I spent last Wednesday afternoon driving, walking, wading, and climbing through 490 acres of swamp ground. The ground is managed under the WRP project which assigns some jobs to the feds and some jobs to the owners. Most of my energy was dedicated to inspecting the water level and vegetation of the various pools. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Those evil brown water snakes, 90 degree temperature, a brief rainstorm, and chest high grass and weeds all conspired to make it about as much fun as a domestic violence case.

But things did look good. About half the pools had been drained to do levee work and they had fantastic stands of smart weed. The rest of the pools had some growth around the edges as well. Looks good for this fall. I also saw a few huge deer tracks and started plotting some bow stands.

After the work was over I took the time to chase some carp and watched two shooter bucks feed on some ground just to the North. Fall will be here before you know it.

The report from my fishing trip will have to wait until tomorrow. I got back yesterday evening, worked all day then headed south for an evening bowfishing adventure along the flooded Marais Des Cygne River. Like this shoot I simply drove to a spot where the river was running over a road and waded around trying to catch them when they came up into the shallow water. This time the bigger fish were hiding in the flooded grass on the upstream side of the road, making for much more difficult shooting. It was still fun and I shot several nice buffalo like this one:

Another buck I’ve seen during the spring turkey season. Nice mass on those bases eh?

I had a relatively slow bowfishing expedition after work on Friday. The river was way up and the water in the lakes and streams was very cloudy. I stuck 2 gar and a carp in about an hour.

Today I had a close encounter with a button buck, a very pregnant doe, and a coyote while turkey hunting. Nothing terribly exciting.

Sunday after hammering my first Missouri turkey of the season I took an indirect way home from Springfield so I could stop and try shooting some of those fish I’d spotted last Friday. The Wife was nice enough to shoot some pictures (until we saw one of those brown water snakes).

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I intended to bring you a post today about Sunday afternoon’s action. I’ll give you a hint, it took place at the spot I found after turkey hunting Friday. But The Old Man intervened in my schedule. He called this afternoon and asked me if I wanted to go investigate the flooded Marais Des Cygne valley and try to find some fish to shoot. I convinced him last year to buy a bowfishing rig but he really hadn’t had an opportunity to use it yet. After tying down some loose ends in the office (and leaving a huge pile of paperwork for tomorrow) I met up with him and we headed south.

A couple of miles before my intended spot we ran out of road. The water was deep enough and fast enough that we weren’t going to cross it, even in a big diesel. So we got out, picked up our bows, and started wading. It took us a few shots to get warmed up but when we did it was pretty good action. The water was too muddy to see more than a foot but we focused on where the fish were crossing the road and swimming upstream. In those places we could see their swirls and wakes and occasionally even see the fish itself. For the most part the fish were swimming all around us but it was difficult to see anything to shoot at.

When we ran out of sunlight we had 18 fish including 3 buffalo in the 20 pound range and gar that weighed 15 and 13.

The Old Man with the biggest fish of the shoot:

Not a bad way to start your bowfishing career, eh?

The Missouri turkey opener this morning continued the trend. I passed two jakes at about 15 feet.

I also busted a hen trying to close some ground on a tom, game over. The Old Man scored on a nice 3 year old bird. Between the two of us we thought we might have heard as many as 12 toms, so there should be more action ahead.

I also had this coyote within about 30 yards. (Sorry for the bad pic.)

After hunting until around noon I spent the afternoon chasing fish around with my bow. It’s a bit too early to get into the heavy action but the gar were certainly up and moving around.

Skinny Moose has added another hunter/blogger to the lineup. Mostly Archery will focus on bowhunting and bowfishing, two of my favorite things!

He leads us off with a story about Kansas Spring Turkeys with a bow… that just happens to be the next thing on my radar! Take a look…

I know, not much of a haul.  I headed South this afternoon with the intention of hunting in a flood.  When the water is barely running over the levy you can stand and shoot the fish as they swim by.  Instead I discovered the river still a foot or so below flood stage and it was raining.  I couldn’t see much so I just walked along the edge of some marshes hoping to see the fish before they saw me.  These fish have been hammered since the last flood in April so there aren’t many.  Hopefully the river will come out some time tonight and replenish the stock.  It was a different style of shooting for me but I had fun.  I also saw a 35-40 pound snapping turtle and a handful of brown water snakes.  Ugh.

Bowfishing in the rain isn’t as productive as better conditions, but it beats sitting on the couch watching MU hang 69 on poor Nevada!