Ohio's 2019 youth-only spring turkey season posts 30-percent decline

Ohio’s youthful turkey hunters suffered a roughly 30-percent decline in the number of birds they shot during the just concluded two-day youth only spring turkey hunting season.

In all, hunters age 17 and under and while accompanied by a non-hunting adult shot 1,318 birds compared to the 1,860 bearded wild turkeys that were taken during the 2018 youth-only spring season. Only 20 of Ohio’s 88 counties posted gains during the just-concluded April 13-14 youth-only season.

For further comparison, the total harvest figure also for the 2017 youth-only spring season was 1,895 birds; for the 2016 youth-only season the number was 1,564 birds; and for the 2015 youth-only season the figure was 1,589 birds.

“I’d guess I’d say the harvest was more of a return to normal,” said Mark Wiley said of the youth-only season.

Mark Wiley is the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s forest game biologist.

And though Wiley would not use the term “harbinger” to describe what this year’s youth-only season harvest means for the up-coming general spring turkey hunting season, he did caution that it still won’t be a walk in the woods to kill a gobbling tom.

That season will run April 22nd through May 19th for most of the state, and April 29th to May 26th in the extreme Northeast Ohio counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, and Trumbull only.

All that being said, Wiley does note that turkey production index - which is the biological yardstick used measure the ratio of poults (young turkeys) to hens - has been poor in recent years. The past two years the index has been 2.0 poults per hens observed with any figure below 2.2 demonstrating lost ground.

Consequently, Wiley said that while he has yet to see youth turkey permit sales as to whether any drop in such numbers would have been a contributing factor, “I’d have to say I am not surprised” by the youth season decline.

“We still have a good number of birds in southeast Ohio because of the tremendous cicada hatch there a few years back and a good number of three-year-old birds throughout the state,” Wiley said.

An interesting facet, though, Wiley says in possible defense of mitigating for a decline in the figures, is that this year’s youth-only season came a week earlier than normal. This, to avoid conflicting with the Easter weekend – something that has occurred in the past, Wiley said.

“And we have gotten complaints in the past about this,” Wiley said.

Here is the list of all wild turkeys checked by youth hunters during the 2019 two-day youth-only spring hunting season is shown below. The first number following the county’s name shows the harvest numbers for 2019, and the 2018 numbers are in parentheses: Adams: 25 (28); Allen: 5 (8); Ashland: 23 (34); Ashtabula: 32 (35); Athens: 21 (29); Auglaize: 5 (6); Belmont: 38 (54); Brown: 36 (25); Butler: 10 (18); Carroll: 25 (36); Champaign: 2 (5); Clark: 1 (3); Clermont: 25 (24); Clinton: 6 (2); Columbiana: 30 (27); Coshocton: 40 (68); Crawford: 2 (9); Cuyahoga: 0 (0); Darke: 17 (9); Defiance: 16 (22); Delaware: 6 (10); Erie: 5 (1); Fairfield: 3 (4); Fayette: 1 (1); Franklin: 0 (1); Fulton: 7 (11); Gallia: 26 (31); Geauga: 17 (13); Greene: 2 (0); Guernsey: 43 (63); Hamilton: 4 (5); Hancock: 1 (0); Hardin: 8 (7); Harrison: 38 (66); Henry: 10 (9); Highland: 23 (28); Hocking: 10 (35); Holmes: 28 (36); Huron: 8 (13); Jackson: 21 (41); Jefferson: 31 (35); Knox: 28 (38); Lake: 6 (1); Lawrence: 17 (35); Licking: 21 (43); Logan: 7 (8); Lorain: 10 (9); Lucas: 3 (9); Madison: 1 (0); Mahoning: 18 (10); Marion: 2 (2); Medina: 6 (11); Meigs: 38 (60); Mercer: 1 (3); Miami: 2 (2); Monroe: 66 (81); Montgomery: 2 (1); Morgan: 25 (44); Morrow: 13 (19); Muskingum: 30 (90); Noble: 50 (74); Ottawa: 0 (0); Paulding: 3 (6); Perry: 19 (50); Pickaway: 1 (2); Pike: 15 (12); Portage: 18 (20); Preble: 6 (9); Putnam: 6 (9); Richland: 21 (31); Ross: 17 (36); Sandusky: 0 (0); Scioto: 11 (15); Seneca: 13 (12); Shelby: 2 (6); Stark: 11 (21); Summit: 5 (2); Trumbull: 22 (26); Tuscarawas: 47 (59); Union: 4 (4); Van Wert: 2 (2); Vinton: 28 (42); Warren: 5 (8); Washington: 39 (60); Wayne: 11 (13); Williams: 7 (19); Wood: 0 (0); Wyandot: 8 (4).
Total: 1,318 (1,860).

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech,net