By John Higley

Opening day of spring turkey season 2003, as usual, found me stumbling along a mountain road well before the sun began brightening the eastern horizon. I was fired up, as I always am when the turkey season opens, but I had my share of misgivings, too. The weather in March was odd, to say the least, and along with no time for pre-hunt scouting, I was more than a little concerned about my prospects for a successful day afield.

Would the turkeys be on the property where I was? If they were, what would their attitude be?

My uncertainty stemmed, mainly, from an incredible stretch of warm late-winter weather in Shasta County during which I actually saw a tom breed a hen on March 7. That's when 11 wild hens, followed by a strutting jake, came into my backyard for a visit and stayed for two days. That incident made me wonder if the birds where I hunt at higher elevation were still grouped in winter flocks on opening day, as they sometimes are, or if I would find them to be in typical midseason mode.

The answer still isn't clear. I managed to find a lonely longbeard around 8 a.m., and after talking to him for a half-hour, he finally came up the ridge into shotgun range. I was delighted with the bird, of course, but I heard only one more tom gobble that day, and I expected a lot more than that.

I realize that nothing is written in stone where turkey hunting is concerned, and I also realize that conditions are not the same everywhere at once. However, looking at the northern portion of the state where I hang out, I've got to say that things were tough in 2003. I can recall opening days, and occasional hunts in midseason, that were affected by everything from rain and dense fog to sweltering heat, but I can't remember a season with so much rain so often as we received last spring. In fact, it rained nearly two inches on April 29 and Redding's total measured rainfall for the month 176 percent of normal!

Author John Higley shot this picturesque tom between rainstorms in the foothills of Shasta County. Photo courtesy of John Higley

Biologists say a specific photoperiod, or the length of time an animal is exposed to light during the day, is the main trigger to turkey breeding activity. Weather also plays a part. In 2003, with good weather early in March and stormy weather (with only a few breaks between squalls) during the season, the turkeys in some areas did not cooperate as well as expected.

For example, one afternoon and evening prior to a midseason hunt, Tom Stone and I went scouting in eastern Shasta County, hoping to find some turkeys in a place with little or no hunting pressure. It took a few hours, but we finally located a flock with at least one vocal Romeo along with two or three others that weren't as vocal as the first. Stone, a retired Department of Fish and Game biologist, who was responsible for most of the turkey releases in nine northern counties for 25 years, simply smiled and said, "I think we know where to be in the morning, Higley. I'll pick you up at 4 a.m."

We were in position well before daylight, waiting eagerly for the first gobble of the day. It never happened. We gave up when the sun was in our eyes. We've debated the situation many times, and the only reason we can come up with for the gobblers' silence is an impending change in the weather. The barometer fell, the wind came up and by afternoon it was raining - again.

I would eventually put more than one turkey in the freezer by season's end, but my experience last year was illustrative of how fickle turkey hunting can be.

What does 2004 hold for us? Nothing short of more excellent turkey hunting!

As most turkey hunters know, the DFG has not been able to move any turkeys within the state since the department was threatened with legal action in 1999. As we reported last year, an environmental document was written and subsequently shelved in favor of a turkey management plan that was undergoing review late last summer. Meanwhile, the DFG appointed a turkey management team that is working to figure out just where the birds exist throughout the state.

One thing is clear: There are lots of wild turkeys around. Some landowners - farmers with crops and some with backyard swimming pools that have become the favored roosting areas of turkeys - would tell you we have too many birds. Surely we can do something to help their appreciation of wild turkeys!

As DFG turkey biologist Scott Gardner told California Game & Fish, "Eventually, we hope to start moving turkeys from problem areas to other places where they'll provide hunting and viewing opportunities. However, there are still legal challenges to overcome, so we're not ready quite yet."

HOW TO GET STARTED One of the hardest things for a novice turkey hunter to do is find a place to hunt. Here are some ways to help you get started.   Turkey biologist Scott Gardner recommends contacting the Department of Fish and Game office nearest to where you want to hunt and ask to talk to someone who follows the turkey situation there. All offices are listed in the hunting regulations booklet or go online to www.dfg.ca.gov.   Some state wildlife areas host special turkey hunts, including drawing-only opportunities. For example, a permit is needed to hunt the popular Spenceville WA in Nevada and Yuba counties during the season's first nine days. After that the area opens to all. Check the special hunts link online under the Game Bird Heritage Program, or see the flyer at DFG offices.   In no particular order, the counties with the highest annual harvest numbers are Shasta, Mendocino, Amador, Napa, Lake, Tehama, El Dorado, Yuba, Placer and San Luis Obispo, and dozens of gobblers are killed in Butte, Calaveras, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Fresno, Monterey, San Diego and Kern. Turkeys are successfully hunted in 37 of the state's 58 counties.   A solid move for any neophyte turkey hunter is to join a chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation and get involved. Contact regional director Brian Yerman, 707-432-0369, or go online to www.nwtf.org.   For guided turkey hunts, contact: Aaron Brooks, 530-626-4273, El Dorado County; Eldon Bergman, 805-238-5504, San Luis Obispo County; Doug Roth, Camp 5 Outfitters, 831-386-0727, southern Monterey-San Luis Obispo counties; or Jim Schaafsma, Arrow Five Outfitters, 707-923-9633, southern Trinity-Humboldt counties. A group with access to private land turkey hunting is Wilderness Unlimited; call 510-785-4868 or go online to www.wildernessunlimited.com. -- John Higley

Complaints aside, there is still growing interest in turkey hunting in California. Last March there was a large crowd at a turkey day hosted by the DFG in Fair Oaks. Many of the folks in attendance were definitely new to the sport. "Our organization is still expanding statewide," said Brian Yerman, a regional director for the National Wild Turkey Federation. "In fact, our chapter in Bakersfield is the largest in the entire country."

Despite the fact that most of the state's wild turkeys are found on private land, with some notable exceptions, of course, new hunting opportunities continue to develop as the birds turn up in places where they have never before been seen. To get into the sport (see sidebar), some hunters have turned to guides, others have successfully acquired permission to hunt on private land, and still others have joined hunting clubs that have access to ranches with turkey habitat. Last, but not least, of course, are those hunters who have toiled long and hard to find secret turkey spots of their own on public land.

Now comes the fun part - forecasting the conditions turkey hunters will find this spring. Bear in mind that it isn't easy to census turkeys (it's impossible, really) and the DFG doesn't do it on an official basis. So, to get a general overview, California Game & Fish contacted several reliable turkey hunters, biologists, guides and other experts for their best guesstimates about the turkey populations in their areas.

Looking south to San Diego County, DFG unit biologist Randy Botta says the turkey population is stable. Brood sightings on public land this spring and summer averaged from three to seven poults per hen.

Most of the birds in Botta's area are, as is usually the case, on private land, where 60 percent of the harvest takes place. However, there is public land to hunt on the Cleveland National Forest in the Descanso and Palomar ranger districts. Of the two areas, the Descanso is probably the best bet as there are fewer private in holdings to contend with. Botta noted, also, that the Laguna Mountain Recreation Area (Descanso district) is open only to archery hunting as is the Fry Creek Recreation Area (Palomar district).

"Turkey hunting is still attracting a lot of attention in these parts," said Botta. "I've gotten inquiries from the central coast and surrounding counties from folks who would really like to hunt hereabouts."

Unit biologist Jim Davis reported that 2003 production on the San Bernardino National Forest was low and possibly a little better than it was in 2002. The birds are widely scattered and the population has been down since huge wildfires four years ago and a drought that finally abated somewhat last winter. The burned area in the Lake Arrowhead region is of particular concern.

Hunters might find a few birds in the upper Deep Creek drainage, the Willow Creek and Holcomb Creek drainages and the upper Santa Ana River drainage.

Note, too, that eight southern counties were under quarantine last year due to an outbreak of exotic Newcastle's Disease in domestic poultry operations. Hunters were prohibited from transporting wild turkeys out of the area as a hedge against spreading the disease. As of this writing, Botta says the quarantine has been lifted in San Diego County; it might still be in effect in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Imperial and Orange counties by the time the spring season opens.