Arkansas hunting and fishing?

[Delta21]

Elk in Arkansas, who knew. What part of the state are those in? I'm in TN and we have elk tags too although very few and they are extremely hard to draw. I assume Arkansas is the same?

Correct. Very limited and hard to come by. Northwest part around buffalo river

 

[Less]

I was born in North West Arkansas and have lived, hunted, fished here from the time I was 5 years old to now 62 years old.

40 years ago I would rate Hunting and out door sports as being great. I gun, bow, muzzle load hunted every thing that walk’s, crawls, flys or swims. Trapped everything that is legal to trap in Arkansas. Hunted Quail,deer,coon,duck, rabbits with dogs. Run coyotes/fox with dogs which is a lot of fun in case you have never done it. Used dogs to tree squirrels, coons. Used to frog gig. Gigged fish.

EXCEPT ! For Elk because like someone has already mentioned. It is a lottery drawing for a very few tags to draw for, don’t know for sure how many tag’s are drawn for this day and time but would guess less than 20 total. Might be a few more or less. So your odds of drawing would be similar to buying a winning power ball ticket. Because there are thousands of people who apply because for one it doesn’t cost nothing to enter or apply. And yes there are a few descent bulls in our small now established herd that was started around 30 years ago. But what kind of hunter wants to shoot a semi tame Elk and hang it on the wall ? Probably the kind that is ok hunting high fence types of hunting would be my guess. So as far as the Elk hunting in Arkansas goes it’s not really something to brag about. Because the herd stays in the same area it was established in. They are pretty gentle Elk, not very wild at all. And the only thing that makes them hard to hunt is getting permission from the land owner to drive out in their pasture to shoot one off of their private land. But occasionally you can find one standing on the small amount of National forest where the Elk were established.

That’s pretty much the way deer and Turkey hunting is also. We have two kinds of deer and Turkey. Very wild and very tame. If you hunt wild Turkey or deer they are going to be on public lands, National forest, core land, stuff like that. Where the ratio of hunters to game is something like 2000 hunters to every 10 wild animals. If you want to in creases your odds of tagging out you hunt the tame animals on private owned land where they have feeders and stands sit up shoot them from.

Now for water fowl your chances of killing a wild Canadian goose is pretty much slim to none. Because those still migrate from the tundra what few that don’t lay over at the refuges on there way South. But on the flip side Arkansas is loaded with tame Canada geese that the AG&F established about the same time they established our tame Elk herd. Because the established Canada geese was hatched here and raised in Arkansas. And because our winters aren’t harsh enough to freeze out their feeding grounds (farmers wheat fields, lakes, rivers, sloughs etc…, there is no need for them to migrate. Also easy to locate. Can find them hanging out at most parks, camp grounds, golf courses.

Have a few flocks of wild ducks, no quail. Can still find places to rabbit hunt mostly on private land. Trapping is a bust, not enough money to pay for the gas it takes to do that.

There are some black bears but can only bait them on private land. Fishing isn’t all that great. I commercial fish occasionally but, that has a lot to be said for it too.

I guess by now you can tell it’s my opinion the Hunting and fishing in Arkansas isn’t all that great. Yes there is trout fishing in parts of Arkansas. The game and fish hatch the trout out just not far up stream of where they release them into the white and other streams that the game and fish refers to as rivers. Again it’s all in the eye of the beholder wether or not is sporting catching trout released regular from a hatchery.

Arkansas still has a few hiking trails and camps that are most of the time covered up by visitors. Most lakes and rivers especially those with campsites and hooks up/boat ramps are busy, busy. Personally I quit swimming there years ago when I worked with the forest service pulling water samples at those swimming areas. Because we had to close them due to the high levels of bacteria that accumulated from all of the swimmers.

But don’t take my word for any of what I have described. Here in Arkansas we welcome all and any to participate in our outdoors, hunting, fishing anything. The more revenue we can rake in the better. OTC Tags no problem at all. No limit or waiting on a pesky draw.

So when you go in for that job interview in North West Arkansas. Accept the job for half or less they are offering to secure all of these great hunting and out doors benefits.

90% of that stuff is history now. It’s gone and won’t ever be back for the average hunter to ever experience again. Because there are too many hunters, not enough public land to present the opportunities for the numbers of hunters to experience them. It’s sad but true.

Arkansas is one of our states that doesn’t have millions of acres of government owned land or like the BLM lands a lot of other states have. Most of it is privately owned farm managed land. That means very little public hunting areas.

It’s sad but true. That’s just the way it is. I remember when they started putting in dikes and damns on the Arkansas river to straighten it out so that barges can push fright up and down it. Use it as a navigation system 57 years ago. That river use to wind and turn like a snake. Wasn’t over 10 foot deep in the deepest of places. Had cottonwood trees, Oaks and willow trees all along the banks was grown up with weeds, grass. Always flooded along it’s banks. That’s why the hunting and fishing was so good along, around and above when the waterfowl migrated it during the winter.

Now it is just about complete as a 100 yard wide 25 foot deep canal. The dikes, river dredge’s, damns, bridge crossing’s have done there job of building a navigation connecting the Mississippi to I don’t know exactly how far West. But that’s part of the price we pay for progress. I guess it’s what you would call a evil necessity in order to keep up with a growing nation.

 

[LIWolverine]

I don’t like to point stuff out usually but the post above is kind of way out in left field.

There are TONS of public land opportunities in Arkansas. I hunt public every year for deer and I see deer almost every hunt and have only run into one or two other hunters in 18 years. You can get way off the beaten path if you want and have a totally lonely western style hunt. I LOVE living here and the outdoor experience is and was a humongous reason I moved here. There are an unbelievable amount of opportunities for outdoorsman here.

I can also promise you the private land deer are absolutely not tame; and neither are the geese (what a strange blanket statement to make).

There are native brown trout that the poster above forgot to mention as well as the incredible small mouth streams here.

You will be glad to be here. I’d be happy to share all of my adventures from the bottom lands of the white river and delta to the Buffalo river over night hunts if you ever want.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Less]

I don’t like to point stuff out usually but the post above is kind of way out in left field.

There are TONS of public land opportunities in Arkansas. I hunt public every year for deer and I see deer almost every hunt and have only run into one or two other hunters in 18 years. You can get way off the beaten path if you want and have a totally lonely western style hunt. I LOVE living here and the outdoor experience is and was a humongous reason I moved here. There are an unbelievable amount of opportunities for outdoorsman here.

I can also promise you the private land deer are absolutely not tame; and neither are the geese (what a strange blanket statement to make).

There are native brown trout that the poster above forgot to mention as well as the incredible small mouth streams here.

You will be glad to be here. I’d be happy to share all of my adventures from the bottom lands of the white river and delta to the Buffalo river over night hunts if you ever want.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am sorry ? I just assumed that those Canadian geese that show up at picnic tables less than 5 foot away at a lot of camp grounds were tame because if you toss bread out too them they gobbled it right up ! Another thing that was throwing me off were the white bands around their necks with big black numbers on them.

Now that I know they are wild maybe the wife will let me blast them off of my ponds . They are making a heck of a mess. But they are easy to stalk. When I try chasing them off with my 4 wheeler they just swim to the other side of the pond so they are well within range . Only a quarter acre pond.

And like you I can drive in to most of these WMA and most of the time I don’t see any other hunters there too ! I just thought there might be a reason why there wasn’t any other hunters were there like maybe the hunting isn’t very good. Noticed in Colorado it’s hard to find places that don’t have any hunters ! Bi golly we have them old Colorado boys beat don’t we ? We got all of that public hunting to our selfs

Now if you will just post up some pictures of all those monster trout, bass and big white tail bucks you have been killing. My faith in the Quality of hunting we still have in Arkansas. Now I am not going to give you any credit for hogs, skunks, armadillos. Those are not something a lot of people really consider game animals including myself. So unless you have pictures of say a 500 to 1000 lb hog I am going to be impressed.

 

[zacattack]

I am sorry ? I just assumed that those Canadian geese that show up at picnic tables less than 5 foot away at a lot of camp grounds were tame because if you toss bread out too them they gobbled it right up ! Another thing that was throwing me off were the white bands around their necks with big black numbers on them.

Now that I know they are wild maybe the wife will let me blast them off of my ponds . They are making a heck of a mess. But they are easy to stalk. When I try chasing them off with my 4 wheeler they just swim to the other side of the pond so they are well within range . Only a quarter acre pond.

And like you I can drive in to most of these WMA and most of the time I don’t see any other hunters there too ! I just thought there might be a reason why there wasn’t any other hunters were there like maybe the hunting isn’t very good. Noticed in Colorado it’s hard to find places that don’t have any hunters ! Bi golly we have them old Colorado boys beat don’t we ? We got all of that public hunting to our selfs

Now if you will just post up some pictures of all those monster trout, bass and big white tail bucks you have been killing. My faith in the Quality of hunting we still have in Arkansas. Now I am not going to give you any credit for hogs, skunks, armadillos. Those are not something a lot of people really consider game animals including myself. So unless you have pictures of say a 500 to 1000 lb hog I am going to be impressed.

Geez man

 

[Ferrulewax]

I am sorry ? I just assumed that those Canadian geese that show up at picnic tables less than 5 foot away at a lot of camp grounds were tame because if you toss bread out too them they gobbled it right up ! Another thing that was throwing me off were the white bands around their necks with big black numbers on them.

Now that I know they are wild maybe the wife will let me blast them off of my ponds . They are making a heck of a mess. But they are easy to stalk. When I try chasing them off with my 4 wheeler they just swim to the other side of the pond so they are well within range . Only a quarter acre pond.

And like you I can drive in to most of these WMA and most of the time I don’t see any other hunters there too ! I just thought there might be a reason why there wasn’t any other hunters were there like maybe the hunting isn’t very good. Noticed in Colorado it’s hard to find places that don’t have any hunters ! Bi golly we have them old Colorado boys beat don’t we ? We got all of that public hunting to our selfs

Now if you will just post up some pictures of all those monster trout, bass and big white tail bucks you have been killing. My faith in the Quality of hunting we still have in Arkansas. Now I am not going to give you any credit for hogs, skunks, armadillos. Those are not something a lot of people really consider game animals including myself. So unless you have pictures of say a 500 to 1000 lb hog I am going to be impressed.

This man should either really consider moving away, or really doesn’t want anyone else moving to his state.

 

[Christopher.Reed]

This man should either really consider moving away, or really doesn’t want anyone else moving to his state.

Pretty sly plan trying to keep the outdoors to himself .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk