Six waterfowl podcast episodes worth your drive time as the Mid-South openers get close. This week leans on history and law: two Arkansas duck-club stories, a retired federal agent's case files, and a Louisiana swing through teal and woodcock country, plus the latest Ducks Unlimited migration update. Each entry links to the show's official episode page. The notes are our own short summary of what each show says the episode covers in its published description; go to the episode page for the full show notes and to listen.
Episode dates are the release dates shown on each show's page or feed. All links checked Nov 2, 2026.
Mid-South shows
The Standard Sportsman: "Harrell Hosts: A Q&A with Brent and Cason"
Released Oct 29, 2026 · Season 3, Episode 30 · Episode page
- The Arkansas hosts swap seats: former guest Chris Harrell runs the interview and Brent Birch and Cason Short answer the questions.
- A look back at the Bill Byers Hunter Club, which the show notes say Cason's grandfather founded and which still operates.
- Ends on passing duck hunting down to their own kids. If you're taking a young hunter this year, note the youth days in our state law pages.
Duck Season Somewhere: "EP 737. Claypool Caretaker: Feathers, Felonies and the Fine Art of Persuasion"
Released Oct 29, 2026 · Host Ramsey Russell · Episode page
- Robert Riley tells stories about his grandfather Johnny Riley, the longtime caretaker of Claypool's Reservoir, a well-known Arkansas duck hole.
- Big-mallard days, rough characters and an older era of Arkansas duck hunting. It follows an earlier episode on the same property (EP 719).
- Pure history and storytelling, not a how-to. Good for a long drive to the Delta.
Duck Season Somewhere: "EP 738. Louisiana Teal Tour"
Released Nov 2, 2026 · Episode page
- A six-day trip through Louisiana's September teal season, recorded in one blind after another with old friends.
- Mostly conversation about early-season hunting and the people behind it. For the official numbers behind that teal season, see the LDWF September survey in our migration report.
Duck Season Somewhere: "EP 736. American Woodcock: the Louisiana Connection"
Released Oct 26, 2026 · Episode page
- Kean Jones and a Louisiana biologist on the American woodcock: its biology, its long migration and why Louisiana matters to it.
- The thread for duck hunters is habitat: the episode argues that healthy cover helps woodcock, waterfowl and hunters alike, and asks how well you really know the ground you hunt.
Law and the field
The Voice of the Duck Hunter (Delta Waterfowl): "#113 Wildest Cases of a Retired Federal Wildlife Agent"
Released Oct 28, 2026 · Host Joel Brice · Episode page
- Retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Rich Grosz on cases from his career, including undercover work and illegal guiding.
- A reminder that federal migratory bird rules apply on every piece of water you hunt, public or private. Before opening day, run through your state's waterfowl laws and our public-land checklist.
Check the rules and the water
Confirm this season’s rules on our state law pages or the agency’s own site, check draw and permit deadlines, and look at today’s river levels on the migration map. Areas can close or flood on short notice.
Migration updates
Ducks Unlimited Podcast: "Northeast Migration Update: Black Ducks, Geese & Late-Fall Outlook"
Released Oct 27, 2026 · Episode page
- DU's Dr. Mike Brasher and Northeast Migration Alert editor Joe Albanese on the season so far in New York, New England and the Atlantic Coast.
- Covers local duck production, goose flights, wood ducks, black ducks, ring-necks, sea ducks and brant, and how weather is moving birds.
- Not our flyway, but the point about overlooked small waters and wetlands carries over to a dry Mid-South fall, when the birds that are here pile into whatever water exists.
Mississippi Flyway check
No new Mississippi Flyway migration episode came out from the shows we follow between Oct 23 and Nov 2. Last week's roundup has the Great Lakes and prairie updates. For what the official counts show closer to home, read the Mid-South Migration Report.
How we pick episodes
- Released in roughly the last two weeks, with a working official episode page.
- Mid-South shows first, then national migration and public-land shows.
- We link to the episode instead of embedding or reposting it. The summaries are our own short take on each episode's published description, not a transcript or a review. Nobody pays to be included.
Know a Mid-South waterfowl show we should be checking? Tell us.
Dates, rules and prices on this page were last checked Nov 2, 2026. If an agency page and this article disagree, the agency page wins.
See something wrong or out of date? Report a correction.
We hunt public water in the Mid‑South and write from the agencies’ own pages. Every rule, date and fee links to its official source and shows the day we checked it. Where we couldn’t confirm something, we say so.
How we check our facts
