00:00:01 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to the Whitetail Woods, presented by first Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. 00:00:19 Speaker 2: Welcome to the wire to Hunt podcast. This week, in the show, we're doing some listener Q and a yep. I am answering a whole pile of questions from you, covering topics such as turkey hunting, introducing kids to the outdoors, deer hunting tactics, the sale of public lands, fly fishing, my new book Whitetails in Alaska, and a whole lot more. All right, welcome back to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light and their camera for Conservation Initial and today it's just you and I and we're doing one of our Q and A episodes. I do a couple of these a year, it seems like, in which I try to tackle some of the many questions that I get from you guys throughout the year, whether that's through email or direct messages or comments on social media. It's hard to get to all those, so I like doing one of these. Ever once in a while to talk about different topics, to talk a little bit about what's going on in my life and with my hunting and fishing in outdoor pursuits, and to see, you know, what things you guys are curious to learn more about. So that's the plan here today. I have a very wide array of questions from you guys. I've got everything from questions around turkey hunting tactics and deer hunting tactics, to you know, ideas and questions around bringing kids into the outdoors or your spouse how to introduce new folks to these activities that we love so much. We're going to talk about my new book. We're going to talk a little bit more about my latest film on Meat Eater, about white tails possibly making it to Alaska. We're going to talk about some questions around threats to our public lands, the culture of deer hunting, fly fishing, a little bit and a bunch more, a bunch more along those lines and everywhere in between. So that's the game plan today. I don't want to spend too much time here on the front end, but I will give you two updates from my world about what I just did and about what I'm just about to do. I just finished up my annual turkey camp here in Michigan, where a handful of my longtime hunting buddies get together. There's like five or six of us from Michigan, another couple out in Iowa. Some of the guys that longtime listeners right might remember from the very early days of Wired to Hunt back when we were doing are very rougher on the edges, YouTube episodes and whatnot. But that crew got back together at my buddies farm here and so other Michigan and we had two and a half days. I have a lot of fun, And I think that's something uniquely special about turkey hunting is that it's so much fun because of the social aspect of it. You know, when deer hunting, there's so much that can go wrong. There's so many different variables that you need to try to control. If you ever want to get within the shooting range of a deer, that you just have to you know, usually do it as a single person pursuit, maybe one other person, but it's tough to get away with anything. When turkey hunting. Number one, for some reason the stakes feel a little bit lower. And then number two, you just seemingly can get away with a little bit more at least until the very end, and so lots of times at least. The way we turkey hunt is we'll go out as a big group, you know, three people, four people, five people, sometimes more, just because we're just there to have a good time and be there for the story with each other. And so there'll be a couple different people calling, a couple people might sit way back and watch, a couple people might be up in different shit shooting positions, and you know, we're we're moving around running a gun and exploring new areas, glass and fields, driving around a different regions, checking this spot, checking this spot. And then when you find a turkey somewhere, then we make a game plan, figure out how we're gonna kind of stalk in on it or make a move or get ahead of it and try to call it in and all the while doing this as a group, and it is an absolute blast. We laugh a ton. We all camp out together at my buddy's house. He's got a pole bar in there that we kind of use as a base of operations, and man, it's great. We had eight guys this year and six got birds. Another guy got a shot, I guess one shot, and then another one that came really close, So we certainly had opportunities and it was it was another one for the record books. Just just a terrific time and a great reminder to me that as much as you know, filling tags is what we want to do, right, we want to put meat in the freezer or you know, antler on the wall or whatever the thing is that you're hunting. But you know, as we've talked a lot over the years, if you focus too much on that end outcome, you're going to miss out on so much in between. And these turkey camps are a terrific reminder to me of how important that camaraderie and fellowship is as a part of the hunting experience. And you know, I'm just so glad that we got to do this. And then I get to share this with my kids, and you know, I get to bring them to a little bit of this and let them see what the camp atmosphere is all about. And same thing with up our Northern Michigan deer camp. That time together with your friends and family, that's that's where the best stories are made. That's where those greatest memories come from, so you never want to get so busy hunting or achieving some hunting goal that you don't end up having time for your hunting buddies and your friends and family that are part of those things. So once again, great reminder of that this past weekend, and glad I've got some fresh turkey breasts and legs in the freezer. Two. Now the next thing to do is try to help my son get one, which I'll talk about a little bit later as we answer some questions. But my oldest son ever is turkey hunting for the first time this year, so very exciting. We've had some close calls already, a lot of fun already, and hoping we can get it done. Now that said, that's what I just did, what I'm about to do just here in a matter of hours, I'm gonna be heading to the airport, hopping on an airplane and heading to Washington, DC. And I'm going there to do a handful of different things, but all of them revolving around advocating for our public lands and wildlife and smart conservation measures and practices and priorities. We've talked quite a bit over the last handful of months and really over the years, but more recently here about recent events related to threats to our public lands, threats to wildlife, threats to a healthy environment. And you know what I'm doing in a number of different hunters and anglers this week, we are heading to the nation's capital to talk with some of our elected officials, to talk with some of our lawmakers and their offices and staffs, to make sure people know that we as a hunting and fishing community really care about these things. That these things, these animals, these places, these environmental protections, these smart wildlife management practices, these guardrails are there for a reason because our wildlife and wild places and public lands support our lifestyle, our traditions, our families. For some of us, it's our how we make a living. These activities, pursuits, landscapes, animals, they support important economic economies. You know, the outdoor recreation economy is now value that one point I think it's one point two trillion dollars annually that are driven by outdoor recreation, which is largely supported by our public LANs. So I'm heading to go do that, to go hopefully at least get in the ear and be a bug in a squeaky wheel to anyone who will listen about these issues. So we've got a handful of different meetings with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. I'm gonna be talking to folks about many of the things we just discussed. We're going to talk about some different upcoming legislation that will help with resiliency, that will help with habitat conservation, that will you know, look at natural climate solutions, that will look at different ways to protect our public lands. We're going to talk about, you know, making sure we are not in any way supporting the transfer or sale of public LANs. That's going to be a discussion piece in some of these meetings. We'll be meeting with a number of different representatives and senators offices and staffs, and maybe hopefully some of the actual folks themselves. I'll be doing some of this with Like I said TRCP, I think I'll be doing some of this with the backcountry hunters and anglers. My buddy mister Callahan will be there with me for some of these things. I'll be doing some stuff with sportsmen for the Boundary Waters. I believe there's gonna be a lot going on, So we will report back after this next three days, hopefully we'll be doing a podcast with Kale to talk about, you know, what we experienced, what we saw, what we heard, what we learned, and hopefully maybe some progress on some of these fronts. So stay tuned. We will be working hard to try to make sure that the future of our public lands and wildlife and wild places and all these opportunities, hopefully we can keep that future looking good. And I'm going to do my very damnedest to make sure that's the case. So that's what I've done, That's what I'm doing. Now let's get to these questions that you guys sent, and there's a lot of good ones here. Let's see, Well, this is a conveniently placed question here Shots by Shops asks when does the new book come out? If you were not following me on Instagram, you maybe didn't see this, but I announced last week that I am working on a new book. I've got a brand new book that is going to be kind of in a similar vein to my first book, That Wild Country, which you can see on the shelf behind me. That first book was exploring the past, present, and future of America's public lands. It's called that wild country, And like I just said, it explored our public land story, how we got here, what the threats are now today, and where are we headed? And I explored that set of information through a series of my own adventures out there on public lands. So that was book number one. Book number two, which I am working on right now, is going to use a similar format, but it will be exploring the past, present in future of America's and wildlife. So how did we get to where we are now with our wildlife and fish populations here in America? What are the threats right now? Why is it the fact that many scientists now are calling this current moment in time the sixth mass extinction. Why is this time period becoming known as a biodiversity crisis? What's happening? Why is it happening? And what does it mean for the future of fish and wildlife and all the people whose lives revolve around these things. That's what the new book's about. And the unique thing I'm trying to bring to this conversation about wildlife is my perspective, our perspective as hunters and anglers. What can hunters and anglers bring to this conversation and this issue. What can the larger environmental movement learn from hunters and anglers and how we have been conservationists and advocates, and how we engage with wildlife and fish, and why are kind of deep, radical engagement with fish and game maybe fosters such a deep and abiding love and care for these critters. All of that will be covered in this new book, and the plan is for that book to be released early in twenty twenty six. So I'm wrapping up the first manuscript right now. And I made this mention on Instagram last week because I did want to give people an opportunity to submit their questions or kind of areas of concern or interest. What am I trying to say here? I want to get thoughts from you, the listeners and followers, on what topics related to fish and wildlife you want answers on or would like more insight into. I want to make sure that your feedback and that your concerns and that your curiosities are included in this larger story. So I'm going to send a newsletter out next week. It will be the end of this week, I guess, so if you were listening when this podcast drops on May first, or second, whatever that'll be. Yeah, if you were listening to this on May first or May second, I'm going to send out a newsletter with a survey that's going to ask for your opinions and ideas around this book and if there's any specific topics that you would love me to address if possible. So, if you want to possibly send in some feedback on this book, you can't do that by signing up for my personal newsletter, my author's newsletter at Mark Kenyon dot net. That's Mark Kenyon dot net. You go there, you'll see a box. Right you scroll dow this a little bit, you'll see where to enter your email address to join my newsletter. You'll get all the updates on the book as that publishing process begins later this year, and it'll give you that opportunity to share your feedback and maybe your ideas or questions could be a part of the final version of this book. So hopefully that's something you're interested in doing. I certainly appreciate your ideas, your feedback and input. So that said, ranger Rick Outdoors has a question. He says would love to hear more on getting kids, how you get kids to love hunting and fishing or the outdoors in general. Do you have any tips or tricks for fostering that passion early in the field and at home. My first child is doing may and I want to start the process as early as I can. All right, So that's super exciting. Congrats that you've got a kid on the way. It's going to change your life in many ways and mostly for the better, although there are some challenges too, but it's incredible. And my biggest piece of advice when it comes to getting your kids into the outdoors is literally get them outdoors. That is the single greatest thing I think my wife and I have done is that we have gotten our children outdoors early and often and in many different ways, and we have not coddled them. We have not you know, we've not done the thing that I hear many people do, which is, well, you know, maybe we'll do stuff like when they're ready for it, when they're eight, or when they're ten, or when they're six, or whatever it is. Everyone has some different age for when they think their kid will be ready for a hunting trip or a fishing trip, or an outdoor adventure or a camping trip or a backpacking trip, and Oftentimes they're very conservative about that. They assume that these kids can't handle an outdoor adventure or being out in the elements or whatever it is. And what I have found is that kids are incredibly resilient and they adapt to whatever circumstances you put them in. If you give them an opportunity to succeed and have a good experience, they will work through and adjust and become used to whatever is you throw them into. So what we have done is we have taken our kids with us to do everything we used to do prior to kids. We do it now with our kids from the moment they were born. We lived in a camper for five weeks. I think it was when my first son was four months old, so for the first, you know, and fifth month of his life, he camped out every single day next to the Yellowstone River and our old renovated camper. When he was a year and a half old, we did two months camping. Every one of those days, we were hiking, we were fishing, we were playing in the dirt, we were playing in the river, all of those things as a baby, And when he was four months old, he was strapped to my chest and we were going on turkey hunts and he was with me. Now, I wasn't going to shoot a gun next to his ear. We're going to go on fake turkey hunts. But he was getting introduced to those things. At four months old, he was going out there and walking in the woods with me looking for sheds. When I was scouting in the summer or working on food plots, he was out there sitting in the grass. When he was a year and a half old, he was out there with me calling turkeys. And he you know, when his brother was born, when he was two, same thing with him, And we continued to every year take them out hunting with turkeys, with deer, taking him out to the river, taking them out to the lakes, taking him hiking, having him play in the rocks, having them go camping. Every single year of their lives. They have been doing this. Now, of course, you know the specifics of how we do it, or how long we do it, or how extreme we do any one of these things. That's adjusted to make sure it's safe for the kids, to make sure you know, they still have a positive experience. Uh, to make sure you know, my expectations are in line with what is actually possible with the kids. So you know, when whenever my oldest was five months old, we were still going hiking in the mountains, but I realized, like, okay, it might be, you know, a four mile hike when prior to kids, we've been doing a ten or twelve mile hike. Now we're going to go on a four mile hike, and we've got contingency plans so if you know, if something goes wrong, we can get out of their fast or the weather really bad, we got to make sure we've got a way to keep them dry and warm and et cetera. And then when the kids got older and they got to that age where I couldn't carry them around is easily on my back or on my chest and they were going to walk. Now it actually slows things down a little bit because now you're going at their pace and as far as their little legs can carry them. Same thing with hunting, like everything has to be adjusted to their pace and their abilities. But you still do it and you make the best of whatever it is. And I think because of that, because I've been doing that from the very beginning with both of my boys, they have grown up knowing nothing different. They see and understand the outdoors hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, boating, climbing, all that kind of stuff. It's just normal life. And so because of that they have fallen in love with it. They have developed their own sets of passions around that, each of the boys kind of gravitating to different things based on their own interests. But we have given this, I guess we've provided a canvas for them to paint their own picture on when whichever ways and whichever you know, lanes of the outdoor pursuits that they end up enjoying the most, we give them those opportunities. But it all started with simply having them out there and not cop them, not you know, waiting for some future thing. I always hear people like, oh, yeah, well we'll go out there and do those trips, you know, when they can do it right. Well, you know, I understand that, you know, not everyone has the opportunity to do all these things all the time, so you got to make choices and stuff like that. But I would say, to whatever degree you can get them out and doing this stuff as early as you possibly can, even if it's little tiny snippets here and there, because that sets the foundation and I always you know, I remember early on some people ask me, you, you know, why are you doing all this stuff with your kids? Now? They're not going to remember any of this. You're doing all this really cool stuff, and they're not going to remember anything because they're one or two or three, and when they're adults are not they're not going to have any memory. But I got to thinking that that might be the case. But you know, when they're three, they'll remember what they did when they're two, And when they're four, they will remember what they do when they are three, and when they're five, they'll remember what they did when they're four. And this is slowly building up a foundation that builds year after year after year, leading them to being kids that remember a whole lot of great things, that have developed a love for a whole bunch of great outdoor pursuits and a set of abilities, and a level of confidence and comfort with not just outdoor pursuits in the natural world and all these great things we like to do. Not only a level of confidence that they can handle all those things, but then also a comfort level with being uncomfortable, which is something we've talked about in the past that I think is so important. One of the greatest things that hunting and fishing and the outdoors can help us understand and get better it is simply dealing with discomfort and challenges and adversity, And so I think they've benefited from that as well, because sometimes stuff does go wrong when you're out there on a hunting trip or a camping trip or a float trip, and I would, you know, I think it's a great place for kids to learn those lessons now, rather than being coddled and babied until they're teenagers and then they go through some kind of crazy adversity in the adult world in school or whatever, and they've never learned how to deal with shitty situations. Well, they're going to deal with some tough situations early on in the outdoors in the setting that I think is very beneficial for personal growth and a lot of fun and shared family experiences. And I think it's going to make them into capable, confident, outdoor loving young men. So that's what I've been doing. Colin asks more specifically about tips for taking kids turkey hunting. He wants to get his girls out and make sure they see some birds or hear gobbling, but they have a hard time waking up for school, so I'm not sure if the morning is the best time for them. So, as I just mentioned, I've been trying to take my kids turkey hunting since the day they were born. And what I've done a lot is pretend turkey hunts. So either before turkey season opens or even during turkey season, I'll just go out whenever I can with them without a firearm. Obviously, if it's not the season, I'll just go out to try to call birds. And you do this whenever it's convenient for your schedule. So if there's a nice spring day and it seems like good conditions, or you've got time off work or free time in the afternoon, or the kids don't have school and you can go out and do it. Just go out there with your calls and see if you can find turkeys, call turkeys, go through that whole experience of getting birds gobbling, coming in all that excitement. That is so much fun in and of itself. So that is what has been what I've done since day one. We've gone out for a lot of fake turkey hunts together, me and the boys, even with my wife, and that's been a blast. We've called birds in the kids got excited. They'll have their pretend gun and pretend to take a shot. And you know, doing that when it's convenient, when it works for schedules and not letting, you know, a short turkey season time for or a kid's school schedule or anything get in the way. That's been nice now for actual turkey hunting itself. We have done some hunts before before school. You know, it gets daylight really early compared to when school starts now in the spring, So there have been some times I've taken my son out with me before school. We actually killed a bird together last year before he had to go to school. You just have got to do it again. You know, you're going into it with knowing you have a very short time for him, like this is a thirty minute hunt, or this is a forty five minute hunt, and we'll get the most out of it. We can have fun and then get him to school. I don't think afternoon hunts are impossible, though, if it's legal in your state. I've had a lot of good luck in the afternoons. But we oftentimes look at it more as like a nature walk. We'll go on a walk we'll kind of I'll call it walk and squawk. You'll walk around, do some calls, walk around, do some calls, walk around, do some calls, and glass as you're going along. And it's fun just to be out there exploring nature with your kids. Sometimes to get lucky and you'll strike one up and then all of a sudden you've got this fun, exciting hunt that takes place. But worst case scenario, even if you don't get one to show up, or you don't get anything gobbling, you still are out there doing something fun. So I think that's a great way to keep your kids interested, and you know, get out there more often for these evening hunts after school. Lower risk, but there's some upside and we've certainly enjoyed that. We just went out last week, me and the boys, and this exact scenario is what happened. We went out, we were going to go for a walk, and if it happened to come together, it happened to come together. Like I mentioned, my youngest son now is is with a license and hunting. So we went out, we struck up a bird. We actually came over hill, saw some birds down to kind of a low spot in a cut cornfield, snuck back, made an ender out on them, set up closer to them in the timber, did some calling, got them to gobble back. But then I looked behind me and in a field there was a separate gobbler like racing, and he ended up running right in on a on a line right to us. Got both the boys on either side of me on the tree. My youngest is five, my oldest is seven. Everyone's very excited. We're talking through the scenarios and what to do and how we're going to do this, and that turkey got to about fifty yards and then kind of got like a little bit wigged out. Maybe he just couldn't see the hen he was looking for, or maybe one of the boys moved a little bit, but he didn't really spook spook, but he just circled us at fifty yards and went around us and just would never come any closer. And you know, for my son, it's it's gonna have to be a really close, really great shot for his first bird. So super fun experience, though, And you know that that way we've gone about it has seemed to work very well because both the boys are really excited about it and continue to want to get out there and you just enjoy the spring woods and have some turkey fun hopefully along the way too. Let's see Tipper Outdoors asks if there's a tark buck in the air, should I still do prep for the season, like using a chainsaw and stuff like that, And I would say absolutely, especially if you're talking about doing that right now in April or May or June. Really for a lot of months now, any activity you do in the woods should not negatively impact you come hunting season. I am not afraid to do food plot work, chainsaw work, tree stand where, trail camera work, anything like that up until about a month before my hunts start. Now, I will say that if you're trying to get you know, summer inventory, excuse me, if you're trying to get inventory on your trail cameras, a bunch of activity in the farm will definitely not help you when it comes to those summer pictures. So if you are, you know, really wanting to get that kind of data now, you might want to do less of that prep work once your trail cameras are out. Once I put my summer cameras out, I largely try to keep my prep activities to chunks of time. So instead of like doing something every day of every weekend, I would rather like spend three days all day, get a bunch done, and then leave the farm alone for as much as I possibly can. So I kind of do this like batch work, where you get a bunch done in a short period of time instead of a little bit on a bunch of different days. That said, for me, I like to make sure that from the end of August until opening Day in Michigan, which is October first, that I leave any properties that can hunt as alone as I possibly can. So I try to have everything done by August thirtieth, so that for a full month they can be untouched, and then when I start hunting, I can be you know, hunting a pretty comfortably deer, a pretty comfortable deer population. And then I keep my hunting and access very low impact, very minimal from there on out for the rest of the hunting season. But the rest of the year, I'm out on these properties a lot, scouting, doing work, walking around with the kids, turkey hunting, having a good time. I think you're going to be fine in that case. Even if there's a specific target buck, you know, they get pretty used to some level of human activity, and they might not move in the daylight hours as much, but give them that safety come hunting season and they'll start doing it. Uh. Carson Decker asks for ideas about how to create good access to a stand that does not have good access currently. Well, there can be many different scenarios and many different kind of examples of what this bad access could look like. So you know, I can't give you a incredibly helpful answer without knowing exactly what your specific situation is. But that said, a few high level ideas. Number One, there might just be some spots that are going to be tough to access no matter what, and nothing you do can change that. And in those kinds of spots, it comes down to hunting decisions. So how often will you hunt that spot and when will you hunt that spot? If it is a hard to access place, you just got to know that if you're gonna hunt it, you're going to make an impact. So every single time you go in there, it's gonna make things worse for the next time around. So first off, you need to take those swings at the right times. So make sure you know that, Okay, the day I'm going to go in there has got to be one of those absolute highest odds for that location. So maybe this specific location is only good at a certain time of year. If that's the case, make sure that at that certain time of the year that's when you take your swings. Maybe it's just a great rut spot, or maybe it's a great spot all times of the year, but there'll be a certain time of the year where it's the very very best. Save it for that very best moment. And then, secondly, know that you can't hunt over and over and over and over again. So realize that, Okay, I'm gonna save this for the best time, and then I recognize that I might only have a couple shots, and then it's probably gonna burn out. And so hunt it with an understanding that you better hunt it just right that first or second time. You better not only get the timing right, but you better do everything right. Make sure that you know when you go in there, do it the best possible way you can, even if it's not perfect. Stay all day, if you can stay as long as you possibly can, do you know, cross every teed dot, every eye. Make sure that you have used this high risk, high reward moment appropriately. Get the best possible outcome out of that high risk that you possibly can. Now. That said, there might be other ways to improve that access. Maybe it's just cutting in a trail by you know, clearing brush and tree limbs, or raking out a pathway so you can be at least a little quieter when you get in there. Maybe there's open fields that you need to traverse to get to this spot. If you own this land or manage this land and are allowed to do you know, land improvements, you could plant a screen that might visually block you, like trees or switch grass or or some kind of tall vegetation that will block visibility so you can come in and out of a spot without critter seeing you. You can make screens by hinge cutting trees down and laying treetops into a wall to block your site. You can use creeks, streams, lakes, anything like that, ponds for access anytime, you can use water to access, or being down low beneath the siteline of most other wildlife that can make for great access and exits. All of those things could help. I also will use vehicles if possible, so if I know there's a location that is hard to get into, or out of if I can, I will always use a bike or an e bike or you know, if you can't get in there yourself or sorry, if you have someone who can get in there with you to help with a UTV or a truck to pick you up or drop you off, that's then another great option. So anytime I know I've got a high impact location that I can get into by myself without messing things up, if I've got a friend or family member nearby, I will plead and beg and barter with them to try to get a pick up or drop off, Because a wheeled vehicle pushing you in there and spooking off the deer is a lot better than you on foot walking in there and spooking off the deer. So keep all those ideas in mind. Access and exit can really educate a deer herd and quickly change you know, what kind of activity you see. So this is an important conversation to be having. Let's see Nick Marking asked if I have plans to do another ultra some more trail running, and the answer is yes, I do. And I say that because another answer to another question, M Buckley asked me, has running made you a better deer hunter. And if so, how and why so The answer is yes to that as well, and that's why I plan to continue some of these trail marathons and hopefully some bigger, real ultras in the future. And I think that this has benefited me for a number of different reasons. One thing, I think running and training for races helps you build discipline, and it forces you to become regimented with, you know, doing hard things even when you don't want to do them, and that's important for hunting, that's important for success on a lot of different fields. And you know, by doing races, it forces me to stick to my plan, It forces me to stick to my goals, It forces me to be accountable. When I didn't have the races and I was just saying, well, I want to run every week a handful of times to stay healthy, it was just too easy to say, well, I'm too busy today, or I've got this other thing going on, or the excuses were very easy to come by. But when you know that you've got a twenty mile race, or a thirteen mile race or something like that, or thirty five mile race, if that is coming down the line, then you know that it's on the schedule for a month from now or six months from now, and you know that you were going to get your tail absolutely kicked if you are not physically ready for it. That keeps you honest, That keeps you sticking to your plan and your training regimen. And so I just realized that I need that stick in the future. I need to have that little extra something to keep me at it. And so by doing that, by signing up for these races, it keeps me running, It keeps me training, and those things a build discipline, like I said, which is one of those kind of mental muscles that is so important as a deer hunter. And then it also keeps me physically fit, which again also very important as a deer hunter, especially a deer hunter like many of us are, who you know, try to be pretty mobile. We're hiking in deep into public land or you know, doing the long way, or into our hunting spots. Even on private land, we're climbing up and down trees. You want to be comfortable doing that. You want to be not huffing and puffing and sweating to death and dying out there. You want to be able to do it with a level of ease and comfort, so that you can be focused mentally on the stuff that you know you should be doing in the moment, which is making decisions about how to hunt or where to hunt, or how to adjust to whatever you're seeing. If you're out there miserable because you can't physically handle it, you're just not going to be able to be as effective as you possibly could. So the running has been something that has kept me honest, has kept me disciplined, has made me more physically fit, and it's fun for me. I'm honestly not a gym guy. I don't like being in the gym. I like being outside, and running has been that thing for me personally that has been that sweet spot of good for you physically, good for you mentally, and then also something that you just enjoy doing, and if you enjoy doing it, you're more likely to stick to it as well. So trail running specifically, I've really come to like because I like being, you know, outside in a beautiful place away from people and cars and noise and road running. You know, you've got the noise and the roads and all that kind of stuff. It's just not as nice of an experience. So when you add in the trails and the hills and just a natural landscape to look at, and the fact that you have to focus on every step, you're just you're very engaged surrounded by nature, and that's been a win win for me. So I've definitely, I've definitely enjoyed that all that stuff. Let's see what's next here. Someone asked, let me find this question. I want to make sure to cover this one. If I had any updates on the target bucks in my region? Where is that? Well? Oh yeah, okay, So s Church asked if I had any updates for the target bucks on my main farms in Michigan, and I sort of do. If you guys were following me. Last fall, I had a doozy of a hunting season. I had two main target bucks that I was after, and one of them disappeared at the beginning of September. He had been a buck I'd been fouling for three years. We called, oh my gosh, what was that buck? Wow, I'm having like a total brain fart right now that I've blacked out on my bucks. Anyways, target buck number one was a five year old and he disappeared in early September and very disappointed. He was my most mature buck. I'd found his Bulldozer, thank you, finally can't it. His name was Bulldozer, and my son and I found his match Chet Antler's earlier in the year, so I was really excited to get after him. Was seeing him in the summer when I was out scouting, YadA, YadA, YadA. He disappears first week of September. I don't see him again until late October, and then I start getting a few pictures of him, and I got a handful of pictures of him in like the last couple of weeks, last couple of days of October, and the first couple days of November, and then he disappeared again and I've not seen of him. I've not heard of him. I've not found a shed or gotten a picture of him once. So that was the number one buck pretty much Mia completely. The second buck I was after. He was another great deer, a year younger I believed in before last year, but he grew had a huge year of growth last summer blew up. My youngest son named him Bear Deer, and I saw him all summer with pictures scouting, and he was very daily active. It was looking great, and then October third, I think it was, he disappeared. Didn't get pictures, didn't get sightings, didn't get word of him, nothing all the rest of the season. And that, unfortunately, I do have some closure on because I got word from another neighbor that someone on the other side of our square mile killed a deer that was pushing one sixty, had to split off of a G two, you know, basically everything that this deer was. He described it and killed them the first week of October, which is exactly when this year disappeared off my map. So yeah, my two target bucks last year both disappeared. I have not had a single other shooter buck on camera the rest of the year. I didn't have a single mature buck on camera or sighted from the first week of November last year all the way until now. So just it was a brutal year, brutal hunting. I don't know what happened. I don't know, I don't know. I've got a lot of questions still, So coming into this year, it's one of my more bizarre hunting seasons, at least on these local spots, in that I don't have any dear that I've got history with I don't know what's out there. I don't know what's possible. I don't know what's going to happen. So in some ways that's very disappointing. In other ways, I guess there's a little bit of I guess intrigue there because anything's possible. There's no expectations, so there's also no stress or worry about trying to, you know, finish story on a specific buck. It's just going to be a new year and we'll see what happens. So five will be different. Got some fishing questions in here. Caleb asks if I fly fish in Michigan or the Midwest at all, or if I keep my fly fishing adventures just to Western states. And the answer is that most of my fly fishing is in the Western States. You know, we spend our summers at our cabinet Idaho, and so we're right there on the Idaho Wyoming Montana kind of border region where they all come together, and so that means I'm doing a ton of fly fishing out there all summer. But when I am home, I try to get some in I live in a part of Michigan that doesn't have trout fishing opportunities. I've got to drive, you know, three four hours to get up north to where we can do that. So I just don't have the time to do that as much, but I try to when I can. A time or two a year we do that. I've been fly fishing for bluegill and bass down here on the ponds and lakes around here with the kids. One to do more and more of that kind of fishing. We're doing some of that. I've small mouth fished a few times out here on the rivers. That's a lot of fun. And then, you know, as some folks are price and as social every year, trying to do some saltwater fishing down in the southeast as well around Florida, and that's been a ton of fun. Don't think I talked about on the podcast yet, but caught my first tarpain on a fly, my first really big tarpa it on a fly too, a couple of weeks ago, which was unbelievable. So yes, love love my fly fishing wherever I can do it. It's really the kind of yin to my hunting yang, and I do feel like it's really oh, I don't know, helped build a lot of things for me as a deer hunter through fishing, which I guess this is a perfect segue to another question. Andrew asked what skills or traits have you gained from other activities unrelated to deer hunting that you believe have made you a more successful hunter? And I think fly fishing is one of those things. I think fly fishing in general, but fly fishing in particular, forces you to solve a puzzle every time you head to the water. Every time you go out, you are having to assess the situation, kind of read the water, read the weather, read the terrain, think about the time of the year, think about what's happening right now with are there any bugs hatching or what are the atmosphere conditions, what are the weather conditions, what are the water conditions? What might all that mean for where fish would be living right now? What does that mean for where fishing might where fish might be feeding right now, what does that mean for when the fish will be feeding? And then you start testing things. So given all of that stuff I just mentioned, I'm going to try this fly, or I'm going to trade this depth, or I'm going to try these spots, and then you're testing and then assessing, Okay, how do they react to that? What was the feedback I got? Now I'm going to change up again, and I'm gonna test this new theory, and then I'm gonna test this new theory. And so you're just solving this puzzle every single time you go out there. And that is I think exactly what you need to do as a deer hunter. You are, you know, on any given day or any given week, when you're gonna go hunting, you have to assess the situation, assess what does this wind direction or these weather conditions or this time of the year or this you know, trail camera data or observation data. What does this tell me about what the deer are doing now and where they're going to do it and when they're gonna do it and how they're going to do it. And then you've got to go test. I'm going to try this spot because I think A, B, and C, and then you're gonna hunt there and then you're cee, what do I learn? And then adjust and then test and then adjust and then test. So those two things. The more you do anything like that, and the better you get at making decisions around those things about how to run those tests, about how to try these new things and learn from wildlife and understand how animals use habitat it all kind of works those same muscles. I think that another activity that's helped me with both of those pursuits was chess. As a kid, my grandpa will my grandpa, taught me to play chess, and then my dad and grandpa would both play chess with me. I remember from an early age I would be sitting down there and thinking about the next move and if I make this move, what will my grandpa do? How will he react to that move? And if he does that, then what would I do to take advantage of that? And I think chess has helped me build the ability to think forward, to anticipate reactions, to anticipate future outcomes, and then learn how to adjust from those two. So again, it's the same thing with fly fishing and hunting. You're trying to analyze a situation. You're trying to predict what might happen, and then thinking about what decisions you can make in reaction to those, or what decisions you can make then maybe forces an outcome that you want. Chess helps with that. Fly fishing helps with that. Another thing that's helped me we already talked about running. The running thing, as I discussed, you know, in detail earlier, has helped me build discipline. It's helped me build my fitness and just ability to kind of be mentally tough and physically tougher in situations that I might otherwise. I think finally, one other activity which we talked about at the top, that's been very important to my deer hunting is parenting. And I think parenting has really built for me the ability to maintain perspective. Earlier, in my hardcore deer hunting years, when I didn't have kids, you know, it seemed like deer hunting was the most important thing in my world. It was I was obsessed. It was so important whether or not I killed a deer. It felt like life or death in the moment. If I missed a buck, it was like the end of the world. If I wasn't seeing the deer I wanted to see, it was the end of the world. If a hunt wasn't going well, it was the end of the world. And once I had kids, you very quickly learn that there's something you know, you feel this it's not you learn it. You just all of a sudden, your flip gets switched, and all of a sudden, there's something much, much, much more important in your life. It's these it's these children. It's just this other life. And so now if something goes wrong in my hunting, or if my season is not going well or trip's not going well, it's a lot easier for me to be like, Okay, it is what it is. At least, you know, I've got my kids. At least my kids are healthy, at least my family life is good, and I have these incredible things in my life. And you're just able to appreciate this other part of your world that's so much more important than the grand scheme of things. And so it puts deer hunting in its appropriate place. It gives you a level of perspective. I think it really helps you reorient your priorities, and at least for me, has helped me remember that deer hunting is just supposed to be a fun thing. It's a pastime. It's a way to get out there and engage with nature and have fun and hopefully feeds your family and put meat in the freezer. But certainly should not be something that you're getting all worked up about and stressed out about or worried about as some ego thing. I think deer hunting is getting way too much like that, and I certainly was a part of that for a lot of years, and I've actively been wanting to kind of shift, you know, what my relationship with deer hunting is and how I talk about deer hunting and how we discuss it even here on Wired to Hunt, because I think for too many people now it's becoming this dragon slaying mission that you know, we have to do no matter what the cost is, and we have to show the rest of the world that we're the best deer hunter in the world and that I killed my big buck. And there's a lot of ego in that. There's a lot of weird stuff in that that not only do I think is not healthy for us as a hunting culture, but I don't think it's healthy for us as hunting individuals. And so that's that's where I think parenting has really changed. 00:47:42 Speaker 1: Things for me. 00:47:53 Speaker 2: Scott asks, do you think that human scent and wind matters slightly less in urban deer hunting situations? And I would say, yeah, I think it does matter a little bit less. You know, I've hunted in some relatively suburban or urban situations, both in kind of where I grew up in Michigan and then definitely in Washington, d C. On a hunt I did there a few years ago. Deer, no matter where they are, they adapt to what the normal is. They adapt to their surroundings. They can very quickly kind of establish a baseline of what should be happening, what usually happens here, and then they can exist within that framework. If the normal is people all over the place, they can get used to living around people all over the place. They can get used to someone being fifty yards away taking their trash out, if that's the thing they get used to. They can get used to smelling people if there's always people, and so in these suburban or urban places, you know, you can use that to your advantage. If there's a location where deer are used to being downwind of a house or people playing the yard or whatever, you can hunt there and they will probably think that you are just like the other people that are there now. Of course, if you set up in a place that they're not used to their being human sent they probably like we'll be able to tell that too, So you can probably get away with a little more if you're smart about it. But don't expect to be invincible, because just as deer in urban situations can very quickly become used to what's normal, they also have a very fine ability to determine what's not normal and still react to that. So keep that in mind. Joshua Billings asks, I want to hear more about how you started your book reading habit. Has it ever been hard to afford the books? Are there sites you use to find new books? How do you pick what books to read? Fun question. I love talking about books in my reading habit on Instagram. I share my books I read every month on newsletter I mentioned earlier at Mark Kenyan dot net. I try to share some of my reading recommendations on there as well. And for me it started an early age. My fa family was just a family of readers. Every Friday night we would go to Outback Steakhouse and Barnes and Noble. That was our big family outing every Friday. And so I just grew up learning to love reading and love learning about new things. And so that's how it started for me. I just enjoyed diving into topics, whether it be fiction or something new I could learn, and learning about it through the written word. I continued that ever since, I think a big part of my reading habit has been that I have allowed myself to chase any curiosity. So if I'm interested in something, I give my self permission to grab that book and give it a try. And you know, also give myself permission to not need to finish a book. If you read something and you're like, yeah, this isn't for me, I don't feel obligated anymore to finish a book if it's a you know, if it's a slog, that's not bringing me value or joy or entertainment or new information. So you know, when it comes to you know, staying excited about reading and doing it consistently, that helps a lot. I also read every single night. That's the way I go to sleep every night. I've got a book by my bed. I read that with a headlamp. I use a red headlamp at night, so that it's you know, it's a little weird maybe, but with the red light, it you know, does not I'm blinking right now, having a brain fart on the oh the chemical that does this. But white light or blue light will keep you awake longer. Red light does not do that, and so I'm able to slowly get tired and fall asleep, but I can read up until that point with my red light headlamp. I also don't watch a lot of TV. Usually if I have a little bit of free time, it's reading. I just have found that I believe that reading books is more valuable use of my time than watching some show or scrolling Instagram or whatever. I would just rather learn about something new, or even if it's just a book for entertainment. I think that the reading process is like a higher nutrition, like a higher nutrient punch for your book, buck bang for your book if you're going to read it, versus kind of passively consume it on TV. So personally, that's why I do it, that's how I've continued to do it. I've given myself permission to buy a book anytime I'm interested, knowing full well that that's going to cost some money and that's an investment. But I do really believe that, you know, a book is one of the very best investments you can make, especially if it's a book that you're learning something new, whether it's through fiction and you're just kind of learning about human the human experience, or if it's a book where you're learning about, you know, some nonfiction topic. You know, learning and expanding your mind and growing is you know, that is a time investment that will pay back dividends exponentially over time. There's nothing I think that's more important for your growth as hunter or an angler's a husband or wife, or mother or father, anything of that. There's nothing more important than growing and learning and continuing to never stop that personal growth. And books are about as good of a way to do that as you can possibly find. You have to deeply engage with the material. You engage with it for a long time, you get a comprehensive understanding, You get context. You know, we live in this world today with social media and TikTok and all this crap that is so short and sensationalist, and it has no context and has no background, and it's not comprehensive. And people are getting their understanding of the world from thirty second or three minute snippets. There's very little you can actually learn in thirty seconds or one minute or a minute and a half and today's very complicated, controversial, polarized world. We need more nuance, we need more context, we need more comprehensive understanding, and books are one of the very best ways to do that. So I would rather sacrifice by in I don't know, a new TV or going out to dinner. I'd rather not do that and instead invest my dollars in books than vice versa. How do I pick the books I read? You know, I just follow whatever I'm curious about. I like to go to bookstores and just prouse the shelves. I go on Amazon, and I will like find a book that I want to read, and then I will look at the suggested books for people that also bought, you know, for people that bought this book, they also bought this, this or this. I try to buy most of my books not through Amazon. I prefer to support like an actual bookstore, like an indie bookstore, which you can do through bookshop dot org or even Barnes and Noble. I'd rather buy from them, just because I like physical bookstores and I want to make sure they're still around. So I personally do that. But I do keep a book list on Amazon because that's just an easy place to keep your list, and so every time I see a book that I'm interested in, I just add it to that list. And then I can keep this long running list of things I'm intrigued by, and then you know, when the time's a writer and I'm at an actual bookstore, I can look at that list again and be like, oh, yeah, I remember there's this book about such and such. Let's see if this store has it. And that's how I go about those things. Alaska, Lund asked in twenty years will Alaska have white tails? With c WD? So this is a question related to my film that came out a couple of weeks ago on the mediat Or YouTube channel in which I and we just did a full episode on this last week, So hopefully you heard that one with Colin and Bjorn. But this is a great question. It's one of the big concerns that folks have about this trend of white tails and mule deer showing up to a state that has not historically had them, and the questions will they bring their diseases with them? And I think, unfortunately, it's very likely that twenty years from now there will be white tails in Alaska, and there's a very real chance that CWD could be there, because right now, white tails are right on the doorstep of Alaska. They're probably already in the state. As Roy Churchwell was telling me in that film, you know, there's been sightings, people have said they've seen them there in this area, but they don't have one confirmed photographic evidence yet. But they do have confirmed evidence of white tails like just over the border right there, So it's probably happening. They've been moving farther and farther north over the last handful of years and decades. So this is a trend that's been happening. It's been confirmed, it's likely to continue as the climate becomes more mild up they're in, winters are less severe. White tails can survive in these conditions more and more. And there is also CWD right next door in British Columbia and Alberta, And it's not that far away. Excuse me. The CWD is in Alberta and about on the same north south level though as southeast Alaska. So as white tails continue moving across British Columbia up through some of these river weys into south east Alaska, it seems like it's only a matter of time before one of these deer with CWD and Alberta ends up making that trip or that not an actual individual deer doing that, but the disease slowly spreading from deer to deer to deer over the years until finally something does end up there. I hope that's not the case. I'm not saying it absolutely will happen, but twenty thirty years from now, would it shock me if it had. It would not shock me. Given how we've seen it spread across the lower forty eight, Given how far it's traveled just in the last twenty years down here, it certainly seems possible that could could continue up north. I hate to say it, but I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility. A couple other questions about the film. G v and Miller asked about how the reception has been to the discussion in that episode about the changing climate, and yeah, you know, I'd say the reception has been largely how you might think. I would say there have been a handful of loud detractors, people who when they hear Climb Change, they think politics and they think about you know, the crazy, far extreme kind of radical take on climate change and folks, you know, throwing paint on pictures and doing crazy stuff like that, and you know, all of the liberal kind of taking of that issue. So some people think that anyone who mentions climate change is some crazy person like that. So there's going to be that kind of troll like common. So we had some of those, But then there's also a whole lot of people. I think it's the it's the quiet majority in the middle, who are people who are hunters and anglers just like you and I who go out there and we've been hunting and fishing all of our lives, and we travel to wild places, and we have seen with our own eyes how stuff has changed. How we hardly ever get to ice fish anymore in southern Michigan because we hardly ever have cold enough days. How wildfires are getting crazy and crazier out west. How more and more days you can't troutfish in Montana because the rivers are continuously more and more shut down because river temperatures are dangerously high for trout. We're seeing news in Alaska about how salmon populations that have historically been the best in the world are all of a sudden crashing and one of the only reasons they can pin it to is the fact that ocean temperatures are warmer than ever before in certain places, or the rivers that they're going up are now dangerously warm. There's just it's becoming increasingly hard to ignore this stuff, regardless of if you're a Republican, Democrat or whatever in between. And you know, I've at least found for myself that it's not a political thing anymore. It's just my eyes are open. I'm seeing this stuff, and I care about the natural world and wildlife and wild places. So I think more and more people are getting to that point. Now there's I think movement towards it's becoming not such a political issue, but more so, like the solutions to it will become political, so left and right can debate what we should do about it, how we should do things about it. And I think that's healthy. I think we should be having, you know, different perspectives on that. But it's getting really hard for a lot of folks in the middle to just pretend it doesn't exist. And so I think with this film, that's what we've seen a lot. There's a lot of people that were appreciative of the fact that we talked about it, appreciative of the fact that we talked about in a way that was not radical or extreme or demonizing anyone, but just said, hey, this is a thing that's happening. You can't be denied anymore. It's actually impacting wildlife in ways that we as hunters need to be aware of. And it keep tabs on and this stuff does impact fishing wildlife and hunting and fishing, and I think that's an important reality to acknowledge now, and a lot of people are pretty open to that these days, and I was glad to see that, and it's the kind of thing that I think we're going to see, you know, discussed more and more as this goes from being kind of a backwater, far left issue to being something that's that's simply being addressed by everyone in the middle and hopefully figure out some ways to live with this new normal, or adapt to this new normal, or changed in some kind of way if we can towards a better future. And that's all yet to be seen exactly what that will look like. So that was kind of the take that we got, and that's my answer. Cameron asks, did you notice the change in elevation where you were hunting any you know, shortness of breath or physical issues, and then do you have any training tips for preparing for a black tail hunt like that? I would say I did not really experience any elevation issues. You know, we weren't really at a very high actual elevation. We went up something like three thousand feet, but that was you know, only up to gosh, I don't know, four thousand feet or thirty five hundred feet or something like that. Like the actual sea level elevation was not very high. These mountains just kind of jump r out of the ocean and go straight up. So you know, there was not your typical high elevation issues that you might have, you know, mule deer hunting in Colorado at fourteen thousand feet. That said, when you're gaining three thousand feet or thirty five hundred feet or four thousand feet of elevation, that's still a lot of up, which means strain on your legs and your muscles and your body. And so in that case, you know, definitely the trail running that I've been doing, the mountain trail running I've been doing all last year, it really helped me with that. So training. You know, gaining and losing elevation is the biggest thing. Whether you're black tail hunting in Alaska or elk hunting in Montana or whatever. Being able to handle that up and down is just so dramatically different on your body. You need to practice doing that a lot, and for long periods of time, and probably with weight on your back too. So that was one thing that I trained a lot handling the elevation. I didn't train as much with weight on my back, and that's something I want to, you know, do more of for future hunts. But yeah, be moving cover a lot of ground, cover elevation, if you can use inclined treadmill, if you can't do stairs in the stadium, whatever you gotta do. That's such an important part of just being comfortable and capable out there on really any kind of mountain hunt. All right, let's see if we've got a last question or two here. Uh Nick Fruscie asks what kinds of contingencies are you considering for when they start selling public land? Public pressure seems not to be making an impact. So what Nick's referring to here are the threats to public land that we're seeing across the nation, as more and more folks are looking at, you know, removing protections on our public land or transferring them to states, or even now we have folks in the Senate debating whether or not we should sell off hundreds of thousands of public land acres to you know, deal with budgetary issues in the federal government. That's actually being publicly discussed right now, which is pretty wild. There's also proposals by the Interior Department to sell or transfer public lands to be used for housing around urban areas, which again is a super slippery slope that could lead to tens of thousands or maybe more acres of public land being taken out of the public estate and being developed. And all of this is very real. It's more concerning, probably than it's ever been. I've talked to folks who've worked in this line of business for decades and decades, much longer than I have. I've been doing this for fifteen twenty years, but some of these guys have been watching this for fifty years. And this is about as concerning as we've ever seen. And so contingencies. I don't think we can have contingencies. I think we simply have to make sure this doesn't happen. We have to not stop making noise. We have to not stop being squeaky wheels. We have to continue to talk to our lawmakers. We need to continue to show our support. We need to continue to show that hunters and anglers in the outdoor community demands that we protect our public lands, demands that we keep these plays is intact and healthy and public. Demands that our politicians represent our viewpoints on this, and if they don't, we'll vote them out office. We'll make their lives hell, We'll make it very uncomfortable. We need to make these kinds of ideas a political poison pill. And we can do that with phone calls. We can do this by showing up at the state capitol at rallies. We can do this by social media posts and calling out our elected leaders, by emailing them, messaging them, using every single possible lever, we have to get the point across. And then, like I said, if none of that works, we need to make change with our votes. And that's something that we'll have an opportunity to do in a year and a half or so. So I hope it doesn't get to that. I hope that our efforts over these coming weeks and months changes the direction that we're headed with some of these public land issues, but it's going to require more from us. Each and every one of us is going to have to step up to a different level than we probably ever have. It's not going to cut to just be a hunter anymore. It's not going to cut it to just be a fisherman anymore. You also have to be an advocate and an active conservationist if we want to keep these things around, if you want to have public places to deer hunt, or to go backpacking or hiking or camping with your kids or your friends. You can't just sit and watch this stuff. You can't just ignore the news. You can't just put your head in the sand. We have to be active participants now. If we don't, we will not have these opportunities. We won't have these things, we won't have these podcasts because there just won't be wild resources and wild places and public lands to do this stuff anymore unless we stand up and do something about it. Because there's a lot of people out there that care about other things. There's a lot of people out there that are happy just living, playing golf and making lots of money or playing video games or whatever. They don't know anything about this stuff. They don't care about this stuff. They'd have believe sell them off or cut them down or whatever the thing is to make some money from it or let other people do that, because it's not going to impact their lives, but it does impact our lives, and so we have to be the ones to speak up for the stuff. So well, that said, that's what I'm going to go do right now. I am going to take a shower, get just dressed, and head off to Washington, DC, heading to do stuff that's not really all that much fun, but I hope it's worth it, and I hope we can make a difference, and I hope we can keep wildlife and wild places around for a very long time, because man, they've been the world for me, and I think that's been the case for a whole lot of you too, So I appreciate you being a part of that solution as well. Thanks for joining me for this podcast, Thanks for joining me and being an advocate and a conservationist and the support of our public lands and wildlife. And until next time, stay Wired to Hunt.

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