Bear Grease - Ep. 443: Render - True Confessions in the Turkey Woods

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

The chips fly around the poker table as the crew wagers which topic will come up more: Lake Pickle and his turkey hunting woes, or Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker’s fly fishing trip to ...Patagonia.  Confessions of past wrongdoing come up to try to clear the conscience to gain some favor in the turkey hunting woods.  Host Clay Newcomb is joined by special guests Jordan Blissett, Lake Pickle, and Lacey Pickle. Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to beargrease@themeateater.com Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.
Starting point is 00:00:26 Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. Brought to you by Tachovas Boots. I'm a cowboy boot man, and I've been wearing Tocobas for years.
Starting point is 00:01:06 They're the most comfortable boot I've ever put on. Good boots for good times. Welcome to the Bear Grease Render, presented by Toccova's Western wearing boots. I'm in the Toccova's hot seat right now, but on this render, we're actually in Mississippi on a camp on the Mississippi River with my good friends, Lake Pickle, Backwood University, and Jordan Blissett. And these guys, I've decided, are probably some of the best turkey hunters that I have ever turkey hunted with. And on this render, we're talking all about turkey hunting. We're talking about some misses.
Starting point is 00:01:50 We're talking about some successful hunts. And it's just a good podcast. I also want to tell you about Blood Trails Season 2 by my friend Jordan Sillers. It's a true crime podcast about hunting and fishing. He does an incredible job. I mean, every, I've listened to every episode, and I've been riveted by every episode. And I think you will too. And it premieres April 16th.
Starting point is 00:02:16 I hope you enjoy this podcast. I'll be sitting here in the Toccova's hot seat. We're at a camp on the Mississippi River in the state of Mississippi. We are, for those of you not watching the YouTube channel, we are actually setting at a poker table. What? I mean, am I correct? This is a poker table.
Starting point is 00:02:36 What would Judy Newcomb think about this? Exactly. I don't know. I hope she doesn't watch. But we do have, we've got Lake and Lacey Pickle with us. Lacey, this is your second time on the Bear Grews Render. It is. Yes.
Starting point is 00:02:50 We're expecting great things from you on today's episode. Funny stories, energy, intel and Lake Pickle's life. The truth. The truth. Yeah, the truth about Lake Pickle. And so it's great to have you, Lacey. Thanks for having me. Yes.
Starting point is 00:03:10 Lake's good to have you, man. Thanks. And Jordan Blissett. Yep. Proud to be here. So you guys, so you've been on a, have you been on a render? Yeah. Several of them.
Starting point is 00:03:22 I think so. Yeah, I think you have too. I think you were really low on clientele and recruited you in. Yeah. Yep. And then we've got Josh Lambridge spillmaker over there. Yes, sir. I'm here.
Starting point is 00:03:32 Always here. Yes. Steady, stable, reliable. Well, okay. What I would like to do is if everybody could just pull out the stack of poker chips. Yep. And every time that Josh's trip to Patagonia comes up, I want everybody to put a chip on the table. All right.
Starting point is 00:03:55 We didn't do that in Patagonia. There's one. I was not saying. I guess it happened once. Okay. And then every time that the turkey hunt from today that involves Lake that we'll hear about later comes up, we'll put another chip on the table. Jordan is there anything that you would I mean what topics do you think are going to come up on this episode
Starting point is 00:04:21 this episode this episode is about turkey hunting that's what it's about we're in the peak I mean you could argue that April the 8th the day we're recording this is as good a day as there is the turkey hunt you're in the throes of it is supposed to be peak rutt of Mississippi and turkeys the turkey rut at peak
Starting point is 00:04:39 when would you say because the turkey season opens early in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. I mean, Florida opens March 1st. South zone. South zone. South zone of Florida opens March 1st. Below I-70 opens the first Saturday in March.
Starting point is 00:04:58 Okay, first. So it's not necessarily March 1st. Right. And then the north zone of Florida, everything north of 70 opens March 15th, unless they've No, it's later now. It's later, too. Mississippi is a second state that opens in the United States now. Because Alabama opens March 20th.
Starting point is 00:05:13 or something like that. Yeah. So there's three states that open in March. Yeah. Hawaii. We were walking through the woods yesterday. And I asked, like, I said, is it the opener of your season here? And he looked at me like, you should know this.
Starting point is 00:05:30 No, our season's been open. Like I'm an expert on Mississippi's game laws. We've been rolling for three weeks or three and a half weeks. So when is that when, if you had three days to hunt, question for Lake and Jordan here, when would you hunt? Here? I'm here being Mississippi.
Starting point is 00:05:49 Oh, I mean it would Here It'd probably be around Somewhere in that first week of April On a typical season Okay If I was only allowed three days Does it have to be consecutive
Starting point is 00:06:03 Or three separate days? That's a good question Let's go three separate, sure Opening day Yeah, okay April 1st Okay And then the last day of season
Starting point is 00:06:12 Really? Okay, why? Walk me through, why? Quantify that. I've had great hunts all three of those days. Oh, he's gone. Historical data. He is right. Like, if you could break them up, I would lean towards the April, like I said,
Starting point is 00:06:28 but something about the opening day, like before they've been messed with. Yeah, you might just get one that just, you keying in on these turkeys are unpressured. Right. And a lot of times, too, the opening weekend, you may not, like, have a turkey, like come in and do it right to the gum barrel, but you hear a lot of turkey vocalizations. Yeah. They're usually still grouped up,
Starting point is 00:06:51 so you get to hear the hens cackling and multiple gobbers gobbling and Jake's yelp and the holes you bang. Yeah. You know, it's a cool experience when you get in a group of turkeys at opening wheat. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Fact.
Starting point is 00:07:03 Have they... So seven, eight years ago, maybe longer, there was this big push in wild turkey biology about these early season openers being harmful to nesting hens. And so, I mean, it was very strongly put out there, and all the states moved their seasons back.
Starting point is 00:07:23 They did in Arkansas to the point that, I mean, nobody gets excited about even hunting the state anymore because it's like so late. It's just they're dead. It's like late April, isn't it? Yeah. 20th. It's actually April 20th.
Starting point is 00:07:38 And they're still goblin then, but used to, when I was growing up, up, it would have been like the first Saturday in April or something like that. I mean, I many times remember hunting in early April. Have they decided that that was good biology or maybe? I've heard a couple of different stories. So thankfully, Mississippi has not changed anything from what we've been doing for 20th years. Yep.
Starting point is 00:08:06 They actually opened ours earlier now than they did back in the 90s. Yeah. It was a big uproar because we had a swing in turkey populations there for four, five, six years. It's still not what it was 25 years ago. Everybody knows that. But the last four to five years, we've had outstanding hatches. And right now, we have as many turkeys as I've seen in my lifetime. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:32 Turkey numbers are strong right now. I don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure, and Jordan, you may know, some folks are almost looking at it like an experiment because you have Mississippi that stayed with the old season framework and then you have Alabama right next door in a bunch of other states Tennessee push theirs back and so and I think it I mean we're I don't know like maybe four or five years into it so I know some folks are looking into it that way it's kind of like a case study
Starting point is 00:09:01 to see how it works out right because I haven't heard it hasn't it hasn't been long enough for them to go yeah this is actually helping or this is kind of a non-factor. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What do you think, Lacey? You're going to lean on Lake's opinion?
Starting point is 00:09:20 Yes. I am a supportive wife, Clay. Yes. 100%. Okay. Yeah. Great. You can, you can, we'll see what you feel about what happened today that Lake will talk about later, okay.
Starting point is 00:09:34 There's no turkeys in Patagonia, by the way. They're right. Okay. So that brings up a great question. Yeah, that was here. Josh Spilmaker two days ago was in, three days ago was in Santiago, Chile. Chile, as he says. And so Josh just came back for a big fishing trip.
Starting point is 00:09:55 Moving on, back to Turkey. That was quick. No, you were there for 10 days called a huge brown trout. You just smote your trip for it. Yeah. Oh, I'm kidding. I gave play the long. You deserve.
Starting point is 00:10:09 You deserve this, Josh. You deserve this. You deserve two minutes. It was a great trip. Patagonia is actually a really amazing place if you are a fly fisherman. I can't say if you're a hunter, it's probably not somewhere that you want to be. They don't have any big game, which is a interesting thing. Describe that to the best of your knowledge. So a lot of the, at least the region, you know, Chile is like most of it is a hundred miles wide, but it's over 4,000 miles. long. That's incredible. And the region that we were in, a big part of it looks like Montana. And they're, you know, ranches that are 200,000 acres. And in the only, the only, I mean, they run cattle, they run sheep, but there's no, no big ungulates. There's no, yeah, he's showing me pictures.
Starting point is 00:11:02 Looks like Montana. Yeah, yeah. There's no, there's no servids bigger than native. They have a native servic that's real, I can't remember the name of it. It's a, but it's only, he told me 40, 40 centimeters tall, which is like, like 16 inches. So they've got, they've got pumas, mountain lines, basically. Yep, they do have some pumas. But other than that, they have a bird that looks like an ostrich called a Ria, which is wild because we're driving through. And he's like, there's some Ria. And they're just these two big, giant birds just out in this flightless,
Starting point is 00:11:39 Grassland. Yeah. What color are they? They're brown, dark brown. Kind of like a e-me? Yeah, look similar to it. Now, what, I thought South America, I've seen video of a mountain line, what looked like a mountain line, attacking these llama-like animals. They do have, they don't have as many llamas in Chile as they have alpacas.
Starting point is 00:12:01 Well, these appeared to be wild animals. I didn't see any wild, and they didn't mention it. All their native game is protected. You can't hunt it. But a lot of the critters that they do have were introduced. Like, in fact, the trout, the brown trout were introduced in the late 60s. Can you imagine showing up on a continent, especially if you had knowledge of Africa? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:29 Just a plethora of wild game that's on the African continent. Yep. And then you came to North America and saw, you know, I mean, We have a vast array of big game, not as varied as Africa, but pretty impressive. Yeah, we got a lot. And then you go to this other continent, and they got a bunch of monkeys, big snakes. Yep. One, well, they have jaguars, maybe not in Chile, but.
Starting point is 00:12:59 Yeah, maybe in the northern part. In South America, they would have jaguars. And I'm talking about an area that would be considered small in Chile. You know, Chile goes all the way up nearly to the equator and almost all the way to Antarctica. So, I mean, there's a wild range of geography in there. So, you know, up in the northern part, they might have more of what you would find in northern South America. But where I was at, I mean, there were no poisonous snakes. There were no poisonous bugs.
Starting point is 00:13:32 There were no... No poison ivy. No poison ivy. I mean, yeah, no poison plants. They have these beetles. I didn't show you a picture of the beetles. They have these beetles. Oh, you did.
Starting point is 00:13:42 That bore into these beach trees that are about, the body is about about two inches long, but they have these huge jaws on the front that are about another inch and a half long, and they're pretty wild looking. How would you like to have that snap your tail? Yeah, no kidding. So you caught one big brown trout. Caught a trophy brown trout, 28, 29 inches. is long and 15 to 20 pounds on a fly rod.
Starting point is 00:14:11 That's awesome. It was kind of a catch of a lifetime. So there you can check that out on my Instagram. They were beautiful too. So we were talking about the turkey regulations in Mississippi somehow when we got on that. It was a perfect segue into Patagonia. Mm-hmm. Okay.
Starting point is 00:14:31 So at the end of this, keep your stacks separate from Patagonia. And then, Lake's story, which we're going to count that as one. I'm in. And whoever wins between Josh and Lake for... You're falling behind Lake. So... I haven't gone yet. So, okay, Mississippi, okay, these early season dates, we just don't have enough years to know if they're really helping.
Starting point is 00:15:04 I think they probably do help turkey numbers because people don't kill as many turkey. because you're not hunting at the peak. I know in Arkansas, I just feel like if the two-week turkey season was April 1st or April 15th, you'd kill more turkeys than April 20th, the May 5th. Now, I feel like you would. I don't know that. This is my hypothesis based on nothing but anecdotal evidence, not based off science or anything, but it's just anecdotal.
Starting point is 00:15:32 I think that if they ever, I don't know if they ever shit. it back or not, but I think that they're going to figure out the season framework as a non-factor. I like the sound of that lake. That's just my thought. I feel the same way. I do. It's not because I want to hunt early every year, but I just don't see a difference. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:54 You know, there's this fine line. We've seen it with black bears in Arkansas and turkeys with Arkansas is when, I mean, we've got to have conservation in mind when we set our season dates. I mean, you absolutely do. Oh, yeah, of course. I mean, you have to. But in the case of moving the season dates later and in the case of I can't go too much into the Arkansas black bear season. But for over a decade, we've had these like really late black bear openers. And the data just doesn't point to that that's really that significant in the management of the bears.
Starting point is 00:16:37 and it's but it puts a major major factor onto the to the hunting culture and the people involved in the sport the people that actually care about hunting bears yeah and turkeys too i mean like the late season opener has like stolen the soul of Arkansas turkey season and granted if if we didn't have any turkeys that would really steal the soul of Arkansas turkey hunting so i'm not saying you you lean towards culture over science there's There's a balance there though, right? I mean, like the science is heavily important, but if you don't have a hunting community there to appreciate that resource, then how far is it going to get you? You know what I mean? Yeah. So then that is, and I'm not trying to paint the picture that Alabama's turkey hunt culture is gone because it's very much alive and well. But it did like, and I just, it ruffled some feathers. I do, I do think the people that made though, yeah, pun intended. I do think that the folks that made that, this is. decision did so in a conservation mindset. I fully believe that. But I do think they could put the Alabama season over back to the way that it was and it would be fine. I also think it was an impulse decision. Knee jerk reaction. There's no, everybody knows it.
Starting point is 00:17:56 I mean, major voices in Turkey biology were saying stating this is a fact. Dude, I didn't say it, but I heard that. And I was like, pushing back. Like, I was scared. Like, it freaked me out because it got pretty, I mean, I don't know how doom and gloom it actually got. But from my perspective at the time, I was like, we got to do something. And so when I first heard it, and I'm putting my own stuff on the chopper block, when I first heard it, I was like, it's probably a good thing. Yeah, sure.
Starting point is 00:18:24 Now with a little bit of retrospect, I see it differently. Well, time will tell. And it's encouraging that we've had some good hatches. And I think we've had good hatches all across the south. I know in Arkansas, we've had better hatches than we've had in 15 years. I just had a friend of mine that lives in Arkansas, send me pictures from a place that they have in the Ozarks of three goblers. He said, this is the first time in several years. We've had this many turkeys on this place, and they're fired up.
Starting point is 00:18:56 That's awesome. What's he doing sending you those pictures? That's a mistake, buddy. If you're out there, don't send this guy pictures of your turkeys because he knows what to do with them. You killed one with me two weeks ago. Now, our friend Lake, on the other hand. Hey. Oh.
Starting point is 00:19:14 There it is. That was like a foreshadowing chip. It was leading the question. A foreshadowing chip. Everyone play their foreshadowing chip? Okay, before we get to Lake's story. Hey, there's another one. There we go.
Starting point is 00:19:30 Jordan. Blake said something about you yesterday. that was very complimentary. Uh-oh. He did. He did. And I thought it was a good description. Is it okay if I say what you said?
Starting point is 00:19:43 Yeah. He's heard me say it. Yeah. He said, Jordan Blissitt is not only, I don't know if you use this term, but this is what I heard, an exceptional hunter.
Starting point is 00:19:55 He's also exceptionally lucky. And a lot of people, like when you have both. Yeah. What I said is you normally have. He's told me that for. What I know, I appreciate.
Starting point is 00:20:05 I say what you normally have is you have the hunting buddy that gets lucky all the time, and you have the hunting buddy that's really good. Somehow Jordan finds a way to be both. And you told me a story, and I want to hear Jordan tell the story. Okay. I mean, you can tag team it, but the story, how can you tell it? Y'all were on some land here in Mississippi. The one couple seasons ago when the turkey got spooked and flew into the tree.
Starting point is 00:20:33 Tell us that whole story. So I had a draw hunt and Lake went with me and I had been hunting the private land next to it. So we kind of knew where some turkeys were on the public area. And we go in there and they pitch black dog. I may get in there early because we want to be the first one to the gate right. You don't want to be late when it comes to the public land hunting. We waited through a sea of briars too. And I actually got access.
Starting point is 00:21:05 to come in kind of from the back door of this place, through some private. And if you can do that, you've got to do due diligence and ask permission and trade hamburgers and hot dogs and everything you can else to get it. But we got in there like 4.45 in the morning and doesn't get gobbling times of six. And Lake and I were sitting there just waiting on that turkey to gobble. And he finally gobbled one time we started be lying towards him. and we what a couple hundred yards we hoot again he gobbles again we get a better bead on where he's at and where he's at's on the other side of like it's big savanna type cut like big open pines like you can see
Starting point is 00:21:47 five six hundred yards through there when it's daylight so you want to get across there in the dark because if you don't there ain't getting across there without turkey seeing you so we get across there in pitch black dark gets set down and turkey gobbles a few more times start yelping at him. If I remember correctly, hen flies down first, and then he soon followed and gobbled on the ground. And a few minutes goes by,
Starting point is 00:22:18 and all of a sudden the woods erupt, cackling, turkeys flying, and turkeys fly to our left, and one flies right over the top of me in Lake. Something spooked them, though. Something spooked them. It wasn't... It wasn't...
Starting point is 00:22:33 No, they're flushed. They got flushed. By an animal or something. Who knows what? We don't know. It could have been a bobcat. It could have been somebody coming in there hunting. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:22:42 It was a putt and fly fest. It was turkeys flying out. It looked like a cubby flush of quail, but they were all going different directions. And y'all think the hunt's over. Oh, yeah. It's like pretty much done. And we just sit there because, for one, turkeys, we don't know where they're all at.
Starting point is 00:23:01 And two, like I explained, we stand up. We're exposed to everything. So if we stand up, whatever turkeys are still around us are going to be spooked even again. So we're just to sit there if you manage to just see how it plays out. And maybe 10 minutes goes by and I yelped and a hen starts yelping. And I yelp back at her and we get into a conversation. And I remember right, lake's yelping too. we just all carrying on, you know, back and forth.
Starting point is 00:23:32 She seems to be calmed down. She's actually coming towards us. And keep in mind, we had a turkey that flew in a tree behind us, and so we're being as still as possible. I just assumed it was a hen foreshadowing. We both did. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:47 And anyway, that hen's coming at us. She's probably 70 yards out there in front of us, and this turkey over to our right is in a tree, 40-ish yards, 30-40 yards over there. I was scared to move my head, so I had never looked at it. I just know it's up there. Well, I started hearing it shuffle around, and I see it pitch out of my peripheral vision,
Starting point is 00:24:13 and then I turn my head when it's flying. I'm like, it's a gobbler. I see a white head coming out of the tree, like just helicoptering down pretty much, just going straight down to the ground. It hits the ground. If I remember right, it either gobbled, right when it hit the ground or went in the strut.
Starting point is 00:24:31 It started strutton. Yeah, it started strutting. Then it gobbled. And it's like 40 yards from us, strutting and gobbling. While we're yelping back and forth this hen out in front of us, I'm like, Lake, it's the gobbler. It's the gobby. It's me and him both right-handed, so it's our weak side. And I have this blow-down tree out in front of me.
Starting point is 00:24:53 My legs are kind of up under it, so I start using that as kind of a push. and pull type pivot point, and I'm easing as slow as I can around trying to get my gun pointed that direction. I mean, just inch by inch, because he's in pretty much wide open within gun range, and he's strutting. Then he starts gobbling.
Starting point is 00:25:15 And he got it five or six times, and I finally get eased, turn to that direction, and I'm like, Lake, are you on him? And he's like, yeah, I'm on him. And I pull up my gun and yelp at him and shoot him. Like the craziest thing ever Like who'd ever thought that would happen Mm-hmm
Starting point is 00:25:33 But turkeys get flush One flies in a tree right below us He ends up flying down and get shot Like never happens to anybody Except Jordan Happens to him Happens to him And what you said was that
Starting point is 00:25:49 Yeah there's a component of luck to that But there was also a high component of Yeah that's what I mean It's like he's not I mean I have We fought probably all had I've got buddies that's like every story they come back with.
Starting point is 00:26:02 I'm like, how are you this lucky all the time? You just like dumb into success. But yeah, it's like to say, what I said was like just to say that Jordan got lucky would be dishonest because he is good. Well, and in that story, to know where that bird was, to have the access through the other place, which takes a lot of work, a lot of hustle, a lot of energy, a lot of desire. I mean. We waited through so many briars that morning. Going in as early as you do it.
Starting point is 00:26:30 I did take a wrong turn and went off in a rabbit thicket. I'm talking, man. I mean, like, you know, like cuts on your forearms kind of thick. Me and him both wearing a leafy suits and they were not leafy as much. Yeah, I came out of there. Stripped them down. It was bad. Got the turkey, though.
Starting point is 00:26:45 Got the turkey. A big turkey, too. Yeah, it was big, big old longspard thing. Mm-hmm. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms, called prime cuts. Now I'm going to tell you,
Starting point is 00:27:06 I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods,
Starting point is 00:27:23 they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut, because they're all three great cuts. Check out prime cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did,
Starting point is 00:27:42 and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. Well, speaking of being lucky, too, I've got this nice set of matching sheds that we picked up yesterday while we were listening to a turkey gobble.
Starting point is 00:28:03 Pretty, too. White out on the end and dark on the line. Yeah, and I still kicker on that four-point side. They were right next to each other. It's very pretty colored sheds. Yeah, it's kind of got that Mississippi River muddy brow color. Yeah. Like that, that wouldn't, uh, Ozark, an Ozark deer wouldn't look like that.
Starting point is 00:28:24 There'd be a lot more chocolate up on the horn. But that's probably been sun bleached a little bit. It'll be a nice deer this year. Yeah. Yes, it will. Lacey, have you hunted this year? Yeah. We've been out on our property a few times.
Starting point is 00:28:41 Yeah. That's a pickle ponderosa. Mm-hmm. Pickle Ponderosa. Yeah. We bought six acres that we plan on building a house on, and there's one long beard that tends to hang around there, and we've been going around and round with them when Lacey can get off work.
Starting point is 00:28:58 Yeah. Would you be comfortable telling some version of the story you told me the other day about what happened? No. Okay. Never mind. No, I would not. Okay.
Starting point is 00:29:09 Side note, his place is called the pickle ponderosia. Like, actually. Yeah. I surprised him with that. We registered a deed with the county. Oh, that's funny. I like it. I love it.
Starting point is 00:29:23 I love it. Well, we've, so we had some great stories on the last episode of Bergerie's. We had a turkey stories episode of Bergerie. We had a turkey stories episode, and not everybody got to listen to it. My favorite story on the episode was Cody Villains. That is a good story. That's a good story. Cody Villains, he was on the American Loggers episodes.
Starting point is 00:29:48 So he's on Beargreens, been on Beargreece before. And Jordan, he told the story of basically calling up a black bear. It was just a good story, though. when he was a kid. And I like the way he told the story. He said, he, it roosted three goblers the night before
Starting point is 00:30:11 knew the tree they were in. He gets in there, calling out the turkeys, they're gobbling, they pitch down, and all of a sudden he sees three black blobs coming over the hill. And I mean,
Starting point is 00:30:23 he's got his safety off, about to kill this gobbler, and it was an old sow bear. Oh, Sal bear. It was a great story. And then Yonis Putelles told a good story just from Texas. And then I told the story of Lake and I in Arkansas last year with a big gobbler in front of us that should have been killable,
Starting point is 00:30:49 should have been coming in. And we're on the field edge. And if you hadn't listened to it, this is a big time spoiler alert. Cut the podcast if you hadn't listened to it yet And Justin House has a pot-belly pig that lives on his farm And I believe that pot-belly pig winded us and came in to find us And this pot-belly pig was walking down the fence line While we got a gobbler out here
Starting point is 00:31:17 And out of the peripheral vision I mean we're like on this turkey Lakes the shooter so I'm back a little bit And I see a big black round like size of a turkey kind of. Well, that, and, like, it's one of those things when you're turkey hunting, everything begins to look like a turkey. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:35 Like, the other day, me and Jordan thought the back end of a black angus cow was a strutter. We were like, right there, oh, it's a cow. And she was 40 yards away. Oh, really, that close. I can see how it looked like a fan. Yeah. I mean, you're just so keyed up and you're like strutter. No.
Starting point is 00:31:50 We were sneaking up, trying to peek into this field. Yeah. She popped out from behind a tree. Oh, yeah. Strudder. Oh, move. Well, that's exactly what that pig was moving at the pace of like a strutton turkey. And it was a pig.
Starting point is 00:32:06 But then Lake circles around and kills the turkey, probably an hour later. Well, I was telling, like I was saying, Jordan is this combination of good and lucky. I've said this before, and Jordan would agree. It doesn't happen every time, but sometimes I'll be talking to Jordan because he just gets to hear me vent a lot about hunting situations. and I'm like, why can't I just ever have a normal hunt? Very rarely is it just like I set up, I called a gobbler come in, and I shot him. Like something wonky always has to happen, like the pot-belly pig.
Starting point is 00:32:40 And so then we had to make this big loop or like the deer I shot earlier this year where I'm like got frustrated and let my bow down and saw them coming in. I was like, woo, and I'm having to untie my bow from the string when the deer's 30 yards and walking in. It's just like something always wonky. happens to me. Yeah, speaking of walking things happening to you. Okay. There it is. Tell us about the hunt. Tell us about the hunt this morning.
Starting point is 00:33:04 Do you like that segue? Yeah, that was good. Okay, so we roosted, Clay, Josh, myself, roosted a turkey last night. And I'm talking, I'm not naive enough to think that we've got to roosted. We're going to kill him. But I think what I told you last night
Starting point is 00:33:22 is like, there's no such thing as 100% in turkey hunting because there's not. But that's about as good of a chance as you could ask for. And I would say that today. I mean, he gobbled enough at us that we were able to get $250, $200 from him and be like, he is right there. Yeah. And great spot to be able to get in there tight to him.
Starting point is 00:33:43 We snuck in in the dark, in the pitch dark, set up, according to Alex, he was 141 yards away. Mm-hmm. And we said he had his back to a slew. Yeah. So he could have pitched across that slew, but most likely he was going to pitch down on our side. So we had a natural terrain feature that was helping us. I mean, it was perfect. And we get set up, we get still, we get quiet, we get bathed in mosquito spray because sitting there close to that slew, they were thick.
Starting point is 00:34:15 And I just sat there all morning waiting for the dam to bust, and it never did. I mean, I was sitting there going, anytime now. anytime now the first crow I said are we sure we went to the right on Xpen
Starting point is 00:34:31 yeah he's got so many yeah you know the Tweety birds start tweeting the sun starts to get light and he's not gobbling and sometimes they do gobble before
Starting point is 00:34:41 but there's no crows and I go when that first crow goes he's going to gobble and about two minutes later ah ah yeah
Starting point is 00:34:49 nothing and late goes that's not good I don't know what happened. The only thing is something bumped him in the night or he just didn't gobble because we didn't hear any other turkeys until
Starting point is 00:35:01 way late. I'm talking like as far as like fly down time and one govled to the north of us one time. Based on the way my morning went on three hours from here, I would say he was there. Yeah. Because I was where turkeys, I was within
Starting point is 00:35:19 earshot of turkeys this morning too and they did not gobble. Yeah. It was So anyway, that didn't work. And trying to keep your spirits up, you know, because we had a close call the day before. And, you know, we just want to get, you just want to hunt to go right. And I'm like, well, you know, so you could feel, at least me, we were all a little bit bummed. We were like, God, like, you know, like that just felt so good. And we're like, well, let's go back towards where we parked the side by side, because that night when we roosted them, we thought we may have heard a turkey on the other side of the road to the water.
Starting point is 00:35:53 west. So we get over there and I owl and the turkey gobbles and we did a little bit of like the was it that way, was he that way? I thought he was this way. Anyway, we'd give him a gobble again. We're like, okay, he's here. We move up, hit a road. The nice thing about this place is there's a really good road
Starting point is 00:36:09 system on it so you can pretty, you can cut a lot of ground pretty easy. And we start moving to this turkey and we cut a big chunk of distance because he was deep and I get to where we think he should be around 300-ish yards away. I owl again. He gobbles. Sweet. Move up and something about that last gobble. He may have been
Starting point is 00:36:31 doing this all morning and we couldn't hear him, but it was like once he pulled the cork out of him, you couldn't stop him. I mean, he was just gobbling. And he was coming. No, we hadn't. Oh no, not that. Not yet. I was like, what? But he was moving. Yeah. He was definitely moving in our direction. He was, he was just gobbling. And so we get to this spot where the road tees into this food plot and then takes a 90 and juts down and he's just in this block of woods and he's gobbling so much and we've got three people we set up probably 170 200 somewhere in there and i was like let's just play it safe and try it from here first you know like not risk pushing any further see what he does he's gobbling so much you know so we set up right there and another thing having hunted on this
Starting point is 00:37:15 place for a long time yelp on a turkey into the road getting him to come down it is typically how it goes down, you know. So we start calling this turkey and he jumps all over it. I mean, just and cuts distance. I thought for a second and I'm like, maybe he's going to stay in the woods. Maybe one time he moved a little left towards the road. One time he got, I'm going to say around 120. I could hear him drum. And then the goblin just ceased for how long? 30 minutes. And I'm sitting there going, where'd he go? He's taking a smoke break.
Starting point is 00:37:54 I mean, I'm like, we didn't smoke him. Where did he go? And we sat there for probably longer than we needed to, just because I'm like, man, I don't want a bull rush into it. And then the sucker's coming the whole time or he steps out in the road or whatever. But we finally decided let's push in. And I'm like, I guess we need to try to get in those woods. And it could be kind of tricky because a lot of,
Starting point is 00:38:18 along these roads, there's like these buffer strips of thicket. So it's hard to find a path in there with it's not just like making a whole ruckus. And so we ease up there, find a way in, pick our way through, find what looks to be the beginning of some more open hardwood timber. And we sit down. And I think it was the second or third time I yelped he hit. And he had drifted north. We waited there a little bit longer.
Starting point is 00:38:45 And Clay was like, do you want to close some distance? I said, if he gobbles again and he's the same spot, we will. Yelped, same spot. I said, yeah, let's cut some distance. And we elected to go back to the road. This is where the story kind of gets a little bit funny because there was some serious ring around the rosy happening. And we can just skip, you know, skip some of that.
Starting point is 00:39:03 The ring around the rosy? Well, is it getting too long? Well, I was just wanting to get to the good part. Oh. So we get to the road and we start cutting distance. And all of a sudden that turkey gobbles again, and we're like, he's coming to us. Like, we're about to mess this up.
Starting point is 00:39:20 So we run back, hop back in the woods, get to a tree, feel good. He gobbles again. We're like, okay, we can cut some distance down. So we move a little bit further north, and all of a sudden we hit this spot and these hardwoods that you just kind of go, this is it. Like, this is the spot. Big open hardwoods real pretty.
Starting point is 00:39:40 Small flat, found out later looked around there. There was some scratching in there, and he was just content in there. And I remember when we all got sat down, I said, the thing we got going for us is we already know he's plenty fine coming right here. And so we get sat down and I just waited for him to gobble again. And when he gobbled again, I answered him and he crawled all over it. And it probably took from that setup. How long did it take? Ten minutes.
Starting point is 00:40:06 It wasn't long. He finicked a little bit with the like, hey, will you come this way? But he didn't do that very long. and he started cutting distance and got to about 100, gobbled a few times, wasn't much longer. I thought I heard a drum, and about that time Clay said, I hear him drum. I'm like, that is what it is. And I'm just, you know, at that point, like, safety's knocked off,
Starting point is 00:40:29 and I'm just scanning with my eyes trying to catch him. Like, where is he going to show up? Clay saw him first. And here he comes, he's right down your gun barrel. About that time, I can see the top of that white head just coming. I'm like, oh, boy, here we go. And. Oh, heart gets us offing.
Starting point is 00:40:44 It had been thumping, brother. He was breathing hard. Yeah, I was very excited. He had bulk fever. Yeah. It's the turkey rut. Why wouldn't he? And he's coming and he gets to about, there was a tree, I carry a rangefinder with me.
Starting point is 00:41:04 There was a tree, there was like a little double tree that I had ranged and it was 43 yards. And he was the other side of it, not by much. So he was somewhere between 45 and 50, which my gun will do every day and twice on Sunday. And he comes in and he... Sounds pretty confident. The gun works. The gun works. At no point will you hear me throw this at the gun?
Starting point is 00:41:31 The gun is sound. And he's moving and I'm trying to get on him. He's not coming to us. We've got our decoy set out and he could have seen it. I mean, like, it's in big open woods. Decoy's like probably 12 yards right in front of us. When he's first coming, it looks like he's just coming straight to us. But he veers.
Starting point is 00:41:54 He just veers and doesn't look. Like, you know, sometimes they'll be looking and strutting. He's just moving. He did blow up one time. But he was behind that tree. He never did full strut. He just kind of puffed and that's when he gobbled. And then he just, just.
Starting point is 00:42:13 Have y'all yelped at him at any more since you've seen him? No, we didn't yelp after we saw it. Sounds like the turkey's miscourse y'all. He might have. That's what it sounds like. But he'd gotten so close. And that's what I told. Well, let me tell the story.
Starting point is 00:42:27 He gets in my one lane that's like my best lane to shoot. And I said, can I kill him? We were filming. Yeah. And that's what I heard when I said, can I kill him? that's why I heard silence and when I finally hear
Starting point is 00:42:49 I think I hear the word yes we thought it was more like a like a spiritual question or like a personal question rhetorical talking to himself can I really kill that turkey can I do this
Starting point is 00:43:02 philosophical more philosophical I kind of look at Josh and go I don't know if he can or not I don't know if he's got it in it so by the time I hear yes the turkey is behind a tree and he pops out
Starting point is 00:43:17 and there was a gap between that tree and a smaller tree, probably about eight inches in diameter. And in my head, he was moving at such a rate. If I don't try to poke it through right now, I'm about to lose him entirely.
Starting point is 00:43:34 And so I tried to force it through that gap and it did not work. And that turkey, he's somewhere. there. Did he fly or run? He flew. He flew. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:43:47 Flew. Flap and sailed. Yeah. He's fine. Man. He's just scared a lot. And tell you who was hurt the most in that ordeal was me. Yeah. I can imagine. It happens through the best of us. Yeah. That's what I told Clay. I was like, hindsight, I maybe should have tried to yelp at him to see if he'd slow up.
Starting point is 00:44:09 I just was like, if I don't get him right here, he's gone. But bottom line is, when he made it through that gap, like my big lane that I had, I should have just not shot. I shouldn't have shot. I probably should have just put the red dot on the turkey. But anyway. Well, it was. It was exciting.
Starting point is 00:44:31 It was exciting. It was hard to watch Old Lake Miss, because I knew how bad it would tear him up. It did. Well, boys had a rough season. It has been. He had a rough go of it. Yeah. We've been through this before, like,
Starting point is 00:44:45 and sometimes you have to just do a confession of whatever you've done wrong to the turkey man. That's a turkey superstition. Might as well enlighten clay. You have to do some type of confession of anything you have wronged in the turkey woods. Now, who are we? The turkey man is God.
Starting point is 00:45:04 All right, yeah. Okay. Thought that part was at. Well, I mean, I was just making sure. The man made the turkeys. The man, that's right. I'm with you. I'm tracking now.
Starting point is 00:45:15 Okay, so. We've been through this before, though. Oh, yeah. So you've got to figure out what you do. Outside of the turkey woods, though, this doesn't cover your actions out, just your actions in the turkey woods. You're hunting something. He's done something wrong hunting.
Starting point is 00:45:29 I don't know what it would be. Just, this is my speculation. Speculations. Hmm. Interesting. Do you have any insight that you'd like. like to show. No, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:45:39 Maybe this is where Lacey comes in. Lacey, do you have anything to tell us about Lake that maybe he doesn't even see himself? Sometimes, you know, self-evaluation is really hard because you're blind to yourself. Yeah, yeah. You don't really see your problems. It's true, all of us. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:57 So. Well, I mean, the only wrong that I know of was a few years ago. Oh, geez. It would have affected this season. here. Oh, geez. You want to tell us about that, Leah? I shout a turkey out from under her.
Starting point is 00:46:12 Yeah. Oh. Sure did. Oh, gosh. He took me. Yep. He didn't think you were going to get it, did he? I guess not.
Starting point is 00:46:24 I don't. But, I mean, we have talked about this over and over. Have you apologized? What's your counselor? Finally. I didn't miss that one. So, look. But listen.
Starting point is 00:46:36 And we weren't even engaged yet. That was the biggest fight we ever had. Oh, for real. This wasn't like a joke. Oh, size large. Biggin. Really? Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:51 Yeah. But did you shoot the turkey because you didn't think she was going to get on it? We had one gun between the two of us because the intent was for Lacey to shoot the turkey. Maybe this is good. Good job, Jordan. I'm just saying.
Starting point is 00:47:04 We're trying to get this out and open. And tomorrow's going to be a great day. Yeah, we got to kill a turkey tomorrow, so let's do this. The intent was for Lacey to shoot a turkey. We were on what we refer to as a traveling preacher, and that's turkey that he's moving and gobbling. He's spreading word. He's taking it somewhere.
Starting point is 00:47:22 He was a traveling preacher. You couldn't catch. I mean, he was moving. I mean, he was moving. Like, all morning he was moving. We want to come back to this, different names of turkeys, but go on. We were on a traveling preacher, and, I mean, we had been chasing that rally.
Starting point is 00:47:36 all morning. And finally he got to this creek bottom. And that was, I told Lacey something along the lines of like, that is the most stationary that turkey has been all morning. He got to that creek bottom and kind of just started drifting back and forth goblin. And this was the second to last day in the Mississippi season. So there is a ton of vegetation. So he got a lot of cover to work with. And so whenever he would drift down that creek, I would just inch us up. And I would inch us up. and I finally got to where he gobbled one time he was down the creek and I sat us down and we were within shooting distance at that creek like 30 yards and and I'm like I feel like this is a good spot if he you know if he'd come back in here the other thing is turkey hadn't
Starting point is 00:48:19 answered a yelp all morning you know we'd hear him we'd try to set up on him but again he just kept moving but we'd sat there and um he kind of stayed where he was and I yelped and it wasn't like help, yelp, yelp, yelp, yop, yop. It was kind of delayed, but it was like the most, oh my gosh, that turkey actually answered. Like, and I said, hey, I know he's like 130 yards away, but go ahead and get your gun up, point of this direction. He may come, you know. So she's got the gun. She has the gun.
Starting point is 00:48:47 And we're sitting there, I mean, it's maybe been 20 seconds. And Lacey goes, I see him. And I'm like, do what? Oh, she saw him first. Yeah. She goes, I see him. And I'm like, do what? Like the turkey that we just heard a hunt, like it just didn't make sense how this turkey would be here that quickly.
Starting point is 00:49:06 Well, then I glance over and the turkey we heard is this way. She's looking that way. And I'm like, huh? And I have this giant water oak tree in my line of view. And she's like, he's walking this way. And I'm like, I guess she's looking at a turkey. Sure enough. I mean, it's a great big water oak tree.
Starting point is 00:49:23 So when I finally see him, there's a long beard turkey just walking at us like, what's up? I mean, just chilled out, where, you know, where are you at, girl? And walks in and just in these big open hardwoods, and he's standing there at 25, 30 yards, like, just looking around. And I gave the green light. Whenever, if I say any incorrections, feel free. Oh, I will.
Starting point is 00:49:50 And I said, shoot him. Shoot him. Shoot him. I mean, you know, you're like, I'm whispering because the turkey's right there, but, I mean, I don't know. I'm like, shoot. It wasn't very quiet. And Lacey's shoulder to shoulder with me, and I can hear some sort of struggle going on over there, and the gun's not going off. And I'm like, something has gone awry.
Starting point is 00:50:15 And the turkey didn't bugger, but you know how it is. When Turkey's standing there at 25 yards, he ain't going to stand there forever until he's like, something's not right here. And he didn't freak out. He just kind of turned around and started walking back. and he started walking away. Don't have much time. And I'm thinking, is the gun not loaded? What did I screw up?
Starting point is 00:50:34 And when he goes behind that... You see how he did that right there where he's like taking some of the blame, which I probably didn't on that date. Go ahead. So he goes behind the big water oak tree. I mean, this thing's massive. So he goes behind it and I know I've got a little bit of time
Starting point is 00:50:46 and I look over, I said, well the gun not shoot? She goes, no. I said, hand it to me. So I grabbed the gun and I pull the chamber back. And I'm serious thinking, I'm about seeing an empty chamber and be like, you idiot. I pull the chamber back, the shells in there.
Starting point is 00:51:00 And I bring it back shut. And when I look up, he's now off my right shoulder at about 50 yards. And I just, I didn't think about it. I just reacted. I just went whoom and shot him. Okay. See, I thought the plan was give the gun back to me. And we did not do that.
Starting point is 00:51:22 We were not aligned. No. We did not do that Was that an accurate representation of the story? I would say so Okay, Lacey So you were upset with him about this though? Oh yeah
Starting point is 00:51:35 No, like he got up and ran And was just so excited Yeah, the most excited And he turns around and I'm just like I mean yeah And he's like Oh no Like it registers like
Starting point is 00:51:51 She's upset She's really upset you know and I just couldn't believe it's probably a lot of my fault why he's like that because we've always been like I don't care who hadn't killed a turkey if he wouldn't get in gun range don't let him get out yeah that's not just a Jordan thing that's like a we did that primos for years unless it was like bad video like the turkey doesn't leave and that's what we did talk about that but like that was my first time you've taken me I think that's my first hunt ever.
Starting point is 00:52:24 That was her first turkey hunt ever. Ever. Did this, were there red flags about this man after that? Things got better. Eventually. Gradually. The whole blowout. But I mean, like, I was still so mad.
Starting point is 00:52:40 And he made me go out there with him and take a photo. Like, nothing ever happened. It's in our house. He got it framed. It's a great picture. I mean, in his defense, this is a pretty monumental moment. moment here. I know, but like my eyes were still puffy and stuff. I was crying mad. I was curious. Oh, wow. I was seriously upset. You're not understanding the severity of the situation.
Starting point is 00:53:10 Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut.
Starting point is 00:53:44 I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action.
Starting point is 00:54:07 Now, Lake, did you have any red flags when you saw this kind of response? I didn't... Just how I was saying, you didn't see the severity of the situation. I didn't understand the severity of the situation. Because, again, I was like, who! He was the most excited.
Starting point is 00:54:26 Yeah, yeah. You even said when you turned around and saw him, you were like, Oh, no. Yeah, well, I knew something was wrong. You knew what was wrong. Yeah, but I was like... Obviously.
Starting point is 00:54:34 Look, I'm going to get wrong. This is still a little sensitive, I think. It's okay. No, we're better. Lacey, I think... After I hear the story, well, maybe the panel could speak, when I hear the story,
Starting point is 00:54:50 I think your boy did what he was trained to do. Sure. 100%. I mean, it would be like if a Marine, was in this situation, this is what he should do. And so that day he was a Marine, and he did his job. Or like the frog and the scorpion,
Starting point is 00:55:09 when the scorpion stings stings the stings of the frog, and just doing what I'm making to do. Yeah, yeah. And also in Lake's defense, even though he missed a turkey today, right out from under me, while I had my gun laid across my lap, like I was his daddy. Sure.
Starting point is 00:55:29 I'm not a fan. Lacey hates the use that word. His youth His youth model 870. In his defense, you had yet, y'all were just dating. You weren't even engaged.
Starting point is 00:55:46 No. So I'm saying there's something there. Like if he had done this after you were married, I can see a bigger problem. So I'm kind of coming to Lake's defense a little bit. I guess, but like we had already decided We were getting married.
Starting point is 00:56:00 Like, it had been talked about? You probably, had you gotten the ring yet? I don't know. That was like four years ago. It's the whole thing that Blair. We were engaged for a month. I would do it to my life. So everything was planned before the ring.
Starting point is 00:56:12 You heard what he said. What did you say? I said I would do it to my wife. Oh, he would. But like the issue was, like, I get that's what he was, like, trained to do or whatever. The issue. See that. Was, it took, like, two years to get an apology from him.
Starting point is 00:56:28 Oh. Sounds like it wasn't genuine. No, we, we, we, I feel, we're okay. As long as you don't. Confession has happened. And you've pulled us, you pulled us into this problem that you've created with Turkey Man. Turkey Man. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:45 If you had just told us about this situation before we started hunting yesterday, we could have fixed it all ahead of time. We should have had this story out on the table last night after he roosted that turkey. Hang on, hang on. If you're going to start throwing blows. Josh. Yeah. Are we going to talk about yesterday morning?
Starting point is 00:57:02 No, we're not going to talk about it. I was like, we're going to start throwing blows. No, we're not going to talk about yesterday. I got to hear this. One, I spooked a turkey setting up my camera. Oh. Oh, yeah. Oh.
Starting point is 00:57:14 Yeah. That's like, no, no. Twice. Twice. Twice. Twice. Yeah. That's kind of for a cameraman like a miss.
Starting point is 00:57:22 Yeah. Sure. Basically. That's an equivalent. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And thanks because that's going to be out to everybody that pays me for doing this job.
Starting point is 00:57:34 Oh, they don't listen. One time I was filming Will Primos and left my turkey vest about 100 yards behind us. And we finally got these turkeys coming in and they're strutting like 50 yards and my camera battery dies. Oh, no. Yeah. And they come up there like 20 strutting and gobbling and they ain't got no camera rolling. So I've been there. We went back to the camp that night, me and Brad did, and Wilper's just standing in the driveway of the house, just like stoically looking.
Starting point is 00:58:06 And I said, walked up to him. I said, Will? He said, hey, you good? He said, Jordan's camera died. I went, huh? He said, Jordan's camera died. I'm like, what did? He said, couldn't kill the turkey.
Starting point is 00:58:20 I'm like, I'm going to need some elaboration on this tail. Like, he was just standing out there, just standing looking. Like a lost child. Yeah. It was not a good day. No. Did he, did he, what did he do? He just sat there at Washington.
Starting point is 00:58:34 I tried to come. No, no, no. I mean, did Will, I know Will somehow communicated to you his displeasure. Oh, yeah. No, very much. I mean, did he just straight up go like, what are you doing? What's wrong with you? Or did he just kind of like get up and just walk off?
Starting point is 00:58:52 I had started, when a camera died, the turkeys were still coming in. So I was crawling back to my vest while the turkeys were coming at 60 or 50 yards, whatever they were. And I was at my vest when they showed up. So I was just kind of laid back there behind the camera, 75 yards. So you were just out of position? I wasn't with him when it happened. Oh, I got you. My camera had already died, and I went to go get batteries while.
Starting point is 00:59:18 I mean, we were looking at the turkeys, and I was belly crawling back. Like, I'm going to get fired. Yeah. Wasn't a good day. Maybe this is good for the team because we got one day left. Just get all this out. Maybe it's turkey. It's confession day.
Starting point is 00:59:35 What Lake said, though, filming turkey hunts is the hardest kind of filming. Here it is. He says that. I'm going to take this work for it. It's not easy. There's a lot of components. And for whatever reason, not just Mississippi, but the South in general, I mean, very rarely do they actually do what they're supposed to?
Starting point is 00:59:54 do. I usually tie you around. You have to get turned and awkward and holding on to a tree one hand and filming with the other hand and all kind of crazy stuff. It's like where you were saying like you were thinking he was going to come right at us, I'm like, I'm not surprised at all that turkey skirted us, cagey things. Well, it's all out now. Yeah. You sure that's the only thing you've done? Let me think on it. Let me simmer. Nothing comes to mind. no so tomorrow we'll be the day we got it all out on the table now yeah yeah all right yeah because everyone one tell let me tell one thing i did one time that i kind of feel bad about um so one time i was hunting on public land and there's there's this long ridge
Starting point is 01:00:46 that's like a mile long okay just a finger ridge in the ozarks and there's one road that's that goes this finger ridge to a gate. And so if your truck is parked at that gate, you basically have access to this entire finger ridge. Me and you hunted there a lot, Josh. And the canyons on either side of the ridge are so deep and steep that there's basically no access to get on this ridge if you're not walking right down it.
Starting point is 01:01:18 And so during the season one day, I usually get in there so early that I usually get in there so early that I would be the first one at the gate, you know. But this morning I got in there and somebody beat me to the gate. And somehow I told myself, and I don't know, I think I probably actually had information about this, I knew that this guy wasn't going to go very far on this ridge. And I knew there was like a mile and a quarter of hunting.
Starting point is 01:01:47 And I knew there were turkeys there because I'd been hunting there. And I felt like that this guy was never going to get, past much more than a half a mile down the ridge. I already don't like where this is going. Well, I did the work, though. I knew where to park my truck like a mile away. I mean, like three miles from him.
Starting point is 01:02:11 And I crossed that deep canyon. I remember found a bunch of bear sign down on the bottom of that canyon and came up on the finger ridge and hunted the last tip of it. Oh. What do you think? Yep.
Starting point is 01:02:30 Bad? Yep. Okay. I mean, you definitely put some effort in, but, yeah, I wouldn't do that. Hmm. Mm. Okay. Would you do it, Jordan?
Starting point is 01:02:43 Mm-mm. No. Not if I had that situation. If it was like 10,000 acres back there, possibly. But. Okay, well, I got that off my chest. Yeah. I'm glad you.
Starting point is 01:02:54 said that buddy that we got that off we got unethical clay yeah i have a friend that i just feel the need to tell this story i'm not going to say who it is because he wouldn't want me to but i have a friend that we were driving to go turkey hunting and this was late in the season i think we were heading somewhere north and he's telling me about his like current escapade that he had he'd gone somewhere and kill the turkey and and uh he's saying he said yeah on the walk out he said it's said it's good many people hunting around there. He said on the walk out, he was plucking feathers from the turkey and putting turkey feathers under all their windshield wipers.
Starting point is 01:03:32 Like not messing there, not doing it. I mean, just like he'd walk by a truck and he'd pluck a feather and just stick it under their windshield wiper and keep going. And I looked over at him. I was driving, and I said, did they do anything to you? And he's like, what do you mean? I was like, did they come in on you? They harassed you.
Starting point is 01:03:46 They park close to you. He's like, no. I was like, bruh. He was just letting them know who the daddy was. I was like, bruh, you need to get, that's some. bad juju like you need to get that off you and he was like no and then he missed two turkeys in two days oh really hmm hmm there's something to it hmm well yeah i'm glad we had this discussion um feel lighter i feel lighter i feel you feel lighter yeah two-minute story other morning so
Starting point is 01:04:24 So my wife killed a turkey Sunday. We had child care for Monday, and we were planning on hunting. Okay. She ended up eating something, didn't agree with her. She didn't feel good that night before. Didn't feel good. It was a good time to go turkey hunting next morning. So the night before, Lake tells me he's going to go this spot next morning.
Starting point is 01:04:48 Well, I text him when I get on the road, I'm like, hey, Jesse's sick. Can't go. I'm coming to meet you. I'll be there at 6 o'clock. That's about 30 minutes go by before I hear anything from him, and he sends me a text and says, hey, I'm going on my buddy. He said he texted me late last night, so I decided to go with him. I'm like, what am I going to do now?
Starting point is 01:05:11 I'm already 30 minutes down the road. Because you're on his spot. Heading towards Lake Spot. Oh, that's a good one. And I go to his spot. I'm parked at his spot at daylight, at Goblin Time. I walk into his spot. And guess what's going on back there?
Starting point is 01:05:29 A turkey is ripping it. I mean, every 30 seconds, gobbling. I go towards the turkey. And my conscience goes eating at me. I get 200 or so yards from the turkey goblin every 34 or so seconds and turn around, walk back to my truck. And I'm not saying that praise myself at all. And that's why this guy is good and like.
Starting point is 01:05:54 Like, it started eating at me. I was like, Lake has not killed a turkey. I cannot go do this. All right. Wow. You've waited this whole pod charts to tell us this story. St. Jordan. Well, I'm not saying it.
Starting point is 01:06:08 It's just like, there's certain things you can't get us around on. But what did Lake tell you? Did Lake say just go in there? I did tell them to go in there. Okay, I mean, that's important. I did tell them. There's some important context. One, I told them to go in there and hunt.
Starting point is 01:06:22 Two, I'd been burning to get to that spot for a while. It wasn't just a random buddy that texts me. It was Keith Polk. Yes. Keith Polk got me my first turkey ever when I was 12 years old, and I have, just so the stars have aligned, have filmed both of his sons shoot their first turkeys, and now his youngest son is in pursuit of his first turkey.
Starting point is 01:06:45 And I promised him a while ago, I said, whenever Ben goes, I will go. So I was gearing up to go to that spot, and I get a text at 940 from Keith says, Ben and I are going in the morning. And I said, yep, had to do it. He had a noble call. So you were doing the right thing.
Starting point is 01:07:01 So that's how our Monday went. Yeah. Dang, this is compelling. Jordan, I'm proud of you. I appreciate it, but I was just tying that back in to your story about going around the feather at the gate. Yeah. Well, this was all directed at Clay.
Starting point is 01:07:19 Yeah. Wow. Oh, wow. Oh, I'll never be invited on this again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cut this from the tape. Cut, blur out Jordan's face. Mm.
Starting point is 01:07:33 Man, well... Did you say I could learn from Jordan in the middle of that? Yeah. I would like to point out... You did this. I would like to point out there is a gobbler at the pickle Ponderosa that I've not hunted one time. This is true.
Starting point is 01:07:50 Okay. I was just bringing that back to the hunt where you took my turkey how he had the self-controlled if he had not learned that lesson then he would not have done it now though this is true okay we're still fine
Starting point is 01:08:07 we're fine wow we're fine wow this has been great we've learned a lot about every single person at this table and we learned about Josh's trip to Patagonia oh oh and the giant brown trout that he killed. Yep.
Starting point is 01:08:24 Wow. So where are we at with our chips? I have six chips for lakes turkey and six chips for Josh's Patagonia. I have done it right. I've got six chips for lakes. I don't have any friends. Well, you have more than that. Your pack, yours are even too.
Starting point is 01:08:44 Pretty close. Mine are even, yours are even. So it's a tie. I tell you all I missed a turkey today. Oh. Okay. Nice. Lake wins. Lake wins. I wanted Lake to win. Needed it.
Starting point is 01:08:59 Well, man, I'm excited. This has been my first turkey hunt of the year. The last several years, Mississippi has been the first turkey hunt of the year because it opens early. And so it's been a lot of fun. We covered some miles today. We've had turkeys within gun range two mornings. Yep. And killed none. One more morning to go. One more than to go.
Starting point is 01:09:26 So, well, anything else, guys. Jordan, you tell us about your real estate business. Anybody needs big land in Mississippi or Arkansas? This is your man. Oh, I appreciate that. Mainly deal with recreational hunting tracks and timberland and delta farmland and pretty much everything we like, you know. And I work at a company called Open Season Properties
Starting point is 01:09:49 and been doing it now for six years, five or six years. Yeah. What I do every day? Y'all have some big, you all sell some big, nice properties down here. Big nice ones and small nice ones and everything in between. Every puzzle piece that fits somebody's needs. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:08 Sweet. And like everybody, I'm doing my introductions here at the end. Everybody knows like he does Backwood University on our feed. Yeah. I do that, yeah. Yep, that's what you do. Yeah. Anything else you want to say?
Starting point is 01:10:25 I think I've said all I can for the time being. Okay. All right. Well, thank you guys. It's been a fun conversation. Thank you, Lacey. You really brought the tea on Lake today. It may be the factor that gets us a gobbler in the morning.
Starting point is 01:10:42 So thank you for that. We've had a full-on confession. So there's nothing left on the plate. that is going to hinder us from a good hunt. That's right. That's right. That's right. Keep the wild place is wild because that's where the bears live.
Starting point is 01:11:02 Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods,
Starting point is 01:11:29 they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut
Starting point is 01:11:51 is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers. who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.

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