Alex Langbell: Hunter, Guide, Firefighter

Alex Langbell is not your average weekend warrior waterfowl hunter. This dude lives it, and has lived it for 38 years. Alex is a father, a firefighter, a business owner, a filmmaker and an outside-the-box hunter who isn’t afraid to run clients on a lesser hunt with 8 decoys.

Split Reed’s Nick Costas sat down and had a talk with Alex – we’re happy to bring you the result of that in this interview.

“I got my drive from my grandfather, he was a big time outdoorsman. Actually one of my first memories was hunting deer with him when I was five years old in snow up to my waist” Langbell says.

Born in Montana, Langbell moved to Nevada when he was less than 10 years old. Ever since he jump shot his first duck with his Mossberg 500 at 12 years old, he’s been hooked on waterfowl. At the age of 20, Langbell had grown tired of the desert and moved to Washington state to chase critters because all he wanted to do was be outside, whether it was big game hunting, fly fishing, or waterfowl hunting.

“This is what lead me to my career as a firefighter. I could work 2 days a week and hunt the rest of the week”

Alex has been a firefighter for 24 years and is currently the training captain of the Yakima Fire Department.

Alex guided from 2000-2010 in Colombia basin on some unreal properties. Paying those leases out of pocket was out of the question for him so he started guiding for lessers in his 20s and 30s.

That’s when he really learned how to work on the geese.

“If you can kill lessers on a regular basis you can kill anything. Well, maybe not adult snow geese” he laughs.

“The geese were challenging in that area. We ran stuffers and full bodies. A lot of guys were running stuffers and Dave Smiths.” Langbell added.

Everyone has seen the Avery lessers but not everyone knows how they got their color… At the time, Langbell was on the Avery pro-staff and they had sent him some lesser decoys. He believed the color of the decoys were to light for the west coast geese they were shooting. Since snapchat wasn’t around at the time, or maybe just because it would have been too easy to mail a photo, Alex made a stuffer, put it in a box, and shipped it to Avery to show how dark the lessers were in his area. The next year the decoys were darker. Can you guess why?

SR: “Any funny band stories over those years of guiding?”

Alex: “Funny band stories? Yeah I got one.“ He laughed.

“I was Guiding in a pit full of clients with a best friend named Craig. A lesser sailed way out over a hill. l went out to get the bird and when I got to it, it was a banded lesser. These were super rare, as we shot thousands of lessers but that was the only one we ever saw. I decided I wasn’t gonna cause a fight so I’m just gonna put it in my pocket. As I walked back and sat down, all the clients were staring at me.

A little later I flashed the band to my buddy Craig and he mouthed ‘You fucker!’ I laughed and put the band back in my pocket. After the hunt Craig told me the clients asked him what was taking me so long to get that bird?

Of course Craig replied “Oh he’s probably just jackin’ your guys band.” So that explains the stare down I got coming back to the blind”, Langbell laughed.

Langbell got into filming during his guiding career as well. “There weren’t many guys doing it and that’s what put us on the map.” Langbell filmed a whole guiding season of everything from putting pits in to kill shots. At the end of the season he went to Best Buy and bought a cheap editing software program and starting pressing buttons. “I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I just put it together” Langbell laughed.

He ended up with an hour and a half long film called ‘Rest When You’re Dead’ and sent it to Fred Zink. Fred loved it. Zink started promoting Langbells films, and he ended up putting out films for the next couple of years before landing a job with Chad Belding at the Fowl Life filming for his TV show. Alex then moved to Reno to start working for the Fowl Life. Alex decided it was not the best fit for him so he moved on. He then started The Grind with Bill Wilroth of Dakota Decoy and Matthew Cagle from Rigem Right. Alex now films for himself for fun because he loves to create content.

When I asked him what his favorite species of waterfowl is to hunt Langbell said without hesitation, “Greenheads”.

Of course I had to ask him what his least favorite species was to hunt as well which was the biggest asshole in the animal kingdom, the snow goose. “I hate hunting snow geese… but when its right I absolutely love it! Does that make sense?”

If you’ve ever hunted snow geese you know damn well that makes perfect sense.

Alex is still kickin’ ass in the marshes of Washington with his 2 year old black lab Ellie, pickin’ on greenheads and pintails like they owe him money.

SR: Where do you see waterfowl hunting in 50 years?

Alex: “It really scares me a lot of people don’t wanna share, and that they want to keep their spots secret. I do understand that though. With our youth really not getting into hunting, being on their iPhones and playing games, I hope we don’t lose it. We’re watching this New Zealand thing and people are turning in guns and I have two daughters.”

SR: Biggest cluster-fuck you have ever had while hunting?

Alex: “Truck went in a pit- that hunt didn’t even happen.”

SR: What are top three things a hunter could do to never get invited back? Funny or serious.

Alex: “Gun safety, constantly claiming every bird, calling too much and not being a team player.”

SR: “Do you think the waterfowl industry has got soft? Explain.

Alex: “No it’s just different- it’s losing what it really means.”

SR: What is your top bucket list bird to kill, that you haven’t killed yet?

Alex: “Emperor goose or eider. I also want to hunt South Africa.”

SR: Best advice for someone brand new to waterfowl hunting?

Alex: “Get out in the marsh and hunt by yourself. Any true waterfowler in my book, has gone out and hunted by themself. If you spent your whole life hunting with a guide or having your buddies take you out that is not a diehard waterfowl hunter.  A diehard waterfowler to me is someone who when no one wants to go still goes out- even with not a lot a birds. Surround yourself with people better than you- but practicing by yourself is the best advice i could give. Pay attention to details. Go out and practice by yourself.”

Alex added, “I hunt a lot by myself, probably one third of the time. The most important thing for waterfowling besides location, is your hide.” He then goes on to say, “Change it up. Be different than what everyone else is doing. People get comfortable and think that’s the only way to do it. Birds constantly evolve so you as a hunter need to constantly evolve. Don’t be afraid to try something and fail. Taking three stuffers out and shooting 28 geese over them takes balls”.

My favorite story from our conversation was when Alex told his clients, “alright, these lesser’s are so freaking tough, so go in the trailer and pick out your favorite decoy. 7 clients and we literally put out 8 decoys and banged them out so freaking fast it was crazy. Who does that? But when you’re scouting and see live birds circle live birds 5 times and then go land off to the side in the field, those are smart ass birds. Going small allows them to be close when they land wide with just 8 decoys. They ‘aint that wide.”

“It makes me a better waterfowler knowing that i can go out by myself and constantly produce”

SR: How much would you have to be paid to throw all your bands in the ocean?

Alex: “Not for sale.”