For hunting turkeys in the foothills of Northern California, it was a perfect morning. The air was crisp, the meadow grass moist with dew and the sky clear as a bell. My partner Tom Stone and I knew there was a gobbler somewhere on this small parcel of private land in Mendocino County. Soon that tom would be listening to our sweetest hen calls.

Reports from around the state suggest there should be ample numbers of gobblers, as well as jakes, this year. The season starts March 28. Photo by John Higley.

Just as we hoped, about the time we could see the ground around our feet, a haunting gobble rang out from the roost trees only 100 yards away.

I responded with a favorite box call, producing a few subdued hen yelps just to let the turkey know where we were.

The next move would be his.

A few minutes later, we heard wingbeats as the bird launched himself to the ground. Stone sent a flurry of anxious hen yelps in his direction. The feathered Lothario nearly turned himself inside out gobbling back.

Unfortunately, that first tom of 2008's spring season didn't play fair, but we couldn't really blame him. He was obviously interested in our bogus hen calls -- but was even more taken by the feathered beauties that we could now hear heading to him from two different directions.

Bummer!

Happily, though, that wasn't the end of the story. Deciding that any tom with hens was a lost cause -- for the time being, anyway -- Stone and I separated so that we could cover different ground at the same time.

And as luck would have it, I soon had another tom interested. And this time, things went according to plan.

The copper-plated No. 5 shot from my turkey-choke-equipped Remington 12-gauge pump found its mark. The turkey fell over at 40 yards, which is about the limit of my comfort zone with any shotgun.

It was a nice tom of Rio Grande descent with a 9 1/2 inch beard and body weight of 19 pounds. That's a dandy way to start the season!

Though the 2008 season wasn't the best I've ever had, it certainly wasn't the worst either, because I eventually wound up with two hefty California toms in the freezer.

I began hunting turkeys in 1971, when the first-ever spring season took place in only a handful of Golden State counties. Back then, it was exciting simply to find turkey sign, let alone the turkeys themselves. And when I actually heard a gobble, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

Today, every one of the state's 58 counties is open to turkey hunting.

According to the Department of Fish and Game, the best of them (as of 2007, the latest year for which figures are available), were Tehama, Yolo, El Dorado, Butte, Sonoma, San Diego, Mendocino, Shasta, Amador and Placer.

Other counties that commonly make the Top 10, but didn't make that list in 2007, include Nevada, Lake and Napa.

Yes, there were exceptions. But among the biologists, outdoor writers, hunting guides and others interviewed for this report, the general consensus was that thanks to last spring's mild weather, turkey production was excellent. Early spring did see some rainfall. But during the time when most hens were on their nests, conditions were good almost across the board.

While some predation took place, severe weather was not a factor in poult survival.

That said, let's take a look at the current situation in various regions of the state, from south to north.