Weather patterns continue to affect duck numbers

Weather patterns continue to affect duck numbers

Constantly- shifting winds, temperatures make for unreliable data

Fish Commission Anecdotally, we’ve heard of some good waterfowl hunts of late, mixed in with reports of terrible hunts through the Delta and elsewhere.

It’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time, apparently, what with all the water the state has taken on since fall. Ducks haven’t necessarily been at peak migration numbers to this point, but what birds are here is spread far and wide.

Geese, on the other hand, have begun showing up in big numbers well into the Delta in the past few days, according to observers.

The trend of a couple of days of cold weather followed by a warming trend has been constant for a couple of months. Eyes are on another big winter front passing through the midwest north of Arkansas, and possibly touching the northern part of the state later this week, that could push the duck migration.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll have a good finish to our duck season over the next few weeks with this weather pattern we’re seeing coming,” says Trey Reid, assistant chief of the AGFC’s Communications Division. Reid has heard some good reports as well as some slow days for hunters in the Delta of late. Charlie Hough, who regularly provides updates to the AGFC’s Fishing Report from Oppelo off Highway 9 in Conway County, said a few hunters on the Arkansas River near there had successful hunts (limits) the past weekend. Rest areas at George H. Dunklin Bayou Meto WMA continue to hold good numbers of ducks, according to biologists observations, as does the Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge.

An aerial survey of duck use in the state being taken by biologists this week will be available next week.

Arkansas’s third split of the 60-day waterfowl season continues through Sunday, Jan. 27. The second of two youth waterfowl hunt days is Saturday, Feb. 2.

From Randy Zellers Arkansas Game &