Spent some time looking over a few places for this season Friday 2/10/17. 30 min after daylight heard 2 gobblers sounding off every 5 min or so for about 45 min. It was 38° and overcast so I was surprised to hear anything.The weather has been warm and a lot of trees are already budding out so I guess the gobblers are ready to get started. Feb 10 is the earliest I've heard gobbling in La
I heard one tearing it up January 28th. Last Saturday of deer season. Funny thing was I didn't hear him start up till after 8.
Nothing Saturday heard a few Friday weather has been odd this year.
What part of the state? I'm in leesville
Quote from: Phillipshunt on March 05, 2017, 11:12:40 AM
Nothing Saturday heard a few Friday weather has been odd this year.
Weren't in the right place then...lol
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Its over
Hunted 14 days of the season in NW part of the state..... birds gobbled on two of them. Only bird to even think about responding was a silent jake... worst La season I have ever experienced. Add that to the number of hunters in the field.... and it was bad. Hate to say it, but guess I will have to travel more to find a place a little less crowded.
Quote from: RussM311 on April 20, 2017, 10:49:46 AM
Hunted 14 days of the season in NW part of the state..... birds gobbled on two of them. Only bird to even think about responding was a silent jake... worst La season I have ever experienced. Add that to the number of hunters in the field.... and it was bad. Hate to say it, but guess I will have to travel more to find a place a little less crowded.
My LA season sounds about like yours. I heard 1 gobble once the season started. And next year season will open later. Lump that in and the PTSD the gobblers have on public land and youre looking at tough times. I got 3 birds this year and they were all out of state.
Never killed on in LA this year, but heard more gobbling from more different birds (scouting through season) than I have the previous two years I've been here, but could never seal the deal.
Any louisiana reports? Personally i havent had a chance to hit the woods yet but plan on camping next weekend and trying to locate some bird on a wma ive never turkey hunted. Got drawn for second weekend.
I have hunted in different areas of the state all season ... Yet to hear a peep...
Two more weeks and fingers crossed..
Worst season by a long shot. Didnt hear a bird in my lease after season opened.
Hunted Sunday mid day thru Tuesday mid day
Had birds gobbling both mornings till about 0730, first birds I have heard all season
But never could bring them in
Tough season for sure
ruff year for most?
Hunted SE LA and extreme SW MS, never heard the first bird gobble. Only heard of a hand full being actually killed.
Blame it on the weird winter, hogs, late LA season dates, whatever; it was a terrible year.
Quote from: MissLouHunter on May 14, 2018, 01:36:56 PM
Hunted SE LA and extreme SW MS, never heard the first bird gobble. Only heard of a hand full being actually killed.
Blame it on the weird winter, hogs, late LA season dates, whatever; it was a terrible year.
I don't think the late opener had much to do with the lack of gobbling. I heard them from opening day till last day of the season in May. It's lack of gobblers to do any gobbling. There are few turkeys in small pockets throughout the state and if your in a dead area you won't kill or here anything. I found areas of public land with 2 or 3 miles between Gobblers. That's about as low density as you can get.
I hate the late season. I used to enjoy being in the woods early spring seeing the dogwoods blooming and hearing the early spring gobbles. Now if feels like summer when opener rolls around.
I don't think the late opener had much to do with the lack of gobbling. I heard them from opening day till last day of the season in May. It's lack of gobblers to do any gobbling. There are few turkeys in small pockets throughout the state and if your in a dead area you won't kill or here anything. I found areas of public land with 2 or 3 miles between Gobblers. That's about as low density as you can get.
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Ive noticed similar in our area. We had a few birds last year yet across the highway on my buddy's lease they couldn't find a bird. The have decided to not hunt the next two years hoping to help the population. I've seen a couple flocks recently but it's because they timber company leveled us this winter. Easy to see across hundreds of wipe open blocks.
Heard one this morning. Sounded like he just started. Gobbled about 5 times in the 10 minutes I was there. I moved on to find the next one and struck out.
Went out last weekend and didnt hear a peep.
I have 8 longbeards on my property now gobbling and strutting a little. They were gobbling good a couple weeks ago. This past weekend they were silent, but the weather was terrible.
Finally found a few. Been every morning for over a week in different areas I've hunted and killed before and heard nothing walked several miles no tracks no scratching. When I finally came across a Gobbler track it was a single Gobbler. It's been getting worse every year but it looks like this will be a rough one. Several days of perfect weather in good habitat and nothing.
Kept moving and heard 3 Saturday and one again this morning so there's still a few around. It just seems like there's huge areas completely devoid of turkeys and then really small pockets of 3-4 birds.
Hunted on Barksdale AFB for several years.... plenty of birds. There is a little over 20,000 acres of hunting land with only a small number of turkey hunters. Once the pigs moved in, the birds started to decline. Now, there is no season because there are no birds.... I read an article recently that Louisiana was the worst state to hunt turkeys, mainly due to the mismanagement by the state wildlife officials. Might be true, might not, but the fact remains that our turkey population has dwindled down considerably.
Louisiana without doubt has one of the worst game dept. if you get into the details of how they handled the original restoration it's a wonder we have any turkeys at all. La is not going to do anything just sit back and let it go to nothing. They keep saying habitat but in some of the places I used to kill turkeys there's been absolutely no change in habitat.
I think they should double the price of the tags and use the money to buy turkeys from other states to bring in. I'd gladly pay an extra $5.00 to help get things back on track. But they won't do anything
I personally think that they should should shut our season down for a couple years. Bringing in more birds and getting rid of hogs would definitely help. Also restrict rifle season for deer to just a month and cut the number you can kill to 3.
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LaL.B you know just like the rest of us if they charged $5 more for a turkey tag that wildlife and fisheries would never see it. Our entire political system is probably second worst only to the turkey management. The hogs for sure are crippling the turkeys and all other wildlife but I see a major problem with the forestry industry down here in southeast La. Their management of the paper company property is horrible( except for hog habitat). I have yet to figure out how Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia can all have hundreds of thousands of birds but we can make 50,000. I understand we have some lower areas that are flood prone but so does other places but I consider that unavoidable. I don't think closing the season would make that drastic of a difference since it's only the gobblers being killed and I say that trying not to laugh cause the majority of these outlaws down this way just shoot turkeys period. Our enforcement and tags are a joke due to $$$$ not being there.
All those complaints out the way I have to admit that Sunday morning I heard the best gobbling I have ever heard down here in the 8 years I have turkey hunted. So hopefully we've already bottomed out and are making an upward turn.
Can't argue with anything said. Last year the tel-check number didn't work I tried all day to call in my first Gobbler finally drove to the nearest Wildlife and fisheries, they looked at me like they were retarded. I was checked by a game warden couple days later he asked if I'd called the Gobbler in,I told him about the phone problem, he also had that same retarded look and said yeah I heard about that, so I asked him then why did you ask me if I'd called it in? Can't help but laugh at these idiots. I checked my second Gobbler in at the same office and don't know if the phone system ever started working.
I don't know if closing the season would help I'm not seeing a lot of hens either, I think we need a new batch of releases in a few select WMAs and maybe not hunt the reintroduction birds for a couple years. Mississippi doesn't look any different than La and never has and they have always had hundreds of thousands more birds than La. even in La best years.
As for deer I could kill 26 a year if I wanted too we ain't hurting for deer maybe not big monster Iowa horned deer but we have plenty.
I had trouble calling my turkey in last year and same thing happened to me. I got checked and he asked me if i called it in and i told him i tried over phone and internet and couldn't get through. He also acknowledged they were having issues. Smh
Won't be long now! Heard a few this past week but definitely not as many as I used to in the same areas.
My hunting partners and I have hunted hard this first week of the season.... across the three northwest parishes...Caddo, Bossier and Webster.... on public land and private. So far, we can count the number of gobbles heard on one hand... total for all of us! Seeing a few birds, mostly hens.... but a few toms.... but nothing is talking. This is a repeat of last season, but I had hoped that the late spring versus last year's early spring would have straightened the birds out a bit. It's just not turkey hunting without the gobbling.
Well we made the top 5 worst turkey hunting states. Supposedly we are down from 80000 to 50000 birds on 3 years? I think the 80 was wishful thinking, but if not what happens in another 3 years? We will be out of turkeys in 10 years. Really sad situation with not much hope of improvement
This thread is as quiet as the woods lol. Anyone hearing any late season gobbling. I made 6 hunts at the beginning of the season and another 2 days scouting before and didn't hear a gobble. Finally got on some 2 weeks ago and filled a tag. Been stuck at work the last 7 days so I haven't been out. Will try at em again starting thursday, just hope the tornadoes didn't kille em all lol.