Second Split Opens; Drake White Performs live at White Oaks Duck Woods

It was an incredible first 5 days of the second split at White Oaks Duck Woods. We had some fantastic hunts despite terrible weather. In the last 5 days, 3 banded mallards were killed at White Oaks and one of them was banded at White Oaks in February. A few of our groups of hunters had slower to downright bad hunts, but overall, most of the hunts were very good to excellent. I find that particularly heartening given the terrible overcast, cloudy, rainy conditions in which we were hunting… until today. Today’s hunt at White Oaks was the biggest mystery of all. There were 4 separate groups hunting. Three groups had excellent hunts killing mallards and a few scrap ducks. The Tennessee Hole however, stunk it up for the second day in a row. I would never bet on 4 spots being hunted and 3 of them producing while the Tennessee Hole stinks it up. But, it happened today. I guess that spot was due for a bad hunt. It has been a bit ridiculous how consistent that spot has been all season…until yesterday.

Friday at the farm was a special day. The day started with me and several of my buddies hunting in the Tennessee Hole with Drake White. Drake is actually pretty good on a duck call and he is a hell of a lot of fun to hunt with and have around duck camp. After killing a smooth 7-man limit of mallards, we headed to the lodge where Drake’s wife, Alex, and Keith Allen’s wife, Hallie had a huge bada** breakfast waiting for us. This was a particular treat because I typically have breakfast duty after the morning’s hunt. It had been a cold, cold morning so it was awesome to come back to a warm fire, and a big breakfast--that I didn’t have to cook.

As per usual, we killed the late morning lounging around and chatting about the hunt before heading for the tower. There was nothing usual about the rest of the day. There was about 10 or 12 of us at the tower—total. Three are world class musicians—Theron Woods, Keith Allen, and of course Drake White. They proceeded to play a set for us in the tower that afternoon while ducks poured in all around us. I found myself sitting there thinking, “how on Earth did I end up in this spot?”—whereby I am in the tower watching Drake White (one of my all-time personal favorite musicians) play a live acoustical concert while watching thousands of ducks all around us. It was an out of body, mind blowing experience. I do not know how or why I am so lucky, but clearly, I am.

After listening to Drake freestyle Friday and belt out “Back to Free’ amongst several other hits, we all loaded up and drove back to the lodge. Folks were already showing up for the party. Next was dinner for 80 served by Jeff Watt. Damn, that guy can cook. I am from Memphis and consider myself an absolute BBQ snob. I eat BBQ all the time from many, many of the awesome BBQ restaurants in Memphis. His BBQ was as good or better than any BBQ I have ever had. I previously knew that Jeff Watt did catering and competition BBQ cooking, so I did not think much of it when I asked him if he would cook for the party. What I clearly did not understand was how much work it would be. Jeff worked all dang day, and it showed. The food was incredible. It is hard to cook for such a large crowd, serving everyone buffet style while maintaining such a high quality of food. Well, Jeff pulled it off. I am still blown away (as was everybody there) with the food.

Once everybody had a chance to eat, Drake, Theron and Keith gathered round the fireplace on the back porch and proceeded to play for hours. It was an absolutely amazing show and I am so grateful Drake was willing to do something like that during his time away from his work, which I suspect is quite a grind. So, a big “THANK YOU” goes out to Drake White.

By the end of the night the crowd had dwindled and Drake ended the show playing a special request from my daughter (who must now be Drake’s biggest fan). Drake played his latest hit “Girl in Pieces” and my daughter was just about as happy as I have ever seen her. It was special. If you are interested in Drake’s “Freestyle Friday” from last Friday or hearing and watching him perform from the tower, please go to my YouTube page at the link below. I have several videos of Drake performing at the tower and at the lodge. If you are a county music fan, you should check it out—It’s pretty awesome stuff.

There won’t be many days like Friday at White Oaks Duck Woods, so I am going to revel in the memory of that one spectacular day.