EARLY SEASON TURKEY HUNTING TACTICS

March 13th, 2023 

By: Brennen Nading (@nadingbr)

Hard to believe that we are closing in on the end of March already.  Many states in the south have already kicked off the party, and it won’t be but a few more weeks before turkey seasons start opening in the midwest.   Turkey season has always been a special time of the year for me, it is the sport that I remember my dad introducing me to at a very young age.  I can very clearly remember the first time we walked into the darkness together, and stopped for him to give out an owl call.  At that point, I had never heard a turkey gobble in my life...and then I did, and then I was hooked.

I have been chasing birds now for over 2 decades and I have learned a lot along the way.  Usually the best lessons are learned from a plan that failed.  When an opportunity is blown, it stings and you typically do everything you can for it not to happen again.  Turkey hunting tactics change drastically from opening day of the season to the final day of the season.  I want to cover a few of the main tactics I use early on in the season to be successful.

Leading up to opening day, it never hurts to scout the area that you plan to hunt.  Arrive before daylight, and listen from a distance to try and locate where the birds are roosting.  Typically birds will start gobbling a good 20-30 minutes before daylight.  If they aren’t “talking”, you can always bust out a locator call such as an owl hooter or crow call in an attempt to get them to gobble.  Depending on the lay of the land, you can also learn a lot by sticking around after they fly down and figure out where they go and what they do.  During the early season, they are more likely to have a day-to-day routine so if you can figure out what that is, you will be able to put yourself in their daily route come opening day.

Early season presents a lot of challenges, and one of the big ones is that trees are not yet budded out and there is very little foliage in the woods to use as cover.  This makes it hard to sneak around and be unseen.  For that reason, I have had my best luck early in the season setting up approximately 2-300 yards from where the birds are roosting.  The last thing I want to do is alert the birds when I am walking in to get set up in the dark.  I have found that the 2-300 yards is the sweet spot for early season roost hunts.

Don’t be afraid to get aggressive on the call.  This early season time frame is when the birds are juiced full of testosterone and are gobbling to beat the band.  If they are liable to make mistakes, this is one of the best times of the season for them to let their guard down and come in screaming to your call.  If they are gobbling at you, don’t be afraid to keep laying it on them and get them fired up. 

Decoy set ups change throughout the season.  If I am ever going to use multiple decoys in my spread, I am going to do it in the early season.  I prefer to run a Jake decoy and 2 hens at the start of the season.  I will go back and forth between a strutting Jake and a 1/2 strut Jake.  When setting my decoys, I prefer to set them up in a manner that the birds are going to be approaching them from the side so their focus is on the decoys and they are not seeing me behind the decoys as they approach the set up.  As I mentioned earlier, cover is limited this time of year so it is important you do everything you can to fool their top notch eyesight.

Last but certainly not least, you have to be able to sit still.   The eyesight of a turkey is no joke...it is said that their eyes are 3 times greater than a human's eyes that have 20/20 vision.  This means there is no room for movement, or they will catch it.  Try to find a tree that is wider than you are so that it breaks up your outline.  Brush piles also can make for great hides, use the little cover that is available this time of the year and sit still.

Although very basic tactics, they are big time tactics when it comes to early season success in the turkey woods.  Hopefully they help you punch that tag early in the season.  Good luck to everyone that will be hitting the turkey woods this spring!