Pike's Hunting Club, Inc.

Pike's Hunting Club, Inc.

2001-2002 Waterfowl Seasons for the Southern Illinois Quota Zone

Despite the reduced quota for this year's goose season a number of factors are in place that should allow this to be a very good year. The December 15 opening should allow us to have enough geese in the area to get the season off to a good start for everyone. This has not been the case for several years. A high percentage of young birds in the MVP flock and major migrations that generally occur between mid December and Christmas will more than likely keep a steady flow of new geese moving into the area, which will help to sustain quality hunting opportunities throughout the season. Prospects for duck hunting are also excellent for the coming season.

Crops in Southern Illinois are excellent this year so there will be plenty of feed to keep birds in the area. More reasonable rainfall during the growing season has produced bumper crops in many low lying bottom land areas that have suffered from flooding problems in the past 2 years. This will especially benefit hunting in the fields that we flood.

We will be starting another levee project in early September that will allow us to have better control of our water. Cross levees within our flooded fields will be built to allow us to circulate water with our large pumps to delay freezing as long possible. If time permits we also plan to put more permanent water on our south farm.

Over the past 2 years our water control system has been greatly improved and this work has made our club into one of the premier duck hunting locations in the Midwest. While the majority of hunters still come to the area to hunt geese, the consistency of our duck hunting has allowed our hunters to enjoy world-class waterfowling opportunities even when early season weather conditions cause a slow down in the goose activity. By the time duck season ends, goose numbers are generally high and weather conditions are usually more conducive to good goose hunting. Please give us a call and we will be more than happy to give you further updates on the prospects for the upcoming seasons.

Good Hunting, John, Terry and Steve

SEASONAL OUTLOOK

Duck season:

November 8, 2001 to January 6, 2002

6 bird limit

Goose season:

December 15, 2001 to January 31, 2002

or until quota of 16,550 is reached

1 bird limit --December 15 - 31

2 bird limit --January 1 - 31