Be Sure of Turkey Season Dates, WMA Regulations

However, when you head out preseason scouting for turkeys on WMAs, leave those turkey calls behind.

"We don't want people out there before the season blowing turkey calls," Director Sykes said. "I don't do that on my own place, so why would I want that to take place on public lands. Why would you educate a bird before the season comes in? It's not good common sense, whether you're talking about public land or private land.

"Why would you want to go out in the woods with a turkey call before the season, call to a turkey and take a chance on him coming up and seeing you. You have that negative experience with a turkey call, and you go back in a couple of weeks and try to hunt him, using the same call in the same spot. That's just not smart. I don't want to give the turkeys too much credit, but I think they're a lot smarter than that. We want to provide as much opportunity as we can, and spooking turkeys before the season is not good for anybody."

Director Sykes said many states have already banned the use of certain game cameras during hunting seasons.

"Cellular-activated trail cameras have been outlawed in several states, especially in the West, where they used these cameras around watering holes where it's dry and arid," he said. "The use of these cameras gives them an unfair advantage over wildlife."

Director Sykes said WFF is not advocating a complete ban on the use of cellular-activated cameras, but wild turkeys are particularly susceptible to being patterned because they usually stay in the same general area once they fly up to roost.

"Deer can travel at night," he said. "It's not the same as a turkey. If a turkey walks up and down a road during the daytime, and you have a trail camera that is sending you pictures automatically, it gives you an unfair advantage over that bird."

The other popular method of surveillance is the use of the UAV/drone, which also provides an unfair advantage, said Director Sykes.

"Drones provide yet another way to remotely locate game and also have the potential to disturb and harass wildlife," he said. "Once again, these prohibitions are in place to provide genuine turkey hunting experience opportunities and hopefully ensure that the last hunter in the area didn't already educate the turkey or harvest them with these technologies."

Director Sykes, who has hunted turkeys in Alabama most of his life, said making predictions about the upcoming spring turkey season is a difficult task.

"It's going to be hit or miss, like it always is," he said. "Some places are going to have a great spring. Some are not. I heard turkeys gobbling their brains out on Tuesday morning. Today (last Thursday), I didn't hear a peep. That's the way it's going to be. That's the way it's always been.

"As long as we have some pretty days, especially on the weekends, we're going to have birds killed."

Director Sykes reiterated the advice about making sure you know the season dates and the regulations for the property you're hunting, especially if it's public land.

"Since regular season starts on a Monday, we have provided clarity as to when youth and physically disabled hunts will occur," he said. "For most of the state (Zones 1 and 3), the 23rd and 24th is youth weekend. If you're out there on the 16th and 17th, you're going to get an award (citation)."

Visit www.outdooralabama.com/seasons-and-bag-limits/turkey-season for more information.

###

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.