Latest / DuckFellas Podcast / Duckfellas Ep. 18 — Coal Creek Unveiled: New Wetlands, New Hope

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Duckfellas Ep. 18 — Coal Creek Unveiled: New Wetlands, New Hope · DuckFellas Podcast

3:00
Welcome back to Duckfellas Podcast, episode 18.
3:05
And the boys are together tonight. The whole band's here. Back again.
3:09
I could look straight across the cage. Can I wait? And hey, what's that?
3:13
My chair? That was terrible. Yeah, I'm sorry. Don't be doing that. It's fine. Never again.
3:18
If you do it again, you're kicked out. Yeah, you're done. You're done.
3:22
Well, we ain't done shit in the past week. No. I don't think any of us have
3:27
been out chasing snow geese. No.
3:31
Kate's been trying to take some pictures, though. Yeah, and it's not been going well.
3:34
Yeah, I don't know what you're doing, but you've got to change up the strategy.
3:36
Dude, the ducks are still kicking my ass. Yeah, they do.
3:40
That'll happen. I don't know how, dude.
3:43
Like, I went by there today, and there was just so many ducks and honkers and
3:48
specks sitting right there.
3:49
I know, but you go down there, and they say, Ha ha, fuck you.
3:53
I'm going to go 500 yards away from you. gonna you're never
3:56
gonna see me again better change up
4:00
your tactics i guess wear your wait wear a ghillie suit down there dude i legit
4:06
built a cover over a jet sled like i was i was hidden well and then i said fuck
4:13
it and just whatever flew by i was gonna take a picture i just want to take some pictures.
4:19
Well, I'm kind of pumped. I think I'm going to be going snow goose hunting Thursday.
4:24
Dang. That looks like it's going to be a banger day to go snow goose hunting too. Could be.
4:30
Sunny all day and decent wind. So hopefully it's supposed to be raining the
4:34
next two days, I think. Yeah.
4:36
Yeah, Friday it's supposed to rain a shitload. Yeah. I'll just stay inside all day that day.
4:41
Bullshit. Not inside your house anyway. Or your camper. No. You'll be inside
4:46
with me. I'll come help you out.
4:48
Speaking of that, you got your race banquet this weekend. Yeah.
4:51
Yeah. That's going to be fun. Yeah. I'm looking forward to getting hammered at that.
4:57
What are you saying Jesus about over there? Just because I'm probably going to be in the same boat.
5:01
I did confirm that I got Sunday off. So. Oh. We're getting party.
5:07
I might be off Sunday, but I don't know. I might have to travel yet.
5:11
Depends on if we get this job for the crane or not.
5:14
You hoping you do or hoping you don't? Kind of hoping I do. because I need money. It'd be like that.
5:21
Fortunately, they want me to pay the bills.
5:26
Whether or not they get it is a different thing. Yeah, no. Well,
5:30
then a Friday night is the ISC banquet, which I don't... I know you're not going. No.
5:37
You're not going either? I don't think so.
5:39
What a freaking loser you are.
5:42
Gotta work Saturday morning. You're the big Delta guy, and you're not even going,
5:46
and I'm going to sit at the Delta table?
5:48
Yeah, you're taking my spot. Wow.
5:52
Damn, dude, I graciously gave it up for you. He didn't give shit up. All right.
5:58
It was taken before you could give it up. Yeah. Instant roast today.
6:03
Well, we might as well move into the meetings.
6:08
The DNR meetings kicked off tonight. Tonight was the first one,
6:11
and I think it was in Waverly, Iowa.
6:14
I know we talked. I talked to Chris Stevens, and he wasn't able to make it.
6:19
So I don't know who. I don't know if anybody we know went there or not,
6:22
but hopefully they get some good input.
6:25
Tomorrow night is a vast majority of meetings, about half, I think.
6:29
And we'll be at the one in Des Moines and hopefully some of the people back it out to that one. Yeah.
6:35
Should be a good turnout. I talked to Todd today, biologist for our area,
6:40
and I told him a few things that we were going to talk about or bring up and he was all about it.
6:45
He really wants to hear the people's input of what they'd like to see done or changed.
6:50
So I mean they're they like to hear feedback obviously everybody bitches online everybody but nobody,
6:59
actually like will email the people that it matters like that matter that can
7:03
change that stuff for them
7:05
or nobody wants to go to these meetings so the only way you're going to have
7:08
to see something change is by showing up and voicing an opinion or saying like
7:12
if somebody else stands up says hey they want to do this she's done and you
7:15
said you don't say anything,
7:17
that could happen if you're not a fan of it.
7:20
Discuss why you're not a fan of it yeah it's not
7:23
that hard yeah okay he's you
7:26
know like public speaking he's scared of going outside yeah no it's just because
7:30
i don't know how to read and write so well i was just thinking it was because
7:34
you know like the guy off the bench warmers just eating sunscreen hiding in
7:37
the sun you're a little big fan of sunscreen which kind i don't know but you
7:43
gotta go with the high SPF.
7:46
They taste better? It does, yes.
7:49
Not good. I do, I have been told that some of our times on our list that we've
7:56
been posting have been a little off. Sue me.
7:59
Yeah, I wish our PR guy would do better. I swear to God, I checked those like
8:03
four or five times when I made that.
8:05
I also checked my spelling and I still spelled Okaboke, so.
8:11
I don't remember which areas were of concern, but I want to say Charles City
8:16
was one of them, or Council Bluffs, maybe.
8:19
Can't remember. But it was, we have it listed as five, but it actually don't start until 530.
8:24
So it just gets people there early. Yeah. Rather be there early.
8:28
Yeah. Then life. Get fired up. Just get pumped. Yeah.
8:34
No, we'll definitely, all three of us are going to be there unless Cade ends up having to work late.
8:39
And I did see. You should be fine. Did see they're having a walleye dinner.
8:43
So, if you're hungry, you can purchase a ticket for that. Which,
8:47
Cade's scared of eating fish, so.
8:49
I knew I was getting arrested. I should have never said anything.
8:53
Well, maybe you shouldn't be scared of fish. I'm not scared of it.
8:56
I just don't mind. How do you swim in the lake when you're scared of fish?
8:59
I'm not scared of the fish. I just don't want to eat it.
9:03
I didn't want salmon. I said it
9:05
four times. Okay. You're supposed to throw your stuff down and walk out.
9:11
Deuces. What are you looking at over there, Pookie? Nothing. Nothing at all.
9:17
I'm just here. Hanging around?
9:20
Hoping for a good turnout in Des Moines tomorrow. Yeah, that'll be...
9:24
I'm looking forward to just seeing everybody that we haven't seen in a couple
9:28
months now since the season's in.
9:29
Yeah. I mean, there's quite a few guys we talk to at Boat Ramp every day.
9:34
That's the only time we talk to them is at the Boat Ramp. Yep.
9:36
So we see them two months a year, and then we don't see them again for the next 10. Yeah.
9:41
That'll be fun. What great friends we are. I hate people.
9:45
Mostly the people in this room. Damn, dude. Boom, roasted. I feel like the vast
9:50
majority feel the same. Yeah.
9:55
Hey, what's this button on this camera? Don't. No, Huffy.
10:02
Yeah. God, you confused me. Got that grandpa brain. I know. Getting old.
10:08
He's all flustered. Getting old sucks.
10:11
Anything else we needed to discuss that's coming up or going on? Oh, giveaway.
10:18
I'm going to get those blinds cleaned up this week here, and we'll get some
10:22
pictures of those, and we will start that giveaway this week.
10:26
It'll be two Alps blinds. And honestly, I think they're the most comfortable Alps blind.
10:31
But I just don't like how the doors lay on you.
10:34
Yeah, that's the only part that I don't like. Yeah, other than that, great nap blind.
10:38
You can forget the whole hunt and just sleep through it, honestly,
10:42
in those things. It's easy.
10:44
But hopefully we can get that going this week. I know we've talked a little about it.
10:49
We haven't finalized everything. but it'll probably be like
10:51
we'll make a facebook post and we'll pin it to our page and we'll
10:55
share it once a week also you have
10:58
you'll have to follow the facebook and the instagram page and
11:02
comment on it and the one blind is going to be given away to anybody and the
11:07
other blind will be given away to somebody that is 18 or younger probably 18
11:13
or younger or 21 or younger one of the two somewhere in that range but try to
11:16
give it away to somebody that's getting into the sport or help somebody get
11:20
into the sport that don't have,
11:22
everything to do it or the money to buy at Layout Blind.
11:24
I feel like 18 is pretty safe. At 21, I feel like you can either...
11:28
You should have a job. Yeah. I think it could work. Lazy bums.
11:34
But that'll be, that'll be something we'll do. We'll run that for a while.
11:37
It'll be probably ran for at least a month. I don't know.
11:41
We'll, we'll have some more details come out on that this week.
11:44
Yeah. But that's kind of what we're thinking.
11:46
I'm guessing I'm fired from making flyers, so I won't.
11:50
Oh, no, you're going to have to redeem yourself. No, that's all you can.
11:53
No, it's not me. You can be the one that gets ripped.
11:56
Oh, that's why it's got to be you. You're the PR guy. You were hired for that.
12:01
Where's my paycheck? You didn't get them? I mailed them a month ago.
12:07
Wrong address, I'm guessing. Yeah, had to be. Probably went to Okapoke. Oh, damn.
12:13
Have fun. Yeah.
12:17
Well, this week, we got kind of some exciting, an exciting topic to talk about.
12:23
A little bit of news that a lot of people that hunt our area don't know about.
12:27
And I don't think that DNR has really released it yet, kind of from what I was
12:31
told tonight. talking to Todd from our biologist's area.
12:35
He's announcing it tomorrow, but we're going to go in and do it today.
12:38
Close enough. Yeah. He's doing it at the meeting. We're doing it now.
12:41
People won't hear the podcast till tomorrow, so technically it's the same day.
12:45
Bro, we're live. What do you mean? Yeah, but nobody listens to this.
12:48
Yeah. That's just, it's just Brockmire and Neuendorf in there anyways.
12:52
Are they in there? I have no idea. August is probably listening,
12:56
driving down the road. Yeah.
12:57
He's probably trying to type something up and just keeps misspelling everything, so it's Lisa. No.
13:02
It's fine. We'll get his comment near the end of the podcast.
13:06
Yeah, at least halfway. Yeah. At least.
13:09
But I don't want to say what that topic is until we get to that.
13:13
So we'll roll into kind of like the spring migration that's going on here,
13:16
the reverse migration, birds heading back.
13:19
Man, are there a lot of birds around right now. Yeah, that migration's ripping.
13:23
I always love this time of year because we don't get to see fully plumed spoonies during duck season.
13:29
I wish we could shoot some of these. Yeah. Because there's some pretty ones out there.
13:33
It's just weird, though. Like, this year... I've been doing the photo stuff
13:38
for, like... Probably three years, four years, something like that.
13:41
Normally, I shit you not... You can stand out there in a blaze orange t-shirt...
13:44
And take pictures of ducks at five feet. This year, they're, like...
13:50
Get fucked. Dude, they've been getting pounded for the past,
13:52
like, four months. I know, but they've had a little bit of a break.
13:56
Normally when they come back, they're like, hey, let's party.
13:58
We can be friends again. You know what? You don't have a gun.
14:00
We'll party with you. Yeah, I just want to take some pictures.
14:03
They got one thing on their mind, and that's to get north to make babies.
14:07
That's it. Dude, I'm pumped. Hopefully they get back and they get to fucking. Yeah.
14:14
Nah. Hopefully the Prairie Pothole region up there gets some snow before too
14:19
long here. or we just start getting rain early.
14:22
We definitely, eastern North Dakota is not a drought, but I'd imagine with the
14:27
lack of snow they got, they're probably on the verge of going back into drought status.
14:31
On the plus side, I did see that here in Iowa, we're supposed to get like an inch of rain on Friday.
14:36
So hopefully that, yeah, somehow gets up that way too.
14:40
I seen southeast Iowa's getting upwards of three.
14:43
Yeah, that's a lot. Over this week, that's a lot of rain. Yeah.
14:46
Well, just the last couple of days, like the northern part of Missouri, got rick with rain too.
14:53
So, yeah. Hopefully it just keeps pushing itself back up north.
14:57
Yeah, hopefully. I know like Alberta and Saskatchewan, like northwest Saskatchewan
15:03
and like central to northern Alberta.
15:06
They really need rain. And that's where a lot of our birds come from.
15:09
You're right. Alberta, Saskatchewan.
15:11
We don't get many of the ducks from the Dakotas.
15:14
Those ones burn through early and peace out. Yeah. Deuces.
15:17
They're straight to Mexico. So those are the high flyers that don't change their
15:22
wing beats as they go over us. No, straight to the flooded corners.
15:27
Yeah.
15:31
Actually, I did see somebody say on Facebook, it was a podcast, but he said,
15:38
mallards can get up and fly and they will fly straight from where they,
15:43
the breeding ground at a hundred mile an hour straight to South America.
15:47
Didn't he say like 120 or something? Yeah, I think he was like 120.
15:50
It was insane. And I'm like, all right, dude, you should just go ahead and stop. Yeah.
15:55
They don't. The average Mallard, I think, migrates at 60 mile an hour.
16:00
Yeah. I think it's actually 30 to 50 is their average speed.
16:03
But they can fly upwards of 100 mile an hour, but they don't ever do that.
16:08
No, it's very rare. Yeah.
16:10
Gotta have a major tailwind and just have a reason to get out of town.
16:14
It was just wild that he said that they just do that frequently.
16:19
No, straight up. They go that all the time. They get up out of North Dakota
16:22
and just go straight to South America. Dude, they don't even kill Mallards in South America.
16:27
They don't have any down there. But hey, so are we just putting the GPS trackers on the slow ones or what?
16:33
Like, do we need to start having like race pigeons with mallards or what do we do?
16:38
Come on, dude. How do you think those ducks get the GPS trackers?
16:41
Not by... Yeah, it's not a bad stuff. It's definitely the little slow ones.
16:47
It's probably because they're so young they can't fly when they get them.
16:51
They're just so full of corn they can't get up and fly. Yeah. Yeah, fuck.
16:58
That little bow tie was fucking funny. Bow tie. Oh, we're going to have to drop that.
17:05
Yeah. Pookie hasn't even seen that, has he? I don't think so.
17:08
I don't think so, no. Oh, it's good. Dude, I got it.
17:11
Did I save it to my phone? I have it.
17:15
If I save it to my phone, I can pull it up on here. Really easy to check.
17:19
I'll show Pookie, though.
17:22
I did not. I can go to our conversation real quick and save it,
17:25
though. That's my kind of duck right there. The little bow tie with the straw hat.
17:30
Fuck yeah. Was it the last one you sent? Or was it the one with the mustache?
17:34
No, the mustache one got grainy.
17:37
Oh yeah, okay. It's this one right here. I'll save us. I'll get that pulled
17:41
up here on my computer in a second. We'll show the viewers the photos that we
17:45
did last week after the podcast was over.
17:48
Yeah, mind you, this was at 10.13pm that I saved this. Yeah,
17:52
no, we stayed up way too late that night after the podcast was over.
17:57
For absolutely zero reason. Literally just to make dumb shit on AI.
18:01
Yeah. It was funny. Hey, I mean, I had a good time.
18:05
Did you not have fun? Oh, it was great. I drank way too many beers.
18:09
I counted the beers I drank that night after the next morning.
18:14
You had to have at least eight. No, I had 12. I drank most of them after the podcast.
18:20
Like after the podcast was over, I was ripping them.
18:24
That is fair. I only have like four sitting over here. Yes.
18:29
It's got a... I don't know if it'll upload in here. It's still not.
18:33
You just said you could. Come on. Well, it's not my photo album,
18:37
bro. What did it happen, dude?
18:39
I don't know what you guys were doing on Sunday, but... Oh, you know what?
18:44
We can share an example of the Pokemon cards that we're working on. Oh, boy.
18:51
We're all five. Okay.
18:55
Ready? Oh, here it comes.
18:59
This is rough draft. We're, we're still working out the kinks on these,
19:03
but we haven't done any of the actual wording of it.
19:07
That's just straight up AI doing its thing. It knows what's happening. Yeah. No.
19:11
So that he's on autopilot. It checks out.
19:14
I hear it. I even fixed on this one. I even fixed the horsepower.
19:19
I don't think it's actually a horsepower, but I fixed the HPF. No, it's points.
19:25
I have never played Pokemon. I haven't. I have no idea, but I saw that and it
19:30
said 120 and I'm like, it's actually a 115.
19:34
We'll put that on there. Yeah. It's only fair.
19:37
Yeah. No, I mean, that's exciting stuff right there that we're making some high
19:40
progress there. Hopefully get those released out to the public eventually.
19:44
We're going to have to make, dude, those are going to be collector status.
19:47
Dude, we're going to have to make stickers and just put them on the back of
19:50
people's trucks and boxcars. Yeah.
19:52
Yeah. That'd be awesome. On the back of trucks, up inside of boats, all of them.
19:58
Everybody that just hates us and despises us just start putting Pokemon cards on. Yep.
20:03
Or Pokemon. So, not Pokemon. Pokemon cards.
20:07
I thought we were doing Pokemon. No, Pokemon. Are we doing Pokemon?
20:10
Yeah. So everyone at Boxcars is getting one something that they... Yeah.
20:16
Dawson especially. We'll just litter his truck with him. Dude,
20:19
his whole back glass is going to be just covered. Good shield.
20:22
All of it. Man, I sure do love Pokemon.
20:28
Good times. But back to what we were talking about with spring migration.
20:34
I wish we got the amount of specs that we have right now.
20:37
Dude, 100%. I mean, could you imagine the specs that we'd kill? Yeah.
20:42
It'd be freaking nuts. I don't know. So I can't remember what you guys had going
20:46
on on Sunday, but when I was sending you guys those videos, like flying over
20:50
our house, it just so happened like Sunday was a nicer day.
20:53
So we had the windows open in the house. I think we were actually cooking.
20:57
And I hear a group of specks like low over the house.
21:00
And I just haul everything, telling my wife, I'm like, be quiet.
21:04
Like, what side of the house do I need to go to, to see where these birds are?
21:08
Just walking outside taking videos and she's just she's like this guy legitimately
21:14
cares more about these words than he does about me,
21:17
hey that's that's tough he knows her clicks,
21:21
god damn man I hope she don't listen to this podcast when she hears it she doesn't
21:27
yeah thank goodness for your mental health she has to listen to us talk on the
21:30
phone for three hours a day some days,
21:34
that is fair yeah.
21:37
Then the snows, they're starting. We got a lot of, we're getting the adults
21:43
to flow through now. Yeah. Beginning of stages.
21:46
It's just going to get better. All the guys around here are starting to shoot
21:49
them. I heard reports that some guys were shooting them a boxcar.
21:51
Damn. I don't know how much truth there is to that or if that actually happened,
21:55
but I heard some guys shot some up there on the lake.
21:57
Did you ever figure out if that was a spread? No.
22:02
I really wanted to drive out there farther or just get my lazy ass out of the
22:06
truck and walk out there.
22:07
But fuck that I almost died today on my wall that just to look at a decoy yeah,
22:15
I don't know I looked at them through binoculars it looked a lot like
22:17
decoys in there I don't know they may or may not have been decoys but I was
22:23
out there for was that the night that I was out there yeah it was a day you
22:28
were out there more during the daylight yeah I left there at like 430 that's
22:32
about when I pulled down there so I feel like I would have seen them go down over there,
22:37
if they were real birds right right yeah i
22:40
did i definitely did not see them it could be
22:43
a bunch of seagulls though that is true that was a
22:46
shitload there i was far enough away but at
22:49
the same time i stared at them for a while through the binos binos
22:52
and i didn't see them move like there were seagulls
22:55
landing around them but the ones
22:58
that were there were there never moved so that's why
23:01
i think they were decoys i wouldn't be
23:04
too surprised honestly oh it'd be a good spot to hunt like the adults don't
23:08
really hit that area but the the Jubies do yeah I'm about to go Thursday I hope
23:14
we have a banger hunt I need one more good banger hunt in my life I hope it
23:18
sucks yeah just because I have to work I hope you don't shoot a damn thing.
23:23
And I need that would be of most disrespect. I hope he... I need a mind with respect.
23:28
I hope he's fair. Okay, you said respect. I hope he gets like 18 flat tires.
23:32
I think every time he gets one fixed, the other one goes flat. That's fine.
23:37
Just a road, like a revolving door of flat tires. It's just going around the car.
23:43
I'm going to have to check Jackson Street for tax on Thursday.
23:48
Yeah. I definitely checked your stuff. Yeah.
23:51
Fun fact, Tyler just bought a suppressor and he's not actually hunting.
23:57
No, that'll be fun. Not looking forward to the drive there that morning because
24:00
I think we're going about three hours away.
24:04
But that's where the Jubies are.
24:06
What time are you guys getting to the field? Do you know? I don't know.
24:09
We talked for like three minutes today and then I got another phone call.
24:13
Actually, it was you that called. And I was like, I better take this.
24:17
Why? I think it was you. You know I'm not calling to go hunting,
24:20
bud. No, but you might have had something stupid to say, and I don't want to
24:23
miss out on something. Oh, I definitely did. Yeah. No, exactly. See?
24:27
Was I wrong? No. You were wrong for answering the phone, though.
24:32
He's fact-checking himself right now. Yeah, it was you. Cool. Yeah.
24:38
You got the pleasure of talking to both of us on the phone today.
24:41
It was terrible. It was a long day. Not much of a pleasure. No.
24:46
You'll get over it. Probably not. Emotionally scarred from that. Yeah.
24:51
Well, let's roll into this week's topic.
24:55
Let's get into it, because there's a lot of info to come into on this,
24:58
and if there's people actually in here watching this, which it looks like Cooper's
25:01
there, ask me where I'm going to snuggle something at.
25:04
Not telling you. Do you know where Boone Speedway's at? Nowhere.
25:10
I've been waiting for the perfect fucking time to think about this podcast,
25:14
and it finally happened. I'm going up by Fargo, North Dakota. though.
25:19
Wow, it only takes you three hours to get to Fargo? I'm a private jet. Oh.
25:24
Police escort. The people I'm hunting with have money. Money, money.
25:29
That side act is just something else.
25:33
I'm still waiting for Tyler to tell us that he's actually rich and like this
25:37
has been a friendship test this whole time. We don't have to work anymore.
25:42
Come on now, Cade's the one with the race car money. He's got all these cars
25:46
and stuff, you know. He's got to have money.
25:48
I don't know where the fuck you think race cars and money come into the same realm.
25:54
Race cars cost money, so I have zero. Yeah, exactly. You have so much money,
25:57
you're just throwing it away. I know, I have negative money because I'm a fucking idiot.
26:03
We can change that. I can put some shit for sale for you.
26:08
I don't think we can change it. He's a fucking idiot. I mean,
26:11
that's just permanent. Yeah.
26:13
Fully permanent. Doesn't matter what I'm doing, I'm just a fucking idiot.
26:16
Well, if I sell all your stuff, and you have more money. I mean,
26:19
that'll at least give you like plus two in the intelligence department.
26:23
But if you sell it, I'm not going to have the money.
26:26
Yeah, no, I'll give it to you. I'll just sell it for you. Yeah,
26:29
but you don't know what it's worth.
26:31
Yeah. Ten bucks. The whole lot.
26:36
Damn. To answer you, Cooper, yeah, I will be over in that general area Thursday all day.
26:43
So, hit me up, shoot me a message. Maybe get lunch or something.
26:47
Don't know I'm not the one leading the hunt so take some stickers oh yeah I like it I'm.
26:53
I have some up there if you need some. I got plenty. I got 50.
26:57
I think I do too. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're in my truck and my glove box.
27:01
But yeah, no, it should be a message on Thursday. And if we take a break for
27:04
lunch, maybe we can head up somewhere for lunch. Go from there.
27:09
Anyways, back to what we were getting at here. Anywho, the topic for this week
27:15
is a brand new wetland project that they just completed this winter in our area.
27:22
There may be an addition to it it sounds like pookie's got a lot more info on
27:26
that i know they're in the process of getting all the logistics figured out for that,
27:31
but this is going to be exciting stuff i mean if we can get water in that area
27:35
consistently where they put this project is going to be awesome that's going
27:40
to be sick yeah i feel like it's like the story of everywhere else around here
27:45
though like it'll be really sick as long as we have water,
27:49
yeah but so this place is a lot it's it's
27:52
completely different than the places we have in place now because the
27:55
other places we have now are relying on pumps to pump water in there and you
28:00
got to get money from the state for that this place somebody just got out there
28:05
and just put pull pull the gates up to allow the creek to fill up and flood the area right so get out.
28:16
The name of it's going to be, I'm going to guess, we don't know the official
28:20
name, but probably Coal Creek Wetland Management Area or something around that area.
28:25
It's located just north of Highway 5 between Pleasantville and Hartford, Iowa. Yep.
28:34
Yeah, if you look on your map, it doesn't quite run from Highway 5 to 316 yet.
28:39
From what I understand, the addition they want to put onto it will make it run basically to 316.
28:45
Yeah. From Highway 5. Yeah. Basically up to the privately owned properties on 316.
28:52
Which I can see that because when I went there today, the levee is right there at that line.
28:58
It's a hike. Like, I walked back to the, because we weren't sure if this place
29:03
would have done personally. Like, we weren't 100% sure on that.
29:06
We'd heard about it for the past year or two, something like that, that it was in the works.
29:11
But every time I've passed by there, I've never seen equipment down there.
29:14
Yeah. So I would have never guessed that it was run. They must have been making
29:17
them at night. Thirsty? Yes.
29:20
So I talked to the lead, the head engineer on the project today.
29:25
I think, was it John, I think? I think that's what you said.
29:28
And he's like no it's done we've been done since november i'm like what and
29:32
he's like yeah it's done i was down there today and we were they were spreading seed on the levees.
29:37
And then I talked to Todd today, which will be the guy that's running the meeting
29:42
here in Des Moines tomorrow night. Todd Gosling, right? Yep.
29:46
Yep. Pretty nice guy. I mean, he was pretty cool. I talked to him for,
29:49
I talked to him for like 20 minutes, talked to, John was a talker.
29:52
I talked to him for like 30 or 40 minutes.
29:55
And then I talked to Oren about that and just other things, but it was pretty cool.
30:01
When they said that it was done, I mean, I was like, as soon as I heard that,
30:03
I'm like, no, I'm going down there to check this out.
30:06
I walked. It was about 0.6 of a mile to just the water control structure dog.
30:14
And then that's not even to where you'd really want to hunt at.
30:17
And that's no decoys, no shells, no blind bag.
30:20
That was a hoodie, jeans, and some comfortable shoes to wear walking out there,
30:24
not waders and 50 pounds of clothing and decoys and everything else.
30:29
That was terrible. Yeah, that'd be one that you might want to walk in with.
30:33
Like if you're going to walk down the dam, especially, or the dike,
30:36
whatever you want to call it, you're going to walk down that and definitely don't wear your waders.
30:39
No, throw those over your shoulder dog and go on a light little walk.
30:44
I will be utilizing that wader bag that I have specifically for that. Nightwell. Okay.
30:52
Guys do that i'll just go ahead and use the sneak boat with the
30:55
trolling motor yeah be set speaking of trolling motor
30:57
so that's one thing i'm excited about for that place so
31:01
all of our areas that are made around here
31:04
you can take whatever you want on it there's no restrictions right
31:07
i don't think there's one that has a restriction on
31:10
us they'll have boat ramps yeah so
31:14
this place it has restrictions it's
31:17
walk-in or you can bring kayaks or
31:20
boats but only electric motors so trolling
31:23
motors pretty much unless you got a bunch of money you want to buy an electric
31:26
motor i think mercury makes one now think about it yeah i now have a gofundme
31:31
page for it so i'll i'll post the link after this podcast is over see when i
31:36
get my checks for doing the being the pr guy yes hopefully Yeah,
31:41
hopefully they'll show up.
31:43
If not, I'll cancel them and I'll send new ones, you know.
31:48
But I know that's going to be a thing, walk in, and kayaks, electric motors.
31:55
So that's, I personally really like that. It's going to keep people from just
31:58
going out there and running around on their boat and pushing birds out.
32:02
And you can, a guy can kayak through an area and be, if there's like cattails,
32:08
thick cattails, he can kayak right along that and not scare ducks up 10 feet away from them.
32:12
Yeah. So the pressure that's going to be on those birds in there,
32:14
I feel like is going to be far less than everywhere else we have right now. Yeah.
32:19
That'll be nice yeah that'll be sick for sure the only thing that i wonder is if,
32:24
like i feel you said there's going to be like a lake area
32:27
there right or like a deeper part so there's already a lake there there's a
32:30
pond out there now and he said it's four foot deep right now and in that particular
32:36
area there's they're planning and hoping for about four foot more water on top
32:40
of that so and there's already little ditches and stuff down there now so,
32:46
they didn't do any grade work out there on any of that stuff.
32:49
They just built dikes and levees and called it good. Yeah.
32:53
Which, cool, whatever. It's another public area to access for waterfowl hunting.
32:59
And if it doesn't have water on it, it could be good pheasant ground,
33:01
which I know guys pheasant hunt that area now and utilize it for that.
33:05
But we're running out of areas for waterfowl hunting.
33:10
Like, there's less and less of it every day. But lands are drying up or getting
33:14
drain tile put in the fields,
33:16
and the resource is going away more than it's coming about so to hear about
33:21
a new project going in and making more area for the resource aka the ducks or
33:27
geese is awesome to hear no matter what they do with it the only thing that
33:32
I will say about like having a,
33:34
basically a strictly walk-in area minus kayaks and towing motors and stuff like
33:38
that I almost feel like to do it the safest way you almost have to have like a uh,
33:45
I hate to even say like a gauge on it, but you'd about have to do a gauge to have your water height.
33:51
But then like you could have like that pond area, you know, it's four foot deep
33:56
the way it is. You're probably not going to wade it regardless.
33:59
So have a map of where that's at. Go ahead. There.
34:05
But I feel like, you know, like those, those little back areas that don't always have water.
34:12
Those little octopus? Yeah. When they get water, they could still be six foot deep.
34:17
I feel like that's going to be kind of dangerous at some point.
34:21
See, I don't think those areas will be very deep.
34:23
I think I know where that pond is that he's talking about, and it's closer to the highway.
34:27
But, I mean, I would imagine that they can probably get us a map or make a map
34:34
public of predicted water depths at max pool.
34:38
Like, I don't think that'll be very hard to do because you can go off of the elevation.
34:41
I'm sure they ran elevation through the whole area. before they built
34:44
the area just because the engineer had to so i
34:48
don't think that's out of the realm of possibilities to get is a map
34:51
with predicted max water depth for certain areas and even if not that'd be something
34:56
cool like in the old season if they would let us just take like my little boat
35:01
we could go out there and figure out like the places that have water how deep
35:04
they are with quote-unquote no water in the thing and.
35:10
Mind colton's got the elevations right i've
35:14
seen that perfect yeah oh they
35:17
had to yeah i mean when you're engineering a
35:20
project like that you got to run elevation on it so that you know how
35:23
much or how high to build your dikes right but
35:26
i feel like that will be there should be a way that you can find
35:29
that publicly there will i'm sure there will be because that especially
35:33
when it starts getting down to like 28 30 degrees and it's not quite frozen
35:36
yet that can get really dangerous really fast right well because like all the
35:41
mario's i hunt in michigan when i'm working up there and hunting yeah they have
35:45
maps and they have water depths like it says it'll be 12 to 18 inches.
35:51
I have and i have the some of the documents to colton but they don't like from
35:57
what i've seen unless you have another one what i've seen they don't have a
36:00
a map of the of the area with like circles, or not circles, but like a,
36:08
elevation map, basically. Yeah.
36:10
To show water depths in that certain area. And then, because some of the areas
36:15
of Michigan, they'll have a map of a field and then the field's not flat.
36:19
Because they don't flatten them, they just build levees and pump it full.
36:21
But they'll show, in this area, like say blinds 3 through 4,
36:25
because those are all blinds up there.
36:26
3, 4, and 5 have 12 to 18 inches of water.
36:31
Blinds 6, 7, 8 have 18 to 24 inches you know surely they'll have something like
36:37
that they'll release too I'd imagine I'd find it hard to believe they wouldn't yeah.
36:43
Feel like that's the only way that it's like legitimately safe
36:47
other than that i'm just like on a crapshoot like yeah
36:50
am i gonna step off into the shelf and never be
36:53
seen again or wear your life check yeah no shit well especially for a project
36:58
that you will be able to weigh the vast majority of it it just has those deeper
37:03
pockets as well too like yeah i mean that's the one thing you don't want to
37:08
happen to see him get bird or obviously anything worse than that.
37:12
Yeah. No, and if you're listening to this and you're looking forward to hunting
37:17
that or you're planning on hunting that this year if we do get water,
37:20
because it's going to be Mother Nature reliant completely.
37:23
Like if the creek has no water, it's not going to have any water.
37:27
But if you're worried about the water depth, just reach out the top and he'll
37:30
get you the info you need.
37:31
He's got all that on hand or will have that on hand and he'll be able to get you that or,
37:37
draw you if he doesn't have like the exact map he'll be able to tell you and
37:40
draw you a map hey avoid this area it's gonna be too deep and
37:44
that's what he's there for is to answer your questions and
37:47
help you out one thing i wanted to discuss on that too is how do we think that's
37:53
gonna affect the hunting in our area like it's i'm not saying it's a bad thing
37:57
by any means it's a great it's a great thing but how do we think it's gonna
37:59
affect the hunting in all of their like Hartford, Ronald, Swan, Boxcar.
38:04
I mean, what do you think, Pookie, that could... What do you think it could change?
38:10
If it holds water, it will 100% hold birds. Like, no doubt in my mind, just...
38:18
Mean purely statistical based
38:20
on like flight paths and everything and how often we see birds bouncing.
38:25
Bouncing back from sailorville to red rock and
38:28
that like i mean it's almost directly
38:32
like within that flight line and we
38:35
actually hunt have hunted a couple fields
38:38
around there as well too and even with no
38:41
water down there we see how many birds are in that
38:44
area so i mean if it holds water like
38:47
i have a feeling that it could be a
38:50
very very good opportunity for a
38:53
lot of people again that like don't have boats and like
38:57
don't especially the other crowd yeah absolutely especially
39:01
yeah i mean if people are willing to make the hike in like i could very well
39:07
see that place being packed well it'll help spread out the hunters too like
39:11
yeah like the pressure in hartford and runnels because a lot of the Des Moines
39:16
people that come and hunt are down here,
39:19
they don't want to go to Box Park because of the people that are there.
39:22
But they have kayaks or whatever, so they go hunt for a miles.
39:25
It'll take the pressure off of those areas, so maybe those areas will get better
39:28
too because this area will help spread the birds out and less pressure. Yeah.
39:33
The cool thing is too, like you were just saying, it'll spread everything out
39:37
and then obviously, I mean you kind of touched on it, but it'll make everything
39:40
else better too without all of the pressure being focused on those two or three different areas.
39:45
For sure. And that could be a huge game changer.
39:49
There's no area right now these ducks have other than going out in the main lake.
39:53
And even there, they're not safe because guys like me come across the mainland
39:56
from Elk Rock and scare them up.
39:58
I mean, it doesn't happen very often and it's less stressful than them hiding
40:02
the willows and then boats running through there all the time.
40:05
That's harder on the birds. It makes them move on quicker. So maybe this will
40:08
help us hold birds longer too.
40:11
That's one thing I really hope it does. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we hold birds
40:15
longer and hold more birds.
40:16
I mean, it's just 800 to 900 total acres of wetlands.
40:21
Which is huge. Yeah. That's massive. I mean, that's not pounding what's on the
40:26
other, like the south side of Highway 5.
40:27
Correct. So that is only on the north side of Highway 5.
40:31
So one has to believe even the south side of Highway 5, like, even in,
40:37
like, when we don't have a bunch of rain or are not holding a whole bunch of
40:42
water, like, it is still pretty wet over there, so. Well, that area holds water over here.
40:47
Right. And not the whole thing, but in pockets. Yeah, absolutely.
40:51
So, I mean, that could really make that south side, like, hold a whole bunch
40:56
of birds and just be a great opportunity for public land hunters.
41:01
Yeah, for sure. What the engineer did say today that that will,
41:05
because basically how this area is built is it's just got a one water control
41:10
structure and it's just gates.
41:12
They just raise the gate to stop the flow of the creek and let the creek raise and flood the area.
41:18
He said whenever it does that, it will flood the south side of five and it'll flood it pretty good.
41:24
So like the whole, whole public area over there is going to have water.
41:27
And there will be so we might touch on this real quick there'll be access to
41:32
this area off of Cleveland Street right yep and that is a parking lot gravel.
41:37
You gotta you gotta hike to get to where you need to go from there you better
41:41
off with a bike I recommend yeah,
41:44
But then you can park on Highway 5 off the shoulder, get all the way off the road.
41:47
Don't leave your mirror hanging over the lines. Get out of the way.
41:51
That way you don't get nothing messed up or towed.
41:55
But you are allowed to park off the highway to access it from the south side
41:59
or come in from the south to go to the north.
42:02
And then you can also do the same thing to hunt the south side.
42:05
Or you can go over Fillmore Street which is a gravel road and park on that and
42:10
access the south side of Five area from there and walk in.
42:14
So there's a couple points but really there's only one parking lot. Yeah.
42:19
Which kind of sucks. Yeah. I mean, yeah, they are very much emphasizing the walk-in portion of it.
42:26
I mean, you're going to have to you're going to have to work for it. It's a walk for sure.
42:31
Do you think with it being, you know, you're going to put some effort to hunt
42:35
this place unless you got the perfect setup like you got you got an electric motor
42:39
and you're taking a nice little boat out there whether it's
42:42
a snake boat or whatever or whatever but do you think a lot of people are going
42:47
to be scared off because of that to walk like it's not going to be an easy place
42:50
to hunt like it's going to be putting some work but also it could be very rewarding
42:55
like that area can hold a lot of birds and that's what i was going to say too
42:58
like it might shy people away.
43:01
When we don't have a lot of birds around but like Austin said that thing will
43:05
hurt will hold birds no doubt about it and people are going to get hungry enough
43:10
that they're like fuck it let's go walk a mile,
43:13
I mean like me and Pookie Talk I hope it holds water this year and we get to
43:18
try it out like I'm pumped for it like it's it's going to be awesome,
43:21
probably going to try it during the weekday because I think weekends could probably
43:24
be a little western in there with it being just opening up but.
43:29
It could be awesome if you put in the effort. Yeah, the cool thing is,
43:32
too, we're lucky enough. We have my sneak boat, your sneak boat.
43:37
I have a small boat that we can get a trolling motor for. We can make it really easy.
43:41
But are we going to do that? Probably not.
43:44
I think we'll be dipshits and walk in like the rest of the people and get there at midnight.
43:50
All sorts of fun shit. I'm getting a saddle for Ellie or a car wagon that she
43:56
can pull me behind. Might be her and Hank. That's fine. We can ring a ball.
44:01
You can imagine the look that those two dogs would give us if we hooked them
44:05
up and said, get mush. Just pull on Arkansas and get a horse.
44:09
I want to see Pokey right at first.
44:12
I'll do it. Do you want to talk a little bit about what you and Todd were talking
44:17
about, about the seeding and what their plans are with that? Yeah.
44:22
So, on a perfect year, obviously, right?
44:26
They are going to keep it agriculture. So they're agricultural.
44:29
So there's still be corn, which means this could be our first flooded corn for
44:34
our area that we have had in a long time.
44:37
I didn't get into 100% like the specifics on that.
44:40
Like I'd imagine is they're going to start flooding it like sometime in August, maybe early September.
44:48
Know for sure if they're going to leave standing corn or if they're going to
44:50
cut silage, which I would assume they're going to leave some standing corn,
44:52
but then also mow strips for silage, but, or they just plant strips in certain
44:58
areas and then have whatever natural grass or millet in between.
45:02
I'm sure there'll be some soybeans planted down there still.
45:05
I'm sure they'll do the crop rotation.
45:06
I don't imagine they do crack corn every year in all the fields,
45:09
but there is I think four separate fields down there Is it three or four,
45:15
I want to say four That's what I think too I was just down there today No so
45:25
it's three As of what they have built right now It's three separate but two
45:28
of them kind of like connect,
45:30
But there will be It's going to be a cool area There's flooded timber There will be flooded timber,
45:36
You're going to have your natural grasses grow So, you're going to,
45:40
like, so on a wet year, they're going to try and plant millet as soon as they
45:44
can and get millet in down there.
45:46
You know, when they can't get crops in there, which would be awesome.
45:48
I mean, the years they have corn in there, if they get water at the right time
45:53
in the fall, that'll be crazy for us. Western. For the area.
45:58
But that's kind of their plan. They hope to do agricultural every year.
46:02
I don't know the logistics and the specifics on it, what they plan on doing,
46:06
but that'll be big for the area.
46:09
Yeah, 100%, any source of food that they can get down in there will obviously
46:16
help the sport, help continue to bring ducks back, ducks and geese back to that area year after year.
46:23
The cool thing is too, like you said, with that flooding the south side of Highway
46:28
5, I mean, that's a lot of flooded willows back in there too.
46:33
So that's a lot of protection for them that, honestly, I don't really feel like
46:37
a lot of people even look at that. No.
46:40
So that's going to be like their little refuge back there. The thermal protection
46:43
these birds are going to gain. It's insane. It's nuts.
46:45
Yeah, yeah. And we'll be able to hold birds later than what...
46:49
And it's going to be very beneficial for us for the long run if we can help water in that. For sure.
46:54
I'd imagine, so, it doesn't say how many acres that is. The whole thing.
47:03
Okay, so what will be flooded south of Highway 5 will probably be around another
47:08
80 to 100 acres, roughly, which is a pretty good size. Yeah, absolutely.
47:14
When you click on it, it says 243 acres.
47:18
But that includes the highway and then going up five to the west a little bit,
47:24
so I'd say you're looking at 80 to 100 acres that's going to have water and
47:28
up five to the west is a big hill,
47:32
there's nothing up there getting flooded but I mean it's going to have water
47:37
because there's already a pond down there now by Fillmore Street where you can
47:39
access that public area I bet you it holds water somewhere close to that region
47:44
because even on like on X topo map, it's about the same elevation through there.
47:49
If not, I'd say on the lowest side you'll see water in there is about 50 extra
47:55
acres, which is still substantial.
47:57
I mean, that's great for the sport and for our area.
48:01
Now, do you guys think it'll help us say perfect world, perfect year,
48:06
we get the right amount of rain at the right times, and this place has got all
48:12
the crops they've made, one of the plants in it, everything grew up nice,
48:15
flooded on time, Duck suits started Will it help us hold more birds?
48:20
The most we hold now is like 20,000 a year. Do you think it's going to up that count?
48:25
Do you think we'll see an uptick on birds through the coming years?
48:29
I feel like there's no way it doesn't.
48:32
Yeah. Like you were saying, especially like the thermal protection in the willows
48:36
and then obviously like the perfect years where we have crops in there and obviously,
48:43
like you said, we don't know if they're going to keep them or get rid of the crops.
48:47
But still, I mean, you're not going to get every kernel of corn out of there.
48:50
There's no way not with the equipment DNR. You, it's not brand new stuff. Like top of the line.
48:56
I just think like thinking of it in a very logical standpoint,
49:00
like anytime you add that much, like it's never going to bring your numbers down.
49:07
So, I mean, obviously all the land and area that you can add is only going to benefit now.
49:14
We see an uptick of birds or they
49:18
just spread out more or they stay longer like i'm
49:21
i'm very interested to see like i'm i'm hoping
49:24
honestly we get us as much rain early this year as we did last year so it allows
49:31
water to get in there early and just kind of take it from there and see how
49:34
that goes absolutely and yeah no i agree with you trent trent said it'll take
49:39
a few years but I mean, yeah, theoretically,
49:42
we should see more birds. And I completely agree.
49:44
Like, it's not going to be, don't expect this year they flood it perfect year
49:48
and we have the right water and it's just going to be bang right away. Like, it could be good.
49:52
But I don't think it's going to affect how many ducks we hold,
49:56
like, drastically for the next five, like, for, you'll see an increase in numbers in five years.
50:03
From now to 2030, 2031, I think we could be looking back at it and say,
50:08
yeah, this really helped us hold, let's just say 5,000 more ducks a year,
50:11
which would be, to be awesome. Yeah.
50:12
Just a steady incline. Yeah. And the cool thing is like, it might not be great
50:18
for holding birds, but for hunting birds, it can be bad-ass.
50:22
Well, so look back at the, like we talked earlier for the podcast, the year of the flood.
50:28
Yeah, that was nuts. That area was awesome. And it's perfect that they're building
50:32
a spot there because I've always thought like, man, I wish I had,
50:34
I don't know why they never done anything with this. Right.
50:36
And I said that years ago to, I don't know, before I met you guys to people.
50:42
And now that it's happened, it's like, oh, this is great. Like,
50:45
yeah, it doesn't get, this isn't a bad thing by any means. Not by any stretch.
50:50
So I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to hunting it and I'm not
50:53
looking forward to walking in, but I'm looking forward to hunting it and trying
50:55
it and seeing people have success in there.
50:57
Like I'm out. I hope everybody has a chance to kill ducks.
51:01
I don't want anybody to have a bad day, but it, I don't think it's going to hurt one bit.
51:06
I think it's going to be awesome for the area. For sure.
51:09
So obviously you being the only
51:11
one of us three, that's actually laid eyes on it and seen it in person.
51:14
I know that the three of us have sat here the last 30 minutes and talked about
51:17
how great this is going to be. Like, what are some downsides of it that you
51:22
saw out there, like scouting, hide, stuff like that?
51:27
So it's not going to be easy to scout. Like, you're going to have to put in work to scout it.
51:31
I don't know. I'm fucking lazy. So walking to go check out the water structure sucked.
51:37
See, the cool thing is you have a really dumb guy. We've already discovered
51:40
this on this podcast, this episode specifically. Yeah.
51:45
A lot of dumb as fuck. I'll do damn near anything. Right.
51:48
No, I mean, but like utilizing it with a bicycle, even just a regular old bicycle
51:54
and go out there and just ride in the levees. That'll be, I mean, easy.
51:57
And you can, you can't, it's going to be hard to scout, impossible to scout it from the parking lot.
52:02
Like there on Cleveland street, that's just not going to happen.
52:04
And that's good. Yeah. No, it's great.
52:06
And then highway five, you know, you'll be able to see through the trees in
52:10
the fall, obviously, but you're still not going to see what you want to see.
52:14
Unless it's like an ungodly amount, which is, that'd be cool.
52:19
I feel like the only way that you could have any success either scouting from
52:22
the boat ramp or from Highway 5 is knowing the area like the back of your hand. Yeah.
52:28
Kind of like us scouting the lake. Like we kind of know the area they're going.
52:34
Yeah. I think the downside to this area is you're solely relying on Mother Nature.
52:39
Right. If we're in a drought, that area's not going to have water.
52:42
Like Coal Creek is not, it's not a big creek. because it doesn't have a lot
52:46
of water flow through it.
52:48
When I went out there today, there was a lot more water flowing through it than
52:51
I thought there would be.
52:54
The elevation change from the upstream side to downstream side of it, major.
53:01
And it was a pretty good rapid coming through there. I sent you guys a Snapchat
53:04
video of it, and it was running hard. It was way harder than I thought it was going to be.
53:09
But that is going to be the downside, is there's going to be years that won't
53:12
hold water, and it won't have water. Like, there's just no way around it.
53:15
I mean, what else can they do, though? It's on two little creeks that they're
53:20
just... It's on a big river, so they can't pump it. And at that point, I mean...
53:25
We didn't have that there to begin with, we'd be in the same situation as a
53:29
year that we don't have water.
53:31
The maintenance that's going to go into it is little to none because you don't have a pump.
53:36
No pumps, no diesel to power the pumps.
53:40
It doesn't matter. Every other area we have now, you're solely relying on having
53:44
money to pump fuel or to pump the area with fuel or fixing the pumps or maintenance on the pumps.
53:53
And that's one thing we're lacking on right now in our, in our area is our pumps
53:57
are so out of date, but they don't even work.
54:01
So, I mean, and some of our areas don't hold water because they,
54:05
they've got levy issues or they've got pump problems that allow the water to flow back out.
54:09
So, I mean, we got to, hopefully they address those areas now that this project's
54:13
more or less done. Like it's not a hundred percent done, but it's done. Right.
54:17
Hopefully we can move on to upgrading the facilities we have now or repairing
54:21
them to get them back to where they hold water.
54:24
Well, that was kind of my train of thought. Like, when you sent that,
54:27
video of the of the water running today was well, is the DNR doing this as a
54:33
test run to maybe improve the areas like Hartford or Runnels or Swan?
54:41
There's no creeks that run through those areas. No, you're still relying on pumps.
54:44
Right, but if they're rely if they're relying on
54:47
pumps that don't work anyways like would they rather rely on
54:50
pumps that don't work or would they rather rely on mother nature
54:53
year by year but there's no way to get the water there is the problem you're
54:57
right like so i mean this new one has a creek that runs right through it yeah
55:01
no i'm saying yeah i understand obviously the creek runs through it but are
55:05
they just like if this does really well do you think that they might just rely on mother nature to
55:13
fill these with no matter how long it takes.
55:17
I don't think so. Yeah, see...
55:20
Know where you're coming from i don't think that
55:24
it cannot it can't help the other like runnels and hartford or
55:26
swan even yeah there's no way that the even
55:30
if they're doing this is like a research project to help those but i
55:33
will say it could lead to another project or
55:36
further projects down the line they do like this and white
55:39
breast yeah like that there's a bunch of
55:41
ground down there that they own that could be strictly wetlands yeah
55:45
and that'd be that's it we could use the creek for yeah
55:48
and even at that point you'd have more like there's a
55:51
lot of roads that run down through that area there you'd have a lot
55:53
more walking area too yeah exactly and there's there's more creeks down there
55:57
other than just white breast creek so you could do it off a couple different
56:00
areas like it there's a lot of there's a lot of areas we the state owns or the
56:05
government owns around red rock that they could do stuff with and maybe this
56:09
could be like a little pilot test. Yeah.
56:12
We'll see. And you can control a lot of water in that area. Oh, yeah.
56:17
There's shitloads of outlets and inlets and you name it.
56:20
And the way the DNR did it, I feel like they did a really good job,
56:23
honestly, in designing this place. Yeah, because they did it really inexpensive.
56:26
They found an area, they did it in an area that's super flat,
56:30
already, the elevation's pretty good and consistent.
56:33
Like, it's not going to take a shitload of water to have a huntable area in there.
56:37
No, I mean, all you need is about, I don't know, Oh, I threw a couple of inches
56:41
of water in Dutch. But he was at his top. Yeah.
56:43
I'm gonna sit, sit, because I realized you were gonna say sit. Okay.
56:47
Got it, bitch. You didn't get shit. But. Got you thinking, though. Yeah. No, you did.
56:56
Going with that. Ruin the train of thought. Gotcha, dude. Yeah.
57:01
No, before I stepped out, I heard you guys talking about white breasts and everything.
57:07
I think that if they, if they could do something to where white breasts holds
57:13
more water, like that would be awesome because we all know how much better white
57:18
breasts is when it has an adequate amount of water in it.
57:21
Like how many birds it can hold and how fun it is to hunt.
57:26
Well, I mean, white breast just naturally holds a lot, though.
57:28
Right. But the problem in the past couple years has been has been the pressure.
57:32
Like, I used to love hunting white breast during the week because nobody hunted
57:36
it, and the ducks would move in there, get all comfortable, and you'd be able
57:39
to shoot them a couple days in a row before the weekend hit,
57:42
then you go back out on the lake and hunt.
57:44
But nowadays, there's people hunting. I mean, it's just this year we hunted
57:48
it, what, three or four times probably total, maybe, out of the boat.
57:53
Yeah, I hunted it quite a bit. You hunted it early season. Like a dog.
57:57
Well, that and you hunted it early season too, didn't you? You and Doosan?
58:02
We goose hunted out there like the first weekend. Yeah. That was pretty much it.
58:06
But it's over pressured. Yeah. That area is just, I mean, it's over hunted,
58:09
over pressured. That's why we don't really see that much success in there anymore.
58:14
Like even when it holds birds, they move out where you can't hunt. Yeah.
58:17
And that goes back into like the spreading the pressure out,
58:20
obviously. but the way Red Rock's laid out, if you bring the lake level high
58:26
enough to where it floods White Breasts out where it should be,
58:29
you can't hunt Boxcar. No.
58:33
So that's where your idea of having separate control structures for White Breasts would be sick.
58:38
Well, it's kind of like what they do at River Rathbun. Yeah.
58:41
I mean, they do that down at Rathbun in a lot of ways. And there's a lot of
58:45
areas down there that they flood off of the creeks and just put in the gate.
58:48
So it's it kind of it kind of blows me away that we haven't done more of what
58:53
they just did in our area because we have a lot of land we can do it to yeah,
58:58
So either way, it's exciting stuff. It's going to be pretty cool to see how
59:02
it works out. I think it's going to be great the years we have water.
59:05
Obviously, years you don't have water, it is what it is. You just go hunt somewhere
59:08
else. Yeah, it's kind of like where we're at right now. Yeah.
59:12
We're no worse off at all. It's just going to be better. Yep. Plain and simple.
59:17
I think you can spread some birds out, though.
59:20
That could, like, the first year or so, they find it, and we don't get any more birds.
59:25
Definitely could spread them out, make it a little bit slower hunt times.
59:28
Yeah, for sure. You have to maybe put in some more leg work and find a legit leg work.
59:34
Let's call my guy, Kate and something. I go, Hey, go march through there and
59:38
check. I'll find them, but we got to go as a group.
59:43
What do you mean? I'm not pulling all them fucking decoys out there.
59:46
Well, no, I'll join for the hunt.
59:48
I'll help. I'll help with the hunt, but you don't scout that area. I'll go find them.
59:52
Don't you worry. We're definitely hooking up the trolling motor.
59:55
Like, even if you just pile that
59:58
thing full of decoys like yeah he's trying
1:00:01
to kill it yeah i think it'd be funny to hook up to your little boat and just
1:00:10
put the little trolling motor on the back dude that little boat's good i got
1:00:14
no i'm talking about the the little boat the decoy boat oh that'd be terrible,
1:00:21
oh thank you so I wonder how that works like if you put in so like say the south
1:00:28
side of highway 5 floods enough where you can get a boat up through the creek,
1:00:34
how does that work what do you mean oh to get into cold creek it's going to be blocked off.
1:00:42
Where like where you talk about launching the boat like south of highway 5 yes.
1:00:47
How would that work? Because that's still a quote-unquote meandering stream.
1:00:51
Now, but it's going to be like a WMA type thing, label.
1:00:57
So I think it'll fall under those rules still unless it tops the levee.
1:01:01
Now, in Illinois, we had sub-appointments. They did similar stuff too,
1:01:04
but they pumped them, and it was a walk-in only.
1:01:07
The only time you could take a boat in there with a motor, like a gas-powered
1:01:11
motor, would be when the water topped the levee and was no longer accessible by foot.
1:01:18
Gotcha. I imagine that'll probably be, it'll fall somewhere underneath that guideline.
1:01:23
Maybe we'll, I don't know if we'll ever find out again if that ever happens,
1:01:26
but it'll be hard to get a boat in there in general of any size other than a
1:01:30
snake boat or a kayak because the
1:01:33
water's not going to be right close to anywhere you can access it from.
1:01:36
Right. So if you're going to bring a boat, you're going to put some legwork
1:01:40
in to get the boat to water because even from the parking lot on Cleveland Street,
1:01:44
there ain't going to be water within probably three or 400 yards of that.
1:01:48
I would guess. Well, I'm saying like if you could find a spot to launch south
1:01:51
of Highway 5 and just run up, I mean, it wouldn't really be that hard.
1:01:54
Just throw the boat off the trailer off the highway into the creek.
1:01:57
Dude, sneak boats and like my little John boat are not that heavy. No.
1:02:01
No, we did it. Yeah. I mean, you can... Yeah, legit.
1:02:06
Us three could carry your boat from the parking lot now to get to water.
1:02:09
Dude, me and him I carried my boat full of decoys. That's what I mean. It wouldn't be hard.
1:02:15
But it's still going to require effort and work. But luckily,
1:02:19
I think it's a good thing.
1:02:21
I'm really happy they made it electric motor only. Yeah. Because...
1:02:26
To trash on mud boats, but they're loud. All boats are loud.
1:02:30
Like, mine's, my 200 is pretty loud at times. Like, when it starts up or when
1:02:35
it's idling or putting along, it's loud. When you get going, it's not loud at all.
1:02:39
And it's still loud. It's not near as loud as a mud motor.
1:02:43
No. Oh, no, not even close. But, I mean, those do affect, like,
1:02:47
they put pressure on the ducks.
1:02:49
Like, even just us running around scouting or anybody running around scouting,
1:02:53
it puts pressure on the ducks that this area
1:02:56
won't have right so you're not gonna have them boats running around ripping
1:02:59
30 to 60 mile an hour
1:03:01
right most boats do 30 ours do
1:03:05
60 but at the
1:03:09
same token like that 115 is so quiet like
1:03:12
that thing is so nice for like getting around
1:03:15
especially out in like box cars like dude
1:03:19
you cannot hear that thing take off from like
1:03:22
anywhere it's a great stout boat too especially if
1:03:25
you know how to scout and you know when not to
1:03:27
jump up on birds like that thing is a badass tool right which i think next week
1:03:34
that's probably that's kind of what i was leaning towards talking about was
1:03:37
like public land success and tips and tricks on scouting things to look for
1:03:42
things to do kind of like what we bring if we're going on a scouting trip too,
1:03:46
i think we'll probably touch on some of that next week yeah but i mean.
1:03:51
Want more information about this project than what we have, which is very limited
1:03:54
information that we have, go to the meeting tomorrow.
1:03:57
Because Todd is going to be right on the Des Moines meeting and talking about this.
1:04:02
I think that's when he's going to be announcing that, like his announcement to it.
1:04:06
Like, obviously you can find info online if you Google Coal Creek Waterfowl Project in Iowa.
1:04:12
I think that's what I did, and I found some info on it, found the blueprints.
1:04:16
But, you'll definitely be able to get a lot more info tomorrow night at the meeting.
1:04:20
So that'll really he'll be able to elaborate on a lot of it there and he knows
1:04:24
all the facts about it so yeah no I for sure I hope a ton of people show up
1:04:29
tomorrow obviously ask all their questions like I,
1:04:34
I'm just a fan of putting people in hard situations anyways too so like if you
1:04:38
have anything that's super controversial or that you want to ask like bring
1:04:42
it up like those are the those are the people that are professionals and get
1:04:46
to make those decisions so I wonder if there's going to be a beer at this event,
1:04:50
I highly doubt it. No, I really doubt it.
1:04:54
The cool thing is, too, though, like, I've talked to Todd and you've talked
1:04:58
to Todd. I'm sure you've talked to Todd.
1:05:00
He's a great guy to talk to. If you have any questions that you want to know
1:05:03
about this new project, let us know.
1:05:06
We'll ask it for you. We can either discuss it on the podcast episode or we can have a PM, like.
1:05:13
Can just reach out to him yourself like call him yeah like I called him today
1:05:16
and he answered the phone they rang once and he answered the phone yeah I
1:05:19
mean some people get scared of that though yeah and I get that so
1:05:22
like like Cade was saying if you want more info
1:05:25
on it or if you have a question that you don't know how
1:05:28
to ask to him in general just reach out
1:05:31
to us and either any one of us three will reach out to him no problem oh yeah
1:05:35
I mean that's part of the game I mean I'm all I'm an info guy I want to know
1:05:39
everything I can know about it when it comes to what the rules and regulations
1:05:43
are going to be or what they plan or don't plan on doing to the area.
1:05:48
I mean, there's a lot of potential for this.
1:05:50
It's exciting stuff. We don't get to see this very often. Do they build new
1:05:55
wetland areas anymore? I mean, you're going to see less and less of them going up.
1:05:59
I've never seen a brand new one. This is going to be sick. Yeah,
1:06:03
I've seen a couple, but those were all in Illinois. Yeah.
1:06:05
Now they're all run down pieces of shit. So they don't hold birds at all anymore.
1:06:10
They were great, though, the first 10, 15 years they were open.
1:06:14
Which is something that's steady anyways.
1:06:16
And that's the cool thing. Like, you and I have seen this new place's potential with the flood year.
1:06:21
Yeah. It's going to be badass. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's...
1:06:25
I hope it all works out. I hope we have water every year, which won't happen,
1:06:29
but I hope we have water every year.
1:06:30
At least most years. Yeah. We can't really say every year.
1:06:33
I can say I hope it has water every year. I can say that. Yeah,
1:06:37
but you got to be realistic. Come on.
1:06:39
That is realistic. I really hope that it has water every year.
1:06:42
Now, will it hold water every year? Probably not. We live in fucking Iowa. Come on.
1:06:47
Yeah, dude, it rains all the time. Just not when you want it.
1:06:50
Yeah, no, only when I want to do something outside.
1:06:53
Mother Nature's like, I don't want to piss on you. Fuck you.
1:06:58
I mean, I don't, I don't know if you guys got anything else you wanted to add
1:07:00
on that topic. I mean, I think, I think we really touched on a lot of it.
1:07:03
Yeah, we covered that pretty well. I feel like. Yeah.
1:07:06
Yeah. No, I mean, just to reiterate, I hope if people have questions,
1:07:09
they either reach out to us like, or reach out to Todd.
1:07:13
He is great to talk to and a wealth of knowledge.
1:07:18
Like, yeah, that dude is so smart, knows a bunch of stuff and he is literally
1:07:23
willing to talk to anyone. Like, he'll talk to anyone about anything,
1:07:26
and he'll answer those hard questions and sit there and have conversations with
1:07:30
you, and it's super nice, so.
1:07:32
Well, I mean, same with Orin. Yeah. Orin's super receptive, and he's willing to listen to you.
1:07:38
You know, he's not going to just, you're not going to call Orin and ask him
1:07:41
a question. He's going to say, you're a dumbass. Shut up. Yeah,
1:07:43
just rush you off your shoulder. Yeah.
1:07:44
I mean, he'll explain it to you. He'll walk you through it. I mean,
1:07:47
a lot of our biologists are pretty good, though, in Iowa.
1:07:49
I feel like we have a pretty good DNR system, but I think they're very limited
1:07:53
to what the state's going to give them. Yeah.
1:07:54
Yeah, I think that's really their choke point, unfortunately.
1:07:58
But that's a cool thing. We have this platform now. We have a lot of people
1:08:01
that travel here from out of our area to hunt.
1:08:05
If they have questions, they can ask us, and we can get in touch with the right
1:08:08
people and figure out what they want to know.
1:08:10
I definitely feel like there's more people traveling to Iowa to hunt than there
1:08:13
used to be, because I don't remember seeing that many out-of-state plates as I did this year.
1:08:18
And even the different county plates this year was crazy.
1:08:21
That was wild. I mean, there were some of the weekends where 20 different counties hunting there.
1:08:27
What is going on right now? There was a lot of metro plates this year where
1:08:31
I was like, what are you doing? Y'all big city.
1:08:37
But I mean, I think that about wraps it up for us here on this episode.
1:08:49
Meetings today and tomorrow if they're in your area and you have the time show up ask the questions,
1:08:57
definitely try to make a meeting i mean if you
1:09:00
love waterfowl hunting or hunting in general deer hunting turkey hunting squirrel
1:09:03
hunting these meetings are for you and it's for guys like us that enjoy the
1:09:08
outdoors and we don't have the money to go hunt private ground we hunt public
1:09:12
ground so if you want your voice heard or you just want to know what's going
1:09:15
on go to the meeting get in touch with your local biologist help out where you can,
1:09:20
that about wraps it up for this episode thank you for tuning in,
1:09:25
if you're listening on the podcast we are live right now on Facebook and YouTube
1:09:30
and we'd appreciate it if you hop in and you can comment or ask us questions
1:09:34
and we'll answer you right on the podcast,
1:09:37
that wraps it up for this episode until next time.