I guess that’s a somewhat misleading title. I once attended an induction/fundraiser for the Waterfowlers Hall of Fame in Mound City, Missouri. If I remember correctly it included a duck calling demonstration by a friend and a rendition of Grandma Got Run Over By A Snow Goose sang by a collection of elderly locals. Interesting experience. I also drive by the Farmer’s Hall of Fame on my way to work most days… I’ve always figured this was some type of K-State Mecca… but it’s apparently $7.00 to get in, so I’ll pass.

Anyway, what we’re talking about here is the highlights of my 2009 season. A few years back I ran out of space on my desk and book shelf for any more pictures, so I combined the best 3 pictures from that season and framed them together. Then for 2008 I made a matching set but had to use 4 pictures. Now my 2009 set is done.

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The invasive Silver and Big Head Carp have been moving up the Kansas (or Kaw) River for years now. They are believed to have started in fish farms in the Southeastern states. They then got into Missouri which the Kaw flows into. It was just a matter of time. Then several days ago the Kansas Department of Wildlife announced that spring and early summer floods caused a record spawn. The article can be found here.

Tonight I decided to check it out myself:

There are literally hundreds of thousands of these 3″ silvers stacked up below this low powerhead dam. I’ve never seen anything like it. They were constantly jumping on shore, upstream, on my feet, and into my backpack. You could catch dozens in one swipe with a 5 gallon bucket. I can only imagine what will happen in the next few years as these fish get too big for any of our local predators.

Honestly, I don’t know what can be done at this point anyway. The Kansas River has little recreation value and even less fishing value. Perhaps 5 years from now it will be a premier flying carp bowfishing destination?

One shot, a miss.

… and you know what that means! More bowfishing. I did a few minutes of shooting today and stuck a few gar and a buffalo, but mostly I was scouting. I didn’t have enough daylight left to set up shop but hopefully I’ve got a plan for tomorrow morning before more rain gets here.

Late this afternoon I went to scout some creeks and ditches that will have fish in them as the spawn comes on. There were a few fish starting to move up into the current but not many, and they were deep. I did find a few nicer carp in the grass around the edge of the big water. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to attack them properly but I did manage wade around and stick a few before I had to home for dinner with the wife. Hopefully I can do some real damage this weekend.

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.