Ep. 119: THIS COUNTRY LIFE - Duck Camp Etiquette

camp etiquette. It's summertime, so naturally we're going to be talking about cold weather. Really, it's getting close to the time when you plan your duck hunting trips. And if you're using an outfitter, I think you'll get some good out of this. And even if you ate, I bet there'll be some stuff in here you can apply to just the out anything. Y'all get ready for some duck

camp etiquette. And I ain't talking about the kind of etiquette that suppresses your inner cave man and keeps you from reaching across the table and snatching up the last biscuit out of the bowl just because you still got some sopping to do. I'm talking about the kind of etiquette that helps you get along with folks you may have never hunted with, maybe in a place you've never hunted before. And since I know a little bit about the guiding business, we're going to talk about how that

all applies to duck hunt. What clothes do I need? Can I call to Can I bring my dog? But first, I'm going to tell you a story. It was late when I got to the duck camp that night. I've been working with some other agents at my regular job as a narcotics investigator on a case that required my presence, so I didn't get to leave when I planned to, and it was way after midnight when I came rolling in.

My brother Tim and I owned and operated Southern Waterfowler's Guide Service near the small community of Raydale, which was located thirty minutes due south of Stuttgart and on the banks of the Arkansas River, right in the heart of Arkansas's world famous green timber duck hunting. Tim had got there as planned and had everything ready for our guests

when they arrived early that afternoon. They done had supper and he explained to them that because of my job that I was going to be a little late, but not to worry, because I'd be there when the coffee got ready. The next morning, before we all left out for our hunt, our lodge was configured where the guests stayed downstairs, with the kitchen the living room, and our

room was upstairs. We would come and go upstairs without ever disturbing our guests, using the second story screened in porch entrance, which I was slipping in with all my hunting gear the night this happened, I slipped up the stairs and eased the door open to the living room and stepped inside, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. The kitchen was next to the living room and separated

by a doorway. The light above the kitchen sink was always left on, and with it, shouting into the living room, I hung a hard left and headed towards my room, dodging a chair in a footstool, trying not to wake anyone up downstairs, or my brother, whose room was just off the kitchen. As I'm tiptoeing trying to be quiet, I hear through the kitchen that my brother has opened his door and walking in the kitchen, headed to get a drink of water, which he was prone to do.

I sat my bags down, walked to the kitchen and could see a silhouette up my brother standing behind and propped up against a waste high island that we had in the kitchen. He was drinking water out of a coffee cup. I walked up and propped up on the opposite side, and we briefly talked about the case I was working on, and once that was done, he let me in on the plans he'd made for the duck hunt that we were going to go on in just a few hours. There were six hunters, so he'd take

three and I'd take three. He told me their names, and they were all experienced with guns, no red flags. Seemed to be a good bunch of boys, and he was looking forward to hunting with them. He'd already scattered the places we were going, and there was lots of ducks, so we should have a good hunt. I was giving plumb out and I told him I was going to bed. He said okay, and he stepped toward the end of

that island and toward his room. So I followed his movement, intended to give him a hug before we headed off to our separate beds. By this time, my eyes had calibrated to the darkness, and I could see everything that I couldn't see when I first got inside. It was at the other end of that island, when we both stepped around it, that I realized my brother was naked as a pick bird, and had been for the entire five minutes we were standing there, talking, separated only by darkness,

kitchen furniture, and good fortune. Cat like reflexes turned a potential embrace with a naked man into a pat on the shoulder and an immediate about face. I was still awake when Lauren went off a few hours later, and that's just how that happened. Lots of questions should come up when you're heading out on an adventure, especially if we're using an outfitter or a guide service. Now, I've been running a camera on a few outfitted bear hunts with clay Bow, and always my number one issue was

power availability to charge my camera batteries. After all, I was there to film, and everybody knows that in outdoor media, if it didn't happen on film, it didn't happen at all. Now I'm going to talk about coming to the duck camp, but you can apply a lot of this to just about anything if you generalize it just a bit. The answer to all your questions should be addressed with the outfitters themselves. Keeping an open line of communication between y'all

is vital to making your trip enjoyable for everyone. I've had clients book of December duck or goose hunt in August when the dates are set and talk to them weekly up until they get there. I've also had others book a hunt and not talk to them again until

they needed to ride from the airport. Having been in the business for so long, we grew to expect this and tried to get out in front of all the questions to begin with by sending everyone a list of the items they needed to bring and what was provided. I've looked at several websites for different species of game and types of hunting, and I didn't find one that didn't have a prepared list like we made, or a

contact number or email addressed for questions. So if you get to your hunt spot ready for your big adventure and you ain't got what you need, guess whose fault that is. Which reminds me of a story we had some foaks from Wisconsin book a hunt with us that lived in Green Bay. Now he gets cold up there. Brother. Now I never think about those boys at Green Bay, Wisconsin. That I don't hear John Facinda, the narrator of NFL films, say the frozen tundra of lambeau Field, Except John Fercinda

never really said that. What he did say was the frozen tundra of Municipal Stadium. And he was talking about the Cleveland Browns, not the Green Bay Packers. But back to the story. Those folks not only lived on the frozen tundra, they went to the football games at lambeau Field in the winter when it was below zero. Get this, they also duck hunted on the frozen tundra and had experienced cold like I had never known in my life.

I picked him up at the airport, got them to the camp, and we checked them in, got their bags in the rooms, got their shotgun square, and began to visit while waiting for supper to get ready. I thought it was odd that the main topic of concern for them, having just come from the frozen tundra was how cold

it was in Arkansas. A big Arctic cold front had pushed in, dropping the tempts below freezing for highs, and forecasts to get progressively colder, with highs in the teens and lows in single digits for the duration of their three day hunt. Now, I don't know about y'all, and I don't really care to hear everybody that lives up north tell me there if you think that's cold stories. I do think that's cold, and I don't live up

there for that very reason. But apparently these boys had it in their heads that they were coming to the Bahamas to duck hunt. They didn't bring coats, long handed lunderwear, or insulated waiters. And even though the severity of that cold front was abnormal, for the love of humanity, cheese heads,

you're still outside in North America in December. So we busted our hind ends, finding coachs and barring waiters and clothes from every place we could find to keep those cats from going back home looking like old hatchet Jack and Jeremiah Johnson. Now, in their defense, not everyone had access to the internet like they do now, and they just assumed that since they were coming south that it was going to be warmer from where they came. It was not. We got them some clothes and boy did

we kill some ducks. So what does that tell you? Ask your outfitter and come prepared. Every state that I've ever been in will have someone say if you don't like the weather, just hang around fifteen minutes and that it'll change. Well, you need to be prepared to change with it. Choose wisely, and bring layers. It's easier to take them off if you get hot and add them if you get cold. Setting yourself up for one type of weather is dumb, unless you're going to the Tropics

or the Arctic. Those two extremes are pretty well a safe bet as far as what kind of drawers you're gonna need. I asked an outfit in Saskatchewan one clear cloudless day before we left in a boat to head to a bar bait reckon, I'm gonna need this rain gear. He looked at me with the expression I'm sure I had when those boys from Wisconsin quizzed me about when it was going to warm up, and I said March. He went back to putting gear in the boat and

he said, this is northern Saskatchewan. He rains up here somewhere every day. I took it with me in less than an hour. I was putting it on in a downpour that came out of nowhere, and watching him smiling at me while I did it. The difference between me and the cheeseheads because I asked, what about calling? What

about calling? I'll tell you about call. Calling ducks into the dcoys for folks that can't do it is the closest thing I'll ever know of what it was like to be Elvis telling your hunters to be still, get ready, and blowing a series of calls at the correct time and volume to get a big group of ducks lightning the decoys. Feels as good as when Yo Mama hugs you. I started calling at an early age under the mendership of my older brother Tim, and I practiced year round.

As a matter of fact, they're hanging within arm's reach where I'm sitting right now into a duck hunter. It far surpasses the enjoyment of shooting them in my eyes. And I don't know anyone that likes to bust a cap in a matter of ducks behind more than I do. It's a wondrous thing, and everyone wants to do it, but not everyone wants to put in the work to be good, or they just don't know how to be good. The old saying of practice makes perfect that ain't correct

power perfect practice makes perfect. If your practice is jacked up, your duck calling will be too. Now, we had a guy that booked a hunt on the premise that he could help call, no worries. He was the only guy that was coming for those three days, so when he said he knew how to call, we took him at his word. I'm reminded of a quote by President Reagan that said trust, but verify. And we didn't verify, but we should have. We just assumed that since he said

he could call, that he could call. And we've been talking to him all summer. He was the type that booked the hunt in August, and we talked to him nearly every day, and all he could talk about was how excited he was by being in the green Timber that flooded Green Timber of Arkansas and calling ducks in and killing his limit. Filling up his ducks trapped with limits of green heads that he called in himself was

his only goal because he already knew everything else. So when he came down and we got out there that morning that first morning of his hunt. Man, He's got all the right gear. He knows where to stand associated with the wind. He helps set the decoys out correctly. I can see it's call hanging around his neck. It's a quality call. He does everything that he's supposed to do,

and he looks the part. And when the ducks started flying and it came time to start calling, the racket that was coming out of his duck call was something I had never heard in my life. I couldn't imagine how much practice it took for him to make the sound that I thought was impossible to decreate it by blowing the air over a plastic greed. It sounded like somebody skinning a live bobcat with a dove hatchet. Tim and I looked at each other and I thought he

was kidding. I thought he's playing a trick on us. But it was obvious after a minute or two that not only was he not playing a trick, but he also did not know how to call ducks as he previously claimed. So after he flared the second bunch of ducks out of the hole and looked at us like a calf looking at a new gate, trying to figure out what was wrong. He was standing over there by Tim, and I asked him. I said, hey, man, have you ever had your call pitched? He said no, I don't guess.

I don't guess I have do Do I need to have that done? So my brother said, yeah, let me see it. Take it off your lanyard. So the fellow took it off his lanyard, handed it to Tim, and Tim pitched it to me and I stuck it in my pocket and I said, buddy, if you want to kill some ducks, let me keep this here and we'll shoot some and then when we get done, we're going to teach you how to call them. And that's just

what we did. So if you've a mind to be calling ducks when you get to your outfit or club, don't be surprised if they ask you to call before you all go hunting. The biggest mistake folks make is actually not the sound that they make, although that is important, But the biggest mistake they make is when they make the sounds. I've hunted with callers that like to hear themselves call more than they like to call ducks, and knowing when not to call that may be more important

than knowing when to. I'll tell you this next item on the list was more contentious than just about anything else we dealt with during our guiding career, and while only a few folks ever requested it, it caused the most problems and hurt feelings. And I shut her now thinking about it. And that was when the potential client asked, can I bring my dog? Oh Lord, here we go. I'll tell you this, Nothing makes a good hunt great faster than a well trained, obedient retriever. I've had one

of the best I've ever seen. Her name was Anna. She was black as an ace of spades and lived with us for thirteen years, and when she died, I thought I was going to die too. She was something special and retrieved no telling how many ducks thousands. On the other hand, nothing will ruin a great hunt quicker than a dog than ain't try. Allowed me to pontificate. This group of hunters came to us from the Atlantic coast.

They duck hunted a lot out there, but the hunting conditions where they were was quite different than it was in Arkansas. They were lucky if they shot a few wood ducks here and there where they lived. They never had the numbers of ducks working into the decoys like we did in Arkansas. When they brought their dog for the first time, we had fully vetted these folks and

how good this dog was. They talked about his pedigree, they did demonstrations with him when they got there to the camp on how good this dog was a man. He performed like a champ for real. He did everything that that boy told that dog to do when he told him to do it. I mean, he was an absolute monster. And they also hunted him in hunt test and he did really well. But when we got in that flooded green timber and groups of twenty forty and fifty ducks started working around the hole and in coming

in and calling the water, slashing and shooting. Man, it was more than that dog could stand. He was whimpering, whining, barking loud, breaking off the stand, running out of decoys, and when the duck started coming in, and that's dangerous for everyone, especially the dogs. He can mess around and get shot, and the other hunters were looking to hang that dog and his owner. It's really nothing against the dog.

He had just never experienced anything like that. He had seen all the hunting scenarios and the hunt test that he'd been in, but he had never experienced the real thing. And man, I tell you, I about lose my mind every time a big group of ducks starts working coming into the decoys. So I get it. He was excited and he just couldn't help it. He just needed exposure

to it. And the wrong time to expose him to it is when you've got a group of folks paying to hunt and the only thing that's keeping them from being successful is your dog. So what we wound up doing was taking his dog and the stand and the hunter and moving them back like thirty or forty yards away from where the decoys were, and we would work the ducks in, shoot them, and then bring the dog

up and let him retrieve the ducks. They were there for three days, and that was the first morning we hunted. We retrieved our own ducks the last two days. There's so many things to consider when bringing a dog on a guided hunt. Number one is the dog trained. Does the outfit or have space available for a dog? Just because it's a duck camp doesn't mean it's open range for labs to roam all over digging in folks stuff,

and live in purena land mines behind the couch. Yours and Mama's baby might be able to do that at home and sleep into bed with you, but it'd be a rude surprise for both of you if after you get permission to bring him and you get the camp and you find out all the dogs stay outside in the count ask yourself this question before you consider asking about bringing your dog. Would he be an asset to

everyone's hunt or a liability? It's that siming. I've seen a lot of changes in duck hunting from the time I started to what it is now. And while I still have the passion for it, I don't have the drive to do it like we used to. Sixty days is a long grind, but boy did we have a good time. I made friends that have remained friends long after we retired from guiding Tim and I talked to two of them today. Two good friends from North Carolina took a chance and booked a hunt at our duck camp.

We met and we all became brothers. And that was over twenty years ago. David Miller and Jay Van Noyd, an unlikely pairing of a mortician and a lawyer, two folks that everybody's going to need Eventually, one of them can help you get you out of a jam, and the other one, well, he'd be the last fellow that will ever let you down. Literally, booking a hunt with

an outfitter, well, it's a gamble. The only thing that they can guarantee is to do their best to give you the opportunity to shoot some ducks, deer, elk, catch fish, whatever it is you're after. That's what you're paying for, the opportunity. Take it upon yourself to be informed about what your responsibilities are and recognize that going in and the whole experience can change for you. Do this for me, Go in with the attitude that you want to learn something,

just one thing in addition to why you're there. Like the guy that couldn't call ducks but thought he could, he learned two things. Number one that he didn't know how to call ducks. Number two, the killing a full strap of green heads paled in comparison to the group of ducks that he called in by himself and letting the decoys. On the last day of his trip, Tim and I had our limits and had unloaded our shotguns and was left him do it all. By himself. He

was one green head short of his limit. When he saw a group and started calling like we'd shown him, he worked him like a champ. He was silent when they approached except for soft, contented feeding calls, and forceful when they swung away, bringing them back time after time until they committed and settled in the hole. They were landing all around him and us, and he never fired a shot. I will never forget it. The ducks eventually spooked and exploded out of the hole, and he never

reached for his gun. We were silent watching him watch all those ducks fly out of sight. They'd been gone ten seconds before he moved, and with tears of joy in his eyes, he looked at me and Tim and said it was the most beautiful thing that he'd ever seen. And I have to agree. It was pretty sporty, and we was awfully proud of it. I thank y'all so

much for listening. Remember educate yourself on watching plan is, do your diligence and understand what's expected of you, and above all else never hugged my brother in the dark. This is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful