Wappapello and Clearwater lakes have begun to fall after rising several feet since last weekend’s rains.
As of Wednesday morning, Wappapello’s level was at 363.06 feet, about 7 feet above normal.
Over at Clearwater Lake, the water is up a little more than 6 feet above normal.
At last look, the lake was at 500.62 feet and falling ever-so-slowly after a Tuesday evening crest at 500.82.
The normal elevation for Clearwater this time of year is 494 feet.
Our area rivers also rose after the most recent round of rain.
The St. Francis River at Fisk measured 11.23 feet Wednesday and was projected to reach 12.3 feet by Thursday.
With a discharge coming from Wappapello Lake’s dam upstream, the river is expected to remain high at least through the weekend.
The Black River at Poplar Bluff showed 7.31 feet on the gage Wednesday and was expected to reach 10.4 feet on Thursday.
Just like the St. Francis to the east, the Black River likely will stay up for a while, the result of the discharge upstream at Clearwater Lake’s dam.
The Current River, not constrained by any dams, was not as affected by the rains as the other two local rivers were.
The Current River at Van Buren crested Monday at 6.62 feet and already is down to 5.2 feet.
At Doniphan, it crested early Monday at 4.54 feet and now is at 3.1 feet.
Fisheries biologists from the Missouri Department of Conservation will be conducting their annual walleye and paddlefish survey next week, and I plan to tag along, as usual.
The walleyes in the Black, St. Francis, Current and Eleven Point rivers are a specific genetic strain, only found in those waters, so keeping up with the health of the fish is important.
I should have info from the survey next week, barring any changes in the schedule.
The Butler County Coon Club will host a UKC bench show and hunt Saturday, based at its headquarters off County Road 607, south of Poplar Bluff.
The show is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., and the hunt will follow at 7:30.
If you need information, call Terry Uhl at 573-714-1624 or Kevin Payne at 573-281-6580.
Tickets still are available for the Heartland Gobblers/National Wild Turkey Federation banquet Saturday in Poplar Bluff.
The event will begin at 5 p.m. at The Grotto, off Aad Grotto Road on Poplar Bluff’s north side.
Tickets cost $50 for an individual or $65 for a couple, while JAKES tickets for those age 17 and under cost $20.
Several sponsorships also are available.
Contact Chuck Stewart at 573-421-1257 for tickets or information.
For those planning ahead, fur buyer Marc Romine will make his last stop at Poplar Bluff’s Sale Barn next weekend.
As usual, he will set up shop around 9 a.m. and plans to leave around 11.
If you have bobcat or otter pelts needing to be tagged, Conservation Agent Mark Skelton should be on hand to take care of those for you.
We’ve now reached the middle of March, so a lot of folks’ outdoor attention is turning to the upcoming spring turkey season.
Of course, it’s no secret turkey numbers have been down across most of the central portion of the country for several years now, leading to a lot of frustration.
The Missouri Department of Conservation worked on a study in several northern counties between 2014 and 2018, and the results are interesting.
Using banded birds and radio tracking telemetry, biologists were able to estimate harvest data and nesting success.
What they learned was adult turkey survival was similar to past studies.
“Gobbler annual survival was relatively high,” said MDC biologist Reina Tyl, who now oversees the turkey program.
Harvest rates were considered relatively low, and hens taken during the fall season only amounted to about 1% of their total population.
For those saying MDC should eliminate the fall season, those numbers might change your mind.
According to Tyl, the data collected leads biologists to believe it “is unlikely the population decline is observed in recent years is being driven by (adult) turkey survival.”
Poult survival, however, was another thing.
Hens wearing radio backpacks in the spring were located on their nests, and if they were gone for more than two consecutive days, biologists would check the nest for eggshells. Using that method, they could determine how many poults were hatched.
After 28 days, they would track the hen, flush her, and count the poults with her.
“What we found was that several of those reproductive rates — nesting rate, nest success and poult survival — were lower than estimates of those same rates during the 1980s,” Tyl said in a report to the National Wild Turkey Federation.
“In general, fewer hens were attempting to nest, fewer of those nests were successfully hatching, and fewer poults were surviving to be 28 days old than in the 1980s,” Tyl reported. “Even in years where the weather seemed favorable for a good hatch, poult survival remained low.”
With that study complete, MDC is embarking on another one, focused more on the factors affecting poult survival.
From what I can tell, the leading theory is high numbers of predator species, like bobcats, foxes, coyotes, and nest raiders like raccoons and skunks, are taking poults out of the population.
Arkansas biologists already came to that conclusion a while back and opened up predator hunting year-round on private lands. If turkey numbers seem to rebound, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission likely will make the regulation effective statewide.
Back in Missouri, Tyl said, there also is evidence the numbers of small insects, the primary food for young poults, have dropped.
It will be interesting to see what happens when this study is done and if MDC will stick to tradition, as normal, or do something about it in the way of regulation changes.
Paul Davis is outdoors editor for the Daily American Republic and can be reached at pdavis.dar@gmail.com.