Jake Sightings

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Levee Jumper

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The comment from Zach about the number of Jakes he has seen this year has me intrigued. Granted i didn't hunt any private ground and not really any fields to speak of, I have only seen 1 Jake in 9 days of hunting and don't recall even hearing what I thought was a jake gobble. This was scattered across 4 WMA's in 4 counties across a good portion of the state. I generally saw turkeys on most days afield but jakes were nowhere to be found.

Unless it was just a wrong place at the wrong time situation, it looks a little grim for next year. Anyone else have a similar experience.
 
I've seen a handful in the woods in TN, and about the same in MO. Like you, I rarely hunt around fields/open areas, so I'm sure that is limiting me on "seeing" wads of jakes like others do at times. I have had a few jakes in TN try to gobble, and a few in MO that could gobble pretty good. I put my eyes on both sets.
 
Levee Jumper":1wgdjguz said:
The comment from Zach about the number of Jakes he has seen this year has me intrigued. Granted i didn't hunt any private ground and not really any fields to speak of, I have only seen 1 Jake in 9 days of hunting and don't recall even hearing what I thought was a jake gobble. This was scattered across 4 WMA's in 4 counties across a good portion of the state. I generally saw turkeys on most days afield but jakes were nowhere to be found.

Unless it was just a wrong place at the wrong time situation, it looks a little grim for next year. Anyone else have a similar experience.
Click to expand...
I've seen at least 21 different jakes on a certain WMA that has supposedly been "ruined" by hunting pressure


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catman529":2ckx5fw2 said:
Levee Jumper":2ckx5fw2 said:
The comment from Zach about the number of Jakes he has seen this year has me intrigued. Granted i didn't hunt any private ground and not really any fields to speak of, I have only seen 1 Jake in 9 days of hunting and don't recall even hearing what I thought was a jake gobble. This was scattered across 4 WMA's in 4 counties across a good portion of the state. I generally saw turkeys on most days afield but jakes were nowhere to be found.

Unless it was just a wrong place at the wrong time situation, it looks a little grim for next year. Anyone else have a similar experience.
Click to expand...
I've seen at least 21 different jakes on a certain WMA that has supposedly been "ruined" by hunting pressure


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Click to expand...

Great to hear. But sad at the same time.
 
I've seen quite a few on wmas as well. Haven't seen any on our lease with my eyes, but had several on camera the week before season opened.
 
Numbers were up on 2 farms, none on another couple. It's amazing how much the hatch can vary just a few miles away

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Overall, this thread seems to anecdotally support a good hatch for last year, at least in the areas the members have frequented. Not sure if East TN is represented here or not.
 
I agree, it certainly makes me feel better about the situation. I suppose I was bobbing while they were weaving as far as the jakes were concerned.
 
catman529":m30ldi1x said:
......on a certain WMA that has supposedly been "ruined" by hunting pressure
Click to expand...
Not sure anyone said it was ruined, but we can ALL agree pressure has increased exponentially.

Even this guy thinks so:

ME9LHYn.jpg
 
Andy S.":2buuuowd said:
catman529":2buuuowd said:
......on a certain WMA that has supposedly been "ruined" by hunting pressure
Click to expand...
Not sure anyone said it was ruined, but we can ALL agree pressure has increased exponentially.

Even this guy thinks so:

ME9LHYn.jpg
Click to expand...
yea that would be me


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Lol at Andy!

I haven't seen many jakes at all, actually the hen numbers are down drastically on my private farm. I've spoken with a few other hunters and it seems 50/50 as far as jakes go, which is a lot better than last year.

One thing I've noticed this year is all the nay sayers that I personally know actually had to expand their territory to kill their limits. Guess I will be reluctantly expanding mine next year as well.


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AT Hiker":3lv0pwea said:
Lol at Andy!

I haven't seen many jakes at all, actually the hen numbers are down drastically on my private farm. I've spoken with a few other hunters and it seems 50/50 as far as jakes go, which is a lot better than last year.

One thing I've noticed this year is all the nay sayers that I personally know actually had to expand their territory to kill their limits. Guess I will be reluctantly expanding mine next year as well.


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Click to expand...
nobody seems to mention the fact that the birds aren't talking much, I know for a fact I still have good numbers to hunt but I can't get one to work a call worth a crap. Part of it is the pressure keeping them on private and part of it is they just won't talk after fly down, even on less pressured land


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catman529":31mg79p1 said:
nobody seems to mention the fact that the birds aren't talking much, I know for a fact I still have good numbers to hunt but I can't get one to work a call worth a crap. Part of it is the pressure keeping them on private and part of it is they just won't talk after fly down, even on less pressured land


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Click to expand...

Maybe thats because everyone is searching out areas with birds and exponentially increasing the pressure?

For me, this year has been slightly above normal as far as vocalization goes. One draw hunt proved to be difficult having the birds refuse to work calls and LBL just this past weekend yielded 0 gobbles over three days of hunting, that sucked. I also only caught 6 blue gill, that sucked too.

It seems like you guys that "have the birds" are the ones talking about them being quite. I agree, that's odd. But I've hunted 3 quality places this year with strong populations and they have played the game really well. Of course pressure is kept very low on these places.




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IMO pressure or lack there of is the key. I honestly believe that unpressured turkeys this time of the year are blowing the leaves off the trees. Of course turkeys that have been hunted nearly every day of the year are more likely to keep their mouths shut or slide in quietly. You can definitely kill pressured turkeys but i'm not in to deer hunting them.
 
I saw more poults last year than in the last few combined. I also saw more on trail camera pictures and more deer hunting than in the past few years. I have saw several jakes so far this year and more hens than the last few this Spring as well. Overall, I think that we had the best hatch last year than the last several combined. I just hope to have it again this year.
 
I have not had any problem "hearing" the few turkeys that are there, even the gobbling jakes, and thus, put little stock in the "they are not talking theory". If they are there, and they have not been hunted to death, harassed, spooked, shot at, bumped, called to by every Tom, Richard and Harry, they will gobble well in to May, and some into June, sporadically. Five things typically minimize gobbling; dominant old bird in the area, abundance of hens, lack of male turkeys, hunting/human pressure, and bad weather.
 
AT Hiker":2e9mxh0m said:
catman529":2e9mxh0m said:
nobody seems to mention the fact that the birds aren't talking much, I know for a fact I still have good numbers to hunt but I can't get one to work a call worth a crap. Part of it is the pressure keeping them on private and part of it is they just won't talk after fly down, even on less pressured land


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Click to expand...

Maybe thats because everyone is searching out areas with birds and exponentially increasing the pressure?

For me, this year has been slightly above normal as far as vocalization goes. One draw hunt proved to be difficult having the birds refuse to work calls and LBL just this past weekend yielded 0 gobbles over three days of hunting, that sucked. I also only caught 6 blue gill, that sucked too.

It seems like you guys that "have the birds" are the ones talking about them being quite. I agree, that's odd. But I've hunted 3 quality places this year with strong populations and they have played the game really well. Of course pressure is kept very low on these places.




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Click to expand...
yes the increased pressure has made them a lot tougher to hunt for sure. But even the places that don't get pressured the birds aren't acting right. Like my backyard and surrounding property for example. This is the first year I have yet to see a strutter with hens in my back field. My neighbor was seeing them good for a while and then they somewhat disappeared again.


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Dang, we gonna be back up to long term average of 32000 kills next year if all these anecdotal Jake sightings are correct..... I sure hope so!

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