Around Bates County, This Duck Season Runs On Concrete And Rain

Which of the three public marshes around Bates County will have water when the Middle Zone duck season opens Nov. 7? The answer comes down to pumps, levees and control structures more than it does to migration. The three Missouri Department of Conservation areas in and near the county start this season with very different equipment, and that will decide where the decoys go.

Schell-Osage Conservation Area at Schell City has just come out of a full rebuild. Four Rivers Conservation Area, also called the August A. Busch Jr. Memorial Wetlands, went into fall with water already in its open units. Settle's Ford Conservation Area has a list of broken structures to fix and will depend on rain to hold water.

Schell-Osage now refills from the river

If you've seen MDC's preseason status table, you may have read that Schell-Osage was closed to waterfowl hunting for the 2026-27 season with all its pools drained. That was the late-August picture, and it's no longer true. On Sept. 25, MDC announced that construction was complete and that the area would reopen to the public Oct. 3. A dedication and ribbon-cutting was set for Oct. 14.

The project was the last piece of MDC's Golden Anniversary Wetland Initiative, which spent about 20 years updating five of Missouri's oldest wetland conservation areas. MDC did the Schell-Osage work with Ducks Unlimited. Phase 1 put in a pump station on the Osage River. Phases 2 and 3 started in January 2025 and moved levees and added new structures to control water. Contractors kept working through a wet spring and flooding earlier this year.

The biggest change for this season is how Schell Lake works. Its new water-control structure lets the lake refill from the rise and fall of the Osage River and Truman Lake Reservoir. It used to catch runoff from the west side. MDC says that once the lake is recharged, it won't have to be lowered to flood the nearby wetland pools the way it was in past years. In other words, the lake and the duck pools no longer draw on the same limited water.

Hunters who knew the old layout will need to relearn it. Some blinds were moved to fit the new levee lines. The old wooden blinds are gone, and the new ones are built into sloping earthen mounds. The lake also has a deeper channel, three new islands, several fishing jetties along the shore, and fish attractors on the bottom. Anglers will have to wait, though. The area page says Schell Lake stays closed to fishing until further notice while the fishery develops.

Four Rivers had water in its open units by August

Four Rivers didn't need a rebuild this year. MDC's late-August table lists no repairs or construction there. Unit 3 was at 60% of full pool in Presidents Marsh, and Unit 4 was near full. Units 3 and 4 could also take on more water from the river and from rain as the season goes on. The draw units, 1 and 2, were set to get more water through the fall. MDC rated the habitat and food fair to good, with up to 15 to 24 parties a day plus the open units and one ADA blind.

Because there's water in both its draw and walk-in sides, Four Rivers works for two kinds of hunters. It's one of MDC's 13 managed waterfowl areas. In that system, half the positions go to reservations and half to the daily poor-line draw, and the reservation half is split between preseason and in-season draws. Preseason applications closed Sept. 18. In-season draws run weekly once the season is underway. MDC's reservation page says applications open each Tuesday at 12:01 a.m., close at 3 p.m. the following Monday, and are drawn Monday at 4 p.m. Reservation holders and poor-line hunters both register before the morning draw, which hands out pill numbers and hunting spots. Some poor-line hunters may leave without a spot.

Units 3 and 4 work differently. The 2026 Missouri waterfowl hunting digest requires hunters there to self-register with a Daily Waterfowl Hunting Tag and check out when they leave.

Settle's Ford is waiting on repairs

Settle's Ford is in the opposite position from Four Rivers. Several of its structures need to be fixed before its pools can hold much water, so it has to wait on construction first and then on rain. In late August, MDC listed this work:

1. The disabled-access blind in the 1-2 pool is being replaced. It will open once construction is done and rain has put water in the pool.
2. The structure for the 1-5 pool, which serves as the refuge, is being repaired. That pool stays dry until the work is finished.
3. The 2-3 pool has a damaged water-control structure and won't hold water until it's repaired.
4. The 3-1 structure is damaged and needs replacing. The 3-1 pool also has a levee breach, and MDC is still working out a long-term fix. That pool can still hold some water for hunting when conditions allow.

MDC described most of the pools as dry or very low. It said water levels depend on fall rain and that "hunting opportunities will be very limited." MDC's teal-season snapshot, also from late August, gave a sense of scale. Settle's Ford had 20 acres flooded, though its moist-soil habitat was rated fair to good.

Settle's Ford is open hunting with self-check. The state digest lists it with MDC's other waterfowl hunting areas, not the 13 managed areas that use reservations, so whether you can hunt there depends on water, not on a draw.

Rain will matter most at Settle's Ford

Each area gets its water from a different place, so this fall's weather affects them differently. Schell-Osage now has a river pump station and a lake that refills from the Osage River and Truman Lake. Four Rivers can gain water from the river as well as from rain. At Settle's Ford, MDC tied water levels directly to fall precipitation, and two of its pools, 1-5 and 2-3, won't hold water no matter how much rain falls until their structures are fixed.

The county doesn't have much rain to spare. On the U.S. Drought Monitor map with data valid Oct. 6, 2026, Drought.gov shows 84.55% of Bates County abnormally dry, the D0 category, and the other 15.45% in moderate drought, D1. None of the county was in the more severe categories. These conditions do little harm at a marsh that fills from the river. They hurt most at a marsh that needs rain just to get its pools wet.

For a fourth option nearby, Montrose Conservation Area was listed in late August with normal water management. It had levee work on its Motter pool and a structure repair on an 80-acre pool, and it offered open hunting with self-check.

Water levels move quickly in the fall. MDC refreshes its preseason wetland status table in late August and again in mid-October, so check the newest version before driving out to any of these areas.

The calendar from here

Bates County is in the Middle Zone under the new 2026–2030 zone boundaries. Here are the dates that apply:

• Oct. 15 to March 1: Parts of Four Rivers, Settle's Ford and Schell-Osage close to protect resting and feeding waterfowl. These closures are already in effect.
• Oct. 31 to Nov. 1: Middle Zone youth waterfowl hunt. MDC lists these youth dates for Four Rivers and Settle's Ford.
• Nov. 7 to Dec. 13: First part of the Middle Zone duck season.
• Dec. 19 to Jan. 10, 2027: Second part, after a closed stretch between the two.
• Dec. 25: The waterfowl hunting areas in Four Rivers Units 1 and 2 are closed.

The closures apply to everyone, not only hunters. The Four Rivers area page and the Settle's Ford area page both list hours of 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. and include bird watching as an activity. The state digest says the designated refuge sections are closed to all public use from Oct. 15 to March 1. If you go out with binoculars instead of a shotgun, stay on the open portions shown on each area's map.

This post is general information. MDC sets and enforces the hunting rules, so check the current digest and each area's posted regulations before you go.

If you're thinking about land of your own near these marshes, like a few acres of bottomland, a place with a pond, or a homesite close to Four Rivers or Schell-Osage, Dez Poole can walk the ground with you and talk through how it fits the way you want to use it. Schedule Free Consultation.