"Good reproduction that season definitely showed up in the spring 2005 harvest, with an overall increase consisting primarily of young gobblers," Ruth said. "Although many spring turkey hunters prefer to harvest only mature longbeards, biologists typically see an increase in the total turkey harvest following years with good reproduction. This increase in harvest is generally the result of the availability of juvenile gobblers, also called jakes. The percentage of jakes in the harvest was 26 percent during the 2005 season compared with only 19 percent in 2004, resulting in the increase in harvest."

At the time this story went to print, the 2005 reproductive survey was not complete. However, Ruth did share what the trend appeared to be.

"It's looks like in the 2005 recruitment season that we're not going to have nearly as good a year as we did in 2004. Thus, I don't expect to see as large a number of jakes in the woods in the 2006 season. However, because of the bumper crop in 2004, we expect to have plenty of 2-year-old birds," he said.

WHERE TO HUNT
Let's take a detailed look now at the best places for finding a gobbler. The top places for turkey success in 2005 are certainly logical places to begin in 2006. Ruth noted that there are no major problems with the overall turkey population in the state and areas of success in 2005 should again have good years in 2006.

We'll look at harvest data in a couple of different ways to shed some light on the best places to hunt this spring.

First, we'll consider the top places in terms of total gobblers harvested on a county-by-county basis. That does not take into consideration the relative size of the county, just the total number of birds killed.

Topping this list was Williamsburg County with a total of 810 turkeys harvested. The breakdown of adults to juvenile birds harvested is quite dramatic from county to county, so we're going to look at those figures as well. In Williamsburg County, there were 731 adults harvested and 79 jakes. Jakes accounted for a total of 9.8 percent of the harvest in that county. Statewide, the average harvest of jakes on a county-by-county basis was 25.8 percent, so a very high percentage of the harvest here was made up of longbeards. I've talked with hunters who hunt Williamsburg County frequently and they report seeing quite a few jakes last year. There seemed to be plenty of longbeards last year as well. Based on that data along with the statistics, this county should again be a prime spot in 2006.

The No. 2 county on total harvest was Colleton County. The total harvest here of 686 turkeys was broken down into 565 adults and 121 juveniles. This works out to 17.6 percent of the harvest being juvenile birds. Colleton County has long been a recognized turkey-hunting hotspot, the key being getting access to good land. Much of the private land is in clubs that require membership to hunt.

The No. 3 spot was in the upper portion of the state, Union County. The total harvest of 612 turkeys was divided, with 407 adults and 205 juvenile birds harvested. This computes to 33.5 percent of the harvest being juvenile birds. That seems to indicate a bumper crop of jakes last year and with any luck, there will be plenty to carry over to this season. If so, there should be plenty of gobbling in the woods this spring.