Turkey season ends with harvest of 38,730

The strong start to Missouri’s spring turkey season faded over the last two weeks, but it was enough to push the harvest a bit higher than a year ago.

Overall, hunters across the state ended up killing 38,730 turkeys compared to 36,231 last year.

Considering biologists were expecting a similar, if not lower, harvest because of reduced bird numbers, things turned out OK.

Then again, there were a lot of extra people in the woods this season, with so many laid off from their jobs at the moment, and that’s probably really where the harvest boost came from.

The top counties in the state were Franklin with 899 birds taken, Callaway with 699 and Laclede with 651.

Locally, every county in our readership area saw harvest increases this season, though some were just minuscule bumps.

Butler County hunters took home 89 birds compared to 84 last year.

In Carter County, the season tally was 161 turkeys, where a year ago hunters killed 137 birds.

Dunklin County hunters tagged 11 turkeys this spring, up from seven last year.

Reynolds County hunters barely surpassed last year’s 226 turkeys killed with 229 this season.

In Ripley County, the 154 turkeys taken this season was just slightly higher than the 149 tagged there last spring.

Stoddard County hunters pulled off a nice harvest increase this year by taking 232 birds, up from 194 last year.

The biggest increase in the turkey harvest locally came in Wayne County, where hunters tagged 305 birds. Last year, the county total was 236 turkeys.

While the overall number of turkeys taken this spring was up a bit, it’s important to read between the lines of the data available from the Department of Conservation to see things won’t get better for hunters, at least for the next couple of years, and the jake (juvenile gobbler) harvest is a good tool for measuring such things.

This year’s jake harvest was only 16.6% of the overall total, and that is about half of what it usually is. The low number legitimizes reports of a poor hatch last spring, but it also means there won’t be too many 2-year-old gobblers next year.

In the meantime, I’d be willing to bet, despite several years of declining turkey numbers, Missouri’s seasons and regulations will stay the same in the name of “tradition.” And while things whither away, more and more lengthy studies will have to be undertaken to understand what’s going on.

Water to Rise

Water levels at our local lakes and rivers continue to fluctuate as rains fall on the region off and on.

At Wappapello Lake on Wednesday, the water level was at 361.7 feet. It had been falling a few inches a day, but started to level off. Rain the last couple days certainly will change that.

Downstream of the dam, the St. Francis River at Fisk was holding at 5.7 feet, though it was projected to rise to 6.5 feet by Thursday.

At Clearwater Lake, the water level was dropping so slowly you could say it was basically stable at 498.48 feet. That’s less than 6 inches high for this time of year.

Downstream of Clearwater, the Black River at Poplar Bluff was at 5.55 feet on Wednesday and was projected to reach 9.7 feet early Thursday.

The Current River at Van Buren was at 5.36 feet on Wednesday, but was expected to jump up to 9.2 feet by Thursday morning.

Downstream at Doniphan, the river was holding at 3.12 feet, but was projected to rise again to 7.8 feet by Friday morning.

Tourney Results

Twenty-six teams fished last weekend’s East Ozark Bass Club tournament at Wappapello Lake.

Walker Williamson and Brodey Williamson came away as winners of the event with 17.48 pounds at the weigh-in.

Second place went to Clay Francis and Joey McAlister with 17.04 pounds, and third was earned by Joe Dougherty and Kason Henderson with 15.86 pounds.

Colton Jennings and Warren Manion wrapped up fourth place with 14.36 pounds, and the top five was rounded out by Mike Sadler and Justen Newton with 13.64 pounds.

Event Canceled

If you had plans to attend the Dexter Greenheads/Ducks Unlimited crawfish boil this Saturday, that event has been canceled and will not be made up.

“With all the restrictions going on, it’s just not conceivable to have an event like that right now,” said Ducks Unlimited Regional Director Martin Anderson.

The Dexter chapter will have its annual banquet on Oct. 10.

Duck Survey Canceled

In a bold move last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnership with the Canadian Wildlife Service, canceled their joint waterfowl breeding population and habitat survey, which has been flown over northern U.S. and Canadian prairie nesting grounds for the last 65 years.

That means accurate population data will not be used when setting season dates and limits for this fall, and instead, long-term data and projections will be used to make those determinations.