Hunting, fishing clubs fight government coding system in struggle to survive

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Scott Drummond, 45, is used to a busy holiday season.

 

A little more than a decade ago, his $1.2 million, 14,000-square-foot, newly opened Pintail Peninsula Lodge in Stuttgart, Arkansas, was full of Wall Street guests, eager to hunt mallard ducks by day and sleep in five-star luxury at night.

 

Dubbed the “Taj Mahal of duck hunting,” by The Wall Street Journal in 1999, Mr. Drummond’s resort played host to a wealthy clientele that flew miles to his small, rice-farming town near the convergence of the Arkansas, White and Mississippi rivers, to experience the best of the state’s 60-day duck hunting season, which begins Nov. 22.

 

 

Mr. Drummond’s lodge — which could accommodate 30 hunters in 16 rooms — generated $1 million in business during the short season, enough to keep his family comfortable year-round and to reinvest in the town’s growing industry. Stuttgart is anticipating nearly $900 million in duck-related revenue this season alone, according to KTHV, the local television news station.