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
From Marketplace Waders To Road Trip Hunts & Bonds That Last Forever | Mike Pomaibo
We sit down with Mike from Pittsburgh to share a late-start duck hunting story full of humor, humble tactics, and the kind of friendships that outlast limits. From marketplace waders to road-trip hunts and faith in the marsh, it’s a grounded look at why we keep going.
• starting waterfowl at 26 with budget gear
• learning zones, habitat, and concealment in Pennsylvania
• small wins matter when flights are thin
• using mentors, not gatekeeping, to grow
• Florida STA lotteries, harvest data, and targeted hunts
• decoy spreads simplified for puddlers and divers
• gratitude, faith, and finding peace in the blind
• community over competition at ramps and draws
• travel hunts, timing splits, and road-warrior planning
• honest content, handling hate, and helping newcomers
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Call or text 850-251-8650 or visit www.floridaducks.com to book your trip with Williamson Outfitters
Use code OneHellofaLife15 at Dirty Duck Coffee for 15% off
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I've been stepping, I've been helping, I've been on a bit on train. Going too fast now, they are slow down, standing in the poli rain.
SPEAKER_02:What's going on, guys? Tristan and Tony back to another episode of the One Hove Life Outdoor Podcast. Today we got Mike Pom Abio is it? Pamibo. Pamibo. Pamaybo. But I uh we've been following each other on TikTok for a while, and Mike posts some funny stuff on there. Uh yeah, we just connected on a podcast tonight. So, Mike, thank you for taking the time to join us, man, and tell everybody a little bit uh about you and where you're from and all that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Uh my name is Mike Pamibo. I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Uh, the land of not many ducks.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Um we uh we know that feeling.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we get into some good goose hunting out this way, but in terms of ducks, I'm I'm always on the road. Um I actually I've been a deer hunter my whole life. Um I recently got into duck hunting. This is this will be my fourth season now. Um and I started late. I'm 30. I didn't start duck hunting until I was 26. Uh, I just picked it up one day. I had seen a video that I thought was cool. Um, I drove to the nearest Cabela's to buy a dozen decoys and some waiters off of Facebook Marketplace that had holes in them. Um I had no clue what I was doing. I just showed up, man, and I was like, this is something I think I want to get behind. And it's been an obsession and uh you know financial strain ever since.
SPEAKER_02:Dude, that's so funny because like including us, like I mean, there's so many people that have that story with duck hunting because you're like, God, like I I mean it's so overwhelming, and you don't want to buy something and then like it not work out, and then like you said, there's the financial strain part of it, just like trying to piece it all together. That's right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. It it kind of uh so like I said, the the biggest Cabela's closest to me is in West Virginia, it's about 45 minutes away. Um, I had gone down there, I walked in, I was like, hey, you guys have any duck hunting stuff? And West Virginia is is obviously not a very popular duck hunting state. And the guy at Cabela's was like, I'm sure we I'm sure we have duck hunting stuff somewhere, right? And I was like, all right, cool, like you know, I'll find it. Found it, and then a dude on marketplace, like 10 minutes away from that Cabela's, had a pair of waders. Um, so I went to him, I was like, hey, I'm gonna buy these waders, and he was like, Hey man, I have another pair if you if you want to. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna make my dad start duck hunting with me. I'll have a fucking pair of waiters, and I said, Oh man, you're coming with me, dude.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, that's awesome, dude. That's like just the opposite of me and Tristan. I got sucked into duck hunting, and don't feel bad, dude. You didn't start that late because I didn't start until like my mid-40s. Oh wow, and yeah, and I mean I never even owned a gun until my mid-40s. I'd done nothing but you know, most of my life was bow hunting deer in Illinois, you know. So I totally understand where you're coming from, but I definitely went out and I was like, listen, you're going duck hunting with me. I love it, dude. Uh dude, and it really started out the same way. I mean, like, I think I wore my buddy's wife's waiters, shot her shotgun, shot her shotgun, you know. But he just I'd been asked for years to hunt do that in Illinois, and I just I was like, dude, if I do it, uh it that will seal a divorce. It will definitely seal it because I was just bow hunting way too much. But uh man, isn't it great the way that we we get into the sport, you know, we just love it and see something that just man, I gotta go do that. And and thankfully, sometimes, you know, it works out where either somebody helps you out or you're able to find a cheaper method into the sport, you know, to where it's halfway affordable that you can do it, you know, and then from then in you're just you're you're you're I almost said it. You're FB Just like you said, man. I always say if duck hunting was a was a business plan, nobody would invest. Nobody. Like if you took that to a board uh uh an angel investment company, just like, look, here's your return. Uh basically over a five-year period, uh, there's gonna be a negative loss of 297%. And they're like, All right, let's do it. That's what we all do.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. It was it was kind of funny how it worked out, too. It's like I said, being in southwestern PA, deer hunting is really big, squirrel hunting's really big. My dad was a diehard deer hunter, small game.
SPEAKER_05:You guys have some big deer in Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_04:We do. We get some we get some meaty guys up here, man. Um, they've been ducking me all season so far, so I have it out for them. Um, I'm gonna finish the archery season strong up here. But um, but yeah, I actually had seen a 24-7 hunt video, and hey, they were just like cracking jokes and having fun, and I was like, wait, wait, wait, you don't have to sit in the tree by yourself in silence. I was like, I'm a talker, dude. I'll be here all night if you let me talk, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:So I was like, you mean I can just like have fun with my buddies and then like be quiet when the when we see some birds in the sky? And I was like, sign me up, I'm there, man.
SPEAKER_02:That's funny. It's so true though, dude. And I think the the like I feel like what's cool about your videos that you post are like you like people get so like um, especially in the duck hunting community, I'm sure you've seen these comments. Like other people that like we see in our TikTok space like also get these comments too. Like just you try to post something to like help somebody out or post something educational or whatever your opinion, and then people are like so quick to like talk shit, you know what I mean? And it's but I think the cool thing about your videos is like you you don't care, dude. Like you're just like posting your real life like experience. And like just like you just said, like, I love that you came on and like told us about that because you know I think people I I personally get mad when like you see on a Facebook page somebody who's trying to like get some good advice and people just shit on them. Yeah, you know.
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SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and it's it's funny you mentioned that because I had gotten a comment the other day. I don't always respond to the hate comment. Sometimes I feel like talking a little shit, and I'm like, you know what? I'll do it. Um, most times I just delete them because I I don't really care. It's not worth it. I don't even care, man. Like, yeah, at the end of the day, some dude on the internet's gonna hate, but like my fiance still loves me, my parents still love me. Like, I'm still gonna go duck hunting with my friends, dude.
SPEAKER_02:Like, you know. It don't matter, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I always say that you can Google bad stuff about Jesus Christ. You know, I mean, you can. I mean, I hate to say it, but you but Right Right.
SPEAKER_04:And and I had posted a a picture on TikTok actually, and it was me and my two buddies. We went out to a lottery hunt. Um we only shot three birds. We each shot one bird, and dude, I had like the best time. My buddies and I we got in the kayaks, man. I went to a new spot, we shot three birds, and some dude commented the other day and was like, hunting, quote unquote, influencer, and you posted with three ducks.
SPEAKER_02:See, and I was like exact shit I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_05:I want to drive that some bitch's house right now, right? I know it, but good for you for taking the high road though.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man, I was like, listen, I had honestly some memories that are gonna stick with me. We have some like behind-the-scenes GoPro stuff that I'm starting to edit and piece together. I we just had the best time, dude. I was like, I don't even care that we only shot three birds. I had never shot a Gadwall before. We don't get too many of those. And the bird that I shot was a stud Gadwall Drake. So I was like, you know what? Dude, the whole trip was sick right there. I was like, I don't even care if it's only three ducks.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, we're the same way, dude. Yeah, that's a like very similar to like our experience because like when we started duck hunting, like it was you know on the Florida coast, or like not literally the coast, but like you know, along coastal Florida um and like South Georgia, and it's like you know, I mean, it's a lot, it's not like hunting the Mississippi flyway, let's just put it that way, which is probably obviously similar to what you're dealing with. And we would just get excited for that exact same thing. Like when I remember um, you know, like in Florida, like when we started figuring it out more, we shoot a lot of ringnecks and uh blue wings, and you know, all season long you'll shoot blue wings down there, which is kind of cool. But right um, you know, that's like that was mostly what we were shooting. Then one of our buddies shot a green wing, and that was the first time anybody had ever seen one in our group, and that was like the coolest thing of that day.
SPEAKER_05:Right. I mean, like, imagine that the second most populated duck in America, you're in Florida, and you're like, dude, it's a gym. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, like a pintack.
SPEAKER_02:You know, yeah, no.
SPEAKER_05:I mean, the first time I've got a video we've got a video that I remember the first pintails we shot that literally me and Tristan had to get our breath. You can almost see it in the your demeanor when I've got the video of you holding that pintail, Drake. It was dude. You I can't believe let me die right here. Right. So that type of feeling. So, no, I totally respect that, dude. And that's that's great. You know, if somebody is is that way, I mean again, you know, I saw a kid post a giant buck today, a a really big buck. And the first three comments I read, and I couldn't even, I was gonna get pissed, were good good high fence, daddy. You know, I'm like, dude, it's a freaking 13-year-old kid on a youth hunt, right? And yeah, we're gonna give these kids the best opportunity. If you're a great hunter, you will sacrifice that deer you've chased for six years for that little kid.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_05:You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04:You could create my ass. Right uh, dude, I couldn't agree more. You could create a new sportsman for life in that one moment, you know. They could they could continue on your legacy long after you're gone by just doing that one thing for them, you know.
SPEAKER_05:I almost, you know what I was gonna post? And I was gonna call out all three of those people as I was gonna say, I bet your camo is a wife beater and a freaking, you know, I was gonna say a schlitz or something like that. You know, I mean, come on, dude. Come on, on a kid's post, shut up, just shut up.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. I I can't stand that. And then I think too, like, not that I get a ton of hate comments, and especially because my my page, I'm only at like 2100 followers, but like, I'll post um get ready with me. One, because again, I'm like high energy from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep. And I always put like, hey, it's this cold outside, this is the wind, this is like the layers that I'm going with. And a guy, a guy last year messaged me, and he was like, hunting isn't a fashion show, you're ruining it for all of us.
SPEAKER_05:What a dumb thing.
SPEAKER_04:I was like, I I just cracked up, bro. I I did go back and forth with him in the DMs for a minute. Um, but then I was like, I was like, dude, I'm just like, who cares? You know what I'm saying? Plus, I do put these are my base layers, this is my midlayer, this is what I'm going with. It's gonna be this temperature, this much wind, this is why I'm doing it. And then like I just have fun, you know, whatever. So I was like, I don't even care, man. Um, it is what it is, you know.
SPEAKER_02:There's way more people that are seeing that that are finding that beneficial. Yes. That you know, like just because I mean, there's just so there's not enough of that out there, and the fact of the matter is, especially with the duck hunting community, like everyone wants to get on this, like, oh yeah, there's less hunters than before, but like literally every year there's less federal duck stamps sold. So actually, there are less hunters every year, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Right. No, I think that's great. I think it I think it's awesome. Like, I want to like post a video to people like that and be like, before I went out to to the duck blind or the deer stand this morning, I was at your mom's house. Or something like that. Just to be an asshole. I mean, but I'm just not that way. I I won't say something like that. But it just it's it's easier to delete them. It's it is to your point. It it's way easier just to delete that stuff, you know. But you know, um, but that's the driving force behind everything that we started here is just the reality of things and you know, trying to teach people the right way, trying to get people into the sport, you know, just not being commercialized like the TV industry shows everything, you know. No, no, no, no, like I'm not throwing any shade against like say like the foul hunters TV show. I love his show. Chad is runs a great show, but you know, that doesn't resonate to the you and I that first started hunting. That dude, we can't just jump in a truck and go to Canada and form relationships to shoot what you just shot. You know what I mean? I mean, maybe in time we can, but I guess where I'm where I'm getting at with that is that I hope that we can be part of that stair-stepping process from entry to to where you want to be through the guests and people that we have that way know way more about the sport and and than we do, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, and and I think too, part of the reason why I had started posting my journey a little bit was one to show people that hey, you know, just because I didn't get into this until I was 26, didn't start posting about it until I was 29. Like, there's still time, you know. There's like 18-year-olds that are like, ah man, I want to get into this. I don't know. You have like a lifetime, you know, ahead of you. But then also, I do think that some of the best bonds I've formed, like some of the greatest memories with my dad are us, like on our bellies, crawling for my first white-tailed doe with my little Sickle Shod 243. Um and like we'll still bring that up to this day. We'll talk about you know that. And I think that forming these relationships, you know, I have friends that I know that I'll be friends with for a lifetime that I've met one time or like only met on the internet, and then we pull up, we're like, hey, we're gonna go hunt together this weekend, and then we meet each other for the first time, and then we've been boys ever since. So I think that forming these relationships is honestly, I think, the coolest part to me. More than the hunting, I've always tried to be like an optimist and say, like, in Southwest PA, I'm not gonna shoot a ton of birds, um, but I will always have a great time. So, you know, I think that these relationships are, in my opinion, the favor my favorite part of the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, a hundred percent, man. And uh, I was uh telling my dad off here. Eric, didn't you just go hunting up uh up there with Brian Ellathorpe and that crew? I did. How was that? Shout out to Brian, what's up, bro?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, super cool. So we actually have a mutual friend in Brian from Migration Waterfowl. He became a good buddy of mine, he has a cool podcast. Um, we became super close last year, and I had said, like, hey, I'm going on a lottery hunt this way, and he was like, You should you should hit up Brian. Um, and I just hit him up and I was like, Hey man, we'll be in the area. He was like, I would love to have you guys out. Here's the pin, meet me at seven time in the morning. And he was like, Don't bring anything except, you know, your gun waiters and your license and some ammo. And he was like, We're just and we saw probably 10,000 plus divers, like huge, insane rafts of divers. Um, we didn't shoot a bird that day. And me, him, my buddy Chase, and his buddy Brian, the four of us, we just had like the best time, dude. And he was like, You can you're more than welcome to come out whenever you want. And you know, I just that was the first day I met him. We instantly became boys, and we were like, I was like, dude, I'll I'll be there. You know you invite me, I'm gonna show up. I'll be knocking at your door at 3 a.m. Like, let's keep the boat in the water, baby.
SPEAKER_02:That's funny, dude. Yeah, he uh we've never met him, but like just obviously he's a great follow on social media. He posts some really high quality stuff. So uh it was funny because like I forget, like it's kind of just like with any of these guys that like do media, like you, uh Dawson Yates, you know, anybody that does, you know, you kind of all know of each other, and like um Brian had posted or he sent me a message about something I don't even remember what it was, but I was like, Yeah, my dad just sent me a video yesterday and was like, hey, you need to follow this guy, his his content's really good. I'm like, yeah, I've been following him, dude.
SPEAKER_05:But what's funny is that like when I get on a kick like that, I feel like I've really discovered something, you know? Because I'm 53 and I'm like, dude, nobody has heard this song yet. You know, that's what I feel like. I really do. And I'll send it and every time, dude. Every time. And I swear, I even told mom the other day, I sent you something that I said I'm sending this to him, and he's not gonna know. I mean, like, I'm I know this before he does. And she goes, Well, he already liked it. And I was like, God damn, son of a bitch. Dude, I was like, I didn't realize it, you know.
SPEAKER_02:So you can see like if somebody's close to you, if they like it.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I took a screenshot of it and didn't even see that in front of me. It says, like my trip. Oh, I know what it was. It was Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan coming to Athens, Georgia Stadium. And I was like, dude, you're not gonna believe it. Well, and there's one that I didn't even bother sending you that I was one of the first. Yeah, Tyler Farr posted something on Facebook the other day, and I was like, there's only 12 people have liked this shit. And it was it was like it said 30 seconds ago or something like it. I'm like, and I put a comment in there, and I got liked by Tyler Farr's best fan. Tyler Fr, best fan, Tyler Farr, something underscore something.
SPEAKER_02:So it's getting serious, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:It's getting serious.
SPEAKER_02:Hell yeah, man. For the old man. Quitting the day job. So that's it, dude.
SPEAKER_05:Oh man, but it's fun when I really do feel like I've discovered something.
SPEAKER_02:So we just had another guy from Pennsylvania on just like we did two podcasts tonight. We had a guy, um, Pineside Performance. I don't like I don't really know if I've never seen him on TikTok, but he's on IG and um has a brand, and he was saying that their duck season comes in next week, so I'm assuming. What's up, guys? Tristan here. If you're like us, you need gear that's gonna stand up to the elements and not break the bank. That's exactly what we love about Frog Talks. They just dropped their brand new Oxbow waterfowl series, and let me tell you, this stuff is built for serious hunters who don't want to quit when the weather turns nasty. It's tough, lightweight, and waterproof. Everything you need when you're out there chasing ducks. If you're looking to upgrade your gear this season, head over to FrogTalks.com and use code OneHealth of a Life Outdoors at checkout for 15% off your order. Y'all's is the same way, or is it different throughout the state?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so there's um four different zones in the state. Um I live in the South Zone. South zone, um, that'll come back in, I want to say Wednesday next Wednesday, a week from today, it'll come in. Um but a couple of the zones around us will stay open. We get like a week in the South Zone and then it goes out for about a month, and then it'll come back in until the end of the season. Um so we have about a month of a split. And there's two other or three other zones in the state that will be open throughout the whole time. So like for us, we're really gonna try to get out somewhere on Saturday. We'll have to travel to like either like uh the north zone or like the northwest corner kind of of the state. Yeah, so we're we're always on the move, and then once that once our zone comes back in, we can kind of hit some of the the fields and stuff that we have permission on. That's usually once those spots will start to kick up a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:What um what's like the uh environment out there? I mean, are you hunting like dry fields, flooded fields, like sloughs? Like what's kind of the where you guys hunt mostly?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, a lot of our goose hunting happens in a dry field. Um we've gotten pretty long.
SPEAKER_02:I was thinking ducks for some reason.
SPEAKER_04:Oh no, sorry. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um we will no feel free to go on the geese too.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get some good uh some good combo duck and goose hunts out of the dry fields. Those are kind of tricky. We really have to wait until birds are hitting the fields that we have permission on. Um if we I mean if they're not hitting the fields, we can run some traffic, have some bigger spreads, and and really holler at them a little bit. Um other than that, we hunt a lot of marshes. Um and we try to we hunt the rivers a good bit too. Um, but most of the time it's usually marshes. Um there we have a couple like good mud flats too. Um the habitat is like relatively similar though. Uh most of the spots have a pretty similar habitat. It makes me itch to uh drive down south and stand uh knee deep in some some timber. That would be sweet. Never got to do that before. But yeah, most of it's just marshes and we get some good dry field hunts too. Oh, nice, man.
SPEAKER_05:Do you guys get some black ducks up there? Or maybe you guys talked about that?
SPEAKER_04:No. We yeah, we sure do. Um we get some we get some black ducks around here. Um I'm actually gonna do a trip to Western New York um a couple days before Christmas. That's my my gift to my dad for the past couple years. Him and I, we we stay over, we go hunt um with my boy Louie at 11 Lakes Outfitters. Louis's a he's a just first of all, he's a badass. He's like an MMA fighter and the sheriff. And like him and I get along really well. I've been training martial arts my whole life.
SPEAKER_05:I'd be getting along pretty good with the MMA fire team. I'd be like, bro, don't kick my ass.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right. Yeah. Louie and I, man, we just sometimes it's more just us chopping it up than it is hunting when we go up there. Um but they get into some black ducks heavy in that part of New York, man. So yeah, we get those. Um early season we shoot a lot of wood ducks. Um it's the occasional mallard here and there in the in the early season. But then once uh the late season really kicks off, we'll get some good diver hunts, uh, lots of mallards, some black ducks here and there. I personally have never uh shot a black duck that's on my hit list for this year. But other than that, lots of lots of mallards, and then we'll get the occasional like occasional pintail, gadwall, um, some teal in the early season. But we do shoot a lot of mallards, um, which I know a lot of people are after, so definitely blessed to uh that's like the one redeeming quality of where I duck hunt most of the time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, no, that's kind of cool, dude.
SPEAKER_05:The only thing we got in Georgia is a wood duck.
SPEAKER_02:Sure seems like that a lot of times.
SPEAKER_05:Well, that's why I posted that TikTok the other day of Georgia duck hunters with the punk gun. It was like an old like 1930s, 40s something of this guy like going out on a canoe and like with a big punk gun, and he's swimming out there and just smokes them and then just goes around picking up bodies. And I'm like, when a Georgia duck hunter gets a duck hunt like that, dude, there's like, listen, guns are blazing, we're smoking every single damn thing that's right there, right?
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah, and that's like for for us might be four ducks for us too, man. Sometimes it's slim pickings, honestly. You know, we might I talked about this on my buddy Brian's show before, but there are times where we might only get one volley of you know, let's say eight mallards, and everything has to be perfect. We don't have you know, in other places, parts of the country, if birds flare, you could say, all right, let's fix the hide first, let's maybe turn the mojo off, let's you know, work from there. For us, like we spend so much time on the hide because if we get a volley of a couple mallards and they're you know backpedaling into the spread, that might be the only couple ducks we see all day. So we really try our best to stay hidden. And sometimes it's hard to figure out why the birds were flaring if you only get a group or two all day.
SPEAKER_02:That is a really great point, dude. Yeah, it is. Uh I mean, just kind of a good um testament to being like a new duck hunter and like with limited opportunities, like spend the time control what you can control, essentially. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, well, and and it it that's a testament to knowing your game. Like we always talk about, and Ramsay Russell's the one that really opened our brains up to this. Was that you know, he talks so much about he goes, I love learning that game in different parts of the world. But we even broke it down with him on the podcast. You do that with every like if we went to three different places in Georgia, it would be that way. You know, somebody knows how we just talked about it with with Joe uh about fishing. You know, you go in there at that one lure, you know, and that lure works right there at that lake, you know, or whatever. And that's what I really love about this sport on top of it, is just you know, it's we're always mesmerized, you know. Kate, our buddy out Delta Thunder outfitters, he is is an incredible duck hunter. He just really is, and and like I feel like he's on a like a spiritual level with these animals, you know, and and to us, we just we're appalled by watching him work these ducks, you know, and and so thankful because dude, like you said, it could be just one one volley, you know, that you're hoping to get where we hunt, and you go to someplace like that and you're like, gosh damn, where's David Attenborough at?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you know, I mean so yeah, and um I do think that like you're saying, it it especially being a new doc hunter, um, I had hit some of the local Facebook groups and I had scouted a lot. I used YouTube as you know a huge resource, and I didn't have anybody to teach me really how things went. And so I I reached out to a local Facebook group and I said, I don't need spots, I've been finding birds, I just need someone to kind of like help me put it all together. After about a hundred comments of some dudes, every dude put the tires to the road, man. And I was like, Did you not read the whole thing that I had just posted? Yeah, you know, and and uh a guy named Sean had reached out to me and he was like, Hey, we're kind of from the same area. He's like, I've been hunting ducks for a long time. He grew up in hunting the coast of South Carolina, shooting tons of redheads and stuff. So he was like, I'll show you whatever I know, hopefully it helps. Um still hunt with Sean to this day. He introduced me to my buddy Brian, who I became good friends with, and so like it's kind of cool that we all we have our group chat, the PA Duck Crew. Um it's all of us from the same area. My buddy Zach from he's out in Ohio. Um yeah, I I just reached out and Sean was like, I'll show you whatever I know, and if you want to work with it, cool. If not, you know, whatever. And he helps me, he helps me a lot when a lot of other guys were were not feeling it.
SPEAKER_05:We need more Sean's man. We need more Sean's, man.
SPEAKER_02:That's we've we've been fortunate enough kind of been luck out in situations like that over the years too. Like just uh in Arkansas in particular, like just like one time we were out there, long story short, just grinding it on public land, like and this guy Davey, that um just we reached out, we were at a boat ramp, and he just pulled up and we started he asked us, you know, well, what are you guys doing? Where are you hunting or whatever? We had talking to him. And this is a local guy.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, we couldn't believe that he was being that nice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and it ended up inviting us to go hunt with him in the next morning and like still keep in touch loosely loosely with him till this day, but like it's just you know, not everybody is like a bad A, you know. Like there are those like gems of people that are like just cool people that want to help people out, you know.
SPEAKER_05:Well, it's just like I I believe in this is probably one of the it's not one of the biggest songs that they ever wrote, but you know, Luke Bryan had that song called Most People Are Good. And what I thought was great about that song at the time was I think that our country was struggling with the perception of negativity. And I'm talking about overall, not in just honey, I'm just talking overall in the world. And what I loved about that song is he's right. I mean, at least here in the in the Bible belt, it's for sure, is that most people are good, you know. And it's the you we only see those anomalies, like you know, my wife is always afraid of of diesels crashing into us because. Because they don't show you the millions and millions of hours these professional drivers don't wreck. If you saw that all your life, you'd be like, son of a bitch, dude. I want to drive right next to a DC. Right, right. You know, I mean, but it's perception is reality, right? And it's the same thing. And I love that. I love, dude, we need more Sean's. That's I want to I want a shirt that says we need more Sean's.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. And and I think too, kind of piggybacking off what you said is sometimes the hunting community itself will get a bad rap here and there, and it only takes, you know, one video. Whereas like I've been at the boat ramps or I've been, you know, at walk-in spots, whatever. Walked in, some guys are like, hey, how many do you have? And I'm like, hey, I'm a solo today. And they're like, hey, you know what? Let's just combine forces. No point in battling against each other. Let's just let's just do it together. And I know that my buddies and I are the same way. If if we're there and somebody says, Where are you guys going? We're like, we're hunting this hole. And they're like, hey, that's where we were thinking about going. We're like, all right, decoys together, put the blinds together. There's no point in us, you know, trying to compete with one another when we can just all have a good time together.
SPEAKER_05:That's right. That's right. That's right. I love that. I love that, man. We need more Sean's. People be like, why is your hat saying we need more Sean's?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, Sean's a Sean's a he's a ball buster for sure. So he'll be uh he'll be maybe a little embarrassed to for people to know that he has a teddy bear side to him, you know. So I can't wait. I can't wait to show him this one.
SPEAKER_05:Well, you gotta have one of those guys, but it's having the guts because listen, at the end of the day, all of us that help help people, let's be real with it. You're taking away more of your time to help somebody, but it's so worth it. Man, it's so worth it. It just if you got a giving heart, it's there's nothing more incredible, you know. Like today, one of my most satisfying things ever was meeting a guy online that I never met in person that helped me out with some Florida duck hunting stuff. We had a bad hunt, but the cell over next to us was rocking it. We paid attention to what those birds were doing. He just happened to reach out to me and said, Hey, I know you were out there. What did you see? I've got two vet guys that are going on the sloty hunt that have never duck hunted before in their life. And I said, I sent him a pen, I said, tell him to sit right here. And he texts me at 8:30 in the morning and said they're limited out. Bro, that and I never even and and now we finally get to go hunt with this man. Um, and um I I'm not saying his name just because he's he works in the public government type of space, and um, I don't know how he is about that, but uh you know that you're we appreciate you, and I'm I'm thankful that I'm finally gonna get to hunt with him now uh this year.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah. No, I I don't know like if you have any places like this, Mike. I'd be curious to uh hear if Pennsylvania does anything like this, but Florida does like these lottery hunts where um this one in particular, you basically, you know, there might be 25 cells or whatever, and they do 15 and they might be a mile by two miles across or whatever. Yeah, yeah. And you know, there you there's 15, you know, you put in for it and only 15 people, you know, win the quota. So there could be anybody who puts in for it. There's no preference point system, it's completely random.
SPEAKER_05:Resident, non-resident, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and uh if you pull it though, you get one of those 15 picks, and then you show up that morning, and depending on what your pick is, you get to pick where you want to go. So, and there's like I think there's a scouting day every Thursday, so it's like before. And uh, but basically, yeah, you just you get your spot, and then the cool thing about it is like whatever you get, I mean, it is your just your area, so you don't have to like compete with anybody like that. But um, it's those hunts can be really awesome because those cells are only hunted like once or twice a week. 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 a Life 15 on your next order. So we the land is managed really well. Um, but long story short, does um those hunts we've always loved when we do it took us three years to just pull another one. We have this one this year, but um, do you have anything like that in Pennsylvania?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, there's um there's two spots that do that. One of them you can apply, I want to say it's the day before. It's only certain days of the week. You apply the day before, they let you know by I think what is it, 10 p.m. or something, they'll let you know for the the following morning. Another one, you could do it from a week out. So whatever the designated hunt dates are, you could apply from a week out. I've never drawn either of those. Um, but I did go on a lottery hunt in Ohio. That's where I shot my first Gadwall two weekends ago. My buddy drew, and you can bring two guests with you. So he drew and he called me and was like, you know, are you down? It's about three hours from my house. So I drove up in the morning and then we stayed overnight and then hunted Sunday. But yeah, there's a there's a couple of those over there. We have a couple here in Pennsylvania too. Like I said, I've never hit on any of them. Um sometimes, especially when it starts to get really good and the wind's pushing through in the big cold front, you get a lot of guys that apply. Um, so sometimes it is slim pickings, but I've never gotten personally gotten, you know, selected for one. But we do have those here.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, no, it's I mean, definitely one of those things that you're not gonna get every year, but when you do get it, it's kind of like well, and what I love about what state of Florida does is they post like on these lottery areas, one of them is called an STA. What that stands for is storm treatment area. So what stormwater treatment area. What a lot of people don't realize about state of Florida is that they have the shittiest water on the on the in the United States, fresh water. All right, and so basically they basically manufacture because they get so much rain, they manufacture the fresh water. And the way they do that is really interesting. So if you take, let's just for a visual, let's say you have two miles.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and one thing I'll just piggyback on that Florida and a lot of like the Everglades, that's essentially what the Everglades are. Yes, it's a natural mimics what these are.
SPEAKER_05:But it's been totally messed. It's it's while it's still great, it's been messed up just like Louisiana, everything. Like construction and I'm it's still doing that, though. Yes, yes, but that's what that was God's natural way of doing it. Right. Well, what they've done now is that they've created what they call these stormwater treatment areas, and they'll be like STA 1 through 6 or 5 or something like that. And if you can just like for the for the purpose of this example, imagine a a piece of land, let's just say a mile tall, all right, and three miles across east west to east. And what they do is they slowly plane that whole area over the course of time during that three mile area to where the water's slightly dropping. And what they do is they put all this natural vegetation that ducks love because it filters the water, that filters the water, all these natural plants that just do their thing, and they don't have to do shit to it, dude. It's incredible. And so you can draw to these STAs, and what they do in all the quota areas in Florida is every single duck that is shot is checked in, every single one. So they log it so you can that's shot and brought to it. Yeah, that that's shot and brought and not stomped, yeah, or thrown in the boat. But um, like you know, if you shot a whistling duck during teal season, that would not be good. But no, but what they do is the cool thing is that if you really want to do your research, right, for these different areas, you can go on to FWC, look at every single area. They post it the very next week, and you can look all the way up to that what the average per duck hunter is and what species they're killing. Interesting. What's cool about it is that like we would have oh shit moments. Oh, we got this lottery draw. Oh man, dude, they're shooting the shit out of green wings. We need to go buy 30 more green wings decoys or whatever it is. But the cool thing is is that that harvest information is made public and you can use it to really like kind of target things that you want to go like sometimes. We would hunt an area of an S of a public lottery area where we knew that we would shoot more divers in that area because it was like a reservoir area versus like an area where they would shoot more puddle ducks, you know, and you could kind of pick and choose what you want to do. Right, but you but going into it, you're like, dude, the average per duck hunter is like 4.6. Wow. Which is always yeah, yeah. And so you know that at least, and I always say this, and they do do great youth programs at these places, but I always say, Man, goodness gracious, if you're gonna take somebody duck hunting for the first time, take them there. Because then they're they're gonna call you a couple years later and just say, I got a divorce, it's you're all your fault, and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I'm gonna have to uh I'm gonna have to pick your brain maybe sometime uh potentially off camera about some Florida stuff. My fiance is from Clearwater. Um we'll go down to visit uh her mom and her sister and stuff. And sometimes I'm always like, You care if I you care if I'm if I bring my stuff, and sometimes she's like, you know, we're here to visit my family, whatever, but I'm gonna think about it.
SPEAKER_02:Dude, I've I've done that. Uh well, we used to live there, but I'm when we we are up in Atlanta now, and I did that, uh, flew the gun down and everything and hunted with this guy. Um, my wife's brother lives in West Palm Beach. Oh, nice. And uh, we're doing Thanksgiving down there, and I'm like, there's this guy I've been talking to on TikTok for a couple years or whatever, and uh basically brought all my shit and went hunting with him.
SPEAKER_05:Dude, it hell yeah. No, but Florida's a sleeper state, dude. I've I tell you, and I have no problem with mentioning it because I want to see people experience that. It's a lottery basis, so I don't give a shit.
SPEAKER_02:It's a sleeper state in certain things, like total number of waterfowl, not a sleeper state. It's not Arkansas, but they do have like the panhandle has like the second biggest migration of redheads. Uh you can there's whistling ducks, there's a model duck.
SPEAKER_05:You want to shoot a blue wing teal that's fully plumed, you're gonna do it in Florida.
SPEAKER_02:So, like there, like there's little aspects of it that it's like, wow, that's actually a pretty unique waterfowl state.
SPEAKER_05:No, and you literally will go to some of these places and you will see shit that looks like something on Nat Geo. I mean, you will see thousands of ducks flying, and it's in it's these lottery places, these lottery places, and that's why I was getting to with the new people is just man, what a great thing to take somebody on, and uh yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think um, like I said, every time I'm down in I mean, even when we're down there in Florida, I'm always on marketplace, and I'm like, man, if I have more room in my suitcase, I could be buying the shit out of some of this stuff on marketplace, man. Like, because up here, I might have to drive 45 minutes an hour, an hour and a half to find some good stuff if I ever you know needed something on marketplace, whatever. And I keep joking with her, I'm like, right after we get married and buy a house, like I'm getting a boat. Like, I don't really know what you want me to say, but we're getting a boat, and uh always down in Florida, I'm like, they have so many boats for sale. And I'm like, son of a bitch, one day we're gonna drive, and one day I'm strapping one to the back of the the little Ford Ranger that I have, and we're taking that sucker home, man.
SPEAKER_02:Dude, I love that.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, no, honestly, uh like if you're serious about, and I guess it goes out to anybody, there's still some quota opportunities that are open for Florida. If you just go to the um my they do an app, yeah. Yeah, my Florida, go Florida Outdoors, I think, or My Florida. Um, you just go to that and it's it's a really simple process, honestly. And I will tell you that still to this day, I've shot plenty of ducks. When we draw one of those, for one one hunt, it's worth every bit of our travel.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a it's seven seven and a half hours for us, but it's it's definitely worth it.
SPEAKER_05:I mean, you're gonna have God's gonna give you the opportunity, it's just up to you to shoot them.
SPEAKER_02:Like honestly, like worst case, like one of the worst hunts we've down that done down there, we got like 10 ducks. So it's like between four guys, like you know.
SPEAKER_05:And we sucked at shooting bad.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, you just I mean, it it's hard to beat that, you know?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right. Well, yeah, and that's that's for me too. I've uh first of all, I've always been down for a good road trip. Um, but for me, I've never cared about traveling if I could, you know, if I could get a good hunt out of it, I've never cared. I know that some some guys that I know or whatever are like, oh, that's four hours. Are you sure you want to do that? I'm like, yeah, sure. I'll leave at midnight, get there at four, hunt my ass off until noon, and then drive the four or five hours back home. I've I've never really shied away from from traveling for those opportunities because you know I don't know how many opportunities I guess I'll I'll ever get. So if I get the chance to go, I'm gonna go for sure.
SPEAKER_02:No, that's a really, really great point, man. I I feel like uh I mean some I think some guys that like grow up with um, you know, maybe it'd be different like if like us and you didn't grow up with like the white tail opportunities that we had. Now, white tail are so much more abundant, obviously, but like if they weren't, you know, somebody might be like the shock of like a white tail might be so exciting for them. But I feel like with duck hunting, there's so many things to be excited about that that's why we're a little bit crazy versus the people that have grown up with excellent duck hunting their whole life. I'm not talking about every hunt, I know there's ebbs and flows, but you know, the people in Arkansas are like, why you know, why would I leave and go anywhere? Oh, we have great hunting here. Right. It's like fair enough, but like for us, we're psychos and don't have that. So that's why we'll do these things.
SPEAKER_05:No, a great example of that is remember whenever we had uh we were hunting with Cade and there was that field that we're hunting on. And if you're gonna shoot a lot of ducks, of course, Cade, you know, he knows what he's doing and you listen to what he's saying. But me and Tristan wanted to shoot pentails, and all these pintails were landing down at the other end of the field. And I said, Hey, do you care if we take an A-frame out there and hunt these pentails? He goes, Why in the hell do you want to go out there and shoot one duck? And I go, It's a pintail. He goes, Oh, Jesus. You know, I mean, just didn't give a shit. But you would have thought he and I won the lottery. You know what I mean? We went out one morning, I think we'd shoot four. Yeah, we didn't shoot four no, no, but between the four of us, between the four of us, you know, I mean we shot four.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, we shot 36 of them.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, right. Right, but um, but no, to piggyback on that, and I just gotta tell you this quick story, and I can't tell it as as good as he can, but the gist of it is this Cade has these folks come out, he takes them out, guides them, and I will tell you this that for the new pentail season limit, we at Delta Thunder Outfitters, you still want to duck hunt, this is where you need to go because we see the most the most birds we see is pentails.
SPEAKER_02:Cade's in uh like northeast Arkansas, like Jonesboro area, yeah. And for whatever reason, the pocket of area that he hunts, I mean, there's pentail stupid. Now, you don't always just like because they're stupid and they won't pin or uh won't decoy and stuff, but you see them all the time, and every once in a while you have like these special pentail days. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05:Well, well, anyway, so he goes out there and he's got this group of guys, and there's there's five of them, and they're on the blind, and and long story short, right first thing in the morning, they all smoke a pentail drape. Every one of them smokes it. And uh K looks over and the guys are like packing up their guns and everything. He's like, What are you doing? He goes, Oh, we got our limit. He goes, Well, we only you only shot pentails. He goes, No, we limited out. And he's like, Well, all right. So he gets up and and they leave. Well, he said they go to DW. He goes, and all six of those guys are walking around the store. Yeah, we got our limit. Yeah, sure. We shot shot our limit, we shot our limit, and they're like, Yeah, man. He's like, Yeah, man, we shot our limit. He goes, and every one of these guys were bragging around the store about shooting their limit. So he goes, you know, he goes, in my brain, I'm like, we need to shoot more ducks, but in their brain, they've arrived, right? Right. So he takes them out the next day, and this is what's great. He says, same thing, like a ditto of the day before, man. Boom, boom, boom, boom, they blow all these pentails out of it. And Cade thought, no way are they gonna be ready to leave. And he said he looked down at the other guy and he said, Pack it up, boys. But they hunted a two-A hunt, and the only thing they gave a shit about was shooting pentails, you know, which is awesome. I relate to that, but for Cade, somebody get to your point, Tristan, like somebody from Arkansas like that, they're like, What is wrong with these people?
SPEAKER_04:You know, right?
unknown:Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_05:They're a pretty bird.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, dude, I just uh well, you know, we're giving Sean his praises last year. He shot his first pintail. I was at work. Um I teach uh PE, so I'm a PE teacher. Nice, and I'm at work and I'm on my prep period. I'm sitting there and I just I get a bunch of messages in PA duck room. And I was like, son of a bitch, man. Like they have to be shooting them up. And he sends me a picture of just an absolute stud pintail. Yes, and I was like, Sean, I'm really happy for you. I was like, I hate you, but I was like, like, you know what? I was like, I'm I'm so happy for you. I said, I'm gonna put my phone down because I'm too mad to respond anymore. But just know that I'm happy for you, but I'm not gonna talk to you for a couple of days.
SPEAKER_02:I gotta process how happy I am for you, right?
SPEAKER_05:Listen, and I'm gonna be the um listen, young people, I'm gonna give you a great TikTok right now, and that's make sure that you have me praising Sean, but then him blasting Sean in the same TikTok.
SPEAKER_02:That's funny, man. So what what all do you got on the uh on the docket, I guess, for you know, any other stuff out of state this year? Is there anything that you're looking forward to?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so I'm gonna do um New York with my dad in December. And then I have like a four-day long weekend already scheduled off in mid-January. I'm still trying to plan that. Um we've been talking to like Dawson and Biscuit and Jaden from TikTok trying to like maybe figure out something with the four of us. Schedules are looking a little crazy. Um, but I think worst case, if I don't have anything scheduled for that weekend in January, I'm just gonna pack up the Danger Ranger and drive, drive somewhere for the week, the long weekend, man. I have four full days off in a row, so I'm gonna really try to end the season with a bang.
SPEAKER_05:Heck yeah, man.
SPEAKER_02:Dude, that's gonna yeah, that just freaking Lone Ranger it. No pun inside. Right? The Lone Ranger, dude. If I was if I was if I was filming a YouTube video for you, I would literally title title it the Lone Ranger.
SPEAKER_04:Dude, that is officially the new name of uh of the Ranger, the Lone Ranger.
SPEAKER_05:In the beginning of our video, it's gotta have like the badge of the Ranger, yeah, yeah thing. And then you start off going, motherfucker, Ford Ranger!
SPEAKER_01:Ford Ranger.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man.
SPEAKER_02:That's great, dude. Dude. Uh so like as far as uh, you know, hunts or whatever, I mean, is there anything that uh just since you've been doing it, that's just like, man, that was just I mean, the best hunt ever. I mean, outside of the one you told us earlier where you guys shot the three ducks and had a great time.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I would say there's two that all right, and like I said, I'm a talker, so I'm gonna I'm gonna run through three, but I promise I'll keep it short. Oh, you're good, dude. When I shot my first duck, I was with my dad. The season before I'd hunted maybe a couple of days, end of January. I hardly even saw any ducks. Um, and then opening day a couple of years ago, we're hunting this marsh. We got beat to like our first probably three spots that we had scouted. We ended up at this uh it's actually an old fish farm, actually, which was kind of cool. Um there's there were people galore, we got into one little pocket of water, and at first light, this just stud Drake Woodduck came by probably 10 yards, and I smoked this thing. So I smoke it, and then not even 30 seconds later, so that was my first duck, and then not even 30 seconds later, another Drake Woodduck comes over and I smoked it, and I looked at my dad and I just started crying. I know that you know some people would be afraid to admit that. I mean, I don't I don't really know.
SPEAKER_05:Good for you for uh allowing people to to I mean, dude, we've all been there.
SPEAKER_04:That's amazing. And it was just like months of just me like practicing calling and scouting and buying all this stuff, and to see the hard work, like the direct result of my hard work. And I cried, my dad was cracking up, and he's like, You son of a bitch, I'm gonna cry too. Um and so so that was like that was like one of my best, and then a moment from uh our hunt last year in New York, these this group of redheads just did it absolutely nasty. I only had one shell in my gun. I whiffed tragic and dude, I was so I'm I'm sitting there and I was like, no, like so I whiffed the best of us so mad. I whiff my one shot. I don't have any other shells in the gun. And just when I think I was like, oh, we missed our chance at some beautiful redheads. My dad, there's still times to this day birds will do it right, and he'll just he'll just watch everybody shoot. His gun won't even be loaded. He'll be like, I just like watching you guys have a great time, you know?
SPEAKER_05:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:And I was like, he's not gonna shoot. And I hear boom, and then I just see this this redhead just go fall right out of the sky. And our uh our guide Louie, it was too far for his dog. Wind was whipping, like the waves were crazy. He gets Lou's big guy, he gets on this little eight-foot like sun dolphin kayak, and it's like bright blue. And like I said, Lou's probably 6'5. Man, he's a big dude. And he went probably 250 yards out into the middle of the finger lakes in this little eight-foot sun dolphin kayak. They retrieved my dad's bird for him, and that will be one of the coolest moments.
SPEAKER_05:Like, so your dad's the one that smoked that sun of a gun?
SPEAKER_04:Yep. I didn't even think he'd be like, Oh, yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_05:He's usually sitting off to the sidelines and he just lets her rip. I love that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. It's it was just it was hilarious. And like I said, there are times where we'll have birds just decoy crazy and we'll shoot them up and I'll I'll look over. Like, did you even shoot? And he'd be like, Nope. I was just watching you guys have a good time, man. He's just out there, he's just out there enjoying enjoying being outside.
SPEAKER_05:Dude, we gotta go hunting with these two. These are these this is a father-son duo that uh resonates with us a lot.
SPEAKER_02:I would honestly there's a lot of like similarities, like hearing y'all talk. Well, first of all, I'm about to be 29. Uh, I don't know how old your dad is, but he's 53.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Um but just like the the deer hunting and then getting in the duck hunting late, and then just like the banter back and forth.
SPEAKER_05:Like oh, the banter is part of the I mean, like if you watch our our for Florida's Forgotten Coast video, what Drew says in there, he goes, the vocals have been here for 10 seconds, they're already fighting about something.
SPEAKER_02:In the early days of the duck hunting stuff, it would always be like just just out of both being passionate and like not honestly not really knowing, like neither of us really knew what we were doing, but we thought that's probably what caused some of the frustration. But it's like try thinking we know it better than the other one does, you know what I mean? Right because neither of us really know, it's just what we're reading and what we're hearing or whatever, and just trying to be successful that day, you know. And oh, you gotta set it up this way, we gotta throw these decoys out, you know? And probably shit that honestly didn't even matter, you know, right, right.
SPEAKER_05:No, no, I definitely think that thinking back about a lot of stuff and just be like, dude, did that shit even matter?
SPEAKER_02:Like we used to be so OCD about like, oh, we gotta have this mix of ducks because it's gotta look like what were there, what we saw scouting. And it's like realistically, we could have probably threw any ducks out, decoys out.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, yeah, like these guys would go out and set a spread, and I'd walk out there and grab like three ducks and move them.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And I'd be like, I look back on something like that, and I'm like, you stupid son of a bitch.
SPEAKER_04:Well, dude, it's it's so funny you bring that up because when I went to New York for the first time, um, like I said, we were with an outfitter, and I was like, I had never diver hunted before. And so I was like, Louie, just so you know, man, I'm gonna talk your ear off. And I was asking him questions, and I was like, So now do you have these ducks paired up with these ducks? And he was like, dude, he was like, I throw them on their long lines, no more than two species per long line, and we just throw out a shitload of them. And he's like, That's what we're rocking with. And I was like, Oh, okay, so I've been overthinking it for like three years. Okay, thanks.
SPEAKER_05:Like that should be like a shirt or something, they'd be like, when you question what the outfitter's doing, yep. Like, we have a better idea.
SPEAKER_04:And even uh a couple weekends ago when we hunted with Brian Elathorpe, him and he gets on some divers heavy up there, man, and he knows his stuff. And that's what I was like, hey, you know, you care if I pick your brain. He was like, absolutely like, let me hear it. And uh I said, you know, what about this and this and this? And he was like, most people will freak out about those two ducks, like tuck like the two decoys touching. He was like, Do you ever see a thousand ducks in a little raft? He was like, they're all bumping into each other all day. He was like, Who cares? And then I was like, Oh, okay. So I have been overthinking it for a long time.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, well, I remember like a guy, and I'm not gonna say his name. If you're he won't be listening to this because he doesn't podcast, but he told me one time, look, man, these kinds of ducks don't associate with these kinds of ducks, so those need to be over here, and these need to be over hair, you know, and honestly, like Cade's the one that totally changed my mind about that, and maybe it's just by quantity, but I'm like, why do you have the green wings mixed in with the gad while he goes, it all matter worth of whatever he said. He goes, it don't like every single scenario of ducks together is different all the time, and it's changing all the time, right? And even going back to what Brad Cohen told us, uh, he's with Cohen Wildlife Research Lab. If you don't follow him, follow him. Um, but he said to me, or said to us, he goes, the best advice that I would give based on our viewing of stuff is always do it different. Yeah, do it different. Don't set your J's, don't set your V's, don't have one duck over here, one set of ducks over. Like the thing they've probably found the best, the most beneficial was doing something just completely different.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:You know, just with their research and study and everything else. But no, dude, that's some great stuff. We gotta get we gotta get in the hunt with you, dude. Like you said, you meet somebody for an hour and you're like, dude, I've known them all my freaking life. Right. You know, this is like I could I can hunt with you and your dad all yeah, all weekend long, dude. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_04:I was gonna say, man, try to make something happen.
SPEAKER_05:What's your dad's name?
SPEAKER_04:Mike as well. Mike.
SPEAKER_05:Oh Mike, nice to meet you, bro. We're gonna go hunt.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, he'll uh he's a real ball buster too, man. So he'll have uh he just has a great time getting out there, man. Um I'm hoping that I was trying to drag him down to the Ducks Expo last year. Um I ended up not being able to go, but I was like really hoping hopefully this year I'll be able to make it down so we can uh you know, hopefully hang out if we don't.
SPEAKER_02:We'll be there. Yeah, dude, because they're done running Memphis back, which we're really excited about. Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, last year we we uh Frog Togs was nice enough to let us host podcasts the whole time, uh all three days. And we we had Dr. Duck and Billy on there. We had uh uh Lucas Heygood on there. I mean, and probably one of my favorite guests was actually a little little man working in the booth with us. Uh what's his name?
SPEAKER_02:Uh shoot, now put me on the spot. I don't remember.
SPEAKER_05:I don't remember, but it was a great experience just because everybody that walks past you in there and everybody you talk to, we're all cut from the same cloth. And that's what's so awesome about it, dude. And uh we just our first addiction started with a Delta Waterfowl expo, and um I won't miss I won't miss either of those events if it's within financial uh financial reach.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, and um Uh Dawson actually uh he connected me with with Donnie a little bit. So I've been talking and texting Donnie a little bit too. He seems like a cool guy. He's a northeastern guy too. Yeah. We've been chopping it up a little bit. So I'm hoping to get down to the expo next year, man. My uh my good buddy Brian. He has a he has a couple partners that were down there. So he had gone and he was like Mike P. He's like, you'd have this place, man. He's like, you gotta get here next year. So I'm hoping that hoping that this summer we'll be able to get after it for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, dude, that'd be a blast. And yeah, maybe next time we do the podcast we do it in person down there, it'd be cool.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, hell yeah, dude. That'd be badass for sure.
SPEAKER_05:And even the best part is head on over to the Airbnb.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:There might be some cards or beers. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, man. There was a lot of cool stuff going on afterwards down there, dude. I don't know if you heard about it, but like so Moss Yoke had a party, which was like, I don't know. I think you had you could buy that one, but like then I guess Shin had some like invite-only thing, which I guess we're not cool enough to get the invite, so we didn't get to go to that. But uh, and then uh Ducks Unlimited had like a big expo dinner, which we did go to that after um the expo sportsman's banquet, yeah. This big sportsman's banquet, but there's just like you know, I mean, uh there's all these cool barbecue spots to eat at, and obviously the Bass Pro Pyramid, so it is kind of cool. I mean, Memphis gets a bad rap, but I thought it was pretty pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05:It's one of those places you don't want to leave, dude. When it's going on, when everything's happening like that, it's so my god, it's so fun.
SPEAKER_02:Whenever when all the duck hunters are there, you don't want to leave. Any other time you might want to leave. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Fast. Fast. No, but it really is. And I can't wait for the for the next one, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man, that's how I had come to listen to the podcast with you guys. Um, Brian, my buddy, had Billy Campbell on, and then I had followed you guys on TikTok, not realizing that it was the podcast. So I had listened to Lucas Headgood, and I had listened to um Dennis and Billy, and I had followed and talked to Dawson a little bit, and I was like, oh shit. And then, like I said, I put kind of two and two together, and I was like, Oh, that makes sense. Um so yeah, man, I'm happy that I I'm happy that I came across it, man.
SPEAKER_02:Us too, dude. We appreciate it, man. Yeah, we we probably like the disconnect there for a long time is like we were just doing audio on the podcast and not posting like video clips, and we've been trying to get like this is maybe our sixth one doing this video stuff, but the whole purpose is is to be able to put clips up on social media to grow the podcast. Because, like, to your point, like I mean, if you would have seen like those clips on social media, it would have put two and two together a lot greater, probably.
SPEAKER_05:Right. Right. Well, and then we you know, we we've been doing the YouTube thing and we're getting ready to start.
SPEAKER_02:Um we started our first video on YouTube outside the podcast for the since the six years, seven years or whatever.
SPEAKER_05:But uh, you know, Tristan came up with this idea last year. We had ran our first pilot series, it was called uh One Hell of a Duck Season. And uh it's it's our basically our passion to show you a story in all these different environments that we hunt. You know, how do you do it? How do they do it? You know, what's the history behind that area? What's the story? You know, we're we're very focused on telling a story, and so we're coming out season two this year. We're really excited about got some great things lined up, and uh actually we got an opportunity opening weekend.
SPEAKER_02:I don't want to give like too many details. This is gonna be the sickest thing that we could I'm I'm really like I hate to say something and it not work out because like let's say it raids the whole time and then I can't bring camera gear out, or you know, whatever it might be. But uh these guys are clients of our buddy Cade, and we've just kind of loosely known each other over time. Uh it's always been like the dad, the two or the two dads and the two sons. One of the sons passed away. They got yeah, it's it's really sad. They got his ashes put into shotgun shells. No way. He reached out to Cade and were like, hey, would is there any way these guys can be down here to get this on camera when he shoots when the dad shoots a duck with these shotgun shells? Wow, there's 10 shells with the shit. My whole thing was like, dude, forget just getting the clip. Let's I don't even want to hunt, dude. I just want to cry. I mean, seriously. Let's tell the whole story. Show your friend, like show the old videos you got with your friend. So I I'm ex we're extremely honored.
SPEAKER_05:Oh man. Um, but honored, yes.
SPEAKER_02:That's like the whole one hell of a duck season thing. It's not just like showing up and shooting ducks, like we're really trying to tell a story. So, like, knock on wood, I'm really hoping that it like works out, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Yeah. I mean, that's we're honored. Yeah, that's a crazy, crazy, and like you said, an honoring story to, you know, to be a part of.
SPEAKER_05:And it's giving me chills thinking about it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Yeah. That's just that's cool, man. And to be a part of that is is a blessing for sure, you know. And it's it's crazy to me, like I don't know if some people maybe, you know, I sound like I'm on a spiritual level or whatever, but like it's crazy that like God created ducks. And like some to some people, like it's a duck. But you know, to all of us, this whole thing is just like so special, you know, to all of us. And I think that that's I think that's so much more. Yep. Yeah, there's so much more.
SPEAKER_05:There is, there is, man. And uh, yeah, we but that's our whole thing behind one hell of a duck season. And we hope that you know, if you're listening to this, you'll follow our journey. We just post we posted uh the first episode a couple weeks back. Um, and uh um it was basically during the Polar Vortex in Arkansas. So pretty pretty cool stuff where we had uh we're actually might be one of the first recorded um hunts on video um using everybody in the blind to move an ice island out of the way. So duck hunters will do anything they can to shoot ducks, yeah. And we got out there and and we got that island out of the way. Um but uh but no man, we're we're excited about bringing that. And um man, it's just again, it's just we want to short share everything that makes us love this sport so much, you know, and and thank God every I don't I don't take one day for granted with any I don't take a time for granted with anybody we talk to on this podcast, people we share a blind with, those relationships are for life, and uh it's just it's a it's a crazy um it's a crazy um um special thing that we get to have as human beings.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Yeah, it is and I think too, you know, going off of the relationships thing is and it's also that I know we've probably seen that trend on TikTok where people say like church looks a little bit different lately. But you know, there's those times where I've been in the deer stand and never felt God's presence more than being, you know, either by myself in a tree or you know, with my dad in the duck line, like we're just laughing, having a great time. And and there's those times where you know, I don't think I've ever felt God's presence more in my life than being in these situations. And you know, it's crazy that some people look from the outside in and they think we're just shooting ducks or shooting deer, and you know, to all of us, at least it's it's just a lot deeper than that, which is cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, dude, that's that's really well said.
SPEAKER_05:Well, we just keep pushing that, right?
SPEAKER_02:I've I've always felt like I mean, I whether there's any truth to this or not, but I feel like when you go into the woods with like a grateful heart and a you know, kind of a mindset that like you know you're thankful to be out there and you're thanking God to be out there. Like, I feel like good things are you're setting yourself up at least to be successful, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So no, no, I mean how many times, like I just told Tristan we were going our way out to public land in Georgia last night, and half the drive up there, it's an hour. I found myself stressing out about it's Veterans Day, somebody else could be off, they're gonna be hunting our spot. And that was taking the experience of this beautiful drive up towards the mountains in Georgia where everything's so colorful and beautiful. I just I told Tris and I go, I I basically drew a line in the sand in my brain right then. I was like, shame on you, you know. But I caught myself, you know. But how many times do we let those things in interfere? Right, you know what I mean? It's why we do it, dude. It's why we check out, it is our peace place, it is, you know, it is our place where we find some of the most intimate times with God. And um, yeah, I just I was thankful yesterday that at least I thought, stop. You know, and and listen, if if all and we didn't see a damn deer. And the night before, the reason why he's up there is I passed a decent buck and it's all four bucks, you know, and so we knew last night that he was gonna smoke one, but guess what? We didn't see a deer, and we had a perfect wind, and that's okay, dear. We'll get you next time.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so and not to like give myself props or anything, but that's also one thing I tried to like put on socials is one being totally transparent that I don't go out and shoot 200 ducks in in a year, like you know, I don't, but also we see so many guys saying, like, I'm out here to kill a limit, I'm out here to shoot my six ducks and leave. And I'm like, you know, that's the cool thing about the sport is they have the opportunity and they have you know God's free will to go. If that's their goal, I'm for it, man. If you want to go out there and shoot ducks, yes. It's not like I want to be a bird watcher, you know, sometimes. But I try to push it out there that you can still have you know these these great and beautiful experiences with with nature, with God, with your friends, and you know, you don't have to shoot your six ducks every time, at least in my opinion, to to have a good time.
SPEAKER_02:Well, like you're I think you're putting out a good message, dude. I I do. I I I appreciate it. I see a lot of like what I like I just like see a lot of like your content resonating with like I know how it feels to be like a new person in the waterfowl industry, as do you. Uh not the waterfowl industry as a waterfowl hunter. I mean, um, and I feel like you're hitting the nail on the head by being vulnerable like that to help other new people, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_04:Well, cool, man. Yeah, thank you. I I appreciate it, man. And I think that you know, however me being a jackass on camera maybe makes somebody laugh or helps them get into it or whatever is is is cool. And I mean I do think it's it's super cool when you know, you know, you're saying like, oh man, I think your stuff's hilarious. And I'm like, you know, just however me being, you know, whatever tomfoolery I get into in the woods makes somebody laugh is is cool with me, man. So I appreciate the heck out of that. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, man. And it's honestly that kind of thing's a little bit of a gift too, dude, because I like I like I think my gift's probably a little bit more behind the camera, like filming people than doing that. But like I always wish that like I could have like the quick, funny shit to say, and it doesn't always work that way. But when you like you said you're a talker, like he's he's the talker out of these two, so it's almost it's almost better. A lot of things like that.
SPEAKER_05:Half the shit I say is dumb and half the shit's funny, right?
SPEAKER_02:But man, we we want to be respectful of your time, Mike. I'm sure that you know us four or three could sit around here and talk for hours about man, but tell everybody where they can follow you and get in touch with your content.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. I am um at the great Palm Bino on Instagram and TikTok. I try my best to upload um to Instagram uh at least a couple times a week. I upload on TikTok every day, and a lot of the behind the scenes GoPro shot cam stuff that we can't really put out on TikTok. I try my best to put to put out on on Instagram. I do have uh a deer hunt filmed for YouTube. It's not chopped and edited yet. Um I'm gonna really push myself and try to you know put some of that stuff out there. Hopefully, hopefully I can get some some YouTube stuff out there too.
SPEAKER_05:Heck yeah, man. That's awesome. You're good people, man, and thank you for supporting the sport in such a positive way and putting out a great message, bro. You it's just uh it's people like you that I get excited about, you know, especially as an older person. I'm just like, man, these are this is the future uh of of what we do here. And and thank God that your dad raised you the right way, and and thank you, Mike, and and and I look forward to hunting with you and your dad, all the sharing the blind. Number one, I know we're gonna laugh our ass off. And number two, like I could totally see me and you going somewhere and laughing our ass off, and your dad and Tristan separating themselves going, these guys just need to go over here and talk. We're gonna shoot ducks, you guys go over here and talk.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, my dad's gonna stuff his earplugs in when I get going. He's gonna ignore me for a while.
SPEAKER_02:That's funny stuff, man. All right, brother. We'll ride on, Mike. Appreciate you, man. Cool.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you so much for having me, guys. It was so it was so nice to meet you. God bless you, and I hope that uh our paths cross uh this season or or in the near future, man.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and like like I tell everybody, man, you get your way through Atlanta, don't be afraid to shoot out text to us and say, hey man, at least want to if you even need a place to stay, dude. We got we've got extra room and uh we'd love to have you.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, thank you so much, guys. I appreciate that, man.
SPEAKER_02:Sound sounds good, Mike. And hey, um, if you got any uh like pictures of you out hunting or whatever, just doing anything, send them to me because I make like this graphic for the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:I'll post that. I've been southern, I've been hellbound, riding on a bit on straight. Going too fast now, thing all slowed down, standing in the poor rain.