Timber Tour | Welcome to Arkansas

waterfowls from around the world dream of hunting the flooded timber of the Mississippi Flyway duck hunting in these parts is a religion green heads and Close Quarters as their wings beat the limbs of the canopy above I would imagine it feels a lot like standing in front of those pearly white Gates fixing to meet God I've come from the ducky black Waters of south Louisiana to join first light this duck season to hunt the bottoms woods and Timber of this historic region over the next three episodes we're going to introduce you to some of the folks that call these Woods home which many have dedicated their lives to preserving and building the habitats and these territories so fruitful strap it in folks my name's Chef Jean-Paul bourgeois welcome to temper tour [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Applause] folks we are in southeast Arkansas in this beautiful little flooded timber hole with Delta waterfowl and the conditions aren't perfect it's overcast but it's windy so we got you know 50 percent of the equation that Timber Hunters love and that would be sun and wind got the win decoys are out we've got about five minutes the first light my hands are a little chilly so I'm ready to get warmed up and get this Barrel hot okay [Music] this morning Ford and I will be hunting with dick Carmichael and Brad Heidel from Delta waterfowl this land where hunting has been in Dick's family since the 1940s [Music] thank you the weather conditions have these birds acting non-committal sun cast Shadows into the bottoms and without its light birds are hesitant to break the canopy and give us a look [Music] [Music] pick them out boys check them out thank you nice nice clean up [Music] [Applause] shoot these right here guys kill them get them get them get them [Music] tasty that was tasty good dog good dog that was pretty Mr Dick yeah good that was pretty [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] good killer dump truck there coming in boys [Music] all right [Applause] nice shot [Music] a little one two punch right there one two three accident thank you [Music] as Jimbo ronquest would say what is it now I'm gonna I'm gonna mess it up if that don't light your fire your Wood's wet [Music] all right well conditions weren't exactly what we were hoping for today but it didn't matter the whole so good we ended up with straps full of green and I couldn't be happier about it but now it's time to get back clean some ducks eat some breakfast and get ready for hopefully another great Timber hunt tomorrow morning [Music] yeah this is this is Arkansas my parents moved here in 46 at the end of World War II in a wagon four by two horses that had been shot up pretty grievously in the Battle of the Bulge and the ball of his right FEMA was blown off and they didn't do hip replacement since so he just had this Jagged femur bone rest against its pelvis totally never walked and be on crutches but they came out here on the edge of the delta and took an award-out cotton farm and a lot of hard work we're still here [Music] [Music] the area we are hunting was an abandoned cotton Farm made up of a mix of green Timber rescued from clear cutting and row crop AG Fields I was raised on a farm that was an abandoned cotton Farm which meant that those guys were out there plowing on the hillside and massive goalies that you could hide hide this building in were out there a lot of the Timber hadn't been managed and it was not a very good grade and the land that was pasture it didn't have the pipe grasses you need and had weeds and so the stuff that we were trying to do was a good conservation work but we weren't we didn't have necessarily the best interest of the world at heart at the time we were just trying to survive after World War II Dick's family settled here with a vision for a better future for this habitat through that vision and a lot of hard work dick and his family have been successful in creating both a thriving wildlife habitat and productive agriculture based in Native and wild AG crops you know the best success stories there are in conservation for wildlife are Hunters you guys are hunters and and we're the guys that aren't causing her to be a production in game numbers where the guys that are fighting to make sure that there's they're going to be out there for our grandkids and I think we all inspire to leave it better than we found it and I think Delta's trying to do that with waterfowl and and we are too in our own way down here in South Arkansas thank you [Music] foreign feathers like that going in on the woods see all those feathers that's a good sign they're in here printing all right day two in Southeastern Arkansas and ducked off small little Timber hole conditions still the same to even a little warmer so they got some weather rolling in around noon today so we're going to try to eat them up in the morning here get our limits and and head out but uh I don't know I'm loving the looks of this hole because it's going to be nice and tight nice short 15 20 25 yard shots and uh should be right in our face and I'm looking forward to it yeah where we are right here this we call it a GTR Greentree Reservoir traditionally it was the lowest grade Timber around and the settlers would have bypassed it because it was not very straight and had a lot of knots so it's just open range and finally in the 50s they figured out that Rice would grow here and the Texans are special in some people's office Grand Prairie a stunt yard after coming in here behind this kind of ground clearing it planting into rise and by the 60s we had leased this place to duck on it but didn't have the right to stop the guy from clearing but but we were able to cut a deal save it and eventually own this where we are right here so where there was Millions Acres like this originally is probably 89 gone now but the cool thing about it is when I was a kid talking to Old Men about where did they hunt and where did their fathers hunt well the places that they talk about in these Bottoms in these sloughs that were good 100 years ago still on a day it's something about how that ducks imprint and come back it's pretty special are we time shooting boys [Music] come here good girl hurry come on come on good shot that's what we're hoping to do [Music] get them boys [Music] that's the way it goes [Applause] [Music] [Music] shoot them all [Music] foreign [Music] that is Arkansas Timber hunting at its finest I mean groups like that come in that gives you chills all I can take all I could do is like take deep breaths when I saw those Ducks coming in the hole just like calming your heart rate I mean look at the feathers on the water this is a hunt right here already [Music] thank you [Music] see the most shoot them boys foreign I can get used to this Timber hunting in Arkansas guys Hammer Time [Music] [Applause] get them boys get them get them still early in the morning we only need three more ducks to hit our limit which is for Mallards a person we got five Shooters here so it's looking good man they are working they're committed super tasty [Music] you're the boys two more ducks [Music] here we go here we go [Music] right there guys [Music] with the distance one more [Music] [Music] well done guys that was an incredible Arkansas Timber hunt here in the Southeastern part of the state and I don't know I mean we got a couple more places to stop I'm I wonder if it could get any better than this but if it does man we're in for a treat I tell you what those Ducks could not see us in this Timber even on that cloudy overcast gray day which most Timber Hunters hate didn't seem to matter they wanted in and they did get in but not a lot got out that was incredible awesome [Music] [Music] wow almost felt that one just keep getting up oh my gosh yeah we hadn't seen a fraction you only like that moist soil bro foreign [Music] ER with a wettest pants watching that how happy does it how happy does it make you to see these ducks just like using it you know living it there's years of hard work and and picking up land and building building the habitat well let's talk about it about them shortstopping it we could either just accept it if it happens it happens if or you could say at least we're going to fight for it and that's what you know the things we're doing in terms of trying to keep food out there for them and cover for them and mostly we don't bottom this is the most they've been bumped since they've been here or will be booked and we don't want these areas and the good thing that I'm really excited about is it this used to be just one contiguous rice Farm and Wide Open Fields nothing no cover on the bikes anything and we've we've now gone in there and we've broken them into smaller Fields we've tried to reconstruct the natural drains over there and then we we didn't leave a lot of wild they're mixed in tying it all together and then there's a pattern to the wild area where it's kind of a corridor for the game not only the Ducks but the but the bear and the deer and all the other stuff to live and it's got a burn to it so you've got high ground Farm to live on and they've got products it helps give them a little break from the winds and stuff that's the model I think is going to work for the Delta and trying to keep waterfowl and Wildlife let that 5 10 15 of your worst ground go back Wild and then Farm the rest of it keep them income coming but usually lamp for what is best suited for the the best projects I've done have been where I just took what it's trying to do already and went with that and the worst stuff we've done is where we've been coming in we've got the plan and we've got to change it all and I'm getting not good results I think it I just see a great sense of Pride when it when I when he looks out into those wetlands and sees that what he's doing is making a difference and I think at the end of the day that's we should all aspire to be is leave the world you know better than the way we found it and it seems like dick Carmichael is really succeeding at that but we're going to do our part to all we can keep those mouths coming back here so we hunt them in the woods like we did this morning [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] it's our last hunt in the Delta section of Arkansas this morning we'll be hunting with colleagues of dicks Marcus and Beau it sure is pretty yeah got a West Wind about 55 degrees a little bit of rain so should be good plenty of wood ducks around all right so it's day three our third Timber Hole uh the last few days we're in southeast Arkansas and kind of the Delta area we're still in southeast Arkansas but today we find ourselves closer to the Prairie region now we had a big storm push through last night I'm talking lightning thunder heavy rain and we're a little worried that that might have scattered some of these ducks uh in this AG surrounding this green Timber we'll see it's uh we we're about 30 minutes into shooting light we haven't really seen any Mallards a lot of wood ducks roaming around but also not a lot of shots in the neighboring kind of areas that people were hunting we're starting to hear that pick up so that's a good thing and so hopefully we can start seeing some of that those green heads flutter down to the timber it's a beautiful Timber hole here I mean prettiest one I think maybe we've hunted so far so it would only make it better just to see some ducks starting to work around us well we'll see a lot of hunting left and uh you know I'm hopeful with a with a my Timber is pretty as this it'd be a shame not to shoot a couple ducks in here foreign [Music] that's a pretty bird you shot man these little fat Mallard broke Dash thank you golly I heard get them not get him that's true that's very true your following instructions foreign [Music] that was a nice little change of pace right there after a slow start to the morning I got a little hung up on my strap but they're starting to wake up a little bit huh Brad we got two green heads here but you can see real difference in the appearance and I presume this is just a younger smaller less filled in bird nice shooting there Ford [Music] foreign that's what I'm talking about y'all killed them all that's a gunpowder rattling off here I like it it's awesome man thanks buddy a bit oh hell Bo thanks for talking the language man yeah appreciate it man all right that does it and that last volley put us right at our limit of 20. so I'm feeling good about not only that but Ford shot a band which uh we don't get a lot of those you know for those who are watching bands are uh um irregular a lot in in hunting so when you get one it's really special uh and then in these Woods makes it even better so now the rain's starting to kind of creep back in uh we don't want to get too wet so we're going to pick up these decoys uh head back into town and I don't know I feel like Love's got a a nice bacon egg and cheese taco waiting for me at the gas station so uh that wraps it up for this Timber hunting today but definitely looking forward to getting back into the green timber here in Arkansas very soon [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: MeatEater

Views: 285,953

Keywords: steven rinella, meateater, meat eater, Steve rinella

Id: i5G4wZytDo8

Length: 28min 22sec (1702 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 18 2023