00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyon, and this is episode number Today is going to be very different. As many of you remember, last year, my coast and I had a trail camera bet which I ended up losing him. So as his reward, my co host, Mr. Dan Johnson has won the right to host one episode of this podcast, and that podcast starts right now. All right, hello everybody, this this is gonna be a strange episode because, as Mark said, I am your host. Now. I told Mark before this podcast started that I had all these plans laid out and every all these talking points and we're gonna have this awesome podcast. But I totally lied to him because all my notes are on are on a post it note that's like perfect, three inches by three inches. So it'll at least give us something to get the ball rolling with. Well, what about our guests, what about our big special guests You've been planning for so long? Rick Flair could not make it today. Oh no, yeah he was. He was busy, bummer. Yeah, So I Honestly, I didn't even reach out to anybody. But here's what I'm thinking we're gonna do today. You know, at the beginning of every episode, we have our BS portion of the show, right, b S session. So this podcast, it's going to be an entire BS session. Perfect, So we have no direction, we have no we're we have a blank canvas in front of us and me and you are the artist today. What do you think about that? And with that, ten thousand people just turned off their podcast? Right, So this this is probably going to be the lowest rated podcast that you have. But at least it's gonna give us a break and we can we can relax, you know. Oh yeah, no, I like it. I like the idea. I gotta I can well prepared for this. Unbeknownst to me, I've got myself a cold beverage. So we're just gonna kick back and enjoy you enjoy some some bro time, right right, some bro time. You might need to go get another beer. You can drink one beer while while we're talking, and then the other beer you can chug while I'm dive bombing this episode into the crowd. Yeah, we should make a drinking game out of this. Every time you really really embarrass yourself, I'll take a big swig. Okay. And I also, well, I didn't really write it down. I'm just shooting from my head here. For those potential sponsors who are listening to this show that have yet to, um, you know, maybe sponsor this podcast, just skip to another one. That's what That's what it's really, that's what we're that's the one you really want to listen to. That's that's try. I definitely don't want any prospective sponsors to hear this one to make to make a decision based off this one, all right, So you've been warned. Yep. So with that said, you're even using my lines, I know I have to write. I gotta I gotta ease into it so people aren't scared right away. Right, That's true. That's true. I like your I like your plan here. That's working, all right. So here's what I'm thinking we're gonna do. We're just gonna be asked. I'm gonna ask you some questions, You're gonna ask me some questions, and we're just kind of going to kind of let the flow take control. Okay, Down with that, I'm done for sure, alright, so it is almost April, and for me, April is turkey hunting season. Okay, so my first question is are you going to be turkey hunting with a gun or a bow this year? Very good question. I've been thinking about this a lot recently. UM, So I have always well, I can't remember how much I've told you about how I started turning, But when I first started turkey hunting, I didn't grow up in turkey hunting family or anything. Um. I just picked it up, you know, late in life myself. So I don't know eight nine years ago I first started going just with a friend and just watched for a year. Um. I think the next year I went out with a gun, but never even came closer to turkey. The third year, I decided I would try bow hunting, and I did have a couple good encounters, but either couldn't get a shot off or I missed. So I think year number four, I decided I should try just use a gun so I could finally kill one. So I did that switch to a gun, and then I started killing a bunch of turkeys. Over the last like five years or so, I've had a lot of success the shotguns so this year, I think I want up the challenge factor and switched to a bow, just because the last few years I've been killing turkeys opening morning, um in the different places I've haunted, and I kind of want to ramp it up a notch and extend my season and the challenge a little bit. So I think I think I'm going to switch to a bowl, but I'm still not a hundred percent sure because because I you know, it's not easy with the bowl, So I'm not sure. I I'm leaning towards the bow, though, what about you, I'm leaning towards the bow too. But here's the deal. In Iowa, you can use your bow for the entire length of the season. Right. If you use a gun, it's broken down into four different seasons, so I can use it from the beginning all the way through the fourth seat what they call the four seasons, right, but it's for archery. It's one in higher season. Um. So in the past, I've used guns a lot, and I have you know, had my fair share of success. Um. Last year, I got a bow tag, thinking I might go out um a little bit more, but my wife was thirty eight weeks pregnant and so and it kind of rained a little bit, so I didn't get out to hunt by myself as much as as i'd like. This year, I think we're gonna have my wife's not pregnant knock on wood and not that we know of yet exactly not that we know of, and um so I think I'm gonna be able to take a little bit more vacation time and I'm gonna try to knock one down with a bow this year. I think it'd be a lot of fun. That's really next thing. I alway, you get a longer season with the boat too. Right right now, is Michigan one of those states where you have to stop hunting at like noon? No, Turkey, Nope, we don't have any time restrictions. So we've got we've got the full day. And um there's there's a number of different time is that the season is broken up to, depending on what license you get, what region you're in, and all that. Um. But but I like to go for the early season, and so that means I'm gonna be kicking off April eighteenth is the opening day, I believe here in Michigan. So I'm gonna be hunting for the that first it's a two week season, I think for the tag I'll be getting, so I'll be like April eighteen through I don't know, like the end of April or something something like that. So the plan hopefully will be to um to kill one myself in the first couple of days, and then I have my buddy Josh and my dad coming down for the following weekend and I'm gonna try to guide them to a bird each as well. So that's what I got in the plans for Michigan, and then we'll be going to Ohio too. So are you you get a landowner's tag in Michigan? Michigan, So it's not a landowner's tax, as I don't own any property, but there's like a private land tag versus a public land tag. Um. So I've got a private land tax and I'm gonna be hunting on private land that I have by permission. Now turkeys. You know me, and you talk about a lot about going out west and stuff like that. Have you ever considered trying to do a spring turkey hunt for it? Maybe a different category like a Merriam or a rio. Yeah, I have been thinking about that. I think for me, the doing one of the western turkey hunt sounds like fun. And I think that's partly just because I you know, you know, I love being out west, um, so any excuse to hunt something else out there is really intriguing to me. Um. But it seems like that'd be that'd be a sweet time to be in the wood. To be in the woods and the mountains out there and hunting turkeys and the hills and stuff would be so different. Um, I think that'd be a lot of fun. So I have definitely been thinking about going to like Montana or Wyoming or something like that, where you've got these big, rolling, grassy hills and pines up on the ridges, and you know, it seems way different but could be fun. But I just haven't, you know, with my schedule and everything, I haven't been quite pull it off. Um, But I've been thinking about it a lot. Um. I know, the much more or more easily attained would be like going down to I don't know, Florida and doing one of those hunts, but I don't know, it just doesn't have quite the same people. I wouldn't be opposed to doing it, but if I'm gonna spend you know, so much money, to travel for ten eighteen hours away from home. I think I'd rather go west than wayte South. But I don't know you what about you? Yeah? Oh yeah, my goal it's kind of a crazy pipe dream, but I want to do. I want to get the Slam North American Slam. I don't know, you really want to get them all? Huh? I want to get them all, and I want like, I think the Rio's and the Merriam's are the next easiest for the Eastern, and then the hardest one is the um the Osceola, and then I don't know if I want to add the Mexican Google the Gould Gould Yep into the category or not, but it would be really fun. I've talked to a guy who's done it at the A T A Show a couple of years ago, and he's like, you know, turkey hunting is not at all like deer hunting. For some reason. Big game puts a lot more pressure on people than a bird does. And you go out and you just have fun as opposed to you know, all this strategy and stuff that goes with these these giant animals. Yeah, man, I do love it. It's it's so much fun. But it is kind of the big game of bird hunting, you know, of all of all the kinds of bird hunting, it is the most like big game at least, And maybe that's why I enjoy it so much, because it is you know, you are hunting, you know, like a single animal, and there's calling and they're stalking or there's ambush. You know. It's definitely very different than like duck hunting or upland bird hunting, where you're just walking around trying to flush something. So I don't know, it's like, I love turkey hunting because of how engaging it is, you know, like the fact that you are interacting with that animal in the calling and everything, um. But then you also have the ability to you know, run and gun and and actually be up and moving between those two things. Like I'm just getting pumped, Like right now, I'm definitely getting pumped. I drove around the neighborhood last night just scouting fields to see where the turkeys were out. And this morning from my office, I could see across the road onto this neighbor's property and a bunch of gobblers are out across They're all strutted up and moving back and forth and so I just sat for like fifteen minutes and I've been ocular staring out the window, achieving nothing. But it was fun. Right, So I'm definitely definitely getting pumped. I can't. I haven't heard my first gobble yet, so I'm pretty excited for that. Yeah, I haven't. I haven't been out. I've seen definitely, I've seen several strutterers from the road, but I haven't had the opportunity to get out and do any listening. But um, it is definitely one of my favorite times of the year. Uh. And I don't know how you were raised or how you started turkey hunting, but my two uncles got me into turkey hunting and they are the with a gun. And it was running gun all the way. You call for a little bit, no response, You walk fifty sixty yards, set up and you just cover an entire section to timber and we did all on public land up in northern Iowa. And uh, um call a little bit, you know, you wait, maybe some will come in, maybe some won't, and uh and you just keep moving until you find him. And that's how I personally have been successful over the years. As far as a strategy is concerned, what about you. Yeah, so I literally, like I said, I went out for one year with a friend, um but but that that friend didn't really know what he was doing either. So after that I just basically taught myself, just read a lot of magazines and watched videos and stuff like that. So what I do a kind of combination of all the above, depending on the type of property. Um you know, typically I try to just you know, if I can roost them the night before, figure out at least where I either roost them the night before and figure out where the roosted that day or just from history oracle knowledge, here's where I think these terrkeys are gonna be roosted, and then sneak in as close as I can the next morning and then hopefully, you know, have a good set up and they'll come in. So what I've done both here in Michigan and Ohio is you know, get in there early in the morning as close as I can't get to the roost with a couple of decoy set up, and I'll usually hunt them at that decoy spread for the first couple of hours in the morning. Um So, in both cases, both both of the two main properties that I hunt Um, I actually don't have really good roosting on those properties. They tend to roost on the neighbors. UM, so I am kind of waiting for them to slowly make their way to my property. So in both cases, it usually takes about an hour for them to kind of slowly work their way from wherever they're strutting first thing in the morning, and usually seems like that like an hour hour and a half later they kind of cycle through and kind of move towards my area. And then that's been when I've been able to catch them. But what I'll usually do is so that for that first like two hours, I'll wait there hope they'll come my way. But if nothing happens that first two hours, UM, then I like to get up and start moving around and try to run a gun and see if I can't get something talking. And then I'll usually do that till you know, I don't know, late late late morning, early afternoon, and then um then I'll call it and then come back on the evening and try to kind of do the same thing but the opposite. So that's what I've done on those two main properties, and I don't move around as much in those just simply because they're they're small properties, and I just if it's not happening here, it's not gonna happen in the other spot. I could go a hundred yards you know away. Um. But I have hunted some other farms that my buddies own or have permission on, where you can you know, walk for thousands of acres or hundreds of acres at least, and that's definitely fun way to to, you know, just move around and find different sets of birds. And one of my I can't remember if I told you the story last year, but me and a buddy UM went with Corey. Um. He's, you know, my buddy Corey. He had not gone out turkey hunting at all last year. So we were with him like one night where like, dude, you gotta get out, we'll take you out. Um. So he's basically came along with the gun and we were kind of the guides, um because he's not super into it. But um. We we set up one spot in the morning and there's there was just nothing going. So after like an hour there and nothing was talking, we decaid, okay, we're gonna get up and this this area my friend and his family own and have access to a whole bunch of property in this area. So literally we could just drive up and down the roads and everything you can see pretty much is acts is land that we could hunt. So we just drove the roads until we spotted turkeys way way way off in this field, and um, okay, spotted some birds, spotted some gobblers, and then put together a plan of okay, we think that they're gonna keep moving that direction. So we drove an half mile down the road, came around the corner park the true parked the truck around behind the hedgerow, and then like ran like three cores of a mile to try to get up in front of where we thought those gobblers were going to head. We cut him off, and finally, you know, we we thought we were within range or with you know, in the same area they'd be headed. We're back on the other side of hill though, so we way it finally heard one of them gobbles and them, okay, we've really located them. They're coming where we thought what we were, and so we made another move, got right up in front where we thought they'd go, did a little bit of yelping, and it just worked out perfect. They came right in and it was it was a super cool hunt because they had all that driving around, spotting, making a plan, running around trying to get in the right spot, and that was a super cool hunt. So I really do enjoy those hunts where you get to be really active and you know, trying to make a move on something. Yeah, all right, now for this portion of the show, it's gonna be called my favorite thing about turkey hunting is. All right, I'm gonna go first, so you kind of get an idea of what what to do here. Okay, all right. My favorite thing about turkey hunting is is when you're sitting with your back to a tree and you're you know, you hear some gobbles in front of you, and all of a sudden those gobb will stop and you think, man, okay, those times have gone away. And then all of a sudden you hear boom boom, and there's a strutter right behind you and it freaks you out. Who I like that. That's my favorite thing about turkey hunting. Now my turn, all right, my favorite thing about turkey hunting is when you're sitting up against a tree and you're hearing a gobbler for a while out there in the distance, and then he stops and then you don't hear anything for a while, and you think, oh man, they're gone. And then like fifteen minutes later, ten minutes later, all of a sudden, you here but like ten yards behind you, just like it makes you jump out of your skin, like, holy crap, he's right there. That is my favorite thing. I love when one of those gobblers is so close and it surprises you and just every hair on your body just stands straight up and you feel in your gut and youre's like, holy crap, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. Oh that isn't adrenaline rush. That I just love. Yeah, that that's uh oh man, I've had it. I've had times where my uncle, he's the guy who taught me pretty much everything I know about turkey hunting. So we go out and the sun's just coming up. We pull into Um, We pull in and I shut my door really quiet, and he just slams his car door as hard as he possibly could, and you get that that shot gobble and then there's like four or five of them sound off and he's like, they're here. We just walk into the woods and kill him. That is that. That's probably my second favorite thing, or maybe maybe it's my first favorite thing. Is like the first thing when you get in the morning, like you sneak into wherever you're gonna set up, and then that first bird goes off, and then because that bird goes off, the next one goes off, and then the next one and the next one, and you get this like cascading effect of gobbles going up and down the ridge or something like that. Every time it happens every morning, Like when I'm with especially if I'm with a friend, you just look at each other and just start laughing because this is so awesome. Turkey hunting is fun. It really is. If you haven't done it, excuse me. If you haven't done it, you really got try. Yep. To everyone, not you, damn, but to everybody else out there, Turkey hunting is fun. Alright, So are you ready for the next topic? Yeah? What do we got next? Hey? Hey, hold on, before we do, how do my gobbl sound? Oh? It was horrible, dang it. I feel pretty good about I was. I was in Cabela's the other day and I was I don't know about you but whenever I walked past the aisle with all the turkey calls, I can't help but start yelping and making turkey noises with your own mouth, with my own mouth. Yeah okay, And so then you're that guy. I am still that guy. And my wife was pissed and he's like, you are so annoying. But when I used to go to a lot of trade shows, we would always joke around with other people who had booths next to like the the guy who so sold coyote calls or turkey calls or calls or any type of call, because for three straight days you would hear or you know, like some dumb Now that wasn't that bad, Mark? I thank you, thank you. I have credit on that. Thank you, sir. I feel like I'm pretty decent with just my own vocal cords. Um, I wouldn't well, I wouldn't end their competition. Let's just say, okay, so let's hear your let's hear your no call elk bugle. Oh. I can't do that, damn it. I was hoping I could get you to embarrass yourself. I don't even know how I would do that. Well, I mean I could try, but I really, I really shouldn't. All right, Okay, are you ready for the next topic. I'm ready for the next topic. Okay, this is dream hunt. Dream hunt. So you've already done an elk hunt, you've been successful at an elk count. You've done a white tail hunt, you've already been you've already been successful as far as a white tail hunt in the Midwest and whatever. So you have the again, blank canvas. What is your dream hunt? One species? Can't and I'm gonna put a stipulation, can't be white tail. Okay, one species, one hunt is there? Um Okay, it is, without a doubt, an Alaskan hunt going to Alaska, and I would I would love to tie together several different species, but since I can't, if I had to just choose one, I'd probably have to say it would be oh Man, Alaskan moose. It would be like a flying hunt, and like a flying hunt into some deep, deep wilderness area where you get dropped off with a raft maybe, and you you hunt out in the back country for a moose, and then if you get one, you pack them into the raft and your raft out some river out to the nearest road fifty miles away. Or something, and and all along the way you could do some fly fishing and and uh, I don't know that like the next it's between that and like a Brooks Range sheep hunt. I'd love to get up way up in the mountains and chase sheep. Um. But but I probably have to go with moose first, and that'd be bow hunt. Bow hunt for moose deep in the bush. Um do it yourself is what my dream hunt would be. I'd say, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to agree with you on that. Yeah, we're on we're on the same page. We're kind of on the same page. I don't know what it is about an animal that is three times your size. Yeah, yeah, not too bad. Mark, you need to come out with the Mark Kenyon call System. I'll put together a little tape that you can download with just me making animal reproductive noises. They're like calling noises. Okay, story from college. I'm gonna make this as fast as possible. I did not know how this can be relevant to college, but it can't be good. It's gonna be. It's awesome. I mean, okay, So my buddy had a house that sat in between so it went frat house, frat house, my buddy's house, frat house. So these guys, right, So, um, we had a lot. Let's just say we had a lot of fun messing with these frat guys. All right. So one day I'm helping some chick move into her apartment and a box kind of breaks open and a whole bunch of cassette tapes fall out, right, So me and my buddy are helping her pick these cassette tapes up, and I see one and it's rabbit distress call. Okay, you know that kind of annoying. It all get out. So they're just this party frat there, the frat they're having their rush party or whatever. You know. Everybody comes in, it's the new people whatever whatever frats do. Now, me and my buddy are like, hey, let's go over there. Let's let's walk in and see. You know. We walk in and we don't look anything like the collar pop collar hair gel type. You know, I'm probably wearing if I had to guess my college days, I'm probably wearing a pair of cargo shorts with a bush Light T shirt. Oh you popped your collar. There's no collars on bush Light T shirts. Okay, So this this frat house had their stereo system inside of a closet, and in this closet was had a window. So I had this rabbit distress signal or call tape in my pocket. So I'm like, I'm gonna put that in their tape cassette and I'm gonna play that. So I walk in there kind of nonchalantly closed the door behind me, lock it. I put the rabbit distress singing uh called cassette in the stereo system and I crank it. I jump out the window, and I walked back to the front of the house and it is just it is the most awesome thing I've ever seen. All these people are looking around like what the hell is going on? The party just everybody starts leaving. The cops get called. Oh it was awesome. It was awesome. That's like one of my and we just had a really good laugh after that. Oh man, well done, sir, well done. Keep so dream Hut. I can't top that one. So okay, because you said moose, you know, I would love to do the same thing, float down like the Yukon River or something like that, and arrow a moose. Now, I would also love to do some kind of since I haven't done it yet. High country mule your hunt, you know, but I want to wait until after they're out of velvet. For some reason, shooting a velvet animal does not interest me. Have we talked about that before? I don't remember. I don't remember. Do you find interest in a velvet hunt? Because I'm kind of like you, like I'm not. I'm not opposed to it, like so if I was doing it, like you know, I'm doing an early season hunt this year in Montana for white tails. If a if a mature buck comes in front of me and has velvet, I won't not shoot him because he's in velvet. But if two bucks come by, one's in velvet, one's hard horned, I would definitely choose the hard horn. I just don't have that desire to shoot a velvet buck. I just I don't know. I just I love hard horns, the feeling, the look, the way they you know when you touch him, everything about him. I just prefer that. I don't know's I don't. I don't know why, But you agree with that, I kind of agree. Um, there are some hunting shows out there that I've seen where it looks like the antlers of some of these bucks that they're shooting are not even fully developed yet, Like the tips are still rounded, right right. I just don't get that. But you know, to each his own, if you love to shoot velvet antlers, go do it. Yeah, nothing wrong with it, I guess you know. Just the one thing I would worry about is I don't remember if you if you remember that episode we have with Dan Weeks the Taxidermist, But there's like all sorts of stuff that goes into trying to preserve that velvet. That seems like a big headache too. So just from that standpoint, I'm like, I don't want to deal with more of a hassle than I have to. Um, So that's another thing to think about. But I don't know, I'll see this this season. I'll I'll probably it will be my first potential chance to shoot a buck in velvet, So I'm sure that will be something I'll be thinking about a lot more than I ever have. Got you all right now, we we've talked about hunting, but do you have a dream fishing trip? Oh? Dream fishing? We never we never talked about fishing on this ship. Never do talk about fishing. I love a fish. You love the fish. I love the fish. Yeah, favorite North American uh fish to catch? Wow? Um all right, it's changed for me over the course of my life. Okay, for a long time, it used to be bass just love. I was a huge I was hardcore bass fisherman. I used to fish tournaments and everything. Wait a second, you used to fish in fishing tournaments. Yeah. For some reason, I cannot I cannot imagine that. Really, I can't picture that. I thought this will be this kind of funny. When I was in high school. I wanted to be a professional bass fisherman. I thought I was going to grow up to be on the you know, the bass tournament and be one of those guys in the NASCAR shirts on a boat and uh holds the fish as you know, almost like shed hunting, where they hold the fish as close to the camera excusingly possible. I wanted to be Kevin van Dam, who is like the Michigan guy who's like one of the best best tournament fisherman of all time. So that was my idol. That's what I wanted to be for for a period of years. Um. So I still love bass fishing, but don't do it as much as I used to. Um Now I've kind of transitioned that, you know, as you know, spending more time out west, so I've really caught the fly fishing bug. So trout have been what I've been really into recently. But I also really love catching huge northern pike. I used to go up to Canada a lot and fish for a while. I have pike up there, and there's something about tearing in a huge spinner bait or massive map spinner or something and then just getting a just claver and buy a thirty pike that just tears your arm off. I mean that that's a lot of fun too. Um. So I would say my favorite species would have to be one of those three. I'm having a hard time choosing one, okay for me? My my answer is real simple, hands down right now. If I could go fishing for one species today, I would pick smallmouth bass. Yeah. I love small mouth bass. They fight like nothing else in North America anyway, And I absolutely if I could go, if I could hunt one fish every day for the rest of my life, would be small mouth. If you could hunt one fish, that's what you just said, speaking of hunting fish, though, one of My favorite things when it comes to fishing is site fishing, so you know, fishing in a place because it kind of feels like you're hunting. So like when I used to be a big bass fisherman, I used to love using soft plastics and flipping and pitching soft plastics to fish I could see in shallow water um doing different things like that. Or now in fly fishing, you know, you're you're kind of site fishing a rising trout. You're seeing where trout is consistently rising and then trying to make a move on it and then drop your fly in the right place to to entice that fish to take it. Um. So I really do love fishing that kind of feels like hunting versus just ran like casting a lure, and I enjoyed that too. Um, you know, when you're just casting into something you can't see and bring it up. But I do love that element when there is like some type of visual aspect of fishing. We're going after a single fish maybe that you're seeing or watching rise or you think there's a fish there, and you can be pretty strategic about trying to you know, place your lure in the right place. I really get a kick out of that, all right, Now, last fishing question, Well we didn't we didn't talk about the dream trip yet. Oh yeah, that's that's what I was going to transition into. Sorry, So dream your dream fishing trip? Can I give you two answers? Because I'm having a hard time? Well no, no, go for it, all right, so I'll allow it, Okay, thank you, Mr Host. So my I would probably, I would probably again say my dream fishing trip is Alaska. So again, hunting and fishing trip would be Alaska, doing um, a fly fishing trip for salmon. Well, I probably wouldn't use a fly ride for salmon. I'm not that good, but I do salmon. Excuse me, I've got some some belching going on over here. Um salmon slash fishing for trout with my fly rod to some kind of just Alaskan trip. I don't I don't know the specifics. I would just want to go to Alaska, go deep into the back country again and then just fish my way out and just do nothing but eat fish and cast for fish and just spend a lot of time out there fishing for all sorts of crazy stuff out there. Um, just in general, I want to spend a couple of weeks hunting and fishing in Alaska on my own with a couple of buddies and just experience all it has to offer. That's my dream, really really really want to do that. Um. But my second fishing trip would be to go fly fishing for trout in Patagonia. Oh yeah. I am fascinated by Patagonia and I would love to get down there. They've got incredible trout, beautiful beautiful rivers and mountains, and it just looks like every everything I've read says Patagonia is like Montana for eighty years ago or a hundred years ago. So I would love to experience that. So that is my number one trip and my number one a trip like you can hunt red and stag down there too? Are the red stag in Patagonia? I think so? Because Patagonia is in Argentina right, Uh yeah, it's on the board. It's kind of that region between Argentina and Chile. Okay, So I think so, I think interesting? Interesting? So what about you? My dream fishing trip would be the Amazon jungle top water fishing for peacock bass. Nice. That's that's a good one. Peacock gas peacock bass are awesome. They've I guess they've transferred somehow, some of them into some lakes in Florida where the cold temperatures don't bother them, like the cooler if you can think Florida has cooler temperatures where it's different than the Amazon. But I've seen some of those those peacock bass and they're the size of salmon. I mean, they're big fish. Oh yeah, and they they're just nasty right there there. They're insane. Yeah, yeah, that would be a trip. I UM. I went to the fly fishing film tour in Denver has past uh January when we were on our last vacation out west, and um, they had one of the films was Dorato fishing somewhere down in the rainforest and one of those countries down there. And Dorado is just kind of a huge predatory predatory fish down there, kind of similar ish to um to peacock bass, at least visually, I thought, I thought to myself, and they would just looked like an insane, just insane fish. To to go after that looks that does look like a lot of fun. I just for me, the rainforest, like that region just doesn't have quite the same appeal for me from like, uh, I don't know, just wet and humid and huge rats and huge spiders. The huge snakes would just be I think it'd be more stressful than than relaxing. From I would rather deal with grizzly bears and wolves than spiders and snakes personally. That kind of that kind of transitions me into the next question, and that is do you have any interest in hunting Africa? Very interesting question. I've been thinking about this, um and again I don't. I think I'm getting really old because I'm already forgetting like I never know who've already talked about things. I feel like, you know, back when I was a kid and my Grandpa would tell stories, and you tell the same story like eight times, like over the course of two years. I'm like Grandpa in my head. I think I've heard the story over and over and now I'm worrying I'm becoming that guy already. UM. But if we haven't talked about this already, UM, here my thoughts. I I went to Well for the longest time, I've had no interest in nod in Africa. UM. And then I went to the s C. I the Safari Club International Convention this past February to cover it for UM for a magazine assign essentially for Outdoor Life, And while I was there, I was kind of thinking about this more. You know, why don't I want to hunt there? Why do all these other people want to hunt there? What is the allure of Africa? Um? And I kind of my interest in Africa changed a little bit. Before I had no interest in going there at all. Now I might be interesting going because there are some fascinating cultural things and just that the wildlife down there is unbelievable. I still just personally don't have the interest in hunting there, though I don't have an interest in killing something there. I'd love to go down there and see these animals, watch these animals, UM, But I just don't have the desire to kill one. And I have a hard time explaining why. I think part of it is because there's there's so many animals here in North America that I'd love to still hunt and that I have like a context with and I thought about and scene and wondering about and been fascinated with here in North America. And I also feel confident about our ability to manage those species and to keep those species around for a long time. And I feel really good about the system in place to make sure that, you know, these things are handled properly. In Africa, it just seems like so much more of a tenuous situation. Like I know what I understand, and I've looked a lot into the importance of hunting in Africa, like there really is, it really is a need for the funds and the management that comes from hunters participating in hunting down in Africa, so that that's an important thing, and I'm glad people go down there and do it. Um. I just I don't know. I just don't. Personally, I wouldn't I couldn't kill an elephant. I would not want to shoot an elephan. I wouldn't want shooting unasis. I wouldn't want to shoot a lion. Um. I don't know if that's just because I don't know, because they're rare, because because they feel so rare to me, because they feel so endangered to me. Um, I wouldn't. You know. I'm not gonna I'm not saying if someone out there wants to do that, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, But I'm just saying I think for me, it just doesn't feel right. Um Plus, I also have this thing where I don't I can't justify killing something just personally unless I'm going to eat it. And so I don't know if I have the desire to to eat an elephant or eat a lion or whatever. Um So, I don't know. These are things, are things I don't have like a really good answer, I guess, but these are kind of like the feelings and thoughts that are kind of churning around in my head when I think about this. Um So, that's a long way of saying no, I'm not interested in hunting in Africa. I may be interested in going to Africa learning more about it being out there. Um but I don't think I shoot anything. Right at this point in my life, I would say no, But I talked with a guy who has been there, and he's killed almost every species. Right, And so he sits here and he tells me, you know, I used to think the same thing you did. But when you get there and now I want you to rub your your thumb and your finger together, doesn't make a very very loud noise right to you at this point, right, it's not it's not a loud noise. He's like, it is so quiet over there that that noise is almost deafening because it's so quiet. Nice. So and the way he explained it, and of course, you know, he hunted over a water hole or you know, they throw some food out because they're hunting. Regulations as far as Bait is concerned, are not like here in the United States. But he shot, you know, a kudo, you know, all these rare animals and and all that stuff. And he's like, I used to think that until I had the opportunity to go, and then me and my wife went every year for like ten years in a row. And um, he had some money. But for me, elk, mule, deer, you know, bighorn, sheep, moose, all these things are higher on my list right now than going to Africa. Yeah, yeah, I think that's. Uh, We've got so many options right here, relatively close, that you know, we can participate in for pretty affordable, not not everything, but a lot of them are pretty affordable, pretty tangable. Um. Plus, man, this is just me personally, but I just love that that land, those landscapes out west and up in Alaska and Canada, I just love that habitat and that terrain, mountains pines. I prefer that over and again. Maybe maybe maybe a change if I went there. You know, I've never experienced it, so I'm I'm judging one thing I've experienced a lot versus something I've only ever seen on TV. So maybe it's like you said, maybe once you get there it's different. Um, But for now, man, I'll take a mountaintop any day, right, fact alright. So typically at this point of the show or earlier, we say, hey, now we have to have a break from our sponsors, right, which is Sitka Gear, right the titles for the show. Now, because I have myself a Gear podcast, I want to talk about your favorite piece of Sitka clothing that you have. Very good question. Um, all right, Um. If I had to pick just one piece of clothing that's my very favorite, I would say it would be my Fanatic hoodie. I love, love love my Fanatic hoodie. I just got this last year, so I only wore it for one year so far, but I wore on literally every single hunt, every single one of the hunts I went on last year, I wore it and I would feel horrible without it. Now that I now that I've experienced a hunt with him. So basically, for those not familiar, the Fanatic hoodie is kind of a man layer um light fleece, kind of gritted fleece interior with non It's not like a puffy like not like a puffy fleece or anything, but a very thin, micro gritted fleece with some elasticity to it that fits well to your body. It's got a kind of kangaroo pocket in the middle down for your hands. It's got a deep zipper kind of half zip that comes down. UM. But what where I really like is two things. One, it's that right kind of um level of warmth to breathe ability factor where it adds It adds a nice bit of warmth to you to your system. But at the same time, you can wear it on warmer days, So I could go out on a day where it's sixty five degrees and and be okay having that over you know, towards the end of the night, um, when it cools down a little bit and it's not so warm of a piece that I can't wear it on those early season hunts. But then in the late season it's a terrific base to mid layer too, to give me that additional warmth. And the two things that I really like though are u one for to foremost is the hood the hoodie. I wear the hoodie all the time. It's it's kind of one of those tight kind of like if you're familiar with like the climber type hoods um or small fleeces like Patagonia has one. A lot of different climbing and outdoor companies have these types of hoodies where they're this type of shirt that has this like tight elastic hoodie hood that comes over so that what's nice about is it is it holds tape tight to your head and doesn't impact your peripheral vision. If you take a typical hood which is big and sticks out from your head, your your peripheral vision on either side is kind of blocked out by the hood and when you can't see to your left or tier right. But with this hood that on sick of hoodie that sticks close to your head, you don't have that issue. So you can put this hoodie on and it covers your head, gives you a little extra warmth, blocks any wind on your neck, which is really nice for me. And it has a built in face mask, so it flips down from the inside of that hood and covers your face. So now I don't wear I don't bring any other face mask, I don't wear any face paint. I just pull on that hoodie, pull up the face mask, and I'm a ninja mode. I'm covered completely. It's tight to my face, it doesn't impact me at all, doesn't bother me when I draw my bow. Um, and it's just super super nice. And then the on the arms, there's flip out kind of hand mits. I don't know how just it's really hard to describe um, but in bedded in the sleeve kind of is some additional fabric that flips over your hands. So if it's like a cold morning and you don't want to have big heavy gloves when you grab your bow, but if you have to grab your bow, you flip over these mits and it doesn't bother you your grip at all, but it'll keep your hand warm against the bow riser or whatever you're doing. It's just a really nice kind of included feature that is not in any way kind of bulky or bothersome but when you need it, it's available. UM. So I don't know between those couple of things there. I really really like that piece. And like I said, it's every single hunt. I'm wearing the same thing for turkey season, I'll be wearing every single hunt, whether it be out West or here or turkeys. Um, that's the piece I'm wearing. So how about you. You've been a worthily for a year. Now, what do you think? This is my first year actually adhering to a layering system. All right, then I loved it. Now, before my Western hunt, I did a lot of research where it was, okay, make sure you have some kind of down or wool or you know, make sure you get wool socks because they're breatha bowl or you know, and then the pluses and minus of all that stuff. So I didn't have this the wool or excuse me, the down lightweight vest okay, and that's my favorite piece but that they make. So I picked it up at Shields and that's a sporting good store here in Iowa and took it on the trip. Now, I really didn't need to wear it a lot. But when I came back you're talking about our our Idaho trip, I didn't really need to wear it a lot, because I mean it was cool but not cold, and we were moving enough, and I was out of shape enough to where I was sweating and wet and warm regardless. So but here's the crazy part. I wore this one simple little uh I guess vest and it you can you can wad the entire vest up into the size of a baseball. Okay, So that's how lightweight this thing is. And I would put it on walking to the tree stand, right, so it's open so if I would get warm, um that the air could escape, and I would dress real light on the walk in. But when I get to my tree stand and start getting settled down, I zip that thing up and then I'd throw my um. So I would wear my fanatic coodie, and then I'd put my down vest over top of it, and then i'd put my uh UM safety harness over that, and then i'd put on one of my jackets. Now I'm telling you right now, I would purchase if if it was a one season you saw only then he had to throw it away, I would purchase one of those every season. It blocks out so much wind and the um. I don't know what what's that called warmth verse weight ratio or something like that is so high. Yeah, the law factor is so awesome that I you can literally wear less clothing and stay warm, and that is awesome because I've always been old school. Hey i'm cold, Well let's throw on a one more cotton hooded sweatshirt. Yeah, and then I'm looking like the kid from the Christmas Story. Yeah. This is a big improvement on that, that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad you liked it. I was, you know, I told you for a while how much I thought you would like that stuff, and then I know you could have been skeptical a little bit. So I'm glad to hear that that it's worked out well for it and helps you on your hunts, because I I think there's there's something to be said, you know, if you're someone who's out there a lot and hunting it a lot in these tough conditions, having the right gear, whether you know, whatever brand you prefer, but but this kind of advanced gear I think really does help for those that are serious, serious, serious about it. So I'm glad it worked for you. Yep, I loved it. That's my favorite. Uh, that's my favorite piece from Sitka. All right, So what's next? I'll tell you what's next. Oh, this is fun for man. I might make you do this more often. Okay, So the next category is because we just got serious right with Sitka, So we paid your bills. Thanks to that, YE have no worries. We got that out of the way. All right. Now we're gonna we're gonna take a bit of a bit of a one eight and we're gonna talk about going to the bathroom while you're in the tree stand. Great topic, yep, great topic. A lot of people, a lot of record, a lot of requests for this, I imagine. Okay, so when you pee or when you have when nature calls, we're gonna start off with number one. When when nature's nature calls and you gotta p do you let it fly from the tree stand or do you get down or do you use a bottle? I let it fly. I fled up, fly right off the tree stand. I'm not concerned about it. I've seen a number of studies that look into this, and remembering you understand, very quickly, after that yearine hits the ground or leaves your body, it very quickly becomes a scent and odor that deer are not bothered by. Um so so Yeah, I used to be worried about it, but after seeing some of these studies, it seems to me that there's no nothing to worry about. So I letter it. Okay, I'm gonna let it ripped guy too. I used to um. I used to be a bottle guy where I'd p into a bottle and then I'd keep and then I forget about it. And it's been in my in the back seat of my truck for like six months. Then and then you pull it out while it's no good, No, it's not good, and then you're like, oh my god, this is disgusting. So from that point I've been I let it fly. Now. Now this is where it gets serious. Number two. Number two. Number two that means deuce in it. That means going poop. Okay, tell me more, what does it mean? No, I really don't. This is still your show, right, Yes, yes, at least for the time being. Okay, So do you let it fly from the tree stand? Do you put it in a bottle or do you do Okay, how on the how in the world do you put it in a bottle? I don't know. You got like gatorade bottle and you got good aim. I don't know if it fit. Man, don't use a bottle. And that's my first piece of advice. Maybe like a bread sack or whatever, a bread sack, I don't know. I'm just thinking of like every day items that you can find around the house that have a bigger than Oh my gosh, Okay, funny story. I once hunted with a friend. I'm not gonna give details here, but I hunted a certain place with a friend who was parked in the front yard of someone's place. Um, but wasn't going to head into hunt until daylight for a certain reason. But before he had to head into hunt, he was sitting there in the truck waiting for daylight to go across this field and go hunt. And he had to go so bad, like horribly, horribly bad. But it's in an area where there's like a bunch of houses and stuff, so it wasn't like he could just easily go to the woods. It was like he had to go right then and there. But he was in a front yard surrounded by other houses. So he panicked. I didn't want to just drop a deuce in this person's front yard, so he hid behind his truck, found a Meyer or found a grocery store grocery bag in his truck, pooped in the grocery bag, tied it up, tied it up, put it underneath his truck tire, went hunting. I forgot about it and later drove over it when he was driving out of the yards. Awesome, and it probably he probably left it there. No, no, you did actually take it. He recovered it and properly disposed of it. But the proper disposal I think was like some trash can at its store, so really really nasty stuff. Um. But what would I do? Is the question? I suppose What would Mark Kenyon do? Mark Kenyon would not use a bread sack, He would not use a gatorade bottle. He would hold it as long as he possibly could, but if there was no choice, he would scurry down from his tree and try to get a little ways away from where he was hunting. Dig a hole, lean up against the tree, take care of my business, and bury the evidence. That's what I do. Got you? Okay? Fair enough? What about you? You do? You go with the bread sack? Row? Oh? No, Um, I've I've had two occasions where I just dropped right from the tree. Don't even get out of the tree. Did I feel like you once told me that you did that while your buddy Ryan was in the tree with you. Is that true? That's that's true. I think he was filming me while you while you did it. We were good hunting buddies. That's what you don't You don't judge another hunting buddy for having to go number two. This this is quality podcast entertainment right here. This is it. I can't I can see the headlines now, worst podcast ever, the podcast, But most of the time I'll just dig a hole with my heel at the bottom of the tree. Stand just depends on you know, because and that's why I stopped drinking coffee during hunting season, because you know, coffee gets the juices flowing. And when I you know, get in the morning and day you had your cup of coffee on your way in the tree and uh oh, yeah, you know I can't do that. I agree, No, no coffee pre hunt. It's never good. But always always bring t P with you. That's something I've learned. You're gonna be walking out of the timber with one sleeve missing off your T shirts. Man, speaking of this is funny. This is the same friend who had the grocery back story. I think I've heard this one before, but you're gonna have to tell it again. Yeah, yeah, So the same friend. He has a lot of poop issues. We were hunting up in northern Michigan, so this is like out in the boonies and he's hunting this property we have, and um, he got lost walking to a stand and this in the middle of deep northern Michigan swamp and he hadn't hunted there. He had only been in there like a year or two, so we didn't know the air too well. So we got lost walking in the morning try to find where he's gonna hunt. He was getting stressed out. He drank coffee that morning and now after wandering around in circle, was in the middle of the dark, in the middle of nowhere, in this huge cedar swamp. You know that stress is building up. It's gotta tell me rumbling, and he's got to go, and he's got to go bad. But he doesn't know how to get back to the cabin, and he does not know where he is, and he did not bring TP with him. So you know, when you gotta go, you gotta go. So he took care of business, and he had to tear off his boxers, but when he tried to tear them, it left the elastic band around the middle, but everything else tore off, so he had to use that and he came back, you know. So then he doesn't tell me about any of this stuff, obviously, until we get back to camp and he just walks up to me and he pulls up his shirt and it just shows this ripped elastic underwear band around his belly, and I'm like, what in the world did you do and why are you showing me this? So always bring t P. Always, Always don't don't be that guy that has nothing but a Haynes's elastic band thong on or walk out of the timber with one sleeve or one sleep. Dude. Here's another story I got. I've got a lot of these stories. These are weird. This is another friend who had to do this. He forgot TP and so he had to take one of his socks off. He used a sock. He tried to bury it, I think, but apparently not well enough because we got back to this property shed hunting a year later and we're walking around and we walk up on a sock and I'm like, what's the sock doing out here? He's like, oh, I used that to wipe myself and he picks it up to bring it home with him. What what what are you doing? You you you took care of business with that sock. And he's like, well, yeah, that was that was five months ago, and he was No, he's married. I'm not gonna say anymore. I'm not gonna say anymore, but it's okay. But I was laughing pretty hard. I was giving a real hard time about that one. Uh So, yeah, who knew we would have so many number two stories, right, I have a couple more, but I think we don't have time for those. Um okay, So sorry guys, everyone listening. I'm so sorry for this. No way, I think the fans. I think the listeners are enjoying this. They are here, right because you know what, everybody can relate in some way. I don't care how uptight you are, how mature you are, we can all relate to this in some small way. Well, the oldest joke in the world is the fart that's true, never never gets old, never gets old. Okay, So okay, So after that, um okay, favorite, let's see what do I want to do? I have a list? Here? Okay, here here, don't have a list, you're so full of it. Well, it's kind of a list. It's just more it looks like I was gonna say, it's like chicken scratch and drawings, probably on a piece of paper. Right, So like here, here's one. I'm gonna read it. Um music listen on the on the way. So that's what that's what it says. Okay, so, oh man, on your way from wherever you're staying to your hunting property. What kind of music do you listen to? All Right? I take this very seriously. I know and I anyway, go ahead, take this very seriously. So it's one of two things. I either have a I've got a CD. I've got a playlist. It used to be a CD now it's a playlist of hunting related songs. So stuff like fred Bear and um shoot, there's a whole bunch of different Turkey Point Buck and second Week of Deer Camp and a bunch of great hunting related songs. So that's option number one, Okay. Option number two is techno music like dance electronic dance music like Pump Me Up. Yeah, Yeah, A lot of that because that gets me, gets me fired up, gives me awake. Um. So for the past several years, I've developed what I call the rut and Rave playlist for the year. So every year, in like October, I put together a new electronic dance music playlist for Spotify that I jammed to for that whole hunting season. That's like my soundtrack for the season, and that's what gets me up and going. Every morning on the drive over while I'm drinking like a five hour energy and eating my breakfast, we jam out to that. So, um, that's what I That's what I do. I think what we should do is it doesn't have to be this podcast, but me and you need to come up with our top ten hunting song like a hunting list playlist, and then we'll post it as a blog on the Wired to Hunt. Yeah blog. No, definitely, I had I posted that exact thing either last year or the or the fall before, So there is a blog post of what I post of what I had a year or two ago. So I'll post that link in the notes for this one if I remember, and then we should do an updated list for sure, with with your suggestions as well. I think that would be good. I've actually had I've talked about this. I don't know where I talked about it, but I talked about this rutten Ripe playlist before, and I've had people request for me to send it over. I actually had somebody in my our our Wired to Hunt audience survey, someonody somebody requested that I share my Spotify playlist. So there is interest. There is interest in this, okay, now, But what about you myself? I don't necessarily like to get fired up, like like I remember when all the Hunting shows used to have like heavy metal. It's like their tiptoe into the woods and all you hear is like you know that kind of stuff, and uh uh, never never really thought of hunting and heavy metal going together. Agreed. But I am a huge fan of the Black Keys and the past two years along with my John Lee Hooker Greatest Hip album, those two, those two CDs are what I jam out too on my way to in the specific Black Keys c D is Brothers, the album titled Brothers by the Black Keys, that's the one that I jam out too. And John Lee Hooker's Greatest Hits. So what does that stuff? What does it do for it? Is it does that gets you pumped? Or is it just gets you like in the flow and comfortable or what? What doesn't do it for? Focus? Focused? And it's not like, uh, it's not like, hey, I need to bench press two d pounds type focused or uh you know, I'm gonna try to relax and go to sleep. It gives me just like that, I don't know, like when I think of blues, I think of like dirt roads and country and backwoods and uh, just kind of like blues rock type of boom boom, you know that kind of that kind of stuff, And for some reason it just gets me. It gets me like not fired up, but it gets me focused and ready for the upcoming hunt. Yeah, you know, I think there really is something to this because music can really impact your mindset and your attitude and you're like focus level and that's so important going into a hunt. I really do think that your mind is so important. Just being in the right place mentally before a hunt can make a big difference, especially especially during the rut. If you've hunted days on end and you're exhausted and tired after five full day sits or whatever. I mean, that is when it's just like it becomes such a mental game and music really can help. I think. Ye. Alright, So we we drive to the property, right we are, we take we get out of our truck. We walked to the tree stand and oh man, I'm kind of hungry. What snacks did you pack for your hunting? Shit, you're just trying to get me in trouble. Well, I know you got haters from oh man, you got diabetes or whatever whatever those comments were about your They came out of the woodwork and just like blasted me for unhealthy diet. They shamed you. They really they they body shamed me, Dan, They body shamed me. They diet shamed me, and it hurt my feelings. So let's talk about that more. What what is in your backpack? So it depends on the time of year. If it's uh, I really don't. I don't bring food with me at all except for the rut. So when during the regular during the rest of the season, just maybe a bottle of water. But during the rut, that's when I'm hunting, you know, is you know, long hours, usually the full day. So in those cases that bring snacks because you know, when you're on the tree for twelve thirteen hours. You need something to help distract you and something to obviously keep you sustained out there. So I usually bring of variety of different things. But if I had to, like if I had to bring like on average, what i'd had, I've got bottle of water, I've got some type of caffeine, so it might be a can of pop, it might be ah energy drink, like a five hour energy or something like that. Um. But between those two water for the full day, and then like a little burst of caffeine that I'll try to take around lunch. Um. And then I'll bring usually two types of snack options, and then I'll lunch. So lunch will probably usually be like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some type of cracker or chip, and like a banana or an apple. UM, and then snacks to eat usually around you know, like maybe ten o'clock nine, Between nine and ten, I'll usually have a snack, and then it might have another snack between two and three to kind of break up my day. So like I've got you know, you know, hunt for a couple of hours, snack a couple of hours, lunch a couple of hours, snack couple hours into the hunt, so that that snack might be jerky or some mixed nuts, um uh, maybe some crackers just like that granola bar. Um. Some combination of those types of things would typically be the snacks that would bring. And then maybe like a little piece of candy, just as like to reward myself for still being there. Um. So in general, that is what I've got on those hunts. Sometimes I brought lunchables, which sounds like a weird thing for lunch, but like I discovered this a couple of years ago. I don't know where I got the idea, but you know, sometimes it's just tough to make a sandwich and pack a lunch and all that kind of stuff. So getting a kid's lunchable has got some meat, some crackers, some cheese, some kind of little, you know, dessert thing, and they're just from a convenient standpoint, it looks kind of ridiculous, sounds kind of ridiculous, but it made it just convenient to grab something and go and you've got your lunch covered for those all days sets. So I occasionally do that, um, But otherwise I'd say that's my general rut related diet for during the hunt. Yeah, all right. So I don't typically bring any soda or pop into the timber. It's always just a bottle of water. However, I used to be like go to the go to the gas station the night before and get like five apple pies and just eat apple pies all day, you know, the little pre package apple pies. Now these days, the last two seasons, I think I've felt like some kind of sugar crash, sugar rush crash where I get extra tired after you know, after that sugar wears off. So now, um, I've been bringing baby carrots and apples and that's pretty much it for But you that's is that what you're eating for lunch or you you're saying you're usually eating lunch at the truck. Whenever I'm in the tree stand, whether it's an all day set, which I don't typically do, or let's say like if I'm going in at noon and I know I have six hours ahead of me of sitting, or I know, hey, I'm gonna try to sit from morning all the way till noon before I switched tree stands, or if I know there's gonna be a wind shift and I bring food in with me it's either These days, it's just basically maybe a granola bar. This year, I had some left over um backpacking bars from the Elk trip, so I brought some of those in with me since you bought. Yeah, I think seventy two was the amount of pounds that I took in that those bars. Way, that sounds about right. But the baby carrots and apples, and that's the last two years pretty much, that's what I've every once in a while, maybe I'll grab a granola bar, but I feel that eating a whole bunch of sugar and then crashing makes you more tired than what you already are. Yeah, no, I agree. I think a generally decent diet out there does help. I've gotten better despite what people thought when they saw that picture. Most of that was not being eaten on the stand all day. You have to have a little for me, like a little variety, you know. I reward myself with the occasional junk food, but then I also eat primarily healthier food out there because it's like a it's a game. It's like get to mentally, it's a mental game, and for me, you get to have like a little you know, it's like that the scarrot or the carrot versus the stick mentality. I want that carrot out in front of me of like something different two hours from now and something different three hours from then. Again, that's this is for like those all day sits which are just you know, particularly difficult. Having some variety is something that helps for me. But I do agree keeping a generally healthy diet will help. Um I cannot. I personally have to be honest. I cannot claim to eat healthy dinners during those RUT trips because we're out. We're living in a hotel in the middle of nowhere or you know wherever it is, with a bunch of us guys sharing hotel rooms. So you can't cook something good. You can't you know, really do a good job of planning healthy meal. So we just end up eating junk food every night, kind of from wherever fast food place we go. So that is our downfall probably, But you know what, live a little right, So I I when I go on my rut vacations, I'm fortunate enough to stay with my parents because my hunting property is close to their house. So I just stare, stay there and drive to the hunting property every morning. And so I either get home cooked meals every night, which is nice, or if for some reason my mom doesn't cook a meal, I'll throw in a pizza, like a frozen pizza, or maybe make a trip to subway. But I binge eat at night, so I'm typically I'm not typically too hungry in the mornings. So I'll get hungry somewhere around ten thirty eleven o'clock. Yeah, so I I don't eat breakfast. Do you know what this is doing? What's making me hungry? Well, yeah, that it's making me hungry, and it's also getting me excited for the rut. Just talking about the RUT trip, I'm getting pumped. I know, I'm I'm pumped about turkey hunting, and I'm pumped about well, I'm always pumped about deer hunting. Yeah, okay, I'm I'm real pumped. I'm I'm man, I'm ready. Are you pumped? I'm pumped. I'm ready to get out there. I've been scouting maps already, I've been thinking, I've been looking. I'm ready to get out to I'm going down to Ohio again here and like a month to turkey hunt and put up cameras for the summer and do some more work and uh man, you know how it is the cycle endlessly repeats over and over. Okay, So we've already been at this about an hour, alright, little over an hour, So we're gonna end on the last question of this is the last question? Okay, okay. But but before we get into that last question, I have another question for you. How how do you think I'm doing as a host? So far? You've done well, then I've done well. Okay, Other other than getting a really crappy guest, other than this being the worst guest ever, this is You've done a good job. I've enjoyed it. It's been fun for me and in about ten minutes of talking about poop, that's been the highlight problems from Okay, okay, So other than that, what's the last question? The last question? And this is this is something that our listeners get every day from this podcast. You know, you get the emails. I get the emails and they're kind of like, hey man, I love this podcast. Um, I love it. You know I've used these tactics to um, you know, moving on a deer or next year I know where I need to be, or hey I helped you know, it. You know, your guests and all the information that they've brought has gotten me information that I need to make a move on a deer. And you know, they send you pictures like here, here's this buck I killed this year. Yeah, that's awesome. I love I love hearing about our listeners success. That's that is probably my favorite part of this whole deal is talking with the listeners. But now we're gonna talk about Mark Kenyon. What is your favorite tactic? Now that's very general question or very broad, vague question, right, very very what is your favorite hunting dear white tail with a bow hunting tactic? So I mean do you mean like a like a trick or like an overarching philosophy or like one basic concept that I hear that I hear to or something like that. Okay, I'll repeat myself, what is your favorite white tail with a bow bow hunting? Hunting tactic? So you're not gonna get it, Okay, do you want me to go? Do you want me to go first? No, I'll take it, Okay, Okay, I'll take it. Um, I'll just answer it how I want to answer. That's fine, Okay, it's open for interpretation. It's open So if I had to think through all of the different things that I've learned over my own years of hunting, and my own years of studying other resources, and now learning from all these dozens and dozens and dozens of different people I've been able to talk to through what You're hunt in the podcast, if I take all those things, and if I had to drill down to like the core concepts of what's the very most important thing for me when it comes to being a successful ball hunter. I think most of what I do, if I were to drill down to the essentials of it, comes down to the importance of timing. Everything for me revolves around timing, and that is by default related to pressure. Right. I think everything when it comes to hunting mature box comes to how can you reduce hunting pressure? How can you make these deer feel comfortable and not become educated about your presence and then still be able to get in and hunt that deer, put yourself in a position to kill that deer within you know, thirty yards or whatever without them realizing they're being hunted. So how do you do that? And I think the most important thing you can do in order to achieve that is to pay attention to your timing. By that, I mean when you hunt, when you hunt certain areas, how you approach your season based on time of year, conditions, all that. So at a at a super high level, you know, I'm thinking through You know, for example, I'm I'm not hunting certain areas at certain times, I'm not hunting at all with certain conditions. I'm planning on hunting specific stands or specific areas because of a time of year, or because of a specific specific set of factors, or you know, intel that I've gained. Um. But but all these things relate to timing, being really thoughtful and purposeful about choosing when you hunt, why you hunt on that given day or during that given time, and when you go into a certain area. So at a high level, that would be the most I think the most like overarching philosophical view I have about deer hunting is everything relates to timing. Um. I think most of what I do revolves around that concept in some way, because in the past, I thought you just hunt as much as you possibly could. Every chance I have, I'm gonna hunt, and I'm gonna always go to the best place I think I can go and I've come to find that quality over quantity is a lot more important. So to get those quality sets, it comes down to picking the right times to strike, or at least picking the right times to be in the right place. So that is my answer. That's a that's a good answer. Thank you, sir. Okay, did I answer correctly? Sure? How about you? Do you have a favorite tactic? Now, I'm going to be specific in mine. My favorite tactic is because most of my the majority of my hunting, you know, other than the early season, where you know, I can hunt the weekends. So if I'm going to approach my rut vacation, all right, I am going to find a betting area on a ridge, and I am going to sit on the down wind side of that, either that specific betting area or a travel corridor off that ridge to and from a betting two or from a betting area, and I walk with my back two. Well, it just depends on how I'm accessing that particular stand. But a majority of my um access routes have my wind the wind blowing against my back already in the timber. It's blowing into the timber, right, So if there is for some reason something there it's gonna bust me, but it's kind of a risky move. And that once you get to your stand, that wind is blowing off the top of the ridge down into the valley. And I have seen more deer in that scenario than any other scenario or tree stand placement that I have ever that I that I have. So that is my favorite because that is where I have the encounters with my biggest box and the end as far as quantity of deer, the most dear I see. So during the rut downwind of a dough betting area or travel corridor going into out of a betting area. Correct, And typically this is on a ridge on a ridge and you are going in the morning morning hunt with the wind blowing into the timber off the ridge into the valley. That's correct, all right, that sounds like a pretty decent set up. So that's my that's my favorite tactic. Good answer, my friend, Okay, good answer, Well, my friend, I guess I'll hand the reins back over to you. What do you think on a scale of nine to ten? How did I do? Nine to ten? Is my only options? Right? So that way, if you say nine, I can say, hey, you know I did it pretty good. I got in fine. I give you the lowest possible rating available and that's good. Okay, okay, you gotta ten. Dan. You did great, You did great. I enjoyed it. This was fun. It was it was different, and uh I laughed a lot, so HI marks for laughter. Good good, Alright, hopefully the listeners found it this fun as well. I don't think anyone heard it, Dan. I think everyone turned off after ten minutes, so I think it was this is for you and me. This is playing in the background while someone's doing the dishes or you know, working on a car motor going number two. So so I'm gonna take it back from you really really briefly here. Um, thank you Dan for running this one. This was fun. And we didn't even say at the beginning that if someone's new to the show, why this happened. This happened because you won the trail Camera beout Last Summer UM, and so the winner of that got to host the show. Well, if it was you, you you got to host the show. So that's why we did this, um, And it was fun. So I might make you do it again in the future and watch out, Hey, I say, we have the same bed again. Yeah, that's a good idea. Okay, we'll talk about that more towards summertime. Yeah, yeah, we we should. We'll talk about more in the summer, which, um, I'm pumped for some big Velvet bucks on trail camera. So so that said, Before we do shut down the show though, just quickly, we need to give a big thank you to our partners who helped keep this podcast on the air. So big thank you too, Sick Gear, Trophy, Ridge, Bear Archery, Redneck Blinds On Tara Maps, Ozonics, Carbon Express, Lacrosse Boots, and the White Tailed Institute of North America. And finally, in most importantly, thank you everyone for joining us today, for listening, for laughing along with us. We hope you had as much fun as we did. Until next time, Dan, do you want to take it from there? Yeah, And I wrote a comment down real quick. Hopefully this podcast was like a warm hug to your ears. And this is a reminder from Dan Johnson and Mark Kenyon to stay wired to hunt. Well done, m