LIFE’S SHORT GETDUCKS: THE LAST FEW WEEKS SOUTH AFRICA HUNTS RECAPPED

Rocky Leflore: Welcome to The End of The Line podcast, I’m Rocky Leflore in the Ducks South Studios in Oxford Mississippi, well actually I’m in Little Rock, Arkansas. I can’t tell you Oxford Mississippi today, Ramsey. Ramsey, you’re actually back home for a week.

“Africa it far exceeded my greatest expectations. I have done my diligence, I have been working on this project with these 2 guys for couple of years and still it just greatly exceeded my expectations and I have got a subset of clients that are all about species, bucket list birds and this is their hunt, there’s over a dozen species ready to roll.”

Ramsey Russell: Man, I have been home and it’s that time of year and gosh, I’m just in my element. I was so good to be home for a long time, I think I was home for 6 weeks and then went down to Africa and had just unbelievable time. Home for 7 days and it was long enough man, I’m ready to roll and Argentina is on fire and I’ve got some great clients I’m joining and we’ve got a lot of projects going on and I’m about fired up man, it’s just my time of year. And do you know tomorrow Friday is the first day of summer, it’s already 100 some odd degrees outside Mississippi with the heat index and all I can think is man, it is not going to be 100 degrees duck season somewhere and I have had enough of it, week was plenty, time to go duck season. Africa on the other hand, that’s pretty warm hunt and I don’t know what – I barely remember doing a podcast with you, me Jake and Ryan that was a hard hunt in terms of burning and making hay water sun shine. We were up at 03:30, 04:00 o’clock, we were in the field before the sun came up, decoys set, go to action and on that particular day we caught you, we were transferring to go do upland to another province and man it was 10 o’clock, we were talking about it breakfast next morning, we were all 3 lying in bed talking to you. Ryan said he almost dozed off and I was – man something hit me, I don’t know what I had a 48 hours something get hold of me and I was green around the gills talking to you but it was – Rocky, I just never get tired of this part of it. It’s like being a gold panner like being a gold digger at the California gold rush and you always sifting for nuggets and trying to find better and hit – Africa was it. Africa it far exceeded my greatest expectations. I have done my diligence, I have been working on this project with these 2 guys for couple of years and still it just greatly exceeded my expectations and I have got a subset of clients that are all about species, bucket list birds and this is their hunt, there’s over a dozen species ready to roll. And then I have got guys that just want to go have a good time and vacation and pull the trigger and see new country and it’s all that more, it was just a really great trip. And if you may remember, I had a few goals going down there. One, I want to shoot that Cape Shovelers, I got him and now I got that – man me and Ryan made a big deal about the world spoony slam. We both got it on the same day and so we hit that lick and in fact I got all the birds in that genius now and then there was another bird and it’s really kind of – they call it a brown duck and it’s really pretty much a brown duck and no frills nothing to it a little bit – just imagine a dark brown hen rosy bill was called a southern pochard and I love to shoot rosy bills and I love to shoot those red crested pochards and we managed to get into those and such that the next place I passed on them, we got them and shot just about all the species every couple of, I didn’t close the deal on that will have to wait till next time but the worse things than having to go back to Africa close the deal on a couple of birds. But the third one I really wanted to get my hands on was that little African pygmy goose and Rocky, it’s like holding a quarter pounder in your hands, it’s so tiny, it’s about the size of a green wing. Technically it’s a perching duck, but they call it a pygmy goose and weighs about 8 or 9 ounces and they’re not like a lot of these species we were checking. The yellow bills are just like mallards back home, the red billed teal everywhere you go they’re just every habitat where there’s water you see those two species, Egyptian geese dime and dozens, they’re everywhere near agriculture but when you start going after some of these birds like the white back duck or especially this pygmy goose, they’re highly specialized. Now consider this that little pygmy goose is size of a – I’m telling you it’s a size of a big mac sitting in your hand it’s so small, his habitat is lily pad. Now, just think about that I’m in freaking Africa 15 inches of rain. It looks like everything you have ever seen on every National Geographic it is sand and cactus and acacia bush and everything you would expect in a country that gets about a foot of rain a year, in an average year. But this bird specializes in lily pad and we had to drive about 2 hours from camp one morning and it turned out – Jake and I were talking about this, it turned out to be like the one defining day of the whole great experience we have. But this one day because the hostess, the lady that cooked and kind of ran a lot, she said, oh you all are going to the heart of Zulu land tomorrow and it just didn’t really strike me so we drove through Africa and as we were driving, we’re looking at over this great big valley, I mean it’s like I could see Johannesburg from there it high so from this ridge and my host says that over there such and such reserve. It’s a lot of private land holdings and it’s got the highest leopard density in all of Zulu land because it’s closed. So, that’s their habitat and that’s where they are and there’s plenty of cattle and sheep to feed on but sadly enough more leopards are dying in Zulu land than ever before because there’s no value in them, so when the farmer sees him he kills him, so he doesn’t eat his goats. Then we drove from – kept on driving, kept on driving, we started going up this big mountain and I started seeing like a few trucks parked on the side of the road, it’s on the ride away. As we got closer and closer there was a rock in the road and there was stick in the road another rock and more rocks and we get to the top, it’s kind of a line of cars, a little chaos going on and there was a village it didn’t have any water and the protest – man, it’s like they dragged the whole mountain full of stones and put in the road and built a barrier with trees and humanity. But you think about it man, they have got no water, none. And their government ain’t – and I’m being facetious here, super-efficient like the American government its way 3^rd world government, so they just did what they could to get attention to try to get some water to the village, so back down the mountain we go and my host stops and get gas and asked for directions and he said, all right guys, I’ve never been this way, it’s going to be an adventure for all of us. And Rocky was it an adventure? We had to go up to another mountain pass and I guarantee you those roads had never seen up a plough or a road grader because it was lost. They ain’t seen a road grader because it was all stones. It was like, I remember one time Anita and I back in college took a famous shortcut overpass in Colorado, it looks like a good idea until we’re right in the middle of a boulder field. I could get out and walk quicker than I was driving, my truck crossing and then once you were there you were stuck, you might as well go forward because it wasn’t going back. You were stuck. It was where you were. That’s what it was like going through this boulder field. I mean, just unbelievable. And you could tell the folks that were looking at us had never seen 3 white tourists come through you just tell. And so that put us about 2 hours behind and the scouting report because to find these pygmy geese, the guide deployed some professional hunters who had employed some villagers to go out scout look and find the report was there were 2 pairs 4 birds on a mile and a half slough and he’s seen them every morning at the same place at 8 o’clock, we don’t get there till 10. We walked and we walked, it was so wild because up top was acacia and thorns and cacti and sand and as we walked down to that old oxbow around the bank of it, it was like being in Mississippi. Of course, it was hotter than blue blazes just like was outside it was hot, it was 90 degrees, it was humid. There was coffee weed, there were kookaburra. It’s just like walking around willow break this time of year except as a big lily pad lake. And we would walk, we stopped, we glassed, we’d walk a little bit and stop, we spent about 2 hours, maybe an hour, we couldn’t find those birds. And so we said, all right, well let’s get back to the truck, drive all the way around and get up on that other side so we can glass down on it. And we’re going through these little villages and it was just – and I’m talking a little round houses with grass huts, just like you might see a National Geography or something and there was no water, were no running water, were no electricity. It’s like I remember everybody going everywhere, going to the grocery store or going pushing something, pushing firewood laundry, the women walk around with 100lbs sacks on their heads without no hand holding have you seen – I mean just imagine just walking around with 50-100lbs sack of grain on top of your head and balancing it and walking, that’s how they carry stuff over there and like I kept seeing all these little boys and stuff pushing these big jugs of water and wheel barrels, not even the big contract of wheel barrels and little bitty Walmart looking wheel barrels. Well, they’ve been going to the river to get water for washing or cooking or whatever they do and that’s just kind of environment we were in. So we were attracting a little bit of attention and my guide knows some people on the course our scout knows everybody because he’s from right there. We walked down and it was easy for me. I’m just carrying a shotgun with my ammo belt. Jake Latendresse now, let me tell you, he’s stall guy. You guys ever walked around with a 35 millimeter camera, 100 millimeter lens or 400 millimeter lens knows what kind of a pain in the butt it is to walk with it Jake carrying that, plus he’s got his big red and a big lens and a 5ft tripod and man, you pick it up Rocky, its 70lbs. But it’s not the kind of 70lbs you can pick up like a yeti cooler, it’s an awkward 70lbs and he just walked a million miles that thing on his shoulders. And he’s walking and we’re going and we get up there and we start the glass and we have been glassing and the outfitter goes, he said, I’m afraid we’re probably here too late. No telling where these birds are now. They’ve been here at 8 o’clock probably feeding, doing their things now, they’ve probably flown off to the river, done something and the whole time Jake’s just doing Jake stuff, setting up his camera and taking B-roll and finally goes is that them on the other bank? Jake is looking through his big lens, we look through binoculars and there they are. 2 pairs of little big mac sized pygmy geese sitting in the shadows and the lily pads over there about 100m from where we’ve been standing looking for them. So now we sit there and we divide a plan like what are we going to do? We got to go all the way back over there, that particular place they are we got to ask permission, can we go onto it? Can we do this? I mean what are we going to do? And just like that like they read our minds, they picked up and they flew straight across the slough to us and they landed about a quarter mile below us, right there and that was it. I mean, now look this one like just walking down a levee or a hillside, this was walking down scrabble, I mean rocks sliding and tumbling down and just real loose substrate but we got down to them and several of these kind of birds, you’ll never shoot a pygmy goose over decoys. You won’t go out and set up a mojo and set up decoys and sit there and wait and call them in they’re not mallards, they’re not pin tails, they’re not green wing teal, they’re little bitty pygmy geese and it’s breeding season, they’re paired off, there was 2 adult pair that weren’t altogether as 4 but were traveling as 2 pairs, kind of staying about 30-40 yards apart. And so like a lot of places you’ll go to hunt. I can think of Peru, I can think of some other places, some of these species you kind of have to spot and stalk and so in that way it was kind of like the whole event from the time we left, the time we bagged them, it was like a big game hunt. I mean, you might as well have been out there chasing something else Cape buffalo or impalas or something. I mean because you had to find them. And find them 4 little big macs in a mile and a half slough flat full of lily pad was like to find literally the proverbial needle in a haystack, but we found them and then it claimed together, we got them. And when we shot, boy did the villagers come out. I mean, my birds were laying there is Randy went over across the way and then we had to wait for a boat to come. Somebody had to go borrow a boat and get a boat and pile it over there and find out everything else and the whole time villagers are just coming out. And you can imagine the loud noises in Chula Mississippi everybody comes out to see what’s going on the same thing. It was very interesting, it really was very interesting. And again I was telling somebody this morning why I like to travel with Jake? Jake gets it the way he sees the world through the lens, what he sees about me or my story and where we are. Jake and I talked a little bit at dinner but we’re out in the field, Jake’s doing Jake stuff and I’m doing Ramsey stuff and it just works so good but Jake just sees things. And so as these kids were coming up Jake is – wow, it’s like you’ve known them for his whole life, he’s interacting with him and he’s talking to them. And the one thing that struck me so profoundly about that morning is the boat went out and got those little birds and brought them back, I shook them off and got them dry and took him up there to Jake, so we could do a little B-roll and talk about them and he was already, he had a whole cluster of kids around him. I mean it must have been a dozen kids clamoring to Jake like a pied piper. And he was talking to them and just really interacting with them so nicely and they just ate it up and so we talk and visit. But what was so interesting to me and I’ll never forget this is here we had travelled literally halfway across the world not to shoot spiral horns or whatever like that, but just these little birds to experience that part of Africa. And we were riding these people’s backyards and those Children came up very polite, very nice, very poor but very nice people and they came up and wanted to see these birds, wanted to touch them, wanted to know about them right there in their backyard. It’s like they were oblivious to it. We come all the way across the world putting our hands on and this was right there in the backyard but it was like this real – I don’t know, just sheer moments. I mean just imagine you come home with a limit of whatever ducks and your next door neighbor kids, they don’t hunt or something and you’re over there teaching them about it but it was just kind of interesting to me, I’ll never forget it, taking a knee and just sitting there and talking to these kids about the birds that live right there in their backyards. And it’s just a part of their environment, it’s just invisible to them. But that was a really cool moment. And then just later that afternoon we had a little time before dark and to find a cape teal another teal those birds specialized, they live in brackish water and we were there in Zululand and we were just an hour from the Indian Ocean that old oxbow had been formed off this river, that river ran south about another 100 kilometers and dumped into the Indian Ocean. And so the operator said hey, we have got a few hours to kill, would you like to go see if we can put our hands on some of those Cape teal. Because they hang out right there on that marsh grass. Think about real short grass and knee higher or less what you would expect to see clapper rails and that’s where these birds hang out. And so when we found a pair and as we pulled up it was just these little round houses with grass roof huts and about a dozen kids just acting like rambunctious kids out in the front yard, stop and talk to them and one of them pointed, walked over the hillside and looked down at the bay boom, there was a pair of teals, Randy went and my guest went in and my client went in and manage to close the deal and the whole time Jake and I just sat there and talked to all the Children and then adults came out, it was just what they were trying to sell is these little grass mats, these little hand woven mats they made, it looked like string running the length of it on the left and right and then a little reeds look like roll up blind, like a little fabric blind or something, but it wasn’t and it’s $3. You put the mama, you put the daddy, you put the baby, it was just grass mats 3 bucks and I didn’t buy one but I’m like, why would they make these? I mean right in the middle of nowhere. So I asked the outfitter when he came up and said hey, what’s with these mats, everybody’s trying to sell us these mats and he goes, well Ramsey, that’s what they sleep on. I said, huh? You see these houses they ain’t got no furniture they got mats in them, that’s what they sleep on. And so they sell them and sell them to other villagers and they’re saying, hey maybe you want one. I don’t, but it was very interesting like the way the young women, they all had this reddish face. Like I put on too much rouge and I didn’t say nothing just I noticed it but what it was like clay, some kind of clay, a particular kind of clay that all the Zulu women, young women will put on their faces it’s like a mud bath or moisturizer or something like women put on around here. It was just fascinating, very fascinating.

Rocky Leflore: All right so this is one I want to hear about though. Forrest that was his first trip for forest over there.

Ramsey Russell: Boy was that the the 1^st trip –

Rocky Leflore: Walk me through that what it was like in Forrest shoes seeing all that for the first time.

Ramsey Russell: Well, he didn’t see all the birds. I’ll tell you what we did Rocky, we went, we took a family vacation. I’ve been before we did a plains game hunt the spiral horns and zebras and stuff like that and Anita I had gone on my 50^th birthday, it ain’t cheap but it ain’t crazy expensive and we saved them money and we decided when we went back we wanted take the family. I think everybody with kids, I think every kid in America all you have to go to a country like Africa. And I don’t mean Johannesburg or the city, I mean, off in the sticks like I was talking about everybody ought to have to do that. You come home and you’ll thank the Lord Almighty for everything you’ve got. If you go off into Africa I’m telling you, it’s just how it is. But it’s wonderful too, it’s fun. It’s like Disneyland for hunters. They’re just critters running everywhere. And we went off just a cull hunt. Well, you all know me, I’m not a trophy hunter. I don’t collect bird I collect experiences. I chased pygmy geese because I get to go see a part of Africa, you ain’t going to see unless you’re chasing pygmy geese, ox bows you see what I’m saying? That’s my thing. It’s just all the nooks and crannies and I just love it. So we went and took Forrest and Parker, Duncan’s left, bless his heart, left for Okinawa, the day we left for Africa just poor timing he and I had to make it up some kind of how. But we went to Africa and it was quote of the century. I told Forrest I said look, we are not hunting trophies, I’m going to tell you right now, for the money they cost for what – just think it is Rocky, we were targeting 120 inch, 130 inch white tails, not 107-180 inch, okay, that’s where we were going with this thing. We weren’t going after the sad daddy’s that cost a fortune, we were just going to shoot and have a good time. But I want to make sure Forrest was cool and I said, we’re going to do this, we’re going to have a good time, we’re going to shoot a lot. He looked to me and said daddy, they’re all just spikes, I could care less. And I thought about that a minute. I said, well that’s a good frame of mind. They’re all just – he said everything over there is a spike. He said, something’s longer and curlier than others and with that frame of mind I was wondering if he brought enough bullets and he had a great time. What we would do in the mornings is, he and I would split up most mornings, their truck will go off every way with his guide and I would go with mine, Anita ride with me or him, Parker ride with me or him. We just had a great time visiting, mixing and matching like that and then towards the end he and I hunted together and it was just so much fun. If you’re not a hunter, now Miss Anita was not a hunter when we got married, she had never killed an animal until about 3 years ago. The first time we went coach her a little bit on shooting a rifle and she’s a good shot. She shot 3 animals the first time and 3 or 4 animals this time and she had a great time. Parker shot her a beautiful impala. But Forrest just was like a drift net going through there. And I decided that as a daddy Forrest had done real good in school, I couldn’t be prouder he’s everything I’ve ever wanted of a child. Likewise from other 2 kids. I got 3 good kids, I have been blessed that I didn’t have me as a child. They’ve done good in school, they’ve applied themselves, they all 3 work as hard as Hebrew slaves and I told Anita said when we get over here, I know Forrest he wants to shoot a Zebra and I said, there is no such thing as a cull zebra. So, I’m going to let him shoot a zebra. And the upgrade, the difference in like a cull kudu and a nice kudu, I don’t mean a record book Kudu I mean just a nice kudu. It’s really not that terribly much and then the gimps buck I know 2 animals, he wanted most of the zebra and gimps buck. And he didn’t just shoot, that gimps buck he shot really truly was a really nice animal. And the kudu he shot was a good one. And me personally I’m telling you what, I was just pulling trigger. I had a great time myself. We brought bunch of horns back and we’re going to bring a bunch of horns back and we don’t mount animals, we just do horn mounts stuff like that and make beautiful little mount doing that and probably I mean boy, let the girls get into the mixed conversation. They’ll probably bring back enough flash skin to carpet our house. But Rocky it was just that vacation, as we grew up, as my kids grew up just to set the record straight here, we didn’t really, we felt bad, we didn’t vacation Anita and I worked. And maybe whenever Children we went down before Memorial Day to the beach once or twice. I think one time we went to Disney on just a little junkie trip like that else we didn’t vacation ever. We worked and we did stuff and we put our money places and that’s just what we did and now we were able to swing a little old trip like this and it really was for our family anyway. My kids didn’t grow up going to the beach and going on fishing charters and doing a lot of stuff and I know I travel a lot and get to see a bunch but it is work related. It’s really not just vacation. My client’s vacation, I don’t vacation when I do this even though it’s fun, I’m not complaining. And so it was a big deal for us to get to do this and it was just 7 days with my family. Nobody else in camp except the host what not the cook and we had a really good time and the crazy thing was, we were scheduled to fly from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg on – I think the first of June or something and we’re going to kick around at the airport for a little bit and I was going to say goodbye, they were going to fly home and then I was going to stay at a hotel and pick up with the bird hunters the next day and thank gosh this was us and not our clients thank gosh this was us, we get to the airport and Port Elizabeth down on the Eastern Cape about 4 hours early. It’s a tiny airport like Jackson Mississippi and we get there and real early and Anita go to ask something like when’s the ticket counter going to open with something in? And the lady goes, oh you all have guns, yes ma’am, well we don’t fly guns. We booked a ticket on something called Mango Airline. They don’t fly guns, they don’t flew with firearms. Oh well now it’s a good time to find out. We’ve got a connection to make, they got a connection to make. And of course we bought all our tickets on air miles, great, all our tickets bought on air miles except for that little ticket there. The big ticket made on air miles. I don’t know if you ever try to change an international ticket but you might would buy a new one. They don’t like that kind of stuff, especially when you buy them over air miles. So we go over to South Africa Airlines and of course we fly but our flight doesn’t leave until 4. We’re supposed to leave at like 11. This flight leaves at 4 and the international boarding time for their flight home is like an hour later. By the time we get there they got 30-45 minutes. We’re like oh my gosh, we ended up spending 8 hours in this little airport and we’ve all talked about it since it was awesome. I was sweating over astronomical expenses unexpected. And didn’t need to stress, didn’t need to spend the money  but we ate pizza it was good pizza and drank a few beers and have some coffee and just sat there for 8 hours talking. There wasn’t anything else to do but just sit there at the table and visit like families are supposed to do. So we get to Johannesburg and get down the baggage and before we could even make it to baggage from the domestic air just coming off a domestic flight before we can make the baggage, our baggage is already rolling off and we look at our watch and we go, I’ve got 40 minutes till boarding time you all tough. I mean and so Forrest and I had to go get our guns unchecked and I went to talk some hunters, we all went in and they said, oh yeah go ahead, let him go first. So Forrest jumped in and got his gun and I said, you all roll well when they stepped out bumped into somebody, we knew that run the VIP Service and they had a little bed and breakfast and if I ever seen anybody to Africa, I know Ryan does the same thing. There’s this one little bed and breakfast and it’s worth every penny you pay a little bit more than a hotel. But man, it just happened to bump into them and Cedric goes let me help you. So while I’m sitting there waiting to get my gun, they’re up and gone, they all go up and there’s a little bit of a sorting going on because they called and tried to change, Anita called and tried to – and Mr. Reed call and they tried to work the airfare for the next day and everything else and that was the only thing that complicated. But so by the time I get my gun to step out into the foyer, there goes Cedric gives me a double thumbs up. I go, what’s up Cedric? He goes, your family made it man, they’re good to go, they’re going to make the flight. I said, wow. So, I take off and go up there to Delta counter just in time just as there, that last bags rolling on. I happen to come up there and we hugged and say goodbye. But it was so abrupt. We had this great time once in a lifetime vacation, we spent 8 great hours visiting and talking and then they were gone, just like that, boom, they were gone. And I am not going to lie to you, it was sad, it was very sad feeling just like that they were gone, boom, gone. And we would already figure they were going to stay another night and we’re going to eat dinner and visit and do some stuff and boom, they were gone. But it worked out good because we saved the Forrest rescheduling fees, I was glad of that. And then the next day picked up with Jake and him but Rocky, it was amazing time and I just go back to anytime you can go anywhere and do anything and spend with your family. And the beautiful part about that you know what? Your phone don’t work out in the field most of the day. You’re Wi-Fi in the lodge work kind of sort of everywhere else, you have to talk the old fashioned way, then sit there and play on your phone. And that just really – so we got into a space, we’re really got to connect as a family and it was just wonderful. It was so much fun, the memories, the stories, the hits, the misses, it was a ball. It was so much fun and I had so much fun. And I tell anybody, any kind of hunting vacation is not cheap. When people think of Africa you think 6 figure hunts and no man, you don’t have to be a Trump or have to be a blue blood to go to Africa and have a good time, you really don’t those plains game hunts call me or call Ryan Bassham and I’ll just refer you over to Ryan Bassham and all I can do is tell you everything I know about it. What to ask for, what to look for, where the pitfalls are. But I think it’s the kind of vacation, if it’s your cup of tea, it’s the kind of vacation that anybody middle class like myself can save for and go and do. It was a really cool place to go. Africa is an amazing country Rocky. And for me what it represents in the world of wing shooting and waterfowl, it rivals Argentina and Mexico. I said that last podcast, it truly rivals that in terms of volume, I would say on good day it’s even better than Mexico and it’s certainly as good as average Argentina in terms of diversity it’s really good and in terms of import ability is perfect that whole country of South Africa. For centuries or more has developed and made an industry and a business of hunting hospitality, tour guides service, the whole tourism thing is just thriving there and it’s competitive so it’s cheap. But Forrest had a good time, buddy I’m going to tell you, I really didn’t realize what a big deal it was for him, even though it was just spikes, he had a great time he really truly had. And man the first day I think I shot 1 animal, he shot 4 or 5, he was going through lickidy split. Anything that hold still long enough it would the act. We had a great time Rocky.

Rocky Leflore: So changing pace a little bit, I don’t know why but on social media when you get tagged in a post for some reason it pulls up in my news feed. I don’t know if it’s because I starred you off, you know what I’m talking about? See these things first or whatever. But I saw Martha and the gang down in Argentina has been making a ton of post and it may be because I follow Martha too. I don’t want to say it – A lot of guys trying to make you feel guilty because you’re not there, I guess they’ve been doing so well.

“I would tell anybody, Argentina is the world’s top hunt. [cite_start]If you don’t cross international borders to go but to one place go to Argentina.”

Ramsey Russell: Everybody been. Rocky, this is the year for Argentina and Argentina is always good. I would tell anybody, Argentina is the world’s top hunt. If you don’t cross international borders to go but to one place go to Argentina. And we’ve got a lot of clients down there really 3 or 4 lodges going right now. We got 3 lodges full practically for the entire year. Martha does a real good job but we’ve had clients at Rio Salado where I took Jake last year. We’ve got clients at La-Paz which is a combo ducks, doves, pigeons, perdix and then we’ve got our poster boy hunt which is with Las Flores and everybody is zinging them like nobody’s business and word’s gotten out I guess social media and just everything we’ve done are really people coming home and talking. People are piling in for 2020. Remember last year it was a drought, there at Rio Salado it was a drought and a lot of parts of Buenos Aires dried over there across the river and Antares Rio. Well, the upside of a drought is those soils oxidized, those ephemeral wetlands can breathe a little bit, they start growing our basis vegetation which when you put water back on it, it’s good habitat and that’s exactly what’s happened. That real wild remote place is off the chain. It is probably better right now than at any time I have ever set foot in the marsh there and it’s already the place I want my ashes scattered. But this is the year that it is just off the chain. It’s just unbelievable down at Las Flores every single day. This morning 3 clients shot their 50 duck limit, so 150 birds in 28 minutes, it’s off the chain. And over La Paz which is really one of our big hunts because it is not a duck hunt, it’s a combo. Ducks and doves and decoying pigeons, pair of keets there’s plenty of them around perdix. The bunch is down there now. They’re not fisherman but if you want to go Golden Dorado fishing a lot of our guys do take a day and go load the boat and go to Dorado it’s just a big combo adventure. And what I do like about that hunt, I love the duck hunt, you all know that I love to duck hunt but it becomes a little monotonous. If you were down there for a week or 10 days or more it becomes a little monotonous and the fun thing about a combo hunt it’s every single hunt, even if you’re shooting ducks again it’s different, they shoot little tiny pothole, they shoot rice fields that particular place it got – this year finally, there’s a marsh area it’s only accessible by horses, that’s a big adventure. You meet your gaucho, you meet your bird boys, crack of dawn, right before daylight, you saddle up onto a gaucho saddle and when you walk in for about 30 minutes through a marsh. No way a man can walk that, no way, horse can. And you get to where you’re going and slide off into your blind and then you got to go park your horse behind you and you start shooting ducks and horseback ride out. It’s just a cool adventure, it’s just a real cool adventure. But they’re having a good time, but there’s plenty for me. I leave tomorrow and I tell you, I’m fired up. I’m really fired up to get down there this year. I’m very excited. We got – Jake couldn’t make it but one of his cameraman is coming. We’re going to film a week at Rio Salado and then we’re going to jump down to Las Flores and film for a week. I have got some really good clients coming in. Some of them have come good close personal friends and some of them I just know a little bit but I’m really excited. I can’t impress upon you how excited I am for this hunt. Sometimes when I leave on a hunt it’s just going to like going to the office. But this year for some reason I’m really vibrating for it, Rocky. I’m ready for it.

Rocky Leflore: Well, I have got to jump out in just a second, but I want to say this before we ended today. You are going to be on Fowl Front podcast of Ben Page?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, how do you know that?

Rocky Leflore: I saw where – Ben and I become friends. He’s a great guy, great podcast. And anyway, I saw where he had announced in the Fowl Front group that you were coming on and recording with him before you left out today.

Ramsey Russell: He did. He called – I believe yesterday and asked about Africa and asked about some stuff, we have been kind of busy with a lot of folks are doing podcasts like that Rocky and radio shows, we’ve talked to a couple of radio, outdoor radio programs lately just telling them stories about duck hunting. But ain’t the same to me with my buddy Rocky and talking to kind of having my weekly fireside talk and building on and stuff like that. But I’m looking forward to it. You know I’m always telling a story –

Rocky Leflore: He’s a great guy.

Ramsey Russell: Good, where is he from Nebraska?

Rocky Leflore: Yes, that’s right. That is correct. He’s a great guys. Just great Midwestern guys and you’ll have a good time. And a lot of times, a lot of people say that we are enemies because we’re doing the same thing, you know how you get competitive against. But then you know what? I listened to a lot of these different podcasts, Ben then do a great job, really good job. I mean he’s always sending me text, hey, you need to try this and it’ll increase quality or try this or I’ll send him something. Just a great guy.

Ramsey Russell: It’s funny because I don’t look at duck south as having or End of The Line podcast as having a competitor. I really don’t. And I do listen to a lot of podcasts but I always listen to yours. And in fact it is about all I can do to, I’m behind right now. I’ve gotten to where I have to start downloading them some and listening to them on flights and all. Let me just say this. I know them, boys are not listening to me but let me tell them definator, the warden and redemption those are epic. I listen to them every week. Rob is just that guy. I don’t care what Rob’s going to talk about. It’s always going to be good. That warden podcast and Fowls those are some great stories and I’m really enjoying listening to those two podcasts, probably more than any I’ve ever listened to it. I find it very informative, I find it scary. Rocky, I mean you realize a lot of folks out there duck hunting just don’t get it. They think it’s because this guy is a guide, they think – Rocky, you all have been doing the podcast now for weeks, for months and I shared a post the other day to our web page Brennan Hudson. I just had a picture about tagging or something, I shared it to getducks.com and oh my gosh, the replies, they don’t get it. This is a freaking federal statute. If you got to tag your bird, you got to sort your bird it’s a rule. Yeah, I don’t make the rules, I’m just sharing that it’s a good idea to tag these bird and people don’t get because they’ve never heard of it. And it is such great information and I’m going to say this, I love about your podcast Rocky, you’ve created a conversation, you were tagging and with laws and with people and stories, it’s created a good conversation that I think it’s time to start having these conversations. But anyway, I hope you warn those guys, Ben Page and I tried to warn him. I said look, Ben, you hand me the mic, I’m going to walk across stage start talking, it’s just in my – and Rocky knows that –

“I’ll tell you what it was perfect. Today with me being on the road and loud vehicles and this and that and sitting here listening to you while I’m driving that was awesome to hear that with Forrest and then with you and Ryan and Jake.”

Rocky Leflore: I’ll tell you what it was perfect. Today with me being on the road and loud vehicles and this and that and sitting here listening to you while I’m driving that was awesome to hear that with Forrest and then with you and Ryan and Jake. It’s almost like I was listening to a podcast while I was driving.

Ramsey Russell: I’ll tell you, it’s all about the people Rocky. Life it’s about people at the end of the day. I’m so blessed to fell into the people I have yourself but also Jake, Ryan Bassham. Ryan is such a smart and intelligent, intuitive guy. For me it’s so much of my working life, like the next couple of week, I’m not down there hunting, I’m down here with clients. There’s a lot of client entertainment, taking care of some of their needs and stuff going on like that it’s work. 5 o’clock in the morning everybody else pulling on waiters, well I am too, unless somebody needs something and I’m the last guy to put on waiters because I got to go do something or help them out or whatever, that’s fine, that’s what I love to do. But man to be around – when you got the right hunting partners and travel companions, your kids and I’ve always said the best hunting partners are the ones you raise, it really makes life better. You just get to be yourself and you grow the discussions, the things you talk about, the things you share, it makes you a better person beyond just shooting ducks or bowling or whatever you doing. One last time before you Rocky, two seconds. I listened to you all talk yesterday about last meals, I love that conversation. The first thing that pops in my mind was barbecue sticky chicken I call it, potato salad and baked beans. I don’t know that I waste my last meal on it, but that’s all I could think about. And when you travel to other countries, the food’s good African food is pretty darn good, not like Argentina or Azerbaijan some of these other places, but it’s pretty good but it is not home. It’s not good old southern soul food. So when I come home, I mean I have eaten BLTs and homemade hamburgers and homemade pizza and all that good stuff, you’re not going to get anywhere else. But last meal oh, that would be – I don’t know what – you have to ask me the morning in my last day, what do you feel like to eat? It’s probably going to be barbecue. But we got a family tradition, Father’s day was last Sunday, we got a family tradition. It ties into people, it tires into family traveling with good friends. I’ll just leave you with this. You know what our family tradition is, on Father’s day and also on my birthday I could, that’s what I want for Father’s day. I want to cook a family favorite this year it was barbecue chicken, potato salad and baked beans and I want to cook for my family what I really want, I just want to be there with my family. And all I could think, I think about sticky chicken and all that good stuff and when you all were talking about that you and Bill and boy that’s going to be hard to beat for a last meal. You were talking about that and all I could think because if I could have one last meal, I want it to be at willow break, we’re at my kitchen table and I want to have that same vibe with my family and friends that I had like that time we were stuck in the airport down in the Eastern Cape, that’s just what I want. That’s what I value so much in life is just my family and my friends and so who cares what we’re eating at that point. Anyway, thank you Rocky. I enjoyed it.

Rocky Leflore: Oh man, I had a ball. I appreciate you being able to do it while I was on the road. Well, I enjoyed it Ramsey, thank you for being here and telling those stories. And we want to thank all of you that listened to this edition of The End of The Line podcast, powered by ducksouth.com.

[End of Audio]

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