For the Fowlers Podcast
Introducing "For the Fowlers," a new waterfowl hunting podcast based in Northern California. Our goal is to dive into every aspect of this sport we're so passionate about.
We aim to create a valuable resource for new hunters, helping them get into the sport, while also engaging experienced fowlers with our stories and those of our guests.
For the Fowlers Podcast
Ep. 12 SoCal Duck Hunting with Colin Ozier
Desert levees, crowded sweat lines, and glassy water don’t sound like a recipe for great duck hunting—until you hear how Colin makes it work. We brought him back to explore the real SoCal playbook: go lighter, hide smarter, move sooner, and add motion the right way. From San Jacinto to Wister to Kern, he lays out what actually matters when 300 people chase 50 spots and the birds have seen it all.
We start with this season’s curveballs—fog domes up north, odd weather windows, and fewer hunts while he preps a move—and why that didn’t stop him from finding success. Colin shares his full mobility system: a jogging stroller rig with an ATV gun rack, waders on late, a jet sled on top, and decoy choices that keep the load small but the look real. He explains why teal decoys punch above their weight, how small family groups and open water steer traffic, and when to scale up to make a spread look like a closed zone. The theme is simple: don’t camp a mistake—move to where the birds want to be.
Then we get into the art of the hide and the science of motion. Colin hunts inside cover rather than behind it, stashes gear away from the blind, and fixes beaten tule islands to eliminate hard edges. For motion, he runs a mojo on a remote for controlled flash, a heavy-duty jerk string with four decoys for sound and ripple, and simple tactics like kicking water or dragging a foot to make chocolate milk. We talk ethical shots, why passing on skyscrapers pays off, and how “run traffic” strategies differ from hunting the true X.
Along the way, we compare cultures between LA and the Sacramento Valley, from breakfast burritos in the desert to late goose hunts near Gridley. We touch on clubs near Kern, CWA access, and why gadwall in the Pacific Flyway can be maddeningly smart. Most of all, we share the mindset that keeps this fun: manage expectations, respect the resource, learn the refuge by showing up, and celebrate the craft even when the strap is light.
If you love public land strategy, gear hacks that actually help, and honest talk about pressure and ethics, you’ll feel right at home here. Subscribe, leave a review on Spotify or Apple, and share this episode with a buddy who needs to hear “move now, not later.” What tactic will you test on your next hunt?
What's up guys? Welcome to another episode of For the Fowlers. I'm Brandon. Got a good guest on here today. Got Colin Oger. You guys probably remember him from our season check-in episode a few weeks ago. Colin is our For the Fowers expert on uh Southern California duck hunting. But no, I wanted to bring Colin on here today to kind of get to know him a little better. And you know, I've always been curious about what it's like hunting down in Southern California. So uh we're gonna hear about it from him and uh we'll go from there. So what's up, Colin? How you doing, man?
SPEAKER_03:Good, man. Good to hear from you, dude. Uh appreciate you having me on.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, how first off, man, you know, a few days removed from Christmas. Merry Christmas. Hope you and the family had a good one. Yeah. How was the holiday for you? It was pretty chill.
SPEAKER_04:We well, we were talking before this, but I'm in the process of moving to Northern California, so um, we decided to keep it pretty low-key and just kind of hung around here and ate enchiladas and that was it.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. Yeah, did you well I I do want to say, hey, thank you very much for the invite. As you know, I was down in uh Southern California for the holiday, uh spending some time with family down there, and Colin was nice enough to invite me down or invite me for a hunt, but unfortunately, just the timing of the day and and whatnot and things going on, family obligations, it didn't work out, but I really appreciate the invite. Um, and we'll definitely, you know, I know you got a lot going on with the move and everything, so I don't know if it's gonna be in the cards for this waterfowl season, but I'll take you up on it.
SPEAKER_04:We'll we'll we'll have to uh we'll have maybe we'll take a trip down here and it's just such a weird, unique ecosystem, I guess. I think it's worth checking out at least once, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, maybe we don't go as deep as Worcester, San Jacinto, but once you move up here, maybe we make the trek down to Kern together and uh you kind of show me what that's all about. Because I I've always been curious about the Kern, and maybe we can dive into that a little bit today. But it's a terrible refuge and nobody should ever hunt it. Absolutely, right? Yeah, that's how it is up here, too, man. Horrible, horrible spots, horrible spots. So I know we chatted a few weeks ago on that season check-in, but I've been following along on your Instagram. And for those of you guys that don't follow Colin, it's worth a follow. Uh, the sweat line. He's got some great pictures on there of some of the success he's having out in the field. But I've been following along and looks like you're getting into him a little bit. How's the hunting been?
SPEAKER_04:So honestly, this has been a slower season, and I don't think I don't think it has anything to do with like bird numbers. I think it's just like the weather was kind of weird, and you know, we got that big gray dome at the south end of the central valley down here, too. So that played a part in it. And the other thing is like I just haven't hunted as much this year, like with the move coming up, trying to work a little more and and be responsible at home and all that. So it's been a weird year, but the nice thing is like having been here for a couple of seasons, I feel like I was finally able to figure some of these places out and and like just tried to make the most of the trips I've been taking and it's gone it's gone good. I've I've had a good time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so what's been kind of the key? Has weather changed a little bit? Is it just like the overall migration working north to south? Is it just kind of you know making the most of your opportunities, getting out as much as you can? What what's kind of been the key to success for you down there?
SPEAKER_04:So I think the big thing is just like especially early on, was just spending as much time as I could. The refuges, I think uh like a place like San Jacinto is so small, it's nice because it's close, you know, it's only an hour from LA, but you're frequently gonna see 300 plus people in the parking lot for 50 spots. So they got you know, it's it's just small, and it's all assigned blind blinds, and you're just kind of packed in there. So it gets pretty discouraging, but just taking the time, like driving down to Worcester, sitting in the sweat line, even if you have to refill or something, and it's not that great, just like figuring out yeah, I mean, and people say that all the time, like putting your time in. And now after a couple of seasons, I get to kind of skip that that figuring out stage, and I'm I kind of have a general idea of where to start, you know? Yeah, like these kind of main areas, and I don't know if it's the same there, but like I'm always gonna try and get to like the center of the refuge. Sometimes it might be by a closed zone, but sometimes like sometimes being super backed up to a closed zone is a bad thing. You're just gonna sit and watch birds fly over you all day. And that's okay. And I the other thing I've noticed too is like if if there's a free roam area, just not not being like married to the spot, like maybe only throwing out a half dozen decoys in the morning and like leaving my sled packed up, and when shoot time comes, I'm gonna give it 30, 45 minutes, and I'm gonna say, like, this ain't working, but like that spot is, and I'm just gonna go ahead and move.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, man, I couldn't agree with you more on that last point there. And that's one of the things I've really made an effort to do this season is be more mobile on the refuge.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, packing lighter, running less decoys, but even like the gear that I bring, you know, like I just got like this, it's an AVNX gear stick that basically just it's super simple. Pop it in the sled. I got my backpack on. So I mean I'm I'm mobile now. So even if I need to move, it doesn't matter if I'm moving 20 yards or I'm moving 200 yards. Um because in the past I've been like, it took me a half hour to set up. I'm uh I'm I'm just gonna stick stick it out, right? But I'm just watching birds dive into a hole, but I I'm just I I don't move because I brought out three dozen decoys and you're like, dude, yeah, what a it's a ton of work. And I got my marsh stand over here, and I got my stool, I got uh, you know, everything set up for the day of hunting, and I found to be more successful being light and being able to move, you know. Yeah, so no, that that's awesome. Well, right on. So we didn't really dive into this the last time you were on because it was kind of a quick, quick conversation, but I'm curious. Let's let's rewind a little bit. How long have you been hunting? How did you get into it? Like, what's kind of the background there?
SPEAKER_04:So I I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, and did not come from a hunting family. It's like my dad was a farm kid, and like all his side of the family's in like central like rural parts of Illinois and Missouri. And uh my mom was like an army brat, and she they moved around a bunch, and so when they they ended up in Indianapolis for some reason, and like we're just like we're not going anywhere, we're staying here. And I I actually wasn't a big fan of the Midwest, but I started doing like tree work when I was 20, and I worked with a bunch of rednecks, and one of them was from Meridian, Mississippi, and was into duck hunting because believe it or not, duck hunting is not a big thing in Indiana, you're kind of out of any flyway. But because of that, it was always fairly easy for us to get permission, probably 90% dry field hunting, and I was just like instantly obsessed, man. And like as a kid, I spent a lot of time outdoors. We were going camping a bunch and did a lot of backpacking with with my dad and stuff like that. So I that was kind of like the logical next step. I'd already already been like really curious about hunting and and everybody deer hunts in Indiana. Yeah. You you you go to Walmart and you you get three tags for twenty bucks, you know, when you buy buy your license. So I had like eaten a lot of venison. But duck hunting was something that seemed fascinating to me, and I just fell in love with it. Just like there was one public marsh that was on a reservoir that you could paddle into, and we would take we took a canoe in. It was my first hunt, and I don't even think anybody shot anything. We just kind of sat there and like built a blind, but I was like, this is this is cool, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know what's funny, and and I've shared my story, but also just chatting with other folks is it's not so much like the hunt or the harvest, it's everything that goes into it. It's like you said, you know, you're canoeing in, kayaking in, and you know, you're being part of like you know, building a blind and you know, brushing it up and you know, doing all that work there. I don't know, just something about that that pulls you in. I mean, obviously the harvest is a lot of fun, especially when you get to go home and you know enjoy the game that you take. But no, no, that's really cool. So do you you obviously got into waterfowl? Do you still hunt deer?
SPEAKER_04:Like, you know, I I have not hunted deer out here.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um I just so I did I did deer hunt and I've shot a handful of deer, and then like before I came out here, I lived in Kallahasky, Florida for a handful of years. Okay. And there, there's no at the time there was no tag system. You could shoot two bucks a day every day of the season. Okay. Which led to not very many bucks around. Sure. And you would just have herds of does and I mean it's probably been more than seven years, but I don't know what the the Yeah. Anyways, we saw a lot of deer that we probably shouldn't have been shooting at, but uh again, just like hanging out with rednecks, you know, in Florida. And uh anyways, that was like early on in my hunting career, and I it was time for me to like learn the wrong things to do. And uh but the duck hunting in Florida was was not good. Hardest duck hunting I've ever done in my life, dude. It's like everybody and their mom duck hunted at a boat, and there was very few ducks around. For the most part, you're you would go in the morning and shoot your three wood ducks, and that was and then now it's 80 degrees and time to go home. You know it was brutal. A couple of cool experiences, like we got to hunt some of the salt marshes and like shoot you would go shoot your two redheads, and that was pretty much all you would see, but there would be like tens of thousands of redheads down there coming January. So super cool.
SPEAKER_00:So knowing that you're gonna be making your way up north here, and you know, I mean, obviously you kind of start out in Missouri there, but you know you can spend some time in Florida, obviously get into California and uh you know do do your waterfowl hunting down in Southern California, but you're about to come up to one of the best waterfowl hunting areas in the entire world. So it's gonna be on, man. And yeah, I look forward to uh spending time with you, and you know, we'll get you out with our crew. And you've you've hunted up here a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so I've come up the the furthest north of I've hunted Los Baños in the grasslands before, and I've hunted Mendota a couple of times because I watched that that one YouTube video, the Hunt 41. Yeah, the Hunt 41 video, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before I moved here, and I was like, I want to go to that place. And then I remember I showed up in Mendota and I was like, I gotta get out of here, dude.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But then I've hunted the last two seasons I've gone up and hunted late goose season with a guide out of Gridley, Marv, uh great dude. Shameless plugged, but uh and that was just what a cool area, man. I mean, and like there's a a waterfowl culture that's up there that you don't have down here that was just like really cool to go experience.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it's funny, that's one of the things I wanted to ask you about later in in our conversation is about that culture, because obviously up here, you know, you can go into you know your local sporting goods shop or I mean even here like in the quote unquote city, you know, like the amount of folks that hunt or waterfowl hunting, and I'm up here in the Sacramento area, so I I think it's a little more prevalent, but you know, it's not as you know the chances of you where you live in LA running into a neighbor or someone that maybe isn't hunting of any sort or any sort of outdoor, you know, you know, fishing or whatever. I'm I'm sure I I don't want to stereotype it, I'm sure you get you know mountain bikers and hikers and different things like that.
SPEAKER_04:And that's like a cool, that's been a cool culture to to experience.
SPEAKER_00:But that's like predominantly, I mean, there's some dudes that are hardcore, they're still out there right now, but it's but what I'm saying is like when you when you when you move up here, we'll we'll go up and you know you'll you'll find yourself, you know, going up on a Thursday or Friday up, you know, up here in the Sack Valley, heading up to any of the uh numerous towns up there, and you know, you'll have different restaurants that you like to frequent, you know, you'll have different spots that you like to go, and it's just fun being amongst, you know, amongst other hunters, you know. People. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, man. Yeah, it's exciting. Well, right on. Well, you know, we're talking a little bit about that culture, and and I'm curious, you know, when we think about Southern California, and let's let's jump into like kind of SoCal here. What does the duck hunting community feel like? You know, when you're out like maybe at one of the refuges, and you know, you mentioned there's I think two or three hundred people for like 50 spots, like where are most of those folks coming from? You know, because I I can't imagine that there's too many that are coming from you know Northern California and you know trying their luck down there, unless they maybe get a resie and they they've been putting in for some reason. But you know, where are most of the folks from? Are they from LA, San Diego, you know, out in the desert? Yeah, where where are most of the folks coming from?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so especially like like San Jacento and Worcester, I would say, are like true, like full-on SoCal refuges. And you you can definitely tell, man, like lots of yeah, lots of desert trash, and I love them, dude. No disrespect. It's been a that's like my favorite part of going to Worcester is just seeing like that is such a bizarre landscape. And like I think the people are reflected with that. And also as something like coming from the Midwest and and then like the South, like the diversity is kind of wild too, as just something I hadn't experienced and has been cool to be a part of. And like like their opening day at Worcester, some years there's like you can buy breakfast burritos in the parking lot. Like there's one restaurant in the town, and they're gonna come and make burritos. I don't know if they've done it the last couple of years, but just a cool experience for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Such a smart move because uh years ago I was talking to my buddies where I'm like, you know what we need to do? Like, we need to quit sweating on here and you know, working worried about the lotto and all that stuff. It's like if we get a food truck and just park it off of like I don't know, you I don't know if you're familiar with it, but like Maxwell Road up here out, you know, by Delavin or out by Sacramento, like all those guys, you're telling me they wouldn't just pull in and and if we have good burritos or something, pull in clean up. Oh, absolutely, you know, enough of the gas station breakfast and be like, oh, this is perfect. So yeah, there you go, little business idea there. Cool. Well, so I you know it's funny you were talking about just kind of the diversity and the culture and whatnot. And I think once you get up here, one of the kind of coolest things about Northern California, at least in my experience, is you know, it's the waterfowl, like when you go to the refuge, especially in the check station parking lot or whatnot, it's just like a melting pot of different folks, right? Because you got people that come from the city, you got people that come from the bay, you got people that live up in the area, you got the college kids out at Chico, you know, it's just it's just different, you know, and you have some folks that you know, you know, CEOs, executives, you know, and they're just out in the refuge that weekend. You got some folks that, you know, work, you know, I don't know, like a nine to five gig, you know, Monday through Friday, and uh which is kind of cool. Like, you know, you meet different people out there, but the one thing that we all have in common is our pursuit and our love of waterfowl. And it's it's cool, man. But but yeah, it's it's sometimes it can be interesting. You do see some characters, that's for that's for sure.
SPEAKER_04:And like yeah, I so uh before I lived out here, and I still I'll still try and do at least one trip, duck trip a year, but the guys that got me into it are are hardcore, so they're usually they're either gonna go like Oklahoma. I know they did they did Habitat Flats one year, which was a little out of my budget, but uh we used to go to Wisconsin and hunt pool nine for canvas backs every November. That was like the big group trip we would do. Yeah. And on more than one occasion, we had like angry locals. One time they they put a padlock on the tongue for the boat trailer, which I thought was kind of a funny thing because we didn't have a key for it. We had to go, we literally had to go buy an angle grinder to get to in order to drop the trailer at the Airbnb, or we were just gonna be screwed pulling the boat around. But I think like the and you always hear about some bullshit going on at the refuge, but for the most part, the waterfowl community here is like super welcoming, and I've made a like all my hunting buddies here have either been like I met at a refuge, like in the sweat line, like on a refuge forum, which is like a lot of states, it's all just bashing each other and shit talking and stuff. So it that has been a an awesome experience too. Is like my best hunting partner, it Melody, is like a Chinese woman that I met in the parking lot, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that because I obviously I follow on Instagram and and I was just kind of curious how you guys she's gonna be she's gonna be pissed that I bring this up, but dude, straight up Queen of the Refuge, man.
SPEAKER_04:Like solo hunts out there, yeah, for sure killing like over a hundred birds a season, which is like I I try not to, I'm not a numbers guy or anything like that. Uh that's not true, but um, it's just impressive, I think, for Southern California. And she's I just recognize like when we first started, when we first met, like she was ate up with it. And if I hit her up on a Tuesday at like 9 p.m. and was like, hey, let's go tomorrow, she was gonna be like, all right, I'm in. That's awesome. And that's kind of been the harder thing to find here is like people there's like a lot of I think there's a lot of like fair weather hunters in SoCal. And it's been harder to find some people that are like really ate up with it to the point that they're gonna like sacrifice their everything else in their life, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you know, I don't know if you had a chance to listen to last week's episode or not, but that's one of the things I talked about. My buddy Pete was on there, and uh we grew up together, we got into hunting around the same time. But I think it's fair, and I think I mentioned it on there, but I'd say it if you're sitting right here, really kind of a fair weather hunter, right? Nothing negative, and he owns it, he owns it, right? But I get I just got tired of you know hearing no all the time. I'm like, hey, you want to go tomorrow? Hey, I got this, Rezi, I got you know this opportunity. Do you want to go? And and there was always kind of something going on, unless you know the weather is Right, or it was like, you know, I mentioned that he prefers to hunt out of blind, so I really needed kind of a top 10 or 15 resie to kind of secure the blind versus going sitting in the toolies. But that's when, you know, I I pivoted to a good buddy of mine, Caitlin. It's funny, he actually worked for me when we started hanging out, and so you know, just he was more gung-ho about it. He was new to the sport and and he had that itch, right? So it's been cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So that's the hack right there, too, man. Like if anybody's listening to this and they're like, your significant other is upset with you. You gotta get somebody you work with addicted, deeply, deeply addicted as well. And then you can be like, baby, Pam and Pedro are going and I gotta go. Yeah, yeah. Yep. You know, they think that they think that I got them into it because you know, we were buddy buddies, but it really didn't have anything to do with that.
SPEAKER_00:No, and and it's nice. I've talked about it with some other buddies where it's like, we all I didn't realize how many folks at like my old company were into duck hunting, not hunting in general, but just duck hunting, you know. And so we used to joke with some of the folks we work with. I'm like, you want to hit a number, put a sales incentive to like, you know, some sort of hunting trip or whatever. You will hit whatever number you want, you know. So yeah, no, that now that that's really cool. So you you talked a little bit about I'm sorry, your name's Melody.
SPEAKER_03:Melody, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I I did what I was curious, kind of, you know, being in Southern California and you kind of being a transplant new to the area, you know, your hunting crew, how how'd you is it mostly just you and her? Is there a couple other folks that you guys hunt with, or and do you prefer like for me, like when I started hunting, I was like, the more the merrier, right? If I if if if I got a resie and I knew that it you could take three or four hunters with you, I was taking three or four hunters. But then you start realizing you're like, no, that's just too many things to flare birds, it's too many opinions in the blind for setup. And I got to the point where I'm like, I probably hunt, we most I do a lot of solo hunts, but also it's mostly just Caitlin and I. But I want to say we haven't don't quote me. I I don't know if we've hunted three guys this year, and I think maybe last year a handful, maybe two times. So you know, while we have our hunting crew, it's like I don't mind rolling solo.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, dude, and and I'll say this. I've been hunting now, this is season 12 or 13 or something, 12 12 years basically. The longer I've been doing it, the more I've become okay with like, yeah, let's all four of us go out there. We're pr we're not gonna shoot a four-man lane. Yeah, you know, there's either just not that many birds around, or be I know the spot, there's no way we can hide four dudes, but like it'll be fun, yeah, and we can kind of like talk shit and hang out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But I would say even now, like most if if I'm like really trying to get after them, it's gonna it's either a solo hunt or it's me and one other person. And I think sometimes I get a little too serious about it, but you know, it's competitive, dude. I also like that about refuge hunting in California. There is this competitive nature to it, and I think that's a lot of fun. It's important for me to like chill out sometimes, but like melody, I think gets aggravated because I want to be hidden to the point that we can't see birds. You know what I mean? And I think that's important. And the first thing I noticed when I moved out here was just like the and this isn't like a blanket statement, but a lot of YouTube videos that you'll watch, I'm like, just a lot of pass shooting. There's a lot of shooting where I'm watching a YouTube video and I'm like, I can't even I mean that thing is flying like a pintail, but like I can't see what that is. Yeah. And I was coming from a place where I'm like most of my shots were, you know, were just it's just us in a field. We're seeing birds at like 10 or 15 yards. And I became obsessed with this idea of like, I really think I can, especially in a free roam area, I can get far enough away, I can get hidden enough, and like my have my decoys look realistic enough, like that I can decoy birds. Yeah. And I would rather I'll still take like I'll definitely fall down that rabbit hole where you just are on a sick one and you're kind of shooting at anything that's with like 40 and in, but I would much rather leave with two or three birds that I really fooled and got to shoot over the decoys than than leave with that's why I shoot so many spoonies, man.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, same. They just dude, they do it so good.
SPEAKER_04:I have to.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I would say between spoonies and then obviously, like, you know, pintail always want to work, widgeon want to work, but you know, sometimes just in the refuge, it's so crowded, it's so competitive that you know, and it all depends on what what game you're trying to pursue, you know. So like on the season, the episode that you were on, we had Landon on, and and you know, he loves shooting greenheads, right? So he'll pass on birds and he'll just you know go deep into the refuge and you know, he'll just get them to work. And and if he goes home with I don't want to speak for him, but one bird or no bird, like he's not going to waver or compromise on like, oh well, I'm gonna, you know, take I don't want to say unethical, but just he knows how he wants to hunt, you know. So um so no that I think it it's different. I mean, it it's crowded up here, and I'm not saying that that is any excuse for you take the shots that you want to take. I my whole thing is like just make sure it's an it's an ethical shot, you know. Um so and that's one of the things that I've really tried to do the last few handful of seasons is you know, obviously I learned very early on, okay, the skyscraping, you know, like no, right? And then same thing with like the decoys when, and I know it's not perfect because obviously, you know, it it's you know, four or five in the morning, but you know, I try to walk out my decoys, you know, 25 to 35 yards, you know, so that way I kind of know, okay, are they inside 30? You know, when the birds are passing through. Yeah. Uh so I mean, to each their own, you know, and one of the things is like you can only control what you can too.
SPEAKER_04:That's it, dude. And and I would say, like, the biggest like I'm not a I wouldn't even call myself a great duck hunter. I think I'm a I'm moderately okay at killing birds when things go right. I do take pride in like the the hide. I think that's such an underrated thing. And you hear about it all the time, and and I don't know how it is up there, but down here I s I swear to god, man, you'll stand up and you can be like, there's a guy, there's a guy, there's a guy, and you'll just see dudes like these like big dark shapes in the toolies on the like hunting from the levees, like and you want to just and it's and I think for the most part, it's not their fault. They're either don't have a mentor, maybe they're just going out there and like that's good, just being out there is good for them, you know, and they're like, I don't even really care about killing birds. But it's like, dude, if you could get off of the levee, get really hidden to the point where you're like, Wow, I actually can't see very well, like it's gonna happen, man. You're gonna be sitting there and like birds are just gonna land in your decoys.
SPEAKER_00:For for sure. And and I mean, I've been guilty of this too. It's like, you know, you go into it sometimes like, hey, I'm gonna walk as far as I can, get out by myself, you know. But sometimes you're like, okay, I'm just gonna dive in right here and and hop in. But but also up here, you know, if we're talking about refuges or even like you know, you're talking about your private rights, but as the season goes on, the cover, as we know, just gets beat up, gets trunk, blown out. Exactly, right? And some of the like the when you get up, you know, we obviously have some excellent properties up here, you know, for public land, but you know, some of the assigned blinds, I mean, they're just a mound of dirt out there, and so even if someone's hunkered down, you're gonna see like their head sticking out, right? So, and and the unfortunate thing, and I don't want to speak for all the refuges up here, but I think this year, whether it was like the shutdown or some other or just staffing, but normally they do like work weekends where like you know, you go out as a hunter and and I've tried to take advantage of those, yeah. You know, try to put in and and help out, and it's good to, you know, families go out there and do some work, but I don't think they did too many of those, and and that goes a long way too, you know, at least getting the you know, getting the kickoff to the season off on the right foot when you know cover and stuff, but but also and this is one of my biggest pet peeves, and I've talked about it multiple times on here, and once again, I can only control what I can, but for some reason when people go out to public land, they just like they treat it like shit, you know, all over again. Yeah, so later, yeah, yeah, you see like shells and garbage, and and one thing that we try to do, like Kate and I, is like when we are tucked into the tools, even for our hunt, is like we established, hey, here's our pathway in and out, you know, and so like we basically go in once or twice, or in and out once or twice, but he sends his dog in and out of that same way, so that way we're not just trampling out there and uh ruining our cover for the hunt. But as the season goes on, you're just you know walking through the pond and you can see where folks have just you know have been, you know.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, and I think that's so yeah, just like things that I like certain things I've done is like you'll get you got a big Thule Island, you know you you're like hitting it with your headlamp when you walk up and you're like, oh sick. And you get up and that whole thing is hollowed out, and you have just this shell of a Thule Island, you know what I mean? Yeah. Where it's just the outside rim, and dude just trampled the whole middle part down. And it's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try and stand up what I can, but I'm literally gonna tuck into that little edge. I'm gonna take my my sled to the next Thule Island and put it, even if it's 50 yards away, stash it over there. It's just like one less hard edge that they're gonna be looking at. And and if I have to go cut even just a couple of branches that I can have them like kind of sticking up over the top of my head, it's gonna work wonders, you know. Um, and that kind of comes back to the like either hunting solo or hunting small groups, you know, where you can kind of break up a little bit. Yeah. But yeah, it's just like I would say if anyone is having trouble where you're like for a long time, I used to think you'll hear birds flying over the top, and you'll hear their their wing beats pick up, and you're like, damn, I just flared those birds. Yeah. But the more I've watched, it's like they those birds didn't really flare, but they they just didn't really or they're they're gonna land out in the open. Like not by any other ducks. It's like a solo that should have done it, and for some reason they just kind of like circled once and went and landed a hundred yards away. It's like you flared, they didn't see you, but they knew something was weird, you know. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And and and they've they're so educated, they know kind of where where we're at and you know where the safe places are. Because I mean, yeah, yeah, we'll we'll literally be on the refuge and we'll just watch them just land, you know, 100 150 yards away, you know, and we're just hey, keep an eye, keep an eye. They jump up, let's let's see what happens.
SPEAKER_04:But what the hell? What's with uh maybe somebody can chime in, or I'm curious what you think. What's with the gadwall out here, dude? What's that? Every every other state or flyway that I've hunted, Gadwall are like, I don't want to say like gimme ducks, but they're not very bright. They always decoy super easy. You can like yell at them with a mouse wall and they react. Those are the most aggravating dang birds I've ever seen. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just they sit at the same refuges for a long time, but like those things are tough to kill out here, dude. Do you guys see any of that where they're just like being really wonky and not finishing or landing off by themselves?
SPEAKER_00:No, you know, I would definitely this season, yes, and I would definitely, you know, anyone listens, hit us up on Instagram, you know, shoot Colin a message on Instagram as well. But you know, just the gray ducks well the opportunities haven't been there this year, you know, for me. Like where I've been, you know. Um I think maybe two or three gaddies this year, you know.
SPEAKER_04:We've killed some, but it's like I'm like turning blue in the face, calling at them and like working them, and like we're like literally you can't even see out of the like where you're hiding, and they're still like I don't know, yeah. And then they go and land. So we've killed a handful, but it's just one of those funny things where I'm like, I don't know what it is with the Pacific flyway gadwalls, but they're they're those things are tough.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, one last question on kind of like the culture down there. Yeah, I'm curious, and it's kind of a quick, quick question, is like up here we have a lot of clubs, you know, whether it's you know, some kind of I say qu clubs in air quotes, like you know, groups of guys that you know maybe lease a handful of blinds together, but also we have like private property clubs, you know, some high dollar clubs, obviously up here in the Buttes, and but just you know, throughout the grasslands and all in the Sassoon Marsh. Are there many clubs down in so your neck of the woods?
SPEAKER_04:Like we pretty much we got three refugees. Salt and sea, you got Worcester. There's clubs around there. Okay. I think some of them do pretty good, man. There's like there's an insane number of snow geese that end up down there. Yeah. And I I think some of those clubs really hammer on them. Same thing with San Ecento. There's literally like a private club in the middle of San Nacento.
SPEAKER_00:All right.
SPEAKER_04:But that's like the only one. And then Kern is like there are a handful of clubs in in Kern County right there on like the north side of Bakersfield. Yeah. And that's almost all like they got flooded corn there. They have it's all like moist soil stuff. There's no there's no rice really. And I I think most of them probably do pretty good. Just because there's like not as many, you know. And water is so limited down here. It's like if you can find water, there's there's there has to be ducks on it. Like they just don't have that many places to go.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you know, I can look this up, but maybe you know. Does CWA have a property down there? Yeah, yeah. It's at the Tularie Lake, or what is it? Or what's it called? Uh Goose Lake. Goose Lake. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:But down in like Tularie area or yeah, ex it's right by it's right by the uh current refuge, like a couple miles down the road. Yeah, I've hunted it once. Okay. Um it's odd, they make you I think I got an invite actually to hunt. And pit blind, like really nice pit blinds and decoys were already there. And we sat until like 11 a.m. or so and didn't see any birds. Yeah. And ended up saying, like, screw it, and drove to the refuge down the road and shot a limit by the end of shooting time. Um but the same guy that invited me went back there and hunted that goose like property and shot two banded cinnamon teal.
SPEAKER_00:I think, I mean, obviously, they have access to some amazing properties, California waterfowl, but yeah, both both every hunt, and I've been on two, three different California waterfowl properties, and they're in pristine locations, but it just wasn't the day, it wasn't the day, you know. Just uh and by all accounts it probably should have been, but just you know, birds weren't there, and it is what it is. But yeah, I got an opportunity, uh, an invite for one of their newer properties coming up, and uh I'll let you know off air, but I'll probably we'll probably talk about it on here too, but what it's gonna be like. So that'll be awesome, man. Yeah. So I'm curious, like kind of like talking about the habitat and the locations, you keep referencing like the three main like you know, refuges, but I'm curious, like down there, you know, is it just called the Kern? Is it called the Salton Sea? Because like up here, you know, we have Sack Valley, we have the grasslands, we have the bay, we have Sassoon Marsh. Like, do you guys have like regions, or is it just like if you're talking to a hunting buddy, like what like what would you call like if you're gonna head up to the Kern or that area, is it just called Kern?
SPEAKER_04:Like Yeah, most people just call it Kern. Okay. And that's the so far as I know that yeah, that's the southernmost refuge in the Central Valley. Yeah. That it's like it's a awesome, it's it's federal. Yeah. The manager, I think, does a great job as far as like managing the birds, but part of that is I think like 60% of the refuge is closed zone.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:It's it's just hard to get into, man. And it's like we kind of talked about this too. Like the problem here is everything's so far away. Like San Jacinto is the closest, it's like an hour and a half drive for me from LA. Going to Worcester is three hours, going up to Kern is two hours. Like, you pretty much have to devote all day to sit in a sweat line and maybe not get in.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And that's part of it. Like, that's what's cool. Like, Worcester is straight up in the desert, dude. Yeah. Like Bombay Beach is down there, like it's nothing but Joshua trees and sand.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they're like pretty close to the dunes out there, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and you like you're gonna get you're you're gonna get checked by border patrol when you leave. They got a checkpoint set up, you know, like you were in the desert, yeah, and squeakers running around in the middle of the night, whole nine yards. But it's just such a cool environment, you know, and like there is some pulleys and stuff. Like, I know CWA's done a bunch down there, but like it's a lot of salt cedar, which is like this weird, it's probably invasive. But I'm talking about like you your gun will brush up against this bush, and you'll have like insta rust on your gun from like the salt. And yeah, it's just a crazy environment, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that that that is crazy. Yeah, yeah, man. I've I've always been curious about the current, obviously, you know, driving the five for so many years, you know, going down and seeing family, and and I I've put in there not all the time, but I've put in a handful of times, and obviously only put in a handful of times, I'm not gonna have much success, but you never know. I'm always hoping to be that one person. It's like, hey, you only put in once this year and you got drawn, you know. But but it's a hike, man. It's a hike for you and for us. So like even for me, like it's like I think a four and a half, five hour drive, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and it's one of those where like I'll tell you the the last time I went, I think I finally got on a a little past noon. But like they only give out seven reservations or eight reservations, maybe. Okay. So I've never I've never I've put in for every hunt date for the last five seasons. I've never pulled one. Wow, you know, yeah. Not gonna pull one.
SPEAKER_00:Um, even San Jacin, which is like it's funny enough, when we did the check-in, I was like, I hate that place, they'll never yeah, you said you swore it off, and then you're yeah, I was gonna say you said you swore it off forever, and I was like, wait, he's talking about it again like he's been there.
SPEAKER_04:I uh I got an invite, man. I had a so I've never pulled a San Jacinto Resi uh after four or five seasons, whatever it's.
SPEAKER_00:And I put in I put in for San Ito and Worcester, obviously for the holidays, just because I knew if I get one, you'd be able to go hunt with me, but yeah, no luck there either. Yeah, Worcester's big enough.
SPEAKER_04:They got, you know, it's over a hundred like assigned ponds. Wow. It's massive, and it just kind of stretches up the shore of the Salton Sea. There's been days where I just kind of show up and walk on. That's cool. Like I show up to an empty parking lot right like a little bit before shoot time, and they're like, Yeah, just pick whatever's left, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It very rarely fills up. But San A Cinto, just because it's so close, you're getting like everybody from San Bernardino is coming over, everybody from LA, all those like little those little towns east of Los Angeles. It's like right there. And but I got an invite a good dude that I took, I met him on Reddit of all places, and he wanted to go. And I took him on a couple of hunts, and he hit me back and was like, dude, I got a resie if you want to go.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:And I went into it thinking like I'm moving soon, I might as well go hunt this place just to say like I went and hunted it. And I I like told him he pulled a number three too, which is like pretty crazy. Yeah, good for him. And yeah, we shot a bunch of ringnecks, which I know some people don't like, but I'm kind of uh I'm kind of partial to them, and then had a greenhead come in and shot that thing at like 10 yards at like 10 a.m. right before we left.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, nice. I think I think I saw that on your story or one of your posts. That's crazy, man. Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:Probably was raised in a crate and got turned loose the day before, but uh that's a whole another topic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, and I'm curious. Let's pivot real quick because just a quick question before we jump into kind of your hunting style, especially as it plays into Southern California. You mentioned the ringnecks and what uh, but you also got that greenhead. Your fiance, like, do you you guys does she enjoy waterfowl? Like, do you guys you know, like how do you prepare your game? Well, are you mostly do you make sticks?
SPEAKER_04:What do you think she's such a trooper man? She's she is I would say like very adventurous and very willing to try anything once. And there have been recipes and like different I do a lot of jerky, I do a lot of sausage where she's like, that is good. I just don't want to eat it. And I'm like, all right, yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's how it is at our house, but she's tried it, right? And yeah, tried it so many different ways. I, you know, we've done pentail, spec, you know, mallard, uh, and then obviously the the duck sticks at the end of the season. And you put enough jalapeno cheddar in there. I mean, you can make anything taste good, including, you know, the ringnecks and you know whatever else we get out there. So yeah. No, but I was always curious because a lot of times if my wife is traveling for work or she's gone, I'm like, oh, I go in the freezer, and that's when I pull out you know, a couple pintailed breasts, and I have a nice little feast myself.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. She works late like three nights a week. So I've been eating duck for like three days a week since seasons kind of started thicking up. Good for you. Oh so like teal most of the puddle ducks cooking like a steak. Yeah, I call it a meatball. Yep. I I'm probably just gonna eat that thing standing over the cutting board. You know what I mean? Yeah. I try not to. I got a buddy that's an incredible cook, and him and and and his girl are like his girl really is the chef, dude. That's awesome. Uh but they do all sorts of fancy stuff. I'm probably just gonna sear that sucker skin side down in cast iron and cut it thin and eat it like a steak. You know what I mean? Yep, love it. Uh the the off ducks, and I hate to call them that, but like the my spoonies, the most of the divers, like with the exception of redheads, I think red redheads are great, man. I'll I'll cook that like a it's a pain in the ass to pluck them, but I'll cook that like a steak. But like the ringnecks, if I accidentally shoot a buffalo head because I'm bored, that's going sausage pile or jerky. And I'll just do like a soy teriyaki marinade.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you do your own.
SPEAKER_04:And then she got me a dehydrator for Christmas and just like slicing it as thin as you can, chuck it in that marinade for a day or so. Hank Shaw is like anything Hank Shaw, and you can always mess with the ingredients a little bit. Like I don't deal with any of like the curing salt, anything like that, but heavy on the soy just so it's got a lot of salt, and then just chuck it in the dehydrator for four or five hours and it's pretty good, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, years ago. Well, when I first got into waterfowl hunting, that's what I was doing was like end of season, you know, like you said, the best way to put it those off ducks, right? And put them in like the big container. I'd dump a jar or two of soybe teriyaki on it, and uh and I had the dehydrator as well. And uh, but I don't know, just I I'm partial to those those you know, pepper sticks, you know, those that's good stuff. So when when you come up here, I'll I'll connect you with my guy. You know, he's actually in Sacramento, so yeah, we'll we'll get you connected. But absolutely, man. Cool. Well, we chatted a little bit about this, and it sounds like you've done some kayak hunting in the past, but but now it's I'm just kind of curious, what's your hunt style? Are you mostly kind of walking, you know, you got your waders on, your sled, your cart, and you're just finding a spot. That's kind of the and is that the majority of folks down there? Because I know up here, you know, there's some spots where people are running their boats. You know, obviously, you know, for the private property, it's nice. They can take their side by side right up to the check. But obviously at the refuges, there we have some that allow bikes, but for the most part, you're hoofing it, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I don't think so. Worcester and Sanacento, it's all either assigned ponds or blinds, so there's no need for a bike, really. I mean, I'm sure people do just to make it easier, but there's not like that whole racing to the spot isn't really a thing. The free roam at Kern, if you ever get in, is like is pretty wild. So what but what I do is I got a jogging stroller. Oh, nice. And I got this from from Melody, and I'm you know, I'm sure I've seen other people do it, but this is the method that I like. And I I have that, and then I have that a decoy bag that I'll throw decoys in that goes in the stroller. I got a a gun rack for an ATV off of Amazon, and I bolted that to the side of my stroller so my gun can sit on the side. And then it also has that little pouch at the bottom of the jogging stroller. A lot of times my walk is gonna be like a mile at least, maybe a little more than a mile before I'm like going off into the water. Yeah. I'll just I'll wait to put my waders on. And that's like that's a huge it's so simple, but like not having to walk a mile in waiters is nice.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, it it it definitely makes a difference. Uh, you know, a couple seasons ago I I made the investment. I got some sitka waiters that are really nice and breathable. And so what's nice about it is like not so much in the morning because you know you're you're bundled up pretty good, it's pretty cool, but on the way back, I'll just uh you know undo the zipper and you know let the AC you know come into the body here. But no, uh I know a lot of guys that do that, that put their waiters on, you know, just much easier, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So um, but yeah, that's it. I'll do that, and then I I just kind of like flop my jet sled over the top and just strap it all down with a piece of paracord and good to go.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. Well, I don't know if you have one, but next time you're out, uh send me a picture. I'd love to see that set up.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, absolutely, man. It's been good, and I know like I see a lot of dudes running the the deer carts, and I think that stuff's good until those levees get wet, and then it's just like a nightmare, dude.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I have a God, I've had one since my first season, and it's one of those big deer game carts, and and uh you know it it's a it's one of the oversized one because it can hold my jet sled, and I don't have the jet sled XL, but it still holds quite a bit of gear because honestly, I I hit you up on Instagram about it because I saw your rigum right setup, so I have enough room for that bag, and it's funny, I bought the bag, I I used it once, and I was like, it just wasn't good for trying to stay mobile and light and all that stuff, and I wasn't hauling that many deks, you know. But but that cart, it's it's not bad. But I was after a storm, I was at one of the refuges last month, and I mean you're basically I turned into like a Clydesdale where I basically was pulling that thing, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, like a knife through butter, those like skinny hard tires.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, but it's funny that that same hunt, one of my buddies, he had it's funny that the sled was twice as wide as the cart, so you're kind of you hit like you're in some of those like mud holes and whatnot, and you hit like a good pothole, the whole thing tips, you know, it's just yeah, it it's a mess. But yeah, we we figure out what works for us.
SPEAKER_04:On that jogging stroller, the other thing I do is like I let all the air out of the tires. Nice. It's kind of a pain if it's if you're on gravel or anything, but as soon as I get to the mud, I I kind of just float across the top. And then the the other part of that is like I'm running predominantly teal decoys. I don't think I really like it, I don't think it matters, dude. Dudes have been shooting ducks over black Coke bottles for years. So I like the teal decoys just because they're small and it can I can like take so I'll take a dozen teal and then I have a dozen mix of like a couple of spoonies, a couple of pintails, a couple of widgets, and that's like the second dozen that I that I'll bring. And I'll have some of the and a jerk string, like I'll have four of those hooked up on a jerk string.
SPEAKER_00:Nice, and you know it's funny, man. I put together just some some talking points that I wanted to chat with you about. And literally my next question was what is your usual or average decoy spread look like? And and you know it's funny, I was listening to another podcast today actually, and they were talking about you know regular decoys versus those new like super mag ones, those like large deeks that and I'm just like that doesn't really make sense for like if you're a public land hunter, you're going in and out. I would love to, yeah, but we we run a similar setup, man, and uh I some people might still say it's too much, but I think I run a dozen I run 18 deeks right now, and I have well actually I I take that back. There's 24 in the back right now because I have a dozen teal because they're so small, but normally I run six teal, but I have a dozen in there. I have six spoonies, three pintail, and three widgen. Depending on the time of year or where I'm at, I I'll even uh throw on like three or four full-body like spec floaters, just you know, depending on where I'm at. And those are cool because they're just sit sitting on a carabin or I just throw them in the sled, and and it could be a game time decision. I can leave them in the rig or take them with me. It is what it is, you know, depending on where I'm going.
SPEAKER_04:So well, and and I think so controversial, dude. I think refuge hunting for the most part is easy. And I don't mean like like it's physically a lot of stuff, and it's a lot of walking, and it's kind of but like I think people that have hunted the refuges a lot would go to another state where you're just kind of on your own and would probably struggle. Oh, for sure. And so what I've tried to do is like use some of the things that I look that those guys taught me back east to bring out here, and a big one of that is like ducks feel safe around geese. And the other thing is like just trying to do something a little bit different, like if every decoy spread on the refuge is 12 mallards. I don't think ducks are that smart, but I think they pick up on like, man, we keep getting shot at every time we go here. So doing things like switching up, like doing like small family groups really spread out. That that was I learned that off of watching Mid Valley mercenaries before I moved out here. Yeah, yeah. And he was talking about like almost having no decoys within shooting range where you're like using little family groups to like block off areas. Like these ducks are used to having to kind of hide and tuck up, and it's like you might think they can't see it, but I don't know, just trying some weird off-the-wall different stuff has like has worked out for me on those public public spots, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, I I'd have to go back and look at their videos, but yeah, I I know Mid Valley Mercenaries and Titus in that group there, and it's funny, like they he was like the king of rolling light because he would say sometimes like they go out to their local refuge with like three to six decoys, you know. Yeah, and it's and I mean I know and you feel I mean I'm sure it wasn't all the time, right? But it's just about like trust me, it's especially if we go somewhere where maybe it's like a resie that we've been looking forward to for a long time, for some reason we just tend to overthink it. And so we totally like if I'm going to Stack Refuge, which is like the one that I like to go to most, you know, it's pretty easy to get on, it's an hour from the house. But for some reason, I get a draw at Delivan right down the street. I'm Kate and I are like, hey, what should we bring? Or you know, like, what do you think? Hey, what are you gonna bring? I'll bring this. And next thing you know, like we got like we're loaded down, and you know, so it's just about being disciplined. So I think your comment about re refuge hunting being being easy. I I think I understand where you're coming from on there because because when I go solo hunting, I basically have my setup here, and now like I might make little tweaks, but for the most part, I have it in the garage where I have my sled, my deeks, my cart on top. Occasionally I might throw in like a like a mojo, it's already on the pole, it's just in there in the sled. I'm good to go. You know, it's got to put the wings on. So it's it's pretty easy. The hardest part is one, the access getting on, and two is you know, finding that hole, right? You know, finding the X for the day.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and I think so this kind of comes the the way I try to think about it too, that's been helpful is like I'm either A, it's it's a place that I'm familiar with, and I know that ducks want to sit here, which is on I think on a free roam unit that's that is shooting two or three times a week is hard to find. So more than likely, it's like I'm running traffic. Yeah, and yes, it's easier to only carry out three or six decoys, but if I'm running traffic, I want uh I want like a big I want it to look like a closed zone. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so I think you're right, like sometimes putting four or five dozen decoys out there is gonna be a pain in the ass, but that might that's probably gonna be different than what all the other groups are doing out there on that free drone, and the birds are gonna see that and at least like come take a look.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and that normally happens for us when let's say we have a top 10 somewhere and we know that we we have a pretty good idea on where we're gonna go. We're either gonna be on this end of the refuge or that end, but we kind of know where we're gonna be, and we're familiar with you know the layout, the water situation, all that. And so that's when things kind of get crazy where it's like, hey, let's just go big and build our own little closed zone out there, right? But the key is the weather, the wind, the motion, right? Because you put out three, four dozen decoys and they're all just sitting there stagnant, just literally on glass. It looks horrible, right? So that kind of leads me to my next question for you is how much motion's being like being run down there like at the refuges? Like are are folks big into the spinning wings, and you know, do you run those? Do you see a lot of them out there?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and I'm super torn on the mojos on the spinning wings. Sure. I I totally get that it's unnatural for a bird to see just like this constant thing. Yeah. So I I uh I think the the ones with the remotes are worth their weight in gold. And I'm gonna use it like that. Like I'm gonna have a call in one hand and the remote in the other. And I'm gonna be just like I'm using my call when they're like wingtips and tail feathers, I'm gonna be hitting that mojo remote just to like so there's a little bit of flash. And as soon as they're like coming back or they're over the top, I'm gonna kill the mojo. Yeah. Or a lot of what I've had good experience doing, same thing with like hiding, kind of like hiding the decoys, is like I'll hide the mojo where I tuck it up against even if it's like stupid close. Like if the only toolies I have is the one I'm hiding in, I'll still try and like tuck it up around the corner where the toolies are kind of blocking some of the vision to that mojo, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, and and that that's a great point because sometimes I will do that too, where it's like it's not necessarily sticking up three feet out of the water, I'll kind of put it real low so it's almost like it's kind of like coming into land. But sometimes what I've got about three seasons ago, I met him at Outdoors show here in Roseville, actually, and it was the guys from Bluebird Waterfowl, they do that animator with like they have the like the the puddles of the little feet. And so ever since I I I got a set of those, and ever since I did that, I'm like, well, let me just pack this in closer to the toolie so that way because it's all about the sound, not so much the the um the the visual, right? So no, so that that that's a that's a cool piece too.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, and I'll try and do that. I have one of those decoy spreaders, the motion decoys that dude that's at a I think it's at Washington or something. And I'll run that. And then I actually did you get that from MVM too?
SPEAKER_00:They used to put they they yeah, they they were big on those too.
SPEAKER_04:Him and um Freelance Duck Hunting is a dude like in Kansas. He's like one of the first YouTube channels I started watching when I was trying to kind of figure it out. But I I I you instead of the little rock bag that they give you, I put like a kayak anchor on it. Okay, and then I beefed up the bungee. And then I have you if you've ever seen dudes in Arkansas when they're pulling on a jerk string, they're freaking trying to break it, dude. Yeah. They're like, so I don't have one of the animators, but I'm I'm using that jerk string. I'm not gonna be doing it when they're coming to me. And you know, like some of this stuff, if I'm mostly shooting teal and like I'm not really that worried about it. There's one spot I go that we can talk about off air, but like I shoot a decent number of mallards, and I think some of these like little details are more important with that. But I'm I'm trying to like make water sounds with that drink. Dirk string. And I I I love the Pulsators. I haven't had one last more than a season. Uh, which is I do want to the the new Higdon one, I think, that that's supposed to be sealed, I I'm sure is better. I just haven't had 200 bucks to spend on it, you know. And the Dirk String was like 40 bucks, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, I know those pulsators are nice, especially, you know, the first six, seven weeks of the season before you know you can start doing you know the spinning wings and whatnot. It's just it's good to use. Yeah, I have a handful of those, but yes, to your point, and actually one just died a couple weeks ago, and so I might have to reach out to Hignan on that one.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, dude, it's just like they're awesome. It's just like anything that sits in water that long. Yeah, I think, you know.
SPEAKER_00:My buddy Caitlin on the last episode was talking about that that new one from Mojo.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The one, it's like uh it just bobs up and down, but so it you know, rather than it's basically like an ice eater. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So we'll have to take a peek at that.
SPEAKER_04:That'd be awesome, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it came into some gift cards uh for for Christmas. So maybe uh I'll take a peek at that. I'll do some more research online real quick.
SPEAKER_04:So but yeah, I I think motion is probably the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04:So I'm always I'm always gonna take at least two dozen decoys. I might not put all of them out, but I want to have them, and then I'm gonna have you know four decoys on a jerk string. I'm gonna bring a mojo if I can, and then it's it feels ridiculous, dude. But just literally kicking the water, man. Those Arkansas dudes do it. And the more I thought about it, I'm like, I'm sitting in knee-deep water in the coolies. I might as well, like, they can't see me. When they're moving, I'm just gonna kick water and like put some ripples out there, and it works. You feel ridiculous, but just stuff like that. Anything to move something, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I teased it on one of the first episodes of For the Fowlers, but I got a buddy that I work with, he's based out of Tennessee, and uh he hunts uh all that flooded timber out in Arkansas and whatnot. And I I I'm trying to get him to come on, I gotta reach out to him again. Maybe I can get him after season or something because I'm so I just how we're talking about Southern California hunting here, I think it'd be cool to kind of hear the perspective there. And he's done some other podcasts before, so I you know it's been cool to hear, but but it that's just something we're not used to, you know.
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_00:But you mentioned just the flooding of, or not the flooding, but the kicking and fluttering of, you know, kicking your leg out and stuff. When I go out, like if it gets slow, or you know, let's say you know you you we don't we're not running a dog that day, and we go out to you know pick up a bird, I'm kicking my feet and dragging my feet to kind of get that chocolate milk going. Yeah, um, you know, because that makes a huge difference too. You know, maybe there's not a lot of you know wind or different stuff going on, and while you you know, maybe you have like four to six birds on the jerk string, at least now when the birds are flying over, they see kind of this cloudy, murky water. So it's hey, what's going on there? You know, there's something going on that all those ducks are interested in.
SPEAKER_03:So that's it, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, we are running a little after an hour here, but uh, so we'll wrap it up soon. But I I I did want to ask you about this, and then and then we'll we'll close off. I I'm curious to kind of get your opinion on, you know, to think about migration down south. And one thing I've always been kind of curious about is does the season make sense, like the dates make sense for you guys? Because obviously you guys are at the southern tip, you know, California, you know, further along in the Pacific Flyway. So, you know, when does it really turn on? You know, I know we've had some weather and it's obviously getting cold up here, but and maybe this is a bad year to kind of talk about it because with the fog that we had in the valley and stuff, it kind of messed up, you know, the migration a little bit, in in my opinion. I think a lot of people would agree with that. But it's almost like, man, it's probably like I would think down south you're starting to see these new birds show up, and then hey, it's end of season, right? So how how how does that play in for the folks down in Southern California?
SPEAKER_04:When I first started hunting, I I very much even in Indiana, there was this sense of like, which was only a 60-day season, and we had a split and this and that. Yeah. There was this sense of like, oh, season's too early. The more that I've read and listened to, and it's like the season here is longer than any other flyway. We we have a like more birds, like where I'm from, you you would shoot go shoot your four mallards and then pack it up and go home because it's all that's around. We can't. I really don't think we should be shooting birds past the end of January. Like as soon as they start pairing up, it's gotta that's gotta be the end, you know what I mean? Or we're gonna start, I think, affecting like you know, you hear all the time that like hunting doesn't affect population. I think the later that some of that stuff gets, we're I'm not a biologist, but it seems like that's kind of the no zone.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And I I think the reality is the wintering ground is now the Sack Valley. There's just not a reason for most birds to come further south than that. Right. Pressure's gonna be some of it, lack of water might be some of it, but like the reality is it's hotter down here, there's less water, there's just not so things like teal, like the spoonies, some of the divers that are their end goal is Mexico, anyways. It makes sense, but like I realized when I moved here, like I'm not gonna shoot mallards. You know, I'm probably gonna shoot some pintail and and widget and stuff like that, but it's you know, teal the SoCal teal season is what I started calling it, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's just it's interesting because you know, like I said, it it's we've had uh weeks of you know 40, 50 degrees, but you know, it still isn't as cold as it as it could be, you know, uh up here. And then I text I texted you when I was driving through LA last week, and I think it was like 83 degrees, 83 degrees, and I was like, this doesn't feel like duck weather, you know. And so obviously you guys may make it happen down there, but yeah, I was just curious about that. And and when you do, you're right, when you factor in the biology part of it, and and we think about the conservation and the uh population control and and obviously making sure that the resource you know can thrive, uh you're right there. But I was just more thinking of the the the sport part of it, right? You know, where you know we're we're constantly waiting for the birds to fly down from up north, and I'm like, man, by the time they get down to you guys, season's over.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, and I think it's just one of those things of like managing expectations, yeah, and then uh you know, like just like balancing, you know, it's they we call it slow members, but it's really more like it's a long it's longer down here. You know what I mean? Yeah, um like opening day is gonna be cool. Two years ago on opening day we shot 28 cinnamons in 30 minutes, you know what I mean? Like that was an awesome experience. But then it's really just not gonna pick up until mid to late December. And yeah, just managing expectations and realizing like the only reason that we have any sort of migration, I think, is because so many of these birds are coming from or like Northern California and Oregon. Because the reality is like you watch what what a lot of these ducks will sit through in other parts of the country, and it's it's not cold here. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. I I haven't broken ice since I've lived here, you know. And you'll see birds further east that are like keeping ponds oak from freezing, you know, and it's like below zero, and they're just gonna stay there. They're gonna wait to migrate still. So they're pretty hardy birds. I think like a lot of them just don't have to migrate. So I just try and manage my expectations and realize like, hey, these birds are probably stale, they've probably been here for a long time, you know, and I just really try not to be like a limit-dependent hunter.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And and that's how obviously, you know, if when we if we could check out a limit or we leave, you know, the rice blind with the limit, that that's great. But honestly, you made a comment earlier about like the competitive part where I'm a competitive person, but when it comes to waterfowl hunting, this is really like my hobby, right? It's my way to kind of release from the daily grind of you know work and you know, just you get out with your buddies and you kind of forget everything else that's going on. So, you know, if if I hit shoot one bird or no birds, like it's better than you know what I could be doing at at work or whatever it might be. So absolutely, man. Yeah, yeah. Well, cool, man. Well, yeah, I I really appreciate, you know, we'll wrap it up, but I really appreciate you know you sharing your kind of experiences down south and especially it might be your last season down there, but I I but no man, I I'm I'm pumped. I know we talked offline a few weeks ago about you you know looking to move up here, but I'm glad that that's uh seems like it's gonna be happening in the coming weeks. So I look forward to getting out with you next season up here. And uh yeah, man, we'll we'll chat later this week. We'll do another season check-in and kind of see how things are going down south, and yeah, we'll get the report from you and Melody and we'll uh Yeah, dude. Yeah, excited.
SPEAKER_04:I might try and coordinate it to where she can uh she can join in or something like that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, let's do it. She's a trip. I'll have to get her to uh have the Queen of the Refuge.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I'll try and get her to uh watch her language a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Uh hey, it's all good, you know. No, dude, you don't understand. No, no, that that that's awesome. Yeah well, right on. Well, hey, like I said, follow uh Colin on Instagram, you know, the sweat line. You know, he's posting and he's got some good stories from his hunts on the weekend and whatnot, but uh also make sure that you're following us on for the Fowlers on Instagram, and then continuing to rate and review this podcast on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. So Colin will chat later this week, man. Happy New Year and Yeah, happy new years, man.
SPEAKER_04:All right, sounds good, brother. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Bye.