Worst Season In 12 Years

[perrymax]

I saw maybe 10% of the gobblers this year as I've seen in the past in Wash Co. Never had a gobbler come to the call. I heard very few gobbles. I saw 1 gobbler strut this year. After 5 or 6 trips I had to make myself get out of bed and now that I look back, I'd been better off staying in bed. I killed 1, 2 year old and I had to sneak up on him.

People hunting around my area must of had the same luck because I only heard 5 or 6 shots all year.

[Deertracker1]

Same here...the lowest in years...

[schuyler olt]

Reminded me of the "good old days."

[CSS archer]

Washington County killed 287 last year and 262 this year, not bad.

I hunted 20 days about 5 hours a day and worked 1 bird, this year I hunted 21 days at least 5 hours a day killed 1 bird, missed 4 (archery). I could have killed any of 7 longbeards and 23 jakes if I'd been gun hunting, and worked many more birds.

The lack of 2 year old birds made this a tough season.

There was a pretty good hatch in 06 despite the survey results, I saw no turkey broods last year until Sept and October, the wet weather kept the mowing and visibility down. The surveys are conducted in June, July and August.

My county harvested nearly 50% jakes. 32 birds total last year and 31 this year.

Last year was by far my worst ever since '86 when I started turkey hunting at LBL.

[perrymax]

My farm is mostly pasture.(NWSG) I burned 50% of the grass in March. That cold spell came through before the season started and it got down to 25 degrees. I never saw a bird in the burned area of my farm this year. No hens or gobblers. All the birds were in the woods. In the past, when I burned ,the birds would be all over it. I guess there were lots of insects and easy pickins. I think the cold spell eliminated the bugs. No insects, no turkeys. I did find alot of ticks on me this year so maybe my theory is bogus.

I also didn't see very many dandilions this year in the burned area. I've killed gobblers before that were full of dandilion flowers.

[bcdh1]

I think the weather was the main factor, or at least in my case. The one bird that worked all year was on the first day and never gobbled until 11.00. I saw and heard many gobblers, but the weren't even paying attention to the call.