While reading emails with my overgrown Pointer/Labrador taking a Lab-Nap on my lap, I received an email from Tom Granberry, a renown turkey hunter. A video was attached.
It opened with several turkeys moving slowly at the edge of a clearing forty-yards away. A few seconds later, one of the birds gobbled raucously through my iPad.
As if gouged with a battery-powered cattle prod, “Chewpee” jerked his head around to confront my iPad — nearly knocking my hot coffee cup out of my hand! He didn’t know what he had heard but sensed the wildness of the sound. It awakened his hunting instincts. Studying the iPad for half a minute convinced him it was just another of my electric toys —nothing he could point or retrieve.
The gobbler affected me, too, though less violently. Regrettably, Granberry was there and hunting — and I wasn’t.
At one time, Texas reported having one-fourth of all wild turkeys in America. We still have plenty of turkeys, despite declining populations of turkeys and hunters. There’s a world of turkey habitat in Texas.
When I began seriously hunting, East Texas had lost most of its turkeys to the Depression and WWII. Unbelievable as it sounds, fresh meat was scarce during both those events. And meat cost more than the price of a shotgun shell. Hungry people did what they had to do to survive. That contributed to the decline.
Rio Grande turkeys, native to dryer parts of Texas, were not as adaptable to East Texas as hoped. TPWD then attempted stocking eastern turkeys, there. This also failed to answer declining populations.
So, starting next September 1, parts of four northeast Texas counties will be closed for spring turkey hunting. Portions of two Central Texas counties will be closed for all turkey hunting seasons then, too, along with total closure in Milam County. West of the Pecos River and east of I-35 north of I-10, all counties with an open turkey season will revert to a spring-only season April 1-30 with a one-gobbler Annual bag limit.
Statewide reporting of ALL harvested wild turkeys will be required during ALL seasons, beginning in the fall. Be sure and check the County Listings in the TPW Outdoor Annual before hunting next season.
TPWD’s wild turkey program leader, Jason Hardin, reminded me that Fridays have now been added to the Fall Youth Hunting Season days for whitetails, wild turkeys, and squirrels.
From reports I have received from hunters and TPWD’s press release, it looks like the current spring Rio Grande turkey season that opened March 30 in the North Turkey Hunting Zone is going to be a successful one. So will the South Zone be, which opened March 16. There should be a number of jakes and older gobblers available.
Hardin also suggested hunting turkeys later into the spring season due to fewer hunters afield. Just don’t try to look at email videos from known turkey hunters while drinking hot coffee with a big dog asleep on your lap!
