Save it for the Blind Podcast

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Cory Overton, Science Director for California Waterfowl, for a preseason look at what hunters may see across the Pacific Flyway this year. Cory breaks down breeding conditions, mallard and goose numbers, an exceptional year at Klamath, and how weather could shape bird movement once the season gets underway.

Episode highlights

• Overall season outlook — despite national mallard numbers being down, Cory explains why many of the breeding areas that supply California looked considerably better and why he expects a fairly average year overall.
• Klamath had a huge year — improved water conditions produced what Cory describes as one of Klamath’s best productive years in decades, with near-record mallard banding efforts and thousands of birds handled.
• Specks are a bright spot — Pacific Flyway white-fronted geese increased again this year, while snow geese faced much tougher breeding conditions in the north.
• Southern California banding — roughly 250 birds were banded in Southern California, the most CWA has been able to mark there in a long time.
• Smart-band technology — Cory shares early results from new tracking bands, including wood ducks unexpectedly showing up around Fresno and Gilroy, and explains how hunters carrying cell phones may actually help researchers collect more location data this winter.
• Some ducks really are homebodies — one tracked shoveler stayed around the same pond for years, while a hen mallard spent roughly three months inside a hunt zone without leaving during daylight.
• The El Niño question — Cory explains why California’s winter could look dramatically different depending on where the jet stream sets up, ranging from heavy atmospheric rivers to comparatively dry conditions in the Central Valley.
• New Delta mallard research — CWA is beginning additional telemetry work on hen mallards in the Delta to better understand how birds use different California regions for nesting, brood rearing, molting, and winter habitat.

From breeding-ground conditions to the latest tracking technology, this episode gives California hunters a science-backed look at what could be coming down the flyway—and the factors that may determine how the season ultimately plays out.

🦆 Duck season is almost here. Hit Follow, leave a quick review, and share this episode with your blind crew so everybody knows what to watch for when the first birds start moving south.

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard sit down with Casey Hartwell, founder of Hunt Bums, to talk about how a passion for waterfowl hunting turned into a growing platform built around gear reviews, field experience, and helping everyday hunters make better decisions. Casey shares his path back into hunting, why he started Hunt Bums, and how his marketing and research background shaped a more data-driven approach to reviewing products and understanding the hunting community.

Episode highlights

• How Hunt Bums started — Casey talks about getting back into hunting as an adult and eventually building a platform around the lifestyle, gear, and experiences that came with it.
• Honest gear reviews — why Hunt Bums tries to evaluate products on their own merits, call out failure points, and avoid sugarcoating a review just because a company sent the gear.
• What hunters are actually spending — Casey breaks down findings from Hunt Bums’ hunter survey, including the Pacific Flyway’s high average annual spend and the rising cost of shotguns, shells, decoys, waders, and other essentials.
• Lowering the barrier to entry — his biggest advice to new hunters: find a mentor, borrow gear first, learn what actually works for you, and then invest in quality equipment.
• Keeping waterfowl culture alive — Casey makes the case that experienced hunters need to be more willing to bring newcomers along and show them that duck hunting is about far more than just pulling the trigger.
• California hunting challenges — rising costs, access to quality public ground, and overcrowding are some of the biggest issues he sees facing hunters in the state.
• Why California rice still hits different — even after hunting clubs and other setups, Casey explains why there’s still something special about spending a morning in a California rice blind.
• What gear has his attention this season — new shotshell technology, waders, decoys, and other products Casey is looking forward to putting through real-world testing.

From gear and access to mentorship and the future of hunting culture, this episode is a solid conversation about making waterfowling more approachable while keeping the traditions and community that make it special.

Jeff Smith and Carson Odegard break down what’s ahead for the 2026–27 California Waterfowl Hunt Program, covering everything from dove and big-game opportunities to the full slate of duck and goose hunts coming this season. They walk through CWA-managed properties from Suisun Marsh and the Delta to the Butte Sink and Goose Lake, share updates on habitat and blind improvements, and highlight several donated hunts that give everyday hunters access to some exceptional private clubs.

Episode highlights

• Dove season recap — how opening weekend went at Goose Lake and in the Butte Sink, plus why some of the best dove hunting can happen after the opener when most hunters have already moved on.
• A brand-new CWA property: the Golden Gate Duck Club joins the Hunt Program this year near the Pacific Flyway Center, with Wednesday hunts, two groups of two hunters, and decoys provided.
• Butte Sink updates — what hunters can expect at Butte Creek Island Ranch and Sanborn Slough, including habitat conditions and a new blind location at Sanborn.
• Staten Island & Quimby Island — why Staten continues to produce strong goose and duck numbers, and what makes both Delta properties capable of delivering a hunt of a lifetime.
• Goose Lake keeps improving — habitat work at the Badger Almond unit has helped turn it into one of CWA’s strongest-producing properties, with more improvements planned this season.
• More than waterfowl — the crew covers CWA’s Schaefer Ranch pig hunts, deer opportunities, and other programs available before and during duck season.
• Donated private-club hunts — opportunities at places like Mystic Lake, Lucky Seven, Upper Valley Ranch, and Mulberry, giving hunters access to properties they might otherwise never get the chance to experience.

Whether you’re putting in for your first CWA hunt or already planning out your season, this episode is your roadmap to the properties, application hunts, and unique opportunities available this year.

🦆 Get those applications in. Follow the show, leave a review, and share this episode with your blind crew—and keep an eye on CWA’s Hunt Program throughout the season as additional opportunities come online.

California Waterfowl CEO Jake Messerli and VP of Advocacy Mark Hennelly provide the latest update on one of the most critical waterfowl habitats in California – Klamath.

While the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge benefited from significant water deliveries organized by CWA and its partners, the refuge faces a dry year ahead. Jake and Mark outline the makings of a long-term solution, including infrastructure investments, advocacy at all levels of government, and a “flow-through concept” that circulates water in the system to the benefit of all stakeholders including agriculture and tribes.

Interested in supporting California Waterfowl’s efforts to save Klamath? Visit https://calwaterfowl.org/funds/lower-klamath to contribute. "

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.

🦆 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.

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.

🦆 Like these intel episodes? Tap Follow, leave 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 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.

🦆 Like these cultural deep dives? Hit Follow, drop a quick review, and share the episode with your blind crew—your support keeps these conversations rolling and the flyway thriving.