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Turkeys, or LACK thereof!

4onaside,
A little encouragement. I ran cameras on our property last year from january to season and had practically no pics of turkeys. Then the season opened and we had some. Not like ten years ago but a huntable population. This year geting lots more pics so who knows how this season will be but it looks encouraging. I am just afraid we are missing the best hunting in my area right now.
 
True, I do view it from a middle tn scene but I did say there should be units without question. I think they have done a good job getting it to this point but yea need to really look harder to do better. Could they have done or do more? Sure. Could they have failed totally? Yup
 
In several of the counties in west Tennessee that border the Tennessee river on the west, the first few miles along the river is actually aligned geologically with Middle Tennessee as part of the Highland Rim, limestone rocks, caves, clear creeks, etc. Point being that where do you draw the line of micro managing, which IMO is something that TWRA is not going to do, and I understand their position. In other words, Decatur county should not be managed the same way as Lauderdale county on the Mississippi River, even though both are in West Tennessee. So making West Tennessee a management unit would not be logical and therefore probably would never come to pass. I don't have the answers just the problems!!
 
4onaside said:
Setterman, I don't disagree with almost all of what you say, other than the jakes deal, as it applies to my situation. We had one batch of jakes(of the year) , totaling about 20 during this past deer season. In addition there were at least two large flocks of hens that could be identified on separate ends of our place at the same time. Also, nine long beards and one separate group of three jakes from last year. In short, a bunch of turkeys as recent as three months ago. Now gone! Obviously, 4 bird limits nor nesting failures nor any of the obvious things can be blamed. They have either died, perish the thought, or they have moved totally out of their previous range. A mystery, at least to a layman.
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I am just going to throw this out there...

For years i hunted smaller farms in Jefferson county, every year the places would be loaded with Birds from Jan- early March, then poof they all went missing.

Come to find out they were being baited heavily by another hunter a few farms over, and the whole lot of them literally picked up and moved. This stopped when the slob got nailed and lost his hunting privileges.

Just something to think about.
 
The bad part about the baiting topic is now you can pour out all the corn you want, hoardup most of the turkeys in the area, and just stay 250 plus yards away and be totally legal.
 
Setterman said:
4onaside said:
Setterman, I don't disagree with almost all of what you say, other than the jakes deal, as it applies to my situation. We had one batch of jakes(of the year) , totaling about 20 during this past deer season. In addition there were at least two large flocks of hens that could be identified on separate ends of our place at the same time. Also, nine long beards and one separate group of three jakes from last year. In short, a bunch of turkeys as recent as three months ago. Now gone! Obviously, 4 bird limits nor nesting failures nor any of the obvious things can be blamed. They have either died, perish the thought, or they have moved totally out of their previous range. A mystery, at least to a layman.
Click to expand...

I am just going to throw this out there...

For years i hunted smaller farms in Jefferson county, every year the places would be loaded with Birds from Jan- early March, then poof they all went missing.

Come to find out they were being baited heavily by another hunter a few farms over, and the whole lot of them literally picked up and moved. This stopped when the slob got nailed and lost his hunting privileges.

Just something to think about.
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I don't believe that is likely but...........come to think of it, I have killed two birds in two separate recent seasons that had a craw full of fresh corn. No corn fields within miles of us! There is hardly anyone hunting close to us, so I wouldn't even know where to start looking. I almost hope that would be the answer rather than some mysterious disappearance.
 
I only hunt middle Tennessee too and I haven't witnessed declining turkey numbers personally, so I don't know what's going on. I have seen drastically declining deer numbers and quail are basically gone. I hear one idea after another and have about decided none of us really know what's going on. Everybody says habitat loss for the quail but AEDC has 32,000 huntable acres of great habitat and no quail. Had a feller tell me yesterday that the turkeys ate quail eggs and that is why the quail had vanished. Who knows?

The deer numbers where I live are so low that I think we need to go to buck only, but the folks that hunt around here enjoy the 3 does a day deal. Almost everybody I talk to about the deer blame it on coyotes though.
 
Trail cameras baited with corn are certainly a good candidate as well. Done more times then not by folks with no ill intentions, but can certainly draw birds away from other places.
 
That happened to one spot I had. The neighbor baited the turkeys because he liked to watch them and he didn't want anybody killing them. A tornado came through one night and leveled an entire hill, killing all the turkeys that were roosted there.
 
Swamphunter said:
bearclaw said:
We need units for turkeys, those places with tons of turkey can have their limit of 4, places in the middle can have 2, and places with very few birds can have 1 until the population expands again.
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Setterman said:
The biggest blunder IMO by TWRA is not adjusting our seasons in areas which have had unique events which could significantly affected poult production. Rather then lower limits in areas which have been hit by floods, hail storms, etc etc, they kep the limit the same which is totally counterintuitive and not smart management.

In areas where the farms are smallish, less than 500 acres, and every farm gets a ton of pressure, the 4 bird limit could seriously impact the hunting in those areas. COmbine that with area hit by freak weather events, or hatch failures and it could be a disaster.

This is just my opinion, but TWRA's turkey folks need to seriously consider being more fluid with the regs to account for massive weather events and poor poult production. This one size fits all approach is not wise, and may be having a major impact in some areas.
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Spot on guys! Before anyone gets their panties in a wad, I'm not saying we should change the limit everywhere. If you hunt in a county that is eat up with turkeys, keep your 4 bird limit, but some counties just cannot support a 4 bird limit or even a 3 bird limit. IMO TWRA's turkey management is severely lacking. Whether it's due to lack of funds, lack of interest, or looking at only middle TN I don't know.
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I have been saying this for years
great point
 

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