Show Notes
In this week’s [UNCENSORED] podcast by GoWild, Jacob is moving slow, but catching up with a cup of Wildland Coffee. The boys went to the Bassmaster Classic in Tennessee, got to hang out with some vendors, met a few pros, and took a selfie with the Godfather of flop, Mr. Bill Dance. Dan Johnson shares a legendary Bill Dance story with the one time he got beat! We talk about the thrill of the big event and what the pros are doing to stay on fish. If you’ve ever wondered how one of these tournaments works, we’ve got your answers.
Dan Johnson from Sportsmen’s Empire is our featured guest once again, this time to talk about many of the new proposed rules and regulations around hunting. Dan talks through some of the issues and lets us know what’s happening and why hunters should be concerned. He talks about companies hiring lobbyists to push new hunting laws for the companies to make money. He also poses some difficult questions, like should we have a firearm season on whitetails during the rut, what role do wildlife managers serve, and who is really making these laws. He mentions you should contact your local representatives to share your opinions whether you support or disapprove of any new bills. Another great resource for hunters to stay “in the know” is by joining and supporting Sportsman’s Alliance. Hunters, anglers, trappers, and outdoorspeople should equally get involved with their state wildlife management agency to voice their concerns and express their wishes.
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a rate and review!!
[UNCENSORED] by GoWild kicks off your week with shameful nonsense, inappropriate convictions, and unfiltered tales from the woods, waters and whatevers. [UNCENSORED] is a behind the scenes look at our adventures, failures, wins, embarrassing moments at trade shows, hilarious tales from the warehouse, and a good rant or three about the most recent tyranny from the Dark Lord of the Sith himself.
The show launches every Monday morning. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
JOIN GOWILD AND GET $10:
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] Is, no, we record it. You're right. Yep, you're right. And then you can flip that around or something if it Oh no, it's, yeah. There you go. Perfect. Good to go. We're doing terrific. We're trying to do terrific. Sleepy this morning. Yeah. No coffee in the house. Yeah. How'd that happen? And you know what, man?
Three kids. Yeah. Stuff gets crazy on the weekends. Yeah. Realize, hey, we're making the last pot of coffee we own as you're doing it. Yeah. And then don't go buy more coffee. And then you remember Monday morning if you had some wild coffee, I'm about's just laying on that house in the office or about to in the office.
I'm about to, for my friend. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sleepy today. I'm moving a little slow, but. We had a busy Friday. Yeah, man. Got down to Knoxville for the Bassmaster classic Braden's first experience of a big tournament like that. Yeah. Yeah. I my only other experience was doing the club [00:01:00] co angling with Steven Taylor, which involves a small pop-up tent and a plastic fold out table for the weigh in, which I thought, this is awesome.
Everybody's bringing up their fish. This is, a lot of fun, obviously. But and then everyone, Takes their own bag and runs it down to the river, dump little lake and dumps it in. And that kind of became my job. Steven was like, you're the young guy. Whenever these old guys come, bring their fish up, you take 'em and take 'em down to the lake.
So not a boy. That was my other experience. And so walking into this giant coliseum on UT's university of Tennessee's campus was freaking nuts. I had no idea what to expect, and it was like a concert with all of my best friends. Like it was so much fun. All two of them, all two of them. No, it was like, there were thousands of people in there.
Yeah. Yeah, they had, they set the record for all time, record for most people at a launch. Blast off. So 6,500 people on a Friday morning, which if you see this area too, I don't know where those people went. I know they must have been on top of the buildings and stuff. They must have parking all over the [00:02:00] place.
I don't know how they did it, but Yeah. And then there was about that same. At the first win in on Friday. And for those that don't know, it's a three day tournament. And the big days when they cut it down to 25 is Sunday. Which got to watch yesterday. Old old Gussy. Pulled it out. Catched a bunch of smallmouth.
Yeah. But but yeah, it was awesome, man. Got to walk around, see a bunch of vendors bought the new Yamamoto. Yama Tanooki, I think is what it's called. I, you could ask me. I could've given five guesses and not gotten that. Yeah. Yeah. I started watching YouTube videos on it, which is why have a rough idea of how to say it.
But this thing looks like a bowling pin. It looks like a bowling pin, just a giant soft pla, or not like giant, like thick, soft plastic. With like a. Super twitchy tail that's super popular in Japan for years. Like they, it's so popular over there that there are companies that have spun it off at Yamamoto that make the same thing. So they finally, apparently they've got this new ownership at Yamamoto and they've been rolling out a bunch of new products. And so the only place you could buy 'em in the country was at this little [00:03:00] corner in the expo at the Bassmaster Classic. So me and Jacob. Went in there and bought a bag or two.
So they were not on sale, if you're curious. They were not on, they were not on sale. No. No. It was a super cool experience. Yeah. That's fun. And if you haven't been to a classic or Red Crest or one of these big tournaments like that, I definitely recommend checking out if they come close.
It's, yeah. All the fishing brands are there for the most part. Yeah. Boat companies are there with their latest and get to see a lot of the stuff that the pro tour guys are. On the tour before it's like out and available for the public like that, the Yamamoto bait and just the buzz man, like this is a bassmaster, a bass event.
But then you got all the M l F guys that are roaming around. Everybody's there. Yeah it's so cool. They're all there supporting their like sponsors booth and stuff, so when you go in there, they're hanging out and so it's like a cool opportunity to go ask 'em, questions about their experience with stuff and all that.
It was, you got to see The Godfather I did at Tennessee University. I saw Bill Dance, got a selfie with him. [00:04:00] Nice. That boy's old now. Oh yeah, he's old. I'm sure he's not. He's old. Old, yeah. But he was there with a line around the whole freaking place waiting to see him. I just walked up to the front and just grabbed a selfie.
It's I'm not waiting hours for this, but I got a bill. Dance story. Okay. Yes. Let's hear it. So my dad went, my dad when we were younger we live here in Iowa and we would drive up to the Twin Cities and go to Minnesota Twins baseball game. Yeah. And. Rappel, I think it was, they had a, at the fishing or at the stadium there, they had a kid's tackle box day.
And so if you showed up as a kid, You would get a tackle box and then Oh, cool. So me and my brother got a tackle box and during the seventh inning stretch Bill dance and Kent Herbeck, I think his name is he was the first baseman for the Minnesota Twins for for several years. I think that's, I think that's his name, Kent Herbeck or something like that.
They had a fishing competition where they would stand like 40 or 50 feet [00:05:00] away and they would toss a jig into this little circle. Basically, it looked like a, almost a really big dog food bowl. And that Kent Herbeck, he beat. He beat Bill dance in that competition. It was, I, so that's the most bill dance thing ever.
I know. It's like the, and so they, they they had that little competition and it's, I don't know, it's something that I'll always remember. Yeah, it, bill dance obviously has been around for a long time. He transcends aeros, my kids like watching his old footage, and of course his blooper reels have been in classes.
Oh, that old. Yeah. And I think if I was that guy, I'd be like, yeah, I had so many rbis and Homer runs, but there's that one time I beat Bill Dan at a flipping competition. I gotta forget that. So yeah, that was fun, man. I enjoyed that. Every time I've. Gone to something like that big fishing event.
It's, it just fuels my fire. I'm sitting there in the crowd with Braden dude, I could do this. Fish the rocks, man. Go fish the rocks. Let me ask you a [00:06:00] question about that event, so I can remember watching those events when I was a kid on tv. They would have 'em and it was crazy. These guys would pull into a stadium.
A pro athlete, a professional sports arena, pyrotechnics would be going off. And people would be going crazy like Michael Jordan entered the room. Yep. And these are just bass fishermen? Yep. Is the same vi is it still the same vibe today? Yeah, it is. And what was really interesting, so they've started to incorporate more international.
Anglers into the mi not incorporate them. Yeah. Like they have earned their way there. And there's a Japanese guy that was there, there's an Australian guy, a couple Canadians. Mm-hmm. And so those people are coming from international. Yeah. Places to come watch these weigh-ins and stuff too.
It was cool that Carl Jacobson, who's from Australia, there was a big group of guys that were there waving Australian flags and Yeah. It's big fan. They have their own walkup music. Yeah. Like a baseball player. So when they [00:07:00] come in the arena, they. Picked out their song and Yeah.
Yeah it's pretty cool. Everybody, it's going and the announcer on stage is like excellent. Yeah. I He like gets you fired up. He's got a towel that he spins around and like whenever somebody walks in, everyone in the crowd somehow got towels. Me and Jacob didn't get 'em. I don't know what we missed.
I did figure out we were. We were allowed to go sit in those chairs down on the floor. Oh man. So we thought we got duped. Yeah. Into getting some of these tickets. We gave away our personal information and they were like, you can get these special tickets. We're like, cool. And we walked in and showed 'em to a lady and she was like, yeah, you can sit there.
And it was in like the second deck. We were like, Alright, cool. There's nobody there. I just got my totally duped, but no, we could have sat on the floor. That would've been sick. But yeah, no, it's super electric man. They like, it's a giant production. They had a whole big thing this year about how they named the trophy after race.
Got who was the original founder of the B a Ss. What is it like bass anglers? Sportsman society. Yes, that's right. Yeah, down in Alabama. So it was cool that they renamed or they named the [00:08:00] trophy after him and they had a whole big like storyline. So it's just like making the whole event feel like traditional and historical and special.
Like it was just I don't know. I thought it was cool to just be there and see all those guys and then made me. Keep up with them like, so Saturday I ended up watching the way in and then yesterday I ended up watching the way in where they had they came down to two guys, I think it's Brian Schmidt and then Jeffrey Gustafson.
Gustafson. Yeah. Yeah. And so this Brian Schmidt guy comes up. There's three dudes left. They call it the super six. They win. They had three guys go and none of them had enough weight to be in contention to win. So then it comes down to this guy Brian Schmidt, who all of a sudden hauls off and he's got a bag big enough to.
Potentially win the whole thing. So they put him on what's called the hot seat. And so they put him in a chair while everyone else, after they weigh in, they leave, they put him on a chair on the stage and make him just sit there and watch everybody weigh in to potentially win a million dollars. And he even said, he was like, I [00:09:00] don't know, man.
I think Gussie's got me on the small mouth. We're gonna see. And then Guss was the last guy to weigh in and turned out he won by he had two fish of his five back limit. But it weighed, I think it was like six something pounds. So he had two just. Monsters, small mouth, and he ended up pulling it out.
That's what he was catching all weekend, man. Yeah, he, it was like, some guys will do that. They. They'll lock into, this is how I'm fishing this, I'm not changing, I'm fishing these exact scenarios and cover and all that stuff. And he did that. Man, he's a, I think he does really well with smallmouth in general.
Yeah. And then he just locked into what he knew. That'ss a simple fishing too. Yeah. And that's what like everybody was saying, is like he's the best smallmouth fisherman in the world. He was literally telling everyone, I'm using this bait, I'm fishing this depth, I'm in this area, like this is what I'm doing.
And they all commented on a guy is really proficient on a specific type of fishing and talented at a certain [00:10:00] thing. If he can tell everyone, Hey, this is exactly what I'm doing. I'm gonna do it today, tomorrow, and the day after, and I'm either gonna win or lose doing it. Yeah. And then comes in with two giant limits on Friday and Saturday, and.
Nobody switched to it on Sunday. They were like, we're gonna have to beat him at the large mouth cause we cannot beat him at small mouth. Yeah. Like it was, yeah, it was fun too cuz they had this year on the feed, especially on bassmaster.com, you could watch their live scope or their front facing sonar as they're dropping their bait down.
And he had some hu I based on what I was seeing on there Yeah. Some huge fish that he was targeting. And he would get bite. And then move on to another spot. I'm like, dude, I'd be there for four hours trying to get obsessed. I'm proud of you for being able to move on, but I would've stayed there forever.
Yeah. Yeah. And did they have a, did they have a leaderboard? Obviously people can't be out on the water watching. Oh, they are? Oh, they can? Oh they can? Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. Do they at the event or wherever, do they [00:11:00] have a leaderboard, like an up-to-date, minute to minute leaderboard where, a guy catches a fish, there's a big announcement made, the crowd goes crazy, and then, it settles down again?
Or how's that work? Yeah, so the expo is in a different area from the way in and around the expo. This is expo is where all the brands are and stuff. So there's TVs here and there. And then the main commentators have an area set up where they're, they're talking throughout the whole, just like a end game commentator.
And so they're talking the whole time about what people are catching. I don't know that. The anglers themselves out on the water. Probably have some sort of sense of how people are doing, but I don't think they see the leaderboard know exactly. Yeah. How many pounds everybody else has. And even one point, at one point when I was watching it, one of the guys was saying he had a different weight in his boat than what the commentators were adding up.
And so that weigh in at the end of the day is like that's the true account. Yeah. Of. Comes in. And as far as people [00:12:00] being out there watching, yeah, there's a lot of boats that will follow these guys around out on the water, especially come Sunday where there's a couple, three guys that are really in contention for it.
And so they will have crowds of boats that follow them. And it was brought up yesterday when I was watching it with. Who was it? I think it was Brandon Polluck and somebody else were, they were asking the announcer was asking like, Hey, do you think this affects the fish? Because if those people come up with, if there's 10 or 12 boats around you and your fishing, if they have their sonar and their electronics on, it's pinging, and that can be heard by the fish.
Underwater. And so it has to have some sort of effect. Trolling motors, running engines coming up. And these guys will still catch fish amongst all that. But if I was in, I'd be like, gimme 20 yards. Get outta here. But plus it's public, plus all that water's public. So yeah. Literally another fisherman could be like, oh, you're in a tournament.
I don't give a, I don't care. I'm fishing. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, [00:13:00] they actually showed somebody yesterday fishing around docks and, perspective's kind of hard to tell on the camera, but if I had to guess in front of him, 200 yards was just dude on the front of his boat fishing the bank.
So yeah it's not a closed venue at all. Yeah. Yeah. I can't imagine missing a fish. We were talking about that like with a million dollars on the line. There was one guy telling a story on stage where he brought his limit up and he had he didn't, he caught two big fish and then three smaller ones, and he was like, man, I had.
A four pound come up and eat the blade on my spinner bait, and then like in a dock, and then went to the next bay in the dock and had a three pounder come out and eat the blade on my spinner bait and that he would've won. So like sets that have been, like a six or seven pound difference and he'd have won the tournament million dollars on the line. I get, I know I sometimes try to set the hook and I'm like, nah. Like I cannot imagine being on that boat like on the last day in the Bassmaster Classic and a fish comes up and eats your blade and you're just like, nah. Yeah. Like it would be just wa watching a [00:14:00] million dollars swim away.
Yeah. Really did. Literally watched a million dollars from away so obviously you can tell by as excited as Braden and. Have been talking about this, highly recommend checking it out. Yeah. If it comes close, go see it. It just, I even took my son a couple years ago in Birmingham, and he keeps asking, he wanted to go yesterday.
He was like, can we just go down Sunday? I'm like, buddy, I know it's close, but we can't do it. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. The whole family will. Yep. It's gonna be something. I try to make an annual tradition if possible. I mean it and I wish I'd have thought ahead. I'd have made a few days of it and Tennessee was playing Texas a and m called baseball and baseball, so I could have caught that three game series.
I could have gone to the launch, gone to baseball, and then gone to the way in for three days. That's like my dream scenario. So I'll be trying to do that in the future. Yeah. All right. Let's move on to some other topics. I know there's a bunch of stuff happening in the world of hunting with regulations and changes being made and cameras being outlawed and Yeah, crossed both [00:15:00] stuff happening.
So Dan, I think you're probably the. The most well versed on some of this stuff. Why don't you kick us off and let's hear what's happening. Yeah, so really the buzz lately in the hunting world, the seasons are over all the talk on strategy and tactics and things like that has of died down.
But what. Seems to be popping up right now all over the country is the introduction of new rules and regulations into, each state's rules and regulations, right? Legislation comes in and says, Hey, we wanna pass this bill that will allow this to happen. Or we want to see more deer tags and things like, And recently, I'm gonna speak from my my experience here and a as an Iowan and a lot of the things that have been going on in Iowa and other states and guys I've been talking to in other states since I've been talking about that have reached out to me and be like, Hey, man, that, that same thing is happening in our [00:16:00] state too.
And it, it's just absurd. And This con, this conversation that I'm gonna have today. I, I don't want it to be pro crossbo or anti crossbow. I don't want it to be pro non-resident hunter or anti non-resident hunter. What I do want it to be about is that we have. People that are not in the let's just say the DNR or the conservation space or the natural resource space who are introducing these laws or trying to make these decisions.
It's outside influences from, it's legislation from politicians, from lobbyists and things like that. And so a lot of people, Their eyes are getting opened up to this right now, and a lot of people are having a problem with that, especially when it comes to and I'll just this is where I step in.
There's a crossbo bill in Iowa that has recently been introduced, and so we have a company out of New York. [00:17:00] They have hired lobbyists, these lobbyists and come to find out, I think it's not just in Iowa, it's over several states and these lobbyists are trying to get crossbo. Introduced into the archery season.
And so the company goes, okay, we're gonna hire a lobby, these lobbyists for the, this amount of money. Because we feel that if these laws pass, then we stand to make more money ourselves because these rules and regulations passed. And for here in Iowa the want and the need to use crossbows during the archery season.
It's not coming from Iowa hunters, it's not coming from other hunters saying, Hey, we want a crossbow season, or we want more non-resident hunters, or we want, fill in the blank. or, and it's not the the department of natural resource. It is lobbyists and politicians who are saying, Hey, let's do this.
Let's introduce this. And so I find it personally a bit [00:18:00] ridiculous that we, that these things are even being considered and we're treating these animals like commodities. Like cattle and, and things that, okay we'll just farm 'em and, and not a natural resource where, in my opinion, a natural resource needs to be very, managed, very fine tuned.
And there's a lot of talk in, across all states, especially whitetail states. The topic of having a gun season during. And, a lot of people are upset that we don't, like for example, I've talked to several guys from a state like Michigan or Pennsylvania or New York where their firearm season is right in the middle of the rut.
And a lot of these guys, and a lot of the people that I talk to are bow hunters first probably. So there's a little bit of a lien in that information of what I'm getting compared to the rest of the state and. I just feel like conversations like that and who is making the laws where these new laws are coming from, and that if you, if the hunters of that [00:19:00] state don't like it, we don't have to accept it.
We can reach out to our elected officials, we can reach out to the Department of Natural Resources and let 'em know Hey, we don't want these things to happen in. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds it's less about what the rules and regulations coming down are more about who's introducing them and paying attention to yeah, who's throwing this out there?
Maybe it's a good idea, maybe it's a bad idea, but if it's about money and about all this stuff, like that's what Totally wrong motivation, that's right's. Surprising that they can sneak something through that without the blessing of, dnr. Dnr. Like how does that not.
Factored in. Isn't that like their place in the states as to manage that? That's what I thought. Okay. And so check this out. This is crazy. From my understanding, a politician will introduce a bill. Maybe, a lobbyist will get to a politician. They'll say, Hey, we want this to go through a a bill comes to light.
From my understanding, the dn. [00:20:00] Cannot express their concerns about a bill to the politicians and say, this is bad. Yep. It's what? Are you kidding me? You're correct, Brad. Yeah, that is the DN R'S job or whatever your state calls that agency. I That is their job. But unfortunately what's going on is these politics, the politicians are starting to overstep.
Overstep might not even be the word, but they're basically taking the DNR outta the equation. They're just making decisions based off what they want and what they think is best. So that's where like Sportsman's Alliance and all that type of stuff is, so critical now is that they're basically filling the spot and that's why dnr, it's also why it's critical for us as Hunters, anglers, outdoors, mens to verse or to, make our opinions known to our representatives and everyth.
Yeah. And even we as hunters, sh I agree that hunters are on the landscape. We know Hey, man, I can tell you right now the Turkey population in Iowa is way lower than it was 10 years [00:21:00] ago. Something's different there, and I can observe that. We go to the Department of Natural Resources and we say, Hey, there's an issue.
What's the issue? Then the dnr comes back and gives us information after tests and studies and, yeah. And, accounts and all that stuff. Or same thing with deer hunting and the harvest reports and data and science and things like that. And I agree that hunters have their place in it as well, but we also should not be in charge of rules and regulations.
Yeah. That should be up to, we should say, Hey we wanna see this happen, we wanna see this, we would love to have a one buck or two bucks, or, more of a limit or a higher limit. Or even in, in fisheries, we were just talking about fish. We want, we will, we want the limit to go up or we want the limit to go down and.
It's the job of the Department of Natural Resources to say, okay, if we do this, then this is the outcome cause and effect. Yeah. And then if the effect is a negative towards the natural resource, Then we, it shouldn't be, [00:22:00] it shouldn't even be introduced, or it shouldn't even be talked about after that.
Yeah. It's Hey, let's have a three Turkey let's introduce in Iowa. Say right now you can have let's just say one Turkey tag. Let's say a whole bunch of people to get together and say, we want two Turkey tags. Right now the population in Iowa is low. We shouldn't do that.
Cuz you know, people are greedy and whatnot. So my whole point of this is they're like number one. I don't think politicians should have any say, or lobbyists, in my opinion, should have any say in a state's set of rules and regulations. The hunters should voice their opinion.
We should talk to in have really good communication with the Department of Natural Resources. Let them do their studies, let them have the science and then communicate. On how some of these rules and regulations are happening now, take out with a grain of salt because there's certain [00:23:00] things that the Department of Natural Resources can and can't do.
They don't determine land prices, right? They don't determine like access and things like that. And. Certain rules and regulation changes. If you introduce more non-resident tags into a state, then there's a chance that, out non-resident land hunters or non-resident landowners will come into a state.
They will buy that land. They will displace residents, things, some things like that may happen. And that can't be controlled necessarily by the Department of Natural Resources as far as what. After a rule in regulation is concerned, it, they all, it, all, it all, in my opinion, has a really big impact on the natural resource itself.
Yeah. Yeah. I think ultimately the, what it boils down to is regulations being set by profit margins as the motivator. Yeah. Is a fact. Slippery [00:24:00] slope, because then we can continue to go down this path. Who knows what pockets were greased to get this thing rolling. Yeah. Oh yeah.
And it just, it goes down a path that I don't think any of us want because we all, I'm speaking for all of us on this show for sure. We want what's best for the animals, for the fish? Yes. Or the landscape. Yes. And any decision that's not made with those things in mind instantly. Non-starter.
Yeah. That's where it has to start. And I, any time something starts with lobbyists doing something it makes me really concerned. It being the tip of the iceberg and what's next, yeah. It's what was the deal with the trail cameras in Kansas? You're talking about getting banned on public?
Yeah. And so where'd that come from? Yeah. I don't know. It was just out of the blue. And usually there's rumblings of something that happened before. Hey I heard that Kansas is gonna ban trail cameras on public. I heard this, or I heard this law is gonna pass in this [00:25:00] state.
And then sometimes it doesn't. But what these lobbyists and I'm not gonna use the Kansas trail camera ban on public land as an example. I'm just, these people are really good at sneaking things. And then as hunters, if we're not on top of it all the time, some things can get passed.
Yeah. And so this didn't come down to a vote. As far as hunters are concerned, it came down to a vote I think by the Department of Natural Resources. And what you have here is and I don't know if this is the case in Nebraska, but you have people who are non hunter. Who are starting to be members of these boards and be part of the voting structure of how some of these rules and regulations are.
And they don't care, right? They don't care if a trail camera ban, is a, is a trail camera. Are trail cameras on public land good or bad? The Department of Natural Resources should, should say, here's what we. We've done a study, this and that. And so [00:26:00] I don't like, I don't know where it came from.
Yeah. That's a long way of saying, I don't know where it came from. I don't know how it happened and how it happened so fast, but there's a lot of people who are pissed off about this ban and I've talked to people who hunt public in. Kansas and they're like, this sucks. But then you have to remember that Kansas is the, has the lowest percentage of public land in the entire United States, Nebraska, or Kansas is number one.
Iowa is number two. So we have the, we have our two states have the lowest. And so of course, the people who hunt public in those states are gonna have a. Share a voice, I don't know, a lower voice or a, a lower percentage of people who actually hunt on 'em, just cuz it's not available. And so it's not impacting a huge mass of people.
Like if they just said, Hey, trail cameras are banned all across the state on all property, then there [00:27:00] would be giant uproars and be like, what is going on? But because, and and this is where I've, I have seen things it's a stepping. Okay. First, we're gonna ban 'em on public.
Now what? What's the next thing they're gonna take away from us? Or what's the next thing that they're gonna do? I'm all for certain laws to be passed. If the science, and if it's based off science and data, right? If there's an here's the deal. Trail cameras on public are killing, killing deer.
Okay, yeah, let's ban it. Or it's affecting their reproductive or it's causing 'em stress or whatever the, that's all hype. That's all made up, but, It just seems it seemed like it came outta nowhere and I don't think it was based off any science or data. Geez. And I'm not just, oh, sorry.
You can go, if you're gonna say something intelligent, go ahead. Cause I'm gonna say something kinda, I don't know how intelligent, smart, I was gonna say that. I don't know if this is the situation that's going on in Kansas, but I've. I've also seen too, where they [00:28:00] will pass something to make it appear as though they're trying to make an effort to fix something, but really they're not.
And yeah. An example that I have seen here locally in Kentucky was last year there, and I don't honestly know where it ended up. I don't know how far it got or anything, but I know that there was a lot of people are saying, we need to work on our Turkey populations. It's Turkey seasons. Let's talk about that, Everyone's seeing Turkey populations dropping.
Everyone wants something to be done about it. There was a push to make it to where we're gonna change it to where you can only harvest one bearded bird on public. And so that kind of appears to the public eye okay, they're making a move. They're trying to make an initiative to work on it. When you look at the numbers, yeah.
And saw how many birds were harvested on public land in Kentucky, and then if you dropped it down to just a one bag limit bird, someone did the math, I'm gonna butcher the numbers, but they were like, okay, we're talking about a difference of. 15 birds at the end of the season. Oh, wow. That does nothing.
Yeah. And so like I, I'm not saying that's what's going on in Kansas with the trail cameras, but that is also something that [00:29:00] does happen from time to time. Yeah. Somebody will make a push, introduce a bill, do something. Yeah. Perception from on the outside, the perception is, oh, they're working on it.
But yeah. But nothing's actually being done. Again, coming back to the fact of like motivation behind it and like actually there's not a hunter. There's a small percentage of hunters that like wouldn't care if the numbers said, Hey, this is gonna help the Turkey population, you're gonna take less birds for five years.
But ultimately your son's gonna get to hunt turkeys, Absolut successfully Absolutely. Where you grew up. We're all like, okay, cool. And I think that's the weird thing of the outside perception, looking at hunters is they just wanna kill stuff and all this stuff. It's no.
We're the ones paying attention to this stuff. Trying to make sure to preserve it. Yeah. And keep it going. So yeah it's frustrating. We aren't, to some effect factored into the equation. And then most importantly, like d n r and studies and stuff like that aren't getting factored. I always thought the surveys that we took, like played a large role.
I It gives, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. Tons of information that they want when we complete these surveys, and I get surveys for, hunting. I get surveys from trapping [00:30:00] season every year and I fill everything out. Cause I'm trying to be as helpful as I can to them to give them the information they need to come up with, the conclusions that they come to.
But ultimately if the state doesn't allow them to do anything with it. Yeah. What do we, we're just wasting time, but I'm still, yeah, I still do your part though, yeah, definitely do as much as we can. But it's frustrating and like disheartening that it's not getting factored into this stuff.
Yeah. Like I guess it's, do we need to do a better job of going up a level and talking to like officials and stuff like that? Are you just calling and emailing what do you do? But that's the, so that's where I have a question. My gut is to talk to a DNR representative about this stuff, cuz I feel like it's their purview.
But if you go up to an elected official, How much impact are they gonna, it almost like they're gonna be relinquishing some control. Like why would they then go to DNR and say Hey, you guys need to control this. Yeah. Take this over for me. Yeah. I personally don't know who that person is that I would contact to feel like it's going to go somewhere to, yeah.
Help. [00:31:00] Improve impact that DNR has on these kind of decisions. So here's what I will say. I will say that the DNR I in the state of Iowa does an amazing job at collecting the data, at passing it on to the right people and getting everybody properly informed Now, Where do the introduction of the bills come from?
They come from politicians who votes on the bills, politicians, right? And so whether or not the politicians take into consideration anything that the DNR says, that's to each their own. But here's what I will tell you. And this is the silver lining to the bitching that I've done here today, and that is, So I recently when all these things that I felt were gonna hurt Iowa have been, were introduced, ear Earlier in March I started working with a company or a organization called the Iowa Bow Hunters Association and.
So we got thousands of people. They have a system set up just like the the Sportsman's [00:32:00] Alliance does to where you enter your name, you enter your email address. They already have an email prepared for you, and really all you have to do is hit submit and it sends what you don't like, or what you oppose or what you support.
To go to the officials, the elected officials who actually vote on those matters, and I will say this, there are politicians on hunter's sides, and all we have to do is let them know that we we support or we do not support a certain bill. And then they'll stand up and they'll fight for us. And especially when you become organized like we did through the Iowa Bow Hunters Association and through.
Other org orgs like Sportsman's Alliance, you get a concentration of people. And then if a politician goes, Hey man, I just got a thousand emails from people this week about opposing a certain amount, a certain rule, they're gonna, they would've, it would be bad for them to vote again.
Vote for. [00:33:00] Yeah. Because only 10% really probably people who support or who oppose that law are going to contact you, right? And so the. The more people who we get involved, the more people that we we get in communication with these elected officials, the more they have a feel for who they're who they're I don't know their, what's the word I'm looking for?
Their demographic or the people that Constitu constituency. Yeah. Constituents. Yes. And. And so are in their area because they, a politician's job is to get reelected. That And so unfortunately Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately. Yeah. So they don't wanna pass any laws that are going to get them out of a job.
Yeah. And so that's why it's important to find an organization or just voice your opinion as much as possible about everything. And the Iowa Bow Hunters Association, not only. Does that, but they made it really simple to, all you really had to do is hit [00:34:00] one button. It took 30 seconds. And I felt I voiced my opinion to not just any politician, but the people who are in these these committees and things like that.
And some of those bills ended up getting knocked down. Yeah. And they're not up for debate anymore. They're not up for vote anymore because there was enough of us who rallied together. The thing about it is these same companies, these same lobbyists, these same politicians are gonna try to do it.
Yeah. The next cycle. Yeah. And they'll do it again the next cycle, and they'll try to be more sneaky about it. Yep. Yeah. And they're, they'll do it at a time when they feel like we're not paying attention. Yeah. But somebody's always paying attention. And it's that person who really, it's the people within those organizations that really do need the pat on the back.
Yeah, you're right. And that's something that's cool about. I've seen this in Go Wild happen many times where there's all these bills like going around where people are like, Hey, sign here. Do this thing, especially if you live in this area. Take that stuff seriously. Don't be afraid to spend a little [00:35:00] time like figuring out what's coming down the pike and then share it to like whatever community have, like we love that stuff.
Like anything. Supporting hunters, anglers, outdoor enthusiasts to any degree like that stuff is more than welcome on. Go wild. We try to, we've done stuff in the past to like include in emails and push it and, I obviously we're playing a small part in the large amount of, signatures and stuff that come through, but We'll do the best we can to support that.
If you all can just, we'll do our part to bring up stuff in our states, but y'all do the same and share it with the community and then, part of that organized bit, that's what we're here for. Yeah. Don't be afraid to share that stuff and if you see somebody encourage 'em, put a bow on what I'm saying there We encourage that stuff, share it, and go wild and support people that are sharing it as well because they did some work on your behalf to find out it's going down and now that you're aware of it, get on board support and share it.
Yeah, and I we're talking some of dirty opinions on lobbyists, Sportsman's alliance. That's what they do. And so it's not all lobbyists? No. No. Get the ones that are focused on only the ones that we like. Yeah. Get associated with [00:36:00] and find the ones that are out there fighting for the stuff that you love.
And we've said their name multiple times, they definitely recommend checking out Sportsman's Alliance. Yeah. And I have said before, like I don't get into the litigious. They're out there fighting it. They understand these bills, they read this stuff. They know what's trying to be snuck through. Yeah.
I don't want to deal with that. So like offload that. Let them go fight that battle for us. And I wanna say one more thing and then we could, we should probably wrap it up here, is if there's a style of hunting that you don't. And you don't think it impacts you. Let's say for example if there's a waterfowl bill, I don't waterfowl hunt, I'm a deer hunter or whatever.
And there's a waterfowl bill that may affect or take away rights o of waterfowl hunters. Just because it doesn't impact me, doesn't mean I shouldn't care about it. And as hunters, we often separate ourselves into groups when really we are all under one umbrella of sportsmen. And so [00:37:00] we should.
Just whenever there's an a deer hunting rule and regulation and I contact my elected official, I should be doing the same thing with all Turkey hunting, coon hunting, trapping fishing, things like that, that would impact, my, my fellow, my brothers in outdoors. We should be taking care of that responsibility as.
Because it, all they're trying to do is chop down a big giant tree and they do that one swing at a time by passing these laws. Yep. And that's, they always start, it seems like they always start with predator hunting and trapping. And that's dogs kinda like in Hounds. Hounds and stuff like that. And if you pay attention to what's going on in those spaces, you can see what's gonna be a trickle down effect that is Yeah.
If you're I'm just, if you're a person that's just a, rifle hunter and I go out for a couple weeks, once a year and take a deer and that's. But you think I don't care what they're doing about trapping rules and regulations, you need to yeah. More raccoons means less turkeys.
You know what I mean? Whatever. But that fact, one thing about what you were saying there, Dan, like [00:38:00] a scary story old as time, is if you wanna control a large group of people to divide 'em into smaller groups like that's fact. And if we let that happen To us or and this applies to other things, but that's what's going on.
And then, trying to pit each pit ourselves against each other, that's why the hate in all the groups and all the stuff against each other ultimately is just we're working against ourselves. And as much as we can unify and try to protect what we love, the more it's gonna be around for a long time and be something that, we can pass down generation to generation.
Yeah. And I think across the state borders conversation is if you're seeing it happen in another state and you're not speaking up. Just be prepared to that state being referenced when they come for your state. Absolutely. It's it. It doesn't stop at a borderline. Yep. All right. All right, boys.
Time conversation kind of got me excited in the beginning. Now I'm a little fired up. It's been an emotional rollercoaster this morning. Time to riot. All right, we'll make sure y'all log this show and go wild. Get your points, get your rewards. If you haven't done that yet, get out and give us a review on the [00:39:00] podcast platform of your choosing platform.
Yes, I always wanna call it something else, platform of your choice. So check us out. See you next week. Thanks y'all. See you.
