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. 13 Season Check-In #2: Fog to Floods and a Surprise Guest!
Storms don’t just change the forecast; they rewrite the hunt plan. We kick this check-in off with a rain-soaked run to Sassoon’s Petrero Ranch and a surprise favorite: a rock-solid floating blind that changed how we think about concealment and approach. From there, we widen the lens. Caeton breaks down the difference between being near birds and being on the X in rice country, and why blind structure and access can matter more than a louder call. He also shares the humble truth many of us learn the hard way—don’t leave ducks to chase ducks.
Landon adds the statewide context: floodwater opened new options for ducks and hunters, but it also scattered birds until short clearing windows turned them back to feed. He takes us from refuge all-day sits and a banded gadwall to goose hunts in Delta wind where Aleutians and specks dropped hard through rain. His read is specific and actionable—hunt the edges of storms, not just the middle, and look for food patterns returning as the sky brightens.
We head south with Colin to track an unusual mix at San Jacinto and beyond: more mallards than expected, fewer teal than last year, and a full moon that muted a day that should have popped. A midweek limit reminds us to time the window, not the hype, and a first-timer’s gritty, rainy debut shows how mentoring and good cooking can turn one tough afternoon into a lifelong habit. Finally, a surprise guest, Jon from Filthy Spoon caps December with pintails behaving like they’re supposed to, community moments like the Grinch call drop, and straight talk about finishing the season strong. If cold pushes birds down and water recedes, late January could fire—think pintails and wigeon that commit like teal.
This is a map for the weeks ahead: choose blinds by structure and approach lines, hunt right after weather breaks, and trust the spots that are already producing. If you’re seeing floodwater, follow the food. If you’re chasing geese, let the wind work for you. And if you’ve got a story, shell tip, or blind you swear by, share it with us. Subscribe, leave a review, and tag us on Instagram @fortheFowlers with your best late-season move—we’re featuring the sharpest takes next week.
What's up guys? Welcome to another episode of For the Fowlers. I'm Brandon. Hope everyone's doing well. Happy New Year. Just wanted to put out another season check-in episode. So, you know, we'll make a couple calls here. We'll we'll check in with some of our uh friends from For the Fowlers and kind of see how they've been doing the last few weeks, this past month. You know, a lot of crazy weather coming through California. You know, obviously we had that fog for the first what half, first few weeks of December broke off, and and then folks were really starting to get into them. But and now we're in the kind of midst of this crazy storm. I was out yesterday on a CWA property actually out in Sassoon. I was on their newest property, Petrero Ranch, and yeah, in the middle of the storm, a lot of rain out there, but you know, kind of a slow day across the property, you know, after checking out with the refuge or the property manager there. Sounds like it was kind of a slow day, but for our blind, we ended up getting into a few of them early morning, and uh, you know, and that just kind of died off. But it was still a great opportunity, good chance to get out to another one of their properties outside of the sink. This one obviously being out in Sassoon. It was cool to kind of see uh see this property. And being that we were at Petrero, we actually ended up going out of Denverton, the way just the way the check-in process works there. So I was kind of cool to connect with some other hunters out there, so a lot of fun. But yeah, as for me for uh December, kind of kind of a weird month, you know. For those of you guys that have been listening for quite a bit or for you know, since uh episode one, you know, this season's just a little different for me. You know, we my wife and I had our first child back in end of July, and so I really wasn't sure what this season was going to look like. And you know, here I am starting a podcast with everything going on, but believe it or not, I was actually able to get out quite a bit just you know busy with work in December, but you know, more I was able to get out more than I expected and had a more than my fair share of successful hunts. You know, I think I recapped it. We went out to Joyce Island early December. We were out there for the opener. Caiton and I have, you know, were able to you know get into some birds out there. That was a lot of fun. My first opportunity or my first chance hunting Joyce Island, Caitlin's second, and then you know, spent some time out in the grasslands with my buddy Clay and uh and his dad at their private club out in Newman, so that was a lot of fun. Once again, you know, we've got a full strap of birds out there, a couple opportunities to get out with some uh buddies out in the rice, you know, kind of hit or miss, both those opportunities. But no, it's just been it's been good being able to get out. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to hunt around the holidays. I was down in Southern California, so I missed out on you know Christmas and and New Year's, but saw a lot of folks, you know, getting into them and you know taking advantage of you know these weather systems that are coming through. So good for them. And and been following along on you know with some of uh the followers on Instagram and and seeing all their posts and stories. And so yeah, it looks like everyone, for the most part, is having a pretty good December. So but without further ado, we'll uh get a couple folks on the horn here. I think first I'm gonna try to get a hold of Caton. We'll check in with him and uh see how his December's going. So hang tight, we'll get him on the line. All right, guys, we got Caton on the line. What's up, Caton? How's it going? Good man. Well, first off, happy birthday.
SPEAKER_01:Appreciate it, thank you. Happy elated birthday to you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was pretty cool weekend. Here we are, Sunday the fourth. It's Caitlin's birthday. My birthday was yesterday the third, and uh we spent our birthday weekend uh sitting out at uh Prero Ranch. So what'd you think of that hunt?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it was pretty cool. I mean it was nice getting out there. I mean, I was like taking a little boat ride to a blind, hunted out of a floating blind, so that was the first time I've ever done that, and wasn't uh it was it was great. It wasn't as sketchy as I thought it would be. The thing was pretty solid. There were some bird in birds in the area, but it kind of sounds like that area's been a little bit slow. I believe the CWA guy out there, he mentioned he said the day we were out there was one of the slowest days they've had. But we got into a couple birds, you know, a few missed opportunities. But overall, great habitat, cool slot. Yeah, I'd do it again.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I thought it was cool. You know, it's funny. You know, we obviously saw the picture on CWA's website or Instagram of uh Chuck and his old man out there at Petrero. And I was talking to him offline earlier today, and he actually was hunting blind five. And we learned from, I think his name was Tanner yesterday that five and one to burn the spot, those are the best blinds so far this year. So if you guys are putting in for any remaining first come, first serve, sounds like blinds five and one. But we we hunted blind four and like Caden said, floating blind and first time for me as well. But no, it was interesting. I I remember I even made the comment. I was surprised how stable it was when we pulled up to shoot and everything.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and for me, I mean, I know they said I don't know what one looks like. I I took an extra boat ride and saw five, and that's just uh you know, a pit blind. And you asked me earlier if I would take four again, and I would be super tempted to take four again.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Just based on, I mean, you know how I like to hunt, and now knowing what the spot is, I I think that would be I I think that would be still my ticket. Obviously, I'd be curious what the other ones looked like. I know we kind of talked, it'd be cool if like CWA could do like a drone flyover of the blinds on the property just so that way when people are spending some money on the blinds, you can kind of get an idea. Because let's say, like for me, I don't like hunting out of a pit. You know that. Most of the listeners now know that. I mean, Chuck for sure knows it because he sees me do it in the rice, and then I'm not, it's just not my forte necessarily. So, like if I was going over it, I mean I'd like yeah, I obviously would take a pit if it was a lights out shooter, but if I saw something, you know, maybe I like the floating blind and the toolies that are nearby, or maybe blind three is you know, a stand-up blind tucked into Tullies, which is obviously my you know something I like a little bit more. I'd probably go that route. So that'd be something cool for them to do.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. But no, it was cool. Like I said, just talking about it, I think, on here, but also just telling Chuck and some other guys like it was just cool to see another one of their properties, you know, and it's their newest one, and they don't even own it yet. So if they do end up owning it, we'll see what it turns out to be. But uh shout out to George Corp for the invite for both of us. And yeah, that was a good time. Yeah, it was a good time. So, but that was yesterday. How was the rest of December? Um, I know we had a couple hunts. I know we chatted about a couple of them on the podcast here, but I know you went up north. What were you how was it up north?
SPEAKER_01:Up north was good. I had a I I've hunted a couple times up there. It's been hit or miss. I mean, if you can time the weather right, it's been we've been lights out. And some of my buddies who have been going up there have had a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a.
SPEAKER_00:And we're talking about the northeast here. Sorry about that. Yeah, northeast.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no worries. It's been it's been tough for them though. I mean, they've if again with weather, when you have weather, it's you can do great, but that's kind of goes the same for the valley. Like, obviously, we time our storms and we time our I kind of judge how an area's doing based on you know the not ideal conditions. And sure. Like, I haven't gone gone up there during the non-ideal conditions, mainly because work's just been a little hectic. But some of my buddies who have been going up there, it's been it's it's been tough trudging where they've been at. It's it's been long hunts, you know, getting there at shoot light, but not leaving, you know, till well after 12, 3, you know, all the way out until about three o'clock. And they they've been getting birds, like we'd be happy out there. Any one of us would be happy out there, but it hasn't been quick limits, if that makes any sense.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It sounds like there's a lot of birds though up on Thule. I've talked to a couple people who've gone up there, but you know, we're starting to get some freeze up in that area, so that should hopefully start migrating some birds down. But we'll see.
SPEAKER_00:And what there's only what uh week and a half left, two weeks for the northeast.
SPEAKER_01:For some reason on my calendar I have it as the eighth, but I don't think that's accurate. Uh that's like a random day. Is it the 14th? 14th. So I think my I I think I've made my last trip up there just based on my work schedule right now and some of the hunts I have planned. I think I'm gonna be, I think I've I've had my last hunt up north, which I'm a little disappointed about because I think it'd be cool to get up there for one more hunt, because normally at this time of year you're fighting, you know, a foot of snow, and right now we wouldn't have that, but it is what it is.
SPEAKER_00:Cool. And you know, obviously, how's the rice been for you? And and it's funny, I was having a conversation with someone else who actually hunted near your northern blind. I won't burn the spot, but uh said that um it's been pretty good kind of up until this past week when it just kind of shut off there. So how's it been for you for you and your experience?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I I started off really good this year, and it's just been it's kind of just been tail tailing off for me and the guys. There are times when you're gonna get a couple birds, but we have not necessarily been stacking them out of the blind. I think it's just it's a name we've talked about it earlier. This is our first year on this property, and I'm not sure we all we know we're not on the X of the property. There's definitely some better shooters out there. I think there's even some guides that even hunt within that same property. I say I think. I know they do. So we're just trying to work our way up onto the X because I mean we see I see plenty of birds. They're high, they're we're just not on the X yet, but we've got we're putting our best effort out there. We got a good spread. You know, sometimes you got to hit the call a little harder or a little lighter just to see if you can get them to work. I mean, when they do, you know, we've had some good birds finish and it's been fun.
SPEAKER_00:Cool. Well, run on, man. Well, I know we have a couple hunts coming up. Looking forward to those. We'll chat about those as they get a little closer. But yeah, man, I appreciate uh taking time away from the family and the birthday festivities and all that to check in and uh let us know how things have been going. But anything else going on?
SPEAKER_01:Or you No, that's all that's all I got. Uh it's it's been uh it's been a good season, got a lot of hunts in, and hoping to finish with a bang, have a couple more you know, good hunts and a few mediocre hunts, is I think all I can hope for, and we'll call it a good one.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, real quick to to kind of put put your business out there, the maiden voyage of the new trailer. I mean, how was it?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that was dude, it was perfect for those of you that know me. I might be a marketplace whore. Can we say that? I love the old Facebook marketplace. I mean, I buy anything and every anything on there. But I had bought a trailer years ago, and that was our little duck stabbing cabin for a little bit, and it was perfect. Like, I I mean, I know you stayed in it a couple times, Brandon. I've had I don't know if Chuck did, but it was perfect. And so I did what anyone does and sold it and bought something a little bit bigger, and it was horrible. It the roof leaked. I mean, when the first time it rained, it poured directly into the the trailer, so it was not a good trailer. So I sold that, and my wife almost killed me, and I finally bought a new one, and it was I had a great time. It's definitely more utility than my first one. It checked all the boxes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no complaints here, man. It was super comfortable. Appreciate you hauling that all the way down from your house, and definitely uh it was nicer sleeping in a little bit because I think you got another hour and a half, two hours sleep if versus if I would have left my house on Saturday. So uh appreciate that. But yeah, man, it was cool. And I guess uh maybe a quick shout-out just in case they are new listeners, but to the uh boys out at Island Slough, good chatting with you guys the other morning. Hopefully, you guys got into them. If you guys uh know who you are, give us a follow on for the Fowlers. But it was good good chatting with you guys. Absolutely. So all right, man. Well, you have a good week. We will chat in the coming days. Sounds good, thanks, Brandon. Everybody, see ya. All right, guys, we got our next guest on. We got Landon. You guys probably remember Landon from the last season check-in, but uh glad to have him back on for the Fowlers. How you doing, Landon? Good, man. How are you? I'm doing good, doing good. Last time we chatted, you were in the middle of a uh a public land hunt. Are you out in the field again today? I'm not today.
SPEAKER_03:Today's the first day that I've uh taken off the last couple weekends, but had some other stuff to do today. Still shooting, but shooting targets instead of live birds. So right on. How's it been since we chatted last? It's been good. You you have to be out there every day to see the changes in transitions, though. I'm sure everybody realizes that we've gotten some flood water and and stuff kind of statewide. I know it doesn't affect the guys down south as much, but the Sack Valley and then the San Joaquin Valley where I do most of my hunting. There's been a lot more options for the birds and for the hunters.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, I was down actually in your neck of the woods a couple weeks ago. I went out with the DePoz and we had a good day out at their club, and it was good to see just a total mixed bag of birds down there. I mean, you had pentail, you had widgeons, spoonies, tons of teal. So I didn't get any mallards that day. I know that's that's your specialty, but uh you know, you've been getting into a good variety of birds as well, or you've just been sticking it out for those mallards?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no, I I got invited on a reservation up to Sack Refuge. Let's see. I think it would have been a week ago today. It was last Sunday. Oh nice. And we went out there, we we sat dark to we sat shoot time to shoot time, so it was an all it was an all-day sit. It was a long one, but we killed a mixed bag of ducks. I think we killed 17 or 18 birds. We had seven or eight mallards, and then three pentail, one teal, one spoonie, a couple wigeon, and then a couple Gadwall. And one of the, I think actually the last pair of ducks we shot into for the day, we had two Gadwall come in, and my buddy said, All right, they're coming in over your shoulder, you shoot them. And I raised up and killed the Drake, and I was kind of joking with my buddies. I said, You know, I if that duck's banded, I don't want it because I was making jokes about not wanting to ruin my my my lanyard with a band other than a greenhead. And sure, sure enough, my new dog came back with it. It was his only his second trip out, and he comes back with it. And I was like, Well, I don't know, I don't know who gets this thing. We I ended up giving it to my buddy that had the reservation, but yeah, it came back banded. We could only be like two or two or three of the numbers on it. So I'm waiting for my buddy to do the acid etch and then tell me tell me what we got. But yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, let me know. Um I'm curious uh where that's from and you know how old and all that stuff. I yeah, well, that's awesome, man. Yeah, I've been I've been doing about 15 years and still no bands, you know. And it's funny, I've been out with some guys that you know they they just happen to it's almost like they can see the jewelry just hanging on the leg there. And I've also been out with some guys that only gone out a handful of times, and you know, they they get it their first second hunt. So um no, that that's awesome, man. Congrats to you and your crew getting that band uh last week. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no, it's cool.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. Um were you able to get out during the holidays or yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Went I went out in some of the floodwater with my same buddy Mark that I mentioned in in the earlier episode. We ran some stuff, killed a few ducks, and then just some some of the refuge stuff down here, the same thing I've been doing. Yeah, it's been kind of the same program. It seems like a lot of the ducks are are starting to move into food areas instead of just loafing sitting around during the day areas. It seems like the since I've talked to you, it seems like this whole duck season we've had from that point on has just been one giant storm. And sure I think these birds are pretty well patterned now that they're going to food more often than they were before.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah. What what's the I mean, not like the overall weather, because I think it's very similar weather weather to what we've had up here, but what's like the situation been like fog wise in the morning? How's it been down there for you guys?
SPEAKER_03:We've it's just been a lot of big a lot of big south wind rainstorms. The fog has kind of left since we've started getting the precipitation. And then the cool thing is, is it kind of seems like most of these days, most of these rain days we've had, it's been rainy and stuff in the morning, and then you'll get like a two or three hour window in the afternoon where you either get partial clouds and the sun comes out, or I've had it a couple times where it just clears to full sun, too. And I mean, I I talk to guys who hunt who like to hunt in the middle of the rainstorm, but I just as soon wait it out and then just go out for the afternoon. I like it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, much better not getting soaked. Yeah, I was talking about the buddy today, actually, and we were saying, like, you know, some people don't mind the rainstorm. For me, I kind of like uh that that right before the rain's coming or right after, you know, the sun starts to peek through, and I feel like that's when the birds start kind of working, and it's just been good. Yesterday I was out at one of CWA's property and it was raining off and on, but at one point the sun came through, and I can kind of feel it. I had my hood down and I can feel it on the back of my neck. I'm like, that actually felt pretty good. I haven't felt that and felt that in a while, but definitely no, it was good seeing birds out there and stuff. So yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03:One other thing I I've I hunted ducks last Sunday, but I've been doing a little bit more goose hunting. One of the guys that owns a piece of property up in the Delta region that was a client in Idaho called me at the beginning of the season and he said, you know, when when the birds get in here, getting older now, and I'd I'd like you to help me out some. So I've been doing that, and man, we've been stomping the Aleutians and then a few specs mixed in. And it ha it seems like on those high wind days, those birds fly just as good during the rain. And I I feel like it kind of confuses them or makes them want to makes them want to get down a little bit more because like we had a shoot yesterday. We killed, I don't know, 27 Aleutians and three specs or something like that for the three of us. And it seemed like those birds got in and and kind of wanted to do the dance better when they had the rain in their face. So nice.
SPEAKER_00:Well, good for you guys. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, right on. Well, you got anything? What's the rest of the season look like for you? You just gonna try to get out as much as possible, or you're gonna kind of stay down in San Joaquin, the grassland area, you're gonna head up north. What do you got going on?
SPEAKER_03:I got drawn, I got drawn for Sack again on Wednesday, so I'll be up messing around up there somewhere. Nice. I'll be up messing around at Sack Refuge Wednesday, and then other than that, I've I've I mean they draw reservations a couple weeks out, and I've had a couple buddies say, hey, we drew this for this day, like let's plan on doing that. So most of the other stuff hasn't been North Valley stuff. I think uh I'm still gonna stay down here kind of in this central like San Joaquin area. We don't have as big a flood water down here as they do up north, and I think that plays to our advantage right now because our birds don't have as many options, they're not able to go kind of sit off the beaten path and not get messed with.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, when the you're talking about like the San Joaquin down there, is that the one you're talking about when it floods up?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, so like uh the basically, I mean, I it's not a secret to anybody, anybody who's been watching any of the social media stuff, when Butte Creek, when Butte Creek runs and all those guys can get their boats in there. I mean, I think the first couple days. Days it was running. Somebody said that there was trucks parked like a mile along the road next to one of the launches. I think they had 40-something boats go out out of one launch and stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I saw a video too on Instagram of that too.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It takes it takes a lot bigger water for like the San Joaquin River and all that stuff to flood down here, like in these grasslands refuges. And we haven't had that kind of water yet. So I'm just referring to staying kind of down in this area because again, though that water stays within its banks. You really only have the refuge stuff you can hunt. You don't have big water to go run a boat in or as much of that kind of option. So cool.
SPEAKER_00:Well, good luck the rest of the season, man. I I look forward to kind of hearing how things go. And uh, you know, maybe we can uh do this again uh towards the end of the year to kind of see how January went for you. Sounds good, yeah. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_03:We can uh talk about that and we'll look forward to some late goose stuff too.
SPEAKER_00:So sounds good, man. All right. Well, appreciate you coming on, giving us your kind of update, and we will chat soon.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, sir. Not a problem. Thank you. See you, buddy.
SPEAKER_00:All right. All right, guys. We got our next guest on here. We got Colin Ozier from Southern California. How you doing, Colin?
SPEAKER_02:I am good, man. Soggy and wet.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's um it's coming down pretty good up here. And uh yeah, I was looking at the the weather radar. I know it's uh getting you guys pretty good too. But oh yeah. Yeah, I saw you got out yesterday. Was it was it raining pretty good yesterday's hunt?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was pouring down rain. We got it it finally cleared up like late morning, early afternoon, and we we had to refill. We didn't get in until I think it was about 1 p.m. by the time we got set up. And of course, you know, wind stopped blowing. Still kind of a little gray and kind of like partly cloudy, but we got a few to work, so it was worth it. And we actually had my my buddy's girlfriend on her first duck hunt, so that was kind of like the main priority, which is kind of nice, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, how how how was that? Has she been kind of chomping at the bit to get out, or is it more kind of, hey, come check, you know, is your buddy kind of pulling her in? Like, what's what's going on there? That that's awesome.
SPEAKER_02:I think so. She's like a professional chef.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And he he's a pretty good cook too. So they like we did a pheasant hunt a couple of weeks ago, and they made a uh a smoked pheasant pot pie. That was pretty. They've made I gave them a whole speckle belly one time, and they made a whole like smoked it and did goose outbest store with it. Oh wow. And uh, yeah, they're legit, dude. So she really enjoys like cooking and and eating it and stuff, and I think it was like kind of the next step for her of like, alright, let's go do it. So it was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we'll have to I don't know if they listen to the podcast or not, but maybe we might have to have them on for a little guest episode, talk about all those different ways to prepare the game. Because I know you and I chatted uh last week on your episode about you know the different ways we like to cook it, and sometimes we just end up, you know, staring it skinside down and eating it like a steak, like you said. But I mean, man, if we're if we're making pot roast and pot pies and what I forget what else you said, that sounds delicious.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's cool to see some some new perspectives. A lot of it honestly is like over my head, but um it's good to switch it up. I I love cooking, man. So and it's it's good having like a new person because it kind of takes the I don't get as competitive and it's more like, hey, I hope this person has a good time. And she actually got to finish a a cripple that was on the water, so we counted it. Uh we're like, Alright, dude, you kill the duck, you know? Yeah, so that was that was a good experience.
SPEAKER_00:So um so the the main question, then you guys got back to the parking lot or ride home, whatever. Does she want to go back out? Yeah, I think she's fired up. That's awesome. Okay, you did your job, you guys did your job then.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. And I we were telling her too, like, dude, if you put up with that, like we walked a mile and then we had to walk through a pond for half a mile and it was wind, weather, rain. Yeah, lack of sleep, like you yeah, you're good, you're gonna enjoy it, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, that's awesome. But uh how's I know we chatted a little bit last week, and I I try to remember how much we dove into it, but how's the rest of the month been since uh we chatted last on this season check-in?
SPEAKER_02:It's been good. So, like the end that like from mid to end December, things really got going. Started seeing a lot of new birds at refuges and like uh birds that we don't typically see down south, so it seems to be like more mallards, and I've seen a handful of mallards getting shot at like San Jacinto. The teal don't seem to really be here. Like I this same time last year we were shooting piles of green wings, and they just haven't shown up yet. And I, you know, I know you guys are still getting into them. So things are still kind of different than the last couple of years, but it's it definitely seems like there's new birds. I I think the uh that full moon did some weird things because with the with that weather, I really thought that there should be uh a lot of birds moving. The refuge I hunted yesterday, we hunted there Wednesday and shot a three-man limit. Oh wow. And and I think it was like a little over a three-bird average on Wednesday, and then yesterday with all that weather, when we left, he was saying it was maybe a one-bird average. So a little surprising.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so like on Wednesday, because I know you've said like you don't get reszies there, but are you able to get on at shoot light like lotto sweating on, or are you refilling later in the day?
SPEAKER_02:We Wednesday we got on for shoot time. Awesome and we were like canvas back, pentails, widgen, like crazy mixed bag. Yeah. I missed a a mallard, but like it was a great, great day, and we were out of there by like 11, you know. Oh, that's awesome. And yesterday, I think I think it was like the full moon played a part in it, and then the other thing is like with so much water in Southern California that we don't normally have, it just kind of spreads stuff out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. I think with that moon, you know, we we were out at that CWA property yesterday, and it it was a slow shooter for you know everyone out there. I mean, we we got a few, but it was slow, and I think to your point with that moon, it's funny the night before we were staying in Caton's trailer and you know, just walking around that evening, like it wasn't raining too much, but like you didn't need a headlamp or anything, like you could see perfect, and then we boated out yesterday morning, same thing. Like killed the headlamps and just used that moon to guide us to the blind. So cool man. Well, what else is going on? Any other hunts? I mean, do you have any other special hunts coming up, or you're just gonna be hitting the refuge hard in the next few weeks?
SPEAKER_02:So, dude, that was probab that unless crazy happens. Yep, you guys probably seem to man. Yeah. And I, you know, I knew that going into it, and I that was like a cool way to kind of wrap up my season. Yeah. Um and I got to shoot uh I shot a nice Drake Gadwall that just did it perfect, you know, and then we actually decoyed a pretty like a flock of like six pintail and got two out of them. And so that was enough for me. That was like I got I still got birds in the freezer. I got a a batch of jerky that's about to go on today, and so it's not like I needed the birds. Yeah. It's good to decoy a couple and like saw a nice rainbow, and I'm like, alright, dude, I'm ready to ready to hang it up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's not a bad way to wrap up the season, especially like like you know, we've chatted. You got a busy January personally, so yeah. Yeah, and if I if I still want to uh have a fiance, I gotta it's time to get some stuff done, you know. No, I hear you on that. I hear you for sure. Well, I'll tell you what, the Queen of the Refuge Melody started following, we started following each other on Instagram, so I still get to follow along on all her hunts.
SPEAKER_02:So oh dude, she's gonna be she's she's gonna hunt every hunt day, you know, like she's gonna be tearing it up. I I should, you know, we yes yesterday we got to the parking lot, somebody was coming out while we were going in, and he go don't know, didn't know the guy, and he goes, Are you the queen of the refuge? And yeah, it was just too funny.
SPEAKER_00:So was that from the episode?
SPEAKER_02:I yeah. That's hilarious. Somebody had yeah and just like happened to see her and was like, Yeah, I've seen you out here before, like you're badass, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, that's awesome. Well, I I don't want to put her on the I don't want to put her on the spot at all, but maybe I know we it just didn't work out this go around. Sorry, that's on me, but maybe we can uh have her take your spot end of season for a little wrap-up uh recap. We'll we'll I'll get you guys in touch for sure. Yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah, well, cool, man.
SPEAKER_02:Well yeah, I think if if I was still in in Southern California hunting out, I would be like really excited for this this last couple of weeks because it it's more water than we typically have, and a lot of the the refuges I think are gonna have more birds than they they normally do. Like I would not be surprised if Worcester and like San Jacinto start getting some big pushes of teal and stuff here in the next week or so. Yeah. And uh yeah. Well, I know you gave me a couple good way to wrap it up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you gave me a couple pages to follow, some guides down there, so we'll kind of keep an eye out and see how things are going down in that kind of San Diego inland area. Yeah. So well, Reno, man. Well, I appreciate the update. Good chatting with you. You know, let's uh see if we can't get together in a couple weeks when you're up here. I know you'll be busy, but oh dude, I'm gonna hit you up for sure. Yeah, it's funny. I was I got a a hunt opportunity. God, it's like the day before you show up, and maybe we could chat offline about it, see if it see if it works out or not. But I know you just made that comment. The whole you're not got driving up here to go hunting. I get that. So yeah, and I can imagine I can imagine having that conversation with my wife saying, Hey, uh, we're gonna go a day earlier and I'm gonna go hunt. So yeah, yeah. That's when you start the conversation when you're like, hey, babe, how's it how's it going? Yeah, exactly. They already know, they already know you're on some bullshit. Yep. All right, man. Well, right on, appreciate uh the phone call and us being able to connect, and uh we'll chat together.
SPEAKER_02:All right, sounds good, man. Good to hear from you. See ya, buddy.
SPEAKER_00:All right, guys, we got our last guest of this season check-in episode. Special guest, excited to have this guy on. Like him or love him. Some folks might even hate him, but I don't know how you can. I absolutely love this guy. But uh from uh Filthy Spoon, we got John. How you doing, John?
SPEAKER_04:Good, how's it going, Brandon? I'm good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, man. Merry Christmas, happy new year. How's it been out there?
SPEAKER_04:Well, this is the December recap, so we were gonna say great. It was a January recap, has a date. It sucks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, been a real little rough this last four-day stretch, but December was December to remember in a lot of ways, and we we had a good December.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, obviously, just crazy weather out there, right? We've been dealing with that gray dome, had a couple days of sun, and then, you know, now as we're talking right now, we're just in the middle of I feel like five, six days of straight rain up here. You know, how's the weather been uh kind of treating things up where you're you've been out hunting?
SPEAKER_04:So it's been kind of strange in the sense we've had a ton of rain. We're out of power Christmas Day, gridly all day. Didn't matter because I was in the duck line half the day, and then I was at the bar of the other half, so it didn't matter. But uh the way it worked out, I never really got rained on hunting. Okay, so it would be pouring, right? I'd leave my house, it's friggin' blowing, raining, pouring, and I get to wherever I'm going hunting, and all of a sudden the skies open up, it's friggin' stars, and no rain. So I kind of lucked out there and I actually artificially wore my sicker jacket a couple times without needing to.
SPEAKER_00:It's the best, isn't it, right? I mean, I know you I know you like your wax cotton, but like you said, you didn't need to wear it, but it still found its way on your back and shoulders.
SPEAKER_04:I you know, for all the and I trust me, I'm getting it all back because over the last few days I've been putting a couple pictures of it.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, I was just gonna mention that. Yep, I was just gonna mention that.
SPEAKER_04:And I've got 10, 12 messages and then comments on the post, nice coat, you know, and it's like, well, I kind of asked for all this, but yeah, it is more comfortable than I'm willing to admit, and you will see it in a duck blind, but you will not see me wearing that damn thing in Slough House or any other establishment for that matter. It's strictly a hunting tool. Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I I I want to go back, I didn't want to interrupt you there, but I I wanted to reference the white trash tier system, and you mentioned the power being out, you know, on your street Christmas Eve. Uh it's glad to glad to hear that the whole street was out. I wasn't sure if maybe you just weren't paying paying the bill or something, you know. If you went up a level.
SPEAKER_04:Well, the good thing, probably for white trash these days, it takes a long time for PGE to cut people actually off. You know, they don't want that bad PR of friggin' the homeless friggin' white trash with 18 kids and no power on, you know. So it back in my youth, they would shut it off pretty quick. But nowadays, eh, you can string it out there quite a ways, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, and speaking of that, I will say we didn't we didn't mention this before we uh started recording, but that white trash holiday special that you and Robert did, hilarious.
SPEAKER_04:Oh good. Loved that one. That was kind of an impromptu thing, Robert come with. I was like, we've got to do a white trash Christmas on it. Yeah, perfect.
SPEAKER_00:No, I loved it. But uh yeah, so you've had a pretty busy December. Uh I think uh what December 1st or pretty early on. You had Shannon Kelly out here in California. How was that?
SPEAKER_04:That was great. We started out December. December 1st was kind of a little lackless. Remember, we had a lot of rain and stuff, and mojo season, you know, the kickoff to it wasn't as hoped by a lot of people. I know it wasn't for me, the big blade wasn't doing it, the regular traditional mojos weren't doing it. So it started out a little bleak for beginning of December, and then that fog set in. And remember, it was fog of gidden, right? It lasted forever, everything complain about it, but we were all getting ducks, and I told Shannon back uh duck days in August when he said he's coming out. I said, if I was you, I'd turn around December 15th, and that's when he came. And uh because that's traditionally a very good time, right? Because any earlier, it's kind of spotty, any later, possibility of flooding, sprug birds out, lock access, all those things. And it was right on the money when Shannon came out here. You know, he's from South Florida, loves hunting sprig. I mean, he'll put four or eight dozen decoys out and just try to shoot one, you know. He just loves it. So one of our properties started about beginning December, just kind of turned on for the pentail, especially. But all the ducks, not geese, though. The specs were not like a normal year out there, but ducks-wise, but mostly sprig. Like in your three was no problem out there. And I'm hearing, and I'm seeing it myself when I hunt other places, they're not acting like that everywhere, but they were acting like that there that time of year. And so Shannon, we got him out there in one of those super foggy days, and I mean it was just sprig after sprig after sprig. And we ended up, I think, with you know, 15 of them between five of us, and that was pretty friggin' special hunt, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that that's awesome. It it like like I said, I know he's a fan of the pintail, and and that's awesome that you know they got the message, got the memo, and you know, they made his visit worthwhile. So now that's awesome. What else?
SPEAKER_04:Well, you know how it brings when you bring a guest, right? Every time I have it planned that I got a guest coming, hey, I'm gonna bring you out. You know, I'm talking in July with somebody, you know, we'll get you out there. We have great hunts. Yeah. Well, then the day comes and it's like, dude, it's usually way better than this, I promise. Yeah, it's almost always like that. And with Shannon Kelly, we had three absolute banger hunts. One was at our place, one was with Jason with Foul Pursuer, which is often. We did that north out of Biggs, that was cool. And then Sunday, I didn't, or Monday, I did not hunt with Shannon. I hunted with, or he hunted with Byron from Durham Guns. He has a blind south of Durham, and they were covered up in Sprig, and he was able to take Byron out there, or Byron was able to take Shannon out there, and they had a great hunt, and Shannon's Grinch call little hunt that we were doing. He was able the last person that claimed the call we left at Durham Gun. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, it was a gal that got it, and they were able to talk and everything else cool.
SPEAKER_00:That was such a fun idea, too. Uh just out of the box thinking, and and especially, you know, like I was following along for those three or four days, I forget how long it was, and and you know, it I wasn't up in the valley that weekend, but you know, I was like, oh, this one's at LDC or this one's at great, you know, and it's like I thought it was really cool.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, he thought of that all on his own. I had to kind of help him tell him, you know, where good places were you to leave it, but he came up with it. And I don't know, I'm sure you saw it. He made that little reel with the the charcoal, yeah. Yeah, little you know, crab pot thing, lanyard, and they wouldn't let him bring him on the plane. It was like, oh, because we were gonna prank some people. You come out there and that's what you find.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I don't want to put them on blast, but that's almost what you should have left for those guys at Grey Lodge who didn't want to play the game.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly. They're about the only ones that didn't report. Yeah, yeah exactly. And we've seen them. I wish you had to pay more attention because it was a company truck, too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And I know they were a couple Grinches for sure, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, right on. Well, uh, Christmas came, had a good holiday. You were able to get out during uh Christmas New Year's that time?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I you know, since my kids ain't little and gone, I was able to hunt Christmas morning. Took my future fourth ex-wife out with me, who'd never been on a duck hunt, was really excited about going, insisted almost. I said, I don't know if this is the first day for you to go. Do you remember there were like 67 mile-an hour winds recorded in the city this evening? And she was blabbing everybody, she's going duck hunting. I said, All right, you're going, you're going. And we woke up that morning right about 10 minutes after you got up, getting rid of the power goes out. When wind and rain's hitting the house, she's like, Well, maybe I said, You're going now, you're committed. Yeah. I said, You're blabbing everybody down at Stan Bar that you're a big duck hunter, you're going. And uh she she saddled up and we went down there. And I mean, it was torrential getting down and blind. I believe wind everywhere, and I'm towing the side by side sideways, and we get down there to the blind, and uh, all of a sudden, quits raining, still windy, but quits raining and unload side by side, go in, and I ended up shooting a limit that day. It was actually really cool. Nice, good for you. It took a little bit of time, and that's kind of that's that blind's kind of been a slow burn. I know duck chugger was in that same blind yesterday. They didn't shoot their first bird till 9 a.m. and they ended up in limits, which is pretty cool. Good for them for sticking it out. But on Christmas, kind of the same. I got snaked by some teal on the back side and Crystal here, my newfound future ex wife, she was wearing Sharon's gear. Because she don't have any of her own. She haven't went home yet. And there were four estate number three shells in the pocket. I might have mentioned this on my deal. And I used to love those estate number three shells. They just great to me. 99 cents a case, they were for years. I'd buy them. And I'm like, give me that. And I was sitting on three birds. And the last four birds I shot was with those four shells.
SPEAKER_00:That's nice. Two doubles.
SPEAKER_04:Two doubles. Yep. We had two, we had a group of pintail come right up the middle of that big blade the way you want it. Doubled on Sprig. And then I thought there was Sprig, and I was like, oh, that's Widgeon. Widgeon did it the same way, doubled on Widgeon, and we got our limit. And it was it was just cool. I was like, man, I wish I could find some of the mistake number threes in the basement somewhere.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's um so it's funny. I have heard you talk about that on your podcast. And you know what? When we get off here, I'm gonna go look in the safe because honestly, I've been meaning to do it from when from over ten years ago, like when you can just still go into the shop and buy them right off the shelf and not have to worry about the background and them being locked up and all that stuff. Back when I was hunting geese, and the listeners are gonna laugh at me, but I have some like three inch or three and a half BBs in the safe here. I'll I'll I know you just like to collect them too. I'll I'll send a box your way.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I'd love to have them. Yeah, those are states. They were always to me just because they were the boxes, super simple, they were inexpensive shelves, but they they were great for what they were, and I guess Federal bought them out so they don't make them anymore. It's like okay, I didn't know that. I bought some federal uh number threes, and they're just not the same as those states. And I know it ain't just uh rose-colored glasses after I was four for four with the vintage ones I found in Sharon's pocket from who knows when.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, I'll uh I'll when we get off the line here, I'll go take a picture and send it your way. And if you're interested, if not you can shoot them or put them on uh put them on display in the crackhouse or something.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I'll shoot them, put the empty box on display. Yeah, if I get my hands on any of them estates, I'm shooting them up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:My good buddy's dad, who was an excellent ammo hoarder, he would buy them things. I mean, he would go into the sporting goods store in Stockton and buy 10 cases at a time. He's got in his garage case after case of that stuff, but he will not part with it. Oh, that's interesting. He won't live long enough to shoot a ball, but he will not part with any of it, man. And it's like, if your old man, you know, God forbid. I hope he has another 20, 30 years left. But I'll tell you, I'm eyeballing him shelled in the garage.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, right on. Well, obviously, we're talking a little bit about this weather. Uh, I know you went out today, but uh, what's the past few days been like or a week like? Uh I know your daughter's home. Thank you so much for her service. She's active duty Navy and can be more proud proud of her and what she's doing for our country over there. But uh, how's it been having her home?
SPEAKER_04:Uh, it's been great having her home. I mean, basically almost got her off the plane. She got one day, you know, 16-hour time change. So she got a day to recover, and it was about 24 hours of travel for because she had a big long layover in LA. Okay. And uh so it was about 24 hours of travel, and and I picked her up in the afternoon on Thursday. So I told her, or wait, I mean, no, I get all messed up because of the holiday. I picked her up Tuesday.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:And I wasn't working what Wednesday or Wednesday. I wasn't working Thursday and Friday. So she had one full day to kind of recover and you know, get, you know, try to get on the time schedule. And then we'd just been hunting ever since. That's awesome. And yeah, without our blind, we did pretty good. We plugged the blind up, but it was with friends, of course. Uh, Robert and old Duck Chugger went out with us and we shot some birds, had a good time, had lots of birds working. She shot some birds, and it's been she's been minimum. I mean, she hunted with me, I think, two years ago. She came home between boot camp and A school, but um, it was November. We never fired a shot, you know. And it was nice. She remembered how to use her shotgun and knocked some birds down, and it was just good. She's known Robert since she was a little kid, you know. And never met John, Duck Chugger, but he is just such a friggin' saint of a human and uh very, very good to her. And so we had a great time in the blind. Like I said, got some birds, it was not hot and heavy, but we had some action. Good, and then we've been bouncing around, and this is a lesson of the story, right? So I've been hitting everybody up just like I did when Shannon Kelly came. I uh I cast a wide net trying to find the best hunting I can get. And it worked out great for Shannon Kelly. Well, with my daughter, I did the same thing, and here's the moral of the story don't leave ducks to chase ducks. Amen. Because we're always thinking, you know what they say, you know, you're you know, walking over a dollar to pick up a dime. Yep. Well, I know, and this is my favorite blind with a roll top. It's producing right now. It was a slow burn, it took a while, but it's turned on, and we could have gotten that blind yesterday, and I didn't. I decided to get greedy, and we thought we were gonna go on a mallard hunt, and it didn't work out with a shit. And I told my buddy Duck Chugger, I said, Hey, we're we're back out of that blind. If you want it, sign up before anybody else gets it. And he did, and they got limits yesterday. Yeah, that's awesome. I think good for them, I know. No duck hunter MV here, but it's like, well, we could have been sitting in there with him getting limits, you know. So did that, and then the day I didn't want to crowd the blind. Robert and another member was in there, and I was like, Yeah, we don't want to crowd, you know, four deep, you know, and it's like no, we'll go with our good buddy Johnny Salami, and which has an amazing blind, but it today just didn't work out very good, you know. And it's like, oh, Robert's hit me, oh, set it on fire again. And it's like, oh yeah. I talked to him on the phone, he's like, You guys should have come with us, you know, it's hammered, you know. He's like, what the hell? He's like, this time of year, with the you know, because our property, it's kind of like right now there's only one blind shooting, so it's gonna be four deep. Yeah, we don't like it, but that's the way it's gonna be. And he's like, You should have just piled in with us. And I went, you know what? I probably should have, but she don't much care. She's just happy to be off a flight deck and back at home, and you know, a couple shots, a few ducks here and there has been good. And then my good buddy Patty was able to get us out on a hunt with him, and that was always fun. She's got a ton, a lot of different blinds in this valley and travel around, and I've been dragging her around doing my politicking from duck camp to duck camp refuge. You know, even snuck her in the back door of a few bars for a minute. And we uh been talking and hunting all over all weekend, so it's been a blast.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. Well, cool. Well, you got anything coming up, you know, between now and the end of season? Any anything locked in, or you're just gonna be kind of jumping from blind to blind in your club?
SPEAKER_04:We're gonna see how it goes, man. This it's there's words of it getting cold up north and freezing. I've seen this happen before where the last two weeks are absolutely amazing because it freezes up north, and then they're here they are. You got pintails acting like spoonies, right? Acting like spoonies used to. Spoonies been pretty snobby from there this year.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I do have one last weekend. My little Sharon will be here next weekend, so it'll be two more hunts with her, and we're just gonna kind of wait and see. I was over at Casey Stafford's place last night, and he was talking about this cold. And if we get what they're saying, this rain quits, this water goes down, it gets cold up north. We could salvage the last week or two of this season, but it's gonna be a pretty rough week looking ahead, you know. Everybody I talk to, it's pretty rough. There's little pockets, but it's pretty rough for most folks right now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I feel like Casey's uh listening to the spot burn has like the most accurate weather forecast using that ag weather. He's gonna you know let us know what what he's using over there because you know, I just used like the phone or or weather bug or something. I know there's better apps out there, but he seems to be pretty spot on with you know the amount of rain that's gonna be coming and different things like that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, he's pretty dialed into this freaking valley, man. Has been for a long time. And so if he says it, I just tend to believe him. Yeah, he's been to Nostradamus a couple times on here where he told me something on that spot burn, and then the next time it's true. You know, like you've talked one time about get out of the truck, you don't hear a peep. Usually that's the death sign for a hunt for me. If I don't hear any birds, we're not gonna shoot nothing. Yeah, and that day we got five limits with him. You can add that into the stem hump. I had a you know, five limit day with Stafford, which is nothing to sneeze at. You know, people just kind of you you scroll past these pile picks and everything. Five limits is something that not everybody gets to do or be a part of very much because even if you do have a great day, it's usually a four-man limit, right? Because you're in a four-man plan. Right. So when you're knocking out five limits, that's something to be proud of. And I was really happy to be a part of that on I think it was that was December 15th, right in the middle of the month. So yeah, I listen to him. If he says it, I listen. Good.
SPEAKER_00:Well, right on, John. Well, I appreciate uh you know you taking the time on uh this Sunday afternoon to chat and kind of check in with us and let us know how things are going in your world, and you know, we'll keep following along at the Filthy Spoon podcast. Once again, love all the episodes you're putting out there and you know seeing all the stuff on Instagram and you know, appreciate uh everything that you're doing for the waterfowl community up here in Northern California.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, well, no problem. Well, good luck with what you're doing. You know, you're about a dozen in or so, and just keep it up, bro.
SPEAKER_00:No, I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04:So and do not forget, everybody, we got that the Delta Waterfowl Grasslands dinner. What is it, the 16th, 17th, something like that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I was gonna look. I know it's coming up. I was gonna take a peek at that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, that's down there in uh Gustine.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. Beloved town of Gustine. I love that place.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like I said, I know we talked before, uh, you know, maybe we can catch up down there, but if for whatever reason I don't make it down there, let's try to get together maybe at Slough House or something before the end of the season, it'd be good to catch up again in person.
SPEAKER_04:Most definitely. Well, you have a good uh rest of your podcast, and we'll talk soon, bro.
SPEAKER_00:Sounds good, John. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, no problem. Bye.
SPEAKER_00:All right, guys. Well, that's gonna wrap up this month's season check-in. I really want to thank all the guys that took time out of their weekend to uh call in and uh you know give us a shout and you know let us know how things are going for them throughout the uh state of California when it comes to this waterfowl season. So wish everyone a great rest of season. We got uh about four weeks left, and yeah, we'll do another one of these at the end of season. We'll kind of check in with the guys and see how things are going. But until then, we'll chat soon. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at for the Fowlers and rate and review on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Thanks, guys.