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Mississippi has the smallest outdoor economy in the eleven-state region by value added, but a bigger share of state GDP than most. Here is what each chapter of our 2026-27 state report found and what it means for guides, charters and lodges.

The 2026-27 Kentucky Outdoors report sets federal and state data beside an audit of 102 Kentucky operators. Here is what each chapter found and what it means for guides, marinas, lodges and outfitters.

South Carolina's outdoor economy weighs heavily on the state, but its hunting base is small and many operators have room to improve online. Here is what each chapter of our 2026-27 state report found and what it means for guides, charters and lodges.

Virginia's outdoor economy runs from the Chesapeake Bay to the Appalachians, with the lowest share of state GDP in the region and wide gaps between sub-regions online. Here is what each chapter of our 2026-27 state report found.

Tennessee has no coast, a hunting-heavy license base and a very large visitor trade. Here is what each chapter of our 2026-27 state report found, from tailwater trout to public land permits, and what it means for operators.

The 2026-27 Florida Outdoors report sets federal and state data beside an audit of 117 Florida operators. Here is what each chapter found and what it means for charter captains, guides and outfitters.

North Carolina's outdoor economy runs from the Smokies to the Outer Banks. Here is what each chapter of our 2026-27 state report found, including the guiding permits that vary by agency, and what it means for guides, charters and outfitters.

The 2026-27 Louisiana Outdoors report sets federal and state data beside an audit of 146 Louisiana operators. Here is what each chapter found and what it means for charter captains, guides and outfitters.

Alabama's outdoor economy is mid-sized, its hunters and anglers are among the most numerous per resident in the region, and its guides work under a patchwork of agency rules. Here is what each chapter of our state report found.

The 2026-27 Arkansas Outdoors report sets federal and state data beside an audit of 139 Arkansas operators. Here is what each chapter found and what it means for guides, lodges and outfitters.

The 2026-27 Georgia Outdoors report sets federal and state data beside an audit of 136 Georgia operators. Here is what each chapter found and what it means for plantations, guides and outfitters.

Land Between the Lakes puts more than 170,000 acres of federal hardwood ground between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, and its 2026-27 quota deer hunts run from late October through November. The lodge on the boundary has two customers: the drawn hunter who needs a bed, a meal, and good local knowledge, and the hunter who did not draw and still wants a November hunt. Here is how to market to both without crossing the federal line.

Gooch WMA on the Obion River is West Tennessee's public-duck icon, and right now its draw calendar is in full motion: early-segment permits to claim by Oct. 26, a mid-segment application window opening Oct. 21, and in-person leftover drawings at the Kenton gym. Here is how TWRA's 2026-27 tier system actually works, how Gooch differs from Reelfoot, and how lodges and private-ground operators can serve the hunters the draw leaves behind.

The Green Swamp is not Florida's trophy story. It is the drive-time story: public deer and hog ground in the middle of the Tampa, Orlando, and Lakeland metros, ringed by private land where an outfitter can actually work. Here is how to market that position for the 2026-27 season, from the Zone B archery opener through spring turkey, with the FWC rules that shape what you can sell.

The Sandhills gun deer season opens October 17, 2026, wild quail opens November 21, and the preserve season has been running since October 1. This is the operator playbook for an NC Sandhills hunting outfitter: how to structure deer and quail products, how to explain wild versus released birds honestly, how to compete with 65,000 acres of public game land, and how to package a golf-and-game trip for the Pinehurst visitor.

Draw results are landing across the Southeast this fall, and most applicants will hear no. Here is the honest framework for choosing between a WMA duck draw, a lease, and a guided hunt, with verified 2026-27 draw rules for six states, the odds agencies actually publish, the Arkansas guiding prohibition every operator must respect, and the Plan B playbook that turns results day into bookings.

South Carolina's Category I waterfowl lottery closed October 15, 2026, and thousands of applicants are about to learn whether they drew one of fewer than a hundred hunt dates. This is the operator's guide to the public-private split: how the SCDNR draw actually works, what the 2026-27 season looks like, the honest math between a longshot draw and private Lowcountry water, and how to market the results window respectfully.

Sloughs WMA quota results land in mid-October, and most applicants learn they did not draw. Here is how Kentucky's Sauerheber, Jenny Hole, and walk-in system actually works for 2026-27, why the Sloughs standby line is a Monday night at the WMA office rather than a pre-dawn crowd, and how lodging, lease, and private-field operators in the Ohio River bottoms can serve the hunters left holding a plan without a place to hunt.

Far-west Kentucky is where the Ohio meets the Mississippi and the ducks come down the bottoms. This field report walks the Jackson Purchase WMAs, the managed water of Ballard and Boatwright, the reclaimed mine grasslands of Peabody, and the timing signals that shape the 2026-27 season from teal to the late-January push.

Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia are among the few southeastern states pursuing elimination, not control, of feral hogs. The math behind that goal -- and the decades-long Great Smoky Mountains case study that tests it -- explains why the answer is still uncertain.