Won't Happen on Their Watch - charles snapp

[Glenn]

HammerTimeâ

“It Won’t Happen on Their Watch”

By now I would think the last of the snow goose hunters have finished up their season and it’s that time of year when people are putting new line on their fishing reels or sharpening up on their hunting skills for spring and summer hunting opportunities. Whatever the case may be waterfowl season is out of most folks minds and will be until the fall/winter hunting catalogs start arriving or you read the newspaper advertisements scheduling the waterfowl weekend workshops. Hopefully those events will coincide with a cool, early morning breeze and waterfowl hunters everywhere will once again start to shift their attention back toward our feathered friends. In the meantime there are still a lot of people whose job requires them to focus on waterfowl on a year around basis.

Take the United States Fish & Wildlife (USF&W) for example. I’m sure the USF&W has nothing short of a small army of men and woman working out the possibilities for next season’s framework. I would venture to say the various state agencies already have several of their staff members working out details and considering possible regulation changes. No doubt, Delta Waterfowl and Ducks Unlimited have a large number of their staff monitoring nesting conditions, in hopes of another good hatch this year. From the outfitters standpoint, I can assure you work is (or should be) well underway and I know the crew at Powerhouse Promotions has been working around the clock trying to edit last fall’s footage for the next series of Waterfowler TV and RNT-V shows. Still yet there’s another group of folks whose waterfowl focus is a year around job as well. A group that few of us ever think about, yet almost all of us relies on, on a regular basis.

Late last November I had the pleasure of sharing a blind with three of the people that live and work in the other behind the scenes group I was referring to. Like so many of the people I’ve shared a blind with over the years, I had never hunted with Josh Noble, Tyler Flynn or Tyson Rasmussen. For that matter, I had only known Josh for a couple of years and had never met the others, but I knew Josh well enough to realize the fellowship would be outstanding and he had an excellent reputation as a waterfowl hunter. Since Josh is a waterfowl products buyer and Tyler, among other duties, is in charge of setting up and coordinating the waterfowl weekends for Sportsman’s Warehouse I had high hopes this hunt might provide me with some additional insight as to how and why product stocking decisions are made.

It was late November; we had been holding record numbers of ducks in northeast Arkansas and our daily take on mallards had been exceptional. On the other hand, our area had also been receiving record amounts of rainfall … to the tune of three major floods. The ducks had been shifting their flight patterns with the rise and fall of the floodwater, but it looked like we might be getting a break. The morning’s forecast was calling for clear skies, a condition that always seems to be advantageous for a rice field hunt. Then again, this wasn’t just a hunt. This trio was here to work and while a part of their work was to be done in conjunction with the hunt, it became obvious to me that their primary purpose was product research.

We hunted over a mixture of decoys from three different manufacturers. Sportsman’s had stocked one of the manufacturers decoys, the Hard Core brand, for several years. The other two brands, like so many other products they’re exposed to, appeared to be up for possible consideration. We also carried a relatively new product with us for water movement, the Arkansas Kicker by Wing Magic Decoys and when the morning proved to be dead calm … the added movement from the Kicker paid off. In fact, with the quality line up of decoys, outstanding team calling and the much-needed water action from the Kicker, our hunt was nothing short of unbelievable. We had group after group of mallards land right in the decoys, some of which touched down within ten yards of our pit and that’s when I began to understand why these fellows hold the positions they do.

Not only did the calling sound great, they had an unusually keen knack for reading the birds, but their dedication to business was even more impressive. Throughout the hunt the trio quizzed me about decoys, calls and an untold number of other waterfowl related products. They not only wanted to know about the effectiveness of the different products, they wanted details regarding how well the products held up under the extreme use and daily abuse associated with our guide service. At first I thought Josh was joking when he made the comment; “If a product can withstand a season or two of the abuse it receives at your place, we know it will hold up well for our customers.” Then, a month or two ago Josh sent an E-mail, asking me to provide a follow up report detailing how some of the products we were testing had held up. Which brings me to my point.

Over the years, like most of you, I’ve purchased and untold number of gadgets and several of those “must have” type of inventions that seem to pop up all too often. Some of the purchases were well worth the money, but others were nothing more than over priced gimmicks. If I live long enough, I’m sure I’ll end up buying a few more gimmicks, but after sharing a blind with them I’m confident if Josh and Tyler have anything to do with the product research … “it won’t happen on their watch. “

Charles “HammerTime” Snapp
Snapp1@sbcglobal.net or www.arkansaswaterfowl.com

[Glenn]

I can see why you are smiling Josh. Lots of birds and hunting with Charles. Life is good at Sportsman's.

[Josh Noble]

Glenn,
If you only knew...
Josh

[Muddy Cackler]

Well Josh its been awhile since I saw you in Tyler up here in the Norhwest. You two can never stop grinning. Hope you to can make it out this way for the waterfowl festival in August.

Sean

[Josh Noble]

Sean,
We'll try and make it...
Noble