With deep freeze over, hunters have uninterrupted hunting

Duck season runs through Jan. 31 in Arkansas

By Jim Harris

AGFC Wildlife Editor

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas waterfowl hunters endured a deep freeze leading into last weekend, and now temperatures will take an upward trend as the state’s 60-day season has reached its midpoint. There are no more splits left in the season as it runs uninterrupted through Jan. 31.

Long-range weather forecasts indicate temperatures ranging as high as 68 this weekend and staying in the 50s over the next 10 days.

But while the temps may be mild, the forecast is also calling for a potential drenching on Monday in the neighborhood of that much-sought-after 4-6 inches that will cover Delta fields and overflow banks and levees, providing ideal duck habitat. Most of Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s areas managed for waterfowl hunting have plenty of water coverage now, though, after a very dry early season.

They, and the ducks, could always use more.

Anecdotal reports surfaced of more mallards arriving as far south as George H.

Dunklin Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area last Wednesday ahead of the cold air blast roared through Arkansas Thursday. There was only minimal landscape coverage of winter precipitation in the state, but states to the north and northwest received a good blanket of snow and ice. Other anectodal reports passed along to the AGFC were from private land hunters, who noted more mallards harvested this year than last for the month of December, which fell in line with results of the AGFC’s December aerial survey.

In the days leading up to that arctic winter front, AGFC waterfowl biologists completed their December aerial survey, noting the biggest concentration of ducks in the Bayou Meto-Lower Arkansas River, Black River-Upper White River and Cache River survey zones. Of the nearly 1.14 million total ducks estimated in the Arkansas Delta during the survey, 75 percent of all ducks were in those zones. The Delta mallard count numbered 480,846 ducks, the most mallards seen in the December survey count since 2018.

Arctic goose population estimates were nearly 1.3 million along with 181,356 greater white-fronted geese.

The big weather blast last week coincided with the last break in the Arkansas waterfowl hunting season Dec. 24-25, but that marks the last stoppage in the season. Ducks, geese, mergansers and coots all can be hunted through January.

Also, Arkansas’s second dove season is underway through Jan. 15 (we mention that mainly because we noticed a significant number of doves around the Arkansas River in recent days as the cold front blew through).

Because the inclement flying conditions of earlier December pushed the flights several days later, the survey team of Jason Carbaugh, Buck Jackson, Cameron Tatom and Alex Zachery were scheduled to be back up in the air quicker than usual, with the midwinter survey scheduled for next week beginning January 2, 2023.

Looking Northward

The Missouri Department of Conservation completed its waterfowl survey Dec.

12. Since then, hunting at Missouri’s conservation areas (akin to the AGFC’s wildlife management areas) peaked in the south portion of the state by Dec. 22, when most areas recorded average hunter harvest of around 2 ducks. Better hunting was seen at more areas around Dec. 15. In Missouri, hunters sign in at the conservation areas and record their harvest, which is then collected and publicized by the MDC.

Andy Raedeke of the MDC published this report in Dec. 12: “Very little has changed since the last report. Temperatures were 0-5 degrees above average for most of Missouri except for northwest Missouri where they were 0-5 degrees below normal.

Precipitation was below normal for much of the state. North Missouri received 0.5 to 1 inches and south Missouri received 1-2 inches over the past two weeks. Good habitat continues to be mainly limited to private

See DUCKS, page A14