I dont believe the late start date had NO impact, I believe, from my biology background, it has an impact one way or the other statistically. Granted that impact could be minimal but it will have an impact, I just dont think there will be enough data with ALL the variables around population fluctuation to pinpoint what impact it may have had.  Now I dont believe it was the CAUSE for the decline at all and historical opening days clearly prove that. It COULD however have an impact on areas with low numbers NOW to help increase it in the future.

Now I will NEVER expect the TWRA to outlaw decoys for 1 simple reason. You remove those and hunter success numbers drastically go down. When success numbers go way down, so does long term license sales number. A % of guys that all the sudden cant really kill a bird every year and are not hard core turkey hunters, will start to drop out of the hunting population. Once you start impacting license sales for the TWRA you have a problem that will be more critical to them then the overall turkey population.  My hope is they maybe try to outlaw them for opening week for an example and see what if any impact that has, or like mentioned outlaw male decoys. Again I dont think it will ever happen but I can hope

I do believe the TWRA WANTS to the population to rebound and get better because the more turkeys you have the more license sales you have. I understand the balance though of an agency that needs license sales support to survive and doing whats best for the population. they will continue to take recommendations that will not impact license sales until they have NO CHOICE to start making major changes.