EP 385. The Grand Prairie, Arkansas

Ramsey Russell: When did Arkansas begin to own Mallard? I mean, how did that come to be, that Stuttgart is synonymous with a mallard duck?

The Origins of Arkansas’ Duck Hunting Legacy

“The natural migration of ducks caused them to come to Arkansas because of that habitat. And then when farmers or people started figuring out that they could farm rice and started converting a lot of that hardwoods went away, turned them into Ag rice. Ducks like rice obviously, we all know that.”
— Brent Birch

Brent Birch: Yeah, I think a big part of that was probably the Mississippi River was obviously a driver just because of the flyway. And I’m not talking about the expanses of the Mississippi Flyway. I’m talking about the Mississippi River, that corridor. And those ducks coming to what we had in East Arkansas since the beginning of time, which was bottomland hardwood that flood because of the confluence of the Cache, the White, the Black, L’Anguille, and then all these little tributaries, Milbau, Bayou Meto, things like that. Those ducks were able to come and find expansive habitat that humans probably couldn’t, I’m talking about a long time ago, humans couldn’t get around in those parts of the world. They were rough because there are still parts of the White River bottoms that are not too friendly to humans. But I guess that started it. And the natural migration of ducks caused them to come to Arkansas because of that habitat. And then when farmers or people started figuring out that they could farm rice and started converting, a lot of that hardwoods went away, turned them into Ag rice. Ducks like rice, obviously, we all know that.

Ramsey Russell: Now you had rice and flooded, too.

Brent Birch: Now you have everything a duck wants. Cause you gotta water rice. The fields that go with rice are synonymous with water. And it was everything a duck needed.

Ramsey Russell: When did Stuttgart lay claim to the mallard duck?

Brent Birch: Yeah, that probably would be, I’d say probably in the 1920s, around that time. That’s when word started slowly kind of spreading back in those days. You know, they didn’t have social media and email and everything else. So word of mouth. It became known that if you like to hunt, go to Arkansas. And so people come by train and go to Stuttgart and then typically get in a horse-drawn wagon to go because cars were not capable of handling muddy roads and everything else back then. So word spread amongst the well-to-do, plus you had the whole. That’s when the outfitters all started because these wealthy men would come to, a lot from St. Louis, a lot from Memphis would come to Arkansas to hunt. And that’s probably when the reputation started as, being where the greenhead comes to winter. And then, of course, the duck hunting capital of the world label followed that, and it’s been branded that way ever since.

Ramsey Russell: Folks, welcome back to Duck Season Somewhere, where today I’m in Little Rock, Arkansas, meeting with Mr. Brent Birch, editor of Greenhead Magazine and author of The Grand Prairie. You want to get your hands on a copy of this book. We’re here for the Delta Waterfowl Expo. And where else would you rather spend a day in a 115-degree heat index than in the air conditioning, talk to a bunch of duck hunters, and we’re going to explore today Arkansas duck hunting on the Grand Prairie. Brent, you talk about the rice industry and how and when did it kind of come about? Because as I understand, it was like a lot of Dutch, was it not Dutch origin Folks that moved this part of world and brought their water technology, I mean, they understood managing water coming from Holland.

The Rise of the Grand Prairie Rice Industry

“W.H. Fuller… learned how to farm rice from somebody in Louisiana. He said, ‘I think I can take this back to Arkansas. I think our soil can do it.’ He started with a little farm and initially, it didn’t go very well… But he tried again, and his second time, that rice took off.”
— Brent Birch

Brent Birch: Yep. Stuttgart is German immigrants. Mostly, obviously, the name of the town. But I mean, if a lot of the older families and the older farms, the names are strong German flavor to those. But then Slovak is a little town between Stuttgart and Hazen. Slovak was all Slovakian. So all these immigrant pockets that settled in these different places. But, yeah, the ability to manage water was key to that, once they figured out that they could farm rice. And most of that is attributed to a guy, W.H. Fuller, I believe his name. He was in the Carlisle area, which is close to kind of west of Slovak, kind of northwest of Stuttgart, but it’s still in the Grand Prairie. And he had learned how to farm rice from somebody in Louisiana. And had said, I think I can take this back to Arkansas. I think our soil can do it. I think I can start growing rice. And so he started with a little farm and initially didn’t go very well. The way they were doing Louisiana didn’t quite apply to how you needed to do rice in Arkansas. Different climate, different soil, all the variables that go into farming. But he tried again, and his second time that rice took off, and that’s kind of how it all got started. And so people started figuring out that this part of the world, you can hold water on the field, like you need to irrigate and do that for rice, and that will allow a whole new industry within the state. Well, that industry, while it was beneficial from a farming standpoint, obviously it was beneficial from a duck standpoint.

Ramsey Russell: It’s really pretty amazing because I’ve been in rice country in Mississippi and Louisiana and California, and there’s about seven states, I think, that really grow rice. Arkansas is number two in America, second only to California, believe it or not. Or maybe I got that backwards.

Brent Birch: I think Arkansas’s got it.

Ramsey Russell: I think Arkansas’s number one. But, you know, what I’ve never seen elsewhere are these storage ponds. I mean, it’s crazy. They figured it out. This is how we need to irrigate our rice and do everything which also benefited the ducks because they would basically, as I understand it, go in and levy up a wooded area and get the water in it, use it to let it off to irrigate their rice. Well, god damn, the ducks like that flooded timber, too.

Brent Birch: Yeah, that is the true GTR, the Green Tree Reservoir. That is what that is. Those farmers had either marginal ground or ground that always flooded a low spot on their farm. They could not farm it. There was no point in clearing it, so they left it. And then they figured out, we need a place to hold water so we can irrigate and put our water on rice when that’s necessary in the summer, and then that water would stay in there. And then the ducks showed up and figured out that there’s acorns in there and bugs and everything else that they ate in the woods. So a whole new cottage industry, so to speak, figured out. And that was the Tindall’s are credited with that.

Ramsey Russell: The Tindall’s?

Brent Birch: Yep. Vern Tindall and I can’t remember his brother’s name. They’re the ones that are kind of given credit for levying up some bottomland hardwoods.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve heard of Tindall Reservoir. That would be like the additional model of green tree reservoirs in the state of Arkansas. Hey, if it works for the rice, we go impound this to hold water for our rice, we can just start pounding wood for ducks.

Brent Birch: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. So that’s how it all started.

Brent Birch: That’s how it all started. And, yeah, and so the ducks just came in waves and waves and waves. So they figured out that we need to leave this water on here and let paid hunters come out here and hunt. And there’s a lot of history with the Tindall Reservoir. I’ve hunted it.

Ramsey Russell: Where is it?

Brent Birch: It’s just south of Stuttgart.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Brent Birch: So if you’re leaving Stuttgart, like going to DeWitt or Lodges Corner, and you see a big. And not far after you leave town, there’s a big tall old dryer, kind of built, real tall and thin. But you can’t miss it on the landscape because it’s flat and rice fields for miles. Tindall Reservoir is in those woods behind that big dryer.

Ramsey Russell: Wow, that’s still hunted.

Brent Birch: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And it’s still good. Now, what’s interesting about is, it’s not all, most of the trees are gone and all the. All the oaks are gone. Almost all of them. It’s but willows and buck brush on one side of it. And it’s real shallow and has a real hard kind of almost a red clay bottom to it. What would be the east side of it is wide open. And the speckle bellies get in there like remarkable numbers. Because it’s real skinny, shallow water across this thing, and it’s huge, I mean, it’s big. Tindall reservoir is big. The duck hunting is still good. The ducks come into that kind of open, the blind that I hunted that particular day, and it was in a driving sleet storm, so the hunting was excellent. But they come and land right there at the edge of those willows and then swim up in there and get out, get the overhead cover and everything else. But it’s probably not the same style of hunting that they did way back then cause all the trees have died, cause that water stays on there year round.

Ramsey Russell: Run into what you call a stick pond.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, totally different.

Brent Birch: That’s right.

The Iconic Specklebelly Goose Boom

“The speckled belly population and hunting is exploding in the state of Arkansas. What has happened… the shift away from rice in Texas and south Louisiana has put those speckled bellies in Arkansas.”
— Brent Birch

Ramsey Russell: Totally different. You talk about speckle bellies. And I’m gonna divert just a minute because green heads are just synonymous with the state of Arkansas. It’s a very iconic species. Speckled bellies is right behind them now. And the speckled belly population and hunting is exploding in the state of Arkansas.

Brent Birch: It definitely has. And I don’t know that it’s all for the good, unfortunately. Field hunting in Arkansas has gotten pretty tough. Modern farming practices, equipment, cutting rice so early. So the ducks don’t find, before we got on there, we talked about duck energy days. They’re just not finding the amount of food they did in the seventies, eighties, nineties. It’s just not there. And there’s lots of variables related to that. And farmers got to make money. I’m not critiquing the farmer at all because they got to do what they got to do. But what has happened with what the modern farming practices has done and also the shift away from rice in Texas and south Louisiana has put those speckled bellies in Arkansas? It’s been pretty cool to see their transition because the farm that I grew up hunting, spending most of my hunting, we started shooting speckle bellies and seriously hunting them probably 15 years ago because the population, they started coming to this farm.

Ramsey Russell: And started building.

Brent Birch: Building and you’re like, okay, these things are, I mean, they’re obviously very good to eat. They’re fun as hell to hunt, mimic a lot of what a mallard does as far as the ability to decoy and call. And you don’t have to have a bazillion decoys to hunt them and all that. So we started hunting pretty serious. Well, now it’s become almost your best odds in the fields hunting in Arkansas, trying to hunt speckle bellies. Because mallards have gotten tough, but that’s led to, you know, the outfitters coming just out of the woodwork.

Ramsey Russell: I know, I come from state away to set up shop in Arkansas but was forced for Targeting speckle belly.

Brent Birch: That’s it. And that’s what I was alluding to that, I don’t know, the popularity of it has become as good for the sport, really, for the resource because of the dragging 15-20 guns out there, especially now with back to a three speckle belly limit. That’s a lot of weapons going off.

Brent Birch: Yeah, it is.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s not just. I’m not just talking about the geese. It’s not great for the ducks to have to listen to a group of 20 guys try to get their 60 geese all morning, all that shooting, that gun pressure. And there’s not a way to regulate that. So I don’t know what you do about it. I mean, I have some ideas, but I won’t say them on here, but it almost needs to be self-policed that these big gun hunts aren’t that good for the resource. Those geese will eventually. We’ve already seen it. We already see GPS transmitter data that when the shooting starts in Arkansas, some of these geese are pushing to Indiana, Illinois.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I’ve seen that same research. Paul Link has done a lot of valuable research in the spec world. And within a week of opening day, and especially depending on how the timing falls down in Louisiana, those birds bounce up here. One time he told me about that bird flying to Indiana. I said, what’s going on? He said, he’s flying for his life.

Brent Birch: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: That’s crazy. We’re putting that much hunting pressure on that resource.

Brent Birch: I know it, and it’s scary. And I hope, my hope is, and my desire is to open some eyes that, I mean, people sit here and say, well, I mean, we’re never going to run off speckle bellies. We got so many speckled bellies, we don’t even know what to do with them all. We don’t even have enough hunters to mess with. Well, that’s false. And this transmitter data backs it up. But they’ll go, they’ll find someplace else to go if they are over-pressured. And if you don’t believe so, ask Louisiana. Now their habitat has changed. Arkansas’s habitat’s not going to change. Rice fields are always going to be here, but we keep pushing them like we are, that’s not going to be so good for the long run.

Ramsey Russell: Brent, let’s back up. Talk about who is Brent Birch? Where’d you grow up? How’d you get into this duck hunting thing?

Brent Birch: Yeah, growing up Arkansas obviously helps you get that, but it’s kind of a thing here just a little bit. But yeah, I actually grew up in North Little Rock, which is the city there across the river, sister city, so to speak, of Little Rock, which is the state capital. But I got introduced to the sport pretty early. My dad, he didn’t really grow up a duck hunter. My granddad, his dad, they grew up in Fort Smith. He grew up in Fort Smith, which is on the Arkansas River, almost in Oklahoma. Not prime duck hunting territory like East Arkansas is. But ducks do use the Arkansas River. And there’s obviously some really good hunting right there in that part of Oklahoma. So my grandfather would go hunt but he wouldn’t take my dad because back then it was dangerous. The Arkansas River was dangerous. So he didn’t grow up hunting. He moved to Little Rock to go to school, college. And he went to work for a bank that had a corporate club. Most of the banks here in Arkansas back in the day, this is in the seventies, had a corporate club that they would take their big customers and entertain them and do all the stuff you’re doing except they were doing it at these lodges. And they would bring customers down. Some of them it was the only time they hunted all year. But they went for the cocktail hour and the playing cards and all the things they did. So that’s where he really started duck hunting. And that was early 70s. I was born in 1970. I can remember killing my first duck. We were going to. He took me. I didn’t get to go on those when I was a little kid. Because it was on the White River, which was equally as dangerous for little kids back then. Pretty wild and woolly place. But I’ll come back to that lodge because it’s a cool place and worth talking about. But the first duck I ever shot was on old Mena pond, north of Keo, Arkansas, which is a little tiny town there on the Grand Prairie. Cause you could take a little kid out there and all those fish ducks are just trading and there’s plenty of activity to keep a little kid interested, whatever. And I remember shooting one with him, helping me hold the gun. I was six years old, I think, maybe seven. So that, I mean, I can picture it clear as day. I mean, it was almost like a dove hunt. You weren’t really hidden all that. But it was all this activity and all this stuff going on. It’s like, think little kid. That’s pretty cool. So then I got old enough where I started getting to go to the bank’s club. And this club, it’s the Crockett’s Bluff Hunting Lodge, which sits up on Crockett’s Bluff at the White River. If you’ve ever seen the movie Mud, all the scenes at the river, that’s where they filmed that. That was at Crockett’s Bluff. So what’s cool about this place, this family owned the bank my dad worked for, It’s the Lyon family, Frank Lyon family. This was his club before he bought Wingmead. Wingmead is one of the most iconic southern duck clubs on the planet earth. I mean, he went toe to toe. Mister Lyon went toe to toe with Elvis to buy Wingmead.

Ramsey Russell: I didn’t know Elvis duck hunted.

Brent Birch: I didn’t either. But he is known fact that he tried to buy that place, and the Lyon family ended up buying it. So this Crockett’s Bluff Hunting Lodge was the place the Lyon family hunted prior to. So it was fantastic hunting on some old river lakes there in the White River bottoms. So you start as a kid getting to do all that, and so I would go and my dad would have to entertain all these customers and talk about bank business. You know, grown men talk, learning a bunch of words I probably didn’t need to bring back home to mom.

Ramsey Russell: What happens at camp stays at camp.

Brent Birch: That kind of deal. So I wasn’t interested in it anyway because it was just a bunch of men talking about, you know, business and whatever else. So I’d start tagging along. This place had guides because, like I said, a lot of these people, this is the only time they ever hunted or they hunted very little. So I got to tag along with all the guides while they did stuff all day, and so just fell in love with it. And those guys were all kind of iconic White River duck hunters. Everybody in that part of the world knew who they were and all that. So they were blowing those olds backwards. These weren’t cut downs necessarily, but they were doing all that before, most of the world ever heard of it. So that’s how I think I learned to call ducks from those guys, all the stuff they did. So just became fascinated with everything related to duck hunting through that experience. And then I guess it started with, or my dad did that long enough. He kind of got burned out on it a little bit and got in a lease so he could hunt without having to take customers. And it could just be my brother and I and our friends and things like that. So he started leasing the Hildebrand farm there at G Ridge. And most people know where that is because it’s right on highway 165. That goes to Stuttgart. And it’s always, you got cars parked on the side of the highway all the time taking pictures. Because it holds a lot of ducks, a lot of geese. So that’s where I got real hands-on experience. Cause my dad gave me a lot of rope.

Ramsey Russell: What was your first duck? Tell me about that first duck. Was it a mallard?

Brent Birch: No, no, no.

Ramsey Russell: Bluebills?

Brent Birch: It was a ruddy duck.

Ramsey Russell: Ruddy duck. Okay.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Brent Birch: Which I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one since.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve shot my share of them. I ain’t gonna lie to you. I know my kids have. Cause you bring up a good point. Kids have got to have that action.

Brent Birch: That’s right. Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: They ain’t like us, they ain’t got world politics to talk about and fix while they’re sitting in a duck blind waiting on the next ballot. They just got to have some action.

Brent Birch: Yeah, and I don’t think my dad asked me that.

Ramsey Russell: No shame in getting Ruddy ducks from you guys, I’m telling you.

Brent Birch: No. And I don’t think my dad had that vision. That man, I better keep him entertained. It just happened to be that way. And you fall into love with something a lot of times based on your first experience. And that kind of led to that. But yeah, so we started hunting a farm, pretty iconic farm there. And just west of Stuttgart. About 15 miles west of Stuttgart. I mean, back in the day, I’d put the field hunting there up against any place. It was outstanding. Now some things have changed with the farm. The speckled belly hunting there is fantastic. But the duck hunting has taken a little step back. But it still has windows where it’s good. And then I guess three years ago, some partners and I bought a farm right there, just north of the wildlife management area, just north of Upper Valley. I’m right around the corner from Five Oaks, right across Biomeda from club called kingdom come, both of those two places, obviously a ton of ducks. We get the scraps, and their scraps are pretty good.

Ramsey Russell: Arkansas still has the best of all world type duck hunting. You’ve got rice fields, you’ve got other agricultural fields, you’ve got a lot of sloughs, you’ve got a lot of rivers, got a lot of flooded timber. And that, to me, tell me if I’m wrong, is that not the most definitive duck hunt for Arkansas is its flooded timber?

Brent Birch: No question. No question. You know, people come from all over the world cause you can’t do it everywhere.

Ramsey Russell: And I know no matter what where my booth is placed or where I’m sitting, probably the number one most asked about hunt is flooded timber.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve been in Pakistan and been asked about flooded timber hunts in Arkansas.

Brent Birch: Yeah. It’s just so unique. And when the ducks do it right in there, it’s remarkable. Sometimes it’s hard to shoot. When they’re literally landing you could stand out, you can sit there and touch them. They start fluttering and coming through those limbs and whacking them, hitting the water, getting up, pushing out. Next wave comes in.

The Magic of Flooded Timber Hunting

“It’s magical… ducks are pouring over the canopy, coming into the timber, bobbing and weaving through the trees. There’s so many of them that you’re kind of slack-jawed and just spellbound.”
— Ramsey Russell

Ramsey Russell: It’s magical. I mean, it’s like, you just had duck hunter till the ducks are pouring over the canopy, coming into the timber and bobbing and weaving through the trees, and there’s so many of them that you’re kind of slack jawed and just spellbound. Yeah, I have seen ducks come in the woods with a bunch of hardcore duck hunters and nobody thinks to raise your gun because it’s just so magical.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s like I say all the time, I have shot my share in fields and love to hunt fields for a lot of different reasons, but at the same time, you know, if you and I go out duck hunting in a rice field and come back with three mallards, well, we just shot three mallards. If you’re hunting in flooded timber and you shoot three mallards, every single one of them landed in your lap.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And it was breathtaking. And there’s something just special about that. And I know there’s a little flood of timber elsewhere outside of Arkansas, but not much and not as much. And I tell a lot of people, a lot of people said, so much of the flooded green timber hunting in Arkansas is private and you have to get an invite to go there.

Brent Birch: 90%.

Ramsey Russell: There are some guided stuff, but there is an abundance when the rivers get high of public and there ain’t no shortcuts, you just gotta go get out there and pay your dues and find them.

Brent Birch: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: Is that a good explanation?

Brent Birch: It is and that’s part of the attractiveness and you can call tourism to a degree, because there is that public hunting opportunity. I mean, Biomeda is 38,000 acres.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Brent Birch: Which is pretty, that’s pretty big.

Ramsey Russell: Pretty impressive.

Brent Birch: That is public hunting ground. When the white river gets up and out, I can’t tell you how many acres that is. It’s huge. And when the white river gets up and gets out of its banks, the ducks flat leave the grand prairie and they go to those bottoms, and they know it. They know when it happens. And even the best of the best clubs will lose their ducks to those bottoms.

Ramsey Russell: And when the grand prairie freezes and it will, the birds know where to go lay up, and they’ll sit there and wait it out on that ice to get rotten again where they can come back in those fields. How would you define the grand prairie as a geographical area? What are its boundaries? Where is it?

Brent Birch: Sure. It’s probably the northernmost point is kind of east of a city called Searcy. Searcy is kind of near the Raft Creek wildlife management area, which is the only public ground we have in Arkansas that’s on a draw. You know, everything else is free for all. You get there, you beat somebody to spot, you know, all that.

Ramsey Russell: We’ve all seen those videos on youtube.

Brent Birch: So Raft Creek is the only one that’s got a draw system on it. And then it goes south. It’s kind of bracketed, the White River would be the east boundary of it, and then the Arkansas River is kind of the west boundary of it. So as it all kind of funnels to where the White and Arkansas meet before they hit the Mississippi. Biomeda kind of comes in the middle of all that. So you kind of look at it. It’s kind of a three-pronged funnel flyway of ducks, the way the ducks use it, but that’s kind of the borders of it. And it kind of ends around the area pretty close to, there’s a little town called Arkansas City, actually, and that’s right there at the confluence of all those rivers. That’s kind of where it ends. It kind of starts skinny up there east of Searcy, gets wide as it goes between the White and Arkansas, and then it narrows as those rivers come together.

Ramsey Russell: What inspired you to write the book “The Grand Prairie”? A very nice historical. It’s a beautiful book. What compelled you to write this book?

Brent Birch: I think the biggest thing, I’m kind of a history nerd, I guess as a kid, I was fascinated with the Civil War. You know, I’ve got, my mom still has them, just huge books on the history of the Civil War and all that. And then I was very interested in World War II because my grandfather served in that. So I always kind of had a love of history and then, of course, became completely infatuated with duck hunting and then was presented an opportunity where somebody came to me about doing this book before, some of these legends, so to speak, started passing away. And that institutional knowledge and history that they have of what duck hunting was in the forties, the fifties, the sixties before they started passing away, we better capture some of this. And then also to kind of educate the next generation on where this sport came from. It’s just all of a sudden just didn’t happen. Ducks didn’t just start coming to Arkansas, and the hunting didn’t just start getting to be cool and good. It’s been that way for a long time. So let’s capture that and then put it on paper. So that was kind of the genesis of the project. And then once we got into it, it was pretty daunting because the history of that part of the world, there’s not many places on the planet, duck hunting-wise, that can touch the history of that particular region.

Ramsey Russell: You talk about legends in a state that laid claim to wild mounted ducks in the Mississippi flyway, and Stuttgart and Arkansas has, for a lot of the reasons we’ve talked about, has produced a tremendous amount of those legends. You’ve got iconic call makers, iconic guides, iconic properties, and you’ve named a lot of properties. Let’s talk about, break it out. Talk about some of these legendary duck guides because there’s a lot of them.

Brent Birch: Oh, sure.

Ramsey Russell: Who are some of them? What are some stories about?

Ramsey Russell: McCullum comes to mind.

Brent Birch: Yeah. Oh, for sure. And that Slick’s is very close to where the farm my dad has in hunting, that Hildebrand farm I was talking about. It’s right down the road, actually. But yeah, there’s some guys that definitely put duck hunting on the map because so many people traveled here to hunt, like I was mentioning earlier when the word got out that you’d come to Arkansas and hunt. I mean, people were coming from all over the country. Everybody’s heard of Pulitzer Prize. The Pulitzers were uberwealthy. New York,, they would come by train to Arkansas to duck hunt. But the McCullum family, it wasn’t just Slick, prior to Slick was a. And it’s hard to weave the McCullum family tree of who, you know, what faction is which and where it all fits in there. But there’s a fellow by the name of Otis McCollum. And Otis was one of the first ones to figure out this whole outfitter deal and really do it on a kind of a grander scale. And Otis is credited with creating the Big Ditch Bottoms, which is the east border of the farm that I keep mentioning that my dad still hunts. I think he’s hunted there for 40 years.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Brent Birch: The big ditch is the east border of that farm, pretty much. And big ditch runs, and then it meets Biomeda around Humphrey, which is an iconic little town on the Prairie duck hunting area. But Otis was visionary enough to figure out that he went through there with a, basically a big floating excavator and dug that ditch to build a run water through all these bottomland hardwood forests and then levee them. And then kind of, you build it, they will come. That’s what it was.

Ramsey Russell: And they did.

Brent Birch: And I posted a picture of his reservoir on my Instagram the other day. And the ducks, this was in the fifties, this picture was. And the ducks, it was literally like carpet, Mallards. You walk across, and there’s so many of them in there, and then there’s just as many in the air above it. But there’s all kinds of sports writers. I’ve got all these doing research in the book. All these sports writers come from all over the country. And I could find in old newspapers, articles they would write about coming to hunt in Stuttgart area. But the McCullums definitely were a big piece of that. There were some famous guides on the public ground. You used to be able to hunt, guide on commercial hunt, the public ground. And there were several guides tied to that whole deal that were well known. It was a different era, too. That was when the public ground was a little more gentlemanly. Everybody knew going to this hole, this hole, this hole. And that’s Ramsey’s hole, or that’s Brent’s hole. It’s not like that anymore, so, but they commercial hunted that and definitely created some legends. There’s a guide that I really want to sit down with and visit with because he’s getting up there in his eighties. But his name is Buck Mayhew. He now guides for Whit Stevens who owns what used to be known as Russell McCollum’s wildlife acres. And a lot of people called it Russell’s. It’s on the big ditch Biomeda, kind of where those two come together. Big huge block of green timber. That’s I always refer. It’s the best. And I’ve hunted a lot of places, it’s the best timber hunting on the planet. It’s just, I don’t know any place that’s better or how it could be better.

Ramsey Russell: Well, how old is Mister, How old is he?

Brent Birch: Whit, he’s probably, he is over fifties. In the Stevens family, his dad and his uncle. They started Stevens, Inc., which is, I believe it’s still the largest brokerage house off of Wall Street. It’s that big skyscraper we can see sitting here, Miles. And this building we’re actually sitting in was where they were before they built that skyscraper. Yeah, it’s pretty cool history. But Russell McCollum is another faction of the McCullum family but he owned that. And people came from all over the place to hunt those woods. Because it was big, and he could hunt. This is crazy in this block of woods. It was common occurrence for 50 to 60 guns to be in those woods. And it’d be common that 50 or 60 guns would come out of there with a limit.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Brent Birch: That’s how good it was. And it’s just, It’s where it is. So Whit had been in Greenbrier prior to that, owned several different blocks was Greenbrier. That’s the old Winchester club, fantastic. Also fantastic hunting. A lot of cool history. I don’t remember how the transaction went down. But anyway, Whit ended up being able to buy that from the McCulloch family.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Brent Birch: So owns that whole big block of woods.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve heard of some of these guide operations around Stuttgart. That are sold out going into next season already. And it’s like, now the third or even fourth generation of the same clients coming back every year. Just crazy.

Brent Birch: Yeah. Most of these places. So Just to finish that on, so Buck guided for Russell, and then he guided for Whit and he’s finally slowed down. He’ll go hunt. He’ll go hunt with Whit.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brent Birch: But he, I mean, he’s got the same block of woods. He probably knows every tree in that place. He probably has more institutional knowledge over that block of woods than maybe anybody has of any block of woods know, having that kind of history, hunting the same block of woods. I think he’s hunted it for 60 years.

Ramsey Russell: Golly, he probably had known name of every single tree. Probably got every single tree name.

Brent Birch: Yeah. So really, really neat guy that we’re lucky to still have around. But yeah, the clubs, our guide services being booked up in these generational deals. Slick’s is one, Five Oaks is another one. They’re not gonna have an opening. You just can’t call them up and say, now I’d like to bring a group. Sorry, we’re booked. They stay booked. And you can’t, I mean, they could buy more ground, but you start minimizing the experience so they keep it at what it is. In fact, Five Oaks has even scaled down how many they’ll. And they’ve changed their whole operation, guided more around this, trying to find more people interested in the stewardship and in the conservation side of it. Because if you come and hunt at Five Oaks now, you’re required to make a donation to Ducks Unlimited.

Ramsey Russell: Wow, what a great idea.

Brent Birch: And so most of their companies that come are larger corporations and they bring either their executive team or their people they do business with that are key players in their operation and bring them to Five Oaks to experience that. But they used to do, I think they’ve got, I can’t remember how many bedrooms, ten or twelve bedrooms in the lodge, main lodge. And they used to put two to a room. They went down to, it’s just one to a room. So, I mean, you’re only gonna have ten or twelve hunters in that place.

Ramsey Russell: Quality, not quantity.

Brent Birch: That’s it. And buy into this. You’re getting this. They send a scientist, they send one of these up-and-coming waterfowl biologists with the hunting group. So when they’re out there, these biologists can explain what’s going on. This is why you’re seeing what you see. This is why ducks do this. This is why those trees look like that. So the people that go have this whole other perspective on the sport of duck hunting and conservation versus going out there and let’s kill them, take a pile picture. It’s really, really interesting.

Ramsey Russell: That is one of the most amazing concepts I’ve ever heard.

Brent Birch: Yep. And in fact, he’s converting it to a nonprofit.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. The cut-down call.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: The Arkansas duck call.  Again, the tools of the trade. Iconic right here in Arkansas.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: What do you know about some of the call makers or if I say Arkansas duck call, who jumps to mind? Alvin Taylor.

Brent Birch: Butch, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: John Stevens Steel.

Brent Birch: Oh, for sure, for sure. But yeah, those old call makers, I mean, you meet ones that come to mind or Butch, Chick Major, which was, Butch was a disciple of his. John is a disciple of Butch’s. So it’s, that kind of lineage. But Alvin Taylor is a good one. In fact, I’m judging that call maker contest, and that’s what they have to replicate is an Alvin Taylor.

Ramsey Russell: And I’ve seen, one of the boys showed me today his call. And I’m like, holy cow, that looks just like it, I mean, it’s great.

Brent Birch: Yeah. So that’ll be cool. But those come to mind right off the top of my head, but there are some old names that people don’t have never even heard of. And that’s what, I’m obviously a fan of my book, but the book that Mike, he wrote the call in the wild. You’ve seen that book all about duck call history in Arkansas.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah

Brent Birch: Awesome book, Awesome book. He’s also judging today, but you want to learn about Arkansas duck calls and call makers and some of these people and who they are and the evolution of their calls over time. His book is awesome. Awesome read. And photography is outstanding of these calls. Billy Starks is another one. Rebel duck calls.

Ramsey Russell: Rebel duck calls. Wow.

Brent Birch: He was kind of an iconic guy.The Starks are all from that Crocus Bluff area. Lots of cool stuff history wise and that’s what makes the Grand Prairie region even unique from, say, northeast Arkansas, which, Northeast Arkansas has great duck hunting. It doesn’t have this history component, this decades and decades of legendary status. I mean, who knows, I mean, some may say the duck hunting right now may be better in Northeast Arkansas. But it doesn’t have that same.

Ramsey Russell: Culturally speaking, the whole culture of the Grand Prairie spawned from Stuttgart.

Brent Birch: Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s the biggest city kind of in that region. It’s a lot of bottle, Small farm communities.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s what gets me. It’s the mallard capital of the universe, and it’s just a little farming community.

Brent Birch: Yeah. In a condomin’s heyday, I think Stuttgart was around 15,000 people. It’s 9,000 now.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brent Birch: I believe there are only 17,000 residents in Arkansas County, which, Stuttgart is in Arkansas County. So you think about little farm towns just shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. And it’s scary to think if duck hunting went away with those towns even be on the map then they just beat people’s farms and their little farming community where their help stays and their house is. But there wouldn’t be a town affiliated with it, If it wasn’t for duck hunting.

Ramsey Russell: What is opening week of duck season like on the Grand Prairie?

Brent Birch: It’s busy for sure. Obviously, kind of break the seal on another duck season. So everybody hunts the first, that first weekend. But you’ve got a lot going on. That’s when the whole Wings of the Prairie Festival is, World Duck Calling Championship, the Duck Gumbo Cook Off. So that brings people from all over the place, and it’ll bring vendors and obviously all the guys that have qualified for the duck calling, and then they got all the kid duck calling. So Stuttgart is just a zoo, but it’s fun to experience. Duck Gumbo is, If you’ve never been to that party, it is a party.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brent Birch: It’s worth going to once in your life. It’s a scene. It’s a lot of fun. We’re a little old, Forrest may fit in there better as far as the crowd goes, but it’s a fun time, but I mean, duck hunting is such a grumpy sport.

Ramsey Russell: It kind of, sort of is.

Brent Birch: It just is, find something to complain about. It’s too hot, too cold, rains too much, doesn’t rain enough. You know, all that stuff. So everybody feels good, though, that opening weekend.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Brent Birch: They hadn’t got far enough into it to know how their season’s gonna go. And everybody has the optimism. It’s just like your favorite sports team, before the season starts, think they got a chance to do this or that, I mean, ducks are the same way. So everybody’s in good spirits. So it’s a fun time. I feel very fortunate to grow up here and to spend the amount of time I get to spend in that part of the world, especially when that opening day, that opening weekend comes, its fun.

Ramsey Russell: We had this conversation yesterday, and I just got to ask this question. I think it’s a great topic because you’ve done a significant amount of research on a lot of legendary people and places and tools of the trade. You’ve depicted the history of the Grand Prairie very well. And just yesterday, in a conversation we were involved with, we kind of towed on this idea. How would you say that those yesteryear hunters differed from today’s hunter? There’s a difference. Now, look, me and you’ve been a grumpy old duck hunter for longer than guys like Forrest, right?

Brent Birch: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: So, and I know we’re getting long in the tooth and everything else, but still, there’s a difference. When I think back to my granddad’s day, I just think of him, he had a lot of self-respect. He respected hunting. He respected the resource. He respected other hunters. The word honour comes to mind. It just seemed like to be a little more honourable back in those days. Would you say that?

Brent Birch: Oh, for sure. I always refer to it or I kind of phrase it, “Duck hunting is should be a gentleman’s sport, and it’s gotten away from that”.

Ramsey Russell: Hunting should be.

Brent Birch: Yeah, hunting anything. But duck hunting has this certain mystique to it. And I think that’s the allure of what makes it cool. Companies that make older, vintage-looking gear still relevant because there’s this visual of what duck hunting is, but we’ve gotten away from it, and I don’t know whether that’s social media.

Ramsey Russell: Just a change of times. I can remember my granddaddy complaining because I had long hair.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, the next generation is different.

Brent Birch: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: And I’m not hanging nobody out to dry. But one thing somebody pointed out yesterday, and I think its relevant, most people our age hunting with their dad or their granddad, they had some form of mentorship. And today, maybe because of access, maybe because of a busy job schedule, trying to pay the bill, trying to pay the mortgage, dad doesn’t hunt or doesn’t hunt as much or doesn’t have as much time. And a lot of these kids. And duck hunting is such a wonderful sport for young people. They don’t have any form of leadership like that. I see it expressed in social media or in different places. I just see it expressed differently than is copacetic with me, maybe. You know what I’m saying. And I just wondered, do you feel there is a difference, Brent, and what could be done about it?

Brent Birch: I do. I totally agree there’s a difference, and there’s nothing wrong with the sport progressing and gear’s better.

Ramsey Russell: Nothing wrong with warmer drier gear.

Brent Birch:  Oh no, no, that’s for sure. Compared to some of the stuff we had to grow.

Ramsey Russell: Better ammo and better guns and better calls.

Brent Birch: I’m all for all that. I’m not saying we got to hang on to the past, but there were some ways people went about duck hunting that are getting fewer and farther between. Perfect example is what I referenced a little bit ago about the public ground, how the public ground used to be. And you have this whole personality built around whether you’re at least here in Arkansas, and I think it’s in other states, too, based on some people I’ve talked to, and you’d know more because the way you kind of expand border to border, but this whole public versus private, these factions going on in the sport, I don’t think they were back in the day, I don’t think there were these factions. There wasn’t a faction over whether you hunted public or private, whether you were an in-state or an out-of-state, whether you were a young guy or an older guy. And now you see full-blown fist fights at boat ramp and in the dang duck hole.

Ramsey Russell: Maybe it was a little more relaxed in the era of your book because there was enough for everybody.

Brent Birch: There was. And there have been ebbs and flows of us having as many duck hunters. Duck numbers nationally are declining. Now Arkansas, we’ve got about 100,000 duck hunters. What’s interesting is last year we sold more out-of-state duck stamps than we sold in-state duck stamps.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Brent Birch: Now, real close, like 51% to 49%, but that’s the first time it’s ever happened. So you got a lot of people coming here to hunt, which a lot of them want to try the public ground because they want to do it themselves. Maybe they came to hunt here on a budget. They can’t afford to go with an outfitter. So that put some people in the woods that maybe weren’t there a long time ago. But if we all eliminated these factions and put it back in the day, they didn’t have all this division. Everybody was just a duck hunter. They didn’t care where you were from, what kind of clothes, what kind of gear you decided to wear, what shell you shoot, what duck call you use. That’s probably the biggest issue going on in the sport, you know, as far as the hunter itself. I’m not talking about habitat and conservation efforts and things like that. The hunter itself, it differs from these good old days. Is probably that division that’s already a pretty small circle. There’s only a million of us across the country. In Arkansas, there’s our population’s 3 million, or somewhere around there, there’s only 50,000 duck hunters.

Ramsey Russell: I did not know that.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Brent Birch: Yeah, we sold around 50,000 ducks.

Ramsey Russell: Might have said there were 2 million duck hunters in the state of Arkansas.

Brent Birch: Yeah, you’d think.

Ramsey Russell: I would think that.

Brent Birch: You would think, but, yeah, we sold around 50,000 Arkansas state resident duck stamps last year.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. This weekend your book proceeds are being donated where?

Brent Birch: Going to donate right back to Delta Waterfowl.

Ramsey Russell: Donated right back to Delta Waterfowl. It speaks a lot to me. Here we are in August sitting, I guess its August, sitting still late July, it’s almost August, but we’re sitting right here in downtown Little Rock, which is a beautiful city. Wow. I love the vibe of downtown Little Rock. And right there at the convention center, it’s not the largest convention center in the world, but it’s this major Delta Waterfowl banquet. It’s probably going to be 50,000 people walk through that little convention center and I mean, what a great place for Delta Waterfowl to do this. And that’s a heck of a token for you to donate all the proceeds to them like that.

A Call for Conservation Awareness

“I’m a big believer in what they do. People say, ‘I’m not giving Delta Waterfowl any money because they do this. I’m not giving Ducks Unlimited any money because they do that.’ Do you realize this sport wouldn’t exist without those two?”
— Brent Birch

Brent Birch: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I’m a big believer in what they do. And I mean, that’s a whole other topic, is the resistance of the modern-day duck hunting community. The resistance to do something related to a conservation organization. I mean, you hear people complain all the time, I’m not giving Delta Waterfowl any money because they do this. I’m not giving Ducks Unlimited any money because they do this. Well, do you realize this sport wouldn’t exist without those two?

Ramsey Russell: You dang right.

Brent Birch: It would not exist.

Ramsey Russell: I give money to both of them. I give my time to both of them because we’re blessed here in North America, Brent, to have a federal government and state agencies and NGOs like Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl, and many others, and a whole lot of hunters willing to underpin it with their time and their money.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s the only reason we got anything left at all.

Brent Birch: No question. No question. And I don’t think most people even realize, I know we’re talking about Delta Waterfowl because it’s their weekend here. But duck hunting probably would not exist if Ducks Unlimited wasn’t formed coming out of the Dust Bowl era in the 1930s. Ducks wouldn’t have survived that, indefinitely not in the numbers that we see, have seen over time and now or so. It just baffles me when I hear people say that. And it’s not that you gotta give a bunch of money, I mean, every dollar counts. But you can give time, you can do all kinds of things. And to dust that off that I don’t need to invest in the sport that I spend so much time doing and loving for conservation. It doesn’t make any sense to me. So, yeah, I’m glad to donate the proceeds from this weekend, I mean, it’s not gonna be a huge deal, but like I said, I think every dollar counts.

Ramsey Russell: Every penny counts. Go back to those old timers versus conventional hunters. Do you feel like they gave a lot more back? Do you feel like those old timers gave, I mean, because that generation did form Ducks Unlimited. We’re the precursor to what became Delta Waterfowl through their research. They understood, hey, we’ve got to do something to protect this tradition and this heritage of ours, and it’s getting back with the new versus the old. We take from that resource, we take ducks. But, man, now more than ever, we’ve got to give back.

Brent Birch: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: We’ve got to give back.

Brent Birch: We do. You mentioned earlier that Greenhead, this magazine that I’m involved in, created, I think this year will be our 14th edition. This comes out once a year. I mean, we’re really proud. It’s won numerous national awards. We have a really good team that works on it. And it’s totally focused on Arkansas duck hunting. So we don’t try to cover the wide range, say, a DU magazine or something else does. So it’s very Arkansas-centric. But I wrote an article in there last year that was titled “Investor or Consumer”.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about that. I read that article.

Brent Birch: Yeah. And that’s the stance that I think is super important for every duck hunter to look in the mirror and say, am I an investor or a consumer. Am I investing in the sport for today, in the future, or am I just a taker? Am I just going out there and doing it because I want to shoot a bunch of ducks, I want to take a picture, I’m going to put it on social media, and I’m going to tell all my friends, and I want to be known as a duck hunter, but I’m not giving anything back to the sport. And that investor piece, most people equate investor to money, and to me, money’s not required to be an investor in the future of this sport. You can invest in yourself as a duck hunter become a better shot, less crippling. Know what shots are good. Quit shooting the long, long ones that you don’t have a chance of killing anyway. Don’t shoot the lone mallard hen that comes in the decoys because you hadn’t killed anything all day. Let her go. You can listen to all the science talk that hens don’t matter.

Ramsey Russell: Don’t shoot the swing duck, I mean, work together with your neighbors.

Brent Birch: Invest in yourself. Become a better caller. You can be an investor in the future of this sport just simply by becoming a better hunter. Learn more about the game you’re chasing, learn more about habitat, learn more about history. You can do all these things to have a better comprehension of what this sport is and should be, that is going to help us have this for our grandkids and generations down the road versus, if you’re in it for right now, that right now what’s best for me, what’s best for what is over my decoy spread. You’re just a taker. You’re just a consumer. And that’s not a model that’s going to make the last.

Ramsey Russell: It’s short minded. It’s very short term. But you bring up another good point in saying this, and I think about this all the time. Here we are at a consumer event, and I love everybody on the floor out there, but at the same time, it’s sometimes in the world of marketing trying to sell these products, trying to sell this stuff. And let’s admit it, man, we’ve elevated guns and ammo and camo and boats and motors and everything to do with duck hunting, decoys, to an art form here in America, way better than anybody else. And we all want that edge. I’ll take any little edge I can get to close the deal on that, that duck hitting the water ducks is hard, but at the same time, you told the story about the old timer that probably knows all four sides of every tree in that block of woods he’s been hunting forever. And it took him time. He invested also in himself to become a better shot, a better caller, a better scout, a better this, a better that. And he paid his dues to better walk in those woods on cloudy days and clear days and any day a duck will give it up and kill those ducks. There’s no shortcuts. There’s no substitute in the product world that is a substitute for just skill. Invest in yourself, man. That’s right.

Brent Birch: That’s it. And that just shows you can be an investor in this sport without having to give a dime anywhere. Now, you should, based on going back to the conversation about the conservation organizations. You should be providing something because they’re doing a lot for you. I got to go to DC this spring with Ducks Unlimited to, I wouldn’t call it lobby, but we did go meet with the Arkansas delegation related to the farm bill. Most people don’t realize how important the farm bill is to waterfowl and to duck hunting because most of the federal programs that provide for landowners and farmers to do, basically, most of it’s related to water management. But we all know water management plays a huge role in wintering ducks. And so that was pretty cool. But most people don’t realize that Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl, both in DC, on Capitol Hill, lobbying for things that are important for the future of ducks. And so if you can’t get on board with that, I wonder why you’re doing, why you’re doing the sport?

Ramsey Russell: And you see, like, when you start seeing ammo or camo or whatever else, it’s almost like you’ve got this SEC rivalry. I’m a root for this team, or I’m gonna beat Ducks Unlimited, or I’m gonna be Delta Waterfowl. And what I see behind the scenes, knowing folks on both sides, they’re all the same team.

Brent Birch: No, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: They work together.

Brent Birch: Definitely do.

Ramsey Russell: In different directions, but they work together for the collective good. And so that’s why I feel committed to both of them.

Brent Birch: Yeah. And a person doesn’t have to be, if you like one, I’m better than that one. Just do something.

Ramsey Russell: Do something.

Brent Birch: Do something. We got to have it. The ducks got to have it. Crucial to the future of the sport.

Ramsey Russell: Let’s wrap this up with one last question. Where can listeners get their hands on this, must have the Grand Prairie. And for you all that enjoyed this story about Arkansas culture, where can they start getting a copy of Greenhead magazine?

Brent Birch: Okay, yeah. The book is available on the website, which is www.arkansasgrandprairie.com, and you can also get it on Amazon. It’s available there. Max Prairie Wings carries it. If you live in Memphis, the Shin Store over there in Memphis has it. But, yeah, I prefer you buy it straight from the website, but you can get it at any of those outlets. And then the magazine is available at greenhead.net.

Ramsey Russell: Greenhead.net.

Brent Birch: Yep. And we’re about to overhaul the web presence. So much energy has gone into the magazine and everybody that works in that magazine does something else the rest of the year. So that’s why it only comes out once a year because we’d rather it be a premium than just trying to crank out a bunch of articles.

Ramsey Russell: And it really is. I will tell you. It really, truly is. I look forward to it. It’s one of those magazines I get, I sit in my recliner, and I flip every single page.

Brent Birch: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And I love it.

Brent Birch: Yeah. And you’re going to get biotype stories, you’re going to get a lot of something like we do. I write an article in there every year. Not every year, but in the last few years. But it’s a Mythbusters article. So I take on all that.

Ramsey Russell: Like what?

Brent Birch: Let’s see. Let me think of the ones we did this year. Oh, there is a true faction of duck hunters that don’t believe mallards eat acorns.

Ramsey Russell: What?

Brent Birch: And they’ll say it all the time.

Ramsey Russell: They ain’t from around here.

Brent Birch: Well, they are.

Ramsey Russell: Believe it.

Brent Birch: I know. But they will make the statement that I’ve never killed a duck in the woods with acorns in their craw.

Ramsey Russell: I killed them where they can’t fit another nut in their mouth.

Brent Birch: No question. And so we debunked that with science. Brian Davis, you probably know Brian Davis.

Ramsey Russell: I know Brian Davis, yeah.

Brent Birch: Okay, I really like Brian because I think some of these science guys can kind of drone on and on about big technical terms. Brian kind of can layman terms everything. So we bust the myth with facts and, of course, and then there’s some logic in there, like the reason why you shot that duck before it got to come in the woods and eat that morning.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Brent Birch: That’s why it doesn’t have any in there. I mean, just this logic.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brent Birch: He’s been sitting in a rice field or in a reservoir all night. You’re probably in a rice field eating the way the nocturnaliness of ducks have become. So stuff like that and trying to debunk that kind of stuff, that’s kind of fun. It’s just, it’s got a lot of, you know, stories and topics that you may not stumble across anywhere else that even if you aren’t from Arkansas or never been or never going to come to Arkansas to hunt, there probably are some articles in there that would benefit you. Some of these science-related, conservation-related articles usually got a few of those in there because we really value what some of these guys are doing in that realm that’s going to help everybody up and down.

Ramsey Russell: What does that one issue cost?

Brent Birch: The magazine, you know, In-state, we give it away.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brent Birch: It’s just a pickup deal because we want people to pick it up. That justifies the advertising rates in it. So the revenue comes from the ad rates. I say they, I used to work for the company that publishes it, but I’m still involved in it, still my baby, even though I don’t work there anymore, but they will mail it to you, I think, for $7.55, something like that.

Ramsey Russell: There you go, folks. Bargain. You can’t buy a Big Mac for that no more.

Brent Birch: That’s right. So, yeah, it’s not expensive. It’s well worth the read. Really proud of that. Really proud of that magazine.

Ramsey Russell: Brent, thank you for your time this morning. Thank you for telling these wonderful stories. And thank you for writing this book. I treasure it. If they do order off the web page, do you have time to sign a copy?

Brent Birch: I do if they’ll turn around and email me. Yeah, just use the contact form or the email address and then say, even if they buy it for a gift, will you please sign it, too? Because I’ve done that a ton. We even have a really cool thing we’ve done. You can order it on there. It’s a personalized version, so we will, what’s called a tip-in right at the beginning of the book. We will have a company here in town that will glue in a page. You can’t even tell it was ever part of the original book. And it’s kind of a translucent vellum type paper. And got a friend of mine here who’s a really good artist, Drake. He’s in the corner of it. But we can basically print anything on that page. So a lot of people get their logo. And then this book was part,          came over the way we typically word it, but it will put their name. So a lot of people do it as a gift and they’ll put, like, their club logo, their company logo. And so you open that book up and there’s specially printed for Ramsey Russell and then have the GetDucks logo. It’s pretty slick.

Ramsey Russell: That’d make a fantastic Christmas gift or birthday gift for somebody special.

Brent Birch: It is. A lot of people have done that. A lot of people have done it for their club. They’ll have it at their coffee table at their club. And you open it up and it’s got the club logo, printed inside the book. And of course, I definitely sign all those, but that’s kind of a cool feature. There’s another version, this book we’re sitting here in front of is softback. Those are all gone. We don’t have any more of those left. Then there’s one with this cover which is a Philip Crow drawing. I don’t know if you noticed or looked close enough at it. When you get back in your room and you look at it, next time, look at all the club names that are hidden in the trees.

Ramsey Russell: I’ll pay attention to that. I’ll take a look at that.

Brent Birch: Richard Bishop did an etching of, he called it “Flooded Timber“. But it was back in that era when he did it, so it’s places. And so we had Philip Crow, Phil Crow did the cover, and so he replicated that. And then we put kind of some of the modern-day clubs. So they’re all hidden all through the limbs in the water and the duck’s wings. So you got to kind of find the hidden words inside the cover. But anyway, so there’s the hardback version, and then there’s a collector’s edition version, which I don’t have a whole lot of those left. And it comes in a book sleeve. It’s got a brown cover with a gold writing and a duck on it. And then it fits into an orange sleeve. Looks pretty slick, but not many of those are left. We’ve been fortunate to sell a lot of books.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Brent.

Brent Birch: Yeah, I’m honored to be on here.

Ramsey Russell: And, folks, thank you all for listening to this episode of Duck Season Somewhere. See you next time.