{ "version": "1.0.0", "segments": [ { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "0.0", "endTime": "13.04", "body": "On today's episode, we have professional fisherman Anastasia Patterson, who is also a jack of many trades and pretty much all things hunting. So today, we're gonna talk about her top five mistakes she's made while deer hunting. Don't miss it." }, { "speaker": "VO", "startTime": "15.255", "endTime": "43.795002", "body": "Welcome to the Ascend podcast, a podcast by and for women in the outdoors. Every episode delivers real stories, practical how to's, and a welcoming community to help you start, sharpen, or rediscover your passion for the outdoors. Authentic women, real stories, outdoor adventures, Ascend. Presented by Ducks Unlimited, the leader in wetlands conservation. Your next adventure starts here, The Ascend podcast." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "50.595", "endTime": "70.75", "body": "Welcome to the Ascend podcast by Ducks Unlimited. I'm Adrian, and today, we're gonna talk about the most common mistakes we make while deer hunting. Today, I am joined by Anastasia Patterson, and she is a busy lady. So I'm gonna kinda tell you a little bit about the things she's got going on. So she is a lifelong lover of all things outdoors." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "71.085", "endTime": "110.285", "body": "She's a South Carolina native and a Bassmaster Her ambassador and Bassmaster's open pro fisherman. We may get into that a little bit as we go. She is one of the founding members of the Presbyterian College fishing team, and is also a mentor for high school and juniors fishing, which is awesome. She is a retired pageant girl, which I love because it seems so opposite of the outdoor world, but that's awesome. High school all American cheerleader and softball player, world champion cheerleader, Alpha Delta Pass Rorty, and self proclaimed shell cracker snatcher, which she's gonna have to tell us what that's all about." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "110.525", "endTime": "128.405", "body": "And if all that isn't enough, she has a degree in international business and environmental law. So I'm thinking Anastasia knows her outdoor stuff. So I'm feeling pretty good about this little chat. Anastasia is best known for her fishing prowess, but as I said, lots of hunting in there. So I'm I'm really excited about it." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "128.885", "endTime": "145.03", "body": "Because Anastasia is so passionate about getting young women, other women into the outdoor world, she has agreed today to just be open and honest and tell us her top five mistakes while deer hunting. So, Anastasia, thank you so much for being here." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "145.26999", "endTime": "161.695", "body": "Adrianne, thank you so much for having me, and thank you, of course, to Ducks Unlimited and Adrian for having me as well. Super excited to be on the podcast with you today. I know we got to chat a little bit earlier, but I think we're gonna get a deep dive into each other a little bit more, this afternoon, and I am looking forward to it." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "162.175", "endTime": "173.45", "body": "Me too. As I said, she and I had a conversation earlier. We've had a few email exchanges, but unfortunately, haven't met in person. But this is gonna be a lot of fun. I'm I'm I'm interested to see how it goes." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "173.45", "endTime": "198.52", "body": "I appreciate you agreeing to be so open and honest with us. If you guys, if you're watching on YouTube especially, comment and let us know what mistakes you've made while deer hunting, whether serious and we need to learn from your mistake or if they're just funny. Those are kind of the best. So we may have an episode somewhere in the future where we read some of these comments and read those mistakes. So just drop them in there." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "198.52", "endTime": "205.8", "body": "We love it. Anastasia, before we get into this whole topic, give us just tell us who you are and what we need to know about you." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "206.045", "endTime": "213.325", "body": "Okay. Awesome. So I'm Anastasia Patterson. Like you said, Adriana, I'm from South Carolina. I have been hunting and fishing literally before I could walk." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "213.325", "endTime": "235.79", "body": "My daddy would take me with him every chance he could. And, it's kind of his passion that became my passion really early on. I was four years old in the newspaper for fishing, for, like, all star sports in the town, that sort of thing. And I could probably clean a deer before most grown men. About six years old, I was cleaning most of the deer, that would get killed at our club." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "236.645", "endTime": "281.045", "body": "But my dad has his fortunes club, so I've grown up kind of out in the outdoors. I did do pageants and stuff, but the outdoors was definitely some place that or the place that I found my heart and passion. Like, I have to see the Lord in everything outside, and every chance I get to go is something different. However, with obviously the case of us saying our mistakes, I've made a lot of mistakes in the outdoors, and I feel like you never can be prepared enough for the good, the bad, and the ugly, especially whenever it comes to deer hunting. It's actually funny about between the time I got off the phone with you and just now, I have a little food plot right outside my yard, like, maybe 65, 70 yards from the house just because I like to see how close those deer can get to me." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "281.38998", "endTime": "310.085", "body": "And I had, like, six does just staring into my soul, and I was like, they know they're safe. That's why they're here. But I've been feeding them now probably I mean, I've probably fed them my whole life, so over twenty years, but I've been feeding these particular six does for about two or three years, and it seems like this week is the best week every year, you know, during the kind of rut time here. But I've got $2 now that are showing up, and one of them is really big." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "310.085", "endTime": "310.725", "body": "Nice." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "311.38", "endTime": "335.40503", "body": "And I haven't been actually hunting at all this year. I haven't had time. I've been fishing a lot, and this is my last tournament that I just got back from. So, my hunting license expired, like, two days ago, so I'm going today to get my hunting license to even go hunting, which is crazy to even say. But I think I'm just gonna get the lifetime license at this point because I know that I'm gonna be hunting and fishing forever." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "335.40503", "endTime": "335.48502", "body": "So" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "335.885", "endTime": "359.755", "body": "There you go. I don't know how it is in South Carolina, but in North Carolina where I live, this is just informational for you guys. Check it out in your state. The younger you are, you it's so like if you have a baby, if they're under a year old, it's like a $100 or something for a lifetime license versus 5 or 6 or 700. So there's also opportunities for disabled veterans to get a discount." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "359.755", "endTime": "368.79498", "body": "So check out the laptop license. Has nothing to do with this. Actually, I guess it could. If potentially, you've been hunting and forgot to buy your license, that can be a pretty bad mistake." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "368.79498", "endTime": "372.91", "body": "So 100%. That could be a horrible mistake. That's That's right." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "372.91", "endTime": "374.83002", "body": "So check into the lifetime thing." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "375.15", "endTime": "389.745", "body": "I would also say, I know I've told you this, but I didn't grow up traditionally, like, still hunting. We did still hunt a good bit, but I did grow up running dogs. I still run dogs frequently. My heart beats for that. It's just a different, kind of adrenaline." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "389.825", "endTime": "410.84998", "body": "If I could go hunting over fishing a million times every day, I definitely would. I'd probably get in trouble saying that, but I love to hunt. I say that camo is a neutral color in my family. It's every day, you see us wearing camo something or another. But I grew up hunting dogs." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "410.84998", "endTime": "430.46", "body": "I love running dogs, and it's obviously a little bit less traditional for some. But in the South, it's very traditional for us, especially where I live, in Santee Cooper country. We, have a lot of different dog driving clubs, and we get to fellowship together. It's really awesome. I have a couple ladies in my club too, so that's cool." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "430.46", "endTime": "452.445", "body": "And we do everything from duck, deer, coons, rabbits, quail, pheasant, chukar. We, do shooting spores. We have mudding, and we even have a little, fishing competition sometimes too. So it's really fun, to get to do that. And then, of course, getting to be a part of the founding team at Presbyterian College for fishing was awesome." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "452.525", "endTime": "467.4", "body": "That gave me kind of the stepping stones to the career that I'm in right now. And I did work, about almost five years at the Cleridan Club, which is now Santee Cooper Outdoors. I'm a duck hunting club right here, well, in Somersetton, South Carolina. So yeah." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "467.4", "endTime": "477.245", "body": "That's cool. Okay. So, I know we're supposed to be talking about hunting mistakes, but let's talk a little bit about how you got into the fishing, into becoming a professional fisherman." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "478.125", "endTime": "504.195", "body": "So like I said earlier, before I could even walk, I would go hunt and fish and do all that stuff for my daddy, and it was something I always loved. I was at a Bassmaster Way Inn, I think it was 2006, so a little while ago now. And I told daddy, I said, I want to do that one day, and he just laughed at me, but he said, you know, you can do whatever you wanna do. Well, fast forward to college. I've start helped start a team and then, graduate, and I'm about to be graduating." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "504.195", "endTime": "518.76996", "body": "I think I'm going to law school. And I get a phone call from this lady, and she's like, hey. Have you thought about fishing any after college? I'm like, well, I have, but it's expensive, and I don't really know what to do. My dad tells me we're going to this funeral up in Kentucky." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "519.00995", "endTime": "524.20996", "body": "He ends up giving me a boat. It's not a funeral. It's a death to my old life. And" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "524.44995", "endTime": "525.25", "body": "There you go." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "525.32996", "endTime": "558.235", "body": "Dreams to my new life of either I'm gonna do this or I'm gonna not. And then the Lord works in funny ways because right when I was about to be going to law school, like, pretty close to that time, COVID came. So the world shuts down, and, I have no desire to go to law school, honestly, at this point, and I really just wanna go fishing. And it just kinda gave me the perfect time to be at home and be present. Then my grandmother, passed away, so I stayed home for that." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "558.315", "endTime": "578.98004", "body": "And it's just like the Lord kept calling me to fishing no matter what would happen. And it's just been very magical in a lot of ways, but it's not even magic. I know for sure that it really is just God. But every little thing that happens, you know, I really am truly living in prayers that I prayed for so long. I remember, you know, I was in a sorority." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "578.98004", "endTime": "608.99", "body": "My friends would be going to an event, and they're like getting their hair done and nails done and stuff. I'm like, I can't. I have a fishing tournament on Saturday, but I'm gonna make it there for the event or what have you. And I've kinda lived in this ten, twenty years, basically, my whole life of just never ending the sin to wanna go hunting or fishing or do anything outdoors. But fishing specifically kind of fell into my lap of something that turned into a career, unintentionally." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "609.26495", "endTime": "645.305", "body": "I wanted to fish tournaments, and I did fish tournaments and that sort of stuff. But then, you know, I figured out, well, if I do social media or if I go to these shows and if I do x, y, and z, and now I've made these partnerships that you couldn't make a career out of it. Because, obviously, I knew that, you know, Matt Robertson existed or Terry Scroggins or Kevin Van Dam. I knew all of these guys had a career even if it was in the stepping stones at that point. Of course, not for Kevin or Terry, but I knew that they knew that there was money to be made in fishing, but I hadn't really seen that many women do it." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "645.785", "endTime": "668.53503", "body": "Whenever I was in college, it was at the time where Trait Zaldane and Chris Zaldane both were kind of competing alongside each other. And that really gave me the fuel to the fire to know, like, okay. Trait can do it. I can give it a try too. And then I've, you know, formed a great friendship with Christine Rhodes and some other, incredible lady anglers and women that are fishermen as well all across the country." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "668.53503", "endTime": "705.645", "body": "So I've had this support system of, you know, if you can dream it, you truly can do it, and I am living proof that your wildest dreams, if that's the desires of your heart, that they really can happen. Fishing is still my hobby, but also my job. You have to have that passion to wanna do it on days when it's tough. I was out there for a little bit, over the weekend with, you know, obviously, the Toyota owners tournament. But in conditions that probably weren't favorable to the average fisherman, and the same that comes to hunting, a lot of times I wanna hunt, on days where nobody else wants to go." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "706.605", "endTime": "714.08", "body": "But that grit and determination to get out there and do it, that's what keeps me wanting to do it, and that's kind of what got me to where I am, I think." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "714.48004", "endTime": "743.62994", "body": "That's awesome. That's really cool. Again, guys, anytime we're you're listening to one of these episodes, comment and let us know if there's a topic you'd like to hear about or whatever. But I think it'd be cool to have you and I know Maggie and a couple of other ladies that do this that maybe you're like, hey, look, you maybe have a different pathway to doing it than this person or that person. But for you, especially young ladies out there or anybody, don't you could probably start at my age as well who would like to be a professional fisherman." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "743.62994", "endTime": "752.50995", "body": "We may have that coming for you, but, yeah, let us know. Anyway. Okay. One more question I have to ask you before we get to the hunting mistakes. What is a shellcracker snatcher?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "752.785", "endTime": "788.77496", "body": "Okay. So shellcracker snatcher came from, obviously, people know me as a bass fisherman a lot, or some people know I really love offshore fishing as well. But, my dad is a huge shellcracker fisherman, a huge, like, pan fisherman in general, and he, makes these videos on YouTube. And just for people in our town, there's a little resort, situation called Relax Retreat that it play they play his videos and everything. Like, he he has a a mini following of, people, but it also it has become a kind of family joke." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "788.77496", "endTime": "806.99005", "body": "When people can't catch them, we can catch them. I can smell them. I can see them on the water. I can physically look at a cove or, any sort of structure in the water and tell you, okay, they're gonna be here whether it's from less than two inches of water to 20 feet." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "807.31", "endTime": "807.95", "body": "Heck yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "807.95", "endTime": "839.32", "body": "That's just been kinda something that I was born into. You'll see a lot of pictures of me as a little girl with limits of fish that I caught myself that not my dad caught or anyone else, and it's just been a joke. But whenever Zebco, came out with these new Zebco 30 threes about, it was, I think, the fiftieth anniversary, maybe two or three years ago, I did a video saying, you know, I love to catch showcracker. And this guy said, yeah. I've seen your videos." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "839.32", "endTime": "865.27", "body": "You're certified showcracker snatcher. And I was like, this is showcracker snatcher. Now I'm just playing showcracker snatcher. I love catching them, and I probably said to hook on some of them a lot harder than I do on a bath, which is crazy. But that's where that kinda came from was the fact that, you know, every kid's dream is to, if you love to fish, you probably start with the Zebco." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "865.91003", "endTime": "898.445", "body": "I've gotten a little more advanced where I have, like, the Mach two, which is a little bit more expensive than the traditional Zebco 33, but my dad has a cabinet full of all different Zebcos and, all that sort of stuff. And I don't always use, a spin cast to catch them, but I do, for the most part, for show cracker use those. But I love catching those fish and especially those big ones. I've caught some giant ones. Over time, I'm right at a state record for one." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "898.445", "endTime": "902.365", "body": "I'm I'm I'm a couple ounces off, but I think I'm gonna get one in my lifetime." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "902.365", "endTime": "903.085", "body": "Yeah. Kira." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "903.725", "endTime": "922.08", "body": "That's probably the only fish that I even have a desire to have the record for. So that's kind of why. I've even thought about guiding for just panfish in general, after getting my captain's license. It's just I have my hands in a lot of stuff, so it's hard to do it all." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "922.715", "endTime": "929.99506", "body": "Yeah. You know, eventually, you'll you'll have time. You'll get there. It'll all it'll work out how it's supposed to work out, so it'll get there. Okay." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "930.635", "endTime": "944.14", "body": "So now the the reason everybody's listening, they wanna know these mistakes. Right? So we're just gonna jump right into into it. We said five mistakes, but I have a feeling once we get chatting, we'll have more than that. But we're gonna stick with five for now." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "944.14", "endTime": "953.995", "body": "That's what we're gonna say. Okay. You ready? Yes. So tell me and we we said that we are gonna go in order from lit from five to one, but Mhmm." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "954.155", "endTime": "961.35504", "body": "We'll see how that goes. Alright. So tell us the first one. What is your first slash fifth mistake you've made while deer hunting?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "961.435", "endTime": "986.965", "body": "Okay. I don't think this is in the order I told you, but That's okay. I would say falling asleep, and I know that seems like so funny, but there's so often even if I'm on a dog drive where you're just tired and you're, like, sitting down or the hunt's been so slow. This happens a lot still hunting for me, feel like, but whenever the hunt's just slow, or if I'm doing an all day sit, or you just fall asleep and that's when the deer wants to show up." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "987.125", "endTime": "1003.15", "body": "Always. Always. I've tried there's been so many times that because I have done a lot more steel hunting. And there's definitely times where you're just like, I'm just gonna close my eyes for a second. And inevitably, like, you're that's when you have the biggest sleepy jerks ever." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1003.39", "endTime": "1009.525", "body": "So that's when you're like, oh, and everything just jerks, and then you you know, if something was there, forget it. They're gone." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1009.525", "endTime": "1024.4", "body": "Oh, a 100%. I've even had times where I'll be, like, on a dog drive, and I'll, like, be sleeping with my eyes closed and think I hear the dogs running. And then I open my eyes, and I'm, like, twenty, thirty yards from the deer. And I'm like, oh, god. What do I do?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1024.4", "endTime": "1027.36", "body": "Do I just get on the radio and be like, okay, deer coming to you?" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1027.36", "endTime": "1027.76", "body": "Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1027.76", "endTime": "1048.02", "body": "Or do I, like, try to turn the dogs on the deer? So that's, like, the difference, you know, of still hunting. When I'm still hunting, it's like this full on, like, what what do I do? Because too much movement's gonna make him go. But, yeah, that's sleeping's never good, but that's always when the deer shows up." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1048.02", "endTime": "1051.3", "body": "But also sometimes some of the absolute best sleep." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1051.38", "endTime": "1057.62", "body": "That's true. You can sleep for like five minutes in a stand and be like an hour. Like it feels like you've been asleep forever." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1058.02", "endTime": "1059.38", "body": "It's my version of the spa." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1060.925", "endTime": "1070.605", "body": "Exactly. And costs a lot. Well, I don't know. Maybe it doesn't cost a lot less when you when you think about all the all the parts of it. But so what's the closest a deer has been to you when you've woken up?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1070.685", "endTime": "1092.015", "body": "Oh gosh. No. I'm embarrassed to say. I was talking to this actually the other day with Gerald Swindle. It's either you're going to sleep or you have to use the restroom or when the deer really, are around, but I had a time last year where, I mean, I probably could've stuck my arm out and touched this little yearling." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1092.015", "endTime": "1118.075", "body": "It obviously wasn't a deer that I could've taken by any means. I was sitting on the ground, leaned back on a tree, and my dad had texted me saying the dogs are running. And I just remember, like, being asleep, waking up, seeing, like, obviously, I can hear the dogs are running sort of situation. And I like, I know my dad's at the scene to the right. I'm the last stander, so there's no one to the left of me." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1118.235", "endTime": "1147.145", "body": "And I hear something, and I think it's a dog. And then I see it get really low, and I'm like, what is happening right now? And then next thing you know, I'm like, I strayed on from, like if you could see there's a wall on the other side of us, probably six feet away from us. I can see a dog right there at the head, like, staring at me and then looking over, and I'm like, what is happening? And there's a doe laying right down next to me." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1147.145", "endTime": "1152.47", "body": "But, obviously, she she got to live many more days after that." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1153.75", "endTime": "1155.67", "body": "You you could've, like, hit her with something." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1155.67", "endTime": "1200.185", "body": "Just Oh, I know. And then the same exact, I'm sitting at the same place, at a different time, and I had one of those other experiences where I see a deer that I can't shoot because I get, like, the full empath feels, you know, where that happens where you make eye contact with the deer and you're like, oh. Like, I think I I think, though, if that doesn't happen to you, that, like, the whole aspect of hunting, you know, because obviously I'm not we're we're hunting for sport, but we're also hunting for food and nature and nurture sort of situation. But there is one doe I just remember. It was a very big doe, and it was kind of during the rut, and I couldn't do it." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1200.185", "endTime": "1209.7101", "body": "And my dad literally would never let me live it down, but I couldn't shoot it. And then I think that my cousin who ended up shooting it, it was his first deer, so it worked out." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1209.7101", "endTime": "1210.99", "body": "That worked out. Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1210.99", "endTime": "1215.87", "body": "But it it it made an imprint on me. Well," }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1217.0701", "endTime": "1235.19", "body": "you know, it like you said, there's a there's a a reason you choose some and the reason you don't. So that's awesome. Okay. So falling asleep for sure. I would ask, like, what tips you have to not fall asleep, but it's kinda just energy drinks." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1236.39", "endTime": "1239.11", "body": "I don't know how," }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1239.11", "endTime": "1258.305", "body": "like, I hear some people listen to, like, music or something with one AirPod. I could never do that. I I'm like a no noise person. Or I know I know some of my friends, they're like I can make videos and stuff after the hunt. I'm not great with making a video during the hunt unless it's like on ShotKam or something." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1258.305", "endTime": "1274.25", "body": "But I know people who will say, oh, I was making a TikTok and the and the deer showed up. And I'm like, the deer are just like people. Like, your neighbor who never asks you for anything comes over when you're building a project that you can't stop from the same thing with deer." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1274.5549", "endTime": "1278.715", "body": "Yep. Yep. And I don't know. I don't know. You can tell me what you think about this." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1279.195", "endTime": "1300.85", "body": "But, circles, my husband's and friends of ours have a theory sort of that the less, intense you are about killing the deer, the more likely they are to show up. You know, if you're just like, got I got to do it. I got to do it. I got to do it. Like somehow the deer feel it, and they're like, I don't need to go over there." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1300.85", "endTime": "1302.0499", "body": "Something weird's over there." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1302.5299", "endTime": "1306.37", "body": "It's like they can feel the the tension in the air." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1306.905", "endTime": "1313.625", "body": "Yeah. So if you're sleeping or, like, Tik Tok ing or whatever, they're like, hey. We're good here. It's safe. Nothing's going on." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1313.625", "endTime": "1319.305", "body": "I I I don't know. It's a sentiment lots of people seem to say that the deer can tell if you're trying to kill them." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1320.0701", "endTime": "1352.3699", "body": "There'll be days where I'll just sit on the bed of my truck in my yard, like, looking down. So I kinda live, like, up on a hill, so there's a valley underneath me, which is kind of the perfect place for deer to roam, and a lot of them kind of live right, in my yard. Like, obviously, I live in kind of in more of a neighborhood situation here in town. The, it's a lot different than our farm where those deer are not gonna come up to the house or be in the yard or anything. These are, like, resident deer, but some of them get big." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1352.37", "endTime": "1379.3501", "body": "And people still hunt around here, but it's not they don't have as much pressure, I think. So that's why they hang out. But I'll sit on my tailgate for, like, two to three hours just, like, looking or reading my Bible or reading a book or working on my laptop sometimes. And you will have you would be shocked to know how many deer will just come, and then they'll stare at me. I have some that'll, you know, stamp and imprint that sort of thing, like Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1379.3501", "endTime": "1387.59", "body": "Letting other deer know there's danger. But a lot of times I feel like the whenever they do that, then that's when I end up three days later having, like, a big deer show up." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1387.75", "endTime": "1394.645", "body": "Interesting. Sleeping, falling asleep for sure. Like Yes. It's gonna happen, but try not to let it happen. Okay." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1394.645", "endTime": "1395.365", "body": "What's next?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1395.685", "endTime": "1412.02", "body": "So I kinda touched on it, but passing on a deer that you probably should've, shot. Because there's some deer that you're not gonna get that second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth chance at, especially those more mature more mature bucks. They don't get big for for no reason." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1412.02", "endTime": "1413.9401", "body": "You know? Yeah. They're not dumb." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1413.9401", "endTime": "1425.235", "body": "It's not from being dumb. That's for sure. And there have been times where I'm like, oh, this is my target buck. I need to probably take the shot, but it doesn't always line up perfectly. Right?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1425.235", "endTime": "1463.34", "body": "There's a lot of factors that could come into play with that, especially when you're still hunting, you know, or if I was bow hunting, having to make the most ethical shot. But there have been a few deer, and even ones that I knew, like, I would never get to see again, that I felt like, maybe not a mistake by not taking it. But then there have been times where I'm like, oh, I had this deer on camera, and now this guy, you know, two miles over has the same deer, and now he's got it on his Facebook page. That's right. There's no I'm not hunting for bragging rights, so that doesn't really matter." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1463.34", "endTime": "1489.3551", "body": "But at the same accord, it's like there are some, true trophy deer that sometimes you have to make that hard decision of, alright. I'm gonna let them go till next year. And the next year, something happens to the deer, and it either is missing a horn or it has something weird going on. You know, we live in a a world where everything changes from day to day, so why would deer be any different?" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1489.62", "endTime": "1500.02", "body": "I guess that's kind of the deal where you have to decide, would is this a deer that you want? Mhmm. And if you do, great. Try to get it. And if you don't, what happens happens." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1500.02", "endTime": "1506.5249", "body": "And if it makes it the next year, maybe you'll get a chance. If it doesn't, you gotta be okay with it. And But yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1506.5249", "endTime": "1536.705", "body": "And I think also I guess it it kind of makes a difference, you know, if you're passing that deer for management reasons or if I'm passing on that deer on public land or on private land, that sort of thing. Because especially if I'm passing on a deer that doesn't have a good food source where I'm at, it's gonna be harder for it to come back. But there are times where it just makes sense. Like, I'm gonna let this deer grow for three to five years" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1536.945", "endTime": "1537.1849", "body": "Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1537.265", "endTime": "1538.8649", "body": "And hope that it sticks around." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1539.345", "endTime": "1573.415", "body": "That's right. If it does, great. If it doesn't, anyway. That's funny that and, you know, you see especially with social media and stuff nowadays, I see people that'll post a picture with a deer that is, you know, very respectable, and they'll be like, I know it's not the biggest, but so I think that kind of too goes back to don't if you get pumped, like if you're excited and your heart's going and and this deer gets you rolling, then who cares if somebody else would pass on it? Mhmm." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1573.415", "endTime": "1582.5", "body": "You know, like and I think, unfortunately, people pass on deer that they would love to take because they're afraid of what other people will say about the deer." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1582.8201", "endTime": "1606.0349", "body": "I agree a 100%. There about three years ago, I guess, I had the curse of the cow horn where all I would see is cow horns everywhere I went. And when I tell you, whenever I finally just took one of them, it broke the curse. I know that sounds crazy, but I told my daddy. I said, I have never wanted to, like, have the desire to just have a cowhorn come out in front of me." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1606.59", "endTime": "1636.3", "body": "But I was like, maybe those cowhorns were teaching me a lesson that, like, you you won't always get to choose from the best bucks that there are. And, I mean, I live in South Carolina, so it's not that we have the world's largest deer by any means, but there are some very nice sized, deer around here. But the the curse of the cowhorn was hard to beat until I actually just pulled the trigger on one. And then after that, I felt like I got blessed. So" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1636.9401", "endTime": "1651.745", "body": "There you go. I know there's definitely been times we've been hunting and just like nothing happened, nothing, and then, you know, it's finally like, okay, we're gonna we're gonna go ahead and shoot the doe. You break the not the curse in that, but you you start there the you go. Yeah. Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1651.745", "endTime": "1657.185", "body": "You start the spilling. Yeah. And and then things just kinda open up. So Mhmm. That's a good point." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1657.185", "endTime": "1675.0", "body": "Also, it's not like you're I mean, in the not the work not the worst way. But if you get one tag, I understand. But if you're like, I'm gonna get to hunt from August all the way until January 1, that's a you got a lot more wiggle room there to" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1675.4651", "endTime": "1690.23", "body": "Right. If you got two tags we have we have a friend who's, his son who's older now, but, you know, there was a smaller buck that came out. He's like, are you gonna shoot it? And he was like, I got two tags. So there you go." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1690.23", "endTime": "1691.3499", "body": "You got two tags." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1691.35", "endTime": "1694.8699", "body": "A 100%. I would say the the third thing." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1695.5099", "endTime": "1696.1499", "body": "Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1696.71", "endTime": "1713.325", "body": "I would say smell, but my own smell more so than the deer smell. Because there'll be a lot of times where I'll just get off of work or, even like you're going to bed in your room or anything like that. I'm one of those people that probably like I get that compliment a lot. Like, oh my gosh. You smell so good." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1713.485", "endTime": "1744.245", "body": "But I have these little, like, scent things in my house too, so I know that that's getting on my everything. Yeah. Like, last week, my friend bought a camouflage jacket for me on Facebook, and she's like, I knew that you it came from your house even though you didn't leave a note because it smelled like your house, and I've had to clean it so much. And I'm like, I have a bad thing about that. But even just like your sweat, all of that plays into, the deer being able to smell you, if I'm sitting in the wrong wind." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1744.245", "endTime": "1775.295", "body": "Any of that sort of bad juju can affect you negatively with hunting. But especially, like, I know a guy, he always says, like, he takes his hunting boots off when he gets to the truck because he said, I always know I'm gonna stop at the gas station. And I'm like, well, if you stop at the gas station, you touch your hands, you don't wash your hands. There's a whole lot of things, I'm sure. But I would say scent can be something or smell that hurt your hunt in a lot of ways." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1775.9501", "endTime": "1792.385", "body": "Not when mostly when still hunting. If you're running dogs, that's a different thing because the deer or person are flushing the dogs most of the time or flushing the deer. Sorry. I said that backwards. But, when it comes to smell, deer are always smelling just like fish." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1792.385", "endTime": "1833.4299", "body": "That's, like, one of the main things that they do is smell so they know where they're going, how they're going, and what dangers could be in the way. If that deer gets a scent on me 200, 300, 700, a thousand yards away, it's not likely that it's gonna come to me, that I'm never gonna see it or that it's going to find its way around me in the thickest stuff. But I've even had to be cautious of, like, where you walk in. Because if I have been at work or whatever, I don't have time to take a shower or say, accidentally, my mama washed some stuff. That's when I smell, really strong." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1833.91", "endTime": "1848.325", "body": "And I don't have, like, a hunting closet, so everything does touch each other. So sometimes I'll even have to, like, spray, like, a scent remover or something on my clothes before I go hunting. If you get that dead one day and you smell, never good." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1848.645", "endTime": "1869.7899", "body": "That's exactly right. We'll talk a little bit about that here in just a second, but let's take a a little break. Let's hear from our awesome sponsors. Okay. So scent can definitely be a problem Other than, you know, the scent sprays that you can kinda the field sprays they call them, are there any other techniques that you use to minimize the smell?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1870.59", "endTime": "1888.245", "body": "I would say yes and no. It kinda depends on where I'm hunting. Like, kind of what if I'm going to somewhere really marshy or boggy or if I'm going to the field. It's different. Now I do less traditional things probably than most people." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1888.245", "endTime": "1897.69", "body": "I know people, you know, you use, like, Dosyn or something like that. And this is probably very crazy, and it's all in my head. So you know how people, like, bring snacks. Right? Mhmm." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1897.6901", "endTime": "1937.945", "body": "So you're gonna have an all day sit. A lot of times if I do bring snacks, they're gonna be, like, berries or nuts or something because I think the if I have the wrapper still or even, like, peanut butter, the deer are still gonna smell that, and they're gonna be more likely to come to it because that's something that they would eat too. Now, obviously, I'm not eating acorns or anything like that, but, I have tried, you know, like, peanut butter to the tree, that sort of thing Yeah. Just to kinda cover up my scent. Now I am bad about spraying perfume around my hunting clothes or, like, wearing this to a bonfire and then wearing it last week, that sort of thing." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1938.585", "endTime": "1947.705", "body": "But I would say that's kind of my rule of thumb. I would say, like, even, like, a salt block, sometimes I will have those, but that's kind of rare." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1947.87", "endTime": "1965.6249", "body": "It's funny you're talking about the berries. The other day, my husband and I had gone hunting, and, it was one of those days where the wind was not terrible, but not great. There wasn't a lot of it, so it wasn't like our scent was moving. So we had, you can feed in North Carolina. So we had carried some apples in." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1965.865", "endTime": "1974.505", "body": "And so we just, like, stomped one and, like, we're rubbing apple all over us. So we're like, at least we at least we're gonna smell like apples. So, you know But maybe not" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1974.505", "endTime": "1976.2649", "body": "the only person who's off." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1976.825", "endTime": "1979.02", "body": "See? Maybe other people do it. I don't know." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "1979.02", "endTime": "1981.9", "body": "There's no such thing as a firsthand experience." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "1981.9", "endTime": "2002.035", "body": "That's right. No. No. And then, obviously, and you mentioned this, but, just for you guys listening, there's obviously like you said, you can pay attention to there's all kinds of apps now that where you can see the wind direction. So, like, if you know where you're going and where the deer tend to come from, you can obviously adjust that based on the wind." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2002.035", "endTime": "2034.595", "body": "You can smell like whatever. If there's 10 mile an hour winds blowing one direction and the deer come from the other way, then it's probably fine no matter what you're wearing. I'm sure you've heard these stories around here where I live. Some of the, experienced hunters will say, always have the comment that they think all the scent control stuff is nonsense because their granddaddy would smoke cigarette in the stand and wear his coveralls that he wore at the factory and kill deer every every year. So that story I've heard enough that it has to be true." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2034.595", "endTime": "2053.5151", "body": "So I'm sure there's a lot of just what the deer get used to and and what, the wind and all that. But like I said, if you can Yep. If if you roll up in the stand and the the deer downwind and you've, you know, had a lavender vanilla candle going in your car, Or not hopefully, you don't have a candle in your car. You know what I'm saying. Maybe." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2053.5151", "endTime": "2053.835", "body": "But" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2054.155", "endTime": "2055.0352", "body": "I know what I" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2055.5151", "endTime": "2058.555", "body": "saw a video and the car was on fire, so don't put a candle in your car." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2058.635", "endTime": "2059.595", "body": "Didn't get that then." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2059.595", "endTime": "2061.115", "body": "No. No. Let's don't do that." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2061.115", "endTime": "2077.6401", "body": "I would say, like, my dad and them, that definitely probably a lot of them are on the same page. Like, I'm wearing my work pants. I'm not I'm not going home to change. I'm wearing what I have on. I even know some people who are like, I could kill my deer in a flannel shirt." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2077.6401", "endTime": "2096.6401", "body": "I don't need ammo. Like, there was a guy I was talking to him, actually. He was either yesterday or the day before, whatever day I came back home at Bass Pro Shops, and he was looking at a ghillie suit. And he said, what would I actually need this for? Like, he said, he killed a turkey with wearing a hot pink shirt." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2096.6401", "endTime": "2114.755", "body": "I thought he was lying. And he sent me a picture, and he's like, no. I promise. And he's like, I thought I had my jacket in my truck, and I didn't. And I wasn't going to miss out on going on this hunt because I only had so many days off of work, and it he was like, it wouldn't have happened if I wouldn't have done it." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2114.755", "endTime": "2118.755", "body": "And I'm like, I think that's kind of the one in a million situation." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2118.755", "endTime": "2135.75", "body": "Surely. Right. Meanwhile meanwhile, you know, I've had instances where you've got, like, head to toe, all the camo faces covered, like, perfect, and the the turkey or the deer are just like and, like, you haven't moved, but they, like, figured it out and off they go. And you're like, what the what are you doing, man?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2135.75", "endTime": "2136.71", "body": "A 100%." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2138.4849", "endTime": "2140.245", "body": "Alright. You're ready for number four?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2140.405", "endTime": "2141.045", "body": "Yes." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2141.045", "endTime": "2141.605", "body": "Let's hear it." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2141.605", "endTime": "2177.2349", "body": "Kind of all they're all kind of intertwined now that I've said them out loud, but, the failure to think like a deer. Right? So if I'm not understanding why a deer is coming to where he is or she is, if I'm not hunting and you know, because each deer is gonna it's eventually, I've heard people said the seven day rule or what have you where the deer's gonna come back within seven days to visit a scrape or, to a trail or stand. That might not be true. But there are times where I think that if I think like a deer and I'm like, okay." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2177.43", "endTime": "2205.2048", "body": "What's the wind at this time of day gonna be? Like, if it's heavy wind, I probably shouldn't be in the direction where the deer's been coming every single time. And that kinda depends on what terrain that you are hunting. But failure to think through that spot that you're hunting, especially or I've had a lot of hunts like this, and I'm sure you have too, where it's like, okay. It's what time right now?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2205.2048", "endTime": "2220.725", "body": "Three 3PM. I'm gonna go hunting right now until this afternoon. And I'm like, well, what stand am I gonna go to? And I just go to the first thing in my head, and sometimes it's productive and sometimes it's not. But if I would have taken the extra thirty minutes and said, okay." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2220.725", "endTime": "2247.05", "body": "It's Wednesday. I've seen this deer on camera coming at this stand at this time. Because there have been times where I've shown up, and the deer is already there. Mhmm. Or there have been times where I've shown up, and it's like, I've messed everything up because I went in a different way than I normally go, or I walked straight through the trail, that the deer took, and now it can smell me, and it's never coming back." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2247.05", "endTime": "2269.0999", "body": "That sort of thing. Yeah. So I think thinking like a deer, but also especially if you do run dogs or, you're on a man drive, anything like that with a deer. So, like, obviously, whenever I put you out on a stand as a stander, you are to stand there, like, not to move from your stand because that could be crucially not good" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2269.42", "endTime": "2270.22", "body": "Yeah. Real bad." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2270.3", "endTime": "2290.935", "body": "To anyone else hunting around you. Like, stander awareness is, like, one of the biggest things that we practice and preach. But if I'm standing, on my stand and I'm looking around and reading the woods, I need to think like a deer. Is there an opening here that the deer is gonna come out? What's the wind from the left or the right?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2291.3499", "endTime": "2304.79", "body": "Which direction do I if I am running dogs, do I hear the dogs running from? Or if I'm sitting in a sitting still in the stand, what do I see other animals doing? Like, what are the birds doing? What are squirrels doing? Am I seeing turkeys?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2304.79", "endTime": "2352.27", "body": "Do I hear an owl? Like, I know that seems so silly and so small when you just in retrospect, but it actually is kind of exactly what the animals do. We give a lot of animals way too much credit sometimes, and think that their brains are much larger than ours. But if we're thinking like a deer, understanding the pressure that they have, the wind that they're coming from, and, like, what wind thermal you should be in, that's a good rule of thumb for still hunting for me. If I'm gonna dog drive, man drive, anything like that, or even if I've never gone hunting before, I would say learning the woods, on public land, being aware of who's around me and kind of what deer are around me." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2353.71", "endTime": "2363.9548", "body": "And I know I'm not, like, the biggest trail cam person ever. I do love a trail cam, but there are lots of times where I'm like, there's just too much to go check it all." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2363.9548", "endTime": "2364.435", "body": "Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2364.435", "endTime": "2383.7102", "body": "So in knowing that, if you think like a deer, you can be successful, a little bit more successful. But if I make the mistake of just, okay. I'm Anastasia. I'm gonna go in the stand. I'm gonna take a business call up here, and I'm gonna be chatting the chew." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2383.79", "endTime": "2402.62", "body": "And that's finally when the deer wants to come. Or, like, I know a guy who says he takes the barbecue sandwich with him every time he goes to the stand. Like, the deer eventually is going to know, okay, that has to be Bob because I smell Bob's barbecue. Right." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2402.8599", "endTime": "2404.14", "body": "Bob's barbecue sandwich." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2404.14", "endTime": "2408.94", "body": "And they're going to decide that they're not interested in participating with you either." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2408.94", "endTime": "2435.34", "body": "So That's very true. I think too, when you're tracking a deer Mhmm. You know, you say you shot the deer and thinking like a deer is also huge. I know there was a deer last year that I shot that we had to track, and there was we got to a point where the blood had stopped, but we knew based on what we had seen, this we needed to find him. Mhmm." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2435.34", "endTime": "2451.385", "body": "And so, you know, called a few people and, basically, because we knew it was likely he was going to die, we were like, well, what would a deer do? He probably feels bad. He's gonna try to find water. He's gonna, you know, try to get to the nearest water. He's gonna lay down somewhere." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2451.385", "endTime": "2476.94", "body": "So when we ran out of blood, we just found the creek and like walked up the creek and and we did eventually find him. And so thinking like a deer, you know, like you said, if you're or even spotting and stalking, same thing. If you're not still hands sitting in a stand or driving and, you know, you're trying to or finding a stand placement, you know, where the where's the sign? Where are the acorns? Where's what are they feeding now?" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2476.94", "endTime": "2485.375", "body": "Or are they running? Well, what are they doing? What are you know, where do I need to go? So that's a good point. Like you said, I'm saying a lot of words." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2485.375", "endTime": "2509.715", "body": "I'm still very I'm not new at it because I've hunted for a while. I'm just new at knowing things about it. So I think there's definitely a lot of learning. A lot of it is doing it like just going and making these mistakes and be like, oh, yeah, that that probably wasn't the best tree. But then, at the same time, obviously, there's if you have mentors and people that can teach you these things, saves you some time." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2509.715", "endTime": "2509.875", "body": "But" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2510.435", "endTime": "2537.975", "body": "A 100%, I would say that that's exactly right. Not even just for deer hunting, but for hunting in general. I have a lot of I've hunt with a lot of my friends, like, in my off season. I like to hunt with people. I like to fish with different people because the more you get that experience with someone who might not do it the same way you do or even just have conversations like we are, you can take little pieces of them and kind of train yourself to do things better or differently." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2538.615", "endTime": "2569.905", "body": "But last year, I have a video actually where I went duck hunting with some of my guy friends. And at the end of the day, I said, y'all, I can't even believe that we got a limit. They're like, well, I was like, that was some pitiful shooting. Like, what have we been doing in the off season? And that made me this year, like, take way more time to shoot ski or shoot targets or even just, like, practice out in the yard, like that sort of stuff just because I was like, we could have had a limit a long time ago." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2570.7048", "endTime": "2573.185", "body": "We actually shoot these guns." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2573.185", "endTime": "2591.595", "body": "Right. And I was like, it's not always gonna be like that day where it's just too good to be true. They just keep coming back and coming back and coming back. But with deer especially, I don't wanna wound the deer and and suffer. And I don't want to miss a deer so much that it's like, okay." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2591.595", "endTime": "2600.315", "body": "I'm you're not gonna wanna go to someone's house if it's always getting shot at. I don't go to someone's house it's always getting shot at and neither do the deer." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2600.315", "endTime": "2604.315", "body": "Right. Right. Okay. You ready for the last one? Let's bring it home." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2604.9", "endTime": "2614.02", "body": "Okay. So you have to hunt harder. The biggest mistake that I've made is not hunting hard enough or over hunting, which is kind of" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2614.18", "endTime": "2614.74", "body": "the" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2615.14", "endTime": "2638.31", "body": "and last, thing that you could do. You hunt too much or hunt too, hunt not enough. Right? So I think that sometimes if I hunt all day in the same stand all day every day, the deer might be like, oh, there's no one there today. But deer get they do get smart, especially later on as the season goes on, and they've been hunted, especially on public land." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2639.27", "endTime": "2669.76", "body": "But they'll be you know, the deer you always hear people saying, oh, well, my deer's only nocturnal. There's no true deer that's only nocturnal. Now most deer do have the opposite schedules of most humans, but I like to think of it as a man or woman who works the night shift. In the afternoon, they're finally awake, they're starting to do what they wanna do. And by the morning time, when everyone else is getting up to go do what they wanna do, they're either finishing up with work or whatever they have, and they're coming back." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2669.76", "endTime": "2679.225", "body": "That's kinda what most deer are. You don't see tons of people killing big deer during the middle of the day, but you also don't see tons of people hunting all day during the middle of the day." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2679.385", "endTime": "2683.0652", "body": "So not necessarily that they're not out there. It's just that the people aren't out there." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2683.3052", "endTime": "2694.71", "body": "I've seen some of the biggest deer in my entire life between twelve and 03:00, I would say. Mhmm. Yeah. Whenever nobody's hunting around or anything like that because the deer feels safe almost." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2694.95", "endTime": "2695.51", "body": "Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2695.51", "endTime": "2720.9001", "body": "But I would say you overthinking a hunt down to the bones can make for an unsuccessful hunt because when you overthink, you you overthink the shot, you you've already messed it up. If you overthink, or you you don't even overthink, you just have it wrong. You say, I think that deer's 40 yards away, and it's actually 60 yards. If I'm bow hunting, that's detrimental." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2720.9001", "endTime": "2722.34", "body": "That's right. It's not gonna go good." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2722.34", "endTime": "2744.01", "body": "It's not gonna go good. Or if, say, I approach the hunt completely wrong. So I drive in, and I have to walk a long ways. Or I've I've recently heard another guy saying that he drives right up to a stand, climbs up, get someone else to drive away, and the deer never notice because they're so used to it. Mhmm." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2744.01", "endTime": "2779.9402", "body": "Well, just like people, if I don't have a pattern with these deer and I know nothing about these deer say I put up a stand on Friday, and on Saturday, I'm going to hunt it. I know nothing about what goes on there. There's no way you can overthink that. Right? But if I'm hunting overhunting that stand, I'm staying in that same stand and not moving it around, not seeing any deer there, and I know there's food source there, those deer have probably figured out what I'm doing, or they figured out something is wrong here that could kinda come back to everything that we've said." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2779.9402", "endTime": "2802.3452", "body": "Your symptoms need going away to them. Your thinking could not be good, or you might have passed on the one deer that was there. And I I don't know. This probably sounds horrible, but just like when one person goes to a graveyard, if it starts with one person, there's no graveyard that only ends up, like, everyone and everything eventually" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2802.5798", "endTime": "2802.9", "body": "Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2802.98", "endTime": "2811.38", "body": "To an end, but the same with every stand. So if I hunt this one tree for ten years, I probably don't need to hunt it for ten more." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2811.38", "endTime": "2812.34", "body": "Right. Right." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2812.5", "endTime": "2827.8352", "body": "Even if I can make it to ten years, it's kinda crazy. But there are some places where like, I know in my family, we have stands that have been good forever, and then we also have some places where you're like, oh, that's a hot stand. Well, it's hot because of a million other reasons." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2827.995", "endTime": "2830.875", "body": "Yeah. Somebody planted corn. Somebody yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2831.46", "endTime": "2845.7952", "body": "There's a there's a farm right next to it. That's right. They get corn on the line. Like, there's a whole lot of different factors to that. But you can also overhunt by just, like, doing I hunt it." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2845.7952", "endTime": "2857.475", "body": "You hunt it. Your brother hunts it. My family hunts it. We all hunt the same thing, and we don't ever give it a rest. Therefore, those deer either get really smart or they go somewhere else where they feel safe." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2857.77", "endTime": "2886.1602", "body": "Yeah. Especially because like you said earlier, if the wind is going different directions each, you know, within a week, which it's never gonna always blow the same way, then and your entrance and exit, if you don't change that based on the wind or you don't, you know, you go sit it no matter no matter what the wind, eventually, your they know that something is up over there. Mhmm. And that's just, like you said, just one one thing. Maybe a pack of coyotes moved in, and you hear them every time you go." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2886.1602", "endTime": "2888.8801", "body": "Well, maybe you shouldn't have been up there whenever you hear the coyotes." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "2889.36", "endTime": "2894.8801", "body": "Do you, log, like, your hunts, Adrian? Like, you write down kind of this happened? Or" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2895.605", "endTime": "2914.43", "body": "No. Mainly because our access is very limited. Mhmm. And so it's one of those things that's kinda like, you know, we have a few stands that we have access to, and we know we've hunted there for a while, so we kind of know, okay, the deer usually come from this way. If the wind's blowing there, we can't really go there." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2914.43", "endTime": "2947.89", "body": "Either and you know, we have there's certain stuff like that that we are aware of. And if it was on like a larger property or there were we'd moved to the stands around a whole lot, we probably would keep better track. But we have done way better of not going in whenever things but like a few weeks ago, we went to go hunt, and the wind was supposed to be doing one thing. But then we get there, and we changed clothes and we're all ready and we get to the top of this hill and check the wind and it's doing like the complete opposite, like the worst thing it could be doing. So we were like, alright, let's go eat." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2948.715", "endTime": "2966.7", "body": "So we just turned around and left and went home. But I mean, that would be very wise, especially as you're starting a new spot or, you know, hunting a new property or just trying to learn. But yeah, like, what did you what was the wind doing? What was the temperature? What was the moon?" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2967.74", "endTime": "2994.1199", "body": "What stage of the season was it? What did you see happening with other, you know, were the deer were the does relaxed or were they on edge? You know, were they being chased? Were they feeding? And two, there's, and we could probably make a whole episode of this, but there's different plenty of apps that are that give you, you know, like, this is this phase, so they're more gonna be potentially more active during these hours and the moon is doing this." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "2994.1199", "endTime": "3003.0", "body": "And so, I mean, you could always increase your chances by using those kind of apps. If you use those apps in conjunction with your log, that'd probably be very smart. But" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3003.775", "endTime": "3021.6401", "body": "I don't always log everything, but I have tried to even if I, like, take a picture or something like that, and then I'll, like, write on the actual photo, like, on iPhone. Like Mhmm. Daytime, if I did kill a deer or if I saw anything. Because that way it's, like, stuck in the cloud forever wherever it" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3021.6401", "endTime": "3026.76", "body": "Yeah. You know, let's say you always hunt the second week in November." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3026.76", "endTime": "3027.32", "body": "Mhmm." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3027.32", "endTime": "3055.68", "body": "And that's theoretically, that's a certain phase of what the deer are doing, whether it's their pre rut or post whatever. And you have a consistent, like, oh, this tends to happen on the third day every year, then you're you're ready. You can minimize how long you're out there. There are definitely stages in the in the deer's season where they're more they are gonna be more active in that, like, twelve to 02:00, ten to 02:00 hour. So that's when you don't come out of the stand at 09:00 and go back in at four." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3055.68", "endTime": "3066.975", "body": "Yes, ma'am. I think every mistake is mistakes are going to happen, but, if safety is first, obviously, and having a good time would be second." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3067.135", "endTime": "3068.335", "body": "Mhmm. There you go." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3068.4949", "endTime": "3095.375", "body": "And then three, a plentiful harvest, obviously, you would wanna have as your nonmistakes because there's a lot of things that can go wrong when hunting that could lead to not good things. Like Right. Most of the mistakes we said were pretty not surface level, but they're mistakes that everyone's gonna make at least. And there's some things that you do that are mistakes. You have no idea it's even a mistake because that's just how you hunt." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3095.375", "endTime": "3107.455", "body": "That's who you are. So it just happens. But, yeah, I would say those five things are definitely things that I have done that I realize are mistakes. For" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3107.455", "endTime": "3108.815", "body": "sure. Learning opportunities." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3109.1", "endTime": "3110.1401", "body": "Yes, ma'am." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3111.02", "endTime": "3131.035", "body": "We've all had a lot of learning opportunities. I I could probably come up with about 50 dumb ones, but probably the dumbest thing I've ever done is thankfully, my husband and I were actually gonna be hunting together this time, so it worked out just fine, but I forgot my gun. Oh. So that's problematic. That's kill things." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3131.4348", "endTime": "3136.1702", "body": "Still would be considered maybe not hunting, but sitting. I" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3136.6501", "endTime": "3138.81", "body": "was learning. We learned I learned some things." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3138.81", "endTime": "3141.93", "body": "That could be good for, like, just, a lot of reasons." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3141.93", "endTime": "3142.33", "body": "That's not" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3142.33", "endTime": "3145.05", "body": "having the gun. You could have been the camera person that day." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3145.455", "endTime": "3146.335", "body": "Yes. I was." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3146.415", "endTime": "3148.655", "body": "Different and do different things." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3148.655", "endTime": "3150.8953", "body": "That's right. It worked out. It worked out." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3151.2952", "endTime": "3155.695", "body": "Or maybe he had a different gun than you did, so you got to try something new. You see?" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3155.935", "endTime": "3163.63", "body": "You gotta you always gotta see the bright side in these learning experiences. I have a I will. I better not say I haven't forgotten it since, but who knows? I probably will again." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3163.63", "endTime": "3170.51", "body": "I don't think I've ever forgotten my going, but I don't wanna say that because I probably have. Oh, that's right. Some people" }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3170.51", "endTime": "3173.5498", "body": "have your friends, like, texting, like, oh, remember the time? Like, oh, yeah." }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3173.5498", "endTime": "3179.355", "body": "Did. I I know that whenever I said that, was like, not don't let me say it just in case. That's right." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3179.435", "endTime": "3184.635", "body": "Just in case. It's I don't wanna lie. I don't wanna lie about that. Excellent. Well, Anastasia, thank you so much." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3184.635", "endTime": "3208.895", "body": "I really appreciate you being here for sharing your experiences. Hopefully, I feel like like you said, there were some that are kind of silly, but then some that are are definitely useful. And hopefully, we've been able to provide some resources and some ideas on how we can hopefully not make those mistakes. You can learn from our mistakes and not have to make them yourself. Anastasia, thank you so much again." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3208.895", "endTime": "3217.2952", "body": "You're awesome. It was a great chat. I definitely want to have you back later, and we'll figure something else to talk about. But what, how can people find you and follow you?" }, { "speaker": "Anastasia Patterson", "startTime": "3217.49", "endTime": "3235.615", "body": "Thank you, Adrianne. And people can find me on Facebook at Anastasia Patterson fishing. The same on Instagram at Anastasia Patterson underscore fishing. On TikTok at Annaliz Pat, a n a l I z p a t. And I'll have a YouTube channel coming up soon, so maybe we can film a video for that too." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3235.615", "endTime": "3241.455", "body": "There you go. That'd be awesome. That'd be super fun. Check those out. We'll put that information below so you can follow along." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3242.575", "endTime": "3266.005", "body": "And if you have any questions, like I said, comment, interact with us. We'd love to hear your mistakes so we can laugh with you and learn with you for sure. If you are not subscribed to the podcast, make sure you do that. We have the podcast every other week, and then the off weeks there is the adventure series, which is a video episode. So so far, it's been awesome." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3266.005", "endTime": "3282.55", "body": "So if you guys haven't seen them, go back, watch them all, comment, like them, share them with your friends. And, you can also follow the Ascend podcast on all things social media. Again, Anastasia, thank you so much. And thank you guys for being here. Thank you for watching." }, { "speaker": "Adrian Jessen", "startTime": "3282.55", "endTime": "3285.91", "body": "This is Adrian encouraging you to follow your story wherever it takes you." }, { "speaker": "VO", "startTime": "3288.2449", "endTime": "3313.3801", "body": "Thank you for listening to the Ascend podcast. New every week, the conservation driven podcast one week and our adventure video series the next. Watch the Ascend adventure episodes on the Ducks Unlimited YouTube channel, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe. Opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited. Until next time, follow your outdoor story wherever it leads you. Ascend." } ] }