Last duck season in our two most popular wildlife management areas was fun, but the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wants to make it better.
To that end, the commission is considering new regulations, including some that are surprisingly progressive.
In review, the commission addressed unsafe boating behavior at Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area last year with a simple solution. The commission installed metal gates at the major accesses that permit only one boat to enter the navigation ditches at a time. That eliminated the infamous NASCAR starts where dozens of boats roared down the canals at once.
It was so successful that the AGFC will install similar gates this year at Dave Donaldson Black River WMA.
The commission also beefed up boating regulations in its WMAs that carry stiff penalties for violators, including one-year bans from the WMA where the violations occurred for violators. The AGFC secured two convictions last year.
Capt. Tim Montgomery, the AGFC’s enforcement supervisor in southeast Arkansas, said he noticed a distinct shift in demographics among hunters at Bayou Meto last year.
“For the first time, I saw fathers taking young sons and daughters hunting,” Montgomery said. “In the past, we saw boats full of college-age people.”
