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Arkansas Game and Fish Commission expands hunting, fishing opportunities for 2024-25 season

alex kienlen
·2 min read

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Fans of the Arkansas outdoors will have more hunting and fishing opportunities going into the 2024-25 season.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission announced Friday that it had passed a number of regulation changes at its April meeting for the upcoming season to expand access.

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The changes were proposed in February when they were opened for public comment. AGFC researcher Jessica Feltz said 36,000 respondents made over 100,000 comments on the proposed rules, the largest public response in the agency’s history.

“It took a team of staff members to work through all the comments, remove duplicate entries from the same individual and put the results in a form the commissioners would be able to review,” Feltz told the commission at its April meeting.

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Changes impact a number of wildlife species and what equipment hunters may use. Among the changes approved by the board:

  • A buck-only archery deer hunt was established for the first week of September, matching what has been in place in other states.

  • After strong public support, the muzzleloader season has been expanded to include the use of straight-walled centerfire .30 caliber or better non-automatic rifles.

  • Due to an increasing herd size, the black bear archery quota for Zone I has been increased by 50 to 450 bears.

  • Duck hunters may now use motorized decoys in AGFC-owned wildlife management areas, which hunters on private land have been able to do in the past. There is now a 25-shotshell limit on all WMAs, including those where no limit had been in place previously.

  • Additional WMAs are being opened for quail hunting, reflecting the increase in the species population.

The commission considered requiring GPS collars for hunting dogs and reducing the daily mallard bag limit but did not act on these rules.

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A full list of changes, including hunting season dates for different zones, may be seen at AGFC.com.

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