After an eight-month hiatus, Missouri's archery deer and turkey season is opened Saturday, and for a lot of bowhunters, it didn't get here quickly enough.
The good news is the state's deer population, especially in the southern counties, is doing very well.
"We had no significant epizootic hemorrhagic disease reports this year," said Department of Conservation Resource Scientist Barb Keller.
Given the drought conditions during the late summer months, that was a bit surprising, she said. You may recall a few years ago when the state's deer herd took a hard hit because of EHD, though not as much in our region.
The deer population in Southeast Missouri also still appears to be slowly increasing, Keller said.
Typically in the early archery season, hunters focus their efforts around food sources during evening hunts, catching the deer moving from their bedding areas to the food. You also can have morning success in the early season, but you have to be extra careful to avoid feeding areas on your way in.
Speaking of food, deer eat primarily acorns in the fall, and this year, the local acorn crop looks spotty at best. If you can find a tree which is producing nuts, you'll have deer there also. Otherwise, it looks like it's shaping up to be a field-hunting fall.
The lack of acorns, Keller said, "should set things up pretty well for hunters" because deer likely will be more visible as they travel farther to find food and feed in open areas.
Of course, you'll need a Missouri archery deer permit to bowhunt deer or turkeys. The season limit remains two turkeys and two deer, of which only one can be an antlered buck taken before the firearms deer season. There also is a season limit of two antlered deer for all hunting methods combined.
Permits can be carried in digital format on your phone through MDC's "Mo Hunting" app, or you can print them on traditional paper. It's important to remember if you must leave your downed deer, for instance to go get help, you're required to tag it with a permit. For that very reason, even if you use the app, a backup paper permit would be a good idea to have along.
Also don't forget, you'll need to telecheck your deer or turkey by 10 p.m. on the day taken.
Also of note, Keller said, public meetings will be scheduled in October for locations in Cape Girardeau and Perryville concerning chronic wasting disease, and those dates will be announced soon.
Gigging Opener
Saturday also was opening day of Missouri's gigging season, and the local rivers, especially the Current, will surely be lit up with anglers after dark.
Carter County Conservation Agent Mark Wilcoxon said the Current River came up about a foot recently but already has dropped nearly back to normal, so it should be good for the opening weekend.
While gigging on rivers can be done legally from sunrise until midnight, pretty much everyone practices the art after the sun goes down, using specialized lighting rigs mounted on the front of their boats.
Nongame fish are the order of the day when gigging, with suckers and buffalo making up the majority of most anglers' catches.
The daily limit is 20 fish, which can include only five hogsuckers. The exception is on the Current River, where carp can be taken in any numbers.
One thing to keep in mind is gigging tends to be a social affair, so it's important to be able to keep your fish separate and identifiable from those of your buddies.
A time-honored tradition for giggers is to clean, score and cook their catch the night they are caught, for the ultimate in freshness. Throw in some fried potatoes and other goodies, and you've got a dandy meal.
Arkansas Teal
If you live in Arkansas or occasionally venture there to hunt ducks, the Natural State's teal season will open on Saturday.
Just like in Missouri, the daily limit is six teal, regardless of species mix, and shooting hours are from sunrise until sunset.
Also of note, if you hunt waterfowl in Arkansas, you must register separately for the federal Harvest Information Program, which can be done online or by telephone.
While Missouri's teal season closes out on Sept. 23, the Arkansas season continues through Sept. 30.
Big Turnout
A whopping 115 teams took part in last weekend's Ben Kruse 18-Fore-Life crappie tournament on Wappapello Lake, and the top finishing weights were pretty close.
David Tropf and Edwin Younger were the big winners on the day, bringing in 6.64 pounds to the scales.
Second place was earned by David McMullin and Robert Sanders with 6.56 pounds, while third place went to Brad Botsch and Danny Walker with 5.85 pounds.
Fourth place honors went to Dan Porter and Damon Thompson with 5.78 pounds, and fifth place was won by Curtis Glastetter and James Chism with 5.09 pounds.
The biggest crappie of the day, weighing 1.48 pounds, was caught by Stanley Staggs and Helen Channell. They barely edged out Michael Owens and Greg Harty's 1.47-pounder.
As always, money raised during the 18-Fore-Life event will help local cancer patients with their needs.
Big "O" Winners
Fifty-five teams fished the historic Big "O" bass tournament at Wappapello Lake, and while it took catching the day's biggest bass to get them over the hump, it was enough for the team of Taylor and Pyles to take the win. The pair's winning weight was 17.72 pounds, including the 6.67-pound big bass.
Second place, with 16.75 pounds, went to Batten and Kirby, while third place was earned by Hampton and Carnahan with 16.03 pounds.
Cook took fourth-place honors with a stringer weight of 14.78 pounds, and fifth place went to Hudson and Grey with 14.12 pounds.
The second-largest bass of the day, at 5.17 pounds, was caught by Breckenridge and Cheatham, while the third largest fish was weighed by Walker and Walker. It weighed 4.68 pounds.
Crappie Meetings
The Department of Conservation held two public meetings earlier this week on future crappie fishing regulations at Wappapello Lake.
After several years under a 9-inch minimum length limit, which hasn't been successful lately, MDC Fisheries management Biologist Dave Knuth has proposed a new regulation to eliminate minimum limit. The proposal also would continue to allow up to 30 crappies to be kept daily, but only 15 could be longer than 9 inches.
Part of his reasoning is that black crappies have become much more prominent in the lake, yet they grow slowly and rarely reach the 9-inch threshold. Without removing some of those smaller fish, they could overpopulate the lake and compete for food with larger crappies.
Input taken from the meetings, which were Monday and Tuesday, will be used to finalize a new regulation, which, after going through the normal rulemaking process, should become law next spring.