Ky turkey season be split east/west zones??

[Valley Station]

Do you think Kentucky should establish eastern and western zone turkey seasons with different dates??
1)For one, it would compensate for eastern Ky approx 1-week normal later spring.
2)Would encourage hunters to hunt eastern Ky later part of season, taking advantage of 100's of thousands of acres of easy access public property, a growing turkey flock and low hunter numbers.
3)May releive some hunting pressure on WMA's in western part of state.
Any negative reasons to idea?? Other good reasons??

[CPA Hunter]

Everything you say sounds good at first glance. BUT, opening week in the west would be a little more crowded and the other way around later. Either way it would not matter to me -- I hunt IN too.

[turk2di]

Not sure what you mean by #1. Turkey phases evolve north to south, not east to west. A state like Indiana or Alabama, which run longways ,would be more apt to reap different phases.In fact, Florida does that. Care nuttin bout travelin east to hunt either. I would vote against it!

[Valley Station]

Turk2di ,
If you look at garden planting zone charts for Kentucky, you will see that the arrival of spring in eastern Ky is a week or so behind western Ky.
Arrival of spring is not based just on degree of latitude, north to south.
Part of the reason for current rabbit/quail eastern/western zone date differences.
Western Ky birds should be a week ahead of eastern.

[Multidigits]

"100's of thousands of acres of easy access public property, a growing turkey flock and low hunter numbers" :D

[Gobblergetter2.1]

That would just make peabody more crowded and dangerous in the western part of the sate--i would vote against it. I do not hunt on peabody, but many many people do!

[maxcam]

Hmmmm
lets see
according to the latest numbers from the KDFW the number of harvested long beards in the state has declinded yet another year.........that makes what three years in a row.......

Now we are going to add another weekend during the spring and well Im not sure what is going to happen with the crossbow debacle just yet.......But it looks more and more like George Wright was well right..........If the flock is flourishing Multi, why are numbers dropping on harvested birds.......?

[Chimpy]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the fall season. I've read that the fall harvest isn't high enough to make a difference, but to me, it's not as fun without the gobbling and strutting. Plus, I'd rather be deer hunting in the fall. So do you think the fall turkey hunting could be having a negative effect?

[The Beagler]

I can only speak for the western part of the state. But I believe the season came in this year a good amount of time after it should have. I think it would have been great if the season would have come in the day after youth weekend.

I saw turkeys this year strutting behind hens on the 17th of March and from there on to the first of April. So, it the season would have come in about the 3rd or 4th of April, I believe it would be about right. I know the KDFWR puts the season after the peak, so the gobblers will get a chance to breed before they get killed. But, I think it is too late for the western part of the state. As for the east I have no idea.

[turk2di]

And next year, if we have a warm Feburary and a stellar March, everyone will be wanting it in Feburary. A early spring, and everyone says it was too late. A late spring and everyone thinks it was too early. I have seen it a few times in 16years of turkey hunting!

[turk2di]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the fall season. I've read that the fall harvest isn't high enough to make a difference, but to me, it's not as fun without the gobbling and strutting. Plus, I'd rather be deer hunting in the fall. So do you think the fall turkey hunting could be having a negative effect?
With nearly 7000 birds bagged last fall, we still come within 2500 birds or so of the record, on top of the fact that there were less 2yr old birds(bad hatch,03) and Poor weather after the first week of the season. Besides, just 2 or 3 years ain't long enuf to come to any conclusions. Now 5 years from now, the harvest is below 20,000, time to seriously address the issue.

[gobbl4me]

I can only speak for the western part of the state. But I believe the season came in this year a good amount of time after it should have. I think it would have been great if the season would have come in the day after youth weekend.

I saw turkeys this year strutting behind hens on the 17th of March and from there on to the first of April. So, it the season would have come in about the 3rd or 4th of April, I believe it would be about right. I know the KDFWR puts the season after the peak, so the gobblers will get a chance to breed before they get killed. But, I think it is too late for the western part of the state. As for the east I have no idea.

what a difference 40 miles makes here in lyon county the toms were still in their bachelor groups on the 11th of april. i didn't see any toms with hens till right before season opened.

[quackrstackr]

Sounds good to me.

The state makes the youth waterfowl dates vastly different from east to west supposedly because of the weather.. if you follow their logic it makes complete sense.

[schuyler olt]

The spring season should be moved back, if anything. Gobblers go through an early gobbling phase around the time the early youth season is held. If we open it wide up then, we'll greatly interfere with breeding, which primarily occurs in the first two weeks of April, according to George. They get quiet about the time our season starts because they know where the hens are and can travel with them from roost to nesting areas. Once the hens are incubating, and stuck on the nests, the birds really fire up again and are very receptive to calling. Unfortunately, our season is closed at that point.

East/west or north/south zones would see incredible hunter densities in the opening zone the first week, and the same would happen in the last week of the later zone. Think about it--basically holding a quota hunt at LBL without the quota. And the counties bordering the line between the zones would be madhouses.

[turk2di]

The spring season should be moved back, if anything. Gobblers go through an early gobbling phase around the time the early youth season is held. If we open it wide up then, we'll greatly interfere with breeding, which primarily occurs in the first two weeks of April, according to George. They get quiet about the time our season starts because they know where the hens are and can travel with them from roost to nesting areas. Once the hens are incubating, and stuck on the nests, the birds really fire up again and are very receptive to calling. Unfortunately, our season is closed at that point.

East/west or north/south zones would see incredible hunter densities in the opening zone the first week, and the same would happen in the last week of the later zone. Think about it--basically holding a quota hunt at LBL without the quota. And the counties bordering the line between the zones would be madhouses.
Thank god, the voice of reason;)