Arkansas Sportsman

AGFC gets earful on mud motors

Two duck hunting groups addressed the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on Wednesday to talk about overcrowding at WMAs and surface-drive outboard motors.

Surface-drive motors are air-cooled engines that are more commonly known as "mud motors." They are able to operate in shallower water than traditional outboard motors.

Jeremy Mitchell represented a group of about a dozen mud-motor users that are worried that the AGFC is considering banning the motors from wildlife management areas.

Commissioner Joe Morgan said duck hunters have complained to him about the amount of noise that mud motors generate at Bayou Meto WMA, in particular. The major complaints are that the motors spoil the hunting environment, and that they scare ducks away for a period of time when boats powered by mud motors operate nearby.

Mitchell played a video for the commission that he filmed while running a Black Death 4400 mud motor through flooded timber at Henry Gray Hurricane Lake WMA. The video showed scores of ducks taking off within a few yards of the boat while underway.

"The 4400 is the biggest, baddest motor that Mud Buddy makes," Mitchell said. "I picked the 44 for the simple reason that it is the biggest. If we put the right exhaust on these motors, there shouldn't be a noise issue."

Mitchell said his motor, which is equipped with a VPS Q-Muffler, generates 85 decibels 1.5 meters from the exhaust port. Running at 3,600 rpm at 50 feet, it generated 73 dB, and it generated 79 dB running 4,200 rpm at 50 feet.

Brad Young, major for the AGFC's enforcement division, briefed the commission in January about the challenges of regulating mud motors. He said the U.S. Coast Guard recommends a decibel level of 86 at a distance of 50 feet for motors.

Mitchell said that race-car drivers faced the same complaints in communities that have dirt racing tracks, and that they modified their cars to comply with new noise standards. He said that mud motor owners would be willing to cooperate in the same way.

"Can we make a list of approved exhausts to comply?" Mitchell asked. "We would be willing to assist the Game and Fish to tone this down."

Commission chairman Fred Brown said that the commission has not talked about banning mud motors. He said the issue emerged in a couple of e-mails from hunters that complained about overcrowding on WMAs.

"Mud motors are not the problem, it's the people that buy them and handle them that are the problem," Brown said.

Brown explained that the commission had done considerable work clearing waterways in green tree timber reservoirs to facilitate drainage, but those efforts created boating conflicts.

"A by-product is it created highways from y'all to travel," Brown said. "but you don't have to travel them like your hair's on fire. If y'all would play nicer, we wouldn't have the problems we're having."

The commission took a break to go outside and listen to a mud motor. At idle, it was about as loud as a good quality electrical inverter. Under throttle, it was much louder.

Chris Jones represented a group called WMAs Rights for Arkansans. He said the group's concerns grew out of a discussion of lifelong and short-term hunters that hunt WMAs, and that it has amassed 2,100 members in just four weeks of existence.

"It started with a couple of guys getting cranky about WMAs and duck hunting," Jones said. "We said, 'We can fuss about this, but what are we going do about it rather than fuss? Let's get involved and come up with something productive. We want productive, reasoned, rational thoughts to present.' "

He said the group wants to work with the AGFC to promote the pleasurable, ethical and productive use and management of WMAs. To that end, he requested the AGFC appoint a liaison that the group can communicate directly.

"We're looking to come up with common sense things that can work and that can be evaluated," Jones said.

Jones gave each member of the commission a copy of the group's mission statement, which reinforced Jones' comments.

Commissioner Bobby Martin noted that the mission statement on the group's Facebook page is decidedly more hostile to the commission and to the agency. He asked if that mission statement more accurately represents the group's disposition toward the agency.

Jones said the mission statement would be changed before the end of the day, and it was.

Martin said he was merely curious about which mission statement was operative, as it would define the basis of the relationship between the AGFC and WMAs Rights for Arkansans.

Sports on 02/16/2017

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