Originally Posted by poorcountrypreacher
Originally Posted by CNC
Originally Posted by Ben2
When is one of yall that complains gonna get on the inside and start making changes?


Sykes is just a front man put in place to do the bidding of the money behind the scenes......Until those folks decide to do something different everyone's hands are tied.



You may be right, and I am not connected well enough to know either way. But I will say that I've had a few conversations with some very wealthy people who are very interested in turkey hunting, and they were just as frustrated with the department leadership as I was. The current season length and limit isn't nearly as restrictive as what Chuck wanted. What we have is a compromise brokered by some of those wealthy individuals through a few members of the CAB. These are people who wanted to keep the historic AL system in place. Once those CAB members end their terms, I don't know what will happen.

This administration has certainly shown a great desire to monetize the wildlife resources of the state. Consider the way they handle alligators, sandhill cranes, and deer baiting. There would have been a simple and easy solution for all of those, but that wouldn't make the department money. They went the convuluted route to make revenue, not to benefit the resource or the people.

We had some CAB members 15-20 years ago who passed some rules to benefit a few wealthy folks over the objections of the then dcnr leadership. That's how we got decoys and a ML season, but those guys are long out of power. I don't really believe that the turkey rules are about money at this time. I certainly could be wrong.

I think it's as simple as Chuck cares a lot about hunting and wants to enforce his vision of the way it ought to be. He doesn't seem to care much about fishing and stays out of it and allows the biologists to do their job, and I think as a result of that the state does a much better job with fisheries. Some might see it as he is doing a great job with turkeys; it's a matter of perspective. Whatever complains I have listed have always been about the way he does the job and where he seems to want to take us. I have nothing against him personally; I just oppose his agenda. I think it is bad for the hunters and will eventually prove disastrous for the turkey flock.


If you would like to compare it to the fisheries, they could just set a limit on the number of birds that can be harvested by the state or by county similar to red snapper and if that number is reached then they shut down the season early. Only problem is that has the same issue we have currently. If the goal is reached early, then too many are being harvested instead of “we have plenty”. Or if the goal isn’t reached then “we don’t have enough, we need to lower the goal”.

I’d be more than glad to support some sort of group or petition to have Sykes removed from the DCNR. The only problem I currently see, is who do we want to replace him? It would suck to trade one bad apple for another.