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Been awhile since you southern boys worked a gobbler? Fear not. There might be some travel in your future.

Go north, young man, go north. Spring gobblers and fresh lobster awaits you. What more could you want? Well seasons linger longer in this corner of the spring turkey world too, until May’s last day in many cases, and until June 6 way up in Maine.

You game? The seasons are still open . . .

What’s It Like?

I was running late on last year’s Maine opener, and arrived at my local hotspot around 7:15 a.m., well after fly-down time. Easing through the pasture, I stepped into the woods, called (7:30). Three gobblers hammered back a quarter mile off, if that.

Game on. I picked the best tree, a tall oak, and set up—unhurried, making everything just right, though the turkeys were likely on their way. I called again. They’d halved the distance. Gun up, pointing in the direction of their responses, I waited.

Soon two black bodies juked through the woods from one direction, while another came from the other. They converged, one popped into strut, and the two leaders strode in. Not to be undone, the strutter broke, ran ahead of them, and into website fame on Realtree.com.

Time of kill: 7:45 in the morning—thirty minutes after I’d parked my wheels.

And catch this: I later learned a guy had been in there before me, and he’d dropped a double-bearded monster. I obviously called in the scattered gobblers, which is a fine way to do it since I use that flock-busting trick on turkeys in the fall too.

Sometimes hunting northern New England can be that easy. Things often get even better later.

I once killed a Memorial Day New Hampshire gobbler by slipping into the woods midmorning after a spring rain had passed. Locating the turkey in a plowed field, I called, heard a response, and waited. The gobbler strode into view from my right, and into my shooting lane.

It wore three beards.

As you might guess, mornings here can be sub-freezing (early in the season) or buggy (later on in the waning weeks). They don’t call the black fly the Maine state bird for nothing! Pack that ThermaCELL unit if you visit right before the curtain call, especially if you hunt near running creeks where the pesky buzzers breed. Ditto for mosquitoes that hatch in our wooded vernal pools.

Done in Maine? States like New Hampshire, Vermont and even over the line in New York State don’t close until May 31. All four are great places to visit if you still haven’t cooled your gobbler-hunting fever.

Turkeys in Maine?

First a little history: early on, Maine’s attempted turkey reintroductions of partly wild game-farm birds failed, but by the mid-70s, the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) had developed a plan.

In 1977 and 1978, Vermont biologists, who’d begun a successful turkey restoration program in their northern New England region, provided 41 turkeys for release in the southern Maine towns of York and Eliot [the neighboring town to where I write this in Kittery].

Mild winters, wooded habitat paired with agricultural lands, and mast-producing trees made this location viable. Still does.

By the early 1980s, this York County wild turkey population grew to yield trap-and-transfer birds for new release sites. Mid-Coast populations were established in Waldo County using 33 York County turkeys. By the late ‘80s, MDIFW biologists, and the Connecticut Dept. of Environmental Protection, also trapped 70 Connecticut turkeys to bolster Maine’s increasing population.

By 1986, Maine turkey populations had grown enough to allow 500 permits for 605 total applicants that first modern spring gobbler season. Open in southernmost York County, just nine turkeys were taken.

By 1992, the season expanded to include both York and Cumberland counties. Fifty-three birds were tagged. A decade after the first Maine season, “North” and “South” Maine hunting zones were established, with 1,250 offered permits yielding 288 turkeys in 1996.

The 1990s saw intensive trap-and-transfer activity, which expanded turkeys to the east and north. Each year, birds gravitate to new areas. Have big scaly feet, will travel.

Every year the total harvest grew with increasing interest in Maine wild turkeys, and the developing spring gobbler tradition. By 2003, some 26,505 applicants vied for 12,000 permits. Lottery winners tagged a total of 3,994 turkeys that season. Successful hunters came from around the country.

Pine Tree State spring gobbler permits are now available over the counter (and online) in a state that now boasts an estimated 40,000-60,000 hens and gobblers from those original 41 wild turkeys.

Again, the first modern Maine hunt involved 500 York County hunters with permits. Nine birds were taken. Last year’s harvest totaled 6,348 bearded birds by 19,445 permit holders—a record.

Tagged a few spring gobblers in your home state and elsewhere? Still got the urge? Consider Maine this season. Heck, the lobster alone is worth it.

Best Bet Late-Hunt Locations

In recent years, the following dozen Maine towns have typically boasted big spring gobbler harvest numbers. These include, Jefferson, Gorham, Albion, Windham, Pittston, Whitefield, Windsor, China, Otisfield, Leeds, Durham, and New Gloucester. <

Southernmost counties of York and Cumberland hold the most birds, though central Maine is a strong Plan B option. Often you’ll find fewer hunters there.

York County’s Mount Agamaneticus region (30,000 acres in the towns of Eliot, Ogunquit, Wells, York and South Berwick) holds many Maine turkeys as original trap-and-transfer efforts took place here decades ago. The Maine season runs from May 4 to June 6, 2009. A May 2 youth hunt precedes the regular season. No Sunday hunting. Web address: www.maine.gov

Apart from Maine, where the spring turkey season closes the latest in the country, the Granite State, the Green Mountain State, and the Empire State—all within reasonable driving distance of each other—also offer outstanding late opportunities. I often hunt them after traveling around the country from March to May each year. Like you, I can never get enough.

New Hampshire’s season for bearded wild turkeys runs from May 3-31, 2009. The youth hunt takes place the weekend of April 25 and 26. Some 40,000 turkeys live here. Last spring season (2008), 4,107 birds were tagged, up from 3,651 in 2007.

Hotspots include the Connecticut River Valley region, which holds the most Granite State turkeys, and the White Mountains, as an under-hunted sleeper location. The densest populations thrive in Wildlife Management Units D1, D2, G, H1, H2, I1, I2, and K. Click on: www.wildlife.state.nh.us

Vermont’s west-central region along the New York State border holds the most turkey flocks. Best locations: the southern Champlain Valley and southwestern foothills. Spring turkey season: May 1-31, 2009. Youth hunt: April 25 and 26, like N.H.’s. Population: approximately 45,000-50,000 turkeys. Check out: www.vtfishandwildlife.com

For more information on New York State turkey hunting log onto: www.dec.ny.gov

Longtime Realtree.com contributor Steve Hickoff chases wild turkeys around the country. His home base in Maine provides ample opportunity to close down the season on late birds. True enough, after three months of steady spring gobbler hunting, his wife’s honey-do list is often long on detail, but hey, that’s what the summer season is for.

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