LBL Quota Turkey Hunt Applications Available Online | SurfKY.com
January 23, 2012
Regina Roby
GOLDEN POND, KY (1/18/12) – Applications will be available online February 1, for the first six hunting days of the 2012 Turkey Season at Land Between The Lakes (LBL) National Recreation Area. Quota hunts not only provide unique recreational opportunities within the LBL region, they help maintain a healthy turkey population.
Three quota hunts in both Kentucky and Tennessee during the first portion of the season require a prior application. In Kentucky, quota hunts include a two-day youth hunt for hunters (under age 16 on the Kentucky portion of LBL) March 31-April 1, a two-day hunt April 5-6, and a two-day hunt April 14-15. In Tennessee, quota hunts include a two-day youth hunt (for hunters 6-16 years old on the Tennessee portion) April 7-8, a two-day hunt April 9-10, and a two-day hunt April 14-15. No hunting is permitted between these dates. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via LBL Quota Turkey Hunt Applications Available Online | SurfKY.com.
N.J. hunters load up for turkey – NYPOST.com
April 20, 2011
Ken Moran
The arrival of spring has hunters doing the turkey trot, and first up to dance are hunters from New Jersey.
The spring hunt starts Monday and runs for five weeks. With turkey populations restored statewide, Garden State hunters can enjoy some of the finest turkey hunting on the East Coast. Spring turkey hunting is the fastest growing hunting pursuit in the nation, and it’s easy to see why.
The tranquility of being in the pre-dawn and early-morning forest, coupled with the adrenaline surge caused by turkeys gobbling from the roost and on the ground, provides an exciting and rewarding experience. Youth hunters will get the first chance to harvest a bird during the Special Youth Turkey Hunting Day scheduled for Saturday.
Youth hunters with a Youth License who have obtained a turkey permit may begin their spring season before the opening of the regular season. The statewide wild turkey population is currently estimated at more than 20,000 birds, and the outlook for this spring’s turkey season is good. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via N.J. hunters load up for turkey – NYPOST.com.
Outdoors: Ohio’s turkey hunters fare poorly on opening day – news-herald.com
April 20, 2011
By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Monday, the opener of Ohio’s 2011 spring wild turkey hunting season, hunters missed the bull’s-eye by a wide margin.
In all, Monday’s 70,000-strong turkey-hunting clan shot 2,646 birds. That figure is a decline of 20 percent from the 2010 opening-day spring turkey kill, said Mike Reynolds, the Ohio Division of Wildlife wild turkey biologist.
“I think there are some pretty clear indicators when you look at the various counties,” Reynolds said.
For instance, in Ashtabula County, the opening-day kill was off 52 percent, while Trumbull County was down 45 percent.
“Geauga County wasn’t too bad, though — down just 19 percent, while Lake County was down 31 percent,” Reynolds said. “In general, Northeast Ohio didn’t have a very good season opener due to the poor weather.”
That was not true for all counties. Athens County saw an opening-day kill similar to that of 2010 with 69 turkeys. And counties in North Central to Northwest Ohio also posted reasonably good numbers, according to Reynolds.
Reynolds credited the largely pleasant weather in those areas on Monday for at least some of the success.
“It’s only one day, though, and we’ll get a more clear picture later on,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds added some glitches in the new check-in system were encountered, among them being an occasional double login of a harvest.
“All in all, though, things seem to be working pretty well,” he said.
As for the impact the ongoing rainy, cold weather may have on poult production, that is probably minimal — at least for now.
“There are hens laying right now, but it’s too soon to say. It’s quite common for hen turkeys to re-nest,” he said.
Ohio’s turkey flock is estimated at about 200,000, of which about 75,000 are males. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Outdoors: Ohio’s turkey hunters fare poorly on opening day – news-herald.com.
Outta’ the Woods: Hunting Public Land Turkeys | Hunting
April 19, 2011
Written by Tony Young, FWC
Back in November, my girlfriend, Katie Hughes, and I each applied for 2011 spring turkey quota hunt permits. Katie has never bagged a turkey before, so I really want her to have an opportunity to get one.
I was hoping the “guest permit” would increase the odds of us being able to hunt together. If I got drawn, we would obtain a guest permit in her name, and if she got drawn, she would take me as her guest.
I was not successful this year in drawing a spring turkey quota permit, but I am happy to report that Katie was, drawing the weekend of April 15-17 on L. Kirk Edwards Wildlife and Environmental Area in Tallahassee.
For those who didn’t get drawn, missed the application period or want even more hunting opportunities, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has 42 wildlife management areas (WMAs) where you don’t need a quota permit to hunt during all or parts of the spring turkey season. All you need in most cases is a hunting license ($17 for residents, $46 for a 10-day nonresident license), a management area permit ($26) and a turkey permit ($10 for residents, $125 for out-of-state hunters). On a few of them, you also need a daily quota or daily use permit, both of which are free and given out at the management areas’ check stations on a first-come, first-served basis. For a list of these 42 WMAs, go to MyFWC.com/Hunting. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Outta’ the Woods: Hunting Public Land Turkeys | Hunting.
Kentucky’s National Forest Turkey Hunting – Kentucky Game and Fish
April 7, 2011
Well before daylight on the opening morning of turkey season a convoy of pickup trucks already occupied just about every back road, dirt trail, and pull-off. Undoubtedly, the pre-dawn silence was about to be broken by a chorus of deep-throated hoots, whiney yelps, and intense fly-down cackles. Many of the gobblers within earshot were probably going to be bumped, thumped, or shot at during the first few hours. However, I still felt confident about my chances of punching a tag from this heavily pressured tract of public land in southeastern Kentucky.
It was an extremely long hike down the sloping hardwood ridge that dropped into the flat river-bottom country of the Daniel Boone National Forest. Upon reaching the bottom, I quickly scratched out the loose sticks and leaves beneath a smooth barked beech tree and sat down. My first soft series of sleepy tree yelps triggered an aggressive response from a fired-up longbeard that was roosted on the next ridge over.
There was barely enough shooting light to see when a heavy thud hit the ground about 50 yards to my left. The bird gobbled twice before breaking into a steady drumming sequence that seemed to make the woods rumble all around me. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Kentucky’s National Forest Turkey Hunting.
NWTF Efforts Featured in April Issue of Outdoor Life
March 25, 2010
EDGEFIELD, S.C.— The hard work of volunteers with the National Wild Turkey Federation is highlighted in a new article about growing wild turkey populations and the increasing popularity of turkey hunting in the West.
In the April issue of Outdoor Life, Hunting Editor Andrew McKean recalls a recent trip to hunt “elk-country turkeys” in the mountains of Idaho. The hunt took place in a state that sold around 5,000 permits to hunt turkeys as recently as 1994. In 2009, the number of turkey permits sold had exploded to nearly 60,000.
In the article, McKean notes that turkey hunting is gaining popularity in a region known more for big game such as elk and mule deer.
“Much of the credit goes to the NWTF…,” wrote McKean. “What is clear is that through its fundraising dinners, the NWTF has been instrumental in growing both its membership and its investment in wildlife habitat over the last two decades.”
The number of NWTF members in the West has risen from only 2,212 in 1990, to more than 25,000 in 2009. Almost $53 million has been raised and spent by the NWTF and its state agency partners in 17 Western states. The money has been used to improve habitat for wildlife, fund wildlife research and pay for wild turkey population restoration efforts.
“This is great recognition of all the hard work that NWTF volunteers and staff have put into building turkey populations in the West,” said Brent Lawrence, NWTF public relations and Web director. “We're excited that an outstanding national publication like Outdoor Life noticed our efforts.”
Founded in 1973, the NWTF is dedicated to the conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage. Through dynamic partnerships with state, federal and provincial wildlife agencies, the NWTF and its members have helped restore wild turkey populations across the country, spending more than $306 million to conserve 14 million acres of habitat for all types of wildlife.
via Press Releases.
Tenn. Turkey Season Kicks Off With Kids Only – Chattanoogan.com
March 25, 2010
The statewide young sportsman hunt March 27-28 will launch the spring turkey hunting season in Tennessee. The regular season will begin the next week, Saturday April 3 and will continue through Sunday, May 16.The young sportsman hunt is growing in popularity and several special hunting events are scattered across the state this weekend.The young sportsman hunt is available for youngsters ages 6-16. One bearded turkey which counts toward the statewide bag limit of four bearded turkeys may be harvested unless taken on a Wildlife Management Area WMA where turkeys are designated as bonus birds. Each youth must be accompanied by a nonhunting adult 21 or older who must remain in position to take immediate control of the hunting device. The adult does not have to be licensed and may call turkeys for the youth.This spring, the young sportsmen will be out to surpass last year’s mark of 1,066 turkeys harvested during the statewide young sportsman hunt. The top 10 counties for harvest during the 2009 statewide young sportsman hunt were Greene 39, Giles 37, Dickson and Weakley 31, Montgomery 29, Cheatham 28, Robertson 27 Hardin and Hickman 26, and Rutherford 25.The young sportsmen must possess the appropriate license and permits to participate. Sportsmen 10 or older must possess proof of successfully completing the Tennessee Hunter Education course. If a sportsman 10 or older has not completed the course, a one-time apprentice hunting permit may be purchased that exempts the hunter education provision for one year from the date of purchase.
via 3/25/2010 – Tenn. Turkey Season Kicks Off With Kids Only – Outdoors – Chattanoogan.com.
2010 Kentucky Turkey Forecast – KY Game and Fish
March 25, 2010
By Travis J. Faulkner
It was pure torture driving to work during the second week of the Kentucky spring turkey season. The songbirds were singing at least an hour before daylight that morning and there was no doubt the turkeys would be gobbling their beaks off. I caught myself at least a half dozen times glancing off the road at the distant fields trying to spot a fired-up longbeard in full strut after daylight.
Then, just before my exit, something happened that hit me in the gut like a runaway truck. A redheaded gobbler was puffed out like a helium balloon trying to impress at least three different hens. I guess making enough money to cover my house and truck payments were about the only thing that kept me from making an illegal U-turn that morning. Without question, spring turkey hunting has completely changed my life in the Bluegrass State.
It’s just about impossible anymore to find an area in our state that is not covered up with wild turkeys. The reintroduction-stocking program of this magnificent game bird has to be one of the biggest success stories of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resource Agency (KDFWR). The exceedingly high numbers of turkeys that are thriving across the Commonwealth have played a pivotal role in promoting the sport of turkey hunting.
In fact, more and more hardcore turkey hunters are hitting the spring forests every season. Furthermore, a large percentage of these hunters are consistently seeing and even tagging gobblers during these hunts. Over the past several years, turkey hunting in Kentucky has rapidly evolved from a weekend pastime to a way of life throughout the month of April. Click Link Below for full story!
via 2010 Turkey Forecast.
Nine People Charged with Illegally Importing, Possessing or Selling Live Wild Turkeys
June 2, 2009
Frankfort, Ky. – Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife conservation officers served summonses today on nine people, seized 15 wild turkeys and 25 wild turkey eggs persons following an eight-month, multi-state investigation which resulted in 421 criminal charges of illegally importing, possessing or selling wild turkeys in Kentucky.
Officers obtained summonses in 11 counties spanning the state from Calloway in far western Kentucky to Pike in far eastern Kentucky. The investigation, termed Operation Toxic Turkey, documented 167 live wild turkeys illegally imported into Kentucky, including eastern and Rio Grande wild turkeys acquired from a New Mexico hatchery.
It is illegal for the general public to possess a live wild turkey in Kentucky, and a wildlife transportation permit issued by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife is required of anyone bringing wildlife into the state.
Investigators were first alerted to possible illegal trafficking in wild turkeys last August, when they heard a broadcast on a Bardstown radio station advertising live eastern wild turkeys for sale. The investigation that followed quickly expanded beyond state lines and turned up similar violations in at least 13 additional states.
New Mexico Department of Fish and Game officers helped trace the eastern and Rio Grande turkeys purchased and imported into Kentucky from Privett Hatchery in Portales, New Mexico. Purchase and shipping records obtained by investigators led to the charges and summonses. The hatchery has a permit to legally sell turkeys.
Those charged include Stanley Hurst, 28, Bardstown, 168 counts of importing, possessing or selling wild turkeys. Others include Margaret Hamilton, 36, Pikeville; Allan Chaney, 45, Irvine; John Hester, 23, Henderson; and Thomas Murdock, 51, Murray, each charged with 30 counts of importing and possessing wild turkeys. Additional charges of importing or possessing wild turkeys were placed against Jeremy Ginn, 32, Mt. Sterling, 40 counts; Caroline Cox, 50, Turners Station, 20 counts; Elizabeth Patrick, 41, Cave City, 14 counts; and Julie Saling, 26, Bowling Green, two counts.
Wildlife biologists say importing wild turkeys into Kentucky puts the state’s native wild turkeys at risk of contracting diseases for which they’ve developed no natural immunities.
“There are many biological concerns when releasing captive-raised poultry into the wild,” said Steven Dobey, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s turkey program coordinator. “The potential for transmission of diseases and non-native parasites is increased due to their captive origin.”
Kentucky’s wild turkey flock ranks among the nation’s top wildlife restoration successes. Statewide wild turkey numbers were estimated at fewer than 900 birds in the mid 1950s, and nearly all of those resided in west Kentucky’s Golden Pond area, now Land Between the Lakes.
The department embarked on an aggressive restoration effort in the 1980s, and today’s flock has rebounded to number about a quarter of a million birds. Gobbling can be heard in every Kentucky county and hunters enjoy liberal bag limits statewide.
“In our generation, wild turkey numbers have grown from fewer than 1,000 to well over 200,000 birds in Kentucky,” said Dobey. “Kentucky Fish and Wildlife has worked diligently toward these restoration efforts, and I am positive the sportsmen and sportswomen of Kentucky want nothing to threaten this success.”
“The wild turkey has become a major component of Kentucky’s tourism industry,” said Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Jon Gassett. “The wild turkey’s economic impact annually in Kentucky is almost $230 million, and almost 2,200 jobs depend on it.
“It is critical that we not inadvertently introduce disease into our flock,” he continued. “That could be catastrophic.”
Tompkins: Turkeys in Texas, Kentucky tale of two states | Outdoors | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
May 25, 2009
By SHANNON TOMPKINS Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Shannon Tompkins Houston Chronicle
An abundance of insect-rich openings carpeted with native grasses is crucial to survival of turkey poults. A lack of this “brood habitat” is one of many factors limiting East Texas’ eastern turkey population.
On a cool late-April morning, in a beautiful creek bottom carpeted with glistening trillium and wild violets and crackling alive with singing warblers and cawing crows, I scratched out a series of yelps on a slate call, and three wild turkey gobblers thundered back.
Minutes later, a huge black gobbler warily strode through the open understory beneath the oak and hickory forest and into an acre-sized opening nearly knee-high with native grasses.
The big bird spotted the hen decoys, gathered himself and threw everything he had into a ground-shaking gobble. His paintbrush-thick beard danced on his chest as his body convulsed.
Hidden in a thick clump of cane, I smiled behind my camouflage mask and drank it in. Finally, after all these years, I had accomplished a personal goal: calling a long-bearded eastern turkey gobbler within gun range in country where my ancestors once hunted these same birds.
While the sense of connecting with family history and tradition were real and gratifying, a twinge of melancholy colored the moment.
I’d always hoped this meeting with an eastern gobbler on “home” ground would occur in East Texas, where my family has lived for nearly 200 years.
But after years of failure and frustration trying to find an eastern gobbler in East Texas, it took a trip to Kentucky — the region my ancestors left when they came to Texas in the 1820s — to accomplish that goal.
Kentucky is awash in eastern subspecies wild turkeys. Estimates are the Bluegrass State holds almost a quarter-million wild turkeys, and the birds are found in each of the state’s 120 counties. Each spring turkey season, about 80,000 Kentucky turkey hunters take 25,000 or more birds.
Optimistic estimates place Texas’ eastern turkey population at 10,000 birds. Annual turkey harvest in the 43 East Texas counties that have a spring season has hovered between 250-400 birds this decade, most often closer to 250. And a third or more of those gobblers are taken from just two counties in the far northeast corner of the state. In some East Texas counties open to spring turkey hunting, not a single bird is reported taken during the spring season.
The disparity between eastern turkey populations in Kentucky and Texas is stunning when you consider that, 30 years ago, both held almost none of the birds.
Both saw native populations of eastern turkeys evaporate in the early 1900s, victims of unregulated hunting and, in Texas, extensive loss of habitat. Click Link Below for Full Story!
via Tompkins: Turkeys in Texas, Kentucky tale of two states | Outdoors | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.
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