Welcome Back DJ Jones

SPEAKER_01 0:14

On this episode of Chase the Unknown, we're joined by none other than DJ Jones, Florida native turned Minnesota outdoorsman. A content create a content creator whose passion for the wild is as raw as it gets, from gripping hunts to heartwarming family moments. DJ journeys through the swamps, woods, and waters of the south, and now the north has inspired thousands. We dive into the stories that shape him, the mindset that drives him, and what it means to truly connect with the outdoors. If you're ready till for last wisdom, a few wild turns, the episode is one you won't forget. Man, it is it is great to get you back. I mean, I know this is gonna be the first time you're you're on this show of ours, but you know, you're a OG from the the Garden State uh outdoors and podcasts. I think season one or two you were on. Well, welcome to the colour. I want to say it was one great, great to talk to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I wanna I want to say it was one. Yes, thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

I uh yeah, I believe so too. I believe it was in the first year, which looking back at the first year of the show, I mean, of just doing podcasting in general. I mean, crazy, crazy time, and just uh, you know, I it it's always funny to to see where we are now, but now also you know, same with you because man, it's been a long time. I know we we've DM'd and stuff like that back and forth, but we haven't like sat down and talked since you know, since that day. So, I mean, a lot has happened. How how have you been? How's the family? Oh uh family's doing good, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

I can't complain. God is good. Um just the same, busy working, whitetails, family, and just trying to stay as healthy as I can and do as much as I can, um, and just enjoying everything I feel like I can try to tap into.

How Fishing Turned Into A Rescue

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah, no, and and that's you know, that's the work thing that that never stops. You know, we always gotta work and staying healthy. We're we're only getting older now. Like we're we're we're starting to get up there, you know. We still got some time, but like health and you know, working out and eating healthy and everything like that is a big, it's a big factor, you know, just a lot of things that we do in our life. But you know, it's it's great to hear. Um, you know, one thing that I really want us before we really get into you know the hunting and everything like that, man. I I I haven't gotten a chance to talk to you since that, you know, absolutely incredible, you know, un unimaginable incident that happened with you, you know, when you're on that lake with with those kids and everything like that. Um, you know, and I remember first, you know, when it first popped up on on Instagram like that, you know, that I can't believe, you know, that happened. So for you know, for for all those out there who who don't know, you want to give a quick rundown on on that whole scenario?

Saving A Kid From Current

SPEAKER_00 3:12

So um I'm a Christian, um, Southern Baptist specifically speaking, and a lot of people don't don't want to acknowledge God, you know, or choose to believe in God. And that's okay, because I'm not gonna ever force religion on anybody. You know, I always feel like for some people to become believers, it takes like, you know, life-changing instances, or you know, they're forced to believe in something. But um just summer, well, I guess it started in the spring of 2022. I was um at a gym and just for whatever reason, I just kept, you know, uh feeling like I needed to do the concept to roar, and I just incorporated that into my um my workout routine. So incorporating to my routine, you know, I just kept like finding myself hating the actual workout and using that concept tour. For those of you who've ever tried using one at a gym, they absolutely suck. They're not fun. They will uh burn you out pretty quickly. It doesn't matter how fast you go, doesn't matter how slow you go, it's it's literally a full-body workout. But I just was was doing that for maybe two or three weeks, and I just incorporated it to my routine. And I ended up watching um a local YouTuber um who's actually really great. Um, he's on our Fox Sports North channel and stuff like that up north here, um, superior angle company. But um I ended up watching one of his videos on the St. Louis River here in Duluve, Minnesota, um, specifically out of the Boy Scout landing, and then watching that, it kind of inspired me to get out and try to do some fishing on that section of the river because I had never tried fishing on that section of the river before. And first time there, first time at the river. I just remember, you know, like just getting my stuff set up and everything like that, where set the GoPro up, got the rods and stuff in the kayak ready to go. And I just remember seeing, you know, a family that's sitting on the dock fishing, and there was another family sitting on the bank fishing. And I just remember like looking out, and there was like a sailboat and there was a little kid in the water swimming and stuff like that, you know. Just it just seemed like an average day. And got in the water, started fishing. Oh, before I started fishing, um, there was a couple, the couple that was on the dock had asked me if I could take their weight and line because he couldn't cast that far because he had a broken fishing pole. It was one of those um eagle claw fishing poles from Walmart. I'll never forget it. And it looked like it was supposed to be like a seven-foot rod, but they had broke it off like it may be the second eye on the rod, so he couldn't cast. So he I just, you know, he asked me if I'd be kind enough to carry his weight out and drop it on the bottom because he couldn't cast that far. So I remember doing that, and then I'm fishing, I'm fishing, I'm fishing, not catching anything, just floating, trying to get in a position and stopping. I just remember looking up, I just watched a dad, like, you know, who had the sailboat pull up, pull his anchor, and the kids still swimming or whatever, but I just didn't pay any attention to it. And by that time, I remember getting turned around in the current, and after getting turned around in the current, um, I watch a boat go by and another boat go by. I'm just not thinking anything of it. Then um, I hook into something. I was never able to this day. I'll never I I want to say it could have been a log, it could have been a really big pipe, could have been a really big sturgeon. I hook into something on the bottom of the river, and for a second, you know, I just kept telling myself it was a log. But every now and again, that thing it would dive like down to the bottom, like it was moving, but it was moving really, really slow. And it was like something I'd never caught before. So I was there trying to catch a walleye. And most people were saying that I probably hooked into uh a sturgeon, which are prehistoric fish here in freshwater. And um, sturgeon fishing is very popular in places in the Midwest and stuff like that, or wherever you can find them, because a lot of people like literally use the phrase catching a dinosaur because they're prehistoric. So I'm thinking, did I hook you know into a sturgeon and I just tap my GoPro and this thing is carrying me down the river solely but surely just like carrying me down the river. So then um doing that, I in that process I just hear like this scream, and it just sounded very like like gut-wrenching, and just hearing that scream, and I looked up and I could see the kid like almost you know parallel with me away from the shore. And I just ended up looking for his dad in the sailboat, and I couldn't see it. So um he was panicking, he was getting taken away by the undercurrent in the middle of the St. Louis River. Um, at that time I didn't know it, but there was a father and two daughters. Um, the father and the daughter um drowned in that same river the prior summer. But he was getting swept out by the current. I mean, he's a six-year-old kid. He had a life jacket on, thank God. Um, I try to put the basically the pedal to the metal, rolling as fast as I can to get to him. And I get to him, he's hysterical. Calm him down. Once I get down, calming him down, calming him down. You can go up there and tell Harrison to get down there and eat too. Y'all can eat in the kitchen. Um trying to tell him to calm down. I'm I'm calming him down, doing as best I can, because you know, it's like, you know, what I've learned between law enforcement and things, you know, like doing security and stuff like that, just other like, you know, high-pressure situations, um, the cooler heads will often always prevail. And I know that me panicking isn't gonna help this kid that's panicking. So I have to think things through because in my head, like I'm trying to, you know, um distract him, but I'm also trying to make sure that he doesn't drown in this process. Because I don't know how how long he's been swimming, I don't know what his swimming capabilities are, I don't know how long he can hold on. So I'm trying to like row without splashing water in his face. I'm trying to row without hitting him on top of the head with the oars, and it's like we were close to maybe 300 yards from shore. Like in theory, like being that 300 yards away from shore, like in a boat, oh, that ain't nothing but a thing, right? You just you hammer down and you can go. But I got a six-year-old kid hanging on my kayak, we're in a current, going against the current with the wind starting to pick up, because we're getting caught out in the middle of the channel, and just bringing them there and then getting them there, and just everything happening from there, where luckily I was able to find the house. I didn't get shot showing up with some random white kid on the shore trying to get him dry because I didn't know what was gonna happen. I don't know what people were gonna think, like you know, like I'm showing up with this random white kid who I don't know. Um, just just learned his name like a few seconds ago, but he's cold and he's wet. But luckily, I had some people who didn't try to question me. They immediately got them towels, tried getting them warmed up, and then informed me of the person where the father and a daughter drowned there last year and died, but one of them was able to survive and stuff like that. And then the dad comes up and ended up finding out, you know, um, he was a law enforcement uh graduate from the same school as myself, but um he ended up then looking at the police officer because they actually ended up graduating the law enforcement school together and stuff like that. And then um that was all that was the last I heard or had any contact from anybody about the case. So I guess long short, I was able to rescue a kid while attempting to walleye fish, potentially hooking a sturgeon. And uh that video went viral on a bunch of major platforms because I remember when I put the video out there, I just put it out there for just you know wanting to remind everybody of water safety and stuff like that. But um, a lot of people said that they probably thought that I was in shock, not understanding how serious of a moment it was. And for me, it was just like I did what I would want anybody would have done, you know, to my kid or to me if if I was put in that position, I would have wanted whoever it was, I wouldn't care if you had a damn P-roll or you had a dang banana boat or RC boat in water. Help me get back to land, please. I beg of you, and uh, and that's just what I did.

Water Safety And Lasting PTSD

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, I mean, you know, you wouldn't I'll like I said, I'll never I'll never forget when you when you post it and everything like that. And you know, one of the most important things, and like you said, why you originally posted it was you know, water safety, and that's something like even I'm you know, I'm gonna be 32. Like when we go out into the water, when we're fishing, even like as simple as going trout fishing, the water levels are all high right now because it's been raining so much, and you know, we wear our waders and everything like that. But gosh forbid, you fall into something, you know, a deep hole that fill up, it fills up, then you're you you're you're done and you're putting yourself in this absolutely unimaginable situation because no one thinks about that. You know, these big open waters, these lakes, these big big rivers, like yeah, it happens. It happened and you know, it's it's a thing that you hear, like you may not hear, but like law enforcement, everyone who wor lives there, it does happen quite a few times a year. You know, you always hear some story, you know, down the beach of you know, at least one person drowning at the beach and everything like that. So, you know, for for the kid, like I can't imagine. I mean, I was not when I was younger, I I loved the water, but didn't love the water. I yeah, honestly, it took me forever to learn how to swim and everything like that. Um, you know, now I love it, but still, if there's a boat or something like that, would love to, you know, be in the boat, but but getting into these situations, but also, you know, like you said, a big believer of you know, you know, God and everything like that. Like, if you weren't there, you know, if God didn't put you in that that exact moment, you know, the reality of what could have had, like, who knows what could have really happened, you know, at the end of the day. Um, you know, and like I said, I don't know the full details and everything like that. So, you know, for for you, you know, oh yeah, you gotta be, but I think people who work law enforcement, who work with with children or high pressure, and at the end of the day, hunting too, hunting can be a high-pressured situation, you know. Listen, I've been face to face with multiple black ear, black bears and everything like that. Like this adrenaline, this fight or flight that we get, like, you know, you you can't panic. Yeah, you know, you you just have to like okay, cool. This is what we need to do. I need to do this so that this kid is safe, and not only the kid, but we're both safe because if I start panicking, yeah, not only could he drown, but then also I you know, I could flip the boat, you know, the kayak over. There's so many things that could happen. Um, so the best bet is always to to stay safe for both for not only the kid, but for both parties as well. Yeah, it's true. So I mean, yeah, crazy, crazy time, you know. I and I I've been wanting to talk about that real quick and get the story from you for now, years, uh, you know, and and things like that. But um, you know, thank God and everything like that. Hopefully, you know, the kid is still 100% safe to to this day and everything like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

You know, yeah, and that's that's the same thing I'd be I'd be wishing too, because like I still get people that will message me to this day, like you have any updates. I'm like, you know, um, in the state of Minnesota, they protect minors when it comes to you know, high profile, well, not even necessarily a high profile case, but just like you know, any family courts, anything that involves a child, they always try to protect the minors' information and stuff like that. So I uh I still get a ton of messages either on TikTok or Instagram, you know, you have any updates, or people comment on videos, you have any updates, or I will still see the video resurfacing a lot on TikTok, and people will tag me and stuff, or they'll comment me and stuff that they know that it's me because my face isn't shown in that um in an entire video, which even then, you know, I just kind of feel like that was a blessing in disguise as well, because I I usually just throw my uh my GoPro on uh the tripod behind me. And even then, I just I'm not gonna use my tripod today. I'm gonna use my chest harness. And that chest harness was able to like capture him and his face and everything else and him screaming at a better viewpoint than it would have been over you know, over my shoulder and stuff like that on the tripod. So it was just uh it was just a a god experience. If um if if I always have to describe, you know, like for me, not even usually wildlife fishing, for me, not even fishing that section of the country to the random urge that was put on me to start using the concept to roar, and then it was able to act whenever I had to get this kid to safety in a quick amount of time, because I didn't know how much time I had, but just a blessing to be there and a blessing to help that young child.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Now, have you, you know, have you been back to to fish or anything, or was that the one time and then you then you haven't been back really?

SPEAKER_00 16:11

I went back there once more, um, but still to this day, fishing on the water for me isn't the same because I feel like I still have a little bit of that PTSD where I'm expecting something to happen.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Like, so even when I hear kids in the water playing, I hear any type of scream, like sometimes it kind of gets me, you know, um not necessarily like panic, like a almost like a defensive type of aspect of like, oh, what's happening now, you know, or is everybody okay? kind of thing. But it's it's been almost three years this July. Um, so things have gotten better for me when I go out on the water. But I even if you've been like following my content and stuff like that, of people have been following, like I don't really fish as much out of my kayak after that happened. Yeah, I've kind of noticed that, yeah. Yeah, but I try to I'm gonna try to get out there a little bit more. I try not to think about I'm on water, but every time I get on the water, like I think about it. You know, I think about you know, like the kid, is he okay? You know, how's the family and stuff like that and everything else? But um it's just it's just one of those things, but you know, I took my kids out and I always try to stress to them, you know, um, life jacking on when they're in the water and stuff like that, or even sometimes they're playing at shore, and my son tries to give me grief about it because like oh I'm eight, I know how to swim. I'm eight, I know how to swim. I was like, I don't care you know how to swim. People that know how to swim die in the water, yeah, even even if they know how to swim. I was like, you can still drown adults, yeah.

Catching A 10-Pound Bass

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Grown grown adults, and it honestly it's it's the same thing with you know with with us and adults, like how how often, especially you know, fish and wildlife that I guarantee they can tell you how many times, you know, do they pull up to to a boat or something like that, and people don't have their life jackets on, or don't even, or there are no life jackets jackets even in anywhere around the boat. So, like it it's not only yeah, you know, and for a father, I mean it's you know, you want to teach you know your kids the the correct way and keep stressing it, even though you know it's funny how he says I'm eight and everything like that. It's like, oh, he's making it seem like he's a grown man, you know, 80, he's 80 years old. So uh yeah, no, I I I completely get it. And you know, on on the fishing topic, you know, I also see like that absolute just tank of a bass that you caught. Um yeah, that 10. What that 10.10, yeah, the 1010 in Florida. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Um Jesus. Just over yeah, just over a year ago, last March, just over a year ago. I'm going back and forth with the taxidermist now because I um I got the skin mount done, but I still want to do replicas so that way I feel like if I get enough um bone on the ground this upcoming year and I do shows, I want to have that available for people to see. Yeah, so I want to be able to keep the skin mount at home and then the replica I can bring to shows.

unknown 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

So how like real real quick, like for for anyone looking for for taxidermy for for fish and everything like that, kind of like what does that look like for you? You know, you caught that that bass and everything like that. Like, do you have to get the exact measurements? Like, what kind of do you have to do to send it to your to your taxidermist?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

So for me, I had never even tried dabbling into um getting a fish done by a taxidermist because in today's world, everybody loves the replicas. Everybody loves the replicas, right? But it like for me, it's like I had that urge in me to make sure that whenever I caught something of that nature, I always told myself I'm gonna get a skim out done of the original, but I'm always gonna get a replica because I want to wake up one day and have the same fish that I caught however many years ago, months, weeks, or days ago that I caught out of that pond. And um the funny part about me even catching that fish was the fact that like it's not the only double-digit fish that's in that pond, because there was like three of them that would swim around like underneath the docks, but you could never catch them. Like, like the only person I've seen catch them was somebody that had lived there consistently, but he would always catch them with um, he'd catch them with like uh well, not necessarily minerals, but sunfish and stuff like that, or brim, if you will. Like, you know, he'd get something that would be about the size of three or four fingers and stun them on the water and then just flip them underneath the dock, and then he'd come up and get them. Um, my dad hooked into one um two years ago in 2023 when we were there, and he was like trying to show, yeah, I'm I'm gonna catch that bass. It was like, well, dad, you're not gonna catch that bass, like a bass that size. Because any, I'll I guess I'll explain that a little into a little bit of a detail. But he ended up catching a little brim, putting a hook in his mouth with a brim hook. And again, this this fish, there's three fish that I know that are in that that are in that pond that are you know of trophy catch value, so above you know, eight pounds that I've seen on the scale caught by the person that lives there. Um, he's a good guy, his name is Colby. Um, he still lives there. Um but anywho, dad had a bram, he put the hook on it and just tossed it out there underneath uh the dock. I can watch literally the big one come up and then inhale it. And he had that fish on for all of maybe two and a half seconds. And he swore up and down he was gonna catch him, but that fish spit the hook just as fast as it bit. And he kept trying to get it to come up and bite. I was like, that fish doesn't eat that many times a day. It's a 10 pound bass this March. It's probably pre spawn. So you're not gonna have it biting how you think you're gonna have it biting. And for the past, I want I think I've I've fished that pond maybe the past four or five years in a row. Never even had had anything near that size that I've caught out of that pond. I've always been one to catch four or five five pounders when I'm down there. And just then, you know, um I get to the dock, it's my next to last day. It's cold, colder than what it is normally is for that time. I just flip into the water and I can't see because it's like it's one of those ponds where you got about maybe close to a foot or two foot of the bank that you can actually see, and then it just drops because it's a deep lake. That lake is probably not necessarily a lake, it's a pond, but um, it's probably close to 20 foot deep in some areas, and the dock is where it like it goes from like from two feet and then it just it just drops. So a lot of people in the video were saying that they thought that I was um I was sight fishing him on the bed. I was like, I had no idea that the the bass was even down there. I had no idea that it was even considering taking my bait. I just did what I normally do where I just I'll flip it to the dock and I'll have it drop down that like the edge of that column and making it see like something just fell into the water and it can't get up and it's going down. So I just I flip up to the I flip up to the flip to the bank and I'm just sitting there and I just give it a lot of slack and I'm just barely, barely twitching it, barely twitching it, because I know it's a time of year that if something were to see it, it'd probably come up to the bank and get it. I set the hook, thinking, oh, this is this is probably just you know one of those little 12, 14 ounce bass, probably in here. Because that's what we use it when I catch out of there, right? I set the hook, that joker comes up, and the only thing I see is like a mouth open up that's like this wide. And then that point, like I knew, okay, this one, this one was the big one, and that's when you start hearing me say, like, oh my god, oh my god, because like it was it was huge. I wasn't even expecting to catch it. I got up to the bank on the bank, and then it ended up popping my line. So, and you hear a loud pal. It's not like somebody shot at 22, to be honest with you, when it ended up popping the line because there was so much tension on it. Yeah, and um, my dad was kicking himself because he wished he would have been there because he wanted to film me getting it. I was like, No, it's probably for the best because whenever he tries to film me, it's my content looks like it's just some world star hip-hop video, and he thinks he's the best cameraman. I'm like, no, he's turning like he's literally he'll he'll he'll have the if he's using my phone, he'll have the phone up like this, and he'll turn the phone sideways in the middle of the video and make comments like oh, you can edit that out. I'm like, you just don't edit that out of the video, like it's the entire display. But it was it was for the best that he was there when I called him because I was able to just capture it all on GoPro and stuff like that. But it was uh it was a great fish, ended up weighing um 10 pounds, 11 ounces, I think once or twice, but after that, it consistently weighed that 10 pounds, 10 ounces, and it was a 1010. Um, I believe it what it measured 27 inches in length, and it had like 22 and a half girth. So it was a fat one.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

When when you first got it on shore and everything like that, you know, and got it in your hands before you like what were you thinking? Like, what what were your guesses at at that point? Like, what were you kind of like batting, like, oh, this is gonna be this, like, you know, and then when you actually got the you know, the 1010, like, what was it your expectations or exceed your your expectations?

SPEAKER_00 25:33

I knew the fish was big, but I just didn't know how big. Like, I just knew that I'm like, oh, I finally caught one over eight pounds. Like, little did I know you caught one 10 pounds, but it was like I thought for sure it had to be at least between that eight to nine pound um size range, but I was like, let me just go ahead and put it on the scale, get it on video, put it on scale, get it on video, and I put it on the scale, and I see it go six, eight, nine. And it's just like the score, just like the number just kept climbing. I was like, oh my god, it is like 10, 10, 11, 10, 12, 10, 11, 10, 11, because it was still moving a little bit while I was on the scale, but then finally, once the fish kind of settled down a little bit, it said 1010. I was like, oh my god, 10 pounds, 10 ounces, a new PB.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Just insane, just absolutely like you know, and you and you go from the you know, a 1010, you know, another place, and I don't know how you know what's your plans or anything. I know you're gonna you're always gonna be going to Florida and everything like that, and you always got a chance at big bass over there, but isn't like Mexico or something like that, isn't Mexico have like giant bass?

Florida Turkey Hunt And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Yeah, once you get to states like Florida, you can get them in South Carolina as well, north. Any of those southern states, you you can catch a good name because they grow all year. Um, I'm a little bit biased because I always say Florida has the best bass fishing in the country, and that's why you have everybody and their their uncle, even twice removed divorced cousins, that will show up down to Florida to do a little bit of bass fishing because they're just there. You have all the professional circuits that show up every year because they're there. And people pay thousands of dollars, you know, every year to just have an opportunity at a fish of that caliber. And it and the the crazy part is it can be in a pond, it can be in a stream, it can be in a ditch. Like I've seen people bring some really big bass out of things you wouldn't even expect them to be at in the state of Florida. Um, but that's that's just part of it, you know, when you're fishing in the state of Florida, and that's why like I always get excited when I go down there is to is the bass fish. And then last this actual uh spring, I was able to to turkey hunt for the first time down there. How'd that go? Oh God, man. Um I was able to fish with uh well to hunt and fish with my dad, but also uh our family friend, Mr. Kevin. Um, he's gracious enough to let us hunt his property and also fish his property, which is where I catch the catch the bass and I go fishing at every year. Um the first couple of days we kind of got our butts kicked because um I couldn't do any scouting, obviously, because I'm in Minnesota, so I was trying to rely on my dad to ride around and listen for the birds, but he doesn't really know what what he's doing. Um I asked him to ride around the property and just you know take the four-wheeler if you have to, um, and just listen for the birds. Look for them, look for sign, look for tracks. When I tell you, he sent me a video, and I got on my phone still to this day. He sent me a video of a crow in the top of the tree in the wind. And I told him that's not a turkey. He's like, Don't you think I know that? I said, Okay, so what is the purpose of you sending me a picture of a crow? How is that helping me? Like, I'm relying on you to kind of you know do something while you're down there. But um, so I hung up with my dad on Mr. Kevin's property for the first couple of days, and literally we didn't even hear a gobble until the third morning that we were there. And then hearing that gobble on the third morning, it sounded like to me that bird was making its way to the pond while we were on a southern, like the southern section of the property. So then I'm thinking of a plan to try to cut this turkey off by getting in front of him, but it ended up um for whatever reason turning around and going back and then making it off the property, and then it just stopped gobbling as it made its way across uh the clear cut on the neighbor's property. So then um Mr. Kevin felt bad that we weren't seeing the birds or hearing the birds. So he calls a friend, and this friend has you know a couple hundred acres there in Jacksonville, and we get there, man, it was money. Like we saw gobblers strutting with multiple hands in one section of the field, gobblers struting with you know another hand, multiple sections. Basically, in every corner of this guy's field, I think it was close to 400 acres. There were there were gobblers and hens just strutting. But the but the kicker was he had his um his son in la, his his grandson and his grandson's father-in-law were hunting the property too. So they had dibs on one gobbler that they had been scouting. Um, I thought I was being sneaky, and I made my way to the back section of the property where I saw a handful of gobblers and stuff like that with some hens. They had already had another setup back there for them. So we had to get set up on a different bird and a couple of other uh couple of other hens in a different section of the field. And that next morning, um, because I want to say what day was that. So that the because the first I believe the first morning we hunted his property was Saturday morning. Yeah, so that first Saturday morning, um, the grandson and the father-in-law, they got birds like right away. Um, I was hunting with my dad and Mr. Kevin. Um there, the way they wanted me to get set up, I kind of didn't want to do it because I knew it wasn't going to be successful because I knew how these birds were gonna be, especially after hearing shots and being pressured from what we know of on this property. I can't you know dictate you know how much pressure they've had from the neighbors because I haven't been there scouted. I don't I don't know. But um the weather conditions were kind of kind of strange too because it was foggy each morning, but we but we knew where the birds were roosting at for those three days that we hunted there. So I kept telling them that we needed to get in there earlier, get set up in the dark, no lights, no nothing. You guys sit here, I sit here. These birds aren't gonna trust what they can't see. And what we learned from that first Saturday morning was those birds flew down and they didn't break that fog line. They they literally flew down from the roots, and they didn't break that fog, and that fog line was maybe close to 180 yards away from us because we were hoping the birds would work their way across the field, but that that wasn't happening. And after that first morning with the fog, like I knew then I was like, okay, well, we gotta get in closer. And you know, they wanted to get set up in a ground blind style, you know, tarp and stuff like that, which was yeah, which was good. But I'm a mobile hunter, I like to run a gun. Like, I don't I don't use a blind, I use one strutton decoy and one hand. I don't even freaking wrap my freaking camera or my tripod because I believe that much in my setups. Yeah, yeah. And we did that again for the evening hunt. All we could do is watch the birds 200 yards away. We come back, so we come back um Sunday morning, set up again, different section of the property in the back. We got into um the corral and stuff like that for the horses and whatnot, and the cows. Again, all we could do was watch the birds, they flew down that fog, they would not break that fog line to save our lives. So all we could do is like watch the birds strut 260, 270 yards away. And I knew because my buy knows that I run from Hawk Optics, um, had the range finder built into them. So I could literally just look at the birds and click, yep, 280, yep, 267, yep, 241, yep, 260. And that was uh Saturday morning, Saturday evening, and we went back out Sunday morning, Sunday evening. It was like the same, it was like we just kept replaying the same hunts basically. And then finally that Monday evening, um, Mr. Kev couldn't come, but we didn't we got out that morning. We got to my uh my grandfather's property, and when we got there, we ended up hearing a bird. But once we ended up hearing the bird, again we tried getting set up in front of the bird, but I kind of think the bird saw us and he just shut down because it was just it was too, it was almost like a shot gobbler, because I'm pretty sure you've experienced one of those before, right? Yeah, it was like before I'm even done hitting the call sequence, bam. Yeah, and it was that and it was that close, it was under 80 yards. So, like, I'm trying to tell my dad what I think we need to do because that bird was too close. I didn't want to call again. And we start we tried flanking to the right, the bird gobbled again, but it was further away to our left, and I probably should have used my honest hunt application. So we tried to like to get around, but going around through the woods, and I think that's where we messed up was because there was another road that we could have probably got to to cut the turkey off before it made it off to the neighbor's property, and we didn't. So um, I ended up having a really, really, really bad sinus infection. I lost my voice, eyes, and all that stuff was rough because I was in and out of the pines and stuff like that, and the pollen on the water from fishing. I think that just accumulated over the past couple of days, where it's like my voice was almost gone. And you'll when the videos come out, you'll probably hear that my voice was almost gone. So then finally, um, my dad got a hold of that landowner and asked if we could go there without Kevin, and he did. He gave us a nod, said, Yeah, just let me know if you get one, just bring them by the house. I just want to see him, that's it. So we got the whole 400 acres to ourselves. We get there like at three o'clock, and don't see any birds in the field. I'm like, okay, well, that's fine. Um, I then tell my dad that I'm pretty sure the birds are gonna probably do, you know, X, Y, and Z. I get into the field, I get set up, I don't see any birds. Now all of a sudden the middle of setting up, like almost 400 some yards away, we can see the birds making their way off of the private property onto the public. And um my dad was like, dang it, I told you we should have gone this way, we should have gone down. I'm like, listen, it's like it's four o'clock. Like we we still got you know a couple hours left to hunt. Like it's not it's not the end of the world, like you need to do it. But um the section of the field that we were hunting, um, it has a little bit of a dip, but it has like a rectangular feel, but it almost looks like it's uh like it's an L, right? But it's like this. So the dip section is here, and there's like a little fence, so it's almost like I'm sitting here on the fence line, so I can see back into that dip, but I can also see everything that's in front of me where those birds were. So again, like I finally have some confidence in the setup because, like, oh, we get to do what I want to do. I'm calling, I'm running my film, I'm running, running, I'm doing everything that I want to do. I'm like, okay, this is how I'm gonna get set up. So then get set up. I put the hen decoil on the backside. So if any gobblers were to come up that hill, they'd see that hen first. And then I took the Tom decoy, I put it out in front of me about 35 yards, so that way any of those other turkeys come back into the field, they can see that fan from a distance. And from doing some research and listening to some of those OGs that turkey hunt stuff like that, cuz strickling them is like a turkey won't want to attack another turkey from the back, they won't do it, they won't do it. So sometimes if you put that fan, and this is this is something I've heard from from some of the OGs, and I decided to test it out, right? And then after after testing out this time in Florida, like I found it, you know, to somewhat be true, but this bird didn't get an opportunity. But I ended up getting getting set up, but I can't see that full back section of the field because my back is up against the fence line and there's like a bunch of you know palmetto trees and brush and everything else is sitting there. So I'm just like, okay, all of a sudden I started hearing a little bit of clucking. I'm like, is that a bird coming from the backside? But I wanted it like to stand up and look at my dad, he's not even wearing camouflage, he's just got on like one of these, like these loot cone style Columbia PFG t-shirts, and he's got a hat and like literally blue jeans, but they're damn near white. So he decided to to break a branch off of one of the trees, stick it in the fence, in the fence, hang it down, and sit on the other side of the fence. While I'm just you know all that real tree original camel and stuff like that, up against up against the fence post, right? So all this is happening. I just keep hearing clucking off in the distance, but it's like it's not that far, it's less than 100 yards. But the way that field works, because it's it's 400 acres in total, and there's like a big little um stretch of trees that runs in between it. There's a creek, it echoes like whenever those birds will gobble on top of the hill, you can hear it echoing down into the valley. So I'm like, Oh, it's probably a hen on the back side of the hill on the other side of the fence just clucking. That's what I'm hearing. So I just kept peeking back over my shoulder periodically through the trees every now and again to look and to look and to look. And then finally I see a bird. Like, oh okay, there's a bird. Not thinking anything of it, not thinking anything of it at all, right? I'm like, Oh, yeah, there's a bird. So then bam, I see the other gobblers that were in front of us a couple hundred yards. So I'm like, I'm keying in on them. All of a sudden I hear clucking again. I'm like, oh, that hen sound like she done got goddamn closer, right? So I was able to spot the bird, and it wasn't a hen, it was actually a gobbler. So the gobbler was like maybe at this point in time, 70 yards from us, and that was the closest we had a bird all week. Closest we had a bird all week. So I'm like, okay, I tap the GoPro, get all the cameras ready. I'm telling my dad, like, you know, the bird's coming, don't try to stand up and look for them, just sit still, you know. He's like, You need me to run a camera. I said, just just like I'm trying to keep him calm because he's trying to get all excited and whatever, right? So I'm taking the cameras and I run a newer camera now, so like I'm trying to get the lens right so that way it can focus. So I'm turning the camera, got the lens focusing and stuff like that. And this beautiful, beautiful, you know, Eastern is just making its way directly to us up the middle of the field. I'm like, oh my god, this plan is finna work. Like it's it's it's literally gonna work. He saw he saw uh the Tom decoy. Then he kind of went half strut, half back down, half back down. But that's where when I when I done my research on about like you know, turkeys won't attack another turkey from the back. And I think that's what they kind of got him because he could see the tail, but he couldn't see the front, so he was like, Oh, should I? And it's like one of those from him. Very interesting. He starts coming and I'm like, Okay, my dad's like, Where's the bird? I'm like, Shh, he's coming, just sit still. So I'm getting ready, and I got like the fence post, like maybe a foot and a half directly in front of me. So I'm turning the camera, I'm just doing my quick look, making sure everything is through and on. Okay, I got this one's on, it's recording, lenses there. GoPro got it on the gun, that's recording. Another camera, GoPro on the fence recording me. I'm like, okay, everything's on, everything's going, everything's good. So I'm just like sitting there. Never never try calling to him. Like, I'm not even gonna try to call because I know he's coming straight to me. I don't even have to do anything. He's coming. I kid you not. This was probably the second closest I had had a bird since 2021. My first Eastern, it's the last hunt, it's the last evening, right? So I'm I'm I'm counting my chickens before they hatch. I click the safety off. This bird is continuing to come and come and come and come. And finally he got past that fence post where he could see me at maybe close to I want to say 19 to 20 yards. I shoot, I hit the bird. He's like he almost does like a little, like he leaned, but it looked like it was a non-lethal shot. I shoot again, it ducks down. I shoot again, it takes off, flies off into the trees, into the swamp. That was it. Done. Done. Done. And I'm like wanting to start cussing, wanting to start swearing, everything in the books. I'm like, I'm like, I just don't, I can't believe I missed that close. Like, I don't know how I missed that close. But I was just like, you know, maybe I was just counting my chickens before they hatched, maybe I got a little bit too too excited. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. What like what happened? But then um, I know that's a part of turkey hunt, but for me, it's like the last bird I shot at in Minnesota in the prior spring. I just made my longest shot on a turkey and I killed him at 45 yards. It broke him down. And then then I missed the Florida Eastern at damn near 20 yards. I'm like, what's what like what's the deal? Like, like, what do you got going on? You can knock one down at 45, but you couldn't get this one at 20. And um, it would have been a memorable moment for me and both my dad, because it's like um my first trip to Florida turkey hunting, despite growing up there never doing it, and then um having the cameras rolling around and having the week that we had, seeing multiple gobblers, you know, almost every day of the second week of the uh the the second half of the of my well, not even necessarily the second half of the week, but the last four days of my trip just seeing gobblers each and every day. Um still was a blessing, you know, to hunt my dad and hunt with Mr. Cav and stuff like that. But I just thought that for sure I was gonna have a Florida Eastern at the taxiderming right now, getting a full body mount, but I just wasn't in the cars this year, I guess. I guess I may have to go down there in the fall and try to get one.

Self-Filming And Finding An Editor

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Yeah, uh get one with the boat. Definitely a little redemption, uh redemption tour, maybe in the fall. But you know what the you know what the thing is, like. With turkey hunting, with deer hunting, with any type of hunting, whether it's a bow, gun, whatever, whatever you're you're kind of doing. Like, I could definitely speak, especially for the bow. Like, we're practicing 60, 70, 80 yards, and it's like, all right, you know, I'm not really gonna take this shot, but you know, I the confidence, you want to have the confidence, and then you know, you do have people that like my one buddy one year killed a bunch of deer at like 40, 50, and I think he even took a shot at 60 and smoked it, and then he had a shot, like I think within 20 yards, and absolutely just missed, just straight up, just like missed. And then you know, one of our guys, um, he actually missed. He said the turkey was so close when he shot it at it that the shell didn't even like nothing came. It was still just the full didn't pop out, nothing came out, and it was just so close that like he was like, There, there was nothing I could really do, and it's like I think sometimes the closest shots too, like the closer they are, like you think it's going to be like, Oh money, this is gonna be easy. But then sometimes I think it just like the confidence there, and then it's like, oh, mistakes still happen at 20 yards, they still happen at 15 yards. It may lessen the opportunity of something going wrong or you missing, but that's hunting. There is nothing like at the end of the day, like you won't know for sure until that animal is dead on the ground, and and that's really it. But I mean, just a and and I love how you know your dad's outfit, no camo. You you got the full. I love how you said that you get this full camo on nothing.

SPEAKER_00 45:41

It's on video, like one of the one of the other things I'm I'm glad I could probably talk about this too, is I have finally found a guy that um that does great YouTube content. Um, his name is Alex Comstock. He does the the white tail DNA stuff here within Duluth, Minnesota. So I've I've got some stuff in the works with him where he's gonna start editing my videos. And um he's got a couple in the queue from me right now. He's got my um my Iowa Deer Classic, and he's got my Florida trip with my dad, and and um Minnesota started today, but I'm not gonna go out till probably Friday morning where I'm gonna take my son and I'm gonna have maybe three mornings to try and get it done. Um, if I don't get it done between Friday to Sunday morning, I'll probably call out once or twice at work to probably try to get it done. But um, yeah, I'm excited to kind of have him to kind of bring more of these uh these hunts to life, you know, uh on YouTube for me because for years I would just get irritated with myself with my content, and then I would never put it up. So now I got like all these SD cards that I've accumulated since like 2021, 2022 of hunts that I probably should have put up there, despite harvesting deer or not harvesting deer, and they haven't put on my YouTube channel. So I told myself this year I was gonna kind of you know commit more to that financially, regardless of how much it costs. So that's what I was gonna do. So he he's gonna probably knock it out of the park like he always does with his videos when it comes to this Florida trip.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

Yeah, well, looking forward to that, looking forward to seeing uh all those things. And but it it's it's the one part I think a lot of people what they don't talk about, you know, especially for us with you know the content content creation and everything like that. And you know, yet again, I always tell people we're not you know, we're not the juries, you know, we're not we don't honestly have the full backing of, you know, you got people filming for you, then you're gonna have people are that are editing before you or even the hunting public. Look, listen, I love what love what they do, but they get this like they they film and then they're they're all editing, and they even still, you know, it's a full-time grind where listen, you look at a lot of us, you know, at the end of the day, like we film, then we work, take care of kids and everything like that, or or whatever the case is, and then I still like to learn it all to get it exactly how you want. Sometimes, like you have these expectations in your head when you're filming and you're and when you're you know you're doing what what you're doing, and sometimes you the expectation that when you're editing, it doesn't come out the way you want it to. So it's frustrating. Like, do I really want to put this? Like, I right now I'm editing um our current from our currencies, and I'm just like I'm not happy with it. Like it's it's okay, but it's not like it's not anything like oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

So I know and it's difficult. It's it's it's because at the end of the day, it's like um, it's I I feel like you get some people that will put content out there just to do it, and they don't care if it's good, they don't care if it's bad, they're just putting it out there so they can say that they did it. And then you have people, you know, like ourselves who are like, okay, for what I can do right now, this is the best what I can do, but I I feel I know I'll be able to do better in the future. And then, like you're saying, you got these upper echelon uh hunters and people that can fish, and they got these videographers that are with them in these uh these companies that they're producing full feature films, right? Like two hours, you know, for one video or episode, 37 minutes. They got like a million jump cuts, 16 slow mows, they got five, you know, drone shots, they got the slow-mo when the arrow is getting released, or the turkeys getting shot, etc. Like all these other things that are happening, and um we don't have some of those capabilities, but it doesn't mean we can't get there. But I feel like that's why I feel like going forward, I feel like um I'm hoping Alex and I can continue to work together and continue to get some good content up and uh produce some great stuff.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

Yeah, no, uh, anyhow for for you and you know what what you've done. I mean, you you see just with with stuff that you're you're posting on Instagram and everything like that, like you have the content, you're you're creating it, whether you know you're when you're out hunting and stuff, whether you you kill something, whether you're not even this this Florida trip, like I think it's always like this is what I want to see. Like when I go watch my films and like when I'm producing my content and everything like that, like then they like I want to see you know you and your dad together, and your dad not having the camo on and blue jeans and everything like that. But also, like, yes, I would love for you have to kill that turkey. Of course, we all would, you would, you know, everyone, but it's also it's a huge learning lesson. Like, hey, even when you think something's a sure thing within 20 yards, like these mistakes happen, but it's okay to talk about these mistakes, and that's another thing why I think you know, somebody like the hunting public and everything, like they do so well because they show everything that do they do right, but they also show everything that they that they do wrong, and that's what gravitates a lot of you know hunters who are who are watching this and everything. Yeah, like that. See, that that's no one would think if you're talking about that's my dad, and that's Mr.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Kevin, and they would this is what they would wear turkey hunting. What you see right here, right there.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

When you think turkey hunting, every turkey hunting expert's like camo, camo, camo, can't have and they just like, but it's it makes a story, it builds the story up, and you know what then they those are memories you guys are gonna have forever.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

Yep, and this was us set up in the corral. Oh my god, I love that. I love that. Let me show you them set up. Oh, yeah. So this was their setup the first one, right? Right there. That's great. That is great, but that that's what it was. That's how we were hunting, you know. Um I kind of wish we we could have probably did a little bit of running and gunning, because that's just my style when it comes to turkey hunting. Like, I'm I feel like it's one of the only you know, um, styles of hunting where I can truly be aggressive and not worry about the outcome, right?

SPEAKER_01 52:13

I agree with you. I I think with with turkey, and again, don't be wrong, I'm not and I I talked about this a lot during turkey season when you know I listen. If you know you can get in a blind and they're gonna fly right down in front of you, whatever, you know what I mean? I I 100% get it. I'd probably do it, Liv. But running and gunning turkeys, like, and this will be my second full year of officially like being not fully obsessed, but like the itch, where like I'm taking it seriously, scouting, like everything is done correctly, like I'm constantly on birds, like you know what I mean. Um, just the running gun style, it's so much fun, you know. And I it reminds me of saddle hunting, you know, deer, where you know, I get set up and boom, if I don't like my setup, like I I get moved down, or if you know you can always be um you're not just stuck, yeah. You you're you have the you have options because hunting, a big part of what we do is you just don't know how the hunt's gonna go, you know. You don't, and if you got birds hung up, hey, you might have you're gonna have to move. You can't just sit there in the in the blind and be like, damn, I really wish that you know that they're gonna come here and you can call. And sometimes it just especially the more pressure these birds get, you know, the the harder it's just gonna be where that run and gun style works. After week, after our first week, which starts Monday, I will have decoys my a week. After that, I don't run decoys anymore. No more decoys for us. Um, just because we've noticed that the birds start to get wary, and because everyone is running decoys the first week.

Run And Gun Turkey Strategy

SPEAKER_00 53:55

Yeah, um, my areas of Minnesota are are really unpressured, like as far as I know, which which is kind of one of the perks of the area that I have. Um I have about 12 people that live on the block. And out of the 12 people that live on the block, I have permission at 10 houses. So I can run around everywhere I need to run around without any worries. There's only two houses that I don't hunt because in Minnesota um it's illegal to hunt properties that um for turkey season that have bird feeders in the yard. So, of course, there's two people they got bird feeders in their backyard, so I don't even knock on the door or ask to try to even hunt their properties. Um, I know there's one property um that that has a bird feeder that I used to ask them permission to hunt it, but I couldn't hunt it because the uh the bird feeder was there. But I would also put the camera in the backyard to watch like these birds coming back and forth. So that's where a lot of like my turkey content would come from, would be from those birds coming up to the backyard, and you could see the bird feeder there, you can see the landowner in the back in some of my videos, and also the other birds and the geese and stuff, there and it would come to the backyard. But it's it's fun, you know. Um, we don't get to interact with you know the targets that we're hunting a lot. Like if you if you really think about it, you don't interact with the bear at any point in time when you're hunting them. You don't, you know, the only time you can communicate with the deer is during the rut, basically, or pre-rut times post-rut. Um, you don't communicate with the hogs, there's no way to. You can meet you can communicate with the ducks and the geese and stuff like that if you're in a waterfall, but outside of that, we don't have many animals that we can communicate with, and they'll communicate back with us. Um, as far as I know, turkey, elk, goose, duck. Yeah, that's it. What else can we communicate with? And that's why I feel like I love turkey hunt so much, is because you can get on a piece of property you've never been on before. It can be hardwoods, it can be a field. You can call seeing exactly nothing, and all of a sudden you hear a gobble, and it's like, oh he's here. Yeah, and then you run through the excitement of is it a lone beard? Is it a Jake? I've seen some videos where there was I want to say it was um Jay Maxwell um has a video up of it wasn't a bearded hen, but a hen was gobbling. Wow, and it's and it's on his YouTube channel. I could be wrong, but I want to say I've seen it on his YouTube channel before where a hen was gobbling, and he had it on video.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

That'd be pretty interesting. See, um, you know, and that's like when you hear people, you know, they always compare it to elk hunting. That's one thing that you're like, oh yeah, you know what, because of the interaction, you're you're going back and forth, and which I 100% agree, you know. But that feeling, like like you said, when a when a when you do hear a bird gobble, and it's like, oh man, it's like it's on. Yeah. And now the the the cat and mouse game of calling, um, you know, scratching, you know, scratching is a been big thing that that we've been using here and everything like that. Even you know, we even got times where like just scratch, just scratch. Like my buddies be like, listen, just scratch, don't even call. He goes, just just scratch, maybe a one pur here, maybe a cluck here, but mostly scratch gets them in, you know, and it's a cat and mouse game. And that's that's what's so fun about I think turkey hunting is just all those interactions, you know. And I'll never forget when because I yet again, I'm new to to to the whole turkey grind and everything like that. Like my buddy's like, listen, just scratch. Like, when I first found out about scratching, I was like, this is all I gotta do is just you know make it see if and I was like, it makes the hunt, the hunt fun. Like you're you're you're doing something where deer hunting. Listen, I love deer hunting. Don't get me wrong, anyone out there, so my favorite thing to do. But sometimes, especially if you're not in the rut, it's like, well, we're just sitting here.

SPEAKER_00 58:23

Yeah, you know, you're not com you're not communicating with anything, like you're just like you're sitting there and and you're waiting. I've seen some people com start communicating with their pre-rut. I've seen some people that like up in my area, they don't even want to call to anything even during the rut because deer are skittish.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 58:43

And especially if you're doing getting your close quarters in the hardwoods, and that buck can't see it. That there's another buck, and he's looking up at the tree because he's died close enough to pinpoint you down. It's like it's crazy. But um, even that you're talking about the whole scratching thing today, you know, I was sitting at work and I was able to watch. Um Ted was was using a scratching technique, and I believe they're on public land in South Carolina in one of their most recent videos that posted. And the bird ended up coming around at the top of the ridge looking, and all they did was call and start scratching. Yeah, and they're on the bottom side of the ridge, the bird comes up and he was getting ready to take off because he didn't see the bird that he was looking for, but he knew where that last call was, and he could hear the scratching. Came, boom, got him killed. Because it's just it's it's the little things like that sometimes, and it it pays off. But I haven't been turkey hunting all that long myself because I've only ever gotten um four. And I used to always get down on myself for not being able to call like some of these world champion calls that I'm seeing on TikTok and Instagram. And um those types of things that I would see that would make me start, you know, like carrying a mouth call in my truck when I'm making like you know, like long road trips, and I know it's turkey season happen, but I'm just like calling in the truck by myself, like practicing with no calls, trying to listen to people like Bo Brooks and stuff like that, and um Dave Owens and the rest of those guys. I know I think he just won a national championship here last fall or last spring, or was it this spring with NWTF? He just won a national championship for Colin. One of those things, but like just pretty sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:28

Yeah, I think it was this year, if I remember, because I think I'm pretty sure I saw that as well on um on Instagram talking about that. So I think it was this year.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

Yeah, so it's like so trying to even though I've been successful consistently the past four years with turkeys in Minnesota, I'm still trying to figure out what I can do to get better. I want to learn how to get better at making you know clucking sounds. I want to get better and learn how to make you know a purr. You know, I also want to get better at ranging turkeys and figuring out how far they are based off of their gobble. I know we got tools like my Onyx Hunt application where you can try to like range them and stuff like that, but sometimes I get so fired up that I don't even really necessarily care to try to range them. Like I'm just trying to get where I believe he's going and cut them off because I don't feel confident in myself enough to call a turkey away from you know a hen or anything like that because I I'm not that good. But then I watch like some of some of the folks that are OGs, like I watch Waddell and Mutt and all those guys, Cuz Strickland and the rest of those OG turkey thugs and stuff like that. And they they don't even get to do that all the time. I watch Phil Cup ever, like you know, those guys that are the turkey thugs, they can't even do it all the time. So then I tell myself, like, you have to be realistic. You're not gonna call every turkey that you see that's hind up with from a hen. You can't compete with that. So don't get mad at yourself because you're telling yourself if you knew how to call better, you could get that bird to break away from that hen. It's like he not leaving that lady boy, like just no, no, no, no, find one, find one that's ready and it's communicating back.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

Yeah, no, and and and that's that's exactly and that's what I like. Like, yeah, when you when you get them hung, and when you know you have them hung up too, it's like, well, um let's find a different one, or you can even, you know, maybe get the opportunity to make a move, you know, and and that's another the run and gun style where it's gonna just benefit you so much more. And you know, that's my belief, you know. I think I'll always probably run and gun when it comes to turkeys and everything like that. Man, the miles I put on the house last year, just before 20, because we're done at noon the first up until the last like two weeks of the season. I mean, I remember the first week or up in the mountains and everything like that. I mean, before noon, you're looking at like six, seven, eight, nine, ten miles done, yeah, you know, of just walking, climbing, everything like that, getting on birds, you know, getting, you know, messing up, or you know, a bird being able to figure you out, or you or you know, just not working for you, but it's it's just such a fun time, and it makes the wait for deer season so much quicker.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:16

Like it and that's why I got into it was because exactly what you just said right there, like the wait for deer season.

Learning Mouth Calls The Cheap Way

SPEAKER_01 1:03:22

Yeah, it's it's just it feels like that. Like last year, I was like, deer season was over. I mean, turkey season was over. I think that was like for us, like early June. The fiance and I we went to Europe for for a week, and I came back and I was like, oh, well, let's get ready deer season. Like, let's let's go, like, let's boom, it's it's gonna be here quicker than you ever. And yeah, it's it's a great fun thing to do. Now, what you know, two more questions, you know, for you. Um, and this is both gonna be turkey uh related. Um when you were starting calling, for anyone out there looking to get into to calling and everything like that, you know, you said you practice and everything. Is there anything that you found useful with doing the diaphragm call that you know that you can recommend to to someone new? Like, what are you kind of like? What was your kind of process? I feel like for me, it's like, yeah, I listened to other people do it, but obviously it's just doing it. But maybe obviously knowing your cut, knowing you know, your mouth, maybe trimming it a certain way to fit better in your mouth. What worked for for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:32

The first thing I did was like I just kept doing like a lot of research because um my first couple of years turkey hunting, I didn't even touch a mouth call because I I just simply would try and it sounded like trash. It still sounds like trash, but um I just ended up doing my research, starting finding a couple things for hunting specialties, and I started like listening to folks like Cush Strickland and stuff like that, Phil Culpepper, Michael Waddell, Nick Munt, like any of those folks that you see that are legitimate turkey thugs, thugs and stuff like that, that you know, you can go on any website and find somebody that's a a turkey calling champion of any sort, and then listen to what they say, right? And that's that's what I started doing. Um I ended up using um a box call at first, and then I ended up moving up to uh the pot and glass, and then I ended up moving up to a mouth call. But I carry all three of my packs just because, like, you know, I found out for myself with self-filming that it's much easier to use a mouth call than for me to try to sit there and use a um a box call or pot and glass and stuff like that um with a turkey in range because it's just too much extra movement. So then I forced myself to start calling, and I committed to using a mouth call no no matter how terrible I am at it. And um I got my first bird doing that. Like I called one time. With like six jakes with them from the roofs up the hill into my decoy, and it just made my confidence go through the roof because I was like, I did it, right? Like I called in some turkeys, but I sounded like trash. I was like, but it worked. I'm like, but it sounded like trash, but it worked, right? So like I'm like not necessarily trying to get too too excited about it, but also not getting bummed about it because like I just tried something for the first time and it worked, and I got my first bird. So it's just um, I would always tell somebody, you know, just do your research and figure out what's gonna make you feel the most comfortable, what's gonna be the most suitable for your hunting style. Do your research on the brands of calls because you know, everybody and their cousin makes a turkey call. Like some folks got them for$13, and I see some folks got them because they got a name attached to them because they want a national championship. They want you to spend$150 for their call. And to me, I don't give a goddamn how many national championships you want. I ain't spending a hundred goddamn dollars to call a turkey. No, I I can call one with my mouth for free. But if you feel like that's what you want to do, that's what you got to do, that's gonna give you that extra edge, you go ahead. But I'm telling you, me, me, never I'll agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:18

Uh yeah, no, that's that's not happening, and you know, especially less listen, at the end of the day, yeah, that$13 call it'll work just fine. And like you said, I've I've heard of people, like some of my buddies who one of them, two of them, they are phenomenal at calling, like they from turkeys to waterfowl to every are like on and they're like, listen, it don't matter. Sometimes, if you really hear turkeys, they don't even sound like turkeys. Sometimes he's like, I've heard birds, and it's like that's a hunter. Like he's like, That's another hunter, and what is it? It's a it's a bird, and everything like that. So, like, you don't need to be a professional, you don't need to always sound you just you know, sometimes like you just need to be a little different because every bird sounds different and they're unique in their in their own way. So, like, yeah, how the hell are you gonna tell me to get a hundred and something you know, call that also I'm only gonna probably use for maybe a couple weeks, and then um I don't I don't use any of my calls from I get brand new calls.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:23

Yeah, I learned um from THP again. Um uh yeah, just shout out to the whole THP crew. Um, I'm just I'm just gonna say it because like I've learned a lot of stuff from them in a couple different aspects of hunting, and I love them for the educational stuff that they put out there and the experience that they put out there and the stuff that they share. But I do use turkey calls outside of turkey season. Um, I can't remember if it was Aaron or if it was um Zach, where they stated when they were getting back to certain areas where they know they could potentially bump deer out in the woods before dark, they would, you know, um cluck like a hen.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:09

I think I've I think I know which I think I've heard that too as well from from them as as well. Yeah, that sounds very familiar.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:16

I was like, that's genius. Like you're walking through the woods at dark and you can barely see, but if you cluck like a hen and have that same step cadence that someone those deer might not be as spooked, I was like, ooh. So I do do that whenever um the situations occur. So I always try to keep at least um one or two calls in my bag, just in case, even if I'm like if it's the it's the fall and I'm hunting and I want to mess with turkey. Say I'm walking across the field and I can see them like 150 yards away. I'll just I'll just grab my call, hit it one or two times just to see if they're gonna make any noise or not.

Turkey Hunting Rules In Minnesota

SPEAKER_01 1:09:49

But and you know, the the the last one I got for you is really more like Minnesota and you know, turkey on it. I don't know too much about you know Minnesota, so like what has your experience been like or or the overall what is it like to hunt Minnesota because you guys do then they there are spots where you you have a lot of woods, you know, it's tough hunting, especially I think the more north you guys go, you know, that's where you guys have wolves and everything like that. I'm not exactly sure. So, like, what is it like hunting turkeys just overall in the state of Minnesota?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:30

I can just speak just in general terms of Minnesota. Like, I've been up here since 2012, and I remember where I would just be driving around certain areas in the county that I live in. I'd be lucky if I saw one or two birds. Literally, I would be lucky if I saw either one or two turkeys. In three years, I started seeing them more and more and more and more to the point to where the population now is booming. And several hunters like myself wish that you could get multiple tags or run a tag system like you do in Wisconsin. But um for me in my areas, the population is great. There's not a lot of hunting pressure, so I'm basically hunting unpressured birds every year, regardless if it's the first week of the season or the last week of the season. That doesn't mean these birds aren't getting hunted by people that I don't know that are hunting, but for most of the hunting that I do for turkeys, um, it's unpressured. But they're still wild turkeys. Their job is still to evade me and what I got going on so they can stay alive. And believe it or not, they win more often than not. Um, but the turkey hunting for me is is has been really good. Um, I will say that when I've hunted properties where I've had other hunting pressure, it's been tough, but that's just like that's just hunting pressure in general. It's always gonna be tough when you have more people you know competing and fighting for the same resource. Whatever the animal species is, they're gonna adapt to it. And we as hunters, you gotta adapt to it too. Yeah, but um it's it's not as bad. And I see posts all the time in Facebook groups and stuff like that that I'm part of because I'm all I'm a hunting junkie, so I'm a part of everything where I feel like I I can get any information on what's going on either in my area or surrounding areas, I'm always gonna try to tap in. So, yeah, what I've been seeing mostly is a lot of people um do not like the fact that there is a um individuals or our indigenous population here have certain treaty rights that date back to 1853 that they made with the United States government. And I can speak about it because I just read a post about this. I want to say yesterday where um an indigenous hunter, um, also some individuals you know, um consider our indigenous hunters as Native Americans or Indians, um shot a bird before the season started. So a lot of people in the Facebook post are talking about um, oh, that's illegal, how could you do that? And he's like, Well, this was a bird that I got based off of the treaty rights, and he had it in the post, and he has a page specifically dedicated to stating that you know, due to my you know, um my history and my race, I'm allowed to hunt before the season starts for not just only turkeys, but deer, bear, etc. I can have more than the average person. And just seeing him catch a little bit of hate out, hate out of that, and it opened my eyes up to something that was happening that I never even had a clue that was happening until I saw that post. And then just seeing, like, you know, all of the people that were like liking some of the hateful comments, and then some people were congratulating this guy, and some people were hating on him. So I know that's an aspect where some people want equal rights and to take away rights of others and stuff like that, which to me it makes no sense, but you know, that's just what some people choose to do. But outside of that, I've seen people complain about not having a youth turkey season before the actual season to give youth a better time, which what I from what I could read in the comments, it had happened prior to the way they got this the system right now. But um, our youth can hunt every week of the season but only get one bird. But as for us regular hunters, the way Minnesota has it set up is they break the system, the uh the system up in I want to say seven weeks, where it runs Wednesday to Wednesday, I want to say, and you can only select one week. But if you don't, if you don't get a bird during that one week, you can always come back and hunt if you haven't filled your tag that last week of the season. So, say for instance, I example, it's the first week, I can I can buy my tag, and if I don't get one within that one week time frame, I can't go out turkey hunting again until that last week of the season, which I believe is gonna be late May. Wow. So by then it's like birds have been pressured, grass has grown up, habitats have changed. Yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot that's going on, right? But as a youth hunter, you can hunt that entire season, but you can also hunt the entire season if you're an archery hunter and you buy an archery tag for turkeys.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:16

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:18

So they kind of so they make you pick, right? So you have to either you pick a bow, you can hunt the whole season, still get one per you. Pick a shotgun, you gotta pick one week. You don't get one during that one week with your shotgun, then you're forced to come back out that last week of the season, which most people have already given up by then because the bugs are out and it's hotter, and it takes efficient opener.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:38

Yeah, it's it's it's way different later in the year. Now, one thing, you know, and I you you said that so when you first moved there in 2012, you would maybe see one or two, you know. Does the number growth? Do you know what that contributes? Obviously, you guys really can't shoot that many birds to begin with, anyway, as hunters. So obviously, that definitely has a place of impact and everything like that. But is there anything that you have heard where uh Minnesota's fish and wildlife has done um to help protect turkeys and grow this population?

DNR Doubts Wolves And CWD

SPEAKER_00 1:16:16

Well, you know, I have a love-hate relationship with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources just because it's like I have firsthand seen people give the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources information that's been local from within my community. And I'll give you an example, right? And this just happened last year. You may or may not have seen one of my videos last year where I posted about um potentially either a bear or a cougar or something climbed up a tree, right? Um, that area that I was in, I told my girlfriend, my girlfriend told her mom, and her mom had told me about someone else who made a post within, like you know how like you have like the Facebook communities where it's like a local city or half like the odd. She pulled up a post from earlier in the summer where someone had been walking their dog not too far away from where I was at, and the cougar or mountain lion was in the woods, like hissing, and then whatever it was doing at that at their dog, and then they left, right? Bunch of other people commented if oh yeah, that's right by my house. I've gotten that cat on trail camera. I sent this in to the Minnesota DNR. The Minnesota DNR sent like a blanket statement. Well, um, thank you for sending this information in. We have uh no reports of any mountain line activity in that area that we could substantiate. We have no proof of this. Um, we're sorry that you may have misidentified this, but that's not a mountain line. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:03

Same thing we say here in New Jersey.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:05

But it's but it's like to me, it's like, you know, just because you're saying they're not there doesn't mean that they're not there. It's the same thing with our wolf population right now in Minnesota.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:15

Oh, yeah, I've heard people complain about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:17

Yeah, it's it's it's terrible, but again, you could tell them, all right, I got a pack of wolves that are within this certain section of community during this mile stretch. They've um they've killed this many calves, this many you know, animals have been domesticated, you know, blah, blah, blah. Messardino I say, well, we don't have any knowledge or information of any wolves in our area. The wolves that that we have that are collar are within this section of the state, it's unfortunate that this is happening in your area. That's it. Like, how are you gonna tell somebody what they're experiencing in real time if they're not experiencing it? It's almost like they're gaslighting you in a sense, but then they want to take all the credit for populations and stuff when things are going good. It's like they disknowledge.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:59

It's like, okay, you the key word you said is collared. What about the wolves that are not collared? Like, what how like what like that? Doesn't like if you're going to make that statement, you know what I mean? Like, come on, make it make sense, like, dude, you that you guys don't collar all the wolves, so like, but you know, it's a simple listen. I don't know if you know about New Jersey and our bear situation. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:25

Corey Anderson would would tell me about it when he oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He would he would tell and talk about it and stuff like that. But it's just like you you just get some people that would get in positions of power, whether it's local within your local city or you know, um even higher up political offices, as you know, their delegates for your state, or whatever it may be, whatever their political position is, and they will disagnge what is happening locally within their community until something directly happens to them, and then they want to take action. And it's sad, but that but that's just that's that's that's what a lot of people do. It's like I'll never forget. Um I watched a video of two very, very, very, very, very big wolves. I want to say it was like either in Montana or Idaho, and you probably have seen this video too because it went viral, where this German shepherd got ambushed by two wolves in like in the in the middle of uh I want to say it's like a turnaround in a regular urban-looking community. He got drugged off by two grown wolves into the middle of the woods, and they want to say, oh, they don't have a problem with their wolves. You got wolves that are coming out of their environment into the city to get food. That's a problem. Next time it might not be a German shepherd, it might be your neighbor, Miss Nancy. It might be you, it might be your kid trying to, you know, take the trash out, although it's nine o'clock and it's a little bit too late. Next thing you know, little Timmy's gonna miss it. And you find his iPhone, he's 67 miles away in a different city, in a wolf's belly. You know what I mean? But it's just some people will not, you know, um take action until they they have that personal experience themselves. And it's sad, but I have my own theory about that. I feel as if some of these Department of Natural Resources do not want to admit things are happening because then it means that they have to then begin attacking the problem. It's like right now in Minnesota, one of my biggest issues with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is they will disprove what hunters are bringing them for information. But if somebody wants to conduct a study in Minnesota that pays them$100,000,$200,000 to conduct a study, they'll take that information and research and throw it out there for us hunters and say that this is what happened. But they'll disregard the local hunter, the local fisher within their own community who's lived there and has you know been buying licenses their whole lives, their whole family has. Disacknowledge what they got to say, but this this company out of wherever in the California, who knows, now paid you. Now all of a sudden, you want us to read this information that you got from them.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:07

On a study they conducted. It's the same thing when I see with some of the CWD stuff. Like it was mind-boggling me because they found traces of CWD, and this is this is something that happened in Minnesota because they had a uh a no-feeding ban in Minnesota for uh for supplemental feed in the offseason, the only time you guys put stuff out. Yeah, they put a no-feeding ban in my zone back when I was hunting um a couple zones away a few years ago, from a deer that had tested positive for CWD in the southern part of Minnesota, less than 40 minutes away from the Iowa border. That's dang near three and a half hours away from where I hunt at. And you telling me that I can't put something out because of something y'all found in a controlled environment, like a deer farm with eight foot-high fences, and I can't put something out to protect my deer herd who's been malnourished all winter due to the the winter and spring that we just had that was record-breaking. Now I can't go put out analogics. Now I can't go put out some big time because of something y'all found three years ago at a deer farm. That's insane. But that's that's what they do, though. That is that is literally what they do.

unknown 1:23:22

Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:24

And then in some of those southern zones, when that happened, not because y'all some of those southern zones when that happened, they ended up jumping up the the tag a lot, like you know, like a lot, man, in some of those areas. They some of those areas were from having one or two deer tags to you can take one buck and up to seven dose in these CWD zones, but you can't eat the meat, so it's like you're just shooting, you're just killing them just to kill them then because you you can't eat the meat.

Permission Pitch And Final Advice

SPEAKER_01 1:23:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's uh uh not for you know, and I'm not a fan of what we have, but at least we can eat it. So, like, we have unlimited dose here. Oh god, unlimited bucks seven bucks unlimited, and let's be honest. You're not some people, and I imagine if they have their own private property, yeah, they get to shoot a whole bunch, but like for the most part, I I think it's dumb. I honestly like I would like for our state to do to move to a two buck any weapon, two bucks, any weapon, yeah, and then maybe if you were gonna five dose for the whole season, and I would say that that's a huge problem, but our state only cares about the insurance, the the insurance companies, money, yada yada yada. But this is what I always tell people you don't you tell us what we have, and yes, we're overpopulated, and yes, some hunting zones are overpopulated, but I will tell you for the most part, no, it's it's not overpopulated, and the residential areas where we can't hunt that's the issue. We're going on these private properties that you know, like I was driving by um some just giant 300-acre farm that no one can hunt on. There's deer and turkey everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:16

Well, yeah, no duh, you're you're there's gonna be a lot of car accidents there, and people are gonna hit deer because you that's one of my that's one of my main that's one of my main talking points sometimes when I talk to people who want to give me some of those objections when it's to get permission. When I tell them it's like, you know, by me hunting here, you know, I'm gonna kind of help out the local economy. And what way are you happening on the economy? I was like, it's like you got a nice truck right there. Yeah, I do. What year is it? 2023. Yeah, you still make payments on it? Well, I am. I say say one morning, evening, any point in time you're driving. What's the speed limit to get in here? 30? Okay. Say, for instance, you hit a deer going almost 30 miles an hour to total your truck, you can definitely den it up. What's gonna happen to your insurance rate because you just got into a vehicle accident? It'll go up. I say it'll go up. I say, but you know what could help prevent some of these deer and some of these vehicle accidents? It's like what you sign this piece of paper right here, give me an opportunity to hunt so that way I can help control the population and your insurance rates will go down. Yep. Oh, really? So yeah. So if I sign this and you can hunt, everything else, I said, Yeah, I was like, and I'm be more than happy to continue to share information I got with you. I can send you articles to show you how when you have hunters in your area, everybody benefits. The population, the city, the deer, the state. And I guarantee you what your truck looks real good right now, don't it? Yeah, it does. I said, Okay, now if it get a dinner in it, and a deer did it, are you gonna be at you gonna be happy? You're gonna be mad. I'll probably be pissed off, quite frankly. You know, I'm gonna get kind of pissed off this thing about I could probably hit a deer. I said, Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's a possibility, which is why you see me here at your door trying to get permission because the deer here. Yep. So, well, yeah, I see him. I said, Yeah, I was like, I can handle you seeing them, but let's let's get to some of this paperwork and we we can continue to chat, right? But it's just one of that's one of that's one of my main talking points sometimes when I talk to people and I hear the the objections is uh oh yeah, insurance or blah blah blah blah. Or they not they might even bring up you know insurance or liability, and I have to talk about that. I talk about that sometimes too.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:52

Yeah, no, and it's it's a hundred percent. That's that's what New Jersey uses right here to to keep our hunters. being able to shoot what they do and i mean we really don't shoot what we that number but they still keep it there just to keep the the insurance companies happy but you know man i gotta thank you so much for for coming on i mean this has been an incredible episode we talked about you know a little bit of fishing and turkeys the whole entire way it's that time of the year it's turkey season and everything like that you know i i had an absolute blast we definitely gotta get you back on friend when it's we get closer to deer season or in deer season and talk deer because i know it's been it's been some time since uh since we've done uh you know talk some deer hunting and everything like that and you know i've i've seen the work you put in and some of the bucks that you've killed and everything like that so definitely gotta talk about that and you know just really love i'm obsessed with talking about deer so that i could do for for hours and hours and hours yeah me too me as well well i i appreciate you so much for coming on i want to thank you everyone make sure you go check him down in the comments below everything's gonna be down in the link below go check him out awesome stuff going on over there any last words um i just you know i i would just always encourage anybody that's listening if you have the opportunity to you know either go hunting and learn about it take it if you're going you know fishing or you want to learn about fishing take that opportunity you know get outdoors you know we we spend so much of our lives going to work here there family but we don't spend a lot of time outdoors or as much as we could so that's why I always want to try to encourage people to to get in the great outdoors um if you don't know ask somebody if you if you don't have anybody ads get on youtube and just look at some some basic videos from either the hunting public googn squad about fishing any of these things that you could probably get on youtube and just google or or find and get into the great outdoors and make sure you get your license and you're legal.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:57

Don't be get your ass out there illegally hunting and illegally fishing getting your ass in trouble. Go get your license and then then go try it.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:05

Definitely don't do that that that's something that we definitely don't need and that just adds more fuel to the fire for the guys that are and ladies out there that are trying to get our rights taken away but yeah perfect said everyone I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and we'll see you guys next time