"Dumas is close to Stuttgart. So, there's not a lot of difference, except it's right where the Arkansas, White and Mississippi rivers come together," said the co-author of Arkansas Duck Hunter's Almanac and The Season: A Photographic Look at the Sport of Duck Hunting. "Dumas has lots of rice, and it's near the original tract of the White River NWR."

Where Dumas takes advantage of the convergence of the three rivers, Lake Village and Eudora are situated farther south in what some waterfowlers have characterized as the bottom end of the flyway funnel in Arkansas. Ducks that fly the eastern edge of the Central Flyway and come down the Arkansas River and those that travel the middle of the Mississippi Flyway find their suitable habitat somewhat bottlenecked here by the Piney Woods of Arkansas' Gulf Coastal Plain.

So, with fertile farming ground and Mississippi oxbows and sloughs as common as mosquitoes in the summer, these two southeast Arkansas communities get in on the double dose of ducks that Bowman said usually intermingles near Stuttgart.

Much of this area is tied up with leased land, like it is around Stuttgart. But, the south unit of White River NWR and Overflow NWR are available to the public, as are WMAs by the names of Trusten Holder, Choctaw Island and Little Bayou.

ARKADELPHIA
This community is more often thought of as the home of "The Battle of the Ravine" between Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University, their campuses separated only by a highway. But, at times, duck hunting can be hot in this area.

"With Arkadelphia being on the Ouachita and Caddo rivers, again these are Central Flyway ducks. There is good hunting there at times, but it's spotty," Bowman said, noting that he went to college here.

DeGray Lake WMA offers some of the best public duck hunting in the Arkadelphia area.

WALNUT RIDGE
Like Brinkley, Walnut Ridge enjoys its place in the duck-hunting world at least in part because of the way Arkansas' rivers flow. "The distinction of the parallel rivers from the White, Black, Cache, etc., show ducks the pathways in the interior of the state," he said. "Walnut Ridge is on the edge of the Delta and the Ozarks. Once the ducks start spilling out into the Delta, they find Walnut Ridge at the top of the funnel."

Walnut Ridge is close to three WMAs -- Shirey Bay/Rainey Brake, Dave Donaldson/Black River and Earl Buss/Bayou DeView.

SEARCY
"On the Little Red River, close to the confluence with the White River, Searcy has several smaller flyways around it. Hurricane WMA and Bald Knob NWR together provide almost 40,000 acres of public land and are within 10 miles," said Bowman.

The area also benefits from a variety of habitat: agricultural fields in the areas around the refuge, some oxbow lakes on Henry Gray/Hurricane Lake WMA and, when the White River tops its banks, flooded timber.

"Plus, this is rice country," Bowman added. So, it is easy to see why Searcy and its surrounding area have a positive duck hunting reputation.

Other public lands nearby include Steve N. Wilson Raft Creek Bottoms WMA, Cache River NWR and Rex Hancock Black Swamp WMA.

DEWITT, GILLETT
Both of these communities benefit from beneficial influences similar to those to which Stuttgart, their Arkansas County neighbor to the north, is subject. The biggest difference may lie in the fact that the ground is lower here as it slopes toward the meeting point of the Arkansas and White rivers at the county's southeastern terminus. Plus, both cities are closer to the Arkansas River than Stuttgart.