Youth hunting

[kymustang]

The east fork of clarks river is out.There should be some good hunting by morning.The Clarks River Refuge has lots of public hunting.

[PintailIV]

can you tell us more about the Clarks river refuge kymustang, how is it accessed boat? 4-wheeler walking etc... How good is the hunting there generally? Does the river have to be flooding for the hunting to be any good there?
Just curious, and thanks for the info.

[kymustang]

It is accessable by boat when the river is out,it is shallow water in most places about 3 to 4 feet.Flooded corn and bean fields,excellent hunting when there is a good migration.The duckhole they draw for is about a 1/2 mile walk.Probally just good for a couple of volleys if the river is not out.There is some sloughs that hold ducks mostly woodies and you can jump shoot them on the river when its not out.Four of us killed about 60 ducks this year and the river never really got out.Want to know anything else just say so.

[PintailIV]

Those 60 , were they mainly woodies? How many big ducks? Do you know how many acres that they have acquired now?

[kymustang]

Early wooduck we took 28 birds limit on woodies everyday and blue wing teal.Opening day we killed 18 birds mallards,teal ,woodies,and 2 hooded merganzers.The rest were all woodies except for 3 mallards.One banded woodie killed was from northern Wisconsin.I think they have about 7000 acres now.They could flood a few places they havent,I have asked about this and they say there is more to it than using a dozer to make a levy "the tax payers want to know where there money is going". is what they said.I think there is a lot polotics involved there.I just want my tax dollars spent on waterholes and not on new trucks for big shots.

[PintailIV]

I agree and a Ky. Waterfowler's Assoc. could help us all there. How strong is the hunting lplressure on the refuge?
Thanks for the info.

[kymustang]

The hunting pressure is not that bad.There are some spots that are when the river is out.The fields around the duck hole they built were hunted heavy last year and the year before.This year the river never got out enough ,but in that area they disked the fields.That tells me they did not want anyone killing ducks around the duckhole.The duck hole can not be entered during periods of flood,and the fields in the restricted areas were in wheat and flooded corn except for blind #1 it didnt look good.When the river gets up you have to watch it because it can fall out quick and make it hard to get your boat out.I have been hunting this river bottom since about 1983 and I know a lot of out of the way spots to get away from the crowd.We also have a blind on a private farm .I also hunt the kaler wma this is a good spot but it takes about a 1 hour walk to get to the slough.The west fork runs through the kaler bottoms.It used to flood a lot ,but the channel was dreged to control flooding and it takes a lot of rain to get it out now and it goes back down quickley.There is always ducks in these bottoms flooded or not,you just have to go after them,they may not be worth the work involved,but I enjoy getting out and looking for them on slow years. Sorry I didnt mean to rant on so much.Where do you hunt?

[Grant]

Mustang, You don't happen to know some Moss' that hunt the refuge do ya?

http://www.hunt101.com/img/084011.jpg

[kymustang]

I know who you are talking about,but i dont hunt with them.

[Grant]

Have you been out by their place? I hunted out there once before Chirstmas, they had a great set up, just didn't have alot of birds. I could see how a man could kill alot of birds down there when the conditions got right.

http://www.hunt101.com/img/084011.jpg

[kymustang]

No I havent been over that way in a while,I have hunted the slough on the other side of the river from it.It was slow like everything else this year.Some friends of mine got 6 mallards in that slough one morning other than that all we killed up that way was about 4 woodies.Now that you mentioned them I heard the refuge manager that was giving them trouble was being moved some where else have you heard anything about this?