Transcript

[00:00:00] Travis Bader: I'm Travis Bayler and this is the silver core podcast. Silver core has been providing its members with a skills and knowledge necessary to be confident and proficient in the outdoors for over 20 years. And we make it easier for people to deepen their connection to the natural world. If you enjoy the positive and educational content we provide, please let others know by sharing commenting.

[00:00:35] And following so that you can join in on everything that silver core stands for. If you'd like to learn more about becoming a member of the silver core club and community, visit our [email protected]

[00:01:07] I'm joined again today by Brad Brooks of Al for those who may be new to the silver core podcast. Brad and I had a great chat back in episode 57, where we talked about real everything. Really. We talked about product design and how to get the most out of life by scheduling yourself accordingly, uh, essential hunting equipment.

[00:01:26] And what drives Brad as husband, father hunter, angler, climber, entrepreneur, and much more. You can check out. Brad's amazing products that he's [email protected]. And if you wanna treat yourself to some top rate YouTube content checkout, or Gale season three, hunt wild programming on the Elli channel, that's all on YouTube, Brad.

[00:01:50] Hey, welcome back to the silver core podcast. Hey, it's, 

[00:01:52] Brad Brooks: it's great to be with you, Travis. Um, and I feel like that was a very generous introduction. Um, but yes, it's great to be back. 

[00:02:00] Travis Bader: Did I get everything in the intro? I like to front load with the information so people are tuning in. They can quickly look and see and we'll have it in the back and I'll have links in the middle as 

[00:02:08] Brad Brooks: well.

[00:02:08] I think you nailed it. Yeah, you nailed it. awesome. 

[00:02:10] Travis Bader: Awesome. Yeah. Okay. So I, and watching your social media content over this last hunting season and it looks amazing and that's, that's the main reason why I wanted to chat again, was to talk about your last hunting season. But you've also come out with a few new products as well.

[00:02:29] So if we have time, I'd love to, I'd love to chat about those two. Yeah, 

[00:02:32] Brad Brooks: absolutely. Man. Um, and it's yeah, I should say too. I really enjoyed our chat last time. Um, so it's, it's just an honor and pleasure to be back. So thanks for having me. Um, and yeah, you know, uh, I think we touched on this last time, but you know, our golly started out as a content company primarily, and, you know, the way we way we got into this, uh, where we're at now, just as a company was through, um, going out and having fun, doing big adventures and taking a camera along.

[00:03:01] And I still do a lot of that. Um, and I think even though if I think about what motivates me just in as a person and what gets me excited about hunting season is just dreaming up big things that I want to do and trying to figure out how to make 'em happen. That's right. You know, cuz half the, I mean you can only hunt for.

[00:03:23] So many days outta the year. And I think the excitement of hunting in order for the sort of the year round excitement is sort of the, the anticipation, the planning, the, the thinking about the process, right? 

[00:03:34] Travis Bader: Yeah. You sort mentally preparing and you start looking at, uh, different items that you might want to bring with you or kit that you've used before.

[00:03:42] That said that just sat in my pack the entire time. I don't need it. Mm-hmm of course the second you call that from your kit is when you need it. Of course. Yeah. The whole mental game of what, what it's gonna look like had said that's a, that's a year, year, long process. Really? Yeah. 

[00:03:58] Brad Brooks: And I think so last year it was probably about, I had just gotten back from, uh, uh, well, no, it would've been in 2020 maybe about, uh, early October.

[00:04:08] I got back from a trip and I had been, uh, I had been up to Alaska, uh, that year, but I got back and I was just like feeling as though. You know, I want, I wasn't spending enough time up in Alaska just exploring this, you know, for us, you know, Alaska is the, you know, it's a giant state with a lot of wild country, just on a different level.

[00:04:29] I mean, you guys in Canada have, you know, I'd say the same kind of big wild country as well. Um, and I was just feeling as though I wanted to spend more am there and doing these like one, you know, going up for, you know, a week and hunting one species just didn't feel like I was really getting my fix that I needed.

[00:04:47] And that was really where this idea of like, I wanna go up and spend, you know, the entire, you know, pretty much an entire hunting season up in Alaska. Uh, traveling all over in hunting kind of came from. And I, uh, remember I talked to my wife about it and she was just like, You know, kinda like, are you serious?

[00:05:04] come on. um, and so then I just, anyways, that was kind of where the idea started and it was just like, I'm wondering if I can even pull this off from a, you know, just being away from the company for that long was a show was a challenge, you know, can I even set up we're a small company, so setting up processes to be on for that much time, uh, was a lot of work and planning.

[00:05:26] Travis Bader: Yeah. That's gotta be difficult with, uh, planning around your work as well. Do you, do you have a number of people that work with you that are now gonna be jealous that you're gone for? What was it? Six weeks hunting. 

[00:05:39] Brad Brooks: Yeah. Um, I mean, So, so the way we're, we're a family run business and there are essentially two of us married couples that, that run the company.

[00:05:49] Um, and my wife, I, she runs all of our customer service. So anybody, if you buy something from us, if you ask us a question on, you know, email us, like she is the first person that filters that out. And so in large part, you know, me being gone meant that she had to sort of step in and take on a lot of the, a lot of the, you know, I'd say operational duties that, that I have, which you know, is not insignificant amount of work for her.

[00:06:15] Um, and I also, but, you know, with that much planning in advance, it was also a good exercise to go through just from a strictly from business standpoint of saying like, what are the things that, um, how, how can we have some redundancy in our operations? Um, right. I feel like, you know, you probably run into this.

[00:06:32] There are so many things that you just do cuz you're they're in your head, you know how to do 'em. But if you were to try and explain to somebody, you know, as Travis, you know, like Travis. How do I do what you do? You'd be like, well, I don't let me think about it for a second. Like, you may have all of that written down.

[00:06:47] I didn't. And so it was a good exercise to go through, to like write everything out and be like, okay, you need to talk to, here are our suppliers. And if there's an issue, this is who you go to. Um, right. Yeah. So it was, it was a healthy exercise to go through. 

[00:07:02] Travis Bader: Yeah. It's good to have those pieces in play and a family run business.

[00:07:05] I didn't realize it was such a, uh, um, strong connection. I know you've, you're quite the family man, but to include family in the business as well, like that is, uh, that's a whole nother level. Yeah. I mean, that presents challenges at most people, never experience in 

[00:07:21] Brad Brooks: their life. No, my wife and I leave our house and we come to the office, um, with our youngest daughter and, uh, we have a two year old and a six year old and, you know, we drop the six year old, goes to school.

[00:07:32] Two year old comes with us and hangs out at the office and. , you know, um, when we were, it wasn't designed this way, it was basically like my wife is a school teacher and we needed to hire somebody when this all start. When we, when we got to the point where it's like, we need to hire somebody full time to run customer service, order fulfillment, somebody's gotta be in charge of that.

[00:07:53] You know, mm-hmm , it was, and we take that customer. Our services is perhaps like other than making good products is probably the most important thing to us. As a company. We take it very, very seriously. And the idea of having somebody who doesn't care as much about our business at this point in our growth running, that was, was, uh, not an ideal solution, or just having to find somebody who was as committed to our customers.

[00:08:22] And every single one of them as we are was, was, it was a tough thing to do. It was easier to have. Somebody was skin in the game. Like my wife would be like, I can do that. And so she, she elected to, you know, stop teaching, um, for a bit. This is also like, you know, you know, beginnings of the, like right when the pandemic was really, um, great time.

[00:08:45] It was, yeah, it was a tough time, I think, to be a teacher anywhere. And she was a, a great school teacher, her, and so it was, she was like, I don't need to, I don't really wanna do this right now. Anyway, I'll come work for the company. So, and now she's, now this is what she does. So, um, so yeah. Is she enjoying it?

[00:09:01] Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I don't, I don't think, I wouldn't say she, she, uh, you have to ask her, get her on the podcast time to get her opinion about it, but , I think she likes parts of it. Um, yeah. Yeah. Um, I don't think she likes, yeah, I work with, oh, go ahead. 

[00:09:18] Travis Bader: I work with my wife as well, and you know, you're always thinking you're always, and you have to be so disciplined when you are home that.

[00:09:26] You limit the amount of time that you're talking about work and you limit the amount of ideas. Because for me, I'm, I wake up, I'm thinking about it. I go to bed, I'm thinking about it. And I think that's normal for everybody, but it, it just isn't 

[00:09:37] Brad Brooks: yes, a hundred percent. There are times where we're like laying in bed at night and we've, we have to like, be disciplined about not doing it.

[00:09:45] And it'll be like, Hey, did you ever, did you talk to that supplier to take care of that? You know, or which is a really not a good, it's not a good habit. So we're, we're pretty good. Yeah. this is, this is a couple's business thing, but, um, yeah. Um, anyway, so like I talked to originally when this whole idea came about, about spending this time in Alaska, I talked to Angie about it and, and started like pieing its together.

[00:10:07] I wouldn't, I would describe her as like, not being crazy about it, but also just understanding this is like something that. This is who I am and we I've always been this way. It hasn't changed. Hmm. Um, so I, one of the most common questions I have received since, you know, people that know about me spending this much time in Alaska is how did you, uh, pull that off with your family situation?

[00:10:29] And I think the answer to that is, is complicated. Um, but also, you know, hyper personal and relationship dependent. Um, yeah. It, but anyways, uh, I have 

[00:10:41] Travis Bader: got our seat and, and it's with a lot of support. Yes. I mean, you, you obviously need everyone they need in order to be able to achieve what you've been able to achieve.

[00:10:49] You're what, 38 

[00:10:50] Brad Brooks: now. Yeah. I just turned 39. Yeah. So , Hey, happy 

[00:10:54] Travis Bader: birthday. You thank you. Uh, in your, in the 39 years people to achieve where what you've been able to do, you definitely need to have the support of others who you can lean on and who you trust. And it sounds like you've 

[00:11:07] Brad Brooks: got that. Yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:11:09] And, um, there, there is a bit of. Uh, I'd say guilt about, you know, when I know when I, there is a burden that is placed on others, by me doing the things that I want to do, right. Mm-hmm that places a burden on other people. Uh, that's one way to describe it. Right. Support support is also another way to describe it.

[00:11:28] I, and I like both of those descriptors, but I'm also like very aware that for are those closest, you know, especially my family, me being gone is not easy on them. It's harder on them. Right. Uh, and think just being conscious of that doesn't mean I'm not gonna do the things I, you know, like keep me going. I love to do, but I think it's important to be aware of sort of our wake of our wake of influence on those around, especially those closest to us.

[00:11:56] Travis Bader: I thought your family tagged along on some of the adventures I did. Didn't I see your daughter catching a salmon there 

[00:12:02] Brad Brooks: in, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, yeah, so, uh, like a third of the way through my trip or whatever my, um, my family came up and we spent a really fun week, uh, full week tour around doing family stuff and went, uh, salmon fishing and, and she caught, my, my oldest daughter caught her for silver salmon, which is just a remarkable experience to, to show them that.

[00:12:24] So it wasn't all bad. So, 

[00:12:28] Travis Bader: so, okay. So last time we talked, you were planning some of these, uh, I know we talked off air about a couple year product plans that you're putting out and, uh, uh, we talked a little bit about your, um, Uh, upcoming adventures, but you went and brought a film crew with you. Like I'm, I'm watching this online on YouTube and there's some awesome cinematography.

[00:12:50] Mm-hmm you didn't do this all by yourself. Did you? I 

[00:12:53] Brad Brooks: did a lot of it by myself and, uh, well, really well. So, um, if you're talking about just my Alaska trip, uh, from, uh, last year, I did mostly, mostly by myself with a little bit of help. Um, depends on, it depends on the trip. So there were three specific hunting trips.

[00:13:10] I went on the first trip. Um, I did have, um, a friend of mine who is a photographer, uh, uh, branding KUER shout out to BK. BK is one of the best photographers in the business, but he also. He is a pension for misery that is very hard to find, um, and an ability to deal with it. um, okay. He is, he is, it's hard to find when you're looking, uh, I'd say in the, in the, uh, creative space, like photographers or videographers who, who truly, uh, can, can hang in miserable weather and conditions day after day after day.

[00:13:46] And don't revolt is, is hard. Um, and BK has been with many, many miserable expeditions. 

[00:13:55] Travis Bader: Um, it's good to have somebody like that on your side. 

[00:13:57] Brad Brooks: It is. Yeah. So BK came with me to, uh, on the first leg of our trip to Kodiak and, but he was mostly taking photos. So he was mostly taking still photos. I self filmed, most of the, anything, most of the motion, uh, the video, anything you see on YouTube was largely filmed by me.

[00:14:14] Um, so most of the Archer, so for the, I haven't really explained it very of, well, Travis, but I went bow hunting in Alaska for this six week period. The first stop I, I went was a, um, a deer hunt and, uh, I self filmed pretty much the entirety of it. Um, BK did a few, uh, a few of the shots for me, but the idea was that he would just be taking photos and I would be running the cameras myself pretty much the entire time.

[00:14:39] Travis Bader: So is that the hunt that you just released? I think it was yesterday. Yeah. Uh, yep. At part one, correct 

[00:14:45] Brad Brooks: of, yeah. Okay. Yeah. 

[00:14:47] Travis Bader: So, wow. That's that's really well done. Oh, thank . Thanks. Yeah, I, I love the cinematography. I love the music choices that you put in there. I mean, it's a, it's a calmer approach. It's, uh, a kind of introspective, it shows the, the thought process of you as you work through these things.

[00:15:05] It's I would highly recommend anyone listening to this to check out. So it's on our gal. Like if you go on YouTube, you type or gal, it's our gal station, but I'm a little confused. Is it hunt? 

[00:15:17] Brad Brooks: Wild hunt. Wild is just our is just our tagline. So you'll see that in the header, um, to find it, uh, that's our, uh, you just search our gal on YouTube and our channel always call just our golly on, on YouTube and then hunt wild, which you'll see in our banner.

[00:15:33] When you go to our page, our YouTube page, uh, hunt wild is just, yeah, just our tagline. 

[00:15:41] Travis Bader: So that was a, uh, a C a Blacktail mm-hmm that you were able to connect with on your, what? Your very first day 

[00:15:49] Brad Brooks: landing. Yeah, so we landed. So first of all, lemme say, like, I have all this anticipation build up. Right. And you're like, okay, all the logistics, all the, you know, there's a lot of stuff to work through to even get there to me going on that trip, especially the first one, I had four days to hunt and, you know, there's a lot of reasons why I shouldn't have brought a bow or, or I should have, I could have brought a rifle.

[00:16:15] There's a lot of pressure to like, boy, better make this work. so right. Yeah. We land and get camp set up and it's like late afternoon, evening, by the time I even get going. And. The first buck we see just happens to be a nice one. It was just luck of the draw and the whole stock and everything worked out.

[00:16:36] I mean, just remarkably well, which, which, you know, I wish I could say that happens every time. It, it just doesn't right. Anytime you're trying to get with bill range of an animal, you know, lots of things can happen and the animal can move. It was evening time. That's not an ideal time to try and stock in on an animal typically, cuz they're, they're likely, I was worried that that deer basically like we spotted it, got over to it, had to refin it cuz it disappeared for a while and then it's getting towards the evening.

[00:17:06] So typically, you know, those deer gonna get out up that buck was gonna get up and start feeding at any moment. So I mm-hmm in that particular situation, this is what happened, you know, sort of off camera. I told BK who was sitting next to me. I said, You know, I was just going across this, this not very large canyon.

[00:17:25] I said, you stay here, you film. I'm gonna take my bow and I'm running because he's gonna get up and start feeding real soon. And so I had to do this big loop and literally I was running with my bow for a while. Um, you don't see any of that, uh, uh, off camera, but just took my and ran. And, um, it was one of these situations where I didn't have enough.

[00:17:47] I, I took mental, like a mental photo of like, that's where he's at. Um, he was vetted down in some tall brush and mm-hmm , but I got over to him and I was on top of this deer. Like I was within 20 yards at one point in time. 20 yards is not very far if anybody or no. Don't know what that is in meters. Like what, 19 and a half or close to 19 three quarter meters.

[00:18:09] Yeah, close. Pretty, pretty close. Pretty much. Yeah. And you get, I, I was on top of him, but I'm, I was, I was looking back at, at BK who was not very far up from me. And I was like, he's right here. Right. You know, like making hand gestures. I'm like, I know he is right here. And BK would kept going like this, putting his hands up in the air.

[00:18:28] I don't know, man. BK is not a hunter. He's, you know, that's what I love about him. He's he's a great guy, but he's, he's not of the hunting world and, uh, Yeah. And pretty soon I just decided, I was just, I'm like, I know he is here. I almost decided like there were these kind of, um, coolies like shallow coolies in this hill.

[00:18:48] I was on. And I'm like, well, maybe I mistook where he was at that he's in the next Cooley, another 50 yards in front of me here. And, but I said, I was just like, you know what, I've done this too many times where I've blown animals. Like, I'm just gonna trust my instincts, sit down. And sure enough, he pops up, um, like about two minutes later and he was suspicious of my presence, but not suspicious enough to run.

[00:19:10] Um, how far 

[00:19:12] Travis Bader: away was he at that point? 

[00:19:13] Brad Brooks: He was, I think so at that point in time, I think he was 20, uh, 23 yards. Okay. And I was just sitting in a hillside, a fir a hillside covered in ferns that was maybe, you know, two and a half ferns or maybe two and a half feet tall. And I was ready for him to stand up.

[00:19:29] And when he stood up, he immediately stood up and it was just like, ears are alert, staring right at me. And I think because I was sitting down, had my cam my hood on cam on all that, like, he just couldn't quite make me out. He just couldn't, even though I was fairly exposed and as he walked up to kind of get out of there, he was walking real cautiously.

[00:19:49] His head went behind a, a, an Alder Bush, and I was able to draw back and wait for him to come out. Um, and then at that point, I think I shot, he was 34 yards is what I measured it at. Um, okay. And then he ran to about 50 yards and I shot him again. So I shot him twice, both times were good shots and then he kind of tipped over.

[00:20:08] So yeah. Wow. Turned out to be a and that's day, one day, one afternoon one. And he turned out to be a, just a tank of a buck too. He was a big, I mean, in terms of black tail box, there, he was a big black tail box. 

[00:20:20] Travis Bader: Wow. And so you were there for what another, you said four days. It was a four day hunt. Yeah, 

[00:20:26] Brad Brooks: it was a four day hunt.

[00:20:28] Um, so yeah, I basically just packed that buck up, packed it back to camp. And then, uh, the next day went out, um, to a different area and ended up shooting. I shot another buck that day. Um, so you can shoot, I had three tags and the second buck I shot, uh, was another nice one. Um, just another, I don't know how to describe it, but it was, it was a super fun one.

[00:20:54] That one, I almost blew with the cameras. So, because I was self filming, this buck was better. It kind of on this little promary rock out crop. I got to like 60 yards of him. Then I set up my camera. He was kind of, there was a, there was a little rock covering, uh, separate, you know, giving me a little bit of cover.

[00:21:15] I set up my tripod, my camera just focused on the animal and it stuck out like a sore thumb because it's this big black camera. Right. I didn't bother to try and camouflage before I went. Mm-hmm and basically my plan was I was gonna hit record and then just like sneak in around on this animal. And basically the camera would be recording the animal and then eventually you'd see me coming to the screen.

[00:21:36] Well that I started I set everything up, hit record and I start crawling and I notice all of a sudden the buck is just like turned around in his bed and it's just staring right at my camera. Like he doesn't like it at all. And yeah, he picked it out and I should have known that, um, what happened? I thought I could just pull one off and he eventually gets up and kind of like SAS down and what you see on camera, which, which what you will see is me.

[00:22:04] I. All of a sudden there's you see the deer disappear and then pretty soon you see meat up here, right. Where his bed was. And he ended up going right down below where he was batted. And I ended up finding him and, and was able to shoot him after he kind of went below. Um, so it actually worked out pretty well, uh, all in all.

[00:22:22] Nice. Yeah. 

[00:22:23] Travis Bader: Yeah. Nice. And, uh, you, uh, you went for some caribou as well, this last season, didn't you? 

[00:22:30] Brad Brooks: Yep. Yep. So after that, yeah, I flew, uh, after I got out done with the deer, part of it, um, met my family, hung out with them for a bit and then flew to the Eastern part of the state. And, uh, did another, another caribou hunt up in the, uh, the, kind of the 40 mile, uh, up there, which was, I mean, that, I thought there were a lot of bears on Kodiak.

[00:22:50] Um, the 40 mile mountains were just littered with grizzly bears. So that was interesting. I was just kind of camping right. In a, felt like a sea of, of Grizzlies. 

[00:23:00] Travis Bader: Yeah. That's a little unnerving, isn't 

[00:23:02] Brad Brooks: it? Yeah. Yeah. Um, 

[00:23:04] Travis Bader: Yeah, I think you made a statement, you said, uh, let's see. A goal was get deer, have fun, not get eaten by a bear.

[00:23:13] Brad Brooks: that was definitely the goal. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and here I am. 

[00:23:18] Travis Bader: Well, I was, I, I did my first caribou hunt actually this year haven't done a before was a fly in and my first fly in hu. And didn't actually end up connecting with the caribou. But, uh, similarly I think it's the highest concentration of grizzly bears is around in, in that area, like where you were.

[00:23:39] And I was up in the, um, the spec C plateau area. Hm. And man bears everywhere. There is a, uh, a fellow he's a head litigator for TEIS. I believe it is. He's, uh, an avid hunter. And I, I reached out to him because he wrote an article about his hunt. He had in a similar area and not have been there before. I, I wanted to get as much insight info as I could.

[00:24:03] And in his article, they're talking about a moose that they harvested. And, uh, at, at the time when he was hunting in BC, there's now you can't hunt grizzly bears. Mm-hmm um, at the time you could, and he had a, uh, a grizzly tag. And anyways, I, I guess, uh, and I don't wanna butcher his story too. You much. They came back.

[00:24:26] They're like, oh, Hey, there's, there's a grizzly. It's a good size grizzly. Let's let's see if we can put a, a stock on this thing. And, uh, maybe we'll harvest it and oh wait. No, there's two. No, wait. There's three. I think by the time they suddenly had five different grizzly bears in the air. He was like, holy crap.

[00:24:42] I can't take this thing without, without becoming bear food at essentially. So that was always in the back of my head when I was up there. And when I was walking out on my own, cuz I went up there with, uh, my wife and one of my kids, my son, he said he really wanted to come, uh, 12 at the time 13 now, uh, what a trooper?

[00:25:01] I mean he carried all of his own stuff. The only thing he didn't have with him was his rifle has figured why burden him when we've got two other rifles anyways, but he carried all of his own equipment, pack, everything else. But when I was out, uh, on my own, I was definitely areas where I was whistling.

[00:25:19] when I probably hoping that my, my noise and songs were driving away, the bears and bringing in curious caribou. Yeah. I didn't see one caribou on my trip. Oh, you're kidding me. Really? No, I was a little early on it. It was, uh, it, in some ways, like I look at it when we flew in, it was a much longer flight we flew in on Sesna 180 5.

[00:25:41] Uh, so it got us in faster, but there was some issue with a few of the, uh, uh, Bush pilot companies. There's some feuding or something going on with, I heard a bunch of different rumors or a land, uh, issue and one got shut down, whatever it was. We had to go and, uh, contract a pilot much further away. And, uh, uh, anyways, when he picked us up, he says, yeah, you, you were in a little bit early.

[00:26:08] Benefit was you basically got this whole area to yourself because with the COVID everything opening up, kind of at that time, he's, they're packed all the different pilot companies are absolutely packed. The next following week was just gonna be just crawling with people in that area. So, uh, good point was I got to spend the week with my family out in the Bush, uh, experiencing some areas, which I've never seen before.

[00:26:35] It's a beautiful, pristine area, seeing some great animals, just not caribou. Um, but the, uh, but I didn't get a 

[00:26:46] Brad Brooks: caribou. Yeah. That's all right though. I mean, that's, that is, I mean, a big part of the trip is just being out in the place and you just probably saw a lot of, I mean, you saw bears clearly, but Tracy had a lot of other cool stuff and to go with your family is just, yeah.

[00:26:59] That's life goals for me to share those places. 

[00:27:03] Travis Bader: Yeah, it was pretty neat. I mean, we, um, there was, uh, one other group that, uh, came up and they came in a couple days after us. And so when we started, we had some cabins that it's like a provincial site down below and, um, thought, well, you know, just kind of get everyone to climatize, get an area, do a bit of a wreck of the area, see what it's all.

[00:27:22] So we'll stay in the cabins for a couple of days and just do some quick, uh, jots out and then we'll head out further into the back country. So another group came out a bunch of young men, um, fit prime of their life, all the rest. And, uh, my wife and Ian, my son, we started heading up the, uh, the one mountain side and.

[00:27:45] Uh, these guys leave after us, but are screaming up past, past us and light kit going fast, going hard. And my son's like, I hope they're not gonna scare away all the caribou that are in the area. I hope we're not gonna go to area. I'm like, don't even worry about it. Right? Anyways, we start going up and the weather changes.

[00:28:04] This is in well end of summer. And, uh, we start getting a snowstorm setting in and it just heavy rain. Then snow starts coming in and all these guys bugger off, back down. We put up a little shelter, waited out the storm kept going on up. And boy, my, my son sure. Felt proud when he came back down into camp late in the evening and everybody else had given up so early.

[00:28:28] I like 

[00:28:28] Brad Brooks: that. I teaching 'em some important lessons right there about wisdom and also sticking it out. 

[00:28:36] Travis Bader: Yeah, yeah. A little the plug in a whale winy of the day. 

[00:28:38] Brad Brooks: Oh yeah. Yeah. I like it. 

[00:28:42] Travis Bader: so, but you were successful 

[00:28:43] Brad Brooks: on your caribou hunt? I was, yeah. Yeah, it was, uh, you know, just, um, that hunt. I was actually joining a buddy who was going on a moose hunt there, there just happened to be some caribou around the area typically.

[00:28:55] So, um, and actually he ended up having to, that's an interesting trip. He ended up having to cancel the last minute because he works for, uh, he's in the, the us air force. And he ended up getting called away, um, uh, for various reasons. So he, he had to cancel the last minute due to, um, due to his duty, uh, situation mm-hmm um, so I ended up calling a buddy of mine about 10 days before I left and just said, Hey, yeah, you wanna go on a moose hunt or caribou hunt?

[00:29:24] And he was like, yeah, let's do it. So he just basically dropped everything. I bought a ticket to Alaska. I know, uh, good dude, uh, and joined me for that trip. Mm-hmm um, and, but there weren't, there weren't a lot of caribou. So you flew in and you can't hunt, uh, the same day cannot caribou in Alaska. The same day you fly in, you have to wait either.

[00:29:45] I think it's 24 hours or until past midnight. So first day, a lot of caribou, second day, we get up there, you know, we're hunting, migrating caribou. So it was trying to figure out how I was gonna either spawn stock or ambush from or whatever. And it feel pretty good after that first day, about my chance of taking a bowl.

[00:30:02] But second day, I. Didn't see, you know, to make a long story store. Like there were fewer and fewer caribou every day. And I was being real picky. First day, had an opportunity at a nice, nice bowl, but I was like, eh, not quite what I'm looking for third day. I didn't see a single caribou until almost midday and okay.

[00:30:20] I was like, okay, maybe I should be less picky. Like I only had, again, it's like not a long trip and, uh, ended up finding the one opportunity I had that day. I was on a beautiful bowl, caribou that I got to 20, I think it was 25 yards on and he ended the wind shifted, smelled me buggered off. Next day was last.

[00:30:39] I was like, I better get something done here or it's gonna I'm concerned. And so it was the same situation. Didn't see a caribou all day 11 o'clock. I saw one off in the way off in the distance. And then about midday ish saw a small band come across this mountain side and was able to sneak in on 'em and, uh, I was able to shoot one and, uh, it was.

[00:31:01] One of those situations where I came to full draw on a really nice bull caribou. And as I stood up intentionally to try and get him to stop, I was at full draw, stood up and he stops. And then another one stops like right behind him. So there were two caribou lined up and I didn't right. Didn't shoot. Cuz I didn't, I didn't want to, uh, kill two Cara, a boot in want two.

[00:31:22] Yep. That would've been illegal. Um, mm-hmm I, to my right there was another bowl and I just swung to my right and kind of guessed the distance and shot and turned out to be a, a lucky or accurate guess. However you wanna describe it. Um, and uh, yeah, so it worked out pretty well, but you know, that was also interest thing because I sh prior to shooting those caribou, I had seen two Grizzlies, a few hundred yards away from where I was at down wind of me.

[00:31:48] Okay. And I was by myself when that happened, my buddy Andrew was off on his own. Um, trying to chase down a moose. And I thought for sure that those Grizzlies were gonna be over there in minutes and I never ended up seeing em and I don't know why, but, um, just never, yeah, butchered that whole caribou just on edge the entire time.

[00:32:10] with 

[00:32:10] Travis Bader: my pitch looking over your shoulder. Oh, what time of the day did, was that what's that at what time 

[00:32:15] Brad Brooks: of the day did you? Uh, it was, it was probably about one o'clock. Um, okay. So, you know, yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm looking, you know, probably 60 yards away from me down wind was a wall of brush. And I thought, for sure, any minute, now I'm gonna see a grid come through that wall of brush.

[00:32:31] Like, and I was just, you know, I was like, well, just. Do what you gotta do, take your time, keep your pistol on your hip and be on edge and be on alert. And that's what I, the way I did it moved all the meat away from the Carcas oh, fairways. And it wasn't terribly far from this caribou to camp and got it all the camp and never had an issue.

[00:32:53] And I hung it all. I didn't hang in camp. I hung it, you know, a few hundred yards away from camp and a spot where I could see it from camp though. Mm-hmm so it was, you know, if a grid came down, I would've been able to see it, but it never had an issue. Um, a pack of wolves came in within a few hours on the cart and were on the Carcas.

[00:33:08] But, um, right. That was it. Yeah. Fortunately never had any bear issues there. 

[00:33:15] Travis Bader: Yeah. That's uh, it's always one of those things that will sit in the back of your head as something that, uh, a possible concern, right. Especially as a sun starts going down and you're hiking down a mountainside with meeting your backpack and you just think you're just a walk and Popsicle for these bears, but absolutely the reality is.

[00:33:35] Yeah. Is, uh, more often than not, there is no issue with them. Yeah. I've found anyways. Yeah. At times when there are, I mean, that gets scary. 

[00:33:46] Brad Brooks: Of course. So, so yes, typically not, but I know enough people who have been, who have had, uh, encounters in situations where they shouldn't have that, uh, it, it keeps a guy on his toes.

[00:33:57] So like, uh, a friend of mine, while I'm actually playing another trip to Alaska with his first moose hunting, he went on the first day of his hunt. He said he was down wind of a, uh, they saw a grizzly, a sow about a quarter mile away. And the, their wind was blowing directly at her and they could see her real well.

[00:34:16] And she stood up on her legs, could smell 'em and drop down and started jogging towards them. And as she got closer, she started going faster and he had a bow and his buddy had a, um, a 300 wind mag and he ended up his friend with a 300 wind. I ended up having to shoot it at 20 yards and, uh, mm-hmm, killed it, but one of those situations where you know, that, that wasn't supposed to happen.

[00:34:42] Like grizzly smells human in big, wild place. They're supposed to go the other direction. And this situation that bear turning came right at 'em and who knows why they're just they're bears and think that's, you know, not a common situation, but it happens. 

[00:34:57] Travis Bader: They're not, they're predictable to a degree. Yeah, they are.

[00:35:01] Um, but you had your bow with you and you said you had a side arm as well, correct? Yeah. So we can't do that in Canada. Unfortunately, we can't have a pistol with us when we're out hunting. It would, it would make sense from a safety standpoint. And actually now that I think about it, so in Canada, we got something called, uh, an authorization to carry or an ATC.

[00:35:21] If you want to carry a restricted firearm, like a handgun, uh, we've got like a, non-restricted typically hunting firearms. So you've got some rules around them, but they call 'em non-restricted compared to the restricted, which are typically gonna be handguns. And then some scary looking rifles and shotguns, and then prohibited.

[00:35:40] They say, can't have it at all. Um, so if you wanted to carry a handgun, you have to apply for an ATC, an author to carry, and they allow you to do it. If you're gonna be working in a remote wilderness area and you can't carry a, a long gun with you, or if there's gonna be, if your primary activity is that transfer to cash are negotiables, which again, isn't gonna be hunting.

[00:36:02] Hmm. Um, If you are gonna need to defend your life police protection, isn't adequate. And very few people get that one because they require you to get a, uh, not just your local police department, but the chief of police to write a letter saying that their protection is not adequate for you, which nobody wants to give up.

[00:36:20] So it's pretty, pretty limited. Uh, my company actually, I was responsible for, uh, certifying the, uh, the first ATCs under the new regime back in the late nineties, early 2000. And I think we also have the most recent ATC out there. Uh, but they're, they're few and far between, but it gets me thinking you are when you're out there hunting.

[00:36:46] Yeah. Maybe, maybe, maybe for Canadians. I'll have to, uh, see what we can do 

[00:36:52] Brad Brooks: there. Well, you know, the, I spent a lot of time before I left to. Uh, thinking about researching this whole pistols versus spray as a bear defense mm-hmm and I'm, you know, I'm open to, I wanted the best deterrent to save my life.

[00:37:08] That's where I was at. Mm-hmm it was bear spray. I carried both, but I'll say that in doing my research, uh, for Mo if, you know, if you, if you have some competency with a handgun and do some practice, like it is, I, I believe now this is a controversial statement that it is a better, uh, uh, deterrent to have for bears for if you do your practice.

[00:37:34] I think for a lot of people, if you don't actually practice a hand and bear spray is a great option, but the problem with bear spray is I encountered many places is that the wind is not often not in your blowing the direction you want it to or need it to in order to work. Mm-hmm . In other words, that bear spray, if the wind is blowing sideways or in your face.

[00:37:53] Um, you're in, you're in trouble in that situation. And mm-hmm , if you look at the data on bear attacks, uh, people that typically have handguns, um, are able to like protect their life better. And I'm, I'm saying that as somebody who I don't, I don't have any affinity towards like handgun. I'm not like at advocating for them generally, but I'm just saying, like, if you look at the data, it's, it's pretty clear.

[00:38:17] And, and, and even the, um, the pilots that I know in Alaska who deal with this a lot, um, most of them are carrying if they're carrying anything, oftentimes they don't, but if they do, they're gonna carry a pistol. They're not messing around with bear spray mm-hmm . And I take note of that, like the, the people that live in GRI country typically are, are carrying a side arm and not, not really.

[00:38:40] Uh, messing around with bear spray, which is interesting. You know, 

[00:38:43] Travis Bader: I, I agree with you and I've done a bit of research on that myself. The one thing that I find interesting about the statistics, because everyone has a debate bear spray versus firearm, right? And, and realistically, I mean, bear encounters are, uh, typically avoidable with some hundred percent, uh, knowledge percent.

[00:39:01] And, uh, they're, they're typically not very common, but when you're a hunter, you're putting yourself in a situation where you've greatly increased your, your odds of encountering a bear just by being in the area and packing around food on your back. And, um, but when you read the, the statistics, firearm versus bears spray, everyone loves to about the statistics.

[00:39:24] One thing I've never seen, addressed or talked about when they say, well, bears spray is X amount perfe, uh, effective at, um, Uh, scaring off a bear. When you have an encounter, what kind of an encounter was that? Was that just a bear that's like passively acquiescing. It's just walking by and you give it a squirt in the face or it's nosy and it's and it's right.

[00:39:45] And okay. It's, it's gone, right? Hey, bear sprays effective. But if this is a predatory aggressive animal, they've documented bear spray doing absolutely nothing like zero effect on a bear that is aggressively intent on doing harm to you. But what will stop a bear is in an interruption of the central nervous system mm-hmm brain or spine, or, um, hypervolemic shock introduced through massive cardiopulmonary decompression, and that's gonna be rounds into it and letting it leak out and the more rounds the better.

[00:40:22] So I, I think bear spray fantastic to have as a tool, but I I'm right with you on the firearm thing as well. If when the chips come down. A firearm will actually stop a predatory aggressive 

[00:40:35] Brad Brooks: bear hundred percent. That's my thought. No, I, I think it's true. And, and yeah, you're, that's a very astute observation of yours that it's hard to know if it was a bluff charge being made and it was afraid.

[00:40:44] But you know, if that, if that animal, if that bear is defending a Carcas or, or is looking at you, is yeah. In a predatory, uh, light, there are, there are plenty of cases of people saying, like I deployed bear spray in its face and it ran right through it. It's like, I, I, right. Yeah. And a bear that really wants something like they it's it's it's don't get me wrong.

[00:41:05] I'm sure that it is painful for the bear, but not painful enough if it really wants to, it seems like, and we can, you know, anthropomorphize the thoughts of a bear, all we want. But at the end of the day, you know, a bullet well placed is, is, you know, going to do more. And again, based on not just anecdotal experience with people, I know, but also.

[00:41:26] People that had real encounters where it was clearly like a defense issue, like a sow, defending your Cubs, defending a Carcas that you didn't know was there like a meal, right. That they had a down Carcas somewhere, um, or just maybe an old bear that's hungry and sees you as a meal or whatever the situation that it sees you as a meal for like a pistol, just like, I think it's unequivocally like a more effective tool, but again, it also calls comes down to, you need to know how to use it a little bit.

[00:41:52] And I'm, I wouldn't consider myself a pro, but I did a lot of practice beforehand and actually sought some professional training, um, which was invaluable, made me a lot more confident too. So 

[00:42:05] Travis Bader: makes a huge difference. Yeah. Yeah. I did a, um, I was able to get away for a couple days. Again, COVID the restrictions on travel interfered with, uh, a spring bear hunt and maybe my 88 seal kick in here on an aside.

[00:42:21] Um, Here's a COVID joke. you know what, I, I'm not gonna tell a COVID joke because probably of 99.6, 9% of the audience won't get it. Uh anyways, 

[00:42:34] Brad Brooks: anyway, that's a good one. You gotta up for a second. I like that one. Uh, uh, yeah, anyways, back to, you know, anyways, the bear, the bear situation is real. It's not something that, uh, you know, the fear of bears, I feel like really keeps a lot of people from, from, from doing some things.

[00:42:54] And I think people, you should, I mean, my personal philosophies, you shouldn't do that, but you should also be really smart and about it. And also just honest about. What it's like out there bears are, they're a part of the environment. I'm glad they're there. I like seeing bears, but also you need to respect the shit out of those bears.

[00:43:12] Like you are, you can be a meal for them and you better, if you don't recognize that and you can't be cavalier about it, don't act outta fear or, or not do certain things necessarily just be aware of that, respect it. And, and you'll be fine. Mm-hmm 

[00:43:30] Travis Bader: well, on, on the last hunt that we had there, I came with about 10 yards of a, uh, a mama and her Cub, whole smokes.

[00:43:37] And a Cub was, uh, not, not a small Cub, a, uh, at least, least a year old. And anyways, I, uh, my wife and son were. Uh, in one area on a cut block, Southside, just, uh, glassing. And I thought, you know, I'm gonna go for a walk. I'm gonna do big, long loop around and I'm gonna come on back. And maybe, maybe something will kind of move over into your direction here.

[00:44:04] And I came up a, uh, old, uh, abandoned logging road and was walking up there and just quietly walking up and scanning and walking. And I didn't see it. They must not have seen me. And it was just, I was in the middle of the road and it was just off the side of the road was, uh, was mama bear and, uh, Didn't see me until I was right beside it.

[00:44:30] And you hear this, this like woo sound and who? My rifles off my shoulder in a heartbeat. My, my heart's pound and bump umumumum, uh, her, uh, her Cub goes running off in the dissonance and mama stands its ground and is stand and luck in. And I got the rifle out and I'm like, okay, mama don't wanna hurt ya.

[00:44:50] Cuz of course we're, we're not gonna take mama here with, uh, in the presence of any of her Cubs. But um, after what felt like forever of me trying to back up and it just standing its ground, finally, mama just kind of turned around. It's kind of slowly walking away. So, uh, that was, that was an interesting 

[00:45:10] Brad Brooks: encounter.

[00:45:11] Oh my gosh. Yeah. Can I ask in Canada, if you are you, uh, if you kill a grizzly and self defense, um, is that, um, something that, that you're concerned about? Like. What being able to defend. Cause I know that's, you know, like in the us, you have to be able to prove that it was self defense and there's us, there's always an investigation because it is a protected species in a lot of places.

[00:45:31] But usually if, if it's clear that it was self defense and the it's not a big deal, um, mm-hmm 

[00:45:40] Travis Bader: so, you know, there's two schools of thought in Canada personally, if there's a self defense issue, a person should be able to articulate why that is and 10 yards. I mean, yeah, that's, that's, you're you're well within the zone where you should have shot that bear before I think with Gary Shelton had about a 25, uh, meter rule, 25 yard rule or eyeline, and he he's a fellow he's written a couple books on bear attack.

[00:46:06] He passed away a, a year and a half ago. He was my wife's aunt next door neighbor. And he helped us put together our, our bear training courses. Um, but I. I guess the two schools of thought are, it should be pretty easy. You just call the conservation officer. You let 'em know exactly what happened. Uh, that's a school that I subscribe to if I was ever in a situation like that, but there are some out there in Canada and they just talk about the three S right.

[00:46:32] Shoot shovel, shut up. Yep. Right. Yep. Um, honestly, I, I would want the hassle of a bear Carcas being found and someone's saying, well, we saw your vehicle down below or your camp. And, and, uh, having to question me about it, I'd rather just be forthright and honest, let 'em know the situation. And I think people are gonna find more often than not, it's going to, uh, fall in their favor because they would have prove, otherwise they'd have to prove that they, it, wasn't a, uh, a, a defensive thing.

[00:47:03] And if you have no information to provide 'em to the contrary, then your story 

[00:47:07] Brad Brooks: has to stand. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm in the same way I would. You know, better to own up to it. Uh, but I was just curious if it's like a, oh man, like you're in, even if it was self defense, you're in deep trouble just given the, the banning of the bear hunting, uh, in BC, especially so, oh, it's a touchy 

[00:47:25] Travis Bader: subject.

[00:47:25] I'm sure. I'm sure. And there is talk actually about the moratorium being lifted just based on the grizzly bear populations and the encroachment on, uh, on people and the attacks that are happening. It's not something that, um, uh, like some of our indigenous groups, they're just saying, forget it. We have to start cuing some of these bears, it's becoming a massive problem.

[00:47:48] And I think the, uh, the Tailan nation up here is one of the areas that has, um, publicly come out and said, this is something that needs to be addressed. And if you don't do it, we will. So there's, um, I, I would be surprised in the next few years, if there wasn't a very serious reassessment of the. How the grizzly bear population is managed in British 

[00:48:11] Brad Brooks: Columbia.

[00:48:11] Yeah. It's well, we'll see. Yeah. Well, I hope so. I'll be, um, I, I feel like that's, uh, the bear issue is just such an interesting one, but in many ways I feel like it is just kind of the camel's nose under the tent kind of situation. And, um, yeah. Yeah. And I, I understand, and I can, I can understand that, um, bears are, I think we have been programmed hardwired to think about bears differently than, than we do than they are, right.

[00:48:43] With Disney films and everything else, making them cute and cuddly and, and approachable. Right. Um, and not, not just sort of a, you know, a wild animal, but yeah. Interesting situation. I'll I'll I am paying attention and we'll continue to so. 

[00:49:00] Travis Bader: And then you had a moose 

[00:49:02] Brad Brooks: hunt as well. Didn't you? I did. Yeah. So, um, yeah, back to back to Alaska, right?

[00:49:06] Um, yeah. Yeah. So last, last leg on my trip was a, uh, a moose hunt. And I honestly, so before I left I for the moose hunt, I had no idea what it was gonna be like. Um, my business partner, Jason came up and joined me on this hunt and we got dropped off. And, uh, and this, this was the, I would say the, the least fun of all of my hunts, cuz we got dropped off in a swamp.

[00:49:30] Literally it was a true, true swamp. You know, like the only there was a little, you know, series of like ponds everywhere and get dropped off and uh, The pilots, like, I think there's probably some dry ground over that way. So I get out and start walking. There's like, no dry ground. I'm like still in, you know, at least shin deep water.

[00:49:49] He goes, well, maybe try the other direction. So I walked that way and I'm like, I guess you could call this dry ground. But I mean, it's the, the part that was dry had just like roots from the trees, just going everywhere. I'm like, I don't know how we're gonna sleep here for a week, you know? Um, right. We didn't have like cos or anything like that.

[00:50:05] So anyways, we we've set up. We're like this will work. So set up camp and uh, first morning, go out, give a, do a, do a call series. I've never called moose in my life, but I did a lot of I've called a, I called a lot of other animals. Right. So I do a lot of elk calling. I do a lot of waterfowl calling. So it's like, if you, if you can learn how to call and you do some practice and put your time and I feel like you can, you can probably learn how to call anything with a little bit of practice.

[00:50:31] My first moose calling series, like I'm not shitting you Travis, like 15 minutes after I do my first call. Here's a bull moose. Comes out of the out of nowhere. Yeah. And I'm just thinking, I'm like, I love that feeling. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's the best, right. I just, we were, we had just sat there, waited for solid.

[00:50:49] Like I was gonna give it, you know, 25, 30 minutes after calling and we were about ready to call it and Jason goes, There's a moose and , I look sure as shit, you know, a hundred yards down the way there's a bull moose standing there. And he looked, there was an antler size restriction where we were at and he looked like he was too small, but he might have had enough brow times.

[00:51:10] Well, he kinda looking, he doesn't see, he doesn't see a moose. And so he kind of starts walking, you know, kind of past us. And as soon as he gets outta sight, I rake really fast, again, like real aggressively, and then just like, come and then just kind of get ready with my bow. And that, that, that bowl came troting towards me, stops at 40 yards, 41 yard broadside.

[00:51:32] And I just couldn't quite con I didn't, I just didn't think he was a legal bull and I, I wasn't sure enough to shoot him. So I just, I didn't shoot him. And he, we watched him though, got some great footage. He pops in the pond right in front of our camp and swam across and went through their side and walked away.

[00:51:49] That was the only bull moose I saw the entire trip. Never saw another one. Um, oh yeah, it was, it was so we went from this like. The first day of thinking like, oh my gosh, this is a great spot. We're gonna for sure have some opportunities here to, to that being the only moose we saw and just not having any more opportunities, uh, the rest of that trip.

[00:52:09] So that was a bit of a disappointment. We had the first two legs. It was, you know, successful. And I really wanted to take a moose cause that was the, uh, only species that I've never killed before. I've never shot a moose. Okay. And, um, never actually been moose hunting before. Um, huh. Yeah, for us. It's so it's a lifetime down, a lower 48.

[00:52:27] It's a, it they're called lifetime tags in most states, so okay. Very low draw odds. It's a draw hunt and you know, typically depends on where you're applying, but even in Idaho, like as a resident, I have decent draw odds in like the Northern part of the state, but that still means typically, you know, 12.

[00:52:45] 15% chance of drawing a tag every year. And so I've never drawn a moose tag. So for me, the only option to hunt a moose is to go somewhere else, like Alaska, Canada, if I can get in or, you know, somewhere else, somewhere else where there are moose populations, we'll have you up here, man. I'll get you out on the moose hunt.

[00:53:03] I'd love to, uh, you know, from Canada, you require me to, uh, have a guide, right? Isn't that the, the rule for on residents, 

[00:53:12] Travis Bader: you know what I'd had, you know, I'm not up to date on the non-resident hunter. I think you can do it without a guide in certain areas. Okay. Um, look into it in British Columbia. 

[00:53:21] Brad Brooks: Anyways, I, I do it a heartbeat.

[00:53:23] I really want to, uh, kill moose quite badly. So, but yeah, anyways, that was, that was the moose hunt and didn't didn't succeed and, um, never saw, uh, another moose, but had a good time. Um, it was a grind. I'll tell you what living in that swamp, you just couldn't walk very far. So it was a lot of calling. Yeah.

[00:53:44] Travis Bader: Where'd you end up beding down. Did you find an area where you're not on route or did you just like, not see? 

[00:53:48] Brad Brooks: No, we, it was pretty, it was not that comfortable, but it was what we had and so we just slept there. Um, yeah. And it was, it was fine. It was, it was manageable. It wasn't wasn't real comfortable, but it was manageable.

[00:54:01] Um, and yeah, I mean, we, I actually even brought tree saddle and made a tree stand so I could get up and see, cause you couldn't see very far. So I was like, you know, if I can get up high and at least see where the moose might be, I can try and get over to or to 'em and call 'em. Um, after that first day I just never saw another moose.

[00:54:19] So 

[00:54:20] Travis Bader: were you seeing much 

[00:54:21] Brad Brooks: sign? Yeah, there was a lot of old sign and I think, think what happened my guess is what happened is as soon as we moved in all the moose that were in that vicinity moved out, like smelled us, hurt us. Right. Um, and it wasn't a real big zone, so it was like, Swamp with some like alders and trees and like this like line.

[00:54:40] And then on the other side of the line of trees and brush, it was just wide open for miles. So anything that was in there was in the thick, probably hanging out in the thick, uh, habitat there, betting down and then going out into the open to eat. Um, anyways, I got lots of feeling things on that. I feel like our, our outfit or our air transporter kind of put us in a questionable area.

[00:55:04] Um, but who knows? I, I tried to talk to him and be like, Hey, you know, like, I feel like we're in such a small zone that like anything around here that hasn't smelled us already. Cuz the wind was constantly like going up and down this line of vegetation. And it's like, I ensure that our scent is getting carried well around, you know, getting carried around here quite well.

[00:55:24] Yeah. So anyways, 

[00:55:27] Travis Bader: well I did a, uh, uh, typically every year we've got a, uh, group of friends that will go on a moose hunt and. uh, this year I didn't get in on the draw on that one. Still invited, even if you didn't draw, cuz as part of the, uh, the group, I just can't take can't harvest the, the animal, but another friend who lives in the Yukon couple years prior, I was, I was on a hunt and I posted something on Instagram or Facebook or something of my side by side.

[00:55:54] And he sends over this little message on, uh, Instagram messenger. That's what it was. And all it was was out for a rip. Are you bud? And for the rest of the hunt, I don't know if you've ever heard that stupid song out for a rip. Are you bud but for the rest of the hunt, I just had that song playing over and over in my head and, and he says, you know, you, you gotta come up to the Yukon, you gotta come up to the Yukon.

[00:56:16] And so finally I took him up on it. This last season, never been to the Yukon and flew in, uh, still had the song in my head because I'm meeting up with them and I spent a, uh, Uh, a bit of time getting everything together. And he had a 16 foot Lu with a 60 horsepower outboard, uh, two stroke motor on it. And it was me and my wife and him and his partner and all of our gear just loaded to the Gunns on this little, the 16 foot boat.

[00:56:51] And we took it from the Yon side down into BC, cuz he couldn't be in a Yukon resident. Couldn't hunt in BC, uh, his, uh, partner she's indigenous. And so she had permission from the, uh, uh, indigenous group. So she could, if she wanted to, it was about two hours. Little over two hours on the boat going down. And the weather picked up large, massive lake massive lake to, to get there.

[00:57:15] And so we ended up having to offload some gear halfway and get the, um, the wives set up on a tiny little island and a tiny, I mean, you, you walk across from one side to the other in about, I don't know, 15 seconds, it's just, but we set up on this as our bear protection because of massive grizzly country.

[00:57:35] And we figured that will be our place where we'll bed down mm-hmm and we can go out and, uh, hunt during the day. And anyways, we get the rest of the gear, come back, uh, wives have the, have the, uh, uh, tent set up. And, uh, we sat in the island for a few minutes, just glassing and looking around, looking at the area and seeing, seeing kind of where we wanted to go.

[00:57:57] And he says, is that a moose over there? Right. I said, I don't know. Let's get in the boat. We all go down, get over to the mainland area and. And, uh, started putting a stalk on it. Wasn't a moose, but uh, sure. Looked like it from a distance. And so we just sat there for about, uh, just watching this one stream where we felt that one might come down, I don't know, four, four and a half hours.

[00:58:24] And his wife was doing some great calling and, and incomes Bullwinkle. Hmm. That was probably the fastest moose hunt I've ever been on. Still took a couple of days to get the, uh, uh, animal process and all the gear and kit back. Cuz we had to do it in between weather, uh, when the, when the weather would allow, but it was, uh, light was going down, was able to take it it at a illegal time, able to gut it out, set a little fire beside it, set some clothing up and piss all around the thing to try and get the bears away and.

[00:58:57] But, uh, it worked out. So that was, that was a good, good hunt for 

[00:59:00] Brad Brooks: time. Yeah, that's a, that's a pretty cool story. Um, yeah, they're having, you know, calling called a lot of elk, then a lot of elk hunting, uh, moose hunting is a very interesting, uh, it's just an interesting animal to hunt. Cause there's, it's not the same, like vocal in action that you have with elk typically.

[00:59:19] Um, I know, you know, the bulls certainly make a noise, but it's, it's a much, it's not even close to the same level that you hear, you know, typically for elk cutting in the Rud, it's like going to a basin or mountain area and you bugle and you're gonna get a response and it's like, oh, that's where the elk are.

[00:59:32] I'm gonna go that way. Right. Or the moose it's like, you know, they're around pro probably, but you're not. Yeah. You 

[00:59:40] Travis Bader: just have to trust 

[00:59:41] Brad Brooks: trust a little bit more faith. Yeah. Faith in the they're around and you're calling 'em in. Yeah. Yeah. So anyways was good. . 

[00:59:50] Travis Bader: Yeah, I guess the last one I did was a, um, a fellow from your neck of the woods.

[00:59:54] He's, uh, lives in BC. He's actually just flew into Boise, uh, today as where his family's from and good friend of mine. And, uh, another friend who's, uh, works with BC parks and he's, uh, search and rescue. And, and, uh, we were talking about doing a, a sheep hunt and I haven't done a sheep hunt before. And I thought, well, you know, years ago I'd raft down some of our, uh, rivers that we have here, I almost died doing that and finally invested in a life jacket and a proper raft.

[01:00:24] And it used to be, I'd just go get my $20 Canadian tire, which is like an ACE hardware or type thing. I like it. Cheapo raft and case of beer in a backpack and go down these rivers. Right. Um, So I have this, a commercial, proper commercial whitewater raft. Uh, my friend who works search and rescue says, Hey, we've got a rowing frame that we can borrow.

[01:00:47] The, um, local SAR will lend to us. Let's head down the Fraser river in an area that none of us had been before. And none of us had any idea what the, uh, the water is like. And we had had great aspirations of, uh, taking like a jet boat ride down the river, just to do a wrecky, just to see what it's like and see what the possible hazards were.

[01:01:09] But, uh, that never happened. And, uh, we spent, uh, what was that? Four days, five days, um, floating down the river, going through areas. All we knew is when we look at the map, there's certain areas that say like Whirlpool or danger, right. and so that's all we sitting in the back of our head that could be around any corner.

[01:01:32] um, it was a good experience. And in hindsight, I think we have some good places scouted for the next time we want to do that hunt. Uh, we saw lots of sign in certain areas, but we weren't able to connect on that one, but it was, uh, it was an adventure in its own. Right. Uh, just the three of us, you know, small commercials, a 14 fit.

[01:01:54] I think 

[01:01:54] Brad Brooks: it's a 14, it's pretty small high hyper. Yeah. Well, I'm jealous of you guys. You can get a sheep tag over the counter too. That's that's amazing. Uh, that's a, that's a wonderful, uh, the fact that you guys have that opportunity is just fantastic. 

[01:02:07] Travis Bader: We are fortunate. Yes. We're very grateful for that. 

[01:02:10] Brad Brooks: Yeah.

[01:02:11] Yeah. I wish we had the same am situation up here, but, um, numbers aren't there. 

[01:02:17] Travis Bader: Yeah, I hear you. Yeah. Um, well let's. Uh, okay. So the knife that you make, the beautiful knife bought, bought one of those knives for my wife for Christmas, the, um, it was a stalking sufferer for her, which is, uh, I think sitting on my bedside table at the moment.

[01:02:36] uh, but now you've got tents. Yeah. As well that 

[01:02:38] you're 

[01:02:38] Brad Brooks: making. Yeah. We just love launched. Uh, so this has been, I've been working on this for a while. Um, we just launched a tent line here, uh, gosh, beginning of February. And you know, I, the whole, I'd say like, just, we talked about this a little bit last time, but the products we, we make, uh, the, I'd say the, the continuous theme with all of, is.

[01:03:01] Where there are products or, or, uh, that I feel like we can do something that's sort of filling a need or solving a problem that we've observed through experiences. Mm-hmm, like we tend to follow those, those product categories, um, or those ideas. Um, I originally wanted to make a tent, uh, for myself or high country, early season, mul deer hunting.

[01:03:24] So archery mul deer hunting. Mm. That hunt for me, the way I like to hunt mul deer is typically, I'm just, you know, I have my backpack full of my stuff and I'm just gonna go wander for a while. And I just want to go where I want to go. And I camp where I camp, uh, based on what I see. Mm-hmm , I don't love it.

[01:03:40] Yeah. And it's just, it's fun. It's just to free. You don't have anywhere. You have to be back to at the end of the day. It's like you camp, wherever you end up. I love it. It's just a, a fun way to hunt. The prob the problem I have with that is typically, you know, flat real estate is sometimes at a, at a.

[01:03:58] Premium. So just finding a spot to, to sleep can be a challenge there. And mm-hmm and I end up sleeping, you know, not all the time, but a fair amount of the time in like mul deer or goat beds. Um, so you might find like a kicked out bed. That's big enough that you can kind of kick out for yourself on original line.

[01:04:17] And I could never find it tent that I really was like happy with to pitch on those in those situations. And that was really, uh, Uh, ideally suited for, for camping and kind of varied terrain. It was light, but it also, um, was versatile. So I actually made, I decided to make my own tent one year and I, I have no business sewing, Travis.

[01:04:39] I don't, I don't never sewed anything. I bought some fabric. Uh, it's like the, the, the stereotypical story. Like I literally borrowed my mom sewing machine and, and taught myself how to sew as best I could watch em, YouTube videos and made a tent. And it took me a long time to figure out how to do it. Wow.

[01:04:57] Yeah. I mean, it wasn't pretty, but I did it and used that tent and I was like, I actually like this, like the, just the shape of it, you know, and yeah, that was what I has now become our ring con two person tent. And it went through, I think we went through, you know, 12 different, um, sizes shapes, um, iterations of that product before we kind of felt like we got it dialed.

[01:05:21] So, um, I. And there there's a few reasons why we wanted to make our tents, the shape of that tent was one. But then, you know, as soon as I started diving into it, I started looking at fabrics and details and sort of everything about those tents are sort of made to kind of solve some problems that we saw in the current tent world, especially for, um, people that are doing backpack hunting or, or lightweight hunting.

[01:05:47] Travis Bader: Right. So I'm six, six. Would I fit in your tent? 

[01:05:53] Brad Brooks: Yeah, you would barely, but yes . Okay. Okay. Yeah. Your, um, I'd say our two person tent is, uh, I, I would call it a two person tent. One of the interesting things about tents is that there is no governing body for what constitutes a two person or a three person or a four person.

[01:06:14] Right. You just look as a consumer, you just look on a website and it's like, this is a two person. Well, I remember. When I had a final prototype of my two person, I was down in Arizona on an archery Cosier hunt with a friend of mine who had a, a tent from another brand, a very well known backpack company brand.

[01:06:32] And it was a two person tent. And I'm not kidding you, Travis. Like I could barely fit my, my shoulders were touching the sides of the, of the tent either side. And it was called a two per and I was like, this is, this feels like, uh, this should be illegal. Like you shouldn't be able to call this a two person 10 with how small this damn thing is.

[01:06:50] Um, so anyways, uh, the way we sized it, I wanted for our two person 10 to be able to actually hold like two people and your gear, uh, you know, if you had moderate amount of gear, if with one, if you're just by yourself, it's a very comfortable, you know, pal one person tent, um, So, yes, uh, they are, I'd say that you could fit in there.

[01:07:15] And with our four person, 10, our AB AKA four P um, I think you'd fit quite comfortably. You know, even our, our four person tent they're, they're both modular tent design, so they're designed so you can run them. With or without, uh, an insert, which is the bathtub floor mesh part of the tent. So they're designed to be they're single pole pitchable.

[01:07:34] So there's, they're all one pole in the middle and you can either use a tracking pole or two tracking poles. You can use a stick if you're out in the woods, whatever you can get your hands on. Um, okay. Which is I have been using that style of tent for a very long time. And I find that they are, you know, very versatile.

[01:07:52] They're, they're really easy to fix. If you have something happen in the field, if you forget your pole, like I did have many times you can usually find a branch or something else to prop up with. Um, it gives you the option to use your tracking pole, if you want to cut more weight. Um, they're just, they're really, uh, uh, I think great for hunting scenarios.

[01:08:14] Uh, we also have a removable stove Jack in both our tents. So if you want to use a stove and make 'em a hot tent, which is amazing if you haven't done that yet, Travis highly recommend aside 

[01:08:24] Travis Bader: from a wall tent. I mean, I love wall tents, but, but I haven't done the hot tent yet with mine. Oh, it's 

[01:08:30] Brad Brooks: so great. Is it?

[01:08:31] Oh man. It's you know, I do. I mean, I do a lot of, um, not, I don't do exclusively backpack hunting, but I do a lot of. Pack in hunts. And even, even the ones that aren't backpack hunts that maybe we take stock in or LAAS. Um, I will take a stove with anything for us, like late September on, and it is just a game changer mentally and physically, if the weather really gets sour on you, so short of having a wall tent, which is amazing, but they're also just gigantic and heavy and you need, you really need stock.

[01:09:02] If you're gonna carry him anywhere or you need to fly him in or take him on a boat. Right. Right. 

[01:09:07] Travis Bader: Um, so yeah. Are you gonna start making stoves? 

[01:09:11] Brad Brooks: Uh, we are yeah. yes. Perfect. Yeah, we're working on that now, too. Um, it's it's funny if you want to tie it to current day events, uh, little known fact that a lot of the world's titanium comes from Ukraine.

[01:09:27] Travis Bader: I did not know that. Yeah. 

[01:09:28] Brad Brooks: Interesting. Uh, I know that, and I also know that, of course you do now. Yeah, absolutely. I know that. And, uh, uh, the, the price of titanium is, is going up astronomically, uh, as a result of this whole Ukraine, Russia war situation. So, I mean, interesting. There's a lot of other reason to, to have feelings about that.

[01:09:48] My petty little issue around material sourcing is . But anyways, that is, that has made things a little bit more complicated for us in the last, um, little bit here, but, but yes, we are working on a, on a stove accompany our tents. 

[01:10:02] Travis Bader: So friend of mine was out in a, um, in another tent that had a stove Vinet and I.

[01:10:09] Gale force winds were coming through lifted. The whole tent up chimney came out of the stove was smoking hot, ends up landing on buddy's sleeping big holy smokes and, uh, in burn. So, uh, I I've never had experience with the stove hands like that, but just, I don't know, maybe if there's, if yours has little clips or the ability to, uh, uh, just, just a thought 

[01:10:31] Brad Brooks: just man.

[01:10:31] I, I, uh, yeah, no, I've never heard of that before. I'm very interested in the details of that one, um, how that happened, but, um, Yeah. Interesting. But yeah, no. So the, um, the hot tents, like, uh, especially late season I'll backpack in, uh, it's usually like one or two late season hunts I do. And in November timeframe and when it's, you know, zero to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, which is pretty cold, you know, and, you know, the days are short nights are low, long, just being able to get inside that tent and have a fire for a little bit to warm up dry out is just, it's the difference between staying out for an extended period of time and just getting to the point where you're just like, I am so tired of being cold and wet that I, I don't want to deal with this anymore.

[01:11:17] Um, yeah. And usually, you know, by day six or seven or eight, if you're on a backpack hunt, it's cold and miserable. You know, and you're you find your motivation waning where it's like, I don't want to get up at four 30 this morning to, to start walking cuz I'm cold and tired and you start it. It, you know, I don't care who you are.

[01:11:35] It starts wearing on you. If you can fire up. Yeah. Mentally. Yeah. Get a fire going and get warm, get your boots. Unthaw out. Like it it's just changes everything. 

[01:11:45] Travis Bader: So, uh, I guess I'm going have to get myself a stove from you. Well when they come on out, we'll take as soon you start getting 

[01:11:52] Brad Brooks: titanium. Yeah, absolutely.

[01:11:53] Yeah. There you go. Yeah, we can still get titanium. It's just, uh, going to be a lot more expensive and more difficult than it was before. 

[01:12:00] Travis Bader: Very cool. Yeah. Um, So, what are the plans for next season? Are you gonna be doing more filming and more of your, your sort of media company stuff? 

[01:12:10] Brad Brooks: Yeah, so definitely. Um, I've got, I actually already have pretty much a full fall planned for next year.

[01:12:16] Um, I'm gonna be, I'll start the year off in Alaska and I'm gonna end it in Mexico. Uh, so we'll be going. Yeah, we kind of be traveling everywhere again. So, uh, it'll, it'll depend a little bit on the tag draw situation here in the us. So each state you have to put in for tags and for, for me, I can, I have to wait to see what I draw, but I should be hunting, you know, doing everything from archery, hunting and Idaho O archery L hunting in Wyoming, lb hunting, you know, pronghorn, elk, deer L um, pronghorn elk, deer, COOs deer.

[01:12:53] And some Blacktail this year. Um, and maybe a couple other things kind of, depending on tag draws, but man. Yeah, no, it should be fun. So, but I'll be doing, I won't be doing as much time in Alaska this year. It'll be shorter stints. Um, uh, I'm gonna try and hopefully I'll take, be able to take my daughter out on a prong horn hunt.

[01:13:11] Um, that's kind of my, that'd be cool. Yeah. I'm hoping that I, of that tags, I'm planning to take her with me and do a kind of a father-daughter hunt. 

[01:13:18] Travis Bader: Has she done 

[01:13:18] Brad Brooks: much hunting with you before a little bit? You know, and it's mostly like, you know, I try and make it really last year. I took her out, uh, pheasant hunting a bit and it's basically just walking around, you know, and she got to see a few pheasants get shot and we carry a BB gun with her whenever we go camping.

[01:13:34] And you know, when she's interested in it, she'll shoot it, but not a ton. I try and make it really fun. And you know, short little verse, 

[01:13:42] Travis Bader: I did a, um, uh, So doing some water fell hunting, and it's an area around here where pheasants are released. And there's an understanding, nobody shoots the pheasants within a certain area because this is part of a club and just not what you do essentially.

[01:13:58] Uh, but if they're outside of that area, some will escape a, some of the little local islands or they'll be out in the foreshore they're they're open game. And so, um, anyways, they came across a pheasant that was open game and was actually with a person who was allowed to take him wherever he wanted. But, uh, it would've been my, uh, my first pheasant thing flies up in the air, flushes out and I pop it.

[01:14:20] It goes down just cloud of feathers goes right down. And if I could find that thing, gimme a break. I spent what seven hours at least looking for it. That was I not gonna lose this pheasant. I saw it go down right here. I push it. It must have done a runner or something on me when I went down, the thing looked.

[01:14:38] But right at the end of that day, I phone up my wife and I said, you know, I said, we're not gonna get a dog, get to a place this large enough that we can, we're getting a dog. So now I've, 

[01:14:48] Brad Brooks: what'd you get? Yeah, I saw, I actually saw that. What'd you? What did you end up getting? 

[01:14:52] Travis Bader: Um, monster Lander monster Lander.

[01:14:54] I had never even heard of the breed book before, but I got it out of, um, out of the states. Where was it out of? Um, uh, Kansas city. Just outside there. Okay. anyways, uh, it's interesting breed. Uh, it's pretty intelligent, highly intelligent. Had it for a few weeks now. And. Uh, it listens, does what it's supposed to do.

[01:15:16] It'll come most of the time when you call it, it was, uh, house house trained in the first couple days. It'll wait on command before eating or going through the door. And so we're just, I did a, uh, podcast with, uh, Ron BA he's got a hunting dog. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, uh, picked is bringing a whole bunch on dogs and training and all the rest.

[01:15:37] He's got a, uh, the, uh, what is it? The 

[01:15:40] Brad Brooks: he's a Broco Italian guy Institute. 

[01:15:43] Travis Bader: That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's got some courses on training, so I've been going through those and trying it 

[01:15:49] Brad Brooks: out. That's cool. Well, that's, there's only like a good bird dog to, to force you to get out and, uh, take it for walks with a shotgun.

[01:15:57] Um, yeah, so that's awesome. 

[01:16:00] Travis Bader: Yeah. The, what was the other one on back of my head? Um, Access deer. 

[01:16:06] Brad Brooks: Did you do some multi access? Oh shoot. I did. Um, I'm actually, I did that last year. I'm actually going again this year. Sorry. I, I miss booked. My season is gonna start not in Alaska, but it's gonna start in Hawaii here.

[01:16:17] Another, uh, oh, that's terrible. Month and a half. Yeah, I know. I'm gonna I know. Um, I'm going. Yeah, I'm going back to Hawaii last time I was there. It was a family vacation that I snuck out and did some access to your hunting this time I'm going back, uh, uh, just to go access to your hunting for, uh, four days.

[01:16:35] And then my wife, we're leaving our kids at home this time she's gonna fly up and then we'll do a kind of a week of just, yeah, just she and I, we love our kids. Love taking 'em when we can, but sure you, it was like one of those deals where we hardly could do much with two young kids in Hawaii. Um, So it was, it's like we're gonna do every once in a while.

[01:16:53] It's kind of nice to do something. Just, just the two of us you kind of have to. Yeah. I mean, 

[01:16:58] Travis Bader: so yeah, it, it, it allows you to give the best of the kids if you're totally getting the best of 

[01:17:03] Brad Brooks: yourself as well. I'm yeah. A hundred percent with you. Yeah. So yeah, access deer. Yeah. We'll be, I'll be back hunting, access deer, um, probably hunt a little bit, do a little bit of good out and pig hunting as well, but, um, excited about that one.

[01:17:14] That'll be, um, and, and honestly, I just got introduced to a guy who I consider a really good friend, uh, down there now, Sean who's, um, a native, uh, Hawaiian and Sean has, he knows a lot of people and has access to country, uh, to land that we can hunt on. It's it's all private land that we're hunting on.

[01:17:33] Right. And without that access to that land, it's very hard on, on, uh, on Hawaii. But yeah, anyways, I'm looking forward to that, cuz it's, that is just blast to do again. So. 

[01:17:46] Travis Bader: did you do any, uh, like spear fishing? Are you, are you into that? 

[01:17:49] Brad Brooks: Is that something you can try out? Yeah, I, so, um, I I'd say I, I didn't do a whole lot when I was there last time, but I am gonna do some this time and I am very, I'm interested in killing and eating just about anything.

[01:18:02] So whether, however, that happens, the, of, yeah. Going down in the ocean with a gun, with a spear gun, it sounds like so much fun. So yeah. I'm gonna try that out and you, you've done a bit of that, is that right? 

[01:18:16] Travis Bader: I have, yeah. Yeah. I have, I usually just shave everything off because I don't know how to get a mask to work with a, uh, with a beard and mustache.

[01:18:24] Yeah. And so I'll just shave it all off and, uh, I'm not, I'm, I'm no Kimmy weer at it. Yeah. But, uh, I'm, uh, uh, I do enjoy getting out. I'll do, uh, local stuff just around here in BC cold water water, and I'll just tough it out. Or I'll put a weight belt in some, um, Uh, a wet suit on, I started with a spear gun.

[01:18:45] And what I really like to use now is just, uh, I think they call it a Hawaiian sling. Yeah. Maybe that's not quite the right term, but basically it's just a pole. Yes, exactly what you're talking about. I I'll, yeah. And I'll use a, a paralyzer, like a three prong mm-hmm , uh, tip on that thing. Uh, I find that to be a lot of fun because it.

[01:19:05] Uh, I think was Cressy sub or, um, Cressy. I think it is that they make a fiberglass pole and that'd be my travel one. And after a while, I'm like, I can go even lighter if I'm going to a tropical area, I'll just find some bamboo. I'll use some para cord and I'll, I'll wrap it around the, um, uh, the stinger head.

[01:19:22] And I just go to the local hardware store and get myself some surgical tube. And I, um, will just put a bit of a pros on the end and, uh, uh, use the, my thumb through the surgical tubing, which is at the end. And then I hold, pull it all the way down, hold onto the, uh, uh, near the tip of the three prong. And I basically just point my arm at it and I let go and use my hand, the, uh, the bamboo.

[01:19:48] Yeah. It's, it's so fun. And it's lightweight. It's um, Hmm. I, I'm not, like I said, I, I just enjoy being out in the water and oh yeah. Going after 

[01:19:58] Brad Brooks: these things. Yeah. So that's the. Uh, one of the things this time, I'll have a little more time to kind of do that. We, last time I was there, I spent like an afternoon, uh, with my buddy, Sean, who's very much into that scene.

[01:20:11] Uh, kind of learning about some of the equipment we looked at, you had a spear gun and they had the Hawaiian sling. Also tried to do some like net throwing, um, which is really okay. Not that easy think like, oh, throw a net. No, it's not. Isn't it's not at all, man. Like trying to throw a net and get it to make this nice arcing, you know, circle as it hits the water mm-hmm was definitely, uh, not easy.

[01:20:32] So I, anytime, you know, learning new, new things like that, I find incredibly fun and interesting. So I'm, I'm looking for, or to just. Uh, going to Hawaii and we talked about how for the hunting part of it, my buddy, Kevin, who, uh, works at first light, he and I are going out there. And I think we talked about, we're not even gonna go to the grocery store before we head out hunting.

[01:20:56] We're just gonna try and like survive off of what we can kill. Um, I love so that I love that. I know I've never, I I've never like, actually done that where you're just like, yeah, completely surviving off of it. So they're like, eh, why not? Why not give it a go? 

[01:21:12] Travis Bader: Yeah. Um, what is it? Uh, taco octopus. Yeah. Uh, over in Hawaii, man, I, I would spend hours and hours in the water just trying to find these goofy little octopus.

[01:21:26] And finally, like I I'm out there literally wake up in the morning. I'm going out. I'm looking for all the sign and everywhere where I look for the sign, I just can't find them. And other people like the locals are being successful. That's one thing I'd love to be able to do next time in Hawaii, but this one guy he I'm walking back in.

[01:21:44] He's like, Hey, he's out in the water and looking around, Hey, you, you wanna see taco? Okay. He's like, get over here now. so I'm running on down throwing. I'm like, I don't know this. Thing's gonna get away. And I'm throwing my fins and snorkel mask back on and in the water over to him. And he's like, look, he's down here.

[01:22:01] You look at the hole, you see? And I'm looking in I nothing. Right. And I'm like, oh yeah. Okay. I see it. Like, I don't wanna mess up with his harvest here. Right. I figured I'd see it when he takes a thing out and he's no, no, no. Get your head right down there. Take a look. Right. So I'm down there and I'm looking and I've got my head right in the hole and I'm looking, why can't I see this thing anyways, I'll come up.

[01:22:21] I'm like, oh yeah, I totally saw it. Right. Line . And uh, then he gets in with, and he had one of those stinger heads as well. And, but probably not what you're supposed to be doing. So it's breaking away all the coral to, uh, to get the thing, thing, things start swimming out and grabs a thing and gives it a bite and throws it into his bag.

[01:22:40] And. Good to go. I'm like sweet. Okay. So I see how it's done. I still don't see how this guy saw this thing. Maybe he saw it go in the hole. I don't know that, uh, when I was in Greece, uh, the first beach I was out on in, um, uh, an island called SCO PLO, uh, I was with my son in going, we see an octopus and it's a decent size of octopus and I'm like, oh man, I want to, I wanna take this thing.

[01:23:07] Right. And so I, I got nothing. What can I take it with? And, uh, So I tell my son, you just float over top of this and keep an eye on it in case it takes off, right. Mm-hmm , I'm gonna try and find something and there's a bit of a rock face with side. And so I climb up the rock face and I found a stick because I I'd already tried going in and grabbing it out by hand, but I couldn't hold my breath long enough.

[01:23:29] And so, uh, got along enough stick and I get down and I'm kind a hole in it, waiting for the octopus to grab, waiting for it, to grab finally thing grabs on, comes on out. And by this time, I guess my excitement and the commotion about finding stuff and looking in the water had drawn a bit of a, um, uh, a couple of other people, Italians.

[01:23:49] Uh, they made their way down the rock face by where I was and, and they're standing cuz they wanted to see what I saw and. I was able to slowly bring this octopus out, just stuck on the stick and grabbed it. And I come on up and I got this thing in my hand and it, its legs are going all over my arm. I'm moving it around.

[01:24:10] I'm trying to find where this Hawaiian guy bit it. Right. And cuz I think you're supposed to bite it like between the eyes, right. You and it was moving everywhere and I'm thinking, wait a minute, do they have beaks? I think they do. Is this gonna bite me? And. Anyways, uh, question. Yeah, the Italian. Yeah. The Italian guys are cheering and they think this is great.

[01:24:28] And finally, I find the, the area and I start biting down, but it's not dying. I'm biting. I'm biting you look at they, they stop cheering. One guy looks like he's gonna throw up. 

[01:24:39] Brad Brooks: they're like, I finally did get an octopus. This guy's going feral. Like cool. Now he's just eating it alive. He's eating. Why is he eating it alive?

[01:24:48] oh my gosh. That's awesome. Oh, well, yeah. I'll remember that. Yeah. I'll have to figure out where to. So did you end up killing it? 

[01:24:57] Travis Bader: I did. We did. I killed it. Grilled. The thing up. It was fantastic, but I've never got Hawaiian in octopus, so that's, that's gonna be a goal of my next over there. Keeps you going.

[01:25:07] Brad Brooks: Yeah. Good reason to go back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:25:13] Travis Bader: Well, we've talked about a heck of a lot. Is there anything else that we should touch on before we wrap up? We talked about your tents, the stoves, the, uh, your hunting season. 

[01:25:21] Brad Brooks: No, I think that's it, man. Um, yeah, like I said, I'm, um, appreciate you having me on and um, yeah, there's always a lot going on over here.

[01:25:28] Um, so I, yeah, and it's good to catch up with you as always. Well, Brad, 

[01:25:32] Travis Bader: thank you very much for being on the podcast again. It was great to see ya.