Outdoor News


Photo courtesy Jeff Girdner Gene Guilkey of Liberty harvested this 6x7 bull elk on public land in Shannon County Dec. 16, 2020, during Missouri’s first elk-hunting season, which ended Dec. 20. Four other hunters who were drawn for permits were also successful in harvesting elk during the season. Missouri’s second year of elk seasons will be Oct. 16-24 (archery) and Dec. 11-19 (firearms).
Five permits for hunting bull elk will be issued for Missouri’s second annual elk-hunting season in 2021. At least one permit will be for qualifying area landowners with the remainder for the general public. The Missouri Department of Conservation has designated a nine-day archery portion running...
Spring fishing is well under way on Bull Shoals Lake. To say it’s predictable or consistent is not really accurate right now. The fish should be migrating toward the banks, but they can’t seem to make up their minds, which is keeping our local anglers guessing a little bit. We expect it to get...

Eddie Guzik, left, and Marty Whisnant won first place in the Ozark Mountain Bass Club’s April 3 tournament out of Spring Creek ramp with 20.32 pounds. Whisnant also won Big Bass with a 4.17-pound catch.
Reported by Kristin Guzik Morgan   The Ozark Mountain Bass Club held its monthly tournament April 3 out of Spring Creek ramp on Bull Shoals Lake.  Fishing was tough, but Eddie Guzik and Marty Whisnant stuck to their game plan and managed to pull out 20.32 pounds of fish. Whisnant also won the Big...
Most residents who live in Ozark County are very familiar with a specific creepy, crawly dreaded summer nuisance, the tick.  Missouri is home to three common species of ticks that bite humans: lone star tick, American dog tick and deer tick.  The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and A.T....

Montgomery Mitchell, then 10 years old, harvested this gobbler while hunting with her dad in Ozark County during the 2020 youth-only turkey hunt. Montgomery is the daughter of Brett and Amanda Mitchell of Dora. To submit a youth turkey photo to be published in an upcoming edition of the Times, email the picture to jessi@ozarkcountytimes.com. Include the hunter’s name and age, the date the bird was harvested, who the young hunter was hunting with and in what part of the county the bird was killed. Additional information, such as the bird’s weight, beard or spur length or other interesting tidbits about the hunt are also welcome.
The Missouri Department of Conservation has good news and bad news for Ozark County turkey hunters this spring.  The bad news: Hunters can expect this spring season to be about as challenging as the past few spring seasons. The good news: The numbers of harvestable turkeys is likely to improve the...

The parking lot at the Tecumseh access on Norfork Lake was filled this weekend after boaters and fishermen discovered an unexpected surprise – open gates to the access, which has been under construction for several months and mostly closed to vehicle and boat traffic since an historic flood in spring 2017 left the access heavily damaged. Corps of Engineers project manager Mark Case said the gates were opened to give fishermen “some temporary access.” Times photo/Jessi Dreckman
Fishermen got an Easter weekend surprise as the gates to the Tecumseh access on Norfork Lake were opened late last week and left open throughout the weekend, allowing fishermen and boaters to access Norfork Lake there. As of Monday morning, the gates remained opened. The access, which is in its...

photo courtesy of West Marine A new law requires most boaters to use their emergency cut-off switches through a link lanyard like the one pictured above.
As of April 1, those driving boats that are less than 26 feet in length and powered by motors of at least 3 horsepower are required to use their engine cut-off switches (ECOS) while operating the boat. The new law, instated by the US Coast Guard, will likely affect many Ozark Countians, who will...

A few years ago, Missouri Department of Conservation agent Jerry Kiger was contacted by a local couple who had found this fawn by itself and brought it home to try and save it. The couple said they’d seen the fawn curled up in the county road without a mother nearby a week or so earlier and had brought it home because they’d assumed it was orphaned or abandoned. In reality, the mother was likely nearby and would have soon returned to find and retrieve the fawn. The well-meaning couple brought the wild animal home and fed it goat starter for a week in an attempt to try to save it. The fawn was able to stand and walk around when it was found, but by the time Kiger was contacted it could no longer stand on its own. Kiger took the fawn to a wildlife rehabilitation center, but by the next morning, it was dead.
This is the time of year when we get many calls about what to do with “rescued” or “orphaned” wildlife–mostly young wild animals. As a general rule, you should leave them be, put them back where you found them or, if necessary, move them a short distance out of harm’s way. A baby wild animal on its...

Rodney Shockey, left, and Mike Fletcher won first place with 12.03 pounds of bass in the June 7 Ozark Mountain Bass Club tournament out of Panther Bay Marina on Norfork Lake in Arkansas.
Now that some of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have eased, the Ozark Mountain Bass Club is holding tournaments again. The June tournament that was originally scheduled as a night tournament was moved to daytime fishing due to the high water with logs and other debris floating in the lake. It...

Tom Reynolds
I fished for stripers at the beginning of last week in Bennett’s Bayou. The warm weather, full moon and the lake draw-down changed the shad bait pattern. Most of the bait was on the flat by Fout’s and the big flat before the Walker’s arm of the bayou. The warm, strong winds early in the week moved...

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Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423