The isolationist, "these are ours, we don't want you, screw you" mentality is going to bite them eventually.


LITTLE ROCK – Commissioners with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission proposed an amendment to waterfowl hunting regulations at its meeting last Thursday to specify when non-residents can hunt waterfowl on wildlife management areas to specific blocks of dates.

If passed, the proposal would let non-residents hunt waterfowl on WMAs:

Nov. 17-25, 2018;
Dec. 26, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019, and
Jan. 19-27, 2019.

Nonresidents still would be required to purchase a 5-day non-resident waterfowl permit, but they would be able to purchase as many permits as they wish to ensure they were able to hunt 30 days during Arkansas’s waterfowl season.

Commissioner Andrew Parker of Little Rock voiced the proposal.

“Since the last duck season, members of this body have repeatedly heard from Arkansas sportsmen and women that it was a step in the right direction but the pressures from overcrowding on those WMAs still exist, especially on our most popular WMAs,” Parker said. “The point of doing this is an effort to try and look for any possible way to avoid having to go to some kind of a draw system, which is something we don’t want to do.”

Commissioners proposed the amendment at the August meeting to allow time for public comment and consideration before a final vote in time to make any needed changes to the 2019 Arkansas Waterfowl Guidebook, scheduled to be published in mid-October.

The Commission will take public comments through an online survey before voting at the Sept. 20 Commission meeting in Fort Smith.

Wow.

OOSers beware. Tires will be cut at the ramp is what this is saying. Maybe other states will reciprocate when those Arkys want to come shoot AL deer all winter

I don't duck hunt Arky but let me guess, those dates just happen to be the butt end weeks of each phase, after giving the locals a couple weeks to work on them and "tune them up".

No talk of not letting non-residents lease private land or pay to hunt with resident outfitters though I'm guessing?

It's been brewing for a while. Will drive up the lease cost. But duck hunting is expensive any way you do it.

Yes and yes. Unfortunately.

It’s sucked for us over there the last few years. I’ve killed more ducks in Alabama than Arkansas the last three years.

They take duck hunting way too seriously over there.

No, this is only a proposal for public land. The complaints about public land hunting - whether those complaints are real or made up - have been monumental in the last 20 years.



Probably won't happen but that kind of reciprocal license jackup has happened before, I believe down in Louisiana with saltwater fishing licenses. If I remember correctly, at some point and it may still be in effect if you lived in Mississippi or Texas then your non-res saltwater Louisiana license cost more than if you were from a state that didn't touch borders with LA.


I enjoy duck hunting, but I never saw the attraction of leaving Thursday night to drive all night to Arkansas, hunt three mornings to kill a handful of mallards (because shooting anything else meant you weren't a "real duck hunter" and wasted a bird), and then drive around all day "scouting" or whatever. And I know some guys who did that almost every weekend.

I know some guys who do that too. They have wives and kids. At least they have wives for now....

Jody don't mind if they're duck hunting on the weekends.

Jody be slippin

Never hunted in Arkansas and don't plan on it. I am perfectly satisfied hunting Bama ducks. Can't really miss what I've never had, so I have no plans to do it.

Jody ain't got no job.

Good idea. I agree, nobody should go to arkansas to hunt ducks. Its much better here.

I second the motion!

I think that states should 100 percent manage their resources for the vast usage to be limited to residents only on public land. ALABAMA SHOULD VASTLY limit NR hunting all they can on both private and state owned props.
This is just better for the regular guy. However, on fed property inside of state there should be equal non resident and resident access in my opinion.

I think state game agencies should manage their resources however they see fit. If that includes limiting non-resident hunters and anglers, so be it.

I know some states show almost no limit in non-resident tags/licenses, thus capitalizing on the market and making huge funds available for them to manage their populations.

You want the state to dictate who can hunt on privately owned lands?

That seems like the 1st step down a very slippery slope.