Aaron Seifritz of FowlCo: Ducks, Dogs, and Dedication

Ryan Barnes for SPLIT REED

Photos courtesy of @fowlco_retrievers and @aaronseifritz

There’s a famous cliche saying “fortune favors the bold”. While the precedent of that may be true, fortune seems to be more favorable for those who work hard, never quit, and remain dedicated to their dreams and passions. Something that FowlCo co-founder Aaron Seifritz knows all too much about. Split Reed recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Aaron about his journey from guiding the same place day in and day out, to creating one of the most high-end waterfowl lodges in America.

Seifritz is originally from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where his grandfather served as Chairman of the Game & Fish Commision, leaving him with no shortages of places to hunt. Growing up around the culture of Stuttgart and the duck hunting capital of the world gave Aaron a desire to chase ducks whenever he could. When Aaron went to college, he left the Arkansas timber and fields and made his way to Colorado, where his dad had worked as a professional retriever trainer since the early ’90s. “I grew up hunting with my grandfather and my dad, then I went out to school in Colorado and got my degree in Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism from Colorado State University. Owning a 5-star high-class waterfowl lodge became what I wanted to do since I was in college,” Seifritz says. “While I was in college I started to guide my first hunts out on the North Platte River. Which, believe it or not, North-Eastern Colorado and even Central Colorado has some unbelievable waterfowling. So I did some guiding out there and then when I graduated from college with that degree, I started applying to the nicest lodges in the Stuttgart area”. Aaron compares the lodges he was trying to guide for like working at a 5-star restaurant, where the pay is a bit better, the tips are higher, and you get to rub shoulders with some pretty interesting and high profile people. “I started working for a place called Wildlife Farms right off the White River down by Stuttgart, and it was pretty different from where other people hunt in the country. There’s a lot of oxbow lakes that we would hunt and we would use these giant pontoon blinds that had heaters and a kitchen in them, and we’d call ducks from these crow’s nests that would come up through the roof from behind the clients”, Seifritz said, explaining his early beginnings guiding in the Arkansas duck hunting scene. He continues by noting, “over the years of hunting there I hunted the same duck hole, every day for eight seasons. I got to witness the whole cut-down revolution out there, and I’ll tell you that the White River is the most amazing place I’ve ever hunted as far as being able to call in and break down ducks. It wasn’t so much about scouting and finding the birds and understanding feeds like people do out West and like we do at FowlCo. We mainly trafficked birds that were flying up and down the main vein, and we would just work ducks and try to bring them down from the stratosphere right into the duck hole in front of our customers” he says as he recounts his time guiding near the White River.

Seifritz was able to develop multiple different friendships with clients that he had helped at Wildlife Farms. When they privatized, those who knew that he was an excellent guide, and proficient in killing ducks day in and day out, and those that he had developed good relationships with started asking him where he intended to go next. “That’s when John David Blagg and I started throwing around the idea of creating our own lodge somewhere,” says Aaron about the beginning of FowlCo. He goes on by saying, “my dad had trained a retriever for Josh Teff, who’s my other partner at FowlCo, and I’d had people for years telling me that I needed to get to know Josh because we had similar goals and aspirations. John David and I were actually turkey hunting near a reservoir in Oklahoma and a (metaphorical) bolt of lightning hit me and I leaned over to John David while turkeys were coming in and told him to text Josh and ask him if he wanted to grab some lunch. A week later we went out for a plate of BBQ and talked to him about what we were thinking about doing, he thought about it for a couple of weeks and then said ‘let’s make a move’”.  Following that, the trio approached potential investors pitching this idea that they had planned out. An idea that had been a dream for all three for a long time. After some hard work and persistence, things came together, and the lodge was built. “I think it’s important to know that we weren’t three rich guys that had the money. We went out there, worked hard and we’re now doing everything to pay it off and just live the American dream,” says Seifritz.

Going from guiding in the same duck hole every day during season for 8 years, to all of the sudden now helping run an entire lodge with different clients and different business responsibilities definitely brings with it an entirely new perspective. “When we started FowlCo we wanted to go to a place where it hadn’t been done before. Growing up in Stuttgart, that culture of duck hunting is there, we know what that’s about. Oklahoma doesn’t really have that quite yet. It’s growing and it’s developing, but they don’t really have that same thing. So we scouted out a place that we knew had a large number of birds and we knew we could be the first ones on the block”, says Aaron. But as with any big business decision, the transition and learning period was far from a cakewalk. Learning how to shoot lesser Canada geese right after a bad hatch, trying to figure out how to hunt in an entirely new area- all things that require patience, persistence, and hard work. Luckily for the success and growth of FowlCo, those are things that Seifritz is used to.

“When I stood inside [that lodge] and saw it for the first time it was like ‘I made it’, you know. And a ton of credit goes to the guys around me. None of this would have happened without them. But it honestly was a dream come true. And we’ve still got a ways to go. We still have money to pay back and we still want to keep growing, but I’m walking proof that if you put your head down, and just keep working for something long enough, and don’t waiver off what you really want, it might take 17 years as it did for me, it’ll come together,” Seifritz says about what it was like to finally open FowlCo after 17 years of clinging to his dream to open a 5-star hunting lodge. “One piece of satisfaction that was great to us was planting the first flooded cornfield in that whole region right there behind the lodge. I remember watching the first 12 ducks that landed in it. And now it’s nothing for us for any given night to have 5,000-10,000 come roost in there”. Now, Aaron says they’ve gone from making places to hunt the birds, to creating places to concentrate the birds, and trying to figure out ways to get them to stick around longer.  Needless to say,, Seifritz is running a top-notch operation at FowlCo, with plenty of birds to go around for those who want to get out and hunt.

However, the season doesn’t end for Aaron when duck season closes. Being the son of a world champion dog trainer, Jere Seifritz, Aaron has now has created FowlCo Retrievers in his native Arkansas where he has used the knowledge passed down from his father. “It’s awesome because when I’m not out guiding duck hunts, I’m down at my kennel working with my dogs doing fake duck hunts every day,” he says. “I’ve guided with close to a hundred different guys over the years and the hardest part of being a guide is filling the 8 or 9 months in-between seasons. If I didn’t have FowlCo Retrievers I don’t know if I could have hung on long enough to the point where I could have had FowlCo Outfitters”. He says that because of the experience of his dad and how he was raised, getting into retriever training was a “no-brainer” for him. “It’s just something that we’ve always done. “One of the biggest challenges of guiding is figuring out how to find income during the offseason, and this is a way for me to accomplish that. I had the skill set and I had a father with a fantastic amount of knowledge, I had access to a client base, and I had access to people who wanted to have good duck dogs”. Seifritz talks about the benefit of being able to guide and train dogs to help market both companies during the opposing seasons by showing talented working dogs in the blind, and by giving clients with new retrievers a place to hunt in the upcoming season.

Seifritz’s dog training didn’t just start with retrievers, however. “I started back in 2007 and stuck my hand in a bunch of different pots. I worked with retrievers, I worked with gun dogs, I worked with dogs to use invisible fences, I worked with dogs with behavioral issues for our local humane society. And slowly as my father got older and he retired from things more, I started to focus more on the gun dog and the retriever. So when I created FowlCo Retrievers, all I did was rebrand the family business,” Aaron says. While the business of retriever training started back in ‘07, needless to say, Aaron’s history of working with dogs goes back to when he was a kid helping his dad.

On top of all this, Aaron balances a family life back in Arkansas, with a wife and two daughters. Something very rarely seen in the world of guiding. “The hardest part of what I do is try to maintain a strong relationship in my marriage and make sure I do right by my two little girls. You know, when I wake up in the morning when I’m out guiding, working my tail off, grinding it out as an outfitter, I have to make sure that what I’m doing is still for the benefit of my family; and that the good it does will outweigh the effects of me being away for the winter”. Aaron is emphatic about the benefits of having such a supportive wife who has allowed him to live out his dreams. “At the end of the season, come February, I’m ready to get home and see my family. As much as I love duck hunting, I love my family a whole lot more”.

A unique part of Seifritz’s take on making a hunt enjoyable for his clients is not always killing piles of birds (though that is one of the main goals). He says that he enjoys taking the time to educate clients on the history of the area, or allowing first-time clients to take in some of the beauty of their surroundings. “A successful guide leaves spots for interpretation along the way. You can help your clients feel educated, and feel like they had an enjoyable time, even if they didn’t fire a shell. You just have to get to know who’s in the blind with you” he says. All in all, though, it is the goal to make sure they give their clients every chance to put ducks and geese on the dirt and make sure they have a memorable hunt at FowlCo.

After 17 years of hard work, dedication, and never letting go of a dream, Aaron Seifritz, along with his business partners, has created one of the premier hunting lodges in the United States. Having had the chance to take out customers for their first hunt, and their last, shooting hybrids, bands, and seeing all other manners of sights and stories. It’s little wonder that he has been able to create FowlCo Outfitters and FowlCo Retrievers. With all the talents and abilities Seifritz has at his disposal as a guide, a dog trainer, and a businessman, his clients can rest assured knowing that they’ll be well taken care of. If you’re looking to find yourself covered in flock after flock mallards, or chasing lesser Canada geese, or you simply want the experience of staying at a world-class lodge, let Aaron Seifritz and FowlCo Outfitters help you enjoy your next experience.

There is nothing quite like a lights-out duck hunt coupled with magnificent dog work. It’s the kind of thing that you get back from and tell stories about for years and years to come. It’s the kind of thing, however, you can expect when you visit FowlCo in Garber, Oklahoma. Check them out and consider reaching out to them to experience Ducks, Dogs, and Dedication on top of a world-class lodge experience of a lifetime.