So Many Mushrooms, So Little Time

I didn't get time to do much hunting yesterday but I did get out to a spot in town at lunch and found five 2" to 3" yellows, nice and fresh. Talked to some hunters returning from the woods and they had done well but nothing too big. So the hills are starting to produce. The bottoms are about done. Getting really big there and easy pickings.

Went out with a buddy and found 150 today in two hours. Large yellows and greys some the size of coke cans. I split them with my buddy and when I got home mine weighed 2 1/2 pounds so I can only assume we got about 5 pounds together. It was another good day, especially since I had to work and could only hunt for a few hours.

I only took a few photos because most were getting big and yellowing, and although very tasty , they aren't really that photogenic anymore.

Here is an example of a cluster of yellows with my backpack behind them. I always hunt with a backpack so I can haul water, my camera, etc and haul out the extra full bags on days like these. There are three in this cluster if you notice the one hiding around back.

After filling our bags and since we were in the area, I figured I would check a spot that had produced some nice ones late last year, so I knew my fellows hunters tended to overlook it. I didn't expect much, anticipating that this late in the season and right on the edge of section that really gets picked early and often, we would have no luck. But, oh boy, was I surprised. We picked between 30 to 40 nice fat and meaty 4" to 6" greys. Here are a few of the beauties.




I was amazed because they were mainly right out in the open with very little cover and they were so big. I still do not know why people don't hunt this spot when they hunt trees only 50 feet away. Just shows you that you always need to check the whole area, even that last little bit because that is where these were waiting.

One final note, if you do your research on morels you'll learn that there are only two types of morels: yellows and blacks. The color variation of yellows from white to grey to yellow can vary greatly and can be due to age, environment, weather conditions, all sorts of things. No matter how they look, they are the same general type of morel. They rarely come out yellow which is why everyone reports finding greys first. If left alone greys will become nice yellows or they may keep their grey color like the ones pictured above. I didn't leave any of these because I didn't plan on returning, but I bet, if I would have left a 6 inch grey behind, I might have come back to find a 10 inch yellow in a few more days. But who has that kind of patience especially considering, in my own humble opinion, that a fellow hunter from Indiana always claims "greys are the best."