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Boat Breakdowns & Cinnamon Roll Magic — Duckfellas Hunt Recap · DuckFellas Podcast

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This is a Duckfellas podcast, your weekly dose of waterfowl wisdom,
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blind banter, and hunting stories that might just be mostly true.
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Hosted by Tyler, Cade, and Austin. Three fellas chasing feathers and good times.
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Do us a favor and hit that like button or subscribe wherever it may be that you're tuned in at.
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What a weekend it was. If that's what you want to call it. Something like that. Not good.
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Just felt like we could never get anything going good for us.
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Nope. We had every problem you could have from battery troubles to later known
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messed up hydraulic lines and fog and not a lot of working birds.
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Yeah, it was fun. Headlights.
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I forgot about that part. The entire population of Knoxville hunting and area.
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Yeah, it was great. I'd say half the state of Iowa.
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Those batteries were, that was a mess Saturday morning.
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I feel like on the last episode we did something about hunt season prep or something like that.
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Listen, Linda, you can only do so much. We get an F on that report card.
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Hey, at least the boat was brushed. That is fair.
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We really need some we need some weather to get some birds moving and hopefully
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kill some birds yep it's tough out there for uh for a duck hunter right now
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especially for a guy like austin,
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everything's tough for me at least you know but at least he didn't forget the eggs this weekend,
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he didn't we can finally quit giving him shit for it he rebounded well woke
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up on time every day. Not all three of us can speak for that.
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I brought all the food I was supposed to. Also, not all three of us did that.
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So honestly, I'm going to count this weekend as a win for me personally.
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You know, it was pretty funny this morning when I woke up and seen that you
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were asking if we'd already launched the boat because you thought you were late.
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Yeah, the time change really messed me up. Let me tell you.
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Woke up thought that I was behind realized that I was actually the only one
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up but hey at least you were awake this time good good times,
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Was not really good times. I got to take two lake showers this weekend. That was cool.
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I don't want to think lake water ever hurt anybody. One first thing in the morning
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at freaking what ended up being like 7 o'clock.
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And then today's was on the way back. At least that was on the way back. On the way out sucks.
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You got a little choppy today on that big water. It tends to do that.
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But at least where we hunted today, we could kind of got away from the people
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and didn't have as much competition to say.
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That does make it nice. It's nice to actually be able to call at birds and attempt to work.
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I mean, they were being kind of stubborn today, but yeah, it was nice to not
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have 17 groups of 500 shooting all the way around you.
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Yeah, that was wild, being able to work ducks and not have everybody and their
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brother calling at them.
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If only that could happen every single time. It'd be way more enjoyable.
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It probably could. We just got to go hunt the tundra every day where nobody lives.
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But I don't think Austin would survive there. His feet would get cold.
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Since I got these new waders, he have not been cold yet. Two people's feet were
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cold on the boat a little bit this morning.
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Not Austin's. Again, counting this entire weekend as a success for me.
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It wasn't even that cold.
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It wasn't that warm. No, that's fair. I mean, this morning was chilly.
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I mean, I think it was like 29. Yeah.
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I think I'll take that over 40 or 50 in the morning. I think it was 45 Saturday morning.
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Yeah. I mean, we were definitely a lot closer to the heaters on in the boat
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today than any other day we've been out so far.
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That is usually what happens when it's the coldest morning so far.
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Tends to be like that glad to see your guys's attitudes have just rolled right
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over from the boat this morning it's great i'm gonna love the next hour of my life,
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i will say one plus about having issues right now with the boats so far is at
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least it's not 20 degrees out trying to change batteries or re-hook wires for
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the lights on the front of the boat not working.
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Yeah, and we got pretty lucky that that little rain shower that hit us while
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you were going to get batteries wasn't when we were trying to put batteries
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in because it ended up raining pretty good there for a little bit.
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Yeah, no, I noticed that when I was sitting in a Walmart parking lot at 5 o'clock
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in the morning. It was coming down pretty good. When they don't open until 6.
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Freaking COVID. not good COVID just ruined everything for us just a series of
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unfortunate events this weekend,
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I feel like Friday went pretty good though I don't think we had any issues Friday,
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it's cause I wasn't there checks out there was no camera on board that is that
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adds up hey you brought one too,
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yeah yeah I did it's that new prop we'll blame it on that you leave the new
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prop out of this it pushes that boat pretty good yeah it does slow,
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not as slow as you ooh yeah.
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Diggers right off the bat. I love it. Is that a Red Bull?
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No. Why don't you mind your business and get into what you two are going to
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talk about first this evening.
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You two. You're involved in this. You know that, right? Yeah,
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except I know nothing about waterfowl behaviors.
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I just point and say, hey, those look like ducks coming at us.
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You guys should call it those.
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And you do? and we end up shooting them a lot.
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Well, since you're discussing the topics, Austin is letting them know what we're
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going to talk about here. What's the other topic we're going to cover today?
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The other topic is scouting, and I can attest to that.
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I do a lot of that. I get the opportunity to drive around and do all that,
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but I'm going to let you guys work through waterfowl behaviors before we go
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through scouting. Oh, okay.
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Well, you just keep sucking them cough drops down over there. I'm going to.
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Old boy's a little sicky. Yeah. It's weak and not the best to me.
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He hunts three days, and all of a sudden he's sick. It's all right.
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I'll still be there, sick or not.
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I do remember that happening to me last year, though. I hunted like three days
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in a row, and then I died. Yeah. I think that was not fun.
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It's the worst when you get sick during hunting season, and then you got to
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fight through it or just miss days. And I don't like to miss days.
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I'd rather die in the boat than miss a day. I don't know. Dying in the boat
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was pretty equivalent to yesterday.
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I don't know. We had a good time.
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It's never a bad time when you have a full boat of guys that just don't really
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give a shit and just roast each other the entire day.
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Yeah, no, there were some hateful things said at certain points of the day.
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The high corn up yesterday was without a doubt breakfast. Probably would have
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been better with tortillas.
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How does the burrito man forget tortillas? Listen, I put everything in bags
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and then put it in the boat the night before, but I forgot that I didn't buy
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tortillas this time. I already had tortillas.
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That makes sense. I understand the problem there. Yeah.
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All right. So let's jump into this thing. The first thing we're going to talk
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about on the waterfowl behavior side of things is early morning birds versus
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later in the day, like afternoon, or even we can talk about evening birds too.
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That's a little bit different than afternoon birds, I feel like.
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Obviously, anybody that's duck hunted knows that first thing in the morning is usually pretty epic.
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Normally, you got ducks landing in the decoys like five minutes before shooting
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time. Whether or not they get back up is a different story.
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But I always feel like that first day break, you first start to see the sun
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come up, I feel like that's probably the best part of the day.
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Definitely would have been this morning that we missed out on.
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As I'm walking back to the boat and you guys are setting it up and there's 30
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mallards trying to dump right in.
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I can, I mean, it depends on the time of year for that, I feel like too,
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whether they're flying first thing or a little bit later in the day.
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Like this time of year, it seems like if you're not, if you're not ready for
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shooting time in that first hour, you're really going to miss out.
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Yeah. It seems like, I mean, they have to get super pressured to do it, but they can.
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But a lot of times it's like when it starts to get really cold,
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they kind of wait up a little bit. And I don't know why Austin's flipping us
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off for no reason, but. Yeah.
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That kind of day. No. No. Like, yeah.
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Like example, like last year at the end of like, what was it?
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The last day of duck season or within the last two days we hunted when it was
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ridiculously cold for like a week and we got that warm up and we got,
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we're able to get back out on the water again.
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I mean, they really didn't start flying until I was like 10 o'clock or maybe 11.
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Cause I feel like, I feel like we killed most of our birds between 11 and like 1230.
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Cause I think we just turned football on, on this boat and all of a sudden we were done.
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I love it when it happens like that. It's just too easy. For sure.
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That was, that was, that day was fun. Didn't have to do no Colin,
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Adam, even. They were just going to give it up.
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That was on a warmup day too. So I feel like, I mean, they wait even longer
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sometimes when it's still really, really cold out.
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Yeah, and I think part of it might be that they're in that cold phase or just
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that time of year, they're focused on getting to the field in the morning.
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So you might get a couple here right at shooting time, and then they just disappear
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and go to the cornfields and chill out.
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Yeah, I know sometimes we've hunted when it's really, really cold out,
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and you'll go out right at sunrise because there's no point getting there super early.
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We'll go out at sunrise, and you'll kick up a couple birds, but you don't really
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see anything fly till I've seen it like one or two o'clock in the afternoon.
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They finally all get up and then kind of like you were just saying,
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you're done in like 20 minutes.
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It's awesome. Yeah. Sucks waiting though.
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Oh yeah. No, that is when you know they're, they're coming, but you're just
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don't know for sure when that is tough to sit there and wait.
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Then it's like you hit noon and you start thinking about, are we really going
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to sit here until dark? And then they're finally going to get up and we can't shoot them anymore.
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Yeah, there's, There's been enough days where I've sat there from sunup to sundown
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and they fly the last 10 minutes of daylight.
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It's like, wow, we sat here eight hours a day for him to fly for 10 minutes.
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What a waste.
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Especially when you miss your shots on the birds that do come in in those last
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10 minutes. That is not fun.
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Now, that really leaves a bad taste in your mouth at the end of the day.
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It does. So does lake water on the way back to the boat ramp.
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Don't ask me how I know you looked a little wet today.
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All right. So afternoon birds, we kind of talked about, basically just talked about when it gets cold.
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Let's talk about the early season. I feel like that's more of, it's kind of hit or miss.
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Some days they get up and beat bop around and some days, especially like when
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there's a lot of pressure, I feel like they kind of go out and loaf until,
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I mean, usually it's like two or three o'clock. They might start beat bopping around again.
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Yeah. I mean, just, I think it depends on what kind of ducks you're,
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you have in the area, like whether it's teal or wood ducks or mallards.
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I mean, for us right now, we actually got decent water so they could just really spread out.
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And it's just, you might have a fair amount of birds, but it looks like no birds
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because they spread all over every cove and pocket of water on the lake or marshes around.
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Anywhere they're not getting shot. Yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't really blame
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them. I think I would probably do the same. Yeah, I'd probably hide if I was getting shot at too.
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Can't say that I'd be real keen on, like we were talking about spreaders on,
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or spinners on our last show.
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They see that stuff a lot and they kind of pick up on it. So I feel like if
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I got shot at with a spinner roll and I probably wouldn't go towards it again.
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No, no. I'd like to think I'd stay away, but you just never know.
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I mean, those decoys might just look too good to resist sometimes.
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Or when you smell breakfast cooking, you just have to go in there and check it out.
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It seems like every time you make bacon, they smell it and they just want it.
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It didn't work yesterday. That's like the first time in a while I didn't see
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it work. But today, the cinnamon rolls is what got them.
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It is. As soon as they got pulled out of the oven, it was go time.
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Yeah. I mean, I think I pulled them out and started putting the icing on them.
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And I was letting them cool off for like two minutes. The next thing I know,
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there's two mallards dumping right in.
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Just seem to make cinnamon rolls all day long either we're going to get really
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fat or have diabetes or something,
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start feeding them to the dogs, and then the dogs will get fat and get diabetes.
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Then everybody's just on insulin in the boat.
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That would be not good. You're going to need a bigger boat line.
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He's going to need a longer boat, because we're going to get wide.
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Yeah. You're going to have to roll me through that thing.
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I don't know if they make waders big enough for that. I don't think they do.
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So I have to go to the tent and awning store and try to make some concoction.
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But like, so back, I guess back to the late season birds, really it's,
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I don't know, if you have mallards and the weather's right, they're going to
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go out and eat and then come back.
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And as long as they're going to cornfields, I've never had an issue working
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them unless it's no wind.
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If you've got at least a five mile an hour wind where it's throwing tiny ripple in the water.
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It's almost like taking candy from a baby unless it's a Saturday or Sunday and,
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everybody's brother, nephew, niece, and uncle and aunt are out there throwing rocks at him.
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A curveball i was not ready for that one yeah throwing rocks well i mean how
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many times you go to the boat ramp and see rocks on the ice that is true that
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is true it makes sense now,
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every single time yeah and anybody that's listening take your waders with you
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to the ramp and a hammer don't throw a rock on the ramp just break the ice if
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you can't break it then go back home i always think it's funny like say it's
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like five degrees out for two or three days,
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the first day you go check or go to the boat ramp you'll see little rocks,
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then the next day they're a little bit bigger rocks and then the third day that
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it's been 5 degrees you know it still froze,
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you know for a fact that it did not thaw at all if anything it's thicker so what do they do?
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Just throw a bigger rock I think they bring rocks to throw out there too because
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I don't know where all the rocks come from like last year I went to the boat ramp on the river,
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and there had to be like 250 nice sized rocks all over the river.
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People just chucking them out there.
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At least stashes them and drops them off at the boat ramp.
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That's possible. I heard you boys might need these.
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Yeah, that's, that's the cool thing too about like hunting late season when
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it gets ice, it doesn't take very much wind to actually get it to like with
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straight open water, it's a little bit harder to get it to ripple compared to when there's ice.
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I don't, it must be something about it just blowing straight flat across the,
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the water once it gets there. But I've noticed that.
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I think it, I think like that wind will hit the ice and just come right across
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the top of the water or ice, whatever. And then as soon as it hits water, it hits that drag.
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Yeah, that makes it way better. No, you can get some good motion a lot easier
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hunting an ice hole compared to just a wide open lake. Yeah.
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All right, so let's talk about shooting waterfowl over water or in a field.
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I feel like this kind of goes hand in hand with early season and late season.
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Obviously, the birds aren't going to feed as hard when it's like it is now,
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50 some degrees outside and sunny and they can just eat millet and whatever they want.
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But what do you do different in a field versus over the water as far as your
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approach at how you would start calling it birds and how you finish them?
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Is there anything different you do?
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I feel like in a field, I don't like the feed chuckling, but I do a lot more
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of that in the field than I do on water.
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I mean, on water, the only time I feed chuckle is just to keep their attention
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if they're coming in and make sure I can try and point them in the right direction
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of how I want them to come in.
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But fields I mean you can I don't know ducks piss me off in the field because
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they do their circle they'll get within 60 and then pull up and you're like
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oh did we miss our chance again,
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but they come back around and they come 10 yards closer that time and it's like
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they take like 5 or 6 passes until they finally decide to just squat down and.
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That sucks like when we were kind of talking about late season
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hunting water they all kind of get up at once that really sucks in
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a field when they do that because then you have birds working above the
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birds that you're working so it's like you're shooting into
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a group of say 50 but there's another 50 above it so you're basically burning
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100 at a time yeah and that's i mean sometimes it works out when they're just
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really hungry i mean i've had times where you got that tornado coming in on
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and you shoot the bottom ones and the top ones don't hear it or just don't care
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and they just keep coming. I mean, it's as fast as you can load your gun.
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But I think that really just depends on the temperatures and time of year.
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Yeah, for sure. But no, water, I call a lot different on water. I mean, it just depends.
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If it's not windy at all and we're hunting in willows or in trees,
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I hate that echo off the trees.
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So I do a lot less calling when there's no wind and try to be as quiet as I can.
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Yeah, it definitely makes sense. It's, it's like we said on our last episode,
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it's really easy to over call ducks and just blow them straight out of the hole.
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Honestly, I think calling is what really messes ducks up.
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As soon as you get a new push of birds and there's a bunch of people out there
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calling at them or screaming at them, I think that's what makes ducks stale
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almost as much or more than just pressure.
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We've noticed this year, too, it's almost instant.
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You'll have a good shoot for a day, and then the next day you try to work birds
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like you did the day before, and they're, nope, we're going to go hang out where nobody else is at.
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Right, they want absolutely nothing to do with you.
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Don't even give you a look at all. Just keep on trucking.
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Yeah, it's been a tough start.
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I mean, I just got back to Iowa, what, three days ago now and we have not killed
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many ducks in three days.
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Yeah, it's been a struggle. The worst thing is, like, we got a decent little
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push of birds about a week ago.
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And it was one day and then you just see them flying up in the clouds,
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yeah that's what's crazy it's not like I mean today we've seen less ducks out
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of the three days but we hunted in an area where you're just gonna see less ducks anyways,
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but I mean we're still seeing we're seeing a fair amount of ducks every day
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but they're they're so high up you're not even a point in calling at them they
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just don't come down they just keep going and,
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they gotta be just sitting out in the big body of water and just hanging out
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hiding from everybody that has a shotgun for sure.
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Everybody that has a bud motor. That too. That too. Does happen to be like that. Them water hollies.
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You kind of touched on it with a lot of people calling, making them more stale,
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but how much do you think, like obviously hunting pressure really stales them
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out, but how much do you think hunting pressure affects birds as the season goes on?
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Obviously as the season goes on, typically when it starts getting colder,
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you lose about half of your, your boats at the ramp.
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Which I always feel like that makes it a little bit better for the guys that
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stick it out and go through the cold.
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And we usually end up getting them pretty good once it gets cold, really cold.
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Everybody else wants to stay home and stay all snuggled up.
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Yeah. I mean, I don't blame them sometimes. Yeah.
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Well, I think the biggest thing that I hate is the boats running.
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I feel like there's always boats. I mean, nowadays, it's, I mean, Monday through Sunday.
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It doesn't seem like there's ever a day that the birds really get a true rest.
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Like, there's always boats, I mean, from, I don't know, 4.30 in the morning
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till an hour after sunset, there's a boat running around, it feels like.
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And it's all the time, every day almost.
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They just don't, they can't get comfortable anywhere. And every time they get
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somewhere, you know, someone's running around scouting, which I mean,
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it is, they're just putting in some time trying to find birds,
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which we all are at times.
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But I think that's the, that's hard on them, especially early in the year when there's not many birds.
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It just makes them leave the area and get out in the water where there's nobody out there.
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So what do you think about like down south where they have basically a curfew,
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like you can't be on the water after a certain time?
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Do you think that helps a ton? I think it helps some.
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I grew up in southern Illinois so down there we could hunt until 1 o'clock and
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at 1 o'clock it was the end of shooting time but you could still be out there
23:01
at the lake I grew up on at least and scouting.
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Some of the areas had an off time I think it was like 3 o'clock so the birds
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had that last hour and a half,
23:11
to do their own thing but the bad part was is sometimes after them birds were
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there for just a week maybe it's like they knew 1 o'clock It's like they were
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all wearing Apple watches around and when it hit one o'clock,
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their alarm went off. So, all right, let's go.
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They got the ESPN notification. We've been lacking on the ESPN notification. I know.
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I got to talk to them. Don't worry. We're going to have a meeting this week.
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Corporate meeting. Mm-hmm.
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Time you do something i'm working on it i'm trying not very hard but he's trying
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the constant abuse i've taken this weekend has really taken a toll on me i feel
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i would like for our area specifically.
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I'm not personally against having on-off times like
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there is an on-off time for our lake you can't be you have to be off what an
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hour after sunset and then you can't get back on the water
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till like midnight yeah but i wouldn't
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be opposed to like the first you know almost the 40 first
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30 days of season having an off time like a
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shooting time of one o'clock where you couldn't hunt
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anymore and then the last 30 days
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you open it up back to what it what it is now
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you know all day yeah that
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makes sense especially like like we were
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kind of talking like early season you have twice the hunters
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because it's not brutally cold out people don't have to hunt out
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of a boat with a blind with heaters and and all.
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That stuff it makes it a lot easier for people to go out and and enjoy
24:41
it but yeah that naturally brings more people out
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scouting more people out running channels and bumping
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birds up and yeah that like you said they
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don't ever have a time to rest no no it's
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constant boats running around i mean i i've done
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it too i've scouted i mean why not it's legal so
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why wouldn't you yeah it is
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a lot different though with like your little boat
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super quiet outboard i mean you're not going to do a
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whole lot of damage to scaring the hell out
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of them but they still pick up like what a boat is and and all that good stuff
25:14
yeah that's i mean mud boats are mud boats are definitely needed to get to certain
25:20
areas but just i hate them big exhausts they put on them that are so loud that
25:26
you can't even hear yourself think.
25:28
I mean, I grew up in an area where a lot of guys used airboats.
25:34
Was always a fight on if that affected the birds
25:37
or not but obviously anything that is ridiculously loud
25:41
where you got to wear earmuffs to run it is probably gonna
25:44
like put pressure on birds or make them more
25:46
weary or just mess them up yeah because
25:50
i feel like like with an a newer
25:52
outboard they're really really quiet i feel like if
25:55
anything you get up on them and it just startles them more
25:58
than anything i mean any boat's gonna
26:01
gonna jump them up yeah but i think the the level of stress it puts on the birds
26:06
is different for obviously different decibel levels i feel like i mean those
26:11
are we're talking all opinions here but yeah yeah there's no fact checking behind
26:16
our our words here tonight no.
26:21
Get ripped for you hate mud boats i do like you said though they do have their their place and,
26:29
it just sucks that like i feel like if we could get on like a general page as
26:36
far as duck hunters go like obviously a lot of people like to go out in the
26:39
afternoons because it's not as busy they like to go out try to hunt but then
26:42
you have guys that will legitimately go out and scout every single night,
26:47
after they get off of work or they get done hunting in the morning.
26:52
There's just got to be a time that they can kind of hang out and do their own thing.
26:57
Yeah, I mean, I do a lot of my scouting just from the road and just I'll get
27:01
up on a bluff and overlook the lake and sit there binoculars.
27:05
But I also don't do a whole lot of, like if we're planning on hunting the lake, I don't scout it much.
27:11
Unless there's, like I'm going to a different bay or cove on the lake,
27:15
I'll go check it and make sure there's birds in there that's going to be worth our time going.
27:19
But the birds use the same areas, same places, on certain winds and clouds, sun.
27:27
After you hunt an area for a
27:28
couple of years, it's not hard to figure them out. Yeah, and we're lucky.
27:33
We have a gauge that shows us exactly what the water level's at,
27:36
and you've been around it enough to know where you can and can't get.
27:40
And honestly, what spots are going to be good for that lake level, which is awesome.
27:48
Yeah. At least they bring water up for us. If they didn't bring water up for
27:54
us, we wouldn't be able to do it around here.
27:57
They're all mudflats. And there's just not enough.
28:00
No. Everybody would be hunting on top of each other. Yeah.
28:04
The only thing that does suck is the channels are just constantly changing.
28:08
So it's like one year you're, you're running a hundred yards onto the left and
28:12
the next year you're running 200 yards to the right of something. Yeah.
28:16
So let's talk about something that you and I talk about a lot.
28:21
A lot of times it's damn, if only the sun was out the other time,
28:26
damn, if we had some clouds, whenever the sun's directly in our eyes and we
28:31
forget our sunglasses at the house for the sixth day in a row.
28:37
Oh, I gotta put those in my blind bag. Yeah. You probably shouldn't do that.
28:41
It's weird even seeing you at
28:43
the end of the end of your boat without sunglasses, at least on your hat.
28:46
Yeah, honestly, the past, well, not the other day because it rained on us all freaking day.
28:52
But today and Friday have sucked without sunglasses.
28:57
Yeah. What are your thoughts on their reactions, though?
29:01
I mean, obviously, you get some on the decoys, and if you have a good wind,
29:05
like you were saying earlier, that typically tends to be a better day.
29:09
But it seems like those cloudy days, especially if you get a little mist or
29:13
a light rain, those can be pretty good, too.
29:16
Yeah, I feel like I've had just as many good days in the rain.
29:20
Well, good days as in we killed ducks, not good days as in I had fun because I hate the rain.
29:26
But I've had as many good days hunting in the rain as is the sun.
29:32
Because honestly, if the sun is, if you can't put it to your back or like off
29:36
to your side and it's directly in your face,
29:39
it's so hard to hide from them because the sun's literally pounding right on
29:44
the boat or even the layout blinds.
29:48
Then if the sun's on you like that, they can key every single movement you make.
29:55
Especially when people, whenever you're hunting a full boat of people or a line
29:59
of people in layouts and they stick their face out and your face just shines bright.
30:05
Well, I don't know why them ducks flared. Me neither. probably the moon looking at them.
30:11
It's basically like.
30:15
Think of the boat in the dark. It's basically like you turn the lights on inside. Yeah.
30:19
Yeah. But if you have, if you have the sun at your back or like you were saying
30:23
off to the side a little bit, it's basically the, it's doing the same thing
30:27
to them. They can't see a damn thing down in there.
30:30
Right. And if I had to choose between a sunny or cloudy day,
30:34
I'll always choose a sunny day to my back.
30:37
No matter what. but a sunny day where the sun's going to be in your face all
30:41
day or hunting a cloudy day, I'd say it's like 50-50 for me on those.
30:45
Yeah, the cool thing about having like a sunny day is you can kind of manipulate
30:48
it and make it another like tool for you to use.
30:53
Yeah, I mean, it essentially blinds them.
30:55
So all they, they can only hear then. So whatever they hear of you calling is
31:00
what they're going off of.
31:02
Yeah, but then cloudy days, you got to make sure your shit is brushed in good.
31:08
Yeah, we definitely try to cut a lot more grass than anything to cover up the
31:15
top holes because those things stick out really bad. Yeah.
31:20
All right, I think we've chewed up enough time talking about birds.
31:23
Let's talk about how you find them. We'll have Austin take us through this section.
31:27
Can he make it through this? Yeah. We'll find out.
31:30
I'm probably going to talk a lot less on today's episode just because of how
31:35
I feel. but I mean you guys already kind of hit on a couple of like key things
31:40
like if you want to find birds you have to get out there.
31:46
Constantly I'm at least
31:49
me for you guys because I have that
31:52
opportunity I mean granted Tyler's off
31:55
for the next month but Kate still has to work one day
31:57
for Friday and like I just am very lucky to get that opportunity where my job
32:03
allows me to drive around all day and look at stuff flying in the sky like so
32:10
I'm constantly I feel like I'm constantly texting you guys like yep like this
32:15
is exactly what we thought.
32:17
The birds are working either the north or the south side or wherever we think that they are.
32:22
It's just nice to confirm that so that when we do go in there,
32:26
we just have better hunts.
32:29
I always know you got something good whenever I know you're working and you
32:33
call me during hunting season.
32:35
No text, straight phone call. I found them.
32:39
Those are my favorite calls to make. Okay.
32:44
Else here so i like
32:48
to just being from this area
32:51
and knowing a lot of the farmers i tend to be
32:54
able to get permission on quite a
32:57
few fields around here so like would
33:00
i rather hunt over water yeah absolutely but like
33:04
i'm also the guy that'll follow them from wherever they
33:08
are on the water to see where they're feeding to try
33:11
to get into that feed as well too
33:15
so i i think that that's a completely different part
33:18
of scouting because i feel
33:22
like you almost have to be right like right
33:25
on the x where they're feeding like i
33:28
want to know exactly what field and
33:32
what part of that field that they're going to but
33:36
you really gotta like find like it's when you're
33:38
scouting like that too i'm also looking at like how they're sitting in the field
33:42
like family groups are all balled up tight right that makes a big difference
33:47
for how you set your decoys up too yeah absolutely i feel like that's weather
33:51
dependent as well too like i mean we never.
33:57
We never get any snow anymore during season here now so it's fine so we don't
34:03
really have to worry about that but it tends to get cold every once in a while
34:07
and birds will huddle up on us yeah it is huge to know like the flight line
34:13
is huge because if you some if for some reason you can't get,
34:17
permission on the x field it is nice to know all right they're coming from here
34:21
they're going to this field, if we are going to try to traffic them,
34:24
we kind of know what fields we can pick and choose from.
34:30
That that's a big one i mean if you can find
34:33
the line and kind of pattern how they're which way they're
34:35
taken to their desired field every day but you can't get permission for that
34:39
x i don't mind setting up close to it or maybe like halfway in between where
34:44
the water is and where they're going because you can kind of you might not be
34:47
able to pull all of them but you can i feel like you can pull a handful down
34:50
most of the time i wanted to talk to you guys about scouting,
34:56
around pressure as well, too.
35:00
I'm really lucky to have you guys most of the time.
35:04
I mean, after this weekend, I thought about just selling all my stuff and getting
35:09
rid of you guys as friends, even not just hunting acquaintances.
35:13
Does that include bleeding me on Facebook? I wish.
35:18
At least it wouldn't be Facebook official. Yeah. My wife wouldn't let me,
35:21
though. She told me not to be mean to you.
35:24
Is it because I'm special? It's because you don't have any other friends.
35:28
I'm fair enough. Dude. Yeah, every weekend he's got a full boat.
35:32
That's because he has a nice boat, not because he has a lot of friends.
35:35
You know, I think the weekends now when I have, or when people call me,
35:39
I think I'm just going to call Austin and tell him, hey, look,
35:42
boat filled up. You can't go tomorrow.
35:44
That's fine. I'll start. I'll go out there and rip all that brush off that I
35:48
helped you put on this year.
35:50
Like, you know what? Have your new friends help you.
35:54
Yeah, that's salty. there. That's bad. That's tough.
35:59
Last year, scouting was, I felt like, the hardest thing to do for geese because
36:05
our weather was so up and down, they wouldn't pattern.
36:10
Or sometimes I would use a whole tank of fuel in one day because they'd be flying
36:16
around but never once go to a field.
36:18
Or a dozen would go to one field and then a pair or whatever. It was weird.
36:24
Tiny little groups of feeding in random fields, and then most of them would
36:27
just fly around and go right back to water.
36:29
Yeah, that was like, last year we found that one really good field.
36:34
You and I went, or I went with you basically to get permission on it.
36:39
Went and hunted it the next day. We found the birds in there at like 2.30 or
36:44
3 o'clock in the afternoon.
36:45
Same exact weather the next day. The only difference was the sun was out.
36:49
And those bastards didn't show up until 10 minutes before shooting time was
36:52
over. Yeah, that was tough.
36:56
On the on that though like the sun being out like for i mean my take on ducks
37:02
and hunting on sunny days i would much rather hunt geese on cloudy days personally
37:06
i've had so much better luck on cloudy days for geese and especially if you
37:11
can get in the field and it starts to rain or snow,
37:15
that gets greasy oh yeah that was like what two three years ago we had that
37:19
hunt that it was pretty slow and then it started,
37:24
sprinkling and then turned to like sleet and snow and I mean we were done in
37:27
like 10 minutes after the sleet and snow started. That was awesome.
37:31
All we needed was some lunch that day. Poncheros saved the day.
37:36
Poncheros and some rain. We were good to go. I don't know. It kind of saved
37:39
the day. They didn't have any tortillas that day.
37:42
I remember we got free chips and queso for that. Yeah. We had to all get bowls and I was pissed.
37:49
I was going to get a bowl anyway. Thank you.
37:53
Took the chips and queso for that though. Yeah, wasn't mad about that.
37:58
Dude, this dude's fighting for his life over here. Yeah, I'm on the struggle
38:03
bus right now, but as far as scouting around pressure, like,
38:09
spots that we know the birds are going to hold up, where they know and or think that they're safe.
38:16
So it's just hitting those hot spots and legitimately putting miles on all day.
38:24
Like you can drive all day and the very last place you check could be where
38:29
all the birds are, but it's so rewarding once you find them.
38:34
That pressure's off you. It's a
38:37
lot harder to find ducks away
38:40
from pressure now just because i feel like there's so many more people that
38:43
hunt nowadays or just that there's a less accessible public area to hunt nowadays
38:48
it's hard to get somewhere that nobody really looks at or nobody knows about
38:52
that just doesn't exist anymore with onyx and google maps and everything i definitely
38:57
think that there's more guys with boats,
39:00
like there's so many boats out there i feel like i guess what i'm trying to
39:04
say is i feel like maybe less people are walking in now than they used to.
39:11
So maybe that's why it seems more crowded out there, I guess.
39:18
And I could be wrong with that. Again, I just started at this,
39:22
but... I mean, you might be... I think you're onto something there, too, though.
39:25
I do think... I mean, boats have become so much more popular because it's so
39:30
much more easier than, I don't know, dragging a little jet sled behind you.
39:35
And walking through muck to try and kill a duck.
39:40
Yeah, usually a duck too. Seems like all the walking spots just get beat to
39:45
hell and you might shoot a duck.
39:48
Every time I try to do it anymore, I don't even know why I do.
39:51
It's like, oh, they're in there good.
39:52
You get there and you do all this extra work because you think you're going to smash them.
39:57
And you see 10 ducks. Yep.
40:01
Waving their middle finger at you as they fly by too. They don't even look at you.
40:04
And then you're like, wow, I remember why I bought a boat. A hundred percent. Yeah.
40:11
To make breakfast when you walk in? It is. Big breakfast, guys.
40:17
Yeah, you're the main one that's always yelling, are you going to cook soon?
40:21
Well, guess what happens every single time we start breakfast? We see and shoot birds.
40:28
He's got a point. He does have a point.
40:31
They know our tricks. I don't think they do, otherwise they wouldn't fall for
40:35
it. No, it just smells so good.
40:39
They can't resist. It goes to his skin.
40:44
I think that pretty much sums up scouting, too. I mean, is there anything in
40:49
general from what we've discussed today that anybody would like to add that
40:53
we haven't touched on or maybe missed on?
40:56
I don't think so. I mean, it's pretty cut and dry. You got to go try to find
41:01
them and definitely look in spots you would think, yeah, there's probably nothing
41:05
there, but go check it anyway because you never know.
41:08
Yeah, definitely don't just skip on something because you haven't seen them for a
41:11
week in there every day is different and especially if
41:14
the temperatures drop in or it's you know you've been sunny
41:17
and no wind for a week and all of a sudden you're getting clouds and
41:20
some high winds it can really change the game on me even
41:23
if you get no birds no new birds yeah that
41:26
like last year we found that big water
41:29
spot and we had always talked about
41:32
it like man i wonder if that ever holds birds and then we happen
41:35
to just go scout it one day and we were like yep we'll go
41:38
there tomorrow right it's always
41:41
fun when you find those spots oh yeah and then you only find like two shotgun
41:46
shells laying around that was that was the best part you know you the spots
41:51
either gonna be really good or it's gonna be really bad if you show up and there's
41:54
a ton of shotgun shells laying everywhere because it's either been a just burnt
41:58
up or the ducks are just still just hammering it yeah.
42:03
Think that'll pretty much wrap up this week i hopefully
42:06
i mean i did confirm earlier but it sounds like
42:09
next week we'll have mr ryan cam on to discuss
42:13
utilization of dogs and just how much a dog can or can't help you on a hunt
42:19
yeah i feel like dogs are obviously a very useful tool i think i can count on
42:25
one hand how many times at the end of the day i've said yeah the dog totally ruin the day.
42:31
Just totally ruin the entire day. I think on one hand, I can say that.
42:36
Yeah. I mean, I would much rather have a dog with me and have it be able to
42:41
go get the ducks on to get in and out of the boat every time.
42:44
I'm fat and lazy. Especially your castle, too. That thing kind of sucks to get up in.
42:49
Yeah, but I got out of there pretty quick today when that Drake was crippled
42:53
and trying to get away from us.
42:54
And you got it. I didn't think I was going to get it. even when Ellie's doing
42:59
gymnastics in the back saying, guys, please, you brought me here to retrieve ducks.
43:06
I just want you to shoot something. Let me do my job.
43:10
I didn't think she was going to relax today. She was on it this morning just
43:14
doing jumping jacks or cartwheels back there or something.
43:17
Yeah, she woke up on 100 this morning and she did not come off of it all day.
43:25
Yeah, no, that was nuts. But I think that's going to do it for this week for us.
43:30
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43:35
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43:40
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43:45
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