Latest / Bird Dogs and Big Game / Tyce and his son Crew to talk hunting memories 2022
Transcript
- 0:19Hello everyone.
- 0:20Welcome to the Bird Dog Podcast.
- 0:23Tonight we're sitting down in my basement.
- 0:26I have a bedroom that we have, a bunch of my mounts in.
- 0:29We have, uh, some turkeys and big game mounts all around us.
- 0:33And tonight I have a special person on the podcast, my one and only.
- 0:38One of my most favorite guys in the whole world.
- 0:41That's Crew Erickson, that's my son, my oldest son.
- 0:44As I'm learning and practicing this whole podcast thing, I thought it'd be fun to have him on board and, and kind of get his take and, uh, we'll, we'll kind of play with this and learn together.
- 0:55So thank you for listening to this podcast, and if you heard the first one, I guess thanks again for following us along as we get better at doing this and, uh, and having some fun conversations about bird dogs and hunting and all the things that go, um, go along with that.
- 1:12So, uh, crew, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
- 1:17Um, my name is Kuen, like you heard.
- 1:22My favorite sports are like soccer and stuff, and um, I like to do hunting a lot.
- 1:30Bird dog hunting.
- 1:30It's pretty fun.
- 1:32Yeah.
- 1:33you know how much of a choice your dad being a, a dog trainer, right?
- 1:37So, yeah.
- 1:38Um, how old are you?
- 1:40I'm 11 years old.
- 1:4211 years old.
- 1:43How old were you when you got your hunter safety?
- 1:45Do you remember that?
- 1:46Um, I think I was close to seven or eight.
- 1:52Yeah, I think you were close to, yeah, right around there.
- 1:55His dad, you know, I.
- 1:57Pushed'em as quick as I could.
- 1:59Cause I wanted'em to join me in the field.
- 2:01And so as soon as they could read, um, we, we did the hunter safety, uh, here in Utah, cuz there's not a, there's not an age limit when it comes to.
- 2:10Um, it's a hunting, uh, uh, small game in Utah, hunting birds and, and any, you know, everything minus big game.
- 2:18So, um, him and his sister both did it together and passed with flying colors.
- 2:24Um, you guys, I was a little nervous when you went in and did your, um, I did your written test cause I didn't know if you guys had for sure passed.
- 2:33They didn't let the parents go in to help him out.
- 2:35So I don't Did the instructor help you guys out a little bit or help you understand the questions?
- 2:40Um, from, from what I remember and I am pretty sure they did a little, but other than that it was pretty, yeah.
- 2:50Yeah.
- 2:50We, we had a good instructor.
- 2:52They were, they were pretty cool.
- 2:53And I think they, I think some of the questions might have been kind of hard for you guys.
- 2:58Understand at your age, but he kind of simplified'em, right?
- 3:02He kind of said like, he kind of broke it down, made it easier, and said, Hey, this is, this is, uh, kind of what it means, and then these are the answers.
- 3:09What do you think?
- 3:10Is that kind of what he did?
- 3:11Yeah, yeah.
- 3:12Pretty much.
- 3:13Like, I mean, I can't remember that good, but yeah.
- 3:16When you're eight years old, you can't remember, can't remember a whole lot and.
- 3:21I guess that was, uh, four years ago, right?
- 3:238, 9, 10.
- 3:23No, I guess three.
- 3:25Yeah, three and a half years ago.
- 3:27So this crew will be 12, uh, this September and um, and this is the first year you can put in for big game in the state of Utah too.
- 3:36Yeah.
- 3:36So not only are we avid bird hunters, but we also love to hunt big game that.
- 3:42That's our other thing.
- 3:43We, we, uh, anything outdoors, we love it and love the love hunting and, and, uh, and, and doing that.
- 3:51So what else can you tell us about your crew?
- 3:53Um, anything else you want the audience to know?
- 3:57um, I like to ride a dirt bike.
- 4:00I think that's pretty fun.
- 4:02Mm-hmm.
- 4:02in the summer we go on this track close to our house and my dad, we go do some jumps and stuff and, Go, go around and do that.
- 4:14And fall, go get turkeys yeah.
- 4:19Tell, tell us about your tur crew is quite the Turkey slur.
- 4:22I think he, he shot probably close to many, as many turkeys as I have and, uh, maybe, maybe it's cuz you got an awesome guide.
- 4:30Yeah, probably Yeah.
- 4:34So, um, crew's taken, how many turkeys have you shot?
- 4:38Um, you got one every.
- 4:41Yeah, so I think maybe close, close to eight.
- 4:45I don't know.
- 4:46No, he shot so many can Anyway, Yeah.
- 4:49Can't even keep track.
- 4:50I can't even keep track either.
- 4:53He got, you got a nice Tom last year, right?
- 4:55Mm-hmm.
- 4:56that was picture perfect.
- 4:58You want to kind of tell that story?
- 4:59Um, so we had, we had just packed up there and we had just like got everything like packed up.
- 5:09Like not packed up, but like Got it ready, situated.
- 5:14and then we heard some turkeys over to the left, like kind of behind us.
- 5:18Mm-hmm.
- 5:19And then after we just looked back and then Tom was just right there like, just like full strut.
- 5:26Mm-hmm.
- 5:27and just like picture perfect.
- 5:29Didn't, it was pretty good.
- 5:31Got him.
- 5:32And one shot didn't have to, So, yeah, it was, it was pretty awesome.
- 5:36We, I had scouted this place out and it was close to our home, and we went up there and, uh, and, and got in there before light.
- 5:45Right.
- 5:45And, uh, And didn't know exactly where the birds were roosting, but I knew this, there's kind of a strutting ground.
- 5:53Um, and figured they'd come in there at some point of the day if we were a patient.
- 5:57So I went in the night before and set up, did we or did I set up a blind the night before?
- 6:01Did we set up that morning?
- 6:02Uh, we set up that morning, I'm pretty sure.
- 6:04Yeah, we set up that morning.
- 6:06But we'd, we'd set a blind up there before, so we kind of knew where it was at.
- 6:11And then, uh, man, right at first light, those turkeys started gobbling from the roost.
- 6:16And this is on the youth hunt.
- 6:17So they get about two, two days before, two or three days.
- 6:21I can't remember exactly.
- 6:22I think it's two days before the general season adult hunt starts.
- 6:27And, um, Anyways, that those birds, we, I could hear'em gobbling as it got light.
- 6:33I saw'em, I could see'em back at the top of these trees.
- 6:36And, uh, and they pitched off those trees and came, landed on the backside of the hill that we were on.
- 6:42And, um, and we were watching those hens.
- 6:46Do you remember that the hens came outta the he, yeah.
- 6:48The, the hand side, yeah.
- 6:49Coming out.
- 6:50And then we washed him for quite a bit.
- 6:53And wasn't there another tom with him?
- 6:56He was like a.
- 6:58Jake, or, yeah, I don't, I don't remember that.
- 7:00I remember just seeing, I just remember there were a bunch of hens on that hillside.
- 7:04Yeah, probably I don't think he wanted many other birds around him, but yeah, he was.
- 7:09So we saw those, we saw those hens on that hillside, and then, And then both of us also, we looked down and at our decoys, and we didn't even, he came in so fast on a string.
- 7:21Mm-hmm.
- 7:21he came in and, and, uh, he was full strut right around our Jake Decoy.
- 7:26We had a, we had a Jake.
- 7:28Um, two hens, I'm pretty sure.
- 7:30No.
- 7:31Yeah.
- 7:31Jake and two, hes, we had a hen that was laying down, looked like she was gonna be bred, and then we had another one that was kind of feeding and he thought that Jake was going to take one of his girlfriends and so he came down, was puffed up.
- 7:42And remember what gun you were shooting?
- 7:44Yeah, it was the, it was a four 10, I'm pretty sure.
- 7:48Mm-hmm.
- 7:49It was a four 10 little single shot That's the first gun that you've, you know, that you really, yeah.
- 7:55Um, I guess you learned on and you could kind of shoot, shoot at your size, so, and yeah.
- 8:01And yeah, one shot one shot and he went down, huh?
- 8:04Yeah.
- 8:05what I remember.
- 8:07Yeah.
- 8:07He was, he was full strut and crew pulled up and, and, uh, snuck the barrel out of the blind and took the shot and, and down he went.
- 8:17And he was a big, he had a big old beard on him.
- 8:18Yeah.
- 8:19He.
- 8:20Yeah.
- 8:20We got it on film and everything, so that was, that was pretty cool.
- 8:23So, so yeah, he, yeah.
- 8:26We love to Turkey hunt around here.
- 8:27I mean, it basically, if it's in season, we like to hunt it.
- 8:30Right.
- 8:31Yeah.
- 8:32So, um, anything else you want to talk about, about yourself?
- 8:38Mm.
- 8:39You can think of No, So, Cruz's been a, he's been a good sport.
- 8:45When I go hunting, He's good at coming along and I drag him along on all of his ventures.
- 8:49He also shot his first deer this this year.
- 8:51Oh yeah.
- 8:52Up in Idaho.
- 8:53He shot a real nice.
- 8:55I shot a real nice four point buck, um, with a a six five Grundle.
- 9:00Made a great shot on it, about 350 yards.
- 9:03He, the gun was kind of shooting off a little bit.
- 9:06We, we had messed up on dialing the turret and anyways, he shot it, hit it right in the head, but it went down, it went down real quick, huh?
- 9:13Yeah.
- 9:15So, and we, and the meat didn't get touched, so that was nice.
- 9:20So, So you came along, how many times did you go duck hunting with me this year?
- 9:25Did you just get out the one time?
- 9:26Um, I'm pretty sure.
- 9:28Yeah.
- 9:28Just the one time just, did we go jump shooting?
- 9:31Did you get out, jump shooting with me?
- 9:32How many times did we go out this year?
- 9:35I think once, maybe twice.
- 9:38So did we get any birds on those hunts?
- 9:42Mm.
- 9:43Like.
- 9:45I think like only a couple.
- 9:47Only a couple of them.
- 9:48Yeah, maybe.
- 9:50Yeah.
- 9:50I can't remember how many.
- 9:51Yeah, the jump shooting was pretty good this year.
- 9:53I think in my, in the last podcast we did, I talked about that and, and how the, um, in November we had some pretty good shoots, but, um, But yeah.
- 10:02Later in the, later in the season, it kind of, it kind of seemed to slow down a little bit.
- 10:07Mm-hmm.
- 10:07So, but crew, you ca you came with us on the last hunt of the season when we went up to a neighboring state, um, and got on the river and, and, uh, got the boat out.
- 10:19Mm-hmm.
- 10:19we'll just say we went up to Idaho.
- 10:21So we probably don't have very many listeners listening to this, so we'll just stay where we went.
- 10:25So Idaho's a very big place.
- 10:28Um, there's a lot of river systems in that state.
- 10:31And so anyways, went to Idaho.
- 10:32Had a great trip.
- 10:34Um, uh, we had got some intel from a friend that the birds were in, in a certain area, and we went up there and the, do you remember the first section of the river we went on?
- 10:45Do you remember?
- 10:46Do you remember seeing much there?
- 10:48Mm.
- 10:50Not really, right?
- 10:51No.
- 10:51Just thousands of cots, right?
- 10:53Yeah.
- 10:55So we saw thousands of cots and we took advantage of that, and you can shoot 25 a person.
- 11:00So we, we, uh, shot a handful of cots and let the dogs, we had some young dogs, um, that had never been on the river and been on that big water.
- 11:09And so, uh, we're not above shooting coots and, and, uh, using them for dog.
- 11:14And so that was fun getting some coots, but, but we really wanted the ducks, so we'd never been to these areas and um, so it was fun kind of trying to learn the river and, and get the boat out and see what we'd come up with.
- 11:27So we got a lot of coots the first day and we weren't seeing a whole lot of ducks on the river.
- 11:33Then there's some spots that are scattered here and there.
- 11:37Mm-hmm.
- 11:38but it was kind of close to houses and stuff like that too.
- 11:42So we didn't really feel real comfortable shooting where some of the ducks were kind of sitting.
- 11:46So we ended up picking up and drove about 30 miles from that location, uh, midday cuz we had about three days of hunting that we were planning on.
- 11:55And we drove about 30 miles, like I said, and um, jumped on the river and we started finding'em.
- 12:02Huh.
- 12:02Yeah.
- 12:02So that evening we saw a bunch of birds coming.
- 12:05and, uh, to a pocket.
- 12:07And we, and we set up there and ended up shooting about, oh, I think we ended up with about 10 that afternoon.
- 12:13Mm-hmm.
- 12:14Yeah.
- 12:14That we had, we had an awesome show.
- 12:16The wes were just coming off some, uh, some, uh, some holding pond areas and just coming right onto the river and just, you remember them dropping down and Yeah, it was pretty cool.
- 12:27It was cool seeing'em come down and, and, and they, they weren't really decoyed really good.
- 12:33I mean, it was the last, I think it was the last weekend of the season.
- 12:37So these birds have been, you know, they'd been hit pretty good.
- 12:40But we brushed in good, had a good spread.
- 12:42Uh, we were able to still, um, knock down a handful of birds.
- 12:46So that was, that was fun.
- 12:48So that was the end of day one.
- 12:50Uh, day two we decided to go upriver a little further.
- 12:54Yeah.
- 12:55Um, do you wanna tell.
- 12:57Okay.
- 12:57Tell more about day two.
- 12:58Do you remember what you did then?
- 13:00Um, so day two we went up the river and was it the island that we saw, or was that day three?
- 13:11Oh, that was day two.
- 13:11Yeah.
- 13:12Yeah, we went up, found this little island and then didn't we get onto it?
- 13:20Mm-hmm.
- 13:22Well, we set up on that golden knives spot.
- 13:24At first, I remember went up river scouting and it kind of, we saw less and less birds.
- 13:28We didn't see a ton of birds.
- 13:30Oh yeah.
- 13:30They kind of started, uh, they kind of, I don't know.
- 13:34They just weren't liking that part of the river.
- 13:36Yeah.
- 13:36Um, further up the river.
- 13:38So we kind of came back to that island that we saw.
- 13:41Oh yeah.
- 13:41Were kind of coming down.
- 13:42A bunch of birds came out from behind that island and Oh, yeah.
- 13:45Yeah.
- 13:45A bunch of divers and stuff like that.
- 13:48So, do you remember, do you want to tell him what we did after that?
- 13:51So after we went to the island, what, how was the hunt when we set up on that?
- 13:56Uh, because there were two islands we kind of set up before that first island.
- 13:59Then we went down to the other island that we hunted the third day in the morning.
- 14:03Oh yeah.
- 14:03Remember that?
- 14:04Mm-hmm.
- 14:05So the second island, or the last island?
- 14:09The first island we stayed, we went up around that kind of, and parked up on the backside of it with the boat.
- 14:14Oh.
- 14:16Um, so we were in this little separate spot, I guess, and s some birds were coming through, but they usually just flew around the island on the main part of the channel.
- 14:28Mm-hmm.
- 14:29But we had quite a few that came around and we got a couple shots on some, but then we chose and picked up and went around to the second.
- 14:44Yeah, second, well, the first island we actually knocked down quite a few birds.
- 14:48That one on the bend, the gold, the golden ice.
- 14:50A lot of divers kept coming up through and they came up on the bend and they'd kind of, it was pretty cool.
- 14:55They'd come up low right up around us, and this island kind of split the river.
- 15:00The main river was.
- 15:01You know, going up.
- 15:03And then this one was kind of channeled out around the island and it was kind of calm.
- 15:07And we came down, we kicked a bunch of birds up off the backside of this island, so we figured it'd be good to set up in that area.
- 15:14So that's what we ended up doing.
- 15:15And then the golden eyes mostly shot all golden knives.
- 15:18I think we only got one or two wigs.
- 15:20Yeah.
- 15:21And so we were, I can't remember how many birds we knocked down, but we decided, This trip again cuz we, this was a new place that we had that we were hunting.
- 15:30We thought it was kind of an exploratory trip too, just kind of learning the, learning the area and kind of trying to figure it out.
- 15:37So, so we cruised down river to some areas where we'd kind of seen a bunch of birds and then we found that next island and we thought we'd try there.
- 15:47And this one was a little more in the middle of the river, so we were kind of hunting the.
- 15:52current of the river.
- 15:53And it was the problem with the river hunting.
- 15:56It was really deep in some places, but you really had to find a place where they, we could put the decoys out and the decoy strings, um, so that, um, would touch the ground so they wouldn't float away.
- 16:06So this island we jumped on to, and on the top of the island, someone had actually built a blind there.
- 16:12Remember that?
- 16:13So we, yeah.
- 16:14So that was kind of fun.
- 16:15We put the boat around the backside and, and anchored it up kind of under some.
- 16:20And then, and then actually sat on the land.
- 16:23We didn't hunt out of the boat on this one and.
- 16:26and I had a pretty good shoot on that island.
- 16:28But anyways, so we had, I, I don't know, they kind of, the days kind of seemed to blend together when you're hunting out there.
- 16:35Huh.
- 16:36But that evening, I think we ended up shooting Good.
- 16:38I think right at, we were down to one more bird for our Olympic.
- 16:41Oh yeah.
- 16:42And it was like the last five minutes.
- 16:45Shooting hours.
- 16:46Mm-hmm.
- 16:46and I think a wedin came up the river and came into our decoys and we knocked him down.
- 16:50And so, so that was the end of the second day.
- 16:53So we took 21 birds.
- 16:54Mm-hmm.
- 16:54on that, on that second day.
- 16:56And that was cool to get a three man limit.
- 16:58Had some good dog work in that spot.
- 17:00It was bigger section of the river and some good swimming water.
- 17:05And then the third day we woke up and, do you remember what we did?
- 17:09Didn't we go back to that island?
- 17:11Mm-hmm.
- 17:12but then.
- 17:13The morning it was kind of slow, right?
- 17:16Mm-hmm.
- 17:16is that what mm-hmm.
- 17:18And then didn't we go to another island or we just, yeah.
- 17:23So this, this time kind of blends together.
- 17:27The third morning we went to the same island cuz we had a pretty good shoot there.
- 17:31And there was more people on the river.
- 17:33This was a Saturday.
- 17:35And um, It was either the last weekend of the Hunter, there was a week left.
- 17:40I can't remember for sure.
- 17:42It was, it was our last hunt of the season.
- 17:43But, um, so we ended up, there was a decent amount of boats, which we thought would be good cuz we thought we'd, they'd, it'd get the birds up and moving on the river.
- 17:54But, um, but they didn't.
- 17:57That morning we set up and it was slow.
- 17:59I think we shot one or two birds and we were there for a couple hours.
- 18:03and, uh, it was just kind of slow going.
- 18:05And so we decided to pack up.
- 18:08We said, well, let's go explore some other areas, right?
- 18:11So we had some guys tell us, don't go down river.
- 18:14This, this area's really treacherous in a boat.
- 18:17And I think they were trying to keep us from, uh, going to their honey hole or something like that.
- 18:23But we decided to go down river.
- 18:25So we cruised down river in the boat and, uh, went around this whole, there was, um, a bunch of islands down in the river, down that area, and we found a spot on the backside, an island where, oh, there were a bunch of mallards and it was, it was interesting as we, as we shifted areas down the river, and it wasn't even that far down.
- 18:45I mean, it was probably only a 10 minute boat ride.
- 18:47Just the habitat changed enough that we were getting more into mallards and getting more.
- 18:54um, our puddle, our ducks, and there were di lots of divers.
- 18:58But uh, we ended up, um, pulling on the backside of this island and it was pretty much a steady stream, that whole morning.
- 19:06Right?
- 19:06Yeah.
- 19:06So it was really cool.
- 19:08We kind of were on a tight bend on the island and so these birds would kind of come up this shoot and they'd see, they'd see our decoys and they'd come around that bend tight and they were right in our lap and we had some decoy right in, and some kind of come down to the decoys and pass.
- 19:24And at one point they were.
- 19:26Some of'em came right in.
- 19:28Good.
- 19:28But some of'em were also kind of swinging the opposite side of the little river.
- 19:31So at one point, crew went across the river and sat on the bank we were kind of pushing'em, the ones that kind of were riding that far edge of the bank.
- 19:39He was shooting'em and yeah, he had a good shot on that one.
- 19:42Green head, right?
- 19:43Yeah.
- 19:43For that one.
- 19:45I don't know if we weren't paying attention or what, or we were watching it and he pulled up.
- 19:49He was, You start off, he, we brought the four 10 and then we also had the 20 gauge.
- 19:55And then as he got more comfortable with the 20 gauge, he's like, all right, I'm done with this four 10 He wanted those extra shots.
- 20:02So, um, he ended up doing a great job, knocked down a nice green head on his own, and had some other great shots.
- 20:09I can't remember the, again, they all kind of blend together.
- 20:12We ended up shooting a three man limit and I think we were done by one o'clock, probably about one or two o'clock.
- 20:19Two o'clock, I'm pretty sure.
- 20:21Two o'clock.
- 20:21Yeah.
- 20:21We didn't, we didn't get any geese on those three days.
- 20:24We saw, we saw decent amount of goose flying around.
- 20:28I think we, we had some shots.
- 20:29Um, But nothing real good in range.
- 20:32And we didn't have any goosey quays out either, but the geese didn't really want to, I think they knew the river was kind of a, a danger zone, so they were more hit in the field and, and, uh, we did scare some up off the river, but yeah.
- 20:44But they weren't coming down as much.
- 20:46So, um, so yeah, that was kind of our trip up to Idaho is a, it was a great time seeing some birds and they had more water than we did with all the drought.
- 20:56The drought here in Utah.
- 20:58other parts of the state.
- 21:00There, were areas you could put a boat in, but this year was pretty tough.
- 21:03So we had to go up to Idaho to get the boat in on the river.
- 21:06So, um, see, yeah, I think that was kind of our three day trip up there.
- 21:12Yeah.
- 21:13Anything you could share with the listeners it would, that you recommend or learned or anything like that on that hunt?
- 21:21Well, even if it's slow doesn't mean there aren't birds there.
- 21:27I'll just say that.
- 21:28Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 21:30That's true.
- 21:31Just kind of be always ready.
- 21:33Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 21:33Be ready and, yeah.
- 21:37I, I like the saying, I always will tell myself or sometimes always expect the unexpected, right?
- 21:43Mm-hmm.
- 21:44so when you're hunting, you're hunting, it can change just like that, right?
- 21:48Yeah.
- 21:48So you wanna, if you're hunting big game or you're hunting ducks or anything like that, or pheasants, it's that time when you get lazy and you kind of.
- 21:56um, you know, you put your guard down, that's when a duck comes in, or, or, uh, that's, that's when things happen.
- 22:02So so always expect the unexpected if you're always ready.
- 22:07um, you can capitalize on some moments when you might not have been ready.
- 22:11Right?
- 22:11Yeah.
- 22:13So, um, so yeah, that was fun.
- 22:16I thought that was really fun exploring that area.
- 22:18I'd like to get up there next year and do it again.
- 22:20Mm-hmm.
- 22:21and check it out.
- 22:21I thought that was a really cool area that, um, that we'd explored and, and found a new honey hole.
- 22:27So hopefully the birds will always be in there and it'll always be a good hunt like that.
- 22:30I think it, I think it will be so, um, I dunno.
- 22:36Should we wrap it up?
- 22:37Yeah.
- 22:38Okay.
- 22:38Yeah, we better get to bed.
- 22:40But yeah, uh, grateful Crew came on to the podcast.
- 22:43It was, it's fun having you.
- 22:44Yeah.
- 22:45And, and, uh, and excited to do some future podcasts with you and, and talk about our upcoming hunts and, and everything that goes on.
- 22:54So thanks for letting me be here, Yeah, absolutely.
- 22:58So, okay, well until next time, everyone have a great night and, uh, we'll be,