As my turkey-hunting mentor Larry Proffitt led me up a Sullivan County hillside last April 5, I recalled the last time we had been afield on this particular farm. Three years earlier on another early April morning the wind chill temperature had been in the upper teens, yet the Elizabethton resident had called in a trio of toms for me, with one of them later taking a ride in Larry’s truck to a check station.

This time, the temperature just before sunrise was a relatively balmy 45 degrees — ideal gobbling weather. Sure enough when Larry issued forth the first yelps of the morning, three mature toms sounded off on the ridge directly to our left some, 75 yards distant. Proffitt had situated us right below the hill’s lip and at the outburst, he nudged me to turn slightly toward the threesome.

A few minutes later the gobbling ceased and we heard the heavy wing beats of a turkey leaving the roost. I saw the gobbler land just below the summit, and the bird quickly marched toward our setup, seemingly intent on beating his fellow males to the welcoming hen.

Indeed, the gobbler was so focused on reaching us that he overran our position, and I had to shoot when he was on his way past us. No matter, the 2-year-old sported 1-inch spurs, a 9-inch beard, and a weight of a tad more than 21 pounds — a fine East Tennessee tom. Larry and I have already planned an early April outing for this spring, perhaps to see if the gobbler’s two buddies are still available.

I relish going afield in a number of East Tennessee counties every spring, but the truth is outstanding turkey hunting exists throughout the Volunteer State. In fact, the tally for the harvest last spring was a record one of 37,084, easily smashing the previous record of 34,359 in 2006 and the 2009 total of 30,074.

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency turkey coordinator Gray Anderson said that the harvest was up in every one of the state’s four regions. In Region I in west Tennessee the harvest increased from 7,866 to 8,963. In Region II in middle Tennessee the tally rose from 10,962 to 14,065. The Cumberland Plateau’s Region III harvest went from 5,123 to 6,944. Finally, in Region IV of east Tennessee, the total spurted from 6,123 to 7,112.

“Things seem to be going well with our state’s turkey flock,” Anderson pointed out. “We were pleased with the record spring turkey harvest in 2010 and certainly expect another very good season the spring of 2011. Looking way ahead, there is some concern for the 2012 season because of the flooding that took place in some areas in May of 2010, and the possibility that the hatch was poor. We’ll know more about the prospects for 2012, though, after we see the 2011 harvest figures and the number of jakes that were killed. But, again, for right now, 2011 looks like it will be a very good season.”

Anderson emphasized that whether or not record harvests occur in 2011 and the years to come is really not that important anymore.

“The state’s turkey population is at such a solid point that we’re not going to set records year after year,” he explained. “What we expect to happen is that the kill will level off and each year the harvest will be up or down a little, but basically the same. From a management perspective, that type of sustained high quality harvest without much oscillation is a positive development.

“In fact, we have already started to de-emphasize the poult to hen ratio as an indicator of whether a season will be a good one or not. In many areas, there are so many turkeys that a poor hatch does not mean poor hunting will necessarily take place.”

REGION I
Chad Hardin, the TWRA big game biologist for Region I, is just as optimistic about his region as Anderson is about the state as a whole.

“In West Tennessee, we have areas that are definitely growing in turkey numbers and others where the population is stable,” Hardin said. “Turkey numbers are especially high in the northwestern part of the region. But even when we have a county where the harvest drops, that county is often still a very good place to hunt and turkey numbers are in good shape.”

However, Hardin related that some areas have been hit hard because of heavy spring rains and flooding in recent years. He stated that some bottomland public areas such as John Tully, Chickasaw, and Moss Island have seen turkey numbers drop because of that overabundance of precipitation. This may result in hunters being disappointed this spring with the number of birds they encounter.

“For this spring, I am pointing people toward Land Between The Lakes and Natchez Trace,” Hardin offered. “Both are large public lands, highly popular with lots of people, and that historically have produced high harvests. For those individuals that like to roam about in search of birds, they are the places to go.”

Hardin added that numerous counties across the region offer fine sport this spring. To name just a few of the better possibilities, the biologist listed Henry, Hardeman, Weakley, Carroll, and Benton.