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spring 2019 total harvest numbers

Stlbaseball1":4wz2n9t7 said:
Thanks Andy! Looks like a part of your neck of the woods is about to be shut down again due to Caruthersville exceeding 34 ft. I feel sorry for the Mississippi River Bottom turkeys that have survived(the few). The River has basically been out of it's banks since January, non-stop.
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I don't know much about how the mississippi affects turkeys, but if it's been flooded since January, wouldn't that push the birds out and force the hens to nest on higher ground?


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The problem is that 99% of the ground that stays dry during a big water is ag fields. The other 1% is where the coyotes, nest raiders and turkey hunters are residing.
 
Levee Jumper":3z9nqxn7 said:
The problem is that 99% of the ground that stays dry during a big water is ag fields. The other 1% is where the coyotes, nest raiders and turkey hunters are residing.
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.....as well as the 10-12 turkeys that are left in the river bottoms. There is no biological reasoning or logic as to why the MS River Flood Waters Zone does not have special regulations, just like you see across the river in the Arkansas river bottoms. Later opener, shorter season, and reduced bag limits should be the norm to allow the few turkeys to survive the relentless spring flooding that is inevitable most years, thus hindering/reducing/eliminating poult survival/recruitment, year after year after year.
 
Turkeys are extremely resourceful given that they can fly. I've seen them spend 30-40 straight days sitting in trees without dry ground for a mile or more. In the spring they fly down to drifts and logs and have plenty of bugs to eat. I'm sure most hens ultimately attempt to nest on levees and ditch dumps but they have no chance of actually hatching and raising poults in that scenario.
 
Levee Jumper":3cmqhpoq said:
I've seen them spend 30-40 straight days sitting in trees without dry ground for a mile or more.
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I've seen them sit in trees all day during floods, and I have "heard" they will sit in trees for long periods of time, but I have never witnessed that, nor have I ever had the time to witness a turkey basically living in a tree for 30+ days. If they can survive in that environment, as many claim, I doubt they would be successful at breeding, thus hindering reproduction and flock expansion over time.
 
The only arguement I would make to the pushing the turkeys to the hills or high ground theory is that in that part of the world, sometimes you are talking about miles of flooded ground from the riverbank to dry ground. Does a turkey have enough since, willpower, etc. to fly from tree to tree in the right direction to high ground? I know turkeys can swim, as well but I just think that it is very hard on adult turkeys and near impossible for a hatch. I agree that the same areas that are closed when the river reaches a certain level should also have more strict regulations than the rest of the state. They don't call it the Mighty Mississippi for nothing...
 
ZachMarkus":27fdc47e said:
Andy S.":27fdc47e said:
22,418 as of this morning.
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Are you looking at it on a PC or mobile device? My phone is showing 13,468 in the hunters toolbox.
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TWRA App, the only way I can get it to work, and it's still a PITA. The button where you toggle "Include WMA" in lower left corner is not readily apparent, so I have to guess where to click on my phone screen. Sometimes I get it right and "include WMA" to the tune of 22k birds today, and when I don't toggle "include WMA", the number is 12k or so today. This feature in the TWRA App needs to be tweaked to better show when you have WMAs included, and when you don't, at least on my iPhone's screen layout.

I've tried running the reports on different computers and browsers to no avail. Very frustrating to say the least.
 
When you include WMAs, do you think it's a application flaw or do we really kill 1/2 our turkeys off WMAs?


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What do you think happens to the hens who nest on the levees? Its just not this years eggs lost, but the brood stock hens killed by predators when they are setti g and most vulnerable that decimates the population.

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AT, I think there is a problem with the check in log...

One of the birds we killed we clearly checked 'private land' on the app, but apparently it didnt register as a warden called to ask whether it was killed on public or private a couple days later. I'm sure TWRA knows the toolbox app isn't working worth a crap right now.

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AT Hiker":90rhkbb9 said:
When you include WMAs, do you think it's a application flaw or do we really kill 1/2 our turkeys off WMAs?


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It has to be a flaw. If you check WMA by themselves it shows 901 killed. If you check previous years the WMA kill is less than 2000 killed per year.
 
tn24":3imxuw5n said:
AT Hiker":3imxuw5n said:
When you include WMAs, do you think it's a application flaw or do we really kill 1/2 our turkeys off WMAs?
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It has to be a flaw. If you check WMA by themselves it shows 901 killed. If you check previous years the WMA kill is less than 2000 killed per year.
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Agreed on WMA kills not accounting for 50% of the kill, more like 2k as he mentioned.

You have to wonder how much error the app is responsible for, and how much error the TN hunters are responsible for, when checking in a bird.

Once again, if TWRA cannot get their website and app creator/designer to straighten things out, there are several neighboring states who have it down pat. We just returned from Missouri and their spring turkey permit (no additional license, permits, habitat stamps, etc needed), mobile app, and check in process were all seamless as any you will ever experience. We (TN & TWRA) could easily reach out to others like them and get some "best management practices" without much effort and implement them to better serve the sportsmen and women of the state.

On a side not, it's eye opening to see a state like Missouri allow one turkey the first week and kill as many in 6 days (4 were terrible weather) as TN has in 23 days. Both states were right around2 22k birds as of yesterday.
 
I wouldn't think it would be as much hunter error. If you hit public on the app it then asks which WMA. The way it's set up it would be easier to incorrectly check in a WMA killed bird in as killed on private.
 
tn24":126yvl0g said:
I wouldn't think it would be as much hunter error.
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Maybe not for you, and others on this forum, but think about a cross section of the hunting population, from the best to the worst. If you have not been exposed to TN hunters on social media, you have no clue what some hunters are capable of. :tu:
 
Andy S.":3ue3yagy said:
tn24":3ue3yagy said:
I wouldn't think it would be as much hunter error.
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Maybe not for you, and others on this forum, but think about a cross section of the hunting population, from the best to the worst. If you have not been exposed to TN hunters on social media, you have no clue what some hunters are capable of. :tu:
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HaHa Andy I'll take your word on the hunters on social media since this is the only site I read. I was just saying that the way the app is set up it's not possible to check in a private land killed bird as a public land bird without choosing a WMA.
 
Upper E TN is in big trouble for the year. As of 4/22, we have killed in 1,445 in the 10 counties. 2018, we had 2,272 by this point. That's 827 difference!! total kills in the past, 2017 was 3,673, 2018 was 3060 and with 3 weeks left, we have 1,445. That's pretty huge drop!!! Based on the numbers, we should be 800+ less than last year for the season!!!
 

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