Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission this week offered the usual three options for duck hunting dates. Whatever is chosen, somebody will be unhappy it wasn't either of the other two choices. No matter what is selected, each option calls for a Jan. 29 finish to the season, which is what we've always liked.

The differences in the options is whether the season starts five days before Thanksgiving, or when the splits occur: Option 1 allows for hunting in the days around Christmas, while the other two have no hunting Dec. 24-25.

Many hunters prefer having 11 full hunting days at the start of the season, which option 3 offers. Options 1 and 2 offer 9 straight days to start the season and opening five days before Thanksgiving.

However, for option 1: We've always thought the Stuttgart folks would like the season opening as early as possible, and in this case that would be Nov. 19, a week before the town's Worlds Duck Calling Championships and maybe the biggest one-day parties in Arkansas, the Duck Gumbo Cookoff.

Option 1 also has a 5-day break in the middle of January. The other two run continuously from the day after Christmas to Jan. 29.

Proposed dates from the AGFC:

• Option 1, Nov. 19-Nov. 27, Dec. 6-Jan. 16, Jan. 21-29.

• Option 2: Nov. 19-27, Dec. 8-Dec. 23, Dec. 26-Jan. 29.

• Option 3: Nov. 24-Dec. 4, Dec. 10-23, Dec. 26-Jan. 29.

On the Greenhead Facebook page, Brent Birch is taking a poll as to which option is preferrable among hunters. At last check, Option 3 is the runaway favorite.

As Arkansas football has become so popular again, and as the weather seemingly is warming each year, I'm beginning to see the plusses in starting closer (or on Thanksgiving) instead of a football Saturday in mid-November. This year, Arkansas plays Mississippi State in Little Rock on Nov. 19, which as you'll note is opening day in two of the options.

And while we may all be in the belief that it's warmer these days than a generation ago, I remember swatting mosquitoes on a day that reached 70 degrees in 1984 before taking off for Dallas and the Arkansas-SMU game that night.