Turner Earhart, Roger Turner's grandson, admires a tall-racked buck killed on his grandfather's farm in the "Bayou Country" east of Pine Bluff. Photo by James K. Joslin.

Every year it's the same; in the days before the modern gun season opener, you can count on seeing the procession of trucks, RVs, trailered four-wheelers and campers. It's deer hunters making their pilgrimage from Arkansas' cities and towns to the whitetail woods. The majority of those hunters head north and west to the hills of the Ozarks or Ouachitas, or south to the piney woods of the Gulf Coastal Plain.

Well, that was back in November. Now, the woodlands are relatively emptied of the orange-clad army. Furthermore, while the crowds headed to south, north and west Arkansas, the deer herds just to the east of central Arkansas population centers like Little Rock and Pine Bluff are now busy easing back into their daily routines without having received the extensive hunter pressure of those other areas.

What does this mean for you? It's time to head to the region of Arkansas sometimes referred to as "Bayou Country" for a chance to bag a deer or two and finish filling your tags.

WHY BAYOU COUNTRY?
Loosely defined, the region of Arkansas some locals hail as Bayou Country is bounded by Searcy and Interstate 67/167 to the north, Cabot and the Little Rock/North Little Rock metropolitan area to the west, and communities like Pine Bluff and Star City to the south. To the east, you'll find some of Arkansas' major rivers, the White, Cache, St. Francis and Mississippi among them. In between, the land is a quilted mingling of bayous, hardwoods, occasional pines and vast tracts of rich farmland.

"Bayou Country is basically our Deer Zone 9, which falls in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain Deer Management Unit," explains Brad F. Miller, Ph.D. and deer program coordinator for the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. "Our examination of hunter-harvested deer and deer we collect for herd health studies always demonstrates that deer from these fertile soils with access to quality forages have better body weights, antler quality and reproductive performance than many other areas across the state."

Miller further emphasized the late-season opportunities to harvest a good buck in Bayou Country by noting that deer breeding dates are later in the year closer to the Mississippi River. "This means that finding receptive does is still on the minds of bayou bucks, and should be on the minds of hunters as well," he said.

Arkansas County provides a prime example of that concept with its peak conception dates regularly coming in early December.

The possibility of finding rutting bucks in the region is further enhanced by the fact that yearling does and fawns typically breed a little later than adult does, and bucks may still be in hot pursuit of those females, Miller confirmed.

"Looking at harvest per square mile," said our deer program coordinator, "Bayou Country hunters are very successful. The harvest is somewhat less than that of the Gulf Coastal Plain; however, given the combination of nutritious agricultural forages and thick refuge areas along rivers, chances are good of harvesting a mature buck with high antler quality."

And, if you're looking to fill doe tags and your freezer, this still is a likely destination for you.

WHERE TO HEAD
There are several AGFC-managed wildlife management areas and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service-managed national wildlife refuges in Arkansas' Bayou Country. But while larger public areas like Mike Freeze/Wattensaw WMA, Cache River NWR, and White River NWR get the majority of hunter attention, there are some smaller and lesser-known WMAs in the region that harbor quality whitetails in quantity.