Get yourself a duck draw in 2021

Online drawings could land you some hunting land

AGFC Communications Looking for a spot to call your own for a day or even a weekend during duck season? Check out some of the online draw opportunities available through the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. In addition to permit hunts on Steve N.

Wilson Raft Creek Bottoms WMA, the Red Cut Slough tract at Cypress Bayou WMA, the Conway George tract at Sheffield Nelson Dagmar WMA and Freddie Black Choctaw Island West Unit WMA, the AGFC will have up to 45 privately owned flooded rice fields available to hunt by permit through its special duck hunting application process.

The grounds are only available, however, when wet conditions allow hunting; thus far, Red Cut Slough, the Freddie Black West Unit, and one unit at Conway George Dagmar were not in this week's draw because of no water.

Of the WRICE fields

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awaiting rain or pumping to add water and attract migrating ducks.

The sites included in the draw have huntable water for this weekend, and many have improved blinds for 2021-22.

Wil Hafner (on left, in photo), director of the AGFC’s Potlatch Cook’s Lake Nature Center in Casscoe, was fortunate enough to draw one of these WRICE Program fields last weekend for a greater white-fronted goose hunt before the opening of duck season. He, his fiend T.A. Lewis, and T.A.’s father, Blake, were able to score a limit of geese on Saturday by 6:52 a.m. They returned Sunday, and although they only managed four specklebellies, they had a blast.

“These fields are great opportunities for seasoned waterfowlers and beginners alike,” Hafner said. “I am very impressed with this program.”

Applications for all draw hunts are open from 3 p.m. Thursday through midnight Sunday night the weekend immediately preceding the weekend for which you are applying.

Applicants are notified whether they win or not each Monday morning, so they may plan for their hunt.

Visit the AGFC website at https://www.agfc.com/en/h unting/migratorybirds/ waterfowl/specialwaterfowl- permit-hunts to learn more about these special duck-hunting opportunities and to apply.