Photo by Larry Self.

In 2005, Tennessee turkey hunters failed to set a new harvest record for the first time in 21 consecutive years. The run had to end sometime, but we bounced back strong with a new record season in 2006.

So, we’re back on track, right?

Well, not so fast. Volunteer turkey hunters hit another obstacle with the hunts of the spring of 2007.

We fell well short of the 2006 record harvest in 2007. What’s most interesting is, the harvest shouldn’t have been lower. Last spring, Tennessee turkey hunters had another record harvest at hand until Mother Nature reared her cold, ugly head.

In the spring of 2006, the record harvest sat at nearly 36,000 birds. In comparison, the 2007 spring totals were well below the record with 31,166 turkeys tagged. That total could have been much higher. Let’s see what effect cold weather and tough conditions had on last year’s harvest and what you can expect this spring.

BREAKING DOWN LAST SEASON’S LETDOWN
Gray Anderson, a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) wildlife biologist, has more than a year under his belt now as our state turkey coordinator. Just listening to his thoughts on last season will tell you he’s learned plenty in his new position.

“I believe the decline in the 2007 spring harvest can be explained almost 100 percent by the weather,” Anderson said. “We were down about 5,000 birds when compared with 2006, but we lost about 3,500 of those ‘harvest opportunities’ in the second and third weekend of the season.”

Anyone who hunted that second weekend when temperatures plunged into the teens and snow flurries blew across the state can tell what kind of effect cold weather has on a spring hunt. The worst news is it wasn’t short-lived: That weather lasted several days, leading to a record frost in April that even had major hard-mast effects on fall hunting seasons.

“In the opening weekend, we were several hundred birds above 2006, and the temperature was above normal too,” Anderson added. He also noted we had very warm months in February and March. Yes sir, things were off to a wonderful start and looking like a banner year for Volunteer turkey hunters. And just like the stock market crash in the 1930s, the cold snap hit out of nowhere and the temperature for the second and third weekends of the spring hunt fell 17 and 12 degrees below average.

The result was, Anderson said, that our 2007 daily harvest dropped dramatically when compared with 2006.

Anderson said after the third weekend, the temperatures normalized, but our daily harvest never really picked up. He doesn’t know if the lower daily harvest was because hunters slowed down their efforts (and he did hear that some hunters lost interest), or if the birds’ “cycle” was disrupted and they were harder to hunt. Anderson himself said he heard of some strange gobbler and hen behaviors late into the season. Either way, our daily harvest lagged behind 2006.