Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Matt Harrison: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, Matt Harrison, and I have a very special guest with me here today that really and truly doesn't need an introduction, but I'm gonna give him one anyway, Mr. Jim Ronquist. How you doing, Mr. Jim?

Jimbo Ronquest: I'm good, brother Matt. Thank you, bud. I appreciate them kind words.

Matt Harrison: Absolutely. I am super excited to have you on whenever Ducks Unlimited told me, hey, you're gonna be hosting some of our podcast episodes coming up. I was like, I know who I have to get on there. And that is Mr. Jim Ronquist. So, it is such a pleasure to have you on the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I know this isn't your first time to be on it, but it's my first time hosting you. So, I'm super excited because I've got about 3,200 questions I'm going to ask you. You ready? Man, I'm the only guy asking questions.

Jimbo Ronquest: That's all good, bud. I appreciate it.

Matt Harrison: Oh, me. Oh, me. No, y'all. So, just to—I know the answer to this question, and I know it's a dumb question, but are you ready for duck season?

Jimbo Ronquest: It depends on your perspective there, right? So are you ready for duck season? Yes, mentally, for sure. Ready to get going. Physically, absolutely not. I've got, I've got blinds, I've been building one big new duck blind on a place that's not complete. I've got several blinds that need brushed. I got pits that need pumped out. I got some woods roads that need cleaned up. I've got a pile to do. So in that respect, no, absolutely not ready for duck season. Um, but as far as being ready, yeah. I say that every year, you always look forward to duck season. But for me and you, probably, you kind of got to mentally get yourself prepared for what's fixing to happen. Because I tell people all the time, I said, look, duck season is not a sprint. It's a marathon. And you have to, as crazy as this sounds, you have to be mentally prepared for that going into it. You do.

Matt Harrison: And especially the role that you have at Drake Waterfowl, mine at Ducks Unlimited, you know, it's part of our job. Like, you know what I mean? And like you said, the mental aspect of it, just from the planning, the planning the trips, making sure you have, you know, the right people in place, the gear in place. I mean, I started months ago on planning mine. So, I mean, once it gets here, like you said, I mean, it's been a marathon the whole time. It's not a sprint. So mentally, I think I'm ready too, but like you said, there's still stuff that I haven't, you know, squared away yet either. I'm like, I gotta get that done. I gotta get that done. But I'm ready to be in the woods chasing some ducks.

Jimbo Ronquest: I think you are too. Oh, man. Yes, sir. I'm ready for a cold, crisp morning and frost on the ground, a little breeze blowing, some ducks chattering. Got me excited. Yes, sir.

Matt Harrison: I'm ready for that. All right. What year does this make for you now, chasing ducks?

Jimbo Ronquest: Man, I figured it out just a few minutes ago, and I really, I hate to say this, because you've heard the old saying, if I knew I was going to live this long, I'd take better care of myself. Um, but this'll be my 50th year. 50? Of waterfowl. I couldn't believe it. That's almost double my age. Oh man, that really makes me feel young. Thank you, bud. Um, no, I couldn't believe it when I was figuring it up. I said, goodness, this is 50 years since I pulled, actually 51 since I pulled the trigger on my first green top. That.

Matt Harrison: is unbelievable, 50 years. Yeah, and I don't feel like I'm that old.

Jimbo Ronquest: No, you're not. No, it's all good. You're just getting broke in. That's right, that's right. But no, 50 years of chasing them suckers.

Matt Harrison: Wow, that's amazing. So, clearly, you've been at it a long time. You've been at it, I mean, you've seen the years, the change, you've seen From no social media to social media, you've seen where, how competitive it is, you know, now getting a certain spot. You've seen it really and truly. I mean, just, just about all aspects of the one, and I'm not trying to make you sound old here, but you've seen the game change. How much has it changed over those 50 years to you? And what are some of the ways that you have seen it change?

Jimbo Ronquest: It's changed a lot for sure. Um, you know, just, I don't want to get into attitudes or none of that, but one of the biggest things is technology in both good and bad ways. You know, you know, the original GPS system was the guide positioning system. You had to know where you were going. Um, and you've learned, you learned your way around a little better. I got lost a lot like everybody else did. You learn to read a compass, get around. But I would say the big ones would be the mapping programs. You know, on X. I mean, even your Google Maps. Google Maps, on X, and then, and then the social web based stuff. It's easier for folks nowadays to learn. You can get on YouTube. Google it. You want to learn something about duck hunting or decoys or… You can find it. You can find it. Used to, you had to know somebody or it was passed on to you. Now you can go learn it. Now, if somebody can pass it on to you and then you can learn it from there, along with the technical advantages, it's great. But there's that and social media, the information age. Here's one we hear a lot, being around DU, you hear a lot of people talking about flyway shifting. You know, you hear this a lot, flyway shifted to Oklahoma and Kansas and Texas. I've spent a good bit of time in Nebraska and Kansas riding them old long pasture roads and river bottoms, and you'll find old defunct duck blinds scattered all over the place. You know, I'm gonna say them cowboys out there have been hunting ducks as long as we have. I don't think nothing's changed. And when you look at band reports and whatnot, Follow me, I'm going down a rabbit hole. But when you hear all the people talk about it, but then you study all the band reports and harvest numbers, hadn't really changed a lot, except people. Now more people know that they're shooting a lot of ducks in the Central and Southern, Central Flyway.

Matt Harrison: They've always been there. It's just… But people are just… The information you can now find out, like you said, I mean, you can Google, where's the best places to duck hunt? And it'll give you… Now, it may not give you a certain hole, but, you know, it'll point out places that has been successful over the years and used to… I mean, you didn't have that.

Jimbo Ronquest: No, you did not. It wasn't there. So, you just kind of learned on your own, or you got in the truck and went, or, you know, word of mouth. You know, people's been traveling duck hunting for a long time also. I can remember enjoying that at one time, you'd get in the truck and just take off and go, you know, hook on the boat and go find ducks. And we still do that today, but it happens so much faster. I can remember hunting in the river bottom one time, and man, we had the whole woods to ourself. Been like that for a while. I remember that morning, we was waiting on time to go in, sitting in the boat, drinking coffee. I kept hearing boat motors, boat motors. What the heck? Where are all these boat people coming from? And come to find out somebody put something out about where ducks were or whatnot. And they were coming. And they were coming, buddy. By the groves, they was coming. So that's probably been the biggest changes is the mapping opportunity. you have and the information, the sharing of information through whether it be social media, the web, YouTube, whatever, it gets out there pretty quick.

Matt Harrison: Yeah, and that's not even talking about gear wise. I mean, I've heard stories back 30, 40 years ago. I mean, they had to go in with the big old Q-beam light, just beaming, you know, trying to find your spot when it's 20 degrees and you got to put your hand back in your coat for a minute and pull it out.

Jimbo Ronquest: Are you trying to run a trim button and you're holding spotlight up here? So, so the best thing you learn to do is just cut a broom handle off and let you tape your spotlight to a broom handle.

Matt Harrison: No man's got called one too many times to figure that one out. That's right. And I know a guy that still does that, still does it the old way. You know, he don't have the light bar. He's got it just that old, you know, handheld light and that's the way he finds it.

Jimbo Ronquest: You know, sometimes Because you can put that where you want it.

Matt Harrison: You can, that light bar, you kind of got to get that boat going in that direction.

Jimbo Ronquest: I keep a handheld by me all the time for that very reason. What's that right there on that log? So yeah, I keep a handheld handy all the time.

Matt Harrison: And it's just crazy to see, just from all aspects really of the water fowl game and industry, how it's just changed over, I mean, that amount of time. And, you know, like you talked about, just from the mapping standpoint, social media standpoint, you know, you hear a lot of people with the negative side about it, but there's a lot of positive on it too. You know, just for example, just giving an example here, social media, you know, people that you hear people often say, you know, social media ruin waterfowl hunting, and you know, and people have arguments and that. Like you said, you know, years and years ago, nobody knew, you know, in this certain area, there's a bunch of ducks and people have been successful there and hunting and shooting ducks, and then one picture gets posted, and you know, they put a location, and boom, next year, there's instead of five people there, there's 15 people, and the next year, there's 30, because that friend's gonna go home and say, and we found them!" You know, and they're going the next year bringing their buddies and, you know, the trickle effect, but also the positive side. Now, I'll just give a story real quick, you know, uh, we have a friend now in Oklahoma, his name's Briar Adams, and he is one of our, literally one of my best friends, you know, great friend of mine. We go up and we stay, during waterfowl season, we stay with him. Then during turkey season, we go and stay with him. We hunt ducks in Oklahoma, we hunt turkeys in Oklahoma, we've hunt hogs in Oklahoma, and… I would have never met Breyer if it wasn't for social media. And he's just a friend that now calls all the time, checks in, comes and spends New Year's with us. And if it wasn't for social media, I would have never met him. So there's good that comes from a lot of the change that has took in place.

Jimbo Ronquest: There's positives and negatives with everything. Everything. I don't care what it is. As we move forward in time, evolution is ongoing. So we get better, they get better. There's good and bad. It's just how you I'm not going to say perceive it, but how you live it. I think it comes down to personal attitude.

Matt Harrison: That's right. And that's what my next point is. Be the one that makes the positive impact. It starts with you. Absolutely. You know what I mean? It's easy to point fingers and say, well, he's doing this, or she's doing that, and that group's doing that. Well, be the person to make the change. Be the person to make the difference for the positive, you know, because this day and age, you know, it's super easy to see people pointing that finger, but it's like I've always heard, you know, you got three pointing right back at you when you're pointing that finger. That's right. You know what I mean? That's a good one. So, always remember, change starts with you. Yes. Change starts with you, so be that positive impact.

Jimbo Ronquest: You know, it's not hard to be positive. You know, there's, there's, we got enough negativity in the world. You know, let's, let's be positive, have fun, enjoy it for what it is. You know, one of my deals too, you're talking about, you think social media and you know, the log shots, you know, what people do. I laughed one year, somebody took all their decoys, stacked them up on a log, last day, next season for a log shot. I thought that was funny. That was genius, whoever did it. Oh, it was funny. But a buddy of mine from North Louisiana named William Colvin talked to me one time. He said, man, Jimbo, we need to invent a How Many hat. I said, what? What are you talking about a How Many hat? He said, it's a How Many hat. He said, say you've been Croppy fishing or duck hunting. You go back and eat dinner or breakfast or cup of coffee or have a Coke, whatever. I said, folks don't ask you, man, did you have a good time? Did the fish bite?

Matt Harrison: They said, how many did you catch?

Jimbo Ronquest: How many did you catch? Or how many ducks did you shoot? You know, I said, I just want to have many hats. That way I just walk in there, I just dotted up and just pointed at my hat.

Matt Harrison: Just put a number up there, huh?

Jimbo Ronquest: You ain't gonna ask. Too many people worrying about the how many instead of how they played the game. Did they enjoy the day? Was there some good dog work? What was special about, you know, maybe a pair of ducks that broke out and fell in? The little things that make us enjoy what we do is way more important than the full straps. Sure, I love to have a full strap of ducks and smell gunpowder and a wore out wet dog, but there's more to it than that. You know, there's more to it than that.

Matt Harrison: There is, and especially the older I get, you know, we just had a podcast a couple weeks ago about the different types of hunters. Like, what kind of hunter are you? And it's literally broken down into the types of hunters, and you know, they asked me this, one of the questions they asked me, they were like, what do you consider like a successful hunt? You know, and God's honest truth, I mean, this is, as true as I could possibly be. Don't get me wrong, like you just said, who doesn't love and enjoy going to shoot a bunch of ducks, you know, with friends and laugh and enjoy. But God's honest truth, if you told me, you create the perfect hunt right now, it would be me and my brother, going to find a hole where we're knee-deep in some timber, and it's just me and him shooting some mallards. That's God's honest truth, because we've done that. And that's the most memorable hunt ever, is being in the woods with him, me and him limits down on our ducks, and going about our day. And now I've been to where, you know, you have hunts where you can pile them up on a log and take the picture. I'm not gonna lie and say that wasn't fun. But truly, what means the most to me and what I enjoy the most is truly being in the woods with my brother and maybe one or two more friends and just enjoying it. And sometimes that may be shooting four ducks. Maybe. You know, out of four people. But do we enjoy it? Do we get to work some ducks? Have fun? Cut loose?

Jimbo Ronquest: Absolutely. With my favorite hunt last duck season, River was up. We got that cold front. River was just enough to be wrong. And I went one morning by myself, me and my dog, Charlie. Didn't put the boat in till after daylight. Just wasn't in no hurry. Just wanted to ease up, hunting late in the morning. Kind of eased up there, found some ducks, and shot my four with a 28 gauge. But I made it. Not that I'm not a good shot, but I kind of made it work where there was one tree that had a limb on it. I said, OK, here's my deal for today. I got to make them come under that limb before I shoot them. And Miss Charlie picked them all up. It wasn't about a big old stack of ducks or a big, you know, 10 man limit shoot, which are great, but it was just going duck hunting for going duck hunting. Um, no decoys, just get up in the shade, meme old dog and a duck call. Now that was a truly fun hunt, you know, uh, but it wasn't a big hunt, but it was enjoyable. And I didn't have nobody, it was just me and her. So it was good. So I get it.

Matt Harrison: I get it. And that's really and truly what is gonna stick out to you in another 10, 15 years. Like when you think about, hey, the 2023 season, what stuck out to you? That hunt with you and Charlotte. You know what I mean? Stuff like that. Right. Looking back on, like I said, when somebody asked, what's one of your favorite hunts? It's, we, me and my brother, we found, literally it was, we were hunting Cut-Off Creek, you know, and uh- Easy now.

Jimbo Ronquest: Easy now. I know.

Matt Harrison: It's been rumors. Hey, look, look. You don't know. It may not have been at Cut-Off. Oh, there you go. There you go. I'm messing. I'm messing, but we found an old blowdown. I mean, it, you couldn't, it's about the size of this podcast studio, if that, and just an old blowdown, you know. And for some reason, that's where they wanted to be. And one of the groups that we worked, I guarantee we worked on for seven, eight minutes. I mean, worked on, and worked on, and worked on, and worked on, and worked on. And finally, I mean, they were just feet down, four foot off the water, and I think we dropped five out of that one group. So, I mean, it was just one of those, you know, that's what sticks out to me is those type of hunts. And so, okay, so now, We're gonna switch gears a little bit, okay? And this is what I'm most excited about. My blood's already starting to flow a little bit more, because this is my favorite part of waterfowl hunting outside of relationships and stuff like that. But we're about to talk calling ducks. And like I said, I mean, I'm getting jittery thinking about it. I love it. It's what I'm passionate about. I've told people this a thousand times. If you told me you can either take your call or you're going, one of the two, what are you taking? I'm taking my call. Just because, like, it's what I enjoy. I love the— Yeah, it's what I enjoy. It's an art. It's a, you know, it's a game. It's a challenge, you know, to truly, truly learn how to call ducks, and make them do what you need them to do. So, I want to talk just a minute about that, and I'm going to give you some scenarios. Oh, boy. Okay? So, we're getting a little tricky here, okay? Oh, boy. This could be fun. This could be. And now, look, and I also know what these scenarios I'm going to give you. There's variables with this. There's certain aspects that could be different. So, I get that, but we're just going to take an overall certain scenario, going to give it to you. and you just kind of take your general idea and you go with it. You know what I mean? Because I know that some days a duck wants to hear one thing and nothing else, and some days I don't want to hear nothing, and some days I want to hear everything. I get that. But I'm just going to give you some scenarios and just kind of walk us through and break it down, kind of what you're looking for, how you would approach a certain situation, and go from there. How's that sound? Works for me, baby. Perfect. Okay. So, let's say We have a bad weather day, okay? Not saying it's pouring rain, but just more overcast, kind of doom and gloom. You know, maybe not just a ton of wind, but overcast, maybe a little light mist here and there. You know, just not ideal, ideal, you know what I'm saying? So let's say that's the day, okay? Let's say we have a group of five mallards, okay? Not treetop high, not sky high. We're just kind of cruising, looking for a spot. to stop. Let's say, you know, it's you by yourself because I know that can kind of throw another variable. Do you have a group with you? How are they calling? But let's just say it's just you and Charlie. You're hunting and this group of five mallards is cruising along and you're trying to get them in. What time of year is it? Let's say, let's say, I don't want to say early and I don't want to say late because I know that that's, let's just say slap dab middle of the season and you've got these ducks that you're, you know. Yeah. They're just cruising along. They're cruising along.

Jimbo Ronquest: So this covers a lot of things. So. The first thing I want to say would cover any scenario. There's a difference between calling that ducks and calling two ducks. You got to call Adam before you can call two. So first thing I'm going to look up, I'm going to see them ducks and I'm going to make a decision on how they're flying on how I want to start. Um, probably going to hit, hit a lick of some sort of may hit, may hit a hard feed call. Don't know. It just depends on where we're at, what we're doing, unless you're there, but probably hit him with a lick. Let them know you're there. Yeah. I'm calling out them, you know, just throw another hand down here. I want to see how they react, if they react. So if you get a reaction out of that, let them make the next move. You know, if you get a good, hard, relaxing, you know, we all love it when you hit that call and you see it spin around, you know. And you hear that wind. Yeah. We all love that. Right. But if you get that, let them come. But if you get just that stop, I call it a check, you see them kind of check just a little bit, pour it right back on them again. And just- Kind of with that same lick? Same lick. Yeah, same lick. I want to see what they do. So if they've checked once that time, they may start sailing. And then I want to just see if they start to turn. So watching their attitude, right? If her butt's down a little bit and they slow down, they're sailing, they start to turn, just kind of pull them through the turn. You know, you can screw up there too. A lot of it depends on how far out they are, you know? So we're just… Let's say medium. They're not right there, but they're not… And if I don't have a lot of folks around, I'm going to tell myself not to call unless I have to, at that point. So if you start to lose them… Then I'll pick them back up. We are all, and let me raise both my hands, guilty of calling too much.

Matt Harrison: Oh, absolutely.

Jimbo Ronquest: You know, way too… I'm bad guilty of it. But the more I watch it, And try harder. Your call is more effective when you don't overuse it. Absolutely. So I'm going to try to watch them ducks. If they're making a move around, just let them come. If they start to pick up or start to move away, I want to come back with something else, whether it be a feed chatter, hit a lick, something to try to pull them back around. And now if they're still going, I'm going to keep stepping it up, stepping it up, stepping it up, trying to make something happen. But if they pull back around, depending on how aggressive they're approaching my setup, If they're coming hard and fast, I ain't doing nothing. If they're just kind of slowly, I'm going to chatter at them a little bit. Just kind of keep them thinking about me. Especially if you've got other ducks or folks around you, sometimes if you let off, you lose them. So that's where sometimes it's that easy chatter. Just keep them easing towards you a little bit. Don't just hammer it in their face, but, you know, keep a boat away from them, boat to water, you know. But just let them come to that sound and just, again, watching their body language is as much as blowing that collar. Just seeing what to take. If you, if they make a circle, you know, this cloudy day you're talking about, they probably ain't just going to come straight in. They're going to circle. You can't hide good on cloudy days.

Matt Harrison: And you'll see, and I know that you've seen it and that, cause I have too, is you'll see sometimes that lead duck, their head, you know how they're, you'll literally see that head poking out, looking around.

Jimbo Ronquest: Yeah, I've seen him turn her head over, you know, to see. So, but I'm going to watch them. If they make that circle, really watch their attitude. You know, if they're bunched down and they're flying slow looking, you got a chance. And I know what's happened to you. They level out and they're going to make another pass and another pass higher. You can blow all you want to, but they're gone. They're done. They're done.

Matt Harrison: They're done. We always, as duck hunters, we try. Yeah. And then you just know at that point, like, there's no, there's no. Yeah.

Jimbo Ronquest: You may get one back. I've had it where I've got one or two back, but typically they're done, you know, at that point.

Matt Harrison: One of my favorite things in that, let's say that certain scenario is when, like you said, you kind of watch them and you can see they're interested. Like they're, you're right there at the brink of finishing them. You know what I mean? But I love seeing them. They're still a little bit above treetop, but they go out about 300-400 yards and they'll turn. And a lot of times I've noticed this, and this may just be my own, you know, my own scenarios that I've made up in my own head, but a lot of times when you see them go down, and they'll come back and they'll line out. And a lot of times that's when I've been like, okay, they're about to do it. You know what I mean? You'll kind of see them, not lose them, of course, but they'll just kind of go and get a little bit of distance between you and them and come right back and just.

Jimbo Ronquest: Yeah, in that situation, which may be a little different, especially in the woods, let them get to win, unless you got a pile of folks around you. Don't turn them back into the wind too quick. But I would say too, this first scenario you talked about, go easy on them. Will ducks get on top of you? Um, and if you feel you have to call, go get real easy with them, you know, back off that call a little bit.

Matt Harrison: And, and you just said something that's so important that I have also found out because me and you got to share a blind, I think it was now two years ago, whenever we, uh, we got to hunt together. And it's something I'd noticed before, you know, with conducts, but then also when I was, I was literally just listening to everything you, you know, were calling in the certain scenarios, because I think we had, that morning we hunted was about like that situation I just told you. Uh, but I noticed, one thing I have seen with other hunters, okay, is a lot of times, let's say they, you got a group that's super, you know, locked in to you. Well, they're trying to get a little bit of distance and they ain't 50 yards and you're back, man, man, man, man. trying to get them back. Let them get some distance, because I noticed that with you, and I've done it with myself as well. Let them get out there a little bit before you start back on them. You know what I mean? Because a lot of times, like you said, if they're going away, I don't mean they're leaving. You know what I mean? Like, don't blow them out of the hole because you're scared that they're not coming back. Let them get out there just a little bit, because I noticed that with you, that you did that, you know, very well, is letting them get out there a little bit before you start back on them.

Jimbo Ronquest: Yeah, let them get out there, give them room to turn around. Now, sure, there's scenarios where you're in public woods or something, and you need to turn them back inside the hole pretty quick. Don't get me wrong, but the less you have to try to do stuff to them, the better they'll be. And again, knowing where you're at time of year and watching how those ducks are reacting will tell you a whole lot of what you got to do column-wise.

Matt Harrison: I learned something. So, okay, scenario number two. It's just the opposite. We're talking about blue bird sky, baby. We've got about a 10, 15 mile an hour north wind. I'm talking about blue bird sky. There's not a single cloud up there you know just one of those days it's cool you know got a good wind all right let's say there's a group of 15 high fly mallards we're talking about up there where you got to break them out okay i'm talking you know just Not the ones that you're like, hey, can you see those way up there? But ones that, they really don't have plans on being where you're at. They're going. You know what I mean? They're trading ducks. They're trading ducks. So, how, what's the scenario, how you approach that? I know you got to break them out. I know you got to get it out there to them first. But like, how are you kind of treating that? And I know scenarios, again, can play a factor in that. What's kind of your approach is beautiful day, good north wind, group of big, I mean, it's a big group, you know, it's not a solo flying over, but you got that high, high wad of ducks flying over you.

Jimbo Ronquest: Yep. Yep. Yep. Them, them are kind of my favorites. And I'm going to say, add to your scenario that this high pressure system hadn't been in too long. It's kind of fresh. We just had a cold front. So these are our favorite ducks, right? That's why we go duck hunting. I'm gonna start off hitting them ducks hard like the last scenario. You got to call out them before you can call to them I want to see how that but I'm gonna I'm gonna rare down and hit him boy I want some punch in that call I want to watch their reaction if you get him to check and you see him check I'm gonna come back though the hard feed I want, and what I'm trying to do right there, I want them to listen to me, and then if you'll get where they spend around there and get the wind, you see them tucking wings down. That's when you can really just hear that wind cutting it. Let them come. Let them come. But keep that call close. If you, sometimes them high ducks like that, when you get them bowed up and coming hard on that hard feed.

Matt Harrison: So when you say close though, explain that. When you say keep that call close.

Jimbo Ronquest: Yeah. Keep, keep your call right here watching them ducks. Cause if they're really high ducks and once you get them broke around, you see them do that and you let off the call. If they're coming on that hard breaking feed, they're coming, you know. So you're saying just be ready. I mean. But if you let off of it. I want them to keep coming, but a lot of times when you let off, you lose them. You let off, they'll be drawn up like this, and then if you see them start to wing, start to ease out, get back on them again, pull them back in. If not, a lot of times they'll do like this, you want to let up on them, and they'll let up, and then they'll slide. And then they got a high circle. And then you're back, dang it, then here you go again. Trying to get them back around. So you got to kind of pay attention to that, but As duck hunters and collars, I mean, those are the ducks that we like. I know that.

Matt Harrison: That's the ones that, because once you break them, that's when that energy just goes, you get excited because now you got their attention. Yeah. And I, like you said, staying on them, you know, I feel like on that certain scenario, a lot of times those ducks, you have to stay on. So, because when you let off a lot, you have your, like I said, don't, I'm not saying you got to stay on them in this scenario, but a lot of times, like you said, I mean, I've had it where I've been hunting with a group of, eight people where you would have probably thought, y'all are idiots for how y'all are calling right now, just because the whole time, you know, one of us may have been, man, man, and then they're like, ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka. You know, and just trying our best to keep them engaged the whole time, because like you said, if you let off, it's just like, you start to see them wings kind of creep out, and that slide, and… Especially if you're hunting kind of crowded public ground a little bit, you got to keep them thinking about you, keep them on you.

Jimbo Ronquest: That's where, if you got buddies with you, there's different things you can do. Keep that wall of sound up, but also know when to let off. You know, that's probably the biggest thing I see, guys. Being a past competitive caller, if you can go, let's go to a really good woods hole. We've been shooting them every day. You take four or five world champions who's never hunted together before, and your hunt success just went to crap right there, because everybody's trying to outdo his buddy, and you're not… Eight people trying to finish three ducks. At the same time, it just, it don't work. You gotta know when to let off. But that's kind of the fun of calling ducks. I think a lot of times as duck hunters, we kind of make it more maybe more mystical than it really is, but yet at the same time, that's what makes it fun.

Matt Harrison: And speaking on this too, you know, a lot of our listeners are very well-educated hunters, but then you have some too that aren't, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I want to talk, before we get into our last scenario, I want to talk a little bit about what you just kind of hinted at a little bit there, okay? And I'll be completely honest, when I first started duck hunting, my dad didn't duck hunt, or Papaw didn't duck hunt, me and my brother started out shooting wood ducks on the Leaf River, Mississippi. So, there wasn't podcasts, there wasn't really many YouTube videos, like, you know, and I'm not saying it was 50 years ago. You know, there was stuff out there, but it still wasn't what it was today. I mean, we're talking 15, 16 years ago when we first started. So, that's one thing we had to learn is, you know, one mistake I also see a lot of times is, say, let's say you got four or five of your buddies. Let's just say that, okay? And this isn't the last scenario I'm giving you, but to talk a little bit about the last scenario. One thing I notice is, you know, let's say you have the five or six hunters and you got a group of ducks that are really close to finishing. A lot of things and a lot of times that I see is you've got four people still trying to finish the ducks. You don't see a whole lot in a group setting where you've got that one person. And look, I'll be completely honest. Like you said, I love calling so much. A lot of times I swallow my pride and I say, I'm dropping my call. I've had the privilege to hunt with some really good hunters like yourself, and I even did it when I was hunting with you. I may would help you break them out or help you try to turn them, which I probably didn't do any good at. But once it got time to finish ducks, I said, look, I'm, you know, I mean, I'm done. You know, and I'm not saying there's not a time that, you know, if they do swing out wide, kind of hit them with something a little soft or turn another way and hit them with something. I'm not saying that, but a lot of mistakes that I see being made in the, in the hunting, duck hunting world is you got five people trying to finish a group of ducks.

Jimbo Ronquest: And if they're not used to hunting together all the time, they'll struggle. You know, there's, to your point, there's a lot of times the best call to make is the call to put it in your pocket. You know, no matter who you are.

Matt Harrison: That's the truth. And that takes swallowing a little bit of your pride, because us duck hunters, especially if you've been around a little while, that's tough to do.

Jimbo Ronquest: Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. Um, you know, I used to work for R&T calls before I was with Drake Waterfowl, past world champion, you know, building and blowing up calls is a big part of my life. That's your life. But at the same time, I will, I will do that. Um, I'll leave my call, if there's a bunch of other good callers and I think they're calling too much, I'll put my call up quickly. Before we get into that, I'm going to throw a piece of etiquette out here too. And I try to do this, unless I really know the folks or whatever, but if you're an invited guest to somewhere with folks, keep your call in your pocket until they ask you to call. You'll get invited back a lot more.

Matt Harrison: A lot more because, like you said, when you're invited to a place like that, a lot of times you have somebody who's in charge.

Jimbo Ronquest: And that host is probably a pretty successful duck caller. You know, in my deal, there's a lot of times they'll, you know, Jimbo, you, you know, you, you run the hunt and that's fine. But until I'm told that, I'm a guest. Absolute guest hunter shit. You know, I have them stuffed in my pocket.

Matt Harrison: And a lot of times, because a lot of times people will, especially somebody like you that's been a world champion, if you're not calling, they're going to look down there real quick and say, Hey, Take that call out. You know what I mean? Like, hey, all right, look, we thank you, but it's time for you to go to work. That's right. But that's a great point is that's a very good little, little, I like to call it a little nugget to keep in your pocket when you get invited somewhere. Don't be the type, all right, now let me finish from here. Oh, yeah. You know, because we've all been around somebody like that. And you're just like, I don't know if I'm going to invite them back.

Jimbo Ronquest: That's right. I'm not going to say who or where, but I was in a really nice piece of private woods and we were shooting video and the whole deal was trying to make a TV show. I was kind of running the hunt a little bit. Man got a bunch of spawn around. Come around and I say, he's getting wind on the far side. I was just fixing to start angel winging in. I'd set my call down, you know, just, just watching. It's not just let them do their thing. And some dude, all of a sudden he goes, I'm duck call. And he scared me worse than he scared the ducks when he did that. And them ducks moved out. I said, God dang it, man. I said, well, look here, partner. I'll ask you if you, if we want to. Oh, I was mad. I was so mad. Oh. But it happens. They hit one of them. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he hit that. Yeah. You know, machine gun. You're gargling into a duck. Oh, it's bad. Like I said, it scared me worse than it scared the ducks, but it scared them pretty bad. So that's also things you work out, you know.

Matt Harrison: I love it. Yeah. Okay. So going into our last scenario. Okay. This is one of the coolest types of scenarios in my own opinion now, okay? Because I know that you've been in this same exact spot that I'm about to give, okay? Let's say you've got a group pretty much treetop, okay? A group of ten, okay? But you've got that old lead hen who is running her mouth, just a- You know, just leading the pack, letting everybody know she's there. You know, just loud. Well, a lot of times what I've seen, to me at least, is that group circle, and she'll drop straight in and finish. And she's sitting on the water, just… Looking around. A lot of times, she'll start quacking. Yep. and just kind of sitting there, waiting for you to move, almost. And she may not even know you're there, but she's just… She's not swimming yet. She's not swimming. Literally, she looks like a decoy, but her head's just doing this. And like you said, she's just over there.

Jimbo Ronquest: If you can see them speculums on her wings when she sits on the water right there, she ain't comfortable yet.

Matt Harrison: So be real careful. And that group is still just tree top. And they want to do it, but they're just not yet to that point. So because at this point now, OK, Me personally, I've dropped my call. Because one, you can't move, unless you're behind a tree, you know. Two is, if she's talking, let's let her talk. Now, I'm not saying if this goes on for two minutes, because I've had it where I've literally been in a staring match with a hen mallard, I felt like, for three years. You know, and you're just like, I can't move. You know, we got a lot of ducks working, though. We're not going to shoot her. You know, what are you doing in that certain scenario?

Jimbo Ronquest: Kind of the same thing you are. I'm watching her really close and watching them ducks. And depending on how they're reacting to her sitting there quacking, I'll try to decide if I need to try to hit a lick or not, or not push her out of there. Um, cause no matter how good a duck callers we think we are, how good we think our calls sound, and a lot of them sound very realistic. You ain't never as good as she is. Um, it's just different. Um, so I'm going to watch how they react to her, but I may try to keep myself behind the tree and, and what this is, we're really watching them ducks. Here, here's one. I'm going to go out of, we'll take a wide loop here to get back to it. So if you, if you think of working ducks, let's say the wind's in your back, where are the most, and say we're in the woods. All right. Just. So where is the most important part to be paying attention to what those ducks are doing? You don't want them to get too far behind you. But if they're circling tight behind you, you're okay right there. But everything, as you get downwind to the side and straight out front is what counts. So this old yappy hens and this bunch of ducks, she's heard you calling, you know, you were trolling or whatever. She's heard you calling, here she's coming. You hear them that's really fast. You just stay right there with her. She'll plop down and maybe the rest of the bunch doesn't see her. So this is what I want to watch them do. If she's there, I'm going to let them have a pass on their own. But if they're still staying flat and their butt down and they're low, whichever way they're circling, when they get to the side of me going downwind, even that hole, easy. And a lot of times that won't push her and they'll hook in. If it pushes her, that ain't the end of the world. Keep paying attention to your lead duck. That's in the air. Watch where the front of the bunch is. If you push her out, it's okay. She may pick back up with them. She may not. Don't worry about that. Be paying attention to the lead duck and the bunch. And that's who you need to be paying attention to then. We was hunting one day on some public ground, again, shooting video. There was a couple young ladies with us that was hunting, and they got to laughing and said, we were fussing, you know, all the ducks. We said, gosh dang, we ain't got nothing. We had like two ducks hanging on a tree, and she said, I don't know why y'all are upset. There's been 32 separate mounted drakes, light on the water, and leave. And y'all never shot one. But we were so worried about getting a bunch and getting footage. We'd have been done and out of there, man. So that's another thing to get onto. But back to your scenario and any of the other scenarios we talked about, if there's more than one, pay attention to the lead. Watch what they're doing. And sometimes if you get one of the big bunches spun up, you know, one of them showing off Mondo wads, it's hard to keep with who's who.

Matt Harrison: You'll see some of them break off and come back.

Jimbo Ronquest: And that's what'll screw you up because now you'll be blowing ducks out because you're watching this bunch going here. So always try to stay on the lead bunch. Or sometimes you may get the backside to break and come in and then the rest of them elbow on top of you. So, and a lot of that would depend on how much the wind's blowing and what kind of weather you got going on.

Matt Harrison: And here's another little nugget. One thing that I've learned as well is if you ever get the chance to either go to a refuge, a rest area, just go Hide and listen. I have learned more by finding a raft, or like I said, it can be at a refuge, it can be if you found some ducks off in the woods and you're scouting and you're not hunting. Cut the motor off, sit for an hour, and listen. I literally sent a video to my brother the other day. This probably no joke, Mr. Jim, is probably, I would say, 200 miles just in a wad, sitting on the water, okay? Not one of those ducks is in there. Now, you'll have those scenarios too, don't get me wrong, but I'm just saying, sometimes… They ain't talking. They're not talking. And you can learn. And now there are days too that you know as well as I do that you can't get them to shut up. Right. What you do here. Oh, you hear it all. You hear all that. But, learn on certain weather days, or learn on these days, okay, I know that there's 10 ducks sitting on the water in there. I see two cruising over. How are they about to respond? Is it just feed, or is it that old hen gonna let them know, hey, we're down here, you know?

Jimbo Ronquest: Some of that listening and watching is also watching. Watching, yep. You know, pay attention to what to do. Sometimes, Ducks on the water will key off in wing beats going across them. I'll sit and watch them and you'll see a cocker head up, she'll, pop, pop, pop, pop, or, c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c- I mean, we all gonna blow too much. Again, I'll raise both my hands. I'll raise my feet. Yeah. I call too much. However, that being said, them big, long, high pressure systems and them days where you can see the moon on up in the morning, eight, nine, 10 o'clock, and you still can still see the moon. That's them days them ducks are normally sitting pretty quiet, you know? Uh, so I, I, they come slaying longer. I'm going to hit them easy and see how they act. Again, you got to call Adam before you can call to him. And that's two different things. You know, it's no different than. If you're over across the room, and I want to talk to you about something, I'm gonna holler at you. Hey, hey, hey, Matt! Hey, Matt! Come here a second. And then you're gonna talk to me. Then we're gonna talk to you. And ducks, geese, turkeys are somewhat the same way, you know? It's not quite the same. We can't humanize it too much. Yeah. But that's relatively how you… But that's true. That's a good way to think about it. It is. You know? And that makes a difference. And, you know, once you get a bunch hooked up, how you call to them can be the difference in how they finish or not. So, and… We talk scenarios all day, but until you're standing there and experiencing what's happening and seeing what's happening, all we can talk about is generalities.

Matt Harrison: And you know what else is a funny point is, a lot of times when you learn the most is when you mess up. You know what I mean? So don't get, because look, I can tell you, you learn what not to do. And that helps you learn what to do.

Jimbo Ronquest: I still learn a whole lot about what not to do, because I screw up a bunch. You know, I screw up a lot. But you got to be trying to screw up.

Matt Harrison: You do, but that's an encouragement to any listeners out there.

Jimbo Ronquest: You learn, man.

Matt Harrison: You just learn. quite get that group to finish. Well, just learn, hey, what did I do? Why did this? It didn't work on this certain scenario, so next time I'm going to try something different. Like, you know, don't continue to repeat the same thing over and over. If it's not working, try something different. And I still do that to this day. You know, if it's a morning where you're just not getting much action of getting ducks to listen, I'm like, look, I might try something different, you know, and hit a different lick or do something a little bit different that you've done.

Jimbo Ronquest: You might be like, hey. Change calls, change sounds. Yeah. go clean, go raspy, I don't know. It's, even though ducks have all kinds of different voices, just like people do, sometimes they respond better to clear sounds, sometimes they respond better to something raspy. I don't know why it is. And you know, we could talk to Dr. Mike and other people about all of that and there's, that's what makes calling so much fun. It's, it's somewhat, um, We probably overthink it, but sometimes it is what it is. They're just going to do what they want to do. They're ducks. At the end of the day, they're ducks. They got a brain the size of a pea, and they can make grown men look stupid. And cry.

Matt Harrison: That's right. No, but, you know, that's all, you know, great information, just talking about those scenarios. And like I said before all that, you know, because some people listen to maybe like, well, you know, y'all, y'all, that's not exactly right. And that's why I said before is, you know, that's just our general consensus on what is, we felt like has helped us, you know. And like you said, we could take all those scenarios and do what we think is best and on one morning, it don't work. No, and it's not going to work every time. It's not. It's not. And yeah. And that kind of leads into our next little bit of a section is, okay, choosing the right call. Okay. And cause, like I said, again, I'm sure some of our listeners are very well polished duck hunters. You know, and some may be just starting out that are just getting into it, you know. You've got from, you know, you've got J-frame, you got cut down, you got a single read, you got a double read, you got some that take so much air you'd have to put a leaf blower to it to blow. Then you got some that if you… put just a little bit of air in, you're blowing the top end out. You know, you barely breathe on it. You know what I mean? And I know it's preference. I know what works best for you. I know, you know, you got some hunters that's hunted for 50 years that say, I've never touched a cut down. I'm not going to blow a cut down. I've blown my DR-85 for 50 years and I've killed more ducks and more power to you. That's right. But Now, as a world champion, as somebody that, like you said, the duck calling industry and word was part of your life for so long, how do you go about choosing a call that you think is best for you?

Jimbo Ronquest: Yeah, and it's, you're probably not going to get it right on the first try. And that's the beauty of being of people. People in duck call business, they ain't in duck call business. The main reason is we are all searching for that magic flute. And there's no such animal. So that ain't going to happen. The other thing I would say is try different calls. Go to places where you can try calls. You know, and I'm going to say most of the people that listen to this, there's some that are probably just starting and some that's got more experience than I do. Just go find something that you like, that feels good. And I will say this too, whether it be the HALO folks who I know well, they're great people, build great calls, folks at Duck Commander, folks at R&T, most all Duck Call companies are good people that's going to try to help you out. But find something and if you like it, learn it. You know, maybe the call needs adjusted a little bit. One of the things that used to frustrate me working at shows and people wanting to buy duck calls, they'd come up and want to try one. You'd have all these calls out on the counter. They'd pick one up and they'd blow it. Well, man, that's too hard. They'd put it back or you'd wipe it off, put it back and then pick one up. Man, that was too easy. I said, whoa, hang on a minute, buddy. Let's find, what are you looking for? And once they explain kind of what they look for, I'd try whatever model that was. I'd say, I'm going to blow this. And I'd hear them blow it. And then I'd adjust the call for them. And a lot of times, that's the big deal. People will try a duck call and it doesn't fit them. You know, and it could be just a simple snip of a reed, or maybe we need to put a new reed in it that's a little bit longer, or tighten up the cork, or even like back on the Halos, what we call the floating wedge block design, you can adjust that a little bit to make the call fit the person. So I would also say for a new caller, instead of making that call fit the person, find something close and then that person learn that call. And then once you learn that first call, then if you want to try something different, try something different. But first thing you got to do is learn one and then go from there. And that will get you a long way. And I'd also say this kind of goes along with it as far as learning to call. It's easy to try to get too fancy or try to learn too much. Learn to blow a basic quack. That's literally what I was going to talk about. Oh, cool. Learn, learn, learn, learn a basic contended quack. Just the old hint. And, and the mechanic, we'll get into mechanics later, learn how to quack quiet, medium and loud. Then learn a fast lick and a slow lick. Learn to blow those two licks, quiet, medium, and loud, and learn a basic feet call. C-c-c-c-c-c-c in the back of your throat, or just a slow roll. Dugga-dugga-dugga-dugga. Whatever it is, learn to do that, quiet, medium, and loud, and get comfortable with it to where if you look at a bunch of ducks and you go, You don't have to think about it. You just do it. It becomes an extension of your voice. You'll call every duck that wants to be called. You don't have to learn all this fancy stuff. It's fun. And the more you do that, the more you want to learn, the more power to you. But don't feel like you have to. One of the best duck callers I've ever spent time in the woods with. Paul Ouse Parnell, I'll call him out here, he'll probably get mad at me, blows the ensign. You don't want to be next to him in the woods. But he's not fancy, but he's good.

Matt Harrison: And that's what's crazy to me is I got the opportunity whenever I was in college to help at a lodge, as in, you know, I helped them do all kinds of different things. And I got the privilege to hunt with them a couple times, Tommy Maxwell and Will Maxwell, two amazing guys that taught me and my brother a whole lot about duck hunting in itself. But, you know, I would be with them and we would shoot a duck and I may, you know, go out a little ways to retrieve the duck and they may be working another group and I just kind of took off in the woods 150, 200 yards. You know, and listening to them at that distance, you know, up close, you may be like, man, they're, they're good. They're really good, you know, but you may not be like, oh, they're not, you know, they're not a, a stage call or something like that. And you may be like, ah, you know, it could sound better, but you get off 150 to 200 yards and they got these old PS olts. And they gotta, I mean, you're like, are you like, uh, did some ducks land and they start quacking in there? Is that them caught? Or, you know, so that's another thing that I learned is, you know, just because, you know, and it's great. If you want to learn the fancy, you know, the, all the cadences and all that, that you can, great if you want to learn that. But if you just learn, like you said, the simple basics, you can kill ducks.

Jimbo Ronquest: Amen. And that's what kills ducks. Some of the, excuse me, some of the very best duck callers I've ever been around, callers of ducks, excuse me, uh, were, they weren't necessarily contest guys. They were just good old woods callers that knew how to sound like a duck and was blue simple. Um, my buddy, Bobby Joe Willie, uh, one of the very best, you know, I've watched him turn ducks inside his hole. You know, that's pretty cool. He's the master of quacking, um, at the single quack making ducks respond to it. But again, Learn a fast lick and a slow lick, quiet, medium, loud, basic, quiet, and basic feed call, and learn how to put it to use, and you'll be fine.

Matt Harrison: Yep. Yep. And it sounds simple, and it is simple. It is simple. We make it too hard. Correct. We make it too hard. Some of the people listening to that may be like, You gotta learn more than a quack, you gotta learn more than a feed and a cadence, you know, but like I said, get out there, listen, learn, and you'll be fine.

Jimbo Ronquest: My man, if you just sit and watch and listen to Ducks, and I'm fortunate, excuse me, I'm sorry about my voice. If you just sit and watch and listen, and I'm fortunate where I live, I can do that and feel behind the house that's flooded and I can sneak back there and sit down and watch and listen. I still do it to this day. I love doing it. I learn something all the time. You know, learn something all the time. Here's something I say, I'll try to put that to use hunting, because we're just trying to build a scenario, you know, and talk them into giving up, you know, what it's all about.

Matt Harrison: That's it. Well, I got just a couple questions in closing, okay? Sure. And I just, because I know that these are some of the questions I asked you when I first met you, you know, a couple years ago now. But like I said, just four questions and I want you to answer them. You don't have to go off into a ton of detail. You can if you want to. Totally up to you. Okay. But question number one, what is one of the most memorable hunts you have been on?

Jimbo Ronquest: Man, I've been on a lot of them. Actually, some of my first ones with my dad. Some of his buddies used to take me hunting all the time. You know, I enjoyed that. But I guess now would be seeing my daughter, who grew up with me being in the outdoor industry and running a guide business. always gone and not always able to take her. Seeing her and her buddies taking them hunting and they went from wanting to just come watch to then they all got to hunt her safety, then they all want to come shoot. Now you got to take them. Now you got to take them and they want to go duck hunting. And when my daughter shot her first greenhead, you know that, that was cool. That's special. It was to me because of what I do. That was cool. No doubt. I'd say that, that getting to hunt with her, you know, and see her, see her enjoy it, see her want to be a part of it. And even this day, man, she keeps me up to date on what she sees on social media and, um, what's going on with this or that. And she pays attention. So I like that. Matter of fact, she's even finishing grad school or capstone project is, uh, waterfowl-based. So it's a… She's putting together a list of stuff, a list of all the national wildlife refuges in the country that have invalid rest areas, sanctuary, offer any public hunting opportunity, where the money came from to start the refuge. It's pretty cool stuff. That's an in-depth search there. Oh man. That's a lot of information. I talked to her on the way here, I said, you better get with it.

Matt Harrison: Okay, so our next question, what's the craziest thing you've seen in the Duckwoods? Oh man, craziest thing I've seen in the Duckwoods.

Jimbo Ronquest: What's the craziest thing? If we need to get back to that question, we can. Man, I don't know how to answer that. I really don't. Are you talking about what ducks did, what people did?

Matt Harrison: Anything, anything you want it to be. What's the craziest thing that you've seen in the Duckwoods?

Jimbo Ronquest: Man, I don't know that's anything really special.

Matt Harrison: While you're thinking on it, I'll give you one of mine. What's the craziest thing? One time, we were hunting on the Leaf River again. It was just me, my dad, and my brother, who, like, again, I said earlier, my dad didn't duck hunt, but we had just started out, and we were getting back to the truck, getting ready to leave, and we were sitting there talking or something, and we see this hen wood duck, okay? She's just flying. And she's just kind of going in one direction, not really just kind of loafing. She's just full speed, one direction. As we watch, we just all three kind of start watching, and next thing we know, she flies straight into an old, dead snag that had a hole in it, that looked like just a woodpecker hole, just went straight and just, right in that hole. And we all just, I didn't know wood ducks were cavity nesters and, you know, would nest and stuff like that. And we're all just sitting there going, What did we just see? That duck just flew into that tree and not knowing, you know, like I said, that's what they do. And we were just all like, oh my goodness. And that was one of the just craziest things I've ever seen. Just while we were out hunting.

Jimbo Ronquest: That's crazy. That's fun stuff. Man, I seen some pretty, seen ducks fly, fly, hit trees, knock themselves out. Shoot ducks, land in a tree, you don't get stuck. That's happened to everybody. Ducks break through the ice and get under the ice and you see them swimming under the ice. That's, that's, seen that several times. That's been pretty cool. I, I just hard to pick just one. You've seen so much. But nothing really stands out as, man, that was, Pretty crazy. One of the funnest things, I've seen ducks do this a lot, especially once you get kind of more midwinter, more later in December. I've seen a lot of times be calling that, and old Drake fly up behind another one, grab him by the tail. Yeah, I've seen that a lot. That's pretty fun. The first time I ever seen that, I said, man, wow, look at that. That was cool. But then, you know, you'll see that quite a bit if you really go to watch them.

Matt Harrison: There's some funny creatures too. They'll get after each other.

Jimbo Ronquest: Oh man, they'll chase each other around. We was out in the woods one day and a duck was not shot, but it was one of them good bunches and we shot into him and a duck was flying out. The buddy of mine was shooting at a cripple and the duck flew right, hit him right in the gut, just about knocked the wind out of him. Just flew straight into him. Flew straight into him. Well, you caught that one. I said, that's catch and release right there. Oh, that's hilarious. I always like trying to catch them in the woods, right? If you can get a bunch in right before shooting time and they really can't see and they'll come to that call. And a lot of times, you know, I've never truly caught one, but I've got feathers a lot of times, you know, or swatted them. That's always been pretty fun.

Matt Harrison: Wow. That's crazy. And this last two questions is, if you could share the blind with one person, who would it be?

Jimbo Ronquest: Oh man, that I haven't ever hunted with or that I,

Matt Harrison: Uh, yeah, let's go who you haven't ever hunted with.

Jimbo Ronquest: Because it'd be really cool, my dad and my daughter, nephew, would hunt together. That'd be cool. Wow. Um, but, but I've hunted with all them. There's several people running through my head.

Matt Harrison: I think mine will be Phil Robertson.

Jimbo Ronquest: I think mine might would be too. He come to mind pretty quick. And I've met Phil several times, talked to him, but I would like to, he'd been at it a long time. I'd like to sit in the blind and talk and just shoot the bull about the stuff we're talking about. Right. From his perspective and my perspective, how far off we would be. Having a sign there too would be. Yeah. That'd be pretty fun. One of my early mentors of duck hunting, a fellow named Jim Mittendorf, we called him Uncle Mimi, was an excellent, excellent duck caller, duck hunter. He passed before I really was fully involved in us in the industry. And I would like to be able to tell him now what I get to do. That'd be pretty cool. That's awesome.

Matt Harrison: Yeah. That's really cool.

Jimbo Ronquest: That's a man. There's so many people, so many things, so many memories. It's like People ask, man, what's your best hunt ever? Gosh, I don't know. Um, you know, I've had- All of them. Yeah, all of them. Exactly. Uh, what's your worst hunt ever? Man, I don't, I don't know. What's your definition of a bad hunt? That's right. You know what? So, just fun and, uh, thank the good Lord for the opportunity he's given me to do what I get to do.

Matt Harrison: Yeah. And our last question, what is one thing all duck hunters can do? to be better at helping future generations get involved and just also making the waterfowl world a better place? What is one thing we could all do better at?

Jimbo Ronquest: Great question. One, be positive. Yeah. Two, appreciate the resource, because if we don't take care of the waterfowl resource that's out there, it won't be there to take care of us. And that's scary. Very scary. When you really think about that, it's very scary. And try to introduce somebody new to the sport. And there's more you can do to buy an extra federal duck stamp, um, be able to maybe volunteer a local WMA, or, you know, maybe there's days that you can go help do things, but more than that, be, be protective of the resource, do things, you know, um, be a part of Ducks Unlimited, be a part of Delta waterfowl, you know, do things that help the resource. Pay attention to what's going on and again, try to be mindful that you represent, when you go out, when you go duck hunting and you come back and you go to a stop at a restaurant or you go eat breakfast the morning before you go hunt and you're wearing your hunting clothes, be respectful because you represent the rest of us when you're out in public or other places and try to put yourself or us as outdoors people in a positive light.

Matt Harrison: That's good. That's good. Well, Mr. Jim, I cannot thank you enough again for joining the Ducks Unlimited podcast, coming on as a guest. It has been such an honor to me, a privilege I know that I learned a thing or two. And, you know, like I said, thank you for taking the time to come on over to the headquarters and knock this podcast out. Also, huge thanks to Mr. Chris Isaac, our producer of the Ducks Unlimited podcast, and thank you so much to all the Ducks Unlimited podcast listeners. Y'all stay safe out there and God bless. You bet.