Choosing the best morning for listening

[Tail Feathers]

45-55 degrees and light wind with no rain.

[Harty]

A nice calm clear morning after a few days of wind,rain,and cold

[Walkerhuntfish]

Clear is my favorite. Around our neck of the woods we regularly fight fog and I have never had any luck in it. It's seems to me also that if it's been cool a warm morning sets them off but if it's warm for a good while a cool snap will trigger then. So I think all together a noticeable change is the key.

[Sir-diealot]

I seem to hear them gobbling on foggy mornings the most, just before the fog starts to break.

[shaman]

I leave Deer Camp in December and don't usually make it back down until March.  I start watching in mid-February and I take every opportunity to make it down between then and the Opener. 

There are a lot of factors that enter into it besides the birds.  I target my first trip for when there is a) a Saturday high temp of 50F or greater  and b) no rain until Noon on Sunday.

Given those two factors, I've made my first trip to camp anywhere from Feb 15 to the last weekend in March. Somewhere in there, I'll hear my first gobble.

When I get to camp, I spend every moment I can recording audio for my podcasts.  What I've found is that warm and dry is where it's at. Warm gets the birds fired up. Dry conditions mean the sound carries better.  Wind?  We get a lot of wind where I am.  You can see 4 counties from our front porch, so it's pretty exposed.  Most of the time, the wind doesn't crank up until after 0900, so I can at least cover flydown.  The poorest results come from foggy days. The sound does not carry.

Somewhere in all of this you need to be thinking about what's going on with the birds.  At some point as winter is closing out, the birds join up into the big mega-flocks.  On my place, they all roost together for a few days before breaking up into the smaller groups that I end up hunting.  The best time to actually scout is after the mega-flock breaks up.

The absolute BEST time to scout is as the birds start to breed. Around our place, there's usually less than 5 days in the first two weeks of April in which the gobblers go nuts.  If I had to pick one day to scout it would be during that phase.
 

[tha bugman]

Heavy dew...heavy gobbling

[Drycreek]

A lot of good info!

[longspur]

I am a believer in a rising barometer. Sometimes they just don't gobble. Hunting pressure, predators, sore throat, hangover??? Who knows.

[Clark8907]

Quiet still morning with a rising barometric pressure.

[WV Flopper]

 I may be wrong!!!!!!!!!!

I believe this answer to be more regional than a generalized answer can provide.

Temperature has a little to do with it, wind, humidity, moon, stage of the spring all are factors. Early in the spring here a 36-42 degree calm dark morning is great. Later in May that same morning may not be the best. Regardless, I do not like the humid mornings that typically come later in May here. Rather have the cooler morning and hang out till 8 or 9 when they start up.
This time of year if I had the pick of the day I would look at the forecast and pick the nicest morning. No rain, not to warm, not to cool, no wind or very slight. Unless your in the deep South I don't think you'll have to worry about it being to warm or too much humidity right now.
I started documenting the date, weather, humidity, and moon last year in my log. I wish I would have done this years ago, maybe my opinions are wrong, maybe they are not? By the time I am about done I may have something figured out.

[zelmo1]

Easy answer is the day before I am going to hunt, lol. I try to go out as many mornings as possible to get varying conditions. This will let you match the conditions to the morning of the hunt so you can make the best choice on where to hunt. The Most birds doesn't always make itthe best spot. All the factors that have been mentioned are all parts of your decision. Or flip a coin 

[LaLongbeard]

I have kept  track in writing of every hunt or scouting trip for the last 25 years. When it's cool with no wind and clear sky's I've heard the most gobbling. But I've also heard them in rain, fog, hot humid or freezing weather. I've not found the barometric pressure to be a reliable predictor of a good Gobbling morning. When I started hunting everyday I started to realize there's too many factors to be able to predict it. If a gobbler goes to roost with 5 hens nearby, close enough that he can here them tree yelping he may not Gobble at all but strut and drum on the limb then fly down when the hens gather at his tree. If later in the season he's had hens everyday and suddenly he ends up at roost time and no hens. The next morning regardless of moon phase or temperature he will usually gobble. If most hens are on the nest and no hens come to him he may gobble for hours and thru the next day. I've also found by hunting the same gobblers for several days a really good gobbling day usually follows with a quiet or less gobbling day regardless of weather.
I once killed a big Gobbler that roosted along an old fence row I hunted him for over a week he was the only gobbler on the whole area( I thought) I killed him on a Thursday. I went back to the same spot on Saturday and 3 gobblers were along the fence row tearing it up at daylight. They were no doubt in the area the whole time and the dominant gobbler caused them to be quiet. Too many variables.
I just go every morning to listen and hope for nice weather to listen in 

[LRD]

As others have said, the best mornings for me have been the mornings that are calm, clear, sunny, and a tad bit on the chilly side.  One thing that I haven't paid attention to much is the barometric pressure.  The best time to go listen is when you can, however, I would look for the morning as described above if I could.

[Roost 1]

Clear, calm, and about 38 degrees....

[GobbleNut]

...too many variables. I just go every morning to listen and hope for nice weather to listen in. 

This.   The only mornings I am totally bummed out about are the really windy ones.  I'm not sure its because the turkeys don't gobble as much on those days or if it is just because you can't hear them over the wind.  When all is said and done, the calmer and clearer it is, regardless of temperature or other factors, the easier it is to hear gobbles if they are out there gobbling.