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 LITTLE
ROCK - For the ninth consecutive year, Arkansas waterfowl hunters will
get 60 days of waterfowl hunting. Commissioners with the Arkansas Game
and Fish Commission last week approved the liberal season along with a
six duck bag limit for the 2005-2006 waterfowl season.
Duck hunters will be allowed no more than four mallards of which only
one mallard may be a hen. The daily bag limit may also contain
one pintail, three
mottled ducks, two scaup, two wood ducks, two redheads, one black duck
and one canvasback, but no more than a total of six ducks.
The waterfowl season will again be split into three segments. The first
portion will open on Nov. 19 and continue through Dec. 4. Following a
12-day break, the season will reopen on Dec. 16 and continue through
Dec. 24. After a one-day Christmas break, duck season will reopen again
on Dec. 26 and continue through Jan. 29, 2006.
Canvasback season is 30 days with a one bird bag limit, Dec. 31 to Jan.
29, 2006. The popular youth waterfowl hunt is Dec. 10-11 with bag limits
the same as the regular season.
In other business, the commission:
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Approved several
fishing code regulation changes. Some of
the changes included: |
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Changing the current
12-inch minimum length limit on smallmouth bass and four fish per day
creel limit on the Eleven Point River to a 14-inch minimum length
limit and two fish per day creel limit. |
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Increasing the daily
creel limit on walleye to six fish per day on Greers Ferry Lake.
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Prohibiting the sale
of frogs as bait. Collection and personal use of frogs as bait would
still be allowed. |
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Improve put-and-take
fishing and quality trout management using river wide slot of 13 - 16
inches for rainbow and brown trout with a “No Bait Zone” on the Beaver
Tailwaters. |
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Implementing a
commercial fishing season on Lake Chicot. |
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Changing the
sportfish regulation along the Mississippi River along Arkansas'
common boundary with Tennessee. This regulation
would restrict anglers from possessing more than one catfish that is
greater than 34 inches in length. Commercial anglers could not harvest
any catfish over 34 inches from the Mississippi River. This would
include channel, blue and flathead catfish. |
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Received several proposals from the fisheries division on aquatic
turtle regulations for 2006. The proposals included the creation of an
Aquatic Turtle Harvest Permit, Aquatic Turtle Dealer Permit,
Non-Resident Aquatic Dealer Permit and Aquatic Turtle Breeder Permit.
The fisheries division will also review a proposal to prohibit the
harvest of chicken turtles since the Comprehensive Wildlife
Conservation Strategy herpetological committee considers them a
Species of Greatest Conservation Need. |
In
May, the Commission approved regulations that would close deer hunting
in flood prone regions along the Cache and White rivers at lower water
levels than in the past. They also approved changes in the boundaries to
some of the flood prone regions and created three new flood prone
regions along the Mississippi River.
In response to concerns by hunters in the Cache and White River areas
about the new lower closing levels, the Commission revisited the closure
level issue in regions A through F. During today's meeting, the
Commission voted to return to last year's closure levels. The new flood
prone region boundaries will remain the same. Boundaries and closure
levels for the flood prone regions along the Mississippi River will not
be affected |
