Outdoors

An old man in the rural part of St. Clair County successfully worked to keep wild turkeys plentiful on his place. For 15 years he did a heck of a job! His name was Dan Besser. He bought some incubators and raided several wild turkey nests each spring, hatching the eggs and raising the turkey

Terry Smith hauled in this 115 lb spoonbill out of the Osage River on April 6. photo by Bobby Dains.

I encourage old time turkey hunters to refrain from buying a turkey tag this spring and hunt them as I do…with a camera. I just don’t want to kill any more gobblers. I have killed them for 56 years, sometimes six or seven a year, and that is enough. I never want to go through

I wrote about some things awhile back that some folks questioned. One column concerned skunks and someone hoorahed the idea that skunks carry rabies and therefore there is liable to be a rabies outbreak this year. We may not see a rabies outbreak on an increased scale, but the increase in skunk populations, which has

The decline in wild turkey numbers over the past ten years is due to many things. The main cause takes place next weekend, the youth season, what one hunter has referred to the weekend best used to teach youngsters to lie and break game laws. I spend more time outdoors during the winter than any

Taberville Report by Bobby Dains Dains Fish Farm 417/432-3391 It’s slow snagging right now. No current in the river. They are snagging a few spoonbills at Osceola, Roscoe, here – we need a rain to to put some current in the river. That will bring up the spoonbills. Snagging is no good from the bank.

The 2024 paddlefish snagging season is off to a great start after an angler reeled in a world record fish at the Lake of the Ozarks. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) congratulates Chad Williams of Olathe, Kansas for snagging a 164-pound, 13-ounce paddlefish at the Lake of the Ozarks March 17. The fish not

Taberville Report by Bobby Dains Dains Fish Farm 417/432–3391 Spoonbilling is good. I weighed one 100 pounder and I’ve seen four over 90. If they work at it, everybody in the boat limits out. Caplinger Caplinger Woods. Danny Finch There’s a lot of people down there but I haven’t seen any fish. Open 7 days

Mont Cleary was not well-liked. Folks said he had killed a man in the 40’s after a poker game on the river by pushing him over a bluff. Argis Blackfern was a good old boy that everyone in the pool hall liked and had fun with. Argis, who was known as Argie to everyone, was

Taberville Report by Bobby Dains Dains Fish Farm I caught five blue cats a day on 30 hooks. I had several slot fish. I had two 25 pounders on live bait. Cut bait caught the smaller cats. We got three inches of rain. The river is up up about four feet. Spoonbilling should be good