jakes, jakes, and jakes..

[cornfedkiller]

Went out and set up in a cattle pasture after work Friday evening.  Not much happening other then a hen and two jakes about 6 o'clock. 

Saturday morning I set up in a grassy clearing that is tucked up into some timber on a new piece of property I got permission for that borders a very large chunk of public timber.  Heard some gobbling on the roost early from about 3-4 toms, and shortly after sunrise, everything went quiet.  About 9:15, a hen came out into the clearing, and shortly after a group of 3 jakes walked out and disappeared into another chunk of timber.  10 mins later, another group of 3 jakes walked out and hung around out there for awhile.  While that group was out in the grass, another group of 5 jakes stepped out of the timber and walked around for a bit before heading off.  A few more hens here and there until I packed up about 10:30 and headed back to the truck.  When I got back to the truck, I noticed some turkeys in a different pasture I could see from there, so I pulled up the binoculars and saw that it was 2 more jakes. 

Never did see a tom that morning, but I guess if Im not seeing mature birds, a bunch of jakes is the next best thing!  Hopefully the population is back on the upswing here in Iowa after being down the last few years..

[darn2ten]

Definitely a good sign. I live in southern middle Tennessee and would venture to say that 10 to 15 years ago that we had some of the best turkey hunting in the country. Things have sure changed, our population isn't a 1/3 of what it used to be. I've hunted quite a bit this year and seen a total of 3 jakes, 2 on one farm and 1 on another. It's pretty concerning with no clear answers. Sounds good for your area and a great potential for a good crop of 2 yr olds next year. Hopefully your population is on the rebound.

[Bowguy]

I've also seen a ton of jakes.

[2eagles]

I didn't realize our Iowa turkey population was down. But, it reminds me. Two years ago I had 7 jakes attack my Jake decoy. Made me excited for the next season! That year  (last year)I had 13 jakes in one group come by. This year I hunted the same area on opening morning. I tagged out very early, so I can't really speak on the overall population, but I believe our birds are in great shape. Seeing those young birds is very encouraging.

[cornfedkiller]

I didn't realize our Iowa turkey population was down. But, it reminds me. Two years ago I had 7 jakes attack my Jake decoy. Made me excited for the next season! That year  (last year)I had 13 jakes in one group come by. This year I hunted the same area on opening morning. I tagged out very early, so I can't really speak on the overall population, but I believe our birds are in great shape. Seeing those young birds is very encouraging.

Maybe it depends on the area of the state as well. Im in the southeast corner, and guys that have lived around here for a long time (I've only been here 3 years) say they used to see much larger flocks in the winter (now we see flocks of 10-12 birds, and guys say it used to be flocks of 40+), they used to be able to go out on some of their properties and hear 4-5 different toms gobbling on the roost and now they hear maybe 1 or 2, and a friend of mine told me it used to be no big deal if you got screwed up on a bird because there would be another one to work close by, and in recent years, when you screwed up on a bird, you might as well pack up and go to another property.

Everyone says the population is definitely doing better the last 2 years than it was the few years previous to that, but its nowhere near what it was 10 years ago..

[g8rvet]

That gobbling on the roost you heard may have been jakes.  I was covered up last year by The Gang of Four on my private land. They sounded and acted like mature gobblers-gobbled their heads off, chased the hens and generally acted like a gang of thugs.