EP 457. BS’ing with Redbeard Between Roadtrips

 

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, I’ve got the world famous Redbeard aka Tex Yarnell. Ryan, how the heck are you, boy?

Ryan Yarnell: I’m good, Ramsey. How are you, sir?

Ramsey Russell: Man, last time I saw you was at Dallas Safari Club, you all, you had a good time there, it looked like. Just being among people is just your element, isn’t it?

Ryan Yarnell: Yes, sir. It seems to be the Lord bless me with a gift of gab and I love to gab.

Ramsey Russell: Did you kill any ducks this year?

Ryan Yarnell: I had a pretty good season, all things considered. I’ve worked a little harder than I have in previous years but, yes, sir, we got it done. We, our numbers were fairly regular, fairly regular numbers. So, yeah, we had a good season. We beat on them pretty good.

Ramsey Russell: Was that mostly Montana, Ryan? Because I looked, it was 540 in Edmonton, Alberta. It was 650 the week before Christmas down in Wyoming. How the heck did you all stay in the ducks that way?

Ryan Yarnell: Well, you and I talked throughout the season here and there. I mean, it was warm, exceptionally warm.

Ramsey Russell: I just listened, go ahead.

Ryan Yarnell: Yes, sir. No sir. You can’t use that one on me. I just listen. But we were fortunate where we found ducks, we were able to hunt them. As we’re on a podcast, Montana is terrible, we have terrible duck hunting, so let’s just go ahead and get that out there. So it’s not really a duck hunting state. All the ducks are in Arkansas. Let’s just make sure –

Ramsey Russell: You didn’t tear the bottom out any boats this year, did you? Last time I, you gave me the full Montana package when I was standing knee deep in water into your boat of 3, 4 miles from the boat, wondering if we were going to make it.

Ryan Yarnell: I am –

Ramsey Russell: That’s why I call you Redbeard. For those of you all listening, Ryan Yarnell, everybody calls them Tex, I call them Redbeard. We’re running down the Missouri River, some unknown place on there and the man is flying down his boat and his long, red hair and beard. It looked like a Redbeard pirate going down there and little did we know we was tearing the bottom out of your boat at the time.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, I knew where the ducks were and so sometimes there’s just things you have to sacrifice to get to them.

Ramsey Russell: My favorite comment was, we unload the decoys, we get everything up, boy, we found the duck and we load everything off and you go, I’m taking on water, I’m sinking. I go, what do we do? He says, oh, we’re going to shoot duck and we’ll worry about that part later.

Adventures in Duck Hunting

It’s not always about just the birds, right?

Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. And we did worry about that later, which I love telling the story that I had Ramsey Russell helping me drag my boat up a river because I didn’t think we were going to make it back to the boat ramp after tearing impellers up and everything else, but always a good experience. That’s the beautiful thing about duck hunting, is the friendships you make and the adventures you get. It’s not always about just the birds, right? It’s also the experience you gain from –

Ramsey Russell: That’s exactly right. I mean, that’s what I remember the most. I do remember shooting ducks. We were both shooting 28 gauge and geese, we shot some cacklers on there. But you talk about dragging a boat, we were there for a while, we tried to just pull the boat and those old slippery stones in Montana. I had no traction whatsoever, there’s no way I could get a good toe hold to help carry it. And of course, we’re in a pretty stiff current. I mean, that was bizarre. That ain’t like pulling something out in the Mississippi Delta. I mean, that ain’t all like it. I was totally out of my element trying to pull a half sunken boat up a river with slippery rocks.

Ryan Yarnell: I mean, you think about Lewis and Clark and these early explorers who did that, who drug boats all the way up rivers from St. Louis all the way to somewhere like Montana and with ropes and poles and leather sole shoes and you can bet that they had a lot of sore shins and ankles.

Ramsey Russell: I think about stuff like that all the time, man. I really do think about the fortitude of guys like that. Ofcourse, that was a military expedition. That one too, duck hunters. That was a full blown military expedition.

Ryan Yarnell: No sir. It reminds me of just how soft we really are when I got a 115 horsepower outboard jet foot that it’s broke and here we are trying to drag a boat and those guys didn’t have anything but dragging boats and paddles and push poles and no waders and probably heavy wool pants and some really crappy handmade shoes.

Ramsey Russell: Ryan, we talked about doing some duck hunting together this year and just never worked out. I was so crazy, you were so crazy. Of course, you travel as much as I do. I mean and the closest we got, I’m flying down the road somewhere in Oklahoma the week before SCI convention, so late January and you just happened to call and we were on the same highway going in different directions somewhere about 10 miles apart. That’s crazy, isn’t it?

Ryan Yarnell: That’s right. But we did hunt, if you remember, early season, we caught one day together in Saskatchewan.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, I forgot all about that, man, we sure did. That’s how crazy the season. That was a heck of a hunt, wasn’t it?

Ryan Yarnell: It was. And that was a, man, that was in September, so that was so quite late September, I believe. So that was a good bit ago it seems like now.

Top Hunting VOORMI Products 

That’s when I came into the V one bibs and buddy, I put some miles on them bib so far, that’s a good product, Ryan.

Ramsey Russell: It seems like that seems like 10 years ago now, looking back at it all, that was good hunt. We got those friends up there in Saskatchewan and we just happened to happen to be at camp the same time. That’s when I came into the V one bibs and buddy, I put some miles on them bib so far, that’s a good product, Ryan. What do you all think about it? What’s been the reception on that VOORMI product since you all came out with it?

Ryan Yarnell: Well, this year we put out the V one series, the rain jacket and the bib. And grateful to say as of so far, for the first full season of all the guides, outfitters and just the everyday hunter that’s wearing them, we’ve had zero failures that we know of, on zippers, on waterproofing issues, seams. The bibs have held up well, the rain jackets have been incredible. So God knows I’ve put everything through the test heavily myself. But along with a lot of other outfitters and guides out there and yourself, I won’t forget when I did talk to you in Oklahoma and you called me and you said, you trust me a little bit and said –

Ramsey Russell: I got wet wearing that bib. Tell this story, I forgot about that.

Ryan Yarnell: Yeah, my heart was jumping out of my chest. You said, these darn waders failed me and I said, you’re bullshitting me and you said –

Ramsey Russell: The bibs failed me. I got soaking wet wearing those things.

Ryan Yarnell: And you said, well, I was standing on ice and I broke through in my knee boots and I was knee deep in water and I got wet and I thought, oh, you had me. I was –

Ramsey Russell: Hey, look, we were, it was one of the most memorable hunts I had this year. We were hunting and south central Oklahoma with Dakota Stowers, mesquite, holla outfitters and golly, man, the ice threw us a real curveball. It was one of the weirdest hunts because he was, I’ve known this man, look, Ryan, I’ve known this man and hunted with him for a decade and a half, maybe. And he was notably excited about his scouting report. We were going to go out and shoot cacklers and wigeons and one of the most fail proof hunts, according to him, out in that part of the world is a wigeon shooting the field. And we got up that morning and the roads were slick as snot on a brass door knob with all the ice everywhere and ice coated in that field and gazillions of wigeons and cacklers came in and looked at that iced over field and said – And we ended up shooting just, I don’t know, a dozen or so dumb cacklers or gadwalls. I’d never shot gadwalls in a dry field before, I think they were even just extremely desperate for something to land in. But the next day we went out and it was a stock tank, an acre and a half stock tank. Now, I’m sitting at convention last week and somebody made a comment. Well, I like Oklahoma. I just don’t care much about shooting stock tank. I said, I could agree with that, except for the fact I hunted an acre and a half frozen solid stock tank with 2 dozen full body decoys and we shot 10 limits of ducks to include, full pintail limits, a few wigeons, one dumb Canada goose that got too close to me and a whole bunch of greenheads. And I’m like, man, I like these stock tanks a lot. I like that a lot.

Ryan Yarnell: Everybody likes them on those things.

Ramsey Russell: It’s so pretty out there with that ice and the dog could run all over the lake and pick up ducks. And I found out I could walk out there a little bit and there’d be a little bit of cracking underneath me. So I’m sitting out there taking a knee for a picture. My buddy Dakota says, let me take next to you. I said, ah and before I could stand up, move, he come and step right next to him. We both went in about knee deep. And yeah, I found that.

Ryan Yarnell: Therefore, my bibs got wet.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, your bibs got wet, but not as wet as my feet got. But they really are, it’s a very nice design. What do you call the color of that? Everybody listening knows I’m big on solid earth tone type colors and it fits the script. But what do you call that color that your bibs and raincoat are in?

Ryan Yarnell: That is called canteen.

Ramsey Russell: Canteen. How would you describe that as like a khaki or -?

Ryan Yarnell: Like an olive and a brown together, like, a yeah. So you got that. It’s like an off tan olive, I don’t know how to describe it. Besides, it’s got a little bit of olive too.

Ramsey Russell: It’s extremely neutral color and that I don’t see on any other garments. But I got out. I was wearing them one cold morning in Pennsylvania, one cold, duckless morning in Pennsylvania, I should say. And I had gotten out of there. It’s a big, warm, nice blind we were in my buddy Nate Metcalf has and I had stepped out 10 yards from it to do something and he started hollering at the blind like I was still in it. And I whistled and he looked and said, he said, I could not even see you sitting there and here I was just standing in the woods, just standing out quietly by my dog wearing that system and I was invisible and that gave me a tremendous amount of confidence using it. I like those kind of colors, Ryan, because they’re extremely versatile and I can wear them in a lot of different scenarios.

The Importance of Solid Colors in Outdoor Gear

One thing about our, the bibs and the jacket for us, that color of ours and the material that we use does not have a shine to it.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, there’s not, as people don’t talk as much about solids as they should in the world today. A lot of companies are trying to go that route and not trying, they are and there’s a lot of good looking, solid colors out there on the market. One thing about our, the bibs and the jacket for us, that color of ours and the material that we use does not have a shine to it. Like, a lot of stuff out there, even you see a lot of other plastics with a UV shine without a camo pattern, they still seem to be awfully bright and I was noticing, I mean, obviously that’s something we focus on heavily, right? It’s trying to keep sheen down on our products anyway. And so at VOORMI, but nonetheless, I was noticing some photos standing in the woods this year in Arkansas and same thing, I mean, someone I was looking at my jacket and bibs it was raining, right? So I’m soaked, not inside, of course, but my rain jacket is beating water and everything is it’s pissing on us. Nonetheless, there was no shine compared to some other guys wearing some other company jackets. I’m not going to be calling other people out, but it was very interesting to see that. And the color does seem to blend pretty well in almost all environments and so we’re grateful for that. We’re a small company, we’re not going to put out 50 different colorways and rain gear and stuff. We’re going to stick with what we know and what works for us. So far so good.

Ramsey Russell: I’m not beating up on anybody’s product that I’m really, I am not, will not beat up on anybody’s product. I think it takes a lot to start from scratch and bring something to the market. But Butch was on here recently and he described or got into the process at more of a technical level of why some of these synthetic materials shine and glow unnaturally and it’s because we’re talking about a synthetic material that’s essentially been painted and in some of those colors, because it’s not a dye. It’s not in the fabric itself. It’s more like just painted on. We’ve all seen different products, like decoys or camo patterns, that a year or 2 or 3 later, especially if you leave it out in your backyard in the UV light, come back morphs into something else entirely different. The browns become pink or the yellows become something else and it. And you really don’t, again, we had Bradley Cohen on here talking about duck eyesight and it totally changed everything I thought I knew about the way ducks see. They really cannot see with x ray vision to tell if I’m wearing camo boxer shorts or not. But they do sense movement and they pick up on a totally different color spectrum that helps them in early or low light because that’s when they make their livings. And I guess it just reinforced everything I knew and felt about wearing more natural type materials, more dyed materials, just natural, non plasticized stuff if possible. So when somebody like yourself comes out, because I ain’t going to lie to you, me and Charlotte both love to hunt dry fields. I love dry fields. I love hunting the timber, don’t get me wrong. But I do like putting on bibs and getting up in the decoy. It’s just comfortable and you need bibs. I don’t wear waders in that situation, I wear bibs now. I’ve got a pair of bibs. It’s very universal. I do got a question I didn’t think to ask Butch is that, but there’s a lot of, quote, waterproof, unquote, stuff out there in the hunting world. You all went the extra step to put a waterproof zipper on your garment. I don’t have it. I’ve got a closet full. I got closets, plural, full of gear going back 20, 30 years. And, no, I don’t care how much I spent on that pair of $7800 bills. They ain’t got a waterproof zipper, you all’s does.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, if we’re going to be a small boutique company and our, obviously where our products are expensive, if we’re going to do it, we’re trying not to cut corners on any aspect, we want to start. I think you even said it to me one time, there’s a lot of things out there. A lot of bibs and stuff. You build a $500, $600 pair of bibs and you put a 0.5$ zipper in it.

Ryan Yarnell: What’s the point?

Ramsey Russell: You can’t defeat the purpose. Yeah. And so being that we’re a small boutique company and we have one man calling the shots, it’s also easy for us to say, okay, our margins aren’t going to be as good, but we’re going to put the best products on here we can. That doesn’t mean ours aren’t going to break at times, too. I could, as my daddy told me my whole life, I could tear up a steel ball with a rubber hammer and that’s held to be true so far.

Ramsey Russell: Now, these bibs, well, we just talked about knocking the bottom off a heavy metal boat. So go ahead. Yeah.

Ryan Yarnell: It was so interesting in high school. I tear the foots out of our old outboards in the timber hunting in Arkansas growing up and my dad would throw a walleye fit and my uncles would say, well, he learned it from you.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Ryan Yarnell: So, but anyway we built these products, we build the way we do and we’re trying to build the best we can in a small volume. In times like, we didn’t build a ton of waders or excuse me, a bibs. We built just enough to get them into the market, see what they’re going to do. And so far, so good. We’re really happy with the product. I know at bore me, the team, we’re extremely pleased you could ski in these things, snowmobile in them.

Ramsey Russell: That really is a good point because –

Ryan Yarnell: Utilitarian the jacket and the bibs are very versatile.

Ramsey Russell: Very versatile. And I would say that about most all you all’s wool based products is, it’s, more than just for the duck blind. I can use it around a broad array of lifestyle sports. I mean, I can go snow skiing, I can go backpacking, I can go camping, I can go elk hunting, I can go duck hunting. It fits the bill for a lot of different things. One more question –

Ryan Yarnell: Material is quiet as well.

The Best Bibs for Hunting 

It’s not baggy, it doesn’t – there’s nothing to catch. 

Ramsey Russell: Oh, no doubt. No, and it doesn’t retain odors, which, for a guy that likes to pack small, that, that hits home. One last question, I’ve got about those beds, before we change gear, why the waist high? Because that, that was one of, believe it or not, that was one of the small details that, all things equal, I preferred is I don’t like the bulk. I don’t, you may notice, like that tight, that high e hoodie, it fits. It’s not baggy, it doesn’t – there’s nothing to catch. When I raise my shotgun, I want to be tight? Cause I’m just thinking of the shotgun movement, having to mount, whether I’m in a layout boat or sitting up against a tree. I don’t want anything catching my shotgun when I go to mount and so now I’ve got this waist high pair of bibs that’s not coming all the way up to my chest and adding more bulk and more layers and more stuff to catch on when I shoot. Did you come with that? How did you, how is that why you all came up with it? How did that idea.

Ryan Yarnell: A lot of I asked a lot of hunters, a lot of guys, buddies a lot of outfitting guide buddies and stuff. Myself, I always liked the loaf, the lower front, high back style. Even in my ski bibs that I have a pair of bibs that are probably 20 years old that I believe art carrix or somebody made. Even in those bibs, they were kind of more of a low front, high back and I always preferred that. Now, let’s make no mistake, as soon as we put bibs on the market, everybody’s like, I love them. We need going to be able to high front pair. But asking everybody leading into this, it was about 60, 40. It seemed like 60% of the people like I kind of prefer the lower front bib, especially because we make the 2 pocket hoodie. So if you’re wearing our system, you have a 2 pocket hoodie that kind of covers everything. You don’t really need a high front bib. You already have 2 kangaroo pockets, blah. Well once they came out. Yeah. Now, a lot of people were like, so these are badass. When are you going to make the next pair? They’re going to have a high front. So I don’t know if we will. But nonetheless, you know how that goes. As soon as you get something out there, everybody wants something else and we’re grateful for that. We’re grateful people want more from us.

Ramsey Russell: I wore that system you described, the bibs, the 2 pocket hoodie and the rain jacket on several occasions and we all like to stick our hands inside and keep them warm, back to that color, it just reminded me I was wearing that system hunting on the puget sound with the Otto brothers. And Char would go out, chase a cripple or something and she was acting stupid, when I’d go to cast her, I’m like, what in the heck is this dog doing? She couldn’t see me. Otto went out, Otto went out to go chase a bird in a different direction and he said, Ramsey, you’re completely invisible sitting out there on that sandbar, on that pebble bar, wearing that system, he says, I could not see you and so what I had to start doing was taking my gloves off and so she could see the palms of my hands and then she started responding. But she, when I was wearing my shooting gloves with that system on, I was complete. We’re not hiding behind nothing. We’re just sitting out on a natural pebble shore. She could not see me sitting there. And the ducks damn sure couldn’t see us. They were coming right in. But anyway, Ryan, how many miles a year? How many miles a year would you guess you drive? I mean, because you’re everywhere you travel at least as much as I do.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, I’m averaging 35 to 45,000 miles a year on the truck, with flight travel, which I don’t do a ton like yourself, I usually. Well, you go internationally way more than I do, but usually travel and I got Clyde with me, I got my dog. So we’re driving, right? Yeah, exactly. You and Char, which, like you said, we cross paths from time to time. But yes, sir, I run an average about 35 to 45,000. Like this year, I probably was probably about 40,000 on my rig.

Ramsey Russell: If I did not deduct mileage and you asked me how many miles I drove in a year, because if I’m in the United States and Canada, chances are I drove. I got my stuff with me, I got, I even pack a pillow for sleeping on the side of road. I got my dog, I got my podcast. If I’m tired of talking and I do get hoarse and tired of talking, I turn it off, listen to a podcast or listening to nothing at all. Really and truly, man, there are stretches of highway throughout America that are me time. Like I don’t get anywhere else in this world. Just me, the dog ain’t talking cause she’s in the back of the truck so it’s just me and I really enjoyed it. But if you’d asked me, boy, especially this year, I’d have said I drove a million miles this year. Cause I said exactly what it felt like. But really and truly, it’s not the entire United States from, let’s say, Bar Harbor, Maine to Seattle is 2700 miles. You know what I’m saying? And let me tell you what, 2700 miles may not sound like much that’s a muddy. It’s about 2/3rd that distance from Brandon, Mississippi to Portland Oregon. And I will never ever do that drive in 3 days again. That about kill me.

Ryan Yarnell: From my house to East Texas to my folks in Texarkana is 24 hours. Give or take a little bit. It is and I drive it. Well, I’m usually in Oklahoma for the opener almost every year. My friends at Falco Outfitters put on a big Genesis weekend industry event, we’re usually there. So I drive, Clyde and I drive and then that’s 19 hours and so we’ll drive for the weekend, 19 hours and turn around, drive back to Montana, because our season’s just getting going as well. So something else I want to touch on. Speaking of on all that driving, you were talking about ice and falling through before I forget, I dealt with more. I’ve dealt with more ice in the south and I did in Montana this year.

Ramsey Russell: Isn’t that crazy?

Montana Hunting During January Cold Snap

I was like in Montana, I left here first of first week of January and of course, you finally got -40 and the birds finally came out of Alberta and I think it got pretty good.

Ryan Yarnell: I literally stood and hunted on 3ft of water with my friend Logan Webster, we hunted together and we stood on frozen ice and hunted on the top of it. No, we didn’t take dogs, it was like 60 that was in Arkansas. And I thought about that, I was like in Montana, I left here first of first week of January and of course, you finally got -40 and the birds finally came out of Alberta and I think it got pretty good for about everybody that was out hunting in Montana, if you could withstand the cold for a minute. But if I loaded in, but nonetheless, I just thought that was funny, all the woods were locked up. We had a really good season down south in Arkansas, but I saw wood ducks in masses like I’ve never seen because the woods were locked up and they – I did. I mean, we saw, you’d see a couple of thousand wood ducks, it seemed like, I don’t know what that, I’m just saying that because it was a grand number. But you’d see them buzz in the woods and then they just come find open water and come in groups, 100 at a time, 40 and 50 at a time. I’ve never seen wood ducks quite do anything like that.

Ramsey Russell: It was almost like this. This past duck season was almost like, be careful what you wish for, because through about January 5, it was the duck season that winter completely and utterly forgot about. It’s like winter went on vacation down in Guatemala and then the collective prayers of all these duck hunters wish for cold weather, buddy here it came and there was ice up. Yeah, I hunted over a lot of ice in the deep south, parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas. Golly, man, it’s just walking on ice as thick as cinder blocks. It was crazy.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, you and Anita left the Dallas Safari Club that night. We packed out, you all, we’re hitting the road, I was like, get a room, state gets a rest anyway, I left the next morning pulling my big trailer, my big VOORMI trailer and there was an inch of snow on the ground in Dallas. The interstates were empty, thankfully.

Ramsey Russell: Boy, you weren’t there, let me tell you what, the night we left Dallas Safari Club, it was sleeting and snowing and frozen precipitation and snow and that’s an easy 6 hour drive on I20. It’s nothing to it until that kind of weather hits and it took us, I left Dallas at 05:30. I will admit I did stop and take a 3 hour nap. My wife waking me up every hour saying. I thought she said, you’re only going to sleep 15 minutes. I said, every time you wake me up, that’s another hour and –

Ryan Yarnell: I’m going to buy Anita airline ticket next time.

Ramsey Russell: Bless her heart. She had bought an airline ticket when I was thinking I’d leave Dallas and go somewhere else. But when I realized I was coming home, she toughed it out and rode with me. Got a refund on her ticket. But we got in at like 06:30 or 07:00 a.m. and she kept saying and I was really wanting to, by the time I was taking that nap why don’t we just get a hotel? I said, because I don’t know where, I don’t know what it’s going to be like in the morning, I don’t want to be iced in and BFE Texas, East Texas so let’s just keep going to get home. Sure. As soon as we got around Shreveport, the roads got clear and I put the hammer down and tried to try to catch up, but it was a mess, man. That was some of the worst driving I did this year and that was, like you say, it was deep south.

Ryan Yarnell: Yeah that was the beginning of it, right? I got home that next day. I got home that next morning and I was scout or let’s say I left the next morning, about 06:00 a.m. I left Dallas. I was scouting that afternoon in East Texas, in Arkansas, in western Arkansas, where I grew up. And we were hunting, I hunted the morning I drove to Dallas Safari, we shot a 5 man limit in some woods in East Texas, which was awesome and I was hunting the following morning after I got home and we were breaking ice and we had a good hunt as well with my hometown buddies, but it was crazy. And then the ice just got thicker and thicker and –

Ramsey Russell: Did you all ever get ice up north? I guess you all did sooner or later, the temperatures finally got a lot –

Ryan Yarnell: Well by the time I got back to up north, the season was over. I think season ended like the 14th for ducks and then we have 2 flyaways. So there was a couple of days apart, they ended, but nonetheless, I think my buddies, I saw some buddies were killing them and they had an okay season. Montana is not the easiest place to hunt.

Ramsey Russell: No, it’s really not. You get around certain areas, it’s very crowded and then. Then the rest of the state, you’ve got to put on a lot of miles. I mean, I’m not going to say no name some of the places I’ve hunted, Ryan, we did some driving to get there. I mean, it’s like, real spoty, real blotchy around the state where the waterfowl are concentrated.

Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. But that, like, we talked earlier, you asked how the season was. I mean, overall, we were blessed, on that note. Everywhere we found birds, we were able to get on birds and just throughout the count of the west and so I felt fortunate for that. We had some really good hunts, considering the weather and all those things.

How Many Days Do You Hunt a Year?

And that’s why I know I hunted, I think, 78 or 79 times this year. 

Ramsey Russell: How many days did you hunt this year, would you guess? A bunch.

Ryan Yarnell: A 100. At least a 100. So I was just talking to my buddy Andrew Jones over at Yeti today about that. I think I’d say I probably had 130 days of a hunting season and I probably hunted a 100 of them, just maybe over. I did not keep a good journal this year, Ramsey. Like, I don’t know if it’s just having a young kid. There’s some, I get home and it’s back to family time, right? And I really slacked on keeping a journal and keeping up with numbers.

Ramsey Russell: I kept better numbers and records this year than I ever have, thanks to the hunt proof app. That’s not a plug. It’s the truth. I would remember to monument my point, take a few notes and how many retrieves this, that and another. And that’s why I know I hunted, I think, 78 or 79 times this year. Now there was a lot of travel in between that I missed 6 days due to a funeral. But still, it wasn’t a 100 this year. You know what I’m saying, but there’s a lot of difference between them hunts.

Ryan Yarnell: Correct. So when you fly and it takes you all them days to get to Australia and places, whereas I’m just going. I mean, I say – I mean, good lord. I mean, I say a 100 days, I don’t want to be speaking out of line there, but I think about it. I was hunting 4 days a week almost every week, some days 6.

Ramsey Russell: Work and play. That’s kind of what you signed up for.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, sometimes I can hunt right here by the house. Those days count and some of those are my best days because we’re fortunate to have some little cool spots to hunt that are close by. But nonetheless, it was a lot and the reason, I guess I pay the most attention because, like I said, having a young boy and almost a 4 year old, it really starts to add up. I was gone for 3 and a half weeks there at the end, down south in Arkansas and I was going, I didn’t even finish out this. I was waiting for the ice to thaw out in the big woods and go see our go see some friends. But I had to leave. I was missing my boy, missing my wife, I had to, I turned tail. And that’s when I talked to you in Oklahoma. I headed back north. It started raining. It rained about 3 inches in East Texas and I was like, I’ve had a great season. It’s time to go.

Ramsey Russell: My season goes so much and I don’t take it for granted. I feel like every day I’m in the blind with friends or seeing something., I’ve just learned to appreciate it for what it is and what it ain’t. But I also will say this, after that long drive back from Dallas, the phones were ringing. We had work to do. You know what I did the week after Dallas Safari Club? Not a damn thing. I tell you what I did, I got out of my chair and walked to the back porch and got more firewood to put on that fire. And I worked. I sat right there in my chair and I worked and I slept in my bed like I had not slept in months and I just said, I’m going to take a week off. And then, of course, 5 days later, I was bored out of my skull and called a few folks in Kansas and Oklahoma and off I go. You know what I’m saying? That’s just the way it is. It’s not the hunting that wears you out. It’s just the being gone, it’s just the travel, it’s just the drives, it’s just that cumulative effect. It’ll just grind you down to nothing if you – And, boy, you throw a convention on top of that, because convention is all hands on deck, which is to say, all 2 of us. It’s all hands on deck, must get it done. Deadlines moving in, moving out, lifting, talking all day from can to can’t and it’ll grind you down to hardly nothing. So I find no shame taking a week off.

Ryan Yarnell: You burn the road down, Ramsey strong and I’m sure you running on Copenhagen and coffee and –

Ramsey Russell: You better believe it.

Ryan Yarnell: Oh, well and I quit chewing, what, 5, 4 and a half, 5 years ago, I quit chewing. And I somebody asked me the other day, like, what gets you through on the road? I was like, well, used to snuff. Now it’s just coffee, for the most part.

Ramsey Russell: Coffee, diet Coke, which somebody told me the other day, diet Coke has only 10 milligrams less caffeine than a full blown Red Bull. And lots of chewing gum in between the dips, I chew gum.

Ryan Yarnell: I’ll have a Red Bull once a bloom. I’m wired so hot anyway that I don’t need much. Like, if I drink a Red Bull at 05:00 p.m. I may drive to 04:00 a.m. because that’s how much it affects me.

Ramsey Russell: So we’re not the only ones that travel a lot anymore. But I’m just curious. I’ve got my routine, I’ve got my ways about me and since 2019 or so, burning up the roads in America, I get into places like, there’s this one little town, Hannibal, Missouri. It’s where Mark Twain’s from, it’s all I can tell you about, middle of nowhere. But my path will take me through there every once in a blue moon when I’m heading through there and I know where they’re, I know just where I get to a boom, a beacon outside of town and I go, oh, I know where I’m at. And I’m going to stop. I’m going to stop 2 miles down here at that walmart and go grab some stuff and I’m going to stop at that quick stop over there. They got good coffee and cheap ice and then right past that, a little turn off I can go take a nap in if I need to. But have you got any, like, for example, love truck stop. Buddy, I’m going to tell you what, I’m a love truck stop purist. I say purist, but about every 3 or 4 hours of driving, I need to stop, wash my windows, get out, pump half a tank of gas in, maybe let the dog air out, feed her if it’s time. Make myself a sandwich if it’s time. But I hit them, loves truck stop. Do you got any road warrior trip like it right there? Do you got any like places you stop?

Ryan Yarnell: I mean, I do, Ramsey. It’s funny depending on which route I’m crossing the country, I have pretty much the same hotels I stay in at this point where I know my stuff. Probably not going to get stolen or mess with, I know my dogs, going to be okay. Well man, how it is you’re traveling, you got your calls, you get – I’d rather somebody steal my – probably one of my new shotguns more than my calls. Yeah, they got my bands. They have my daddy’s bands on them. There’s a little more sentimental value, but nonetheless, yes, I’m pretty religious about certain places where I stop and stay. Gas stations that I use. I know those routes very well to better where I’m going south through Colorado or if I’m taking a west on the seven, taking a left and heading, excuse me heading east on the 70 into Kansas or if I’m going through the Dakotas. I have my ritual stops for sure. Same for the dog. I feel like almost Clyde almost knows the stops now and Boss did when I was running him hard.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. How Boss too?

Ryan Yarnell: He’s 13 sad.

Ramsey Russell: Did he hunt in June?

Ryan Yarnell: He did not and I had a hunt lined up to take him close here. Kind of a fat boy hunt, I like to call it and it fell through. And I just left the vet the other day on a sad note. And that Boss has got heart failure coming on, so he probably not going to be with me much longer, but he’s going to be 13. The dog had a hell of a life and he gave me a damn good, fine lab and Clyde here, who’s just a giant goof.

Ramsey Russell: They both are bit big as a Shetland pony, but they’re not those big dogs that don’t have speed. Both of those dogs, Boss and Clyde have power and speed and agility like very few big dogs do.

Ryan Yarnell: Boss came out of Arkansas at a Webb Footed kennels, I inherited him from my uncle when he was about a year old, I guess and he was a 90lbs dog, but that could do it all and now he was a meat dog. And now Clyde is 96lbs and his ribs are showing, he’s bigger and taller and faster than Boss and more athletic, which he gets from his mama’s side. But they’re both brute dogs. Boss was just, he never got hurt, we’d hunt that, I would hunt full duck seasons in Arkansas and the flooded timber public lands that, with the lands that everybody knows, public lands, everybody’s on them these days. We’d hunt them all season and them dogs are getting them cut overs and log jams and stuff sometimes and they get legs jammed up and that old dog just, he just kind of came out unscathed every year. He was a tough dog, but it’s hard to watch them get old. We’ve all been there you go through it, never live long enough, but they live such a good life. I always look back. I left the vet the other day and I ain’t going to lie on this podcast. She told me what was going on and that he wasn’t going to be here much longer and I held my tears back till I got to the parking lot.

The Best Hunting Dogs

She was just glad and happy to be there and we watched that dog decline and just knew. I knew a year out it was coming, this was a year and it don’t get no easier.

Ramsey Russell: I had that old yellow chicken dog. I know you hunted with her up in Alberta a few times, coop dog. And like yourself, it was, we knew it was coming 2 years before it did. You could just tell and I tell you, I can remember the last time I took that dog on. She would cross her leg, front legs like this, very prominent, like a lady crossing her legs and she had not hunted in maybe a year. Char Dog was coming on and we went dove hunting and I knew it wasn’t going to be a real dove hunt. We were just going out to basically sit by a power line in agriculture and shoot a few doves and I think Forrest and I shot, I think Forrest may have shot a limit, but we didn’t shoot many 14, 15 doves between us. I let her pick up one bird and she sat there with all them few does fall in 10, 15, whatever and didn’t, she was just sitting there literally in the shade with her smiling with her tongue out and I sent her to go get that one bird. She went and got it because it was easy. And she brought it back, that was her last retrieve. She was just glad and happy to be there and we watched that dog decline and just knew. I knew a year out it was coming, this was a year and it don’t get no easier, but at least you can kind of prepare yourself for it.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, I, one of these, some of these places I hunt on right now and that I do some work on and stuff there, they got birds all over the fields right now and I almost thought about calling the game ward and be like, hey, I got this old dog. I’m fixing to go out there and shoot with them mallards, let him retrieve it. Please don’t arrest me. Yeah, it’s last one. We obviously, I wouldn’t do that, but I do regret that I didn’t get to take him this year, but I mean, he’s easy –

Ramsey Russell: You got some great memories with that dog, though. That’s the deal. And he’s got memories like and honestly, that old chicken dog, she picked up that dove only because I asked her to. But I didn’t tax her out and for the next 2 years of her life, she really did. She moved from one spot in the backyard to the next, just the sun and other than whatever she estimated feeding time was, she sat right there on the back porch and would get up and go eat and bring her bowl back to her bed and that’s where she was until the next day it was time to eat or chase a sunspot in the backyard. I guess she earned it after that I feel like an old dog earned it and they do. Our dogs live a hell of a life. But, golly, the sad part is they take those good times that are represented in their lifetime with them and we’re left without them and those are a lot of good memory. Man. 10, 11, 12 years of dog memories. That’s some of the best times on earth were spent with my retrievers. Some of the happiest times in my entire life.

Ryan Yarnell: Yeah, 9 great seasons out of Boss, then couple, he’s hunted the last 2 years. Just a couple of hunts here and there and because obviously I got Clyde. Clyde’s what, 3 and a half now? And he’s on a good path. But the best timber hunting years I had now, not because of kills, but the best timber hunting years I had at home in Arkansas. We on our place up in the light in the cache, we just we had a trailer up there hunting public lands. But the best years I had, memory wise or the last years, are all the years I hunted with Boss. Because in those 9 seasons, he hunted every one of those seasons we were in Arkansas in the woods. At some point in the first probably 5 years of his hunting life or 6, we spent dang near the whole season in the woods in Arkansas or just throughout the state of Arkansas and East Texas. So we had some jam up years just all through high school, college, just growing up. I hunted up there my whole life. But having your dog in the woods it just like you said, it just, the memories are just different. There’s nothing like a good retriever. Hell, they’re not like a bad retriever. You always remember them too.

Ramsey Russell: I know why, you’re right about the bad retrievers. But the truth matter is I know why duck hunt, I don’t know why my dog does. Why do they so kill themselves and possess himself, except to make us happy. That’s just their wrong hole in this relationship and they do it gladly. They give themselves like nobody else on earth will do, just for us.

Ryan Yarnell: Clyde took, I don’t know if I sent you that picture, but Clyde got gassed in his chest this year. He got about an 8 inch gas in his body in.

Ramsey Russell: You did send me a picture of that.

Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. So I think he picked up, like 56 ducks that day, we hunted morning and evening with, it was with a group. So I was just running my dog, running the call and so I don’t remember. We had 8 or 9 people or something, whatever that morning, according to the vet, later on, come to find out he cut himself that morning, she said, by, like, at 09:30. At night, my dog’s laying on the floor in this lodge and he looks like he’s like somebody beating with a pole. And so I go there and I roll him over into me. His chest just falls wide open. I’m like, oh, my lord. So I get him to emergency vest 10:15. At night. The vet in this little town, she did wonderful job, took great care of my dog. But she sit there telling me is what you just said. I said, I can’t believe that he retrieved all day with his chest gashed open. It was a lot of ice and stuff. Speaking of breaking ice, there was some ice at that time, but I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if it was wire, a T-post, ice, a log, but nonetheless it was busy day. You don’t see what’s going on all of a sudden and I back to what I said to her. I said, why didn’t he show signs of being hurt? And she said, because they don’t want to fail you. Because his job, he wants to please you, he wanted to retrieve. And I’m like and I remember my uncle when I got Boss, he said that, he said you keep an eye on these dogs because they’ll kill themselves for you, because that’s just what they that’s their job.

Ramsey Russell: I learned that lesson with Char dog out in your neck of the woods in Montana, in North Dakota, her first couple of seasons. You set up a lot of times on the fence, but that’s where you put the blind or you hide behind the cover because that’s where the cover is. And I just learned, do not send this dog through a barbed wire fence. Now, if it’s out there about 200 yards, she’ll slow down and crawl under it, but if it’s right in front of her –

Ryan Yarnell: She’s going to blow through it.

Ramsey Russell: She’s going to try to run through it, man. She’s got all, she’s had all kinds of cuts. And I just, I’m like, this dog, she’s not going to stop and slow down and crawl under and then take off. She’s going to take a mark, say, go boom and try to blow through it and I’ve just learned, don’t send this dog through a barbed wire fence.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, I can tell you what. So he set out for, he got I don’t know how many stitches and he was out for 14 days and his first couple of hunts back, he was fairly timid. He was a little slow. I’m sure he was sore. Obviously, I ran a vest on. In the rest of the season, I don’t care if it was hot. I mean, not real hot. It was never too hot. But I had a vest on him he just trying to protect his little tender area. So you got a 96 pound dog that runs 400 miles an hour and blazes through everything. So same thing, I tried to press him through a fence at about 100 yards and he’d go to the fence look, turn look, look back at me. He wouldn’t come back. He would not go through that fence.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Ryan Yarnell: And I don’t know I’m sure he was like, bro, I just got jacked up. But he knew so after that, though, after about 2 or 3 weeks back into hunting, he was back, game on. He wasn’t hesitant at all with anything, but it was interesting how he got to that fence and he just didn’t want anything to do with it.

Ramsey Russell: Now, these dogs were made, I had a dog one time, my first lab, in fact, we were hunting out in West Texas and the whole world of West Texas is held behind a single strand of electrical wire. And a dog fell, a goose went down on the other side of the pond outside, over in the next field and she marked it. I looked at her. She was marking. So I sent her and she ran a straight line. One of the boys even said, if that dog comes back with that goose, I’ll kiss your ass. I go, she going to come back with it and she got right over to that fence and stopped and come running back, I’m like, what in the heck? Well, she had touched that hot wire and forevermore that dog would not. She’d go under barbed wire, she’d go over whatever, she would not mess with a single strand of wire for the rest of her years. In fact, she would dig holes. Not a dog will go dig them a little bed out in your flyer bed out in your yard, just totally wrecking my landscape. And what I would do is take a little piece of a coat hanger about a foot long and tape it onto a stick, put it in that bed, she’d never go to it again. One piece of wire that she thought might be hot. She would not get near that wire again. I think she actually got popped twice in Texas and the first time she slowed down. The second time she said, she’s okay. I ain’t fooling with hot wires no more.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, we were crossing, going to somewhere. It’s a bunch of cattle were to hunt and Boss touched his head on one of them cattle wires on top of his head. And he never made a sound. That son of a gun come running back to me, he was healed perfectly like he was. You thought he was in the military. I mean, he was like, that dog healed me. He thought I shocked him, I guess.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t blame his head. I’m going to tell a story on myself. It took place down on Tasmania, Australia is just like West Texas. All that livestock is held behind hot wire, 3 strands of hot wire. And I had to go over and get a couple of my cape Beringees, the first one’s a shot. And I touched it. Nope, nope. I said, well, dang – Oh, a rock jaw must have unhooked this thing and I straddle it and laid my hand down on that son of a gun when it hit me. And I can’t believe it didn’t get my gonad, I mean, my cojones. Cause they were sitting there straddling too. But I guess through that bib and all them clothes it did. But it hit my bare hand. And buddy, I must have just jumped a foot come off of it and I’m going to tell you, man, for the next 10 or 15 minutes, I couldn’t feel my pinky finger, my ring finger, where it lit me up. I’m like, I don’t – Boy, makes me feel bad about all the times I’ve nicked in there something.

Ryan Yarnell: Yeah, they dogs are like, dude, you don’t understand. They took my dog to the vet, I said, I think Boss, did it make you brain damaged?

Ramsey Russell: They had a good laugh at my expense over that one, man, cause it ain’t like nobody saw half the field saw me jump a foot and a half. They were all watching when they saw me straddle that fence thinking I was fish to get lit. There’s a man right there, isn’t it? That’s Clyde.

Ryan Yarnell: Clyde. Yeah. He’s sitting here star crazy. I’m packing to go snow goose hunting tomorrow in Arkansas and he’s realizing he ain’t going.

Ramsey Russell: What? How come you are not taking him?

Ryan Yarnell: My God, I’d had to buy 2 plane tickets for him. He’s just, he’s like, hey, take up a whole row.

Ramsey Russell: That’s one good thing I will say about a 48 pound Char dog is she lays up under my feet and normally the guy next to me doesn’t even know there’s a dog and let her nose hits him on the ankle or something like that. She put her nose up on some lady’s ankle one time and that lady screamed and jumped about a foot and a half. Had no idea what was going on with that wet nose, touched her on her ankle. But other than that, she said she had no idea there was a dog laying under my feet.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, I mean, I claim to be 6’4 or very close to it and when he stands up and stretches out with his paws over my, I mean, he can put his paws over my shoulder practically or up on my shoulders. I mean Clyde’s about 6ft long. So he ain’t getting no airplane seat.

Ramsey Russell: He ain’t right.

Ryan Yarnell: Nor am I.

Current Waterfowl Migrations

I mean, in late January, ducks are pushing out of southern Alberta or early January.

Ramsey Russell: He riding under sleep. So, you’re what are you hearing about the snow geese in Arkansas right now? We are recording on about mid-February and I’m hearing the snows are a tad behind right now in Arkansas. They’re there. They’re shooting some birds, I’m hearing. But I’m hearing that maybe the birds are still down in way South Arkansas, way North Louisiana, something like it.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, I think they’re in from what I’m hearing. Yeah, I think they’re in Louisiana. A lot of juvies and stuff down in Louisiana. It sounds like there’s a lot of snows in Missouri.

Ramsey Russell: The adult push already.

Ryan Yarnell: Well and it, but it’s snowing right now in Oklahoma. I think somebody, I think I saw the weather. It’s snowing in Oklahoma, hopefully it’s in Missouri – It just takes so much cold to lock everything up to get them to push back south I feel like they’re probably with the weather the way the weather was this year. I’d imagine a lot of them are already, excuse me, north of where they should be. So I don’t know, I’m going in April as well. I’m going to Southern Alberta in April to chase them. Yes, sir. So we’re going to see, I got a group of clients and friends that wanted to go and so I helped set them up a hunt up there. We’ll see what happens. But I’m wondering what it’s going to be like up there. Are they going to come early to Canada? They’re going to come late. This has been one of the most interesting migration years of, I’m not some duck guru by any means. I’ve just been a redneck duck hunter all my life, raised by duck hunters and I don’t ever remember migrations being this weird, right? I mean, in late January, ducks are pushing out of southern Alberta or early January. Excuse me, I mean, that’s pretty late for Canada and Canada to have a lick of snow on the ground in December that’s not good.

The Most Requested Hunts & Waterfowl Species 

Ramsey Russell: 3 questions I get asked a lot. One, number one, most requested species on earth, cinnamon teals. Two, most requested hunt. I was literally sitting in a feudal lord’s estate in Pakistan when some packies began to ask me about flooded timber hunting. Everybody’s seen it on television. Everybody wants to have experienced real green timber hunting like you grew up hunting. Like I’ve hunted myself and absolutely love and I get a lot of questions about snow geese because people have seen the television programs. They want to go experience snow geese hunting. In fact, I was doing seminars at SCI this year when somebody, I think he showed up just to ask me about snow goose hunting. Where do I need to go get into snows? And I have hunted them, I have not hunted them up in the Arctic near Hudson Bay, but I’ve hunted them everywhere between there and the Gulf Coast and back and love it, I think as a consolation, because let’s face it, on these spring snow goose hunt you’re going on, it’s almost like a slot handle. You pull the handle and all the little bells line up and it’s one of those magical days because of the wind, because of the weather, because of the stage of the migration with a lot of young birds, everything comes together right and you really cash in on trigger pulling. But outside of that, it doesn’t line up. And as a consolation, instead of shooting 100 or more birds with a group, you shoot a dozen or more. But seeing, I never tire of seeing on the wintering grounds, 50,000 live geese working over me high and they’re all looking 100,000 eyeballs looking at you. They’re not going to come in, but looking up, it is one of the earth’s greatest spectacles.

Ryan Yarnell: If you’re a waterfall, oh, it’s magical. I mean, well, look, on that note, of all the spring snow goose hunts I’ve done, which is an extremely large amount, but I’ve only had a few bangers. And again, like we talked earlier, it’s not, every hunt ain’t about to kill right now. When you go spring, go snow goose hunting, excuse me, we go bring snow goose hunting. You’re looking for that spin, right? You’re looking for those big wads. You’re looking for them to come in, look for those juvenile birds. But I’ve had better snow goose hunts during seat regular season and then I probably ever had consistently any way than I ever have with spring snows. It’s always a roll of the dice. But it’s fun, it’s late season, it gets you out again. It kind of gets you out of withdrawals of duck season being over.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah. It’s a huge opportunity if you like this game of waterfowling. But my –

Ryan Yarnell: It’s fun if it goes well, right? A lot of camaraderie.

Ramsey Russell: Snow geese are among my favorites species worldwide. I would say mallards, Canadas and snows would probably rank and blue winged teal. I can’t think of a fifth species, those 5 species. And you know what I probably like? They’re probably my favorite when I’m sitting there actually hunting them. But my favorite place to hunt snow geese is between mid-September and mid to late October, up on the Canadian prairie and then back again last half of April, first half of May back on the Canadian prairie. Those are my 2 favorite, 2 of my favorite hunts, maybe in the world are hunting snow geese, especially in the fall, but also in the spring. I just absolutely, positively love watching those birds work and do what they’re going to do and it’s been my experience that down here, those snow geese are feeding oftentimes on it. They’re in a different life cycle. I mean, their requirements on the deep south, they’re in massive flocks. They’re staging. They’re fixing to start trickling back north and they’re hitting the protein, they’re hitting winter wheat, things like that, which make them kind of. It makes it difficult to hide. But, man, once the, once they that you’re hunting these smaller flocks up in, up in Canada coming and going and it just, it can make it a lot more productive. That’s just my $0.2, it’s been my experience over all the years.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, Ramsey, I noticed there’s been a lot of times, late season, I typically end up in Mississippi sometime in January to hunt some of those areas that I hunt in and I feel like there’s always a ton of snows around.

Ramsey Russell: There are.

Ryan Yarnell: And I never see anybody hunting them I know boys do, got to be but –

Ramsey Russell: Very few. The guys that do are absolutely a game die hard goose hunters. It’s almost like that’s their game. And I know a few people that do that, chase them hard.

Ryan Yarnell: Not that it’s not muddy and sloppy everywhere. You hunt spring snows for the most part. But I’ll tell you this much, when I’m in Mississippi in January, looking at them snow geese, I don’t want to go hunt them, it’s usually a bog. All the fields are just got water between each row and it’s really wet. And I can only imagine what it’s like setting out a massive snow goose spread –

Ramsey Russell: Oh yeah, it’s a mess.

Ryan Yarnell: In that Mississippi mud in the bog. I’m with –

Ramsey Russell: Believe it or not, when you hit them right on some of that high ground, they, they seem to get these cotton fields, these harvested cotton fields and eat that hen bit and that, then that’s as easy as it’s going to get because it’s a higher, drier site and you get stuff out there better and yeah, that’s where I see them. Like, this time of year, that’s where I would expect to see them because there’s a lot more at times I ain’t been through the delta this year, but, but in the past, there seemed to be a lot more cotton around in certain places. And they get some kind of broadleaf in there called a hand bit is what it’s called and I seem to see them in their feet a lot this time of year.

Ryan Yarnell: Well, let’s make no mistake. When it’s January and I’m in Mississippi, I got mallards on my mind and if them late season mallards are in your state, it’s really awesome to get on them. So I watch some snows in the field and I drive right on by. Go find them mallards. But, yeah, we’re going to say we’ll see how this, the migration does. Like I said looking at how the years gone, it’ll be interesting to see how the spring migration of snows goes because I know a lot of friends that run hunts and they’re a lot of them are struggling and a lot of them, well, I don’t know that anybody just having just complete lights out, but I’m sure somebody is. I don’t know know everybody doing it, of course, but we’re going to give it hell. We’re going to see what happens. I leave tomorrow morning.

Where’s the Next Hunt?

I want to scratch British Columbia off my list and somehow this year I want to go hit some of the maritime states. 

Ramsey Russell: Where are we going to hunt together in the upcoming season?

Ryan Yarnell: Let’s go to Washington.

Ramsey Russell: I ain’t driving out there. I’m still remembering that drive back from Oregon this year. If I’d had 5 days instead of 3, it might have been a little more enjoyable. And if I had done those scenic side stops, it might have been a little quicker, I would go to Washington with you. Have you ever hunted British Columbia?

Ryan Yarnell: But I have never hunted BC. No, sir.

Ramsey Russell: That’s what we need to do. I miss British Columbia this year because I had to come back home suddenly. But I, well, we ought to do a trip in British Columbia.

Ryan Yarnell: I’ve been last summer and I scoped out a lot of areas that I’d like to go check out.

Ramsey Russell: I want to scratch British Columbia off my list and somehow this year I want to go hit some of the maritime states. I’ve hunted Nova Scotia, have not hunted Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and I want to pick that up. And if my schedule is right and, man, I’m not even think about laying that thing out for another 3 or 4 months, my schedule is right, I’ll hit all that and better come down to eastern seaboard. I lack, I want to kill waterfowl in 2 states, West Virginia and I don’t know yet where I’m going to do that in Virginia and so if I pull it off right, I’ll hunt in maritime states and then come down through and hunt Virginia and West Virginia and be home in time for thanksgiving and the problem with those 2 states in the past is I’m a slow learner. They’ve got a real weird 2 week or 14 day split between Thanksgiving and Christmas and that’s usually when I’ve bounced back from Thanksgiving, ready to go hit the road, realize they’re closed. So this year, I’m going to have to back up and hit them before Thanksgiving if I won’t do it.

Ryan Yarnell: Well I lived about 6 falls in West Virginia, working on the Gauley river there, up in Summersville, West Virginia.

Ramsey Russell: You got the duck hunting contacts up there still?

Ryan Yarnell: No, sir. Well, I was going to say I never really saw any ducks. We did a lot of smallmouth bass fishing and ran a lot of good whitewash. Drank way too much beer. But I never saw geese, I never saw any ducks. But that Summersville reservoir that feeds the Gauley river always looked out there, it doesn’t look like duck country either. It’s not a ton of farmland. It’s rolling hills of West Virginia. So I was going to ask you, I mean, I’d assume near Charleston or somewhere near the Capitol must be where – I mean, there’s a lot of big river corridors that run through there and things like that. But I didn’t see. Obviously, you would know if you’re going to go hunted. I’m sure you know somebody there. But –

Ramsey Russell: I’ve talked to a few people and I’m hoping somebody, listen, will say, I know a guy in West Virginia. I don’t care if it’s a duck or a goose, a wood duck, a mallard. I just want my lid. Yeah, I’ve passed through there before and it’s a beautiful state, very mountainous and a lot of the rivers and stuff.

Ryan Yarnell: Absolutely, it’s a gorgeous state and find people up there. I really enjoyed my time in West Virginia. Like I said, I usually just spent the fall, 6 week in the fall was the Gauley season, the Gauley river. And Ohio is right next door and Ohio’s got some pretty good bird hunting. And I bet you I know some boys in Ohio that may – That I got some friends at duck hunting Ohio. They may know a little bit about West Virginia. So I’ll reach out and see if I can figure something out for you on my end.

Ramsey Russell: If we team up together, we going to meet each other or you going to ride with me or I’m going to ride with you? I’ve ridden with you before, son. You got a big old foot, big heavy foot.

Ryan Yarnell: I hear that a lot these days. So it’s what people say, I’m like, how many hours you put in 40,000 miles? I’m like less than the average.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. I know that’s been true. I’ve ridden with you before, I know that to be the truth. Anyway, Ryan as always, I enjoy catching up with you. Thank you very much for coming on Duck Season Somewhere today.

Ryan Yarnell: Good talking to you Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Good luck on them snow geese, man. I got a feeling you’ll get into to them.

Ryan Yarnell: I appreciate you. I’ll keep you updated.

Ramsey Russell: Folks, thank you all for letting this episode of Duck Season Somewhere with Ryan Yarnell AKA Redbeard, see you next time.