleasure watching Matt and Jacob experience the great outdoors.

We all got back to the lodge and took pics and thought about the property and all the wild life it had. What an amazing Preserve. And it is for sale. I pray that with the show and when it airs we can help preserve this original piece of land. It would be a sin to break that land up for a lake community. Pray about. God bless and enjoy Southern Outdoor Experience weekly.
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