By PAUL DAVIS
Outdoors Editor
Missouri's fall firearms turkey season, which opens Sunday and runs throughout the month of October, gets nowhere near the interest it once did, but for some, it's still a time-honored tradition that gets at least a little attention.
Unfortunately, this fall's season looks to be an especially tough one because of a lack of young birds, a situation brought on by the second consecutive year of poor spring hatches, due primarily to heavy rains and flooding during peak nesting time.
"We're far from good," said MDC Biologist Jason Isabelle of the fall season outlook. "It's going to be a pretty tough season."
The statewide poult-to-hen ration during summer surveys remained the same as last year at 0.8 poults per hen, and that's far off the five-year average of 1.6.
Locally, the Ozarks East productivity region fell slightly from 0.9 last year to 0.8 this year. Before last year's poor hatch, our region consistently had some of the best hatches in the state.
The worst regions for turkey numbers this summer, Isabelle said, were the Ozarks West and West Prairie, with an index of 0.6.
Last year saw the lowest number of fall turkey hunting permit sales since the season began in the late 70s, Isabelle said, and with low bird counts again in 2017, this year's permit numbers could be even less.
There are a few ways to hunt turkeys in the fall, but the traditional method involves finding a flock and scattering them, then calling the young birds back to the gun. It's a time-proven technique, and it works well.
Some hunters also stalk birds, edging through cover until they're close enough for a shot, while others simply wait in areas they've seen turkeys feeding.
Based on my experience, fall hunters have a much better chance of success in the first week of the season. That's not because the birds are educated later, but because they're usually still feeding heavily on grasshoppers in open fields then and are much easier to find. Once the acorns start falling in earnest in the timber, those birds get much harder to track down.
If you go, the season limit is two birds, and you can take both on the same day. Just be prepared to do a lot of walking.
Rabbit Season
It doesn't really draw much interest until the weather turns colder, but Missouri's rabbit season also opens Sunday.
Without a heavy frost yet, pretty much any cover you find will be thick, and even though rabbits get a lot of moisture from their food, it may be a good idea to hunt near a water source.
If you run beagles, be sure to give them plenty of water and plenty of breaks.
The daily limit is six, only two of which can be swamp rabbits.
Slow Going
With the temperature finally expected to cool down, maybe Missouri's bowhunters will start having a little more success.
That's not to say the hunting has been bad; it's just been too darn hot to give it much effort.
So far, the harvest is all over the place, with some counties seeing good numbers and others not so much. For instance, last weekend, only two deer were taken in Butler County, while 17 were taken in Stoddard County and 18 in Wayne County.
As of yesterday afternoon, the harvest in Carter County was 50, and in Ripley County, bowhunters have taken 41 deer.
In Butler County, the total so far is 29, and in Stoddard County, it's 47.
Dunklin County hunters have arrowed seven deer so far, and in Wayne County, the harvest is 70.
Statewide, hunters have killed slightly north of 3,500 deer so far, which is a few hundred less than they'd taken a year ago at this point.
Crappie Fishing
For those who would rather spend time on the water than hunt, the word I'm hearing is crappie fishing has been pretty good lately at Wappapello Lake.
Jigs remain the best bait, and covering a lot of water could produce a lot of fish.
Despite the lack of rain lately, the lake is at normal recreation pool. One thing anglers will notice is the water temperature hasn't yet really begun to drop.
Fishing also remains good in the spillway, with everything from white bass, catfish and crappie to a variety of rough fish being caught regularly.
Walkers Win
Thirty-two teams fished Sunday's Angler's Choice/Bass Quest tournament, which was fished out of the Chaonia Landing ramp at Wappapello Lake.
A pair of familiar faces, Dell Walker and Danny Walker, were the event's top anglers, bringing in 14.77 pounds to the weigh-in. Their first-place finish netted them $1,400.
Jamie Toon and Ron Taylor's weight of 14.32 pounds was good enough for second place and $1,130. They also had the day's big bass, which weighed 5.32 pounds.
Coming in third place was the team of Gale Breckenridge and Doug Cheatam with 13.85 pounds, and fourth went to Eric Batton and Lance Kearbey with 12.26 pounds.
Rounding out the top five spots was Team Terry - Terry Young and Terry Holmes - who had 11.47 pounds.
The Angler's Choice circuit has one more scheduled event at Wappapello this fall, on Oct. 15.
Chaonia Open
The 46th annual Chaonia Open bass tournament, hosted by Rich's Chaonia Landing, will take place Saturday on Wappapello Lake.
A launch time of 7 a.m. has been set, and weigh-in will be at 2:30 p.m.
The entry fee for the tournament is $100 per team, plus an extra $10 if you want to enter the big bass competition.
The first-place team will take home $1,200 or 25 percent of the entry fees, while second place will earn $800 or 15 percent.
The big bass pot pays out 100-percent of the fees collected, with 50 percent going to the winner, 35 percent to second place and 15 percent to third.
A unique thing about the Chaonia Open is the chili cook-off, which takes place at the weigh-in.
A portion of the tournament entry fees will go to fund prize money for the chili cook-off, which anglers will vote on during the weigh-in. Spectators also can sample the chili for a $3 fee, all of which goes to the cook-off winner.
Entry forms are available online at www.chaonialanding.com or by calling Dallas Rich at 573-297-3206.
Smallmouth
Tournament
For river anglers, the Current River Smallmouth Association will host its final regular-season tournament of the year on Saturday, with fishing from Van Buren, Mo.
The launch time from the Watercress ramp will be at 7 a.m., and the weigh-in will start at 5 p.m.
Paul Henderson has more information at 573-686-5476.
The club's last event of the year will be its Classic, set for Oct. 14 at Doniphan, Mo.
Teal Tale
I finally made it out to do a little teal hunting before the season wrapped up Sunday, and it was a little better than expected for that late in the game.
There were a few more birds around than I had anticipated, but of course they were circling and landing in the decoys well before shooting time, and they didn't stick around long.
I did manage to kill two, while my buddy took one, and in short order, the temperature soared and the birds were done flying for the day.
The total count for the season at Otter Slough was around 700 teal, which, biologist Kevin Brunke said, was "not great, but better than I thought given the lack of cold fronts this season."
Teal season numbers weren't available from Duck Creek because there's a big staff shake-up going on and it's next to impossible to get anyone on the phone.
Waterfowl
Reservations
Speaking of duck hunting, if you applied for a waterfowl reservation through the Missouri Department of Conservation's website over the last few weeks, the results of that drawing should be published on Sunday, and you can reach them on the department's main page at mdc.mo.gov.
By the way, if you're planning ahead for the QuickDraw process at Otter Slough Conservation Area, the first day to apply this fall will be on Oct. 27 for the Nov. 4 opener.
Trading Days
Finally, the Butler County Coon Club will host a Trading Days event Saturday at its headquarters building off County Road 607, south of Poplar Bluff.
The event, according to Terry Uhl, will begin at daylight and have a $2 admission fee for everyone.
You're invited to bring any kind of dogs, guns and hunting gear you'd like to trade or sell.
If you need more information, call Uhl at 573-714-1624 or Mike Wagner at 573-776-5663.