WEINER
Weiner is the home to Claypool's Reservoir, made famous by the television show shot at the impoundment 52 years ago. This area benefits from not just one waterway, but three.

"Before Stuttgart took the title and played it strong, Weiner billed itself as the duck-hunting capital of the world," said Bowman. "It's in the middle of Bayou DeView, the Cache River and the L'Anguille River."

The benefit that comes with these waters lies not only in their proximity to Weiner, though. "One of the things that makes Arkansas hunting so good are those rivers that run parallel to each other," Bowman explained.

f you don't have a lease around Weiner, you can get in some good public shoots at Earl Buss Bayou DeView WMA or St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA.

BLYTHEVILLE
When you mention duck hunting and Blytheville, the first thought is probably not its nearness to the Mississippi River or any of the other rivers in this part of northeast Arkansas. Instead, much of the duck hunting here revolves around Big Lake.

"Some of the earliest commercial hunting in the interior part of the country was centered here, primarily around Big Lake, which was created by the New Madrid Earthquakes in 1811-1812," began Bowman. The wars raging between commercial and sport hunters in the early 1900s changed the landscape even more.

That's because President Woodrow Wilson made the area of Big Lake Arkansas' first national wildlife refuge in 1915. Like other areas, there are farm-based hunting opportunities around Blytheville, but hunters and ducks seem to both flock to Big Lake WMA and the St. Francis Sunken Lands, another WMA also created by the big New Madrid quakes.

RUSSELLVILLE, CLARKSVILLE, FORT SMITH
Yes, that's three towns lumped together. But, the fact that all three lie within the Arkansas River Valley makes that possible when talking about duck hunting opportunities around these cities.

"The Upper Arkansas River has tons of history," began Bowman, "but these ducks are Central Flyway ducks. Before the river was dammed as a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project in the 1970s, when the river got high, it was as good as anywhere in the country. It still is at times. But, it's best when it's super cold and the shallow water is frozen."

Most of the duck hunting here is in the backwater shallow flats of Arkansas River areas like Lake Dardanelle or the river's many tributaries. Here, hunters can expect a truly mixed bag, with divers plentiful on many occasions and more of the puddle ducks making their way here in times of below-freezing temperatures.

Public hunting possibilities are plentiful in the river valley around these cities, with Ed Gordon Point Remove, Galla Creek, Dardanelle, Ozark Lake, Frog Bayou and Fort Chaffee WMAs all providing waterfowl hunting.

Moving out from the river, you will find the Ouachita Mountains offer Harris Brake WMA in Perry County and Petit Jean WMA in Yell County. A little farther downstream on the northern Ozarks side, hunters can test the waters at Bell Slough WMA or Camp Robinson WMA.

DUMAS, LAKE VILLAGE, EUDORA
If we can lump three towns together in the Arkansas River Valley, there's no reason to think the same is not possible in southeastern Arkansas where the Arkansas and White rivers, give way to the Mississippi River.