As I’ve been out and about this last week, I’ve noticed that a lot of wild fruit trees, especially the hog plums, are beginning to blossom, and the woods are showing signs of color. That means that spring is officially right around the corner, and along with it comes the spring gobbler season. Now, that is something well worth getting excited about!
March 9th is the opening day of youth spring gobbler season, which means that only youth hunters, accompanied by a licensed adult, can take to the woods in hopes of harvesting a bearded turkey. It’s a weekend, and I can’t wait to arrive so that I can accompany my stepdaughter, Soleil, out to the woods. At ten years of age, Soleil hasn’t yet felt that rush of adrenaline from the excitement of the harvest and the spectacle of the show of that strutting and drumming gobbler working into the decoys. She’s ready to take her first turkey and is practicing her calling. We’ve even visited down at the gun range to begin familiarizing herself with her youth model .410 gauge shotgun. She wants to be ready for when the big day arrives. Although I will be the primary caller, her hen yelps are rapidly improving, and she will undoubtedly contribute to the call count.
Before anybody does any calling, we first have to find out where the birds are. This weekend, I spent a lot of time on various parcels of land, searching for birds and listening for gobbling. Now, the sign is prevalent in most places I scouted, and I know that there is a really good population of birds this year. But they are not yet gobbling, and that is a very good thing.
As the spring hunting season commences, the turkeys will go through three periods of peak gobbling activity. Hopefully, the first peak of the gobbling activity will coincide with the youth opener, giving the kids a real treat in the woods with all the gobbling toms and yelping and cackling hens.
For now, though, I need to continue following the flocks and reading their tracks to identify which flocks have old dominant toms tagging along. I drive and walk through the hunting areas with a good pair of binoculars, hoping to spot the turkeys on field edges or clear cuts so that I might get an idea of the trophy potential of the resident toms. My stepdaughter’s not especially hung up on trophy potential and will happily squeeze the trigger on a jake, but I prefer to take a bird near the end of its life cycle as opposed to a youngster not yet reaching its full potential. Besides, why leave the old guys in the field to feed a coyote? They need to come home and feed my family. I’ll tell you a bit more next week about the calls I will be using, but if any of you have questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. God Bless, and good hunting!
