Levi Pillow has over 50 years experience hunting the famed Dave Donaldson Black River WMA in Northeast Arkansas. Going from gentlemen’s agreeement to who hunted where with permanent decoy spreads to today’s chaotic overcrowding, he’s seen it all. Pillow shares that history along with changes he and a group of hunters from the WMA recently proposed to the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission with a non-resident draw as the key effort to manage the unrelenting pressure.

Thanks to our sponsors: Lile Real Estate, Sitka Gear, Ducks Unlimited, Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Purina Pro Plan and Tom Beckbe.

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A diverse background ranging from dirt work to duck guide led Hunter Johnson to managing habitat for a pair of top-notch Arkansas duck clubs. With one on the famed Grand Prairie and the other in the Cache River Bottoms, Johnson employs diverse strategies to attract and hold ducks throughout a sixty-day duck season. The guys discuss habitat, food plots, timber stand improvement (TSI), flooded unharvested crops, pressure management, and scouting. 

Thanks to our sponsors: Tom Beckbe, Ducks Unlimited, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Sitka Gear, Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine, Lile Real Estate and Purina Pro Plan.

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Cason and Brent analyze the rest of the post-season survey responses on numerous issues heavily discussed amongst Central and Mississippi Flyway waterfowlers: spinning wing decoys, season frameworks, pintail limits, outfitters, conservation order, and ecological and cultural issues impacting mid-continent mallards.

Thanks to our sponsors: Sitka Gear, Ducks Unlimited, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Lile Real Estate, Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine, Purina Pro Plan and Tom Beckbe.

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In February, The Standard Sportsman podcast conducted a post-season survey covering various hot topics within the duck hunting community. After collecting responses from hunters across 41 states, the guys are ready to share the results with some intriguing analysis.

The guys also share an opportunity to support winter banding research by the Osborne Lab at the University of Arkansas-Monticello. Dr. Doug Osborne has been a repeat guest on the show, and his team's efforts provide valuable insight into the behaviors of the modern-day mallard up and down the Central and Mississippi Flyways. 

Thanks to our sponsors: Tom Beckbe, Ducks Unlimited, Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine, Sitka Gear, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Purina Pro Plan, and Lile Real Estate.

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Dustin Roddy focuses on recreational real estate, habitat development and management primarily in the Cache River basin of east central Arkansas. His intuitive approach to match what the ducks need to what a property can provide has led to numerous successful projects on his resume. The guys discuss various habitat strategies, observations, being a good neighbor and of course, pressure management. 

Thanks to our sponsors: Lile Real Estate, Tom Beckbe, Sitka Gear, KC Laser Co., Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Purina Pro Plan, and Ducks Unlimited.

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Our buddy and Drake Waterfowl’s Vice President of Development Jim Ronquest joins the show again. He’s fresh off the NWTF Convention and shares insight into Drake’s new campaign, “Make Boat Ramps Great Again.” We also dive into Jim’s square-body Chevrolet truck restoration, duck boats, reuniting with John Stephens, and the future of RNTv. Be sure to stick in until the end, where we talk about what worked with last year’s habitat projects, what’s on the list this year, the mast crop bust, and other oddities from this past season.

Thanks to our sponsors: Lile Real Estate, Sitka Gear, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Tom Beckbe, Ducks Unlimited, KC Laser, Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine and Purina Pro Plan. 

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In an attempt to get the pulse of waterfowlers in the Central and Mississippi Flyways, The Standard Sportsman has put together a survey covering many of the hot topics in the sport today. If you’ve got a take on the state of the sport, here is one opportunity to share your thoughts regarding frameworks, limits, social media, outfitters, influencers and habitat...good, bad or indifferent. Stay tuned for a future episode on the results.

To take the survey, please visit www.thestandardsportsman.com/survey

Thanks to our sponsors: Lile Real Estate, Ducks Unlimited, Tom Beckbe, Sitka Gear, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine, KC Laser Co., and Legendary Land Company. 

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Missouri Department of Conservation’s Migratory Game Bird Coordinator Reid Viegut joins the show to talk about a research project he worked on while at the University of Missouri. Partnering with the MDC, the project involved the deployment of drones coupled with machine learning to count waterfowl from the air. Viegut talks through the three different stages of the research and the results as well as what’s left to be done to push the technology to implementation. 

Be sure to take The Standard Sportsman's post-season survey. The guys will tabulate the results and review everyone's input on an upcoming episode. Take the survey at www.thestandardsportsman.com/survey.

Thanks to our sponsors: Lile Real Estate, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Sitka Gear, Tom Beckbe, Ducks Unlimited, KC Laser Co, Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine and Purina Pro Plan. 

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Memphis native John Smolko serves as Sitka Gear’s Waterfowl and Turkey Specialist and travels the world on outdoor adventures. Smolko joins the show on the heels of Sitka’s foray into the knee boot game and hints at some upcoming new products from the brand. John elaborates on Sitka’s research & development efforts and the benefits of GORE-TEX. Finally, the crew sifts through some thoughts on this past duck season with input from Smolko’s travels to Arkansas, Maryland, Oklahoma, and beyond. 

Thanks to our sponsors: Sitka Gear, Ducks Unlimited, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Lile Real Estate, Tom Beckbe, KC Laser Co. and Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine. 

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Ducks started and stayed concentrated up and down the Central and Mississippi Flyways this season. That led to mixed results for the masses with a significant dependency on whether you had early habitat or not. The hosts talk through some impacts with the rafts of ducks holding tight to the north, Arkansas's habitat shortfalls, hen harvest clarity, GPS transmitter mallard behaviors. Then a little fun sharing some personal highs, lows, and disappointments with some waterfowl brands and their messaging this season. 

Thanks to our sponsors: Lile Real Estate, Perfect Limit Outdoors, Purina Pro Plan, Ducks Unlimited, Sitka Gear, Tom Beckbe, Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine and KC Laser Co. 

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