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The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission has listen to turkey hunters and has taken a radical approach with implementing changes for the 2023 Spring Season. Enjoy this read from Realtree.com.
So what do the changes look like? The first is actually a change to the trapping regulations, with a year-round trapping season now allowed for raccoons and opossums — critters that are considered among the worst nest predators of wild turkeys. The hunting season for those animals will remain as-is (July 1 to March 15), but the daily bag limit for both species will be doubled for hunters.
As for turkeys, the Spring 2023 bag limit will be reduced from three birds to two, only one of which can be a jake. There was a lengthy discussion about stopping the harvest of jakes altogether, except for youth hunters, but the commission, largely because of public comment, ultimately voted to keep the single jake as an option in the bag limit. Most biological data suggests that some jake mortality doesn’t make much difference in the grand scheme of turkey populations anyway, and there were concerns about first-time adult hunters not being allowed to shoot anything but a longbeard. Jakes will be determined according to a checklist of descriptors, including beard length, spur length and whether the bird has a “full” fan.
A bigger change is in the season dates. After additional discussion, a motion passed to shift the spring season two weeks later, so in 2023, the statewide Tennessee turkey season will open April 15 and run to May 28. Recent research, has suggested that high gobbler harvest early in the season, before nesting begins, could be a big factor in reduced turkey populations. Tennessee’s juvenile season has traditionally opened the last weekend in March, and the statewide turkey season followed that, opening the first Saturday in April. This change is especially notable, partly because Tennessee will now have one of the latest closing dates in the region.
Finally, a prohibition on fanning and reaping on public lands, which had been added to the “Means and Methods” of the Tennessee Hunting and Trapping Guide, will stand, despite a motion to remove it. Fanning is, of course, a controversial practice, especially these days. Detractors say it’s dangerous and makes killing a turkey too easy. Proponents say the statistics on hunting accidents don’t show that fanning is any more dangerous than calling up a bird in the woods, and anyone who says it’s too easy hasn’t done much turkey fanning. Still, on public land at least, it looks as though the technique will be outlawed next spring.- Realtree.com
Turkey populations have been declining rapidly in the southern states, including Tennessee for many years now and this may be the start of slowly bringing them back up to the populations we are used to seeing. -AE
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