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. 17 2025-26 Season Wrap Up: Public Land Grit to Rice Blind Wins
A season can feel long until the last decoy hits the bag. We wrap a wild ride across public land and rice country with honest grades, clean takeaways, and a few unforgettable moments: a Scotch triple on teal, specks finishing over water with six decoys, and a retriever turning chaos into calm. We talk about why the 20 gauge clicked this year, how fog and flooding scattered ducks into new pockets, and the simple habits that helped us beat refuge averages more often than not.
Caeton breaks down the grind of chasing birds on public even with rice leases in hand, and how a steady dog quietly adds birds by saving minutes when flights are short. Landon shares consecutive spec limits on public and what lighter spreads and smarter calling can do when pressure is high, plus a candid look at how potential limit changes could help keep birds uneducated. Colin closes strong in Southern California, logs a 4.2-bird average, and moves north with stats, optimism, and a plan to chase turkey, stripers, and new refuges. Houn from Foulmouth TV finally gets water on the rice, flips the switch mid-December, celebrates a 12-year-old’s first limit and a banded pintail, and explains why you never leave ducks to chase ducks when the blind’s hot.
We also get practical: de-skunking a dog without making it worse, patterning a 20 vs 12 with the shells you actually shoot, tracking wind, sun, and pressure in a hunt log, and setting up youth hunts with safe footing and guns that fit. The throughline is discipline—hide better, call less, shoot cleaner, and let data and patience do the heavy lifting.
If the season felt short, the lessons didn’t. Hit play, ride along for the wins and the misses, then tell us your biggest takeaway from 2026. Subscribe, share with your hunting crew, and drop a review to help more waterfowlers find the show.
What's up guys? Welcome to another episode of For the Fowlers. I'm Brandon. Here we are. Man, season's done, man. 25-26 season. It's in the books. But sitting here the first weekend of February, hoping that all the vets that were able to get out this weekend, hopefully everyone had a lot of success. And first and foremost, appreciate all of your service. You know, whether you're active duty or retired, we really appreciate everything that you guys did do or did for us. And you know, obviously gave us the freedom to get out there and uh do what we love doing most, and that's uh duck hunting. But that season has come and gone for us. But overall, pretty good season, I would say. You know, you guys have heard me talk on this podcast about you know me getting out more than I expected. You know, for those of you guys been listening along, you know, I had my son six months ago. It's fatherhood's been absolutely amazing. And I obviously have an amazing wife who an amazing uh mother to my son who's been able to, you know, do things like allow me to get out and get out and hunt as much as I possibly can, and I really appreciate her being a good partner with that. But yeah, it was a good season. You know, like I said, got into some birds. There were some hunts where I didn't really do as well as to be expected, and we obviously had some interesting weather throughout the season. But no, it was overall a good year. So looking forward to today's episode. We're gonna connect with a few buddies and kind of see how their season went and how their January ended up and just kind of catch up with them and see what they have coming up in uh in the offseason as well. So without further ado, let's get our first guest on. We're gonna try to get our buddy Caitlin on the line here, so hang tight. All right, what's up, Caton?
SPEAKER_01:How's it going, Brandon?
SPEAKER_04:Good, man. So that's a wrap. 25-26, man. How was it?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it was a good season. I mean, all things considered, it was a lot of work, but it came together. Not the season I thought I was gonna have. Like it definitely went a different route. I hunted a lot more public land, even though I had my rice leases. And but kind of just found myself chasing where I thought the birds might be. Getting a few. I think we hunted with what three draws this year. So we hunted all three of those draws. Or actually, you had a couple, you had a few more that I didn't make it down when they're too far south for me. But um overall, it was a good season. What about you?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man, I I was thinking about it. I mean, obviously, I've been telling folks I've obviously got out way more than I expected I would, just kind of given everything going on at home this season. But, you know, they were hit or they were hit or miss. You know, I would definitely say I had more better hunts than I did negative hunts. I mean, there were definitely some early in the season where I was just going out and whether it was watching the sunrise or a couple afternoons watching the sunset, you know, but I also had some hunts where it's like I wasn't expecting it to be that much of a banger, and you just happened to be sitting on the X that day at the refuge, and you know, I had a couple hunts where I or we did better than the refuge average, right? So I'll take that.
SPEAKER_01:So I was kind of my I was not to I mean we started this thing off, or you started this podcast, and we always say we're not the best hunters, but I was super happy with all like I feel like a public land hunt is the best way to gauge just like as you get better in your abilities of going out, getting on birds, setting up spreads. But every time we went out, we all I remember five, six years ago when we started, and like I lived and died by the refuge average and everything like that, and it seemed like, man, like if I could just get to that, that'd be sweet. And like we smoked it this year.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, uh, you know, obviously recency bias, and actually, dude, we haven't even talked about this, but my last hunt down at Clay's Club, it just couldn't miss like just my you know, one shot, you know, knocking the bird down, stoning them, right? And of course, that's how things end. And it's like, man, I wish I could come back out tomorrow. Or, you know, and unfortunately, well, fortunately, that was a great way for me to finish my season. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to uh take advantage of the last couple hunt days just because I was traveling for work this past week. But you know, and what was really cool about it is I'm not saying I'm shelfing the 20 gauge to the 12 gauge, but the 20 gauge was on, man.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's I mean, you know me, that's what I shot. I shot my 12 gauge one time this season, and it was only because we were supposed to be on a honker hunt. Sure. I was like, screw it, I'm bringing the big the more pellets out there. It ended up being a duck hunt. I shot duck ducks with it, but I did all I did 18 hunts with the 20 gauge.
SPEAKER_04:No, and I mean you we've talked about it. I've obviously been overthinking a lot, you know, shot shells and patterns and you know weights and you know the speed, all that stuff, and you know, the 20 gauge shells that I have are just a lot different than the 12 gauge ones that I have, and I was actually really pleased with how it all came together. So I guess that old saying, uh, what is it? It's uh always it's always the Indian, never the arrow, or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's Pete's line.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so but no, it was good, man.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, I mean, overall, it it just was it was a good season for me. Like I I know we've talked off air a bunch about you know our blind my blinds versus you know, obviously I hunted public a ton this year, and I think I only got to the blind five or six times, which kind of blows my mind, but it just worked out, you know. I looked back, I was like, because I was talking with one of the guys, and they're like, oh man, I sure hope like you didn't feel like that was a bust, like you couldn't get out more. And I was like, dude, I hunted my goals 20 20 days. That's usually about where like the limit my my my family life can handle. There wasn't a day. I think there was maybe one day where I was like, I probably should have gone today. But like I went every day I could have. There wasn't a day where I was like, man, I wish I won could go hunt, but there's just nowhere to go, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and no one I know you find obviously time to make it out and everything, but even you know, with Thomas being as young as he is, and and you know, Ben is, you know, a few months behind him, I felt like you got out, especially as busy as you are at work, you know, it you got out quite a bit, which I was surprised about. But you know, I obviously makes things easier when you had, you know, your couple b rice blinds and whatnot.
SPEAKER_01:So Yeah, no, so I mean it I did good. I I think we were talking offline. I finished I've ever since we I first hunt, I've been away I've I've got the same Google Doc. It's just got more and more tabs for every year we hunt.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it ended it ended good. I was pretty happy with it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and you took advantage of the Northeast too, which that's cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and that's you know, that's just a labor of labor of love. Like you you can go. I know a lot of guys have talked to me about going up there and they're like, dude, I'll never go back. And yeah, it's just one of those things. It's like you if you don't hunt it, you don't know. I mean, I hunted Sack and Delavin for years, and I'd walk out with a goose egg, and it's like, yeah, it's because I didn't put the time in yet, and just like any other refuge. That's I'm starting to realize that. Short of you know, if the birds are there, you can still come out with a goose egg. And if the birds aren't, you know, so if you want to put in a little extra work, that's how you get some more birds and things like that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So overall, how would you grade, you know, the season or your season, maybe? Maybe maybe I don't know if it's be the case.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I grade my season in A plus. I don't mean to like toot my own horn, but I I checked all my boxes. I shot almost a five bird average. My my my numbers.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I killed, you know, over I was trying to shoot a hundred birds. That's always and I'm not a goose hunter. I shoot, I go after ducks. I think I only killed a couple of snows out with you that one hunt.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But so those are all ducks. I was super happy. I'll, you know, I'm I put in a lot of work. I will say, like, it's been cool now. Season, let's call it season two with the dog. Every year with the dog, my hunt, my numbers get better. And I'm telling you, that's just because it's the I'm not burning time getting out of the blind chasing. It's like because sometimes you only get 30, 40 minutes of a flight. But if you're chasing your birds yourself, you're spending 10 minutes, 15 minutes getting out of the blind, walking out there, coming back, sitting back down, getting re resituated, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Get resituated, grab that drink of water, whatever it might be. Yeah, no, that that's a great point. It actually would be kind of interesting. We should remember that for next year. Just maybe kind of find out how much time we actually do save running a pup versus not.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because I mean I bet you I can on a bird that on when everything goes fairly right, just 80% right on a on a duck, my dog sees it goes down, whether he breaks or not, he gets the bird in his back next to me. It's gotta be under a minute, whereas shit, some days it takes me a minute just to climb out of the pit.
SPEAKER_04:Well, and especially, you know, if you're taking advantage of that early shoot light flight, right?
SPEAKER_01:And how many times do like I'll when you and I hunted, I you know, I'd be out there retrieving a bird and you'd be like, get down, get down, get down.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I don't think we've ever even killed a bird when we did that. But it's like we're at the end of the day, those are opportunities that are wasted because we're wasting time trying to get our birds, which you have to do until you get a dog. So yeah, for me, like this was like everything came together. I had good the dog did really good for the amount of training and effort I put in. Like, he he's lights out, in my opinion. Obviously, there's better trained dogs out there, but it's just it's what you put into it. So I'm very happy with it.
SPEAKER_04:And dude, we talked a lot about him on the podcast even early in the season, kind of saying how like you know, he's still very young when it comes to you know, waterfowl hunting and stuff. And and and uh, you know, I'll I'll be very frank with you, and honestly, it's been awesome having Rooster around the last few seasons, but like there were a couple hunts where late in the season we were on some good hunts, but like just his behavior a couple, you know, that one time you're like, Hey, I'm gonna walk him back and put him in the truck, right? But this season, dude, he he's on it. That was an all-time low. No, and he's on it, but once you get him going and get him on like that initial bird or two, and you know, yeah, it's all good. Hey, uh, we actually didn't chat about this. How was it uh after he got sprayed?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, dude, this is terrible.
SPEAKER_04:So what happened because you had to ride home in the truck, but what happened when you got home? How'd you handle it?
SPEAKER_01:I did a concoction of like baking soda at Dawn, but there was something else we were supposed to use, hydrogen peroxide, but we didn't have it. You're supposed to do it, and I guess, but my thought my dumbass was like, Oh, I'll just do two-thirds of the recipe and give it the old college try, which it cleaned him, but I guess the hydrogen peroxide with one of those other chemicals like helps bring it out. But we ended up taking him to like a professional groomer because he got sprayed right in the face. We basically were able to figure that out. And for those of you who don't know, we were walking out and yeah, as I go and tell you for the listeners, is on that Delevant hunt after three guys' uh I mean he's he's never he's not like a leash dog, he's got a ton of energy, so I try to let him run on the way out to the blind just to air him out. And you know, like Chuck's dog walks right next to him, and I love it, but it's just it won't work for my dog.
SPEAKER_04:No, and we had a little bit of a hike, and remember, I was walking ahead of us, and I told you like, hey, I it was out of the corner of my eye, and I was like 90% sure it was a skunk, but I wasn't a hundred percent, you know. And I just gave you a heads up I gave you a heads up, but then you healed him and he walked with us for let's say a hundred yards, a hundred yards, right? Yeah, maybe I thought the skunk was long gone. And so we were maybe 50 yards from the where we were gonna dip into the pond, and he took off thinking like, okay, he's just gonna go run up again, and he jumped into the Thulees, and he never made a noise, a reaction, none of that stuff, but we still did we started to smell it, and then all of a sudden that fog came around us from the spray. So like I was like, I'm getting in the water, like I I just had to walk away. And it was so potent.
SPEAKER_01:I've never experienced anything like that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it was it was obviously pretty bad, pretty fresh. And honestly, I thought I was like, man, I don't want to smell this the whole hunt. And I know he was down on your side, but honestly, I couldn't smell anything until a couple times he came in, and we were in one of those like submerged log cabin blinds at Delavin, and a couple times he came down on my end of the blind. Said hi to you. You just said hi, and then you get a whiff of it, and he left, and it was what it was. But yeah, I told you, I'm like, oh man, that's a bummer because you left your kennel at home that day.
SPEAKER_01:So I did. So he rode in the truck. So this is this is kind of the icing on the cake. So I think we were just getting used to it because it was horrible. Okay. I could not handle sitting next to him. Like it was one of I mean, we did we did all right that hunt as a group, but like it was it was pretty rough for me on the end. But so you went to the professional, I washed him, I take him to a professional, and we didn't we didn't even really say anything. Like, this this groomer is pretty cool. She just takes dogs and roosters never even gone.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And Steph dropped him off, and I went and picked him up, and she's like, Oh, did he get skunked? And like, yeah. She's like, Oh, well, she's like, if that ever happens, don't get him wet. So for your tips out there, I don't know how that works for duck hunting. I guess if they get skunked, you don't want them to get wet right away. You want to wash it. Doesn't really help us for duck hunters. I can't still throw them in the room. Let's lather them up. It's still, she says it'll be in his coat for probably up to six months. And anytime he gets wet, so if it rains, our whole yard starts to smell like skunk, he brings it in our house. Oh, it's it's Steph Steph is super happy.
SPEAKER_04:So, dude, I I've never I'm obviously I don't want to say like I've been around anyone that's been sprayed or whatever, but like I I have, but not like around a water source like that. And that's interesting because I made the comment was like I felt like every time he got wet, like he went on a retrieve and came back, the smell got worse and then it dissipated or whatever, right? So that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:It was settling into his coat, I guess. Wow.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, if it rained, like it rained the other day, it was right. Like, because he gets that like you know, the wet dog smells, it's now like stale skunk snow. Super cool. So for all you duck hunters out there, if your dog gets skunked, there's nothing you can do unless you want to give up your hunt, but we all know that's not happening.
SPEAKER_04:You know what? And I was thinking to myself, kind of a side note before pig uh piggybacking off that story, is that actually ended up being a pretty good hunt for you. I know I got a couple that day, but I was thinking back to probably five, six years ago, one of our earliest hunts together, we walked out to a pond at Delavan and we saw the skunk on the way there. The only place we see a skunk. But remember, we said like that's a bad sign for the hunt, and we ended up getting skunked that hunt.
SPEAKER_01:Like we just sat out there for a few hours and put the I think there's an onyx pin in one of our obviously, yeah. That's uh it's called the skunk.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, so I it's it is what it is. It's unavoidable. Obviously, like I know guys le leash their dog out there, and I've done that with you, I think, a few times. I'm just it doesn't work out for me in the long run.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, like like I said, it is what it is. Yeah, I mean, yeah, they just sneak up, you know, so it can happen to any of us. But uh cool. Well, I'm gonna let you jump off because I know you're taking care of the boys today, but I am curious because I'm I'm I want to ask some of the guys what's something you're working on coming up, you know, maybe outside of waterfowl, maybe something around the house that you've been putting off saying, hey, I'll wait till the end of duck season.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, we could go on forever. That honeydew list is big. So what do you think? I think I told you offline. I just came back from Little League meeting where I got I'm supposed to be coaching my older son. My older, he's six.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, league, anyways, we could do a podcast on little league once your kid gets in it, because it's a s I love it, but dude, my my six-year-old who won't be six, seven until August of next year or August of this year, has to play with seven-year-olds, which is he's a league age seven. Anyways, I'm coaching his team, and then my little guys, it's his first year, and they didn't have enough coaches sign up, and they were gonna have like something like 16 kids on every team. So I got roped into coaching another team. So I'm coaching those two teams.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so your spring's full of managing little league.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that, and then I got a bathroom remodel that I've put off for a year that I'm gonna try and have done by March.
SPEAKER_04:Nice.
SPEAKER_01:So that's that's what I got on my plate. I I got a concrete guy to cut my slab, and I'm gonna put a whole new sh uh full bathroom in the back part of my house that years ago was converted from a convert uh two-car garage into basically where my boys sleep now.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Well, hey, speaking of your oldest, what's the plan for I know we're coming up on junior weekend, but what's the plan? You know, I know he he's you've taken him out a couple times just to kind of let him hang out. What's what are your thoughts? When when do you think you're gonna take a peek at Hunter's safety and all that?
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna we have a guy up here that some of my co-workers he's taught a lot of our co-workers kids, and he's certified or some, whatever the requirement is to be able to teach Hunter's safety. I'm curious though, I want to get the literature and see how like he comprehends it. Yeah. Um when do most kids eight, nine, ten? I think ten's the number I hear, nine and ten. Okay, so yeah, so like he turned seven in August, so that would put him like I think he could go out there. I wouldn't take him to a refuge, but I'd go to like your right uh Mike's property. No, no, even actually I'd go to Mike's property and like, hey, if I had the gun that fit him, yeah, and like everything was aligned, like that would be the scenario. Yeah, because he could stand on good footing. Yeah. I I don't have a youth shotgun. I'd love to chat with someone who has one because like I, you know, I had the 20 gauge, which is fine, but it's all about the stock, and I know they make those little single shots. I don't really want to do a 410. Yeah. I don't know. I'm kind of in that learning phase right now, because obviously you and I learned as full grown adults, so it wasn't there was no question. No, but I think it's cool, I think it's buy a gun for the sake of buying a gun. Yeah. But we'll see.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm thinking, you know, we'll fill it out at least uh at seven. I don't I don't plan on having him going out there trying to harvest a bird at seven, but maybe get his license and at least get it under his belt. And then because I gotta and then I gotta look, because I I'm almost positive I think I've said this on the podcast. I have Henry's lifetime or two, I have to look into that. I gotta figure out what I did.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I thought you did it.
SPEAKER_01:But then Dean's coming around that point too, and I know there's an age bracket, so it's getting I gotta get into that.
SPEAKER_04:Right on. Well, before I let you go, you mentioned Mike there, and we'll give just give a little public pressure. I'm not sure if he listens to the podcast. I know he's checked in a couple times, but I know it's off season. We've got to get Mike on here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we do. We definitely do. I've been bugging him about it. I know he's a big spoon listener, so I know he's probably gathered a couple of these.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so I know. Mike, if you're listening out there, Caitlin and I are gonna hit you up coming in the off-season. We just want to get you on here. So cool. All right, man. Well, I'm gonna let you run. Appreciate it, man, and we'll chat soon. All right, see ya. See ya. Alright, guys, we got our buddy Landon Acevedo. How you doing, Landon?
SPEAKER_02:Good, good. How are you?
SPEAKER_04:I'm good, man. I'm good. Can't believe, man, the season's already done.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's crazy. It seems like it seems like every year it's going a little bit quicker. It's crazy to think that uh I kind of started doing this at well, I started going when I was 11 years old, but I mean I've been doing it by myself now for pretty much 13 and 14 years, and it kind of seems like it all blends together. Like I can remember tons of stuff from previous seasons, and I when I really sit back and think about it, it's like, man, like really that long ago already, you know what I mean? Oh, for sure, man.
SPEAKER_04:Well, how did this season compare to some of those previous seasons for you?
SPEAKER_03:You you know, it was good. I I didn't finish the end of the season, like the last two and a half, three weeks as strong with the ducks, but gosh, the the geese really made up for it. Like I killed I killed like four limit to specs in consecutive shoot days for myself and that kind of stuff. And then two or three of those shoot days I had a buddy with me, and we were able to kill 20 specs on public and that kind of thing, which I can't even remember the last time I had an opportunity or really heard of of guys doing that. So that was a really cool thing to finally experience going out light and just setting up like six or eight full bodies and decoying specs is kind of a cool deal, especially on a refuge.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, man, that's pretty cool because I mean I'm sure you've heard there's a lot of talk about the spec limit being cut down, possibly for next season, down to like five or six birds, if that. And you know, a lot of folks, especially in the guiding world, are are welcoming that because one, you know, obviously we all love specs. Uh it's one of my favorite birds to to put on the table, but you know, it's a lot of pressure for the guides to go out there and get 10, and here you are knocking 10 down, you know, in consecutive hunts, man. So good for you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I appreciate it, man. I think I think the other benefit from that is I mean, it's like anything you can watch, you can watch the trends over the years of when even when when the depth limit in California was four and five birds for a while, um I think it it really helps not educate the birds as much because you don't have guys sitting out there for long periods of time going, Well, I only need two more, and then that turns into another three or four hours of hunting or even staying all day. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, absolutely. So I know you were saying you weren't able to uh either get out as much or just uh the season didn't quite close out the way that you had expected. But I know uh saw you a handful of times this January. We went out to uh the sportsman's expo together, so it's good seeing you there, and then saw you closing weekend out at Clay's Club. But overall, like how how was the January for you?
SPEAKER_03:January was still good. I I still killed the ducks early. The first like week and a half, I think, maybe two weeks of January was good. And then the goose thing just gets addicting, man. Those those those specs and and even the snows. I had a couple hunts that I got to do with a couple kids that I started taking out on the junior hunt five or six years ago, and I've gotten to watch them grow. And they said, hey, you know, we we have this little club down in the South Grasslands, and there's big grinds of snows on both sides. And I think we could decoy these things in the fog. And so we went out there with a couple dozen snow full bodies and and had those things doing the dance too. So that was super cool. But killing geese over water is just something that I haven't gotten to do a whole much. And and they do it just like the mallards. So it was it was super cool. It was the same thing, but a little bit different, and you can kill a lot more of them.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, speaking of getting those big birds, did you take advantage of uh the mute swan hunts at all in January or not yet?
SPEAKER_03:You know, I I didn't. I did not get out on any of the of the mute swan hunts. Uh that hunt that I did go that I did go help with up in that Napa Sonoma area that I was telling you about.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, any of your clients do that?
SPEAKER_03:The clients on that deal killed a pair of them that day. They they flew right out in front of us, and I mean they were only 25, 30 yards, and I think four guys gifted their guns, and we still had to clean them up on the water. Those birds are super duper tough birds. That's crazy to just watch them eat all those pellets, and yeah, the strength is just crazy.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's what I've heard, and I can only imagine. Or maybe you could text me on the side a picture of what they look like. I guess far as you know, with your clients or with you guys, because those things are huge, man.
SPEAKER_03:They are, and you know it was funny. One of them, one of them was very much alive still, even after they tried to shoot him on the water and stuff, and and they said, Ah, we should probably pull the boat out and go get that thing. And I said, Hold on, like, let's see if the dog will catch up to him. Well, the dog finally caught up to him, but it if that swan is working against your dog, like the dog will struggle to even make it back to the boat, like they have no control, man. That's yeah, those that thing was like a tugboat pulling my dog around. It was crazy. So it was funny. He he was whining, trying to get back to us, and the swan was like had all kinds of resistance, and so finally I was like, Yeah, he's struggling, and we need to go take care of that. So, yeah, it's it's crazy. I mean, I think they're they're close to 25 or 30 pounds each, which is wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Man, that's insane.
SPEAKER_03:So it is, it really was.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So overall, how how was the season? I know uh we chatted a little bit about overall, like what you know, compared to seasons past, what you know, if you had to put a grade on this season for you personally, you know, what what are your thoughts?
SPEAKER_03:I I would give this one. I would give this one probably somewhere in like the flat flat B to A minus range, somewhere in the other. I know that's kind of a vague deal, but it's like the the weird part about this year is uh like especially with the mallard thing, if you find a pile of them somewhere and you go in there and you shoot efficiently, usually you could get like I would say at least two hunts out of it, but a lot of times like three or four good shoots out of it. And this year it was like you go in there, burn them, get done early, and then you could show up the next shoot day, and things would be completely different. And it wasn't like they were just completely out of the country, but it was like they just got smart and they started using something a little bit different, like a little ways off the beaten path, or just just whatever. So it was kind of hard staying one step ahead this year. And and figuring out like what was gonna fire next. Um, usually you can you can kind of figure out when these ducks start transitioning to water grass, like what order they're gonna use stuff in, and that kind of thing. And this year it was kind of like hopscotch, like they'd they'd be in one area and then they'd leave it alone for two or three shoot days and then they'd be back in there. So it was kind of interesting. I don't think the duck numbers were really less or anything like that, but they were just a little bit more divided in where you were finding them.
SPEAKER_04:So Yeah, it it was kind of an interesting year to hear you kind of say, like sometimes birds were where you expected, and some days they'd just, you know, get up and they they would, you know, leave town or whatever. And it was interesting just with you know the the the weather, the fog, the temperature, all those different things that you know sometimes played in our favor, uh, depending on the day or or where you were in Northern California or even throughout the state. But you know, you keep hearing reports of it never really froze up north. And you know, then the fog that we had we were stocked in and what for pretty much the better part of December, you hear birds that were getting all disoriented, right? And they were landing in places, and you were hearing reports of birds in certain parts of the you know, the sack and delta and bay region where like you don't normally see those birds out here.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_04:And just the weather with the flooding, you know, and obviously you spent enough time up here in the Sacramento Valley, just kind of, you know, just with the clubs, you know, the the bypasses flooding out, and just it was it was just interesting, you know. Um and it's not anything that we're not used to, it was just managing it or we're dealing with it, you know, throughout the year.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, most definitely. And then like another thing to add on to that, kind of with you talking about it, it not ever really getting cold enough. One of my one of my clients that I had when I was working in Idaho was was still going back there at the end of the season. And so it's a 28 gauge only club, and he asked me to borrow a gun. So he went back there for the last two days of the season and and shot my gun and stuff. And just when he got back, I said, Hey, like, how did it go? And he sent me pictures and they were just absolutely thrashing them. And he said, Those ducks seem fresh up there, and uh, I mean, here we are at the end of the season. It's like they were just getting there. So yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Well, right on. Well, what does the uh off season look like for your you know?
SPEAKER_03:Um the off-season for me is going to consist mainly of getting this younger dog that I have now caught up and up to speed. My eight-year-old dog handles well and everything. I can send him pretty much as far as I want to, as long as he's within earshot. This younger dog doesn't take hand signals yet or any of that kind of stuff. So I'm gonna really grind here in these summer months to try to get him caught up to that so that the difference between taking my two dogs isn't as much as it is right now.
SPEAKER_04:So good good for you. Do you are you gonna be doing a lot of that yourself, or do you have someone that you work with or a little bit of both?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I I sent, well, both of these dogs, their initial training was done with Roacha retrievers. My my older dog, I got to train him on Rocha's facility because I was working for Rocha during the summertime when I was home from college and stuff back in like 2018, 2019. This dog, I sent him to Rocha for his just initial gun jump gun dog training while I was in Idaho at the end of this last season. And then I got him back from Jared and got to run him this season, and I will be doing all the training from here on out myself with him. So just yeah, gonna work on that casting stuff and then doing double and triple blinds and that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_04:So nice, man. Well, that's exciting, and you know, obviously something to kind of look forward to this off season and stay somewhat connected to waterfowl for the next few months. So good for you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, man. I appreciate it. It's it's always a journey seeing the little quirks and differences in these dogs, so I'm sure it'll be fun.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. Well, I really appreciate well. One, it was good, you know, meeting you this season and also good catching up. And I really appreciate you coming on for the Fowlers the last few months, just kind of giving your take and you know, kind of letting us know how things are going in your world. But uh yeah, man, I look forward to hopefully seeing you sooner than later, and yeah, appreciate everything.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, man. We'll uh we'll stay connected in the off season and I wish you the best with the podcast, and then we'll we'll be in touch for this next year.
SPEAKER_04:Sounds good, man. All right, well, hang tight for a sec. Okay. See ya. All right, guys. We got Colin Osher on here. Colin, what's up, buddy?
SPEAKER_02:Not much, brother. How you doing?
SPEAKER_04:I'm doing good, man. Doing good. Uh Colin's coming to us live from somewhere out in the middle of the Central Valley, uh, out there on I-5. Uh, he's making his move from Southern California up here to Sacramento. So how's the drive going, man?
SPEAKER_02:It's uh bumpy and loud. I I don't have Bluetooth or cruise control.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I got driving a U-Haul, making the trek north, man. Well, uh good for you, man, and happy to get you up here in Sacramento. And I know we talked about it this past year, looking forward to getting out with you next season.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, man, it's it's gonna be good. Yeah. I'm honestly really looking forward to uh some turkey hood too, man.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah, that's gonna be here before we know it, too. But yeah, but speaking of seasons, here we are kind of wrapping up 25-26 waterfowl season. How how was your overall season? I know we checked in every uh couple months or so, but how are how are things this past January? How'd you end up closing out?
SPEAKER_02:Man, it's funny. I the last time we chatted, I was like, well, that was it. I wasn't gonna hunt the rest of January. Yep. I had some extra uh uh PTO that I forgot about, so I snuck out two more times and did really good, man. There was like a lot of new birds in that part of the state, and uh it was just fun like getting to see some people for the last time, yeah. It was uh good way to wrap it up.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. I mean, for the listeners out there, uh make sure you follow Colin at the sweat line on Instagram. But yeah, I saw your post I think from yesterday or today, and just kind of you know, saying till we meet again or till next time and kind of wrapping up. It looks like some of your your hunting partners and buddies that you've met over the years down in Southern California. And you know, it it's a long drive, but maybe they'll come up and hunt with you up north next season.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, dude. And that's one of those things, like hunting buddies is like like I got buddies, you know, 3,000 miles away that we still get together and hunt every year, every two years. So hunting's one of those things I I feel like that uh makes it a little easier to to travel to see people.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I I was gonna give you a hard time about that. You mentioned, you know, hey, I'm getting ready to wrap it up. I I don't know if how much in in January I'm gonna be able to get out. And good for you, man. You were able to get out quite a bit, but what was really cool was it looked like you had a lot of success in January.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, man, it was good. There um, you know, everyone's been was talking about like it it wasn't a bad year by any means. I I didn't go out as much, but it it did seem like a a weird year, like the birds just um were doing different things than they have the last couple of seasons I've heard in Southern California. But they like it definitely ended on a strong suit for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man, that's awesome. And and then you know, it's funny, I was talking a couple other buddies, and I talked to my buddy Caton earlier, you know, kind of said the same thing, whereas we really don't have any complaints, you know. I think the theme is we didn't get out as much as we wanted, but we got out more than we expected. The hunts were all pretty good. I mean, obviously we had some slower hunts, but no complaints, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and it was like this year, um it was like the year of the the pentail, the gadwall, dude.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Like there's been other other seasons where I like numbers-wise, I killed more birds, but it was typically teal and footy. But this year it was just like you know, I didn't go as much, but I I still average four birds a month, which I think is like I was really proud of that. Like that to me is like a good a good year.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But a lot of Gadwall and a lot of pintails.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, good for you. Did you ever get your full limit of sprig?
SPEAKER_02:I never did, man.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, me neither.
SPEAKER_02:It's especially down there, they seem to always work late, and it would always end up getting that would be like my second to last or my last bird, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's a good point. You know what I mean? You you kind of have to be like, hey, let's knock our sprig off the limit first, you know, then you know you can kind of fill the rest of your strap, you know, with any other four. But yeah, that's a that's a great call out there where it's like, hey, you know, you're sitting at six birds and you already have one sprig, you're not gonna get to that uh three sprig limit.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, so but you know, um I wasn't too worried, like, especially free roam on public. I'm like, unless it's like really crazy, I'm probably gonna take what I can get, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Yeah. Well, man, I'm excited to get you up here. I'm looking forward to next season. I think it'll be really cool. Because like you you obviously got out, I would say quite a bit, but obviously just following on Instagram. We were texting kind of back and forth. I know that you basically, you know, not to burn your spots, but spent a lot of time going up to the kern. But I think with all the different opportunities up here, I'm I'm really eager to kind of see what what public land pulls you in next season and you know whether you stay local and you know hunt YOLO, or if you head up to Sack Valley, do some of the national ones or some of the smaller state ones. I'm really looking forward to finding out.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, man. I'm I'm really stoked. I just I pulled it up too. I don't like I I keep track of my my stats throughout the season. Yeah. So this past year I I averaged 4.2 birds a hunt. 47% shooting, which is not great, but you know I'm blaming the I'm blaming the fog. And then 14 hunt for 16 total birds.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, good for you. Nice. Yeah, I still have to dive into the stats there. You mentioned the shooting percentage. Do you use uh North American waterfowler? What are you using to track your stats?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, North American waterfowler. I and I think it's it's not much. It's uh it's a couple bucks a month. Yeah. Something like that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, I have it as well.
SPEAKER_02:To me, it's worth it just because I can the other thing it does is like I can keep track of the weather and wind and like really specific stuff, and then you can kind of see some trends over time.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, what I liked about it was I wasn't posting much on Instagram in years past of like, you know, my hunting and my game pursuits and stuff. But what I like about that app there is you can upload a picture or two of your hunt. And normally it was just like a team photo with the guys, or maybe it was a picture of the harvest, but that was kind of cool to capture as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly, man. And that's I think that's important too, is just like having those memories. Because, you know, there's also a lot of hunts that you think back on, and like you might not actually remember the birds. You you you know, you just kind of remember who you were with.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, 100%. Yeah, absolutely, man. Absolutely. So cool, man. Well, um, you know, I guess what do you what are you looking forward to this off season? I I know you mentioned we got turkey season, uh, you got spring season coming up. That'll be a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, and then never done tree work in Northern California. Uh that's what I do for a living. I'm ready to uh I'm gonna be working in Grass Valley, so I'm ready to cut some big ass trees down, dude. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I was gonna say once again, man, check out Colin's Instagram. He posts you know some uh videos and reels from work, and uh if if you're not afraid of heights or not worried about getting vertigo or whatnot, go ahead and check that out.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it'll be cool, man. I'm I'm excited. It's something I've wanted to do since I was a kid. That's cool. Finally, finally making it happen.
SPEAKER_04:That's cool. Well, what else you got uh coming up this offseason? I know obviously you got your your move, the big move up north, but uh just kind of getting situated in the new place. Is that kind of the plan the next few weeks?
SPEAKER_02:Yep, getting situated and then start looking into like turkey season, really want to try and do some striper fishing.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Never really done much of that, so that'll be cool. And then just like ready to go do some camping. LA was a great adventure, you know, but to to go do outdoorsy stuff, you pretty much had to have all day or a whole weekend, you know, just in order to get out of the city.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, man, not not having it in my backyard. Yeah, not anymore. I mean, especially if you're heading up to Grass Valley and stuff. My advice just throw a rod in the car and you never know after work or whatnot. You can go hit one of the back lakes up there, or just you know, head another half hour to an hour up the foot Sierras there and just explore, man, get lost up there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm I'm I'm ready, dude.
SPEAKER_04:Very cool, very cool. Well, Renault, man, well it was good catching up. You know, you listening to Four of the Fowlers on the Road, or what's uh what's keeping you uh entertained on i5?
SPEAKER_02:Dude, I've been listening to FM radio, brother.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, that's right. Yeah, you're in the U-Haul.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, all the hits from the 80s, 90s, and the early 2000s.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I know. Driving those U-Hauls, especially out in that part of the state, man, you're having to like change the station every 50 miles, it seems like.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, yep, but it's been good. I found a couple like uh classic country stations, which is nice.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Switch it up a little.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think when you get into Sacramento, I listen to a lot of obviously Spotify now and whatnot, but yeah, if you like country, I think it's 105.1 as you get a little closer, and then 103.3 should be coming in too.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah. Um yeah, man. We'll have to uh oh dude. Last thing, are you are you shooting uh late season goose?
SPEAKER_04:I am not. No opportunities. I didn't sign up for any sort of guided hunts or anything like that.
SPEAKER_02:So at least if anybody hears this, if anybody hears this and wants to help a brother out, yeah. I'll come I'll come prune your fucking palm tree or something.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah. Call it to do some work on your property if anyone has an opportunity out there. Reach out to him at the sweat line and then yeah, if you have an extra spot, let me know at for the Fowlers. I'll come out too. Yeah, let's do it. So cool, man. All right, well, uh safe travels and uh let's get together when you get all settled in.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, man. I'll I'll probably hit you up this weekend.
SPEAKER_04:Sounds good, buddy. All right, man, we'll chat.
SPEAKER_02:All right, thanks, buddy. Bye. See ya.
SPEAKER_04:All right, guys. We got our last guest of the episode here. We got Hoon from Foulmouth TV joining for the Fowlers again. What's up, Woon? Nothing much, man. Hanging in there. How are you? I'm doing good, man. Doing good. It's been a while since we chatted. I know we've been texting a little bit. You know, how how's the season been? All right, well, how was the season? I guess we're done now. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. No, the the season, uh, I think the last time I was on the channel, I was probably smack dab in the middle of waiting on our field to get stomped.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And we were having having some issues with that. But I want to say maybe maybe a week after I did your I was on the on the show, we got we finally got stomped. And then it took about a week after we got stomped for the birds to show up, and then it just it turned on. It was like a light switch. So that that mid-December, I think it was about December 16th or 17th when it really turned on for us. And man, we had some good shooting.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, man. I was following along all season on Instagram, and uh it seemed like every time you went out there was a nice uh picture pile of birds uh on the way out. So good for you, man. And and yeah, I mean you seem to be describing it just as it seemed. It like a light switch went off for you guys. So that's that's awesome. Because I know it was a little bit of a late start, obviously, too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we were we were chomping at the bit and we were hoping that the birds didn't pass us up, you know, because it was foggy. We had that fog for you know three, four weeks in a row, and yeah, there's a lot of things we were worried about, but ended up ended up coming out on top. So yeah, definitely happy about that.
SPEAKER_04:Nice. And uh rest of the your rest of your crew did good as well?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, a lot of firsts for for a lot of the guys we had. Our youngest hunter Owen, he shot his first limit, he's 12. Oh, that's awesome. Um, he shot what season is this for him? First season? Second season? This is this is this is his second season. Okay, nice. And he he got to shoot a banded pin tail. Awesome. The only the only band out of our blind. So ended up being a stub, a pin tail. I think it was about five, five and a half years old.
SPEAKER_04:Good for him.
SPEAKER_00:So that went off, that went off to the taxidermist, and and a couple of us just hit hit, you know, good amounts of limits. I think Sean led the led the the blind with most with the most limits, but everybody got a chance to shoot, you know, quite a few limits for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, hey, and I I want to you know dive into your little memory here a little bit, because I know we I texted you about it, and for those of you guys that watch Woon's channel, you you saw him.
SPEAKER_00:this but talk to me about that triple that scotch triple oh yeah man that that scotch triple was crazy you know I was I was sitting at I was sitting at four birds now this was the now mind you if going back to earlier in our conversation that our blind had just like a light switcher had turned on so we had hunted we had hunted our blind a few times since we got stonked and then it hadn't like I said it was still slow so we were still wondering like man is our blind gonna be shit this year so I had to fly out of state for Christmas break. And so I got off of work one morning and I worked night shifts. So I got off at you know 4 a.m in the morning drove up two hours and I just said hey I'm gonna hunt one more time before I leave and man I I got into the area and all I can do is just hear birds when I got out of the truck and I said hey it's gonna be a good it's gonna be a good day so ended up man birds were everywhere and you know I was missing some opportunities and some birds got away from me wounded them and I was sitting at four birds and man this group of steel came by and I pulled up and aimed for the lead bird and just so happened as I shot the two other birds aligned with it and ended up with a Scotch triple. And I was so tired from running around in the mud that day that I couldn't even really like I couldn't even like celebrate it you know yeah but I was like you know I was lucky to catch it I was lucky to catch it on film.
SPEAKER_04:And then you know looking back at it I was like man that was pretty cool you know yeah and it's funny uh you're more familiar with the YouTube scene than I am but in your title there I think you even mentioned like the triple or whatnot. I'm like I gotta check this out not that I was doubting it but I'm like I gotta I gotta see this and sure enough and your camera caught your camera caught it which is awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Not that anyone would doubt but it's just cool that you have that memory now too yeah and I I hit a I hit a lot of and this year was the first for me I I don't think I've ever hit a Scotch double or a scotch triple before this season and this season I had I think I had like four or five scotch doubles this season.
SPEAKER_04:See so now you know as you get later in your limit you're like all right I gotta make sure maybe hit that tail bird or something not the lead bird yeah definitely definitely for sure. Cool well yeah I I didn't know that you know we chat we chatted last time but that you know you work nights and everything so I know you I've seen on your channel you do a lot of solo hunts so that makes sense and good for you being able to kind of get out there after work and take advantage of those morning hunts and those weekdays and stuff like that. So that's awesome man. So well once you got off and running you got stomped you got your water I mean it seems like things turned on did you primarily hunt your your rice plunge or did you get out to uh any public land after your fields were ready to go yeah we didn't we didn't hunt much we didn't hunt any public land really once our field got stomped I mean our our blind was producing enough to where we didn't have to to go out elsewhere you know and it was kind of hard it's kind of hard to leave the blind to go you know you hear John say don't yeah say don't yep don't leave ducks to chase ducks right yeah yeah so you know for for I want to say I kept my numbers over the over the season and I'm thinking I think out of the blind miss I'm correct I had a four and a half bird average over the season just out of the blind alone.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. So you know it was kind of hard to it was kind of hard to to leave that and and go search elsewhere when our our blind was doing so good. So they didn't get to any any public public land.
SPEAKER_04:Well that's good and and that's I mean obviously we hear folks that you know the rice turns on turns off you know especially like in January just the rice stops producing but that's good for you that you know you're able to make the most of those opportunities. Yep. So well cool so what else is going on what what's on deck for the off season? Well I I guess before the offseason are you are you gonna take out some juniors next weekend?
SPEAKER_00:Well I'll I'll be working next weekend but our our junior our junior hunter Owen will be he will be going out next weekend. Not sure on where we're gonna take him we have we have our blind set up for the junior weekend I think we're gonna do some scouting as far as if there's birds in the area before they just figure figure out you know where they want to go but definitely they'll be getting him out Sean and Logan will be chaperoning him so they'll be calling for him and hopefully he can he can knock him down.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah let's hope so go get him Owen so what what does the offseason look like like your spring are you big into turkey do you do fishing or do you just kind of spend some time with the family a little bit of everything what what what's the next few months look like for you no yeah definitely definitely fishing is on the on the horizon going to try to hammer the halibut as much as we can.
SPEAKER_00:Nice and then maybe you know get on some catch and release sturgeon we do want we have talked about getting in getting on turkey and so hopefully we can make that happen this upcoming spring. And then basically I got a couple birds that I gotta get mounted. I shot a nice Drake mallard that I wanted mounted and then I'm pretty sure you may have seen my Instagram post I shot a camus back. Oh I did yeah um yeah so that that's gotta go on the wall too. Very cool so I'm gonna dump some money into that and we'll see how those turn out.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:How how's the channel been how's that been you may you're getting some good footage out there in the field that yeah and I I got I got some footage that I gotta I gotta put together. Definitely got too tied up and a lot of things during the season where I couldn't put out the videos and stuff like that. But I got a bunch of footage that I gotta put you know put together and and put out so we'll I'll get on that soon and then me and Logan and Sean we'll start sitting down and start talking about our season and talking about a lot of the things that we learn and and seen and some of our bumps and bruises even though we had a pretty successful season we did run into some just learning. Yeah you know you do it every season learning opportunities and you know things that you know we compared to last year that worked for us that didn't you know so we'll be we'll be getting that that content out and nice man kind of you know letting people hear our hear our you know learning opportunities.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah for sure and I mean I was texting you throughout the season uh every time a video would come out man they're they're just they're fire videos I I like them I like the ones obviously like I don't know if you call them in studio or whatnot where you got your sitting around the table but then even some of your hunt videos and and I actually liked kind of your I don't know what you call but the ones you were doing just kind of driving home from the from the blind you know those were those were cool too yeah call them the roadcast yeah the roadcast that's what it was yeah yeah those that that that those are cool man so yeah I think I think next year I'll do a little bit more of that especially with some of the guys in the truck it'll be a lot you know it's it's hard for me to just talk by myself but when it's me and one of the other guys we can really for sure uh get the conversation flowing you know no yeah it was just it was cool it was a different format and and I liked it I'm sure a lot of other viewers liked it too so yeah yeah well cool man well hey I appreciate it man can't thank you enough for coming on earlier this season and you know coming on you know this evening and yeah it was good meeting you this season and yeah hopefully we can get together maybe I'll take you up invite myself on a halibut uh trip or something because that'd be a lot of fun but um yeah yeah definitely yeah definitely we can uh we can link up and but yeah let's yeah let's let's stay in touch and you know not wait till next season to get together or something. Yeah for sure. Cool. All right well hang tight and we'll wrap this up. Yep. All right see ya all right guys well that's gonna be the last guest of the episode really appreciate everyone who we were able to get a hold of this week and you know hope ever all the listeners out there had a wonderful season and can't believe it's over. But uh yeah if anyone's getting out in any juniors next weekend hopefully the little ones have a great hunt and hopefully we see some success out there for uh late season as well for for those snows so yeah don't forget to rate and review this podcast wherever you might be listening Apple Spotify give us a follow on YouTube as well and we will catch with catch up with you next time