Much improved opening day turkey season harvest for most (but not all) Ohio counties

It appears that an Ashtabula County landowning friend and I were in good company for Monday's spring wild turkey-hunting season opener.

We tag-teamed to kill a pair of talkative and bold jake gobblers. The pair came strutting in to our set-up just 19 minutes after the season started.

Working from a pop-up fabric blind, we watched the two birds make their approach. Taking the lead with the landowner's permission, I got away with firing two rounds before my jake began its death flop on the forest floor.

The commotion from the gunfire coupled with the body dance of my bird intrigued the companion jake which wasted little time in strolling up to its fallen comrade. That sort of curiosity doesn't just kill cats it also can doom foolish year-old gobblers.

Before you could say "wow," the landowner and I were writing out our handmade tags and attaching them to our respective Thanksgiving Day dinners.

It also appears that we were not alone in our success, either. It was excellent season opener for all but a handful of counties Lake, Lorain, and Highland counties were among the handful of Ohio counties that posted declines from their resective 2012 opening day kills.

In any event, this is the complete county-by-county opening day harvest as provided by the Ohio Division of Wildlife:

COLUMBUS, OH – For the opening day of Ohio’s 2013 spring wild turkey season, hunters harvested 2,762 wild turkeys, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). The 2013 opening day total is a 24 percent increase from the 2012 opening day tally when 2,227 turkeys were killed. This year, Ashtabula County had the most checked wild turkeys of the opening day with 114 turkeys. Ashtabula County also had the largest number of turkeys harvested during the 2012 opening day. Ohio’s spring turkey season began Monday, April 22, and closes Sunday, May 19. The spring turkey season is open statewide except for Lake La Su An Wildlife Area in Williams County. Find more information in the 2012-2013 Ohio Hunting and Trapping Regulations, available where licenses are sold, and at wildohio.com. The ODNR Division of Wildlife estimates that more than 70,000 people will hunt turkeys during the four-week season. Legal hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise until noon from April 22 to May 5. Hunting hours May 6-19 will be one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. Ohio's wild turkey population was estimated at 180,000 prior to the start of the spring season. Only bearded wild turkeys may be killed during the spring hunting season. A hunter is required to check their turkey by 11:30 p.m. on the day of harvest. Hunters with the proper permits may kill a limit of two bearded gobblers during the four-week season, but not more than one wild turkey per day. A new tagging procedure implemented this year allows hunters to make their own game tag to attach to a wild turkey. Game tags can be made of any material (cardboard, plastic, paper, etc.) as long as it contains the hunter’s name, date, time and county of the kill. Go to the Turkey Hunting Resources page at wildohio.com for more information on changes to the game check process. All hunters must report their turkey harvest using the automated game-check system. Hunters have three options to complete the game-check: Online at wildohio.com or ohiogamecheck.com; Call 877-TAG-ITOH (877-824-4864); Any license agent. A list of agents can be found at wildohio.com or by calling 800-WILDLIFE (800-945-3543). Game-check transactions are available online and by telephone seven days a week, including holidays. Landowners exempt from purchasing a turkey permit, and other people not required to purchase a turkey permit, cannot use the phone-in option. The ODNR Division of Wildlife will update the total turkey harvest numbers on Monday, April 29, Monday, May 13, and Monday, May 20, at wildohio.com. The turkey harvest numbers will be listed by county as well as statewide. Ohio’s first modern day wild turkey season opened in 1966 in nine counties, and hunters checked 12 birds. The total number of checked turkeys topped 1,000 for the first time in 1984. Turkey hunting opened statewide in 2000.   Editor’s Note: A list of all wild turkeys checked during opening day of the 2013 spring turkey hunting season is shown below. The first number following the county’s name shows the harvest numbers for 2013, and the 2012 numbers are in parentheses. The counties with the most checked wild turkeys during opening day of the 2013 spring season were: Ashtabula (114), Muskingum (97), Coshocton (89), Guernsey (87), Tuscarawas (85), Harrison (76), Monroe (76), Belmont (72), Trumbull (70) and Adams (69). Adams: 69 (62); Allen: 1 (4); Ashland: 39 (22); Ashtabula: 114 (93); Athens: 52 (41); Auglaize: 4 (5); Belmont: 72 (38); Brown: 58 (55); Butler: 25 (27); Carroll: 59 (38); Champaign: 21 (9); Clark: 4 (2); Clermont: 60 (54); Clinton: 8 (10); Columbiana: 62 (41); Coshocton: 89 (79); Crawford: 14 (10); Cuyahoga: 1 (0); Darke: 4 (4); Defiance: 20 (22); Delaware: 13 (16); Erie: 7 (7); Fairfield: 12 (11); Fayette: 1 (0); Franklin: 3 (6); Fulton: 15 (12); Gallia: 63 (35); Geauga: 52 (34); Greene: 8 (1); Guernsey: 87 (69); Hamilton: 16 (13); Hancock: 5 (3); Hardin: 11 (11); Harrison: 76 (50); Henry: 6 (5); Highland: 41 (57); Hocking: 40 (41); Holmes: 47 (41); Huron: 33 (16); Jackson: 59 (49); Jefferson: 60 (32); Knox: 63 (56); Lake: 8 (14); Lawrence: 30 (14); Licking: 60 (52); Logan: 19 (26); Lorain: 19 (22); Lucas: 6 (9); Madison: 1 (0); Mahoning: 24 (21); Marion: 3 (7); Medina: 12 (7); Meigs: 60 (45); Mercer: 1 (2); Miami: 3 (2); Monroe: 76 (43); Montgomery: 5 (1); Morgan: 57 (37); Morrow: 30 (29); Muskingum: 97 (74); Noble: 47 (43); Ottawa: 2 (2); Paulding: 8 (10); Perry: 47 (37); Pickaway: 4 (6); Pike: 44 (48); Portage: 47 (32); Preble: 14 (16); Putnam: 8 (8); Richland: 47 (50); Ross: 49 (46); Sandusky: 3 (1); Scioto: 40 (33); Seneca: 13 (17); Shelby: 10 (5); Stark: 29 (24); Summit: 3 (1); Trumbull: 70 (41); Tuscarawas: 85 (78); Union: 4 (5); Van Wert: 1 (0); Vinton: 39 (32); Warren: 17 (15); Washington: 60 (35); Wayne: 15 (7); Williams: 30 (33); Wood: 5 (3); Wyandot: 16 (13). Total: 2,762 (2,227). - Jeffrey L. Frischkorn JFrischk@Ameritech.net