The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission made a surprise move recently when it passed a regulation allowing mechanical motion decoys for duck hunting on wildlife management areas. The commission restricted mechanical motion decoys statewide nearly two decades ago. The statewide ban was short-lived.
When the other states in the Mississippi Flyway didn't follow Arkansas's lead, the Game and Fish Commission passed a regulation allowing the devices on private land, but continued to restrict them on WMAs. The restriction has been in place for so long that it's not disputed. There has been no upswell of public demand to bring spinning wing decoys back to WMAs.
Much of the commentary on social media opposes it on the supposition that it will encourage skybusting. From a conservation standpoint, it is illogical to encourage the use of devices that facilitate killing more ducks at a time when duck numbers and duck harvests are precipitously depressed. The commission issued a terse statement saying that the regulation allows hunters on public ground to enjoy the same hunting opportunities as hunters on private ground.
Noise pollution Blasting music in the duck woods through big bluetooth speakers mounted to duck boats runs counter to conservation. There are a lot of threads on duck hunting social media about this subject. Almost all are conversation starters.
"What kind of speakers ya'll running in the duck woods?" "What music ya'll running in the duck woods?" We "run" music instead of pl.