By PAUL DAVIS
Outdoors Editor
Missouri's fall archery deer and turkey seasons open tomorrow, and while one biologist is optimistic for a good season, another is not.
Deer hunters in Southeast Missouri should experience a similar archery season to last year's, or maybe slightly better, according to Barbara Keller at the Missouri Department of Conservation.
"That region still has a slowly-growing population," she said.
Last year, bowhunters took 47,550 deer across the state.
Keller said she's seen very little evidence of an epizootic hemorrhagic disease outbreak this summer, unlike in previous years, and deer appear to be healthy.
In addition, because heavy flooding occurred before fawning time, she believes the spring floods had little to no effect on the deer population.
Hunter success, she said, will depend primarily on the weather and the acorn crop, which can vary widely.
Locally, the acorn crop appears to be spotty, with some areas seeing good numbers and others with few acorns.
On the other end of the spectrum, the fall archery turkey season looks to be especially challenging for hunters.
"It's not looking good in any region of the state," said MDC Resource Scientist Jason Isabelle. "Our preliminary data (from brood surveys) doesn't look good. In fact, it's universally bad."
Spring flooding and wet weather, Isabelle said, was "about as bad as you can get for nesting conditions," and with a re-nesting rate estimated at less than 50 percent, there just won't be many turkeys around this fall (really for the next couple years).
Archery turkey hunting, for most, is just a chance thing, though a few die-hards spend a lot of time in ground blinds specifically targeting flocks of birds (me!).
Good, bad hunting
It looks like teal hunting success over the weekend pretty much depended on where you were hunting.
At Otter Slough, 61 parties tried to draw for 21 spots on opening day, and 76 hunters bagged 246 teal.
On Sunday, 67 hunters killed 94 birds.
At Duck Creek, 51 hunters on Saturday killed 57 teal, and out of that harvest, 43 were blue-wings and 14 were green-wings. Numbers for Sunday weren't available
At Coon Island, the opening weekend was a bust. Conservation Agent Frank Campa said only four parties hunted the property Saturday and only one bird was taken. On Sunday, a single party hunted the area and was unsuccessful.
The teal season continues through Sept. 24, and things can change in a hurry, so it's not wise to give up too early.
Arkansas Teal
For those who want to hunt teal in Arkansas, the Natural State's season opens tomorrow (Sept. 15).
Just as it is in Missouri, the daily limit is six birds, whether they are blue-winged, green-winged or cinnamon teal, or any combination of those species.
The season in Arkansas will continue through Sept. 30.
There is a big change for teal hunters this fall if you hunt one of Arkansas' wildlife management areas: spinning-wing decoys no longer are allowed to be used on those properties.
You may recall Arkansas banned spinners for duck hunting in 2004, but after a few years, rescinded the ban. A partial ban was reinstated in 2015 and was expanded last year to all Arkansas Game and Fish Commission-owned management areas and lakes. This year's change further expands the ban to include the early teal season and youth-only season.
Kruse Tournament
A whopping 102 teams fished last weekend's Ben Kruse/18-Fore-Life crappie tournament at Wappapello Lake, a testament to the growth of the event over the last seven years.
Bernie, Mo., anglers Brad Botsch and Danny Walker were the day's winners with 8.64 pounds. They were followed in second place by Jackie Thompson and Lynn Thompson with 6.54 pounds.
Taking the third spot was the team of Terry Turlington and Steve Turner with 6.22 pounds, and Joe Dougherty and Kason Henderson grabbed fourth place.
Rounding out the top five spots was the team of Travis Causey and Michael Smart with 5.65 pounds.
Shooting Success
Poplar Bluff High School's trap team competed at the Missouri Youth Shooting Sports Alliance Fall Classic in Linn Creek, Mo., over the weekend and had a good showing.
Senior Hannah Cash earned fourth place in the Ladies Division, and her teammate, junior Tayler Hillis, grabbed the fifth spot.
Senior Hunter Seal was the team's top overall shooter at the event, winning first place honors in the High School Open Division.
Freshman Franklin Davidson got his first-ever 50 straight score in the competition, and eighth grader Garret Cooper shot his first 25 straight at an ATA event.
The event wraps up the season for the team, but a new one is right around the corner. Its next event is its self-hosted Fall Classic on Oct. 7 at the Poplar Bluff Gun Club. Just like in the past, several teams from high schools around the region are expected to compete.
Smallmouth
Tournament
For river anglers, the Current River Smallmouth Association will hold a tournament Saturday, with fishing from Doniphan, Mo.
Launch time will be 7 a.m. from the T.L. Wright ramp at Riverfront Park, and the weigh-in is slated for 5 p.m.
The organization will hold one more event in a couple weeks before its annual Classic in mid-October.
If you want to fish Saturday's event, give Paul Henderson a call at 573-686-5476.
Classic Tournament
This weekend is a big one for those who regularly fish the Wappapello Bass Circuit events.
The organization's Classic will take place both Saturday and Sunday, with fishing out of the Redman Creek ramp.
Fishing will start at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday and conclude at 3 p.m., and on Sunday, it will commence at 6:30 a.m. and finis up at 2 p.m.
In order to qualify for the Classic, you must have fished at least four of the six previous tournaments this year.
A pre-event meeting for all anglers is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday at the Wappapello VFW, which is north of the dam off Highway D.
There's some big money on the line, and the first-place winner will take home $10,000. Even the big bass pot is worth $1,000 to whoever catches the largest fish.
For more information, give Justun Buchanan a call at 573-429-6312.
Don't wait
If you live in Butler County and want to get hunter-education certified locally this fall, you're down to one chance to do so, unless you're age 16 or older and want to take the full online course (new this year).
The first of Butler County's two skills classes is Monday, but it's already filled up. That means the only remaining date to take the class in Poplar Bluff will be on Oct. 9, so you need to sign up soon.
To get into the class, you must first take the knowledge portion of the course, which can be done online or by completing the chapter review pages in the hunter education book.
You also must pre-register in order to attend the skills class, and you can do that online at mdc.mo.gov.
If you have questions, give Conservation Agent frank Campa a call at 573-300-3475.
Of course, other counties and agencies, like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, also will hold hunter education courses, so it's a good idea to keep an eye on those as well, using the same website.
Squirrel Cook-off
If you don't feel like fishing or hunting this weekend, but want to "get away," then Bentonville, Ark., may have just the thing for you - if you don't mind a five-hour drive.
Beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, the city will host its annual World Champion Squirrel Cook-off.
From squirrel tacos and pizza to burgers and more, you'll probably be able to find pretty much any kind of critter dish.
You may laugh (and rightly you should, because the event is made for fun), but there's some real prize money involved and some competitors take it pretty seriously.
The money raised helps various charities, so while you're having fun, you're also helping others.
And yes, the event even has a website, which you can find at www.squirrelcookoff.com.