EP 417. Oklahoma Waterfowl Hunting Guide

 

Opening Day of Youth Season in Oklahoma

And anyways he smoked her and she dropped in her tracks and then the screaming and hollering began and hugging and high fiving the tears and everything else.

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to Mojo’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast. Today in the remote studio is Dakota and Summer Stowers, longtime friends and associates from the Red River Valley in parts of north Texas and southern Oklahoma. How the heck are you all doing today?

Dakota Stowers: Great, man. Can’t complain. Everything’s going great up here.

Ramsey Russell: Good. You all had a big day today. I know we had to kind of touch and go with when we were going to record remotely because you all had a monumental milestone type day this morning. Tell me about this morning, Dakota.

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely, man. So, me and Summer, we’ve got a little 3 year old boy named Levi and man, he is just as much an outdoorsman as I am. And he started going with us whenever he was 3 months old, just everywhere we went, whether it’s checking SD cards, scouting ducks, doing it all. And this morning, we took him out to the deer stand and it was opening day of Oklahoma youth season, and we’ve been practicing for the last 2 months probably, getting him to pull that trigger easy and trying to look through the scope, full scope, and well, this morning it all came together, we went down, got to the stand about an hour before daylight and I don’t know if you’ve ever had a 3 year old trying to keep him occupied for an hour in the dark, that was tough. But about the time I needed him to really be quiet is about the time he started losing interest in what we was doing, and we had a group, I don’t know, probably 15 to 20 hogs come in and start milling around and that kept him occupied for a little bit. And before we went down there, I asked him, I said, well, Levi, what if we don’t see a buck? Or what if we don’t see a deer? I knew we were going to see hogs. I said, Levi, you think you’re interested in shooting one? He said, no, daddy. He said, I want to shoot paw patrol. Paw patrol is a buck that he had on camera that he named paw patrol. But anyways, so them hogs saved me. They come out, milled around, and they kind of eased on about 7 to 5 hit this morning. And we had a doe with two yearlings come out, and if you’re a deer hunter, you don’t want to shoot a doe that’s throwing two out every year. So I had to try to explain that to a 3 year old, that’s just itching to get his first kill. And so we sat there and I tried to tell him, why we wouldn’t shoot and this and that. And finally they kind of milled on, and I had 5 does and 3 yearlings come out a little short time after that, and I got him up on my leg, and he’s ready to go. And about 10 minutes after watching them and figuring out which fawn goes to which doe, we picked a doe that looked like she didn’t have a fawn with her. And I told Levi, hey, buddy, as soon as it turns broadside, get ready and squeeze that trigger slow, just like we’ve done a hundred times. And about the time she turned broadside, Levi saying, can I shoot? And before I could even answer him, boom, and she dropped. I mean, he’s that little 350 legend, he’s got, it’s a sweet little gun.

Ramsey Russell: And what kind of gun is it?

Dakota Stowers: It’s a 350 legend, and it’s on an AR platform and it’s kind of a heavier gun, so there’s not as much recoil. And I’ve got it cinched down in a co-figure rest, kind of like a tripod kind of deal. And it’s screwed in there where the gun can’t move around, and that was the steadiest way we could find for him. And anyways he smoked her and she dropped in her tracks and then the screaming and hollering began and hugging and high fiving the tears and everything else.

Ramsey Russell: Summer, what were you doing the whole time this was going down?

Summer Stowers: I was trying to get a good video of it all, but he was just so excited and I wanted him to be quiet, so I was trying not to make it obvious. And I’m trying to get on video for his first deer hunt. So I just stood behind them and let them do their thing. But I got a little bit of it on video, but not a real good one, but it’s fine for the first hunt.

Ramsey Russell: That’s impressive. I used to take my children when they were 3 or 4 years old, but I just never heard them along to go into hunting. But by the time they were 6 or 7 or 8, they were hunters. But what I would do at that age to keep them quiet, because I was hunting at the time, I wanted this deer, so what I would do, taking these two little knuckleheads because they lose interest. I would carry coloring books, now you got phones and pads and things of that nature, but I would carry coloring books. And we used to have this soft side, little soft side ice chest, I think it was an ivory ice chest, little soft side ice chest, we won it at a Ducks Unlimited banquet, and we called it the snack bag. And it was loaded with honey buns and ding dongs and carbs and sugar and all – we’d go down the junk food aisle and whatever hit their fancy, remember them little white donuts? And we would get bags of those things, and then I’d bring a couple of things of milk or chocolate milk. And so we’d get there a little early, about 03:00 and in the fall, it’s kind of warm in those stands anyway, and in the afternoons and I’d load them down, boy. Just eat all they want and make all the little plastic wrapper noises they needed and chug that milk and then after about 30 minutes, they’d be asleep on the floor. They’d be curled up like puppies at my feet, and then it’d be quiet when I needed it to be quiet.

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: So he was pretty excited about this deer he shot this morning.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, my gosh, man. I posted a video on Facebook earlier, I don’t know if you’ve seen it or not, but as soon as I’d let him, it wasn’t 5 minutes after he shot, the doe dropped down the ground, and he was just dying to go down there. And so he’s got his orange vest on, his little orange cap on, and I opened the door to that blind, and he busted out of it, and as fast as he could sprint down there to her. And about 30 yards after getting out of the blind, he hit a dirt claw from the plat wheat field, and he ate the dirt.

Ramsey Russell: That’s good. What about paw patrol? You all didn’t see him this morning?

Dakota Stowers: No, didn’t see old paw patrol.

Ramsey Russell: How big of a buck is it?

Dakota Stowers: He’s pretty good buck, he’s probably 140, and to be honest, he’s probably too big for Levi to shoot for his first deer, but he’s right here behind the house, so, if he would have walked out, he definitely would have got it.

Ramsey Russell: But he’s got to have something to grow up into. I feel sorry for those children that shoot these big monster bucks as a first, they don’t have anywhere to go but down.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, that’s for sure. I was hoping he would come out, but at the same time, I was like, man –

Origins in Hunting

But that’s kind of where I started is, archery hunts in my blood, and we own archery range on the side, too.

Ramsey Russell: Now, let’s back up just a little bit. Dakota, I’ve known you forever. I think I remember you Summer, when you all were just dating. But where did you grow up? Where did you all grow up? And what were your earliest origins in hunting? Were you going out at 3 years old and deer hunting with your daddy?

Dakota Stowers: Yes, I was. I didn’t ever get to shoot nothing until I was 6. But, same story you were saying, we always went with him, and the county we grew up in was archery only county.

Ramsey Russell: In Texas?

Dakota Stowers: Yeah. There’s only two counties in Texas out of 254 counties that are bow only at the time, anyways. And it was the county we were in, which is Grayson, and then the county just south of us, which is Collin. And it was a whole different ballgame. So every year, for us kids, we had to travel if we wanted to go shoot. We’d go down to south Texas down there, Atlanta area and stuff and that’s when me and my brother and my sister go down there and shoot a deer or two, every year. But as I got a little older 7, 8 years old, dad would always hang another lock on, above his stand and so there’d be two lock on to one tree and he’d get us all secured up there. And same thing you’re talking about, all the snacks you got and everything else, it’s a miracle he ever even killed anything with us up there. But that’s kind of where I started is, archery hunts in my blood, and we own archery range on the side, too. And in archer only counties, they do pretty good and lot of archery shooters. And if I could say that one thing was my favorite, growing up around my dad and my papaw, they’re bow hunters, and that’s just what’s in my blood and what I’ve always done and just grew up, always with a bow in my hand from the time I was 10 years old, I killed my first deer with a bow when I was 11. And then every year after that it’s game on, just one of those things gets in your blood and you can’t get rid of it.

Ramsey Russell: Did you grow up a hunter also, Summer?

Summer Stowers: No, I would go a little bit with my family, like, here and there, like a one weekend thing in November. But when I met Dakota is when I really got involved. And when he was working for JJ is when I really got involved. JJ took me on my first duck hunt, and I’ll never forget it, it was so much fun. I’ll never forget him taking us out there and saying, hey, Summer, you can go in the morning if you want to go, and I said, okay, I’ll go try it out. And so I borrowed one of JJ’s, I think it was a 12 gauge and we went out, and it was so much fun. We got some mallards and we got some spoonies, that’s your favorite, right?

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah. Well, what about you, Dakota? How did you get into duck hunting?

Dakota Stowers: So, my papaw is a cattle farmer there in north Texas, and it always started for me is, let’s go check cows every Wednesday and every Sunday and every Wednesday and Sunday of duck season, you bet your butt, I was in the truck with Papaw going to check all his cows, that meant I got to go, jump some ponds and do all that, that’s kind of how I started getting into it. And then my older brother was always a real cool older brother. He always wanted me to be involved with him and his friends, and once they started driving, they’re always telling me, like, hey, Dakota, jump in the truck, let’s go, and which I was always the decoy man and do all the grunt work, but I didn’t care as long as I got to go. But I was lucky. My brother had a bunch of good buddies of his that were really big into duck hunting, and that’s really where I started, from 13 all the way on. It was every weekend, every chance we could get out in the woods, we was there.

Ramsey Russell: Do you still remember your first duck?

Dakota Stowers: Yes, I do. It’s actually mounted in our lodge right there and in water Rica. So it was a mallard drake, don’t know how I got lucky for that, but it was.

Ramsey Russell: Because you all got quite a few mallards up in that part of country that –

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah, we did.

Ramsey Russell: The first time I met you with the late JJ Kent, formerly Kent Outdoors, and you were one of his guide staff, and it really didn’t look – coming from a lot of the duck land I had hunted in the past, that part of Texas just didn’t strike me as good duck country. Tumbleweeds and just little stock tanks and first one thing led to another. I was talking to Lynn Vaughn recently, who also worked for him at the time, and one time, JJ took us to a – we drove through a fence, we drove through a cattle gap, we drove down a wide open pasture, and there was a stock tank in the middle, and he had one of his blinds built, I’m like, JJ, seriously? He goes, oh, no, the river’s just right over there about a half mile, it’s going to be good, you watch. I said, I just don’t see it.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And we ended up shooting about almost entirely drake wigeons, there were 3 of them. And I think we shot 15 drake wigeons. And right there at the very end, Lynn had gotten up and walked around the pond or JJ was the one, I can’t remember which. I think it was Lynn to do something, and a flock of mallards came in late, and we started, the other two in the blind started calling. And about the third or fourth or fifth pass, tough getting a man with somebody laying across the pond out on the bank, we finally got them in and we killed 3 greenheads to finish our limit with, and it was just a magnificent limit. How did you end up falling into employment with JJ Kent but being a duck hunter, growing up hunting with your dad, then hunting with your brother and his buddies, what led you to work for JJ Kent as a duck guide?

Discovering Duck Guiding Opportunities

Tanner called me, shortly after, and was like, hey, Dakota, I had JJ call me from Kent Outdoors, and he wants in on what we’re doing and wants us to meet at his office.

Dakota Stowers: So it was me and one of my best friends, Tanner Neil. And we was duck hunting every weekend with 4 or 5 of our buddies, once we could start driving and stuff. And believe it or not, social media is what got me that gig. It was just every Saturday and Sunday, we would post limited ducks on Facebook, and we was just fun hunting, buddies just going out every Saturday, Sunday. And I was born and raised in Denison, and JJ had his outfit going in Pottsboro, Texas, which is the two towns they’re right next to each other. And he just happened to come across our stuff on Facebook one day and actually hollered at Tanner. Tanner called me, shortly after, and was like, hey, Dakota, I had JJ call me from Kent Outdoors, and he wants in on what we’re doing and wants us to meet at his office, the following week or something like that and so I said, well, heck, yeah, let’s go out there and see what it’s all about. I had no intentions of ever being an outfitter, at that point in time and or being a guide or anything, I just love to hunt. And so I went and checked it out, see what it was all about, and I met JJ that following week. We hit it off right, and just a great guy, and me and Tanner actually started working for him that following day. We actually took a trip out, me and Tanner together, and we limited out, had a great hunt, and man, the rest was history. I worked for JJ for 4 years on after that, and work for him full time as a full time guide and Tanner did the same.

Ramsey Russell: What kind of stuff? Cause JJ was a detail guy.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: One of the most endearing impressions of JJ Kent, and this is going to sound odd. But I noticed I was staying up at one of the last camp houses he had, we had Mojo in right around Dallas Safari Club, I came up there to hunt, and every morning, he would get up early – Say we had to leave at 5 –

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah, I know exactly where you’re going with this.

Ramsey Russell: He got up extra early and took a shower.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Combed his hair, got it right, put on deodorant.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Which, I mean, some people do that, but it’s odd, and I go around a lot of duck camps around a lot of duck hunters, and it’s very odd that somebody gets up and gets ready to go to the office every morning, like they’re going to church or something, gets cleaned up like that. And I said JJ, you ain’t got to be bashful for television, they can’t smell you over the camera, and he kind of laughed a little bit, but he said, Ramsey, I know where you’re going with that, and he says, but this is my business.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: This is my bit, this right here and he held out to the lodge, he said, and that duck blind, that’s my office. And I regard it as professional that I get up and I take a shower so that I am absolutely at my best when I go to the office every morning. And I’ve never forgotten him telling me that. He wasn’t doing it for vanity, he was getting up because that was his professional protocol, and he wanted to be as sharp as he could be.

Dakota Stowers: Every single day, man, it was the same thing. We wake up, we wouldn’t have to wake up till 05:00 in the morning, and we’d wake up to ZZ Top playing full volume in the bathroom, wife showering. It’s like, come on, man, we got 30 more minutes before we got to be up.

Ramsey Russell: No, he was getting up and getting his game on.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: But he looked at you all and kind of addressed you all as his boys.

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: As his prodigy. He left a lot of aspects of his business to you and to you all.

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: What were some of the things JJ taught you that prepared you to be a professional outfitter?

Dakota Stowers: Man, the number one thing that’s always stuck with me is just treat people how you would want to be treated if you were paying for an outfitter. And that’s the way I look at my business every day. Day in and day out, if I was in this client’s shoes, how would I want to be treated in this situation or whatever it might be. Would I want to spend my hard earned money with this guy or could I go spend it somewhere else where somebody’s going to work harder. And that was really one thing that really stuck with me all the way through. I’ve seen how JJ did everything, and he taught us just like, we were one of his boys, and that really stuck with me is always treat people how you’d want to be treated.

Ramsey Russell: But I did hear you say that JJ treated like family and that’s what you all try to do is to treat people like family. I think for people to come and hunt, and the lifeblood of an outfitting business is repeat. And people have got to find their tribe, and they’ve got to be dealt with respectfully. They’ve got to be made to feel that their time and their money and their interest are at heart and respected. I think there are outfits around the world that just don’t get that part of it. It’s a business, but hunting is very important. Hunting is very personal. I’ve got to say a couple things more about JJ. I know this is about you all, but I know that JJ was very important and integral to setting you up into business and getting you started down this path and he was such a wonderful human being. I’ll start with this one first is, JJ had heart issues apparently, and had gone back and forth, he’s going to go to heart surgery and get some stuff done. And he was reaching out to a lot of people, and somebody told me, it may have been you, Dakota, that he had a notepad.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: With pages and pages of people and things on there that he needed to get done and he needed to follow up with before he went under the knife.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And he called me, and I’m like, JJ, this ain’t no big deal, dude. It’s like getting an oil change anymore, it’s no big deal, he said, I know it. But he told me some things, and I won’t share them here, I’ll keep them to myself. Cause it might hurt some people’s listening’s feelings. But he told me some things that I took to heart, and he said, Ramsey, I’ve enjoyed working with you, I’ve enjoyed working with your wife, you all are birds of a feather, whatever you want to call it. He pointed out some people I was associated with that he said, you don’t need to be associated with them, I’m telling you.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And he told me a few other things, and I said, all right, JJ. I’ll see you on the other side, I’ll see you when you come out, but thank you. And he didn’t come out. He went under the knife and had some complications, and I never saw him again. And the things he had told me and the people he had warned me of turned out exactly like he said they would.

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely.

Best Dry Field Hunting Memories

And we took a picture and sent it to Mr. Denmon, and he wrote back and said, I will never let you two hunt without adult supervision again. 

Ramsey Russell: But now I’m going to flip to one of my favorite, probably the favorite JJ story that involves Dakota. Because Mojo was there, and we went off one day, remember, we went one day off to the river and hunting on a bank, it was kind of weird because we had to come in on one steep bank to put the decoys out, then we went around and got up on a shallow bank, and the birds were coming right in. I mean, but they were decoying beneath us, but as they’re coming into decoy, they were eyeball level. We shot mallards and green wings, few pintails, went out and did a dry field hunt, shot mallards and pintail. I think we did a third day hunt, JJ came to us on morning 3 or 4, I can’t remember which. Last morning he said, man, I’ve got a pond just covered with duck, but they’re all shovelers. And Mike and I looked at each other, shrug, said, that’s fine, we don’t care. And you were there.

Dakota Stowers: I’ll never forget that.

Ramsey Russell: There were 6 of us hunting, and Dakota was on end, I think it was your scouting report. So I’m going to give you full credit for finding this pond full of shovelers. And right off the bat, you, I’m pretty sure, shot a drake green wing and the rest of the 35 ducks were shovelers. And we were cutting up about Spoon and Crockett, we were cutting up about big girls and mopeds and all kinds of unsavory jokes about, justifying us shooting shovelers. And we took a picture and sent it to Mr. Denmon, and he wrote back and said, I will never let you two hunt without adult supervision again. And I laughed, and JJ laughed, and you laughed, and Mike laughed, and it wasn’t until later we realized he wasn’t kidding. They named that episode Spoon and Crockett, and for a time period, maybe even now, it was the most viewed episode ever of Mojo. And it was a shoveler beat down of epic proportion. Do you remember that hunt?

Dakota Stowers: Oh, gosh, I’ll never forget it.

Ramsey Russell: And you know that pond they were in, it was just deep algae green.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And I just remember on the camera, when some of them birds would hit the water, it splash up like pea soup.

Dakota Stowers: Oh yeah. Nasty.

Ramsey Russell: That was a heck of a hunt, wasn’t it?

Dakota Stowers: Oh, gosh, it was incredible. One of them you won’t ever forget.

Ramsey Russell: Do you all still get the wigeons in that part of the world that you always did?

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah. It’s our number one bird that we kill.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Dakota Stowers: And that’s kind of what we’re known for up here. It’s all wheat country up this way. And we love wigeon.

Ramsey Russell: It’s just that really, I have said and gone on the record of saying that in that little corner of the world that you all hunt, which is on the US Hunt List as our Oklahoma duck hunt now, formerly north Texas, we’ll talk about that in a minute. But really and truly, not every single day, but at times, I have never seen more wigeons daily then right there where you all hunt.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: It’s always been that way, hadn’t it?

Dakota Stowers: Yeah. As long as I’ve been up here hunting around, and wigeons always been our number one. And it always kind of goes back and forth between, mallards as number 2, or gadwalls is number 2. But it’s always wigeons number 1, and then, mallard’s and gadwalls, 2 and 3.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I’ve shot gadwalls there, too. One of the most memorable hunts I had was behind an old camp house you all were staying in about a mile away. And I’m going to say that that little pothole was about the size of a backyard swimming pool, and it was surrounded by sagebrush, belt high, and JJ, well that’s where you need to go, I’m like, I don’t know, JJ. He said, trust me. I said, I trust you, JJ, but I just don’t know. He said, trust me, just go back there, it’s going to be windy, and they’re going to trickle in. He said, it may not be many to spare, but I promise you, if you shoot straight, you’ll get your limit. And me and my old Cooper dog went laid in the grass and got on the upwind side, and when I laid down up in that thick cover, I was out of the wind, and I kind of doze off a little bit, and she would flinch, and I’d look up, and here’d come a pair of gadwalls, and I think I had 7 or 8 gadwalls come in, in ones and twos, and came out with a limit of gadwalls. But it just didn’t look like duck country, I’m saying. It was probably the most unlikely place I had ever hunted at that point that I just didn’t expect to shoot ducks.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah, we do that all the time, man. We’ll pull up to a little pothole that we’re hunting or something, and clients will be like, are you kidding me? We drove all the way across the country for this little pothole, and I’m like, just wait.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Dakota Stowers: By the end of the hunt, they’re like, holy crap.

Ramsey Russell: We used to have you all listed as north Texas Outfitters, because you all in north Texas and still is. And you’ve always jumped on both sides of that Red River right there. I mean, even with JJ, we might hunt Oklahoma, we might hunt Texas, so you had to near term figure out which hunt you liked, you needed, maybe both, and depending on how long you were hunting. But in recent years, you all have transitioned more into Oklahoma, haven’t you?

Mesquite Hollow Outfitters

And now I would say 95% of our stuff is Oklahoma now, and we recently changed our name from North Texas Outfitters down back to Mesquite Hollow Outfitters.

Dakota Stowers: Yes, sir. I don’t really know how it happened that way, but it just kind of did. And now I would say 95% of our stuff is Oklahoma now, and we recently changed our name from North Texas Outfitters down back to Mesquite Hollow Outfitters. And it’s kind of one of them deals that, kind of confused people. We built a brand new lodge in Oklahoma, and people would show up and they’d be lodging in Oklahoma and hunting in Oklahoma, but our name was North Texas outfitters, just didn’t make sense to people. So, before it got, way out of hand I was like, Summer, we got to do something here, let’s talk about it, and let’s go ahead and rebrand while we can. And it was a tough decision to make, because nobody wants to change their name after they’re established. But we went with it, man, and we haven’t skipped a beat. Everybody’s still on board, and it’s been good.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about how you hunt and where you hunt. We’ve talked about some of the little situations, but talk about in an average 3 or 4 day period. I’ve hunted such a variety of wetland habitats and dry field habitats while hunting with you all. I mean, it’s unbelievable, the different hunting situations. Talk about some of the potholes people are surprised about and what an average day to day is. How big areas you’re covering, stuff like that.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah. So we cover about 225,000 acres now, and pretty much an hour and a half radius from our lodge. And some mornings you might be driving 5 minutes to the duck hole or some ones you may drive an hour. But it kind of varies. It all depends on what time of year you’re here and everything. Early season, we’re hunting a bunch of potholes, and stuff like that or big soil lakes that they have out here to control flooding. We’ve also got a bunch of wetlands that we plant every year and then also –

Ramsey Russell: What do you all normally plant?

Dakota Stowers: Mainly millet, and it comes up good here and we’ve experimented with some other things, but millet tends to be the best. But really, we’re in wheat country out here, so a lot of our farmers, they farm for us. So, I mean, they’re planting wheat for their cows and everything like that, and you get a little bit of a rainstorm on them and now you got a little pothole out in the middle of a wheat field and that’s where the magic happens.

Ramsey Russell: That’s probably what those wigeons like because those stubby bills, they like to graze.

Best Goose Hunts in Oklahoma

But mainly if you book a goose hunt with us, you’re going to be killing cacklers.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah, 100%. And then we run a bunch of goose hunts too. Last year we killed about 3500 geese up here.

Ramsey Russell: And what kind of geese?

Dakota Stowers: Mainly lessers, get a few snows here and there. And we’ll get a few snows and specks mixed in, but mainly that, little lesser Canadas and that’s our main goose that we kill. And then of course you got your honkers that kind of hang out year round down here. But mainly if you book a goose hunt with us, you’re going to be killing cacklers.

Ramsey Russell: Cacklers give some people fits, Dakota.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: What’s the secret to hunt them?

Dakota Stowers: Big spreads. They like a lot of decoys and they like vocals on calls, they like to be screamed at, and a lot of decoys. Our average decoy spreads 60 dozen every morning, sometimes more if we need it. And it all depends on the hide, too. If you’re hiding in decoys, it’s going to take more decoys to cover you up and you’re able to fence line them or something like that then you can back down to 40, 50 dozen decoys, it kind of depends on the situation and how many birds are in the field day before.

Ramsey Russell: Do you all still shoot many pintails?

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah. We had a few hunts last year where we could have killed a ton of them, but we’re only allowed to kill one piece. But we see a bunch of them. Good lord, every hunt, probably, we see a fair share of them, every hunt we run.

Ramsey Russell: And mallards being number 2 that’s a good sign, because I’ve always thought that you all’s area had quite a few greenheads.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah. And I would say, mainly for that reason, is these little pothole ponds that got acorn trees all the way around them, that’s what they’re in there after. They’ll waddle up on the bank and eat acorns all day long. So it ain’t nothing to see, 200 to 300 mallards on a little bitty pothole pond that you can shoot all the way across.

Ramsey Russell: Speaking of that, one of the craziest duck holes I ever went to, and I was trying to remember that 4th hunt that I went on with Mike Morgan when we were filming Mojo. And it was on the highest hill in the county, and there was a big dugout lake right there on top of it, I said, JJ, just this is bullshit. He said, no, man, I guarantee you sit right here in this tree, and they’ll land on this dry field and eat acorns, I go, bullshit. He goes, I’m telling you, and we didn’t sit under that tree, he went and looked and watched to see if there were dry feeding under that tree, and they weren’t. So we went to this big old dugout lake, deep lake and JJ was throwing those decoys as far out in that water as he could, he’s wearing cowboy boots. I’m like, how are you going to get them? He said, don’t you worry about that old Texas secret. And I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know where those ducks came from, we limited on greenheads.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And a few gadwalls coming in. I’m like, God. And one of the coolest things, he said, you still don’t know how I’m going to get all them decoys out of that deep water with these boots on, do you? I said, a boat? He said, no, I don’t use a boat. And he went, I got a zip coat 202 with a coat hanger bent just right. And he was throwing out there, absolutely snagging and bringing them in. I couldn’t believe it. The man was a genius.

Dakota Stowers: That was his signature move. I don’t think he wore waders one time the 4 years I worked for him, but that coat hanger, man, it would be in the water every day.

The Latest Duck Hunting Lodge in Oklahoma

And it takes that much, area to run that many people, to stay on fresh birds and to constantly bounce around, because we’re running 6 groups a day, I would say 90% of the season, 6 groups a day. 

Ramsey Russell: Talk about your new lodge a little bit.

Dakota Stowers: So, it’s 3800 sqft living, and basically, when you walk in the main room, it’s a 30 by 50 living room, kitchen area, big bar, and that’s kind of the main room, it’s a 30 by 50, and then off both sides of the 30 by 50 is a 40 by 20 wing, and each wing has two bedrooms and each bedroom sleeps 8. So we’re able to sleep 32 in it. And it’s got a huge back porch, a bunch of hangouts back there. You got cornhole boards, horseshoes, skeet throwers, the whole 9 yards back there.

Ramsey Russell: But you all don’t run 32 duck hunters a day, do you?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Dakota Stowers: Every single day of season.

Ramsey Russell: You all got that much area to hunt?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely. And it takes that much, area to run that many people, to stay on fresh birds and to constantly bounce around, because we’re running 6 groups a day, I would say 90% of the season, 6 groups a day. And so you got to think, you’ve got to have 6 fresh spots every single day, every season, and it’s running 65, 70 days long. So, I mean, that’s a lot of different holes. So that’s why we cover so much ground.

Ramsey Russell: How do you keep them from over hunting it with that much hunting pressure, Dakota?

Dakota Stowers: So just a lot of land. And that’s why we’re upwards 225,000 acres right now, and constantly picking more up.

Ramsey Russell: So you may be running 6 groups a day, but you may not be going to the same hole twice a week, let alone maybe twice ever.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah, maybe twice ever year. A lot of things up here will be a onetime thing and done. And some places you may hunt 4 or 5 times in a season, and you’ll be lucky if you get more than 5, 6 times a season out of one place, but if it produces and it’s fresh birds, and then you can hammer them. As soon as we get done hunting, we clean birds for the clients, bag and tag, and then we’re dropping trailers, and all 6 guides are hitting the road, and we scout till dark every single day. And then as soon as dark hits, all the guides meet up, we get a game plan for what we’re doing the next day, and we retreat back to the lodge and start giving everybody game plans and what time guides will be there to pick them up, and we roll from there.

Ramsey Russell: The program we’ve offered on US Hunt List for you all forever has always been just a duck hunt, the hunt services and lodging. Do you all also offer meals and stuff like that?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely. I didn’t get this figure from my wife not being able to cook. But no, man, Summer she throws down in the kitchen, and so you can add to your hunt, meals. And maybe I should let Summer take over here because this is kind of her specialty.

Ramsey Russell: What do you cook, Summer?

Summer Stowers: Yeah, all kinds of stuff. I kind of just plan accordingly to who’s coming and how many people, if there’s children or, stuff like that. And then once I kind of know what they got going in their group, then I kind of plan a meal plan for them. And so, guys, what they’ll normally do is a two meal plan option, we have a three meal plan, but most guys do a two meal plan just because they want to go try that mom and pop place here in town or go to that nice fancy steakhouse we have up the road. So I always, suggest to, like, the two meal plan so they can go check out the local places also. And that also, shows people the town and where they’re at and everything once they get here.

Ramsey Russell: I think two meals are fine. I mean, that’s what most people. I can’t eat three meals a day. I can a little bit, but not normally. I mean, coffee is a great breakfast.

Dakota Stowers: Coffee and the honey bun.

Ramsey Russell: And then when I come in, boy that’s when I like to eat breakfast, a big heaping breakfast, and then come in the evening, eat dinner. And that’s usually I think, what most people do. What are some of your specialty menu items that you might cook for dinner at night or for breakfast?

Summer Stowers: So one of the biggest things, and I didn’t even know this was, like, a thing, but I guess there’s some kind of place on Google that people leave reviews for my meals and I haven’t even ever known about it. Yeah, I don’t know what it’s called or anything. I need to ask him, but I had a guy call the other day, and he said, hey, Summer, I want your famous chicken. And I was like, what’s my famous chicken? He said, I’m going to send you a picture of it. So I don’t know what he’s talking about. And so it’s just like baked chicken. It’s kind of hard to explain. I don’t have a name for it. I probably need to get a name for it. But it’s like a baked chicken with a sauce on the top with, a cracker crumble over it. And then I usually do, like, some homemade mashed potatoes, some like, green beans with some bacon in them, and then a dessert. And everyone’s favorite dessert is probably the peach cobbler.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, I bet.

Summer Stowers: Yeah, it’s a big hit here. That’s probably the most requested thing that I make is, hey, can we have that peach cobbler on one of our days we are here, and I’m like, yeah, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: Where did you get the recipe for your chicken? Because at just a glance, it sounds a little bit like what I’ve heard described as king ranch chicken. Have you ever heard of King Ranch chicken?

Summer Stowers: Yes, it’s similar. It’s not that, though. It’s a little bit different, but it is similar. And I just kind of came up with it one day. We were at home, and Dakota was like, let’s make something different. And I had some chicken unthawed, and so I just kind of came up with it. I’ve never found a recipe for it or anything, but it’s a big hit for sure.

Tips for Cooking Ducks & Geese

Ramsey Russell: Do you ever cook ducks or geese?

Summer Stowers: I do cook them here at home, but not for clients because I never know, if they’re going to want wild game because you just never know, especially if they’re not hunting ducks or geese and they’re here for, like, a deer hunt or something. I don’t want to say, oh, I’m cooking, you all, duck or something without asking them, but if I know them, then, yes, I definitely will. But most of the time, it’s going to be stuff like, chicken, steak, stuff like that, pastas for lunch, and then, regular breakfast stuff that they can take to the blind with them.

Ramsey Russell: When you got married or back in the day, did you all ever imagine you all would be running this business together? Cause you all are partners, man.

Dakota Stowers: Not at first. Summer was actually a paralegal back in our hometown, and I was up here, I was washing sheets for the lodge after every hunter left. I was scouting dogs, guiding hunts, cleaning ducks, sweeping the lodge, taking the trash out, booking hunters and doing all this and that. And finally, after about a year of that, I said, Summer, we got to figure something out, like, we’re going to just have to make it work. And so she ended up believing in me, and she put her two weeks in at her paralegal job and started working full time together. And man. It’s been a thousand times.

Summer Stowers: I may have secretly told them to hold my spot for a little bit longer just in case. Yeah, I’m just kidding. I’m giving them a hard time. But, at first, I was nervous just because we were, first of all a newly married and had all the bills of a newly married couple. And so it was just like, is this a good idea? Financially, is it good for our relationship? This is all new. We’re moving in together now. We’re working together. Is this a good idea? But we’re still doing it and still going strong, so.

Ramsey Russell: And now you’ve got a three year old that I guess it seems like he’s as much a part of the business as a three year old can be. He’s around a lot, isn’t he? Helping do all kinds of stuff.

Dakota Stowers: He is in the middle of it, man. And all the clients know him by name. And I mean, it’s just really cool to see everybody interact with him and just like he’s a part of the staff, and just to see his love for it as much as we have it, is awesome to me. And just like this morning, watching his smile when that deer hit the ground, it’s just like, this is what it’s all about. This is why I’m a dad.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Summer Stowers: I remember one time last season, we all went to dinner with the clients at that steakhouse that I was telling you all about. And so we get over there, and he said, how’d you all do yesterday on you all’s duck hunt? And the guys were like, we did good. He said, what kind of birds did you get? And they told him what kind of birds? And I was like, he’s talking just like a normal guide.

Ramsey Russell: He comes by it natural, doesn’t he?

Dakota Stowers: Oh, he don’t know any other way, man. I mean, like I said, from three months on, he’s right in the middle of it, we had his car seat strapped in the side by side every day. And he didn’t miss a beat, man. He was with us 7 days a week.

More Than Duck Hunting

Ramsey Russell: Man, you all are a lot more than just waterfowl, though. You all do a big dove hunt every year?

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Turkey hunting is huge. Matter of fact, the last time I saw you, Dakota, we were turkey hunting. And I was able to check the box on my Rio and I thought I was going to kill two of them in one shot. That didn’t work out. That choke was a little tight and you all do whitetail hunts?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: How many pigs a year do you kill?

Dakota Stowers: somebody asked me that the other day and I told him, I said, man, I’m going to start keeping track, because I couldn’t even put a number on it, to be honest.

Ramsey Russell: It would be closer to a hundred or a thousand.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, no. I’m thinking way over a thousand.

Ramsey Russell: Way over a thousand pigs a year.

Dakota Stowers: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: How do you hunt the hogs over there?

Dakota Stowers: So we’ve got three different hunt options. So one is just a stand hunt where you’re overlooking a feeder sitting in a standard. And that hunt starts about 04:00 in the afternoon and then goes into about, 10, 11 o’clock at night. And you’re just sitting there overlooking that feeder. We supply you with the green light that attaches to your scope and that way you can see at night when it gets dark, and just shoot as many pigs as you can. It’s unlimited pigs, no extra cost or anything like that. And then we’ve got another option, which is thermal hog hunting, which is where, you’ll get in the truck with a guide. It’s fully guided hunt. And we’ll drive around scanning wheat fields and pecan orchards and stuff like that. And once we spot them, then we’ll all get out, we’ll get into the property and we’ll make our stock on them and we try to get everybody within about, 50 yards of them and then it’s three, two, one, and everybody just fires down.

Ramsey Russell: Golly.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah. So it’s a-

Ramsey Russell: What’s the third option?

Dakota Stowers: So the third option’s with dogs and we’ll drop bay dogs and they’ll go out, they’ll find the pigs, they’ll bay them up. And then we go in with catch dogs. And once you release the catch dogs, catch dogs go in and catch. And then you come in and it’s knife and pigs, you knife them. So that, yep. So that hunt there is not for everybody.

Ramsey Russell: But what’s a good knife for that? Like, oh, one of the marine K bars or something?

Dakota Stowers: Yeah, K Bar is actually a really good knife for that. I would say anything about, six to eight inch blade, would be a good one. And you don’t want a knife that folds up or anything. You want to, just a regular knife that, don’t collapse or anything like that.

Ramsey Russell: Which is the most popular option? Which the least most popular option?

Dakota Stowers: The least is the hog dogging. Yeah, like I said, that’s not for everybody. There’s a lot of running involved through briars. I mean, where then pigs are going to be hanging out. It’s going to be the thickest country you can imagine. And so when them dogs go in there and catch, you’ve got to get in there and make it happen, so you’re running through there, trying to get to them. And so I would say our hog dogging probably are least popular and then thermal and stand it’s all about who’s booking, if it’s older guys, I wouldn’t recommend the thermal just because, you’re walking a lot. The stand hunt is more like a let’s set back and enjoy nature. Let’s watch deer, let’s watch turkeys and wait for the hogs to come in. It’s more of a laid-back hunt. The thermal hunt is instead of you waiting on them to come to you, you’re going after them, so I would say our thermal hunts and our Stan hunts are about equally popular. It just all depends on what you’re into and really, who’s booking it, how healthy they are. You don’t want a real guy out there running around trying to do that-

Ramsey Russell: Hunting hogs is a very popular thing now.

Dakota Stowers: It really is, man.

Ramsey Russell: Where do a lot of your clients come from? Do every client come from outside of Texas for that hunt?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely. Everywhere north, man. You got Wisconsin, Minnesota, all them states up through there. We, do a lot Iowa. We get a lot of guys from those areas. And they just don’t have hogs up there. The winters are too cold for them and they just can’t make it through the winter. So, those guys will come down here and get to experience that here.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s good. When did you all season normally kick off for ducks? And-

Dakota Stowers: For ducks?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Dakota Stowers: Like, we’ll start starting September-

Ramsey Russell: And walk me through September, the doves and the teal. Like, how you all seasonal flow is.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah. What pretty much kicks us off up here is our dove season. We’ll run about 125 guys a day for about the first week and a half of dove season.

Ramsey Russell: What do you hunt? Flour?

Dakota Stowers: It depends. We got a lot of milo up here that we run. And then a lot of it’s the leftover wheat from last year, the previous year that’s just got, it came up, headed out, and the farmer just ain’t got to it to plow it up yet. And they’ll get in there pretty hard and heavy. But mainly milo and wheat is what we’re hunting. And then we’ve got another. It’s a weed that grows around here. We all call it doveweed –

Ramsey Russell: Croton setigers.

Duck Season Split and Oklahoma Rifle Season

And we’ll start it second weekend in November. And then we’ll run right up to around Thanksgiving. We got a split there. But then at the split is when our Oklahoma rifle season kicks off.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah. And it comes up and it’s, about 6 inches tall. Actually, our number one field this year was a goutweed field. And good lord, we hammered them. Yeah, we’ll run about 125 guys for about the first week and a half, and then, we’ll kind of teeter off a little bit. We’ll start focusing on getting our early goose season until season ready to rock. And in our area, man, teal is just so hit and miss. You can’t really bank on them being here whenever you got hunters books. So I’ve learned just to have a call list, and if I’ve got a spot, I’ll call some guys up and get them up here. But now our early goose season is phenomenal. We’ve got a lot of honkers that, stay here year round and we’ll hammer them pretty good. Then after that, that’ll take you to about September 25 right in there. And then October 1 is opener of our archer season here for Whitetail. And so this year, we had six guys on the opener, and five out of six killed, trophy bucks and then, I bet we run close to about 15 to 18 archery hunters a year, and which we’re right in the middle of right now. And then youth season started today, and we’ll run a couple of youth hunters, for rifle. And then after that, we have our muzzle loader coming up here in about a week, and we’ll run about three to four guys, muzzleloader. And then from there starts our duck season. And we’ll start it second weekend in November. And then we’ll run right up to around Thanksgiving. We got a split there. But then at the split is when our Oklahoma rifle season kicks off. So it’s 16 days of running around like a chicken with your head cut off.

Ramsey Russell: You all kill some pretty good whitetails?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely, man. We’ve killed a bunch, in the over 200, our average buck, I would say for rifles around 141, 145. And then you always got, the guys that get lucky that, get put on a big deer that, hit, 170 on 180, 190. And this year is going to be a phenomenal year for deer, which we’ve already kind of seen, starting up with archery hunters. We were really wet in the spring, but since about the end of May, it has only rained like twice. So we’re in a super drought now. But the deer needed that early season, during the spring to get big, and this year is probably one of the best years I’ve seen in the last five years as far as, antler growth and so we’re really excited about that. Going to see a lot of big deer hit the ground this year.

Summer Stowers: And we noticed a lot of persimmons and wild pears. Yeah, everything grew really good.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Dakota Stowers: And we had a good rain around. September 15 is when everybody tries to put their weed in up here. And we had a really good rain at the end of September, which brought all of our wheat up. And so all of our wheat fields are looking real good right now. And but, yeah, so as soon as rumple season is 16 days, seasons over, and it’s game almost like a split of dust season, and we’ll run every single day. Yeah, and what I like to call hog season, which we run hogs year round, but we really hammer guys in from February to the end of March, and we run a lot of hog hunters between that time. It’s really good. And during the cold weather months like that, it’s really good because pigs have to get up to move to regulate the body temperature. They’re just like a dog, so when they get hot, they got to go to water. When they get cold, they got to get up and move, and they got to eat, stay warm. And so you catch a lot of pigs on their feet, February, march, and so that’s when we pile a lot of our hog hunters in. And then as soon as, April 16 hits, that’s our turkey season. It runs from April 16 to May 16. And we’ll run about 30 turkey hunters a year. last couple years, we toned it down a little bit just because our turkey numbers were a little bit down compared to what they have been in years past. And but this year, man, it’s going to be right back the way it used to be. There’s a lot of turkeys now, a lot of jakes last two years. So this year they’re going to be tons this year, so it’ll be good to go. We had a good hatch this past spring, too, so next year will be a lot of good birds to shoot, too.

From Texas to Oklahoma Hunts

I mean, from downtown Dallas to your new camp house in Oklahoma, still within an hour and a half, isn’t it?

Ramsey Russell: I tell you what, being a year round outfitter makes a difference, doesn’t it? I mean, you’ve got a full time job 365 days a year just about.

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: When do you rest? Or do you?

Dakota Stowers: Yeah we do. Very seldom, but June, July and August is when we pretty much tone it down. As far as running clients, June is probably the time where we really kick back and we try to do a family vacation or two during that time. But come July and August, it’s starting prep work, hanging ladder stands, moving stands, setting new properties up, mowing, getting all the seeds ready, for all the deer hunters and doing all that. So July and August is really like prep work, getting ready for the next coming season, and then September 1 hits and it’s go time again. So really there’s about a month and a half there that we really get to kick back and kind of, I call it me time, I guess. And where we can kind of kick back and enjoy our family and we just recently moved full time to Oklahoma. We actually sold our house back in Texas. And so all of our family and everything is back in Texas. And we’re about two and a half hours away from where I grew up. So it’s, during that time, we try to go back and we’ll spend the week at our grandparents house and my parents house, Summer’s parents, and try to see everybody and really hang out and kind of catch up with everybody.

Ramsey Russell: But one of the coolest things about you all’s hunt, I mean, obviously, a lot of hunting opportunity, a lot of high quality hunting, a lot of good delivery. But one of the most interesting things about you all’s package was that for the longest time, you all were just a little over an hour from downtown Dallas. You go from the big concrete jungle of Dallas to just boom country as a bumpkin. But, you all really are still about an hour and a half. I mean, from downtown Dallas to your new camp house in Oklahoma, still within an hour and a half, isn’t it?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely, man. So our new location is exactly an hour and 40 minutes from DFW. Wow. And then Oklahoma City, we’re an hour and 30 minutes directly south, Oklahoma City. So it’s perfect, man. It’s real easy for people to fly into OKC or DFW to, get here, and it’s a less than two hour drive to our lodge down the main highway. I mean, our lodge is right off the main highway to come from Oklahoma City or Dallas Fort Worth to come up here to us. So it’s super easy, literally two turns from the airport either way you go.

Ramsey Russell: So do a lot of your clients that come in to duck hunt, do they also add deer or hogs and to their package?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely. So that’s something that a lot of people do. They’ll come in for a 3 day duck hunt. And that’s most people book, that they’re coming in from ways off is a three day package. And it’s very common for people to do, two days, duck one day, goose, and then throw in a stand hunt one night and a thermal hunt the next night. So they’re, a lot of people at the lodge, if they’re just duck hunting, they’re like, man, what do we do in the afternoon? And it’s like, well, guys, I can offer you all hog hunt. And they’re like, oh, that’s perfect. Let’s do it. We’ve got guns, so if you don’t want to bring all your rifles and shotguns, everything down here, we’ve got guns we can supply you and rent to you. So that’s also another option, and then, of course, we got our thermal guns that, have thermal scopes and they’re all on AR platforms, and all that. So that’s definitely another option. But yeah, if you’re looking for something to do in the afternoon, I would say that your hog hunting is going to be your best bet. Our deer season books so far in advance that it’s hard to get in if you’re just coming into duck hunt and then, rolling out. But if you were to book it far enough in advance, you could probably time it right to where you could duck hunt and deer hunt. Yeah, but if you’re just on the fly looking for something to do in the afternoon, then we can definitely do it. Hog hunt or something like that, for sure.

Hog Dogging

Them dogs are going in bay up, at times could be 30 and 40 pigs.

Ramsey Russell: What, but that’s all very interesting. Here’s a question. We start talking about hog hunting. Have you, have you seen or had any close encounters with hogs?

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Because they’re a handful at times. I mean, on one hand they’re just a big old dumb pig. They’ll try to get away from you. They’re smarter than a whitetail, if you ask me. But on the other hand we start getting close. They ain’t dang friendly. And what kind of close encounters have you seen? Some of these hog hunts?

Dakota Stowers: So, really, most of my close encounters have been hog dogging.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Dakota Stowers: Them dogs are going in bay up, at times could be 30 and 40 pigs. And your catch dog can only go in and catch, one. Or if you got two catch dogs, hopefully two. But once them catch dogs catch them bay hogs, hopefully they’ll come, keep the other ones bay. But a lot of times the bay will break and they’ll just take off, running, and they don’t know which direction to run. So when you’re running towards the page, they’re running towards you, so it’s like, oh, gosh, find a tree. Yeah, but get out of their way, but, but no, stand hunting and stuff like that, if somebody shoots one bad or something, where it’s not all the way dead or something, walking it, following a blood trail to it or something in the thicket and then it getting up and coming at you, I’ve had that happen a couple times, and but luckily, nobody’s ever been hit by one or anything like that. It’s always, we’ve always been lucky and not had anybody heard or anybody hit by one. But I’ve had some close calls with them.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, well, I mean, you fool around with them enough, it’s bound to happen.

Dakota Stowers: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Last question. What are some of your favorite things about working together in this industry?

Dakota Stowers: Man, like I said, it’s just one of those things that we are always together, and a lot of people that I talked to, like, how do you do it? You’re always with your wife. You never have you time, you’re never away. I wouldn’t want it that way, I like, that we’re always together, there’s not a thing that I do that she hasn’t done, vice versa kind of thing, with our business and it keeps things smooth, always smooth operating and everything like that.

Ramsey Russell: What about you, Summer?

Summer Stowers: Probably my favorite thing is just getting to interact with the clients. And when we’re working together, we always kind of make a game plan. Like, we always have a game plan going in, so we’re not like, oh, what are we going to do? When we’re walking in? We already know a plan, and that makes us stay on the same page. And I keep up with all the bookkeeping and everything like that. So really, now all he has to worry about is taking the guys out, and that takes a lot off of his plan plate, where I can do that side of it, and I can worry about getting them here, sending them a room number, having their rooms ready for them, and then they show up and they’re ready to go hunt. Then their guide comes in and gives them a game plan, and I’ve already helped get their license and everything, so all they got to get is a game plan on what time to meet in the morning and who their guide is, and then they’re going out. So it’s very smooth. And that’s what we wanted when we started doing this together, is that I didn’t want it to be hectic for him and vice versa. He didn’t want that to be hectic for me. So we made a plan where, I want those clients to walk in and it be turnkey. They’re ready to go. They’re not stressed, and that makes them want to come back, too, because they’re like, hey, I got to walk in, and I was ready to go. I wasn’t waiting for my guide for 6 hours, stuff like that.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s good. Anita and I can say the same thing. She is the brains of the operation, takes care of all the administrative and I normally take credit for being the good looks. But everybody that knows us both knows that’s a lie.

Dakota Stowers: And same over here, too.

Ramsey Russell: Now, look, you all are on the US hunt list. Oklahoma duck hunt, Mesquite.

Dakota Stowers: Hollow Outfitters.

Ramsey Russell: But tell everybody real quick your telephone number, how they can get in touch with you if they’re in the Dallas area or Oklahoma area, passing through or want to make a trip to come shoot some ducks or some hogs and all this good stuff. I’m proud to say that you all are among the original US hunt list outfitters I’ve ever had. And the way that model works is, your telephone number, your email address. I’ve been there. I’ve proofed it. I’ve gone back with you all. I know it’s what it should be, but at the same time, when people find it, they don’t call me. They call you all directly to book. Direct cause you all know your calendars. You all know what’s what. But so my whole point saying all that is this. When I start hearing a lot of good stuff, when people that I don’t know call me up to say, man, had a hunt with Dakota in summer and had such a fantastic time, when I start hearing a lot of feedback from people I don’t know about my US hunt list outfitters, I know you all are doing something right. So how can the listener get in touch with you all? They can go to US hunt list, or how else can they get in touch with you all?

Dakota Stowers: So we’ve got a website as Mesquite Hollow Outfitters US. Then also mesquitehollowoutfitters@gmail.com. And then our phone number is 903-815-9842 so any of those options will get directly in touch with Summer, and then Summer will take you over from there and tell you everything you need to know.

Ramsey Russell: I’m going to do my dead level best. Between conventions in January, I’ve got about a 2 week break, and I’m going to try to run up through there, sometime in mid-January. I’ve got an appointment up, up around Tulsa. And I’m going to try to swing through and see you all on the way.  I’ve always had a good time hunt with you all.

Summer Stowers: You’ll have to come jump in with Mojo. What week is that? The second week of January. I’m pretty sure they’re coming in, too.

Ramsey Russell: So that would be perfect.

Dakota Stowers: Yeah, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: That would be.

Dakota Stowers: I’ll shoot you the dates on that here in just a little bit. Ramsey and you all link up, and let’s make it happen.

Ramsey Russell: Well, with or without Mr. Dimmit, I’m coming to see you. And I hear that peach cobbler calling my name.

Dakota Stowers: There you go.

Ramsey Russell: But thank you all very much. I’ve enjoyed catching up with you.

Dakota Stowers: And thank you.

Ramsey Russell: And folks, thank you all for listening this episode of Mojo’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast. We’ll see you next time.