Posted: 12/10/2013 5:47:44 AM EDT
| ... for spring turkey & fall bear tags. Any hunting/fishing license vendor can take your app, or any DNR service center, or online at DNR's website. http://dnr.wi.gov/ |
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Quoted:
Thanks for the reminder! I always forget about it until the 11th it seems... How have the turkeys been up in Zone 7? Saw a bunch 2 years ago (girlfriend got 'turkey fever' on a good sized tom), didn't see any last year nor this fall. I've been seeing more & more of them every year.  I had high hopes for last spring, as there seemed to be turkeys everywhere you looked the summer before, and I'd see flocks of 15-20 birds feeding along the roads. I see about as many turkeys as I do deer the last few years.
But the weather up north was a big detriment last year. It was the latest "spring" I can remember.  I had 2nd season, and most of the roads I use in the Vilas County Forest were still impassable due to the heavy snow still in the woods (12" + in most areas), and some had mud under the snow too. Walking any distance in the woods required snowshoes, as when the sun came out, the snow got very wet & soft. Turkeys weren't moving around much yet neither, it was probably hard for them to get around also, and they stayed put for the most part in their wintering areas. Nesting was real late this summer too, as a result of the weather. The young birds I've seen were quite a bit smaller, for the time of year I'd see them, than normal... but there were a lot of them.
Picking a season to hunt up in zone 7 is a crapshoot. Half the years I've had 2nd season were warm & sunny, other half have been still mostly winter conditions, but last year was the worst by far. But as I live in zone 7 and know the area, and public land to hunt on is abundant and minutes from home, I've never tried another zone. The best areas I've seen are along county road G between Eagle River & Sayner (mostly Vilas County Forest), and along county road J between St. Germain & Woodruff (Northern Highland State Forest). Also, quite a few birds lately east of Eagle River and up towards Phelps & Conover, in the Nicolet. Few weeks ago, while scouting the Nicolet day before gun deer, we found more turkey tracks in the snow than we did deer tracks... there were more coyote & bear tracks than there were deer too. 
ETA: last year I only hunted a few hours on each weekend day so weather didn't matter much anyway, as my wife was pretty sick, and needed me at home pretty much 24/7. The last day my tag was valid was the tuesday she was put in the hospital for an 8 day stay. That's when she was diagnosed with Lupus... which is not good, but better than the cancer or MDS we feared she had... so my mind wasn't on turkeys too much. But every afternoon she was in the hospital down in Rhinelander (where there was much less snow left on the ground), I'd see a big Tom strutting around outside her room's window.  That 3rd season is when the weather finally "broke" and spring finally arrived. The day she left the hospital it was sunny & 75... the day she went in was 25 & snowing.
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