Fan Outdoors: Denny Fletcher, Tom Whitehead, Stu Austing

The Captain is back with Bob St Pierre and they’re joined by Denny Fletcher, Tom Whitehead, and Stu Austing!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Feeling from the fish filled Midwest lakes to the deep

(00:19):
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, the Fans Captain Billy Hildegraham.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Good morning, Fan Outdoors, faithful, Good morning to you. Yes,
fifty fifty nine, I mean sixty one seconds, well six
oh one oh five, leave it that way. So it
is early in the morning and it is dark about

(01:13):
twenty one degrees in the North Metro this morning joined
today and one of his well, one of his appearances
before he's gone again. Yes, mister Bob Saint Pierre.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Captain, how are you not bad? You're looking good. I
feel pretty good. I'm you're clean shaven, you're fully clothed,
fully clothed.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, if I go streaking through the neighborhood, have you
ever went streaking all out of the lake.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Okay, I could see that happening. Yeah, and that was
from Skinny dipping streaking right up into the camp. Yeah.
Is that a yearly ritual. I don't know why I'm
going down the show. Yeah, good morning to you all.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
You must have some place to be, uh yeah, anyway, Nah,
well I was looking. I have looked for Tommy George's mermaid,
and none to be found.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Not on socc lake. You need another bush light. Yeah,
that's right. Sometimes they just come out.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'll be I'll beat her with a cannon board light
on the end of the dock. See if she'll come
up in a hand reaches up to grab a different
kind of mermaid?

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, my kind. Anyway. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. How
many days until the cabin opens up? Too many?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, although the winter is we were just talking about that.
All of a sudden, December is, Christmas is almost here, yeah,
and the new year and God Time goes away away
well late Thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
It makes for a very quick Christmas. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, the fall that showed up and then didn't, and
then it went back to winter, and then we had
a little bit of fall, and then overnight we had
winter arrived.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
It was a the early part of bird dunning season,
so September October just very warm. Yeah, you know. I
mean our grouse camp, annual grouse camp first weekend of October,
we hit ninety degrees. Yeah, I mean that's a very shortened,
very shortened days being able to get out hunting. Yep.

(03:52):
But now now it's the other end of the spectrum
very quickly. Yeah, it's very cool.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
I mean I've shoveled three or four times already, and
the last yesterday was is a nuisance snow, but a
nuisance enough that you get pretty sweaty pushing a shovel around.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, it does for me. Does make for a nice
holiday season. Yeah. Does you know Christmas with snow brilliant? Yeah?
I agree.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
And the kid's grandkids were there in the house with
a little bit of snow, and they want me to
pull them on a little plastic slide we found in
the garage, and I managed out of that and turned
it over to their dad. So Eric was pulling the
kids on the driveway because he didn't have boots on.

(04:45):
But cleaned another.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Deer last week. You did, Eric did all the work?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Okay, all I ended up doing was well, I got
stuff and got stuff ready and trimmed out a couple
of front shoulders.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Uh, and then he had the rest. Uh what what
the doe box? He's already shot his box. Okay, oh
yeah he shot a dandy. Yeah, he shot a really
nice one. So is he done done? Oh he's got another.
I think he's got a tag.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Left where they were were there hunting and I will
be next week. Uh they're going they that's Chad and
near it are going out and and getting some heated
blinds and he promises me it'll be very comfortable.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
And you're going. So is this down southern Minnesota? You're going?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Not down into the c w D zone. Want one? No?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
No, it's in the southeast, south of south of where
Chad is, but not cw D.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
So that's okay. Well I'm trying to how many years
have you been muzzleoader? Like three years? I think so? Yeah,
I think so. But anyway, Yeah, that'll be fun. Yeah,
it'll be I I you know, I really don't care.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
I don't I don't have this big urge to kill
something and horns or excuse me stand antlers.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Antlers you're looking for freezer freezer meets?

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yes, I am. I could care less about antlers and
all the all so many people that's all they want.
They don't want the rest of it, well bring it on.
In fact, I just picked up some venison from brother
Brothers Meats in Maple Grove and they do.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
It awesome job. There's a lot of people I know
that bring their deer to Brothers.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
They they're phenomenal. God, you walk into that place and
I just I gonna walk out. I could spend it
Buco Bucks. But yeah, it's they do a really really
nice job and they're very, very personable everybody I've met
in there so far, and I've been there for three
years I think now been going in. But I take

(07:05):
the hinds in and I have it, have it brined
and smoked and then shave into just like a sandwich meat.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
It's good. It's It's interesting how different butchers become specialists
in different elements of Like think about von Hansen's in
the venison bacon they've made. There's different butchers around to
have special sausage seasoning your recipes, you know, whether it's

(07:39):
Grunhoffers or flicker and and you know or Brothers. You know,
people get it, get connected to a taste and becomes
part of their tradition.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
I'll tell you what Garfield needs and every you're right,
everybody's got one. But I one of my favorites too,
because I we take Trim into Garfield now thanks to
my sister in law, which would be and from Allen.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Does she listen to the show except once last week
she was busy cooking, but she's listening.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
And but we take that in and the Cheddar summer
sausage that they make is just rockstar best special.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
It's really really good.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
But everybody's got someone they'll probably be passing along.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
That's that's fine.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
And I did, I did get a recommendation, and I
tried some hot dogs one place at a at one place.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Oh no, that's so good.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well I also tried some sausages from Turkey at one time.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
That yeah, upon one of my recommends, and it didn't
turn out. Well, well, no one you got the allans
of it. Yeah, I don't know what happened there. There's
different people that make it in the same the same place.
That's true, that's true. But anyway, it.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Is eight minutes after the hour of six o'clock and
we are going to break just a couple of minutes
or because we're a take you up to to a
sock Center and talk with Danny Fletcher because he said
he is busier and a one handed paper hager.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
What busier than what? A one handed paper hanger? I
don't get that. A wallpaper ha.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Jeez. You should bring a new saying every single show,
we should have a button bar like it. Build this
up because these are these are absolutely gold. A one
handed paper hanger, wallpaper hanger.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
Yeah, I googled it and it actually came up.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
See, I'm not doubting you. I just I didn't understand that.
What was the one years ago? And busier than a
cat full of rocking chairs? A cat cat? Never mind,
We're also going to be We're going to Sock Center,

(10:09):
then to Brainerd.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, and we're going to talk with Tom Whitehead about
some ice fishing.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
And some hunting, and we get to thank him for
some spectacular bacon and both yes he did and it
is absolutely divine. Uh. And also we.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Are going to go to iron the Iron Horse Trading Company, okay,
and talk with mister Stu Austin, the proprietor and gunsmith.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
About your firearms.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Because most of our listening audience is probably done, and
not all of them, but when they do finish? What
should you be doing and concerned about? And we'll ask
Stu about that too.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
You think most people are done hunting? I h I
do because of the attempts. And Alick is on my
phone so she is listen. Good morning Ann. Yeah, it's
good morning An for Aleck. I you know, I don't. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
I suppose it depends on the weather too, But I
think there's an awful lot of people.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah, I think I think you're right. People are and.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Duck hunting for the most part of the state is over,
and that that takes quite a few people. The gun
deer hunting is is ended for most people. Archery is
going on, but that's not most people. Muscle order is
going on, and that's not most people either.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
I don't believe. Yeah, you can shoot three pheasants now. Yeah.
Post December first, grouse hunting is open, but it just
got a lot more difficult. Yeah. With snow on the ground,
they get hard to find and it's hard, hard walking
up doors.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
So let's take that pause a little bit early and
we will come back and chat with mister Dennis Fletcher
at Fletcher's Bait and Tackle after this. When we're back,

(12:41):
I learned just now. When I'm reading numbers, I need
to have my readers because they come out different numbers
when when I don't have.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
Them, makes it hard to call up casts.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Uh you know, yeah, that's yeah, sorry about that.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Everybody, Well we have him. Mister Dennis Fletcher is on
the line.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
And Denny, have you locked the door or are you
letting people come in?

Speaker 6 (13:17):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (13:17):
I haven't. When I opened the door this morning, I
won't be able to talk on the phone because they're
going to come in by the grove.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
Well, there's no open water is there.

Speaker 7 (13:29):
Other than big and little birch a little bit over there.
Other than that, everything's capped here between four and a
half and five and a half inches away, So we're
good to go as far as fishing.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Oh my, okay, is that pretty much all over Denny
or just on the little leggs?

Speaker 7 (13:45):
No, it's pretty much everywhere here. From the reports we
got yesterday, they're going all over the place. And yeah
at the little birch and big birds, you know, those
two legs are always the last to go here. But
other than that, we're good to go up here of
the and people are catching fish.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Well as it's as it hasn't warmed up. We should
be making ice, shouldn't we.

Speaker 7 (14:08):
Yes, we made a lot of ice this week. When uh,
at the early part of the week we had two
inches of ice and now most people are talking five.
So we made three inches of ice in the last
you know, four days or so. So it was cold,
it was it was perfect conditions for making good ice.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Well, that's good. What are people looking for? As far
as bait, we're.

Speaker 7 (14:30):
Selling a lot of shiners, rosy reds and fat hits
for the walleye guys. And there's there's quite a few
people fishing for panfish up up on Sock and upp
in Osikas and over on Hunters Bay and Big Birch Lake.
So it's about half walleye fishermen and about half panfish,
sunfish and crappie fishermen.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Denny, when the when Sock Lake had zero sunfish in it.
That evidently has changed around, hasn't it?

Speaker 3 (14:58):
In a big way?

Speaker 7 (14:58):
This summer. We we saw a big resurgent of sunfish
in this lake. Because of the we've got a fair
amount of weeds back. The DNR has changed their spraying
regiment to where they're not spraying as many weeds, So
our weeds are back, and it's just amazing how these

(15:19):
sunfish and northerns and baths have responded. We've got a
huge population of sunfish that I call them a year
away fish. But we've got a nice population of half
to three quarter pounds sunfish too, So things are looking
really good in that sunfish baths regard.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
And with like those small lakes Faerry and Lily and
Long and those are they are people fishing those yet?

Speaker 3 (15:47):
And are they given fish out?

Speaker 7 (15:50):
Yes, they were on Ferry yesterday, Lily Lake, Maple Lake,
north end of Wosakis. Those people going all over the
place fishing. This ice formation happened so fast this this
year that it kind of got us, had us off
of off guard. We weren't able to get enough bait
for our for our people, and we finally got caught

(16:11):
up yesterday afternoon. So they're catching a lot of a
lot of fish for the for as early as it is.
So early ice fishing is always very very good fishing.
So right now it's a good time to get out
and get a meal of sunfish or a meal of
wallece for supper tonight.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Now it's there walking out, are they not. They're not
driving or wheeling out yet, are they.

Speaker 7 (16:36):
Yeah, we're strictly talking about you know, walking out with
your with your little portable and going out. I don't
recommend any any four wheeler activity until a little bit
later we get another two three inches of ice. And
I'm always a little bit of a more precaution probably

(16:56):
than most people on this early icecuse, even though it's
all you need is find one thin spot and you
could put a put a vehicle, we're a four wheeler
in So I'd wait until midweek next week, and then
by then we should have that six to eight inches
of ice and then they can put them four wheelers

(17:16):
out there.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
All right, Now, is the ice? Is it good ice?
Is it smooth ice? Have you got much snow on it?

Speaker 7 (17:23):
We don't have very much snow. We've had a couple,
we've had two three snow events here, but they've all
been that three quarters of an inch stuff, so then
the wind blew it around a little bit. So we
have very good ice. We don't have very much rough ice.
It's for the most part it smooth ice. It's excellent ice,
and not very much snow cover yet. So I'd say

(17:43):
we probably have maybe an inch and a half or
two inches of snow out there, so it's still going
to continue to make good ice. So right now everything
looks extremely positive.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Denny, I thank you for your time.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
I won't keep you because I know that you are busy,
and if you unlock things, it's it's going to be
probably busier, I'm guessing, but.

Speaker 7 (18:02):
Thank you, bet you bet Thanks mel good lue fishing folks.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
That's Denny Fletcher at Fletcher's Bait and Tackle. And one
of the things I do want to tell you, and
that's a story that Eric waylaid to me last night.
Even though they're fishing on some of the lakes up there,
one of his co workers was down on the Mississippi
River where the duck season is still open, and they

(18:27):
were swabbing for bird flu. Two guys came by and
walked by this DNR person and they announced that they
were going fishing. They were pulling the sled, they had
their gear, and they were they guessed in their sixties,
maybe mid sixties. Went by, and about thirty to thirty

(18:54):
five minutes later, one of them came back in taking
big steps and in a hurry, wanted to know if
he had.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
A rope one of them.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
One of the two went through the ice and he
couldn't reach him. So they had a pulsetrap in the
back of his truck, so he grabbed that, gave it
to him, and then followed him out on the ice,
following the spudbar markers as they were checking going out.

(19:25):
When they got to the ice, he had broken thin ice.
The person that fell in and gotten back to where
he could stand, and it was about chest deep, so
he was on the bottom. However he could, he wasn't
strong enough, wasn't because of the cold. He couldn't get

(19:49):
himself on the ice. He didn't have ice picks, which
everybody should have around their neck on thin ice, and
yours truly doesn't go out on thin ice, not on purpose.
They got a strap to him, got him, pulled him out,

(20:11):
got him to shore.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
He could barely walk.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
His core temperature as the paramedics arrived was eighty six
degrees and the hypothermia was setting in, and they took
him in an ambulance to the hospital.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Now I don't know how it went from there.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
But even though they're fishing places, this ice may not
be safe and you are not hearing a recommendation to
go ice fishing right now from fan Outdoors. Okay, I
just want that to be very clear.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yeah, they both fall in. That's a it's going to
be a terrible story. They'd be dead.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, they'd be dead like the gentleman that went after
the dog, his buddy's dog. And there's not a fish,
nor a bird, nor any piece of game that's worth
dying for. It's all I got to say with that one. Plus,

(21:23):
I'm I'm of the ilk that I need more ice
than I'm not going out and blazing a trail wherever
it is unless it's right in front of the cabin.
I know it's a sandbar, and I know it's only
two feet deep. I also know I ain't fishing there.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
So it's a bit shocking to me that somebody would
go on any sort of moving water right now. The Mississippi.
You know it's yeah, it's it's cold right now, but
it hasn't been that cold for that long. There's, honest
to goodness, some of the some of the.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Guys that are avid anglers, avid ice anglers, they want
to be the first out, and.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
I don't get that they're out in an inch to
inch and a half ice. There's no way on God's
green earth, much less God's whiter that's gonna get this
dude out. I think even up north, didn't. I see
a report of a gentleman that was on the Lake
of the Woods and had you know, the ice break

(22:32):
off and float away, and he had to be rescued.
That happens every year, it does the Superior. Yeah, they
drift away, they get rescued, but all their gear stays
behind it. I guess I too early. Yeah, it is
for me. It is for me.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
So if I go through, I want it to be
real close to shore. And even so, I've walked, I've
gone through ice. I'm sure you have two When we're hunting,
and that initial drop puts your heart right up into
your throat. Yeah, and you can pop most of the time.

(23:13):
He can pop right back out.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
You think about that in a lake situation where you
can't pop right back out. And yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Eric told the story of one of his coworkers who
is now battling cancer. But he's an incredible outdoors people person, incredible.
He looks like Grizzly Adams and they were muzzleoder hunting
and he was walking across ice, and he went through
the ice.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
He used his gun. I think I've told this.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
He used his muzzleoorder crossed the ice and was holding
on to it to keep him afloat, and his couple
of his party came hustling over to it him. And
one of them came over and said, ah, I'll take
your gun. I'll just take your gun. He says, you

(24:07):
will not take my gun.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
And keeping me up right. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
But then I wish I wish him his nickname is
grizz and I wish him all the success battling that
damn disease that anybody can muster, because he is one
man that deserves everything that he can get, as far
as benefits go, and the benefit of the doctors and

(24:38):
the research and the drugs.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Some more time.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yes, let's take that pause, because on our return we'll
be joined by mister Tom Whitehead from the Brainerd Lakes area,
a heck.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Of a fisherman.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
He makes some dandy and maple syrup and some drue bacon,
smoked bacon. Yeah, so we'll take that pause.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
We'll be right.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Backers six thirty seven nineteen right now on Fan Outdoors

(25:46):
we'll be with you until the eight o'clock hour. Bob
Saint Pierre in the studio, I am Billy Hildebrand, giving
my executive producer the wrong numbers to call.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
People two for two.

Speaker 5 (25:58):
Apologize you want in northern Minnesota getting spam called at
six point thirty?

Speaker 3 (26:05):
Was it a two n E number? It was so
good morning, loose, that's fun.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's my fault. I apologize everybody. He'll be Brad put
your day into glasses on.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Oh good morning, ealy.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well never mind, welcome our next guest, because his was
the right number the second time, and that's for sure.
Tom whitehead of the Brainerd Lakes area.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Tom, good morning, sir, Good morning guys.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well it was a wrong number, but this is the
right number, I think, and we're up here.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
We appreciate commute answering to us.

Speaker 8 (26:55):
Who yeah, yeah, thanks for pissing off all my neighbors.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
I am sorry.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Oh old habits my heart, I guess, and I don't
like wearing glasses, but I got a squint anyway.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Where you gonna take us from here? To have no idea?
Let me let me take this opportunity to thank Tom
Yeah for the gift of maple syrup and bacon. It
was fabulous.

Speaker 8 (27:33):
Tom oh, great, glad you.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
It was really really good. It was incredible. Actually, how
much how much work is maple syrup? Because it appears
to be a whole lot of work to get to
get that done in the spring.

Speaker 8 (27:51):
It is, but it's got to be something that you
like to do. I look at as it's it's that
time of year where there's not much going on. You
I used to has ended and Turkey hasn't hasn't begun yet,
so you know, we usually start early March, and I
enjoy you know, I'm one of those people enjoy being
outside doing whatever. So it gets me out there early

(28:11):
in the morning and I sit by a warm fire
all day long, and I honestly I really enjoy it.
But it is a lot of work, is.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
It go ahead? Well, well, I was thinking, you know,
it's probably something that comes up in the springtime as
I like to get into that. Maybe it's a Christmas
gift for somebody. What sort of equipment would a person
need to be ready to roll in the spring?

Speaker 8 (28:37):
Well, I've seen people just do it over a propane
you know, one of those turkey cooker boiler things. It
gets expensive, you know, because you're going to be boiling
for quite a while, twelve sixteen hour days. We do
it over wood simple. You can you can buy a
barrel stove kit and take a fifty five gallon barrel

(28:58):
and cut the holes in it, and we use the
standless steel serving I don't know what they they call
in their pants. You can buy them on Amazon and
you know, get yourself a couple of those and a
bunch of oak or you know, any hardwood, and you know,
just set yourself up. We surround it with concrete blocks
because it holds the heat in better. You know, we've
learned a lot over the years, but you don't need

(29:20):
all that. I mean, it's it's actually could be pretty simple.
You can tap a couple of trees and you could
you could actually do it on your stove in your
house if you wanted to.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Different flavors of syrup. Tom, is that depended on the
tree or is it time of the time of the spring.

Speaker 8 (29:35):
I think it just depends on the season. Last year,
every boil we did was very very flavorful. It changes
throughout the year. You know, your earlier cooks are going
to be your more what they call the grade a
fancy the golden color syrup. And as the season progressions,
it'll get darker and darker. And they claim, you know,
the late stuff you should use for you know, barbecuing,

(29:55):
for for basting meat and doing things like that, but
we don't. I put it on everything else, you know, pancakes,
ice cream, you know, waffles, whatever. We do make caramels
out of some of our later stuff, which are and
I haven't gotten you guys those.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Yet, but yeah, we haven't gotten.

Speaker 8 (30:17):
Illegal. And we also made last year for the first time,
we made maple sugar, which is quite a process. You
just cooking it down longer until it turns into kind
of a rock like substance, and then you put in
a food processor it turns out like light brown sugar.
But one one other thing about doing this is you

(30:38):
end up with a healthy.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Product at the end.

Speaker 8 (30:40):
It's it's considered a superfood. It's not like the syrup
you buy in the store that's made out of corn
syrup that they hault to the plant in a train car.
It's actually full of vitamins and antioxidants and you can
look it up online. It is considered a superfood. It's
very healthy. It's kind of like honey. It's a natural
superfood with the trees.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Maple syrup is it just maple's or can you get
use a sap from other kinds of trees too.

Speaker 8 (31:11):
Well, yes you can't. I haven't done it, but you know,
they said you could do birch maple. The standard is
forty gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup. Our
trees are a little higher sugar content, so we run
in that like thirty six to thirty seven gallons to one.
If you do birch, it's going to be eighty to one. Oh,

(31:34):
it's a lot longer processed cooking it down, you're basically
just boiling the water off. And you can also do
box elder. Now I have not done that, but people
in southern Minnesota say it's more of a nutty flavored
syrup when you're done, I guess it's really really good.
I have never got to try it yet, but I know,
you know, I've got a couple of friends, don't there
that do it, And you know, those are the three

(31:55):
that I've heard of.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
What about tapping the tree?

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Is there is there something that people need to know
about putting the taps in the trees or location or
a year after year.

Speaker 8 (32:09):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean you want to use a
very very sharp bit. I use it three sixteenths.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
You can.

Speaker 8 (32:15):
There's two different types of spouts or spiles is what
they're called. There's a quarter and there's three sixteens. I
like to use the smaller ones. And you drill the
hole in about two inches, angle it up slightly, and
you know, you pound the spile in with a hammer,
just not it doesn't go in very far. And when
you remove that at the end of the year, there's
no damage. It will heal up. But the next year

(32:37):
you want to look at and you can see the
scar where that spile was. You do not want to
put the next hole in the same vertical or horizontal
position that that spile was in. So you want to
go up into the right, or up into the left,
or down into the right. You know, you don't want
to put them in a line.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Is the Are you doing damage to the tree, whether
you're stealing the the sap going up?

Speaker 8 (33:03):
No, no you're not. I thought about it at one point,
you know, taking tree branches and driving a little plug
in there and stuff. And I did a lot of
reading on it, a lot of research, and they said,
don't do that. You can cause you can cause more
damage to a tree by introducing you know, bacteria or
you know, a disease from another tree by putting a
piece of wood in there.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
You just leave it.

Speaker 8 (33:24):
It will heal up, it'll stop dripping after a short period.
And it's early enough in the spring. You're not collecting
ants or bugs or anything in there, so that the
woodpeckers stay away from it. And we've never had any damage.
We've been doing this for a long, long, long time
and I've never lost a tree or seen anything you
know that's permanent. You know, you will see the scar
as the hold, but they eventually heal up.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
What about the size of a tree you taped? Tom?

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Our guest is Tom Whitehead, or from the Brainerd area
in this wa area. Tom, would do you have to
have a certain size before you can start tapping them?

Speaker 3 (33:58):
Is there a size that is too big?

Speaker 8 (34:02):
Well? Too big? No, too small? The general rule is,
and of course you don't see these much anymore, but
you know, a regular sized coffee can probably eight nine
inch diameter tree, nothing smaller than that. And I like
to I like to look at the tree and see
if it's you know, if it's growing straight and it's
a healthy tree and it's about that size, I will
put one spile in it and see if it's going

(34:24):
to run that year. Larger trees when you start to
get to be you know, an older tree, that's oh,
let's see you can barely reach around. You know, I
have like a six foot wingspan, and if I can
barely reach around the tree, I'll put two in it.
I have seen some giant maples where people will put
three in it. You go around the tree and now

(34:45):
hang three different spiles on one tree. It's doable.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
You mentioned a moment ago that late season syrup. Some
people focus on using that on meat. Do you have
a go to apple cation from maple syrup and you
know park for instance or what what? How do you
use it when you're cooking meat?

Speaker 8 (35:08):
Well, it's mostly for you know, like like pork. Yeah,
ham it's a good glaze and hams. Like I said,
we don't do a lot with that. If we have
some left over older stuff, we'll do the sugar, or
we'll do the caramels. Pop up a bunch of popcorn,
put it on a cookie sheet, sprinkle some of the

(35:29):
maple syrup over it, throw it back in the oven
for a little while, and you've got some of the
best caramel corn you're ever gonna eat, you know. And
I keep, I keep in my head. You know, it's
like I tell my wife, I said, I put I
put a super food maple syrup on my ice cream,
so that offsets it.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
You know. It's almost almost like food.

Speaker 8 (35:50):
It's like it's like ordering a big mac and a
large fry and coat.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, it's uh, it's it's an interesting concept, and I
guess I've never really tried that. I've seen I've seen
pictures of places that have as far as collect and
do you use a bucket or a bag, because I've
seen some places that have tubes on them too.

Speaker 8 (36:19):
Yeah, I mean we still use the bags. We've got
the metal hangers with the bags on it. Because of
the way we collect and stuff in five gallon buckets,
it's a lot easier for us. You can use buckets.
Some people will take oh, milk cartons, you know, the
plastic milk jugs and sanitize them and drill a hole

(36:40):
and cut a hole in it and hang those on there.
But we've got times where our bags will be completely
full or overflowing when it's really running the tube system.
Most of what you see of the tube system is
what's called a vacuum system. A lot of those people
are doing it commercially, oh okay, and it's almost like
a milking machine. I mean it's they collect more than

(37:01):
you would with just a gravity feed like a bag
or a bucket. And it's mostly like I said, the
commercial people, they'll run tubes all over the woods. They'll
run them for you know, one hundred yards and collect
it all into a tank because they might only come
around and collect once a week, so they have it
all coming down into one big collection tank where we
collect every day, sometimes tolas the day on it's really runing.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Okay, then do you will does the sap or the
what you collect out of the tree does that?

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Can you hold that for a little.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
Bit before you start making it, or do you have
to make the syrup right away?

Speaker 8 (37:37):
Well, it depends on the temperature. We keep it in
the garage where there's very little sunlight coming into our
garage and the floor of the garage is pretty cool.
I can keep it, you know, if the temperature is
so let's say forty or below. I can keep it
for about a week in the garage. We use just
regular plastic garbage cans. Of course, we sanitize everything. You know,

(37:59):
you've got to use a little bit of bleach in
the water, and you don't want any bacteria. You enter
to the bacteria or we'll cause it to spoil. And
you can tell because you'll you'll take the lid off
and you look at if there's a little film on
top and it smells a little sour, it's it's gone bad.
And we have had that happen later in the season
when it starts to get warm. But for the first
time ever, and we do it old school. We like

(38:19):
to do it the old school way. Nothing is added
to our syrup. Some people add foam killer because it
will foam up as you e're operating. We don't even
add foam killer. There's nothing added to our syrup. It's
all natural. So we finally broke down late last year
and then never got to use it this it's too
late in the season. But I bought an ro system,
which is a reverse osmosis system. So what we'll do

(38:42):
this next year, because you know, I'm standing out there
cooking for sixteen eighteen hours a day. Now, with a
RO system, I can pump from one garbage can into
another one, and I can do this overnight and it
will take out about forty percent of the water. So
you end up with, you know, one one can will
have perfectly clean water in it that it's removed, and

(39:03):
the other one will have the sap. And what that'll
do is that'll either cut my cooking time down, you know,
from sixteen eighteen hours to maybe ten or twelve hours,
or it will also increase my production. If I want
to stand out there for sixteen hours now, I'm going
to have higher production, right because I'm removing forty percent
of that water before i even start the fire. Okay,

(39:23):
now that being said, my wife and I both said,
now if this changes the quality of our syrup or
the flavor, we're going back to the old way, got it,
Because that's the most important to us is we like
to have a good a good good product, and we
consider ourselves a small batch operation and we can control
the quality that way. And there again we tried. You know,

(39:47):
there's ways to check the sugar content. You can do
it with a oh, it looks like a little rifle
scope and it'll tell you the sugar content. They're about
three hundred dollars apiece. You can do it with a hydrometer,
which we used to have, and I got rid of that.
We went back to taste and texture, and like I said,
we will. I'll cook it down to where I can

(40:10):
tell it's almost ready, and then we'll run it through
the filters. We'll bring it in the house in a
food grade bucket. We'll put it in the garage lot
a cool down overnight, and we'll finish it on the
stove in the house the next day. By temperature, you'll
put a thermometer and there's a certain temperature we get
it too, which is kind of secret. We don't tell
anybody what the temperature is because we've worked hard over
the years to get that right on, spot on, and

(40:30):
then we run it through the filters and we can it.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Huh. And you said your small batch? Is this a
small batch for just you and family?

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Do you?

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Is it Christmas guests? Or are you selling some of
this syrup?

Speaker 8 (40:44):
I do not sell any We decided that when we
started years ago. I've got friends that do it just
around me. Here, not too far away. I've got one
friend who's a veteran. He's in a wheelchair and he
does it. He's got a fantastic setup just him. He
can run around in his chair and do everything he
needs to. He'll even get on the floor with her

(41:05):
and go and collect. He sells it. He sells it
for I think it's twenty dollars a court ten dollars.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
A pint, and that may have gone up.

Speaker 8 (41:13):
I know it all went up about a year ago,
like everything else, But we pretty much like you said
Christmas gifts, we trade it with some people for honey
We have, you know, people we know that have honey bees,
and you know, we only give it away to people
like you, people that will appreciate it, because I've watched
people take it and pour it over their pancakes like

(41:35):
they're trying to drown them, and I sit there and
bite my lip and I'm just like, oh my gosh,
you know, they're going to waste.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
Half of it.

Speaker 8 (41:42):
So it's one of the things where we're very, very
proud of it and the quality of our product, but
we aren't going to just give it away, you know,
willy nilly, to people that don't appreciate what goes into it.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
Do you have it? So a quick text for you, Tom,
gentlemen sixty five to one number wants to know we
didn't call him, Well, not your neighbor that's been awakened.
Well wants to know how long syrup stays good in storage?

Speaker 8 (42:16):
Once you produce the syrup, as long as it's in
the jar. We've kept it for a couple of years
in a cool, dry place. Once you open it, it
needs to be refrigerated, and you'll be able to tell,
because it is a natural product. If it gets any
mold in it, you'll see a floating in there, or

(42:36):
you know, I mean, you'll be able to tell when
it goes bad. I've never had any go bad in
a refrigerator, but I have had some go bad in
the jars. Now that being said, syrup being it's natural
and it runs through the filter system twice, which is
it's a very very fine filter system. You will see
some sediment in the jars. Some people call it a cloud,

(42:57):
and it kind of looks like a cloud in it.
If you turn it upside down and shake little bit,
it'll go away. All that is is just minerals. We
try to filter out anything we can, but you're always
going to have a little bit in there, you know,
in a real natural product like that.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Can the can the syrup be frozen?

Speaker 8 (43:14):
I have never tried it. I don't know that it
would be a good idea because it's you know it
is it is natural sugar, and it seems like every
time you freeze anything like that, it's going to get
very crystallized. I've never tried it, but I just I
don't think it would be a good idea.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Okay, just put it on your ice cream, captain exactly.

Speaker 8 (43:35):
I mean people, if it's really cold and the clean
snow on the ground, people will take it right out
of the pan and just kind of drizzle it in
the snow and you can pick it up and eat
it like an icicle. I've never tried that with my
dog back. I don't have a lot of clean snow,
so I'm not gonna.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Yeah, I tried it on the yellow snow yet.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
That's salty, salty, No, no, no, no, I don't think
I'm just kidding. We have we have, we have, we
have exhausted the segment, and I didn't even get to
where we wanted to go. I apologize for that. Can

(44:19):
you stay with us for another one?

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Wonderful?

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Our guest is uh maple syrup expert. I couldn't train
a thought rug gone through again.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Well, once again, apologize to and everybody in Greater Minnesota.
That's true.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Anyway, let's who we get to call later in the show.
That's a mystery guess. Get ready cook, We'll take that
pauseibll be right back with more with Tom Whitehead after this.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
One minute after the hour.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Of seven o'clock on a fan outdoor Saffer day morning.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Our guest right now is mister Tom Whitehead, excellent, excellent angler,
but very very accomplished maple syrup creator too. It is
very very good.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
But anyway, Tom, I was wondering one.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
I think that you've probably got ice up there, and
that's probably pretty accurate.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Have you got fisherble ice?

Speaker 4 (45:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (45:45):
You know on the smaller lakes and bays, there's guys
getting out. I haven't ventured out yet. I tend to
wait a little bit longer and I'll get to that
why I do that. But there, you know the North
Long Bay from Highway three seventy one here, there been
guys out there for the last three or four days,
gall you know, big main Lake Gull is still not
not even I don't think it's completely frozen over yet

(46:07):
from what I've seen, but yeah, there's been people out here.
This is the last and it looks like this next
week is going to lock everything up pretty well.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
What typically in the winter and winter ice?

Speaker 8 (46:18):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (46:18):
Is it good fishing as good as during the summer.

Speaker 8 (46:23):
Yes, and no. You know, if you're on the right stuff,
you got to remember, you know, you're not your mobility
is limited. So yeah, you know, I see people go
out and sit on the same spot for weeks at
a time, and I'm not like that. I'm I got
to be moving. I got to find the fish. As
long as you're as long as you're adaptable, you know
you're gonna You're gonna do very well. Is it?

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Is it a popular destination for a lot of people
from not around your area?

Speaker 8 (46:51):
Not so much. You know, we've got we're kind of
surrounded by you've got malaxs, you got leech, and you
got red of course. And my wife was coming home
from work yesterday she said she could not believe how
many trailers with four wheelers and sawbills and you know
portable fish houses she saw heading north, and I would
assume they're all head enough to red because that's on
fire right now. People are doing very well up.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
There, Okay, yeah, that's yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
In fact, there's kind of a parade that heads up
their wheelhouse parade. When we get more ice too, I'm
guessing they're now it's not good enough for the wheelhouses got,
but I have no idea.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
I hear they have.

Speaker 8 (47:28):
They have like eight to ten inches up there right
now from what I read it. I ay read what
Beacon has gotten Jr's and Rogers, and they're they're talking
there are some cracks, you know, like always you gotta
you gotta be smart. Yeah, and it's I've been up
there enough to know that everybody wants to run out
to the deepest water as quick as they can. They
get out to that thirteen foot mark. We'll sit in

(47:49):
eight feet on that lake all winter long and catch walleyes.
There's no reason to run out to the drop off.
It's it's a whole different structure up there than it
is like the lakes around here.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Behave differently or as far as what you say, the structure,
fish are different on different types of structure as far
as the lake goes.

Speaker 8 (48:09):
That lake up there, you know, the walleyes followed the
schools of shiners, and they just roamed. There's no real
structure like you see on Malax, where there's rock piles
and mudflat and you know drop offs that go from
eight feet to twenty feet. You know very quickly it's
more of just a gradual slope. If you can find

(48:29):
any boulders or rocks or anything like that and hang
in that area, you're going to catch fish all day long.
We had a group of veterans up there one year
and we had some rental houses that were donated, and
one guy in the corner of the one house kept
catching fish after fish after fish, and the guys in
the rest of the house were getting a few, but
not like he was. We finally ran a camera down her.
Here's a big boulder just off to the side of
the hole he was fishing. So in the leaf like

(48:51):
that where it's more of a big bowl, anything will
hold the fish or attract the fish, and in that instance,
it just happened to be one rock, you know, it
was probably a two foot by three foot rock, and
he just happened to grab that hole and he was
he was out fishing everybody probably two or three to one.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Well, I suppose there's food around it too, right, And it's.

Speaker 8 (49:12):
Just it's just a place where, you know, maybe that's
where they go, and then they turn and go the
other direction.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
It's just yah.

Speaker 8 (49:17):
I always think of fishing in the winter time. It's
kind of deer hunting. Are you going to sit out
in the middle of a field or are you going
to sit on the edge of a woodlot? You know
what I mean. It's it's there's travel corridors, yeah, and
and the big fish are going to follow those same corridors.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Well, speaking of deer hunting, how did your hunt go
this year?

Speaker 8 (49:35):
It was tough. We we never shot a deer. The
week that I go down with my buddies. The weather
was good, I mean there was dose and estras would
come in. We'd watch them come in and urinate in
the in the scrapes, and we'd wait, you know, get
your hopes up. And no bucks. The bucks were around,
we'd see them on cameras and but they just didn't
seem to be chasing full moon that week. I don't

(49:58):
know if that had anything.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
To do with it.

Speaker 8 (49:59):
But I had read an article a few months before that,
and I can't find it again. I don't know where
it came from. But they said it was going to
be a very non typical rut in Minnesota this year
or in the Midwest. They were right, they were spot on.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
It was.

Speaker 8 (50:12):
It was very strange.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Yeah, really I wanted to fask more the the the
rule than the exception.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Now too, Yeah, it had.

Speaker 8 (50:22):
Yeah, it has been kind of sorted. Now. Last year,
I was down there and there's four of us, and
my son law shot his deer in the afternoon, my
buddy shot his the next morning, and my other buddy
shot his that evening. So there's three deer down, really
mature bucks down in a day and a half.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Well, now, I didn't hear you mentioned, Yeah I didn't.

Speaker 8 (50:45):
I didn't. I didn't even touch my bow. I sat
in the tree and watched dozen funds.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Last year's Oh okay, well that's you know, it's entertainment.
I'm going to qualify it that way.

Speaker 8 (50:56):
Well, you know, it's the camaraderie. Yeah, it's the food
that we and we've been doing it and we've been
friends for so many years, and we fished down there
we fished the little rivers down there, and last year
the fishing was phenomenal. This year was tough. You know.
I caught a lot of nice pike, but I think
we only planted two walleys. But there again, it's the

(51:16):
it's just the experience and the memories and being outdoors.
And you guys get it.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
You know a lot of people don't.

Speaker 8 (51:25):
Well, you didn't get a deer that was horrible, No,
it wasn't. The memories are still there, you know.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
Yeah, So it's not about the animal all the time,
not at all. No, if that's the only thing you
can measure your success or not buy, you should probably
find something else.

Speaker 8 (51:42):
Right. It's just like the people that have to be
the first one's out in the ice. I said, you
know what, You're not going to find too many people
more passionate about fishing than me. But I will not
go out there on that thin ice. I'll go up
to the grocery store and buy a steak. And I
love fishing and I love eating fish and whatever, but
it's not worth it.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
Now.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
There in a fish in the world that's worth eyeing
over going through the ice.

Speaker 8 (52:04):
Even we and they're again, if you get on that subject,
we lost a young kid right across the road from
me on around Lake not too many years ago. Hi
and his buddy were on four wheelers and there was
a bunch of people out there fishing that was good ice,
but there was a big open spot that had just
frozen a few days before that, and they took off
on our four wheelers and they both went through, and

(52:25):
the one guy survived, and he didn't, he sunk immediately,
and a sixteen year old kid. And it was at
the same time when I was a sales rep, when
I was repping one of the first floating suits that
had come out for ice fishing, and all I could
think of was, man, if he had a suit on,
he'd had a chance, you know, and it's just not
worth it. It just isn't. And well, you know, over

(52:48):
the years, and I've been on the ice for over
fifty years, and I've developed what I call the half rule.
It's something I just came up from my head years ago.
You know, you can go out with a spot bar
right now and check the ice, and guys are finding
three to six inches. Some lakes are finally eight. But
I'll guarantee you somewhere out there where you're fishing, there's
going to be half of that. Now we'll half of
that support you. So you know, if there's six inches somewhere,

(53:11):
there's gonna be three. And I'm not a little guy.
I'm six three two fifty, so three inches of ice.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
Is pretty iffy.

Speaker 8 (53:18):
So I wait until we get a little more ice
because that half rule is something I've always lived by,
and it's I don't know if it's vegetation, current in
the water, whatever, but somewhere out there there's going to
be half of the ice that you checked. So if
there's six inches or maybe, I'll wait till there's you know,
eight inches of ice and then I'll go out there.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
No problem. I guess there's Tom whitehead and Tom.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
With with that being said, difference between summer and winter,
the fish behavior totally different.

Speaker 8 (53:52):
Uh, you know, things slow down. They claim the only
fish that that gains weight in the winter time as
a pike because they're always on the move. But most
fish become lethargic. That's why you don't catch the many
largemouth bass until like late ice towards March, because they
pretty much become dormant in that cold water. You know,
they've got to feed. So basically you need to try

(54:14):
to find a feeding area, and that's either you know,
a hard bottomed spot, a hole in the weeds. I've
got some spots I fish where it's all coontail and
there's some big cuts up in that coontail, and the
fish will come up in there and you know they
there again. It's kind of like the rock up on
Red Lake. Maybe they come up in there and they
make the turn. I'm not sure, but it's any place
like that will increase your odds. And that's what I'm

(54:36):
always looking for in the wintertime, someplace that's going to
increase your odds. I don't want to go out and
fish in big flats like I'm fishing in the middle
of a desert. I want to find that clump of
grass in the desert, or you know, the rock in
the desert. I want to find that thing that's going
to increase your odds.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Will you keep looking until you find that place? Or
do you rely on finding fish?

Speaker 8 (54:58):
You know? I'm there again. I'm kind of a d D.
You want to come to fishing. I want to make
something happen, you know, the old the Lennards, I said,
there's ninety percent of fisher and ten percent of the lake. Yeah,
I want to find that ten percent, you know. I
mean it's and it takes some movement to do that.
You can't just sit in one spot. So it's great
to have a wheeler house and sit out there and
watch TV and catch a few fish. That's fine, that's great.

(55:21):
But when I'm out there, I'm in a portable, I'm
on the snowbiller as the four wheeler. I'm going to
keep moving til I find that. And it might be
ten feet away from more in fishing, it might be
one hundred yards away from were I'm fishing, but I'm
going to try to find that that hot spot. And
everybody's done it. Everybody knows there's a hot hole and
six feet away and the guys catch nothing, and it's
just you know, it can be it can be a

(55:41):
stalk to cabbage, it can be a rock, it can
be you know, a log, anything, but you got to move,
you gotta drill some holes.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Yeah, Tom, I thank you for your time again. Gosh,
it's fun talking to you, my friend. And it's uh,
I guess we never know we're going to talk about.

Speaker 8 (56:02):
Yeah, I said, I mean when we had to break there,
I had to run to the door because I had
a neighbor pissed off. Looked like.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
From vacation.

Speaker 8 (56:11):
You know this bomber mat and Sorrel boots and his robot.
If I got a phone call at six thirty in.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
The morning, well tell them and give me a call
and we can He'll he'll join us next week. Tom, Hey,
thank you sir, and have a have a great weekend.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Okay, you two thinks anytime you've.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Got and we will do that again, mister Tom Whitehead
and uh a great guest, enjoyable personality and one hell
of a fisherman.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
Did you compete?

Speaker 2 (56:47):
Yeah, you did. Okay, there's no competing. He just beat
meat right down into the dirt. No, he's always real good.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Most of the guys you competed against seemed to both
pete bass anglers, and while I English, there's a awful
lot about that that was not yours. Your style.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
I just wear a best when it came to tournaments,
right right when it came to competition. I even then
sometimes I didn't know anything, but I I got to
fish walle Ice because of socc Lake, and I got
to fish walle Ice with some success because of bass fishing, because.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Giving you a few tips here.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Yeah, yeah, but I get pretty bored and I hate trolling,
as you know, and I love casting and I like
to be busy.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
It's exact same thing. Do not eat a sandwich on
your boat. I'm very aware you like to be busy.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
Yea, there's some stories.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
I would agree.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Almost flew out of the at one time and got
yeah he got hell for yeah, for eating the sandwich
start a tournament one time.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
He learned. He learned, I learned him.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Anyway, let's take a pause because we're going to take
you to Albany, Minnesota, and you're going to visit mister
Chu Austin at the Iron Horse Trading Company.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Next. I had to keep an eye on Brett just
to be sure my number was a good I was watching.

(58:44):
I was watching h Brett. Have you actually have you
been talking to people with these rug numbers this morning? No?
They just keep ringing and ringing. I feel bad now. Afterwards,
I was just wondering if you could di Dolores and
you know cloque out Love. Yeah, we put her on

(59:05):
the air. We're calling you to talk about fishing. What
all right, all right, captain, I'll give it back now. Okay,
thank you very much. Let's bring him to the conversation.
A man that I met a long.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Time ago, and he actually has taken care of most
of my firearms along with some friends and also my boys.
To mister Stu Austin. He is the owner of Iron
Horse Trading Company in Albany, Minnesota, a really really nice shop.

Speaker 5 (59:47):
Stu.

Speaker 6 (59:47):
Good morning, sir, Good morning guys. You got the right
phone number here.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
It was close, buddy, it was real close. Thanks for
playing the log, Stu. I love it anything. No, it's
not any time. Yes, it's wonderful. We can all give
the captain of the goodness. All right, nice talking to Didn't

(01:00:14):
you buy a Red Rider, baby gun? I did from Stu.
That has that been given a gift yet? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Oh it's a birthday gift. It was just a gift, Okay,
just a gift. And he is the proudest young man
you will ever see in the world. That Red Rider
has made a big difference.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
He was. I shall have Stu.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
I'll have to get you a picture of him carrying
his red Wider and standing for a photo of it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
It is pretty precious.

Speaker 6 (01:00:42):
But I got those pictures of myself when I was
like six years old probably.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
And I've got it of his dad and his uncle too,
because that's it's a wonderful way to start young people too.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
I mean, it really is.

Speaker 8 (01:00:57):
Then.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
I I used it with Eric and Shad to teach
firearm safety more than anything, and appreciation of where the
muzzle is headed and are pointed, and crossing fences and
all kinds of stuff. But just to go out and
plink and chipmunk management.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Well, yeah, that's what I use. I have a red
redder at a pellet gun as a kid growing up,
and that's too strong. Well, this was probably when you
hit your brother in the hind end. It leaves him
learning speaking from experience, huh. Anyway, Still, for.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
A lot of people, the seasons are over as far
as firearm use. Does it benefit them to bring their
guns in to be really cleaned well and then put
them in the safe or wait until at a later date,
maybe next summer, later summer before they're going to use them.

Speaker 6 (01:02:02):
This is a good time of year, and it's a
good time of year for for several reasons. You know,
first of all, we're still a little bit backed up
with the muzzleoder season. There's always there's always emergencies right
up till Christmas. But you know a few good reasons
to do it right now is that, you know, if
you if a person has some malfunctions out in the field,
that's fresh in your mind. There's nothing more frustrating though,

(01:02:22):
when somebody comes in, you know, midsummer, late summer, early
fall and says, yeah, last last season, my gun was
jamming and I go, well, okay, what was it doing.
I well, I just said it was jamming, and that
sort of sort of broad and it makes my job
a little tougher, or that somebody brought it in today
when they're done with it for the year, they can go, yeah,

(01:02:43):
you know, I every time I shoot this thing, it
ejects a shell but doesn't put the next one in,
or it doesn't eject the shell but it just stays closed,
or you know what I mean. It gives me a
lot more to work with if somebody's problems are fresh
in their mind. That's that's a big one.

Speaker 8 (01:03:01):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:03:01):
Another good reason to do it is that as people,
as people hunt and shoot throughout the hunting season, they
tend to do a little bit of preventive maintenance, good
or bad. You know, they're usually boiling their gun here
and there as the season goes on. And for me,
it's a lot easier to if a gun comes in
for cleaning, it's a lot easier for me to clean

(01:03:22):
that gun when things are kind of soft, you know,
and they are when the gun's oily, Whereas if it
sits all all winter, all summer and then comes in
in the fall, things have a chance to dry up
and get crusty, and it just takes a lot more time.
And I guess probably the most important reason to get
them in now is because we're not We're not at

(01:03:43):
any sort of a deadline, right, so we've got some time.
And that's a big one, you know, because I think
I not that I do a bad job in the fall,
but I think I, as I've got more time to
spend on stuff. We just take our time a little
bit more. And for the customer's sake, that's nice and
for my sake, you know, I get a little more
sleep at nights. I don't have to get here in
the middle. Yeah, those are the big reasons why I

(01:04:06):
would say I get them in now and get them
taken care of, put them to, put them to bed
for the winner and are ready for next next fall.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
Are they okay to sip then in a gun say
or something for a matter of months?

Speaker 6 (01:04:21):
Yeah, I mean short answers. Yes, they can sit for
matter of months. You shouldn't really have to do much
with them if they're stored correctly. So if they're in
a nice dry spot, you know, if if it's not
a dry spot, running humid afire, I would suggest wipe
them down with a good rock preventative. Most of these
new synthetic gun oils do a fine job of preventing crust.

(01:04:42):
A lot of people I know pull their guns out,
and a lot of people just like playing with guns.

Speaker 8 (01:04:47):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:04:47):
I happen not to be one of them because I
do it every day. But yeah, a lot of people
take mountain wipe them down occasionally. They make these these
camarad and gun cloths or real and gun cloths.

Speaker 7 (01:04:57):
Or something like.

Speaker 6 (01:04:58):
Its silicon cloth doesn't hurt anything. The white and down periodically.
But I would tell you if they're stored right, yeah,
they're fine until next fall.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
What about the idea? Explain snapcaps and what's your perspective
on if that's a worthwhile expense for storing your shotguns.

Speaker 6 (01:05:19):
You know, I'm kind of I'm kind of up in
the air. A lot of people with certain types of guns,
you know, a lot of trap shooters, a lot of
people that put high volume of rounds to their guns
like to store their guns with the strikers or the
firing pins fired in a bolt action rifle, or the
hammers forward in a and like you say, an over
under or something like that to take the stress off

(01:05:42):
off the springs. In order to do that and not
not just dry fire a gun, people use snapcaps, and
it's basically a dummy around that has a either a
spring or a little plastic Delrin primer in it, just
to kind of help take the wear and tear off
the firing pins as you drive fire. Some guns, it
doesn't hurt a thing to dry fire them. Some guns,

(01:06:03):
it's tough on them. So as a real thumb, if
you've got them, put them in there there Again, Before
you put a snapcap in a chamber and leave it
there for an act period of time, I would probably
just wipe a nice code of oil in the chamber.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:06:18):
Anytime that you leave something in an area where there's
tight tolerances. If there's any sort of oisture in there,
it'll it'll cause ross. But no snapcaps. They're not a
not a bad idea, And like say, if a person's
going to do a lot of dry firing or practicing,
then it's a real good idea to use them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
What about leaving the springs cocked As far as storage goes, I'm.

Speaker 6 (01:06:47):
Kind of fifty to fifty on that one. Most of
the new springs, most of the guns in new or
springs and new guns are are good quality. They're silken
carbide usually or really high grade stainless steel. It doesn't
hurt anything to take that tension off them. I just
I just cleaned the gun yesterday. It was a Browning

(01:07:08):
semi automatic rifle that was probably made in the late sixties.
And the spring what they call the action spring, which
is the spring that tensions the bolt slams it forward
in a semi automatic, that spring was about two inches
short of a brand new one, which you know the
spring overall is only about foot long, so that's pretty significant.
So in a case like that, I would probably opt

(01:07:30):
for closing the action on that gun when you store it.
The hammer springs. It isn't going to hurt anything to
drop them, but it probably isn't going to hurt anything
to leave them cocked either.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
Okay, because that's for me personally, I'm always curious about
that leaving leaving the tension on the spring, and I
was always wondering if it made a difference or not.
So that's a good comment for people to keep in
mind too.

Speaker 3 (01:07:56):
I think, what what about the wood, you know, stocks
and you know the forearm. Is there anything you should
be doing to protect the wood or is it storage
and protection for your firearms? More focused exclusively on the metal.

Speaker 6 (01:08:15):
I'd focus on the metal there again, most of the
modern stuff has got such a such a heavy high quality,
not lacquer, but you know, some sort of a polyurethane
finish on it, that there shouldn't be a lot of drying,
you know, expanding contracting going on. And again if it's
a if it's a fairly dry place that you're storing

(01:08:36):
or gun in, you shouldn't have to be you shouldn't
have to be too careful with it. There Again, I
use in the shop here for a cleaner lubricant, protect
and type of treatment, I use something called ninety six
gun treatment, and that stuff is it's nice that it
leaves kind of a nice shiny coat on everything. I'll
wipe the wood down with it, but I don't know
that it really helps anything. Now, if you've got a

(01:08:58):
gun that's just got to an oil finish, like a
linseed oil finish on it, then it you know, I
would keep an eye on it. If you start getting
hazy spots or it looks like it's drying out, then
it's not a bad idea to rub them down a
little bit with some lindseeed or even like Murphy's oil.
So for something it'll break that up and keep it hydrated.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Our guest is Stu Austin, who is the owner and
the gunsmith at Iron Horse Trading Company in Albini, Minnesota,
and invite you to stop on buy to just go in.
And Christmas is a great time to get a red
right or BB.

Speaker 6 (01:09:29):
Gun by the way for big ones too.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Yeah, that's right, I know that, and I mentioned it,
and there's one coming in a young lady's future too.
I can probably say that. But anyway, will you mentioned
muzzle orders coming in now? Kind of an emergency yet
this time of year what typically happens to the muzzle
orders too.

Speaker 6 (01:09:53):
Yeah, this year I've seen a lot of muzzleoders coming
in that are there, they're not really firing, their kind
of half firing, and I don't know. It leaves me
scratching my head. The only thing I can attribute it
to is people cleaning their gun and maybe not getting
all the oil dried out of the boar before they
load them, or that powder being stored improperly and it's

(01:10:15):
getting old. That's one big one. Otherwise, you know, another
one is if somebody shoots a gun a lot or
not even a lot, just shoots it a little bit
and doesn't get the breech plug, which is the rearmost
portion of the gun where the where the primer ignites
and shoots fire into the into the powder charge to

(01:10:36):
make it go off. When that if that flash hole
gets plugged, people experience misfires. The biggest The biggest thing
with muzzleloaders is they have to be kept clean, and
people go, I only shot at once and that's enough.
The powder, despite the fact that it's much cleaner than
the old black powder that that people used to use,

(01:10:58):
it's still far more corross of and and dirtier than
any smokeless powder. So the big thing is shoot him,
clean them immediately, even if you've only fired at once,
and that'll prevent a lot of those a lot of
those misfiring issues. But the biggest, I would say the
biggest malfunction is misfiring with muscle orders.

Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
And the primer.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
When when I was a young lad, we were loading
paper shells to shoot trap with, and my uncle had
contributed to the loading supply, so he was he thought
he was paying his way, but he wasn't because he
bought fire damaged primers that had been watered, and the

(01:11:41):
primers didn't totally ignite the powder in those shotgun shells
all the time, and it left the wads partially in
the barrel. And if it was in a kind of
a panic situation and somebody wasn't thinking if over decoys
and they just ejected and shot the barrels. Don't like

(01:12:05):
that at all. When there's an obstruction in there. Would
the primers ever be bad or do you ever.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
Hear of that?

Speaker 6 (01:12:11):
With with muscleloader stuff, Usually if the prime if the
primer detonated. So if somebody comes in and says, like
my gun, you know, that it went off, but the
bullet just went ten yards out of the gun and dropped.
And believe it or not, I've heard that about six
times this year. A lot of people up in this
area because we're in slug zone hunt during in slug
zone with muscloaders. I've ben hearing this for the last month,

(01:12:35):
and I always tell people if the if the primer detonated,
then there's probably nothing wrong with the gun itself. It
could still be you know, it could still be the
breech plug. You know that that fire is not getting
through there. But if if it starts the powder burning
and the powder doesn't burn right, there's nothing wrong with

(01:12:57):
the gun. It's the powder. But uh, to answer your question, yeah,
they can go bad, but usually if they if they pop,
if you hear it pop, it's not the primer's fault.

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
Oh okay, excellent. Cool.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
Yeah, Well are you are you pretty busy now this
time of year? Are people thinking holidays?

Speaker 6 (01:13:20):
It's kind of been weird.

Speaker 8 (01:13:21):
I am.

Speaker 6 (01:13:21):
I'm busy with gunsmithing, still doing stuff that came in
and the believe it or not, taking on some of
these jobs that I took in in the summer and
kind of told people, I don't hold your breath breath
because it's it's going to be it's going to be
a while. So we're busy with that sort of stuff.
We've been steady with uh with gun sales, people coming in,
buying gift cards. Still still some ammunition. I mean, there's

(01:13:45):
some diehards out there, there's the pheasants are still out,
but it hasn't been crazy. It's a It's really a
nice time of year because we're able to uh get
to people individually and and really spend some time with customers.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
When you you mentioned when you were on one of
the first times that there was a firearm that you
wouldn't recommend initially, but now the quality is that that
you will recommend it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:14):
I can't remember what who was making it or.

Speaker 6 (01:14:16):
What it was, just in general, I really despised anything
made in Turkey as far as shotguns goes. The handguns,
the rifles, they've been pretty darn good. But the shotguns
that were coming out of Turkey were, in my opinion
or garbage. There are some inertia driven guns now being
imported from Turkey that are as close to a Banelli

(01:14:39):
shotgun as you're going to get I don't think that
there's any patent holding them up anymore. So they literally
will will take a Banelli replacement part and we've been
having really good.

Speaker 3 (01:14:49):
Luck with those. Interesting we got to add text for you, Stu.
A gentleman wants to know if you buy vintage or
used firearms.

Speaker 6 (01:15:00):
Oh, I'm glad he called in because we've it's been
kind of slow with used gun sales. And yes we do.
In fact, you know, everybody every gun shop probably has
a rule of thumb where they like to be as
far as margins on used guns, and and we do
here too, and I feel like we're a bit more
generous than most places. Not to say that, not to

(01:15:20):
say that everybody's going to make money on a gun
that they bought, you know, last year. That's that's usually
the toughest ones to come out ahead on is if
you've got a brand new gun and you want to
sell it. But yeah, we we pride ourselves on having
a really good selection of used guns. It keeps people
coming back every day, and so yeah, bring them on in.

(01:15:40):
It takes literally a couple of minutes to come up
with a fair price, and if it doesn't work out,
no hard feelings. But in most cases, yeah, we can.
We can send people away happy with a pocket full
of money.

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
Is there I most sought after sort of used guy
thinking in my mind, there's there's so many Parkers collectors
out there. Is there something that you know when you
get it in your store, it's it's gone instantly.

Speaker 6 (01:16:07):
No, not really, because when something walks in, I don't
necessarily have somebody in mind, but I do have a
plan for almost.

Speaker 3 (01:16:16):
Everything that comes in.

Speaker 6 (01:16:17):
So you're right, there's people that love Winchester's sofa. Guy
walks in with Winchester, I go, okay, I can either
you know, do well with this one online or I
know this guy. If somebody comes in with a military
surplus rifle, I kind of cringe because you have to
know so much about military stuff in order to not
get burned with it. You know, you really got to

(01:16:38):
know which stuff is period correct. But there again, I've
got I got certain people that really are into that stuff, handguns,
whether they're they're military collectors or something that's that's modern,
it's it's all good in my mind. And there's some
stuff now that's good shotguns, good rifles. They're continued that

(01:17:00):
you can't get parts for and people be surprised what
those are worth to me, because I still need to
fix the stuff, so sometimes I'll just buy them for parts.

Speaker 3 (01:17:08):
Interesting, interesting, Sue. I thank you, sir. And what time
do you open today or are you open?

Speaker 6 (01:17:14):
No, I got some bathrooms to queen yet, I'll have
the queen of bathrooms in Albany. So I open at
nine o'clock and we're here to four o'clock on Saturdays,
and during the week Tuesday through Friday, we're open nine
to six.

Speaker 3 (01:17:26):
And how can people find you, stuw.

Speaker 6 (01:17:29):
We're at two one Railroad Avenue, which is the main
street in Albany, or right across from that huge, beautiful
Catholic church. And we've got a website. It's www dot
Ironhorsetradingco dot com. Phone number here is three two zero
eight four or five for eight sixty seven.

Speaker 2 (01:17:49):
Wonderful, Thank you sir, and I'm sure we'll be talking again.
If not, I'll see you soon.

Speaker 6 (01:17:55):
Right, come by, all right, you guys have a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
That's Stu Austin. Are you horse trading company? Very very knowledgeable.
He I took five guns at a time to him
and some that were Eric and Shad's twenty gauge Remington
pumps that didn't operate quite right because they had had

(01:18:18):
especially Eric's had had a lot of shell slam through.

Speaker 3 (01:18:22):
And he fixed that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:23):
And it will be Jack's firearm, his first one. So yep,
he does a great job, does great work. In fact,
the thirty six that I had since high school is
semi automatic. He looked at that until it cleaned it up.
Said good to go, buddy, like it hasn't been fired hardly.

Speaker 3 (01:18:46):
Anyway. We'll take a pause, me back with one more
segment after this last segment for this Saturday morning. But

(01:19:08):
keep it right here. Don't you dare.

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
Touch that dial because you'll like what comes up next
in the Zone with Davy Sinecon Trent Tucker follow us
to UH stop on bar. Okay, but we're not quite
going to let you go yet. What are your plans
next week that you're not going to be here? Just

(01:19:32):
you know, giving us the cold shoulder.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
I am heading south tomorrow, of course, you're swinging, swinging,
swinging through UH through southern Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska on my
way to Kansas tomorrow tomorrow. I get eleven hour drive
tomorrow to Kansas on him. I hope I don't get
blown away. Uh Forecastlek's fingers, O Captain looks pretty good.

(01:20:03):
We will be filming late season this year Rooster road
Trip in Kansas, all public land pheasants and hopefully some
Bob white quail will participate. And so we're going down
kind of south central Kansas for a couple of days,
then moving a little bit north and so be hunting

(01:20:26):
all week, filming variety of stories about public access programs
at Pheasants Forever and quail Forever have done in Kansas.
Kansas is one of those states that has really suffered
the last couple of years related to Conservation Reserve Program
CRP loss. More than a million acres have disappeared from

(01:20:51):
CRP acres in Kansas, and their bird numbers have have
dropped significantly. So Rooster Road Trip is a way to
for Ourization to highlight habitat losses, and you know, what
are some of the things that we're doing to replace
some of those acres? Hunter numbers are they That's a
good question. I don't know off the top of my

(01:21:12):
head what Kansas hunter numbers are these days. So yeah,
there's some background data. I gott to look into and
what about the season links Uh, their season starts the
first Saturday in November and I believe goes through the
entirety of January. Oh yeah, huh is it?

Speaker 2 (01:21:37):
Have you ever had been hunting pheasants have been aware
that there may be quail there, and uh, look for
a pheasant and it turns out to be a couple
of quail.

Speaker 3 (01:21:49):
Yes, which is surprising. They you know, that's that happens
up here often with folks that are rough grouse hunting.
You know, you can go into a spot and you think, oh,
this looks grousy, and then a wood cock will come
up and tornio and make you look foolish. You think

(01:22:09):
about that and how difficult it is to kind of
change your mindset in a split second. When you're walking
into a spot you think, oh, it's gonna be a great, big, old,
gaudy rooster in a covey of twelve quail get up
like a swarm of bumblebees. That'll leave you feeling pretty foolish.

(01:22:30):
But it's just fabulous. Have you hunted quail over it is?
I mean just one of the most underrated or just
love love bob boy quail.

Speaker 2 (01:22:42):
It's got to be a little like the Hungarian partridge
used to be then too.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
Yeah, yeah, they're kind of a I think that's a
good comparison, a kind of a small hunt.

Speaker 2 (01:22:54):
But they get up instantly, everybody, and they all go
the different directions mostly.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
It's kind of a too. They either go a variety
of different directions or they kind of go all together
in one and and then you you know, it's you
have this or this tendency to just flox shoot them
yeh and you miss everything.

Speaker 2 (01:23:17):
Yep, I remember, yeah, I do remember Hungarians and yeah, sure,
a fun little bird.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
But yeah, oh, Katie bar the door. Yes, I was
double check. In Kansas season, pheasant and quail season started
November eighth, so think about that. They haven't even been
hunting in Kansas for a month. Yeah, they go through
January thirty. First, you can shoot four roosters a day

(01:23:47):
in Kansas eight quail. So I'm not going out there
expected to be carrying twelve birds in my game vest.
But it's been a couple of years since I hunted
in Kansas. It is. It's a little bit different because
there's virtually no cattail hunting in Kansas. You're hunting tall grass,

(01:24:12):
tall tall grass or short grass. I mean it depends
a lot of wheat stubble in Kansas. Onyx can be
just absolutely it's it's such an important tool. But one
of the things in the Great Plains. From the road,
you know, it might just look like a wheat stubble field.
But then if you look at on ax, you think, oh,

(01:24:34):
there's a draw a quarter of a mile over the ridge,
and in that draws a pocket a habitat, and it
could just be a quail gold mine. So you better
put on your walking shoes. Is that what you're saying,
I've got my walking it's you have to have be
prepared for more steps. When you're hunting Kansas and Nebraska, however,

(01:24:59):
you will not have that you know, that grass pulling
against you like when you're trying to bust cattails. Is
it Kansas that the the I've seen pictures where it's red.
Clay is red. And there's lots of driving and not
a lot of towns in between. You're describing a lot

(01:25:22):
of states that I've been to you there's a lot
of muddy roads. See, if you get any wet sort
of weather, it becomes gumbo there's not a lot of towns,
particularly when you start heading West Kansas. You know you
can be out there. You want to make sure you

(01:25:43):
get a full tank of gas. But yeah, we're filming
next week and then the entire month of January will
be releasing Rooster road Trip content, and then Pheasant Fest
will be here. Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
And here this weekend is the Ice Show too, So
if you're looking for something to do in Saint Paul,
that's where it is.

Speaker 8 (01:26:03):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (01:26:04):
Thank you to our guests this morning, to Denny Fletcher
and Fletcher's Bate, to Tom Whitehead up in the Niswa area,
Stu Austin Iron Horse Trading Company, and thank you for
allowing us to travel with you this morning. For Bob
Saint Pierre, my very good friend, for Brett Blakemore, our
executive producer. I am Billy Hildebrand saying keep it here, buddy,

(01:26:26):
keep it right here, because in the zone is next
till next week. I will leave you with two words
my thanks and Tata