Latest / DuckFellas Podcast / From First Duck to Habitat Projects — Colton Bradley on Delta Waterfowl

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From First Duck to Habitat Projects — Colton Bradley on Delta Waterfowl · DuckFellas Podcast

• 3:01
  Oh, my gosh. Welcome back to the Duckfellas podcast, episode 22.
• 3:08
  And Zachary wanted to kick it off with a bang right there. Yeah.
• 3:12
  You know, I got to give Kate props.
• 3:15
  For once. Holy shit. We were having technical difficulties within 19 seconds
• 3:21
  of going live and we figured it out. Yeah. What a stud. Hats off.
• 3:25
  Hats on, actually. Yeah. It's hot in here now. from what it was earlier. We were stressing out.
• 3:33
  Everybody's sweating. You got me and Bradley in your mouth, breathing to the
• 3:36
  coffee. I don't want to turn mine down a sketch.
• 3:41
  Well, this week we got, as everybody can see, Mr. Colton Bradley with us.
• 3:46
  We're all kind of excited to have him on.
• 3:50
  But yeah, Cade's over here doing minor adjustments to the camera. I got fucked up.
• 3:54
  I don't know how I got so fucked up. You hit it. No, I didn't. I thought you.
• 3:58
  100% just throwing bows. I think actually what happened was I was fucking with
• 4:02
  it and I had it like leaned over like this.
• 4:04
  When I let go of it, it was like, nope. Dang.
• 4:08
  I don't know. Anybody doing anything exciting between now and last Monday?
• 4:12
  That's nothing whatsoever. I wish you'd do something for once.
• 4:16
  They keep paying me to show up.
• 4:19
  I fired a race car. Ooh, did you? Yep, one of the fucking three that we'll have this year.
• 4:26
  Heck yeah. Not to sign a zone, though. No, that one was not mine. No, not as nice.
• 4:32
  It's pretty nice shit. I was surprised. Well, I bet it is. You got me excited
• 4:35
  for you just to let you down.
• 4:37
  That's what I'm here for. He'll fire his practice knife. You shut your heart.
• 4:43
  That'll not be good. No. I've done it before. Not good.
• 4:48
  Well I guess we might as well bring up the giveaway we still have going so those
• 4:53
  posts are still out there on Facebook and Instagram pinned to the top of the
• 4:55
  pages and giving away two Alps blinds one to anybody that enters and then the
• 5:01
  other ones are going to someone that is 18 or younger and all you got to do to enter is comment
• 5:07
  what your dream bird is to kill
• 5:09
  and then just follow both our Facebook and Instagram pretty easy you know,
• 5:14
  there's not a lot of entries right now so you have a pretty fat chance of winning
• 5:16
  them if you get in Did we discover last week it was legal or illegal birds?
• 5:21
  I feel like we did. It's a dream bird. It's a pattern. It's legal or illegal.
• 5:26
  If you want to say your dream bird's a bald eagle, that's fine.
• 5:29
  Just don't go kill one. Yeah. Please. Please. I love it.
• 5:33
  I'm not giving honey advice or legal advice.
• 5:36
  Yeah. If you guys don't know, Zach is definitely not a lawyer,
• 5:39
  so do not listen to him. I will give the legal advice. Don't fucking shoot a bald eagle.
• 5:45
  It's pretty good advice, really. I know. I know. Real work. Mm-hmm.
• 5:50
  I didn't want to touch on, like we talked about last week, that rule change in Saskatchewan.
• 5:55
  So, I don't think we talked about it. One good point that I heard over the past
• 5:59
  week is it is a good thing that they're doing.
• 6:02
  They're limiting the days you can hunt there. Like, I wasn't saying that it's
• 6:05
  a bad day because I think it's going to take pressure off the birds.
• 6:08
  Yeah. Like, you're not, I was not going to have as many people hunting up there, right?
• 6:12
  So, I think, I think just the pressure change that that will put on the birds
• 6:16
  is going to help. But what I was saying last week was I don't think it's going
• 6:19
  to help with the Illegal Guide Services. You did say that, too.
• 6:23
  But it doesn't matter what you say. People are still going to take it their own way. I know.
• 6:27
  That's fair enough. Especially Pookie. That guy, he just takes everything the wrong way.
• 6:32
  In my past 12 months of podcasting, I've figured out real quick,
• 6:34
  people are going to take it how they want.
• 6:36
  Oh, I swear. I like that. Yeah. I mean, I take everything my own way, too.
• 6:40
  I see. That's good. Ball's deep. Doesn't mean it's right. I don't point that out.
• 6:46
  I don't know. You're sitting pretty close to Jade over there.
• 6:50
  Well, snuggle. He wanted to sit closer. He did.
• 6:53
  I did recall him actually sit on Katie's lap at first.
• 7:00
  Yeah. Well, you would know because my pants are all dirty and his ass is still clean.
• 7:05
  Lie detector determined that was a lie. Okay, and you're looking at his ass
• 7:08
  or why is he sitting down? Bold of you.
• 7:10
  See, that's outside the pants is clean.
• 7:16
  Jesus.
• 7:18
  I did put on my waders today, do some Bieber nuisance work.
• 7:23
  Golly, I forgot 85 degrees. It's like a sun and my jeans were wet and I guarantee
• 7:27
  there's no holes in my waders.
• 7:29
  You wore jeans underneath your waders? I went straight from work.
• 7:31
  You're a fucking psychopath. You had to pass by your house. Why didn't you strap shorts?
• 7:35
  Because I was in a hurry. Oh, my God. Because the beaver were leaving?
• 7:40
  No, I was meeting somebody there. The beaver? No, I wish. Just tell them,
• 7:44
  like, dude, I'm going to be two minutes late.
• 7:46
  I could have. It's like a five-night drive from where your traps are to from where you were.
• 7:51
  I know, but I also, you know, just didn't click my mind. It was 85 degrees,
• 7:54
  and I was weird in waders.
• 7:55
  I mean, that is, that's very fair. Well, you are pretty slow,
• 7:58
  so I get that. Paper potion job.
• 8:00
  It was. Dude, this is torture out there today, though. I know.
• 8:04
  And it was fucking brutal. I'm pretty sure I'm sunburnt as shit. Oh, yeah.
• 8:07
  Like my arms and my forehead. Dog, I got the fucking Neapolitan going on already.
• 8:13
  No, I almost got chilly. The AC was blasting pretty hard.
• 8:17
  You sound like a fucking operator. Well, you know.
• 8:20
  I hope the next day that it's like 95 degrees out, your AC goes out in that
• 8:23
  building. Oh, damn. I can work for a moment.
• 8:26
  What, you won't be allowed to? You're going to need it on the aqua set then?
• 8:30
  I'm going to have an all sort of fictitious scenario. It's going to be a good month.
• 8:34
  Tyler's just gonna shit on your desk before you get to work?
• 8:36
  I don't have time for that. I thought about it, but I don't have time for that.
• 8:39
  I don't have time for that, Mike.
• 8:40
  I know somebody who has plenty of time now. Ellie? Cookie.
• 8:44
  He's not gonna do a fucking thing other than skip podcast. He can't even defend
• 8:49
  himself when you're sitting here shit talking. He could comment on if he'd defend himself.
• 8:52
  He could. He could be. He could. I don't know where the fuck would fit him, but he'd be.
• 8:58
  Yeah, he'd sit right here. Well, apparently you were sitting on my lap,
• 9:02
  so I'd have two guys on my lap. That's kind of fucked up. Thank you.
• 9:04
  I might be broken. That chair might be hell. Dude.
• 9:08
  I think when I bought it, it was like a 300-pound limit.
• 9:12
  So we're good for making. That's not good. Yeah, but you and Pookie on top of me? No good.
• 9:18
  Well, Colton, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of
• 9:23
  just starting with how you got into waterfowl hunting and what made you want to get where you're at.
• 9:28
  Yeah, so, gosh, it's been 18, 19 years ago.
• 9:32
  Since I've gotten into waterfowl hunting, I was going through some of my dad's
• 9:35
  old stuff and we had a lab at the time and his name was CJ and was flipping
• 9:40
  through some of the pictures and I just told him, Hey, I, I want to get into
• 9:43
  this waterfowl hunting.
• 9:45
  Uh-oh. Don't steal on your computer there. Got a supporter.
• 9:49
  Yeah. But I told him, Hey, I want to get into this waterfowl hunting stuff.
• 9:53
  And he goes, No, you don't.
• 9:54
  And I was like, I, I definitely do. And so he went out that that next fall and
• 9:59
  bought a little Carson's canvas back.
• 10:02
  I guess what's the canvas back boats, the little fiberglass ones.
• 10:06
  Oh, yeah. I know. I can't even know what we've been in. And just a five horsepower
• 10:11
  Johnson or Johnson motor.
• 10:13
  And we went out that that first morning for new season.
• 10:16
  And I remember exactly where I was at looking at a at a radio tower.
• 10:21
  Obviously, it wasn't shooting directly at it. but shot my
• 10:23
  shot my first uh duck it was a bluey teal
• 10:26
  hen and and from there i was hooked i mean gotten into
• 10:30
  a lot of cool opportunities because of waterfowl hunting obviously meeting you
• 10:33
  guys being some of that sorry we've had a lot of fun together throughout the
• 10:38
  last few years but you know it's it's something that's cool about waterfowl
• 10:42
  hunting is is being able to being able to get new meet new folks and and go
• 10:46
  new places that you that you wouldn't otherwise you know and And when you look
• 10:50
  at the further side of stuff,
• 10:51
  like I know we were going to talk about Delta Waterfowl today,
• 10:54
  you know, there's, there's tons of opportunities because of that as well.
• 10:57
  And so, yeah, it's been a, it's been a really fun 18, 19 years that I've been
• 11:02
  doing it and going to be many, many more.
• 11:04
  So did your, did your dad used to waterfowl hunt?
• 11:07
  Yeah, my dad used to, like growing up, he used to trap and hunt and,
• 11:11
  you know, they relied on that. Yep.
• 11:12
  And so that's why when he started having kids, he got out of it.
• 11:16
  And, and I was the one that made him get back into it. And he's not crazy after him.
• 11:20
  I mean, like my dad's one that just likes to go out and see a sunrise and,
• 11:24
  and he just appreciates being out there versus me.
• 11:27
  It's like, and you guys, you know, you want to go out there and you want to kill somebody, right?
• 11:30
  Yeah. But whenever you go with him, you're just chasing sunrise. That's it. Well, no.
• 11:33
  So normally what happens when I take dad out anymore is that I go out at,
• 11:38
  you know, early times like you guys are out there and then I'll go back to the
• 11:41
  boat ramp and pick him up right before shooting time.
• 11:43
  He's like, I'm not going to be out there at, you know, two o'clock in the morning.
• 11:47
  That's going to be all you. Neither are we.
• 11:50
  We're usually rolling at 430. We have a solid plan to be there somewhere between two and four.
• 11:56
  So you just need to buy a faster boat so you can show up at 430 or five o'clock
• 11:59
  in the morning and just beat everybody. That's very true.
• 12:01
  Then people get mad when you do that. I don't know if we should do that. Too late, we already do.
• 12:09
  Stop getting merged.
• 12:10
  Do you send your first duck to ever kill as a blue-wing pen? Yep.
• 12:15
  Have you killed a band yet? A band of duck? Yes, sir. I've killed one band of
• 12:19
  Drake Mallard that was from, I think it's from Saskatchewan is where they banded that one. Yeah, dude.
• 12:24
  That was probably six years ago that we were out and it was all flooded and
• 12:30
  we were literally hunting in 20 foot of water tied up to willow trees and just
• 12:33
  smashing them that morning.
• 12:35
  You killed them here? Yep. Yes, right here.
• 12:37
  That would be sick. Like the only banded mallard I've killed was banded like
• 12:41
  300 miles away from where I was hunting at the time. Fair enough.
• 12:44
  And actually, Corey Carothers just called me today.
• 12:46
  He's starting on that bird. Heck yeah. It's been almost, it's been two and a
• 12:49
  half years since I got it off. Yeah.
• 12:51
  And I was just talking about it the other day. I said, man, I hope Corey don't
• 12:53
  do my bird before I move into my house.
• 12:55
  And I'm like, shit, he started. Now I can pay for that right after I buy my house. Yeah.
• 13:00
  Bills are added quickly. I feel your pain.
• 13:03
  And then we're going to have Brett. He'll have our birds on what he said,
• 13:06
  June is July or something like that.
• 13:08
  Yeah. We just bought our house. Brett texted me last week or two issues.
• 13:12
  He was like, I've got your three birds slotted for May. Is that good? I'm like, Christ.
• 13:17
  Oh, man. Well, I almost had some money at this. No, shit.
• 13:20
  Whoa, whoa, whoa. He's got taxes back. Whose dick are you sucking? Uncle Sam's.
• 13:27
  He's not filing taxes, obviously. Tax fraud? Never heard of it. Yeah.
• 13:32
  Oh, shoot. That's wild. Do you have any mounts? I just got my first one back this fall.
• 13:38
  It was a Drake Mallard. That was actually a pretty cool hunt.
• 13:41
  A couple of years ago, my grandpa passed away right around Thanksgiving time.
• 13:45
  We always do a Thanksgiving morning hunt.
• 13:48
  It was the year after that he had passed away.
• 13:51
  We all went out and right at the time that I shot that bird is the exact time
• 13:57
  that my grandpa passed away.
• 13:58
  And so we call those grandpa's birds and every year
• 14:01
  it was like 10 30 we have this flight of mallards that
• 14:04
  comes in and we shot two out of that my cousin's very first drake mallard and
• 14:07
  then that one that i shot that was a really nice drake and thought i could get
• 14:11
  that one mounted so heck yeah i've seen your uh you guys you mounted your uh
• 14:16
  girlfriends was it the first stuff or yeah first drake mallard for her yep and
• 14:20
  that was a good looking bird too yeah what was that Was that two years ago?
• 14:24
  Yeah. That one was down in Missouri. So, yeah. That's awesome.
• 14:28
  Went from no taxidermy to that, and I've got a shoulder mount coming back from
• 14:31
  the taxidermy, hopefully, in a couple of weeks.
• 14:34
  So, yeah. I started racking stuff up pretty quick.
• 14:37
  You'll do that. I got to stop them. Oh, yeah. I got to go to the taxidermy. Yep.
• 14:42
  Well, you're trying to buy a house, too, aren't you? Yeah. So,
• 14:45
  once you get that done, you'll probably start. Oh, heck, yeah.
• 14:47
  I mean, yeah. I had one more that was supposed to be done. And it was a Drake
• 14:52
  wood duck from Ace's very first time.
• 14:54
  And I wanted to get it to where there was a wood duck box and that Drake on
• 14:57
  top of it, but it was early in the year, you know, and so it was a bird that
• 15:01
  he called me and he goes, Hey, there's too many pennant feathers.
• 15:03
  Like it's, it's going to look okay, but it's not going to be what you want.
• 15:06
  He goes, I'd rather you just not mount it. I said, I, I'm all for your input on that. So.
• 15:11
  That's awesome oh i see she's in
• 15:12
  here actually she just commented she did yeah and i paid for it too just.
• 15:21
  You kind of you kind of touched on it you've slowly transitioned to the wrong
• 15:26
  side of the world shooting deer what got you into that what's up brother yeah
• 15:31
  that can i exactly and i talked a lot about deer hunting oh so that's who stiff
• 15:35
  your son and then no what they need to know, isn't it?
• 15:38
  That's not like... It's not the only one that they need to know.
• 15:42
  No, I meant it.
• 15:45
  I've been deer hunting since my senior year of high school.
• 15:48
  I went on my first deer hunt. My uncle's got a property in Southwest Iowa,
• 15:51
  a family farm of theirs, and took me out.
• 15:54
  I got hooked. It was a late muzzleloader. I shot a doe the first day and then
• 15:56
  a small 10-point the next.
• 15:58
  And then we've got a century-old farm in Southwest Iowa as well.
• 16:02
  That's my family's property.
• 16:03
  And so it's just kind of cool being able to go down and experience that and
• 16:08
  look back at all the history down in that area.
• 16:10
  The buck that I'm getting my shoulder mount done on is my first bow buck.
• 16:13
  And that i shot that deer the same year that my grandpa passed
• 16:16
  away so that was pretty neat that was one that
• 16:19
  you know i i was i'm pretty excited to get back yeah
• 16:22
  for sure that'll be uh pretty sweet i knew
• 16:25
  zach would have something stupid to say so i had to throw the acorn cow guys
• 16:28
  over the bus for 100 i mean i did it but my
• 16:32
  primary is 100 waterfowl but you know like this
• 16:35
  past year i know there were some days that were good but there's some days
• 16:37
  it's like shit there's not even a burden in the county and
• 16:41
  so it was just you know go out in the morning and then
• 16:43
  go deer hunt in the afternoon was kind of my game plan it's more of an afternoon
• 16:46
  farm anyway so it kind of works out it's just two
• 16:49
  hour drives well it's it's nice dude because when i started waterfowl
• 16:52
  hunting it was like well i really bow hunt mornings in october you know if i
• 16:57
  do it was maybe the first two weeks of november yeah so it's like well you mean
• 17:00
  i can kill more stuff in the day allegedly well try it doesn't ever get anything
• 17:07
  you go you know what it's the effort that counts.
• 17:10
  It's weird. Every time Zapp goes, we're always six shy of a four-man or five-man
• 17:14
  limit. Yeah, doesn't matter how many guys go. Yeah, it's crazy.
• 17:16
  We're always six short. Either that or he gets like a teal or something,
• 17:19
  you know? He gets axed, though, he hits it and it dies.
• 17:22
  I'm like a little kid in the boat because Tyler is like, oh,
• 17:25
  it's a mallard. Can I kill that bird? He's like, no, not a mallard.
• 17:29
  We wouldn't have already. He's always trying to shoot moose.
• 17:31
  Or fucking mercs. I can see that with this.
• 17:37
  In Tyler's defense, it is either a coot or a murder every time.
• 17:41
  You don't ever try to shoot something like somewhat neat. No.
• 17:43
  Like, at least shoot a teal, for fuck's sake.
• 17:46
  We had to start this year. Because it was like, and then teal buzzed us,
• 17:50
  we wouldn't shoot shit if we didn't shoot one.
• 17:52
  Hey, there was a lot of teal we passed up on this year, and there's always to
• 17:56
  be that one group where Kate went, what was it, a shit ton? It was a fucking shit pile. Shit pile.
• 18:02
  And we're working on a group of like 20 mallards, and all of a sudden you just
• 18:04
  hear teal land all over the decoys, and he's like, a fucking shit pile of the decoys.
• 18:09
  And the mallards didn't even come in and teal. left, so we didn't shoot shit.
• 18:12
  Yeah, it was fucking funny though.
• 18:13
  That was probably the funniest moment out of the entire year.
• 18:16
  Yeah, because he stopped calling. He made call and just shook by on the decoys.
• 18:20
  Went right back to calling.
• 18:21
  That was wild. It was a slow year this year, though.
• 18:28
  Yeah. Out of all my years of hunting around here, it was definitely my worst in this area.
• 18:33
  And, you know, you can look at a lot of factors that you guys have talked about.
• 18:36
  Obviously, water levels later ended down late in August, and so nothing got to grow.
• 18:40
  So those birds would be here for a couple of days, and if you weren't shooting
• 18:42
  them, then you guys obviously didn't pair them most, which you always do.
• 18:47
  But there's definitely something to be said about that. Lucky.
• 18:51
  I'm telling you, you're trying to do a shit that just works out.
• 18:54
  If you wanted to break it down by percentages of how many hunts you went on
• 18:56
  versus how many birds we killed, and then compare that to 100 percentages, you're kidding.
• 19:00
  I know. So this year, we've talked about it. I did a terrible job of tracking
• 19:04
  my birds we killed this year, and I was non-existent. I tracked the birds I
• 19:06
  killed in Michigan, and that's it.
• 19:08
  But like the year before, we averaged three birds per hunter,
• 19:12
  per hunt. That's the same for hunting all public ground. Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:17
  Like that was fantastic. I mean, it was crazy that we had...
• 19:20
  You just unplugged your computer.
• 19:21
  Who? My computer unplugged. That just fell out.
• 19:25
  I did. Yeah, it's just out here driving.
• 19:29
  But anyway, so I guess now tell us a little bit of how and what made you want
• 19:34
  to get involved with Delta.
• 19:36
  So i started with delta waterfowl five years ago
• 19:39
  and i got into it honestly because of dog
• 19:41
  training with ace my black lab he's five
• 19:44
  now was at a training group and a guy named jesse firman was like hey you know
• 19:48
  we're involved in delta waterfowl you should come up and help out of our chapter
• 19:52
  so started doing the the utahns the veterans hunts that's definitely something
• 19:57
  that that's very near and dear to my heart with the buffalo basin chapter out
• 20:00
  of clear lake and for the first three years,
• 20:04
  I drove two hours to attend meetings, to do the banquets, to do,
• 20:07
  anything that I could that my schedule allowed to go up and be a part of.
• 20:11
  And then a couple of years ago, well, this will be my second full year with
• 20:14
  the Pella chapter, the Red Rock Peachtree chapter.
• 20:17
  Nick came to me and was like, hey, we just need some help down here.
• 20:19
  At that time, I think they were down to four committee members.
• 20:21
  Zach's one of those now, but everything that we do is all volunteer-based.
• 20:25
  And I wanted to get to the point where not only am I doing something I love
• 20:28
  with waterfowl hunting, but we're doing something that's productive and giving
• 20:31
  back and providing public hunting opportunities to waterfowl hunters in our
• 20:35
  area. And that's where Delta Waterfowl really shines.
• 20:38
  No, I mean, you guys do, like the, the wet duck boxes and groups that you guys
• 20:42
  did a couple of weeks ago. Yeah.
• 20:43
  I mean, it definitely helps. Yeah. And it comes to a point, and I was talking
• 20:47
  with Nick, our regional director, about this this weekend because I went down
• 20:50
  to Washington and helped out a banquet down there.
• 20:53
  And it gets to a point, you know, the wood duck boxes, goose nesting structures,
• 20:56
  hen houses, they're cool, right? I think for us, our chapter,
• 20:59
  we've got out roughly 16 wood duck boxes right now and then now eight goose nesting structures.
• 21:06
  Out of those wood duck boxes that we checked last year, 85% of those were utilized
• 21:09
  right here in Marion County. So that's huge.
• 21:12
  I mean, we are making ducks. But at a certain point, there's only so many wood
• 21:15
  duck boxes that you can put out.
• 21:17
  And I know you guys did an episode a few weeks ago about that Colt Creek project.
• 21:20
  I mean, we're going to be able to provide a water control structure for a new
• 21:24
  90 acre wetland that wasn't there previously.
• 21:26
  If it was, it was just, you know, hey, there happened to be some rain.
• 21:30
  It is partnering off of a larger project that's already completed,
• 21:33
  but there's an overflow pipe and with the elevations and everything else that
• 21:36
  they have for that, it's going to hold a significant amount of water for us.
• 21:39
  And then I've also got a meeting with Todd Gosling tomorrow to talk about some
• 21:43
  other projects that he's got in mind for the upcoming years, which is fantastic.
• 21:47
  Todd's a very good-minded guy. He's trying to make as much work as he can around here.
• 21:52
  And so it's going to be interesting to see what our chapter and the Des Moines
• 21:56
  chapter, as well as partnered with us on this.
• 21:58
  And I think you talked with Zach about Iowa Sportsman's club partnering on the
• 22:00
  project. You know, if we can all take our money and fund that together,
• 22:04
  we can do a lot bigger things and really make an impact versus,
• 22:07
  you know, just some wood deck boxes here and there.
• 22:10
  Oh, anything helps. But Todd does have some cool things planned.
• 22:15
  He's showed us some of the stuff that he's got coming up that he'd like to see before he retires.
• 22:19
  And I was like, when you retire next year, hopefully, so we'll have this done this year or what?
• 22:23
  I wish I had the check to do that. I mean, we don't. So part of the cool part
• 22:28
  about Delta Waterfowl is that we have what's called our Waterfowl Heritage Fund.
• 22:31
  So any of the banquets that you go to in the area, depending on how much money
• 22:35
  you raise at night, you get to keep between 15 and 30 percent of that money right here locally.
• 22:39
  So that can be used to sponsor trap teams that can be used for a woodland boxes
• 22:43
  that can be for habitat work like one of the other examples that we have besides
• 22:47
  coal creek one is down in oscar at the russell wildlife area they're putting
• 22:50
  a couple of new wetlands down there and our chapter is going to be funding seeding
• 22:54
  efforts with the iowa sportsmen's club to put in some new food plots this year so,
• 22:58
  Yeah, we were, I was at that meeting when we were talking about that.
• 23:02
  I mean, it's not much, but it's something and it's better than nothing,
• 23:05
  you know, I mean, we're losing habitat every day. Like, they're not making any new habitat.
• 23:10
  Very few. I mean, Coal Creek is going to be some good habitat. Absolutely.
• 23:13
  Yeah. So that's, I mean, what is, how many acres was that? That was a little
• 23:16
  over 800 acres. That's right. The main compound.
• 23:18
  Yeah. So, I mean, that's all of a sudden done, we're going to have almost 900
• 23:21
  acres in the next few, couple of years. It's fantastic. Hunting ground.
• 23:24
  And with public ground nowadays, it's so overcrowded.
• 23:28
  I know they say that hunter numbers are down, but it feels like hunter numbers
• 23:32
  are away because everybody's so concentrated down.
• 23:35
  And you look at the access too that people now have, like before in the area
• 23:38
  that you hunt a lot, you know, there's not too many people that run outboards
• 23:42
  the way that you run outboards.
• 23:43
  They don't have jack plates, they don't do whatever. I mean,
• 23:45
  a lot more people have invested the money into mud motors, things that way to
• 23:49
  run more throughout the year.
• 23:50
  Obviously later in the year, water levels that helps people with the outboards.
• 23:53
  But there's a lot more people that have noticed what the conditions are,
• 23:56
  where they can and can't get to, and maybe spent that money.
• 23:59
  And that's where it gets to where people are setting up closer to you, all that good stuff.
• 24:03
  The thing that I think is going to be really good about Coal Creek is that,
• 24:06
  you know, it's going to be walk-in electric motor only, which some people might scoff at that.
• 24:10
  They're like, oh, I can't put my $30,000 boat in there. That's fine.
• 24:14
  It's going to act as a secondary refuge, which we obviously need because there's
• 24:17
  major infrastructure issues with the refuges that we have here currently. Right.
• 24:22
  I agree i hate refuges but i
• 24:25
  think more habitat for the ducks to utilize but i also don't
• 24:28
  limit the hunters that are the ones that are funding everything yeah i
• 24:31
  mean if you look at the mississippi river look at the
• 24:34
  revenue rivers or rivers i mean refuges they put in
• 24:36
  the past 25 years it's absolutely insane and
• 24:40
  now look at the hunter success yeah compared to 25 years
• 24:43
  ago when they were half the refuges yeah i mean at the
• 24:46
  end of the day refuge is a good thing to have you know give your birds
• 24:49
  a safe space to go to because like here you can be
• 24:51
  out there hunting all day there's no off time right no shooting time
• 24:54
  at one o'clock or two o'clock to give those birds the last two and a half hours
• 24:57
  of the day to rest or get comfy but at
• 25:01
  what point does it become too much where you just let's see like like we get
• 25:05
  a flight of birds right we've got two refuges here one of them either want to
• 25:09
  have that much water yeah they're kind of they're kind of worthless to be honest
• 25:12
  right now but on a good year where you have water uh the one that box guard
• 25:16
  holds we'll hold some ducks if you don't have water,
• 25:19
  but like look at the ducks now you have them for two days if at most and they
• 25:23
  go sit on that big body of water and they don't come off until sunset.
• 25:26
  It's just it sucks because you've got guys that want to go out there and scout
• 25:30
  which I get I get scouting and all that but at the same time it's hard to get
• 25:35
  guys to be mindful of not to go ripping in everywhere and just bust all the
• 25:39
  ducks out of there blowing through rafts and everything else yeah I mean that's
• 25:43
  a whole that's a hunter etiquette conversation yeah Yeah, yeah,
• 25:46
  that's, but I do, I do think mixed with common sense.
• 25:49
  And then I do think the coal Creek projects, I think the, I think the first
• 25:58
  year that it has ample water, we're going to see an instant impact.
• 26:02
  It's not going to get the hunting pressure like these other places. Absolutely not.
• 26:05
  No, that, that goes into like what I was just getting ready to talk about.
• 26:08
  Like you probably didn't see it a lot when you first came here because you already
• 26:11
  had boats, but like fuck five years ago, I was walking in everywhere I went.
• 26:16
  So you get familiar with the faces that you see often on the weekends,
• 26:19
  you know, it is insane to me how many of those people from back then have boats now.
• 26:25
  Well, I mean, speaking on the, like, the seem familiar faces,
• 26:29
  look at Box Park Boat Ramp now compared to five years ago. Yeah.
• 26:32
  Five years ago, I hunted there. I've always hunted there every day in November, basically. Yeah.
• 26:36
  You can name everyone. And I can name everyone. Yeah. A busy day there was 15 bucks. Yeah.
• 26:42
  Now, I mean, you're talking. Like, time or plus, not, it was 14 in a line.
• 26:47
  I mean, we had a day this year where the boat batteries died,
• 26:50
  not even a quarter mile from the boat ramp. and we had to get back and we were
• 26:54
  in the, what, third or fourth boat at the ramp?
• 26:57
  We were in the third, but by the time that we got the little boat off the trailer,
• 27:01
  there was another like seven in line.
• 27:03
  But by the time I had to go to Pella to get batteries at Walmart.
• 27:05
  Yep, I remember hearing about this. They opened it.
• 27:08
  By the time I got back, we got the batteries in the boat.
• 27:11
  We almost put the boats back on the trailer and left because we thought about it.
• 27:14
  We went out and we picked the dumbest spot. I mean, I think that spot could
• 27:19
  be good if you had about another eight inches of water. Yeah,
• 27:21
  you get a little farther back in there opens up. Yeah.
• 27:24
  But where we grew out and we weren't going to kill him. And we had some Tito come in. We did.
• 27:30
  But and there was a number else to go unless I wanted to, you know,
• 27:32
  go home close to somebody, which I just not a fan of that now.
• 27:35
  Now, if I can avoid it or even if I can't avoid it, I'm probably just going
• 27:39
  to leave. Yeah. And go somewhere else at that point.
• 27:40
  Yeah. It's just I know when people do it to me, it bothers me.
• 27:43
  So I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to be that dickhead. Yeah, try not to.
• 27:46
  I didn't know about it that much.
• 27:49
  Hey, Tate, can you reach over there and just unplug your money?
• 27:53
  But I mean, it kind of circles back to, yeah, we do obviously need more habitat for people.
• 27:58
  The other thing I think that makes, honestly, a larger impact is the people
• 28:01
  that are willing to go out and try new places.
• 28:04
  And then obviously, I was reading an article about the Onyx and the changing
• 28:08
  of hunting and all that stuff.
• 28:10
  You know, that's not just for private grounds, it's also public grounds.
• 28:12
  Like you, you look at the people that, you know, wouldn't go drive two hours
• 28:17
  to do something. And now you're scouting everything out ahead of time.
• 28:20
  All right, let's go check this spot, this spot, this spot on,
• 28:22
  on aerial imagery. And I do think that does have an effect on what we do.
• 28:26
  I mean, I know, I know looking at my stuff, I've gone places and tried things just because of that.
• 28:30
  You know, you're sitting there bored one night and you're like,
• 28:32
  okay, let's go do something different. Nothing's working here. Let's go do that.
• 28:35
  Well, you can, I mean, you can look up recent imagery and find out what a snow line is.
• 28:39
  Go hunt the snow line. Depending on when they update it. Yeah.
• 28:42
  Well, I mean, it depends, but yeah, I mean, sometimes it's, if you catch it
• 28:46
  on the right day, it's updated within a day or that day. And it's like, you can go right there.
• 28:50
  There's a small line. Like it does, it helps out a lot, but it also,
• 28:54
  I mean, can hurt the people that aren't that same area all the time to a sense.
• 28:59
  But I mean, it is what it is. It's part of technology.
• 29:02
  It gets easier for everybody and everybody has access to it.
• 29:05
  It's not like anybody has more access to it. I mean, we can all see it.
• 29:10
  Why don't you tell us a little bit about the banquet coming up?
• 29:13
  I know you guys were getting close to selling out. Are you sold out? We are very, very close.
• 29:17
  So our banquet is May 30th. We've done it at Knoxville or sorry,
• 29:21
  Pella the last few years. We're doing it at Knoxville this year at the National Guard Armory.
• 29:25
  So right in the back. You're literally in my back. Right.
• 29:28
  You're going to rock at it. But no, we decided it was time for a change.
• 29:31
  So we've got all new catering this year. We've got new bartending service.
• 29:35
  And part of the cool part about the growth that we've seen as our chapters that
• 29:38
  we're now going to have the entire banquet
• 29:40
  package out of that which hasn't happened ever so
• 29:43
  that's going to be fantastic as far as you know
• 29:46
  what you're looking at we've got one more table we have three
• 29:49
  different levels for our our tables we've got buddy table
• 29:52
  for 500 that includes your bottomless beer all that good
• 29:54
  stuff and then you get an entry into the buddy table gun
• 29:57
  which this year is it's a beretta a300 is
• 30:01
  what we're giving away for the buddy table gun so we've got 13 buddy
• 30:05
  tables right now so one out of 13 chances for those guys and then they can divvy
• 30:08
  up however they want to and then on top of that we've got our thousand dollar
• 30:12
  table which is the conservation table that'll be a pointer for 10 over under
• 30:17
  something that's just a little bit different and then we've got an elite table which is $2,500.
• 30:22
  That's got a g-force nine millimeter jawbone
• 30:25
  semi-automatic thing's freaking sweet but
• 30:29
  yeah i've got one more table left and then we are completely sold out
• 30:31
  we won't have any walk-ins or anything that way so if anybody's
• 30:34
  interested in a table get a hold of me we've got right now
• 30:37
  40 guns are going home that night so it's
• 30:41
  gonna be it's gonna be like we won't we would one of
• 30:43
  them though he's guaranteed for
• 30:46
  we got we got oh i'm guaranteed for one are you are you buying that table yeah
• 30:50
  oh okay then yeah it's me and we're in the sports club we're just doing you
• 30:54
  guys yeah because we're gonna like between our table we're gonna like just draw
• 30:59
  for it yep between the guys and yeah we talked about just doing my car just
• 31:02
  pull up beautiful's icon another that we could do something like that,
• 31:05
  too, where we thought about just drawing,
• 31:06
  like picking a number and then we just put them in a randomizer and just fistfights.
• 31:11
  That's amazing. I'm going back. It'll have to be after 10 o'clock that we're going to get a joint.
• 31:17
  Yeah, you'll be late. I didn't see it. You'll be joking.
• 31:21
  Hey, should we get the middle one? Before we get a joint, we'll set up the cameras
• 31:23
  that we got right here. Perfect. Right in the seats. And we can do a little boxing match. Yeah.
• 31:29
  But no, it's going to be super fun. We've got some new games this year.
• 31:33
  If you attended our banquet last year, so like we've got a liquor ladder this year.
• 31:36
  Winner going to take all on that. we'll have a new bags game
• 31:39
  and we've got some other good ideas that are that are gonna be coming
• 31:42
  up here get rid of that silly play code again the rodeo
• 31:45
  is on May 30th and we could
• 31:48
  turn Zach into a mechanical bull for that night if that makes you
• 31:51
  a son of a bitch on that beers holy cow Zach we got to practice explain this
• 31:59
  liquor ladder thing I'm so intrigued so we're gonna do we're gonna take a we're
• 32:03
  gonna take a stepladder and see me filled with booze everything that you could
• 32:07
  think of, whatever our committee members decided to bring in.
• 32:10
  I think what we're going to do is probably $20 or $25 an entry. It'll be a raffle game.
• 32:15
  At the end of the night or whenever we decide to give it away,
• 32:17
  we'll have somebody pull your ticket out. If you win, you get to take the entire shebang.
• 32:22
  We'd be a little stock up for... We saw it at Capital Callers Banquet.
• 32:27
  That's a really cool idea.
• 32:31
  He's not joking when it's probably going to be Hawkeye to E.H.
• 32:36
  Taylor and everything him is doing. Yeah.
• 32:40
  Good shit. Bill asked, does a legend get a free ticket? No, Bill,
• 32:44
  you got to pay double. Ooh.
• 32:46
  Damn, dude. What do you guess? We're always talking shit in there.
• 32:50
  He's been off to a bunch of shit talking. I will say, I like Bill because he took place in August.
• 32:55
  August used to be in here always kind of. I know. And Bill has better grammar
• 32:59
  than August, so I can read Way better. I can read everything Bill had said.
• 33:04
  No, this is here in Knoxville, Iowa That this banquet will be happening in,
• 33:11
  If you get lost, I can direct you. Look at that. It's directly in my backyard.
• 33:15
  Like at the airport, you get out there with them.
• 33:17
  Yeah, we can probably get them a couple of lights and have them stand out on
• 33:19
  the highway to survey. Doesn't mess with them. Well, let's get them lightsabers.
• 33:22
  You can go out there with the lightsabers. All right. You didn't say that. I want in.
• 33:26
  Zach and Kate out there. Just go on at it. I brought the insurance.
• 33:30
  I will need Zach to work the game. So, you know, it'll be early and then you'll.
• 33:33
  Well, yeah, it'd be fun. Yeah. I remember I guess they're.
• 33:36
  Yeah, I think. Don't listen to the two dipshits in the middle of the road.
• 33:39
  Of the lightsabers right in front of Knoxville Raceway.
• 33:42
  Yeah, the doors are going to open at, is it 40430?
• 33:48
  I can't remember if I got one of those flyers here with me or not.
• 33:53
  Buddy came with notes and everything. I've got my gun list. I've got how stuff went last year.
• 34:00
  When you get done running through that, run through the gun list.
• 34:02
  We should definitely run through the gun list.
• 34:03
  Well, we'll touch back on that.
• 34:06
  But while we're kind of on banquets and stuff, I want to talk
• 34:09
  about the delta expo that we have from the des moines oh heck yeah absolutely
• 34:12
  if you are a waterfowl hunter or even if you're
• 34:15
  not a waterfowl hunter you just want to go hang out and
• 34:17
  have some beers it's it's the first time that's going to be in the
• 34:20
  midwest area they've done it in louisiana they did in arkansas for a couple
• 34:24
  years last year was in oklahoma city that was a ton of fun but anything under
• 34:28
  the sun i mean they'll be selling boats they'll be doing a whole bunch of stuff
• 34:31
  i mean it is a super cool event they've got a banquet there the friday night
• 34:35
  and it is a ton I'm a go-to.
• 34:38
  Are you going to be there all three days? All three days. I'll be at the Iowa
• 34:40
  Hunting Products booth. I already bought my three-day pass. I got to pay for the table already.
• 34:46
  I've got Trevor Honey sent me the money for.
• 34:49
  His seats. Oh, I'll get you some cash. But I need to do that tomorrow.
• 34:53
  We're going to be at the banquet. We got a banquet already. So the cool part
• 34:56
  about going to that banquet is you get to see the banquet package for the next year.
• 34:59
  So that's kind of their unveiling for the next year of Delta Waterfall banquets.
• 35:03
  And there are some other really cool things that they do, some different chances and things that way.
• 35:08
  So last year was my first expo. I went down to Oklahoma City and it was awesome.
• 35:12
  Yeah. I've seen them on TikTok and Facebook and stuff.
• 35:15
  Yeah. All the people that go there and it just looks like a ride.
• 35:18
  Yeah. All I was trying to do was get Colton to bring me something back from
• 35:21
  last year's and he ignored me all freaking weekend. Do you lame him? Yes.
• 35:25
  I mean, I was, I was, I know. But it looked, you know, just from the snapcast and it looked badass.
• 35:32
  I will say like, I'm super stoked for the bank, but I probably won't buy anything
• 35:36
  because stuff's going to go pretty high price there. It definitely does.
• 35:40
  Yeah. It's not that good though, but the bank might get the house in the next month. Yeah, I'm not.
• 35:45
  I mean, I'm buying a house like two months before that. I'm not.
• 35:47
  It could be blow it fuck it well you said you're trying to be buying some prints
• 35:51
  from our banquet for your new house so we've got some really sweet ones I can
• 35:55
  show you some here after this I think it's I'd say.
• 35:58
  But then yeah I mean that I think last year they did just over 50,000 people
• 36:02
  down in Oklahoma City at the banquet?
• 36:04
  No not the banquet but the weekend I was going to say I think there was probably,
• 36:10
  there was probably at least 500 people at our banquet last year I know I need
• 36:14
  to get the table the night or tomorrow that way I make sure if you don't lose
• 36:18
  that on that table. Yeah, I mean. How did we do it tonight after we finish this?
• 36:21
  Last year was pretty funny. They were giving, they're doing bushlight silos
• 36:24
  and for every silo they gave away, they gave you a silo koozie.
• 36:28
  And so our table walked out of there with a whole backpack full of freaking bushlight silos.
• 36:33
  I think it's like it's going to turn into a competition between our table and
• 36:36
  Colton's table. That's fine already. I'm going to leave. No,
• 36:38
  we need to bring suitcases with those.
• 36:40
  Or you can buy one at the banquet. I will say if I do end up going,
• 36:44
  I will not be participating in the Bushlight Silas.
• 36:47
  I thought you had a,
• 36:50
  race that night. I think we race Saturday. You probably don't want to be there
• 36:54
  that much soon. No, I won't drink at all.
• 36:56
  Yeah, but he might go. Yeah, I need to be with that. I think I can't remember.
• 37:00
  I think I wrote down. I'm pretty sure I have another seat open still.
• 37:04
  We'll have to double check.
• 37:05
  Well, after this, we'll make sure you're not racing that Friday night for some
• 37:08
  reason. Heck yeah. I mean, we could test the theory. Maybe you race better on
• 37:11
  over. I've tried it. It's not good.
• 37:13
  You can total on the cart every time. Not even that. I'm just a fucking asshole the entire night.
• 37:19
  Worse than anything. I'm like the
• 37:20
  same as me and Sarah. So Daniel would definitely be skipping that night.
• 37:26
  He'll show up three hours late. Yeah. But no, I think that's going to be a blast.
• 37:33
  Now I heard a rumor that it goes to Kansas City next year, but then it goes
• 37:37
  back to Des Moines after that. Des Moines will be back again in 2029.
• 37:41
  So they're talking about maybe Minneapolis, maybe Chicago.
• 37:45
  Yeah, but those are very good choices. But it'll be back in Des Moines in 2029.
• 37:50
  That's going to be cool, though. I mean, if you're trying to get into waterfowl
• 37:54
  hunting and you want to learn stuff, I do use foils calls.
• 37:58
  And I know Jeff foils personally. And if you ever, he's always at those events usually.
• 38:03
  You go up there to his booth, and that goes for most of these call makers nowadays.
• 38:06
  And talk to them. They're willing to walk you through stuff,
• 38:08
  help you pick out a call and tune it for you and help you give you little tips and tricks.
• 38:13
  They're not going to spend an hour with you, but they're going to spend a little
• 38:16
  time with you and get most of them. Yeah.
• 38:19
  And I mean, I always tell people like working at the IHP booth,
• 38:21
  best time to buy a call if you're wanting to have somebody working is at show.
• 38:25
  You got them right there. You can interact.
• 38:27
  But it's not just call makers. I mean, every big name that you see in the industry
• 38:31
  is, well, probably 95% of them are at this show.
• 38:34
  So you can walk around like last year. Our booth was right around from Dr. Duck.
• 38:37
  And, you know, just being able to walk around and see those guys and,
• 38:40
  and shake hands with them. I mean, it's really something cool to experience.
• 38:44
  Yeah, it's like, you know, touch on even just, you know, foils,
• 38:47
  being able to talk with you and go over the calls. I mean, I had the same thing with Jake from JT.
• 38:51
  It wasn't even his call, and he was helping me out and helping me tune in,
• 38:54
  something like that. So I think a lot of those guys are in that same category.
• 38:58
  They're there to help you as a person, not just to try to push their shit on you.
• 39:01
  You know, that's one thing I kind
• 39:03
  of, I feel like the new generation of waterfowlers kind of miss out on.
• 39:06
  Because, like, when I came up waterfowl hunting, I looked forward to every year,
• 39:11
  and I can't remember what it was, but i think it was like june or july when foils
• 39:14
  and barney caliph and all these guys predzing that
• 39:18
  released their dvds yeah dude that i would literally sit
• 39:21
  there every like for that weekend and i'd watch them videos
• 39:23
  all of them and i'd watch them numerous times oh yeah
• 39:26
  because it was just pumped and i remember the first time i ever
• 39:29
  met jeff i was like i think i was like nine
• 39:32
  or ten and it was just like awesome like it
• 39:35
  was the best experience of my life yeah but i feel like kids nowadays don't get
• 39:38
  that because we don't you got youtubers that do videos and
• 39:41
  stuff like that but there's nobody that really like Joe Heinz is kind of the biggest
• 39:43
  guy that does it like a video platform and damn yeah and
• 39:46
  you got to sign up for a subscription like I just don't
• 39:49
  feel like the nostalgia is there for like how it used to be when a DVD would
• 39:52
  come out and now you just say your allowance money to go buy a DVD or whatever
• 39:55
  yeah it's you know it's it's free not your finger tips anymore yeah even for
• 40:00
  me nowadays it's on there and seeing all the people that I grew up like idly
• 40:03
  like it's just crazy that you can go and talk to him I've known Jeff for a long time And like my,
• 40:07
  my grandpa grew up with Jeff Wells and my Jeff Wells hunts with my dad all the time, but it's cool.
• 40:13
  It's just, it's still surreal to me and cool just to be able to have the opportunities
• 40:16
  to go and see all these people that are, you know, big wigs in the waterfowl industry. Yeah.
• 40:21
  Even if you don't see eye to eye with them, it's still cool to see the people
• 40:24
  that do it every day, night in, night out.
• 40:25
  And for those that want to see and meet like an actual big wig in the waterfowl
• 40:29
  industry, Tyler's going to be at the show all week.
• 40:33
  I need him. I need him. Same. Yeah. So,
• 40:37
  Another thing about Jeff, too, the first call that I ordered,
• 40:40
  he didn't have the color that I wanted. Instead of just sending me a text or
• 40:43
  an email, whatever, he called me.
• 40:46
  And I was like, damn, that's kind of cool. We talked for 15,
• 40:49
  20 minutes, just kind of getting, like, the background of where I was hunting
• 40:52
  and shit. And I was like, that's pretty cool. He's a super relatable guy.
• 40:56
  He's got some big-ass fucking hands, though, dude.
• 41:01
  No, I'm serious. Like, when you go shake his hand, you're like, holy shit.
• 41:09
  Jeff used to get down he's an old boy from Calhoun County, Illinois and they
• 41:16
  used to throw down there ooh, that was hard yeah, that was aggressive,
• 41:22
  very but no, so that's going to be a really sweet event that it's not like a
• 41:27
  once in a lifetime thing, but it's once very rare and you get,
• 41:31
  people, for all the people in Iowa it's not very often you're going to get this
• 41:34
  opportunity to go to something this big on this
• 41:37
  scale for waterfowl hunters like even the deer classic and
• 41:40
  it's a big event it is but it's in des moines every year
• 41:43
  yeah if you miss a year it's like oh shit i was gonna yeah i mean
• 41:46
  that's the national expo yeah it's so cool
• 41:49
  yeah so and a lot of that you look at like the chapters and the involvement
• 41:52
  you know everybody thinks oh it's down south you know we we obviously we do
• 41:56
  compete with du a little bit on stuff but you know their majority of the chapters
• 42:00
  are actually in the midwest which is cool to see iowa's got 19 and a lot of
• 42:04
  that involvement and the work that we've done around here has made it so that they're like, okay,
• 42:08
  we need to give those people an opportunity to see what this is.
• 42:12
  Most definitely. Yeah, we touched on everything I wanted to touch on that one.
• 42:15
  Like, I was looking forward to that conversation. I knew it was going to be fun.
• 42:19
  So I go out of curiosity, were you, as obviously duck hunting before Delta,
• 42:24
  were you a member of DU before you even thought about Delta?
• 42:27
  Ooh, that's a good question.
• 42:29
  So I had never been a part of any other conservation agency.
• 42:33
  Obviously everybody, even if you don't sign up for them, it seems like you always
• 42:35
  got the DU stuff in the mail. Yeah.
• 42:37
  Yeah. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not,
• 42:40
  I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not,
• 42:41
  I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going to say that I never bought one of the
• 42:44
  stickers because obviously they are super cool.
• 42:46
  And, you know, probably the next question that you guys would lead into is,
• 42:49
  okay, well, what's the difference between Delta Waterfowl and Ducks Unlimited?
• 42:52
  This guy's just reading my mind. Well, I mean. Well, he's handling notes. Come on.
• 42:57
  And, you know, we spent the day on Tuesday at the Capitol.
• 43:01
  And obviously, Ducks Unlimited was right across from us. We have people come
• 43:04
  up and ask, you know, what is the difference? And, you know,
• 43:07
  when you look at Delta Waterfowl versus DU, we're more focused on the end user,
• 43:12
  which is the everyday waterfowl hunter, right?
• 43:14
  And there's a couple things that we do to ensure that, right?
• 43:16
  So, like, anything that I were to go get money out of my WHF money for our chapter
• 43:21
  or any chapter throughout the United States of Canada,
• 43:24
  if they were to ever go in and sell that piece of property, they owe us our
• 43:27
  money back plus interest, and that land has to be public hunting.
• 43:31
  So, it's providing more opportunities. We're not going to go out and sponsor
• 43:34
  this huge marsh that some private duck club's going to use.
• 43:36
  We are focused on the waterfowl. I'm just saying, we are focused on the actual hunter.
• 43:44
  And, you know, you look back at the history of this. The Delta waterfowl started
• 43:46
  back in 1911 with Mr. Bell, who was the owner of General Mills.
• 43:51
  And he really focused on the canvasback, declining number of canvasbacks that
• 43:55
  were coming out of the Delta Marsh up in Canada. Yeah.
• 43:57
  And so, you know, back in the late 30s, he brought Mr.
• 44:01
  Leupold in and they started actually researching, OK, how can we make sure our
• 44:05
  production is better between the predator stuff, their nesting things that they do between 10 houses.
• 44:11
  They go and they drag giant chains and jump 10 mallards and try and figure out
• 44:16
  where they're nesting, all this stuff.
• 44:18
  You know, we're a research organization that is focused on making more ducks for our hunters.
• 44:25
  Yeah. I don't know if you know what starting for it, but I feel like they're
• 44:28
  kind of weird. We don't have Spock's or an ass card.
• 44:34
  No, I'm not going to say that in a negative way. I mean, DU does do a lot of
• 44:37
  great things for Habitat.
• 44:39
  But, you know, when you look at if I'm going to go spend money on a banquet,
• 44:43
  I want to make sure that I'm actually able to use something that those funds
• 44:46
  are going towards. And you can guarantee that.
• 44:49
  And you're going to see that with the money that we spend, like,
• 44:51
  you know, between the Coal Creek Project or Wood Duck Boxes.
• 44:53
  We're going to give some money to a trap team.
• 44:56
  You know, we're able to spend that money right here locally and reinvest in our community.
• 45:00
  That's, I mean, that's, that's the one reason, like, if I was,
• 45:04
  if I had to choose between the two, it's, it's going to be Delta at the end of the day.
• 45:08
  I mean, me personally, I've always been more of like a, like a state only,
• 45:13
  like, it's like, just say the ISC because that's the one we are talking about here recently.
• 45:17
  I'm more of like a supporter of something like that only because all like in
• 45:22
  that instance, all the funds stay in just this state.
• 45:26
  Now, Delta definitely keeps a lot more money in the state than what Ducks Limited
• 45:29
  chapters around here do.
• 45:31
  Yeah i'm well aware but like
• 45:35
  in illinois i was part of an organization that was just
• 45:38
  for like our lake yeah which was something i was looking at doing
• 45:41
  prior to trying to get this stuff going with the isc and hopefully that still
• 45:46
  happens i mean it's a work in progress nothing nothing happens quick and those
• 45:50
  kind of things yeah but we were able to keep all our money and we did like we
• 45:54
  had sub impoundments that we flooded every year and it was there's a state ground
• 45:58
  but we were going in there doing all the libby work,
• 46:00
  we'd update the pumps and we'd supply the diesel or supply like the seed,
• 46:06
  you know, stuff like that.
• 46:07
  And I guess this year they're not, they started a new plan and they're no longer
• 46:10
  planting corn on state ground in Illinois.
• 46:12
  So that's going to be really stopping migration. Yeah.
• 46:17
  But then the refuges are supposedly not planting corn, which is going to be
• 46:22
  interesting if they actually don't.
• 46:24
  I'll be very surprised to see how that plays out with people.
• 46:28
  Because you're going to have some people that are very mad they're not playing
• 46:31
  corn but then you're going to be lucky glitter no I'd say 50-50 on that honestly but,
• 46:37
  whatever yeah and those organizations definitely make
• 46:40
  a huge impact you know when you get to keep 100 of money that's great
• 46:42
  but you know there is a lot to be said on the ducks that we
• 46:45
  do shoot in the habitat work and everything that delta waterfowl
• 46:48
  is doing north of us that obviously greatly impacts what we what
• 46:51
  we see and but i mean the other day you
• 46:54
  gotta have freaking weather which we haven't had in years it
• 46:57
  seems like you've got to laugh i know i know the products
• 47:00
  when hey hey look at halloween i know
• 47:02
  i know there's certain calendar birds no they're not calendar
• 47:06
  bugs are moving pretty short okay good same thing
• 47:09
  i would just say that's what potato potato
• 47:11
  you can't you can't say they're going to come on the same day every year well
• 47:15
  no it's one day a window one day different every year seven days seven days
• 47:19
  wow wow so like we have a week inside of a calendar year i think you still need
• 47:23
  weather yeah so like you have seven days for summer it's almost like a calendar
• 47:27
  back to the 60s and look at the weather the weather was hot.
• 47:32
  And they never had snow, and they were still killing mallards in Louisiana every
• 47:34
  day throughout the season. And they have record of— You only know that because you're that old. Yeah.
• 47:39
  I know. Well, they have records of years where they had no snow back in the
• 47:43
  60s and 70s, and they were still killing crazy amounts of birds down there.
• 47:48
  I mean, they're still killing a lot of ducks down south.
• 47:50
  But if you look at the species they're killing, it's mostly teal.
• 47:54
  I think it's over 50% teal that they kill down there nowadays. soon.
• 47:59
  I got guys down south that I talked to, I mean, for work that you become friends
• 48:02
  with and stuff, and it's teal and woodies.
• 48:04
  Wait, you become friends with co-workers? Well, friends, acquaintances, whatever.
• 48:10
  Close enough. But yeah, I mean, it's the majority of what they're killing is teal and woodies.
• 48:15
  Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna say that it doesn't take weather to move birds.
• 48:19
  Weather does move birds, but the one thing that people have to take into account
• 48:23
  nowadays is there's way too many city ponds that you cannot hunt that are natural
• 48:28
  refuges now that take place and precedent over all these public refuges.
• 48:34
  And that's where the people that are way more like the biologists know way more
• 48:39
  about the ship than we do.
• 48:40
  I don't think they're taking that as much into account as they should because
• 48:45
  there's like, oh, we need a refuge for the birds to rest. What a motherfucker.
• 48:48
  There's 85 city ponds two miles away that all these birds are sitting on.
• 48:53
  They go out to feed and they come back at the lake and then they go back to the pond.
• 48:56
  Somebody back there throwing them bread and whatever else which is not good
• 48:59
  to do. You know, definitely.
• 49:02
  I run to the other side of friends and family that live next to those and I'm
• 49:05
  like, would you come and shoot some of these birds?
• 49:07
  And I'm like, I would absolutely love to. If you could talk to your local senator,
• 49:11
  legislator to let us do that, that'd be great. But no.
• 49:15
  Because too many Karen's off. Yeah. Yeah.
• 49:17
  Even if we had pellet guns bud I'd fucking rip
• 49:20
  it see an
• 49:23
  85% bam kill rate of oh my gosh that's what I don't do it yeah bad just imagine
• 49:30
  like the guy that just run them over there earlier this year just mowing down
• 49:33
  let's see I was like there was two of them I was kind of like yeah he saw a
• 49:37
  band in that group and then just learned he just didn't like yeast so I was
• 49:40
  like ah crap at least give us the band.
• 49:43
  The problem is, is he ran into nine and feel blown like you're you suck.
• 49:48
  Yeah, no, he definitely surprised was at band.
• 49:50
  I don't know. It was it wasn't no, he sucks. Yeah, no, he needs to go.
• 49:55
  But that was going to be he needs to come talk to me. We'll ride around with my rifle.
• 50:03
  But joking joking no shit don't
• 50:07
  fucking get me candy yeah well i
• 50:09
  mean i mean everybody has their agreements and
• 50:12
  disagreements and like i said weather does bush
• 50:15
  birds but at the end of the day these i think and it's personal opinion because
• 50:21
  there's no study on this and there never will be a study on it unless it's somebody
• 50:24
  outside of ducks limited but the way that we have managed waterfowl now compared
• 50:30
  to how we used to do it 20 years ago has changed 180.
• 50:34
  I mean, it's completely different.
• 50:36
  And look at the migration now. I mean, granted, the numbers are down from droughts
• 50:40
  and there's nothing anybody can do about that unless we drill wells and pump the water.
• 50:43
  We could do the cloud seeding and focus it on areas that we want.
• 50:47
  If they're to try that, it's not working on the first one.
• 50:50
  Still wildfires going on. I'm going to need to devil's advocate and just instill
• 50:55
  another aspect that I feel a lot of guys have. All right, well,
• 50:58
  this was a fun podcast. We'll talk to you guys later.
• 51:03
  Look at the traffic numbers. A hundred percent.
• 51:06
  I mean, how many nest traders are not filled anymore because either A,
• 51:09
  guys don't want to put the time or effort or funds into it because they can't
• 51:12
  sell fur for anything anymore.
• 51:14
  I mean, how many, you know, I was opened up raccoons for all year long on your
• 51:18
  property and it's, you know, coyotes are obviously all year long,
• 51:20
  just different method of tape, but,
• 51:23
  Fox, possum, scum, skunk, they're all nest raiding animals that when we can't
• 51:28
  sell fur, there's so many guys that don't do it.
• 51:29
  And I will, I will give Zach credit on this too.
• 51:32
  The coot are terrible nest raiders up in the Prairie Palm Beach.
• 51:36
  Well, I heard the coot numbers are down.
• 51:38
  Shoot all of them. Because Zach has killed them all. Dude, that's all I want
• 51:41
  my limits to be. I run them over as many as I can.
• 51:43
  I was going to say, I know where someone will have gone. It's really cool when
• 51:48
  you see him spitting out the frog in the shell.
• 51:50
  There's been a couple of times that I'm like, Oh, that was a bird.
• 51:54
  So we go back and pick up those birds with children, but correct.
• 51:57
  Yeah. Got to eat them. Yeah.
• 51:59
  Side that 90s have to eat them. We give those to them. Jesus.
• 52:05
  And I'll tell local Knox to walk. Hey, the buffet is the only one.
• 52:10
  Yeah, don't worry. The food's coming.
• 52:13
  I love to get a seat on a stick over there. You know what I mean? God damn.
• 52:18
  This is just a whole cancel podcast. I got it. You can't cancel us.
• 52:22
  It's fine. That is interesting.
• 52:26
  I didn't know that they were actually a problem. Yes, but the coots are. Oh, yeah, really good.
• 52:30
  They will go out there and they will run the den off and then just destroy the nest.
• 52:35
  And I think they just eat the eggs, don't they? Yeah.
• 52:37
  Yep. Okay. I didn't know if it was like strictly the quote unquote dominance
• 52:41
  thing where they just didn't want it or if they were actually eating the eggs. No.
• 52:45
  They kill them and then put their own in there. I almost killed them in Smoky
• 52:48
  Deez Park a lot in Deboing a couple of years ago. That's impressive. That was fucking wild.
• 52:52
  It was hanging out in the park in a bush in front of Smoky Deez.
• 52:55
  We were headed to North Dakota on a hunting trip. We would stop there for dinner,
• 52:58
  and then we were leaving to get on the road.
• 53:00
  And I walk out, and a kook comes waddling out of the bush in front of us,
• 53:03
  and I chased to the front of the whole park. That's freaking insane.
• 53:07
  It went over the interstate, so hopefully I got hit on the interstate.
• 53:11
  And that was when he realized he was slow.
• 53:15
  I almost got Ellie out of the truck. She was in the truck watching the whole
• 53:18
  thing go down. She's standing on the center console just watching this coot.
• 53:21
  And me come running by in front of the truck.
• 53:23
  She's probably like, yeah, it's not that fucking easy, is it? I'm losing the cripple.
• 53:28
  Were you still smoking at the time? Yeah.
• 53:33
  I need a heater. Tad me in. God, it's good. But not something you see every
• 53:39
  day. I couldn't know. Yeah.
• 53:41
  Kind of a wild spot for a kid to be. Welcome to the Metro. Yeah. Nope.
• 53:45
  I don't know. There's a lot of things that are going on in our world today that
• 53:49
  we've changed in the past and obviously like I said,
• 53:53
  dog numbers are down and there's absolutely nothing we can do about a drought
• 53:56
  and that's the driving factor of why dog numbers are down. Yeah.
• 54:01
  But everybody's got their opinion on it. I mean, my dad told me one thing the other day,
• 54:05
  I think I told you, Kate, about the flooded corn because you know I mean it's
• 54:09
  a big thing right now and I'm a part of the Flyweight Federation and those guys
• 54:13
  I help them out where I can and I talk to my dad's a huge part of it he sponsors
• 54:17
  Josh Williams podcast okay.
• 54:20
  So I talk to them all the time and my dad's like, well, you know,
• 54:23
  we're gaining traction.
• 54:25
  This might actually happen where we can, we're going to do a controlled study
• 54:28
  possibly for X amount of time of
• 54:30
  maybe getting rid of flooded corn or controlling how much they can flood.
• 54:34
  He's like, but he's like, man, I hate, I'm going to be real.
• 54:36
  It's going to suck really bad if we're wrong about this.
• 54:39
  And we have to go, sorry, guys, you can go back to flood your corn.
• 54:43
  I don't know. That's the thing with it is either way that it goes,
• 54:46
  you're going to have somebody else be like, oh, they skewed this or that.
• 54:49
  And it does have to be some sort of outside organization that's going to go
• 54:52
  in and do that. And it needs to happen.
• 54:54
  And so I'll be interested to see how that goes the next few years.
• 54:57
  It's going to be, it's going to have a lot of people mad. And it's either way.
• 55:01
  Don't know when. Either way. Either way.
• 55:02
  Somebody's going to be pissed. Yeah. It doesn't matter what you do.
• 55:04
  You're going to piss somebody off. And that goes back to what I said when we
• 55:08
  started the podcast. Like, no matter what you say.
• 55:10
  Somebody's going to be pissed. And in this case, what you do,
• 55:13
  somebody's going to be pissed.
• 55:14
  You can't fucking please everybody. Because I'm also a part of the like the
• 55:18
  Flyway Federation lies exposed Facebook page.
• 55:20
  I see all the things that, you know, the Flyway Federation will put out and
• 55:24
  then these guys copy and paste it and say, this is bullshit.
• 55:27
  And sometimes they're right. Like sometimes there's stuff that is not 100% accurate.
• 55:32
  Yeah. If you look it up and you do, don't just do an AI search into it,
• 55:35
  you know, actually do some digging. Yeah.
• 55:37
  Obviously, anything people put on the internet, you can counter it with something.
• 55:42
  If you're willing to put the light work in.
• 55:45
  I'm not saying that all, like, I know a lot of waterfowl biologists try to be as ethical as possible.
• 55:52
  But nowadays, with the money that is involved in the sport, a lot of people
• 55:56
  are questioning how 100% ethical are some of these biologists.
• 56:01
  Now, not every one of them, but there are some that work for certain people that do these studies.
• 56:06
  And it's like, we know where your money came from. Like, how much influence
• 56:10
  does money have on our sport nowadays when it comes to scientific data that.
• 56:15
  None of us in this room are qualified to look up and say, fuck, no.
• 56:19
  I mean, I'm just a hillbilly from Southern Illinois.
• 56:24
  Now you live in Knoxville.
• 56:28
  Gotta move out of here. A little late. Yeah, way too late. And all your money.
• 56:33
  So, sell it. You can. Wanna buy? I just bought one. Wanna buy another one? No. Come on.
• 56:41
  It's true. True. I've seen his plans. Oh, no, no, no, he bought one.
• 56:47
  We like going down the stretch road like this and then went and took a hard one.
• 56:51
  Well, it was a huge debacle. But the first lender I went through the second
• 56:55
  lender I went through I could have built a place I wanted. Yeah, but he got it.
• 56:59
  He's better off doing what he did. Then what do you want to do? Darren?
• 57:04
  No, it's interesting, especially time wise.
• 57:06
  Yeah, no, I mean, I, I could live in work here probably the next two ish weeks, three weeks.
• 57:11
  I did. I've eaten your yard the
• 57:12
  other day. If you pee in my yard one more time, I'm going to shoot you.
• 57:15
  Well, I was standing not on your property. The stream just went over there.
• 57:20
  Where were you standing at? On the driveway.
• 57:22
  Which driveway? The second one. The gravel? Yeah. You pee in to the west?
• 57:27
  Yeah. Yeah, you peed on my property. You're getting shot.
• 57:31
  Dang, now they're taking the live stream.
• 57:35
  I don't know where I live right now. I didn't see the TikTok.
• 57:39
  Watch me shoot this trespasser. Thanks.
• 57:42
  Next thing you know, he just buys a little airsoft gun, and he's just fucking
• 57:45
  racking around it. You mean pulling the dice? Oh, man, that'd be really awesome.
• 57:51
  I don't know how about it. Well, let's get back to this.
• 57:54
  So the Delta versus, like, DUP's limited debate is a hot topic nowadays,
• 57:59
  And we put up a poll this week at Bunny.
• 58:03
  I know why you like that. There was only two people that other products on if
• 58:07
  that's who they would prefer to support, which, I mean, by all means,
• 58:11
  if you can't support one, but you can support the other, it doesn't hurt to
• 58:15
  support one rather than none.
• 58:17
  But it's 98% of the people that voted, I think, or whatever it was, were Delta.
• 58:23
  Yeah. So, kind of.
• 58:26
  And I think a lot of that comes back to them being able to see
• 58:28
  their dollars spent locally exactly that's good
• 58:32
  and that's huge i mean there are some some du
• 58:34
  projects especially northern iowa that are pretty cool and they
• 58:38
  got their big signs and stuff out there saying they did it but i think you look
• 58:42
  at the local impact that you can have and that's kind of where there's been
• 58:45
  a shift from du to delta waterfowl in the last few years i think it's good anyway
• 58:51
  right you start with du and delta is kind of taking i feel like to sum up what
• 58:55
  you did and they're like we're going to apply this to this.
• 58:58
  In 40 years we might have another group that goes and goes I really like what
• 59:02
  Delta is doing but I think if we tweak this a little bit.
• 59:04
  So they're going to pull a lot of what Delta does and just tweak it a little bit more.
• 59:07
  So you're constantly changing and having that evolution that's good either way.
• 59:11
  Bill just pulled up the perfect comment at the perfect time.
• 59:15
  He said, nobody is perfect, boys. That is fucking spot on. And that goes back
• 59:19
  to what we've been saying. You're not going to please everybody.
• 59:22
  Somebody's going to be pissed no matter what you do. Yeah. And we've worked
• 59:25
  together with the ULON projects, and we're more than happy to.
• 59:29
  So, not trying to say that it's one organization over the other, but absolutely.
• 59:34
  Anything that you can see would be a part of it. I think it's like,
• 59:38
  if you want that enough, you made it. I was going to get it.
• 59:41
  I was trying to stress it up, knocking the computer, the microphone,
• 59:44
  the headset off. Or a shoulder. Yeah. My back was actually getting me to get thrown out there.
• 59:49
  Thanks for the help. Not until later. That's what I'm here for. Oh, God. I'm sorry.
• 59:54
  He's just kidding. He's married back now. He's got to go straight home after
• 59:57
  this. Yeah, it's true. She gave me a two-hour time.
• 1:00:00
  Damn, dude. Oh, yeah. It's wrapped up. What is it? You got in here about,
• 1:00:04
  oh, no, you got in here five minutes earlier. We're fine. Oh,
• 1:00:06
  yeah. No, we still have another hour. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:00:09
  Plus, I don't know if you know me, I'm more of a permission guy than a forgiveness
• 1:00:12
  guy than a permission guy. So, I mean, I feel like waiting with it.
• 1:00:15
  He's got, he's got so slow.
• 1:00:16
  Sure. I'm chained up for tea. I know.
• 1:00:20
  That went straight left into the pot. Word of God. Killed four geese on the
• 1:00:25
  way down. Yep. It sounds great in my head. And then when it comes out, it's all fucked up.
• 1:00:28
  Well, do you got anything that you, that hasn't been talked about that you'd
• 1:00:33
  like to talk about Zach to ask Colton or just anything that on this topic with
• 1:00:38
  Delta and Ducks Limited or just breeding grounds, whatever.
• 1:00:41
  I mean, any of the topics we've talked about tonight, do you have anything to
• 1:00:44
  add to it or anything you'd like to speak on before we?
• 1:00:47
  No, no. I'd say, I mean, anything that I was curious about, I kind of already
• 1:00:52
  knew about this being part of Delta with Colton. So, you know, it's.
• 1:00:56
  He got on here the last time and he had numbers way off. I went back and listened
• 1:01:00
  to that and I was like, fuck, kidding me, Zach.
• 1:01:03
  Well, I think it's at 17 and then you snapped me immediately after podcast is
• 1:01:08
  over. I was like, that's why I called you and put you on the podcast.
• 1:01:11
  But yeah, but somebody said you couldn't hear him on the podcast.
• 1:01:13
  I haven't listened to it. Damn.
• 1:01:15
  I could hear it in the headset, so I figured I could hear you.
• 1:01:17
  I know. And I went back, I did listen to it and I went back to where that was
• 1:01:21
  and I couldn't hear it. I'm like, I wonder why you couldn't hear it.
• 1:01:23
  Damn. I'm on my back my back so that's good to know yeah yeah put the phone
• 1:01:27
  to the microphone yeah I mean gotta learn the phone through the mixer it's all
• 1:01:31
  good stuff right I mean all we all we can do is give people the information
• 1:01:35
  and they can do is add information what they please so we did a good job of
• 1:01:38
  that on covering between BU and Delta yeah and Colton's a good talker,
• 1:01:42
  very good talker good bullshitter for sure I don't know about bullshitter he
• 1:01:47
  legit brought notes like I feel like how do you know what it says it could be
• 1:01:52
  a grocery list I don't know There's fucking, I try and read it until it's a scratch off.
• 1:01:56
  Yeah, check marks. I mean, he's fucking prepared. He's ready to go.
• 1:02:00
  That's the people that I've been trying to reach out to for getting donations
• 1:02:03
  and stuff for our banquet.
• 1:02:04
  So, I mean, there is like, if you've ever been on the backside of a banquet,
• 1:02:08
  you do get a package that you get. I've got the catalog here as well.
• 1:02:12
  But we do try to go out and get underwriting and things that way to help increase
• 1:02:15
  our final number for the end of the night. Yeah.
• 1:02:19
  It's important for what we do. It is. It helps our numbers. And then from that,
• 1:02:24
  our WHF fund is even larger than what it could be.
• 1:02:27
  People come out and spend money and have a good time. And it's a ton of fun.
• 1:02:32
  If we don't make money at these things, we can't do what we're trying to do.
• 1:02:35
  That's true. Ben, I'm so great. That's the whole point.
• 1:02:38
  Make sure you get your checkbook with you when you come to the bank. We do take cards.
• 1:02:43
  Oh, man. You can run around with cards. Is there a main to that card? No.
• 1:02:47
  Damn. You can run around with a card all night and you'll get a little...
• 1:02:51
  When you check into our banquet, you get to the front desk of your card.
• 1:02:55
  They'll put a red T on your vendor number and then at the end of the night,
• 1:02:57
  you can just swipe and hopefully by that time, you forget how much you spent.
• 1:03:00
  I can't wait to report it as fraud. My card was stolen. I don't know.
• 1:03:09
  Fucking dirtbag. I was like, I just got six free prints.
• 1:03:15
  No, I wouldn't do that. That's crazy, allegedly.
• 1:03:20
  A bunch of people that do that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. It would not be crazy.
• 1:03:24
  I had that the first year with the C. I didn't cancel a charge, but they blocked it.
• 1:03:29
  And then my credit card, they called the, ISC called me, and I was like, what?
• 1:03:33
  So I pulled out my credit card statement, and then there was a,
• 1:03:35
  hey, if this was you, do the yes thing or whatever. So I had to go through and
• 1:03:39
  recharge it. But I felt bad.
• 1:03:41
  They did it on Saturday, and I didn't get the phone call from then until Monday.
• 1:03:45
  They were like, oh, I'm bad.
• 1:03:46
  I was like, yeah. I did drink some beers and spend that much money.
• 1:03:49
  Please don't do that at our banquet.
• 1:03:54
  I will say back, like, we talked a little bit about, like, how we don't have,
• 1:03:58
  like, the water levels. We talked to Todd a little bit. I've seen that.
• 1:04:05
  But we talked a little bit to Todd about water levels here in our local area we have. Yeah.
• 1:04:12
  And this year is going to be the first year in a long time that we haven't had
• 1:04:17
  any kind of maintenance or work going on in the dam.
• 1:04:20
  So we are supposed to be getting a copy of the plant elevation plan for waterfowl
• 1:04:27
  season and leading into waterfowl season that we will share with everybody when we get it.
• 1:04:31
  We'll make a little, our PR guy's gonna practice a little bit forward the next
• 1:04:34
  time he spells Okoboji. Okoboji. Okoboji.
• 1:04:37
  But, damn, dude. We'll make a little start and share that, hopefully, with you guys.
• 1:04:42
  And, I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully, this year we can,
• 1:04:45
  I mean, obviously, we're relying on Mother Nature.
• 1:04:47
  We're, yeah, strictly a man, man-made lake and relying on the river to fill it up.
• 1:04:51
  But, hopefully, we get a normal rain year at least and we can have some natural
• 1:04:56
  grasses, maybe some millet grow and get the water up in time.
• 1:04:59
  Yeah. I don't look to see him have it where i like to see it when we're going
• 1:05:03
  to have it i think that plan is going to be,
• 1:05:05
  because he wants to raise the water through season which
• 1:05:09
  i do just i don't understand i get why but at the same time you're limiting
• 1:05:14
  your hunting area yeah and we're already limited on hunting areas it's so percent
• 1:05:18
  but i get the reasoning behind it but we're looking forward to seeing that plan
• 1:05:23
  and hopefully we can have actual water this year at a decent time compared to the past,
• 1:05:29
  eight years since I'd be water and food.
• 1:05:35
  I was looking at, I drove across the rest of the day on the way back in the
• 1:05:38
  town, and I'm like, don't do it.
• 1:05:40
  I was like, I hope it stays like that because the plans I have for going out
• 1:05:45
  there and doing stuff to it would be nice.
• 1:05:49
  Just creating more habitat on our own now. As long as we talk to him about it,
• 1:05:55
  and he's wanting to work with us on getting out there, helping put mill it out
• 1:05:59
  or whatever we can do to clean up,
• 1:06:02
  One thing I talked to him about is cleaning up like the points,
• 1:06:05
  you know, where there's a lot of, we have great willow growth,
• 1:06:08
  but there's a lot of places that are just, there's too many little willows growing
• 1:06:12
  out in places that we need to clean up and make more huntable areas that are not as hard to hunt.
• 1:06:19
  And that's one thing that you can run into with talking to DNR officers or state
• 1:06:24
  management areas or whatever, is they get hung up on the liability of being able to do stuff not.
• 1:06:29
  And that's one of the nice things that we have right here locally is that we've
• 1:06:32
  got somebody that's fully on board
• 1:06:33
  with trying to make the best waterfowl habitat that we can right here.
• 1:06:37
  Absolutely i'd say he's very after having a couple conversations with
• 1:06:40
  them and email them and even orrin our dnr guy
• 1:06:43
  is pretty reasonable yeah yeah it's
• 1:06:47
  really nice to have i mean especially with obviously delta and and
• 1:06:50
  all of us talking to those guys that we had kind of
• 1:06:53
  have that communication right i feel like there's a lot of things that
• 1:06:55
  don't get done because there's not the communication of this is
• 1:06:58
  what we need or do you guys have somebody that's willing to come out and do this and you
• 1:07:01
  know there's not a lot of those guys so they gotta they're kind of stretched in
• 1:07:04
  a certain time so yeah between communication and manpower and
• 1:07:07
  right i mean you could go out there with 10 15 volunteers
• 1:07:11
  and make a huge dent on something about making the work with you on that and
• 1:07:14
  that's where we actually had a meeting with the the iowa dnr on on monday at
• 1:07:19
  their head office and we said okay well where can we help get us in contact
• 1:07:23
  with the people that really need it and so there there's some really good conversations
• 1:07:27
  with that and should be good to see where that goes.
• 1:07:30
  That's the worst thing too. Like you can line up 20 people and you might have eight show up. Right.
• 1:07:37
  That's the shitty part. And anytime you come to getting volunteers,
• 1:07:40
  that's, it's hard to have, you got, you got a lot of, like you said,
• 1:07:42
  20 people to have just five show up.
• 1:07:45
  I mean, it's, it's hard to get the people to actually show up that want to do it. I mean, yeah.
• 1:07:50
  Obviously everybody has their lives. I mean, this isn't, this is just a hobby
• 1:07:52
  for everybody for the most part.
• 1:07:54
  You know, we don't have, We can't just stop everything they have going on in
• 1:07:57
  our life to do it. Yeah. But.
• 1:07:59
  I mean, if you have the free time, it's not going to hurt to reach out to somebody,
• 1:08:03
  whether it's Delta or DNR or even the ISC, maybe in the future to figure out
• 1:08:08
  where you can help out to do something.
• 1:08:11
  I mean, there's always something that needs to be done or could be done.
• 1:08:15
  I mean, especially if the funds are there to do it, sometimes they don't do
• 1:08:18
  it because they don't have manpower. Yeah.
• 1:08:20
  There's a lot of things that just, like, that's the crazy part.
• 1:08:23
  If you look at the DNR in budget, sometimes funds don't get used.
• 1:08:26
  And those funds are sent back. If you don't get me, they don't,
• 1:08:28
  they don't get it banked it for the next year.
• 1:08:30
  They just go back to the government and go wherever they go at that point.
• 1:08:33
  I mean, see ya. I think who knows?
• 1:08:35
  Well, I think that's about it. Think so? Yeah.
• 1:08:40
  You got anything else you want to say? I don't. If you want to attend a banquet.
• 1:08:43
  You want to pimp out a little bit, maybe flash a little something on that banquet?
• 1:08:47
  Oh yeah, the government. Oh yeah.
• 1:08:49
  Never went to the government. I mean, maybe not all of it, but maybe,
• 1:08:52
  yeah, just a little sneak. Go through like a quarter of it.
• 1:08:57
  So the gun of the year for benelli it is
• 1:09:00
  a benelli m2 that's a rob roberts 20 gauge that
• 1:09:03
  will be given away we are going to have five chances that
• 1:09:07
  are going to be guns to win that and then five chances it'll be bourbon so
• 1:09:10
  it'll be pretty cool but we got a weatherby element a couple
• 1:09:13
  fronky affinities we've got uh we got
• 1:09:16
  some pretty cool savage rifles as well so if you're not a waterpile hunter
• 1:09:19
  we do stuff for you there but yeah there's
• 1:09:22
  there's a lot of really sweet gun and up here at 100 we've got
• 1:09:25
  some condors there was some custom engraving and stuff that
• 1:09:28
  way so we try to have a wide range of stuff and we've got different packages
• 1:09:31
  from like a road hunter package to goose bands and stuff that way so we got
• 1:09:36
  a predator package with a 22 250 on there it's gonna be a lot of fun road in
• 1:09:41
  our package is sick window mouth for your gun a thermal and a case of beer we
• 1:09:45
  do provide booze with that maybe that's wild not the most important thing.
• 1:09:51
  I'm not telling you what to do, but...
• 1:09:55
  But then, yeah, we're going to have a ton of great prints. We've got a really
• 1:09:58
  cool bush light, bottoms up LED light that we'll be doing on our live auction.
• 1:10:02
  Let's go ahead and take it off. Are we going to have the...
• 1:10:06
  I'm going to order this so I don't give it all away. The dog and the duck print.
• 1:10:10
  Yes. That Capitol had. Yes.
• 1:10:13
  Good. I'll bet on every freaking one of them. I'm going to take one home.
• 1:10:16
  We've got a kick-ass knife, a bowie knife, that is literally that freaking big.
• 1:10:20
  I mean, it's got an antler on it. It's cool. I'm looking forward to this.
• 1:10:24
  I mean, I'm really glad that Kate's actually not racing.
• 1:10:26
  Yeah. Sam is going to be there. Yeah.
• 1:10:29
  It's going to be, it's going to be a good time. Plus we're going to have the
• 1:10:32
  girls there and go, there's about four or five of us guys. And.
• 1:10:37
  Me it took me a really good time. I'll probably stay on Kate's couch.
• 1:10:45
  That's so far away. Yeah, that's why I'll probably stay in there.
• 1:10:48
  I mean, I'm not used to be in your backyard. I'm not sure how it's gonna work
• 1:10:50
  out. Just stay in the house. I will carry.
• 1:10:56
  There is a hole in the fence, by the way. I was thinking this.
• 1:11:00
  He's gonna get down on all course of crawling. He'll be like, let's get out of here.
• 1:11:05
  Can't wake up in the morning. I'm just all wrapped up in the top of the fence.
• 1:11:10
  He'll just end up on the other side of the fence in the yard over there.
• 1:11:14
  Which is good. He got a new house. Like Colton said, you got to fill it up.
• 1:11:18
  So four or five. I'm guessing five different friends from the bank. Damn.
• 1:11:23
  Unless they go really cheap, that's not going to be the case.
• 1:11:26
  There's a lot of big difference between his cheap and my cheap.
• 1:11:28
  You know what I mean? It's true.
• 1:11:29
  I feel like your guys are cheap. It's the same cheap.
• 1:11:32
  Makes way more money than you. No, I'm calling bullshit. No.
• 1:11:36
  You bought a way next to your house. So.
• 1:11:39
  So what? That means he works with his money.
• 1:11:42
  Invest in stocks.
• 1:11:45
  See, I don't know how much money I'll be able to spend. The way my checking
• 1:11:47
  my savings works out, it takes like three to five business days to transfer every so. Damn, dude.
• 1:11:52
  You have plenty of time. It's not a movie. God bless it. What movie is that
• 1:11:56
  off of? I can't remember. So it's kind of hard.
• 1:12:00
  The other thing, too.
• 1:12:02
  But if you're from another area throughout the state and you want to get involved
• 1:12:06
  in Delta Waterfowl, we've got 19 chapters all throughout the state.
• 1:12:09
  If you've got questions about that, there's information on the Delta Waterfowl website.
• 1:12:13
  You'd be getting a hold of Mr. Nick Hampton and he'll get you aligned with me.
• 1:12:16
  Good dude. So. Good dude. Very good dude.
• 1:12:25
  Evan, I've been looking forward to this. We talked about it back when we first
• 1:12:28
  started this podcast. We're going to get you on here at some point. I can.
• 1:12:31
  Unfortunately, we added Zach to the mix, so I'm sorry that he was...
• 1:12:36
  Nothing to say. You got nothing? No. I don't. Yeah, dude. You know, I'm here.
• 1:12:42
  I feel like I'm exactly what you expected, though. Nah, you've been a good addition,
• 1:12:46
  Zach. I can't lie. I agree.
• 1:12:48
  You've done great for filling up for Pookie since he's just gone on a hiatus.
• 1:12:53
  I'm sure the tax breaks for you guys is nice, too. It's, too.
• 1:12:58
  As we stated at the beginning of the podcast, our giveaway is live.
• 1:13:02
  It's on Facebook and our Instagram page. It's the end of the page.
• 1:13:04
  Go check it out. Make sure you get it. You wouldn't want to miss out on a chance
• 1:13:08
  to win a free playoff line.
• 1:13:10
  But while you're there, make sure you follow us and check us out.
• 1:13:14
  We're out there on every social media platform there is for our podcast.
• 1:13:17
  So we look forward to you guys reaching out.
• 1:13:21
  And if there's something you want to hear, want to talk about,
• 1:13:24
  please let us know. Because we could get from there at any time. Absolutely.
• 1:13:28
  But until next time. I don't have a punchline for this one. Come on.
• 1:13:33
  Until next time. We'll see you next one. good.