I'm not familiar with the southern region the Hoosier National, however I am very familiar with the area around Lake Monroe. As far as turkeys go,there are plenty of them. I have messed around in that area a little bit and from what I've seen, it has excellent numbers of turkey. Problem with the Northern Region is that a lot of private ground is interlaced with the public part. If you do hunt the northern section make sure you have a map, otherwise you will have some ticked off land owners. I have friends that own next to it andthey getpeople from all over wondering onto their property cutting them off from birds it seems like almost every season. People in the area for the most part are generous and you have about a 50% chance of gainingpermission to hunt private that borders public. Just make sure you ask politelyand are courteous.
During opening weekend you may run into a hunter or two.But if you hit it during the normal work week you should have plenty ofbirds to yourself. Birds can tend to get"callshy". The way I get past this irritating aspect ofthe huntis I prove to the birds that there really is a bird makingnoise.I don't want to make it sound likeI'm advertising for a companyso I won't list anything specific, but if you use a combinationof a full strut tom with a hen in the breeding position close by you shouldn't have any problem. But remember when setting up ona bird, place those decoys in an area where it can be seen for a good ways. Seems these birds use that head of their'sas a periscope over little knolls and gently rolling hills. If they don't see anything they go the opposite direction. Now if my girlfriend/wife was in the breeding position with another guy standing close by, I would get very angry/jealous and run in to take of business. Kind of the same situation with these turkeys.
I hope this helps. This has been my strategy for the last 3 years and it hasn't failed yet. 100% success rate within the last 3 years resulting in the tagging to 10 birds. 3 for myself of course, and 7 for the people I've helped.