California Dreaming: A Recap of Ramsey’s California Waterfowl Hunting Adventure‪s‬

 

Ramsey Russell: I’m your host Ramsey Russell, join me here to listen to those conversations. Welcome back to Duck Season Somewhere. Final episode from California and it’s been a haul [**00:03:13], it’s been about a two week haul and we have covered some ground. I have seen some amazing sights. I’ve met some amazing people. I’ve uncovered incredible waterfowl history and tradition and culture a intense culture out here in California. And no small part today’s guest my friend Jon Wills, how are you Jon? Tired I know we’ve been getting after it man.

Jon Wills: I am tired. I’m not used to this. Not like you.

Ramsey Russell: I mean how often do you hunt a week normally?

Jon Wills: I’d say on average two days a week I hunt. We have shoot days out here in California on most of the clubs here in the grasslands and on the wildlife areas. We shoot Wednesday, Saturday Sundays.

Ramsey Russell: Shoot days?

Jon Wills: Correct.

Ramsey Russell: You know leading up this trip I was talking on the phone and carrying on, you kept talking about shoot days. I’m like, what he’s calling a shoot day? I didn’t understand a shoot day, but that’s a big thing out here. You all have got 107 day season, but very few properties in the whole state are open to 107 days.

Jon Wills: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: None of the clubs, I’m thinking. Very, very few.

Jon Wills: The Sacramento Valley, the Butte Sink those clubs. Some of those clubs shoot seven days a week. But where you hunted at Butte creek farms, they’re not shooting seven days a week.

Ramsey Russell: Nobody admitted they talk about shoot days, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. We’re sitting here in a 100 year old hunting camp. And we got here this morning, last day of the trip, we were coming in for cinnamon teal. You said we’re going to my camp and I’ve been to some camps and I’ve been to some lodges. COVID really put a stick in our spokes and we’ll talk about that. But man to walk into the door of this camp house today and see a dozen men huddled up drinking coffee. You can tell who to click, who knew each other and who hunted together like they were just kind of huddled up and talking about duck hunting or life or nothing at all. And man, it was so familiar. I’ve seen that scene unfold nationwide worldwide. It’s just coming into a hunting camp right here in California. And that was, yeah, I guess just because we got to really come into a not fully functioning but into a hunting camp environment that just really hit home for me today, kind of made me homesick. I was glad today was the last day, I’ll be honest with you. Jon for a man that hunts two days a week on average. What do you think you were getting into when we set this thing up for a 12 – 13 day haul?

Jon Wills: A whole lot of fun. That’s what I knew we were getting into.

Ramsey Russell: We had a whole lot of fun, didn’t we?

Jon Wills: We did, it was a blast.

Ramsey Russell: You ducked out on me a couple of days, one day your daughter’s birthday, one day some work related because your dad has been dealing with COVID but you were with me the rest of the time. And what do you think about that? That’s a quantum leap to go from two days a week to 12-13 day stretch with just a day or two off.

Jon Wills: No it was fun. I’ve done some stretches before, but I don’t know about 12 days. I’ve probably done 10.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think about doing 90 or 100 days straight?

Jon Wills: I don’t know. You know, part of me feels like after a while you get your sea legs under you and it gets easier you get into a rhythm.

Ramsey Russell: You get into a rhythm. Of course I’m in bed at 07:30-08:00 o’clock every night. I noticed you notice that. I started to fade around 07:30-08:00 o’clock. 03:00 o’clock comes early 03:00-04:00 o’clock we were getting up I think every time I was here. One day I got up at except my alarm for 02:45. And I guess that’s the day we hunted the public. And rest of the time I slept into about 03:30 and that wasn’t too bad as long as I got my sleep. I need my beauty sleep. Look here’s what I want to start with you Jon, how old are you?

Jon Wills: 36.

Ramsey Russell: How long have you been duck hunting?

Jon Wills: Probably I’m going to say 16 years, 17 years.

Ramsey Russell: Nearly half your life.

Jon Wills: Yeah, I didn’t grow up hunting.

Ramsey Russell: How did you grow up, surfing?

Jon Wills: There’s no surfing around here as you can see. We did a lot of skiing, snow skiing, water skiing, that type of thing. And then I played the normal sports kids play when they’re young.

Ramsey Russell: Played golf a lot with your daddy?

Jon Wills: Later in life I played golf. My dad played a lot of golf. I didn’t as a kid I always told myself I’ll play that when I get old. So here I am playing golf.

Ramsey Russell: I’m not going to play it, I am old and I’m not going to play golf. How did you get into duck hunting then? You started probably when you’re 18-19-20 years old. I did too. How did you get into duck hunting out here in California?

Jon Wills: Well I was living with my best friend at the time Josh and he comes from a long line of duck hunters and I don’t even know how it came about. But I know I ended up out there hunting and I was hooked from the time.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about how that came to be. And I know you’re talking about Josh Saguaro. Yeah and who we hunted with yesterday in Mendota. But how did how did that even come to be? And tell me about that first hunt.

Jon Wills: Well I don’t remember how it came to be. But I remember we hunted Mendota, we did not have a reservation. And so we got there and we were in the wet land. So we got there on Wednesday probably mid-day around lunchtime. We slept in a tent. And that way we could have our truck in line for Saturday. So we spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night in a tent. And you saw that parking lot. They don’t allow camping this year because of COVID, but it’s just a dirt parking lot and flatland California. And our opening day it could be 80°, so it’s warm and dusty and I wouldn’t do it again. But we had a lot of fun and we played horseshoes and all that. And my first memorable part of that hunt was Josh and his dad go out to save the spot. Josh’s little brother Dalton was with me and we were bringing the gear and we get to the pond and he goes, hey, the pond bombs are kind of slippery. You need some help. And he’s maybe 12 at the time and here I am 20 or so 19, I don’t exactly remember. And I’m thinking, I don’t need any help from you, you’re 12. And he goes, well the ponds slippery. I’m not saying that, you get off my way. I took two steps, I landed flat on my back soaking wet, blind bags floating, gun soaked and all Josh can hear probably from the blind is me yelling for his little brother, come help me, pick my gun up, pull my blind bag out of the water. And I remember thinking once we got to the blind, I just remember the sky that’s being black with ducks to the best of my memory. I’m sure it’s just like other opening days we’ve had here. But at the time as a non-hunter, I’ve never seen wildlife like that or waterfowl and those type of numbers closing.

Ramsey Russell: You all did not warn me about the slippery bottom yesterday, but I stepped into enough duck holes to ease into and figure it out. But that mud underneath that shallow water is slippery as a wet bar soap it’s like somebody poured baby oil into the bottom of a towel bath tub. And I was slipping and sliding. I was just trying, if I could just keep my foot in one place and like Bambi on ice, I didn’t want to be that guy.

Jon Wills: But you get down far enough and then it starts to get sticky.

Ramsey Russell: It starts to get sticky and start to grab you a little bit. But I don’t know where to start. Do you remember your first duck?

Jon Wills: You know, I don’t but Josh might, but I’m sure it was a Spoonie. We shot a whole bunch of them that day and I remember I shot a whole bunch of shells before I shot one. And you’re only allowed 25 shells on your person at a time on public land in California. Mendota you’re allowed to go back. And some refuges more said they don’t allow you to go to your truck and refill. It’s 25 for the day. But Mendota you can get more shells out of your truck. But I remember I shot all of mine and probably all of Josh’s, not very long into shoot time. I remember I shot three really fast and really often and you know I didn’t know. So yeah it took me a while to learn to slow down.

Ramsey Russell: I sure had a good time hunting with you out here Jon and I greatly appreciate your hospitality. So you remember how we even met or got to know each other leading up to this incredible two week adventure in California?

Jon Wills: Well it’s been a lot of fun and I hope we do it again. This has been awesome. But I think I contacted you about a Rio Salado duck hunt, Argentina and that’s always been on my on my list of things to do. And I remember you advertising it as the “duck hunters duck hunt”. And you described it as being at a camp similar to this and kind of feeling at home except for maybe what duck hunting was like here in the 1800s. And its 130 square mile marsh. And there’s lots of duck hunts you can do. But I thought it’ll be like a slice of home with a whole bunch of ducks. And I thought that’s right up my alley, a duck camp with real ducks.

Ramsey Russell: In terms of this marsh environment like we hunted this morning. It’s going to feel an incredible amount like home. I mean because it is a marsh and it’s got my [**00:13:13] grass very similar to your all’s Tullie’s. In fact, all my West Coast clients call them Tullie’s when they’re waiting up in them. This morning, especially that little impoundment we hunted reminded me a lot of hunting Rio Salado just the nooks and crannies and the little shoots through the Tullie’s. The way we set up, the way we hid, everything about that reminded me of Rio Salado coming from Mississippi that’s totally different than how we hunt at home, totally different environment of marsh and I think you’re going to think you died and went to heaven when you did that.

Jon Wills: That was probably, I don’t know a lot five years ago. I don’t really remember. But it’s been years and it’s something that me and Josh and some other friends have always talked about doing. We haven’t been yet, but I’m sure looking forward to it.

Ramsey Russell: Yup. COVID really stuck a stick in our spokes coming out here to California. Just because we had initially planned on staying at this and other camps or lodges or people’s houses. And certainly we would have grilled on the Trager grill out here in your backyard or gone into restaurants and that hasn’t been the case at all, man. I mean, to my knowledge, none of the restaurants or nobody has in house dining.

Jon Wills: No, and even outdoor dining here is not allowed.

Ramsey Russell: Supposedly a governor has prohibited it. And some of the counties some of the county’s out here have disputed it and there is outside dining. But you know when it’s 38-45° and breezy, that’s not very enjoyable.

Jon Wills: Next week it’s supposed to rain every day.

Ramsey Russell: That’s going to be a lot of fun.

Jon Wills: Yeah, I feel real bad for the restaurant owners.

Ramsey Russell: So it seems like two years ago that I showed up, it’s been such a hectic nonstop grind. When I think back to stepping off the airport in Fresno and meeting you at the curb. That just seems like a childhood memory. And we went to Cecilia’s and got burritos.

Jon Wills: Yeah and Mendota.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s what I figured out you all have burrito dialed in. California has got burritos dialed in and I’m now an expert because for the last 12 or 13 days I’ve eaten them every single day.

Jon Wills: And anybody listening to this podcast that’s ever going to hunt with you. Ramsey does not like rice in his burritos and he wants chopped jalapenos.

Ramsey Russell: I do not like rice in my burritos and I definitely want fresh jalapenos. But you know the first one we ate had rice and it was good but it was as big as a center block. No we ordered a couple of burritos. I’m thinking burrito you know like about twice the size of a tamale or something. And she had me that bag it felt like she put a center block inside.

Jon Wills: We weren’t at Taco Bell weren’t we?

Ramsey Russell:  I said are you sure this is our order? Oh yeah, yeah it is ours. I mean I couldn’t get my hands around both hands. It was just massive. But burrito being is eaten on toll gates of trucks every day or out in the duck hole. It turned out to be a great meal. And I mean I thought this morning when I woke up I said I ain’t got no more time burritos. I’m tired of burritos, went down here this little hole in the wall and I was one of the best burritos of the trip. I greatly enjoyed that lunch. But now guess what I’m going to Mexico next week. I ain’t eating a burrito. I’m going to tell you right now I ain’t eating a burrito.

Jon Wills: Well you’re going to Mazatlan so I imagine you’re going to be eating a lot of seafood.

Ramsey Russell: I’m going to be eating tons of seafood that’s the fact. Jon, have you ever hunted out there on San Francisco bay for those golden eyes and divers?

Jon Wills: I have, yeah, I’ve done it. Well I did it two days and I went with Andrew Forker who we hunted with. And it was great. We hunted with north wind out fenders. His name’s RJ Waldron. And we shot a bunch of surf scouters [**00:17:33] one day and the next day we went hunted golden eyes off of an island.

Ramsey Russell: I have not hunted with him. But I know I hunted with Charlie Barberini who invited our buddy Corey Foskett from tangle free [**00:17:50] and talk about welcome to California. That was some of the most different. I’ve done divers and see ducks, but never there. The weather was relatively mild. One of my friends, Ray Hathaway was there on business. He showed, I’m like, hey, how you doing? We go out. And it was so fast paced. It was almost chaotic. Charlie ran his beautiful little dog. I had mine, we ran two dogs, birds diving, birds coming in, birds left, birds right, birds overhead. He just dialed in and put us on the head.

Jon Wills: Well, Charlie’s got that operation dialed in.

Ramsey Russell: Oh he has got it dialed in and besides that, he’s just a fun guy.

Jon Wills: Yeah, no, I’m looking forward to getting together with them sometimes. I wish I could have been there.

Ramsey Russell: When I come out here next year. You’re going to have to come with me. I’m definitely going to put Charlie back on my bucket.

Jon Wills: For sure. One of the cool things I remember about the diver who was the day we’re hunting the island and Andrew and I were standing there in this big group of golden eyes. They come over the bridge high and they come over the bridge and they dip straight down there heading right towards our decoys. And it was just really cool. I never thought I’d be hunting the San Francisco bay, watching a lot of golden eyes come up high, dip down over the bridge and start heading towards our decoys with the bridge right in the background. I mean that’s just a site that I’ll probably never forget. It was really unique to duck hunting here in California.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, no, it that was an extremely memorable morning, you know just sometimes you wake up and I never take it for granted, but as the sun came up, you know, out front I had a gold eye, I mean just left, right which way it’s coming in. But back behind us the Diablo Mountains and it was just incredible. It’s like right on the edge of all these millions of people and you get just 10 minutes in a boat away from it and you’re just out in the middle of nowhere. It seems like just this wildness and you’re right, Charlie had that thing dialed in but I went back to hotel, unpacked, change clothes or whatever, load the van and he picked me up and we went to downtown San Francisco hide Asbury and he gave me the grand tour, everything he knows Panhandler Park and everything else. But I tell you what, that was anything but out there on San Francisco bay over the Golden Gate Bridge and through the town and buy the fisherman’s and everything else. But, but hey man, for a guy from Mississippi that was extremely interesting. I would maybe go back there. I know I would, it’s got some very nice parks and interesting history in a beautiful city and I would do that in a heartbeat. And then the next day you did join me and you came and scooped me up kind of early and we went down and hunted with Dylan and Jonathan White. And I knew them boys off Instagram. And I’ve seen the videos, I’ve seen the pictures and they told me we’re going to shoot illusions and snow geese. But that in terms of just sheer spectacle of birds landing at our feet that might be one of the best hunter I’ve been on and forever. I mean in a long time.

Jon Wills: It’s the best Goose hunt I’ve been on in my life.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve been on some good ones that, that was certainly unforgettable.

Jon Wills: Yeah, I mean we’ve shot big numbers of geese before, other places. But just the way the white birds have it dialed in, I mean, down to their decoy spread, the decoys that they’re using, their end of the minor details and that really made a difference. Those birds were committed, they were close, and you know they weren’t shooting a swing bird.

Ramsey Russell: No they weren’t shooting swain bird, they weren’t shooting big flocks. And Jonathan I were talking on the phone that I was driving. God one of the thousands of miles I drove up and down interstate 99. We were talking on the phone and he’s like no we’re not going to shoot in the big flocks because it’s a very finite population of these geese and we don’t want to educate them. You know, so a lot of the birds we see tomorrow going to get a pass and then we’ll pick up the loose flocks and singles and pairs and whatnot like that. That’s exactly what we did. I don’t know how many geese that was. We cleaned on their tailgate their truck back at the house but it was a pile up. It was far from the limit. But you know what we have done with 120 of that geese. It took us a while to skin all those birds we had but that was extremely memorable. So again we went some little Dirt Road Town and got a burrito.

Jon Wills: Stevenson, California.

Ramsey Russell: We could have been in Mexico for all I knew it was just so rural and so remote. It was as country as anywhere in America that maybe middle Wyoming. And that was a great that may have that may have been my favorite Burrito.

Jon Wills: That was an excellent. And like you said, I mean if you showed a picture of where we were eating where we were hunting, people never think of California being in a setting like that.

Ramsey Russell: No, no, it reminded me of a scene out of Breaking Bad, you know how they would have to be role, tumbleweed roll by them buying the dust blowing and just dirt roads like down the board around that. That’s what it reminded me of up we were in central California, You know, just out in the middle of nowhere, farming country is nothing. But its cattle country’s what it was, you know, dairies and beef and wow, nothing like and I knew that day to into a long stretch and I knew I was in for a treat. I knew well, the more I scratch the service, the different things seem, you know what I’m saying and what did I do, what did I even do the next day? Oh I know what I did, I got that great minivan and drove back up to Yuba City and met with Casey Stafford. And you just said it’s a pretty big old town, I’m going to say like there’s 35,000-40,000 folks. But the craziest thing again, like twilight zone crazy is I woke up this nice hotel, comfortable, it was Hilton or Hampton Inn or something. And I woke up and there was a rooster crowing.

Jon Wills: There’s a lot of them right there.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I didn’t know that.

Jon Wills: I hit one of the Starbucks drive through once.

Ramsey Russell: I’m like, I’m listening, I’m like, I’m thinking, man, you know, whatever it was 03:30 wasn’t that late because, whatever it was 04:30-05:00 I’m not thinking, man, it must be like some old houses, just some people living around this shopping center I’m at and I walk out to my truck. And there’s five roosters and 10 hens and a crepe myrtle or some kind of tree right there at the entrance of the Hampton and I look up, I see these chickens flopping and crowing and there’s a parking lot. Now you have the space out like Bradford pears around all the parking lot for shade up in a past fault. Everyone of across the Ray, I mean 20 acres today and chickens and roosters up in these trees. I’m like, what in tarnation is going on around here and thriving populations of chickens in Yuba City.

Jon Wills: Yeah, because that Starbucks where I hit the one, the driver and it’s at 99 Franklin. So it’s a couple blocks down from that hotel and I don’t know how they got there. I’d love to know.

Ramsey Russell: You know you hear different things. Somebody said there was a chicken farm, a poultry, something another somewhere on the edge of town at some point in time and they shut down and maybe turned a bunch of loose. And then and then some of the bleeding hearts or some of the city women kind of took up with him. But somebody was pointing out to want to board the hunter whether we drive around town. He was pointing out because I mean there are literally chickens everywhere at the red light in the city parks and at the hotel in a shopping center, in the grocery, I mean everywhere like everywhere and you’ll see where people layout pounds of water and feed everywhere. And all I can think is anybody goes hungry in this town it’s their own damn fault. I mean, it’s almost like you think the city council would just have it be the self-proclaimed chicken and dumpling capital of the world, kind of keep them thin. And of course the way I like to eat chicken eggs, I like to think it, man a couple of five gallon buckets and I’ve never had to go to program by chicken eggs again, it’s got to be eggs everywhere that many chickens. So you, you hit one in Starbucks one time?

Jon Wills: I did.

Ramsey Russell: You just keep driving. You didn’t get to make a big deal of it, did you?

Jon Wills: Gosh, no. I was going to Murdoch gun club to meet Andrew where we hunted while you were here. And I rolled through there to grab a coffee on my way to his club. And yeah, it was dark and I was whipping through, pulling into their drive through. Yeah, I clipped one.

Ramsey Russell: That was, had a great hunt with Casey and his son. That was my first morning there in Sac Valley. We hunted rice fields over by Delavan Refuge. It was a real foggy morning. And I don’t remember how many birds we killed, killed a goose, a mess of birds. I mean a bunch of birds, I don’t think we should limit because your limit is seven ducks. You know that’s a lick, it’s durable. I know a lot of places a lot of times, but that’s a lot of birds.

Jon Wills: Yeah, I think that’s one of the most overlooked parts about hunting in California but the west coast especially is our limits in length of season I think.

Ramsey Russell: It was a good time with Casey and got to visit with him and his family and hear a lot. In fact he and I record a podcast that came out a few weeks ago and then you set me up to hunt with probably where did I hunt after Casey? I think the day after Casey I hunted, oh you know what, I was supposed to hunt with somebody back down here in grass lands and it fell through and that turned out to be one of my favorite days. They’re all favorite days. I’m not picking favorite, I’m just saying it was a memorable from the standpoint that a young man first and then his father Sean and Gus Doherty from Dunnigan California, they are rice producers and different farmers reached out to me and I said, hey we have got room to go, yeah. And we showed up and shot up pin tail limits that was easy shot some wigeons. But we got done, walk back and Sean said, what are you doing for lunch? I said I don’t got any plans, burrito probably.

Jon Wills: No rice.

Ramsey Russell: But see that morning, now that morning as we were, we got there 20 minutes for shooting time that morning. He showed up with a couple of breakfast burritos that his wife had made. Egg and cheese and habanero, chipotle sauce and elk venison sausage and that was a dead gum good burrito. You know, I usually don’t eat that early in the morning but I ate one and I want my other one he brought two. I’m like yeah go ahead and throw that other one down here, I’ll make room for it.

Jon Wills: You can’t pass up a hot breakfast.

Ramsey Russell: Heck no man, great Hunt, great setup and really cool those little pit blinds they use really set up nicely. But we went back to his house and he and I and buddy Seth we hand plucked those birds and he said you know I said you know they make up plugging machine because yeah I know but my granddad did it this way, my dad did it this way, I do it this way and he said you know the mechanical kind of beat the fat off these things sometimes and he said like a hand plucking so we have plugged it didn’t take no time. One beers worked at each hand plucked a few birds and man, those pin tails they were the fattest little things, the wigeons, fattest little things I’ve ever seen. I mean they were the fattest duck I’ve ever laid my hands on and they’ve got a real unique recipe we posted up and put it in our Instagram highlight and grilled it. And man, I’m going to tell you what, that was some of the best duck I’ve ever eaten all time ever in my life. And here with COVID going on, not going into restaurants, no good steak houses, camp houses shut down and we sat out there at his farm headquarters and did that and that was pretty damn good, had a great time. And what did I do next? Let me think, the next day I went hunting with Grant Tark and that was, it’s funny how you go to different camps and different traditions and different people in different places, little nuances and that was a real classical Butte sink Marsh Hunt you told me. But we drove out to the little family property. 5-6 generation again family.

Jon Wills: Yeah the Tarkies have been there a long time.

Ramsey Russell: Just like just like a Doherty’s, I mean their 5th generation rice producers and this is a farming and we go out and meet his uncles and we suit up there in this little camp house they got. Sign out and drive a little bit, jump in a boat right out through this beautiful marsh. It was a great, we hunted in a blind that his dad, a floating blind that his dad built 30 something years ago. That’s incredible.

Jon Wills: It is. And you have an incredible view of the buttes from his farm.

Ramsey Russell: The smallest mountain range in the world. Sutter butte right there. You’re literally in the shadow of it. And it was a slow day. They didn’t just kill it, but it’s a beautiful, beautiful property the sun starts coming up and you’re just looking around, it’s just one of those moments you just stop, you just take it in, you just sit there and just take it in like man, this is spectacular. And he had told me, he said his granddaddy used to tell him no matter what the duck hunts like every day starts with a million dollar view and that’s about $1 million dollar view. I’m going to tell you that. That was pretty views I ever saw when that song was coming up over that Sutter buttes.

Jon Wills: Yeah, I think about that a lot when I’m in the marsh, you know, it’s here I am right outside of town and all these views I never would have experienced had I not been duck hunting.

Ramsey Russell: None of us would.

Jon Wills: None of you just get to see nature in God’s creation at work firsthand, 2 or 3 days a week. I mean I feel fortunate and every hunter showed to see what we get to see and experience.

Ramsey Russell: Everybody should, you just don’t get to see that bird watching like you do this here.

Jon Wills: And think about all the great people you’ve met through hunting and the relationship she’s made and everything else.

Ramsey Russell: Just the people I’ve met right here in California this week and that’s why I try to get everybody jump their name down on a decoy and I try to take notes. And I try to demoralize the event tell a story in Instagram because you know, it’s a little daunting. But that’s everywhere I’ve been this year, California was the 21st ST I duck hunted this season, 100 of people I’ve met and had contact with and hunted with. And it just from Delaware to California, it is an absolute amazing fraternity that we’re in. Well, we all appreciate going out and seeing that stuff.

Jon Wills: Duck hunting is a different fraternity than other types of hunting.

Ramsey Russell: I guarantee you it is. Very social sport, just our friendship, some of the stories we’ve had, some of the things we’ve shared in a duck blind, the people we’ve shared it with and then the next morning you and I hunted together with Scott Fi. That was the morning.

Jon Wills: Oh yeah, that was back at Dunnigan.

Ramsey Russell: For a week preceding. Everybody kept talking about some big winds, some big winds.

Jon Wills: Yeah, that’s important.

Ramsey Russell: Santa Maria winds. I like I’m get out of here. I mean the winds have been blowing 10, 11 miles an hour. Oh no, big winds. I was talking to somebody called about Mexico and he had an Idaho number as we’re talking. He went down to the grasslands. Well, I drove all the way down from Idaho because this big winds coming, man, we’re supposed to have us some duck. I go, man, but I can’t wait till in the morning I went to, I stepped out about 10 mile an hour wind. When I woke up buddy, the wind was blowing.

Jon Wills: 40 mph that day.

Ramsey Russell: 40 mile an hour gusts.

Jon Wills: It was tough shooting in that wind though.

Ramsey Russell: Oh my God.

Jon Wills: You know that’s not a cake walk.

Ramsey Russell: Walk into that blind in a headwind. I felt like I had to put rocks in my pocket just keep from blowing backwards. And that was a good shoot. I was glad to shoot boss shot shell number one, I was glad not number four is not five or six or seven. Number two and I think you and I both choked up to a tighter Choke.

Jon Wills: I was shooting a pre modified boss shot shells, 3 inch force.

Ramsey Russell: And I was shooting two and three quarter inch forward would pre modified was glad I had it. But even with that, that tighter choke the way those birds worked. You got one maybe two trigger pools and they stretch their wings and caught that wind and they were gone.

Jon Wills: Oh yeah.

Ramsey Russell: If you shot 2 or 3 they had faded 30 yards.

Jon Wills: Oh yeah, if one gets clipped. I mean it’s going over the check. That’s the other thing about shooting I think people take the time to pattern their guns, shoot the right load. What an important part of the day that was not chasing cripples all over the rice in a 40 mile an hour wind. I mean a 40 mile an hour wind they would have been over the check in a heartbeat.

Ramsey Russell: What did we shoot that day? I remember shooting you’re pin tails in California is out of those rice fields. Most days that’s a pretty foregone conclusion. At least my experience, my limited experience hunt down the rice fields when I was here, which was atypical, which we’ll talk about in a minute for this time of year. Pin tails were kind of a foregone conclusion.

Jon Wills: Yeah. And how about how many pin tales that we see just sitting in that blind?

Ramsey Russell: Thousands.

Jon Wills: Yeah. When we were at Murdoch.

Ramsey Russell: Thousands.

Jon Wills: It’s hard to believe there’s a shortage when you’re sitting in a California rice plant.

Ramsey Russell: But that particular morning, we also got in the wigeons real good. Shot a few mallards. But the wigeons really cooperated and I know we left with some heavy straps that day. There was a lot of fun.

Jon Wills: Yeah, that was a great hunting and Scott he has a great operation going there. Great blinds, good decoys, good calling. It was a true pleasure to hunt with Scott.

Ramsey Russell: And speaking of Murdoch the next day, well that night we drove up and we met your buddy Deke and we have a burrito. A dang good burrito, I might add and we got the next morning and we went out there to what Murdoch gun club. What is Murdoch you knew more about than I did and we actually hunted butte. We actually hunted the creek, the femoral artery butte sink.

Jon Wills: Yeah, so Murdoch was a gun club and it was owned by the Forker family. And Andrew is a friend of mine and he invited us up and we hunted with his dad and Andrew and their cousin Deke and it’s no longer a gun club is just their families club. And yeah, we hunted butte Creek for wood ducks.

Ramsey Russell: And I got to tell you, we parked rangers across that little footbridge walked under those valley oaks that their leaves don’t look the same they’re growing on a different habitat. Live oaks back home growing real sandy coastal soils. And these are a little sandy because they are on the creek bank, but it was anything as a flood plain, you can see the watermark chest high.

Jon Wills: Yeah. People run boats through there after heavy rain.

Ramsey Russell: But in the dark they’re formed the way they grow and sprawl out looked a lot like live oaks and we get up that little bitty bend in the creek that had a wide spot and there were would duck trading around and they had hunted in the wild and man, I had high hopes. I didn’t come to California shooting wood duck, I’m going to tell you right now, but I’m all in for shooting duck, number one. Number two, I love wood duck and that I just walking through those woods and get into that little blind. Andrew and I got one, you and Deke got another, Eric his daddy got one down the road which kind of had it hemmed up left, right, east, west. But it felt again very familiar like I’m hunting wood ducks only here in California limits set. That’s a deal and I think we shot one and the wind was howling. We all thought they were going to be in a little quiet spot. They weren’t.

Jon Wills: Yeah, I think the wind had a lot to do with that. We hunted there in November. Andrew and I and they were so close I was shooting 28 gauge boss shot shells number seven out of an improved cylinder and I could have gone more open than that. When they worked that creek I mean remember that little hole, the way it was set up when they come in and commit. I mean they’re right there.

Ramsey Russell: And there’s hundreds, thousands of wood duck box fact when I met with brain Huber, California waterfall associate he told me about your wood duck nest box program and they are approaching the millionth wood duck produced from California Water fowl association would duck program. That’s just mind boggling.

Jon Wills: That’s a staggering number.

Ramsey Russell: But when we struck out on those that wood duck hunt, for whatever reason they weren’t there. We walked back to the ranger five minutes, drove 2 or 3 minutes out to one of the rice fields and hopped in that rice. It was 09:00-09:30 pin tails lower.

Jon Wills: We weren’t in there, but about five minutes before we had our pin tails.

Ramsey Russell: Boom, boom we had our pin tails. I’m thinking all right, well, we didn’t get skunk today. We got a pin tail limit for California.

Jon Wills: You might have been thinking about a burrito already.

Ramsey Russell: I was thinking about a Burrito already, I started thinking about one. You know the wind was howling, and I just didn’t feel it. Very, very gracious to be there in the field. But then next thing I know, boom I got a shovelers. All right, well I got two. And after about an hour I was one away or so away chipping away. And you said well we’ll leave. I said no, no I sit here until dark. I ain’t going to leave I’m one way, I’m this close. And you know what I remember most about that morning. It’s one of the most vivid memories of the last two weeks in California. I was sitting on six ducks and I was one away. Could not shoot a pin tail and there were thousands. I mean dumb as a brick coming right and left. You know and you just something a bald eagle went over a field down beneath us and got up. It’s like the Macy’s day parade. But it was all pin tails flying over 30 yards high. They were 30 yards to your right. They were be on the other side of pit, there were 30 yards on my left this wide column from 30 yards height of 70 yards high. Just blips of them coming through. And I’m sitting there Pin tails Pin tails Pin tails Pin tails Pin tails Pin tails Pin tails, Shoveler. And one lone Ramzilla was flying right among lollygagging along with a flock of pin tail. There’s duck number seven, bam. Passing up on beautiful pin tails to shoot a shoveler because the limit is only one.

Jon Wills: That’s right. Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I really had heard how many pin tails there were in the sack valley of California Butte Sink and all but I just didn’t.

Jon Wills: I really feel like that for people that want to experience a pin tail hunt they need to come to the Central valley California, you can shoot one, but the site you’re going to see is amazing along with the other waterfowl you’ll be able to see and take there are lot of snow geese.

Ramsey Russell: You know and hunting with, I just it was, wow. Yeah maybe we’ll get lucky. Maybe US Fishing and Wildlife service and do something. Maybe delta waterfowl is right. Maybe we can sustain a three pin tail limit. I mean its 8-10 in Alaska, 6-8 in Canada next year, 15 in Mexico, one in the Continental United States. And it really doesn’t hurt Mississippians, you know the bag limit on Pimentel doesn’t affect Mississippi, Tennessee like it does out west here that has got to be one of you all’s principal species in terms of sheer abundance.

Jon Wills: Especially in the sack valley.

Ramsey Russell: Especially in that rice. It’s a good eating duck. You know, so many people we’ve met with out here in California talk about the 10 point days their dad or granddad, targeting pin tails only.

Jon Wills: Well we’re sitting here in the grasslands at, you know, this when you look around, you’ve seen the habitat here, there’s big sheet water everywhere. And those were all developed back in the point system days. These guys were shooting 10 point exactly. They shot seven pin tails.

Ramsey Russell: One of the cooler stories making up entails. One of the cooler stories I heard it was Grant Tarki talking about his granddad and that was Grant, probably 23 years old and his dad taught him everything he knows about duck hunting, his granddad and he just real tight family. A lot of family stories, a lot of family history. You talk about that property of his and it’s like, you know, he used to be in rice and he took it out of rice because they were fighting the ducks and when butte creek would flood and it often did, it would flood their crops and then they’d lose a lot of crop to depredation of ducks. And so they decided, well heck with fighting duck would make it a waterfall area. So they went back to ducks and he’ll point to some willow tree down there. My dad planted those 20 years ago. We were sitting in a duck blind, his dad built 30 years ago or something his granddad did. And he was telling me that his granddad’s favorite duck was a pin tail and at the last duck he ever shot was an abandoned drape pin tail. And he said they probably would have mounted the bird, but nobody knew it was his last duck. But it’s kind of fitting, isn’t it? And I just thought about that, I kind of forgotten that story till we started talking about pin tails out here in California. And then speaking of wood duck, the very next day I went and hunted with Brian Huber and Brad Hulbert and we went to butte creek farms and target wood ducks again.

Jon Wills: I founded that club, not for wood ducks, that’s a beautiful club.

Ramsey Russell: Beautiful club, beautiful property, incredible, you know, and we shot some wood ducks and it was just, man, that’s when he was telling me that story, we recorded a podcast, but he was telling me that story about a million wood ducks produce.

Jon Wills: That’s amazing.

Ramsey Russell: In about the last decade. And it made me think I know a lot of people in social media, were heading up saying, maybe more people around Louisiana, Mississippi. And man, I think not from what I’ve seen out here, for what a wood duck means to folks in the Deep South, everybody ought to have maintained wood duck boxes. I want to go home and talk to our duck committee. Hey, I think we need to double up on the wood duck boxes and have a committee to come servicing because we could be producing a lot more ducks right here in our backyard. If everybody did that, there would be a pile of it worked, it worked out here because we’re not in classical wood duck habitat, but there seems to be a whole lot of in the state of California nest box program.

Jon Wills: Yeah. And I would think it was typical wood duck habitat before a lot of the rice fields were put in the butte sink. I mean you got a taste of what the butte sink used to look like.

Ramsey Russell: I sure did.

Jon Wills: And all the oak trees and I mean that’s a big flood plain there with, it’s probably beautiful with duck habitat.

Ramsey Russell: And we went back out with the White brothers. And the bird threw a curve ball, we targets specs and we shot specs.

Jon Wills: We did.

Ramsey Russell: But it was tough, it’s like something happened, you know, we set up on an area that they had been seeing mostly specs and a lot of snows feeding on these hey rose for three days straight, we get there, they didn’t want to play. But they were real scattered out there, hitting here-here, there-there yonder, you know, all which ways and it just didn’t want some days you on back, some days between F&U and ain’t nothing to do about it. And they called inaudible and back we go to that old camp house and that may be one of my favorite meals I ate, that was certainly one of the top two favorite meals I had the entire time of California was when they put together Jonathan’s gumbo right out there over the burner.

Jon Wills: That’s right that was awesome. And we we’ll talk a little bit about the gumbo. I mean you shot a couple specs that ended up in that gumbo.

Ramsey Russell: I sure did. Well, you know, we had one snow, shot a pair of specs. It just passed you but it worked bam-bam. And while he was cooking the linguica.

Jon Wills: Yeah, cooking the linguica and I was cooking Cuban spec and snow.

Ramsey Russell: Linguica a Portugal sausage things I’ve never heard of, never seen, never tasted it. But it’s a big thing out here in California. Who knew there was a big Portugal Portuguese heritage, I didn’t. And = he started he started putting together and you breasted those geese out and we brown them well browned some bay prawns he had some oysters

Jon Wills: And I don’t think Dylan and I have a future in shrimp peeling.

Ramsey Russell: No, you do not have a future in shrimp peeling. I don’t know where you’ll learned to peel a shrimp. But that’s nothing that a couple of good shrimp boys won’t fit because you leave to starve to death you learn to peel shrimp quick and I’ve had practice on that. That probably is my, shellfish is probably my favorite food group but yeah, man, what a great meal that was. And then we actually went back out that afternoon and brought home from the specs. Not a ton of, but that was a good hunt.

Jon Wills: Yeah, it was great. I thought it was pretty cool to be on the same ranch that they grew up on.

Ramsey Russell: I did too.

Jon Wills: A lot of family history there.

Ramsey Russell: Exactly. Well, they were sitting there hunting that morning and because in between the bodies was pretty lengthy that day, watching those geese fly over, they pointed and showed us the house they grew up in and then right there at that old campouts, they talked about growing up there shooting squirrels, shooting rabbits, catching frogs.

Jon Wills: And it was easy to picture while they were sitting there talking about it. I can just imagine how fun that would have been, two brothers growing up on this farm. You know, he said his mom would only let him go to that first road where she could see him and they’d be out there BB gun shooting squirrels and you know, I’m sure fighting here and there’s brothers do. But what a great childhood that probably led to their love for hunting and their dad was a duck hunter.

Ramsey Russell: None of us go out to hunt just to watch the sunrise. It’s beautiful whether it’s over the Sutter buttes or San Francisco bay or your favorite beaver pond in Mississippi or cypress break. None of us out there just watch sunrise, we want to shoot birds. But you know when I think back to the whole context of duck hunting, I don’t care if you’re all the way halfway across the world in Azerbaijan, king eider camp down in Argentina here, California, home in Mississippi, its people and its food and it’s stories and all that good stuff. And that that day we kind of sort of knew each other, we all hit it off on the first day. But you know sitting around that old camp house, sitting around without burner going, just telling stories and ball busting and cracking jokes and watching you all peal shrimp, him cooking and that’s just doing our thing. You know, you just you want to get to know folks, eat with them, cook with them. You know, hunting is easy it’s all the in between part of the trigger pulls. I think that and I just, I know I slept good that night. That was such a good time.

Jon Wills: That was a great hunt, I enjoyed our time with the white brothers there. Two great guys, they’re super easy to get to know. I mean, I felt like after the first day, I felt like we don’t know each other forever.

Ramsey Russell: I feel like we’re going to be friends a long time I you know, they’re going to come down in Mississippi, I’m going to get him a Doe’s eat place. You know what I think I just made up my mind if you and them especially come down there together, we’re going to have a shrimp bowl, maybe a crawfish bowl.

Jon Wills: Hey, I’m sure that the White brothers and I would love to come join you. But Dylan and I don’t make us peel the shrimp.

Ramsey Russell: You all going to be hungry is all I can say. Well we do have a crawfish boil and we’ll put the shrimp on top, so we’ll have shrimp and crawfish, you know how to peel crawfish any quicker?

Jon Wills: I guess we’re going to find out.

Ramsey Russell: Oh Lord, you all going to starve to death. I don’t think I’m going to starve. They take goose hunting to such a high level and enjoy having them on the podcast, going to have them back on next time. And they’ve elevated it to such a high level.

Jon Wills: Yeah, that’s amazing. Right

Ramsey Russell: Perfect stage way into yesterday’s hunt. Right about the time you think you’ve seen and done it all, you go to wildlife area, so don’t sleep in at 03:30. Oh heck no, set your alarm for = 2:30 we got to leave early.

Jon Wills: And we had a reservation.

Ramsey Russell: What is it up by San Francisco to back up Yuba City no it’s 45 minutes away. Well I’m like well Jon don’t get shooting time till 06:50. I know, I’ll see at 03:00.

Jon Wills: You thought maybe there was going to be spotlighted ducks or something in the dark didn’t you when I told you to 02:30?

Ramsey Russell: I didn’t know what I mean, I cut my teeth hunting public land in Mississippi. But that it’s been a long time to hunt a public land back home but that did not prepare me for the circus that you and I are talking, trucking along, heading up the highway. We’re going its pitch black dark out in farm country California.

Jon Wills: In between the 99 the I-55.

Ramsey Russell: As we start getting close up ahead, it looks like a rock concert let out there, just bumper to bumper traffic of headlights and tail lights. I’m like, what’s going on up there? That’s the line. I go what? I mean it was 04:00 AM, 2 1and half hour for shooting down and somebody was saying they saw a buddy there or something on social media that had been sitting in that line since 10:00 the night before?

Jon Wills: Correct. So because of COVID, you can’t be on the refuge between 09:00 PM and 03:00 AM. So what guys start doing, let me back up for a second. So Mendota has 100 reservations and if you have a reservation, your number is what it is. So if you’re number three, you just pull into the parking lot, spot number three. But for the sweat lines first come first serve.

Ramsey Russell: That line was a mile long.

Jon Wills: Yeah. People used to get in that line like late in the year like this you’d see guys on a Wednesday they leave their truck in the line on Thursday or Wednesday night for Saturday. And because of COVID they can’t camp. So what they’re doing is they’re lining up on the side of the road the day before and sleeping in their trucks. And then when they open they get to the refuge at 03:00 AM they pull in. And I saw online where a guy showed up at 10:00 PM the night before to park on the side of the road. And he had 50 trucks in front of him.

Ramsey Russell: 50 Trucks. How many acres is Mendota?

Jon Wills: It’s about 12,000.

Ramsey Russell: Well, 12,000 hunt able acers or 12,000 total?

Jon Wills: 12,000 total.

Ramsey Russell: How big is the sanctuary? A couple of 1000 maybe.

Jon Wills: Probably not even that big. But there are what’s unique about Mendota is when that place was created. There was private landowners inside they had duck clubs that didn’t want to sell. So inside the refuge is actually a few private duck clubs. So there’s those in the refuge, I’m not sure what acreage that takes up. And they have upland habitat out there that there’s dove hunting there, but there’s 22 parking lot. So there’s a lot. But maximum capacity I believe is 600 I think with COVID they’ve maybe knocked it down to 400. I’m not quite sure on that number.

Ramsey Russell: You pick me up at three. I’m going to say we parked in unit 6 at 04:00. Very quickly got on the waiter said hello to some folks you knew blah-blah and you get your license and all your paperwork together like walking in with a stack of papers like to go sign a mortgage, you stop check station, walk up and I need to see this, I need to see this. You know of course California governor Gavin don’t believe in citizenship card, nothing important like that. So we just show them all the necessary hunting paperwork gives us a yellow hall path and off we go up and drove along miles down that dirt road.

Jon Wills: It’s a big refuge.

Ramsey Russell: And then you’re chatting and cutting up man would we, I mean for the two hours we’ve been together you’ve been giving me the whole synopsis on public land hunting about growing up with Josh, hunt with Josh’s daddy. And I see my parking place up heading up. That guy turned good, good, good. Now that guy turned to good, good, good. We were the first person that little side parking area. And you put the car in park and you didn’t say goodbye kiss my ass beat-beat. Next thing I know you’re gone, just gone. And you already told me now, you know you’re going to come in with Josh I’m at haul but I don’t know how he is the biggest man [**00:58:13] was a runner.

Jon Wills: The biggest guy at the reservation.

Ramsey Russell: You sure left that truck pretty dang. I thought the truck might have been on fire the way he left it. And you were gone. I mean by the time I stepped out and walked around, I couldn’t even see you, you were gone.

Jon Wills: About 20 minutes for shoot time. You realize why I went running?

Ramsey Russell: Yes, I did. Josh and I loaded up the car.

Jon Wills: What was that levy like with a little bit of rain on it?

Ramsey Russell: It was like white biscuit dough. It was so sticky. It was sticky. It’s like, I’m 5ft 11’. So I varied from 5ft 11’ to 6.5ft and the whole walk in and then we ditched, pull behind car, whatever that was and took the sled off. That’s we’re all the gear would started slipping out across that water that was slippery. And I was like, boy, do I need my walker’s stick right now? And that was a pretty good haul. It was like two or 300 yards across that water tap and that was your little spot. You have had some great hunts there this year.

Jon Wills: Yeah. The last couple of weeks we hunted there, we had a real good shoot there four of us a couple of weeks ago and then Josh went on Wednesday.

Ramsey Russell: I’m going to say, and I don’t know. It’s hard to say out here in this flat country. I’m going to say that that quote pond that the whole refuge is a marsh. But I’m going to say that pond that open water ankle deep ankle to mid-shin deep. I’m going to say it was 60 acres. I get to my get to my, I put sit down, I sit down, I look at my watch, we got an 01 and 20 minutes to go till shooting time. I’m like, well we’re here early enough. Oh boy! People started coming in from all directions. At times it was like looking at a Metallica concert with all the light beams cutting throughout his face. I’m like, my goodness. They were coming over that levee over here, over here, behind us. I see you. You know, and coming in and of course you all the strategy to spread out wave people off like it’s already a lot of people in there and that was an event. And then when it started kind of like I was in the Alamo.

Jon Wills: Kind of like you were in the Alamo.

Ramsey Russell: Speaking of Alamo, when shooting time came, it sounded like the Alamo. It actually sounded like a Taliban firing practice over there on the firing line they called it. It was a big long, mile long counties firecracker string somebody lit and it was shots everywhere.

Jon Wills: When the hunting is good, it’s 10 times of that.

Ramsey Russell: I can’t imagine.

Jon Wills: Yeah, I remember you talking about how much shooting there was Josh and I are go, no man, this is slow.

Ramsey Russell: You see a lot of things when you hunt public land anywhere, you sky busting. You know, and boy, we saw some yesterday.

Jon Wills: Well when you’re limited 25 shells, it’s funny to me how high people are willing to shoot. I believe it’s a $50 fine per shell that you’re over if you.

Ramsey Russell: I won’t we are like that, we’re like limited 25 shells shooting primarily teal what not like it. I’m not, there are times I will dial in at further distances, but I’m not shooting at nothing past 40 yards.

Jon Wills: And probably not a third shot. I mean a lot of times you’re taking 1-2.

Ramsey Russell: But in all fairness, there was that one team, kind of, if I was looking at noon, this guy rolled around two o’clock. There was a guy there that, I’d say his average shot was 70 yards and I’d say I’d say that 70-80% of the time something failed. Yeah, he was knocking them out, but they never that team behind me that came in real late and we let just let some birds go at being high and them two boys lit into them. And I don’t know who was more surprised something failed me you them or the duck. But something did fall and now, the guy said, what was it? the guy said I don’t know, mallards and cinnamon teal one.

Jon Wills: Because those two look alike.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah they look so much alike but we never did here I would, if I had to guess it was a shoveler or a coup.

Jon Wills: Yeah I guess it was neither.

Ramsey Russell: I’ll tell you that hunt on that place, here’s what I walk away from you know as Josh and I were walking in he was telling he’s been hunting since he was 10 years old at your age. So he’s been hunting for nearly three decades. His dad steel hunts there.

Jon Wills: Yeah he was there that day, not with us.

Ramsey Russell: I didn’t get to meet his dad but I’m going to bet his dad is my age or a little over.

Jon Wills: Yeah he’s 60.

Ramsey Russell: Okay, so he’s been hunting, he’s been hunting there for many decades and still does. And I know that you know, it’s so funny how in the pitch black dark walking to your blind or driving out through the gate, it was every man for himself, Arch enemies, arch rivals, but back at the boat ramp or the parking lot, at the truck man, everybody smiling, everybody was friendly, everybody telling stories that they were the friendliest people you ever met. We were walking in that afternoon, going to check out another little spot. Try to finish the limit. You were meeting people on the way out that would stop talk to you how they did, how they didn’t do just as friendly as can be guys could have been hunting for their whole life. And I tell you we saw push cars, we saw sleds, we saw e-bikes, we saw bicycles, we saw people were running shoes, somebody pulling a wagon. I mean backpacks it’s all foot traffic, ain’t no ATVS.

Jon Wills: There’s a lot of people with some custom made karts, sleds, backpacks, you name it.

Ramsey Russell: That have been around.

Jon Wills: You could see huffing it around 12,000 acres. I mean these guys are going to do anything they can to make it easier on them.

Ramsey Russell: Some of these boat blinds, some of these field hunts I’ve been on, so many places you hunt, you can bring whatever you want to bring their. But when you’re hunting like these guys are hunting, you’re down to the bare minimum. It’s like packing for a sheep hunt. No ounce to spare.

Jon Wills: No, that’s like when I’ve been talking with J. J. Gustafson of lifetime decoys and they’d come out with some new decoys of sharing the wigeon we were using.

Ramsey Russell: Yes that was the first time I’ve ever, I’ve seen them online. But remember we went to move those decoy And I said, man, what kind of wigeons are? They’re the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

Jon Wills: Yeah for a refuge hunter. My favorite part about that was they have two weights. They have a double keel that comes down with removable weights. And so you pull those weights out. I weighed my decoy and it weighed 13.9oz and that’s really lice. I mean you could carry a dozen of those things like nothing. But what else I like about the removable weight is A) the weight for carrying them out there. But B) we don’t have a lot of wind typically down here. I mean a big one for us to be 10 miles an hour and with no way to kill those things really get some nice movement and 3, 4 mile an hour wind.

Ramsey Russell: But I’m going to say this about California public land hunters. Somebody wrote me, posted up a thing on Instagram. Somebody inbox me. He wasn’t being ugly because he introduced himself as a refuge, right himself. He said, it can bring out the worst in people. And I wrote him back and said, I could see that. But it also brings out the best in people. Look, I am telling you, I’ve always said this as a daddy. I always wanted my kids grew up in a camp and we’re not a great camp, but in terms of duck numbers of Deep South is getting real tough. But growing up cutting my teeth, learning to duck hunt on public made me a better hunter. It made me a better hunter. It’s competitive. You’ve got to bring the game and I’m going to say this about what I now appreciate that. I could not say there’s two weeks ago like I’m about to say it. But you see these guys going somewhere like Mendota, they’re coming out with ducks or limits regularly, man, those guys could go anywhere and kill ducks. They are playing you have got to be dedicated, you’ve got to be committed and you’ve got to be good to hunt like

Jon Wills: Yeah. No, I mean I think guys who do it right on public land, they’ve perfected the art of duck hunting because there’s no blind and Mendota, and it’s 100% free room. So you got to scout, you got to find the Tullie patch that the birds are working in the right pond or you know Josh keeps notes about wind directions and when we’ve shot good in the north wind, south wind, cold, and rain, whatever. You know, guys got to remember that kind of stuff. And I think the biggest thing about public land that differs from maybe some other types of waterfowl hunting, maybe like a club in a blind, you know where you know where the good blinds are and I’m sure you need to know the good wind and all that. But Mendota as you saw, I mean the amount of people that show up in your punk and totally change the flight pattern in that pond and it’s different. But the height has got to be good. They got to perfect the art of duck hunting to do well day in and day out on public land.

Ramsey Russell: You’ve got to perfect the art. That’s a good way of putting it Jon but you know, so many people we talked to yesterday at the boat ground people you knew, people we just met, I keep saying a boat ramp is what I mean local area. They were talking about where did all the ducks go overnight? It’s like they just disappeared And I just felt like yesterday by two o’clock in the afternoon every single duck on that 12,000 acres had been shot at least once.

Jon Wills: Yeah. And when we drove through that closed on it was amazing how empty it was. There was no ducks in there.

Ramsey Russell: And there were no ducks, it’s usually packed isn’t it?

Jon Wills: Yeah and in the last a little while it has been really good.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. But that was an eye opener and it just, I tell you what my hats off to the guys on California public land that are getting out and doing that, sleeping in their trucks and I guess public land everywhere too. But man, they are bringing an absolute a game and you know you see these young kids don’t no difference in the mallard and cinnamon teal and what not like it. But buddy there guys that do know the difference and they are all in and playing a tough game getting up at two o’clock in the morning and going through that sweat line. I talked to somebody on social media, got up to 02:00 AM left his house. Did not, it wasn’t his turn to go onto that property until 01:00 PM hunt until dark.

Jon Wills: We got to do the lottery the night before.

Ramsey Russell: Come out with 5-6 ducks. Almost the limit. Went back home. It was 8:45 at night. 2:00 AM, his alarm goes off. He’s going right back at. That is a passion but you can’t help but respect.

Jon Wills: And that’s for people that don’t live here haven’t experienced California hunting. That’s how a majority of the people, that’s their version of duck hunting in the state of California. That’s what they do. California has a lot of refugees, both federal and state. And they vary from rules some have a lottery the night before, but that’s pretty much how it goes.

Ramsey Russell: California is a big state and I just scratched the surface out here. We’ve already talked about a repeat trip and I know I want to go back there. I know there’s some other areas I want to go back. We’ve talked from other people and there’s a lot of whole lot of state that I haven’t seen yet. Way up north back down to salt sea down to San Diego. There’s a lot of cool areas out here to duck hunt.

Jon Wills: Yeah, San Ysidro down by Mexico. California has such diverse habitats. I’m sure other big states do. But you know from the northeastern California, up near the Oregon border, over the humble bay, down to the South Valley. The bay, the Sacramento valley, San Joaquin valley. Just all the way down to Mexico bring it full circle habitat.

Ramsey Russell: Bring it full circle. Our final morning we get up, we come to your camp. You didn’t have a great draw. But you said it doesn’t matter. Nobody likes to go where we’re going to go hunt.

Jon Wills: That’s right. They always tease me. They all know where I’m going.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your favorite species Jon?

Jon Wills: Probably a cinnamon teal.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s what we went forward.

Jon Wills: Yeah. I didn’t realize there was such a big deal until I started meeting people from other states and I guess we’re fortunate to have good numbers of them here.

Ramsey Russell: I think they are very beautiful bird.

Jon Wills: Yeah, I do too.

Ramsey Russell: I would not say that my favorite North American species, but at the same time maybe they are. I think they’re a very, very beautiful bird.

Jon Wills: I think they’re beautiful. But I think wigeon are up there for me too. I think women are beautiful. I love the way they sound. I love the way they work, watching them in flight, pin tail courtship flights are also beautiful. I mean there’s something I can appreciate about every bird. But part of the reason I like teal hunting, cinnamon teal hunting something you touched on this morning when you asked me, you like this real tight cattail marsh, don’t you? And I go, yeah, this is it. If I can hunt one place, I’d like to stand in the Tullie’s in a small hole. That’s what I like. I’m not a big water hunter.

Ramsey Russell: That’s exactly, that’s just it. That is why cinnamon teal are not found throughout. You’re not going to find them in the corn field. You’re not going to find them in the rice fields. You’re not going to find them in a lot of the habitats a lot of places to hunt. They have a very, to me a very defined preference for habitat marsh rank. And I almost hear people say shovelers are trash ducks. Let me, introduce to their first cousin the cinnamon teal to you because those guys, they want a monkey nasty rank bottom.

Jon Wills: Well, why don’t you touch on teal trifecta right? That’s why it should be the spoonie, the blue wing and the cinnamon right?

Ramsey Russell: It really should be.

Jon Wills: Yeah, not the green wing. I did shoot a green wing a blue wing and a cinnamon all drakes here last year at the blind we hunted in this morning. But yeah, I mean the real trifecta should be the shoveler, the cinnamon and the blue wing.

Ramsey Russell: The teal trifecta is a beautiful mount. It’s a holy grill. If you’re going to go to Mexico especially.

Jon Wills: A lot of your clients, that’s what they’re going for right?

Ramsey Russell: They want that teal trifecta. But I’ve come to the opinion that a better trio of birds, especially in a dead mount would be blue wing, a cinnamon and a shoveler. They’ve all got very similar wing throughout because they’re all in the same genus. Blue wing and cinnamon teal or in the spatula genus, which is what they now call the shoveler. There’s also other birds like the Gorganian [**01:14:15] and some different stuff that around the world, but they’re in that genus.

Jon Wills: And if you look at the bill of a cinnamon or blue wing, you can tell, I mean it has some similarities to a shoveler. It’s very different than the green wing.

Ramsey Russell: Exactly, right. We got into a conversation in social media how to tell the difference in molt basic plumage cinnamons versus blue wings like September. And I didn’t really know. All I knew was that an adult drake would have a red eye and got to talk to some of these biologists that we’re sending me pictures of the bill. And once you see the cinnamon teal bills, they are a little more spatula and even a blue wing, it’s almost like the middle ground between the shoveler and a blue wing is that cinnamon teal bill they really are a little spatula. But anyway we shot a spectacular green wing this morning. This morning was slow, it was slow Jon you knew it was. I mean, we could tell just because there were what three or four or five blinds on your club shooting and we couldn’t really hear a lot of shooting or around or around it and looking up in the sky. I don’t know what the shots I did hear around the marsh were shooting at, but I couldn’t see duck to speak of.

Jon Wills: Yeah, probably similar to what we were shooting at.

Ramsey Russell: I must say we saw a couple of dozen birds all morning. And first was the green wings as we were putting out decoys. Second with the green wings were doing something else. Third or fourth you told me said, man, and cinnamons going to come right down these Tullie’s.

Jon Wills: Because they like those, you know, people looking for cinnamons. They love those big daily tight channels.

Ramsey Russell: And they’re about 08:00.

Jon Wills: Yeah, they fly a little later to they’re not necessarily first light duck like those.

Ramsey Russell: About 8:00 off to my left, just above those tall Tullie’s in front of me I saw a duck coming and it turned out to be a cinnamon.

Jon Wills: Right above the top of the Tullie’s.

Ramsey Russell: And had he kept on coming at me, I’ve got a shot but he didn’t he bank cut kind of work that whole away from us 45 yards maybe and went and landed and couldn’t do nothing with him. And so after a little bit we all half dozen birds we’ve seen had kind of come over that point out there in front of us, we picked up a dozen decoys we had scattered about moved. And what was it 10 o’clock? 10 o’clock we’ve shot a few other ducks. We shot that Green wing having a great visit, solving world problems. And you said they are the pair of cinnamons. And I looked up, how far were they? They weren’t coming in no decoy.

Jon Wills: I’m going to say 35, yards.

Ramsey Russell: Straight as an air it gave me a path by.

Jon Wills: They did you hammered that drake.

Ramsey Russell: And I shot that drake, it failed. And I sent char and I thought you were going to beat her to it.

Jon Wills: Well, you know Ramsey, you can’t marry your shoe to cinnamon teal you know?

Jon Wills: You haven’t seen me run that fast since I got out of the truck.

Ramsey Russell: Now I know why you got to that whole so quick in Mendota, I don’t know a big old boy like you can move back quick. I ain’t going to lie to you.

Jon Wills: I was sucking wind.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, Burrito power.

Jon Wills: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: And I’ve shot cinnamons in Argentina. I’ve shot cinnamons in Utah, Texas, tons of them down in Mexico, Peru. Peru is an anomaly. It’s a lot of down to where you hunt them near those rice fields. It’s not the rice there in, it’s those marshes and those channels that they’re pulling water out to irrigate that rice mug nasty rank marsh habitat.

Jon Wills: I remember seeing that on a mojo TV show you filmed and it looks like here, it reminded me of home.

Ramsey Russell: It did. Well, that’s exactly, that’s what I was feeling like.

Jon Wills: If I could have just seen those snapshots of mojo, you guys down there shooting those cinnamon teal. That could have been Mendota. That could have been still bow. It looked just like

Ramsey Russell: Let’s say here Argentina throughout the United States. Where you see cinnamon teal how you see cinnamon teal no matter where you go. All the North America. I see them as singles pairs, little family cohort. You go down to coach Peru and there’s big flocks like just imagine a 50 pack.

Jon Wills: Yeah. I’ve never seen that many here. You know, I’ve shot into flocks of probably a dozen.

Ramsey Russell: That’s what I call the family cohort.

Jon Wills: Yeah, that’s big for here a lot of times their pairs, singles, threes and fours.

Ramsey Russell: And then you know, so that was it. It was mission accomplished. You know when char brought that nice little handsome.  Cinnamon teal in that was mission accomplished. And then we shot four more coming out.

Jon Wills: That’s right, yeah. We had the day with four Cinnamons.

Ramsey Russell: And so that was a huge plus and we couldn’t, I mean the weather change now. We thought we said it for weather change, we might go back out to sea even when I’m looking out the window here at the camp house and its cloudy it’s different it’s windy.

Jon Wills: You can see the wind blowing outside a little bit.

Ramsey Russell: I’m mission accomplished man. We shot some good quality duck today. Jon, I got to say this, all week long you’ve been blowing up that pin tail whistles. It’s a good sounding pin tail whistling. Doesn’t look like any whistle I’ve ever seen.

Jon Wills: It looks like a mini mallard columnist.

Ramsey Russell: And he’s your caretaker.

Jon Wills: He is. Yeah Matt Pearce game calls and I met Matt about the time I started duck hunting. I bought a whistle from him. He was not the caretaker here at the time. So I went to his house and I was new to hunting and picked out a whistle and he really took his time to show me how to use it. That you know those pin tail whistles do a lot more in pin tails. Yeah there you go.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a really, really good sounding whistle.

Jon Wills: Yeah I mean that’s teal wood duck, drake, mallard, and gadwall.

Ramsey Russell: It stands in and out.

Ramsey Russell: When you put it out that first ring get the pin tail, push it in, pull it out a little bit further. You get like a real quiet deep pin tail.

Jon Wills: He makes them by hand and he’s carving him in his garage. Ramsey Russell: 100% made by hand.

Jon Wills: Mine’s it’s as old as I don’t know whenever I started duck hunting. Its coca bola still looks great and yeah I mean hunters here they’ll use those.

Ramsey Russell: How would you compare my experience here the last two weeks in California with normal late January California duck hunting?

Jon Wills: The opposite of normal. It’s been really tough, really tough.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Jon Wills: I mean even in the day we were with Scott, he talked about how fast they were done like the day or two before. You know it’s like a 30 minute shoot and here in the south grasslands or in the grasslands anywhere. I mean a typical January you know you have a big water got pin tail wigeon in the marsh where we were hunting today cinnamons and green wings. I mean we get huge flocks of green wings here and yeah there’s just they’re gone.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t know where they went. Mexico I hope down there next week.

Jon Wills: Yeah that’s right. I know you’re heading to Mexico.

Ramsey Russell: You know there’s been a big north wind Maybe they did push down to Mexico finally. That would be, that’s an upshot I hadn’t thought about. It’s been a grind. It’s been an amazing hunt.

Jon Wills: The guys like you that hunt a lot and guys like every hunter that hunts a lot, we ride that roller coaster.

Ramsey Russell: We ride that roller coaster. You never know what the next duck the next day, the next morning’s going to be. I’m all in.

Jon Wills: That’s why you got to go, you’ve been in that marsh in mid-November when you think nothing’s going to happen. But there’s some small weather system that moves them in and you get one or two good shoot days on those fresh ducks.

Ramsey Russell: You don’t know unless you go.

Jon Wills: And I’m not going to be at home waiting to hear from everybody else had that shot ducks. I’m going to go just in case that happens.

Ramsey Russell: You don’t know unless you go. Furs sent some pictures last couple of days it was very discouraging when I left Mississippi a few weeks ago, he sent me some pictures today. The last few days hunting Mississippi public. They’ve had some really good hunts. Mallards, Gadwalls in your face decoying shot abandoned bird this morning. So they’ve had a really good time. But for me anymore Jon, I want to shoot ducks. I have shot plenty of birds out here. Geese specs. I’ve shot specs, I’ve shot snows illusions, which was a huge treat.

Jon Wills: I shot my first blue goose.

Ramsey Russell: Your first blue goose.

Jon Wills: 28 gauge boss force with the White brothers.

Ramsey Russell: You know, here we got 2000 geese building around, buzzing around, buzzing around somebody spots blue, Jon needs you to blue. So we wait and I’m like, what’s the big deal? But that is a big deal out here. Blue geese aren’t prevalent, this far west.

Jon Wills: No, I’ve never been on a hunt that’s killed one.

Ramsey Russell: Blue Geese is white Geese to me that it’s almost like 50, 50.

Jon Wills: Yeah. And there more of them in California than have been in the past. Kind of like blue wing teal or starting at more of those and the goose hunters in Sac Valley, they’ve killed blues. But do you see the type of habitat we’re hunting down here and I’m a duck hunter.

Ramsey Russell: But you’re not a guide.

Jon Wills: No.

Ramsey Russell: And I know since you’ve been my friend and my host and my guide, my tour guide my eyes and ears here in California. I know you’ve got a bunch of inbox because I want to go on a guided hunt. You ain’t a guide are you?

Jon Wills: No, not a guide.

Ramsey Russell: You don’t want to be a guide. Do you?

Jon Wills: I don’t.

Ramsey Russell: You don’t want people to call you and want to go guided hunt?

Jon Wills: No, but I could recommend some good ones. But I’m not a guy now. Yeah, I get a lot of inboxes about shooting cinnamon teal.

Ramsey Russell: When did your season end here in California?

Jon Wills: January 31.

Ramsey Russell: We’re getting to the tail end.

Jon Wills: Yep. One week from today.

Ramsey Russell: Yep. And then and you’re going to stick it out and go with it.

Jon Wills: I’m going to let it, I’ll be back here

Ramsey Russell: God willing and the creek don’t rise. I’ll see you down in Argentina, Rio Salado.

Jon Wills: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: I’m sure I’ll talk to you forward in Jon.

Jon Wills: You might sneak in a spring snow goose hunt. You never know our spring goose hunt.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I’ll tell you this now since that you mentioned it. I’m going to be home 1^st two weeks February and I’ve got some work to do. Unfortunately. I’ve got like real honest to God said at the office. Hate life work to do. But I do intend to crank up that dirty white truck and head north and catch some snow geese. Matthew Pill, Dirty Bird outfitters some other associates. I plan on catching some snow geese this year. I’ve got a super tight choke. I’m ready in some bigger Ball shot size and number two. I want to go bang up on some geese.

Jon Wills: So we’re going to be calling Brandon asking for those big shells.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, there you go, man.

Jon Wills: And I’m looking forward to jumping in the marsh with you in Rio Salado.

Ramsey Russell: We’re going to have a great time and I think that’s going to happen. I sure hope it does Jon. It’s this COVID, the only thing, my only complaint about coming to California was just damn COVID, and it really, really kind of kicked us in the Cohune’s coming out here. But it wasn’t bad. We persevered and we had a good time, didn’t we?

Jon Wills: We did its great and I’m looking forward to doing it again. I had a heck of a time. I’m glad you came out. Thanks for coming.

Ramsey Russell: Now. Thank you for your hospitality, Thank you for your friendship. And Jon, you’re a heck of a tour guide and I really appreciate.

Jon Wills: You’re welcome. Thank you for coming.

Ramsey Russell: Folks you all have been listening to my buddy @Jonwills on Instagram. He ain’t a guy, he’s just my buddy. California has been an amazing place. It is Duck Season Somewhere and California was epic. You know, I’ve heard about it for years. I’ve seen reports in chat rooms and got a lot of clients, a lot of clients from California that are all serious duck hunters and to a person, the people are hunted with the people, I share time with, the people I eat burritos with, the people I grilled ducks and made gumbo and shared a lot of truck time and stories with the last few weeks. The people I met at public parking areas that I met out in the marsh. It’s been nothing short of amazing. There is an incredible, incredible duck hunting history out here. A lot of conservation work going on out here. It’s really pretty amazing they have so many people and the political reputation that it has, it was very, very reassuring to flip off the political propaganda machine of television and Facebook and just come out here and meet people in what I perceived still being real America right out here in northern California. Folks, thank you all for listening Duck Season Somewhere. See you next time.