Conditions are promising for fall turkey hunters in West Virginia. The four-week season for the wild turkey opens Saturday in 14 West Virginia counties often called the "traditional" fall hunting counties in West Virginia.
"Especially in the mountain counties, the mast is pretty spotty so if you can find some good cherry it’s what they’re going to be on because the cherry hit pretty good,” said Jim Evans with the West Virginia DNR.
The turkey population continues to fluctuate in many West Virginia counties. This year ten counties west of the mountains will also be open to a one-week season. The season will run until October 27 in Brook, Hancock, Jackson, Marshall, Mason, Monongalia, Ohio, Summers, Wirt, and Wood Counties. Those western counties are only opened to fall hunting if the spring gobbler harvest reaches a sufficient level. Preston County will also have a fall season for two weeks.
"We had a decent brood year this year, that’s two years in a row," said Evans. "The populations are building because prior to this we had four or five bad brood years in a row."
A good or bad brood year is largely dependent on a narrow window of time in the spring when the bulk of poults are hatched. During that critical seven to ten day hatching period weather makes all the difference. Cold, wet weather will spell doom for young poults that are yet to develop feathers. A warm and dry period will insure they make it through the most perilous time of their lives.
Fall turkey hunting isn’t what it used to be. There was a time when the fall season was one of the most anticipated opening days of all of West Virginia’s hunting seasons. That’s no longer the case.
"It’s not so much reflective of the quality of turkey hunting, but the hunters are all hunting deer with a bow."
The fall hunt is a different game entirely from the spring season. During the spring, hunters are attempting to lure male turkeys to their position with mating calls. The fall season requires you find the birds and then there’s a choice.
"There’s two kind of fall hunters." Evans said. "Those who find the turkeys and shoot one and that’s the end of their hunt. Others believe in splitting up the flock and then trying to call them back into the general area where the flock broke up."
You can link to the DNR’s fall turkey hunting regulations by clicking here.