DISTRICT III
District III encompasses many of the central mountain counties and contains some of the most rugged, high mountain ranges in the Southeast. Continuing the trend across the Mountain State, the district saw its turkey harvest decline from 1,518 in 2006 to 1,326 last spring. The harvest figures from 2003 through 2005 have been 1,685, 1,330 and 1,254, respectively.

Lewis County, as has been the case for the past five years, led the district with 240 birds checked in, down a little from the 2006 mark of 258. Quite simply, Lewis is one of the most turkey-rich counties I have ever been afield in with its rolling hills, checkerboard pattern of wood lots, fields, farms and small streams. Lewis is well worth a visit by any District III sportsman, and given its location in central West Virginia, any state hunter for that matter.

Other counties of note include Braxton (282 and 210), Nicholas (226 and 187) and Upshur (258 and 216). Two counties, Pocahontas and Randolph, stand out in a disappointing sense. Both are extremely large counties and contain massive chunks of public land in the form of the Monongahela National Forest. Yet, both areas recorded poor harvests based on their large sizes, with Pocahontas declining from 128 to 126 and Randolph showing a slight increase from 176 to 180. As the truism states, size matters and for sheer acreage, those harvests are uninspiring.

DISTRICT IV
District IV hosts much of southern West Virginia, as well as counties in the southeastern reaches. Throughout this decade, a constant theme in this region has been that no one county has held sway as the dominant place to go. That’s good news for residents of this region because it means that many domains offer consistent high-quality hunting. The harvest experienced a drop from 2006 to 2007 with marks of 2,134 and 1,906, respectively. From 2003 through 2005, the harvests were 2,050, 1,966 and 2,215.

Summers County led the way in 2007 with a mark of 289, just a pair of birds above the 2006 total. Summers County features a number of mountain cattle concerns, as well as farming operations in the coves below. This is definitely a county where District IV residents should try to gain permission to hunt on private land.

But other counties offer just as much potential for the coming season. These include Fayette (261 and 232), Greenbrier (298 and 265), McDowell (270 and 214), Mercer (311 and 269), Monroe (200 and 170), Raleigh (264 and 272) and Wyoming (243 and 195). Indeed, every county in this region should be a good destination this spring.

For this spring, I plan to hunt often on my land in Monroe as well as in the surrounding national forest. And I have made plans to go afield on the Greenbrier County tract mentioned earlier as well, and I have arranged for a weekend to be spent hunting in Mercer and McDowell counties, the latter because it offers Sunday hunting. As the 2006 hatch has improved over the hatch of 2005, look for this to be a good year in District IV.

DISTRICT V
District V includes counties in the southern coalfields as well as domains in the southwestern part of the state. In 2007, the harvest experienced a considerable decline with a mark of 1,630 as compared with the 2006 figure of 2,006. The harvests between 2003 and 2005 have been 2,036, 1,847 and 1,992, respectively.

Mason County has been by far the premier destination throughout this decade, not only in District V but also in the entire state. In fact, I would emphasize that this county is one of the top turkey destinations in the Southeast. In 2007, Mason recorded a tally of 403 turkeys taken, which was down from the 2006 total of 493. Yet, Mason still led the state, well ahead of Jackson (361), Wood (337), Preston (330) and Summers (289).