NATCHEZ — Kaleb Crum’s first bird was a winner.

Shortly after turkey season opened this year, Crum tagged his first turkey at Sandy Creek — an 18.9-pound bird — which won a local contest for the biggest bird submitted by a youth hunter.

Crum, a Woodville native, shot the turkey on March 7.

For Crum, it was six years of patient hunting that finally paid off.

“I’ve had turkeys in front of me, but never shot at one because I don’t like to shoot jakes,” Crum said.

Crum said when the turkey trotted up in front of him, his reaction was quick because the call snapped him awake while he was camped out in camouflage. Crum said he barely even had time to aim.

“I sat there about and hour, leaned back and dozed off,” he said. “The turkey came up about 35 yards away.”

Crum wasn’t the only winner last week. Local hunter Mike Fisher won the adult submission with a four-bearded turkey that scored 94.125.

“It was cloudy and misting rain at daylight,” Fisher said. “I struck a bird at 8:30 (a.m.) I had no idea he was a multi-bearded bird when I shot it.”

A hunting anomaly, Mike Fisher’s brother Andrew Fisher struck a multi-bearded bird on the same outing.

“That’s probably never going to happen again,” Mike Fisher said.

Mike Fisher said he tagged his bird on private land. He has tagged a limit of birds over the past two turkey season and works with youth hunters. He gave a nod a friend of his father’s, Charlie Fisher, for introducing him to hunting at a young age.

“I would credit a lot of my success John Mark Williams for taking me early on and after that a lot of what I learned was trial and error,” Mike Fisher said. “(Turkeys will) humble you.”