Contributors to this thread:
Rain has basically ruined my food plots in Juneau County and I can't be the only one. Anyone else having issues with flooding in Central Wisconsin. Wonder how it will affect bowhunting next month because it will take a while for this water to recede.
Nothing like the 13 inches that fell in part of southern Minnesota yesterday. Rivers are either at or past capacity in much of SE MN, and NE Iowa and Western WI.
Northern parts of the twin cities area got 7 inches too.
When all that water hits the Mississippi there will probably be problems there too.
My in laws got 7 inches, I'm sure it's going to delay the soy bean harvest and it's a good thing I have lots of spots set up because my b.i.l's one spot that he has set for himself is under six inches of water. If the wind is right he's going to sit my one night stand. The best early season buck spot I've ever hunted and since I can't be there I'm glad his spot got flooded so he's forced to hunt the better spot.
my Dad was driving through southern Clark cnty yesterday and 3 Amish boys were "joy riding" a rowboat through a picked field - awesome
The duck hunters should have a good weekend hunting the flooded corn fields this weekend...
Nothing I can do about the rain, other than to deal with it.
The bears were on the move last night and early this Saw one crossing the road about 10:30 PM last night and another this morning just after 6 AM.
Hunting flooded corn fields could be considered baiting unless it is picked.
I know a landowner who had a fire in one of his corn fields and let some goose hunters in on it. They got ticketed for hunting over bait, not a normal farming practice was the reasoning behind it.
Hunting flooded unharvested fields is perfectly legal.
Straight from the USFWS:
"Agricultural lands offer prime waterfowl hunting opportunities. You can hunt waterfowl in fields of unharvested standing crops. You can also hunt over standing crops that have been flooded. You can flood fields after crops are harvested and use these areas for waterfowl hunting."
In the case of your friends, yes the fire is not a normal agriculture practice. For them to be legal the farmer needed plow the field under, then leave it inactive, no hunting, for 10 days after tilling the waste grain under.
Seeing as flooding the field is in no way manipulating the grain for bait.
Interesting, to me they seem to be similar situations. No farmer is likely to plow in a burned section of corn in the middle of a larger field until after the rest of the field is picked.
It had been worked over with a dozer (that happened to be going by on a trailer soon after the fire started, that is what you call a good neighbor) to create a fire break and soon after was worked with a disk to be sure the fire was totally out but it was not plowed. It was probably well over 10 days after the disking happened.
They suspect that a truck used by a couple of pheasant hunters somehow caused it when they drove out along a fence line.
Sharspur!!
GIVE THAT MAN A CIGAR!
The dozing and discing was the reason it was illegal. You can't manipulate the the crop fields.
Any sightings of Noah's Ark in Juneau county? In 14 years, I've never seen so much standing water in late Sept. Will take forever to soak in. :(
I was up at my place in NW Crawford Co. The damage from flash flooding was pretty obvious. My once 2' deep dry creek bed is now about 1' deep filled in with rock and gravel. Water continues to run over my concrete spillway/driveway entrance at a good clip. Lucky the culvert is still working so just an inch deep coming over the top.
Amazing the boulders that can be flushed down stream. Soldiers Grove, Gays Mills area pretty bad too. Hope that is it for the heavy rain.
Bill
I was in northern marathon this past weekend and everything was flooded. Southern Clark had a couple roads washed out.
After the last 2 inches of rain in Juneau County, I need a snorkel to get to my stands. I've never seen this much rain for the fall in a 45 day period. On the bright side, with the warm weather leading into the chasing phase, I have plenty of standing water for bucks to drink. Everything else isn't very exciting: too many mosquitoes, flooded food plots, and lack of deer travel.
