It's been noted that the early bird frequently gets the worm. But that's true only if the early bird is prepared to actually get that worm.

When it comes to early season gobblers, famed turkey caller and veteran hunter Eddie Salter knows that often the most effective preparation comes in the weeks before the season opens.

Here's the pre-season program that Salter relies on to make his opening day a successful one.

PRE-SEASON SCOUTING
It's hard to bag a bird if there isn't one in the immediate area. Your first step is to determine if there are, in fact, gobblers where you intend to hunt. If you're hunting new property this year, it's important to spend some time in those woods looking for tracks, droppings, dust baths, strut marks and other signs that birds are present.

Key spots to check are along creek bottoms, dirt roads, and field edges -- especially sandy clearings adjacent to a field.

All that can take a fair amount of walking. However, if you're hunting land you've scouted before, Salter has an alternative.

"If you've found turkeys in a specific area one year," Salter explained, "and the habitat hasn't significantly changed, you can pretty much count on finding birds there again.

"It all comes down to the hens," he continued. "They have preferred nesting sites and they -- and their offspring -- return to those areas year after year. They lead the gobblers into those spots.

"It's a proven fact that when a hen nests in a particular spot, most of her offspring return to within a few hundred yards in future years to hatch their offspring. If you know where hens have nested in the past, you know where at least some gobblers will be, because the hens actually control a lot of the gobblers' behavior during the early phase of the season."

Once you've found an area holding birds, narrow it down to make sure that you're set up properly on opening morning.

Salter's convinced the best way to do that is to be there at the dawn fly-down. The first 30 minutes after sunup is the best gobbling time and is the easiest way to pinpoint where the gobbler's daily movement will start. But after fly-down, Salter doesn't head off to breakfast.

"It's important to me to know which way that gobbler is heading when he comes off the roost," he said. "But to find that out, I don't want to shadow him real close. He's going to be heading towards hens, and you don't want to get up too close and get busted by them.

"I like to figure out his starting direction, then come back a couple of hours later and see if I can pick him up again by blowing a crow or owl call. That pretty much tells me his daily travel routine. A lot of times, a turkey will pattern himself if you spend the time to figure it out."

If you've located one or more birds and determined their daily travel route, the last step is simple.