With a deep freeze headed toward Arkansas and snow to southeast Missouri, and with the recent rainfall that has filled the public hunting areas in state, habitat conditions for duck hunters this weekend should be the best they've been all year.
Mallard numbers picked up significantly in last week’s aerial waterfowl surveys of the Arkansas Delta region, the Arkansas River Valley and southwest Arkansas, according to the report released by Luke Naylor, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s waterfowl program coordinator.
The New Year's Day rainfall and other rain events of the past week brought many of Arkansas's public waterfowl hunting areas up to levels needed to draw ducks.