NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Duck hunters hoping for a spot in a managed blind on a Tennessee wildlife management area later this season have a three-week window to get in the drawing.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will take applications from Nov. 18 through Dec. 8 for its 2026-27 Late Season hunts and its Youth/Military WMA waterfowl hunts, the agency announced Thursday.
Hunters can apply online through the state Go Outdoors Tennessee system, on the TWRA mobile app, at a TWRA regional office or through any license agent. Paper applications sent by mail will not be taken, and applicants must be 16 or older.
The rules reward planning. Each hunter gets one application, and it can list as many as 48 different hunt choices without repeats. These hunts are built around groups, so a party needs at least four members and can have no more than eight. One applicant serves as party leader, ranks the choices, and hands out a party number the rest of the group uses to join.
The state uses quota drawings in places where it needs to cap the number of hunters to protect the resource. Several of its drawings use priority points, which build up by one for each year a hunter applies without being picked. Applications generally carry a $12 fee plus a vendor charge, though holders of annual, lifetime or senior sportsman licenses are exempt.
Winning parties will get an email with log-in instructions. Every member has to claim an individual permit by 11:59 p.m. Central time on Dec. 21. A hunter who misses the deadline loses the personal permit but can still hunt from the blind alongside a permit holder. If nobody in a drawn party claims a permit, the site goes back into the pool.
Any blinds left unclaimed will be given out in person at leftover drawings set for the evening of Jan. 4, 2027, starting at 6 p.m. in each local time zone. Hunters can find where those drawings take place in the current state hunting and fishing guide, on page 85.
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