LITTLE ROCK — Turkeys were running all over the deer woods during the Thanksgiving holiday, and that could mean good news come spring.
Jason Honey, turkey biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said he’s heard similar reports from all over the state.
“Our encouragement is based on brood survey information,” Honey said Thursday during a presentation to the commission. “It’s the best it’s been since the late 1990s and early 2000s, and that’s cause for enjoyment.”
The rebound in turkeys is attributable to several factors, Honey said. The most important is excellent turkey reproduction last spring. Nesting, hatching and brood rearing conditions were ideal. Also, young of the year gobblers, or jakes, that survive to spring 2013 will be off-limits to hunting until the 2014 spring season.
Additionally, the short, late turkey season made a maximum number of gobblers available to breed hens before hunting season opened. When the season started in late April, most hens were already sitting on nests. Honey said he recommends maintaining the current season structure.
“I refrain from calling it a ‘conservative’ season,” Honey said. “This is our turkey season from now on. Based on biological parameters, giving hens the few extra days in early April makes a difference and allows them to go back to the nest. It gives hens a better chance to incubate their eggs.”
To that end, Honey cautioned that one good year of reproduction does not constitute a recovery. A cold, wet spring could hamper turkey reproduction in 2013.
Honey based his report on the 2012 Turkey Population. The survey compiled information from 1,134 field surveys. The Ozarks produced 519 surveys. Observers there counted 1,960 poults. The number of poults per hen was 2.82.
From the Ouachita Mountains came 347 surveys. Observers there recorded 1,194 poults, and the poult/hen ratio was 3.2. Even in the Delta, where zero surveys were returned in 2011, the poult/ hen ratio was 2.64. It was a respectable 1.9 in the Gulf Coastal Plain.
Reproduction was considered good in Turkey Zone 2 and above average in Zone 6 [Arkansas River Valley] and Zone 7 [Ouachita Mountains]. It was average in Zone 9 [Gulf Coastal Plain] and in Zone 3 [northern Ozarks]. It was below average in the Delta, poor in Zones 5 and 8.
Gobbler carryover was considered good in Zones 2 and 7 and above average in Zone 8. It was average in Zones 3 and 9. It was below average in most of the Delta and poor in Zones 4A, 5 and 5A [northeast Arkansas].
Peak hatch dates for poults in 2012 were from May 20-June 2. In 2011, they were from June 10-16.
For the first time, the AGFC also conducted a hard mast survey, which indicates food availability. Mast crops were fair in the Ozarks and generally good in the southern half of the state.
Commissioner Emon Mahony said Thursday that the Jackson Point Hunting Club canceled fall turkey hunting on its land in Mississippi. Former commissioner Sheffield Nelson and his grandson David Clark are members of that club. Clark sued the commission in 2009 when it closed the fall turkey season three days before it was scheduled to start. Nelson is the chairman of the Jackson Point’s turkey committee.
“Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery,” Mahony said. “Everyone who voted for that [closing the fall season in 2009] should feel flattered.”
Nelson said that he supported closing the Mississippi portion of Jackson Point to fall turkey hunting, but only temporarily.
“As usual, Mr. Mahony does not know what he’s talking about,” Nelson said. “We had the worst flood on Jackson Point since the Great Flood of 1928. Jackson Point was covered by water for an extended period of time. The majority of deer and turkeys left Jackson Point to escape the water. Many, if not most, of these deer and turkey have returned to Jackson Point, and we had a terrific hatch in the spring. However, we do not want to hunt turkeys this fall that have experienced such pressure. Those were extraordinary circumstances and nothing more.”
Nelson said Mahony was heard to have said during a gathering last week at the Governor’s Mansion that the AGFC would restore fall turkey hunting in Arkansas when Jackson Point restores it in its Mississippi portion.
“Mr. Mahony had better prepare to honor his commitment to vote for a fall turkey season sooner than he expected,” Nelson said.
Mahony said he did not say such a thing.
“That’s [former commission John] Benjamin,” Mahony said. “He can’t get anything right. I don’t remember what I said, but I didn’t say that.”
Sports, Pages 26 on 12/02/2012