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Big changes from the meeting today

big 8s in Weakley county said:
Guess I'll be the minority I wish they would have left the opener as it was and just closed season earlier. Even going down to 2 birds is fine I just liked the opener way it was. So in 2 years we should have an over abundance of turkeys with these new rules. I don't see that happening.
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Glad it got pushed back, maybe now more hens will get bred before the decoy crowd takes out the easy picking dominant birds. Hopefully this improves nest initiation numbers, and if it doesn't begin to rebound the population then maybe finally we can address the numbers of birds being killed by unskilled hunters with decoys aiding them unfairly
 
Setterman said:
I'm okay with the later start date and bag limit. Also the Jake rule. But leaving reaping and decoys legal doesn't make sense. Although the later start date may off set it. Blame the greedy killers for this, as they were the ones celebrating the 4 bird limit which started us down this road
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I agree with you, this is what I said in a previous thread they should do. Push back the season to allow good breeding drop the limit done to 2 birds and have to wait a week between birds. I definitely am against fanning on public land due to safety concerns. Has far has decoys on public land I could get behind hens only. Don't think they need to be outlawed completely. Private land I have a more.open view on decoys and fanning. If you own the land and you are sticking to the limits and the season I think fanning and Jake decoys should be your call. Has a hunter and landowner if you hurt your turkey population or drive the birds off your property well it's on you.
 
TnKen said:
So if these changes make a difference in the turkey population, how long before we see more birds? I'm not convinced that hunting is the cause of the decline. Open season on raptors and put a bounty on nest predators, and I think an increase in population would occur faster.
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Where I hunt they dropped it from 4 down to 2 and it did take a couple of years but now there is a noticeable difference.
 
Rakkin6 said:
I agree with you, this is what I said in a previous thread they should do. Push back the season to allow good breeding drop the limit done to 2 birds and have to wait a week between birds. I definitely am against fanning on public land due to safety concerns. Has far has decoys on public land I could get behind hens only. Don't think they need to be outlawed completely. Private land I have a more.open view on decoys and fanning. If you own the land and you are sticking to the limits and the season I think fanning and Jake decoys should be your call. Has a hunter and landowner if you hurt your turkey population or drive the birds off your property well it's on you.
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I'm totally okay with hen decoys. The issue is that what happens on private spills into other areas and is a piece of the puzzle statewide
 
This was sent to me as a summary. I have not had time to fact check all of it. Can one of you confirm or negate the accuracy of it?

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I am very pleased with the two week delay but have to wonder about just keeping the closing date the same. That will make us one of the latest closing dates south of the most northern states like Maine and Minnesota. In all reality, in several counties there will be hunters out when poults are hatching. Just wonder if this will mean hens that are repeatedly bumped off the nests will be abandoning nest sites more frequently. I know that I'm reality there will likely be few hunters out after the middle of May anyways. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
 
Buckhunter10 said:
I am very pleased with the two week delay but have to wonder about just keeping the closing date the same. That will make us one of the latest closing dates south of the most northern states like Maine and Minnesota. In all reality, in several counties there will be hunters out when poults are hatching. Just wonder if this will mean hens that are repeatedly bumped off the nests will be abandoning nest sites more frequently. I know that I'm reality there will likely be few hunters out after the middle of May anyways. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
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I think the way to look at it is looking at historical harvest data for the season as a whole. Ever since TN established a turkey season, over half the entire season's kill is slammed into the first 9 days of the 6 week season. The remaining 44 days are responsible for the other half.

Pushing the season back 2 weeks will not change harvest numbers nor timing of the kills one bit. Majority of the kill will still be frontloaded in the first 9 days just like before... it's just now there will be 15,000 more toms on the landscape during early April (the MOST CRUCIAL time) when the majority of breeding is beginning to occur.

No doubt about it, turkey hunting in the second half of May is gonna be tough. Birds will be going into feeding mode and shut down earlier in the day, gobblers will begin to group back up and start roaming, but there will still be gobbling birds available to hunt early mornings.

For mostly selfish reasons, I'm really looking forward to hunting unpressured birds mid April when they are always the most susceptible to calling (after a few hens have been bred and are breaking off from the breeding flocks mid day). Gobbling activity on the roost should be the best in years opening weekend. Pushing season opening back will also align TN with other states to the north/ east/ and west, reducing early NR trips to TN.

Unfortunately, again for mostly selfish reasons, I think this is really going to hurt the quality of hunting in MS (and perhaps FL and AL). If MS keeps opening up mid March, I see it becoming THE destination state for the early season travelling turkey hunter. And as an aside... even in south MS where birds breed earlier than north MS... the majority of breeding doesn't even start here until late March/ early April. The hens I've seen this year (and years past) down here have been hatching out 3rd wk May.
 
Creek bottoms said:
Follow the $. They're keeping it open ridiculously late to pull nonresidents from neighboring states whose seasons close when they ought to.
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TN is going to lose more NR revenue this year because of the reg changes.

Season was kept open for 6 weeks to not take away any hunting opportunity. Same number of days available to hunt. There will be more NR's coming last 2 weeks of season than years past, but a lot of travelling folks will prefer to hunt north midwest or new england, and even the west as those birds will be earlier in the breeding cycle 2nd half of May.
 
Buckhunter10 said:
I am very pleased with the two week delay but have to wonder about just keeping the closing date the same. That will make us one of the latest closing dates south of the most northern states like Maine and Minnesota. In all reality, in several counties there will be hunters out when poults are hatching. Just wonder if this will mean hens that are repeatedly bumped off the nests will be abandoning nest sites more frequently. I know that I'm reality there will likely be few hunters out after the middle of May anyways. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
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This is my opinion and I have no proof to back it up but I think after about May 10th people will be doing other things, especially if there is not a lot of gobbling going on. There will be those that will chase them until the last day. But just like deer season a lot of people come late season in December and after rifle move on to waterfowl or just wait until next year. Me personally late season is my favorite part of deer season. I want it to be super cold, I enjoy the 15° degree temperatures and it seems I see far less hunters. Hunters may not like the heat and the bugs in late May. But like I said it's just my opinion and we won't really know until after next season.
 
tellico4x4 said:
I'm in the test zone or whatever they call it (Wayne Co). I really think that the two week delay is a plus. Saw more biddies last summer than I have in past five years. Everyone saw lots of jakes this past season as well. We've always protected jakes & in the past twenty years there has only been one killed. The two week delay the past two years has not affected our harvest whatsoever. We have never slaughtered our birds & only take 10-15 off 3500 acres every year. Two birds has pretty well been our self imposed limit for years & we've been able to maintain good hunting while others are struggling. We don't allow pop-ups on plots, absolutely no fanning and no stalk hunting. You call them to the gun or don't hunt.
I'm not a die hard turkey hunter at all, not even a half assed one but I do care about managing our game for my grandsons & the members who love it.
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Great perspective and great plan. I am happy to hear that instead of just going full bore at harvest allowances, you decided to impose management techniques that assist your hunters, the carrying capacity of the land, the resources of the land available to the wildlife population, and the balance of what's best for the wildlife population itself. Just because the laws allow one to harvest specific numbers of a species, doesn't mean we actually HAVE to do that. As hunters and the most important conservationists out there, we should all learn how best to MANAGE both our lands and our wildlife populations within the co fines of the laws. I've always seen the laws as the guide for all wildlife, but it's our individual practices that allows what's best to work for our respective hunting areas. Same thing goes for public lands too. If I was only hunting on public lands, then have also imposed some of the same harvest restrictions on myself. This was so that I could ensure others had the same opportunities as I had and also so that I hopefully had a successful place to come to again the next season. I primarily hunt deer and turkeys and have always implemented the same types of restrictions on myself for both species. I realize this may not be everyone perspective on this, but this is one way that I have always been able to make hunting enjoyable, see and have the opportunity to harvest more than my fair share of game, and watched the lands I have managed remain solid producers of deer and turkey year-over-year regardless of changes to hunting regulations, natural issues that arise (blue tongue disease, etc), droughts, heavy or light hard/soft mast crop years, etc. I've always felt that as long as I am within the laws, then I should be the primary one making sure I am doing what is right for the land and wildlife population on the land(s) I hunt. And no I don't work for TWRA. I have practiced this since I was born romping and stomping the woods of SE Georgia and have continued it ever since I moved to TN in the early 90s. It's actually the same practice that allowed me to have access to a great piece of private land to hunt for 17 years (until the owners passed away and other family members insisted on selling it at a price that I couldn't afford). One of the main reasons the original owners told me they wanted me there was because of what the previous permission-holders were not doing to manage the land and wildlife. Again, great perspective Telllico4x4! One I hope many others employ (or will begin to employ)!
 

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