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Speaker 1: I've duck hunted my whole life, and I've never seen

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Speaker 1: this happen like this. And ducks are literally landing beside

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Speaker 1: the blind, water splashing up in the blind. We can

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Speaker 1: fill the air off of their their wings as they

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Speaker 1: fly by. You could touch them, You could have reached

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Speaker 1: out and grabbed one. Water Fowler's occupied the ranks of

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Speaker 1: the hardest core, most passionate, and ridiculous partakers of wild

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Speaker 1: meat sources that I know. I love them for so

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Speaker 1: many reasons. America's wetlands are the crown jewels of this continent.

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Speaker 1: Families should be taking their kids to turn the swamps

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Speaker 1: rather than Disneyland, because in the mud and the reeds

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Speaker 1: and the flooded timber is where real magic and mystery happens.

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Speaker 1: It's where one of the greatest and most celebrated bird

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Speaker 1: migrations on planet Earth unfolds every fall like a recited poem.

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Speaker 1: And the river rats who know it, who see it,

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Speaker 1: who lived for it, are the dad gum duck hunters.

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Speaker 1: And oh do they have stories. This is our duck

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Speaker 1: Stories episode. I've searched the swamps and boos for the

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Speaker 1: best stories about blacked out skies, sunk boats, incredible dogs,

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Speaker 1: and even gators. I really doubt, even if you're not

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Speaker 1: a duck hunter, that you're gonna want to miss this one.

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Speaker 1: And they started lighting in the other end of that hole,

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Speaker 1: and it was like you were rolling out of carpet.

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Speaker 1: A thousand ducks all of a sudden just started rolling

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Speaker 1: right up to us. One of the most incredible hunts

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Speaker 1: that I've been on over there. I got chill bumps

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Speaker 1: on my arm right now talking about it. My name

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Speaker 1: is Clay Nukelem, and this is the Bear Grease Podcast,

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Speaker 1: where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight

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Speaker 1: and likely places, and where we'll tell the story of

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Speaker 1: Americans who lived their lives close to the land. Presented

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Speaker 1: by f HF gear American Maid, purpose built hunting and

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Speaker 1: fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the

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Speaker 1: place that we explore. Yeah, the river rat, this river

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Speaker 1: rat because we're called river rats. And uh, when I

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Speaker 1: was dating my wife from stud guard and back in

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Speaker 1: the seventies, we had longer hair and uh, her dad

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Speaker 1: he said, I won't say exactly what he said, but

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Speaker 1: he said, you're gonna date that long haired river rat SLB,

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Speaker 1: you know, And we've been married forty six years now.

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Speaker 1: But I like Raspbi or duck Ham. But this is

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Speaker 1: what I mean. I don't want to really Here's what

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Speaker 1: my daddy always used to say. He caught her. That's

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Speaker 1: how I used to guide for a year. That was

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Speaker 1: champion duck caller and callmaker Jim Stinson of Clarendon, Arkansas.

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Speaker 1: Jim as a craftsman and a hunter who's dedicated a

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Speaker 1: big part of his life to this mysterious and ancient

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Speaker 1: migration of waterfowl on the Mississippi Flyway. The consistency of

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Speaker 1: their arrival is like the rising and setting to the sun.

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Speaker 1: It will happen, and they will come. When wild beasts

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Speaker 1: are this predictable, you can be guaranteed the predators take note,

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Speaker 1: perhaps even their DNA signals to them from recesses untraceable,

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Speaker 1: that they're coming. Humans since their arrival in North America

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Speaker 1: have waited on the ducks, and they still wait today.

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Speaker 1: The human bond wild places and beasts is innate, undeniable,

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Speaker 1: and magnetic. And when this much passion accumulates in the

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Speaker 1: same place, it overflows, and humans do what humans have

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Speaker 1: always done. They tell stories. And these stories are really

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Speaker 1: all that we have that can't be taken from us.

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Speaker 1: Dear horns burn and house fires, shotguns get stolen, meat

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Speaker 1: is consumed and burned as human fuel. Our bodies wear out,

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Speaker 1: and old men can't go anymore. But stories last even

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Speaker 1: beyond our lives. We'll hear a lot more from Mr

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Speaker 1: Jim Stinson later, but I want to get into this

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Speaker 1: collection of stories. Some are funny, some are scary, but

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Speaker 1: all highlight the migration of the duck. This first story

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Speaker 1: is told by jimbo on Quest. He's about as legendary

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Speaker 1: a water fowler as they make these days. He's a

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Speaker 1: world champion duck caller, a former outfitter. He's worked for

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Speaker 1: call companies, and he currently works for Drake Waterfowl. Jim

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Speaker 1: is telling me this story late in the evening from

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Speaker 1: a duck lodge in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, and it's in

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Speaker 1: the heart of duck season. This story is called shell

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Speaker 1: Shocked Man. You know you ask about telling stories about

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Speaker 1: either being funny or near death or whatever they may be.

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Speaker 1: This one is somewhat as weird as it is to

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Speaker 1: say a near death experience. That being said, here's the scenario.

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Speaker 1: So back in when I was in the commercial hunting business,

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Speaker 1: and we had a place we hunted that was pretty good.

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Speaker 1: If other places weren't producing, we would rotate folks through

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Speaker 1: this one spot. Hindsight being if I had known then

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Speaker 1: what I know now, I wouldn't have been doing that. However,

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Speaker 1: you're making man, these people are paying us to go

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Speaker 1: duck hunting. They want to shoot ducks, so you put them,

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Speaker 1: give them every opportunity you can. Anyway, we'd had a

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Speaker 1: group of hunters that morning, had a great hunt, and

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Speaker 1: it was just one of those special days. It was

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Speaker 1: a major flight, major migration day. It was just happening.

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Speaker 1: It was when I think back on it, just the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to have lived it. It's cool. I would like

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Speaker 1: to have that opportunity again. On top of that, we

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Speaker 1: were entertaining folks and trying to make sure folks were happy. Well,

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Speaker 1: it was already this season and the current dog I had.

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Speaker 1: If if any of y'all who listened to this watched

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Speaker 1: any of the ever early r NT videos and heard

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Speaker 1: a dog that winds a lot, her name was Katie.

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Speaker 1: Katie was really mad at the ducks, and she was

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Speaker 1: a really good duck dog. She was a painting the

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Speaker 1: butt to hunt with. But she was a really good

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Speaker 1: duck dog. She was gone with a training buddy mine

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Speaker 1: and then were row on lagars. At this protector time,

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Speaker 1: I did not have her. She was off running a

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Speaker 1: hunt test. So at that time I was probably pushing

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Speaker 1: three hundred. We was hunting a big old beaver dead

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Speaker 1: and in a big old swamp, and it was hard

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Speaker 1: to get around, and we was picking up ducks and

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Speaker 1: shooting ducks. And while I might have been near three hundred,

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Speaker 1: I was probably one of the most agile fact guys

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Speaker 1: in Monroe County, Arkansas at the time. So I was

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Speaker 1: walking out through this swamp picking up ducks, and you

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Speaker 1: know we I was coming back and had two handfuls

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Speaker 1: of ducks, and ducks were hitting the decoys. You didn't

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Speaker 1: have to call at him, didn't have to blow at him.

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Speaker 1: And I was coming back up to the blind too

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Speaker 1: handfuls of ducks, so if you can imagine, and I

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Speaker 1: see ducks lighting to my left and I said, y'all,

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Speaker 1: don't shoot, don't shoot. So there's a guy about he's

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Speaker 1: not quite where you are. He may be a little past,

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Speaker 1: but not far, and he's shooting this day action, and

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Speaker 1: I'm walking towards the window, if you can put this

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Speaker 1: in perspective, and I said, don't shoot, don't shoot, don't shoot.

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Speaker 1: I got two hands full of ducks, right, I got

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Speaker 1: two limits in each hand, and he's boom, don't quitch heat,

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Speaker 1: quit shoot, And I remember feeling the heat on my face,

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Speaker 1: and I remember I took my both hands that covered

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Speaker 1: my face and he shoots again. I'm like, quit, shoot

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Speaker 1: and quit and I'm screaming quit shooting. And I remember

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Speaker 1: feeling how hot my face felt. My hat was no

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Speaker 1: longer on my head. I remember standing there and I

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Speaker 1: was a big guy, you know. I come from a

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Speaker 1: construction background, poor concrete for living, worked on farms, put

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Speaker 1: up a lot of hay, you know. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: was just one of them kind of guys. And I

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Speaker 1: remember being nervous and finally I said, are you done?

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Speaker 1: Are you done? I yelled, yeah, yeah, you're okay. But

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Speaker 1: I remember my hand's been on my face, and I

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Speaker 1: remember being nervous to pull my hand because I I

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Speaker 1: thought I was gonna see two hands full of blood

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Speaker 1: and I didn't. I said, I'm okay. I looked at

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Speaker 1: my hat and the bill of my hat was frey

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Speaker 1: just a little bit when I picked it up, So

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Speaker 1: I guess what I got was a little of percussion

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Speaker 1: and in the gas off the off him shooting in

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Speaker 1: front of me. And you know a lot of folks

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Speaker 1: would think that you just go punch him in the

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Speaker 1: nose or No. I had to go grab a hole

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Speaker 1: to the blind my knees. When my knees went to jelly,

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Speaker 1: I couldn't move. I just had to sit there a

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Speaker 1: minute just to kind of let everything work itself out. Um.

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Speaker 1: And I finally got where I could move a little bit,

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Speaker 1: and I talked to you. I said, look here, party,

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Speaker 1: I said, you may not. I thought I was in danger,

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Speaker 1: I said, but I felt the heat on my face.

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Speaker 1: I said, here's my hat. After I pulled up out

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Speaker 1: of the water, you could see the threads there. That's

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Speaker 1: a little too close for comfort. Bub Um, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: get in the boat and we're going back to the

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Speaker 1: truck and and then the rest of these folks will

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Speaker 1: finish their hunt out. And luckily they did, and it

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Speaker 1: was a fantastic hunting day. We shot lots of birds.

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Speaker 1: It would just umbelieve. It's a day that goes down

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Speaker 1: in history It's one that you'll never forget for two reasons,

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Speaker 1: one for how good the hunting was, and two for

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Speaker 1: Jimbo getting his hat shot off. And to this day,

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Speaker 1: there's times I'm hunting with folks and if I don't

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Speaker 1: know they they're going to shoot, and if they just

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Speaker 1: raise up and shoot and I don't call the shot,

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Speaker 1: you know, or duck kind of falls in, or one

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Speaker 1: duck gets close and somebody shoots, I I'm kind of jumpy,

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Speaker 1: almost overboard. To this day, Jimbo says he'll find himself

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Speaker 1: uncontrollably dropping his gun and hitting the deck in a

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Speaker 1: duck blind when he hears an unexpected shot. The moment

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Speaker 1: scared him. There are, however, other types of stories that

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Speaker 1: shape us at a foundational level, the ones when things

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Speaker 1: go really right. The second story is told by my

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Speaker 1: friends Scott Harness of Jacksonville, Arkansas. Scott is a pastor.

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Speaker 1: He's a former US military helicopter pilot and a lifelong

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Speaker 1: duck hunter. Here's his story, called the Tupelo Break. You know,

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Speaker 1: you know, growing up in Arkansas, I think part of

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Speaker 1: the culture of our state has all been influenced by

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Speaker 1: duck hunting. I mean, there's not very many people who

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Speaker 1: have grown up here that don't at least understand it.

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Speaker 1: But still, even at that, I think I fielded the

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Speaker 1: question of why do you duck hunt? You know, so

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Speaker 1: many times and and any time that there's somebody on

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Speaker 1: the outside looking in, what they'll do is they'll say,

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Speaker 1: you know, you go through all this cold water, and

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Speaker 1: they name the time you get up and how much

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Speaker 1: money you spend, and and they usually conclude that question

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Speaker 1: by saying, and you do all that for a duck,

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Speaker 1: and they just wait for your response. And and for

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Speaker 1: years I had a hard time answering that question, because

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Speaker 1: when you put it in that context, it does sound

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Speaker 1: a little insane. But a few years ago, I think

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Speaker 1: I think I had it proven to me that it's

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Speaker 1: really not about that. Um. I had a friend that

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Speaker 1: was wanting to get into duck hunting, and he this

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Speaker 1: was his first first time, and he had been chopping

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Speaker 1: at the bid. He moved from a northern state when

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Speaker 1: he got down here. He he didn't grow up in

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Speaker 1: a family that hunted, but he knew that he wanted

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Speaker 1: to hunt, and he knew that I had taken several

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Speaker 1: people on their first duck hunt, which is something I enjoyed,

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Speaker 1: and he said, uh, I want to go, man, can

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Speaker 1: can you take me? And he had shot ski and

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Speaker 1: done a few other things to get ready, and I

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Speaker 1: told him that I would. But we were literally at

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Speaker 1: the last week of duck season, and I told him,

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Speaker 1: I said, well go, I said, let's let's plan on

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Speaker 1: doing it next year. He said, no, man, I want

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Speaker 1: to go now. I said, you're gonna spend money on

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Speaker 1: a duck stamp, and and we're you know and all that,

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Speaker 1: and and we're at the end of the season, and

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Speaker 1: we'd already had a hard season. We'd hunted a whole

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Speaker 1: bunch of that year. And it's kind of like Thanksgiving.

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Speaker 1: After the meal, you've eatn all that you can eat

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Speaker 1: in the top button, your pants are unfastened. You know,

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Speaker 1: you don't want anything else eating. Somebody brings you a

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Speaker 1: turkey sandwich and they said, hey, would you like to

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Speaker 1: have a turkey sandwich tomorrow? You would, but not today.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're at the end of the season. I've

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Speaker 1: had my field of duck hunting, and I don't really

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Speaker 1: want to go. But I got this guy chomping at

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Speaker 1: the bit, and he just wants to go. Duck hunting.

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Speaker 1: That's all he wants. And finally I told him, I said,

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Speaker 1: I just feel like we have zero chance of killing anything.

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Speaker 1: And um, he said, I don't care. I just want

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Speaker 1: the experience. I want to go. I'm ready. He had

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Speaker 1: had a few items to to go duck hunting with.

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Speaker 1: He had a coat, some gloves, a cap, and a

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Speaker 1: few other things, but he didn't have any waiters. And um,

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Speaker 1: finally I agreed. I said, Okay, we'll go. And our

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Speaker 1: only opportunity to go was the very last day of

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Speaker 1: duck season and we went to a place I'd hunted

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Speaker 1: for a number of years. It was just a a

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Speaker 1: tupelo break and it was just full of these old

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Speaker 1: growth tupelo trees. In fact, it was it was beautiful

238
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Speaker 1: there there. In the fall, these these twopelo trees with

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Speaker 1: the leaves would turn just this bright, bright yellow, and

240
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Speaker 1: they would fall from the trees and they would land

241
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Speaker 1: on the water, and it was just like black glass

242
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Speaker 1: with these yellow boats, if you will, floating all across

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Speaker 1: the top. It was stunning, and um, we decided we'd

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Speaker 1: go there. The unfortunate thing is is that this particular

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Speaker 1: place does not hold ducks late in the season. Ever,

246
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Speaker 1: not that it's unlikely that you're going to see a duck.

247
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Speaker 1: It's absolutely impossible. But this guy wants to go anyway.

248
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Speaker 1: So we get there, and the only place that we

249
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Speaker 1: can actually hunt, because he doesn't have any waiters, is

250
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Speaker 1: an old blind that's sort of out in the middle

251
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Speaker 1: of this this tupelo break. And so we make our

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Speaker 1: way out there in the boat, and um, to my chagrin,

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Speaker 1: I guess it had been the blind had been there

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Speaker 1: a lot longer, And it's been a lot longer since

255
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Speaker 1: we've been there than what I thought. And the whole

256
00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:51,680
Speaker 1: roof was rotted off of it, and the floor wasn't

257
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Speaker 1: far behind it. In fact, I told him when he

258
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Speaker 1: got into the blind, I said, listen, stand close to

259
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Speaker 1: the tree, because that's probably the strongest point. Looks like

260
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Speaker 1: the floor joyst could give it any any moment, you know.

261
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Speaker 1: And so he gets out and and kind of gets

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Speaker 1: close to the tree. My son's with us as well,

263
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Speaker 1: and he gets out, gets in. So I go out

264
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Speaker 1: to to throughout the decoys, and and what what once

265
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Speaker 1: was a really beautiful broad hole has now grown up

266
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Speaker 1: with buck brush, and so it's it's turned from one

267
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Speaker 1: big piece of water to a several clusters, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe ten foot in diameter of water, and which further

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Speaker 1: tells me that there's just no way we're gonna kill ducks.

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Speaker 1: Ducks are not gonna come into this big thicket, you know,

271
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Speaker 1: to to light. But I throw the decoys out anyway,

272
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Speaker 1: and I stick out a mojo, which is just a

273
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Speaker 1: spinning wing decoy that mimics, you know, ducks when they're

274
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Speaker 1: flapping their wings, and it's a real good attractive And

275
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Speaker 1: I make my way back to the blind, and when

276
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Speaker 1: I get in the blind, we're all kind of setting

277
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Speaker 1: there before shooting hours, and in my mind I just

278
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Speaker 1: run through, what are we really going to get out

279
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Speaker 1: of this? And in my mind, I thought, you know

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Speaker 1: what we're gonna do. We're gonna enjoy each other, have

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Speaker 1: some conversations. I'm gonna drink a cup of coffee, We're

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Speaker 1: gonna get in the boat, pick up decoys, and we're

283
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Speaker 1: gonna go to town to eat a great breakfast. That's

284
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Speaker 1: that's my expectation. But so risingly, about ten minutes before dayly,

285
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Speaker 1: I start hearing wings and ducks start coming into the hold,

286
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Speaker 1: which if you've duck hunted any time at all, you

287
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Speaker 1: realize that when ducks come in while it's still dark,

288
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Speaker 1: if they come in numbers, that means they've been in

289
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Speaker 1: this place before. And if ducks have been in a

290
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Speaker 1: place for very long, um, and they haven't been messed with,

291
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Speaker 1: then they tend to attract other ducks. And I said,

292
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Speaker 1: this is a good sign. And so we shift from

293
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Speaker 1: you know, just getting breakfast to hey, we might actually

294
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Speaker 1: kill a duck. And I looked at my friend and

295
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Speaker 1: I said, I think you're gonna kill a duck. And

296
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Speaker 1: he's quivering like a six month old lab puppy that's,

297
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,040
Speaker 1: you know, in his first hunt. But the finally shooting

298
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Speaker 1: hours come and ducks are coming in now, really coming in,

299
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Speaker 1: and numbers, I mean, it's unusual numbers. I'm I'm completely surprised.

300
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Speaker 1: My buddies like, when can we shoot? When come we shooting?

301
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Speaker 1: I just told him, I said, I just hold on

302
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Speaker 1: for a second. I said, let's just let these ducks

303
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Speaker 1: come in and let's just let's just hold on. And

304
00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:48,880
Speaker 1: as the light really gave way, I looked into this

305
00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:51,600
Speaker 1: guy for as high as I could see. Ducks, even

306
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:53,960
Speaker 1: at altitude, are committed. They're like on a string, coming

307
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Speaker 1: into this place. I've duck hunted my whole life, and

308
00:16:57,320 --> 00:16:59,960
Speaker 1: I've never seen this happen like this. And ducks are live,

309
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Speaker 1: literally landing beside the blind, water splashing up in the blind.

310
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Speaker 1: We can fill the air off of their their wings

311
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Speaker 1: as they fly by where the blind once had a lid,

312
00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:11,800
Speaker 1: that they're flying through that. And I mean, just you

313
00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:13,720
Speaker 1: could touch them, you could reach out and grabbed one.

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Speaker 1: My friends still ready to shoot, and I'm like, no,

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Speaker 1: we're just gonna set here. We sat in this two

316
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Speaker 1: blow break and we watched ducks by fives, tens, twenties

317
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Speaker 1: just pile in there until finally you could not have

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Speaker 1: put another duck in this hole. In fact, I looked

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Speaker 1: over at my robo duck or the mojo with the

320
00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:32,439
Speaker 1: little metal wings. They've landed on it and they've been

321
00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:35,240
Speaker 1: its wings and it's convulsing in the water, making this

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00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:37,760
Speaker 1: horrible noise, and any other time that would be like

323
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Speaker 1: a death sentence to wherever you are. But these ducks,

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Speaker 1: they don't care. They're gonna come in anyway. They didn't

325
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Speaker 1: care if we were there anybody. They had made their

326
00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:46,359
Speaker 1: mind up this was a great place and they were

327
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Speaker 1: gonna have a party, and all of them were there,

328
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Speaker 1: and we sat there and we listened to these ducks

329
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Speaker 1: and every variety is there. You've got mallards, you've got gadwalls,

330
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Speaker 1: even a few wood ducks. There's some widget in there,

331
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Speaker 1: and all of them are just having the big time,

332
00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:01,760
Speaker 1: just all a round us. And and my friends still

333
00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:03,240
Speaker 1: ready to shoot. He's still like, what what do we

334
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:05,359
Speaker 1: gonna shoot? I was like, just just look around for

335
00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:07,080
Speaker 1: a second and I'll explain to you later. Well, we're

336
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,600
Speaker 1: not gonna shoot right now. And we just watched these

337
00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:11,679
Speaker 1: ducks for I don't know how long, several minutes, and

338
00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:14,239
Speaker 1: they just it was just it was amazing. It was

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00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:17,520
Speaker 1: a moment that I had never experienced, even though I've

340
00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:20,680
Speaker 1: been duckhating my whole life. We did eventually shoot. Here's

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00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,639
Speaker 1: what's funny. I can't right now tell you exactly how

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00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,640
Speaker 1: many ducks we killed. I'm nine sure we all limited out,

343
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:29,159
Speaker 1: which would be obvious, but I don't really know. And

344
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Speaker 1: here's what's funny. It was after that particular day that I,

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Speaker 1: when I go back into my mind, this is what

346
00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:37,240
Speaker 1: helped me understand that duck hunting is not about killing ducks.

347
00:18:37,359 --> 00:18:39,320
Speaker 1: It didn't matter how many ducks were in this trap

348
00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,320
Speaker 1: for that trip, what I realized was is that duck hunters.

349
00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:45,399
Speaker 1: What motivates a duck hunter isn't the number of ducks

350
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Speaker 1: that you kill, but it's the stories that you collect.

351
00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:50,800
Speaker 1: And I think in the mind of any duck hunter,

352
00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:53,440
Speaker 1: the reason why you endure the hardship, the reason why

353
00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:55,720
Speaker 1: you go through the cold and and you spend the

354
00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:58,920
Speaker 1: money and you travel, is because in the end, you're

355
00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:01,960
Speaker 1: a collector of story. And you go to any duck hunter,

356
00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:03,919
Speaker 1: he'll look you in the face and he'll give he

357
00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:07,359
Speaker 1: can give you a dozen incredible stories. Now, what's funny

358
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,840
Speaker 1: is that even some of the hardship becomes fodder for

359
00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:13,080
Speaker 1: this archive that we keep in our mind. Because that

360
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:14,560
Speaker 1: trip we went and we fell on the water and

361
00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:17,080
Speaker 1: we got cold, that becomes part of the story. Or

362
00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:19,199
Speaker 1: that time the boat sank or or you had to

363
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:21,159
Speaker 1: break ice or whatever it is. All that's part of

364
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,560
Speaker 1: the story. But then there's that other part where you

365
00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:26,679
Speaker 1: remember setting next to your granddad and he's calling in ducks,

366
00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:28,920
Speaker 1: and you remember what it was like to set there

367
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:31,080
Speaker 1: with him and him pull up at that old Itaca

368
00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:34,600
Speaker 1: twelve gate shotgun and catch those ducks on the wing,

369
00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:36,800
Speaker 1: and you were so impressed at how good he could

370
00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:38,960
Speaker 1: hunt and how he could call, or maybe it was

371
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,359
Speaker 1: the story of somebody you hunted with and they're not

372
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,639
Speaker 1: here anymore. Those are things that we collect and and

373
00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:46,800
Speaker 1: so when it comes down to it, a duck hunter

374
00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:49,080
Speaker 1: does it duck hunt for a pile of duck met

375
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:52,480
Speaker 1: A duck hunter doesn't duck hunt for a trophy. Even

376
00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:56,160
Speaker 1: a duck hunter duck hunts because duck hunters collects stories.

377
00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:58,960
Speaker 1: We that's what keeps us going is the stories of

378
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,080
Speaker 1: the past and the post ability of the story in

379
00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:03,159
Speaker 1: the future will make you get up way before daylight

380
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:05,920
Speaker 1: when it's really cold, and stomp through ice and throughout

381
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:08,080
Speaker 1: decoys in the hopes that today will be one of

382
00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:14,080
Speaker 1: those exceptional days. Exceptional days of hunting are the fuel

383
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:18,360
Speaker 1: of almost everything we do as hunters. We're constantly reaching

384
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,439
Speaker 1: for that pristine moment, and we often go years without

385
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:26,479
Speaker 1: experiencing the type of day we're constantly reaching for. I

386
00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:31,639
Speaker 1: do anyway, Incredible days make up for mondane hours, hardship,

387
00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:36,840
Speaker 1: and failure. Honestly, the psychological sensation of betting on the future.

388
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,320
Speaker 1: It's probably a lot like what a gambler feels like.

389
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:43,920
Speaker 1: When I asked Mr Jim Stinson to tell me a

390
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,719
Speaker 1: single story, he couldn't do it without telling me a

391
00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,359
Speaker 1: bigger story of how he got his start and making

392
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:53,800
Speaker 1: duck calls. Stories are connected. I just wanted to let

393
00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:58,040
Speaker 1: Mr Jim talk. You're about to hear about his relationship

394
00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:03,119
Speaker 1: with famed duck call maker, the late Alvin Taylor. Here's

395
00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:07,080
Speaker 1: Mr Jim. I had a liquor store for thirty five years.

396
00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,199
Speaker 1: I was mayor of Clarining for eleven years, and I

397
00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:15,160
Speaker 1: probably blew of the duck calls Alan Taylor made because

398
00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 1: he was older and just didn't have the wind. And

399
00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:20,720
Speaker 1: he come up the store thirty times a day. What's

400
00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:24,040
Speaker 1: this need? Well needs a little more wrath? Yeah, I

401
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,399
Speaker 1: want a little higher ring. That's yep, Well you need

402
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,359
Speaker 1: to cut some more. Read off, let's get it higher.

403
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:31,360
Speaker 1: And then he got uh. I guess he was kind

404
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:35,240
Speaker 1: of like a grandpa to me. We were just great friends.

405
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:37,840
Speaker 1: We drank coffee at the U. J and M Hotel,

406
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:41,760
Speaker 1: and we drink coffee every morning. He was a different man.

407
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:44,320
Speaker 1: You had to had to know him because if you

408
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:46,240
Speaker 1: couldn't blow a duck call, he wouldn't sell you a

409
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:48,879
Speaker 1: duck call. He take away from you. He said, nope,

410
00:21:49,119 --> 00:21:51,360
Speaker 1: because and I understand that now that I make them.

411
00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:53,679
Speaker 1: If somebody's blowing that duck hall and they don't know

412
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:55,840
Speaker 1: what they're doing, they people say, oh, I don't want

413
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:59,520
Speaker 1: to Stanson call. That don't sound good. I contest called

414
00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:01,760
Speaker 1: when I was younger, and I blew album's call I

415
00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:03,960
Speaker 1: want the Music City open. I got him so old

416
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:06,760
Speaker 1: now I can't remember. Eighty nine ninety something like that.

417
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:08,879
Speaker 1: It was, oh, a long time ago. I blew in

418
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,040
Speaker 1: the world. I blew in the state year after year

419
00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:16,679
Speaker 1: after year. But Alvin got sick. He started he got cancer,

420
00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 1: and uh, he said, Jim, I'll you've been wanting me

421
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:22,280
Speaker 1: to teach you how to make duck calls, So I

422
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:24,199
Speaker 1: will teach you how to make a duck call. And

423
00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: he taught me and David Gaston from Alabama. Well, he

424
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:30,520
Speaker 1: let me make some calls. Well that went on for

425
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,600
Speaker 1: about a year. Then he got his cancer and he

426
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,840
Speaker 1: called me one day and said, Jim, come down here. Well,

427
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: I thought something wrong. I locked a liquor store up

428
00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:42,119
Speaker 1: and ran down to his house and he said, people

429
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:45,160
Speaker 1: are walking out of my duck call shop. Something's wrong,

430
00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 1: go in here and blow my duck call. I went

431
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,479
Speaker 1: in there, and every one of them squealed, I said, Alvin.

432
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:53,560
Speaker 1: He tried to set it himself, didn't want to bother me.

433
00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:55,920
Speaker 1: He said, Okay, that's how I know how many calls

434
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 1: he had left when he died. He died about a

435
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,960
Speaker 1: week later, he had eighty five duck call left, because

436
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:03,679
Speaker 1: that's how many I tuned for him. And when he

437
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:06,840
Speaker 1: passed away, they sold in a week. They were all gone.

438
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:09,720
Speaker 1: But then he, you know, he told me when he

439
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:12,399
Speaker 1: got sick, he said, okay, I'm quittin. You go ahead,

440
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:14,280
Speaker 1: and you can start now. And that's when I started

441
00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:19,440
Speaker 1: making duck calls. Today, Alvin Taylor, duck calls are sought after.

442
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,479
Speaker 1: Some even say they bring a higher return on your

443
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:25,120
Speaker 1: investment than money in the bank. And if you're new

444
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 1: to the waterfowl world, as I am, you'll learn that

445
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 1: people collect duck calls. Today. There are thousands of custom

446
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 1: makers across the United States. Even old Jason Phelps that

447
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 1: Phelps custom calls make some good ones, But fourty or

448
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:42,760
Speaker 1: fifty years ago, there weren't nearly that many. So these

449
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:47,479
Speaker 1: old makers calls are very sought after. Here's a string

450
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,159
Speaker 1: of stories from Mr Jim that I'm gonna call a

451
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 1: duck man sizzle real. I'll tell you one story. This

452
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,879
Speaker 1: is when we were still allowed to take a how

453
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,239
Speaker 1: boat up and we took Dr. The Evidence house boat up,

454
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,600
Speaker 1: set it on the mouth of seven mile seven twelve

455
00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:11,159
Speaker 1: inches of snow game and we didn't have cbe you know,

456
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 1: we didn't have cell phones or nothing back in the day,

457
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 1: but being a farmer, I had a radio that we

458
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: talked on repeater. Well. Dr Everton left his brownie shotgun

459
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 1: leaning up against the truck. Well, it took us forty

460
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:26,080
Speaker 1: five minutes to go from this landing a half a

461
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 1: mile up the river. You could not see. We had

462
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 1: to put both boats together. We didn't know if we

463
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,960
Speaker 1: were going upstream or downstream. So that was that night.

464
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 1: That was that night we got up called and told

465
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,800
Speaker 1: Daddy to get to have Sidney, go get uh Dennis's gun.

466
00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:42,359
Speaker 1: We're not coming back to town for it. And so

467
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,240
Speaker 1: we didn't even get up harder because it was known

468
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 1: so hard. But we decided to go hunting and everything

469
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:53,520
Speaker 1: was white and I have never seen that many ducks

470
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 1: in my life. You would be driving your boat to

471
00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:00,119
Speaker 1: go to a duck hole and hundreds of ducks are

472
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 1: just jumping up in front of you. We decided let's

473
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:07,360
Speaker 1: just pull over and seriously, in five minutes we had

474
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 1: we had four limits. It was just bam bam, bam,

475
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,280
Speaker 1: bam bam. But it was twelve inches snow. Nobody else

476
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:14,880
Speaker 1: could put their boat in. We had one boat come

477
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:18,160
Speaker 1: in and it was Ed Jennie, the gay warden. He's

478
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:20,919
Speaker 1: the only guy that came up there. Of course he

479
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:24,359
Speaker 1: checked his and everything was okay, but that that was

480
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,199
Speaker 1: a that was a great hunt. You know, we were younger.

481
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,200
Speaker 1: Snow in Arkansas and waterfowl hunting are known to produce

482
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 1: some incredible hunting. It's hard to imagine that many ducks.

483
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 1: But Mr Jim is just getting started. My daddy and

484
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: his friend Mike Booker found a found a hole. We

485
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: used it for years after that and we levely have

486
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:50,399
Speaker 1: four or five boats in that hole and it was

487
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 1: just awesome. It was a small hole and you'd like

488
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 1: to hundred ducks. That wouldn't be one group. What would

489
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,639
Speaker 1: happen when these ducks starts circling might be sixty, but

490
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,360
Speaker 1: there's another group over here where they would join up

491
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 1: and it'd be just like a tornado. We like to

492
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 1: see the ducks come in below the trees, so we

493
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,159
Speaker 1: don't shoot the first ones to come in, and you

494
00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:14,879
Speaker 1: just let them. They fill that hole up and then

495
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 1: they hit the water and go straight to the buckbrush

496
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 1: and it's just continuously and we have done that several times.

497
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:23,200
Speaker 1: The one time I took Daddy was getting older that

498
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 1: he wanted to shoot him when they first coming in

499
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: and they filled that hole up, I mean, he was

500
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,920
Speaker 1: just black and Mr Sidney called the shot and they

501
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,639
Speaker 1: jumped up and we shot and we got our limit

502
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 1: that one group. I mean, it was so many ducks

503
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 1: were there, and you try to kill green three people,

504
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 1: Daddy said, He said that was unbelievable, and he's seen

505
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of that. There's something special

506
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:55,719
Speaker 1: about hearing an older gentleman called his father daddy, and

507
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 1: you're left with no doubt of how proud Mr Jim

508
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:03,200
Speaker 1: was his elderly father on a great duck hunt. When

509
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,200
Speaker 1: you talk to these guys, I'm amazed at how rare

510
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 1: these black the sky out with duck occurrences are. The

511
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 1: average duck hunter never sees it. But the lore of

512
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:18,240
Speaker 1: such mornings fuels duck hunting passion. It's what these guys

513
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: live for. And with the migration patterns changing with agriculture

514
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:27,040
Speaker 1: and shifting weather patterns, these mornings are becoming increasingly rare.

515
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 1: Here's a couple of close calls from Mr Jim. Have

516
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 1: you had any near death experiences while the boat? Have

517
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:43,000
Speaker 1: you ever had sell off the house boat into twenty

518
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,280
Speaker 1: six ft of water with a chest? Waiters on. I'm

519
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: not saying my life flashed in front of me, but

520
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 1: all I can think about with my wife because people

521
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,919
Speaker 1: have drowned up here, and I had water filling up

522
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 1: in my chess. Waiters, well, dr you over to my buddy.

523
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,400
Speaker 1: He said, I wanted in the water three seconds. Well

524
00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:00,679
Speaker 1: I got it felt like three minutes. And he pulled

525
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:03,399
Speaker 1: me up. And he's smaller I am. But we changed

526
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,840
Speaker 1: clothes and I were his clothes. We weren't hunting. He

527
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,399
Speaker 1: didn't stop us. And but one time, it was in

528
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,399
Speaker 1: nineteen New Year's even eighteen seventy. David Brown, his father

529
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 1: was the undertaker here and I we went in his boat.

530
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 1: My daddy and Alf went to mother, and and and

531
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,359
Speaker 1: his nephew went another one, and the ducks were slow

532
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 1: that day, and David Brown and I said, we want

533
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:25,880
Speaker 1: to go look for ducks. Now, this was the day

534
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:28,960
Speaker 1: when you had a nine point nine mercury or something,

535
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:30,879
Speaker 1: you know, or Evanrue was a sheer pin in it.

536
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 1: You didn't if you had a fifteen horse motor. You

537
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 1: had a big motor. There's none of these boat races

538
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 1: that go on now that go forty five. And we

539
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,720
Speaker 1: went or what's slow? I told, well, Dad, we're gonna

540
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: go down here and look for some duck and we'll

541
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,719
Speaker 1: go to this spot over here. And he said, okay,

542
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,720
Speaker 1: and we'll meet you up at the Jane Effort lunch. Well,

543
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 1: we moved went across the river where we weren't supposed

544
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: to be where we told him we didn't weren't gonna

545
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: go there, and we did, and we sheared a pin

546
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: and I spent the night in the river. That night,

547
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 1: the coldest neither year. Two young men from des Ark.

548
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 1: They got wet, but they both died that night. But

549
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 1: those guys died because they hypothermia, you know, they got wet.

550
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,480
Speaker 1: They found him sitting on a log. Some man came

551
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: down to the house boat where uh, the lady folks.

552
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 1: Was because they looked for us all night long and said, well,

553
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 1: they found two bodies. My dad always said, if I

554
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 1: could have got there, I think I would have hit

555
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,440
Speaker 1: that guy, because you don't tell women folks that. But

556
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 1: it wasn't other. It was those guys from Desart, and

557
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: I could hear the saw mill, potlets, saw meal whistle,

558
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 1: but we were between two ridges, and I remember it.

559
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: I could tell you take an hour to tell you that,

560
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: but I remember it. We were pushing and pushing and

561
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 1: hitting these two ridges. We didn't know. We were eighteen

562
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: years old and were just hitting these two ridges. Wasn't

563
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 1: going nowhere. So you were you, You had the boat,

564
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:55,720
Speaker 1: had you'd shared a panel man, you hit a stump

565
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: or something and the boat wouldn't work. You got on land,

566
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: was knee deep water. We were walking around flooded, yeah,

567
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: pulling the boat. And at five o'clock that afternoon we

568
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:09,600
Speaker 1: hadn't anything to eat. Well, we saw duck swimming and

569
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: we shot the duck. Started plucking the duck lad gang green.

570
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 1: We didn't matches or anything to cook it with. So

571
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 1: that was the five thirty that night when we pulled

572
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: all night long and kind of scary. We're here pushing

573
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 1: and pulling this boat and my my foot got tangled

574
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 1: up in the root wad, and David was pushing on

575
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 1: the back and I went plumb underwater, and I mean

576
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: I was absolutely shivered. We got to some shallow water

577
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,320
Speaker 1: and I tried to lay down and go to sleep,

578
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 1: and my head was next to the gas can and

579
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 1: I woke up dry heaving. My buddy was sitting in

580
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: the shallow water, running in place. And we did that

581
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: all night long, and then the next morning somebody was

582
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 1: duck hunting, and we kept on holler and at him.

583
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 1: David was a holler and I would holler, and David

584
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: were the holler and I'd holler. The guy wouldn't answers,

585
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: so we're trying to move the boat toward him, and

586
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 1: he finally answers. Well we got there. It was a

587
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 1: man from stud Guard had a He had an Evan

588
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:06,800
Speaker 1: root nine point nine like we did at night point five,

589
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,240
Speaker 1: nine point five whatever it was, and he had the

590
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 1: same odor. He gave us a sheer pin. He said,

591
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: to you, the two boys, everybody's looking for I said, yeah,

592
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 1: and uh, you had the airplane search. We saw the

593
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,240
Speaker 1: airplane come over anyway. He he told us how to

594
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:22,240
Speaker 1: get out because we didn't hunt over there. That if

595
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 1: it be in these bottoms where I'm at now, I

596
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: don't even need accomplish or nothing. I know the wood,

597
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 1: but didn't know those wood. And he told us how

598
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 1: to get out. We got up there on got to

599
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,200
Speaker 1: the highway and walked up there and there was a

600
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: car there, and these guys finally come out and they said,

601
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:40,160
Speaker 1: because they knew us, brown stid that everybody's looking for.

602
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 1: You said, well, we got lost, and would you give

603
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 1: us a ride back to town? He said, yeah, you

604
00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: help us load everything up and we'll we'll take you.

605
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 1: There's Mr new Kirk out here from Honey Creek And

606
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,600
Speaker 1: they gave us a ride back to town. And everybody

607
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:54,960
Speaker 1: was so glad to see us. And uh, of course

608
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 1: you get back home. And these old timers say, well,

609
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: why didn't you just take your spark plug out and

610
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: cut a piece, you ge shirt off, sticking in the

611
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:04,440
Speaker 1: gas and crank it. You get a fire started. And

612
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 1: he was an eagle scout. David was an eagle scout.

613
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: We didn't think about nothing like that. And like I say,

614
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: don't don't cell phones. But to this day, David has

615
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:18,520
Speaker 1: a GPS, he has matches, he has everything, and another backpack.

616
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 1: But he's prepared now for that now. Of course, now

617
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 1: you've got cell phone and GPS IS. Wasn't gps IS

618
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: and that's what really ruined the hunting up here. If

619
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,479
Speaker 1: you didn't know where you were going, they couldn't follow you.

620
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:35,000
Speaker 1: We'd put false tax, put those eyes and we'd have

621
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 1: the road go over here. We just shut the We

622
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,480
Speaker 1: go there every morning, I know, the big tree. We

623
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,840
Speaker 1: shut the light off and we just go there waiting

624
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:43,800
Speaker 1: for yet to turn off the river. And you go

625
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 1: through the woods to go about two miles back in there,

626
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 1: and then you hear them out. They're still out there

627
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 1: and following that trail and rung kicking their engine and

628
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 1: up and everything. But uh, and then people got the

629
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 1: GPS and then they started telling all their friends. You know,

630
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,240
Speaker 1: the friends have never even been here before. Of course,

631
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 1: when you got to coordinates to you don't go straight

632
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 1: to that hole. And I don't know why some holes

633
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 1: are better than others, but they are. You know, some

634
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,520
Speaker 1: holes down here killed ducks. And if you get to

635
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 1: it first, and that's what the race is. I'm too

636
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 1: old for that. We've got a boat now that Dennis's

637
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:20,600
Speaker 1: son in law put it to six o'clock boat, so

638
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 1: we don't have to go up at four o'clock no more.

639
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:25,360
Speaker 1: And you know, they take care of us like I

640
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: used to take care of the other old men. And

641
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 1: that's like all these bands. I didn't kill all these ducks,

642
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 1: but the old men didn't want to go chase down

643
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: the cripples and everything. Mr Jim has a lanyard that

644
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:40,040
Speaker 1: hangs down to the middle of his chest. It's lined

645
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 1: with duck bands from the back of his neck all

646
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 1: the way to the two hanging duck calls around the

647
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 1: middle of his Torso if I was guessing, I'd say

648
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 1: there are fifty plus bands. Duck bands are aluminum bands

649
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,600
Speaker 1: on the feet of ducks that have been captured by

650
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 1: some gaming fish department and tagged. When a hundred kills

651
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 1: and the duck, it is a major trophy and they're

652
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: able to keep the bands. You gotta kill a lot

653
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:08,839
Speaker 1: of ducks to even get a single band. Somebody who

654
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,959
Speaker 1: has a bunch of bands, it indicates that they've done

655
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,319
Speaker 1: a lot of duck hunting. So that's what this whole

656
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:18,200
Speaker 1: band thing is. About here's Mr Jim David and I

657
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,439
Speaker 1: would go get the ducks, and I keep that knife there,

658
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 1: and I get a banded duck. I got cut the

659
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:26,239
Speaker 1: band off and put our wouldn't say a word, you know.

660
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:31,600
Speaker 1: So uh and after they yeah, and after they see

661
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 1: all my bands getting bigger, there's old men started cranking

662
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 1: their motors up and they and they went and got

663
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 1: their own ducks. But uh, it was fun. Oh man,

664
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 1: I can't tell you. I don't know if you have

665
00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 1: something you like. Like. We love duck hunting. I mean

666
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,880
Speaker 1: I deer hunt, I squirrel hunt, I cat fisher in

667
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,279
Speaker 1: the river, catch my limit every day. It's unbelievable. I

668
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:59,240
Speaker 1: mean the resources here. Mr Jim Stenson is an old

669
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: school can saw a duck man, and they aren't making

670
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:06,280
Speaker 1: him like him anymore. I just loved hearing him talk.

671
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:11,280
Speaker 1: I'll tell you another guy that I love to hear talk,

672
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 1: and that's Bear Greece's own Brent Reeves. He's a long

673
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:19,640
Speaker 1: time Low Country river bottom duck man himself. He was

674
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: a waterfowl guy for twenty six years. When I first

675
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:25,840
Speaker 1: met Brent, and I'm certain they'd send him in undercover.

676
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:29,520
Speaker 1: I called him a hillbilly, and he said, I quote,

677
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,360
Speaker 1: I ain't no hillbilly. I'm from the flat land. We

678
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: had hillbillies mowing our grass. True story. And to Gary

679
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:44,000
Speaker 1: Newcomb semi shrouded but sometimes not so shrouded disapproval. I

680
00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:46,919
Speaker 1: did quite a bit of commercial grass mowing, even after

681
00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:53,200
Speaker 1: I had a college degree. Anyway, Brent has uncountable great

682
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 1: duck hunting stories. This is just one. And hey, Brent's

683
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:01,200
Speaker 1: gonna bring up the specific name game of a famed

684
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 1: Arkansas Game and Fish owned wildlife management area in Arkansas.

685
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:08,360
Speaker 1: Typically I wouldn't call out a place by name, but

686
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 1: trust me, this place has been found out. You'd be

687
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:16,040
Speaker 1: better off exploring if you're looking to explore someplace else.

688
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 1: But to you water Fowler's this story will mean more

689
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,319
Speaker 1: when you hear where it's at. Here's Brent telling me

690
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 1: a story called the green Head Carpet. Gosh. I have

691
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:33,320
Speaker 1: so many memories my brother and I over the twenty

692
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:36,480
Speaker 1: six years that we ran a guide service in the

693
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:40,880
Speaker 1: little community of Raydale, Arkansas, which is south of stut

694
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:43,440
Speaker 1: Guard and it's right on the Arkansas River where our

695
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,399
Speaker 1: lodge was. My brother and I we had some some

696
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:50,400
Speaker 1: guys who were decoy makers, and they came. They wanted

697
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:53,640
Speaker 1: to come over and they wanted to trade some goose

698
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,719
Speaker 1: decoys for a duck hunt. So we thought, oh, it

699
00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: seems like a pretty good deal. And they were man,

700
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 1: they were just they were soon for nice guys, and yeah,

701
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: we did the deal, said y'all come on, just bring

702
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,480
Speaker 1: some decoys and we'll hunt to three days. So I

703
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:11,520
Speaker 1: remember it was back in about four or five I

704
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:15,279
Speaker 1: guess that we were hunting Buckingham Flats and buy meat up.

705
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 1: Buckingham Flats is like four hundred acres and it's kind

706
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 1: of tip cornered to the southern end of the boy

707
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 1: Meta Wildlife Management Area and it didn't get a lot

708
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:29,560
Speaker 1: of hunting pressure at that time. There were several times

709
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:32,839
Speaker 1: on weekends when there was a lot of ducks when

710
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:35,600
Speaker 1: we pulled in to buy me to the Buckingham parking

711
00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:38,840
Speaker 1: lot and there there may not be any other vehicles there,

712
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:42,319
Speaker 1: and especially during the week there was there was no

713
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 1: kind of pressure whatsoever. So this particular time, it was

714
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: like a Tuesday or Wednesday, these guys came over and

715
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 1: we scheduled it that way just to ensure that, you

716
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,279
Speaker 1: know that we wouldn't have a lot of crowds. So

717
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:55,880
Speaker 1: we get over that day and we get all our

718
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:58,399
Speaker 1: stuff and we walk in and there are no other

719
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:01,520
Speaker 1: vehicles in the parking lot when we get there, so

720
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 1: when when we walk, it's probably a half a mile

721
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 1: walking there to the hole. It was what we called

722
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:11,800
Speaker 1: the sit Log Hole, and it's narrowest part about twenty

723
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 1: five or thirty yards wide at the at the widest

724
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 1: part it was about fifty or sixty yards wide, and

725
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 1: it was probably a hundred and fifty yards long. The

726
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:25,319
Speaker 1: wind that day was perfect. It was coming out of

727
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:29,839
Speaker 1: the south and it was blowing right straight from when

728
00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: one into that hole to the other. And we got

729
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:35,400
Speaker 1: there and we got set up. We threw out probably

730
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:39,440
Speaker 1: two dozen decoys. It was before Christmas. It was like

731
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 1: in the first part of December. I remember there were

732
00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:45,800
Speaker 1: still leaves on the trees and it was a perfect morning.

733
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:49,760
Speaker 1: There was no clouds, but ducks were not flying at daylight.

734
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,800
Speaker 1: They just they didn't do anything. So we're just sitting

735
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:56,800
Speaker 1: there having coffee and talking about things that duck hunters

736
00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 1: talk about when when they're standing next to a tree

737
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,880
Speaker 1: in the flooded tim Member in seven thirty eight o'clock

738
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 1: wherever the ducks had been on, whatever rice field they

739
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,239
Speaker 1: had been on, they all decided, it seemed like it

740
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:12,719
Speaker 1: once to come back to the timber to rest, and

741
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 1: you could hear them coming. We were in mid conversation.

742
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 1: I don't remember if it was my brother one of

743
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: the other guys said, hey, y'all, do y'all hear that?

744
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:24,359
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, ducks were everywhere, and they

745
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:27,440
Speaker 1: were going in every direction, and there was no rhyme

746
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:30,759
Speaker 1: or reason to to what they were doing. And we

747
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 1: even had ducks that were trying to trying to come

748
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 1: into the hole without us calling, but they were getting

749
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:38,879
Speaker 1: bumped out of the hole by other ducks that were

750
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,120
Speaker 1: there coming from the other directions. So it was just

751
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:44,680
Speaker 1: like a clipped the wings on a thousand ducks and

752
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:46,319
Speaker 1: dumped them out of the box. And they were just

753
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:48,839
Speaker 1: tumbling and going everywhere, but none of them were coming

754
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 1: into hole. So we started calling. We started calling, and

755
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 1: they started getting getting a pattern together, they started getting organized,

756
00:39:56,680 --> 00:40:00,479
Speaker 1: and we were on the southern end of that whole

757
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,919
Speaker 1: of the set log hole, facing to the north, and

758
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:06,479
Speaker 1: the wind was at our back going straight down there.

759
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 1: And after it seemed like ten minutes of just calling

760
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:13,319
Speaker 1: and working ducks, but it was probably two or three

761
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 1: minutes when we started working them around when they all

762
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:20,160
Speaker 1: got together and they started landing. They started landing the

763
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 1: other end a hundred and thirty yards away from us,

764
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 1: and I thought, oh my gosh, we've seen this wonderful

765
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:31,960
Speaker 1: event take place of it seemed like a million ducks,

766
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,960
Speaker 1: all green head, all mallards that worked over the timber,

767
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 1: that short timber, and finally got together and they're gonna

768
00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:40,800
Speaker 1: light too far away, And I thought, you know this,

769
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 1: all this effort was for nothing. And I said, oh man,

770
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 1: they're too far, They're too far. My my brother said,

771
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 1: just just wait, just wait, and they started lighting in

772
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:53,160
Speaker 1: the other end of that hole, and it was like

773
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 1: you were rolling out of carpet. Ducks poured into that

774
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:01,320
Speaker 1: narrow opening and they just started when one sat down,

775
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:04,719
Speaker 1: another one sitting down right in front of and they

776
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:08,880
Speaker 1: just walked. A thousand ducks all of a sudden just

777
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:11,759
Speaker 1: started to rolling right up to us. And as they

778
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:15,400
Speaker 1: got to us, we remained still and they went behind us.

779
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 1: They were landing all around us, and the ducks were

780
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 1: still in the air, and my brother holler, let's get them.

781
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 1: We stepped out and we started shooting, and we shot

782
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:29,920
Speaker 1: four limits of mallards, all green heads, in one volley.

783
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:34,000
Speaker 1: It was the one of the most incredible things that

784
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 1: I had ever witnessed. Uh and my brother was there,

785
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 1: and the guys that that brought the decoys. When they

786
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:45,000
Speaker 1: got back home, they sent another batch of decoys. They

787
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,000
Speaker 1: had such a good time that they actually paid twice

788
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:52,239
Speaker 1: for what we'd agreed on. But it was one of

789
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 1: the most incredible hunts that I've been on over there.

790
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:58,560
Speaker 1: I got chill bumps on my arm right now talking

791
00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,399
Speaker 1: about it. But that was him. That was a good one.

792
00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:07,840
Speaker 1: The ducks came in like you were rolling out of carpet.

793
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:12,480
Speaker 1: He said, that's powerful imagery. We're gonna circle around and

794
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:16,680
Speaker 1: come back to Scott Harness. He's got a duck story

795
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:22,080
Speaker 1: that involves cold blooded critters. This story is titled Gators.

796
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:24,879
Speaker 1: You know, I got into duck hunting just a little

797
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:28,319
Speaker 1: bit late. My dad didn't. He didn't like duck hunting.

798
00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:29,960
Speaker 1: A matter of fact. He said, I can't imagine why

799
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,160
Speaker 1: I would go out and hunt a flying liver. That's

800
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:34,800
Speaker 1: what he said. You know, So when I first started

801
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: duck hunting, I found a friend. I found a couple

802
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,400
Speaker 1: of buddies that they were duck hunting. I was probably nineteen.

803
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:43,640
Speaker 1: I had one friend from Louisiana that had had experienced

804
00:42:43,719 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 1: duck hunting and he duck hunted in the in the

805
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 1: marshes of Louisiana and then so we went together. But

806
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:49,799
Speaker 1: he's a gadgety guy. If you if you, if you

807
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:51,600
Speaker 1: know duck hunters like this, they just have like this,

808
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:55,520
Speaker 1: these gadgets. They're always looking for another mechanical advantage or

809
00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:57,040
Speaker 1: what else can we get. And so he calls me

810
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:59,359
Speaker 1: on the phone with Danny's super excited and he says, man,

811
00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:01,040
Speaker 1: I've got this boat. He said, there's a type of

812
00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:03,320
Speaker 1: boat we used to hunt out of in Louisiana. He

813
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:05,920
Speaker 1: said it's a motorized p row I had no idea

814
00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: what that was, but he was so excited about I

815
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:09,719
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, this is gonna be great. Let's do it.

816
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 1: And so he and I decided to go to a

817
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 1: a particular ox bowl like that we had hunted pretty

818
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 1: much in central Arkansas. So we get there in the

819
00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:20,600
Speaker 1: morning and this is the first time I've seen the boat,

820
00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 1: and so when I see it, the first thing that

821
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: kind I'm taken by is that it's really shallow. It's

822
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:26,440
Speaker 1: not a very deep boat. And uh, he and I.

823
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:28,319
Speaker 1: Let's just say, he and I are magnums when it

824
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:31,160
Speaker 1: comes to human beings, you know. Um, and I was like,

825
00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:32,719
Speaker 1: you know, with he and I on that boat, and

826
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:34,880
Speaker 1: he'd already addressed it out. It's got this really big

827
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,120
Speaker 1: deep cycle battery in it. He's put a troller motor

828
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:39,240
Speaker 1: on the front of it, and dead in the middle

829
00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:41,799
Speaker 1: of this boat is a Briggs and Stratton motor. And

830
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,480
Speaker 1: this is a direct drive, so literally there's a drive

831
00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 1: shaft coming off of the shaft of the motor going

832
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,000
Speaker 1: to a prop that's underneath this boat, which means that

833
00:43:50,040 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 1: there's no reverse, but it also means when the motors

834
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:54,960
Speaker 1: running the prop spinning, we set the boat down in

835
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:58,320
Speaker 1: the water and uh immediately, I look, even before we

836
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:00,080
Speaker 1: put anything in it, the boats just not stick and

837
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,160
Speaker 1: out of the water enough for me to feel comfortable.

838
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:05,400
Speaker 1: I write it up though, is is just maybe my inexperience,

839
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,120
Speaker 1: Maybe I just don't understand certain things because these people

840
00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:10,239
Speaker 1: have done it before, and you know, maybe you just

841
00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 1: go along with it. So we piled decoys in there.

842
00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:14,240
Speaker 1: He gets in the front. I get in the back,

843
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:17,040
Speaker 1: and and we're about to go out into the swamp.

844
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 1: I mean, in this motorized p row thingy. And I've

845
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,840
Speaker 1: got a cuban spotlight, which was the spotlight of choice

846
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:25,799
Speaker 1: of duck hunters back in the day. And and I've

847
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:29,040
Speaker 1: got it connected to a deep cycle battery with alligator clips,

848
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:30,560
Speaker 1: and I'm ready to go. Well, anyway, we got to

849
00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:32,880
Speaker 1: start the motor in this thing. And and he's it

850
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:34,840
Speaker 1: does have electric starting. He's cranking on it, cranking on it,

851
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:37,279
Speaker 1: cranking on, cranking on it, and finally I smell gas.

852
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 1: I'm like, I think you've got it flooded. Now this

853
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:42,440
Speaker 1: is before daylight, so it's pitch dark. We're on the bank.

854
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:45,960
Speaker 1: This swamp is nothing but water and a thicket. That's

855
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:48,760
Speaker 1: all it is. It's got twoplow tree, cypress, tree, cypress

856
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:53,760
Speaker 1: knees everywhere, water and a thicket. Um. And he's cranking

857
00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:55,560
Speaker 1: on this motor. Finally he says, you know, I think

858
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 1: you're I think it's flooded. Um. He said, But you know,

859
00:44:58,040 --> 00:44:59,560
Speaker 1: as long as you got that light on, it seems

860
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 1: like that it's not cranking as fast. So he thought

861
00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:03,320
Speaker 1: that was maybe putting too much with a draw on

862
00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:05,399
Speaker 1: the battery, so I turned the light off. He goes

863
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:07,439
Speaker 1: to cranking on the water. He holds it wide open,

864
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:09,560
Speaker 1: which is something you do with a motor that's flooded,

865
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:12,720
Speaker 1: and about that time, in the dark, the motor comes

866
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:15,240
Speaker 1: to life, about the third revolution, and when it does,

867
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:20,200
Speaker 1: it's wide open and it's direct drive. Literally in a

868
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:23,200
Speaker 1: half a second, it felt like we are careening through

869
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:26,759
Speaker 1: this swamp on plane. Now this is a place that

870
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,040
Speaker 1: you would have had to pick your way through in

871
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:32,760
Speaker 1: the daylight, and we're cutting through it wide open, crossing things,

872
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:36,600
Speaker 1: cover crossing log jams. I'm waiting any moment I realize

873
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:38,600
Speaker 1: we're gonna hit a cypher street. There's no way that

874
00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:40,879
Speaker 1: we can, you know, get very far before we run

875
00:45:40,920 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 1: into something. But to my chagrin, we literally go probably

876
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:47,080
Speaker 1: a hundred yards out into the middle of the swamp

877
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:50,440
Speaker 1: before finally he gets this motor turned off, and I

878
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:52,720
Speaker 1: think he literally reaches back and grabs a spark plug

879
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:55,400
Speaker 1: wire and turns it off. We do this all in

880
00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:57,840
Speaker 1: the pitch dark. Never there's a light on. Right, we

881
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:00,840
Speaker 1: have no idea. I've lost my head year half my

882
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:02,760
Speaker 1: equipment has been ripped off of me as we're cutting

883
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:06,399
Speaker 1: through the swamp, and and there we are. UM had

884
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 1: one little pinlight in my pocket and I got it

885
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:10,719
Speaker 1: out and I shined it into the bottom of the boat.

886
00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:13,880
Speaker 1: The boat is literally completely full of water, and and

887
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:16,160
Speaker 1: there may be a quarter of an inch of the

888
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:18,439
Speaker 1: boat still sticking out of the water. We've we've run

889
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:20,879
Speaker 1: over enough things that's dipped up under enough water where

890
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,239
Speaker 1: this boat is ready to sink at any second. And

891
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:24,840
Speaker 1: I told my friend, I said, le's way to daylight.

892
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:28,040
Speaker 1: Let's don't do a thing. Stay real still, don't move,

893
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:32,480
Speaker 1: and at daylight we'll put together a plan. And daylight

894
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 1: came around and we we we tried to paddle with

895
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:36,560
Speaker 1: our hands back, but every time you'd lean to the

896
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:37,959
Speaker 1: edge of the boat, it would take on more water.

897
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:40,440
Speaker 1: And any minute it's gonna sink. We know it is.

898
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:42,400
Speaker 1: I have no idea how deep of water we're in,

899
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:44,799
Speaker 1: but we're in the middle of a swamp. Now. After

900
00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:46,400
Speaker 1: rewond the tape, just a little bit, tell you one

901
00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 1: quick story. When I used to fly, I used to

902
00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:52,319
Speaker 1: fly helicopters for the army. We used to fly in

903
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:55,840
Speaker 1: this air particular area, and we never flew over this swamp.

904
00:46:55,840 --> 00:46:58,200
Speaker 1: And I was always told by the elder pilots that

905
00:46:58,239 --> 00:47:00,239
Speaker 1: I flew with. The instructor pots I flew with, they

906
00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:02,480
Speaker 1: would say, don't ever fly with that swamp because there's

907
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:04,719
Speaker 1: alligators in it. And I mean literally, they would avoid

908
00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:06,360
Speaker 1: this thing. If if we had to fly ten minutes,

909
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:08,480
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes out of our way to fly around the swamp,

910
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:10,960
Speaker 1: we would do it. No one ever flew over this swamp,

911
00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:13,400
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, at first, I thought that's just

912
00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 1: kind of you know, folklore, But as every pilot I

913
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:19,160
Speaker 1: got with, they would never fly off that direction. So

914
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:21,560
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of this swamp in a boat

915
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,680
Speaker 1: that's sinking. That's in my that's on my mind. Okay,

916
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:27,160
Speaker 1: So finally we decided that we're gonna try to pull

917
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:29,600
Speaker 1: this boat half sunk up to a set of cypress trees.

918
00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to step out, and then we're gonna

919
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 1: try to find some way of bailing water out of it.

920
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 1: We don't really know how, but we feel like that's

921
00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:38,360
Speaker 1: at least the start of a good plan. And so

922
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,040
Speaker 1: we get up to this group of cypress trees. I

923
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,520
Speaker 1: go to raise up and step out, and immediately the

924
00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:45,200
Speaker 1: boat takes on water and it sinks as fast as

925
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:47,080
Speaker 1: you can imagine, just go straight to the bottom. I

926
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:49,480
Speaker 1: stand up and by the time I stand up, the

927
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:51,759
Speaker 1: boat rests on the bottom of this this lake and

928
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:56,839
Speaker 1: it's about neck beat um, maybe a little less maybe chesty. Well,

929
00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:58,360
Speaker 1: my friends behind me, and if we look at each other,

930
00:47:58,400 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 1: I go, what are we gonna do? Now? You know,

931
00:47:59,719 --> 00:48:02,320
Speaker 1: both us they're standing in and water fortunately wasn't super

932
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:05,080
Speaker 1: bad cold, which made me nervous because in my mind,

933
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:08,080
Speaker 1: all I'm thinking about it's these alligators. So we're trying

934
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:09,960
Speaker 1: to make up our mind what we're gonna do with

935
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:11,359
Speaker 1: this boat and how we're gonna get the water out

936
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: of and how we're gonna get back. And we're in

937
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:15,040
Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere, and it's one of those days

938
00:48:15,080 --> 00:48:16,880
Speaker 1: that was hardly any other hunters out there, any other

939
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:18,400
Speaker 1: day that it's just filled with people, but there was

940
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:20,919
Speaker 1: nobody there, and so we're out there trying to figure

941
00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:22,359
Speaker 1: out how we'll get the water out of the boat.

942
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:25,880
Speaker 1: But as we as we're doing that, as I'm moving around, um,

943
00:48:25,960 --> 00:48:28,520
Speaker 1: suddenly something swims into my leg and I can feel

944
00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 1: it through my waiters literally kicks off of my leg

945
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,120
Speaker 1: and pushes and it and it leaves awake in the water.

946
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:37,080
Speaker 1: You can see the current from whatever this is that

947
00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:40,680
Speaker 1: as it's swum past me and it's circling, I mean

948
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:43,480
Speaker 1: literally it is. It is swimming in a circle and

949
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:45,719
Speaker 1: it's coming back. The second round it comes by, hits

950
00:48:45,719 --> 00:48:47,840
Speaker 1: me again. I'm trying to get the gun off my shoulder.

951
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:50,000
Speaker 1: I mean, I I said, and I mean I know

952
00:48:50,040 --> 00:48:52,400
Speaker 1: it's an alligator. I Am about to be eaten by

953
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:54,600
Speaker 1: an alligator in the swamp. I was warned never to

954
00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:57,399
Speaker 1: fly over, and I'm in it, you know, chest deep,

955
00:48:57,800 --> 00:48:59,800
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna die eating by an alligator. And so

956
00:48:59,840 --> 00:49:01,200
Speaker 1: I ut my gun out and I've literally got the

957
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:02,880
Speaker 1: muzzle of my gun in the water because this thing

958
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:05,400
Speaker 1: keeps swimming by and you can see and it's really erratic,

959
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:07,319
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is a feeding frenzy. I don't

960
00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:10,359
Speaker 1: know anything about alligators, but it's like sharks. I've seen

961
00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:14,080
Speaker 1: shark week. It's coming and about the third or fourth round,

962
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:16,239
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm trying to track it with my gun

963
00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:18,080
Speaker 1: under the water. My buddy is trying to get his gun.

964
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:21,359
Speaker 1: He's he's scared too, And about that time it hits

965
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: the far side away from me is it's making its

966
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:26,600
Speaker 1: circle and it comes up out of the water and

967
00:49:26,640 --> 00:49:29,719
Speaker 1: it's actually the trolling motor. And so the troll and

968
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:31,960
Speaker 1: motor has broke off the front of the boat. It's

969
00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:34,279
Speaker 1: still connected to the wires to the battery, but it's

970
00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:37,000
Speaker 1: turned itself on and it's and it's just running in

971
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: a circle under the water. That's what it was. So

972
00:49:39,680 --> 00:49:42,840
Speaker 1: I really thought I was gonna be eaten. And eventually

973
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 1: we did push the boat up into a compa trees

974
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:46,960
Speaker 1: and we dipped the water out of it and we

975
00:49:47,239 --> 00:49:49,839
Speaker 1: gingerly paddled our paddle ourselves back to the bank and

976
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:52,640
Speaker 1: like a whipped puppy or tail between our legs, we

977
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:54,880
Speaker 1: we went home, but just thankful that we made it.

978
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:56,439
Speaker 1: We made it through it, and we did. We lived

979
00:49:56,440 --> 00:50:01,479
Speaker 1: through it. No ducks, but what an adventure. Now that's

980
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:04,520
Speaker 1: a good story. It sounds to me like duck hunting

981
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:08,759
Speaker 1: is full of conundrums, and all of them for a duck.

982
00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:14,400
Speaker 1: We couldn't tell duck stories without including a good dog story.

983
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:18,520
Speaker 1: Jimbo ron Quest is gonna tell us about the greatest

984
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:26,120
Speaker 1: retrieve he's ever witnessed. This story is called Katie. One

985
00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:27,960
Speaker 1: of the things that passed out of me. My daddy

986
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:30,879
Speaker 1: was a big bird dog guy and a retriever guy,

987
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:34,200
Speaker 1: and it was always said that you relied one good

988
00:50:34,239 --> 00:50:38,200
Speaker 1: woman and one good dog in a lifetime. So I

989
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:41,280
Speaker 1: will say that I have been allowed one good woman

990
00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:44,840
Speaker 1: to miss Rosie, who I have absolutely out kicked my

991
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:47,920
Speaker 1: coverage on, takes care of me beyond the shadow of

992
00:50:47,960 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 1: a doubt regardless of what I do. That said, I

993
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,800
Speaker 1: have probably had at this point, I wonta say with Tiny,

994
00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:59,239
Speaker 1: I've had four dogs of a lifetime. I could, I

995
00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:02,439
Speaker 1: could get poked up, teared up on on them right now,

996
00:51:02,480 --> 00:51:05,520
Speaker 1: but I won't. So I have been fortunate to have

997
00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:08,680
Speaker 1: some really great dogs. But everybody talks about what is

998
00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:12,080
Speaker 1: the greatest retrieve, right what what's the best retreat? And

999
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:13,719
Speaker 1: I can tell you that all of them in a

1000
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:16,880
Speaker 1: little Tiny's he's only two and a half, um, so

1001
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:19,399
Speaker 1: he don't have as much bird experience as the rest

1002
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:21,960
Speaker 1: of them. And he's had some Jim dandies. Man, he's

1003
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:25,880
Speaker 1: a gold getter. And they've all made great ones. Charlie

1004
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:28,880
Speaker 1: made one last year, forty five days pregnant center on

1005
00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:32,320
Speaker 1: a crippled tale. She was gone for forty five minutes,

1006
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:35,040
Speaker 1: and I wasn't worried about her. Here find it. Here

1007
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:37,440
Speaker 1: she come back. She don't caught that sucker. You know,

1008
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:41,080
Speaker 1: just stuff you can't teach, right, you know, your hound man,

1009
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 1: you know there's things you can't teach. But but probably

1010
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:47,359
Speaker 1: my all time favorite was an old dog I had

1011
00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:51,000
Speaker 1: named Katie bio Mede to Katie. She was a master hunter,

1012
00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:53,760
Speaker 1: but she was. She was with me through the gore

1013
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:57,560
Speaker 1: days of commercial hunting and picked up untold thousands of birds.

1014
00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:00,239
Speaker 1: Well it's old dead. And then we hunted. You know,

1015
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:02,760
Speaker 1: some years it was wet, some years it was dry,

1016
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:05,960
Speaker 1: but always had a little water. And we had had

1017
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:08,919
Speaker 1: was having a pretty good morning, not a great one,

1018
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:12,319
Speaker 1: but a decent morning a hunting, and we had a

1019
00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:14,400
Speaker 1: bunch of motter to come in, a good little bunch

1020
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:17,200
Speaker 1: of good volley. Everybody killed ducks. And she picked up

1021
00:52:17,239 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 1: all these ducks and there's a matter to him, and

1022
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:22,320
Speaker 1: fell over here, and she went over and she hunted

1023
00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:24,759
Speaker 1: and hunted nut duck. She fountain and she chased it,

1024
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:28,400
Speaker 1: and old duck beat her, and very few beat her.

1025
00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:32,919
Speaker 1: She was she She was. Her or my current dog

1026
00:52:33,040 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 1: Charlie were two of the best at working cripples I've

1027
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:39,880
Speaker 1: ever seen. And this old duck beater her and she

1028
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:42,880
Speaker 1: come back and got them the dog stand and hunt continued,

1029
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:46,560
Speaker 1: and the morning slowed up that we wasn't shooting many

1030
00:52:46,840 --> 00:52:49,600
Speaker 1: and O Katy kept looking over and she'd look over

1031
00:52:49,800 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 1: and you can see her perk up. She kept looking

1032
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:55,160
Speaker 1: over there, like what are you doing? You know? And

1033
00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:57,480
Speaker 1: I said, you let that duck beat you, didn't you?

1034
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:00,680
Speaker 1: You know? She look not teaser, you know, I did

1035
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:02,759
Speaker 1: you let that duck beats you? You're not gonna let

1036
00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:05,160
Speaker 1: that duck beats you, are you man? She looked at

1037
00:53:05,160 --> 00:53:07,960
Speaker 1: me and she look over and finally a little bit,

1038
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:12,000
Speaker 1: it's getting slow, and finally said, put my hand over Katie,

1039
00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:15,319
Speaker 1: and she took off over her and she and now, look,

1040
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:18,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna preface this right now. If you were telling

1041
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:20,880
Speaker 1: me this story and I had not seen it, i'd

1042
00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:24,600
Speaker 1: call bull dooo doo on it. But because I've seen

1043
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:27,680
Speaker 1: it and I've seen this happen, I can't call bulloo do.

1044
00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:30,880
Speaker 1: I saw it in my own eyes. She goes a center,

1045
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:33,160
Speaker 1: she goes over right to the last spot. She's on

1046
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:36,920
Speaker 1: that bird, and she's kind of waters shallow, it's not

1047
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:39,840
Speaker 1: swimming water, so it's kind of walking water, and the

1048
00:53:39,960 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 1: MUD's deep. It's just nasty. And she's walking around and

1049
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:45,520
Speaker 1: she's got that nose on the water. And I've seen

1050
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:48,879
Speaker 1: Charlie do this same thing. And she then she kind

1051
00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:51,080
Speaker 1: of kind of ease back on her haunches a little bit,

1052
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:54,560
Speaker 1: get balanced, and she started taking them pause and digging

1053
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:57,920
Speaker 1: and sticking her nose down, digging, sticking the next thing,

1054
00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:00,000
Speaker 1: you know, she took her nose down, she pulled them.

1055
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 1: Why don't he hand out bar but grabbing on with

1056
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:05,359
Speaker 1: some weeds and pull it up out there and come

1057
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:08,759
Speaker 1: back with it. And that was probably every bit of

1058
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:12,880
Speaker 1: an hour after she had tried to catch that birden

1059
00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:14,759
Speaker 1: she didn't. I give her a hard time about it.

1060
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:21,480
Speaker 1: Absolute best retreat every song. You're allowed one good woman

1061
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:25,160
Speaker 1: and one good dog in a lifetime. Now that's a

1062
00:54:25,160 --> 00:54:28,880
Speaker 1: good statement. A man should consider himself fortunate if he

1063
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:31,839
Speaker 1: has these two things. And I really like it when

1064
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:34,239
Speaker 1: I hear a man honor the covenant he has with

1065
00:54:34,280 --> 00:54:37,839
Speaker 1: his wife. I heard Mr Jim Stenson and Jimbo do

1066
00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:41,640
Speaker 1: this in their stories. The whole ball and chain trope

1067
00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:45,240
Speaker 1: that you sometimes hear men say those things aren't funny

1068
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:47,800
Speaker 1: to me. I like to see what a man honors

1069
00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:50,840
Speaker 1: his wife. Your life will follow the path of what

1070
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:54,920
Speaker 1: you say. When you speak positively, you read positive stuff.

1071
00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:58,520
Speaker 1: When you sow negativity, you read negative stuff. Try it.

1072
00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:02,160
Speaker 1: I they're probably thinking of getting a little preachy. We

1073
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:04,719
Speaker 1: might want to cut that out now. I leave it in.

1074
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:08,920
Speaker 1: These stories of duck hunners paint a picture of one

1075
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:12,160
Speaker 1: of America's most die hard and passionate groups of people.

1076
00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:16,800
Speaker 1: Waterfowl hunters are also one of the most conservation minded

1077
00:55:17,080 --> 00:55:21,400
Speaker 1: and well organized factions that you'll ever find. Delta Waterfowl

1078
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:25,120
Speaker 1: and Duck's Unlimited are both incredible organizations, and there are

1079
00:55:25,239 --> 00:55:29,480
Speaker 1: uncountable other groups, many others that have saved millions of

1080
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:33,319
Speaker 1: acres of American wetlands and are funded by the dollars

1081
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:36,960
Speaker 1: of hunters. This is the story of the modern American hunter.

1082
00:55:37,320 --> 00:55:40,759
Speaker 1: We're the ones saving wild places and wild life, and

1083
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:44,719
Speaker 1: at the foundation of it all is human passion that

1084
00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:49,640
Speaker 1: ignites when a hunter interacts with something far beyond his control,

1085
00:55:50,160 --> 00:55:56,319
Speaker 1: something bigger than him, like a mysterious, ancient and mystical migration,

1086
00:55:56,680 --> 00:55:59,680
Speaker 1: that makes him step out far beyond his comfort zone

1087
00:56:00,160 --> 00:56:04,600
Speaker 1: and hit the rivers and swamps in search of ducks.

1088
00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:11,800
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease

1089
00:56:12,280 --> 00:56:15,759
Speaker 1: and hey, if you haven't heard, First Light has a

1090
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:19,960
Speaker 1: growing new line of waterfowl gear, you should check it out.

1091
00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:22,799
Speaker 1: I am very much looking forward to trying it out

1092
00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:25,560
Speaker 1: in the Timber this year. Let us know what you

1093
00:56:25,719 --> 00:56:28,759
Speaker 1: think of this Duck Stories episode by leaving us a

1094
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 1: review on iTunes, and you can do me a favor

1095
00:56:32,480 --> 00:56:35,759
Speaker 1: by sharing our podcast this week with the worst duck

1096
00:56:35,840 --> 00:56:39,840
Speaker 1: hunter you know. Maybe this will inspire him. And you

1097
00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:43,400
Speaker 1: can follow me on Instagram and the TikTok at Clay

1098
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:47,759
Speaker 1: underscore Nukem from Misty and I. We hope that you

1099
00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:51,919
Speaker 1: have a happy new Year. We'll see you next week

1100
00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:52,800
Speaker 1: on the Render