"St. Joe allowed a lot of their executives to hunt there at one time, and then the state bought it."

Of course, Joe Budd WMA outside Quincy has always been a good area. Most of what makes both those tracts so good is management.

"We're maintaining wildlife openings through prescribed burning and planting," Perrin offered. "That's really beneficial on those areas."

In the South Region, Perrin liked Dinner Island Ranch WMA and Dupuis Wildlife and Environmental Area for turkeys.

"Another good area is Okaloacoochee Slough WMA," he tossed in. "Those three are all good areas."

Although it is fairly far south, Perrin also mentioned Corbett WMA as a possibility.

"Corbett is marginal overall," he admitted. "It's a large area of 60,000-plus acres, and it's fairly wet at certain times. So as a whole, it's not what you would consider good turkey habitat."

On the other hand, it's one of the few areas that the FWC actually does own, and that allows for management of the tract. At one time there were a lot of old tomato fields there. Through the years, they had become overgrown with Brazilian pepper, which is not good for turkeys at all. The FWC staff there has been working to restore the native habitat on those old fields.

"While Corbett will never be an excellent turkey area because the hydrology isn't going to allow it, it has really come on for turkeys," Perrin observed. "Its harvest has increased. They harvested 40 turkeys last spring, which is more than double their previous record.

"Our folks are doing a real good job, plus the National Wild Turkey Federation has put a lot of money into that area through their cost-share program. And it seems like it's really paying off."

In the Southwest Region, Chassahowitzka WMA is a good choice for a turkey outing.

"Of course, Green Swamp traditionally has a pretty high harvest," Perrin said. "But they also have a lot of hunting pressure. Hickory Hammock WMA is real good for turkeys, and Kicco WMA is also."

In the Northeast Region, Perrin suggested taking a look at Caravelle Ranch, Bull Creek, and Half Moon WMAs.

"Prairie Lakes Unit, part of Three Lakes WMA, also is always good," he assured.

One part of the state where Perrin doesn't recommend looking for turkeys is in those WMAs with the type of terrain found in the Everglades ecosystem: "Those areas just aren't good for turkeys," he said, "because they're way too wet."

HOLMES COUNTY
Unless you're a turkey hunter who has been living under a rock, you're probably aware that there have been turkey problems in Holmes County in the Panhandle. In 1998, the FWC closed Holmes County to turkey hunting because the area's birds had virtually disappeared.

Over the past few years, biologists have released 121 turkeys at eight different sites within the county.

"We've monitored the turkey population by doing an annual bait-station survey to see how well the population increased around the county," Perrin explained. "After the last couple of surveys, the counts were doing really well. So we put in a rule proposal to open up a limited spring turkey hunt."

Thus in 2006, for the first time in a number of years, Holmes County had a short three-day turkey season. And another such session followed in 2007.

"As we've been doing, this fall we're doing a survey to monitor the overall Holmes County population," Perrin said. "The population is continuing to expand and increase. So we've put in a proposal to expand the season. If everything goes according to plan, in the spring of 2009 we'll have a 16-day season in Holmes County."

Although no one is doing specific surveys of turkey harvest in the county, anecdotal information indicates that the harvest is good.

"One of the ironic things about Holmes County is that a lot of landowners still aren't participating in the hunt," Perrin pointed out. "These folks are still so tickled to have turkeys -- after not having them for so long -- that a lot of them are not allowing any hunting. They want to be sure they don't end up where they were before."