Welcome to Waterfowler.com’s state-by-state hunting report page. Hunter Report posting is FREE but restricted to registered users and MEMBERS of Waterfowler.com. Login or register to post your report and use the comment form below for your hunting update.
Hunted the lease today.Located in Chariton County.Flood waters have finally dropped,able to get to blind which is surrounded by about 8 inches of water. Cold wind from North about 20MPH most of day,temps staying at about 32.Ended up with five geese by 3:30,needed to leave to head back to Columbia. Good day for my lab Holly,all birds picked up by her nose.She was in the blind out of wind,could not see birds fall..Good day,not measured by number of birds shot,but seeing all the waterfowl,ducks,canada geese and specklebellies.The snows are in smaller groups now,but do work better. Great day,sights of waterfowl,good work by my dog,good friends to share a day with,my kind of day.
Are you guys still seeing them in southern/central MO??????
Looks like my season on hold for now.Had a call yesterday from owner of our duck club in Chariton county. The Grand river topped it’s levee on Sunday,end result was we have some four feet of water on our wetlands and the county road to the wetlands is under water,with most of gravel washed away from the road.Too dangerous to hunt right now.Hope by thursday or friday water will drop,Right now birds in the area,but fields in the bottoms are flooded and the birds can be anywhere.Crazy year,droughts and now floods.The water will help the farmers..Will wait till I get a report next Saturday and condtitions at the club.Looks like a short season on the snows.
Just a short update.Got a call from the owner of duck club that I am a member of in Chariton County.Water everywhere,a foot of water on entire 80 acre tract,he opened the small gates on each tract in order to expose dry ground.Had to pick up goose decoys this afternoon which were all over the place. Had a inch of rain last night and with the snow melt,flooding is occuring.He reports he has never seen so many ducks and geese.He hunted late afternoon and he and another member ended up with nine snows.Due to my schedule, will not be ale to get to hunt till Wednesday and thursday.Coming home from church this afternoon,around 5PM,saw some waves of snows heading West,close to 2-3000 in would guess.This coming week you all need to be on the x spot.Report next week when I get back.
We have apparently lost the birds here in North Arkansas that we gained from all the snow in Missouri. Was planning on hunting near jonesboro, AR today, but my scouting contact said that most of them left going north this past week. Hopefully, you guys will get a second wack at them when you thaw out. Good luck! We may be about done on the C.O. here unless we happen to catch some stragglers comuing up late from Lousiana and south AR.
there
still birds South buddy !!!! this is going to be a great week.
Anthony, those birds you mentioned must have just flown right over us and all the way to MO. My scout drove from Jones boro to Hoxie and all the back highways and saw maybe 3K in 3 small groups. It is pretty well over here.
Shoveling snow from my drive yesterday here in Columbia Mo.around 1PM,saw wave after wave of snows,must has been15,000,heading East where to my knowledge is the least amount of snow in Missouri.Last Thursday,we got 11 inches of snow,monday night into tuesday,we got another 10 inches of very wet snow,right now we have some 20 inches .For the next week,temps near freezing or just above,will be very slow melt.Need the moisture badly..
GOOSEPATH:For your information,the further west you go and nw s,that part of state had more snow than we did.My hunting companion who works in sporting goods at Wal-Mart,had two guys from Tenn. in store yesterday buying stamps,were heading to Maryville Mo. to hook up with a guide for a snow goose hunt,he told them he doubt if there were many snows in North Mo.I would have thought the guide would have told them to save the trip unless he already had their money.We got another inch of snow this morning.My lease in Chariton County which is north central is buried in snow,with the cold temps in the next week or so,it will be a slow melt.My thoughts are that once this snow melts,the snows will head right thru Mo.Just my guess.I am calling my season closed for this year.Good luck on your hunt in North Mo.Don’t be surprised by amount of snow you see.
Spoke to a good friend who lives on his farm at Hallsville.Mo Hallsville is about 25 miles ne of Columbia,Mo.He said Saturday he observed large numbers of snows during the day,some going east and some heading south.I guess the fat lady has not begun to sing as yet.
Hey John how much snow do you have on the ground in your area. Plan on heading to N.E. Mo. area next week. thanks in advance.
PATCH
See where Squaw Creek took a big drop in birds the day before the storm on thursday. We had 11 inches here in Columbia,near my lease in Charition County 10 inches,weather calling for more snow on tuesday,looks like a short season on the snows.Thoughts?
Long way from over.
Dukguy,weather report here in Columbia calling from 1-7 inches of snow south of I-70,with sleet and freezing rain mixed with heavier amount of snow north of I=70.SW Mo. around Springfield,1/2 to 2 inches of snow,but heavy amount of sleet and freezing rain, looks like some of the snows will be heading back your way.
Monday the 25th, 4 of us killed 55 near Hoxie, AR. these were migrators who came in from the north and west and wanted to sit down. Pretty fast and furious action for a while… could barely keep the guns loaded and retrieve geese. We had a big rice field next to us that was full of sheet water and the birds ended up piling in there and sucking all birds into the field probably 10K when the rain drove us out around 5:00. We would have killed even more if that didn’t happen! I hear they are now spread out from SEMO to Weiner, AR in the delta.
What’s everyone guess on where the snows are going with the approaching winter storm.NW. Mo. could have six inches of snow by thursday,temps staying in the low 20’s and low 30’s,high winds coming from the north.All these geese heading back south?
John, strong south winds yesterday blew most of our NE Arkansas birds north. My guess is NW MO birds will head as far south to get out of snow… probably either down to 4-rivers/Schell-osage or over to bootheel. If these areas get significant snow as well, I personally hoping they come back to NE Arkansas where we can get another wack at em’ Dukguy
The snow here in IA is supposed to come with a furry………It delays our plans of chasing them a couple of weeks at least.
On Feb. 13th called Swan Lake,660-856-3323.They have a bird count recording.Recording related that on Feb. the 11th,160,000 snows.With the Large number of snows at Squaw Creek,I can see why I saw so many snows on the 14th at my duck club.Meant to put this in my report of Feb. the 15th.Swan Lake is closer to us than Squaw Creek,but those birds do work our area.Just a follow up.I hunt in Charition County.
John — there are enough birds there to see them on radar. Look a them all near sunset last night in the upper right corner of the radar image.
Hunted the lease today for the first time since the canada goose season closed.When I got to the blind #1,I was only one there. I called the owner for he was to meet me. He said he was in the blind hunting,he was hunting in blind #2.The snow goose shells were at blind two this year.Perfect weather for the snows. My day began with some 3-4000 ducks leaving pool one,never saw this many ducks before at this of year on the lease. Lease by the way is in Chariton county.I do not go over board on my estimates.Since swan lake is near us,the weather today was in the 50″s light wind and the snows were moving most of day.I went to the bunk house to get lunch meat for lunch.While gone three birds shot. for lunch. When I got back,three birds had been shot.went to bunk house around noon to get some lunch meat.Some 1500 snows came into our pool #2 area,they worked the area and dropped in some 150 yards from our location.The snows were on the move all day,no particular direction.I would take a guess that we saw some 10,000 snows doing the day.I was really proud of Holly,my lab of 11 years.She was in the blind when the birds were shot and the other people waited for me to get back and for things to die down.When I did take Holly out,all three were blind retrieves for she never saw where the birds dropped and had never retrievied a snow goose before today.Didn’t mean to take up so much space but today was one of those days to be outdoors.
Nice work John! We were hoping to get after it next weekend but with our upcoming weather forecast they are calling for a “POSSIBLE” significant winter storm! Our group is geared up and ready to roll as soon as we can. Please continue to keep us posted if you would please.
1,000,000 SNOWS AYT SQUAW CREEK….. MOSTLY ADULTS THAT BLEW IN FROM THE WEST/SOUTHWEST WITH THE WEATHER…. STILL A TON OF BIRDS WAY DOWN SOUTH FROM SOUTHERN ARKANSAS TO LOUISIANNA. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE, I WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW I DO WHEN I GET BACK IN A WEEK.
AS,
OUT
Good luck on the hunt. Snows are moving well this week and you should get into them hard.
Post up the pics when you get back.
The count will not update until Wed morning……..can anyone say if they have noticed a good influx of birds yet @ squaw creek??
Question from here in IA……..are you guys seeing them white devils show up yet??? Feel free to send me a PM if you want.
leaving tomorrow/ for a couple of days / not sure where we’ll end up, maybe back home again??? But have to give it a try/ trigger finger is getting itchy..
Best of luck to ya!
2 full days, 4 birds, believe we may have been on the edge, started seeing some migrators last night, small flocks intermixed with specle bellies. Thousands of mallards, fun to watch, also had a doe check out my speakers, must have enjoyed the music.
Latest Squaw Creek #’s for 2/5 show 60,000 snows on the refuge.
120,000 Grand Pass CA
4,500 Swan Lake NWR
10,00 Ten MIle Pond Vicinity
5,000 Four Rivers CA
numerous large flocks of snow/blues heading north arnd st louis this morn
These initial flocks are spread out and trading east to west and west to east while pushing North. I would believe that they are a bunch of Old, breeder adults that push up first. We will probably see numbers at those refuges fluctuate here this week as the birds play hopscotch from one to the next as they move northward. There are a still a lot of birds way down South. A lot of early birds as well had pushed out of Texas as well as central Illinois (which has held birds all winter basically, like Squaw did last season).
Any snows showing up around the Brookfield area at all?
Just a question.Being an active member of Delta Waterfowl and being involved in the recent organization of a Delta Waterfowl Chapter here in Columbia,Mo.,I was wondering why,according to your recent article,why all the changes being made at Delta.Have you heard?
John,
I am wondering the same thing. They are now calling Delta a “science-based advocacy organization.” What’s that? Also of interest: the new chairman of the board is a Missourian…Charlie Hager from St. Louis. He’s a great guy, avid waterfowler and strategic thinker. I’m betting he will be a good leader and help Delta find the right niche so they can return to their former greatness when they were the leader in waterfowl research and the development of waterfowl professionals.
John,
Any of those white devils showing up yet?
Dueling
All I have seen in any numbers have been the canada geese,hunting in Chariton County.Have seen a small handful of snows,but normally in middle Feb. they show up in good numbers.Every year around that time will have anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 working the grain fields in our area,mostly bottom land where I hunt.
ing
Hunted the lease this morning at my lease in Chariton County.Got there a little late around 9AM from Columbia.Temps 57 and wind at about 15mph sw.My friend arrived around 7:30,he had two nice canada geese by 8:15.Had two other groups worked the spread but moved on. Around 10AM,had a nice six pack of canada geese worked the spread and even got them to cupp up,they then left.The warms weather has opended up some of the ponds in area and the geese were using the warm weather to move around. I am afraid the cold temps on Sunday will refreeze.The last two days,all kinds of canada geese flying around Columbia,going out early to feed in nearby fields,come back to city limits some 500 feet in the air and then drop in the various water holes in the city limits.The geese are still around,saw several groups in field s along hiway 24.
John — we’re still covered up in Canada geese here on the IL/WI border. No shortage of birds and the season is out. The last aerial survey for southern IL counted only 3800 Canada geese — compared to a 5-year average of 49K. Insanely low. Good news is they have 86K snows.
hAVE NOT HUNTED FOR SOME TWO WEEKS,COLD,SNOW HAVE ALL BUT MOVED THE GEESE FURTHER sOUTH.wILL TRY AGAIN WHEN WEATHER WARMS AND WATER OPENS.
John – glad to see you’re posting is working. Looking at weather it’s going to be in the 50s in Mound City this weekend. Makes me wonder how quick and fast the spring migration is going to be this year.
The temps are to drop back into the 20’s on Monday. As of yesterday on Squaw Creek web site,98% frozen water,under 15 geese.Am going to wait till Feb.for things to thaw out and stay thawed before I get after the snows.