Oklahoma Morels 2013

The yellows were plentiful down south. You just had to find the right trees. Not a lot of folks hunt morels down there so they get to grow.

I picked about a pound of nice big yellow ten feet behind 3 fishermen. They were only interested in catfish.

Here are three beauties. I came back with 14 pounds total.

Reports from the Field

Went down to Oklahoma on Sunday to pick some big morels (will post videos from there soon). When I got back and checked my spots I was glad to see that the Mid-MO morels are getting bigger. 

Oh and they are just getting started in the south facing slopes of the hills. This one had just come up overnight.

 

Post a comment and let everyone know if you are finding anything in your neck of the woods.

They are here

The morels showed up in Mid-MO about mid-week but they are very tiny. I'm letting them grow so they get to a more pickable size.

Here are a few photos. More to come this weekend.

Hens have returned

After a very LONG and HOT DRY summer, fall is finally here and the hens have started to show on just a couple of trees.

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I found these on Tuesday and only ended up picking the big one. It was about 4 pounds. Hopefully the rest will be a good size by the weekend.

Now that the woods are alive, I am hoping that the blog will come back to life too. So keep an eye out for more entries to come before the mushrooms return underground for winter.

Time for Trumpets

Morel season came and went fast this year. I am sure the early start caught quite a few people off guard, but I hope everyone was able to make it out and at least find a few.

As we move on to other mushrooms the early season continues. I was down at the Lake last Friday and had some extra time so I took a quick walk around a local state park down there. Mush to my surprise and delight, I found a nice mess of black trumpets. they were only showing up on the southern and eastern facing slopes, but as you can see there were quite a few in some places. 

I only picked the larger ones. There were lots of little ones I left behind but I still came out with about a pounds worth. Not bad considering I have never seen trumpets this early in May before. They usually don't show up until the last week of May or early June.

And trumpets weren't all that I found. I picked a couple of mature cibarius minor or small chanterelles. I also saw quite a few common yellow chanterelle buttons just starting out. With all the rain we got early this week, by next weekend at least the southern parts of Mid-MO should be ripe for the pickings. Be sure you don't miss out. And use bug spray when you go. The ticks are looking to be bad this summer.

Still Looking for Morels? Search Harder or Head North

Now I am not saying that the season is over here in Mid-MO. The cooler temps and rain are sure to keep some morels alive and growing. However, that week of 80 degree plus weather at the end of March darn near got everything to flush (even the northern slopes and darker areas) and made the ones that were already up grow so big that man y have began to rot.

And it isn't just my gut telling me this, I know a hunter from the northern edges of Mid-MO who picked over 30 pounds starting on Friday and over the weekend, but even he said that by Sunday he was only able to pick about one out of every three he found because most were so far gone. So, to hit the motherlode or to find a nice batch of fresh greys, you will need to head north a bit more, maybe even beyond the state borders.

That's what Shroom King and I did at the end of last week and let me tell you the many hours spent in the car turned out to be well worth it. But I'll let you decide. Here are some videos highlighting a few nice finds in the two days. These weren't picked north of the state line, but pretty darn close to it.

I came upon this spot only ten minutes into the woods and knew it would be a good trip.

Several trees were hitting well. It was just a matter of finding them among the wooded slopes.

Many parts of the area had been cleared by controlled burning the previous year. These made for easy spotting and also contributed to trees dying (mainly small ones whose lower trunks succumbed to the flames) but no matter how small they still produced.

By Friday people were starting to really hit the woods so I spent less time taking footage so i could focus on finding the morels before the weekenders hit the woods.

The mushrooms in the area were unusually picturesque.

I even saw a few half frees. They seemed to come more on the second day after some rain had fallen.

A Bad Day Morel Hunting is Better Than a Good Day in the Office...But a Good Day in the Woods Takes the Cake

Teamed up with Shroom King a Mid-MO hunter I have hunted with for a couple of years now. Good old guy as most mushroom hunters are if you get to know them.

We hit it hard and covered a lot of miles. Most places were spotty but every now and then we would get into some good overlooked places.

Not a lot of time to write must soak aching muscles and tired feet. So here are some more videos and photos to help keep your morel needs at bay.

Here is a close up of the final haul. We found some big ones today as you will see.

And...

The elusive Shroom King posing in a better shot of just over 15 pounds because they were fat and meaty and I mean the mushrooms, not my hunting buddy.

Sometimes we had to sneak up on them.

Other times they jumped out right in front of us.

But they were usually out with a bunch of friends.

All let these photos from the last few days speak for themselves.

I highly recommend getting out and enjoying this great weather. Maybe you'll get lucky like us.