Signs of spring bode well for upcoming turkey hunting season

A sure sign of spring is a bunch of April morel mushrooms. (Photo by Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail)

It's spring, the outdoors are coming alive.

White bass are starting their spawning run, walleye have been moving, trout parks are open, snagging for paddlefish is going strong and turkeys have been heard gobbling early in the morning.

A neighbor asked if I had been scouting for turkeys since it's less than a month away before the spring season opens with Youth Weekend Hunt on April 8-9, followed by the three-week regular season starting April 17.

When I think about scouting I can't help but think about the first time I took my future wife scouting for turkeys. Having never hunted turkeys and not knowing anything about hunting them, she accepted my invitation to take her scouting with me before the season was to open. I told her I would pick her up at her apartment at 3. At first, she thought I meant 3 p.m., then she realized I meant 3 a.m.

When I went after her, she came out to greet me wearing a new bright red sweater and matching nail polish on her fingers. Though I laughed I explained that wouldn't work, so I dug out a pair of camo coveralls she would have to put on.

After a 60-mile drive to my favorite turkey woods, we headed toward a place where I usually see turkeys in the spring. This new experience for Donna had her crossing fences and walking through heavy brush in the dark hours before daybreak. We stopped to check out a likely spot to observe any signs of turkey action.

Another sign of spring is good fishing for crappie and yellow daffodils in bloom. (Photo by Ken White Special to the Daily Mail)

Right after day-break, I said, "There they are." Donna replied in a whisper, "Where? I only see some dark dots over on that far away hill."

I replied, "(Those are) turkeys and they are just about where I think they might be on opening day. We were ready to head home." She said aloud, "That's it? We came all this way before daylight just to see some dark dots on a far away hill? Aren't we going to wait and see them get closer?" She was a total novice to put it bluntly.

That was Donna's first experience with wild turkeys, but it was just the beginning. It wasn't too long before she became a very good turkey hunter.

Since that first experience looking for turkeys, several years later she has now become a successful hunter. Some of her hunts were very good. For example, one day she was out by herself when she heard a gobble. She put on her face mask and made a call. There was no answer, so she moved on until she spotted a lot of morel mushrooms.

Taking off the mask, she filled it with mushrooms. Then a gobbler sounded off. The face mask was emptied of the mushrooms and put back on just before the tom made his fatal mistake and came within shooting distance. She fired her 20-gauge shotgun and had her bird,

As she came up the path to our back door, she was all smiles as she hoisted up a big tom and a mask filled with morel mushrooms. That's my girl.

On another hunt at the Lake of the Ozarks ---- during a meeting of Missouri Outdoor Writers, a turkey hunting trip was offered. As it turned out, Donna was the only one who got a turkey. It was a 25-pound tom ,a half-pound heavier than any of the of the turkeys I had ever bagged since the opening of the modern-day turkey season back in 1960.

Donna White with a 25-pound tom turkey she shot on a previous hunt near the Lake of the Ozarks. (Photo by Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail)

Those are just a couple of examples of how far she has come since our first scouting trip.

Scouting for turkeys weeks ahead of opening day of the spring season improves the success rate for the growing number of Missouri turkey hunters.

In the spring, toms are looking for hens, so as veteran hunter Fred Gentry once told me, try to master a hen call before the season starts because you will raise your chance of calling in a tom within shooting range. Try clucks and yelps as well as cackle calls early in the morning. There are many types of calls. All of the different calls will work if you learn how to use them.

There are many turkey calls on the market, but the one I have had the most success with is a diaphragm call because it keeps movement to a minimum and you can use it for most all of the calls a hen turkey makes.

In scouting for gobblers, start early in the morning in a likely looking-area. Listen for that gobble, but don't get too close to disturb him. Check the area you will be hunting so you can position yourself when you have located a tom.

If you do your homework early, your chances of getting your bird will increase big-time. Patience is also a big factor in getting a bird. As veteran turkey hunters will tell you ---- you never know how that big bird will act. Many times I have thought I couldn't miss, but things happen that make the tom do just the opposite of what you think he will do.

Turkey hunting is an addiction. Once you start, there is no end ---- but on hunts when you don't score, there are always fish to catch and mushrooms to pick.

It's a great time of year just to be outdoors in the woods or on the water.