Best Texas Blue-winged Teal Hunts

Ramsey Russell: I’m your host Ramsey Russell. Join me here to listen to those conversations. Welcome back to another great episode of Ducks Season Somewhere. I am at the Double G Ranch in Wharton County, Texas, with what I guarantee, is the best blue wing teal hunting operator on earth bar none. You’ve heard us talk about earlier, some of these podcasts about a lot of these blue wings coming down the Central Mississippi, even some of the Atlantic flyway, hitting that Gulf Coast Corridor and heading west. And they come through a little funnel right here in the prairies of Texas near El Campo. And besides being a good friend and a long time hunting buddy, met him through Mojo outdoors actually. But besides all that, he’s a really good duck hunting operator. Steve Biggers, how are you today Sir?

Steve Biggers: Hey Ramsay, I’m doing good. Thank you for having me.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, y’all are right in the full swing of things. I could get up here to the double D Ranch in a downpour and God, just like I remembered it from a couple of years ago, Happy clients everywhere.

Steve Biggers: Yes Sir. We hope you had a good dinner tonight.

Ramsey Russell: Peggy and Ross. That’s just the thing. It’s so welcoming. It’s a beautiful ranch house, deer heads hanging everywhere, spacious, clean as a whistle. But I knew, when I pulled up the smell of Ross’s smoker hanging in the air around all the time.

Steve Biggers: That was the first thing you said. That was the first thing you said to me. Yes Sir. They do it. They do a great job, Ross and Peg and their whole staff. It’s mostly family. You know they have some outside housekeeping help, but the family sticks together, works together, and I’ve talked about this all the time. It’s a complete package here, right? It’s just not a duck hunt, it’s the whole thing.

Ramsey Russell: It’s the total package. I think duck hunting is a total package. I mean, we’re not like any of us coming down here and eat barbecue and watch the sunrise. We want to shoot ducks and you do shoot ducks.

Steve Biggers: Yes sir.

Ramsey Russell: But it’s a total package and that’s what sets y’all apart from basically everybody else is doing. Is that in the astounding success that y’all consistently have year in and year out? whether duck guys necessarily smile or not. But Steve, here’s what I want to know and I’m never asking this. Introduce yourself. Besides Steve Biggers outfitter down here in Texas. Who is Steve Biggers to anybody listening.

Steve Biggers: Steve Biggers is a guy that grew up in Southeast Texas. I grew up guiding and duck hunting, and at an early age fell in love with the sport and the heritage of it, the traditions. My dad was not a big duck hunter, he had a farm up in East Texas and we mainly deer hunted but I quickly found the passion of water fowling and I couldn’t shake it. I had a great career with Exxon. I left it way early and people thought I was nuts, but I wanted to do what I wanted to do and that was train retrievers. I love to train dogs too. I train year round. My oldest daughter runs the operation in the off season for me. The off season means duck season for me, but she runs at that time. The duck hunting and dog training kind of went together, and I’ve been doing it 21 years’ full time.

Ramsey Russell: Well, if your dad was a big deer hunter, how did you get into duck hunting?

Steve Biggers: It’s a good story again. Again, I grew up in a town that everybody on my street worked at Exxon. I never told you this, but our neighbor was a transfer from the Baton Rouge refinery and he grew up in Lafayette Louisiana, Howard Duane, and he had a Jon boat, and a lab, and a kid that was my age, and my dad would go off the East Texas on the weekend and Mr. Duane invited Steve to stay behind and go with him. I shot two boxes of shells. First duck, I never went on and I was hooked. That’s one. That’s all I remember. I shot a teal or green winged teal.

Ramsey Russell: what was the last name? Do you remember all these years later?

Steve Biggers: Woody.

Ramsey Russell: You ever had a lab yourself named Woody?

Steve Biggers: I have. I sure did. I renamed about the second one I had. I named it Woody. It’s been a great run for me. People ask me all the time. I’m now with Facebook and social media, I’m friends with a lot of the men that I worked with at Exxon. Right. And they’re all retired. I’m 58 years old today and they’re all retiring.

Ramsey Russell: Happy Birthday.

Steve Biggers: Thank you, well, not today literally, but today I’m 58. I’m watching these guys retiring for the last 21 years. I feel like I’ve never had a job. I’m just hunting, dog training. And I don’t know if I want to retire. I try to stay healthy, and you and I have talked about that, away from here, but just doing our thing right.

Ramsey Russell: We never have talked about this either. But one thing I really do like about hunting here, you’ve got a lot of guides, every guide’s got a dog, there’s a lot of good dog power here. You’ve always had some great dog.

Steve Biggers: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: How did you go from Exxon to dog training?

Steve Biggers: I was training as an amateur prior to leaving Exxon. I went to Texas A&M, and A&M had a Retriever Club back then. Not affiliated with the school, but with the town. And I was fortunate to fall into that. I happened to see a flyer and went to that and I got addicted to the sport of dog training. Everybody where I grew up as a young man, kid, a lot of them became great fishing guides on the Gulf Coast and I didn’t like to fish, I like the dog training, and dog training was as close as I could get the duck hunting. So I dog train for nine months and go duck hunting for four. I just thought, it was the ultimate game. And then my wife of 35 years decided she didn’t want to work anymore. And after our second child and Steve needed a second income. So I started dog training on the side. I started duck guiding on the side and I did that for quite a while and one day I told her I was tired of working three jobs and she said, well, that’s the best news I’ve heard. I said, yeah, I’m quitting Exxon and I quit Exxon. Just like that. I always told you, if you’ve seen the movie Forest Gump and he says, I’m going home now. I left Exxon that day, I gave him a day’s notice and I walked out of there.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Steve Biggers: Yes Sir. Two kids, a house, the whole nine yards and I walked away.

Ramsey Russell: Jumping off a cliff. Like had a motivation to work harder and dedicate yourself or something you love?

Steve Biggers: I’ve never worked harder last 21 years. I think back to myself working for the US Federal government back in the day and I remember working. I think about it now, remember working part time 40 hours a week. We work for yourself. It’s 24/7. I’m not scared of work. So that’s something my dad taught me, don’t be afraid to work. I was a 4th generation humble Exxon employee family and he was pretty upset with me leaving the company. But years later, he told me he was so proud of me and thinking of that I’ve made a good business and made the right choice. So you know, it’s funny how things work out like that.

Ramsey Russell: Where along that timeline leaving Exxon and dog training, did you get into duck guide?

Steve Biggers: So I’ve been duck guiding. I guess we can say this because you’re going to go visit Jean Campbell, correct?

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah. I’m going to see Jean Campbell.

Steve Biggers: So Jean Campbell grew up in Baytown, I grew up in Baytown. He is a legend. And his family, his dad worked with my dad at Exxon and believe or not, Jean’s wife worked for my dad, 30 some years ago. So I grew up and went to work for a marina and a dealer of guns and decoys and all that. I met all the legends of that area growing up. All the big guys would come in there and buy their boats and equipment and stuff and the next thing you know, I was swamping and dumping the gut bucket for Jean Campbell and Oyster Bow Hunting club and I worked my way up all the way through his ranks. And the day I left him, to do on my own, I was scared to tell him I wanted to leave but, he was happy for me and he wished well. When you go over and see him this week, you’re going to see, there’s pictures of me hanging in his old lodge.

Ramsey Russell: Much younger.

Steve Biggers: Much younger. A little bit skinnier.

Ramsey Russell: So how long then have you been doing guided hunts?

Steve Biggers: 35 years.

Ramsey Russell: 35 years? Thanks to you.

Steve Biggers: Yes sir.

Ramsey Russell: I was told half your life, way over half. We’re going to get into blue winged teal. Everybody I know loves you to death. I’m just trying to introduce you to these folks. I know they will too. But what are your favorite thing about what you do? Dog training and what you do, duck guide.

Steve Biggers: Probably, my favorite thing is just seeing people become confident and happy and having a good time. I mean dogs bring out the best of people. They really do. I used to say that I enjoyed the dog more than the customers sometime, right? But lately, it’s been, I’ve a change of heart. I used to compete a lot and a lot of times the customer would almost get in my way of trying to compete with their dog. I didn’t want to share my secrets or my trade. A lot of dog trainers like that. You go visit with them, but they don’t really want to train too much because they’re always afraid to show their hand. And so I enjoy now, as I’ve gotten older I spent a lot of time training people.

Ramsey Russell: I trust you.

Steve Biggers: I train their dog but I spend more time, than most people think, with them and that’s become very appreciative over the years and people have thanked me for that. I get to see a lot of people hunt with me with dogs that I’ve trained and I’m so proud of both of them. And they turn around, they just grinning ear to ear Ramsey. It’s crazy.

Ramsey Russell: No. That’s as somebody that woefully needs training. I can appreciate somebody that does that. And as I recall, you had told me one time, somewhere along the way, you would train somebody’s dog and then take them hunting with their dog.

Steve Biggers: That’s correct.

Ramsey Russell: That’s how you were trying.

Steve Biggers: That’s a big selling point for both sides. I always used to tell people that I only had to sell you one time, if you picked me for dog training, you became a duck hunting client as well. So it’s pretty easy. And there’s some outfitters now trying to mimic my model. But that was my big selling point and I wanted them, I wanted to be there. I used to tell people, you know, when your dad took you on your first dove hunt, he didn’t drop you off at the corner post and slap you on the back and say good luck. He stood right there next to you and say, hey right here, on the right. Don’t shoot right now, wait. Same thing with the dog. People can spend two months to 10 months training a dog and they take it out there like he’s already a Master General. He’s just a kid. And so that’s a big thing for me. It’s also kind of popping their bubble, right? You get 60% of your dog and hunting. It’s just like a baseball player. You hit off the tee, you hit off the tee, you soft toss, you soft toss then the guy throws one 98 at your head, right? You better adjust.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Steve Biggers: So make contact. It’s just so you know, we talk about dog training. Duck hunting is just like the sport of baseball. We practice, practice, practice, practice, practice for one moment of glory. So, that’s been my biggest thrills, teaching that moment of glory. And you know, I hope you see it in our blinds, in the way our guides treat customers. I’m an anal boss.

Ramsey Russell: Extreme detail.

Steve Biggers: Extreme detail. I help with people all the time that just cannot believe we have a blind like that and a spot like that. And I said, well, we threw up twice this summer getting it here. Right?

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Steve Biggers: There’s a couple of really good clubs in my area. I know, because I have clients that hunt there and I can remember, I’ve been doing this a long time. I trained dogs for the guys that hunted the other clubs. So I know, and they’re not going to have a 2 / 64 crowd board floor in the bottom of the blind. You’re going to be sitting mud in the bucket, which again, as long as you’re killing ducks, it’s okay. But if you’re footing is good, you’re safer with a gun. No one’s going to get hurt too, right? Again, I’m 58 years old, I don’t want to slosh in the mud. And I don’t care for 22 or 62, but safety is important. So good blinds make safety. Same thing with your dog. If a dog can’t see the bird fall, how can you judge the dog? So all of my blinds are well situated for two sided dogs. You can work two dogs, you can play the wind. That’s being part of good. Doing what you do.

Ramsey Russell: And if somebody would have just picked up a new retriever, got tossed the keys to me, been using for years. I raised a puppy, gave it to a trainer like yourself. You forced it, you trained at your technique. Well, you’re his general. And you tossed me the car keys, now I’m in general. Yeah, and the dog, it’s got to learn it’s different. I’m not you.

Steve Biggers: You will never be the general. You’re going to be a sergeant.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Steve Biggers: That’s true. There will only be one.

Ramsey Russell: I get it.

Steve Biggers: The next guy will never be the general. He will never be the same. It will be usually lower.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I get it. I know exactly what you’re saying. But it’s like, you get that dog and they’re going to test your boundaries. They got to figure out where your boundaries are. I know how the general wouldn’t let me jump off at the shot. This guy will. He’s not as quick on that lightning boat as the general was.

Steve Biggers: Correct. But a lot of that’s also the personality of the dogs too. There’s dogs that will always test you and their dogs that never test you. And then there’s dogs that test you until you’re right and then they forgive. So that’s a whole other subject there.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about the teal hunting. I want to get into the teal hunting. Start big picture, why is this area is so freaking good?

Steve Biggers: Well, you hit it on the head. It is a convergence point of the flyway and the path to Mexico. They do now with GPS tracking on that. They’d have shown the birds cross more of the open golf than we ever thought. But most of them don’t. Most of them like to fly down. This is Highway 59 comes through Wharton. And this is it. The other thing that this is it is the rice. So I’ve been in this area since 96 and that has changed. Unfortunately, not for the better, but we’re still the king of the area as far as conventional rice. And when I say conventional rice, we’re blessed. If you go to Arkansas and you hunt rice because of the late spring and its ground temperature. You’ve been a biologist, you know that its ground temperature and sunlight. So in Texas we’re blessed with earlier spring quote than Arkansas. And so our rice has two cuttings, just like hay, a good hay meadow. You get two or three cuttings. We get to rice cuttings and the timing of it is what is so important to the teal. Now, as a guide, I wanted as late as possible. My landowner slaves shearing once in as early as possible. So he’s not fighting a frost on the back end. Okay. But typically in our area, first time harvest is usually late August, first of September. It just happens to coincide with the teal. So I roughly operate about 2000 acres of conventional rice. If you know anything about Texas farming, we don’t have the greatest land like in Arkansas. They farm the same piece of ground every year, year round year out. That ground is so much fertile. Texas is on a three year rotation.

Ramsey Russell: That I didn’t know.

Steve Biggers: You can do two years but you’re going to spend extra money and fertilizer. So flyway or convergence rice. I guess more than anything two is just creating new habitat for us. I mean, we’re always looking, experimenting. We did grow some organic rice, which typically has only cut one time. But what are they used to fertilize organic rice? Do you know?

Ramsey Russell: I have no idea.

Steve Biggers: Chicken poop. Okay. Fertile myrtle. You spread that on the ground. What do you think is going to grow, the best duck food in the world? I mean incredible. Most organic rice.

Ramsey Russell: Hang on a second, pull your mic back down a little bit. There you go.

Steve Biggers: Most organic rice. Heavy grass content because they can’t control that as well to keep organic. So a lot of times the yield is very low, which from a farming perspective is not good. From a water fowl perspective, it’s incredible. A little rough disking and hit it with some water and magic happens. Not so much the rice, but just natural food. That food that’s there naturally. And we talked about this. The most soil compounds and stuff, but it just shoots it. It’s like giving it steroids. It grows from duck food. So we have that. And I think when I first met you, I told you, I don’t buy t-shirts, I don’t buy hats, I buy water. That’s what all of my guides are grilled on. If I see a tailgate duck picture, I’m going to kill them. I spent all that money in the water. You stick those hunters out in the water with the strap of ducks. When people look at it, they think holy smokes. We talked about Mojo, I had Garrett walker with crack here today and I shared a blind with him and we were hunting about 100-100 pound, 100 acre duck impoundment. It’s a true deep project. It’s a true wetland, this particular spot. And he pointed over and said, where are all these ducks coming from? I said they’re coming between this block of rice. It’s a couple 100 acres of rice. And then you see that flat over there and we look with binoculars and I said, that’s 110 acres of organic rice that was rough disked and flooded. He just could not, but it looked like a bay over there and we hadn’t hunted that thing in five days. And those birds were brewing in between the two and then it spread out over to us. And if you stay tuned next summer, you’ll see that video. You’ll see that hunt on Mojo TV. But it was a good one.

Ramsey Russell: I talked to him on the drive down today and he was bragging on it. He said it was epic.

Steve Biggers: Good hunting.

Ramsey Russell: He said it was. Sure, he just said on top once you’ve been on.

Steve Biggers: Yeah. And it was the one that, the lighting was good. And I think I was telling you that we killed 30 ducks and 27 of them were all caught on film. And as you know, that’s hard to do.

Ramsey Russell: Very hard to do. They got to be in what Terry calls, The Zone. The frame, right there over the decoys, paddles down right there and we got him. It was good. You see a lot of blue wings, you see a lot of blue wing behavior. Just watching your social media, talking to you, the pictures and stuff you send over. Gosh. Beginning back in mid-August, it seems like early to mid-August. You’ll start seeing teal show up down here, and when those birds get thick, the pictures you show are clouds of teal. It’s incredible. Up here in Mississippi they’re just skipping like a stone through us. I mean, here today, gone tomorrow or whatever, but they get down here. I guess they hit this fertile habitat, this rice country. I thought maybe they stick a little bit longer.

Steve Biggers: So two things Ramsey, I’m pumping water three weeks before any of my competitors in any of the clubs. I keep the water three months behind the season to catch them on the way back. I’m training these birds, I’m imprinting on them through the three S ranch. I’m just blessed that the three S ranch is gung ho and is aggressive and is pro waterfowl that you could find a ranch. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve told someone the other day, that when I lose this place, if I choose to lose it, if I decide to, I’m done. I’m not doing anything else. For this part of Texas, this is it, this is the flagship.

Ramsey Russell: I believe so.

Steve Biggers: Sharing family or hand in hand with the rice stewardship program, with ducks unlimited there. They work year round at this place and it’s incredible. And they appreciate our effort and our work. It’s a winning combination. But we’re truly flipping ground all the time. Most guys wait until the last minute and they just pump some water and some cotton stubble or something. That’s not blue wing teal habitat.

Ramsey Russell: You can catch teal occasionally, where there’s water. I’ve hunted just nothing, but to have teal and hunt teal.

[**00:24:27]

Steve Biggers: We don’t have a refuge system in this area. I don’t know if you know that.

Ramsey Russell: No, I did not.

Steve Biggers: Yeah, the refuge is over by Jean Campbell. There is not a water. You would think there was someone years ago, who would have done that, in this part of the world. But this is a big ranching country and you’re not going to take away a bunch of land over here.

Ramsey Russell: You’re exactly right because the last 15, 20 minutes getting here to double D ranch is.

Steve Biggers:  Ranch after ranch.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, cattle country, live oaks and cattle and hay fields and stuff.

Steve Biggers: So you as an outfitter, you’ve got to create it. There’s a guy that I know, that lives across the creek over here. It’s got a beautiful farm too. I used to hunt it quite a bit and he told me one time, if you build it, they will come. Just like the show, just like the movie. And I do, I build it and I built it. I think there’s a classic picture I sent you one time, with me standing there. What happened was, I was going to check a blind that we had a bunch of wind damage, right like the night before teal season open and the boy took a picture and I sent it to you. And that big cloud of ducks and I’m walking towards it. Its epic picture. I post it every year. I hold anywhere between, Biologist here, around here, anywhere between 30 and 40,000 till the night before teal season.

Ramsey Russell: That’s incredible.

Steve Biggers: We’re holding them. And you were one of the best hunts I’ve ever seen myself and I’ve been doing a long time. We walked into what we call the 58. We had skipped Knowles, Mike Morgan rest his soul. And you remember that when we walked down that.

Steve Biggers: We recently did a podcast. Some audio, Mike and I recorded talking about teal around the world and along the way, because I count that morning and what I saw looking to the east is, one of the top three or four waterfowl memories. I mean epic, unbelievable waterfowl memories. And Terry and I talked about it just a couple of weeks ago. If anybody didn’t hear, let me just tell you how this shot down. We’re riding into this rice field to go hunting. And I was talking to the Rancher’s son in the front of the ranger, and Forse was in back, and we get to where we’re going to park ranger and walk. I don’t know, not far, 100 yards down. A big price levy. Unfortunately, my gosh, did you see all those teal like? No, I don’t see nothing. Its pitch black dark. And we get the rice levee, Steve says, y’all just wait right here. I’m going to toss a decoys, won’t take a second. And I’m looking to the east and it’s just blood red sky and its wave after wave. And it’s like from my left peripheral vision to my right peripheral vision. As far as I could see in that pitch black and overhead, we’re just wave after wave, 10s of thousands of teals. And you understand, force have been seeing that wave for five minutes. It took a drive down and I’m just catching it and pal, let me tell you, what a shooting time it sounds like the end of the world of all World War III, kicking off all around us. But they weren’t in front of our decoys. Steve said, y’all just relax, eat a cookie if you got, it will be back shortly. And sure enough, about 20-30 minutes after the melee [**00:28:13] started here, they come back. You know the ones that left earlier had fed and we’re coming back. It was truly. I’ll never forget it ever.

Steve Biggers: One another thing too, that we should talk about is when I first started really hunting blue wing teals specifically, we would hunt the rice fields. And that’s just what everybody did. We take a roller chopper and we’d roll a hole in the rice, so we’d hunt in the buggy cart roads where there’s open water. You could throw some decoys. And as I got into really hunting them, I’ve learned this, you let them have the rice and you’ll always have ducks. You don’t hunt the rice because what they do is, they’re nocturnal. That’s probably because we created that change [**00:28:35], pressure. So if you let them have the rice, they’ve got to wash it down with fresh water. They can’t survive without washing it down.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve seen that in ducks. Up in Canada especially, those ducks will come off a big roost. Go to a little puddle, get a drink of water, go out and dry feed field. Go hit that pond or another pond, drink a little bit of water. I mean it’s a routine.

Steve Biggers: Well, I hunt up there too. And the outfitter told me one time, he said if you hunt that pond, they’ll never come back. And so, kind of rings a bell with me. Why would I go in there and trump in my rice and run those two other. Like I was telling you that again, the hunt we had today, you would think you were looking up high for ducks and we were. Right? Because there’s a lot of traffic going on a Sunday and a lot of hunting pressure. But you know where our ducks came from? They came loping over this big levee system. We’d like to look to the left and there they’d be and then you turn around and literally we had ducks landing in their eyes because of the way the wind was blowing. They never heard us. There was ducks. I showed Terry that we should look at. I mean not thousands, but its ducks all around us in that stubble, feeding. And they never knew we were there. They jump up and come over that levee. And again, when a duck starts off at 20 yards high, a duck hunter likes it. 200 yards high. And so your odds are stacked with you, that the closer they start, the easier it is.

Ramsey Russell: There are a lot of teal coming through Mississippi last weekend, opening weekend Steve. And we had ducks in the decoys but we had high birds that probably were down here within 24 hours. But those higher birds didn’t even think about checking up. I mean, do you ever get high flock coming down here?

Steve Biggers: I’ve actually witnessed a big migration like that, been out hunting and witnessed the both mamas and babies coming in. We’ll be hunting the adults. And then, most of time I would say, that happens at night. Okay. Just this is their biological clock.

Ramsey Russell: Wake up. There they are.

Steve Biggers: But I’ve witnessed it a couple of times and it is amazing. But typically when we’re hunting during the week and we’re on a roll and everybody’s cranking the ducks out and no, they’re already honest. They’re just working the ponds. It’s amazing sight.

Ramsey Russell: Well, walk me through like a typical day here at double G.T.O. Hunt. I mean just get up in the morning.

Steve Biggers: Well, I got to say the night before. We love the people to come and stay with us. We have a lot of driving hunters too. But the lodge and we talked about again, it’s just a full experience. But most people who try to come in right before dark and have a great meal and visit. Visit with their guides. They like to look at the pictures. I have a board and I know you’ve seen it and we track everything daily. Again, I’m a baseball guy. I keep stats, tell you what’s worked.

Ramsey Russell: That’s the connect, that’s exactly what I couldn’t put my finger on it, but that’s exactly what it is.

Steve Biggers: We know what every pond produces. I’ve had properties for years. I got to share this one quick deal and we’ll get back to where we’re going. I’ve got one of my guides, is a chemist by trade and he runs the quality control for a large oil company and their lab. So it’s 0 0 0 0 with him and he’s my tracker. We finally decided we had to let this piece of property go after having it 19 years. But the last four, the numbers showed, we should let it go. Really? And the farmer was about in his mid-80s. And when I went in person to tell him, he cried. We’ve had such a good relationship and not just the money. It was a relationship. It was knowing that no one was going to mess with his gates and his cattle. You know what I’m saying, its relationship. But I told you, I said, I can’t keep doing this for this because what we have is these great memories of this place. We get hung up on that nostalgia. Again, when it’s the business side of it.

Ramsey Russell: The Numbers don’t lie.

Steve Biggers: Numbers don’t lie. And so that, we track again. I’m just aiming that way, that I want to know. And we keep a daily log and I don’t make it public. I share it with customers, but I don’t put it on social media cause I’m not here to tout that. It’s like, I’m not telling you that I bat 350. I’m just telling you I’m a good hitter. Okay. And so that’s just my way of keeping that honest about that. But I do track it and I think it’s important.

Ramsey Russell: And you have good years and bad years.

Steve Biggers: Sure. We do.

Ramsey Russell: Migration, time, drought and water and just there’s uncontrolled duck hunting.

Steve Biggers: So today I had 24 parties out. I had 24 guides hunting today and 50% of them were off the chart shoots. The others were anybody would be proud of man. But we had one or two that were tough. And in blinds that we’re good. That part of it, we call it hunting. I can only control so much. And feedback from the guide said, we should have doubled the number. And we had a guide with a young dog and he got in the decoys and at the prime time, as I like to say, there’s times the dog training, there’s times not the dog training. Right? There’s times just to sit in the blind and hunt. And then there’s some of those, that it’s their hunt, it’s their money and if they want to make it a dog training moment, you make it a dog training moment. And that’s the other part of just being a guide. But you know, yeah, we have bad years. Last year was an odd year. We were on track for a record year in the first week and the birds were gone. That’s blue wing teal hunt.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Steve Biggers: You can make it a couple of years ago and I told you, you missed it?

Ramsey Russell: You know it? I was just thinking that because I started off. And that was the year I followed that migration corridor.

Steve Biggers: Yeah, you wrote that [**00:34:45].

Ramsey Russell: There was nothing in the state of Mississippi. And my goddamn [**00:34:50] Louisiana says, well, we ain’t got no teal, but come on down, we’ll eat good anyway. And by God, that Monday morning there were teal and the guy said, they just showed up. And two days adult breaks and I hips cops around with southwest Louisiana for a few days, went to East Texas for a few, and somewhere along the way it went from adults to a whole bunch of juvie and mama birds. And I was south of here, hunt with some guys. And one afternoon, we looked out in a rice field, I’m going to say, there was 7000 – 8000 birds. Just a beehive out in this little rice check. My group didn’t go there. We went to a pond a mile away and did okay. We shot 11-12 birds. And I was just like gosh, I wish I had gone on that field. I can’t imagine how nasty it was. And they showed up and didn’t pull the trigger. Those birds had stopped, had gorge and headed for the border. And I drove up here that afternoon and you dream said, we’ll see if you tell, but you missed it. And I did it. I mean, that’s just how it is. That’s teal hunting.

Steve Biggers: You know we’ve been blessed for 16 days now for so long that most people think that’s the way it’s always been. It used to be a nine day season lots of times. But Demmen [**00:36:08] was, you know, last year he came and we had good hunting. I’d call it fair to good, and the day he drove out here on a Sunday. And that next Monday, it was just until the last day of the season was better than the first. People don’t believe that. We’re doing teal hunting. That’s the reality.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. The reality is you can go out today and shoot one or none and go to the exact same blind tomorrow and shoot more birds, a bunch or go back. I mean it’s just how it is.

Steve Biggers: And that’s why we can hunt what we do. The reason we make this work, is because of the blue wing teal itself. I don’t hunt the same way in the regular season. We don’t hunt the volume that we do during blue wing. Not because we don’t have the clients, we do. But we take advantage of the resource when it’s here. We get it and then when it’s not, it’s not. And we try to manage it within it, while it’s here. But, you can’t. It’s like quail hunting. They say 80% of quail will die before the hunter ever actually hunts them. So with the blue wing teal, 80% of them, they leave. So get them while they’re here and try to keep them here. But you just can’t guarantee that they’re not going to be here at the end.

Ramsey Russell: So much of the habitat that teal are going through Mississippi and Missouri or wherever to get here, which is kind of like the finish line’s, like I’m almost across that border. But they’re here. I mean, it’s like a southern staging area. Do you see a difference? If tomorrow morning, we went out and hunted in the rain, would you know those birds were new? Is there something about them, how they act or something that did you say? I think these birds are new or I think the birds have been here for a few days. You think any difference about?

Steve Biggers: Sure. I think, obviously new birds decoy well. That’s the first clue. And the way they work a pond. Because I know where. I hunt these ponds enough, that if the bird lands over there, he’s been here a while. So flight patterns maybe, and of course, the ease of decoy and then, sure volume can tell you too. And the great thing about the blue wing is you can sit there and look at it. Is that adult male or is it a baby? So that’s the beauty of this time of the year for us. I think it’s just a combination of all those things.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think this is? I’m not putting you on spot Steve. But you do this for a living. What was something you could tell listeners that new guys or guys that aren’t in the blue wing teal hunting or guy that are just getting a duck hunting. What are some things they should think about, for blue wing teal hunting that might make them better Blue wing teal hunters? You get what I’m saying. I mean cause you’re a pro. Pro with this stuff. I mean it’s not, that you’re hunting every single day. You got a lot of groups on a lot of land and you’re like you said, a solid hitter.

Steve Biggers: Well I think it’s in the prep work. I think, if you’re on a club or you own the land or you lease it, it doesn’t start Labor Day. It starts March. And so the more prep you can do before, the more you can work with your landowner. The more you can do ahead of the game. That’s the key. If you’re a public hunter, public waters, refuge or something like that, it’s on scouting again. And just going unlike, just about any of the other birds, you’ve said it 100 times. You go there today and killed one of the next day you killed. You got to hunt. I told you, I worked at Exxon all those years. I haven’t missed a day a teal season since, probably 84. Even when I had a full time job, I hunted teal season ever. I love it. I love the bird. And I think you and I hit that off. You said it’s one of your favorite birds. So I talked to Chad Building other day on the phone and I told him. Because last year he was supposed to come in that storm, we had delayed, skipped, now they’re a bunch. They were going to come and converge and they got hung up in Denver and they couldn’t get here. So I was talking to him about coming and his schedule didn’t allow it. And I said Chad there’s other birds than a mallard. I mean, I like killing mallards too, but a blue wing teal is a cool bird.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t know what it is about him. I’m not going to say that. My favorite next duck over decoys. My favorite. But truly I like blue wing teal, like everything about him. They come early, they stay late. And yeah, I’ll probably shoot some during a big duck season.

Steve Biggers: We do. They are bonus birds for us. They sometimes stay till thanksgiving, but usually it’s mid-November and so they’re a definite bonus bird for us. We just love them. And every year we have a little prayer right before our first dinner here with, God bless blue wings. Yeah we love them. I love them. We love them on the way back too Ramsey. So you know, you help me at this point, where you tell people that I have the best blue wing teal in September and we appreciate that. But I tell you folks, the last two weeks of January, you want to do something different? Come shoot some of these mature blue wings. There’s Smithsonian, purple headed and they’re here just like they are right now in September. And I finally talked to Demmen and tell them into coming last year. Year before last, that Mike came down for a January hunting, I think we had 11 species of ducks on one hunt and just so you know, everyone would go to the taxidermist, gorgeous birds. But we have a teal season 2.0 the last two weeks of January. It’s pretty awesome.

Ramsey Russell: How many dogs do you personally own?

Steve Biggers: I own two, I shouldn’t say that. I own three. One’s been a classic dog for the last 10 years. He’s unfortunately, he’s getting too old to do much anymore. But I try to own two all the time. But you know, being the coach is kid’s stuff because I’ll trade you in a heartbeat. So, I just ordered a dog. I’m going to pick it up. I always time it, where I don’t want a puppy. And during teal season, I’m too busy, so I’m picking up a puppy in mid-October and I’m buying another one in mid-November. I always buy two at a time. That’s just me because I’m going to pick the better one. I’ve got a pretty high standard.

Ramsey Russell: I was wondering how deep a bench you had.

Steve Biggers: Pretty deep.

Ramsey Russell: You got to.

Steve Biggers: Yeah. Back when I left Jean Campbell as a guide, I came up with my own criteria of a guide back then. I wanted him to have, all the equipment. You probably don’t know this. But if on the local guide circuit around our area I probably pay the best. But I expect 10 times more. And so one of the requirements is you better have a nice dog and if you don’t have a nice dog, let it be in your future real quick.

Ramsey Russell: You need a good performing dog when the teller falling like it. As the owner of a new puppy and a retired old dog. But I tell you, I miss old dogs that just know their job because their job is not to look good. It is to get that duck and get back.

Steve Biggers: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: To make it far more efficient.

Steve Biggers: Well. One that, the number one conservative tool we got, right?

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Steve Biggers: And number two, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a slower hunt but the dog made it memorable for everyone. That’s right. So I go to dog trials all the time and I’ll meet someone that says, you know, back in 89, I remember your dog smoke, you made that retriever, you took me duck hunting, and the guy remembered it. And it really touches your heart. Because you’re like, I’d forgotten all about that. But that hunt for him was just so memorable. So good dog makes a bad duck hunt all the time. Well, there is no bad duck hunt, right?

Ramsey Russell: I don’t think.

Steve Biggers: Yeah, I agree with you.

Ramsey Russell: Ask me tomorrow if it’s blowing 40 miles an hour sideway. It will still be better than the office. You know what I mean.

Steve Biggers: Ramsey is going hunting with me and you know we have tropical storm beta on our doorsteps here and we had a group from Georgia. They decided to leave. They have some small children and they decided to leave. So Ramsey and I and a couple of other guides, a couple of parties have chosen not to come because of the storm. But we smile in one way and we’re not upset that they left because it’s safety first. But I think we’re going to be just fine and we’re going to get the ducks in the morning.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I mean you think somebody duck hunts as much as you and I would. Maybe sleep in during hurricane or tropical storm or whatever you call this thing when it gets in. But that gun, man.

Steve Biggers: You know what? I sleep in the summer.

Ramsey Russell: That’s one day less, we get to go duck hunting in our lives. If we skip it.

Steve Biggers: I like a good cocktail but I lay off of them during duck season because I have two rules. I can sleep in the summer and I can have a beer in the summer. I’m that hard core of a duck hunter. I don’t want anything to clog my focus.

Ramsey Russell: No, I’m the same way. I play for keeps. I want to be my best every waking moment. I’m in the blind. If on those days you go out and shoot just one duck, I don’t want to miss that duck. That’s right. I mean what I’m saying. It happened. And I don’t want to be groggy headed or sleep or nothing else.

Steve Biggers: Let’s talk about that one duck hunt. When we’re out there working in the summertime, I tell the guides all the time, and I’m not kidding you folks, when we have a work day, I have 20-24 guides, and we have a work day, typically, half of them show up at a time. A lot of my guides work at chemical plants and they worked rotating shifts and they all have young families and that’s another thing to my guide age range is 20 to 65. My oldest guide is 65 years old. He’s a retired coach and he’s been guiding longer than I have. He’s guided into Mexico, he’s guided all over the Gulf coast. He’s a taxidermist, but his real job growing, I mean, the whole years he was a coach, English teacher coach. So he’s great with these young guides because sometimes I get fed up with them. They’re just young. There’s too much generational gap. But my dad was pretty tough and I’m pretty tough on them. But when we have these work days, we have a dozen guides out there working. And I kid you not, there was a couple of times this summer, and I guess you know, that Texas is pretty damn hot in summer. We start at the crack of dawn and about 11 o’clock and then we either can do one more thing or we just put it off. We usually end up doing one more thing, it’s two o’clock. And that’s when I tell them the most. I said, y’all remember this day, If you kill two ducks, three ducks, we feel sorry for the customer. But it’s not for free and it’s hunting and look at all the labor you put in. It’s not like we just showed up and you only killed two Ducks.

Ramsey Russell: Good duck hunts don’t happen by accident ever anywhere. They just don’t. And the best duck guide I feel like, the difference in a duck guide and a great duck guide is a great duck guide on days that the duck guide don’t smile, and you’re shooting half as many than you would like. Those guides are probably working twice as hard. And I’ve known you all and I know a lot of your guide staff. I’ve known y’all and keep up with them, and I have hunted here enough to know that.

Steve Biggers: Well in baseball, if you hit 300, you go to the hall of fame. So that’s 3 out of 10. So if you duck hunt with me 10 times and we shoot limit three times, technically, I’m in the Hall of Fame. But I hope that it’s 8 out of 10 times that we’ll shoot a limit. That would be my goal. So, he’ll be a pretty good hitter.

Ramsey Russell: That’s a good way to put it. A good offense wins baseball, doesn’t it? Just good base hits. That’s all you can do.

Steve Biggers: Lots of runs.

Ramsey Russell: Steve, I appreciate you coming on. I know you’re tired. I kept you up past your bedtime. You’re like me, when I’m in the hunt mode, I’m early to bed and early to rise. that’s just that way.

Steve Biggers: Yes, I’ve been that way my whole life.

Ramsey Russell: As I get older I find myself that way.

Steve Biggers: I’m a morning person. That’s why duck hunting, it suits me just fine. If I got into deer hunting and we went on an afternoon hunt, I’d fall asleep in the blind. That’s not enough action for me.

Ramsey Russell: Tell everybody real quick. I’ll tell you all. You can go to US hunt list and look for our Texas blue wing teal hunt. But Steve tell them, how they can plug into you all social media.

Steve Biggers: Sure, We’re on Facebook, Rocky Creek retrievers. We’re on Instagram websites rcrteamwaterfowl.com.

Ramsey Russell: Give me your phone number.

Steve Biggers: 281-610-8226. I’m glad to visit with you.

Ramsey Russell: I’m down here in near El Campo, double D Ranch, where he puts his guests first class, everything. I’m telling you, fast Blue wing teal hunt in September in the United States of America. My favorite place to be in September bar none. Check it out. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for listening Duck Season Somewhere. See you next time.