Wrapping it up…
WRICE Hunts available for youths Feb. 8-9
By Randy Zellers
AGFC Communications
As slow as things were for waterfowl hunters in early December, it seemed like we might never get to the end — and yet, here we are with the season ending Friday (Jan.
31). Hunting is allowed all day in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s WMA, but some WMAs (Steve N.
Wilson Raft Creek Bottoms, the Red Cut Slough tract of Cypress Bayou, and designated permit spots in Frog Bayou) will be online permitonly hunting on Friday. Note that Frog Bayou in west Arkansas has non-permit areas to hunt.
The 60-day season concludes at sunset, which in Little Rock will be 5:38 p.m.
(Allow a minute less for every 9 miles east of Little Rock; add a minute for every 9 miles west.)
Youths under 16 still have two hunting days left with the annual Youth Special Waterfowl Hunts, now scheduled for back-to-back days Feb. 8-9 statewide. Also, the Special Veterans and Active-Duty Military Waterfowl Hunt is one day this season and scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 9.
Veterans and active military can accompany a youth as their mentor or fellow hunter on that day.
Youths can acquire a Waterfowl Rice Incentive Conservation Enhancement Program field hunt for the Feb. 8-9 weekend, but they’ll need to apply for those this week between 3 p.m. Thursday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday. They will need to have a Customer ID number through the AGFC’s licensing system. They’ll be able to apply for one of more than five dozen available WRICE fields, allowing them their own private hunt for two days with a nonhunting mentor (or a veteran or activeduty military hunter on Sunday accompanying them) up to a party of four. All hunters on Saturday, Feb. 8, would need to be youths under 16.
Also, youth permit blinds at Raft Creek Bottoms WMA, Sheffield Nelson Dagmar WMAs Conway George Tract and Freddie Black Choctaw Island WMAWest Unit can be applied for this week as well. All WMAs will be open to youth hunting beyond those online permit blinds on Feb.
8-9 all day (the permits at Raft Creek Bottoms WMA, unlike WRICE, will only be for either Saturday or Sunday, not both). Veterans and active- duty military also may hunt all WMAs all day Sunday, Feb. 9.
Visit the AGFC’s special permits page for more information or to apply for a WRICE program permit for Feb. 8-9 or a special WMApermit for either Feb. 8 or Feb. 9. The WRICE section also will show which fields have been most requested by hunters during the regular season.
Youths can also see the more popular WMA online permit selections during the regular season by visiting agfc.com.
Despite a lack of rainfall lately and a drop in the rivers and streams around the state, there is still near to total water coverage on all of the AGFC’s WMAs managed for waterfowl.
The Word Up North
Missouri’s 60-day waterfowl season is divided among three sections of the state — north, middle and south — and the southern region closes like
See DUCKS, page A9 DUCKS
From page A8
Arkansas’s season on Jan. 31.
In the Missouri Department of Conservation’s most recent statewide surveys of Conservation Area wetlands and National Wildlife Refuges, published a week ago, it was reported that total duck numbers for the state were past the peak, although some areas such as Grand Pass were still holding peak numbers of ducks. The MDC did say that duck numbers were well above both the long-term and short-term averages in January, with mallards comprising 80 percent of the ducks in the state.
The statewide count for the week of Jan. 20 was 256,289 ducks, 136,096 snow geese, 7,011 white-fronted geese and 2,092 Canada geese. The duck estimate was 32.3 percent greater than the previous fiveyear average of 193,699 total ducks and 6.8 percent greater than the previous 20-year average of 240,030 ducks. The estimate of 225,670 mallards was 63.9 percent greater than the previous five-year estimate of 137,708 mallards and 25.9 percent greater than the 20-year estimate of 179,246 mallards.
An Up and Down Season
Ducks Unlimited freelance writer Jay Anglin reported on Wednesday that the waterfowl season for the Great Lakes region was characterized by “some ups and a lot of downs for many hunters.”
Game bird specialists and biologists from several states termed their seasons average to below average, such as in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Minnesota’s Nate Huck told Anglin that for most of the season they saw a trickle migration throughout. Some areas had good numbers while others saw few birds, with the late cold front helping many hunters close the season on a good note. Wisconsin’s Taylor Finger echoed that, telling Anglin that thanks to the late cold, the hunting up to the end of the season there became excellent, but overall the season was “pretty average” across the state.
Meanwhile, DU’s report from the Central Flyway last week reported observations that were expected to be down from average annual numbers.
Goose Hunting Continues
While duck, merganser, coot and specklebelly (greater white-fronted geese) seasons will end on Friday (Jan. 31), the hunting of lesser geese, like snow and blue geese and Ross’s geese, will continue with more liberal regulations through the Light Goose Conservation Order beginning Saturday, Feb. 1.
There is no bag or possession limit on snows, blues and Ross’s geese during the Order. There are no shell restrictions for guns (no plugs are required to limit shotguns to 3 shots maximum) and electronic calls are allowed.
Hunters are not required to carry a Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, Arkansas Waterfowl Stamp or HIP registration, but they must have a valid hunting license from any state (youths 15 and younger do not need a license). Shooting hours are from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. The Order will continue through Friday, Feb. 7, pause for the Youth Special Waterfowl Hunt on Feb. 8-9 (youths may hunt geese are regularseason limits and other regular- season restrictions during the weekend), and then will resume on Feb. 10, and continue through April 25.
