The Kansas Snow Streak (season ender)
Well the year came to a close with a bang, with putting record breaking numbers in the books. But high harvest counts and crazy weather wasn't the only records broke for the close of the 2010/2011 season. In Kansas we hunt in the snow a lot in December, and January, however this year we almost forgot what camo pattern our blinds were because of the long snow cover streak we went through. From Jan 9th until the close on Feb 13th we hunted blinds with snow covers that entire stretch, which added to our record breaking numbers wise season. Anytime you can hunt in the snow it’s a big advantage, because not only does it provide great visibility to your decoy spread but it makes hiding easy as long as you take the extra step and invest in a snow cover. We've all been there, you get a fresh snow on the ground, and you go to Wal-mart and buy the whites sheet you can find, or 15 cans of Christmas snow spray, to watch geese flair at 50 yards. The day I hunted from an Avery snow cover for the first time I was pinging my buddies to make the investments as well. We've been hunting from them since the first year they came out, and I'm telling you its well worth it. Cont Below.....
We did have one weekend where the snow melted off our Sod field and basically left one small ditch left with enough snow to keep our streak alive, and it paid off. One tip I can give you when using snow overs is find the deepest part you can find, and hand someone a snow shovel to dig the blinds in. Make sure to push the snow back over the edges of the blinds so you eliminate all the shadows, and you'll find yourself landing geese at 10 feet away. Don't forget a white skull cap! Cont Below....
We finished our season off with a 3 day hunt hosting DU TV's host Mike Checkett, with fellow Avery Prostaffers Brian O'rourke and Territory Manager Derek Rambo, the four of us had a great 3 days where we put hundreds of birds on the ground and added some jewelry to the lanyards with a leg iron, and a Neck collard goose, tune in late this summer for DU TV and see for yourself the nock out snow covered goose hunting. Now that the season is over its time to break the fly rod out and dust off the dirtbikes. May everyone have a great summer, and let these goof ball faces below haunt your off season.
CRAZY MIDWEST WEATHER CLOSING OUT 2010
(From bottom row left to right: Ben Smolen, Eric Massey, Dave Franco, Casey Self, Brady Blackwood. Back Row left/right: Caden Lynch, Colton Lynch)
In a year where killing mallards came as easy as pennies in the local water fountain, the honker hunting has came with a lot of hard days in the field with very smart geese, however we have managed with alot of hard scouting and different tacticts (See pic above of the final day of KS regular duck season). The number of hunters this year has more then doubled this year and with that comes more pressure on already smart geese. We have found ourselves each week pulling a rabbit out of the hat with different decoy patterns and making at least a couple of changes each day to roll with the punches. As if smart geese weren't enough, mother nature has thrown her best shot at us as well with sub zero temps, a dry enough fall where farmers could chizzle plow all their corn fields making it very tough to hide, and the occasional Kansas 50 degrees and 40 mph winds thawing out ponds over night changing every pattern that we thought we figured out. There was one particular freak warm snap like this after a big sub zero cold period that I want to share with you, as we used our years of goose knowledge to put a plan together, but mother nature had a hole other idea.
The story starts 3 days before the close of 2010 after what seamed like a month where 20 degree's would feel like weather for shorts and a t-shirt. Close friend and teammate Shawn Stahl was down hunting in Northern Missouri with my buddy Tyson Stark when they called to see if me and mr. No Right Turn Smolen wanted to join them for a corn field hunt that was holding over a thousand big honks in it. Without hesitation I pulled a vacation day and Ben and I headed out for a short road trip. The weather was calling for mild cold temps and 20 mph winds, but when we showed up at the hotel at 7am we found that the weather men were way off and it was already 45 degree's out side. Shedding clothes and hustling to the field we pulled out into the heavily terraced corn field where stalks were blowing across the field so fast that you could barely walk into the wind without getting smacked in the face. This would be the start to a day I knew would be a challenge, first because it was way too warm for geese to want to sit in a corn field, and secondly because the wind was blowing 35 mph with 40 mph gust and I knew keeping decoys from blowing over would be a huge challenge. Before we knew it was 830am and we still hadn't set the first decoy trying to figure out the best spot in the field to get out of the wind and hide 8 guys and a camera man. Finally we settled on the front side of a large terrace on the downside of a hill with the strong winds to our back coming out of the south. We chose to set mostly shell decoys and putting primarily every full body on the ground because they looked like bobble heads on the stakes. Since we were in a hurry we used my newly found favorite plan of putting 3 guys on brushing blinds while the other 5 set deeks and we were ready to go in less then 45 minutes with fully brushed blinds and decoys set to precision.
930am came and we started seeing flocks erupt out of the roost, and although most of them were looking for water and grass to munch on, we started picking away by aggressively calling and being patient. The first flock came from about 100 yards high dropping strait down like a hairier not even moving forward an inch using the wind as its advantage, when they got to about 3 feet off the ground and 10 feet out, Stahl yelled out SHOOTEM and 7 birds hit the ground. The funniest thing was with the wind blowing like it was almost every goose was pushed about 100 yards before it hit the ground, making for some long retrieves by Trace (Stahl's black lab). After the first group we thought the day was going to be gravy. However it wasn't the case, we soon learned that the honkers wanted to land about 100 yards behind us and since we forgot our flag in the truck, the next hour and a half would be challenging. However after going through everything but the kitchen sink on calling techniques we finally started really leaning on them and getting them to drop in. One group of 3 fell right into our lap and right as we sat up to shoot I noticed a leg iron on the gooses right leg, and you better believe he was the only goose that was even shot at. Soon after we ended the morning with our 24th big honker and we were all smiles taking pictures and laughing it up in the sunny 65 degree weather this coming a day after the high was 17 degrees. The band went out to Tyson's buddy Matt who had permission on the field.
(Team Fowl Pursuit with a 2010 Missouri limit, look for Fowl Pursuit 9 for footage)
New Years Eve aka crazy weather part 2: As if the 65 degree weather and 40mph winds wasn’t crazy enough, as you could imagine it opened every single pond and water shed the eye could see which had Ben and I licking our chops and a early morning farm pond that was holding about 300 honkers during the day and with a similar forecast of highs in the 50s and sunny we set the game plan to get the water spread out in the morning to close out 2010. Knowing it would be a good and warm hunt, we called on my nephew J.D. who is on his 2nd season hunting and has stepped up to shooting a 12 gauge this year at the age of 14. Knowing it would be 40 degree's in the morning I woke up in the morning not even putting on long underwear and only packing a hoody and my breathable waders so I didn’t sweat to death. When I left the house at 530am I was surprised to see it was not only raining, but it was pouring down rain and lightning. I left the house hoping the rain would cut off before we started setting up and just happened to look up at my temp gauge in my truck to see that it was only 29 degrees. Shocked by the temps I sent J.D. back into the house when I picked him up to grab his thicker coat. Driving out we both were wondering if we were in for a wet and cold day when all of a sudden the temp dropped 25 degree's and the pouring rain changed immediately to freezing rain and sleet and we were quickly putting my Ram in 4x4 mode as we plowed through more then an inch of ice on the roads. When I got to Ben's it had luckily stopped raining/sleeting but knowing I would be freezing my tail off I borrowed some more clothes from Ben and we headed to the pond thinking how we probably weren't in for the best pond hunt when it was shaping up to be a day when birds would want to feed hard.
We decided to stick with the plan since we didn't have a back up plan and got to the pond and started setting up, we kicked a few dozen birds off that were sitting on the pond and by about day break we had our 3 dozen floaters out and about 4 dozen full bodies surrounding our heavily grassed blinds on this cow pasture. The sleet continued but hey, sleet is way better then sitting in the rain, and we got a chance to all try out our new Tribal Outdoors Timber Jackets that are 100% waterproof. Normally in Kansas when its warm and sunny geese just love coming into these cattle ponds and loafing in the grass and it makes for some of the easiest hunting you can find. However on a day when the high is 30 degree's and it’s a low cloud cover after some sleet and freezing rain these birds wanted to eat corn. However sometimes you get lucky with singles and pairs who get lost and then if you wait long enough the birds will leave the grain to get them a mid day drink so we figured we'd be ok if we waited it out.
The first flock of 3 big big honks came over the tree's at about 8am and with me only giving them a few lonely moans with my RNT G3 they cupped up and came on a string heading right for the kill hole, I whispered over to J.D. to get ready and when I yelled killem we had 3 dead honkers 10 feet from the edge of the blinds. After giving my nephew a big high five he was grinning from ear to ear while he reloaded my SBE II with 3 inch 2 shot and we watched Ben's black lab Daisy bring back the birds. After about 2 hours of similar results we picked off our 4 man limit of mostly all singles, pairs, and one group of 7 and were soon picking up decoys and taking pictures.
(From Left to right: Casey Self, Ben Smolen, Eric Massey, J.D. Schenck )
Going to miss 2010 to close out the best duck season I've ever recorded (see below for some highlight pics) , but here is to 2011, may the limits and bands be plentiful and have a happy new year from Tribal Outdoors!!! To add to this story, check out the goose pic below where we started the new years +1 off right by hooking up with my cousins and smacking an easy Kansas goose limit over some normal cold Kansas weather.
(From Left to right: Casey Self, Mike Chapman, Ben Smolen, Nick Roberts)
(Casey Self and Eric Massey's early morning KS Public Marsh Mallards)
(From Left to right: Casey Self, Ben Smolen, Eric Massey, Eric Blevins, Mitchell Garrett, Nick Garrett)
Missouri Opener with the Self Brothers
Finally my favorite time of the year came and gone, Opening Day Duck Season! Just like last season my Oldest brother Shawn and youngest brother Corey came out to Missouri from Illinois on a quest for limits once again a couple weeks before their season in Southern IL opens. This year we parked the layout boats in the barn and headed down with good friends Chris McGovern & Jon Eckers for some back waters off the Lake of the Ozarks for some flooded timber action. Wednesday evening before we had an empty scouting report on our timber hole of only about 20 wood ducks and 1 mallard hen. High hopes of a migration following a 20mph NW wind Wednesday night and lows in the low 30s, we had all our eyes watching the sky that evening with nothing to report. Thursday morning Jon went down to the hole and eased in the woods to what would be proof of an overnight migration of tons of new ducks swimming around eating acorns right in front of the tree's and buck brush we like to hide in. Continue below.....
I was still in the office when Jon called me with the report over a few hundred gadwall and wood ducks in our spot and a ton more circling above waiting their turn to drop down through the trees. I immediately texted my brothers and hunting buddy Ben Smolen with the good news and we all promptly headed that direction. The night before the hunt we were all pretty excited sharing past story's of opening days sleeping in layout boats freezing our butts off, and fighting with the locals for setting up too closely. Knowing we were headed into private back waters in the morning we slept well in the cabin and eased into the timber just an hour before sunrise. At the 10 minutes to go time as me and Corey were setting the last decoys and positioning the jerk cord on this 29 degree morning with no wind, we had ducks landing next to us in the spread. Wasn't long before I looked at my watch and legal shooting time had expired and it was time to load up old Betsy (my SBE II). Continue below...
The next hour was wood ducks buzzing in like fighter jets and Gadwall buckling as they reached the tree tops and 6 of us were unloading our guns into masses of birds back flapping over the jerk cord at less then 10 feet. Corey's Lab Marsh was never really on her dog stand as she was constantly going back and forth after a bird. The highlight to the morning was a huge Bull Canvasback that came over the tree tops bowed up feet down and at 15 feet when I called the shot we watched his majestic diver butt smack the water with a huge splash and high fives at this very unusual site. The day ended promptly at 830am just over an hour after shooting time let loose and we were all smiles as we lined our pile of 90% gadwall, Wood Duck Drakes, a Bull Can, 1 mallard, and 1 GW teal for 36 ducks total. An over 90% big duck bag even though they weren't all green tops was one heck of a way to start a season. Gadwall have become one of my favorite ducks to shoot. They work like mallards and are a ball to shoot. Day 2 was a little slower but we still ended up with 20 ducks about the same mix. It's always great getting to take advantage of living on the state line of Missouri and Kansas taking advantage of both opening weekends. Now that the smoke has cleared its time to get back to the meat and potatoes' of duck hunting out of my layout boat, but for now this hunt goes down in the record books as one of my favorite openers.
Authored by: Casey Self
Opening the Season with a Bang 2010
Early Season is in full swing now and I was fortunate enough to go up and hunt with my long time friend and RNT teammate Shawn Stahl at his goose camp for 5 days in early October along with Missouri's Tyson Stark and Iowa's Ben Waples. Unusual warm temps kept waterfowl numbers down, but that wouldn’t stop us as we put on hundreds of miles with 2 or 3 vehicles scouting each night. We struggled each day to find the perfect X but somehow we prevailed and came out with some great opportunities for both early season mallards and big honkers. The first morning was a wheat field chalked full of mallards and a handful of cacklers. We got in early to set up as we knew the mallards would come out for grain at first light and boy was that an understatement. 20 minutes before shooting time as we were finishing up the last minute blind brushing and decoy placement, groups exceeding 100-200 mallards back flapped into the decoys within throwing knife distance. It was 10 minutes before shooting time when someone realized we were set up with 6 blinds when we needed 7. Continue below...
(Tyson Stark (above): It was pretty awesome watching ducks rain out of the sky from 100 yards away, but I sure wish I could of been in on it!!)
Tyson Stark out of MO was the unlucky candidate that headed back to Stahl's trailer to get the extra power hunter. As he headed back to the truck we sat there in awe of the mass waves of mallards building and building into one huge flock as they swarmed us like bee's. At 7:05 (legal shooting time) we looked back to see where Tyson was and with him still being a few hundred yards away we decided to try and wait just a little longer. Finally at 7:15 Phil (a friend from Kentukey) who had been hunting the area the previous couple days pled his case to "start in on em" before it was too late. With that said we gave one last look for Tyson and as he was still too far away, we hit the ducks with one lonesome hen note from the acrylic Daisey Cutter and as early season ducks normally do, they bowed up right in the pocket finishing over 200 mallards at 10 feet or less, Stahl pipes up "SHOOTEM". For me I had yet to squeeze the trigger on anything other then a clay target so when I popped out of the blind I had to pause for what seemed like a year as I watched the mallards trying to escape out of our spread, thinking to myself this is a great way to start the season. The pause was soon taken over by my killer instinct following 18 quick blast among 6 men emptying their shotguns. This was a very calm morning and like ducks in the timber we had all day to shoot as they scurried to catch air and get out of there. I watched in awe as over 15 ducks fell from the sky. Continued below..
(Casey Self (Above) with his first honkers of the season)
The smoke hadn't even cleared yet when Ben yelled out, "RELOAD here comes more" barley getting the doors closed on my Finisher blind another 100 pack came barreling into the spread, and before I knew it 4 different flocks had finished with similar results in a row before Tyson was into his blind. After some good ribbing to him for what he had to watch in pain from a hundred yards away, we soon finished out a 7 man limit of Mallards making for one of the best duck hunts of my life and some amazing footage for the next addtion to Stahl's Fowl Pursuit line up.
We followed that hunt with some amazing early season honker shoots (see pics Above & below)
(Shawn Stahl (Above) makes last minute Decoy changes with the painted sky behind him)
Spring Time Fun 2010
(Casey Self with his 24 inch Trout estimated Weight 9 lbs)
Spring time for some means to put the decoys away, clean out layout blinds, hang up the calls, and start putting the extra fat on the retriever. For us at Tribal Outdoors it means time for some more fun!! I started trout fishing with my dad and brothers when I was about 6 years old on a fathers day weekend. We went to a place called Bennett Springs in South Central Missouri (a state Trout park) with some friends of our family. The first year we went we tried using crappie poles and 8 lb test line and had very limited success. But we started a family tradition that still goes on today 23 years later and with our wives and kids now involved in the Self tradition. We have since changed the weekend dates here and there but we go every summer for about 5 or 6 days. It didn't take us long to trade in our Crappie poles for ultra light set ups and 2 lb test line. After I moved to Kansas in 1999 I found that we were less then 2 hours from my favorite fishing hole along with several other Missouri Streams like Taneycomo, Roaring River, Crain Creek, and several others. Over the years I developed the love for fly fishing and later hand tying my own flies. Something that makes fishing even more rewarding and much more challenging. Now I take more then a dozen fly fishing trips a summer starting with March 1st when we do a guys fishing trip and then at least once or twice a month until Duck season starts up. May 1st, 2010 my dreams came true when we found out about a secluded stream on the Arkansas boarder while staying down in Southern Missouri at Big Cedar Lodge near Branson. My buddy Dave Franco and I were with our wives on a weekend get away and slipped out for a couple hours of fishing on Saturday afternoon. We pulled up to this beautiful stream and as I walked down to the water I spotted a lunker swimming by himself in some shallow very very clear water just before some falls. After getting my 5 wieght fly rod ready to go and tying my hand tied size 12 brown Wooly Bugger I headed down toward the big fish I had found. Dave stopped me as I was storming that way "Your not going right for that big fish are you?" Dave Said! I yelled hell yes I am and kept on walking. Dave laughed a bit and headed up toward some falls where the trout were rising up to dries. When I got down to the fish a bunch of smaller trout were surrounding him so I had to float my fly perfectly to get it in his sites. When it hit the water on the first cast, he went strait for it but a smaller fish bumped him as soon as he tried sucking it up and he vanished into the shadows. After a few minutes I decided to play around with the normal sized trout and caught a nice sized Rainbow. Right after I turned him back I noticed a big shadow creeping out, typically once you miss the chance on a lunker they escape and its almost impossible to catch them, for this fish he was on a mission to eat! Since he was coming out from further away this time, I was able to perfectly set my fly about 2 feet in front of him away from other fish. After a couple small twitches of my line I watched him creep up, make one turn and BOOM he was on. I immediately raised my rod high setting the hook and getting rid of all my casting line and went strait to the reel. This fish fought like no other fish I've ever had on, he first took off about 20 feet away, jumped and then swam strait toward me. I've never reeled and let line out so much in my life. After about 15 minutes of this fish taking me for a ride and a couple jumps I was able to land the 24 inch Rainbow with a 18 inch girth which records my biggest trout to date. I didn't have time to weigh him before I turned him back into the stream for fear of him dieing, but per girth/length calculations he would have been somewhere between 8.5 and 10.5 lbs, not bad for 2 lb line and a hand tied fly I crafted. After I had some fun with the rest of the fish in that part of the stream I ran up to fish with Dave and show him the pics. Dave and I enjoyed the rest of the time fishing next to each other on a full out fishing derby for trout. After my cheeks started hurting from smiling so much we headed back to camp to share the story with the Misses.
When I'm not trout fishing in the Spring its time for Gobblers and Motocross Racing. The rains have kept the motocross bike in the garage but I was able to slip out a couple times to shoot long beards. My favorite was when I took my Nephew JD out for his first ever turkey hunt and he was able to nock down a 23 lb turkey with a 10.5 inch beard and 1.5 inch spurs. Not bad for his first thunder chicken!! I also had good success and now have had plenty of time to work on stocking up my fly box for our next few trips coming up.
(J.D. Schenck and his First Turkey)
Tribal Outdoors and Team Fowl Pursuit Beat Down
(From left to right: Zach White, Shawn Stahl, Nick Lisic, Zach Simon, Casey Self, Ben Smolen)
It was an abnormally warm Wednesday evening after a single digit morning that we met up with Shawn Stahl and his Cameraman Brian as we headed down to South Western Kansas for a few days of filming for Fowl Pursuit 8. The phone call came in around 10pm that the birds were using this small river that Avery Prostaffer Zach White and Tribal Outdoors Pro-Teamer Zach Simon had for the morning. We met up at 530am from the hotel and headed out to carry in off some private land down to the river bed. The set was about 10 dozen GHG Sleeper Shells, 3 dozen Full Body FFDs, and about a dozen Floaters. At first light we were scrambling to get the blinds brushed and the geese where circling wanting to come drop down for a drink. We got set and started to work the birds over. Big canada geese would circle around this spot like mallards in the timber and singles and pairs would drop strait in finishing in the hole doing the ole body builder as Simon explained with the wing tips folding until they almost touched to get down without making a pass. It was a cool site to see drop in there and with picking off mostly singles and pairs and only a couple times getting bigger bunches we were able to stretch the hunt out for a longer morning of fun. About 10:30am we finished the hunt off after Stahl's Lab Trace made a 5 foot vertical jump to get up the hill side to pick up the last goose, was pretty awesome! After getting our share at the china buffet we headed about 2 hours west for some Spec and Cackler action. Continues below....
(From left to right: Zach White, Shawn Stahl, Zach Simon, Nick Lisic, Phil Freeman, Casey Self, Ben Smolen)
By the time we got into town it was too late to see the field we would be hunting the next day, but friend Phil Freeman assured us he had the X for us. When we got out in the morning to set up 3 trailer loads full of Lesser and Honker deeks we couldn't find a square inch to the field that didn't have little green piles from our feathered friends. The weather had taken a huge warm up, and with highs reaching in the 40s after single digit days earlier in the week the birds had started preferring the winter wheat. The field we set up in was a thick corn field that touched a wheat field. So we set the blinds in the corn and the majority of the deeks out in the wheat stubble. About 7:30am the sky erupted with Snows, Specks, and Cacklers. We were able to pick out 5 specks but the real treat was watching a group of about 50 to 75 cacklers that finished in the hole with another 150 waiting their turn above. When the all too famous (SHOOTEM) command came out of Stahl's blind we watched 12 cacklers fall out of the sky and soon we were only 4 birds shy to finish our limit. About 10 minutes later a group of 6 came in and we put the last 4 on the ground in time to make it for breakfast. Now after dealing with those squeakers I'm ready to get back to KC to hit some big honkers and only needing 1 trailer full of decoys, but boy was it a treat! Zach and Zach are in the stages of starting their own guide service next year so keep them in mind if you want in on some of this action as you won't be dissapointed. Contact Zach Simon at 316-258-8989 to book your hunt.
TRIBAL OUTDOORS PRO-TEAM MEMBERS WIN BOTH
DUCK AND GOOSE WORLD TITLES!!
Well I'm pleased to announce the addition of 2 more World Champion Callers to the growing list of World Champion Callers on the Tribal Outdoors Pro-Team Mike Anderson and Robbie Iverson, both of who were proud members of the team long before gaining the World titles. Mike and I have been friends for about 8 years now after meeting on the contest trail, me being the goose caller and him being a duck caller. He actually talked me into blowing in a duck contest once and after some of his words of wisdom I some how came out in second place! We have traveled around and put our nickels together to save on hotel rooms just to try and win a contest, and was the one that convinced me to join the RNT Team 2 years ago, so when I got the news Saturday November 28th after getting home from a duck hunt that he was tied for 1st place going into the 3rd round I was pretty excited to get on the internet and see how this thing would turn out! I hit the refresh button on the PC about 50 times before I saw the final scores come in and Mike was crowned the 2009 World Duck Calling Champion!! A title that will not only give him a lifetime of fame and glory, it will also give him an automatic ticket to defend his title in the 2010 World Duck Contest and a chance to compete in the Champion of Champions contest that is only held every 5 years if he wishes to do so. See more below about his win from ESPNOUTDOORS.COM and help us congratulate Mike on his great victory as it couldn't of happened to a more humble and great guy!!
The second World Title winner is a newer member and friend to the Tribal Outdoors Family Robbie Iverson with the World Goose Calling Champion title. I met Robbie at calling contest last year while competing at the 2008 World Goose Contest. Since then I've ran into Robbie at several contest and this past summer he asked to be on the Tribal Pro-team, it was a no brainer to get this guy a jacket and get him on the team not only because of his great calling ability but also because he is a great person who now is among some of the greatest callers to win the title at only 17 years old. But this isn't the first World title for this young man, Robbie in 2008 won the Intermediate World Duck Contest in Stuttgart at the age of 16. Robbie texted me the night before the final round in Easton Maryland telling me he had made the final round in all 3 adult contest and I was excited the next day to hear from him that he had won the contest. Among him in the top 5 was Tribal brothers and formal 2008 World Goose Champion Wade Walling and Team Member Eric Strand. When I talked to Robbie the next day he had gotten responses from companies all over wanting him to Prostaff for him as you can expect and he was quick to let me know that he was sticking with the Tribal Outdoors Team (Which says a lot about Robbie's character and we are proud to have him among the team!). Robbie heres to you brother, and something tells me this won't be the last World title article we post here on this site!! See more below about Robbie's big Win!!
Written by: Casey Self
STUTTGART, Ark. — A new call gave Mike Anderson the confidence he needed.
Larry TowellMike Anderson
The 29-year-old from Mankato, Minn., outperformed 66 other competitors on a crisp evening to win the World's Championship Duck Calling Contest.
"It's numbing," Anderson said as he stood on the stage at the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce clutching the huge trophy. "It means the world ... Obviously, it's the world's trophy."
Anderson had not made it past the second round in previous World's Championship, but he went down to Butch Richenback's Rich-N-Tone call company in January and received his winning duck call.
"If you don't have the right duck call in your hands, you can be the best in the world and it might not resonate on this stage," he said. "It made me feel in my heart that I could do it."
He qualified for his third World's Championship by winning the Illinois River Regional. He has now won nine calling events and is ranked No. 14 in the Duck Calling Power Rankings.
Saturday, the first cut knocked the field down to 31, and only 11 were left for the third round. People in the crowd of several hundred yelled out the names of their favorites as they waited for the results.
Starting with local favorite J.D. Stanley as 10th runner-up, the finalists were named and moved off the stage onto the steps below. Previous champion Jim Ronquest of Hazen, Ark., was sixth runner-up, and another former champion Todd Copley of Des Moines, Iowa., was fourth runner-up.
A man in the crowd, noticing all the fidgeting of the remaining contenders said, "Oh man, there's some nervous dudes up there." With an $8,000 check and a list of prizes as well as the title that can propel them far in the business world of duck calling, it stood to reason.
Daniel Duke of Stuttgart was called as third runner-up. When Trevor Shannahan of Millington, Md., left the stage as second runner-up, the crowd let out a big cheer. Anderson and Tyler Merritt of El Paso, Ark., were the last two men standing.
When Merritt was named first runner-up, a mob scene ensued. The announcement of Anderson as 2009 World's Champion was barely audible over the buzz. Anderson was quickly surrounded by well-wishers. Richenback went up and got his moment with Anderson, whose tears flowed as he hugged his wife. Friends congratulated him, embracing him, yelling their joy for him.
"That's my boy!— he won it!" was one high-fiver's scream.
A phone was shoved into his face. A call from home.
"Thank you, dad" he said with an audible blubber. "Let me talk to Ben (his 9-year-old son). Hey, buddy, I won World's. I wish you were here."
"Dad, I have to let you go. I love you, dad. I love you, mom."
Mobs of friends still pushed to get to him. Cameras flashed to get a shot of him carrying the massive trophy with a huge duck call as its centerpiece.
"I don't know what to say. All I know is it's an awesome feeling. Each and every one of us is a big family. I wish every competitor could be up here because it's an awesome feeling being World Champion," he said.
When asked what he would do with the trophy, Anderson joked that he wanted to strap it to the hood on his 900-mile drive home. "If not, I'm going to set it up in the back seat and strap it in a seatbelt." http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/news/story?id=4696639
