Elsewhere in the state, public areas provide good to excellent prospects for this year's spring turkey seasons. All the timbers associated with the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa, from 1,300-acre French Creek Area in Allamakee County in northeast Iowa, all the way down to the 5,000 acres in three units of the Shimek SF in Lee County in southeast Iowa, hold much promise for spring.

Iowa's western border too is strewn with prime turkey hunting possibilities. Pioneer SF and Loess Hills Wildlife Area, between Sioux City and Council Bluffs, offer a total of more than 10,000 acres of timbered public hunting. Smaller public areas closer to the Missouri River, including California Bend and Deer Island in Harrison County or Wilson Island in Pottawattamie County, will see more hunting pressure, but still provide good hunting for hunters who know how to target turkeys.

Midstate hunters have multiple turkey opportunities. The Des Moines River corridor, which bisects the state, has provided timbered travel routes for turkeys to expand to the headwaters of all its tributaries and their tributaries.

Lake Red Rock, Saylorville Lake and Boone Forks Wildlife Management Area are some of the larger public hunting areas on the Des Moines river system. Don't overlook timbered areas on major tributaries, including public areas associated with Springbrook State Park on the Middle Raccoon River in Guthrie County, or Bays Branch WA near Panora.

Farther east, the Iowa River provides the Iowa River Corridor Wildlife Area, with more than 10,000 acres of timber snaking along the Iowa River in Iowa County. "One of the things I've noticed is that we have appropriate numbers of hunters for the number of birds we have in different parts of the state," said the IDNR's Rick Trine. "All our hunters can have good hunting, but in some of the areas where there isn't as much timber, they have to adapt and use tactics appropriate to those smaller areas."

Trine noted that hunting timbers associated with river corridors can be effective, but requires scouting and "strategizing." "One problem with hunting the Iowa River Corridor is that the river twists and turns a lot," he said. "A hunter could roost some birds one night, come back the next morning to hunt them, and find out they roosted across a bend in the river from him. You've got to know the lay of the land in those smaller areas."

HENS: THE KEY TO TOMS
Mark Creery, a district representative for the National Wild Turkey Federation, suggests that Iowa hunters focus on hens to take toms.

"For spring turkey hunting, it's more important to know what the hens are doing than to know where toms are at," he said. "Hens won't mate and nest until ground temperatures and other factors are right. Until hens are ready to mate, toms will follow them around, and that can complicate getting toms to come to a call. Then, when hens are in mating mode, it's about impossible to get toms away from them. Once mating is over, and hens are nesting, it's a lot easier to call toms."

Hunters aware of hens' stage in the mating cycle can focus their hunting strategies to work with natural turkey movement rather than against it. Prior to the mating season, Creery suggested, hunters should determine where hens are roosting and feeding and then set up near those areas and attempt to move curious birds short distances off their normal travel routes.