The Turkey Woods- Lessons Learned from Seasons Past
This hunt proved to be very typical of my season this year. I found the gobblers to be quite responsive this season but not in your text book fashion that many are used to. I actually had very few hunts this year where I had a good set up off of the roost. Most of the mornings that I went out the birds started gobbling late giving me very little time to find a set up and implement an effective strategy. After fly down I usually found myself standing there scratching my head trying to figure out what to do next. But, when I stayed after them and checked known hangouts I was usually able to find a willing and able participant. Some of which provided some of the best hunts that I can remember. With the success and failures of this turkey season there was certainly some valuable lessons learned that I will carry with me into the seasons that lay ahead.
- Thick vegetation can make it more difficult to hear turkeys and judge their distance. It can also limit places where you can sit down to make a shot.
- Tall grass soaking wet with morning dew is not an optimal place for gobblers to strut at first light. If the grass in your hunting area is allowed to grow thick and tall it can often times change a gobblers roosting patterns altogether. If keeping some strut zones mowed off throughout the season is not an option then you must plan around it and find the alternate roost sites that the turkeys may utilize.
- Freshly planted crop fields will attract turkeys. You need to monitor the fields in your area because farming activity will alter the patterns of the local flock.
- Turkeys are going to be turkeys no matter how much thought we put into weather. It certainly has more impact on us and our perception of what turkey hunting should be like than in does on the turkeys themselves.
- The unusual conditions that were presented to us this season certainly had a negative impact on the success rates of hunters overall. However, those who were willing to adapt their strategies to these changing conditions likely still experienced some quality turkey hunts.
I truly enjoyed this turkey season as much as I have enjoyed any other. I hunted some new locations, made some new friends, and watched some turkeys fall with many of my best friends and hunting buddies. Although it would not be considered a “normal” season by the standards of many, I don’t really know what “normal” is. In fact, I hope to never know what a “normal” turkey season is like because that just sounds pretty boring. For now I’ll have to wait another year to see what Mother Nature has in store. No matter what you know where I will be next April. Here’s to a great hatch in 2019!
Corey
Last Updated: April 4th, 2019