The 2010 season is approaching fast with Youth Day kicking it off on Saturday. Last year was a record breaking year despite some of the more historic top producing areas seeing a drop. The record was broken because of the success of the turkey reintroduction over the past couple of decades or so with turkeys now in all 100 counties and growing.
North Carolina’s turkey hunters
never had it so good. From a fledgling flock in the 1970s, the statewide wild turkey population stands at more than 150,000, with a new population study underway that will likely show an overall increase.
The 2009 spring gobbler harvest of 12,579 set a record, topping the former record of 11,706 that was set in 2006. The harvest dropped to 10,082 in 2007, and then increased in 2008 to 11,313. The new harvest record was a milestone, considering the increase was more than 11 percent from the year before.
Read the rest of Mike Marsh’s article for a complete outlook on the upcoming season.
