Latest / DuckFellas Podcast / Duckfellas Ep.15 — Hunting Etiquette, Snow Goose Chaos & Spring DNR Meetings

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Duckfellas Ep.15 — Hunting Etiquette, Snow Goose Chaos & Spring DNR Meetings · DuckFellas Podcast

3:01
Welcome back. Duckfellas Podcast, episode 15.
3:08
Without Mr. Cade Higday. Oh, boy.
3:13
It's too good for us now. Just us. Oh, I feel so sorry for everybody stuck in
3:19
here with me and you. Yeah, same.
3:21
Honestly, surprised that we made it to this point. Didn't know if I would get
3:24
everything set up, set up correctly to do this from my house.
3:28
So yeah, we'll see if the internet lasts. Fingers crossed.
3:34
I was, I was really hoping that you would have everything because I know you've
3:38
kept everything at Cade's garage for what the past month and a half now, probably.
3:44
Yep. I've been using his garage as a storage unit for about a month, two months now.
3:50
That will happen. Yeah, that will happen. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
3:53
Well, I mean, how was your past week since the last podcast?
3:59
Did you do anything out of the ordinary?
4:01
Nothing crazy over here. Work as usual.
4:06
Able to get you moved out. So that was good. That was big. Able to get all that stuff taken care of.
4:13
Weather wasn't quite as nice as we had hoped for that day. So that part stuck.
4:17
But still hard to complain about a day in the mid-upper 40s in February around
4:24
here. You never know what you're going to get.
4:26
Definitely could have been a lot worse. We could have had snow on the ground,
4:28
and it could have been 20 degrees. So that was way better.
4:34
Yeah, we had that race banquet this weekend for a good buddy of ours,
4:37
and I had to go support them and get everybody together and have a good time.
4:41
Yeah, absolutely. I bought a couple items, spent way too much money, all for a good cause.
4:48
I mean, most of the items may or may not have been just jello shots.
4:53
Yeah, that's all right. It's kind of a tradition with our table.
4:56
I mean, we've been going to it every single year since he's had it,
5:00
and it's just kind of a thing. I think people just kind of expect it from our
5:04
table now, and I can't let the people down.
5:07
Yeah, no, that was my first time going to his race banquet, and that's definitely
5:13
expected that you guys are going to buy all if not most of the plates of Jell-O shots. Yeah.
5:20
I mean, we got called out like numerous times, so.
5:25
You got to give the people what they want. Maybe we'll do a workshop video on
5:31
one of these podcasts putting together that beer duck that I bought.
5:37
See how long it takes? Oh, yeah. The back of the box claims 10 minutes. I did a couple of fish,
5:43
for previous banquets and those were like 15 well
5:46
15 minutes turned into like two hours so it
5:50
took you two hours to put together one of those yeah
5:53
he had one like maybe two years ago now
5:57
granted was like that thing was probably like
5:59
four foot long swordfish so oh my
6:02
god yeah i mean it was cool but i'm i
6:06
don't i mean i bought it because i bought the
6:09
duck because it looked cool but i am definitely not looking forward to putting
6:13
it together right right yes kelly if you have any questions or any comments
6:19
that you want to shoot out while we're doing this podcast we will definitely
6:23
be able to get to those and we love interacting with everybody out there it makes it more fun.
6:30
Did you watch super bowl yeah yeah we watched i mean if that's what you want
6:35
to call it like The game wasn't really too fun to watch.
6:39
It was a good game, but it was not like an entertaining one for somebody that
6:45
likes high-scoring games, obviously. Right, yeah.
6:47
Very, very defensive-minded game that was.
6:51
Did you watch the halftime show?
6:53
I watched the alternative halftime show on YouTube.
6:58
That's what was on at the place we were at, and it did not disappoint.
7:04
I didn't watch the halftime show So I watched the first half And then I just
7:08
turned off the TV So they didn't get the stream But went outside and hung out
7:14
by the fire And then walked back in after I seen the third quarter started And.
7:23
I didn't manage to watch the whole game. After the third quarter,
7:27
I'm a Patriots fan, so after watching the end of the third quarter, I'm like, no.
7:31
The only way this is going to change or help anything is if I just turn it off
7:35
and go outside and quit watching the game.
7:37
So, hats off to the Seahawks. Sam Darnold had a really great playoff run.
7:42
He didn't turn the ball over once. I don't think so.
7:45
No. So that was good for them. And Kelly finally arrived with this comment that
7:51
he really wanted to ask and asked for us to drop an Onyx pin for the best spot to kill ducks in Iowa.
7:59
Absolutely, we can do that. Reach out to our PR and we'll get right back to
8:05
you with that. We'll have a whole list of things for you.
8:10
If you want to kill ducks, don't hunt with Tyler. Never works out.
8:15
No, usually you just sit there and eat breakfast. But if you're into birdwatching, we can hook you up.
8:22
Birdwatching and eating slash delivering burritos got that down pat. Yeah.
8:30
Super efficient. Let's move on to a little bit of news in the hunting world.
8:35
Obviously, we discussed last time, the spring meetings are coming up pretty quick.
8:40
And we do have the list here I'll pull up.
8:45
These are all the meetings in Iowa, and they start March 2nd.
8:48
There's one in Waverly, and then most of the rest of them are the 3rd and 5th.
8:56
There's a few on the 4th, but the majority of yours are on the 3rd and the 5th.
9:00
We'll have this posted on both our social media pages, Instagram and Facebook.
9:04
You can go there and check it out.
9:07
I'll have that up tonight or tomorrow on there. And we need,
9:11
if you have any complaints about hunting season or anything,
9:16
whether it's season dates, zones,
9:18
limits, which they don't really have much control over limits,
9:22
but anything like just how your area is managed, go there and voice your opinion and push on them.
9:30
You know, you're going to need to bring you and all your friends because they're
9:35
what it takes to get anything done.
9:38
Yeah, absolutely. I would just echo exactly what you said.
9:41
I mean, if you're able to make it out to your local meeting,
9:44
obviously, that's what we need, and that's all we can really ask for at this point, too.
9:51
If people are wanting to see changes, show up to your local meetings, voice your opinion.
9:56
Obviously, if you don't show up and you don't say anything, they won't know about it. Nope.
10:03
I know I will personally be at the Des Moines one, and that one's at 6.45 p.m.
10:09
The address is 4343 George Flag Parkway. Do you know what building that is?
10:16
I don't know. I'm not even familiar with where that George Flag Parkway is,
10:22
but not too much of a Des Moines fellow myself.
10:26
Try to stay out of the metro as much as I can. I know that, yeah,
10:29
we had talked about in the group chat, like trying to get all the fellas up
10:35
there. I'm too close to this one.
10:39
I wonder if that one's supposed to say Okoboji. It says Okoboji. Words are hard.
10:45
I don't know. Cade made the list. Yeah, we can shit on Cade.
10:49
We can shit on Cade for any faults with the list.
10:53
Yeah, our PR man, Cade Higday.
10:56
Reach out to him with questions. Yeah, I wish he could hear us right now because
11:01
he's probably watching, but it's probably silence because obviously he's doing
11:04
his other podcast that he's on.
11:07
They started at six honestly tonight so i
11:10
mean i don't know how long those usually i mean those can
11:13
vary too so like wouldn't that
11:15
be wouldn't that be crazy if you just hopped on mid-podcast with
11:19
us i wouldn't be mad about it no no not
11:22
at all i know generally they're only like an hour-ish not even i think ours
11:26
actually sometimes run a little longer on average lately especially yeah but
11:31
then they sit there like we do sometimes and talk for two hours offline right
11:35
yeah no we're good at that but no back to the meetings I,
11:40
personally plan on going to Des Moines for sure and hopefully one or two other
11:45
ones like I'm gonna try to get people to go with and I know we'll we should
11:51
have a fairly good turnout in Des Moines like I said I'll be there probably Cade.
11:56
Hopefully you if you're off yep And then we got, I've already talked to about
12:01
10 other people that will probably be there.
12:03
Yeah, I've had a couple people reach out to me already asking if we were going
12:09
as a group and some stuff that we had planned on trying to talk about or bring up and whatnot too.
12:16
So yeah, from what we're hearing right now, obviously things can change,
12:20
but hopefully that continues on that trend and we get a good handful of people there.
12:25
Right. And if you're not going to be at one of the ones we're at,
12:30
like Des Moines is going to be the main one we're going to be at,
12:32
obviously. And then I'm going to try to hit one or two more.
12:35
But if you're not going to be in Des Moines and you'd like the document for the zone change...
12:41
We can share that with you. Just reach out to us and we can get that to you.
12:45
Or, I mean, really all you got to do is you'd like to just go there and say,
12:48
we'd like to see Red Rock in the South Zone.
12:50
And that's, if they get enough people to say that, then obviously they're going
12:54
to pay more attention to it. Right.
12:58
But it can't hurt. It definitely can't hurt to go. And, yeah,
13:02
I'll have this list on social media tomorrow or tonight. Good deal.
13:08
So, another thing that happened here recently was a good old boy just grabbing
13:15
through his neighborhood, and the geese must have attacked him at some point,
13:19
and he decided to try and take him out.
13:23
He only got one, but. Kind of a wild, just a wild story, or at least,
13:30
I mean, I don't, obviously the, the news story of it was pretty vague.
13:35
So I'm not sure on details, rumors, speculations, anything like that too.
13:40
But I do know a fair amount of people that live up in Ankeny and a lot of those
13:45
like developments or neighborhoods that have those big ponds in them that stay open all year long.
13:51
They get very very tired of geese because they're just constantly blocking the
13:57
roads up there it's a big problem up there I mean because the geese I mean especially
14:03
this time of year when obviously we're loaded down with geese and they aren't getting,
14:07
harassed in the fields they're just everywhere oh yeah not a care in the world
14:11
from them not one no they don't care who you are either they'll make sure that
14:16
you know they're there and to get away right,
14:20
uh But, hey, we can't hunt in city limits, so people have to just deal with
14:26
it until they start putting, I don't know what they could do to keep them out
14:30
of their subdivision ponds.
14:33
Honestly, I'm not sure at this point either. Like, those geese get so comfortable there that...
14:42
Some of those geese stay there all year long. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
14:46
No, we have a pretty massive local goose population as it is.
14:50
Without it being migration, like the middle of migration. Right. Yeah, absolutely.
14:57
One of these days, they'll let us hunt it. We'll be hunting city ponds in somebody's
15:01
backyard, wrecking geese. Yeah.
15:04
Turn them into a nuisance species and... Be out there shooting them with pellet guns. There you go.
15:11
Legally. not illegally until then we'll just listen to people in the metro complain about them,
15:20
yep but if they keep complaining enough we know some people that can come exterminate
15:24
them yeah gladly yeah no it's not a big deal at all yeah no put me in coach
15:29
with a smile on my face i'll be there the whole time you couldn't beat the smile
15:36
off me at that point in time not a chance.
15:40
The other news, you know, I thought us duck and goose hunters,
15:45
like I'm talking dark geese and duck hunters, had some bad blood between each other at times.
15:51
But, man, I'm on some snow goose pages on Facebook.
15:55
That gets Western this time of year.
15:58
Those boys will personally attack each other and call the law on someone just
16:05
over something they say.
16:07
That's crazy. Are you on any of the pages? No, I am not on any Snow Goose pages.
16:14
I get my fix enough from the Duck and Dark Goose pages that I'm a part of,
16:21
but I am kind of intrigued with what they have going on because I feel like
16:26
that's been the talk of our, me and Cade's text group chat, like this whole
16:31
week of what's going down.
16:34
You need to join a couple of them just because it's,
16:38
whenever you're if you're sitting there at work bored one day just chilling it is,
16:43
pretty entertaining shit this time of year and it's just gonna get better as
16:47
the season gets going I mean we're nine days into the snow goose conservation season so right,
16:52
it's just all that social media stuff to me like with my ADHD it's just a trap
16:57
and then I just get sucked in and then I'm on it just reading every one of these
17:03
1,000 comets for two hours straight,
17:06
yeah Yeah, no, I get that.
17:09
Chris, you don't need to rain on our parades like that.
17:13
That's not going to happen. They're not going to go in and kill themselves. No.
17:18
I mean, they might, but it would be smart for them to just ask nice upstanding
17:23
fellas to do it for them because, again, gladly.
17:27
Yeah, and also I'd like to add that DNR, if you are listening,
17:31
we are for hire. You can hire us to remove the nuisance birds.
17:37
And it'll be for free. Yeah, free 99.
17:41
Not a problem. We will actually pay you guys. Yeah, yeah, that's for sure.
17:48
Yeah, yeah, Jake, I would pull your comment up, but I don't want to drop any
17:53
names of who's the main culprit or, like, in the center.
17:58
Like, obviously that guy is the center of the attention on that this year,
18:05
which he normally is. I mean, I don't know him personally.
18:09
I've never had any involvement with him.
18:12
But I do look forward to some of his content This time of year Because it gets wild,
18:18
Brings out the best in people It really does Really does You know there was
18:24
a There's a guide in Illinois That most people know That He reminds me of They
18:33
remind me of each other But he's the younger version of the one from Illinois,
18:37
And it was the same drama every year and it just seems like we just go in rotations
18:42
like there's never a dull moment like it's just there's somebody fills the shoes every year.
18:48
Somebody's got to do it. Yeah, no, hats off to them. They keep it going.
18:53
Plenty of entertainment for
18:55
the rest of us. You know how many followers and stuff they gain from it?
18:59
Because, I mean, obviously, they're guides and outfitters, so even,
19:02
like, it's smart for them to do that because they're getting so much more attention for business.
19:07
Oh, absolutely, yeah. I mean, yeah, some of it's negative, and somebody's like,
19:12
oh, I don't want to book a hunt with that guy. He's crazy.
19:15
Then there's also a lot of people that are like, yeah, he's cool.
19:18
Right their name is still in everybody's mouth like whether it's good bad or indifferent like,
19:24
everybody's talking about that same person pr is
19:28
pr uh about that news i mean do you got any other news that you've heard or
19:34
anything flashing no not really i mean honestly like this week and what we've
19:41
been talking about about the spring meetings and snow goose has really been
19:45
the talk of at least our group chat this week.
19:47
I mean, that has occupied most of what's been going down on our end, at least.
19:55
Sure. Sure. Look forward to see what this week brings us in the snow goose world.
20:01
Yeah. There's going to be something. After opening week, like,
20:04
it can only go up from here, right? Like, it's only going to get better.
20:08
The tip of the iceberg. Yeah. We're just getting ready to jump in.
20:12
Speaking of that, we'll jump into our topics. This week,
20:16
we're going to touch a little bit on hunting etiquette and then kind of just
20:21
continue the ball on waterfowl counts and just kind of how things are done within
20:25
the DNR and then the federal side of it for counting birds and just bird numbers in general.
20:31
And since we're coming up here on birds migrating back north for breeding season,
20:36
we're going to be able to get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of
20:36
bit of a little bit of a little bit of
20:36
bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little,
20:37
Yeah, we'll touch on that. So we'll start kind of on hunting etiquette.
20:43
And when we talk about hunting etiquette, it goes to everybody,
20:46
whether you hunt pheasants, deer, turkey, waterfowl, I mean, any kind of hunting.
20:52
Obviously, you're going to be hunting around other people unless you're on private ground.
20:55
And even if you're not surrounding people, etiquette goes towards the resource too.
21:03
One of the biggest things is, I mean, for me, if you're hunting with some young
21:07
guys or young kids and you're taking them out, youth hunting,
21:11
stuff like that, it's one of the most important things to teach these younger groups of guys.
21:16
Because, I mean, we were all young once. When I hit the age of,
21:19
I would say, 15, 16, when I kind of either knew people that could drive and
21:24
we could go out hunting on our own, or I could drive and I'd just go hunting on my own.
21:28
Yeah, you know everything you're not gonna listen to anybody at that
21:31
point in time right so definitely to
21:35
me is important to kind of really try and
21:39
show the younger generation as early as you can the right way no definitely
21:44
and i think that uh social media obviously plays a big factor into that like
21:50
everything on that side is like so widely available to everybody right now so like,
21:59
people might watch something and be like oh no like that's that's the way you
22:03
should do it because like this famous person is doing it when in all reality
22:08
like that's like there's more than one way to get it done and.
22:14
A hundred percent. Maybe you should revisit that. Yeah.
22:18
Yeah, obviously, when you're watching, like, when I was a kid,
22:22
I bought the DVDs Jeff Foyles put out every year.
22:26
Now, obviously, they don't even need to call or put decoys out most of the time
22:31
in the spots that guys like Fred Zink and Jeff Foyles and all these guys hunt.
22:38
Tim Grounds, you don't need to call or put decoys out half the time.
22:43
They're just, them birds are coming there anyways. They've been feeding there.
22:46
Somebody's been saving them spots for them guys so they can come up and make
22:49
a movie, make a show out of it.
22:51
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, nobody wants to watch a duck or goose hunting video
22:56
where birds don't get killed.
22:59
Yeah, no, I mean, definitely what I'm watching it for. I will say on that,
23:05
waterfowl videos nowadays, YouTube has killed it. It's ruined it for me.
23:11
I know Joe Hines does a pretty decent job at making videos. I've subscribed
23:16
to the Roost before. I'm not currently a member of it.
23:20
But his videos aren't bad. He does probably the best job, I think, personally.
23:26
Yeah, I would agree. I think it's just kind of maybe the person he is, too.
23:31
Seems like a good dude, but definitely a goofball.
23:34
Kind of seems like he would just fit in with the style that we try to put out there.
23:40
Oh, it would be, it would be something for sure.
23:44
But I mean, in all, in all reality, other than that, like I have a hard time
23:49
getting into any of these other ones.
23:51
Cause I mean, everybody, like I've talked to Jeff before about it and whenever
23:56
YouTube became big, you know, and everybody starts bringing a GoPro out there
23:59
and starting a hunting channel.
24:02
He's like, it just ruined the quality and people aren't buying the DVDs anymore
24:06
or people aren't paying for a subscription to watch whatever he wants to put out.
24:11
So that's part of the reason they never got back into it.
24:15
Right. Yeah, no, absolutely. That's depressing.
24:20
It's the whole supply and demand thing coming in.
24:24
And when there's too much of the supply, there's not enough demand for even the good stuff anymore.
24:31
No I miss I miss the old Iowa,
24:35
guy Barney Califf I have I have all his DVDs that he's been in and all Jeff's
24:41
Foil's DVDs are you sure they aren't VCRs both how old you are huh huh huh huh huh huh.
24:51
Funny back to the hunting etiquette oh alright my bad you really it comes down
24:57
to you get the respect that you give on a general basis I mean,
25:01
If you're, let's just put it, you're out waterfowl hunting, if you're constantly
25:05
running around being a jackass or setting up close to a people,
25:10
then I know I'm not going to treat you very nicely and you're not going to have
25:15
fun with anybody out there doing that to them.
25:17
Right yeah and word spreads
25:20
and waterfowl so fast too like
25:23
it only takes you acting like that for a
25:27
very short period of time before everybody like
25:30
that's what you start to get known as and then
25:33
everybody thinks that about you yeah it's
25:36
down with facebook and instagram and tiktok i mean dude you can get blasted
25:41
so quickly nowadays yeah for sure what's uh what is kind of a common distance
25:47
that you've noticed people try to stay away from each other like on a general
25:51
basis obviously you're going to have your bad eggs but what do you think the common distance is.
25:56
Or respectful distance. Yeah, so a common distance and a respectful distance,
26:01
I think, definitely varies for sure.
26:04
Well, let's just do the common one, and then we'll touch on respectful on both of our opinions.
26:10
Yeah, so common distance right now that I think people do try to abide by that 200 and whatnot too.
26:18
Now, what people actually do, we had a couple times this year where it got a little closer.
26:26
Than that. And I mean, we let them know it.
26:30
And, but we will also be the first ones to like, if you beat us to where we're
26:34
going, like, damn, it was your day then not ours.
26:38
Like we'll, we'll go, we'll go find somewhere else to hunt.
26:41
Yeah. Good job. You beat us here. Guess we gotta go somewhere else now. Right.
26:45
So yeah, no, we definitely had a couple inside of that this year.
26:51
And I mean, not only did it,
26:54
just not necessarily make the hunt miserable, but it was just like.
27:00
I feel like it's so annoying for both parties then because you're constantly
27:04
calling at the same birds, pulling birds back and forth between each other to
27:09
the point where birds don't even want to look at either of you.
27:12
So then nobody has a good time.
27:15
That's the biggest thing for me is, like obviously I don't want somebody hunting close to me,
27:20
but if you're going to hunt close to somebody,
27:23
at least be a little respectful like if they're working
27:26
birds like try it try it first you know if
27:29
they're working birds try not calling at them and letting
27:32
them do their thing or and then see if when you're working
27:35
birds if they do the same thing if they don't then my eyes have they declared
27:38
war now it's game on yeah game on no i i feel like that actually happened quite
27:43
a bit this season like where like we definitely had callable birds but like
27:50
we talked to so many dudes at the boat ramp before too.
27:54
So we usually have a generally pretty good idea of where at least a couple other
27:59
groups are out there. So even if they were callable birds, they're not,
28:03
For us, like, we saw that they were, like, flying directly towards other guys.
28:10
And, I mean, we sat there and watched the show multiple, multiple times.
28:14
Like, I mean, just a group of guys hammering birds.
28:17
Right. I mean, Chris brings up a good point here. I mean, you're better off
28:20
hunting together whenever you're hunting that close.
28:22
I mean, yeah, but most waterfowlers are not going to team up with another group
28:28
of waterfowlers unless they know each other already, then maybe.
28:31
Be but from my experience I've gone and asked
28:34
people like hey you just want to come like one one
28:37
year we were hunting we were goose hunting it was goose season and
28:41
we had a younger group of guys set up I mean real close
28:44
like 100 100 to 150 yards away and they were trying and we killed our birds
28:50
like in no time and I went over there and we were almost done actually I take
28:55
the back we had like two or three left to kill and I went over there to him
28:59
after I would chase down one of the cripples and I was like, hey,
29:02
if you boys just want to come get in the boat and come over here,
29:06
I'll put you in the boat and you can get you your birds.
29:08
Like, it doesn't make any sense to be calling it the same birds and fighting
29:12
over these things for no, like it was literally just two parties out there, us and them.
29:17
And it was two of them. I was like, just come over here, get in the boat,
29:20
shoot your birds, I'll bring you back.
29:22
Take your birds with you. Right. Especially with, I feel like,
29:25
especially with geese because geese will turn around and just,
29:29
give you the middle finger and keep on flying.
29:33
Yeah. I mean, when there's, when there's people too close, I mean,
29:37
you can see it like on ducks and geese, like whenever there's,
29:41
Joe, Blow, and Smoe over there calling at them, three different parties.
29:45
It confuses them, and they just finally say, fuck off, and go somewhere else. Right. Yeah.
29:51
They quickly can tell that they are not welcome there, no matter how good of
29:56
color you are, and they just keep on trucking. Right.
30:01
Another thing that kind of goes into, like, the hunting etiquette,
30:03
I think, is really respecting the resource, you know, and the resource goes
30:07
into the property, the, the land, you know, whether you're hunting a lake that has willows, cattails,
30:16
sorghum grass, you know, all that stuff.
30:19
Be mindful of kind of what you're cutting down and don't just mow it all down.
30:25
Or when you're in a boat, don't just go ripping through the cattails for fun
30:29
because these birds use that stuff for thermal protection when it gets cold.
30:33
Yeah, absolutely. They, I mean, they literally require that
30:36
stuff like that is what keeps them around so yeah the
30:40
more you tear down just for the hell of it obviously if you're hunting on the
30:44
lake you're going to cut willows down for cover to hide from them right but
30:47
don't just cut down the whole forest yeah no absolutely a huge pet peeve of
30:53
mine is like i understand that you're probably not going to be able to find.
31:00
But, like, when I see trash floating out there, that shit just pisses me off so bad.
31:06
Like, it's not that hard to pick up after yourself.
31:11
No. No, I mean, all our trash just stays in the boat all year long.
31:16
So, we're getting better at cleaning it up. We're getting better. Yeah, you relax.
31:22
But we try to really not just leave anything laying around. I mean,
31:26
obviously shotgun shells are a different thing.
31:29
I try to pick them up, but Ellie does a great job at picking them up to chew on them.
31:33
That she does, yeah. And I mean, like I was saying, like with shotgun shells,
31:38
like if it's a windy day and you shoot, like those things are gone immediately.
31:42
You're never finding those things.
31:45
Sit out there at the mile long bridge and scoop them up. Yep.
31:49
And just bring a pole net and a really long pole net.
31:53
Sit on the bridge. Yeah. Yeah.
31:57
I mean, that's really, that's really what it boils down to, right?
32:00
Just, it's more of a respect thing when it comes to hunting etiquette.
32:03
The August, I gotta hit this.
32:08
Hunting etiquette versus boat ramp etiquette. Well, that's different.
32:11
That is, that is different. You're, I mean, I get what you're saying.
32:16
No, no, no, I really, I get what you're saying. Like pulling your boat in and
32:21
out of the ramp or don't just park your boat on the ramp and then unstrap and
32:24
pack the boat and everything.
32:26
Stay out of the way until you're ready to go. Then back the boat in,
32:29
go. Get the boat off the trailer, move.
32:31
Yeah, especially if it's a Saturday. You got to know there's going to be 30 others behind you.
32:38
Come prepared. If you're not prepared, let the dudes in front of you go that are ready.
32:43
It's not that important. There's plenty of space to hunt out there.
32:48
And if you want your spot, then just get out there early. if you know that you're
32:54
slow just get out there early get your shit squared away.
32:58
By yourself, and go at it. You know, one thing I'd really like to see the DNR
33:03
add is, like, trash cans at the boat ramp.
33:06
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I would really like a trash can, or even just a dumpster.
33:11
Like, I feel like a dumpster would be super easy.
33:14
It'd be the easiest thing, because obviously it doesn't take somebody going
33:17
out there and pulling the trash and putting a new trash bag in there.
33:20
That, if we can get that and a street light accomplished out there,
33:25
I wouldn't have anything to complain about. Yeah, you would.
33:29
What? What would I complain about? Well, you'll find something.
33:32
I mean, one way or another, we're gonna find something to complain about.
33:35
I saw that Chris had the box of grocery bags on the boat.
33:40
Like, yeah, that's, that's usually what we do. It just so happens to be our
33:43
bags from Casey's that morning with whatever junk we decided to buy.
33:47
Those get filled up and thrown out of the boat more days than not now for us.
33:53
You know what's funny is I have, I have a roll of trash bags in that boat that, We never use.
33:59
We just use our bags from Casey's. I know. Yeah.
34:03
But soon to be this year, quick star bags.
34:05
Yeah, absolutely. On the daily. Yeah. Much better option. That place is still
34:11
just popping day and night.
34:14
So I think we'll move on here.
34:17
Keep on trucking. We'll just kind of touch on some waterfowl counts.
34:21
I think that's going to be a little busy of a topic here.
34:24
I mean, in the past 10 years, we've had major declining numbers in bird population.
34:30
How accurate them numbers are, I have no idea because I know the numbers that
34:36
we see for our areas aren't accurate.
34:39
So on a national scale, there's no way they're accurate.
34:42
So, I mean, do you have any idea like how they actually count ducks when they're
34:47
doing the counts for the nesting grounds and the breeding grounds?
34:51
I have no idea. I mean, I've, I've heard rumors of how they do it, but I don't.
34:58
That's a serious enough topic that I don't really care to speculate on that
35:04
until I actually do find out exactly how they do it, because then I think we
35:09
could dig into that a little more.
35:12
Well, I've got to say, because kind of from my understanding,
35:14
it's either done by, it's done by photos, obviously.
35:17
Like, they take either aerial photos or they do photos with a camera,
35:22
like a good camera of certain select areas and then take an average and do the math on it.
35:29
But it'd be, it's crazy to think about when they were talking,
35:35
like, just mallards alone.
35:36
Like, nowadays, I think it's like 6.6 million mallards and how they come to that is nuts.
35:44
It's a lot of work. It is a lot of work, yeah.
35:49
Honestly, at this time, I don't really know a solution that we have for it or
35:55
necessarily a better way.
35:58
Yeah, Chris said planes in a graph that they put over the pond in photo. They do that too.
36:02
That's more of an older one, really, method. I look to see here soon.
36:08
And I look to see it being easier to count here soon and better ways with AI
36:14
advancing as much as it is.
36:16
That, you know, I look to see them be able to like just record on video them
36:21
flying over and then they just plug it into AI and AI...
36:25
You know, does all the figuring. Yeah, just poops out a number. Yeah.
36:29
That'll make it way easier. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,
36:34
honestly, anything that would make it easier for him at this point,
36:37
because, yeah, we're not downplaying the fact of we know how hard that is,
36:42
and that's definitely not a job that I want to take on or try to figure out
36:47
a better way for it right now.
36:49
Nope. I will leave that to the professionals. Yeah. Yeah, guys that make a hell
36:54
of a lot more money than we do.
36:58
So, I'm going to skip over the next one I had here on the list.
37:01
Just, we'll touch our area last year. Okay.
37:06
But, like, the springtime hatch and the breeding grounds, you know.
37:10
I feel like, of a personal opinion, they should be doing fairly well this year,
37:15
just because of all the rain they had last year, like, after the breeding season already began.
37:21
I think that's kind of why we had a bad hatch last year, because they were already dry. Right.
37:26
And we didn't get the rain till later in the spring and then like mid-summer in the Dakotas.
37:31
Yeah. And they've gotten a fair amount of snow up there this winter as well too, so.
37:37
Yeah, I'd like to see another one or two good snowstorms come through before
37:42
then. Because like, I'm in southern Minnesota right now.
37:44
We have absolutely zero snow on the ground. None.
37:48
And it's, it was 55 degrees today. And the ground's dry. So like the frost isn't
37:52
even, like the ground's not wet.
37:53
Mm-hmm. So that's no way now.
37:56
Like definitely to see some more snow or at least get early rainfall this year.
38:00
Like if we have an early beginning of spring and have a wet year,
38:05
that'd be fine with that.
38:06
Yeah, I mean, rain doesn't bother me one bit.
38:09
And obviously now I feel like we pray for rain a lot.
38:14
I know Cade would not be happy hearing that, obviously with his side quest in racing.
38:21
But you know what? we're not taking Cade's opinion because he's not here yeah
38:25
he's too good he's too good.
38:27
Too good for us. He left us. No, I mean, even, like, up there in Canada where
38:33
the wildfires are, have been running ramp, ramping for the, what,
38:37
past two years, is it? Maybe even longer? Yeah.
38:41
At least the last couple. I hope they got a decent amount of snow,
38:45
or they have just an early wet spring, because they're dry.
38:49
And that's also, you know, that's where a lot of birds go. Right.
38:53
Yeah, Chris said that the Dakotas are void of any snow at the moment.
38:57
Yeah, it was pretty apparent how little water North Dakota had when we were there this year.
39:04
But that was only on the west side. Right. True.
39:09
Once we got back more central and east, wet, wet. Yeah, absolutely.
39:16
Every pothole on the east side was chock full of water.
39:22
And then we were using three or four different kinds of maps looking.
39:26
And every single one of these maps showed potholes on the west side and you
39:31
couldn't buy a drought in a lot of them.
39:34
No, and even the locals out there said that they were in a bad drought out west there.
39:39
But like, I forget what the highway line was, but he said everything east of
39:42
that had ample rain and had a pretty wet year.
39:46
Everything west of it was super dry and you could definitely notice it because
39:49
like I said, I don't remember the name of the highway, but we scouted on that
39:52
side of it and there was plenty of water and you go on the other side and there's none.
39:55
No, it was definitely a hard line of where they had adequate amount of rain
40:01
and where they didn't. Yeah. No, it's kind of wild to see.
40:05
But, I mean, we need a good hatch this year. Numbers are...
40:12
Was they're really down. And I know they're looking to make changes to the seasons, possibly.
40:17
So fingers crossed for an excellent hatch.
40:20
Yeah, August said that where he fishes three times a year is really wet.
40:25
And I know that's on the east side of the state. Mm-hmm.
40:28
He must be doing, he must not be driving, though. He's doing pretty decent at spelling. Yeah.
40:33
A lot better than last week. Yeah. No, he got me, though, in text,
40:37
because I responded in the text this week to him, and I was doing something
40:42
and typed it quick, and he's like, oh,
40:45
you give me shit for misspelling stuff, and I completely autocorrect got me,
40:50
and it was bad. So he got me.
40:54
So what do you think are some of the causes for the declining numbers that we're seeing at home?
40:59
Me personally i don't i think
41:03
we get a lot more birds than they say because now hear me out a lot of the air
41:08
like they typically don't count our area with plain they glass it like they
41:14
they do count with plain but they
41:15
don't they don't count the lake so like august has told us in the past,
41:23
Numerous times They used to flood Swan The refuge The boxcar refuge used to
41:28
have more water in it Like the walk-in areas like Hartford And Ronalds and that
41:32
stuff Got flooded better and held water more consistent And had flooded corn.
41:38
So back then it was easier For them to scout because those birds were more concentrated
41:42
In those easy small areas To see.
41:45
And they would use them Now I mean the ducks really don't They use them but
41:50
they don't use them in the numbers they used to. Right. Yeah, no, absolutely.
41:55
And I pull up this graph here. You can kind of tell, it's hard now,
42:00
it's probably hard to see, at least it's hard to see for me.
42:03
But you can tell, obviously, when there was corn up there and when they had
42:09
water to nowadays, the last 10 years, 15, when they don't really have water in there or corn.
42:15
Look how much lower they are on an average for birds we have come through.
42:19
Because I think, Let me pull up my phone. I think we hold...
42:24
So in 1994 we held an average of
42:28
32 000 ducks per day and then
42:31
in 2024 red rock averaged 4 200 ducks
42:34
per day now me and
42:37
you hunted every day in 2024 basically we would see 4 000 ducks in like 45 minutes
42:45
yeah the first 45 minutes too so that right there leads me to believe that our
42:53
numbers are not exactly accurate,
42:55
but I don't, I obviously am not from this area and have not been hunting red
43:02
rock my entire life, but I have been around for the past eight, nine years now.
43:09
And I don't think we're seeing a decline. I mean, obviously we've seen a decline
43:11
since the flood because that's just a whole different animal.
43:16
Right. But on a year to year basis, I think we're holding more birds now than
43:20
we were like five or six years ago and we didn't have any habitat for them.
43:24
I would agree with that. Yeah. I mean, I think for the last couple years that
43:29
I've been doing this, like, it's stayed consistent for the most part.
43:34
Definitely, like, obviously weather plays a part of it as well, too.
43:39
Like, just when you're going to get birds and whatnot, too.
43:44
Well, and that's a big thing being argued about with the whole flooded corn
43:48
debate online is weather.
43:50
Like, obviously, we are trending for warmer winters, but, I mean,
43:56
we're talking, like, our average winter is, like, one to two degrees warmer on a national basis.
44:02
That's not enough to change the migration, in my own little stupid opinion.
44:09
But we don't, we don't, it's a fact, we don't see the snow as early.
44:13
That definitely has a factor in it. But, I mean, if you read a lot of biologists
44:17
and all these scientists, ducks migrate off of moon phases. Mm-hmm.
44:23
And by the calendar, basically, you know. So, like, up until the winter solstice,
44:28
they constantly are migrating by the moon phases and what phase it's on.
44:34
Like, look at Halloween. It don't matter if it's 70 degrees.
44:37
Within that two to three day time span of the 31st of October there is a our
44:43
first good actual push of ducks right yeah absolutely and that's been going
44:49
on since before either one of us were alive.
44:52
But weather does push them I mean there's been years where I've gone north or
44:57
I've been scheduled to go away north like a Halloween week and I have to cancel
45:02
that and go a little farther south because we've had a massive snowstorm and
45:05
I just go to the snow line Thank you.
45:08
I don't know. There's a lot of things that cause it. Obviously,
45:10
lower duck numbers, you're going to see less ducks, right? Mm-hmm.
45:14
Right. I think Rodney's comment is interesting, and he said what the rise in
45:18
varmint hunting makes for more successful hatches, because I feel like that's
45:22
something that's popping off huge in the last couple years.
45:25
Like, everybody has a thermal, and everybody's hunting coyotes and raccoons
45:30
and everything else, too, which, I mean, I don't do it.
45:35
But i know a bunch of guys
45:38
that have recently gotten into it in the last couple years
45:41
and i mean i love to hunt pheasants
45:44
too and that helps a bunch with them so more power
45:47
to all those people like keep going out and shooting
45:50
every single one of them yeah i don't yeah
45:53
i obviously don't really partake in the varmint hunting either but
45:56
hats off to all the guys out there doing that stuff and we appreciate
45:59
your service keep up the good work yeah yeah it's
46:02
a big thing it is huge and i mean
46:06
obviously we saw it we saw that
46:09
decline so much when like people stopped selling hides of animals because they
46:18
didn't they didn't go for anything anymore so it wasn't worth people's time
46:21
but i don't know now especially the coyote hunting community for sure is is getting huge.
46:28
Yeah. Some guys are running around with some pretty sweet setups.
46:35
Yeah, them guys put a lot of money, I mean, I can't say anything because I have
46:38
way too much money in waterfowl hunting, but,
46:42
Yeah, like, they put a lot of money into just going and killing a coyote,
46:45
which, I mean, hey, that's what they like to do, so spend your money however you want.
46:48
I can't knock a guy from going out there and doing what he enjoys to do. Right.
46:53
And it really helps us at the end of the day, too, especially the guys that do it up north. For sure.
46:59
Chris said 60-degree days on Christmas Day. It says different.
47:02
I mean, Chris, you can't go off of one day.
47:06
Did we break the record this year? I think the record was like 70 degrees on
47:10
Christmas back in like the early 1900s or something like that.
47:13
Yeah, it was close. Like 70s. It was close.
47:16
But that's what I mean. Like, so, I mean, this is just all my opinion.
47:20
And what I, like I look, I do look back at weather from like going back 100
47:26
years and whatnot all the time.
47:29
And if you watch a lot of these records that we break for, or we've been breaking
47:33
the past 10 years for high temperatures and certain times a year,
47:36
we're set. like 50, 60, 70 years ago.
47:41
So, I mean, I personally think that the earth just goes through its weather
47:45
cycles, but everybody has their own opinion on that, and I have no idea what
47:50
I'm talking about when it comes to that.
47:53
You're a meteorologist now, huh? I've been studying, yeah, because they get
47:58
paid to be wrong 98% of the time.
48:01
Ditch parrots, really?
48:04
Making fun of pheasants now.
48:09
They are they are hard on them though like i mean everything,
48:15
We can't echo any more than we already said. Like, it's crazy.
48:21
I've never heard them called that before, ditch parrots. Neither have I.
48:25
It's actually pretty good. I'll use it.
48:30
I mean, now, so before we kind of start wrapping this up, if you guys got any
48:34
questions or things you want to add to the podcast, definitely leave a comment now.
48:40
I mean, before we wrap this up, we can kind of touch on any questions,
48:43
comments, concerns that we have on this.
48:46
And if you are watching on the live podcast, we would really appreciate it if
48:50
you would like the live stream and or follow and subscribe. That way you do
48:55
get a notification when we go live, which, hey, knock on wood,
48:59
we're doing good three weeks in a row now.
49:02
Monday at 7 p.m. is our time we are shooting for. Yeah.
49:08
I think Cade was hoping that we'd maybe start to bump it up a little earlier.
49:14
In the night, but we'll see. I don't know. You know him. He gets grouchy when it gets late.
49:22
Yeah, but he's not... We would do that, but summer's coming up really quick here.
49:28
Yeah, he'll still be working because he'll still be white out.
49:31
Yeah, and I will be too. Oh, absolutely.
49:35
We may cut back on podcasts to every other week at some point just in the offseason
49:41
unless... I don't know. We'll kind of see how that shakes out.
49:44
I think we'll have plenty to talk about but just a matter of with Kate and I
49:51
working sun up to sun down and then obviously your schedule that changes and rotates,
49:57
it might not work out for a couple weeks but we'll just see how it shakes out
50:01
we're going to try to be as consistent as we can.
50:04
No, Chris, not Sundays anymore. We're to Mondays because Cade's other podcast,
50:10
I guess, just has precedence over us.
50:13
So they went back to Sundays. So now we're going to try to keep it consistent with Mondays.
50:20
So I did forget to mention, I don't know who this is, but somebody did comment
50:24
again on our Spotify account, and his name's DGL on there.
50:31
But he said, as the question was, what do you guys think about South Zone starting
50:37
closest Saturday to November 1st and running 60 days straight.
50:43
As long as it was like that weekend like as long as it starts before Halloween,
50:48
like I would still want it to start in October and if it ran 60 days straight
50:52
from there and you're ending right before Christmas,
50:56
that's I mean that's honestly what I would like anyways I would agree you're
51:01
gonna have a lot of guys mad about that because I don't think you'd ever get
51:04
that to go through because of the early season hunters that are missing out on their time.
51:09
But, no, I would definitely, I wouldn't be opposed to that at all.
51:15
I don't know. We talk about, like, oh, he's here. He's listening.
51:23
You don't know. What do we not know? Like, what were you saying? I don't know. Yeah.
51:31
I don't know. No, he was right. We don't know.
51:34
Yeah, no, dude's on drugs. Yeah.
51:38
Rodney did say, and we appreciate you, Rodney. It's his first time listening,
51:41
and he's just waiting on the snows, and we are officially on the schedule.
51:46
Shout out to Rodney.
51:49
Absolutely. I've been seeing a lot of videos of snows starting their migration.
51:56
It's going to go quick this year, dude. If we don't get another snowstorm,
51:59
it's going to be over like that. right and,
52:03
Hopefully, I mean, me personally, I don't snow give a sun anymore.
52:07
Not that I didn't like it. I love to do it, but I just don't have the time to
52:11
take off of that anymore. I know, yeah.
52:15
I don't know. Take too much time off for chasing a stupid duck.
52:19
I might hit up ZB, see if he's got an extra spot sometime.
52:26
He'd definitely take you. I know he's going, I think he's going to Arkansas
52:29
here soon, which we got a group of guys that we know and hang out with that
52:33
are in Arkansas or way down in South Arkansas.
52:36
And they had a good day today. They fucking, they banged them. Yeah, that was a pile.
52:42
Yeah, they mopped them up pretty good today. I think it was Friday or Saturday
52:46
they piled them up pretty good too.
52:47
Yeah, I saw that too. But they were struggling for a bit there.
52:53
You know, it's fun. I mean, yeah, the first time I'd ever shot a snow goose
52:56
was in North Dakota this year. And, I mean, it's a good change of pace.
53:01
I mean, I had fun out there, and I mean, just stacking them up was cool, too.
53:07
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't what we expected or what we went up there to really
53:09
shoot, but it was a good time.
53:14
Trent Labarge is down in there, I'm guessing, in Arkansas right now.
53:18
I'm guessing. He said, I'm down here now. Hopefully, Trent is whacking them himself.
53:25
And then August, once again, is still on the two-zone thing.
53:30
Get out of here I hate to tell you that but you're you're living in the 70s
53:36
man they're not going back,
53:39
they might go back but I don't think so I don't think so either I think you're
53:43
fighting that with too many people obviously yeah,
53:49
I will say again, I'll put this up here for just a little bit here.
53:54
These are the spring meetings. If you were not here this earlier,
53:57
I will post this up this evening or in the morning here, probably this evening,
54:02
on our Facebook and our Instagram.
54:04
So these are all the meetings coming up here at the beginning of March for going
54:08
and voicing your opinions. Go scream and shout from the rooftops.
54:12
Or if you guys just want to hang out with us, come to the Des Moines one.
54:16
I don't think any of these people want to do that. Tyler signing autographs.
54:22
Well, I mean, it'd be really easy to forge because it's just a line.
54:27
At least that's what I do with all my credit card. Yeah, you're going to have
54:32
13 new credit cards open in your name tomorrow. I'll be all right.
54:37
I only have like one or two credit cards anyway, so I could use some more.
54:41
As long as they share with me once in a while and pay the bill.
54:44
You know, we're all a team here. I get it. You're just a nice guy like that. Yeah, absolutely not.
54:53
Do you got anything you'd like to add before we really wrap this thing up before,
54:57
just in case Cade tried to pop in here again, we can get out of here before
55:00
he says anything else? No, I don't think so.
55:04
Good episode this week, and we'll look forward to next week and see what this
55:09
week that we're on right now brings of all the snow goose hunt.
55:15
Right. Chris did say I'll bring up the river zone from six to eight years ago
55:20
was the best of all worlds for duck hunters.
55:24
There it's just in the south zone and it's just called the south zone uh but
55:30
that'll do it i mean i think i'm out of here we appreciate you guys listening
55:34
in if you're listening to this podcast,
55:37
um on apple spotify youtube amazon podbean iheart radio we are live right now
55:44
um we are live every monday starting at 7 p.m generally um come take a peek
55:51
and we appreciate you guys listening in if If you are having troubles getting the podcast,
55:56
just reach out to us on our Facebook account. It is DuckFellowsPodcast.
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And on Instagram, it's at DuckFellows underscore podcast.
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Until next time, I hope all them snow goose guys.