Duck hunters planning to hunt public wildlife marshes, lakes, sloughs, river bottoms or flats in eastern Iowa are encouraged to scout the areas before they plan to hunt.
The following areas have been or will likely be impacted by high water.
· Big Marsh - Butler County
· Sweet Marsh, Aldo Leopold Wetland Complex - Bremer County
· Dudgeon Lake, Red Fox - Benton County
· Chain of Lakes, Wood Duck Bottoms, Bertram - Linn County
· Otter Creek Marsh, Tama County
· Iowa River Corridor - Tama and Iowa counties
· Hawkeye - Johnson County
· Cedar Bottoms, Weise Slough - Muscatine County
· Millrace Flats, Wapello Bottoms, Odessa (the Toolsboro Access will be closed, other access roads are currently open) - Louisa County
Lake Red Rock
At Lake Red Rock, in Polk County, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will reduce the outflow to help alleviate flooding downstream, which will raise the lake level likely to about 749 feet by Oct. 4. It will then be brought back to normal pool – 742 feet – by Oct. 11.
This higher pool will allow duck hunters to use the Box Cars boat ramp upstream from Lake Red Rock for the first weekend of early duck season, Oct. 2-3. Runnels Marsh and Richards Marsh – both part of the Red Rock complex – are full. Water level will drop as the river flow decreases.