LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’s turkey season is kicking off with the annual youth turkey hunt April 6-7, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has a few helpful tips to keep young new hunters chasing longbeards instead of asking when it’s time to head to the truck.
Initiated in 2004, the annual Arkansas youth turkey hunt offers two days for hunters 6-15 years old to get to the woods with a mentor to learn the ropes of the turkey woods. Wild turkeys can be one of the most challenging animals to pursue in Arkansas, so the AGFC is offering the young guns the first opportunity at the birds before experienced hunters begin to take up their shotguns and slate calls.
Prepare for success
The first step to any successful hunt is to make sure you have a valid hunting license. Youth hunters aren’t required to purchase a license, but they will need a customer identification number to check their turkey once it is harvested. By logging into the AGFC’s licensing website, you can set up a profile for your youth hunter and get their free youth CID (labeled YCID) in a matter of minutes. If you already have your profile set up, you can link your youth hunter’s profile to your account, but any turkeys they harvest must be checked to them, so be sure you’re entering the harvest information under the right profile.
Remember, you must tag a turkey before moving it if you have not yet checked it. You must check the bird within 12 hours of harvest, and once it is checked you no longer need the tag. If you’re able to check the bird in the field, you can forgo tagging it altogether. If you won’t be able to check the bird on-site, it’s a good idea to have a blank tag like those available on Page 23 of the 2023-24 Arkansas Hunting Guidebook.
The best route to check a turkey is through the AGFC’s smartphone app. Even if you don’t have a cellphone signal, you can still check the youth hunter’s turkey, and it will complete the process when you get back to civilization. The AGFC’s website has all the information you need to download the app, create and link a youth profile to your account and secure their free turkey tags with a Youth CID Number. (If they received a YCID during the 2023-24 deer season, that is the YCID you’ll use, or you can get one through the app and licensing system now.) Visit www.agfc.com/education/agfc-mobile-app-how-to to get started.
Practice Patience
Take some time before the hunt to make sure your youth hunter is well versed in how a turkey hunt can go down. Some birds may come to your calls as if on a string, but most seasoned gobblers are going to take their time. Ground blinds can help with restless feet, but most turkey hunters tend to move to the birds. This means hunters have to know when to be dead still to avoid the sharp eyes of adult gobblers. Practice sitting motionless on the floor, propped up against the living room couch as a backrest just like you’d be against the trunk of a tree when you’re waiting for a bird to pop his head over a ridge and come to your decoy. Check to make sure your youth’s shotgun is completely unloaded and have them position it on their knee so they know how to shift it around silently when their bird has his head behind a tree or the decoy.