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

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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

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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.

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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.

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Alex Keil, president of DEMERBOX, to unpack how a garage-built, Pelican-case speaker turned into a made-in-USA workhorse for hunters and outdoor crews. From Zac Brown’s early buy-in to today’s South Florida build shop, Alex walks through durability tests (yes, trucks and shotguns), smart features like USB-C/A charging, true ported sound with a waterproof plug, 40-hour battery life, and why the team still repairs your unit years down the road.

What you’ll learn

• Origin story, built for abuse — TV-set audio tech meets Pelican cases; Zac Brown helps scale; U.S. assembly keeps it tough and fixable.
• Real features that matter — ported audio you can plug for water, floats, doubles as a dry box, and charges your phone inside the case.
• Specs & models — DV2 (dual-driver stereo) vs. the smaller 1150 case; pair up to six; $249 and $399 price points.
• Beat-it-up testing — ladder drops, truck tires, even 12-gauge at 70 yards—and it keeps playing.
• Use cases — from camp music to call box duty, first-aid storage to poolside sound; why outdoor folks are the natural audience.
• What’s next — cleaner one-button pairing, accessories, and more rugged gear on the roadmap.

If you want a speaker that survives the hunt truck, keeps your phone alive, and still thumps at 100%, this episode breaks down the kit—and the culture—that make DEMERBOX a legit piece of field gear.

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Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Mark Regalbuto, CEO of MIGRA Ammunition, for a straight-shooting talk on California waterfowling and the nuts and bolts of building precision shotshells. They cover why California is richer duck country than most folks realize—ocean to marsh to rice—and how public-land access shapes the hunt. They also dig into navigating California ammo regulations, COVID-era growth, sustainability trends like biodegradable components, and where MIGRA sees innovation and partnerships heading next.

What you’ll hear

• California, underrated and accessible — from salt to rice, there’s “a little bit of everything” on public ground.
• Regulatory reality — the extra hoops to sell and distribute ammo in-state, and why folks hope those rules don’t go national.
• Scaling through the surge — how COVID demand impacted MIGRA’s operations.
• Greener components — where biodegradable wads/cases are now and what could make them mainstream.
• Roadmap & relationships — waterfowl loads, crossover ideas, and how a boutique brand partners in a crowded market.
• CWA partnership — closing thanks and a welcome to MIGRA as a new corporate supporter of California Waterfowl.

🦆 Like the show? Hit Follow, leave a quick review, and share it with your blind crew—your support keeps these conversations rolling and the flyway thriving.

Carson Odegard (fresh off dad duty) and Jeff Smith run a quick, no-nonsense update on how November hunts went across CWA properties—and what’s opening up for December. From Staten Island’s lights-out start to new rice blinds coming online (including veteran blinds), this one’s your fast guide to where birds are working and how to grab a spot.

What you’ll hear

• Carson’s back and lining up winter hunts—then straight into a November conditions snapshot.
• New access coming online: Gatti is filled and running as a veteran blind; Whitman is up next—and it’s veteran access as well.
• O’Banion rice blind: still has open dates—good chance to slip in before the next weather bump.
• Potrero (rice) additions: new Sunday dates in December—reserve your blind at calwaterfowl.org.
• Hot start at Staten Island: first hunts were phenomenal—as good an opener as we’ve seen there.
• What’s next: final regular-season draw coming up with a “bunch of really good hunts” to apply for.

If you’re planning the next pull, this quick hit tells you what’s hunting, what’s about to, and where to jump on remaining dates.

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