Regional Strut Update: Get Expert Info on Where and How

This is the second installment of the Regional Strut Update, our weekly report on turkey activity and hunter successes across the country. This mid-April report includes:

• In the South, Josh Honeycutt reports turkeys are henned up but still gobbling and strutting in many places, with other areas off and running. 
• In the Midwest, Brandon Butler says turkry hunting is already happening, with other states soon kicking off seasons with youth hunts. Recent years of favorable conditions look to create a very productive spring for Midwest hunters. 
• In the West, Andrew McKean reports California starts hot and sets up the rest of the region for an expected stellar turky hunting season. Higher elevations still hold snow, keeping many birds below the 4,000-foot elevation mark.
• In the East, Doug Howlett says turkey activity in Virginia and Delaware and is a mixed bag due to cooler temps. The rest of the East is one or two weeks out from opening day so get into the field now to locate gobblers.

SOUTH REPORT

Turkeys Henned Up But Still Gobbling and Strutting

• Turkey hunting in the South has been in full swing for a while with plenty of birds around looking for hens.

By Josh Honeycutt

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of weather activity throughout the South. Tornadoes, flooding rains, warm spells, temperature drops—the turkeys haven’t known up from down. Despite that, some hunters are still experiencing good turkey hunting.

Woodhaven ambassador and champion turkey caller Scott Ellis is in Georgia hunting right now. He says turkeys are gobbling well on the roost but are getting with hens quickly. As a result, they’re getting quiet soon after fly-down.

Michael Lee recently tagged out in Georgia, which only took two days. His father and wife scored on birds as well.

“Opening weekend, I called one off the roost right in and killed him (a nice double beard),” said Lee. “Then my dad called one in an hour later. The next day, around noon, I called in three, and we doubled on two of them. Then, three days later, I took my wife one morning and called one off the roost to the decoys. It put on a show, and she hammered him.”

Turkeys for Tomorrow (TFT) Board Member BC Rogers III is in Mississippi. “Central Mississippi birds are gobbling well in the tree but often flying down to hens roosted close by,” he said. “Multiple encounters have ended with a tom being led off gobbling by boss hens. Unfortunately for those of us who can’t stick around for the mid-day breakup, these conditions have made it a little tougher to close the gap. In short, it’s exactly the same at this time as most seasons.”

Mossy Oak pro staffer Travis Sumner is in South Carolina. “We’re off and running,” he said. “It’s the season of the jake. A lot of jakes are gobbling and sounding like adult birds. I’m starting to see single hens that are probably nesting. Jakes have adult birds on edge.”

TFT CEO Jason Lupardus in Texas says, “The Rios in South Texas have definitely been hammering, as flocks are split up. Solo gobblers are cruising about in search of hens. The big challenge is the amount of rain that has hit the area. This abnormal occurrence has left many areas flooded, and the mosquito hatch has been harsh. Make sure you have two Thermacell units running to sit long enough to make it happen.”

Looking Ahead

Now, after looking back at recent events, what can turkey hunters expect in the days to come? For the states still open and hunters still hunting, it’s only getting better from here. The weather is finally leveling out, and the 10-day forecast looks great throughout the region. Hunters now have a good window where they can head afield for multiple days and not get pelted by rain, snow, or harassed by tornadoes and high winds.

Furthermore, from a turkey breeding cycle perspective, a lot of areas should see fewer turkeys henned up in the coming days. Therefore, expect better gobbler reactions to calling as we move into the next week to 10 days. Oftentimes, in many areas of the South, the best response to calling occurs from April 10-25. So, be there, and fill your remaining turkey tags.

TAGGED OUT

Persistence Pays for Turkey Hunter

• Hunter: Aubrey Gold
• Date: April 14
• Location: Gillespie County, Texas
• Method: 20-gauge shotgun
• Stats: 9 1/2-inch beard, 3.4-inch spurs / 16 pounds / 1-inch spurs

Recently, HuntStand’s Will Cooper helped his friend, Aubry Gold, bag a big Texas bird. The turkeys acted right, and the duo found themselves in the thick of the action. The weather wasn’t great, but the turkeys did their thing. “It was a cold and windy morning when we were able to break this gobbler from his hens,” Cooper said. “He gobbled at us a few times early in the morning, came within range, but couldn’t get a shot as he was behind brush. We later called all his hens to us, and he couldn’t resist the Avian X ½-strut Jake and Laydown Hen.”

TURKEY TURKEY TIPS

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Click to read more on the advantages of the onX Hunt app for hunting turkeys

MIDWEST REPORT

Birds Numbers Point to a Strong Spring Turkey Harvest

• Sources say that the Midwest is about to blow wide open with flocks on the verge of breaking up.

By Brandon Butler

Turkey Season 2025 is on the verge of becoming wide open in thre Midwest. Hunting is already happening out West, and youth seasons are about to kick things off in states from Ohio to Minnesota. The South Zone in Illinois is now open and, in Kansas, youth and disabled hunters have been knocking birds down for a week. Nebraska hunters can set down their bows and pick up a shotgun on April 12 when the regular season opens. The next month offers one of the best hunting opportunities in the Midwest. By the time our next Regional Strut Update runs, many Midwestern turkey tags will have been punched.

After driving across Iowa from the Missouri border to the little northeastern town of Lawler earlier this week, I have a new appreciation for the number of turkeys in the Hawkeye State. I expect youth hunters to have a heck of a special Youth Season from April 11-13. There were flocks of turkeys everywhere. Quite a few wild pheasants too, but that’s another story.

As I drove through landscapes intermixed with agricultural fields and forests, I saw numerous flocks of turkeys with multiple gobblers in full strut all puffed up out there doing their thing in the shining green cover crops of early spring ag fields. If I were taking an Iowa youth hunter out this weekend, I would focus on fields that are like coves in a woodlot. Turkeys seem to feel safe back in those areas with woods on both sides. Set up a blind on the edge of a secluded field with vegetation in it, as long as it isn’t more than a foot tall.

Iowa DNR offers a virtual hunting atlas on their website to connect hunters to places to hunt. It’s an interactive map that shows all lands open to public hunting in the state. Iowa doesn’t have an enormous amount of public land, but amongst the 763,810 acres of public lands open to hunting, there are some hidden gems. A lot of public land in Iowa is associated with rivers. If you have access to a boat, you can slip into areas hard to reach by foot as a way to get a leg up on the competition.

Kentucky is about to get the jump on most of the Midwest when the regular season opens on April 12. Turkey hunting is on the upswing across Kentucky after good conditions for the flock for a few years in a row.

Bill Konway is a noted photographer in the outdoor industry who lives on a few hundred acres in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. He manages his land with food plots, water sources and habitat improvements. His hard work combined with the favorable weather conditions of recent years has led to a noticeable growth of turkeys at his place.

“It feels great to see a decade’s worth of work really start to pay off. We have more turkeys around right now than ever before. I know some of it is the result of the work we have done to thin our timber, improve nesting habitat and increase food sources, but some of it is just Mother Nature being on our side. I’m not just seeing more turkeys on our farm. I’m seeing them strutting in places I’ve never seen turkeys before. I expect we are in for another good harvest this spring,” Konway said.

Before the 2024 spring hunting season, during which hunters killed 33,460 turkeys, the Kentucky turkey population was estimated to be over 400,000 strong. This harvest was 9 percent above the five-year average. With brood surveys near all-time highs statewide, hunters are set to see the sights of what turkey hunting looks like on the heels of a multiyear stretch of good polt production.

Turkey season is open in southern Illinois, where the landscape is far different from the agricultural lands up north. Large forests, rolling hills and reservoirs make hunting down south an ideal destination for spring turkey hunters. There are a lot of birds in southern Illinois, too. In 2024, Illinois hunters killed a record 17,208 birds. Indicators have expectations high for this season too. While Jo Daviess County, the northwesternmost county in the state is the top turkey harvest county, four southern counties—Jefferson, Pope, Marion and Wayne—round out the top five.

With only 23 percent of licensed hunters tagging a turkey last spring, you may need to work a little harder than the competition. The Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois offers 289,000 acres of turkey-rich habitat. Using digital mapping software, a hunter can identify remote areas far from the road where birds could be holed up after being pressured closer to the road. Hiking a mile off the road or more should help you find fresh birds in the big woods.

Illinois has North and South zones. Each zone has five different seasons. Each lasting only a few days. Licenses are awarded through a lottery, but leftover licenses may be available. According to the DNR, remaining county-specific spring turkey permits are available for sale over the counter (OTC) from license vendors on a first-come, first-served basis.

Turkey hunting is growing in Ohio. The 51,530 permits sold in 2023 were a 3-percent increase over 2023 and a 5-percent increase over 2022. Some of the growth is likely attributed to hooking hunters early on by taking them out during youth season, which is about to kick off on April 12 and 13. Last year, youth hunters killed 1,785 turkeys. An increase in non-resident hunters who appreciate Ohio’s over-the-counter licensing system also added to the growth. Ohio hunters killed a total of 15,536 turkeys in the spring of 2024.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife says the eastern and southern counties, where forested habitat is most abundant, typically record the highest number of harvests. The top five counties for turkey harvest in 2024 were Ashtabula (470), Belmont (454), Tuscarawas (449), Monroe (447) and Washington (410).

John Wallace, Ohio native and founder of Wild Game Cook, will have his children out during Ohio’s youth season. He said, “The birds seem ready. We’re seeing plenty of gobblers doing their thing out the fields on the way to school each morning. They’re still in big groups, but I expect the hens will start breaking up and dragging gobblers around real soon. We hunt a lot of ground blinds out in the open, but close to timber where the birds like to roost.”

WEST REPORT

California Turkey Hunting Starts Strong

• Gobbling activity and courtship are in full swing up to about 4,000 feet in elevation. It’s a good sign for the rest of the West.

By Andrew McKean

With the earliest general spring turkey opener in the West and plenty of birds in a wide range of habitats, California is a good barometer of turkey activity for seasons that will open next weekend across many states.

If the Golden State’s opening week is any indication, it’s going to be a barn-burner of a season from the Coast Range through the Rockies and Western prairie states.

California hunters reported excellent gobbling activity in almost all corners of the state. An exception was the mid-elevation Sierra Nevada foothills, where a foot of snow hampered both turkey movement and hunter access. But from the Plumas National Forest east of Red Bluff south to the Stanislaus National Forest east of Sacramento, lower-elevation habitats held plenty of turkeys and some very vocal gobbling.

Even scattered rains on the March 30-31 opening didn’t dampen activity in California, which is a good sign that the combination of a mild winter and fairly early spring will similarly energize highly call-able toms in another week.

“Seemed like the showers shut things down, but we used that rain period to get in position,” says Oroville, Calif., hunter Brent Stock. “Then when the rains quit and the sun poked out, the jakes started gobbling like crazy, and we just let the mature toms respond. We didn’t make a call for probably a half hour until the jakes had moved on and then we yelped in a pair of longbeards. Honestly, it sounded like the whole woods were full of gobblers because the sound carried so well” in the post-rain humidity.

Depending on local conditions and the severity of the winter, Western turkey hunters can expect peak gobbling activity and early nesting by mid-April openers through the end of the month.

One exception is the turkey hotbed of southwest Oregon. Lingering snows may keep turkeys in lower-elevation agricultural areas, so public-land turkey hunters may want to wait a week or two to hunt mid-elevation habitats, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists. However, two exceptions are worth noting.

ODFW biologists note that Jackson County turkey numbers remain very strong and “hunting is expected to be above average. We have seen a higher snowpack this winter than in recent years, which may concentrate birds at lower elevations. Breeding usually peaks around the first part of April.

Because of this, we recommend getting out as soon as the season opens to maximize your success. Turkeys can be found feeding on green grasses and insects in and around open forest floors, under oak canopies.”

Biologists note that the 2020 Obenchain Fire burnt through a large portion of both public and private land between Highway 140 and Butte Falls Highway, but the regrowth in the burn area is attracting good numbers of turkeys.

“The best unit to hunt would be all the roads between Butte Falls and Prospect,” says the department. “Once the snow begins to recede, Dead Indian Memorial Road and the Green Springs Highway can also be very productive. Other spots are found within the Jackson Cooperative Travel Management Area, which is open to travel through April 30. Other productive public spots include the Howard/Hyatt area in eastern Jackson County, BLM sections along Evans Creek, and BLM areas near the towns of Jacksonville and Ruch.

From a tactical perspective, use your binoculars to locate turkeys during the opening week, then work in before you start subtle calling. Turkeys are still flocked up, as gobblers are actively breeding hens, and until the hens nest more intensively, they will lead gobblers away from a perceived rival. If your aggressive yelping moves birds away instead of bringing them in, try softer, more sparse calling patterns.

Locator gobbling can work toward the end of April, especially in afternoons as hens leave gobblers to sit on nests, and gobblers are moving widely looking for mating opportunities.

States that open this week include Colorado (April 13), and Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington, which open April 15. Arizona’s general season opens April 19, and Wyoming’s general season opens April 20.

TAGGED OUT

Beast Mode

• Hunter: Brandon Silvia
• Date: Spring 2024
• Location: Lake County, Calif.
• Method: Shotgun
• Stats: 23 pounds, 10.5-inch spurs

Brandon Silva from Vacaville, California, set up opening morning in Lake County, California, on a spot he's hunted for years with success, but in two different sessions, a big gobbler gave him the slip. A week later, Silva set up behind where the gobbler disappeared and pounded him at 15 yards as he headed toward hens. Silva shoots a Mossberg 500 .410 loaded with Federal TSS #9 turkey loads. His "ghost gobbler" weighed 23 pounds with a 10-1/2-inch bears and inch-long spurs.

Click to read "Top 20 U.S. Counties for Turkey Hunting"

EAST REPORT

Youth Seasons Kick off the East’s Turkey Hunting Bonanza

• Cool spring keeping turkeys in flocks with some birds begin tepid strutting.

By Doug Howlett

Last year, just a month and a half before turkey seasons began across much of the Northeast, it felt like spring had come early, and some hunters worried the birds would do their thing early and be played out come opening day. I’ve never actually seen that happen, regardless of the weather, which is a good thing because many hunters found success last year. Despite a seasonable chill that has persisted across much of the region, even as the calendar tells us it is technically spring, the birds are still out doing their thing.

A drive down any country highway in the afternoon right now through my home state of Virginia is bound to provide plenty of promising views of what’s to come—the turkeys are flocked up and out and about. I’ve seen several groups with multiple strutters all “blowed up” as they used to say. It’s hard not to get excited. That said, a scan of state reports from last year, forecasts for this year, and a few texts among a network of hunters up and down the Atlantic seaboard from Virginia north, suggests hunters across the East have plenty to look forward to this spring.

While the shotguns have already been booming across many states south, the first seasons in the East have yet to begin but are only a few weeks away. Here’s what you have to look forward to:

Delaware and Virginia will kick things off as the first states to open in the region, with a start date of April 12. In Delaware, a new Sunday hunting allowance and consistent harvests in Kent and Sussex counties make the First State an attractive option—especially with one of the highest spring harvests on record in 2024. Locals across the state will be looking to keep the momentum going. Meanwhile, in Virginia, despite fewer 2-year-olds expected, strong populations have been visible in the ag fields of eastern Virginia as well as the forests of the Shenandoah Valley. The first two weeks will end each day at the traditional noon hunting close, but after that, all-day hunting rules the final three weeks of the season, making for some successful setups in the afternoons as lonely toms go on the prowl.

Maryland hunters hit the woods next on April 18. While 2-year-old gobblers may be down more than is optimal, older birds and jakes should carry the season. The western and southern parts of the region reportedly offer the best action, though if you have a good piece of land on the Eastern Shore, it should hold some birds.

West Virginia opens on April 21. With solid harvest trends and extensive public lands, the Mountain State remains a top pick for adventurous hunters who don’t mind hiking up and down steep hillsides. Hunting is challenging in the state but rewarding for those who put in the effort.

New Jersey continues its staggered weekday periods starting April 21. With a healthy bump in jake numbers, expect high success, especially in southern zones where harvests have long been strong.

Rhode Island opens on April 24. Expect a repeat of recent strong harvests, especially in the northwest around Glocester and Burrillville.

Maine’s season starts April 28 (youth on April 26) and has traditionally run the latest of any season in the U.S., not closing until the first week of June. But this year it ends May 31, similar to other states in the region. While fewer 2-year-olds are expected due to poor 2023 reproduction, southern and central zones remain turkey-rich according to the game department there. Two-bird limits apply to most WMDs.

In Massachusetts, consistency is the name of the game. With April 28's opening day, expect another steady turkey hunting season, especially in zones with solid historical harvests. In other words, if you see and kill birds in an area year in and year out, just keep doing what you’re doing.

Connecticut opens on April 30 and runs through May. With slightly better brood numbers in 2024 and plenty of acorns on the ground, turkey hunters should expect a stable, possibly improved season, though a few hunters I’ve spoken with say don’t bet on it. Still, even those who come off negative tend to work birds and take one or two each year, though it may take some work, particularly on crowded public land.

New Hampshire opens statewide on May 1. The 2024 hatch improved, which means jakes should be plentiful for the kids and newer hunters. For those willing, let ‘em live a year and enjoy the real longbeard action when they are 2. Southern zones like H1 and K are reportedly the hotbeds of potential.

New York sees its regular season open May 1 (youth: April 26–27). Above-average reproduction in 2024 sets the stage for a solid season this year. Focus efforts on the Catskills, St. Lawrence Valley and even the Adirondacks, though I prefer the southern and western rural counties.

Vermont also kicks off May 1, with solid prospects statewide despite a pretty cold winter that could translate into some longbeards looking like jakes from where their beards froze off. Look for that full fan as they strut if you’re picky about shooting a mature gobbler. Franklin County and the Champlain Valley reportedly offer strong early bets.

Pennsylvania hunters must be the patient ones with a May 3 opener. That said, the season should deliver the state always does. With numbers trending up in most WMUs, and four years of strong reproduction, hunters should see plenty of action—especially in the southwest and north-central regions, making their wait worth it.

Wherever you plan to hunt this spring, now is the time to get out and start some light scouting, particularly when you are two to three weeks out from your opener. Leave the calls at home, but bring the boots, binoculars and maybe a jacket. Get to your usual hunt spots early and listen for gobbles at daybreak to determine where toms are spending the night. Then keep your presence low-key and make that opening day plan. Barring big changes to the breeding cycle, the birds should be right where you hear them come opening morning.

TAGGED OUT

Apprentice Turkey Hunter Seals the Deal

• Hunter: Zenna Howlett
• Date: April 6
• Location: Virginia
• Method: Shotgun

To be sure, 17-year-old Zenna Howlett, my daughter, grew up spending time outdoors and around hunting. She just wasn’t all that into it. She liked hanging out at the farm, riding ATVs and the golf cart, camping and hiking. But getting up super early and going out into the cold to hopefully pull a trigger on something didn’t excite her. But that changed two years ago when she suddenly decided she’d like to start coming out with me and her twin brother, Cade.

So, she came and observed. It was after a quick and exciting turkey hunt with me and outdoor photographer Buzz Hayes one day that she decided, “I might like to get my own turkey.”

The following season, she hunted a few times on our family’s land and, despite some very close calls, just couldn’t seal the deal. But last Sunday morning, April 6, during Virginia’s youth and apprentice spring turkey hunting weekend, Zenna finally shot her bird, a hefty jake with a five-inch beard that came into my calls and our Avian-X decoys, strutting and trying to outwalk another jake in its company. We had spotted the two with a longbeard and three hens the evening before so we knew where they were roosted.

Sunday morning, we were disappointed to see the wind blowing so hard—20 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 30 mph. But we had our plan and stuck with it. We set up on a sliver of trees between two fields near where the birds had roosted the night before. We got in and set up while it was still dark.

I held off on early calling, preferring for the birds to slip into the field on their own and hopefully see the jake and hen decoy I had staked on the field edge 20 yards from where we sat. Zenna was using a Mossberg International SA-20 20-gauge shotgun loaded with Winchester’s new Long Beard TSS loads and felt comfortable out to 40 to 45 yards. The loads are capable of even more, but Zenna was a new hunter, and I wanted the shot to be closer and at birds that weren’t on high alert.

When nothing showed up within 20 to 30 minutes of daylight, my impatience grew and I tossed out some calls using a Woodhaven Custom Calls diaphragm. Ten minutes later, we heard a gobble in the field behind us. With the wind, it sounded like the gobble was at least 80 yards away. It was actually 30 and when I tried to rise to look over the slight rise that blocked our view of the field, I realized the source of the gobbles—the two jakes,—were standing right there. They saw me too, but fortunately, with the wind blowing so bad, didn’t realize what I was and just ran off about 100 yards and began looking back.

I crouched back down, had Zenna swing to the other side of the tree so she’d be facing the direction the birds would come from and began calling. Assuming the turkeys wouldn’t come back the same way from where they had gotten spooky, I directed my calls with my hand to carry across the field where our decoys were. I didn’t hear any responses, but 10 minutes later, the two popped into that very field nearly 200 yards away. I called again, they spotted the decoys and the race was on. Not walking, but not quite running, the two covered the ground quickly. I whispered to Zenna to take the one strutting as he was definitely the bigger of the two. Her cheek was down on the Mossberg, her eye lining up the shot as I noticed she began to tremble.

“Just hold it together a few more seconds,” I thought. At 21 yards away, the two birds separated enough that she wouldn’t hit both. “Shoot him now,” I said and she squeezed the trigger, the Winchester load dropping the bird without a flop. That’s when she really began shaking, the excitement of the moment washing over her and a smile spread across her face. Zenna had just shot her first wild turkey.

WHEN TO HUNT TURKEYS THIS SPRING

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