The World Of Duck Hunting Down Under (Australia Duck Hunting)

Rocky Leflore: Welcome to the End of the line podcast. I am Rocky Leflore. I’ve got the extraordinary Josh Webb with me. I’ve got the boys down under with us. Ramsey, I know you’re holding the phone right now. So what’s it like down under?

Ramsey Russell: Well, it’s down under. Seriously, it’s, you know, I tried to pull this thing up on google earth and take a screenshot and kind of show it in relation to the United States and we’re on the complete opposite of the world. You can’t even see it on google earth zoomed out. I mean we’re just, we’re literally halfway around the world, back side of the world from here, it’s probably around lunchtime here now a little bit earlier. We come off the water about 11 and it’s late at night back where, you all are 15 hours in the future from Mississippi.

Josh Webb: Yeah, you know, that’s what I was going to say Rocky. We were going, you know, before we introduced all of our guests, I feel like we got to introduce like Marty McFly because we’re talking to folks in the future here. It’s kind of funny.

Ramsey Russell: We know everything that’s going to happen. You know, I get, but you know, it’s, you’ll hear if we talk around the round table today, you know the thing I love about Australia duck hunting, I’m telling you, I came here last year and I just absolutely positively fell in love is, it’s so different than anything back home, you know, kangaroos jumping through the woods and all these pair of keets and emu’s and red stags running across the road and it’s crazy, it’s different, but at the same time it is more like hunting back home than anywhere in the world I’ve ever been except now. I mean the decoys, the boats, the people, the culture, the humor, the food, the work it’s so much alike. Now, speaking of food, we’ve been eating real good down here, but you know the crayfish, they’ve got down here, its the size of the lobsters. We call them crawfish back home, they call them crayfish down here, but their biggest lobster because they are lobsters. And so, we’ve eating like kings down here and the hunting has been good. I mean, I think the weather has been running in the 40s to 50s or 60’s today, we got to see it all. We went out to a massive cattail marsh. We went in kind of close to it yesterday and we were somewhere between F and U instead of on the X but we knew just where to go this morning to find together and grounded up a couple of limits. But we started off this morning, there was no wind, the sun came up, it was bluebird sky. Then the wind shifted after it did start blowing, it shifted and then the clouds blew in then we left in the rain, we got to experience 100% of every kind of weather phase there was today and had a good time. But hey look, I’ve got a whole round table of people here and I’m just going to, I’m going to tell you who all we’ve got with us right now. So when I hand out the phone, you’ll know who they are. Rocky Leflore: All right, I bet you got, I think you’ve got somebody that’s very familiar with this show with you.

Ramsey Russell: Who?

Rocky Leflore: Mr. Jake Latendresse.

“You’re very perceptive. Kill shots are what we pick out for the audience to see.”

Ramsey Russell: Oh, Jake’s here. Yeah. I talked him into coming and you know, I learned on your TV program. I’ve seen him around, I’ve seen is photography and his artwork, you know, he’s very accomplished, media guy and but I’m a little worried, you know, about coming down to do some filming with me. And I said Jake, you know, I really got kind of a face for radio, you sure you can pull this off? He say, yeah, trust me I’m a pro. First day, the first morning shows up and gives me a paper sack with two eye holes cuts out and try this on for size. He knows what he’s doing. Anyway let me read off the roster who I got with you all and then, I’ve got Ryan Bassham with Sitka was he’s a head of Sitka marketing and development. He’s also got a company very similar to Getducks.com called Trophy expeditions. Of course I’ve got Jake Latendresse, needs no introduction whatsoever, he is a pro. A partner down here in Australia is a guy named Glenn Falla and Falla’s Waterfowl Outfitter. Kind of his backstory is, he used to be a ballistician for Winchester and he developed these 2 and 3 quarter inch loads of steel, fires that travel of the barrel about 1500 ft. per second an absolutely kill a duck. Wish we could buy them in the United States, we can’t. He said, sorry mate those are just for us Aussies. I’ve got a guy named Paul Sharp, he runs a thing you all got to really check out on Facebook Cooking Game, absolute world class chef. He’s kept us fat and happy the entire week. Best cook in Australia, and you know, he’s the guy every camp worldwide needs to have, you know, no matter if the hunt is good or bad, you stay well fed. And, he’s also the South Australia expert. Last time I was here, we hunted absolutely in the Victoria province, which is, but Australia is a very big country. So, this time we landed in Melbourne, we all grouped up, we traveled about five hours south southwest, right up against the Indian ocean. I mean, you look at that ocean, there’s nothing between you and in the South Pole. You know, but ocean were as far south as you can go like that and but he knows all these duck holes, like the back of his hand, has kept us in the duck pretty good and kept as well fed. We’ve also got a guy named Trent Leen. He’s the president of Geelong Field and Game. He’s also very interestingly, he’s pioneering the duck banding program down here in Australia and we were laughing about it yesterday because look, we were launch in our boats, all the water around here is extremely shallow. All the fresh water we’re hunting is extremely shallow and they got the only to express boats in the country which are absolutely bulletproof, but they’re tied heavy. So we’re launching them in a foot of water. And man Trent makes it look easy. He’s kind of like the A-team equipment specialist you know, and you certainly need him around here. And Darren Linton is the editor of Field & Game Australia. And I just got to say this, I mean you think of Australia, you think the crocodile Dundee and AC, DC and all the good stuff like that. I’m going to tell you, these guys are really, to be such great duck hunting and I mean really good duck hunting. I mean tons, tons, tons of public land opportunity that any public land I’ve ever hunted we’ve had just thousands of acres of productive duck land entirely to ourselves, never heard another shot fired. And but we talk about anti-hunters back home and these guys deal with it. I mean they deal with it every single day of their live politically. And Field & Game Australia, is a huge advocate, you got to be. If you’re a duck hunter in this part of the world, you are absolutely a hunter advocate. Always having to defend yourself, always having to fight off the anti’s and I know Darren can shed a lot of light on that too, but that’s who I’ve been hunting with all week and they kept us totally in the ducks.

Rocky Leflore: You know, Ramsey, the last time you were on this podcast you were up in Idaho with a guy named Blair Finley from Australia from Toxic calls? Blair and I got to where we communicate on Facebook after that podcast. But Blair post stuff, it’s kind of funny that you bring it up, Blair makes post all the time, we think that we have anti-hunters in the United States, they’re unreal in Australia. The things that they do.

Ramsey Russell: I’ll tell you what, as I pass this phone around, you start talking about anti-hunters with these guys, you and I just can’t, we can’t even fathom what they deal with down here. Can you imagine, can you just imagine opening day of duck season, you take your kids out, you’ve got everything squared away and here comes the hippie types waving 20 ft. banners and ringing cowbells and blowing car horns and they’re allowed by law to get within a certain distance of you. And they’re also allowed if you wing that duck down and don’t kill him stone dead, they’re also allowed to go and get him and beat you to him and use him as a political prop.

Josh Webb: Well, that would make for some excitement in some Arkansas public land. Holy crab. Ramsey, that makes some of you all outfitter story sound like bubblegum.

Ramsey Russell: How would you like to have a bunch of these Australian anti-duck hunters show up to a public land in Mississippi on opening day and start that mess it’d be reality TV. Would that be fun?

Rocky Leflore: Hey, let’s do this Ramsey. Let’s talk to a couple of guys the first time that they’ve been there. Let’s do this first.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. I’m going to hand the phone over to Ryan Bassham.

Ryan Bassham: Hey fellas, How you doing?

Rocky Leflore: Ryan.

Josh Webb: Are they really treating you okay over there Ryan or Ramsey just –

Ryan Bassham: I mean, I might not come back. I might just stay. I mean if I didn’t have a beautiful wife and kids at home, I probably just stay here.

Josh Webb: Well, I know that that’s what Ramsey has said every time he’s been, he said it’s just incredible over there and follow along with everything that you all are putting on social media and everything, it’s just, it looks amazing.

Ryan Bassham: It really doesn’t do any justice.

Rocky Leflore: Ryan, let me ask you this, going into the trip, let’s talk about expectations. Going into the trip, what were you thinking? You know, flying over there, what were you thinking it was going to be like to what you see now actually doing it?

Ryan Bassham: Well, I mean, I grew up watching crocodile Dundee and I don’t know if you all have seen that movie but there wasn’t no pretty blonde waiting at the airport for me when I got there. So I was a little disappointed. But apart from that man, it’s exceeded expectations, you know, coming in, I haven’t traveled nearly as much as Ramsey has, but in the countries I’ve been to and hunted, you know, I won’t say that I’ve been disappointed but it’s always just a little bit different and what’s been really nice here is the fact that it is so much like home in every way. I mean it’s a bunch of redneck Australians here that like to chase ducks same as you and I, which is a heck of a lot of fun and they’ve got all their weird little terminology that I’m sure you’re about to hear some of it, that throws me off a little bit, but you know, it’s exceeded expectations as far as, I mean the wing shooting is fantastic, the food is great, water is great. You know, we’re sitting here cutting up joking around same as we would back home around campfire and you just can’t ask for much better than that.

Rocky Leflore: What would you compare it to Ryan, to United States?

Ryan Bassham: You know, so as far as, I compare it to hunting that I’ve done around the Great Salt Lake in Utah and then down on the gulf coast of Texas, a lot of the, some of that brackish water and cat tails and shallow flats and things of that nature, that’s a lot of what they have here that I’ve seen so far. We haven’t got over into their “flooded timber” yet, but I hear it’s fantastic. So, that’s what’s up next on the trip. But the water that we’ve hunted so far is most similar to those two areas from what I’ve seen, maybe a little bit in the California marshes.

Rocky Leflore: Hey, let’s talk species. So, what are the majority species that you’re seeing and killing there?

Ryan Bassham: Absolutely. Well, so here’s what’s unique here. You have to pass an identification tests before you can even legally go out and hunt waterfowl here. So I mean, Ramsey and I travel, been traveling for 30 hours, jump off an airplane and they take us over to where we’d take tests and they’ve got eight game species which have only seven you can hunt now and then there’s non-game species and you have to be able to watch this video and clearly identify them as the correct species and whether they’re a game or a non-game species. Predominantly what we’ve seen here has been grey teal, we’ve seen a lot of black ducks, a lot of chestnut teal and we’ve seen a lot of black swans which you cannot hunt here. But that’s made up the bulk of what we’ve seen. And it’s been fantastic. I mean you know they’ve got very liberal limits here, the state, we’re in the state of South Australia right now and you can shoot 12 birds per man per day. Over in Victoria it’s 10 birds per man per day. So, it’s extremely generous. And what’s interesting is that they don’t, it’s not species specific, so you can only shoot like five grey teal as part of your bag limit or five mountain ducks or five black ducks or anything like that, if you want to shoot 12 black ducks here, that’s your limit. And so it’s switches in and out in that way. There’s nothing specific kind of like what we deal with back home.

Josh Webb: The identification test is that something you got to do every time? You know, Ramsey, you’ve been over there before? So did you have to do it again?

Ryan Bassham: You only have to do it one time. What were you saying Ramsey? Got you. Yeah, Ramsey’s telling me to explain what that video looks like. You take the test one time and then you’re good. But basically what we did is we came in to one of their official offices, sat down in a conference room and they put in a video for us and you’re looking at real fine footage of, you’re looking at real footage that they’ve recorded birds in flight. It’s not like your standard photo of a duck. Its birds in flight and you have to be able to identify them on the wing because they’re moving through marsh specifically what they are. And it’s not always easy. I mean it’s fairly challenging and they’ve got several different videos that they’ll play and there’s a total of 20 questions, you have to have an 85% pass rate in order to be able to go out and hunting. And if you don’t then you don’t hunt. So, it really does challenge people here that want to pursue waterfowl hunting to know exactly what they’re doing out here. I think it’s great. A great regulation that they have in place and I know there’s a couple other places I think in the world that have something kind of like that, but it’s helpful for sure.

Josh Webb: It wouldn’t hurt to have it in Mississippi, but I didn’t say that out loud.

Ryan Bassham: It would happen several individuals over there.

Josh Webb: You know, I would say that. I mean, I’m thinking that the whole time that you said that because listen, you can tell the difference, I wouldn’t be able to go to Australia and do it but sitting in a blind in Mississippi by the wing beats of you know the bird about 9 out of 10 times I’m going to get it right and that’s a good thing. Especially in the morning when you’re shooting ducks that you can’t identify because the sun is not up at that point.

Ryan Bassham: For sure. Well, I mean being a sportsman’s, we should be able to identify them that way. And it’s even more critical back home because you know, within your bag limit you can only shoot X amount of a certain species. And so I think it’s even more critical that we have something like that in place back home, everybody should be able to identify birds in that manner.

Rocky Leflore: Hey Ryan, before we let you go, I want to ask you this and I’m sure the phone will get passed back to you again in just a minute. But hey, what’s going on with the Sitka waiters? Where does everything stand with that?

Ryan Bassham: Man, that’s a fun question for me in this past year. Man, so the waiters will be available middle of July they’re in production right now. The pair of waiters I have here in Australia, I’ve been fortunate I’ve been wearing them for about a year and a half now. I’ve worn them on three continents and putting through anything from 80º all the way down to negative 20. You know crashing through the ice and hunting them in the timber, hunting them everywhere. And so we put through the wringer they’re fantastic, you know obviously you expect me to say that, but in the experience I’ve had working with other brands and wearing a variety of different branded waiters, I mean it’s, that we think we’ve made some of the best out there and the beauty of them is they’re made, they’re in the US, you know, they’re also incredibly versatile. You can layer under them depending on the temperature and be pretty much ready to go in any hunting situation that you’re going to find no matter what the weather is. So we’re pretty excited about them. We may have to have a whole other segment maybe on, I’m just talking about stick of waiters, I don’t know, it’s been a hot topic but no, they’re fantastic. They’ll be available in July so check with your local retailers, you know, they can tell you more about them and you’ll see a lot coming from Sitka gears hearing about two months, that’s going to be educating people more on what they are and will be given a lot more details about them.

Rocky Leflore: Hey, can you pass the phone to Mr. Glenn?

Ryan Bassham: I sure can here he is, give me one sec.

Glenn Falla: Hey guys, how’s it going?

Rocky Leflore: Glenn, how are you buddy?

Glenn Falla: Very well, thank you very well.

Josh Webb: So, Ramsey, I see that you are alive and Ramsey has not talked to you to death yet.

Glenn Falla: No, but I’ve put it, we’ve done a lot of miles and you know, I just shove him into another car it gives me a couple of hours break because you know that guy can talk underwater with a mouthful of marbles.

Josh Webb: That’s one way to put it. I like that one. I really like that one.

Glenn Falla: I really want to start with you guys, there’s so many things that we could talk about and you know, you mentioned Blair Findley before. We got four guys, four Aussies around the table here that are all what I would consider very good friends of Blair. He’s a great guy, comes from Geelong, our hometown for at least two in the camp. And yeah, that’s a whole other subject and he’s right on top of that subject and it’s a pretty hot topic for us here. As far as my past with Winchester that Ramsey mentions, everybody thinks I did one thing in 30 years at Winchester, I made one load in the R and D Development, but that’s all cool too. Really what I’d like to bounce to is how all this come about where Ramsey and I met, there’s another gentleman in the camp by the name of Trent Leen, who was mentioned earlier. Yeah, he’s our guru that gets us in and out of the places and gets us out when we’re stuck. Our technical guy. He’s Mad. He’s got more gear than anybody here in Australia. I think he and I are the only two guys that have got excel boat and we can get anywhere that nobody else can get, so that’s fantastic. But Trent and myself actually hunted with Ramsey back in 2015 when I was over in the States with Winchester and we hunted five states over there in 14 days and struck up a hell of a friendship with Ramsey and that’s how this all kicked off really. So it’s really exciting to have him over each time.

Rocky Leflore: Hey, Glenn, I want to talk to you about a couple of things before we go into detail about your, the actual outfitter itself. First, Ramsey explain geographically kind of where you were. You’re on the southwest edge, as you’re looking down on Australia, on the southwest edge leading up to the Indian ocean, correct?

Glenn Falla: Yeah. So, we call that the Great Australian Butt, we’re sort of just right on the bottom edge of it basically. So, not too far over the border and very close by the beach life for most of the hunting that were done so far, but we’re about to cross over into Victoria tomorrow into the red gum country.

Rocky Leflore: Now, the science behind the ducks that migrate there, where are those ducks migrating from?

Glenn Falla: Okay, it’s a very good question. Our ducks don’t actually migrate as much. They’re more, how we were described as they’re nomadic, they follow the water and you’ll probably know that Australia is one of the driest continents in the world and in Victoria at the moment we’re having some tough times. We don’t have a lot of water. So that’s what we’re doing in south Australia is we’re following the bird to where they want to be and what we’ve been trying to do all week is make sure that we also are in the spot on that water that they want to be and sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss, but we’ve kept them amounts of the ducks pretty well and that’s about all you can do really. We’ve been lucky enough while these guys are here, we’ve had some rain in Victoria and we hope that things will fire up in Victoria for the last four or so weeks of the season. So, we’re looking forward to crossing back into Victoria and having some success tomorrow.

Josh Webb: So, when you all move over there, what were the terrain that, what would it look like? What would the hunting scenario look like? How much will it change from where you’ve been the last couple of days?

Glenn Falla: So, we always keep the best to last of course. So, if anybody’s followed Ramsey’s last trip here last year, we did some beautiful hunting in amongst the red gun swamps and that’s where we’re headed. The particular red gum swamp that we hunted last year is dry this year, it’s further west and it’s dry. But when we cross the board from South Australia to Victoria, we’re heading into red gum swamps with, big fat red gum trees that have been there hundreds of years as well as some newer saplings heavily wooded around the edges and a little open water in the middle. And that should create a great opportunity.

Josh Webb: Is it just vast acreage of those swamps or is it just a little slough here, little slew there or is it long continuous tracks of it?

Glenn Falla: No look, on the year that’s as dry as it is this year it’s not all that big. I guess, if you tried to compare it with something, it’s about the size of 3 or 4 football ovals and heavily treed around the outside, a little bit open in the middle. So, we’ll push into there, we’re heading into an area that’s got lots and lots of swamps as we described them very close to one another. So, there’s a similar sites swamp just over the back hill and within the region there’s probably, I don’t know maybe 20 or 30 similar water within a 20 km radius. So, they bounce between the different swamps when they get pushed off.

Rocky Leflore: Glenn, do you have a shoveler or a boot lip for Ramsey to shoot at while he’s over there?

Glenn Falla: We do. But currently, unfortunately Ramsey mentioned earlier that there’s seven out of the eight that we can shoot and guess which one we can’t shoot?

Josh Webb: Oh no, you’re lucky. You didn’t get on the first flight back to America when he found that out.

Glenn Falla: I think you’re right. I think that’s beside me there so I have some mantra that I’m, that he’s seen and we need to get him up into New South Wales where we do our rice mitigation program where they actually are still on the list. So, that’s the thing for later in the year, he might have to come back.

Rocky Leflore: Hey Glenn, you know, talking about that anti-hunter theme, what’s the most interesting and it didn’t have to happen in a guide situation, just on the duck hunt, what’s the craziest thing that you ever had to deal with, or friend had to deal with when it comes to an anti-hunter?

Glenn Falla: You know, a lot of people would say that I’m a lover, not a fighter. I tend to avoid them pretty well. They do tend to concentrate on the wetlands that are close to the urban Melbourne, you know, my hometown of Geelong and I’m sure you’ve had lots of this from Blair Finley, they give us a hell of a time down there. There’s not a weekend goes by where you don’t have to push through, people that are in the car park. People that are waving flags and blowing whistles, making statements as you walk out onto the wetlands telling you that, they hope your car is going to be okay when you get back, they cover their faces up, they wear masks, they like to be hidden. And I tend to avoid those types of areas, that’s why we’re 5 to 9 hours away from those areas right now as we speak.

Rocky Leflore: Hey Glenn, you know what you just explained, you just explained Arkansas public duck hunt. Guys that blow duck calls as a whistle, wearing mask.

“There’s more similarity between Australian and American hunting than differences. It’s all about the experience.”

Glenn Falla: Yeah. And look to get to the point, you say, you ask the question, what’s the craziest thing? I’ll be perfectly frank. A couple of years ago, we had a situation where at least a couple of gentlemen on a local wetland came back to the car park to find that they had four flat tires that it had screwdriver or a knife shoved in the side of them and you know, that’s a costly exercise for a bloke that’s struggling to go week to week and get out there and get a feed of free range birds, maybe feed the family. And he comes back to his vehicle and all of a sudden he’s up for a couple of $1,000 worth of tires, not a good situation.

Rocky Leflore: Wow, jeez. Hey, Glenn, before we let you go where much of your clients coming from that are hunting with you?

Glenn Falla: Absolutely coming out of the USA. Of course everything comes through Ramsey and interesting also that we’ve had quite a bit of interest from china as well.

Rocky Leflore: Oh, that is pretty cool.

Glenn Falla: Absolutely. I’ve really enjoyed, a lot of company recently and I’ve had a couple from china recently and had a hell of a time with them and they walked away and immediately said they’ll be back again next year. So, we can’t be doing things too badly when we’ve had a number of repeat bookings in recent times and we just can’t wait each year for these people to come back over. You know, they’re not customers, they’re not clients, they’ve become friends and that’s the way we treat the hunts over here. Most of these people get to meet my family, maybe dine with my family on the last night as we’re heading back into Melbourne into the airport and I’m sure I’ll continue to make lifelong friends, that’s what the business is all about. You know, I hit 50 and decided I wanted to do something different. I was sick of the corporate world and if I can do something where I don’t feel like I’m going to work each day then that’s a pretty good type of me.

Rocky Leflore: Well, Glenn thank you. Is Trent close by?

Glenn Falla: Absolutely he is. Thank you very much guys. I’ll hand you over to Trent.

Trent Leen: How are you?

Rocky Leflore: Good. How are you Trent?

Trent Leen: Very well thank you.

Rocky Leflore: And Trent, if you remember in the introduction when Ramsey was going around, Trent is kind of heading up for pioneering a duck banding program in Australia. And if you want to ask or opened any question like that. But how did you get started? And what are you trying to find out through your banding program?

Trent Leen: Okay, so we’re very fortunate that the call comes through you know Field & Game Australia and the national body. Professor Marcel from Deakin who’s a waterfowl expert and done a lot of work from all around the world. I was looking to expand his program and he contacted Field & Game and being Geelong you know he’s based in Geelong, they put it in touch with our local branch on the president of and we started from there and it’s actually a study into the avian bird flu and that’s what is primarily doing it for. We started out with dead birds sampling, so we went into some training and any birds that we go out and hunt, we sample and we give him the samples back and they take him back and test them and now that’s expanded into a live bird trapping. So, we capture them, we weigh them, measure them, take bloods and obviously we band them. The interesting thing with the banding, it’s not so much location based and where they go in distribution, that’s just a bonus that we’ve been able to pull out of it but for myself the recapture. If we recapture a banded bird and you can see whether that’s, I originally had the virus, you might have the results by then and b whether it’s contracted it since or recovered from the virus. So we’re very fortunate to work with him and we’re very soon we’re hoping to expand that into some GPS tracking that, one of the guys we just met the other day is working in the new tech company that’s got a indefinitely powered solar panel, solar powered, GPS tracker that’s going on the birds.

Josh Webb: Well, I know that you were talking about numbers of birds that you’ve banded and done work on, how many different species have you been able to get, to have as a part of it, do you know?

Trent Leen: Okay. So predominantly black duck. Wood duck, grey teal and chestnut teal are the most frequent captures. We haven’t caught anything other than that at this stage. But we are looking at finding a site for our blue wing which you’ve heard. Unfortunately the Ramsey’s little piers just come out back of eye, that blue wing is a spoonie. So, we want to do some studies, there’s never been a complete study done on the blue wing yet so we want to try and get something going in that space and see. You know if the bird is sustainable we want to get it back on the list and if it’s not then we’ll do our best to you know improve its breeding opportunities and you know make sure that the species prospers.

Rocky Leflore: Trent, you said in this testing that you’re testing for the avian flu. Did I hear that right?

Trent Leen: Correct.

Rocky Leflore: Yes. And how widespread is it down there?

Trent Leen: Approximately a third of all samples. So, we’ve probably done about 500 dead bird samples and nearly 200 trapped, so and its approximately a third contain of virus.

Rocky Leflore: How deadly is the virus?

Trent Leen: Well, in its current form it’s not deadly, that’s what part of the study is getting done on. They try and mutate the virus. And creating an antidote so if it happens to mutate in the wild they’ve actually already got an antidote available, if it does happen to happen. So, we’re trying to get ahead of the game on this one.

Rocky Leflore: Well, I think it’s, what’s going to be neat is the day that somebody in the US kills one of those banded birds that they track all the way over here, some kind of way.

Trent Leen: I mean, yeah. Well I’ll be checking Ramsey’s suitcase before he leaves, I’ll give you the key.

“The world takes umbrage to trophy hunting, but conservation is the key. We’re not subsistence hunters—we’re stewards.”

Josh Webb: Does it mean the same, I mean a band is somewhat of a trophy, even though it does have its importance to waterfowl in the US and Canada. But does it have that kind of significance over there?

Trent Leen: Look it’s definitely growing. The Previous banding programs I think stop some 25-30 years ago. That was a study on the sort of the movements of birds and to my knowledge that they have been very limited done since then. So for us it’s pretty awesome. We’ve only had two returns so far. One this year, one last year both approximately 300 km away from where they were trapped. So, they are getting around. And yeah I guess, you know for me in particular and a few of the boys that do help with the study if we were fortunate enough to get one it would be a bit of bittersweet because it’s possibly a bird that we’ve banded that you know it’s treated the same. It’s a bit of jewelry at the moment. You know one of the trapping sites is my property, my family home. I’ve got the pleasure of being able to photograph a few of them and I sort of watched them in the morning and the afternoon. So, it’s not the sort of thing that I’d be going hunting on my own property to get. But I certainly take the opportunity if I saw one across the fence.

Rocky Leflore: Hey Trent, if this banding program doesn’t work out for you in Australia, let me just give you a little secret sell those bands on EBay, you will be a millionaire.

Trent Leen: I like to keep that in mind the next time we get a new shipment.

Rocky Leflore: I can tell you tons of people that will pay $50 a piece to have an Australian bird band.

Josh Webb: That’s what I was going to say when you mark it Australian, yeah that’s a high ticket item.

Trent Leen: Yeah. They got commonwealth of Australia on them. So I reckon they probably go right.

Rocky Leflore: I mean $50 a bird band and then we’re shipping them for $100, you’re making 50 off of that. I mean you are set.

Trent Leen: I might have a word with Mark Allen. You know this might go right, I think.

Rocky Leflore: All right, well is Mr. Darren around?

Trent Leen: Yes he is, I’ll put him on. Nice talking to you guys.

Rocky Leflore: Yes sir. Good to talk to you.

Darren Linton: Hello guys Darren here.

Rocky Leflore: And now Darren is the editor for Field & Game in Australia. So, what I’m assuming and most of us assume you’re writing an article about this trip, am I correct?

Darren Linton: Yeah correct. Well, I did an article with Ramsey when he was here 12 months ago. But you know, pretty much interested in –

Rocky Leflore: No, you mean you did a book with Ramsey, you didn’t do an article, a lot of editing.

Darren Linton:  I’ve been in an article in Ramsey then I thought it wasn’t enough. So he said his own one as well.

Rocky Leflore: But did you have any success in that article, getting anywhere with Ramsay’s picture on it? Are you smart enough man not to use Ramsey’s picture?

Darren Linton:  No, it was very well received and actually it’s really interesting for the hunting community in Australia which is quite diverse. I guess you know, you do lead a fairly insular lifestyle and you wonder how you might be perceived by outsiders. So it’s really interesting to have hunters coming from North America and other parts of the world to experience hunting in Australia. And Australian hunters aren’t really interested in their perception of it.

Rocky Leflore: So, most of the things that you write, of course are going online and in print. So are most of your readership, are they coming from the US, that are reading about this?

Darren Linton:  No, most of the readership, so the magazine is distributed to members of Field & Game as part of their membership, so its quarterly magazine and then it’s also sold in news agencies as well. But so there’s 19,000 members of Field & Game across Australia and they love reading about, well, they love reading about themselves, they love reading about hunting, they love reading about conservation. We have 69 branches around the country run regular clientele events as well. So you know, there’s a lot of activity and it’s a really good community of like-minded people across Australia.

Rocky Leflore: What is the estimated number of duck hunters in Australia?

Darren Linton:  Well, in the states where there is hunting, the figures close to 30,000. But then there’s this quite like this from unregulated hunting in some states that haven’t at hunting for a lot of years, but you know, there’s a lot of land out there and it’s very hard to regulate what people are doing. And then the mitigation program on the rice is certainly attracts a lot of people because it’s, because of the, there’s less limitation on what you can do.

Rocky Leflore: As you’ve kept up with your writing through the years in dealing with duck hunting, what have seen change? What’s the path that duck hunting has walked in Australia?

“These people are hardcore waterfowlers. They take their species and conservation very seriously.”

Darren Linton:  Oh look, I think in Australia over the last few years, I think there’s a real shift from being protectionist and perhaps as I said earlier be insecure to being proud of who they are and telling their story and the story of hunting and it’s long 60 Year history, particularly in Victoria. Its 60 year history linked to Wetland Conservation. Hunters do have a really good story to tell and you know, this is the anti, does for the antis. We need to continue to tell the good story about hunting and the contribution hunters make to the environment and the fact that they do it ethically and sustainably and in a highly regulated fashion and if we continue to do that, then hunting should have a good future in Australia.

Rocky Leflore: How long of a period of time, is the anti-hunting been around for a long period of time? Or is it just something that’s popped up in the last 10 into 20 years or recently?

Darren Linton:  Yeah look, it’s really been around for 30 years. And in fact, the guy who started that, you know, one of the mind sort of opposition groups is still going after 30 years. Generally gets charged or arrested on the wetland every other year and he’s back the next year. It’s consistent, particularly around opening weekend and you just got to accept the fact that there are a small part of the community that are ethically oppose to hunting, of any kind and they will continue to be vocal about it. What we have to do to counter that is to tell the real story of hunting and show what it is, we really do.

Josh Webb: Well, I’ve got two questions regarding hunting over there. One, how long have you been duck hunting over there? And then, two, what about the season links? What’s it like over there? When does it open? When does it close? How long do you all have to hunt them?

Darren Linton:  Well, the season is generally 12 weeks in Victoria, but it might be better for Glenn perhaps to fill you in on those details because he’s the man coordinate and all so.

Glenn Falla: Yeah. Hey guys, what exactly was the question? You’re enquiring about the length of the season?

Josh Webb: Yeah, the length of the season and then, you know, I was just curious personally how long all you have been duck hunting over there?

Glenn Falla: Yeah, sure. So, I can only speak for myself, but I know these guys pretty well, these Aussies and you know, I just turned 51 and I’ve been hunting since I was, well officially you’re not allowed to hunt here in Australia until you’re 12 years old. So you can do those things pretty quickly. I might have snuck a couple of seasons in before that, but and I think most of the guys around here pretty much the same. I was fortunate enough to have a father that, still at 81 years of age is a very keen hunter. So, with regards to the seasons South Australia is pretty lucky, the state that we’re in currently, they start about the third week of February. They run all the way through to the end of June. Victoria is a little shorter, so we usually start on the 2^nd Saturday in March and we end on the Queen’s birthday weekend that we celebrate here in Australia, which is usually around the 11^th or the 12^th of June. So, when we’re all done here in Victoria, we’ll sneak over to South Australia for an extra few weeks of hunting. The good thing is then we get to learn who our wives and Children are and mow the lawns for the first time for the year and those sorts of things, you know, kick the rubbish out that hasn’t been collected for 12 months. Maybe even take the wife out for dinner, if you’re feeling really generous. And after a very short break, we then move into New South Wales where they have a rice mitigation system where they grow rice up there and during that rice growing season, they actually don’t refer to it as mitigation anymore. It’s Game Bird Management and that’s when we go out and we help those rice farmers to hopefully get their rice crop out of the ground without being destroyed by the thousands of ducks that go up there. That’s a whole different game because we don’t have bag limits up there. It’s quotas that are set on the various properties. So yeah there so larger numbers of birds.

Josh Webb: Yeah and that’s more of a free for all. I mean, I guess that would be, I don’t know if Ramsey and Jake and Ryan could hear me but I’m assuming that would be the equivalent of our spring conservation season on snow geese, where it’s no limit, no plug that type of thing. It’s a lot, it’s just kind of go out there and get all you can get type deal?

Glenn Falla: Yes, that’s very true. There are quotas that are attached. So basically the farmer applies for the license when he’s decided that he’s actually going to plant a crop of rice that season when he applies for his rice seed so that he can go and sow that crop he’s automatically put into the system and given a license to control the bird numbers. So what they do is they give out an initial quota depending on how the birds are reacting in the current region. And pretty much if you shoot the limit of birds so they might start with, let’s give you an example of 250 teal, 250 black duck, some of the other species might be up around 300 and 500 and every time that you go on to those properties, you’ve got to register online and actually put your harvest details in and record what you’ve harvested. Now, if you run out of those numbers, if you run them down to zero, it’s only a matter of contacting those departments and having conversation with them around that. They will sometimes come and visit the property and have a look, other times they will have worked out because neighboring properties also were calling for more numbers and they’ll just give you another allotment.

Josh Webb: Rocky. That’s when we’re going. End of story, that’s it.

Glenn Falla: That runs pretty much through October through the Christmas time, you know, and we were generally, yeah, so we generally get to come home at Christmas time and get to know the family for the second time for the year.

Josh Webb: Well look, it doesn’t get good here where we’re really Louis live until Christmas. So that’s perfect. We’ll just come over spend Christmas with you guys and then come home and duck hunt in January. We’re fine with that.

Glenn Falla: Well that sounds really, really good. The only downside at all. It’s just one downside that’s for anybody that’s scared of snakes because that’s heading out in summer and the snakes are very, very active.

Josh Webb: I live in the Mississippi Delta and two things that I don’t worry about are mosquitoes and snakes, I’m fine. If we’re shooting feathered creatures, I’m fine with it.

Glenn Falla: That’s cool. I got you in the diary.

Rocky Leflore: Hey, Glenn before we let you go, I’ve seen in some of the pictures, there’s goose decoys. Now, what are the key species that you all are shooting down there?

Glenn Falla: Okay, so what you’re talking about there is what we refer to as our mountain duck or Australian shell duck and you’re right there a goose sized bird, but they’re actually not of the goose family, but we do hunt them very, very frequently with silhouette as well as our full body black duck decoys as well. But we do a lot of dry land hunting with those as well. They decimate the crops of beans and peas and corn and stuff like that over here and we have a heck of a time. Victoria actually has a mitigation system as well and we can hunt them on permit pretty much all year round if the numbers are bad enough and they’re giving the farmer troubles. So that’s just another string to the bow, that’s another thing that we can do and we do a lot of layout blind hunting in dry land and have a hell of a time with those. And again, the numbers are great.

Rocky Leflore: Well Glenn, is Jake anywhere close to you?

Glenn Falla: I think, I can round him up. I’ll hand the phone on. Thanks guys.

Rocky Leflore: Thank you bud. Thank you man.

Jake Latendresse: Good day mate, we’re having a good they’re going at it. Having a little stuck on the scotch bottle. Oh, you must be feeling a few short of a six pack at the moment.

Josh Webb: I just split my drink everywhere.

Jake Latendresse:  What’s up fellas?

Rocky Leflore: Well, it’s good to hear your voice. I’m glad to know you’re good and alive and well down there.

Jake Latendresse:  All is well, we’re well taking care of these guys are some of the most, some of the funniest and most hospitable people that I’ve ever been around.

Rocky Leflore: Look, I have a serious, I guess I should have asked one of those guys, but when you got there, I mean it doesn’t take long to be around Ramsey and be able to understand what part of America he comes from, but did they see you as, did they pick up like a southern dialect from you or did they say where in the world on that continent do you come from?

Jake Latendresse:  No one really asked me, but I’m guessing based on my look and contrast of my accent that they were kind of confused. Now this guy sounds like he’s from Mississippi but he looks like he might be from Oklahoma.

Rocky Leflore: Yeah. Oh man. expectations going in, I’m not saying expectations in the sense of, okay, did we shoot 12 today? What I mean by that is, what you were thinking, the hunting was going to be like versus what you’re doing?

Jake Latendresse:  That’s a great question and I think probably you know before I left I had gone through Ramsey’s photos on his website and I saw this photo which I actually stole and posted on my Instagram page, but it was that red gum flooded timber setting and man, when I saw that, it just really kind of, I don’t know man, it dug into my brain and my heart because obviously, being around the flooded timber in Arkansas so much, it was really something that I wanted to see and experience and actually didn’t even know if we were going to go to that spot or not, I just wanted to, so having said that, that’s where my brain was but then when I got here, you know, like we talked about, maybe someone mentioned before the first hunt was very, very similar to a Great Salt Lake hunt out in Utah and then the hunt we did yesterday and today was very similar to a South Louisiana, you know, Sweet Lake, close Avon type marsh hunt. And then tomorrow morning we’re going to head to the red gums. So, there wasn’t really an expectation more than just desire and it’s lived up to everything that I wanted it to be and more, I mean these pacific black ducks, I mean they have a lot of cool species here, but these pacific black ducks, as you’ve probably seen on my social media, it really taken to them, taking a liking to them because it’s their version of a mallard. I mean it’s a model duck, it’s a black duck. It’s New Jersey, East Coast black duck. I mean it’s just a fabulous species and I’m enamored with it. So yeah, that’s kind of my take on it.

Rocky Leflore: Okay. I’m glad you described it that way because that’s what, that was one of the main questions I had was compared to what you know, when everybody keeps saying black duck, what is it compared to what we’re used to seeing and so it’s extremely similar.

Jake Latendresse:  They’re black ducks. When you see them, we were talking about this morning when they’re flying around, you know when they’re flying straight up above your head on a sunny morning, they flash that black and white just like black ducks do when they get up off the marsh and they fly away they look like model ducks flying away in South Louisiana, when they’re coming into your decoys, they look like freaking mallards. I mean, it’s just one of the, that is the trophy of, that’s the pitch here. I mean when you come from North America to duck hunt here to have all these great species they’re all beautiful and very desirable and it’s just amazing to look at all these different kinds of ducks at, but then when you shoot a pacific black duck, it’s like bingo. I mean everything starts to resonate because you know it brings you home and that’s what you’re familiar with. And you know how, when you see a black duck in a flock of mallards, everyone zones in on that one duck, that’s what it’s like. When you see a pacific black duck, it’s just focus.

Josh Webb: Okay, you mentioned a black duck in a flock of mallards and that’s something that all of us sitting on this side of the world is familiar with shooting ducks over there, is it flock, I mean are you all working birds of 15, 20, 30 or is it singles and pairs? What’s more common over there? I mean I’m just.

Jake Latendresse:  All the above. It’s really you know, two years ago I went to New Jersey and hunted black ducks on the east coast and it’s very similar to that. You see more pacific black duck in flocks, then you would black ducks in Arkansas or West Tennessee. But then like when you go to South Louisiana and you see the model ducks, it’s the same thing because they group up and they’re not huge flocks. But I mean we saw what flocks of 15 or 20 this morning. Yeah, I mean I can’t emphasize enough you know as to how similar and parallel they are to our black ducks and you know the desire is the same. I mean, that’s how I see it.

Josh Webb: What, I don’t know how close you’re sitting to Ramsey but I don’t why you’ve been behind the lens is Ramsey the first one to shoot every time or does he at least let Ryan try to shoot first?

Jake Latendresse:  I think Ryan might be a little quick.

Josh Webb: Well that’s just the aids coming through that.

Jake Latendresse:  Well it’s kind of like there they are boom-boom, okay get them.

Josh Webb: Okay get them.

Jake Latendresse: Now, they’re sharing, they’re swapping leads and they’re sharing and they’re doing, you know they’re buddy hunting that’s the kind of the cool thing about all this is being behind the lens I get to you know really explore the camaraderie and the, I don’t know just sort of the brotherly love that they’re sharing out there and it’s the same thing. It would be like me and you going out duck hunting. You and Rocky or me and Rocky or whatever. They’re buddy hunting and it’s so similar to what hunting is duck hunting is like in the Southeastern United States that, it just takes you home man, and I think everyone feels at home, it’s very familiar setting. You don’t know what it’s going to look like before you get there but once you get there you feel right at home and these Aussies are freaking awesome. I mean I’m telling you, I’ve said this at the very beginning of my interview, I’ve never been around a funnier or more hospitable group of people than these guys. They’re awesome.

Josh Webb: Well, I mean and I’ll you to attest to that Ramsey said, you know, we were in a group text message and Ramsey said they’re no different than the rest of us, just pick on them, just talk to them, just to hang out with them.

Jake Latendresse:  The Aussiesm been coming out, I mean, pretty much say something totally slang to them and I’ll be like, what did you say? And then we just bust into stitches man, It’s just, it’s hilarious. I can’t emphasize enough, you know, whoever’s listening to this podcast in America, do you guys want a really cool trip. I mean, I’ve been to a lot of places and hunted all over the world and this is one of the most friendly fun experiences I’ve ever had and if anyone is looking for something that’s well within reach, you know, financially and all those things and you want to go do something exotic and cool, this is it, I’m telling you this is it.

Josh Webb: Well, I can say, and not just because you’re there, I can say this last year when Ramsey got back from that trip, it probably wasn’t a few days and Ramsey and I were on the phone together and Ramsey was actually bugging me about, hey, are we going to have a place to shoot doves in September and October but I said Ramsey, I don’t want to talk about any of that. I want to talk about where you just came from. And we got to talking about the Australia trip and that’s exactly what he said. He said, I’m telling you if, you know which we all know, Ramsey has been all over everywhere twice. And he said if there’s one place that I can tell you that you’ve got to go before you die, it’s Australia and go over there and experience that. And you know, I’ll just say personally speaking, I mean it’s been fantastic following you all on social media, seeing everywhere you’ve been and also knowing, you know what you’re experiencing through text message, everything. What you all are about to start doing, getting in those in that Australian flooded timber, I’m extremely jealous of because now it’s, you know, 94-95 degrees and the Mississippi delta humidity has set in the mosquitoes are out in full force and just to know that you all over there in Australian, you know, they’re flooded timber and what you all are about to experience, which all of you all have already experience is amazing. And but what you all are, you know, still have yet to experience. It’s just, I’m extremely jealous of each and every one of you and I will be until I actually get over there myself. But it’s been really, really fun to follow along. Like I said through text messages and pictures and social media and then now getting to talk to the entire group of guys, it’s been, it’s just been, I wish I was there myself in person.

Jake Latendresse:  Yeah, I can’t wait to get into these red gums. I mean it just looks like this wild –

Josh Webb: I’m glad that you said that, I’m glad you brought that up, what I know that you all have been hunting a lot more open water scenarios. But the calling techniques Jake and I know you haven’t gotten in the timber part of it yet, but what is that compared to what we’re used to seeing?

Jake Latendresse:  It’s the same. I mean it’s the same. It’s so similar to South Louisiana, what we’ve done so far. You know, they’re using blue wing teal calls and they modified the way they control the read to mimic these other ducks and I mean it’s just so similar. Even their cooking style and I’ll say this, I say this with all due respect, their drinking habits all that, they’re so similar to South Louisiana Cajuns that I can’t, I mean I can’t relate it to anything else. It’s really, really similar and I cannot wait to get into these red gum flooded timber environments because the way they’re describing it is, you know, you’ve got these like parakeets and cockatiels to kind of birds that are swarming the canopies. So it sounds like this jungle and yet you’ve got these specific black ducks and a few other species soaring into the holes just like, you know, you’re seeing it, you know, on the cache river, in the cache river bottom or wherever and in the grand prairie of Arkansas. So, I mean, I’m prepared, we’ve had a few days to practice, you know, getting my camera right and understanding what I need to do to capture this and get these stories out of here the right way and now I feel prepared and I’m just, I’m ready to get into these red gums and get it on.

Rocky Leflore: You know, you we’re talking about marksmanship just a minute ago, Jake. I’ve been lucky enough to dove hunt with Ramsey a couple of times and I’ve never seen anybody. Ramsey is an excellent marksman and one day we were sitting beside, this is a true story. We have been sitting there talking for probably 30 minutes. I said Ramsey, if you over here to shoot some doves you need to go on out in the field now. And Ramsey looks down at his watch as he sits on his bucket, it is 04:37 and it’s 04:52. He’s walking out of the field with 15 doves.

Josh Webb: Look and I can attest to that. Now look now, this is for, yeah, okay now this is what I’m about to say, this goes for Jake, you haven’t been around Ramsey much Ryan you have but this really goes for all the Aussies. Please don’t let Ramsay’s head get too big over what Rocky and I are saying right now.

Rocky Leflore: You guys are blowing it up right now. What are we supposed to do about that?

Josh Webb: But now look, I will say this, I was there, Ramsey and I and Rocky, we got to experience some and I mean just exactly what you want out of a you know, late October dove shoot in the Mississippi Delta. But I will say this, Rocky is not lying when he, now it did take Rocky leaving and quit talking for Ramsey and I to actually get serious and start shooting. But Ramsey it was, it was I don’t know, 04:30 or whatever and Ramsey, said look I’m going to go right over here, that’s right. And Ramsey said I’m going, that’s it. And Ramsey, said josh, I’m going to walk right over there, me and my dog and we’re going to take that side, I’ll take this side. I said okay, Ramsey that’s fine. And Ramsay comes walking back behind me. I don’t know how many I killed, it wasn’t a limit. Ramsay comes walking back by me. Hey, I’m going to the house, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing boy? And he was just out. And I said Ramsey, where you going man? He said I’m done. He said josh, I don’t need the box still. I said, Ramsey man, just come sit with me, talk to me. You know, he said no, I’m going back and I’m going to cook supper for my wife. I’ll be back here in the morning if you want to come. I said hell no, I’m not coming back with you. It’s over with, you know, but I will say, but no, you know, and that’s something that particular day I’ll never forget because I sat there you know, Ramsey is Godly here I go talking Ramsey up again and making his head big. But Ramsey is someone that I have looked up to for a long, long time many of us have and respect Ramsey and everything he does and watching him sit 150 yards away from me, shoot his limit of doves and watch his dog work and just that whole, I said a million times, I wish I had a camera with me that day but really and truly I’m glad I didn’t because I’m glad that’s something that I’ll have in my mind from now on is just watching that, you know, man and his dog and sit there and work and shoot their limit of doves and leave and in that evening on a good funny note, that was something, that’s something I always have. And then the fact that it was 10 minutes from my house just makes it even better. But you know, in all seriously, Rocky said there’s nothing for me to do by. I said, I’ll be back in a little while when you get done, I’m going to check on the score and I come down. I don’t have to call. Ramsey was going, Ramsey was back home, Man. He’s yelling in the, in the Bluetooth in his truck. I sat down at 4:37, I was done at 4:52 and Josh was like, I’m out of here. I’m going home. I’m going to, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing by. I’m gone. I’m going to eat a steak. I said, well Ramsey mean you can come sit with me, you know, be my buddy for the afternoon. No, I’m gone, I’ll be back in the morning and that was it. But no you know and it’s like I said I’m going to go it’s been a ton of fun sitting here watching everything through social media that you guys are doing and talking to each and every one of you it’s you know I’d, I learned a long time ago, that if Ramsey tells you something he means it and when he tells you to get your butt to Australia and go duck hunting he means it. And that’s going to.

Jake Latendresse:  That’s something very accurate as to what I’m finding out now he’s very serious when he says he’s going to do something and you’re coming with he’s going to do it and you’re coming with. Here I’m. There’s something that we need to touch on because we just tapped on it a few minutes ago about the cuisine and you know how similar it is to South Louisiana. I want to pass the phone off to Mr. Paul Sharp he’s been the chef, the gourmet chef with us and I would really want you all to ask him some questions because the guy, the dude can cook.

Josh Webb: I need to talk to that man.

Paul Sharp: Good evening gentlemen, how’s it going?

Josh Webb: I’m doing fantastic, how are you?

Paul Sharp:  I’m good, I’ve just been sitting here listening to you guys talk up Ramsey for the last few minutes. A lot of Ramsey’s weak spot.

Josh Webb: What food or whiskey?

Paul Sharp: Well actually on the way to get your, well no whiskey, he’s gone to bed by 8 o’clock every night. He’s no fun at all. Unfortunately though he has been known to open his bottle of bourbon up and take the cork to bed and the rest of us are looking around and they were going, there’s no cork to pull, put in the bottle so we can’t let it go off by morning. We’ll just have to drink it.

Josh Webb: Well, I’ll tell you this, I’m assuming it’s your cuisine that the pictures that keep getting posted are taken of and I love to cook myself. And my wife keeps saying, well how come you can’t do what Jake and Ramsey and Ryan are eating right now. I said, hey, look now they’re over in Australia and I don’t know this guy. So, I had, you’re going to have to send some recipes back home with these boys.

Paul Sharp: Well we’ve got the recipes. Look, I’m just your average shooter. I’m hardly a chef and I love my duck hunting and I love doing, you know, taking birds home prepping them and eating them throughout the year and eating them fresh and I was sort of touching him before about Ramsey sort of weaknesses inevitably when they come to Australia, it’s all about crocodile Dundee and spiders and snakes. But the conversation swung around the great white sharks and I had to tell him that where we were shooting ducks have, there’s a lot of fish and I knew a little spot. If we went down there, we could go and catch a couple and said bring your waiters with you because you need to walk out a little bit. He think I was joking. I think he thought I was joking. But when I handed him the rode, his always turned to the size of sources and I virtually had to push him out in the water to get him to flick a lure.

Josh Webb: So, you’re saying if you tell Ramsey there sharks in the water, then you don’t have to worry about getting in the water.

Paul Sharp: If I didn’t have my hand on his back, may have been standing the sand jeans. Now, the ducks here, like pretty much ducks anywhere if you know what you’re doing and you know the birds that you’re cooking, you can do so many different things with them and I think that’s the key. I kind of know Glenn fella as a friend and that’s how I kind of got put into this sort of trip, you can say and I just said I’ll cook for you is no problems at all. But if you go to the website and have a look, we did ducks on skewers and you leave the fat on them, you just cook them over charcoal. You can do all sorts of things with them, you know, they’re really tasty.

Josh Webb: Well I’ll say one thing to that and something I noticed that you made sure to say was leave the fat on them and if that is not Ramsey Russell’s number one rule to cooking duck and then I don’t know what he is. I’ve been around him enough to know that and it’s, but you know, it’s cool to hear that and to hear you say that, you know, all the way over there, where you guys are, but it’s a 13, 14 hour difference in where we live and you all still believe in the same things and it’s just good eating and you know, leaving the fat on the duck I think Ramsey, if you can hear me that is your number one rule.

“The audio quality might not be perfect, but the passion in their voices comes through loud and clear.”

Paul Sharp: Oh yeah, no, it is the key and you just let the duck fat do its thing. Even in the stir fries, we cut them into like, you can say ice cube sized pieces and just fry them, don’t overdo them and you just do a light sauce with some chili and garlic and honestly just like marshmallow tender, absolutely beautiful. But the boys can tell you in person when you see them next.

Rocky Leflore: Now when Ramsey came on the air, he was talking about the crayfish or the lobsters that you guys were eating tonight.

Josh Webb: Glad that you brought that up.

Paul Sharp: Sadly, I didn’t have any hand to him, but I’ve been showing the pictures because although duck shooting, the thing I love, I also love free diving for crayfish and but I did happen to have some abalone. So he grilled some abalone over the charcoal as well and you know, there was a few fights for the skewers of those. Collision in the corner of the world where we are because it’s rich in wildlife. It’s sustainable. It’s some of the best organic food you’ll ever eat.

Rocky Leflore: Now, do you have to take a cooler full of groceries into camp with you all or I mean are you, because Ramsey said you were standing tents right now.

Paul Sharp: No, we’re not in tents, we’re actually and we just finished our hunt, so we’ve come back in boats were just under like a, I don’t know, a pavilion, we call it a pergola. And so we’re just having a chat you now but we’ve been staying in a lodgings in town. And so I take some groceries and I wasn’t actually far originally from my own home can so I just brought stuff from home. We kept them trying to simple, we didn’t keep it too complicated because we were out hunting most times we’re looking around for hunting or showing them different places and I think the boys enjoyed what we did.

Rocky Leflore: Well, we’re just about running out of time, is Ramsey around for a few seconds where we can catch up with him?

Paul Sharp: Absolutely he’s right here.

Ramsey Russell: Man, you all have been killing me, letting all these other people talk me.

Josh Webb: I know that hurts you, Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Rule number one, when you come to Australia is do not leave your bourbon laying around and go to bed. We’re all jet lag. I thought this 122 bourbon, so proud of going to last me always just a little at a time and me and Ryan and Jake, you know, we’re jet lag and so we go to bed and wake up at 2 o’clock in the morning I hear parties going on out there. Then you know, I get up at 5 o’clock to get a pot of coffee and glands kind of listing to the left. I’m like, I already said, boy, I sure wish you put a cork in that bottle for you went to bed is gone.

Josh Webb: I’ll take note of that. When I head over there.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, he has a 55 gallon drum of it, you know? Well we’ve had a good time, you can tell that’s why it’s so important to me to pass the phone around man. These guys are so, I’m 10,000 miles from home, they’re so dead serious about what they do. Just like we are back at home, absolute playful, you know what I’m saying. I mean the hunting is so serious.

Josh Webb: Well, I know that. It’s like I was saying earlier, Ramsey when you got back from the last trip over there, me and you were on the phone for probably an hour, hour and a half. And that’s all you kept saying was, I’m telling you, yes, they have an accent, but it is like being at home and it is, and it’s such a cool experience and you know, now I’m so glad you did. I’m so glad the phone got passed around and we had the conversation with everybody because it has just been awesome experience. I mean, I feel like I’m, I feel like I can go over there right now and know every single one of those guys. And that’s exactly the way that you explained it to me. And that’s exactly what you say.

“I’m not here to pull the trigger. My purpose is capturing the story forever through the lens.”

Ramsey Russell: It’d be just like falling in a long lost family. I’m telling you, every time I come over here, I know. Let me say this, you know, I told you me and Trent and Glenn hunted there in Arkansas, but we were hunting with Harrison Banks in Southeast Arkansas commanders corner and he’s got an amazing pit blind, it’s one little X’s on earth that just the duck come to die. The boar kills just I’d say the number, but you wouldn’t believe me how many mallards they kill out this one pit blind. And we were helping film a TV show that particular day. So we had to pick our shots and we sat all day and what I noticed about them is like, man these guys are from a foreign country, but they really get this kind of duck hunting. I mean they calling and the decoy man and the movement of the decoys, the position of the decoys and the mojos and the whole drama. I mean and then back at camp, you know, they just absolutely aided up and I’m like there was, these guys are duck hunters apparently. So as we started talking over chicken fried steak at the local cafe, which they’re still getting freaked out. This is not chicken, I go, well its chicken fried and you know well back home we’ll take a solid piece of meat, this is a hamburger patty. I go, well that’s the state part its chicken fried steak, it’s just a southern staple. And but anyway, you know, we talked about it and that’s kind of where the plan was hatched to come down here and man I’m born and raised in Mississippi never leave home. But I could really, especially down here in South Australia. I’m not getting out there with them sharks. But I’ll get enough to catch the fish and the crayfish as they call them, it’s just, it’s the most amazing place I’ve ever been. Absolutely, I love Argentina. Don’t get me wrong, anybody loves just pull the trigger until you fall out dead. Argentina, Mexico. But I’m going to tell you Australia is just one of those kind of places and I’m really appreciative Josh that you and Rocky had us on the show to share this with all the listeners because it’s just a really, right about the time you think you’ve seen and done it all in the world of duck hunting, you show up halfway across the world Australia and you fall in with family it’s just like being back home.

Josh Webb: I will say exactly what you just said is exactly what you told me last year was, I’m telling you josh, I’ve been everywhere. And I’ve seen a lot there, fortunately seen a lot and when I went when I showed up in Australia, it was like being with family and I can’t, I mean, I know I keep saying that, but it’s the truth. You know, Ramsey and I had a long conversation about that and it was, it just speaks volumes to the men you’re sitting there around with, you know, and enjoying a good time with. I’m jealous that our good buddy and co-host Jake is there with you and Ryan your fine, you’ll be okay.

Ramsey Russell: Ryan and I met seven years ago and this is like our third continent to hunt together, you know, and we always do have a good time. It was just, it’s funny how you just meet people in this world that birds of a feather flock together and that is really and truly, you’ll hear me say this a million times, but one of the things that I love most about the, my get ducks experience is the people, you know, and man, we all love to pull the trigger and shoot the ducks and work the ducks and call them and the traditions and everything that goes into it but at the end of the day. You know, it’s just a bunch of wet stinking ducks, if you removed the whole back drama, you know, the people, you take people out of the equation and the food and the drink and the good times and the stories, godly the stories we’ve told just the past five days here, you know, but if you take all that away, it’s just going out and shoot a bunch of poor ducks and that’s really not the point of it, you know, and I get to see, speaking of people, that’s what I’m trying to get out, I get to see everybody at their best. And that’s what I love so much about traveling around and hunt with you guys and hunt with these guys, hunt with the next people and the last people. It is just, I get to see every single person I’m with the outfitters and guides and the clients and the dogs and the cook. I get to see everybody at the very best and that’s just been a very rewarding part of what we do.

Rocky Leflore: Hey Ramsey, can we talk just a second? Because we really got to go, but just a second, think there’s a lot of excited people that when you do get back you’re going to tell the Ramsey Russell’s story from when you got your first Red Ryder all the way to now.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, let’s do it. It’s going to be a long story.

Josh Webb: It may take 8-12 weeks, that’s when I’m personally looking forward to look you know, and when Rocky told me that, you know, we were going to go through that you know that particularly excited me because I said, hey great, you know, I’m only an hour from Ramsey’s Club and if it takes me going on there and meeting him and sitting down when he’s back in the US and doing this thing, that’s fine. I think it’s going to be a bit, it’s just a fantastic story.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you all. I’m really looking forward to it. I was telling Jake I’m ready to tell some of that story I really hadn’t talked about in 30 years, you know and I’m really ready to talk about it and really, I’ll tell you this just honestly, you know, well you two guys here and you all on your podcast, which I listen to a lot and hearing Jake go through his story. It really kind of inspired me it really just said, you know, I’m ready to talk and I look forward to meet with you two guys.

Josh Webb: It’s going to be fun and I look forward to it, Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you. Hey we’re fixing to go, we’re out of cold beer now and we’ve got to go to town to get cold beer.

Josh Webb: What time is, I mean I’m sitting here looking its 11:05 p.m. here in the, actually clear sky beautiful Mississippi Delta. What time is it there?

Ramsey Russell: Its 1:35 PM tomorrow your time.

Rocky Leflore: Well hey you wouldn’t happen to be staying at the Walkabout Creek hotel, would you? If you are tell I said hello.

Ramsey Russell: I will. You all be good. Okay, thank you.

Rocky Leflore: Yeah, we enjoyed it. Josh that sounds like a heck of a time down there but we’re out of time. I’ve enjoyed today. It is 11 o’clock at night right now.

Josh Webb: Its 11:06 PM. you know, here in Greenwood Mississippi in the Mississippi delta. And I’ve been looking forward to this phone call and recording this podcast for a long time when we found out all our good buddies, you know, Ramsey Ryan and of course our co-host Jake going to be down there together. I’ve been looking forward to it and it’s going to be a fun time just following them on the remainder of their trip. But then when Ramsay gets back and we start recording though, the story of, I don’t know what we’re going to call it. I don’t know if Ramsay’s talked about it. I don’t know if, I know Ramsey and I have not talked about together, but you know, Jake says there’s the climb and it has been an incredible story.

Ramsey Russell: Life’s short, get ducks.

Rocky Leflore: Ramsey is still on here. Look, he can’t let go.

Ramsey Russell: I’m too worried you talk bad about me.

Josh Webb: He is in tomorrow and he cannot let go of it. He can’t let go of it. All right, Rocky, I’m done. I’m putting it on mute. I’m gone. I’m going to bed.

Rocky Leflore: Thank you all to listen to today’s podcast. Oh, same story that I have today on the podcast. Anyway.

Josh Webb: All right, Ramsey you all enjoy your day.

Rocky Leflore: All right, we’ve been destroyed it guys, thank you for all of you to join this edition of the End of the line podcast, Powered by DuckSouth.com.

 

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