Latest / DuckFellas Podcast / Hunter Harvest Effect and Coot Wars Countdown - DuckFellas Ep. 41

Transcript

Hunter Harvest Effect and Coot Wars Countdown - DuckFellas Ep. 41 · DuckFellas Podcast

• 0:01
  Welcome back to the Duckfellas podcast, episode 41. Guess what, boys?
• 0:08
  You're still gay? Yeah, that. Guess what today marks, dumbass?
• 0:13
  What does today, Mark? Yeah, I don't know. One year. We've been doing this.
• 0:19
  One year of the Duck Palace podcast. Been a whole year already.
• 0:24
  Damn. Doesn't feel like that long.
• 0:28
  No, it feels like we actually just started this, honestly. Mm-hmm.
• 0:33
  It's been a good year. Fun year. Something like that. Unfortunately,
• 0:37
  Zach's here now, so it could be better. Yeah.
• 0:41
  You win some, you lose some. You're so funny. This guy can't even figure out
• 0:46
  his microphone. Hold on, I'm fucking with my eye holes.
• 0:52
  It's just not very loud. That's the only thing that's weird.
• 0:55
  It's because you got to turn the volume up on your microphone. I did.
• 1:00
  What a guy. Anyway. No, he's not good with technology.
• 1:06
  I'm not good with much, really. I mean, BJs, from what I've heard, Whoa.
• 1:11
  You can do a pretty good BJ. Oh, my God, dude. This was a family-friendly show. Yeah.
• 1:18
  Well, I'm just saying, he's the BJ guy. Yeah. Much gooder.
• 1:23
  It do be like that. Are you done fucking with your ear holes now?
• 1:26
  Yeah, dude. I'm good now, dog. Dang. God damn.
• 1:31
  Well, now that we're ready, are you sure you're ready? All right.
• 1:34
  And action. And going to commercial break.
• 1:38
  Take. Like, hear a word from our sponsors. Yeah, we'll do that.
• 1:44
  Oh, my God. What do you got for us first, Tyler? Oh, my phone. Going off for work.
• 1:52
  What the fuck? It's duck season. Who cares about work? Yeah, no shit.
• 1:58
  Well, Central Zone split was this weekend, so naturally we went goose hunting
• 2:03
  because couldn't go duck hunting in our area.
• 2:08
  Saturday was a pretty good hunt. I know you were out pheasant hunting,
• 2:11
  South Dakota, but Cade and Zach and myself went out.
• 2:16
  We killed our six honkers in, what, an hour and a half, two hours, something like that?
• 2:21
  Yeah, should have been a little sooner, but they were kind of being a little fuckers a little bit.
• 2:27
  Yeah, it wasn't the best hunt, but we were able to scratch our limit out.
• 2:34
  Right, right. Yeah, no, you can't complain about a limit at any time,
• 2:38
  you know. But it just didn't, them big groups just didn't want to do it right.
• 2:42
  No, they're being real, real gay for some reason for this early in the year.
• 2:48
  That's why I always love hunting early geese because they seem to give it up
• 2:50
  pretty easy. But yeah, they were being kind of prudes.
• 2:54
  Yeah. Except when all your early geese are just your local birds right now and.
• 2:59
  We all know where they want to be, and it's not the field that you guys were
• 3:03
  hunting either. So they just said, see ya. They were in the field the night before.
• 3:10
  Oh, there was like 40 or 50. You guys saw more birds than that on Saturday.
• 3:14
  Yeah, but that's still more than we had commit to the spread. Right.
• 3:19
  Well, you were only out there for two hours. It was 100 degrees. Okay.
• 3:24
  What are you supposed to do? Just wait for the big groups to do it.
• 3:28
  But anyways, so how was your pheasant hunting? Good. Yeah.
• 3:33
  It's a different game up in South Dakota compared to here.
• 3:36
  Like I can almost guarantee that I saw more birds on Saturday and Sunday hunting
• 3:42
  up there than I probably will in all of the pheasant hunts that I'll do back here in Iowa.
• 3:47
  So it's always a good time. A super good group of people.
• 3:50
  My in-laws live up there. They've been doing this. This year was the 60th year
• 3:55
  that they've been getting together as a group.
• 3:57
  So, yeah, we do like a big dinner and everything. They do awards every year,
• 4:01
  which I think is really funny.
• 4:02
  A best shot, worst shot. I've never been either of them. So before you two start
• 4:07
  coming at me, my name is not on either trophy.
• 4:10
  But no, it's a good time. And yeah, I mean, get to see a bunch of birds and,
• 4:16
  yeah, shoot a bunch of pheasants.
• 4:20
  Tell us what you've seen for ducks on your drive up there. How's it look for
• 4:23
  what's coming or what you got up there? Coots.
• 4:28
  Yes. So where my in-laws are from, actually, they do have a bunch of puddles up there.
• 4:34
  So naturally, before we had Little Man, that's when Rachel and I would switch
• 4:40
  because I'd be sitting in the passenger seat.
• 4:43
  So I didn't put our car in the ditch or in any body of water because I'm constantly looking around.
• 4:49
  And yeah, every puddle that we drove by, I mean, obviously there were more than
• 4:54
  coots in them as well, but primarily what I saw in a lot of their puddles up there were coots.
• 5:01
  And I will say that, uh, on Saturday and Sunday while we were hunting,
• 5:05
  did have some migrator groups of specks that caught my eye and I sat and stared
• 5:10
  at them for a little while while they flew through.
• 5:13
  Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's the... You should have poached one. I tried. I tried a prefered.
• 5:23
  From what you were telling me and like 10 other people, the specs were rolling
• 5:28
  through pretty good. Was that yesterday?
• 5:31
  Yeah. Yeah, I got a couple Snapchats yesterday morning.
• 5:35
  Yeah, I had like, I don't know, I think seven or eight people text me or call
• 5:40
  me and I'm like, all right, enough's enough. I don't really care.
• 5:45
  I can't hunt them. I don't give a shit. And I'm at work, so do not hurt my feelings
• 5:52
  like that. Honestly, just stop texting me about birds right now.
• 5:55
  I can't do anything about it.
• 5:57
  I'm this close to quitting my job. I'm about to crash out.
• 6:03
  Speaking of crash outs and counters for showing up for hunts,
• 6:08
  do we want to go ahead and go over Sunday's hunt?
• 6:12
  There wasn't a commitment to be there. It needs disgust. Okay.
• 6:16
  What do you mean there wasn't a commitment to be there? Austin's seen the group chat.
• 6:21
  Cade's in the group chat and we all agree that you committed and you did not show up.
• 6:28
  I mean if you I will take that tally if you believe there is a commitment but
• 6:33
  I'm pulling it up right now because I don't think there is a Zach are you hunting in the morning?
• 6:38
  I was gutting a deer or same field in the morning. Yes, same time then blank
• 6:44
  blank won't know what hit him.
• 6:48
  So there you go. If it's a commitment, I'll take the tally. I mean,
• 6:53
  without saying yes, that's about as close as you can get.
• 6:58
  What does our chat that's in here think? Trenton, I know you're in here.
• 7:02
  At least you were, because he's commenting.
• 7:04
  But what do they think about that? Is that a commitment by him saying they won't know what hit them?
• 7:11
  The chat hates me. They just want to see me lose. So...
• 7:17
  The people have spoken. The verdict's in. Oh, and we got Griffin.
• 7:22
  Griffin said, count his ass.
• 7:25
  His vote shouldn't even count. The guy's dumb.
• 7:32
  Add it to the whiteboard. Sounds like we got to put it on the list there,
• 7:35
  Zachary. Add it to the tally.
• 7:38
  I'm going to fucking Stone Cold Stunner Vernon just for keeping me up that late.
• 7:43
  You got one guy on your side here. Brett said, no, you're good.
• 7:47
  But honestly that's my boy that's nobody talks to Brett no I do I do I send
• 7:52
  him snapchats on my wiener and stuff.
• 7:58
  I can believe that AJ here he said you asked for a time and a place oh,
• 8:07
  yeah it sounds like you're cooked yep add it to the tally yeah damn it boy that
• 8:13
  was a good argument day or day it was,
• 8:18
  but i i had to bring it up because you were you were really against putting
• 8:21
  a mark down against yourself and you got the list i do i do i do have a list,
• 8:28
  oh my god no okay my face idea wasn't working let's see uh.
• 8:35
  Awesome said at hunt i'd miss seven and tyler said i'd miss six uh uh,
• 8:43
  I think we really didn't have much confidence in you. Nope.
• 8:50
  I think that we both severely underestimated our numbers on how many times we
• 8:55
  would hunt because I think that we're both going to slam the over on how many times we make it out.
• 9:03
  Oh, I think so too. Pending. I mean, pending work schedules and everything else,
• 9:09
  but it's starting out good.
• 9:10
  Yeah, I'm off every weekend in November. So you can count me in.
• 9:15
  I've hunted way more already than I usually do this time of year. Yeah. Like way more.
• 9:20
  Which, speaking of that, I don't think I'll be hunting Saturday,
• 9:24
  Zach. If you were planning on going duck hunting, it probably won't be with me.
• 9:29
  Yeah. I know we talked on the phone and it sounds like you're going to have to work, huh?
• 9:32
  I think so. I'll know more, which I was down to work because look at the weather.
• 9:37
  This weekend's going to be, what, 80 degrees and partly sunny.
• 9:42
  Trenton, I'm talking about Tyler and Austin's work schedules, not mine.
• 9:48
  Yeah. I work for where my laptop is. Zach had to get dressed to get on the podcast
• 9:52
  today for the first time.
• 9:53
  Dude. He's been sitting in his PJs all day. I know. I suck. I can put underwear on.
• 10:00
  I don't know why I had to put underwear on to be on here, but okay.
• 10:04
  That's true. I might not even be wearing pants. You don't know.
• 10:07
  Oh, man. I hope you are. I'm going to have to get up and get a beer here in
• 10:10
  a minute so you'll find out.
• 10:13
  That ain't good. That ain't good. No. No, I think, I mean, realistically,
• 10:17
  if you're going to work on a weekend, I don't blame you one bit for choosing,
• 10:20
  or for being okay with us this weekend at 70, what is it, high of 79 on Saturday?
• 10:25
  Yeah, and it doesn't get you excited. Like, it's not.
• 10:30
  No, and it's going to be partly sunny, so like, it's not going to be full on
• 10:33
  sun to really help you out, work some birds. So, I'd imagine probably lower winds, too.
• 10:39
  I don't know, I haven't looked that much in detail. I just seen the temperature,
• 10:42
  and I'm like, eh, I don't really want to go.
• 10:45
  Yeah. I mean, obviously, if you're home, we go because I feel like you got to.
• 10:49
  But if it's one we miss, it's not one that hurts my feelings.
• 10:54
  Yeah, if I'm off, I will probably be going for, like we did last opener,
• 10:59
  for two or three hours, and then getting the hell out of Dodge before it gets stupid hot.
• 11:04
  Right. Strictly looking for coots.
• 11:07
  That leads us into the next topic, Coot Wars. Coot Wars starts this weekend,
• 11:13
  for everybody that's entered, which, how many, you were just looking at the list.
• 11:19
  Yeah, we got 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 teams right now.
• 11:25
  I know we have 13 for sure.
• 11:29
  So we're getting up there. That's better than I kind of thought it would go,
• 11:34
  for the first time ever doing this.
• 11:36
  I was thinking like 6 to 8 teams for the first year.
• 11:40
  And I felt like that would be a good number to hit for the first year.
• 11:44
  So to double my initial guess, that's pretty solid. Right.
• 11:49
  So let's talk about it a little bit. We got some updates for Coot Wars.
• 11:52
  One of you two, I don't care which one of you guys. Let's talk about what kind
• 11:56
  of prizes we have guaranteed for first, second, and third.
• 12:01
  And who it is. Yeah. Pook, you want to take it away?
• 12:05
  Except I don't remember the numbers. Oh my gosh.
• 12:10
  Gerber Decoy Rigs. Shout out Gerber Decoy Rigs. Obviously, really good people and good rigs too.
• 12:19
  I've been donating some rigs to the first, second, and third place teams.
• 12:24
  So first place gets three dozen, second place gets two dozen,
• 12:28
  and third place gets a dozen Gerber rigs.
• 12:31
  So shout out to those guys for putting in and showing out for this little competition
• 12:36
  here. And it'd be nice. We were working on a couple others. Not sure what's
• 12:40
  going to come of that, but it'd be nice. We can't get a little more things rolling here.
• 12:43
  So just going to add some incentive to these guys to get rid of some cutes.
• 12:48
  I'm not positive, but.
• 12:52
  I do think if Ricky Bobby was a duck hunter, he would say something along the
• 12:58
  lines of, if you don't use Gerber decoy rigs, then fuck you.
• 13:01
  Seems legit. Yep. It does seem legit.
• 13:06
  Yeah. Shout out to those guys. And then, yeah. I will say as well,
• 13:10
  I don't know if you want to bring that up now.
• 13:13
  Yeah. We'll go ahead and bring up the other one. No guarantees on what we're
• 13:16
  getting there, but we can bring it up. Had somebody reach out.
• 13:21
  So, reached out to Tyler last week, trying to put something together for us
• 13:24
  here for, you know, whether it's first, second, or third, or just first,
• 13:27
  or what we figure out there.
• 13:29
  Waiting on some details on the packages, but I know a guy from Avery and GHG
• 13:34
  and Bandit reached out, so see if we can't get something lined up through those
• 13:38
  guys. See if we can't sweeten that pot a little bit.
• 13:41
  And I did confirm with him, was that yesterday, I think? Yesterday. Yep.
• 13:47
  Yeah, I confirmed with him that he's still interested and willing to,
• 13:51
  or wanting to donate to some of the people.
• 13:54
  And we're kind of hoping to get enough stuff together here that everybody gets something.
• 13:59
  We are going to give away a few stickers to every team, whether it's probably
• 14:05
  three of each of our Duckfellas stickers we have, and then quite possibly a Coot Wars 2026 sticker.
• 14:14
  Yeah those should we saw the proof today so,
• 14:18
  i think as long as everything goes right we'd like to get again if get gerber
• 14:22
  on there for donating some some rigs get their logo on there and then obviously
• 14:28
  you know depending on what we get from avery or bandit or gsg or whatever they
• 14:31
  want to throw on there as well to get some decals and,
• 14:34
  we also got a proof of some hoodies possibly so So,
• 14:38
  we need to dial in a couple things there.
• 14:43
  I do want to say, we're going to make some hoodies and t-shirts.
• 14:47
  So if you're looking to maybe pre-order or get on the list before you forget,
• 14:52
  hey, this is what I want to order, this amount of t-shirts or this hoodies,
• 14:57
  you know, whatever, get with us.
• 14:59
  And then we can also give you a color sheet.
• 15:01
  Because I'm thinking we'll probably do, whatever pre-orders we have,
• 15:05
  we can do different colors of.
• 15:06
  And then whatever is most popular we can order the most of for extras to sell
• 15:10
  later on but we can get a color sheet for fest colors that will work with the
• 15:15
  logo and design to where it doesn't just blend in,
• 15:18
  but reach out if you're interested in a hat or a hoodie that's going to be probably
• 15:22
  just or not sorry i just spoiled the hat thing but a hoodie or a t-shirt for
• 15:29
  coot wars or just for to represent the the podcast and,
• 15:33
  Promote it. Reach out. And that'll be kind of the Coot Wars ones are probably
• 15:38
  the only ones we do this winter.
• 15:39
  Maybe another design later on, but we'll see.
• 15:44
  Can you hear them? No, I can't hear them. No. All right.
• 15:48
  Well, we'll wait and I'll take over. He's muted. Is this better?
• 15:51
  There he is. That's more better. Oh, look who's here.
• 15:56
  Yeah. Shout out Ryan at Levitt Graphics. So if you guys in the chat haven't
• 16:02
  noticed, I think we're all wearing a version of the Duckfellas hats.
• 16:07
  We've got a couple more designs in the works and what we're going to do there.
• 16:12
  But Tyler's, Richardson, obviously that big billboard on the front.
• 16:17
  Everybody loves a good Richardson hat.
• 16:18
  Austin's wearing the Legacy.
• 16:21
  He can tell you how comfortable it is.
• 16:24
  But I think those look sick. And then I'm a big fan of the row pads with like a little flatter bill.
• 16:30
  Obviously, I did a red one with just duck fellows written across it.
• 16:33
  We've got a green one of these with some dark yellowish wording coming out.
• 16:38
  So you can kind of wear them hunting as well. So I wanted something that you
• 16:41
  could do both with. But yeah, so if you want any three of these,
• 16:46
  but obviously this will be green as well.
• 16:49
  And well and we talked about doing we talked about doing this one in the bottom
• 16:53
  land or something like that wasn't it,
• 16:55
  yeah so on the top of tyler's hat it's kind of like the woodland camp or wood like army camo yeah,
• 17:01
  so we're gonna do that we're gonna change that it'll be a bottom land on top
• 17:04
  so we can wear that hunting as well but yeah,
• 17:07
  we'll get we'll get some hats and hopefully get a picture of all the you know
• 17:10
  four or five options we got and try to get them out on facebook for you guys
• 17:13
  so we can get those ordered. For sure.
• 17:17
  I'll just say the shirts with our logo as well, those are coming down the pipeline.
• 17:22
  Yeah. Sean commented here that he wants to purchase a hoodie.
• 17:25
  Sean, just shoot us a message on Facebook that you would like one,
• 17:30
  and then once we get this proof finalized here, hopefully this week or beginning of next,
• 17:38
  we can shoot that over to you, and then you can tell us kind of what you want
• 17:41
  in size, and we'll put you down on a pre-order because we're still getting the
• 17:46
  design finalized and haven't really got anything.
• 17:49
  We don't have any leftover from last year. They're all gone.
• 17:52
  As far as the, I'm working with Ryan a little bit, as far as the,
• 17:55
  I talked to him today, the Cute Wars shirt, I want to have that finalized in
• 17:59
  the next couple of days so we can get that on Facebook and so you guys can see
• 18:03
  what they look like and get an order in if you want.
• 18:05
  Hats should be, I would think, this week or probably next.
• 18:09
  And then, yeah, everything, the hats, the Duckfellas shirts,
• 18:12
  and if we decide to do a Duckfellas hoodie again with just our logo,
• 18:16
  that'll be next week as well.
• 18:18
  Yeah, I mean, we could always do another run of the OG design with the DFP on
• 18:23
  the front instead of the other logo we had, like Justin's wearing there.
• 18:27
  Do the DFP on the front and then the other logo on the back.
• 18:29
  I mean, we could always do another run of those if there was interest in it.
• 18:33
  Another run of those or maybe even switch up colors if we find a sweatshirt
• 18:38
  that we like or maybe a different color that we like as well too.
• 18:42
  Kind of depends a little bit on you guys too, like what you guys are,
• 18:47
  you guys as fans, like what you're looking for, what you want to see from us,
• 18:50
  too. I mean, we're open to a lot of things.
• 18:53
  I mean, we'll make whatever you want or get whatever brand hoodie you want to
• 18:57
  a point, but there's a big price jump.
• 19:00
  You got the Gildans that are... I think they're some of the cheaper ones.
• 19:06
  District are the ones we did last year. Yep. And they're not a bad hoodie.
• 19:10
  I really like the original ones we did, but the white ones shrunk for some reason.
• 19:15
  I don't understand that. White ones feel a little different.
• 19:17
  You almost have to size up. Thank you.
• 19:20
  But the brown ones fit really good. I know me and Austin personally have a couple,
• 19:26
  Carhartts coming down the line.
• 19:28
  It's not something we're against. It's just we also don't expect guys that want
• 19:32
  a $60 hoodie. You know what I mean?
• 19:34
  Yeah, I mean, I would be all for doing Carhartts, but it would not be any cheaper
• 19:40
  than probably $50, $55 at the cheapest to get those out there.
• 19:46
  Yeah, just keep an eye out on the Facebook or socials. for some proofs and some
• 19:51
  pictures of what's coming out and reach out to any of us if you want that.
• 19:56
  Actually, Colton, that was, yours was specially made out of a different fabric,
• 20:00
  so no, it wasn't the washer or dryer that fucked it up. No, it's actually neither
• 20:05
  of those. It's the fridge. If you stay out of it, it'll get.
• 20:10
  Oh, man. Cooked. That guy just got roasted.
• 20:15
  I can say that because fat kids stick together. My fridge drinks my clothes, too.
• 20:21
  Oh shoot well what are we going to talk about next I know what were we all talking
• 20:27
  about before the podcast here Austin.
• 20:31
  Yeah, you were, or we were talking about harvest numbers, the split,
• 20:36
  a couple other things that I can't remember.
• 20:39
  I was kind of waiting. I wanted to wait on talking about hunter harvest and
• 20:44
  its effect on duck numbers every year.
• 20:48
  But I can't remember what we were going to talk about in between.
• 20:50
  Zach, do you have anything you want to touch on before we start moving towards that?
• 20:55
  No, I don't think so. I mean, we touched on, yeah, we touched on early and split's
• 20:59
  coming up. So if we're good there, we can move right into it.
• 21:03
  I guess one more thing. I don't think I mentioned it. Last day to enter Coot
• 21:07
  Wars is Friday before noon.
• 21:11
  This coming Friday, what is the date on the 23rd? Yeah, 23rd, noon central time.
• 21:17
  You have to be entered to Coot Wars to be entered.
• 21:21
  I'm going to start the group chat with all the team captains on Friday and go from there.
• 21:28
  That all the instructions after that will be after that. And then,
• 21:32
  but to enter, I've had a lot of questions on this.
• 21:34
  All you got to do to enter, just message our Facebook page and give me a team
• 21:40
  name and then team captain's name and their phone number.
• 21:45
  And we'll get you wrote down. And then Friday, sometime in the afternoon,
• 21:49
  you'll have a group text started and with more instructions.
• 21:53
  Perfect. But Griffin has a point here. we can talk about water levels for what's
• 21:57
  going to be for the rest of the season and what it's going to be for this weekend
• 22:00
  since it's way lower than what it was. She's coming down quick. Yep.
• 22:06
  We're getting a lot of mud showing.
• 22:08
  We're at 747.2 right now.
• 22:12
  So, I mean, a little closer to normal and what everyone is used to,
• 22:16
  obviously still a little bit higher.
• 22:17
  And I think they plan on right now, at least looking at the forecast for it,
• 22:23
  plan on keeping it a little higher.
• 22:25
  So that'll be nicer, be able to get around a little bit easier,
• 22:28
  maybe hunt some areas that you haven't been able to in the last couple years.
• 22:32
  And I know it made things a little difficult when the water level was at its highest.
• 22:38
  A lot of guys aren't super comfortable like throwing decoys out of the boat
• 22:42
  and then hiding themselves too. So yeah, should be able to hunt a lot of places
• 22:47
  that you're familiar with but still going to have a little more water.
• 22:51
  Are you talking about yourself there? Yeah, I hate, I hate not being able to get out of the boat.
• 22:57
  Yeah, I mean, side note, sidebar or not, it is a great time to take one of your
• 23:02
  frenemies hunting because it's easy to drown.
• 23:07
  Oh my god not recommended it's also telling you to do something illegal i'm
• 23:11
  just saying if you didn't want to hunt with you anymore,
• 23:17
  it is also really easy right now to leave your brand new shotgun in a tree and
• 23:22
  give it a bath on like red rock too so that was pretty cool the other day yeah dude,
• 23:28
  my left arm was cold for the rest of the hunt so yeah that was kind of definitely
• 23:34
  like a quick thing where a bang bang thing where you definitely could have just
• 23:37
  used your feet to kind of like pick it up.
• 23:42
  Or just pull up your sleeve yeah that also could have been you know I mean I
• 23:46
  was I was a little nervous that I was never going to do that thing again,
• 23:51
  a little nervous it was going to get more wet it was submerged and what if it
• 23:55
  got even more wet I know it was in the water long enough to rub the paint off oh my god Jesus,
• 24:02
  but no so So this weekend will be kind of nice.
• 24:05
  You can get out of the boat in a lot of areas. You can get to a lot of different
• 24:09
  areas still compared to like what we'd normally have for season.
• 24:14
  Definitely look forward to the water level. Supposed to be 746,
• 24:18
  more or less. Maybe 0.1, 0.2 come opener.
• 24:22
  And then I think they're going to hold it there the rest of the year.
• 24:24
  I really doubt they raise it to 747, but maybe.
• 24:28
  Well, a couple of comments I do want to touch here. AJ said,
• 24:31
  at least y'all ain't got gators. And I don't know if you boys,
• 24:35
  so with my last job, I've talked to a lot of duck hunters in the South and I've
• 24:40
  seen some videos and that shit is wild.
• 24:43
  They're standing in water and you can hear that thing like hissing and chomping
• 24:47
  or whatever the weird ass call gators do.
• 24:50
  No, I'm out. Yeah, that's a no for me.
• 24:54
  I don't think Ellie would really appreciate a gator trying to grab her tail
• 24:58
  as she's bringing a duck back either.
• 25:00
  No, they say early season you don't even take dogs.
• 25:04
  I would imagine not. I don't even know what I'd do. I don't want to drown.
• 25:10
  I don't want to get eaten by a gator. I don't want my dog to get eaten by a gator.
• 25:15
  As long as you're in the water with me, I wouldn't be scared of getting eaten
• 25:18
  by a gator because I can move faster than you. Not if I shoot you.
• 25:26
  Survival of the fittest that's crazy then yeah another comment Griffin,
• 25:32
  I would love if that video would give us a sponsorship from like State Fair
• 25:36
  Corn Dogs because Austin just loves one biting them things off a stick so delicious
• 25:42
  I forgot about that the wild corn dog video,
• 25:45
  has gone done pretty well yeah it took us like 30 minutes to convince Austin to do that yeah Yeah,
• 25:55
  that wasn't really that enjoyable to do. I turned my head so in real time I did not see the puff.
• 26:03
  But on the video, I saw the puff.
• 26:08
  That's like the only reason we hunted as late as we did that day is to try and
• 26:12
  convince Pookie to do that video.
• 26:16
  It was. I had to buy him a can of Velos, but hey, we got it.
• 26:19
  Worth it. It was 100% worth. Thank you for feeding my nicotine addiction. Absolutely.
• 26:28
  Do you want to answer colton's question here yeah you ate off the jammer he
• 26:32
  would like to know i mean i i don't know if i would enter a corn dog eating
• 26:37
  contest with that dude but i'm sure he's real concerned about how many i ate what,
• 26:43
  what if it was a team competition oh dude him and griffin together unstoppable those two just,
• 26:52
  probably national champions I feel like Zach alone I see I knew this is where
• 26:57
  this was going I absolutely knew this is where this was going,
• 27:02
  God Damn it Bobby But yeah It was a good hunt honestly I know we talked about it but,
• 27:10
  It was a good time I got another reel that Pookie's seen I did You're gonna
• 27:15
  enjoy it That should be coming out Thursday-ish,
• 27:20
  Maybe Friday Dude that cute about got smoked Oh, he's trying to change the subject
• 27:26
  now. Yeah. I don't know what reel you're talking about.
• 27:30
  You're going to like it. Yeah, thank God. You're the star of the show.
• 27:34
  You are. I'm not going to like it then.
• 27:39
  So be on the lookout for that reel. And also, while you're looking out for reels,
• 27:43
  go check out our latest reel we just got posted tonight.
• 27:45
  Make sure you go give that a like and a share. We would greatly appreciate it.
• 27:50
  But after that fuckery, let's move into Hunter Harvest and how it affects duck
• 27:56
  numbers, which some people think it does, some people don't.
• 27:59
  Everybody's got their opinion, then you got biologists that say it doesn't,
• 28:02
  so who's right, who's wrong? Does money play a part of this?
• 28:08
  Yeah. I mean, hot topic, it seems like, this week, right? I mean,
• 28:12
  Facebook was popping off with this argument on a couple different posts.
• 28:16
  Hold on. While we got, let's pause real quick. While we got Gerber in here.
• 28:21
  Gerber, we did announce and we did talk about the giveaway for the winners, first through third.
• 28:28
  We greatly appreciate you guys and give you guys a shout out. Classic.
• 28:33
  We got some hoodies and shirts coming out that we're going to throw your guys' logo on.
• 28:38
  With the Coot Wars logo, but send me another message at some point,
• 28:45
  and we'll gift you a hoodie and a t-shirt too.
• 28:49
  Send me your sizes, so that way we can get you guys once and out.
• 28:53
  Remember where they come in. Absolutely.
• 28:56
  All right, sorry. I just seen this comment. I had to pull it up.
• 28:59
  Yeah, that was a hot topic. I don't...
• 29:04
  Do I think it affects numbers? Have you... Hold on. Have you looked at the numbers
• 29:08
  that I sent out at all to you guys the other day?
• 29:13
  No, I have not. Okay. So this is good.
• 29:18
  Do I think it affects numbers? No. I mean, like, immediate numbers? Probably.
• 29:25
  Long-term numbers? No. Personal opinion. We're going to start a poll here while
• 29:30
  we're talking about this. Pookie, what do you think on this as we're kind of
• 29:34
  going, as I'm typing this out? I looked at the numbers, so it's not fair.
• 29:38
  Before you looked at the numbers, what were your thoughts on it,
• 29:41
  though, if you can go off of that at all?
• 29:45
  I would say that I was a little more on the fence about it now obviously the
• 29:50
  more and more that I've like researched about this and just how shitty I've
• 29:56
  realized the last couple years weather wise,
• 29:59
  of has teetered me to one side,
• 30:04
  we'll see if we get any votes in here on this as we're kind of moving into here,
• 30:09
  I don't even know if that works for everybody but we'll see because I've never
• 30:12
  tried this before No, we've never done this. We're new here.
• 30:17
  New here. We're trying new things. Trying to move up in the world.
• 30:20
  But no, like, so it's been a hot topic, like Zach said, in the Iowa pages and,
• 30:26
  honestly, the Flyway Federation pages.
• 30:29
  There's a Flyway Federation lies exposed page, which I love that page because
• 30:33
  they, you'll see the Flyway Federation post something,
• 30:36
  and then you'll see that page post something to debunk it or go against it,
• 30:41
  you know, whatever. And then it's just back and forth the whole time.
• 30:45
  But, I don't know. Like, I've always been a guy that believes that if hunter
• 30:51
  harvest doesn't matter, why do we have limits?
• 30:54
  Yeah, I mean, that's fair.
• 30:56
  I understand that. I understand that argument 100%. I mean, I can't argue against that.
• 31:03
  Like, the only reason I say that is because if hunter harvest has a really small,
• 31:09
  effect on it, then why don't we raise our limits more?
• 31:11
  Give the people a chance to get more meat or be able to kill more birds on a
• 31:17
  daily basis, blah, blah, blah, you know, so on, so on.
• 31:20
  East Coast does 15 honkers for early season and five honkers for regular season,
• 31:25
  and they don't seem to have a problem.
• 31:27
  Well, North Dakota does 15 honkers for early season, but there's no,
• 31:31
  I mean, people kill geese, but it's not crazy numbers like you'd think.
• 31:36
  Just because they have a high limit doesn't mean people are killing that many.
• 31:39
  I mean, true. And I'm basing this off of one guy, right? I'm not saying across
• 31:43
  the East Coast. I'm basing this off one guy in New Jersey, and he kills 15.
• 31:48
  They will go out and kill a four or five man limit during early season honkers.
• 31:53
  And he'll send me pictures of a trailer loaded.
• 31:55
  Right. So it's like, again, I can definitely see...
• 32:02
  Both arguments. I'm just saying, I think in the long run of it,
• 32:07
  I think there's a couple of things that lean heavier on the duck numbers.
• 32:12
  Sorry. I'm trying to... You know, you're good.
• 32:16
  I'm just trying to pull up a number here before we kind of get going. Yeah.
• 32:22
  For all the flyways. While you're pulling that up, I will say,
• 32:26
  and this is going to go against what I just said a minute ago,
• 32:28
  when Brett said, you know, this comment, pretty sure marketing hunting days did some damage right,
• 32:35
  fair i do agree and you know what that's going to go against what i just said
• 32:39
  because the more hunters is the more numbers so yeah when i only thing i will say against that is,
• 32:46
  market hunting is not affecting us anymore like we like that from back in the
• 32:50
  days like it did do i'm not saying it didn't do damage but we had the highest
• 32:55
  duck numbers ever in 2016.
• 32:58
  Fucking COVID. When everybody and their derelict friend want to go buy a boat
• 33:03
  and become duck hunters because they don't have to work.
• 33:06
  I mean, market hunting was why they, you know, was a part of the reason why
• 33:10
  our numbers were so low for, you know, a while.
• 33:13
  It was definitely a problem.
• 33:16
  But, like, we don't, I would say we're not seeing the effects of market hunting.
• 33:23
  We're seeing the effects of market hunting but it's a different kind nowadays
• 33:28
  than what it was back then.
• 33:32
  I cannot find this number. So whatever. So we're going to start with this one.
• 33:38
  We're going to start with Hunter Harvest. And I feel like these numbers,
• 33:42
  I just really fucked my life up here. I just accidentally clicked over there
• 33:46
  on my wheel. That happened a long time ago. Yeah, it did.
• 33:51
  Okay. So we'll start with Hunter Harvest.
• 33:55
  Active hunters in the United States in 2025 was 1.1%.
• 34:03
  Almost 1.2 is 1,188,400 active hunters.
• 34:08
  And the 10-year average is 942,300.
• 34:14
  So we're actually higher than the 10-year average. The past couple years we have been.
• 34:21
  I do want to touch only on and not an argument against August's comment, right?
• 34:26
  30,000 duck hunters in Iowa and how many guys actually shoot a limit every day?
• 34:30
  Very fair argument. How many guys don't shoot a limit because they didn't shoot into a group of 40?
• 34:37
  Or they didn't want to shoot those four Susies that came in?
• 34:41
  Or they didn't shoot at that group of 20 teal because we're hunting big ducks?
• 34:46
  So I think part of that is, I understand the argument, but at the same time,
• 34:52
  personally, I know a few groups that don't.
• 34:56
  They could kill their limit, but choose to only shoot big ducks or shoot the
• 34:59
  right ducks. The right ducks.
• 35:03
  Yeah, but I'm pretty, I could be wrong. It's been a while since I've looked
• 35:07
  at those numbers, but I thought we only had 14,000 or 15,000 active duck hunters in Iowa.
• 35:13
  Bradley, my kid's trying to fall asleep. Stop with the ding, ding, dingin'.
• 35:18
  Do you guys remember when I was sharing those numbers to you guys a while back,
• 35:21
  and we talked about them on a podcast. I think we only had 15,000.
• 35:26
  Three or four weeks ago, I think we talked about it.
• 35:29
  Yeah, without looking it up, I couldn't remember.
• 35:34
  It was one of our last podcasts that we did with the Google Doc, or one of the later ones.
• 35:42
  I can't remember but I'm pretty sure it was like 14 to 15 million wow that'd
• 35:47
  be a lot thousand but I get what his point is with that um,
• 35:56
  No, I mean, you're talking less than half.
• 36:01
  I mean, we'll go into the next number here for days hunted in the U.S.
• 36:07
  For the people, 2025 days hunted was 8,161,900 plus or minus three is what it says.
• 36:15
  And that is up from the 10-year average, which is why I think hunter harvest,
• 36:21
  matters more now than it used to ever before because that's up from the 10-year
• 36:26
  average, which is 5,673,600.
• 36:32
  That's almost 3 million more days hunted than the 10-year average.
• 36:42
  I mean, it's going up every year because guys, like, I mean,
• 36:45
  I'm guilty of that myself, taking off time to go hunting. And there's just more
• 36:48
  guys that make, like, work the rest of the year and take time off to go hunting.
• 36:52
  And everybody's guilty of that.
• 36:54
  There's guys like me that work from home. You know, after COVID,
• 36:59
  everybody can work from home. So it's real easy to work from my phone or laptop in a boat.
• 37:05
  Well, yeah. I mean, since COVID, I mean, in all honesty, bringing up COVID earlier,
• 37:09
  it's way easier to work from home now than ever before.
• 37:13
  Yeah, they realize they're not, you don't have to be in the office.
• 37:16
  So as long as you're getting your shit done, we don't really care if you do
• 37:18
  your work from noon to four or eight to noon.
• 37:21
  So, I mean, I think that's a big, that's a big factor. And I don't think they're
• 37:26
  taking modern numbers into account when they say duck harvest doesn't matter.
• 37:32
  Like, obviously, drought years and all that in the prairie pothole region and
• 37:38
  the lack of habitat and losing habitat every day.
• 37:42
  Plays a major role in why our duck numbers are down.
• 37:45
  And I do want to pull this comment, and I would have to do research on this
• 37:50
  to know for a fact, right?
• 37:52
  But fewer ducks killed now than 20 years ago and more averaging same duck numbers, if not less.
• 37:58
  So if you're saying our average duck numbers are right in the same realm,
• 38:03
  which obviously they go down, I would say there's less.
• 38:08
  That I know it's false, but I don't have the number in front of me.
• 38:13
  I know. That's why I want to find the numbers based on this comment alone and
• 38:17
  see if there actually is fewer than 20 years ago.
• 38:20
  Because if that is true, if assuming that's true, then I would say your habitat
• 38:26
  and water plays a more crucial part than actual harvest numbers.
• 38:31
  So, I mean, back in the early 2000s and around that time would be like 2006,
• 38:38
  2005. If we're going off of numbers, it'd be 2005, you know?
• 38:43
  We were just coming out of, I think it was a 45-4 season.
• 38:48
  We did 30-3 for X amount of years, and then we did, I think it was 45-4,
• 38:55
  and then we went to the 60-6 that we've been on for over 20 years now.
• 39:00
  Which, I mean, if we're not all mindful and whatever and don't look at numbers,
• 39:07
  we're probably going to go back to a 30-3 eventually, sooner than later.
• 39:10
  But unless something dramatic changes which by nature can do that at any point
• 39:15
  in time yep but i mean there was it was really really good hunting back then because like 19.
• 39:25
  It was the like late 90s we bottomed out with duck numbers it was about where
• 39:30
  we're at now and then we were at a 30 and,
• 39:34
  and then everything started to come back up and we made the switch back over
• 39:38
  to the 45 and 4 and then the 60 and 6 and like I said we've been staying there since then,
• 39:45
  because 2006 we were at the same duck numbers we're at now actually we were a little bit lower,
• 39:52
  in the early 90s but late 90s we were about the same as we are right now late
• 39:56
  90s early 2000s And then we peaked in like 2016 on numbers.
• 40:04
  And that was the highest we've had on record since the 50s.
• 40:08
  So we've seen the prime. We've seen how good it can be. And now we're starting
• 40:12
  to see just how bad it can be.
• 40:15
  Yeah. I think, I don't know. I was kind of excited this year.
• 40:19
  Thought we'd have some, we've talked about it before.
• 40:21
  Thought we'd have a little higher numbers with just how much water was in the
• 40:24
  Prairie Pothole region. And yeah, obviously, according to numbers,
• 40:29
  we, we looked up and saw did not reflect that.
• 40:33
  So we'll kind of talk about total duck numbers, which I just got to find it.
• 40:39
  Well, before we talk about hunter harvest, how many birds are killed a year,
• 40:44
  we'll talk about how many total ducks there are.
• 40:47
  Isn't it like 14 million? No, no, no.
• 40:53
  Well, that's the hunter harvest I was going to talk about next.
• 40:58
  Way to ruin it. Yeah, damn it. No, so I can't find it, but I know it's 33.3.
• 41:06
  Million was the number last year for total ducks,
• 41:11
  like all across the board,
• 41:13
  in Canada and the U.S., all the flyaways.
• 41:18
  And you're telling me we killed how many ducks? 14, I'm going to tell you exactly, almost 15 million.
• 41:24
  14,910,800.
• 41:28
  Oh, my God. Is she mad?
• 41:31
  Oh i don't she might be she's banging and cooking dinner like a little housewife,
• 41:37
  but so we killed 14 million 910 800 ducks estimated i mean obviously these are
• 41:44
  not exact numbers because there's no good fucking way to track it because we
• 41:47
  don't have hip programs a joke but that's another another tale for another time,
• 41:53
  that's up from the 10-year average which our 10-year average is $11,255,900.
• 41:58
  So you're going to tell me we harvest pretty close to 50% of the ducks every year.
• 42:06
  It comes up to 43%, I think, is what we figured out the other day, me and Austin.
• 42:10
  Yeah, it was like 43% or 47%, whatever it was, but in the 40s for sure,
• 42:15
  somewhere right around that mid-40s range.
• 42:17
  So we harvest 43% of the birds or 45%, whatever, and you're telling me hunter
• 42:23
  harvest doesn't matter?
• 42:25
  Like, it's little to none that it matters.
• 42:29
  It's just that math don't matter.
• 42:36
  No, I would say not. I mean, I also don't know if I necessarily believe those
• 42:40
  numbers. I mean, I'm not saying they're 100% wrong.
• 42:43
  That seems like a wild statistic.
• 42:47
  Well, that's out of 8 million days hunted, that's not that wild.
• 42:52
  That's less than two birds a day per hunter.
• 42:57
  Fair. But total bird, I don't know.
• 43:01
  It very well could be. That's like 1.2%. 1.7 birds a day, which is a pretty
• 43:09
  average number across the board.
• 43:12
  If you go like, like the Mississippi river on other duck blinds,
• 43:16
  the average birds per hunter is usually around that 1.4 to 1.8 slash nine mark
• 43:24
  throughout a season per blind. Yeah.
• 43:27
  So, I mean, and that's where they're based their numbers off of is like the
• 43:31
  areas that do actually record total birds killed.
• 43:35
  And unlike the areas we hunt that don't record shit More than 7 or 12,
• 43:42
  whatever the hell it is More than 10 That's such a stupid So it's.
• 43:50
  You might say that it's hard to believe but it's it's not it's really not I
• 43:57
  think when you hear the numbers as a whole you're like, no way but then I guess yeah,
• 44:01
  when you break it down like that and you're like yeah, it's under two birds
• 44:04
  a hunter a day, you're like, oh, shit.
• 44:07
  I mean, we're 32.5% above the 10-year average on birds killed in the past 10
• 44:14
  years. We're way over it.
• 44:17
  And we've got the least amount of birds now since we've had since the 90s.
• 44:25
  August has a good question. I was just reading that. August asked,
• 44:30
  here's a valid question. Out of the number of ducks harvested,
• 44:33
  how many of them are from the prime breeding population?
• 44:40
  That I don't know. I didn't know how you could calculate that,
• 44:43
  honestly. I don't think there's ever any way you could calculate that.
• 44:48
  It's a number I'd like to know, but yeah, I don't think you could ever put a number on it.
• 44:54
  And I would agree with Jared's count before I didn't even see it.
• 44:57
  Harvest numbers also used to be recorded much better.
• 45:01
  Yeah, I think, I don't, I mean, it's a giant, like everybody's going to look
• 45:05
  at it and go, this is a pain in the ass.
• 45:07
  But yeah, I think there should definitely be a better duck number and duck species,
• 45:13
  harvest recording option for us locally.
• 45:17
  Yeah, 100%. Well, I mean, I grew up hunting Mississippi where you signed in,
• 45:22
  or over by the Mississippi at least.
• 45:25
  We signed in and out every day, and you recorded exactly how many birds you
• 45:29
  killed every day on a kill card or at the check station.
• 45:32
  If you're hunting the duck blinds on the river, you checked in and out every
• 45:35
  day and you literally would report how many birds you killed every single day and of what species too.
• 45:42
  That's, I, I legit, I mean with, with, and again, you have, you can speak on
• 45:48
  this more for, for over there, but for local, I don't see a reason why it's
• 45:52
  that big of a pain in the ass.
• 45:53
  If we did our, we opened up our app, just like I, I register a deer harvest
• 45:58
  and I say, Marion County, doe, one, yep, you're good to go.
• 46:02
  Marion County two mallards two teal,
• 46:07
  whatever and then you know we shot six ducks like that it would take you two
• 46:11
  minutes to get the boat loaded up you know what I mean I just right and Bradley
• 46:16
  commented here that the bee pop is the amount of breeding ducks.
• 46:20
  Um we're not even talking about the bee pop right now Bradley we're talking
• 46:23
  about the total number of birds through every flyway that comes down every year,
• 46:28
  they're estimated to be last year was 33.3,
• 46:32
  or 5 or I can't I would assume he is talking again or talking towards August's comment right?
• 46:42
  Max Harworth said how many out of the prime breeding population?
• 46:45
  I mean, that's... I don't even know because,
• 46:50
  it's still, like, August's question still, it would be a really interesting
• 46:54
  number to know, but it'd be really hard to figure out.
• 46:58
  Like, you'd have to track a lot of the prime breeding population.
• 47:03
  And it also, I don't know. So if there's a number, somebody educate me.
• 47:07
  What is considered prime breeding population?
• 47:12
  Older birds I would assume well is there too old is it ducks that are two to
• 47:17
  four years old is it ducks that are one to three years old is it and it's stuff
• 47:21
  like that that I mean there's definitely ducks that are too old,
• 47:25
  that's what I mean and that's where it's it would be so hard I mean obviously
• 47:29
  the banding procedure and band reporting system will help,
• 47:34
  with knowing what Christopher those birds but here you go read Christopher's comment here.
• 47:41
  I'd, oh, I guess, I mean, I knew juvenile versus adult, right? But like.
• 47:45
  But like if we had check stations, you could identify how old that bird is better,
• 47:51
  and be able to, like if you, if we were to record harvest, you'd be able to
• 47:55
  know if it was an older bird or a younger bird. You know what I mean?
• 48:00
  Yeah, I think, I'm not saying that I wouldn't like that, But honestly,
• 48:03
  that's, that's unrealistic to have check stations at X number of lakes and X number of counties.
• 48:13
  And you know what I mean? Like I just, let me ask you this though.
• 48:16
  How's that, how's that, how is it unrealistic that if other states do it and
• 48:21
  not just one state, but a lot of other states do it?
• 48:26
  So what do you, what do you, do you take your birds to a check station every
• 48:30
  day or could you take a picture? Or could you take, I mean, I just,
• 48:35
  I don't see IDNR doing something like that.
• 48:40
  There's ways of doing it, but like we've talked in the past,
• 48:44
  the best way to do it would be online.
• 48:46
  Kind of like HIP is, but with more exact numbers.
• 48:49
  And you could do daily. Or a QR code that you can scan and return in your daily harvest.
• 48:57
  Yeah, I don't hate that.
• 49:00
  The same thing as HIP, except it's more specific. What Mallards?
• 49:03
  Henner Drake's. What Teal? Henner Drake's. What Woodies? Henner Drake's.
• 49:08
  And you had to break that down by numbers. What pennies, Hannah Drake's?
• 49:11
  I understand that. And I don't, I like that idea. Right.
• 49:16
  I just, the whole, the actual physical check station thing, I just don't think
• 49:20
  we could get them on board with at all.
• 49:23
  You're not going to get them on board with anything because it's the Iowa DNR.
• 49:26
  But if we're being realistic, I mean, that's just what it is.
• 49:33
  And once again, Bradley's still arguing here with 33 million.
• 49:36
  I mean, this is, I'm looking at it right here. It's total ducks. Total.
• 49:40
  I mean, we had over 50 million total ducks in 2016, and now we're down to 30.
• 49:49
  I get what he's saying, though. Like, I understand the argument.
• 49:52
  We're saying the total number versus their offspring, right?
• 49:58
  It's not technically 50%, but, I mean, it's a few hunters going hunting away from being 50%. True.
• 50:11
  If you look at the long-term averages, like I said, we're 32.5% above the long-term
• 50:17
  average on retrieved harvests. So,
• 50:22
  it's just more and more people are hunting every day. We're almost 50% above
• 50:26
  the long-term average for days hunted.
• 50:29
  So I would say hunter harvest plays an effect now, more now than it ever has
• 50:34
  before since the market hunting days.
• 50:38
  Is the thing I'm trying to say.
• 50:43
  Say that again. I said, so since the market hunting days, hunter harvest has
• 50:52
  more effect now than it ever has before. Okay.
• 50:57
  Like all these people that keep saying, and it's a, it's a, it's a whole different blah, blah thing.
• 51:04
  You know, people going at it. Everybody's going to be cutthroat,
• 51:07
  but at the end of the day, we're all just here to kill a duck or go hunting
• 51:10
  and enjoy being outside.
• 51:12
  But if we keep if we keep over harvesting at some point then,
• 51:18
  the kid in the background that's listening to music right now in his little
• 51:21
  video sorry isn't gonna be able to go hunting,
• 51:25
  or right Austin's kid you know everybody's kids there they might not get the
• 51:29
  opportunity to do stuff that we get to do now and we've been doing for the past
• 51:34
  well us you know five six years together yeah.
• 51:39
  And it's the reason I bring this stuff up. As much as I love doing it for 60
• 51:43
  days a year, if not more, and getting to kill six ducks a day,
• 51:48
  I'd rather only get to do it for 30 and be able to kill three.
• 51:53
  I don't think there's an argument there, right? And if that's the decision,
• 51:58
  I'm not saying don't support that, right? I'm just saying if that's the decision
• 52:02
  we've said to go with, absolutely.
• 52:04
  I would rather kill my three ducks i want to kill than because i'm guilty of
• 52:11
  it we're at four i'm at we're at four person oh here comes this group of teal
• 52:15
  let's just smoke them crank them john you know.
• 52:19
  It's like i'm guilty of it i'm not i'm not trying to say i'm not and i think
• 52:23
  everybody else watching if you say you're not guilty of it i think you're slightly
• 52:28
  lying well then that's one thing that was brought up on,
• 52:32
  Iowa Waterfowlers where I like to fuck with people and then Bill Smith,
• 52:36
  one of our followers here that comments all the time, he was giving me a show.
• 52:40
  He's like, well, do you hunt and kill your limit every day? It's like,
• 52:43
  but I try to, but in all honesty, I've killed like four ducks this year myself
• 52:48
  personally, and we're seven days into our season, so my average is pretty fucking low. Yeah.
• 52:55
  I've killed four ducks and two grebes. No. No kidding. That's a joke. That's a joke.
• 53:02
  In all seriousness, he was trying to say, well, why don't you just make your
• 53:10
  limit three ducks? And I get what he's saying.
• 53:13
  And if everybody would be on board, yes, it would make a difference.
• 53:16
  But if just us three here said, yeah, we're going to only kill three ducks a
• 53:20
  day this year per person.
• 53:24
  Not going to make a noticeable difference like you'd have to like nationwide and.
• 53:30
  You're also going to get and again i'm calling myself out as well as well as everybody else,
• 53:36
  that you're also going to get the guys are like all right we shot a three like
• 53:39
  let's just hang out oh shit look at that group over there let's just see if
• 53:43
  they'll do it we don't want to kill them let's just see if they'll do it and
• 53:45
  they give you that second bank and decide to put the brakes on you're like all right,
• 53:50
  i see three greens in there might as well smoke them,
• 53:53
  dang so you're saying you shoot over the limit no i said if if we said our limit
• 53:57
  was three well the way you worded that was i know that's not what i meant that's
• 54:01
  not what i meant i mean like if if we were like all right guys let's just try to shoot three,
• 54:06
  help the numbers what we can we're shooting three ducks a person call it a day,
• 54:11
  right real quick before we get too far away from it i do want to hit bryce's
• 54:15
  comment he asked if we tracked our yearly totals and we do track our yearly totals,
• 54:20
  we just do it more on a spreadsheet that we all share with ourselves are like
• 54:24
  amongst each other so everyone can add it and i mean like,
• 54:29
  super easy i don't think we've ever like we're not behind,
• 54:34
  we don't miss doing it like one of us will always,
• 54:38
  take care of it but super simple like the date who's hunting what birds were
• 54:43
  killed i mean every once in a while if it's a good one like we'll like and tyler
• 54:48
  and i have talked about this It's like, we'll put notes, and they're like,
• 54:52
  oh, hey, this was a really good Northwest one day, or...
• 54:56
  Sometimes we'll put water levels for certain areas that we hunt so we know that
• 54:59
  we can get back to that at that water level. And, like, this is where it was at.
• 55:04
  And it was this much more convenient to do. So, yeah. I mean,
• 55:07
  we do religiously track our numbers. And that's part of the fun to me.
• 55:15
  Fun. 100%. And it's good to go back and look at it.
• 55:18
  We track our own trends. Yeah. Like, we track our own trends.
• 55:21
  Like, how do we do? And I mean, guys that I know that like don't are like will
• 55:28
  hunt with us a couple of times a year, but we talk to on a daily basis during
• 55:32
  the season, like they track their numbers as well, too.
• 55:35
  So it's it's kind of fun to see other people's trends that either hunt with
• 55:40
  us sometimes or hunt the same areas as we do. I don't know.
• 55:45
  Yeah and the date thing plays date in in water level ish or conditions ish right
• 55:50
  play a big part in that because you know every five six seven years whatever
• 55:54
  it is that we get high water levels we can look back and you even know,
• 55:58
  in the future you keep that 12 15 year log you can go back be like oh shit remember
• 56:03
  every year that we have this level water we smoke them in this,
• 56:06
  old nancy's flooded cornfield or whatever you know wherever it is right it helps
• 56:11
  out a lot if you like i've done a pretty good job up until last year.
• 56:16
  Last year, I didn't keep track of shit.
• 56:19
  I kind of wish I would have. But, I mean, it is what it is. You're going to
• 56:22
  have that once in a while. Yep.
• 56:25
  But it's super helpful and like, it makes your scouting so much easier the next
• 56:29
  year or for going with the, like the future years.
• 56:34
  And of course, last year's year you did a shit job keeping track and Bryce asked
• 56:38
  what we ended up with last year.
• 56:40
  You should pull up, you should pull up the numbers from the year before.
• 56:43
  I don't have it in a Google Doc, but I just have it on my phone. Yeah.
• 56:50
  The year before... The year before was a good year. Where's my notes? What was that?
• 56:56
  2025.
• 57:01
  We don't have the total of ducks in here, but it was like, and this is not,
• 57:05
  this is just as a whole group, it was, I think it was like 700 ducks and 80 honkers and two specs.
• 57:16
  I'm not, I don't really feel like doing the math on the ducks in my head right
• 57:19
  now, but it was around 700 ducks, give or take 20.
• 57:23
  And yeah, Bryce, we are in central Iowa. So our total that we keep obviously
• 57:29
  does include any trips or anything that we go on or if we go to another part
• 57:35
  of the state as well, too.
• 57:36
  We just keep a running total for ourselves. I mean, we'll know when we look at it.
• 57:43
  We did keep track of what we shot in North Dakota last year as well, too. So,
• 57:51
  yeah. So, Zach, what are your thoughts after hearing the numbers now on Hunter Harvest's effect?
• 58:02
  I would say it definitely swayed me a little bit.
• 58:07
  I can see both arguments. I would probably say I'm in the middle.
• 58:13
  I would agree that that one individually has an effect both together has a bigger effect.
• 58:21
  Together well i mean like in my head i'm looking at habitat and water versus
• 58:27
  hunter harvest like which one has a,
• 58:29
  no they definitely okay but i can but no what i'm what i'm asking is originally the original biologist.
• 58:38
  That say hunter harvest has no effect it's or it's a you know negligible which
• 58:43
  is one percent or less how believable is that now none and when i answered my
• 58:50
  question or that question originally,
• 58:53
  I answered it in the fact of, does it have more of an effect versus habitat?
• 58:58
  So I should have explained that a little better.
• 59:03
  Now I would say I'm still pushed towards yes.
• 59:08
  Like I'm still in the middle. Like one's a problem, one's a problem.
• 59:13
  Together we have a real problem.
• 59:15
  Right. Now one thing I will say is,
• 59:19
  obviously we're going to probably have to go to a 30-3 season to maybe ever
• 59:23
  see the numbers we've seen in 2016 again just because we've dug ourselves,
• 59:28
  in a hole so deep i mean not saying it's impossible to see those on a 60-6 but,
• 59:33
  it's going to take a really long time and a lot of good mother nature years yep but,
• 59:39
  like one thing i don't know why we do like we have a the adaptive adaptive harvest
• 59:44
  program we're not really following that anyways right now but why don't we do
• 59:48
  that for like drought years too like on a really dry year where the the bee pop does terrible.
• 59:54
  Like they just they don't have nesting habitat there's no water and it's a it's
• 59:58
  a bad hatch why don't we adjust our season on the fly for that year and go to
• 1:00:03
  like a 45 and 4 or you know 60 and 3 like trent said earlier,
• 1:00:09
  and that would that would help out that would help counter those bad years the drought years.
• 1:00:16
  I agree. I mean, I don't hate that. It's not something, obviously,
• 1:00:20
  that would involve the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do work right up until season.
• 1:00:28
  Set your limits on what, you know, if it hits this number, we're good to go
• 1:00:32
  to a 60 and 6. If it drops below this number, we have to be at a 60 and 4.
• 1:00:38
  If it drops below this number, according to DU numbers or Delta numbers or wherever
• 1:00:41
  you find them, right, then, yep, sorry guys, this season's a 60 and 3 or a 30 and three or whatever,
• 1:00:48
  right but they like setting their five-year deals like we they do it in all
• 1:00:53
  the flyways instead of five-year seasons and it's really annoying they do that
• 1:00:58
  for five years i feel like we should have a,
• 1:01:00
  a way we can adjust it on the fly if the bpop doesn't do as well as we think it's going to,
• 1:01:07
  yeah and really the five-year cycle thing we do a 30 and three for five years
• 1:01:11
  and at the end of the five years we start seeing numbers change,
• 1:01:15
  go to a 30 and 4 or a 60 and 4.
• 1:01:19
  Yeah but what i'm saying is like if so let's just say we do a 30 and 35 years
• 1:01:24
  numbers get back up to where we want to go we go back to 60 and 6 we're living
• 1:01:28
  the high life for five more years but numbers start declining,
• 1:01:31
  what if we you know they start declining we we adjust that year on the fly in,
• 1:01:37
  what is it, August when those numbers come out, I think, for the B-pop?
• 1:01:42
  Yeah, and that's, I'm sorry, that's what I was kind of, if our numbers came
• 1:01:46
  up, bump it up by one duck a day.
• 1:01:48
  Keep your, you know what I mean, and then it's like kind of monitor the numbers the next year.
• 1:01:52
  Right, like obviously that sweet spot that everybody likes is 60 and six.
• 1:01:55
  I mean, who doesn't like killing, in this flat way, four mallards and two teal
• 1:02:00
  or pintail or whatever it may be?
• 1:02:02
  Six Drake mallards. Six greenheads. Yeah.
• 1:02:07
  So bad. A joke again.
• 1:02:11
  Yeah. But I mean, it's just food for thought.
• 1:02:15
  You know what I mean? I mean, there's obviously everybody's got their opinion.
• 1:02:18
  Obviously, we all each have our own opinions. Everybody in chat has their own
• 1:02:22
  opinion, but chat's opinion doesn't matter.
• 1:02:30
  So, dude, everybody's besides Bradleys. And Griffins. That's true.
• 1:02:35
  I forgot that guy was alive.
• 1:02:37
  Yeah, he was still commenting a little bit ago, but I don't know.
• 1:02:41
  It's kind of hard to wrap it up from that, but I think we're going to have to
• 1:02:45
  kind of wrap this episode up here because we're getting pretty long. Yeah.
• 1:02:50
  That's the only bad part about this topic specifically with how controversial
• 1:02:57
  it is. Like, you could literally sit here and talk about this for hours and hours.
• 1:03:02
  Well, especially when you got, you know, we've got people in the chat that are
• 1:03:06
  talking back and forth and asking questions or saying their opinions.
• 1:03:09
  I mean, you can sit here and maybe not argue, but bring up different topics
• 1:03:13
  of different opinions and thoughts.
• 1:03:15
  Yeah, there's no arguments need to be had. I mean, it's just conversation, right? Don't, right.
• 1:03:21
  And I love seeing other people's point of views. Maybe that's something I didn't think of.
• 1:03:27
  Maybe that's something I miss, especially during this time of season when we're
• 1:03:30
  in the full swing of things and how the three of us constantly talk about this
• 1:03:36
  stuff every single day for at least 60 days straight.
• 1:03:42
  That's all we do is talk about all this stuff. So it is good because,
• 1:03:46
  I mean, yeah, we're not perfect.
• 1:03:49
  We're just three dudes that like to talk about killing ducks and geese and do
• 1:03:53
  kill a fair amount of ducks and geese, but it's nice.
• 1:03:56
  Yeah. We have our moments, but it's nice to see other people's and hear other
• 1:04:00
  people's point of views.
• 1:04:01
  It's like a little refreshing, honestly, because we can get, I mean,
• 1:04:08
  we haven't had one yet this year, but I'm sure there will be a yelling match
• 1:04:12
  at some point over whatever the next hot topic, if not this hot topic, comes out to be.
• 1:04:19
  Right. But yeah, I'm sure there will be.
• 1:04:24
  But, yeah, I don't know.
• 1:04:28
  Anybody else got anything left to say before we do close this out?
• 1:04:34
  Unless your name's Colton Bradley. Then just turn the comments off.
• 1:04:39
  Season's over for him. Yeah.
• 1:04:42
  Dude, he just fixed his boat, though.
• 1:04:44
  Round of applause for Colton. Fixed the grass on his boat. He's back ready to
• 1:04:48
  go. Dude's going to kill some ducks this year.
• 1:04:50
  Just in time to store it in the garage.
• 1:04:55
  His motor breakdown on day one. I hope not. Poor guy's had a good run of bad
• 1:05:00
  luck, I'll tell you that.
• 1:05:02
  He has. It's been a rough, rough go for Bradley.
• 1:05:06
  But, no, I think that's going to do it. Right on, guys.
• 1:05:16
  If you, you know, if you don't follow us, follow us, give us a like,
• 1:05:20
  comment. We appreciate it.
• 1:05:22
  Apple Music, your Apple. whatever, Spotify, all the other shit you listen to.
• 1:05:29
  We appreciate it. You guys have a great evening and see you next week.
• 1:05:33
  And come check us out on the live stream next time.
• 1:05:37
  Later, nerds. Fuck Zach.