Long-awaited rainfall finally arrives in Arkansas
Hunters hope colder weather will push waterfowl our way
By Jim Harris
Arkansas Wildlife Editor
Arkansas still hasn’t seen the wished-for gullywasher of 4-6 inches of rainfall across the state yet to flood the landscape and make hunting ideal, but the 3 inches or so of rainfall dropped around central Arkansas since Saturday has helped ease the dry conditions, and that should afford migrating ducks more habitat access as waterfowl hunters move toward the second weekend of the 60-day season’s second section. Combine that with an arctic front that is moving down through the central U.S. in the next few days, along with belowaverage temperatures expected over the next week or so, according to the National Weather Service, and we could see a good push of ducks.
Minor flooding was being reported around Patterson on the Cache River Wednesday morning. That’s good news for users of Rex Hancock Black Swamp WMAwho have been hoping for wetter conditions and better duck habitat. It was enough water on Tuesday to close deer hunting there.
“Yeah, this was enough to put some water in the fields and provide some runoff for a few days, but we’re still needing that really big rainfall to provide a huge amount of habitat and help move around a larger number of ducks,” Luke Naylor, the AGFC’s Wildlife Management Division chief, said.
The AGFC’s public hunting areas, both greentree reservoirs and moist-soil units thoughout the state, as well as all the WRICE program fields available for permitted hunting, are filling up with the latest precipitation.
Photo courtesy of AGFC
