2025-26 Arkansas Waterfowl Hunting Guidebook available online 

LITTLE ROCK — With less than one month until the duck season opener, Arkansas duck hunters are going through their annual rituals of cleaning decoys, brushing blinds, checking wheel bearings on their boat trailers and praying for rain to help flood Arkansas’s vast network of bottomland hardwoods. One more ritual to add to that list should be to download a copy of the 2025-26 Arkansas Waterfowl Hunting Guidebook and familiarize yourself with any changes that have taken place in the regulations.

Guidebooks should be available at every AGFC hunting license dealer in the state, but many are scooped up quickly, so it’s not uncommon for a location to run out temporarily until they can be resupplied. But you can always carry a copy of the rules on your phone, either through the AGFC’s smartphone app or downloaded to your files straight from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s website at www.agfc.com/guidebooks.

This year, the most notable change for duck hunters is the increase in the daily bag limit from one to three pintails per day. This is part of a new interim harvest strategy that offers a cautious step forward to open opportunities for hunters during those few hunts during the season when they might have the opportunity to add an additional pintail or two to their daily bag.

“There’s been extensive research for the last decade leading to this change, and just about every study we have shows that hunting mortality is actually a low driver of populations compared to habitat quality and seasonal weather fluctuations,” Brett Leach, AGFC Waterfowl Program Coordinator, said. “As one of the leading states in the Mississippi Flyway in pintail harvest, it’s important that we work within this new strategy to accurately measure any effects.”

Although pintails are below their long-term average, the primary decline in their populations actually occurred 40 years ago through habitat conversion throughout the Prairie Pothole Region. Wheat fields now occupy what was once shortgrass prairies, and the disturbance of those fields quickly led to a decline in continental pintail populations.

“This interim harvest strategy needs at least three years of a three pintail bag limit if the population levels allow for it,” Leach said. “It just happens that the first year for the strategy to go in place will operate at that higher level. According to the Breeding Population and Pond Count Estimates from this year, we anticipate having the three-pintail rule in place next year as well.”

Other notable changes include:

• The Veterans and Active-duty Military Waterfowl Hunt is again two days, coinciding with the Special Youth Hunt, Feb. 7-8.

• Frog Bayou WMA will have an additional draw permit hunt area available for youth and mobility-impaired hunters. The mobility-impaired area will have access to a blind.

• The fine level for reckless operation of a motorboat or vessel (intentional hazardous operation) on any WMA or NWR was raised to $750-$7,500, and violators may be sentenced up to 180 days in jail, will be prohibited from accessing any WMA for one year from date of conviction, and will lose hunting and fishing privileges statewide for a minimum of one year from the date of conviction.

• Obstruction or harassment of hunting, fishing or trapping activities and public disorder (non-physical) fines were raised to $500-$5,000, and violators may be sentenced up to 90 days in jail. Public disorder (physical with injury) fines increased to $750-$7,500 and violators may be sentenced up to 180 days in jail, and will lose hunting and fishing privileges statewide for a minimum of one year from the date of conviction.

• The annual early teal hunting season in September was reduced to nine days.

• Cache River National Wildlife Refuge is instituting a permit draw hunting system beginning this season. Visit fws.gov/cacheriver or call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 501-203-7253 for details.

Visit www.agfc.com/guidebooks  to download a copy of the 2025-26 Waterfowl Hunting Guidebook.

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CUTLINES:

COVER
The 2025-26 Arkansas Waterfowl Hunting Guidebook is available at stores and online. AGFC image.

PINTAIL
Hunters will be able to bring home three pintails in their daily bag limit this year if presented the opportunity. AGFC photo. 

BLIND
A mobility-impaired blind is available to draw at Frog Bayou WMA near Alma. AGFC photo.