To say the fall hunting seasons are off to a slow start might be the biggest understatement of the year.
The teal season and dove opener were mediocre, and the archery and fall firearms turkey seasons are just as poor.
I’m going to blame it on the weather. It’s been far warmer than it should be for early October, and that fact probably has kept a lot of folks out of the field.
I think a lot of the blame also can be directed at the acorn crop, which appears to be pretty strong this fall. Basically, the deer don’t have to move much to fill their bellies.
Plus, it’s not like there aren’t any deer. Trail camera photos show they’re just moving mostly after dark.
The archery deer harvest three weeks into the season is the lowest I’ve seen in a long time.
The statewide harvest as of Wednesday morning was 8,782 deer. That’s about 40% less than last year’s 14,449 at the same time.
Every local county is down, some quite dramatically.
In Butler County, bowhunters have taken 45 deer compared to 164 last year.
In Carter County, the tally so far is 112 deer, still below last year’s 155.
Dunklin County bowhunters have tagged 12 deer, down from 18 a year ago.
Reynolds County bowhunters have arrowed 107 deer, off from last year’s 175.
The harvest so far in Ripley County is 77 deer, down from 160.
In Stoddard County, 102 deer have been taken so far compared to 172 last year.
Wayne County, still leads the region, to nobody’s surprise, but its 133 deer falls far short of last year’s 322 at this point.
Of course, things can change quickly. A dip in the temperatures would certainly help, and bucks will begin cruising around more looking for does in a few weeks.
I did see four deer, including a nice buck, while bowhunting over the weekend, but I think that was only because somebody’s stupid free-ranging dogs ran them past me. On a positive note, I heard a flock of white-fronted geese passing overhead, the earliest I can ever remember hearing them migrating into the area.
It’s still very early, but the fall firearms turkey season also is falling short of last year’s harvest, which was the second-lowest on record.
Only 398 birds have been taken statewide so far compared to 593 a year ago.
Locally, three have been taken in Carter County, five in Stoddard County and five in Wayne County.
The sheer number of acorns dropping right now isn’t going to make turkey hunting any easier. Sure, they’ll still hit the fields for a grasshopper meal, but not nearly as much once they find the acorns.
The Current River Smallmouth Association will wrap up its season Saturday when it hosts its annual Classic event at Doniphan.
The launch time will be 7 a.m., and fishing will continue through 5 p.m.
Randy Sullivan is the club president and can be reached at 417-252-4400.
I spent a bit of time talking with Department of Conservation Fisheries Management Biologist Paul Cieslewicz last week and learned some interesting information about the paddlefish population in the Black River.
If you didn’t know already, MDC has proposed a statewide minimum length limit on paddlefish of 32 inches. Currently, that limit is 24 inches. An existing limit of 34 inches would stay in effect on Lake of the Ozark, Table Rock Lake, Truman Lake and their tributary streams.
The reason for the proposed change is to allow more female paddlefish to reach sexual maturity before they are removed from the water, potentially boosting reproduction.
“This will help make paddlefish waters more sustainable for natural reproduction and result in larger fish available for harvest,” MDC said in a news release.
That sustainability, Cieslewicz said, is critically important in the Black River, because the harvest there is much higher than in other state waters.
“When we looked at exploitation, the Black River is the highest by far,” Cieslewicz said. “Our harvest rate is way high, so we’re overharvesting our paddlefish.”
Using a large data set from jaw-banded paddlefish, biologists were able to estimate harvest over a period of several years.
In the Mississippi River, an estimated 2.5% of the paddlefish are being taken, while the St. Francis River, Lake of the Ozarks, Table Rock Lake and Truman Lake range between 7.7% and 8.7%.
The Black River below the Clearwater Lake dam, on the other hand, averages 26.3% harvest and saw it as high as 38.6% in 2020.
“That’s scary. Even our lowest harvest year is double everyone else’s,” Cieslewicz said. “The Black River has the highest harvest rate in the state.”
While some may not be happy with the new regulation, which should take effect in the spring, it will not shut down the fishery, Cieslewicz insisted.
“I’ve caught 500 fish over last five years, and all of them were over 24 inches,” he said, “and 42% of our fish are still over 32 inches. So, it’s not like we’re shutting down the fishery completely”
Plus, Cieslewicz said, paddlefish grow well.
“Our fish grow about an inch and a quarter per year for an adult,” he said.
A 24-inch paddlefish in the Black River, Cieslewicz said, averages around 7.3 pounds, while one measuring 32 inches is closer to 17.8 pounds.
Paddlefish from the Black and St. Francis rivers also travel widely, Cieslewicz noted.
“These fish move. Some stay here, but there are some that are travelers,” he said. “We’ve had at least three fish caught below the Kentucky and Barkley dams.”
Others have been caught in West Memphis, Arkansas, and “the farthest fish ever was up in Iowa. It went down the Black River, down the White River, up the Mississippi River, then took a left into the Missouri River,” Cieslewicz said.
Anyone who wants to comment about the paddlefish in the Black or St. Francis rivers is asked to contact Cieslewicz by email at paul.cieslewicz@mdc.mo.gov or call the MDC Southeast Regional Office at 573-290-5730.