Arkansas Puts Five Waterfowl Areas Under Permit Draws, Applications Open Nov. 12 for Nov. 21 Opener

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said in a release dated November 10, 2026 that the first application period for its permit-based waterfowl hunts opens Nov. 12, two weeks before the opening weekend of duck season. The agency put five more areas under online permit draws this year to reduce user conflicts and pressure on hunting grounds that were historically open to all comers.

Many late-season hotspots are still waiting on rain, and AGFC staff spent the last month pulling as much surface water as they could to create a few opening-weekend options. The five areas now managed by draw are Buckingham Flats Greentree Reservoir on George H. Dunklin Jr. Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area, the Wiville West Tract at Rex Hancock Black Swamp WMA, Prairie Bayou WMA, the new Pat Fitts Oakwood WMA and a portion of St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA.

Buckingham Flats is the first draw-based waterfowl hunt in a greentree reservoir the AGFC manages. It reserves 639 acres of the 33,832-acre WMA for parties that draw permits. “It’s going to be a unique opportunity for waterfowl hunters to get out and hunt in a habitat type we previously didn’t have in our permit hunt system,” said Brett Leach, the agency’s Waterfowl Program coordinator. The agency’s permit hunt page lists the reservoir as open only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and the last day of regular duck season, with no more than four participants per party at each location.

Prairie Bayou and the Wiville West Tract are small moist-soil units that crowd quickly once ducks arrive. Hunting there moves to Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, with an online draw for the weekend days. On Tuesdays and Thursdays hunters fill out a permit on site, and the number of hunters is not limited.

The drawn section of St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA in Poinsett County covers 715 acres around the St. Francis River. Most of the 30,574-acre area stays open without a drawn permit. The section has nine permitted locations, only those with adequate water will go into the online draws, and much of it must be hunted from floating blinds or large boats.

Dry conditions reach beyond public land. Hundreds of thousands of acres of rice fields across the state are dry, and only a handful of fields contracted under the Waterfowl Rice Incentive Conservation Enhancement Program, known as WRICE, will have enough water to flood for ducks by opening day. This year every WRICE field goes into one of two draws. Fields with at least 4 inches of water go to duck draws, and fields with less go to goose draws, which are listed separately under Specialty Hunts on the agency’s license site. “If it has enough water to float a decoy, it will be in the duck draw. If it doesn’t, it will be in the goose draw,” said David Graves, the WRICE program coordinator. Hunters can apply for one of each type and may take any legal waterfowl at any location, and the permit page says goose fields move to the duck draw as water rises.

Hunters may apply for one WMA permit hunt and one WRICE permit of each type each weekend. Each window runs from 3 p.m. Thursday through midnight Sunday for the hunt period that begins the following Saturday, and winners are notified by email each Monday. Rules, maps and locations are on the permit hunt page.

The regular duck season in the drawn areas runs Nov. 21 to 29, Dec. 10 to 23 and Dec. 26, 2026 to Jan. 31, 2027, per the permit hunt page’s schedule. The first application window opens at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12 and closes at midnight on Sunday, Nov. 15 for the hunt period that starts with the November 21, 2026 opener.