It should be noted that Missouri Department of Conservation permits expire on the last day of February. This was changed several years ago from December 31 because of extended seasons that overlapped into the New Year. Prices for permits are largely unchanged with the Missouri combination hunting and fishing permit costing $19, separately fishing is $10, hunting $12. The White River Border Lakes permit is an additional $10 and is available only to Missouri and Arkansas residents.

Here are a couple of permit changes for turkey hunters; $8.50 for youth turkey hunters that are 6 to 15 years of age. The old Youth Deer & Turkey Hunting permit has been discontinued. Non resident youth will be allowed to hunt on this permit. Non resident turkey permits have been raised to $190.

The 2010 Youth Spring Turkey season will be April 10th and 11th. Hunting hours are from ½ hour before sunrise to sunset, with a one turkey limit. The regular season starts on April 19th and runs thru May 9th. Hours are ½ hour before sunrise until 1:00 pm

• Please note that turkey season can produce very dangerous accidental hunter injuries or death due to failure to positively identifying your target before firing your gun!

Spring also brings the annual waterfowl migration to northern nesting grounds. If you like to watch birds and waterfowl now is the time as most males have their courting plumage on that you won’t see in the fall. Even with the extended cold weather, flocks of pelicans have been noted making their way north. The migration urge is so strong that they seem to ignore the cold that caused them to migrate south.

Maybe the cold weather will hamper the armadillo invasion we have seen in Missouri. These critters that like to dig up our yards are not very tolerant of cold weather so there is almost always a good result when we have severe weather conditions.

Cold weather also insures a shad die off and this will spark spawning shad to reproduce heavily, thus producing a lot of smaller shad for growing fish to eat. The last two years has seen Midwestern lakes at higher than normal levels and this usually means good spawning success. Stockton Lake fishing reports are reflecting a huge surge in bass populations; anglers are catching a lot of small fish plus many keepers also. Tournament weights/numbers indicate that Midwestern bass populations are healthy and are up from past years.

Spring is here, get out and go fishing, and take someone that hasn’t been fishing before with you! Our sport depends on you!