what was your impression of season in N.E.

[Hangfire]

The 2014 spring season is history what was your impression of the season, turkey population etc in the N.East corner? I hunted south east Stevens county.

I had the most difficult time I have ever had since I started hunting in 2000 of finding gobbling birds. Birds were well scattered but I could not find a mature gobbler. One piece I hunt of two sections one private and one section public. I got in three trips one gobbler to reply one time each for two of the three hunts. Ten years ago I would have had at least a dozen birds reply per trip. I also saw more jakes than I have ever seen. At one time I had 10 jakes fighting in front of me. Many of the Jakes were very small, no visible beard and just very small birds, probably a late hatch last year.

I finally got the heaviest weight spring gobbler that I have ever taken.  Live weight was 21.5 pounds. Since this was a old bird I boned it out entirely getting 8.5 pounds of ground turkey. This bird had a 8.5 inch well worn beard, but very thick. The spurs were 7/8 inch and very sharp pointed.

I hope the good jake population will mean more gobblers next year. I think the over all population is 25% or less of what it was a few years ago.

[WAcoyotehunter]

it was a little slow around my place near Newport.  The bird population seems to be a little down, but they can rebound quickly with a good hatch.  I think the guys that hunted somewhat hard probably still got their birds.

[bearpaw]

Three to four years ago I would say the overall population was 30% to 40% of what it was 10 years ago due to the two back to back hard winters that we had a while back. The population seemed slow to recover for several reasons, rainy hatch seasons, lots of predators, and liberal fall seasons probably being some of those reasons.

Last year there wasn't so much rain during the hatching season so we had the best hatch in quite a few years which explains why there are so many jakes this year. In my opinion the overall population seems to have increased to about 50% to 70% now. Another good hatch season, which is happening right now, could put us back closer to the population we used to have.

I hunted Saturday the last day of the season and only saw a few other hunters out, almost no pressure for the last 5 days of season. Birds were relaxed, we got onto more than 30 jakes and gobblers in numerous groups of which probably 6 of those were gobblers, and although the gobblers eluded us we sacked up 3 jakes. We did not see many hens, most hens are on nests now. I will say there wasn't much gobbling, most of that is done, but I was surprised the last day of season was so good for spotting birds and surprised we saw so many legal birds.

Looking out my window I see insects flying around as I type and know that baby chicks hatching out today will find protein to keep them going. So I'm pretty optimistic so far this hatching season for next year.

I would comment that some large areas of public land that used to hold a lot birds are pretty void of turkeys. I sure wish that WDFW would modify some of the fall hunting seasons so that birds are not hunted so hard on public land and put more of the hunting pressure on private land where the turkey damage is occurring that the fall seasons are supposed to address. I think too many turkeys are being killed on public land and not enough killed where damage is occurring. This causes the problem to fester and reduces public land hunting quality.

This is the best opinion I can give for the areas we hunt. I'm sure depending on what areas a person hunts that opinions will vary.

[turkeydancer]

I would comment that some large areas of public land that used to hold a lot birds are pretty void of turkeys. I sure wish that WDFW would modify some of the fall hunting seasons so that birds are not hunted so hard on public land and put more of the hunting pressure on private land where the turkey damage is occurring that the fall seasons are supposed to address. I think too many turkeys are being killed on public land and not enough killed where damage is occurring. This causes the problem to fester and reduces public land hunting quality.

   My experience this year was varied (but I only hunted the 1st 4 days of the season).  Some areas I hunted were lower in population with few gobbles. and other areas held a ton of gobblers all wanting to play the game.  Managed to have a lot of fun with 2 toms in the freezer.

[jasnt]

This season is the first time I've done any serious turkey hunting but I found a lot of gobblers in my area. Seemed more than years past from my limited experience. They were not where they were last year but were still around. 8 miles north east of deer park. Gmu117

[returnofsid]

Since this is my first year turkey hunting, I've nothing to compare it to, except the turkeys I've seen/heard while camping and hiking previous years.  I did manage to kill a nice tom, May 18th, calling him in on a string.  This past week, while I've heard a lot of gobbling, and even had some that started to come in, I wasn't able to make it happen.  The last few days of the season, I heard tons of gobbling very early morning.  After about 8:00am, the gobbling completely stopped.  Then, gobbling would start up again a couple hours before dark.  My season ended with me still having my second tag in my wallet.  I'll hope to use it this fall.

In areas where I camp and hike, I've seen tons of birds, toms, jakes and hens, this year.  In areas where they cannot be hunted, I've seen a similar population to the past couple of years. 

[Tom Tamer]

Bearpaw sounds spot on, which is usually the case. But lots of Jakes means lots of 2yr olds next year, another good hatch or two and we may get back to what we had a few years back. And for all of us to pressure the DFW to reduce fall limits especially on hens and to get them to get a private lands access program going that both hunter and Landowner benefit from. That being said I've never been one to wait for Goobermint to do something so I'd also advise get out there this summer and meet those folks and try and gain access and friendship with these Landowners. The DFW isn't going to change quickly so we need to take it into our own hands. And this is a way to do that.

[whichwaydidhegogeorge]

Becoming a born-again hunter and having no previous experience in this part of the state my opinion is limited to just this season.  It was great that I tagged out, but something was definitely lacking.  I had approached this season with the idea of getting out in the wild and making my own way, coming face to face with a monster bird.  Just him and me in a duel for survival (a little dramatic I know).  However, from my perspective there did not appear to be any real wild turkeys just a bunch of henned up fat toms hanging out in peoples yards.  That is okay I suppose if you live there, but I made 4 scouting trips, and 3 hunting having to drive 600 miles round trip.  Yard turkeys were not what I had in mind.  The many forays I made into the bush pretty much yielded the same results.  Turkey sign sure, but the drive back into civilization was turkeys galore .  I almost hit a few driving on some of the off chutes from Alladin rd.  I even took pictures of one running in the middle of the road in front of my vehicle on Pierre lake rd.  To be honest the best part of this season was just getting out there.  I met many great people from rangers, hunters, and townsfolk alike.  I attended one of TurkeyDancers turkey seminars at Cabelas, chatted up a storm with some locals, and ate at Ronnie Ds drive in.  On a side note their triple burger is not for the faint hearted if you want a shake and sides.  My fiancee found it amusing at how determined I was to eat every last delicious bit.  So turkey hunting in the NE was not what I thought it would be, but the experience was better!!

     On the other hand someone needs to do something about those damn white-tails .  I had to replace both headlights, pull a dent out of a fender, and really clean above my skid plate.  If anyone has a Damage Prevention Permit please message me.  Vengeance will be mine.

[MerriamMagician]

Bird numbers were definitely down along Lake Roosevelt and west central Stevens county where I do most of my turkey hunting. Not gobbling like normal either this year, very tight lipped. Public land birds were nearly non existent this year for us.

I can second what every is saying about lots of jakes. I hadn't seen as many jake flocks before this year since  back around 2002. And this years weather is looking very promising for another great crop of poults.  Should be a lot of easy 2 year old gobblers next spring.

I really wish the game department would take Bearpaws advice and put restrictions on the fall seasons. Too many hens being taken IMO. To anyone who hunts turkeys in the fall, I urge you to hold off for a few years. (Or at least hunt only gobblers) Let em rebound to the incredible numbers they were at 10 years ago and the incredible hunting that comes with big flocks.

[returnofsid]

I'm very new to all of this turkey hunting stuff, but I've got a question...

Several statements seem to be either contradicting each other, or I'm completely misunderstanding...

Several have stated witnessing an unusually high number of Jakes, this spring, contributing it to mild weather and a high hatch rate, also predicting another high hatch rate, due to the good weather we're predicted to have.

Several have also stated that the hunting of hens should be more limited.

If I'm understanding the first statement correctly, I feel like I need to assume that there are plenty of hens.  If there's a high number of successful Poults, that would indicate that there's a high number of nesting hens, wouldn't it?

[turkeyfeather]

Tough year. My experience was that birds were really scattered and not as vocal. I agree that the population has a long way to go to recover. I think it was better even 3-4 years ago.

[bearpaw]

I'm very new to all of this turkey hunting stuff, but I've got a question...

Several statements seem to be either contradicting each other, or I'm completely misunderstanding...

Several have stated witnessing an unusually high number of Jakes, this spring, contributing it to mild weather and a high hatch rate, also predicting another high hatch rate, due to the good weather we're predicted to have.

Several have also stated that the hunting of hens should be more limited.

If I'm understanding the first statement correctly, I feel like I need to assume that there are plenty of hens.  If there's a high number of successful Poults, that would indicate that there's a high number of nesting hens, wouldn't it?

I think the key factor here is that most of us agree there are not as many turkeys as a few years ago. If we have good hatch rates turkeys recover fast, if we have wet hatching seasons it takes years to recover just as it has since the tough winters that hit them hard 5-6 years ago. After that time fall seasons were liberalized further to decrease turkey numbers and subsequently reduce landowner complaints. The reason some of us are opposed is that many public land areas have been hunted hard while many private land areas with turkey problems have been under hunted, so the real problems may not be getting addressed and that is at the expense of the turkey numbers on many public land hunting areas where many hunters must hunt. Many hunters feel that the liberal fall seasons should be limited to problem areas so that the public land hunting areas can recover faster.

Your point was a valid point, but there are some areas that the turkey population is pretty depressed and liberal fall hunts are not helping those areas. I hope that explanation helps!

[whichwaydidhegogeorge]

I'm very new to all of this turkey hunting stuff, but I've got a question...

Several statements seem to be either contradicting each other, or I'm completely misunderstanding...

Several have stated witnessing an unusually high number of Jakes, this spring, contributing it to mild weather and a high hatch rate, also predicting another high hatch rate, due to the good weather we're predicted to have.

Several have also stated that the hunting of hens should be more limited.

If I'm understanding the first statement correctly, I feel like I need to assume that there are plenty of hens.  If there's a high number of successful Poults, that would indicate that there's a high number of nesting hens, wouldn't it?

I think the key factor here is that most of us agree there are not as many turkeys as a few years ago. If we have good hatch rates turkeys recover fast, if we have wet hatching seasons it takes years to recover just as it has since the tough winters that hit them hard 5-6 years ago. After that time fall seasons were liberalized further to decrease turkey numbers and subsequently reduce landowner complaints. The reason some of us are opposed is that many public land areas have been hunted hard while many private land areas with turkey problems have been under hunted, so the real problems may not be getting addressed and that is at the expense of the turkey numbers on many public land hunting areas where many hunters must hunt. Many hunters feel that the liberal fall seasons should be limited to problem areas so that the public land hunting areas can recover faster.

Your point was a valid point, but there are some areas that the turkey population is pretty depressed and liberal fall hunts are not helping those areas. I hope that explanation helps

It is so ass backwards to make policies to address landowner complaints by pressuring birds to reside on private land.  That is like trying to use gasoline to put out a fire.  This might be my wake up and welcome to Washington turkey hunting moment, but I fail to see any logic in this. 
     I would also take issue with the landowner complaints side of this debate. I am speaking a little off the cuff here, and do not fully understand how this works.  But, there are laws that would allow for the landowners to work with hunters during a broad time period outside of normal hunting seasons RCW 77.12.150 and 77.12.260.  I might be completely misunderstanding this.  I just saw the dates AUG 1st - MAR 31st and nearly died of delight at the idea of hunting 8 months of the year.  Again, let me reiterate.  I don't think I truly understand the regs on this, but it shows there is some sort action a landowner could take.  I also understand that the Master Hunter programs helps with this too.  I might be tempted to sign up if I didn't have to do some sanctioned community service to join.  Personally I would rather work for a landowner directly and not be the states bitch. 
not pretend to fully understand how this works.