Latest / DuckFellas Podcast / DuckFellas Episode 29 — Declining Duck Numbers and CRP's Role

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DuckFellas Episode 29 — Declining Duck Numbers and CRP's Role · DuckFellas Podcast

3:02
Welcome back to the Duckfellas Podcast, episode 29. And once again,
3:07
just me and old Zachy boy.
3:10
Hey, a couple guys got to keep the train rolling because obviously two others can't hang.
3:15
Yeah, no kidding. What is up with those guys? Oh, although Austin does have an excuse this week.
3:21
Understandable. Understandable. Yeah, yeah.
3:24
But old Cade, man, he's just always dodging us. Dude, you know what?
3:29
I'm about to call him Frosted, as flaky as he is.
3:32
Absolutely absolutely well what have you what have you been up to for the past
3:38
couple weeks oh man we're you know we're gonna talk about it a little bit let's cast here but,
3:43
kind of get some shit moved in you can see i'm outside uh sitting on the deck
3:48
of the new place overlooking rolling hills of god's country in southern iowa we're gonna,
3:54
get ready to spray some grass, plant some switch,
3:58
or some CRP and some natives.
4:01
Rabbits ran through the yard. My beagle's about ready to screw that thing up.
4:07
And spending more money than I make, if that's the best way to put it.
4:11
Aren't we all at this point in time? It's tough out here for some guys.
4:15
Speaking of CRP, that's going to be a big topic of ours today that we're going
4:20
to talk about, as well as we're going to touch on these duck numbers that just
4:23
came out. and they don't look very good again.
4:28
I suppose that depends on which side of things you are.
4:32
If you're a weekend hunter or a serious hunter or you want to sit on Facebook
4:36
and bitch type of hunter.
4:39
Well there's a little bit of truth to that i mean if you if you're looking at
4:43
it from a conservationist standpoint,
4:45
they just don't they're they're looking worse and worse every year it seems
4:49
like seems like it's always bad news nowadays,
4:52
yeah if you're looking at it that way it's it's bad if you look at it from year
4:56
to year right obviously some numbers are up but if you look at it from uh from
5:01
an actual i don't want to call them actual hunter right but like a a guy that hunts quite a bit.
5:06
The numbers are just numbers.
5:09
Yeah, yeah. I mean, numbers are numbers. If that's the best way to word it,
5:13
right? Like, yeah, I mean, numbers go up, numbers go down.
5:17
But we'll get into that a little bit. I'll throw some shade at somebody, I'm sure, so.
5:22
Absolutely, we got to at some point.
5:25
Got to keep it real. Well, this is the week. We're going to close the giveaway.
5:29
It is officially closed, and we're going to give away these two Alps layout
5:34
blinds that have been up for bid here.
5:37
Woo! Let's go.
5:40
I love it. I love it.
5:42
We had a fair amount of entries, not a ton, but not like nobody.
5:46
So, but hey, it's a free blind. I don't really care. Just time to get rid of
5:50
them. And they're not old, but we're just moving on to something different.
5:54
And I figured instead of selling them, might as well just give them away to some people.
5:57
Absolutely. Get some guys, get some, you know, adult assess,
6:00
make more duck hunters. So I need some guys involved that need some blinds.
6:04
There we go. A hundred percent.
6:07
I just spun the wheel and I have a list here. And the first winner is number
6:13
10. So that would be Rathams01 from Instagram that commented.
6:19
I will shoot a message out to the winners and...
6:24
Go from there, obviously. Hopefully they respond. If they don't respond,
6:28
then we will re-spin the wheel next time and redraw that winner.
6:34
Can you pull that up real quick on Instagram? I'm trying to pull it up here,
6:37
but I want to see what his comment was. I'd like to know what his duck was.
6:43
100% I'm working on it.
6:46
His comment was a mallard. It was his dream bird to kill. Mallard?
6:51
Hasn't killed a mallard yet?
6:53
Hell right, man. You know what? Good, good.
6:57
We're getting some guys in here that want to kill the duck that we're all chasing, right? I mean.
7:02
Absolutely. I mean, I think that's kind of a pinnacle bird.
7:06
Tyler's boat is the mallard boat. I got told I wasn't allowed to shoot a diver
7:10
because we only hunt mallards.
7:13
Well, right. Yeah, that's what we're out there to kill. We're in the boat. So, good for him. Glad.
7:20
Hope he gets that mallard this year. if you need some help getting that mallard,
7:24
get a hold of Tyler and myself I'm sure we can work something out if you're
7:27
in the states and around Iowa or something like that we can help you get a mallard,
7:31
absolutely and you know I did just send him a message on Instagram so if you
7:37
are listening to this podcast tomorrow whenever it comes out on all platforms,
7:42
make sure you check your DMs I sent you a message and you should have it,
7:48
we'll go ahead and spin the wheel here again for the next blind.
7:53
This is for anyone that's under 18. So you have pretty strong odds of winning this one.
7:58
Let's see. And spit. This one's also one from Instagram.
8:05
It is Life of Murphy's Outdoors. And I remember them commenting just the other day.
8:13
Three days ago they commented. And they said they are new to duck hunting.
8:17
So any legal bird would be fine. But they would also love to get a mallard.
8:22
You know what? That's great. And Life of Murphy Outdoors, if you're listening,
8:27
we would love some engagement you know you're new to it you're new to duck hunting
8:31
we were all new to duck hunting at some point how there might not have been
8:34
he came out of the womb calling ducks like a champ,
8:37
i'm i you know i'm new as a as a five six years ago so we all got goals i'm
8:42
glad that it's a mallard that was that was mine for a long time yeah i'm glad
8:47
it's going to somebody's getting into it wanting to get into the sport,
8:50
absolutely you know it's really cool that you know they're they're just getting
8:53
into it i know they they said they had,
8:56
kids you know that were also getting into it that's why i put them in the under
9:00
18 drawing so it's cool to see new people getting into it and wanting to start
9:06
this or do some of this hunting and get into the sport that we all love,
9:11
and you know the fantastic thing is if you get addicted to duck hunting early
9:15
you can't afford drugs so.
9:20
You know would you rather your kid be a duck hunter or drug dealer and here we are so,
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congrats to the two winners and yeah let's get some get some hunting done like
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i said i'm sure we were we'd be able to help or point some guys in the right
9:34
direction if if you guys are looking for some knowledge or anything if you're
9:37
around the iowa area let me know,
9:40
Whatever just happened there, you sounded like a robot. You're in that a little bit there.
9:44
Is it better now? Yeah, you're good now. The satellite must have been.
9:50
Yeah, satellite doing satellite stuff. Damn Starlink. Life of Murphy Outdoors
9:54
did just message me, or reacted to my message, so they got that.
9:58
Fantastic. Like I said, to the other winner, didn't really have a real name
10:03
name, but Ratham's, actually it says Rudolph on here, Ratham01.
10:08
Make sure you do check your DMs and you get back to us and we can figure out
10:12
a way to get you your new blind. That's something you don't want to miss out on.
10:17
Nope, absolutely. Congrats, Buck T.S. And let's kill some ducks this fall, huh?
10:22
Get these boys some mollies. Yeah, heck yeah. Let's get to it.
10:27
Yeah, so now that the giveaway is done, we will have to figure out something
10:31
else to do later on down the line as it gets closer to season here.
10:36
Maybe some decoys or something like that. Yeah, I think I know a guy.
10:40
We could probably get maybe a dozen decoys, do a giveaway, decoys and rigs.
10:46
Get some guys rigged up for the season. We are blue collar. We can't really
10:50
afford to give away a gun yet.
10:53
We can get you closer to the actual decoys. And, you know, you got the blind.
10:57
So hopefully one of you guys maybe want some decoys.
11:01
So, what, bags of corn? Yep, bags of corn.
11:06
Should have gave away corn seed. They could have planted their own corn. Damn it.
11:10
Oh, man. Well, let's get into it this week. You know, duck numbers are something
11:15
that had been hot topic also with the whole flooded corn debacles and all that stuff going on.
11:22
But, I mean, in reality, duck numbers are the biggest one because no matter
11:26
if you have flooded corn, you don't have flooded corn.
11:28
If you don't have ducks, you don't have ducks. You're not going to kill any.
11:31
Absolutely. But you also have to look at, if you don't have ducks,
11:35
you don't have ducks. You're right.
11:37
But I'd like to test the validity of these duck numbers as well.
11:43
Which we can't, we, we can't work. We're taking it for a face, for face value.
11:48
Right. But obviously there's no way to know for sure, you know,
11:53
but I don't, I mean, it does seem like, like, well, for example,
11:57
my, I grew up in Southern Illinois.
11:59
It used to be awesome hunting. We used to kill the shit out of birds.
12:02
But nowadays, you know, I still talk to my dad pretty much every week during
12:06
waterfowl season and they just don't get the birds period. Like they don't see,
12:10
a fraction of the ducks that we used to see.
12:13
So, I mean, there's that, and that's not just there. It's many other areas in the country.
12:19
Report that. Hey, you muted yourself there, bud. There you go.
12:23
Yeah, I think, I mean, I think Doug numbers are going to fluctuate,
12:26
obviously, but I can't speak for anything before five years ago.
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But I've seen, I mean, what I thought were good years.
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And then I've seen a couple like what I could consider actual good years.
12:39
And I've seen a couple that are kind of shit. And I don't know if you can contribute that to,
12:45
actual brood, like this is what came out, or if you can contribute that to,
12:52
like we talked about, flooded corn, or if you can contribute that to the habitat,
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or they just don't want to be in the area, or what it is.
12:58
But either way, they put out these numbers every year.
13:02
And if you looked, mileage are up, finnails are up, teal are down,
13:07
right? Blue wing was down, if I remember right.
13:09
So blue wing we're down, but green wing we're up.
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Which, we're in Iowa. Our blue wing kind of look like brown turds flying to the sky.
13:19
But, you know, it's one of those deals where we've always shot a lot of teal,
13:24
early season especially, you know, get the dogs out, get them freshened up.
13:28
And, yeah, it's nice to see, again, going off the numbers specifically.
13:32
It's nice to see mallard numbers up, nice to see pintail numbers up.
13:36
Absolutely. You know, and, and one thing to take into account is this is,
13:39
this is like the breeding duck survey, right?
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Like this is what they're, they're seeing in the pothole region now.
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So there's another survey, a waterfowl survey that comes out in the fall or,
13:50
you know, close to the fall and like whatever.
13:53
But so hopefully with, you know, the year before and years prior here recently,
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we've had a lot of dry years.
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So the prairie potholes have dried up, a lot of wetlands have dried up and also,
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you know there might be water when the birds get back there,
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to the breeding grounds and then you know they don't get any rain it dries up so,
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hopefully with it being a wet year and last year was a
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pretty wet year for like north dakota and south dakota and i know this year
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canada's been getting quite a bit of precipitation and things are looking better
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they're not where they need to be in canada but they're getting there,
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hopefully we see a good hatch this year and then see a turn in the trend that we've been seeing here.
14:37
Yeah, it seems like the last couple of years that's been, you get a heavy rain
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and then it just kind of droughts out.
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So I'm hoping that these cells or these storms that we've been getting,
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I mean, really the past month and a half, it's just been constant moisture,
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which is good for everything.
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As long as it's not a hard crack.
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As long as it's not like a dully washer rain, right? you get some nice rains
15:00
that fill up potholes and fill up these goalies and cricks and everything else that, you know.
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Hopefully, if nothing else, it gives them the water to kind of survive that hatch.
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You know, I feel like if we get a lot of water where they hatch and then we
15:14
drought it, not that we, you know what I mean, but where it droughts out and
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shit dries up and then a lot of the hatch dies off.
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So hopefully we got some good survivors out of it.
15:26
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, to put it into perspective, like last year on this
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survey, we were at 2.6 and a half ducks, million.
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And now this year they're recording 2.4, so it's a 10% drop from last year's,
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from what they recorded.
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From the long-term average, the long-term mean, you know, I think it's over...
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From like 1945 or something like that. We're looking at only like a 3% drop,
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but there is, we've had years like this in the past where we went through a
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downward trend and had really bad numbers.
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And then, and I think that was part to do with over harvest back in the day
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because I don't think there was any regulations on them.
16:06
I think a lot of it's to do with over harvest, but I also call me a hippie or
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whatever you want, but I also think there's a part of mother nature that just
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knows, you know what I mean?
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Shit changes and mother nature plays its course yes yes and i think you'll see
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these jobs and you'll see them rise again and it's it's yeah it's just gonna
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be a vicious cycle and obviously anything that we can do personally to help is only gonna help it,
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i mean we i mean we do lose habitat every day we lose more and more habitat
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because obviously you know people are spreading out building homes or cities
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are expanding and stuff like that that,
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do take away from the crp land or the pothole regions or just you know hunting areas that people hunt,
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i think a lot of it gets a lot of the blame gets put on the farmers and and,
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i'm not saying they don't take away certain habitat but you can't put this on the farmers it's,
17:01
a lot of those guys are still on the ground that they've had for how many years
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a lot of it's you get these big cities and they start here and then all of a sudden they just,
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we talk about how much habitat gets lost with apartments and strip malls and
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gas stations and all this shit, you know.
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Our numbers are growing as people.
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And so that's going to naturally decrease the amount of habitat we have.
17:25
Absolutely. I mean, look at where we live. Look at Des Moines area and look
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how big Des Moines has blown up in what, 10 years, 15 years from what it was. I mean, it's huge.
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Another five, you're almost going to consider, you know, Indianola,
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which is, I don't know how many miles, you know, 15 miles out of Des Moines.
17:43
You're almost, you can consider that part of Des Moines in the next 10 years. Right.
17:48
But, I mean, we'll kind of start with Mallard's here because that's my favorite
17:53
duck. And I feel like for the mass majority— Mallard king, right?
17:59
Shut up. Not a Mallard king. Mallard purist. Purist. Purist.
18:03
That's the best way to put it up. Yeah, purist.
18:07
But, I mean, honestly, the Mallard is like the most popular duck people are
18:10
going out there for and trying to kill. It is.
18:15
You were wrong earlier when you said it's the quote-unquote pinnacle, right?
18:19
When I first started duck hunting,
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I was like, damn, I would just love to kill a beautiful greenhead.
18:25
Because that's what you think about when you think of duck hunting.
18:28
It's a Drake Mallard. It's really the face of the ducks nowadays.
18:33
Well, Big River Ammunition here says Spoonies greater than Mallard,
18:37
which is always a hot topic on the Spoonies.
18:40
They all taste the same, brother. And I appreciate you for saying it.
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But really, I mean, if you think about duck hunting and people post,
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like when people make logos or graphics on waterfowl hunting,
18:51
it's generally a mallard.
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I mean, that's just how it is. I think there's two ducks that really define,
18:58
I don't want to say define,
19:00
but for lack of a better term, that define like when you look at the face of
19:04
duck hunting and it's a drake web duck and a drake mallard.
19:10
Jake Wood Ducks are beautiful. They have, you know, obviously the coloration
19:13
is awesome. And the Drake Mallard is like the.
19:18
God dang it. I have no idea where you're going with this. Yes,
19:22
you do. Yes. What's that TV show? Right. Like it's it's.
19:26
Which TV show? There's there's a few of them. Mojo Outdoors. Nope. No.
19:33
Uncle Cy. Come on. Oh, Duck Commander. Duck Commander.
19:37
Right. Like it's it's it's focused. and all of us are focused around this drake
19:41
mallard and that's fantastic because it's a beautiful duck so i hope,
19:47
that all these guys get to shoot that drake mallard and get you know i've got
19:50
two i've got two coming back here this month that are they're going on the wall
19:54
because it was it's what you want to shoot as when you're getting into duck
19:57
hunting that's what you think of,
20:00
you know what is it are beautiful but it's weird how it kind of evolves have
20:06
you not noticed to yourself evolving of, I want to shoot a Drake Mallard.
20:10
And now it kind of like, you've shot the Drakes. We can kill the Drakes. We can kill the hens.
20:16
And, you know, but now you can have certain ducks. You're like,
20:20
I love a Drake Mallard, but I would love to kill a full plume black duck.
20:26
Nah, I still want to kill a Drake Mallard. Oh my God, you're so full of shit.
20:31
All right, let's get into some numbers here. So, the mallards this year,
20:35
the continental population is stable.
20:37
I mean, it's right around that 6.5 million mark, but it still remains like almost
20:43
20%. I think it's 15% to 20% below the long-term average, which is a big drop in mallards.
20:52
It is. Do you think, we're going to side-pot that for a second,
20:57
do you think that has anything to do with the stuff that's going on in Arkansas
21:00
with the cypress trees and loss of habitat and vegetation and everything like that?
21:07
No, I don't. I mean, does it apply to an effect of how they kill their birds?
21:16
Yeah. And like how many, like where they go?
21:18
Yes. Like the habitat. So to put it this way, look at the year we had the flood
21:23
here in our area and how many ducks we had around that year.
21:26
I mean, it was insane. We don't, we don't ever get that many ducks around.
21:30
So I wasn't hunting, so I don't know. Yeah. Well, cause you're a loser. Whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa.
21:37
Ray's different But yeah The water Like waterfowl Adapt And they will go to where,
21:43
They will just go to where I mean they can see that stuff They don't just Magically
21:47
appear there One don't They don't send a text out And say hey there's a lot
21:50
of water here It's awesome habitat here Come here They can see it That's what we do We do Oh,
22:00
Really, it all boils down to where, I mean, this time of year and how well the
22:04
hatch goes and what places get birds.
22:07
Obviously, weather plays a part of it, and then there's also just your natural
22:11
migrations. I mean, there's been days where I'm hunting and it's hotter than
22:15
hell and we get a bush of ducks just because of the moon phase and time of year. Yeah.
22:22
I would be curious to know, I mean, obviously, you can't, I try not to argue
22:27
with duck numbers, But like we just, you just talked about with the habitat
22:31
and ducks kind of realize where to go.
22:33
Do we get into a habit as people of just going to surround us,
22:38
right? We have a giant lake. You just go right there.
22:41
But really, it's kind of shifted. So there's more ducks in areas versus where
22:45
you're counting and all that.
22:48
Oh, absolutely. I mean, some people, like look at, you can go to Louisiana and
22:53
think about all the places that people hunt because their great grandfather hunted there.
22:56
You know they hunt the same spot like it's the birds are gonna it's gonna vary
23:00
year year to year on a on a weather standpoint when it comes to not just how
23:05
cold it is and snow they get but rain they get in the spring and the fall leading to that year,
23:10
yeah i mean so it essentially weather does play a part in pretty much everything,
23:16
but in all aspects not just snow and cold.
23:22
I don't know. It's crazy the change that just rainfall can have on a migration.
23:29
Oh, when we have, you know, and obviously we can only speak for,
23:33
or I can only speak for what's right here around us.
23:36
It's when you have those rains in the fall or late summer and you get those
23:40
potholes to fill up, it's like, holy shit.
23:43
We have a pile of ducks.
23:46
Oh, it gives them more habitat to spread out in. Exactly. So I'd be curious,
23:50
you know, obviously, I have to shout out Woody Creek, Brett Henderson,
23:56
however you want to word it.
23:58
When them duck numbers come out, you know, guys that don't kill are going to
24:01
bitch, and killers are going to kill either way.
24:05
Well, absolutely. I mean, if you're diehard into it, you're going to go to the
24:10
places, you're going to put in the work, you're going to scout,
24:12
and you're going to find them if you have the means to find them,
24:16
you know, and you're willing to do it.
24:19
Some people can't do that some people are just limited to what they can hunt
24:22
like I was going with Louisiana and going to the same spot or on the Mississippi
24:26
River they have big duck blinds that are permanent you know,
24:31
you can't limit that to what they're allowed to find or hunt,
24:37
I don't want to call it lazy that's a bad way to word it but they get comfortable,
24:41
comfortable we have this blind, we have this farm, it's alright no ducks here
24:46
no row Who changed, habitat changed.
24:49
People are content. And that's fine. I'm not dogging nobody for me content where you hunt.
24:55
But don't come to me and say you hunt a private club and there ain't no ducks,
25:00
and bitch about it. If you're not willing to put it in any more effort than
25:04
driving 10 minutes down the road, going to a private blind.
25:07
Right. No, yeah, for sure.
25:10
Yeah, it's just part of it. So there's killers will be killers and hunters will
25:13
be hunters and warriors will be weekend warriors. years.
25:19
What other, I did want to touch on, because obviously there's some golden,
25:23
if you want to call it, I'm going to call it golden ducks, right?
25:26
So a lot of guys, I know you're not one of them, but pintails,
25:31
pintail numbers were up.
25:33
I don't know, you know, last year, or the numbers before these past numbers,
25:37
pintails were down, right?
25:41
They, I don't think those, I think pintails were down and then they kind of came up this year.
25:46
They're definitely up this year. Pintail are up 24% this year from last year,
25:52
but they're down 31% from the long term. Which is, when did that start?
25:59
1945 or so. Yeah, I mean, besides yourself, a lot of us, I would love to have
26:06
a beautiful sprig up on the wall.
26:08
So it's nice to see if those numbers are accurate and everything else,
26:12
it's nice to see the pintails are up.
26:14
But, you know, Canvas, I know, I think Canvas were down this year, actually.
26:21
So with Canvas Back? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Canvas Back are 32% down.
26:26
Yeah, they're way down. I was like, I thought it looked, remember,
26:28
and seeing they were way down.
26:30
But Canvas Back do fluctuate a lot,
26:33
and I'm not sure why, but Canvas Back fluctuate a lot and always have.
26:37
Like, they're only 2% down from, you know, on the long term.
26:41
That's it. After this year, these numbers, and they're only 2% down from the 40s?
26:45
Yep. One thing, one number you'll be shocked by is the redhead.
26:49
It's 6% down from last year, but it's 118% up from the long-term average.
26:55
That's the biggest increase on all of them. Holy shit.
26:58
Yeah, they're doing good.
27:01
Oh, you know what that means from the boat?
27:04
Redheads are fair game. Yeah, yeah.
27:08
I think I've shot my redheads goose hunting fields over ponds than I ever have
27:12
hunting lakes or rivers.
27:15
Well, we don't ever hunt. When we hunt a lake, we don't hunt spots where you're
27:18
necessarily going to kill redheads. No, but.
27:24
When I started out, it was like, I shot this redhead over a goose spread,
27:28
and they're like, it's a redhead duck.
27:31
It was like, I'm holding it, I'm like, ooh, cool.
27:35
And it's weird the amount of redheads I see goose hunting cornfields,
27:41
especially with ponds in them, versus...
27:45
You know, duck hunting out of the boat. It's like, I don't really see any redheads.
27:49
Right. Like Chris said, like canvas backs were up last year as well.
27:53
Or, yeah, they were up last year or something like that. I don't know.
27:58
Oh, pintails, I think he's always talking about, were up last year as well.
28:01
You know, and he said, if you believe the numbers, which in all reality,
28:06
so there's probably better ways to record the numbers nowadays than what they do.
28:13
But if they change the way they do it it will mess up the entire long term mean
28:18
and average and everything so they gotta kind of be consistent on how they do it,
28:22
because if they do it now and it shows like way more ducks than last year or,
28:28
what has been shown on record period,
28:30
then the average is gonna be the whole graph will be messed up you know what
28:34
I mean so they gotta kind of go off the same thing technology's approved there's,
28:38
better ways to do it I almost guarantee it but they kinda gotta stick with how
28:42
they're doing it I mean, short of asking the ducks how many are with them,
28:46
you got to kind of stay where you're at, which,
28:49
like we've talked about before in previous episodes, it's not that we necessarily agree with the numbers.
28:53
It's not, you know, it is what it is, but those are the numbers that everybody
28:57
sees. So that's what everybody goes off of. So that's what we kind of roll off of.
29:01
Yeah, you got to take them with a grain of salt, right? Like,
29:03
we know they're not 100% true.
29:06
They never will be, no matter how you do it, because there's just no way of
29:10
doing that unless you put a tracker on every single bird out there.
29:15
It is what it is. It's what we have to work with. It's kind of what we go off
29:17
of. It's what we've gone off since we started making these numbers up, however they do it.
29:22
But one that I'm surprised by is the blue-winged teal being down so much.
29:28
I have too. I mean, obviously I can't speak for the rest of the country because
29:33
I haven't looked into their seasons, but it almost seems like,
29:36
I mean, we have that early split,
29:37
and it's just I know more and more guys are like, I ain't going out.
29:41
It's hot. We don't run the dogs. It's hot. We don't want to.
29:44
I'm not putting on waiters. It's hot. So it's weird for me that the teal is down.
29:50
Well, and you know, they started that early teal season partly due to the fact
29:55
of blue-winged teal because they were doing so well and there were so many of
29:58
them. And there still is a ton of them. If you compare them to the green-winged
30:01
teal, way more blue-winged teal.
30:04
Oh, yeah. But I'll be curious if they keep trending down like they are and have
30:08
been if they end up eliminating the early teal season if the blue-winged teal
30:14
numbers keep declining.
30:16
I might piss some people off here in Iowa, but I hope they do.
30:20
I like it, you know. How many times have you hunted in the past three years?
30:24
I hunted every year, usually. Oh, it doesn't have been last year.
30:28
Well, I was in Michigan, a little farther away. But I generally do go out.
30:33
And these excuses roll in. Yeah, shut up.
30:36
It's fun to get out and go do that, though, in September. You know,
30:39
it gets you kind of like, Because you're obviously itching to go all year long
30:43
after, after, you know, for me, it takes about a week after hunting season,
30:46
like, oh, I miss it again.
30:49
So I enjoy getting to go out. It's more of a, like a little dust off or get
30:53
your shooting back in line and have fun, go do what you like to do.
30:57
But I won't be surprised if, if eventually it does go away, if the numbers keep declining.
31:03
Yeah. I mean, speaking for myself and not everybody else, I wouldn't be upset
31:08
if it won't. I don't, I don't do a lot of early teal.
31:11
I think there's a handful. I don't want to say a lot by any means,
31:15
but I think there's a handful of irresponsible hunters that shoot rainbow Teal early.
31:22
And honestly, I think.
31:25
I would rather sit over a dove plot and kind of sharpen your shooting skills
31:29
with some dove hunting and having a couple barley pops and talk with buddies
31:34
versus sitting over water running my dog when,
31:37
you know, we got itch weed and we got swimmers itch and shit like that.
31:41
I wouldn't have still that hot.
31:43
Right. And, you know, it's all part of it.
31:46
But I could see it going away also due to that reason of how many wood ducks
31:51
and shovelers get killed during teal season or people that kill local mallards
31:55
that just don't care, you know.
31:57
But it all goes back to our episode, what, 34 weeks ago where it comes to duck
32:02
identification. Right.
32:05
I can't blame a guy because I've been there. You start and you have no idea
32:09
what you're looking at besides a flying bird. I can't.
32:12
And for us in Iowa, an early season woody is not that much different than a teal.
32:17
Like, it's a little bigger, but it's tough to identify. So I can't blame the
32:23
guys that do it. Or I blame the guys that do it intentionally,
32:27
not the guys that do it accidentally.
32:29
Yeah, I mean, mistakes are going to happen. We're all human.
32:31
I mean, whether you just act, I mean, it's sometimes going to be a total mistake
32:36
when you kill a shoveler. Because shovelers do mix in with the teal.
32:40
It can be, but don't post it on Facebook. But Muzz top, no, I'm kidding.
32:46
Don't do that. I mean, Drew Purcell here is like, you can tell. And you definitely can.
32:51
For the guy that does this all the time, I can generally tell.
32:55
There's times where I'm like, oh, here comes some. And then it's like,
32:57
oh, shit, that's a wood duck. My bad.
33:01
I mean, for guys that are just getting into the sport, it's going to happen
33:05
where you're going to mess up.
33:07
I mean, all I can say is if you're a new hunter and you're getting into this,
33:10
like some of our people that entered in the giveaway here, is make sure you,
33:14
really study the duck identification pages and kind of learn what the wing colors are on them.
33:22
Because that's one of the biggest giveaways is their wings or like a wood duck
33:25
has a square tail, you know, stuff like that.
33:28
It's definitely, you know, the wings and the neck is a big one for me.
33:32
That's where I kind of started learning.
33:35
I mean, a wood duck body, neck, head is a little different than a teal, the neck, the head.
33:43
And that's where I just don't have the eyes to pick out the wing color.
33:47
But I started looking at the way they fly and what it looks like from the wings
33:52
forward. Then I'm like, nope, that's a woody.
33:54
Right. And there's multiple ways to skin a cat. yeah i mean there's other ways
34:00
to figure it out again you're only gonna learn by doing it like i can tell you,
34:06
i can tell you much i'm a dipshit but i can tell you how to skin a cat but you're
34:10
only gonna know how to skin a cat once you do it you know what i mean right,
34:15
i'm not dogging nobody for accidentally shooting some if i might get a lot of
34:20
hate for this if you accidentally shoot a.
34:25
Fucking breast it out and shut your mouth. Right. And, and, you know,
34:28
Chris says another thing about the head bob and the tail.
34:31
So, yeah, I mean, when they're flying, he's like, he said he can generally tell
34:35
once they hit around that 50 yard mark, you know, when you see that head bob,
34:38
and you know, it's a wood duck and you can tell by the tail.
34:41
Those are two dead giveaways for.
34:43
But that depends on, that depends on flight pattern too. I've been on hunts early season.
34:48
They come off a roost pond and they just come straight at you over a feed pond.
34:54
And they come dick around first thing in the morning before they go feed,
34:57
tell me the difference between a teal and a wood duck coming straight at you
35:00
at 40 yards, at 30 yards off the ground.
35:06
It can be tough. It can be tough. I'm not saying it's not possible.
35:08
I'm just saying it can be tough for those guys that aren't experienced.
35:12
And I'll tell you this. If you do make the mistake during early teal season,
35:17
just don't up to it. You know, don't if you try to hide it,
35:22
I'm not saying call the DNR and own up to it right away. Do you on that perspective.
35:28
But don't stomp it in the mud. Just take it with you. If the game wardens are just, yeah, I messed up.
35:34
Most of the time, generally, if you're honest with the guy, because half the
35:38
time those guys are watching with binoculars or they're putting around in their
35:40
boat watching what's going on,
35:43
if you're honest with them, you have a better chance of getting a warning and
35:46
telling them you made a mistake and it just happened.
35:51
You have a better chance of getting a warning than an actual ticket.
35:54
My opinion is obviously people make mistakes like you just said,
35:58
but don't waste it. Don't.
36:02
There's a huge difference in shooting something and tossing it versus shooting
36:06
something and breast it out.
36:09
Cook it like it was a teal. Whatever. If you don't get caught,
36:11
great. If you get caught and you have it with you and you're talking about breasting
36:15
it and cooking it for your family,
36:18
like you said there's a very good chance those guys are like alright here's
36:22
the deal we're gonna give you a $40 ticket just don't do it again,
36:26
yeah well you got a better chance for a wanton waste ticket if you stomp it
36:30
in the mud and try and hide it then yep then just getting just getting a you
36:34
know whatever ticket whatever it is for not out of season ticket you know,
36:39
I learned from a very young age is a waste of time line. Because 90% of the
36:43
time when they ask you a question, they know the answer. Right.
36:48
So let's keep rolling here. Now, these duck numbers declining every year,
36:53
it seems like. It seems like we're always doom and gloom.
36:56
What could this mean for future seasons and maybe possible changes coming to
37:00
the regulations at some point? Because we have the adaptive,
37:03
I think it's the adaptive harvest program.
37:05
Yep. and that's how they kind of regulate seasons and figure out if they're
37:08
going to do 60-day, 30-day, or three-duck limit or six-duck limit.
37:12
You know, if we keep declining here, what could this mean? Like,
37:15
at some point, they got to do a shorter season or lower bag limits, right?
37:20
Even though they claim hunter harvest does not affect population.
37:25
Hunter harvest definitely affects population, in my opinion,
37:30
but I could definitely see the under 30 and 3.
37:33
And if that's the case, so be it. Right. Or I live in a state or we live in
37:38
a state that historically been good about deer and everything else.
37:42
So I'd like to think that we're going to keep the waterfowl on that on that
37:46
trail, that same track, whether it goes to 360 or 330 or 630.
37:53
You know, it's just.
37:55
I don't know. Is someone mowing the grass? Oh, no. Somebody's driving by on the gravel road. Oh.
38:01
But, yeah, I don't know. I honestly don't know.
38:05
I would hope that when it comes to it, we get the ISC involved,
38:08
we get the Delta involved, we get the NBDU. But we get Delta, we get ISC.
38:12
We kind of get them involved in discussing numbers and what we're seeing.
38:17
Yeah, because we should have a say in what goes into.
38:20
I would not personally be upset with a 6-30.
38:25
It's a six-day, 30-day. Or a six-a-day, 30-day.
38:29
When they decide to take it to a three-day, 30-day, then I might as well do this.
38:33
You got to do what's best for the resources, not what's best for you or your comfort, right?
38:38
Right. I mean, obviously we're all out here to, we all go out to have fun and
38:42
kill our birds and go home and enjoy what we're doing.
38:46
It's a blast to do to go waterfowl hunting. It's probably the most fun hunting
38:50
I've ever done in my life. I've tried deer hunting and pheasant hunting and
38:53
all that stuff and I honestly enjoy waterfowl hunting the most, personally.
38:57
But everybody has their own kit. Time, time.
39:00
I am in touch on that because there's, there's, I talked to so many deer hunters.
39:05
They're like, oh, how do you waterfowl hunt during October and November and
39:10
December? And it's like, there's such a difference.
39:14
I have a thrill about deer hunting.
39:17
I bow hunt deer, love, love deer hunting. You know how many times I bow hunted
39:23
in the morning of October?
39:25
Maybe a half dozen. And I'm 30. You know how many times I love getting up with
39:30
my buddies and fucking cooking breakfast, having an energy drink,
39:35
killing ducks, having a good time on the mornings of October?
39:40
Four. Because that's all Tyler would invite me. But either way, it's a great time.
39:46
Yeah, I know. But I don't invite you because you're annoying sometimes. It's fine.
39:54
But no, It's everybody's got their own cup of tea, right?
39:59
But no matter if they go to a shorter season or we don't change seasons,
40:04
but if they say they go to a 30-3, I encourage everybody that enjoys to do it
40:08
to not give up on the sport because it's going to come back around, right?
40:12
The only reason they would go to a 30-3, and it would be probably for a five-year
40:16
process, is to make the resource better.
40:22
It's all a resource, and we're using the resource.
40:26
But obviously don't give up on it because the more people that give up on it
40:31
then there's less money to go into our sport.
40:34
And the less money, the less birds we're going to have. I mean,
40:36
it takes money to keep these birds going.
40:39
It does. And that's, you know, I don't want to say too much,
40:42
right? Because stuff's in early
40:44
stages, but we're talking about some stuff that's going on here locally.
40:47
The best I can tell all of you that are listening is get involved with your local chapters.
40:52
Whether that involves creating almost a branch of your own that would help that, that would be great.
40:58
For us, me and Tyler, obviously we're talking about kind of creating a branch
41:02
that kind of helps us locally.
41:04
Create habitat for ducks you know
41:07
keeping ducks here whether it's you know we've heard of states that do,
41:11
you can't shoot past three or four whatever it is like i don't disagree with that you you know it's,
41:18
easy now easy now you're gonna upset some people now i'm not i'm not saying
41:24
i can't agree with it i can absolutely agree with all day but i can absolutely
41:29
argue the shut it down at three or four o'clock.
41:32
So that's, that's one thing that I, I would like that. And Todd Copley's in
41:37
here and he, he said the same thing here, stop hunting on public land at 1 PM.
41:41
So where I grew up hunting, that was a thing. Our shooting time ended at one o'clock.
41:46
And I think for our, just our area specifically, you could hunt from 30 minutes
41:53
before sunrise during regular waterfowl season to sunset and that is so hard
41:58
on the birds the stress level on them birds.
42:01
Is intense because there's always somebody out there hunting them no matter
42:05
what or always running around in a boat you know what i mean it's it's non-stop
42:10
bullshit whether it's and i'm not trying to call,
42:14
anybody out by any means because i'm part of that crowd but well absolutely
42:19
we go out and do it too because you can do it you start banging birds at three
42:22
o'clock you start calling like shit at 3 o'clock or you start,
42:26
you know getting birds out of their feeding area at 3 o'clock like,
42:31
You would do so much better if you let them go in for a couple hours before
42:36
dark, feed, relax, then go to their, go to their roosting area and then come back in the morning.
42:41
So I'm not, I'm not disagreeing with what we have, but I could absolutely understand
42:47
why somebody would argue that we should do this.
42:50
Right so and that and once again you know big river ammunitions here is like
42:55
that would be tough to do on the mississippi river it can be but they do
43:00
they do do it in areas down south on the river and then todd said they become
43:05
nocturnal because of the pressure and 100,
43:08
pressure is the biggest reason why birds just don't give a fuck,
43:13
pressure and food.
43:17
And, you know, one thing I've been kind of saying for a while that it's going
43:21
to be hard to do, because, I mean, obviously you have your night shifters that
43:24
want to, or people that work from 7 to 3, and then they get off work and they
43:28
want to go hunting for the last two hours of daylight.
43:32
By all means, it's their right. It's public ground, you know,
43:34
it's legal to do. Go do it. Yeah,
43:36
by all means. Take your time and go out there and try and kill a duck.
43:39
But I would like to see, in our area,
43:44
where they at least shut it down shooting time at 3 o'clock and said you had
43:47
to be off the water by four, and that gives the birds that last hour, hour to hour and a half to,
43:54
get back in their spots, get comfy, have a little bit of fuck-around time.
43:57
Or you could do one or two.
44:00
Give them something to relax and just chill and not be always constantly pressured and pushed.
44:08
You don't even do that for the whole season. You could do that,
44:11
say, the first 30 days of the season.
44:14
And then the last 30 days of the season, on a six-day season,
44:16
obviously let it go from go back to the original rules but give those early
44:21
birds and those early migrators,
44:24
the rest and relaxation that they you know could use to kind of keep them around,
44:29
you would have to do an off the water rule versus no hunting rule,
44:35
only because I think you know we have some guys that would go out I'm not saying
44:40
myself isn't included goodness touch button thing's a joke uh.
44:47
But if you go out and, yep, we're done hunting it too.
44:51
Oh, but now we're going to go run this river or this sanctuary or this lake
44:56
or whatever is in your area, and all you're doing is busting ducks up again.
45:01
So I think if instead of the no hunting, you have off the water by three or
45:08
four or two or whatever you decide, then yeah, that would be fantastic for duck
45:14
numbers in our area specifically.
45:17
Right. So Big River just said something. He's like, he said,
45:20
start small and restrict non-resident to a shorter day. You know, I get where.
45:27
I get where you're coming from on that. But what is the non-resident right now? What do you mean?
45:32
You said restrict a non-resident to a shorter day so like,
45:38
kind of like what i'm guessing similar
45:40
to what north dakota does but like restricts their days but like say
45:44
say a non-resident can only hunt from if you're if you're not a resident of
45:47
iowa you can only hunt from half hour before to noon you know something like
45:52
that is what i'm sure they're they're getting at here,
45:55
but i hate i hate the fact that we're having to restrict non-residents in states,
46:01
because it's all one country.
46:02
When we pay federal tax dollars and it goes to Delta or DU for these projects,
46:09
it's not just that one state.
46:13
It's not just that one state putting that money and it's staying there.
46:18
It goes all over the place. And South Dakota already does a lottery,
46:22
which I think there's a couple other states that are really close behind them in doing that.
46:28
A lottery system to get a license, I just hate putting more restrictions like
46:32
that on where the average Joe can go and hunt.
46:36
And there's already restrictions in place for going places.
46:39
So when you start restricting where the guy that wants to go on a hunt once
46:45
in a lifetime hunting trip, that hurts more than just restricting everybody as a whole.
46:53
But that's enough on duck numbers. We are going to talk about non-residents.
46:59
We do need to touch on some grasses, too.
47:03
Yeah. So we are going to touch on an episode here somewhat soon,
47:08
somewhere maybe next week.
47:10
Or not next week, but maybe on the next podcast or a later podcast about non-residents
47:16
and how it's affecting hunting nationwide and through not just here,
47:21
not just our nation, but Canada, too.
47:23
You know, a lot of people come from America or United States and go to Canada and hunt.
47:30
But let's move on and let's move on to just CRP and the land and upland bird
47:36
hunting. How, I mean, how crucial CRP is to not just waterfowl, but also upland birds.
47:44
Yeah. So, I mean, I think we are, we're both on the same boat here on planting
47:49
some native grasses on our home farm. Farm.
47:54
I think there's a lot that's not understood about planting native grasses and,
48:02
native wildflowers and these forbs that come in.
48:07
So if you kind of reduce these grasses that take over and you have some native
48:11
flower forbs, all these birds love it.
48:14
It's wild. The things I've seen,
48:17
that my friends put out, and it's wild the amount of birds we've seen.
48:24
I mean, we saw, I don't want to call it a wetland because it's not,
48:28
but it's all planted in CP25, native grasses to Iowa, right off of Cedar Creek.
48:34
And there's a pile of wood ducks that are having some broods come out.
48:40
And it's wild to see all these little yellow ducklings. And I'm like,
48:46
it kind of started clicking.
48:48
And it's like, all right. So, oh, now we have the grasses and the water.
48:52
And now these wood ducks are habitating here this is awesome to see so now it's kind of,
48:58
you're in the same boat you get a pond you got some area you can plant some
49:02
of that stuff i've i don't have a pond but i got some area you can plant some
49:05
of that stuff and it's like all right we can kind of,
49:09
for lack of a better term control,
49:12
where and how these birds nest.
49:15
Right. So, I mean, when we're talking CRP, a lot of people think CRP is for,
49:20
just pheasant hunting or quail hunting, which, I mean, it plays a major,
49:25
major part in pheasant and quail hunting.
49:27
But it also plays a huge part in just everyday life of waterfowl.
49:33
Because when it comes to the breeding grounds, like, just going to go back to
49:38
my words here because we always talk about my words.
49:41
But they don't, they lay a nest on dry ground.
49:45
So you could have a pothole that's water, but then if that farmer farms all
49:52
the way up to the water, there's not a very good spot for that hen to lay her eggs, right?
49:57
And be also kind of protected from predators. So having a CRP with a pothole
50:04
in it and a wetland, whatever you want to call it,
50:08
provides so much better nesting habitat for them, waterfowl, to do better.
50:14
Without the CRP, I mean, the waterfowl would be hurting even more than they
50:17
are now. And pheasants would be non-existent. We'd have wiped them off the face of the earth by now.
50:22
Yeah, no, it's, you know, like you said, they nest on dry ground. So we have.
50:31
I don't want to call it, I hate to say that farmers plant up to the water,
50:34
but they do, right? And you got to get every acre you can because farming is tough now.
50:39
So, well, I mean, everything's tough. I mean, money's tight for everybody.
50:45
So if we can get...
50:49
Without calling it out, I'm going to call out my two and a half acres.
50:53
We just bought two and a half acres here.
50:55
We go a half acre on the east side. We're going to have a half acre on the west side.
50:58
That's one acre of the two and a half acres we bought that are going to be straight Iowa natives.
51:05
Iowa CP25. Native grasses, native forbs.
51:10
These pheasant and these quail. There's a creek on the east side.
51:16
We've seen wood ducks in these creeks. So these guys nest in this tall grasses
51:21
and these native grasses, because that's what they've had for years,
51:26
years, hundreds of years.
51:29
That's what they're used to. Right. So we get in the talk of,
51:34
what do you have? Oh, you've got three acres.
51:37
Oh, I can't do it. It's three acres. Yes, you can. You can absolutely.
51:42
And I want people to realize, you can actually make a difference with one,
51:47
two, three acres of just nesting habitat for ducks, pheasant, quail, all of it.
51:56
Right. Even if you don't have a pond or a wetland, I mean, every bit of CRP
52:01
ground and, like you said, CP25 or for waterfowl, it's more CP37.
52:07
But they play a crucial role in just everything.
52:11
But without it, you know, the government does pay people to put ground in CRP, which is awesome.
52:17
It's not really much income. It's not a whole lot of pay, but it is something.
52:22
To help out everything that all us hunters enjoy and whole. Not just waterfowlers,
52:27
but deer hunters, you know, pheasant hunters, quail hunters, everybody.
52:32
Helps all of us out. Or even, you know, comes down to rabbits and all that stuff too.
52:37
Yeah. When it comes down to, well, I can't really help X animal,
52:41
whether it's duck or rabbit or deer, whatever you believe, right? We can't help that.
52:45
You can though, because you know.
52:48
The habitat's going away, at least in Iowa. I can't speak for other states.
52:53
Habitat's going away. But we're trying to pass certain bills here and there
52:57
that will help habitat come back.
52:59
And that's, you know, you see the fence lines, a lot of cracks.
53:04
And everybody wants to clear that fence line out. Well, you know what you're
53:07
doing. You're not only getting rid of habitat for quail and pheasant and rabbits.
53:11
You're also getting rid of habitat for wood ducks and shit like that. They use that to nest.
53:19
Yeah, I mean, they obviously need it for just cover for the ducklings,
53:23
you know, whenever a mallard hen or a wood duck or pintail, you know, any of the ducks,
53:31
have a brood in that nest on a CRP ground.
53:35
It helps cover them up from the birds and all that stuff that are the prey.
53:40
And then when it comes to pheasants, you know, pheasants require,
53:43
pheasants, quail, what else was there?
53:47
Grouse, sorry, brain fart. But pheasants, quail, and grouse,
53:51
they all really need the CRP more than anything out there when it comes to birds.
53:57
Because without that, I mean, they're just out there in the open,
53:59
no thermal protection, no protection from birds from above or coons,
54:05
you know, that kind of stuff.
54:07
Yeah it's absolutely it's rough you know as as you guys be getting more involved
54:12
obviously more and more involved with duck hunting there's a aspect of,
54:18
we have nesting structure and then you realize what coons and possums and fox
54:22
do and what you could plant to help us out man,
54:29
if i could advocate for every duck hunter to get a dozen coon cuffs and just start killing coons.
54:36
Absolutely because they're the number one problem that I've seen in the past
54:41
two years it's just they fucking raid nests non-stop so,
54:49
And that is one good thing about Delta is they kind of, you know,
54:53
Ducks Unlimited, I know we've talked bad about them in the past.
54:56
We've talked bad on everything in the past. You might have. I never have.
55:00
Okay. But Delta focuses more on the predators and Ducks Unlimited focuses more
55:07
on wetland restoration and preserving wetlands, which Delta does the same thing as well.
55:12
But I feel like, and it's just factual, they focus more on controlling predators in those set areas.
55:21
I feel like over the past 10 years, the predators have been overlooked.
55:27
It's more about building nesting structure, which is absolutely crucial.
55:32
I'm not taking away from that. Absolutely crucial. But.
55:37
We have to build this, and then
55:38
you don't realize that there's a secondary you have to follow up with.
55:42
We need to do the coons, possums. Like I said, coons, possums, fox, coyotes.
55:48
All of them are nesting predators and it's rough.
55:52
That's where it's hard is trying to convince guys that you have to do you have
55:57
to build the structure and then you have to protect the structure.
56:01
It's just like having a house. Whether you're building a house or you're buying
56:06
a house, you buy the house or you build the house and then you maintain it.
56:10
You can't just buy a house and then say fuck it and not maintain it.
56:13
It's going to go to shit, right? Absolutely.
56:16
So, I mean, it boils down to the people that enjoy doing it.
56:21
And if, even if you don't hunt and you enjoy watching the birds,
56:24
if you don't go the extra mile and, and buy a bird, if you buy a bird stamp to help that $25 goes to,
56:33
helping restore wetlands or keep wetlands or CRP ground, you know,
56:37
that's where that money goes.
56:39
It keeps that resource going without us, well, with the way people wreck land
56:46
and take over land and turn it into a subdivision or whatever it may be.
56:51
Just takes away from the natural resource so yeah we're not asking you to not,
56:58
support ducks we're not asking you to,
57:02
like like you said it's people support red ground because i always can help
57:05
the ducks but there's also another step,
57:09
right it's it's you can support ducks you can help ducks you can help battling up quail,
57:16
but there's also that shit you don't see it's like hey let that guy go coy hunt
57:20
your ground let the guy go go trap your ground and that would,
57:25
triple whatever you're seeing on your property and you know james just made a comment here that that,
57:31
makes a lot of sense you know with the the fur market falling out it puts a
57:35
huge damper and guys knocking down predators because it sucks when when the
57:41
fur market's trash nobody wants to go out there and do it,
57:44
as a trapper i completely understand
57:47
i i mean i still do it right i i still go out i run my trap line,
57:51
catch coons have fox possum whatever you know i'm not gonna tell you the details
57:57
of what i do with all of them but yeah it absolutely sucks because i can tell you it's,
58:03
the fur trade is people look at it and go oh it's just fur oh we can go for
58:10
fur you're right but you don't realize that the fur trade also affects ducks,
58:14
it affects quail, it affects pheasant, it affects fawns, it affects.
58:19
All of these things that people don't realize that it affects.
58:24
Yeah, no, it's a, it's a big thing. You know, it's, it's crazy that.
58:29
Who made that comment? James. James? James. If you're in Iowa, get ahold of me.
58:36
I tan all my fur out and we sell it together and we start making stuff.
58:40
You know why? Because people, for some reason, are way more comfortable buying
58:45
it after it's tanned and off the carcass. So get ahold of me.
58:49
Zach Newendorp on Facebook. There you go.
58:53
But, no, it's crazy how much just a grass field, you know, people will drive
58:57
by and be like, why is it just a grass field?
58:59
But in all reality, it's just helping everything out when it comes to hunting in the outdoors.
59:08
So we have, I don't know if I can show this.
59:12
So it's the house up here. Oh, dude, do you use that swing?
59:17
I do, personally. I don't want to say that, like, the buckle seat in it.
59:22
But up here we have tall grass right we have it the east side and the west side
59:31
of our house i can tell you,
59:34
that quail sit here and whistle on both sides of the house all day it's can
59:40
you that dog yeah no that yeah sounds like she needs water sorry uh.
59:46
So we have we have quail on that side and this side of the house and they both
59:51
have babies so we we put uh i put a collar on my beagle because he had yeah
59:57
he had one baby quail up here next to the back and i said no more,
1:00:02
but what you don't realize is these tall grass it's just grass like it's just
1:00:07
grass they let seed out we're gonna burn it not burn physically like burn it
1:00:12
with chemical this fall after the quill hatch,
1:00:15
and plant both sides and a,
1:00:19
somewhat variation of the CP 25.
1:00:20
We're going to do a heavy native flower with a light native grass,
1:00:28
And the quail that will be in there with those forbs of native flowers is going to be insane.
1:00:36
So for the guys that look at this and go, well, I only got two acres.
1:00:41
Or I only got three acres. I only got five acres.
1:00:44
That's fine. But instead of letting it seed out to grass or hay or whatever,
1:00:50
you can plant this in a way that would make,
1:00:53
a lot of habitat for upland and wetland birds. Absolutely.
1:01:00
100%. I mean, everything helps, makes a big difference when it comes down to it at all.
1:01:06
I mean, ultimately, people that hunt, people that enjoy the outdoors play a
1:01:11
crucial role and play the most important role in how well these birds do and deer and everything.
1:01:18
If it wasn't for the people that are advocating for the ground,
1:01:22
we wouldn't have the resource anymore or we'd have way less than we do.
1:01:26
And it is sad going back to the duck numbers seeing them do terrible but at
1:01:32
the same part Mother Nature plays its courses hopefully,
1:01:36
with the wetter seasons we've been having those numbers start to turn around
1:01:41
sooner than later and we don't have to see cuts in numbers or cuts in seasons,
1:01:47
and all that but I think we're about to wrap this one up here hopefully everybody
1:01:53
that's listening enjoyed this podcast because it's been it's been interesting,
1:01:57
and if you before we close out here if you have a question that you've been
1:02:00
wanting to ask shoot it out there real quick in the live stream and if you're
1:02:04
listening to this podcast on any of the destinations that you we have posted
1:02:10
on it's pretty much on everywhere,
1:02:12
Make sure you, if you want to, you can get on the live stream every Monday or
1:02:16
every other Monday, generally, and you can comment and give us feedback on what
1:02:22
you'd like to hear us talk about or that topic of the day.
1:02:26
You can just bump out some comments and let us know what you think,
1:02:28
what we're talking about.
1:02:30
Yeah, we'd love to hear from you guys on what we should talk about,
1:02:33
what we can talk about, what we shouldn't talk about. Either way.
1:02:37
I mean, we appreciate everybody that tunes in weekly or bi-weekly or just randomly when they can.
1:02:45
It's awesome hearing the feedback because I do get feedback every now and again
1:02:48
from people, and it's great to hear it.
1:02:50
And it's just cool seeing people think. But Big River went back earlier and
1:02:57
said he does agree with us when it comes to being regulated on areas on a federally mandated bird.
1:03:05
You know, it is crazy that non-residents can be limited on certain things compared
1:03:10
to a resident, even though it's a federal bird. Going back to that.
1:03:13
But, hey, it's the things we live in.
1:03:18
And, you know, Chris here said, he's like, I don't need to take six ducks home every time.
1:03:22
And I don't either. And it's fun to kill our six ducks a person,
1:03:27
you know. Or say we got four guys, you're killing 24 ducks. You guys kill six ducks? Yeah.
1:03:33
Yeah, but it makes, it does make it fun.
1:03:37
You know, that's what we all go out for. But at the end of the day,
1:03:40
I'm also going out there just to enjoy being outdoors and just to have a good
1:03:45
time. That's why I don't deer hunt because I hate sitting in a tree by myself
1:03:47
or sitting in the ground by myself. It's boring.
1:03:51
No, I would agree. There's a, there's definitely a piece of sitting in a tree,
1:03:54
sitting by yourself. I've done it. And, but there's also a.
1:03:59
You know camaraderie of sitting in the duck boat with your buddies,
1:04:05
it takes a lot of shit off your chest takes a lot of shit off your mind i truly
1:04:09
do not care if we kill ducks every day,
1:04:12
no i mean it makes it makes it even more fun,
1:04:16
it makes it more fun but i truly like if we kill you get a group a couple you
1:04:21
get a couple groups of teal that's like swinging real fast yeah we're sitting
1:04:25
there bullshitting and it's just like, oh, you get a little excitement, but other than that,
1:04:29
man, we sit there, we cook breakfast, we have energy drinks,
1:04:32
we bullshit, talk about our life problems, it's fantastic.
1:04:38
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, how many times have we sat there and we've had some
1:04:40
teal go ripping through the decoys and be like, wow, that was crazy. And we never even shot.
1:04:46
You know what's wild? It's a lot.
1:04:48
It's a lot because every time last year we were like, oh, pile of teal.
1:04:54
I'm like, nope, we're not shooting teal.
1:04:57
We didn't kill a limit. And then every time we shot one or two teal,
1:05:01
we killed a limit. So it doesn't matter. It truly does not matter.
1:05:06
You get in the boat, you get in the blind, you get in the field,
1:05:08
you get in the layup blunts, whatever it is, get out with your buddies,
1:05:12
fucking hunt, get your shit off your chest, and have a good time.
1:05:16
That's what it's about. It's not about killing. It's not about whatever you
1:05:20
consider ducking to be. It's about, you know, getting out there and getting
1:05:25
with God, getting with your buddies and having a good time.
1:05:30
Absolutely. A hundred percent.
1:05:33
But that's going to wrap up this episode of the Duckfellas podcast.
1:05:38
We appreciate every single one of you guys that have tuned in on this live stream.
1:05:42
And we appreciate every single person that is listening to this podcast on their
1:05:46
preferred podcast destination.
1:05:49
I told him to count carpet fibers. Yeah.
1:05:53
Make sure if you're on this podcast, make sure you like it. Share it.
1:05:58
Not to your friends. Get it out there.
1:06:00
We look forward to growing this podcast as we are getting closer to duck season every single day.
1:06:07
And don't forget to follow those social media accounts and like,
1:06:12
share, all the above. But until next time, we hope you guys have a great time
1:06:18
and enjoy your 4th of July.
1:06:21
Because the next one won't be until after the 4th of July.
1:06:24
So happy 250th.
1:06:27
Can't wait for those stories. Let's go America. And nobody lose a finger.