(EP.49) Hunting the "King" with Mike Birch.

Have your ever wanted to add a King Eider to your taxidermy collection?  Well, if its on the list you might want to listen to this podcast with Mike Birch. Sounds like an awesome adventure and something I want to do for sure one day! Enjoy and good hunting everyone!

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Thanks for listening everyone and good hunting!

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:50

Hey everyone. Welcome to the podcast. My name is Tyce and I'm excited to share this show with you guys. Had my good buddy, uh, Mike Birch with me on the podcast. He recently went on a sea duck hunt. Well, I guess it's actually been about a year ago, but he went on a sea duck hunt hunting the king of all ducks, the king Ider. Up on St. Paul Island, with Ellucian Outfitters, and this is a cool podcast. We go into detail on what it's all about, about the experience. So if you're. Wanting to one day go hunt king Iers and go experience that, amazing hunt. You might wanna listen to this podcast. I enjoyed doing it with him. He invited me up to his house and, let me sit in his, desk and he sat in another chair and. He had his whole array of ducks behind us in his office that he had had mounted, and, and it was just a cool place and a fun podcast to do. So. Appreciate you guys listening to this one. Hope you guys enjoy it. Um, go ahead and give us a, a follow on, uh, social media if you're new to the podcast. Uh, a little bit about me. I, uh, have been training gun dogs for 20 years and had dogs ever since I was a little kid before I had my, I could even drive, I had my own duck boat and a trained dog. And, uh. This is, this is what I love to do. So we train everything from pointers to retrievers, to cross breeds, to whatever we do, just obedience training also. So that's a little bit about my background, my passionate hunt, passionate hunter. Um, I also do big game hunting. I'm a archer. I love to archery hunt and have, uh, taken many things at the bow. And also, um, obviously. Many afoul of the air. So, uh, training dogs and all these experiences come from my personal experience being out in the field, hunting, working these animals and things that we have found that works. So, um, again, you can follow us on Instagram, Utah Bird Dog Training is, is our Instagram page filled bread, golden retrievers. Uh, is our, we breed golden retrievers, hunting golden retrievers, so you can check that out. My wife Rachel, she's in charge of doing that. She also helps me out with some of the social media'cause I'm a hands-on busy guy. I like to be out working, getting the dogs done, doing the training, um, and just, you know, on my feet. So, um, and then, uh, if you have any. Thing, topics you want us to talk about, you can email us at the Bird Dog podcast@gmailuh.com and um, and we will try to answer those questions that you guys have. So appreciate you guys liking the show. If you find some information valuable and the kind comments those. Those are awesome and, uh, appreciate, uh, it's fun to hear from clients when they say, Hey, I really appreciate, I like that, that you said, or keep up the work. I, I, I think that's pretty cool. So appreciate you guys again and on to the show. Oh, one last side note. Um, check out gun shy fix.com. Uh, if your dog is struggling with some gun shy issues, you can check that out. And see and use that program to help hopefully help your dog get through his gun issues. Or if you have puppies that are struggling with gun noises, you can, uh, use those soundtracks to play that sound around the dog and to help them with guns. So I know I'm forgetting something else, but I think we're gonna go to the show. So enjoy. Have a great day.

Speaker 4:30

Hey folks. Welcome to the Bird Dog Podcast. My name is Tyce Erickson and I will be your host today. Thanks for listening in. Sorry my voice is already going out here. Um, I got my good friend Mike Birch. He's been on the podcast before and I finally pinned him down to talk, uh, about his king Ider hunt. And, uh, he's put me in his nice office chair and he's sitting in, I'm sitting in the, the king's chair here, and Mike sits in, is being nice and that's

Speaker 2 4:57

all right. This is a nice office chair too,

Speaker 4:58

sitting in the chair. And we're painting the picture here. We're at the base, we're in his office, and behind me. We have all these amazing, duck mounts that he has, collected over the years. And I've been, been on some of the hunts when he is taken some of the species. But we have, you know, hooded ganzer and goldeneye and borrows and a, is that a ring neck down there?

Speaker 2 5:19

Ring neck.

Speaker 5:20

We got a ring neck and a redhead and a buffle head and a wood duck. And

Speaker 2 5:24

a lesser scalp. A

Speaker 5:25

lesser scalp. And then we got the three till, the cinnamon blue wing and

Speaker 2 5:30

green wing.

Speaker 5:31

Green wing and the, we got a Harlequin and we have aco. That's a white wing, isn't it?

Speaker 2 5:36

Well, yeah, white wing, black

Speaker 5:37

scooter, wing, scooter. And then we have a mallard and a pair of king iers. And that's gonna be the, the main topic of the show here. Then we have a, a wid and a um, shoveler and a gad wall. So gad

Speaker 2 5:50

wall got a pintail down on the corner.

Speaker 5:52

Then we have some, uh, so are these taken in, taken in Canada? Those snow geese?

Speaker 2 5:56

Yeah, the snow geese were, uh, were up in Canada. Actually. All of them were that little Ross's.

Speaker 6:02

Is that a cackler or is that

Speaker 2 6:04

a, it's not a, it's a Ross's or, or no, I'm sorry, Richard. Not Ross's or Richardson's

Speaker 6:08

Richardson. Yeah. Yeah. That is so cool. It's, it's a little, if you guys haven't ever seen one, but they're like a mini Canadian Goose, Canada Goose. I should Canada Goose. Yeah, I should get that right. Some guy corrected me one time, so it's not Canadian. I'm like, all right. Hey, I'm not perfect here would, but you know, I'm talking about

Speaker 2 6:26

Yeah, no, that, that Richardson's is, well, it's bigger than a Mallard, but not much.

Speaker 6:32

No. Yeah,

Speaker 2 6:32

it's pretTyce small. It's pretTyce cool.

Speaker 6:34

Yeah. This, this, this year up in Idaho, those ones we shot were Richardson, right?

Speaker 2 6:41

I, I wasn't on the trip. You weren't

Speaker 6:42

there this year.

Speaker 2 6:42

No. Ah, I had a few other things going on in my lifetimes.

Speaker 6:46

Yeah, you, yeah, you did. Anyways, I got, I think they're Richardson. I got a couple on. I'm gonna keep in Mount too, so. I'm looking forward to that. But anyhow, Mike, thanks for, thanks for taking some time to be with me, man, and

Speaker 2 6:58

talk. Yeah, welcome to the office,

Speaker 7:00

talk hunting and dogs and everything. So, um, I want to, so a lot of people when they're thinking of waterfowl, kind of the, the biggest thing to hunt out there is generally the King Ider, and I'd say like Harlequin, those are probably two really big, you know, sea ducks that are on people's lists. And, and Mike's gone and done that. He's, he's been on that adventure. And so I wanted to just get his story about hunting King Ider in Alaska and kind of, I want you just to take us along for the journey and how it was and what you did and everything like that. So,

Speaker 2 7:35

yeah. Well, the, the, the genesis of the trip or what planted the seed in my mind was, uh. A taxidermist, you and I share Troy.

Speaker 7:47

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 7:48

Yeah. It was down in his studio. I don't know if I was dropping ducks off or picking'em up. Probably both. And, um, he had, he was doing a king ider and we got talking about it. Mm-hmm. And that, that planted the seed. That's where it all started and started doing a little research about those birds and mm-hmm. Where you hunt'em and, you know, what they're all about in terms of their migration and where they live. And it just, uh, like a lot of things, all things waterfowl pulled it, pulled me in.

Speaker 8:17

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 8:18

And, uh, at that, that's the point where I said, I'm going to St. Paul Island in Alaska.

Speaker 8:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:24

And, uh, the trip actually was, was pretTyce spontaneous. I, I thought I'd have to wait a year or two to get out there.

Speaker 8:31

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 8:32

And, um. I decided I'd check a, uh, if there was a solo spot available. And there was,

Speaker 8:38

it was a, it wasn't a cancellation.

Speaker 2 8:39

It was a cancellation. Yeah. And, and so I called them, and they're actually, there are two different slots. One was over Christmas, which I didn't want to do, and then the next one was in January. Mm-hmm. Towards the end of the season. So I took that spot.

Speaker 8:51

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 8:52

And uh, made the reservation and I think two months later I was on a plane.

Speaker 8:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:57

So it happened pretTyce quick.

Speaker 8:59

Those cancellation hunts, I mean, if people are flexible, you can, you can save some money. There's always stuff that comes up in people's lives it seems like. And it's like if you probably call, I don't know how far in advance you call the outfitter to get that cancellation hunt, but probably if you're close to the season and you say, Hey, if someone drops out. Gimme a call.'cause they usually lose the deposit and that benefits

Speaker 2 9:19

Yeah.

Speaker 9:19

You and you get a better deal on

Speaker 2 9:20

it. And I, and, and I didn't even do that. I just called him and said, Hey, I'm a solo hunter and, and anytime you can slot a solo hunter and let me know, he goes, well,

Speaker 9:28

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 9:28

I got a spot in two months.

Speaker 9:30

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 9:30

So that's, that's, it was really just kinda spontaneous how it worked out.

Speaker 9:34

Yeah. You got a better deal on it too, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah. With that cancellation.

Speaker 2 9:38

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 9:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2 9:39

Yeah. He, he obviously wanted somebody in the seat versus no one in the seat. So,

Speaker 9:43

yeah,

Speaker 2 9:44

I got a, I got a good deal on it.

Speaker 9:45

That brown bear hunt I did in Alaska was a cancellation hunt that me and my buddy went on too. So I was a better deal. So I kind of, I know. Yeah. If you, if you're flexible and you're open to it and can kind of go on a whim, you can. I think save some money on those cancellation hunts for sure. So yeah, Mike always like, I gotta get on a king ider hunt. Gotta get, and he's like, I'm going with or without you.

Speaker 2 10:07

I know.

Speaker 10:07

I couldn't make it. So he went without me.

Speaker 2 10:10

Well, so now I,

Speaker 10:11

he did bring home a bird for me though. And we were just talking before this podcast. I'm like, man, maybe if I, my wife doesn't listen to these podcasts, I can say this, but I said, I told Mike, I said, well, if I get one of those birds mounted and put in my office and my wife says, why do you need to go get a king Ider? You already have one the mike brought you. And so maybe, I don't know, maybe I, maybe I'll wait until you do the hunt or something.

Speaker 2 10:34

You ought think that through before I, yeah,

Speaker 10:35

you gotta think that one

Speaker 2 10:36

through. Right. But you know, just I guess backing away Tyces from that, the hunt itself for a minute, um, you know, I blame you for getting me into waterfowl hunting and dogs, bird dogs and, uh, a lot of things actually. But, um, uh. You know, I was so focused for so long on just, you know, puddle ducks and mm-hmm. Diving ducks and, you know, all the things we shoot here.

Speaker 11:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:02

Um, not just here, Idaho, uh, Montana states. Yeah. Montana. Yeah. I go up to Alaska every year and I've gone down south

Speaker 11:11

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 11:11

Southeast, you know, a handful of times, but, you know, as I got further and further into freshwater ducks, I guess. Mm-hmm. Um, and I, and I had shot most of them. Mm-hmm. I got thinking about sea ducks and, um, the king ider hunt was my foray into sea duck hunting, and I came home with three trophies, you know, three different species that are now in my library. So, so

Speaker 11:34

tell us what you got. Up there well far as why you shot, what you saw, what was available.

Speaker 2 11:39

Yeah. So, so the hunt, you know, they tell you that the hunt is all about king iers. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's why everyone goes Sure. But they'll tell you there are four species of, uh, sea ducks that you have, you'll likely have an opportuniTyce to hunt or to kill, shoot. Um, the king Ider, of course. Mm-hmm. Um, the, uh, white wing, black scoter.

Speaker 11:59

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 12:00

Uh, Harlequin. And then long tail.

Speaker 12:02

Oh, there are long tail.

Speaker 2 12:03

Oh, yeah, yeah. There are.

Speaker 12:04

Did you guys see some?

Speaker 2 12:05

Yeah. In fact, there, uh, several guys in our group did, did bag a long tail. Uh, I bagged the ider, the, uh, Koder and the mm-hmm. Harlequin Har Harlequins a neat story too. I, I shot a double on a, on a, you know, on a single shot. Yeah. Which was kind of cool. Especially in the ocean, man. You're you're riding these swells. Yeah, everything's moving. Everything's frozen. And

Speaker 12:27

Are you sure someone didn't shoot those with you? Like Idaho?

Speaker 2 12:29

Yeah. Yeah. It's weird. TI shoot doubles in Idaho when you're there. I shoot,

Speaker 12:34

I shoot doubles all the

Speaker 2 12:36

time. I shoot doubles in

Speaker 12:37

Alaska. I Are you sure that's not like group shooting?

Speaker 2 12:39

No, I shoot doubles in Alaska when you're not there. So the common denominator is mean, not you.

Speaker 12:45

It's kind of a, it's kind of an inside joke. He shot these redheads and I was like, no, I got both. We, I helped you. And he's like, no, I got those or something. I, it was something weird.

Speaker 2 12:54

Well, I was targeting

Speaker 12:55

razzing

Speaker 2 12:56

each other. I was targeting a redhead on that trip. You, this was on the Snake River?

Speaker 12:59

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:00

That was a double too.

Speaker 13:01

Yeah. Well that's what I'm, that's the double I'm talking about right? Is that we're being It's funny about, so

Speaker 2 13:08

anyhow, anyways, anything to razz me, I guess?

Speaker 13:11

No, he did shoot a double redhead, so that was cool. Um, so yeah. So did you, are there any, did I ask you this? Is there any other scoter species up there?

Speaker 2 13:21

I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't, I I don't remember them talking about it. I didn't see any, any, you know, the, the white wing, black scoter I shot's like I got lucky. It was perfect.

Speaker 13:32

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:33

You know it, you know, I didn't hit it hard enough to kill it, obviously. But

Speaker 13:36

Did

Speaker 2 13:36

you

13:36

see

Speaker 13:36

a lot of them

Speaker 2 13:37

there? There were plenTyce up there.

Speaker 13:39

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 13:40

It's all about getting the shot. I mean, it is so difficult.

Speaker 13:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:43

Um,'cause it's obviously past shooting. I mean, they're not decoin birds. You're trying to get their attention with decoy. You're, well, I'll get back to that.

Speaker 13:51

I didn't know that. Yeah. I want to get, let's kind of start back at the beginning. Let's rewind. Like what? Maybe let's talk about travel, getting there maybe. Perfect. What gear they recommended bringing? Just so if someone wants to do this hunt. This happened about a year ago for Mike, so I was trying to track, I've been trying to track him down, so I'm glad we get to hear this story.

Speaker 2 14:10

Yeah,

Speaker 14:10

yeah.

Speaker 2 14:11

Maybe let's talk, let's talk gear first. Yeah. And then, and then getting there.

Speaker 14:14

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 2 14:15

How's that? Yeah. And then, and then the hunt itself? Yeah. Or the, the four days I was there.

Speaker 14:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2 14:18

So, um, gear, uh, first of all, everything's gonna get wet

Speaker 14:24

and salTyce.

Speaker 2 14:24

Everything. Um, my gun, I mean, I, I made sure I wiped it down every night. Dried it. Uh, the last, did

Speaker 14:33

you still get rust on

Speaker 2 14:33

it? I, it, I opened my case up when I got home and it was just destroyed. It was rust,

Speaker 14:38

man.

Speaker 2 14:38

So

Speaker 14:39

what were you, what were you shooting?

Speaker 2 14:40

Uh, I was super Black Eagle. Yeah. I was shooting a, a, a benelli. Okay. So, unfortunately it didn't have that new best finish with mm-hmm. You know, that. Has the anti corrosive 25 year guarantee. Yeah. But yeah, I got home, I had to send it away and, and have it, uh, completely redone. It is fine now, but my point is, is it is as about abusive as environment as you can get. Yeah,

Speaker 15:04

yeah.

Speaker 2 15:05

Um, wet, salTyce, um, not so much dirTyce or sandy.'cause you're in a, you're in a boat, you're in a skiff, sweat

Speaker 15:12

and moist and

Speaker 2 15:12

just everything's sweatt.

Speaker 15:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2 15:14

And I, you know, I bought what I thought was all the best gear and I did buy good gear. I'm not saying the gear was bad, but it, it's just almost impossible to stay dry.

Speaker 15:24

Hmm.

Speaker 2 15:24

Um, even with

Speaker 15:25

yeah,

Speaker 2 15:26

the best gear and, uh, being layered up and

Speaker 15:29

a lot of those Alaska guys, they'll kind of wear that, I don't know if they were wearing it there, that fisherman kind of that rubber

Speaker 2 15:35

mm-hmm.

Speaker 15:35

Kind of thick coats and pants and it's just

Speaker 2 15:38

Yep. And that's exactly what I bought and took.

Speaker 15:40

Oh, you did take

Speaker 2 15:41

that? Yeah. So you, you really not, you really don't need camo. I mean, a lot of guys will show up and, I mean, I took a bunch of my Sitka stuff. Just'cause I have it.

Speaker 15:49

Sure.

Speaker 2 15:49

But you don't, you don't need it. Um, if you

Speaker 15:52

wear some darker

Speaker 2 15:52

color, fine. I just wore You'd be fine. Yeah. Dark gray. My, my, uh, my gear was all black.

Speaker 15:58

Okay.

Speaker 2 15:58

Um, I'm trying to think of the brand. It's it's

Speaker 16:01

the Heli Hanson. Is that

Speaker 2 16:02

what they use? No, it's not. It. They do, that's one of the brands. It's not, it's, um, grins.

Speaker 16:07

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 16:08

I bought Gron stuff.

Speaker 16:10

Is that what they, did they give you a list of

Speaker 2 16:11

recommendations or anything they gave? Yeah. Yeah. And I called and talked to'em.

Speaker 16:14

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 16:15

So, um, you know, the Ammos, there's no special ammo. What,

Speaker 16:21

what were you shooting? You

Speaker 2 16:21

remember? I was shooting tungsten. Okay. Yeah. What

Speaker 16:25

shot? Four shot?

Speaker 2 16:26

I think it was four. Yeah, I think it was four or five. It was four or five.

Speaker 16:29

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 16:30

Um, I mean, the birds swing in pretTyce tight. You're not

Speaker 16:34

Okay.

Speaker 2 16:34

Shooting great. They're just not decoin. I mean, they're, they're just passing by. But, um, yeah. So I would, you know, if I was going again, you need multiple.

Speaker 16:45

Yeah. What would you say?

Speaker 2 16:46

I,

Speaker 16:47

I should have taken that and I didn't, if you remember.

Speaker 2 16:49

Well, I would just take three. I would take three sets of clothing.

Speaker 16:55

Okay.

Speaker 2 16:55

A, a fresh set for every day. Just so you, they're dry, they're clean, they're, you're not trying to walk underneath

Speaker 17:00

clothing.

Speaker 2 17:01

Oh, yeah. All the layers. The base. Mm-hmm. I mean, obviously the shell. Mm-hmm. Uh, the, the, the waterproof outside. I just, I had one of those. Yeah. Yeah. But several sets of gloves, socks, beanies, multiple.

Speaker 17:13

How cold was it?

Speaker 2 17:14

Um, temperature wise? I, I, man that I don't rain. I don't recall. It wasn't, there was snow on the ground for sure.

Speaker 17:26

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 17:27

Um, we didn't get any rain that we would've got snow one day. We couldn't hunt. Uh uh. The wind was too bad. The, the wind was what? 40, 45 miles an hour. The swells were over 10, 12 feet.

Speaker 17:39

Wow.

Speaker 2 17:40

We just, you sit in the lodge and play Yeah. Play cards.

Speaker 17:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 17:43

But, um. So I would just tell anybody going up there, get the best waterproof out, out outer layer you can.

Speaker 17:52

Okay.

Speaker 2 17:52

Uh, I do not cut corners on that. And then just take multiple layers, uh, you know, setups for each day for your,

Speaker 17:59

did they have, sorry to cut. Did they have dryers or anything? You could dry your clothes. They

Speaker 2 18:03

did. They did. Yeah. You could. I didn't wanna deal with, I didn't wanna deal with that.

Speaker 18:07

Sure.

Speaker 2 18:07

You know, you're, you're out all day. You're,

Speaker 18:09

yeah.

Speaker 2 18:09

So, but um,

Speaker 18:12

do you remember it being like, do you remember it being really cold or not?

Speaker 2 18:16

It was cold. Yeah. No, I remember it being cold. You're, it's cold.

Speaker 18:19

Okay.

Speaker 2 18:19

But I can't,

Speaker 18:20

I don't know if it was some trips you're like, nah, that was so dang cold. Or you're like, oh, it was cold. Uh, it's

Speaker 2 18:24

good. No, I wouldn't say dang. I mean, I've been dang cold.

Speaker 18:27

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:27

Uh, up in a lot. It was

Speaker 18:28

just good

Speaker 2 18:28

winter cold in Canada. Yeah. It was just a winter, you know, ocean. Everything's wet.

Speaker 18:32

HumidiTyce cold.

Speaker 2 18:33

Yep.

Speaker 18:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:34

Yeah. It's that kind of cold,

Speaker 18:35

that kind of cold cuts through though. The humidiTyce stuff. Cuts. It seems like it cuts through your layers in clothing.

Speaker 2 18:42

Yeah.

Speaker 18:42

So,

Speaker 2 18:43

um, so anyways, that, that was a setup. I mean,

Speaker 18:47

so shotguns, do you recommend like, Hey, don't take a nice shotgun, just get a, like a cheap pump and take it, or you can do it or?

Speaker 2 18:55

No, I, I wouldn't change that. I mean, this is a, for a lot of people it would probably be once in a lifetime trip

Speaker 19:01

bucket, less hunt. Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:01

I mean, I just, I'd say take your best. Just know it's gonna get abused.

Speaker 19:06

Just clean it real good.

Speaker 2 19:07

Yep. Um, yeah, I wasn't gonna take a substandard gun.

Speaker 19:11

Yeah. Okay. That's good information. What about waiters? Did you wear waiters needed waiters?

Speaker 2 19:17

Yeah. So, uh, you don't have to have waiters, uh, for sure. But, uh, I took'em. I wore'em.

Speaker 19:25

Okay.

Speaker 2 19:25

Um, it's just another way to stay dry.

Speaker 19:28

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 19:29

You know, it's, I mean, you're not getting in the ocean.

Speaker 19:31

Okay. So you're just stepping into the boat off.

Speaker 2 19:33

If you are, that's another problem.

Speaker 19:35

Okay.

Speaker 2 19:36

Yeah. The ri the risk is pretTyce high. I mean, you don't

Speaker 19:40

Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:40

If you went in the water, I, I, I

Speaker 19:42

don't. Well, I'm just, or you're not put, you're not walking into the meter. Get into the're. Just

Speaker 2 19:46

at the boat ramp.

Speaker 19:46

There's a boat dock, you're stepping off into the boat.

Speaker 2 19:49

Right.

Speaker 19:50

Okay.

Speaker 2 19:50

Right.

Speaker 19:51

So you technically don't need, per se, waiters. So some good waterproof boots and like muck boots or something would suffice. Suffice. But maybe I

Speaker 2 19:59

would still wear waiters.

Speaker 20:00

I'd still wear it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:01

Yeah,

Speaker 20:02

yeah.

Speaker 2 20:03

It's just another level of waterproof.

Speaker 20:04

Yeah. Well, it's in your duck hunting on a boat, so it's just nice to have that water splashing on you or

Speaker 2 20:09

Right.

Speaker 20:10

Whatever it may be, you know, then you can layer underneath it and keep warm and keep your, yeah. Keep yourself dry. So, okay, so gear. Okay. We talked about shotguns. We talked about kind of what you're wearing. Camo. Camo, not needed. We talked about, um. Uh, shotgun shells. Do you think you'd, you need ts then, or you, I mean, you can get away, I'm sure with obviously still shot too. I

Speaker 2 20:36

mean, you could shoot bismuth, you could shoot tung, you can just shoot

Speaker 20:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:39

Whatever you're comfortable with. You could shoot up there.

Speaker 20:41

Tungston, iss dense. It's just,

Speaker 2 20:43

yeah,

Speaker 20:43

it's, it's a, yeah.

Speaker 2 20:44

Again, I was taking my best gun and it and

Speaker 20:47

you need to pause that. Need

Speaker 2 20:48

your

Speaker 20:48

phone? No.

Speaker 2 20:48

Okay. No.

Speaker 20:48

Okay. We're good.

Speaker 2 20:49

Um, I was taking my best gun and I was taking the best ammo.

Speaker 20:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:53

Again, it's a, it's a bucket list trip.

Speaker 20:55

Big, a big hunt. Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:55

It's only a couple places on the planet. You can hunt these things. Yeah. And I just knew it's, it's not a day everyday experience. Yeah. I wasn't, I wasn't gonna miss it.

Speaker 21:02

Yeah. I think, I think to my knowledge, the only place you can hunt them pretTyce much is Alaska. At least where people seem to get'em is Greenland and Alaska. Yep. Is kind, you know. Any, any other spots

Speaker 2 21:14

off the

Speaker 21:14

top of your

Speaker 2 21:14

head? Nope. Those are the only two. Um, you know, I even talked to our guide while I was up there and asked him, you know, how far south they come from where we were. Mm-hmm. You know, did they get into Cold Bay out on Yeah,

Speaker 21:25

yeah,

Speaker 2 21:25

yeah. Do you see'em on that? On the Ellucian Islands? He said, no, you see Pacific EERs, but you don't see the Kings don't go that far south, so they say

21:31

way

Speaker 21:31

north.

Speaker 2 21:32

Yeah. I think they hit St. St. Paul and then they, what is it West, I guess Head west towards Russia.

Speaker 21:40

Hmm.

Speaker 2 21:40

I mean, you're not that far from Russia out there.

Speaker 21:42

I wonder if you can kill'em in Russia. Probably. Maybe.

Speaker 2 21:44

I don't know.

Speaker 21:45

It like Russia has everything, but I dunno if you want to go to Russia, but I think in Greenland, I believe only opened up to hunting them I think a couple years ago.

Speaker 2 21:55

Yeah.

Speaker 21:55

So they're pretTyce recent too.

Speaker 2 21:57

And I think I, I don't know, we'd have to look it up, but I think the limit the limits there may be a little more liberal too than Alaska.

Speaker 22:03

In Greenland. Yeah.

Speaker 2 22:04

Yeah.

Speaker 22:04

Let's talk about that.'cause sometimes I think people. I think when you go on these hunts, you're gonna shoot a bunch of birds. And it's not, and it's not, it's not the fact, you, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's more, it's a trophy hunt. You're collecting species. You're not trying to just shoot a ton of birds every day. It's like, I want birds for taxidermy.

Speaker 2 22:23

Exactly. So, so the, you remember

Speaker 22:27

the limit?

Speaker 2 22:27

Yeah, I do. The limit was for four King Iers, um,

Speaker 22:31

either sex

Speaker 2 22:32

or either sex. The, the guide I went with, and I, I'm sure we'll talk about him in a minute mm-hmm. But, um, he encouraged us to shoot three, uh, Drakes in one, in one hand. Okay. They wanted to shoot at least one hand.

Speaker 22:46

What is any reason behind that

Speaker 2 22:48

or I, I don't know if it, I'm sure it's just preservation of the, of the, of the males.

Speaker 22:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2 22:53

You know, use part of your, your limit to shoot a female. I,

Speaker 22:56

yeah,

Speaker 2 22:56

I'm not exactly sure. I mean, I, I just,

Speaker 22:59

yeah,

Speaker 2 22:59

I just follow his

Speaker 23:00

off what he said.

Speaker 2 23:00

I wanted both anyways, it's, you know, and I got both in my library here, so.

Speaker 23:04

Sure. Yeah. No, that's cool. Tell us. Uh, okay, so we talked about that. Maybe let's talk about getting there.

Speaker 2 23:13

Yeah, that's, you know, I'm glad, I'm glad you brought this up.'cause that's half the, that's

Speaker 23:17

the adventure of Alaska, right? It is. Like, you didn't go moose hunting. It took 10 planes to get moose hunting.

Speaker 2 23:22

Right.

Speaker 23:22

So,

Speaker 2 23:23

so we, uh, we flew outta Salt Lake, obviously I did. Mm-hmm. Uh, flew through Seattle to Anchorage.

Speaker 23:30

Okay.

Speaker 2 23:31

Stayed in, uh, Anchorage that night. And, um, the next day we flew to King Salmon, which is just a small, I'll call it an outpost.

Speaker 23:42

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 23:43

I guess

Speaker 23:43

we, were you on a runway at this point still?

Speaker 2 23:45

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 23:46

Okay.

Speaker 2 23:46

Yeah. Runways the whole way. So, but you had, you, you have to stay in, uh,

Speaker 23:52

how big was your plane from Anchorage to, um, king Salmon?

Speaker 2 23:56

I'd call it a commuter.

Speaker 23:57

Okay.

23:58

You

Speaker 2 23:58

know, probably hell. 30

Speaker 23:59

people.

Speaker 2 23:59

Mm, 20.

Speaker 24:01

Okay.

Speaker 2 24:02

No more than 30, but I think it was probably about a little twin prop or something. Little twin prop. Little turbo prop.

Speaker 24:06

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 24:07

So, uh, we flew there and it was, by the way, it was all the, it was just all the people going on our hunt.

Speaker 24:14

Mm-hmm. Oh,

Speaker 2 24:15

that's cool. Um, and the only reason you, you fly to king salmon is to refuel.

Speaker 24:20

Hmm.

Speaker 2 24:21

I was talking to the pilot'cause we're just, you know, you got a D plane, we're standing out on the runway and

Speaker 24:25

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 24:26

It's cold. You know, they tell you dress in all your layers. So everybody had their gear, gear on, including waiters. By the way,

Speaker 24:31

was it cold in the plane?

Speaker 2 24:33

Mm, it wasn't too bad.

Speaker 24:34

Okay.

Speaker 2 24:35

I mean, it wasn't

Speaker 24:35

just They knew you were gonna get outside.

Speaker 2 24:37

Yeah.

Speaker 24:37

Okay.

Speaker 2 24:38

So, uh, anyways, I was talking to the pilot, well, they, they were refueling the, the plane. And I said, man, I'm kind of surprised we have to, uh, refuel already. And he said, well, he said, the reason we do it is. We're never guaranteed what the, what the conditions are gonna be when we get to St. Paul Island. And he said, if we can't land and we have to turn around and come back, we don't have enough fuel unless we stop here and refuel.

Speaker 25:08

That's good decision.

Speaker 2 25:09

So really good to say. I said, thanks for doing that for us. So anyways, king Salmon, we refueled and then it, I don't know, Tyce three, four hour flight out into the Bering Sea.

Speaker 25:23

Out across the ocean.

Speaker 2 25:24

Dude, it just, I hope I don't go down. Just, I, I mean it, it, it's

Speaker 25:27

just water.

Speaker 2 25:28

It's is water bearing sea cold water and

Speaker 25:32

something you don't want to crash in.

Speaker 2 25:33

No. Then St. St. Paul came into view and it is a rock. I mean, it's, there's not much to it. Yeah.

Speaker 25:42

Just rocks

Speaker 2 25:43

the ocean. It's just, it's just a, a lump. Yeah. It's just this little, a

Speaker 25:46

volcanic rock or what is it?

Speaker 2 25:48

I'm not even sure. It didn't look like volcanic rock to me.

Speaker 25:51

Hmm. Gray, gray rock

Speaker 2 25:54

gray. Well, really dark. I remember the beaches were like this really dark sand.

Speaker 25:58

Seems like the pictures and stuff Yeah. Are dark. But,

Speaker 2 26:01

um,

Speaker 26:01

that's why I was wondering if it was volcanic or not.

Speaker 2 26:03

So anyways, it's, it, I guess what I'm really saying is it's a, from Salt Lake CiTyce anyways, it's a full two day trip.

Speaker 26:09

Yeah. You know,

Speaker 2 26:10

do

Speaker 26:11

you

Speaker 2 26:11

Here to

Speaker 26:11

Anchorage. Sorry. How far from Anchorage to King Salmon was that?

Speaker 2 26:14

Um,

Speaker 26:15

do you remember roughly? Um,

Speaker 2 26:16

yeah.'cause I was back there this summer. We, we flew through King Salmon to go on this back country fly fishing trip. And from Anchorage to King Salmon, I'm gonna say a couple hours.

Speaker 26:27

So you're another,

Speaker 2 26:27

if I remember right.

Speaker 26:28

So Anchorage, you're another five, six hours of

Speaker 2 26:31

farming

Speaker 26:31

in little planes.

Speaker 2 26:32

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 26:34

That's good to Yeah. It's a good two day travel. It's,

Speaker 2 26:36

yeah, it's two and that's if everything goes well. Yeah. I mean it is all weather dependent.

Speaker 26:41

Sure.

Speaker 2 26:42

So, you know, I'd tell anyone going, I know everyone gets excited and you want to maximize every minute and you want to hunt every minute and you want to take every shooting opportuniTyce, but you're really kind of gotta just relax.

Speaker 26:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2 26:57

Know that there's, so

26:59

it's

Speaker 26:59

Alaska,

Speaker 2 26:59

it's Alaska

Speaker 27:00

in the winter time.

Speaker 2 27:01

It's Alaska in the winter time. And you know what, the stars have to line up a little bit.

Speaker 27:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2 27:06

I mean, um, we got there so they aligned for us, but

Speaker 27:09

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 27:09

I know there are, there are, uh, groups that are delayed by a day and have to stay in Anchorage and, you know,'cause they can't land. Um,

Speaker 27:17

I could imagine even getting delayed more than a day

Speaker 2 27:19

could

Speaker 27:20

probably two, three days per storm.

Speaker 2 27:22

Yeah. I mean,

Speaker 27:22

guys that go and hunt in the back country for moose or caribou, I mean, there's days the plane can't get in for. Oh, three, five days. You know? I know it'd be a long time if it's a bad storm, you know, but

Speaker 2 27:34

So the other thing I'll tell you, so that's all about kind of getting there. Mm-hmm. Um, it's a couple days to get there. I think it'll be a couple days. Anywhere from where you're, did

Speaker 27:41

they have a weight limit?

Speaker 2 27:44

Um,

Speaker 27:44

it was a standard 50 pounds.

Speaker 2 27:46

It, it's about 50 pounds of gear.

Speaker 27:48

Okay.

Speaker 2 27:48

If I remember. I know that was, yeah, I think it's about 50 pounds of gear.

Speaker 27:51

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 27:52

Um, but you know, so that's the kind of the logistics of getting there. People should plan on a couple days there and probably a couple days home. Um, and it's iffy. It's weather dependent.

Speaker 28:04

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 28:05

So you get to know the people in your group on the flight to King Salmon, and then obviously from King Salmon and out to St. Paul. And where

Speaker 28:13

is your group from?

Speaker 2 28:14

Yeah, they were from all over. It was a husband and wife and son from Indiana.

Speaker 28:20

Okay.

Speaker 2 28:21

Uh, I was shocked and impressed that he brought his wife. Yeah, she did great.

Speaker 28:26

Yeah,

Speaker 2 28:26

she did great.

Speaker 28:27

Does he like hunting or just kind of came along for

Speaker 2 28:28

adventure? He, I think he drags her around hunting all over the place. Okay. I mean, I got to know him pretTyce, pretTyce well later. And, um, yeah, he, he gets around. Oh,

Speaker 28:37

okay.

Speaker 2 28:37

So, uh, there was that group, uh, there were a couple, couple guys from, I think they were from Kentucky. And I could tell this was a kind of a lifelong dream for them. They probably probably saved for a while to go. And then the best part of the group, this is hilarious. There were four Amish guys from Ohio.

Speaker 28:56

Okay.

Speaker 2 28:57

Number one, I didn't know Amish people flew on airplanes.

Speaker 29:00

Or hunt.

Speaker 2 29:01

Or hunt. And uh, they did they

Speaker 29:04

have like Amish hats

Speaker 2 29:05

and stuff? Oh yeah. Yeah. They, they had their ha homemade Amish clothing on.

Speaker 29:09

Really?

Speaker 2 29:09

They had the Amish beards? Um, no, they were Amish.

Speaker 29:14

That's, I didn't, I didn't know they hunted either.

Speaker 2 29:16

And

Speaker 29:17

Interesting.

Speaker 2 29:17

And, uh, they turned out to be, well one of them had left the, I guess they call it a communiTyce mm-hmm. Had left the communiTyce.

Speaker 29:24

Oh,

Speaker 2 29:24

okay. I guess there were three, not four. And then the other two were still in the communiTyce.

Speaker 29:28

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 29:28

And, uh, I, I talked to the one guy'cause he looked more. Non hoish. Non hoish. Thank you.

Speaker 29:36

Dressing

Speaker 2 29:37

dressed up wise. It's just the way he dressed his hair cut. I'm like, dude, what? You're a little different. He goes, yeah, I left the communiTyce. He goes, I'm still welcome. You know? It wasn't like I was ostracized. I've just chosen a different path. And, but the other two guys,

Speaker 29:49

they were still,

Speaker 2 29:50

they were still very hoish. Still

Speaker 29:51

in it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 29:52

And, um,

Speaker 29:53

sure they were good guys.

Speaker 2 29:54

I'm killing myself. Yeah. In fact, one of them was my roommate and he was a mountain. I mean, I'm six two.

Speaker 29:59

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 30:01

He had to be six five and his hands were just, he's just this giant man.

Speaker 30:08

So the barn raising, he was like the main,

Speaker 2 30:10

he was the main guy. I'm sure he was the guy. And, uh, I mean, I won't get into, I don't wanna throw anybody under the bus, but let's just say he slipped outside and, uh, so every day, multiple times to get fresh air. And, um, and, uh, quench his thirst. He, he, he was in enjoying himself. Cool. Really cool guy though. Super

Speaker 30:31

cool

Speaker 2 30:31

guy.

Speaker 30:32

Cool. Sounds like a good mixture of people. You guys had, was that everyone or was there somewhere?

Speaker 2 30:37

Yep. No, that, I think that was about everyone.

Speaker 30:39

Okay.

Speaker 2 30:39

There was the family, the guys from Kentucky.

Speaker 30:43

Tell us how longish

Speaker 2 30:43

guys, me,

Speaker 30:45

how long the hunts usually are for, kind of give us a ballpark idea what it would cost someone to go on and we can refer to people the website. They can see that

Speaker 2 30:53

too. Yeah, I would just do that ties on the cost.'cause

Speaker 30:56

I think they're, I think they're around four or five grand. Does that about sound about right?

Speaker 2 30:59

When I, yeah, when I went. That sounds about right.

Speaker 31:01

I know you guys can check

Speaker 2 31:02

and then, I mean, you got, you got flights, you got put on top of that and

Speaker 31:06

Sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 31:07

You know,

Speaker 31:07

I'm just talking what? The outfitter

Speaker 2 31:09

Oh yeah. What he charges.

Speaker 31:10

What they charge.

Speaker 2 31:10

Yeah.

Speaker 31:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2 31:12

Um, and, and by the way, just be before we get into the hunting, uh, so, so now you're on St. St. Paul Island.

Speaker 31:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2 31:19

And um, again, it's a rock in the middle of the bearing sea. Um, at one point it was a Russian outpost. Oh, really? Really? So there's, there's fur seals Wales. It's, it was mainly fur seals. They were after though.

Speaker 31:34

Okay.

Speaker 2 31:34

Um, and then at, I guess

Speaker 31:38

I'm looking up on my phone now.

Speaker 2 31:39

Yeah. I guess when, when the US bought Alaska, I'm sure St. St. Paul came with it. So the, so what's there, the infrastructure that's there is

Speaker 31:48

old Russian

Speaker 2 31:49

stuff. Old Russian stuff,

Speaker 31:50

really?

Speaker 2 31:51

And I mean, like, t and there's like 300 people that live there. I don't know what they do.

Speaker 31:57

Hmm.

Speaker 2 31:58

So, and they're all indigenous people. So there's, there's a little communiTyce with some streets, a little tiny grocery store. You know. Mm-hmm. Five bars. No, I'm kidding. There was a bar though. There was

Speaker 32:11

one bar at least.

Speaker 2 32:12

Yeah.

Speaker 32:12

Oh, in a place?

Speaker 2 32:13

Yeah.

Speaker 32:13

There,

Speaker 2 32:13

there's a little histor

Speaker 32:14

drink away.

Speaker 2 32:14

There's a little historical socieTyce. I went toured.

Speaker 32:17

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 32:18

Um, one afternoon we finished, we finished hunting early and uh, that was kind of cool. That's where I learned a little bit of the history and about the first seals and in fact, around the island, there are these, uh, kind of pillars, these, these towers. And I, I didn't know what they were for. I asked the guy and they said, oh, those are the towers. The shooters would stand in. The snipers would stand in to shoot these first seals.

Speaker 32:40

Oh, really?

Speaker 2 32:41

One time at one point they were, uh, shooting, I don't know, four or 5,000 seals a day.

Speaker 32:47

Holy

Speaker 2 32:47

cow. Yeah. And harvesting them.

Speaker 32:48

Did you see any seals there?

Speaker 2 32:50

Uh, yeah. We saw fur seals, saw a lot of, a lot of fur seals. Saw an orca carcass on the beach.

Speaker 32:56

Wow.

Speaker 2 32:56

That was pretTyce cool.

Speaker 32:57

That is cool.

Speaker 2 32:58

Um, in fact, was it

Speaker 32:59

pretTyce fresh?

Speaker 2 33:00

Mmm.

Speaker 33:02

Mean fresh enough?

Speaker 2 33:02

No, it was fresh enough. I mean, there's flash and meat. It stunk like a

Speaker 33:05

Yeah,

Speaker 2 33:06

I bet it didn't smell good. Um, there's also a, in the marina there, there, they used to process crabs there. So the, um, that, uh, the show Deadliest catch.

Speaker 33:18

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 33:19

They would motor into, uh, that area, St. Paul and drop, drop off all their, their load for to, to be processed. That's

Speaker 33:27

Did you eat a bunch of king crab when you were there?

Speaker 2 33:29

No. No, we didn't

Speaker 33:30

really,

Speaker 2 33:30

that, that industry's really shut down. I mean, if you follow that, I, I'm not even sure there's a season right now. Oh really? I can't speak to it. But the population,

Speaker 33:38

I didn't know that,

Speaker 2 33:39

of those crabs has dropped twice. It's like 90%. I mean, it's a real issue.

Speaker 33:43

Wow.

Speaker 2 33:44

So

Speaker 33:44

is Deadliest catch not happening anymore? The mo the showed you?

Speaker 2 33:47

I

Speaker 33:47

don't,

Speaker 2 33:48

I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 33:50

Interesting. Hmm.

Speaker 2 33:52

So anyways, that's just a little bit of, it's Russian, it's it, the history is Russian.

Speaker 33:58

What were the cars like? Were they all Russian? Were they Russian and stuff, or?

Speaker 2 34:01

No, but uh, sometimes

Speaker 34:02

you get those old, like old cool Russian, like land rovers or I don't know,

Speaker 2 34:06

whatever. This is. This, I have a funny answer for you. It's true.

Speaker 34:10

Oh, is this,

Speaker 2 34:10

yeah. Tell me. I think I remember the details. So we land, we land, right? It was a runway.

Speaker 34:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2 34:17

There's no terminal or anything. It's just a runway. And this ambulance pulls up to the plane.

Speaker 34:24

I'm sure I remember this. Yeah. And

Speaker 2 34:25

I'm like, what is this ambulance pulling up to the plane for? Well. The guides van that he picks his drops his hunters off, and then when they're leaving and then picks'em up, is this old ambulance,

Speaker 34:38

did he have chairs like benches

Speaker 2 34:39

in the back? Yeah, he kind of reconfigured the back. You could still put like a gurney in it if you, I don't know why you would, but Yeah. So there's, we're on this rock in the middle of the bearing sea, jumping into an ambulance.

Speaker 34:50

That's

Speaker 2 34:51

funny. And the group that was leaving, you know, the ambulance pulled up, they all got out.

Speaker 34:55

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 34:55

cause they were waiting for us to get off the plane so they could get on.

Speaker 34:58

It's like the short bus.

Speaker 2 34:59

Yeah. We, we all piled into the back of the ambulance and off We Did

Speaker 35:04

all of you fit in there?

Speaker 2 35:05

We did. We, we did

Speaker 35:07

with

Speaker 2 35:07

your gear. And they had a separate truck for the gear.

Speaker 35:09

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 35:09

They threw all the gear in the back of the

Speaker 35:10

truck. So that's pretTyce, that's pretTyce impressive. They could fit y'all in there.

Speaker 2 35:13

So, uh, so anyways, we literally did a little tour. I put quotes around tour. There's not much the tour.

Speaker 35:20

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 35:21

Uh, and then went. You know, on the way to the, the, uh, the lodge, I put quotes around lodge too.

Speaker 35:27

Okay.

Speaker 2 35:27

Every, like I said, everything's a hundred years old and nothing works over there.

Speaker 35:30

Okay.

Speaker 2 35:31

So anyways, that's a little bit of the logistics of getting there and, and kind of a visual. I try to create a visual. What is it like for you?

Speaker 35:39

So tell me how, how, what do you, how big is the island? Do you remember? Does it seem small? Is it,

Speaker 2 35:45

oh, you could drive around this thing in

Speaker 35:47

how long? Yeah.

Speaker 2 35:48

An hour maybe. Okay. I mean, it's not,

Speaker 35:51

it's not big, but it's not, it's not a teeny thing then, but

Speaker 2 35:54

No, I mean, it's big enough for a, a runway. There's a small communiTyce. There's kinda big open beaches. There's part of the island's just this big long sandbar. Um, you know, I, I, I don't think that part of the island's inhabitable or anything.

Speaker 36:10

I guess I could look it up on my phone how big it is, but, so tell, um. How was, what was the accommodations just an old hotel that they had

Speaker 2 36:19

there or what

Speaker 36:19

was that?

Speaker 2 36:20

It was, I think it was an old Russian, um, like governmental building at one point. I think it was the history of it. Uh, and they've obviously adapted it to, to how, I don't even wanna call it a lodge and I'm not disparaging it'cause you gotta know it,

Speaker 36:35

but this is part of the adventure.

Speaker 2 36:36

It is. But you,

Speaker 36:37

I mean, you don't show up now

Speaker 2 36:37

this when you realize where this, I want everybody listening to this to go look on a map on where this island is.'cause you're gonna go, oh crap. Yeah. It's a rock in the middle of the burying sea.

Speaker 36:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2 36:48

And uh,

Speaker 36:49

the only reason you'd go there is to go kill.

Speaker 2 36:51

I went there to kill iers. I didn't care if I slept on a mattress in a sleeping bag. So I had, there was no expectations, there was no bar set on what the accommodations or food should be like for that matter. I didn't care.

Speaker 37:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2 37:05

Uh, which I'm glad I didn't care.'cause everything's run down. I mean, I think we had one working bathroom. Have

Speaker 37:12

hot water.

Speaker 2 37:12

There were two bath, hot,

Speaker 37:13

hot water, hot showers,

Speaker 2 37:15

warm, hot showers. One day we didn't, the day the wind was so bad we, we lost the, uh, boiler.

Speaker 37:21

Hmm.

Speaker 2 37:21

So, uh, the lodge got cold and we had nowhere to go. So we just all bundled up. Played, played cards, and, mm-hmm. And, and chatted. Um, I take that back. There were two showers. There was one toilet.

Speaker 37:35

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 37:35

Only one of the toilets worked.

Speaker 37:37

What was food like? What'd they feed you?

Speaker 2 37:39

It was all homemade. So the, the guide's wife and daughter were there. Mm-hmm. And, uh, they made us hot meals. We had, you know, hot breakfast in the morning and hot dinner. It was always good.

Speaker 37:48

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 37:49

Homemade, you know, it wasn't like gourmet. You're like, you're going to a restaurant. But, um,

Speaker 37:54

did you guys hunt during the day? Did they, did you have lunch or did they feed you out there had snacks?

Speaker 2 37:58

We did. We did. No, it really wasn't a situation where you'd go out and come back and go out again.

Speaker 38:04

You go out and get your birds for the day and come back

Speaker 2 38:05

and then, and then come back.

Speaker 38:07

Okay. Is it usually kind of a half day hunt?

Speaker 2 38:09

Yeah.

Speaker 38:09

Kind of noonish?

Speaker 2 38:10

Yep, exactly.

Speaker 38:11

Okay.

Speaker 2 38:12

So, um, and then you spend, you can sleep. Um, you know, I did some workwise out there. I did some reading, and you just kinda relax. They, and, and they'll take, I mean, they took, we went beach combing one day. People just, there's all kinds of stuff that washes up on that.

Speaker 38:28

Like, what are people looking for? Like, they, they changed

Speaker 2 38:30

one of the guys, the glass balls stuff, the guy, the, yeah. The one guy's wife found a really cool buoy with a kind of mesh net around it.

Speaker 38:38

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 38:39

That, uh, they ended up taking back for a decoration.

Speaker 38:42

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 38:43

Um, I brought some stuff back from the island to put on the base of my, my birds and my library. So, so there was, you know, stuff from, from the island.

Speaker 38:53

Did those rocks from

Speaker 2 38:55

No, no, I'm,

Speaker 38:56

no,

Speaker 2 38:57

actually, you know, I don't.

Speaker 38:58

Know if it made it on there.

Speaker 2 38:59

Yeah. I brought some netting back. There's all kinds of netting and stuff that you would see

Speaker 39:04

fisherman's net.

Speaker 2 39:04

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 39:05

Took come off. Yeah.

Speaker 2 39:06

But it's cool stuff. Like I said, we saw that orca and pushed a lot of, uh, fur seals around.

Speaker 39:14

One time when I was in Alaska, kind of a funny story. There was a gray whale that washed up on a beach in Alaska and we were up there Bear hunting. Or bear hunting. Yeah. Bear hunting in the spring in the bay, just outside of Anchorage. And we're like, oh, that, that's cool. Let's go check out that whale. So we go over there and we decide to stand on it and get some pictures standing on this great whale. Well anyways, we get back to the car and we're just like, what is that smell? You know, you could tell the oil stunk, but anyways, those things have so much oil. Oil, it like stuck to your boots.

Speaker 2 39:47

Right.

Speaker 39:47

And you didn't realize, like even when you got back to the car, it just smelled for a days. Right. Like oil, because that oil just stayed on. Boots. Right. I thought that was kind of a funny, so I think it whales on a beach I can relate to.

Speaker 2 40:00

Yeah. No, that orca

Speaker 40:01

don't stand on

Speaker 2 40:01

em. No, that orcas, that orcas stunk too. I don't know how long it had been there, but it was, it was stinky.

Speaker 40:08

I think a lot of times they'd dynamite those to like get rid of em. Blown up. Blown up to the seagulls, eat'em or whatever, you know? Okay. So I'm looking on here. St. Paul Island is 13 miles. It says length 13 miles and width is seven miles.

Speaker 2 40:22

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Speaker 40:23

Population 400.

Speaker 2 40:25

Yeah.

Speaker 40:26

So it's pretTyce, it's fairly round. It looks like there's kind of a strip that goes out on, there's

Speaker 2 40:31

a, there's a tail on it. That's that st That's that real sandy area.

Speaker 40:34

Did you guys, okay, let's talk about. I kind of think we, let's talk about hunting.

Speaker 2 40:39

Yeah.

Speaker 40:39

So tell us what you guys did, how you hunted, what they did to get'em in.

Speaker 2 40:43

Yeah, so we, we hunted out

Speaker 40:44

bird numbers.

Speaker 2 40:45

We hunted out of boats and they had two kinds of boats. Uh, if you're familiar with what's called a banks boat

Speaker 40:51

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 40:51

Which is, uh, more of a hard sided kind of sturdy boat.

Speaker 40:55

Okay.

Speaker 2 40:56

We could get, uh, it's like

Speaker 40:57

aluminum boat mm-hmm. Tycepe thing. Okay.

Speaker 2 40:58

Yeah. And it's got kind of a, I'll call it a shell up over the top that shields

Speaker 41:05

you from the ocean a little bit.

Speaker 2 41:06

Yeah. And, and it's also, um, um, you know, allows you to hide from the birds.

Speaker 41:12

Is it kind of like your new boat? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 41:14

Kind of,

Speaker 41:14

yeah. A shield like that.

Speaker 2 41:15

Yep. Mm-hmm. So, um, they had two of those banks, boats and then they had two, um, inflatable, um, I just went blank. Um,

Speaker 41:26

those zodiacs,

Speaker 2 41:27

zodiac boats.

Speaker 41:28

Okay.

Speaker 2 41:29

And, uh,

Speaker 41:31

were those sketchy?

Speaker 2 41:32

Yeah, everything was sketchy. Was sketchy, but yeah,

Speaker 41:36

the, the water's rough. I

Speaker 2 41:37

felt

Speaker 41:38

big white caps and,

Speaker 2 41:39

um,

Speaker 41:40

or not,

Speaker 2 41:40

you know what, not, there wasn't so many, so much as white caps. I mean,'cause you're, you're past the break.

Speaker 41:46

Oh, you

Speaker 2 41:46

are. But there's swells. I mean, I don't think there, I mean, on the smoothest day there's probably eight foot swells.

Speaker 41:53

Okay.

Speaker 2 41:53

In

Speaker 41:54

fact, how far out from the shore are you?

Speaker 2 41:55

Quarter of a mile.

Speaker 41:57

Oh wow.

Speaker 2 41:58

Yeah. I mean, you can still see the island off in the distance, but you're out there quite a ways.

Speaker 42:02

So the birds feeding out there. Then

Speaker 2 42:04

how

Speaker 42:04

deeps

Speaker 2 42:05

that water? They're, they're transitioning, they're transitioning from an area they call the washing machine.

Speaker 42:10

Okay.

Speaker 2 42:11

Which you couldn't get into there. You couldn't take a boat in there. It's just, there's

Speaker 42:14

nasTyce.

Speaker 2 42:15

It's just nasTyce. Which is why they call it the, the washing machine.

Speaker 42:18

Okay.

Speaker 2 42:19

I, I guess that's just, uh, probably the reef system that's out there and the depth of the water. And you know how the. Ocean current comes in, I don't know, I'm not an expert on that stuff, but we, we could watch it from a distance and

Speaker 42:32

Oh, you could see,

Speaker 2 42:33

oh yeah, we, we kind of, we kind of motored over there close to it and you could just see it was rough. I mean, you didn't want to be in that area, but, but anyways, they're, so the birds are transitioning from that area. Mm-hmm. I don't know. Back to a roosting ground or, uh, an area where they can rust or loaf or what.

Speaker 42:52

Hmm.

Speaker 2 42:52

But we would be in that area, that transition area.

Speaker 42:56

Okay.

Speaker 2 42:56

Um, on in the boats. And by the way, the guy, so

Speaker 43:00

you're past shooting him as they're,

Speaker 2 43:02

you pass, shoot,

Speaker 43:02

moving somewhere

Speaker 2 43:03

your past shooting. Okay. And let me just say, uh, so I use Dilution Island Outfitters.

Speaker 43:08

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 43:09

Um, number one above everything. In fact, number one, two, and three is safeTyce.

Speaker 43:15

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 43:16

Um, just'cause the margin of air is zero with

Speaker 43:18

them. Or

Speaker 2 43:20

no hunting in those conditions?

Speaker 43:21

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 43:21

The margin of air is zero. Sure. So, so they, uh, I mean, they're in constant radio contact, you know,'cause there's four boats out. You go out together, you go to different spots.

Speaker 43:32

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 43:32

So the, if there ever was an issue, how

Speaker 43:34

many people per boat? Four. Three?

Speaker 2 43:36

Well, the zodiacs, you could put two people per boat in the, um, the big banks boats. It was, I think it was, was it three or four? Three or four.

Speaker 43:44

Okay.

Speaker 2 43:45

So, um, you're out there together, they're in radio contact. I could see one or two of the other boats from time to time. But you're, you're spread out enough. Mm-hmm. You're not on top of each other.

Speaker 43:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2 43:56

So I just, I wanted to mention that,'cause that's important. I mean, this is really a, a, a Tycepe of hunt where there's not a lot of margin for air.

Speaker 44:03

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 44:04

If I,

Speaker 44:05

if you go over,

Speaker 2 44:06

if you go over I, I, I think it'd be very difficult.

Speaker 44:09

You're gonna be cold

Speaker 2 44:11

or dead, maybe forever. Cold forever.

Speaker 44:14

You might have a watery cold grave.

Speaker 2 44:16

Yeah. Yeah. They may pull you out. I don't,

Speaker 44:18

I assume they have life jackets and all that

Speaker 2 44:20

Yeah.

Speaker 44:20

Stuff.

Speaker 2 44:21

Oh yeah. Like I said, it's,

Speaker 44:22

it would suck to go overboard.

Speaker 2 44:23

Right?

Speaker 44:24

Yeah.

Speaker 2 44:24

But, um, yeah, so it's pass shooting and you're hitting them in a transition area. It's a big area. Um, and you do use decoys.

Speaker 44:33

Okay.

Speaker 2 44:34

Um, they're on a big, long rope,

Speaker 44:37

just kind of in a line,

Speaker 2 44:38

in a line, just dragging them behind the boat. They never turn the motors off on those boats. Never. They're always

Speaker 44:44

really

Speaker 2 44:44

on and, and in gear. Yeah.

Speaker 44:47

Wow. I never thought of, I didn't think about that.

Speaker 2 44:49

Yeah. No, it's, uh, well, you're not anchored, right. I, in fact, I, I don't know how deep the water we were in is, but

Speaker 44:55

Hmm.

Speaker 2 44:56

It's not like hunting out on the great lake. Right. You're

Speaker 44:58

so, it's just like in a slow, I like it's

Speaker 2 45:00

just in a slow idle. Yeah.

Speaker 45:02

Interesting. I thought you, because I thought they, you'd anchor out.

Speaker 2 45:05

No. Throw

Speaker 45:06

the decoys

Speaker 2 45:06

out. No, you're, you're just drifting.

Speaker 45:08

Hmm.

Speaker 2 45:08

Um, but you know, if, again, all these swells are coming in, I mean, you've got, he's gotta be able to move and

Speaker 45:14

birds obviously don't care about the sound of

Speaker 2 45:16

the

Speaker 45:16

motor. No.

Speaker 2 45:17

And well, it's, I think it's so big and vast out there, and there's so much going on. I'm not even sure they hear the motor,

Speaker 45:22

they hear. It's just kind of,

Speaker 2 45:23

yeah. And, and it's not like it's flat. I mean, like, I like, so I'll come back to these, these swells, uh, for a minute. It's, it's, it's important because it's part of the hunt.

Speaker 45:33

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 45:34

So as you peak, well, as you drop into a trough mm-hmm. You know, between the one swell and the next one, you're hidden.

Speaker 45:42

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 45:42

Right. You're down in this valley. 10, 12 feet sometimes.

Speaker 45:45

Wow.

Speaker 2 45:46

And then as you come back up the backside of the next swell and you hit the peak of it, there's, you gotta be on the ready,

Speaker 45:53

huh?

Speaker 2 45:53

Well, you hope they're doing the same thing.'cause they're using the same swells to do the same thing. They'll get down in the trough, so you won't be involved. See'em fall

Speaker 46:00

around. They're flying right on the deck of the road.

Speaker 2 46:02

Right. And then they'll, all of a, a sudden you'll see'em come up over the top of the next swell and you it hopefully.

Speaker 46:09

So do you generally see'em kind of coming and then you time it? You

Speaker 2 46:11

can. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 46:13

Okay.

Speaker 2 46:13

But it's so, you know, that's kind of fun though. Can you visualize what I'm talking about? Yeah. It's not like you're sitting in a blind in the marsh. I mean, it's a chest match.

46:20

I've

Speaker 46:20

been on the ocean, so, I mean on the ocean psych. Yeah. I understand. I guess if people haven't understand swells and I could see, but that makes sense.

Speaker 2 46:29

Yeah. A lot. A lot of moving pieces for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 46:31

Hmm. So did they decoy or did the decoys just kind of draw, suck

Speaker 2 46:35

them towards

Speaker 46:35

you?

Speaker 2 46:36

Just suck'em in,

Speaker 46:37

kind of give'em something to look

Speaker 2 46:37

at

Speaker 46:38

and like, oh,

Speaker 2 46:38

I think it's a reference. So it's like, hey, let's, let's swing past there. So, I mean, we had plenTyce of shooting opportunities. It's not like you're, there are a lot of birds out there. Oh, you'll see, oh, there's a group. There's a group. You know, a lot of'em aren't,

Speaker 46:52

were they always moving? It seemed like

Speaker 2 46:54

always.

Speaker 46:54

Okay.

Speaker 2 46:55

Always moving. That's cool. We'd see'em on the water.

Speaker 46:57

Yeah,

Speaker 2 46:57

we would see'em on the water too. You'd see'em kind of raft up a little bit in small groups. But I mean, you can never get close to those birds, but that's awesome. You'd see'em on the water.

Speaker 47:06

Did they make any, what did they sound like when they're any sounds?

Speaker 2 47:10

No, I don't know. I have no idea. Didn't hear any,

Speaker 47:12

you don't remember hearing any

Speaker 2 47:13

call

Speaker 47:13

calling or,

Speaker 2 47:14

no, there was, there was no calling. It was all, it was all

Speaker 47:17

motor was too loud.

Speaker 2 47:18

Yeah. That maybe, no, it was all visual. And then, you know, when you'd shoot one, I mean, this is where the guy, the value of the guides. Well, the guides are valuable everywhere Sure. In all parts of the hunt. But, um, you gotta get on that bird.

Speaker 47:33

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 47:34

Because you're in the ocean. It just

Speaker 47:36

starts going

Speaker 2 47:37

where you think it, it hit is it's not gonna be there. So you gotta know how the currents work. And these swells and, I mean, half the time I'm like, where's this guy going? That bird wasn't over here. It was way over. And we'd find it.

Speaker 47:50

Yeah. So, so the swells are ripping out there. Yeah. The tide. The tide is moving.

Speaker 2 47:54

It's

Speaker 47:54

a lot.

Speaker 2 47:55

Yeah. You're not on a lake, dude. You're on the open.

Speaker 47:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2 47:57

Open ocean. And, uh, there is a,

Speaker 48:00

that was, I wonder what the tide swings are out there.'cause some areas, I mean, you, it's like you're in a dang river, you know, like it's just going and so you, you know,

Speaker 2 48:07

so, so let me talk about these boats for a minute.'cause this is an important nuance of the hunt, you know, in our world right here in, when we hunt mm-hmm. Waterfall here in Utah. Mm-hmm. I mean, we may be sitting in a blind. We could be in a cornfield or we could be in a boat. You, your boat, my boat, whatever. Yeah. But you're just sitting there. It's stacked. Yeah. Nothing's ha you're just sitting there. Yeah. Right. Um, in that environment, if you're me, you shoot really well. If you're Tyce you miss a lot. Right. Inside joke. Um, no, but

Speaker 48:39

I've had my misses.

Speaker 2 48:40

Okay. But fast forward to St. Paul Islands.

Speaker 48:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2 48:45

King ider hunting. Not everything is moving.

Speaker 48:49

Moving.

Speaker 2 48:49

So I liked hunting outta the zodiacs better than the banks boats.

Speaker 48:54

Hmm.

Speaker 2 48:55

Just'cause I felt like I could see better. There was more room I could respond, you know, if there was a shooting opportuniTyce. Mm-hmm. But here's the problem. Okay. You're in this boat. Things a zodiac. There's no seats in a zodiac. Yeah. Yeah. You're just sitting on the bottom of the zodiac, which by the way is aluminum.

Speaker 49:13

Yeah. Hmm.

Speaker 2 49:14

Aluminum in freezing.

Speaker 49:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2 49:16

Water.

Speaker 49:16

It's very comfortable.

Speaker 2 49:17

It's like an ice skating ring. So you're, you're just trying to brace yourself in a shooting position. Then you're going up and down these swells.

Speaker 49:24

You're not only leading in front of the birds

Speaker 2 49:26

Yes.

Speaker 49:26

But you're leading, you're coming up and down.

Speaker 2 49:28

Yeah. So you're motoring up and down. These, these, you're going over these swells and down the backside, the motor's on, so you're constantly moving. Mm-hmm. And then these birds, I mean, they, they're moving.

Speaker 49:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2 49:40

Sounds

Speaker 49:40

so fun, man.

Speaker 2 49:41

So it is, what I'm telling you is, is shooting is, uh. A challenge.

Speaker 49:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2 49:47

Exponentially harder than,

Speaker 49:49

yeah.

Speaker 2 49:49

Anything we would experience around here. Makes sense. And people need to, I, you know, if I was going up there for the first time, I wish somebody would've explained that to me.'cause I'm in this zodiac literally sliding all over the place. I'm running into the other guy, I'm sliding back into the guide.

Speaker 50:05

Were you cussing yourself? Were you laughing?

Speaker 2 50:08

A, a little bit of both. It depends on the, well, the who

Speaker 50:11

in the

Speaker 2 50:11

put it way with you all that leads to some missed opportunities. You're working so dang hard to get an opportuniTyce to shoot one of these things. And you

Speaker 50:18

whiff on one, you're like,

Speaker 2 50:20

yeah. I mean, as I'm sliding down the, you know, bottom of the zodiac.

Speaker 50:24

That's funny.

Speaker 2 50:24

Trying to shoot a bird. Um, I

Speaker 50:27

wish I had this on film.

Speaker 2 50:28

Yeah. So anyways, it's, it's a very, I guess what I'm telling you, Tyce, it's a very dynamic environment.

Speaker 50:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2 50:34

But lots of shooting opportunities. You know, I shot my limit of, uh, of Iers and um.

Speaker 50:40

The limit? Is it 20 sea ducks in Alaska? I think a season. I think it's something like it's, you can,

Speaker 2 50:46

well I think per, we could only shoot four iers, so I think it's four iers. You maybe we'll shoot others, but

Speaker 50:51

yeah, I think it's like other combined species. Yeah. I think too, I mean you could obviously check the regs, but I remember talking to a guy, I thought it was like 20 total or something, but

Speaker 2 51:01

it could I That sounds right, but I don't, I don't

Speaker 51:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2 51:05

Specifically remember. Yeah.

Speaker 51:06

You got feral ion on that one, tell you how to do that. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 51:09

Or

Speaker 51:10

whatever you can shoot. So, um, trying to think what else on the we want. Okay. No, no dogs obviously.

Speaker 2 51:19

No dogs.

Speaker 51:20

Dad.

Speaker 2 51:20

I mean, they take my dog hunting to everywhere. I didn't take'em here.

Speaker 51:24

Yeah. Yeah. Um. Would they net the birds

Speaker 2 51:26

net? Yeah. He has, the guy has a big net. So when a bird's shot, I mean the next prioriTyce is motoring over. It doesn't matter if there's another group coming in. Get that bird. You're going to get that bird.

Speaker 51:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2 51:38

You have to.

Speaker 51:39

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 51:40

So, um, he'd motor over and he had a big, long, I don't know, fishing net. Mm-hmm. Long, not long pole on it, handle on it. And, uh, never. How

Speaker 51:50

would they keep track if it was of yours? Did they have a way to keep track? It was your,

Speaker 2 51:53

you

Speaker 51:54

just had

51:54

to

Speaker 2 51:54

do that in the zodiac. I mean, it's only you and one other guy. So I'd keep my birds, he'd keep his birds.

Speaker 51:59

Okay.

Speaker 2 51:59

And then in the bigger banks boat, you just, you'd just put'em down in front of you.

Speaker 52:04

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 52:04

The banks boats were nicer.'cause you didn't get the, the, the salt spray.

Speaker 52:09

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 52:09

Uh, with the zodiac, you were completely exposed. Yeah.

Speaker 52:12

You're living the experience.

Speaker 2 52:12

You're, you're li well you're a foot off the water right. In a zodiac.

Speaker 52:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2 52:16

And that banks boat sits a little higher on the water. It's got that hard.

Speaker 52:20

You have chairs in there?

Speaker 2 52:22

Chairs in there.

Speaker 52:23

Okay.

Speaker 2 52:23

Yeah. So, um, so you're a little bit more protected from the wind and salt spray and, and maybe it's a little more stable shooting. I, I just like the freedom of being in that.

Speaker 52:36

So when you said you hunt until noon, was that kind of, did they call it for the day or did you guys kind of, or just kind of once you got your birds or how just kinda Yeah. Felt it out or

Speaker 2 52:47

It's all based, it, it's, it's like duck hunting anywhere.

Speaker 52:50

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 52:51

Um, I mean there's, there's a couple hours where the birds are really moving, transitioning, moving to feed, moving to loaf, whatever it is. Mm-hmm. It's no different with sea ducks.

Speaker 53:01

So you didn't get your old squad. Do you feel like you're like, man, I wish I would've stayed out longer in? No. Or do you feel like it was it was a good,

Speaker 2 53:08

I felt like it was

Speaker 53:09

good. It was a good timeframe.

Speaker 2 53:10

Yeah.'cause they're not only focused on me, but they're focused on the other clients as well. Right. Yeah. So you, you. I give'em the guides a little bit of grace.

Speaker 53:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2 53:19

I mean, if they would've just taken me out on the boat Yeah. I, I would've done that.

Speaker 53:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2 53:23

Um, but, you know, hunting those old Quas in the, and the harlequins is different. So the EERs and the, and the white wing, black sco, you're out in the open ocean.

Speaker 53:33

Okay. Yeah. Tell us about the other species of

Speaker 2 53:36

is

Speaker 53:36

different. So,

Speaker 2 53:36

so with the Harlequin in the, in the, uh, in the long tails, you go into the coves.

Speaker 53:41

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 53:42

And you're

Speaker 53:43

still hunting from a boat

Speaker 2 53:45

still. You're still in the boat. Mm-hmm. Still hunting from the water. Um, I'd call it jump shooting. That's probably the, the closest thing that comes to mind.

Speaker 53:54

Do you kind of pin'em in a bay and then they

Speaker 2 53:55

swing up? Yeah. You try and you try and corner'em into a, you know, up against rocks or into a bottom and they come flying past you and then they come flying past you. That's exactly right.

Speaker 54:04

Hmm.

Speaker 2 54:05

And you know, that's a challenge too,'cause. You gotta pay attention to those swells that turn into waves and rough surf when you're close to the be beaches, which is where you're trying to get to shoot these birds. Mm-hmm. So the guides working really hard to pay attention to where you're at in relation to these surf and then the birds and, um,

Speaker 54:26

so is there a lot of little bays on St.

Speaker 2 54:28

Paul? There are, yeah. So we'd, we went a couple different directions, um, when we were targeting articles in long tails.

Speaker 54:36

Could you sit on the shore? Do you think? There, and, and

Speaker 2 54:39

yeah. They do. They do.

Speaker 54:40

Decoy the

Speaker 2 54:41

shoreline. Yeah. They, if yeah, if, if you want to do that, they do. Mm-hmm. Um, and they've got spots they can take you, which again, depending on the conditions, if they don't want to take the boats out that day,

Speaker 54:51

yeah.

Speaker 2 54:51

That's what you may be doing. Hmming, we never, we never had to hunt.

Speaker 54:56

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 54:56

From the shore, I mean from the water. You just cover so much more ground. Yeah. Especially if you're targeting harlequins in long tails.

Speaker 55:04

Okay, so in Alaska, I don't think you need a guide for ducks. I don't believe so.

Speaker 2 55:09

I don't think

Speaker 55:10

you do. I don't think you do. Could you do a DIY thing there? No bays. Could you hunt bays? DIYI

Speaker 2 55:17

don't.

Speaker 55:18

You probably don't even know where to stay, or, I mean, camping would probably be terrible.

Speaker 2 55:21

Tyce, this is like 300 people live on this island. Yeah, there's, I is there a hotel? I don't even, I didn't notice a hotel anywhere.

Speaker 55:29

Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 2 55:29

I mean, you may knock on somebody's door and say, can I sleep on your floor?

Speaker 55:33

Or,

Speaker 2 55:33

you know, something

Speaker 55:34

Camping in a tent. There's no,

Speaker 2 55:35

yeah, there's

Speaker 55:35

no

Speaker 2 55:35

CareAway

Speaker 55:36

campground.

Speaker 2 55:37

Tyce, you are on the edge of the world out here.

Speaker 55:40

No, I, I believe it. I'm just, I mean, some people, you know.

Speaker 2 55:43

I know. I,

Speaker 55:44

I know why you're asking because I know you, maybe I should try. Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to find, to, to pay a guide. I'm just, I'm just asking questions. You know what?

Speaker 2 55:51

I don't think so.

Speaker 55:52

I mean, it'd be challenging, it sounds like, obviously, but it

Speaker 2 55:55

would be,

Speaker 55:56

and by the time you fly there anyways, it's,

Speaker 2 55:58

I mean, if you're

Speaker 55:58

be worth,

Speaker 2 55:59

okay. Set that money aside. Just the distance and difficulTyce, the logistics getting there. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 56:06

Would be a pain.

Speaker 2 56:07

Yeah. I wouldn't do that to, I'd say wait a year or two, save your money and

Speaker 56:13

then do it the right

Speaker 2 56:14

way. Do it, do it the right way.

Speaker 56:15

Yeah. Yeah. I was just throwing that out there. Okay, so let's talk about, um, wounded birds. Yeah. Do they, did they, did people wound birds and were, did, were they like, Hey man, that's part of your thing? Or Were, or were they okay? Or they,

Speaker 2 56:29

yeah. No, we,

Speaker 56:30

they obviously, they try to get'em, but

Speaker 2 56:32

yeah. So

Speaker 56:32

somewhat get away. I'm sure.

Speaker 2 56:33

So

Speaker 56:34

it's part of duck hunting.

Speaker 2 56:35

I mean, Crip, you know, crippled birds is part of every Tycepe,

Speaker 56:38

especially divers.

Speaker 2 56:39

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 56:39

Divers, if you don't hit'em, they go.

Speaker 2 56:42

So, I can't think of any birds. We didn't recover, but there were crippled birds on the water. We had, we had to shoot a second or third time.

Speaker 56:49

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 56:50

Because they'll swim.

Speaker 56:50

You're able to recover'em.

Speaker 2 56:51

Yeah.

Speaker 56:52

Okay.

Speaker 2 56:52

Yeah. I, I can't think of a single bird. We didn't recover.

Speaker 56:55

And you're probably trying to make your shots count. You're probably trying to, I mean, you're not just sky busting everything. No. Because these are, these are once in lifetime birds. You want to get at the right shop,

Speaker 2 57:04

right

Speaker 57:05

the right distance and make it count, I assume. Yeah. So

Speaker 2 57:08

I mean, I, I think if you really started sky busting or really started reaching out pretTyce far to try, and the guys would probably

Speaker 57:14

say,

Speaker 2 57:15

he's gonna tell you, he's gonna say,

Speaker 57:16

Hey,

Speaker 2 57:16

yeah,

Speaker 57:17

don't do

Speaker 2 57:17

that.

Speaker 57:17

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what a good guide should do is tell someone if they're,'cause these are obviously trophy birds. They're, you're limited on the amounts and the numbers, and they want'em to be there forever. Right?

Speaker 2 57:27

Yeah.

Speaker 57:27

So

Speaker 2 57:28

if you go to, Hey, hey, and there's a, there's a couple outfitters out there, but again, I use Lucian Island, uh, and they're good. They're, they're outstanding. Mm-hmm. I mean, they've been there a long time. They know exactly what they're doing.

Speaker 57:40

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 57:40

Um, very skilled, very safe. Mm-hmm. I wanna stress that. Very safe. Um. Yeah, I would just say they do it right? They do it right. They okay. And, and they make sure everyone has a great experience. I mean, they can't guarantee you're gonna kill every bird, but

Speaker 57:55

Sure.

Speaker 2 57:56

They're gonna put you on birds.

Speaker 57:57

And it was, did you mention, was it a four or five day hunt or how long was it?

Speaker 2 58:01

Yeah, Tyce, I think it was four days, if I remember right. Okay. I think, I think we hunted four days.

Speaker 58:06

Sounds about right.

Speaker 2 58:07

And that last day, I think we,'cause you again, you're waiting for the plane to come in. They get there late in the afternoon. So we hunted that morning.

Speaker 58:14

Okay.

Speaker 2 58:14

And then jumped in the ambulance, went to the runway, and uh, we jumped out and the next group jumped in.

Speaker 58:22

Hmm. Is there anything else to do there besides duck hunting? Can you go fishing or anything?

Speaker 2 58:27

No, there's no fishing. You can go beach combing. Yeah. Um,

Speaker 58:32

you're there to kill ducks.

Speaker 2 58:33

You're there. That's, I mean, we went to that poor, we went to that little historical socieTyce, which

Speaker 58:38

yeah.

Speaker 2 58:39

I mean it's not much, but it gives you a sense for what that island's all about.

Speaker 58:43

Do you remember, and I'm sure a lot of this stuff is on Ellucian's, um, website, Ellucian Outfitters website. So if you guys wanna look at more information where I'm just kind of obviously picking Mike's brain from what he can remember. But, um, do you remember the seasons, kind of the time of year? I mean, I know you were in January,

Speaker 2 59:00

it's dec Yeah, it's, it's, I'm gonna say December and January. I don't know if it goes into February or not. It seemed like we were one of the last groups.

Speaker 59:08

When you were looking, were they scheduled out years or how or

Speaker 2 59:12

Yeah. They, they get like, I don't

Speaker 59:14

booked

Speaker 2 59:14

out. I mean, you'd have to call'em and see if you wanted to go this

Speaker 59:16

winter.

Speaker 2 59:17

Yeah, sure. You know, if there's a cancel. When you were

Speaker 59:19

looking, do you remember kind of, was it kind of

Speaker 2 59:21

I thought I was gonna have to wait a year.

Speaker 59:22

Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 59:24

Actually, I wanna go back to something'cause I think this would be good for people listening if they, if they've not seen this. I mentioned our taxidermist kind of got me tuned into it. That's the first time I saw a real King Ider. Yeah. You know, he had it, he had it up on the stand and, uh. But where I, where I first was exposed to it, so I missed a point here.

Speaker 59:44

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 59:44

Is, um, you know, I'm friends with the president of Benelli and I worked together earlier in our career and he and I follow him. And anyways, I don't know, this is four or five years ago, maybe a little longer. Benelli produced a movie called, I

Speaker 1:00:00

think I've seen

Speaker 2 1:00:00

that one, to Kill a King. The title of it is called, it's a short film.

Speaker 1:00:04

Were they hunting out of layout boats on that one or no?

Speaker 2 1:00:06

They u they went to St. Paul Island.

Speaker 1:00:08

Okay. Maybe not.

Speaker 2 1:00:09

And they used the same outfitter.

Speaker 1:00:11

Okay.

Speaker 2 1:00:11

So that was my, the very, I watched that.

Speaker 1:00:14

I gotta watch that one. That

Speaker 2 1:00:15

it is super cool.

Speaker 1:00:16

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 1:00:17

Um, it's called To Kill a King And, um, it's all about the journey to St. Paul Island. I think they were launching, did

Speaker 1:00:23

that come out six or seven years ago?

Speaker 2 1:00:25

Yeah, I think I have

Speaker 1:00:26

seen it

Speaker 2 1:00:26

know what they made it when they, uh, I think when they came out with a super black eagle. Three.

Speaker 1:00:30

Three, yeah.

Speaker 2 1:00:31

That was kind of the launch behind that. I think So. Platform, or at least the, the, the third generation. Yeah, that was a fir. I'm like, man, that is, that looks so fun. That looks so cool.

Speaker 1:00:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:00:44

Then what was it, Troy's studio and he's mounting a, an ider.

Speaker 1:00:48

You're like, I'm doing it.

Speaker 2 1:00:49

I'm like, I'm going fourth

Speaker 1:00:50

quarter, baby.

Speaker 2 1:00:51

I'm going, that's right. Q4. Gotta go hard.

Speaker 1:00:54

Q4, gotta go. Um, what, this kind of came to my thought, I think just kind of, do you know what they were eating out there? The king ider or what their color comes from, what they're feeding on?

Speaker 2 1:01:04

I don't know.

Speaker 1:01:05

Did they tell you see, fish gotta come out of their belly? I don't know.

Speaker 2 1:01:08

Yeah, no. I, my guess is it's, uh, mussel, uh, you know, shellfish Tycepe things that, that they're eating on. Um, I'm not really sure that you

Speaker 1:01:20

didn't see'em regurgitating like marand. There's lots of times no, nothing. Shoot'em. The fish will come out of their crops, you

Speaker 2 1:01:25

know. Yeah. No, never, never saw that. Okay. Never opened up their stomach, uh, to, to even look. Um, because

Speaker 1:01:31

there's something out there obviously that that's what they,

Speaker 2 1:01:34

well, to

Speaker 1:01:34

live

Speaker 2 1:01:34

there. Yeah. I mean, I assume, you know. The reason why they're in that, um, what did I tell you? They called it the, the

Speaker 1:01:42

washable,

Speaker 2 1:01:43

the the washing machine. Yeah, the washing machine is, I think that's just

Speaker 1:01:46

stirs

Speaker 2 1:01:47

stirring up all food up and

Speaker 1:01:49

stuff.

Speaker 2 1:01:49

So I think that's why they're, they're feeding over in that area and then transitioning back,

Speaker 1:01:53

maybe transitioning to calmer water to

Speaker 2 1:01:55

That's exactly right.

Speaker 1:01:56

For hangout.

Speaker 2 1:01:57

Yeah. That's exactly right. But, um, and I hope I'm right on this, the lobe, that big yellow lobe, you were talking about this earlier. Yeah. Uh, I was reading, I think I was reading somewhere that, that, or somebody told me that they used that to desalinate the waters they drink.

Speaker 1:02:13

That's cool.

Speaker 2 1:02:14

Um,

Speaker 1:02:15

makes sense.

Speaker 2 1:02:15

I, I mean, it does make sense. I, and it might've been Troy actually who told me that.

Speaker 1:02:20

Oh, okay. But they're be, I was looking at his, the kind of, I thought it was the beak. I've never actually felt them. I was like, is that the beak? And he said, no, it's the lobe.

Speaker 2 1:02:29

Yeah, it's called the lobe.

Speaker 1:02:30

Huh.

Speaker 2 1:02:31

Um. That part's super cool. Well, there's three, three things I love. Well, four, number one, they're big.

Speaker 1:02:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:02:38

Number two, that lobe is just so unique. It's such a unique identifier. Number three are the little, um, almost like Batman wings that come, the feathers that come off, they, they kind of curl up on their backs. That's, I love that.

Speaker 1:02:53

Oh, there's so many unique shapes to'em.

Speaker 2 1:02:55

And then, and then the coloring.

Speaker 1:02:57

Yeah. What kind of bird do you get

Speaker 2 1:02:59

that

Speaker 1:02:59

coloring,

Speaker 2 1:03:00

that bluish gray on the its head and the kind of a lime green and yellow and black and orange. I mean,

Speaker 1:03:07

that's incredible.

Speaker 2 1:03:08

Are you kidding me?

Speaker 1:03:08

Yeah. That's amazing. That's the fun thing about ducks, and I think that's why I know, at least for me, that's why I got hooked into'em, is just the different species and you pull'em up and they're just like, wow, that's a, I mean, they're all so unique, you know? Or a pheasant's amazing. Like there's nothing wrong with a beautiful pheasant, but it's kind of, it's a pheasant, right? Yeah. Like they're all the same, a duck. They're so many different kinds. And that's what. I think as fun as waterfowl, I mean, you have how many different species here in your office, you know? And I mean, that, that eagle head snow, that, you know, snow goose is cool. The white, I mean, they're just all so different,

Speaker 2 1:03:43

you know? Yeah. Yeah. That blue phase is cool.

Speaker 1:03:45

Yeah. I want one of those, one of these days. One of these days I'll get out and kill some snow geese like that. Um, cool. Anything? Okay, let's, I think we're about wrapping it up. What about getting birds home? I don't think we've talked about that.

Speaker 2 1:03:59

Yeah. So they take care of, like most good guides, they take care of all that.

Speaker 1:04:03

Okay.

Speaker 2 1:04:03

So we get, we get back to the lodge mm-hmm. And they've got a big long table in there and mm-hmm. Again, they make sure everybody's birds stay with their person. Good. So they tag'em and

Speaker 1:04:14

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 1:04:15

Um, once they're tagged, they, they wrap'em, I think they wrapped them up. Um, they

Speaker 1:04:20

wrap'em in, um, in paper towel.

Speaker 2 1:04:23

I think they did Tice.

Speaker 1:04:25

So they'll do, they did like taxi service. They'll wet the paper towel and wrap it around

Speaker 2 1:04:28

their

Speaker 1:04:29

feet and the head so

Speaker 2 1:04:29

they

Speaker 1:04:30

freeze

Speaker 2 1:04:30

dry. I think they, I think that's exactly what they did. They have a big freezer, so everybody's

Speaker 1:04:34

bags,

Speaker 2 1:04:35

everybody's birds are in that freezer under their name. And then, um, they tell you to bring an empTyce, kind of collapsible cooler.

Speaker 1:04:42

Okay.

Speaker 2 1:04:43

And, um, the load you up,

Speaker 1:04:44

little Yeti cooler or

Speaker 2 1:04:45

something? Yeah, yeah. You could do that. Whatever. My, I brought more of a soft sided. It

Speaker 1:04:49

gives me a bigger one,

Speaker 2 1:04:49

one that collapsed, still kind of had some structure to it.

Speaker 1:04:52

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 1:04:53

And, um, loaded'em up and away. They sent'em with you any

Speaker 1:04:57

permitting you had to

Speaker 2 1:04:57

have or

Speaker 1:04:58

no?

Speaker 2 1:04:58

Nope, nothing. Just they needed to see those tags, you know, on the bird.

Speaker 1:05:02

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 1:05:03

And, um, and I guess your license,

Speaker 1:05:05

wait, there's tags on the bird.

Speaker 2 1:05:07

They tag each bird

Speaker 1:05:09

with what, uh, their own thing or is

Speaker 2 1:05:11

it? No, no, this is state thing. It says state thing. Right. So it's got your name on it. It's got your license number. Oh, okay. The date it was shot. It's got their guide name, number, all the information on. It's all the information. So if you were pulled aside.

Speaker 1:05:24

You have your license,

Speaker 2 1:05:25

they'd look at that.

Speaker 1:05:25

The outfit or

Speaker 2 1:05:26

Okay. Then you'd show'em your license. But I mean, Tyce, you, you spent a lot of time in Alaska too. I mean, there are so many people leaving that state with

Speaker 1:05:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:05:35

Birds, uh,

Speaker 1:05:36

seafood,

Speaker 2 1:05:36

fish,

Speaker 1:05:37

elk, deer,

Speaker 2 1:05:38

elk or bears. Not elk. Moose. Moose, moose,

Speaker 1:05:40

caribou.

Speaker 2 1:05:41

Uh, in fact, the hotel, this is, I, I thought this was hilarious. The hotel I stayed in, I'd never seen this before. They had a walk-in freezer off the lobby for all the hunters to store their game in.

Speaker 1:05:53

Nice. I like

Speaker 2 1:05:54

it. It was super cool.

Speaker 1:05:55

I love Alaska

Speaker 2 1:05:56

for

Speaker 1:05:57

that reason. I mean,

Speaker 2 1:05:57

where, where, where else in the world would you find that? In

Speaker 1:05:59

hotel. That's why I love Alaska, man. It's one of my favorite places. That's so cool. Um, okay. So that was easy to get'em home.'cause I, I, when I shot my shell ducks in New Zealand last year, that was pain, like the bird flu thing and getting'em back and I had to have'em all prepared. And then I had to go to a licensed tax and was here to like. Reclean'em. So, but flying, flying back from there is no big deal. Well,

Speaker 2 1:06:22

the, the difference between my story and yours is you left the country.

Speaker 1:06:25

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:06:26

I'm still in the country.

Speaker 1:06:27

Obvious the United States.

Speaker 2 1:06:28

Right?

Speaker 1:06:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:06:29

Which I think would be another drawback at Greenland. I don't know. There's probably another level of complexiTyce in getting your birds back.

Speaker 1:06:35

That's something you'd wanna look into. Or if you're bringing your bird, you, you come to the US and then take your birds, obviously to another country. That could be challenging for someone that's not a resident.

Speaker 2 1:06:45

Right. Right. Going the other way.

Speaker 1:06:47

Yeah. Going the other way. But you just have to do your research, obviously, if you're gonna do a hunt like this. So cool.

Speaker 2 1:06:53

So, so our next seed dot hunt is in January.

Speaker 1:06:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:06:56

We're going back east.

Speaker 1:06:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:06:57

So, uh,

Speaker 1:06:59

I'm looking forward to

Speaker 2 1:06:59

that. I hope I can hit, get that long that, uh, that old squad, the long tail on that trip. Yeah.

Speaker 1:07:04

I want the ider, I want the common ier. That, that's my number one

Speaker 2 1:07:09

mine too.

Speaker 1:07:09

Old squad number two.

Speaker 2 1:07:11

Mine too.

Speaker 1:07:12

Probably three would be a black duck. Who? I want a black duck really bad. I want scooters though too. Yeah. And they have the common koder there, the white wing.

Speaker 2 1:07:22

And they have the surf koder. The

Speaker 1:07:23

surf koder. I want all of'em. Let's just not come back until

Speaker 2 1:07:27

we get all of them. So, so I have three of the seven. So you just mentioned the other four.

Speaker 1:07:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:07:31

And I think your order is the same as my order.

Speaker 1:07:34

Okay, good.

Speaker 2 1:07:35

So

Speaker 1:07:36

hope. Yeah, we, we, you guys are listening. We were supposed to go to Maine or Massachusetts, that area hunting this, this uh, January. And the only storm we had that happened pretTyce much this winter happened on the day we were supposed to,

1:07:52

we

Speaker 2 1:07:52

couldn't even get on an airplane.

Speaker 1:07:53

No. Our, our flights were canceled and it had a big old storm hit and we had like the most bluebird, you know, winter, and the guide said, oh man, it's nice weather. And then it just hit. So we had to, and our hunt was the last week of the hunt that you could hunt'em. So we had to cancel, uh, our hunt, but we got it on the books for this year. So.

Speaker 2 1:08:12

So hopefully with any luck we'll come back with everything.

Speaker 1:08:15

I do wish they had Harlequin up there, but that's not gonna happen up in that area. So off the go, have to go to Alaska or somewhere else, or Seattle or something like that to get those Harlequin. So anything else before we wrap up? You want to share with the audience about Hunting King Iers or some inspirational quote to people or

Speaker 2 1:08:35

ties I something like that? I just say, uh uh. The trip was everything I thought and hoped it would be and more.

Speaker 1:08:43

Awesome.

Speaker 2 1:08:44

Now I. You and I are cut from the same cloth for the most part, but it was an adventure. It really was. That's why I think

Speaker 1:08:52

I'm relying to do it

Speaker 2 1:08:53

right for the adventure. Yeah. It's, it's all about killing those iers if you're looking for a luxury lodge and you know, chef prepared meals and Yeah. You know, um, all the pampering that comes along with that, that's not this trip.

Speaker 1:09:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:09:06

If you want to go kill a king ider,

Speaker 1:09:08

that's where you want to, that's the one you want to do. Yeah. Yeah. I think that, like, like I was saying, you, you know, we do these things. The, the bird or the, the big game animal or whatever we bring back is just a small token that we bring from the field to remember that hunt, you know, or remember that adventure that, that one thing I obviously, the reason I love hunting is it takes you, it makes you go to places you would never go,

Speaker 2 1:09:31

right?

Speaker 1:09:31

Like you'd never go to, you know, that island, you know, St. Paul and go check that out. Just unless you were hunting, right? Like, I would never probably go. To New Zealand and go hunt. Maybe I will, I mean, maybe I do some hiking, but, you know, fly into a helicopter into the Southern Alps and hunt tar these, and they just, they just take you to these amazing places, right? And the downfall is when you do it, you want to go do more. So I dunno if that's a downfall, but the, it's like you just,

Speaker 2 1:09:58

well, it never stops, I

Speaker 1:09:59

think

1:10:00

is

Speaker 1:10:00

your point. Yeah. There's

Speaker 2 1:10:00

always

Speaker 1:10:01

another, he's, I wanna go here, I wanna go there. And, you know, so,

Speaker 2 1:10:05

yeah, no, I would, uh, I would just, it was a bucket list item and I'm glad it's, uh. I shouldn't say. I'm glad it's off the list. I'm glad I did it.

Speaker 1:10:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:10:15

Yeah. And like you said it, the experience, the memories, uh, the places, the people.

Speaker 1:10:21

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:10:21

I still smile when I think about those, uh, Amish guys. Those

Speaker 1:10:24

Amish guys. That's something that's something you wouldn't expect.

Speaker 2 1:10:28

No, I mean, I'm, I'm getting on them plane. I'm like, man, who are these guys? I didn't even

Speaker 1:10:31

know you guys flying.

Speaker 2 1:10:32

They're the nicest guys too. Any

Speaker 1:10:33

Amish people are listening. We're we just, we?

Speaker 2 1:10:35

No. Hey, I loved them, man. Yeah, you kidding me? Al Big Al That was his name. My roommate was Big Al.

Speaker 1:10:42

Oh, big Al. That's the guy's name. Al, wasn't that the singer, the Amish singer that was popular back in the day. Oh dude. Remember that?

Speaker 2 1:10:49

I don't know. I don't know any Amish singers.

Speaker 1:10:51

Maybe am a lot of Amish people are named Al or something. I dunno.

Speaker 2 1:10:53

Probably, probably.

Speaker 1:10:55

So.

Speaker 2 1:10:56

So anyways, no, that's all I gotta say.

Speaker 1:10:58

Okay. Well thanks for listening everyone. Mike, thanks for sharing your experience. Man, it, it, it makes, makes me want to go so. I'll have to maybe get your birds mounted later for myself. I, I'll go get my own and then we'll, hey, I know, add, add your, maybe I'll practice on them or something.

Speaker 2 1:11:15

Well, just so you know, it's, it's if I ever fall over dead or, you know, get, run over or get whatever your name's on all these birds. So,

Speaker 1:11:24

well, don't do that anytime soon. So you need to enjoy these for a long time. So,

Speaker 2 1:11:28

that's right. Anyways, they've got a home after me.

Speaker 1:11:31

Yeah. Thanks for coming on and

Speaker 2 1:11:33

yeah,

Speaker 1:11:33

thanks for sharing your experience. All right, everyone, have a great day. Uh, get to training those dogs. You know, the hunts are only four and a half months away. If you're a grouse hunter, start September 1st here. So, uh, you know, plan those adventures. Life is short, so save those pennies. Go fulfill those dreams. And uh, and also, you know, if you can take your dog along for the ride, uh, obviously we love, we love the dogs. So anyways, have a good day everyone. We'll see you in the next show.