I grew up smack dab in the middle of Iowa, arguably one of the worst places in the country to be a waterfowl hunter. Most of the marshes were drained or tilled long ago. Living in a place with limited habitat sure makes you capitalize on the opportunities you have.
But my father went to college at two different schools that are great for duck hunters. Growing up he always told us stories of falling through the ice in white-out blizzards, laying on muskrat huts with a Coast to Coast shotgun, and shooting 10 gadwall a day on the point system. I fell in love with the nostalgia and history of waterfowl hunting from those stories.
When my friends were in deer stands, I was in a duck blind. When I was 15, my best friend was 16 and had his driver’s license, so we started taking my dad’s jon boat all over Iowa looking for ducks. It’s amazing our folks let us drive hours from home to some random marsh we found in a sportsman’s atlas trying to learn how to kill birds.
From that point on, I wanted to do anything that involved ducks, and I built a life revolving around the waterfowl bug. I got lucky to find a job guiding waterfowl hunts in college, then started filming our hunts, and eventually started my own production company with waterfowl content as the focus.
Now as MeatEater’s resident duck nerd, I have the strength of a team including the best and brightest hunters and storytellers and the opportunity to dive deeper into all things waterfowl. From informative articles to duck hunting videos, we’re throwing the whole decoy spread at the growing MeatEater waterfowl world. I'm stoked to be along for the ride, and hope you'll join me.
