DISTRICT 3
"My district has seen an increase in both the numbers of wild turkeys and turkey hunters over the last several years," biologist Alger Van Hoey said. "One of the reasons for the growing number of turkeys is the interspersion and diversity of habitat. There are wetlands, woodlands, brushy fields, grass, croplands and riparian corridor systems. Spring hunters do their best hunting the woodland edges overlooking the grass fields and croplands or by hunting wooded areas near the rivers and streams."

The fact that the Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) has released wild turkeys across Steuben County hasn't hurt matters, Van Hoey said. That hunters are becoming more proficient with new calls and realistic decoys hasn't hurt the harvest rates, either.

Public lands abound and include the Pigeon River FWA, the 863-acre Cedar Swamp WCA and the 800-acre Marsh Lake WCA. Cedar Swamp and Marsh Lake are just a stone's throw from Fremont. Self-service check-in is required at one of the two check-in spots on each area. There is no limit on the number of hunters allowed on the areas and historically pressure is high on opening days and during the weekends.

Pigeon River is on the western side of the county and hunting here is by Special Hunt Application only, which is available at the DFW's Web site at www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild. There is a cutoff date of March 14 every spring.

Steuben County yielded 234 birds last spring, many of which were taken from public lands. This is one of the top destinations in northeastern Indiana.

Call District 3 at (260) 367-2186 or the Pigeon River FWA at (260) 367-2164 for more information.

DISTRICT 6x
Parke County in west-central Indiana is another top producer of Hoosierland turkeys. However, like large tracts of Indiana landscape, public-land hunting is limited. The only public shooting ground is the Raccoon State Recreational Area (SRA), but according to biologist Dean Zimmerman, this area doesn't offer much good bird hunting. Where turkey hunting is good, local hunters pretty much dominate the scene.

Even so, good calling with a realistic set of jake and hen decoys can still produce a tom. The public-land birds are far and few between, but hunting along the SRA's borders can be an excellent place to start. Turkeys wandering onto the public shooting lands don't know they've left the safety of private landholdings.