SAYLORVILLE WMA
“We’ve got turkeys throughout the Des Moines River Valley, especially along the Des Moines and Boone rivers,” said area wildlife management biologist Scott Petersen. “We’ve also got turkeys on the Saylorville Wildlife Area’s 11,000 acres of large forested tracts and hayfields.”

The Saylorville property is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and managed for wildlife by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. These lands sprawling across western Polk and Boone counties offer good shooting in the fall.

“I’m not seeing the large groupings of turkeys that I’ve seen on the area in the past,” said Petersen. “In other parts of Iowa you can see groups of 80 to over 100 birds, but here I’m seeing groups of 12 or 13 birds. The turkeys are there, but there’s not a tremendous number of them.”

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of birds to go around: According to Petersen, no spot on the area is better than any other. He recommends looking for the timber in which birds roost and the associated hayfields that they go out to feed on; find that winning combination all in one spot, and turkeys will probably be nearby. It’s all about habitat when it comes to locating these birds.

The Saylorville WA extends from Highway 17 in Polk County north of Fraser in Boone County. For more information, contact the Saylorville Unit at (515) 432-2235.

BRADGATE/LOTTS CREEK WMAs
“We have very limited public turkey hunting areas within the Ingham-High Wildlife Unit that offer good hunting.” offered wildlife biologist Bryan Hellyer, “because most of our areas don’t contain turkey habitat, but there are two that do.”

Bradgate WMA and the separate but close Lotts Creek WMA are both in Humboldt County. Bradgate WMA is near Bradgate; Lotts Creek WMA is near Livermore. Both areas are small, and often overlooked because of their size.

Bradgate WMA only covers 125 acres but it has the West Fork of the Des Moines River running right through it. Most of the area consists of bottomland timber that provides great roosting spots for turkeys. The small portion of connected grassland can be easily reached from the parking lot.

Bradgate is two miles east of Gilmore City on Highway 3, three miles north on Delaware Avenue and a half-mile west on C18 in Humboldt County.

Though quite different from larger areas, Bradgate and Lotts Creek still offer a good chance of taking a bird. “I do the majority of my scouting in the springtime from my car wherever I’m going to go hunting in the fall,” suggested turkey guide Buswell. “Listen for gobbling in the spring when the turkeys are louder, and then come back to the same area in the fall to shoot a bird.”

At Lotts Creek WMA, a 54-acre Humboldt County tract of bottomland timber through which the East Fork of the Des Moines River meanders, excellent edge habitat should provide good turkey hunting opportunities for the fall. Lotts Creek is at the northwest edge of Livermore off Road C20.

For more information call the Ingham-High Wildlife Unit at (712) 362-2091.

GREEN HOLLOW WMA
Wildlife biologist Carl Priebe noted that, in the opinion of many, hunting 343-acre Green Hollow WMA has more downsides than it’s worth. So is there an upside? Yes: Gobbler chasers can enjoy some fine shooting, since many of their fellows have decided to go afield elsewhere.

“There is some heavy hunting pressure,” said Priebe, “because it’s the only public area with substantial upland timber in the Riverton Wildlife Unit. The second downside to hunting Green Hollow is that the WMA is physically divided into two areas. There is a very steep and deep gully that bisects the area, and it’s difficult to cross; it’s demoralizing when birds gobble on the other side of the gully or fly across it when they leave the roost.