Family-Outdoors

Enjoy Free Fishing Days in Missouri June 12-13 Share a pastime that can last a lifetime. Along with the fish, you may catch some priceless memories. JEFFERSON CITY MO – Discover the lure of Missouri outdoors with Free Fishing Days on June 12 and 13.  Each year the Missouri Department of Conservation designates the weekend after the first Monday in June for permit-optional fishing. The goal of Free Fishing Days is to encourage people to sample the state's abundant fishing opportunities. During Free Fishing Days, anyone can fish in the Show-me State without having to buy a fishing permit, trout stamp or trout park daily tag. Missouri is blessed with more than a million acres of surface water , and most of it provides great fishing. Fly fish for trout in a spring-fed Ozark stream or trotline for monster catfish on Missouri’s Big Rivers . Our waters hold ancient paddlefish and sturgeon , ferocious muskies , wary bass and tasty bluegill, crappie and walleye . More ...

Spring turkey harvest tops predictions Hunters were aided by a slight improvement in turkey reproduction last year and mostly good hunting weather during the three-week spring season. JEFFERSON CITY –Hunters made the most of the final week of Missouri’s 21-day spring turkey season, shooting 8,263 birds. The last week’s harvest boosted the regular-season tally to 42,254, an increase of 429 from last year. Top harvest counties for the regular season April 19 through May 9 were Franklin with 872, Texas with 755 and St. Clair with 701. Missouri’s spring turkey season has two parts. Hunters age 6 through 15 shot 3,945 turkeys during the youth season April 10 and 11. This boosted the combined spring turkey harvest to 46,199, which is 1,491 more than last year. Resource Scientist Tom Dailey had predicted the total harvest would be approximately 44,000. He attributed the 5-percent larger harvest to two factors. “We had the usual mixed bag of weather during the hunting season this year...