SWAMP PEOPLE - JAY PAUL MOLINERE | Ep085 | Off The Clock with B Scott

Wild alligators are booming, but the market is bust. We bring on Jay Paul from Swamp People for a candid look at what happens when farmed gators flood supply with flawless hides, processors stop buying mid-season, and agencies extend fall dates into cold fronts that shut down feeding. It’s a real-time lesson in wildlife economics and biology: pay-by-the-foot hides, meat that sits, and a population that climbs while incentives for wild harvest vanish.

Jay opens up about the tradeoffs no spreadsheet shows—running lines at dawn, dragging 700-pound bulls into the boat, and still staring at a thin check. He lays out a straightforward fix: align harvest windows with warm weather, consider a spring season to selectively take dominant bull gators in daylight, and set fair constraints on farm output to stop the annual market choke. We dig into the ecology behind the opinion—growth rates, digestive thresholds, pressure avoidance, and why big bulls act like mature whitetails holding to deep, quiet water. The goal isn’t more chaos; it’s better balance for habitat, breeding females, and public safety.

Along the way, you’ll hear a jaw-dropping story of wrestling a 12-footer boat-side, the decision to walk away from TV rather than stage scenes, and what it means to keep tradition alive when social media turns shortcuts into fame. If you care about conservation, tags, quotas, and the future of wild harvest in Louisiana, this conversation connects the dots between biology, policy, and the people who still work the swamp.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves real fieldcraft, and leave a review telling us whether you’d back a spring season for selective bulls.

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Transcript

Welcome And Season Highlights

SPEAKER_04 0:00

It's five o'clock in your Othoco B Scott. Today we have as our guest Jay Paul. You might know him from Swamp People. We hunted with him last year, me, dad, and Daryl. And we had a great time with him and his dad. And he's going to tell us a little bit about gator hunting. So it turns out gator hunting's a little bit more to it than we actually figured out. We're going to talk about the politics to go into it, the big gator farms, and what kind of impact that has on the environment and the sport of gator hunting. So before we get into it though, make sure you leave a like, subscribe, and hit the bell for notifications. Let's get in. So, Jay Paul, man, it's been a while since we've seen you. What you been up to, dude?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

A little bit of everything, man. We had an awesome gator season. Uh, after gator season, you know, turned up to deer hunting. Uh getting my kids on their first deer. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. So it's been a been a good, good winner as we speak as of now. Been a good winner.

Market Crash And Farmed Gator Dominance

SPEAKER_04 0:51

So your gator season went good. You killed a bunch of big ones?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

We had a good season, man. We killed a few 11 footers. Uh one almost should have been over 12. Wow. But he had some, like it always happens, got some tail missing on him. But uh we killed we killed some nice gators. It was a consistent season. Uh wasn't nothing crazy numbers, but uh hey, it was good. You know, everything went smooth. They got some tail missing out like fighting, maybe? Oh, yeah, fighting 100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

How many gators did y'all kill this year?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Probably a rough just a rough roughly close to about two twenty.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

220? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

God, wait. And how long is the season? Uh uh Well, they extended it now. Uh it used to be only 30 days. Why don't they extend it? Because it's so many gators? Yeah. They're trying to get basically to want more hunters there. Because we used to have 3,400 licensed fishermen. Uh with the prices, there's no more prices. The gator's not worth anything. So a lot of fishermen don't fish no more. How come it's not worth anything no more? Market, like with everything, you know. Market uh, I mean, don't get me wrong, you go to a grocery store and try to buy alligator meat$19 a pound. It's it's got to market in outside of the fishermen. Fishmen not making no money off of it. So a lot of fishermen don't do it no more. It's not worth their time. Uh, but you got guys like me and my dad, the old school that still fish to keep the ecosystem in balance. You know, we know it's a job we enjoy it too. Yeah, we enjoy it, you know. And so uh, but a lot of guys that used to do it for for an income.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

A living.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, or a living. They had to move off of it. They have they have to they can try to fish as much as they can. But so what are you getting per pound right now? Somebody or not, we don't fishermen. We don't that's the crazy part about it. We don't get paid by the pound, we get paid by the length of per foot. So we get paid for the hide only. And that's not where the money's at. They pretty much they can't even get rid of the hides.

SPEAKER_04 2:32

Wow. So yeah, so is it alligator farms that made an impact on that market?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Big time, big time. The markets wasn't there. Um the hide you can't you can't fall the farm. They can raise a perfect skin.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Oh they can raise more the the the skin is more uh yeah, like you said, perfect.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

It's perfect. It doesn't know it's not scarred up from fighting. Uh they four foot long. And in two years, in the wild, an alligator will grow a foot a year, average, a foot a year. In captivity, heated ponds, getting fed high protein dog food every day, uh, dark growing in two years, he's four foot. So he's growing two foot a year, doubling the size, and they harvest them at four foot. The meat's perfect, the hide's perfect, and they they'll have no regulations on how many they can harvest.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

So they're they're pumping them out. Yeah. These are general hands. So it's definitely it's killed the um the guy that did it in the wild. Correct.

Season Extension, Cold Fronts, And Biology

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah, it's it, it's it, it's where it is. The wild harvest season. Yeah, because uh they harvest almost right before our wild gator season comes in. Oh, I got you. So it floods the market. I got it.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Oh, so it's like really that's bad timing too. Cause now so how is the it's horrible. So how are you guys gonna regulate like so I guess so I guess they just extend the season? Hopefully you guys will kill more.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Yeah, so that's that's where their I guess objective was to Is it working? No, let's say let's this here's the this is the first year they extended it for two months, okay? So it's September and October this year. Um biggest thing we go against is we don't want a cool front, a cold front to come through. An alligator is just like a bear, they hibernate. Um their body temperature has to be 70, their stomach has to be 76 degrees to digest food. So anything below 76, they stop, they stop eating.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

That's why there's nothing alligators up north.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Too cold. They they stay hibernate, they stay hibernating.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

I never knew that. You said below what was it to be 76 degrees. Did y'all know that? 60 degrees.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

I knew there are reptiles. So exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Well, I knew there was reptiles, but shit. I didn't know that lets me know where I can hunt. Yeah, let me know where I can duck hunt. Yeah. Today we were like talking about 100 Lake Wild alligators.

Processors Stop Buying And Policy Missteps

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I was like, I might not bring my dog, it might not be so so cold-wise, and that's and don't mean wrong, they will they will still come and try to act like they're gonna eat, but they can't digest. So they won't eat nothing. They'll bite, they'll do this kind of stuff. I'll be damn. They won't digest, they'll let it rot to the max and maybe nibble a little bit. I'll be damn. But like to actually eat large amount of food, he can't because he he knows his mind's telling him, you can't digest. You can't go and hibernate with a belly full like you are, because your meat is not gonna go anywhere. They can't digest it. So after 76 degrees, we pretty much get locked jaw. They'll you I mean, how many times have I seen gators underneath old rotten chicken or neutral, whatever you use it for bait, they would sit under the line, it won't bite. It's because they're too cold. You know, so yeah, so that was the biggest thing. They always extend the season till end of October. Well, we got did like this year, we had a cool season. We had a lot of north winds, and we had north winds blowing since July, which is not good for gators. And so we had a a good season, but it was a slow season, a steady season. First good hard cold comes down, we started getting these hard north winds, these gators are going in and hibernate, they're not eating. So this season they extended for a month. Well, guess what? What's no good? It's pointless. It's pointless. Here's the worst part. Three weeks into the season in September, closing towards the end of September, the processors, the buyers that buy our wild alligator, stop buying. So where are we selling our gators to? They can't move the meat, they choked solid with meat, they can't choke solid with the highs because they can't get rid of them. So they stop buying, there's no more market. So this next month and a half or a month and a week, they want you to fish still, but they want you to do the processing yourself.

unknown 6:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

So you're not making no money.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

You just don't want to kill. How come they don't extend the season like in the in the beginning of it?

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Right. So that was our biggest, one of our biggest arguments, like put it into the warm ones.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Why is it so hard to find common sense anymore? Money.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

It's it's with it, it's with a exact money.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

I mean, what are you talking about? Money, like it's money on the front farm. It's money on the front side, too. Oh, so you say the gator farm, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

So if I public is interfering with the gator farm, correct. So farms ain't making no money.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Or they're they're competing with if you flop it around, because they have no regulation. We regulate it by tags. So we cause for this, let's say, let's say there's 640 acres a square mile.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Um, I'm getting 10 tags. Just say I get 10 tags for that area. That's the only place I can harvest them 10 tags. Well, gator farm, if he got a hundred thousand four-foot alligators, he can kill all hundred thousand and no, no. If he got two hundred thousand, he can kill all two hundred thousand and flood the market. But we are limited per area for for uh habitat reasons, you know. Don't get me wrong. But we're on a quota base. We can't just say, you know, have a free fall and just go hunt the swamps and kill every gator we see for the 30 days. Well, farms should be limited on a basis also, okay, for this season around.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

They should treat the market fair.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Correct, fair market on both sides.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

But they should be.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

And that's where we came to look, I was talking about, I say it all the time. Everything we hunt is during a breeding breeding season, a rut. Yes. Deer. It is, it is. Rut. Turkey.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Rut.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Ducks, they pairing up.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

You know, at the end of the season, they pairing up. Everything we hunt from help, alligators the only one we don't hunt in the rut. We don't have a spring season. Alligator ruts in the spring.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

How come?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Because that's when it would be too easy.

SPEAKER_04 8:10

You know, in a way. It's almost like they're trying to do away with it in a way. You know, well, they're trying not necessarily do away with it, but they're they're putting it aside to the big alligator farms, you know. Be able to do it a month earlier or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

I mean, so why would it be too easy though? Because it would be select, you better select. I've I've I mean personally, I would love a spring season. All you big bulls. An alligator, a male alligator is a bull alligator.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Call them bulls?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Bull. Yeah, like a bull elk. He's a bull, he's a bull alligator. So there's big bull males or big bulls would be out. You go bass fishing. You're gonna laid up on the banks. Spring season. They coming out of their dens, they getting sense, actually. They're more aggressive. You bass fishing, next thing you know, that big boy's gonna pop up inside your boat like and swirl up, show itself. Like, hey, you're in my territory.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Really? Now holy shit. I'd be like, okay, I'm leaving.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, so so back to we're out of here. Back to like hunting whitetail. Yeah. Your big dominant bucks.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

We hunt them during the rut. Right. Cause I'm saying they're not as stupid. They're not get they're not stupid.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Well, they are kind of down the country. They get tail around, you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

A little, yeah, exactly. So it gets straight too. They are more vulnerable.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Oh, yeah, guaranteed. Every male took away.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Exactly. So they say it's different. This this big bull gator, same way. He's not as scared of humans as much no more. And now he's available. You can see him set up just at night. You're gonna see him broad day with his females.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Talking about big bull alligators, they daytime, huh?

Tags vs No Limits: Fairness Debate

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Oh, big time. So it daylight, maybe. Daylight, maybe. We're gonna shoot his ass, he's daylight. Yeah, so so with our rules in South Louisiana, we can we don't have to have like Florida, we have to have two lines attached to them before you dispatch the bang stick and whatnot. We can shoot open water. We snipe, I'm gonna ride around. I'm gonna fill my tags in the springtime. I'm gonna run and find these big bull males, but I'm gonna take care of, I can take care of my herd better, my crop better. I know these big bulls in this area. I'm going to select these big bulls instead of shooting the females and whatnot, like that. I'm going in there and select these big bull aggressive males. But they don't want to give a spring season. You know what I'm saying? I don't, that's why I'm not sure. And you're getting paid by the foot too. Yes, because guess what? The farms are still growing their gators. The farms are not harvesting right now, you know.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

So they're choking out the market.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Yeah, so then yeah, so when the fall comes around, when the harvest for the for the farm gates, we already then did our cult. You know, I don't think I can see back to back to where you said it's all about the money.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Yeah. Yeah, but like those are thinking about these farms, guys. What they pay in their property tax. You would take there's nothing the government's getting out of it. No. Like like more, you take more care of more people. They don't care if they got jobs, apparently. No, it's I mean it's gonna get to the point, bro. You see what I'm saying? I mean, you say money. Oh, yeah, you say money, but what what can a business actually do for the government other than pay them property tax and when they can pay taxes?

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Those are the gates that make decisions. That own all the properties, all the farms, have all the money. I mean, they they have a lot to say. Yeah, it's a lot of pool.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

A lot of pool, a lot of a lot of pool.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

I mean, it's kind of the same thing with these farms up up here in Arkansas. I mean, they're they're trying to, you know, all the shit happening to the stuff. I guess the Black River. I mean, that the private private land farms.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

But no, you know, you know my worst part about you know, everything like we was always raised, take care of Mother Earth, the ecosystem, keep a balance. Right. I can remember uh probably season five, six, or seven, one one of them seasons they had swamp people with start off, you know, one point something million alligators in Louisiana. I think this number right now is two point something million. Wow. We doubled.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

Yeah. So we're not even making it though. At what point do you guys say, okay, there's an issue to be more of a so you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

So that goes for another, because we we do big conservation just when it comes down to like the Nutriet was an invasion of species was taken in, was brought in to maintain the water lilies back in whatever I don't know the date of it. Yeah, it was brought in, introduced back in to take care of the lilies. That's it was an invasive species. They got became so overpopulated. But then that's when you came the trapping and fur industry crashed. So there was no market in these neutral. The neutrals ate themselves out of a house and home. I can remember my dad paddling, push-pulling me in a in a in a puro down his canals, and there's neutrals are on top of each other dying because they had no more food source. They couldn't survive the winter. They was eating all the bark off the trees. It's cause there was no more market on them. And before you knew it, they didn't destroy all the marshes, they didn't destroy all the habitat.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

What do they do to fix that?

SPEAKER_00 12:55

And so they put a nuisance on them, a bounty on them. Now they're getting wasted where these where my family used to make a living during the winter, trapping the nutrient for their fur, for fur to hide, you know, and trapped them and made a hell of a living.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

I need yeah.

Why No Spring Season And Selective Bulls

SPEAKER_00 13:09

And and they took it away from them, and then in the next 10 years, they ate themselves out of a house and home, died of diseases and out of balance. Out of balance, out of balance. And the same thing's gonna happen to these alligators. Yeah, you're gonna start hearing more attacks. Yeah, because these farms released 17% back into the wild that they hatch from the incubation. What the hell are they doing? What these people don't know this? They do. Where's the common sense at, man? It's it's taken when it's like you say, when there's no more frogs in the swamps, or are they gonna have so many alligators just eating every pet that comes around the canals? Yeah. Or are you scared to even get in the water because you got 10 gators waiting for you to jump in the water? Yeah. Or kids can be attacked, this and this, and they'll be full, we need to do something about it. Then they next thing they knew, they're gonna put a nuisance on it. And where it's become a sport where everybody, which is understandable, you well, every resident in Louisiana is about to have a tag. They next thing they're gonna have every every cajun in the swamp with a rifle, shooting every gate that is around, and just be back in like in the 40s when the alligators were almost extinct.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

You ain't about to find them. And they, oh no, put it back on the protective list, you know? And that's what's gonna happen. And then it's the big thing. So what do you think should happen?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

What do you think should happen?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Honestly, you shouldn't you gotta up the quota. Yeah, you know, you gotta have them working on them. But they gotta have some kind of balance.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

You know, like we only got third, oh, they extended our season, but they extended it the wrong way.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Yeah. They did extend it the wrong way.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Give it or give us, you know how they extend it that way.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Why don't they ask professionals like you? Why don't they do? They do. They do, they shouldn't listen.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

It's like the shrimp season, our our shrimp seasons, our crabbing season. We have meetings like crazy. Um, so because we are we are the fishermen that's actually out there daily. But everything is you got a biologist in office that's never been in the swamp. It's like engineers. And that says, Oh no, this is the diet, which does the data saying, This is what we gotta do. Yeah. No, you get on the swamp and come come, you know, saying listen to the fishermen. Yeah, that's true. That does because listen, I got knowledge, but I got other guys I can bring and tell you that has knowledge. You know, you know, on they might not be book smart, but throw them in that throw them in that shrimp boat or on that crab boat, and they'll tell you exactly what needs to be done. And it would make sense. You'd be like, wow, you know?

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Yeah, yeah. It's crazy how that works. Yeah. You're you're 100% right, though. I mean, some people just like listen to engineers. But it all starts with the market, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

I mean all that dollar. That dollar's about money.

SPEAKER_04 15:26

There's just no incentive to do it. People aren't gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

No, and it was crazy. They they have they say what do you have? Oh, we got a five-year plan, a 10-year plan. But what happens when that 10-year plan fails?

SPEAKER_02 15:37

They gotta start over again, another 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yeah, and you can't get it back.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

They don't give a shit. They get paid a salary anyway.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah, you can't get that back because that generation's lost after.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

The guy that made the decision not to kill the not to kill it, whatever, get her, whatever, they don't even get her hunt.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

No. And what you what you said right there about that generation's lost, that's a big part of it too. Because, you know, as of now, I would uh assume there's a pretty big, like traditional, you know, training the next generation, next generation on that that will be lost, especially if it goes to a nuisance.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Back to the gator wise, um, it's a tradition that a lot of the elders pass along. We still pass it on. Thank God we still pass it on to my children. Hopefully my children keep going. But the way it's going, by the time my kids get old enough to to hunt it, it's not even worth time to hunt. They even want to pass it on because there's no more market. There's no, it's just it's not a hopefully bad deal. Yeah, it's just not worth their time to even play with it. You know, it's yeah, and uh it's just switching hands, and I hate to see it, but that's where it's going, direction it's going because they're not gonna go out there and kill themselves for for uh two or three hundred alligators, and and look, it's as a job, it's a job.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Yeah, it is. I mean it's a job. Oh, yeah. When we went out there, it was a job. We just had fun.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

But by gator 10, it's like, okay, it's become some work.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

Yeah, so so we were all out there, right? And we weren't going as fast as like you guys would run it, you know, because we're like, dude, I don't know, infant babies out there. Yeah, you gotta hold our hand through all this. We're like a mental midget. We're half we're half scared of everything that's out there. You know, if we grab that gator right now, you sure is dead.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

We're like that thing I think got teeth. You should we should be shooting that thing?

SPEAKER_04 17:09

I mean, like and yeah, I mean, it's just like in you guys doing that day in, day out, y'all are running and gunning. I mean, there's no, you know, y'all are line to line to line to line, and it's a different pace.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Yeah, because a lot of them guys that are fishing for uh a lifestyle, not just a hobby, having fun out there, actually a job. That first week of gata season, if they got 200 tags, they want it finished in two in that first week. Well, money's time's money. Time is money, and that when it comes down to it, because you don't want to keep exactly. So them guys are running bringing in 40, 50 gators in a day. You we brought in what, 12? We brought in a day.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Oh yeah, yeah. I couldn't imagine doing five times that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

So thinking bringing in 40 plus gators in a day for a week straight. You know, it's like, holy crap, you know, it's a that's a lot of work. I mean, uh so it's just dragging them off the damn boat is a lot of work.

SPEAKER_04 17:58

Everything about them was nothing easy about it.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

And when they throw up, man, and then you gotta bait up again. That's what's crazy. Once you take them to the market, you gotta go back and you're beating up again.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Guys that are running that like we usually, if we like say if y'all wouldn't have been there with us, we would have baited after we went.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

And then still it drags on.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

Yeah.

Overpopulation Risks And Farm Releases

SPEAKER_00 18:14

It makes you look for it 4 a.m. to to to dark, you know, you you you add it, you know. Man.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

And and and and there's no market for it, but it makes it tough.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Yeah, and that's what you go to the you go to sale and you look at your your check, it's like, that's it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

That was a lot of worry for that. The reason why you do it is because it's like it's in your family.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

It is, it is, and that's why we swapped, you know, we we switched over to thank God I'm still doing with my dad. Uh hoping to get a blessed another year with my dad. It's a tradition. We know we gotta take care of our environment, our area. Um, you know, the ecosystem's dependent on us to maintain.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

But at the same time, that's why we do what we do. We bring guys out. We because if not, if we were just doing it for a job.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Do you Do you feel like your kids are following the same tradition? Or do you feel like they're they're they're or do you feel like the new technology, the new way of society think they're just fading away from from what you do?

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yeah. Um I with a lot of it. That's why Does it bother you? It does. It does bother me that um it's hard to pass the new next generation, yeah. Our traditions down because it makes it so much so difficult to be able to go out there with a a good spirit.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

Yeah. You know Do you feel like you're gonna lose your your your your your tradition through your kids? You you feel like you don't let it go?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

I don't think my kids will. Uh I'm just worried about the next generation behind it.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

You think their kids might? Yeah, yeah. If you lose a little bit every because even if it's not much, but if you're losing anything at all, eventually gonna the fire in your gut isn't in their gut.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah. And so thank God I got multiple kids, but I've got a few of them just to carry it on. But yeah, um, they love it. You know, it's in their blood. It's just that um the circumstances behind what You gotta face to go out and do it.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

That's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Well, it does get it does get tough, tougher. Yeah. You know, I tell B Scott, like whenever I was building boats 20 years ago, my problems wasn't the problems we have now. Right. So, you know, it seems harder back then, but it's just I think it's harder now to maintain business than it was 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Yeah. Well, yeah, prices have everything go up, but yeah, yeah, your product gotta stay in that same market competitive, you know.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

So it's like just like you with the market, like the market changing.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

And back in back in the day, word of mouth, you build a good product, it's solid, yeah, nothing can happen. But now everything's social media driven. It's almost like a fancy world. Yeah, it it is. It looks like anybody can be a professional.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

Yeah, it's got views and likes.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

100% like you're a professional alligator. I mean, you can catch alligators. You're you it's in your family, you've done your whole life. I mean, there's nobody more than what you do. I mean, you're a professional, but there's somebody that could actually get a boat, go out there and catch a damn alligator, make a cool video, and get as many views as you get. Oh, 100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

Yeah, 100%. How fake is that shit?

SPEAKER_02 21:10

And you're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 21:11

How fake is that shit? He bought that gator from me at the ramp. He bought it from the best boat shop.

Quotas, Listening To Fishermen, And Data Gaps

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Yes, I have I have guys I see firsthand, yeah, just make a cool reel. Yeah. Never fished gators in their life before. But or or an outfitter, uh, catch a nuisance 12-footer, go throw it in a containment pond and bring clients out and get a get them, and he ride them around, then go to this containment pond and say, Oh, I think I know where they got a 12-foot this this this pond. I've been looking at it. He just put that gator in a couple of days before, go bring that clients, kill a 12-foot, and they think they killed a wild alligator.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

They just went pretty much high-fence gator hunt.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Yeah. But at the same time, now he's on now. He's on Facebook, social media, where he's just big time gator hunting, killed a 12-footer. Well, his he's not even a hunter.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

No.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

He just made it look like that.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Does that bother you?

SPEAKER_00 22:03

No, because guess what? At the same time, I know I'm true.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Yeah, I know. It bothers the shit out of me, though.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

It's like, it's like it's a goal's good, cuz guess what? I get it. Guys like that get exposed quick. I know. I get it.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

When it comes out, it discredits everything they've ever done.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Correct, correct. So you can't, you know, that time comes. Let them ride their little their little spotlight as long as they can, because guess what?

SPEAKER_05 22:23

I get it.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

It don't last. It don't last. But no, man, you you're 100% correct.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

You know, it's like uh it won't how does that affect your kids though? Like your kids see that and I'm like, how do you keep them away from that?

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Right. So I try to educate them. I talk to my kids. Like, my kids are my kids. I'm their dad, but they also they like my best friends. You know, I tell them the same way I was raised. You know, sky's blue is blue. I'm not gonna tell them no different, you know. So when they see something, I let them know exactly. This is how it went down, you know. Good or bad. Good or bad. You know what I'm saying? If he's a better hunter than me, I'm gonna tell him, hey, that man's a better hunter than me. You know, you know what I'm saying? But I'm gonna I'm gonna tell them facts regardless. And when it comes down to the social media side, that's almost a daily speak, you know, especially my little one. My little one's five. He turns a six next this month. But YouTube, you see everything on YouTube you think is authentic, you know. It's like you gotta keep reminding them, buddy, they don't work like that, you know. And show them.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

It's getting worse, dude.

SPEAKER_04 23:18

It is, it is it is especially with AI and everything. AI is getting out of it.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

I mean, it AI catches me up sometimes. Like, man, that's like I'm like, ain't no way. I gotta start looking at it, ain't no way. You know, it's like yeah, AI.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

I'm like, I didn't say that shit. Yeah, you know, it's like that, it's like that 27-pound uh mallard we were arguing about yesterday. Real duck, yeah. That's fake. No, no, I say it's fake. I know it's fake. Jake tried to convince me it's real, it is real.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

But you know the problem with AI though, like that's older. We're like, we're not there's no way you think that's actually real. Yeah. Are you serious right now? The new generation, dude. That's done like he said here it is. You think that's weird?

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Yeah, dude. I mean, it's Canada. They, you know, they got there.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

Jake. Jake, that's like five pounds bigger than a big Arkansas turkey.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Do you know the average size? I know it's a big duck. Jake, do you know the average size of a mallard duck? Yeah, about three pounds. You think that's you say you think a 27-pound mallard pops nowhere? You think a 27-pound mallard flies?

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Ooh. There are 27-pound birds that fly, yeah, absolutely. Name one bald eagle.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

It has an eight-foot wingspan. Can somebody Google that?

SPEAKER_01 24:26

I'm just trying to see if he really, if he's been real, he's checking us, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:28

Jake doesn't engineer the boats, guys.

SPEAKER_04 24:30

We had a we talked about it for at least 15 minutes at lunch. Yeah, and I'm like, dude, that's definitely fake.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

I want to see, I think I've been seeing a 47-pound mallard. I want to see this. It's a big man. It's a big dunk. I mean, it's hard. It's hard.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

His whole thing is he trolls people. It's hard for a 23-pound turkey to fit. Yeah. I mean, if you understand turkey flat. You believe that? I mean, what?

SPEAKER_03 24:52

No, listen, after the after the lunch, yes, no, I did not believe it. But before the lunch, you took me out of it. But you believed it before. I mean, I glanced at it, you know. I was like, I didn't, I didn't think it. I mean, it did look real, but you know, like a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Well, this this is this explains why we what we're talking about social media right now. Exactly. You know, people like people like Jackson, are you our young children down the wrong road?

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

They've you know, yeah, I shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

He did come back to his senses.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

Yeah, he he took him a little convincing, but he But it was our responsibility to do that. Right. Like you were saying earlier, you gotta tell him how it is. Yeah, you know, good or bad. We had to break his heart.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah, I mean at lunch.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

I mean, it it it is possible, though, Jake. It is it is possible. I don't I don't think it's possible. I think the biggest mallard ever kills, like so mixed between eagle, bald eagle and mallard. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, he's complaining about bald eagle.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

No, bald eagle's like 50 pounds. I don't think can we get a fact check on that?

SPEAKER_01 25:50

But we can fact check, there's no possibility. I don't think it's 50 pounds. That's a I think I think if you put a mallet in a cage and fed it high protein every day, still wouldn't get to be.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

No, didn't Jake go hunting with us one time and deer hunting. He's like, he's seen a 170 or something. That's probably a 110. No, I think he I don't know, dude.

SPEAKER_04 26:07

I I can't recall. I know somebody did though. But listen, if he if he's not Daryl, I'll just me.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

If it's a 170 in his book, let that man think a lot, honey. Let that man think, dude. If it's a 170, let him.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Yeah, I know. I mean, he caught a 12-pounder, no, it's a four-pounder.

SPEAKER_04 26:23

Now, hey, now don't do it. You brought up fishing, so I gotta bring it up. Don't do it. His ten-pounder, you know, that he caught where he's going. Was actually 915. Okay, he's an ounce short. Okay, so I will let that be on the table. And yeah, he's gonna bring it up because he calls it. Well, let's get back to alligator.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

No shit. It's 10 on mine. You didn't catch on 915. No, I didn't, dude. I didn't get close. All right. So so, anyways, the the alligator hunting, going back to alligator hunting, because that's what we're talking about. Uh, I mean, do you see it getting I mean, do you see it getting worse? I mean, do you ever like want to just quit alligator hunting because all the drama and all the peel? No, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

No, because listen, I don't know. So what are you getting out of it? It's it's not uh it's not about the money to me. Um, because not where I I make my pretty good gig going at one time. Yeah, I I don't make my living off of alligators. Yeah, you know, I help that's my dad's gig. You know what I'm saying? My my So you doing it for your dad? I I help my dad.

SPEAKER_05 27:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

I help my dad, but I do it for a sport. Yeah. So when I go help my dad, I get it through it. That's why I love bringing guys out. I get just as excited, if not more excited for guys shooting their first gator or multiple gators. I didn't pull the trigger on thousands of gators. Yeah. So me pulling the trigger, I didn't, man, I'm good.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

But every time you go approach that line, you don't know what's on the other end of it. Yeah. So it everyone's a new set. So you might have the next state record. For me, every every every day, you just don't know what's your trying to catch this stuff. Oh, 100%. Okay, is that what your goal? Oh, goal is listening. Oh, is that your goal? That is that is one of my I'm always trying to be top notch on it. Okay, so have you have you caught the state record yet?

SPEAKER_04 28:12

No, no, no. Have you seen the state record and like tried to go in and catch that gator? And and I've seen some big ones, but nothing so near.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

What is the state record? 14 to so you so you talk about Wow. We talked about gator. So you talked about earlier about leasing some new lands. So are you are you hunting? Oh yeah, oh yeah. Okay, so that's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

So when I'm speaking up new ground, yeah, I'm setting up to find.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Okay. So you're hunting for a gator right now.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Oh yeah, I'm all I'm always I'm always trying to get to.

SPEAKER_04 28:40

So that's why that's why you're so with that being said, are you looking for ground that maybe ain't been touched in a good a good period of time?

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Correct, correct. A lot of uh, but it's like deer hunting. Duck hunting, everything you look at an environment, you look at what's available. My area, I don't have the food source no more.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

I'll be damn.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Hurricanes, you know, hurricanes overpopulated.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

So you're looking for food sources, you're looking for terrain, looking for everything.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Yeah, just look just like you be trying to hunt at Monster Buck.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

So if you explain that to a deer hunter, like we're deer hunters and duck hunters, whatever, but uh so you you know, duck hunting, deer hunting. So when you're when you're trying to hunt a big gator, what are you looking for?

SPEAKER_00 29:18

So the the big the biggest thing is deep, deep holes, like deep water or less trafficking area. Just like your big big bull uh deer, they don't want pressure.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

These big gators right here want to be tucked in the swamp, they want to be hidden. Um, just I mean, I'm a big-time deer hunter also. That older, the older the alligator gets, the less terrain he travels, the less area he covers. There are a lot of like. Just like white-tailed. So when I started hunting Midwest at about 15 years old, I started comparing my white-tailed deer to my alligators. If I killed a 10-foot gator at this point of canal, this bayou on this tree, the next year I'm putting the line back in the same spot because this 10-foot gator wanted to be here for a reason. So when I'm in the Midwest hunting, let's say Shawnee Forest, Illinois, if I killed, if during the rut, I seen multiple shooters in this one draw, or I shot on the 13th of November in this tree. I'm coming back to that same tree, same area, in that following year. And I got the proof behind it to show that I didn't kill multiple times multiple mature deer in the same tree. And I started putting two three together. It's like my gators are working just like deer. Deer are working just like gators. So when I'm hunting big bull gators, I'm pretty much the same strategy as my whitetail. You know, scent-wise, it's a little different, but cover-wise, yeah, I mean pressure-wise. Makes perfect sense to me though.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

So pressure, so pressure for a gator would be like uh boat travel.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or get or get noise, getting shot at. Okay, getting shot at, really? No shit. Guys on the bayou, man. If they got a how many times every season uh before the season during the summer times, you're right. You see big gator's floating just shot, you know.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

So gator knows when he gets shot at.

Why Jay Walked From TV And Kept His Pride

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Like getting shot at. Listen, even getting hooked. Let's say if you miss him, if he gets he breaks off that hook or or don't get hooked properly and gets away. I noticed they ain't gonna if you're gonna let it get if that gator bites again, you lucky. You know, so he knows that smell. He knows he's smart. Them gators are very smart. They don't look smart, they look ugly as hell. And they say, hey, look, don't don't judge the book by his cover, because hey, look, they're a big old gator getting smart. They're smart. They are like that 10-foot gator. He could be 25 years old, he could be 40 years old.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

No kidding.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

It just just like just like your your your white tail boat.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

That blows my mind. I'm a lot smarter at 45 than I was at 25, I promise you.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Right. So he didn't seen a lot. You know, he survived. Especially in the summer. For a reason, too. Yeah, he survived. He didn't been through, you name it, hurricanes, you name it.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

So what's the oldest gator you think you'd ever caught?

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Uh 30 plus years, 30, 40 years old. Yeah. Um, I had one few years back. Only reason we knew how old he was, he was the first batch of of uh gators that was released by wildlife fishery back into the swamp. He still had the tag marks in his f in his paws, yeah. And he had the first notch in the alphabet, that's where they meant they notched the tails, and they would log it by what but have a batch number and notch in his tail. He had the first notch, and he was ten foot four, and he was twenty-five years old. Golly. Yeah, but he was only twenty-five and ten foot.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

So how do you judge a? I mean, how do you age a alligator?

SPEAKER_00 32:32

It's you really can't.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Really? You just know you can just kind of tell from experience. Yeah. Skin, the scales, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Black back to what I was saying earlier, uh, they usually average a foot a year in the wild. But at six foot long, they're mature. No. When you get to six foot, they mature. Your female, she's pretty much topped out eight foot. Well, you get some nine footers here and there, you know. But a female, she's topped out fast. Eight foot is your big female, nine foot, big female. Your males, they stay, they grow a little, they keep growing pretty fast until about eight, nine foot. And then as these, as they get a little bit older, after six foot, they start slowing down. Slowing down. They they start getting their remember we've seen their girth. That's right. They start getting wider. Yeah. And so their length slows down, but they start getting their weight on them. They mature now. And so that's when, that's when you start snowing the age. You know, you start, okay, they at least 10 foot, 10 years old, 12 years old, 14, you know, so so, but at 10 foot, that gator's 25 years old. Yeah. You know, 10 foot four. So, you know, just like white tail, you might be a 10 foot.

SPEAKER_04 33:33

How rare is it to just see a gator that's like 12 foot? Like, compare it to like, say white tail, you say you see a you know, a 180-inch white tail or 200 inch white tail. How rare is that 12-foot gator?

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Depends on what area you're in. That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

I mean, I mean, he's he's comparing it to like a 150, 170, yeah, yeah, or a 10-pound bass.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

So you take off to Midwest, you know, a 150.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

So you so you there's quite a few more fifties. Yeah, you take off in my area, which is more east-southeast, more brackish water. Environment's not as good as more west, where you got a chaffly basin swamp. I got you. Where they grow to 150s, you know, you 150 there, you know. So back in my area is not as common.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

I think in our area we're like a 110, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, basically, if you're lucky, so lucky, yeah. Back to the environment, it's like you head into a more more west. I got you. More north, more you know, more that childly basin area where a swamp area where it's miles and miles of terrain, food, uh the chances are better there. You know what I'm saying? It's like going to the Midwest.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

I got a question for you. So, so for deer growth, antler growth, they say it's more in the soil, what comes out of the soil, what they eat. So for an alligator, is genetics important?

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Genetics, but food source.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

It's mainly food sources. So it's not like you you're not gonna get like a genetically big alligator. Not not like deer, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Yeah, so so but fish, fish are kind of genetic. Correct, correct. I'm sure I'm sure genetics plays a big part in it. Right. But the main thing.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

So it's not a breeding genetic situation, it's more food source.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Yeah, because it's it's you got one species of gators, you know. Yeah, so it's um it's environment, environment makes up, you know. So like they say, take a gator out, the swamp, put it in a tank, he's not gonna grow. Take a turtle out, he's not gonna you leave him in a little tank, he's not gonna grow. You know, so he's gonna state the size of that.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Give that baby some protein, they'll grow, huh?

SPEAKER_00 35:31

But he's in that tank. He's in that in that small tank. That fish is gonna grow slow sl slower, you know, put him in a big pond, feeding them, he's gonna grow faster. You know, so yeah, so that's where it it boils down to is the environment, food source, a lot of the big factors.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

How come you don't do a gator farm?

SPEAKER_00 35:48

We don't have time for that.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

But yeah, but I mean, you're such you're so good at it. I mean, it would be uh people would respect your gators. I mean, even if you manufactured them, they would love to buy gators from you. So how come you don't do a gator farm?

Trophy Mindset: Finding True Giants

SPEAKER_00 35:59

It's uh monopolized. You think so? Oh, yeah. Yeah, but you got something, yeah, you got something they don't have, though. You get your name. Hey, like we started a conversation with earlier, it's political. You ain't you ain't getting involved in it.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

I got you. I guess it's like the it's like the gator mafia, dude. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, it is. You either in the game or you ain't.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

Yeah. What you gonna do? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, when it comes down to it, brother, um a lot of these gator forms were passed down, took a long time, and then not to say no names, but had a big big roller come in and bought them all out. He monopolized, took control of everything.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Why don't you just do it?

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Why don't you just take a look at it? I got I got pennies in my pocket. Yeah, I ain't competing with this man. So yeah, so no, it's like uh it's like you said, it's a it's a gate of gate of mafia. You're not getting in the circle, you know. It's they control the market. Oh be that they control the whole system, you know what I'm saying? So uh it's uh yeah, if and it comes down to it, it's it's a it's eventually gonna be a dying, dying breed. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Especially for the guys that are not wild. Correct, correct.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

Data farmers still succeed, you know.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

They still get they got, you know, they're gonna continue to just the guys out there trying to make money off of natural habitat or natural resources and not gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

No, and it that's what's gonna bowl down to give it I'm gonna see I say five years.

SPEAKER_02 37:20

It's sad that the politicians really give it five, huh?

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Five five years, and they're gonna everybody's about to every if you had a license in Louisiana hunting license, yeah, you're gonna have bail, you're gonna be able to get a tag. Like it's gonna be readily available. Because populations will be so high. You know, it's like we need to do something because no one, no one that's actually doing it for a living anymore is fishing.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Because they can't, it'll be tippy toe and new sports. Yeah, sports. It'd be a sport. There's not a whole lot of people commercial fishing here no more either. Like you'd go to the river and you see people all the time with these flat bottom hoop nets and stuff like that. I mean, they're just those old men. And a lot of times when you see the commercial fishermen, they were the older generation. They were, they're the older men, you know. And then you see fish farms and like you're not gonna see no damn 22-year-old out there, the damn damn uh damn big ass 2172 with hoop nets in there without a TikTok phone in his hand. Yeah, so that's the problem. So that's that's all changing. Back to that, yeah, exactly. It's all changing. Exactly. It's like so the times are changing because it this they don't believe in the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

No, the value the value is not there. No, the value's not there. Um back to it, because uh I I do blue crab. That's my yeah, one of my number one. So you do blue crab? I I fish blue crab most of the season. Um see this time of years are our pretty much down season. It gets cold and crab start burying. Uh, there's no market on it. Um both. But why do you do it? Well, right now it's no market. You just love this shit.

SPEAKER_04 38:43

You meant like right now there's no market.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Right now, right now, right now it's no markets. There's no big holidays coming up. There's nothing where the East Coast is buying bulk crab. They're not so come down springtime. Now the price is up, crab is plentiful, everything, and we make our money. It's seasonal. Yeah. So it's it's seasonal, and that's South Louisiana for you. Very seasonal, you know, and um that's my and one of my number one income is blue crab. But back to what we're talking about, about the value um market-wise, same thing like the galligators. There's no price of crab traps are going up, the wire, the bait, fuel, everything's going up. But the price of crab stays the same.

SPEAKER_05 39:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

You know what I'm saying? So it's like a lot of them are a lot of them are can't do it no more. It's because they can't afford it.

SPEAKER_04 39:28

And then at some point, when it when less people are doing it, prices are gonna go back up again. Yeah, it's just one of those deals where if it's balanced out just enough, it'll stay alive. Right. But if it gets way out of balance and it just dies off, it dies off.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Yeah, exactly. And that's and I'm blessed. Listen, I'm very blessed, and I I don't I'm very thankful. Um, I got different avenues. You know, one season's finished, starting to slow down, I jump to the next one.

SPEAKER_04 39:51

That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

You know, and that's South Louisiana. That's that's that's how you're making it in this day and era. You gotta have to have your uh, how you said, some irons and different fires. You can't And a lot of them old timers, they didn't know nothing but what they do. If they're a shrimper, they're a shrimper. If they're a crabber, they are a crabber. You know, they didn't they wasn't double dipping and a lot of them guys though selling their gear and going work pipeline because they can't they can't make it, you know, and it's it's terrible. And then that's what happens is you lose the you lose the next generation, you know.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Yeah, it's sad too, because a lot of them do it. They're fathers and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

That's really sad.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

Jake, you haven't you got a you weren't on the Gator Hunt, were you?

SPEAKER_02 40:25

No.

SPEAKER_04 40:26

We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna get hunting. We're gonna definitely put you on the gear hunt this year. Yeah, he said he wasn't invited.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Well he was invited. I was not I no, I wasn't working for y'all. I don't think the last time y'all always invited. I think you just started, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I'll be a puk on him, but yeah, we were supposed to go this past. Hey, let me tell you something. I couldn't watch.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

Well, yeah, we were supposed to win, we didn't go.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

Yeah, we had to miss it. What happened? That's most stuff popping up.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was too busy killing ducks in Canada.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

Oh that wasn't me, dude. That wasn't me. No 27 pounds.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

That's him too, right there. Yeah, yeah, we missed out on 27 pounds. That wasn't me, man. Well, and then I somebody went deer hunting in Kentucky when we were supposed to go.

Gator Ecology: Age, Growth, And Habitat

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a big time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Yeah. Matter of fact, we're all guilty. But we're going this year. Matter of fact, we're gonna set our dates early and we're not moving them. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Deer hunting. Deer hunting. I love deer hunting. But the alligator thing makes me makes more sense now since he's hunting an alligator. I just thought we was going around killing alligators. Yeah, now Tim's all in.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

See, he wants to now he's looking at the at the barrel at the very top level of the barrel. I thought we was running barrel's deep.

SPEAKER_02 41:24

I thought we was running a trot line. I didn't know we was freaking catching a big alligator. Yeah, we're trying we're looking for a specific alligator. All right, that's a little different now. He's trophy hunting, dude. Trophy hunting. Yes, we're looking for a gorilla. I like I like trophy hunting. That's why that's why duck hunting, you know, duck hunting's cool and everything, but you know, like you kill four, you kill four, right? Yeah. So like big game hunting, big alligators, I get it.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Yeah, that's I'm always looking to beat my my yesterday's record. Yeah, beep in you, baby. So yeah, our our biggest me and dad's one 13 feet eight inches. So it was close. We was up there, man. Yeah, it was up there. Y'all can all.

SPEAKER_04 41:57

How much does a gator like that weigh?

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Believe it or not, it's different, but you looking 700 pounds, or if not better. Um, I caught I quite. No, a big male. Male, male. Yeah, big male.

SPEAKER_03 42:08

You gotta have a winch to get that in the boat.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

Yeah, uh, four guys. Oh, four guys.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Yeah, it's rough. Does females get bigger though, don't they? No, females stay small. Females. Did I miss that one? Yeah, you see whatever they're doing. Yeah, I felt like I missed that.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

Yeah, because everybody looked at you like, my bad, I missed that.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

My bad. No, a female, yeah. Female, she she maxes out early. See, a female had her prime.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

I knew I screwed up when I said that.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Five, six foot. Yeah. Five, six foot, she's at her prime for laying and having babies. Right. You know what I'm saying? Five, six foot, they like, oh, that eight foot or leave that female. Listen, she's at her peak at eight foot. She's laying good nests still, but she's at her peak. Like, honestly, take her out.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

Is it like does where you you gotta balance your doe population or the or the bulls or bucks, you know, they don't throw everything out wagon.

SPEAKER_00 42:51

You do, you do, because listen, I had one where on one of the episodes there was no BS on swamp people. We had to come in and get a bull uh gator because he was breeding the females, then kill her. He would kill her. He would just kick he would breed them and kill him in the land arm. What do you mean killer? Like eat her? Eat her. He would breed her and then he was literally he would kill her. That's a whole new level of being hardcore.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

That's some kinky shit.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

That's um that's a hardcore. That's pretty bad stuff. But what it was I don't like kinky, man. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Old gator that just was aggressive. You know, just just just he would breed her, and he would breed the females and then he would just kill in the females. He would go around just killing them, and he wouldn't even really eating them. Tear their leg off and just kill them. It was just in his area. So we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

He was a gangster.

SPEAKER_00 43:38

But that's also also. But like these females, also, these bigger, older dolls, older females, um, the younger prone females can't lay in her area. That's her area. So if she stops, if she's when when they they're too old, they start making mockness, and they make uh when they lay is like a slime. It's not our egg no more. It's a slime. So no other female is coming in her area to produce.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

She's taking up the area, but she's not producing so she's a dead weight.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

Pretty much. And but these landowners are the egg prices were so high they don't want you to get into the swamps and harvest any of the females because they were making the money on that collecting them eggs. So their money was all about that dialogue again. So don't get in my swamps kill my females because I'm making money off of them. But it's a balance again. It's now if you can't balance these females out in five, ten years, you won't have no females laying eggs. You your numbers are down. Oh, I wonder why I ain't collecting as many eggs no more. Well, you got old girls back there, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

I get some new girls in here. They get some new stock in here, man.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Yeah, yeah. That's how that's how Ashley is with her chickens, man. Those chickens ain't producing, they're gonna die. Yeah, like a hundred percent. It's about it. She'd be killing those damn chickens for. If she ain't laying, she's dying. Yeah, I'm like, dang, you're really doing her job.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

She's producing. What's like a wild story? Like something crazy has ever happened like out there and I wish it were crazy for me.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Man, where where to where to start?

SPEAKER_04 45:11

Y'all ever like have one, you're kind of fighting a little bit and fall in the water? I mean, if you ever fell in the water, wildfire.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

I think probably the one of the wildest ones was when I jumped in that water with that 12 foot two. Uh after I shot it, so after I thought it look, like we always say, and I draw blood, I'm gonna get it. Uh, I thought I had a better shot on it than what I did. And uh swamp people had to cut the episode up to make it not look fake. Because I had to jump, I jumped in the water. It was only about three foot of water. I shot it, alligator. We hadn't forgot our our hook pole. Were you jumping in the water to make the show good? Or you just no, and it's because I couldn't we we fought for this with this alligator for about 45 minutes. He would come up, he would circle. He didn't go.

SPEAKER_02 45:49

Screw this, I'm gonna go in there.

Managing Females, Nests, And Aggressive Bulls

SPEAKER_00 45:50

And he we kept hooking him, and I've been hunting this alligator. He was 12 foot two. I thought it was bigger than when it was, but he was still a 12-foot alligator. And just back at home, it's a rare to see a 12-footer. And the day before, back up a little bit, the day before Cam didn't let me shoot it, I had it at 40 yards. And he's no, no, no, we're gonna have it on the line tomorrow. We want him on the line so we can make our show. No problem. Next day, get to the line, the alligator pops up about 100 yards, 80 to 100 yards, and I got the 17 HMR. Uh small caliber at 100 yards. I got now aiming for the ear, shoot him right in the ear so he floats. I shoot, I must have hit a little bit far back. It just cut a trench in his head, didn't dig in and penetrate and just cut because it was 100 yards away, it just cut flat. It cut a ditch through his head. Gator went to flip and we went over there. We trying to hook him, he's breaking poles, he's we can't get a hold on to him. I grab tail, he pulls it out of my hand. We, me and dad back and forth trying to, I'm telling you, it lasted probably four to five minutes. A bass fishman stops, drops his trawl motor, and has watched us fight this big gator.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

He would he would entertainment. Yeah, it was there.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

He would drop. The alligator would go down and he would sit the bottom and we drag. We see his bubbles, we drag and drag and drag it. Five, ten minutes would pass, and next thing he would jump up, boom, he would surface like a big whale, come out, hit the ground, boom. And uh go back under. I'm like, we've we're gonna lose this alligator. He's only gonna fight for so long until he stops moving. He's like a snake. And he stops once he stops moving, we're not gonna find him. He's gonna hit that deep, hit that off that shelf, and we're never gonna find him. And we're gonna have to wait till he floats up. And then his meets no more good. High might be still good, meets no more good. So I said, you know what? Screw it is. You said he jumped in? Pulled him. Kick my boots, kick my steel toes off because he would come up and he was he looked like he was. Why are you wearing steel toes for? I always did.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

You worry about them cutting.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

No, I always had I always I didn't wear rubber boots because I always I worked heavy equipment and I always just threw my steel toes on and just rock and roll with it, you know. Um so I threw my boots off. I didn't went jumping in the water with my boots on. I threw my boots off, dove in. I'm feeling, feeling, feeling. Next thing no, he hits my side, my leg. He's doing a death roll pretty much. Just I honestly in my head, he's dying. He's taking his last spins, he hits my leg, so I dove underneath and I grabbed him, pretty much bear hugged him, rear neck and choked him, came up with him, I had him, and as I'm going to the boat with him, side the boat with him, I look down, I just kind of glance, I see his big eye staring at me. I'm like, I tell my dad, I told him in French at first, and I said, Get that, get this gator. And I said, He's alive. And he's like, he's like, he's dad's dad's freaked out. He's like, Bring me that. He's freaking out trying to get the alligator before he don't realize what I keep telling him, this gator's alive. So when I get to the side of the boat, he had his his big paw wrapped in my shirt, like to spin. And the first thing I thought, if he starts spinning with me, he's just gonna just beat me to I can't go no more. He's gonna wrap up with his paw in me and drown me. So I rip my shirt off, rip my shirt off, and I re-grabbed him. And I trying to hand my dad the leg. He we had the Carolina skiff, he bites the side under the boat, he's under the water. Now the cameraman can't see this. And I'm I told my dad quietly, I said he got the boat. Grab him. Because I'm I'm see this bit, I see the eye, this alligator watching me. I can't move because if I move, he's gonna grab me. And I'm saying I've like telling my dad, my dad grabs a little rope about this big. I said, What the hell are you gonna do with this? Grab the gator. When I went to reposition, he lets go the boat, and you could watch the episode on YouTube. You watch it, I pushed off this gator. I'm telling you, a cat didn't have nothing on me. I flew out that water, I pushed off so fast, jumped up. Dad had the leg. And I grabbed that 17 and boom, under when he was trying to go again, I shot him under the water and we stunned him. Pulled him again, he's still fighting. Now I had to shoot him one more time. Got like yeah. So anyway, we ended up killing him. Putting him in the boat. But listen, check you should. No way. Listen, I tell my mama, I tell my mom about it. We'll get back and I told her everything. She's like, she's all good. My mom's like, you used to me doing crazy stuff. When she watched it, I thought my mom was gonna pull the belt out. She's like, Don't you ever, you know, she looks bad. She was bad. She's like, No, you got it. But listen, when I watched it on the T on TV, and that's what the producer said. He's like, Jay, we had to cut so much out of it because it looks so fake.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

And I was like, if he said, if that bass said, Oh, look, we had a bass fishman that watched the whole thing. That's somebody out there that knows it's not, you know. But no, that's probably one of the one of the craziest.

The 12-Footer Water Fight Story

SPEAKER_01 50:18

Just imagine the bass fishman telling that story like, man, this dude jumped in the bar. I'm probably tool for gator. Like, dude, shut up. I'd be like, that dude. What you been drinking on?

SPEAKER_04 50:27

Dude. No way a dude jumped in. Or I'd been like, oh, that gator was dead. You know what I mean? There's no way I would have thought that.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Yeah, after that, I was like, nah, I'm done jumping in the water. After him come back to life, a lot of that, no.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Cause I'm could have very easily been easily bit you.

SPEAKER_00 50:40

100%. If that big gator would have grabbed me, done. Look, especially the once he got his barons back right, you know what I'm saying? He was because I just had to knock them stupid. That's all I did. Didn't realize it. I thought I had to put a good shot on him. Because I had I did a shot many that did the same thing. Yeah. But they're dead. They just spinning. They're all muscle.

unknown 50:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

You could have easily went the other way.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

100%. 100%. So when I when I grabbed it, when I seen that big eye looking at me, I already knew he had his power. He was gaining his power back every second.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

You done realize you made a mistake. Oh yeah. At that point, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

But you I'm too deep in. Yeah, I'm stuck.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

Hey, look good on TV though.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Hey, listen, I won the White Knuckle Award. Guaranteed. Guaranteed.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

I believe it, dude.

SPEAKER_04 51:22

I mean, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Producers probably saying, damn, he's he's crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:25

Oh, how many people said, oh, that was stage. That was a fake. I lost, and I wish it was. Yeah, that was a stupid person.

SPEAKER_04 51:30

You always gonna have people say that, though, you know? Yeah. You always gonna have people say that. You always get haters, man.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

But no, that's that goes to show, you know, back to that's a whole nother subject. But uh how much I did for me and my dad risk our life to make TV to do. And that's and that was one of the biggest long story short, that was one of the reasons me and dad walked away from the show. Yeah. It got to the point where they wanted us to be Hollywood. Nah, it's okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:51

What do you mean Hollywood?

SPEAKER_00 51:52

Fake. Start acting just and it's like, no, if we can't be who you hired us to be, be ourselves, we are we out of there. You know, we out. You know, so that's one that's one of the main reasons, you know. And we got more things that went behind it, but that was one of the biggest things, you know. Uh just to live that life. It is, you know, and one of the producers said, Oh, the 10% that knows different doesn't matter. The other 9% of the world doesn't know any different. Well, we live with the 10%. Yeah. You know, we we go to sleep at night knowing. That's right. You know, our pride, you know.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

Yeah, that's who your circle is.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

That's who we are, you know.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

We're not gonna be exactly people that own you, the people. You're right, though. The 90%, the the other people, those are the weirdos.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

And and it's it when it boils down when it boils to when it boils down to it though, we still I mean they'll watch anything. That's that's still who we gotta live. After the show is set as the shelf life is done, we still gotta be the same person, you know? It's like it's like, no, we who we are. If we can't be who we are, then we don't want no part in it.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

Yeah, you know. It took a lot to walk away from that.

SPEAKER_00 52:50

It did, because we loved the cast. Everybody was on it, it was fun. It was fun, and then as the seasons went on, it just got I started to hate it. I'd be honest. Um, I want to go to work and have fun. Couldn't. Everything I did was wrong, or I had to do this. I did it. It was like, nah. How many? Couldn't bring my kids on the boat. You know, it was like it was like, no, that's what we do, you know.

SPEAKER_03 53:10

Yeah. How many years you end up doing seasons?

SPEAKER_00 53:12

Nine years.

SPEAKER_03 53:13

None? Yeah. Oh yeah, that's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

It is a long time.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

It went like this.

SPEAKER_02 53:17

It did.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

Blink of an eye.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

You don't even remember it, do you?

SPEAKER_00 53:20

It's like just a blink of an eye, bro. I know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

You you you work so hard and you stay so focused, and it's like you don't remember nothing in between.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

It just, it just uh, yeah, it's fast paced, it's fast life, brother. Yeah, yeah. I tell and that's what and that was look, that's that goes to another point. And it came from another point. I had a my son at the time, my babies. And it's like, I got that's what I told my dad. I said, listen, I got a I got businesses to grow and I got babies to take care of.

SPEAKER_02 53:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

I said, Your kids are grown, dad. I said, I got babies and a whole company to kid established. I said, I got a whole life ahead of me. I said, I don't want you to leave. I said, but I have to focus on my my babies. I said, 'cause it was that time, it was season 10. And I'm like, my son, I feel like I missed so much on my son because I was stuck. Going fast life. You know, I took him around the country with me, but still, yeah, I feel like I missed out on so much.

SPEAKER_02 54:08

I don't remember, I don't remember my twenties and thirties. Like, you know, building the boat company.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

I don't people ask me all the time, like, oh man, you've you've had a good life, whatever. I don't even remember it.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

Yeah, it's so fast. I don't remember it. Going, going, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

SPEAKER_02 54:22

It's like you wake up, you wake up, and it's a race against the clock.

SPEAKER_00 54:25

It is.

SPEAKER_02 54:26

And nothing else matters but that clock. It is, it is 100%. So, I mean, a lot of people's like, yeah, it's it's awesome to own the business, you know. And uh, oh, you're Tim Scott, whatever. It's like, well, I don't remember being Tim Scott. Right. You know, it just happens so quick, you know, and it's gone.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

It does, it does, it does disappear as link of an eye, brother. And that's what I was saying. My my oldest is 16. I can remember him as a baby when we started the show, and he's 16 already. You know, it's like, oh God, it's it's link of an eye. I feel like I didn't I didn't spend time with him, you know.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

You you start feeling guilty and exhibit, you know, guilty.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

I did provide a good life. The show did provide, yeah, you know, that's what's everybody. Man, what's what you missed about the show? What I missed the most about the show is the people I was able to meet. Yeah. The opportunities it gave. The money was the money wasn't nowhere near as regular nine to five money. Wasn't about the money, but it's the opportunities that came about and the people I got to meet on the journey. Yeah. You know, you know, that's the biggest thing I miss about it.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

You know, it's it's uh it's crazy how everything doesn't matter if you're making a show or building boats, it's all the same stuff. It is, it is, it's all the same stuff. It's uh it's high-paced. It's a journey, you know. Uh no, me and B S Guy's leaving uh after this podcast. We're driving all night to the hunt in Ohio, and we're doing it to get content.

SPEAKER_00 55:42

Yeah, yeah. I got my back, my bag's in the truck.

SPEAKER_02 55:44

B Sky already told me. Yeah, let's go, man. Let's roll out. Yeah, we're ready to roll, dude. We're not gonna jump on a whitetail and run.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

It's content.

SPEAKER_02 55:52

But we might. For the right deer. If you think we can get enough views, let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 55:57

Listen, don't make the mistake of running out of bullets and try to finish the deer by what you bear a hand. Yeah. I I did it with a swamp deer, and I'd never do that again either.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

We didn't get together and go deer hunting. Yeah, we did. That would be cool.

SPEAKER_00 56:09

Oh, yeah, 100%, brother. We need to plant something, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

Definitely. Do you like bass fishing?

SPEAKER_00 56:14

I do.

SPEAKER_02 56:14

I I fish, but I live in it. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

I live in it, you know. So my dad right now is probably catching redfish in the backyard right now. And and next cast he's gonna catch a bass.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

You ever catch giant bass on beds and stuff? Oh, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

Man, back home, man.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

Well, we need to go fishing with you then. Apparently, that's what it sounds like. I mean, I think it's way too much. I thought maybe we had I thought maybe we had a to be honest. I didn't know where you were going with that.

SPEAKER_04 56:36

We started.

Blue Crab Economics And Seasonal Hustle

SPEAKER_02 56:37

I was like, I thought maybe we had an advantage here, but I don't look like we do. Yeah. We need to go fish with them. Sure. For sure. You don't know what you're gonna catch.

SPEAKER_00 56:44

Five minutes, five minutes I have you in fresh water catching bass, catch 15 minutes I have you in salt water catching redfish, speckletrout, you name it. We in a circle. Look, 30 minutes we offshore fishing. Yeah. Everything all the time. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I thought I was.

SPEAKER_04 56:59

Yeah, I don't know who you thought you were. Like when you brought it up, I was like, oh man.

SPEAKER_02 57:04

My bad. My bad. I thought maybe you want to go fishing with us.

SPEAKER_04 57:07

When you line it up, man. I appreciate you coming today, man. Man, thank y'all for having it.

SPEAKER_02 57:11

But you already get in a boat. I mean, you know, things are going and gonna catch some alligators, go some fishing. It'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00 57:18

Ducks, man. Looking finish chasing y'all deer, and by the time I should be finished chasing my deer, also we'll you still chasing deer? Oh yeah. Thank God, thank god. Oh yeah, oh yeah. I'm still k I'm still a little, oh yeah. All right, thank god. Yeah, I got that's why I was saying I got my uh my kids on their deer, so now it's my turn.

SPEAKER_02 57:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

Yeah, so I'm gonna uh try to finish before Christmas. So hopefully by Christmas, I got me a good one under my belt.

SPEAKER_02 57:37

I ain't even killed a good one yet. I didn't kill none either. Bam. But my baby's got them, so that's all that matters. See, everyone else in my family's got one too. Yeah, so that's what that's our job, man. It's our job. I wouldn't consider me your baby. You are my baby, I'm my only kid. Yeah, but I mean it's like you're still his baby.

SPEAKER_04 57:52

It doesn't matter. You're still his baby.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

Yeah, you ask your mommy, you're not your baby.

SPEAKER_04 57:56

Yeah, you're still the baby, bro. I'll be mama's baby.

SPEAKER_02 57:59

Oh, you are?

SPEAKER_04 57:59

I'm not your baby no more. You're my baby. I didn't cut that shit out. You're my only job. You're still my kid. No more. Yeah, no more.

SPEAKER_05 58:09

Oh man.

SPEAKER_04 58:09

Well, man, I appreciate it. It was a good talk. Man, we went an hour and it felt like nothing, dude. No, as entertaining as ever, dude. We had a great time. We alligator hunted with you last year. We're joined again this year. Yeah, this year for sure. We're gonna have to go. Jake, you're welcome to come with us. Do you want? I'm coming.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

I'll be about 50 minutes. I cannot. Hey, I won't get that damn alligator puke. I'm gonna smear it on his face.

SPEAKER_04 58:33

They just even understand it. Like, we got back when we got back to Hunter's house. I caught a whiff on it on my hand. I had it on my hand, and I put his water as hot as Hunter's water would go, and it was burning my hands. I mean, burning my hands off. And I sit there and scrubbed in my swear for 20 minutes and finally got it off. I know, I know in your lifetime you smell some stuff that's awkward.

SPEAKER_02 58:53

But this is really hard.

SPEAKER_04 58:55

This is a bad smell, man.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

This is worse than that. Dude, we left the boat at the back of the plant for like what a few weeks before anybody would go near it. It's horrible.

SPEAKER_02 59:04

I was like, uh, we're throwing it away. We had to repaint that boat.

SPEAKER_05 59:07

I repeat that shit. Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:09

We had to repaint it. We had to tear it apart, spray it out, and repaint it. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 59:12

That that alligate of blood and vomit is brutal. Um that blood, I swear, they need to design something with that blood. That blood stains so bad. It would need to paint. I'm telling you, it's gonna, it look, it's bad.

SPEAKER_01 59:25

I cut my finger too.

SPEAKER_00 59:26

Yeah, but I say keep the knives away from Daryl. Yeah, keep the knives away.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

I cut the thumb. You still can feel it. And you have that stuff. Yeah, we just I was taking a tag their gator. I cannot wait till we get you out there. Yeah, when you have gator tail and cut his thumb. Yeah. And you like cut it good. These things probably way harder than you think. Dude, that's nasty. He got one rounded. He got one rounded. No, no, no. You're you're watching. No, no, no, no, no. Can't wait to see it from a distance. You're getting it. No, no, no. That's not how it works.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

Your first alligator kill, you're getting like gut smeared face.

SPEAKER_03 59:55

Yeah. Unless you should play a video or picture of you doing it, I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_00 59:58

No, I'm not doing it. Listen, you're not. I got I got a video team doing it. They came in, Jake. They came in into the season. That's kind of tricky. October like 2013. I was like non-confident at all. And my dad proved me wrong. He lucked, thank God my dad marinated that bait right and he hit it right. Because guess what? I was hoping to catch at least one alligator. That's how cold it was. No, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:21

Dad did it though. I gotta give props to Pops. He marinated bait.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:25

12 or 13 gators will be got.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:26

Are you still learning stuff from your dad? Oh, 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:29

100%.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:30

How long, how long, how long? I mean, like, how much more do you think you can learn from him?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

Like, I think every season he learns and teaches more. You know what I'm saying? He just advances everything. You think he learns too much? He still learns to learn. Oh, yeah. He still learns from me for like the different weapons and different things we use, different ideas. Because we we feed off each other. So and then he then he will stem off of that. And next thing you know, teaching me this. Oh yeah, sometimes. I think a word pops. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Then I ended up getting to the point. He look, he's 60, 64? Yeah, 64 now. So I guess that point I don't even argue now. All right, Dad, go ahead. Yeah, see, he's starting to do that shit to me, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:07

Your memory's going back, you know? Oh yeah. And Jake, too. They'll all be like, yeah, what whatever your dad said, you know. I'm starting to pick up on it. Listen, it's so bad. I went out.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:17

It's getting do you want I mean, do you want some some pushback? Is that no? I don't want pushback. Just listen, Dad. Down there in the plant today, I seen a boat in there, and they're putting a motor on it, and the only reference they had to work off of was a screenshot of your text message.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:33

I seen that. I seen that the other day.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:35

That's how bad it is. They take your messages, a screenshot, and put it with the boat so that when you ask, listen, they have your messages with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:43

Oh my god. That is patience. I lack a patience. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:48

I seen that today. I said, I said, DJ, who did this? This is Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:53

I said, we should be doing this for the whole time. That was me. What is it? Thank you. What is it? Is it your paper?

Family, Time, And Passing Down Skills

SPEAKER_03 1:01:58

It's a screenshot of our text messages with the boat paperwork. And I put it in like a laminated deal. Yeah, you can look at the boat.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:05

If I send you a screenshot, you got 5.2 seconds to figure it out.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:09

No, no, no. No, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:10

He screenshotted text messages. Good. Good. Awesome. You're picking up on it. Good job. See, learning. Yeah, he's learning. Genius.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:19

Yeah. These guys. Yeah, I mean that's what I am. I like how you did your Jake. I'll just screenshot it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:26

Whatever. What pisses me off is all asked me questions. I'm like, can't you not read it and figure it out? Did he do that? We can't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:35

I was just about to say that, dude. You're trying to put it together, you're like, I've lost.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:39

I sent Jake a message this morning. He's like, I know nothing about this boat. I said, I can tell.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:45

Yeah. That's but I mean, instead of asking you more questions, I just tell you straight up, I don't know. And I tell you, and then we can all know. So I mean, so then we can skip all the boys.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:56

Quick conversation. It's quick conversation. It's it's the old generation versus new generations communication.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:01

That's that old boy, young bull. That's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:04

It's tough. I struggle with it. My wife is not good at it. You know, she's not good at it. But man, it was awesome to have you in here. It was, man. Thank you all.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:12

Appreciate it. We're gonna do this, do this some more, man. We've got a win.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

Absolutely. More more to come, guys. But make sure you leave a like, subscribe, and bell for notifications, and we'll catch you on the next one.