I doubt it will cause it to shut down over the short term, but it probably did slow down. It might if it stayed up for weeks on end. |
It's very difficult to census turkeys. It's a nut we've been trying to crack for quite a while. |
One of the things we have tried to do wherever possible is to attempt to make everything as consistent as we can. There are good sides and bad sides to that. We can't make everything the same because this is a big state, but we wanted to make the starting dates more consistent for the convenience of the hunters. |
That is generally pretty much what I have heard. The only problems were in the southern Hill Country and South Texas where they weren't working like they wanted them to. |
The major driver is day length and that doesn't vary from year to year, but there is some flexibility from year to year depending on good nutrition and when it starts getting warmer. When conditions are good they are going to start a little earlier. |
The past year we should have had a good hatch. We should have had a good hatch for the last few years. |
We has a very, very dry winter. This year's (Rio Grande) turkey production is going to be down. |
When we looked at the harvest data from the check stations, after the first year we did not see a significant increase in the harvest. If we suddenly saw a spike in the harvest we would ask are we having an impact. |
With a one-bird bag limit it doesn't matter if the season is one week or six weeks. If you kill a tom your season is over. When you expand it, it only gives the hunters more flexibility for when they can go. Instead of two weeks, they have four weeks to plan a hunt. |