Ep. 663: MeatEater Radio Live! | Steve's Birthday, Leather with Heather Douville, and Grayling in Michigan

Hosts Steve Rinella, Brody Henderson, and Seth Morris celebrate Steve's birthday, talk fur and leather with Heather Douville, throwback to memories with Steve, and chat about bringing grayling back to Michigan with Randy Claramunt.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Smell us now, lady, welcome to Meat Eater Trivia.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Mea podcast. Holy shit, it's Me Eating Radio Live, eleven am,
Montana Time. That's kind of Mountain Time mt YEP. Mountain Time, Thursday,

(00:34):
February thirteenth. It's my birthday. I turned fifty one today
live for me Eater Headquarters and Bows in Montana. I'm
your host, Steve Ennell, and I'm joined today by Brody
Henderson and Seth Morris and not I will point out
by the man who's supposed to be here. I'm glad
he's not because I like Seth betteran doctor Randall, now.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
That you're a doctor too, what dud Well, we've actually
got Randall on the line. Shall we talked to him?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
I don't say that because that's not a thing.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
That's not a thing yet, no thing.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Today's show, we're gonna check out with our friend and
newly added Meat Eater colleague, Heather du Ville to see
what sort of critter hides and first she's working on
I'm gonna take a trip down memory lane do some
throwback Thursday, and we're gonna talk about some very exciting
news that a lot of people might not recognize as exciting.
But we're gonna explain why it's so exciting. Is a
grailing an Arctic grailing reintroduction in Michigan?

Speaker 4 (01:30):
Pretty cool?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
No, it's super cool, man, it's super cool. We're gonna
get into that first. We're gonna try to hear what
why Randall couldn't make it. I called him earlier. He
had no problem answering the phone. He's supposedly stuck in
the snow, but here he is. It doesn't look snowy
where you're at, Steve.

Speaker 5 (01:47):
I'll point out to you that I'm in my garage.
Uh huh.

Speaker 6 (01:50):
And there's there's a fair bit of snow in the
garage this morning.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:56):
I was told we got up to eighty seven on
our wins last night in Livingston.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Here home. Every time you talk, I'm gonna make the
noise that I hear when I heard it. Someone can't
make it to work because of the snow riding every
time you talk, I'll do it.

Speaker 6 (02:09):
Go ahead, Uh, I we got some good drifts here,
We got some I Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:20):
Why did I call that? Call it because you done?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
I think because you didn't come to work, because you're chicken,
because you got snow. Let me see.

Speaker 6 (02:31):
Well, it's blown away from everywhere else except for uh the.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Driveway in the road. Let's see.

Speaker 6 (02:41):
So we got some good drifts here. This it's right
in front of the garage.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
Oh wow, look at that dang and uh yeah, that's
that's what happens. Here's Uh looks like your truck is out.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, truck looks fine, and it looks like it's on
the other side of the drift.

Speaker 5 (02:59):
The issue. I'll just go through this drift here.

Speaker 6 (03:03):
There's a massive drift here. I don't know if you
can see the bend in the road out this way,
and I got the canam stuck try to plow that out.
So I had to get my truck out to pull
the canam out. And uh yeah, there's an excavator on
the way, but it's got to take its way out here.

Speaker 5 (03:22):
So I'll just be here.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
If you guys eat me, you know, Uh, can you
one thing.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
I was I was trying to remember. I had to
do one thing on here. Oh happy for.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Your phil Can you do randall favor and save that
clip because when we caught him loose, when we fire him,
yeah for not coming to work. He can maybe use
that and try to get one of those jobs where
you talk about how bad the weather is and you're

(04:02):
like the weather guy, Oh, that's really kind of you
to think of him after that, Like you there's a
big snowstorm in Buffalo, New York, and then they send
a guy out there to Parka and he's like, look
at all the snow on these cars. Randon would be
good at that. The wind's picking up. Yeah, it'd be
a great job for Randall. Got some business talk about
for you. For those of you, I know that those
of you in Michigan are already excited as hell about

(04:24):
the grailing reintroduction that's coming that we're going to talk about.
But if you're in Nashville, you might be saying to yourself,
what could I be at? What what should I be
excited about? Well, i'll tell you. If you're in and
around Nashville and or attending the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention,
I'm reading this and and that's that's not that's not

(04:46):
a great way of putting it, because it shouldn't say
and or because.

Speaker 5 (04:53):
You follow me, Yeah, I got you.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh no, because they could be far away right now.
So you say in Nashville and they're like, well, I'm
far away from Nashville. But then you say or attending
the NWTF convention in Nashville, they might be like, oh,
I better pay attention because I'll be in Nashville on Saturday.

Speaker 5 (05:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
So yeah, if you're around Nashville and or attending the
NWTF convention in sports show this week, that's a hell
I like that show. It's a hell of a good time.
Our colleagues, Yannie Yannie, the Lavian Lover, Ocal, Clay Newcombe,
Spencer Newheart are all there and they're hosting the Grand

(05:33):
Slam after party in the Tennessee Ballroom tomorrow night, Valentine's
Day Night. The event starts at eight forty five pm. Okay,
this is for NWTF. Get your tickets for forty bucks.
Buying a ticket enters you to win one of six
dream Turkey hunts. They're also gonna be raffling off a

(05:55):
boatload of guns and a bunch of new turkey gear
from First f HF and Phelps Game Calls. Plus Spencer's
gonna be hosting a meat poll style trivia. How meat
Pole works is you survey everybody that comes in the
room and then you do a trivia show around you

(06:16):
do basically being asked trivia questions about the people in
the room, percentages, what percent of the people in the
room tonight?

Speaker 5 (06:23):
Blank?

Speaker 4 (06:24):
Right, You got to figure out what they're.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Thinking sitting down. I don't know whatever the hell Spencer
wants to ask them, and you can win stuff that way.

Speaker 5 (06:35):
That'll be fun.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
No, I'd go if I was there, Uh, where we're
sitting right now? Oh so we did Randall, my former colleague,
doctor Randall. Oh, Spencer chimed and he says, I'm on
a plane headed there now. Okay, huh, that's great to hear.

Speaker 5 (06:52):
Safe travels.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Doctor, my former colleague, doctor Randall, and I did, uh
did our first of our little mini to our mountain
Man Mini tour where we're going to colleges to give
We're going to colleges to talk about the mountain Man era.
We did our first one the other night, which is
very fun. We did it at Montana State University. We're
going to University of Montana on February twenty and we're

(07:16):
going to University of Wyoming and layer Me, Wyoming on
February twenty six. So go check those things out, like
they're supposedly sold out. But I gotta figure that. I
mean they are, but I feel like there should be
more room there. Oh, I'm supposed to look at the TV.
Mike Cue says, look at TV. Hey, Happy birthday, Steve

(07:44):
Ranella Man. We respect the heck out of you. Hope
you have a great birthday. I have not forgot that
you don't know how to blow a crow call, though, if.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
You just put a little more a little body coming
from the chest right here.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Out way better than that blue jay call you make.
Happy birthday.

Speaker 5 (08:05):
Oh, hey Steve, happy birthday.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
This is a kind of awkward.

Speaker 7 (08:17):
Sicko wo yugy.

Speaker 8 (08:22):
Yucky sick.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
Yugy sick yugy in.

Speaker 7 (08:32):
Fling it that translates too year old. Happy birthday, Steve.
I hope you have a great day.

Speaker 9 (08:44):
Hey, Happy birthday, Steve. I'm sure inspired millions of people,
including myself. It's almost as if you're getting younger. And yeah,
it's really cool to see and keep as an example
of how to live a life.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
So here's to another fifty years.

Speaker 8 (09:04):
Hey Steve, happy birthday from Minnesota. It has been just
an honor to get to teach you how to bowhunt
and fish. Oh you've been a pretty good student. And
I like that, so I hope you have a good birthday.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Buddy.

Speaker 7 (09:19):
Hey, happy birthday, Steve.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Sheet, Happy birthday Stephen Ranella from me and my boy
mingus here. We're out on the mountain, Lion mountain, no
tracks today, it's still a fine day. I was thinking
for your birthday radio live episode, you could do a

(09:46):
hot tip for everybody on how to keep your head
warm in these super cold conditions, especially when your hair
is getting so thin. On top of like if you
have to wear two hats or maybe put a and
whom we're up there.

Speaker 5 (10:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Exactly what you do. You can go ahead and say it,
what a dick, But that's what friends are for. On
your birthday. You got so many friends wish you have birthday.
I heard Cory Culkins had to give him all a
first like gift card to make these videos. But it's
all good. But in all seriousness, be grateful for what

(10:23):
you do have on your birthday, that awesome family of yours,
that's awesome thing called meat eater that you've created. And
as always, I'm grateful to call you a friend. And
let's get out here soon.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
Look at him, mans come here, come here are you
ready to go. He's ready to go, right, I get
a Ryan for.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yo. Steve, Happy birthday, man. I hope you're having a
good one.

Speaker 9 (10:55):
Hey, buddy, it's Decoy Dave over here in Oregon trying
to get over COVID.

Speaker 10 (11:01):
I just wanted to say happy birthday.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
From me and from all of us at DSD, and
thanks for all your hard work and inspiration and creating
all this.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
And hope that you and your family have a great one.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Every birthday, Steve.

Speaker 6 (11:16):
For me in old way, I remember when I was
fifty one.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
I think, all right, thank you everybody.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Happy birthday.

Speaker 5 (11:29):
Happy birthday, Steve.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
What Dirt didn't bring up? Oh look at this there.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
You go, right, that's so cute.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
What Dirt didn't bring up with his messages. Me and
him struck a deal where I gave him a brand
new climbing rope and he was supposed to give me
a little picture frame thing. Nothing haven't seen.

Speaker 5 (11:47):
It hasn't happened yet.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
No very asymmetrical deal anyways, and I got screwed on it.

Speaker 5 (11:52):
Yeah, okay, that was the trim piece in your camper, right, Yeah?

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, I didn't want to confuse everybody took me to
it would take me too long to explain. It's actually
trim piece for my camp.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
But it's gonna look like a picture frame it is.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
And because I ripped out the microwave of my camper,
because any telling you want to microwave something in my camper,
you gotta go turn the generator on. So if you're like, oh,
I'm gonna heat this cup of coffee up, go outside,
turn the generator on, come back in. By that point,
I just heat it up on the burner. Yeah, you
know it make any sense? So I ripped it out,
and we keep loads of bread up in there. But

(12:23):
I just don't like the way it looks now. It
looks like something used to be there. So dirt supposed
to be finding a way where it looks like God
put it there that way, like it grew there.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
All right, we're gonna go to Heather du Ville. Heather,
you know what? Can Heather see us?

Speaker 5 (12:36):
Good? Not yet?

Speaker 3 (12:37):
But I prepare to drop for this, Steve, because I
was told to prepare a drop.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Oh okay, so do you do you want to read
what the script says? There's no script here?

Speaker 11 (12:49):
Number three, buddy, Oh, I'm looking at it.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Ready. Yeah, go ahead. Next up, we're going to check
in with Heather Duville for new segment. We're calling Fur
and Leather with Heather.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
Phil that's your best one yet.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
That was the best one ever. Man. You know what
he did is he cut right to the good part
of the song.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
Glad you that. Here's how I'm going to intro the segment.

Speaker 7 (13:33):
Watch that one a total surprise. I did not know
about the song. Laughing, but yes, that caught my eye
sitting on your table.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Bill, Can I verify that what people can see? No, no,
make it narrow again, because you're blowing the whole fount
I'm sorry to hear. Yeah, make it really narrow. I
mean that's a narrow So is that way it looks
for people at home? Does it look that narrow?

Speaker 5 (13:57):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Okay, I'll check this out. Watch how long it takes
for this to pass.

Speaker 11 (14:05):
All the way all the way through? Wen, we've only
got an hour for this podcast.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
I mean, watch how long this takes?

Speaker 7 (14:18):
Oh, it's going over to the other you watch.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Can you believe us when we had those ladies on
that were mauled by a river otter?

Speaker 5 (14:30):
Wow, look at.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
This and people are like, well, how could a river
otter kick your ass? Oh? The angle's bad. Oh here,
let's do it again. Where the angles better? How could
a river malia that's five feet ten inches tall.

Speaker 7 (14:43):
Wow, that's a big one.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
And that I think I might just keep it as
a wall hanger. I was gonna do a hat, but
I don't know. But what the point being that's river otter,
and and Heather's dealing with sea otters, and that's river.
Out of that weays twenty five and half pounds. What's
a big sea otter? Heather?

Speaker 7 (15:04):
I got my biggest sea otter this winter and it
weighed ninety pounds.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Imagine that thing. Yeah, oh that's crazy, Heather? Had I
think I posted it? Did I think I posted it?

Speaker 7 (15:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Heather had? She went out hunting it. Oh, sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (15:24):
Oh it's bigger than my deer that I got.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
She had a box in an otter laying in the
bottom boat and the odd looked bigger than the bock
laying in the bottom of the boat.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
That's crazy, all right.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
So how's how's winter going, Heather? What's going on?

Speaker 7 (15:40):
It's going? Well? You know, we a lot of people
celebrate New Year, you know, January first, but our new
year is coming up with the resurgence of life in springtime.
So I spent a lot of time in the winter
here just in my shop, and it's like the rest
of the environment hibernating, resting, and then as things awaken

(16:04):
in the spring, we come to life and start our
harvest season, and that kind of marks our new year.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
And yeah, is that is the new year? Is the
new year a day? Or is it the new year?
Just sort of like regarded as a window of time,
like a like a broader window of.

Speaker 7 (16:21):
Time, seasonal you know, awakening, come out of hibernation, new plants.

Speaker 5 (16:28):
God.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
So there's not like a specific day when you announce.

Speaker 7 (16:31):
It, No, but sometime always feels like the new year
for us. Sure, I've been working on I've been learning
how to tan deer skins with tree bark, and I
have a I tan my first seal skin at home.
So it's here stretched on a frame.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Can you grab that and let us see the other side.

Speaker 7 (16:56):
Yeah, So see, this is the seal skin that was
hanging in the drying shed when you were here and
I tanned it. It's pretty big, actually, this spring is huge,
I think tall. But this is a harbor seal. Oh
you can't see the the whole thing, but you can

(17:19):
see the back of it.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
This spring, Well that turned out nice.

Speaker 7 (17:25):
Yeah, this is not done, but you can see where
I've dry scraped it and where I haven't. So as
you it'll light en up in color and it'll soften up.
So takes a lot of elbow grease. So working on that.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
So what what? So as you're learning to do your
own seals, I remember you telling me that. I remember
you saying that it's hard to find. There's not a
lot of good places to send seals. Yeah, you haven't
been satisfied with with sending them in to get them tanned.

Speaker 7 (18:00):
Yeah, seals are really oily. You have to wash them
right away after you skin them or else the oils
will oxidize on the fur and turn the fur yellow. Okay,
they're really rubbery, so they'll stretch like ten times their
original size, and I think they're hard to thin. It's

(18:20):
just a really unique art when it comes to tanning them,
and I really I haven't found a tannery that tans
them in a way that I guess produces an end
product that can be sewn with. So I decided to
try it myself, and yeah, just learning as I go.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
So at with with coastal fur, coastal fur and leather
sewing shop. Will you eventually do you think you'll get
where you are able to have enough volume that you're
selling products made from the seals you harvest and tan
and so where like the whole process becomes in house
or do you think that'll be too hard to ever

(19:02):
have that level of volume.

Speaker 7 (19:04):
I think with sea otters, no, but with seals we
so sea otters the usable parts are the fur, but
with seals, we eat the meat, we render the fat,
and we use as much of the seal is possible.
So we only harvest like two a year.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
So our seals.

Speaker 7 (19:25):
We can definitely you know, tan them here and convert
them into sellable items. We're not able to sell whole pelts.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires us to convert them
to a sellable item, so hat, scarves and things like
that in order to try to recoup costs. So definitely

(19:46):
feasible with seals, but not seat because we hunt those
in greater volume.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Now walk me through what's going on with learning how
to bark tans.

Speaker 7 (19:57):
I brought my two toats here. I'm gonna grab a
chew and show you. So I have in here. This
is white tail, it's buckskin. I didn't know that buckskin
just means like hair off. I thought it meant like
a buck deer, like a like a deer. But buckskin

(20:20):
means the hair is off. I didn't know that. So
this is white tail hide. And this is like a
tree bark tea. I'll show you it's see all the
bark in there. So this is called the drench, and
this is the tanning agent. So tree bark. Some trees

(20:42):
have a lot of tannins in them.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, what trees are you using? Are you using hemlock?

Speaker 7 (20:47):
This is actually oak. But the local trees here that
have a lot of tannins are older and spruce and hemlock.
And this drench is an oat brand. So what we
did was we soaked this in wme to dep air,
which is you know, real high pH, and then we

(21:10):
put it in this drench which lowers the pH back
down in preparation to put it into the tanning solution.
So I'm really excited to learn this process. It's all
natural and non toxic. So all of these products, when

(21:30):
I'm done with it can be composted or you know,
put back the earth and not cause harm. And yeah,
I hope to learn this and be able to teach
this soon.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
So when you come down to head I know you're
working on this plant. We're you're going to come down
to headquarters. You're going to help people tan their deer
skins that people save up. So will we be able
to do like if we get all set up in
our kitchen area, how many can we run through? Do
you think?

Speaker 7 (21:57):
Yeah? So we can. We can make these solutions to
tan you know, one one hide or hundreds of hides
and just adjust the different measurements. But one of my
goals is, you know, we try to use as much
of what the harvest as possible and reduce waste whenever
we can. So I love to learn the different ways

(22:18):
to use the materials that we have and then also teach.
So if I can come there, if you guys want
to save your deer skins, and if I'm able to
teach you guys, I would love that.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
And oh we're definitely doing that, man.

Speaker 9 (22:30):
Yeah, what is it?

Speaker 5 (22:31):
Like?

Speaker 11 (22:31):
What would the timeline be from like killing a deer
and skinning it and to turning that into what you're
doing there, so you.

Speaker 7 (22:42):
Could put it like if you were to skin it
and immediately tan it or okay, so you'd skin it,
and you want to make sure you skin it close
so you don't have to skin it twice. But if
youve flesh that on there, you know, we can always
flesh it. I would say about two weeks.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Okay, okay, so you'll get us set up, like we'll
we'll save deer high whoever wants to save a deer
hide and and uh, we'll kind of instruct them on
what they want to you know, so everything's ready, we'll
get set up. You'll come down, introduce the process, make
sure everything's going good, and then we can kind of
carry on once we get started. In your abs.

Speaker 7 (23:20):
Yeah, you took it in the line and that takes
you know, like three days, or it could you could
sell it for a week. So that's like you do
this and then you wait and then you put it
in the next solution and wait. So there's a lot
of time there where we can work or you.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
Can sew heather if you wanted to do it hair on.
Do you just skip the line process or is it
is it you have to do it totally different.

Speaker 7 (23:45):
It's a little different with seals. Yeah, you skip that
bucking process.

Speaker 5 (23:51):
Gotcha, put it right in?

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, No, man, I want the I want buckskin. You know,
Heather miled Man's saved up a bunch of his deer
skins and he had this super nineteen seventies buckskin jacket.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
You never the seventies they'd put the belts on everything
and everything. Yeah, but he had it dyed black and
it was all of his own deer skins. And I
don't know what the hell happened to that thing, Like
someone horked it when he died. Like we had a
lot of different family members kind of running off of stuff.
I mean, you know they're right, yeah, but someone horked
that jacket.

Speaker 11 (24:23):
Did you guys have Like during deer season, people would
put out like fifty five gallon drums just like out
in the country in spots and there'd be a sign
there said dump your deer hide in here.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
No. But when our fur auction was Ravana fur auction,
and when you went to fur auction that everything was
bid on, like I would take this like this odd
would go up on the auction table, right and you
might you might have your you might have let's say
it was odters. You haven't divided large, medium, small, male, female,

(24:58):
and every one of those things is a lot, and
they all get bid on individually. So if your trapper
divides his muskrats into four piles, every pile gets bid on,
every trapper's every pile gets bit on. The way they
would handle deer skins is the first deer skin that
came across the table, they'd bid on that deer skin,
and then that buyer entered into a contract and he

(25:20):
bought every deer skin at that price, and it was
usually like four or five six.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Bucks, and he that's all going to a tannery to
get turned.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Into the buckskin, and guys would be out in the
parking lot cutting them in half and stuff, you know,
to roll it up and sell it as too. But
it was real common to sell them. But see, like
I don't think the price has changed. So in the
mid eighties it was five bucks. Now I think it's
five bucks now, and now that's like a buck. And

(25:49):
I think that people just don't it's just there's not
money in it. That leather mostly goes to gloves. So
I would dude, I would love to learn how to
make my own. I've just been too lazy to do it.

Speaker 7 (26:02):
During the winter, I work on like I try to
make new patterns and try new things. I made a
sealskin coat which I have here.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, put that coat on real quick. I want to
see that. Then we got a Then we got a
question for you, a fan question. See that bad ass man?
Put that thing on? Oh you trimmed it in too.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
That's like some natural camouflage there.

Speaker 7 (26:21):
That's why I tell you snow camel a fully removable
washable liner. What weighs eight pounds and so.

Speaker 5 (26:31):
It's like a weighted blanket.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Now that is amazing. Though, have you been running around that?

Speaker 7 (26:38):
Oh? I wear it just in the house. I can't.
I just love this thing.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Could you? Would you be allowed to sell that jacket?
Would that be? Would that fit the definition of made
into something? Yes? Boy, I can't even hear. What would
you have to get for that jacket?

Speaker 7 (26:55):
Oh? I don't even know. I don't think you could
put a value on things like this. I mean this
is a custom like pattern. I made the pattern from
a coat that I really liked and saved. And yeah,
I do have I have one other new pattern. I'm
gonna show you. Somebody wrote in and it has a question.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, we're gonna hit with that question.

Speaker 7 (27:18):
But this other this is super special. So I've never
done this before. But do you guys know what this is?

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah? No, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say electric blanket,
but then I was like, that's a very small like it.

Speaker 7 (27:35):
When you when you get old, everything hurts. So for
Steve's birthday, I am making a custom for cover for
this pad. Yeah, to help with all of those aches
and pains and midlife crises.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
That's a novel product. Yeah, I'm gonna plug it in
and get a long extension cord.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
Take that.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Okay, here's a question from a fan.

Speaker 7 (28:12):
This is a help with the traditional words.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Okay, you want you want to do the question. I
was going to read your question, but.

Speaker 7 (28:21):
This there's some fling get in there.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
So I thought, oh, then you do it. Go ahead, Okay,
I'll do it. Then you do it. So Heather was asked,
how far are you typically shooting when sea otter hunting.
I'm kickside.

Speaker 7 (28:42):
Uh it's Kiksadi. That's the clan he belongs to, which
is Raven.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Okay, I'm Kiksadi. Out of Sitka and hoping to harvest
my first sea otter this weekend, weather permitting, that's cool,
And any other tips they ask.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Then it says, oh, yeah, Heather, I didn't I didn't
give that last part to Steve. Yeah, that's my fault.

Speaker 7 (29:11):
Okay. Goodness cheese to you and the meat eater crew.
Goodness cheese means thank you. And this is from Naje
that's his traditional name.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
That's great ling.

Speaker 7 (29:22):
It from Sitka Raven, which is my opposite. I'm Ego clan.
So how far are you okay? So typically you're shooting
from the boat and I would say within one hundred
yards up. Sometimes you can get off on a rock
and shoot and you know, get a rest and aim farther,

(29:43):
but that really rarely happens. Any other tips, I would
say it helps to have a good driver who of
course they have to be eligible to participate by the
Marine man Action Act guidelines. But well it's not guidelines,

(30:04):
it's the law. But I would say when you're approaching
sea otter, make sure you go with the swell or
the chop instead of against it. That way you're getting
a smoother approach. And it helps to have a really
light like a hair trigger, real light trigger and just

(30:25):
takes a lot of practice and miss a lot. And
we shoot everything that we harvest. So whether it's a
sea otter, CEO d or we shoot, we try to
shoot everything in the head so it doesn't suffer. And
that way we ensure that the pelt isn't damaged and
the meat is not damaged.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
So what what uh cartridge are you shooting them with? Heather?

Speaker 7 (30:50):
I started out shooting with a two two and now
last year I got a AR so the two two
three one.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
A think I know about how they're shooting. And she
explained it to me as well. Is she's not kind
of hard to describe. Maybe you can help me when
I bring this up. She's not fighting the movement. She's
not fighting the movement of the boat.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
Like using the movement.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, she's like she's saying that you have this tendency
to kind of want to like somehow rule out the
movement in the boat or overcome it. But she's she's giving,
she's like jibing with the movement, you know, time in it.

Speaker 7 (31:28):
Yeah, like having a good driver. My dad knows how
to hunt, so he knows how to put you on
the sea otter. But but you want to shoot before
they dive under. So they're kind of laying there eating
and then they when you approach them, they sometimes they
go see what's coming at him. You want to get
a shot off right then. So you want to be

(31:49):
ready because when they start to dive, it turns into this.
It reminds you of those games at the arcade where
you like.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
Are sack them.

Speaker 7 (31:56):
Holes are popping up and you just don't know yep,
and it becomes more difficult. But yeah, so the boat
is moving with the swell. They're moving in a distance
at a different rate, so I kind of go on
my tippy toes and bend my knees and you want
to like move with the swell. And you're not going
to get a steady aim and get those cross hairs

(32:19):
on them for very long. So you just want to
shoot right when your cross hairs past their head. And yes,
it just takes practice.

Speaker 11 (32:27):
And is there any danger of those otters sink in
like a seal mite or do they just stay afloat after.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
You kill them?

Speaker 7 (32:36):
My first sea otter ever got sunk, but they rarely sink.
You want to shoot them in the head and their
fur is so yeah dense, and it traps that air,
you know, in the undercoat. They'll float. But occasionally if
you shoot a little low and they dive, they might
try to take a breath and breathing water and then sink,

(32:59):
but that doesn't happen very often. And I would you
need to skin them right away because of the for
density they hold onto their heat even if it's zero
degrees out, they'll stay warm for a really long time
and the belly will get green and they'll spoil. So
skin them right away. And yeah, make sure you take

(33:21):
good care of the materials that you get.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Right away, Heather. You mean like you you're skinning them
on the boat, like as soon as they come in.

Speaker 7 (33:30):
Either on the boat if if you can, but usually
you're cruising trying to hunt and get as many as
you can. And as soon as I get home, I
skin them on a tailgate which is the perfect height.
And we don't hang them when we skin them. I
just roll them, you know, on my tailgate and that
seems to work best for me.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Good Daln cool. Well, thanks for joining, Heather.

Speaker 7 (33:54):
Yeah, thank you. Happy birthday, Steve.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Thank you very much. We'll talk to you again soon.
It's great to have you on and I look forward
to talking to you next time too. All right, Phil
listener feedback, You got it, buddy.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Yeah, we've got a few. I just reminded everyone gets
some questions in. If you want, we're gonna do another
one of these at the very end of the show,
or I might be able to catch them right now.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Be fast.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
First, one, let's see, this is about hunting history Steve.
Episode two. Someone's asking Grant is asking have they not
used any light ar technology on those glaciers? Seems like
you might find some fun stuff.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
That's one thing no one brought up to me. Okay, yeah, right,
I'm trying to even think if boy, I don't you know,
I've been with people using light art. I don't even
know how, you know, I altoly don't know how that
technology works up against all that that all that ice,
and like, yeah, a glacier's got a lot of air

(34:49):
in it. Yeah, I have no way. I'm already over
my waiters. I have no idea. I had no one
mentioned that to me, though, I can tell you that.

Speaker 5 (34:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Colin asks, well, I guess she first, he says, Steve,
I lost an inch of my pinky in a framing accident,
pitched it, pinched it in a lift. He's torn between
turning it into a fishing floor or sending it to
us to put in the Werner Bratsler machine.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Oh that's a great idea. If you send it over,
if it's nice and frozen, I'd like to eat it,
because I'm trying to find a way to be like
a subject matter expert on cannibalism without killing anybody.

Speaker 11 (35:19):
I tried to explain my kids the other day that
cannibals they would call human meat long pork, and there
they weren't buying it.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
No, I've heard that. Yeah, yeah, I'd like a little
long pork. How much you got? Is it meaty? If not,
I would put it into a I would. I would
if I had that happened to me, I would put
it into a little jar of and then people to
come over and display it, and I'd be like, I
guess what that is?

Speaker 11 (35:46):
Turn that that pinky bone into a little pendant for
a necklace.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, that's what my boy's collar is. Little surgery stuff
they removed. I made a necklace.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
Oh, you put it in a POxy.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
That's next question.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Andreas asks he if if you see well, he specifically
asked you, Steve, when you use fur as a wallhanger,
do you leave it dried or do you get it
tanned before hanging it?

Speaker 7 (36:08):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (36:08):
No, no, no, no no, I get it tanned. I get
it tanned. What I'm holding right here is flesh stretched,
fleshed and stretched. And this lasts a long time. I
can't get my angle right where you can appreciate the immensity.
But no, you'll get it. And also this is leather out,
so when you tan, it'll flip. And then I use

(36:30):
those as wallhangers.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Jove and figuoa. I guess asks first, he says, happy birthday, Steve.
A question for everyone at the table. Has anyone ever
had any awkward situations dragging deer through permitted public hunting
areas like parks or conservancies?

Speaker 2 (36:46):
No, but I'm sensitive to it.

Speaker 4 (36:49):
I don't think, well, I mean awkward for who is
the question? I guess it's not awkward for me. But yeah,
I've carried some.

Speaker 11 (36:56):
Mule deer bucks down an escalator at a ski resort
one time. That was pretty interesting.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I know what you're talking about, and I have
tended to I actually had this discussion with a friend
of mine once where it wasn't a dear. We were
carrying something up to a public parking lot mm hm,
and I was wanting to hide it. He's like, nothing
to be ashamed of. I'm like, I'm not ashamed. I
just like it's not like a matter of shame. I'm
just I like to be low pro Yeah, Like I

(37:26):
just don't. It's just I just prefer to be low
profile about it. It's like it's like zero shame. I
would just be like, why if it's a place I
like to hang out, why even draw like a little
bit of a or get someone pissed off or create
some headache or someone calling, even if you didn't do
anything wrong. The fact that they're going to call the cops.

Speaker 11 (37:49):
I know that it's wrong and then you're gonna have
to explain your even though you didn't do anything.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
So I usually just go like low profile in any
kind of situation like that, Like even at a public
if there's if you're parking a dark hunting at a
spot and other people are using the same parking lot,
I don't come out just like you know, throwing ducks
all over place. I'll throw them around later, but I
just kind of go, like just slip out of here,
make a scene.

Speaker 5 (38:12):
I used to hunt a bunch in New Jersey back
in the day, and it was often like real small
woodlots and you would always have to like be real
careful about shot placement because you didn't want to like
get the run over and die in the neighbor's yard,
like especially if there's snow on the ground.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (38:30):
I just heard some horror stories like deer dying in
swimming pools, and oh, like yeah, it was you know,
it was something you kind of had to watch out
for when you're hunting.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
No small parcels reducing tensions.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, next question, Kentucky Thunder Outdoors says happy birthday. If
you had to choose, would you wear a cowboy hat
for a month or eat vegan for a year.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
I'd go cowboy hat.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
Yeah, Kentucky Thunder, I like that. I like that name.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
That is a good name.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
Man. I got a big strut and gobbler.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
I know, if I was going turkey hunting with a
dude named Kentucky Thunder Outdoors, I'd be like, we're gonna get.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
Something, and you'd be wearing a hat cowboy hat.

Speaker 5 (39:12):
We'll do one more for this round.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Jeremy from Australia says, asks if you've have you ever
had any any encounters when predators harassed attacked your pack
animals when you were hunting.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
I have certainly heard of them. I have had, but
I have witnessed personally only the opposite where elk would
take a great interest and uh take a great interest
in livestock at a couple occasions. But no, I've definitely
heard of that. I've never seen it, but I don't

(39:44):
holpe with livestock a lot. I'm not like I'm the
last guy I would ask a livestock question too.

Speaker 11 (39:50):
Yes, No, I mean I've had my dog run into
a bear a couple of times, but no livestock issues.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
You're all going to give you a different piece of
advice if you we're gonna ask livestock questions. I've learned it.
You can only ask a livestock question. This is gonna
sound like this is gonna annoy people. You can only
ask a livestock question as someone that was raised around livestock. Yeah,
Like it's not one of those things you can come
into late in life. Right, there's just too much subtlety

(40:18):
to it, you know, like guys that really know about horses, Like,
you see a horse, it looks like a horse to me,
and people will be like, oh, no, he like is
having whatever problem or he's you know what I mean.
They just they can just sense it.

Speaker 5 (40:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (40:30):
I feel like I looked at a horse that maybe
had like one little lameness in its leg. I wouldn't
see anything, but that guy would be like, you can't
ride that one.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yeah, they'll know, Like they'll be able to tell you
about its parents and stuff. You can't get that. No,
it's amazing people that grew up around it.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
You know.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
It's just one of those things you gotta absorb. So yeah,
i'd go find I wouldn't talk to me about it,
but no, I'd be able to tell you if something
showed up in a bear ate something that's never happened,
but it happens. I think, just to be a little
more helpful, I've more I guess even what I'm saying,
I've heard more about stuff coming for the feed mmm,
like bears getting tuned into the to the to the

(41:09):
supplement the grain and stuff for the horse.

Speaker 11 (41:11):
I think a bigger danger than predators killing your livestock
is livestock killing you if you're using horses or mules,
you know, yeah, doing things.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah yeah, if I had a pistol with me, that's
what my pistol before shooting the horse, trying to defend
myself from the.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
Yeah, yeah, I've seen some horse wrecks.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
All right, Uh, throw back Thursday. This is gonna take
require ten minutes, from eleven thirty five to eleven forty five.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
What time is it film?

Speaker 2 (41:38):
It's eleven forty one. We're already screwed.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
It's over, So back on a Thursday, mon, Stephen Brody,
take me back to nineteen six.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
This is my favorite one of his songs. And I
mentioned Stephen Brody world Ship.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
It's fitting because you're one year older today.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
He's past the point where birthdays matter.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Though, Oh dude, it really doesn't matter, you know, it
really doesn't matter. My kids today were it's so funny.
My little boy, my older boy, and he's in wood
shop and he'd made a honey dipper. You know what
do you call honey?

Speaker 4 (42:21):
Yeah, the little thing with the roofs in it.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
But the kid who was responsible for staying in them
all put like a lead based stain or something. So
my boy's like he gives it to me. He's like,
you can't really though, it's more like just for show,
because he says, because it's got like actual stain on it. Oh,
look at that.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
You can get them.

Speaker 11 (42:46):
You can eat while we're doing our little throwback.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah, and put my ring onto.

Speaker 11 (42:52):
This.

Speaker 5 (42:52):
Shouldn't take one of our shorter throwbacks.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Phil's kind of undersounding the shore back throwback segment, not
real interested in it.

Speaker 5 (42:58):
Oh no, it's a good one.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
It's just not as jam packed as other ones because
Steve's not participating. Seth, we love you go first here.

Speaker 5 (43:07):
Yeah, this photo here, I just had to go through
my cell phone real quick to see what I had
on there because it was, you know, a late notice
since Randall ditched us here.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
But uh, that's a giant beaver.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
This was I think the first time we went trapping together.
We filmed that little thing for YouTube, and yeah, we
caught a few nice beavers, but this was the biggest one.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
I could tell it's a long time ago because I
don't have a blue shirt like that.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
Yeah. I think it was twenty one, maybe twenty That
might have been twenty God, I was probably twenty.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
And then we've got this video seth and then yeah,
this is just a video from the fish shack. This
was an old rusted double barrel that Steve has up there.
We're curious if it's still shot or blow up.

Speaker 5 (43:59):
So you had that helmet on.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
I don't even remember this.

Speaker 11 (44:10):
It's hard to keep guns working up there. Uh.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
At the end here he says, I'm gonna hang it
up and let it rust some more.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Hang that back home, let it russ some more.

Speaker 5 (44:35):
Yeah, good times. Let's see that's pretty.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
Oh yeah, show the other one first, philm.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Oh, sorry about that.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
There's an order to this.

Speaker 5 (44:43):
Look like.

Speaker 11 (44:45):
This is uh, this is Steve and I's first hunt
together that we did for meat eater, and uh, I
found him this box. We were hiking in in the
morning in the dark, I remember, and it was real
hot for November m hm. And we're hiking in and
after like I don't know, fifteen twenty minutes maybe a
mile of hike, and Steve, Steve's.

Speaker 5 (45:06):
Like, brody, brody, what are we doing? Where are we going?

Speaker 11 (45:09):
Like he's getting real irritated because I think he was
swall sweated up.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
That's not why.

Speaker 11 (45:18):
But then we got to the glass and spot and
he's like, oh, I like this spot. Then we found
that about a few minutes later, and later that day
Steve killed him and then uh yeah, then I killed
that little dinker later later or not.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
But you can see we're wearing some vintage first light though.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Oh yeah, I look like chaster. That deer's got a
bad hole in it. Walking away from that situation.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
Nope, nope, So yeah, there we go. Cool.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
God, you were young, Brody, Well, so are you good?

Speaker 5 (45:53):
Lord? How this was this?

Speaker 4 (45:56):
Probably not? I think it's at least nine years ago,
maybe ten years ago.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
So what happens to a man age is like a
disease old age. It's like a disease.

Speaker 11 (46:09):
But I feel like I'm I don't know, I'm hiking
around just as good now as I was back then.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
Yeah, I was reading about last night. I'm reading this
book that my friend Ben has coming out called The
Mysterious Mister Knockamoto. It's about the inventor of blockchain and bitcoin.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Anyways, dudes in that world are big into I had
no idea what dudes that are big into that world,
Like they were big into early Internet and and then
up into the twenty ten, two thousand and nine, big
into cryptography and stuff. They also happened like that mindset.
They're also big into cryogenics, where they're like getting there.

(46:50):
They get a lot of these dudes as they're dying,
they're getting their brains frozen or their whole body's frozen,
and they just feel it's like healthcare, right because some
day they're going to get rebooted. But if you really
had faith in that ship, if you really had faith,
you'd go in right now, right not gonna happen, come

(47:13):
back later when you're kicking ass. Because if you're going in,
if you're going in an old dead guy and they
bring you back, you still got a problem.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
But if you, if you really believed, go now.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (47:31):
I don't know, Like I don't mind being my age,
Like I feel like hunting and hiking. I'm better than
I was back then, because you know, you got the
mentality to just go to.

Speaker 5 (47:41):
I gotta say, ever since I started hunting with you,
I don't know, it's I don't know, it's like any
sort of slow down. No, No, you're just charging charging
a head.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yeah. See, for me, what's happening is I've always been
too skinny, but when you get old, it winds up
being you're glad you were too skinny.

Speaker 5 (47:58):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like, I don't care
around extra weight.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Yeah, you used to be weak. Now you're just not old.
Do you know what I'm saying? Why is it working out? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (48:09):
Yeah? All right?

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Where are we at? What happens next? Well?

Speaker 3 (48:12):
I was actually told to supply a throwback Thursday picture Steve,
and you know, I was thinking about all just an
endless trove of memories that we have together, Steve. And
the one that I pulled out was this teaky bar
that's right in Nashville, when I was trying to go
to this tiki bar by myself because I was ashamed,
and then you, Katie cal and Rourke Denver all.

Speaker 11 (48:33):
Joined and it looks like you're there with Vince Bond man.
He's got a Vince Bond thing going.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
It's kind of a crappy equality picture, but yeah, that
was That was February twenty twenty, a month before everything
shut down.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
No, that was before I quit drinking. Yeah anyway, yeah, yeah,
fun times. You Fielm making out.

Speaker 7 (48:57):
All right.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Where are we at. Oh, we've got Randy coming in. No,
I'm excited about this man. This is a good story.
Next up on the phone, we have Fisheries Division chief
for Michigan's Department of Natural Resources, Randy. I'm gonna go
out on a limb. Well, we'll ask him what the
hell's last name is Clairemont? Hello Randy, thanks for being
here and welcome to the show. What's going on? I

(49:19):
hit you with your last name? I want to make
sure I got it right.

Speaker 10 (49:21):
Yeah you did. You did great? See if it's Clairemont.
And happy birthday by the way.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Thank you, buddy. A bunch of questions. Yeah, when telling
you how to how to do this in good order?
When did Michigan lose? Like what was the last grayling?

Speaker 10 (49:39):
You know, it's funny you say that because the last
grayling was actually in the Upper Peninsula in nineteen thirty two.
Is so there's there's you know, you go back to
the historic record. There's some debate about that, but the
distribution in the Upper Peninsula was actually pretty small. It
was not as big as the northern and lower And

(50:01):
I understand you're familiar a little bit with the Muskegon
area of Michigan. Yes, an article from Ben East. This
article is published in a journal Outdoor Life, in May
of nineteen thirty. You mean the East, Yeah, the Ben East.
And he's trying to figure out if they're still grailing
around Michigan or if they've been extirpated. In particular, he

(50:25):
talks to an angler that's been fishing for grailing for
years in the Muskegan area and he.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
Cites some of this article. No way, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 10 (50:35):
The angler was Initials E. Smagoon of Muskegan, Michigan. I'm
bringing the nineteen thirty article right now. And he said,
I fish for grailing. I would in the early eighteen eighties.
I catch one after another in Carlton, San Cleveland and
Silver Creeks and empty into the White River.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
And you gotta be kidding me.

Speaker 5 (50:56):
Really, that's cool.

Speaker 10 (50:58):
They probably familiar of those streams.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (51:01):
In any case, he said he was very concerned about
the the grayling being extirpated because he only caught one
the previous year and none that year, and that was
nineteen thirty.

Speaker 11 (51:13):
Well, what did man, what what did him in?

Speaker 5 (51:18):
Randy?

Speaker 4 (51:18):
Like, why did they disappear?

Speaker 10 (51:21):
Yeah? Yeah, it's you know well understood that in Michigan streams,
you know, we have sandy soils, relatively low gradient compared
to mountain streams, you know, but the deforestation, just clearing
all the vegetation, it allowed those streams to warm up
and then all the sediment organic sediment, not the not

(51:42):
the sand and the you know, when you have sandy
soils with a lot of vegetation, the water will seep
through the ground quickly and then flow groundwater in the streams.
So you've got cover that keeps them cold and cold
water groundwater. When you take all the vegetation off and DeForests,
what happened in Michigan and a lot of other into
western states, that water just becomes surface water runs right

(52:04):
into the streams, and that that pretty much decimated grailing.
In addition to we didn't have a department natural Resources,
didn't have any kind of protections. So unregulated fishing and
graling are super fun fish to catch. They're they're really enjoyable,
a little bit easier to catch the summer trout species,

(52:26):
so they were easy to fish for.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Hey what uh, where were you able to find to
do a reintroduction? Where are you able to find grailing
that seems like it's you know, it seems like it'd
be like the right grailing right or the closest to
the right grailing.

Speaker 10 (52:46):
Yep. Well, so, you know, we looked at the lower
forty eight and trying to determine if any populations existed
that could serve as a source population for Michigan. The
only population that we are aware of is the Big
Hole River of Montana, and actually Montana's rebuiltation program. You know,

(53:08):
we're mirroring a lot of things that Montana has been doing,
but that population isn't at the level where it could
serve as a gam meat source. So we end up
going to the Chino River in Alaska for the gam
meat source. And really, you know a lot of people say,
you know, with with warming of streams and things like that,

(53:29):
is this the right time? But what we find these
populations is that they're high highly migratory in their native range.
So they're going to find the cold groundwater and they're
going to go where they need to go. We expect that,
and it's part of the reason we selected the China River.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Stock How many, how many and where are you going
to try are you going to try to cut them loose.

Speaker 10 (53:52):
Yeah, So you know, we went through a stream candidate
selection process where basically we wanted stakeholders partners in this
to nominate rivers that they felt grailing reintroduction should should occur.
We then went and looked at the habitat suitability in

(54:13):
those rivers. We did a lot of work before we
ever went to Alaska to get the eggs. And by
the way, shout out to Alaska. You know those staff
up there did a phenomenal job and really helped Michigan
out a lot. So we went through the habitat suitability,
and that habitat suitability, we want to make sure that
you know that all the things that led to the
demise have been addressed, as well as competition with other

(54:34):
introduced trout and salmon species, and we have very strong
partnership with you know, nonprofits, angling groups, tribal governments, you
name it. And that really accommodation of those factors led
to a selection of three streams, the upper and oftentimes

(54:54):
the grailing you're talking about the upper part of the watershed.
These are the headwaters of the streams had waters of
the Little Masstea River, headwaters of the Boordman River near
Traverse City. Yeah, the Maple River and in all three
and you know these are really northern lower northwestern lower.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Man, that is so cool. Man. What do you think? Uh,
how confident are you in success and what success look
like for you? I mean are you does success look
like a breeding population or what is it?

Speaker 4 (55:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (55:30):
You know, I think if we saw grayling reproducing successfully
within their historic range, you know, that'd be a great
technical definition of hey, we've reached success. Right to me,
it's more than that, because you know, I would get
questions a lot over the years. I've been working in

(55:51):
fisheries for over twenty five years, originally from Michigan, is
why are we going to bring back grayling? We have
a town, you city, Grailing, named after the fish that
we no longer have, So you know this means a
lot and and and trying to make a commitment. You know,
we're not going to be successful in day one, nor

(56:12):
have we tried Have we been successful? This has been
tried half a dozen times. Really, and really the Montana
model where you're putting the eggs right into the streams
and again addressing some of the other things about partnership
and habitat suitability. Those are all important factors to why

(56:34):
we think we can be successful now in the rebuiltation.
But like anything else, what it really boils down to
is are we committed to doing this? Do we are?
We committed to bringing grailing back to Michigan?

Speaker 7 (56:46):
We are?

Speaker 2 (56:48):
So what happens? What's going to happen when down the road,
a dude's out fishing brookies or whatever steelhead and he
hooks the grailing. Presumably you're not going to close down
stream sections. You're not gonna you're not gonna like remove

(57:08):
fishing from these stream sections. So it'll have to be
that people know they're there when they get one, to
be careful turn it back because because it's not it's
going to be a while. So there's like a harvestable number.
I mean, that's like a really best case scenario, right, Yeah.

Speaker 10 (57:22):
Absolutely. We already removed the regulations prohibiting targeted fishing, so
if you catch a grailing, you can take a picture
of it immediate release. We've had a you know a
lot of interest, and so I expect anglers, you know,
they're really going to seek out these opportunities. We're still
a couple of years down the road. But myself included.

(57:44):
I've I've caught grayling in Alaska. I really really am
hoping that during my tenure I can catch a wild
graling in Michigan and staff that picture and release that fish.
And right now regulations allow for that, so we're just
hoping hoping that the fish will cooperate.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Man, that's amazing. I would make that trip back there
to see that happen to do that. You Know, there's
a thing I've really appreciated about. I haven't lived in
Michigan for forever. I left in the late nineties mid nineties.
But the thing I've appreciated about just the Great Lakes
angling community in general and fisheries management there in general,

(58:23):
is going back and really the work people are doing
to really put an emphasis on those native fish, you know,
like the way I've seen anglers come to have a
much greater appreciation for lake trout, for instance, the enthusiasm around,
the enthusiasm around getting sturgeon back in the rivers, people

(58:48):
treating whitefish with a lot of respect, work to bring
Arctic grailing back, Like, I love seeing that stuff, man,
where people are kind of having that ecological awareness of
where they live, of kind of getting curious about what
this place used to look like, what went wrong? Why
does it look like it does now? What are the
implications of invasive you know, aquatic invasive species, and how

(59:11):
do we start turning back the clock and bringing back
somebod these really cool, unique fish to that area. I
know you guys do work in that space, and people
in the conservation movement do work in that space. I
think it's phenomenal, man. I'd love to see it.

Speaker 10 (59:25):
Yeah, I appreciate it. And just just because you say
you have, you know, really seen it since the nineties,
I'll tell you we just recently. Now it's kind of
lake superior. Lake trout populations fully restored. But if you
did eat lake trout, you know, back in the eighties
and nineties, a lot of people didn't think that they
had a lot of table fare. Put it that way.

(59:46):
The lake drout today are some of the best tasting
Great Lakes fish out there. And there's a lot of
reason for it, much as to do with the health
of the Great Lakes, the diverse die items. But I
tell you, if you can get an episode where you
have some flay a lake trout caught out of the
Great lakes. Now that that meat is just bright orange

(01:00:07):
and fabulous, absolutely incredible. So yeah, attachment to the native
species increase angling opportunity. But the end goal is that
people can use at it and we hear more and
more about you know, fish as food by recreational anglers,
you know, across the state.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
Sure man, Yeah, keep up with the good work. I
love seeing it and I love hearing stories about those
native fish come back. Like, it's a really unique environment,
all that whole Great Lakes system. And you know, if
we if we let our guard down, we're gonna wind up.
We're more and more and more. No matter where you
go in the world, where you are, you go in
the country, you're gonna see these kind of same things.

(01:00:47):
And to have that all that biodiversity and like these
unique fish from these unique places just makes it so
much more exciting to travel around. So I mean, I
wish you guys the best of luck on that project.
I think it's super cool, excellent.

Speaker 10 (01:00:59):
Yeah, thanks again for the opportunity, and I really appreciate
the attension of grailing and hopefully we can achieve what
we're set out to do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
So send me a couple of las.

Speaker 10 (01:01:10):
Yeah, this spring is our first big introd.

Speaker 5 (01:01:15):
Oh excellent, alright, good luck dude, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
Thank you, all right, Phil, about to the end of
the show. But what about that? What about that listener feedback?

Speaker 5 (01:01:25):
Buddy, No, let's hit it. Kyle.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
Here's kind of a heavy one. What does the crew
think about Indiana introducing a bill to legalize the sale
of venison and another one to legalize the release of
c w D resistant farm deer into the wild.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
I don't like either of them.

Speaker 11 (01:01:40):
I didn't know about the Indiana thing, but not a
good idea. Neither is like we already we've talked about
the releasing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
It's it's pissing in the wind. Yeah, I don't think
like I think it sounds like a great idea, But
when you look in like actual like genetic transfer, genetic
transfer that you're somehow going to like overcome like the
native genome and overwhelm it and actually like create a

(01:02:10):
strain of it, and I think it's pissing in the wind.
And I definitely don't like the idea this. People keep
wanting to go down this path of commodifying deer meat
and selling deer meat. Listen, if you think right now,
if you think right now, it's getting harder and harder
and harder to find hunting spots because of because of

(01:02:30):
the takeoff of like leasing for deer, like farms where
there used to be like ten twelve people hunting the farm,
now two guys hunt the farm because they lease it.
You think that you're seeing a reduction and acreage available
to you to come hunt. Wait till a person looks
and each of these deer is worth two three hundred bucks, right,
come on.

Speaker 11 (01:02:50):
I don't like it that, Like, I mean, he's parents
selling deer meat with CWD, and it's like, how are
you ever gonna sell deer meat when you know what
I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Yeah, I know you'll be like you're gonna kill all
these deer to sell. Someone's gonna check them for c W.
It's just it's it's it's like people looking at complicated
problems and thinking they got these little solutions for him.
I think it's I think it's stupid. I mean, I
don't even be so blunt. No, I don't want to
say it stupid.

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
I don't don't.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Yeah, I definite don't want to say it stupid because
that sounds like not being productive. Ain't a good idea.
How's that ain't good idea?

Speaker 9 (01:03:28):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
Do you guys have favorite favorite mounts or skins you
have in your houses, respectively?

Speaker 11 (01:03:34):
I haven't got my favorite still sitting at the taxidermist
or that whoever's beetling it right?

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
What are you missing? That?

Speaker 7 (01:03:40):
Move?

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
Oh your moose? Yeah, yeah, that'll be good.

Speaker 5 (01:03:44):
I got a couple of hides. I like a bunch,
one being a red fox that uh Steve and I
trapped last year. And I also have another red fox
from from Pennsylvania that's beautiful. And uh, skull mounts. I
like the COO's dear. I just like how tiny their
little skulls. Yeah, easy to move. They just look cool.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
So all right, Well.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
It's a tough one. But if you don't know it,
maybe you could direct this person to someone who does.
Is there a way to rehabilitate house fire, smoke damage,
tanned furs?

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
I would call you know what I would do. Call
He's gonna hate me for saying this, Call John Hayes
Taxi because I I've had questions like this for John, Like,
I'll give you a piece of feedback. John, give me
one time I had a very old I have a
really old bear hide, like a really really old bear
hide that never took good care of. And uh, I

(01:04:46):
was like wanting to know it's I kind of kept
it outside over the outdoor furniture under our patio, protected
but outside, and it just got greasy and nasty. And
I was like, man, I like like shampoo this thing,
you know. And he said, take a little wet a
little patch down, Just take a corner and wet it down.
And he says, if you wet that down, try to

(01:05:07):
tear it with your hand. When you get it wet.
If you can tear that thing with your hand, don't
do it. I got that corner wet and sure enough, man,
you could just rip it like like wet paper. So
he's got little tips like that. Another thing I had.
Another thing John Hayes did for me is I had
a bad kind of a really long story. I got

(01:05:28):
a mountain goat and I wanted it. I got it
rugged out. Oh it's hanging right there. When I got
that rug back, the hair was all slipping. Not my fault,
the hair was all slipping. So it's a long story
that the people involved are not even live anymore. The
person ball was not even live anymore. The hair was slipping.
John Hayes took that rug apart and put an adhesive.

(01:05:50):
Oh really yeah, he spread an adhesive on the backside.
You couldn't get that hair out if he wanted to.

Speaker 5 (01:05:56):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
So John Hayes Hayes tax in every studio to tell
you what to do. He's got all kinds of little
tricks because when you've been in the business that line,
people bring you more screwed up stuff, you know. I mean,
all you do is deal with people's mistakes.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
Oh, this, this is This will be an easy one
to answer because we've had someone on the podcast. But
just so you can remind this person, Phil is asking
for an episode on hearing loss. I think we've done
a few with Grace from Otopro.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Yep, yeah, just go back and findalals. I wish we
could think of the number, but we've done two. We've
done two with an audiologists about why that's happening to you?
Why when you're laying in bed at night you're listening
to We keeps Your waken.

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Uh, Brody, I'm gonna direct this one at you because
maybe you've seen this show, but a lot of people
have been asking if we've watched American primeval on that
you know, I did watch, and.

Speaker 11 (01:06:55):
There's like some cool historical accuracies in it, but it's
also you know Hollywood, like I don't want to give
it away to you know, people that haven't seen it,
but there's a really stupid scene with wolves attack and
like busting through a cabin and trying to attack people,
like shit, that would never happen. Yeah, but like the
Jim Bridger stuff where he was running the fort, that's

(01:07:17):
all and is running with h Brigham Young like.

Speaker 4 (01:07:21):
That's that stuff all happened. It was a cool show.

Speaker 5 (01:07:25):
I thought it was good. Cool.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
I think you gave an update on this, Steve for
an episode that maybe hasn't aired yet or it was
Trivia or something, but someone's Dakota's asking for a punt
gun update because I know you've made some We made
some strides in that department.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
From Dakota punts. We're getting very close to shooting it.
We just last week. We're out, but we're working on
a kind of a way to you can't mount it, Ridgid,
you got it's got to move, so we're working on
a mount But yeah, we would have shot it, but
We're just having a real streak of bad weather right now.
It's just not fun time to be out blowing your

(01:07:59):
hand off trying to shoot your punk gun.

Speaker 5 (01:08:01):
Twenty nine below this morning. Yeah, it will warm up.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
Well, we will do one more. And this is kind
of like a very this is a very broad generic question.
But hey, it's your birthday, Steve, so I'm gonna put
you on the spot in your fifty one years is
from Tyler? What is Do you have a favorite hunting memory?

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
No, all right, thanks Tyler, do it for Today's.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
Just the whole package of it. I like a lot.
I can't. I have to think about that for a
long time. Yeah, it's a tough question. One you talk
about a lot with a lot of enthusiasm. Is the
youth your season hunt? Oh well yeah, that's what I'm saying,
Like I would say that, but that's pretty recent. Yeah, yeah,
I like going, I like hunting. I like hunting. Taking

(01:08:46):
the kid's youth to your hunting, but then taking any
kinds you know, younger people can't picture because I wouldn't
have pictured when I was younger. You just can't, like,
I might as well not even say it because you
just can't picture it when you get older, if you
have kids, and you should, It's just I can't explain
it. It just wants to being so much more fun to

(01:09:07):
do stuff with them.

Speaker 11 (01:09:08):
Like when I think about me getting my first buck
versus my kid getting it's.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
Like, yeah, no comparison.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Yeah, I would rather hunt one day with my kids
than like three days without them. It's just more fun. Man.
You know, I just like it. But I wouldn't expect
anybody to understand that. But like I said, I recommend
having kids. If you can, have kids, gives you a
good sense of I don't man, gives you good sense
of purpose.

Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
Cool.

Speaker 3 (01:09:34):
Well, I've got one more thing to read before the
end of the show about a a call to action
for our listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
Oh scroll now, I gotta get the hang of this
hosting folks before we go. We're in need of some
fresh hot tip offs. Man. I could make a hot
tip off every damn day.

Speaker 3 (01:09:59):
Well, we could use but this is and that's one
of the reasons why we're reaching out to the people.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
I got one for you right now. Okay, let's hear it.
When you cook deer meat and you got left over
deer meat the next day, Slice it real thin, Get
a bunch of butter in a pan, put a shitload
of Frank's Red Hot in that butter, and then stir
it at meat in there and eat.

Speaker 5 (01:10:15):
That Buffalo strips.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Buffalo leftovers is what they call that word. Needed some
fresh hot tip off. Send us a video of what
of this is poorly written? Who wrote this? I'm not
gonna throw them under. Send a video of what you no, no, no,
it is well written. Send a video of what you

(01:10:39):
believe to be your outdoor tips to our radio live
email address with hot tip off in the subject line.
So here's all you do. Make a hot tip off.
A hot tip off is where you go Welcome to
hot tip off, and then you explain a hot tip
for outdoorsman. Quickly explain thirty to sixty second, six seconds

(01:11:00):
right hot tip off in the subject line, and send
that son of a gun over to radio at themeeater
dot com thirty to sixty seconds. Film it vertically.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
Okay, family friendly.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
Family friendly. If we use if we use your video,
we're gonna show it will be a showdown. These are
one to one showdowns, So we'll you send your hot
tip off in We're gonna match it with another hot
tip off and see who wins. If you win the
hot tip off the best hot tip off of the week,
then you win cool prizes from We'll send you cool

(01:11:37):
prizes from me Eater brands. We'll send you cool prizes
for one of our amazing partner brands. Whatever. You'll be
rewarded when you make a thirty to sixty second hot
tip and send it subject line hot tip Off to
radio at themeeater dot com. Leave your pants on. While
making the video that wraps this week's program, I should

(01:12:00):
tell you my story about Greg Fawns.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
Does that both pans? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
That was real quick. Before I really knew Greg fons
you guys got his spear fishing shop. I'd like, I
was text him about like a question I had about
how to rig something, and he's sitting there in like
an apron, you know, like a shop apron, and he's like,
I don't even know the guy and he's explaining. Eventually
he like turns towards the other work manch just this
bear ass dude. I was like, what a freak man.

(01:12:32):
Later I just realized it, said to you, everybody, all right,
stay classy. Meted to Radio Live see you next week.