Remember last spring when you woke up early, drove to your favorite spring turkey hunting spot, carefully/quietly walked in the darkness to spot that you have roosted a mature gobbler and set up for a morning hunt. As the sun begins to peak over the horizon, the trees start to come alive with spring turkey talk. A mature longbeard sounds off and you feel all your homework and getting up early is about to pay off. It’s the perfect setup and all things are coming together.

I’m sure at this point you all have a feeling how this is going to end, but let me finish the story, if only to get the point at the end.

On this particular morning, the longbeard gobbles several times on the limb and drops down just yards from your ambush. Then it happens: an old boss hen begins to pull my potential Thanksgiving dinner walk away with his new girlfriend.

As that old loud-mouth hen talks and your longbeard gobbles his way off to her, you start wondering what you did wrong. Well, folks, news flash, you DID NOT do anything wrong. That gobbler was doing what gobblers do in the spring, which is go with mature hens.

The only way to stop that from happening again is by fall turkey hunting and taking that hen and putting her on your table. Hens do taste better than a gobbler anyway.

For most of us, fall hunting means chasing whitetail deer, and the thought of hunting other species is only in passing or one that creeps into our mind during a long sit on a stand.

Why do fall turkey hunters make the trip to the western part of the New York State? I’ll give you three reasons: Chautauqua, Allegany and Cattaraugus counties.

Successful fall turkey hunters need two things – lots of ground to hunt with several different flocks on each track. Wild turkeys are basically flock oriented in the fall. Flocks of 20-plus birds are not uncommon in heavy-populated areas. Family units start “flocking-up” in early fall. Turkeys will flock-up each fall in preparation of the upcoming winter months. Over the centuries, the wild turkey has discovered that several sets of eyes are better than one set.

While birds flocking-up makes them easier to find, it doesn’t make them easier to hunt. Flocks will work together to protect, feed, travel and roost together.

The larger flocks are primarily made up of hennies and jakes. Smaller flocks of mature gobblers will stay away from the larger flock until winter sets in.

Now, with all this being said, the numbers have been down the last couple years for spring turkey harvests. A couple years ago, the state decided to change the fall season. The change was to shorten the season to two weeks.

Now I’m all into conservation and looking toward the future, but also looking into the future, is looking at the all the facts.

Now again, this is my opinion and we all know about opinions. Everybody has one, but this is mine.

Before somebody goes to change laws and regulations all the facts need to be looked into and researched. From my standpoint, one of the biggest things that lawmakers didn’t look into was how many fall turkey hunters are actually harvesting fall birds. What are the fall harvest numbers? I have attempted to find them, but have been unable to.

With the current reporting system, this would be, and should be, an easy number to uncover, but there are still no numbers.

I totally understand that the spring hatch, brood sights and spring gobbler’s numbers are a good baseline for upcoming seasons.These all good guidelines, but they are just that – a guide. There is more that needs to factored into these major decisions.

Any season that is shortened to two weeks is a waste of time. Not everybody can be hunting during the week and to only give fall turkey hunters two weekends to hunt fall turkeys is a plan that is not feasible for the average hunter. During the season, the average working turkey hunter in the fall can hunt four days. Now, if one looks at the possibility of said hunter getting in the field all four of these days, it’s not realistic. There are many things that make this impossible. From weather to family, they all cut into the time in the field.

From my perspective, the majority of all fall turkeys are taken while hunters are deer hunting and taken with stick and string. The number of sportsmen that actually go out to fall turkey hunt is small, hence the take is low.

There are many things that could have been done to keep hunting opportunities and not cut the season length. If you want to control your herd or your flock, it’s a standard practice to control the female population. In the world of the wild turkey – not the adult beverage – make the fall a hen-only season. Don’t make it as it is now.

Promote fall turkey statewide. For those who don’t know it, fall turkey hunting can be exciting and, yes, birds will gobble in the fall. In fact, the last day of the season this year we heard three gobbles.

The idea of shortening season dates needs to be not taken lightly and should have been looked into and studied better. More importantly, ask the hunters. Talk to guys and gals who are actually in the field doing that type of hunting.