EP 608. Public Boat Ramp Tour

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, where today I got an old time buddy of mine, Mr. Wade Shoemaker in the studio. Wade, how the heck are you, man?

Wade Shoemaker: Good, dude. How you been?

Ramsey Russell: I’m good. Last time I saw you, we were having a blast up there in Alberta, we had old red beard in tow and them boys out of Oklahoma and what a great time that was.

Wade Shoemaker: It was good, man. That was my first time to actually hunt in Canada.

Ramsey Russell: Are you serious?

I’ve tickled it before. I’ve been in Minnesota and North Dakota and all that stuff, hunting up there, but never hunted in Canada

Wade Shoemaker: Promise, dude. I’ve tickled it before. I’ve been in Minnesota and North Dakota and all that stuff, hunting up there, but never hunted in Canada. I filmed in Canada with Higdon actually. They asked me to film their outdoors television show they do years ago, that was my first ever freelance gig as a camera guy.

Ramsey Russell: I did not know that. And I did not know the whole time we was up there hunting with Rob Reynolds that I had no idea that was your first time, I just assumed you were all at it. You made it look easy.

Wade Shoemaker: No, it was fun though. It’s one of those things that I’ll tell a lot of people, like if you’ve never been, you have to go, right? Just to experience it. And it’s something that, like, even the normal days or the slow days up there, they compete with a lot of people’s good days down here.

Ramsey Russell: Well, it’s the Mecca. It’s like the headwaters of the migration is what I think of Canada.

Wade Shoemaker: That’s true.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s worth making the journey just to see where it all starts and what originates. Because it’s so much different. The birds are different, they act different, they’re flocked up, everything’s different. They’re in a different life cycle than when they get down to our end of the flyway.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And the most memorable hunt every time, but that most memorable hunt of the week we spent up there, Wade, was that morning on a high hilltop shooting snow geese.

Wade Shoemaker: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: You know which morning I was talking about?

Wade Shoemaker: I am. Because that was the day everybody was looking to sunrise, it was just to the right and Yarnell was on my right hand side and yeah, I remember all of it. I remember sitting there watching geese come down because we shot, I think we shot like that was the day that we literally were like, man, we’ve killed a lot. How many? It ended up being 100 on the nose. Like that’s after cripples and everything. But that was good, man. That was a day that we could just sit back, have fun, laugh and just pick. And it wasn’t huge groups of birds every time, it was just a constant flow, it was just something always coming at you. And yeah, that was a win.

Ramsey Russell: There was a lot of brands, let’s call it represented on that trip. But Yarnell explained to me right off the get go, this is my buddies now, this is a buddy hunt, and it felt like a buddy hunt. Like, I’m thinking about that time that morning we’re talking about, it’s not like, what was it, 6, 7 of us, it ain’t like everybody just falling off into the end of flock. I mean, I know everybody just kind of sort of took turns at times and it always makes it enjoyable to me.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah, dude. A lot of times I just watched. Like, I mean, I shot, don’t get me wrong, I did pull the trigger, plenty of times. But a lot of times when it would be 5, 6, 7 ducks coming in. Like, I don’t mind watching that. I mean, if there’s 6, 8 guns lined up, everybody’s going to shoot one of them just about. So I mean, just watch it, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Ramsey Russell: That wasn’t your first time to hunt with Yarnell, was it?

Wade Shoemaker: It was.

Ramsey Russell: Are you kidding me?

Wade Shoemaker: Because we talk all the time and talk about hunting, but we’ve never hunted together. And then we hunted several times throughout the season after that or a few times in the season after that. But like that was the first time we ever actually got our calendars lined up together.

Ramsey Russell: Well, tell me this now, tell me that he and his dog ain’t exactly alike. Big old hulking beast, full steam ahead.

Wade Shoemaker: Big headed, they both got big head, dude. And he knows that. Clyde is the biggest dog in the world.

Ramsey Russell: But I never noticed how a dog, assumes or takes on the personality of its owner until I hunt with them two. Every time I hunt with them, they remind me of each other.

Wade Shoemaker: And it ain’t just the hunt either. I mean, we went to Montana for a call contest that Sitka put on, Sitka and Ducks Unlimited kind of did it together and we went up there as a sponsor and that was this past July and we went on the river with him and we went on the river, he has jet boat, it was me and Tip and him and Clyde and they’re the same on the river as they are. I mean, anywhere they go, they’re going to be the same. Like he jumped in the water – and look now like down here, if water is I’d say colder than 60, I’m not getting in it, no reason. But they were like, yeah, we’ll go, we’ll park on some rocks, we’ll get out, we’ll hang out. Well, I put my toes in the water, and I was like, nope. Like, I’ll get in here when it’s time, when I warm up, but right now is not the time. Yarnell barrels off in it, Clyde barrel in it. And it’s like, man, they are the same personality in everything they do.

Ramsey Russell: They sure are. Wade, you and I go way back now, that wasn’t the first time I’ve hunted with you. The first time I remember sharing a blind with Wade Shoemaker, I don’t remember that you brought a shotgun, I just remember you brought your camera gear, man. You were still working for the railroad, you lived down Louisiana and I’m going to give you credit, and I’ve said this before. You took a photo, my son Duncan was on, I think he was just fixing to go to the US Marines and you were taking photos there over in Arkansas, at Harrison’s Place, Commander’s Corner. But you took a photo that you sent me, and it was, what do you call it when people ain’t paying attention you take a picture of them?

Wade Shoemaker: Candid.

Ramsey Russell: You took a candid photo, me and my two boys sharing a moment, and that hangs in my camp to this day. I got one of stretch canvas type pictures, and it’s one of my favorite photos, me and my boys hunting together.

Wade Shoemaker: That’s so cool. I love that.

Ramsey Russell: And just being there at the right time, and you saw the moment you took the shot, and it worked out really good, and I appreciate that.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. No, dude, I enjoyed it. That was fun.

Ramsey Russell: Well, take us back, Wade. What is your background? How did you get into duck hunting? And what drew you into it over other outdoor pursuits down Louisiana?

Wade Shoemaker: Honestly, I grew up in the woods back home everybody shoots a squirrel, everybody chases a deer. I mean, that’s just kind of what you do.

Ramsey Russell: Where in Louisiana was this?

Wade Shoemaker: Quitman, Louisiana, just south of Rustin. A lot of people know Rustin. Yeah, Latex, like, right around that. And I mean, used to back probably, I say, 20 years ago, probably 20 years before I started duck hunting. You could shoot some pretty good ducks where I live, just the way it was. And now growing up, that was a thing of the past, you had to go an hour, hour and a half one way or the other to find a decent place to duck hunt. And a lot of people didn’t do it around here, but I had some buddies that did it. And I was 19, and the only thing I’d ever done up until that point was squirrel hunt, deer hunt and shoot wood ducks off the creek, that was it. Dad and Papaw would take me every now and then, but Papaw kind of got mad at them at one point and he got mad at them, and I’m his grandkid, so he went a little extra to make sure I could shoot a few of them. And he went down there, they’ve got 40 acres behind their house, and we’ve got a trail that goes to the creek, we’ve got some bins in the creek that you can walk up to. And he went back there with a rake one day and he raked all the leaves and the dead limbs that had fallen on the trail so I could sneak up to them quiet, real quiet, which is a very cool thing, thinking back, like, I go back there now every now and then and just to think, like the time it would take for him to walk around and sweep all that off every now and then, so I go back there and sneak up on a wood duck. Like, that’s cool to think about. And then at some point, he took me to a rice field that he had leased out for a season, none of us knew how to blow a duck call, the decoys were just out there. And I think I only remember like, one or two ducks that got shot that year. And he said, I killed the mallard, I know I didn’t, but he gave me the credit and I was happy. But anyway, when I was 19, some guys asked me to go duck hunting with them. It was friends of mine from local and we went and I borrowed everything I had, everything I needed, I borrowed, I had a gun and I had jackets, but everything else, I didn’t have anything you could walk in the water with or steel shot, I didn’t know what steel shot was. So we went, we hunted, we froze with leaky waders and all, shot one green winged teal, that was it. We hunted the wrong side of the hole, now that I’ve hunted several times and knew what was going on, we hunted the wrong side of the hole because the water was too high to go to the other side, this thing come in, we shot, don’t even know if I killed it for sure to be honest with you as a 19 year old. But we all shot and they had killed ducks before so yeah man, you got it, go ahead and get him. So I’m claiming that one and for whatever it was man, that green wing teal hit me different and that was it. Like that one experience that changed the entire trajectory of what I wanted to do or what I wanted to do for fun, it wasn’t even thought about doing it for a living. But what I wanted to do for fun forever was duck hunt after that one little green wing teal.

Ramsey Russell: That’s all it takes that one time. Now look, you talk about squirrel hunting up in north Louisiana like it’s a bad thing. But did you ever hunt Tensas Refuge? Did you ever get around them woods down there?

Wade Shoemaker: I didn’t. There’s a lot of people that do. Another place man, what is that place called? Clouds Crossing was a real popular spot around here. But that’s not really north Louisiana but Tensas northeast like over by Tallulah and all that, there’s a lot of folks that shoot squirrels over in there.

Ramsey Russell: A lot of woods, I squirrel hunted Mississippi 20ft, 30ft maybe off the ground those low oak trees start to fan out, and get limb in. And the trees aren’t just terribly tall, but the tallest red oak timber I have ever walked through in my life is up in your neck of the woods around Tensas Refuge, up around Rustin. I’m talking tall shot for a 22 rifle.

Wade Shoemaker: We’ve got them on that 40 acres behind my grandparents, well they’ve got 50 now but I mean we’ve got those red oaks in our backyard. And I talk about it like it ain’t – like for me I just gotten bored with it, we didn’t hunt with dogs, we just went out in the morning and hope limbs would shake, we could find one sheared off a limb. But yeah, we hunt the same kind of trees back home or at home, I just got bored with it. Deer hunting, I was just sitting still by myself, I don’t do well like that. So when I figured out you can go hunt and have fun with your buddies like that on the duck hunting thing, I couldn’t think of anything better.

Ramsey Russell: It really is, part of the waterfowl hunting culture in north Louisiana and everywhere is the social component, isn’t it? The friendship, the bonds, the people, the energy going around.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah, it’s definitely that for me.

Ramsey Russell: How would you describe the duck hunting culture where you grew up, the boys you were running around with it? How does it shape the way that you hunt today?

Wade Shoemaker: That’s pretty good question. The culture around here was honestly, like, it was a lot of places real quiet, people did it and back then and I hope I don’t, I’m not like, say anything out of line, but it wasn’t hard, because there were more ducks 25 years ago or 20 years ago, there were less people, there were more ducks in this area that was coming down. And a lot of guys that I talked to that did it back then, they were like, oh, man, have you ever hunted this spot? Everybody knows spots, nothing’s new on this, everybody can get upset about their hole or that hole, but everybody’s hunted every hole out here. And they asked about these spots, and it’s like, well, yeah, I have, but you don’t really kill anything there anymore, they just don’t come to it or – and they just can’t believe it because they used to go there every weekend and shoot ducks off that hole, so it’s hard to really say the culture then versus now. For me, I think it helped going with the guys I went with because we had an older guy telling us, hey, go to this spot, this is how you’re supposed to do this. We had a guy kind of teaching us the etiquette, like, don’t do dumb stuff, act right, don’t sky blast ducks, that’s silly, you’re wasting money, you’re wasting everybody’s time.

Ramsey Russell: Was most of your hunting was on public land?

Wade Shoemaker: Oh, all of it. Yeah, all of it. I didn’t know what a private land spot was till I was probably – well, I hunted that little pit blind with papaw years ago, but after I got older, I don’t think I saw private for several years into that. I can’t remember the first time I did it, but I do know that – 19 I started and I can almost say for till 21 or 22, I never touched a private spot, like private hunting spot. But yeah, I don’t know, that’s all we did and that’s all we knew.

I’ve been duck hunting 10 or 11 years when I got into my first lease, it was just a quarter section, the rest was public land, maybe a buddy invite once or twice, but nothing fancy

Ramsey Russell: I’ve been duck hunting 10 or 11 years when I got into my first lease, it was just a quarter section, the rest was public land, maybe a buddy invite once or twice, but nothing fancy. Not like what you think a private land clubs is being today, it was just a duck hole somewhere up against the hills, but it was predominantly public land hunting. I mean, I just assume that’s what everybody did.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. And you’ve got people around you on their private or there’s public that butts up to your private and it’s like everybody’s still shooting at ducks when you’re trying to work ducks, it really just makes you have a spot to hunt now, that’s really what that means.

Ramsey Russell: You talked about the boys you hunted with. Who were some of those guys? Who was that oldest guy? How would you describe these important influences in your duck hunt career?

Wade Shoemaker: So the first guys ever hunted with on public one’s name was Alex, called him Rainbow. To this day, I don’t have a real answer to why we called him Rainbow. I’ve got my assumptions on why they called him Rainbow, I just called him Rainbow after I found out, but his name’s Alex.

Ramsey Russell: May have been something different back then than it does now.

Wade Shoemaker: I promise it’s the same thing. But my other buddy named Cody and we all knew, I didn’t know Rainbow that well, but he was friends a lot of people I was friends with, I knew Cody from growing up, we all had the same friends. And it was Rainbow stepdad that hunted a lot in this area. And he told us like, go here and try this and here, try that, whatever. And like, I would say like, I’ll never forget that or them, Cody to this day, he don’t duck hunt near as much as he used to, it’s just, things shift, priorities shift and just like life happens. But to this day I’ll say he’s blows duck call better than anybody I’ve ever hunted with, and I’ve hunted a lot of people and I can say confidently. And honestly, if he would have put more effort into it, could have been one of the best to do it. But all that aside, I would say if they would have never asked me to go duck hunting with them, they had no reason to ask me other than they probably just didn’t have anybody else that would go. But randomly, and I want to say it was Walmart parking lot, I could be wrong, but I think it was one night we were uptown looping, I was 19, so I was still doing the thing, and we went and I told him, I said, I don’t have anything. I got my jacket, I got my gun, like I told you earlier, but I don’t have anything else. I don’t have waders, I don’t have whatever. He’s like, dude, we got everything you need, just show up. Well, they had everything I needed, it was obviously what was laid in the pile of borrow because they didn’t want to use it no more, but grateful for it, dude. Because I would have never went, would have never went and we went several times together after that. And then after that year, we hunted, me and Rainbow, Rainbow didn’t really hunt as much after that, but Cody and then we’ve got like Bradley and Kyle and Beaver and my buddy Jeff.

Ramsey Russell: What was your nickname Wade?

Wade Shoemaker: You what?

Ramsey Russell: What was your nickname?

Wade Shoemaker: It was just Wade. Oh, well, I had a lot of nicknames. There was my cousin gave me one, was it Sammy Kershaw, had that song Vidalia?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Well, my nickname growing up ever randomly was Vidalia because of that song, I don’t know where that come from, but that stuck. So Vidalia and then Cookie Monster, we’ll just pass on that. But I had a couple of them, but nothing crazy. I don’t know why we call Beaver, Beaver, I really don’t. Because he don’t have big teeth, like, I don’t know why we would have done that, but we did and it stuck. And we still call him, he’s grown, he got kids, he works in the hospital, we still call him Beaver. It’s just one of those things –

Ramsey Russell: I’ve met people by their call name like that that I don’t even know the real name. I don’t even know the real name. Who was the old guy that was kind of counseling, you all some? What was his name?

Wade Shoemaker: It was Rainbow’s Stepdad. His name was Johnny Shively, he was a sheriff here and a local sheriff up here or local cop, I don’t remember if he’s sheriff or not. And nobody that, like you would look at and be hey, I’m going to go to this guy for some advice or to be a mentor, he was just Rainbow’s Stepdad, and he was a cop. Everybody that duck hunted around here duck hunted in that same area or they have a lake around here, and that was the area he hunted and luckily, that’s where we got introduced to. And it was just one of those things by chance that happened, and it was heard it through the grapevine type advice, because he would tell Rainbow or Cody, and then I would get it from them, and then we would just have to figure it out from there. And the cool thing, that I think the biggest thing I appreciate is, like, the guys I started hunting with, they had all hunted, but nobody really knew how to hunt, right? Like, we just knew we were going, we threw decoys out, we knew that you had to blow duck call at them and you shot them. But this was 2005ish, I think, so 2005, 2006 area. So, like, the Internet was kind of like a thing, you could Google stuff or ask Jeeves, whatever you got to do. And we’d be on the Internet trying to figure out decoy setups. Because YouTube was a thing, but the Internet wasn’t fast enough where I live to watch YouTube. You couldn’t do a whole lot like that, so we just trial and error. Duck calls we bought, we just bought what was available on the, like what was in the store or what our buddy had or what somebody else had, and quack head calls, we used a lot Heydale, those type things. And none of us were good. Cody could blow a duck call, he’s the only one and then we slowly just, everybody got better because they kept blowing them and trying to figure out what to do. And within 5 years – I call it the Buttercream gang. I don’t know if you all remember them movies or not, but we figured it out and had people along the way that we would watch and learn from and random people would show up with us and we’d learn from them or however it happened, it happened. But trial and error. With a lot of help from Mr. Johnny Shively, that was a big win.

Ramsey Russell: You talked about that single green wing teal kind of being defining. But as the Buttercream gang grew up and they got their skills and learned a little bit more about it, what would be a standout hunting experience when you got either lucky or got good and you all go, wow, this is what it’s about. What would be a standout moment?

Wade Shoemaker: It was a season we went in there, I don’t remember if it was the same season, but I remember one year we went in there for the first week. And this is back when, I tell people all the time, we used to not scout the spot, like you knew ducks were going to be in this spot every opening day you knew. We always scouted the run to the spot. Because you had to ride 4 wheelers to this spot we were hunting, it wasn’t like – you could walk in, but good luck, you weren’t riding a boat in, you had to ride a 4 wheeler into the spot and get there. So we would go the day before and you had 04:00AM rule was in effect, you couldn’t go until 04:00AM and we would check these trails every year because the problem every year is they’d have these nice trails that you could run to and weave in through whatever between the lakes or the ponds and hogs would root them up. They’d get in the trail, root them up real bad. Well, the problem with that is you’re racing a 4 wheeler at 04:00AM and you hit a real good hog rooting, you’re not racing a 4 wheeler anymore, you’re done for. So we would go the day before and figure out which ones to go around, we’d know which way to go. And one year we did that and apparently nobody else did because we would be behind people and we knew which tree to go around to get around that rooting and they would all slow down and pile up in the spot till the next person got out of it and we’d already be gone. So for a week we hunted these two ponds and man, we were shooting 4 to 7 limits a day off these two little spots right beside each other. We hunt one or the wind was different, we’d hunt another or whatever. And I mean, banged on them. It was probably one of the more fun weeks I’ll ever have in Louisiana. But in that same year – so that was like the defining, first week of season, we might actually know what we’re doing, like this is starting to click, and we’re starting to work together the right way. And Bradley actually killed a banded teal that week, I remember that randomly. But I think it was the same year and the Buttercream gang, I have to tell you how we got that nickname, but we all lived in an apartment together in Monroe, and we all went hunting one day and we all knew, this is back when you could count on, like, that 09:30 flight of mallards or that 10:30 flight of mallards that you knew would come in off the rice fields or wherever they were loafing at, after getting knocked off their roost or whatever. And we were sitting there and there’s a bunch of button willows behind us or buck brush, people call it and we knew just wait, let’s wait on this 10:00, 10:30, whatever. And we’re sitting there and all of a sudden, I don’t know how many, I think it was only 4 of us that day, maybe 5, but the killing had slowed way down that year, but we were sitting there against some button willows, and we just hear, you hear the wings come over your head, and we’re like, what is that? We know it’s coming and we look up and it’s just a wad of mallards coming over our heads from the river. And up until this point, we had never had this happen. We had either shot all the ducks early and got out or just acting like knuckleheads and not quiet enough for something like this to happen. And they come in and dude, they turned and they made one turn and they just sat down. And I don’t think we shot maybe 4 or 5 mallards out of that group, but I’ll never forget, that was like a defining moment in the year of, like, holy crap, they just sat down, and we’d never seen it. So you go from actually killing ducks and feeling like, what you’re doing the beginning of the year and then this happens to you during season, and it’s like, we’re starting to get the hang of it. Because I promise you, since then, I’ve forgotten how many times I got my butt kicked that year, I don’t remember them, but I remember the good days like that. And I think that’s when we all looked at each other and said, we might actually want to do this a little more.

Ramsey Russell: You may not remember getting your butt kicked, but it became a kind of a part of who you are. And I’m leading up to this is, as someone that keeps up with you in social media, that’s how I keep up with all my buddies, a lot of your post and a lot of your themes, let’s call it, are really kind of about the aura of the place or the people or the experience itself. When did you begin to appreciate that part of it? A lot of your photos reflect not just big old piles of smiles of dead ducks, Wade, it never had, it’s always been deeper than that. I mean, I told you, one of my favorite photos I’ve ever of me and my boys are just a candid photo that goes to the heart of being in a duck blind between the trigger pulls.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: When did that dawn on you? Did it have something to do with your camera or your creativity or what was it?

I think it was a natural progression, honestly, because I don’t know

Wade Shoemaker: I think it was a natural progression, honestly, because I don’t know. All of us, we all love killing ducks, right? Like, and we all love the piles and how pretty they can be and this and that and. But what I realized and this is what really – Like, it’s funny, we talk about my buddies and all this stuff, because I always grew up in the Buttercream gang and the group and all the guys that we hunted with, and I always felt like I had, I always had to understand how people love duck hunting as much as they love duck hunting. Like, I knew how I felt about it or the sport itself. Does everybody, when they say they love it, like, do they really love it? Do they love the going hunting, or do they just love it as a whole? And I don’t know how to really put that into words right now –

Ramsey Russell: They love it for all it is and all it ain’t.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Do they truly love it? And for me, I always felt like I did. And I was like, but I don’t think I love it any more than anybody else does. But through the years, you start to see priority shifts, which is completely fine, but you see people fall off, and that’s a bad way to say it, but the shore of the long – we were in Oklahoma one day in Stillwater, Oklahoma, hunting with some buddies and this is after the camera, I’m getting to my answer, I promise. But we were hunting and I had a guy come in and we had a great day, it was some buddies, I’m not going to name all names, it don’t matter, they know who they are, they’re great friends of mine to this day. And a dad come in, we were at a diner right by OSU campus in Stillwater, and the guy come in, we were all in our camo, we just got done hunting, eating a double chicken omelette or whatever it was. And he comes in, he’s pumped to see us, you can tell he’s just reliving life. He’s just like, I used to love duck hunting, I go all the time and this and that and I’m sitting there listening to him, he’s like, then I got married and this and that, and he left and I looked at my buddies and I was like, guys, not to be weird, but why did he quit? Like, I know his wife and his kids and stuff like that, but why? Like, the joy he had talking about it and the love he had for it, like, why? And I’ve just come to understand there’s layers, right? People love it, but eventually layers get peeled back and it’s not as much there as you thought it was initially. It’s kind of like puppy love or an infatuation and then you have a few rough days and you lose that or you get away from it, or you find something else that’s really cool that you like. Because you think, I don’t know, maybe you decide that you want to care about what weed eater you’re buying, I don’t know. I mean, like I’ll mow my grass and edge and weed eat, but that’s not like my pride, I don’t care if I’ve got a patch of weeds over here in these acres that I got to mow, like, I don’t care, some people do and that’s okay, that’s cool.

Ramsey Russell: But it was for my daddy, that was his love in life, was his yard.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah, and that’s okay. Like, but that’s what I’m trying to understand, I tried to figure this out and I realized, like, I’ll never figure it out, I just know what I have for the sport and I think I attach to the nostalgia of the sport and like the legacy that that sport has left and it could leave, and I think I attach to the story of what it is and what it’s going to be and like what my kids can come up and see and feel and maybe just have something to be remembered by. Not to be weird about it, but that’s just kind of how that’s where I got attached to it. And the people and the camaraderie and the hanging out, that’s what sunk its teeth into me. The ducks, getting to the answer now, the piles of ducks were cool, but that’s not why I did it. And I think that’s the progression of that is like what led me to start telling people about what’s going on. Like you said, the aura, that’s a great way to put it, because that’s the most important part. Like, if you were a killer and you’re after this stack and this number, I’ve learned that that’s going to be the first people that fall off. And if anybody says, no, but it will. You won’t go as much only when it’s right or perfect and you’ll chase those numbers instead of chasing that feeling instead of chasing that experience. And I think that’s how you start to or that’s why I do it, is because I understand that, I love all of it. Like, I love getting my ass kicked at home, like, I love that because I know can also win at home, and I can win anywhere else. But I love all of it and I’ve grown to look at it in a way of like, it makes up the whole thing, you can’t have one without the other. And if all you’re worried about is shooting those limits, you won’t be in this very long point.

Ramsey Russell: That’s such a great point. I was thinking as you were talking, what is it about me? And I could say people, but that’s not the whole story. I think the word I would use would be connections. Connections to people, past and present. Connections to the resource, connections to the new places I go to and to the very old places I go to, by old, I mean, places I’ve hunted up 25, 30 years. And it’s like every Christmas morning, I go out, and a lot of Christmas mornings, we go to the same property, I know there ain’t going to be no ducks, this past Christmas morning, I knew there wasn’t going to be no ducks. I knew there wasn’t going to be no ducks, but we went. And I took old granddad that old shotgun and that right there, it’s not only connections I had to my son or sons that go, it’s to my grandfather.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And whether we’re shooting ducks and banging away or whatever we’re doing, it’s just being there in that time and in that place and feeling that the ghost of – I mean, get all Christmassy there, the ghost of past, present, future sitting right there. This year, my son, he’s got that dog is going to define probably the rest of his life, his first lab and she went out there and got a duck, she is a duck getting son of a gun, but she’s 11 years old. She went there and got a duck, came back with it, went out there and got another duck and came back with it, when I got a third duck, swam bass with both and ran got to the shore and he’s like, what is she doing? I said, I don’t know. And when she got there, she dropped a duck and rolled off and dried off, he’s like, look, I done my job. But you see what I’m saying, just to be there. I’ve seen that dog as a puppy and as a prime dog and now an old dog, I’ve watched my kids grow up. I’m out there hunting with my granddad’s gun and it don’t matter. We did shoot some ducks, but knowing it wasn’t going to be a gangbuster day, it just didn’t matter, I went anyway and I loved every minute of it. And the memories on so many levels, I’ve got.

Wade Shoemaker: We’ve got a blind, it’s a lake here local and we call it Papaw’s Duck Camp, but Lord knows it’s Mamaw and Papaw’s Camp, we just call it Papaw’s Duck Camp and we started building that thing in 2012 or 2011, nothing but I-beams and 2/12s, that’s what was there when we showed up. And we built the foundation of it, we put the poles in the ground, picked it 8ft off the ground, used motor hoist on both sides of it to pick it up 8ft off the ground and set it on these beams and through that, we also built a duck blind, I think 2014 was the first official duck hunt out of the camp as far as in the lake. Me and the guys, we spent the night there before it was finished with no electricity just because it was 45 minutes closer to the boat ramp one night, terrible idea. But it was cold and we grilled burgers in what is now the living room on a George Foreman. And there was no living room at that point, but it was funny. Anyway, 2014, we had our first duck hunt and we shot one duck out of that blind the whole year, I learned a lot about lake hunting that year. It’s not find a little hole in the woods and wait for the late season ducks. Like, if they don’t see you, they ain’t coming. You know what I’m saying? Like, they don’t go look for them hole, they just leave the lake or go somewhere else. And anyway, fast forward, we’ve had some great hunts out there, but after the first part of the season, it’s usually pretty slow. It’s a flight day or whatever. If it’s low water season, it’s a good season, if it’s a flight day, it’s a good day. Lake hunting’s lake hunting. I mean, you’ve been around, it’s not somewhere you go like and scout out and figure out, like, they’re going to be here. Like, you got your blind, you got your decoys, it’s set the whole year and the only reason I go out – like opening weekend is blacked out for me. Like I have opening day with my pals and then I have Sunday, Monday with my family, it’s my sons, my grandparent or my papaw, my dad, my uncle, my cousins and some pals, they want to come because now we’ve got two blinds out there. The neighbors got a blind that we use sometimes. And the cool thing about that is, they didn’t do that kind of duck hunting until 2014, and it’s cool for me to look back because I know that he bought that camp because his best friend duck hunted on that lake. And he was like, we can do this as a family and now we are doing it as a family, now the whole family’s involved and it’s awesome. But I started that to say, like, I’ll go out there knowing we’re probably not going to shoot a duck. Like, we’ll shoot one or two and maybe we’ll get lucky and shoot a limit, out of four people. But I go out there because I know who’s going to be in that blind. I know that I can take my kids with me, I know that I can spend time with the people that are going to be in that blind. And it’s one of those things that don’t last forever and I want to make sure I take advantage of it, while it’s here. And honestly, after that opportunity is gone, we can talk about it while we’re in the same place. Me and the boys can go there and talk about the time this past season when papaw told me he ain’t pulled the trigger in 4 days and then we show up, me and my 8 year old, my 5 year old and my 8 year old and 5 year old aren’t shooting the guns this day, it’s just me and papaw and we shoot 11 ducks at 15 yards, like that’ll be probably my favorite, well, one of my two favorite hunts of the whole year. And that’s the things that I’ll talk about forever and hopefully the boys remembered, I know my oldest one will, but I don’t know that’s all of that. That’s kind of what it ties back into that first answer, I’ll forever remember those days. Yeah, it is the 11 ducks we killed, but the bigger part is he didn’t pull the trigger for 4 days and he got to have a good day with my boys, and just us and just hanging out. Yeah, that spot you’re talking about on Christmas day, that is the blind for me, the duck, the blind at the lake, may not kill a bunch, probably won’t, but we’re going to go because of who’s there.

Ramsey Russell: How old are your kids, Wade?

Wade Shoemaker: One is 8, one is 5. The 5 year old, he will be 6 this April, he’ll be 6 in April. I say this month, that’s tomorrow. But my 8 year old will be 9 in August.

Ramsey Russell: That’s a great age to take kids out to blind with a handful, but it’s a great age.

Wade Shoemaker: Drake, he’ll be 9 in August, his first ever hunt, he was 3. He was a lot more mature than most 3 year olds, just the way he acted, the way he responded to me saying, hey, don’t go that far, stop, don’t do that, whatever. And he’s eat up with it. He loves it. He’d rather go snow goose hunting than duck hunting and I was like, but why? And his response was just simple, it was like there’s just more of them. Well, you’re right. So he loves that. And my 5 year old, Gage, he loves it till about 08:30AM and then he’s like, if it ain’t happening, let’s go to the camp, he’s ready to go. He’s all of a sudden got to use the bathroom or something. But again, I’m good with that. I mean, I’m not going to force him to go, and I’m not going to force him to stay, but as long as he’s willing to go, I’m good with that, too.

Ramsey Russell: Last time I saw you up there in Canada, heard mention of a upcoming boat ramp tour. You all going to do a public boat ramp tour?

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And what precipitated that? What made you say, I need to do that? And it’s like an extension of – because on the one hand, you could have, I know a lot of guys do boat ramp tours every year looking for ducks, you all was bigger and more in depth than this. What inspired you to do this?

Wade Shoemaker: I mean, I can’t tell the story without telling, like, where it originated and the reality. You know Matt Gray? You know Matt. Matt’s a really good friend of mine, he actually called me earlier, and I was on a call, I got to call him back later. But anyway, me and Matt Gray were talking one year, and the Run & Gun tour was a thing, that’s when, all those guys had that big van going around creating content, going to outfitting retails stores.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I remember that.

Wade Shoemaker: Well, I’m friends with a lot of those guys. And me and Matt were talking, and we were like, we need to put my boat behind this thing and go hunt some Arkansas ramps. Because it ended in Stuttgart and our goal, honestly we brought it to him, was like, you all just leave this thing in Stuttgart, we’ll hook my boat up to it, and we’ll go to Bayou Meto and give out free food and all this other stuff and hang out. And we were going to do it, but it got shot down because they were worried about something happening, tires getting slit and this and that and the reality is that probably wouldn’t have happened to the van because we’ve been giving them free stuff and people aren’t, they’re not as aggressive as a lot of people make them out to be. It’s there, don’t get me wrong, they’re just not really as bad as people make it out to be. But it didn’t happen. And we got to talking about some initiatives that Migra, we could do and how can we get out there and get our name better. And I reached up and I was like, hey, I got an idea, and I brought it up and I was like, public ramps, give out some shells, give out some free stuff, whatever, and obviously, make content out of it. Because you’ve got to have something there to show for it. And honestly, at first, it was just kind of like, I don’t know if that’s us right now. I don’t know if we should do that and we sat on it for, that was, let’s see, I don’t know, 2019? No. What is it? 2025 right now, and that was 2022 maybe, or 2021 or 2022 that I brought it up. And the next year, that spring, it got brought up again, and they were like, yeah, let’s do it. So we started planning it and it started out just as an initiative to get out and get our product in people’s hands and just create a connection between us and the community. And it did that, it did really well, and people were pretty excited about it. And what we didn’t see coming is what it escalated or what it evolved into, which is, you and I discussed that the other day, it’s like it has escalated still as to what it started as, is still that. But it’s turned into, honestly a conversation, I think we use the word, it’s now a conduit, between an industry and a community where there’s, I think you would agree, there’s a large disconnect between the industry and the community.

Ramsey Russell: We need some healthy conduits for conversation, for meaningful conversation. But it’s like the boat ramp tour, going to public boat ramps.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And it may not be as bad as people say, but it’s bad. It’s like this, if I go into where we met there at the camp, if I walk into Alberta, where I last saw you, I didn’t know a lot in boys when I walked in the door.

Wade Shoemaker: No.

Ramsey Russell: But it was different. Handshaking, we hubbed up, whereas if it was this way 30 years ago when I was living and dying on public land, the state of Mississippi and around, it was every man for himself, every boat, every car, it was us against them. It wasn’t no friendly conversations, you load, you go hunt, you come back. Matter of fact, I got to tell this story, I know I’ve told you before, but the first time I ever hunted one of my favorite public lands in the state of Mississippi, big old cypress, tupelo break, we didn’t know nothing from nothing. We drove out, found a spot, said, let’s throw decoys here one afternoon, let’s just listen, we’ll pick our way around over the upcoming week and just learn the place a little bit better. And we hadn’t been there 5 minutes, shot one duck and hadn’t been there and all of a sudden, somebody started whooping across the thing, they’re going to whoop our ass. And we looked, I said, they talking about us?

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And that guy was bellering, we’re going to whoop your ass.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And I’m looking under the trees like, I see that boat over there, he was picking up and cussing and I said, he talking to us? I mean, I can hear him steadily putting, I cranked that boat, we started slinging decoys and my buddy’s like, what? I go, he might whip my ass, but it ain’t going to be in however deep this water is. I raced to the freaking ramp, skid up on the gravel, run to my truck, pull off my waders and put on my shoes. And when that guy come up, still yelling and hollering, I met him, I said, look, I’m no fighter, I hadn’t been in a fight since I was in grade school.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And it was live or die. And he looked at me, my feet were balled up, and when he looked at me, he’s like, do I know you? I said, I guess I’m a guy whose ass you going to whip, he’s like, no, I ain’t talking to you, I’m talking to that fool out there on the water back there, he was talking to somebody else entirely. But that was my introduction to what became my favorite public land. And it’s a rivalry going on out there on that water. Countless of the times I did see tires cut, I did see somebody come in and throw – you come in with a limit, somebody else done throwing a whole bunch of ducks in back of your truck just to get you in trouble or something, there’s stuff going on. But I can remember as a young man, not even duck hunting with my grandfather, he’d make the rounds on Saturdays and Sundays, and one day we stopped at a public ramp and he got out and there was a bunch of old timers, it must have been 08:00AM in the morning, they were just getting there and getting sorted and going mosey on out to that public land and hunt out of their little old boats and I just remember as a child watching all those grown men, I mean, I was a child and they were old men sitting around smoking cigarettes, talking to each other, well, if you go hunt over there, we’ll go over there. I mean, just very gentlemanly and there was enough ducks for everybody and it ain’t that way no more.

Wade Shoemaker: No doubt. That’s honestly, like, something I brought up or I talked about before, talking about being that conduit, it’s something I’ve learned that there’s a price of admission for this, right? And our price of admission is, handing free shells and handing all this stuff, it’s not like, we’re showing up and people just love us because we smile, right? Like, that’s not what it is. But we’re able to have conversations with people about the things that are going on or this ramp is slick or whatever, whatever it is. And there was a time in particular, and this goes to, I talked to you earlier, the nostalgia of hunting is why I love it, right? And I know that I don’t personally think we’ll ever see it like it was when your grandpa used to make his rounds, right? Like, when people used to tell him where he was going hunting, and they could do that. But it happened one day in Arkansas at a boat ramp and we were talking to people, ended up talking to them for 20, 30 minutes and this is at 03:00AM in the morning, and we’re talking to these guys, handing them shells, giving them some stuff, it ended up becoming, you call them boat ramp buddies, I guess, we don’t hang out or anything, after that. But I would consider these guys good dudes. And before it was over, they told us where they were going. He was like, well, look, I said, where you all going? I said, honestly, we just got in from Kansas, I think we just come in from Kansas. And I said, was it a Real foot or Kansas? I can’t remember, it was second or third lake. But I said, we just got in from this, this is our first day here, we’re going to be over south of here, I said, but I don’t know where, I said, I’m just going to go figure the water out. He said, well, look, he said, we’re going to be in this lake right here and he showed me, we had OnX out, he was like, we’re going to be right here. And look I’ve been hunting a while out, I ain’t really ever had nobody do that to me. And I’m like, okay, happy, because now I know where he’s at, and I ain’t got to go over there. He’s like, but look, he said it was shooting over here and you got to take that with a grain of salt, too, you’re on public, you really don’t know what’s going through their head because the best bullshitters in the world are public land guys, I don’t care what you’re hunting, turkey, deer, ducks, you ain’t going to find a better bullshitter than them. But I’m reading this dude, like, I think he’s telling me the truth. Well, turns out he didn’t know it, but that area was where my buddy had said, go to that block, that’s where we’ve been killing him, he’s like, the water line, just follow it. And that’s about where we were going, he just didn’t know those people that had been shooting them weren’t there that day, right? So the next boat pulls up, we’re talking to him, and he was like, yeah, we’re just going to go down this right here, he’s like, we’re going to be further down, I said, well, how far down are you going? I said, they told me where they’re going to be, he said, yeah, they’re going to be on top of this lake, they knew each other, he said, but we’re going to be almost to the river, like, we’re going to be way down. Okay, I said, we’re not going that far down. Just spare you the rest of the details, 4 or 5 different groups pulled up, we knew where every single group was hunting, they knew where we were going to be, the area and everybody came back to the boat ramp, Ramsey and everybody shot their ducks. Like, it was one of those crazy things and I’ll never forget it because it’s like, that’s possibly the closest that I will ever be to reliving those old days, everybody going to their own spot, and hunting that same spot every day, no matter what, because if there’s ducks, somebody’s going to kill them, on whatever day it is, just got to wait your turn. If you want to chase raft, chase that raft, but if you hunt your spot every day, you’re going to kill them just as many times as the old boy chasing a raft of ducks because he’s going to scare them up before he kills them all. But all that to say, like, that was really cool to me and I think the boat ramp tour has evolved into that conversation piece and an admission ticket or whatever you want to call it, two conversations that really wouldn’t be afforded to anything else.

Ramsey Russell: Look, you’ve never met a stranger, Wade, I get it. You got a lot of personality skills.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: But how hard was it to have that conversation, to start that conversation at a public boat ramp? Like, you told me a story one time about another company went out there, and I don’t know, it’s like they were grilling hamburgers or something, and nobody had anything to do with them. Like, what the hell they doing? I don’t understand. I mean, number one, it’s 03:00 in the morning, but in number two, everybody’s getting their game face on, like, we got to get here, we got to get there, we got to beat everybody, no small talk, no bullshit, it’s a military surgical strategic precision, get the heck out there, we ain’t got time to make no friends. But how hard is it for you to show up with all them trucks and just start a conversation at all? Because you’re kind of the enemy if you’re a stranger.

Wade Shoemaker: Well, being transparent, if I was just showing up to hunt it, conversation wouldn’t happened. Like, I’m there to hunt, dump my boat and go, I’m not there to make friends when I’m hunting. Now I’m starting to kind of lean towards, maybe I should mention something to people because I feel like it’s working if you just let them know you’re not a threat, like as far you’re not trying to take their spot, you know what I’m saying? Like, I think there is a real etiquette that extends further out than, I’m going to beat them. But as far as how hard to start that conversation, it depends, it’s situational, it’s case by case. Like, there is a world where you got to read the room and it’s like, maybe this guy don’t want to be talked to, but you’ve also got to have skills or communication skills where you can, if somebody is upset, you can, what’s the word I’m looking for here? Not digress, but you can de-escalate the situation because there are some people that wake up just mad. But I mean, who’s not mad at 02:30 AM, I’m not super happy. But we show up and the wind, like I said, the price of admission, when I open up, it’s called a go fast camper on the back of my truck and it’s not like a regular camper where you’ve got windows that open up, this whole thing opens up. Like when you open it up, you don’t have a window and fiberglass, it’s a whole thing and the whole side of my truck’s open or the whole back of my truck’s open, I’ve got lights around it, you turn them lights on and they see all the stuff in your truck and they see that you’re handing it to them, their walls, as far as like, wanting to have a conversation, are down immediately. What they tell you, that’s yet to be determined. But the conversation opens up pretty quick when you hand them a shell bag with shells, a T-shirt, a hoodie or whatever. Yeah, I think that’s the easiest way to explain it. I mean, some people don’t want to talk and those that don’t want to talk, I would say they won’t come over there, but we go after them. Like, we’ve knocked on windows before at boat ramps, is that safe? Probably not. Does it work every time?

Ramsey Russell: You chose a public land duck hunters, a very underrepresented demographic.

Wade Shoemaker: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: To talk to, beyond any giveaways and stuff like that, what did you hope that hunters would take away from interacting with you all at these boat ramps? I mean, I get that it was a brand push, to put some brand in people’s hands, but it’s got to be something more substance, because I know you.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. It’s always more like – my biggest enemy in this world is probably being obvious, right? Like, I hate being obvious, I don’t even know if that makes sense. But I hate showing up and people knowing, like, oh, this is his angle.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I hate people with angles.

Wade Shoemaker: So, you know what I’m saying? Like, I don’t want them to think that I want them to show up and be like, oh, this is why they’re here. And I want to show up, and I guess I could start with the answer would make this a lot easier. The basis of it, at the foundation of it, it was to make sure the brand and to push the brand, but with that, it built into that foundation with it was to let everybody know that we’re the same as they are. Like, I think a lot of people have this idea that people that work for these companies are, they think they’re this exclusive or upper echelon of people, and they got to hunt a certain way or at a certain place and there’s nothing wrong with that type of hunting at all, I love it. You’ve built an entire life out of that, I think it’s necessary. But these guys, these ramps, they think that’s all the people in the industry do, and it’s like, that’s not it. I want them to understand that everybody in every industry or in every piece of the industry, like, we all hunt public, too. And if I’m not out here hunting for the boat ramp tour, guess what? I’m probably still at this boat ramp hunting, you just don’t know it, because I’m not giving stuff out and handing stuff out.

Ramsey Russell: You ain’t knocking on the windows.

Wade Shoemaker: No. I mean, not unless I need some help. But all that to say, it’s like, I think the foundation of it was the push and the guerrilla marketing or whatever you want to call it. But the deeper part of it, which is what you’re looking for, is to connect with those people on their level, meet them where they’re at, show them that we’re just like they are. And look, like you said, I’ve never met a stranger, I mean, I hang out with them for a little while they figure out, like, this dude ain’t out here doing nothing but hunting and giving stuff out, that’s it. And that’s my goal. Like, I want to hunt, I want to connect and when we leave, I want them to be like, they had no other reason to be out here except to hang out and hunt. Like, I don’t want them thinking we have an ulterior motive, because we don’t. I guess the best way to – again, another way to put it, and this is something I kind of talked about early when we started doing this. Like, there’s 3 things for the boat ramp tour. What was it? Was it connect? Yeah, it was connect, educate, convert, I think that’s what it was. It was to connect with the people, to educate the people, and then hopefully convert the people. I think that’s the best takeaway from that. And the truth is you’re not going to convert everybody, and you don’t go try to convert them, but through connecting with them as a person, educating them on the product, the conversion will happen naturally. Whether it does or it doesn’t, I don’t know, but it’s not something you can quantify, but it does happen, the numbers show there’s an uptick there, so that’s a win. But one story, this is cool, and if I can say it, but we were at a boat ramp in Arkansas, one of the most popular boat ramps in Arkansas, we’re there, we gave away two turtle boxes that day, we gave a dude a Benelli shotgun that he did win. Like, we randomly give away Benelli’s at boat ramps, this one dude, I had a bag, there’s a bag called, it was a timber pack that Sitka makes, and we have some stuff like that to give away. And I was like, no, we got to give this away today. But we want to be intentional with things like that. We’re not just going to give a Benelli to this dude that just walks up, right? We’re going to have conversations with these people and figure out who they are and feel them out and read the room, right? We’re going to try to do our best, and even turtle Box is like, we want to make sure we have a reason that we give this person a turtle box or a gun or an item. But this dude pulls up, and I’m sitting here looking around and Hunter’s one of our camera guys, and he’s like, what do you think? And I was like, man, I got to find the right guy. And we’re talking this couple of dudes and he’s like, well, yeah, this dude just left, and his bag blew out of the boat on the way in. He dumped his boat in, he can’t find his bag, he went up the road looking for it. And I was like, what? Because he had just drove back in. No boat, no nothing, just drove back in and parked his truck. And he’s like, well, he found it, it was just busted up, and everything was everywhere on the road, cash and everything was in this bag. So I was like, no way. So right in that real time, we figure out this is the guy we’re giving this bag to. And it’s cool to think about because 30 seconds ago, I had no idea who I was going to give it to, this dude pulls up, I walk over to him, and I’m like, hey, I heard you were looking for a bag or you lost a bag, he said, yeah, man. I said, well, here’s a better one. And I handed him this bag, and he had no idea. The guys didn’t have any idea except they saw me walk over with it and what else? So we gave him some shells. I mean, like, he could have showed up with nothing that day except his gun and his boat and his clothes and then we made sure he was able to hunt because we had the stuff to do it with. Now, that’s not normal. But very cool experience where when he walked away and he was like, I’m a fan for life. And those are the things that happen naturally, those are the conversions that happen, that wasn’t why I gave him a bag. I gave him a bag because I need to give a bag away and he was the perfect person.

Ramsey Russell: Sure.

Wade Shoemaker: And he was grateful and if they’re grateful, I know that we did what we were supposed to do.

Ramsey Russell: Heck, yeah. How many states did you all hunt?

Wade Shoemaker: Last year was 6. We started in Oklahoma, and we shot ducks in Oklahoma, but we had to leave Oklahoma because there was no people. Like, then there was people hunting other areas, right? Like plenty of people, but like where we were, wasn’t anybody there. We pulled up one morning, I laughed, I told my buddy there was like, 5 trucks, mine, Tips, Mike’s some other guy, so it’s 5 trucks. And I look behind me, I said, that’s the most trucks I’ve seen in a ramp all season. We were 3^rd day, 4^th day in Oklahoma and that was the most trucks we’d seen because they were all with us. And we went out there and hunted and where was 500,000 birds sitting in the middle of a lake, they were going to go hunt them the next day and I was like, dude, we got to go. And we’re going to go to Louisiana because it was opening weekend –

Ramsey Russell: You could go after haunting them.

Wade Shoemaker: But even that, like there was no people. We couldn’t find a wad of people somewhere. And our goal and the thing is about boat ramp tour is people’s priority. Like ducks are tertiary, like people’s priority when we go on this thing and I don’t even know what we put a second priority, honestly. Like, I guess the politically correct answer would be safety.

Ramsey Russell: Well, but you need eyeballs. That’s the whole point is have eyeballs, have an audience and interact and engage.

Wade Shoemaker: And we have nothing to give away, we haven’t been able to give anything away. Like, our whole goal is to give stuff away and make an impact on the community that’s there, like the duck hunting community. So we left and not because we wanted to leave, just because opening day was Louisiana that weekend and we knew where people were going to be parked for two days before the opener. So we went there and then the night before the opener, we went to this spot and we handed out stuff from 08:00 PM to 10:30 PM that night, we handed out to people waiting in line that night and that was cool. And then that next morning, there were so few ducks around, it was the first opening morning that I did not hunt that sunrise, I slept in. Because we went back to that same boat ramp at 09:00 PM and started handing more stuff out. Like people coming in. We caught the people that were coming in that we didn’t catch the night before because they had showed up later. Yeah, I don’t know, it’s just a different deal. But anyway, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Arkansas.

Ramsey Russell: Is this 6 states this year in the Mississippi Central Flyway, any plans to move to the Atlantic or Pacific Flyway?

Wade Shoemaker: Yes, we’re going to do, we’re still in Mississippi, but first year ever, we did it we started in Minnesota with our buddies, Midwest flyways up there and like way up. This year we’re looking at starting in Minnesota again, just further south off the Mississippi River somewhere and we’re going to do that. And then Tip is looking at going to Maryland, I don’t know what those dates are, but I mean, that’ll be the Atlantic and that’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Very cool, a lot of history. I mean, for me personally, it’s a big deal because we’ve talked about the nostalgia of duck hunting, like that whole world is interesting to me over there, but like they’re going to go do that and touch that side of the world and we’re going to meet back in Arkansas because that’s the boat ramp tour was designed around that and that’s where it’s most effective.

Ramsey Russell: Yes, sir. Wade, do you see a way or have you talked about a way that this Boat Ramp tour beyond connect, educate and convert. I mean, just using those three key words, connect, educate, convert, do you see the possibility of it evolving into something bigger, a larger outreach or a conservation effort?

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. And I’ve actually got a road map built for that. The goal for me when it started was for Boat Ramp Tour to be a 3 to 5 year plan, a 3 to 5 year campaign. And not because I didn’t want to do it after 3 to 5 years, but because you and I both know that the speed of things now, like after so long, you’ve got to figure something to evolve into or something. Like the shelf life of things aren’t nearly what it used to be. So 3 to 5 years was my goal, 5 being the most successful, 3 being it worked, but the juice isn’t worth the squeeze kind of thing. We’re entering into year 3 with a lot of momentum. Yeah, I would say it’s been one of the – it’s the biggest initiative we’ve ever taken on as a company. And I would say it’s probably one of the bigger initiatives in the waterfowl space as a whole in whether it’s the logistics and just the bandwidth of a company being able to handle it and effectiveness, I would say it’s one of the larger one across all three categories. But because of that I know that it’s going to go past year 3, so I can’t really bring up all the plans like out loud here, but like I’ve got a road map to do that and bring in the conservation aspect and bring in something that hasn’t ever been done. And we could talk about it another spot, I just can’t leak that –

Ramsey Russell: I’m just saying if it’s going to go beyond this and I’m leading up something, like previously you talked about Benelli and I know you work with Benelli, one of the largest name brands in the industry, not only that, I say this, you shoot one of my favorite models, which is that Cordoba, that ethos, I love that gun. How did that partnership come about and what did that collaboration mean to you personally? Because I’m shifting from the boat tour into something else that we’re going to talk about.

Wade Shoemaker: On the personal side, I got a call, I was on vacation, what’s that? It’s not Panama. Pensacola. What’s the other one? A beach town in Florida, everybody knows what it is, I’m just drawing a blank right now. I was in Destin and I got a call from Anthony who manages all the people for Benelli and he said, look, I wanted to see if you’d be interested in this or whatever and he’s asking me this question and I honestly wanted to be like, well I’ll do that, I don’t know why you’re asking me. Like the answer is yes, like there’s no thought process here, I’ve always wanted to do this. I’ve been an inertia guy forever. Even that gun I brought on the first ever duck hunt that I went with my buddies was a 2 and 3 quarter inch Winchester, and I’m just a fan of it, I like the way it feels, I like the weight of it, nothing against the other guys, I think they’re great guns, too. Once you get to a certain point, it’s about preference, but I think for what I do, how I hunt, where I hunt, and the majority of the things that I go after or the locations, it functions in those situations better than I think other ones would. And the weight of it is centered, right? Like, it’s centered right around the action, and the other one’s on the forearm and when I pick it up, I don’t want to feel like I’ve got to add extra effort to pick that up.

Ramsey Russell: Benelli’s very balanced.

Wade Shoemaker: I love it, I can hold it with a few fingers under and it’s just there, it just sits. And for me, that matters a lot. But all that to say, for me, it was a big deal, it was a huge deal for me because that’s kind of one of those – what would you call, I want to say, white whale, but you’ve got your goals as far as the brands you want to work with right in this world. And when you get to the point where you’re staffing or you’re working in this space, like, you set goals for brands you want to work with, and as long as you do your thing right, keep your nose clean, you probably have a chance at it. But some of those, like a Benelli, they’re the ones for me, that I was like, I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that point. I don’t know if I’ve made the wrong moves, I’m 35, I don’t know whether they’re going to do it or not. And shoot, they did it. And when it happened, it was just kind of like, not that now I’ve made it, but that was a mountaintop moment for me, if I can say that. Like, for me, it was and still is, to be honest.

Ramsey Russell: You talked about that green wing teal as hooking you on duck hunting. First off, are you a brand ambassador? And second off, how did you end up becoming a brand ambassador of sorts?

Wade Shoemaker: For Benelli?

Ramsey Russell: For anybody?

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. For some companies, yeah, I would say –

Ramsey Russell: I mean, brand ambassador or influencer or marketing is a big gray area, so I’m just trying to ask you because you start off duck hunting and nearly 20 years later, you’re working with some of the top name brands in the industry.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. I am for some, I think it started out, I can give you like step one, I got accepted on to Dakota decoys field staff, which is just a thing, nothing wrong with it, but that was my first one ever and I was pumped, love what it did and what I did there, that’s where the networking started for me more than any. I got on, knew a couple people that were on it and I think that was my first one, pretty sure it was. But from there I got on Rig and Wright’s field staff and they were connected because of the Grind, right? So that was back when Cagle and all them boys were, I think Cagle was the host of the Grind, no, I don’t remember either way, he was a big part of it. And I joined it and guys were like, well, why are you joining the Rig and Wright staff, because there’s a discount involved with the Dakota decoy access, like he still had the discount. And I said, well, it’s not for the discount. At that point I was already understanding that people are on it for discount, same thing for duck hunting. If you’re in it for a discount, cool. But you’re not going to last long in the space, you’re not going to get or if you want to get far, it’s like if you’re in it for killing, you’re not going to last long. But if you’re in it for the people and the connection and what’s around it, you can go a long way if you play your cards right. And I connected with Rig and Wright through that and honestly, Rig and Wright, they gave me a lot of platform, a lot of runway they helped me out and some of it was on purpose, but not all of it, it was a good segue into the industry for me. I worked my first show at a Bossier City Bass Pro, and it was just a fold out table with stuff and it turned out really good. Then I did a Gonzalez Waterfowler Weekend at Cabela’s, I think, is it the Cabela’s or Bass Pro don’t remember now. But done that a couple of times and it just escalated to do shows and from there, I just all the people I met along the way, I just kept on making sure that who I associated myself with was premium, was top tier, was top level, whatever. And whether it was decoys, accessories, coolers, didn’t matter what it was, I just knew that for myself, I had set a bar and was like, there’s nothing wrong with this other stuff that’s out here, it all works, it’s all great. But if I want to be who I truly want to be in this space, or if I want to do the things that I want to do, I want to do it with these people. And these are the brands and the things that I would use in the field. So that’s who I want to be working with. I didn’t want to go after and work with brands if I wasn’t a fan of their product or if I didn’t believe in their product. I wanted to make sure that it was authentic and if I was going to represent them, I could do it in a way that was real.

Ramsey Russell: See, we’re getting into why, Wade? I really want to have this conversation with you because I respect the way that you work on stuff. And I mean, let’s face it, in this day and age of social media, everybody’s a brand ambassador and a lot of people want to be. I mean, go to any show and people are haunting down all these companies wanting free stuff or wanting something, want something or just wanting something, out of this industry, wanting to work in this industry or somehow to the point that there’s also some downside to it, being a brand ambassador or the industry itself is under a lot of criticism at times because of the way it’s represented. And so I’m going to ask you point blank, and I know you’re the right guy to ask this question, how do you ensure that brand partnerships stay authentic and it’s not just a money grab or chasing sponsorships like a NASCAR driver?

Wade Shoemaker: You mean if I bring them into our -?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, like, if you’re going to work with a company, how do you keep it authentic? How did you suggest anybody listening that accepts some form of relationship or brand partnership, that they keep it authentic and prevent it from just being a side hustle or a side income or a collection of free coats and free shit that nobody needs?

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. For me, I don’t know, I’ll have to get in the answer better. But for me, the easy answer is just don’t force it, right? Like, don’t go after something that you’re not going to use regularly. Don’t go after something that you’re not comfortable using. Look at what you’ve built yourself, whether it’s your brand or whatever you want to call it and if it don’t fit into your every day, that’s something you’ve got to be cautious about, right? Because in return, you would have to force yourself to bring it into that and be a representative of that brand. That’s the easiest way to answer it. I think also, if I’m going after somebody and I am using something like, let’s just say, a cooler. I mean, just something simple like that, I’m not a YETI ambassador, but this is an easy thing to talk about, like a cooler or a bag or something like that. Like, if I keep a cooler in my truck every day of the year, I have a cooler in the back of my truck, that’s easy for me to integrate into my life, into anything we’re doing, because it’s already there, whether a gun. I mean, we all shoot Benelli’s, I shot Benelli before they brought me in. So, I love them, I’m going to keep shooting them, it’s not going to be hard for me to be representative of that brand because I already love the brand before they brought me in. I wish I had a better way –

Ramsey Russell: Exactly. I shot Benelli for a quarter century before I had a relationship with them, I believed in them and still do. I shoot the heck out of them and I love them. And really and truly, I think back for the last 25, 30 years, what I wear generally hadn’t changed one damn bit. I find a product that works and I stick with it. I mean, good lord, the old stuff I wear and love because it works. And it’s easy for me to convert and stay sincere. And let me ask you this way, what responsibilities do hunters and influencers have in increasingly shaping the public image of hunting? And how can we do it the right way? Because we all know, everybody listening can think of something, they’ve seen a hunter post that offends them.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah, for sure. For me, I think also that’s a situational thing but because I think every influencer should have a place where they can, there’s a better emphasis. Like they’ve got more of an impact on something, each niche. So whether that’s an etiquette thing of like, running boats or how to run boats or safety or pick it up after yourself on public or somebody that everybody knows or somebody that they know, everybody’s watching them on how they act and how they do and maybe they’ve built a brand on a man of the people, or whatever it is, like those kind of guys and girls can come in and just like talk about respect for animals, dead or alive, like those are the things that I think are super cringy is just like, I’m weird about like throwing ducks, there’s nothing wrong with that but I’m just weird about it, I’m just like, why? You can toss me somebody and catch them but like when I see people throwing stuff on, chunking them on the ground and they’re dead, but for me, I don’t like that and it’s not a knock on anybody that does it, it’s just I feel like a lot of the pushback we get definitely on the littering side, like pick up after yourself, that’s a non-negotiable. But on the way that stuff’s treated after we’ve killed it, it’s like we get a lot of pushback. A lot of people that were on the fence about killing animals or not killing animals, you treat it, you throw it down like that and somebody sees it, they’re automatically against, maybe not the act of it, but they’re against you doing it. And if they’re against you doing it, then automatically there’s a domino effect and they’re going to be against more people doing and that’s what they’re looking for. It’s so many things. Honestly for me, it’s lead by example, do the things you say you’re going to do, do them how you’re going to do them and make sure everybody that does see you do those things and do it when nobody’s looking, but do it the right way. Do it the way you were brought up, understand there’s manners in it.

Ramsey Russell: To me, it boils down to respect. Respect for self, respect for others, respect for the resource, and that’s just it in a nutshell. And it’s like, on the one hand, I’m not going to modify, no matter how big of a shadow ban them sons of bitches put on me, I’m not going to modify what I post and how I live because the anti-hunters disagree with it. But on the other hand, I’m going to do everything in my utmost to respect hunting, respect the resource, respect my fellow hunters and respect myself.

Wade Shoemaker: No, that’s good. I’ve seen a lot and the term I want to use is like, there’s a lot of people that don’t give – they’re out there, like raping the resource is the best way to put it. And if that’s not the right thing to say here, I’m sorry, but like, that’s what it is.

Ramsey Russell: It’s what it sometimes seems like. And I’ve seen some pictures, Wade, I saw some pictures, it was going around, a friend of mine, his account was posting some of these pictures of people – I mean, look, shooting ducks is an imperfect sport, they don’t just clean kill every single time, sometimes you got to bite the head or whatever you do to euthanize them and when they come in, dispatch them. But what you don’t do is put freaking Mardi Gras beads on them and carry them around duck blind. That’s unacceptable. That is showing such disrespect for hunting and for that resource.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: For clicks, it don’t matter. It’s offensive.

Wade Shoemaker: I can’t do that. I can’t.

Ramsey Russell: Well, let me ask you another way, Wade, because you’ve built such a strong, incredible presence online. How do you balance engaging content with making sure that hunting’s portrayed in a respectful and ethical way? Because you do a very good job at it. What are your rules for making these posts and stuff you do?

Wade Shoemaker: Personally, this may not be the answer you’re looking for, but my rule is I don’t care and this is probably going to rub some people wrong, I don’t care if it’s engaging or not. I do the things, I write what I want to write as far as what the aura, as you call it and I post the things I want to post because that’s what I want to see out there in the space.

Ramsey Russell: Good answer.

Wade Shoemaker: I will tell you, if we’re chasing the clicks, if we’re chasing the likes, if we’re chasing the views, then you’re going to cross that line one day, it’s going to happen. You’re going to post something or do something that’s forced or against your normal MO, it’s against your normal thing because you’re chasing that engagement or you’re chasing whatever you want to call it. But I think the answer to that for everybody should be to post what you want to post and make sure, as long as it’s the things, like, personally, what I’m going to post isn’t going to rile people up, it might, but not because of the things that we’re talking about here. Yeah, don’t worry about everybody, what everybody thinks, do what you want to do and don’t worry about the trends and if you’re worried about that, okay, there’s nothing wrong with that either. But eventually there’s going to be something forced or something that doesn’t go good for our space.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I wonder about this all the time because it’s like, you and the Buttercream Gang –

Wade Shoemaker: I got to tell you how we got that name.

Ramsey Russell: You all were kind of winging it and teaching yourselves, except for the fact somebody stepdad you, an older gentleman, an older guy, was giving you all a little fatherly advice, a little counsel. I feel like a lot of how I perceive hunting, whether it’s old school or boomer generation, I don’t care what label you want to put on it, but I feel like it would come from my daddy and older men than myself, my granddaddy especially, even though we didn’t listen to the same music at all, I did listen to some of his life lessons. And I feel like a lot of these young hunters, family dynamics have changed and we got social media and we got all this kind of stuff now, on the one hand, they want to learn, they want to hunt, they’re out here. But maybe some of these other industries, maybe some of these other influencers are altering or perverting the way they learn to behave or learn to hunt. Because time change and I’m not that old guy criticizing a new generation, I’m not, but I’m just saying it’s different. But how does a guy like Wade Shoemaker, how can we experience hunters use social media to influence the younger generation and pass on the right ethics and values?

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. I think talk about it. I mean, I think if there’s a problem going on, I think you’ve got to –

Ramsey Russell: How do you hold somebody accountable if they’re doing wrong? And I don’t mind if they’re doing differently than you, but they’re doing what clearly wrong.

Wade Shoemaker: You have to. I think the guys, if we’re using me as an example, be that example that you want to see. If you see somebody doing something wrong you got to call them out, you got to quit liking their stuff, you got to quit giving them a platform to do that. I think it all comes down – I said something, we were at a men’s group thing, and I said, you’re leading or you’re not, and it’s about leadership. And I was just like, the short answer is, like, all these things going on, how do you do this? How do you that? But the short answer is you’re leading or you’re not leading. And if we want to be leaders and be the front line of that and trying to bring that back, we’ve just got to be that example. And if we can’t be that example, then we don’t deserve to have that platform or be in that point, that part of leadership.

Ramsey Russell: You struck a nerve there. Because it’s not just us leading. I mean, it’s like industry should choose people to lead.

Wade Shoemaker: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: And to promote the right thing. Look, there’s a lot of folks, I’m just going to say it because there’s a lot of folks listening or a lot of folks out there in interwebs that disagree with “the industry” and it’s got to do, they disagree with the way industry is being promoted. They got to disagree that, it just seems like, Wade, that so much of hunting pursuit as led by industry is just to sell shit. You know what I’m saying? But at the same time, we’re in a crowdfunded conservation model where the selling of all this product we’re blessed with in America contributes right back into the resource. Okay, at the end of the day, but how it’s done, I think, is what’s starting to rub people.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: That’s why having a guy like yourself on that does it right in my humble opinion, I value what you have to say about this stuff.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I mean, again, it goes back to chasing numbers and engagement. And it is a thin line. Like, you have to look at numbers and you have to worry about that. But if everybody would worry about themselves, if we worried about us and they worried about them, and we went after people that carried our message on, and they went after people that carried their message on, and they didn’t look at a number before they looked at the message, we’d be a lot better off. Does that make sense?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it does to me.

Wade Shoemaker: And I think people are too busy looking at the follow count or the likes, the views before they look at the message that group or that person is sending. And I think that would help a lot. But again, that’s just how the brands can do it, the industry can look at it differently and the reality is we’re all going to look at numbers, but I think we should look at the people before we look at the numbers. But personally, I don’t know, the best answer I have is just lead by example for me personally and call people out. And honestly, these kind of things right here, this podcast, we talk about it, we stay on it, even if there’s not a good answer, we’re talking about it because there is something that needs a solution. And if we can find a way, whether it’s through fumbled words or through tangent conversations, we figure out not necessarily how to solve the world’s problems, but we can figure out how to get started. And I think that’s where we’re at right now. I think we started –

Ramsey Russell: We started a conversation.

Wade Shoemaker: I think we’re at the start.

Ramsey Russell: Same as you all did at the Boat Ramp Tour, you start a conversation. Now I want to loop back to the Boat Ramp Tour and you all chose to go out and engage an underrepresented segment of American duck hunting, the public land duck hunter. But in doing so, 6 states, how many days did you grind that out?

Wade Shoemaker: That was 30, I don’t know the exact days, but it was 32ish plus.

Ramsey Russell: 32ish mornings you getting up at 02:00 AM, no telling how many energy drinks you drank.

Wade Shoemaker: If I go past two a day on the energy drinks, we’re in a bad place. But I limit myself, too.

Ramsey Russell: But I know you gained some insights, and I want to ask you this, what are some of the challenges of public land duck hunting? What do you see as the biggest challenge in facing public land waterfowl hunters today?

Wade Shoemaker: I think it’s each other and Arkansas is the prime example. Like, Arkansas thinks it’s everybody outside of Arkansas, everybody outside of Arkansas thinks it’s Arkansas and it’s all of us, man. Like, we’re doing our part and we’re doing the things we’re supposed to do, but it’s a melting pot, it’s the same thing as the duck situation, there’s not one real answer or right answer. It’s just you’ve got people crowding a property that has less birds than it used to, and everybody thinks they’re there to shoot all of them. And I don’t know if it’s overcrowding. I mean, people are going to disagree with me on this, I know there’s a lot of people, but I don’t know if it’s overcrowding of people or if it’s just like now everybody has the ability to go where the ducks are being shot at. There’s a lot of shot chase that goes on, that’s a huge problem. But yeah, there’s a lot of different things that come with that. One guy, Tip was telling me about story about a guy that, I don’t know who the guy was, Q Tip may know, but he told him, look around, whatever, and he’s like, used to we would pile 2, 3, 4 people in a good aluminum boat, and we’d go hunt. But now you come up here to hunt, everybody’s got their own boat, whether two people to a boat or one person to a boat, and you’ve got 4 times the amount of boats and whether it’s twice the amount of people or whatever it is in this one area and these ducks are flying over these woods and there’s boats everywhere scattered through these woods that aren’t hidden, they’re just pushed off 100 yards, 200 yards with nothing on top of them. And if there are ducks flying over, it all looks the same, like you know that’s not real, you know that’s not real. And it’s like they’re flying over you and they’re rolling by because you’ve crowded, you’ve got this crowd of people in this one spot scattered everywhere and it’s not something, if I was a duck that I go down into, you may have the best spot out there and the X is the X and it’ll come down on it. But the reality is if there’s piles of people all over the place with, 3 to 6 boats everywhere you go and in the block of woods, it’s going to be hard for them ducks to want to come down. But yeah, I guess that would be it. Like all the stuff is one part of it and then the other part of it would be lack of resource management of resource and I’m trying to think of, instead of having to talk around it and get off on a bunch of tangents of how to just shorten it. Piled up in the woods, lack of resource, mismanagement of resource. And honestly, duck numbers as a whole south of central Missouri.

Ramsey Russell: Well, let me ask you another question. Somebody that knocked on glass at 03:00 AM in the morning, had conversations and had such a demeanor and personality that somebody broke out OnX and showed you where you might take a look at hunting some ducks. What is your philosophy or what is your suggestion for handling competition, sharing spots and keeping things civil on public land?

Wade Shoemaker: The easy answer is just don’t be a dick. Like, you don’t have to be.

Ramsey Russell: I might name this episode that. Go ahead.

Wade Shoemaker: I mean, that’s fine, but that’s really what it is. The problem is we’ve been honestly, what’s the word? Like, I don’t want to say groomed, have been groomed, but for lack of better term, we’ve been groomed to think that’s the way it should be. It’s been that way since you were younger hunting it, it’s been that way since I’ve started.

Ramsey Russell: We have been shaped, haven’t we?

Wade Shoemaker: You’ve what?

Ramsey Russell: We’ve been shaped.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah, we have. And it’s like, that’s the idea and the outlook you have. And not that it isn’t that way, I think it is that way a lot of times. But how do you go from, like your grandpa being able to talk to everybody, knowing everybody’s at, to where we’re at now? Something happened where something shifted, where somebody made somebody mad, maybe a church split, I don’t know. And they were like, no, you went to there, so we’re just going to do this and it’s just escalated. And truly, I think if everybody would quit worrying about coming out on top and just going out there and doing it for the right reasons, that I think it would take a while. I mean, it’s like, a lot of time we use the term a lot at work is like, we’re a small ship with a big rudder, but we’re steering a big with a small rudder when we’re talking about the community, and the public land duck hunting thing. But if everybody with all of it, just start not being so impatient, understand that people out there that you’re around that you think are just doing the stupidest thing that might be their first time on the ramp, or they may not have ever been told how to do it or what to do or they didn’t have a mentor. They didn’t grow up with their dad and their grandpa hunting. Like, this is their first time to go and they just know there’s a boat ramp here and there’s people killing ducks in the river. I think a big thing for a lot of people would just be like, remember when you started, when you get out there and somebody acts crazy, remember where you started and understand from that perspective, what if they’re just starting out. And you go over there and offer to help them, hey, man, you need some help? If they’re a dick, look, I’m just trying to help out and then you did your part. But you may walk up to somebody and they just be like, I’ve never done this before, or I’ve only done this a few times, or I have no idea what I’m doing, that’s your opportunity to step in and say, well, look, I’m not going to tell you everything, but I would love to help you, like, here’s some cliff notes.

Ramsey Russell: Treat others like you want to be treated.

Wade Shoemaker: That’s right. And I think that’s the biggest misconception for a lot of people is the people that are usually labeled as idiots and these dumb kids out here, like, they may only be dumb because they never were told any different. And you mad at somebody when you could be helping them. And look, I’m guilty of that, too. Like, what are they doing? And I’m frustrated, but I’m not about to sit here and holler and go throw a fuss if I can come around or go buy these people. Like, hey, you okay? Is there something we can help with, like, what’s going on? And at the end of the day, if everybody started doing that, I think it would change a lot quicker than we think it would change. I mean, you’d still have the stuff that’s there, and people have to age out of that, some of them are, it’s just part of it. But if you go out there with the right attitude and understand that, you are there to kill ducks, but it’s not always about, it’s kind of like the conversation, when the turkey world right now, it’s like, let the turkey win sometimes, like, you ain’t got to kill that turkey, but you ain’t got to come out on top every time you want to and I get that, I do, I feel that. Like the day that I pull up to a boat ramp and I don’t have knots in my stomach from the anxiety of worrying about how many people’s there when I’m trying to go to a spot or somebody beat me.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: The day that I don’t have that, I’m probably going to start thinking about doing something different. I’ll duck hunt, but I might not do it that way anymore.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

I think the biggest thing is just treat us how you want to be treated

Wade Shoemaker: But I never go in with that anxiety thinking I’m just going to be addict to somebody, I go in with that anxiety thinking I need to hurry up and get my stuff out of the way so I don’t make anybody else upset, and then I get in the water and roll. But yeah, I think the biggest thing is just treat us how you want to be treated.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Crazy thing about this next question, because it leads right into this is we don’t own that public land.

Wade Shoemaker: That’s right.

How it’s flooded, how it’s managed when the water comes off, that’s up with somebody else that’s out of our control

Ramsey Russell: We don’t have any say so on how it’s managed or anything else. How it’s flooded, how it’s managed when the water comes off, that’s up with somebody else that’s out of our control. But as someone that’s hunted public land your whole life, as someone that’s knocking on windows and touring all these things on your duck boat tour, what role do public land hunters have in conservation? And how can we do a better job at giving back to the resource and it not be just all take. What can we public land hunters do to play a role in conservation besides buying a duck stamp?

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And paying a WMA fee. What can we really do to make the world a better place.

Wade Shoemaker: Other than joining Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl, people agree or disagree with them, but like the reality is you got to have acres conserved to have ducks to breed, that are DU. You’ve got to have predator control to make sure there’s optimal breeding opportunities, there’s Delta. And there’s obvious other things that they all focus on but like you, you need to join the conservation groups if you want to get involved with local chapter, get involved with local chapter. You need to clean up after yourself when your places like all the snacks and water bottles and all this, if you brought it in, take it out, and if you see something there that you didn’t bring in, guess what? Take that out too.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: Just because it ain’t yours don’t mean you can’t clean it up. The whole thing, I was raised through the work, when I started working, one thing I was told, I never forgot is like that’s not my job, like that shouldn’t be in the vocabulary. There are worlds where that’s a thing where it’s like I’m not even qualified, I can’t do that. But if it’s something you can do along the way and it doesn’t affect you, even if you’ve got to go out of your way a little bit, just do it, it’s not going to hurt. Like, I picked up a floating trash bag one day, I don’t know why I was even there, it was just a random trash bag, probably somebody took it out of their waders or something, had a leak in them or something. But I saw it, I picked it up, I was in my boat riding around and I picked it up, put in the boat. Like it took me 20 seconds extra to go pick that up. And if you’re like a lot of guys that are in public, you’re hunting the same holes everybody else is hunting, you know that people are leaving stuff in those holes, well, just because it ain’t on your tree don’t mean you don’t pick it up. So clean up after yourself, clean up after everybody else, encourage everybody else to do it. Join those conservation groups, don’t go out there thinking, you got to sit out there till noon or 02:00 PM for the last little minute of hunting to shoot that limit of ducks, like you ain’t got to kill every one of them, it’s okay if you don’t. Don’t have that mentality, have the mentality you’re going out there to have a good time with the people you’re with and you are wanting to shoot ducks, shoot those ducks. But look, ain’t no sense in being out there past however late you want to, 10:00 AM like, whatever. Let those woods rest, let that area rest. Yeah. I mean, as a whole, if we sort of doing that, I think we’d be better off.

Ramsey Russell: Heck, yeah. Wade that’s all good stuff, I’m glad to have you on. Tell everybody how they can connect with you, how they can plug into to this project you’re working on and everything else.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. So on the personal side, if you follow me, it’s Wade Shoemaker across most all platforms. If you want to follow the Boat Ramp Tour, you’ve got mine. You’ve got Q Tip. He’s @qtipsickfordux, I think is his name. Cool guy. But the other, the main channel you’re going to see that from is Migra Ammunition’s Instagram, there’ll be a lot of YouTube stuff uploaded soon. But that is who it’s through and that is who it’s for. So you’ll find everything there.

Ramsey Russell: Good deal. We appreciate you, Wade. Thank you very much.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah, thank you.

Ramsey Russell: You’ll be at a boat ramp soon?

Wade Shoemaker: I will be.

Ramsey Russell: Next duck season several of them.

Wade Shoemaker: Yeah, not soon enough, but I’ll be there.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Thank you very much, Wade. Folks, thank you all for listening to this episode of MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast. See you next time.

[End of Audio]

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