OUTDOORS

Turkey hunters harvest more than expected

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Dave Golowenski

FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Early in the wild turkey season that ended Sunday, guide Kevin Corry detected a significant change from recent years on farmland he hunts in Noble County.

"It was the youth season on the weekend before the start of the regular hunt," he said. "On one section, I heard 16 different birds gobbling. I thought, Oh, boy."

All that ruckus, happily, proved a telling sign of things to come for the Dublin resident who operates WackumandStackum, a turkey-, waterfowl- and goose hunting guide service (wackumandstackum.com). During the next several weeks, Corry’s clients checked 15 birds in 16 mornings, including a noteworthy 25-pound tom that went down on a snow-covered landscape the Monday after the freak weekend storm of late April.

The season’s results — eight toms and seven jakes — ended better than Corry thought it might given the initial reports last year of a poor turkey hatch after several poor spring hatches in a row.

Last year’s production, however, turned out to be much greater in southeastern Ohio than was first guessed, and statewide results during the month long season just ended proved better than many turkey hunters were anticipating.

"This was the first season in four years that saw an increase in the number of turkeys taken over the previous year," said Steven A. Gray, chief of the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

Preliminary results show hunters checked 17,542 gobblers during the season that ran statewide April 18 through May 15. That’s an increase in line with the wildlife division pre-hunt forecast based on a bird population of 170,000 and represents a 9 percent jump from spring 2004, when preliminary results showed 16,118 birds were tagged.

For the first time in years, northeastern counties lagged relative both to previous years and to southeastern counties.

"Southern Ohio had a pretty good hatch last year," wildlife division biologist Mike Reynolds said. "There were a lot of jakes out there and a fair number of 2year-olds as well."

Harrison County topped the tote board with 606 turkeys taken, a substantial increase from 529 a year ago. Coshocton County followed with 599, and perennial leader Ashtabula County slipped to third with 559 after surrendering a state-leading 648 a year ago.

Some hunters have been wondering aloud whether the slippage in Ashtabula County can be laid on the last start this season, a week earlier than in past years. Spring blooms and balmy weather come noticeably later to northeastern Ohio than to, say, Lawrence County. Whether that’s true of bird mating activity Reynolds couldn’t say.

However, he didn’t think a week makes much difference from the state’s top to its bottom in terms of hunting opportunity. What probably made a difference was conditions after last spring’s hatch.

"In northern Ohio we tracked a lot of individual hens in the summer, so maybe that indicates the hatch survival didn’t go so well," he said.

The season got off to a good start when young hunters checked 1,612 birds during the two-day youth hunt. Opening day results also proved strong, but first week results lagged last year’s slightly after a two-day shot of winter slowed hunters during the season’s initial weekend. Hunting generally slows after the first week of the season, but hunters in 2005 used the final three weeks to surpass last year’s totals.

"We’re pretty pleased," Reynolds said. "From Columbus southward, hunters did well. All of the southeastern counties surpassed last year’s harvest."

The statewide total would have to climb dramatically, however, to reach the record harvest of 2001, when about 26,000 turkeys were tagged. Wildlife officials, though, stress that unusual circumstances not likely to be repeated soon created a temporary explosion in the turkey population that year.

Central Ohio counties showed mixed though not dramatically different results relative to 2004. Licking led with 357 tags checked, down two from 359. Fairfield climbed to 160 from 146. Pickaway jumped to 71 from 58, and Delaware slipped to 51 from 62. Hunters tagged 16 wild turkeys in Union County, a drop from 19 in 2004; five in Madison, a jump from two; and 13 in Franklin County, a slight increase from 11.

Keep in mind that birds taken in one county can be checked in an adjacent county. Therefore, check-station numbers can vary slightly from actual county