Show Notes
In this week’s [UNCENSORED] podcast by GoWild, we dial-in with Dan Johnson from Sportsmen’s Empire. We kick things off by testing the tea bag coffee from Wildland Coffee and get into a chat about the various podcast styles and why we settled on the format that we did for this show. We’ve been friends with Dan for a while now; we like what he is doing and he likes what we are doing, so we decided to join forces–see what that’s going to look like moving forward. Is there another GoWild podcast in the works?
Dan questions what it really means to be an “expert” at something. He asks Brayden about his journey into becoming a fly angler and Brayden mentions his easiest and hardest parts of transitioning from bass fishing to fly fishing. Dan also talks about the challenge of having interviewed over 1,000 podcast guests and shares his experience from the recent Iowa Deer Classic tradeshow and what makes it one of the best. He recounts his glory days as a whitetail antler shed hunter and drops a bombshell bone-finding tip. He also gives us his no-fail, dummy-proof longbeard-flopping guide to killing turkeys.
Brayden set up his new rod and reel and is gearing up for a fly fishing trip with several GoWild members. He started with the Orvis Encounter rod/reel combo but is now scaling up to a DIY setup. Jacob paid off some of his marital debt to be able to join them on the trip! He also mentions his favorite flies to use this time of year.
Brad celebrated his daughter’s birthday and spent the weekend elbow deep in unicorns and rainbows. Dan mentioned how he got his young daughter a cell phone–and why he instantly regretted it! We’ve got several parents on the show today and get into the strangest, craziest, and wildest things our kids are saying and doing. Aside from these normal antics, what can we do as parents to help them with survival skills and other important life lessons?
Don’t forget about the UTV giveaway: Learn more and enter now and let us know how you like this new podcast format with Dan.
[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.
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Show Transcript
[00:00:00] As if we didn't have enough problems getting started with the show today, we're trying to do our first like, remote dial-in, in for uncensored. So, uh, it, it's taken us exactly 16 minutes to figure out how to do this. Uh, but we're here and we got the Dan Johnson in the house. Dan, what's up? Oh, not too much, man.
I'm, I'll be honest with you, I'm excited, like I'm pretty jacked up right now to be a part of this. I'm, I'm very excited. Before we talk about who Dan is, I gotta say we're gonna drop these in. My buddy owns Wildland Coffee and he's, he's a small, small business entrepreneur, and he said, Hey dude, if I send you guys some coffee, we try 'em out on the show and let people know what you think.
So we're gonna do this. Jacob's never had it before. I've never had this roast. So the whole, whole deal here, Dan, is, it's like a teabag of coffee and it's perfect for back country. That's what he, he, uh, sells 'em. Yep. And so, uh, [00:01:00] it is at, at 10 25. We will have ideally the perfect roast of coffee. So we'll circle back on this in a second.
But his, his company's wildland coffee and I believe the website's wildland coffee.co if you wanna check these out. But, um, uh, love what Zack's doing. I've had the one that Jacob has, and I will say it's like, better than anything else. I brew at home. I'm not worthy of the cup, uh, cup of coffee we're gonna have here.
So, yeah. I've had that light roast too. It's awesome. It is. Awesome fan. It is awesome. All right, Dan, so you, you and I have known each other for a while. Yep. And, uh, I love what you're doing and then we. We came up with this show format that we're doing here and, uh, you know, kind of finally just took off the guest off the table of doing that traditional guest and expert format because we realized we weren't really good at it.
And, uh, it fully makes me appreciate guys like you who are good at it. Um, you know, I, I think we did like 200 and some shows on two other, uh, two other restless native and gearbox talk. And, uh, logistically it's really. And [00:02:00] so what's funny is we, we said, we'll screw it. We'll just start talking about, you know, we'll do, we'll do a show where we come in, talk about our weekend, kinda just hanging out.
No pressure, no need to be an expert. And it's turned into just hilarious stories of, uh, epic failures in, in the woods waters and whatevers. And there's been some success. We had great deer season. Uh, you know, these guys talk about the fishing trips and stuff, but what's funny is that's the show that people have really connected with.
So, so just to get everybody else up to speed, this is Dan Johnson. The founder of the Sportsmans Empire. And so we started talking to Dan and we, we were like, we like what you're doing. You like what we're doing with this new show? Uh, felt like we should be working together. So Dan, uh, and, and Braden got this relationship worked out to where we join Dan's podcast network.
And uh, part of this was like, well, we should get Dan in every now and. Uh, to talk about, you know, what he's up to. And then we get a little bit of an expert in, in our ranks here, at least some intelligence. Somebody who actually knows what they're doing, some reasonable intelligence from time to time. But then, funny enough, Dan was like, nah [00:03:00] man, I just want to come in and hang out and BS with you guys, because, you know, it's so different than what else I do.
So anyways, Dan, welcome as a, uh, uh, occasional co-host of Uncensored. Yeah. Um, and you used a word. Uh, in your, uh, description of me and you used it at used expert . Uh, dude, I'm not like, I'm not an expert at anything at all, period. So yes, I've done something a lot of times, but I still don't feel like I'm, I'm an expert man.
I, I mess up. every day. Yeah, dude. Well that's, that's part of, uh, part of it and it's, it's almost like the more you get out and do stuff, the, the more you figure out what not to screw up next time. That's kind of how I look at it. I've, I've gotten to see that with Braden, who, uh, had hunted some as a kid, but I think go wild kind of threw him back into deer hunting a hundred percent.
And it's been fun. If you go back and just listen to. Episode one of Uncensored and go forward. You can hear Braden learn how to Deer hunt. And then this year, got his first, or last year got his first, uh, public land archery Buck was [00:04:00] super proud of him. Um, so it it is, uh, it is what you said though. It's like everybody's always screwing up along the way.
Yeah, well it's only a matter of time till he has his own Deer Hunting Strategy podcast where he gives advice to other. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. It's like the, the, the great, that's like the evolution of it all. Yeah. You know, you end up with your own show. Braden keeps trying to get Derek, uh, to, to, to do his own show cuz Derek is actually probably the, the most.
Uh, most experty not, he's not an expert. He would be proficient. He's the most proficient, um, of, of any of us, I would say at most thing. Or at, like the, the hunting. He's a hunting and trapping hunter. Yeah, he's, he's, he's a fool. So we, we keep talking about giving it Derek a podcast, but I think we need an angle on it.
It's like, you know, Derek just sits down and, and, uh, you know, he's gotta come up with something that's totally. Yeah. You know, we're working on it. No guest format. Yeah. Oh, you're gonna, you're still trying to do I can do it. Oh, I'm still working on it. You're still pushing it? Oh, yeah. I'm gonna get there someday.
Yeah. All right. I like it. Well, all right guys. What'd you do this weekend? [00:05:00] Man, I did, uh, I'm just getting ready for this fly fishing trip we've got coming up, um, which next weekend, right. Which we'll talk, talk a lot about. Yeah. Um, got a, a new rod and reel set up, um, in December. And so just collecting all the stuff you need for that.
So I got my going back and forth with Jacob on like, what kind of backing I need to get. This is like when I started fly fishing with these guys. I just bought, um, it's called the Orvis Encounter two set up. It's a rod reel combo and it actually comes like. Ready to roll, you're backing and you're line, everything is, it even has like tip it on it leader and tip it, it's is ready to rock.
Um, which was cool and got me into it quickly. Um, and then really liked it. So, um, decided for this season that I would get like, you know, kind of start from the ground up, build my own like rod reel set up. So, um, Just been working on getting that ready to go. Got some, some buddies that have fly fished out west, um, quite a bit that were kind of turning their nose up at, at the Kentucky fly fishing.
I was like, man, it's fun. Like dust off your rod and reel. We'll [00:06:00] get some flies for you. Come with us. So, um, we're heading down with, I think it's like nine or 10 dudes from, we got some people in the go wild community that, um, I had saw been logging. Trophies in Kentucky. Mm. Um, fly fishing and just, I commented on one, like, Hey, that's awesome.
I'd fly fish Kentucky. And the dude was like, yeah, uh, I, I do too. I, it'd be, I'd be honored. Just shake your all's hand and go fly fish for the awe. I was like, well prepare to be under one that hard , but, uh, you wanna come like, this is, he's like, yeah, I'm gonna be there. So, um, it's gonna be a really cool trip.
Just been getting ready for that mostly. Uh, are you going? Yeah, I'll be there. Okay, sure. I knew, I knew you were. After trade show season, you're, you're in a little bit of the marital debt that you can get into. Yeah, so I made some hefty deposits into that bank account this weekend. Moved two tons of dirt for my wife's garden and I made up for it.
So I'm, I am off Sunday, I am out fishing. Dan, do you do any, uh, fishing at all? Uh, fishing? Yes. Fly fishing. No. I, I [00:07:00] do have a question for Braden. What was the learning curve like for you? B an okay. Fly fishing caster. The casting part was, I mean, it's definitely a huge adjustment. Um, I actually down in Tennessee one time, got to just on a whim, my uncle, who does not fly fish or anything, was we were just on a vacation together, um, with him, my cousins and stuff, and he was like, Hey, I got us a, a.
Small little fly fishing guide. Let's go down to this creek and do it. So my first introduction to fly fishing really was, was with a guide. Um, and so I got some good pointers there. Obviously, me and Jacob, good buddies. I've, I've heard him talk a lot about it. And, um, Basically took a few of those things, kind of talked to Jacob, got my setup, and then went with Jacob for my first time.
And he was next to me kind of saying like, here, you know, here's the basics. And I, the hardest part for me honestly was the hook set. And that's something I still struggle with [00:08:00] from going from bass fishing. Yeah. To fly fishing, man. Like I, I'm sure on Sunday I'll be hammering some hook sets and pulling flies outta fish's mouth.
But, um, I do that with salt. Yeah, it's the same thing. There's some of the, depending on species, and some of them you don't want to Yeah. Rip it. And the guides always end up yelling at me. He's like, dude, you're not bass fishing. Stop. I know , if you're using those circle hooks too, they're meant to just start reeling.
Yeah. And they self hook themselves. And if you go to pool and set the hook Yeah. Comes right out. Yeah. I cost myself a lot of fish last summer. Yeah. Yeah. And I, like I said, I am, I, every time I go for the first time of the season, I always am just like, for the first 30 minutes, just like for reset, getting mad.
Pulling flies outta fish's mouth. But, uh, hopefully that, that's a little less time this, this year, um, messing around and screwing that up, but I don't know. We'll see. All right, Jacob, let's try this coffee. There's never a good way to drink coffee with a headset on. Like, I feel like I should be drinking coffee when I'm recording a podcast.
See? Dan's got it going. Yeah. There you go. Dan's got, [00:09:00] he's like, this is how you do it, Dan. Yeah. Um, the pretty. Yeah. Uh, so, all right, we're gonna, I got the dark roast here, and I have not had the dark roast before, so I feel like this is gonna burn my face off. It might, mm. Tell me that's not amazing. Excuse, man.
That's better. That's good. That's better than anything else we have. Yeah, that's good. I, I love it, dude. And it's so easy. So, if. If you wanna check it out, wild Wildland Coffee. Uh, Zach's an awesome dude. These, these things are super cheap. I'm actually taking a bunch of these when I go camping here next in a couple weeks cuz uh, you know, throw, throw a pot on the stove and then just pour it over and eight minutes later, perfection.
The no mass French press, the no mass French press. That's right. Well, you know, when I, when I go fishing, especially when it's cold and it's likely to be cold this weekend. Um, I will sometimes take an, you know, an old school Stanley Thermos with coffee to be able to have that little warmup later. But it cooks like, it literally continues to brew, brew in that [00:10:00] thing.
And so I could just take hot water and some of these guys and then I don't have to worry about s stinky trucks. Stop coffee. Yeah. Midway through the day. Yeah, man. Cool. So I. Go ahead. What kind of coffee That, uh, tastes like cigarettes. It was cigarettes. ? Yes. Well aged coffee. Yeah. I, uh, I spent this weekend, I'm putting a light bar on my suv.
Oh, sick. And, uh, they're so cheap now versus when I, I used to have lights on my, um, old Subaru and I had, uh, I've had 'em up top for a while, and then I ended up mounting 'em on the, the front. Um, way easier to install than when I tore, tore into my Highlander this weekend. Mm-hmm. , the freaking grommet on the firewall is like, you, you would have to be a mechanic to remove all of the things in between the access to the firewall.
And so I spent 30 minutes trying to think of how I was gonna do this this weekend, and then finally said, screw it. And I bought the extender and I'm just gonna go in the passenger [00:11:00] side. Okay. So that was literally the only manly thing I did all weekend. , uh, had a, a birthday celebration with my little girl, and it was all unicorns and rainbows and waffles.
I made, I made unicorn waffles. I would, dude, that was like a dad achievement of my life. I think it was legit. I, I had, uh, Dan, I had this waffle and uh, took out like one quarter of it, so it was kind of shaped with the head, and then I, I had pink frosting and I homem. Pink frosting, unicorn, uh, or the horn and, and put 'em in the freezer.
My little girl was so happy. I was like, dad of the year for sure. Yeah. Yeah. She'll remember that forever, man. She will. Dude. I, uh, and to an age where, you know, uh, when the real little, like my littlest one right now, it's like, you know, she's not gonna remember Yeah. A damn thing. It happens. Uh, but it's fine.
You know, you're doing it more for you. Them having a good time. Okay. Yeah. But this one, you know, turn, turning when they get into that 4, 5, 6, like, I remember stuff from that age, so, yeah. Uh, but yeah, uh, that was, that was most of my, we had unicorn, pinatas, the, [00:12:00] the whole thing. So, um, on what, what was the gift?
What was the gift that you got your daughter? Uh, she got, um, She got a ton of unicorn stuff. Uh, she got this little re remote control unicorn that she can program like, like code to do these certain things. She liked that a lot. She got a Princess Lego set. Uh oh. Nice. She got a snow white doll. Uh, we got her, we, we took our son's old bike, which he had hardly ridden before.
You outgrew it and we put pink or like little flower stickers and everything on it. Put a pink basket on it. It's got a little cat bell sick. Um, so yeah, she, she got smothered in gifts. Uh, lots of little, she's, she's a girly girl, like loves all the, all the princess stuff. So, got overwhelmed with that kind of stuff.
Sweet. On the lights. How old, how old is your oldest kid? Uh, he's about to be eight. About to be eight. Okay. Yeah. So my daughter just turned. 10 last weekend, and we made the decision that sh you know, she's [00:13:00] staying home by herself while we go to the store and things like that. So we got her a phone. Mm.
Instantly regretted that. Instantly , I mean, she, I will not let my son hear this episode. , oh my God. In instantly, she was instantly turned into like, A businesswoman from a 1980s movie, . Sorry, . That's the only way that I can define it. She's like, yeah, okay. I'll be there in a minute. Yeah, yeah. Hey, what are you doing?
Okay. Yeah, I'll be there. All right. You know, just, I'm like, Jesus, dude, this was horrible. That is so funny. Uh, there's a company called Gab Wireless that G A B B that makes phones that don't have apps. It's basically. Just par. It's got all these parental controls. And I told my son cuz he wanted an iPhone.
Oh. Uh, and he's got, he's got a cousin that has a, has a iPhone that's a little bit older than him. But I was like, dude, not happening. Yeah. And then I, I said, at some point you can get a gab. And so now he figured out that gab. has smart watches and so, and it's a phone still and they have like [00:14:00] emergencies if they like it tracks 'em and all this stuff for like, again, parental, cool parental controls.
But now he's just asking nonstop like, uh, once a month. He's like, so how old do I have to be to get a gab? Like, well when I feel like, like when I'm leaving you places, it's probably like there is an aspect to that. And that's a imagine that was part of your decision dance, like when they're not around you, uh, if they're staying over at somebody's house or something.
It is. Yeah, it is. I can see like the safety and the benefit of that for sure. There's no landlines. Yeah. For the most part anymore. So if they stay home, there's, I would probably just end up texting my son and be like, can you come down here and clean up the basement? Like, that's what he doesn't understand.
Like that's what's gonna happen. Things are gonna get worse for him. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'll be able to find you, I'll be able to find you at any time. , like, I need you to fix your, especially with the The tracking. The tracking. Yeah. When I. When my daughter goes, Hey, I want a phone. My instant, my first thought was I wanted to get her, uh, a phone for elderly people called a jitter bug.
A jitter bug. And all it, all it is, is just like a, [00:15:00] uh, a phone with giant numbers on it so they can see Yeah, see what numbers they're hitting. And so, and my wife was like, that's not fair. And, and whatever. So she's gonna get made fun of. She got us on her phone. Yeah. Uh, you know, speaking to my son this weekend, he got, he's kind of violent sometimes.
Uh, like, uh, he is just like, like a boy likes to fight and, you know, all this stuff. And then he's been reading all these. Um, books called I Survive. So it's it's historical fiction and they, it, like, he just read about two kids that escaped the Nazis. Whoa. And now he, last night he started reading about Pearl Harbor.
This kid survives Pearl Harbor, but it's always this historical event. Kid gets, there's a kid that ends up making it through. I mean, they have like the 1916 shark attacks. They have the tsunami. That was in 2011. But he's gotten in this survival mentality and he, yesterday spent an hour taking sticks and making spears.
Oh dude, [00:16:00] I hear that all the time. I do too. Yeah. Right. It's like a rite of passage. Uh, but he was, he was looking for my tools and he's got like this planer and all this stuff that he's, he is like, I'm like, what's he gonna come up with? Right? Like, don't sure wasn't even worried about it. I'm over here messing with my car the whole time, trying to find this firewall access, uh, and.
He comes out and he's like, look what I did. I'm like, you could kill someone. . I mean, dude, I like, I I should get this kid into napping broadheads immediately because he, he literally had a point. He goes, you think this would pop a balloon? I'm sitting here thinking, I'm like, dude, you could kill zombies with this thing
Um, it was, it was insane. Has he read the Hatchet yet? Uh, no, I, I, I'm put that on the list. That's, I mean, he would, he would eat that book up now I think about it. Yeah. There's some mature concepts of like divorce and suicide, death, I mean, the pilot and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. But dude, I mean, I the divorce stuff, it's like, uh, these kids today, half sure their friends have hundred percent.
It's like that part of it. Uh, I actually just read [00:17:00] that book two years ago again, cuz that was one of my favorite books growing up. Yep. And, um, I, the, there was an audio book of it, it was like four hours long. I was like, I wanna do this for fun. Yeah. Just to go back through it. Um, but yeah, I should, I should get him that book cause I think he's old enough to handle it.
And he, he, he burns through. Books so fast that he honestly needs a thicker book like that to, so these I survive books are, you know, uh, they're probably. 50 pages, maybe a hundred pages. That's such it. Um, but my wife sometimes doesn't, he'll, he'll be like, she'll, she'll say, what book are you reading? He he'll say, say it.
And she's like, I thought you were reading this one. You, you, you must have just quit. He's like, no, I already read that one. And another one in between. Geez. Like he just sits and will read for two hours straight. That's awesome. Yeah. I don't know if it was on your, your show that we used to do, uh, gearbox talk or if it was another one.
Um, but I remember, I've never forgot this. Jack Carr talked about whenever his kids got to a certain age, he would give 'em the book Hatchet, like a compass. And then I forget something else, but I was like, dude, I, I want to implement that. Like, was it a hatchet? Probably a hatchet. It's on brand for him. [00:18:00] I guess.
I bought, he's put people's skulls, but , I bought my nephew, um, for, I don't know, he was, Fourth or fifth grade, I bought him the book Hatchet and I got him a compass. Yeah, I I actually, maybe, I don't know if, um, I'm trying to think like, did I steal that idea from Jack Carr? I don't remember either way. It's cool, Dan know, dude, you do some of these podcasts and like you do so many of 'em and then you, you just forget what conversations were, who you don't know where you learn stuff.
Yeah. And, and it's weird cuz other people like this will remember Yeah. My conversation with other people better than I do. . Yep. Dan, how, how many times have you. Found yourself in like an inception moment of realizing that that was actually from a podcast episode, not something you read or, or something.
Yeah, it could, it could be that example, but what, what I am really bad at, and I I, it makes me sound like a dick when it happens, is some guy will come up to me at a trade show and be like, Hey, Dan. Like, hey, remember. , I was on your [00:19:00] podcast, and well, what they don't know is that I've interviewed, you know, almost a thousand people by now.
Yeah, right. And, and so it was this, it was a big moment for them, but it was just an average day for me. and I, and I, I, you know, I mean that with all respect. I know what you mean. Hundred I, I wish I could remember everybody, but they're like, yeah, we talked about this buck that I killed in. . I'm like, okay. So that narrows it down to a hundred people.
So, so, and you know, just by me asking some questions, that's what I've been really good at is, uh, Whittling just ans asking the right questions at the right time to get an idea. Cuz I can usually remember the story, but not necessarily the name of the person. Right. And so I have a, I have a lot of those type of, of encounters.
Yeah. You were, you were up at the Iowa Deer Classic. Um, I saw some members posting Go wild about it. Um, yeah, I'm kind of bummed I didn't make it up there this year. It looked pretty sick. What was, what was it like up there? [00:20:00] Well, the, I mean the Iowa Deer Classic, I would say. Let me just back up a second.
When I was back in the day from about 2006 or seven to about 2000 and and 12, , uh, you know, so we got an eight year period there where, man, I would go to the Iowa Deer Classic, Illinois Deer Classic Wisconsin, Ohio. The ATA show. Yeah. Um, I'm trying to think of any other shows that, that we would do. Uh, the Michigan, the Michigan show.
I don't think we did the, the Minnesota show anyway. They're cool. Yeah. But there's something about the Iowa Deer Classic that people come from all over the country Yeah. To come to this show. And so it is, it's just the collection. It's a collection of some of the biggest deer in the country. Mm-hmm. at in one location.
The stories, the products, the, like, this is outside of [00:21:00] the ata I would say. There's a lot of industry people there as well. Mm-hmm. . It's just a, it's just an, a great opportunity if you love hunting, big mature whitetails. This is, it's definitely the spot for you and I really like going to it because it's another, just like the ATA show, it's.
Uh, another opportunity for me to see people that I haven't seen in a long time and get to catch up with 'em. So, uh, not only just for the love of the whitetail, but just for the love of the people that I've met over the years as well. Yeah. Dan, do you, uh, Do you guys go hard on the shed hunting out there?
Because I mean, you, you got some freak deer. Is that a popular activity out there? I mean, it's popular, uh, it's popular for guys that don't have three kids and don't, aren't married and you know, like Yeah, I, I'm remember back when I, in the day when I was. Oh, in my late twenties and all the way into my early thirties, man, I would go, yeah.
And I mean, I [00:22:00] mean, light to dark every single day. I, back then I, I probably didn't have a, a serious job, so I was shed hunting as much as humanly possible. And I would go like 30 days a year at Oh my gosh. Yeah. And find, and you know, I wouldn't find as many sheds as some of the real serious guys do. Y but now it's hard to get access to farms because everybody's doing it.
Yeah. Everybody wants to shed hunt. And especially in the southern part of Iowa, it it's just this gigantic culture change from, you know, being able to knock on a farmer's door and say, Hey, can I go pick up deer antlers? And they wouldn't. Right. They were, they were, they were probably actually more upset with you if you knocked on their door and wasted their time than you did just jumping onto their property and shed hunting back in the day.
Yeah. Well, they appreciate it, right? Cuz it pops tires and stuff when they're, when they're driving around. So, yep. As the potential for that. But outside of [00:23:00] that, and it's just, it's be, it's beginning, be beginning to get more difficult, uh, to, to find shed hunt ground just to shed hunt. And if you only have access to, let's just say a hundred acres or less, they're, you know, finding that many sheds is limited.
Anyway. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm going, uh, Saturday, me and Philly, the goat, we're going out to, uh, Beep. Um, the spot where I'm showing you all these bucks are from and we have never like seriously gone after 'em cuz we've never seriously had target bucks. This past season we had target bucks. We both end up not shooting the ones we wanted to.
They were great, but um, we wanna go try to find their sheds. And aside from going and just walking around a ton, I really hadn't looked up a bunch of strategy or anything like it's public. There's as much walking room as we could want. Like I would imagine there's like a 40 yard area. Or not 40 yard, uh, probably like 400 yard, uh, area that we're like really comfortable with.
Like do you just walk a circle around that and just start like, looking for [00:24:00] places obviously, like that's real thick, that the antlers would come off, or what do, what do you, what are you looking for? So, you know, this time of year, up until like two weeks ago, , every person who had a blog or a podcast started putting out content, including myself.
Yeah. About where do you find shed antler? Right. How do you find shed antler? Oh, yeah. And there's this like, like, like it's some kind of gigantic mystery of where these things are at. Sure. You go and I, I put out a, a little social, uh, reel on Instagram, uh, the other, the other week, and I was just like, here's how you.
You go to a place where deer live, , you put your head down and look at the. , and then you walk back and forth and, and that is how you find shedding. It's kinda great. Search it all. Right? Yeah. And so I mean it brute force. Yeah. And so you, you go, oh, uh, you find the food source, then you find where they [00:25:00] bed, and then you just walk that line.
Duh. Right, right. Like, yeah. Nothing crazy. Yeah. You, you shed hunt the same way you hunt. You, you. Right where they live is where they're gonna drop their antlers. It's not like, oh, they're gonna, they're gonna go drop 'em in a Casey's parking lot somewhere and that's where you need to go look. That'd be nice looking for 'em.
Yeah. cool. Yeah, we're doing that Saturday and then the fly fishing trip Sunday. So when I'm looking for sheds, I don't find sheds. But when I go out scouting for Turkey, then I find chips. I found one, my first one squirrel hunting this year. Yeah. And it was like years old and. So chewed through that. Like I had to be careful with it.
Not to break it. Half one of mine broke the other day cause it was so, uh, because people get in here and play with 'em, but it, it, it had been chewed up so much that it had been broken off. Yeah. It's always fun to find a fresh one though, Dan. Do you all do, I know you all hunt turkeys out there, but is that your thing?
Do you like Turkey on, you know, man, there, there was a time starting. . 2001 [00:26:00] was the first year I ever went Turkey hunting. I was 21 years old. My uncle took me out and then for like 15 years up until about, yeah, somewhere about 2015, man, I would go every single year and I loved it and it was awesome. I think it was more about who I was going with than actually Turkey hunting it.
It's not like my relationship with deer hunting at all because that I, that's like it for me. I've kind of faded off of the Turkey. I've killed so many turkeys and, and to me they're, it's kind of the same every year because there's no, like, the cool thing about a a buck is their antlers are different, right?
And the characteristics and, and how a deer moves through the, uh, the terrain and stuff like that. With a. Like one year, this is no joke. There was a black trash bag that had blown outta some farm and got hooked on a. Uh, a [00:27:00] cornstalk and it was blowing in the wind and, uh, Tom was strutting around it. . And I shot that Tom
So, so all these decoys just don't even worry about about it, right. Black trash bag, right. . Right. And so I can, for that, for that big timeframe, it was just like, How I, you don't even need to know any type of real hunting strategy. You just go to the woods, you, you locate 'em. When they're in the tree, they'll usually go.
They fly down and then you shoot him in the face. . Paul Campbell is somewhere pulling his hair. Right? Exactly. He doesn't have hair. Exactly. He hates my guts. Paul Campbell hates my guts. . That's what I've been doing wrong. Yeah. I didn't know. You go to where they are. Oh, okay. Yeah. I go to where I want them to come think they are.
Yeah. I go to what's comfortable for me and just try to get them to come to me. I've been doing this wrong the whole time. Yep. Right? Yep. And so have you ever hunted Easterns? , [00:28:00] Easterns Tur turkeys. Like, like, uh, like, uh, what, what do you guys have in Iowa? Or is it getting in? We have, we have Easterns. You do still have Easterns.
Okay. I didn't know if it was getting into some of the other subspecies. Okay. I, that, that was one of the things I was gonna ask is cuz I've heard out West that they, they're much, much easier to call cuz it's, well, part of that's lower pressure, right? Like I, I think part of it is anyways is that they, they aren't, you know, a lot of guys turn their nose up at 'em cuz you guys out.
Well, for even further out west than you, you have. , you, you know, uh, so many spring, you got spring bear, you got elk, you got mule deer. It's just a lot more to hunt. Yeah. And so people kind of turn their nose up at the old, uh, thunder chicken. But, um, I, I'm, I'm always interested to hear people that hunt any of the western turkeys and then hunt out east if there's a difference in their mind.
But sounds like you're hunting the same subspecies that we are. I wasn't sure. Yeah. All of, all of my experience with. Uh, Miriam's have been, have been, not while I've been hunting them, but when I've [00:29:00] been looking for mule deer, and they are, because there's not a lot of places to roost out in the, in certain parts of the west.
Like for example, Western, uh, western Nebraska or Western, uh, South Dakota where I, I spend some time. All of the trees are usually in wind breaks of farms and. , they're just in people's yards. Yeah. or they're, they're in the surrounding areas and then they come and then they roost in people's wind breaks or something like that.
Yep. And so I, that's what I've seen. I, and then outside of that, the, the, the, I don't know the, the TV shows or the YouTube channels were, or the videos that people put out where. , they'll sit, and then about 40 Miriam, Toms start running in because they're, they're a more aggressive species Yeah. Than the, the Easterns are.
Yeah. Uh, so you mentioned Nebraska, so it's not too far, I guess, west of you that you start to get into the Miriams though. Yeah, I would say it's probably eight [00:30:00] hours. Eight hours. Okay. Eight hours west of me. So that's like, there's crossover. Uh, I would say in the central part of the state, but when once you start getting into Western, uh, Western Kansas, Western Nebraska, Western South Dakota, that's when the Miriams start to pick up a little bit more.
Yeah. I didn't even realize you had e uh, Eastern still that far. Into the, the, the Midwest. Um, yep. But I also dunno anything about turkeys, which is why I'm not very good at killing them. . So, yeah. Yeah. Um, Paul Campbell's also still pulling out his hair. . That's to his podcast man. Yeah. Yeah. People that shout out.
Shout out Paul Campbell. Yeah. How to Hunt Turkeys. Yeah. Paul, how To Hunt Turkeys. And that's our buddy from the oh two Podcast. Who? Uh, we we're gonna get him in here soon. I'm, I'm, yeah. I'm trying to get Paul cuz he travels so much. I think he, we're gonna try to get him to swing through and me and him are gonna get up to some birds out on a property I hunt.
So, uh, learn a thing or two from Paul. Yeah. Yeah. That'll be cool. That'll be fun here. It's a, here's a funny quick story. Uh, so [00:31:00] I, he knows about my, see I like Turkey hunting, don't get me wrong, but, . It's not like I do it for fun. Right. This dude is obsessed with turkeys. Yes. Like I'm obsessed with whitetails, right?
Yeah. And so every time I, I talk about Turkey hunting with him. It's la it's lack luster, . And so, and so, he gets a little frustrated. So he was at, uh, not this year, but I think it was. Like three years ago, uh, he was at the uh, N W T F uh, convention, and they started talking about all these videos that were made specifically for Turkey hunting, and there was an award ceremony for the best video and the winner.
of this, uh, the winner of the video was me . I put out, I put out a Turkey hunting video about this family tradition that we had every year, and, uh, we're at my wife and my kids would come to my [00:32:00] mom's and then I would take my wife out hunting and, and it ended with, uh, her shooting at Tom and, and things like that.
And so, uh, and then he saw my. He was yelling like, this guy doesn't love Turkey hunting. Turkey. Honey. I love Turkey. He's a puer. doesn't even like Turkey hunting. Yeah. That's funny man. I love Paul. Paul and Andrew are hilarious. Um, yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting out with him. Well, any, uh, Any stories we missed?
Well, I wanted to ask Jacob. Um, one of his favorite things to do is like, new people getting into fishing. Mm-hmm. . And so two of my buddies are gonna be coming with us fly fishing. That, like I said, they're, they're western kind of fly fishing guys and like turning their nose up and getting back into it.
They're like, I don't have any flies. I was like, Relax. Like Jacob's got you covered and he was saying he's gonna make him like a little, uh, little kit, uh, to get 'em going. I was just curious kind of what, what you had in mind for him, the kit. Like what do you, what are you planning for? So you wanted me to reveal my secrets.
Oh, is [00:33:00] that what's going on? Fish This water . No it's not. Silly worms aren't that secret, dude. , you know, in. I, I feel like a lot of anglers will get a better reputation because they don't want to talk about what the fish are biting. I will literally hand out half a dozen flies to some old dude on the creek who's not catching anything.
I'm like, easy use this. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I don't mind talking about it this time of year. If we can get some of those bigger rainbows coming up. Ideally, I'm, I'm gonna try some streamers first. Okay. So I'll probably give 'em. All white wooly buggers, maybe some black wooly buggers. And if you don't know what these flies are, it's very easy to find them searching.
They're just bushy little flies that kind of mimic a bait fish or a, um, like a helg mite or a leach. And then, you know, I will always have some blood midges in my box. And so these are really tiny little red flies that seem to always catch fish down there. Um, I have given out more of those probably than I've lost myself.
Uh, [00:34:00] cuz they just work. And then the other stuff I'm just gonna do like simple buggy stuff. Prince Nims. Yeah. Which you always have. What I'm hoping cuz we're supposed to get some rain down there is if the water does get a little bit stained, I'll be throwing a lot of. Streamers for sure. Right on. So if, if it's not and the water's flushed through and it's cleared out, I'll probably hit the nymph game.
But I'm gonna, you know, anytime we go down there, I try to keep it simple. I take 300 flies. Oh yeah. And I use like three different patterns the whole time. Yeah. Um, cuz I've kind of dialed in what works well down there, but. Sweet. That should be fun. Well, that helps me know what to bring too. That was kind.
Yeah. I knew where this was going. . Um, alright. I think the, the last, one of the last things we wanna mention here is just the UT v giveaway, right? Yeah. You wanna tell them how they can get entered into that and, and kind run through that? . Yeah. If you don't have Go Wild yet, all you gotta do is download the app and that's gonna get you a free entry.
Um, it's free to download, go Wild, get a free entry into the UTV giveaway. This thing's like [00:35:00] well over 40 grand. So, uh, it's, it's definitely a, a, a good idea to go ahead and do that. If you already do have the app, all you gotta do is go to your profile, grab your referral link, send that thing out, and for every person that you get to download, uh, go wild, you get an additional entry and it is unlimited.
You can. As many people, um, as you possibly can and get those entries up and increase your chances. Um, the, the UTV giveaway ends March 31st, so by the time you're hearing this, it's down to a couple years. Get down to crunch time, so yeah. Yeah. Get on it. Yep. So the Braden mentioned sharing. If you go to your profile, tap home screen, and you'll see a link that, or a button that says, share Go Wild.
And if you get that, that's gonna be your custom link. So we'll track how many people download through that. You can go dump it into Facebook groups, you can go text it to your family, whatever you wanna do. Uh, to get some people in there and get some, uh, chances at the UT giveaway. So UTV giveaway. So, yes, sir.
Uh, also I wanna mention, you can log this podcast on Go Wild. If you hit plus hit log time, uh, outdoors [00:36:00] podcast, you can, you can log and get points for listening to this show. You can tag all of us here. We have everybody here on that's on the platform. And, uh, we'd love to hear the feedback also, I mean, really, especially this show.
We'd love to know how you like the format of, of Dan jumping in here. Um, you know, tag Dan, Dan Johnson's on the app ware, Jacob Knight, Brad Letrell, we're on there. So that'll help you get points though, to work towards those rewards. And I will say, if you have not logged in a while, We just launched a bunch of new rewards hitting the system and there will be more coming.
So, uh, in addition to that, we mentioned last week or maybe the week before that we've got fishing gear coming too. So just sit tight for a little bit, few more days and we're gonna have a big wave of fishing gear on there. But if you haven't looked in a little while, There's quite a bit of new stuff still off.
There's a lot of new stuff that we have in there, but there's getting ready to be a massive onboarding of fishing and gear. So, all right, I think that's it for today. Dan, thanks for joining us, man. Uh, I think, uh, we learned a couple things here today on setup. I'll get a little better on the, the next round, but this was fun.
Hey, the next thing I need to know is where do you, [00:37:00] where did you get your shirt? Uh, dude, uh, yeah. So this is, This is my, one of my famed Pixar shirts here at Go Wild. They make fun of me, uh, for this, but this shirt is from a company called Roosevelt's. And, uh, it's r what is it? R s v l t S. No vows, no. And $70 button bounces.
It. It is . But Jacob, they also hook you with the rewards. Uh, there's like $75 cool shirts, dude, for uh, I made fun of Braden for having an $85 shirt last year. Oh yeah. The boutique shirts. You joined the crowd. Yeah. I love 'em. But, but I ended up going all in cuz these things are like a flex fabric, which is, For when it gets hot.
This is the way to go cuz it's super breathable. Um, but this one is, uh, I'm a big Pixar nerd. I love Pixar. Okay. And it's got all these references to all the Pixar movies. I think there's like 28 rec references to different Pixar movies on here. Uh, I only wore it today actually cuz my, my son picked out my watch band color and he's like, you gotta wear that watchband tomorrow.
And I was like, well that's [00:38:00] pretty bright. I only have a couple shirts that, that roll with that. So coordinating. Yeah. So, uh, I am a big fan of these shirts though. Uh, you, you will see them more often as we get into this summer, cuz I've, I've got a whole collection of 'em at this point. I'm, I'm sitting on like 10 of these ba this is my most obnoxious one though, for sure.
Well, I need to, now I know what I'm getting into. I need to up my game a little bit. Uh, the next time I'm on and uh, I'll, I'll come, I'll come Ready, I'll come prepared. I'll come looking fresh. Yeah. Hawaiian shirt and a cigar. Uh, that's go . I'll start wearing my gas station. Tight eye shirts when it starts getting warmer.
Hey dude. Dude, you, dude. I, I love your shirt. Don't ever change, man. those. I'll try not to. Those Indian Spirit wolf shirts maybe? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say, I can't wait to see the wolf's wolf shirts start coming back out. Awesome. New one's coming. I, uh, I might get a custom one made for Braden. It's like my face as the moon sold and, and it's howling up like that.
I'll wear it once a week. . [00:39:00] All right guys. Thanks for, thanks for listening. Uh, until next week, we're out.
