By PAUL DAVIS
Outdoors Editor
Other than a few warm and windy days, weather conditions over the course of Missouri's firearms deer season, which closed Tuesday, were generally good, and hunters ended up topping last year's harvest by a good margin.
Over the course of the 11-day season, hunters across Missouri bagged 191,368 deer, up from 185,066 a year ago and the best harvest since the 2012 season.
"I expected the harvest to be about the same or a little better than last year," said Missouri Department of Conservation Resource Scientist Barbara Keller, "and that's what happened."
Keller said the weather, overall, helped with the harvest.
Interestingly, just as it has been in many recent years, the statewide harvest lagged behind the previous year up until the last couple days of the season, when the doe harvest surged. That likely indicates hunters were waiting for larger bucks to show, then ultimately shot does to avoid going home empty-handed.
Locally, most counties recorded similar harvests to last year, though the numbers still are preliminary and will be corrected in time (for instance, several hunters checked deer in Butler County on antlerless permits, something not even legal).
In Carter County, hunters took 1,329 deer compared to 1,530 a year ago. In neighboring Ripley County, the tally was 2,414, down from last year's 2,512.
In Butler County, hunters surpassed last year's take of 1,216 deer by killing 1,318 this year. In Stoddard County, they killed 1,180 this season compared to 1,103 in 2016.
Dunklin County hunters tagged 257 this year, compared to 275 one year ago, and in Wayne County, the harvest dropped from 3,222 last year to 2,779 this year.
The four incidents reported last week were the only ones recorded over the course of the season.
Butler County Conservation Agent Frank Campa said the first few days of the season had heavy hunting pressure, but it dropped off dramatically after that. Most hunters, he said, "were compliant with regulations in the field," though it was apparent a "certain percentage of hunters do not refer to the regulations at all."
Youth Season,
Part Two
The second segment of Missouri's youth deer season kicked off today and will continue through the weekend.
The weather forecast looks pretty good, if not a little warm on Friday and Saturday, so the youngsters should be comfortable while hunting.
After the late youth season, the final firearms deer season, at least locally, is the alternative methods portion Dec. 23-Jan. 2.
While there is an antlerless deer season Dec. 1-3 in a limited number of counties, it doesn't effect our region.
Bowhunting
Now that the November firearms deer season has come and gone, the archery season has opened again.
Remember, if you plan to bowhunt this Friday through Sunday, you'll need to wear hunter orange clothing because of the youth deer season.
Deer movement probably will be stifled for a while until they settle down, but there should be some secondary rutting activity coming up in early December.
Strong Migration
A couple of timely weather fronts lately have helped push good numbers of ducks into the Southeast Missouri area, and the result is hunters are having a lot of success.
A big push of mallards occurred during a front on Nov. 6-7, and again this week after Saturday's big temperature drop. Besides mallards, the numbers of pintails, gadwalls and other species also remain strong.
In fact, according to MDC Wetland Ecologist Frank Nelson, who compiles all the weekly duck numbers across the state, we're actually well ahead of schedule as far as duck migration goes. Missouri already has more than one million birds (two-thirds are mallards), something which typically doesn't happen until mid-December.
At the two major local managed wetlands, Duck Creek and Otter Slough conservation areas, hunter success numbers have been good, with daily bird-per-hunter numbers ranging from about 2.1 to 4.3.
Of course, good news usually is offset with an equal dose of bad news, and that may hold true for those who like to hunt flooded timber.
There have been a lot of questions lately about when Pool 8 on the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge will be flooded, since the last few years it's begun around Thanksgiving. The answer to everyone's question, unfortunately, isn't likely to make them happy.
Here, in a nutshell, is the crux of it: In most years, some water from Duck Creek's Pool 1 is used to supplement significant rainwater to flood Pool 8, but this year, the water just isn't there from either source.
"We don't have the water to do that this year," said MDC Southeast Region Wildlife Division Supervisor Matt Bowyer about Duck Creek's ability to use Pool 1 water for Pool 8.
Basically, staff at Mingo are completely reliant on a significant amount of rain to fill the pool (and the adjacent Pool 7, if possible).
"We'll shut the radial gates in Ditch 1 and 2 (where the majority of Pool 8's water flows from) in the next couple weeks, depending on rainfall," said Mingo refuge manager Ben Mense. "But if there's no rain coming, there's no reason to shut them yet.
"We don't have any other mechanism to flood Pool 8 without rainfall."
So basically, without a bunch of rain, there will be no duck hunting in Pool 8 this season.
In 2012, Pool 8 was dry for the entirety of the duck season, Mense noted, but occasional "drying out is definitely not a bad thing (except for duck hunters)."
Mense said staff "always will shut the gates to flood, but if it doesn't, the dry conditions are good for the pin oaks and other species" to regenerate new growth.
Back over at Duck Creek, pools 2 and 3 currently are partially flooded, and more water will be added once the ground temperature gets low enough to make the trees go dormant. Until then, the majority of the duck hunting will take place in the open units, A and B.
Missouri's South Zone first split opened yesterday and will run through Sunday. The second split will pick back up Dec. 4 and continue through Jan. 28.
At the Coon Island Conservation Area in southern Butler County, Missouri Department of Conservation biologist Kevin Brunke said, water is in short supply.
"I've been pumping hard for a month," Brunke said. "With the river low, it sucks back in the ground as fast as I can pump it in some of the units."
With that said, it might take a while before the water starts holding in the pools.
Since Coon Island is a first-come, first-serve area with no draw, and limited water means limited hunting spots, it'll be important to play nice with other duck hunters. That means you shouldn't be crowding others, and if they beat you to a spot, go elsewhere.