All videos are filmed and edited with the hunter in mind. Whether you waterfowl hunt five or fifty days a year, from geese and puddlers to divers and sea duck hunting, The Swampers videos are for everyone with a passion for the sport

Brian Rhodes
Avery Pro-Staff

Brian lives in southern New England, in a little state called Rhode Island, in a little town called Bradford. Brian has been an avid hunter and outdoorsmen since about the age of 12. He started out hunting ducks and since then my obsession has grown to include just about everything else you can legally hunt!

Aside from hunting in Rhode Island every season, Brian has been lucky enough to travel many different places to hunt waterfowl. From sea ducks in Alaska and Maryland, divers in Long Island and Upstate New York, and snow geese in Missouri, Brian enjoy meeting new people and the opportunity to hunt different regions of the country.

Brian is also the owner of The Swampers, a company some buddies and him started about four years ago. They make and produce waterfowl hunting videos. Specializing in sea duck and diver hunting in the northeast. Brian is also a fully licensed USCG Captain and runs a sea duck hunting guide service.

What is a 'Swamper'?

The origin and meaning of "swamp Yankee," a term often applied with mixed tones of disapproval and grudging respect to a type of rural Connecticut character, have stumped even the experts. One reason for such puzzlement may be that the expression has never had very wide distribution. In fact, "swamp Yankees" seem to be almost unknown outside of Connecticut, especially eastern portions of the state, and some areas of adjoining Rhode Island. But within the confines of that region, the term is known by almost everyone who has lived there for any length of time. Newcomers to the area who may have lived previously in every section of the United States have been particularly intrigued by the evocative term, since they have never heard it before moving to the Nutmeg State. Over the years, their questions about the significance and source of "swamp Yankee" have sent historians and linguistic geographers thumbing through notes or reference books -- with rather uncertain results.

There does seem to be some agreement about the kind of person generally tagged as a "swamp Yankee." In doing some personal research on the subject, Hartford Courant columnist John Lacy asked a number of people to explain their understanding of the expression and reported a few responses in an April 30, 1982 feature. A newspaperman who grew up in Rhode Island told Lacy the term was applied to "Anglo-Saxon farmers in South County there." A New London journalist believed it referred to "a Yankee from poor origins, who had to really hack it out of nothing," while a librarian said it described "a person who lived in woodland swamps and who became fiercely independent, stubborn, obstinate and uninformed of what was going on in the outside." Fair enough.

From Legendary Connecticut by David E. Philips