Mississippi Outdoors Podcast

Houston Havens with MDWFP, James Callicutt with Mississippi State University Extension and Kevin Nelms with the Natural Resources Conservation Service join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about wetlands, waterfowl habitat and the outlook heading into the 2026–27 season.

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What should you do when a game warden approaches you in the woods, on the water or at the boat ramp? Lieutenant Karri Fulton joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain how hunters and anglers should handle an interaction with a conservation officer.

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How did a Mississippi company that started by making brooms and mops become one of the biggest names in crappie fishing? Jack Wells of B'n'M Pole Company joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to tell the story of a business that has called West Point, Mississippi home for nearly 80 years.

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What can a private landowner actually do to improve wildlife habitat? Mississippi landowner and lifelong hunter Randy Taylor joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about the changes he's making on his family's property after decades of managing deer and hunting the land.

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Jimmy Primos joins Matt Wyatt on the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to look back on 50 years of Primos Hunting, from making turkey calls in a backyard workshop to building one of the most recognizable brands in the hunting industry.

Mississippi Outdoors is produced by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.

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Did you know geckos live in Mississippi, and that you may have them around your house without ever noticing? Travis Hagey, a professor at Mississippi University for Women, joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain the reptiles living around us and the unusual science behind gecko feet.

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What makes a turkey trumpet different from every other call?

2025 Mississippi Sportsman of the Year Bill Lester joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to demonstrate the calls he's spent decades developing and explain why he believes the ability to call softly can make such a difference on a gobbler.

Bill takes us from traditional wing-bone calls to acrylic trumpets, brass mouthpieces and some of his newest designs. He also shares stories from a lifetime outdoors — homemade bird decoys, his first dove hunt, calling turkeys from a quarter-mile away, teaching art at Delta State for 38 ye...

Outdoor magazines go back further than most people realize. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with returning guest James T. McCafferty, author and outdoor historian, to talk about the writers who documented hunting and fishing in Mississippi as far back as the 1830s.

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You know Mossy Oak for deer and turkey hunting gear — but did you know they have a tree expert on staff? In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Dudley Phelps, known around Mossy Oak as "the tree guy," to talk about growing trees for wildlife habitat.

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Have you noticed it's a little harder to see the stars at night lately? That's light pollution, and it turns out it's doing a lot more than dimming the night sky. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Murray Burgess, ornithologist at Mississippi State University, to talk about how artificial light is affecting migratory birds.

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Mississippi is the Hospitality State — and few people have done more to prove it than Robert St. John. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with the Hattiesburg restaurateur, author, and travel host to talk about food, Mississippi, and a career that started because he flunked out of college.

Mississippi Outdoors is produced by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.

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If you've got a pond on your property — or you're about to dig one — this episode is for you. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Larry Bull, retired MDWFP fisheries biologist, to walk through exactly how to stock a pond and get it right the first time.

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If you've driven the Natchez Trace on a rainy night south of I-20 and seen someone out there with a safety vest and a flashlight, that's zoologist Tom Mann — and he's been out there for over a decade studying Webster's salamanders.

Tom joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain what Webster salamanders are, why scientists thought they didn't migrate, and how he and his wife Deb proved them wrong by spending years watching what the animals actually did instead of what the textbooks said.

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Mike Strickland from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about what marine patrol actually does — and it's a lot more than checking fishing licenses.

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When you buy a hunting or fishing license in Mississippi, where does that money actually go? Russ Walsh, Director of Conservation at the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, breaks down why your license isn't just "permission to hunt" — it's a direct investment in the conservation work that brought deer, turkey, and other species back from near extinction.

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If you've ever killed a deer in Mississippi and wondered if it might be a record, there's a program built specifically to find out — the Magnolia Records Program. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Rick Dillard, the U.S. Forest Service biologist who created it from scratch in 2001 and has been running it ever since.

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Caleb Covington, MDWFP's State Lakes Coordinator, joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about getting started fishing in Mississippi — whether you're an adult picking it up for the first time or a parent looking to introduce your kids to the water.

Caleb and Matt break down what gear you actually need to get started, where you can go without a boat or private land access, and why bream fishing with a cork and a cricket is still one of the best ways to fall in love with the sport. They also talk about patience when introducing ki...

America 250 celebrations are coming to Mississippi State Parks this July 4th, and there's no better time to plan your summer getaway!

Josh Hinton, park manager at LeFleur's Bluff State Park, joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to share everything you need to know about camping in Mississippi this summer.

He covers how to stay cool when you can't beat the heat, why moving air is the key to both comfort and keeping bugs off, what thermacell devices actually do and how to use them, and why hydrating the night before matters more than most...

One of the world's greatest catfish fisheries is right here in Mississippi — and most people drive past it on I-20 without ever thinking about it. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Bob Crosby of Blue Cat Guide Service, a 13-year veteran of guiding on the Mississippi River out of Vicksburg, to talk about what it takes to catch truly giant blue catfish.

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You've heard about Mississippi's growing black bear population. But how did it start — and who started it? In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Brad Young, the original bear program coordinator for MDWFP, who ran the program from 2002 to 2013.

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Retired biologist Mark LaSalle joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about something almost every Mississippian has wondered — how do you get more hummingbirds in your yard?

Mark explains which native plants attract hummingbirds and why they work better than feeders alone: cross vine, red buckeye, coral honeysuckle, coral bean, trumpet creeper, cardinal flower, and salvias. He talks about when hummingbirds arrive in Mississippi, why they return to the same yards year after year, and what most people don't know — that 80% of a hummingbird's diet is insects, not nectar.

He also breaks down the...

MDWFP biologist Martin Coker joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain something most Mississippians have never thought about — the difference between a nuisance animal and a fur bearer species, and why that distinction matters for how they're managed.

Martin breaks down which animals fall into each category, why wild hogs can be taken year-round while bobcats and river otters have a regulated season, and why the stretch between deer and turkey season is actually a great window for hog management. He also talks about how CITES tags work, why muskrats have been rebranded as "marsh hare" in...

You've called them skeeter eaters your whole life. You've been warned about granddaddy long legs since you were a kid. You've wondered why fire ants even exist. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Brady Dunaway, ecologist with the Mississippi Natural Heritage Program and entomology background from Mississippi State, to bust a few of those myths wide open.

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Sharks stealing your fish off the Gulf Coast? You're not imagining it, and marine fisheries professor Marcus Drymon joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain exactly why it's happening and what you can do.

Marcus breaks down the science behind shark depredation, which species are most responsible (sandbar, bull, and blacktip), and why anglers have been dealing with more of it over the past 20 years. He also explains why healthy shark populations are actually a sign that the Gulf Coast fishery is doing well — and why that's a harder message to deliver to a fishing guide wh...

Eddie and Becky Briggs of Mississippi are two of the best helice shooters in the world, and most people have never heard of the sport. They join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain everything.

Helice uses spinning plastic targets launched from five machines in a baseball diamond layout. You don't know which machine will fire. The targets spin at 5,000 RPMs, fly unpredictably, and you have to knock the white center cap inside a two-foot fence ring — with two shots. Eddie is the current U.S. senior champion. Becky's team finished second at the World Championship in It...

Anthony Ballard (Mississippi), Spencer Daniels (Arkansas), and John Hanks (Louisiana) join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast for a rare three-state bear program roundtable.

Arkansas has over 5,000 bears and has had a hunting season since 1980. Louisiana just held its second bear season after coming off the federal threatened species list in 2016. Mississippi's bear population is continuing to expand. These three biologists explain where each state is, how their seasons work, and what Mississippi biologists are watching closely as its bear population continues to grow.

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Melanie Boudreaux, assistant research professor at Mississippi State University, joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to share what may be the first study to put hard numbers on how wild hogs and deer interact, and what it means for chronic wasting disease in Mississippi.

Her team used GPS collars that could track when animals were near each other, trail cameras at bait sites, and aerial surveys across the state. What they found: hogs move between deer social groups like a bridge, connecting populations that would otherwise stay separate.

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Mississippi's turkey season is running 72% above the five-year average, and MDWFP's new Turkey Program Coordinator Caleb Hinton joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain why — and what comes next.

Caleb talks about where turkey stamp money goes, how the new physical tag system works, and what a wild turkey research lab at Mississippi State will mean for the future of turkey management in Mississippi.

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Have you ever walked through the woods and wondered who figured out what all those plants are — or who's still out there finding new ones? In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Dr. Mack Alford, botanist and professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, to talk about plant discovery, rediscovery, and why Mississippi is more botanically interesting than most people realize.

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Stafford Shurden has been a farmer, a duck guide, a county judge for 14 years, a restaurant owner, an author, and is now one of Mississippi's most recognized faces on social media — all from eating gas station food off the tailgate of his truck.

He also tells the story of the Delta Wings Festival — a duck call competition on a floating duck blind in the dead center of the Delta — and how he convinced Governor Haley Barbour to name Drew the Waterfowl Capital of Mississippi.

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Mississippi State environmental historians Jim Giesen and Mark Hersey join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about something every hunter and landowner should understand — the history of the land they're on.

They walk through how the Mississippi Delta went from dense forest to farmland after the Civil War, how whitetail deer nearly went extinct in Mississippi, and how the shift from cotton to soybeans quietly became one of the biggest factors in the state's deer population explosion. They explain why most federal forests in the South are actually worn-out cotton fields the government reclaimed, why feral ho...

Malcolm Reed of How to BBQ Right and Killer Hogs BBQ joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about how he built one of the most recognized barbecue brands in the country — starting from a trailer in Southaven and his wife's kitchen bowls.

Malcolm shares the full story: competitive barbecue in the Memphis area, a leap of faith with six months of severance money, making seasoning by hand and selling it out of his house, and eventually shipping Killer Hogs products all over the country. He also talks about his 140-acre farm in Rankin County, the Bu...

If you've seen Mississippi's 2026 turkey stamp, you've seen Johnny Granberry's work. The retired homebuilder and lifelong hunter from southern Holmes County joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about winning the stamp contest, his painting process, and 55 years of time in the woods that shows up in everything he paints.

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Hunter Farrior started Spring Legion Turkey Hunting in 2019 from a trailer in Learned, Mississippi — no internet, no warehouse, no plan. He joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to tell the story of how it all happened.

Hunter talks about accidentally publishing his first book during quarantine, accidentally selling his first hat before he even knew how to ship it, and somehow ending up with an 18-wheeler dropping pallets at his residential address. He explains what separates turkey hunters from everyone else, what woodsmanship really means, and why he hunted the same turkey 83 times.

Spring Le...

MDWFP waterfowl biologists Houston Havens and Darren Hardesty joined the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast during the final weeks of the 2025-26 season to explain what was driving conditions across the Delta. It was a dry year, and these two break down exactly what that meant for bird movement, habitat availability, and hunting pressure on public lands.

The conversation covers aerial waterfowl surveys, the freeze-thaw cycle, GPS research on mallards, the 50th anniversary of Mississippi's state duck stamp, and how the flyway connects Mississippi hunters to breeding habitat in Canada. If you hunted this season and wondered why...

Henry and Lakisha Woodard of Halo Hunting join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to share their family’s journey into the woods. From Lakisha’s first spring turkey hunt to creating traditions like the Mississippi Shuffle and the Family Slam, they talk about how hunting became a shared way of life for their entire household.

They also discuss filming hunts together, building Halo Hunting as a brand, and launching the Halo Bridge Outreach Foundation to introduce inner-city youth to the outdoors, firearm safety, and hunting education.

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Ryan Jones, Assistant Chief of Fisheries at MDWFP, joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain what makes Ross Barnett Reservoir such a strong bass and crappie fishery. He breaks down how water levels, native vegetation, and long-term management all work together to support consistent fishing year after year.

The conversation covers frog fishing in the pads, invasive plant threats like giant salvinia, how anglers can help protect the resource, and the behind-the-scenes work it takes to manage one of Mississippi’s most heavily used reservoirs.

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Super Bowl champion and former NFL linebacker Swayze Bozeman joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about life after football and the perspective that comes from spending time outdoors.

Swayze walks through his journey to the NFL, winning a Super Bowl, and what came next. He explains how hunting and time outside helped him slow down, reflect, and redefine success beyond the game. The conversation connects discipline, faith, and patience learned in football with the same qualities required in the woods.

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MDWFP deer biologist Carmen Campbell joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain a new way scientists are detecting Chronic Wasting Disease — without relying on a dead deer.

The conversation breaks down what deer scrapes are, why multiple deer use them, and how soil collected from scrapes can be tested for signs of CWD. Campbell explains how this method can detect the disease earlier than traditional hunter-harvested samples and why that matters for managing deer herds.

Matt and Carmen also discuss how scrape testing ties into Mississippi’s three-mile CWD tag program, giving hunters more...

Joey Buchanan and his son Joe join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about traditional bowhunting — making their own bows, building their own arrows, and hunting at distances most people never experience. Joey explains how he started crafting bows in the late 1980s, while Joe shares what it meant to grow up around the tradition and recently harvest a deer with a bow he built himself from wood taken off their hunting land.

They discuss close-range deer and turkey hunting, the discipline and ethics required with traditional equipment, and why the traditional bowhunting community is so cl...