It’s the middle of Missouri’s spring turkey season, and we’re in that lull where not much is happening.
The second week of the season historically has been mediocre, at best, with breeding and heavy hunting pressure keeping the woods quiet.
Honestly, this whole season has pretty much been a lull. For the most part, it’s been pretty quiet, though there have been some exceptions.
In addition to my first-day sneaky bird, I personally know four others who have taken birds locally, and all but one said their gobbler snuck in quietly and never made a sound.
The harvest is far below where it should be at this point in the season, and things don’t look good going forward.
Statewide, hunters had taken 19,363 birds as of mid-morning Wednesday. That sounds like a lot, but at this point last year, they had killed 24,167 already, and truth be told, the number should be closer to 30,000.
Again, every local county is far below last year’s mediocre numbers except one: Dunklin.
There just isn’t a lot of turkey habitat in Dunklin County, but hunters there have made the best of what they have by killing 11 birds, compared to six over the same period a year ago.
In Butler County, a meager 44 birds have been taken. Last year mid-way through the season, 59 had been tagged.
In Carter County, the tally so far is 75, still well below last year’s 96 to this point.
Reynolds County hunters are off the pace as well, taking 96 birds so far compared to 126 last year.
In Ripley County, 82 turkeys have been tagged, down from 111 halfway through the season last year.
Stoddard County has been a turkey hunting stronghold lately, but the numbers there are down as well. So far, 130 birds have been killed, but that’s off from the 172 over the same period last year.
Wayne County generally is considered the best in the region for turkey hunting, but it’s not even the top spot this year, like in most. The total number of birds taken there so far is 122, substantially below the 194 at this point in the season last year.
The season continues through May 9, and if things hold true to tradition, hunting will remain tough until the last day or two. That’s when it seems to suddenly get better every year as hens sit on nests full-time and the gobblers actually start to make a little noise again.
If you plan to apply for an elk and/or bear hunting permit in Missouri this year, the application period will open Saturday.
The application period will run the entire month of May, and each species requires a $10 application fee.
Like last year’s inaugural season, five permits will be available for the elk season, which is split between an October archery hunt and December rifle hunt. Four permits will go to the general public, while one will go to a landowner in the elk restoration zone.
For bears, the southern half of the state has been divided into three zones, each with a different harvest quota and number of permits available. The season will run Oct. 18-27.
Zone 1, in the southwestern corner of the state, will allow 200 permits and a harvest of 20 bears.
Zone 2, in west-central Missouri, will have 150 permits available and a harvest quota of 15 bears.
Zone 3, which encompasses all of Southeast Missouri, there will be 50 permits available and the harvest quota has been set at five bears.
The results of both permit drawings will be published on MDC’s website beginning July 1.
If you’ve been wanting to get out to snag paddlefish in the local rivers, your time is nearly up because the season closes Friday.
The opener on March 15 was pretty poor locally because of rainy weather, and MDC Fisheries Management Biologist Paul Cieslewicz told me the crowd was very small on the Black River below the Clearwater Lake dam.
The St. Francis River below the Wappapello dam also has some dandy paddlefish in it, but I haven’t heard of anyone having success there this season.
Fishing at Wappapello Lake has been good lately, but that might change as the lake rises from this week’s rains.
“Fishing’s been pretty good,” said Charlie Brotherton at Sundowner Marine on Wappapello Lake.
Most of the crappie, he said, have been caught “pretty close to the banks.”
With several inches of rain expected in the upper watersheds for Wappapello and Clearwater lakes, both likely will see significant rises through the weekend.
The only good thing about that is catfishing in the flooded brush along the banks should be really good.
Sixty teams battled rainy weather last Saturday as they competed in the Wappapello Bass Circuit’s monthly tournament, and apparently, the fishing was stellar.
The team of Hardy and Bowers earned the win with a whopping stringer weight of 26.15 pounds (and that’s for five fish). They also had the day’s biggest bass, weighing 6.36 pounds, and the third-largest bass, weighing 6.16 pounds.
Second place went to Betton and Ray with 19.14 pounds, which included the second-largest bass of the day, weighing 6.28 pounds.
Seiter and Green took third place with 18.40 pounds, while Flowers and Spitzer earned fourth with 16.54 pounds.
The top five were rounded out by Dennis and Pyles with 15.94 pounds.
The Wappapello Bass Circuit will fish again on May 22.