First it was the youth hunters that scored on turkeys, then the adults got it on the action.
Who knows maybe eventually it will work its way to me, but I certainly wouldn’t bet on it!
Just about any way you slice it things have worked out well for many Ohio spring turkey hunters this year.
Youth hunters harvested 1860 turkeys during the 2-day youth season, down slightly from last year’s 1895 total.
Youth hunters took 59 turkeys in Tuscarawas County (56 last year), 68 in Coshocton County (63), 66 in Harrison (58), 36 in Carroll (40), 36 in Holmes (39) and 21 in Stark (21).
The adults got off to a good start on Monday as 3315 turkeys were checked in statewide compared with 3127 a year ago.
Tuscarawas County hunters took 147 birds (115 last year), while Coshocton hunters took 149 (125), 132 were taken in Harrison County (92), 90 in Carroll (91), 56 in Holmes (58) and 38 in Stark (43).
Even though I can’t seem to rationalize in my mind how hunters can take two gobblers in the spring and kill virtually no hens in the fall each year without the population getting completely out of whack, it would seem the statewide turkey population is at the very least stable and in some areas quite good.
Three Twin City area hunters would certainly attest to this as friends/competitors Derek Grimm (Cousin Charlie’s son-in-law), Jason Edwards and Caden Herron all took birds Monday morning.
The thing that makes it most interesting is that Grimm and Herron both shot birds with double beards within an hour of one another.
“I can’t remember the last time I shot one bird, let alone getting two in one morning,” Grimm said with a laugh.
Herron took his right off the roost, a beautiful 22.5-pounder with 101/4 and 8-inch beards and 11/4-inch spurs.
On the way back to the truck they heard another tom gobble, were able to set up and take that one as well.
“I set up a Flextone Thunder Chicken decoy, called and he crossed two fences and came down a steep slope to get to it,” said Grimm. The gobbler also had two beards, 91/4 and 7-inchers, weighed 19 pounds and had 11/4-inch spurs.
As things work today they immediately sent a picture to Edwards, who noticed the double beards right away. Edwards also shot a nice gobbler that morning and allegedly tried to make its one beard look like two!
“Getting two double beards like that is not very common at all,” said Grimm. “Before that morning I had only ever seen four double beards in my life. It was a good morning. It all happened quick.”
Turkey season in this area is in for two more weeks. Starting tomorrow hunters can go from half an hour before sunrise to sunset if they have that much patience.
Today is also the last day to take advantage of Ohio’s statewide free fishing days. All Ohio residents are invited to experience the state’s public fishing opportunities free of charge this weekend only.
On a completed unrelated note Travis Poland told me not to mention his name here. Good thing I can follow directions.