CACHE RIVER CONUNDRUM | EP073 | Off The Clock with B Scott

We sit down with world-class dog trainers Freddy King and Chris Akin to discuss early season dog training and the devastating Cash River flooding crisis in Arkansas.

• Getting dogs off the couch and acclimated to heat before hunting season begins
• Why dogs can overheat even when swimming in warm water
• Understanding that dogs don't perspire and cool differently than humans
• How to recognize signs of heat stress in your hunting dog
• Why young dogs should avoid chaotic dove hunts for their first hunting experience
• The Cache River crisis and its seven-tenths mile log jam flooding thousands of acres
• Political complications preventing solutions to the flooding disaster
• How the flooding affects local communities, farmers, and wildlife habitats
• Proper techniques for introducing dogs to boat hunting
• The importance of secure footing and designated positions for dogs in hunting boats

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Transcript

Introduction to Dog Training Experts

Speaker 1 0:00

It's 5 o'clock and you're off the clock with B Scott. Now today we have with us Freddie King and Chris Aiken, and these are world-class dog trainers. They've trained world-class dogs and they're super knowledgeable experts about dogs. They're going to tell us about some early season dog training they're doing how they're getting their dogs prepared, what to do, what not to do, especially with the heat it's early season, it's super hot. They're going to teach us about what we should be doing, what we should not be doing with our dogs. And they're also going to talk about the cash river.

Speaker 1 0:30

Some interesting things going on right now. Uh, with the water backing up, flooding fields, houses really interesting. Definitely going to want to stop and listen to that for sure. But before we get into it, make sure you check out our gear. On our gear shop we got some new hats in. Got the black with the boat on the front, rope hat. Same thing here with the Havoc, really light, comfortable hat. This one right here I'm wearing, as you can see, camo Bill Boat on the front, really clean hat, looks good. But, guys, make sure you like subscribe, hit the bell for notifications and we're going to jump right into it. Well, freddie, chris, let's get right into this thing. You know tomorrow's the first day of August, all right, so season is coming. Whether you like it or not, it's hot.

Speaker 1 1:09

right now it's on the way, the cool weather's coming, you guys getting pumped up or what you bet Looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 1:14

I mean Chris is already getting his stuff ready for dove season, which is about four or five weeks away from today. I'm getting my stuff ready for dove season. I mean it's hot. It's going to be that first part of the city, that first hunt when it comes in. Everybody looks forward to it. They're ready for it. You know, I mean I. I start counting the days right now oh yeah, I mean I start counting the days right now.

Speaker 2 1:39

everything's we're putting in their food plots, we're getting our stuff ready for the dove season, we we're getting stuff ready for ducks. I mean, it starts right now, august 1st, like you said. That's when people start saying it's time, hey it's coming around the corner.

Speaker 1 1:54

So what are you guys doing right now as a dog? Getting your dogs ready.

Speaker 2 1:57

Well, I'll let Chris start that off. I know he's got so many dogs right now.

Speaker 3 2:01

Well we do, I mean any dogs right now, but well we do. I mean we train year-round. So we're not doing anything really different at the kennel. But you know we do have a lot of suggestions what people need to be doing at home. But at the kennel I mean main thing we're doing different.

Speaker 3 2:10

This time of year is just starting earlier I mean we're literally standing there in the dark every morning waiting on the first thing light. We can see the birds thrown and we're rolling and then we're. We're keeping real close eye on the whole setup because, with me running so many dogs every day, uh we run out of time. So usually around 11 11 30, we're starting to shut everything down because, uh, it's just getting too hot man, it's just getting too.

Speaker 3 2:31

Now, these dogs that I have, because they're in training most of the year, they're in shape, they're conditioned for it, they're, they're acclimated to it, unlike our dogs at home on the couch, you know, but. But they're so they can handle a little bit better than than the average family pet and companion can, but it's still even harder on them it really is Go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 4 2:48

I was going to say what do you do like, let's say, somebody listening. They let their dog sit up all summer, sit on the couch in the air conditioning and they're like dove season you know you hear people all the time like man, my dog was performing, so what should they do? Season that's a hot one, like you know you get your dog out there.

Speaker 3 3:04

What's just somebody do right now. You know the the busiest year for sporting dogs at a vet's office is opening day of dove season okay, that's the busiest day of the year and it's mainly because of heat. It's mainly people overheating their dogs, but what they're doing is they're taking that dog that's like you said in the house, on the couch enjoying the air conditioning. Let's face it they're, you know, they're in family pictures and they're watching movies together.

Speaker 3 3:25

You know what I mean that's about their biggest job for the season. But now so we got to get these dogs off the couch, we got to get them outside. Now we're not about to go out there and just do a 30 minute session with him by any means. Every dog's different and every dog can handle the heat a little bit different, just like people can. But man, just start off easy. Let's, let's go ahead and start getting them acclimated to the heat. Let's start getting them acclimated to get them in shape. You know they can't go out there opening day and be expected to go out there and make a ton of retrieves and be out in the heat.

Speaker 4 3:49

Yeah, you can pick up a hundred doves. There you go, just pull them off the couch.

Speaker 2 3:53

I mean, that's it. I mean really.

Early Season Dog Training Tips

Speaker 3 4:05

I mean it's you know've got to have a dog. That's a little bit, but my favorite thing y'all, it doesn't take a whole lot. I mean one guy, one dog, one bumper. You can go out and just throw some singles in the pond. You know, and Freddie and I talked about this on the way down here Even our ponds right now are my pool. Yesterday was 94 degrees. I'd like to throw a thermometer, especially designed ponds and they're shallow and man, those dogs come back when they shake off on you. It's like bath water.

Speaker 3 4:25

So just don't think because that dog's in the water. He's cooler because it's not true, and they can't breathe when they're in the water. Their body can't breathe when it's in the water, like that.

Speaker 2 4:33

Dogs don't perspire, yeah. So hot water does absolutely nothing for cooling a dog off. And we always talk about, you know, get them wet and run them dry, and I'm and you, so you know, be careful. So many people want to sit there and swim and swim your dog. Well, they'll have a heat stroke just as quick in the water as they will. I did not know that I didn't know that either.

Speaker 3 4:55

That's a good everybody, everybody assumes hey. And here's the other thing. You know, when we work in dogs, like me yesterday, I'm standing in a beautiful shady place, got a big oak tree over top of me. I'm standing breeze blowing.

Speaker 3 5:06

I'm not doing anything. I'm just standing there watching my dog working his tail end off and he is busting his butt out there and back multiple times. I don't think it's that hot outside. I don't feel that bad like it ain't that bad here, but I'm not the one running with a gore tex coat on out there and back, you know, four times on the way, you know yeah so you got to use your common sense here and you got to take care of the dog.

Speaker 3 5:24

And you got to read the dog. I mean, you know, man, we watch the tongue. Tongue comes out, tongue gets wide, gets thick, comes out the side. I mean all that stuff's like shutter down mode right there. And then at that point we're not saying go over and jam him in the box, we're saying hey, just tie this dude out, let him get a towel off, dry him off the best you can get all that off of him so that he can dry out and his hair can do what it's supposed to do and kind of radiate that that heat out of there and get him cooled back down and make sure he's in the shade. You know, and another thing I, my dogs, all ride my back seat. I don't know about you guys, but my dogs go everywhere I go and they're in the back seat. I am petrified of me getting out, being on the phone, being busy, being distracted, getting out of the truck and cooking my dog in a truck. I mean how horrible would that be?

Speaker 3 6:04

Oh yeah, and it'll happen real quick you know, and these trucks, today they shut off, Like I got one of my trucks.

Speaker 2 6:09

They don't stay started anymore.

Speaker 3 6:10

No, my Toyota shuts off after an hour. Me and a phone an hour's nothing, right? I mean, you know we do that all the time, right? So man guys got to watch these dogs close because it didn't take long.

Speaker 1 6:29

I mean those trucks. Well, they get 150 degrees inside. I'd get easy, easily, I'm sure. Yeah, and you're right about the truck shutting off. You know all these new trucks, they do that now yeah, exactly, absolutely so there's.

Speaker 3 6:36

There's a lot to it, but most of this stuff just common sense stuff. But, man, but get that dog off the couch, get out there, do a little something. That doesn't take long. Hey, we're talking five, ten minutes, all it takes. You don't have to have any special boots, a special whistle man, just get out there and get that dog some exercise and get him ready for opening day, expose him to the things. You know like a lot of these dogs never have hunted. They got to be exposed to some birds, they got to be exposed to the gun. They need to be some, you know, working on some obedience, because, you know, dove season's kind of chaotic.

Speaker 2 6:59

Oh yeah, and chris is touching on a different subject right there, but he's talking about dogs with their first hunt, bringing a young dog on their first dove hunt.

Speaker 4 7:09

They get them back from you guys. They think they're ready to go out there and hunt it, and Chris is going to tell you that dogs hate doves.

Speaker 2 7:15

I mean most of them hate the pin feathers they get in their mouth and that sort of thing. So you've got to be careful about them. Just overhe know, just overheating because of that Because a lot of them get it pulls the moisture out of the mouth, right. So you're always going to bring water. You want to make sure you know. If I'm hunting a dog, he's going to be in the shade. That's all there is to it. 100%, 100%. You're going to take your time with a young dog. Sit back, watch. Let the dog watch what's going on, more than actually getting in the middle of a hunt.

Speaker 4 7:44

That sort of thing, because it is chaotic.

Speaker 2 7:46

Oh it is. It's very chaotic and that dog will? They get ramped up and a lot of stuff going on and just them sitting there without anything to drink or being in the cool they get. So we got dogs on the truck. Right now we have to pull off the truck, tie them out in the wide open, because they'll get so jacked up while other dogs are working that they'll actually overheat in the trailer if you're not careful. Oh yeah, and young dogs will do the same thing. They'll get hot, but that's a different subject. Just always watch your dog, but the main thing is just sit back with that dog. Let them watch everything.

Speaker 1 8:20

Take it in.

Speaker 2 8:21

Yeah, take it. It's more about the experience and maybe picking up a bird or two, that sort of thing, and just slowly introduce them. But that's a completely different subject than the actual heat.

Speaker 1 8:31

Yeah, because I imagine, man, you just turn a new dog loose and some dove hunting. I mean that can go crazy.

Speaker 2 8:39

Hey, listen, I'm going to tell you right now that first hunt will make or break your dog, I know it. I mean, you're either fixing to turn this into a fine hunting companion or you can run that dog forever.

Speaker 4 8:50

It's probably not steady if it's going to get her chewies People are shooting doves all around and they're like.

Speaker 3 8:55

You know what. I'm thinking I almost wouldn't even risk it on a dove hunt like that. You know, and here's the thing we hadn't even talked about Some of these states, like Tennessee, they don't open until noon on opening day, yeah, and so you know these guys are going out at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. They've got their black dog out here, you know, their chocolate dog out here. I mean this dude is soaking up the sun. It's hot. I mean it is. Everything about it is bad.

Speaker 4 9:15

You know what I mean Well, I've been hearing it's hot, soaking it up, soaking it all in.

Speaker 2 9:24

And if I'm going to hunt a dog in the afternoon, I promise you I'm going to have one of them, little kiddie pools like this, right here. I'm going to bring two five-gallon buckets and throw a bag of ice in it and have my dog just stand in it or sit in it. I mean, at least do something like that.

Speaker 3 9:40

You cool your dog down through their paws. That's it, believe it or not, everything goes through their paws, their paws and their bellies, that's why they dig the holes.

Speaker 1 9:48

Sometimes you see dogs digging holes and laying in it.

Speaker 2 9:50

They dig holes because they get that fresh dirt and lay down, lay down in it and another thing.

Speaker 3 9:54

Freddie talked about this too, but a lot of people think I'm going to put my dog in this whole cooler full of ice because he's hot. Well, blood up and that ends up, that ends up for lack of a better word is I've killed it.

Speaker 4 10:04

Will you don't?

Speaker 3 10:05

cool dog off real fast you got to cool them down real slow. So but what freddie's doing is he's got these. He's got these little kiddie pools. He's throwing a bag of ice in there, there's an inch of water, whatever in there. He just makes them come in there, sit in there, even maybe he would even hunt from there. But the deal is that's getting that body temperature down and keeping him under, you know.

Speaker 2 10:20

But the main thing is Keeping it down right from the very beginning.

Speaker 3 10:22

Yeah, and dogs don't need to go out there and have great big hunts and hunt all over the field and go visit everybody in the field and all that. They need to go out there. They're 20, 30 yards. Get the bird and come right back. So if you're going to hunt a new dog or a young dog, get off to the side where you even if you're only killing six or seven, we'd rather have career is. Get over here in the middle of the thicket where everybody's just blazing guns, going crazy, everybody's killing birds and him get out there in the middle of chaos because he's going to explode I remember a story chris told me.

Speaker 2 10:50

We talk about dove hunting dogs, blah, blah, blah. He said man, I got this perfect spot for a young dog. I've started so many young dogs and it was actually a spot where the does would fly land on the highline wire. Just right there just happened to be one of those spots We'd all seen them, yeah. And every bird would come in there and land, boom, shoot it. The dog would just sit there and watch.

Speaker 2 11:08

Bear dirt 20-yard retrieves, I mean that right, there is all you want for a young dog, and you want everything to be so positive, so simple. The dog doesn't get overheated, you don't have to worry about.

Speaker 3 11:25

you know all those other going-ons out there. It just pick you a spot like that dead trees. Those sort of things we just need. We need six to ten positive retrieves is way better than 50 chaotic retrieves.

Speaker 4 11:31

Exactly I mean, I promise so a two hunt, just still, season can roll in right after does it maybe better for a newer dog is 100 way way less stressful I almost wouldn't risk it.

Speaker 3 11:42

Yeah, yeah, ways I love teal hunts and the Ways I love teal hunts and the deal is for whatever reason teal hunts, you usually have three or four people max. You know, a lot of times we duck hunt. We got a lot more people than that Dove hunting. We got, I mean, like we hunted Freddy's, what is her?

Speaker 2 11:54

25, 30 of us there every year, exactly, and it's all the way around.

Heat Safety for Hunting Dogs

Speaker 3 12:00

Teal you shoot it out of midair. A dog doesn't look up. It's a young dog. You shoot a bird. It falls out there in the cover. He didn't see anything. A teal boom, boom, boom, boom. You shoot it splash. It gives him something to look out and draw his focus to.

Speaker 1 12:12

Especially a young dog. That's all we're talking about here.

Speaker 3 12:27

We're not talking about your five-year baby dogs, man. That's the ones we're always working on.

Speaker 2 12:31

You know, that's the ones we're always trying to get off to a great career because 12 years of hunting man, you want it to be start off right so you can enjoy it for 10, 12 years exactly, and that sort of thing a lot so many people want. Listen, I get it. You get your dog, you got a brand new puppy. You've been training and stuff. You can't wait to hunt. You can't wait to hunt. You can't wait to hunt.

Speaker 4 12:51

Listen, wait to hunt, I mean that's just all there is so important, I mean there's so many people hunt a seven month old dog.

Speaker 2 12:57

You know that dog ain't ready for it. Right, I mean that dog is not ready for it. You want a general rule for me and I'm sure chris will say pretty much the same thing. I want that dog through force fetch, I want it through e-collar conditioning. I want pretty much. I want that dog to be super duper solid with all kinds of gunfire and being able to deliver the hand without any issues, a direct recall, right back to me and sitting down. I'm not saying this dog has to handle, but I won't ever hunt a dog that cannot handle, just for the pure fact that I want to be able not put them on a bird. But those dogs tend to come right back to you and be better.

Speaker 1 13:36

But that first experience for a super-duper young dog can be so bad if you're if you're not careful like just give a couple examples here where, like you take a new dog, you put them out in the field in some chaos. It doesn't go good. Like what kind of things will that dog pick up and get stuck with? You know well, I mean, I've seen over.

Speaker 2 13:57

I've had a guy call me one time, said man, I've been doing this and this with my dog and stuff, and they started shooting my dog ran, took him two or three hours to find that dog.

Speaker 4 14:06

No, I'm not running. You're talking about running Go to the truck.

Speaker 2 14:08

Go to the truck. He died under the truck because of the gunfire.

Speaker 3 14:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2 14:11

That dog is literally pretty much going to be ruined for the rest of his life. Yeah, a real good chance of it.

Speaker 1 14:19

So what would you do to even get that dog back?

Speaker 2 14:22

The only way to get it back is start doing bird boy throw them out and they throw in. And they hey, hey, hey, hey, and they throw in. Next thing you know you're adding gunfire.

Speaker 3 14:31

It's so much work and nothing's. There's no foolproof way. But man there's so much work, just do it right the first time Would you say it's harder to fix a problem like that to just prevent it.

Speaker 1 14:41

100%, 100%, for sure, for sure it's probably more expensive to go back and fix something like that.

Speaker 3 14:47

It's no different than you taking one of your boats and wrapping it around a tree. Are you going to send him a?

Speaker 1 14:51

new boat. Are you going to try to fix that thing Right, I mean?

Speaker 4 14:52

you're 100% right, it's always going to pull to the left a little bit right, right. I got a controversy. First one is something that I seen last year is we posted a video me riding out when it snowed, the big cold front, and I had my dog and she didn't have a vest on and she just I never, I literally never hunted with a vest, hardly ever at all, because she just she don't like it, she just she'll go and whatever. You know, I'll watch her and all that.

Speaker 2 15:20

So what do you guys? Do you guys believe a vest and a timber. It's either gotten ripped off by getting hung up or I've had to go swimming to get my dang dog. So I quit putting a vest on a dog, probably 15, 18, probably even 20 years ago just because of that.

Speaker 4 15:37

So you agree that it's not a necessity, it's not a?

Speaker 2 15:39

necessity Not in the temperatures that we hunt. Now, if we hunted open wide marsh stuff and it was, I don't know, in areas where they don't get above 20. I mean we're in Arkansas, we ain't got to worry about that. We get some super-duper cold days. We always got heaters, because I mean we're Arkansas, if it gets below 20 degrees we're going to have to have a heater.

Speaker 4 16:02

Someone's got to have it.

Speaker 2 16:07

No, we're going to have heaters, so but uh, most, most, uh, I lost my train of thought but no, as far as here in the state of arkansas, I don't think we have to have now. If we, if I hunted a rice field or something and it was real cold, maybe I might put one. But as far as actually in the timber, somewhere, where, where they can get hung up and that sort of thing.

Speaker 3 16:26

I'll tell you where I think the best comes in. A really good place to play is people that hunt in dry field corn fields.

Speaker 3 16:33

Exactly Now it's protecting their bellies, it's protecting their chest. It's protecting that has a whole other application. But now the way we hunt, man, my place is buck brush, tupelo button, willows, willows, I mean. Horrible condition. If a duck gets out of the hole, that dude's. I mean you gotta have a dog get in there and grind it out. Yeah, I am petrified if a dog has a collar and or a vest on once they leave my sight and go out in there because I don't know what's happening and it's all swimming, so deals, they get out there and get hung up. I don't know what man. We could have a bad story, you know what I mean so I don't hunt with a vest either at all.

Speaker 3 17:08

Now I'm not saying there's not great applications for it in the swimming world yeah but I think there's better applications for it in dry stock froze conditions I think there is a place for it but it's not not.

Speaker 4 17:19

Yeah, but I feel like I feel like everybody has like this, this, this, this, this mindset now would everybody run vests. I feel like everybody has this mindset now, with everybody running vests. They feel like a dog has to have it now.

Speaker 3 17:28

I think it's because they see it in the pictures.

Speaker 2 17:30

I like to see it in the pictures I got beat up big time because I pictured I had teat last year in the hole and I videoed her and there's ice on her and she's just sitting there looking out and she's like this, but people don't understand that dog is jacked up too like nobody's business.

Speaker 1 17:48

Yeah, I know that dog's pumped.

Speaker 2 17:50

And she's already picked up 40-something ducks. She's got ice hanging all over and people were just beating me up.

Speaker 4 17:56

Yeah, I'm like, when they stop shivering, what are you supposed to worry?

Speaker 2 17:58

Well, I mean all I had was you know, you're an idiot.

Speaker 3 18:02

Yeah, you know you're an idiot. Yeah, well, here's the deal. Here's what we have blinds like that all the time too. And here's the deal. We read the dog and we see the dog's getting cold. They come in, sit on the bar stool. We turn on those heaters on them. We warm them up they give them that's. That's what I was gonna finish with five or ten minutes and put them right back out there and we can go another 20 ducks, you know we never in those conditions.

Speaker 2 18:20

We always have heaters. She had her own heater, she would just she was just that, it was so cold it was freezing that, that fast on her, so she gets up there.

Speaker 4 18:29

It's frozen, oh yeah, no and you can't stop it.

Young Dogs and Dove Season

Speaker 2 18:32

She'd already made like three or four retrieves and she's just jacked up ready to go again. But the whole time you see this big roll of smoke behind her and it's just steam coming off because she's shaking off on the, the, the heater and that sort of thing. But it is, people beat you up on it.

Speaker 4 18:45

Yeah, it's funny. So next thing I guess I wanted to ask about we were talking about it a little bit before is this Cash River stuff that's going on. Yeah, you know, like, what's up with that. Y'all explain it better than I can, but for people that know, oh, you're talking about a pair of grubs.

Speaker 2 19:01

I mean I did a little bit. Chris said man, come over and do a little video on this thing right here. So I went up there, which I'd heard about it and I'd kind of seen it driving by on the air stand. Yeah, look at it, it's flooded like that. Well, I've seen a lot of water in a lot of fields. It looked like one big rice field. Well, anyway, until I went and actually looked at it, I mean it is absolutely crazy how much junk has floated from almost Missouri all the way down to this little tight spot at Grubbs, arkansas. I'm talking about big trees and then tons of trash and whatever it's piling up.

Speaker 2 19:39

And it's just made this huge, just crazy dam that has blocked the river off and it's causing all the water to back out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's backing out on thousands and thousands of acres and it's pushing water, probably eight or ten miles upstream from this dam, probably eight or ten miles upstream from this dam. It's pushing that water out and away in places that it would never, ever go to keep going south.

Speaker 5 20:11

How come they won't fix it? How come they won't fix it? I mean, I don't know, is it a money?

Speaker 2 20:16

situation.

Speaker 3 20:17

It's absolutely a money thing, but I mean we're talking to get a correct fix. We're talking $20, $30 million deal.

Speaker 5 20:23

how come they don't go to arkansas game fish?

Speaker 3 20:25

well, they have they have everybody's involved, everybody's involved I mean, I'm telling you, everybody's involved in this thing, everybody's trying to get something done. But but understand, cash river comes from missouri all the way to clarendon and we're we take a river. We think of some great big vast body of water that you can throw a rock across cash river right there where it is. I mean, it's not that wide, I'm gonna guess what 50 yards something like that oh yeah, it's wide, it's placed yeah, and and the deal is is that all this debris everybody has.

Speaker 3 20:50

Okay, so give you a little overview. Everybody has had to build their levees up to compete with their neighbor. It's kind of the who's got the lowest levees, the one that loses, right? So everybody's competing against each other. What we're doing is we're clearing levees, we're putting more dirt, we're putting more dirt. Then, when the water comes up, all these fresh levees, all this dirt and stuff comes down the river. What's happened is we've got a seven-tenths of a mile log jam, seven-tenths of a mile of just solid debris that the river has produced for us. And that's stuff where people cleared levees up there. That's places where just natural stuff fell in the water. We got freezers, we got refrigerators. I mean it's awful, it's just the worst trash dump looking thing you've ever seen. Seven-tenths of a mile of it. Well, now that water comes down and hits all that and it actually filters the water, and when it filters the water, all the sand and debris drops.

Speaker 1 21:36

That makes sense. Yeah, and it piles up.

Speaker 3 21:38

Yeah, so like when Freddie as video, the water's 25 foot deep there historically Supposed to be Historically and we're in there and I take a walking stick and I stick in the water and it's three to four foot and this was at a full, full flood Right.

Speaker 2 21:51

This is when the water is actually a foot above the banks already. It's already running around.

Speaker 3 21:59

Everything's underwater. You said tens of thousands acres of farm, of farm ground. You said 10, 15 miles. It's 25 miles north of us where it's affecting all these farms. Everybody's in a mad rush trying to fix all this stuff and everybody's competing with their neighbor. It's just gonna get worse and worse and worse. The time goes on. We've got to go in there. But the finish what?

Speaker 2 22:19

chris was fixing to say was uh, the the, the river's one foot above the bank, so everything's flooded, yep, yep. And we're in the middle of the river, right there at the head of that log dam, and he takes a five-foot pole and sticks it down, and where it's supposed to be 25-foot deep, it's only about three-and-a-half to four-foot deep.

Speaker 1 22:42

So to fix it, we'll just have to remove all the logs, all the junk, and pile up and dredge it.

Speaker 2 22:48

It's going to have to be a full-blown dredging. Yeah, you're going to dredge it.

Speaker 3 22:53

And look, we're talking seven-tenths of a mile. This isn't an easy fix. There's not really good access to it. Everything's still flooded today. I mean, there's houses still flooded, there's farms still flooded, there's no telling how many tens of thousands of acres that didn't get planted this year in that whole Cache River bottom because of this.

Speaker 5 23:10

Now you don't think so you're telling me, because this river is piling up with all this debris, people's losing land, they can't farm.

Speaker 3 23:18

There's farms that have been underwater now for 10, 15 years.

Speaker 2 23:22

Listen, you could go out there and plant something right now. It's dry August, it's dry right now, but there's still a good trickle going down the Cache River. You could go and plant those farms right now and I promise you, if we get a three-inch rain, even as dry as everything is, every bit of that's going to be underwater.

Speaker 3 23:40

That's a fact, just a three-inch rain, that's a fact.

Speaker 2 23:44

Insurances aren't going to cover that anymore. They've already gone through all that. So farmers are losing thousands of acres that they would normally farm. So not only is it farmers, but there's tons of local businesses around there that thrive off of these farmers the agri-pilots.

Speaker 3 24:02

Everybody crop dusters, equipment salesmen, seed salesmen, dog trainers it all trickles down to all of us. There's no telling what it costs state or Arkansas there's millions of dollars of loss of revenue so $25 million to fix this.

Speaker 5 24:16

Ain't jacked when it comes to that, no, no. So why aren't they fixing it though?

Speaker 3 24:22

I think there's too many different groups involved. I think you know you got people that have got the spotted butterfly and the something snail and the sun ray.

Speaker 2 24:28

Yeah, you got the EPA fighting. You know I get it.

Speaker 3 24:31

I mean because, look, I mean we've beat this drum and beat this drum. Now we've got a bid coming out I think it's August 9th and they're going to try to do it for the log removals and the debris removals and they're going to do a bid to do that. But I'm just telling you right now that's not a drop in the bucket compared to the real problem, which is the silt on the bottom.

Speaker 5 24:47

Yeah.

Speaker 3 24:47

I mean with the river that every environmental group in the world is going to have something to say about them trying to remove all that. So I think it's a way bigger fish than we all really realize this is going to take. We may have to get Trump involved in this deal Seriously.

Speaker 2 25:02

Well, that's just it. The same people that would bitch and whine about cleaning that out are the same ones that said, hey, let's let California burn. It's the same type of mentality.

Speaker 3 25:13

But when you say this with your own eyes, I understand it doesn't affect everybody, and everybody it does me, because where I'm located at but I'm telling you, we're all these guys, and that's another big reason because it's out of everybody's eyesight.

Speaker 3 25:25

So you know a lot of people are out of sight, out of mind, but the Cache River is a big deal instead of Arkansas or Ducca, I don't care who you are it, it really is no doubt about it and I'm just going to add this just because Chris probably don't need to say it, but I will because I don't live in the area.

Speaker 2 25:40

I think a lot of it too is the longer they put it off, a lot of people are just going to say, throw their hands up and government's hoping that they can go in there and buy a lot of those farms up and just add them to their big portfolio.

Speaker 3 25:52

So you think it's like a land grab? So you think it's like a land grab? Yeah, a little bit of a land grab.

Speaker 2 25:55

You know kind of the same thing that California government is doing. It is a bad deal. You know what I mean. That's so bad if that's the case.

Speaker 5 26:01

You know, b-skye. We should send the camera crew out there and get some video of this?

Speaker 1 26:04

I definitely look at it. I got all you get, because if you're not around it. If you're not around it, you don. It's not in your front yard, you don't know.

Speaker 2 26:12

That's out of sight, out of mind, it's off the beaten path, even though it's tens of thousands of acres of farmland. It's a small community, you know, but it's a community that's a major part of Arkansas and I'm talking about millions of dollars that they generate to the Arkansas revenue.

Speaker 5 26:34

How's it affecting the duck hunting? You mentioned something about duck hunting, I think. How do you think it's affecting duck hunting?

Speaker 3 26:37

It's going to be interesting to see how it is this year, because the problem is worse right now than it's ever been, but I think it's going. I mean, there's no crops Okay, let's face it. There's not the rice and the corn and the beans, because the food source is not going to be there.

Speaker 5 26:54

So all the crop growers. They claimed insurance on all this.

Speaker 3 26:58

Every bit of it. You got to see it.

Speaker 5 26:59

I mean it's, I'm telling you, so it's costing the insurance companies a bunch of money too.

Speaker 3 27:03

There's no telling. Well, it's got to. There's no telling.

Speaker 2 27:06

I mean it's got to. And then think about not only the ducks but, like all, all the other game, from the rabbits to the coral, because there's thousands of acres of of trees and timber that are dying because of this and and then and I mean deer used to, you know, run this area, but now they're they're blowed completely out of there, because it floods so much you know, by the time they make it back, boom, here comes another flood.

Speaker 3 27:31

It's like we're talking about these trees. These trees don't grow back overnight I mean these trees we've lost I don't know how many millions of dollars worth of timber on our place.

Speaker 2 27:37

You're talking about a generation of trees, yeah, all these.

Speaker 3 27:40

I got one buddy of mine down there that's right below me and he said when he was a kid his dad and his uncle built a duck blind. They had a 16-foot extension ladder and they worked head crawl up and down that ladder. Every of that blind we waiters on it's silted in that bad around his dog imagine that, so you know what it did to the history. So they they were in flooded timber back then. Now it's just open body water, wow there are no trees.

Speaker 3 28:01

There are no trees there. It's all gone, so it's it's. It's changed the landscape in our area, so we should go out there and check it out.

Speaker 2 28:08

I want to see it you should I mean, like I said, to truly see the scope of you've got to go lay your own eyes on it and say what in the world, and it's not an easy fix. It's not something that you're going to go okay, yeah, we're going to throw this $25 million at it and we're going to fix it and stuff. It's going to have to be something that's maintained and it's going to have to be fixed every year.

Speaker 3 28:33

That's just it, Freddie.

Speaker 2 28:40

There's never been any maintenance on this thing and I don't know about you guys and in all honesty, they they were supposed to then when they did the clearing 60s or 70s, something like that 13 they even talked about.

Speaker 3 28:45

They're gonna come back every year.

Speaker 2 28:46

Well, they've never done it, they never done it, and they let it. They let it silt in worse and worse and worse, there's nothing I own that doesn't require maintenance so what going to happen if they don't fix this spot?

Speaker 5 28:55

Is the river going to go somewhere else?

Speaker 3 28:57

No, I don't think it will. I think what's going to happen is it's going to keep silting in. It's going to keep silting in, and then what's going to happen? The water's going to keep spreading, so it's just going to take it. Now let's just throw in a number out there and I'm just'll be 30,000. And here's another thing that Freddie said a minute ago all the farmers it affects. You know, if we went back in the 60s and talked about how many farmers that farm this area, let's just say there was 500 farmers. Now, because of the way farming is, now there's only 100 farmers, Right, so it affects less people. So there's less people out here beating the drum, telling the that makes sense.

Speaker 1 29:31

Less mouths carry the message.

Speaker 3 29:33

There's a lot less farmers out there now, but there's a lot more need for it now than there was even back then. Because I mean, guys we're fixing to run out of ground here.

Speaker 5 29:45

I mean, if we don't fix this, these grounds are going to go back to the Indians. So, Freddie, you're saying that these farmers are going to start selling their land cheap they could.

Speaker 2 29:52

Well, that's what the government's wanting them to do I mean you're talking about property that's valued at $20,000 an acre. That government's already said hey, we'll give you $2,500 an acre for it, Right? Because?

Speaker 5 30:04

you can't farm it Well no. Can't do anything with it.

Speaker 1 30:07

Not until it's fixed.

Speaker 2 30:09

That's what they want to pay. That's kind of part of the game.

Speaker 5 30:13

I mean, I know we want somebody else to pay for it, since we pay taxes, but what would have stopped the people coming together and trying to fix the problem?

Speaker 3 30:23

We had a great meeting last Friday.

Speaker 5 30:24

Because you know the government can't do nothing, right.

Speaker 3 30:26

We had a great meeting last Friday and there was a lot of people there. We had several congressmen, senators and everybody there and talking about it and they're trying to get all their facts together and all their stuff together to see what they can do. The problem is, it's such a time-sensitive thing to me. I want somebody to go have a meeting and then let's bring some equipment in the next day. Well, the government just doesn't work that way.

Speaker 2 30:44

No, they don't, and that takes a lot of time. You could have $10 billion. Say here, here's your $25 million. You say here, here's your $25 million. Y'all, go do it. You can't do that. You've got to have government in there. No, I'm talking about you're going to have to have EPA, You're going to have to have government. They're going to have to do their little studies and everything. Because if you're going in there and start something like that on your own son, they're going to take everything. Government's going to step in and say, oh, you've done this, you've done that, you know.

Speaker 3 31:13

That's a crazy deal.

Speaker 2 31:15

Because of core ground, you know so your biggest fear is?

Speaker 1 31:19

it's not that it may never get taken care of, it's just the fact that it might not get taken care of fast enough before it gets out of hand. It's out of hand. It's out of hand.

Speaker 3 31:28

Don't kid yourself, it's out of hand. We've been saying this for 15 years. I've only owned this place for nine, 10 years now, and everybody was complaining about it when I got there. But I mean, and what we're saying actually came true, and that's the unfortunate part, because we couldn't get anybody to pay attention. But now, now that the motor's blowed up, people got to pay attention. I told you you should've changed oil.

Speaker 1 31:46

Well, here we are you know what the aspect of it I mean it's definitely going to be a task. It's going to have to be year after year.

Speaker 5 31:55

It's just terrible that the government knows it's like that and won't take care of it.

Speaker 1 31:59

Especially in a state like Arkansas. Yeah, especially Arkansas.

Speaker 2 32:02

Well, you, know, how slow they drive.

Speaker 1 32:04

I mean everybody comes here. Are we trying to protect that, or what?

The Cash River Flooding Crisis

Speaker 5 32:10

How much money? How's this even possible? You know, I know you don't want to get started on that, but you would think somebody would have some kind of pull.

Speaker 2 32:18

So I'm just pissed off that I've got to redo my app. This is like third time in 10 years you know what I mean, seriously, I mean again, but now we got it. I mean good grief, I mean they had it perfectly perfect 10 years ago when I tried and they're like oh, we're gonna make it Bull crap. And now they've done it again.

Speaker 1 32:38

I know exactly what you mean.

Speaker 5 32:39

Yeah, but that's you know.

Speaker 2 32:42

I mean they're making you sign up on a pay app already. It tells you something where their thoughts are yeah you got to pay it or whatever you got to pay now.

Speaker 4 32:50

Well, it's a different app. It takes you to like a different thing to pay.

Speaker 2 32:52

now you got to pay to tiger deer. They want you to sign up for this. Pay it, or something.

Speaker 5 32:57

Oh my God, they can't make enough money, can they no?

Speaker 2 33:01

I mean, that's my crap, okay.

Speaker 4 33:03

Well, I mean, like I said, though, in 10 years they've changed something three dang times.

Speaker 5 33:07

It worked perfectly the first time. It's a super valid point. Super valid point because we're not sure to, and here's the thing.

Speaker 2 33:12

I bought a freaking lifetime license so I wouldn't have to deal with this crap. And now look at me. It's worse than ever. It just gets worse. I paid my $1,000. I just wanted to mail my crap to me so I ain't got to worry about your asses. I want my tags that I write my name on. I don't want to sit there and sign nothing. I want to go to a check station.

Speaker 4 33:36

I think they ought to bring check stations back. I agree 100%. It used to be kind of fun, it was.

Speaker 3 33:38

It was a cool community thing. I mean seriously, it was an event.

Speaker 1 33:40

I mean people. They didn't even kill nothing, they'd go out there just to check it out.

Speaker 5 33:43

See what somebody killed. It was good for the check stations, too, because they got business.

Speaker 1 33:49

If you're there you're going to get a biscuit.

Speaker 2 34:01

You're going to get. You're gonna get. You know, that's all about arkansas now arkansas game fish. I mean seriously. Some of the best memories that I have as a kid are at check stations. I remember, you know, sitting there man, look at that coming in, look at that man.

Speaker 4 34:05

We listen I gotta get off my tree stand because I want to be down there and see kill my damn buck.

Speaker 1 34:07

Well, he's walking.

Speaker 2 34:08

I don't know, it's the coolest thing ever rolling up.

Speaker 4 34:10

You know I remember taking a beast guy when he was a kid. He's getting a biscuit and we killed deer.

Speaker 2 34:14

So we get a biscuit tiger deer, there you go.

Speaker 5 34:15

But it's a lot more difficult now. Now you got to have service.

Speaker 1 34:18

Everybody's rushing around. You don't know your stinking passwords. It's a freaking nightmare you can't log in.

Speaker 4 34:25

You're going through the two-step authentication process with one bar of like service. I got all these numbers tattooed on me now.

Speaker 5 34:32

So what does that mean? That's my password for my.

Speaker 4 34:34

And I'll be honest with you.

Speaker 1 34:35

This is my license number.

Speaker 5 34:36

This is this. This is this.

Speaker 1 34:38

Outlawing has never been more appetizing than it is now Just trying to get your stuff tagged.

Speaker 5 34:42

I promise you I guarantee you I would have been an outlaw. I'd rather be an outlaw than tag my freaking deer. It's too much trouble, it won't work.

Speaker 1 34:52

I have like two passwords I use for just about everything. Oh, yeah, and neither one of them works, mark.

Speaker 2 34:57

Well, I mean back in the day, no matter what if you shot something, usually if it's in the morning, no matter what. On the way home you went by a check station some official check station.

Speaker 4 35:11

You know somewhere a check?

Speaker 2 35:12

station.

Speaker 1 35:13

A gas station.

Speaker 2 35:14

Exactly, it was so simple. It was so simple, it was so simple and it was done. You know, leave your tag on your deer until you get it cleaned.

Speaker 5 35:22

I mean it was nice, we were going somewhere, B Scott, and I got my mom gets my license. She does all that for me, right? So I don't have to deal with it. But I don't think your old lady's at. But you were losing your shit. We were talking on the phone.

Speaker 1 35:35

I was over it, dude.

Speaker 5 35:36

His app wouldn't work. I was over it, he was losing his shit and I'm like calm down, Calm down. Your old lady will do this one day.

Speaker 1 35:43

Just calm down. Two things I just cannot stand. One thing I'm not very technology savvy.

Speaker 5 35:50

I'm not very patient for it. You're not patient like me. I'm not patient for it, you're not patient.

Speaker 1 35:53

Like me, I'm not patient either, and it's just I start going off the rails, man, when I can't get locked in. I'm not patient man, my iPhone.

Speaker 5 35:58

If something don't work, I'm like you know you got a state hunt too.

Speaker 4 36:02

You know, they never let you buy on the app for the first time when you get in a state or whatever. So you got to go in a store and All right, well, here, just give me the computer, I can do it. They just won't let me in the app.

Speaker 2 36:14

I know, yeah, let me just do it, but you know, anyway, back to dogs, back to the Cash River.

Speaker 5 36:21

Thing.

Speaker 2 36:22

Or the Cash River. Yeah, that's really bad.

Speaker 5 36:25

I mean I like the dogs and everything, but I feel like that's a serious problem.

Speaker 2 36:29

Well, no, it is. It's pretty bad.

Speaker 5 36:31

I think dogs are important, Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 2 36:33

But you know Well the main thing, that river thing is terrible it is and, like Chris is saying, it's going to be an ongoing problem. So it's going to take money every single year and they're going to want to study this and want to study that before they come up with some final thoughts and stuff. But something has to be done now, yeah.

Speaker 2 36:56

Because I mean that's, it's affecting so many lives that seven-tenths, three-quarters of a mile is going to be a mile in another year. That's all there is to it, and there's going to be another foot of sediment on top of that stuff. So for I mean you're looking at adding another $4 or $5 million.

Speaker 3 37:10

Yeah, I understand this right here, that, on this, like I talked about this thing going from missouri all the way to clarendon, that every county nine different counties that that own have part of cash river. Each one of those counties, uh, has their own drainage district, or just about every county has their own drainage district down through there. Okay, so what's happened is now imagine owning a funnel. Okay, let's say we all on a funnel together, freddie's going on the top, and so on, so on, all the way down to me I'm the bottom. Well, I don't know about y'all in funnels, but I've never had a problem with the top no, all right so I'm at the bottom of the funnel.

Speaker 3 37:41

So, guess, we're all over stops, okay, so everything's on me. Well, so the problem is all these different drainage districts. Well, they're all wearing a different color shirt. Okay, everybody's on a different team. So the top, all they're worried about is them. The next day down, all they're worried about is them. So we're all competing against each other, like I was talking about the higher level, higher level. So what ends up happening is the landowners. At the bottom of the funnel, because it's a smaller area, there's very few landowners. There's literally like 12 landowners in this entire county right here that touch the river. So we can't afford to fix that rest of the funnel.

Speaker 5 38:17

I got you, I got you the funnel, the funnel thing's good, yeah, so so the deal is so.

Speaker 3 38:19

So what I what I'm saying is and this is what we really talked about at the meeting the other day instead of us all wearing different colored shirts and not being on the same team, let's all put the same color.

Speaker 5 38:28

Let's all put the same color and here's the deal common sense is hard to find it's.

Speaker 3 38:32

It's very uncommon.

Speaker 5 38:33

I mean it's very hard.

Speaker 3 38:36

But the deal is if we did think about the tax dollar. So right now some of these guys are paying five dollars an acre. Uh, getting taxed up here for the top of the funnel and the top of the funnel doesn't need worked on, but what we need, we need. So let's just say, if I gave you a deal, and say, hey, we're gonna do three dollars an acre, but we're gonna do it from top to bottom and now we can take care of the bottom. Yeah, you see what I'm saying. So there's some ways that I think that we've got on our mind to do it. But man trying to go to a landowner, a farmer that's already struggling, or a farmer that's already underwater, and like the guys at the bottom, like I'm not paying to that thing because all them guys are going to do is clean their tops off down there and send the water down here twice as fast.

Speaker 2 39:10

So there's a lot of different theories, and that's what happens.

Speaker 3 39:13

Yeah, there's a lot of different theories on this, of hey, we got to figure out, so we got to have a committee, we got to have some studies done, we got to have everybody on the same page. And man, getting farmers in a hundred and whatever mile deal nine counties deep, get on the same page is pretty difficult.

Speaker 2 39:29

It is and I want to add to this whole thing is Grubbs is right where the Corps of Engineers stopped their dredging in the straight lining of the Cache River. So for 50, 60, about 72 or 73 miles of the Cache River is one straight lane that all of a sudden boom stops right there where the first big curves and stuff start where they quit.

Speaker 3 40:00

Which makes sense. Now it just filters through the woods.

Speaker 2 40:04

So where the woods actually start, the first woods, where the actual I forget what you would call it, but where the actual unimproved flow of the river and of course everything's going to pile up right there and understand that directly below this seven-tenths of a mile of solid debris.

Speaker 3 40:30

The river is bone dry. You could probably drive a four-liter across it today, Literally. So at the bottom of the dam is bone dry and nobody's having any trouble with farm ground or relifts.

Speaker 2 40:42

Yeah, you go right below the dam. Right now it's dry. No water's getting through there, no, nothing it's just backing all of it up. It's like a big lake.

Speaker 5 40:50

It's crazy. People are okay with this.

Speaker 2 40:52

So, naturally.

Speaker 3 40:53

How is?

Speaker 5 40:54

this benefiting somebody.

Speaker 3 40:55

It's not benefiting anybody.

Speaker 1 40:56

It's benefiting somebody who's not getting fixed. Unless you were buying land Like who? Unless you were trying to buy some cheap land.

Speaker 3 41:03

Here's the problem. Here's the problem with that. Okay, like there's a farm up there for sale by me right now. Another day they called me up and they said hey, we know you've been looking at this ground. We'd like to offer it to you. I said, hey, look here. Okay, so you drive onto this property today, drive on this property. You got to get across a rickety bridge to get to it. That's really needs to be removed, because all the debris backed up against it has come down. It's caused havoc on this bridge, so you can't get across this bridge. There's only two landowners on this other side, all right, so this bridge is unsafe to drive grain trucks, excavators, combines, trailer trucks, anything across big tractors. But it's the only way you can get to this ground, okay, then, when you get there, the entire farm's underwater because this water won't leave. Okay, that's crazy.

Speaker 5 41:52

And there's like 20,000 sandbags up and down the river that they put on there trying to save, not this farm but trying to save the town of Grubbs, not enough, all right, but listen to this, listen to this, listen to this. This is ridiculous.

Speaker 3 41:59

This is crazy. So I give them a legitimate offer on this ground, okay.

Speaker 4 42:03

Which was low.

Speaker 3 42:05

No, it wasn't that low. I mean, I thought it was, I was scared they were going to take it. Okay, and they think I'm crazy, because duck hunting ground is worth up here, farm grounds worth down here. So what happens? The duck hunters that are coming in from out of state, they pull up there and they're like, hey man, all I see is water. They see a duck blind. They know they've killed some ducks right here. I'm going to give $10,000 an acre for that, I'm going to give $20,000 an acre for that, because they killed ducks right there.

Politics and Environmental Impacts

Speaker 5 42:43

So the duck hunters, believe it or not, it is bad.

Speaker 3 42:44

I can make sense farm and ground may be worth six thousand dollars an acre, but duck underground in our areas well, we always pay more for recreational value than that's right duck hunters are crazy. I mean, I'm the craziest one of all of us, but I'm gonna tell you they're crazy. Yeah, they're crazy I got you and it ain't like they don't show up with some money.

Speaker 5 42:59

I know they do. They do that's funny man, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 43:03

And there's always a duck hunter that's got more money than you.

Speaker 3 43:05

Yes, sir, yeah, and the deal is our area is we're blessed with a lot of influx out of Georgia and Alabama that come to our area.

Speaker 1 43:21

With Duckett, bring a ton of money to our state. A ton, that's what blows my mind. You know, about all this stuff, it's like there's not, like there's not no money for this. You know, in arkansas, what arkansas brings in I just don't understand why it's not fixed.

Speaker 3 43:28

Yeah, I'm with you, I've been I've been scratching my head now for 10 years.

Speaker 2 43:31

There has to be a reason why it's not well, I mean, it's been an ongoing problem, problem six since the 60s. So the guys, so you would you would have think they would have already all these boards and stuff. They would have already had money allocated every single year to address this issue.

Speaker 5 43:48

Somebody with a lot of power didn't want to do it. Somebody hasn't fixed this for a reason.

Speaker 1 43:52

Somebody's been brushing it off.

Speaker 5 43:53

Obviously, they know it's a problem. We just got to figure out who has benefits.

Speaker 3 43:58

I'm with you and I can't believe that somebody that's not affected had to have enough political pull to have this thing fixed in the back.

Speaker 5 44:07

Yeah, because there is some serious money up and down. Is it backing water up to some private duck clubs or something?

Speaker 2 44:13

No, it ain't doing nothing like that. If anything, it's.

Speaker 3 44:19

You mean below. Are we protecting private duck huts below 100%?

Speaker 2 44:23

Exactly.

Speaker 3 44:24

Game and fish included. Okay, cash and fish, all right, here we go, here we go Ding ding, ding we have a winner, okay, so what is it protecting?

Speaker 5 44:33

What is it doing?

Speaker 3 44:35

So cash wildlife refuge is right below us and so you may can see some of that there. They may be protecting themselves. And then there is a lot of ground below us that they're saying, hey, let them filter all this out, let them deal with all that. We don't want all that stuff down here on us.

Speaker 5 44:52

That's the problem.

Speaker 3 44:53

So that could be very well.

Speaker 5 44:54

the problem it's not what you see, it's what you don't see. Who is down there below there. That could cause problems.

Speaker 2 45:01

I mean you hate to sit there and say it, but I mean no, it's just true.

Speaker 3 45:05

It is what it is.

Speaker 5 45:06

Somebody knows it's jammed up, somebody knows that Nobody doesn't know, and somebody's saying oh, thank God it's jammed up, it saved me a bunch of money.

Speaker 1 45:14

Let's see if we can just stretch this out another 10 years, that's what you got to figure out is who is it benefiting?

Speaker 2 45:23

It's somebody, because obviously it would be fixed by now. Well, if it ain't their problem, then it's somebody else's.

Speaker 5 45:27

It's that same funnel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's definitely affecting somebody. It's that same funnel With lots of money.

Speaker 3 45:34

But more money than tens of thousands of acres of farmland.

Speaker 5 45:37

They don't give a shit about that.

Speaker 3 45:38

I don't care, man, how can one guy, if it's one guy, if it was you and you were down there and said hey guys, don't worry about that. Man, it would take something crazy to do. I mean, this is total devastation.

Speaker 3 45:49

Yeah, but people that I'd say we almost lost a town of 400 people I know it's not a big town, but 400 people that have lived there their entire lives. We almost lost that it wasn't for the mayor and the county judge. They went in there and cut a highway. They called sir up and said hey, here's what we're up against. We believe we cut the highway right here. It's going to save the town of grubs. We let us do it. And sir said do it. I mean, look at what she let it. And they and they say the tankers. But they also destroyed tens of thousands of acres over here because they allowed all this water to run around the town of Grubbs Because they allowed it to go around it.

Speaker 3 46:19

That was a pretty tough decision on everybody's part.

Speaker 1 46:22

But then you've got to think why are we put in position to make decisions that are just bad, or bad Exactly? How about we do something that can make it a good instead?

Speaker 3 46:31

of just a bad or a worse.

Speaker 2 46:32

That's it.

Speaker 1 46:33

And then you've got to think if they were trying to not fix it, is we're trying to not fix it. Is the good for somebody else over here outweigh the bad for what's going on over here? I'd like to find out.

Speaker 5 46:45

There's a lot up for discussion here. There's definitely something that's protecting somebody If it's been going on for this long.

Speaker 3 46:51

I'd hate to think that anybody had that kind of pull. Oh gosh, somebody does, somebody does, somebody has that kind of pull there's always somebody who has that kind of pool.

Speaker 2 46:58

There's always somebody that has that kind of pool, absolutely Definitely. People are dragging their feet. Somebody has that kind of pool.

Speaker 3 47:04

Well, now it's so bad, they got the easy excuse it's going to cost $25,000, $35,000, $45,000, $50,000, $50 million.

Speaker 2 47:12

And that's why they didn't do the upkeep like they were supposed to.

Speaker 3 47:16

Well, it's just heat on some people right now. I don't know who they are or what they are, but there's some heat on them now. There's got to be.

Speaker 1 47:21

Somebody somewhere is talking about it right now. This is too bad.

Speaker 3 47:23

I mean everybody is. I mean this is a big topic.

Speaker 5 47:27

I think we should go down there tomorrow and look at it.

Speaker 3 47:29

I'd love if y'all come down there and check us out.

Speaker 5 47:31

I think we should keep this going. Obviously it we might get assassinated in the process of doing this.

Speaker 1 47:39

Whoever that guy is is going to get Clinton done.

Speaker 5 47:43

We're going to figure out how much power they have. Hillary Clinton probably owns something.

Speaker 1 47:47

We're going to get suicided.

Speaker 4 47:51

Where all that water's backed up, where they got the bodies buried.

Speaker 5 47:55

Obviously it's a reason.

Speaker 2 47:56

I promise you, when you look at this, you're going like. I know for a fact that there's some bodies down there.

Speaker 5 48:03

I promise you, there's bodies in there. Somebody's allowing this to happen or not, pushing it forward.

Speaker 1 48:10

Or not taking care of it, just pushing it on. It ain't affecting that many people. It ain't affecting that many people. It ain't affecting that many people, until it's one of those points where it's like guys, what are we doing here? I mean, it's just such a waste.

Speaker 5 48:23

It's just politics and money. I mean it's affecting somebody, it's affecting a lot of people. Well, it's affecting a lot of people in a negative way, but that one person is affecting in a positive way is dictating the results.

Speaker 3 48:36

That'd be amazing to me the results.

Speaker 5 48:38

That'd be amazing to me. It might just be four or five people.

Speaker 3 48:40

Yeah.

Speaker 5 48:41

But they have pools somewhere or they're making money off of something. It's something that's driven by money or power or something, because there's no way it's possible that they can ignore that unless it's money driven.

Speaker 1 48:55

There's always money behind every problem. Oh, there's no doubt about that, and I mean but, like Chris is saying, there's a lot behind every problem, oh there's no doubt about that and I mean that.

Speaker 2 49:00

But but like chris saying, there's a lot of heat going in, there's a lot of heat from people of influence yeah you know, that are definitely you know, say, hey, we need to do something with this and this, and that it's so terrible, but I mean, it's still.

Speaker 5 49:12

It's still a kind of a trickle down thing it's, it's amazing of these small things like this impacts families and homes.

Speaker 1 49:21

Oh man, in a physical way, you know, not just a. You know my impact, you hear there, but I'm talking about like your house, your land, your way of life. Hey my buddy across the river from him my buddy across the river.

Speaker 3 49:33

He lost him and his dad's house. Both he lost both. He lost them and there's still water in them today, and that flood was over 100 days ago.

Speaker 5 49:39

Wow that's crazy, it's bad. I'm excited to go down there tomorrow that'd be fun.

Speaker 3 49:43

Are we building?

Speaker 5 49:44

tomorrow going down there.

Speaker 1 49:45

I say we go down there. I say we go down there, let's build boats while we go down there yeah, have you got a boat to get in there?

Speaker 5 49:51

I don't know. Yeah, we got.

Speaker 1 49:52

We're gonna ask somebody we'll borrow one.

Speaker 3 49:55

Well, bring that fancy one out front you had out there. I like that.

Speaker 1 49:58

We could we absolutely could.

Speaker 2 50:00

What was that? I saw it out there.

Speaker 5 50:01

That's a Mach 1 Sika edition On a Marsh Runner Up to Thay Timber.

Speaker 1 50:07

That sucker looked pretty bad. That was two.

Speaker 2 50:10

It looked like it might be A little bit fast.

Speaker 1 50:13

It is fast, it's quick.

Speaker 5 50:14

It's real quick. It's pretty young. It's pretty young guys. It's for the younger guys. Freddie, it's quick, I heard you there. It's for the younger guys.

Speaker 2 50:19

Hey, I'm fine with it. A lot of people always say Freddie man, you used to do this and this. Why don't you do this? Because I got sick and tired of all them criny-ass little whiny babies. Every time I thumped their heads oh, freddie did this, freddie did that. Well, I got sick of it. So I said you know, I'm just going to get off the line, I'm going to get over it. I mean, that's it.

Speaker 5 50:44

Well, you do get older. Everything slows down.

Speaker 2 50:46

Yeah Well, I ain't slowed down I know, I don't know.

Speaker 5 50:49

It's just like you should get tired of it. Oh, I did it's just like a cell phone. You don't know how to operate it, you just throw it away or whatever. You know, it's like you know enough of this, enough of this.

Speaker 2 51:05

Yeah, it's kind of my Arkansas gaming fish license. Yeah, yeah, I want to throw it away too.

Speaker 1 51:13

That app is terrible. There's Dog Jam and that's the Arkansas Game Fish app. Yeah, it's terrible.

Arkansas Hunting App Frustrations

Speaker 4 51:18

It makes life so much easier. I got one last question for you guys. So what should guys do if they're going to be dog hunting their dogs from a boat? So we're talking about boats and stuff. What's the number one thing they should know?

Speaker 2 51:31

Well, I mean, most boats are pretty doggone slick, so make sure your dog's got good footing to launch on and off, make sure it's got a good place to get you know, just go buy a cheap piece of carpet or something like that you know.

Speaker 2 51:41

A doormat from Walmart is like $3. Cut it to fit, you know however you want. Wherever you're going to put your dog Ladder most I mean what I love about the Havocs you can get them right on the back. Boom, put your hand on the back of the head. They get up there real easy. No problems there. But uh, the main thing is acclimate that dog to that boat before you ever.

Speaker 3 52:03

That's the thing you're good at what you practice no matter what, it is right you know, however you do it and that dog needs nowhere to come in and go out of the boat. He needs to be comfortable with that. He sure doesn't need to do this on opening day in the dark. He needs to be out there this afternoon, this weekend, whatever I mean guy needs to go out and run his boat. Some, make sure it's in good shape. Take your dog, take your bumper, flip it out there, show him the exit and entryway, show him where he can jump out of, show him where he can't go. You know I'm a big guy on control on a dog in a boat. The last thing I want to do, all these cool pictures of these dogs flying down the deal with the dog up there like a hood ornament. That scares the bejesus out of me. All right, we hit one stump, one log one. Anything he goes out of the boat, you know he blends up out the back.

Speaker 2 52:44

I can't tell you how many dogs I've seen jump out of a moving boat because of a wood duck or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 52:51

I make that dog sit directly beside me and practice all this when you go out. If you go out to your local lake, down the road or your farm pond or whatever, get that dog out there, man, that dog needs to be in his position. You go riding around Because that dog doesn't need to. His first boat ride doesn't need to be opening morning.

Speaker 1 53:07

That makes sense. We need to get this Practice like a boy.

Speaker 3 53:10

This ain't rocket science.

Speaker 2 53:11

Just introduce him to it and practice with it, and it's so easy to do.

Speaker 3 53:23

Just there and just put it on the side of the pond and and and just teach them you know how to jump in, where to come in, where to come out. It's no different than getting the dog through decoys, right. I mean, the boat has got to be. If you have a boat, you have got to have. If you got a boat blind on there, hey, same thing. Show him where his spot is, show him how to work it in and out. Get that dog. I can make that with a bumper. Don't try all this on opening day.

Speaker 2 53:34

It's not going to go. Well, it don't. It's not going to go well, and the reason we know this is because we've done it before. Oh, yeah, yeah, I experienced it.

Speaker 3 53:41

I've got all these T-shirts, I promise you you know man, I tell you just practice, practice, practice, practice. It just doesn't take a long time.

Speaker 2 53:57

Dogs. You do it three or four times. They got it. They're down when they're coming back to the boat and stuff that they don't get around the motor and kind of that sort of thing. Because I've seen some cuts happen on some props and stuff, especially mud rigs, and they've been running that sandy stuff. Y'all know how sharp them freaking blades are, they are, oh yeah, jagging.

Speaker 5 54:13

I've seen some stitches on some dogs steak knife yeah, I mean seriously you.

Speaker 2 54:17

We've all cut our hands on us and a dog dog jumping on one of them with the motor turned. Son, you're looking, you're gonna. I've seen 18, 20 stitches on the side of dog because of it. So I believe you got to be careful, those kind of things. And then, uh, anytime a dog's launching, you got to watch for whatever's under the water amen to that, that sort of thing but the main, main thing I've always seen with boat is footing dogs. When they're launching They've got to have good footing.

Speaker 1 54:42

Yeah. They don't jump out of the way.

Speaker 2 54:45

Yeah, we've all seen them slip and do the belly flop.

Speaker 4 54:49

Kind of go head over heels, that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 54:51

And then just teach them how to come back in. A lot of people you know that trick putting your hand on the back of their head.

Boat Safety for Hunting Dogs

Speaker 3 54:55

They learn after about three times yeah, feet up there, they're super smart, yeah, you put the handle back ahead, they push against you and they lift right they get a figure out quick, just and just keep control of them in a boat, I mean you got enough going on, you got enough going on.

Speaker 3 55:07

You need that dog sitting there where he's supposed to be. He's out of the way, he's safe, he can't get knocked out of the boat and that way gives you where you can focus on where you're going and what you're doing. Especially as fast as boats are today, you need to be all focused on what you need to be focused on right.

Speaker 2 55:20

Well, Havoc don't know nothing about no fast boats.

Speaker 3 55:24

But these dogs, it just kills me. You know, back in the day right we had a $200 shotgun.

Speaker 3 55:30

We had a $5, $10 blind bag. These shotguns now two grand gun cases. It's nothing uncommon, I think they start now at $100, right, and go up to 500 or so. One in the store the other day, 550. Uh, you know our blind bags same way. I mean. Yeah, I mean, you know we don't want that dog prying around on top all that. Sit your tail down beside me, don't move a muscle, don't bug anybody keep a standard yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3 55:51

Just just make that dog mine. It'll make your hunt a whole lot better oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 55:55

Well, guys, I think that wraps it up. Freddie, chris, thank you guys for coming and I'm excited tomorrow to get uh, get some eyes out there and see what we're really dealing with, because bring the drone, because you're gonna need it.

Speaker 5 56:05

Oh yeah, we got two drones. Great idea, um, but yeah, uh, call one of the camera guys, yeah no, we're definitely gonna get on this suit up.

Speaker 1 56:12

Let's see what this is all about. I can't imagine, but we're gonna check it out. Guys, make sure you leave a like, subscribe, hit the bell for notifications, check out our gear shop. Tons of new stuff, new hats. Don't miss it. Anyways, we'll catch you guys on the next one.