One Turkey this year - is lottery next?
Ohio
I don't know what others are experiencing in Ohio, but I am alarmed by the lack of turkey I see in our area. It's awful. I got a few pics this week and they were being chased by coyotes.
I wonder if this persists if the DNR will take more drastic action? Maybe go to a lottery for spring gobblers? Or better yet, open up raccoon season all year long for dogproof traps and hunting. I believe the abundance of coons is the main culprit with nest raiding.
What do you guys think?
I agree that racoons are a major problem. We had the same situation that you have until we started removing raccoons. Stressless and I remove maybe 50 a year. A local outfitter told me that he has removed about 200. The few remaining hens started to have successful nests. Although we do not have a huge population of turkeys we do have enough to hunt. I was able to fill both my spring and fall tags with Toms in 2022 with my bow. We definitely have enough Toms now to be optimistic but still not like it used to be when hunting was great.
I think that the ODNR realizes that the problem is nest raiders like raccoons and possums. I hope that they open the season for trapping them to year around. I doubt that they will go to a draw for turkeys.
I sure hope that there is not a lottery on turkey tags. We are putting forth the effort to reduce the raccoon population at a time when furs are not worth the gas to take them to a fur buyer so that we have turkeys to hunt. Reducing the fall season to bearded turkeys only makes sense.
I think they need to stop the fall hunting and keep bag limits low for a while. Allowing more hunting/trapping for racoons and such would be good.
The one overlooked major predator for turkey eggs is crows.....they are terrible on eggs. I would bet they cause as much damage as racoons. Really good view of a clutch of eggs when you can fly over them.
I plan to shoot some crows and also start trapping and shooting more racoons.
I walked about 1500 ac or public last last weekend and saw very limited turkey sign. I did track down a couple spots that have potential, but man - takes a lot of looking!
I miss having turkeys.
I think all states need a 1 Tom limit. It’s not like it used to be anywhere.
What they need to do is eliminate the fall hen season. Especially in counties in the northern half of the state that were not part of the traditional turkey range. If the turkey population gets totally wiped out in these northern counties, they will not return without an intensive stocking program like they had in the early 1990's. My son has coonhounds so we do our part in raccoon population management. I am still convinced that there is more to the situation than just raccoons and possums. I don't know the life expectancy of a wild turkey, but what happened to all of the adult turkeys? Did they die of natural causes and from hunting while the coons and possums were eating all the eggs? There has to be more to it.
CAS_HNTR's link is typical PR of the DOW to promote population numbers when populations are actually declining... They did it with deer and now turkeys... They won't admit declining numbers until it is so obvious... It's all about selling tags... Pat you'll learn the tactics of the ODNR PR machine, they have a good one...
BTW - Ohio's spring turkey season started with lottery tags back in the 1980s...
Can you imagine setting a piece of food in the woods and having it not get eaten the same night or at least with a few days by a coon, possum, or skunk? It's amazing to me that any turkey eggs survive to hatch.
Nonetheless I am in the camp that something else is contributing......we used to have tons of turkeys along with tons of coons and suddenly way fewer turkeys.
It is hard to tell but it seems like there are more raccoons now then 20 years ago. I know there are a lot less turkeys then there used to be everywhere I go. 20 yeas ao I would see flocks of 100 in the Walhonding area of Ohio.
Also, here in Erie, Crawford and Mercer counties. The PGC released Fishers. I know guys have been seeing them in Ohio. I do see a lot raccoons on the roads. Don't hear or see many people hunting or trapping . Plus, I do see a lot of turkey when I go to Ohio.
"here in Erie, Crawford and Mercer counties. The PGC released Fishers"
Boris - Wonder why the PGC would release Fishers on border counties like that, especially in highly populated counties like that... I'm familiar with the area, I worked in Meadville a few months... I could understand in the mountains in those huge WMAs but in high population areas? Kinda strange... Not saying there isn't farms and woods in the area, (it's a nice area) just thinking they'd be much better suited in the mountains...
Would be interesting to learn the exact Fisher release locations...
I got a picture of 10 jakes. I have not seen this many jakes together in awhile.
