Ep. 729 - From Shrimp Boats to Duck Calls: The Journey of Farrel Charpentier - Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Katie Burke (01:46):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited
podcast. I'm your host, KatieBurke. And today on the show, I
am in Reelfoot Lake, and I havecall maker, Farrel Charpinteir
TA. Good.
I did it. I did it.

VO (02:07):
Can we do a mic check, please?
Everybody, welcome back to theDucks on the Podcast. I'm your
host, doctor Mike Brasher. I'myour host, Katie Burke. I'm your
host, doctor Jared Henson. AndI'm your host, Matt Harrison.
Welcome to the Ducks Unlimitedpodcast, the only podcast about

(02:29):
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I'm your host, Katie Burke. And today on the
show, I am in Reelfoot Lake, andI have call maker, Farrel
Charpenteir.

Farrell Charpenteir (03:23):
Good.

I did it.

You did it.

Anyways, Frel, you're from South Louisiana.
You're a call maker there. I'mguessing you grew up in South
Louisiana.

Born and raised in South Louisiana.

Alright. I mean and people will able to hear that
when you talk.

People people always comment on the
accent. Yeah. And one of mycomebacks is if you think I
sound funny, you ought to hearthe way you sound. So that kinda
breaks the ice on the accent,dear.

When I go up my husband's from Massachusetts, so
when I go up there, they think Ihave a really thick accent. But
when I and I don't think I havethat thick of an accent. But
when I lived in Philadelphia,people would come up to me and
they'd go, do you have anaccent? I'm like, do I?

Do I?

Good. Good comeback. True. I was like, such
a weird way to ask thatquestion. Most people are like,
where are you from?
That's probably the easiest one.

The easiest way.

Yes. Alright. So we are at Real Foot. Why are we
here? Can you like kinda talk alittle I talked a little bit
about this in my interview withDoug Nelson, but I'm not sure
what order these will come outin.
So can you, like, kind of talkabout this event that we're at
here in Real Foot Lake?

Well, this event started from what I
understand way back before Iever even heard about it.

Okay.

And I got involved in it through a friend
that helped mentor me into DuckCall Macon, and we can talk
about him Yep. About twelve,thirteen years ago.

Okay.

And I've been here ever since. I've
missed two years. Well, we'veall missed two years because of
COVID. Right. And three yearsago, we had damaged our home
from hurricane Ida.

Yep.

Had the roof tarped like most people
did, and I didn't wanna take achance of rain coming into the
house. So we skipped one year.So I've skipped one year in the
last twelve years. Yeah. It's agood, very social gathering
event, very informal.

Yeah.

That's what I like the most about it. Mhmm.
And we got to cooking, andthat's how it all started.

Yeah. No. When I drove up, it's very like it's
and I've been to, you know well,I go to Lombard for the decoy
stuff, and y'all have the callmaker meet there, and I've been
to Callapalooza. But this isvery much like it's different. I
don't know the right word.
It almost has like it's allcalls, but has a garage sale y

(05:51):
kinda feel like True.

Very lead

back. Yeah.

This event, there's a lot of horse trading
going on.

Yeah. Okay.

So if you're a call maker and you
don't have a call from ex callmaker, it's a good event to come
and open up your case. I'll picka call. You pick a call. You got
a handshake. I just did it fiveminutes ago.

Okay. Yeah. So Is it mostly call makers trading
between each other?

There's a few collectors involved that
come. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Indeed.

I would say majority of it's

Makers. That is correct.

That that's different for a lot of places.
Yeah.

It

is. That's a different situation. That's cool
though. I didn't think aboutthat. And then and I was talking
as well as to Doug.
I was like, you're in it's socool that y'all do it here
because the history and stufffor Real Foot Of this area.
Thinking. Yes. True. It's veryspecific and there's nowhere
else really like it that's thiscentered.

(06:53):
So many makers are from aroundhere and the history from here.
Yeah. That's a really neatevent, and it's really nice this
time of year as well.

So The weather's beautiful this year.

Really nice. Yeah. Okay. So let's go back and talk
about your background. So I'mguessing, well, you grew up in
South Louisiana, so you grew upon the water.

I grew up on the water. I did did I
started out straight out of highschool as a commercial fisherman

Okay.

And shrimped for twenty years. I had
my own shrimp boat trawled forshrimp from Alabama to
Brownsville

Yeah.

Offshore boat. So I shrimped. And jumping
ahead after so many years, whenthe kids came around, I started
working. I knew the water. Yeah.
So I had to start working in thewinter months because I wouldn't
fish in the winter months.

Right.

So went to schooling, got some schooling,
got a captain's license, and ranboats in the oil and gas
industry in The Gulf Of Mexico.Yeah. So I did that for years
until retirement.

Yeah. So were you always hunting and fishing since
you're from that age?

Of hunting when I was much younger. Mhmm.
And I'm 70 now, so I don't doany hunting. Although I have the
opportunity to, I should takeit.

Yeah. I mean, you're around enough call
makers. I'm sure you could getinvited.

Correct. Right. True.

They definitely all know how where to hunt. And,
well, I mean, there are easierplaces to hunt than South
Louisiana. There are. Yes. So,yeah, so at what point so it's
so different because and I'vetalked as you know, you brought
you know, Brian Sheremy as well,and I'm I'm good friends

with him. Know him.

And we've talked I've talked to him a lot about
decoys from your area of theworld. And where I grew up in
Mississippi, though, so there's,you know, a lot of hunting, but
there was not a decoy or a callhistory.

That is true.

But it is there. And so he growing up, you know,
he was surrounded. He knew allthese call makers personally. So
how did you learn about thatpart of waterfowling, like the
call making side? And wherewhere is, like, your first
introduction to all this?

My first introduction was my dad carved
decoys.

Okay.

And I know Brian Sheremy's grandfather
before he passed away. My dadwas real good friends, but my
dad carved decoys, and I wassurprised that the level of
noninformation they had, beingit was a hunting community, the

(09:35):
knowledge they had about duckcalls. Yeah. As of today, it was
lacking. Yeah.
So

what at that point, what did they have there? Is it
mostly cane calls?

All cane calls. Okay. My dad is 94. He's
still living, and he describedit was all cane calls.

Mhmm.

They made their reeds with black hair
combs and sanded them down tothe Yeah. 10 millimeter like the
modern wreaths. Yeah. Then theycaught on and they made wreaths
out of milk jugs and sanded veryLouisiana.

Cut it. This is very

They improvised on everything, and
they had cane. Yeah. So theproduct was there, but that's
all they made was cane coals.You know?

Well, and that's very I mean, and you think about
decoys as well there. I mean,that their root decoys for the
most part are Tupelo gum, whichis so accessible. And they make
because I I personally loveLouisiana decoys and not
everyone does because andcollectors sometimes shy away

(10:46):
from them because they're notalways in great condition
because of where But they're Ilike that about them. I like
that they have a story that theyhave Way back.

I'm sure everyone hunted their decoys.
They were not to be put up on ashelf and admired. They they
were to hunt.

Yeah. They And they all make them that's one thing I
love about Louisiana decoys isthey're not there's not like a
style about them.

No. Each individual did what he wanted.
Yes.

VO (11:17):
So

That's why it's surprising when you talk about
the

cane all over the place.

Yeah. That's like they they were all doing what
what worked for them. Correct.Yeah.

That's true.

That makes sense when it comes when you talk
about the cane calls too becausethey why wouldn't they do
anything different? If they'remaking decoys this way, I would
they'd make the calls the sameway.

Right. Correct. True.

That makes sense. Yeah. You know, it's funny when
you say that about the milkjokes. Whenever I talk to, like,
people from where I'm from,like, dad and he was telling my
grandparents about decoys inMississippi Delta, he's like, we
didn't have decoys. We just likepainting milk jugs black.
Like True. Yeah. It's like, wewe just got what we had and used
that.

Yeah.

I was like, you didn't need them because they
were I was like, we were huntingtimber. By the time they got
close enough to look at it, wewere shooting at them.

I have a old decoy that my dad made that
he hunted, and it's actually onthe bottom. For some reason, he
had put tape on the bottom, andI believe it was made in 1942.

Okay.

So and it's all

What is it?

Full of BB holes.

Yeah. What is it?

It's a

it's a mallard. It's a mallard? Yeah.

And it's got BB holes, but they hunted.

Yeah. Hunted them.

The bb holes. Yeah.

That makes sense. So so if you're looking at
kangos, at what point do youthink about making something
different or making a call?

Yeah. My dad was an and I'll toot his
horn and excellent decoy makersfrom gunners all the way to
fully decorative.

Okay. Burn, painted. Is that the other
thing?

And I was looking down the road ten years
to retirement, and I said, well,what better teacher I have than
my own dad to teach me how tomake decoy? But from decoy
making from gunners, not so bad,but decorative, you're talking
weeks and weeks of work. Lots ofhours. And I worked offshore, so

(13:09):
I worked two weeks away fromhome, and I was home two weeks.
Yep.
But you're married, you gotthree kids, they're in school,
they're in sports. Life takes alot of that time. I said, I'll
never gonna be able to be anaccomplished decoy maker if I
start. And again, I was lookingfor ten years down the road at

(13:31):
retirement, and I wanted to dosomething waterfowl. So I said,
well, I can do duck calls.
And I can get a quicker resultdoing duck calls. So that was
the initial deal. And I said,well, I knew I was gonna retire
at sixty six and six months.

Yeah.

But I said, I don't wanna start at the
beginner level at retirement. Iwanna get to a certain level
where I've got a really goodhead start when I actually do
retire. So I was always captainon the boat, so I had a lot of
free time. And we had nowadays,you got Internet, and we had

(14:13):
satellite communication. So Ijust started googling duck
calls.
Well, then you got a million,then custom duck calls. Now
you're down to 500,000. And thenyou know, page after page and I
saw a duck call and I said, thisis me. I need to know who this

(14:36):
guy is. Yeah.
And I looked at the bottom andit it had bearcraft with a k.
Yep. Alright. So googled him up.He had a website.
Got his number. When I got whom,I called this guy. It's Benjamin
Bear Lyle.

Okay.

From Tennessee. He lived in
Clarksville. Yep. I had I knewthat's all I knew about him. I
didn't know his age.
I called him up, introducedmyself to him. He introduced me.
And he said, if you're ever upon vacation, stop by. I'll give
you some pointers what, you know

Yeah.

What you wanna he says, why do you wanna
get into that? And I told himjust what I told you. Yeah. And
I said, I'm actually not lookingfor to get into money. I just
want a hobby that I can enjoy atretirement.
He said, well, good. You won'tmake any money. So that's how
that started out. And so I said,well, I work offshore. I get two

(15:35):
weeks off.
Two weeks at a time? Yes. I worktwo weeks on. I work a hundred
eighty days a year. And I'lldrive up there.
He said, well, they've got anevent at Reelfoot Lake coming
up. Drive to my house and we'lldrive about three hours and
we'll go and you'll stay with meand another friend in one of the

(15:56):
little rock cabins. Sure. So Imet him on his driveway for the
first time, and at the time hewas 30 years old. I was
expecting a older guy,

but he was

a young guy. Yeah. And so I met his
wife. He had three young girls,and we came up with here twelve,
thirteen years ago to Real Foot.Yeah.
And that's how my adventure withRealFoot and duck call making.

So not only did you meet that guy, you met a bunch
of guys.

So I met a bunch of guys. Yes. He said,
you're gonna be meeting some ofthe best call makers around.
Yeah. But what he didn't tellme, he was in that group.
He was just humble. Yeah. So Imet the likes of Brian Bars,
Ronnie Turner, Brad Samples,Jeremiah Kluzman, you know, all

(16:48):
the heavy hitters. So they askedme how you got in a Queens with
Bear. So I told him what I justtold you, he says.

Cole called him.

So it's like, he's very humble, but I
learned afterwards, he's in thatgroup. Yeah. So he says, well,
you picked a good mentor to getyou started because he's that
good. I didn't I didn't knowthat. I didn't realize.

How did that make you feel? Or did you feel It's
like,

well, maybe it was meant to

be. Yeah.

And we struck up a friendship. And let
me back up. When I met him onthe driveway, his wife said,
you're gonna get in that car anddrive to Riverwood with a man
you never met. This guy could bea serial killer. He says, well,
I got my gun with me just incase, and he did.
And it was so funny andseriously, they are family now.

Well, I mean, to be fair, how many call people are
calling going, I mean, serialkillers are calling going, hey,
I'd like to make call duckcalls. Right.

True. And to small group of folks. Group
of folks. And I said, I'mserious. And I went down in his
garage and we were coming hereand he says, I'm gonna final
tune some calls and I had nevermade a call in my life.
So he gave me a rough rundown.

So you had never even tried to make a call?

Never tried to make a call. So I got home. I
bought me a late, made me astand, and turned my first
barrel on my driveway with anextension cord, and we
communicated over the phone. Andhe told me what do this, do
that, and that's how I gotstarted.

Okay. So though, were you when your dad was
carving, were you at least doingsome woodworking, like, around
your dad at all prior to that?

Yeah. I was always handy with wood. Okay.
You know? So I knew my wayaround wood, saws, band saws,
and stuff like that.
And I told at the Ben, he said,you got a good start. You you'll
be alright.

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you were using, like, a
draw knife and stuff like thataround.

Yeah. I like painting. You know? I'm
just getting into carving andpainting Carving. On the car.

Yeah. Because I was saying, like I mean, just
because I know knowing decoymakers and their and then those
who have sons, like, they havepicked up just because they
played in shops and

stuff. Correct.

And and they're happy to let

That's how I got into duck calls because
the decoy making was gonna be aslower progression because I was
away from home.

Especially so I'm guessing your dad switched to
decorative more with that wholetransition.

Sure. He started out like everybody else,
doing gunners.

Yeah. And then when get the decorative gunners They
went to decorative.

Just gone. And then in his later years,
he's he's done more decorativestuff.

Yeah. Which is very traditional Louisiana.
Challenging.

Yes. You know, you're more involved with
burning.

So did he know the brunettes?

Oh, absolutely.

This is like Absolutely. That's exactly how
Tan started. Sure. He was likegunning birds and then

I study under mister Carl Daniels. Yes.
Okay. That's I studied him. He'smy mentor.
Yeah. And he tells me story whenhim and his brothers first
started carving, and when theygot to the wood burning, they
wanted it to go decorative. Theywould file down butter knives,
and heat them on a stove andwrap them with rags and

(20:21):
cardboard and do two, threestrokes and have to heat the
blade back Yeah. With a butterknife. Yeah.
It's like, are you kidding me?

Well, what it yeah. So Jet said that Tan would heat
ice picks.

Ice picks? Mister Carr told me that ice
picks because they were fine andheat up ice picks. That's how
them guys started.

And it all started in Louisiana, that whole burning
with those guys.

Burning. Mhmm. By the bout a Brunet's,
mister Danos, his brothers, theViziers.

The Viziers. Yeah.

Correct.

Yeah.

Right.

There's a huge tradition there. That's really
funny. I I forget about CarlStan Carl Danos being from
Louisiana. No. That's it.
Yeah. I assume so because, like,you can't just jump into call
making with no skill. Like, youhave to have You have to have
some guidance. Yeah. Like, you

know You're gonna struggle if you don't have
some guidance.

So when you're making those first calls,
because, again, you're learningyou're playing around in the
shop with your dad who's makingdecoys. They have a decoy is a
utilitarian object you throw inthe water. I mean, decoratives
are a little bit different, butit's still, like, there's no
sound involved.

Right.

So what was that learning curve to, like, get to
understand the sound part ofcall me?

The one of the best advices that Ben Lau
gave me, and a lot of callmakers agree, everything affects
everything.

Yeah. That's what a lot of people say. I've heard
that before.

The increment anywheres affect the
sound of the call. It's amazing.

So with that in mind, like, as you're going, how
are you I mean, I guess now it'sdifferent because you kind of
know where you're going. Like,you have you have you haven't
you've done enough times thatyou it's almost muscle memory.
But in those first ones, how areyou learning that? Are you just
doing it the tiniest amount?

The tiniest amount and one one change at a
time because if you do two, youhave no idea what changing that
sound. And like most callmakers, they were horrible when
I started. So Ben lived inTennessee Yeah. And they'd come
and visit us at home aroundMardi Gras season

Yeah.

And I had maybe 30 calls lined up, and he
would critique all of them.Yeah. And I'd go back on every
and Mark, you know, trimmed thereed on this one, sand right
here on this one. And I'd takethem one at a time and just all
go over them. And that was mybecause he lived in Tennessee.
Yeah. Mister Daniels in myschooling with him now is

(23:04):
carving on duck calls andpainting. He only lives fifteen
minutes away.

Right.

So it's like the progression is getting
quicker

Yeah.

Because he's close.

Yeah. So you're able to do that.

Yeah. I'm able to do that.

Are you ever scared that you're gonna go too far?
Actually,

not.

Okay.

Because it's like, I'm the kind of guy I
want to be hands on. Yeah. I'meither gonna do it right, and
you'll learn real quick what notto do. But then you don't do
that again. Yeah.
And I'll just grab another pieceof wood and go at it again.

You know, it's interesting what you said it
makes me think because I thinkof Brian's calls, Byers' calls,
and they're so perfect on theoutside. Like, I mean, he's it's
he's such he has such precision.But I almost would think sound
wise, perfection perfectionismwould be a detriment in a way.
Like, you you can't like, if youkeep trying to make it perfect,

(23:59):
you you can go the other way.

I've I've had we were I had that
conversation last night that Ipulled out a couple of calls I
made four or five years ago andit's like, this sound better
than the calls I made last week.You know, it's like you're
trying to do too much. Yeah.Always perfect. Always perfect.
And it's like, well, this thiscall sound better than I who I

(24:22):
wanna hear? And then you starttelling your passcode, well, I
shouldn't have did this on thiscall. I should have just

Done what I've been doing.

Fix what's not broke. Right.

Yeah. That's what I

That kinda attitude sometimes.

No. And I've never thought about that too. You're
saying it was like, yeah. I waslike, I would think
perfectionism almost would, youwould hurt yourself in a way,
like, if you get too far.

You look at the backgrounds of people,
everybody admires Brian Biascalls.

Oh, yeah.

He's an engineer by trade. Yeah. I know.
What that what does that tellyou?

It tells you a lot.

It tells you a lot. Well, he's so does
such great work. Yeah. He's anengineer by tree.

Oh, yeah. And when you talk to him about it, it's
more of I think we named his,like, interview, like, a couple
years ago, like, the science ofcall making. That's it. Because
he very much has, like, ascientific approach to

And I've always took the approach, like,
when I'm gonna talk to the guysI look look up to, like Brian
Yeah. I'm like EF Hutton. He'stalking. I'm putting my good
ear. What he tells you, take itto heart.
Yeah. You know? Try to apply it.He's thought about it. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. He's talking about it.He knows what he's talking
about.

Yeah. Alright. Well, let's take a quick break,
and then we're gonna get backinto it. That's fine.

VO (25:36):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by
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Alright. Welcome back. I'm here with Pharrell.
He's a call maker from SouthLouisiana. Alright, Pharrell.
So what I wanna know as beingsomeone when you were let's go
back to the, like, you're on theboat and you're looking through
all the you're thinking aboutbecoming a co maker and you're
looking at all these things. Soyou're obviously, you grew up
around decoy making and thencane calls, but I I noticed all

(27:54):
of yours are like the Arkansasstyle. Like, why did you why why
did you pick that style of duckcall? What were you why what
what made you lean to certainstyle?

The the my employer, my boss who I worked
for for years and years, he hada lot of property, and we did a
lot of duck hunting.

Okay.

So, like, a lot of call makers is like,
well, if I'm a make duck calls,I need to make a hunting duck
call where I can bring hunting.

Yeah.

And the goal was, like a lot of call
makers, get that duck to turnaround Yeah. And work that duck
with a call that you madeinstead of bought.

Well, it's like the next thing, like, okay, I
learned how to blow a duck call.Now I I shot a duck that I
brought in or, you know Right.It's like the next challenge.

Yeah. It's actually make the call.

Yeah.

And so it's very rewarding when you're in a
blind with a call that youactually made. Because when I
brought my first calls to theblind, my owner and the
coworkers were hunting, said,where'd you get that call? I
said, I made it. You made it?Yes.
The goal is to work the ducksand get them to come in with a

(29:07):
call that you made. And a lot ofcall makers are like that. It's
a great satisfaction Yeah.Knowing that. So that's how that
started, getting that style oftypical maladyne call.
Guessing what you believepercent not. Of what everybody
uses.

Well and they're, I mean, there's a reason why
modern their real foot stylecalls aren't modern calls
They're not practical.

They're practical.

That's for fall apart. They yeah. Correct. If
you're in a duck blind and theyfall apart, you have to find the
reeds and all that stuff. Sothat makes sense.
Yeah. I was just wondering whyyou went with that. So and you
started originally just kindamaking something to hunt with.
And then how has your styleevolved? Like, where did you go

(29:57):
from making something that youcould bring a duck in?
Like, where how'd it come tolike, now you're doing this
carved painting stuff. So what'show's your evolution?

Well, after making hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of calls, it's like youI always wanted to challenge
myself and challenge myself to apoint where I wasn't good at it,
but get good at it. Yeah. So andthere's only so much you can do
with a duck call, but yetthere's a million things you can

(30:27):
do with a, you know, a custommade duck call. It's like, it's
a duck call. They're the same.
No. They're not. No. They'renot. They're not.
So you have to realize that, andyou get to a point where you get
a you're making duck calls whatpeople want.

Right.

I'm at the age now and that the years of
turning is, like, I'm makingwhat I enjoy making. So that's
how I make my style of theircall, and that's what I make.
That's how I came about.

As someone in South Louisiana, what are you making
your calls out of? Because, youknow, like, that's are you
making stuff?

My I I use all different types of

Yeah.

Wood just like everybody else. My favorite
is Coca Cola, which a lot ofcoal makers can't turn because
of the allergies, the rash, theoil.

Oh, okay.

The oil in Coca Cola the oil related to as
poison ivy. Yeah. Yeah.

So I wouldn't be I wouldn't be able

to do that. Have it on them. They break out
in

a rock. Doesn't bother you?

I can bathe in it. And doesn't do me
anything. Yeah. And I like thehardwoods, the blackwoods, and
and calls as far as aesthetics,as far as looks. It's like
anything else.
You get into your burrows. Yeah.Those are your prettier woods.
You know,

the bigger dying woods. Yeah.

Your finish your finish has everything on
it. So I dabble with a littlebit of everything. But lately,
I've been challenging myself tomake carved and painted duck
calls like these.

Yeah. I like these feather ones that you

That's where I started at. Yeah. Just
doing feathers. And theprogression increased to
texturing and then carving andundercutting and it's just more
and more. There's just so muchyou can do.

Yeah. When did you do you have you always entered
into the the competitions andstuff or do you not?

Well, when I first came, it's like, no. No.
I'm I'm not with these guys.Yeah. And little by little, as I
kept making calls, Ben Lyle gaveme confidence.
So I looked up to him. I said,well, he says, you're good
enough. You're you're notadmitting that you're good
enough. You are. Yeah.

(32:45):
So I came here and entered inthe amateur division. I said,
well, I'm gonna enter in theamateur. I've never entered
anything before. And I believe Icame out sixteen one year, then
the next year maybe 13, then thenext year maybe 10. Yeah.
I said, well, I'll go at it onemore time. I came out second. So
that really gave me motivationto compete. So to help the

(33:09):
organization out Yeah. I entercalls every year to to compete.
You know?

No. That makes I makes sense. And then it's like
it's interesting that I wasthinking about this, like, that
you because you're doing itolder and it's like you know,
when you're a young kid enteringand doing stuff like that, it's
different. Like Well You don'tthink about it. You don't think
about it.
But then but you have a drive ina way. The winning part means

(33:35):
more. Like, you get older, thewinning part doesn't Well, I've
learned mean as much.

I've learned a long time ago, in any
competition, it's so subjectiveto whoever's judging. Oh, yeah.
A 100%. You understand? So the alot of the younger guys, man, I
know my call is better than thisguy, yada yada yada, but it's
all subjected to what the judgesare looking at.

(33:59):
You get lucky, yeah, you'relucky, you know, with skill,
naturally with skill, and alittle bit of luck, you you
know, you'll place up there, butyou cannot take that too
serious. If you take it tooserious, you're gonna make
yourself miserable.

Well, and it's so subject you're showing this and
they just had the duck stampcompetition, and I interviewed
Scott Storm not that long ago,and he is a big wildlife painter
and he entered him. And he didhe we entered him before the
competition, but I saw laterthat he had done this wood duck
pair that I had picked, I alwayswatch it and I was like, oh, I
think that one's gonna win or dowell. And he didn't even make it

(34:35):
in the top five. Well and thenno wood ducks made it in the top
five. I was like, well, theydidn't like wood ducks

this like wood duck. There you go. That's
a good example.

Yeah. I was like, they just were anti wood duck
this year. Right. Because therewas a few wood ducks that were
really good. And, usually woodducks, pintails, they always
win.

Pintails are pintails are favorite.

Yeah. They always win. If they're in the list of
the ones that could be the duckstamp, they're most likely gonna
win.

I see.

And this year, wood ducks. I was like, they were
like, they must have went in andchatted, we ain't picking a wood
duck.

No no wood ducks. That's that's why I say
it's so subjective.

Yeah. You don't know.

Absolute you don't know.

And when they I don't know about here. So how do
they pick judges for here? Like,do they just do other call
makers?

This to me

because this is sound. Right?

This is strictly sound. Yeah. I mean,
the call makers, you can make itout of a two by four from
Lowe's. Yeah. It sounds good,you got a shot.
You enter the call, they'll puta number and a letter on it,
whatever, with the vision, butthe actual judges never see the
call.

Yeah. Okay. So it's kinda like like

So it's the calling competition. Yeah.
Strictly sound. Okay. Which isgood.
It's different from othercompetitions

Different challenge.

Where everything comes into play.
Looks, originality, fit, Youknow? So you have all of these
parameters in there. And here,just gotta sound good.

Yeah.

You know? So it

makes it fun. Simplest call.

Yeah. Simple call. Yeah. That's right.

Well, it's gotta sound good. So and how do they
pick judges for that? They justWell, they

they some guys, like especially, like, on
the metal reads, not anybody canrun a metal read. Yeah. You've
gotta have a lot of lungcapacity.

Yeah. We were talking about that.

They hail on that so loud. It's like, I
can't

do it. I can't do it.

You So they asked these guys and they
volunteers, and a guy can run awood call or you know? I'm not

That's cool. Yeah. I can't. Like, as we were
talking about that earlierbecause I was saying, like, my
dad only blows a d he's onlyblown a d two old his whole
life. I'm like, I can't blow a dtwo to save my life.
I that thing, I don't have thelung capacity.

Lung capacity.

Yeah. And I don't have

the lung capacity anymore. I've never
smoked in my life, and I don'thave the lung capacity.

That's funny. So there's still so okay. What are
the categories? So they're doingmetal reek.

They they have a amateur division.

Okay.

If you enter in the amateur, you cannot
enter in any other division. Youcan only enter the amateur.
Okay. Then there's the wooddivision. All wood insert.
Mhmm. Or you can have a metalband, but it's gotta be

And the and a plastic reed?

Yes. Uh-huh. And then there's the
open division, and then there'sthe acrylic division and metal
reed.

And a metal reed. I didn't know they're still doing
a metal reed. That's

I hate acrylic, but I turned one to
help the deal. It's like

Why do you hate acrylic?

Somebody's gotta come out last, so it's
like, I'm making acrylic.

Besides that, it's acrylic.

Why do Because you you can you buy an
acrylic rod in whatever color itis. Blue, white, green. That's
it.

That's it.

That's what you get. With wood, in 12
inches, the wood color could bedifferent from one end to the
other end. So it's like likesome people say it's God's
creation. You never got I canshape them alike, but no two
will look alike.

Right.

That's why I enjoy wood.

Yeah. You don't know really what you're gonna
get.

You don't know what you're gonna get. It's
all original. You shape themalike.

Yeah. It's always gonna be

different. Yeah.

If I did, I would prefer yeah. I get the wanting
to do

Yeah. Yeah. The acrylic called nothing
against it. They're beautiful.

Well, and they're super utilitarian. Like, they're

they're The industry went more to acrylic
because the temperature affectsit less. You're not Humidity
Yeah. Affects it less. Yeah. Youdrop

it in the water.

Yeah. You drop it in the water, pick it
up, shake it off, and good togo.

Yeah. No. It makes sense. And, like, I Sure. Most
people blow an acrylic call inthe Yeah.

I don't have nothing against it. I just
prefer wood

Yeah.

In this life.

Yeah. It's so funny. You don't hear this with
call makers at all, but I Ithink about that, like, about
acrylic calls. Like, no one'ssaying but with decoy makers and
people who hunt over woodendecoys, they will almost, like,
fuss at you like the people whoare hardcore into wooden decoys
about hunting over plastics.

I I know.

But you don't do that. Call makers don't do that
No. About hunting with acrylics.Like, they're, yeah, it makes
sense to hunt it

with acrylic.

Sure. Right. So it's funny, but they'll, like,
they're, like, oh, I'm, look.Hunting over wooden decoys is
awesome. I'm I'm everyone shoulddo it.
It's really neat, especially ifsomeone makes really good wooden
decoys. But taking care of andloading out wooden decoys is so
a chore. It's a chore. And itdepends on where you hunt. Like,

(39:19):
if you have to do a bunch ofdecoys, I mean, we we don't do
that.

Louisiana, where we hunt is mostly small
areas. So you're not huntingwith a lot of decoys.

We aren't either.

Not like open water where you need a 150
decoys. No. You put out eight,thirteen decoys. You're good to
go. Yeah.
That's all you need. Same. Yeah.Very limited.

Yeah. And we really, all you need is ripples.

Potholes. You're hunting in pot holes.

We just need some splashing out there.

True.

True. That's really all we need. But, yeah, it's
interesting because I I neverthought about that. But nobody
has that snobby thing about,like, hunting with acrylic calls
and call making. Now Iunderstand as a artist and as a
maker, like, the art of workingwith wood versus acrylic.
I that makes complete sense.

Sure.

Yeah. It's you know, we were talking about Jet
earlier, and we were talkingabout how you didn't want to go
it's really interesting how youdidn't wanna go into the
decorative stuff of, like, thatreally detailed how long it
would take.

Right.

And now that he's won his however many his dad has
won, he's not doing thatanymore. Like, he does one a
year for DU. Correct. And he'sdoing all natural wood. He's not
painting at all anymore.

It's just a different stage, phase maybe.

Well, he said he's always I didn't know, but he
said he hated painting. That hehated painting and he had this
goal to I just found it veryhonest. He had this goal to tie
his dad. Didn't wanna pass hisdad. He just wanted to tie his
dad.
So he was doing it at the endjust to get that goal.

Get the guy going.

But he that's not what he wanted to do anymore. He
said he tired of the tedious

I visited with his brother, Jude Mhmm.
Probably last week Yeah. And hehad a bird that he had painted
for DU.

Yeah. They do one every year.

I was looking at it. I said, will you
finish? He said, I'll tell yousomething my dad told me years
ago, you never finish. He says,that duck been sitting there for
three days. He says, I'll pickit up, put it right here, and
paint on it for another twohours.
Pick it up, it's finished. Threedays, pick it up, paint on it in
another two. He says it's onlyfinished when you get rid of it.

(41:26):
Yeah. That was and he says, I'mserious.
Yeah.

No. That's very true.

He says, can just keep painting and
painting and painting.

We had some of Jet's stuff which had June Tan
stuff in it too and in themuseum, like, did a little
display and Jet picked it up. Hegoes, I need to work on that
one.

I need to work on that one. That's it.

It'd be gone for a year, and he got it back. He was
like, that one.

As a as a call maker, artist, however you
wanna describe this crazy thingwe do, you always your own worst
critic.

Yeah. That's what Doug was saying. They had that
have you seen that flute he did?It's like, I don't remember how
many pieces of laminate. Yeah.
It's like

a hundred hundred fifty pieces. Yeah.

And he was like Same. There's a flaw in there.
I'm not gonna tell you where itis.

See it. You're your own worst enemy.
That's right. That's true.

So I've but but like we said earlier though with
call making, you can't. There'sI mean, I guess on the painting
side of the deck, on theoutside, you could mess with it
more. But sound wise, you can't

Yeah. There's only so much you can do.
Right.

Yeah. So

you pass that point of no return. Yes.
And that is possible, and we'veall done it.

Yeah.

You get, well, maybe if I sand a little,
scrape a little bit more, cut athe reed, obviously, you can
change and start over. But is itexactly how you had it before?
Most likely not.

Yeah.

But when you get to that tone board, and
like I said, everything affectseverything, there is a point
that you can pass, and it'slike, well, this this ain't
Yeah. You're not gonna fix it.

No. It makes sense. So with that in mind, do you do
custom, like, for people, like,orders for people?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. So when you're doing that, like, if
you're doing one that they planto hunt with, are they cut like
because, know, like, every callyou never know if you're gonna
get a call that you.

That's correct.

So are you making it and then, like, hopefully it
works, or do you have them comein?

Myself, if I can, I like to not text?
Actually, talk to the person.Mhmm. You want me to make your
call? What are you looking for?
You know? Let's be specific. Doyou want it really raspy? Do you
wanna get real high on it? Youknow?
Mhmm. South Louisiana, mostpeople want raspy calls.

Mhmm.

They don't want that high end call, like,
what I call high

Yeah. No. We like raspy calls that yeah.

We want it more subtle.

We like to just crack it

up specifically. If it's somebody
from Louisiana said, no. I wantit more subtle, more you know?
That's easier to get to.

Yep.

But you always wanna talk, especially if
you're making a custom call.

Okay.

You want my preference. Yeah. You know?
Let's get if I'm gonna make youa call, I wanna make what you
want, not what I want.

Right.

Sometimes they'll give you the leeway and
say, look, just do what you do,and I'm fine. Yeah. You know?
Now if it's a local, and likemost people, you got a lot of
hunters, take the time, come tothe shop, and I'll put you 10
blanks or five blanks of thiswood. Pick the one you want.
Yeah. But again, that's hard tosee exactly what that wood looks

(44:33):
like until you turn it.

Right.

Yeah. You just don't

Well, I would think looks wise, you would have to
know the maker and be like,well, I like the look of most of
his clothes.

And that's what happens.

Yeah. That's what happens. Yeah. Because you
you're trusting that you enjoy,yeah, that that person.

Yeah. I've got a custom call to me right
when I get back home because aguy called me and said, I need
it for the October. My firstthought was, give me more
headway, you know. It's like, Igot other things to do.

Well, that's just funny because we I was just
thinking about that because,like, we just did this big d the
can of goose thing at DU where Iworked on this project. We wrote
a book, and we're getting ordersfor the book, and it made me
laugh because you think of that.Was like and people are calling
like, oh, I haven't got my bookyet. I'm like, wait. Wait.
Hold on. We we are in a retailsite. Yeah. You will get it. You

(45:26):
It may take four weeks.
Yeah. I I know it. You know it'sfine. Slow down. Slow down.
Slow down. I go, yeah. You'rehe's like, I'm just yeah. Doing
this as a hobby. Like, sway.
Sometimes

I think when people call for a call,
they think I'm just sitting inmy shop

Waiting for that

the phone to ring.

Well, and as like, I mean, I know this as someone
who was like so I was a mybackground is I was an art major
first and then I I didn't likethat as like, I didn't like
being told what to do. Uh-huh.So I went into the art history
side and I really enjoyed like,that's how I got into museums
and everything. But as somebodylike as I just know from artists

(46:03):
in general, like, you couldcommission something, but that
person also has to be inspiredtoo. Like, can't just Oh,
absolutely.
Cold start something.

When when I first started coming here,
that's the biggest thing I gotabout coming to the Duck
College.

Oh, yeah. I bet.

You look at the other makers, you naturally
don't wanna copy No. But you getinspired by their work. When you
get back home, it's like

You're ready.

You're ready. Yeah. You get inspired.
Yeah. Callapalooza.
Yeah. When Ronnie Turner gotahold of me last year for this,
eight, ten months ahead, hewanted me to be on one of the
call up a looza build teams. SoI was able to be on one of the
build teams, and I said, you'repranking me. You know, I've been

(46:50):
knowing Ronnie for two I said,you're pranking me? You you're
talking serious here.
No. I'm not pranking you. Solast year on the week coming up,
I stopped over at his home. Wemade a call together with Chris
Hare was there, and he says,look. I need to kinda confirm
call builders for call.
I said, man, I thought you wasjoking. He said, no. I'm not

(47:10):
joking. Yeah. So I felt that asa honor, like, well, maybe I'm
getting respected in the callthat you're gonna ask me to be
part of the build team.
You know?

Did you have fun doing that?

That was great.

That's a really neat competition.

Neat competition. And one thing I got
out of it, Brad Samples, we wasable to have Brad come in on our
team for two hours only, and theother team got Brian Bars to
help out, put their expertise inthere. He says, you're gonna
think you have a lot of timeleft, but you don't. And that's
exactly what happened. Now wefinished in time, you know, but

(47:47):
only with about fifteen minutesto spare.
You know, it's like.

And you have how long do you have? It's more over
a couple of days.

Four four hours one day Yeah. Four hours
the next day, and only two hourson Saturday. Okay. And then they
have the blow off competition,and the judges put all the
scores together. Yeah.
You're at four makers. You say,well, it can't be hard. You work
but you you can't put the cartbefore the horse. No. You know?
Yeah. You have to do this beforethis

person can

do this.

Do y'all get to talk to each other before?

Oh, yeah. We Okay. That was kept off
secret. Yeah. We was on aprivate group

text with Ronnie Stern. Team and you know

was telling, look. We're not telling
you this Yeah. But we're gonnathrow y'all a curve on the spot.
Yeah. What is it gonna be?
I don't know, but we will

Yeah.

Give you all a heads up. Like, no. You
can't do that. You gotta dothis. Like, ugh.
And then we went to a privategroup test, myself Yeah. Laura
Yeah. And Ryan Roussa Okay. Andand Dax. And so we talked about
it for at least a month.

Okay.

We put a plan together, put sketches
together

Yeah.

Like that nobody was aware of.

Right. And then you're like I'm guessing you're
you're assessing everyone'sstrengths and trying

to Correct.

Where where should we label someone here versus
there?

Laura's gonna do this. Dax's gonna do
this. Yeah. Ryan Russo worked itwas a metal reed because it was
inspired by by Pop Pickle.

Yep.

So it had to be a metal reed. That's where
Ryan Russo's expertise came in.They wanted me to carve on it,
so I carved the pintail on it.Ryan Rooster did some checkering
and so he kinda so we had a planbefore we walked in there. You
have to arrive.
You'll never ever have an

Yeah. Well, and I would just think with because
the the challenge there is youwould think it would be easier
because you have four makers.But honestly, would think the
four having four people make itif you didn't have a plan

would make it almost impossible. We
couldn't pick we couldn't pickthe blank before God did.

Because you're not used to carving with people.
Like No. Used by yourself and

you got people looking through the
window and

It's really neat. I I haven't gotten to go back the
last two years.

It's a little pressure.

Well, it's the same weekend as our national
convention. Uh-huh. So it'salways kind of a hard weekend
for us So to but it's so if I amaround, I it's so close, so it's
so easy to get to and it's fun.And I'll try to get back. But I
I guess it's been about twoyears since I've been there,
but, yeah, no, it's fun.
Yeah. It's a really neatcompetition.

It's good. Great call makers. Yeah. Great
fellowship.

Well, it's a different challenge for y'all.

It is. Was completely different. You know,
I was I was honored to be asked.Yeah. It's like, really?
You know? So it was good.

Alright. So couple things before we wrap up. Is
there anything we haven't talkedabout that you wanna mention
before we start

getting in? A matter of fact, I would.

Yeah.

There's so many people that when I first
started with Benjamin Law, thecall making community is one of
the best communities there is.You need help, just ask. Yeah.
Nobody holds secrets. They'llhelp you.
They'll show you. They'll teachyou. One of the first things
Benjamin Lyle told me says, I'llgive you any and all information

(51:06):
that I can give you to help you,but I won't do it for you. I say
you and I get along greatbecause that's the type of
person I am. I don't want youtouching it.
I'll fill up a garbage bin fullof junk. But when I go to bed at
night, if I tell somebody I madethis call, I made it. That gift

That's awesome.

Good or not.

But I

still have that satisfaction of knowing.
But getting back, the callmaking community is a great
group of people always willingto help you. And naturally,
everyone looks up to someone. Sowhen they tell you something,
listen. I I listen.
Yeah. It's like, no. I ain'tlistening. No. I listen.

(51:50):
Again, the the call makingcommunity is fantastic. I've
never met a bunch of people, soit's like family. Yeah.

No. It is. And I I mean, I'm not a call maker, but
I just know with decoys, withducks, and with this, like, I
have never ever not felt welcomeAbsolutely. When I'm here. Yeah.

I've had call makers come down home
instead of home from Mardi Gras,Samples, Tiffany

Yeah.

Bear, Lyle's three girls. They were,
like, here, here, and here. Andnow Brianna, the oldest one,
just graduated college. So theyparted a family.

Yeah.

You know? It's that tight.

Yeah. I mean, you did something that I don't think
a lot of people would be braveenough to do, but do you have
advice for somebody who wants todo this?

Well, one is kind of a hard one. Yeah. I
would think that one of the mostimportant things is you have to
have confidence in yourself. Andand I say that, like, don't
don't be arrogant about it, butyou have to believe in yourself
first. And I see that going toclass with other grown men.

(52:55):
They're lacking that confidencein their self, and I tell them,
you gotta believe that you cando this. You gotta believe in
yourself first. That's just theway I was raised. Believe in
yourself and you can do it. Youcan do it.
Some people's gonna progressquicker than others, but doesn't
mean you can't do it. But yougotta believe in yourself. That

(53:16):
would be my first advice.Believe in yourself.

Yeah. That's good advice.

There are people who help you along the
way.

You can always ask for help.

You can always ask for help. My
background is I'm a vesselcaptain. Been a captain all my
life. And ran a 20 man crew, youknow, from older gentlemen to
really green deckhands. And alot of times, don't wanna axe
you because they don't know andthey don't wanna look.
So there's no dumb question. No.Ask me, I'll show you. I'll

(53:47):
teach you. Then you'll know.
Yeah. Like, I don't know how todo brain surgery, so I'm not
gonna I would never try to do itwithout axe. Asking. You know
what I'm saying? Parable, butanything.
So if you need help, ask.Somebody will show you.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Don't be ashamed to ask. And and
being curious is it's a goodthing. Oh, Absolutely.
People like curious people.Yeah. Hopefully, because I'm I'm
annoyingly curious. Alright. SoI have so where can people see
your calls?
If they wanna see them, wherecan they go to see them?

Like, 90% of everybody nowadays Yep. Got a
Facebook page. Google my nameand it'll come up. Yep. And
sharp calls because my last nameis Sharpencheck.
With a C h a r p. Yeah. With ac. Yeah. And do sharp calls and
a page there, and I try to keepthat up.

Okay. Yeah.

But mainly on my page, I try to keep up,

like Yeah. The call makers are I mean, for the most
part, I mean, Facebook. Like,you can find them. You can find

anything you want on Facebook.

Yeah. Back. They are very prolific on there.

Few years back, website, website. Yeah.
People got away from websites.

Yeah.

Farrell Charpenteir: Everything's on Facebook. (54:57):
undefined

Well, and you get to see what people are working
on. Sure. It's so much easierfor y'all to put progress and
Absolutely. Put people so peoplecan comment on it. Right.
It's just more interactive.Sure. But, yeah, they call
making community Facebook, Iwould say. Yeah. It's huge.
You get

way more. Huge. Yeah. Correct.

Way more. Well, Farrell, this was great. Thank
you for doing this.

Thank you so much for having me.
Pleasure's all mine.

Yeah. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Farrell.
Thanks to our producer, ChrisIsaac, and thanks to you, our
listener, for supportingwetlands and water fowl
conservation.

VO (55:31):
Thank you for listening to the DU podcast, sponsored by
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Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan,always advancing. Also proudly
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(55:53):
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ducks.org/dupodcast. Opinionsexpressed by guests do not
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Ep. 729 - From Shrimp Boats to Duck Calls: The Journey of Farrel Charpentier

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 729 - From Shrimp Boats to Duck Calls: The Journey of Farrel Charpentier