Turkey 2020 Post Mortem

It’s over. Frankly, I was not paying attention last evening as the sun went down. I was home watching NetFlix. KY’s Spring Gobbler Season ended. For me, it ended before it began. It is the first time since 1986 that I have not hunted. I really wish this COVID-19 thing would go away.

I have to admit that had a good time for what little time I had. For the month prior to The Opener, I was into turkeys nearly every time I went out. Three times I got gobblers into my setup at the Honey Hole. On two occasions they were close enough for an easy chip-shot if I’d had my shotgun. I also got the lightbulb turned on for the Mooselette. She finally grabbed her calls and went out scouting on her own without Grandpa. That is really cool. However, nothing really beats the feeling of being all kitted up and walking through the gate ready to do harm to a turkey. Nothing beats the feel of the safety as you flick it off. Nothing beats that look of terminal surprise the gobbler gives as he know he’s been had.

Nothing.

I have good news. I’m looking over the Telecheck stats from KYDFWR. We had a good year, both for Bracken County, the Northeast Region, and the Commonwealth as a whole. Statewide, turkey harvests were over 31,000. That is good news. Last year, they barely broke 29,000. I closely monitor both Bracken and Pendleton counties since I am right on the Bracken/Pendleton line. Pendleton was still the top Bluegrass county with 425 birds, and that is up 10% from last year. Bracken had 308 birds up 18% after two declining years. It was an improvement from 2019, but no record by any means.

Here are the numbers plotted for Bracken, Pendleton, and the NE Region. Bracken saw an overall decline starting about 15 years ago. I asked the biologist about it. He said the target for Bracken was a steady state and a stable flock. They have achieved it. Bracken’s trendline is back to flat, and this year’s harvest was smack-dab on the trend. Pendleton’s trendline is also flat. It has pretty much achieved the same steady-state. The big story is the Northeast Region as a whole. While Bracken has been flat, the NE is booming. Bracken, is no longer the top county in the NE for yet another year. It is not so much that Bracken is declining. It is that other counties in the region are skyrocketing.

This was a good year despite the ban on non-resident tag sales and the quarantine. My guess is that it would have been even better if the Buckeyes had been able to cross over the bridge. However, this was a hot year by any standard. I have some answers to why. First off, there was that warm period in late March. That got the gobblers all revved up. Second, there was fairly decent weather for the Opener. Good weather on Opening Weekend, there are more turkey hunters out, and more of them bag birds. The first weekend usually sees about 50% of the harvest for the whole season. I noticed, in Bracken at least, the harvest numbers stayed up during the first week as well. All I know for sure was that it was a bum year to be on the sidelines.

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