https://www.outdooralabama.com/articles/turkey-harvest-debate-continues-population#:~:text=According%20to%20Game%20Check%20reports,is%20subject%20to%20significant%20debate.


Here's their latest article, and it reinforces what I've been saying for years is their line of reasoning - if the turkey harvest goes up that is proof that we are killing too many turkeys and the harvest must be restricted. If the harvest numbers go down, then that is proof that we are running out of turkeys and the harvest must be restricted.

Everything that Chuck Sykes writes indicates that he has an intense hatred of hunters. It may just be that he hates people period, but he usually focuses on us hunters. I got to admit that some of what he says is true, but does he have so little self awareness that he doesn't realize he is the primary person that caused many of these problems to exist? Someone else will have to answer that, but he is either incredibly dumb or he thinks that all of us are incredibly dumb.

Allow me to address a few of his jewels from the article:

>>>Chuck Sykes, WFF Director, also said this trend in turkey harvest cannot necessarily be construed as an increase in the turkey population.<<<

The article said this, and then Chuck wrote of how there were more successful hunters in the first 10 days of the season the past 2 years than in 2021. I would ask you to imagine how else it would be possible for the harvest to increase overall without an increase in the first 10 days? And how it could increase without more hunters being successful? He tries to make it sound alarming when it's the only way possible to get an increased harvest, and any other WFF director would present this as a good thing. It would seem that having more turkeys and more hunter success is not the goal of his department. The only thing he ever presents as a positive is any of his schemes that make more money for the department.

And then there is this one:

>>>But the biggest one was hunting over bait,” Sykes said. “We had more than 80 citations written for hunting by the aid of bait in the first 10 days. If we wrote that many, how many were doing it? I think people’s mindsets have changed to ‘I just want to kill turkey under any circumstance so I can post the picture or video on social media.’<<<

Does he really not understand that the increase in baiting turkeys is DIRECTLY rated to his very own deer baiting program that he has boasted about many times? Does he not understand that many people who buy his baiting license feel entitled to continue it year round?

They lament the fact that due to GC they no longer have a reliable way to estimate the true harvest, but never once look in the mirror to realize that they caused it. And they never seem to understand that all of their senseless restrictions are directly responsible for many deciding to just go rogue. If the department is nothing but a for profit corporation, many just ignore them. I don't believe Sykes has any grasp of this very obvious fact.

I could give several more examples, but most of the regular posters here will see them too.

He absolutely thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, and it thinks an overwhelming majority of "us" are just stupid, uneducated rednecks.

If more successful hunters = fewer turkeys, while simultaneously saying fewer successful hunters ALSO = fewer turkeys, I wish someone would just straight up ask him "Chuck, what statistics would you need to see, in order to come to the conclusion that there are more turkeys?" My guess is you'd get a stumbling word salad non-answer.

And your last paragraph is spot-on. I, myself, generally consider myself to be a "rule follower", usually to a fault. But all the BS from him and his dept the last few years almost makes me feel obligated to not comply just to "stick it to the man"....a non-violent protest, if you will.

IMO Chuck doesnt care about hunters in this state because he has plenty out of state places to hunt and this state is just his little play ground to test offshoot "theories" in

The increase in numbers could be nothing more than compliance with GC increasing.

The deer baiting deal could be a correlation stretch as well.

I agree with you on the first point - we absolutely do not know whether the harvest has gone up, or whether it's simply more hunters participating in GC. And that's exactly what you and I agreed was going to happen in a phone conversation years ago when they were doing the GC meetings. They have wrecked the system that we had for estimating harvests, but I don't see even a tiny hint of Chuck accepting the blame for that. If he wants to run the dcnr like a corporation he oughta recommend that he be fired for such a major mistake. Don't expect that to happen.

On the second point, I 100% know that has happened and have had people tell me straight up. I have also seen at least one instance where a club didn't even know that they couldn't bait during turkey season. That one has been corrected, but when the state is willing to let people bait one game species in exchange for money, there are a lot of folks who don't understand why it shouldn't apply to others.

My perception is that baiting during turkey season has increased a lot since the introduction of the bait license. Do you not agree? Maybe I hang out with a different class of people?

I don’t think we ever had a system that estimated the harvest accurately. We’ve had two honor systems: the mail survey and GC. I don’t believe one honor system is better than the other.

I don’t see anymore baiting for turkeys now because of the baiting permits. That could also be expected from the increase of turkey hunters compared to the years prior to. I doubt we’ll ever truly know the answer to that.

As far as the class of people one hangs out with; baiting, by in large, doesn’t always follow class groups, from my experience.

Spot on PCP

Until we have mandatory tagging and reporting, and stiff fines that really hurt for not doing either of those, nothing will change.

Not that I want any of that. I'd rather be on the honor system, and honestly would rather not even have check-in. IMO the "MorE DaTa!" push is hooey. If it was legit then we would check in all game species — All Species Lives Matter! — and maybe have requirements for fishing.

But mandatory tags and check-in is the only way to get what they want. Go to any other state with tagging -- Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, Kansas, Colorado and so on -- and you'll learn quickly about FAFO if you get caught.

I also feel like the success in the first 10 days is due to more people spending more time in the woods. Personally, I spend more time in the woods at the first part of the season. After a long winter, it feels great to be back in the woods and soak it all in. More hours in the woods equates to more chance for success. Also I do a lot of preseason scouting, so I have a pretty good plan of attack for unpressured turkeys in areas that I’m familiar with. Maybe all of this has an effect on the harvest rate the first 10 days. There are a lot of people that go a few times in the beginning of the season and then fish or have other obligations the rest of the season.

He doesn't seem to have any confidence and a poor opinion of the hunters in this state. It echoes in what he says and people will never like or trust him.

I stopped filling out the survey the year after they started it. Seemed like every time I filled it out, there were more restrictions the next year.

So is this right……they changed the season dates to reduce the number of gobblers being killed in the first 10 days and instead it immediately went way up two years in a row???.....Talk about some bad luck…….

Bingo

Guess they need to go back to decoys the 1st 10 days of the season. Maybe a bunch clowns running around with a flock of decoys in the early season has been messing it up for the "real" hunters all these years??

Let’s say that all baiting for turkeys becomes legal. So what?

I have no respect for him or any confidence in anything he does.

I personally do not feel like he has the best interest of the average Joe in mind in anything that he does.

My opinion of him was formed the first time I personally saw him. I was second in line Friday night at the B’ham deer show to shake his hand and meet him. I was behind a fellow that looked about 22-23 years old. He made the mistake of asking Sykes about the talk of a change in turkey season. Sykes verbally berated the guy. I walked away before he finished.

Kinda sad really. We used to be THE respected State regarding turkey populations and turkey management. That was under Charles Kelley and Corky Pugh. Now, just another "in decline" State. Sadly I think Chuck simply doesn't get it. I don't think he is dumb but he doesn't understand research nor the results of the data coming in. And, you are correct, he does not care much for the average hunter and DOES think he is the smartest person in the room. Sadly the combination of 1) you are defiantly NOT the smartest person in the room and 2) thinking you are is a BAD combination. I don't disagree with the general brunt of his premise.... hunters who just want to kill one at all costs to post to social media is a growing problem. He's right. But the increase in baiting is the departments fault, even though they opposed it in public. Ive said it for a long time - we are making it too easy to kill one turkey, killing 5 isn't the problem. The loss of the standardized harvest survey results for trend comparison was all him when they dropped one survey to switch to GC and Duda. The incredibly inept turkey research project they contracted through AU was all him as well. It cost a lot with NO significant results. Yes, baiting for turkeys has increased a LOT since the baiting laws came into effect. I kill them with corn regularly and I dont even bait for deer. Used to never happen.

Talked to someone who attended the southeastern wild turkey working group meeting last week in Oklahome. Anyone who was anyone regarding scientific turkey research and management (at least State and University) was in attendance. There were NO representatives from ADCNR. The ONLY State that had no one in attendance from the DCNR. EVERY State in attendance had some sort of turkey research project that was State sponsored.... except AL. That is pitiful.

Charles would be mad as a stirred-up yeller waust. I suspect Corky is.

That's terrible about the SE turkey meeting.

I wonder if the increase in kill numbers is just due to the increase in hunter numbers? I mean I think we can all agree that there have been more people getting into turkey hunting each year. Combine that with hunters starting to use the GC that didn’t in the past and there ya go.

Also a lot of clubs don’t stop their off season feeding program for deer during turkey season. Even if they aren’t targeting turkeys and the feeders are going of course you are gonna get a baiting ticket. I had a buddy that got a ticket once for baiting turkeys. Game warden found him on a logging road, took him to a food plot down the road, walked to the spinner feeder that had a dead battery, shook the feeder and some residual corn fell out. The grass was grown up around the feeder and it was obvious the feeder hadn’t gone off in months. If a turkey hunter doesn’t go through the trouble of removing every kernel of corn on the property you got grounds for a baiting ticket.