Letters To The Editor – May 2019

Want To Grow Turkeys? Then Quit Shooting 3 Gobblers!   

Dear GON,

I would like to comment on the lack of turkeys in the state and the prior articles written in the GON.

First, I want it to be clear for the record that in order for a hen turkey to lay a fertilized egg, a gobbler must breed her. Consider this well-known fact before pulling the trigger on that second and third tom every spring. I encourage the DNR to lower the limit to one bird per person for two years while studying poult recruitment, and if poult recruitment doesn’t increase because of this rule, I’ll hand over my paycheck to the DNR.

Sportsmen can either be part of the problem or part of the solution. But if you are going to complain about the population, at least don’t be a hypocrite and continue to shoot three toms every spring.

Also, to the people who say shooting and trapping predators doesn’t help poult recruitment and only makes populations increase, you’re wrong. It decreases them one by one. 

If every hunter shot one coyote and one raccoon per season in Georgia, our game populations would be flourishing. I encourage people to not let a coyote just stroll by next season.

Gary Hoffacker, Clarkesville

Pick Up Some Trash Every Time You Go Hunting   

Dear GON,

Something that really irks me is folks who claim to be outdoorsmen who trash our public hunting grounds. How can you claim to love the outdoors and leave your trash scattered throughout the woods? 

I try to always leave the woods a little cleaner than I found them, even if I do nothing more than carrying out a couple of aluminum cans. I think as outdoorsmen, it is our duty to be good stewards of the land and to protect it. I believe the good hunters out there outnumber the bad, and I challenge all hunters out there to pick up a piece or two of trash here and there and carry it out with you and throw it in a trash can later. I’m not saying spend your whole hunt picking up trash, but if each one of us would do a little, it would go a long way at cleaning the woods up. Besides, if we don’t do it, who will?

Jody Hawk, Monroe 

GON Twitter
Chris Ford @CFordbirddown tweeted on March 30, “Drake Ford with a nice spot off the river
@GONMagazine.”

GON Facebook
While fishing for bream at Rocky Mountain PFA in Floyd County, Joe Anderson caught this 6-lb. bass on ultralight tackle.

GON Facebook
Mark Williams, of Blackshear, with his public-land gobbler killed on Dixon Memorial WMA April 16.

GON Instagram
Reid Fuller, of Elberton, said, “Caught this rainbow on the fly at Smith Creek in Helen on the opening weekend of the delayed harvest season. I’d say it had to be around 23 inches or more.”