This gobbler strode by a dusting area (outside the field of view, ahead of the bird and closer to the writer’s camera). While his beard is not thick or long, his spurs are decent.
March 04, 2025
By Tim Lewis
A little scouting before the arrival of spring gobbler season can go a long way toward putting a Florida hunter on birds. Spring hunts can roughly be divided into two major categories; those where the hunter goes to the birds and those where the birds go to the hunter. Obviously, there can a bit of either or both in any hunt. Regardless, for hunters with shotguns, mobility is typically the preferred and most productive way. However, for bowhunters and when striving to get opportunities for young or inexperienced hunters, blinds most often yield the best results.
The mobile hunter roosts birds the evening before the hunt, sneaks into the woods before light, sets up to call, and tries to entice gobblers (or hens leading gobblers) his or her way when the birds fly down. Decoys and pop-up blinds may or may not be employed. Should this initial effort prove fruitless, the same or other birds are located, and new ambush sites selected. Again, the hunter tries to lure a gobbler into range.
On the other hand, stationary hunters select feeding sites and travel routes to set up blinds (pop-up models or those carved out of natural vegetation) where they await the birds and hope to encourage any gobbler in the area to within range by the use of calls and decoys.
The two techniques deserve forethought when scouting. Most mobile hunters rank finding roosting sites very high although they usually desire to be familiar with feeding sites as well. Blind hunters, less concerned with roosts as the birds are near them only for a very small portion of the day, place their emphasis on feeding areas and travel corridors that can be productive all day long. The purpose of this article to shed light on finding roosts, travel corridors, and feeding areas Florida turkeys use. Keep in mind that Florida contains many diverse terrestrial communities and the suggestions contained herein may need to be fine-tuned to fit certain habitats.
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Two generalities can be accepted. One is that gobblers prefer to display where their displays can be seen. They will strut and drum in dense woods or swamp bottoms at times but gravitate more toward open pastures or fields or even open clearings in thicker growth. Hens, too, prefer open terrain. Probably, in their case, the preference is based upon uninterrupted eyesight offering the greatest self-preservation.
The other, and perhaps most important, generality is that scouting should be directed at discovering the habits of hens rather than of gobblers because during the breeding season the gobblers will be with hens, traveling between groups of hens, or searching for hens.
Gobblers are where the hens are, in the spring. Locating roosts, feeding sites and travel routes is part of the hunter’s strategy. ROOSTS Turkeys most typically water twice a day. Often the first watering is in the morning and almost always the second is just prior to roosting. Therefore, roosts are usually not too distant from a water source; a pond, glade, creek, or cypress head. In Central Florida, pines are often preferred as spring roosts although I have seen cypress, oaks, maples, and hickories utilized. (In contrast, during the fall, cypress seem to be more favored with water oaks not far behind. I suspect that relates to mast product availability.) These may be strictly local tendencies. Regardless, crow calling or cackling just after sunset in the vicinity of water sources may trigger gobbling, providing a hunter a general, or maybe specific, idea of roosting regions. Then, during the midday hours, the suspected spots can be examined without causing the birds alarm. Droppings and fallen feathers confirm the precise location. Large quantities and especially quantities that display various stages of aging are indicative of roosts in regular rather than occasional use. Roosting areas should also be examined for the likeliest places for fly-down and for quiet approach routes that shelter a hunter from view. If the route is not naturally quiet, can it be altered to make it more so?
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TRAVEL ROUTES Travel routes vary with terrain. In open fields or pastures, a narrow gap between two wooded portions or low, marshy ponds may steer turkeys. Fence lines or old roads likewise offer preferred routes. Where ditches or thick hedges are found, look for shallow crossings or gaps. Sandy dikes or firebreaks are great places to check; turkey tracks show up readily; quickly confirming or refuting daily use by the birds. Palmetto flats often house dense, nearly impenetrable thickets strangely laced with open channels. The higher ground between neighboring cypress heads should also be considered. Even less densely forested portions of woodlands may funnel turkey.
As mentioned earlier, tracks, where the ground easily records and reveals them, can corroborate possible travel routes. Another method of scouting travel routes is pre-season observation. For several small, restricted spots this can be time consuming and tedious. However, some areas lend themselves to this technique. From an elevated position, most often a treestand here in Florida, large acreages can be watched. Binoculars, of course are a great aid in the process. Discovered travel routes should be checked on more than just one occasion to verify repeated usage. With this practice, sometimes multiple routes are found from a single vantage point. Oh, because of my “non-tech” tendencies and thought patterns, I nearly forgot to mention scouting cameras can be employed to verify travel routes.
Once travel routes are identified, sites along their way can be evaluated for blind locations or ambush points. Turkey are not adept at reasoning, but even so, I feel more comfortable with a fairly hidden blind. (By the way, this helps provide opportunities for viewing other wildlife while waiting on a gobbler.) Having the sunlight shine from behind the blind is an advantage. This means having the blind south of the travel corridor (or east of it for morning hunts and west of it for afternoon sits). Also, pop-up blinds in spring can get uncomfortably warm when the sun beams down steadily. Sites with overhead branches hide the blind and keep it cooler.
FEEDING SITES Spring offers a wide array of food for turkey including leaves, buds, grasshoppers, other insects, spiders, snails, and slugs. Unlike the fall, when mast products and seeds tend to fall in very specific locales, the bulk of the spring food sources occur over widely scattered areas. Unfortunately, at this time of year, turkey are free to pursue it in unpredictable patterns. Blackberries and blueberries provide fortuitous exceptions when they ripen early enough. Hogs are responsible for another, often overlooked, exception. Turkey literally flock to fresh hog rootings. I used to believe it was easier for them to scratch for bugs in the turned soil, and this may be partially true, but have discovered that they are primarily eating very small tubers in the roots structure of the turned-up grasses and plants. Some may be the well-known ‘nuts’ of tread softly or of chufa (both of which occurs naturally throughout much of Florida), but most are very small and not where either of those plants can be found.
Again, observation from a remote location can clue hunters to feeding locations. Once discovered, suitable ambush points are evaluated. Many open feeding sites offer few places to conceal hunters or a hunter’s blind. At times, when the site was a remarkably consistent draw, I have taken the trouble to cut saplings, dig holes surrounding my blind erected in the open, and “plant” the small trees and shrubs around it, finalizing the camouflaging by stabbing cut palmetto fronds around it as well. Such efforts have yielded excellent results. Turkey did not appear to recognize that the landscape changed since their last visit. One such undertaking afforded my daughter one bowshot at a magnificent gobbler and me two at decent ones within a week period.
An attractant that is definitely not a feeding site should be mentioned as well. Dusting sites can offer discrete places turkey visit daily. I have not witnessed gobblers dusting during the spring although they do so regularly during other times of the year. I suspect their breeding compulsion overrides many natural tendencies like dusting, but I cannot definitively state this. Regardless, hens visit dusting areas very regularly, and, as stated, gobblers tend to go where hens go. Dusting sites have provided me with many opportunities for arrow shots at gobblers. These places are easily recognized; scooped out or bowl-like shapes with freshly agitated sand. The chosen areas are non-vegetated rendering tracks readily noticeable.
The last step of scouting, if a blind is to be employed, is to sit in the set the blind(s), verifying birds will come within range without undue suspiciousness. Concurrently, the hunter can make certain that the birds are visible enough in advance to allow adequate preparation time (by the way, with young hunters, an abundance of preparation time is a blessing if not a requisite!) and that nothing obstructs an clear shot (paramount with archery tackle). If the hunter enjoys photography, doing so while pre-trying the blinds can be a real confidence builder. If, with the lens movement and shutter noise, the hens do not spook, rest assured gobblers, intent on the hens or on displaying, are even less likely to notice. In hunting situations, most often the sharp-eyed hens give alarm, at times saving preoccupied gobblers.
Locating potential sites, be they roosts, corridors, or food sources, before the start of the spring season allows hunters to make the most of their time afield.
Jakes cross a wooded strand where a marsh thinned the tree density. Spring Turkey Season 2025 North of State Road 70 Youth turkey hunt weekend: March 8-9 * Spring turkey season: March 15 – April 20 South of State Road 70 Youth turkey hunt weekend: Feb. 22-23 * Spring turkey season: March 1 – April 6 * Youth turkey hunt weekend – Youth 15-years-old and younger can harvest turkey, but youth must be supervised by an adult, 18 years or older. However, adult supervisors with a hunting license and turkey permit can “call in” the turkey and otherwise participate in the hunt, but they cannot shoot or shoot at turkey. Learn more about the Youth turkey hunt weekend.
Licenses Florida Hunting license (unless exempt), Turkey permit ($10 annual resident, $125 annual non-resident), Wildlife Management Area permit (if hunting WMAs; $26.50 annual). Many WMAs require a quota permit; applications for spring turkey quota permits take place in November. Approved Methods of Take Consult WMA brochures for specifics, but generally on WMAs, any legal shotgun using #2 or smaller shot size, pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) air guns propelling a bolt or arrow, crossbow, or bow may be used to take wild turkeys. Outside of the WMA areas, shotguns, rifles, pre-charged pneumatic air guns, pistols, muzzleloaders, crossbows or bows may be used during spring and fall turkey seasons. Hunters may use decoys, but they are not permitted to hunt turkeys with dogs, use recorded turkey calls or sounds, or shoot turkeys on the roost. In addition, wild turkey may not be taken if the hunter is less than 100 yards from a game feeding station when feed is present. Limits Daily bag limit: 2 turkeys Season and possession limit: 2 for all spring seasons This article was featured in the February 2025 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe.
