Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / Hunting Smarter: Jim Ronquest Talks Strategy, Gear, and Migration Mysteries (Ep. 732)

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Hunting Smarter: Jim Ronquest Talks Strategy, Gear, and Migration Mysteries (Ep. 732) · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna hit record. Alright. For the first time ever, I forgot to hit record the other day.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: I heard about it. Man.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Man. Everybody heard about it.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Here's one. Back in the day of shooting on video on tape, a buddy of mine I was working with was they was on in Alaska. It was a moose hunt, and he rewound to see where the shot placement was on the moose. No. And he forgot to forward back and record it over the shot.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Are you serious? Was it a kill shot?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, it was a cause when you watch everything right up to it, it's like, excellent. So, and they have a bunch of money invested nationally. You know how that goes. So guy didn't lose his job, but man, he was sick.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: He was sick.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Note to self even on today's digital cameras. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: You gotta make sure it's recorded. Make sure you're I've always feared too. Even before I got in the outdoor industry, I ran my photography company and I would shoot a bunch of weddings and stuff. Mhmm. And I was always terrified that I would accidentally format my card or Oh.
• 1:11
  You know, spill water on it during reception or something like that. So what I would do is, like, whenever I would get to a break, like, let's say, you know, the first hours, family photos, bride and groom, you know, before, whatever, and then it may be a twenty minute break for your next pictures, I'd go offload them real quick. So in case
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: You had a backup.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: At least I had some of the photos, but I would I was so paranoid. One time I couldn't get my camera to connect either and get the photos off, I panicked. Thankfully, I was able to get it.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, there's all kinds of horror stories in that part of the world about you've been recording, didn't realize you were recording, and punched the record button, and you turned it off.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Turned it off. That's that that's why
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: you gotta pay attention to all them little numbers clicking. Alright. Sorry, guys. I digress.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No. All good. Yeah. Whenever you're ready.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your cohost, Matt Harrison. And today we have joining us, mister Jim Ron Quest. Mister Jim, how's it going?
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Great, man. It's our time of year, buddy.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: It is our time. You can just tell anytime and you get together on a podcast, it's normally hunting season.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: It's either turkey season or duck season. One of those two,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: which fires me up. We're right here from our neck of the woods, just right out from our, our duck season.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Next weekend, he in Arkansas. I know there's a lot of states that are open. Yeah. States close to us now open. Oklahoma, North Missouri.
• 2:37
  I think Missouri's mid zone opens this weekend, I think.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, but we're right here.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: It's here, man.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: That that cold snap that we got this past weekend.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Timing was excellent. I hate it's warm back up to 75, but over the the other morning, it was cold. The wind was blowing. It was cold. I mean, it is wind.
• 2:57
  Good wind from the right direction. From the right direction. The right time of year. You know, when you think back about some of those fronts, and I thought about this the other day. So I know you and several people listening are probably familiar with the song, about the Edmund Fitzgerald that Gordon Lightfoot made famous.
• 3:14
  That was 11/10/1975. And one of the things that one of the lines in that tune that always get me when the November winds turn gloomy. Uh-huh. And, and then mentioned another one of the witching winds of November. And then you go back even further to the great Armistice Day blizzard.
• 3:31
  What year was that? Somebody on here roast me for being wrong, but I'm gonna say 1947. Yeah. Somewhere in there. If you go read about that and and you even though the weather models weren't as good then as they are now, would they just had had a picture of it up on one of the social media pages the other day, you can see the density of that front.
• 3:50
  Mhmm. And people that left to go hunting that morning, you know, flannel shirts and light vest, and they didn't make it. You know?
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: They Ain't that right?
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: But that time, Veterans Day time frame is natural migration time. And then along with if you can get a front right then Double whammy. Double whammy. Now I don't wanna ish ill will on those folks that lost friends and family in the Armistice Day Blizzard of nineteen forty seven or anybody from the directly, Edmund Fitzgerald. That said, it's that time of year, that timing in those fronts and things that can happen that can help us as duck hunters.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: No doubt. I was able to spend some time chasing them this past weekend in Oklahoma, and it was good just to feel that cold north breeze, bluebird sky. It was great.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: But you've been spending some time in the woods lately getting things ready. Yes. Making sure everything's in line, you know, to to have a season coming up here shortly. So what have you kinda seen, heard? I know that you stay in touch with a lot of people in your area.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: You
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: What's the word on the street right now for for our area?
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Some of the things that are good in our area, the red oak acorn crop is much better in the Bayomata Basin Cash River bottoms than they were last year. White oak, all the white oaks, white oak and cow oak acres. If it's hard ground, you may spring your ankle. You know, it's, it's, roll your ankle just walking on, on acreage. That's a good thing.
• 5:14
  It is dry. Back to this front, some of the, some of the more well known long time legacy rest areas in the area are holding quite a few ducks. Yeah. We picked up some ducks past week. It's always fun again this week in November when you watch some of those places.
• 5:30
  I'll go for base some, you know, base some green wings and, you know, a few early mallards, some pintails. Then the next month next evening, you go there and there's Mallards. A few thousand mallards around. It's just crazy how it happens so well.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: It could happen overnight.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Right there in front of you. So that that's cool to see. And then every day this week, I think we picked up some. Now I kind of think it's gonna slow down that, you know, wind turned back south, warmed up some, but we there's there's some ducks around.
• 5:56
  We're not peak numbers, but there's some ducks around.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: One thing that I find interesting and fascinating to me is what you just kinda hit on for just a second is the acre and droppage. We're we're up from last year. Of course, it's a lot better. How big of a role does that play? And I know I know that there's not anything out there that can give us a number or anything that's like, hey.
• 6:17
  You know, twice the amount of ducks show up if in this area. But you've hunted ducks for a long time. You've seen years where the acorn droppage is down, up. How big of a role do you think that plays?
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Probably bigger than what a lot of folks believe it does. You know, last year, I'm gonna quote, a past EU president, my friend, mister George Dumpling. Right before this same time last year, we were all concerned about, well, Acreage is slim. We're worried about duck season. And some of the areas that they are green trees
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Their numbers were maybe down a little bit. Ours too. And even the Viamita WMA, which is normally excellent. Of course, it was dry for a lot of the year. But once it got water, it wasn't what it normally was because I think mainly the acorn crop.
• 7:04
  Wow. Trees are sick. You know? We gotta get them them red oak acorns are important to matter duck in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: I promise you
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: that. That's that's It's so neat to just really when you break it down and you think about it and see how if it's not a good of a year for the Acorns that the Ducks just aren't where they typically are as thick, you know? And it's just really neat to kinda hear the difference that that truly makes. A lot of people, and no, not anybody, but even myself, you know, early out duck hunting and growing up and stuff, duck hunting, that stuff you don't really think about. And you don't you may just be like, man, there's not as many ducks in this area anymore.
• 7:40
  Then next year there may be more ducks and it may be because more acres in the area.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: Hey man, you can look back. I just did, was that a deal the other week? Can I leave this to the science guys to come around with the actual numbers and percentages and whatnot? But they had, they was doing some studies on Mallard, what they've been eating, you know, what's in their crawl, what's what's in their poop. And it was interesting that the largest percentage were nut all acorns and dealt to post oak acres, you know, so they're important.
• 8:09
  And there's a lot of people don't think ducks eat them, but I can't tell you the times I've killed duck that actually Full. Especially wood
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: ducks too.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Wood ducks matters, both of them. So that's important.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: No doubt.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: You know, you hear a lot of people talk about food and, you know, having having a buffet of food for ducks Mhmm. For waterfowl through all the winter months, the the better we can take care of them, the better we send them back. If we get good conditions, we're gonna have more baby ducks. That's kind of the way it works. So it's all very important, but you talk to people like Mickey Hightmeyer, got a cool piece of him from an old TV episode.
• 8:41
  He had a handful of Willow Oak Acreage he said, this is the jet fuel for matted ducks.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: That's a neat way
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: of putting it. That's a really cool way of looking at it.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Wow. That's so cool. Well, one thing me and you were talking about off air just a minute ago is the lack of water.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: It's dry.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: It's dry. It is dry. You made a point talking about how much dirt there is.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: I've been recently from, well, just before last I was Northeast Arkansas, not far from the Missouri line. And from there to DeWitt, there's probably more bare dirt showing than there was stubble. Now I said there's some there's some there's some rice stubble for sure. There'll be some and there were some bean stubble and there were some grass, but there was more bare dirt than there was was stubble. So that all equates back into into food, groceries.
• 9:34
  Right? And we know, we know again, I'll leave the numbers to, to the, to Doctor. Brazier now, but we know we are in a duck energy day deficit for sure. That's important. We gotta find a way that we can put more duck energy days on the ground or make it where people wanna put some duck energy days on the ground.
• 9:58
  You know, I know there's a lot of, a lot of the legacy clubs and people that manage and do well. Some of the state rest areas, federal rest areas do what they can, but we need to find a way to incentivize the private sector to try, maybe try to do something where we have more duck food.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Cause that's, you gotta have food. Got groceries. 100%. That's it's so important.
• 10:21
  Talking a little bit about a year like we have coming up. I mean, our season's right here. Mhmm. Coming up on us quick. Low water year.
• 10:29
  That's challenging for a lot of people that hunt public ground.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, hunting public is tough.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be really tough because me and doctor Jared Henson were talking earlier today, your areas that have water, you're gonna have a lot of people. You're gonna have a lot of people. So what are some things that let's say Jim Ronquist was gonna be hunting public ground, opening more of duck season. What are some things you can start doing now to possibly give you a little bit of an not an advantage, but some things that would help you, some things that you would apply to your scouting or making the phone calls to people you know in certain areas, seeing what they see because there's it's gonna be challenging this year with no water.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Until we get some water on the list.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Limited water.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: You're right. It's very limited. So one of the things I do is, that's someone, you know, we're fortunate. We can network around the state. A lot of people find out where there are some ducks and then figure out where those ducks are using and what they're doing.
• 11:25
  And one of the things I've often thought about on dry years is ancestrally, where did matter ducks go on dry years? Because, you know, we've always had up and down elfows, dry and wet years. So where did they go when it was dry? So start there. So, you know, we're blessed in the state to have a lot of oxbows, several river systems that you can maybe find a place where ducks are using on a river or an oxbow.
• 11:51
  So look at your map. Think about what ducks ancestorally did before we had everything we have nowadays. And then besides that, if there are public areas that do provide water opportunities, you know, they're going to be crowded. They're going to be, man, you need get it, get in line, I guess. And that's no fun to me, but it, I guess twenty five years ago, I'd have been one of those guys in line too.
• 12:15
  Yeah. You know? But figure out where you can go, what you can do, and, you know, everybody travels a little bit. Yeah. It may be something you gotta go somewhere else.
• 12:24
  No doubt. Our our deer hunt, our our specklebelly hunt, our our you know?
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Until we get more water.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: We get water. Yeah. And there's no shame in that. Of course, for sure, we all wanna go duck hunting. We all wanna full strap.
• 12:36
  But I enjoy being out there. I've been deer hunting a little bit
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: this year.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: You know? Just because it's different and something to do, but it's time in the field, and you can observe and watch ducks
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: and see You can learn a lot by just being out
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: there too, watching. Just being there, man. That's that's worth a ton. And that being said, maybe maybe you don't have water in your public woods. Maybe you can get permission to go speck hunting or snow goose hunting somewhere.
• 12:58
  Yeah. You know, that's enjoying the sport and playing the game. You know? Not no shame in that.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: No doubt. No doubt. Well, let's shift gears just a little bit. Wanna talk a little bit about you've had a lot going on this past spring, summer, even getting in now to the fall. You've had a lot going on.
• 13:14
  A lot of good things going on with dry waterfowl. You've had a lot come out here recently. Some great product. How's everything? I know that you're shifting into hunting season now, but how how are you staying, you know, I guess, just to continue to focus on Drake, focus on duck season because I know how much you love duck hunting.
• 13:36
  Mhmm. But how's everything going and how's
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: It's it's going well. It's been busy. I'm about I'm about evented out going to events. That said, we just opened our retail location in Otters Branch here in the Greater Memphis area, which is was a cool cool deal. You got a place where people can come see all of our new stuff.
• 13:57
  Like I say, touch it, feel it, smell it kind of thing.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: You can come see Try
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: it on. It on, see how it fits. But we've got set lots of new stuff coming to market this year. The BMF line, the Command XT line, the Hardline. Oh, it's kind of a that's that's different series and stuff.
• 14:12
  It's all excellent products. Unbelievable. The new BMF waders, all the different sizing, just everything we've got is really coming together. I'm really proud to be a part of Drake Waterfowl and what we offer. That said, there's a lot it's it's a great time to be outdoors person with all the opportunities for gear and apparel and whatnot that's out there.
• 14:32
  A lot of good stuff out there. I'm really proud of what we've done at Drake and what we've brought to the market and what we've brought for the outdoorsman to use. We can keep you warm, keep you dry, and make you look good in the process.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Process. No doubt. And I think I told you this on the phone the other day when we were discussing about having this podcast and figuring out a date is just seeing where Drake has come in the past couple years is is remarkable. Really? From, like you said, from many different aspects, from your sizing to your warmth, to your look, to the whole nine.
• 15:04
  I tell y'all the the new lines that have come out. I got me a pair of waiters in this past week. I tried them on. I mean, just the fit of them is incredible.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Great.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: You know, major improvements just all around in many different aspects from sizing, like I said, to comfort, to look, to the whole nine. Y'all are y'all crushing it.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Big big hats off to our product team led by Justin Carpenter, Jacob Anderson Anderson, and Andy Hoban. They've done a fantastic job with all that and all the rest of the people involved. Everybody's got a lot of input in trying to trying to trying to bring that all together into one spot. I'm I'm really proud to be a part of of of where we've been, where we're going, seeing the needle move a little bit, and knowing what might be coming down the road.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: No doubt. No doubt. Well, now we're gonna shift in to a little bit different aspect here. One thing that I like to do every time I have you on the podcast is just pick your brain as far as the knowledge. We know that you not be a lot up there, though.
• 16:01
  Come on now. We know that you've been around this this this sport a long time. You've you've spent a lot of times in the woods, whether it's chasing turkeys. Deer, like you just said, we know that you're really passionate about ducks, conservation. You love giving back.
• 16:16
  We know that. One so one of the things that I like coming into these podcasts is just learning from you first and foremost, one on one as a friend, but also giving that knowledge to our listeners because we know that we have some very well experienced duck hunters that may tune into this
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: and be like, oh, man.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: I I know this, and there's some just joining that may not have ever, you know, duck hunted before in their life and wanna get into it and wanna learn more about it. So we're gonna walk through just kinda some scenarios and just kinda talk about some different topics, some hot topics, maybe some not so hot topics, some opinion topics, like there's no right or wrong answer to some of these.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: But That's that's good.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: It is good. But one thing we also know that you've been really successful at is the duck call world, whether it's competing, building, making calls, tuning calls, you've been around it. It's been something that you enjoy and you've done an incredible job at for a very long time. And it's one thing that I think is very important when you get into duck hunting is learn how to duck call. Now maybe you don't enjoy it and maybe you go with people that do call and that's fine and Danny too, but most every duck cunter that you're around either enjoys calling or don't call because they don't know how to and they don't want to embarrass themselves.
• 17:27
  Everybody enjoys picking up a duck call and calling on it. So one of the first things I do want to talk about is how do you adjust your calling to maybe call shy ducks or ducks that are a little bit weary or leery, you know, whether it be early, you know, a lot of times early season, they're a little bit easier to call out. Typically speaking, sometimes maybe not, you know, later season. We know that there's all kinds of different aspects to it and different factors that go into it. But what are some of just the first things that you look for if, let's say, you know, you're an hour in to to your hunt and you're like, okay.
• 18:04
  Something they're not liking it. So what are some of the first things that you look for as a as a master duck caller in changing or fixing with yourself?
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: Great question. First off, there I got a couple couple things here I need to preface. First off first off, I'm a I'm a practicing duck hunter. Like doctors and lawyers, they say you're still practicing. They're like, we're still learning.
• 18:28
  Right? So I practice duck hunting every day I go to try to get better at it. What can I learn next about Yeah? About duck hunting? The next part about calling and hunting ducks in general to keep in mind going into this year.
• 18:41
  So back in back into the science, we know the B pop was kinda flat. Mhmm. We know we didn't have tons of recruitment. There's some hot spots here and there. So just kinda know going into the year, we're gonna be hunting an older population of ducks.
• 18:53
  Yeah. That they're gonna learn quickly if they haven't already. So, you know, you know, you're dealing with some tough ones that may may peck your teeth out. You know? So so you know that going in and then starting from there, say it's, open the morning this year, I'll be in a little small track of private woods.
• 19:11
  I'm just watching. And I have an idea of what's going on, you know, how ducks are acting a little bit before the end, but I open the morning, things get stirred up. Ducks have been set in places, people push them out, whatever. And sometimes old ducks to your point can be easy. They haven't figured everything out yet.
• 19:27
  But as you kind of get into it a little bit, you'll start seeing how ducks act and react to decoys, calls, places Yep. Whatever. We'll get into some of the other things later in the conversation. But I kinda want I you know, I'm one to kinda let them tell me what to do. Now That's a good point.
• 19:43
  Let me raise my hand and say I'm also guilty of calling too much. We all are. I I learned I learned that producing outdoor television when you went back, watch it. You'd be like, hit him there. Hit him there.
• 19:55
  Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. And and you you call them too much. You know?
• 19:58
  So I think we all get excited. You know, ducks are coming. You you know, I've been doing it longer than I care to say now, but you get you can get to blowing. They're coming. They keep coming.
• 20:08
  You think you wanna blow more at them when it probably doesn't matter. Yeah. You know, just shut up and let them come. Don't do as I say. Do as I or don't do as I do.
• 20:16
  Do as I say. That being said, just pay attention to ducks and and and what they're doing, and also think about the type of area you're hunting. Yeah. Are you hunting a place that ducks are coming back in to rest? Are you hunting a place that ducks are coming to feed?
• 20:29
  Mhmm. Why are they coming there? Yeah. You know? Now I'm one of like to hunt.
• 20:34
  Nowadays, they call them running traffic. I used to call them trading ducks. Mhmm. You know, ducks are trading from point a to point b. Those are ones you one, you can blow a lot at them.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Loud.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: And the whole point there, you can talk them into sometimes talk them into giving up, and that's the ones we all like to hunt. Those ducks that you're hunting where the feed are, if they're coming to that, sometimes Slyngar just, you know, just call as needed, just square them up a little bit. If you need to line them up on the wind, hit them a lick here, pop, pop, pop, You know? Line them up. Yeah.
• 21:04
  If for hot ducks, trading ducks, you can go to hammering at
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: them and
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: duck collars, that's what we wanna do. Right?
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Hear that wind cutting?
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Oh, ain't nothing bet you know, nothing better. Other than calling at them, the one of the things I like is what you were just talking about. If you're standing there drinking a cup of coffee, nice cold, clear morning, all you hear that, where that? Where that? If you're gonna call, you better hurry up.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: You better hurry.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Anyway, that being said, just let the ducks kinda tell you. If you notice you calling a bunch and ducks kind of look and they move on, well, maybe change that up, maybe call less, maybe change your volume up, you know? I'm big on this, I'm big on inflection, you know, and and volume. You, you know, you never, you never know what you need to need to say until you find out. And there's a difference between calling Adam and calling to You gotta call Adam to figure out how to call to him.
• 22:00
  So then then once from there, you can go but I I we've done this before. I use my old inflection trick. I'm gonna say, hey, Matt. Same two words, but every time I say it, it'll have a different meaning. So let's say you were about 12 years old and you ride on your bicycle and your mama told you be, be home by 06:30 or be home at dark to eat supper.
• 22:20
  And you come lollygagging in there about 08:00. You and your buddies been doing something and it's, hey, Matt. You know what that means?
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. A little bit different meaning. Don't
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Matt owes me a $100. Hey, Matt. Matt's about to step on a rattlesnake this long. Hey, Matt. Matt's way on across the field.
• 22:41
  Hey, Matt. Hey, Matt. Said the exact same two words each time, but they had different meaning. Learn to apply that to your duck calling, your goose calling, your turkey calling, whatever. Inflexion means something.
• 22:53
  Kind of like that old hen sitting out there. She's sitting out there nice and quiet, you know, on the pond or in the woods, hear real content, you know, That same old hen, you walk up there and you slap the water, you make some noise. Get out of here. And she go, quack quack quack quack quack. Quack's the same, but your flexing is different.
• 23:16
  The meaning is different. Yeah. So learn to apply that to your duck call. That's good. And think about your timing.
• 23:20
  You know? The late, great Buck Gardner was who we just recently lost this past week, past world champion, champion, champion's duck collar. Good guy. He was always big on calling them on the corners. You know?
• 23:34
  If they're going downwind, hit them wingtips and tail feathers. If they're lined up coming at you, let them come. You know?
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: That's always good stuff.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: You can't ever go wrong with that.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: You can't. Man. Man. Alright. What would you say the number one?
• 23:51
  What would you let's back up just a little bit. What would you say the number one thing duck callers get wrong is? Like, if you had to say just one thing, is it volume? Is it calling too much? Like you said, like, if you just had to say, okay, what's one thing that don't cause
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: people screw up, do wrong, I'd I'd say absolutely calling too much. Calling too much. Or wrong timing. And I'm I'll I'll raise both my hands. I'm guilty.
• 24:19
  I'm absolutely guilty. But I can't I've learned to catch myself. Yeah. You know, when you are the the hardest thing is a group of folks. Everybody wants everybody wants to call.
• 24:27
  Mhmm. You know? Bunch of guys I'm used to hunting with, we kinda know we we just kinda Yeah. Pay attention. And everybody wants to be a part, and there's times for everybody to be a part.
• 24:39
  There's other times not to. You can push and pull. At least this is my opinion. Oh, let me let me preface that. It's just my opinion.
• 24:46
  So you got two good duck callers that aren't necessarily used to hunting with each other. And there's a bunch of ducks who will take wing tips and tail feathers. Alright? And they're they're swinging they're downwind on our right hand side, and they get they get about right out here in front. And I wanna pull them back in the wind.
• 25:02
  I'm just gonna hit one Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. I wanna pull them.
• 25:05
  Mhmm. So you you're not picking on you. You could be anybody else. Man, you won't be apart. You you won't pull them too.
• 25:13
  I just pulled them, and then you hit the exact same leg. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
• 25:18
  Same volume, but you just pushed them. Yep. You well, they started to line up, but now we just pushed them. Now you gotta start all over again. So you you you can push and pull.
• 25:28
  So the hard part is not that the not that the calling was bad or it was too loud or too soft.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Wrong timing.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Wrong timing. Calling too much. Yep. So and not look, we're all guilty of that.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think we talked about that maybe maybe not on our last episode together or the one before that, but we talked about it before, I believe. In my opinion too, that is one
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: of the
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: most critical things too that happens to a group of duck hunters is having too many people either trying to finish ducks or too many people just like you said after, you know, you get ducks swinging back around or you got some that, you know, you just got their attention, whatever it might be, you got that friend. And I I've done it a billion times because you don't wanna finish a group of ducks and you
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: not call, then you're like, man, I wanted to be a part of that. Yeah. Exactly. I said, I've been I've been both of All these
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: have. If you've if you've called at ducks, you've been you've been a a part of that in some way, shape, or form. But that is one thing I would say. And look, pride, you know, pride against every time because you do want to be a part of it. But just like you said, really learning and that comes with learning who you're hunting with too, you know, because some guys, some guys, they want to be that guy finishing them.
• 26:41
  They want to be that guy getting their attention or they don't want to call
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: it off. It's one thing, you know, breaking high ducks, man. Let's and let's all figure out how to work together doing that. Yep. This I'm gonna back us into some etiquette a little bit here too.
• 26:54
  Here's one that, that I've kind of learned and adapted over the years. If I'm invited, you invite me to hunt with you in your place. I'll leave my duck call in my pocket until I'm told different. Now as a guy in the duck call world, you know, they said, no, go ahead. But, you know, just a lot of times it's kind of fun sitting, watching somebody else do it too.
• 27:17
  You know? But you invite me to your hole, I'll leave my call in my pocket until I'm told differently. Yeah. And I think that'll, that goes a long way. That's something everybody probably should remember, and that'll keep some of that
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: from happening. And a lot of times too, people be like, why aren't you calling?
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Get your call out.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: You got your dumb dog.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Respect you a lot more
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: For doing that versus coming in there and wailing on it.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, man. Yeah. It's kinda like bad dogs. You know? Same same deal.
• 27:41
  I can remember the guy days had a guy and I I'm a dog guy. I love my dogs and fortunate to have a couple great dogs. And I can remember guys come. They wanna take their dog. Right?
• 27:52
  You know? Hard to tell them not to. And I got one saying that the house is pretty good. And they'll say, man, old Bowser's the best dog in four counties. You know?
• 28:02
  They have a bunch of ducks come inside. Well, you're gonna pick them up. You know, that's the deal. Not a couple of them down out there in the middle of the decoys and Bowser. Well go get him Bowser.
• 28:12
  And they walk out there, they walk out there, dog swim, they show him the duck. Yeah. Good boy. Good boy. No, that's no good.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: My favorites when you're about ten minutes into shooting time, fifteen minutes, you knock a couple down and you got the, they, they send Bowser and Bowser goes sniffs one swims over there to the other one, picks him up, then sees the other one kind of flopping over there, drops him. We're going to go shopping. Then we got, we got another group working at that, at that point trying to finish them, but no. No. We got Bowser out there.
• 28:44
  He's chasing chasing the three.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Hey. Look. As long as he keeps his as long if it's swimming water, perfect. Best decor there is. It looks like a duck swimming around, but running water, not
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: so much. Then Bowser comes back, sits down and got a dog.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: You still gotta walk out there and get them. Yeah. Oh, no.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: Man, we've all been there.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. And it's gonna happen every year. You just can't get you just let it be. Let it be.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Alright. What is your opinion on motion decoys?
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, depends on what kind of motion. Let's say mojos.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Oh. Because you have some people
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Hate them. Hate them. Some people think you can't kill a duck without one. I like them. I have I have been on all sides of the fence on this deal.
• 29:27
  I've been all over the boards. Great question. The first year they come out, several things hit in the for for us here in the MAV. Mhmm. '19 99 was a great hatch.
• 29:41
  B pop was huge. Recruitment was high. Two things happened at same time. We had a really big Mallard number. Mid continental Mallards were, I don't know, $1,011,000,000 that year, and the spinner started the same year.
• 29:55
  Now it was a dry year too that year. I remember this duck season well because we was keeping track. And we were shoot shooting pretty good. We started off the first couple weeks without it, and then we put that thing out there. I remember the first day I used one is a cloud today, and the guy and the guy who did it, you'll appreciate this.
• 30:11
  He's now the coordinator of the Great Lakes DU office, Jamie Raider. He was interning with me running a guy business, and I said we called him Radar. And and he said really good eyes. Still does, I guess. But I sent Radar Radar said, go back.
• 30:29
  We had old Suburban, and we it's about a three quarter mile boat ride in with a with a that a GoDale. I said, go get that whoopie wing thing. Let's see what happens. And we'd been shooting pretty good. Mhmm.
• 30:41
  And it was kind of a cloudy drizzly day, And he made it back to the made it up our truck, back to the blind, and go out there and put up. And I get it stuck out there, and I get it turned on, and it was the belt on it was slipping or o ring. So I got it going. It went flop flop flop flop flop flop flop. Stood there and laughed, you know, looked at that thing.
• 31:01
  And I started turning around and go back to the blind, and one of my dear friends had met Jason Jaton, JJ. JJ said, Jimbo, get down. Get way down. I said, I looked up, and here's 25 doing that.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Bowed up.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Bowed up coming. So I'm like, from that point on, we were hooked to them things, like, I guess, like, crack. I don't know. I mean, because it they run off of D cell batteries, and I remember every time anybody went to Walmart in Brinkley or Stuttgart They were sold out. I said, get all the D cell batteries you can buy.
• 31:30
  You know, we we were hooked on them things. But by the end of that duck season, notice boy and big bunches, you could start them, but they would split up. Right? You know, you get instead of keeping that bunch hooked up
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: They'd split and go different directions. Then you get to sucker ducks and you wind up shooting the sucker ducks and then you screw everything up. So that's over time. And you then we got, man, I ain't even toeing one of them things. We killed ducks without them.
• 31:53
  No problem. Jerk cord and a duck call was no problem. And then kind of got to the point where they may not be an overall as effective, but there's, there's still that you can't beat that wing movement. If you can ever get in an airplane or nowadays with a drone and an airplane's better using your eyes flying across duck country, how far are you seeing on him? Duck crazy.
• 32:14
  And do that, how far you can see that flash? It's on that white. Just flash. And that's natural. You know what?
• 32:20
  That that's, that's not bone to duck call too loud, too soft, whatever. That's a natural move. So I'm kind of, I've kind of softened up to where there's times maybe it makes sense to use one or go kind of hide it under a tree or one that turns on, turned off. And look, you ain't putting that rabbit back in the hat. Yep.
• 32:39
  You know, there's some I think now we got them illegal on on state ground in Arkansas. I don't I think federal ground, you can use them. Look that up before you make that that call. And I'm good with that. I'm I'm absolutely happy with that.
• 32:53
  Be fine by me if they outlawed them, but I don't think that's ever gonna happen. And there's times where on private, maybe they do help. Yeah. The motion I think that is good is your decoy spread.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: 100%.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: If you can keep them decoys I I love big spreads of decoys as long as you can keep them alive. Yeah. You gotta keep moving. You gotta keep moving in there. When they sit back to my airplane ride, as for as far as way as you can see that duck flashing, as far as way the human eye can see, you can tell the difference between decoys and real ducks.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: 100%.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: It's it's I don't know. I mean, they're maybe they're dumber than we think they are because it is so easy to pick out those decoys when there's no movement on the water.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: 100%. And I've never seen a group of ducks sitting on the water where there wasn't ripples or movement. So therefore, any type of you know, whether it even be a jerk string. I mean, man, jerk strings are one of the greatest as long as you got the friend that's willing to pull it.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: Or I'd pull all the time, and, you know, that's that's a part of duck calling to me. I'd I'd have a jerk cord in my left hand, duck call in my right hand. Mhmm. And I use that jerk cord in conjunction with the call Yeah. To try to hit a lick, to make them look, to have some movement.
• 34:02
  Maybe it's pull that cord back tight, hit a lick. And as soon as you see them look, let it go, let them all swim back in line or that's important. Or nowadays, we got all these these automated motion systems that that automatically jerk cord. Looked at one the other day. It kinda got my attention.
• 34:24
  It it's it's bends. It's on a wrist at. And when you speed it up, slow it down, speed it up, slow it down. It don't hang up on nothing. I'm like, man, you can get a lot of
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: dead They go got some now that it's got three, you know, stakes that, I mean, you could literally get ducks swimming in circles. It's it's unbelievable.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Years ago that was on the on the big rubber band thing. Yeah. Man, they they run them a course.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: You know? They even have the automatic jerk strings now that you just put the the battery on there.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: Let it
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Plug them in, and it's just got that arm that pulls
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: it back man. And and that's that's important. Especially, like, if you hunt small waters or woods where you don't get a lot of wind, man, that natural movement back to motion decoys, that natural movement is
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: You can't
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: beat it. Can't beat it. And, you know, nowadays, you hear a lot of people say, well, man, what what I call them gadgets and gadgets and flippers and flappers and whippers and whappers.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: You know? Somebody put that on a t shirt.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: It's it's I'm like, gosh. Dang. What? I mean, it's just what happened to jerk cord and the duck call? That being said, it's $20.25.
• 35:30
  We got technology. We got a phone. The the video camera inside my phone.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: It's just as good as a normal camera now.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: Is better than what when I first started a $125,000 Ikigami Betacam with a 20 power lens on it, it's better than what that was. You know? So you're not gonna we're not gonna put all that technology back. It's here. Whether you choose to use it or not, that's your business.
• 35:54
  You know, if you don't like it, don't If you do, go right ahead. I hear stories about the people. Like, in West Tennessee, real foot, some places, stuff in trees, all kinds of swimmers and spinners and whippers and whappers and flippers and flappers and stuff's moving and carrying on. And, you know, ducks get used to all that. They do.
• 36:17
  They get used to all that. You know, it's, it just, it's, it's the time we live in. Like I said, you use it or not find ways to shoot ducks, get underneath them. I'm gonna get a little deeper on you. Some of that, somehow I think they get used to it.
• 36:30
  I'm big on this ultraviolet stuff. Ari? Talk a little bit about that. So you hear people talk about it. You think, I mean, there's some decoys that look super realistic.
• 36:40
  Oh, it's unbelievable. Just on that. Perfect. So how does it take a seasoned dog that's got some experience picked up several 100 ducks inside of big decoy spreads? How do they tell a difference between that swimmer, that cripple or a dead duck and all them decoys?
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: You got a point. They can
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: see the difference. You guys being a camera person, think about some of the low light options on some of the cameras in those pictures. It would depend on what people are wearing. Like, if it's printed material Yeah. It looks all white.
• 37:15
  And you look at some of the other materials that are canvas or something, it's not white. You can see it's just dark.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: So you believe the ducks can.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: I I absolutely believe they can. If you look you you look at the way the good lord put the colors in the amount of drag, stretch his wings out, look at his hands. Look at that. We can't replicate that. You know?
• 37:33
  And I think they tune into that. You know, who's the guy's building the putting the ducks cans on the decoys. I was talking to a buddy I've of seen it. The difference it makes early season, you can't tell the difference, but they said like late in the season ducks really get stale makes a heck of a difference. So there you go, man, you know,
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: back to it. Isn't it neat to think about too? I mean, the things that we don't know, that we have no idea about that ducks see the way they hear things.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: There's what they see, what they hear. And I think another part of it we hit on earlier, we was talking about the time of year and picking up ducks. It's that mystery of migration that drives duck hunters, you know? Nuts. Look where we're sitting here, the, you know, ducks unlimited headquarters and look what really drives this thing.
• 38:25
  It's ducks in the mystery of those migrations. The biggest all the stuff we talk about every year. Are they gonna get here? When are they gonna get here? How many are we gonna have?
• 38:34
  Man, it's a full moon. The wind's blowing. We're gonna get a push. The unknown. Yeah.
• 38:38
  The unknown, you know, from all the super smart people to just to my me just a dumb old duck hunter. Everybody's everybody's interested in that. So you think of what old Greentop Air drives. It's
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: pretty It's unbelievable.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Pretty dang cool.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Well, we talked a little bit about motion decoys, talked a little about DuckCon. Let's talk just a little bit about decoys. Mhmm. So we talked some you know, I I I do consider motion decoys a part of decoys.
• 39:05
  But as far as, like, mounted decoys you use, you know, there's some people that, man, they they gotta have eight dozen or more every hunt. Then you got some that say, you better not have more than 24 out there. That's all I'm hunting with. You got some that say, hey. We gotta have a dozen Mallards, a dozen Gadwall and a dozen Coots.
• 39:26
  You know, you, there, you got all these different theories and rhymes or reason everybody has their own knickknacks, but what would you say is Jimbo Ronquist go to on just a normal day of duck hunting? Are you putting out three, four dozen? You putting out three, four dozen with a mojo, two mojo? What's kind of your and I know that there's so many factors into that. I know.
• 39:49
  But are you typically running three or four dozen, or is it
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: Probably just depends on where where I'm going. Mhmm. You know? It depends on am I going in walking in, taking a buggy, or a boat? That does matter.
• 40:03
  That that's all going You're
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: walking in, you ain't taking no four
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: dozen already. Some of the best hunts I've had, there's some shows on R and TV that we only had two decoys
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: On dirt and nice bunches of ducks. Some of the biggest hunts I've ever had was small just a couple decoys. That being said, I tickle typically am a more the merrier kind of guy. Mhmm. If you can keep them alive.
• 40:26
  Keep moving. We got enough wind or got enough jerk cords or all these, again, gadgets and gadgets, flippers and flappers, whippers and wipers to keep everything going. That's all good. But I guess, typically, if I just wanna put some in a truck or in a boat, I'm I'm a two to four dozen guy until I see different. Now if we hunt a big old logging deck in the woods and it's a big opening and we're we're hunting a lot of trading ducks, I'm all for a big number.
• 40:54
  Yeah. Back in the guiding days, the place we hunted was on old dead and we had permanent spread out. And I don't know how many we had, but I by the end of the season, we would double it and that'd probably be and this is small compared to some people, you know, four, five hundred. Decoys? Mhmm.
• 41:12
  But there's some people that's setting some stuff. Who's the guys up in up in Illinois? Good. Nice. The towhead, it's I don't know what the look at what they're doing.
• 41:24
  Man, it's golly dang. It's huge numbers of decoys. But typically in the woods, you know, two to four in a small hole. Some of the bigger old cut you know, eight dozen works really good. Yeah.
• 41:35
  Eight dozen sounds like a lot of decoys even in a woods hole. But once you get them out, it it Yeah. They get small pretty quick.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: I got a question. It just dawned on me. I didn't have this written down or pre thought or anything like that. There are some people that leave their decoys out there. Like, if they're on the land or leased the land, they'll just leave them.
• 41:52
  Do you think that helps or hurts anything?
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: Mhmm. May Man, again, I've been I've been both of them people too and still am. I got some places with a set of permanent spread
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: And just leave them, move them around because You don't think
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: it hurts.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: You're hunting, trading ducks. It depends on the ducks you're hunting. Yep. Yeah. But here's the deal.
• 42:08
  If it's the same trading birds every day, they're going to get used to them places, whether you set them out or not every day or not. Yeah. They're going to get used to that spot. I think if ducks are seen all the time, if you can pick them up and put them out, you're better off. Yeah.
• 42:22
  One of the places I help out at some, you know, we hang them on a tree. You know, we have two, three dozen hung up.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: When you
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: get there in the mornings, you set them. When you leave, you pick them up. Let ducks not see them when they're there. Some of the bigger holes will leave a permanent spread. Yeah.
• 42:35
  And and, you know, I can't really tell if it makes a difference sometimes.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: So probably not enough of a difference for you to
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: Maybe not. Because I argue with myself on that. I'm not gonna lie. I I've been one man need to pick them up every day. Yeah.
• 42:49
  You know, pick them up every day. Don't let them figure them out. And then I've been to places again where they're not. I'm like, I don't know if I'm really telling the difference here. Yeah.
• 42:58
  You know? I don't know.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: Well, you made a good point when you first started answering this question. It's like, I feel like it depends on too. If it's a hole that you hunt a lot of trading ducks where you know that it's going be new ducks the next day, or if it's a place that you're hunting a lot of more local ducks, probably not going to want to leave those decoys out there.
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: They'll still get used to that place, I think. Yeah. You can shift the line. That again, place I hunted, had when we were guiding out of being probably a little greedy and a little, little too, want to kill them worse than want to take care of hunting every day at same spot. And we was killing them.
• 43:37
  But the line of ducks that was crossing us, we noticed they shifted just a little bit where they weren't crossing us. They knew. They had figured that they, they figured out. So I don't know. I think the day in, day out, pulling the trigger right there was more so than the permanent decoys.
• 43:54
  Decoys. Yeah. They get smart. Man, they get conditioned. I don't know if Conditioned.
• 43:59
  I think they get conditioned. But for a bird with a brain the size of a pea, they can sure sometimes make you feel like you're the dumbest person ever walked.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. No doubt. No doubt. Well, let's ask a couple of fun questions here. If you had one place to hunt, where would it be?
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: Man, I ain't been everywhere. I don't know.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: Let's say a place you haven't been. Where's somewhere that would be the top of your bucket list to hunt? That I haven't been. That you haven't been.
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: I've not been there, and I've had several invites, but some stuff out west, I hear so much about, Idaho, Montana, the Snake River.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Have you never hunted there?
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: Never hunted there. Wow. Figured. I've I've hunted the Columbia River in Washington state. That was pretty cool.
• 44:46
  I'd like to go back and do that again. That was that was top shelf. But I I and that it's not new, so I don't mind saying stuff about the snake. Different places in Montana, they shoot a lot of ducks in Wyoming.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: Sikini water stuff.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I've experienced some of that in Western Nebraska. That's really fun stuff, man. It's hunting a place. First time I've done it.
• 45:08
  We hunted a I guess you call it a creek.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: A creek.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: It moved. So it's a creek or a creek. But it it wouldn't a long four door long bed pickup, you could have straddled it. No problem. You know?
• 45:24
  And I'm like, what the heck? And there's a pit kinda or blind kinda dug in the side of a hill, little old rise. I don't know if you call it a hill or not. And we sat there and shot the fire out of ducks from me to you. Me I mean, it's pretty cool stuff.
• 45:39
  And then hunting some stuff in Western Nebraska off the Platte, some of those warm water sloughs in the Russian olive thickets and stuff. That's kinda like woods hunting here. It's pretty neat. Wow. It's so neat to me
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: getting to travel some, you know, hunting ducks different places. It's so neat to experience the different ways. Like me and my brother were talking about this past weekend coming back from Oklahoma, just just the difference it makes as far as just the style of hunting, how they approach hunting, you know, Oklahoma's a lot of cow pines, some river hunting, and you just go just up not that far to Arkansas and it's it's a it's different.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: Different culture, different everything. You know something, I know you hear this a lot, especially being here at DU, you hear people talk about the flyaways shift and doctor Mike and I talked about a lot. Being out there in Nebraska, Kansas, some places you get to riding up through some old pasture trails in your truck scouting. Look, you'll find old duck blinds, it's a dilapidated, been there forever. There's nothing new about duck hunting in the Central Flyaway.
• 46:42
  Them ducks have always been there. I think people are just kinda really starting to take advantage of it and realize, Hey, there's some good duck hunting here. And you know, that's fine if it's, but it's not necessarily been a shift of ducks. Yeah. It's been people realizing that there's opportunity here also.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: That's a good point. Good point. What's your favorite duck recipe?
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, I gotta give it's not my it's not my deal. It's my buddy, Ira McCauley. It's his, but he's made it my favorite. Take your duck breast, leave your skin on one side, pluck one side, get you a really you could probably do it on a Blackstone. He's he's big on a cast iron, big, nice cast iron.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: Pan on the stove. Get it smoking hot. Put some butter in there. Oh. Open side down five minutes.
• 47:29
  Skin side down five minutes. Season it however you wanna season it, and then finish it in some, like, a blueberry reduction sauce or something like that. Fine. Fine, buddy. I'm talking about make you wanna go hurt somebody.
• 47:43
  It's just because they didn't tell you about it twenty years ago.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, it is really good. That sounds good.
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: That's my favorite. You got me hungry. It's good too. And when Ira does it, you know, it's always a big time. Let's see.
• 47:54
  Butter, I think he might have put a little sherry or something in there. Mhmm. Boy, and it's gotta be hot. When it hit yeah. That's good stuff right there, buddy.
• 48:03
  Along with that, you know, maybe some roasted sweet potatoes, nice salad, something like sweet potatoes and onions. That's Yeah. It's pretty good.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Sounds so good.
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: And one of my others is my bride, mama Rosie, likes this one. She's a big everybody likes to come eat soup during weekends Yeah. You know, during duck season. And she does, like, a beef barley vegetable soup, but instead of beef, she take cubes up duck breast, puts in there, lets them oh, that's pretty good too.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: Some soup at y'all's house one night. I can't remember what it was. One evening. Uh-huh.
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: It was ten. That's right. You have been there.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: Don't I remember which one it was.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: I don't eat it, but it was good.
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It's always good. That's always fun stuff. But, yeah, that's probably my favorite duck recipe. And again, back on the duck hunting question, I hadn't been everywhere, but I'm pretty happy with where I have been.
• 48:49
  I like it right here in the good old USA.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Can't beat it here. Mm-mm. Can't beat it. Do you have any superstition?
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'm a very superstitious person. Me? Yeah. Yeah. Black cats and me.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: They don't get along.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: Funny story two funny stories on black cats. So we was traveling one year doing TV show and I always wound up being the driver pulling the truck. We pulled in some restaurant and it come around the corner and a black cat run across the parking lot. The more I'm done. And I backed that trailer out and ran there.
• 49:20
  It didn't run over anybody. Got out to what everything's fine. Then that I think it was that same year come up to world championship weekend, the year I won the world. I was getting around all the traffic and stuck guarders from side streets. You can go down.
• 49:36
  Black cat run across the road in front of me. I backed up two blocks to get around that sucker. Man, that's that's that's no good. No good. As far as before hunt, I don't necessarily Like, do you have
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: to have a certain call with you, or do you take a certain gun every time? Like, is there anything that with Jimbo, there's it's gotta be with him?
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: No. Kinda sorta, but not really to the superstitious factor.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Socks or anything?
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: No. Now I will say this. If I get on a good roll, if we kill them every day, I might get kinda funky for a little bit, you know, kinda like baseball players.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: You know? Wanna stay a couple feet away from.
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah. We get on a good roll. I don't wanna change stuff up too bad.
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: Mate. That's funny.
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: Or I won't change a hat or something. Yeah. You know? That's always big, but I'm not one to you know, I ask the big man upstairs for safe and successful hunt every morning and hope for the best. Yep.
• 50:30
  I don't have any big superstitions like that. Now I do like to have all my stuff laid out tonight before. Do you? Yeah. I kinda once I as unorganized as I am, if you used to look at my desk, you go, my god.
• 50:42
  How do you know what's anywhere? The next week, my whole plan is to start getting all my stuff together. I wanna know where, what is, and, like, before I go to bed at night, especially this year, I'll be headquartered from home on, which I like a whole lot. So I have a shirt and pants I'm gonna wear hung up on one of the bar chairs. You know where the house is there?
• 51:04
  Stuff will be hung up there and my hat will be right there. Always hanging my duck calls up every night. Same spot. I don't keep my duck calls in a bag. They go, they go around my neck in the morning.
• 51:14
  They'll be hung up in a certain spot. Everything kinda fits. You know? It's kind of it's kinda me. Pattern.
• 51:20
  I got kind of a pattern. When I get out of that
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: same way.
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: I get kinda jacked up. Like, when you go off on a trip and I don't have my truck. It's it's weird. Oh, I'm I'm kinda I'm kinda kinda I I don't just I'm on edge a little
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: bit. Yeah. I know what you mean.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: I kinda like having my truck. I know where everything is. So as even like when we was doing the Drek Camp deal, you know, I had my own room, had my own kinda got my own deal
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: Going in line there. That's awesome.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: Alright. Last thing before we go. What's one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah. That's a big one. I can get philosophical.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: Because I know that you've been, you know, you've you've done a lot of different things as far as business goes. You've been on the filming side, TV show. You've been on the dot con side. Now you're with Drake. You know, you've been in a lot of places.
• 52:13
  A lot of people wish they could be and a lot of young listeners. What are some things or, you know, one thing that you truly just wish you would've known at a younger age or you could give yourself that advice?
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Listen to everybody to to being a little bit more of a risk taker. Mhmm. Biscuit. To get the biscuit.
• 52:31
  Yep. Yeah. Don't you'll make it if you got any gumption about you, you'll make it work. Yeah. Looking back, I had opportunities to buy a couple different pieces of ground.
• 52:40
  I said, oh, man. I ain't got that kind of money. I figured out how to make it work. Mhmm. Business wise, I wished I'd went in business for myself.
• 52:48
  When I thought about it and said, no. Just go to work for somebody else. Don't don't take the risk. I'd say that's that's the biggest one. Now at the same time, you gotta be somewhat judicious about that.
• 52:59
  You gotta think that through. And I thought it through, and I said, man, I'd have made it work. So I I'm happy where I've wound up. Don't get me wrong. I've had a great great life, great career, not complaining a bit.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: Just getting started too.
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: I got plenty. Ain't done yet, but looking back, I wished I'd had done, I wish I'd had done it a little different.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, hindsight's always twentytwenty. Always twentytwenty. You gotta look at it too as, you know, not saying any of the decisions you made were mistakes, but mistakes often do lead you to where you are. That's right.
• 53:29
  You learn more in your losses than you do in your wins. Same. Amen. You know, you may not be where you are today if you would have went that other route.
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: You not have.
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: End a different story. So You
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: don't know. You never know what he's got in mind.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: You're right. Right? You know,
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: you never know. But that that would probably be the biggest thing. Advice.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: Good advice.
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: And take advantage of those opportunities. You know? You go, man, I can't go there. I can't go on that trip. I need to do this.
• 53:52
  But Mhmm. Care of your business, but same time Enjoy it. Enjoy it. Go out there and see what
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: things can. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Well, Jimbo, thank you so much for making the trip over to hop on the DU podcast.
• 54:03
  Happy. It's always, like I said, a fun time to sit down with you because normally it means it's hunting season, but also just to be able to hear what you have to say about scenarios or what you've been through or anything like that. I always enjoy it because you always take time and you're you're as good as gold. So we
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: appreciate you. We appreciate
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: you at Ducks Unlimited for what you do for conservation and caring about our future for waterfowl and wetlands. Thank you for everything that you do for us. Also, we want to thank Chris Isaac and also thank you for joining the Ducks Unlimited podcast. Y'all take care and God bless. How was that?
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: That was great.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: Wonderful.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks. Do you wanna do the quick little intro?
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: You did push. On today's You did push the record button. Right?
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: Run it back. Run it back.
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: That was really good, though. Crap.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: That was I enjoyed that. That was a lot of good stuff too that I think a lot of people enjoy with that.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Can you give me just a quick hand today's episode with Jimbo Ronquist talking hunting and decoys?
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: And You want me looking straight ahead?
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Let me get tighter.
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: I thought you watched that clock trying to stay on that hour time I knew what you're doing. I looked at time to myself.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I saw you. You a bottomland tree stand?
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm a tree
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: remember old red duck blind?
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I tell you one of other favorites, hunting in a old brushed up line. Foliage.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: Foliage looks good. I ain't gonna lie. Especially this time of year. It looks really good.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Whenever you're ready, sir.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Hey everybody. Today on the Ducks Unlimited podcast, we have joining us Jim Ronquist. He's going to be diving into tips, tricks, and also giving us all things waterfowl knowledge. So stay tuned to the Ducks Limited podcast, and we'll be right with you. I don't like that.
• 56:15
  What do you want? What Shorter. Shorter? Yeah. Okay.
• 56:20
  Hey, everybody. Today on the Ducks Unlimited podcast, we have joining us mister Jim Ronquist that is gonna be taking time to talk with us about all things waterfowl. Y'all stay tuned. No. No.
• 56:44
  That's too high.
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: Hey, everybody. Today on the duck submitted podcast, we have joining us, Mr. Jim Ronquist. He's gonna be diving into all things waterfowl. He's gonna share some stories with us, also some tips and tricks, so y'all stay tuned to the Ducks Limited podcast.
• 56:59
  You're welcome.