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
Canada, Honkers, and A Waterfowl Addiction - Cal Mccarty
We sit down with our friend, Cal Mccarty to recap his recent Canada duck / goose hunting trip, talk about the ins and outs of hunting honkers in Illinois, and much more:
• teal migration highs and lows across states
• why northern Illinois stacks Canada geese
• freelancing vs booking outfitters in Saskatchewan
• border tips, currency, licenses, and zones
• daily setup flow, permissions, scouting cadence
• working with conservation officers and staying safe
• beginner goose kit: layouts, decoys, boots, layers
• hide discipline, sun and wind plays, movement control
• fixing mid-hunt problems and reading bird behavior
• filming hunts: mirrorless cameras, lenses, slow-mo
• plans for Arkansas opener, Kansas, first snow pushes
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What's going on, guys? Hey, Tristan and Tony back with the One Hell of a Life Outdoor Podcast. How's everybody doing? Deer hunting seasons, cruising. Um, we got elk uh pitchers coming in all over the place and bugles, and and uh man, it's a good time of the year, right? We'd love to be doing that, sure. Oh man, right? And uh of course we haven't seen what people did during teal season. Y'all wax their ass in the south, and it's pretty good. Actually, I just saw a stat from um um um what's the one that flies there in Illinois? Um Forbes.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they said they it's 112% up for blue wing teal right now on the on the Illinois-Missippi River.
SPEAKER_07:Which Illinois season's out, so must have made it real late.
SPEAKER_04:Well, what I'll get into it later, but bad news the rest of the way. Like way bad news.
SPEAKER_06:So anyway, we'll talk more. The they shortened our teal season uh by a whole week this year, this this season because I didn't I read about it. If the teal count, the flyover is like under 4,500 at a certain point. They they waxed a complete week this season. So we had we literally had we had so we had six days to shoot teal. Yeah, and that's and you know how that went. I sat up there twice in the one teal.
SPEAKER_07:Oh no, dude.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it was it was they were they were not around, man. So it's good to know they're here now.
SPEAKER_07:But yeah, well, you know, I think um like you always hear like the pockets, and of course on social media you're gonna see like you know, people that smoke them more so than not. But um, I like our buddies in Arkansas really weren't really getting into them and they had opportunities to hunt. Um, so I I just struck me as kind of weird, and I don't really know that people like in Florida in particular. I mean, of course I didn't see any big posts. No, and of course, like you know, your Texas, Louisiana, those kind of places are always gonna smoke them. But yeah, yeah, maybe they just moved late.
SPEAKER_04:Well, hey guys, you know, uh without further ado, you know, uh, we got Cal McCarty on here tonight. Cal's a good friend of ours, and and uh uh let me just break it down for you. I mean, Cal, you can go more into it if you want to, but you know, Cal's a very respected individual across the country and disaster recovery management and uh a big mentor to me on that professional side and uh on the on the fun side, he's a a goose smasher. He he he guides for uh new outdoors. Um I I don't know, maybe we have to show some of those pictures of the piles that these guys put up. But uh, but man, uh addicted waterfowler and great man. And uh, dude, we're so excited to talk to you about uh smashing not only Canada geese, but whatever the hell you guys can get your hands on up there in northern Illinois.
SPEAKER_07:Not only that, but this is the second time on the podcast.
SPEAKER_04:That's right. That's right.
SPEAKER_07:I'm glad the first one didn't crash you guys, man.
SPEAKER_04:I'm happy to be back on no, but man, we know, listen, honker, honker, honker time. And uh everybody's getting ready for it, and man, that's one of the main reasons why we wanted to get with Cal tonight because honestly, I don't know anybody that that is more addicted to hunting them, and it really puts a puts a waxing on their ass. So um, but Cal, man, introduce yourself and uh and just take off.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, no, it's great to be back on with you guys for sure. Yeah, um, like you said, Cal McCarty. Uh I live in pretty much northern Illinois, kind of uh southwest side of Chicago, not to associate with that city, but uh a really good area, you know, pretty much kind of I think the honker meca nowadays. I mean, no disrespect to where a lot of people kill a lot of honkers, but I don't think there's a better place to haunt them from opening day, which is coming up this weekend, uh, through January 31st. I mean, we have uh three or four river systems through here. We have four or five big power lakes that that hold them really tight for us before they really head south. Uh, and if we don't get a big core vortex, they they stay here all year. They get really smart, but we get we get big numbers of candy geese here. So yeah, man, really excited. Deal Saturday is the opener. And today, man, we had awesome, man. We had a 15-degree drop in the weather, overcast, good winds today. I was like, ooh, man, that makes a makes it boring asleep for four or five days to a sign.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, yep, yep. It's like it's like like your dog always ready to go, man. You're you're sitting there just going, let me add him, let me add him.
SPEAKER_06:Walked outside this morning. I was like, Oh, I smells like freaking landing hawkers and ducks for sure, man. It was dark and cold and windy, and I was like, Oh man, it's time, it's time, baby.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, but but man, uh, so you know what? Uh, you just got back from Canada, bro. Yeah, and you guys put a beaten on them. Talk about that trip up there because you know what? I think everybody that's an avid waterfowler, it's a bucket list thing, right? You gotta get up to Canada somewhere, and man, uh, and see one of my close friends just go up there and have the time of his life. Uh, I I just want you to share that with everybody, dude. Talk about that experience.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it was our first time up as far west as we went. So we were in like really the southwest corner of Saskatchewan. Um, we stayed in a place called Simi, Saskatchewan, which even coming back across the borders, the Canadian DNR didn't even know like where were you guys at? Like, this is where it was on the map. Um, so we were like southwest Saskatchewan. We're about an hour and 18 minutes from the Alberta border, which was uh which is cool, and about an hour and 15 minutes north of the uh uh I think there it's it'd be the Wyoming border. Um so so we were we were really down in that that that lower corner, but uh what a what a trip, man. We were able to do some freelancing as well as work with an outfitter that we have a good relationship with that bought the licenses in that area. So never before was I able to really I used freelancing loosely because he helped us get a lot of the permission that we were seeking up there, so it wasn't too much uh you know on X or anything like that. It was you know, we we found some hunts and we're able to help use him to help us get the things.
SPEAKER_04:Well, that speaks strongly to you guys' character. I mean, to be able to network like that, I think.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, but that's the way it is these days, right? We all know that. I mean, around here, and we'll talk about it for opening day this Saturday. A lot of our crops aren't out, and we're out looking finding feeds and trying to build new relationships with permission because we just don't have a lot of the crops out. But uh yeah, it was you know, what it was really a little early from when we were up there. I mean, we had great dubshoots, we had there's a lot of specs around. Uh, we had a good crane hunt, um, and then there was a good amount of of Canada's up there. It's funny because you know, the outfitter up there who's from excuse south central Kansas, hunts lessers, but not greater Canada. He's like, Yeah, there's not many of those around, and I don't really know much about them. And then we day two we found a feed. I'm like, that is enough. Canada's until you know, he's like, Well, you can kill eight of them a piece. I'm like, there's 300 in that field, we can hunt them, we kill them. So he got his permission, and we uh we shot him in about 30 minutes. So he he even went on that hunt, even though he couldn't uh really, because he's an outfit or he couldn't carry a gun. He's like, I'll just film. He's like, uh, I've never been under like just a straight Canada hunt up here. And we we we we showed it to him pretty good. So uh the only thing that wasn't really up there, which broke my heart, was the snows weren't really down yet. Um we we were able to kill a few snows on specs hunt hunts, but we couldn't find uh I gave up a hunt one morning to drive an hour north just to look for a snow goose feed and couldn't find anything more than you know a couple dozen here or there, no big power tornadoes or power feeds with them. But you know, all in all, man, we had everything we wanted to hunt. The duck, the duck hunt was unbelievable. Um, you know, had uh we shot one the one time we used the outfitter was like, I'm done scouting, we'll hunt with you the morning. He's like, good, because we got a cattle pond that needs to be shot like tomorrow morning. He's like these ducks are jumping off of uh the roost hole to get in there to get a good drink, wash the feet off before they go feed. And uh he's like, it's gotta be shot. And he wasn't lying. I mean, from first uh from first it was 21 minutes to uh a six-man duck limit. 21 and we were shooting two at a time, the kind of gentleman hunt little wagers, see who could you know, triple up. We were shooting two at a time and killed them in 21 minutes. I was like, You were joking about that, man. And it was I'll send you guys some footage of uh of that one. It was it was insane. It was really oh my gosh, what all did you guys shoot? Um, not too much of a I mean a lot of pintails, a lot of mallards. Uh killed a couple wiggeon, um, kill some redheads, some teal. Uh, that was pretty much about the mix of it right there.
SPEAKER_04:Was you guys uh don't tell me you shot a redhead on a dry field.
SPEAKER_06:No, it was on a okay. I was like, dude. We we break that mold a few times up here though, because you can't kill wood ducks in dry fields. I'm like, God man, if I had somebody with a lot of money, I'd take a million from them. I was like, we can kill wood ducks in dry fields up here. They won't they won't really decoy per se, but they'll come out and give you a look first light for sure. But uh yeah, a good mix of ducks. I mean, uh, you know, it's just always disheartening because the pintails are just not ready yet, right? So you're killing all those pennies and they're just not turning. We killed a couple that were decent, but you know, one inch sprigs, not full, not not neck up yet. So they were uh the pin tail hunt was great, the mallard hunt was awesome. Um, and then you know, like I said, mixed back with everything else. So it was a duck hunting was on point up there, no doubt about it.
SPEAKER_07:That's killer, man.
SPEAKER_04:That's bad. So what's what's a what's it look like? You know, I mean, obviously there's a lot of travel involved, and whenever you go up to Canada and everything else, but you know, what's it look like from like like a setup in a morning and that kind of thing? Like, kind of walk me through like what's a day look like for y'all, like pick one day and just say, you know, if if you guys uh just help people visualize, you know, like number one, like I think it's important to talk about the relationship that you have with the outfitter. Um, because Tristan and I definitely we've always greatly appreciated Cade and his guides, um, Colin, Grinder, um, Mo's, all any of them, honestly. We it's like helped strengthen the relationship locally. Um it means a lot to us. They're friends of ours. And uh, I mean, like duck hunt aside, they're still our friends, you know what I mean? And and that all started with us paying for a hunt, you know. So, you know, I'm just curious for you to dive into that a little bit about the relationship building, and you know, and then obviously, I mean, I know you were you you were basically making light of the fact that you didn't have to go out there and and door knock as much as as you had to, but maybe that's working smarter versus harder. You know what I mean? So kind of dive into what that looks like.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it was uh you know, going up there and and then from the relationship standpoint, which we talked about on our last podcast and how important it is, you know, whatever you want to do. Um, Matt, this outfitter, bass fishing, actually, tournament fishing is where I met RC. And um, you know, he he was a big Kansas hunter. So met Kansas Mallards, Kansas Lessers, hunted with him a few times there. We did some turkey hunting together, and uh he got he gave us a call last year and said, you know, I'm I'm thinking about buying these licenses in this part of Canada. Would you guys ever come up? I was like, sure, 100%. We couldn't do it last year, so this year we got uh involved with him. He he had kind of a loose schedule, so we went up for eight days and um you know stayed at his lodge, made sure he got his, but also said, if you're getting ready for your next groups, you know, we'd like to freelance a little bit, and um, we were able to, you know, use the day because you're hunting twice a day, but the middays like you either if you stop, you sleep, or you you know, you if you pick out and take a nap, and that's just not the first round of waterfowling, that's not in my blood to go take a nap and get up and go to the next thing. I like to I like to find it and you know make my own way a little bit. So um the the opportunity to freelance with him because the relationship we had was awesome, you know, and then he appreciated it because he was still getting paid for his four-day trip while we were up there for eight and staying in this lodge. And you know, hey, you guys can come up, stay as long as you like, and if you get on anything you want to freelance, I can get my crew ready, clean decoys, whatever it looks like. So, you know, we got up there. Um, we kind of got over the border about 2 a.m., arrived in semi around 9 a.m. And uh you know, we got unloaded, took a little bit of nap because we just did it straight through about 23 hours. Um and then got up and we weren't gonna hunt that afternoon, so we went out and put a pretty good scout on and uh got right to the duck hunt right away. So, you know, it's no different than figuring out you know what we saw, where it was at, and then you know, making sure our permission was was good and we had we had real permission to be. Uh, then knowing the borders of the field, right? Where can we enter at, where can we hunt, um, anything to stay away from, any cattle in the area, talk to the farmer. Uh, so we were able to do all that pre-4 o'clock and have it locked in. Uh, so at that point, it's just kind of getting home, figuring out how you how you want to set it and um and go to work the next morning. So it was uh it was it was really cool. That was a field hunt. So the setup's not much, a couple dozen mallards, you know, up there. The spinners are, you know, your your lucky ducks are everything at that point because they hit them really hard. So it wasn't more than probably a six dozen bird sack because they were hitting that field, and then uh you know, flipping those spinners on made it pretty easy. So it wasn't like uh a huge overhaul of a of a setup, but um, yeah, that's kind of what it looked like day one. And then you get done, you know, you clean your birds and you break up in troughs and go find the next hunt, man. That's that's kind of what it went to. So, but it was nice having that safety valve of uh finding we freelanced the first three hunts, and then that that that third afternoon was like, Hey, you're up today, what do you got? You know, he's like, I gotta that's what he said. I got this hawk hunt, but it's not much. And I'm like, Oh, that's that's plenty of hawkers, man. We can do some I was like, you gotta start thinking about those lesser feeds in in Kansas, man. If you get you get a hundred hawkers working as tight as they were, I mean, we can get those things as long as they don't all come at once, which they don't this time of year.
SPEAKER_07:But uh that's awesome stuff, dude. I bet that was a freaking blast.
SPEAKER_06:It's it's so cleansing, man. It's you don't get the you can't be fortunate enough to be in Canada every year, right? So getting back, what it's it'd been six years since I've been back up. COVID knocked the heck out of that for a while, right? I mean, they've been born to schools for I think three seasons. No, I know two for sure. Two, yeah. Um, and then um, you know, getting back up there was just it was amazing. So it was it was really cool.
SPEAKER_07:So, what would what advice would you give to somebody that's listening to this and they're like, Man, I just want to go hunt Canada, but I know like literally zero about like what it takes to go up there. I mean, would the best route be to try to find like a well um respected like outfitter out there, or is it worth trying to freelance?
SPEAKER_06:I mean, I think if you don't if you have that little knowledge of it, you need to get with an outfitter, right? I mean, talking to him up there, uh, how tight the zones are where they can sell licenses, right? Those guys do a really good job of securing permission, knowing what out what what landowners are good to let you hunt and which ones are looking definitely a no-go. Um, and and the you know, we hunted as far north as the next guy, the next outfitter had licenses on, right? And they respect each other to that at that aspect of it. Oh, cool. So yeah, I would always say if you don't have a lot of experience in Canada or experience waterfowl hunting and getting permission, you should always go after you know an outfitter. When it comes to choosing one, you know, really understand the areas of Canada, what you want to shoot, right? If you're after specs, you know, or big spec hunts or a lot of big snows, you know, you want to be in that western side. You can kill the snow because I think pretty much anywhere. But the the better spec hunt, in my opinion, is that western Saskatchewan, east central Alberta is where the the spec hunt is just amazing. So knowing what you want to go up and shoot, right? If you set up to do whatever, I mean there's a lot of good Manitoba, Ontario areas, the outfitters up there. I think um it's just what you want to shoot. And I would always go with an outfitter several times before you try to freelance up there. Now, North and South Dakota, different story because it's the states, right? But in Canada, I think you need to know what you want to shoot and always go with an outfitter and learn learn the learn what's what up there because it's most of the understanding is just you know when you get to the border, understanding how to have your truck packed and what what to declare. Because if they want if they want to see all your ammo or your guns or whatever it might be, you know, you don't have to un some people pack that stuff first, they gotta unload everything, right? Just being quick at the border, not letting that bog you down, and then you know, just understand what licenses you need. Um, you know, shooting times can vary up there. So just understand the loss and everything else different in a different country really is something I'd say pay attention to as well.
SPEAKER_07:Okay, yeah, no, that's really really good advice. What um, I mean, would you say like um outfitter rates up there? I mean, are they kind of like in the ballpark of what you see, you know, down here in your Arkansas of the world, you know, three two fifty to four hundred dollars a day type deal?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I think so generally. Um, there's there's a few up there that'll run you know 600 a day or you know, a little higher. But um I think that it generally, you know, you're not gonna see anything lower than two or two fifty a day, but I think it's very similar rates. I think there's longevity to it too. I think you know, a lot of outfitters up there, if you hunt for four days, it's 400 a day. If you hunt for five or six, it goes down to you know, three, three fifty, they give you a break. So there's there's kind of like the the more days the better. Yeah, that's but for what they offer. I mean, you know, those those full-fledged outfitters up there have a lodge, they scout for you, they clean birds for you, they package them for you. I mean, you can't be too critical when you see 600 a day, even you got a place to sleep, they're providing meals for you. You come back and you know, they clean your birds for you, they package them with a wing on to be ready to go over the border if they're gonna bring birds back. Um, you you can't discount that stuff. You can't just look at it and go 600 a day, that's nuts because of what they do for you. The hospitality is amazing.
SPEAKER_04:Now, I know this might sound like a dumb question, but do you have to pay in Canada currency or can you pay with US dollar?
SPEAKER_06:Well, you can pay in US dollar, but that's where they hammer you. You want to use credit card, right? Because the credit card companies do the conversion for you. So, like an example, if you pay, if you get$35 in gas and give them$50 American, they give you$15 back in Canadian, which is you know roughly 30% of the American dollar. So you always want to once you get over the border, you want to use you want to use your Amex, your MasterCard, because they're they do the conversion rate for you. And um, it's you know, if you're using all American dollars, you're gonna be losing some money for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Well, dude, that's a actually I mean Yeah, no, that is that's a huge thing. I've never thought of it until now, so I'm smart today. But I mean, like really yeah, just today.
SPEAKER_07:Well, but I mean I think that it's like one of those little things, right? I mean, if you look at it from the perspective like of a blue-collar guy, right? Like, and we're just like innocently talking about like what you need to do to go to the city.
SPEAKER_04:How much money you gonna spend overall?
SPEAKER_07:Like a lot of like yeah, you 30%, bro. Yeah, exactly. And a lot of like, you know, blue collar guys just I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody just were like, oh yeah, I'm gonna bring two grand cash or whatever, you know what I mean? Right. But you know, it's a good point to bring up that you you know could be cost spending more money doing it that way. And if you need a new credit card, listen, you can contact one hell of a life for no, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_06:You guys pushing plastic now, right?
SPEAKER_07:That's right. You know, it's funny, like, not to get too sidetracked. I'll give you guys like a 30-second story here. This guy, uh Jeremiah, that is actually coming to the Delta thing with us, he listens to the podcast all the time. He's cool, right? He messaged me the other day because I'm always posting stuff cooking on my Traeger, and uh he was like, you know, yeah, you know, like what do you think about the Traeger? And I'm like, I'm just I had gave him my two cents or whatever, and um I joked with him. I was like, yeah, and you can use code one hell of a life outdoor podcast for 50% off. I'm like, I wish, right? That's right, that's right. Dreams are real. It'd be nice to have a promotion with them, right?
SPEAKER_04:No kidding, man. No kidding, man.
SPEAKER_06:So I gotta I gotta plug in real quick. Are we good to pause one second? Yeah, you're good, man. So I realized that my battery just flashed on my guy, of course, right? Give me one second.
SPEAKER_04:Or we could use this time to video something that we weren't planning on. Uh like have you guys seen the brand new Williamson Outfitter logo? Check it out. We do. Look at this, y'all. You guys need to get down and see Chris and Bryce and those great guys and all.
SPEAKER_07:Trent with the mustache is probably more powerful than mine right now. Oh, it's more powerful than than Burt Reynolds.
SPEAKER_06:You got a fat, you got a fat stash going by.
SPEAKER_07:But you guys want to listen. That's my new hunting season thing. Started that I started that last year. That's my new thing.
SPEAKER_04:Let me let me let me just do a real quick recap of what you get at Williamson Outfitters, right? You can go after gators. You can go uh he probably let you go spear fishing, but you can go and what do you call it? Uh uh flanner gigging. Flounder gigging. You can go duck hunting, you can go inshore fishing, you go out outshore fishing, offshore fishing. Listen, these guys create a one hell of a life experience. Yeah, truly.
SPEAKER_07:And they uh it's incredible. He just posted something they're doing during duck season, they're doing like a cast and blast thing where you can like, you know, I don't know, go fishing in the morning probably. I know those divers a lot of times they're shooting in the afternoon, so it's probably that kind of gig. But I would definitely get on that because that sounds like a good time.
SPEAKER_04:But one highlight, thank you, Chris, for sending us your new logo and new sign. Appreciate your sponsorship.
SPEAKER_06:Sounds like a hell of a time, Chris, for sure. That's right.
SPEAKER_07:Sounds like we might have to go down there with Cal McCarty sometime. That's right.
SPEAKER_04:Cal needs to know what it's like to go down there and hunt in and like literally, like, there's this one spot, and I'll just be real quick with this, that the most mesmerizing thing to me about it was was the landscape. And we're out there hunting buffalo heads, bro, and 360 degrees, you don't see land. Really? There's no land, but then you see people out there like half a mile away from you, like on the sunrise, and like it's only a foot deep. Yeah, just say, and you know, it's just it's the weirdest thing, and uh, I don't know. I just think I love that whenever you can hunt ducks in a completely different environment, dry field, timber, rice field, in the like that's the whole passion behind one hell of a duck season right there. That's right, that's right. But it's it's a great time.
SPEAKER_07:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:So, all right, so let's talk about we got opening weekend coming up here in Illinois. Now, I know that you were telling me a little bit, it's a little tricky because of like the zones and stuff, how they do that in Illinois. Can you talk a little bit about that? Little just so anybody knew it's one hunt up northern Illinois, then you understand that there are zones, right? Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_06:We we have we have a north central and south zone, which are pretty in the thirds of the state, right? But where we where I'm at specifically, will LaSalle County um you get on the Mason Dixon line of north north zone and south zone. So in the seasons are a week apart. So I'm talking we're scaling one field right now that's loaded that we literally had to call one of the council based novels because it's on the south side of what the line looks like on the map. Now, according to you know, I was like, it's a little shaded right there. I think we're good to go Saturday, right? Um and then uh we were told differently. But uh, and then there's this there's one area that makes it real tricky right where I'm at, which is you get your north zone and south zone line, but it's north zone duck and south and central zone goose. So you can make the decision Saturday to go straight out and shoot ducks only. Um and you gotta wait, you gotta wait another week to shoot hawkers there or anything else. So yeah, I'll I'll I'll get you guys and get posted um the map of what it looks like. It's like North Zone, South Zone, and spidered out for like half the county where it's north zone duck and central zone goose. So it gets uh it gets real, especially when you're like now with not a lot of crap sound. It's like the one field we have. I'm like, that looks like it's shaded to me. And then, of course, another one of my buddies like we better call. No, it's north zone. I'm like, I was completely fine with shooting that field, but now you gotta play game warden. Now I don't break them all, so I can't do it.
SPEAKER_07:I I like your uh assumptive close there, uh Cal. With your you know, yeah, I think that looks good to me. It sounds like a salesperson.
SPEAKER_06:It's a coin flip, but there's enough ducks in that field. Let's go, let's go after it.
SPEAKER_07:Hey, hey, game warden, how do we feel about moving forward with uh with this hunt on Saturday? That's the thing.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, Jedi my trick, bro. When you got half the strap full and you see that green chuck rolling through the field, you're like, this was not a good idea. Because you know they're slick to like you guys know what zone you're hunting in? Uh North Zone duck, central zone goose. You're not too sure of that. No, I'm sure. Then you don't know what the right or wrong answer is. So they're on the side of caution.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no doubt. I would just re do a total like put him in his tracks. I'd just be like, Do you like your do you like our governor?
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03:Just let him have it, dude. And just he'd be like, but for sure.
SPEAKER_06:And everybody up here is you know the the you know the federal the federal worker shutdown, which is causing a major problem at the airports because air channel control, right? Everybody around here, you've probably seen the meme was like, does that mean that game warrants are on strike? Right. Like it's gonna be a hell of an opening day now. We don't know all the other game horns are at home.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, people are like, we're gonna shoot the refuge.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they're like state game wardens don't bother me at all, but you know, the fact that those uh national guys aren't involved, yeah, I might risk it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, right, no doubt.
SPEAKER_07:We've talked about on this podcast before, like, you know, and uh from our perspective, I'm sure your perspective too, Cal, like game warden do not get enough credit, biologists don't get enough credit. All these folks that like truly love what they do, that's why they're doing it, they don't get enough credit. But there is some states that just for whatever reason seems like the game wardens are nicer than other states.
SPEAKER_04:The image is the pr the image is different.
SPEAKER_07:Do you feel um like from your experiences with Illinois State Game Wardens up there, do you feel like they've been pretty positive or yeah, I do.
SPEAKER_06:We have great relationships with all the CEOs in our area, right? I mean, from from doing some guiding to being in the the kind of predominant duck club up here, um, we have to kind of work with them, right? They're going to check us at some point, even though they know we're probably every time they're we're 100% you know ticket free when they check us. But I think if anything, it comes down to what I've seen is like the age difference, right? You get your younger guys that are you know finally just out of the the training officer stage and really want to kind of make a mark. They can be a little more stern, or maybe they just you know don't know the things to look for and not look forward. You know, the the the one game board in our county, you know, we know if he's coming, he's he he goes up the blind and down it.
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SPEAKER_06:First way, first way up is paper, second way down is guns. I'm out of your out of your way. Maybe he might spot check a bag real quick, like let me see those shells or whatever. But when on the way to first way he comes out, give me your paperwork. When he comes back down, unload, let me check your guns, I'm out of there. You know, I mean he doesn't take up a lot of time. He'll make sure your birds are separated, which I think is a thing everywhere now, but in Illinois, it's a real thing. Like, you know, you better have your birds strapped and separated out instead of just in the jackpile on the line. But I very fair and respect the hell out of the colour. I mean, it's making it easier for them.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, sure. I mean, think about that, you know. I mean, you're you're walking up to you don't know who they are, and you're walking up to possibly six loaded shotguns, and who knows whatever else somebody's carrying on the field, right? I mean, you you gotta then they're always pretty cool on approach. It's it's and of course they know what they're doing. They're probably launching it for a couple hours before they even approach you, so they know kind of what your temperament is, but uh, what they do, man.
SPEAKER_04:If you don't mind them, yeah. I'm sorry, I'm I was gonna say, if I remember right, I mean of course you have the benefit of looking at it from that angle because you were a police officer, right?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I was actually went to I was double major in law enforcement criminology to be a conservation officer. That's what I really wanted to do. Okay, so um you know, the fact that I never got to do it, you know, I I I respect those guys so much. And look, if you're if you're legal and doing things the right way, how much can they? Really bother you, you know. They might stay a little longer than they want to, but then you want them to. But if you're doing things the right way, respect them, give them what they need, and let them do their job. You know what I mean? They're that's right. We we want them to catch guys that aren't doing it right. We want them to catch guys that are shooting over limits. We want them to catch guys that are trespassing. So be good to them and you know, give them any feedback they want. And just if you're if you're doing things the right way, uh conservation officers should never be an issue, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_04:Well, and and here's one thing that occurred to me the other night. I was watching uh whatever you can't watch a a uh game warden show or conservation officer show on TV anymore without at least having one episode where they're involved in you know somebody passing away, uh an unfortunate outdoor accident, a boat crash, um, somebody drowning, something like that. And let me tell you something I think that we forget about the fact that how much they have our back in those situations. That is an awe-inspiring to me when I see that. I mean, they come together like look, man, we gotta find these folks, you know, and they care about you, your family, your safety. And I know everybody likes like give them shit about a a safety vet or I mean a a um a uh a life jacket or whatever it might be, but you can't mess with safety ever. You can't, and the reason why they take it so serious is just because it's those little things you know that make a difference in sometimes life or death. You know, and and I I and it just hit me different the other day. I thought, man, you know what? These these guys, these folks will always have your back. Yeah, you know, I mean, if you're in a troubled situation, which has happened, I mean, we've been stranded. I mean, it happens, you don't expect it to happen. That's why it's called an accident, right?
SPEAKER_07:Right.
SPEAKER_06:So I mean, even up in the north states, like the guys checking ice fishermen, right, in the middle of the night on on frozen or maybe not so frozen lakes. I mean, that's uh that's that's a hundred percent safety issue, right? That's that takes some they're out there for reasons. So yeah, it's it's funny watching those game boarding shows because there's always something like that. And you we think of we think about a plug and a shotgun or separated birds and everything, but you don't realize what they how much uh they have to look after our waterways, our fields, uh people being safe on them, all the things, you know what I mean. So best to be polite and respectful to them when they check you, and if you're not doing anything wrong, you're good to go, you know.
SPEAKER_03:That's right, that's right.
SPEAKER_06:We've all we've all learned a thing or two by maybe I I don't know why.
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SPEAKER_06:And they they talk to you about it instead of writing for it, right? They that that's when I love to see those actions if they're out there to tell you, hey, next time make sure your case is here within the field because you need to you know you're going near the road where your chuck has gun needs to be cased, you know. And he can pop you for a 75 or 100 ticket for that, and but instead he educates you on why they do it. I think that's that's always good to see that happen, right? For sure.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, no, I think that's a great point, Kyle. So what you got uh looking at uh, you know, the next few weeks, and of course rolling into the south really kind of hits duck season here in the next when I say the south, I'm talking uh Arkansas down through, kind of hits duck season.
SPEAKER_03:The Midwest states, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Duck duck season around the uh 22nd of November. What do you got planned out for the rest of the year so far?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I mean man, first of all, he's gonna be with us at Delta Thunder freaking outfitters for opening weekend. Let's go. Delta Thunder Outfitters.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, yeah, as long as I'm welcome, I will be there. I will be there for sure.
SPEAKER_04:You better be ready, Cade Weatherford.
SPEAKER_06:Let's uh let's let's call him in right now.
SPEAKER_05:He he'd be like, all right.
SPEAKER_06:Just really fortunate around here to have uh good hunting opportunities, right? Especially with the honkers. Um so the next you know few weeks or a month, other than getting out of Arkansas with you guys for the opener, it'll be well, I'll be around here, right? Just uh scouting and and hunting as much as I can. So um not too many, not too many guiding opportunities for me until you know comes come February with a few one-offs um on some uh on some charity hunts. But uh other than that, you know, just uh it's great, man. I just getting the getting the scouts down, getting the getting the pulse on what the birds are doing, and then uh moving in to hopefully have successful hunts, right? And then a lot of time with your bodies too, you know, getting some kids out hunting, and it's always a great time of year, man, for sure. So yeah, man. You know, it might my season looks like a lot of local hunting from here on out. Um, and then you know, hopefully a couple chips with Canada happening. I don't know if I'll be running too hard from a chip standpoint. Um, you know, down hopefully you guys on uh Arkansas opener, maybe down to CRC in Kansas over uh right before Christmas. But other than that, you know, around here until obviously the snow goose chase starts, which is uh is awesome.
SPEAKER_07:So well, I can I can guarantee you one of three things if you come hunt in Arkansas. It's gonna be really good, really bad, or it might be okay.
SPEAKER_06:I think it might just be one of the two, right? It's gonna be really good or really bad for sure.
SPEAKER_07:That's that's uh Cade's I saw that from Cade. Cade said that before. Did he?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, you guys always seem to do good with Kate Weatherford, man. I think he's uh he knows you guys all right down there for sure.
SPEAKER_04:I'll tell you what, man, there ain't nobody better in Northeast Arkansas and knows how to shoot ducks.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, I mean, you talk about somebody that just knows how to shoot kill ducks and will give the best opportunity, you know, give us heart, yeah, to put you on them. It's just a matter of like, you know, I mean, you know how ducks are, and it's like at the end of the day, like, you know, we've been out there opening weekends where we haven't fired a shot, and then we've been out there where the last two years where we've limited out, you know, but or almost limited out or limited out both days, you know. So it's just like we shot enough ducks that we were just like you tickled all the way home. Yeah, I mean, you just never know. And I mean, the cool thing about Arkansas too, well, I mean, really, any uh I guess probably any state that's like a good waterfowl state, like if you're coming from Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, like some of these states that aren't like your you know waterfowl hubs, yeah, you know, like a bad hunt in some of these states, like Arkansas, Kansas, Canada, you know, whatever, um, which is a country, not a state. Uh so some of these places, like a bad hunt, you know, might to them be like you shoot a few ducks, and like to us, it's like, oh, that's pretty good hunt, you know. Absolutely. It's perspective, you know. It is, it is.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, how many hunts did we go on with Tristan early on when we were first went to Arkansas? If we shot a pentail it was made, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:A bull?
SPEAKER_04:Like one, like between the both of us, we just needed one. Yeah, honest to God, and we were running around, and Kate thought we were. I won't use the word, but he thought he thought we were crazy.
SPEAKER_07:I'll never forget. I don't know if you've heard the story, Cal, but good one.
SPEAKER_06:You guys you guys shot a bull pintail and and no hell broke loose. That would happen.
SPEAKER_07:No, no, no. So this was my dad's first mallard.
SPEAKER_04:Uh this was probably my first Arkansas mallard.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, first Arkansas mallard.
SPEAKER_04:My first mallard was me and Tristan, actually, several years back, we stayed at a good buddy of mine's cabin on a doe hunt because we'd have both already shot bucks in northern Illinois, and we went there, and we heard some mallards down in this lake below us, and I happened to bring my shotgun. I went down there and stalked them some bitches, dude, and got me a drink. In the air, in the air, but anyway, great, Tristan.
SPEAKER_07:So, so we're like, I don't even remember. It was like the second year hunting with Caden, long story short, uh, it being kind of slow or whatever, so we went back out for the afternoon, and uh Wasn't it pouring rain or something?
SPEAKER_04:No, no, no.
SPEAKER_07:It was whatever, it wasn't bad, and um he shoots this mallard or whatever, and it's it's crippled, so it's like you know, I don't remember if it sore off or whatever, but he he takes off after this thing. Listen, I didn't even cade What's up, guys? If you want coffee that doesn't suck, you probably can guess what I'm gonna say. Get the duck. Dirty Duck Coffee is the official coffee of the One Hove Life outdoor podcast, and they have a great lineup of different coffee blends, everything from Morning Wood and First Flight to Dark Dynasty and Suns Up, Guns Up. You can't go wrong with Dirty Duck Coffee, and they have a great lineup of cold brew cans, mocha, French vanilla, original cold brew, and cinnamon teal snickerdoodle. If you want 15% off your next order, use code One Hell of Life 15 on your next order.
SPEAKER_04:Like, let me break or anything. Like, I we didn't have a dog with us.
SPEAKER_07:I broke like a dog that broke too earlier. Yeah, it was me and my dad. That's not big shit hit the water, and I was already running after it. It's me and my dad and me, my dad, and Cade, and Kate's just we're just dying laughing and keeps like running through. Yeah, I got a video somewhere. He's like running through like a foot and a half, two feet, and he like I got video of him shooting at this bird, and the bird just keeps going or whatever. And I think ultimately got to the levee that was like probably 250 yards away. Yeah, and you like got up on the levee and ended up shooting it before it got in the other levee. But my my Kate, you hear Kate, he's like, Good shot, Elmer Fud.
SPEAKER_05:But Kate, but Kate's perspective on the story, he's like, dude, I'm watching that son bitch run across that rise field faster than any 50-year-old person I ever seen. And he goes, if he just kept throwing shells into that gun, letting it rip.
SPEAKER_04:And I mean, as I'm running, dude, I'm just like, yeah, boom, boom, boom, boom. I fell like that. Oh, dude, I was chasing that, I was taking 75 yard shots of that son bitch. It didn't matter, but he landed a probably a good 100 yards away. Yeah, and I was not gonna be denied, dude. And uh that sounds like a lot of work for one mile or two. Oh man, but that but the point to to what we were making was excited, yeah. We were perspective, right?
SPEAKER_07:And that might have been a might as well have been at 180 inch tier.
SPEAKER_04:No, I mean, we didn't get both of us. It it should it it really, it was that important at the time, and uh amazing. I mean, you can even see in our first uh in our video where uh Tristan and I had our first little rain out of pentails with Cade in this one video. And in the camera quality is not great. We're using GoPros and phones and everything else, but what you can see when Tristan walks up with that bull sprig is almost hyperventilation. He he's trying the emotion, that's what I love about it. The emotion is so strong that when every time I watch that video, I'm like, man, I remember that. How much how important it meant.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, you know, and it was a great you got him on the wall. I mean, and I think that's like the um the great thing that like Arkansas guides, or not just Arkansas, but any like good hunting area guides that people go to have the opportunity to to really kind of bless people with. That's probably why a lot of them do it. It's just this like I mean, just mind-blowing experience where you get to like hold something that you've thought about hunting for all this time. Like, I mean, it it's I mean, yeah, for real from a you know, perspective where you don't even ever get an opportunity to even hardly see a pentail to seeing them all the time, you know. It it we've walked both sides of the fence and it is really cool.
SPEAKER_04:I'm making a prediction. So if you've been following us a little bit, um our buddy Mario has been so denied of an Arkansas mallard, it's been hilarious, honestly, to this point.
SPEAKER_07:He had to go to Canada shooting mallard, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So it hasn't happened, and it should happen. Like, we've shot limits, and Mario's been there, and that Drake mallard did not happen. Like, not like really any fault of his own. Like, we even tried, like, there's some mallards working, like nobody shoots unless unless Mario, yeah, until Mario shoots, and then they they swerve off, or something like that. So he was like going through the bad luck streak, like it reminds me of like my like trying to shoot a big buck when I was younger. But anyway, what's cool is that you are on a spoony mission.
SPEAKER_06:I thought, yeah, that was a great one. Listen, I wasn't even gonna say it because I don't want to see the comments. But no, dude, I don't want to say I love me a good Hollywood spoon, but I've never shot I've shot two hand spoonies in my life, and I've never killed Drake.
SPEAKER_07:So no kidding.
SPEAKER_06:Well, dude, I haven't, man. I've killed about every waterfowl known to man. I've never killed a Drake spoonie.
SPEAKER_07:So that's the cool thing about like waterfowl hunting, is like depending on where you're at with the country, back to this one hell of a duck season thing. It's like depending on where you at, you you're you can shoot all widgeons, you can shoot all spoonbills, you can shoot all mallards, whatever, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:That's the hard thing about guiding, too, is you know, you get a group that comes in and like, hey, I just want to shoot a bowl pintail, which I think is on the top five for every waterfowl, probably for the wall as a badass, you know, pintail. But you you might have two or three good hunts set up for them that there's just not a lot of pintails around, you know what I mean? Uh and so it's tough to fulfill everybody's thoughts. And I think that the reverse side for a hunter is you know, you you book a trip because I know this from snow goose season. It's like, you know, in the weather just you you're hoping, but the weather just not gonna work out good. It's you got to get in that mindset that I'm gonna go, we're gonna kick out middle day, or we're gonna have a good time regardless. Like that the weather's just not what it should be, but you know, and it may not be the hunt that we want. And you kill 20 and you know, instead of your hundred that everybody wants, let's just make the best of it. You know what I mean? You got if you go there with only success in mind, I'm gonna kill live with a bowl of pintails. Yeah, I think you you take away from the experience, right? That is a hunter, right? You know, because we've all been there when younger, like, well, we're going down to kill, we're going down to kill all my, you know, the whole wall full of mounts, and you end up you know shooting a whole bag of like ugly puddle ducks. So it's like you you gotta you gotta learn over time that you know you gotta take what what the good lord gives you and what the what nature gives you the time and make the best of it. You know, I mean it's I found more fun in the last five or six years of my career, you know, enjoying the blind with you guys and my son, uh, and just the stories that are told. And hey, this valley yields some uh couple banded birds or a couple pretty ones, cool. If not, yeah, and we're still we're still duck hunting with people we want to be around and enjoy. We saw the sun come up this morning. We cooked uh Bisters of Gravy and the Blind. I mean, how much better? Do you do you really need the wall hangers?
SPEAKER_07:You know, I mean it's how much I mean to your point, like you said something about this earlier when you're alluding to what you're talking about with Canada, but like just the stress freeness of being like an Arkansas duck line, it's not just Arkansas, but us, it's like that's Arkansas to us just being out there with Cade. Just like for us, I'm sure Kate is very stressful because having Mardi girls he's got whatever, but for like us, it's just like to your point, like we could go out there at this point and just hang out, and it's so like you just check out, dude. Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, you do too. We're on a pretty rural area here, but it's also urban a little bit too, because like you gotta watch the where things are annexed in them. We have a couple spots that you can hear people cooking on the grill behind it, you know. I mean, it's it's it's right on the subdivision or something like that. And then, like, you get up to Canada, right, where it's all gravel roads, and then I mean, I I don't know if I send you that picture, but one morning we were setting up for that crane hunt, and the I'll send you the picture, but the you can see the field lit up, and the northern lights were just rolling. Yeah, it's like you're setting you're setting decoys, you look up, and there's like a pink food light show going on. It's like I don't give a shit if we kill a bird today or not. You would we're not gonna do that again. Like you know, right? Never sat in the middle of a of a rolled wheat via, you know, when in the morning it's comfortable out, and there's just green lights in this in the you know, it's just unbelievable. It was like uh how much how much more do we need? You know, I mean, I don't care if we shoot a bird today or not. This is something that 90% of hunters will never see. Just sudden decoys of the northern lights just explode.
SPEAKER_07:It was uh did your camera catch that better than your eye, or worse than what like camera catches it way better.
SPEAKER_06:No, that the one I'll send you now, it was amazing to the eye, but when you put the camera on it, it was like, holy cow! Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_07:I was curious about that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, the first morning RC was like when you guys get out to that corner, just put your camera to this guy and take a picture. And it looked like it was just stars and dark. Then you put the camera up and took a picture, you can see the northern lights. But that one morning you could see it to the eye, like very it was amazing, man. I never seemed to like it. It was awesome.
SPEAKER_07:Oh man, yeah. I I want to try like I'm curious how that would look with like I don't even know, like, I'm not like the most technically sound person. Like I joke when it comes to like camera stuff, you know, like self self-taught musicians. That's how I joke that I am with like the camera and the uh editing and stuff. It's like I'm not not very technically sound, but I don't know if that would work on like a on a badass camera or not, but I would love to try it. Oh, I think did you bump your uh mic maybe?
SPEAKER_06:The butter? Yeah, I got you now. Yeah, I think I was trying to send that picture and I jumped on the scene. I'll I'll save it. But uh yeah, and can you imagine like if you if you caught that on your on your your video camera where like the first mallard show up in and there's still like there's pink and green lights in the background? What's the but what is the best camera to get into like you know, if in your opinion, if you're gonna start filming haunts, like what's a what's a good cost-effective camera to get into besides the GoPro, right? Or is the GoPro good enough?
SPEAKER_07:Well, I mean, we've been down the GoPro road, and the thing about them is like if you're just gonna film like you and the guys in the blind, uh that it's great for that because you get 4k and all that stuff, they actually make them up to 8k now, which is like insane because you can't even post videos on YouTube on anything higher than 4k. So, like, but anyway, I mean the problem is that with that kind of like view, the ducks look like little like ants, you know? Yeah, yeah. That's that's the problem. And when I when I uh like in terms of can like good cameras, I mean, really the things that I would look for is um so like our camera, the reason we got it is because it's 4K in um you know video, which was the most important thing. Um it's got slow-mo capability, um, it's got a pretty good battery life, you know, good like sensors.
SPEAKER_04:Several automatic options that are great.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it's got it's got some good stuff, and but essentially what I I think the most important thing you want to look for now is like you don't the biggest thing is mirrorless now. So DSLR uh is like kind of like the old gen of cameras, and they're they rely on light to like get a good pick. Like mirrorless are better, and here I am talking about this like somebody that is not very technically starting. I'm talking about it from the perspective of what you've been through. Mirrorless picks up light a lot easier than DSLR does, and mirrorless is kind of like the new age cameras that everyone's going to. Um, and ultimately, I mean, you can get like a decent camera for probably six to eight hundred bucks for just the camera body. Um, but you know, I mean it just depends on what you're wanting to do. Like for me now, our camera's great, but now I'm wanting to record in slow-mo. And our or no, I'm trying to record 4k in slow-mo. Sorry. Our camera does 1080p in slow-mo, which is great, but it's not like as crispy as I want it to be. And the problem is, is our camera is probably like 1200 for just the body. The next, like, where I want to go if I was to go with the next up with Canon is probably about a$4,000 price jump. So we're looking at four or five thousand dollar camera now, so it's kind of just we're not even talking lenses yet.
SPEAKER_04:No, lenses just lenses. I mean, I my dumb overview of it in a nutshell is that you can have a decent camera, but you need a badass lens. Yeah, and in a nutshell, like if you're trying to make the difference like budget-wise or something like that, you're probably gonna go with uh uh a lower price body camera, but the lens is really where it's at.
SPEAKER_06:Well, and the same thing with a rifle, right? You can have a shitty rifle, but if you got a good scope, you're business. If you got a great rifle with a bad scope, good luck, right?
SPEAKER_04:Well, unless you like our buddy Drew, he it doesn't matter if you give him a rifle or a scope, he sucks. Uh I just wanted I've been wanting to throw some shade at him for a minute.
SPEAKER_07:So now and um also uh shit. Now I forgot what I was gonna say about the cameras.
SPEAKER_06:Because it gets addicted, like you start the film with your iPhone, and you're like, oh, I got a really good shot. And you're like, man, we can't we have a lot of cameras.
SPEAKER_07:And these phones are getting so damn good. Oh, yeah. The other the other couple things I was gonna say. So uh apparently they have cameras now, which I didn't even know this until recently, that when you're recording slow motion, we'll also record the audio. I never like I just Oh, it'll record it in slow mo? Yeah, I didn't know that was a thing, so it'll record the audio, which is the audio is like no, I think it will has the option if I'm understanding right to hear it how it is. I'm sure it does, which is which is really cool because I like to do a lot of like I'll record something in like slow motion, and then I'll call I think it's called like speed ramping or whatever, and I'll like play with that and speed it up and make it look fast for a second and slow it back down because you have all those frames to work with. Yeah, um, but that's really cool for like the the audio side of that, and also depending on the camera, like I think somebody was just telling me the other day that Sony has the best low light technology. Yeah, so now we're like we've always been canon guys, but now I'm starting to question well shit, do we need to go Sony next time?
SPEAKER_04:Right, or is it a marketing thing? You know, I mean, whatever, but I think at the end of the day, it comes down to like re being a true, like the better, like like we've had some incredible folks on here that I know for a few Tristan. I know way more than I do, yeah, on cameras and stuff like that. And I mean, when you're a true like student of it, you like I would consider us that good with bows, right? When we go to shoot, we go to buy a bow, we know what we want, we know what fits us, we know the technology we're looking for, we know all those things that say, well, that bow's three thousand dollars or a thousand dollars, that's what I'm looking for.
SPEAKER_07:Well, and that's why I prefaced all of this with saying I'm like I'm like the dude that taught self-taught guitar but can't read music. That's my right on, fair. That's my camera and editing understanding.
SPEAKER_06:Hey, the top five greatest guitar players of all time can't read a lick of music, brother, so you keep asking it. Jimmy Jimmy, Jimi Hendrix didn't know how to read music, and that's how bitch could play, so you keep going. That's it. I've seen somebody work, man. It's amazing, man. It really is. I mean, that's what kind of started. It was like trying to get some stuff on video in Canada to like send to you and have you work, and it's like you start to get addicted to the better shots, right? And then you start to get away from the gun. I I'd rather get a really good video than actually pull the trigger. You know what I mean? It's like I see we did a hunt with uh like Alti and Hunter Grounds last year when they came up to the club. And Hunter never Hunter didn't put his Nike on camera down, right? Here's the the in my opinion, the greatest single goose caller ever to walk the base of the start track's father, who's the godfather of it all, and he didn't pick up his finelli wands. He was just taking shots and bidding up right. And I was like, there's gotta be something to that with Hunter Grounds, doesn't he squeeze in the shaker or use his call, which you're like, dude? Pick that goddamn call up, right? Um chop that camera and start and pick that super bag up and get some of these things closed. So but yeah, then you know, trying to trying to get a little more. I was just curious what the best one was. Just uh you just want to, you know, the pile pictures are good and pictures with your buddies afterwards, but it's like there's ways to commemorate the haunt better. So it is video, right? But then you gotta worry about branches being in the way. You I'll send you some of my uh some of my better shots to my rotten videos from candy. You're gonna be like, oh, this guy's got a lot. I mean, I had I had the shells flying in the camera, it was like that was no good. That was no good. So it's tough. Oh, to the camera, man, right? It is tough to follow the birds in and pick up the shot call and then see them drop, right? I mean, it's it is a tough deal, man. It's really tough.
SPEAKER_04:Well, and people that film in the timber, dude, is like the utmost respect because the focus focused. Oh my god, you cannot use autofocus.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, on an A-frame, there's one goddamn piece of grass every time that I visited. Yeah, there's there's four birds cupped in and all of a sudden ride it and kill them. I'm like, God damn it, right?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, dude. No, it's it's like uh, and I I'm such a hard critic on myself too, because like there's stuff like, for example, like this last video we just did on One Hell of a Duck season, like like there's a lot of great stuff in that, but from that day of filming, wasn't in my opinion of filming birds of what I know I can do was 110% not my best work. It was just there's stuff that was shaky, blurry when it shouldn't have been blurry. So I'm looking at it like shit, this fucking sucks. And people are like, oh man, this is awesome. I'm like, I don't know, man, if it's awesome, but I'll tell you.
SPEAKER_04:Well, that's a good place to be always, I guess. Right?
SPEAKER_07:If you hold your standard higher than the uh the people around you, it's so hard too because you're like holding this camera and you're trying to call your control your breath, and like you know, you got this lens that shoots way out, but like the further you get out, the harder it is to stabilize that shot, and it's just it's an ordeal.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and then most with my crew in Canada, right? Where you know, what do you do in film and pick up the gun? It's like you finally get a good shot, and then you've got to play music over it because of the X-rated language, right? Like, it was a great video, but we're never gonna be able to show it to anybody without music over it because all it was exploded. Right. So it's like this time I'm gonna film, and nobody's trying to say the F. We're at five seconds after the ballot. Just try to hold it in.
SPEAKER_07:I know, dude. That's yeah, we've been guilty about about that one once or twice. Uh I will say. Yep, yep, yep.
SPEAKER_04:No, man. Um, but you know, here's one of the big things that I want somebody to get out of this tonight is that there's a lot of people out there, and I would say there's a vast majority of people out there that me included, Tristan included. Um let's say you're you're you're a guy or a gal, and you're just like, Man, I want to go try to hunt some honkers, man. I would go hunt some of these Canada geese. Like, what would you give is like your top three or five tips to like, I just want to get into it and and and and do the basics of like what I need. Um from I'm talking about from a gear perspective. Like, what are you looking for?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I mean, I think you gotta be real, real versus on I, right? You got I think if you're gonna kill honkers at least something really anywhere, you gotta be okay with haunting in a layout line and being able to shoot in from shooting from a lay down position, right? Because you you can get them early with A-frames, but when they get smart or you know, you don't have the greatest edge hide. Because look, they don't love hunting, they don't love working at edge of the field. You know, early on you can get it snow, they're working edge, but once they get shot at from an edge, they're gonna use the center of the field. So I you know, having a good layout blind and learning how to shoot from a and call, because everybody calls sitting up with a t-shirt on in their house. When you have a winter jacket on and a face mask and you're laying on your back, that call sounds a whole lot different. So does your air, right? You can't get as much air up to it. So I think you you gotta be able to be versatile from a hide, you know, get your A-frame or get your layout line if you're fortunate enough, because those are expensive tools, right? I mean, I think I would always start, um, I would say get yourself a good A uh good layout line that you're comfortable shooting in, uh, that's comfortable. Um, you know, and then you know, I don't think you can go decoys all day, right? I think you need if you're starting out, I think now with the level of silhouettes that are out there, which I do not I'm not a huge of. I think you know, I don't see them, I don't see birds laying into them a lot, they'll work on them, but and they cast a lot of shadows. But you can get now you can go with a couple dozen full bodies and three or four dozen silhouettes for a pretty cost effective spread, right? So making sure you have a good mix of those, um I think that's your start, right? And then it comes down to how you clothe yourself because good honker hunts after the first couple weeks of the season and happen in really inclement weather, right? So you need to be waterproof. I always said the first thing you should buy is your best. comfortable good pair of knee high rubber boots that you can find, right? Because your feet carry you, the your legs power the both. So you gotta you gotta have a good pair of uh a good pair of boots and and good clothes. So make sure you're comfortable you're dry and then you know get yourself a layout blind you're comfortable in and then whatever you can do from a decoy standpoint and then it's all learning from there, right? I think you just you go out and um a lot of people think oh candy geese are all I thought it's all the hundred I'm gonna stand in the field how hard can it be you know it's really hard it's really hard they're not easily fooled um so I I would really start there and then you work your you work your way up then it bites you right then you go from a a 600 addiction to a six thousand dollar addiction failure and the whole goddamn thing so um and then just putting understanding you know your setups and and all that stuff like it people just think you can go through a I mean I've man I I I try to take a picture when I see it but you you see people out there with an A frame and it's not even brushed. They're sitting in the middle of a field and they're like you know what she look like a box with six heads sticking out of it yeah and so you outside of gear the first thing you need to know is you know is is how to play the wind what conditions are good and and how to hide I mean that's less we've all listened to a thousand waterfall podcasts there's one thing in common when it when a successful hunt's talked about and that is pay attention to your hide at the start of the setup the middle of the start of the setup and the end of the start of the setup. Yeah it makes the whole time yes because waking up and buying decoys is all for nothing it can be down high again. So that you know that's that's the big thing.
SPEAKER_04:Dude Cal I that is the point of the day when I say that I'm saying that from a guiding standpoint when when Kay taught me how to the snow goose guide it is so important. At the beginning at the middle and the end of the hunt and good guides do it and you know you do it is that you know customers don't understand like let's say you're laying in a a a decoy spread right they don't understand that hey you sat up we we had a shot call and now those decoys aren't laying across to you right or the hide's not good or you know um one thing if you're a guide probably one of the things that drive you the most crazy on a duck hunt or a goose hunt is people pulling stuff down in front of them that you set up right you set up all this stuff to be in front of them and they don't understand they just think it's an obstruction because they don't I mean I'm being innocent I'm not throwing shade they just don't know any better. But you can shoot through that shit you know you your gun will get in the way of that whatever um but I think that's so such an important part of the guide uh uh instilling that as well but it's it's a very important part that you just hit home with me on that it was that I just kept remembering that you know we'd have a hunt that started off good or whatever and then the birds weren't working good and and then I'd take a walk and start looking at how everybody looked and everything or how the blind looked or the the A frames or whatever how the you know however we were hunting and I could find a problem. You know I mean one time was soda cans. Yeah you told me about that yeah dude it was soda cans and something kept light those birds would not work on the left side and man I walked back there and I thought son of a bitch the sun is hitting those things and whether I mean I'd love to say that I was a genius at that point but we started smoking them after that you know so you don't know what it is especially late in the season man some a reflector in the middle of the field is going to bounce them there's no doubt about it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah sunglasses I taught my son that early and he's more he's a more relaxed um not a high heart rate hunter when it comes to valley time and a lot of people comment on him because I've beat him since he was eight it's like you know because most people are like hey all right guys inbound hawkers from the east right and everybody's like we're at it's like keep your head down like I'm always like I'll see him when they're at 40 and I'll definitely see him at 20. So keep your head in that mesh and when you come up you can shoot through it you can stick your gun through it whatever you need to do. When the when the shots call they're going to be centered up and you can go through that brush we'll replace it afterwards but what you don't want to do is be picking it out having your we call it pie facing calls when you sit in that layout blind and there's a there's a skin mask coming out like and then sun's bright not bouncing off of it it's no good right you you got you got to be hitting man it's no dude that's an important part I think you know it and and we've heard it from Cade several times it's just like you know you see this big wad coming in or whatever man I mean the most experienced duck hunters they got that hat bill tilted down they're not looking up and and honestly if you got a good dog you're just watching your dog's eyes you know I mean and that that duck hauls down at the water and you're blowing that thing and you're keeping that face I mean about it yeah don't see man or don't move right especially those eight those eight frames like a I'm a bit you talk about moving how many times you start seeing barrels inching or either or this or looking up or just movement like when when the birds come they're gonna hit you from the side and they're gonna slide over where the sound is so knowing not to blow your ass off when they're inbound because they're gonna pick up the sound and they're going to hit you from the back right every time you slide over where that sound is at that point if you don't have good layovers in your in your a frame or your pit and you got just this movement right they are gone. You know they can still like so in your guide you always tell hey be real still don't move when I'm not calling the shot here is don't move because right now they're coming in first look they're trying to figure out where that sound is and if they want to stick around and if they see you know a head pop up or somebody you know reaching for a candy bar or something like they're gone. Other at 70 yards they didn't see that bullshit they have next time get binoculars you see those ducks heads going like this they're not they don't have a kink in their neck they're looking to see if it's that's exactly right I mean you ever watch mallard really work a spread like that his head the whole dude they do what do you think they're doing you know they're looking to see if it's okay to come down there Matt yeah they're not looking for what's uh what's right they're looking for what's wrong absolutely they are absolutely they are I get I get that a lot guys knows like why are we side shooting them it's really hard it is but I play the sun all the time like they they're gonna come to the vortex they're gonna come to the motion where a lot of the decoys are moving where the big clumps are um and and today's just not a real great day with maybe low wind to be in their line of sight right there they they can hang up there a while they're gonna pick it out that we want to make them we want to give them as much room as possible and when you can get the sun in their eyes or any even if it's overcast a little bit of glare in their eyes and then play that we're gonna do it. Right because that with them not seeing and us seeing well is better than having to take a side shout or no shout at all. That's right that's right the the ones with those west wind days are prominent up here through the middle of the season even in the winter even the late season right and it's like it sucks because the sun's in your eyes so it's uh you know you want to be you we try to kick it out and shoot inside a lot of time one you're not no line of sight get the get the your lucky ducks out to the side you know wherever they're gonna key on we just don't want them seeing us in the background right so we get the hell out of the way right it's just better that way that's right that's right well man uh dude listen we can talk all freaking night long dude I love this guy I do I love this guy and what I love about our podcast is that you know we get to have folks on here and and sometimes it's the first time I've been sometimes people I've known for a long time but you know what means a lot to me even more is that when I know the true character of people and um I just don't have a problem with recommending them. I mean at all and this is the kind of friend you want to have folks this guy cal thank you for everything you do for me bro professionally and from a hunting perspective I know that uh you've got some open doors for us to come up and he's trying to tempt Tristan hard with coming up there on that honker hunt in December January so you guys gotta be up there the first snow you better be up here we're just gonna have to do it's gonna be like what we used to call in high school take it well honestly take like our schedule's pretty pretty open December and January so we'll uh we have have a little bit of a buffer window there where we get a call we're on a call that's right we're on call we just watch the weather we get that first four or five inches man just start driving just come when that the first the first few days that the first no dude I promised you we will lay him down and uh they're it again we've seen all kinds of birds working all kinds of light conditions or whatever but the first time you see a a greater hawker dropping into a decoy spread he's blowing steam out of his nose 20 feet like you're gonna be like hey are you gonna shoot him or not like I can't like I've so many guys the first time from like the my like friends in the South come up and be like like dude they just lit two feet in front of the bar are you gonna shoot him or what like that was freaking awesome I'm like wow hawkers and the snow are just badass when they're just blowing that steam out it's it's it's pretty amazing man you guys go and get you're gonna get the experience of this year. We can all work on the road if we don't do well the first couple days I promise you not leave it to you kill good strap all this can't wait man can't wait well brother thanks for the chance to be on with you guys I appreciate it for uh for a local hunter and guy just like you guys I don't get to do many waterfowl podcasts so I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04:Well you make it easy bro and uh we definitely can't wait to get you on here uh showing our success maybe uh you know if we make that happen and maybe hell who knows we might just do a podcast up there yeah you know this weekend boys it's gonna be on this weekend Saturday morning you know where I'll be you know where you can find me brother lay him down man hey we need a gener listen Cal I need you to make this shit happen listen we need a generator that makes zero noise to power our podcast system that we could do a podcast live from the honker blind in Illinois I don't think those people I don't think people listening want to know I don't think the people listening would love the ho ho right anything like blowing a speck in like anybody that I've watched that's really good at blowing a speck dude by the time they get done with that run they just look like somebody that got left in the desert for a year now I mean they're there's like yeah their their faces it takes a lot of effort but no bro man thank you so much for who you are and what you do and and uh man we'll have you back in here and and in worst case scenario we'll talk about smashing some snow geese when it comes uh that time yeah oh yeah all right pleasure talk to you soon man all right brother thank you guys appreciate you see you guys I've been hell down I've been hell down too fast now they're slow down in the foreign