EP 561. Beyond Just Ducks–Azerbaijan Duck Hunting Adventure

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast where today I am halfway across the world in the small little country of Azerbaijan. I’m going to say right now where we’re sitting, we’re 10 miles from Iran and other side of Turkey and a couple hours from the Caspian Sea. We’re in a little remote farming community chasing ducks. Joining me first is Mr. Chris Deckelman. Chris, what the heck brings you to Azerbaijan?

Chris Deckelman: Well, Azerbaijan is my last stop for the UWC International Waterfowl Slam. So after we didn’t get to go last year, we had our makeup for this year and going pretty well so far. We got most everything checked off and we have one more day of hunting for us.

Ramsey Russell: What exactly did you scratch off? The first day you needed a minimum of 3 species and you got them. Nothing fancy the first day, but what did you achieve?

Chris Deckelman: What I achieved is I’m actually the first one that is finishing the UWC International Slam that I helped them put together more or less.

Ramsey Russell: First UWC International Slam winner.

Chris Deckelman: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And this would have been Asia?

Chris Deckelman: Yes, correct.

Ramsey Russell: What did you think about this program? Because you’ve traveled a bunch now, just international thing. What were you thinking about Azerbaijan versus reality?

Chris Deckelman: Well, having been in a culture with the military and being in Iraq and Afghanistan, I figured it was about the same thing with the locale and everything.

Ramsey Russell: And is this what Afghanistan is like?

Chris Deckelman: More or less.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, the sheep and the people and skin tone.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah, same concept, like all the people, the same hospitality, etc. And then I figured it was going to be –

Ramsey Russell: I’ve never been to Afghanistan, I’ve been to Azerbaijan a dozen times, let’s say. But what is it like over in Afghanistan as compared to this little town right here?

Chris Deckelman: Yeah, mainly all the little tribes and everything else. And then, everything’s rural, bare bones, like we’re running around with the pirogue and everything else.

Ramsey Russell: See, me never having been to Afghanistan, I envision Afghanistan as being kind of a radicalized religious versus this is occupied by Russia for 5 decades or more. And the first thing the Russians did was put the Kaitas on their religion because that is a form of politics over here. And I mean, there’s an almost empty 5^th of vodka sitting on the kitchen table, I mean, you don’t see that in Pakistan. Could you buy alcohol in Afghanistan?

Chris Deckelman: Where we were at, I don’t think so. But then again we couldn’t drink since you know.

Ramsey Russell: I’m just wondering if you went to the grocery store over there, if you could have bought it.

Chris Deckelman: No, I didn’t see any at the bazaars or anything else, pretty sure it was dry.

Ramsey Russell: A little more to the conservative side of Muslim.

Chris Deckelman: Especially with ISIS running everything and all that stuff anyways, like they could put the kibosh on all the fun.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What was a favorite memory you’ve got from this week? Like what would be just an absolute favorite memory you had this week?

Chris Deckelman: Mainly just pretty much being out there, the pirogue and then, when we’re all together doing the diver hunts and just the guides themselves, just the interaction and everything.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, talk about that. I mean, what was your favorite species?

Chris Deckelman: Well, I came out here originally for the crested pochard. So, connected with that second to last day, which was nice and scratched out the comments. Shot a bunch of Eurasian teal, which was nice as well, but just bare bones hunting.

Ramsey Russell: But you’ve shot those before, I’m sure.

Chris Deckelman: No, it’s my first time too.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Chris Deckelman: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I’m surprised. Well, as the first winner of the UWC International, what is your favorite species you’ve harvested?

Chris Deckelman: I think it’ll be with my first international trip, which is still the Australasian traveler down in New Zealand.

Ramsey Russell: Really? That’s crazy. I never would have guessed that. I was thinking this morning about how those red crested pochards, for some reason, I don’t know, it’s like a unicorn, it’s still unicorn species. That’s the bird that led me here and I’ve shot a bunch of them, I told you all before we came over here, I don’t see them every time.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Because they have warm winters like we do and the birds don’t migrate and it’s like, man. Matter of fact, I missed a drake yesterday, but I think it just kind of like buck fever. I rushed aside.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And it happened. That’s a bird that – I can’t relate that bird to any other bird in the United States. It’s totally different. But I don’t know, I’ve got this thing for them.

“I mean, not even the pictures online do it any justice until you actually put your hands on it, like most of the other species.”

Chris Deckelman: I mean, it’s just a consistency, like just ahead and everything else. I mean, not even the pictures online do it any justice until you actually put your hands on it, like most of the other species.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about your guide a little bit because the guides over here to me are very interesting relative to the other guides around the world. And your guide is older, the oldest one out there and he is my guide’s uncle.

Chris Deckelman: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: How old do you think, I’d guess that man is late 50s?

Chris Deckelman: Yeah. At least. Probably 60.

Ramsey Russell: God damn, he looked 100. He lived a hard life. You’ve been around the world, so you give a lot of context in this conversation and you are a hunter. But talk about him as a hunter and as a human being from what you can tell, not speaking.

Chris Deckelman: The language, pretty cut and dry. Like we went out every morning, set up and with the language barrier, we just pretty much came up with our own things just talking back and forth, whistling at each other and just figuring out as well.

Ramsey Russell: Hand signals, it’s like miming in the blind.

Chris Deckelman: Oh, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Did he talk or converse very much with you?

Chris Deckelman: No, not much. We had our tea in the morning, sat in the blinds, like this morning since you were in the blind that we’re going to go to. So we had to come up with a backup plan and we actually ended up –

Ramsey Russell: Well, that was an interesting morning now because my guide, who is his nephew, had decided we were going back to where we hunted Yesterday.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And we got the blind, and there’s a bunch of shouting. And sometimes I can’t tell if they’re angry because sometimes they’re talking like, hey, what do you want to do when we get done with this? Well, let’s go get lunch. And it sounds like they’re fixing to break into a fist fight, they just got that, I don’t know, that personality in their voice –

Chris Deckelman: They’re very happy all the time.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, all the time. And so they’re shouting back and forth, I don’t know what they’re saying. And then while he’s out putting out the decoys, I get a text from you saying, well, we went somewhere and somebody was already in the blind we’re going to. And he comes back, starts getting animated about his uncle. Yeah, I told him we were going to be here, he’s telling me in Google Translate, and I wrote you back, said, oh, that’s me and your blind.

Chris Deckelman: After like, 15 minutes. Because you were like, oh huh? But, yeah, so we went around the marsh, and we found a spot to go to where there was a blind frame, but not an actual blind. So we scavenged some wood together and made a makeshift seat, and I sat on a gun case and made the best out of it. First two ducks that came in were the crested shelducks.

“But I’ve learned it, and I bet you have, too, that we’re duck hunters, and those guys are astute duck hunters. And you don’t have to speak a spoken language together.”

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. It’s weird coming here with that language barrier. But I’ve learned it, and I bet you have, too, that we’re duck hunters, and those guys are astute duck hunters. And you don’t have to speak a spoken language together. Like, when I’m in a blind with Tofi, I’m showing him pictures of my home, pictures of my camp, pictures of my species, pictures of how I hunt, pictures of my kids, and it speaks volumes. And then we speak very little conversations in Google Translate. This morning after we shot, I mean, literally an hour after we’d been there, we didn’t see another duck the rest of the morning. We were just free streaming, talking to each other. And I’ve hunted with the guy three times, and I learned more about him today, he learned more about me than we’ve ever talked about. But out there, duck hunting, it’s like you say, hand signals. We’re both duck hunters, and we communicate, and it’s seamless.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah, it all just figures itself out. Like when we were in the blind, too, it’s like we shot that coot and it’s like I showed him pictures of one of the coot shoots that we did a couple years ago, and he was having a hoot.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Chris Deckelman: He’s like, give me all of them.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Did it surprise you that they’re nuts about coots? Because that’s their favorite game bird.

Chris Deckelman: I mean, I would figure since with how everything flies out here, they’re probably the most prolific waterfowl that they have. So, I mean, that being a staple just makes sense.

Ramsey Russell: What about that guy we met when we got back today?

Chris Deckelman: That was interesting.

Ramsey Russell: We got to the shore and a local hunter come walking up, I really thought it was Roy’s guide coming to get lunch or something. But this local hunter come up, showed us his shotgun, which was –

Chris Deckelman: Probably 50, 60 years old.

Ramsey Russell: Russian made it that, just a mule of a – I mean, I’d say they carved that stock out of a pine 2 by 4.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah, probably. Just a wear and tear on it too.

Ramsey Russell: He had a total of 5 plain jane coot decoys with spark plug anchors in a Walmart bag and that’s his setup, that’s his rig.

Chris Deckelman: Oh, yeah.

“And I just got to thinking and you tell me what you think, all these boys were hunting with are extremely poor relative to Americans.”

Ramsey Russell: And I just got to thinking and you tell me what you think, all these boys were hunting with are extremely poor relative to Americans. Like, the other day I got to wondering and I ChatGPT about the average annual income of rural Azerbaijan unskilled labor, which these guys are.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: We were told today that they really don’t hold regular jobs, they hunt, market hunt and they guide when we’re here and that’s it, that’s their income for the year.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And I just think that it’s like in the absence of all these name, brand, gazillion dollar expenditures and everything else that we make in America for all the equipment, every aspect from guns and ammo and camo and boats and motors, everything’s elevated to this scientific art form and they have none of it. They’re out there in a pirogue with a push pole that market hunter had 4 or 5 plastic decoys and a collision to call side by side, double trigger shotgun and that’s it. I think that’s why they’re such great hunters.

Chris Deckelman: No, because there’s no extra anything.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, necessity.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah. That’s the only choice you have, that’s what you got to go with. And that’s how you hone your skills, I mean, that’s the only way to do it.

Ramsey Russell: I mean that marsh out there is a rat maze.

“I have no idea how they find their way back.”

Chris Deckelman: I have no idea how they find their way back.

Ramsey Russell: I’m familiar with the ditch we go through when the water is shallow on both sides and them trees are scraping, then it opens up and you come into this little pocket and there’s 5 or 6 little cuts that go through that site – they know exactly where they’re going for – how far do you say we were this morning, a mile, 2 miles?

Chris Deckelman: At least. Like last night too, we went almost all the way back to the highway and we got into such thick reeds and whatnot, I actually had to go pull the reeds on the side of the boat to go and help them pull us through and they still find a way through the reeds no matter how thick it is.

Ramsey Russell: Oh yeah. What was your favorite food? The food was different.

Chris Deckelman: There’s never any bad food in the Middle East for some reason.

Ramsey Russell: I like Middle Eastern food. What about the bread?

Chris Deckelman: Oh, absolutely phenomenal.

Ramsey Russell: I mean it’s the best bread on earth. Did you have a favorite meal? I think mine would have been yesterday’s that pilaf.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah, that was really good.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Was there any moment over here, kind of like an “aha” moment where you said I’m not in Kansas anymore, I’m in freaking Azerbaijan. Was there any moment from start to finish that it just dawned on you how different this hunt was relative to the other hunts?

“I mean, between them having to hide their boats every day so the other market hunters don’t take it, it’s like first when we got to the pirogue.”

Chris Deckelman: I mean, between them having to hide their boats every day so the other market hunters don’t take it, it’s like first when we got to the pirogue –

Ramsey Russell: Oh my gosh, I forgot about that.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah. He literally had it buried in a bush and made a little dam like a beaver so it wouldn’t get taken, then his stick was like 15ft hidden there. Then he went to another spot and got his decoys and everything else, I’m like –

Ramsey Russell: They hide everything in one place because other buddy don’t take it.

Chris Deckelman: Yeah, it’s like one of those birds that just steal shiny stuff. And then like the magpies, they just hide their stuff everywhere else. It’s like, oh, this is shiny, I’ll have this and go over here and this. I’m like, where does this stuff even come from? Are just like growing it like turnips?

Ramsey Russell: That’s a very good moment. Last question is, it’s not a high volume hunt.

Chris Deckelman: No, that’s quality.

“It is. Like I know people, I know hunters back home, that they tick a different way. They want to go to Argentina and Mexico where the volume is generous and it’s fun, it’s liberal.”

Ramsey Russell: It is. Like I know people, I know hunters back home, that they tick a different way. They want to go to Argentina and Mexico where the volume is generous and it’s fun, it’s liberal. And I can think of a half dozen clients, good clients, good friends of mine, I know that if they want to come here, I’d say, no.

Chris Deckelman: I mean, there’s distinct breaks in the waterfowling world. You got the volume hunters, you got the die hard mallard guys, and then you got the collectors, and they kind of don’t touch for the most part, they stay in their own land.

Ramsey Russell: You go to take this hunt with appreciate the differences and the cultural immersion. And the bonus, the icing on the cake is if a bird flies over, like the pochard or the shelduck or something like that, it’s just a huge bonus. That’s just what this hunt’s really kind of sort of about.

Chris Deckelman: Absolutely. I mean, we started out with all the teal and everything else, and then we started grinding out on the pochards and everything that, we wanted to add to it. But it’s like, I think today was probably the most successful day for all of us as a whole between all the prize ducks that we were going for.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Well, congratulations on your accomplishment as the first UWC International Achiever, and I’m proud of that. And thank you for joining us. Thank you for coming over here. And I’ve really enjoy it. I always said birds of a feather flock together.

Chris Deckelman: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: And this team proved it.

Chris Deckelman: Couldn’t have had a better –

Ramsey Russell: Had you hunted or known anybody in this camp before you got here?

Chris Deckelman: I’ve been talking to Mike for years on social media.

Ramsey Russell: That’s how I know he’s on social media, I’ve been keeping up with social media because the algorithm got us figured out. I mean, I know everybody in this room is serious about going places and doing things. But other than that, I mean, we come from 5 different parts of the world, but it’s like we’d all hunted together our whole lives here.

Chris Deckelman: It’s like the military, it’s like, you talk and then you don’t talk for 5 years and you pick up right off where you were. Same thing with the waterfowling. And most of the hunters are like, hey, where you been for 5 years? Here, there. Okay, let’s go hunt.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Chris. I enjoyed it. Mr. Roy Bricato, this ain’t our first adventure together. What the heck brings you to a small little out of way country nobody can pronounce called Azerbaijan?

Roy Bricato: I saw the list of species they had over here and I was real interested and coming over here and see if I can get a couple of those species. And then when I started doing a little investigating on seeing where this country was located, like that got really interesting too. So I’m happy to be here.

Ramsey Russell: When did you become a collector?

Roy Bricato: See, I duck hunted as a little kid and the whole time I was hunting, I really didn’t worry about the collecting too much. I was just into hunting down in Venice, Louisiana, Delacroix and Chef Pass and all those kind of places. The swamp, in Narcho, places like that. Bringing my daughter hunting and then brought my wife a few times and now my grandkids. But I don’t know, something grabbed my interest when I – I always wanted to kill eider duck is really what it goes down to. Always wanted to kill eider duck. And I started digging into it and started seeing all these different places that people go hunting around the world and I was like, that’s got to be fun. But it just seems like, I don’t know, could I really do that? And then, we went on a duck hunt in Canada one time, and then we went over to Massachusetts on a duck hunt by somebody you recommended. And then after I did it a couple times, it was like, man, this isn’t that bad to figure this stuff out.

Ramsey Russell: The world’s a whole lot bigger than Delacroix, Louisiana.

Roy Bricato: Boy, I’m telling you.

Ramsey Russell: Now, look, speaking of Louisiana, just briefly tell me that story, that was such a great story you had about your uncle kind of introducing you to hunting. And it turned it into a 40 something year annual tradition. Talk about that, that was amazing.

Roy Bricato: Well, the first time I went duck hunting, I was 9 years old. And I always wanted to go when I was younger than that, but they wouldn’t take me before that. And at 9 years old, they gave me a single shot shotgun and I went hunting in a Honey Island Swamp. And then right after doing that, my uncle was fishing for a living down in Venice, okay? And he was telling me about how his dad, my grandfather, they always used to go hunting down there by Southwest Pass while they were fishing. And so I asked him, I said, can we go? And I was about 11 years old at the time, which would have been about 1974. And he said, we can go, but we don’t have no tents or nothing, we’re going to have to sleep in one of the tool sheds down there by one of the little oil rigs. So we did that, him and I. We went down there and a little 17ft boat made our way through the river. And then we hunted right there in the bayous, right off of Joseph Bayou. And then once that started it, we continued it all the way up into 2017, we hunted every year down there by Southwest Pass. Pitched tents on the beach, fished off the beach, fished by the oil rigs right out there in East Bay and continue to duck hunt right off the bayou. And that’s what we did. And we did it for 40 something years.

Ramsey Russell: That’s crazy.

Roy Bricato: It is.

Ramsey Russell: How is this country of Azerbaijan a very fundamental skill set type hunt? I mean, there is nothing from America. Not the quality of their decoys, not the loud motors, nothing the same here. I would say that their hunting style, their equipment and their tools go back to at least 1974, if not 1944 or 1934. I mean, this is old school way, very fundamental, traditional way of hunting. How is it the same and different or is there similarities and differences between here and what you recognize as Louisiana duck hunt?

Roy Bricato: Let me tell you what brought back to memory for me. When we pulled up in a little 4 wheel drive cars and the pirogue were sitting right there on the bank waiting for us, it reminded me immediately of my father taking me duck hunting in Reggio.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Roy Bricato: And I can remember I was about 9, 10, maybe 11 years old. And I remember we got in the flatboat with the pirogue loaded in it. We drove the boat up to Bayou Louise, maybe 2 or 3 miles, and then we took the pirogue out, set them on the bank. And I remember the very first time I got in the boat, cross your legs, don’t put your hands on the side, stay balanced in the middle and don’t move. If the boat leans one way or the other, you stay in your position and I’ll balance the boat, I remember my father telling me. And then we got in a little slew and he started paddling. And that’s exactly what came to memories, when I was over here in these boats and these guys are push polling us through the marsh. It’s like I can distinctly remember as a little kid doing that. And then as I mesmerized with it a little bit, I started thinking, you know what, I remember taking my daughter and having my two labs in the boat laying flat on the floor and having her sit on the seat and telling her the same exact thing, don’t move, just stay balanced in the middle and I paddled her through the marsh over there on Joseph Bayou. And then as my father aged, I can remember him sitting in the pirogue and me pulling him too, through the marsh to go duck hunting as well. And it’s like it all came back to me. This is 1960s, 1970s style of hunting. I don’t hear all the loud surface drive motors, it’s real quiet, you can hear the paddle as it dips into the water. You can hear the birds moving around in the brush as you’re just starting to disturb them. And it’s like, this is what it used to be like. It was real quiet and you can really kind of get into the feel of what you were doing. It really does bring you back in time.

Ramsey Russell: It’s like stepping back in time. Since I’ve been here, Elton, one of the head guys, wasn’t around at all hard. He came by to say hello the first night. But every time I’ve been here in the past, he is showing me YouTube videos and everything else of them hyperdrive motors, they want one so badly, they can’t import. Nobody in this town can afford it, even if they could. And they can’t quite figure out the mechanics of that link up between the prop and whatever, and they got an idea, but they can’t figure it out and they want it so bad. And when I’m out there like we were this morning, push polling for 20, 30, 40 minutes in the dark, I’m thinking, man, it would ruin this place.

Roy Bricato: It’s going to ruin it. I mean, we got a duck hunting leash right now in Delacroix. And I was real excited when I got my first surface drive motor, I mean, we used the hell out of it. But now I’m looking back on it, I’m looking down in the ponds and all the grass is torn up, by the end of the season, there is virtually nothing no grass left in the ponds. But when we were out here in Azerbaijan paddling through the marsh, letting him push forward, and the whole bottom is covered with grass, the whole bottoms covered with grass, undisturbed other than that push pole hitting it, that’s it, And I’m like, man, if they ever get one of them motors out here, they’re going to ruin this place. So hopefully they don’t do it.

Ramsey Russell: I hope they don’t. I’m with you on that. Was there a moment since the time you landed in Baku to now that it’s just kind of one of them moments where you go, we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. I mean, that just struck you to like, wow, I’m in Azerbaijan. Was there a single moment that just stood out? You go, wow, this is different.

Roy Bricato: Well, it wasn’t when I was in Baku. I was shocked when I was there. It’s so clean, prim and proper. I mean, they really do a fantastic job taking care of the city. And then when we got out of town and got into the rural areas and you started seeing, okay, this is a little bit different way of living out here. And when we got out there into the marsh, started getting into the marshes, setting up for duck hunting, it was like, you know what, this is really duck hunting, this is the right way to do it right here. This is the right way to duck hunt, when you can sit there, you blow in the calls, you’re trying to get the ducks to come in. Hey, you might have a good day, you might have a bad day. You know the ducks are here, you can see them scurrying around when you’re pushing through the marsh. To me, that was really what I was looking for, I wanted a real duck hunt. I did not want one of the hunts that was set up and you were guaranteed to kill such and such, that’s not what I’m looking for.

Ramsey Russell: Real duck hunts for real duck hunters. I mean, that’s really what this is.

Roy Bricato: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: You’re in, like, premium home construction. And we’ve been driving out to – we’ve been accessing the marsh through an area to take us by a couple of houses. Talk about those houses as compared to what you live in back home, how you build back home. I mean, I know you stop and took some pictures of them.

Roy Bricato: Yeah, I stopped and took pictures of the houses. I mean, the houses are built out of mud and straw.

Ramsey Russell: Kind of a Novi bricks.

Roy Bricato: Yeah. These people built their own house with their hands and the material that was right there on the ground and built their own house from that. That’s unbelievable to me. Now, sure, it’s not the same construction that we have when I’m building custom houses for people, but this is something they did for themselves and it’s working for them, and it was just a shock for me to see that they set the windows in the mud. I mean, they got the doors set in the mud. I’m like, how can you even do that?

Ramsey Russell: And I would say that one house you talk about, it could be a 100 years old.

Roy Bricato: Oh, it might be. And it’s hard to really judge it by its cover. You really have no idea what it looks like on the inside of the house. But I mean, it’s just to see that the people and they make this their way of living. And it doesn’t look like they’re trying to change their way of living, they seem to be pretty satisfied.

Ramsey Russell: They’re very happy with it.

Roy Bricato: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about your guide, do you know his name?

Roy Bricato: No, I don’t remember.

Ramsey Russell: Kind of hard to pronounce.

Roy Bricato: It was hard to pronounce. So that’s why I’m saying. I mean, I had the same guy every day except today. I think he wasn’t feeling well or something today, but I had him every day. Fantastic –

Ramsey Russell: You wore him out yesterday.

Roy Bricato: Yeah, I’m telling you. Let me tell you, we got up in the morning and every day we’ve been doing the same thing as everybody else. We get up in the morning, we hunt, we back by noon, we take a little nap, and then we go back out in the evening. Well, yesterday I didn’t do as good as I wanted to do first thing in the morning and I came up with this idea, I’m just going to stay out here and hunt the whole entire day. I mean, that’s what I used to do as a teenager when I was 15, 16, 17 years old we packed a lunch and we got out in the blind early in the morning. And then when it slowed down around 10, 11, 12 o’ clock, we ate our lunch and kind of fired around a little bit. And then we made the evening hunt too, to make it all worth it. And that’s what we did yesterday. But this guy worked his behind off. I mean, he push poled us everywhere we had to go in order to hunt in the morning. We picked up, we relocated to a new spot around noon and ended up having a fantastic hunt in the evening time. And then he made his way back over here. So, I mean, yeah, he got worn out, that’s for sure.

Ramsey Russell: The rest of the story is, we got back around noon or 1 o’ clock and shifted gears and went to town. I had asked for a Pilaf, it’s the official dish here, different in Baku than it is here.

Roy Bricato: Sure.

Ramsey Russell: So he had to scramble to find somebody. And we went and had that meal. And halfway through the meal, the phone rings and he starts talking, and he hangs up, he says, how is Roy in hunting all day? And I said, because he’s here. I mean, he’s here and he’s enjoying it. And I said, is it a problem? He goes, no, but his guide is hungry and thirsty. He called to say, I’m hungry and thirsty, when’s this guy is going to quit hunting? And this morning, I don’t know, I thought you were Mike in that blind, I couldn’t see you and I was yelling for Mike and then you popped up and said, it’s Roy. I said, oh, because your guide was around the corner, sitting in his pirogue and was hollering at my guide like he saw us leaving. He said, find out when this guy’s going to leave. And I told him 3 o’ clock.

Roy Bricato: 3 o’ clock, that’s right.

Ramsey Russell: And had to go back and forth. And my guide is like, why? I said, because he’s here.

Roy Bricato: Guys that’s been hunting a long time knows you’re going to get a little spurt in the morning, you’re going to get a little bit of a lull and it picks up again around 10 o’ clock, it’s just the way it’s always was.

Ramsey Russell: But it worked out yesterday for you. You picked up some dandy birds.

Roy Bricato: Yeah, I did really well. Around noon, 1 o’ clock, you’re going to get another little flight of birds, and we did. I picked up 2 awesome shoveler ducks. I mean, absolutely plumed out. So it paid off just that alone. But I ended up shooting more between 1 and 3 o’ clock than I did in the morning time.

Ramsey Russell: We got red crested pochards and all this cool stuff over here. Unbelievable amount of American clients I have brought to Azerbaijan that went home with a shoveler. And the 3 shovelers in the freezer right now are unbelievable. It’s like, that’s how God intended for a shoveler to look.

Roy Bricato: Well, that’s what I say. I’ve been hunting for 40 something years. And in Venice, I killed one like that one time. I’ve killed some nice ones, but one like that one. And then out here I come and I killed two back to back. And I mean, they are unbelievable trophies.

Ramsey Russell: Look at the pintails. I mean, I’ve seen some long sprigs back home. But man, these ones over here are to me a little smaller pintail, but just big daggers.

Roy Bricato: Well, that’s what I was noticing today. I had about 17 try and come in on me at one time and every one of them was a drake, I didn’t see one hen, but every one of them, it seems like the sprig is a nice size, but the body size seems to be a little bit less in mass. And I don’t know if it’s just different feed that they get in here than they do in North America, but something changes the size of the body, but the sprig stays long.

Ramsey Russell: The guys over here, to me, we talked about their houses, we talked about how they hunt and it’s just a recurring thing, but it’s like in the absence of store bought technology and conveniences, they are by necessity playing an entirely different game than we are. We’re paddling out in the morning, Roy, my guide Tofi will hear those muskrats and he talks to them. He’s sitting there paddling, push poling and he hears a “mur” and he’ll get them fired up or you’ll hear another bird and he’ll start talking it. And that bird just wakes up and starts yelling back at him. I’m like, he’s been in that marsh since he was 6 years old he told me this morning. We were sitting after we got our bird, I mean we didn’t see nothing after 8 o’ clock, we were sitting there talking with Google Translate, he’s been in that marsh since he was 6 years old. And his daddy and his brother taught him how to hunt. And he knows every square inch of that marsh. But it’s connection to – he can imitate. He won’t do it in front of a crowd, but in a blind, instinctive. Like the other day we had the E-callers going for divers and something else. And the only wigeon I saw this week flew over and he broke into a whistle and that bird just, boom, turned on a dime and come right in the decoys. I can’t do that.

Roy Bricato: Right.

Ramsey Russell: That’s amazing, this guy’s connection to this stuff.

Roy Bricato: It’s funny you saying that because today it happened again. It really happened to me almost every day this week. But today really stood out because the guy that guided me today, he was about 75 to 100ft back in the marsh. And you see him where he was sitting. So he really couldn’t communicate to me, much less we can’t translate to each other, we’re not even close to each other. But while I was trying to scan and watch what was going on, I had tall brush behind me, I could not see behind me at all. And every time that he saw a bird, he changed his tone and made the call for that particular bird. And as soon as I could hear him making that call, I knew I needed to start looking for a gray duck, I needed to start looking for a shoveler or I needed to look for a teal. It was funny the way it was happening. And all of a sudden today, he started making a shelduck call. And of course, that lit me up because I want to get me a shelduck. Unfortunately, they were about 250ft away from us, but he started calling. Sure enough, I spun around and there they were, 5 of them.

Ramsey Russell: They don’t care. They don’t care how far it is, the minute – it’s like I’m going to say those birds were a half mile away, I’m staring the same direction he is, I didn’t see them. He saw them and immediately said pintail. And they were just specks.

Roy Bricato: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And he broke into action. Get down, shut up. And started playing the game. They didn’t come in, but they got close. I’m like, holy cow, from a half mile away he recognized it was a pintail.

Roy Bricato: He recognized them something about the movement, movements of the body style or something.

Ramsey Russell: Now, I got to tell you this story about my guy Tofi, this 3^rd time I’ve hunted with him, and I really learned more about him this time. I love him since day one, but just because we had time and I guess because we’re starting to get comfortable with each other, we really started talking and hitting off, and he is an absolute ball buster. It’s like on one hand, he’s intense and hyper focused duck hunter, on the other hand, he’s a character. And this morning we went back and I want my red crested pochard on this trip, it’s been a while since I shot them. And the wind slightly in our face, you got the decoys out. And I just turned kind of looking towards the sun and just a little downwind and he tapped me and I looked, here comes a pair. And they were over the decoy, I’d say they’re 35, 40 yards high and they passed right to left, right my wheelhouse back lit by the sun, I just knew they were ducks because all I saw was shadows. I swung on the lead bird, he flinched. I mean, they were streaking, swung on the back bird, flinched, neither one of them failed and he got animated. He started rubbing the side of his head, his hand motion for red crested pochard.

Roy Bricato: He was showing you, okay?

Ramsey Russell: He’s like, you missed? I’m like, no. I hit that one. And I saw one of them kind of break down that def glide, way the heck out there behind me. He’s like, no, he kept indicating his wing. I said, go find that bird. I mean, he’s back there. Go look. And he went out, put the mojo in the decoys and left for 20 minutes. 20 minutes he’s gone.

Roy Bricato: He took your word for it. He was convinced.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I mean, he saw the bird kind of go down, too, and he figured, I need to go at least look for the bird. Buddy, let me tell you this, 20 minutes is gone. I don’t see another duck. And it’s getting in my head.

Roy Bricato: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Because yesterday a trio come in, and just the way they were set up, if I’m going to kill more than one, I need to start differently than the drake. Bam, got one. Bam, got one. Bam, miss the drake. So I ain’t got my drake. I got 2 hens, but no drake. Now, if this pair comes by and neither one of them splashed, and what made it bad is it, it wasn’t just a shot, it was like, really, that right to left, 35, 40 yards, my absolute sugar shot, and I dinged them both. And now I’m sitting there thinking, oh, my gosh. I mean, God, I mean, years I’ve been coming here, and sometimes I don’t even see them.

Roy Bricato: Yeah, you told us that. You said it’s possibility that you don’t see anything.

Ramsey Russell: Sometimes they’re here, sometimes not. And I just dinged them. And I’m starting to get like, God. And so he starts coming back, and I’m holding up my hands, like, well? He don’t say nothing. He keeps push polling. He starts coming into slot and I’m looking in the boat, I don’t see one and he smiles. He reaches under the seat, and he holds up the hen, and he comes in the boat and presents me with the hen. And I’m disappointed. I mean, if he’s going to pick one up, why couldn’t it have been the drake. And then he got on his phone, he goes, if only I could hand you the drake too. And he’s such a ball buster, I’ve reached over the blind, started looking into pirogue, he goes, no, he’s shaking his head no. And I’m like, I couldn’t tell, I mean, is he rubbing salt in my wounds? And he smiles, and he steps in the boat, he reaches under a seat, pulls out the decoy bag, pulls out the bird and presents it to me.

Roy Bricato: He picked them both up?

Ramsey Russell: And what had happened is by the time he got down there, I’m going to say 300, 400 yards, one of them, he said, was dead. But he said the other one was sitting there kind of shaking his head, expiring and as he got up to it, it flapped off into the cover, he by went up in there and hand grabbed it.

Roy Bricato: He found it.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, well, char dog couldn’t have done that now. This is the man. But what made it so good is number one, okay, I got my bird. But number two –

Roy Bricato: You got both of them.

Ramsey Russell: I got both of them. But number two, he messed with me.

Roy Bricato: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And then the very next, I may say 10, 15 minutes later, it’s like, you heard, and I’m like, there they were. But it’s a weird setup. Whoever built that blind just on that point corner, the wind would have to be hard at your back out of the north for them to really present themselves right. So they kind of cut us weird. And he goes into his call and I go into my rosie bill call buddy, and them son of a guns turn and right there.

Roy Bricato: Kill shot.

Ramsey Russell: His timing is different than mine. He calls shoot before I’m ready. And when they’re coming to you, they’re only getting closer, Kaboom, I doubled on drake. He picked me up in a bear hug, son. He was more excited than I was. So it was a heck of a morning.

Roy Bricato: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: But the personality is what I’m trying to say. The personality is just, we don’t speak the same language, but it’s okay, we get along.

Roy Bricato: Right.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s what’s so amazing.

Roy Bricato: He got the same excitement.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I mean, my guide, it was pretty cold up here, it was cold. There was ice this morning on the chest, them boys ain’t got on insulated boots.

Roy Bricato: No, I saw that. It’s rubber, it’s just rubber.

Ramsey Russell: They’re wearing like, red ball quality, 1960 red ball quality.

Roy Bricato: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Either boots or waiters one. But they ain’t like what we think of.

Roy Bricato: No, that cold radiates right through it. I mean it’s got to be really cold.

Ramsey Russell: And they don’t have on thermals, they don’t have what we have, and they’re out there just getting after. Did you have a favorite food over here? Was there anything that stuck out?

Roy Bricato: Well, in Baku, the breakfast that we had at the hotel was incredible.

Ramsey Russell: Isn’t that amazing?

Roy Bricato: That breakfast is unbelievable. And there was so many, it must have been 80 to 100 people in there getting breakfast. And is there chefs in there? They preparing the omelets right there on the spot. So for Baku, I would say that was it for there. Over here, I’m going to tell you the bread, I’m not going to go to the dish. The bread, every day it’s been a different bread and it’s absolutely fantastic.

Ramsey Russell: Well, he goes twice a day and gets fresh bread. It’s this little flat, I don’t know what they call it. And it’s like a tough Italian bread, you got to pull apart.

Roy Bricato: And you got to put a little something behind it to get it apart. But boy, it sure goes down good.

Ramsey Russell: I like all the food. Everything, every bit of it I like. But breakfast is my favorite because they got them real dark yolk.

Roy Bricato: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Wildfed chicken eggs.

Roy Bricato: Right.

Ramsey Russell: And they got the cheeses and the butter and that bread and the honey that he makes himself. And buddy, I can eat that 3 times a day.

Roy Bricato: That’s what I was going to say. You can overdo it at breakfast every time.

Ramsey Russell: I guarantee you. Well, I’ve had a great time hunting with you, Roy. And 2 more questions is, afternoon number one, nobody even saw a duck till dark. You came in with the first red crested pochard. And we’ve shot, I think I figured up today we’ve shot 13 or 14 of total.

Roy Bricato: I didn’t realize that.

Ramsey Russell: But ain’t none of them near the one you found. But what do you think about the crowd? Like you and I have hunted together, you knew Mike?

Roy Bricato: I knew Mike.

Ramsey Russell: And you all hunt together since Africa, but what do you think about, I mean, isn’t it kind of crazy that 5 folks get here and you fall in and you just bonding goes on with the staff and with each other?

Roy Bricato: It just comes together really quick, doesn’t it?

Ramsey Russell: We got a guy from Mississippi, Louisiana, Minnesota, Washington state and Alabama and it’s just boom. It’s like we’ve been hunting together. We’ve been hunting together for 4 or 5 days, but it’s like our whole lives.

Roy Bricato: Well, you know what I noticed, too, because I’ve hunted with several different people now over the last 4 or 5 years that have been traveling around, and it just seems like duck hunters really get along good together. And it don’t matter where you from, it just seems like you get along good together.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Sometimes you come here – Deckleman’s killed just about every species except for the shelduck. One afternoon, he didn’t recognize it is a shelducks, because it was dark, until it was gone. And they’re big, they’re goose size. And then he knocked one down the cover they couldn’t find. But you got to kind of come back. You look at that as a penalty or a consolation?

Roy Bricato: I don’t know. I’m going to tell you right now, it’s a consolation, but I already know that I’m coming back next year, I just don’t know the date because I’m waiting for you to tell me what else we got going on, you’re trying to plan in January. But I already know I’m coming back, and I got a list, okay? I got a list because I don’t have all the ducks that I want to get and I want to start investigating, there’s garganey at one point and find out what time of the year I got to come back to get something like that.

Ramsey Russell: Late.

Roy Bricato: I know that’s what you said. So I got to figure out what do I need to do. I might need to come back twice to get what I want to get. But I know one thing –

Ramsey Russell: Or we might shoot the garganey somewhere else.

Roy Bricato: Maybe so. But I do know one thing for sure I’m coming back next year. I just got to find out when it’s going to be based on what you tell me.

Ramsey Russell: All right. Thank you very much, Roy. I enjoyed it. Look forward to hunting with you already next year.

Roy Bricato: Sounds good. Thank you.

Ramsey Russell: Mike Petzko, what the heck brings you to Azerbaijan? Last time I saw you, we were in South Africa.

Mike Petzko: Red crested pochards.

Ramsey Russell: Did you get one?

Mike Petzko: I got 3 of them.

Ramsey Russell: 3 of them. Are you surprised we’re here? It was a fits from start, wasn’t it?

Mike Petzko: It was a struggle.

Ramsey Russell: We scheduled this trip for last year.

Mike Petzko: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And a month, 6 weeks freaking they closed it, we’re like, what do we do? Well, schedule for next year. And I’d say a month ago, maybe a month ago we got word they opened the season. I mean it hadn’t been long, what were you thinking?

Mike Petzko: Well, it was right to the wire. I mean they only had –

Ramsey Russell: Were you worried?

Mike Petzko: I wasn’t thinking was going to happen.

Ramsey Russell: You didn’t think it was going to happen, did you?

Mike Petzko: Nope.

Ramsey Russell: But getting over here was painless.

Mike Petzko: Well, suffered me having to cancel my flight with Turkish Airlines that we both –

Ramsey Russell: After all the fitting starts getting over here, you’re set to go, I’m going to guess you were packed at that point and ready to go and you get notification that your flight had been canceled on Turkish Airlines and they weren’t – I mean, I guess you could have got here a week later or something.

Mike Petzko: Yeah, with Turkish Airlines. So luckily Lufthansa actually had seats and I actually got here on time and actually got here for less than what Turkish Airlines is going to charge me.

Ramsey Russell: I like flying Turkish Airlines. I like being on the plane. I like the people. I like the food. But if you have to get in touch with them about a problem, it is a nightmare.

Mike Petzko: It’s painful.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, anytime you got to call 800 number, talk somebody, and they’re overseas, that’s not good. But they’re terrible. Talk about that.

Mike Petzko: Their website’s terrible, too. It’s not like calling Delta just changed one link in the connecting flights, they changed all your flights.

Ramsey Russell: You’re an accountant by trade, right? So you look at spreadsheets and columns and numbers?

Mike Petzko: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Everything adds up.

Mike Petzko: I’m a time manager.

Ramsey Russell: You are. But it’s like all the little numbers in columns and lines and totals and sums and it balances, checks and balances. But life, especially when you start traveling internationally, is not that cut and dry.

Mike Petzko: No.

Ramsey Russell: Did you ever struggle with that?

Mike Petzko: I’ve never had a problem until this. Almost all my flights have always been on time.

Ramsey Russell: Well, the crazy thing is you got your sorted. And I told you, I said, man, welcome to my world, if you fly a lot, stuff just happens. And I’m sitting at the airport, I get there three hours, little old bitty one Runway, Jackson, Mississippi, and we’re an hour late departing, and I’m 8 miles from the house, and I realize, I’ve missed my connection. So I come here 12, 15, 20 hours later, whatever, you all have been here and I finally come dragging in, but I’m here.

Mike Petzko: Yeah. No, we all got here.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me, was there any one moment, because you’ve been around, man, you’ve traveled quite a bit. How did Azerbaijan compare to what you thought it was going to be to what it actually was? I mean, what did you kind of have in your mind, like, what this might be like, the people, the food, the hunting, versus what it actually was?

Mike Petzko: I pretty much was spot on as far as what it had to be. I mean, because I work with a girl that her sister married at Azerbaijani.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Mike Petzko: And so she was actually here for the wedding and she already told me that Baku was absolutely beautiful city.

Ramsey Russell: Unbelievable.

Mike Petzko: Totally safe, totally clean. And so, yeah. I mean, it’s scary that you’re within 8 miles of the Iranian border.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Mike Petzko: But being here, you never guess that you’re 8 miles from the Iranian border.

Ramsey Russell: No.

Mike Petzko: Everybody seems to be very nice, very safe, I enjoy it. Enjoyed the whole time here.

Ramsey Russell: After we got up here to duck camp, started going at it, was there any moment in the thing I always think of, like Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz going, we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto, which is something just struck out as like, wow, this is different than what I’m used to. Their approach or something is different than anything I’ve ever done. I mean, it’s different than Ireland, it’s different than Minnesota. Was there any moment that just stuck out?

Mike Petzko: Not really that I can think of.

Ramsey Russell: Getting into the pirogue?

Mike Petzko: Yeah, you’re talking experience like that, yeah, that’s cool going to the pirogue, but hunters are hunters no matter where you go, it’s just a matter of how they actually go about it. So these little pirogue boats. But these guys are highly skilled, they know what they’re doing.

Ramsey Russell: I was just fixing to ask you about your guide. Tell me, describe your guide as a human and as a hunter. Because he’s my guide’s brother. As a matter of fact, he’s my guide’s older brother. And as we were talking today, he indicated, I said, how’d you learn to hunt? He was talking about my dad and my older brother. And he went into detail about his older brother that indicated to me, man, he’s got a tremendous amount of respect as a hunter and a human being of who his brother is. What’s he like to hunt with?

Mike Petzko: Well, obviously there’s a language barrier with him, but the guy was quiet.

Ramsey Russell: He’s quiet. That’s what Tofi said. He said, my brother’s very quiet.

Mike Petzko: Very quiet.

Ramsey Russell: He said he’s very quiet because he’s extremely self-confident.

Mike Petzko: Yeah. Well, he’s excellent. I mean, he’s prepared. I come pulling up in the morning, immediately grabbing my bag, grabbing my gun, going on the boat. Even though there’s a language barrier there, you’re still functional. I mean, I know what he wants. I mean, tells you sit in the boat, tells you to get out of the boat, help him pull the boat across from the mud flats, it worked. I mean, he knew where to set up excellent blinds. And he’s excited when I was killing the red crested pochard. I mean, yeah, he’s all excited as soon as I – even he was getting excited about that even though they don’t like eating those birds here, what not. I think he knows the value of those birds to the clientele.

Ramsey Russell: To the American client. We love them and we’ve talked about them forever and we’re always looking for it. He don’t speak English, but I know you showed him some pictures.

Mike Petzko: Oh, yeah. I mean, this morning I killed my 3^rd pochard. They come flying in into the pocket, I thought they were mallards. They looked like big ducks, I had no idea.

Ramsey Russell: Big ducks.

Mike Petzko: And I knocked one down. And he immediately was making an indication, like, crested.

Ramsey Russell: That’s what they did. It’s like he’s smoothing his hair back about the crested. And I know what he means. But how did it feel? Because you come all the way over here for a red crested pochard that is the bird that led me to Azerbaijan. That bird. And how did it feel to put your hands on him for the first time?

Mike Petzko: Oh, my God.

Ramsey Russell: Right off the bat. Second morning.

Mike Petzko: The second morning, there was a pirogue boat on the opposite side of the pocket I was hunting, he bounces birds off of the water, so the whole flock came over to me. And again, I knew they were diver ducks because they’re only 20ft off the water, coming straight across the bay. I unleashed into the flock and I knocked down two. And I had no idea what they were.

Ramsey Russell: One shot.

Mike Petzko: Yeah. And I had no idea what they were until I seen the bird hit the water and I could see the big crested head. I’m like, oh, my God, there’s my red crested pochard. I was shaking I was so excited about that.

Ramsey Russell: What other species are you bringing home?

Mike Petzko: I’m bringing home 3 red crested pochard, I’m bringing home a drake common shelduck or no shelduck or a pochard.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Beautiful bird in its own right.

Mike Petzko: I shot an absolute stud shoveler.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. And I know there’s people back home going, like a shoveler.

Mike Petzko: Yeah. They’re beautiful.

Ramsey Russell: Have you ever laid your hands on a shoveler like that back home? Very rare.

Mike Petzko: I mean, that was an –

Ramsey Russell: I don’t, not personally, but throughout the course of season going throughout the United States and a lot in Mexico, I’m going to say I put my hands on hundreds of shovelers in a year, and not one of them looks like any of the ones that got brought in over here. What is it about that? I mean, they’re perfectly clean.

Mike Petzko: Their birds are, the same species we have in North America. But like, the pintail seems to be, they’re not as heavy as the ones we have in the United States, they seem to be more thin, lighter birds. I mean they look the same. Even the gadwall seemed kind of weird, where most of the gadwall I shoot in the United States all had the big reddish patches on the wings, and I shot some that are, look at the feather out, and they have zero red patches on the wings. So a little bit difference there.

Ramsey Russell: The 2 or 3 drakes I shot on this trip were molting, and I looked at them and I just think the ones I shot because they had so little rust color on the wings, I think they were just molting. I think they were transitioning because it’s February. I think they were kind of transitioning from their juvenile molt to their first adult plumage. And that’s why they’re ratty. But anyway, do you have any favorite food here?

Mike Petzko: It’s all. It’s all just different. It’s different. It’s all good. I mean, a lot of turkey, a lot of chicken, a lot of lamb everything’s on the bone. Definitely healthier over in these foreign countries than the United States, you don’t have a highly processed food. So I actually feel better over the week I’ve been here.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. No junk food.

Mike Petzko: No junk food.

Ramsey Russell: Except for bread. But it’s healthy bread, I think.

Mike Petzko: Yeah, exactly right. I mean, there’s certain animals I have back in the United States that they went away since I’ve been over here. So I think it’s all as far as diet and what’s in the food.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I know, like, breakfast is my favorite meal here, and it’s my favorite meal back home, too. But I asked him something the other day what something he put out was, and it was butter that a friend’s wife made out of raw milk. Unprocessed. It’s got a little different taste to it, but the honey and the bee pollen he put. He makes that himself.

Mike Petzko: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: He grows those bees and all that kind of stuff. And this bread, I noticed, we get up, you got the tea going, and 5 minutes later he comes back with hot bread. And then midday come back with more hot bread, fresh bread every day. And I appreciate that kind of food.

Mike Petzko: No, the guide service does a great job with nice restaurants in your own private rooms.

Ramsey Russell: Very organized.

Mike Petzko: He does a very nice job.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, this driver we’ve got, for those that have seen the video we did over here years ago that Jake filmed He was my guide, but now he’s just kind of the driver and to go between and man, that guy is Johnny on the freaking spot.

Mike Petzko: It’s great.

Ramsey Russell: He know what I want, got to go in the truck and what I’m going to touch what I want, he just knows it and takes care of it. And he’s got a sense of humor. This morning you forgot your phone, had to come back inside, and all he knew was word home. And we’re like, huh? He goes home. We’re like, yeah, dude. It was his idea to act like we left you. And then he started messing with Chris because the other day, somebody left a couple of beautiful red crested pochards, and they went to the meat wagon instead of to the truck, and you were freaking out, how did he understand that drama. How did he understand that? Because he doesn’t speak our language. But this morning, Chris laid his pochard on the hood of the truck and turned around to look at something, and when he turned back, it was gone. And he looked and that guy’s sitting there looking at his feet with his hands in his pocket, just minding on business, and he points at him, and he broke out laughing, he knew to mess with him over that kind of stuff. I love that kind of stuff in people.

Mike Petzko: I’m sure these guys probably get a kick about how us collectors shoot these birds and we treat them like a piece of porcelain and it’s like nobody wants to touch those birds once we –

Ramsey Russell: I can tell you that the taxidermy concept to them is as foreign as anything we bring from America. There’s no cultural basis for that at all. Because they’re poor people.

Mike Petzko: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: They wouldn’t have the money to do that. I mean, I told you other day, I looked up, these guys are making less than $2000 a year US dollar equivalent and it shows in their equipment, but, not their pride and their personalities, but in everything else, but they eat these ducks. That’s a food source. And what they don’t eat, they sell. So they buy food to eat. They just don’t understand this trophy concept. Like, I was showing him some pictures of taxidermy today, and he’d never seen anything like it. I mean, apparently there ain’t no bird museums here in town. Because he’d never seen anything like it. It was like a foreign concept, but I appreciate that kind of stuff. Does your guide do any mouth calls?

Mike Petzko: Yeah, he’s doing some mouth calling there. That’s how kind of, sometimes I’m kind of on my smartphone not paying attention, next thing he starts, even though I have electronic callers going, as I had two of them every day going. He would, as soon as you see I’m not watching and he starts making some noises, calling at them with his mouth there also look where they’re at. And he starts pointing where they’re at.

Ramsey Russell: So, like, most of the times they point at birds, most times they’re so far away I can’t even see them. I mean, they’re on the horizon and they’re just little dots and they’ve already seen them, amazing eyesight. And when we get to the blind in the morning, Mike, I have my headlamp on to get sorted, put the tetra in or whatnot. What’d he say, clothes? He says clothes not off. Light clothes.

Mike Petzko: You don’t like the lights on.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. And I said, why? I make a motion, like, why? He said, I want to see with my eyes.

Mike Petzko: Yeah, I suppose it messes their eyes up.

Ramsey Russell: It’s like going in in the mornings. He don’t want light. They want to see that water and the terrain, that’s what they recognize. The light just kind of limits their view to wherever that light beam is. They want the lights off. But anyway, Mike, I’ve enjoyed it. Where’s our next huge adventure? Where’s your next adventure?

Mike Petzko: Going to Argentina in July.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. Ducks?

Mike Petzko: Ducks.

Ramsey Russell: Good. How’s it going to bother you not to bring them birds back?

Mike Petzko: It definitely takes some of the excitement away.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Mike Petzko: I get excited to go on these trips to actually target a species, and once again, I’m very excited about that. So I don’t have any favorite birds, it’s just like this, the next bird I haven’t got in my collection that excites me.

Ramsey Russell: It might surprise you, Mike, it might really, because not bringing birds back from Argentina eventually soaked into me to where, I’ve gotten to where now I didn’t plan to bring birds back from here or anywhere. I’ve gotten over that. I take pictures, I take videos, and I guess I’m content with that. I mean, I’m in the opposite mode now. Instead of building up, I’m giving away. Because really what lures me over here, I did get a little excited over those red crested pochards that’s kind of my, I don’t know, it’s my weak spot. But at the same time it’s being here in the process and the people and the food and it’s like the things I learned from them –

Mike Petzko: The culture.

Ramsey Russell: You were there today when that coot hunter, that local hunter comes up, man, that guy, his kit is 5 decoys in a Walmart bag and a 100 year old collision to call side beside shotgun and I guarantee that son of a gun is going to kill ducks.

Mike Petzko: Kills a lot of bird than we do probably.

Ramsey Russell: I wish I knew how many birds that gun of his had killed. Thousands. Anyway Mike, I enjoyed it. And I look forward to our next adventure together.

Mike Petzko: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Ricky Anderson, man. Let’s see Mexico, Argentina, Netherlands, where else we’ve been together?

Ricky Anderson: Mexico, Argentina, Netherlands, I believe that’s it. But we’ve got a lot more adventures to go.

Ramsey Russell: We do, but Azerbaijan. What the heck brings you to Azerbaijan? How did this hunt – because this is way different than the other hunts we’ve done. How did this fall upon your radar?

Ricky Anderson: Well, I’ve told you, I’m not a collector of species, but a collector of experiences. And this is a very unique experience.

Ramsey Russell: How so? Like at what moment did you realize we ain’t in Kansas no more, Toto?

Ricky Anderson: Man, traveled 10 hours into the future and found out I was just a very few miles from the Iran border. So that’s all an experience within itself.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, could you hear so much about that? It’s a scary part of the world and it really ain’t, is it?

Ricky Anderson: It’s not.

Ramsey Russell: I mean we’re in this little old farming community, and the people are different, they live different, they eat different, but they ain’t really different, people are people.

Ricky Anderson: People are people. But the food, the culture, those are all things that add to the experience of this hunt. It’s not just hunting, we’re here to hunt, but it’s about a lot of other things.

Ramsey Russell: Well, it’s a real duck hunt.

Ricky Anderson: It’s a very real.

Ramsey Russell: This is not like Mexico. Me and you hunting standing shoulder to shoulder and on dry blind shooting the teal coming in like a dove hunt, this ain’t like Argentina we’ve been on. This is isn’t a duck blind hunting and today you shot two ducks.

Ricky Anderson: That’s correct.

Ramsey Russell: And the most I’ve shot is 7, 8.

Ricky Anderson: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Tomorrow, going into day 5. And I mean look, isn’t it crazy how in Mississippi if I have a 6 duck day, I’m like woohoo, boy, but you come over here like, whatever. Where you can shoot more, but it’s really not that way. I haven’t felt disenfranchised one time.

Ricky Anderson: No, this has been a fantastic hunt. The best day I’ve had I killed 12 birds, of course today I killed 2. At the end of the day hunting is hunting. But this is real hunting over here. It’s not just going out there and shoot. This is real, hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Everybody so far we’ve talked on this episode has, like we met that old coot hunter today. Man, that guy ain’t got nothing. He comes walking up with a Walmart sack, he got 5 decoys and sold me one for $10 or so, now he’s got 4. I mean, he better be a good duck hunter. He doesn’t have any advantages that money can buy, I mean, he’s just out there living it.

Ricky Anderson: Any American hunter that came over here and had to work with what they’ve got to work with would have to adjust. They have to make a lot of changes.

Ramsey Russell: Boy, you better believe it. There’s a lot of competition.

Ricky Anderson: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And all the competition is good. It’s real good. Let me say, one thing we’re talking about the community right here, one of the things that I noticed the first time I came, I’m from tiny little old town not much bigger than this one called Greenwood, Mississippi and it’s the long staple cotton capital of the world. And all 4 ways to get into that town billboards or signs with cotton bolls on it. And we come into this little town right here and there’s a metal arc over and two cotton bolls. And that feels so familiar to be in such a strange land 6,885 miles from home right now, it’s just striking different. Do you have a memorable hunt, like is there a time or a moment or something that stands out more than the rest?

Ricky Anderson: That would have been yesterday when I shot the 2 red crested pochards.

Ramsey Russell: What did you know about red crested pochards before you came on this trip?

Ricky Anderson: They were absolutely not on my radar at all. And when I got over here and I saw them, I was like, man, that’s a beautiful duck.

Ramsey Russell: They’re big.

Ricky Anderson: They’re big.

Ramsey Russell: Bigger than a mallard.

Ricky Anderson: Bigger than a mallard, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, they’re ginormous for a duck.

Ricky Anderson: So when my guide went out and picked up those birds, I could tell he was all excited. He came back singing and just happy. And I knew I had something, and I’ve not been that excited about a duck in a long time.

Ramsey Russell: You told me on the get go you weren’t bringing nothing home. I’m going to shoot the birds, take pictures, I ain’t bringing nothing home. You are taking birds home? Going to take them home.

Ricky Anderson: I’m going to take them home.

Ramsey Russell: Likewise, I came over here with no compunction whatsoever to bring nothing home, and I’m bringing a bird home. I mean, how can you not.

Ricky Anderson: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: You put your hands on that bird, it’s like, I got to take that bird home. Tell me about your guide. Do you know his name or can you pronounce his name?

Ricky Anderson: I can’t pronounce his name. No, and I won’t try.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I’ve been spelling my guide’s name because it took me a while, Tofi is how it sounds. So I’ve been spelling it TOFI and then I caught wind that maybe it’s TOVI. And so he and I were swapping numbers today, WhatsApp, and I held it up. He saw my name goes, no, he spelled it right, you know what I’m saying? I can’t get the Tofi out of how it spelled, I’ll put it to you that way, it don’t make no sense. But now we’re in touch and we do stuff. Who is your guide as personality, as a human being, as a duck hunter?

Ricky Anderson: He’s a very good duck hunter. I mean, he’s very good.

Ramsey Russell: How so?

Ricky Anderson: Well, I mean, he sees everything before I see it. He’s taking them out before, and especially in the early low light conditions, he picks them out and sees them way before me. And he’s always telling me what I need to do. He makes hand gestures to me, need to do this, if I’m standing up looking, he points at his eyes and says, that means the ducks are seeing you, you go to get down.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. Mine lets me know too. And mine does not own a light and he does not like it when I have my light on in the blind so I can put batteries in my tetra or whatever I’m doing, he does not want a light, he wants to look with his naked eye. Whether he’s paddling in black dark or putting out decoys in black dark or putting the mojo together in black dark. Now, I’ll tell you something I taught him. We went out the first hunt for pochards in the evening, and I like, where the heck’s mojo? And he indicated to me with hand gestures and words, pochards don’t like mojo. And I said, bullshit. I said, they love them. And we went that pochard hunt we went on, he brought it. Ask him what a red crested pochard thinks about, or a common pochard thinks about a mojo now, he loves it. They love it. I mean, if I could only have one decoy to hunting birds with it, be a mojo, because they going to come into it every time.

Ricky Anderson: I agree.

Ramsey Russell: Every time. Well, we talked about that, didn’t we? You’re from Alabama, you shoot a lot of blackjacks, you use a mojo?

Ricky Anderson: I do.

Ramsey Russell: And they work, doesn’t it?

Ricky Anderson: They love it.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t know why they like it, but they do. They come right into it. Well, let’s still talk about the guide staff, because have you learned anything from them? Because I feel like every time I’m over here hunting with these absolute have nothing but best guides I’ve ever been with, I learned something.

Ricky Anderson: One thing I’ve learned, and you touched on it, is that all the things that we have, all the gadgets and the gear and all of that we have, you don’t have to have to kill ducks because they do it every day.

Ramsey Russell: Every day. I’ve always believed that duck hunting is a very fundamental sport. Be on the location, hide, call, don’t miss. I mean, it just kind of boils down to that hadn’t changed much at all. But even over here, they play such an extreme A game, I’m reminded freaking hit. One of My favorite hunts it turned out to be was a green winged teal hunt I went on, and it was like, an evergreen, some kind of cedar type bush and I mean, I’m saying belt high, and I had to get down low, and he was insistent, as he walked over to go build a fire because he was freezing to death with them old uninsulated rubber boots. And I mean, he built a fire, I could see smoke for miles now, but it was a real cold morning, I think the real feel was like 22 degrees. And I was sitting up to where maybe my head was above where I could see the ducks coming in, if they were, because the green wings would be on you before you could see it. And he went out and kind of stuck his head up like a periscope, telling me to get down because I could see you. I said, well, maybe he’s right. I got down and buddy, let me tell you what, them teal some got away from me because they were on top of me and gone. But by looking through them cracks, man, I mean, I could see them coming and they didn’t see me. And they were in the decoys, not passing by. I mean, I think because these hunters are so good, they put a little pressure on these birds and the birds aren’t tame. I mean, they’re wild ducks. And so I always feel like I learned something with these guys. And I’ll never be able to vocalize, but I feel like I teach them something too, you know what I’m saying? My guide, he can make all the sounds with his mouth, does not own a duck call, they use E-callers, but that doesn’t stop him from doing his own. Like, the only reason I saw this trip, he saw before I did, and I knew it was a wigeon because we had two callers going, one with teal, one with pochards. He started whistling like a wigeon and I got down boy, immediately. And sure enough, right around that clump of bush, it come right into the decoy. That’s just an unbelievable skill they’ve got. And like the decoys, they don’t put out formations. If you see the ducks around there, the ducks they’re used to seeing are just like a little drift of ducks in the lee side of some cover. They don’t put clumps, they don’t put V’s, they don’t put W’s, they don’t put X’s, they put just a little drift and they angle it just right to where them birds can work it and that’s it. And when we hunted those pochards one night, he and I were talking with hand signals and whatever, and I asked him, are they coming in here to eat? I’d point to my mouth or sleep I put my hand on my head, my head on my hands. He says, eat. And when he went out there to put those decoys out, instead of putting them in that drift, he put them in a tight round circle. And he told me he made a motion like tight, because eat. I mean that’s a man, he told me this morning, Ricky, he’d been hunting out there in that marsh since he was 6 years old. And he ain’t hunting for sport, these boys don’t hunt for sport. They ain’t out there because it’s fun, they ain’t out there to make Instagram posts, they ain’t out there to get the likes and the clicks or to monetize, they out there to eat. I mean, they’re feeding them families. Like today we push polling along and he got all something. I’m like, what? I grabbed my gun, I thought he wanted me to shoot something. And he started laughing. He said, no, he’s pointing. I said, I don’t know what he’s looking at, I was looking for a duck. And he eased over there and there was a freaking fish about the size of a little old half pound bass just sitting there because the water was cold and it was just sitting there and he eased up to it and how he can kneel down, squat, move and bend over in that little pirogue without flipping it over beyond me. I told him, don’t flip this damn boat over. He reached down and put his hand real slope and grabbed that fish for supper. That was his lunch, I guess. I don’t know, that marsh, it’s a big marsh, it’s like their backyard and they know every square inch of it. And we’ll be push polling out in the morning and he’s talking to the wildlife. Like I’ll hear those muskrats out there and he’ll talk back to them. And this morning he, I don’t know what he was saying, but he got that thing all fired up. It was just kind of making a sound and he started talking like little babies and talking like big ones that thing just, I about expected to swim into the boat because he got it all fired up. And the same thing little birds be flitting around, he’d be whistling to them, and they’ll to be hopping in the blind. It’s crazy. I mean, they’re just absolute part of this thing. And what else is their identification ability is just unbelievable. Sometimes I just see a duck, I recognize that a duck, but I couldn’t tell you what it is. And they spotted a mile off. Gadwall, pintail, teal, pochard, little pochard, big pochard. And it looks like he’s trying to kind of smoothing his hair on the side make it make a sign about the red crested pochards. I mean, they are dialed in on these things.

Ricky Anderson: Absolutely. And you touched on this. It’s like, they make you, I think coming over here makes you a better hunter because it brings you back to the basics of hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Yes.

Ricky Anderson: The basic skills that make a good hunter.

Ramsey Russell: I say I agree 100%. You know what I’m saying? It makes me a better hunter. It’s like a lot of these, they love mojo, and they do use E-callers, but that’s the beginning and end of it, man. And they only use the mojos because we bring them. As a matter of fact, I’m leaving Tofi. Man, he never seen that new mojo mallard before with the metal wings, and he took it out of bag, and man, he got animated. I mean, he just fell in love with it. And over the course of the week, I decided, I’m going to give it to him. I’ll buy another one. Bring some more over here for this guy. And he needs it, he wants it. And you know something I noticed about him, man, those boats are nothing. I mean, they’re just plank boats. Some of them got tar, most of them don’t, the one I was in this morning had caulked it with mud just so it wouldn’t leak too bad on the boat ride out. But it’s like he’ll get down a quiet time and just clean it out, dip it out and do stuff with it. And like, I noticed the piece of square tube we put out for the mojo, we had to use a tall one. After each hunt, he takes the time, he’ll take some of that cane and he’ll dip it in the water and brush it and scrub it inside and out and then put it in the boat. And that mojo, he cleans the wings, I mean, they take such good care because they can’t just run to Walmart and they ain’t got the money if there was a Walmart, they can’t just run a Walmart and get it. They take extremely good care of what they’ve got. And I like it. I respect it.

Ricky Anderson: That’s right. You got to respect it. That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: And we had a heavy conversation this morning. I mean, we start off just talking about how you grew up, how I grew up, and blah, blah, but it was just a good conversation that doesn’t have to be shared, it just gave me a whole, saw him in a whole new light as a human being, you know what I’m saying? About his wife and kids and his brother and his daddy and his family and how he tries to live his life with his heart right with God. I’m like, man, that’s just not a conversation, I expect him to be such a ball buster. God, boy, he wears me out man, we wear each other out. And he’s that guy and we all know these people, he’s that guy if you don’t stand on his throat, you’re in trouble. You better be ready. You got thin skin, you don’t want to hunt with him, man. He’s too intense for that. You didn’t know any of these boys, but maybe when we showed up, what was it like coming into a camp like this with all these new folks?

Ricky Anderson: Honestly, it’s like a lot of other hunts have went on with you, Getducks hunts, you meet people, you make friends with people, you wind up staying in touch with these people, going on future hunts with them, make lifelong friends with them. You do. And this was a good group of guys, had a great time. You say this all the time, birds of a feather flock together, and they do.

Ramsey Russell: They do. What about the food? What did we eat this week? Because I felt like it was all good. What did we eat this week that remind you of South Alabama home cooking?

Ricky Anderson: There’s a lot of difference there. There’s a lot of difference there. But man, I love the lamb chops.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Ricky Anderson: And I love those kebabs. I don’t know what you call it. But the greens, they were grape leaves.

Ramsey Russell: Doma.

Ricky Anderson: It was fantastic.

Ramsey Russell: Ate that the first day. They wrap up like that meat, that lamb and rice wrapped up in grape leaves. All the food is good to me, the bread is just dangerously good. This bread is amazing. I love it. I’m glad we don’t have Mississippi, because I’d eat it 10 times a day, like I have been doing here. But it’s funny how not many soft drinks being drank, not many, drinking hot tea in the mornings. It’s just totally different, isn’t it?

Ricky Anderson: It is. And I don’t drink sweet tea in South Alabama, but hot tea’s good.

Ramsey Russell: It is good. And it’s not something we drink back home.

Ricky Anderson: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: We were talking about the hunting volume just a little bit. It’s kind of a quality over quantity. But that didn’t bother you, did it? I mean, it’s a real duck hunt.

Ricky Anderson: It’s a real duck hunt. Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: But we both know people that, I mean, if they called me today and want to come over here, like, no, let me take you to Argentina, let me take you to Mexico, it’s beyond numbers.

Ricky Anderson: It is. If you’re looking for volume, high volume, this is probably not your hunt. But if you’re a collector of species or a collector of experiences, this is your hunt.

Ramsey Russell: Wait till tomorrow. Because tomorrow we’re going to wrap up the hunt, come back here, and swap gears real quick. We’re supposed to ride together, we’re supposed to be on the same plane coming over and what was it like? What was it like, Ricky, to have to go through Istanbul and go halfway across the world without a wingman? I mean, that’s kind of new for you. Going to Argentina is one thing, coming through this part of the world, it had to be a little daunting.

Ricky Anderson: Absolutely was a little bit. I mean, because in the back of my mind, I said, Ramsay will know where to go, what to do, and I’ll just kind of tag along, and everything will be good. And then all of a sudden, I found out, hey, man, you’re on your own. But I made it.

Ramsey Russell: But you made it.

Ricky Anderson: I made it.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, you made it. It is what it is, man. I mean, airfare is just what it is. Not airfare, but air travel. It’s just what it is. I mean, I learned many years ago to just get this little zen going when it’s time to travel. And I’m a little bit of an anxious traveler, go to pack, go to do this, go to be on time, go to da, da, but you have no control. The door on the plane won’t open for an hour, and so I miss an international flight. Have to get routed from, supposed to go from Dallas to Istanbul, go from Dallas to Chicago, Istanbul the next day, that’s it. But you just go to take a deep breath, keep moving forward, don’t get bogged down, don’t get emoted, yelling at somebody, don’t make planes fly, just regroup and get a game plan and move forward and show up. It felt good to be here. It’s been a while since I’ve been here, and I was really glad to be here. It’s one of the best trips we’ve had over here so far. Just a good group and the guides were just amazing, they did a great job. And the most importantly, the pochards were in that made the difference, that made the huge difference. But tomorrow we’re going to regroup and go back and wait till you see the old town of Baku. There’s literally a store that says flying carpets for sale. You might buy your grandkids one.

Ricky Anderson: Yeah. Can’t wait to go look.

Ramsey Russell: Every time I pass by, it’s one of the kind of stores where the guys are out front, kind of like the folks at the Cornwall that run the game trying to get you in there. And I always walk up and I say, can I take it for a test drive? If it flies, I’m buying it. But I’m going to tell you right now, if I get me a carpet that flies, I’m buying, if it don’t, I don’t want it. But there’s a bar, we’re going to walk by that literally Sinbad walked into, I mean, dates that era off that Caspian Sea, but it’s just an amazing part of the world, isn’t it?

Ricky Anderson: It is. And all the travels, you go from small town, USA, wherever, and you come over here and you realize people are people, but there’s just a whole big old world out there. And there’s so many experiences, so many things to see, and I just love it.

Ramsey Russell: Do you watch much TV at home?

Ricky Anderson: I watch some, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Netflix. When I’m home at night, I just start flipping through the channels, I watch all kinds of Netflix series I wouldn’t think about. And one thing about traveling to Russia, to parts like this, to Latin America, to Mexico, to Australia, when you start watching movies that depict those nationalities or film, I was watching some show a couple years ago and I thought, and I went and googled, where was it filmed? Baku. It’s a total different perspective and the characters and stuff, it means something totally different when instead of just being a brown guy that talks funny, it’s relatable because you’ve been there, you’ve drank the tea, you’ve eaten the food, you see how they live. It just becomes relatable. And this whole big world out there. And I think it was here in Azerbaijan that I learned that speaking English language really doesn’t matter if you’re with real duck hunters. If you’re just with a duck poser, it matters. But if you’re not, and these boys know how to hunt. Ricky, I enjoyed it. Great adventure. And we got one more day. What would you want to accomplish tomorrow after a two bird? You got your pochards, you had some big shoots. What would you most hope to accomplish tomorrow morning?

Ricky Anderson: I’d like to get a shot at one of those shelducks.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I have not got a crack at one yet.

Ricky Anderson: I’ve not seen one yet. But one more day maybe so.

Ramsey Russell: But don’t let them get by you if you do. I mean, I’ve seen you shoot, I got faith in you. Thank you, Ricky, I’ve enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to, we got a couple more days yet to go before we get back home, but thank you very much. Kannan, that was an amazing trip. I would almost say that this week has been my favorite visit to Azerbaijan so far. And I’ve been here 6, 7, 8 times a bunch. It was a great trip, so I thank you very much. We were supposed to come, this team was supposed to come last year.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And we got some disturbing news about a month before we came that the season had suddenly been closed. What happened? Why did the season close?

Kannan: Yeah. The main reason of this the climatic change conference in Azerbaijan which hosted United Nations. Yeah, it hosted last year in Azerbaijan. And our government very sensitive about nature. And most countries, if true, don’t like it that this conference in Azerbaijan.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Kannan: Yeah. In this case they are looking in Azerbaijan some processes which is against of nature. In this case, government decided to close last year during this conference hunting that another country is not use like Azerbaijan organized hunting. Also he hosted the conference climate change, it’s like nature.

Ramsey Russell: Well, it’s so odd because the United Nations I read about this in the paper, they actually listed as hunting and fishing as a major reason for the decline of wildlife. And so that was going to be on the topic discussed at this UN meeting. And then you all’s government in response closed hunting season. Now, 3 or 4 years ago, you all closed the hunting for Tur, completely it hasn’t been open since, then it was duck hunting. When it got closed, was it one person, was it that one minister that closed it? Or was it like a government office just the whole government decided or was it the decision of that one person?

Kannan: About Tur hunting, the reason of closing Tur hunting it is population and it is normal that they can calculate and it is other animals which live in Azerbaijan. About this situation duck hunting that they close, of course, it was decision of Ministry of Ecology. And the Ministry of Ecology was responsible for this conference climatic change conference and all these processes they control, they motivate, they make all these meetings. In this case, for them it was easy to close hunting season. In this case they decided that this year, by the reason of this conference, climatic Change conference better not to open a hunting season.

Ramsey Russell: Why? And then we got, I kept asking you because it was supposed to open in November this year and it didn’t. December? No. January, not yet. And you and I are talking back and forth because we’ve got these clients coming, we’ve got to make airline reservations and finally you said there’s a meeting coming and we’re meeting Monday. So I wrote you Monday and said, hey, what happened? He said the minister didn’t show up, but he finally did. He finally set the season. What happened to cause him to open the season and then to resign?

Kannan: To open hunting season not directly depend on Minister of Ecology, we have also Institute of Zoology. Before opening the hunting season, Ministry of Ecology applied to the zoology institute to look situation there is can be sickness anything about this migration ducks about population. And the zoology institute also needs not small time, long time to search everything. In this case, first was decision that to open hunting season. Then they applied to this zoology institute that to surge everything. If everything is okay, after that reaction of zoology institute, they make decisions, yes, now we can open. This process, it is most of the rules Azerbaijan rules, especially in the Ministry of Ecology, it remains from Soviet Union time.

Ramsey Russell: Soviet Union.

Kannan: Yeah and they not change it. Our country, our rules most like to the socialism than capitalism.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Kannan: In this case they do not care that foreign hunters coming, not coming, there is business, not business, they think Soviet Union mind, Soviet Union rules that open? Okay, open. Not open? Okay, not open. That they don’t look to hunting like business.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Kannan: They look it like pleasure for local hunters. And also second reason to opening hunting decision was local hunters that we have around 50,000 local hunters.

Ramsey Russell: Wow, I didn’t know that, that you know of?

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: That have a hunting license.

Kannan: Yes. And they begin also to push governments that it is necessary to open we wait already a long time. And when they begin to stop hunting also appear many illegal hunters. If you close something, of course there is illegally everybody will try to wait to hunt.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Kannan: Like in this station they make the right decision and they open the hunting season.

Ramsey Russell: But I don’t know, I don’t run around with a bunch of hunting circles in Azerbaijan just here. But the hunters that I know, the guide staff, the locals, the people selling ducks, the people I meet around this community, I mean, duck hunting is a big part of their local culture. I mean, it’s what they do. It’s how they feed their families. It’s not sport, it’s something they do locally. I mean, so that’s what I was thinking when the season was closed is there’s just a few foreigners coming in to hunt ducks, very few. And maybe there’s some sport hunters in Azerbaijan, like in coming out of Baku. But mostly it is just local people trying to feed their families.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And do you think that was why they decided to open the season? It’s just like, God, these people have to eat. Would that have had any effect on it?

Kannan: Mainly this region which now we hunt, many local hunters, too many. Before population was low and most of them during the like hunting season, they hunt on lake, they bring like meat, like they sail in the cities, like for money. In this case, first reaction begins to appear from the regions like hunting area regions. In this case, the government also very sensitive about the people desire and in this case, they react on time that to open this hunting season.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. We’re talking about the people, and the other day at lunch you were talking about some of your frustration in working with the guides here. But they’re not really guides, are they? I mean, they’re duck hunters.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about who they are as people, as duck hunters and how that makes you an organizer, frustrated trying to organize them into taking us out to hunt. Like you told a story the other day at lunch about the first day we were here it was chaotic when we got to the lake. Why was it chaotic?

Kannan: Yeah. All our guides, they are hunters from childhood their fathers, grandfathers also were hunters that when they begin to understand the life, they begin the hunting. And they have very good experience and they are professional about hunting. In this case, I selected more best of hunters as guide for our teams. But what is the problem? They never work with the foreigns. They don’t know very well the rules, they don’t understand very well how to be with hunters, foreign hunters.

Ramsey Russell: They just go out and hunt, they don’t worry about the laws.

Kannan: Yeah. In this case, it needs time to teach them. And year by year, everything changes. They have to change also from agreement to politeness. They have to be very punctual about everything. And between these local hunters, our guides, they have friendship with another local hunters, local illegal hunters, we can say like this, very close friendships that today one of them can take his boat, tomorrow he can use his boat.

Ramsey Russell: And they shared among each other.

Kannan: Yeah, share every everything. And sometimes as first day it happened that a guide come to the lake, he put a day before his boat on right place and he go with his hunter to take his boat and to enter the lake, but boat disappeared. Yeah, it’s gone. The reason maybe one of his friend, they know everybody know where can hide the boats, come and see the boat and take this boat and go for hunting. Some of them not care about it that another guide will find, maybe another guide will take another friend boat.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Kannan: It is like this. In this case, first day, some of them cannot find their boat. But they take another boat from another friend’s boat. And I mean in the lake there is many boats and everybody know where is the boats can be that this problem can resolve it automatically.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. And since the first day I’ve noticed they hide their boats, really hide them. And then they go and hide the push pole somewhere else. So then they go and gather it up and they’re ready to go, we haven’t missed a beat since the first day. You use the word illegal, these are illegal hunters. And I don’t want to confuse the listener to think that they’re just criminals, they’re not really criminals. It’s just they grew up in this rural community living off of nature. It’s like some people have a garden in their backyards and these people have a marsh in their backyards. And that’s how they feed their families. But maybe for lack of education, maybe for lack of money –

Kannan: Especially money than education, especially money.

Ramsey Russell: They don’t have money to go buy a license. They really don’t.

Kannan: Yeah. A license for local hunters, it does not cost too much money that for locals it is very cheap. But this lake, it is not huge that to accept during the day thousand hunters, it is accepted maybe 20, 25 hunters only on weekend. In this case, not everybody can get license, this is the main problem that maybe in this region has maybe 200 hunters, and the around of this region also has several cities in each city 200 totally, maybe 1,000, 1,200 hunters only hunt in this lake that another region has no lake, that to give for everybody license it is impossible. In this case it is limited, they give maybe per day 20, 25 license. And the rest of hunters what they do, they begin to find the illegal way.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Kannan: To shoot to get the duck –

Ramsey Russell: They just go hunting anyway.

Kannan: Yeah. This is main reason why appears many illegal hunters.

Ramsey Russell: I see. How hard is it for local hunters to get a firearm permit? Is that expensive? Is it hard?

Kannan: No, in Azerbaijan it is very easy and the guns also not cost expensive that every hunter can get the gun and also hunting license for hunting. It is very easy, very cheap. Only as I said you before, by the reason of no good education, they are doing it like hunting. They buy the gun, but they are not care about to make paperwork.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Kannan: Yeah. Or they find a way to use it to hide it or there are some hunters they have guns from maybe father, maybe from grandfather, they don’t want to change it.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Kannan: But this very old guns, it needs new documents, and they don’t want to spend for it money or no education, they are not interested about it and they use it.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I asked that question because like today we met that old coot hunter, a local hunter dressed very professionally with camouflage. And he probably had his grandfather’s shotgun and probably those 5 decoys were probably his daddy or granddaddy they were very old and inexpensive and in a little Walmart bag. He’s a serious hunter, you could tell. Boy, I wish I knew how many birds that shotgun had killed. But I took a picture and he became very nervous. And then Nico just told me, said, it’s okay to have that picture, but please don’t post it because he could get in trouble.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And there would be serious trouble if police found out he had a gun.

Kannan: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: It’s crazy.

Kannan: Yeah. Police already knows by face all the local hunters. And if in social media or somewhere appears like these photos, videos, they can call them, they can ask them that where you find this gun, why you don’t register it in the police station. In this case, they are fright and they don’t want that anybody make their photo or video.

Ramsey Russell: We talk about these guides because really and truly they are one of my favorite aspects of this trip. The food is amazing. I’ve learned that I love this food, everything we eat, I just love. And I love the hospitality, but I really enjoy, I’ve hunted with several of the guides over the years. My favorite is Tofi. Because he’s a character.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, he just stays. Me and him go with each other all day long, I just enjoy his company. But he’s very sincere. He’s a very capable hunter. And everybody, all of the clients always say they love their guide. They said, man, this guy is a real hunter. Because sometimes you go on organized trips and the guide maybe doesn’t know as much as you have. He hasn’t been hunting but a few years or they may be more professional and more educated and have more expensive equipment, but they’re not the hunter. And that’s what I most enjoy is I enjoy their company and I enjoy them. It’s almost like I’m just hunting with an Azeri hunter as a friend. That’s how it works. And that’s what everybody says, they just enjoy the guides. I think they’re a huge part of this experience. In terms of your experience, Anita and I always say that you are one of the most professional and organized and dependable and honest outfitters we work with worldwide. Everything always is perfect. The paperwork is perfect. This is perfect. You might have to make 5 trips to the airport with clients coming in. You pick everybody up, you get them back. Everything runs good. The mills are always on time, the truck’s always on time, the decoys are always charged. Everything runs perfect. But when you start talking about working in these rural communities, what are some of the challenges to organize this professional hunt in the country of Azerbaijan that you face? What are some of the challenges you have operating here?

Kannan: I work as guide and as an outfitter already 20 years that I began it from 2005 and I love this job. I love this job, not like business, I love this job to spend my life with hunters. It is great pleasure. Especially I want to tell you about the United states hunters. That 1 million percent my favorite hunters, it is United States hunters. And till today I never see United States hunter, no professional, no educated, no polite, it is unbelievable that for mountain hunting also I had many hunters from United States, I appreciate it. United States hunters, it is high class. It is 1 million percent, it is my 20 years’ experience. About challenge, as I said, Azerbaijan, not capitalism, not a 100% capitalism. We are between capitalism and the socialism.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Kannan: And the rules also, like this –

Ramsey Russell: Because you all were occupied by Russia, there’s a lot of carryover culturally.

Kannan: We was on the Soviet Union empire 70 years and this empire collapsed and after collapse, we lost everything. We lost all traditions, we lost all economy, we lost all policy. And the government begins slowly to improve again. It needs time that I want to do many things on this lake that to build, high class hunting area, high class organization, high class guides, stability that every year hunting season will be open and many things I can do. But problem is government can change mind anytime about the rules for hunting, open or not open hunting season that as I said before, government very sensitive about nature, about social media, about the local people, that local people don’t like hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Right. Really?

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: City people, Baku.

Kannan: Yeah. In this case, to do everything high class, as needs investment and to put big of investment with a big risk, nobody wants –

Ramsey Russell: So you might decide, yeah, I could build a bigger lodge or I could put in some habitat improvement or put in a water control structure or put in a fence or a gate and it makes good sense on the business side, except for the fact who knows what these people are going to do. They may just boom, a minister may say, no, I want to close it and you lose everything.

Kannan: Yeah. There is like this possibility. It is long possibility, but it is possibility. In this case, we do everything step by step, not make big risks, big investments. Every year we improve this part, next year we improve this part. As you see already after COVID from 2019, 2020, the lake water level not go down. We did big job. We make new canals and the lake level during the summertime, during the winter is same that it was very big job and a very hard job. I remember 5 years ago in this lake, I drive car inside of lake. No 1 liter water, but now summer full of water.

Ramsey Russell: Well, speaking of that, I remember, I was here when you and Elton met with the government officials about putting in a water control structure.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And let me tell you this, all of the lagoons that we hunted, where the pochards are, the water level is perfect and it is full of submerged aquatic food.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: That’s why the ducks are coming in.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: It’s amazing.

Kannan: Yeah. It affects the migration and also they make like nest this lake also for future. It is very good that to keep the water level every time high.

Ramsey Russell: Let’s end on this note here, because here’s what led me to Azerbaijan. Red crested pochards.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And the Volga River. For years, for 20 years I’ve heard about the duck hunting on the Volga river in Russia. And I was working with an operator in Russia one time and he was organizing hunts there. But the hunts took place in September and October. And I’m like, no, I want to go later, because I did not want to come shoot a red crested pochard when he was brown. I didn’t want to come shoot a falcated duck when he was brown. I didn’t want to come shoot a smew, I wanted to shoot him in their wintering plumage when they’re beautiful. And he didn’t offer that hunt. He was way up the Vogel River. And so I gave up after years of dreaming to hunt the Volga River delta, I just gave up. And that’s what led me to Azerbaijan initially. Because one day I was just thinking, well, they don’t winter on the Volga River, they go further south. What is that? Where does the Volga River go? And I opened up a map, I looked, it goes to the Caspian Sea. And what’s on the Caspian Sea? Azerbaijan. And here we are. And you told me 2 or 3 years ago I was here and we got to talking like this. And you told me you were working on a hunt in Russia on the Volga River delta. Tell me about this hunt, because now it’s operational, all the men that were here today want to come back with me. Lots of people listening and lots of people I know are going to want to come do this hunt in December or January when all of these species are plumed up. Tell me about this amazing hunt we’re fixing to do.

Kannan: Yeah. As you know I begin to organize in Volga delta hunting already 3 years and already 3 years I organized the hunting. First I want to tell you about the location, about the nature, really it is unbelievable, beautiful. It when you go to hunting in this area, you feel yourself really involved wildlife, wild nature, everything is very beautiful. Organization, it is top of top, accommodation is a top of top, guides, perfect. Unbelievable. The boats, everything is beautiful. And the second Volga delta river, it is huge. It is unbelievably huge.

Ramsey Russell: How big?

Kannan: I cannot calculate that it is thousand kick bars. That it is unbelievably huge that you hunt maybe during the day 20, 30 blinds like that. Yeah, it is very big. And also it is nest and the most of the tugs stay there during the whole year, they make their nest and the breeding area and wintering area, they migrate especially these tugs in this area migrate to Azerbaijan. When in Volga delta river begin to be freeze it temperature go down, all ducks begin to fly to south like from Dagestan, from mountains to Azerbaijan’s side and the Avalakes and the Caspian Sea. And the species there is you can find there is more species than in Azerbaijan. There is as many species which come from Siberian line, they don’t across to Azerbaijan. They stay in this Volga delta river area or a little bit south, they can go to Dagestan Lakes. In this case, I think that for next 10 years, it is one of the perfect area for duck hunting. About species, about quantity, about high level organization.

Ramsey Russell: Yes. And you were telling me you’re going to have a houseboat?

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And you were telling me there’s air boats.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Because it’s so big.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: The staff is very professional.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: They have a lot of shotguns. Benelli, Beretta.

Kannan: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And a lot of species, I cannot believe that after 24 years of getducks.com and dreaming of the Volga river delta, I’m finally going to get to go there next year. And I’m very excited for this. And I’m not going to show up alone, there’s going to be a lot of people with me, Kannan, we’re going to have a good time. I’ve just got to get the dates and the details, and we’re going to go forth and do great things, and I could not be happier. Kannan, thank you for an amazing week. Again, thank you for your attention to detail and for taking really good care of us. Every single person that’s ever been here always comments that what a great time they have because of the details in your organization and it makes a difference. We’re a very long way from home, and it makes a huge difference that every detail is taken care of. Breakfast, dinner, lunch, we’re in, we’re out, everybody had a great time. Thank goodness the freaking pochards showed up this year. I missed them. We hadn’t seen them for 2 years, I missed seeing them, and they were here this year, and it was very exciting. We were happy, the guides were happy. Thank you very much.

Kannan: And don’t mention it. It’s really my life, my philosophy of my life, it is to make somebody happy. And I will be thousand times more happy when I see my hunters, I am happy, I am more happy about organization, about results, about everything, really. When I see you happy, I am more happy than you.

Ramsey Russell: Well, you can tell when the Americans here, everybody’s happy. I mean, surely you can see that.

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Did you notice that most of the time, all of us American hunters were in the kitchen?

Kannan: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Where you all were. So that we could visit and interact with you.

Kannan: Yeah. It is big pleasure, believe me. I say, as I said before, when I organize hunting for United States hunters, I am really relaxing. I don’t feel stress, I don’t feel that something going wrong, I feel myself between you like American, not like Azerbaijani. Thanks for you for everything, I am very happy also to be your partner.

Ramsey Russell: Folks, thank you all for listening to episode of MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast. Not too far from the Caspian Sea and we’ve had a great time, if you well heard. It’s an experience. Even though there’s some great species to bag here, species you’re hardly going to find anywhere else, it’s way beyond that. It is an absolute adventure of a hunt. See you next time.

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