Will Poston for SPLIT REED
Photos Courtesy of FowlCo and their contributors.
What do you get when you get three Arkansas boys that grew up in flooded timber? Well, in this case, you get a world-class waterfowl outfitter in Oklahoma. Yes, I know that’s a difficult sentence to unpack and wrap your head around but bear with me—it will soon.
Last week, I had the pleasure of talking with FowlCo’s founding partners Josh Teff, John David Blagg, and Aaron Seifritz. Yes, those formerly Arkansas guys. Throughout the call, we talked about how they all met, how FowlCo came to be, their favorite hunts, what the lodge offers, and everything in-between.
FowlCo sits on about 320 acres in North-Central Oklahoma—smack in the middle of the Central Flyway—with access to thousands of leased acres and offers one of the best waterfowl experiences in the country. Aaron compared the North-Central Oklahoma region and the greater FowlCo footprint with Canada: tons of birds, habitat, and food everywhere, and the potential to find the X every day. While many may assume they have been around for decades, FowlCo is in its sophomore season.
Josh, Aaron, and John David all separately had all been thinking about starting a waterfowl outfitter. So much so that Aaron, still to this day, has a notecard from his first day of college saying that his goal in life was to own and operate a waterfowl outfitter. Several years ago, Aaron and John David were in the turkey woods together. In a “moment of clarity,” as Aaron put it, they decided to reach out to Josh about the prospect of starting their own outfit. Then shortly thereafter, over a plate of barbeque, the stars aligned.
Josh had some experience in North-Central Oklahoma, so he knew that would be the area to start an outfit. There were tremendous waterfowl opportunities and not many established, large-scale outfits there. After that lunch, Josh said that “as luck would have it, and thanks to the Good Lord,” financing opened up, and they bought their first property in the fall of 2017 and broke ground on the lodge in the spring of 2018. Additionally, when they were getting all of the pieces in place, John David and Aaron made one non-negotiable request: “we have to have Brian Pilgreen at FowlCo in some capacity.” Brian is now one of the most important factors that make FowlCo so special; whether it’s his mouth-watering food or friendly personality, guests love him, and the FowlCo team is so thankful to have him.
The lodge itself offers guests everything they could need—great hunting included. The Southern half of the property is where the lodge, shop, guides’ quarters, kennels, five-stand skeet shooting range, and patio are. The other half of the property, with the help of Shane Olsen and Habitat Solutions, was converted into wetlands with flooded corn and beans. As FowlCo’s first operating season began, the team said everything looked perfect: the lodge was ready for guests; Head Chef, Brian Pilgreen, had his menu ready; and, this brand new 120-acre wetland area was full of food and looked perfect. Everyone was anxiously awaiting those first flights of migrating birds.
Sure enough, almost as if someone upstairs flipped a switch, birds were moving and, around December, thousands of birds were regularly using this brand-new habitat. And don’t be confused: while FolwCo’s guests have access to hunting opportunities on the Lodge property, the FowlCo team has thousands and thousands of leased acres on properties throughout the region. The team, therefore, has no issues getting clients on the X. This is one of the big factors which makes FowlCo such a unique outfit. The lodge property offers guests some of the often-overlooked aspects of a world-class outfit: food that rivals the actual hunting activities, skeet shooting to get you dialed in, founding partners with you on every hunt, and an all-around great atmosphere to unwind after a great day hunting—yes, beer and football are staples here.
While every week is different, FowlCo is in business for the clients—not the other way around. FowlCo offers guests flexibility that is often hard to come by in this industry. Most hunts are three days, but if a group can only come in for a day or two, that can generally be accommodated. Guests normally come to the lodge the day before their first-morning hunt. Upon arrival, the FowlCo team gets the guests settled into their rooms. After that, guys usually go out back for some skeet shooting and then move back to the lodge patio for some drinks by the fire pit, watch mallards coming back to the roost, then settle in for one of Brian’s famous dinners. After a great night’s sleep, guests wake up and are driven to wherever the birds are and await the morning flight.
In its Sophomore season, FowlCo is gearing up for an even better season than last year’s amazingly productive season. When we were talking about this season’s outlook, John David took a step back to tell a story about his most memorable hunt from last year. It was one of the first hunts at FowlCo. Everyone was a little nervous. They were all thinking “is this going to work?” “are we going to get birds?” Well, sure enough, that first hunt put 108 geese—a band included—on the ground that morning and 55 mallards in the afternoon. After that day, right off the bat on the first hunt, FowlCo knew that their prayers had been answered and their dreams had become a reality—everything was going to work out. All the while, the FowlCo team is putting ridiculous miles on trucks—one pickup put 25,000 miles on—for scouting and making sure clients are always where they need to be.
Going back to this season’s outlook, the FowlCo team is beyond excited. They’ve expanded their footprint and reach to always accessing birds with more properties. Also, they’ve installed Concealed Comfort Pits on all of their properties. In addition, almost all the properties had bumper crops and hatch numbers are up; so, the team is beyond optimistic and gearing up for, what they expect, to be an amazing second season.
Now that you’ve learned about Split Reed’s Premier Outfitter Partner, FowlCo Outfitters, check out their website and follow them on Instagram for all updates and all that content to get you fired up for the upcoming season. I’d also be remiss to not mention this: after talking to Josh, John David, and Aaron, I can honestly say this is a group of guys that are incredibly fortunate and aren’t taking anything for granted. They are working tirelessly to give their guests an experience of a lifetime. If you are interested, as I’m sure you are, give them a serious look as you plan your next hunt—you will not be disappointed.
