Cool article on the Duck Capital of the World

[SledNeck]

They know how to do duck hunting down there

LINK

check out those numbers

Quote:

Way of life

And not just ones from Arkansas. About 30,000 of the 70,000-75,000 people who hunt waterfowl in Arkansas each season are non-residents, Naylor said.

"Waterfowl have a huge economic impact on that part of the state," Naylor said.

That is most apparent in and around Stuttgart, a farming community of about 10,000 residents that bills itself as "The Rice and Duck Capital of the World."

There is plenty of evidence to support both claims. The World Championship Duck Calling Contest has been held there since the 1930s. Its "Wings Over the Prairie" festival, celebrating the waterfowl that winter in the area and the waterfowlers who hunt them, draws tens of thousands.

The money those hunters spend on leases, lodging, gear, food, fuel guides and other related expenses is staggering.

"They say (waterfowling) generates about $1 million a day for the Stuttgart economy every day of the 60-day duck season, and I don't doubt it," Naylor said. "In Arkansas, it's more than culturally acceptable to be a duck hunter; it's almost required."

While the "timber" hunting for mallards is the foundation for eastern Arkansas' considerable waterfowling reputation, the explosion of agriculture on the Grand Prairie is what fuels it today and has added a new dimension.

Originally tallgrass prairie adjacent to the timbered Delta region, the million-acre Grand Prairie is now the nation's largest area for rice farming. Over the past three decades, Arkansas' acreage in rice has jumped from less than 200,000 acres in the 1970s to 1.7 million acres this past year.

Arkansas now has more land in rice than any other state, and its almost 3,000 rice farms account for more than 40 percent of the nation's rice production.

[brittman]

Waterfowl hunting is very commercial down there. There is much money spent attracting ducks (leasing land, moving water, holding water ...)

How much does your buddy spend on his lease in Arkansas or is it family land ?

Some will argue that Missouri is becoming the knew Arkansas.

[SledNeck]

Waterfowl hunting is very commercial down there. There is much money spent attracting ducks (leasing land, moving water, holding water ...)

How much does your buddy spend on his lease in Arkansas or is it family land ?

Some will argue that Missouri is becoming the knew Arkansas.

I think they pay $400 a person for the year. Theres like 10 guys maybe in on the lease total.

[brittman]

Pretty reasonable for a 60 day season. Compare that to the guides down there charging $150 - $500 per day.

[SledNeck]

Pretty reasonable for a 60 day season. Compare that to the guides down there charging $150 - $500 per day.

yeah

everything is do it yourself for my friends that live down there...

they go out and put their own blinds out there before season and set decoys out once they flood the fields