Waterfowl hunting is quickly winding down in Missouri.
The final segment of the South Zone duck season closed last weekend, leaving only goose hunting as an option, and it’s about to go away as well.
Saturday is the last day of the regular goose season in Missouri.
I know a few hunters who have had success on some specklebellies and Canada geese, with a very few snow geese in the mix.
Honestly, goose numbers haven’t been great locally, though with a little effort, they can be found. The southernmost portion of the bootheel, around Otter Slough and far eastern Butler County seem to be the best spots.
Starting Sunday, Missouri’s light goose conservation order kicks in.
The order will go through April, though after late February, you’ll likely not see any more geese.
Snows and Ross’s geese will be the legal quarry during the conservation order, and some regulations are relaxed compared to the regular season.
In particular, you can use unplugged shotguns and use electronic calls. There’s also no daily limit on light geese.
There are essentially two ways to hunt snow geese during the conservation order - decoying and stalking.
Decoying snow geese takes a lot of scouting, a lot of work and a lot of decoys - as in hundreds. However, it’s quite a rush when things go right and you get large groups of birds circling down into the decoys like a big tornado.
The other method is stalking them, where you sneak along ditch banks or other cover to get close to a feeding flock.
It’s also a rush, but it’s not the same.
If you can get within reasonable range, stalking can produce some big numbers of snow geese.
There are two problems with stalking snow geese which come up every year.
The first is specklebellies. They like to move with snow geese and almost always feed along the outer perimeter of a large group of snows. And every year, people get careless and kill some when they’re not in season. It pays to be careful about your shots.
The second problem is trespassing. It’s true, most landowners hate snow geese, but they also don’t like trespassers.
A simple knock on the door to ask permission will do you much better in the long run. And, while the majority of landowners may be hesitant to allow permission for deer or turkey hunting, you’re much more likely to secure it for snow goose hunting.
Fishing for crappies at Wappapello Lake has been pretty good lately, and as you’d expect, most catches have come from deep along the river channel in the upper portion of the lake.
The lake rose a bit after last week’s rain and remains about 3.5 feet high as of this writing. It is slowly falling.
Another option for fishing is Pool 1 at the Duck Creek Conservation Area. It’s more known for panfish in May and June, but fishing there in the winter months can be really good for crappie and pickerel.
The south end of Pool 1 is open for fishing, while the north end will open Sunday. Also, area manager Nicky Walker said, Duck Creek may be closed any time between Feb. 9-12, just like Mingo NWR next door, for aerial feral hog eradication efforts.
Pool 1 has a decent number of black crappies, and they get pretty big in there. The trick is just finding them.
Pickerel are predatory and, even in cold water, prefer faster-moving baits like inline spinners and buzz baits.
Before long, walleye fishing will pick up in the area’s rivers, particularly the Black and Current.
Within a few weeks, the smaller males will begin staging around the tailouts of the river pools, especially during low light hours, waiting for the bigger females to move in for spawning.
Crankbaits, jigs and live bait all can produce on walleyes.
Like crappie, walleyes provide some dandy eating.