Duck Season Somewhere

Back in his adopted heart-of-the-Mississippi-Delta hometown of Greenwood, Ramsey Russell meets with 4th-generation Lusco's Restaurant owner Karen Pinkston. A true southern belle, her stories range from hilarious to heart-felt. How and why did the restaurant start? Who were the Banana Men, why are there private dining booths, who are the only people ever allowed in the kitchen, where'd the recipes...

From his Riceland Custom Calls studio in Hayes, Louisiana, Bill Daniels tells Ramsey Russell and growing up, his early introductions into waterfowling and how he got started in the call making business. He shares his thoughts on recent hunting seasons and how specklebelly behavior seems to be changing. Besides waterfowl, Bill Daniels and Ramsey Russell also share a mutual passion for certain uniqu...

Whether fish bite or ducks fly is beside the point. As camp chef at Southern Way Charters' Sportsmans Lodge in Venice, Louisiana, Richard Young says he gets to see folks at their best while he's telling jokes we couldn't air and serving man-sized portions of cajun-creole inspired goodness that stretches belts and induces food comas. Whether feeding 4 people or 40, Chef Richard's self-taught style...

Explaining that times were tough back then, Art LeJeune still remembers hunting south Louisiana rice fields with his grandfather, fetching ducks, filling seed sacks with them. He started working at Faulk's Calls 53 years ago. At age 73 still arrives at 6:30 each morning, turning calls in the dusty, memory-infused shop that's remained unchanged for a half-century except for recently installed air-c...

Ramsey Russell's arms are still tired from hauling in redfish and speckled trout when Orin Lonadier arrives, but they fly into a great conversation about real American Dream living. Where did Orin grow up, when did he know he wanted to be a guide, and how'd he get into the outfitting business? What's it like working year-round in parts of the world that are polar opposites? What's the most interes...

Way up near the Oregon border in northern California's Klamath Basin are 6 national wildlife refuges. The Lower Klamath NWR was established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 as our nation's first waterfowl refuge--and in the 1950's, more pintails were counted at nearby Tule Lake Refuge than even exists in the world today! But for the most complex water system in the world, times have changed...

As one of the last functioning inland saltwater ecosystems in the United States, and certainly the largest, the Great Salt Lake's wildlife value as expressed in numbers is eye-popping: stages two-thirds of North America's swan population; yields 1/2 of North America's cinnamon teal; satisfies 40% the world's aquacultural brine shrimp demand; benefits 10 million birds comprising 338 species annuall...

The lonely Bell Chasse Highway runs down the Mississippi River's west bank, terminating at the end of the world in Venice, Louisiana. From there to the Gulf is nothing but the kind of marsh for which Louisiana is truly known as "Sportsman's Paradise." Jesse Morris got his first boat while 13 years old, plying local waters for shrimp, crabs, whatever he could catch, on his way to becoming a 5th-gen...

Ramsey Russell and Mark Wilson aka Bigwater huddle around a table in the A/C on a hot summer afternoon. Bigwater talks about a recent trip to Omaha. He then asks Ramsey questions from listeners and himself, anything from packing light to what goes on behind the scenes at GetDucks while not traveling to thoughts on hunting pressure.  Got a question or topic you'd like to hear?  Inbox Ramsey at @ram...

It's a scorching 107° F in North Dakota when Delta Waterfowl VP John Devney calls to give Ramsey Russell an update on the most cursed words that exist to a duck hunter's ears: the Prairie Potholes Region is dry. Bad dry. Just how dry is it, and what drives drought cycle in the PPR? What's "the biology of drought"? How's this year compare to past droughts, and when did the lowest ever recorded pond...

In the sedate Mississippi Delta hamlet of Greenwood, population 14 thousand, the Crystal Grill has served ever-growing menu selections of made-from-scratch family recipes since 1933.  Owner Johnny Ballas has been working there for as long as he can remember. Long-time friend Mike Rozier remembers back in the good old days, when he was 8 years old, that every duck hunter in Leflore County gathered...

Having grown up duck hunting California's Bay Area and, later while in college, the Sacramento Valley, it was like a dream come true when Mike McVey graduated college, moved nearer to the Oregon border, and started hunting fabled Tule Lake. McVey has since been California Department Fish and Wildlife's Wildlife Habitat Supervisor for Shasta Valley Wildlife Area. He describes the worse drought obse...

Today's guest is a self-described super nerd that played college ball, knew he wanted to be a biologist since childhood, and remembers falling in love with ducks when a flock of wigeons pitched into an Oklahoma farm pond he was hunting. Dr. Heath Hagy is now US Fish and Wildlife Service Waterfowl Ecologist for the National Wildlife Refuge System in the Southeastern United States. Using broad resea...

While shooting barnacle geese and greylag geese together in the Netherlands decade ago, Ramsey Russell and Brian Lynn could never have imagined the ferocious battles with embittered anti-hunting crazies awaiting their respective futures. As VP Marketing and Communications for Sportsmen's Alliance, Lynn now daily fights anti-hunters tooth-and-nail, wielding facts and advocating policy like a modern...

Michael Brasher grew up hunting with his dad, plying Mississippi's Skuna River bottoms with a 4hp outboard. He now remembers a first mallard propelled his life towards eventually becoming Waterfowl Scientist at Ducks Unlimited HQ. What is DU's role in North American waterfowl conservation, and why does Brasher say "conservation without funding is just conversation"? How'd Brasher get from there to...

The United States' Federal Duck Stamp is singularly the most amazing waterfowl conservation tool in the world, generating over a billion dollars since its inception. Growing up in southwest Kansas, Rebekah Knight won the Federal Junior Duck Stamp at age 15, competing ever since. How did Knight become an artist and why did she start competing in the Federal Duck Stamp contest? How does she decide w...

Before John Gordon was Senior Communication Specialist for Ducks Unlimited, he hunted waterfowl and was even a snow goose guide way back in the real, good old Katy, Texas Prairie days. Following a Memphis BBQ lunch, Gordon and Ramsey talk then-versus-now across several topics.  What does Gordon do at Ducks Unlimited, what are his waterfowling origins? How'd they hunt snow geese way back when, what...

Scott Stephens and Ramsey Russell went to Mississippi State University together way back when. Stephens is now Ducks Unlimited Canada's Director of Regional Operations for Prairies and Boreal Forest, where he directs waterfowl conservation efforts over an almost unimaginably huge portion of North America--way, way bigger than the narrow 100-mile corridor bordering Yellowhead Highway that Ramsey Ru...

Jim Crews has been hunting amid ancient Mississippi cypress for 5 decades, forgetting neither his first hunt nor his first duck. Having recently published his must-read duck hunting memoir Amid the Cypress , that describes memorable ducks hunts in Mississippi and far beyond, Crews and Ramsey recall times shared in cypress-studded north Mississippi Delta oxbows. What compelled Crews to write a duck...

Having shared duck blinds in many places worldwide with Chris Gouras, I can tell y'all for fact that there's never been a lack of good things to talk about between volleys. The descendant of Greek immigrants, he's been around the restaurant industry since forever, and started duck hunting among true South Delta legends soon after moving to Mississippi. How'd Big John end up facing the wrong way in...

Leading up to Father's Day, Ramsey met with his Uncle James to talk about his grandfather Russell, the one that introduced him to hunting. In addition to some of the stories he heard around the dinner table growing up, he learned a few more.   S ubscribe, rate and review Duck Season Somewhere podcast. Share your favorite episodes with friends! Business inquiries and comments contact Ramsey Russell...

Preceding Father's Day, Ramsey Russell meets with his 75 year-old Uncle James Russell who shares some stories about growing up in the Mississippi Delta. It's been decades since the grandfather that introduced Ramsey to hunting passed. As the two of them recount family stories shared around the dinner table, Ramsey learns the origins of his grandfather's shotgun and a lot more.   S ubscribe, rate a...

During a recent visit to Mississippi, Delta Waterfowl John Devney and Ramsey Russell discussed need-to-know duck topics. How dry is the Prairie Pothole Region, what will ducks do, how exactly might it affect waterfowl reproduction, and why isn't Plan B Alaska nesting as productive?  What's the backstory on North Dakota's new e-posting rulings, what prompted it, and how'd Delta Waterfowl bring comm...

From a 1900's-era commissary on the edge of a sprawling cotton field, about a half-hour north of where Delta bluesman Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil, Hank Burdine tells Ramsey Russell about the origins of the Mississippi Delta blues. The precursor to rock-n-roll, this music genre was also true inspiration of the recognized king himself, Elvis Presley.  It's more the fascinati...

It's the question many American duck and goose hunters have been asking since last year: When will Canada borders reopen to non-Canadian waterfowl hunters? Ramsey Russell is joined today by USHuntList associate, Ryan Reynolds of Apex Waterfowling in Ontario to discuss pandemic effects in Canada. What's it look like in Canada right now, who's been hunting and where? How have successful Canadian wat...