Mallards fluttering into flooded timber is a postcard picture of an Arkansas autumn, and it comes to life today with the opening of duck season.
The 2015-16 duck season will last 60 days in three segments. The first segment runs through Nov. 29. The second segment will run Dec. 10-23, and the final segment will run Dec. 26 through Jan. 31, 2016.
Duck season glance
DATES Today through Nov. 29; Dec. 10-23; Dec. 26 - Jan. 31, 2016.
DAILY LIMIT Six ducks, of which no more than four may be mallards (no more than two of which may be hens). At Bayo Meto Wildlife Management area: Four ducks, of which no more than no more than three may be mallards.
SHOOTING TIMES 30 minutes before legal sunrise to legal sunset. Sunrise/sunset tables are on Page 6 of the 2015-16 Arkansas Waterfowl Hunting Guidebook.
LICENSES Hunters must possess a signed resident or non-resident hunting license, a signed federal duck stamp and a signed state duck stamp, as well as a Harvest Information Program (HIP) permit. Information about additional licenses for non-residents and for area-specific permits for residents and non-residents is available online at agfc.com.
LEGAL WEAPONS Waterfowl may be taken only with shotguns 10-gauge and smaller, archery equipment and muzzleloading shotguns. Repeating shotguns must be rendered incapable of holding more than three shells.
LEGAL AMMUNITION While waterfowl hunting, hunters may only possess shotgun shells containing non-toxic shot approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Examples are steel, tungsten-iron (Hevi-Steel), tungsten-polymer, tungsten-matrix, tungsten-iron-nickel-tin (TINT), tungsten-nickel-iron (Hevi-Shot), tungsten-bronze-iron (TBI), tungsten-tin-bismuth (TTB) or bismuth-tin. Hunters may use only non-toxic shot size T (.2-inch diameter) and smaller when hunting waterfowl and coots.
Luke Naylor, the waterfowl biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said heavy rain this week improved waterfowl habitat across the state and created better conditions for hunters.
"It could be good," Naylor said. "If you asked me a week ago, it would have been a totally different story. We had a relatively dry summer and early fall, but that all changed the last couple of days. We just completed our flying surveys, and there's water in places where we don't see water in January at times."
While rain improved habitat in Arkansas, the weather in northern states has not been severe enough to push large numbers of ducks into Arkansas, Naylor said. Hunters should temper their expectations for opening weekend, he added, but prospects can improve quickly.
"There's not a huge numbers of ducks, which isn't all that surprising," Naylor said. "Winds haven't turned around from the north yet, and they won't turn around until this weekend. If things are going to change in terms of duck numbers, that's probably when it's going to happen."
George Dunklin of Stuttgart, a former member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, now serves as chairman of the board of directors for Ducks Unlimited. He said duck season is a binding thread in the fabric of Arkansas life and that many consider it an extended holiday.
"Duck season in Arkansas is something a lot of us look forward to every year, like we do Christmas or birthdays," Dunklin said. "It's part of our life, part of our makeup, part of what we schedule events around. It affects businesses, and it affects people from all walks of life."
Naylor, a Kansas native who has been the AGFC's waterfowl biologist since 2007, agreed.
"I haven't seen a place like it that has the tradition and culture of duck hunting that's present in Arkansas," Naylor said. "Where my dad lives, his camo duck boat is an oddity, but when he comes here to visit it's nothing special. There's duck boats and black dogs everywhere in Arkansas."
"The passion for duck hunting here is strong. It's not the same number of folks as we had deer hunting last weekend, but it's still a huge number of people."
Economically, duck season is a major event in Arkansas. In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife produced a report titled "National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Related Recreation." Revised in February 2014, the report estimated that 87,000 Arkansas residents and non-residents hunt ducks in our state. Combined, they spend 1,664 days afield and spend about $288 million per season. That includes about $202 million for equipment, about $41 million for lodging and about $31 million in fuel and other transportation expenses.
"In Stuttgart we have the [World's Championship] duck calling contest and thousands of people will come to the Grand Prairie over the Thanksgiving weekend," Dunklin said. "That has a huge impact on restaurants, gas stations and small merchants. It provides lots of jobs for lots of people."
According to the USFWS, hunters this year can expect the largest duck migration since the USFWS started keeping records in 1955. Because of its geographic location and its abundance of wetlands, eastern Arkansas is the primary convergence point for ducks that migrate down the prongs of the Central Flyway. That makes it a prime duck hunting destination.
"Part of what I learned traveling around the country as president of Ducks Unlimited is that our worst day is better than most peoples' best day anywhere else," Dunklin said. "We are fortunate in Arkansas to have what we have."
In Arkansas, most duck hunting takes place in rice fields, flooded forests and backwater sloughs. Dunklin said the timely arrival of rain should create good habitat for ducks and provide places for sportsmen to hunt. Cold weather behind the rain should help push mallards south.
"Nothing is full [flooded] at this early stage, but don't want it full this early," Dunklin said. We want it to come up gradually, and what we've gotten so far is about perfect. It should be perfect for opening day."
Sports on 11/21/2015