Springing into turkey season
Abundance of young jakes beneficial for seasoned hunters or those with little experience
Springtime in Texas triggers metamorphosis for some sporting sorts.
The typical hunter, whether the prey be fowl or four-legged, has traded in gear for a fishing pole.
But not the turkey hunter.
Spring is an oasis for Rio Grande wild turkey hunters, and there is plenty to be optimistic about for 2020 and beyond.
Favorable conditions last year across much of Rio Grande range spurred production, and that should be evident as the spring hunting season for the species begins March 21 in the South Zone and April 4 in the North Zone.
Timely rains and a mild winter provided ample habitat for a successful breeding and nesting season last year. Plenty of juvenile birds should be on the landscape.
“But what hunters can really expect, is just a bunch of jakes,” said Jason Hardin, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s turkey program leader.
Turkeys, too, are subject to the transitional ways of spring. The young jakes will pile up in large groups as they enter their first breeding season, often clumsily. Hardin already has witnessed a group of 60-plus jakes roaming together.
The abundance of jakes can complicate things for hunters. The rabble-rousing of the youth movement can silence older toms, who quietly watch and listen as their younger counterparts make fools of themselves.
Hunters in search of mature gobblers can be frustrated by their invisibility while being swamped with young birds.
Jakes can provide a source of joy in their own way, though.
Turkey hunting can harken hunters back to their fleeting youth as much as any pursuit afield.
Spotting a flock of jakes during breeding season can take a hunter back to a younger, more rambunctious time. Jakes on the prowl are reminiscent of a pack of teenagers rolling around with prepubescent beards, crackling voices and a penchant for mischief. It is that same old story from high school: boys chasing girls and finding trouble.
Hunting jakes can be a great experience, too. Especially if you are hunting with first-timers or kids, Hardin said. Jakes give opportunity to learn the basics of hunting and understanding turkey behavior, if the trigger is pulled or not.
Special youth-only seasons will be held on the weekends of March 28-29 and May 23-24 in the North Zone, March 14-15 and May 9-10 in the South Zone.
The sight of plentiful jakes also bodes well for the future, especially if favorable conditions continue across the Rio Grande turkey range.
“It’s setting the stage for next year and the year after,” Hardin said. “If we get good production this year, we’re going to see a good boom in the population; there’s going to be a lot more birds out there to hold us over for several years.”
Those conditions were good in most of the state aside from the Trans-Pecos, where there is marginal habitat and low rainfall. The Panhandle also saw improvement after years of dry conditions put stress on the turkey populations in that region.
Hardin said the best places to hunt turkey this season will be Texas’ hotspots. Hardin said there generally is high turkey harvest in the Hill Country, Edwards Plateau and Cross Timbers. Excellent turkey hunting can be found in riparian areas in South Texas. The Sand Sheet, in counties like Kleberg, Kenedy and Brooks, is a mecca for turkey hunting. The coastal moisture provided by the Gulf of Mexico produces phenomenal opportunities if one is lucky enough to find access in an area defined by bountiful game and big ranches.
Although jakes might dominate the landscape this season, Hardin said a lot of three and four-yearold gobblers are out there for those who employ patience and perseverance.
Outside of isolated pockets of heavy pressure, turkey harvest in Texas remains lower than other states. Turkey populations get a lot of carryover from year to year, and survival rates are high once birds reach maturity.
“There are a lot of old toms out there because we don’t get a lot of hunting pressure in Texas,” Hardin said. “Our harvest rates are hardly anything compared to the rest of the Southeast United States.
“Where some states are looking at 30-50 percent harvest rates on their adult gobblers, we’re looking at 710.”
There is still plenty of room for turkey hunting to grow in a state obsessed with big bucks, doves, quail and ducks.
The National Wild Turkey Federation is committed to growing turkey hunting as part of Texas’ culture while also preserving habitat vital to turkeys.
The federation has worked with partners to improve over 100,000 acres of habitat on public and private lands in Texas since 2014 as part of the “Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt.” initiative.
The federation also worked to secure more access for the state’s turkey hunters.
“We have helped Parks and Wildlife Department open up 93,000-plus acres of additional public hunting lands that you and I can buy a $48 permit and go hunt on,” said Gene Miller, a district biologist for NWTF.
A lot of the work focuses on prescribed burns, something Miller said is of the utmost importance for turkey habitat management. Fire has disappeared from the landscape in Texas, a detriment to the state’s many pyric-adapted native wildlife and vegetation. TPWD and NWTF are working to make fire a focal point of land management ideology in the Lone Star State.
Those practices go far beyond helping turkey. Prescribed burns help a myriad of non-game creatures, endangered species and more. It helps hunters of all sorts, too.
“We can’t do the kind of native restoration for Rio Grande wild turkeys without benefiting habitat for deer and bobwhite quail,” Miller said.
Those benefits can pave the way for increasing the popularity of turkey hunting in Texas. The more turkeys and more accessible prime habitat available to Texans, the more potential for hunters to enjoy one of the state’s often-unheralded gems.
Turkey seasons are held in 178 of Texas’ 254 counties. The spring Rio Grande turkey season runs March 21 through May 3 in the South Zone and April 4 through May 17 in the North Zone. A 10-county zone in Southeast Texas where a one-bird bag limit is in place will have a season from April 1-30. Hunters outside of that zone can use four turkey tags annually, one of which can be an Eastern wild turkey.
The season for Eastern turkey runs April 22 through May 14.
Harvest reporting is mandatory for Eastern turkeys, encouraged for Rios.
Hunters can report their harvests on the “My Texas Hunt Harvest” app.