Scott Morgan and friends celebrated New Year’s Eve flat on their backs in layout blinds in a field near Baldwin City, KS. Using only fourteen shell decoys, they had hundreds of Canadas checking them out all afternoon. Conscientious hunters that they are, Scott said they could easily have limited out but didn’t want to clean that many birds so they quit with six honkers in the bag.
Good dog work is at least half the fun of a waterfowl hunt and Scott’s Lab Kola did her part by dragging one goose on a 1/8-mile retrieve. The big gander weighed in at 15.5 lbs. and had a vise grip on Kola’s ear all the way.
Good opening weekend at the Lone Oak Duck Club, then tapering off. Now we’re iced up but hopefully not for long thanks to climate change. This cold weather should bring new birds down from up north (or push the ones that are here on down south). We’ll see what the rest of the season brings.
Speaking of climate change, the current issue of Delta Waterfowl magazine has an article about waterfowl migrating later than they used to.
Short answer:less severe winter weather and more acres of corn being planted in the Dakotas.
In fact the last few years some mallards and Canada geese haven’t migrated’t all. They don’t do it just because they like to fly.
Meanwhile we’re having fun and that’s what it’s all about.
Even though I don’t deer hunt in Missouri anymore I think it’s fun to play with my Bushnell trail cam just to see what’s sneaking around our Bates County property at night. I keep hoping I’ll catch something exotic like a mountain lion or bear, but this eight point buck will have to do for now.
He may even make it through the coming deer season as he seems to be pretty nocturnal. But if anybody bags him, can I have a couple of loin chops?
Once again it’s Tweener Time when we are treated to one of those cartoons that’s too raunchy for outdoor magazines but too outdoorsy for Playboy.
The full moon that occurs in the fall is often referred to as a harvest moon or hunter’s moon. Maybe if I redraw this and put undershorts on the guy someone will buy it. Or maybe it just isn’t very funny.
Want to feel like you’re a real hot stuff trout fisherman? Spend a few days at Rockbridge Trout Ranch in southern Missouri. Nice people, beautiful scenery, comfortable accommodations, and millions of huge, hungry rainbows finning lazily in the clear water, hoping somebody will throw them a woollybugger or zebra midge. But you’d better use 6X or even 7X tippet because the day of reckoning comes at check out time. You have to keep every fish you catch. They clean them for you and charge by the pound.
With the picturesque old mill and the excellent dining room with full service bar, Rockbridge isn’t a bad way to spend a few days. We were a little early for the full fall color display but it’s a beautiful area any time of year.
You don’t fish? Just go to Rockbridge anyway for the food, scenery and relaxing atmosphere. For reservations call (417) 679-3619.
Award winning fly tyer and Air Force veteran Mike George of Olathe, KS demonstrated his unique technique for working with deer hair for a small gathering of veterans at a Project Healing Waters FlyFishing meeting Monday night.
Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military personnel and veterans through fly fishing and associated activities. For more information see www.projecthealingwaters.org .
Yesterday was the second time I’ve caught a big channel catfish on a fly rod while bass fishing at Kill CreekLake near DeSoto, KS.
I knew immediately it wasn’t a big bass. Bass are close-in fighters. They like to slug it out up close and personal with lots of head-shaking top water acrobatics. Old Mister Catfish just heads back home to the bottom thinking, “Dang! I wish I hadn’t bit that thing!” He also makes long runs like a big trout. This one took me all the way into my backing. Hadn’t seen that since my last trip to the San Juan. Ten minutes later he was flopping in the boat and posing for a picture before being released. I love to eat catfish if somebody else cleans them.
The fly? Same pattern that fooled the last big cat at Kill Creek only this time white instead of purple: My own creation, the Conehead Buddybou. For a bass fly it catches lots of catfish.
The evening would have been complete if Larry Lunker had been with me, but I believe he was there in spirit.
Country music isn’t all that’s happening at Branson, Missouri. Water from Table Rock dam forms LakeTaneycomo which gets its name from Taney County, MO and provides miles and miles of some of the best trout fishing in the state.
If you enjoy fishing from a boat you’ll hope for lots of power generation from the dam, which raises the water level in Taneycomo several feet and provides a swift current.
If you’re like me and prefer to wade you’ll hope for zero generation. There will still be a gentle current and you’ll swear you’re fishing a beautiful Ozark river. Ned Spence and I hit Taneycomo in one of her more gentle moods Sept. 24th and 25th. Staying at Lilley’s Landing and fishing only a couple of hours each morning we made up in size what we lacked in numbers. Calm, sunny days are not ideal for trout fishing, yet Spence landed a beautiful 18” rainbow Tuesday morning. I followed up next day with another nice rainbow. It’s hard to measure a flopping fish while you’re trying to take its picture and keep from dropping your iPhone in the water but this beauty went at least 23 or 24 inches. Both fish were released.
Whether you want to fish, take in some shows, or just relax Lilley’s Landing is your kind of place. Check it out at www.lilleyslanding.com .
It took until the last weekend of the Missouri early teal season but the little bastards finally got here. After several sweaty and unproductive teal hunts my partner Bob Ritter finally saw something to swat at besides mosquitos.
Below: Bob’s Lab Pearl retrieves a blue wing teal.
Project Healing Waters veterans fishing with Capt. Rick Lisek out of Lilley’s Landing recently caught and released several beautiful rainbows and browns at Lake Taneycomo.
