Kentucky Hunters Take Record Number of Spring Turkeys

Frankfort, KY – Kentucky’s spring turkey hunters set a new state record this year. Hunters telechecked 29,006 birds during the 23-day season, which ended May 10. This surpassed the previous record of 28,797 birds in 2006.“

Despite the bad weather, turkey hunters are dedicated sportsmen and sportswomen,” said Karen Alexy, wildlife division director for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “They still got out there and made this the best season ever.

”Last summer, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife biologists recorded the highest number of poults, or turkey chicks, ever reported in the 25-year history of the department’s annual brood survey. This record turkey reproduction provided plenty of birds for hunters.

“We had more birds on the ground than probably at any time in modern history,” said Steven Dobey, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s turkey program coordinator. “Interest in turkey hunting continues to grow. That, combined with the record number of turkeys on the ground, resulted in a phenomenal season.”

Turkeys should produce another strong crop this year. Since only bearded turkeys are legal for harvest during the spring season, female birds were essentially protected and can now build on last year’s reproductive success.“

By early fall, we’ll have a post-harvest estimate of what the population looks like,” said Dobey. “I expect it to be great – those hens made it through the spring season and are nested now.”

Additionally, birds hatched in 2008 will be adult two-year-olds by next year’s spring turkey season. With a little help from nature, hunters should be in for another great harvest in 2010.

Sunfish Spawn is Near

               photo courtesy of USFWS

Frankfort, Ky. – Many of us in Kentucky don’t well remember what sunlight feels like upon our skin. It’s rained practically every other day since early April and the dry days between have been overcast, gray and dull.

This kind of weather pattern usually pushes the sunfish spawn back a few weeks, but everything is on schedule so far this year.

“It is about ready to break open,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “With the 80-degree temperatures coming, all heck is going to break loose on sunfish.”

Some lakes already show signs that bluegill and redear sunfish, or shellcrackers, are spawning in north-central Kentucky. Biologists report the sunfish already completed their spawning on small lakes in southern and western Kentucky.

“We saw some bluegill spawning while sampling for largemouth bass at Boltz Lake in Grant County and at Elmer Davis Lake in Owen County,” said Kathryn Emme, assistant central fisheries district biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “We saw lots of good bluegill.”

A sunfish tagging study on bluegill and redear sunfish is underway at 149-acre Elmer Davis Lake. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s fisheries division asks anglers on Elmer Davis Lake to participate in the study. If you catch a bluegill or redear sunfish from the lake with a white tubular tag toward the rear of the fish, please place the tag in a drop box at the boat ramp by the dam. Envelopes are provided at the drop box. Only one tag should be placed in each envelope. The tag may be clipped prior to release for those anglers practicing catch and release.

“We saw some redear sunfish up to 11 inches and bluegill up to nearly 9 inches at Elmer Davis,” said Jason Russell, fisheries technician for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “We saw quite a few 10-inch redear sunfish.”

A 10-inch or longer redear sunfish qualifies for a trophy fish certificate in Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s Trophy Fish program.

The bluegill and redear sunfish spawned already in small lakes in southern Kentucky such as 27-acre Spurlington Lake in Taylor County, 17-acre Briggs Lake in Logan County and 68-acre West Fork of Drakes Reservoir in Simpson County.

However, on bigger lakes such as Barren River Lake and Green River Lake, high water placed the sunfish spawn on hold for a time. “Barren is 11 feet above normal,” said Eric Cummins, southwestern fishery district biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “Green River is 8 feet above normal. The peak sunfish spawning activity on our larger lakes doesn’t look like it has occurred yet. They will be waiting until the water stabilizes.”

That doesn’t mean the sunfish aren’t biting. “Fishing will still be decent for them on those lakes,” Cummins said. “The bluegill and redear will be hanging around flooded brush and trees, but they will be more spread out.”

Cummins recommends Spurlington Lake and West Fork of Drakes Reservoir for large bluegill and redear sunfish although they are in a post spawn mode. “The redear sunfish in West Fork of Drakes are dinner plates, they are huge,” he said. “That lake next spring should be lights out. We saw a lot of 7- to 8-inch bluegill that will be 9 inches plus next year.”

The fisheries division stocked redear sunfish in Spurlington Lake in 2007 and again this year. “There’s redear sunfish in there now that are 8 inches and longer,” Cummins said. “Some of the bluegill in there approach 10 inches long.”

Spurlington Lake holds a healthy amount of aquatic vegetation that shields bluegill and redear sunfish from the largemouth bass that eat them. West Fork of Drakes Reservoir also possesses abundant aquatic weeds in its waters.

Target sunfish by drifting a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce feather jig tipped with a small minnow or mealworm over shallow flats, especially if the flat has whitish circles on it that reveal sunfish nests. You can fish this rig suspended under a small bobber or cast it without one.

One-inch tube jigs and curly-tailed grubs rigged on a 1/16-ounce leadhead jig also produce sunfish right now. Redworms fished across mud flats or down pea-gravel points on a size 6 or 8 Aberdeen hook with just a BB split shot crushes sunfish right now. You can add a bobber to this rig or fish it alone.

Grab an ultralight rod, a few feather jigs and a plastic container of mealworms or redworms and enjoy some of the best bluegill and redear fishing of the year. These fish bite willingly and provide as good a fight for their size as any fish that swims in Kentucky.

Product Review: Fieldline Glenwood Canyon Backpack

Let's face it - today's hunters carry more "stuff." From binoculars to spotting scopes, rangefinders to GPSs, extra clothes, food and drink, and calls for every occasion. In order to keep all this gear organized and still easily accessible, every hunter needs a good backpack. While some of us can get everything we need into just a small daypack, others of us need something with a little more storage room. If you're like me and fit into the latter category, then you may want to give Fieldline's Glenwood Canyon internal frame backpack a look.

See the entire product review on www.BigGameHunt.net

The "Other " Hunting Rut

When the word "rut" is mentioned in a conversation among hunters, chances are the discussion will include talk of screaming bull elk, or big whitetail bucks, that for a brief period of time drop their defenses and act like teenage boys. There is another rut out there, however, that doesn't receive a lot of attention. This one affects the hunter rather than the animal and actually decreases our odds of success. Webster defines this rut as, "a fixed routine, procedure, way of acting, thinking, etc." In terms of hunting, it refers to continuing to hunt the same stands or the same areas day after day and year after year, despite results that fall short of your expectations. It is an easy trap to fall into, and a much harder one to get out of.

In the fall of 2002, I found myself in just such a rut. I had gotten into the habit of hunting one particular stand way more often than I should have. Despite having spent countless hours in this stand, I had yet to see a good buck. The thought of having to eat another bowl of deer tag soup that season was more than I could stand. I soon realized that the only way I was going to change my results was to get out of this rut and change my location.

Read the full article on www.BigGameHunt.net.

It's spring and love is in the air

With spring comes renewal, and for many species the urge to procreate. Thought I would share a few photos taken recently proving that love is truly in the air! (By the way - none of these pics were staged. This is how I found 'em)

Kentucky turkey season - last 2 days

Even though no one filled a tag those last two days, it was an exciting time, none the less!

Saturday morning found me and Cory setting up in the same field where I killed my bird the day before. This time, though, we got there early and had plenty of time to set up the blind and decoys. When daybreak finally arrived, we had a bird gobbling down in the hollow off to our left. After leaving the roost, he quickly made his way up to the field edge and checked out our setup from 100 yards away. In retrospect, we probably should have left B-mobile in the bag after the events from yesterday, because this bird obviously wasn't interested in coming in for a repeat performance. He slowly made his way along the field edge, away from us, gobbling and strutting all the way. Eventually, a hen and five jakes made their way into the field. When the hen started heading our direction, I thought our luck was changing, but after a quick look at the decoys, she made a bee line right for the gobbler. Three of the jakes decided to come in for a look, and one of those actually went into strut briefly to impress She-mobile. He didn't have quite enough gumption to take on B-mobile, however. While Cory could have easily shot any of the three jakes, he was holding out for that longbeard. After watching those birds for another hour or more before they finally drifted off into the woods, Cory was wishing he had went ahead and pulled the trigger when he had the chance. It was game over for Saturday.

I took my son out Sunday morning in hopes of helping him fill his second tag. Again, we went back to the same field as Saturday, anticipating the return of the gobbler and jakes. This time we set up closer to where the birds had been coming into the field, and I set out 2 hen decoys instead of the B-mobile/hen combination. Daylight came and the woods were quiet. I couldn't get a bird to respond to any calling - not even a shock call. I was beginning to wonder if by setting up closer to the woods, the birds had somehow seen us. Being Mother's Day, I wasn't planning on hunting much past 9am, so when 8:30 rolled around and we hadn't heard a peep, I decided to try something different. I started making some clucks and yelps with a diaphram call, and then followed up with a gobble on the box call. I got an immediate response from a gobbler, and he wasn't too far away! I switched over to a slate call and started doing some light clucks, purrs and yelps on it. In a matter of minutes, I saw the gobblers head pop up in a low spot in the field. He proceeded to walk out into the field about 70-80 yards away and strut for about 10 minutes. Just as before, I could not get him to close the distance, and just like the day before, that no good, dirty hen showed up to ruin the day (I've put a bounty on her for this fall!). She came straight to him. I continued to call some and eventually the hen began heading our way. My hopes started rising as she walked all the way into the decoys. Unfortunately, she either didn't like the decoys, or she saw my son figiting in the blind. Whatever it was, she began clucking and starting walking back towards the gobbler, who at this point had closed the distance to about 50 yards. By the time she got back to him, he began to trot off at just short of a run. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I looked to my right and saw the coyote working across the field in the direction of the turkeys. That coyote walked right past those turkeys at no more than 10 yards, and those birds held their ground. I couldn't believe it! I was actually hoping he was going to eat that hen - then, maybe the gobbler would have given our decoys a closer look! Anyway, the birds eventually made their way into the woods and the 2009 Kentucky turkey season came to a close.

While I was sad to see the season draw to a close, I was ready for some rest and my wife was ready for home life to return to normal (if you can ever really call it normal!). Overall it was an awesome season. It started off a little slow, but in the end I got to help my son kill his first bird, I tagged out for the first time in a few years, and Billie, Jason and Cory all got birds as well. Oh, and as always, I furthered my education on chasing longbears. I guess I will now start counting down the days to the September archery deer season!

Kentucky turkey season - Day 21 - Tagged out!

What a day in the field! For the first time in a few years, I finally filled both of my turkey tags, and while I was happy to do that, it was a little bittersweet. That's because I was hunting with good friend and fellow "Poor Boy" Cory McBride, and had every intention of letting him put the smackdown on the first bird that came in. But, as often happens in turkey hunting, things didn't quite work out as planned.

I woke up this morning to a thunderstorm, which immediately put a hink in our plans. After going back to bed for an hour, I awoke to cloudy skies, but no rain. I gave Cory a call and quickly began getting dressed. In 30 minutes time, we were headed for the same farm where we killed our birds last Sunday. As we were easing along the edge of the large field, several geese began honking as they left a nearby pond. That immediately resulted in two gobbles from inside the woods that sounded way too close for comfort. With no time to set up the blind or decoys, we tucked under some cedars at the edge of the field.

I grabbed my Knight & Hale Glass Queen call and made a few soft calls and the birds gobbled even closer. I looked over to my left and saw them making their way into the field. It was at this point that I realized just how lousy our setup was. There was a big hump in the field right in front of us, blocking our view of anything beyond about 20 yards. So for 15 minutes or more we watched two tail fans as the birds strutted just on the other side of the hump. They were slowly making their way closer when a hen appeared off to my left and walked right by me and Cory about 20 feet in front of us. As the two toms began angling towards her, I realized that I couldn't swing my gun as far right as I needed because of a branch. As I tried to maneuver the gun barrel around the branch, the hen caught movement and began moving out to the middle of the field - with both gobblers and a couple of jakes in tow.

Watching the birds make their way across the field, I made a desperation decision to get my B-mobile and She-mobile decoys up to the high spot in front of us. Positioning B-mobile in front of my face, I belly-crawled up the hump and placed the decoys. I then proceeded to belly crawl back into place and make a few calls on the Glass Queen again. Peering up, I could no longer see the tail fans and began to wonder if I may have spooked the birds. That thought quickly faded when the two birds popped up over the rise at a dead run! When they got right up to the decoys they stopped and began slow stepping, almost as if to say "OK, what now?"

I glanced over at Cory to see if he was going to shoot and noticed that his gun was laying across his lap pointed in the wrong direction. Hoping things might work out like they did last Sunday, I popped my gun up and dropped the bird on the left. I then watched as the second bird made a hasty retreat to the middle of the field. Cory couldn't swing on him because of some branches to his right. Again, our setup had really messed us up! I actually called to the second bird and had him gobbling and strutting out in the field, but he wasnt about to come back for a second look.

By the time he made it to the far side of the field, more birds had came out and we could see at least four full tail fans strutting in the corner of the field. We waited until they finally left the field and retrieved my bird, hoping to setup on those other birds again tomorrow. My bird only weighted 18lbs, but had an 11 inch beard and 1" spurs. What a crazy end to what has been a truly crazy season for me. A real test of my patience and persistence for sure! Now, if Cory can just connect on his second bird tomorrow, maybe I can put my wife on one Sunday. I'll keep you posted!

Some pics from this morning's hunt

Billie and Cory waiting on me to cross the creek.

Billie and Cory patiently waiting for a turkey to gobble.

One of the many Eastern Box Turtles we seen today.

A Spotted Newt (I think) that I found in a small water hole.

We bumped a hen off of her nest where she's sitting on 10 eggs. A nice find!

Kentucky turkey season - Days 17, 18, 19 & 20

I didn't get out Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday due to work and some family & church commitments, so nothing to report on that end. My good friend and fellow "Poor Boy", Billie Crider, did manage to fill his second tag Wednesday morning while hunting with his daughter. That brings the total to 6 birds for Team Poorboys and we've only managed to get one of them on video! So, at this rate, we should be able to put together our first DVD around 2015...if we're lucky! Hopefully we can redeem ourselves these last four days of the season. Stay tuned, its not over yet!

Thursday - I finally got out this morning for the first time in four days. It was myself and Cory packing thundersticks and Billie behind the camera. After a little bit of a late start because someone overslept (not going to mention Billie's name), we were at the farm and ready to go. We slowly made our way to the back of the property, occasionally calling to try to elicite a gobble. When we had gone about as far as we could go, a bird finally responded to the Knight & Hale Glass Queen friction call.

After a little work getting the decoy and everyone set up, I started calling to the bird. He seemed pretty fired up and was answering about everything I threw at him, but he didn't seem to be getting any closer. Then, he decided to give us about a 10 minute dose of silent treatment before I finally coaxed another gobble out of him. When he went silent again, I began to think that he was with hens.

Another ten minutes of so had passed when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was the gobbler's head bobbing in the direction of the decoys about 60 yards out in front of us and just to our right. Then, almost as quickly as he appeared, he started clucking and made a hasty retreat. I didn't know what had happened, but I knew we were done with that bird!

After some discussion amongst the three of us, we finally figured out that Billie - not knowing that the turkey had popped up over the hill - had raised his face net to spit, and evidently, the tom saw that and spooked. We gave him a hard time about it, but the fact is it could have happened to any of us when a bird slips in silent like that. While I would have loved to seen another bird hit the ground, I'm not going to complain about an exciting close encounter like that. Another great day in God's great outdoors. I'll post a few pics from the hunt this evening, if I get a chance. Stay tuned... we got three days of hard hunting to go!!!

Some pictures from work.

Here are some wildlife pics that I have taken recently at work. Hope you enjoy

Kentucky turkey hunting - days 15 & 16

Saturday - Didn't get to hunt today. I had to work until noon, then we had a bunch of friends over that afternoon for a Kentucky Derby party. Even without getting a hunt in, it was a great day with friends and family. Hopes are high for tomorrow morning.

Sunday - The patience and persistence finally paid off this morning with a thunder chicken double for myself and good friend Cory McBride. With a steady rain coming down, we decided our best option was to set up the blind in the field where I had the close encounter Friday morning and sit and wait. It's not my favorite way to hunt them, but with the weather and lack of gobbling, I felt it was be the most effective.

After 2 1/2 hours of sitting without hearing a single gobble or seeing a single bird, we were starting to get a little discouraged. That was when Cory noticed some birds off in the distance behind us - probably 150 yards out. When I peaked out at them, I just saw two birds and they were running for the woods. We sat there in disgust wandering how those birds would have spooked at that distance. As we sat and discussed our options, I took another look out of the back of the blind and saw a distinct white head bobbing our way. Soon that white head became a gobbler with six jakes in tow. The gobbler was making a bee line straight to the B-mobile and She-mobile decoys. When he got to within 20 yards of the decoys he began to act a little spooked, and I began to get concerned. I started having flashbacks of some of my recent bad luck.

I quickly made the decision to take a shot before he could bolt. The 3 1/2 inch Winchester #6s took the bird down clean and Cory was able to take down one of the jakes as they retreated. I didn't realize just how far out my bird had been until I stepped it off on the way to get him - 47 yards. That is by far the furthest I have ever killed a turkey, as most of the birds I kill are in the decoys at 20 yards. Cory's dropped at 37 yards. My tom weighed in at 21 lbs, with a 10 1/4 inch beard and 1 1/8 inch spurs. I am posting the pictures below. I still have one tag to fill and would still like to get my wife back out before the season is over as well. I won't be able to hunt again until Thursday, but then plan to hunt the last four days of the Kentucky season. As always, I'll keep you posted!!!

Police: teenager killed while turkey hunting: Rutland Herald Online

How terribly sad. Seems something like this happens every year. I can't imagine mistaking another human being for a turkey, but nevertheless, my prayers go out to the father and the family. He will have to live with this for the rest of his life...

Police: teenager killed while turkey hunting: Rutland Herald Online

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Kentucky turkey hunting - days 13 & 14

...and the frustration continues. I think God must really be testing me with this season. Not sure exactly what He's testing, though. Maybe patience? Maybe staying focused on what's really important?

The last two days of hunting have been exciting as it gets, without actually filling a tag. Yesterday, I got set up on a group of birds that have been feeding on an adjacent farm, across a small road from one of the farms that I hunt. It was a gobbler with around 5 hens, and he was fired up. I watched for over an hour as he strutted and gobbled and slowly worked his way down towards the road that seperated the two properties. They ended up crossing further down than what I expected, so once they dropped out of sight, I had to make a bee line down the fence to try to get set up close enough for a shot when they crossed. Evidently, one of the hens must have seen some movement during all of this, because when they crossed the fence, they were moving at a pretty good clip - not running, but not nearly as leisurely as they had been. They disappeared behind a "hump" in the field and I used the opportunity to belly crawl up to the high point and peak over. when I did, I saw the top of the gobblers head off to my right. I couldn't see enough of it to take a shot, so I made the mistake of popping up on my knees. Of course, he saw me immediately, and before he could bolt, I put my shotgun bead on his neck and pulled the trigger...then watched as he flew off unscathed. It was a longer shot than I realized, and one that I shouldn't have taken (in retrospect).

Today - Today, I was determined just to sit in one spot and wait for something to happen. I didn't want to trampse all over the farm just trying to get something to gobble. So, I sat down, leaned up against a big red oak and proceeded to take me a little siesta. I was awakened once to two whitetailed deer feeding about 10 yards behind me, which was a pretty cool surprise...for both of us! A short time later a nearby gobble quickly brought me back to the task at hand. A few soft hen calls and he gobbled again. I could tell he was up in the big field behind me, so I worked my way around and slipped up to the edge of the field behind a big tree that was laying over. Sure enough, he was out in the middle heading away from me. I began to call to him and he quickly spun around and started to strut his stuff. For about 10 minutes, we went back and forth and he was SLOWLY headed my way. Two steps, strut and gobble...then gobble some more. I didn't want a repeat performance of yesterday, so I was determined to get him in to 20-30 yards. When he was somewhere around 50 yards out, the inevitable happened - a real hen, with a jake in tow show up on the opposite side of the field. Of course, he quickly turned his attention to the jake in an effort to show him who was boss. Long story, short - the Tom never closed the distance, and I wasn't able to get back on him before it was off to work. Another great morning hunt, but still no breast meat to deep fry!

I have to work tomorrow morning, but will be back in the woods Sunday with high hopes. Stay tuned, this season ain't over yet!!!