I got off to a later start than I would prefer on a weekend when I knew the woods would be sure to get hit hard. Some fresh rain and lots of sunshine really bring out the weekend hunters. We really didn't get any measurable rain though in my area. Just some light stuff that didn't even effect the ground, but some areas are still plenty moist.Normally I would be out of the car walking to my spots by 6:15 under these circumstance, but I slept in a little and then needed gas, so I didn't make the turn into the area until well after 7. Despite my late start I didn't see anyone on the way in. What I did see was a set of very promising looking trees, three in all, sitting about 15 yards from the road. I thought surely someone would check this, but what the heck. Might as well stop and give it a quick look. Leaving the car running and the door open I ran down the to see.
When you do this, I recommend always taking a bag or else you will end up like me walking back to the car trying to hold 27 morels in your shirt. Yep, that's right. A spot right on the way in that lots of people drive a mere 20 yards from. Always check a promising spot no matter where it is. You never know what you will find and you won't find anything if you don't look.
I took picking 25+ before I even parked a very good omen and it turned out to be true. I took it as a good sign because it meant that no one in the area was keyed into the same type of trees I was, or they would have never overlooked them. And as I suspected, there were lots of good producing trees were to be found. Also, the smaller stands of mixed woods were starting to put outs singles and small patches here and there. I was hoping to get 75 or 80 but to my delight I doubled my goal and came home with 150.
A nice fresh trio.
4 comments:
Totally jealous of all your finds. Spent several hours looking today on private property that I know hasn't been picked over and only found 2. That's right, two. I'm pretty new to this though. I was just about to give up but then saw a faint hint of a trail I'd never taken before and ended up finding two decent sized morels hiding. That sparked another hour or so looking but never found any more.
Could you clue us in to what types of trees sparked your interest for this new spot? I've been looking for the obvious Elm hot spots, but any new tips would be well welcomed. I spent about 4 hours looking at Babler State Park today only to come up with three fresh and three old, seems like they were still peaking in the bottoms.
The type of woods I am hunting in the bottoms is nothing like they have at Babler so I doubt it would do you much good. Also, I don't dare advertise is so broadly this early in the season or the trees like I saw today will be clean picked before I get there.
I can tell you that the silver maples which have been good in past years are not putting out anything. But white ash are doing good in the hills, I hear, so keep an eye out for those in your quest for the perfect elm.
Thanks for the tips ahistory. Babler was just my desperate attempt to get in on a little action. My only honey hole I ever had is now sitting under a strip mall in the Chesterfield bottoms. We stumbled across it when I was a kid and never had a need to go anywhere else...until recently. It would be useful if you would provide an article of what you look for when searching for a new hot spot.
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