Ramsey Russell Worldwide: Brennan Hudson, Specks, and The Numbers Game

Rocky Leflore: Welcome to The End of the Line podcast, I’m of Rocky Leflore in the Duck South studios in Oxford, Mississippi. Joining me from West Point the Yauck himself. Yauck, hey –

Yauck: Come on with it.

Rocky Leflore: I got to know what happened with the phone bill. What they decide?

Yauck: Well, after 3 days of determining that I got a new girlfriend from South Alabama they said they are going to help me out a little bit. They help me out enough, but they didn’t help me out all the way. For 3 days he called me, I was on the way down in Alabama. He said, we got this one number and he said, it’s got all your minutes on there and I said, yeah, he said, you got your new girlfriend. I said, yeah, I do. He’s like, yeah, we catch that a lot of time. He said, people don’t know. And then they get to talking a little girl, get talking little guy and next thing you know that bill run up and I said well I sure appreciate if you help me out there. He said we’re going to help you out, we got you fixed up. I didn’t have to pay the $1,057 but I had to pay the $607, so that’s about it. A month and a half of the rent from the trailer hood but my girl said it was worth all that talking, she’s worth talking she said. I said you’re right, I just don’t want to pay it. I paid in full, I was blessed to have it.

Rocky Leflore: You usually stay pretty calm about things. See that’s where I get frustrated with the whole deal. I talked to your guy, he said everything was good to go, come on now, I don’t need to use your line.

Yauck: That man might not be working there no more. I don’t know, I just don’t stay calm in a long time and I can tell you that right now you ask the girl about that usually calm down after I ran into her, ran to her about something and anyway she kind of calmed down. That’s why I don’t ever get on social media when I’m emotionally tried or something because you – I did it one time and I didn’t like it so I just kind of backed off of it but I try to stay calm. But you give me about 30 minutes so an hour I kind of be like as my girl says, you just kind of dumb founded about things you just forget, you’re like, the door, what was that door on that fish movie? Finding nemo? Remember the little blue fish? They would forget every 15 seconds. That’s kind of like me, I kind of forget things.

Rocky Leflore: Well, that’s a better way to live though.

Yauck: Yeah, it is until you really need. You’re not supposed to forget something you got to remember I run, I said run it, I helped run the power company here in West Point, that’s what my girl utilize it. Powers out and you drive right by the house and you wanted to store but you forgot the power’s out.

Rocky Leflore: But you think about this. I know some older bitter people just in my family.

Yauck: Right.

Rocky Leflore: That they die and live out the last years of their life very lonely. People that have built up bitterness for a while towards others or towards this and that where they just can’t let things go like you’re talking about. They live a lonely life.

Yauck: Yeah. And man, I’m telling you it’s a lot of people that hold in bitterness. And I hold on some things, I got a few neighbors that I hold business on. But that’s mainly because, they continuously talk about me. So it makes it hard, because you know how people going to tell when they hear something. It makes hard when your neighbor still tell you ain’t worth that, you are never going to be nothing. And then you see them all the time. So, I hold bitterness towards something like that but like if somebody says, man, I’m sorry or if I tell them I’m sorry, they accept my apology. I’m over it. I’ll move on to the next time I’m not – it’s just you use a lot of energy man when you hate on people. And like I said, the bible said, I think it was, me and my girl was reading the bible last night over the phone. I think it was James Chapter 2 might look at a James Corinthians. He was telling you how James chapter 2 that’s controlling your tongue. Like it’s Corinth. I think we’re in first Corinthians 13 somewhere there, I had to google it. But anyway, I tell you how you’re supposed to love anything, just love, love don’t have bitterness, it don’t envy, they don’t have a foul tongue, stuff like that. So, don’t quote me directly on that bible, you have to go look it up. Go look at the Corinthians later Paul that wrote it, that says shows you what love is. We read that last night. And I’ve already forgot most of it. I could read for an hour, but only get about 2 minutes of learning out of it that’s where my mind-set works.

“You look out the window and see a squirrel”

Rocky Leflore: I’m trying to imagine David Ellis, that you all trying to read. I can see you sitting down to read and you look out the window and see a squirrel. Oh, squirrel.

Yauck: Yeah, I got it. I mean, I can’t even look at the comments on my live bait anymore. Because if I’m trying to talk to explain something. I look at somebody and they say, hey man, what about that boat? And I’ll be like talking about fish, then forgot all about. I don’t even know, man. I feel stupid. I mean, I feel stupid, it makes me feel stupid to do that. And they’re like, you’re so random. You get off on anything. You’re just random. I’m not random but you’re just so random about whatever. I’m like, yeah, that’s me. But most people have a little bit. I don’t mind being the joke but we’re having a good time about it. But I will tell you yesterday, I got turned up a little bit, we talk a little bit about – you got time to talk about my job a little bit?

Rocky Leflore: Yeah, we got a while.

Yauck: Okay. Well, I got tired up a little bit yesterday, I was sitting on the phone and usually during my lunch hour, my girl have her lunch hour too. We’re just kind of talked at lunch and I sit out in my truck and just with the AC running just sit there and talk behind nobody bother me. And I’m just sitting there and all of a sudden I see a cop car pull up and then I see another cop car pull up and I see another cop car and then I see people’s hands in the air and I see the ladies that work there and they’re outside. I’m like, well, it can’t be much. I said they must have pulled over somebody, he’s got some dope or a warrant or something. Well, come to find out this guy had to call down here and want to know something about some gas and we don’t even fool with the gas. And he got the cussing over the phone because the ladies are trying to explain to him, we don’t have nothing to do with that. So he cussing on the phone, so they just hung up on him because we don’t have to listen to that. Regardless of what the city tells us, we got to put up with, we are own people. I am not going to take a cussing from nobody taking no whooping from nobody because our job says we can’t fight back and we can talk back, I’m not worried about that, I’m my own man. So I see the ladies out there, well come to find out this dude got mad because the ladies hung the phone up on him because he was cursing, he comes down here and wants to be a man, stands up to these women in the front up here because I was sitting in the truck, I didn’t know what was going on. And they called the law but he’s trying to be a big old bad man going to come down here and cut out 2 ladies down here in the front office because they hung up on him. Me and my buddy Darrell, my partner that works for me which he’s off this week because he’s got walking pneumonia. But we always were never around when something goes on like that, like we’re never around. And we always say the lower pushes into positions that to help people are not being a certain situation. And I just think with our job, if I’d have been in there, I probably would’ve knock that fool’s hat off his head. You know what I mean? You come in there and want cussing ladies – that’s probably – and I believe the Lord had been sitting in that parking lot talking to my girl to keep me out of this situation because I am not going to take no woman. I got a pocket knife, I will put his toenails for if he knocked me on the ground. But I mean it just amazes me that people that want be bad. We’ve got this policy like we are not supposed to talk back, nobody and we can’t fight nobody and if they jump on us but I told this man, I said, man, I’m my own man, I am not taking no whooping just because you said I can’t fight, shoot 5 because I have been whooped you too. I had a bad one time – because we go out and work by ourselves all the time, I fixed the light on the highway or not on the highway, but on side road it was kind of a narrow road, I had the outriggers down, hold the truck up and I was kind of – you had to run off the road to get around this dude comes flying by man, I just went, slow down. Well he turned around and come back and him and his wife and I really wouldn’t worry about him. He didn’t look like he was even fightable but his wife she looks like she’s still hanging. And I just remember they want to jump man, this ain’t been 6 months ago and I wanted to jump and were going to whoop man beat me down, told me all kinds of bad names. And I just reached back and grabbed the axe off the back of the truck and he’s like, what you going to do with that? I said, I am not taking no whoops and I can tell you that, he’s like, you can’t do it. He went cold on me and this man come by like to run over, I hollered at him because it did scare me a little bit. But I mean he needs to slow down and then he comes back, takes the effort to come back to get out of his vehicle, him and his wife and want to jump on me because I hollered at him slow down. And then go down into the office to turn me in. Were telling them I wasn’t going to take no whooping down for telling them I wasn’t going to take no whooping, that’s the society we live in. They can handle whopping it out but they can’t handle it when it just brought back. Like I told the mayor then you can fire me, you can whatever, but we’re going to have a lawsuit because I’m taking no whooping for the city of West Point. I didn’t give you enough blood and effort already, I need 5 more years but I’ll be damned if 2 people are going to jump on me after they almost run over. If anything we need to be called the law getting them taken to jail for what do you call it? Where you don’t drive right? Reckless driving. These companies nowadays, that’s the way it works. If somebody cusses us, we’re supposed to walk off and normally I do. But when they follow me right behind me real close because a lot of people like to be right up in your ear, I’ll get to walking way real fast and get it and I’ll just stop when they shove me, we’re both going into ditch, we tell them we boat trip. We got all kinds of things here. But these folks bad around here and I’m going to tell him, I said, you can’t – these folks got to realize that ain’t bad. They want to be bad. Social media make people bad. I guarantee you this people bad on social media, I’ll do this, and I’ll do that, if Facebook would make it mandatory where you had to have your house address on your profile picture. I guarantee these folks would talk half the mess they talk on social media nowadays. They wouldn’t because I’ll come to your house. Hey buddy, how you doing?

Rocky Leflore: Did you see the barking dog with the fence that was opening up, once that fence opened up they took off running opposite ways. Have you seen that?

Yauck: Oh, I’ll tell most times it’s one holding back, one hauling home and other saying don’t turn me loose. That’s all it is a bunch of barking old dogs and that’s why I said my social media tried to be as positive I can. We so much aggravation stuff but I could have got on social media yesterday and ranted about how this town is ought to be ashamed for how they act. You know what I mean? But I don’t, I just sit there and I take it all in and then later on, you know what? I’ll probably tell that story, but I’ll tell it in a fun humorous way so that you get the point across, but you also shame them a little bit, you know what I mean? But you don’t just ranting to where they’re calling the mayor’s office. This be all about me being a dummy, well you are dummy? But just make it fun. My daddy used to shame me by, he made me repeat my question sometimes, he asked me that question again. And I’d be like, whatever it was, he was like, say it again and then by the time you said it about 3^rd times like yeah, that was a dumb question. You shame them in a good way. But it’s crazy. That’s basically what’s been going on this week. We’re cutting trees in the city at West Point, we have 3 cutters coming in and we’re cutting them back like it is never been cut back before. These people are raising and Kane they cut my trees.

Rocky Leflore: Yeah, I got a question for you on that real quick. But coming up in just a minute Brennan Hudson, Ramsey Russell. They sit down in Canada talking about the speck migration and speckle belly geese where they come from, where they go to, we have a little conversation about limits, this one you want to stay around for. Yauck I got to ask you this, here in Oxford I don’t know what’s going on between the city government and the city of Oxford utilities. They must not communicate with each other at all. They go around, they want all this pretty green trees, green shrubs and then they plant them right up under light lines or utility lines whether it be cable, electric phone, whatever it may be. And they end up just having to destroy them to keep them off of the line.

Yauck: Yeah, they cut a flat top out of it. Because you end up with people as we say like in our government, we have people that know stuff, but they don’t know anything. So they say, well this is going to look good, but they don’t ever look up. They don’t look okay, well in 5 years, great marvel of this Bradford pear trees or whatever you’re going to have, they’re going to be in these lines and we’re going to cut them and they’re going to look like crap. Now, they’re thinking about right now and then later on down the road which Oxford is going all the underground from my understanding they’re trying to get everything downtown converted over to underground wire. But the main thing is, I mean if you plant something and it’s a struggle for 5-6 years, you’re probably looking at something that’s going to be in the telephone lines, in another 2 years it’s going to be above that and going to be cut and it ain’t going to look good. But in the next spring and the next spring it will grow back out, it’ll kind of look at it and add a little more form to it. But everybody is about right now like what I say is, we always got a bunch of smart dummies, you let the election department run electric department, you let the water department head run the water department and so on. But when you have these committees of people – and you’ve got to remember now, people are voted in by a bunch of idiots. You know what I mean? I mean, there’s a study out there that talks about 7% of the United States believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, that’s why we have Electoral College. I mean, it’s just bunch of dummies out there. People get elected from a bunch of dummies. We have people in our town, a guy got voted in because he said he’s going to lower electric rates. Well, you know what the first thing on the agenda was when he got elected? We had to raise the rates through the TVA raising. Well, you look like a big dummy, but a bunch of dummies voted him in. I mean, because they thought the election was going to be down. Well, it wasn’t, he couldn’t control that. But he run that campaign on that false narrative and he won. And I had to jump on politics, but I will do local but like, it just goes back to dummies. I mean, you have people out here that they just go to vote because the van picked them up. They get the ballot on the van, I’ve seen it. I mean, I work for this town, I know what goes on in this town. People always say you just say that stuff. No, I’ve been here 20 years, I’ve been working in this town 20 years I know what goes on. Well, anyway.

Rocky Leflore: Well, it’s kind of funny you said that, I was friends with a guy with the local newspaper in the Delta. He was talking about this morning, they’ve been pushing to get some sewer work done in this little small town in the Delta. Well, they put it and move it from one place to the water and sewage budget. What do you think they do with the money? They gives himself raises.

Yauck: Yeah. They give themselves a raise every time, they’re going to get a raise now. I said, that if this town, if our city government didn’t get paid to do it, you’re helping the city. But when you get a pay check, I understand you’ve got to go through but you applied for that job, you wanted to help the city when you run for city government. If I run, I mean, I plan on running for mayor the next year go around. So, but I don’t want to win, I just want to run my campaign on everything I know and what needs to be fixed and then I’ll get the town stirred up and then I’m going to withdraw. I want to show all the problems that we’ll tell them where all the problems, they won’t let me tell you right now, they shut me down one time when I told the problem on the social media world and they didn’t like it. So they shut me down. But I couldn’t go live no more talk about the city, but that’s fine. I don’t have to go live, I could record it and post it later.

Rocky Leflore: Man, I remember when WestPoint man, that was a happening place 20 years ago, 25 years ago.

Yauck: And now we’ve got more traffic, we just have got nothing here but a bunch of convenience stores and fast food restaurants. But I mean, we got Yokohama Inn and hopefully they get that kicking going good, we just got to get the right people in there to work.

Rocky Leflore: That’s going to turn around.

Yauck: Yeah, that’s going to turn around. We got chicken plant coming

Man. Shoot, I’m ready for the chicken plant too though. I hope we get a deal decide throw it over the fence kind of deal? Those was 22 through the gate, let’s throw it out the park over the fence.

Rocky Leflore: You know something we haven’t talked about man. Oh, Harlow how’s football coming along?

Yauck: Okay. Yeah, Harlow he’s wide open. Like I said, he’s 7^th grade, so he don’t get to play a whole lot of the 7^th grade, they got the 8^th and 9^th graders that played most of the time. But he’s like that 3^rd string quarterback, that 2^nd string wide receiver but most times he gets to come in as quarterback, the other 2 quarterbacks got knocked out of the game. So he said, he don’t play quarterback when that time comes. We were beating somebody so bad one time that they put him in a quarterback and then we put our last 7^th graders in but the other team did take their 9^th graders out. The first play he had was passed and shoot, they hit him blindsided and he said he wanted more of that and I said, why didn’t you throw the ball? You got to be quick. But I will tell you now, I’ve got some great people through the social media that helped me talk to Harlow. I got first baseman Tanner Allen put Mississippi state baseball so he helps Harlow talking back and forth and also have Devlin Hodges which is out of Alabama. I mean, he’s from Alabama but he played for Stanford University and he got drafted.

Rocky Leflore: Yeah, with Pittsburgh.

Yauck: That’s right, he’s been a fan – him and his dad has been a supporter of Yauck this whole time and then he gets drafted this year and then Ben Roethlisberger gets hurt. So, he’s like second string quarterback now and he maybe first string, I had no TV, so I just got my TV but I hadn’t chance to watch anything but I mean but when he told me he is not looking too good over there right now, Pittsburgh but I mean, so I’m sending video to Devlin and he texting back and forth. So like that and he’s like, tell Harlow – he’s telling anything, that means a lot, I can tell him all day long. But would you got somebody just itemized to this professional player and a great player. You got people telling him what to do, he listens more. So hopefully that’s going good. My kid likes that. So, now I just need to find me a professional basketball player to help him come basketball season.

Rocky Leflore: Because in the academy, you got to play all sports. You got to play basketball, football.

Yauck: You got to do it all, you got to because you need enough people for the team. So you stay going, it is not like public school, you pick out one sport you like and you’ve got enough for the whole team and you don’t have to play every sport. Well this is like, we need to put team, we need the number to at least fill the seat. And I think they just wanted you to – for the parents have to come in and pay that $5-$7 entry fee every time. I though just put it on, put all of intervenes and put it in a tuition that way we show up, we just got to pass. Especially since my ex is paying for tuition.

Rocky Leflore: Oh man. I remember I’m in 7^th grade man, we had 12 people on our junior high football team, 12 people. And one of them was out with broke collarbones, so we had 11 in the final game. We line up against the champions and here I am playing, let’s say I was playing right guard. I always made the joke about right guard deodorant that was the right guard. Anyway, I looked across the lines from me, this is junior high man. I’m in 7^th grade, I look across the line guy across from me, defensive lineman. This sucker is literally, he’s in 9^th grade. He’s got a moustache.

Yauck: Yeah.

“He came busting through that line all night”

Rocky Leflore: Oh man. He came busting through that line all night

Long, literally put me on the ground and get in the backfield. I’ll never forget the start of the 4^th quarter and the coach said, Rocky, you let him through that line one more time, I’m going to put you in the backfield running the ball –

Yauck: He’s going to hit you back there too.

Rocky Leflore: He outweighed me twice man. There wasn’t anything I could do and we get beat 42 to nothing rest they started speeding the clock up. I mean, I started tackling that fourth quarter, I’m tackling by the ankles man. There’s no blocking going on. I’m poking him in the eye. I’m hitting the nuts, whatever I could do to slow him down because I’m not getting in the backfield running the ball and get killed. So, I know what you mean when you talk about academy ball man, sometimes you got to be a warm body on the team to –

Yauck: Yeah, that’s it. He likes basketball now, he’ll fit in good basketball, he’s a good three point shooter and stuff like that, he’ll be good at that. He just literally like it, but he’ll be fine baseball roll back around, he’ll be fine with that. But football man, it’s almost like a big man sport unless you revive receiver or something like that, but it look like they’re going – it’s looking like quarterback position in the next couple of years coming and he’ll be fine. It’s just when you got 9^th graders – in public school, you got a 7^th grade team and 8^th grade team and the 9^th grade team at least our public school does. So, there it’s 7^th grader who just started lifting weights and get used to it, you’re getting tackled by people who’ve been lifting weights they’re into their 3^rd year. So, it is being hit at a lot different levels. Like you said, some of those 9^th graders can go on and play high school ball now. And when you take those lifts, it makes you want to spirit a little bit, but he’s been tough. He got him a haircut that they told me I had to have a haircut, he got a haircut this morning and our last night one of them and you got to have a haircut for game day and I said, make you get a little more speed on him. So, he sent me a snap this morning, he’s like, how’s my haircut, I’m like good, you don’t need to run and we’re playing Carroll academy, them boys killing Carroll academy. If your kids go to private school you want to be a football player, you take them to Carroll academy. These dudes is cornbread country redneck hillbilly hick from the country side baby and I’d be proud to go there if I lived there. But when you got a plan, whoa man, I believe that the halftime, I believe the coaches got uniforms on. I believe it swap out them kids, you don’t know the difference. I bet the kids just coaching over there man. I remember we played him a couple of years ago, they haven’t had nobody scored on them the whole year. And we played them and throw it like an 80 yard touchdown pass DB got beat and he’s running in for a touchdown. And I remember the coach coming over screaming and our side of the stadium told him we didn’t deserve to our own kids, he got that man, like it was almost abroad. I said man, and I was on the side-line. And of course I’m filming my kid stuff because he’s part of all that and I mean, just acting a fool. And after the game, it was like, I mean, they kill us, when it’s game time its killer. I mean, the kids are hollering like, Hey, Mr. I mean boy, I think we played football, I didn’t know we were propping them natural light after this game they’re so big. But I remember man, he said we didn’t deserve to be cheering for our kids. Well, I mean we just beat you on an 80 yard pass. I mean that’s about the highlight we’re going to have all year, we are going to cheer buddy. But it got rough man. They’re tough, I don’t know none of them. If you know anybody in Carroll academy, any of them kids, I mean, they’re great kids don’t get me wrong, I’m serious like when it comes to Carroll academy. I mean, you need to be on the game. Pick or stick whatever you need to play the football game you’ve got to be in the game because they coming and they’re ain’t going to kill us tonight Rocky, they don’t going to kill us. I’m going to go over to begin with, I said look, I just need my kids and I had no broken arms, just pushing down, don’t worry about it man he’ll fall.

Rocky Leflore: There’s a ton of people that’s listening to this podcast as for me from Carroll academy –

Yauck: They’re rough. And I am not talking about him in a bad way because I’m redneck and hillbilly and country and all that but I’m straight up. I mean seriously, if you want your kid to be a football player in a private school and because you take care of it.

Rocky Leflore: I agree with you. Good luck to you all tonight, I hope you’ll do well.

Yauck: All right. Well, appreciate it man, we’re going to have a good time. If nothing else, we’re going to eat cheeseburgers and nachos at the game this night, it might be the highlight.

Rocky Leflore: Oh man, I have enjoyed it. You all – until next week, I really enjoyed bud, but we need to get to that interview with Ramsey and Brennan right now.

Ramsey Russell: Hey, this is Ramsey Russell getducks.com. It is September 17^th and I’m in God’s country, I am in Alberta. I’m in Alberta with Brennan Hudson of Alberta Waterfowl Outfitters and we’re having a great time. I get kind of nostalgic coming to Alberta because it’s where getducks.com started. It’s where my whole journey traveling around the world started. It was the first real good hunt out of 2 that I had ever taken and I became enamored with this part of the world. Very fortunate to have met Brennan a few years ago. He is passionate about something near and dear to my heart, which is speckle bellies. And this part of Alberta has got the stranglehold on migratory speckle bellies and that’s what we’d like to talk about today. What’s up Brennan?

Brennan Hudson: What’s going on? How are you?

Ramsey Russell: I’m good. We’ve been here a couple of times, freaking happy house full of clients right now. But the geese hadn’t really been behaving. I mean, I know the full moon’s got them a little messed up. But what is it? I mean, what is it about this part of the world that so many of the white front population passes through?

Brennan Hudson: This is the hardest speck country, this is the funnel you got – Alberta where the green fields are coming up from northwest, basically northwest to southeast and you have a funnel from the northeast – I’m sorry northwest to southeast and that funnel, it connects with green fields to the prairie and these birds just come through here and stage and this is it, this is the place. This is the speckle belly country. It’s a place that is dear to my heart. I’ve got this place a few years ago and it just happened to be speck country, which I come from the coast and that’s where my heart came from was, Katy prairie off, Winnie Texas hunting specks back when they used to migrate there. Now, we’re here and we’re catching them September October and getting an early start on the season and share an experience with clients. And this is where you come to shoot specks right here.

“You’re showing off some pretty fun hunts”

Ramsey Russell: I found myself wondering this morning that roof got up kind of at one time, Ladies and Gentlemen, we were out there hunting in a harvested pea field and a few flocks were coming in and we were still sorting decoys, kind of getting tuned into the geese and all of a sudden this swarm of specks got up from a roost and started flying over. And as far as the human eye could see in any direction, there were speckle belly geese flying in all directions. And I’d say that from the lowest flocks to the top must have been 100 yards deep, it’s like, you died and gone to speckle belly heaven. And I got to wondering actually to myself this morning what it was like here 150 or maybe 200 years ago? Because a lot of Canada, certainly this part of Canada used to be historic short grass prairie. I just imagine billions of buffalo tromping across and the Sioux Indians hunting them, kind of like in dancing with wolves, that’s what this native habitat is. And this actual corner we’re sitting in it’s still got the strongest amount down some of the lower areas that can’t be cultivated has got the largest amount of native prairie grass type community there is but the rest, it’s so easy to convert short grass prairie into agriculture that as far as the human eye can see is wheat and peas and oats. And it’s just millions upon millions of acres more habitat for these birds to feed on, now then it probably would have been historically. I read somewhere that 80% of the continental population of speckle bellies come through a bottleneck, that’s probably 300 or 400 miles wide and we’re right here. Brennan, you were telling me yesterday, we were talking about some of the band recovery. I watched your Instagram and boy, this time of year, every day, you’re showing off some pretty fun hunts and you all recover a lot of speckle belly bands here, where those bands coming from?

Brennan Hudson: We get a lot of bands from none of it. And those geese that if you look at a mapping and we are away –

Ramsey Russell: Which would be east of here?

Brennan Hudson: It would be northeast. So, you take northeast in that funnel and for none of it, you’re like dang, why don’t they just going straight south and hit the grain fields and Manitoba or Eastern Saskatchewan going straight down. And then you’ve got bands that are coming from Alaska, where they’re funneling down like a ‘Y’ into this area and then you – okay, why would none of the birds come southwest? Well, those might be the birds that are going to California, the rice fields and the same thing for the Alaska birds, it’s like a fire hose. If you took a firehose and ran it through Canada right through this area, it’s the best way to describe it, that fire hose goes all the way to Montana border and it’s like turning on a fire hose and right off the faucet or whatever it runs straight and at the end of the fire hose and you kick it all the things be going wild and that’s what it’s doing. And those geese, when they get to that Montana border, they’re going and they’re just exploding and going a 1000 different ways. Whether that be Arkansas, Louisiana, West Texas –

Ramsey Russell: The Central Flyway is absolutely home to it.

Brennan Hudson: Yes, it is.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s surprising the amount of speckle bellies in the pacific flyway. I’ve heard parts of – but California’s got a 10 bird limit now?

Brennan Hudson: Oh yeah. And they had a speck that they were

tracking a while back in Texas and it went from Texas to Louisiana, across Oklahoma, back through Kansas North Dakota and come right through this funnel and then cut all the way up in the northwest Alaska and then it died. They lost the deal.

Ramsey Russell: Probably died of exhaustion.

Brennan Hudson: Right. And it did that in like 5 days, 4 days. So, it was a lot of stress on them. But this is the funnel.

Ramsey Russell: Speaking of speckle bellies, I heard one time and it’s a very credible source. I was hunting down with Bill Daniels in that part of the world, down in Southwest Louisiana and one of the camp members down there was telling me that historically, an overwhelming amount of the Mississippi flyway, speckle bellies overwinter around Lake Charles. And he was then telling me that the percent now is less than half that numbers are relative percent. But if you look at the gross number that estimate the number has not changed it is 53% percent.

Brennan Hudson: There’s a lot of things there that you could look at rice, the rice country. I’m from southeast Texas, you take out highway 90 and go through gnome channel, I was actually telling my grandpa this a while back, he was on a ride, we’re going to taxidermist and cut through there into Winnie and you see all these fields there with old levee systems and they’re fallow fields now. The amount of – look at Katy prairie, it used to be all rice now subdivisions, same thing in Southwest Louisiana. You’re losing rice, you’re losing food and a lot more pressure these days, pressure –

Ramsey Russell: Habitat change.

Brennan Hudson: Habitat changes and pressure. Pressure is pushing birds in certain areas as well. There’s a lot – there’s a million different factors. If you look at a lot of the weather now, you look at a big front, it comes and goes southwest – I’m sorry northwest to southeast. If you look at the front, that’s how they all come down. They used to come from my knowledge back 15 years ago used to come from Saskatchewan straight down and you used to have a lot of more snow cover. So, there’s a lot of different variables there, you’re looking at with migrating geese, whether it be specks or any other species.

“Maybe the population seeing those birds further north up in northeast Arkansas and parts of Missouri all winter maybe that’s a sign that the population started just kind of build-up I hope, it’s hard to say.”

Ramsey Russell: Well, I know from hunting in Arkansas, we get quite a few specks in the bean fields and leftover rice in Mississippi but not near what they get up in the – around Stuttgart and on up through Northeast Arkansas, they did a whole lot of specks up in that part of the world. But I was shocked and I know this wasn’t historic, but somewhere in social media it’s become more popular. I’ve started seeing more and more folks posting pictures that they had hunted speckle bellies as far north as Southern Illinois. And that’s the population increasing or the feds letting – remember back in the back in the old days, in the late 90’s, the limit on snow geese was 5 and by the time they realized they had a problem, it was kind of too late, I kind of sort of hope that be the case with speckle bellies. Maybe the population is building up. Maybe the population seeing those birds further north up in northeast Arkansas and parts of Missouri all winter maybe that’s a sign that the population started just kind of build-up I hope, it’s hard to say. But speaking of bands, what do you – I love hearing how people let alone outfitters. You got a team of 6 and I know you hold a few weeks back for clients to come in with mixed groups 2 here and 3 there and you put them in blind together. What do you do when old preacher brings in one of those orange legs with a big shiny band on it? What happens then?

Brennan Hudson: If nobody’s claiming that bird when we shoot it, whoever shoots it, if nobody’s claiming he comes in, he gets thrown in the hat at the end of the hunt and you got 6 shells in there one would maybe be off color or one may have a feather inside of it. And how you just – whoever wants to pick first up deal, whoever gets it, gets it. That’s the only fair way to do it.

Ramsey Russell: You ever had anybody get their feelings hurt or get little whiny or patty?

Brennan Hudson: There’s been some times that, the wrong person got it. You always – there was one time a guy got it and he shot a speck and it was pure black and I was real excited. Matter of fact, it was first speck band I’ve ever seen, I’ve always wanted one and he got that bird and I was pumped up for him. And man, you’re going to get it mounted, you’re going to get him mounted. No, I don’t want it in my attic, my wife wanted putting up in the attic and then a year later, hey, what happened, where was that band from? I don’t know, where is it at? Well heck, I don’t know, I probably lost it and it’s like dad gum, there’s 10 other people in that group that appreciate it. And it’s not all about that, but it’s something, it’s like shooting a big deer, it’s not all about shooting a 200 inch deer go out and enjoy it. But when you do it, it’s nice to have, it’s a needle and haystacks to some people. And I don’t know, I just like the information and it’s just something that like a little prize. So, I hate to say, I don’t mean it like that, but like a prize, but I don’t know, it’s a jewelry I guess.

Ramsey Russell: Do you see in this part of the world during your season, do you see the speckled bellies using a different habitat or acting differently than some of the other geese do. Is there a special formula for finding them? Is there something different about them?

Brennan Hudson: Not really. Here they stage a lot different. I hunt specks up here and I’m not – there’s a lot of outfitters, there’s a lot of guys that are that no specks, I’m not a guru at it, but I enjoy hunting them. And with saying that, I hunt specks here are a lot different than I would in southeast Texas. I wouldn’t be running these big spreads, I’d call totally different down there. I’ve always – what’s worked for me, something works for some people and don’t. You’ve got 3 or 4 specks come in, you pick out one and you talk to that bird, you know what he would do, you do it. He go to once, you go to once. He hit a double note, you hit a double note and if he pauses for a minute, hit him another one. Up here, you can hunt to an extent. I mean, people think you’re coming to Canada and birds are in every field and it’s so easy but this morning obviously show different. It’s not just coming to Canada and birds are just come into the decoys. Yeah, you get some young birds and they see a decoy and come in. But the old birds has been hunted for 10, 15 years. You’re still hunting those birds and they’re still smart. They were hunted not a year ago. They were hunted what, 6-7 months ago? Probably maybe a little bit more that January, February. So, I hunt them different. I do hunt them different than southeast Texas, but you just got to try to figure out what works for you.

Ramsey Russell: I noticed, I’m a 2 note, maybe 3 notes caller, that’s it. And I pray when I call to him, he’s going to answer back and if we get that little 2 notes conversation going, he might get close enough, I can put him on the ground. Like a lot of other real genuine speck hunters I know Bill Daniels, Red bone man, you all speak the language. I mean, when you pick up a goose call, it becomes a game on, it is totally different then somebody like me blowing. How did you fall into that? Just normally or –

Brennan Hudson: Well, here’s what mom wanted to always kick me in the house was 18, 19 years old blowing calls, I get outside and you talk about the Red Bone guys and Bill Daniels and those guys are on a different level than I am. Now, saying that I’ve had a lot of feedback from not them, but other people hey, slow down on this and slow down on that and you’re going too fast and you’re doing this, let me tell you something. I’m not a routine caller, I’m not the best, I just do what works for me. I don’t care what it sounds good to the human, your ear, I don’t care how you can say what you want, but what I’m doing is I get out there, I’m a mess up on a night and I mess up every day. I blow a note, mess up now and you all sit down there and try to correct myself off of it. But you go out and you’re scouting and you’re listening to geese, you see 2000 specks in the field and there’s all types of racket, it’s almost like a refuge feed on a duck call. You get rolling real good and you do what works for you, different people hunt different and that’s the good thing of beauty about life is just everybody can be different and make themselves better to do better in a situation, not to want more but to do better for yourself and when you do that, you’re going to learn as a hunter to be better for yourself, it’s going to push you to that next level. And that’s just kind of what how I do things. I look when birds come in, I’m watching them 1000 different ways. There’s a lot of different ideas that are in my mind. I’m watching one bird, trying to figure out and out of 500 that’s coming in, trying to pick up that one bird that I can talk to and turn them and it’s just –

“you were ploughing on that call and those geese were responding”

Ramsey Russell: You pretty darn intense when those birds start working you are game on. And in between breaths almost like you’re talking to the blind to the left coming in and doing this and you’re saying it in your inhale and then you’re back on the lung, you must have a heck of a set of lungs Brennan. What’s going through your mind? I got to wonder today because man, you were ploughing on that call and those geese were responding. What’s physically going through your mind when you’ve got 150 specks sitting there buzzing around. What is going through your mind?

Brennan Hudson: It’s like being in the NASCAR driving, trying to get through 30 different people, you don’t know what to do. You have been trying to think this, you’re trying to think that and man, it’s everything. Everybody stay down, everybody be quiet all right on the left on the right. All right now, I got to watch this bird oh, he’s not talking to me. Watch the flock, okay, can I turn the whole flock? can I talk to one bird and get him to commit? What do I need to do? What are they sliding off of? What are they lifting off of? There’s 1000 different things, but it’s all instinctual, it’s to me. I don’t like really be to be called –

Ramsey Russell: Read the birds.

Brennan Hudson: Just read the birds. And that’s the difference between a killer and a hunter. A lot of people bring that term to media and all this. And it’s to me it’s not a good one. And I’ve been caught up in the moment with that. But as a hunter, you learn to adapt and you can’t explain it right then and there it’s you just pick it up, okay. I know you do this. Okay, that didn’t work but if I do this on this side, it’ll make that into a different situation and if they come in and they lift off this, you saw this morning that we moved the decoy spread what, 4 or 5 times and yes, we got a little bit more wind and they weren’t doing it perfect. But we still, we capitalized on the situation and was it a bad hunt? No, hunt is a bad hunt. But we got out there, we killed 64 geese and I was a little frustrated but it’s not about the number at that point. To me, I had to slow myself down.

Ramsey Russell: That brings up a good point because – it’s funny, I’ve had this conversation with a lot of people with outfitters with magazine editors with personality with everybody. I mean, it’s like numbers, the numbers game. Just like I told the editor of Outdoor Life he and I were talking about this in a duck blind in Mexico. And I said, I travelled all over the world and when I go into countries where there’s no bag limits, there’s not a numbers game. Those guys in Netherlands where we shoot speckle bellies, as well as grey lags and barnacles or in Pakistan or in Mongolia or anywhere, Argentina where there’s not or numbers a limit of sealing.

Brennan Hudson: It’s people’s mind.

Ramsey Russell: Their mind-set is going out and enjoying the hunt.

Brennan Hudson: Let me say this. If you look at – you’re saying that is, I think back, let’s say I don’t know 15 years ago or when I started waterfowl hunt was 9, but I can remember being 14 and having buddy was 16, have a driver’s permit, drive us down to the marsh and two of us go out there and you can we can legally kill 12 birds and we killed 5 and had an opportunity to kill 25 we left there super excited, ready to do it again shooting 5 birds. And what happens is people they get better and they learn how to hunt and that 5 starts going away quick and start at 6. Okay, well now we got to get 10 people out there and shoot 40 and then there’s the social media of everything is in people’s minds, they got to see a pile. And I want to maximize every little opportunity and if limits a 100 I want to shoot 100. Well think back on those times when it was 15, 16 years ago when I was a kid, just say 14 years old driving my buddy had a driver’s permit down the marsh, learning how to hunt and going down there and just say, your limits 12 birds and there’s 2 of us we’re learning how to hunt and what not and we leave there with 5, 6 birds with the opportunity to shoot, as many as you want. And looking at that, I can’t tell you how excited I was leaving the marsh with 5, 6 birds. How good of a time we had and where I’m going with that is now as an outfitter, I have to produce numbers and stuff like that. But people get too caught up in the numbers game of seeing – I got to have a picture of 100, I got to have a picture of 150 but they don’t do that. What happens is over time as they lose sight of why they do it. When they’re –

Ramsey Russell: Like there are looking for a new high.

Brennan Hudson: Right. It’s you look back at what when you first started nobody just started killing 100s. Nobody just went out every day and just say this is easy, if it was easy everybody would be doing it. So, when you look back then and remember why you did it, remember why you fell in love with it and it goes back to – I had some clients a couple of years ago they came to Oklahoma with me, they shot 45 birds’ best hunts their life. And oh, this is great, this is the best hunter life, thank you so much, we’re ready to come back next year. Next year they come and say they shot 40 to 50 on average, 40 a day and they come for 3 days and the next year they come for 3 days and they were shooting 70 to 80. So then they come over this is the best hunt of our life. Let’s come back for that third year. That third year they come back and they shoot 45 again and now that hunt is just okay it’s not oh, this year it was an all right hunt but wait 2 years ago that was the best hunt you’ve ever had. So where is the people’s mind-set of 2 years ago, this is the best hunt ever had. Just because you get you know what I mean? Your hand gets a little farther in the cookie jar, you can’t you know what I mean? You can’t just keep doing that because –

Ramsey Russell: I see it all the time, people want more – some people want more and more. And it’s like, this is a renewable resource, we’re dealing with it. It’s a fragile resource or what not. And when did it start? Because I never remember my granddad or my dad in that generation talking about numbers and I see a few pictures of them holding up 3 or 4 ducks and them holding up not max amount of birds like that, the whole camp laid it out in some big tableau, it was just a different Mind-set then.

Brennan Hudson: Right. And Ramsey I think it was around 2015-16 when the social media started blowing up. And people started seeing the hunters out there that were doing big stuff and all that and the trend of waterfowl hunting as well and you talk about people wanting more and that is something I as a waterfowl hunter, I like to tell people is if you always want more you’ll never get it. You know what I mean? Because when you get that more, all you can think about is getting more and more. How about just stepping back and saying, hey, I just want to be better, better for myself, not be better to put an image out there as a waterfowl hunter to everybody else but let’s just sit back as a waterfowl hunter. Okay, this is why this isn’t working. Let me talk to this guy, let me talk to that guy and get their opinion on this hunt or watch 5 or 6 different people that hunt different and take their ways and put it into one and make yourself a better waterfowl hunter and hunting different than everybody else, that’s the beauty about life and being different.

Ramsey Russell: I agree entirely. You know what I mean? Look as a duck hunter, I’m not out there to watch the sunrise. If I can go out in the morning in Mississippi and shoot 6 ducks, I’m not going to stop voluntarily at 4, I’m probably going to shoot my 6 duck. But on the days I only get 3 or 4 I’m happy. It’s only 2 or 3 ducks but I had a great time with my son, had a great time with my friends. And today, if you hadn’t told me how many were killed, I knew we weren’t at the limit, I wouldn’t act, I didn’t care, we had a great time.

Brennan Hudson: Oh, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: There was so much laughter and chatter and banter going on and cutting up. I’ve always said real life happens between the volleys and kind of mind-set we’re talking about it just takes this whole 3 days here in Alberta and liquidation right down just to the instances we were physically pulling the trigger and that’s not what it’s about.

Brennan Hudson: No, it’s not. You got to take time to spend time with your family go out, learn the tradition, don’t get caught up in the numbers, don’t get caught up in the – I guess in the –

Ramsey Russell: Have fun and enjoy it for what it is.

Brennan Hudson: That’s it.

Ramsey Russell: Duck hunting is too special and too good. We’ve got young Johnny here and I remember in the truck him telling me yesterday that a lot of hunters in the Atlantic flyway that he knows or not hunting Canada geese this year because the limits 1. He’s like that’s one more that I can get sitting at the office and I love to do it. I like that mind-set.

Brennan Hudson: Right, I’d still hunt them, but I might use a longbow or something, just make a little bit more challenging. But yeah, I often wonder about that, how many people would still do it if you catch your limit in half? That’s when you’re going to learn the people that do it for the right reasons. You know what I mean?

Ramsey Russell: Scott Baker buddy of mine went to college with, used to be the state waterfowl biologist state of Mississippi and I’m going to say, I can remember about 10 years ago, hunter satisfaction in the state of Mississippi became markedly declined and I’d say its back in the chatroom days before social media, everybody was really complaining and upset overall. And he and I were just talking over sandwiches one day and I told him, I said, if you want to make more duck hunters’ happy decrease the limit from 6 to 4. When you call people up, how did you do? We only shot 4 or they say we shot a limit. Everybody gets the limits, they’re happy.

Brennan Hudson: Right. At what point does that go away? At what point does – I can tell you this and I don’t know if I said it earlier or not, but if you come here and just say using easy numbers and the limits a 100 and you leave at 80 and you’re not happy, guess what? I’m not the guy to book with, because you’re booking for an experience, you’re booking to come here and get at the lodge atmosphere, the food and everything else and if you’re going out there and you want to say, hey, I shot a limit. Guess what? There’s times I shut the hunt down 2-3 shots just to be safe.

Ramsey Russell: It’s all about the experience. It’s the good times and bad and Mike, like a buddy of mine said one time, some days are chicken salad, some days chicken’s shit but it’s all chicken and I like chicken. Hey, let me ask the real question, we wrap this up. Right now, we’ve been shooting, what I think our local mallards, primarily local hatch mallards, resident Canada geese that are hatched here, raised up here. Maybe a few moat migrate as we’re shooting. You got some cacklers coming in, you’ve got some specks coming in, the Jude’s specks now coming in, the Ross wood geese.

Brennan Hudson: Well, the Jude’s started shooting Jude’s specks.

Ramsey Russell: Its middle September, what happens between now and the end of October?

Brennan Hudson: On a normal year just with my experience of being up here and like I said, I haven’t been here in no 10, 15 years but just off what, digging into people’s minds that’s hunted here and also what I’ve seen in years past is usually on a normal year, early season, you’re shooting local ducks, mallards and pin tails and local honkers and the first front line, like the mature specks that are coming through, that’s usually what you shoot and then about as the end of September comes on your honkers start are really pulling out. And at the end of September, you start seeing your snow geese and your lesser’s come in. And the whole time from the beginning until about October 15^th, you’re shooting specks 15^th to the 20^th of September is when you start shooting your chickens which are young speckle bellies and you’ll start shooting less mature specks. That will go from the beginning of September the specks all the way until about the 15^th. We’ll shoot them to open till October 25^thish but it gets tough on the specks, you never know. It’s one of those deals, you wake up one day and it’s you got 10 feeds in your back pocket, you wake up the next day and you’re scratching your head, wondering if it was just a dream. And so that’s kind of – the ross geese snows moving late September and by the end of October when I leave, there’s still some birds here. But you’re playing with fire then with birds leaving. So, I will say this out of everything if I can say one thing to help anybody, often we get caught up Ramsay and you go out and say there’s 4 of us shoot 5 birds, 10 birds and say it was a bad hunt, always remember no hunts a bad hunt. Because when you first started, you went out and you shot 4 or 5 birds or 6 birds, maybe you went with somebody that knew what they were doing and I wasn’t as fortunate enough on the waterfall side, I had to teach myself and saying that is however you got into it, the tradition or family or whatever just know that every hunt take the best out of everything. If you shoot 5 or you shoot a 100 just know that there isn’t one hunt that’s a bad hunt. You can look at the bright side and I get frustrated, you saw it this morning and I get frustrated a little bit, but it’s one of those deals, it’s more or less just trying to figure them out, I’m not frustrated with actually hunting, it’s just trying to figure it out and get it fine-tuned but just don’t lose sight of why we do it.

Ramsey Russell: I told you today at lunch and I don’t remember if I said it on the podcast, but I go into every hunt now knowing it’s not – certainly not my first hunt, probably not going to be my best hunt, probably not going to be my worst hunt and God willing it is not going to be my last time, that’s really just in a nutshell for me. But hey Brennan, thank you very much and I’d like to thank everybody that’s listening to us talk about ducks, we keep up with all these travel stories on our Instagram page @RamseyRussellGetDucks. We’ve got a lot of nice pictures and clips right now from hunting up here with Brennan. Thank you all and see you next time.

Rocky Leflore: Another great sit down interview with Ramsey Russell Worldwide with Brennan Hudson today. A lot of good information there about specks and water fowling turned into a number of sports. Ramsey, thank you for getting these while you’re out and about there all really good. We want to thank all of you that listen to this edition of The End of The Line podcast powered by ducksouth.com.

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