Father-son team, Jamey and Layne Roberts of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, spend quality time together duck hunting and scouting. It was duck hunting that sparked 14 year-old Layne's interest in waterfowl conservation and how his Eagle Scout project could make a difference near home. Good stuff!     Visit MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere Podcast Sponsors:   MOJO Outdoors  Benelli Shotguns BOSS Shotshells Ducks Unlimited  Flash Back Decoys  HuntProof Premium Waterfowl App Inukshuk Professional...

At the end of the day, adding ducks to the strap boils down to that final crucial moment---the trigger pull. And having poured ourselves into everything else leading up to it, we serious duck hunters want every advantage possible in making each shot count. Better patterns and superior shotgun performance increase our success. Sharing past experiences that lead him into the custom gun works world, Rob Roberts gets deep into shotgun pattern science, describes how simple adjustments may increase...

During Australia's duck season "circus," anti-hunters will flare your birds, paddle through your decoys and film your kids, reports Outdoor Life Executive Editor, Natalie Krebs. Having heard about the duck hunting battleground that is Australia, she went to see for herself. She was there during the most recent duck season opener. And while Kreb's first-hand accounts may seem otherworldly to us made-in-American duck hunters, she describes how it may not be nearly as far away as we'd like to...

In a place where duck hunts are marketed using every superlative ever invented, "best Argentina duck hunt" may seem exaggerated. It's not. The proof is in a decade-and-a-half worth of happy clients. The 2024 season was crazy weather wise, too, going abruptly from record-high, mosquito-swatting weather to bone-chilling, ice-stomping temperatures.  But the hits just kept on coming. Repeat and first-time guests from throughout the season tell what they'll remember most about their Las Flores...

Argentina's a huge country. Lots of habitat, fewer hunters, less hunting pressure. Hunters from all walks of life arrive to the southern hemisphere along with hunt-of-a-lifetime expectations. And every outfitter is the self-proclaimed best. Is there even such a thing?  For 16 years, we've represented this as the very best Argentina duck hunt in a real-duck-hunt-for-real-duck-hunters sort of way. But, seriously, who cares what I say?  Hear what real duck hunters like yourself---first-timers,...

Born and raised hunting and fishing in northeast Mississippi, John Blake Riddle has lived a charmed life. Avoiding "the real world" at all costs, he's been a quail guide, duck guide, bird dog trainer to the rich and famous, shooting instructor--for starts--and has a successful crappie jig company called the Little Riddle. He'd rather hunt big water divers or crappie fish from the world's fastest layout boat--and we're talking 102 mph--that he describes in great detail. But here came the real...

Typical of late-July Baton Rouge, between-thunderstorms humidity visibly hung in the air like a warm, wet blanket. Not that anyone cared. Because walking through the convention halls was as exciting as opening day at duck camp, the energy palpable, like walking into a big ol' happy reunion of birds-of-a-feather-flock-together new and old friends swapping stories and sorting their lockers with the latest-greatest gear--happy, smiling duck hunters and their families everywhere.  Meet some of...

"We raise weeds, most folks try to grow corn," says renowned wildlife biologist and Arkansas Waterfowler Hall of Fame, Jody Pagan, who among other things has so far laid hands on over a million acres private-lands waterfowl habitat during his career! Life-long Arkansa duck hunter Pagan talks about his background in hunting and habitat management before barreling full steam ahead into need-to-know advantages of natural habitat management. Building on previous waterfowl habitat management...

Ducks, doves, decoying pigeons, perdiz, and optional golden dorado fishing--what's not to love about this Argentina duck hunting combo if you're an ardent, trigger-pulling hunter? On top of all that, an amazingly immersive, oftentimes belt-stretching, cultural experience starting in big-city Buenos Aires and going deep into rural Argentina. But is it really a fun vacation for non-hunting spouses? Following an action-packed week, hear what the hunters, non-hunters and hosts had to say about...

Public Service Announcement: Guides, outfitters, freelancers--everyone--traveling to hunt outside the United States need to be aware that new Center for Disease Control (CDC) rules change the requirements for importing your retriever back into the United States! Canada's the biggie. If you are bringing a dog to the U.S., starting on August 1, 2024, there are new steps you need to take. These steps depend on where your dog has been in the past 6 months. Ira McCauley explains requirements (as...

Late July in the Deep South, it's hotter than hades and teal season is right around the corner. Where better to spend a fun weekend in the among your kind of people--duck hunters--than in the air conditioned halls of Baton Rouge's Raising Cane's River Event Center? The 3rd annual Delta Waterfowl Expo will be there this weekend and everybody that's anybody in the duck hunting world will be there, too. Hear Delta Waterfowl's Brad Heidel and I talk about happenings past and present and why the...

A since-forever duck hunter himself, Casey Stemler is a hook-and-bullet biologist that spent decades working coast-to-coast throughout the upper echelons of US Fish and Wildlife Service, making tremendous contributions to wildlife conservation and habitat management via applied research and policy.  Stemler paints a big picture perspective of North American wildlife conservation, describing accomplishments and challenges for hunting and fishing, anti-hunting hurdles, the importance of...

Once upon a time, Stuttgart, Arkansas was the Rice and Duck Capital of the world, and--for sure--duck hunting traditions remain interwoven into Arkansas's cultural identity. Especially green headed ducks. Mallards. But continental mallard populations have declined 50% during the last decade or so. What now? Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Wildlife Management Division Chief, Luke Naylor explains the then versus now of Arkansas duck hunting. The numbers are sobering. We discuss habitat,...

A hunter since way back when, Ronnie Richardson explains that it's not about killing, so much as it's about experiencing places. National Land Realty's CEO, Richardson's wealth of knowledge in recreational and investment properties was derived the old-fashioned way--by spending decades doing it well. And it's been these two things--hunting and land--that've kept us in touch since high school. We catch up today, talking about people, places, and hunting land. Good stuff.   Visit MOJO’s Duck...

"I want the biggest pile of dead ducks over the longest period of time," implies the maximum sustained yield model by which North America's waterfowl populations are managed. North America likely harvests more waterfowl than the rest of the world combined. But is it really what hunters want? To hear a few grumbling internet malcontents, you'd think maybe not--but what does the data say? Former Migratory Bird Chief Brad Border is back, discussing North American Waterfowl Management Goals and...

"Her hips are beautiful and knees look great, but at her age one of the biggest risk is blowing out her ACL like aging athletes do," said veterinarian Dr. Bill Sullivan during Char Dawg's recent visit. She's only 6 years old. In today's highly informative conversation, we cover need-to-know, aging-retriever topics quicker than a hard-charging lab through sheet water. Topics include retriever aging, conditioning, expectations versus reality, avian influenza, dietary needs, training versus...

For Chef David Crews, growing up in Mississippi's Delta was inspiration enough. He describes how home-cooked meals and a his first part-time job while a teenager got him started. We talk about the unique Mississippi delta culture, the many iconic resturants located throughout this relatively remote area where folks don't blink at an hour-plus drives down dusty turnrows to enjoy dinner, how hot tamales became a staple, the Delta Supper Club that attracted renowned chefs and out-of-state member...

Mallards may be the so-called rockstars of the duck hunting universe, but not if you were born and raised on Long Point, Ontario, where massive diver rafts on Lake Erie form ravenous swarms that strafe your ice-encased layout rigs when the weather's just right. And especially not if you're a third-generation diver hunter and boat builder like Jayden Bankes, who excitedly describes bluebills, redheads, and king cans starved for lush wild celery beds so thick they bog outboards! Jayden takes us...

Five Oaks Ag Research and Education Center focuses it's habitat management on Arkansas's historic bottomland hardwood forest ecosystems, using the life history of mallards that have migrated there for eons as living proof of healthy habitat. Empasizing the whole bottomland ecosystem's historic importance, Ryan Askren talks about moist-soil management, comparing it to conventional agricultural crops, listing the pros and cons, naming favored plant communities. We also get into bottomland...

Now among the scarcest waterfowl habitat in the delta, it was emergent wetland-type habitats that sustained overwintering migratory in their heavily forested, ancestral Deep South wintering grounds. What exactly are emergent wetlands, and why are they so desirable when managing for duck habitat? Building on our previous discussion (EP 483.), wildlife biologist Kevin Nelms deftly slogs mid-thigh deep into this swampy topic, explaining emergent marsh productivity relative to other habitat...

The man, the myth, the legend--the waterfowl podcast godfather and host of The End of the Line Podcast himself--Rocky Leflore pays a long overdue visit and catches up. Rocky's  in-depth interviews with waterfowl hunters culminated in popular, episodic series such as Redemption, The Warden, Becoming Martin, Mondays With Rob, The Innovator, Thunder Rolls, and many more, taking us deep behind the scenes. The Life's Short GetDucks series brought me into the podcast world, and for that am...

It's something we know intuitively--waterfowl need water. And they mostly eat seeds, right? But has transforming natural floodplain ecosystems that sustained migratory waterfowl for millenniums into monotypic, agricultural landscapes somehow altered our understanding waterfowl habitat preferences (versus availability), habitat productivity, and essential wetlands complexes? Personal duck hunting experiences worldwide combined with known, species-specific migrational and distributional changes...

"How do I pay Mother Nature to make wild animals instead?" asks Brant McDuff from Brooklyn, New York, who grew up shooting shotguns, didn't start hunting until recently, and is fervently spreading hunting gospel via speaking engagements, hunter's ed courses and a fresh-off-the-press book. Yeah yeah, hunting is conservation. But coming from outside the cradle-to-grave hunting community, Brant brings fresh viewpoints to include venison diplomacy, preservation versus conservation, natural fiber...

Ricky Mathews is a fearless force of nature when it comes to doing right by Mississippi's treasured wildlife resources and the people, like himself, that enjoy hunting and fishing.  Using what he calls "reporting muscle" to "speak truth to the power," his hugely popular SuperTalk Outdoors radio program oftentimes crashes meteorically through controversial topics, like the ones he describes candidly today. For most of us, hunting and fishing is part of our cultural identity. It's who we are....

Smart as he may have been, nearly everything ol' Grandad taught about fair chase hunting ethics originated in the late-1800s when yesteryear hunters formed the venerable Boone and Crockett Club. Their forever vision didn't stop there. Backbone of the North America Model of Wildlife Conservation, Boone and Crockett helped set aside millions of acres in perpetuity, brought hunters-as-conservationists into mainstream American conciousness, worked to establish the world's most enviable collection...