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
The man behind the viral duck decoy coaching video shares his story | Dawson Yates
Dawson Yates shares his journey from basketball player to waterfowl guide, showcasing how hunting became his passion and led to his viral TikTok videos including the famous duck coaching pool clip.
• Started duck hunting as a young boy but became serious about it in high school
• Transitioned from basketball to hunting as his main passion and focus
• Built an impressive man cave in his garage that serves as a hangout spot for friends
• Began guiding two years ago, finding joy in helping clients shoot their first duck
• Gained TikTok following by sharing authentic hunting stories rather than just success
• Believes the best guides are entertainers who can make even slow days enjoyable
• Created the Talking Timber brand with apparel and an upcoming podcast
Follow Dawson at TheDawsonYates on Instagram and TikTok, and check out Talking Timber for new hats coming soon.
what's going on, guys? Tristan and tony back with another episode of the one hell of a life outdoor podcast let's go, baby. And today we got on dawson yates. Um, I've been following him on tiktok for a while and, uh, many of you have probably seen his funny videos. Um, last couple weeks ago he posted this video of you know these ducks in the in the swimming pool and I'm interested to hear more about that story. But he was coaching them up on how they're going to perform this season. I thought that was pretty funny but, dawson.
Speaker 2:Thanks for coming on, man. Uh, tell everybody a little bit about who you are and where you're from, and all that absolutely.
Speaker 4:Uh, I appreciate you guys having me on. Uh, this is my first ever podcast and I'm super stoked about it. I've been listening to you guys for a while, um, but yeah, i'm'm Dawson, I'm 22. I started posting stuff on TikTok, I don't know, a few years ago. I tried making YouTubes doing fishing videos, and that just never really clicked with me. I started going to college and I just didn't have time for it, whatnot.
Speaker 4:But I guess you could say, like my hunting background, I went on my first duck hunt. Actually, my first ever waterfowl hunt was a goose hunt was, uh, my mom's boyfriend at the time I can't remember exactly if I was uh 10 or 12 years old, but like I didn't have my hunting license or anything and he was just like, hey, man, you want to go hunting? And I was like, yeah, sure. So we went out there and, uh, so in southern, southern illinois, uh, we used to get a ton of of honkers I mean a ton and then, uh, that all kind of shifted and whatnot. I mean back then there was still a decent chunk around, but not like there was, and we went down and it was snowing and I had on I don't even remember what camo stuff. I'd had just the cheapest stuff you could find. And they bought me this giant oversized white t-shirt. I put that on and they shot a few hawkers. I was like, wow, this is cool.
Speaker 4:And then the next week and they're like well, you want to go duck hunting? I was like, yeah, can I shoot this time? They're like dawson, you're a little, you're a little small, you don't have your hunting license. No, but you can go. And I was like, okay, sweet. So, uh, we went, they shot a couple ducks and I was like, wow, this is really cool. Well then, uh, things with that kind of broke off so I haven't really hunted again until I think it was my seventh grade year. Uh, my neighbor who I don't hunt with anymore for, uh, for uh, some different reasons, but he was like, hey, man, you want to go, uh, you want to go shoot some wood ducks there? Uh, they keep flying this Creek right behind the house. And I was like, yeah, man, sure. And uh, I shot my first ever wood duck hen and that was, uh, that was my first I should never got rid of that.
Speaker 4:But uh, yeah, I went with him. And then, uh, I went with my one of the youth leaders at my church and it was me and him and his son and his cousin. They had a little lease and uh, it was a little flooded cornhole and uh, we had shot a few ducks and uh, next thing, you know, there's a black duck circle and they're like, hey, dude, black duck, black duck, black duck. And uh, me and the actual guy who had the lease, we doubled on it and they got back and he's like, oh man, I guess we're gonna draw to see who uh seems gonna mount it. And I was like no man, like we're on your property, it's all yours.
Speaker 4:And then, like, as I got more into waterfowl hunting, I didn't really realize, like the significance of shooting a black duck around where we're at. Sure I know I did that. And then, uh, yeah, my eighth grade year I hunted a little bit. And then my freshman year, uh, I became really good friends with one of the farmers around here and uh, he's got a couple private strip cuts, just like old coal mine grounds, and at the end of the year they would always load up with divers and uh, they kind of hunted a little bit and I kind of got dragged into that, um. So I was like, wow, this, like this is really cool. And then my sophomore year, I had a buddy that moved.
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Speaker 4:He moved in from around the Wren Lake area. He moved into my hometown and he was a big hunter I mean deer turkey ducks, geese. It didn't matter If it was legal to shoot, he was shooting it. And he's like it was like early goose season time. And he's like, hey, man, you want to go scout for some early geese and I season time. And he's like, hey man, you're gonna scout for some early geese. And I was like, what is early goose season? He was like, oh, like we can shoot geese before, like the actual waterfowl season, just from management purposes. And I was like, yeah, sure, he's like, all right, I'll be at your house at five in the morning. I was like, dude, we got school the next day he's like it doesn't, it doesn't matter he's like he's like we gotta go down check out where these geese are.
Speaker 4:I mean, mean, we got to see where they're roosting at and we go check and see where they're going to feed at and see if we can get permission on where they're going to feed at. I was like man, okay, whatever. So we did that for a couple of weeks and we ended up getting on a couple of groups. I was like wow, like this is, this is freaking awesome. And then a teal season comes around and I was like all right, all right. And then, like I don't know, I just kind of just kind of fell in love with it.
Speaker 4:And then he graduated and I started going with my cousin a bunch and I was like wow, like I really just enjoy this, like every aspect of it, and like it kind of gave me something to do and cause I mean I guess with like humans in jail and you almost have to have something to cling on in your life to like kind of keep you focused and motivated and that kind of thing. And my whole life it was basketball. And then, as I started getting older, in like high school, college, I was like dude, this hunting stuff is like this, is like a feeling like no other, like if you don't actually hunt.
Speaker 4:It's hard to explain the experience that you actually get from that yeah um, yeah, I started hunting a bunch with my cousin and then I had another. Uh, I was a senior on the basketball team and he moved in as a freshman and, uh, he hunted a bunch and he was like one of the guys that was going to play up on the varsity squad and my coach was like, hey man, you should probably like kind of take him in and mentor him and stuff. And he ended up being like he had been a duck hunter his whole life and he was like, hey man, you want to go hunting? I was like, yeah, sure, I hunted a little bit here and there in high school, but then when he came along that's when we really started going a bunch I was like, wow, this is cool. He probably just wanted me to carry decoys or be another person to pitch in for gas, to scout and stuff. But yeah, he got me into it and I was like, wow, this is like you can't beat this honestly. Um, duck time off and on throughout high school.
Speaker 4:College. Uh, got out of college. I played basketball in college. I didn't have a whole lot of time to hunt.
Speaker 5:Got out of college where'd you go school at?
Speaker 4:I went to uh johnny logan. It's a. It's a small junior college in carterville, illinois.
Speaker 4:Yep they're done yeah, yeah, they're uh known for their uh, their uh basketball and baseball there. Heck, yeah, yeah, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to hunt, but every Sunday I could, I was hunting, I was driving back home, but yeah, so I got out of college and so my friend that I met my freshman year I don't know if they're trying to get in here my friend that I had met my senior year and he was a freshman. He had two mutual friends that actually guided out our local goose club and uh, I became pretty good friends with them through him and uh, I would always I was like, wow, like they're, that's cool, they don't have to wake up till like 5 or 5 30, and like they get to go out and take clients and and hunt and stuff. I was like that's pretty, that's pretty cool. So then I was like I was like I wonder how I could get into that. So, uh, I just offer anytime I was free. It's like, hey, man, if you guys ever need help, like picking up decoys, setting out spreads, uh, if you guys, I just bought a camera, I was like you guys want like help trying to film something, like I'd love to go out there, and they're like, yeah, sure, that'd be awesome.
Speaker 4:So I did that for about two years and uh, finally one of my buddies got a bigger job where he like he couldn't guide as much. And they're like, hey, the spot opened up if you'd be interested in it. And I was like I'm gonna be 100 like, I'll be 100 honest with you, I don't think I'm qualified to do it. And then they're like dude, it's all right, just like, we'll come out, you blow your calls, we'll talk hunting and stuff like that. And uh, he was like I went out there, met with him, I blew my calls and he's like, he's like okay, he's like I think you could do it. And like we got to talk and stuff. He's like, well, you got to talk and stuff. He's like, well, you got to understand. Like right off the bat, with guiding is 90% of it is entertainment, like you got to be able to sit there and entertain those people. I was like, hey, man, I could talk to a brick wall. I was like that's right up my alley. So, yeah, so I started guiding two years ago and that's when I kind of started like making TikTok videos about hunting, because, like I mean, obviously, if you're going and you're going to pay out, like you're going to go pay for a hunt.
Speaker 4:You want to shoot birds and I'm the same exact way. I want to shoot birds every time I go out there, but I understand the reality that they are a migratory bird, they're a wild bird and uh, I, I got super lucky. I never had one group that actually complained like on days where we didn't have good days, and that was pretty cool. I was like I don't ever see anybody on social media like talking about that side of things. I was like I'm just going to like tell stories about the day Like I got to see so many people get to shoot their first duck and I was like this is like a feeling that you genuinely cannot explain.
Speaker 4:Like that made me smile more than if I were to go out there and shoot my limited mallards or something and go home, like it was just, I was like I don't know, I'll talk about that and then like I'd have a funny story that day and I would talk about that and like I guess people just kind of started resonating with, uh, like the reality of hunting on my page and uh, yeah just kind of has went off from there dude, yeah, that's that, hearing you say that, um, it totally makes sense because I think you know a lot of guides, like there's a lot of them that are just like great hunters but like you put a phone in their hand and like it's you know, they might as well be looking at a foreign object, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like a lot of these guys are just not like tech savvy at all and I think you bring up a good point like, um, you know, like the best guides are are those entertainer types, like you said, and can make a bad hunt still be a be a good time, you know, and, um, sharing those stories, you know, and I actually I haven't seen the videos you're talking about of sharing those stories, but uh, I'm interested to see this year, look back, maybe see some of your old videos, because uh, I totally I see what you're saying with the, the niche there, you know yeah for sure.
Speaker 4:and uh, like it was so cool to me because I mean, when I got into hunting, obviously there's there's people that ruin it for others and I noticed right off the bat I was like I don't want to be that kind of person.
Speaker 4:I was like I'm not going to be the one that's going to start a fight over who's going to get to this hole. I'm not going to be the person that starts a fight because I want the decoy spread set this exact way or that exact way. Like I just want to be out there and enjoy it. I mean, if that one decoy is two foot to the left, so be it. Like it's not going to hurt my feelings, right. And like I noticed that right off the bat, like I don't want to be like that and I don't know. It's just you see a lot of negativity towards a lot of different things in it and I was like if I could bring some type of positive impact on even if it's just one person, then like I did what I was trying to do yeah, no, I totally feel you on that.
Speaker 2:We so me and my dad, like, and I, you and I haven't really talked too much about our backgrounds or whatever, but when me and my dad started our like youtube journey and all that, that was kind of part of our motivation too is, like, you know, you some you can't ask like an innocent question anywhere about anything or you're just gonna get roasted, you know, and and uh, that was just kind of like our, our motivation to like kind of show the good and the bad of everything and just kind of be like show the reality of hunting, like you were saying, um, because you know there's, there's somebody out there that is experiencing the exact same thing but is like too afraid to you know there's, there's somebody out there that is experiencing the exact same thing but is like too afraid to, you know, ask and didn't have a mentor to teach them some of these things.
Speaker 2:You know, I think, um, like you were saying, it sounds like you had a lot of you know, fortunately, a lot of good buddies and stuff to kind of show you things along the way. And, uh, I've always been, you know, really you know, thankful I've had my dad to show me things along the way too.
Speaker 5:And you know, really, you know, thankful I've had my dad to show me things along the way too. Yeah, man, you know, the biggest thing that I think about is that you know, like before we had Internet and social media and everything, dude, every single hunter I knew you didn't Everyone was great, I mean I'm not lying Every single person, because I guess maybe that the ones that good people just don't give a shit about, you don't hear about them, you don't associate with them, all you do is you associate and hang around with the people that you love hunting with or you know, helped you, give you a good experience or or something like that. You know, and, and so sometimes in my mind I kind of take myself back and that's what initially alarmed me about, like, dude, what are you people doing? And I mean, yeah, you can never get rid of jackasses in this world and jackassettes, but you'll never, you never get rid of them. But, dude, listen, this is, I don't want the perception of the general community and, more importantly, the observing community that ring around us that just sees what we post.
Speaker 5:You know like we can get down a big rabbit hole about. You know, when you post a picture of a deer, put its tongue in its mouth, wipe the blood off, stand in front of the hole. You know, whatever it is, you know just, there's a lot of things we can do and you know that's the big thing is that we got to shut that shit down. And I think that through you know channels that we are associated with other media folks, you know from individual people that have big followings, that people that have big followings that, um, you know we talked about with billy and dr duck on the podcast, just the, we are making such a big influence that it's kind of like pushing all that stuff out yeah, yeah exactly, or if somebody was, 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 teal or geese.
Speaker 5: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. I was young and was just following that just out of like. I don't know, just didn't know any better. I guess you know, just didn't know any better. I guess you know that they were in that it's no different than somebody growing up in inner city and somebody growing up in the country that got taught all the manners by their grandma. You know you grow up in this environment and the only way that you know how to get out of that environment is something that tempts you. You know to do this or you know, like the first time we all went hunting right right.
Speaker 2:Dawson, I thought you brought up a good point too about, um, the transition of like sports to hunting, because I didn't play college sports but like was ate up with football at one point in my life and really wanted to, and I feel like I've always kind of felt that way too. Like hunting was that replacement for me and probably a lot to do with the camaraderie, but there's still like that competitive aspect at least for yourself to be successful. You know, maybe not necessarily against people all the time or anything like that, but more so, just give yourself a, you know, motivation.
Speaker 4:Oh, for sure, I mean at the end of the day hunting is not easy. Waking up at two, three in the morning and going out and running to a hole or making sure that, like everything, it's not, it's not easy whatsoever. So I feel like it's almost like you're competing with yourself just to like almost be better in life in general. Like that's what hunting is for me A lot of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just the people that I mean. You, just you're a product of your environment, right and exactly. And, like we've talked to so many people about, like it's so crazy I can have. We can have people on here for the first time, like you tonight on this podcast, and like three weeks from now, I'd be like dude, I've known him for. Like I'll ask chris and be like how long have we known him? Be like, uh, two months. I'll be like no, it was like a year and a half or two, you know. I mean just, you feel everybody's cut from the same cloth exactly.
Speaker 4:It's so funny because, like I've listened to you guys for a while, I I forgot where exactly I first seen you. It might have been, um, I don't remember exactly when it was. But like I started listening to you guys and like so I listen to podcasts eight hours a day at work. I'm allowed to put one air pod in. So I'm an air like, I'm a podcast junkie to the end, like I love them. So when I first found out about you guys, I remember the first one I might've listened to. Might've been it might've been Donnie.
Speaker 5:Actually, oh sweet yeah.
Speaker 4:And that was a great first one to listen to. But I listened to that first one and then I went back and probably listened to like six or seven other ones within the next two days and I was like these are the kind of people that, like I wouldn't, like I could sit around the campfire and have a beer with, or I could wake up at four in the morning and go hunt with. Like those are the kind of people that, like I, would want to be around for sure.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for supporting me. And speaking of Donnie man, I know you, um, are a Frog Talks guy too. I mean I'm really excited with, uh, you know, to hear what they're doing, see what they're doing. I mean they have been pumping out some outstanding content and, uh, you know, like on that podcast you know, donnie was made a point to say that. You know you see kids walking around wearing shin and sitka and kind of Frog Talks.
Speaker 4:The next mission is to kind of change that to where they're wearing those frog talks hats oh yeah, for sure, and like what, like donnie and I talked and the thing is like frog talks has been a company. For what is it? Almost 30 years now yeah, 90 seconds like yeah, so almost 30 years now.
Speaker 4:They're like. You obviously know you're not going to have a company for 30 years and not make great products. The only thing with that is they're not considered. I guess you could say like the cool brand, like like some of these other ones are sure, and uh, and I think like donnie's mission is to to kind of get frog talks back on the map, but like in the hunting world and like make it um. I guess you could say cool, but I don't know if that's the best word for it.
Speaker 5:But yeah, no, that what it is. It simply is just portrayal of a lifestyle, of a brand you know, and that's what those big ones do such a great job of is. You know you can see yourself in their product doing that with success or whatever it is, and you know that's no different. It really isn't. You know that's no different, it really isn't. And Donnie's going to just make some shit really really seriously change over there and not not hammering what they were doing before. But you know, frog talks obviously recognized that. Look, we need somebody that's current, that knows how to take us to the next level, and they picked the right guy.
Speaker 4:They did. Donnie is awesome. What'd you think?
Speaker 2:about? Did you think about it? Did you see the golf one today, dawson?
Speaker 4:Oh my gosh. Isn't that great. I was like how does someone even do that?
Speaker 2:I know that film guy is insanely good. It's so impressive to watch. I know, man, I know. So I know you got with Talkin' Timber that's your brand right and you got planning on doing a podcast too.
Speaker 4:Yes, you got plan on doing a podcast too. Yes, sir, uh, yeah. So we, uh, we started out with the hats and apparel and we really kind of just wanted to like, get some credibility, get the brain out there a little bit, kind of get the idea of, uh, what's going on.
Speaker 4:And obviously talking timber kind of goes as a pretty good podcast name no doubt um, but yeah, we, uh, that's our goal because, like I get, I actually get a decent chunk of messages every day of people and they're like hey, man, I've never hunted before. Like where do you think I should start out? So my idea is to get people that are like well-known in the hunting industry and the call making industry and things like that and get them on here and like, let them share their backstory Extremely similar to what you guys are doing and just like give a platform to those people and let those younger guys and people that haven't hunted before whether it's a 10 year old, a 15 year old or a 50 year old and they're just like, hey, I don't know where to start. Ok, well, here's where this person started and this is where it's taken them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that's awesome man. And there's so many people too that, like that you would, I mean that are just a plethora of knowledge that you know don't necessarily have the biggest followings or just extremely talented. You know they're not the biggest social media person but, you know, might make incredible duck calls, you know.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and like I went down to our first ever I guess you could say vendor event was the R&T's Call Palooza event this past summer.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:And we were not prepared, like, prepared, like whatsoever. We had no idea what we were doing, anything like that. And uh, I had actually met, uh, nate and aaron through tiktok and uh, they own wingman calls and uh, like they were like extremely great hunter makes some super good calls, and like they were just super willing to help us out. I met a bunch of different call makers and stuff and it's like I look at their tiktok or Instagram, like they just don't have a following, but like they make great products. So, like, if we can give them a chance to to get on there and actually get to like express, like, hey, this is what we do, this is how we did it, this is how I started that kind of thing. So, if it could, uh, I guess, influence somebody not necessarily influence, but like give somebody a path to try to get on, um, to be that kind of way yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely, uh.
Speaker 2:So tell me about this. I know you got like I keep seeing these videos of uh, I guess it's your like man cave hangout spot. It looks freaking awesome dude yeah.
Speaker 4:So, uh, I bought this house just over two years ago, um. So, yeah, I, right before I had turned 21, I bought this. I have a 24 by 56 garage and then it's got a three-quarter sliding wall or three-quarter wall at the sliding barn door and it cuts off like a 24 by 24 space and I wanted that to be like just my shop area, like tools, I ever need to work on anything, pull my side by side in there, that kind of thing and, uh, just keep my boat and my truck on the other end. And my buddy was like no, dawson, we're making this the hangout spot. And I was like, no, the whole thing, man, it's going to be expensive. And he's like, dude, it's going to be worth it. I was like, whatever, so I'd actually broke. You know, I could go out there and clean that up.
Speaker 4:So I went out there because when I bought it, it just had a bunch of random junk in it, and so I went out there and cleaned it out. My buddy was like, oh my gosh, like you actually got started. And I was like you convinced me, let's just do it. So I got another buddy that works in construction. I paid him to come in insulate marketplace. We put all that up and then my buddy and I built a bar and then we went around to antique shops, uh, buying signs and just cool things like that. We put a pool table in there we actually had. We played poker out there quite a bit. We haven't lately, but when we, when I first bought it, that was kind of like the poker room we all, we all go out there and play texas, hold them on nights for some odd reason.
Speaker 4:Oh that's awesome. There was an old fireball there to put a fire plate like a wood stove. They took the wood stove out so we got one from my old house put it in and we were all actually sitting out there playing poker one night. So my buddy put a piece of barn tin right there where the flue goes into the firewall and the pallet wood had went behind the tin that he put up and he forgot about it and it got so hot it actually actually caught it on fire.
Speaker 2:Oh my.
Speaker 4:We was out there playing poker one night and we all jumped up, ran out, grabbed the garden hose, we sprayed water on there for like an hour straight and I was like, yep, not doing this ever again. So my other buddy that helped me do all this stuff he actually works for an HVAC company and uh, he was like man. He's like, uh, there's these people that there'll be like one little thing wrong with the unit and they want a whole new unit. And then we just scrapped the unit. He's like my boss said that we could find a unit like that. You might have to put like 500 bucks to a thousand bucks into it, but then we could put heat and air out here. I was like, oh, my gosh, that's perfect.
Speaker 4:So he found a unit. I think I spent like five or six hundred dollars total between the wire to run it and uh, I forgot what piece it was exactly something with the blower motor in there and uh, we put that in there. I was like, oh, now that we got heat and air, like we, let's put a projector in here, we can watch football. So then we put a projector in there, we can watch football. So then we put a projector in there, put some new couches in there and we watch football out there. We have a few beers out there. We used to play pool but I bought a cheap pool table and ended up getting broke and but yeah, it's a. We clean all our ducks out there. It's a. It's pretty fun little spot.
Speaker 2:Dude, it sounds like you got it going on back there. It gets wild yeah going on back there it gets wild. Yeah, that's awesome man. I I love playing texas hold'em, and especially like after after a good you know day of duck hunting. If you got a good career career together and sit down play some cars, it's a blast oh, it's hard to beat, for sure yep, yep. So are you, uh, are you guiding still this year, or what do you got going on this year for duck season?
Speaker 4:so um, I plan on traveling a little bit this year. Um, I'm gonna tell the people that I do guide, for, like, hey, I'm gonna guy, I'll guy when I'm available. But I do want to kind of get out there and uh, meet a lot of different people because I mean, I, this tiktok stuff is absolutely it's. It's kind of swept me away because, like, I never, like I never imagined it would even be this far. And I get messages from people all the time hey, man, if you want to come up here, huh, you want to come here, huh, you want to come here and hunt. And I'm just like I don't, I don't say no to people like almost ever. So I'm like, oh, dude, let's make it work, like, let's make it work, and uh. So I plan on traveling a bunch this year. Um, but I'm gonna guide one when I can, like, if we don't have a hunt, if I don't have a hunt lined up, or I'm just completely out of money and can't afford to travel somewhere to hunt.
Speaker 2:You're right.
Speaker 4:I'll stay around home but I'll hunt with my buddies more this year because the past two years with me guiding I wasn't able to hunt with my buddies. That don't guide a whole lot. So I want to get back into getting to hunt with them. I mean, I have nothing wrong or against guiding, but it does almost kind of turn into a job. No doubt guiding, but like it does almost kind of turn into a job and uh, and I kind of want to get out, give out, get back out there and uh, just experience getting to hunt in general and not worry about making sure everybody's super safe and and that kind of thing, like just kind of relax a little bit.
Speaker 2:I guess you could say yeah, no doubt I think about that a lot. Just, uh, one of our good friends that owns delta thunder outfitters, um out in Cache, arkansas. Um, just seeing his day-to-day I mean, you know he's, he does oftentimes he'll do teal early um spec season, uh, duck season 60 days and then, um, snow goose and it's just, I mean it's constant, I mean, and just I'm always like we're out there and we're like, you know, trying to film a video and have a good time and uh, but he, he's still running a business. You know what I mean. So it's, you can tell it wears on him as much as he tries to be, um, and I mean obviously he loves it, that's why he does it. But, um, I think that's a important aspect to bring up to anybody that's wanting to be a guide. Is you better really love it, because it's a, it's a grind oh for sure.
Speaker 4:And like, and uh, last year I guess, like a couple of my videos that didn't go kind of big um, were just me talking about guiding, like, hey, this is what happened today while I was doing this and uh, I had a bunch of people messaging me hey, how'd you get into it? How'd you get into it? How'd you get into it? And like, I thought about making a video recently, but it's not really relevant at the moment.
Speaker 4:Um, but like guiding which, like I said, I don't think I'm the most qualified hunter I guess you can say to guide right but uh, like it's not, it's not all rainbows and sunshine.
Speaker 4:Um, there's days where it sucks, where it's slow, and you have to make sure that your clients are entertained. I mean, you're you're responsible for, I mean however many people are in your pit, or you're blind like you. You're you're responsible for, I mean however many people are in your pit, or you're blind like you. You're responsible for them. And I'm not trying to shy anybody away from it. I absolutely love it. But uh, just make like it's it's not all. It's not all. Uh, sunshine and rainbows, that's for sure yeah, no, I'd imagine not.
Speaker 2:Um, looking back on it, like, is there any hunts with, with clients in particular? That was just like man, that was like you guys have no idea how awesome this hunt was.
Speaker 4:So I had three kids from Kentucky. They had hunted all season. I think two of them were 19 and one was 18. They were, I think, three hours away or so.
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Speaker 4:Making the forgotten coast unforgettable and uh, so I, I have this one hole that at the club that we hunt. And uh, if it's raining like I, I want to hunt that hole. It's a little flooded corn hole. It's on the far east side of the property and most of our ducks are are roosted south of us or on the far west side. And uh, but for some reason when it rains, that hole is. It's really good. And uh, they, they've been hunting all season down there publicly and they try one duck the whole year. I was like I don't know how you guys are doing it. I was like there's been some birds on here. I was like normally when it rains we have a pretty good day. I didn't bring my gun because my hand was broke, but I think we ended up shooting I don't know, eight or nine mallards or something like that.
Speaker 4:It was close to what their limit would have been, but it was all like it wasn't us shooting birds, like taking them three top high or anything like that, it was all ducks that just finished right in their face. The one guy got to shoot his first ever duck it was a Drake Mallard and he was super stoked and then, like the other guys, got to almost get their mallard limit and they're like dude, like this is, this is cool. And I was like I was like yeah, it's, uh, it's awesome man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'm sure that. I'm sure that would be. I'm sure it'd be great for them. You know, after grinding all season long and getting to experience something like that, yeah, it wasn't the greatest.
Speaker 4:The greatest time it was just like we weren't sitting there trying to scratch, scratch birds off and shoot them where it wasn't really a very good shot on them, it was just all birds. I mean and don't get me wrong, that's. Another thing with guiding too is like you're going to be taking people that have never really hunted much or it's their first time, and them operating a gun. Their shot's not the best either. So you have to understand you might have 20 or 20 birds back slapping of the decoys, but you might you might not take more, I don't know more than two or three ducks. Right, I've I got a funny story about that too. Actually, if you don't mind, yeah, go ahead. Um, so we were hunting this other hole on the west side of the property. This is my first year guiding and we hunted the first day. We hunted on the actual strip cut and uh, I forgot how many bucks we shot. We just got a couple and uh, they, they shot one. I was like halfway across the strip cut, it was just it was swinging real low on the outside of the decoys and I was like, hey, I like try it if he feels comfortable. And uh, this guy knocked it down. I was like that's a crazy shot. I was like these guys can shoot. So I took him the next day and I don't know.
Speaker 4:We ended up shooting eight or ten ducks total. But we had, uh, we were, I was watching the single, uh, mallard. He was circling us, I'm kind of working and this and that, and, uh, I happened to peek out the front of the blind and there was, I kid you not, there was 20 spoonies back flapping over the decoys and I didn't have my gun, and all of them there was four of them and one of me. I didn't have my gun. So 12 shots came up and, uh, no, birds were on the water. Oh no, I was like guys, come on like oh man, well, we've all, I think.
Speaker 5:I think that if you're a duck hunter, that is not honest.
Speaker 5:You, you, I mean everybody has had that like dude, I can't, I'm not gonna go down those roads, but I mean we've had some where you just look at your friend or your son or your whoever you're with, and I mean even even Cade's done it. You know we are, you know the guys that said. He's been smoking them for years, you know, and I've seen him make incredible shots and you know all you can do is laugh at yourself Really. I mean it's just it can do, is laugh at yourself really. I mean it's just it can be comic quotes at times we, oh my bad, go ahead I was just gonna say there was a funny story from a few years back.
Speaker 2:My uh, I think my dad and kade and everybody were hunting out there delta thunder. They dropped uh, me and my buddy austin off at the uh pit blind and you know they had to go back and get everybody else or whatever, and it's probably like you know you can't go real fast, you're driving through water and all that so probably takes you know 15 minutes to go, you know, from the pit blind back, get people and then come back.
Speaker 5:Well, they, they get, oh no, going there and back, you're easily half an hour, okay, whatever, half, whatever, half hour, it's a good way. It's his point.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So anyway, they take off or whatever and kind of get out of sight. And there was this group or this field like over to. That was just, it wasn't planted with anything, it's all just grown up, you know, and ducks were probably just eating whatever they want in there and then obviously using it for cover and all that. And this group of teal got up and uh, I called adam and I I mean it. They basically like this was happening at this field, like so as people can back me on saying it was two or three hundred teal, because this is just like what what was happening, like all the time and uh dude, it looked like a small swarm
Speaker 5:from my from my point of view, just so you know I go. Oh my, like that was. It's one of those oh my God moments.
Speaker 2:They all came in dude, and we didn't drop a single duck. And uh, my dad called me. He's like, did you guys like get them? And I'm like, well, we didn't kill a single duck.
Speaker 5:Oh, my God, dude, and and I mean they lit the decoys hard, dude, I don't know but you know sometimes, when you're in that situation, it's just so damn chaotic. When you have a scenario like that, it's just like oh my god, there's no way I can't. You know, hip, shoot yeah at these suckers and spray you're gonna spray 20. Yeah, you know you're like man. I hope we don't go over our limit, right I mean, that's what kind of, that's how dense that pile was that. I was just sitting there from Spray 20.
Speaker 1:You're like man, I hope we don't go over our limit.
Speaker 5:I mean that's how dense that pile was. I was just sitting there from probably about I don't know 300, 400 yards away when I saw him. I could hear Tristan, he's just ripping on that call. And next thing I saw him turn. I was like holy shit, they're going to light the decoys. And it was fun just watching it from, because you know you, when you have that kind of thing and you're in the blind or in the pit or whatever you're in, I mean imagine if you could always be standing outside of it, like I was, and be able to observe. It was a neat perspective, you know, watching somebody hunt, um, and not them, not drop a bird but it's a group of like two to 300.
Speaker 4:I've never had anything like that, but I could just imagine me being so overwhelmed I'd almost forget to like pick my gun up, like all right, kill him, and my gun would be sitting right next to me. That's got to be insanely overwhelming.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, I mean honestly, and yes, I am doing this to plug Cade's business, but if there's two species that is like the staple, if we do this we're going to really rock their ass, and that is if there's big piles of green-winged teal like that which there usually is consistently. I mean you can go watch our twisted teal video. I mean we had several chances last year us and other Cade's groups that incredible hunts. It makes all the other ducks go. Yeah, we'll do it too.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, you know, we we always have. We have this little saying in my friend group that teal save the dead.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 4:That's our little saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, and you just need like one group, like I mean, honestly, it could be like you're only shooting one or two ducks or whatever, it's nine, 30. And then you just get that one group to come in, you know, and then 20, 30 of them come in and you drop a few and you're like all, right, now, that was a pretty good hunt yeah, every time well, you know, when you're in something like that and I'm I'm going to get on the small tangent about that, you know, and again, just give create a cade.
Speaker 5:Uh, credit is, you know, the area is that obviously is, is is very um, um, it's, it's legendary for waterfowl traffic, you know, and it's not uncommon for us to see groups of like that with teal. I mean, it's really isn't, you might just see it on a hunt. And the other thing that is is, I mean, like they're making that whole uh, rule change with the pintails. Places where you're hunting, illinois, where you can rock pintails, there's places in Indiana where you can rock pintails. There's a lot of places that people hunt that say I never see a pintail. I understand that because it's so situational, right, but over there, dude, it's not uncommon to see I'm not lying over the course of a hunt. One hunt, you might see five, six thousand pintails, you know, and, and it's beautiful, is what it is, it's so cool. So, point being is that you know you can go a lot of places to go hunt, right, you can go a mile away from there if you want to, but you might not see the same thing.
Speaker 3:Oh, for sure.
Speaker 5:It's crazy. It's a really cool experience. Now I'm getting freaking fired up about duck season. Man, come on, let's go Now. I'm getting freaking fired up about duck season, man.
Speaker 4:Come on, I'm so angie. It's sickening.
Speaker 5:I want to go shoot some of those blue rockets. I went and scouted oh go ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh, go ahead. I was about to ask about it. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4:We went and scouted last weekend and I don't know. We saw probably 200 or 300 teal at this one spot that we normally try to go to, and and the adrenaline rush when we saw the first birds, like oh, there's ducks, oh, those are wood ducks. And then we noticed like oh wow, those are all teal. And yeah, it's got me pretty excited.
Speaker 2:When does y'all's season come in?
Speaker 4:September 6th for teal.
Speaker 2:Sweet, and is it nine days too?
Speaker 4:I believe so.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was just sitting there. I was talking to tristan the other night and, um, I've got a lot of local ducks out here off our lake and everything like that, but they fly off every year and they come back. I don't know where the hell they go, but I do get like random birds that come in here all the time like I might look.
Speaker 5:I had a redhead out there one day and I'm like what in the hell? But I've seen probably six, seven species out there and just last night, when the sun was going down, all the ducks and I'm getting a ton of geese right now. I guess they're just starting to pile up for early. I guess they're trying to start avoiding the hunting areas yeah, unfortunately we can't hunt any of these birds.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, we can't it's not uncommon.
Speaker 5:At night, like during the next month, I might see in waves 40 to 100, a hundred birds just come in, wave after wave, and now I get to see them launch out in the morning it's. It's a cool place to be, honestly, to see this stuff and um, but last night I was sitting there and I see all of them all they're all getting in a big pile out in the lake. All the ducks and geese are. And then I see these three come flying in. I, I see these three come flying in. I'm like dude, those just caught off the corner of my eye. I was like man, those look a little faster, you know, than the normal ducks. And they land and they're out here and I'm like, oh baby, come on, let's go, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:In Illinois, dawson, what's your take on or how do you feel like the public land opportunities are out there? I'm just like curious of you know. So are there like do you get it's blind draws a lot right?
Speaker 4:so it it depends on which area. So most of the areas I hunt there's freelance holes and then there's draws. Uh, for all the holes I don't, I don't really hunt, so I get, I know, up in the alton area, uh, there is the blind draws. I've never, I've never, had to deal with any of that. Okay, but most of the holes that we've all hunted the past few years, uh, we're just walking freelance holes. It was just a matter of who got their first kind of deal.
Speaker 4:Um, and we've never really had too big of an issue with running into other people or anything like that. Um, because we never really had a boat to hunt out of. And then, uh, my buddy, he's got a boat, but it wasn't like we weren't beating anybody to the hole. It was just a little 16 footer with a nine nine on the back and they had a blind on it. With the blind decoys and a couple of people, you're going about seven miles an hour. So we never had to, I mean, necessarily compete for holes. I feel like where I'm at specifically, there's a pretty, it's a pretty, even, even even draw to try to get to where you're wanting to hunt. Um, obviously, you always need to have plan a, b, c and d kind of thing, just because of the draw system itself. But uh, I don't know, I feel like I I can't really complain about our little, uh, the places that I hunt public at least well, that's nice.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's good to hear that, but I have heard horror stories about like up there and drawing the blinds and stuff like that. I think they might have changed that up a little bit. I'm not 100% sure on that, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, last I heard. I mean it used to be like a multi-year type thing, right.
Speaker 4:I think so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's wild to me. I mean that you could pull a blind for like two or three years or whatever it used to be. I got a couple of buddies that hunt up in like the jacksonville uh beardstown area.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, and uh quincey clusler, yep, yep and uh, they, uh. They always talk about uh drawing their blind and going and getting their blind ready and stuff like that, but I haven't personally dealt with any of them we hunted, um, so we always we still go up and deer hunt like the public land that my dad grew up hunting, up up by Quincy basically.
Speaker 2:And um, we, uh, one time there was a I think it was a lottery opportunity. I can't remember exactly if it was lottery or if it was just like a first come, first serve thing, but we just like randomly, during our uh deer hunting trip, took a little duck hunting trip out there on public land in Illinois, which was kind of cool. We, uh, we didn't there was, we saw a lot of ducks and heard shots, but we didn't have any success. We had like one group of like six, six wood ducks buzzed the hole and I was about it yeah, there's definitely a lot of those days yeah, yeah, well, man, uh, you know we appreciate having you on and, um, you know, tell everybody where they can get in touch with you at.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. I appreciate you guys having me on, so I basically just do Instagram and TikTok. It's just TheDawsonYates, and then our Talking Timber stuff is Talking Timber. I believe that's on both handles. But yeah, we got some cool hats coming in in the next week or so and we got all the podcast stuff in. It's just me trying to be tech savvy and figuring it out. It's the only issue with it not being launched yet.
Speaker 2:Oh, I get it, dude.
Speaker 5:Well, good luck bro.
Speaker 2:And so much so that I'm such an idiot that I just got a different laptop and we got this old, crappy one that we've used for the last two years here. I forgot my new laptop that we've been doing the podcast on. So I'd like scramble real quick before this and set this one up. I'm like if I have to cancel this podcast I'm gonna feel like such an asshole yeah, he literally walks in, he goes where's the crappy computer?
Speaker 4:that's literally my biggest worry already is to get an entire like thing, what I feel like would be recorded, and then an hour later I go and I realize it wasn't recording oh dude like that's. That's already my biggest fear I've had it happen twice.
Speaker 2:Um, but the file corrupted for some reason. Knock on wood, that doesn't happen with this one, but it just I got done and went to like export the audio and it's like, yeah, corrupted file. And I'm just like I just wasted an hour and whatever an hour of somebody's time. I'm like, yeah, that sucks.
Speaker 5:Yep. But no man stay in touch, bro Sure.
Speaker 4:I was going to ask are you guys going to NWTF? I think that's probably the next bigger event.
Speaker 2:What's that like second weekend of February or something like?
Speaker 4:that, yeah, yeah, something like that.
Speaker 2:I'd like to, man, cause it's only like three and a half hours from us and actually Nashville's a pretty good meeting point. It's probably three and a half from you, isn't it?
Speaker 4:yeah, it's exactly three and a half for me yeah, no, I've been wanting to go.
Speaker 2:I mean I I just know, like I know you went to Delta this year and like, um, we've been to Delta in the past and we're at Ducks this year and uh, those are such a blast and just like the camaraderie going out after you know the shows and hanging out with people like I would imagine it, uh, nw2f being in nashville, I mean I'm sure it's a blast oh, it's all.
Speaker 5:It's awesome yeah well, I wonder if I could go there and have some dude like, as soon as I walk on beale street, some dude's like I need volunteers that's not beale street oh, not beale street. What was it?
Speaker 2:uh broadway broadway.
Speaker 5:We were down there and some guys like looking for volunteers. I'm like what he goes, this dude's gonna jump over like five people and I'm like I'm six foot tall, bro, let's go, you know and what are you talking?
Speaker 2:about when we were, when we were in yeah, at ducks, yeah, yeah, but it was on beale street, right?
Speaker 5:yeah, yeah yeah, so anyway, some dudes like doing flips up and down the street and everything. I'm like hell, yeah, I'm gonna be part of this evil knievel guy and dude like no shit. Like I went over there and and then when he has this all lined up, I'm like he's gonna jump over all of us and they had us like standing from left to right, short to tall, and I was the tallest one and they're like all right, everybody bent over. I'm like come on, you know. I mean I thought I was gonna see some freaking Matrix shit or something, but he still dude. He went flying and did like a what's it? A front flip. He did over the top of it and landed it perfect.
Speaker 2:I posted it on my story.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it was pretty crazy. But I mean to his point, you know, it's just, I don't know. You just get out and you enjoy the culture and have a good time wherever those shows are at, and I'd love to be able to make it up to that.
Speaker 4:I also want to go. Does Illinois still have the Illinois Deer and Turkey Classic? I think so.
Speaker 5:I'm not 100% sure to be honest with you.
Speaker 4:They used to run that out of Peoria, I think they already had it. I got a buddy that started his own little company and he got invited to go be a vendor up there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's usually during the summer sometime. That was always a big show when I was younger. I'm curious to see what that's like. But but yeah, no, we're definitely going to be doing our best to get as many shows as we can this this coming year, for sure yeah, for sure I'd be.
Speaker 4:Uh, I'll be looking forward to actually getting to shake hands with you guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man sounds great and yeah, I was keeping touch and uh, yeah, if I, hopefully we'll run into each other at the show. But yeah, if you have any questions about you know how to not screw up a podcast. I'll try to I can try to help you from a personal experience.
Speaker 5:Yeah, is this number one 50?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you're a 150th podcast.
Speaker 5:Yeah, man, Big milestone. Big milestone for us and you to be be a part of that it's either 150 or 151 either way, I appreciate it a ton yeah man.
Speaker 2:Well man, thank you again. And everyone check out talking timber and uh dawson on tiktok, he's a, he's a funny follow dude, you are all right I appreciate you guys.