Missouri's half million deer hunters closed out the state's 11-day November firearms season Tuesday with a total harvest of 199,427 deer, edging out last year's take of 191,368 by about 4 percent. The overall harvest also is the highest the state has experienced since 2012, when more than 204,000 were taken.
"We expected it to go up this year," said Missouri Department of Conservation Resource Scientist Barbara Keller. 'This was the earliest possible opening day we could have based on the formula for setting season dates."
Antlered bucks made up just more than 51 percent of the harvest, and that percentage was higher than normal. The earlier opening day and the fact some counties were taken out of the 4-point rule, Keller said, likely contributed to the increase.
Locally, every county ended up bettering last year's totals in varying degrees.
In Carter County, hunters took 1,714 deer compared to 1,329 last fall, and in Ripley County, this year's 3,066 was a good bit above the 2,414 killed there in 2017.
In Butler County, hunters managed to take 1,564 deer, topping last year's 1,318, and in Stoddard County, they tagged 1,259. That's only slightly better than the 1,180 taken there a year ago.
The harvest in Dunklin County was 309, up from last year's 257, and in Wayne County, always one of the state's best, hunters killed 3,430. In 2017, they took 2,779 deer during the same 11-day season.
The top counties at the end of the season were Franklin with 4,021, Howell with 3,858 and Callaway with 3,695.
Eight accidents were reported during the season, including three fatalities.
The state's second portion of the youth deer season opened today and will continue through Sunday.
The second segment typically sees much lower harvest numbers than the first since it comes right on the heels of the regular firearms season. Still, it's another opportunity for youngsters to get outdoors.
During the youth deer season, hunter orange clothing is required of all deer hunters, including bowhunters.
The antlerless deer season is next in some select counties (Madison, Bollinger and Cape Girardeau are the only close ones to our region) and will be open Nov. 30-Dec. 2.
The statewide alternative methods season wraps up gun hunting for deer this fall, running from Dec. 22 through Jan. 1.
With the closure of the regular firearms season, the archery season has reopened and will continue through Jan. 15.
Getting Stale?
Without a significant cold front in the last week to push new birds into Southeast Missouri, duck numbers haven't grown much. Statewide, there are a little more than one million birds on the wetlands this week, mostly in the north-central portion of the state.
Duck hunting, on the other hand, has gotten much tougher, at least locally.
If the bird-per-hunter average at the local managed wetlands is any indication, the ducks that are here surely must be getting pretty stale. Over the last week, the BPH has dropped significantly at both the Otter Slough and Duck Creek conservation areas, and both areas have seen days with BPHs under 1.0 lately. In fact, Duck Creek has been under 0.5 at least three of the last six days and on at least one didn't fill its available spots. I don't know if that's unprecedented, but I can't remember such a slow start to the season.
While hunting at Otter Slough Sunday morning, there just wasn't much flying, and our group saw maybe 200 ducks total (of course we were gar-holed on the northwest side). There wasn't a lot of shooting going on anywhere either.
What duck hunters need is a good cold front to push some new birds into the region, but at the moment, the only significant weather in the forecast is for Friday and Sunday, and it doesn't look like much.
Most of the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois and Iowa have fairly extensive snow cover currently, so new birds could be knocking on our door any time if they get the right nudge.
Currently, the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge is holding about 60,500 ducks, according to refuge manager Ben Mense. Officials also closed the gates on Pools 7 and 8 on Tuesday, so if and when any substantial amount of rain occurs, those units should start filling up.
"I'm hoping we'll have water in a couple weeks," Mense said.
This week's survey showed a little more than 43,000 ducks on the Duck Creek Conservation Area.
As far as flooding of the timber units, there's been no word from area managers.
The Otter Slough Conservation Area is holding 35,100 ducks this week, according to biologist Kevin Brunke. They also have about 8,000 snow geese and 1,500 specks hanging around.
At Coon Island, Brunke said, there are about 2,500 ducks. Pool 3 still is low, but pools 4, 5 and 6 are mostly full. Once some well changes are made, pool 7 will be flooded. Also, in order to protect new red oak saplings in the timber units, pools 8 and 9 will not be flooded at all this winter.
As a reminder, Missouri's South Zone first split, which opened yesterday, will close on Sunday. The second split will reopen on Dec. 3 and continue through Jan. 27.
The Middle Zone's second split is open and will run through Jan. 6.
Slab Time
Crappie fishing at Wappapello Lake has steadily improved lately, and some nice fish have been taken by anglers who work to find them.
Randy Hastings reported his best success was fishing deep, and when doing so last weekend, he caught nine keepers in nine casts. Moving to a jig and float and fishing shallow, the action slowed considerably.
Crappie Tourney
The Wappapello Crappie Club will be hosting a tournament on Saturday, with fishing from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m.
You can register the morning of the event or earlier at Sundowner Marina off Highway D, or you can call Dave Maddux at 573-718-2756.