For those who still have an unfilled firearms deer permit in hand, Missouri’s alternative methods deer season kicks off Saturday.
Fortunately, it seems like deer have been moving pretty well lately, and I’ve even heard reports of a fairly strong secondary rut, with bucks pushing does pretty hard.
The weekend weather forecast looks pretty good for hunting, though it may be a bit windy Sunday.
As always in the late season, it’s probably best to focus your efforts around food sources, because filling their bellies is a deer’s No. 1 priority heading into the cold months.
During the alternative methods season, deer can be taken with long bows, recurve bows, compound bows, crossbows, atlatls, centerfire handguns, large-caliber air rifles and muzzleloading rifles and pistols at least .40-caliber.
Just like every other deer season, shooting hours will be one half hour before sunrise until one half hour after sunset.
Hunter orange clothing (minimum of a vest or jacket and a hat or cap) is required of all deer hunters during the alternative-methods season, with two exceptions.
Those exceptions are for those who hunt on lands restricted to archery methods (think Mingo NWR), and for those who are hunting on an archery permit only.
Yes, it’s a bit weird. You can take a deer with a bow during the alternative methods season using a firearms permit, and you’ll be required to wear orange. Conversely, you also can take a deer with a bow using an archery permit and not have to wear orange.
And one more thing … don’t forget to Telecheck any deer you take by 10 p.m. on the day taken.
Missouri’s bowhunters have officially set a new harvest record, and any deer added through the remainder of the season will only make it larger.
As of Wednesday morning, the statewide harvest was 62,478 deer, eclipsing the old record of 61,209, which was set last year.
Locally, the harvest hasn’t changed much since last week, but it is inching upward.
In Butler County, bowhunters have taken 651 deer, and in Carter County, they’ve tagged 706.
Dunklin County bowhunters have taken home 102 deer, while those in Reynolds County have killed 730.
In Ripley County, the tally is 696 deer, and in Stoddard County, it’s 687.
Wayne County again leads the region with 1,201 deer taken so far.
Those with unfilled archery permits have until Jan. 15 to get the job done.
Duck numbers across Southeast Missouri remain similar to last week, without any significant pushes of new birds into the area.
Ironically, I was talking to biologists in Western Kentucky and Northwest Tennessee Monday evening and both reported pretty strong pushes of mallards and pintails. I guess we missed it by that much.
With a mid-week weather front coming through and a dip in overnight temperatures, we may still see a bump in numbers. At the very least, it may get our stale birds to move around a little bit.
If you hunt ducks in Arkansas, that state’s third and final segment of its duck season will open Saturday.
Just like Missouri and many other states in this portion of the Mississippi flyway, the Arkansas season will close Jan. 31.
Wappapello Lake has begun falling slowly toward its winter conservation pool, and as of the my last check, it was just over 357 feet.
By the looks of the graph, the lake is falling a few inches a day.
Depending on what happens with Wednesday’s rain and how much of it falls in the upper reaches of the watershed, the fall to winter pool may be slowed for a couple days.
The good thing about the drop is the resulting rise of the St. Francis River downstream may help duck hunters, at least temporarily.
Reports I’ve been hearing from anglers say fishing for crappies at Wappapello Lake has been hit or miss.
Before Wednesday’s rain, the upper lake was reported to be very clear, and fishing pressure has been very light.
Fishing deep along the river channel has resulted in some nice catches, but larger fish have been elusive lately, at least from what I’ve been told.