Travis Sumner is a professional wildlife biologist who is also an extremely successful turkey hunter. Sumner is one of those turkey hunters who seem to have a plan for whatever situation develops when they're hunting.

And I've never hunted with him when he didn't have a big sack with turkey decoys slung across his shoulder.

Our first hunt several years ago illustrates his bond to turkey decoys. We had stopped at the edge of a clearing on top of a ridge to call. Sumner hammered out some loud calls on his slate call, and a gobbler answered from a long distance, in the creek bottom below us. He pointed to a tree for me to take position, snatched the lifelike decoy out of the bag and walked to an open spot about 25 yards from my position. He looked at the direction from where the turkeys had gobbled, scanned the woods in front of him and lined up an opening through the woods. Then he placed the hen decoy in the ground, very deliberately and precisely.

He stood back and studied his set, even as an unprovoked gobble echoed from the now fast approaching gobblers.

He liked the setup. He then slipped back and leaned against an oak. With the gun propped on his knee, he whispered, "It won't be long,"

I agreed and I was concerned he wasn't going to get set up in time. Within a few seconds, we saw red heads walking from our right to our left about 70 yards down the hill.

"Two, three, four . . . all longbeards," Sumner whispered, excitement in his voice. "They're all gonna come."

I wasn't so sure. They were certainly looking in our direction but essentially walking parallel to us around the hill. It felt like this could be one of those close, but not close enough, encounters.

I think he sensed I wasn't convinced. I'd told him that morning before dawn that I had experienced some less than happy endings with decoy use.

"They can't see the decoy clearly yet, in 10 yards they have a wide-open view," he said. "Get ready."

As they stepped into the open lane that gave them a clear line of sight to the decoy, it was almost like a Keystone Cops comic routine. The lead gobbler stopped abruptly and the others stumbled into him as they were so intently focused on the decoy. They stared for a few seconds, did an abrupt left-face turn and literally marched up the hill straight to the decoy. They encircled it and did not have a clue we were on planet Earth.

One of the mysteries of using decoys had been revealed to me.

Using decoys for hunting turkeys is certainly nothing new, but the "art" of using decoys is something that is being continually refined. After a number of years of use, hunters are figuring out what to do -- and what not to do.

According to Sumner, decoys are not the answer to all turkey-hunting issues. But when used correctly, they are a most valuable addition to a hunter's arsenal of weapons.

"I always carry a decoy, but I don't always use one," Sumner said. "There are times and places when it's appropriate and times when it's not. The key is to learn to recognize when a decoy, or decoy set, will help your cause. Used improperly, or with the wrong setup, decoys can cause problems. Just like any turkey hunting tactics or tools, they're only as good as the hunter using them. I've heard hunters complain that the decoy setup lured a gobbler in close, but they couldn't get a shot. That's a setup problem, not a decoy issue."

To that end we've compiled seven key techniques for using decoys successfully.