Most of Grand Pass CA is a walk-in area. Some hunters hunt by sitting on plastic five-gallon buckets in the corn fields, while others use layout boats or boat blinds. It is also hunted like most of the other Conservation Areas, with hunters poling or motoring along the water service sections and poling or pushing their watercraft once in the shallow-water hunting units.

Grand Pass CA also has excellent potential for attracting Canada geese because it's only 25 miles from Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

"We don't have as much Canada goose hunting as we once had," Graber said. "I think it's a nationwide trend. The geese are more disbursed these days. It may be because the geese arrive later and the shallow-water areas are frozen, so they head for the fields outside the Conservation Areas."

The hunting units have some corn. But the biggest food source is native moist-soils vegetation like smartweed and millet. Hunters should therefore not always look for standing corn for the best place to find waterfowl.

To hunt Grand Pass or any of the other Conservation Areas, hunters depend on the on-site staff for scouting reports. They know day to day what the harvests have been and where the waterfowl are concentrated. They use aerial photos to see where they may have the best luck.

"We don't allow scouting because you have to have a permit to enter the area," Graber said. "Hunters entering the area outside the hunting dates and times would disturb the waterfowl and the hunters, so hunters should depend on our staff and their own prior experience when hunting at Grand Pass or any other Conservation Area."

Graber said one-fourth to one-half of Grand Pass, and the other Conservation Areas, is designated as refuge. This keeps them productive all season long, except for freezing conditions.

TED SHANKS CA
Ted Shanks CA is 6,700 acres and is located along the upper Mississippi River in Pike County. It's similar to Bob Brown and Grand Pass in management, but is a bit different in terrain.

"It's a different feel because the Mississippi hills are not far away," Graber said. "The Mississippi River is a funnel to other migration areas and all major duck species come down the Mississippi Flyway."

Occasionally, there are some Canada geese on Ted Shanks. However, hunters shouldn't depend on it.

DUCK CREEK CA
In southeast Missouri, Duck Creek CA is adjacent to the Mingo NWR and is one of the state's oldest Conservation Areas. It's one of the old traditional waterfowl hunting areas that still have permanent blinds in place, as well as some green-tree timber hunting.

"In the timber, it can be outstanding duck hunting when there's a good acorn year," Graber said. "When there's a poor acorn crop, the moist-soils units are better for ducks. There is some good goose hunting there at times, with both Canada geese and white geese."

There is a unit on Mingo NWR that allows MDC's Duck Creek CA to administer hunting opportunities as well. The Duck Creek CA is 6,200 acres, with the addition of the Mingo NWR unit making it larger.

"If you draw for a blind, you hunt that blind," Graber said. "The unit is restricted to hunting those blinds only so there are no issues with crowding. We maintain the blinds."

There are about 40 blinds on Duck Creek. There are none in Mingo because it's a green-tree reservoir.

OTTER SLOUGH CA
Otter Slough CA is located in southeast Missouri, south of Duck Creek CA. Its 4,900 acres are more open than Duck Creek, and it has the best opportunity for snow goose hunting of all the public areas in Missouri. It also offers earlier hunting than Duck Creek because of the moist-soils management as opposed to the flooded acorns.