# Morel Hunting Patterns Open Thread America



## chapman two step (Apr 19, 2014)

Got pattern to your hunting or do you just walk around and hope to find them ? Let's talk about where to look for them in a land of ten thousand of acres. I am now hunting Corp. of Engineer's ground around Truman Lake after going to the same old spots for 20+ Years and taking what was there. Looking through my new set of eyes, I am finding a pattern of what might be going on in the real world. When you go to a different environment than you are accustom to you have to find something that works. We do not have enough time to wander through the woods, aimlessly hoping to happen chance upon them. So let's define what works, at least in my area, in my opinion. 
Trees are trees key to what I am finding right now! Not any trees will do, I am only looking for Ash trees with a mix of Elm trees, the next component of the equation is the topography of the ground. In my findings there needs to be change in the elevation in the ground. It my only be 2-6 feet but Man has changed the contour of the ground. My early spot a small road was cut out 40 some years ago. The mushrooms are on the dirt at the edge of the road, the hump. Second area is an abounded railroad tracks, 40+ years, where a culvert was cut out and the ground spoils were move to one side. At this area ground on the other side of the culvert had no mushrooms, just the side where the dirt had been moved. So this opens up the disturbed ground theory. Anyone who has a pattern or idea on this is, welcome to speak up.
Side Bar: A friend of mine worked for his father in law for over 30 years, farming over 1000+ acres, before his father in law passed away. Yes, they had a good relationship. His father in law took his mushroom hunting grounds to the grave with him, never sharing the information of what this man had learned through a lifetime of caring of his property. 
The topic is open, Who would like to share?


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## 0101010101 (Apr 20, 2014)

I think it takes a few years but eventually you figure out what you're doing. One thing I have learned is not to post a bunch of info on message forums. Those of us who hunt public land don't need hundreds more people showing up to hunt the same grounds. I always talk to other hunters I bump into in the woods, but I'm not going to post stuff on here. There's plenty of information already available to get new hunters started. 

Good luck everyone.

P.S. Since railroad tracks are sprayed with very strong pesticides to keep them clear, I always avoid even looking near them (not to mention it's private property).


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## mozeta (Apr 5, 2013)

I’ve never had any luck finding a pattern to where morels grow. The only pattern I have found is completely random. I can hunt completely un-hunted private ground for an hour and find 2 random mushrooms a quarter mile apart. One might be in a dry area under a honeysuckle bush on an east facing slope with no other trees around and the other in the middle of a grass field around some rocks. I may get lucky and find a dozen or so good size morels one year on the side of west facing cliff with tons of canopy cover receiving almost no light and then go back and not find any there for the next 3 years. I may go looking for new places and hit all the “likely places” concentrating on dead elm and ash trees and hit 50 or 60 good looking spots and find dozens of mushrooms that are not morels. Then the next day I may go out and find 3 morels under an old sycamore tree. The problem I have is once I find 4 or 5 in an area, I will go back to that spot year after year looking for them and I seldom, if ever, find them there again. So then I spend a few hours each year looking at places where I have found them in years past but have found none since. It’s hard to give up on a place if you have found mushrooms there before, but it’s a big waste of time to keep going back there and never find them again. 

It’s also hard to move on from a place once you find a single mushroom. You feel like there can’t just be one mushroom here. So you scour the area around your single find moving methodically in a circle gradually moving out further and further away from the one you found. Yet this happens to me more times than not. I just keep on hunting hoping I’ll find that new honey hole just ahead over the next south facing slope under that dead ash tree in that old burned out area close to the river bottoms that got dug up last year in the creek bed after a good rain.


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## dark_star88 (Apr 17, 2013)

I've noticed that when we have a cooler than usual spring, I find the majority of my mushrooms in a mix of cedar and elm
anyone else notice this?.


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## chapman two step (Apr 19, 2014)

With all due respect to 1010101010, At this stage of my life, I am a person who is now the teacher, not the harvester. I would prefer to teach you how to observe nature closely and watch you enjoy the harvest. Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for life. 
As for the railroad issue, in Henry County, the KATY trail starts and runs all the way to St. Louis, Mo. It is a public biking trail. This rail line has was closed in 1986. There are more railroad lines that run through Henry County that have been closed for at least 32 or more years, the Rock Island line closed in 1982. Others have been closed for even longer, research will provide more clues.
Now to the point I was trying to make: What I am looking for is a change in the elevation of the soil. This could be a berm at the edge of the railroad tracks, the edge/ ditch of an old roadbed, a cut by a creek where two branches form a V pattern. This elevation change can only be a couple of feet or it could be a few inches were a dead elm / ash/ cottonwood/ ect. has fallen over. The soil has been disturbed in these areas at some point in time, in the past, for what ever reason. In the past I hunted coal gobs or spoils where Peabody Coal company unloaded top soil next to the coal pits that were dug in the 1920-1930's, found mushrooms.
To Mozeta, I concur with your thoughts on the problem. Nothing is set in stone, Mother Nature is ever evolving, no year is like the last. Today 4-25-2014, I found a 4" morel growing on a dead elm stump, 25 feet off an old road bed, with a mix of Ash/Oak/Locust trees in the area. The road bed filtered to a small creek. Based on the pattern I had found in the last two days, I expected to find many more morels in thus area. No more were there, did someone else pick them all out? Looked hard at a couple of other dead elm stump, found no signs of remains of picked morels. So I followed the road bed across the creek and found an elevation change where an arrowhead type pattern in the ground was formed by two ditches that ran into the creek, 150 yards away from the first morel. In this spot was a clump of Maple trees on a north facing slope, it produced (26) 2" tall morels. Did it fit yesterday's pattern, yes and no. This spot had elevation change, short grass, and leaf litter on the ground. The trees did not match the pattern. 
In summary, the Perfect spot does not exist, some ares are more stable than others. Hunting is never about doing the same thing at the same time over and over with the same results. Did you ever shot a deer in the exact same spot as you shot one last year? If you did, that is the type of pattern a mushroom hunter is looking for. 
Change with the time, eyes wide open!
Happy hunting to all that are interested!


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## smguffer (Apr 14, 2013)

im with 01010100101. let them teach themselves to fish. more fish for me until they learn how.


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## swi shroomer (Apr 22, 2014)

Great posts, Chapman. Very interesting stuff!


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## mushroom jake (Mar 12, 2013)

Chapman, if you ever want to look together i would love to learn from one with much experience. I have taught myself by just looking, but i would love to know more. One secret i have found.....lopped off maples. Check them out, especially in soft ground with much leaf litter. Checked out corps land today at truman where i killed it last year and nada. Perhaps its early for cedars?


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## chapman two step (Apr 19, 2014)

In my ongoing pattern search, here is Saturday 4-26 and Sunday 4-27 report. Saturday when back to an area where I was last on Wed. Found 15 nice sized gray mushroom's on the ash tree pattern. In the main area were a pound was found on Wed. only 10 blonde morels were found. I was disappointed, is this spot done? Only time will tell, I will go back. As far as Sunday, went out to one spot hunting the ash tree pattern to find nothing here. Then the heavy rain set in for the next 5 hours. Went back out after rain quit, looking for the same pattern in a new area. Did not find exactly what i was looking for.
What i did find was disturbed ground! This spot was only a 15 yard diameter that produced 21 large blonde morels. A couple of the were as fat as a beer bottle. The mushrooms were mostly by dead elm trees, but 1/3 of them were by a couple of red oak trees that were alive. The ground was basically flat with only a 1 foot deep ditch on one side. So now you ask yourself, how does this fit the pattern I am looking for? It does not, I was already planning on the best way to get back to the car when 10' away a 4" blonde morel was standing tall. I walked to it, dropped my cap on the buck brush beside it, took two steps, looked around and saw 7 more large morels. A pound later, it all came together. Disturbed ground, but his ground was not disturbed by water, bulldozer, or backhoe. Fire was the event that caused the change in this spot. I had already walked 1/2 mile through burnt ground with no signs of a mushroom. Keep looking Mother Nature may teach you and me a new trick sometimes. Happy hunting to all!


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## cleverhunter (Apr 27, 2014)

Nice work.... I am just learning and brought my 10 yr old son with today. Yesterday I found 2 a foot away from a sycamore tree by a creek. The area was picked prior and I was lucky to even find these 2. 

Today I went out in the rain to Wilsons Creek Battlefield. Most of my time I spend wondering around the creek by dead trees, logs, and even grassland. I ventured up the west, north, east, and south side of hills. Nothing. Don't know whether it was picked as the conservation officer said there had been plenty of hunters out looking for morels. But I didn't notice any paths or disturbed areas like I noticed yesterday. Yesterday Almost every tree I visited had a path going to it and weeds brush knocked down.


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## chapman two step (Apr 19, 2014)

In reply to Dark Star88 &amp; Mushroom Jake: Let's look at fact, Truman lake water temp. at the dam was 52 degrees on 4-19-14, today 4-28-14 temp. is 58 degrees. They report this everyday so it will give you an indication of the ground temp. which will behind the water temp. The water at the dam has no shadows on it, the forest has shadows on &amp; off all day. As we learned in grade school, black absorbs more heat then any other color. So based on this fact, what I need to say is that were I have been find all mushrooms, have this in common at this point in time: there is very little to no leaf litter on the ground floor, therefor allowing the soil to warm up quicker. Read about yesterday, find them in area that was burnt off this spring, no leaf liter. Hunted the same type area today producing 61 blonde morels,. I spent some time this afternoon looking at the cedar &amp; sycamore pattern. The cedar pattern: looked along a south facing abandoned road bed with a ditch and elevation drop. Great looking area, yes right time, no. I have not found any mushrooms under cedar trees, yet. A cedar tree generally will not have any leaf litter under it,but has a very dense foliage, casting a strong shadow on the ground, no direct sun light, no heat. The time will come when this pattern will work great, but it will come towards the end of the season.
Hey CleverHunter; Been to Wilson's Creek, look at the start of all the ditches, working your way into the bottom ground where you find the sycamores or cedar / elm trees. You are approx. 10 days ahead of me in the season, read some southeastern Kansas &amp; Southwest Missouri post, they will be more closely align with your latitude - season progression.
Always remember this, that Mother Nature has more to offer than just mushrooms. Just today, I saw three owls in the same tree looking at me, two box turtles trying to mate and the first flowering buds of May Apples in my area. Take a child / spouse/ friend with you to experience what the real world has to offer. Happy hunting &amp; observation.


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## mushroom jake (Mar 12, 2013)

Chapman, i have noticed some of those patterns. As far as cedars, i agree ground is cooler therefore cooler ground temps. I will look tomorrow at lake of the ozarks. I noticed a possible pattern today, and i will test it tomorrow. Perhaps only an anomaly.


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## mushroom jake (Mar 12, 2013)

Found 150 today. Camden county. Bottoms still good.


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## cleverhunter (Apr 27, 2014)

I went back to an area by crane. I first walked in a small valley that had elm, sycamore, oak, walnut, and hedge trees. This valley produced nothing. After 45min of walking around I decided to head up the hill and onto the train tracks that was on a shelf. Me and my boys didn't walk far down the rail way and found 2 jutting out of the bank northern facing. It was a 10' tall bank and rather steep. I sent my 10 yr old up the bank to investigate more around the oak tree. 3 more on the south side of the tree that were beginning to dry up. We continued down the track finding random ones here and there. A couple under a hedge tree. etc. We walked the north side of the track which was the north facing valley we were previously in and found nothing again. Went back down the road towards my truck and seen a couple on north side of oak trees. Our honey hole that we found next to the road was a elm tree half busted up with logs and limbs laying in the ditch with many may apples. Hidden under the may apples was 7 large yellows. We ended up finding 20 total morels. 1lb 1.6oz. 

It has cooled off and been raining here now. Will be cool until sat-sun. Hoping to go back Sunday and see if we can find new spots and check back with the old spots to see if more pop up or not. At least I have an area I know that produced some. 

Good Luck guys!


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