Dewey's WI hunt?

[Gopherlongbeards]

How'd your sconnie hunt go dewey?

[dewey]

Usually I am very good at posting my hunt good or bad afterwards to let everyone know how I did but this hunt and maybe this spring left a bad taste in my mouth. It was tough. I used the Polk county plat book to locate about 4-5 landowners and where they lived so I could ask for permission to hunt their land and struck out with everyone of them. They were all very nice and said that they hunted themselves or have people there hunting already. So I ended up hunting the WI state fish hatchery land after talking to some people at the fish hatchery there was a lot of land that was off limits. I hunted the fish hatchery land Thursday in the rain/mist and only saw 2 hens. I took a road South of Osceola that goes to the railroad tracks on the St Croix National Park land like Charlie Elk said and called every little while and never heard a gobble. I also accessed some St Croix national park land next to the Standing Cedars land off of 60th Avenue and set up there a few times and never saw/heard anything. I also hunted Straight Lake state park about 30-40 miles NE of interstate park up by Bone Lake and some signs of turkeys but never heard or saw anything. I got that recommendation by the park ranger at Interstate Park, very nice guy by the way. I saw 3 turkeys, at least one was a good tom, on one of the properties I asked to hunt but the owner had said he is hunting yet so I just watched them in the binoculars from about 400 yards away on the road. I felt like I hunted hard and just didn't have any luck but that is hunting. I would like to go to WI every year as it is a close hunt for me and I just love being out but I may have to try and track down some more land opportunities. I think the key might be trying to get permission from some farmers that have woods and farm fields where I could ambush the turkeys on their way to and from the fields for food.

I also think that the wifey and I are going to go on one of the paddle boats in Osceola for a date night because that looked pretty cool. Gotta keep the boss happy.

Dewey

[Gopherlongbeards]

Bummer about your hunt Dewey, but glad you still had a good time.  It's always just nice to be out.  I'm sure I'll be giving WI a try next spring.  Just too many tag opportunities and such a close trip to pass up.  Stinks we can only get 1 tag a season in MN.

[retranger]

That's a bummer Dewey, [X(]but like you said that's hunting. I think it's been pretty much the same all over this year. There has not been much activity in my area as well. My buddy and I have only heard two gobbles on two separate days and they both came home with us. The one bird we got gobbled just once about 50 yards away and came straight to us. We usually hunt in the woods on a power line. I know the birds are here but are real quiet. I don't think I have hunted and had any two years the same. Guess if we had it all in one year we would have to find something else to do.[;)]

[dewey]

ORIGINAL: Gopherlongbeards
Stinks we can only get 1 tag a season in MN.

It would be nice if you could buy your first tag and if unsuccessful you could buy another tag. Sounds like a win-win to me. I get to hunt more and have more time to harvest a gobbler and the MNDNR gets more money. I guess the downside would be if the success % goes up that may adversly affect the turkey population.

I have heard that the MNDNR is talking about consolidating zones kind of like WI. That would be a very good idea in my mind.

Dewey

[Gopherlongbeards]

'm also a big fan of the zone consolidation!  soooo many zones right now.  Still wish we could get more than 1 tag a year, even now there are unsold tags,and the F and G seasons are unlimited, so they can't be too concerned about overharvest....   Make it like the Sconnie system, you can buy 1 tag a day after they go OTC.

[dewey]

After hunting in WI and learning their system of zones and method to buy tags I think it is much better than the current system in MN. I understand that they have a larger population but the population in MN has exploded the last couple of years and from what I have seen is far ahead of the projected populations. I would like to see the following happen.

1. Consolidate the number of zones to between 6-10.
2. Keep the current lottey selection for you first choice.
3. Institute a OTC tag system for each zone like WI, different zones on different days. Except that folks that do not have tags (unsuccessful in the lottery or did not apply) get priority over the folks that were already successful in the lottery. Possibly by having the OTC go on sale earlier.
4. At least change the current one license only to allow for a unscuccessful hunter to purchase another tag but still only allow the one bearded bird per season.

just my 2 cents. What do you think about that Gopher?

Dewey

[Gopherlongbeards]

Works for me. I just want to be able to kill more birds   i get jealous of the WI guys and people down south who get 3, 4, 5 birds a season.  1 and done is so anticlimactic heh

[arrowsonly]

Hey you guys ! It's not that easy, yes we have lots of birds & tags but logistics & timing play a big part as we all found out this year...