Missouri Waterfowl Hunting page 2

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Geography Again

At this point most will agree that the central mid-west has good waterfowl hunting due to geography. This translates to good waterfowl hunting as enhanced by our seasonal temperate weather. We are in that region of the United States that is the fringe zone transcending warm and cold winters freeze line.

Warm winters holds the duck in our area shifting the migration peak toward the end of December much to the disgruntlement of Arkansas duck hunters. Cold winters will see the migration peak shift more towards the end of November. This leaves us with the condition of not hoping for a good migration during the waterfowl season, it leaves us for picking the difference between weather influenced shifting peak periods within our regulated seasons.

 

Private Missouri Waterfowl Attracting Wetlands

A view from one of our blinds on a flooded crop field within the Missouri River Valley proper that is part of the smallest of the three sub-basins to the overall Lower Missouri River Basin. The ridge line in the background is much further away than it appears.

missouri waterfowl

The crops this year were soybeans that leave little stubble to attract ducks. The surrounding 1,700 acres in field stubble under lease went a long way for bringing in ducks. Most years see this flooded crop field in corn.

This flooded field is a 1/4 section or a 160 acres with four blinds. The surrounding 1,700 acres of this lease is in crop stubble suitable for field sets for duck and goose. The surrounding area has thousand's of acres in row crops as the fertile valley soil is far too valuable to sustain the adverse effects of cattle. To the immediate south of this wetlands is the Bob Brown Conservation area and north is the well known Squaw Creek Waterfowl Refuge. Between these two refuges heavily covered in water, the river and our wetlands, this centralized area within a very large flat valley has very good duck attracting capability.

This year the crops was beans, prior year corn. Plenty of water shows through. The round structure in the near center of the picture immediately above is the water inlet from the electric pump and shallow large diameter casing well we use to pump this wetlands. All the water around each of the blinds is well within easy chest wader depth. The deep water on this wetlands is the drainage cannel that is marked on the member issued wetlands map and well outside of all duck blind shooting pools.

A larger view of the same wetlands (flooded crop) is seen behind this youth hunter. The grain storage silos barely visible at the right far ground is the parking area for this wetlands.

Micro Flyways

Finally, the greatest value this Association brings the waterfowl hunter is understanding and placing into action the concept of micro flyways.

It is widely held that while the large expanse of the river basins has overall good waterfowl attracting properties not all areas within the basin are equal in these attracting characteristics, holding capacity or density of migration pattern. To this end we have paid far more lease money for wetlands development in some better waterfowl localities and completely ignored existing wetlands at much lower cost in other areas directly due to this understanding of where to hunt and where not to. The payoff is that better waterfowl hunting sustains a higher membership renewal and in the case of our waterfowl hunters they are the least likely to quit the organization of all hunt disciplines. Hunt our wetlands one time and this will be proven.

Our Missouri waterfowl hunting on our own wetlands and crop fields is for those that want to have their own self guided goose and duck hunt on private wetlands and avoid the competitive nature of public lands. For those that can call, camouflage and decoy we have the last element, the wetlands and blinds, to insure as good season of a season as the migration will allow.

Duck Hunts

Goose Crop Field Hunts