First Weekend MO Spring 2019 Season

[Tigerhaze]

I went turkey hunting Saturday and Sunday mornings in different parts of Missouri.

Saturday morning I hunted at my farm south of Kansas City. I had three hens in my roost tree but no gobblers there and when they flew off roost they went about 80 yards in the field. I did hear one gobbler very early but it was distant on a neighbor's property and did n't hear him after that.

Sunday morning I hunted with a friend at Mark Twain Lake. He took me to a spot he knows on a small trib to the lake on Corps ground. The lake was up a bit so had to cross over the trib a little further upstream than we would have liked. That ended up being an issue as where we crossed was too close to the roost trees and in the full moonlight we had several gobblers bust out and fly across the valley before first light. There were still other turkeys roosted further upstream around the bend- when they flew down (mainly jakes) they walked further upstream into the hills so couldn't get a shot. We then heard a gobbler near where we parked and worked our way back there (about an hour after sunrise) but when we got back over where we heard it it was a ways off- probably moving away from us onto private ground.

In both cases at least had some chances and saw turkeys, just not the right setup with them.

[RB]

Nothing here on our place last two weekends. One gobble the whole time. We know they're here because we have them on camera. No mushrooms either.

[Tigerhaze]

Second weekend here in Western MO was much like the first- I saw turkeys fly off roost but were hens and maybe one jake- too far to tell based on how they flew off roost. I heard one or two gobbles over two mornings of hunting, and they were distant. The weather didn't help- stormy on Saturday morning and relatively cool and cloudy on Sunday morning.

Mushrooms were a different story- we didn't get much rain over the weekend but the mid week rains generated a dozen or so in my early spots. I talked to others in the KC area and in eastern MO that have found dozens to hundreds over the last week. With the upcoming rains this should be the week to find them- if you don't in the next week or so you may not find them this year as it is getting awfully late to when I first found them this year.

[RB]

We have gathered our share................of ticks. Everyone I know is getting a lot of mushrooms but not here. I'll look again after the rain but its the same story every year here. Turkeys have been silent here too. Long distance sightings at best so hope that changes this week. Good luck.