He notes that "Dinner Island is a fairly new area. I don't know a lot about it. I think it was a working cattle operation, and the FWCC acquired it a few years ago. I know it has some forested aspect, probably with live oaks, and it did well on the turkey harvest last year."

Because "Okaloacoochee Slough WMA" is so hard to pronounce, it's more commonly known as just "OK Slough." It's located between LaBelle and Immokalee, very close to Dinner Island in Hendry and Collier counties, and is similar in habitat.

Dupuis WEA is on the eastern side of the South Region, east of Lake Okeechobee and adjacent to Corbett WMA.

"Dupuis is owned by the South Florida Water Management District," Perrin explains, "and our agency operates the hunts on the property. They're doing quite a bit of pretty intensive management, including prescribed burning and mowing, that benefits wildlife."

NORTHWEST REGION
Perrin says the best place for turkeys in the Northwest Region is Joe Budd WMA, in Gadsden County.

"On most of the other areas, hunter success is not that good," he notes, "and a lot of the areas are in pine-tree production, so management is limited."

Joe Budd WMA has a variety of habitats, containing flatwoods as well as upland hardwoods and river swamp, making it a great area for turkeys. The Little River runs through the area, and there is good bottomland habitat. There's also a good bit of relief, which is unusual for any part of Florida. The lowest point, along the edge of Lake Talquin, is about 70 feet above sea level, and the highest tops 160 feet.

The other area in this region where you might find some turkeys is on the Apalachicola National Forest. There, however, the turkey population varies greatly, depending on what kind of habitat you're in.

"The Apalachicola National Forest covers more than 500,000 acres," Perrin says. "There are huntable turkey populations in some areas of the forest. A lot of it is overgrown, with a lot of titi swamp. So overall, the hunter success rate on that area isn't that great."

NORTHEAST REGION
In the Northeast Region, Perrin likes Caravelle Ranch WMA, the Rima Ridge unit of Tiger Bay WMA, and Seminole Forest WMA.

"Seminole Forest has been around for a while," Perrin says. "Of the three, it's the oldest."

At one time, Caravelle Ranch was a working cattle operation, before the state purchased the tract for public hunting. You can still see evidence of its cattle-ranching past.

"On it, there are some old pasture lands that are good bugging areas," Perrin offers. "And the FWCC is maintaining those open areas. But in some areas, we're also putting trees back to provide cover habitat as well."

The turkeys on Caravelle Ranch are part of a research project that Perrin has been working on, together with the University of Florida.

"We were doing a lot of turkey trapping there," he says, "and we marked a lot of birds. We put radio transmitters and colored leg bands on them. If a hunter bags one of those birds, he can hang onto the band and find out where and when we caught the bird."

Because the biologists were doing so much work on the site, they know there are a lot of turkeys there.

"We banded 75 turkeys during the winter of 2004-05, which is a lot of birds to catch," Perrin says. "And there were a lot more turkeys there that they didn't catch."

If you do kill one of these birds, call the telephone number printed on the leg band to report the bird and learn more information about where it's been.

NORTH-CENTRAL REGION
Here, Perrin suggests taking a look at Camp Blanding, Jennings Forest, and Twin Rivers WMAs.

Since Camp Blanding is a Florida National Guard facility, it is best to check ahead before heading out to it. Sometimes, training exercises mandate closing portions of the WMA.

"It's open, but depending on what's going on in the world, that's subject to change," Perrin points out. "It's still a good area to hunt."

At Twin Rivers, biologists have been doing a good bit of management, including some cost-share projects with the NWTF to benefit turkeys. "So that area has gotten some extra attention," Perrin says.

At Jennings Forest a good bit of prescribed burning has taken place, which has led to an improved turkey hunting in the past few years.