Build the Ultimate Duck Rig

Today we’re building the ultimate duck rig from the ground up  trucks, boats, motors, gear, dogs, and everything in between. From dream setups to real-world reliability, we break down what actually matters when building a rig that can handle long drives, cold mornings, rough launches, and late-season birds. If you’re obsessed with duck hunting setups, this episode is for you. 

Transcript

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Alright, everybody. Thanks for joining me on the Duck Dependent podcast. Guys, fired up to be here. Episode 20. I can't believe we're rocking and rolling. Guys, we're in that off-season grind right now. Um, that bi-weekly for this episode. But today, I'm super excited about this episode. If you hear me hopping around, it's because I asked a few questions. I put a few uh questions out there on IG to say, hey, ask me anything about waterfowl. So if you hear me hopping around, I'm just gonna be pulling up the questions for this episode. But today, we're gonna be talking about building the ultimate duck rig from the ground up. So, like if money, conditions, preference don't matter, I'm gonna go through everything truck, boat, uh, what I would prefer, motor setup, all that stuff, and the why and the what. So, pretty, really excited about this one today. Um, I'm gonna get to the partners that help make this thing go. So, guys, duckdependent.shop. So thankful for it, man. I was just traveling, I got some compliments on them fired up. Uh duckdependent.shop, guys. Go check them out. Hats, lids, everything you need year-round. Um, and then flight day ammunition, guys. You've heard me talk about it. You can use DD10 at checkout, premium steel, 1220, 28. Guys, I absolutely love them. 10 gauge. Go check them out flight day ammo. Uh save some money at checkout with DD10, guys. But that's the preferred premium steel, not coming off any other material. Uh it's still shot for me. And then retail USA, guys. My favorite shotgun. Guys, they're expanding all over. They've got the Game Lander, they've got pistols, they've got 22s, you name it, they got it. But retail USA, guys, from a quality standpoint, I'm not sure how you don't look at the retail ace for waterfowl, guys. It's an absolute machine. I've put it through the test now for two seasons. Flawless operation. I absolutely love Retail USA. And then Leshwab tires, guys. Good, better, best. We're just traveling all over right now, scouting, vacation, whatever you're doing. You can go pop in there right now. They have a great setup where they can check your tires and check your brakes and everything. Give you a rundown if you're going to take that long road trip, um, guys, but absolutely couldn't do it without these partners. And then uh we're super excited to have bucked up. Guys, they're based out of Utah. They've got pre-workout, post-workout, fat burner, guys. I love them for their energy. My favorites, the Miami Vice drink. I use it all through the season. Um, you know those long drives and long hauls, guys, but without all of those partners, we can't make this thing go. So I absolutely am thankful for DuckDependent.shop. They keep the lights on. Retail USA, flight and ammunition, guys. You can use checkout DD10, Leshwab tires, bucked up, guys. You can save some money with bucked up if you check out and use DD10, guys. Absolutely love it. They keep the lights on, they help this thing go, but we're gonna dive right dive right into it today. Okay, so we're gonna be building the ultimate truck. But first, I am gonna answer some questions that I put out on IG. Hey, ask me anything about waterfowl. So I'm gonna go in there and we're gonna pull them up right now. So let's go ahead and do that. Alright, so the first question is basically what is your go-to recipes for cooking duck? And I have a few. So there's the traditional one that I it's not really a recipe. Some people get tired of it, but it's the poppers. Everybody does it. You can do it with dove, duck, that's an easy one. You can throw them on the smoker, bacon, uh, cream cheese, jalapeno, that's kind of the normal one. Um one that I really like is actually just putting it in a crock pot, uh getting it tenderized, shred it, and then add some barbecue sauce and make sliders. That one's pretty simple, guys. A lot of these ones I like are quick and easy. Um, that one, I'll make some recommendations. Less sauce goes a long way. Let's not put a whole bottle of barbecue sauce in there, but a little bit goes a long way. Mix it all up, and you can add your favorite topping, whether it's slaw or whatever, onion, whatever you like on that, a little slider, um, that's always a good one. And then the one that I've done a lot is actually just put in on the smoker. And the thing is, is I treat duck like beef. So I season it with uh beef seasoning, um, anything you would do with beef, that's how I do it. I'm not saying that's the end all be all, but that's I would do that and smoke it, and I can I usually just eat it like that. And then a recipe that I we've done a long time ago with a good buddy, um, he used to do it, and man, it turns out phenomenal. So he'd actually uh split the breast, the duck breast, kind of pound it out, do your normal seasoning, whatever you like, uh make it really thin, and then put a light coating of breading, and then like pan-fry it, and then make that basically uh almost like a slider or a burger or something, you know, whatever you'd want to call it, but your favorite toppings used pepper jack and red onion and your favorite um sauce that you like on it, but that one is probably top. So those are kind of the I would say three or four that I would rotate throughout the season in the off season. So uh thanks for that. I think that question came out of Oregon, so we appreciate you, man. Um I'm gonna go to the next one here. If you can go on any dream waterfowl hunt in the world, where would it be and why? Man, that's a great question. I think this one came right out of out of Utah, man. I appreciate it. Um so here's the deal with that. Um it might not be everyone's dream hunt, but you know, I've been a lot of places, like I talked about on previous uh episodes, you know, I worked for the federal government for a lot of years, so I got to travel and see a lot of things and and check out different places. Um and you know, I think some of those traditional ones might be Alaska or you go down to Mexico and shoot a bunch of pintails for all these different places. But to be honest, outside of the rat race that I see online, I would love to just go down and have a four or five person hunt or less, you know, your your good friend, a family member, uh, your dad, a father-in-law, whoever it is, and a small group of people, and just get in the woods and flo in flooded timber in Arkansas. I know that's if you could go anywhere in the world, I know a lot of people that think about going to exotic places, and I totally get it. There are some awesome places out there when I got to visit Alaska, just the idea of going to do some awesome things out there with waterfowl. Um, but guys, just a peaceful, not the boat race, not the craziness, but um just a nice, peaceful boat into the timber, get behind a tree, move water and call just to experience that that angel wing and them coming through the trees that guys, I'll be honest, I've only seen on TV. Um and so I think that would be my dream hunt, man, and and I appreciate that question. So the next one. This one came from right here in Utah. What do you prefer, early, middle, or late season? Oh man, this is a good question. So for me personally, um you know, everybody, I don't want to say everybody, but late season gets special. But I'm just gonna go with for me and all the data that I have tracking since 2008, for me in totality, I'm gonna go with early season. And I'll explain why. I get uh very fortunate to travel around West the West and hit all these different openers, and what I love about openers is probably what you guys love the excitement, the getting ready. Um, but I just I'm fortunate to have these areas that I'm hunting that are really heavy with birds, um, light in people, and early season just brings that new that new self, that new, you know, found um excitement for the season, and when I get to travel around and go hunt with friends and family in these new areas and birds react, and it's just you know it's just really hard to beat for me, um, you know, early season. So I would have to say early season for those reasons. The birds work well, you go state to state, the birds are always fresh. Um, like I said, there's a great middle of the year Thanksgiving hunting. Obviously, January is phenomenal for most part of the West or most part of the country, but for me, I love early season. Um, I get to get uh some new people out, maybe some youth hunters uh where it's not as cold and the conditions aren't extreme, but I just love that excitement of early season and chasing openers. You know, we call it the opener tour, but three or four, usually it's three at least openers. So I'm gonna go with uh early season as that pick. Um, another question out of Utah. Do you have any plans or when are you coming out with more merch? Is there any new drops? What's the next expansion of DD? That's a great question. Um, once again, out of Utah. So I have some plans for that, but guys, I'll be straight with you. The hats are doing pretty solid. I want to keep going on that. I'm I'm a big hat guy and lid guy, but I do want to expand to other apparel, and I'm real particular about who I'm working with, and it might not mean this uh a lot to everyone else, but I'm really trying to keep everything stateside here, and um, so I'm working with some of those vendors, but I do have some, I don't want to let that out yet, but I do have some plans to expand the lineup um as we get closer here to fall, so that's a great question. And the last question is where do you see DD in five years? That's kind of the same thing, expanding on products that are useful, helpful, look good, feel good, and also continuing to champion and talk about what DD means, guys. Right? We're gonna do it the right way when nobody's looking. We're gonna do it the right way all the time. We're gonna respect everybody, but we're also gonna compete, and I want to have a good time doing it. We get one shot here on planet earth, and I want to keep spreading that. Hey guys, we can compete and have fun. You can get your spot, I can get mine. Everybody can have a great day. You don't have to be in my business, I don't have to be in yours, and we can be successful. If you beat me to my spot, I can shake your hand, and man, you guys had a great day. I want to keep that going, I want to keep the respect level and doing things the right way. So I that's where I'm kind of looking to uh what I see DD in five years outside of the company part. Obviously, you want growth, right? And I'd love to bring new partners on and more partners on, and and um I'm I will let this out of the bag. I'm looking at expanding. I have a great tight group of about three or four of us right now that that I'm thankful to be on the DD team, but I'd love to expand that um with some people like-minded and and would love to rep have them represent the brand. So that's kind of where I'm at on that. Um the few questions that came through. I just put it out last night, so it wasn't even 24 hours, but I thought I would do that. I plan to get a podcast out today. So thank you for the people that asked the questions. And if if you guys like that, drop me a comment on Instagram, TikTok, wherever you can find me. Um, and uh yeah, I would love to do that again and put some get some more questions asked. But this one is like you, like I said, the ultimate duck rig, guys. This is just no money. We're gonna build the ultimate setup. Okay, truck. I go back and forth with the truck. Um, just so you guys are aware, if you're not or if you're not aware, I do have a uh Ram Diesel Cummins 2500. I kind of use that as the long haul, and then I also bought one uh uh kind of nostalgic old school 05 F-150 King Ranch that I love kind of locally here, driving around the state of Utah to hunt and kind of you know using that to kind of beat beat up, so to speak, and um, and then I you kind of use the ram as the long hauler, but we're building it. Um if I could only have one, and here's my dilemma, guys. I absolutely love the 2500s, I love diesels for traveling long distance, the comfort, the stability. Um, but I think if I had one truck, and I'll be truthful about this, I haven't been stuck too many times. I'm trying to think if I've ever been stuck with a half ton, a nice leveled half ton, or a small lift half ton with 33s and a nice tire on it. I have been stuck in some of these, um, I would say these crappier boat launches out west that I've been in in the mud. So I think if I was gonna start over and you had to just have one, I think I'm gonna go with a half ton, whatever brand, uh, with a small level or lift, 33 1250s as a as a as a minimum, and I think for weight to ratio, I think that's a great setup for long hauling. They're comfortable now. These things drive like Cadillacs now, cars. So I think I would have to go honestly with um you know a 1500 um with some oversized tires or something like that for for all a do-all. Okay, so a boat. I'm partial, depending on where you live in the country, but I'm partial to mud motors um and I'm partial to mud buddy because I've been running those for 10 years, okay. So and also partnering with Mud Buddy and XL Boats. Um the real reason I got into the Mud Boat idea is simply because I moved to an area that was literally straight mud, so it made sense, right? But as I've grown, and I can give an honest review about my Mud Buddy, is there's not an area in the country that I don't that I'm not confident I can get into or um navigate, if that makes sense, whether it's river, rock, mud, sand, vegetation, um, weeds, whatever it is, I'm very confident that we can find a way there. Even if it gets really shallow, I have a big rock guard on it. We can get through it for the most part. There's not too many areas that I have not been able to get to. Now there is some limitations, right? It's not an airboat, uh, but if we're building the ultimate setup, we're going with a 1854. I have a Mud Buddy 5000, but the 5400, the new one, I would equipped it with that. I would go one, two, five gauge. Um, I'd want it with we would do a Mod V, right? Because if you're crossing big water, you can help. That helps really break some of that chop with the flat bottom behind it to get in shallow. And then I see, and then when we're building the boat, I'm a box guy. So um there's open concepts where you just have wide open boat and you have a small six-gallon gas can and nothing else in it, or you just have some trays. Guys, I'm a box guy with a big fuel tank, and I'll get into that. I love having a gunbox on the left, tray on the right, and everything behind me, the driver box and the boat or the battery, excuse me, and another compartment all enclosed. I like everything neat put away. I like a high deck where I can put um an 11-gallon gas tank up front because, in my opinion, I think it helps balance the boat a little bit better. And also, like I said, when you get into chop, it helps have some extra weight for breaking some of those waves. And also, when I'm out west and I'm traveling big rivers, you know, there's just something about having enough gas, you know. We're making these long runs and we're always carrying more weight, more people when we go do these hunts, and it's just a peace of mind that I know because these mud motors really you know drink fuel. They don't, it's they're really good on fuel, but just the idea of having 11 gallons versus six, there's not too many areas that I feel uncomfortable. I can make these nine mile, eleven mile runs one way if I have to or want to, if that makes sense. So we're building the ultimate setup. We've got um an 1854 with a mud motor, whatever you like, whatever, but we're building it. No money is it doesn't matter right now. We're building the ultimate setup. Um, I kind of talked about that. So for the boat, if it were me, I'm going XL 1854 125 gauge in old school camo, fully turfed. I want lights all throughout, all through the gun boxes, a front bow light. I want the rooster tail lights. Guys, I love having all that. Not only does it look good to me, that's just personal opinion, but it is so awesome to pull it to place and have like basically your lighting. You don't even have to wear a headlamp, is what I'm trying to say. So there's a lot of places I hunt. Now, I I do have a headlamp, obviously, you got to carry it when you're walking in. But when I boat in, I just keep it in one of my compartments. I don't actually have to have a headlamp. So um that kind of is my setup for bow and motor. Um, and then duck hunting gear. Okay. So we'll keep this kind of quick. Waiters. Um, I know everybody switched to them, but I think breathable is the ultimate waiter to have. I've actually seen some where you can zip it's insulation in and out, those are kind of cool for early and late. Um, I personally would run an uninsulated waiter and do what you want underneath. So if you're gonna be like I talked earlier, if you're gonna be sitting in the water in the timber, maybe you can layer up and pick. If you're a walk-in guy, you can go nothing underneath. Um, and so I kind of like an a non-insulated body as far as the weiter body parts concerned, um, and then you can just adjust from there. And same thing with jackets. Um, I like a lighter shell that I can wear from opening day to the end, right? You can put a long sleeve and a vest underneath that in late season, it's just an added water protection. Um, I I mean I I like a thick mid layer, um, but a nice light jacket is kind of a go-to, and you can layer it whatever you want. You can put a hooded sweatshirt underneath that. Um, and then guns, guys. I talked about their partners, but I've been running them for a lot of years now. A good semi-automatic in my and my favorites, the Retay Ace, guys. Um, but uh an automatic shotgun, a reliable one, and then calls, guys, uh single reed, double reed, whatever you're best at. But since we're building the ultimate setup, I want a good single rig, guys. I just picked one up. Um, so I'm gonna go lean with this with uh uh single reed. And then you have to have a jerk rig in the spread. Um, I think it it's versatile no matter where you go in the country. Not saying you have to run it, but we love having it, and I do like spinners at different times of the year, and uh, I don't know if this is a tip or not, but I like to run spinners a lot, even in late season. I know a lot of people pull them, but I do like the motion. What I'll do is I'll kind of keep them away from the spread, actually, or put them in the against the weeds and kind of out of the hole and just for some motion or out on a point, even a little bit away from us if things are coming up up the river, up up the lake, wherever you're hunting, just as a as almost, you know, obviously you're trying to get an attractant, you're trying to get them to even look. A lot of times I'll move them out, and sometimes I will pull them. I'm just saying, those are jerk rig, spinning wing decoys, gotta have them, and then um I think another one that's I don't think it's under overlooked anymore is a waterproof bag or some kind of storage. Um, I know earlier on in my career, I mean it wasn't even that long ago, 10 years ago, really hard to come by to find a bag that was fully waterproof. Like I had top brand back there, their I'm doing parentheses, their waterfowl bag, and it was not in totality waterproof. And so I think nowadays you can get them, and I absolutely love a 100% waterproof bag, is what I'm gonna have with me at all times, guys. Our are our calls are expensive. A lot of people now, including myself, we're running different kinds of of um cameras or different kinds of accessories like that that do not like water, obviously, and you just don't have to worry about it. And some of these bags out there actually, I don't know if they're rated for it, but I've seen people putting it out there. You know, if you zip them up, you can actually float them if you needed to, like if you fell in or something, they would float you. So I just think a good waterproof bag um would be awesome. And then I think um a lot of people have asked me, dog, um, you know, train yourself or or you know, kind of purchase a dog ready to go. But I think we're talking about the ultimate setup, what you would do, and I think obviously having a good dog, but I want to talk about since it's a dream scenario, the traits that you would want. This is just my opinion, and then I want to end it with what makes a true duck a true good duck dog. So for me, I've had a lot of labs in my life, and you guys know how special these dogs are, man. They're they're they're a part of the family, they're your best friend. We joke, they're your ride or die, man. They make hunts possible. There's things that we can't do uh places where we can't go without dogs. That's just simply uh there's no way around that. You sometimes these spots they open up so many things, they they help us get cripples. We we we don't lose as many birds, you know, if we make a bad shot and uh they they help this thing go. I know they do it for you guys, I know duck dependent would not be and able to do half the stuff that I do without my dog blue. Um but I think a trait that I love that I want to continue to find is a dog that has an off switch. And I've talked about a little bit this, a little bit about this in a different podcast. But the dog that when you get him to the field is all fire, and when you get him home, he's a lap dog. Guys, I'm telling you, they're out there, you can find them. Those bloodlines are awesome. I've had them all. I've had a dog that was absolutely all fire all the time. And guys, I tell you what, he was phenomenal in the field, and people were like, hey man, that dog is I've seen him break ice, I've seen him dive underwater with a vest, all go. But when you're traveling like we do and go into hotels, or you go like I go to my aunt and uncles and stay at their house, and it's just it gets clunky when they're all go, or they can't sit still, even with really good training. I mean, um, it can be a little bit difficult to have an all-go all the time. So for me, ultimate setup a dog that has a huge off switch. They can go fire, or like I said, they can go hang out in the house and never move and be a lap dog and just use. You wouldn't even think they're a hunter. Um and then just kind of everything about that. You know, to me, that's what I'm learning. Once again, this is just my opinion, and we're just kind of going through this for fun. But what I've learned is to me, that is a ultimate true gun dog, is when they can do everything. And I didn't know that for a lot of years. But there's a situation now that I'm living in and thankful for. I did put in the time to train them, but there's not a scenario that I don't feel comfortable putting in. I mean, we could go to a hotel. Um we uh this last season I went, it was there wasn't very many hotels, so I stayed at like a high-end four or five-star hotel. It was the only thing available. They did allow dogs, and like I wasn't intimidated or worried about my dog going in there, like he could, you know. And so to me, um, and then we were able to hop in the river the next day, and he's absolutely breaking ice and going, and so just to see that once again, this is just my opinion, but I think that's what makes the ultimate gun dog is be him being adaptable to any situation. You need to go to a restaurant because you don't want to leave him in the car or whatever. You gotta go, like I just said, I had to stay at this high-end hotel because there's really nothing going, nothing else. Um, I can put him in the kennel, they're they're just everything about them. Um, they're just basically like having you know um uh uh yourself with you or a good your best friend, and you know what I'm saying? It's just like elevated, and so that to me is if we're building the ultimate duck rig, I'll recap it. The truck, okay. A good 1500, we talked about why. Um a boat, I want an 1854 for me. Um everything I hunt, all the people I hunt with. Um, I am a mud mud motor guy, in particular, mud buddy, but um that would be the ultimate, the most powerful one that they make because guys, we let's be honest, we overload them. Um duck hunting gear. I talked about all the breathable waiters, the light jackets, uh good inertia shotgun, retay ace, the jerk rig, gotta have it, the spinning wing. You want to have all these things in your dream set up so that no matter where you go in the country, no matter what situation you have, um you're be you can you can hunt it and be successful. And then the dog, I talked about the traits. I'm gonna be completely honest with you guys. My favorite dog is a black lab. I love them all, the yellows, I I I totally get it. They're all beautiful. This is just me building the ultimate duck rig, the complete package. For me, it's gonna be a black lab. Um and then uh, you know, I'll kind of talk about it. The the it was a great question somebody asked me was the dream hunt, and I just that would be the complete package, and the dream hunt is is hunting in the timber. Um, a nice peaceful, like I said, I'm not doing the boat race thing, but a nice peaceful hunt with some great friends and family, ducks coming through the trees, angel winging. So for me guys, that's kind of uh I wanted to do this episode because I've had some people ask me just hey, how's that Marsh King or how's the the 1500? How are you keeping it alive? And so I thought, what better way um than just do an episode about building the ultimate duck rig, right? From the ground up, and if if money conditions and preferences didn't matter, this is just what I want to build, what I would recommend, I guess, almost to as well. Um guys, I really appreciate the support. There's a lot of people reaching out, and I'm very thankful, and I want to keep this thing going. So thank you again. Once again, keeping the lights on, it doesn't go without the partners, duckdependent.shop. Go check them out, guys. If you sign up for the first time, you get 15% off your first order. Retay USA. I'm gonna say it all the time the baddest shotgun, the baddest inertial shotgun on planet Earth, guys. I just picked up uh an awesome bottom lens with bronze finish. I absolutely love them. Um, loving them being a part of the partnership here. Leshwab tires, guys, good, better, best, can't beat it. Flight day ammunition, guys, save some money at checkout DD10 premium steel. I just patterned this last week and I hope to get some of these videos out. But flight day ammunition, guys, check out DD10, save some money and bucked up right here in my backyard of Utah. Uh creatine, post workout, pre workout, fat burners. Once again, my favorite energy. Um, and so you can save some money at checkout with DD 10 on that one. Guys, episode 20, so fired up. Thank you again, and I'll catch you on the next one.