October 2006 Hunting Updates page 4

12 Oct

Stands

Friendly reminder a reservation to an individually numbered/lettered lease is required to hang deer stands. Hanging deer stands is by foot only. No ATVs.

Land

From an earlier land run to have a look at some potential leases in an area where the rios and whitetail overlap (Kansas).

A picture showing north Missouri habitat quality.

10 Oct

Waterfowl, Wetlands & Blinds

This past weekend Bruce, Allen and Jon covered all of the duck blinds in Linn County, except blind 4 which is going to be designated as a wade-in area. Duck blind work is 99% complete, so from now until the season let's all hope for some good rain because we need it.

The number of summer days above 90 degrees exceed the long term averages. Rainfall is just under 8 inches below average for the year. First light frost is expected this Thursday. Early average killer or dormant causing frost/weather is typically the third week in October.

On top of an extremely dry summer, September was hot and windy which did a toll on several of our shallow water wetlands that were huntable during teal season.

We've seen this type of weather pattern a half dozen times over the past 25 seasons and only one remained dry, so the odds are in our favor we will get some rain.

For those traveling a long distance to duck hunt, we recommend to make plans mid to the later part of the season and keep an eye on the weather patterns in between. We’ve always marked Thanksgiving until the end of the season as the peak migration period.

Holt County is the only duck property with a guaranteed pump source, but there is always a chance that a mechanical malfunction could interfere or delay the project.

We have a 10 inch portable pump that runs off the PTO of a tractor, but the creeks and branches must be full or running to pump. If the creeks or branches are full the lakes would fill and we would not need to pump.

Pumping Henry C from Big Creek is an option, but the duck clubs between 7 Hwy and Blairstown have pumped Big Creek dry, so we will have to wait for some new rain before we plan such a project. Hopefully, if Big Creek fills it will reach the level of our 36 inch intake pipe and we won’t have to worry about pumping.

On the long term positive side, the summer of 2006 created opportunity to make numerous levee and blind repairs that were well past due.

Linn Blind 1 is an example of an opportunity to re-build a popular blind that was well past due. Without vehicle access to the blind, the job would have been impossible to complete. The low water conditions also killed off the Lilly Pads that were surrounding the blind, which will create much
more open water for a large decoy spread.

Outside of the MAHA wetlands proper are the many farm ponds and watershed lakes that will allow for field sets. The local irrigation lakes many have set up on previous season will be lower due to farm usage.

What is true for MAHA wetlands continues for most State, Federal wetlands and other private duck hunting areas.

October 2006 page 5