2007.04.17
Wind was tougher on turkey hunters than rain
I've spent the past day working on turkey hunting coverage, which seems pretty surreal and trivial in light of what's going on in Blacksburg. But the fact is, while the Virginia Tech shooting will dominate our paper for days, weeks and probably months to come, the paper needs other content. So, while I'm on standby to help with coverage if needed, I'll just do my best to do my job. And I hope my readers can appreciate seeing something other than the coverge of that unthinkable tragedy.
As I wrote in my column in today's paper, I was a little surprised to hear that 780 hunters checked in gobblers by phone Saturday, the season's opening day. That was 95 more than on last year's opener. Hunters in Eastern Virginia were able to get in some hunting before the rain hit. Some Western Virginia hunters, including Troy Lamy (pictured above with a nice Patrick County gobbler), took advantage of breaks in the rain. And, no doubt some hunters located turkeys in fields, with many likely shooting the birds at a distance with rifles (which is legal here).
I surmised that hunting was tougher in yesterday's wind. At least I got that part right. According to the phone check-in numbers I just got, only 152 turkeys were checked in on Monday. That's barely a third of the 421 checked in on the first Monday last spring.
One of my buddies called one in for a friend yesterday. He was out there today and said they didn't hear a thing. So, today's kill was probably even lower.
Looks like weather should be a little better for the next few days, although there is more rain in the forecast.
