Louisiana gobbling

[LaLongbeard]

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.

[Tomfoolery]

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.

[Walkerhuntfish]

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.

[Walkerhuntfish]

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.

[Tomfoolery]

Went out last weekend and didnt hear a peep.

[Hoot Gibson]

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.

[LaLongbeard]

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.

[RussM311]

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.

[LaLongbeard]

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

[Turkeyslayer7]

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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[Walkerhuntfish]

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.

[LaLongbeard]

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.

[Tomfoolery]

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

[Bay1985]

Won't be long now! Heard a few this past week but definitely not as many as I used to in the same areas.

[RussM311]

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.