There is no question it has been a weird, wacky start to the 2011-2012 Arkansas duck season. Dry as a bone to start, then torrential rains put water on every low spot in the state. Mother Nature apparently felt we didn’t have enough water so another big rain topped off with temps in the mid 60s in the middle of December. A frustrating start with inconsistent results for a large contingent of duck hunters. Especially in a season that had so much off season hype.
Good news is the mallards are still north of Arkansas. Bad news is they don’t have a huge reason to push past northern Missouri at the moment as weather is pretty mild for mid-December up the flyway. Hopefully some drastic weather makes a push out of Canada soon and sends some flight ducks our way as the season heads into January. Based on my trip to Saskatchewan this fall, the mallards are hiding somewhere as the improved hatch numbers were no joke.
With the Mississippi, White and Cache Rivers well out of their banks and a slow decline in river levels coming over the next week, expect ducks to stay fairly scattered until cold temps force them to bunch up and eat. Arkansas’ public hunting grounds have plenty of water, probably more than needed but that allows hunters to spread out and have ample opportunities to hunt.
If you have some reports, good or bad, from your area, don’t hesistate to send them in to the Greenhead.net staff and don’t forget to submit your hunting photos and put yourself in the running for a Greenhead.net tshirt.
