2010 Statewide Spring Turkey Season Opens April 3

NASHVILLE --- If the recently held young sportsman turkey hunt provides any indication, the forecast is good for Tennessee’s 2010 spring turkey season. The statewide season opens Saturday, April 3 and will continue through May 16.

 

Tennessee's young hunters harvested 1,285 birds across the state last weekend, a record for the two-day hunt. There were 1,066 turkeys harvested last year and the previous young sportsman hunt record was 1,191 set in 2007 before a damaging late season freeze and the ensuing summer drought.

 

“2007 was an impactful year with the Easter freeze and the summer drought and we saw more jakes taken the last couple of years,” said Gray Anderson, TWRA Turkey Program Coordinator. “We saw our gobbler harvest at about 70 percent in the young sportsman hunt.

 

“Based on that, we should see the number of gobblers increase and we are hearing reports of good quantities of birds being seen statewide. Everything that we have seen is pointing toward the positive.”

 

In last week’s young sportsman hunt the county with the most birds harvested was, Dickson County with 44 birds harvested. Giles and Hawkins counties each had 34 followed by Sumner County 33, Montgomery County 31, Henry and Maury counties 30, Hardin and Hickman counties 29, and Greene County with 28.

 

There were 32,081 turkeys harvested in the 2009 spring season. Greene County was the state leader with 930 birds. Montgomery had 792, Henry 783, Dickson 736, and Maury 709 to round out the top five.

 

All Tennessee counties are open to wild turkey hunting including Wildlife Management Areas and refuges unless specifically listed. For specifics, sportsmen should check the 2009 Tennessee Hunting and Trapping Guide which is available at any TWRA Regional Office, license agent or online at www.tnwildlife.org.

 

---TWRA---