Now that the spring turkey season is open, sportsmen have a trifecta of outdoor pursuits to enjoy in that they can hunt turkey in the morning, fish for trout at noon then swing over to the Delaware River and try for shad with a possible striper thrown in during late afternoon hours when the river water temperature is warmer.

As for turkey, opening day weather could not have better. Warm temperatures kept hunters in the woods up until quitting time. And some lucky hunters were able to call in and bag a bearded gobbler for dinner.

Bob Danenhower, of Bob's Taxidermy in Orefield, said he heard his first gobbles around 5:45 a.m., meaning hunters should be in the woods before that and before daybreak. Shortly thereafter he heard about 20 gobbles that could have come from two birds. Despite this, he wasn't able to call-in any birds although he did see several scratchings in the area he was in. Danenhower reasons that the gobblers could be with hens, or, they just didn't want to respond. But he did see three red foxes, three doe and two bucks that were sprouting velvet antlers. His son, Bob Jr., who hunted in the Fogelsville area, only heard one gobble in the distance, but received no response from his calls.

Trout wise, this past week saw the stocking of the Jordan, Cedar and Little Lehigh creeks in Lehigh County and in Northampton County, the upper end of the Bushkill Creek, Little Bushkill Creek, Lehigh Canal and Hokendauqua Creek were stocked.

Local tackle shops report trout action remains good and should continue with warm weather predicted for this week.

Shad action has been really coming on according to the Delaware River Shad Fishermen's hotline (610-754-0577/78). They report river water temperature hovering around 53 degrees but should increase with the upcoming warm weather. Shad have been caught from Trenton on up to the Water Gap section of the river and have been hugging the channel edges. The report guesses that the run should last about two weeks from Easton upriver and from three to four weeks from the Water Gap on up.

Brinkman's Bait in Philly reports hot shad action occurring at Lambertville with one customer picking up 37 shad there all on shad spoons. On Saturday, Ray another regular customer, fished Lambertville last Saturday and Monday and caught over 25 fish each trip out. He did best with spoons and darts both rigged with a 3-way swivel. Tom, another customer, fished the same area and did well on shad and also caught several nice walleyes. He claims to be hooking up a spoon on the back of a bright colored Shad Rap and leaving only the front hook on the crankbait. One walleye caught Wednesday was 29 inches and close to nine pounds.

The Trenton area has also been hot for shad but keeping the herring off the spoons has been tough. Anglers there have been landing 5-20 shad a trip. Even at Yardley and Washington's Crossing guys have been taking 10-25 shad each trip by using spoons and darts.

Kevin, another regular, fished up at the Water Gap where the shad are just beginning to show up in numbers. On Wednesday he landed nine fish all on small chartreuse darts.

Then there are stripers. Down Philly way, Pete, fishing at Petty's Island, reported it took him several hours of fishing but he managed to catch nine slot fish and one striper that was 42 inches long.

Off the beach at the Tacony Bridge there were plenty of 20-40 inch linesiders caught this past week, some ranging from 25-35 pounds. Most were caught with bloodworms. Off the same beach, Jack fishing from a boat on Monday, caught four stripers that were 33, 35, 37, and 42 inches, all caught on bunker.

Up under the Burlington Bristol Bridge fish from 20-44 inches were taken on bloodworms, bunker and clams.

As these fish are predominately in the Philly section of the Delaware River, they should be making an appearance in the upper Bucks, Easton area shortly.

If this isn't enough to pacify the outdoorsman, there are always coyotes to hunt.