Ready, set, hunt morels

I've had several calls today confirming what we already know -- it's time to hunt.

Rootball Willy reports buckets of river morels being pulled from the Platte River Valley between Lincoln and Omaha. The report was second-hand, but Willy is an ex-repo man and can sniff out a false claim like a boar on a truffle.

Jeanmarie and Dean have been pulling dozens of nice medium-size morels from the West Douglas County parks.

Vicki Modlin, of Woods Sporting Goods and Live Bait in Council Bluffs, is reporting many pounds being taken from the Iowa side of the Missouri River Valley. They bring their buckets to her shop to weigh them -- and brag. Did I say the Wood's sells beer and has a drive-thru bait window.

Kellicans went to a Sarpy County WMA and picked three pounds of pristine morels. Kelly, I'm only going to say this once -- stay out of my honey hole.

We have heard of morel harvesting throughout the entire area -- not just a few hear and there, but big finds. Some are reporting sand fleas. That's to be expected after a rain. Everyone is reporting bad mosquitoes and ticks. Diana and I pulled more than 30 ticks -- many of those tiny bastards -- off us after a four-hour walk.

The past two years have been a test. We have been hopeful previously and had our hopes dashed. Still, I am willing to put my hopeful-self at risk yet again, with nothing between me and hunting for the next 10 days, and venture to believe this may be the best two weeks of morel hunting we've had in a long time. Starting now.