Talkin' Quack

Greetings! I am happy to announce that Minnesota Flyway has an official sponsor. Big Sean Hammock and Big Sean’s Championship Calls have become official sponsor of Minnesota Flyway and we couldn’t be more pumped and excited about it! Sean has been in this industry for a long time, he has extensive knowledge and experience in everything pertaining to waterfowl hunting. Sean’s credentials are beyond impressive, both in the field and on the stage. We like what he stands for and believes in, Big Sean will always tell it like it is and he is always at the ready to offer help or guidance in helping anybody become a better waterfowler. We here at Minnesota Flyway look forward to our future with Big Sean Hammock and we are very excited to be officially sponsored by Big Sean’s Championship Calls. A few weeks ago Dave Goodison of Canadian Wingshooter stopped by the shop to pick up his new Beavertail boat. We gave him the tour of the plant, went out for lunch and we got to spend some time together talking about other things in life besides waterfowl hunting. The Minnesota Flyway crew will be heading to Canada in late October for a Canvasback and goose hunt with Dave and the Canadian Wingshooter crew and we are looking forward to that! We have quite a few hunts scheduled out of state this year, each one is sure to be a blast (no pun intended). Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there, do something nice for yourself and take a little time to reflect. There is nothing quite like being a father! In closing, let me take this opportunity to remind you that Game Fair is right around the corner and Early Goose will be here before you know it. Pumped! – Dave

Dave Tuttle with Big Sean Hammock

David Goodison with his new Beavertail boat

Hello All. I mentioned in my last blog that Minnesota Flyway would be sponsoring something near and dear to my heart and it is now official. We are a proud sponsor of Plato Blue Jays Baseball. As far as I’m concerned baseball is the greatest sport of all time, nothing compares in my opinion. The Blue Jays are alot of fun to watch and they have a ton of talent, but most of all they have a blast playing the game. Totally pumped to be sponsoring those boys this year. This weekend my son Max decided he wanted to do some target practicing with his gun and his bow. We didn’t go far from the house, walking distance actually, so we had to improvise a bit using a Red Rider BB gun and his beginner bow that he started learning with. I couldn’t have been more proud of him. His techniques were good but he knows he needs to work on a few things in order to get better. His shot patterns were decent but he felt they needed a little work as well and that’s a good sign coming from an 8 year old. Max doesn’t like to take shortcuts in anything, hunting especially. I thought I would share a few pictures of him practicing with his BB gun and bow. The targets you see are courtesy of Birchwood Laboratories, Inc. in Eden Prairie, MN. If you are ever in need of any kind of targets check them out at www.birchwoodcasey.com. They have deer, coyote, and boar silhouettes that show where the animals vitals are within the silhouettes. Check it out in the pictures below. Talk again soon. Go Blue Jays!!  -Dave

Max Tuttle. Sharpshooter.

Max taking aim at some prairie dog targets

Not too bad for an 8 year old!

Max taking aim at a buck

Not perfect, but not bad either!

How could a dad not be proud of his son after this?

Greetings! Spring is finally here and the birds are back! It’s an awesome sight to see the ducks and geese making their way back north. Not only are we seeing ducks and geese flying around in full force, the trumpeter swans seem to be everywhere! It’s hard not to get pumped for hunting season when you see flocks of ducks and geese flying around constantly. Let the countdown to the waterfowl hunting opener begin! As of right now we have two out of state hunts scheduled for 2011. We will be heading to Kingsville, Ontario and joining David Goodison of Canadian Wingshooter for a canvasback hunt in late October and we will also be heading south to Arkansas to join Cody Alberson of arkansasduckguide.com on a mallard and pintail hunt. I’m sure we will make our way back to Lifetime Hunts in Macon, Mississippi again too, we just haven’t nailed down a date yet. We are planning a North Dakota hunt as well but no dates have been set in stone at this time. Adam and I have been taking some time to drive around and snap a few pictures of the birds we are seeing for the website, thought I would share just a few of those with you here. I added a picture of a few deer that have been hanging out in our neighborhood as well. All credit goes to Adam Andrus for the pictures. I was the guy behind the wheel and he was the guy with the camera. In closing, Minnesota Flyway has become an official sponsor of something I hold near and dear to my heart, but I will save that for another blog. I couldn’t be more excited and pumped about it. Stay tuned!  – Dave

Hi. My name is Max. I am 8 years old. My dad took me duck hunting for the first time this year.We hunted the Mississippi river and Lake Assumption. My dads name is Dave. He shot a goose and it landed in the weeds. It was a big goose. I shot two mallards. The part I really liked about it was seeing all of the ducks fly by and also the swans. We can’t shoot the swans and I don’t think I will ever want to. They are awesome. There was about  50 of them and that is alot. I had so much fun. It was funner than riding on the rollercoaster. I took pictures with a camera so I could show my friends and remember my first hunt with my dad. My dad is teaching me how to call ducks and geese and I really like that. I like duck hunting better than going to school. I sit at my desk and think about the next time I can go duck hunting with my dad. Baseball and duck hunting are my favorites. I also like to eat pizza. I learn alot when I go to Minnesota Flyway. My dad and Adam and Josh built it and it has teached me so much. My dad said he would get me new waders for my birthday and I think Santa will bring me my own decoys and maybe a new necklace to put my duck and goose calls on. I want to take my friends at school duck hunting. I want to do a science project on ducks and get a ribbon and win a prize. I like watching duck hunting shows on the tv. My dad works at Beavertail and I like the duck hunting boats they have at his work. We hunt in them and the motor makes it go fast. I thank my dad very much for taking me hunting. I will do it for the rest of my life. Even when I am 100. Thanks for reading about me.  -Max Tuttle

Max and his mallards

Max with his dad, Dave

Greetings! Just returning from the Duluth Boat and Sport Show. It was five days of action packed excitement, have no doubts about that! It might take me a good week to recover from Duluth. Minnesota Flyway and Landing Zone Outfitters hooked up with Beavertail and Otter Outdoors, we had a blast and met some great people while we were there. Can’t wait to do it all over again next year! The show ended Sunday at 6 and against our better judgement we decided to ignore the nasty weather and drive home. We didn’t make it very far. Rick Alsen, the national sales manager for Beavertail, was ahead of me on the highway. I was following him in a Chevy Diesel and I was hooked up to a 20 foot trailer filled with Otter and Beavertail products. We had 2 way radios and we were discussing how nasty the weather was and then all hell broke loose. I couldn’t see Ricks tail lights ahead of me and he told me on the radio that he couldn’t see me. Within seconds we lost total visibility on the interstate. All I remember is the two lane highway turned into a three lane highway and I couldn’t see a thing. I tapped the brakes slowly and the next thing I know I had driven that truck and trailer deep into a ditch. Brutal cold, 54 mph winds, blowing snow and a very icy interstate was no match for me, my Chevy Diesel and that 20 foot trailer. I lost that battle and buried that rig pretty good on 35 south. Fortunately I was in radio contact with Rick the whole time. He called the state patrol and the towing company and I was out and back to safety within an hour and 15 minutes. The funny thing about it all is we went to a restaurant, bar, and a gas station hours after the ditch incident and everybody had heard about the disaster I caused on the interstate. It must have made the Duluth news. A huge thanks to the Minnesota State Troopers who assisted me and looked out for my safety and to The Duke Boys Towing Service in Duluth who did everything they could to expedite getting me out of that ditch in that brutal weather. Job well done, Gentlemen! We ended up extending our stay in Duluth due to nasty weather conditions but that wasn’t such a bad thing. Duluth night life is off the charts!!Below is a picture of the truck and trailer I buried. Good times!  -Dave

This is the truck and trailer that I buried in the ditch.

Dave of MN Flyway and Ben of LZO.

Check it out! I'm on TV!!

No way! I'm on TV again!! Primetime.

Greetings! What a frantic February it has been so far. Very seldom is there a dull moment when working in the hunting and fishing industry. I consider that a good thing! After returning from our Mississippi duck hunt I was planning on a little down time but that will not be the case. I will be heading to Duluth, Minnesota next week for 3 days with Beavertail and Otter Outdoors for the Duluth Boat and Sport Show. We have a fishing excursion in Brainerd planned for the following weekend with Ron Hustvedt of WriteOutdoors. We plan on shooting alot of video and having massive amounts of fun. Hopefully we will manage to bring a few monsters topside. We are close to nailing down a date in March to get out with Joel Nelson and the boys from In-Depth Outdoors, although nothing is set in stone quite yet. Hopefully we can work something out. If we can’t work it out we have agreed to do some spring turkey hunting together. Things have been so busy I haven’t been able to get out and chase coyotes around much these last few weeks. That changes this weekend! I will find the time to pursue and conquer that wily predator. If you have nothing going on next weekend head to Duluth for the Boat and Sport Show and say Hi. I will be the guy hanging out by the Gunner blind and demonstrating how it works and telling everybody why it’s the best field blind on the market. Nothing even comes close. Nothing compares. That blind brought me great success this past year and I refuse to hunt without it. The spring-loaded backrest is the real deal! Beavertail nailed it when they introduced the Gunner blind. Hope all is well. All my best.  -Dave

Greetings! What a wild ride this past week has been. There is nothing quite like stepping off that Delta jet in Minneapolis to sub zero temperatures and more snow. Seriously, how is it possible to be getting blasted with this much snow in one year?? I’m not going to lie, I miss Mississippi already and not just for the phenominal duck hunting, although that was a major bonus! I loved everything about Mississippi. The weather, the people, the food, the hunting, the laid back way of life where people go about their own business at their own pace. I admire that. I miss those southern boys laughing at my accent and trying to get me to talk with a little southern twang. I gave it my best shot, I really did. It took us a few days to understand each other but we finally got there! We shared alot of great laughs at each others expense and made lifelong friendships. We took to the flooded timber and hunted ducks, we got our deer, we followed the dogs as they pursued the wild boar and surrounded it, then we took over from there. To my surprise boar actually tastes good! We had film crews out filming our hunts and they were able to capture some great footage. I have never seen so many ducks in one spot in my lifetime. They tornado down by the hundreds all trying to grab a small peice of property, it’s a wonder to behold and one I will never forget. I wasn’t able to get alot of pictures because cameras were banned while videotaping and I was too busy hunting, but I got what I could and I will share just a few of them with you here. Thanks to Terry Knight and the crew at Lifetime Hunts, L.L.C. in Macon, Mississippi for having us down and taking good care of us. You put us on the birds, deer, and the boars. You are first class people and run a first class operation. Thanks for introducing me to what real duck hunting is all about. Thanks for the great meals and showing this northern boy what a little southern soul dish is all about. You guys do it right in the kitchen! Thanks to Torrey Harris of LT Productions. You were the captain out there, you put us in the right spots and got the right footage every time. You put the Mississippi hunt/video shoot together and knocked it out of the park! I’m proud to call you friend and mentor. Thanks for staying up and blowing duck calls with me until 3:30am. Regardless of how much everybody bitched you and I both know they were all in awe of what they were hearing! Thank you Mike Lambeth. You pulled all nighters with this aspiring writer and you allowed me into your world. You let me pick your brain and you encouraged me to write, regardless of how I feel about my work. You are a well established and well respected outdoor writer, it was an honor for me to get all of that one on one time with you. You taught me alot in our time together and your encouragement and support mean the world to me. Thanks to Jerry and Larry of  The Bucket List Outdoor Show, you guys are crazy good and as passionate about hunting as it gets. We shared some great laughs and had some memorable talks. I look forward to watching you boys on the Sportsman Channel. To Brandon Fayard and Jerry Chestnut, you guys rock behind the camera. Thanks for teaching me about angles and backdrops even though I have no desire to ever be a cameraman. You both are patient people and love what you do. You do a great job and your credentials are impressive. I hope I gave you a little to work with. Cody Alberson, I have never met anyone quite like you bro. I thought I was passionate and lived for hunting the ducks! Dude, you blow me and everyone else I know out of the water. Your passion is contagious and the look on your face when you are getting your ass handed to you with card tricks is priceless. I can’t wait to get to Arkansas and hunt with your crazy ass. Check out www.arkansasduckguide.com to learn a little more about Cody. To Chris Witte and Beavertail, thanks for letting me be a part of that hunting trip. I will never forget it. I hope I represented well. I think us northern boys held our own down there in the swamps and marshes. I miss you Mississippi, but I will be back soon. You can count on that. My Best.  – Dave

Dave Tuttle. Loving life in Mississippi!

Two of a Ton!!

Filming for upcoming dvds and outdoor tv shows

Shhhh. Camera rolling. Ducks approaching.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Mississippi chow. Bring it on!!

Chow. Southern Style. Come get some!!

Our lodge at Lifetime Hunts, L.L.C. in Macon, Mississippi.

Recapping the days video footage

Dave Tuttle. Ready for it to start raining ducks.

Greetings and Salutations! I just found out I will be flying down to Mississippi this weekend with Beavertail for a 2011 Beavertail hunt and video shoot. Lifetime Hunts L.L.C. is kind enough to put us up for a few days and we will be hunting and shooting video out near the Brookson Plantation in Macon, Mississippi. Flying into Memphis and taking a Turboprop to Columbus where we will then hop in a truck and head to Macon. Bring on the Mississippi Madness!! I’m pumped and cannot wait to get down there. Torrey Harris has become a good friend and he planned this all out to perfection. He shoots and produces ALOT of video for dvd and tv so hopefully alot of this footage will make it onto something eventually. Sounds like we will have the opportunity to go bowhunting and fish while we are down there as well. It’s sure to be a fun few days. Below is a picture of my son Max and I hunting the Mississippi River, it’s one of my favorites. I also added a picture of the goose I shot that day just for the hell of it. I saved the best for last! Check out my good friend Rebecca Wolfes promo/advertisement. It looks great. Well done, Mrs.Wolfe! You make me proud!! Hope all is well and we shall talk again very soon. Be well.  -Dave

My son Max and I hunting the Mississippi River

This goose is so big I can hardly hold it up with one hand. Or not.

Rebecca Wolfe. Enough said.

Greetings! 2011 is finally upon us. I hope you all had a happy and a safe New Years. As many of you know I got a call from Dave Rhine of Final Glide Championship Calls and was asked about my interest in pro staffing for him. It took me all of five seconds to think about it. There was no way I was going to turn that down. He recently asked his pro staff to give him some names for the new Final Glide goose call that will be made available to the public in the next few weeks. I gave him about 25 names that I had come up with for the new call and to my surprise one of those names was chosen! It will be called “The Remedy” and will be available soon. I have the prototype and believe me when I tell you it sounds phenomenal. I’m major pumped about it and cannot wait for it to hit stores. On another completely unrelated issue, I took up coyote hunting this past weekend and you can consider me officially hooked for life. It’s in my blood now and there is no turning back. If you have never hunted predators before I highly recommend it and suggest you do so. It’s a rush.  It was a successful coyote hunt this past weekend and I look forward to many more. I posted a few pics below for your viewing pleasure along with “The Remedy” prototype. Enjoy and I will talk to you again real soon.  -Dave

"The Remedy"

Somewhere there is a farmer thanking me for this.

Think of all the barnyard animals I just saved!

Coyote Ugly!

Coyote Hunting kicks ass! Enough said.

Greetings! Hello 2011 and goodbye 2010!! What a year for us here at Minnesota Flyway. When I sit back and reflect on it all it blows me away to be quite honest. I have alot of people to thank for their hard work, help, support, and contributions along the way. I’m certain that without these following people Minnesota Flyway would not be where it is today and so I would like to end the year with a HUGE thank you for everything they have done for us. Adam Andrus, Josh Labaw, Ben Meillier and the LZO crew, Dave Rhine and Final Glide Championship Calls, David Goodison, Ron Hustvedt, Field Hudnall, Tony Vandemore, Mike Anderson, Jason Young and Young Custom Calls, Rebecca Wolfe, Scott Threinen, Don Nelson, Krugerfarms, Mike Benjamin, Barnie Calef, Terry Mittelsteadt, Rick Alsen, Chris Witte, Troy Tufto, Torrey Harris, James Holst, Joel Nelson, Chris Granrud, Bryan “Beef” Sathre, Jason Neu, Aaron Thielke, Andrew Gordon, Rene Dandry, Beavertail, Otter Outdoors, In-Depth Outdoors, Maverick Outdoors, Flyway Customs, and KFAN Outdoors. Thank you for everything. I appreciate each and every one of you and I’m thankful for all of your help and continued support. I hope you all have a great New Years, be safe and be smart but have a ton of fun!! I will be celebrating New Years on the ice in the Otter and then Saturday and Sunday I will be hunting coyotes for the first time. I’ve spent many late nights studying and researching these predators and I feel very confident this will be the weekend I take my first coyote. I couldn’t be more prepared or more ready. Wish me luck! Happy New Year, let’s make 2011 a year to remember!!  -Dave