Predator Call

In many Texas counties, there is an either sex fall season for the Rio Grande turkey.  Most of these counties are in South Texas, the Edwards Plateau and a few in the Panhandle.  In most of these counties, the bag limit is four birds.  They can be taken in the fall or the spring or a combination thereof.

If you are hunting in the fall season and decide to take a bird, please consider shooting the hens.  The reason that I request you make this choice is because the number of hens greatly outnumbers the gobblers.  Years of hunters shooting only gobblers that respond to their feeders along with the fact that only the males are legal in the spring has lead to this inbalance of the sexes.  A classic example of this inbalance is demonstrated within a couple of miles of where I am sitting.  Just east of Menard on the San Saba River is one of the largest fall/winter roosts that I have ever seen.  I would estimate that there are 1,500 to 2,500 birds on this roost.  The mature gobbler to hen ratio is twenty to thirty to one. 

Now, if you are not a turkey hunter, you probably don’t care about the ratio of gobblers to hens, but if you love to call turkeys in the spring, this imbalance of sexes will greatly affect your calling success.  Why would an old tom answer the yelps generated by your turkey calls when he has 10 hens standing in front of him?   So when turkeys show up at your feeder and you have an urge to take one or two home for Thanksgiving, take the Ole Henny Penny for this is the only time she is legal.