L_S_2015_04_

http://www.LouisianaSportsman.com April 2015 | Louisiana Sportsman 143

Hopefully you will have some success this turkey season and

use a tag or two.

But you shouldn’t just go about your life when the season ends

— that’s when you can get ready for the 2016 hunting season.

You should have a count of the number of jakes on the land

you hunted. If you let some of them live these will be 2-year-old

toms in 2016, and they should provide you with some good

hunting opportunity.

Any adult toms that you may have played with but did not put

your tag on will also be around to challenge you next year.

That’s great to know, but

now is also the time to get the

property ready for the 2015

hatch. Tagging out on turkeys

is all about having a good

population of turkeys to hunt.

Turkey poults primarily eat

insects, so it is important

you have sites without thick

ground vegetation where the

hen can bring them to do

some bugging.

Use your mower and disk,

and do some strip cutting

and fallow disking prior to the

turkey season.

The tall vegetation will

attract some species of

insects, while clipped vegeta-

tion with grass piles will have

draw other species of bugs to

the piles of debris.

I like to let the winter grass

seed out and then cut strips to

provide both seed and insects

for the turkeys after hatch-out.

Turkeys will utilize the millet

and sorghum plantings in late

summer, so leaving strips of

these during the fall and win-

ter will provide both food and

cover during hard times.

Long-range planning would

include planting of oak trees

to provide hard mast in

future years.

Turkeys definitely respond to

habitat management work, so

keep this in mind if you think

your population is too low.

— David Moreland

Prep now for the

2016 season

Winter cover strips provide feeding opportunities for young

turkeys. Those that seed out also provide food for turkeys

during the late spring and summer.

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