topo maps and arial pics can help..i like to look for ridges, points, flats, benches etc. i never really associated turkeys with water..they arent ducks? water will actually screw you sometimes..when you got a gobbler on the other side of the creek a good bit of the time he wont cross it. but i have found good roosting sites in creek bottoms. generally in really windy areas they try to get out of the wind.

public land i like to get away from the road a goood ways. a half hour walk back to my spot is the norm..then ill go farther from there. depends how much pressure the birds get. i dont even start scouting till a couple weeks before the season. mainly because i know where my turkeys are..and because right now they are flocked up and on a winter pattern hitting the food sources that are available. come spring you might find areas with turkeys today wont have any. but it cant hurt to start now and get familiar with the land which is important and if you find them now come spring you shoulllllld be close..

a month or so before the season ill go in and look for scratchings and roosting sights...then if im hunting new areas ill go in before dawn and listen to them off the roost to pinpoint the roost and try to figure out where they go after fly down..