It’s good to be young and wild.
Take Matt Kopec.
“Water turkey,” his father Ron emailed. “When they flop in the water, swim.”
That’s what Matt did in Cache Creek in Johnson County, he swam out to retrieve his tom turkey with a 9.5-inch beard.
“Four jakes were trailing behind [the tom],” Ron emailed. “Regained its true beauty after it dried up.”
Plus, it just makes it a wilder story.
Ron added, “Shortly thereafter my opportunity came about. Great weekend spending time outside with my son.”
This story sums up what I love about the outdoors.
TOTW, the celebration of hunting for wild turkeys around Illinois outdoors and their stories (the stories matter as this story truly shows), runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times as warranted.
To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), X (@BowmanOutside ), Instagram (@BowmanOutside ) or Bluesky (@BowmanOutside.bsky.social).
