One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast
The One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast hosted by father-son duo Tony Vogel and Tristan Vogel, Owners of Zero Duck:30 and Zero Buck:30 . Our passion lies in bringing every hunter the REALITY of what it REALLY takes to hunt their target animal while equipping them with the knowledge to be a successful hunter and promoting the lost "old school values" that laid the foundation for the sport we love so much today.
One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast
You can't control wild birds, but you can make UNFORGETTABLE memories | Delta Thunder Outfitters @ Frogg toggs Booth | Dux Expo!
We sit down with duck hunting guide Kade Weatherford at the Ducks Expo 2025 to discuss the realities of waterfowl hunting and what to expect for the upcoming season. Cade shares his firsthand experience of managing expectations and creating memorable experiences for hunters regardless of conditions.
• The importance of not judging an outfitter based on a single hunt experience
• Why worked-up dirt can sometimes produce better hunting than planted fields
• How hundreds of thousands of unplanted acres in Arkansas might affect the upcoming season
• Insight into duck feeding patterns and lesser-known food sources like smartweeds and invertebrates
• Why hunting multiple days significantly increases your chances of success
• Discussion of hunting pressure theory and when to rest versus hunt your property
• Detailed breakdown of available dates for the upcoming season
• Affordable rates of $250 per day with $100 deposit and optional $40 lodging
To book a hunt with Kade Weatherford, call 870-926-7944. Available dates are limited and filling fast.
Companies we LOVE | Ways to Support the Podcast ↓
Code onehellofalife15 for 15 percent off https://dirtyduckcoffee.com/
Williamson Outfitters (Coastal Florida Waterfowl Hunts, Fishing, Gator Hunts and Much more!)
https://floridaducks.com/
Looking to waterfowl hunt in Arkansas? Give our good friend Kade Weatherford, Owner of Delta Thunder Outfitters a call at (870)-926-7944
what's up, guys? Tristan, tony and k Cade back with another live podcast from the Frog Talks booth at the Ducks Expo 2025. Many of y'all have heard our beloved friend Cade Weatherford on this podcast before and we're excited to have him back.
Speaker 3:A few times. Here I am. That's right, because you know what, If we're going to be this close to where he operates business and we smoke ducks, y'all need to go on YouTube right now and go look business and we smoke ducks, y'all need to go on youtube right now and go look like you listen. If you want to shoot ducks, you can just go see kade weatherbury. If you don't want to shoot ducks, you can go do that other stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, like we always say uh, if you don't have fun, that's your own fault, that's mr glenn's uh mo which is that's our motto, that's, that's our whole, that's our slogan and keep in mind there's no guarantee.
Speaker 3:You know there's never a guarantee. Cade will be the first to tell you there's never a guarantee you're going to shoot ducks. Of course. You know the videos that you all watch. You know we are showing you the reality, but at the same time, there have a hell of a time. It's something they do as a tradition. You've got returning customers come every single year.
Speaker 2:Whether they shoot ducks or not, it doesn't matter yeah, and if you go to our YouTube to kind of just close that loop, we actually have a whole playlist called Delta Thunder of all of our hunts we've done out there over the years and man, we've had some good ones, and there's going to be more to come.
Speaker 2:More to come this year. It's kind of funny to look back on because man, the early stuff, with our video skills at the time, it has came a long way and our equipment is drastically improved from iPhones and GoPros, but man, the fun has always remained, oh, every time.
Speaker 4:Every time we've had some wonderful hunts. You know the, that first hunt y'all ever went on with me. Y'all didn't kill many ducks, but that year I mean the hunting sucked period overall. I mean it was awful and uh, I told you. I mean you remember me telling you, if you stick in there and you come back, I'm telling you you're going to hit it big eventually. And y'all did. I think that second time y'all come back, tony, come on that spec hunt and we killed like 20, we killed like 50 limits that weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a beatdown. I mean a bunch of them it was a beatdown. Yeah, he came back from that, I think. I don't think I was able to make it for that. But then I came back, uh, came duck hunting, duck hunting and uh, we had some good ones that that season too. I mean really we've been real fortunate. Since that first year we've had a lot, of, a lot of good luck, honestly that's.
Speaker 4:That's what I'm saying. You can't go one time and say, well, they weren't worth nothing. I mean, I'm not speaking just for myself, I'm any outfitter. Anywhere you go hunting, you can't base the hunting off one time. Now, if their service like them, it's a them thing, yeah, you can right. But I do everything I can for anybody I can.
Speaker 4:I want to make everybody happy some days I can do it, some days I can't, but I I've tried my very best to make everybody happy. Some days I can do it and some days I can't, but I try my very best to make everybody happy. I want everybody to have the most pleasant experience they can have coming out here hunting with me.
Speaker 3:That's right, and the thing is that you keep it so affordable. You know what I mean. Let's face it, the price of eggs in China went up and it has it has. I mean it's great that our economy is starting to stabilize a little better and everything right now, but the fact of the matter is is that, you know, because he loves it so much, he wants to make it affordable for you.
Speaker 4:I try to make it the cheapest I can, at a rate where I know I'm going to get my.
Speaker 3:You know I'm going to hit all the lease payments and side-by-side payments and I'm going to make a little bit of money on the end.
Speaker 4:Right, pay the guys all that stuff yeah, I'm going to get the guides paid and all that stuff, but I try to literally the most the bottom dollar that you can possibly do it for. I mean, I can write you out all the things we got to pay for over the year. It's the lowest you can possibly go on a price and make and make it work, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, and it takes money. I mean, I always find it funny. You know where somebody comes out and they're like whatever. Somebody charges for something, I don't care who it is, I don't care if it's Cade, if it's Honey Break, I don't care where it is right.
Speaker 4:It takes a ton of money.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of stuff we talk about all the time. There's so much stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Right, there's a side-by-side that needs to operate. It needs to have the oil changed, it needs to have you know, there's just so many things that you've got to charge money in order to make that money.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. It's just the bottom line, right, cade? You know I'm curious. Uh, you know, obviously, being a resident of arkansas and duck hunting your whole life. Uh, you know, I'm sure you've been to a duck duck expo, you know, once or twice in your day all duck expos, you know, sport shows, gun shows.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've done them all.
Speaker 2:What do you think? How do you think this one, uh, stacks up compared to what you see in your day.
Speaker 4:It's a lot different.
Speaker 3:It's, it's uh do you want coffee that doesn't suck? Get the Duck Dirty Duck. Coffee is made specifically for the waterfowl enthusiast. Enjoy flavors like Morning Wood, dark Dynasty, cinnamon, teal, snickerdoodle and First Flight to unlock the flavor that you'll enjoy in the blind for years to come.
Speaker 4:It's a lot bigger. They put on the Big Buck Classic every year. They used to do one in Jonesboro, where I live, but I don't think they do it anymore. They used to do it. It was the first weekend in February. It was hunting. It was a big buck classic. Everybody brought their buck in. They get scored and whoever had the biggest score, you know they gave a gun away or whatever, and uh, or, like you know, if you had biggest archery kill they'd give you a bow or whatever it was, all kinds of different stuff and uh, yeah, they, that was a pretty big deal.
Speaker 4:The convocation center in jonesboro it's a pretty big place, you know. It's where arkansas state plays basketball and everything and they put on concerts and stuff, but this place right here is, it's hopping it's pretty big.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's hopping. I will tell you, man, uh, frog talkss, and we're proud to say it. They're pushing products. The Frog Talks booth is it's happening, bro?
Speaker 4:It's one of the nicest ones I've seen here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's so nice and, dude, they've been just hitting some really incredible numbers on the amount of products that have gotten pushed out of here, especially just today. So, anyway, super good stuff, but, but, man, so what do you think? Uh, you know one of the the the uh, the big questions always is is hey, man, I want to come out and hunt arkansas. Uh, can you guarantee that there's gonna be some ducks?
Speaker 4:no, no, you saw you referring to the text message I sent you earlier this week?
Speaker 3:No, no, we don't have to talk about that one, no. But being more serious man, you know what do you think things are looking like? You've done this so much. You've seen the same things, the predictions, every year. But you're out there, you see the land that you have. Um, obviously you can't predict the future, but what's what's? Where's your gut going? You?
Speaker 4:know honestly, this year is one of them years that I I honestly can say I'm clueless, because there is hundreds of thousands of acres I don't even know how many acres that didn't get planted, that was prevented planted this year right it's not, it ain't planted, it's dirt they couldn't plant it. It's been flooded literally since middle of june. It started drying up a little bit, but you can't plant nothing. Uh, that late. I mean I guess you could, but you're taking a real big risk of frost killing it yeah and I mean there's a lot of.
Speaker 4:I'm not going to name any names, but I got a buddy of mine that works in a seed company and they've got two warehouses full of seed that was pre-ordered seed from farmers that they just never picked up oh my gosh thousands of acres of seed.
Speaker 4:You know thousands, of thousands. But there's gonna be a lot of ground that usually has row crop planted on it. That's not going to have anything planted on it. Now, that being said, you know a lot of people think, well, there's not going to be any crop, there's not going to be any ducks. Not necessarily. I tell everybody this. Three seasons ago I had one of the best seasons up until this past year. It was the best season that I'd ever had.
Speaker 4:We killed 1412 ducks out of two pits two of them and it was worked up dirt. There was nothing planted out there at all.
Speaker 3:It was work.
Speaker 4:Uh, dirt, twisted teal, that's twisted the twisted teal video that field was. There was nothing out there. There was a few smart weeds that grew on the on the high side of the field. You can see that grew up, but all it was out there was worked up dirt. The other field, uh, that we hunted that year and killed a ton of ducks out of I don't know. I don't remember if y'all got a video over in the woodsville, but we killed them.
Speaker 4:Ducks over there. I mean, I was taking groups. I'd take one group in there. They'd kill out, I'd pull them out and bring another one in. I did that. I killed out two groups out of that pit for 13 days straight.
Speaker 3:Amazing 13 days back to back. Well, you know I don't mean to cut in, but you know the thing is about the worked-up dirt. You know I don't mean to cut in, but you know the thing is about the worked up dirt. You know, if you don't know a lot about what ducks eat, it's not just grain, right, okay, it's not. Sometimes all they want is these small little invertebrates. You know what I mean. It might be a fly larva, it might be, depending on where you're at. It might be muscles. You know, really small muscles, baby muscles. I guess you would call them muscle shells, things like that. And sometimes, whenever you have dry earth like that and then after an amount of time it does get water, it creates this like new, uh, reproduction of the habitat, basically right, yeah, no, absolutely well, I mean and another thing is is a minute ago I was telling you them smart weeds that grow out there.
Speaker 4:They got a little bit of seed on them and uh, and them ducks eat that too. I mean they'll eat that pigweed, coffee bean, uh, just grass red rice, which is not a right you know, which is not good rice, that's rice, it's a weed, is what it is. They call it red rice around my area. Them ducks will tear it up, the geese will too, but they'll find stuff to eat out there. And you know, you go back to the podcast we did with my granddaddy.
Speaker 3:He said it the very best the combines they got nowadays don't leave much behind, as it is right, so that people think that it's in the teens that morning and maybe you're chasing ducks or geese, but now it's September and it's 85 degrees and you're hunting early teeler geese. As a waterfowler, you need dependable weather protection that will not break the bank. Founded in 1996, frogtogs is not only the leader in breathable wader technology, but a company you can depend on to keep you warm and dry head to toe, no matter your hunting environment.
Speaker 4:But them ducks still come down there. I had the best year that I've ever had. Last year I mean amongst all the catastrophic stuff I had happen behind the scenes Persevered, though.
Speaker 4:The hunting, the quality of the hunting, was excellent. I couldn't ask for no better. But we got some big things going this year. I don't see a problem with it. It just needs to get cold up north, and if it gets cold up north we're gonna be all right. I mean, we're gonna get some ducks, even if it don't. You know, usually we get that halloween push is what everybody calls it and we always kill some ducks off it. Not well, I say always. Most time we get some ducks off of it and sometimes we kill them. Good, sometimes we don't. You know, the first several years y'all come out hunting with me. That opening week we didn't kill nothing Like opening weekend and there wasn't hardly a bunch of you know, you might just see a few ducks flying around for a couple hours in the morning and they'd go dead all day. Well, the last two years y'all beat them with me.
Speaker 2:I mean, opener has been a beat down first three days. Oh man, it's been, it's been great, it's been just insane.
Speaker 3:I mean it's, but you know it still changes every once in a while. You know you might go out and have a day where they're just not cooperating. The moon's different. We had a full moon or whatever it is, so you're gonna get that little bit of variance. But I think one of the best things you always say is that you know if you come out and hunt with me, come more than one day. You know you need to come for as many days as you can take off in your schedule to put yourself in the best position I've had guys come out and hunt with me a week straight um colton hayes.
Speaker 4:I've talked about him a lot yeah like there's a few clients that I got that I'll talk about because I know they don't care and they're great guys, like they're really good, really good friends of mine. But colton hayes, he always books a hunt like I'm gonna look in my book right now. He's coming on. He's coming on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th and 11th, I think, of january. He hunts. That's five days he's hunted. He could tell you best. I wish y'all'd have him on the podcast. Talk about hunting out here. Like I wish you'd get that perspective.
Speaker 4:He has literally come out here and hunted like they've had two terrible days, but they don't care, they're just happy to be hunting yeah but they've had two terrible days and then, uh, the next day they beat them and they're having the same amount of fun every day I got. I put a video on tiktok earlier this week of them. They were had their phone out and had this song playing. They was all dancing to it and yeah I saw that, yeah, that was awesome. And they just, it just shows they just have a good, they make a good time. You know if ain't nothing going on.
Speaker 4:They make it a good time. That's what it's really all about. Everybody, everybody wants to kill, kill, kill and I get that. I mean it's fun when you're shooting them, but it ain't. Let's look at the. You know y'all talk about the reality of duck hunting all the time. Let's look at, let's look at real numbers here.
Speaker 4:Realistically, you can't kill them every day right I know places, people, buddies of mine that have farms. They leave standing corn and just do a ton of stuff for ducks. They flood early. They'll flood a section early of their farm. That way they pull in the ducks that come in early and they won't hunt it, just to hold ducks and then they'll start hunting it when the second split comes in and just they got a whole science spreadsheet on it but they're not killing any more ducks.
Speaker 4:I mean, I get their ideology it's a great idea, but sometimes it works for them and sometimes it don't. It's just you. You can't control a wild bird, that's right. You know there ain't nothing me or you can do there ain't nothing in our pipe no, no, no man yeah, at the end of the day they're migory and it is what it is.
Speaker 2:But Colton Hayes man shout out to him because I keep up with him too. He's always like supporting our stuff. This summer, make memories on Florida's Forgotten Coast with Williamson Outfitters. From inshore and nearshore fishing to scalping and snorkeling in the bay, plus custom boat tours made for family fun, they've got something for everybody. And when the sun sets, it's time for a nighttime flying or gigging adventure you'll never forget, small group or big group, day or night. Williamson outfitters has a fleet of boats and a team of licensed captains ready to take you out. Call or text captain chris at 850-251-8650 or visit floridaduckscom. Williamson Outfitters making the Forgotten Coast unforgettable. He is dude Big shout out to Colton bro.
Speaker 2:Well, cade, you know we got teal season. Wait, what are you guiding this year? So you're doing, are you doing teal?
Speaker 4:I don't know. I mean, we're going to go teal hunting Guidance-wise. I don't know yet it's too early.
Speaker 2:Honestly duck and snow goose.
Speaker 4:Duck and snow goose is a go. Teal is kind of a throw up. It's a toss up. Right now I don't want to book anybody out front because it's so dry that time of year when teal season comes in and they're still cropping the field, so it ain't like I can flood a field, and it's tough flooding the field anyway because they've been pumping water on rice all year so that's going to deplete the aquifer right.
Speaker 4:That's the water under the ground and it's. It's hard to pump water that time. That's the hardest time of year to pump. It's so dry. But sometimes you know you get hurricanes that happen and stuff like that and we'll get a big blessing yeah, we might get a big 10 12 inch rain overnight and I'll go out there literally not literally change and stop up every you know, find where I can stop some water up, stop it up and I'll hold some water.
Speaker 4:And usually we got some water, we got some teal. You know, last year I didn't book nobody and I caught some rain water, uh, and then I pumped a little bit of water with my tractor out of a ditch, which is totally different deal. You know a lot easier to get it out of the ditch, but a lot of times you can't get it that time of year out of the ditch. Right, we beat them for about four days straight. I mean beat on the teal. I took five guys in first morning. We killed out in 20 minutes. Took five guys next morning. We killed out 15 minutes, took five guys in the next morning.
Speaker 4:It wasn't nothing and we were sitting. There was like a dove hunt. We were standing, we were sitting in the pit, standing on top of the bench pits not brushed at all, and just threw some teal decoys out there with maybe three or four spinners and maybe a pulsator or two, just to get their attention. And they, boy, you throw it. A lot of people don't think about motion teal hunting and you don't really need it. But boy, if you put some motion out there.
Speaker 2:They can't resist it.
Speaker 4:They see that flash and that that water rippling they I mean every time they'll just suck right into it. They do. But to answer your question, I'm getting off topic. To get answer your question, I don't know yet, it's too early. If I do, I'll put. If I end up doing any teal hunts, I'll end up putting it on uh facebook. I usually that's how. That's the best way I update people on what I'm going to book and what dates I have available. Uh, I'm going to actually probably make a post either tonight I know we got that dinner thing here in a little while but uh, it'll be either be tonight or tomorrow. I'll put a post out with the rest of the dates I got. I put a post up today's, august 2nd. I put one up a week ago, on July 25th, and I had a lot of dates available and I booked half of January.
Speaker 4:So I'm going to have to update that to let people know I mean there's a lot of dates and I tell everybody I'm not a car salesman. But I get a lot of people get real upset with me because I turn them down, because I don't have a place for them to hunt. They call me in October and they're like hey, we want some dates for December or whatever. And I'm like, sorry, I don't got them, they're gone, I can't hunt them. I can only hunt as many people as I can.
Speaker 3:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 4:And usually I'm hunting 18 at a time. I'll take in 18 people at a time is what I have hunting on my farm. But I'm gonna narrow it down this year just because I'm gonna make it a little bit more subtle. But, um, I'm gonna make it where I'm only gonna hunt 12 at a time on my farm. So that's two groups, that's two groups of six. So that's gonna narrow down the dates even more. I mean, they're gonna it's gonna book up even faster and I just did that because I added a lease and I'm gonna try to implement some.
Speaker 4:You know, letting some more stuff rest and stuff and just not putting as much hunting pressure on what I got. Do I think that makes a difference? No, not when there's a lot of ducks around. It doesn't make it. When there's a lot of ducks around, it doesn't make it. When there's a lot of ducks around, you need to be hunting them. If you let, if you let a bunch of ducks come around there and they sit in there and they get comfortable, when you go in to hunt them, they'll get up and figure out they're getting shot. They'll get up and leave, yep. But if you shoot them while they're trying to come, get that food and you keep them out of there, they'll keep coming back. That's the best way I've I've found to hunt them, that's awesome man.
Speaker 2:Okay, tell everybody, uh a, where they can get a hold of you. And um, yeah, what I? I know you, uh, you got to update your dates. But um, yeah, just tell everybody where they can get I'll go over what's the what's the deposit, oh?
Speaker 4:I'll go over all that right now. So, um, the dates that I got left, I've got. I got a tiny bit left in november.
Speaker 4:Let's see, I'll just say them real quick I can do it real quick so I can hunt one more group on, or I can hunt guys the 25th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 30th and then on the 1st of december that's that's november and then on the 1st of december. And then I've got one more group that I can fit on the 10th and the 11th. I can hunt one more group on the 15th of december, two on the 16th, two on the 17th, two on the 18th, one on the 19th, one on the 20th, one on the 21st, two on the 22nd and 23rd that's of december. And then I got one more spot the 30th and 31st of december and I got a date available on the 1st, that's January 1st, and then I'm booked from the 2nd to the 18th I'm full. I have no available dates through there and then the 19th.
Speaker 4:I got two groups. I can hunt one group on the 20th, one on the 21st, two on the 22nd, one on the 23rd, one on the 24th, one on the 25th and then two from the 26th to the 31st of january. Uh, and those are all january dates. Now some of these dates are pending. It's people. I don't write them down in the book until I get a deposit, but I've got a lot of people that have called me over the past. In the past week I have filled up a lot of january, a little bit of december and a little bit of november, but uh, a lot of those dates are pending. I mean, I could get a phone call in an hour and they'll, and they'll say hey, we got, I got my guys together. I know who I want coming hunting. Uh, they give me their deposit, money and everything.
Speaker 4:Uh, the deposit so I'm 250 dollars a day is what it costs per person. It's a hundred dollar deposit per person, and then you pay 150 when you get there. I try to try to split it up and it seems like you're not paying as much when you split it up. That way, you're paying $100 to hold your spot and then $150 when you get there to hunt. And then, if you want lodging, it's totally optional. That's why I don't add it in with the price. A lot of people say it's $300 a day and you get lodging. Whether you like it or not, I make it an option. Lodging is 40 a person per night and then, uh, snow goose is the same prices okay well with snow goose.
Speaker 4:Actually, if you bring 10 or more, because that fills up one hole, that fills up a lot and of course you can hunt a lot more people, yeah and I can hunt. A lot more people snuggles hunting. But if you bring 10 or more lodgings, free um good deal folks so yeah right on, brother.
Speaker 2:Well, we uh appreciate you coming on and appreciate hanging out this weekend absolutely I mean, obviously we're an hour away, so if you didn't come I'd be kind of pissed well, y'all didn't leave me no choice.
Speaker 4:y Y'all said hey, we got an Airbnb, Send me this money.
Speaker 2:I said well, I guess.
Speaker 4:I'm going.
Speaker 2:Well, right on man. Well, y'all get with Cade and get it on the books and you'll probably see us out there. We frequent the area.
Speaker 4:It's 870-926-7944.
Speaker 2:All right, tell them what it is.
Speaker 4:K it's one oh it's one hell of a lot.
Speaker 2:There you go. I was about to say one, I am number one, what you talking about.
Speaker 4:What does it?
Speaker 2:take to be number one One hell of a lot.
Speaker 1:Appreciate y'all. I've been southbound, I've been hellbound, Riding on a midnight train Going too fast. Now think I ought to slow down standing in the pouring rain.