Mallard nesting at Grizzly Island, the story about CWA’s first biologist, and how research, banding, fundraising, and education all took shape

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Dr. Bob McLandress—past CWA president and one of the key figures in the organization’s early growth—for a look back at how California Waterfowl found its footing. Bob traces his path from Canada and Ducks Unlimited into graduate work under Dennis Raveling at UC Davis, then into CWA in 1985 as the organization’s first biologist—not its first employee, as the old story often goes. From there, the conversation moves through the early Grizzly Island mallard nesting work, the discovery of surprisingly high nest densities, the launch of CWA’s first major banding efforts, and the way one research project quickly snowballed into fundraising dinners, youth education, development work, and the broader conservation mission the organization carries today.

Episode highlights

• Bob’s path from Winnipeg into waterfowl biology, and how early work in Canada helped set the course for his career.
• The real story behind the long-running myth: Bob was CWA’s first biologist, but not its first employee.
• Why the early Grizzly Island nesting work changed the conversation around California mallards.
• How CWA’s first banding efforts got rolling—and how those early permits and projects helped build the program that followed.
• What early CWA really looked like: volunteer-driven, underfunded, chaotic, and full of people trying to build something that mattered.
• How one biologist’s job quickly turned into fundraising, education, development, and helping define CWA’s long-term role in California conservation.

🦆 If you love hearing where this work really started, hit Follow, leave a quick review, and share the episode with your blind crew—your support keeps these conversations rolling and the flyway thriving.

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Chance Wadsworth, owner of Quill Creek Championship Calls, to talk goose calling from the inside out—how a chemistry background helped him design the Mach One, why he refuses to sell a call he hasn’t proven at a high level, and how contest calling sharpened the way he hunts real birds in Wisconsin. The conversation covers mentors, stage nerves, field philosophy, traffic hunting, and the kind of repetition it takes to actually get good.

Episode highlights

• How Quill Creek started — Chance launched the company in 2024 after roughly two years of prototypes, testing, and refining a goose call he felt confident enough to take on stage.
• Built like an experiment — with a chemistry background and CAD-based design, he worked through more than a thousand call combinations to understand how length, wall thickness, contour, and overlap affect both sound and feel.
• Mentors matter — Chance credits Tim Steele and Mike Benjamin for helping him build the foundation and accelerate as a contest caller.
• Field calling vs. contest calling — the crew breaks down the difference between stage performance and practical hunting, and why some contest calls still absolutely work in the blind.
• Why he cares so much about calling — in traffic situations, when birds are not already committed to the food, Chance believes calling becomes a huge part of the game.
• Wisconsin goose hunting realities — leasing fields, learning roost patterns, hunting cut corn and beans, and why he believes leaving spreads out too long can educate birds.
• Advice for new contest callers — be okay with not winning, use YouTube and good mentors, put in the work, and understand that progress comes from repetition.

If you care about goose calls, competition, and the crossover between stage skill and real-world hunting, this one is packed with practical insight and a lot of heart.

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Cory Overton for a data-driven look at what really happened during this season’s migration. Instead of relying on blind chatter and guesswork, Cory breaks down what tagged birds actually showed—how prolonged fog affected movement, why a warm winter kept birds north longer than usual, and how some California-marked ducks are spending more time in places like the Northeast Zone, Klamath, and other areas north of the Sacramento Valley.

Episode highlights

• What the tags revealed this season — GPS-marked birds helped explain why many hunters felt like the “big push” never really came.
• Fog and warm weather effects — prolonged fog and one of the warmest winters on record appear to have slowed or altered normal migration timing.
• Local vs. migratory birds — some mallards and gadwall tagged in California are molting north of the Valley and, in some cases, barely leaving those regions at all.
• How far birds really move — the conversation gets into flight speed, regional shifts, and why some birds bump around California rather than making dramatic southbound moves.
• Where ducks are sitting now — Cory explains where large concentrations of birds are holding in early spring and why those areas remain attractive.
• Mexico, Baja, and Southern California connections — the crew also digs into which species continue farther south, and how often marked birds show up in places like Wister, Baja, or mainland Mexico.
• The future of tracking tech — from GPS units to more advanced devices that could one day measure energy burn and flight conditions, Cory explains where waterfowl science is headed next.
• Why recovered tags matter — as tracking tools get smaller and store more onboard data, getting those devices back from hunters will become even more important.

If you’ve ever wondered where the birds actually went, why they stalled out, or what modern science can tell us about the migration, this episode is packed with insight straight from the data.

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Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard wrap the season with a clean, property-by-property breakdown—January numbers, year-over-year changes, species quirks, and the big themes (fog, late rains, road work, king tides) that moved the needle across CWA hunts. Expect straight talk on mallards and pintail, why Staten keeps trending up, and how Goose Lake quietly turned in one of its best mixed-bag years.

January by the numbers

• Staten Island: 4.4 birds/hunter; GWT + specks led.
• Goose Lake (Tulare Basin): 4.2; teal-heavy, strong mixed bags.
• Quimby Island (Delta): 3.4; GWT + mallard.
• Sanborn Slough (Butte Sink): 3.4; deeper water pushed hooded mergansers & ring-necks.
• Grizzly Ranch (Suisun): 2.6; GWT + spoonies, up from December.
• Butte Creek Island Ranch: 2.6; flood/high water effects.
• Potrero (Suisun): 1.7.
• Denverton (Suisun): 1.5.

Season takeaways

• Mallard softness: Big drop at Quimby (248 → 101 mallards) and a lighter mallard picture statewide.
• Goose gains where it counts: Staten goose harvest jumped (specks 231 vs. 146; snows 156 vs. 75).
• Species surprises: Goose Lake went from 0 → 33 redheads; Staten logged a long-tailed duck and Eurasian wigeon.
• Weather & work mattered: Long tule-fog stretches, night road work, king tides, and late rains reshuffled use patterns—good for some units, tough on others.
• Pintail reality check: A 3-bird limit didn’t blow the doors off harvest totals—availability and conditions were the limiter.

Quick stat stack (program-wide) 1600+ teal • 1040+ spoonies • 390+ mallards • 330+ specks.

If you hunted with us—thank you. Keep an eye on calwaterfowl.org for spring turkey, pig hunts, and next season’s applications.

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Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Craig Wilson, owner of River Oaks Outdoors and a Senior World Duck Calling Champion to trace his path from SoCal refuge rat (Wister/Kern) to Idaho mallard country, and what that journey taught him about scouting, pressure, and staying calm on stage. Craig breaks down how to practice with purpose, the real differences between Main Street contests and meat calling, and why late-season California birds demand restraint on the call. He also dives into the shop side—how he builds custom call displays (smart dowels, snug fit, clean glass) and the little design details that keep a lanyard organized and a collection looking sharp.

Episode highlights

• SoCal to Idaho: how refuge days shaped today’s mallard-first approach, and why scouting beats slogging
• Contest nerves & routine: making the jump from good caller to stage-ready—and staying clean in Round 3
• Meat vs. Main Street: what actually carries to ducks versus judges
• Late-season reality: why whistles and quiet spreads often beat hail calls in California
• Shop talk: River Oaks Outdoors display builds, dowel sizing, and protecting your calls the right way

🦆 If this episode sharpened your calling or got you tinkering with your setup, hit Follow, drop a quick review, and share it with your blind crew—your support keeps these conversations rolling and the flyway thriving.

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard welcome Eben Herbert from the New Zealand Hunter Exchange to compare notes on waterfowling half a world apart—what shocked him about the Suisun Marsh, why California’s public access and species variety feel endless, and how late-season calling here differs from New Zealand’s “call hard, break ’em from the sky” approach. We hit rice country pits (illegal back home), foggy boat rides to island blinds, a tough-but-worth-it California quail mission, and even a little crab-and-rockfish bounty from Bodega Bay.

Episode highlights

• Scale & access: the density of clubs and marsh across Suisun vs. the smaller, scattered options in NZ—plus why CA birds have “a hundred places to go.”
• Calling culture: aggressive hail-calling to pull distant flocks in NZ vs. whistles and lighter calling for pressured late-season birds in CA.
• Pit blinds & rice: first time hunting California rice; why true pit blinds are illegal in New Zealand.
• Fog, flood & plan B: how tule fog and high water forced mid-morning moves—and still produced solid straps.
• Taste test: why California ducks eat milder (hello, rice fat) than NZ birds on invertebrate-heavy diets.
• Checklist species: pintail, wigeon, teal, a Ross’s goose, and the ongoing quests for mallard and speck before wheels up.

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Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard welcome Cory Overton, California Waterfowl’s new Science Director, for a clear, field-level look at how modern telemetry is rewriting what we know about duck movements—and how that science feeds better habitat work and smarter regs. From the original PINSAT satellite project to today’s GPS/cellular tags and emerging smart bands, Cory explains what the data actually show: longer staging in SONEC/Klamath, pintail that roam like “five-year-olds on espresso,” fog-driven chaos that scatters birds, and why some geese will cross wildfires or even sit down on the ocean to ride out smoke. He also digs into CWA’s role training the next generation with UC Davis and how new assessment tools will tie real duck use to on-the-ground management.

Episode highlights

• Telemetry 101 to now — from old VHF triangulation to GPS/cellular tags and first-gen smart bands that could run for decades
• What PINSAT taught us — SONEC as the spring gas station, and how routes/timing have shifted since the early 2000s
• Fog, storms, and smoke — why pea-soup weeks burn calories, scramble patterns, and sometimes push birds hundreds of miles the “wrong” way
• Pintail vs. mallards — restless travelers vs. homebodies, and how that plays into the new pintail framework
• Klamath staging — more birds lingering north into winter, with some not dropping to the Valley until late (or at all)
• What’s next at CWA — postseason pintail banding, valley-wide habitat assessment tools, and a UC Davis pipeline for future wetland pros

🦆 Like the show? Tap Follow, drop a quick review, and share this one with your blind crew—your support keeps these conversations rolling and the flyway thriving.

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Dwight Jones, founder of Closaway Outfitters (Uruguay) and CEO of Okmulgee Fields Inc., to unpack a boutique, American-run operation built for wild birds, predictable shoots, and no-surprises pricing. From why shore blinds mean no waders, to how legal baiting and lead shape reliable duck hunts, to the perdiz over dogs that steal the show—this is a clean, honest look at South American wingshooting done right. Learn travel logistics (LATAM into Montevideo, 2h40 lodge transfer, hunt the day you arrive), what’s truly wild vs. planted, and how Closaway keeps pressure low by resting ponds and limiting hunts. More at closaway.com/about-us

Episode highlights

• Why Uruguay, not just Argentina: high-quality mixed bag (ducks, dove/pigeon, wild perdiz) with shorter drives and afternoon duck hunts that “feel like a war at first light.”
• Predictable ducks, lower pressure: 30–50 ponds prepped each season, legal baiting, and ponds hunted only 2–3 times to keep birds finishing.
• All-inclusive, transparent pricing: airport transfers, daily gun rental, laundry, Wi-Fi, meals, and 125 shells/day included—no surprise add-ons at checkout.
• Guns, shells & safety: quality Beretta/Browning/Bennelli inventory, Magtech ammo, and shore setups that skip horses and chest-deep wades.
• Species & export notes: Rosybill, White-faced Whistling Duck, Speckled Teal—plus context on limited export rules for skins.
• Food & culture: Italian/Spanish-inspired meals, cook your harvest, and lodge life that feels like visiting a friend—not a hotel lobby.

If you’re curious about a wild, fair-chase South American hunt—without the shell-bill sticker shock—this one lays out the full playbook so you know exactly what you’re getting into.

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Carson Odegard sits down with Jeff Smith to break down December’s numbers across California Waterfowl properties—what got better, what got buried under water, and how long tule fog and rolling storms shifted bird behavior. From Staten Island’s goose grind to surprise surges at Potrero Hills and Goose Lake, this is your clear, no-spin field report.

By the numbers (December):

• Staten Island — 3.44 birds/hunter in Dec; season avg 4.3 (leaders: Aleutians, specks)
• Potrero Hills (Suisun) — 3.4 (up from 1.3 in Nov); spoons, GWT, with wigeon coming on
• Goose Lake (Tulare Basin) — 3.35; road-closure cancellations, but big success when open (spoons, ring-necks)
• Grizzly Ranch (Suisun) — 2.24; steady two-bird days (GWT, spoonies)
• Quimby Island (Delta) — 2.16; mallards + wigeon; slight dip from Nov
• Butte Creek Island Ranch (Butte Sink) — 1.83; GWT + ring-necks
• Denverton (Suisun) — 1.8; spoonies + GWT
• Sanborn Slough (Butte Sink) — 1.74; wigeon + ring-necks; flood closures and deep water
• Pope Ranch (Dixon) — 0.71 for ducks (mallards); still a strong wild pheasant option

What shaped the hunt:

• Flooding & safety — county road closures and moving water shut some days down; expect a lag before birds re-concentrate after high water.
• Prolonged tule fog — helped rice country, hurt island visibility/pull at times.
• Migration pops — late-month pushes showed up in the Grasslands and south valley units.

January outlook: Watch for wigeon and pintail to build in Suisun, mallard trickles where floodwaters recede, and more mixed bags at Staten as weather swings churn the Delta.

🦆 If this recap helps your game plan, hit Follow, drop a quick review, and share it with your blind crew—your support keeps these conversations rolling and the flyway thriving.

Merry Christmas! This episode drops right before the holiday—here’s to safe hunts, full straps, and time with your crew and family.

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard dig into listener questions—from “what time do you pack it in?” to the weather that really moves birds, why consistency (choke + ammo) beats tinkering, and how to tweak spreads when wind, fog, or pressure make ducks stubborn. They also hit species quirks (why wood ducks and late-season mallards can be maddening, and why specks act different in Suisun), plus the do’s/don’ts of hiding in tules vs. under trees. Want your question on the show? Drop it via the form at calwaterfowl.org → Save It for the Blind.

Episode highlights

• When to call it — why most hunts wrap by about 10:30 and how to read a dead morning versus a late bite
• Best weather — clear, cold, and a 5–12 mph breeze is better than big gale days; avoid full-moon lulls
• Calling smarter — practice outside (15 min/day), read wing tips and butts, and remember that whistle work wins in California
• Chokes & shells — pick one choke and one velocity… and stop switching mid-season
• Hide choices — tules give 360-degree cover; trees can block shots and make ducks wary
• Spreads that finish birds — go lighter with more motion as pressure builds; pull spinners in fog or overcast if birds hang at 40
• Refuge tactics — scout the pond line, move early if birds are setting elsewhere, keep the sun at your back, and leave a landing hole

🦆 Merry Christmas and thank you for riding with us this season. If this helped your game, hit Follow, drop a quick review, and share it with your blind crew—your support keeps these conversations rolling and the flyway thriving.