Recommended Arkansas Outfitters

The going rate is $500 to $900 a morning for a good hunt in Arkansas. It’s so hard to kill them on public timber that I quit taking people. I would work my butt of and if we didn’t kill any they were snooty so now it’s just me and the Lab or one of my sons.

AR Public hunting is too crowded. The AGFC refuses to moderate any to help alleviate the issues like going to a four duck limit on State WMA’s or going to a 45-day season. They are starting to implement alternating days on some areas. The Feds already do this. The hunting gets worse each season. People are not coming to hunt. There are no Ducks.

Private land is a different story. They manage their resources. They aren’t terrorizing their Duck populations with loud, obnoxious mud motors. They aren’t plowing down cover and new growth hardwood timber with mud motors. They are out of the woods by 10:00 AM.

Save your money for a trip to Byers or Lost Island or Slick’s. It will be worth it. The hunting is incredible.

Make no mistake, we still get a lot of Mallards in Arkansas but they have wised up. They are using the Public Flooded Timber at night. During the day, it sounds like a Drag race with all the consanct Mud Motors running up and down the dirches and channels. There used to be thickets and thick places where Ducks could hide in these Public areas and these hard to get to areas kept Ducks on WMA’s. Those are all being plowed over by MM’s now.

Then there is the mindset on AR public land. It used to be if you put in the work and got to the hole first, it was yours. Now these hunters will come in and set up on top of you. They don’t care. I had two groups set up above and below me last Saturday so close I could see their sillouhettes. I fixed them up. I used the loudest cut down I had and started blowing as loud as I could 10 minutes before legal and I did not let up. Every time one of the encroachers started calling I jumped in. I blew two of the three groups out of the area. One the last group, a six group of Mallards was working me. Two peeled off and worked into the trees. The people below me shot just to spite me and flare the Ducks. That’s how it goes these days. Normally, I just put up with it. Saturday they caught me on the right day so I made sure no one had a good hunt. I won’t let those heathern occupy real eatate in my mind again. I won’t go back to that area. I resolved, I won’t suffer fools anymore. If I am in an area and encroachers come in, I won’t stoop to their inbred, 80 IQ level. I make sure I have a plan B and a plan C.

Back to the subject, save your money and hunt private. Keep looking there are places that charge $350-$400 or so a morning but you take care of your own lodging. It’s no frills but you will kill Ducks. Google is your friend.