Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Rathbun Lake Public

180class

180class

Well-Known Member
My dad wants me to take him on his first ever turkey hunt this season. I've got a buddy with a cabin down at Lake Rathbun. I hunted down there years ago with great success. I hunted private land that has now been developed and no longer available. Can anyone suggest a good piece of public land down there? I'm looking at the wildlife management area maps online and it really hard to get a good feel on which area would be best. I remember seeing a ton of birds on the North side of the lake so I think we'll stick to that area. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.
 
All I can tell you is that I hunt just north of the lake and bird numbers are down in that area from years past. I have been hunting that area for the past 25+ years and the last 5 years turkeys are down. With the good winter this last year hopefully they can make a improvement. I don't know if it is winter or predators or what that is a whole different debate. But going off years past and bow hunting in the fall I would say numbers are down. I can't say for sure about the numbers in southern Iowa this year because I don't live there and not in the area every day but can tell you what I have seen in the past few years. Good luck.
 
Thanks jj. What do you know about the Tyson Wildlife Area just West of Melrose? Good number of birds? Hunting pressure?
 
The bird numbers in Southern Iowa have been scary low where we hunt around Albia. I always had good luck on the Des moines River public from Boone to Saylorville. Birds all over if you look hard enough.
 
Liv4Rut said:
The bird numbers in Southern Iowa have been scary low where we hunt around Albia. I always had good luck on the Des moines River public from Boone to Saylorville. Birds all over if you look hard enough.
Click to expand...

You're so right. 10 years ago it would be nothing for me to see flocks of over 100 birds in the winter. Now, If I see 30 it's a big deal. Something (or things) has caused the population to drop drastically over the past 10years. Don't get me wrong, there are still decent amounts of birds in certain areas, but not even close to what it used to be.
 
sureshot said:
You're so right. 10 years ago it would be nothing for me to see flocks of over 100 birds in the winter. Now, If I see 30 it's a big deal. Something (or things) has caused the population to drop drastically over the past 10years. Don't get me wrong, there are still decent amounts of birds in certain areas, but not even close to what it used to be.
Click to expand...

My farm is in extreme NE Davis County, so a little ways away from Rathbun, but still in southern Iowa. Our turk numbers are similar unfortunately, numbers are WAY DOWN from just 5 years ago or so. I estimate that the population today is roughly 20% of what it was 5 years ago, honestly, it may be more like 10%.

To me, it is clear that the multiple cool, wet springs have supressed nesting success significantly and that is a big factor in the "pop drop", but I/we continue to find dead adult carcasses on top of that yet and they didn't die from spring rains. I strongly suspect that bobcats are killing adults in enough quantity that the two factors combined have led to the sharp drop in numbers.

I am seeing very little turk sign this spring and when I am traveling around the countryside in that area I see very few birds out and about, where I used to commonly see a dozen here, 5 there, 2 dozen over there, etc. In other words, the numbers are down in the whole area, not just my farm.
 
Turkeys

In MN the turkeys seem to be doing better than Iowa, MN has had wet springs and snowy winters, with the exception of this past winter (which was great)...I suspect that bobcats or predators are killing a fair share of Iowa turkeys.

I had a cat on camera on my Iowa farm, and to me there SHOULD be more turkeys in my area of Warren County. There is still birds, but I think we have more in MN, on more broken up cover??

Just my 2 cents, but I would bet bobcats are hard on turkeys.
 
Do any of you know much about the Tyrone Wildlife Area just East of Melrose? It looks like a huge piece of land so there's gotta be some birds. What's the hunting pressure like?
 
180class said:
Do any of you know much about the Tyrone Wildlife Area just East of Melrose? It looks like a huge piece of land so there's gotta be some birds. What's the hunting pressure like?
Click to expand...

I have drove around Tyrone a couple times in the spring always wanting to hunt it but every time I did there were cars in the lots. Doesn't mean much I guess. I have shed hunted it before and the place has very steep creek banks, and lots of ridges. A guy could get lost in that place for sure. 2nd and 4th season is when i have drove around it. Not sure what 1st and 3rd look like.

The area I have had better luck is the soap creek / stephens forest area just north of unionville. Plenty of birds there. 1000s of acres of timber too. A guy could probably get lost in there too lol. I know every time I deer hunted though there was piles of turkeys. I have turkey hunted it many times with a bow and it always seemed I was on the wrong ridge. If I had a gun though it would of been much easier to get on them.
 
Not to continue to hyjack your thread... but #s are way down in Western IA too. I mean wayyyyy down. Predator #s are way up... bobcats and coytoes especially. This fall trapping and predator control is going into overtime!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom