TWRA requesting public input for turkey plan

[volsrock]

You have Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi all pretty close and would even get you in the woods sooner. My thinking is 2 is a good year for me lol. If I wanted to keep hunting I would hunt public in our neighboring states. Granted not everyone can afford or have the time to do this, but it's a option.

this question is from the TWRA. We need to focus on TN. Those states are a option but why cant we have nice things in TN!!!

 

[Southern Sportsman]

You have Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi all pretty close and would even get you in the woods sooner. My thinking is 2 is a good year for me lol. If I wanted to keep hunting I would hunt public in our neighboring states. Granted not everyone can afford or have the time to do this, but it's a option.

this question is from the TWRA. We need to focus on TN. Those states are a option but why cant we have nice things in TN!!!

If by "nice things" you mean a long season and liberal bag limit - we can't have them (for long) because we'll run out of turkeys. Poult recruitment has been dwindling since 2002. But it was exceptional before that following restoration efforts, so we had a population "bubble" somewhere around 2005-2006. In 2005, the season was lengthened 5 days (regular season) an extra day was added to the juvy hunt, and the juvy hunt was moved to the beginning of the season. So we started killing turkeys earlier and longer. 2006, limit went from 3 to 4. So we're killing more of them. From 2006 til today, poult recruitment has steadily declined, hunter numbers have increased, and success per hunter has increased dramatically with a wholesale change in turkey hunting tactics and improved equipment (a topic for another day). So for 15 years, we have been hatching fewer turkeys every summer, taking fewer surviving, adult-sized turkeys into each fall, then killing more turkeys every spring. Do the math.

I'm not as worried about bag limits as I am about season timing. But I would fully support reducing the bag limit as well. It just doesn't make sense to have one of the most liberal bag limits in the country while the turkey population is falling.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

STRATEGY 1.1 ESTIMATE ANNUAL HARVEST AND HUNTER PARTICIPATION AND EFFORT TO MONITOR POPULATION TRENDS
1.1(a) Conduct an annual harvest survey to obtain estimates of hunter effort, participation and harvest at an appropriate scale for management. Initially, survey data will be gathered at the TWRA regional scale, but as management units are developed (see Strategy 4), they will become the scale of reference.
. . . .
STRATEGY 1.4 DETERMINE THE OPTIMAL SPATIAL SCALE TO MANAGE WILD TURKEY POPULATION LEVELS IN TENNESSEE
1.4(a) Evaluate physiographic differences influencing turkey behavior, turkey density and hunter behavior across Tennessee.
1.4(b) Identify other covariates and constraints needed to define appropriate management units.
1.4(c) Delineate optimal management units for future management, research and monitoring purposes.


This is one of the few promising objectives from the "draft plan." They do seem to be planning separate management units for the state. It's hard to believe they haven't done it before now, so I hope they do it quickly.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

How many turkeys are killed by a 4th tag?

 

[TDW05]

How many turkeys are killed by a 4th tag?

At least 1, had to use my license like a ninja star once. :rotf: oke: Jk.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

How many turkeys are killed by a 4th tag?

Can't say for sure because the new hunter's toolbox is such a dumpster fire. It's not that many, but it's still hard to justify a 4 bird limit. There are only so many things a state can adjust to reduce harvest. The bag limit is a real obvious one.