BIG LAKE WMA
Big Lake WMA is another of Naylor’s top picks for early season ducks. The area is probably the top mallard hotspot in the northeastern part of the state. Thousands of birds move into their temporary stopover as soon as the conditions are right.

“This is a large project that we can control the flooding on,” said wildlife management supervisor Robert Zachary of the AGFC’s Northeast Region. “Around the first of November we start to flood about 9,000 acres of the timber on Big Lake. There are 175 duck blinds on the area that hunters can use on a first come, first served basis. These are state-owned and open to anyone. The locations are GPS-mapped on the AGFC’s Web site.”

A consistent producer of ducks for years, Big Lake, in Mississippi County 15 miles west of Blytheville along the Arkansas-Missouri state line, covers 12,500 acres of bottomland hardwood right next to the Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Getting into the WMA can be interesting: State highways 18 and 181 provide good access -- up to a point. The main entrance into the Big Lake WMA is via a gravel road running along the top of the west levee, which leads to a ditch known as the “seven-mile lateral” -- the end of the line if you don’t have a boat. On the eastern end, Highway 181 allows vehicles to access the Simmons Bridge and Bo Doc Landing areas and waterfowlers can either walk in or boat in from there.

The primary emphasis for wildlife managers on Big Lake is waterfowl. Shooters will find willow, buttonbush, cypress and tupelo bottomland habitat along with the elm and oak that can be flooded on the northern end of the property.

ST. FRANCIS SUNKEN LANDS WMA
“When the hunting is hot in Sunken Lands, it’s hot,” said Zachary.

The St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA’s public-hunting lands stretch for 60 miles, its area about 26,000 acres. This jewel is at the top of the state’s list for excellent duck destinations.

The watershed includes 7,000 square miles along the St. Francis River in the Mississippi Valley and is a very important area for ducks during the fall migration, said Zachary. In fact, it’s probably the area most attractive to migrants in the entire valley. Hunters will find excellent duck habitat in the flooded bayous, fields and hardwoods found along the river.

At St. Francis, you get what you see, said Zachary; very little can be done to manipulate water levels to create flooding unless the weather’s cooperating. “If there’s a lot of rain and the water is high, we have a structure that sometimes allows us to raise the water level on St. Francis Lake by up to 2 feet and force the river to overflow its banks,” he explained. “We try to time the flooding to coincide with the opening of the season, and when the structure can be used, it raises the water levels enough to overflow the oak timber in the area, and provides a lot more flooded habitat.”

As good as St. Francis is, some days will see few ducks are using the area. “We’re in the delta region, and there’s a lot of flooded rice fields this time of the year,” said Zachary. “The ducks don’t have to stay in the flooded timber and get shot at.”

A lot of hunters don’t know about the 150 or so public duck blinds located throughout the area. Privately built and maintained, they’re owned by the state and open to waterfowlers on a first-come, first-served basis -- no reservations. GPS coordinates for the blinds are available on the AGFC Web site. No additional blinds can be constructed, and no permits for construction will be issued.

Some of the area’s best hunting occurs later on in the winter when the fields are frozen and the river’s open and flowing; that draws in the ducks like a magnet, and waiting hunters can fire away. Last winter the hunting was superb.

A few restricted areas in which hunting’s not allowed will be encountered on the floodplain near Plainway and Trumann, but they’re well marked. Some of the lands on the floodplain that look like public hunting areas are actually private, and hunters need permission to be there.

St. Francis can be accessed off highways 63 and 135 in Greene, Poinsett and Craighead counties.