The Standard Sportsman

There's nothing to hunt, so might as well talk about it. Despite being at the front end of summer, plenty of things are going on that impact waterfowl. In this week's episode, the guys share some intel about the May Pond conditions, planting season struggles in the deep south, and baby boomers fading out of duck hunting. Even Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill has some good and some bad for ducks. Finally, Cason and Bren...

Dave Duncan, Ph.D. (retired), worked across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, focusing on pintails. Throughout his professional career, he’s shown a true passion for this particular duck and how to turn the tide on its decline. Duncan joins the show to discuss the past, present, and future of the pintail population while sharing some concerns with the new regulations set to go into place this coming season. This episode is worth...

Lorne Scott has spent a lifetime invested in conservation in Saskatchewan while seeing an inordinate amount of change on the landscape. The family has farmed in the Prairie Pothole Region since 1915 and has seen it all. Scott pulls back the curtain on Prairie Canada with eye-opening insights into what is going on north of the border. The guys discuss non-existent wetland policies in Saskatchewan, habitat deterioration, staggering b...

Waterfowler Matthew Cagle created a groundbreaking decoy weighting system that revolutionized the waterfowl industry. Fast forward to today, and his company is one of the leading gear companies in the game. Cagle joins the show to talk about how Rig ‘Em Right came to be and how the company remains innovative in a copycat world. We also jump into a frank discussion on how the current trade wars and tariffs impact the hunting industr...

Duck hunters are skilled at finding scapegoats as to why their seasons don’t go so well. One of the hotter topics is the amount of and the ability to hunt over flooded crops. Namely corn. Is it legal? Should it be legal? When was it allowed? Who governs “normal agricultural practices”? Mike Brasher of Ducks Unlimited joins the show to break down the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act of 1998 and clarify what it did and didn’t do for ...

Tim Willis has spent nearly 25 years conserving his home state of Arkansas’s flooded timber legacy and numerous Ducks Unlimited habitat projects throughout the country. Willis and his team help state agencies with consulting strategies and maximize conservation dollars. In this episode, he outlines DU’s role in ensuring waterfowl have effective habitats at all ends of the flyway now and in the future. 

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There were Technical Difficulties with the early AM upload, so please ignore that version and listen to this one for the full interview.

Bradley Cohen, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology and heads the Cohen Wildlife Lab at Tennessee Tech University. Cohen and his team of students have and continue to shed a lot of light on modern-day mallard behaviors. Cohen talks through landscape conditions and habitat management p...

If you’re wondering what’s on the minds of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission regarding turkey zones, the future of Arkansas duck hunting as it relates to private land, public land, non-residents, unruly behavior on the WMAs, habitat, and pressure management, this is an episode you cannot afford to miss. 

Current AGFC Commission Chair JD Neeley and Philip Tappan join the show to have a candid discussion about the state of some ...

Despite all the duck seasons in North America being closed, plenty is going on within the world of waterfowling. Brent & Cason look at the impact the recent storms will have on this coming duck season, game warden access to private ground without a warrant, USFWS director confirmation hearings and waterfowl destination states desire to reduce pressure by limiting non-residents. Reducing non-residents to a few weekdays is the po...

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...

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, ...

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 ...

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 gue...

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 ...

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 pro...

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 resul...

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...

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 fr...

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 high...