6/8/2020 11:59:00 AM Distance learning opens schedule for turkey hunting
Isaac Harreld, a member of the Stewartville High School class of 2020, in back, helped Zach Boelman, an SHS freshman, in front, hunt turkeys late last season and again this spring. submitted photo courtesy of Outdoor News
Editor's note: "Outdoor News, The Sportsman's Weekly," of Plymouth, Minn., published this story featuring Stewartville High School graduating senior Isaac Harreld in its May 22 issue. The STAR is reprinting the story with permission from Outdoor News.
By Javier Serna Assistant Editor Outdoor News Isaac Harreld, a senior at Stewartville High School in southeast Minnesota, was keen on the flexibility offered by the new school schedule and its pandemic-forced virtual classroom. He's been turkey hunting all season with a bow, and has yet to kill a bird, but he's helped four of his classmates get theirs this spring. For three of them, it was their first-ever turkey takes. Harreld was one of a handful of young hunters to respond to a post on the roughly 4,000-member "Minnesota Turkey Hunters" Facebook page. The National Wild Turkey Federation's Tom Glines said that, based on social media, the coronavirus situation was allowing youths to recruit their friends to the sport this spring. Youth turkey licenses -- good for the entire season (or until a bird is bagged) -- were up 43 percent over the same point last year, as of May 12, according to the DNR. Harreld, from a family of hunters mostly focused on deer, said he considers himself "the spark in it. They are all big deer hunters. I am the weird turkey guy." That's a reputation he's even earned among his high school peers in a senior class of about 130 students. "Isaac is a well-known turkey hunter in my grade," said Nick Mohs, one of the four newly recruited turkey hunters. Harreld has felt buck fever, but there's something more to turkey hunting for him... For more on this story pick up your copy of the June 9 Stewartville STAR.
