NE Washington Spring Turkey Hunt: Better luck early or late in the season?

[djnoodle]

I am going to be hunting turkeys for the first time this spring. Living on the wet side, I am only going to get a limited number of days to hunt the NE corner and I want to know when I should plan on making my trip.

[turkeydancer]

Opening day the birds haven't been bumped, overcalled to, etc ... then again they usually still have hens with them ....  later on the hens are nesting, but then you have birds that are more spooked ... early or late you can overcome whatever you need to by recognizing what the situation is and making the necessary changes to your tactics .... my final answer then is there isn't a bad day in the turkey woods, it's just what you make of it !       

Personally I think opening day this year will be great since you won't be fighting the "weekend only" traffic.   

[PA BEN]

It all depends on the spring. If it is a long winter and spring weather stays away the first of the season is best, but as the breeding kicks in the toms get harder to call in. I've seen flocks break up in late February w/breeding kicking in the first of March. Breeding is in full swing by the time season opens and the toms are hened up. I've killed more toms that first week between noon and 2:00 pm when the hens leave the toms to lay an egg, they roam around looking for the hens, once the hens are back, the toms are hened up again. Remember just because you got a tom to gobble then no responses from him doesn't mean he's gone. When a tom is w/hen he is in full strut and they don't gobble a lot. You can get them to gobble every 15 min.s or so w/a cutting call. I worked this one tom opening day and saw him w/3 hens out in a field. So I sat and watched them go into the timber. I could get him to gobble about every 20 min.s w/a cut, he wouldn't gobble to any shock call I had. I was up on a ridge this whole time and two hunters came out of the woods at a gate about 300 yds from where the turkeys were. They unloaded their guns and were putting there gear away when one of them made a call, bam, the tom gobbled. They geared up and walked up the road and sat up, they made a call and the tom gobbled. They sat there and called and no more gobbles, I knew the tom was still there from past experience's. They got up and walked back to there pick-up I let them get half way back and I made a cutting call and he gobbled, back they came w/no results, they got up to walk back and I did the same thing, back they came. We did this 4 times before they gave up. The whole time the tom was in the same place. I put the tom to bed that night and sat up under his tree about 100 yds away. When he came out he flew over me to the same field, about a 200 yd flight. Then the 3 hens came flying over to the field. At the same time and same place they wen't into the woods. So, this time I went around and sat above them on the finger ridge they were on. It took about an hour before they worked there way to me. Made a 20 yds shot on the tom, game over. He was my biggest turkey for me to this day, 22 lbs 10" beard.   

 

[bearpaw]

Opening day the birds haven't been bumped, overcalled to, etc ... then again they usually still have hens with them ....  later on the hens are nesting, but then you have birds that are more spooked ... early or late you can overcome whatever you need to by recognizing what the situation is and making the necessary changes to your tactics .... my final answer then is there isn't a bad day in the turkey woods, it's just what you make of it !       

Personally I think opening day this year will be great since you won't be fighting the "weekend only" traffic.   

   We kill birds almost everyday of the season that we hunt by changing our tactics as needed. However, almost every year since we've had a season our best day is opening day, that first day is pretty hard to beat. 

[tonymiller7]

I've definitely done better early, depending on the weather though.