Waterfowl allow functions for WRICE, WMAs begin Thursday – Arkansas Recreation and Fish Fee

BY Jim Harris
ON 11-12-2025
LITTLE ROCK — The time for public land waterfowl hunters to make plans for unique hunts on opening weekend in Arkansas begins Thursday, Nov. 13. That’s when the appliance course of begins for opening weekend permits on the Arkansas Recreation and Fish Fee’s Waterfowl Rice Incentive Conservation Enhancement Program’s fields and the company’s permit-hunt-only wildlife administration areas.
Candidates can begin making use of on the AGFC’s web site at 3 p.m. Thursday, with the primary weekend’s software interval ending at 11:59 p.m. Sunday. Allow winners shall be notified Monday (those that had been unsuccessful may even obtain an electronic mail) and offered directions and instructions for his or her hunts on the opening day of waterfowl searching season, Saturday, Nov. 22. The appliance interval covers hunts for the next week, together with sure youth and mobility-impaired hunts in WMAs on weekdays.
WRICE permits will enable a hunter and a complete get together of 4 to hunt the complete opening weekend from half-hour earlier than dawn to sundown. WMA on-line permits, that are for both Saturday or Sunday, are required for searching at Steve N. Wilson Raft Creek Bottoms close to Searcy, the Purple Minimize Slough tract of Cypress Bayou close to Beebe, and designated allow spots in Frog Bayou WMA close to Alma (Frog Bayou has open areas to hunt that don’t require a web based allow, however will nonetheless require a free Open Looking Unit Allow accessible at agfc.com.license). Hunters will both apply for Saturday or Sunday allow searching within the permit-only WMAs, and searching ends at midday.
Youth hunters (15 and youthful) are required to have a buyer identification quantity to use for permits to the youth blinds in Raft Creek Bottoms, Sheffield Nelson Dagmar Conway George Tracts and Freddie Black Choctaw Island West Unit WMAs. Raft Creek’s youth blind, in addition to a mobility-impaired entry blind and permit-hunting entry to  Raft Creek’s Magellan Tract, can also be accessible solely by means of the net software web site for searching on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A youth could also be accompanied by an grownup mentor and two different youths, or one different youth and one other grownup mentor. All might hunt; adults should have a license, HIP registration and state and federal duck stamps.
Dagmar’s three Conway George searching areas are open to allow trying to find all ages on Wednesday, with events of as much as 4 allowed. These hoping to hunt there on Nov. 26, the day earlier than Thanksgiving, might want to apply throughout this primary software interval.
Looking at Raft Creek, Purple Minimize Slough and Frog Bayou won’t require on-line software for Tuesday and Thursday hunts (these WMAs are closed to searching on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). Nevertheless, hunters are required to acquire self-serve permits on the parking areas at these WMAs. Hunters should not restricted to designated places on weekdays, however anybody coming into flooded areas should have a signed Every day Use Allow for the WMA. The highest portion of the allow have to be accomplished and deposited within the assortment field earlier than the hunt. The underside portion have to be carried whereas searching, then accomplished and returned to the gathering field on the finish of the hunt.
The AGFC’s Waterfowl Rice Incentive Conservation Enhancement Program has offered a lift for migrating geese and geese prior to now six years, and it’s additionally supplied a searching alternative for waterfowlers searching for a privately owned rice subject hunt by means of the AGFC’s allow system. This system is funded by the Voluntary Public Entry and Habitat Incentive Program within the 2018 Farm Invoice.
In response to David Graves, coordinator for the WRICE Program by means of the AGFC’s Personal Lands Habitat Division, 50 fields have been lined up for this system in 2025-26, with 48 fields that includes harvested rice and two different fields on Wetland Reserve Easement property.
“We may have 3,330 acres of rice fields and 258 acres of contracted WRE floor,” Graves stated. “The vast majority of the fields shall be within the east-central Delta area of the state.
Most WRICE fields shall be present in Monroe County, with 26 scattered all through. Jefferson County, one other widespread vacation spot for waterfowlers with its proximity to George H. Dunklin Bayou Meto WMA, has eight fields. The opposite counties with fields and the anticipated variety of fields in every are: Chicot, 1; Clay, 2; Drew, 1; Faulkner, 2; Franklin, 1; Greene, 2; Lee, 2; Prairie, 1; and White, 4.
There’s a $5 payment to use for all permits. Go to www.agfc.com/hunting/waterfowl/special-waterfowl-permit-hunts/ for extra data.
Additionally, the 2025-26 Arkansas Waterfowl Guidebook has data on waterfowl searching and the place to hunt. Choose up a replica at most sporting items shops and open air retailers, and the place you purchase a license in particular person. You too can learn the guidebook on-line by clicking here. 
 
High Picture
A WRICE allow permits a successful applicant to hunt a personal Arkansas rice subject for the weekend with as much as three different hunters. 
Second photograph
Steve N. Wilson Raft Creek Bottoms requires a web based allow for searching on weekends, however hunters can decide up a self-serve allow on the parking tons on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Nov. 7, 2025
Nov. 6, 2025
Don’t miss one other subject. Enroll now to obtain the AGFC Wildlife Weekly E-newsletter in your mailbox each Wednesday afternoon (Waterfowl Reviews are revealed weekly throughout waterfowl season and periodically exterior the season). Fishing Reviews arrive on Thursdays. Fill within the following fields and hit submit. Thanks, and welcome!
Arkansas Recreation and Fish Fee
2 Pure Assets Drive
Little Rock, Arkansas 72205
833-345-0325

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