Twenty-four anglers tested their mettle Saturday as they competed for the Current River Smallmouth Association’s King of the River title.
Unlike most tournaments, which have teams of two competing, the King of the River event pits individuals against each other.
At the end of the day, Joe Dougherty came out on top, earning the title with a stringer weight of 11.52 pounds.
It was his first time to capture the King of the River title.
Second place went to York with 11.38 pounds, and third place was earned by Powell with 10.18 pounds.
D. Black grabbed the fourth position with a stringer weighing 9.88 pounds, and Roberson rounded out the top five with his total weight of 9.72 pounds. He also was aided by the day’s biggest bass, which weighed in at 3.11 pounds.
The Current River Smallmouth Association will fish again on Aug. 8, based out of Van Buren.
Ninety-two teams fished Saturday’s Wappapello Bass Circuit event, with about half weighing fish.
The top team on the day was Hastings and Francis, who brought 18.54 pounds to the weigh-in, worth a cool $1,700.
Second place was earned by Powell and Harty, who had 16.10 pounds, worth $900. They also had the day’s biggest bass, weighing in at 6.28 pounds.
Taking the third spot was Jackson and Miller with 14.51 pounds, good for $700.
Grabbing the fourth spot was Hampton and Carnahan with 13.89 pounds, worth $580.
Rounding out the top five was the team of Green and Sides with 13.69 pounds, giving them a payday of $470.
The Wappapello Bass Circuit will fish again on Aug. 29.
As mentioned a week or two ago, the Missouri Department of Conservation has made some changes to the waterfowl hunt drawing procedure for this fall, including the elimination of the pre-season drawing. Now, more of those changes have come to light.
“We’re actively looking at everything and still actively discussing everything that’s coming into question,” said Luke Wehmhoff, area manager for the Otter Slough Conservation Area in Stoddard County.
Changes to the new format, Wehmhoff said, could be made depending on the current situation and virus threat level.
“This isn’t something we’ve had in our back pocket for years waiting on a pandemic to hit. We’re working through it and are still hashing specific area regulations,” he said.
First off, MDC has eliminated the morning draw this fall for both the dove and teal seasons at its managed areas. That doesn’t mean there will be no hunting allowed on the managed areas - it only means hunting will be done on a first-come, first-served basis.
“For teal season, we may look at doing some self-check stuff to avoid a wild west situation,” Wehmhoff said.
To “prolong the amount of time the birds are here and to avoid issues,” Wehmhoff said, MDC likely will have a drop box set up outside each area’s headquarters where hunters can check in, but not until 4 a.m.
“I’m not 100% sure if this will be the case yet, but we’re talking about having somebody there at 3:50, and if there are cards in that box, we’re yanking them and throwing them in the trash, and whoever is out in the field is out there illegally at that point,” Wehmhoff said.
To combat COVID-19 during the regular duck seasons, MDC has developed four contingency plans, based on the virus threat level at the time and in each specific county where a managed wetland is located.
Each managed waterfowl area will be assigned a threat level prior to the season, based on what’s happening in that county, and MDC staff will work with county health department officials to keep on top of the situation and make changes, if necessary.
The red level, with a very high risk, means there will be no hunter-staff contact and no facility use. That also means there will be no poor line drawing. All weekly reservations will be allocated to residents only, and all hunting positions will be pre-assigned.
In the orange level, which has a high risk, there will be limited facility use and social distancing employed. All reservations will go to residents, and there will be no poor line drawing. However, hunt parties will be able to select their hunting spot.
In the yellow level, with a moderate risk, limited facility use and social distancing will be enforced, and all reservations will go to residents only. Hunting parties will be able to select their spot, and their will be a poor line drawing only for spots vacated by reservation no-shows.
The green level is the most relaxed and involves a low COVID-19 risk. At that level, facility use will be increased as health department guidance allows and social distancing will be enforced. Half of the hunting positions each day will go to weekly reservation holders, while the other half will go to those who attempt to draw in the poor line.
The reasoning for the various levels and restrictions, Wehmhoff said, is to protect staff and the public.
“The less people that go through the draw room, the less contact there is and less transmission possibility you have. Limiting that poor line opportunity, as much as we didn’t want to … we had to do that as a state agency to protect staff and the public,” Wehmhoff said.
“If a staff member becomes positive, we’re immediately going to go to the red level. The draw room would be completely sanitized, and we’d have to find somebody in the region to replace that employee,” he added.
Each building where hunters check in will be manned by a staff member at the door, with only one way in and one way out.
“We’ll allow one member per party in at a time, and we’ll also only allow so many party representatives in at a time to keep that 6-foot social distancing recommendation,” Wehmhoff noted.
“A lot of guys will get upset with that, but the alternative is we go to 100% reservation allocation and no poor line,” he said.
MDC has heard many complaints about the new system, Wehmhoff said, but hunters need to look at the risk versus reward of not doing something.
“One of biggest complaints is why didn’t we go to open hunting,” Wehmhoff said. “Last year, one area in the St. Louis region went to open hunting because of flood damage, and it was a disaster. The public abused it and there were folks jump shooting the refuge.
“All the public did was complain about it being open hunting, and now that we’ve decided we’re not going to do that now, they’re complaining we didn’t go to open hunting.”