Spinning-wing decoys make legal return to Arkansas Wildlife Management Areas

By JIM HARRIS | Arkansas Game & Fish Commission

LITTLE ROCK — Hunters who call at and chase waterfowl in Arkansas’s wildlife management areas can dust off the ol’ Mojo Mallard and check the battery and its connections, or head out to their favorite outdoors stores and load up on the latest in mechanical waterfowl enticement devices for this season — spinning-wing decoys and the like are now legal for use in Arkansas’s WMAs.

In May, commissioners approved a change in the AGFC’s Code of Regulations allowing spinning-wing and other mechanical decoys on AGFC-managed public lands. Following a brief suspension of the mechanical decoys in the first decade of the 21st century, their use had been allowed again on private land in the state for several years, and now public land hunters will have the same opportunity.

One other note about the spinning-wing and mechanical decoys on public land, however — they are still banned from use on Arkansas’s national wildlife refuges.