“All areas suffered noticeably from the drought conditions in 2006, but things were especially tough in the eastern two-thirds of the Hill Country. Our counties with the higher turkey populations generally see the highest harvest during the spring season -- Edwards, Kimble, Sutton and Menard.”

SOUTH TEXAS
South Texas is best-known in hunting circles for its jumbo-sized whitetails, but the southern tip of Texas has some outstanding turkey hunting as well. I can vividly remember a nilgai hunt in the month of March from several years ago along the sandy oak mottes of the coast. The strutting turkeys were so numerous and so chatty in the morning sunrise that it was tough to stay focused on hunting blue bulls. The TPWD’s Ty Bartoskewitz, who spends lots of time on various properties in this region, shared his thoughts on the South Texas spring turkey outlook.

“Spring and summer 2005 and 2006 have brought extremely dry and unseasonably warm conditions over most of South Texas. Reports of turkey poults in 2006 have been few to none. Conditions resulted in much the same for 2005, although at least a few landowners reported seeing poults. The lack of rain the last two years has put a damper on insect production, residual herbaceous vegetation needed for screening and nesting cover, and seed production.”

What all this means is that the 2007 spring season should be OK for birds 3 and older, thanks to timely rains from 2002 through 2004. Fewer jakes will be in the mix, and that could make hunting a bit tougher, as you’ll have to outsmart older birds -- at least, you will in South Texas.

Several counties in South Texas are considered hotspots for turkeys: Brooks, Kenedy, Frio, Uvalde, Atascosa, La Salle, and Dimmit. These counties generally have the larger watersheds and tributaries of the Frio and Nueces rivers. The coastal influence and vast acreages of oaks support good populations in Brooks and Kenedy counties.

PANHANDLE PLAINS
North Texas is one of my favorite places to hunt Rio Grande turkeys. The rolling terrain and steep bluffs overlooking river systems and creeks lends itself to my favorite way to scout and hunt turkeys. I watch from a distance with a spotting scope and binoculars, monitoring how turkeys travel up and down the waterways, judging turkey flock numbers and size of gobblers, then planning ambush points based on the birds’ daily travel routine.

On opening weekend last April, my wife and I doubled on mature gobblers along a cottonwood-lined creek on the floor of a red-rock canyon. I’d scouted before the season and I knew approximately when and where the birds traveled. Amy fired first with her 20-gauge, dropping a big tom with a huge tail fan and an 8-inch beard, then a few seconds later I folded a near twin with my .410 when he stopped to stare at his compadre flopping in the dirt.

Focus your hunting efforts on creeks and river systems in the Panhandle to find birds. Get a height advantage, and then use your optics to find potential targets. From a distance, strutting gobblers are easy to find. Through binoculars they look like black beach balls against the light green vegetation. Once you find a target, use the terrain to get close and set up to call. Some creeks have only a couple of dozen birds; others are loaded, sometimes containing hundreds.