Game and Fish approves 60-day duck season

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on Thursday approved a 60-day duck season that will run in three segments, starting Nov. 22 and ending Jan. 25, 2015, at its monthly meeting in Little Rock.

Hunters will be allowed to kill no more than six ducks per day, including up to four mallards, of which no more than two may be hens. A six-duck daily limit may also include no more than two pintails, three wood ducks, three scaup, two redheads, one canvasback, one black duck or one mottled duck.

The three duck season segments will run Nov. 22-30, Dec. 4-23, and Dec. 26 through Jan. 25, 2015.

The late Canada goose season will run Nov. 13 through Jan. 25, 2015, as will the seasons for white fronted, snow, blue and Ross' geese. The daily limits for Canada and white-fronted geese will be two. The daily limits for snow, blue and Ross' geese will be 50.

Luke Naylor, waterfowl biologist for the AGFC, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended a liberal duck season based on excellent habitat conditions in the Canadian prairies and in parts of the upper Great Plains.

Researchers cataloged 4.6 million ponds where ducks reproduced in Canada, which Naylor said is 33 percent above the long-term average. There were also 2.6 million breeding ponds in the U.S., which is 43 percent above the long-term average. The abundance of breeding habitat is because of a prolonged wet cycle that that has endured for almost two decades. Habitat conditions are better in Canada than in the U.S., Naylor said.

"The eastern Dakotas, even though they've been wet, have experienced extensive habitat loss that is affecting ducks" Naylor said.

The USFWS estimates that there are 49.2 million ducks this year, Naylor said. That's 8 percent above the 2013 estimate, and 43 percent above the long-term average. That includes 10.9 million mallards, which is 42 percent above the long-term average.

"Last year was a record, and this year we broke it," Naylor said. "That's just plain high. That's a lot of ducks."

Hunters killed 529,529 mallards in Arkansas last year, Naylor said. Missouri was second with 200,700, and was the only other state in the Central Flyway where hunters killed more than 200,000 mallards.

In fisheries-related business, the commission also approved a slate of new fishing regulations for 2015. They include:

• Removing the 13-16 inch slot length limit on DeGray Lake and replacing it with a 13-inch minimum length limit

• Changing the daily creel limit for black bass on DeGray Lake from 10 to six.

• Establishing a 10-inch minimum length limit for crappie at Lake Conway.

• Establishing a statewide creel limit of 30 crappie per day.

Sports on 08/22/2014

Upcoming Events