Fan Outdoors: Cameron Gallenburg, Tom Dokken, Tackle Terry, Bob St Pierre

The Captain is back and is joined by Cameron Gallenburg, Tom Dokken, Tackle Terry, Bob St Pierre!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
From the fish filled Midwest lakes to the deep woods
of the North upland prairies filled with pheasants, to the
whistling wings of duck ponds. This is Saturday Morning Fan Outdoors,
your show for hunting and fishing tips, topics and conversations.
You can also send us a question or opinion by
emailing us booth at kfean dot com. Here's your host,

(00:38):
the Fans, Captain Billy Hildebrand.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Good Morning Fan Outdoors, Faithful.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yes, six a m. Saturday October fourth, YEP. I can't
believe it, but it is what it is, and we'll
make the very best of it.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
It's going to be a great day.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Just keep telling yourself that, I'll I poke my head
out and I let the dogs out.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
And do their business.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I think it's dark, and you know that if you
open your eyes at all, But it's I think it
must be cloudy because there's I can't see a star
in the sky. And as far as the forecast from
my studio, my private studio right up here in Sock
Center on socc Lake, looking out at a few lights

(01:34):
across the lake, a few tower lights quite a ways away,
a white one and a red one blinking off and on,
and then there's a strobe going school someplace, but I
don't know where that is. Anyway, it is right now.
I think it's about sixty sixty eight degrees as I

(01:57):
look at a thermometer right here and a high up
heier of eighty six degrees, and the forecast for the
Twin Cities and up here is about the same. When
it comes to wind Yep, we are going to have
fifteen to twenty five mile an hour out of.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
The south and it's going to be hot.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, but this is probably one of the final days
of the heat and then it's going to be more
seasonal and it'll struggle midweek to get up to sixty degrees.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
So enjoy this.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Second round of summer and all that you can. And
if you're a golfer, as my producer my executive producer
is mister Brett Blakemore, I hope that you get out
on the links and.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Enjoy yourself just a little bit. But it's it's almost hot.
I mean it's no, it is hot. I'm not that's.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Not that anything but that.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, but we're not going to for the next few
months after this, we won't experience a lot of hot,
it'll be.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
A little lot, could be a lot cooler.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Last weekend is I told everybody I told you too,
that I was going duck hunting for the first time
in a long time, in a number of years, and
I man, I grew up duck hunting and absolutely love waterfowling,
love it well. My oldest son invited both Chad and

(03:28):
myself to come out to their least land for the
opener this year, and the three of us being together
was really fun. And I've told a number of times
I've told people that you introduce your children to the
outdoors the things that you dearly love to do, because

(03:49):
although you're making time when they're growing up, there will
come a point that they'll invite you to go along
with them. This weekend was that time, and it was
really really fun. They have leased land out in western
northwestern Minnesota, not too far, just a few miles from

(04:12):
the North Dakota border, and they have they lease a
rather large farm with a couple thousand acres and a
number of bodies of water on it, different sizes, different locations.
And when I got there, there were three wheeled fish
houses already in the yard because they had gone up beforehand.

(04:33):
The weeds were no chest high because nobody had been there,
and they knocked that down, and then the landowner came
in with some kind of implement and cut it down
a whole lot more.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Three fish houses were kind of gathered around, plugged into power,
and one RV trader was the also a rather large one.
We were in Eric's ice castle, and that's just a
beautiful thing to stay in. It's very very nice and
has all the amenities of your home, and it was

(05:13):
very very comfortable. But gathered around and shot the breeze
and talked the night before Friday night about where everybody
was going to be, and Eric brought his duck boat
with his mudmotor on. We launched that and got it
right down on the water's edge, and the next morning
we were up about four thirty five o'clock and got

(05:38):
everything ready, bright starry sky stars, and when you get
out in the the large areas with no city, it
is really it's kind of stunning. In fact, as I
stood there back in the rushes waiting after we got
Decoy's place, it makes a person feel very very small,

(06:02):
very insignificant among all that, and very few humans around
and it was just Cala, Eric, Chad and myself and
what gives us a time to chat about remember when
those kind of things and once in a while you'd

(06:24):
hear a few wings going over. But it was just
really really fun when it came to shooting time and
we were right on the money and there wasn't many
early shots, and I'm pleased with that because oftentimes, well
that's when maybe when the season started at noon on
opening days so long ago. But we kind of waited

(06:48):
and it was shooting time, the season had begun, and
some birds came in and there was some teal up there.
They came in and they banked over the decoys and
they're just going like.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
A little lockets.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
They swung on it and one foot was on a
little higher ground than the other.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
In the first shot, I kind of lost my balance.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Nothing to be serious, but I was kind of embarrassed
because I did lose my balance and I figured it out.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
The recoil did it. That's where that's my story and
I'm sticking to it. Anyway.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
The next shot was totally different, nice shot. Bird came
down on ground and Calum went and made the retrieve
and we about nine thirty ten o'clock. The shooting was
done any birds that were around, and it wasn't fast
and furious by any stretch, but it was certainly certainly fun.

(07:48):
We ended up with that morning, opening morning, we ended
up with ten ducks, six hooded at mergansers, and that's
the limit. I don't know where all these Morganzas come from,
but Eric had said, never before have they had that
number of mergs as he calls them, and it just.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
But we called it a day and we got back
to the to the farmyard with the traders and other
folks are coming back by to it ended up I
think we had twenty five total for.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Two, four.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
Six, and then we would be eight for eight, so
there was not even close to a limit. But it
was just a marvelous, marvelous time. The next morning, Sunday morning,
as is often the case, on day two, we saw
a few ducks but mostly off in the distance. Had

(08:58):
one shot and miss and that was it.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
But it was.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Really fun. I had forgotten how much fun it is.
Called set some geese, they didn't respond, called it a
few ducks.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
It was good, but nothing, nothing.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Spectacular, but just the experience itself once again was absolutely
phenomenal and for that I want to thank Eric and
Chad for inviting me to come along. So as I say,
introduce your child, make the time of your time to

(09:41):
include them, and there may come a day that they
will invite you to accompany them. So that's pretty much it.
Next weekend. This weekend is just kind of think about it.
I've got a whole bunch of men dollards that are
down here on the on the lake that come they

(10:03):
hang around every day making a mess out of my dock.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
But that's okay.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm nobody's going to shoot at those well, and they
one person. When my grandson comes out, he is just
five years old, and he really likes to sit down
on the bank with his dad with a couple of
few decoys out in front and hunt. And his patience
isn't real long, but it's a start, and he's really

(10:32):
excited about that. But when I tell him that there
are a few ducks around here that haven't been shot
at yet, because they're still coming around.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
And there's quite a few drakes in that group too.
They're young birds.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
But and for me, this last week, I've been thinking
about pheasant season. I've had the dogs out every day
this week. We have gone out fairly early in the morning,
by about eight o'clock. Then I've got one of Chad's dogs, Rex,
who's a Brittany, and my own bree dog, and we've

(11:07):
been going and doing some walking and I'm finding much
to my surprise. We're putting up and finding a few birds,
but every single one of.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Them are young. They're young of the year.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
They aren't feathered out. I mean they're feathered, but they
are not colored out. And we're just thoroughly and I
am thoroughly enjoying it. The dog's doing great. Rex went
on point and he's two. Pri is four and she
hasn't had much of a chance to hunt because I've

(11:44):
kind of leaned on snapping awful lot and now she's gone,
so I can't do that.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
And it's Breeze turned.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
To be on the A team, but it is Rex
went on point, pre honored be something that's natural. But
I was really really impressed. And they've both got phenomenal noses.
But again, the birds that took flight, and even the
birds they didn't find, but the ones that took flight

(12:14):
were young, juvenile birds. So if you get out, you're
gonna hunt pheasists this year, be aware of that those
birds are.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Are young.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
I had one that crowed, and that's the only one
that I could tell other than assume it was a
hen and I'd lose my dogs on the tall blue stem.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
It's just that the birds would come up and I
knew that's what they were or where they were.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
So the next weekend, Bob will be up here at
the cabin with me, and Eric and Shad will be
here and a couple of other people.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
So it's going to be our annual opener.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
And I do enjoy that too, and it's not so
much about getting it's about being there and doing it
and being together. And I hope you have something similar
that you thoroughly enjoy doing too. This morning, I think
we've got a pretty pretty good show lined up. We're
going to be joined by doctor Cameron Gallenberg of Barrington

(13:16):
Oaks Veterinary Hospital in Elk River shortly and we'll talk
with Cameron about some different things that you need to
be aware of as a gun dog owner, maybe just
as a dog owner, because it's all they all mesh
together and you want to take care of that buddy
of yours, because when you get the pheasant hunting that

(13:38):
four legged partner years, it's the most important partner you have,
promise guaranteed. And then we are going to take a
trip over to South Dakota. I believe we're going to
join mister Tom Dockin in his duck blind YEP. We'll
go on the scene with Tom Dockan and talk dogs

(14:04):
yet again, and then we will perhaps hear some hunting
sounds in the background, and we'll ask Tom to probably describe.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
What his hunting situation is wherever he is.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
I'm not sure Tackle will be along, and mister Bob
Saint Pierre checks in with us a little bit later
in the show and he is in Wisconsin someplace. So
that being said, we're going to take our first break
of the morning, and on our return we'll be joined
by doctor Cameron Gallenberg, a veterinary medicine YEP from Barrington Oaks,

(14:45):
the place that I have been going for.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
A long time, and.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
They take great care of my dogs. I really thank
them all the time for that. And if you're looking
for a place to go, there is none better in
my opinion. Take that pause and we'll be right back
with more after this twenty minutes after the hour of

(15:31):
six am on a fan outdoors Saturday morning.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
I'm glad to have you with us.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
My cup of coffee has been filled a couple of times,
and I'm sure it'll be filled a couple more times
before we finish this morning.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Our next guest.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
I've known this lady for quite a while, yep, since
she was a small girl. But now she's not a
small girl. When the dog is barking, she is Doctor
Cameron Gallenberg.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I don't know what he's doing, but.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
We're going to talk some dogs, and I guess that's
a fitting background for that. But doctor Cameron, good morning.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
How are you?

Speaker 5 (16:17):
Good morning, Billy. I'm doing well. How are you?

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Not bad? Not bad? It's dark, though I'm not.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
I don't think I'll ever get used to the darkness
in early morning, but that's okay.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
I'll take that over being dark in the evening, though
I will too.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
You're very right, You are very right.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah, when when you come home from work and it's
dark and you get up and go to work when
it's dark, that makes for not a fun day. But yeah, hey,
I now that the waterfall season in Minnesota is underway there.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
I wonder she can't see anything. It's so dark. I
don't know what she's barking at.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
And as soon as I get on there, obviously always
she decides the time to paint. But a lot of
dogs are going to hit the field and to have
begunning the last weekend. And I think there's some things
that hunters should know, because, as I said in the opening,
without your four legged partner, man, you're pretty much dead

(17:21):
in the water when it comes to both waterfowling. That's
so much waterfowling, but especially upland game hunting. And what
are some things that perhaps people should be aware of, Cameron,
when it comes to dogs and maybe vaccinations. And I
think everybody knows some of the very basic things, but

(17:42):
I think they all need, people need, and myself included
needs some reminders about some things.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
What would you suggest?

Speaker 4 (17:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (17:50):
Absolutely, So the first thing, the obvious thing is just
checking your animal's records is to make sure that there's
still current on all their vaccines. The important thing is
is that you want to make sure those vaccines are
on board a couple of weeks before you get going,
so that they actually are protective. That's One of the
important things is that just because you do it the
day before you leave doesn't necessarily mean that it's going

(18:11):
to help protect against the diseases that we need them to.
The most obvious one you can think of right away,
it would be rabies, So that one's pretty scary. We
don't really like to deal with that one obviously, so
making sure that one's up to date. That one typically
becomes as an annual vaccine, or if you have an
older dog, that's going to be one that they get
every three years. That's the one that people get their

(18:35):
rabies take and certificate with. So that one's a super
important one. That one's the one that some counties and
some different cities have more legal ramifications about their requirements
for it, so it kind of depends on your city there.
So rabies. The next one you can think of is
the distemper vaccine. That's the one that they call the

(18:55):
combination vaccine. That one's also super important, not as much
in terms of getting transmissible diseases while they're out hunting,
but still a good one to have. Another thing is
as if you're going to be out hunting with other dogs,
so even if they're your other family members, dogs or
things like that. We've been seeing a ton of kennel
cough going on right now, so making sure that they're

(19:18):
current on their bord of tele vaccine is another good
one to think about. That one is going to help
essentially prevent one of the types of kennel cough so
that they don't get one more serious pneumonia.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
Because of it.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
And then the last two to think about are a
little bit newer. Maybe not everyone is vaccine for it,
but I strongly suggest thinking about it. The first one
is your lime vaccine. So Minnesota is one of the
top states in the country in terms of us diagnosing
lime disease in our dog friends. So lime is one

(19:53):
of those tickborn diseases. We oftentimes use our oral flee
in tick products as well to prevent this, but we
usually use the oral flee and tick combined with the
vaccine to give us the maximum prevention for that disease.
And then the last one is one of the ones
that actually is a little bit more new. It's called

(20:15):
the leptos borosis vaccine or the LEFTO vaccine. That one
actually the American Veterinarian Medical Association just in the last
year or two has considered it now a core vaccine
versus just kind of a lifestyle vaccine. So they actually
recommend every dog in the United States be vaccinated for
this because leptosporosis is actually a bacteria that they can

(20:39):
pick up pretty much anywhere. I get worried about our
hunting dogs, especially because the routes that it can come
from our bodies of water and then also urine from
contaminated animals, whether they are preying on our animal, our dogs,
and things like that. Thinking about apossums, raccoons, other types

(21:04):
of rodents all can be carriers of latos.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
That's a big one right now, Oh, cavern with the
if you mentioned kennel cough and some of the other
things that dogs can get, is there symptoms that can
alert a hunter to the fact that they need and
maybe they haven't got a particular vaccine and then come
in and be concerned about that.

Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah, so right after hunting, if you've noticed that your
dog's been coffee, and that's a big one. So in
our state, there's a handful of pretty serious diseases that
we get worried about that they could pick up from
the outdoors. Kettle cough is one of them. We worry
about more of that from them meeting in contact with
an infected dog. So coffee if they're really DUMBI a lethargic.

(21:52):
But then the other thing too is that there's a
fungus up in northern Minnesota called blastom Coasts, And so
if you have coffee and the dog after hunting, and
especially if it lingers past a few days, I would
recommend going to your vet and just making sure that
they get a good exam and potentially some blood work done,
just because there's a couple of those diseases that if

(22:13):
we don't get on top of them early, there could
be some pretty serious side effects there. So coffeing, but
then another one too, when we're talking about leptosporosis and
other diseases like lime limping or lameness is one, and
so that's always hard for a dog that's been hunting
because oftentimes owners just think that they got hurt, or

(22:34):
they got injured, or they tweet something while they were
so obviously rest would be what you would want to
do for a little bit of time afterwards. But if
that lameness comes back or persists, that could be an
indication that we have one of those two things going on,
or if we have a more serious infection with either
one of those. The dog that doesn't want to eat

(22:55):
is really just kind of overall not feeling well. Would
be an indication that you should come see me or
someone like me.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
Well with some of that camera, can the can the
dog pick it up? Pick a number of these up
from other diseases and how treatable are they or from
other dogs?

Speaker 2 (23:16):
And how treatable are they?

Speaker 5 (23:17):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Good question.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
Yeah, So lime disease is one that actually is only
dog specific. So each dog that has lime disease has
to be bit by a tick that has that bacteria
and then it gets spread to them, so that one
can't be spread.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Dog to dog.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
But when we talk about kennel kennel cough, when we
talk about lepto, all of those are really contagious between
other dogs. And actually another thing to get worried about
with lepto is that it can spread to humans too,
So it could be spread from your dog to you,
but it also you could be exposed to it if
your dog is in that environment when you're hunting, you

(23:58):
might be as well. So it's one of those that
I was just reading the other day that leaptos process
is one of the most commonly passed diseases from dogs
to humans.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
So interesting, you know, that makes it differ they try
to sweat something out. That makes quite a difference too.
It shook to people. The other thing that comes to mind, Cameron,
are ticks. You mentioned ticks before with limes, but ticks
can can. Ticks are somethings that's off in front and

(24:32):
center on a lot of people's minds, dog owners' minds.
What things are, What diseases, if any, are transferred from
ticks to dogs.

Speaker 5 (24:42):
Yeah, that's a great question. So lime is the one
that most people are going to be aware of. The
lime disease is a big one. That's the one that
when we think about dogs with lameness, you get a
little bit worried about. But the more serious thing about
lime disease, why you're be they're going to be pushing
you to do oral flee in ticks and to do

(25:03):
your lime vaccine is that lime can cause a very serious,
oftentimes fatal kidney infection. It's rare that it does occur,
but when it does happen, there's really nothing that we
can do for them besides intense hospitalization. With ivy fluids
and things like that for a long period of time.

(25:23):
So that is why when they say they want you
to do all those things, it's because if they do
get that kidney infection, there's really not a lot that
we can do as vets to help them. So lime disease.
The next one that is not as common here, but
if you're traveling down south to hunt, is called Erlikia.
Are Likya is another tick born disease spread by similar

(25:45):
ticks as our lime diseases, so deer ticks and things
like that causes similar symptoms. It causes other kind of
more serious diseases that we get worried about, but thankfully
up here that's not something we commonly see. Honestly, the
Arelichia cases that I have to treat are from dogs
that get rescued from like Texas or Georgia that come

(26:08):
up to Minnesota to get adopted out. And then the
last one that's actually, according to the last sort of records,
has actually surpassed lime disease in the state of Minnesota
is called anaplasma, So the same thing. It's a bacteria
spread by a tick that fit your dog, and then
once it bites the dog, it goes into the bloodstream

(26:31):
and it likes to go to two different places. It
likes to go to the joints like it like lime disease.
So we can never really tell just on exam whether
your dog has lime or anaplasma. So that's why we
do those testings to figure it out. So it likes
to go to the joints. But then the other problem
with antaplasma is it likes to go to a thing
called the platelets and the blood and the platelets are

(26:53):
there to help with clotting. So when your dog gets
a cut, those clotting, those platelets that are there to
help stop the bleeding as fast as they can. And
so what we get is that we get not enough
platelets in the body when we have anaplasma, and that
give be something that can be fatal. I've actually this
year we've actually had three or four cases of the

(27:16):
more serious type of anaplasma that we've had to hospitalize
the patients and really get after all the underlying causes
for them.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Now you mentioned the oral tick meds. I'm thinking that
those are the pills that are available through your ve
through yourself or other veterinarians that dogs can take and
not the topical meds.

Speaker 5 (27:44):
Right right, So unless your dog has previously had seizures
or been diagnosed with seizures, we do recommend using that
oral fly and tick product because what that's going to
do is kill that take before they can transmit anything
bad to your dogs. So the other thing is that
when you have the oral flee in ticks, you're still

(28:05):
probably going to see live ticks on your animal before
they bite the dog. But once they bite the dog,
those ticks should die immediately. I do have some hunting
clients that what we do because they also they would
like to repel the ticks too, is that they will
use the topical flea and tick product too, So thinking

(28:26):
about options like Vectra or Frontline in conjunction with their
oral flea and ticks so that we get the fast
killing time, but then we also get the repellency, because
obviously we don't. I hate bugs. So even seeing the disgusting, well.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
We're I'm out of time camera, and I didn't want
to be out of time because I had other questions
for you.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
But I promise it.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
I promised, I promise it would go fast, and it did.
And well, one more thing I've got one more question.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Dogs eat.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
I don't know how come, but dogs eat deer poop
like it's candy, And is that going to hurt them?

Speaker 5 (29:13):
Typically not so usually that's going to pass right through.
But what we get worried about is parasites that come
from the poop from the deer. So making sure that
your dog is routinely dewormed is something to think about,
or at the very least doing your year leaf sequel
testing when you're at the vet to make sure that

(29:33):
we don't have any of those parasites transmitted through. But
most of the dogs that are out hunting have iron guts,
so usually it's not going to cause any sort of
GI upset or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Cameron, fantastic, Thank you so much for agreeing to come on.
You did an awesome job and it's so good. I
hope you don't mind if I call you again sometime.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
No, that's just fine. It's good to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Billy, same here, Cameron, have a wonderful.

Speaker 6 (30:04):
Day you see.

Speaker 7 (30:06):
Bye bye bye bye.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Now that's Cameron Gallenberg from Barrington Oaks Veterinary Hospital. Extremely
knowledgeable and knows what she's talking about, So think about
some of the things if you own a dog, if
you're going to own a dog, or planning to own
a dog, or would like to own one, and I

(30:29):
guarantee once you own one, you'll never be without it too,
when it comes to hunting and buddies, and they're with
you all year long, and hunting is a small part
of the year, but it's an important part for you
and the dog. We're going to take a pause and
we'll come back with mister Tom Docan right after this.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
We're back. I'm starting to see some a little bit.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
I can see the lake now, but that's about all.
I think you would be hard pressed if you're waterfowling
to differentiate the difference between male and female.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
And you need to know that. Mm hm, you really do,
especially when it comes to Mallard's Yes.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
But I think our next guest is here too, because
he and his wife Tina are out in the duck
blind as we speak.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
So this is.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
This is kind of neat because I was there last
weekend and those folks are there right now. Tom, good morning, sir,
Good morning, Billy. Well is it dark out where you are?

Speaker 7 (31:55):
Well? It is, Yeah, we got a beautiful day coming
that's that son. You can kind of tell it's wanting
to come up over the horizons, clear sky. So it's
going to be it's going to be a great day
on the prairie for sure. You don't even have to
be able to get a duck to be able to
make it fun.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
I was just gonna say that, Tom, I've been there,
and I mean, that's a this is the best part
of the day.

Speaker 7 (32:20):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
It last weekend when we were out, it was full,
the sky was full of stars, and I'm standing there
with the boys and looking skyward and I'm thinking, man,
you're just a speck of dust, buddy, you just see
you're something significant. It's just a wonderful, wonderful feeling.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Is this your opening?

Speaker 7 (32:43):
No, No, it's been open for a little bit here.
Now it's you know, goose hunting open.

Speaker 5 (32:50):
You know.

Speaker 7 (32:50):
A while back early Goose and had some friends say that,
you know, I said, well, did you see any ducks
they're hunting over a wheat field to cut you know,
combine wheatfield. Sure, And they said, yeah, you know, we
had flocks of ducks work in that wheat. So it's
good to see we're hunting on water this morning. So

(33:10):
you know what it's like putting decoys out and watch
them bob around, and you know, the whole thing is good.
You know, you got to bring a thermoce of coffee
with you. It's quite a show.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
It's phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
Tom and a couple of years ago, my youngest son
and I went out and I let him set the
decoys and carry them out.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
I wasn't learning waiters, And.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
When he got done, I could hear him splashing and things.
He thought they were way out in the slough. It
got light out and they were right next to shore.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
He was just crushed.

Speaker 7 (33:47):
Oh yeah, been there, done that.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
I know me too.

Speaker 7 (33:55):
Yeah, so we're Yeah, it's just something about just something
about these sunrises. You know, up in the Midwest or
the central part of the US, it's going to be
you know, you gotta enjoy it while you can because
November hits it. You know, you never know what you're
gonna get as far as the weather. You might be
froze up. So they're when a duck just right past us. Yeah,

(34:17):
we're not obviously not hunting yet. It's half hour before
sunrise here, so yeah, we're just taking in the show.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
And you know that that morning when the when the
wings whistle overhead and in the darkness, Oh, that's just
to die.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
That's wonderful.

Speaker 7 (34:34):
Sound sounds like a couple of duck hunters talking here.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Oh gosh, well now that uh, now that we know
where you are, is Tina ready and is she anxious
to go to every every duck hunter is this time
of day?

Speaker 5 (34:56):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (34:56):
Yeah, you don't have to ask for twice if you
were going to go out in the morning. She's up
and adam and got everything loaded up and ready to go.
She's right here by me. So we're being able to
share this again, which is really great. You know, we
talked about this in the past. If you have the
opportunity to have wife, girlfriend, or your husband or whoever

(35:19):
with you when you're doing this, it just makes the
experience that much better.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
It does.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
It does, And you said earlier, Tom, it's not so
much the shooting or anything else, but it's the experience,
and that's pretty special. And there's only so many experiences
a person has to go around, and I think that
hunting and duck hunting is probably one of the more

(35:47):
special ones because of the way it begins and oftentimes
for me anyway, my morning hunt is done by about
nine to ten o'clock in the morning. Do your birds
keep flying after that?

Speaker 7 (36:01):
Well, this time, y're not really. You know, you start
getting when it's really getting cold and all the crops
are out right now, they're just combining beans and once
that corn comes out and it's cold, they got to
get moving. So a lot of times they'll go out
to feed and then they're going to come back to water,

(36:22):
you know, probably around ten o'clock or eleven o'clock, but
it depends on the time of the year. Right now,
you know, that first half hour is always seems to
be the best.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Yeah, and you're in South Dakota, correct. I should have
I had mentioned that out on the prairie, it is a.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Beautiful place to be. It's just so special. I can't
tell you about it.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
With that being said, Tom, when you're on the prairie
like that, I'm assuming you're probably hunting private ground too.

Speaker 7 (36:55):
Right, Yeah, But you know, really in South Dakota there's
so much walk in area that has slews on it,
nice sized bodies of water, so over here, you know,
they're really working to add more access so it's good.
And then waterfall production areas all of those things, and

(37:16):
then you know hunting pressure, you know, non resident hunting
pressure is is you know part of it. A lot
of people like to come over here and experience it too.
If you draw a license, you know, it's a ten
day it's a ten day permit, so normally opening weekend,
and then you know early part of that, you know

(37:38):
there's going to be more activity as far as hunters.
But tell you what, we were out this last week
and we heard one shot, you know, way way way
out in the distance, so it kind of gives you
an idea who might be out there, and also tells
you you know, we're early seasons, so the birds are
a little bit unpredictable.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
Yeah, how many dogs you have with us with you
guys this morning.

Speaker 7 (38:03):
Well, we've got Gabby with us. That's Tina's dog. She's
sitting right on a dog stand right next to me
right now. Then Lucy, we kind of switch them off
a little bit. Lucy, she's our two year old labrador.
She'll go out, you know, so we kind of rotate
that back and forth. You know, hunting two dogs, duck hunting,
you get into the competition factor and yeah, they want

(38:26):
to you know they want to make the retrieve. So
having your dog honor another dog, yeah, we can do that.
It's not a problem. But you know, this time of year,
one dog is more than enough.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Yeah. I totally agree.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
And I know last last week when we were out
and we had Eric's dog as golden retriever, and man,
you know, to see your dog or somebody that you
care about's dog make some of the retrieves, that just
makes my day, Tom, I mean, she made. She was
just rockstar on her retrieves, going sometimes two to three

(39:06):
hundred yards to make a retrieve a cripple that they keep.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Diving and coming up, and.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
She just swims in circles waiting for it to come
up and it pops up and then eventually it pops
up if you if it works right, pops up a
little too close and yep, you're coming back in with me.

Speaker 7 (39:27):
Yeah. You know, after doing you know, dog training for
fifty years and doing all of that kind of stuff,
I get it's unbelievable. But I get just as excited
when you're hunting when you knock a bird down. It's
not doesn't have to be you know, super long range,
but knock a bird down maybe thirty four yards out there,
dog picked up, comes back in. It's it's still special.

(39:51):
Which boy, I'm glad for that.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Yeah, I I oh, I am too, I mean I
really am. And yeah it's cool. So if people have
hunted last week and there's some things that they had
thought that they had down with their dog, as far
as maybe sitting and waiting, and it turns out in

(40:16):
the heat of the moment it wasn't final because the
dog broke, or is that something that you should go
back and work on now, or is that something that
is not really you're going to have to take more
time than just go back and refresh.

Speaker 7 (40:38):
Yeah, I think if you ahead of time, you know,
let's say you're out throwing dummies and doing some of
those things in the summer months, and then adding a
gun you know, a gun shot. I mean, that's one
more thing that just sets them off. So those are
things that you should be doing in the summer months
for steadiness. And then you get to the hunting season.

(41:00):
Sure see what your dog is lacking if they know,
if they know the commands to begin with, but just
aren't following them. Yeah, in between hunts, you know, be
training specifically. Look at what an issue was and then
start working on that because you got you know, normally speaking,
if you're going on weekends, you got like four or

(41:22):
five days to brush that up. But breaking is probably
the number one thing for duck dogs. They get so excited.
And I know a lot of times what we'll do
is if we have a bird down on the water
and it's not going to drift away, it's just it's
just laying out there, might make the dogs wait ten
to fifteen minutes before we'll let them go out, and

(41:47):
that way they don't you know, get to the point
where they go gunshot, I'm gonna get sent immediately, and
then the next step from that is gunshot, I'm gone.
So a lot of this has to do with preseason training.
But if you have a dog that's been steady in
the past, yeah, definitely. You know, all these sports teams,
you know, they play the game on the weekend and

(42:08):
then they go to practice again. You know, they're back
on practice, they're seeing what kind of things you don't
need to be worked on. Dog trains a lot the same.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
You know, that's an interesting way to think about it,
because I hadn't very honestly, I hadn't thought of it
that way, but makes all the sense in the.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
World, too much sense for this old guy. I just
it's gold common, but I don't have a whole lot
of that.

Speaker 7 (42:37):
Yeah, it's more than anything else. Whatever you practice, that's
what you're going to end up with when you're in
the blind. And keep in mind a lot of people.
You know, we have a retriever here today, but you know,
you go out, it hasn't started here yet, but you
go out and pheasant hunt and it's a flush. You know,
they give a chase and you know, and what happens

(42:59):
is you get a dog that they hear the gunshot.
They're used to running, you know, running to that bird
while they're on the move. So now you're asking them, okay, gunshot,
you have to sit in the blind and not go.
So you know, you have mixed messages there. But hey,
they're more than capable of being able to do both.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. It's the it's.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
The hunter that oftentimes can't do can't be versatile enough.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
And I put myself in that category too.

Speaker 7 (43:32):
Well, think about you're trying to shoot and then you're
trying to, you know, keep a dog steady at the
same time. But we have a youngster, you know that
we're just kind of bringing up. But they're you know,
they could go in the duck blind potentially. Just put
a lead on them, you know, just put a little
six foot lead on them, and we'll always have on
the first duck hunt, we'll always have a somebody with

(43:56):
us that can shoot, and you know, just pay attention.
Then I could pay attention to the dog and make
it a positive experience because you know, every time they
go out, they break, and if they get disciplined for breaking,
pretty soon you've taken that joy, you know, totally away
from the dog. So it just depends on age. Gabby

(44:17):
right now is four, so our expectations on her, you know,
from the time that she was probably a little over
a year and a half. You know, this is how
we're going to do things. And you know, hunting is
kind of like game day.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah it is game day, it really is.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
It's time to shine then, and yeah, Tom, we have
to take a pause. Can you stay with me for
another segment? Absolutely wonderful. I don't mean to take you
away from a hunt, my friend, But.

Speaker 7 (44:51):
Still too early to be shooting.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
We're good okay, all right, well that's that's important. And
I can oh, Tom, just thinking about you being there,
it's so cool.

Speaker 7 (45:04):
It's just so.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
Anyway, we will take a pause and be back with
more with Tom Doc and right after this Tom dock
and from the duck blind.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Okay, we'll be right.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Back two minutes after the hour of seven o'clock on
a fan outdoor Saturday. I am Billy Hildebrand, and we

(45:37):
have achieved some light in this day.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
I can now see the water, see what's going on,
and the the yard lights across the lake are becoming
dimmer and dimmer, and it's just turning into a real
nice day, cloudy but nice day.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
And our guest is mister.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
Tom Takin, who is docan who is out hunting or
right now as we speak with his wife Tina, and
they're awaiting the time where they're able to shoot. Tom,
how much time do you have before shooting time begins
out in South Dakota.

Speaker 7 (46:22):
We have no more time. Seven o two, seven oh two.
Tita's got her gun ready, dog's ready. So we're yeah,
that sun's gonna come over the horizon. Actually this morning
we're going to be looking into the sun but uh,
I love those sunrises. I just do. It's just part

(46:43):
of this whole thing. So yep. So if you hear
some shooting, uh, that's what's gonna happen. We've had some
ducks fly by here kind of singles, uh, you know,
flying up and down. We're kind of on a channel
that is that goes into a main lake channel probably
seventy five yards wide, you know what. We kind of

(47:06):
count on as them coming up and down this channel.
So yeah, but we already had one land like, you know,
ten fifteen feet from us in the declay, So that
was fun.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
It's always fun sometimes. Yeah, it's just more fun than
other times sometimes. And then when when they discover you're
you're there, it's just kind of a panic situation where
they're getting the heck out of Dodge right then.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
But and I hate to take you away from hunting, Tom,
but I well, feel free to drop the phone and
I'll just jabber on. If you've got to pick your
gun up and shoot, I don't mind.

Speaker 7 (47:47):
Yeah, Tina's got us covered. She's got covered right now.
She's a really good shot too, So you know there's
this time of year, you know she's out at least
with her dog. You know, almost every day, you know,
whether it's just sitting in the blind and and maybe
something flies by, it doesn't. If it's soon as peasant opens,

(48:09):
then it gets busy duck hunting first thing in the morning.
You know, pheasants open at around ten o'clock and make
for a busy day. And if you wanted to sit
in the deer stand for archery anyways, you have a
full day of things that can happen, you know, Dutch
in the morning, pheasants in the afternoon, you know, deer

(48:31):
you know in the evening. So yeah, that's that's our
social schedule for this time of year.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
I love it.

Speaker 8 (48:40):
Well, you know, I always have I when it's pheasant
hunting time, Tom, I always you know, starting we started,
as you know, we start at nine o'clock in Minnesota,
and I always have visions.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
Of, uh, we're gonna walk all day and we're gonna
we're gonna get this in the golden hour right at
the end, it's gonna be awesome. And invariably by one o'clock,
i'm pretty much two o'clock, I'm pretty much all in,
and the day is probably close to over for this guy,
it's just but there's a everybody has that, that thought

(49:15):
that they're gonna they're gonna just they're gonna do great,
and then it's gonna walk all day and they're just
I just don't have enough fat gas in the tank.

Speaker 7 (49:23):
Well, hopefully as we get older and smarter, we picked
the times a day where the birds are gonna be
a little more predictable. You know, they're gonna first thing
in the morning, their k one landed right in the decoys.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
I don't hear any blastom.

Speaker 7 (49:39):
You're you're gonna.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
There goes Yuh do we score again?

Speaker 5 (49:52):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (49:52):
Yeah, So we're gonna let that. We're gonna let that bird,
you know, sit out there. It's not going anywhere. Uh
then yeah, is Gabby you know tuned in right? Oh again,
Fina again, Sina again, No, you're looking over it again.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Has he expired yet?

Speaker 7 (50:38):
That was just five hundred and sixty three dollars worth
of shotgun shells. It has now, but it was it
was kind of again, honey boy, this is tough.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
They're hard to kill in the water. Tom.

Speaker 7 (50:54):
They just all right, I'm gonna send the dog Cabby
that we might have a little lip. Birds hit pretty good.
So I don't think we're going to have a big chase.
But she's out there swimming after it. We'll see. You're
getting the play by play from the duck play.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
I love it.

Speaker 7 (51:15):
Yeah, she's got it, good girl, all right, she's got
it all right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
I just saw a couple of mallards wing by it.
I caught my eye on.

Speaker 7 (51:28):
Yeah, this this one looks like a teal out there
that she's coming back with. But you know, really right now,
this time of year up here, you know, the weather wise,
we still have blue wings you know that are they're
kind of early migrators. And then those little green wings, boy,
they'll be right at ice up.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
And still we got here.

Speaker 7 (51:52):
Yeah. Blue wing just came in with it and said
on her dog stamp. Yeah, so then those green wings
are you know, they're more of a late season bird.
Seemed to be out here anyway. But uh, you know,
as soon as that weather kind of changes, we're going
to have we're gonna have these blue wings kind of
you know, head the south. So it's nice to have
these little birds you know, around right now. Plus they're

(52:12):
really good on the table.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
I was just gonna say that, Tom, they're one of
the few birds this time of year that at least
in Minnesota that are all feathered out and there's no
pin feathers in them.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
They're just as clean as a whistle.

Speaker 7 (52:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's you know, these birds head down,
they get down to Texas and you know, it doesn't
take much to get them to move. And you know,
sometimes they wonder if they're just moving on the moving
on the clock, or they're moving on the weather. But
you know, anything that we can do right now is
kind of nice early season. Anyways, no mosquitos or mosquitos

(52:46):
this morning to speak of. I had a bunch of bugs.
I had my head layup on and that was just okay.
Everybody run to the light. So we got a really
nice breeze here this morning. Just kind of just a
perfect idea.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
Well do you keep the do you keep the wind
at you're back with Decoy's or doesn't Doesn't it make
a lot of difference.

Speaker 7 (53:09):
Yeah, I want to I want the dog, I want
the ducks, you know, gonna come in, They're gonna land
against the wind or that would be first choice. Second
choice would be a crosswind yep, you know, if it's
if it's down wind. You know it's not going to happen.
So those are things that need to be thought of.
And nowadays, go on the phone, you know, if you're

(53:29):
getting ready to go out, and then look, it'll give
you the wind direction and if there's gonna be any
changes in it, and that can help you decide which
spot you're going to go to.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Yeah, Tom, I thought of you.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
I was reading the post on social media and it
was a man that owned a Brittany and he had
been throwing dummies for it and uh, and the way
it sounds, I thought that the dummies and everything was
good until he shot and he was looking for when

(54:02):
then the dog decided it didn't want anything to do
with it, and it took off and went back to
the car. And I thought to myself, man, you just
he was looking for suggestions from people on what to
do and how to fix it. And I thought to myself,
you're probably not going to fix it, buddy, and it's
going to be a sad day when you realize that too.

(54:23):
And he didn't do the burden gun introduction like you
have at your kennel.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
And I think that's such a shame for people.

Speaker 7 (54:34):
Well, it is because it's a man made problem. It's
nothing hereditary, you know. You know, somebody will say, well,
his mother was gun shy, so that's why the puppies
gun chet Well who introduced the mother to the gun?

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (54:49):
Okay, so it's totally man made, and that's why it's
so important. You know, think about that. You can have
a dog that loves birds, all of those things, and
then all of a sudden, you know, you throw that
gun in there. I mean, well, the gun is an
offensive noise anyways, but you got to get your dog
tuned into I want to hear that noise, yeah, because

(55:12):
it means a retrieved So it's it is a shame
because I don't care how well bred dog that you
might have. That's one problem that you know, is really
hard to take care of. And then they can also
get to the point where they're afraid of the sight
of the gun because they know what's going to happen next.

(55:35):
That's a hard rehab thing, you know, to have to
go through. If it best, there you go that I shot.
Be ready again.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
You're a heck of a coach, you know that.

Speaker 7 (55:55):
Again? Honey, one more, one more, I'm gonna send the dog. Yes, Yeah,

(56:20):
that was a hard That was a hard left to
right crosser. He don't them, you know, duck hunter's wife.
Maybe i'll throw this out, you know, especially let's just
say you're hunting over water. Is I want to shoot
number seven and a half or six is at the most.

(56:43):
It's not about knocking them down. It's about being able
to finish them off when they hit the water. And
if you're shooting this is my opinion, now, if you're
shooting fours, you don't have that many pellets to be
able to hit such a small target. Uh on these
Dutch when they're on the water. So there you go.

(57:05):
What a good job that was?

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Huh?

Speaker 7 (57:08):
Yeah, daddy, that's an early season bird out here too.
Quite a few gadwalls. Yeah, boy, that was at of
the shot. I don't know why she needs me here.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Tom, I've got to say something. And this is something
that everybody would should know.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
Tina didn't grow up hunting, didn't Tina didn't grow up
in a hunting family. His wife Tina, and when they
got together, Tom made it a point to introduce Tina
to shooting and introduce her to hunting. So if you're
out there in your spouse or your significant other or girlfriend,

(57:46):
or even a child that's older.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
I know they can learn how to hunt.

Speaker 7 (57:51):
You're not gonna you're not gonna flare them at this point,
so it's not a problem.

Speaker 3 (57:56):
And I just think it's so crucial, and it's such
a wonderful example and why people and how people can
go about introducing somebody. And it's a little bit older
to the sport of hunting and shooting, and I think
it's phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Tom. I thank you for your time, my friend, and
I really do it.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
This is one of the most fun conversations I've had
on the radio.

Speaker 7 (58:24):
All right, us too, So it's so nice to be
able to share the duck line with everybody out there
this morning. You've got one down on the water and
we're gonna let Yeabby go one more time.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Gabby excellent. Well he I wish your success. I wish
your success, and I have a wonderful hunt.

Speaker 7 (58:45):
Tom.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
We'll talk soon.

Speaker 7 (58:46):
I got it all right, Thanks, Billy, nice talking to you.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Yeah, save here, buddy.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
That's Tom Docan and Tina Docan and I've got a
Mallard winging buy right now. Oh goodness. We'll take a
positively back with tackle Terry right after this twenty minutes

(59:24):
after the hour of seven o'clock fan outdoors yep, until
the eight o'clock hour, and then we'll turn it over
to in the zone with Tucker and Sinnecon right after
this tackle.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Well, are you on the water, in the water or
buy the water?

Speaker 6 (59:43):
I can buy the water by not in the water.
We've got wind is pretty trying to pick up down.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
So oh well, the forecast is for up to twenty
five today, Terry.

Speaker 6 (59:53):
Yeah, I even heard now I just looked up and
possibly even higher than that, Bill, thirty to forty.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
Oh my, tomorrow is supposed to be really heavy. But
south wind. Are you on the river?

Speaker 6 (01:00:07):
No, no, I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Oh that helps.

Speaker 5 (01:00:09):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:00:10):
If I was on the river, that'd be a no no, Bill, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, North.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Was all wind.

Speaker 7 (01:00:16):
Bill.

Speaker 6 (01:00:16):
And the water temperature, I know you and I spoke
about this a little bit earlier, but the water temperature
sure jumped up to seventy one degrees.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Well, my gosh, Terry, it's you know, it's hot. I
mean it's.

Speaker 9 (01:00:30):
Supposed to be eighty five today again eighty six, and
it's unseasonably hot. But all of a sudden, well, you
get kind of used to this, and the rude awakening
is going to come next week when it struggles to
get to sixty.

Speaker 6 (01:00:45):
Yeah. Well, you know what, Jared. Thing I noticed Bill
yesterday when I was fishing crappies. The water change. It's
more that turning for that greeny color like you would
see in this I'm not this, you know, not the
algae bloom. Different change from sort of a clearer water,
uh to a greenish tint to it, which I was

(01:01:06):
sort of surprised, But that goes hand in hand with
the water temperatures.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
Well, you know, but here it's a little bit different,
and maybe it's the zebra muscles in the lake, but
it is crystal clear down by the dock, and the
lake is is going down quickly. But as soon as
they decide to lower the lake, which in the middle
of this month they're going to lower it the winter
pool and then it's because there's a dam on the

(01:01:32):
south end of the lake, then it's going to get
really low. And I don't know why they're doing that.
They I thought they quit doing that, but they're talking
about it now.

Speaker 6 (01:01:44):
Yeah. I noticed two that the lakes that I've been
on have dropped in levels and I d of course
to the you know, the weather conditions, but no rain.
But yeah, and they are dropping, there's no question about that.
So and it's I think it's it's making a difference
in the bite.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Oh really, huh.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
I haven't fished. I've been out walking the fields all
this week. But are are you still finding fish?

Speaker 6 (01:02:11):
Yeah? Yes, yeah, I was fishing croppies yesterday and they
were pretty much belly to the bottom Bill, which I
was sort of surprised to see that. But once I
marked them, I did catch them with plastics. There was
the main thing. What I did do, Bill, was I
used a tounch and small jig sixteen downs and then

(01:02:32):
to put plastics and charts. White was the most productive
and I would sort of go in and out of gear,
stop and go, stop and go. That really was a trigger.
Some of these fish just hardy bit whatsoever. You had
a little tension or loaded up the rock tip and
then you'd set. You had a crappy on.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
But on the bottom. That's interesting.

Speaker 6 (01:02:54):
I mean, yeah, they were, and I think it definitely
due to these weather conditions of water. You think about it,
you know, this is sort of to me, it sort
of opposite the fisher's cycle when you go from one
extreme to the other of all of a sudden, getting
the water temperatures getting back to summer temperatures. And I
would have to guess it does do something to the
fish bait.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
Wow, Terry, can you imagine. I mean, they think, well,
it's going into winters getting cooler and cooler, and we
got to do Oh no, it's not, it's hot.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Here we go.

Speaker 6 (01:03:26):
I think that's exactly crank. I think it does do
something to their normal feeding habits and normal locations. But
these fish, like I said yesterday, they were just barely
to the bottom. Very seldom did I see any that
were suspended above the bottom.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
Excuse me.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
We caught Eric and shadd and I caught some walleyes
last weekend, but they were always on jigg and mintal
and the week before we caught them on crank baits.
And it's just it's amazing. I couldn't buy a fish
on a crank bait last week, can Terry, But the
kids caught him.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Then.

Speaker 3 (01:04:03):
It don't take it doesn't take this old guy long
to figure out that I'm doing something that they don't want.

Speaker 6 (01:04:09):
Well, well, I think you're exactly right. You know, that's
where we really have to accept the same thing with bassage,
I couldn't buy a bass on the crank bait. I
had one tick and that was it, so I switched
to plastics. But you know, these we have to accept
these kind of changes. You know how shoes long shoes
stay in a spot. These are all factors we have
to really adjust accordingly. And we just have to keep

(01:04:33):
an open mining cam. I caught it, think out of
the box. I think that's something we have to do
to be successful. For you know, any species fishing, ice
fishing or open water fishing doesn't make any difference.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Yeah, well, how long do you stay in a place
that that uh before when you quit getting bites terry,
before you decide it's time to move.

Speaker 6 (01:04:56):
Well, generally speaking, I'll say in about minutes something of
that area. It's going to be, of course, based on
the location and if I had a little bit of
a tick or a bite or whatever, and then pay
really close to attention what these fish are doing. But

(01:05:17):
generally speaking, about twenty minutes is about it. And then
but once I do feel that there are fish there,
you've got have to have confidence in your presentation and
your technique and then slow down and work very very
much every inch of that area, like yestreay fishing in
the crappies, that really dialed in on these crappies. And

(01:05:40):
then to you know, use, you know, go to you
know four or five, six, seven different baits to see
if you can get a reaction. And then to what
we also have to understand and remember is that we
can always go back to that spot if we have
really good confidence in that location.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Well, Terry, oftentimes fish are going to move with their bait,
with whatever they're feeding. They don't have to move far
when you can't catch them. But if they move ten
fifteen yards and you're fishing right where you did before,
you're not going to catch them because they're not there anymore.

Speaker 6 (01:06:16):
Well, that's exactly right. Yeah, it's one hundred percent crag
that I grew with under That's why you don't casting
angles are so important, Bill. You know, if you're casting, well,
whatever you're casting, you know, if it's krank baits or
even tossing jigs or whatever it may be, or plastic exist,
always cast at a forty five degree angle. Up is

(01:06:36):
what you're now targeting. You're targeting going to the shallow,
mid depth and deep ranges, and so that's going to
give you a big clew as to exactly where those
fish are sitting.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
And one of the other things I discovered in this
body of water anyway, those fish, especially the walleyes panfish too,
are there.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
In the weeds all year. Law.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
As long as you've got green weeds, you could definitely
have fish in that area. They just might be sticking
their nose out a little bit, going out in roaming
just a little bit, but they're going to come back
to green weeds because that's where the bait is.

Speaker 6 (01:07:15):
Well, exactly right, yes, and that you know there again too,
you unite said how many times have no fish and
no bait, no foods, shirts and no fish, And that's
exactly right. That's why you know, official change your angles,
as you mentioned too, because of fishing pressure is one,
weather conditions another, foods are shifts is another, and some

(01:07:36):
these are all factors or fisial change their position in
that water column. And like you said too, if there's
no food there, there's not going to be any fish there.

Speaker 3 (01:07:46):
And the other thing, Terry is I'm not well, it's
no secret that I'm not a fan of trolling, but
I'm not and I love the cast and I think
that's the old bass guy and me and I just
I like doing something and casting affords me that opportunity.
Although there's time that you get your bait down in

(01:08:07):
the strike zone and then it comes back up again
or then with a casting and you've got to cast
it again where it does stay there in a trolling mode.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
But again I get bored silly trolling.

Speaker 6 (01:08:22):
Well, you know, and you know, I understand exactly what
you're what you're staying there. But fishing for you know,
for northern pike and for walleyes, trolling is you know,
definitely at certain times of the year. Is it a
factor all the time?

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:08:37):
But I can remember build an old timer many many
years ago told me about trolling lead corps. That's really
where I learned it from. And he told me he
started trolling lead corps from ice out all the way
up to freeze up and always caught fish. So there's
a lot to be but you know, trolling it almost
to the sensitive work. We can always use it that

(01:09:01):
name or title of finding your fish a location of fish,
And I think that's a big factor.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:09:08):
If then if you catch a ware or whatever it
may be in that specific location, you really need to
dial in on that spot and you know, maybe try
jigs or live aait, rigs or whatever it is to
catch a fish.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
But the other other thing, terry is when when I'm
watching people out here and they're trolling, they might boat
a fish and net a fish, but they just keep
right on going.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
I mean, they just they'd never come back here.

Speaker 6 (01:09:42):
No, I see that so often constantly. Where you really
need to, you know, if you catch a fish. You know,
the same thing with I guess we could really say
with any specie of fish really if you're casting or
whatever it is, you know, if you catch a fish,
you need to work that area thoroughly. You know, like

(01:10:02):
with throating, maybe you want to drop down the jig
in the minto or a crawler on a rig or
whatever it may be and worked at very very thirty.
Same thing with your bass fishing or weather. I know
you do this too. If you pick up one bass
in one spot, you don't necessarily want to pack up
and leave. You got to work that area very thoroughly.
And if you do that and concentrate, maybe slow down,

(01:10:23):
speat up, or whatever it is, you're going to be
much more successful. It's amazing how you can catch a
lot of fish out of one small area.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
I agree with you, Terry completely. I mean, that makes
all the difference in the world.

Speaker 6 (01:10:38):
But it doesn't the same thing with crappie fishing. Yesterday, Bill,
you know, once I dived into exactly where these fish
were at and billy to the bottom. I worked a
small area to catch fish. So here again too, you
do not have to travel the whole lake or run
a gun approach to try to catch fish. Sure, there's
going to be time frames that maybe you need to

(01:10:59):
do that under most conditions. You know, one fish is
definitely going to be an indicator where there may be
more fish.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
Yeah, I agree, Terry.

Speaker 3 (01:11:09):
So what's your plan now when the when the weather
cools off.

Speaker 6 (01:11:14):
Well, I'm still going to go fishing, Bill, I'm going
to I think I'm going to dial in a little
bit more on maybe bass fishing or somewhat uh and
then uh, I do some more crappy fish crappy fishing
as fut Bill.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Oh, yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 6 (01:11:30):
You know, it's just you know, it's a change of pace,
I guess, and then once it really cools down, the
boat goes gets put away or boats get put away.
Then I'll do some shore fishing before ice forms.

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:11:49):
How many boats are being stored already?

Speaker 3 (01:11:53):
Well, there's this. I've seen one boat going by right now.
I see it, and that it's the only boat I've seen.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
This morning, Terry. On this lake.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
I mean, there just aren't people out there. And usually
if you drive by the access there might be two
maybe three traders at the most.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
People are hanging things up and they're changing what they're doing.

Speaker 6 (01:12:16):
Oh, there's no question about that, you know. I've seen
a boat yesterday. He must have been win orizing himself
where he unloaded the boat, left the trailer and the
water and ran around the lake a couple of times
and then loaded back up again. That was an individual
that was doing historie himself. But there's a lot of
boats and storage already.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
Yeah. I agree, Terry. It's some time of year, my friend.

Speaker 6 (01:12:38):
But it's too ready to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:12:40):
Bill, I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (01:12:43):
Well, we're gonna we're gonna let you go fish and Terry,
and we'll talk again in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 6 (01:12:48):
My friend, sound great. You have a great day, Bill,
and tell all our listeners don't put your boats away.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Okay those are words from tackle Terry. We'll take a
pause and be back, I think with Bob Saint Pierre,
who has had his boat in storage for a long
time already, probably since July, and I think he's up grouse.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
Shutting as we speak.

Speaker 3 (01:13:12):
We'll be right back with one more segment before we
say Tata that's coming.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
Up right around the corner.

Speaker 3 (01:13:35):
You know what the music means, so I don't even
have to say it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
But I'm not gonna.

Speaker 3 (01:13:40):
In fact, let's welcome in our next guest who's bailed
on us for the last three weeks. And you know
who he is, just by the chortling in the background.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
Laughter. He eats the way for him. Just well, how's
a hunting?

Speaker 4 (01:14:09):
The hunting's been wet and the hunting has been hot,
so I you know, I haven't hunted yet this week,
but as soon as I get DoD I'm going to
try to squeeze in forty minutes a hunting before it
gets too warm. This morning, oh my yeah, yeah, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
I have been out every day this week and we
get out. I've got Rex here and also Brie of course.
But it's uh, it's been fun. But yeah, it's a
little different when the dogs are down in the grass
and you have to be aware of that too, because
it's not good for the dog.

Speaker 4 (01:14:52):
Yeah, well, even you know, in the Grouse Woods. I'm
in northern Wisconsin this morning, got here last night, I'm
gonna I'm gonna get out, and the fall colors are
dramatically different than they are in the Twin Cities. But
the temperatures, unfortunately, are not dramatically different. It's you know,
it's maybe maybe four or five degrees cooler up here,

(01:15:17):
which you know, when it's ninety in the Cities and
it's eighty five up here, we're not going to be
able to hunt in the jungle that is still the
Grouse Woods.

Speaker 7 (01:15:26):
For very long. But it is.

Speaker 4 (01:15:29):
It's it just hit darn darn beautiful setting. It's a
little a little too warm for my case for October,
but it is beautiful. As these leaves turn.

Speaker 3 (01:15:40):
Well, see, you're getting something you deserve now. And that's
just that's just my take on it too. Because you've
been babbling about the fall for the since July, and.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Yeah, that's kind of poetic justice.

Speaker 4 (01:15:58):
This this historically is my favorite weekend of the year,
this October, third, fourth, fifth, huh timeframe. And you know,
normally you get that just varying Chris morning at forty
degrees and then it doesn't break sixty five or sixty
all day. Not so much the case this weekend. It

(01:16:25):
feels a little bit more like fourth of July rather
than the fourth October.

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
Just just imagine that you're hunting on the fourth of
July and that'll make it all better.

Speaker 7 (01:16:35):
Bang bang, Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
What are you finding as far as numbers of grouse, Bob? Yeah,
I know it sound but there just sound of flushes.

Speaker 4 (01:16:50):
Yeah, I definitely think bird numbers or grouse numbers rough
grouse numbers are down with the cavvy.

Speaker 7 (01:17:00):
Yeah that you know.

Speaker 4 (01:17:01):
I in a normal year, you can hunt majority of
the day and work hardcover. And I've either been hunting
in rain or I've been hunting you know, very shortened
abbreviated watch because of the heat. So you know, you
got to take my prediction that things are down with

(01:17:23):
a little bit of a grain of salt, because I
don't have a normal comparable amount of time in the
woods that I would at you know, at this time
a year before or two years before, but generally speaking,
you know, I've been to the gun Flint and I
definitely think bird numbers are down there compared to you know,

(01:17:43):
just absolutely incredible numbers there last year, the last two years.
I've been to northern Wisconsin just for a day at
this point and here this weekend. And I don't have
a huge, you know, a huge.

Speaker 6 (01:17:57):
Body of.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
Data to tell you in northern Wisconsin, but I would
I think they're down, but not dramatics. Say, the Gunflint
felt dramatically down. And then I've unted in hull Kindada,
northeastern north central Minnesota, the the Magi, the Shanglatana, the
Hinckley area, and that's down, but maybe the least amount

(01:18:24):
of down compared to the other places I've been. But
you know, I've been three places for very minimal amount
of time compared to normal. So I'm still optimistic. But
I do think rough grouse numbers are down. Sharp tailed
numbers out west pretty pretty strong. It's not you know,

(01:18:46):
we get those June rains and they've had a lot
of hail, and I thought numbers would actually be a
little bit worse. And you know, honestly, things are pretty
good for Sharpie's and the Dakotas, and as we approached
as hunting season opening up next weekend, I continue to
hear really positive things. So fingers crossed, the best is

(01:19:09):
yet to.

Speaker 3 (01:19:09):
Come well from a person, and it's not like me,
but I'm trying to get my body in shape just
a little bit. I've been out for the last five
days and five things, and I've been pleasantly surprised with
the bird numbers that I'm seeing flushed. But the other

(01:19:33):
thing is, I have yet to see a colored out
bird unless all I'm putting up our hands, and I
know one is.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
A rooster because I heard it cackle.

Speaker 3 (01:19:44):
But the other thing I'm so impressed with Bob is
that backing. For one dog to back another one, it
must be instinct, because I've had that happen a couple
times where Rex will be on a point, Brie will
come up and back him, and he'll move in a

(01:20:04):
little bit as a bird moves, and she backs him
again and Rex does exactly the same thing with bre
And really it's I'm having such a good time.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
I mean, it's really really fun.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
It's remarkable how much of that hunting skill, whether it's
backing or pointing, is just bred into them, particularly really
good lines of dogs like the ones that you have,
you know, where they have a history of being strong
bird hunters and pointing and backing or honoring. It's like

(01:20:43):
magic when when not only are they working with you,
but they're working with another dog. Yeah, it's that's pretty special.
I'm really looking forward to joining you for the as
an opener. Your your report is very consistent with what
I'm hearing from you know, the southern part of Minnesota.

(01:21:04):
People are very pleasantly surprised with bird numbers, not because
of the winter. We all know we had a pretty
mild winter, so adult carryover of birds was likely to
be good, and the spring was pretty good until we
got those heavy rains in June that come right at
the peak of the hatch. And there's a lot of

(01:21:26):
fear about the impact that those heavy rains we're going
to have on young chicks. But as you've indicated, I
think a lot of birds either were hatched before then
and you know we're looking like adult birds now, or
as you as you're talking about there there was a

(01:21:49):
late renesting attempt, and there's gonna be some puffballs out
there on the landscape when they flush in front of
your pointers this next weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:22:00):
Well, the other thing, Bob, is that when I'm walking
in blue stem and there's an awful lot of blue
stem that's about chest high or a little higher than
waist high, I lose my dogs all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:22:16):
We need to get you a GPS collar.

Speaker 2 (01:22:18):
I just I lose them all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:22:21):
And I can tell where they are because there's birds
that are are flushing, but they do come, Thank God,
they come in and check on me. And as I'm
as I'm walking, I remember Snap doing that. She'd bail
into russias, into cattails, and all of a sudden she'd

(01:22:44):
pop out someplace and look and see where we are.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
And then back in she goes. I mean, it's incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
Yeah, this will be a special year for you with
you know, with NAP's departure and now it's kind of
a new era for well, new era for both of
us with young dogs that need to become the eighteen now.
But that's fun and it brings a new form of joy.

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 3 (01:23:17):
It's really fun. And as I was standing in the
duck blind last week with Eric and Chad. I had
forgotten I hadn't hunted ducks for a long long time,
And I know it's not one of the things that
you dwell on a lot, but I had forgotten the
morning and waiting for the sun to come up and
seeing that little hint of orange. Oh my goodness, gracious,

(01:23:43):
I like.

Speaker 4 (01:23:43):
To look at the inside of my eyelids at four am.

Speaker 7 (01:23:46):
But I'm glad you had a good time.

Speaker 4 (01:23:50):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:23:50):
I do the same thing about seven to eight o'clock
that night.

Speaker 4 (01:23:56):
Yeah, it's a wonderful time of the year. Whether it's
whether it's docs geese, rough grouse, getting out on the prairie,
chasing sharp tails, pheasants, or if you're big game honor
chasing bugling elk. It's pretty magical.

Speaker 10 (01:24:15):
One thing I don't think I talked to you about
it saw just a monster moose when we are up
the gun Flint too, and talk about just an incredible
creature that you know, we're just so I'm just so
thankful that it's we still have populations in Minnesota that
you can on occasion see just a giant bull moose

(01:24:39):
across the road on the gun Flint Trail, and that
was pretty special.

Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
It is pretty special.

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
And you kind of take it for granted that you
see a picture of a moose, but when you see
them in real life, it's it's an incredible animal. And
they're large, really, I mean it's bigger than a Ford Bronco.

Speaker 4 (01:24:59):
I mean they are.

Speaker 7 (01:25:02):
Enormous.

Speaker 4 (01:25:04):
I mean I have seen them. I've only seen them
on occasion. Well, I guess it's just one time when
I've been out hiking and across the trail in front
of me, and that'll, uh, that'll make your poker a
little bit. That's pretty incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
Yeah, I realized that.

Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
In fact, that Dave Simonette was there, he'd be looking
for a tree.

Speaker 4 (01:25:32):
Go we got out run one person, right.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
That's right, that's all you gotta do.

Speaker 4 (01:25:38):
Speaking of Dave, we did make a huge announcement at
Pheasants Forever yesterday. We're having a third ever concert for
Conservation coming. It'll be the Thursday night, February nineteenth as
we kick off National feather Fest and Coiled Classic coming
back to Minneapolis and features Turnpike Troubadours and Dave's going

(01:26:04):
to be the opening act. And Dave actually wrote co
wrote one of the songs on Turnpike's new album, so
fingers crossed there might be a little collaborative point in
that concert.

Speaker 7 (01:26:16):
But tickets.

Speaker 4 (01:26:17):
Tickets go on sale next Friday, and I just wanted
to call that out because it's there's only twenty one
hundred seats. We're going to be at the State Theater.
Last time Turnpike was here, they played US Bank Stadium,
So I think tickets are gonna sell out pretty quickly.
So if they are a fan outdoors listeners that are

(01:26:40):
big fans of Dave and big fans at Turnpike, you
got to get on the stick next Friday morning to
get tickets.

Speaker 3 (01:26:47):
All right, Then that's Friday morning something you really need
to do. And I have not seen Turnpike, but I
have seen Dave Simonette in concert, and I guarantee you
you if you're talking about a hunter, he is gotten
a bit hard and he.

Speaker 7 (01:27:06):
Is, that's true.

Speaker 4 (01:27:09):
You know, when we took him out for the first time, Yeah,
I think I think he borrowed a shotgun. He took
a hunter safety, you know, backstage before concerts. And now
he's got two bird dogs, two shotguns, and he's looking
for your days on the road to go hunting in

(01:27:32):
the in the autumn as opposed to, you know, spending
time on stage. We will spend time on stage, but.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
We will see you. We'll see you next week, buddy,
and thanks for joining me.

Speaker 7 (01:27:45):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
Thanks chat, that's Bob Saint Pierre. Hey.

Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
I want to say thank you to doctor Campbell, Cameron Gallenberg,
to Tom Docin and Tina Docin.

Speaker 2 (01:27:54):
And thank you for allowing.

Speaker 3 (01:27:56):
Brett and I to travel with you for Brett Blakemore
my producer, I am Billy hilde Bress.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
Have a great weekend until next week.

Speaker 7 (01:28:04):
Da