Louisiana Marsh Hunting, Conservation Conversations, & Kade "Biskit" Bidstrup

We swap deer stands for marsh blinds with Biscuit, tracing a teal hunt that set a lifetime hook and the hard-won lessons of Louisiana waterfowling. From diver spreads and coot decoys to refuge myths, flooded corn debates, and mental health, we push for honesty, conservation, and smarter seasons.

• early deer roots and a teal hunt that changed everything
• work, school, and the cost of missed scouting
• Georgia access limits vs Louisiana tide and marsh nuance
• diver tactics, coot confidence, and pintails that won’t finish
• mixed bags, canvasbacks, and ethical bird care
• Arkansas road mishaps, frozen guns, and hard truths
• flooded corn, rice efficiency, pressure, and hen harvest
• DU vs Delta expectations and ROI on habitat
• refuge data, minimal-pressure quota ideas, and local fixes
• nutria, gators, erosion, and real economic impact
• building Wet Birds, posting authentically, not just highlights
• mental health, faith, and giving life “one more day”


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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:16

What's going on, guys? Kristen riding solo tonight on the One Hub Life Outdoor podcast. And we got Kate Bistrop. Is that how it's pronounced? Bistrip? Bistrip?

SPEAKER_03 0:25

Bistrip.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Bistrip. Okay, aka Biscuit, which is uh where many of y'all are probably familiar with him from if you follow him on TikTok. Um, but man, thank you for taking the time to hop on the podcast tonight. Um, definitely excited to talk to you. Um, seems like you guys down in Louisiana get to do all kinds of cool stuff that we don't over here in Georgia. But thanks for joining us, man.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Oh, yeah, thanks for having me, dude. It's uh it's a pleasure. I've seen you all over TikTok, so figured as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

We try to get our our uh little goofy podcast out there as much as we can.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

I hear you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

I hear you. Uh well, tell everybody, man, just a little bit about who you are. And um, you know, obviously you're from Louisiana, but uh, you know, what got you in the outdoors and all that good stuff?

Balancing Work, School, And Scouting

SPEAKER_03 1:10

So uh basically I grew up deer hunting mostly, you know, into my middle school years. Like as soon as I could walk, my dad had me in the deer stand. Like he he was hard at it, you know, mad at him, and then he had me, he had to kind of slow down. And then as soon as I was able to walk and you know understand to be quiet in the deer stand, he brought me in that kind of continued on. And then uh my first duck hunt, I was probably five, and he didn't even he didn't even let me bring a gun. He's like, You come to Pecan Island, you just come and sit in the blind. And I think we shot one or two birds, and it was, I mean, it was still fun, you know. It started that interest of the waterfowl side for me, and then I went on a couple more hunts, you know, just sporadically as we were deer hunting, and then uh I think it was my freshman or sophomore year high school. My uncle was like, Hey, uh, I was going to sleep at their house, him and my nanny, and uh he's like, Hey, I got an invite to go teal hunting in the morning. Would you want to go? And I was like, Well, I don't have anything. He's like, Oh, don't worry about it, we got you. I was like, All right, so we went and we shot a four man and we're back at the house done cleaning birds for 10:30. Oh, okay, dude, that's awesome. Like ducks in your face all morning, just one of those hunts, like you know, you get spoiled to it real quick. And after that, it was just lights out. After that, it was just game over, and then I started hunting for the same. Oh, dude, it was it's it's bad. I still I still mess with him, or he'll text me, you know, randomly. He'll be like, How's in pockets holding up? I'm like, dude, don't even start. You already know what you did, you know. Yeah, this year was was rough as far as like getting able being able to get out because like I started so I graduated college in December, but well, I'll be working hard, but I appreciate it. Uh they had sent me out to start working, so I was working six days a week. Man can't really scout doing that, so I was just kind of relying on my buddy to go scout for us, and he's working almost as much as me. So it was it was a tough year as far as staying on burger consistently, but it was still fun.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Oh man, yeah, that's that's a lot. What um what'd you go to school for and what are you doing now?

SPEAKER_03 3:23

So I went for business management to uh two-year college, not far from the house, and then uh nice. I started an internship. I got lucky, super lucky with that internship, uh, at a pipeline company to be a project manager. And the deal was I had to go to school in order to, you know, stay in that intern spot. And then once I kind of talked to my boss, it's like, hey, December's coming up, whatever. And he's like, Well, we got a job that's gonna be fabricating pipe here in the yard, so you'll be able to stay close to home, close to school, you know, kind of do what you need to do, but you're also stuck in this job until you know the job's over with. So that's what I'm doing now. I'm assistant QAQC now, so I'm just kind of learning the field side of everything.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah, so they kind of put you, you were doing the intern side of like the being more in the office, and they're like, Yeah, you're gonna have to learn it from the ground up now, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Yeah, so I got to see quite a bit on the project management side. You know, I got to help with a few like weekly reports, just small stuff that you almost couldn't mess up, like you'd have to try to mess it up. And uh they were like, you know, you still gotta learn the job. So that's what I'm doing now. It's it's fun, but it it makes it hard to get out, you know.

Georgia Public Land Reality

SPEAKER_01 4:38

No, I get it, man. I get it. I um can totally relate because like the last uh really last three years, it's almost like when I've had like the the things can't go in like in a row, you know. Like when I have I do sales, so like, you know, when when things are going well, then you can take time off. But when they're not, you know, you kind of gotta like it's hard to be like, yeah, I want to go take off. And I uh basically we moved up to Atlanta a few years back and we're part of a startup, me and my dad working together in the commercial cleaning business. And um long story short, we're not doing that anymore. We're both moved on to different things, but after that, I went had a stint with a different company. So like we're grinding trying to start that business, and then I go to a new company, I have to prove myself. And long story short, now I'm with another new company that I really like, but I think this coming duck season is finally gonna be the duck season where it's like, wow, I'm I got all the time in the world, sales are going good, like because it's just been like the last five years has just been like, man, dude, I just I want to do it more, but you know, you only have so much time and gotta take care of the home front, you know.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Yeah, no, for sure. And then this year, the way the weather lined up for me, I got two weeks off for Christmas, but it was hot. I mean, it was blazing hot the whole time. Thankfully, I you know, I I got a couple invites. Uh, one of my buddies has a pit blind uh just north of where we live. And dude, I have never had a bad hunt there. Like their bad hunt is is one limit of ducks with three people. And I'm like, that's not horrible, you know. You scratch off six birds, but no, dude. I mean, it's I got we went over there and it was on my birthday. I don't know if you saw that TikTok, but we we shot 20 ducks, a lot of spoon bills, but I love a spoon. Me too. And me too. I got one, I got one in the freezer right now that I need to do, but no, man, it's it made it, you know. I got those invites, and it's like, well, I can't pass that up, you know. Yeah, make capitalize on what I can type deal, and then turn around and try to go hunt public land. It's like, well, maybe I should have gone scout.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Dude, that's that's one thing that I've learned, man. No matter like where you go in the United States, like there's no chance that like me being in Georgia, I could ever come out to your marsh or go out to Arkansas or go to California or wherever it is and have success just like that. Like, you really have to spend the time, even if you know it, you gotta spend the time to figure out where they are, you know. That's the that's the thing about public. It's like if you it's nice if you can have it in your backyard and know what exactly what's going on, but if not, man, it's a it's tough game.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Yeah. So how's your Georgia public work?

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Do y'all have is it kind of like a free-for-all type deal, like down here, or y'all got like draw spots or uh it's it's a little bit of both, but the thing is, is like there's not that much access for like your your just go out and hunt public. And like where there is access, it's usually like on your lakes and rivers and stuff like that. But like, so you got your wood duck holes, but like on the on the bigger lakes, like Lake Seminole, um Lake Oconey, Lake Sinclair, like you can get divers out there, but you know, I think the problem there, which I haven't really messed with divers on those lakes, but I think the problem there is like A, you're battling all the lakeshore, like home front places that you got to be a distance from. So that's it, that's an issue. And then on top of that, um, you know, obviously just public land competing with folks out on out on public, but um, there's there's not a ton of opportunity outside of those, and you know, your wood duck holes off the rivers and stuff like that. But down on the coast of Georgia, um, there's more opportunity down there because you got your coastal, you know, you can get into bluebills and redheads, not so much redheads, more like bluebills and um buffleheads and stuff like that. And then um, there's different places that the state will put in like impoundments and stuff like that, which can be hit or miss, usually like the first split that can be good, and then after that, pretty much shot out. Um but just to answer your question, no, there's not a lot of great opportunity. Um, the lottery hunts are weird because they're um quota system and there's so few of them that like it takes like seven years to pull these lottery hunts. Like, I'm on, I think I have six preference points of next year. I might pull it, but it's it's crazy. I mean, I'm not really stressing it though. We usually go to Florida or Florida or Arkansas to hunt.

Arkansas Trip Chaos And Lessons

SPEAKER_03 9:16

Yeah. I I made it up to Arkansas this year. That was a doozy of a trip, bro. It was really oh man, we caught a blowout on the way up. We hunted Saturday morning, running about two hours of sleep. Went, we were like, you know what, we're gonna go grab lunch, go to Walmart, get some food, you know, cook for the night, and then we were going by a tire for my buddy's trailer because he had a blowout, and uh the two guys we were with pulled out in front of us. My buddy went to pull out and we got T-boned right in the trailer. No way. Oh, yeah, dude. We were we were famous in the Arkansas group. It was it was a it was a trip, and then the weather ended up not lining up for the place we were gonna hunt, so we had to drive another you know three, four hours south just to hunt the next morning. Dude, it was brutal. But it was oh my god, dude.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah, that's one of those that's like trauma bonding.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

It it really was because it was like uh so Saturday, once we made it back to where we were staying or where we were gonna sleep that night, I I crash out at like 6 30. I was planning on having like a three-hour nap and then waking up at 6 30, start cooking, and then take a take a nap after supper. And I fall asleep at 6 30. I get woken up at 7 o'clock, and they're like, hey, we gotta go. Like, if we're gonna go, we gotta go now. I was like, Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah. Did you guys have to get out there at like 1 a.m. and put the boat in the water at like 2 a.m. type deal?

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Yeah, yeah, it was so the the first night we got there Friday night, everything went smooth, you know, after the blowout and everything, and fix our food, go to bed. I get woken up at 11:30. Now it's it's seven guys in our group with three boats. And this guy that wakes me up, I have no idea who he is. Like he's my buddy fuck, he's like, hey, what are you doing? Yelling, I wake up, and this dude is 6'5, every bit of 400 pounds, big old beard, like like almost like a bummerjack. And I wake up like uh who are who are we fighting? I was like, this is not good, and turns out he was he's a guy from South Carolina, and we kind of game playing on how we were hunting the next morning that way.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

We weren't messing them up, but sure it was it was fun. Man, it was it seems like everybody really had a tough duck season this this year. I don't know. I mean, in pockets, of course, like people are gonna be successful, but man, it seemed like across the board it was tough.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Yeah, no, a lot of the stuff I saw, you know, late that last week of the season, it got dumb down here.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I was wondering how that would go, man, because I posted a video like talking about that on the podcast, and people were like, there were so many comments where people are just like so heated about that, and I'm like, okay, well, how do you figure that's not gonna help your duck hunting situation?

A Tough Season And Weather Swings

SPEAKER_03 12:13

So last year we had that big freeze, but we had a lot more cold everywhere, like down where so where I'm at, I'm like the south central area, so I'm not southeast or southwest. I'm kind of like in the middle of the state, but south middle, if that makes sense. And last year we had like six inches of snow everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

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SPEAKER_03 13:07

Everything was frozen, even like the marshes in the coast were frozen. Like my buddy went hunting. Wow, they were walking on ice in the in the marsh. I was like, no kidding. That like I was like, that is dumb. So we really what I think happened last year was either all the birds just hovered that line where it froze, like where the freezing stopped up north, where they still had open rivers and stuff, or they just bypassed us, being that we were frozen over and went to Mexico. And this year is completely different. We still had a lot of open water down here, like all the marshes and everything was open. I mean, some freezing, but not like frozen over to the point you're walking on it. And uh I had a buddy come down from North Carolina or South Carolina, and I was kind of helping him out. I was like, hey man, like if they're if I'm gonna hunt here, because they were hunting similar places I was hunting, and I was like, This is what you need to go look at, you know, let me know if you need anything. And they whacked them. Uh the Saturday morning, we should have done good. That that whole weekend was just me throwing it out on a limb because I had no time to scout and just seeing what happens. The Saturday morning, we lost a bunch of birds, the wind was horrible. Just and then the Sunday morning, my brother wanted to go try a spot, and I was like, I haven't hunted with him all year, we'll go see what happens, and that we we wasted time. The Monday morning, I was like, you know what? I know where we're going, should be half decent. And we get to the spot, and my buddy's bus boss calls him at like 8 30. Why are you not at work? So we had to pack it up and leave, and we had we we should have had a two-man by then, but I left my gun in the truck, and he leaves his gun in the truck, which not small. Get in the boat, guns froze. So we we get set up that morning, and uh next thing you know, I go to put a shell in, and my chamber will not like will not shut. Press a button, press a release, wouldn't shut. And I'm like, oh man, so I'm sitting there breathing on it. So we had probably 10 birds hit the decoys in between our guns freezing and unfreezing. Shooting two after that before we had to leave.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Dude, I I've never even thought about that. That's the kind of thing that like you don't even ever learn until it happens to you, you know.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Yeah, no, it was I looked at him, I was like, what are we doing, bro? Like, dude, it was it was so bad. It was so bad.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Dude, that's so frustrating. Oh my god. What do you guys when you guys are hunting the marsh out there? Um, I mean, how do you are you guys having issues with like the tide, or is it pretty consistent? Or I mean, are you trying to hunt them on a low tide, or what's like the the deal out there?

SPEAKER_03 16:14

So there's a couple WMAs that are like super tidal, and if you catch them right, there's guys that I know that'll hunt, you know, they'll wait for the tide to go out and they'll run the main cut all the way to the Gulf and they'll hunt sandbars, and they will like they do real good. But then you also got the guys that on a high tide, you catch them in the marsh, not you know, hunting the outside of the marsh, and they crush them too. So it's all it's it's definitely in those areas, you know, tidal dependent. But then you get there's a couple uh NWRs that almost have like landlocked marshes, and those if they if they have water on them, sometimes you'll have you know a low water year where all your grasses grow up, but if they have water on them, dude, they're they're usually pretty hot. But I mean, I've seen some straps come out of there that it's like there's no way you were in Louisiana. Those guys found them and just beat on them. So what do you normally shoot out there? Uh this year was a lot of gadwalls. Uh like last year, I feel like there wasn't as many early, but we got that big front early, and I think that moved a lot of birds down. Uh I'm a big diver guy, I love shooting divers like canvas backs. That one, like bread and butter, I love them. But that's awesome. Woody's canvas backs, really everything, dude. Like we get the whistlers too. A lot of people shoot the the black bellied and the fauveless or however you say it. So I've never shot either one of those yet. But fingers crossed, we get a season next year for those.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Yeah, dude. I saw they're talking about putting in an early season for them.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Yeah, so that was that's been a big thing down here, you know. People fussing about it. It's like, oh, we want our squealer season. And they finally started, you know, I think they brought it into the USFW or whatever last year, and they kind of started looking at it. And the reason they didn't give it to us was they didn't want them want people mixing them up with model ducks. It's like, well, they're so different though. Yeah, I mean, if you're messing that up, it you almost got to be trying to mess it up, you know. So no doubt.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

But we have a similar um, I mean, when we hunt like South Georgia or like Florida, it's it's very similar in that regard. Like our teal season, there's definitely models around, and there's definitely well, there's models all year, but there's definitely whistling ducks around during teal season. During big duck or regular duck season, they you know go over they go, I guess down to Florida. But um, yeah, I mean, it's it there they fly so slow, they whistle. It's like the fact that like they don't even they're almost like not even a normal duck.

Whistling Ducks, Bands, And ID

SPEAKER_03 18:58

Yeah, no, if you mess that up, you're something's wrong with you. But no, so I've been seeing a lot of videos on the Mississippi River, like you know, in the past they would move out as soon as big duck season, you don't see them. The same thing as you guys, I'm sure. Yeah, but the past couple years, there's been people like last year during the freeze when it snowed. I I saw probably five or ten pictures on social media of just piles of them in the snow. Really? That is odd. And this year, later in the season, hundreds of them on the banks of the Mississippi River, you know, by the refineries and stuff, or like the ports, they'll be sitting there on the bank, just hundreds of them.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

I saw them on like a ship, a video of them on like a on that kind of boat. I guess that was probably down there.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Yeah, they had they had that one. I saw quite a few of them, and it's like, man, if I could find that and just go set up in the river where it's navigable water, making money.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Yeah, seriously. I think um, so like they're all over Florida, and people definitely God, I'm gonna turn my do not disturb on. I was loud as shit. Like blew my eardrum out when I got that text. Um, but I think the problem from like talking to guys down there that hunt them a lot is like they almost are like local Canada geese. Like they know, like they'll be on top of houses, they'll be like in people's neighborhood ponds, but like it's getting harder and harder to actually hunt them, even though like when you can hunt them, they're not hard to hunt. It's just they're getting, I guess, smarter to where they can be safe, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Yeah, they they I know I got a buddy that lives in southeast Louisiana, and uh he was sending me videos of his neighborhood. They were sitting, you know, in the neighborhood pond, like all around the bank. And he's like, I'm sitting here watching you know, 150, 200 whistling ducks, and I see 50 bands. He's like people people will do that, they'll like almost like band hunt like a Canada goose. They had uh my buddies with the blind and pecan island, they shot a pile of them last year and didn't even realize it, but they had I think one or two bands in the pile that they never saw.

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SPEAKER_01 21:21

But are a lot of them banned just because I would imagine they're I don't think they leave like Louisiana, right? They just go further south in Louisiana, don't they? Or no? As far as being banned in the state. Yeah, kind of like the model ducks, like a lot of model ducks out here. 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 Oxboat waterfile 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 tasting stuff. If you're looking to upgrade your gear this season, Head over to frogtalks.com and use code OneHealthalife Outdoors at checkout for 15% off your order.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

You're abandoned, so that's why people shoot 'em. Yeah. Even though uh burner trying to recreate its population. But I mean, I'm not passing one up. But at the same time, it's like, should we, you know?

Florida Vs Louisiana Duck Dynamics

SPEAKER_01 22:22

But yeah, I didn't think think about it. That's kind of a different, different thing for y'all, because I mean most of like our duck hunting. So when we got into duck hunting, it was in Florida. I'm originally from Illinois. And so my dad was there for like 40 years, and then our family moved down to Florida and big deer hunters growing up, but uh got into duck hunting in Florida, which it's like, God, I wish that we got into duck hunting when we lived in Illinois, because especially back then, like in the early mid-2000s, like, dude, I mean, it would have been awesome. But anyway, just hunting and hunting down there in Florida a lot. Um, models are like one of the big ducks you do kill because it's like really rare to shoot like a gadwall or even like I mean, you shoot them, they're more common, like spoonies, but like it's mostly like teal rares, wood ducks, whistling ducks. There's not a lot of there's hardly any mark migratory mallards. If I mean the DNR says they're zero, but people claim they're you know they'll shoot them. But I guess if you got gadwall and other stuff pretty common, I mean it's a little bit easier to pass up those model ducks.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Yeah. The the Gadwalls this year were thick, the pintails this year were dumb. Really? I mean, I didn't shoot as many as I would have liked to, just because there was that many, but we were hunting one morning and I'm not joking, probably 150 to 200 pentails working at one time.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

No kidding.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

It was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Are they uh are they like pentails normally are down there, like just they'll work you a bunch and then you have to like shoot them at 40 yards?

Pintails Working High And Wide

SPEAKER_03 23:54

Yeah, so I I shot one uh with a Texas rig guy. He supplies Texas rigs for a big uh guide in central Louisiana, and he gave us some to try out before he really like tried to launch his business. And uh he invited me to go hunt his pit blind with him, and we had two pentails, you know, right after night, and we're whistling, we're watching them, watching them, watching them, and finally he goes, dude, if they come close one more time, just aim at the sprig. And sure enough, we knocked him down, but oh yeah, they'll they'll circle and circle and circle, and then if if it's a cloudy day, they'll hover at 60 and just sit there and do like that. Like I've had mornings, and my buddy would tell you the same thing. Like, we sat there and worked 250 pentails one morning, just small groups of 10, 20, 30. And we'd we'd work them like you'd see them specks in the sky, and they just come down and they're just teasing you the whole time, and it's like, oh man, just one more pass. That's all we need.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

They're frustrating, yeah. Oh, very I've I've said some choice words that are pictures. I my buddy, my buddy last week, and we were uh I'm not a veteran, but my dad, and um, that was part of why we were he's out there for snow geese. Is we were out there, I was just like filming for the bets hunt, and one of my buddies is a vet too, and uh he was asking me, like, what's your favorite duck to hunt and or to shoot or whatever? And I think I told him a pentail because it's just like when they they're so frustrating all the time, but when it does go right and they're just landing all the time, they're so cool. It's almost like too good to be true, they're like majestic.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

No, dude, that I agree though, like watching a pentail work and then you do get them to finish, especially in a group of like five or more, it's like alright.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

It's like, oh, maybe maybe I'm good at die hunting, actually. Uh that's funny, man. Well, I see you're uh posting some stuff about crappie fishing. I guess you're a big crappie fishing guy.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

Not I don't want to say I'm not because I'm starting to lean towards it. When I was younger, I was ate up with bass fishing, like that's all I wanted to do. And then as I got older, I was like started sack lay fishing more with my grandpa. You know, we we have a camp in Toledo Bend, so we'd go out on brush piles. We had a few brush piles and we'd tight line, you know, vertical jig or whatever you want to call it, and we'd do pretty good. And then fishing around here, like once I got my license, we got good bass fishing in the bayous and stuff, but it's not as much as a sack lay. And uh started sack lay fishing, and I got on them one morning. I figured them out half decent. And same thing as the ducks, just like, oh, I think I know what I want to chase now, you know. But I don't discriminate.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Yeah, yeah. If they're biting whatever, you know. Yeah, right. Uh when you say Sackley, what is that?

SPEAKER_03 27:03

That that's a crappie.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

We just call them Sackle down here. They got like five or six different names over here.

Mixed Bags And Dream Species

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Well, it's called funny, like it's funny, like just in I mean Florida, they call them specs, and I was like, what are they talking about? Like, there's no beast around here.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Yeah, I got a buddy, he uh same buddy that I worked at all those pentails with, he moved from Opalousis to Monroe, and uh up there they call him White Perch. Okay. He got on the phone with me one day and he goes, Yeah, we went white perch fishing. And I was like, Who are you talking to? Yeah, where are we learning this? You know, just giving him giving him crap for it. But yeah, yeah, they got white perch. I think people down here call him crappie. I haven't really heard it as much, but white perch and sacrifice are the two big names for him down here.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

You guys got some interesting names for like all kinds of stuff down there. Like I uh so like what's canoe, like Piro. Yeah, Piro. Yeah, and then uh Coots or Poodle, right? Poodle, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like those two. I was like there a couple different times I was hunting with people from Louisiana and they would say those, and I'm like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_03 28:20

You look at them side like sideways, like what'd you just say to me? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Do uh speaking of coots, uh people like especially in the Midwest, they're like, You're crazy, you guys duck hunt with coots. But I know a lot of y'all do that down there. Is that something you do?

SPEAKER_03 28:34

Oh, a hundred percent, especially on like your big waters, you know, you get those rafts of coots. Uh you watch ducks land with those coots all day long, and it's like I might as well give it a shot. If they're if they're doing it with live coots, and you know, the rafts aren't formed up yet, if it's early in the morning, then I mean it I think it helps, especially confidence decoy. And especially later in the season when it when it's pressured, you know, you throw out a dozen coots on the outside of your spread, and usually it gives them something to look at, and it's you know, confidence decoy, like you said. So and they taste good.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

All right, so okay. I've never ate one, but one thing I'm big on is like everyone, there's so many people that'll be like, Yeah, this doesn't taste good. And I'm like, I don't even believe anybody that says that anymore because the amount of times I've had stuff that doesn't taste good, that tastes good.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

That's like whenever somebody's like, Oh, a diverse a trash duck. I'm like, one, you either got a bad one, you know, one that's sitting in the marsh or sitting in a cow pond or something nasty, or you just don't know how to cook.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Yeah.

Targeting Divers And Decoy Strategy

SPEAKER_03 29:44

You know, like whenever we we'll shoot coots, and gumbo is popular around here, which I've never made one with a coop. But I we shot quite a few this year, and I what I did was I breasted them out, and then I just took the took the breast, cut it up into fajita strips, and then marinated those, or actually salt brine soaked them for a minute just to pull some of that flavor out, and then marinated them in like a taco seasoning and then threw them in the skillet. Now, I mean you couldn't tell no difference from that and a a teal, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to try that next time I get an opportunity. Um yeah, it's funny, man. People like I'm with you. I think a lot of it comes down to cooking. Because like, you know, if you if you just like overcook something and you're trying to cook it as a steak, or if you uh just fry everything, like I just I mean, nothing wrong with how you want to eat stuff, but I like the amount of times that I've just cooked something like I would a steak, you know, basically medium rare, and then salt and pepper, maybe like cook it in a pan of some butter or something, and eat it like a steak, and it's just phenomenal. Like, it's crazy. I mean, even with like snow geese, like people think snow geese doesn't taste good. And I'm like, I mean, it's not the bet, it's not a ribeye, but it's not bad.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

Yeah. No, that's that's one of my biggest things is like, if you don't want to eat it or you ain't gonna eat it, why are we shooting it? You know, yeah, especially with the snow geese. Like, I don't know if you saw at the beginning of the season they had all that stuff in Canada, uh with those guys dumping, you know, however many birds it was. It's like oh yeah, I think I did see that. Yeah, they I I don't remember what part of Canada it was, but I mean it snowballed into a big you know social media thing with uh Spencer Lewis and another guy, but uh it was like why are we even shooting them if all we're gonna do is dump them, you know? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Well, and it's a bad look for the whole crowding community in general, because like the other day, like, and I'm not a big like uh like I don't stir up the pot with people, like you know, if I see something stupid, I just keep scrolling usually. But like there was this post the other day of this turkey with its head on a water fountain, and you may have seen it with like all this, like like basically a great shot on the bird. Oh I did see it, I did see that. I commented on I'm like, this ain't it, and then like it got a bunch of likes or whatever. But I wasn't commenting on it just for the lights. The reason I was commenting on it is because people same thing with the snow goose thing. We are already like every day as hunters fighting an uphill battle with like regulations and losing properties to hunt and losing seasons, and because at the end of the day, like we're not there's a lot of things that make a lot more money for the states. I mean, outside of you know, maybe like fishing in Louisiana or like you know, duck hunting in Arkansas or deer hunting in Illinois, like some of the other states, like you know, it's an uphill battle trying to keep what we got, and it's like why give you're supposed to paint hunting in a positive light, you know, and you're just giving ammunition to people that can use that kind of thing that uh harm the rights you have as a hunter. I feel I feel like.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

Yeah, they they have enough ammunition as it is. Why are we handing them more bullets? You know, yeah, it's that's one thing. Like this year, I think I got tagged in probably 10 videos. Me, Dawson, Cook, and Holler. I don't know if you know Kevin, uh, the outdoor life or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Uh I don't think so.

Is Louisiana Declining Or Adapting?

SPEAKER_03 33:15

I don't I don't know his exact, I'll have to share you one of his videos, but uh him and then uh Jaden and Tom BZ. Uh every time somebody would see a video, they would tag one of us in it, and then that person, whoever got tagged, tagged everybody else, and we would just go in the comments and be like, not bully, but yeah, hey man, like let's be smart, let's do the right thing, you know. Not because it's on camera, but just do the right thing, you know. And a couple of them, it was like full, not alive birds, but you could tell they had been shot. Like one of them, it was a wood duck and it had blood all across its breast, like the top of its breast area. And I'm like, and and they're sitting there like playing with it, kicking it around. It's like, come on, man. Like, yeah, one, it's unethical. Two, you're just putting us in, like, you're giving people a reason to not like us, another one on top of it, because they already don't.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Yeah, and like you said, it's unethical and just kind of disrespecting the animal. Like, I and sounds like you've kind of been raised the same way. What in the world? I thought I turned off freaking shit is so wild. Um do you hear the text when it comes through? Yeah, I heard it. What in the world, man? It's like blowing my eardrum out. Um, but uh, where was I going with that? With the oh, yeah, like I was always raised, like, even with like a deer, like put the tongue in its mouth and like try to make it look like it's nice, like if it's covered in blood all over its face or whatever. Just like little things like that, just to kind of show respect to the animal in the picture, which I mean that's here nor there. Like, it's not like if you're taking a picture without that, you're not respecting the animal, but just little things like that was kind of always been ingrained with me. So I'm with you on the duck thing, like, you know, at the end of the day, like you want to show respect to the animal. And that's like I'm always big about what the with the pictures I take too with ducks. Like, I'm more of a fan of like pictures that show off like the plumage and stuff like that, you know, versus um which nothing wrong with like just throwing them all in a pile and getting a picture with your buddies, like that's cool, you know. But I I've always been more of a fan of like trying to show off like even the plumage of the bird because I just think they're so cool.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Oh, for sure. I I shot that spoonie this year. I'll try to pull up a picture real quick and see if I can show it. Uh I actually ended up talking to somebody about it, uh, Ben Pierce.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

I don't know if you know if you've heard of him, but uh I don't think so.

Corn, Rice, And Migration Debates

SPEAKER_03 35:51

He he like breeds and studies hybrid waterfowl. So I showed a picture of the spoonie, which that I don't know if you can see it. Oh, yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

I think I saw you post that.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Yeah, I posted him because I was like, if somebody's gonna know, it's gonna be somebody on TikTok. But turns out he's like a one in 300 plumage, which is still crazy. But uh I have like 15 or 20 pictures of him. Then we shot a gray duck in Arkansas that like had the black, not uh defined black, but he had that separation in his neck area and that big purple on the side of his head. Oh, dude, he's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Wow, eating him, but dude, that's I've seen one other shoveler like that, and um, I know like they didn't they were thinking it was maybe like a hybrid with like a tea, like a fully plumed teal or something like that, but he weren't just similar to yours, you know. So that's it. That's interesting to hear that. I always wondered what what ended up coming of that.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah, so I I was kind of not heartbroken, because you know, it'd be cool to say I'd shot a hybrid, but it's still a cool bird nonetheless. Like that that's one thing, dude. Like, especially with any full plume bird, but even just like in general, like if I should have done it, even if it's not full plume, it's like still a like the colors you get out of a bird that isn't plumed out. It's like, how in the world is that even possible? It's just yeah, hardly.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

It's amazing, dude. And that's I've always been a mixed bad guy too, because I mean, I just think it's cool like when you get like six different birds, and like if you get six drapes, like talk, I mean, that's like my dream hunt when those days happen.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

Oh, dude, they're fun. Like uh I'm trying to think. I've had a couple hunts where it's like okay, we shot a couple spoon bills, a couple teal. Uh Thanksgiving weekend, I went and stayed with my uncle at his buddy's place, and we shot green wing, blue wing, gray duck, uh, and pintails in one hunt. And spoonies, but of course, he shot the hen. I was I was picking up I was picking up a bird in the decoys. I we'd shot one and he was crippled and he swam off. We didn't realize it. And uh go walk out to get him, and I turn around, I can hear a pentail whistling. I turn around, and there's a bunch of ducks circling the blind. So I kneel down and I'm watching, and uh I see him pick up and I see one bird fall. And I get back to the blind, I'm like, what'd you shoot? He goes, damn him. I just started dying laughing. And then that same morning we missed out on a canvas back, which that was my bad. Dude dog bombed from like took the stairways down and just in the neck on him. Big bull. I was like, oh man, but yeah, mixed bags.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

So you kill pen uh canvas bags pretty often, I guess, out there, huh? Like relatively often.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

Yeah, we shoot quite a few.

Limits, Pressure, And Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Dude, that's so sick. That's like I've never even seen someone kill one. Like, I haven't even been on a hunt when someone got one yet. Really? Yeah, yep, never seen it. I've seen them like flying when we were hunting, but never seen anybody kill one.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

Yeah, dude, they are when they do it, they're I don't want to say like a pentail, because they're not, you know, if they're doing it, they're doing it. There's no circling or nothing. Like they're gonna give you one swing and come right in, you know, kind of like a ringneck. But they're moody. Like I've had days where we'll go sit and we could be standing out in the open and they'll come do it. And then there's days where you can't have enough cover, you know, they're just not gonna do it. They're moody, moody, moody, but they're fun. They're and they're they're huge. Like they're big as not, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 40:05

I think I I would guess, but I mean they're they're really big. So when you uh target divers out there, do you do I mean, do you do any calling or do you do like long lines? Like, what's your setup when you go out and hunt divers?

SPEAKER_03 40:19

My favorite way to hunt them is just throwing out a raft. Like, if we have prior knowledge of you know what they look like when they're rafting up, then we'll go do that. And if they're call responsive, like a growl in a mallard call, like you roll your tongue, and they'll I've we've had them, you know, calling back to us some mornings. I mean, it was cool to see. Dude, it was but yeah, we'll do that. And then if we don't really know what's going on, you know, haven't really seen anything, or we haven't been able to hunt or scout, then we'll go and we'll throw, you know, three diver lines and then like a pot of puddle ducks and a pot of puddle ducks, just kind of make it look like a raft, but not a raft type deal. Almost like almost like a long line spread, but kind of mix in between and then hope for the best.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Yeah, yeah, see what happens and go from there. Yeah. Do you um when y'all are do you guys shoot like a bunch of redheads, or what's like the primary? I mean, obviously canvas backs, but what do you guys what are the divers you get into?

SPEAKER_03 41:22

It it it depends on where you're at and and what kind of migration we get. Like this year, it was a lot more canvas backs and ringnecks. Last year there's a quite a few redheads on the coast though. You get into those W Mays on the coast, a lot of redheads and a lot of canvas backs, not so much ringers and a lot of bluebells. You got a lot of canvas down there too. And then I know every now and then they'll get big piles of buffalo heads. Nice, and you know, you get kind of get everything down here. It's hard to hard to think about them all, but different places, different birds, but usually you get a little bit of everything.

Refuges, Data, And Misconceptions

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Nice, man. Do you do you feel like um I feel like Louisiana isn't kind of, I mean, I know people have a lot of success, but I feel like there's a lot of people that are frustrated down there for with the duck hunting situation because y'all are obviously at the bottom of the flyway. You know, I mean, do you feel like um I guess like that's do you feel like people are blown in out of proportion, or do you feel like it's still it's that bad? Yes and no.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

You know, you hear the stories from the early 2000s, you know, late 90s, early 2000s, or 90s into the 2000s, and you know, you get those guys like Pecan Island, they they used to shoot straps and mallards.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

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SPEAKER_03 43:37

Oh my god, that was normal. The the buddy I was talking about earlier that has the lease down there, they like you showed me pictures, they're like good blind year in and year out with greenheads, gray ducks, and specs. Oh my gosh, dude. They'll shoot now 10, 15 mallards a year and one or two gigs. And then after that, it's usually all teal and gray ducks, which I mean you can't complain about that. But when you used to have that, you know, almost all green strap coming out of the duck hole. It's like but at the same time, like this year, you know, you you talk about the freeze earlier. We had greenheads, but it was the last weekend of the season, you know, and everybody says weather, weather. Yes, it it obviously helps to have the weather, but the amount of mallards, like I I did a lot of looking at numbers, and from I think 2004 around that time frame, we had you know, our our best year was four million ducks in Louisiana on the January 7th survey with a hundred something thousand mallards you know in that survey. And you fast forward to 2024, we had a million ducks. Wow. 18, 17,000, 18,000 mallards. Oh my gosh. So you can see where that obviously it's the January survey, so you're into the season, second split. You would think you'd have the greenheads down, like you know, the past. So that's that's where the big corn argument comes up because it's like you know, I don't I don't know how you feel about it. I'm kind of I don't yeah, I think it hurts the migration, but it's not the sole cause, but it also like plays a good role in it too, you know. So yeah.

State Agencies, Access, And Fixes

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Now I I think um I'm kind of with you. I mean, I like ultimately I feel like there's part of me, it's like if it's your private land and you want to manage it the way you want to manage it, and it's within the current set of laws, like that's one thing, right? But like I get it where people are coming from, and also like there's so much more to it. Like, I was talking to so our buddy Cade, uh, he's his name's Cade too, but he runs an outfit in northeast Arkansas called Delta Thunder Outfitters, and um his granddaddy guided uh for Bill Byers Duck Club for years, um, I think like close to 40 years or something like that. And um, and maybe he spent time with some other duck clubs or whatever, I don't know. But he uh also farmed a lot, and he was saying back in the day, like the the combines would get like or whatever they're I'm I guess they're combines, the would leave like 25% of the rice crop, they were just so inefficient, and now it's like they leave like less than seven, eight percent, I think he said. It's I mean for sure under 10%. So then that's another thing. There's way less food throughout all those rice fields, you know. I mean, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of rice fields. So there's that. Um, obviously the weather, you know, just water being changed places, like, you know, it's so nuanced, you know, there's so much to there to it.

SPEAKER_03 47:05

That that's so I've I don't know if you've heard of Flyway Federation. Uh so they're like Senator Kennedy sent out the the I guess letter to the USFW asking for a study on flooded corn. And I know a couple of the guys, you know, real well, and I was talking to him and I told him, I was like, hey, look, like even if this does happen, you got to realize like I'm not saying that it's the same thing because when you compare rice to corn, corn's unharvested, rice is harvested. You got that waste grain compared to a full crop, pretty much. Sure. And I was like, even if you compare apples to oranges, there they're still gonna want to be like, okay, well, they get to hunt over rice, why can't we hunt over hunt over corn? It's like it's not the same thing. Yeah, that's what it's gonna boil it down, you know. That's what it's gonna end up being. It's like that's the chain effect. And at the end of it, it's like, okay, where do we go?

SPEAKER_02 48:10

No.

SPEAKER_03 48:11

It it's it's so back and forth, and so many things go into it that you can't make a definitive answer on it until it's uh been studied that much, you know. But I do think it needs to be studied because you look at oh harvest harvest numbers don't matter in the population. Who said that? Because you can't tell me that the amount of outfitters in the Mississippi flyway alone go out 60 days a year and they're shooting no less than six birds, you know. I mean, obviously you have your your oddball, crappy outfitters that you know are just promising the experience type of guys, but then you you look at your big guys that are running two and three groups a day in one blind, you know, swapping in and out, just hammering them day in and day out, just beating on them. You can't tell me that doesn't affect the population, not one bit, you know. And then you look at the amount of hens being shot, and I know everybody's like, oh, hens don't matter, shoot the hens, whatever. And like, if I if I don't have to shoot the hens, then I'm gonna do my best not to, you know. Yeah, but a dead hen doesn't lay eggs, another hen can't lay more for her. Yeah, a dead Drake doesn't fertilize eggs, but another Drake can fertilize those eggs for her, you know. Right. That's the way I look at it, and I kind of wish everybody kind of had that outlook.

Nutria, Gators, And Erosion

SPEAKER_01 49:38

But you know, if you're legally wanting Yeah, no, I think that's a that's a good point. Um, and I don't see how it wouldn't help help either. Um, but I think there's gonna have to be a number of changes, and like me personally, like I and I know a lot of people probably don't agree with this, but like I me personally as an out-of-tater would rather not hunt if it was just boiled down to like as an out-of-stater, my opportunities were more limited for the greater good of waterfowl in certain areas. That would be something I'd be willing to trade. And also, like the limit, you know, if we go to four instead of six or whatever. I mean, obviously, not popular takes, you can go both ways on either of those things, but like I I just look at it from a full like conservation standpoint, and like, you know, if I if I gotta give something to get something, I'd rather have more quality than and then more days staring at the sky, you know what I mean, even if it's less opportunities. But I don't know. I also get it for people that live, you know, live and breathe this 60 days a year. I mean, you know, that's that's their life, you know. So I I you don't wanna what you don't want to have to change limits and things like that.

Economy Of Ducks And Local Impact

SPEAKER_03 50:53

Yeah, but it's a resource that's given to us and we got to give back to it. That's yeah, that's the way I look at it. You know, I I'm sure I'm just like you in a in a way that if I could hunt 60 days a year, I would. Yeah, you know, I would wake up 60 days a year at one o'clock in the morning and make it happen, whether I'm shooting ducks or not. But somebody was like, hey, we're gonna go to 30 and three for four years and see what happens with the population, if it grows, if it doesn't change, does harvest really matter? You know, I'm good with that. Give me 30 and 30. I may only get to hunt four times that season, being that it's 30 days. But guess what? That's four hunts I get, that's uh 12 birds I get to shoot, that's four mornings I get to have fun, you know, enjoy what I like to enjoy. And then after that four years is up, if it helps, we go back to 60 and six, and now everybody's beating on them. Yeah. You know, it's it's a it's a share of the wealth, take care of the resource. And and that's the thing, like with the flooded corn is I've seen studies or things said that's like not biologically supported by a mallard or any duck. You know, it's not a a good source of uh it's like eating junk food, right? Yeah, I mean it it's a lot of fast carbs, which they need, but it's not high in protein and calcium, like you know, your shells and you know, your crustaceans that they like to eat later in the year. So it's it's one of those things, you know. I don't want to say something to make myself look dumb. You know, I'm sure people would let me know if I was wrong, but if if we don't have that food, if we don't have the rest areas, if we don't have this, if we don't have that, if we don't have water on the prairies, it it's just levels and levels and levels and levels. And I don't think that people think about it whenever they're chasing them. You know, it's like everybody shoot them, everybody wants to murder them. I'm the same way, but we also have to look at it as are these birds actually reproducing like we're getting told they are. Do we have the numbers they're telling us? You know, are we taking care of what we're supposed to be taking care of? So so many, so many different angles, and I don't have money to cough up like that. I wish I did. I mean, I don't I could put 15 million in the prairies right now if I had it, you know, explaining that, but I don't.

SPEAKER_01 53:23

So well, what do you think about, and this is another kind of like loaded thing, but you know, a lot of people give Delta and Du absolute hell about, oh, you know, million duck duck camp or million duck campaign, you know, I'm not seeing the results and just stuff like that. But like I I me personally, I have a hard time when people get like, you know, oh yeah, I don't I don't spend any money with Delta or Du anymore. Because it's like, okay, well, what else are like that's that's the only thing we really got going for us, I feel like. Like, like you said, none of us have 15 million dollars to go like, you know, hey, let's go help the you know put nets and reduce predators up in the prairie propole like Delta does. Um, you know, I just it's kind of blows my mind when people get so like one way or the other on that.

Building Wet Birds And Content

SPEAKER_03 54:17

So my thing is, especially with du, they when they started in 1935, I guess it was, their mission was to bring the ducks back, and they did that. In that time frame that they you know started and and kept their mission, they were they did what they were supposed to do. They did, they were du. They were they made the ducks better. But I feel like in recent years, you know, the past 20, 30 years, they've kind of stepped away from that outlook and just kind of started focusing on okay, what can we do to look good and still have a lot of money? And that's where a lot of people, like, especially down here, Louisiana was like the largest contributing state to DU for you know five years, however long it was. And they did projects down here, they they do put money into the state. I I can't take that away from them. They do it, you know, but it's not to the extent that they that people wanted to see, you know, it's not the ROI that we wanted to see. And when you look at the numbers from 2004 to 2024, you see that three million dunk drop, and it's like, okay, why are we investing so much money into the Midwest when uh your coastal regions are disappearing? You know, not even in Louisiana, like you look at Mississippi, all the or I don't even know if Mississippi's a coastal state, but you get what I'm saying, I'm getting at you know, Alabama, Florida, you get all these coastal states, Texas, you know, we're all losing land. Coastal erosion's happening and it and it sucks, but you don't see that ROI, and then you look at the prairie potholes, and it's like, we've had droughts for 10 years now. Why have we not fixed that? Why have we not artificially flooded them? You know, and I can't critique them because I don't have the money to do it, I don't know what they're thinking. But from the outside looking in, that's what it looks like. You know, yeah, you give them credit where credit's due, they they know what they're doing, they do a good job when they put money into a into a place, but do they keep it up? Are they trying to genuinely make the population better? You know, yeah. So I see why people that's a fair point. Yeah, I see why people give them that, you know. Oh, I'm never giving the money to DU ever again and all this stuff. Delta, I haven't done a whole lot of you know, looking into because they're not as big of a name as du.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

But if I think Delta, more of what Delta focuses on is more like up north in terms of like predator reduction and you know, trying to monitor like hen pop hen mallard land eggs and just you know, stuff more so up there. I don't know how local they get in terms of like projects, but I know they do like, and I don't know what DU does in terms of this stuff, but they do programs with like local colleges and stuff to get people into hunting at least. Where like they'll go in and like this one here did um a program with Kennesaw State, and I think they did like early goose hunt or whatever, but it was just like random kids from the college that like got an opportunity to go out and go hunting and learn about it. So I know they do some stuff like that. I don't know what if DU does anything like that, but Delta is definitely way like way smaller than DU in terms of their national reach.

SPEAKER_03 57:46

Yeah, no, they they definitely have a couple projects. I don't know if they've done any work down here, but I do know they have their banquets, you know, looking for donations, which I don't blame them. You know, I go to the I have a DU banquet every year that is no joke, pretty much next door to my house. So I go, all my buddies are there, you know. We all go visit, look at all the stuff for the year, listen to people talk. It's fun, you know, free drink, free food. So it makes for a good night, but at the same time, you're sitting there and you're like, Where's the ducks? Yeah, you know, and you go on Facebook and you see people getting irate with one another because you get guys from the Midwest that are like, oh, the it's the weather, and then you get the guys down here like, bullshit, it's not the weather, back and forth, back and forth. And it's like, why don't we take a step back as a human population? Yeah, and look at like genuine numbers, look at the studies, look at the snowfall, look at the snow cover, look at what changed from 1998 to 2026, what happened, what's the differences. Let's start looking at all that. And yeah, that's that's another problem is the the I want to shoot ducks, no one else can shoot ducks.

SPEAKER_01 59:07

Yes, 100% the ego there.

Authenticity Over Highlights

SPEAKER_03 59:09

Good, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna. I get it, everybody's gonna have competition. I I want to go out, look good, shoot ducks, eat good, you know, have fun, but at the same like it all circles back into giving back to the resource, and and nobody has the ability to shorten their ego to the point that they want to do that. And I think that you know, you hear social media is killing waterfowl, yes and no, because then you you know, you look and you get guys like Dawson, uh Jaden, you know, those those popular voices in the waterfowl world that are like young kids connect to them. We I may not know what I'm talking about, genuinely, you know. Like if somebody's like, hey man, you don't know what you're talking about, like okay, teach me. I want to learn about it, you know. But I feel like the younger voices have started to kind of come up toward the conservation side of everything and toward the ethical side and the you know almost painting a new light compared to what it used to be. Yeah, and and I think that's a good thing. But at the same time, you get the bad side of social media, which it everything's a double-edged sword in this, and it it's one of those things, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

Yeah, man. No, I I totally agree. And it is really refreshing to see folks like Dawson and uh you and other folks out on social media that are putting out a good message about just not only just conservation, but all kinds of different things with with hunting, you know, ethics. And one of the things like me and my dad have both well, I've always felt real fortunate about and like we talk about a lot is like we call it like the reality of hunting, and that's kind of like why we even do a podcast or why we even do a YouTube or whatever. Because the fact of the matter is most of the time, like we're not shooting massive deer, you're not shooting, you know, limited ducks. And like my dad brought up a really good point when we started like harping on all this like five years ago when we started everything. Like people like young kids on Facebook Marketplace that like obviously have brand new gear and like they're selling it. It's like why are they selling it? Because they got into it expecting to see what they see on YouTube or see what they see on you know outdoor channel, and it's not that right off the bat, and then they're like, Oh, screw it, I'm done hunting. Yeah, you know, and I I think messages like what you guys do on social media, um, what we're trying to do with the podcast, like are it thing steps in the right direction. I don't know if it's the end all be off, but you know, the more people that can do that, the better, I think.

Mental Health And Just One More

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Yeah, a hundred percent. And that the whole you're not gonna shoot a limit every time. That is a great point because you look at guys on social media, these cats are hunting 60 days out of the year and they're showing you 30. Yeah, that's they're not showing you, they're not showing you all 60, I promise. There's like one person I can think of off the top of my head, and that's Greg Halterman, and he he posts a picture picture of a duck every day during duck season, and he whacks them. But realistically, if you got a guy that's public land hunting 60 days out of the year, he's not banging on him 60 days out of the year. Yes. Not possible, not on public land, because you get those guys that run in the hole or run in the raft after shooting, you know, after everybody's supposed to be off, bump those birds around when they're not supposed to be, things change, weather patterns happen, you know. So when you're looking at social media, it's like, okay, I see piles of greenheads, I see piles of wedge, and where are they? You get into it, you're like, oh, I don't see that. I'm shooting ringnecks all the time. You know, it's like enjoy what you got, you're gonna learn. You gotta give it time, you're gonna figure it out, you know. Like it's with anything in life, you know. You you're not gonna be an NBA player or an MLB player out the wound. You know, you gotta build that. And some guys just have it, you know, some guys have that touch, like you they can go cast a line and catch a fish in a ditch, and they turn around and go shoot their four mallards every morning, but not everybody's got it like that, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:31

Yeah, no, a hundred percent, man. I I thought you brought up a good point a minute or two ago, too, about um people not not wanting to look at like the research of things to form opinions and like make decisions and stuff like that. And I'm really big on that too, because like we've had, you know, Brad Cohen, who runs uh Cover Wildlife Labs. He puts, I mean, I'm sure you've seen some of the stuff then, he puts some phenomenal data out on what these mallards are doing. They got like 300 of them GPS tracked, and we had them on a couple years ago, and they were talking about all the study they were doing in terms of like stirring up refuges because people are like, oh, outside looking in, I get it. All the ducks are sitting on the refuge. That's why we can't kill any because there's a refuge or whatever. And they purposely have gone into those refuges and like drove four-wheelers, shot shotguns, did everything they could do to stir these ducks up out of these refuges while people were hunting. And he said, like the first five or ten minutes, there's some shooting around the refuge. But after that, it's almost like like what happens if a truder, an intruder came into your house. Like, you're not gonna just go run around your house, you're gonna find like another corner of the refuge to go hide, go hide in your closet or whatever. And that's that's really just one perfect thing of common misconception. They've they've actually found that refuges are a way net positive because you have birds in the area, you know. So it's just one of those things that there's real data that they've put to put out on this stuff, but then you get the people that are like, oh man, that we're not shooting any ducks because they're sitting on the refuge and comfortable. They need to switch the refuge up. But you know, yeah, that might work for a week, you know, then they're gonna find the next new place to sit, you know.

Closing Invites And Next Season

SPEAKER_03 1:05:15

Yeah, I don't know. Down here, I feel like the birds adapt to pressure so much quicker than they would, you know, in the north. Because you see guys that'll go hunt the same feed two and three times, but down here there's so much more, you don't have the the dispersion of them. You know, those birds aren't sitting on so many different fields, and and every rice field in the state has a duck vine on it. And then you turn around in the marsh. There's a few places with refuges in them. You know, and this year, the morning after opening weekend or the morning after opening day this year, I got to hunt with work. I could only hunt the Sunday. So I get out there, you My buddy are hunting. And uh about 9 30, I look behind me. There's probably 20 or 30,000 ducks get up off the refuge and they go right back down. It wasn't a it wasn't a get off the feed and go look for something. It was uh I'm gonna get up and go right back down. You know, they knew where they were safe, and that's the day after opening day. That's not you know mid-season when everybody's done shooting them. So they they do that, and then you get the people that you know, in some places where there isn't so much restriction on the refuge, they'll go run through it. It's like, why are you doing that? Right, you're you're bumping them out, especially when you run directly through them, like you're not just jumping them up from 300 yards, you're running a gator tail right through the crazy. Take a video, like, oh look, there's no ducks in Louisiana. Well, guess what? Now there's less. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:56

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

Yeah, they're going on wherever they're going, they're not coming back there. No, no, but no, we uh we actually, I think I want to say we got a few new refuges on on you know, a few different WMAs this year, this coming season. And I posted a TikTok about it, and somebody was like, Oh, that's not a good thing, they're just gonna sit on the refuge. And I was like, Well, those birds have to leave that area sometime, it ain't gonna have everything you need, you know. And my way of thinking is okay, if you don't want them holding the refuge that tight, what we'll do is we'll have quota hunts, you know, one a week. You go, you draw, you get one blind, one person gets drawn, and the rest of you got to go fight for it on the W May. Let them shoot their limit, you know, max of three people, you know, have a game warden with them, make sure they're not pulling any dumb shit, and not bump the birds out, but give them a little bit, just that little nudge just to stir them up to get them questioning is this the place to be? And it's not gonna push them out as much as running a boat through a wood. You know, it's it's minimal pressure, it's what gods are good at. That's why they shoot the piss out of them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:09

Dude, I that's actually um that's I think it's a good idea, not not just for um, like you said, keep them, keep the waterfowl get guessing a little bit, but also like just as a cool opportunity, I think that would be cool, you know, especially for if it's tough duck hunting, and then you know, you randomly are lucky enough every few years to pull that, you know, you get to look forward to it.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:32

Um that would even if you you're like, oh well, we can't keep up the refuge, five dollars an entry. Guess what? You make 500 bucks a morning. Yeah, you know, like that all goes back into that refuge for the next year, and it's like there's ways to go about it, but I feel like a lot of state ran uh wildlife agencies just don't cut it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:59

No, 100%. They're they're understaffed and under budgeted, and you know, they they got their they're trying to fix a problem with one one hand tied behind their back, you know, or five with one one hand tied back behind their back a lot of times. And like with the refuge thing, it's like, okay, yeah the perception is they're all sitting there, but it's like you said, um, they gotta go somewhere. And if there's a hundred thousand ducks sitting there, let's just assume that maybe like five thousand of them are stupid, you know what I mean, or young birds or whatever. Like that's that's the the net positive there, you know. Yeah, 95,000 of them aren't coming off of there, but you know, if you got a refuge here and a refuge here in a public land spot here, and they're bouncing back and forth at some points, you know, then maybe you're catching some. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:48

But no, I get WF plenty of slack on uh I talk a lot of noise about them on TikTok. You know, whenever I see something that I'm like, that's dumb as hell. Why are we doing that? You know, uh some people don't agree with me, is what it is. The way I see it, you know, you're a state ran agency. If you need help from the people, I should not be arrested for going trying to make a WA better. And I'm not even talking about going like bait or anything, you know, just genuinely like, okay, I see a ditch here that needs to be dug out. Like, if I make improvements, I get a ticket, you know. Yeah, I can't go cut a trail down, you know, somewhere in the woods, I get a ticket. It's like that opens up the woods a little bit, makes access easier. Number one, number two, I'm not disturbing the animals come hunting season. Number three, if you need help, ask the people for help. Like, I I made a video a while back. It was like if a company came to you and was like, hey, uh we're gonna have like this big festival. Um, you know, I'm sure if I talked to three or four companies in Louisiana, it's like, hey, we got this planned, you know, wet birds, whatever, wet birds workday. Like we're gonna pick a random WMA in the state, go to the parking lot, set up, you know, your booth, your booth, your booth, have somebody cater food, whether it's free or we got to take in donations to do that, and then have an agenda for the day. Trash pickup, land improvement, you know, plant some type of forge for waterfowl or deer, you know, you know, kind of whichever way we can go. I would love to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:34

I think it's a freaking great point, dude. And I I've thought that same thing with like we had the Georgia biologist on for waterfowl, and I think I brought up something similar to her about like helping, you know, and like even if it's I mean, duck hunters, I mean, we're there's a lot of us that are like balling on a budget, but at the end of the day, like if I mean, even if it I don't even know, throw a number out there, but if it was a hundred bucks or whatever, that we knew that so-and-so is planting millet and all this whole thing, they're burning it, they're planting new mill, whatever, they're flooding it correctly, like, and we saw direct results of that. And our WMA is like people would contribute, you know, and people, I mean, there's probably people that have farm equipment that would get in on it, you know. I think it's a great point.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:23

And that's like I mentioned that alligators down here, which is complete turn from the waterfowl, but our alligator population is ridiculous. Oh man, dude, it's it's it's awful. You know, I've I've gone frogging some nights, and I shine a light, I can count 50 to 60 alligators within 300 yards of the boat. As far as I can see, I can count alligators all night long. Oh my god, it's like why are we not issuing one to two tags per person? Like, if you have a valid hunting license, why can you not issue a tag? Even if it's$40 a tag, right?$40 of alligator meat off of a good size alligator.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:08

You know, why why not do it it's it's you can only hunt them on private, right? What's that? You can only hunt them on like private water, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:19

Like private areas. They have lotteries for public land. Like you can you can enter a lottery, and I think you get like five tags, maybe. Um and you have to pick a region of the state where you want to try to hunt them, and they issue so many tags per region. Uh now, as far as like buying alligator tags every year, like commercial fishing, I want to say you have to be a landowner in a specific region in order to get like I don't know if you've seen swamp people, but like those guys have land in those regions on the water, whatever, so they're able to get X amount of tags. They have their all their licenses, but you you don't even have to do away with that. You just$40 a tag for the season, you shoot one alligator in September per person. Not everybody's gonna shoot an alligator. Some people might not even buy the tag. I mean, it's it's frustrating when you think about it. Alligators we can't we can't hunt hogs. Like there has if you're gonna publicly and hunt hogs, there has to be an open season for something.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:27

Damn, so you can't just go out and go after hogs. Nope. Well, you know, one thing, so I work with um a guy called his name's uh uh Jared Sarnay, he runs a page outside the levees. Um I work with him on some some social media stuff, and uh he we've been posting a ton of content on his pages of nutrients, and my god, the amount of nutria, and then also like the I had no idea the damage that they caused because I I mean I I didn't realize until I research this stuff, like they literally go in, eat all the freaking plants that are holding the marsh together from the roots, and then there's nothing to hold that marsh, and then just you know what I forget the word. Um what's the word for when you know water washes stuff away? I can't think right now. Erosion. I kept wanting to say evaporate. But those two, you guys got those bad too, huh?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:23

Yeah, I wish I was closer to them and I wish I had the time because I've seen people, I've got buddies. I got buddies that do everything. I just I go to work. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:34

I hear you, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:36

No, they I mean they go out, they have a good time, shoot neutria, and then you get five dollars a tail for them. I don't know if you still get that, but I want to say you do.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:44

Yeah, that's what I understand it. If it's a certain length, I think like six inches or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:49

Yeah, I mean, let it eat. You know, I I wish LDWF, because I guarantee money, you put a post out on Facebook, this WMA at this time, bring a thermal, shoot as many pigs as you can, send one wildlife agent at the gate, or you know, one per area in the WMA just to watch and make sure people are being legal, not shooting deer, not shooting rabbits, you know, shooting strictly pigs. Yeah, you'll wipe out the population, wipe them out, hand them down, go hand down. Same thing with the nutria. Bring a thermal on a 22 and just start shooting.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:31

You know they're harming the the local, and you know, people get up in arms, hunters don't really, but I think the perception from anti-hunters and just general population is like up in arms about mass mass genocide essentially of a population. But the fact of the matter is, is everything else that is native to the state is suffering because of hogs, nutria, whatever else is invasive, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:58

It's not only the animals either, the humans too. Like, you think about all the COSA we've lost, and I don't know how true this study is, but like 50 years from now, the Gulf's gonna be 20 miles from the house instead of 100, you know. So, you know, how many houses does that wipe out? How many people does that put in a bond? How many people have to leave the state, and how does that affect the economy? You look at the the coastal erosion in southeast Louisiana and look at the fish market down there. There's you know, change in markets down there commercially. What does that do to the local economy? How does that hurt businesses? How does that change the statewide economy because people are having to go out overseas for their uh seafood products? You know, it it trickles down, it's all you know, and and I guess a lot of people don't see that, or they don't want to see it, or they see it and don't care. And I get worked up about it because I feel like I'm just an ant and I can't do anything, like I'm just here working and I can't do anything. And the best I can do is just talk about it. Hopefully, somebody that's got a lot more money than me wants to help, you know. But I mean, that guy's practical though.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:18

Yeah, man, no, I totally agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:20

I was talking to uh buddy of mine that he runs uh Flyway Connections podcast. Okay, they did a study, um, or somebody did a study up in Arkansas, Stuttgart was bringing in one million dollars a day at their peak. No kidding about the local economy, you know, people going eat after uh hunting or going fill up gas or going by energy drinks, a million dollars a day.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:47

Wow, that's crazy. That's so much like me.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:51

Like, how much does that prop up the economy? How much does that help the farmers in the area? You know, people have money to spend, right? Like that was a big point. It's like duck hunting does good, hunting does good, you know. I I bet if you pulled the numbers from Stuttgart at its peak to Stuttgart now, which it's more of a tourist attraction, but you know, those numbers probably drastically changed from your local mom and pop shops making a lot of money to now you're seeing your big box stores, you know. It's a different culture now. And it is it good, is it bad? It it's hard to tell.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:33

Yeah, no, that's that's the one uh thing for you know out-of staters, you know, it's like from the state standpoint, it's like there while we're talking about earlier, like, okay, from my perspective, like going to hunt Arkansas, like if I was limited on how much I could go there for the greater good of the whole waterfowl picture, I would be okay with that. But at the same time, the state's looking at it like, hey, we're making X amount of money from people coming in here. And Louisiana, you know, is probably, you know, you're fishing, and Florida's for sure fishing, you know, but the coastal states, you you know, the fishing, the hunting, all that, um, it's just it's you know, it's a bunch of revenue to the state. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:17

I think in in license sales in 2024, Louisiana brought in like 62 million dollars. Like from all the like, you know, licensed sales, taxes, stuff like that, like 62 million dollars. I mean, that's that's a buttload of money.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:35

I mean that that props up the economy, I would think, pretty good. Yeah, especially being a short amount of time in the year, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:43

But you know, it's you know, it's I'm curious if you guys run into this Louisiana. I would imagine it'd be much less than Florida, but like one of the things Florida runs into is like so much of what generates their money is all around the fishing that the hunting always gets put on the back burner on in terms of where the money gets spent that's generated through Pittman Robinson and the sales of all that stuff you just mentioned. Like it's it's you know, one of those things where it's like, would they rather manage a lake for bass fishing or you know, manage an area for redfish or whatever they do for you know saltwater stuff? Like, would they rather manage it for that or manage it for ducks? Uh fishing.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:22

The thing with here is the coastal erosion is so bad that like but it it it it builds up both, you know. When you think about it, the aquatic grasses that a bass likes, a duck eats you know, similar things or whatever, but like it kind of goes hand in hand. Like we have uh the chaflaya basin down here, and we have uh invasive grass, giant salvania, which is awful, but they started spraying to kill it, which is a good thing. But the byproduct of that is like they kill all the hydrilla, yeah, and then they drain out the basin, like they open the locks, and that drains it out to where there's nothing left because they don't want invasive grasses growing, whatever. And now you're killing off all the hydrilla, all the you know, grasses that grow, aquatic grasses that grow, and now your fish don't have nowhere to go, and your ducks don't have nothing to eat. Right. So it's it's a win-lose situation there, and I wish there was a way to figure that out, but I don't know you know how much you can do about it because you have to get rid of the Salvania, but at the same time, are you hurting everything else, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:36

Yeah, yeah. No, I think there's they run into a lot of that same stuff down there, and I mean, even areas that are like so I know a lot of those lakes in particular, like after a certain amount of time, like it's good for the natural, like, and you see it in like your your moist soil areas, but it's good when they have the years that are more of a drought because then the seeds and whatever process takes place with the seeds and stuff like that, they bloom really well, and then you know you get good flooding again, and then everything is on like Donkey Kong. But like these places that are like managed under the same water level forever and ever and ever, then over time, if I'm understanding correctly, back to like I could also might not know what I'm talking about, but like over time, like those plants that were grown there don't grow there anymore. Um, that's a whole different issue, I think. They have too. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:26

Yeah, no, I mean it it definitely like I said, it's it's a lot, a lot of levels. And yeah, boy, your boy went to school for two years for business management. I am in no way a doctor in this. Um just kind of calling it how I see it. I think there's a lot of things that we could change. I think there's a lot of things that the state could change, the country could change as far as you know the outdoors go. It's it's a big circus, and we're just the animals in it. You know, we're just doing what we can.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:00

That's a good way of putting it, man. Um, tell before we get out here, what's uh so tell us about this the wet birds, man? What where did that come about? And you know, tell us about your brand.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:10

So wet birds was a 10 30 at night text from my buddy Dawson. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. It was like a Wednesday night. He's like, let's start a company. I'm like, what do you mean? I was like, I'm game, but like, what are we what are we thinking? He's like, I don't know. I want to, I just want to duck hunt the rest of my life. I was like, I'm in. So we started, it was me, him, his brother, and his cousin. And his brother got busy and he kind of like backed out. And it was us three, you know, his cousin was more just kind of paying us a motor, like giving us money just to get stuff done. And it was like, we appreciate it, but like you're not putting any effort into it. So we kind of separated ways with him, and then Dawson ended up. I graduated, and then Dawson switched school, so he had a lot going on personally. And I was like, text him one day, I was like, hey man, like I'm not kicking you out. This is not what's happened, you know. Uh take a step back, figure your life out. I don't want you coming into this thinking we're gonna be millionaires tomorrow. Like, I want you to have your life figured out. I want you to do good in school, I want you to finish your year playing sports, you know, have fun, live a little, and then whenever you get out of that, you know, you have the the time and the effort to put into this, come back. So I ended up bringing a buddy of mine on. Uh, he's a welder, he had a bunch of time. I had a bunch of time, and we started doing a bunch of shows around here. It was fun, met a bunch of people, and then we kind of died off. Like, he got busy, I got busy with work and school, and it just kind of fell out. And then Dawson texted me one day, he's like, Hey, am I still in? I was like, I told you you wasn't out, but like, yeah, dude, are you still in this? You know, he's like, Yeah, I'm in. I was like, All right, let's do it. So then it was me and Dawson, and then I brought in another buddy that uh, you know, I hunted with him. We actually had we deer hunted a lot when we were younger. We lost contact, and then we got back in touch, you know, a couple years ago, and uh we've been hunting us three together, and we're trying to figure out the whole YouTube side because when we started, it was let's get hats made, let's do this, let's do that, offer a product, but we have nobody that knows us, yeah. Like nobody knows who we are, nobody knows what we're about. You nobody has we don't have a personality out there, you know. And uh I was like, we gotta start filming. I have no idea what I'm doing. None of us do, none of us are tech savvy guys, like we all grew up hunting, you know. We play the video games every now and then, and uh so we put out a video last year, tried staying consistent with podcasts, it's just so difficult with the time we have. And then uh this year we got quite a few videos, but I haven't had the time or the knowledge to sit down and and edit everything, so it's kind of all sitting on my computer. I just haven't put it together. And dude, it it's been a journey. Like I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't call this a successful business, but you know, we have a decent, a small following on on TikTok, a small following on Facebook and Instagram, and it's been you know, we quite literally started out buying a dozen hats with a change out of our pocket. So seeing where we're at now, it's like, okay, we've done a lot of growing, not only as as as a company, but like as as friends and as people. So that's the webbird story pretty much. I don't have a hat on. Um shout out Dawson. Nice, but uh yeah. No, it's been it's been a treat.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:02

Well, I I can relate to you a lot, dude, honestly, because me and my dad, like, we started what what we started doing was like content first, because we were like, all right, let's just like hammer the content, just keep hammering the content. And because you know, like same thing with merch, like and people are like, hey man, send me a hat. I'm like, dude, I'd love to, but like I have to pay like 2021 bucks a hat to get like the leather patch and everything else. Like, it's not like I can buy a thousand of these and like you know, really get to a good point where I'm like making a profit. Like basically what I'm making is just for like friends to who want to support or whatever to wear our stuff. So like we we've kind of always been kind of scared of the merch stuff because it's so hard, and we're like, well, maybe if we get the following there one day to you know, if we ever have a million viewers or whatever, then maybe we can kind of work that way. But like to with the content stuff, we started with just literally iPhones and GoPros, and like and it's just been a constant, like you know, three years ago. So we've been doing this for I guess six years, like five, six years creating content, but then it was like, let's get a couple more GoPros, and then it was like, okay, this year we're getting a good camera, and then we're like, okay, that camera sucks. Now we gotta get one that films 4K. So then that's like what we got three years ago, and then um we did that for a couple years, and then this year's new big thing was like, I gotta get a freaking laptop so I can be editing stuff on the go. And you know, then you learn a little bit about Adobe, and it's just like and on and on and on, just a little bit at a time. But like, as you mentioned, like we're all just average people, so it's like you know, you're trying to pay your car payment and pay the house or whatever. So it's just like essentially when you can afford to buy something else, you kind of do it incrementally. So I can really relate to your story with that, you know. And I think the most important thing, like, if if this is even helpful, like I feel like the stuff that takes the less least amount of time that's the most authentic gets the most views, which is your TikTok, you know what I mean? Like that's your TikTok to a T. You know, I think that's versus like spending 10 hours trying to edit a video and then you put it up and yeah, it might get a million views, but nine times out of ten, a hundred times actually take that out. 99 times out of 100, probably, it's not gonna do that. So then it's like, what if you spent 10 hours creating TikToks or YouTube Shorts or whatever, you know? Yeah, seems like it works out a bit better.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:30

No, I I really try to like whenever I was making, because with work, dude, I've slowed down so much on social media, but whenever I was making you know, five to seven videos a day, I quite literally walk outside at night. If I was letting Banjo out to use the bathroom, it was walk outside, let him out, think of something while he's taking a dump, walk, film and go to bed, wake up in the morning, knock out a couple videos in the same way, and just you know, keep hammering it like that. And that's like the more real you are talking to the camera, the better conversations you get, the better people you meet. Like I feel like if I wouldn't have because me and Dawson and and Jaden and Tom Basy, we talk every day. If I wasn't a biscuit, like if I didn't just get on the internet and say whatever I was thinking, I wouldn't have those relationships, you know, or even the following that I have. I mean, it's and I feel like that's what a a lot of people don't get on the social media side is that like authenticity. It's like, yeah, I shoot divers, so what? I have a hell of a time doing it, you know. I'm not the world's best duck hunter, I'm gonna tell you what helped me. But that's like everybody sees the greenheads and the pile pictures and the highlights and all that. I feel like that's what duck hunting's missing is the the real truthfulness to it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:03

Yeah, well, and I honestly like I it's funny because like I'm sitting here and like talk on a podcast for like an hour and a half, but like it's so much harder for me to like put that camera in front of my face and like make just a video talking about whatever. And I have a lot of respect for you guys that are like have done that, and I would imagine. I mean, tell me if I'm wrong, it's just a repetition thing, huh?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:25

In a way, yeah. I mean, the first like because I had a had an account before this one that I didn't do any talking, just kind of like clips and stuff, and then I got this one. I was like, I'm gonna try the fishing side, and I fished, filmed it, put it on TikTok. It was a lot more work, and it felt more like a highlight reel. And then one day I was like, you know what, I'm gonna talk about duck hunting. I started talking about duck hunting, it just kind of built from there, you know. But you do also run into an area like where I'm at now, it's like I don't know what to talk about. I'm talking about everything, you know. I feel like at a certain point, you know, Dawson's done a really good job of it as like keeping himself interesting. Yeah, I go to work and I talk on TikTok, you know, like there's not much more to it. But you know, I'm still gonna keep posting because I still have people that enjoy watching me, and I like if you would have told me three years ago, hey man, you're gonna have a small following on TikTok, I'd look at you and be like, You're lying. It's just it's so surreal when you think about it that like 15,000 people know who I am, you know, and it yeah, it's literally a blessing, like the biggest blessing.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:42

So it's awesome. That's all super cool, man. Super cool. I mean, my dad always says, like, even and not even that, like, I I think on Facebook we got like 2,000, and uh Instagram we got like 12,000. Our biggest thing is TikTok or whatever, but uh my dad's like, yeah, but imagine if like you were hanging out with a thousand people, you'd be like, Wow, that's pretty damn cool. I'm like, that's true, that's a good point, you know. Yeah, a thousand people know who you are. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, I totally, totally agree. And I think uh speaking of Dawson, so I've actually had uh Dawson and your boy Pom BZ on the podcast too, yeah, um, over the last like six months or whatever. But uh Dawson, I think what's really cool about his content is just like the mental health that he promotes, the the the God relationship that he promotes. Like he he does a really it's really unique and refreshing to see all that stuff that he does too.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:42

Yeah, no, the the mental health thing, I I've touched on it a couple times just because there's a few things that you know I'm not comfortable with putting on the internet. You know, I know he hasn't shared his full story. Um, I've I haven't really shared mine, you know, but I also feel like my outlook on it is a little bit different. You know, he's a lot, he's a lot, you know, softer, not in in a good way, you know. Uh the way I look at it is like you still have to wake up every day. You know, like it's more or less the people counting on you as far as you know, suicide goes. Uh not a straight shooter, but a straight shooter, like you gotta live life. You know, everybody goes through a tough time, everybody struggles. I don't feel bad reaching out to people at all. That's not what I'm getting at. But like I feel like that's what got me through my struggle, was like just keep pounding at the hammer and everything will figure it out, you know. But and at the same time, I feel like you need both of those, and I just don't I don't feel comfortable going that route, you know. Yeah, personally, it's it's a it's a weird thing to talk about. Like this is the first time I've ever really like extensively talked about the the hardship side of life, but there's there's been times where you know it's it's not the easiest. And I'm sure everybody feels that way. But you know, yeah. If you get to the point, reach out, you know, if it's if it's me, if it's the podcast, if it's whatever, reach out to somebody.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:23

We want to see that's a good point, man. I'm glad you're saying that because honestly, like who knows? I mean, there could be somebody listening to this podcast that you know is in that headspace right now. So that's that's good.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:37

A lot of people love you, a lot of people are counting on you, and there's a lot of people that would take the shirt off their back to give to you to keep you here just one more day. At the end of the day, you have to wake up tomorrow and you just gotta give it one last shot. It's like fishing. You give it one last shot, and that last pass lasts for about three hours or hunting. You need to see one more duck. Next thing you have that all day. So you give it that one little bit, and you never know what's gonna happen. You know, life can change like that, whether it's good or bad. So live life, enjoy, and have fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:11

It's it's funny you say that. We had a pastor out of Colorado on the podcast, like last episode, and his company is called Just One More. And the reason he called it that because obviously, like from a him being a pastor, the way he looks at things, like you know, God was always like just one more going after the the one, you know, not the 99 kind of thing. But how many times in the outdoors is it just one more? And uh, here you are saying just one more in the outdoors, just one more day, you know. It's funny you bring that up just right after we had him on.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:42

Yeah, no, it's one more day, just give it one more day. And if something good doesn't happen, give it one more day. You know, it's it's a building block, but life's gonna life, and you got people here that you know want to talk to you. So don't forget that.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:00

Absolutely, man. Well, dude, well, thank you so much. It's been it's been a blast just getting to talk to you and know you a little bit through this podcast, and definitely would love to connect again, you know, maybe sometime next duck season or whatever. But um, looking forward to it because if we just connected, like I just started seeing your stuff within the last like two or three months. So definitely um excited to follow on with your journey and hope that you know the wet birds thing continues to do good and y'all have a good summer out there doing whatever you do in Louisiana, chasing chasing crappies and whatever hogs, hopefully.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I appreciate it, man. I really appreciate it. Uh yeah, absolutely. I never would have thought I'd be sitting on a podcast. You know, people I don't know, but I'm glad I am. It's been a blast. Uh we'll definitely stay in contact, though. I definitely want to try to get you and your pops down here, shoot some ducks or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:54

That'd be sweet, man. Yeah, we we need to make a trip to Louisiana at some point to go hunt with our boy Jared that runs outside the levees, too. So what one of these years we'll when we do that, we'll definitely uh try to make something happen. That'd be cool. Sounds good, boss, man. I appreciate it. Absolutely, man. Be good. Appreciate it.