Latest / DuckFellas Podcast / Refuges, Flooded Corn & the Future of Duck Hunting

Transcript

Refuges, Flooded Corn & the Future of Duck Hunting · DuckFellas Podcast

3:01
Welcome back.
3:05
I feel like every time we do this, you get more and more awkward on the intro. I love it.
3:11
Well, I was looking at my phone when I said that. I was not expecting it to switch over when it did.
3:19
Here we are. Yeah, here we are. Episode 13.
3:23
Once again, Pookie is absent.
3:27
R.I.P. but our boy is working. He's got an excuse this week. He does, indeed.
3:33
So we'll let it slide one more time. It's about time he's got a good excuse.
3:39
Yeah, and since you spoke up, Zach, welcome for your first episode joining us.
3:46
Thanks for having me, fellas.
3:48
For everybody at home wondering, Tyler got new internet today,
3:52
and he is officially frozen on the screen.
3:56
See I don't understand it because you guys aren't frozen on my end that's weird,
4:02
It is what it is. We'll work through it. We're coming back.
4:06
We will work through it. So the South had a big cold snap today.
4:12
Or not today, this weekend. Sorry.
4:14
Yeah, they got like inches of ice. Yeah. Yeah, it was quite a bit.
4:19
I don't know what to do. No.
4:23
Gosh dang it. I know a lot of them boys down South were looking forward to this
4:29
snowstorm. Hopefully they'd get some ducks.
4:32
And from what I've seen, I don't think they have.
4:36
No, it's about like every time it snows in Iowa, we get all excited and then
4:40
it's just like, damn, that was dumb.
4:44
I'm just used to the heartbreak at this point. Same.
4:49
Yeah, it's no good for the boys down south.
4:55
But that'll kind of lead us into this week's topics. What you got for us, Papa?
5:00
Um, I think we're touching on some flooded corn and maybe a refuge or two.
5:06
Flooded corn. I've never heard of that. None of that in the U.S.
5:09
What are you talking about? No, no. I mean.
5:13
Are we talking about like when we take bags of corn out or are we talking like.
5:17
Oh, for sure. For sure. Same thing. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
5:20
Yeah. No, none of that. None of that.
5:25
That's very illegal. We do not do that or condone that. It was a joke,
5:30
funny. Ha ha. Yeah, not like fart in church funny.
5:33
Fart in church funny? Oh my God.
5:39
I think we'll start with the refuges here because the flooded corn and all that
5:45
is going to get Western at some point.
5:47
And there's going to be a lot to cover on that. Yeah.
5:51
But, so, I would say in the past 25, 30 years,
5:56
there has been a lot of federal refuges created, and I know Ducks Unlimited
6:04
has had a huge part in getting them some,
6:07
like, creating them, or acquiring the land for them, or transitioning certain areas to refuges.
6:15
I don't know. I think Delta has had a small part in it, but not a huge.
6:20
I don't know if you guys know any more about that.
6:22
Honestly, no, I don't.
6:27
Well, I know one thing here is I've got 573 national wildlife refuges in the
6:34
United States that encompasses 95 million acres of land.
6:39
And I think it's 760 million marine acres also.
6:45
That's a fucking shit pile.
6:47
Yeah, and that's just the national ones. That doesn't include the state-ran
6:52
ones like we have here. Right.
6:55
And we've got two just right here, not including all the private ponds and stuff
7:00
that you can't hunt. Mm-hmm.
7:02
So I would say there is plenty of safe places for ducks and geese to go to. Yeah, for sure.
7:11
What's some of your takes on having a refuge in every square corner you go around
7:16
on the Mississippi River?
7:18
I've never personally hunted it, so I don't really know how it affects the hunting,
7:22
if it is good for it, bad for it.
7:24
I personally don't know, but I know our refuges around here,
7:28
they still trade around all day long. You can still shoot your shit.
7:32
In that take, I don't hate them. It is a nice place they can go hang out and
7:37
not get shot at the entire day like they do if they hang out in the marsh around here. Right.
7:45
I don't know. There just seems to be so many. Here, I'll pull this up.
7:51
I think I can pull it up here.
7:54
All them little dots there are just the National Wildlife Refuges I was talking about.
7:59
And you can see North Dakota has a lot.
8:04
And then they really follow the Mississippi River flyway pretty hard.
8:10
There's not near their refuges. I mean, it looks like there's three,
8:14
maybe four in Kansas total.
8:18
And it shows three or four across central Iowa, and the rest are along the river systems. Yep.
8:26
So really, really not many where we are and where we hunt specifically.
8:31
But we have, I mean, we have two small refuges here, and then obviously the
8:37
big body of water is just a huge refuge. Yeah.
8:41
Especially because you can't hunt half of that fucker. Right.
8:45
No, it definitely holds a lot of birds, especially late in the year whenever
8:49
a lot of our backwater starts to freeze. Yeah, for sure.
8:55
I, refuges, I don't exactly love having, I don't mind having refuges,
9:03
but when you start planting crops in them, whether it's corn, beans,
9:08
rice, whatever it may be, I'm not necessarily a big fan of that.
9:14
I do agree. It gives them a reason to never leave. Yeah, that,
9:18
and it, I mean, it turns them, it seems to turn them nocturnal.
9:22
The only time they'll get out at night.
9:24
It's way too late. I mean, I would agree with that.
9:27
I mean, I think it's good to have some sort of refuge system in place, right?
9:31
You want to save space for those ducks to go, but don't make it a bed and breakfast
9:34
warm. Make them, you know, go out and find some food.
9:38
Yeah. No, I mean, I've seen it a lot.
9:41
And I know a lot of the guys on the Mississippi River complain about this a lot.
9:45
The birds just, they don't leave the refuge other than at nighttime and during
9:49
the daytime, they're right back in it.
9:50
Yeah so it's really turned out to be a problem for them more than us like we don't see that as often,
10:00
we I mean we kind of see it before it gets really cold and they have no choice
10:04
but to go out and feed like you'll see a shitload of ducks going into your hole
10:07
in the morning and then they just fucking disappear,
10:12
first time they get shot at they're you know exactly where they're going oh
10:15
yeah you know yeah the our issue is the pressure I mean we don't Our area is not that big. Right.
10:23
And there's, I mean, there's not really an off time, but there's a time you
10:28
can't be on the water setting decoys, I guess, or going hunting.
10:33
Like, you can be out there fishing. Don't matter.
10:35
So you can be out there. Just rod and reeling, buddy. Don't watch them decoys. Yeah.
10:42
So, I mean, our birds don't really get a break necessarily.
10:47
You can shoot from 30 minutes before sunrise to sunset during duck season and
10:52
goose season, not teal season.
10:55
Which i was getting ready to say they get a break on them high
10:58
wind and shitty days unless you're tyler but i mean
11:01
that last last time we went out when it was what gus of
11:04
30 or 35 and that boat ramp was still packed full and you had two kids going
11:08
out on a 14 footer you know so even on bad weather days they can't catch a break
11:13
your common sense has kind of left the chat when it comes to waterfowl hunting
11:17
it has too i don't think we can narrow that down to just waterfowl hunting No,
11:22
it's anything that involves chasing an animal.
11:24
Yeah, that's it. I mean, there's that. I don't see it as much in other sports
11:29
because I don't do anything but duck and goose hunt, unlike you guys.
11:33
You guys dabble in the deer a little too much?
11:36
I do not. I chase them with a freaking shotgun. That doesn't even count.
11:40
I don't even really hunt. No.
11:44
Fine. Zach dabbles in deer hunting a little too much. Zach is an acorn cow guy. Hey.
11:50
Yeah. That's where I started. That's where I started too. I just went to the
11:54
straight side of life. What's it like?
11:58
I'll let you know when I'm ready. You can hold the door open for me to come in.
12:02
I don't know if you stay in Iowa. It fucking sucks.
12:06
So what's kind of, in your guys' opinion, we'll start with Zach here.
12:10
I know this year was kind of like your first year hunting waterfowl heavily.
12:16
Like you've hunted it before, but not as much as you did this year.
12:19
Yeah. I mean, I started out hunting, but it was all private ponds, private fields.
12:24
If they were there, we hunted. If they weren't, we sat on the couch.
12:27
You know, so this year getting out and kind of chasing some of the public waters
12:30
was definitely an experience and a learning process as well.
12:35
Right. I mean, you got to get going somewhere eventually.
12:38
You do. You do. And now, unfortunately, I found that I have not invested enough money in waterfowl.
12:44
You know, I thought I was pretty well there.
12:48
It turns out I'm about 20 grand shy of where I need to be.
12:53
So, in just a little bit you've seen this year, what are kind of like,
12:57
I don't know, just an advantage to what benefits us having the two slash three
13:03
refuges that we have in our area?
13:06
I mean, realistically, kind of like we talked about with birds having somewhere
13:09
to go, I mean, I think it's great to give those birds a spot to go.
13:12
Unfortunately, you know, if it's early, if it's hot, they like stay in there a lot.
13:18
You know, when it was cold and we had them windy days and they needed to get
13:22
out and feed, it was a great time. They were bouncing around and,
13:24
you know, we shot some really good ducks.
13:26
But early season, man, it can be rough.
13:28
You can tell just by the line that they're flying and where they're going.
13:31
You know, they've got their safe spot and they don't care how many.
13:34
You could have 10 dozen floaters out there and they don't give a rip to look at you.
13:39
Yeah, I can see that. What about you, Cade? I don't hate them.
13:43
I mean, I hate them in the fact that you can't just roll in there and shoot
13:47
the ducks that are in there.
13:48
But I agree with Zach. I think it's good that they have somewhere to go where
13:53
they're not getting just blown completely out of the fucking state.
13:56
But yeah, it does suck watching them just line after line when it's nice and
14:01
65 degrees outside. They're like, I'm not getting shot over here. I'll see you boys later.
14:06
Flying as high as they can to say, oh, don't talk to us.
14:12
Dirty fuckers. I mean, for me, I think, I mean, obviously you got to have one.
14:19
You're going to want one somewhere relatively close to where you hunt.
14:24
I think we have one too many. I wish there's one of them that we could get rid
14:28
of or abolish and it would give not just more waterfowl hunting area,
14:32
but a lot more area to like pheasant hunt or deer hunt.
14:35
A lot of that refuge is dry ground and the birds don't use that. Period.
14:41
It takes away a lot of our late goose seasons.
14:45
It's nice because our refuges are, well, they're both right now technically on the west side.
14:50
But if you count the lake as one, because it more or less is,
14:55
when they bounce back and forth
14:57
between the two or three, you can kind of pull some off here and there.
15:00
But obviously as the birds get stale, they fly higher and higher and flip you off as they fly by.
15:05
What really pisses me off more than anything is like when they get stale and
15:08
just go sit out on the main lake, they'll work you. They'll sit there and they'll
15:13
do their little spins and they'll get down to like 60 and then they're like,
15:16
then they give you the finger.
15:18
They're like, fuck you. I'll see you tomorrow.
15:24
That shit pisses me off bad. There was definitely a few times this year where
15:29
I didn't know whether we were going to make it home or not. I thought maybe
15:32
Tyler was going to sink the bow. He was sick of it.
15:34
I was like, man, this is a long swim if you get too mad. And he wonders why
15:38
I can shoot him at 60 now. I know.
15:42
Well, you got to do what you got to do sometimes. They used to laugh and be
15:45
able to buzz the decoys. And I was like, fuck, that guy's good. We got to go high.
15:52
No, either way, in our area, I don't think they're a big problem.
15:56
I do think they help us out a little bit.
15:59
But for many areas, like I grew up hunting the Mississippi River,
16:03
they've changed how it works out there so much in the past 20,
16:07
25 years that they don't really necessarily help them boys anymore.
16:11
They hurt them more than they help them, I think.
16:12
Right, yeah. So at least we don't have that problem.
16:15
Yeah, that's the thing. You've hunted enough places to kind of know what different
16:20
areas, how the refuges impact them.
16:22
I haven't personally done it enough to know the other areas,
16:26
But it is cool to hear like some of your intake or input, not intake.
16:31
You're not intaking it. You might, if you ask nicely.
16:36
But it is cool to hear your input on how that affects different areas too,
16:40
because you've been there and you've seen it.
16:42
Right. You definitely had more experience when it comes to that.
16:44
I mean, even some of the big waters and rivers talking to you and just hearing
16:48
some of your stories, it's nothing like what I've hunted and probably ever will
16:52
hunt if I stay around here, you know?
16:55
Yeah that's definitely it could be a lot different styles of hunting out there
16:59
like on the Mississippi River you got you got big duck blinds when you get farther
17:03
down the pools at least I know along the Iowa border there's not many permanent blinds,
17:09
but the farther down you go the more permanent blinds you get and it's a whole
17:14
different style than what we have yeah,
17:18
I've got a friend with a with a permanent there on the Mississippi and I mean
17:22
like yeah we just Show up 10 minutes before shooting light, and he's like,
17:26
you boat right into it, you get out, and there you are.
17:29
He's like, man, you should see the mileage we have work. And I'm like,
17:32
yeah? How many you shoot?
17:34
I didn't ask that. I don't want to be involved in anything illegal.
17:39
Well, the problem is out there is that I personally think is how many,
17:44
like, they leave out decoys all year.
17:47
Or not all year, but all season. And they're putting out,
17:51
three, four, five hundred decoys in one sitting, and they stay in the same spot all year long.
17:57
Like, eventually, eventually, them ducks are just going to fly by and go,
18:00
yeah, we've tried that too many times. We're out.
18:03
Yeah, you shot my brother Carl, goddammit. Yeah.
18:06
Listen, we can't leave. It's 60 degrees. Stop fucking trying.
18:11
Yeah, and those, I mean, the permanent blinds and those permanent spreads are,
18:15
killer if you have the weather to go along with them.
18:17
I mean, if we're not getting new ducks every couple weeks and you're,
18:20
you know, you're shooting yourself in the foot just by sitting out there to do the same shit.
18:24
For sure. Well, I mean, do you guys got anything else to add to the refuges
18:29
here before we jump into the murder scene?
18:34
The murder scene. I mean, just around us, I am curious to kind of see where the refuge talk goes.
18:41
Because like Tyler said, I mean, the one that we hunt closest to is,
18:45
like Tyler said, it's kind of pointless. I mean, it doesn't have water in it.
18:47
So I'd be curious to see locations on some of these refuges.
18:52
And if they're in a similar boat to where either A, they can't have water or
18:56
they don't hold water or B, did they plan it right and they can open up a floodgate
19:00
and flood it when it comes back season to give them a spot to go.
19:04
Yeah, the cool thing about the one that we don't really agree with is our state
19:08
guy doesn't agree with it either.
19:09
So it might be going fucking sayonara down the road in a couple years.
19:13
I mean, Tyler's right. If it's dry, might as well plan it and give something
19:17
else some habitat. because they're not going to use it.
19:19
Yeah, just plant it in CRP and let the pheasants have a heyday.
19:23
More than cock chasers running around when we're trying to put the boat in.
19:27
It definitely helps that we have some of the people on our side or in favor of getting rid of it.
19:34
So I kind of hope that works itself out.
19:37
Yeah, the cool thing is he's a duck hunter too. I mean, he doesn't get to do
19:40
it much anymore, but he knows what's going on and he knows what all of our birds need.
19:47
You know, he's I don't want to say similar to me. I'm a little chubbier and
19:51
he's a little taller, but he's a lot taller.
19:53
I mean, similar to me, you know, he hunts, he likes pheasant hunting. He likes deer hunting.
19:57
He duck hunts. So he can look at it from an aspect of what can it do to better everything.
20:02
Yeah. Now, granted, obviously our focus is ducks on this podcast,
20:05
but he can look at it and go, well, we're not really doing the ducks any favors.
20:09
Let's plant it and get more habitat for roosters or deer, nesting,
20:13
you know, nesting birds and things like that.
20:17
Hell yeah, brother.
20:20
Where did that little boy come from? I was going to say. Well,
20:25
before we switch over to our next topic here with the flooded corn,
20:29
I did want to give a shout out to Cade.
20:32
I had to confirm before I said anything. You guys did announce that your other
20:37
podcast that you're on, Knoxville Nights, is going to be live on Dirt Vision
20:42
or just on Dirt Vision every week? It's not live.
20:46
It actually dropped today at 1 o'clock, and I think that's their schedule now.
20:49
So we'll record that Sunday nights, and it'll be on there.
20:53
Monday around one, I think one's the plan. But yeah, the cool thing,
20:57
you don't have to have a Dirt Vision account to watch it.
21:01
It's free to watch. You don't have to have a subscription. So yeah.
21:05
Sick, dude. Everybody should go check it out. Can you just listen to it?
21:08
I don't want to look at your face for that long. Just turn on the TV and don't look at it. No.
21:15
Or no, that's still on all of our other podcast destinations.
21:18
You can still listen to it without looking at me.
21:21
No, congrats, buddy. That's great. That's cool shit. Yeah, that's a pretty big step. Pretty badass.
21:27
The craziest thing was, when it dropped today, I went and looked,
21:31
and I looked for it, and opened Dirt Vision on your phone.
21:34
It was the first thing, and it took up the entire fucking screen.
21:37
It was cool. That is badass.
21:40
Hell yeah. It's an app called Duck Vision. Maybe we'll get to podcast on that. Duck Vision.
21:49
I honestly don't hate it. That's a good name. It fits, right?
21:53
Better copyright it. Maybe if we
21:56
start our YouTube channel for our hunting videos, we could call it that.
22:02
One day. Not anytime soon. Run video.
22:06
Yeah. I'll leave the camera in the truck. Well, the problem is,
22:10
I got to do all the calling. You guys got to step it up.
22:11
I got to help Tyler call. I'm working on it. I need some people that can do
22:15
it, so I don't have to. I can just sit there with the camera.
22:17
Listen, I've scheduled an appointment. The dentist is going to cut a gap in my teeth.
22:22
Call me. Dang, dude. Even he's attacking you. I know.
22:27
I'm telling you, there has to be some scientific fact. you and Bo Brooks rip
22:32
on it. It's got to do something with air pressure.
22:35
Oh my goodness. I ain't mad about it. Bro.
22:40
Let's jump into it. We're going to start with the flooded timber situation down in Arkansas.
22:47
They're having a lot of water issues down there.
22:51
I know the state's not flooding certain areas because they've over flooded for
22:56
so many years and the trees are suffering. So a lot of trees are dying off.
23:01
It's not exactly a good place for them to be in, but luckily they have enough
23:06
rice fields and private properties down there that do manage pretty good habitat for waterfowl.
23:12
So they still get birds, they still kill birds, but it's definitely changing.
23:17
Yeah, I was listening to, I think it was Dr. Duck podcast.
23:20
They were talking to one of the guys from down there and he's like,
23:23
fuck, a month before duck season we had water in all of our trees and then they
23:28
took it all out like it was It didn't already do the damage.
23:34
Yeah, it's been a going thing for a while now.
23:37
And the state kind of just realized it here recently and started to dewater
23:42
and now they're just not flooding areas. Partly because they don't have water either.
23:46
So there's, I mean, they've been in droughts too. Yeah, I feel like the whole country has been.
23:51
Except for us last year. We did pretty good on water last year. Yeah, we did. We did.
23:56
That and North Dakota had a good year. North Dakota, South Dakota,
23:59
and Minnesota had a pretty wet year. So hopefully that transitions into this
24:05
next breeding season and the waterfowl do good this year.
24:10
You'll for sure see it. I mean, there's no way you don't. Like you said,
24:14
this is the first year in, should I think, four years or five years that they've
24:18
had plenty of water up there. So that's good.
24:21
Yeah, it was definitely noticeable. Like, obviously when you went,
24:24
like when we were up there, we hunted all over the state. But the farther west
24:29
you went, the less water there was.
24:32
The central part of the state all the way to the eastern part was plentiful with water.
24:38
I mean, there was more water in those potholes than I've seen in years. So that'll be good.
24:44
So a big thing I've been seeing online is it's kind of a loss of tradition with
24:49
the changing conditions going on down there.
24:52
It's threatened in the unique style of hunting that they've grown to love and
24:57
done for their whole lives and their ancestors have done. So they're having to adapt.
25:03
Luckily, we don't have that problem here. We just have floods that wipe out
25:06
all of our cover, and then we start from ground zero every 10 to 15 years.
25:11
No, but in a—I mean, as far as the tradition down there go, you know, in a selfish way,
25:17
you know, since I started waterfowl hunting, you know, a couple years into it,
25:20
you kind of start doing some research on other states and kind of figuring out
25:24
what they're hunting like and if you want to go to a guide or anything like
25:27
that and you always thought it'd be killer to have a mallard hunt in flooded timber
25:31
and now, you know, so now it's like, well, shit.
25:34
Am I going to get that chance unless I go spend the six, seven,
25:37
eight grand at an outfitter that's been doing it right or managing it?
25:40
We got lucky enough to do it here a couple years ago. I say a couple years ago.
25:45
Makes me feel old. That was... Been like seven or eight. Dude, I know.
25:50
Time flies when you have fun. Yeah. But that shit was cool.
25:54
And that, I mean, that was like basically an Arkansas experience, I feel like.
25:58
I've never been to Arkansas, but I imagine it's damn near the same thing.
26:01
You stand next to a tree and give the bar a little kick and you shoot your docks.
26:06
I had floods of 2018. Yep. Yep.
26:09
That shit was nuts. I wasn't into waterfowl hunting yet, but I was running the
26:12
shit out of some diddy pools in that flooded water. Oh, yeah.
26:15
It was definitely a lot like Arkansas that year in a lot of spots. Yeah. It was a lot of fun.
26:21
I'm guessing you've never been to Arkansas to waterfowl hunt either, Cade? No.
26:26
We definitely need to get down there one of these years and do it because it's
26:30
been a while since I've been too, but it can be a blast whenever you hit it right.
26:34
I will tell you right now, I am not running that fucking little boat through the trees.
26:39
I can also tell you right now that with our luck, there's a real good fucking
26:43
chance we don't hit it right.
26:45
We'll be a week early or a week late. That's just something you got to do. You got to go when you go.
26:51
You can't. It's like all our trips nowadays. You plan them and it doesn't work out. That is fair.
26:57
Just don't plan them. You just say fuck it and go. That's what I'm doing from now on.
27:02
I love it. Whoever can go, can go. Whoever can't go, sucks to suck.
27:06
Next year he's like, fuck it, I'm going to Nebraska. Who wants to go?
27:08
Everybody's like, I can't.
27:10
All right, Tyler, lone wolf in it. I'm going to Manitoba. Solo. See ya.
27:16
Wouldn't be the first time I've gone on a trip solo. Not that far,
27:18
but definitely done it a few times.
27:23
Why is Trace inquiring about what we do when we're at hunting?
27:25
What happens in the boat? It's supposed to stay in the boat.
27:28
I wouldn't call it DuckDuckGoose, but... It's something.
27:34
We don't get the luxury of that tree stand timber tug. No, you don't?
27:37
You ever done that? No. I'll take you sometime.
27:41
Jesus. Oh, my gosh.
27:44
All right. Let's get into it here now.
27:48
Oh, boy. I do want to pause the flooded timber thing.
27:52
So, are they... I mean, are they draining a lot of that in order...
27:56
Like, are they trying to stop the degradation of trees or are they trying to
28:00
prepare, like, to have to replant or re-habitat what they've lost?
28:05
I don't think they're replanting anything they've lost. I think they're just
28:08
stopping the watering and just leaving a few places dry for, I think, five years.
28:13
I don't know all the facts on it. I didn't look all that stuff up,
28:16
but I think they're holding water off of certain areas for X amount of years
28:20
to allow the trees to try and make a comeback.
28:24
Also, are they pulling water off? Obviously, you have to have the right information
28:28
to know that, but, you know, are they pulling water off refuges or are they? Yes.
28:32
So refuges, public, all of it. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Yeah.
28:37
Because some of those, like, those public areas have refuges in them,
28:40
but they don't have water in them until waterfowl season.
28:44
So, like, the waterfowl there are losing in so much just for shelter and food
28:50
because, obviously, they eat, what is it, acorns in the woods? Not acorns, but.
28:56
No, they eat acorns. They eat acorns, but I'm not sure if that's the trees that they're,
29:00
Swimming around eating off of. Going back to that Dr. Duck podcast,
29:05
I love listening to the southern guys say acorns. Acorns? Acorns.
29:11
Absolutely love it. Acorns. Shit cracks me up. Just flows right off their tongue,
29:16
too. Like they've obviously said it for 30 fucking years.
29:21
Yeah, I know. That's why I said obvious. I didn't know if there was any confusion on it. No.
29:27
I think it gets that way if you get south 34 here, too. Yeah.
29:30
Acorns. Yeah, you're probably right. Hmm.
29:34
Hmm. Anyhow. Hmm. Anyway, flooded corn.
29:40
Zach, first thoughts come to mind. Go.
29:44
I have mixed feelings on it. I get it, and I can appreciate it for the guys
29:48
who are doing it, but at the same time.
29:51
I'm trying not to throw any names in anybody under the bus here,
29:54
but if you have giant plots of planted flooded corn to where the ducks can use
30:00
it like a bed and breakfast,
30:02
Not only is I think it's slightly unfair advantage because you're going into
30:07
ducks that are essentially living there, you're hunting those ducks.
30:10
Now, I'm not saying if I bought a farm and had 10 acres of flooded corn that
30:14
there wouldn't be some ducks that live there, but it's not big enough to hold
30:16
the numbers that you see on some of these places.
30:19
So I can see both sides, and obviously we're seeing an effect with that with
30:24
the way in the area that some places are doing and how much flooded corn and
30:29
kind of the migration shift and everything else you're seeing that follows along with that.
30:33
Kid? I kind of feel the same way. Like, I get it.
30:37
Obviously, these people pump a lot of money into that shit, which I'm sure you're
30:41
going to get into where some of that comes from.
30:45
I don't know. I've never loved the idea of it.
30:48
It's a giant fucking refuge, nonetheless, no matter how you look at it.
30:54
For sure. So, I mean, obviously, we don't have flooded corn here,
31:00
I've never been around whenever they used to flood some of our areas but supposedly
31:04
they used to flood a couple of the areas and it used to be really good hunting
31:08
obviously because why would they not go to an easy access for food and water.
31:14
We also don't have, like, we don't have any clubs, private areas around us in
31:19
general within a couple hours that have any flooded corn that I'm aware of.
31:23
I think the closest you can get to us with flooded corn would be western Iowa, southwest Iowa.
31:32
It really became a huge thing here recently on Facebook since Senator Kennedy
31:37
sent that letter to the new head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
31:44
It's been blown up all over the internet, North versus South, basically.
31:48
Or I should say, Louisiana versus everybody else, it seems like.
31:54
But the Flyway Federation's really getting some traction going since they opened
32:00
it back up or restarted the organization within the past 12 months here.
32:05
It's been more recent than that.
32:07
But they're posting videos. I don't know if you guys follow their page on Facebook at all.
32:12
They post a video I do I think they post a video like every week now of another
32:18
organization that's supporting them or another,
32:23
biologist that's supporting them August said Tama County around Chelsea Marsh
32:29
has flooded corn where of course that old sack knows where it's at where is
32:34
that where's Chelsea Marsh Chelsea,
32:37
Marsh I'm gonna look quick do what,
32:41
fact check his ass fact check that bitch ass,
32:47
we better be careful next thing you know he's gonna be barging through that
32:50
door yeah throwing haymakers like the fucking two-lane man,
32:55
Tama County around Chelsea Marsh when Otter Creek Marsh State Wildlife Refuges
33:00
was popping up in Chelsea that's in Tama County.
33:04
How far away is that? Hour and a half. So pretty close to that two-hour mark
33:09
we were talking about. Yeah.
33:12
Anyways, so like the big thing in that article was... Hour and a half more feet.
33:18
Back when they changed the Bird Treaty Act in, I think it was late 98 or early 99,
33:25
they removed the strict liability standard that made it harder to cite hunters
33:30
who didn't know they were hunting baited areas and brought harsher punishments
33:34
for deliberately placing bait.
33:37
Now, it's so weird to understand that, but it has added, basically,
33:45
it's allowed it to be easier to flood corn and hunt it compared to the way it
33:50
was worded before. Right.
33:52
And a lot of people are mad about that because they said, no,
33:55
that didn't change anything back then.
33:58
But it did because before, I think you had to get, I think you had to get a
34:03
permit to do it or like more or less permission to plant flooded corn and do
34:09
it as a private entity before.
34:10
Even like state ran areas had to get permits to do it.
34:14
Nowadays you don't. You can just go plant a cornfield and flood it.
34:18
I bet old Grandpa Augie would know about that. Mm-hmm.
34:21
I mean, what brought on that change anyway? Do we know? Have we done any,
34:24
or have you done any looking into it, Tyler?
34:26
Why they removed that line or that verbiage?
34:30
Because I am a little confused on how it's harder to cite hunters who didn't
34:35
know that they were hunting a baited area is what you said. Yeah.
34:38
How do you not know you're hunting a baited area?
34:41
Well, so if it's public ground. Did you dump the ground, the corn out?
34:45
Well, put it this way. If you're hunting public area, say you're hunting Ronald's Marsh,
34:50
the guy that hunted the day before you went out there and put just say a bag of corn out there,
34:55
but you didn't know about it and you hunted the next day but the game warden
35:00
stops in and checks you and he sees that there's corn right there like it's
35:03
only a foot deep and he can see the bottom of the water you,
35:07
it's a I don't know it's a weird thing but it's harder for you to get trouble
35:11
for it because you weren't the one that put it there but they have to prove
35:15
that you didn't put it there or you have to prove you didn't put it there I
35:19
feel like that is just too easy.
35:21
Yeah, like I get that. Hey, Kate, run out to the marsh quick,
35:25
dump few buckets of corn, and let me and Tyler go hunt in the morning.
35:30
So like one thing that's really commonly brought up, and I agree with it, it's a fair chase topic.
35:37
A lot of people feel that hunting over flooded corn isn't fair chase.
35:41
It feels like it's baiting, and it's just easier.
35:46
Obviously, it's easier to kill ducks in a flooded cornfield than just a random
35:49
cornfield out the middle of nowhere with no water in it. Right. I mean...
35:54
Just the old saying, you build it, they come. If you've got a big enough area
35:57
that you're flooding corn in, and once again, you go down to Missouri,
36:02
along that Missouri River, and between private ground and state-funded areas,
36:08
look how, I mean, it's unreal, the amount of surface area that's taken up by
36:12
flooded corn or flooded crops in general.
36:16
Yeah. I mean, yeah, it is. You know, and that was obviously kind of the area
36:21
that I was referencing when you say, what are your thoughts on it?
36:24
It's like we have that giant of an area what are all the ducks going to do it
36:27
only takes you know a couple years next thing you know ducks are going to start
36:30
shifting over a little bit this way or shifting over pulling this way,
36:33
you know or sticking around a little later until they actually have to leave
36:37
because why would you leave yeah oh yeah I mean you got everything you need,
36:42
and these these clubs that are are doing this,
36:46
are making sure the water stays open whether they they drain the water out a
36:49
little bit and then turn the pumps back on to bring the water back up or they're
36:54
leaving certain areas completely dry,
36:57
and then pumping water into there whenever the weather turns to shit and that
37:00
water would typically freeze they're pumping it in so it's not going to freeze.
37:05
And it's causing a huge debacle. I mean, up and down the flyways.
37:10
And that goes for all the flyways. I mean, I can't say I blame them.
37:15
I get what they're doing, you know, but it makes it tough for a lot of little guys. Yeah.
37:21
And I know, like in Senator Kennedy's letter, short-stopping was brought up
37:26
in there, which is, I mean, it's basically saying that the migration's being
37:31
short-stopped in northern states,
37:34
and impacting the overall populations because it's concentrating birds in the
37:38
areas and it's causing diseases and all kinds of stuff to spread easier.
37:43
That's a big thing too that I think gets overlooked easily.
37:47
You have that amount of birds. I mean, we saw, I don't know how many birds that
37:51
were affected with that this year.
37:54
Now imagine those guys going out and hanging out with a million and a half other
37:59
birds in one spot. You know, it's, holy shit, that's a.
38:03
Yeah, and we obviously, I mean, we hold a decent amount of birds here,
38:08
like towards the latter part of our season.
38:10
And honestly, after duck season ends, we hold a shitload. But nothing even close
38:15
to what those guys hold. No.
38:16
It's an insane amount of birds.
38:20
How accurate do you think these waterfowl counts are? Not. That they do.
38:24
There's no way. I mean, not even close.
38:26
I'm not sure half of them count to 10 and they want to count that many ducks.
38:30
Well I'm not just talking about like our areas or even like certain areas like
38:35
aerial surveys they do I'm talking like the bird population counts they do every year too,
38:41
there's no way those are any better really right do you think,
38:48
just off of what you've seen the past few years do you think they're better
38:51
or worse than what they're actually are for ducks All the Ducks,
38:56
I would definitely say they have to be better just seeing what we see here in Iowa.
39:04
Especially like I was saying earlier, like after duck season,
39:06
when everything kind of gets a chance to rest and do their own thing,
39:10
as long as our lake's not frozen completely solid, there is a fucking insane
39:16
number just hanging around.
39:19
Yeah, August is still in the comments and he's trying to argue that Red Rock
39:23
don't hold a third of what it did in 97 until whenever they stopped planting corn at Hartford.
39:29
I mean, I can't vouch for that. I was one. I was still floating ball to ball.
39:34
Tyler might be able to. He's a little older. He was probably hunting around
39:36
here about that time. Yeah, he was not hunting around here. Oh, okay.
39:40
Yeah. I mean, I can't say he's lying or wrong or anything like that,
39:44
you know. No, and I don't doubt it a bit.
39:46
We literally just said flooded corn attracts ducks.
39:50
And at that point, was this area the short stopping, you know, versus where it is now?
39:58
No, but I think more than anything, like we were more in the flight line of
40:04
them going south than we are now. Yeah.
40:07
See, I would kind of argue that. Only reason I would kind of argue that we're
40:11
more in the flight line now is because of the clubs down south.
40:15
And the way the birds come down through the flyways, what's straight south of us?
40:21
Yeah, that's true. but like I see a lot of the like you'll see it on Facebook
40:28
the ducks that have the little trackers in them yep you watch them fly over
40:31
Iowa they go to the east side they go to the west side and then straight down yeah.
40:37
Yeah I mean I don't know there's I've seen a few data on a few things of data
40:43
on that too that show ones that go right over top of us and go straight south
40:46
mhm but 90% are going east or west yeah,
40:53
Who knows? It's, you'll never know the exact data on that unless you were to
40:56
like track every single bird. Yeah.
40:59
There's no fucking way. No. We would all have extra mounts hanging on the garage
41:04
for sure. Dude, that'd be sick.
41:07
Yeah. Killing all them radio tracked birds? Yeah.
41:10
Just have them all hanging from the ceiling like maple leafing down. This is sick.
41:15
You can look up, you can't even see the ceiling. It's just like,
41:17
oh my God, they're everywhere. Now, now,
41:22
So, I guess, did you answer, do you think the federal counts,
41:27
like Ducks Unlimited or Delta that are put out, are lower or higher than what
41:31
they're actually saying?
41:33
I feel like they're higher, personally, than what they say. Do you think there's
41:37
more birds than what they're putting on the count? Yes.
41:40
See, that's where we'd disagree, too.
41:44
The only thing that I think about is, obviously, we have to throw out that high
41:50
water two years, really.
41:51
18, 19, our numbers that we see, like on the big migration days,
41:58
granted, they're flying over, but the numbers that we see aren't really all
42:02
that much different, I don't feel like.
42:04
Not in the grand scheme of how low they're saying our duck numbers are.
42:08
Maybe. I don't know. I just think our numbers are, I think it's so, I think it's very off.
42:15
I think it's, and the worst thing is, like, how do you count that many fucking
42:19
ducks? There's no way. You don't.
42:21
No. Yeah, you don't. There's no good way, even with technology nowadays, to do that.
42:26
And you will never know for sure, unfortunately.
42:30
But, so, where I grew up hunting, there was a big area called Keck's Marsh,
42:36
and that was in southern Illinois.
42:38
And back before they sold that, I mean, we used to have all the ducks you could dream of there.
42:43
And then, I don't know what happened, but he ended up having to sell the whole
42:48
entire place off into sections.
42:51
And ever since it got sectioned off not everybody manages it the same so it's
42:56
all managed differently now not everything has flooded corn not everything is
42:59
even flooded some of it's just deer ground now the lack of birds they see now
43:03
compared to then is wild yeah with I mean,
43:08
way less flooded corn but could also be because the migration pattern has shifted
43:13
farther west that has been an accusation for years going on too yeah.
43:18
I mean, that place used to hold hundreds of thousands of ducks compared to now
43:24
25,000, 30,000 ducks is a massive number there.
43:28
Yeah. The other thing to think about, too, is that year that it did flood really
43:32
bad, like, we got flooded pretty bad.
43:36
Nothing like fucking Nebraska did. Nebraska got absolutely fucked in that situation.
43:42
Yeah. But we also held a lot of ducks that year. Right.
43:47
I mean, I don't think there was ever an actual number, but I know there was an estimated number.
43:52
We were holding over a million ducks in our valley for X amount of miles.
43:57
Yes. And that is insane.
44:00
Yeah. And I believe it. A lot of fucking birds. Yeah, I believe it.
44:04
Because, I mean, everywhere you hunted that year, you could kill your ducks.
44:06
If you didn't kill your ducks, you just either didn't bring shotgun shells that
44:09
day, or you stayed at the boat ramp.
44:14
And even then, you could still kill ducks at the boat ramp. dude
44:18
no lie no lie you could sit there for 20
44:21
minutes and shoot your ducks at the boat ramp that shit was insane sounds like
44:24
i missed like the best freaking year lately you did dang it yeah even last year
44:29
was better than this past year buddy well i hunted last year and we killed a
44:33
shit pile of geese yeah yeah me and you weren't friends and cade was just an
44:38
acquaintance Man, times were good back then.
44:43
All right, I'm going to head out.
44:46
Sitting here plotting how I'm going to fuck when he comes back now.
44:51
Well, what do you guys... I guess you guys got anything else you want to add
44:56
on that flooded corn debate, debacle, mess?
45:02
Any closing thoughts or just thoughts on the...
45:07
What your opinions are on if it's actually a problem like shortstopping birds.
45:13
I mean, I'd be curious, right, because obviously we have, like you said,
45:17
almost a north versus south.
45:19
I'm really curious to see what transpires from all this and if it turns into,
45:24
no, you can't do it at all,
45:27
or if they try to find a happy medium with guys, I mean, why couldn't you,
45:30
I mean, yeah, it's going to suck, but why couldn't you say, you know,
45:33
we do crop rotations here, right? You have corn, then beans.
45:37
90% of the time, I'm goose hunting cornfields. So there's farms that I don't
45:40
hunt in the fall because it's a bean rotation year.
45:43
I mean, why couldn't she be like, yeah, you can flood crops,
45:46
but you can only do it every other year.
45:48
I mean, do you think that, I mean, that's a whole other rabbit hole,
45:52
but do you think that would help with the quote-unquote short stopping to where
45:55
ducks couldn't get used to going there all the time?
45:57
But, hey, this year it's going to be good because we have ducks that are working
46:00
in, they're finding it, and we can hunt it, but we don't have them living here
46:03
like we do since we've had flooded corn for 10 years in a row.
46:07
It just depends. I mean, shit, you see beans that are fucking five foot tall anymore.
46:14
I was going to say, I think the problem with that would be, I think you'd have
46:18
to do it for five years of no flooded, a three to five year deal where you didn't
46:23
flood anything to see if it actually changed anything.
46:25
Because, I mean, waterfowl, they get in habits and they like to do the same
46:30
thing over and over again.
46:32
And they also like to migrate on the same days or moon phases,
46:37
I guess I would say, because that's how they track time.
46:40
Unless they have calendars. That'd be kind of weird.
46:43
Let me pull that up on my Google calendar real quick. Oh, shit.
46:47
It's December 15th. We got to go.
46:49
Hey, Siri, what day is it? Straight back north.
46:54
Which, to be fair, just to contradict myself, I mean, obviously there's going
46:57
to be loopholes there, right? so hey you can only do this for three years and
47:01
you get stopped for three years alright cool what about the neighboring property
47:05
put it under a different LLC and he's gonna do it in the opposite three years yep so that's.
47:10
Right there. Got to round the system. Shit, I was going to say something. What the fuck was it?
47:16
Oh, now, on everything that's going on, obviously, the Flyway Federation,
47:22
Senator Kennedy, a lot of the people that are involved in this are basically
47:26
wanting to abolish flooded corn, flooded crops, right?
47:30
What do you guys think? Will it say everything goes their way?
47:34
Do you think it will actually happen with how big of a market waterfowl hunting
47:39
is now for market hunters.
47:41
I mean, that's going to destroy some guides and outfitters and stuff like that
47:46
because they rely solely on that. That's how they built their reputation.
47:49
Dude, it's going to destroy a lot of them. I mean, you look at any outfitter
47:55
you see on fucking YouTube or wherever you watch that shit, they're all hunting flooded corn.
48:01
And if they're not hunting flooded corn, they're hunting right behind the flooded
48:03
corn they have saved as a refuge.
48:07
Yeah. Do you think it's a possibility that any of this or anything comes out
48:13
of any of all this stuff that's going on?
48:15
I don't know if it will actually come out of it. It's hard to say.
48:20
I mean, when you have that high up in the government talking shit about it,
48:26
I feel like you've got a decent chance.
48:29
But just the amount of fucking money that goes into these hunt clubs and all
48:34
that stuff, I feel like it'd be very hard to not catch a lot of shit for that.
48:41
And I feel like if they catch enough shit, it's going to go nowhere.
48:46
Yeah. Here's, I mean. August, I was going to pull up this comment.
48:50
So August says, help me figure out why in the late 90s we had flooded corn in
48:55
the refuges in Iowa, even though we can't spell, it's TH3.
48:59
And Lake Odessa on the Mississippi had draw-only spots and was considered the
49:04
Mallard capital of the Mississippi, and nobody down south complained.
49:07
Is it a social media issue now?
49:09
My question, August, would be how much flooded corn was there in the late 90s
49:15
compared to how much there is now across the Mississippi River in general?
49:21
I mean, they don't have flooded corn there now, but look at all the mass amounts
49:26
of there is now compared to there was in the late 90s.
49:29
Would be my argument on that. That's a fair point.
49:32
I'd be interested to know how much there was now compared to then.
49:36
I mean, I would agree. I'd like to know, but I mean, I don't think he's wrong
49:40
when he said it's a social media issue now either.
49:42
No, that's definitely something to do with it. If we didn't have social media
49:45
and certain clubs or outfitters weren't putting those videos out or saying, hey, look at us.
49:51
We've got a 20-acre flooded cornfield with a heated permanent blind and a permanent spread.
49:56
Come out with us. If we didn't see those videos, yeah, it'd be word of mouth.
49:59
You might hear about it, but it wouldn't be, wouldn't have the attention drawn
50:03
to it to where people start digging deeper either.
50:05
See, the thing is too, It's not even so much the, the hunt, Jesus Christ, the hunt videos.
50:12
I don't think what, what really gets people fired up is when they put in their
50:16
hunting videos, them flying that drone over and you see all the ducks tucked
50:21
down in the fucking in the corn. Yep.
50:24
That drives people absolutely fucking nuts. Yeah.
50:29
What I think, I mean, and that, you know, that's, I wasn't saying just the hunt
50:33
videos, but you know, just like that, being able to put these videos out of, check this out.
50:38
Look what we got. Right. You can literally make that video in like five minutes
50:40
on your phone if you want to and post it right to Facebook. I'm going to start.
50:43
The whole fucking world can see it. I think we should start.
50:49
I think I'd be curious to see where it goes.
50:53
Like I said earlier, I mean, it's very interesting to see that this high,
50:57
it's gone this high up so quick you know this wasn't
51:00
two years of planning and i'm writing
51:03
three share i mean it went from zero to a hundred within a
51:07
month of how far of how high up that went it's been
51:11
in the planning and in the works longer than you think it definitely isn't something
51:17
that they just threw together in a week or two or a month or even just this
51:22
season it's been going on for about five years right i'm just reading about
51:28
it and seeing all this stuff pop up now and it's like,
51:31
now it's gaining the traction well it's because they you know they've really
51:36
tried to do a lot more research into it as they as much as they can with no
51:41
budget at no money and no support,
51:43
before they really present it out there do i i mean i don't know if anything's coming from it either.
51:51
I personally would love to see, I would love to see what it would be like without
51:56
it to see if it benefited us.
51:59
Cause there's also allegations going around that Monsanto corn with all the
52:03
roundup and all that shit in there is not good for waterfowl.
52:08
How true I know or how true that is. I'd have no idea.
52:13
I mean, I wouldn't doubt it. They're, they're, you know, on the deer side of
52:17
things, they're arguing some of that things too.
52:18
I mean, you know, guys that plant and leave standing beans for late season,
52:22
you know, how can a seed that you're coating in chemical, a viable seed get
52:27
planted and two months later is still able to protect itself from insects?
52:32
And like, is that really good for them? Is that what we're seeing with diseases?
52:36
Is that, you know, and I think that goes with ducks. I would a hundred percent agree with that. Yeah.
52:41
I mean, there's got to be a reason that the avian bird flu is in the United States going wild.
52:46
The past, I feel like five years has really became more of a problem than I've noticed before.
52:51
Maybe it's because I pay more attention now or more people in general are paying
52:55
attention. So you see more about it on social media.
52:57
But I don't remember even when
52:59
I was a kid and moving up, hearing about it near as much as you do now.
53:04
The other thing is too, like when people are spraying these fields,
53:07
where's that shit run to? How? Yeah.
53:11
And I know some people will argue,
53:13
oh, it gets dumbed down while it washes through the grass or whatever.
53:17
And after seeing some of that shit, how it affects humans, I'm calling bullshit on that one.
53:23
Well, I mean, I've been hit with a crop duster, crop sprayer,
53:27
whatever you want to call them, a few times at work.
53:30
Yeah, the whole thing. Jesus.
53:33
No, I've been sprayed a few times.
53:37
And the amount of stuff you have to go through and then you're not allowed in
53:41
the field for sometimes five days to work.
53:46
I mean, that's got a plane effect somewhere.
53:49
My grandpa crop dusted for a few years when I was in high school.
53:52
And so summers I would help him and fuel the plane. And I mean,
53:56
some of the chemicals that you're putting down, it's like, all right,
53:58
you got to have shoulder length rubber gloves and it's a thick textile rubber.
54:02
And then, hey, make sure you wear these goggles and an air respirator too,
54:04
because that dust gets up and it's like, holy shit, we're putting this stuff on what we eat.
54:09
On what wildlife eats and you know and have
54:12
you ever fished a farm pond and caught a fish with spots or or
54:15
anything like that because that's i mean especially like
54:18
catfish to get them black spots oh yeah you know they say it's from runoff so
54:21
if that's what's doing to the fish it's got to be doing some damage to the the
54:24
waterfowl yeah so one thing i want to leave everybody with you know as you're
54:30
listening to this and thinking about it if you've been doing it for a long time
54:33
maybe you have your own input and if you do,
54:37
Shoot us a message or get on social media or Facebook or Instagram or YouTube.
54:43
Leave a comment and let us know what your thoughts are.
54:46
Everybody has their own takes. It's wild how many people are arguing about it right now on Facebook.
54:52
I see it almost every other post when I scroll through my feed on Facebook. Mm-hmm.
54:58
Will anything come of it? Who freaking knows? It'd be interesting to see more data behind it.
55:03
The only thing that I have a problem with the data is if Ducks Unlimited is
55:08
involved or these clubs are involved, they're the ones with the money when it
55:13
comes to the sport. We don't have any money.
55:15
We put little to no money into it compared to what the outfitters and these
55:19
big-time clubs and all them do.
55:23
So, once again, I mean, what can you believe when it comes out?
55:28
How much of it's going to be true. The other thing is to, kind of to piggyback
55:31
off what you were saying, we're all adults.
55:34
We realize that everybody thinks a little bit differently.
55:37
Don't be shy to motherfuck us. We don't care.
55:41
I mean, I might, depending on the person. I don't. I personally don't.
55:46
I know Tyler doesn't. He doesn't care who motherfucks him.
55:48
Like, if you have an opinion, we would like to hear about it. Personally.
55:53
Everybody's entitled to it. Disagree and have a conversation. Yeah. You know.
55:58
It makes it fun. If you straight up come out and say we're a bunch of dumb fucks
56:01
who are thinking what we think, you might not get a reply.
56:05
You might. It could be a fun one. A spicy one. Yeah, it'd be extra spicy.
56:10
But like I said, we're all adults. We can talk about it. We can argue about it if you want to.
56:17
Absolutely. Have some conversations. We live in Southern Iowa,
56:20
not Minneapolis, so we can definitely talk and hear each other's opinions and comments.
56:26
Rough time if they're in Minneapolis. it's rough
56:29
the coolest thing is too like we it
56:33
doesn't matter who takes the argument or
56:36
the the conversation it's 90 percent going to be talked about on the next podcast
56:41
like hey we talked about this last week we had some feedback hey you know here's
56:47
what was said here's some good points and here's where we agree or don't disagree
56:50
or anything like that and that just informs everybody.
56:55
100%. It's better to get feedback from everybody, from all different types of
56:59
life when it comes to that. And everybody has their own styles of hunting.
57:03
We hunt public land 95% of the time. 98.
57:09
Well, you've got to include goose season. We don't hunt very much for goose
57:12
season, but that 5% is private.
57:16
It's private flooded corn. Yeah. Hey, I did get to hunt some flooded corn this year in Michigan.
57:23
Did you? It was fun. Yeah. Yeah, that's where I killed those black ducks and
57:27
whatnot this year. Oh, was it really?
57:29
Mm-hmm. That was all, it's all state area up there in Michigan. It was a blast.
57:33
But, I mean, that's all their state areas up there have flooded corn for the most part.
57:39
And they're drawing areas. I'll say interesting tidbit there because it was, it's a draw area, right?
57:44
So is that something where, yeah, you know, they decide that you can do,
57:48
the states can have jurisdiction over flooded corn and they turn into draw areas.
57:51
Like, now you're limiting it. I mean...
57:55
I don't want to call it similar to a refuge, right? But it's state-owned and operated.
57:59
And then, you know, on a federal level, they'll say, yeah, you can do one in
58:02
a certain area of the state each year or whatever and make it a draw area.
58:06
I don't know. I think... Yeah, guys, I have that thrill or whatever of hunting
58:11
flooded corn if they can get in, but... I think you're either going to have
58:14
it or you're not going to have it. Yeah, for sure.
58:17
I don't know if they'll ever go with, oh, you know, the state and the federal
58:22
government can do it, but nobody else can.
58:25
I don't see that happening, but maybe I don't see, I'm, I'm 50,
58:32
50 on anything's gonna change or not, whether any of the regulations change.
58:36
It's like I said, I personally would love to see it change, even if it was for
58:40
five years to see if it made a difference.
58:44
But in those five years, you'll kill every guide and outfitter that relies on it. Yep.
58:50
And on that note, I think we're gonna try and jump out of here.
58:56
Once again, make sure you like and subscribe on all your podcast destinations and our Facebook.
59:03
We appreciate everybody that's been following along and making this happen.
59:07
We look forward to hearing from you guys what your feedback is.
59:10
And until the next one, I guess have a great rest of the duck season down south,
59:17
boys. Hopefully this cold front brought you some birds.
59:19
Other than that, thank you, Zach, for joining this week. Appreciate it.
59:23
And maybe we can do it again sometime. Maybe.
59:28
No, no promises on that. I didn't expect any from you, buddy.
59:32
You kind of acted up a couple times, so.
59:34
Whoa, whoa. I brought it to like a three. You don't want to see me at a six.
59:40
Anyways, enjoy the rest of your night.