March 2005 Hunting Updates

31 Mar

We received an email from Iraq requesting some hunting oriented morale support for our soldiers. The request is for hunting and or hunting related training DVDs or tapes to help pass the time that so much goes unoccupied in spite of what the news media may portray on the evening news. For the most part these soldiers have a good bit of slack time and recreational time is spent with whatever their friends and family members may provide as routine mail order is non-existent. For those that may have some old videos they no longer watch and would like to send them to our soldiers use this mailing address: LT Randall Russell, Bravo Company 145th SPT BN, 116th BCT (Forward), APO AE 09368. Thanks.

We added a web page describing some of our strip pit fishing that is available for members. For those that have been to the pits this is nothing new. For any member that has not yet fished them this page may be all the motivation necessary for a day on the water. Have a good read and schedule a day for fishing.

30 Mar

Richard S has sent in a second of what he promises to be a series of pheasant hunting tactics articles. This article is on how to tackle tall prairie grass habitat using available elements for the single or small group hunter. Thanks Richard, it all adds up.

Dear Mid-America Hunting Members, Thank you for taking time to read this message. I am an artist specializing in pencil portraits drawn from photographs. My favorite subjects are of people and the game they have gotten hunting or fishing. These original drawings make a very unique gift for your members. I have attached one drawing for you to look at. At your convenience I would like to invite you to look at my website (www.ccaseysart.com) to see more artwork and for contact information, ordering and pricing details. If there is anything I can help you with, please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Cliff Casey
 

Pictures from a recent land run looking over new land within a great Missouri turkey hunting region. The second is a fallow hay field that hens seek for nesting leading off to roost trees. The first picture is an example of how hidden this spot is looking down from a thickly wooded ridge to the field in the bottom of a small valley. This one spot surrounded by multiple growth trees on hills is exactly the type of deer and turkey habitat we lease. The retired landowner told of the flocks he seen with actual bird counts and where he had found nests. Priceless information that makes the land run process worthwhile.

Some general reminders coming out of the recent turkey reservations. First, please do not make reservations from memory. Check your online map sheets to ensure any particular numbered property is still listed, meaning a current lease. If the property is not on the map sheet it is not available for hunting. Next, when we describe a numbered property per hunter per day it is the number of the property and if that property has a letter sub-identifier it includes the number and the letter.

Various lodging pages have received infrequent updates. All known services are listed. If your favorite is no longer listed it is due to a business change and it is no longer available. We list all lodging, campground, wrecker, veterinarian and meat lockers that are located within each county or as is reasonable in the more heavily populated counties. Should anyone have a listing they would like to have posted simply email us the details and county.

28 Mar

Matt K and family never fail to produce some of the best youth pictures on the website. Have a look at his fifth in a series fishing web pages covering several years as seen in the maturing faces of his children. Congratulations Matthew it is clearly evident to us what a great dad you are! For all of us that were once children we share a bit of envy for yours. Thank you for allowing us to have such a unique insight into what truly looks to be a great snapshot into your family.

25 Mar

On a recent land run we met with a landowner that we have been doing business with for close to 20 years. He's been very satisfied with the quality of our hunters and passed our name to an elderly neighbor that has some prime hunting land he tipped her it's an easy way to make some additional income. The habitat looked great, but we didn't see much game while walking and scouting the land, so we waited to see what might come out to feed. Over 60 turkeys came out, so our gut feelings were confirmed this was a piece of property we will submit a bid on a lease for the future.

Lloyd R. has been in the club since 1994 and primarily uses the club for fishing. After seeing so many deer on the property during the summer months, Lloyd decided to get in on the action and take a poke at deer hunting to put some meat in his freezer, since he enjoys eating all types of wild game. Typical result of not putting too much pressure on the hunt and taking what is given to you. Lloyd, congratulations and enjoy the meat.

23 Mar

Have a read of the John and Karen's fifth consecutive end of season upland hunting report as much for the information on their having their first "off" year as for the excellent pictures of two very stylish bird dogs. This upland bird dog hunting team travels a great distance each year for two hunts to do on those few short weeks what they cannot get done in their home state. Thank you Karen and John for yet another factual hunting account and some great pictures. Your pictures are certainly in the top 1% that we have seen.

Those gone scouting are telling of some good sign. The picture left is of a shredder rub. He didn't tell where he found it and we didn't ask. Every hunter has the opportunity to make his own success relying on his own skills with the land resource the Association provides. That hunter did say he found it on one of the properties we recommend he hunt during his first year in the Association some years back.

Another fishing report from the same young man earlier. It seems spring break is longer each year. This one on bass. The conversation went along the lines that it took over 2 hours to find them and through the use of sonar finding them hanging off an unknown ledge within the pond proved to be the right spot. Once there, jigging with small rooster tails of light colors with a quick pop of the wrist caught the fish. All were caught and released and over the next 2 hours there was an assumption they may have seen the same fish twice. Live bait and spinners were useless. See the entire series of pictures on his web page.

20 Mar

Mike who takes a two day drive time to hunt when he can shares with us his latest success. For us that know something of what Mike has been through both in his job and hunting he is an example of perseverance that sets the standards for all of us. The simple story is tenacity in the face of everything. Thank you Mike for taking the time to share your pictures with us. While many don't, you did, we will remember that effort.

19 Mar

Take a kid fishing. We can put that saying into practice. The first of the early fish reports find plenty of hits with some of size, many small and fun for all.

14 Mar

Richard S a long time member and pheasant hunter offers us one snapshot into a hunting technique he found effective when hunting other than tall prairie grass. Thank you Richard for one more piece to the puzzle.

11 Mar

This is the story we are sticking to. A little while back two long time members came by the office and the talk soon turned to spring turkey season. Both of these members thought it would be a good idea to have an article on the website telling those traveling to hunt out this way some techniques that work well for our central midwest birds. We agreed that would be a good article to have and asked them when they would have it written. Now this is an example where good ideas and action separate. Their good idea was that we should write the article not them. We compromised and moved to the computer and we typed as they talked. Each topic they presented turned into a paragraph and at the end of it was several pages of an unintelligible listing of disconnected ideas.

At the time we wrote this article Steve and Laurie sent in their picture and hunting account from last season. We added it to the article feedback web page as it very pointedly shows the variety of experiences encountered during spring turkey season. Thank you Steve, your contribution could not be more timely.

That article sat a while and we decided to proof it into something worth reading. When it was done we sent it back to the two long time members for their endorsement. After all the article was composed of their ideas. Now this is where we have another example of separation. Once credit needed to be assigned concerns of review and recognition arose and hence the current anonymity of the two who generated this article idea in the first place. For once presented with the article that they though they would never have to take responsibility for they soon came back with a great number of changes. The changes surpassed our willingness to rewrite the article so another compromise. We published the article to the website as it was and attached an addendum of feedback. They, the idea originators, continued to seek anonymity so we agreed not to mention their names, however that left open identifying their initials for their friends to recognize. After all we are men of our word. So to JF, and MB, we thank you for your motivation to help others be more successful. To all have a good read of the basic article and the "authors" amendments.

Fish Stocking. We need a couple of volunteers to help relocate some fish in Cass County, Missouri Unit B. Two summers ago we moved over 100 fish to Pond #5. It's time to move some more to the same pond. We would like to do this before the spawn, so the month of March and early April would be a good time. If you are interested please call the office and we will give you instructions on what needs to be done. Whenever one plans to re-locate fish we encourage them to keep the fish in a fish basket, rather than using a stringer because stringers are more stressful on the fish. Fish baskets are available at Wal-Mart and they are inexpensive.

For those interested in numbers here are the hunting pressure counts from the past season. We use these numbers to balance our land profile based on hunting interest, habitat and acreage within each region of each state. The past 5 year comparison shows upland hunters were up this past year with the majority of the increase non-resident hunters. Duck hunters down with a slight movement of those with dogs contributing to upland numbers. Archery deer hunters showing a general increase through having the highest retention rate. Firearms deer hunters slight decrease and muzzleloader hunters a slight increase. Turkey hunters mixed with no increase or decrease just difference in location.

7 Mar

Here are a couple of photos. Jon Jr. and I moved 11 black crappies from one pond to another to help build some fishing for the future.

We also cut a bunch of trees and laid them on the shore for a place to the little fish to hide. The pond we put them in has too many bass and we are hoping to provide more food and establish a good pond for crappie in a couple of years.

Many people think crappie are bad for ponds, but we've seen the Crappie do well and keep in balance better than white crappie. The number of fins on their spine is a good way to determine the difference. Black crappies have more than 6 hard fins on the spine.

Last fall one of our waterfowl hunters called the office to give us the "heads up" he heard water running out of one of our waterfowl lakes, which is always a concern for wetlands management. Luckily, we were able to pinpoint the break in the dam before it was too late. If it wasn't for the tip by the member we might have overlooked a problem that could have cost us a season of hunting on a prime lease. Jeff, thanks for the tip. We'll have to wait until it dries up this summer to do the repair work. Note a friendly family of beaver, which created this problem in the first place, came to our rescue to keep the lake from draining completely. Beaver use levees to build burrows to live in as their home. When floodwater comes over the levees their holes collapse. If this happens in an area that is prone to heavy flood water, such as this location, it becomes a futile battle that must be monitored on a year round basis.

While renewing a lease this week the issue on the use of ATV's came up again. In this case a prime Missouri lease we have had for over 10 years. The landowner has been very satisfied over the years, but had a complaint about a deer hunter driving the perimeters of his property, which has a lot of crp grass. His solution was to put a padlock on all of the gates during the hunting season, which forces the hunters to park on the road rather than pull off to the gate interior.

3 Mar

Every once in a while we get lucky. The second season for a 160 acre CRP field added to an existing 1,600 acre lease. This picture was taken at the end of the season, first year CRP is rarely anything to look at. While appearing to be the ideal pheasant habitat it produced a good sized covey along its edge as well for that open sky shooting we all so much like.

Angie PIllman the St. Louis coordinator for the Heartland Weimaraner Rescue has a dog in need of a home. The Heartland Weimaraner Rescue is made up of all volunteers devoting time, love and energy for our grey friends. They currently have a 10 month old male named Raider who is showing great hunting potential. 314-993-7769 work 314-293-1606 home.

A picture from a recent walk of one of our wetlands after it rained to check our primary water source feeding the wetlands for later developed and improvement by installing pipes and levees. This wetlands we are improving based on earlier experience before last season to ensure a more reliable water source. The picture is of a cannel we dug earlier and an improvement that worked well. With additional levee work the cannel and the levee combined will allow for more shallow water surface area. With wetlands it is always better to take it one step at a time before getting in too deep and finding mistakes.

Bernie P. , spent many days scouting various properties before the season to narrow down a handful of farms to concentrate on for the upcoming season. Bernie put in as many days as any hunter in the Association during the 04 archery season and passed up buck after buck to finally tag a deer of the quality he was after. The deer was a 140 class 10 pointer. Thanks for sharing your photos with us. Hopefully, next year we'll have some more to add to your account.