Season proclamation predictions

[TheLBLman]

Although most baiters hunt the first couple of weekends there are several that use bait the entire season.

Illegal corn baiting for turkey poachers doesn't work nearly as well once spring green-up gets going well. With the warmer temps of mid-April, turkeys suddenly have an abundance of food, much of it insects, while a couple weeks earlier, they had relatively little to eat, and would be more easily drawn to those corn piles.

Opening the season mid-April rather than early April most definitely saves many turkeys from being poached over a corn pile.

 

[Biggun4214]

Illegal corn baiting for turkey poachers doesn't work nearly as well once spring green-up gets going well. With the warmer temps of mid-April, turkeys suddenly have an abundance of food, much of it insects, while a couple weeks earlier, they had relatively little to eat, and would be more easily drawn to those corn piles.

Opening the season mid-April rather than early April most definitely saves many turkeys from being poached over a corn pile.

You would be surprised.
The reason most baiters are caught early in the season is because of the numbers out there. Turkeys will go to a known food source. Later in the season they show up at more inconsistent times. Many times it will be late afternoon. I was talking to a former manager from Chuck Swann several years ago about the noon closing. He said bait cases dropped by about 75% when it changed from all day hunts, especially later hunts.

 

[knightrider]

Illegal corn baiting for turkey poachers doesn't work nearly as well once spring green-up gets going well. With the warmer temps of mid-April, turkeys suddenly have an abundance of food, much of it insects, while a couple weeks earlier, they had relatively little to eat, and would be more easily drawn to those corn piles.

Opening the season mid-April rather than early April most definitely saves many turkeys from being poached over a corn pile.

You must not have neighbors that bait, because it most definitely works ,every day every time all year long for turkeys

 

[TheLBLman]

You must not have neighbors that bait, because it most definitely works ,every day every time all year long for turkeys

Yes it does, but just not nearly as effective for the poachers after April 15 as it is the prior month.
Same can be said for decoys & reaping.
Doesn't work as well after the weeds get higher and the bugs come out.

But I believe the biggest benefit of opening our turkey season mid-April rather than April 1st is the later opening enhances nesting success.

 

[Soft Talker]

Illegal corn baiting for turkey poachers doesn't work nearly as well once spring green-up gets going well. With the warmer temps of mid-April, turkeys suddenly have an abundance of food, much of it insects, while a couple weeks earlier, they had relatively little to eat, and would be more easily drawn to those corn piles.

Opening the season mid-April rather than early April most definitely saves many turkeys from being poached over a corn pile.

Bullsh$t. "Conditioned" Turkeys will come to corn year around. Almost all that bait Turkeys dump in or around fields, food plots, or roads, places hens are going to set up come Spring anyway. Insects and young green growth, combined with corn, creates a death zone, especially after green up

 

[TheLBLman]

When turkeys spend less time at corn piles, and more of their time elsewhere, there are fewer turkeys poached over illegal corn piles. Never said turkeys are drawn to corn later. It's just not as big a magnet as it is when they have nothing else to eat.

Same is true with the late August velvet buck hunt over corn piles.
Late August, food resources tend to be low for deer (too early for acorns, many plant foods have dried up).

 

[Andy S.]

IMO, most that illegally bait corn early season (way more than most realize) do not care one iota about when "Statewide season opens". Season opens April 15, they'll shoot their birds week or two early. They literally get the best of both worlds. On a different note, I know tons of SW TN turkey hunters who are ready for the proposed zones shown here, especially if it coincides with staggered opening dates. SW TN is 2-3 week different animal than Bristol, TN. Comparing apples to oranges.

 

[Wooden Arrow]

You do realize from a biological standpoint the gobblers do not determine when turkeys breed???

yup. but i seldom see mixed flocks here until then. yeah, i've seen hens strut, had one gobble/try to. no breeding going on until the gobblers mix with the hens. that's what i was saying...

 

[Biggun4214]

Several years ago I found a blind while working with the Marijuana Task Force. I knew the owner when I found it. I had heard about the blind but reports talked about it being in Ft Campbell. That winter I was trying to trap turkeys about 1/2 mile from the blind. Word got back to me that the owner was in the blind and heard me set the rocket net off. About 3 weeks before season I went into the blind and caught 2 people with a bow in it. The mesh windows had over 200 btoadhead cuts in them.

 

[MickThompson]

Illegal corn baiting for turkey poachers doesn't work nearly as well once spring green-up gets going well. With the warmer temps of mid-April, turkeys suddenly have an abundance of food, much of it insects, while a couple weeks earlier, they had relatively little to eat, and would be more easily drawn to those corn piles.

Opening the season mid-April rather than early April most definitely saves many turkeys from being poached over a corn pile.

It also gives birds 2 more weeks to disperse from winter roosts, putting fewer birds on a bait site

 

[tnanh]

I don't understand why the people who set the seasons are set on how many days turkey season will be open. If the season is going to open two weeks later let it close the same time it used to. Don't close it two weeks later with the season being open the same number of days.May not be a popular thing with hunters but most of the crap they do isn't popular with hunters anyway so that is not a reasonable excuse from them.

 

[TheLBLman]

It also gives birds 2 more weeks to disperse from winter roosts, putting fewer birds on a bait site

Exactly, and this is actually a significant reason illegal bait site don't work as well in later April as the did in early April.

It is nature's way for winter-flocked turkeys to disburse (often several miles in all directions) as spring green-up begins. As each turkey enters new territory, he does not know where bait sites may be located, and doesn't have the need to be so broadly searching for food, since there is now a growing abundance of clover, insects, etc.

Turkeys being more scattered on into later April vs. early April also helps prevent the mass slaughter that can occur at a single bait site on a winter flock.

 

[Rakkin6]

Several years ago I found a blind while working with the Marijuana Task Force. I knew the owner when I found it. I had heard about the blind but reports talked about it being in Ft Campbell. That winter I was trying to trap turkeys about 1/2 mile from the blind. Word got back to me that the owner was in the blind and heard me set the rocket net off. About 3 weeks before season I went into the blind and caught 2 people with a bow in it. The mesh windows had over 200 btoadhead cuts in them.

So was the blind on Fort Campbell? If so what TA was it on?

 

[Biggun4214]

So was the blind on Fort Campbell? If so what TA was it on?

Not the one I found. There was at least one more in East Tennessee. At least one of the culprits had an extensive record including acts on Ft Campbell.