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The Hunting Collective
Ep. 141: The End of Living Off the Land in Louisiana, the Market for Alligators, and Catching Dinosaurs with Swamp People's Troy and Jacob Landry
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1h36m
On this week's episode, Ben heads to Pierre Part, La., to chase alligators with the Landry family of History Channel's Swamp People fame. They hit the bayou to hang bait before heading out with three generations of gator hunters to fill tags to be sold to buyers and distributors. They eat a true cajun meal and sit down to talk about being on cable TV for 12 years, the end of "living off land" in Louisiana, and why people from around the world are drawn to their corner of the bayou. Enjoy.
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Speaker 1: The Hunting Collective is presented by Element. I guess I grew up on a Hey, everybody, Welcome to episode one forty one of The Hunting Collective. I'm Ben O'Brien as always, and today I'm in swamp Jacob one what Lake Verrette we said outside of Pure Park, Louisiana with the Swamp People themselves, Jacob Ridge, Moose, Lindsay, Troy Landry, and we're after gators. I don't have much say other than it's exciting. So you're gonna have to stay tuned. But Jacob, here what twelfth season of the History Channels Swamp People twelve. That's gotta be the longest running show on that channel or maybe any cable channel, millions of people watching you guys on gators for over a decade. So we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna try to get some gators in the boat everything then something here to buy it. We're not gonna try. We're gonna no trying. We're gonna get a wet at all. Right, Jacob, tell us where we are right now. Right now, we're fishing on Lake Barette's close to our hometown. It's a pretty big lake. A lot of big alligators, and you can't ask for a better scenery than this. It's nothing but big cypress trees full of Spanish moss all along the edges of it, and it's been known to produce some big alligators. But as you can hear, there's a lot of stumps, so you gotta be careful as you're passing on the edge. I don't know if we got one here. Now take the next one's up. You remember, do you remember the first time you got your son rich here? He's nine ridge, Say hi, Hi, you remember the first time you went out of your dad's troy. I probably don't remember exactly the first time I would look at that nice swimming straight acro away from our beat. Yeah, that's a good one. I really don't remember, because I was probably too young to remember. My dad used to put me on his shoulders and take me in the woods and take me in the boat and out a little bitty But uh, I do remember being little and going out there, that's for sure. I had a lot of good times. We used to rabbit hunt a lott. He used to always take the rabbit hunting and carry me on the shoulders and sitting on a stunt are coming up on a bait that we hung yesterday. I do not see the line. Why I see lines straight in the water. Yeah, it looks like slack. There's plenty of games around, but not on our hooks. Got one, Troy? Oh God, get him? What I'm going to bud? Good night? Good You want right there? Oh? Yeah, I think I think you. Gator number two of the day. Gator number two, the number two we want to We don't ball. We're just sure about an put at the end of the women when we got back down. But now we're on the moose. You got any comments? Do you have any commentary? Now? Okay, we'll come back to you later. What color is an alligator? Wow? Oh, I don't know. There girl, we got there a bank of Mayan. Don't big when he's dropped on the stage yet he's a vegetarian movie salt. Yeah, a little slack, it a little slack. Yeah, he's like de Siliday for he comes for ye shoot, but come on like this, Troy. It feels like old times. I'm just waiting. I might jump in right. That's the hardest part where Troy makes funny. If you can't get the gator in the boat. It's the big gator boat. We got all the big gators in this boat. No wonder you're bombing because our road has all the weight. It's gonna fights. Yeah, yeah, why don't you hold this? Lindsey is gonna hold the microphone while I try to kick this. But I got just pointed towards foot right, Conjamin, Hey, are you gonna be all right? Rich from fighting? Reach? You want to go and fight him? Bun come home from Mr Ben up down on that day the whole Rich old him, let him, bro hold him, let him go. You gotta bubb it all. Let me go right at me A good shot. That's a DUDEY got him. I'm all wet. Take that, Buddies on safe five five footer? Oh yeah, what they don't tell you about gator hunting as the gators. I'm in the boat with you when you're done with them, they don't there's nowhere else to put them. What do you think, Rich? How big is this one? About? Seven foot? What do you think most? Five five foter? So now, Jacob, we're gonna tag him, tagging and make him legal beagle hit bubble cutter and do it. You all right? What do we got we got one. He's tangled up in six footer. He's tangled up. I gotta grab this rope. You're gonna help me. Ridge, Ridge's gonna shoot him. Jacob's gonna fight him. He's all wrapped up in a stick. That number that's bad about the safety. The bust the gussin got him, bust the little gustin. Watch us on, fine, I don't safe. I'm safe. Keep the barrel pointed up, well done, straight up? Not at Mr Bam. Are you going down? He's you just go at amount of me? All right, Red John, I'm gonna put another hook in another bait. Reg you don't like the bait. You don't like the rotten chicken. M I don't blame you. I don't blame you. It's not great. How many gators do you think, like, if you had to count in lake for Red, why do you think gator numbers would be hundreds? Hundreds? I really don't know what it. The thing is like right now, you see the water just came up close to two ft. So now all them little slips that go back into the swamp, the gators go back in there. Now. Right before the hurricane, the water was super low, so every everything that all the swamps was all drained out dry, so everything was in the lake feeding that. People were seeing big alligators left and right now. If they're still out here, I don't know, you know, they might they might be, but a lot of them will go back in that swamping hot and get away from the boat traffic. Imagine. I'mlike, you know, elkoh dear, it's impossible to know how many gators are in them that little simple vibration of the boat they'll going and how you do nothing like to stick around all right, Jake, If how many gators we got so far, we gotta count them up. It looks like we got about six decent ones in the boat, all around six seven eight foot good average. But we're looking for that granddaddy. You're gonna make it all worthwhile? Yeah, you think if you feel like you're doing, we're doing better than your dad. Are we losing out? Ah, we're doing pretty decent. For the few lines we've ran so far. This line looks kind of tight going towards the bank. So there's the lines we said yesterday, and all our lines have either had a gate or at some point. Yeah, nothing's left left hanging. So that's a good chune. And sometimes it takes a couple of days. You know, you catch a couple of small ones and get them out of the way before you catch them big ones. So not too bad. Let's check it out. What happened Jacober the tail about half of us the lines we said yesterday and we got a little Yeah. Unfortunately, this is a really good area of alligators. It's a little nub right off the lake, and these big alligators love to come high in here, get away from the boat traffic and all. And we've been here in reports of a good gate in here. And so we put one, two, four lines right here in one little bit of circle, hoping that we'd get them. And short enough we got here, our branches broke. The rope is burned into the tree and the end of the line is popped. He got off and then he was on a tree that gills. That's flexus. So that just goes to show you how big and powerful he actually hug that rope into the branch. It is currently imbedded into into that branch. You can tell he was fighting hard. He really good kill the moota kill them all. And then he just popped up in the middle of the boy. Let's see how if he comes back up. I don't know. Can you get shots at him just an open water like that? Yeah, we got a big gun. We'll bring like a top seventy or something like that too to shoot him on open water. I don't I don't typically like to try to shoot at him with just a twenty two mag or seventeen because you've got to hit him, I mean pretty much dead and I put him to stop with that type of gun. There's such a difference once you see these things up close. There's such a difference between a six ft or eight ft or ten ft or twelve foot or I mean there. Once they get to be eleven feet ten feet, they're just a completely different animal. Yeah, And unfortunately the big ones be smart to be, just like gear and everything else. Once you get them once, they kind of get smart to it, and the chances of catching them again it's always possible. We've called them again, but they just know now they know what chicken tastes like. That just goes to show you it might be fishing, but it's not always catching, that's for sure. We're pushing through last couple of lines and check and you just briefly stop and take in a lot of this man. There's a sprays and egrets and pelicans, Spanish moss and sleepress trees, gators everywhere. It is a wild place in the Buy here what we got on here. That's the biggest one of the days, big big dad to do right here, buddy, Yeah boy, yeah, yeah, that's a m Yeah, you don't want to come up. He knows he's in troubles. He's in trouble. Read John h watch your fingers, big boy big They help get him whenever you ready, Buddy, I'm ready. Yeah, perfect, we'll get another one, you know. Hold on, it's a big one. Yeah, I'm telling it. He's gonna get ready the job. I shoot job buddy. All right, now, we gotta get him in the boat. I'm gonna pull that off. Fig that out. We'll fig that out of, Bro Biggs, Gator of the day. Ridge, I'm gonna all right, Ridge and Jacob were how big alligat do you think that is? Ah, he's gonna be close to eleven foot. He's long, but he's skinny, but he's a big one. Look his teeth how big and blunt you can test the old alligator. We were talking about this before. He said they can get up to hundred years old. I mean, it's hard to say. It's hard to know, but Asian by their teeth, I'm sure. But you figure that one's been around quite sometimes. Oh, that one's been around a good fifty sixty years for sure. I mean you can just look at him. He's old. He's by looking at the slime on his back. He's been in the swamp for quite a while. He just came out because the water got so low. And he's a good one. I didn't think we had anything here either, So that was a that was a nice little surprise when he pulled back. Well, we're gonna call it for the morning and we're gonna go back. What are we having for for lunch over there? We got a little crawfish stew, fried alligator, fried frogs. Ridge is gonna bake us some brownies and cookies when we get by. Yeah, it's gonna be good. Thanks for joining us in the field. We're gonna go have some food and then we're gonna sit down with Jacob and Mr Troy Landry. Keep this podcast going. We'll see you then. Now We're back at Duffy's gas station here, Pierre part the famous Duffies where each time Troy Landry and Jacob Landry return from gator trip, especially on Sundays, people gather locals, people all the way from Canada, people from around this country gather at a tiny, little rusty gas station in the middle of nowhere to Louisiana. Right now, those are about thirty forty people, babies, infants, eighty year olds, mom's, dad's, little kids, all lined up to shake Troy Lander's hand and to see the gators they brought in. So we got about sixteen gators and Troy's boat ten gators, our boat six and all of the six hundred some tags they'll fill this year. And it's a bit of a party here right now. Six foot six ride good Rich one to six to six two zero three six five. He was wrong, seeing man, you've been bringing gators back to Duffy's longer then I want to remember I'm getting connor getga boys that I agreed right there when we would first guarded brain. Do you ever think that this many people would come and see this? Every you and Jane, I think we're that virus. This year. You really have got way more people than dish. But I think people it's character coming around with that Corona bolish. How many gad you guys go through that, I don't know. I really didn't do it, but I guess you bounded him. You call your calling. Five were gone and then we had about a don more long. But I was scared just doing your league. It was getting rough there. There are people here from all over the country. There's even a mother that wants to get her newborn babies picture taken with a gator. They're setting up a photo right now that says when the baby was born, and the baby's maybe three or four weeks old. As everybody gathering, everybody gathering at Duffy's. It's crazy. An hour inside a giant, probably eight hundred square foot freezer with bins full of gators. Jacob Landry driving a skid steer palette jack Onto into the easier, gets a big scoop and then scoops ice into the bins of gators to keep them for sales. Later on. Giant giant pile of ice that will keep these gators cool until a buyer comes or distributor combs to get them it is a operation. It's not a hunting operation. It's not a guiding operation. It is an industrial operation. It looks like a fish market, smells like a fish market. This is definitely not North American model of wildlife conservation. This is definitely not hunting. This is market selling of gators by some people I really respect, and it is a full fledged operation. Troy Lander, you you're right, you're tired. I'm tired. Not really, you don't everyone, because I'm glad you said it. I said, I said, I almost by myself. I said like six or seventy lines, and then I used all the I did all the chicken work, and then I came back here and I had seventy boot and balls, and I'm feeling a little tired. But when I looked, he was taking the hook and flinging it in the bucket, trying to hook, trying to have to get a smart way. You don't want to just get your hand down in the rotten chicken. For those of you that don't that, we have been listening thus far with thirty six gators. Thirty five gators to thirty five you got, yeah, you had twenty six in your boat. And Jacob caught thirty four. You card one. You can't if you if nobody's ever been to Pierre Apart, you just can't get you can't get it in edge of bus. They talked ship to you the entire it wouldn't be right, wouldn't have it any other way. But you out caught destroy you caught twenty six and Jacob Ryan only called ten. But Jacob didn't have no help. That's true. That's true. Nan was there to do, but she wasn't there with him. Yes, I think he called the biggest gator on the day. I remember when I said, hey, Jacob, that looks like a nice tree right there. Oh yeah, he said, yeah, we'll probably catch a big one. We should have had too. Thus we did. Yeah, we should have had to. We had a we had a tree shaker in there bor. That makes you shick when you do a big one. You know it's a big when. Yeah, did they get educated for that? They like they do. If they survived. If he shaviged, he would be that much harder to catch your game. Yeah, if the rope, if the tree was rope burn it was. It was a big one. Yeah, And he was saying, you know, we were saying when we were there that if if that limb that the rope is tied on, it's it's conflex and go up and down. That gives him more time to get tired out. And it was that tree. Wasn't that he actually broke it. But you can tell he must have been hooked in the jaw and he wasn't hurt because in the right corner, back right, the line was going straight up on the bank. So he was probably on the bank using leverage too. That's how you crossed over the bank. You want to look behind the bank, you should have. You can see where he was headed towards the bank. But we were standing there checking everything out, and he says, a big head popped up behind us in the middle of the No, yeah, that's true. I said that. Do you believe me? You don't believe it. He's huge. Everybody I've met in this town has said that they've seen a fourteen foot gator. Every person I've met, every single one. Everyone's like, I'll big gator over there, big gator over there. Yeah right, they all said. Probably in the last few years. And we didn't catch on over here. What do we say. Yesterday we stopped at a fish camp because it was raining, and both of those guys like, oh, we saw fourteen foot right over there, right over there, right there's fourteen footers everywhere. Can't you can't just can't catch him. Well, we got a lot of things I want to cover, but um, first all, there's such history. We were just talking a little bit ago to some of the hunters you had today, you were taught telling them about the history of not only your family, but of this place, of the Bayou, of of where you live, how you grew up, how Jacob's growing up and now he has two kids that were with us today, and how they're going to grow up and what that's gonna be like. And so I think one of the things that we people are gonna want to hear about is how you grew up, Troy, what it was like here, you know, when you were a kid, when I was growing up. I think my generation called the tail end of the good days the wildlife. And there's still a lot of fish. The fish is more probably just that plentiful out of that ever was in this area. The second to knowing when it comes to fishing now the hunting, Um, I think age took a turn for the worst because we get high water way too often now to the tides or foot and a half two foot high. And when I was a young kid, and everything stays flooded now. Uh, but you know, with that being said, uh, you know, you just got to move on and adjust. And when I was young, growing up, I mean, it was totally different. Uh. The things we used to do to make a living that I saw my mom and dad doing, in the neighbors, doing in the whole community, doing for a living at different times of the year. It's all going now, it's totally different now. You know, you'd hunt and you trap, and you'd fish certain things for three or four months out of the year. Then you moved to something else for three or four months, and you know, before you knew, the year was over and it was time to start over doing different the same things, but a year later. And it was seasonal, a lot of seasonal stuff. But there's a lot you're telling me. They they raised turtles, sold turtles. All my mama's family was in a turtle business. They all hatched and raised a little baby turtles and show them all over the world. Um, you know, the fur business. We used to all trapped. We're all big trappers and uh the average most probably a hundred animals, are they When I used to trap, and we shrimp a lot, and we crawfish, and I mean we do everything. And now the only thing we got left these days that you could still make a little money with was the alligators and the crawfish and border door. The alligators are done now and the crawfish is sadly going away all most in this area. And um, you know, it's just another page in the history book that's turning, and you just got to move on and find new things to do in new ways to do things. You're you're saying that living off the land is kind of coming to It's not coming to an end, but it's it seems like it's so different now. A man, a man that wants to live off the land, you're always gonna be to survive. You're always gonna be to catch fish and have stuff to eat. You're never gonna go hungry living off the land. But you can't make a living no more doing it. I could make a living years ago doing it. Everybody in this community made a living doing it, and a good living, you know, a decent living. You raise your kids, you put them through school and everything else because you finished one thing and you if you had a bad year with one thing, where maybe the next thing you jump into you had a good year. So you know, you always could make money. Whether it was fishing, shadow fishing mullets, or shramping, or cat fishing or trapping or you know, alligator hunt or crawfishing. There was always even though it was one thing was maybe bad, you always had three or four other thing that would pull you through the year. Now everything's bad and it's not gonna come back. It's a different world. It's uh, it's just there's no need for certain things now. Yeah, Jacob, you see that. I mean you just we were talking the other day. You got a crawfish spot now holding the walls not too far from here that you're running this first year. You're in it, right, that's correct. So you're seeing how and it's not I don't know if you're saying, sure that there's less wildlife or there's less you know, shrimp, there's less. There's not less gaiters. It's not we're not talking about that. The market for the market for now Jacob bought him a sheafood market, which is kind of like a grocery store for seafood, okay, And that's the good end of the business. He's on the good in now. We will grew up all our lives on the kitchen, and we were the catchers and the fishermen, and we shell the crabs, and we shall the crawfish, shell to shrimp to markets like Jacob got. Okay, not all inn is not there no more. You can't make a living doing it now the end of the Jacob's on the retail. Then that in you can still make a decent living with it, okay, because if Troy Landrn Pierre part Louisiana cash upply with crawfish or with trump or something, well he can go to John Brown from farm Race, from Alabama or anywhere else, you know, and bring them in and that's his retails. The downfall to it, you know, for a local fisherman that unfortunately we have to rely on farm rays to to make a living and really, you know, to get yourself through the year, because if you didn't, there's no way you could keep the doors open. And you know, and and really and truly like a sheep food market like you have you should be happy or glad that there is farm rage to fall back on when there's no wild. Absolutely, you know you'd prefer to have the wild. But guess what you'd be out of business if you depended on just the wild now because the fishermen are all on jobs. They can't make a living doing it no more. Well, I definitely want to talk about how the how gator you don't call it hunt, you got fishing catching. Doesn't matter what we call it, doesn't matter that they're dead either way. Well, you you shed lounge for with books, with bait, but then you shoot him with a gun, you hybrid, you know. Yeah, trying to make sure that folks understand. You know, somebody that's listening to this. People listen to all every country, so they're gonna be hearing this and not truly understand. I mean, I've always thought Louisiana to me is a place that has this intricate connection to the land and it's wildlife for the reasons that you're saying, Troy, that you come here and there's can be whole communities built off this idea that they are the supplier to the distributor who's getting it. You know, you're sitting at some restaurant at bass Pro Shops eating gator was you know, some stupid nuclear green sauce that somebody fried in the kitchen. That stuff has to come from somewhere, and so can you. You were just telling me this, Troy, But you talked to tell people about what these gator farms look like. And there's also I'm assuming farm crawfish, there's farm shrimp. Just but talk through kind of one the farms, the farm armed gator, you know, and and well, farming gators is another word. They started this year ago, and they have been farms for years and years. But there were small farms and they really they didn't really take a toll that much on the market. But in the last fifteen years they got bigger and bigger and bigger, and now they took a toll. They don't took the market. And there's really no more room now for the wild hunters because the farm race gators. They can kill him twelve months out of the year and harvest them to a restaurant or seafood market such as Jacob got Well, he can get a steady supply of fresh alligator meat from a farm twelve months out of the year, where in the while we can only hunt him for one month. Okay, So guess what, Jacob. To have a dependable, steady source, he's gonna start buying farm red. He might buy some meat from his dada for a money or two, but then he's got don't have no choice. He's got to depend on the farm. Right. Well, like you were saying some of the gators that we pulled in today, you got a six ft gator and you're telling you're saying it was a that would be worth a hundred dollars a couple of years ago, was that right? Yeah? And so now that same six ft gators worth six dollars six because because of the farm's got so big in the last ten or twelve year, the meat market is saturated. The uh, the skin market is saturated with too many skins. My bia, my bia. We just started our season and my buyer is not buying this year because he's gone. And I don't blame him. He's sitting on nine of his skins he bought from last year and probably fought the fifty percent his skins from two years ago. So you know, he's got so much money tied up in skins from the last two years that he opted out. This year, he's not buying a skin. What's this make you think of? Mean? You know, Troy was telling us he thinks it's like a way of life is coming to an end. Do you feel like that, Oh, absolutely to you know, they say it goes and comes in cycles, and they think that, you know, possibly in a few years it would come back. But just as bad as it is and the size of the farms and everything, I really just don't see where it can actually come back and be beneficial to us. Um if you're not doing guided hunts or picking eggs, or you know, doing something else besides just going catch the alligators. There's there's no market for it. There's nothing, no reason for you to stay in it, you know. And steadily every year people more and more getting out of it. And you can't buy him because there's no money to be made doing it. You can't pay your bills doing it. Why do It's hard? Hard work? Why do it if you're not gonna make a profit doing it's hard work. I did most of the work today, and I thought Lynda, I thought his wife, it looked like to me, was doing most of the work in the boat. He was doing most of the looks. But you know, people like you got a big company like Gucci. Gucci is a big buyer of alligator skins, and they used to come down every alligator season and and they have bid. They would they would be buyers that buy all alligators. Would would would bid for their market. Okay, now what Gucci did tend two years ago They came down and bought their own alligator farms in Louisiana. So now nobody can sell skins to Gucci. They got their own. There is their own alligators over here. And they're not the only ones doing that. That's the problem. They couldn't do. The wild hunters are completely out. Now we are the picture completely because that is that what's that done to the economy here? I mean, I know that you're making it work. Jacob was here with your story. It hurts it heard. It cripples d economy cripples and and you know, alligators there's just one small part of the puzzle. But if if you take three quarters of the pieces of the puzzle out and throw them in the garbage, well guess what, you ain't got a puddle the moore. It don't work. You don't have nothing. You just got little engine pieces and that's what's left. You can't make a solid living no more. You might scrap up a little money here and there, make a little change here and there for a week or two, but to say you're gonna make a living living off the land these day, it's done. It's finished. You should tell people the story about you know, we already touched on that you had turtles growing up. I mean that was the thing that your family did, sold turtles, But that you were telling me about how there was a boom during teenage mutant ninja turtles were where when I was When I was little, my dad would go out at night and uh, he had a vessel like a hunting vest, and he'd go with four or five old pairs of socks and he'd come back and the next morning he'd have them up socks full of little baby turtles. Okay, that fifteen or twenty per sock, and he'd find eighty two hundred a night, and he'd showed that he made money with that. And I remember that like it was yesterday, and they had people that was at the same time. Bill in Turtle Palm punch turtle farms and and my mama's family. The blankets were very big in the turtle business. Uh. And we've probably had seven or eight of them that had turtle farms, and they did real good. They were selling turtles for thirty five forty central piece years ago. Well, China was one of the biggest buyers that that turtles. They tell them all over the world, but China bought a bunch. And when the Ninja Turtles came out, well, turtles got real popular. So them a little couple of hundred thousand turtles they were hatching a year. Uh you know them seven eight uncles of mine. Well some of them would hatch half a million, some of them over that. Well, they're little turtles that were worth turty five or forty cents a piece, all of sudden was worth a dollar thurty and a dollar for the because of a Ninja turtle, cartoons and all that, every little kid out there wanted a pet turtle. Were you a big fan of Ninja turtles? I was a big nins turtle. Yeah, I was real young for but yes, and what happened after Ninja Turtles the turtles went to a dollar turty dollar Ford. I think for a year or two they even got up to a dollar fifty piece. Uh well, in the Chinese that was important all them, not all, but actually seven percent of the turtles from Louisiana was going to China. They started making their own turtle ponds. Okay, now they're selling them to China and all the rest of the world. Show them seem little turtles that got the one time was worth a dollar turte and a dollar for and now they're worth twenty cents twenty in and on a good year they might get twenty five cents now. So and it costs them to hatch the picti megs in the in the forms, to incubate them and ship them and clean them and sterilize them and everything. It costs them about twenty five cents to turtle now. Okay, back when they were getting turty and forty cents years ago, before the Ninjura turtle, it cost him about ten cents to radium fifteenth. But now that probably didn't wind up to as much as they're getting for crazy. Yeah, I mean, Jacob's wife Lindsay was showing me the instagram of the buyer you guys had. That's not buying this year. What's the name of its, uh American Americans American leathern tannery and it's it's the whole instagram of all these tan gator hides, all these things. And and I know people kind of want to know what the processes. You guys go out, You get how many five s tags a year? This year? So you said it just over five hundred tags. You get those tags, you fill those tags. Like we were just recording today, you each gator gets a tag on its tail, you could have notched its tail, and you come back here and you're reading off the number and the length. You know, you don't weigh him, do you have the blame note? And then what happens after that? What they get taken to the processing plants. They get skin out, The meat gets processed and cleaned and vacuum sealed and chipped off to be sold to restaurants and what not. And then the skins get pressure washed and cleaned real good. Then they get salted and they put into freezing too till the tanneries can take them and actually, you know, go through the process of tanning them. But that's like he was saying, there's so many polaces right now, they're just sitting back and still has skins from two or three years ago that they don't want them. If you know, in the last couple of years, we had a market for the meat where that was the whole reason why they were buying them. They take them with the skins, but they wasn't wanting them for the skins. They were wanted for the meat only. And and now the markets really really saturated with skins. The you know, with the week the economy is, with the virus and everything, restaurants aren't open. Everybody's just sitting on a lot, a lot of meat. So that's not even a demand right now either. So there's a lot a lot of people that's not fishing just because that. Yeah, and so now you have what's, what's the most tags you've ever had in a year, and so you guys, basically the way you get tags, you explain that too, is through you know, a relationship with private landowners. Right we fish for I think thirty or five or thirty six private landowners. And and the where you get permission to fish somebody's land for alligated the same way you get permission to hunt somebody's land for deer or turkeys or anything else. You go knock on the door and b a relationship with the land owner. And the only thing you instead of paying them a leash. You know, if you want a deer hunt on somebody's area, you're telling, look, I'm gonna give you ten dollars and the ach or five dollars, and they could a deer hunt your property, alligator hunt. You tell them I'm gonna give you twenty five percent or thirty percent of whatever they work. What I catch on your property, if your property, if I get one tag for your property or a hundred tag forward or whatever, I'll give you average of about uh for And then I got about a dozen out of thirty something, I got about a dozen of landowners that don't charge me nothing. They just want them off of that property. Their kids and their grandkids go Doug hunting and t You hunting, and the gators eat their retrievers and all that. So they just want them off of the property. And uh, they don't want no money. They said, you know, keep whatever you catch, keep it. We just want them gone. But the majority charges about thirty percent of whatever the gator the work. And until three or four years ago, thirty percent of an alligator would most probably bring the landowner seventy five dollars, maybe a hundred dollars on a big one. But you know it was it was worth it because most of my landowners, I'll get fifteen twenty tags at least for and now the landowners shaff for an alligator might be a dollar Domond Barrus, really and true, I feel bad because some of them, I know, they used to depend on that money. They use that to pay the insurance for that prop on their property and their property taxes and all that. And now I feel bad because after I mean, if I send him a hundred percent of what I get, it's not gonna be nothing compared to what it was before, much less thirty percent. I mean, there's nothing. Do you how do you get the tags from fishing wildlife? If I apply let's see Jacobon's a hundred or let's see Jacobon's a thousand acres, and I'll go to wild off and fishers. I say, I want to hunt Jacob stylesand acres. I want to catch alligator on his thousand acres. They're gonna look at the map, They're gonna study his lane, they're gonna might even go out and look at it in person. And if it's real wet, if it stays wet most of the year, they'll give me one tag per hundred acres. Okay. That tolder acres are get me tin tags. If it's wet about half a year, it will be one tag per maybe two or three hundred acres, okay. And if it's if it's real dry, I might only get one tag for that towldon acres. The prime the prime area over here that we love the fishes in the middle of the Chaffel Liabation. It's a deep swamp that never drives up. Okay, the biggest alligators we catches on the track of lane. But we only get one tag for eight hundred acres and it never drives up. It should be one tag per hundred. But the reason they give us one tag per eight hundred is because in the spring, when the mamas are making their nests to hash the little ones, it's floods a lot. The Chaffel Liabation floods almost every spring. Two thirds of the United States drains through the Mississippi River in the Chafe Road. Two thirds of the country from Idaho all the way the Pennsylvania drains right here. Just remember, if you're dumping crap in the river in Pennsylvania, it's coming through, it's coming to South Louisiana. That's from Idaho the Pennsylvania. And usually every spring they get big rains, either in the western part of the country or the eastern part of the central part. Somewhere they'll get rain and we'll flood, and the nest going the water and they'll drown. The eggs are going and they're not good. They won't hat. So that's why the Ryan area there should be one tag per hundred. Over here, we only get one tag per eight hundred. But it's our favorite places to fish. That's where Junior and I compete all the time for the tag. That's public land, and we got a bid on those tags and it's not private land. On see, A lot of people don't realize this area is so prone to flooding. They only built some levees around us right here in nineteen forties. Before that, like my grandpa and all them, they all used to live on houseboards because they flooded all the time. And the government still owned almost all the land down here. You couldn't homestead it. You couldn't grow a crop and pay taxes because it was always flooded. It was all trappers and fishermen. So the federal government still owned all the land around here. And there's still big tracks of public land that the government still owns, you know, down here. How did they come to own that? Was that all through? Well what happened was the federal government owned all the land, and and uh nobody was homestead and you know, when all the rest of the country was being formed, then homestead everybody down here was living on house boats and trapping and fishing. Well, the big logging companies when they ran out of virgin timber up north, Okay, all the big forests up north, when they finished cutting all the old and they ran out of virgin timber, all these swamps around here was loaded with virgin shipish giant hypest trees. So all them big companies from up north came down here and they could buy, uh, they could buy the cypress rights to the land, just the timber rights for fifteen centi an acre, or the land was really worthless. They could buy it from the federal government for cent an acre. And on the land in the timber. So most of them big companies from up north was already well to do because they made fortunes cutting the big virgin timber up they all over the country. When they came down here, they bought it. And about the time they finished cutting all the big virgin hypest tree around here, in the late nineteen twenties and third ish, uh, they figured the land was gonna be useless. They started finding oil and and gash underneath it, natural gadget ail. Sure, they made a fortune cutting the shape street on all the swamp. They bought it like for like I said, for nothing five cents are And then they got rich with the oil. They has some all fewers right around here, some all whales that's been pumping the nineteen forties and they're still pumping. Yeah, they're still pumping. Go figure that. The tail of this place, man, this part of the country just has this twisting and turning, just a lot more to it than just the most thinking mood or even when you can tell I don't know, it's something about a place. Some places have a soul. This is like the place I tell people all the time. It's exchanging now because so many people are here. But when I was young, you could shot down in the in uh on the car portrait at home and count the card that with passion afternoon. Now they might have five thousand cards that passion a day. When I was young, they might have had five cards that passed a d okay. And I always said the issue was like the place that time forgot, you know, the swamps and all around here used to be. Until the last twenty years, it was almost some time. You could stay out death for a week. We'd go camping and all and hunting for a week at a time. You won't shoot another pushing. Yeah. Well, when I come down here, I'm struck by almost everything. But I'm struck by the way that you guys live all together like generations, because that's I mean, even in my family, we don't all live in the same town, even let alone in the same street or you know, within driving distance. And then it's it's the way everybody gathers around each other. It's that there is a way of life here. There's a way of life that that remains no matter how much all the other stuff is changing. That way of life is well, yeah, but we're slowly losing all our old people. And you know all the old French talking people when we used to get together, my mom and dad and my grandma and nobody talking English. Nobody Now it's almost all the old people that talk French. Is going Jacob. And know they talk English, you know, they don't talk French. My Grandmo could write, never went to school that day in her love, but you could write French and read Frank. You just learn knowing from her mom and dad. Mom. Yeah, yeah, when they were settled. What do you think, I mean, we had your boys out on the on the boat today. I mean, I feel like they're getting it, Jacob. But they're also just like you were saying earlier Shore, they're just different. They're in a different environment. Oh absolutely. And they don't know the you know, the the traditions that we're trying to pass on to them. They don't realize how close they are to just being extinct, you know, because not many people are doing it anymore, and they grew up in it, so they feel like it's just second nature to them. So you know, they don't realize exactly just how fortunate they are to get to do the things they do because there's a lot of people that can't do it anymore, and are you know, their families don't do it, so a lot of his friends are missing out on it. That something that might have been done in their family years ago and it just won't happen ever again. Yeah, I mean you could see. It's almost like it's there too, because we're out there running around in you know, looking hanging baits and then pulling gators up, and there's people out there tube and there's big expensive bass boats so guys are fishing that. In the fish camps we were at, people are partying, so you can kind of see like here's the old way, here's the old way to use this, like in the new way to use this like jet skis and stuff like that. It's see you can see you don't see. I mean we went on the water the last two days and we've seen one other boat having something to do with alligator lines and and he was just in and out of there in twenty seconds, you know, Yeah, nobody was out there. Well, I mean that's it's it's a good way to start talking about this damn swamp people show you guys had going for twelve years, Troy. Yeah, you believe twelve years. I don't think anybody camp and you believed. I don't. I don't have to look this up and figure it out. But I can't remember a show being I mean I remember duck Tynessy was really popular for it was like meteoric rise to the most popular show on TV. But it was only around for five years ago. I don't know the number. After this year, we're gonna have a film over two hundred episodes. That's that's over two episodes. Would you ever thought that there's no way? I guess not, no, man. And then we're over, you know. We come into Duffies, which one was one was Duffy's founded. When was it the first open bait shop? Was there was a little kid, It was small, it was a little bit of cooler, but that'd been there in the sixth dish. Yeah, and here it is now. There's people gathered. I met a couple of people there today that had come every year since two thousand twelve. Yeah, and they get their picture every year. And there's a couple of people who did that. And one young lady came every year and she had a kid last year, so this year she brought her child for her twelve week old baby crazy. They had a lady, a couple of a few years back, I guess about maybe four years ago, five years ago. Uh, for her ninety second birthday. She was from Illinois. For her ninety second birthday, she wanted her kids. I think she had three daughters. She wanted her kids to bring her to duff It and pare Port Farnus. So for her ninety second birthday, they brought her. They found us and we took a picture shipping on a big alligator with her, and they came back. I think almost every year change. I don't know if they're coming this year or not. My mama keeps in touch with him. I heard that from two people today there was probably people. He said it's less people just because this year. And two people said that that they came down here to find you guys the first time, which is a crazy pilgrimage and of itself, no matter where you're going, m came down here to find you, and then they found you and then made friends in town and come and stay with those friends every year. Absolutely, multiple people told me that had a lot of people that move here. After swamp people started twelve years ago, we've had a lot of people that moved here for the last few years of that life. Someone bashed away right here and never went back home. That's yeah, that's a story. The first time I came here, I don't remember the details, but there was a gentleman here in a wheelchair that had I believe he had cancer. You guys have probably done this multiple times. I don't wish to so many people. People come here from the Canada, people come here from all over the world. At a History Channel, I don't remember what year guy hunted with me. It's been about four or five years, three or four years ago at least. The History Channel is big on doing uh like make a wish things and all that make a dream. They do a lot of that kind of charity stuff. And that was elated from Meridian, Mississippi about four or five years ago. The History Channel callman. They said, look, we're doing to make her dream or something, and uh, this latest dream she wants to go. She's terminal here, but she wants to go alligator hunting with you. So I told him, I said, well, I said, uh, we got a contract with you, so if you want me to bring the latter, I mean, you know, it's up to you all. We are the boss. Oh, we would love for you. She wants to go with you. So we took her that day. Jacob and always out there. The family came down and uh we met him one afternoon. They was watching her unload all alligators, and we took them the next day to Friday. We took the woman and I was terminally here and she was a young lead in her fifties. And I asked some of the family. That was about five or six family members that came with her, and I said, how she's doing. And they told me, they said, man, she's weak. Weak. We think you've been holding on for the last couple of months just to come on this strip. So we took him outigator hunting the next morning and we caught good We must have caught about twenty gators alligators, and at the end of the day we were just about finished running Allline, or we might have been finished. We saw a big one takeoff and guy, my little brother Trebor hooked him. And boy, we said, he said the hook and that big alligator was pulling the boat all over like a little toy. You know, they could have been a little toy. And about the he pulled the board for about ten fifteen minutes. Finally he came up and that lady shot him and she killed him. We pulled it alligator in the boat and we come home. We unloaded them all, took pictures, and then they left him by. They left about six seven o'clock that evening to go back to me Ridian, Mississippi. The next morning, we was going to the boat ramp at five o'clock and my phone rang and I almost didn't answer it because I didn't recognize the number at five o'clock in the morning, and I didn't know if it was one of them stupid tell the market or whatever trying to call man George let me answered, she what the hell? So I answered the phone and it was her family. They had got my number some kind of we and uh, she passed away. They got home at midnight that night. He's serious. And at one o'clock that morning at ye, about an hour or two after she got home. Oh yeah, that's that's I tell you. That's like I said, that's not the only time that you guys have had someone down here. People have coming states, people came and stay at your house before, hadn't they? They were coming and then they don't leave this say they don't go back home. They'd find him a place. A matter of fact, the last time you came, because I remember watching the show on Outdoor Channel Montana that was out here with us. He was one of those that came down here and his wife remember him. They stayed here for two or three years, and then they both went up Passion away and they stay here. They where they live from Montana. I think you don't worry. I don't know. They came out here to see you guys. Yeah, and then they just say they're just moving. They were living in a campo. Yeah, just unradial and that's I mean, that's every year. They got people living here right now. That game looking for us three or four years ago and they never went. They come down to people so friendly, and it's true compared to where they lived that before they figured, you know what, why not live here and Chihuahua. We used to call it Chihuahua. Yeah, that was where she went from. Jacob had a old lady, her and her husband Mr Larry. Yeah, exactly where you have your fuss out us all the time. Yeah. Yeah, we called it Johuahua I remember, I remember the first time I came down here and met you guys. I think I met you a little bit before over there at the bus company, I met Jacob Crawfish for us when you're working at my Long History and we'll tell the story. We'll tell that story too, where I'm I just you just shell shot and this guy, this Cajun guys yelling at me about iglu Coola's what anyway I came here and no, you wasn't working for you. I was working for ye. That's company in the world that they are, that all American made, and we are built right here in the USA. You guys have boats full of them too. Like everything you used to be built in America built the last, not a very few things that are built to last. Most things now they built even though they built him in this corner, they built it throw away. Yeah, well that's what that's that's that's the connection to and like that. When I go in your guys boats, I'm like, well, this is what this was made for. They didn't know when they were making it the first time, but it was made for this because it takes a beating. Those boats look like they've been through something when they come back, got shot at you. I told you that dude missed the mahonna shot alligata and I don't know what you were he was shooting, but he hit the shot at the boat and my foot was on the side of the board. It was kind of late. We had a stack of allegate and I was standing on the allegate and I had won. My left foot was on the side of the boat, and he shot a hole in the side of my boat about three inches from my foot. Lord of we pulled up on one or two, and that gun was flying around like that work. You had to say about three up? Whoa was he? Lord of merch? Then you shot the boat. That's okay, longer you don't shoot my foot, because boy looked, my foot was about three inches away. I don't have you. I could get another boat like it's kind of hole board been shot about twenty times before, so there's nothing seen everything. They had every cypress fruit in a freaking swamp. Yeah. I mean the first time I came here. I came here, and when you were I would think, you guys are out by the pool out here at your house, Jacob, And there was of course the whole family everybody's running around, and that in itself is a little while. There's you know, there's boil crawfish boil going on, there's there's food being slung around. And then there was this guy in a wheelchair in the corner and I talked to everybody, met everybody. Everybody was super friendly, more friendly than I could ever imagine as a guy didn't know anybody. And eventually got to talk to this guy and he's like, yeah, um, I just came down here to meet Troy and Jacob and I've been down here ever since. And I can't remember the guy's name, but I feel like that's that's what that's what I remember that I remember he was and he said he had been here, he's for some time. His wife was a little late, a little lady. She was like, real, but this has been like six seven years. But there's just so it just goes to show there's so many people that come down and they just get attracted to this place. Yeah, because it is even though it once was a place that that time forgot. I mean, it's still lagging behind, you know, the rest of the country, even though it's catching up a little bit. You know, it's there's still something about this place to me, not only the swamp, but the people and everything. It's wild and that goes to show, you know, Duffies is now if you google, like Pierre part Louisiana, the first thing comes up Duffies. Oh yeah, because that's what Pete, that's I mean, that's what people come here, you know, they come here for that. So we gotta start. We gotta go back to the beginning of how the hell you guys got on the History Channel in the first place, if you can even remember twelve years ago, like of all the things that happened between now and then, because at the time, how old were you at the time Jacob shooting now to put me, uh, twenty four and you didn't know much about what are you doing at at this time? Chase would have been and what a nineteen chasing five years younger than me. It's hard to think. And you know, whenever they first approached us, I mean we all looked at it, as you know, we just assumed do it. We're doing the Gators anyway, so why not, you know, go along with this and it'll be something neat to maybe have on video, you know, VCR, DVD, or whatever and show the kids laid on down the road. We never thinking twelve years later we'll still be here sitting sitting down in the middle of gazing well, because at that time, you guys are making some money doing it right. I mean crawfish, put crawfish on top of gators, and you're making a living at that point of money. Yeah, we had been getting fought and fifted out of the foot for the big ones in the foot for the small one, and we were making good money. And the year we shot the first show was in two thousand and eight and the stock market everything had crashed that year and it was a disaster. Some of my buyers were talking about not buying and they were talking about the slashing the price maybe in half. I told my wife, Uh, I said, maybe we are to, let you know, bring them camera guys with us. And she you know, what they offered to Paish might be on the way. We're gonna make a little money this year. So we decided to bring them and then oh, it was supposed to be a three hour documentary that was filming four and uh. The when they went back to New York to make their documentary, they liked the footage so much they made what ten episode the first year? I think eight or ten episodes I think the first year, and it broke every record at the History Channel for the most viewers until the did hold the record, and the production team was like, weren't they a bunch of British guys or something? Where they come from is a production thing that came in when us food nothing like you guys first from Colombia. Yeah, my god was from Colombia, Andreas. But you know, it has been a blessing for us. She'd helped my whole family and I just meet, helped the shoal, Yeah, helped of beard made a lot of easier to pit of bells. Well, and you guys all have you know if if folks don't know like that, you know you have duffies and then behind Duffy you kind of all have. You'll have your houses back here because your brother lives. Yeah, but my mom and dad, my brothers, then some of my kids, we all need. But yeah, I think most people would would like it that way if they could have it that way. Were very fortunate. Yeah, and so it wasn't weird when you first had Columbian camera guys, hanging out. We had to get a translator for Andrea to fresh yet went for him and went for you. The first few days he came with it. He was eating green Nority bars and you know that you gotta little life stretch full of healthy stuff for the first few days. And then after that we had him eating Hershey bars and forget that. We launched in the lake and that told me said standing at bait pan right there, and don't move. Don't get out of that bait pan the rest of the day. He said, that's the only spot you can stand in the boat. He was He didn't know whether to believe him or not. It's like I said, it's a harsh environment. Here here a part if you don't know what you're getting. And every day I would drive my boat, he would stand up right in front of him and put the camera in my face and I tell him, Andred, I can't see you blocking my view. I can't see where I'm gone. One day, I'm gonna hit a stump or log or something and you're gonna fly out the boat and I'm gonna run over you. Oh I'm gonna be okay. I'm so After about the second year, I think I hear the damn stump under the water or something, and he flew out the camera at the boat one way, and it's camera camera flew out the boat the other way, and he wind up finding his camera. But I think it was ruined after that. He used to shit down when I told him when I would drive, you know, get on trap himself in after that, because sometimes we run a few lines and I aread then we might have to travel two or three miles to get to another area. And he would stand up right in my face with his cameras and I couldn't see have And you already can't see a stump if it's under the water when you're traveling, and it's dangerous, I promise you. After that, I used to shit down. But what I was even doing that today kind of stand up. He was under the water lake and when they cut when they cut them big giant Choper Street all around that lake a hundred years ago, a hundred fifty years ago, the water level with about two foot loaders and is now maybe three foot loor. Okay, now, them big giant stumps is all six inches eight inches under the water. And when you see him or you feel them. It's too late, especially if you're doing to them out and I will for them out. And I imagine that when you're standing up in front like petrified. It's like hitting a concreek wall. Yeah, magic get thrown out of the boat and then hitting one under the water when you land. It's not good. So if you ever down you're just remember, just remember, don't do that. But what was the first time you guys knew that you were famous? I mean what, because I've traveled with you where you had to sign autographs and shake hands all these people and they all know you. They traveled here from everywhere. Figured well, I'm here to say this famous. It's funny because whenever the first producer came down, she had said that. She said, you don't realize what's coming about. You know, when you're gonna be an airport, people are going to recognize you, and it's another and we just kind of rolled our eyes and said, whatever, the airport, we gotta go to the airport first started recognizing. Yeah, it's crazy. The one was the first time, you remember, Jacob, was there a moment where somebody recognized you? Thought, Holy crap, I don't remember. It started right quick yeah, it was because the show was such a hit right away. How many lines of people were watching it in the beginning. I think the premiere was four point two million. I want to say, I remember Shirt a shirt and age group that was a demographic. Yea, that wasn't overall view of demographic. Their young demographic that deal was targeting was like over four million views. It was like seven or eight total. But like the young ones don't count into who people don't call this one group right in the middle that did come in that group people spend the money. You're not count for another year for the commercials. You know what a shortain age group that did target that spend the money. Don't let people behind the curtain. They're gonna start knowing that they're targeted. Yeah, So then that that happens, and then all of a sudden, Hey buddy, he's just out there swimming. Now he's gone, he's gone. Um. But there's you know, you go through this thing, you've been doing it a couple of years. I can't imagine you thought it was gonna go I mean, how could you thought it was gonna go more than two, three or four years? And then at some point, you know, this like, this is what you do every year. This is when when? Uh when the sign wont aired? When when the premier air? Were started fishing Alligator the following year, and the History Channel kind of like the footage, but they were running way behind because they had shot it for a documentary and then they were making a shot out of it show. They were kind of running late. And we started hunting Alligated the following cheese and and they wanted us to lockers down. They wanted to lock us down just in case it was a good shot, like it was gonna be a hit. So we had a two week ten deal or two week country I get foosh, two weeks. You made a shot at two week contract like a week before the premier came out. Two weeks contract. Yeah, they're gonna go no more in that time frame. Three episodes what I have aired and so they can watch the ratings. If the show does well, then we extend the contract film the rest of the season. If it doesn't, we just cut the contract. You know, it's over with, we're done. So I mean we didn't have anything to lose or anything like that. So doing just doing our thing one more time, you know, because That's what always felt to me. It feel like you guys had anything to lose. You just go back to Gator Hunt. If it didn't work out, you weren't famous anymore. Who gave a crap? But premiere after the premier to tour about two week contract in Chinese with a five year contract. From two weeks to five years. Yeah, there's no TV executives in the room, but imagine if you were talking to one, they would like they would hold this show up and swamp people up as like the thing that they're shooting for. Oh yeah, I mean it's been very good for the History Channel, has been very good for the producer that work you know on it. It's been good for us, you know, the Cash members. You know, the only shot part I feel on the end of the Cash people that something original people that started with it is not here no more. You know, they could have rote the wrote it out as long as we've rolled it out. But for certain reading here and there, you know that some of them mightn't here no more. You guys had just some of the crew, they're back, this is you guys are gonna start filming what tomorrow next season? Right? And so he has filming five days a week, six days a week in September, and then they have a day you're telling me about to be roll, which is just extra shots. But you guys have good relationships to these camera guys them for years now, they know you guys better almost anybody. You know, we know being in it this many years. They know what we need to get out of a day's work, and we know what they need to get out of his day's work. And you know, we we don't waste time on stuff that doesn't need to be done, and you know, vice versa with them, and so we get along and makes it easy. And you know that way we when we get to something that's extra special art that comes about, we can take our time and spend it on that certain deal and make you know, an episode out of it because we didn't waste it on something that did. If you got a good catch, you you can take your time and let's make sure your cameraman got all the footage you need. Where the first year or two we wasted a lot of time on stuff that they never show. So now we got good enough and they understand where we cut all that out, and we just when we got a big gater that wants to fight. I mean, we catch six hundred gators a year almost and maybe two they'll falled out of them six hundred and make the show. Okay, that's what people don't realize. Uh, you know a lot of them don't have no fight in them, and some of them already to drown when we get to But when we do have one that's fresh and you got a full of pictient vinegar and want to fight, well we let him fight and we let the cameras roll until some time. I take us twenty minutes to get a shot on a big one. But you know, we know what they need and they know what kind of space we need to do our work and get fill. It doesn't seem I'm sure there has been, Like theres there been some conflicts where they aired something that you didn't like or you guys seem like you got through this without it really And the most part, yeah, there are some things that you know, they just it gets cut and edited so much that sometimes we wish they'll just let it play out the way it you know, it just it happened, and it just looks different to us to most people. It probably doesn't. But you know, we knew it happened a little bit different, but for the most part, nine and nine percent of it is. But the thing about it is that we don't know what's gonna be on the show. You know, we we know some things that happened. You know, that's got to make the show. There's no way they could do without that. But a lot of stuff, you know, we really don't know what's gonna be on the episode in the morning, you do when it comes out. Sometimes the stuff that we thank they oh, they're gonna put dish on their show, where they don't put it, they put something else. And then their stuff that was like they ain't know it ain't putting that, you know, just joking like me or Jacob pulling a chap pulling up to a shypist tree and fighting a tin foot aut again. Then they go to commercial. When they come back, we're under wheellow tree fighting the ship's foot out again. You know, there's things like that that I think the people in editing and all that they're not hunters and they're not out there. They sure they don't catch that, you know, they take a fight and then instead of playing it all out on that one fight they take part of it, then they throw that commercial. When they come back to finish to fight, they grab some other footage and they don't Yeah, because they didn't know. It's such a I mean to get people down here from all parts of the world that are making this show. They're filming it, they're producing and edited. One of the things that always is shocked me about it is the fact that it's this is mainstream cable TV and you guys are shooting gators in the head. You know that this is something that there's no mainstream They took. They took Hunting off ESPN decade ago or more, and here you guys are twelve years into a show and you guys don't eat the gators on the You ever had like meal scenes or the gators. There's something, there's some but that's not like the point of no show that the History Channel has done a real good job making sure of keeping the blood and the guts out of the show and keep not showing the impact and all that, just to make sure and if they've done a really really good job by doing that, and some people say, well, you know why they why you see the alligator come out of water and then they show you shooting it and they got a water splash. Well, you know we once we explained to them why then they understand it. But you know, it wouldn't have lasted twelve years if the History Channel wouldn't have kept it clean. Yeah, people crying baby's with a racial much hell that they would have shut it down. I always thought that from the very beginning. I thought, this, man, we're gonna hard to get it. I hope forever. But you know, the History Channel probably would have pulled out if they wouldn't have kept it clean. Yeah, well, I think I just think personally it says so much about you guys and other people in the show, and this place and gators themselves, like the fascination all kind of comes together because, as you said, there's people are gonna complain about stuff dying on animals dying on TV. I mean, that's just how it is. You know. I've had people come up to me, Man, why y'all killed him? Now? I look at us, I said, brother one, I'm an usage hunta And I said, when I go on a call and they come on somebody's yard and theyate that some little woman's dog or somebody the woman's cat or something like that. I saidn't. They're crying their little hard out. That's why we hunt them to keep their numbers. It's all about population control. We want a healthy population out of gators. We've been making our living hunting them. We don't want to hurt them, you know, hunt them to lower numbers. We want a healthy population. But you gotta keep the numbers in check because they're predators. Get predators. And when they get too many in the swamps and they run out of food, guess where they're coming. They're coming to your yard. Yeah, yeah, I mean it is. We have our North We talked about that on this show a lot, the North American model of wildlife conservation, and in it it says no market for game animals. There's like elimination of the market for game animals was because the turn of the century, we shot all the buffalo, we shot all the yelk, because because there was value in the hides and in the flesh, and and that stuff could could be sold. So that part of the the idea. But this this gator hunting that you guys do goes it goes against that. Yet it works because well you're talking about hunting. You're kind of hunting the fringes of the population. Okay, what you're talking about it the Turner de shantry. You had to there was no no control, and then you had the Great Depression. Okay. People had to cute food, okay to eat while you think all the wild turkeys down here was eliminated and have the deer and everything else. People were hunting hard for food. It was that a starve. They didn't give a crap about conservation and all of that. Now you know, it's limited, it's population control. It's what I tell people it is. We we're gonna take six hundred alligators almost out of the swamps in the next three to four weeks. And three days after we're done, you and ride through the boders where we've been hunting, and you angle bit to tell we called anything. It looked like we didn't catch you none. That's how many they have. And really we're doing I don't know how to say that, but we're actually doing the alligator population a favor by taking some out. Because you know, there's some places we go like carl Ireland and all that they're skinny. They'm alligator are starving. There's too many. They're skinny. You got a long cant food all get it. That don't win three hundred pounds, he should win five of chicks hundred pounds. Sure, you know, the elk and the buffalos and all of that. They wiped them out, which should have never happened. But you can't change history. You learned from it and move on. Now we have illegal elk sheeesing hunting, but they controlled hunting, cheating, just like the alligator cheesing is controlled. You take a small percentage of very small. We always say it's the you know, it is the reliable. It's the use of a natural resource, sustainable use of a natural resource. And we've we've gone through their last episodes of this show talking about wolves and bears and all this predation, and we've talked I've talked to biologists from all over the place about it with every different opinion you could think of. And it's crazy that you come down here and you see the same thing. It's exactly the same thing, you know. But we had the guy who was the first person to codify the model of conservation come on and he was talking about intelligent intervention because like, we can think this through and do this right. Oh yeah, it can be done right. Wolves in Montana, Gators in Louisiana. I went, I went a few months. I don't know, it's been longer than that. I went a while back. On a nusance call at nine o'clock at night. This old later from Pep Park. She was she's a widow. Her husband passed away a couple of years ago. Well, she went to a prayer meeting. She goes, I think it was a Wednesday night. Maybe she goes to some little prayer meeting with all her and her old friends. You know, she came back home and when she pulled up in her garage, you had a nine foot alligator in her garage. Lucky she's seen it before she got out of the car. Okay, because the alligator could have bid it. She could have scared her and give a heart attack, or she could have tripped and broke her leg or here put something. You don't know. But she's seen him before. She got out of her car, and she backed up. Call wild Life and Fish with the dish sent me over that it was a nine foot alligator in her garage at nine o'clock at night. There's no shortage of alligators over here. I mean, even though we take a lot out, there is no shorty that really there's too many. I think there's too many. I'm prettient we hunt the alligator the skinny. Well, you were telling me that you kind of you end up hunting the edges of the population because you have these large area, these vast areas where the swamp. When the swamp water goes up, these gators can access places where you can't get to know one can get, and then they spread out. When the water goes down, then they come. They have to come to the waters that you guys can access some fish. Yeah, just like the alligator we call today was right at the leven foot loan. That alligator. Two weeks from now, we're gonna catch the alligator that length in the river. That's gonna make it look like that would have been eight foot. You know, he's gonna be the same length, but he's gonna be twice the alligator just because of the feed that's available for him. And he's gonna look twice the size of them. Yeah, that's crazy. The one you get the full tax every when you got back here, looks at up and even your son Ridge was like, look how fat this thing is as compared to the one, and didn't do them justice. Whenever we call him he looked even bigger than that. Yeah, I mean, you guys think about that anytime you're just catching dinosaurs like you've caught how many thousands of How it has been around forever? I mean, I'm not I don't know nothing about nothing. I come here and that's the most respect I've had for any animal to see. They will be around forever, two longer than Yeah, didn't want to. They can go much without food. They can eat every day for three weeks if they get they store food. I mean, it's a remarkable animal. Did people don't give him enough credit? No, they don't. They're they're they fall into that. You know, they're oftentimes a cartoon and they're oftentimes you know, anther momorphized and things like that. Where you selling it, I can't barely say it even sha anthropomorphized. We gotta start drinking. I'm gonna give get on that. I'm mad about the spunky monkey. By the way, you gotta we got a spunky monkey a lot, man. Yeah, man, I'm mad atout that this COVID bullshit. The closest people tell peop about smunky monkey Troy. People don't know about that. When I was young, they had a by tin bard around here that you could go actually as by boat, and they'd have more people would drive up at them barroom by board and by vehicles. Everybody had a boat over here. Okay, not everybody had a car or a truck, but everybody had a boat. Now Alden bars on the water, the almost all gone as I think they're spunking monkey. That's about it. And Jake there's a few, oh yeah, but yeah, like in Stevensville, Mosquito Barr and uh Grows and all but part in Bell River you had a dozen of them that you could actually by boat. When I were young. They all have the dackers, the alcoholic dackers. Now we have that messing that right now. You get a whole star from cup your head. You can't get them to go with your spunk. The monkey Clints, Clint, you Clint got him a al You can drive through they have drive through dak or place. Listen, if you've never been to Louisiana and you're listening to this partners, you can come to Louisiana and drive up to a place and say, I'll have to give me a start from cup full of booze dacker and you just drive aways. It's a giant straw come down the top and you just drink that sucker. Noo. They got a piece of tape over the top. So that's that's a barrier. That's like the thing where d u I gotta blow to start your car, similar to that. But that's one of the beauties down here, you know, the Spunky Monkey. So I would man, I take I hope they come a sponsor the podcast at some point we can do some podcasts from the Spunky Monkey. When they open back up, Yeah, why not? Are you? Are they gonna open back up? These bars like this will open back from the COVID weight closures. Just unfortunately they missed a good you know summer, you know, a really good Yeah, unfortunately another part of the economy here. But yeah, that's that's that's another point. We went to some fish camps when we were, you know, putting out lines the other day, and that there's these like cultural places where people you can't access it, you can't access unless you have a boat. And and to most people that seems that seems crazy. Yeah, yeah, so you have that, you got the spunky monkey, you got what other that other bar that was closed grows Marina. Like you saw how the sage of some of them camps and all that was brought there by boat and built there out there, you know, and it's pretty neat how they do all of that. Who's this coming in? This is Moda, My wife's grandma, Hidora. How are you welcome? You know what a podcast is? You ever been in a podcast? Every time? Everything at that? All right, Well, you know what we gotta do. We have to go film you guys, uh making some fried gator if you don't mind, some people know your secret, all your secrets, because all the stuff we just had here, we had bulllet balls, is that I'll say it around bulllet balls bull that there was gar, garfish, all kinds of stuff and gar you can make. You can make a guar paddy like a Hamburger patty. You can make them like hamburger padded, or you can make guar balls. You make it like a meat ball. With him. Yeah, it was like a like a hush puppy was grinded up. This mixed with onions and all kinds of stuff seasonings and all gar if yeah, if you never had Garson, then we had fried what else? Fried everything, fried, gator, froged fish, fried chicken, chicken there. We didn't have frog legs this time, but that's I don't know. My freed to went out. We had a crawfish race was delicious, Tata sality to salad, no wonder. I don't know how we got through a podcast of the hour. We've been going for an hour and five minutes, Troy full all this. People don't know how tired. I gotta go home. My kids are waiting on. Let you and Jacob vndiation. Well, I'll check on my keys. You get the hell out of here. But all I'll say is thank you guys for taking time. But you know, being uh, I'm sure if you go on every part of this country into the little town, not the big city, but the little towns, the country towns, there are things that people used to do that they don't do no more. Okay, I don't care if you go to Texas, or you go to New York in the country in New York, or you go to North California, the little communities that are out in the country where people used to live off the land or make a living off of the land. It's changing now. It's changing all over, not just in shout Louisiana. I mean we changing drastically over here. Okay, but I'm sure it's like that old louver. Where's your life? New generation you? Where they're doing thang you? Technology? Everything's changing. I had a man asked me I was working an event. I don't remember where it was. I don't know up the country somewhere. I had a man act, Mr. Landry, share what kind of electronics you got on your boat? I said, what kind of What you said? What kind of electronics you got on your bullet? I ain't got no legs. If I had something, I wouldn't know how to operate? Where's your gate? You find? I gotta attack a tie? Comment that I showed me how many rpm my motors turning? That's all I got. That's one thing I'll say is it is the like people think catching the gator is a difficult. It's a rope. Look what kind of hook is it? Number three? Three shark? Number three number three sharker. We don't a piece of rotten chicken, Cora, rotten chick, and it kind of rotten bait. I don't a couple of a couple of simple knots and a clothes pin. That's it. So you need and a twenty two. They don't even need to have sights on it, you know, and other and how to hunt out again it they didn't use for those pin that was too expansion in the branch which had a notch in the brain. And that's it. That's what you're saying. This is such a traditional thing that you need literally need rope, a hook and a clothes pin and you can get it done. And you need a twenty two. Yeah, you don't even need a clothes pain. Yeah you need that here we are as long as there's rots, you know, you're they used to not even they put them out the den. They'd find a dinge. They then in the same dinge every year. And if you killed two or three day's using a dinge, some other ones are gonna take over that then. So the old people used to hunt them with hat chrich and a pole. They pull them out and and kill them. But that was before that regulations and all. Just like they hoping the buffalo, they will hunt it hard and almost almost to extinction, and then they came back, you know what, which trick regulations and all that. Now they come back and now we overrun with them. We really got too many regulations now because they they could double and and look, I'm all for conserving. I don't want to hurt the population or nothing. Okay, I want to health the population of deer and rabbit and squirrel and alligated. I don't want to overhunt nothing because I want my grandkids and order them to have a good time and be able to see stuff, you know, and and have fun. But because there was no regulations, they will hunt it to almost extinction. And then now we will run with them. Now they could they could actually double the tags they give us for certain tracks of land. Not every track of land, but for certain tracks of land. They could double the tags they give us for four or five years and it wouldn't hurt the population at all. You would see a difference. You want a difference. There's so many less assuming less hunters too, right, I mean, And you know, once it's this showever you might you guys might go. He hasn't gone longer than friend. When you go, when you go further north, when you go further north, let's shore. You get by ten by brutler rules, will flood stage on the Chaffela River there's twenty five. So the river got to get the twenty five ft before it starts flooding the banks over here in Mark and Shitty outflow stage is six ft. That's how much Loura we are here and Botler Rose and going north. I think you could hurt the population if you over if he wasn't careful when you over hunted them for a few years. But where we at with the miles and miles of swamp that they will never dry. They got they flooded year round. We were saying it earlier. The sasquats could. Man, if he could hang with the mosquitoes, he'd be he'd never find it. He'd most probably sinking quick to handle. You have to walk across that swamp. You be in trouble, Well, we gotta send you home to your wife. Be skinny, because yeah, he would't have much to eat. Yeah he's walking That swump is hard on you. Yeah, well we're gonna send you home with your wife. Troy Um. Like I said, Man, I just appreciate you guys having me here and being so welcoming to everybody, let alone me and taking the time out of your season that you know, Take a Montana kid. I'm not even from Montana, but I lived there. Take somebody from Montana. Let him slow you down all day. We enjoy it. I'm ready to go. Get out of the wet boots. I've been My feet been choked since this morning. That right off the bat, Right off the bat, we got rain full of water sin what are nine o'clock this morning? Belly full of fried gator and yeah, it was good. We had a good hunt. We caught what thirty five, Jacob, We caught thirty five all together, and we come back. We had crow fiship to fa Bagata child at fraud Allagata, frid got fish, even chicken and cash. Somebody didn't want to eat alleghettokite fish. I didn't have any chicken though, no shot and the chicken. I had a rotten chicken earlier in the day. It's hard to eat chicken. Do an alligator s on my shirt? There's no I was smelling my fingernails earlier. That's never gonna go away. That'll be there for a week. Lemon, Yeah, I'll be gutting it out next week in Montema that we're talking. Yeah, it's smelling that game. Smelling that rotis probably in the fifties over there. That next week we could be in the sixties. At the end of next week here you had to put your jackets on sixth over here? Are you serious? I mean, you know, it's just it's just something I noticed about two weeks ago. You got three or four types of treat over here that are the first one to lose their leaves, and I noticed about two weeks ago they already turning colors. It made me think about that that we could hot like it is. It's hard to imagine having some early cool weather because it's so hot over here right now, but it made me think we might have. I mean, we still in August, and some of them are starting to turn right there, pass all the marine and be catting with trees. They lost their leaves and the m the m trees, the ms are already starting to turn brown and fall off the leaves. Yeah, it's August. That's weird. I don't know what you call them in England, but some copas I noticed something of the copas, the leaves are turning brown in the coopos already so cold, it's gonna get cold. I don't I wish, I don't have most. I'm ready for cool. Whether it's been a hot summer, man, it looks like every year as we get older, it looks like it get harder. I don't think the summers are getting hot. I just think it's harder on us. It's harder for us to take them. When we were twenty thirty years old, we didn't know how hot it was, and probably just as hot as it did now. You had gags. What you tell me one time he's called eighty gators in a day or something like that. Jacob was unloading the boat and you'd go back out, and I about fifty shows twelve years old, swamp peoples twelve years old. So I'd say this was about fifteen years ago, Clint and I. Clint was helping me, and we called eighty two the first day of the season, and I had the weather was perfect, that bad weather. That was about a day or two out, and I had told Jacob the night before to make sure he was available with the backup boat. The haul of men forest and what you made three or four loads that day at eight o'clock or eight thirty in the morning, I would I couldn't put another alligate in my boat. I was about to sink the boat and giants. He came to the boat ramp with his pickup truck and at eight thirty in the morning, we couldn't put them all in the back of his shovel at pickup truck. I had to leave two big ones in the bottom of my boat. You couldn't put them all in the back of his truck. At eight third in the morning, am I right? In thirty he emptied my boat. I'd share about eleven ten thirty eleven you came back and emptied me about Michelle canal could have broken out. Then you came back that afternoon by Mr Joko Dash and pairport right here and met man the boat ramp and emptied my boat. And then I don't remember I bought the last Luda, but I think you know. I came back and meet a lot of lines run the last few lines we called eighty two the first day one year by fifteen years ago. And I hope to the good Lord I never catch one day. Jacobs tell me you just hang, you hang too many lines. No, you can't help. I'm maxed out. It's already caught in thirty to forty lines today before the gator. Yeah, listen, I didn't make myself. I am who I am? I send my DNA. I didn't make myself my mom and dad. It made me blame them all my defects, all my good part. We love you, We love that. Wasn't that made? All right? I got check on my children. I see Troy. We're outta here later. Thanks Troy, we're out of here. To Jacob, we're gonna go. You're probably jumping the pool. Do something fun Sunday night here. So thanks for everything, brother, thanks for having me. We'll see you next time. Bye. That's it. That's all another episode of the Hunting Collective in the books. Thanks to Troy and Jacob Landry. We missed old Phil on this episode. He's back in Bozeman. He'll edit this up for you, make it sound good. It was. It's an amazing place here. I've said it in the podcast. Said it while we were out on the swamp, rolling around on the boat. Boat full of gators, kids, whole family, husband's, wives, grandfather's, everybody taking part in this thing they call gator hunting, we're gatorficient, gator catching, no matter what they call it. It kind of it's not only the traditions that are important to me, but it's learning about the wildlife, conservation and the story of this landscape because certainly, Troy Landry, Jacob Landry, Ridge Landry, they are generationally important to this place and they will remain so, especially telling its story, which I think hopefully you all found compelling. And certainly, as Troy said, there is a lot that goes on here and some of the things, the traditions that these folks are losing, the ways of life that they're losing. Uh, it's going to be similar in many small towns and many rural areas around this country. So if you're experiencing that yourself, hopefully you can find some silver lining. And Troy and Jacob in their story and as I said before, I'll say again, they are amazing, amazing people and their way of life is absolutely enthralling and it's something that draws you in, it makes you feel at home at So hopefully one day you guys can all make it down to Pierre Part come to Duffy's, meet Troy and Jacob, and their family, and you will be welcomed and they will they'll probably give you a hug even though they don't know you. They'll take a picture, they'll sign an autograph, they'll do what they do. So next week we're gonna rock and roll, get into Elk season, leave this great adventure behind, get into Elk season with our friend Remy Warren from Cutting the Distance. He's gonna have all the Elk tips, all the Elk stories, and a story about how he saved his wife. Next week episode one for you two of the Hunting Collective, and we'll have phillback because we missed Phil. So we will see you then next Tuesday. Bye bye, Because I can't go a week without doing rock Drank to Heaven,
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