Guide Life: Raub Gliatta

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Jacob Morris for SPLIT REED

It’s an evening hunt in Saskatchewan. You’ve been scouting a field with a few birds of each species across the whole spectrum of waterfowl species, from cranes to ducks to speckle bellies. You aren’t expecting to kill many birds but you expect to scratch out a few here and there. You set up with a crane spread and within the very first 5 minutes, a group of 40 or so cranes comes feet down in the decoys. Your group knocks 14 out of the sky and they just keep coming! Two hours later you have an 8-man limit of cranes and an 8-man limit of ducks for a total of 104 birds on the ground. It’s one of those hunts that only happens in your dreams. This short reminiscence was just one of many stories Raub Gliatta of Duck Haven Outfitters in Western Nebraska and Prairie Sky Outfitters in Saskatchewan, told us in this conversation.

Raub’s Background

Raub has a unique background not typical of your everyday waterfowl guide, he actually grew up in Ohio hunting whitetails. “One of my favorite things to do as a little kid was to help my dad track the deer that he had shot. My dad was a lifelong bowhunter. After he would shoot a deer, he would come back to the house to grab me and my brother, he would put us on the blood trail to see if we could find the deer. Those early hunting memories are what got me hooked on hunting.”  Raub didn’t get in the bird hunting game until his freshman year of college at Ohio University. There he met a couple of die-hard hunters who would spend as much time as possible hunting waterfowl, trying to dodge the crowd of people chasing the scarce amount of birds that migrate through Ohio. Raub, who trains labs when he is not guiding, found his passion for dog training and watching the dog work back in Ohio. “My buddy had a Chesapeake Bay retriever with absolutely zero training that would still go out and get the ducks, I just thought it was the coolest thing ever to have a dog with you as part of your hunt.”

He majored in Recreation Management, where he was able to spend a lot of college credit hours outside taking courses in things such as rock climbing or river rafting. In 2009 Raub moved to Colorado where he worked as a medical storage equipment salesman. Like many of us, he had to use his free time to waterfowl hunt. He partook in medical sales for about 3 years and eventually bought a lab named Willa. “Training Willa pulled me right away from all my work and I’m embarrassed to say it, but I eventually got fired because of that. It was all for the better though, because the whole dog thing changed my life.”

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Raub got introduced into the guiding world right away helping a friend guide for a season. His job consisted of putting out decoys, waving the goose flag, and running his dog Willa. He wasn’t getting paid and didn’t even get to shoot, which was okay for Raub. “I got to run Willa. Honestly, that’s the whole reason I can guide as much as I do because I don’t mind not pulling the trigger, as long as I get to have my dog out there with me.”

You can tell from talking with Raub that his passion is in training his dogs and his reward is in watching the dog with each bird being brought back. He went from not knowing much about training to taking his prize Willa to an HRCH finished title in just 3 years. He got involved in a training club and was able to meet the right people through that experience. “Those are the guys that got me involved in the hunt test game and geared me in the right way to properly train Willa.”

Waterfowl Guide Life

Raub continually went back to that first experience helping his friend put out decoys, the spark for being a guide was lit that day. Raub knew that he wanted to be a waterfowl guide from then on- even if it was just in the wintertime.“Even if I have to pick up odd jobs in the summers at least I have work in the winters, I had half of the puzzle put together.” He started guiding for Ponderosa Outfitters in Colorado shortly after. Sometimes a big break comes when you least expect it. It may even be out of your league but when opportunity knocks, you go all in. That’s what happened to Raub while working one of his odd jobs as a production assistant for Arctic Cat. He got connected with Gary of The Hunting Film Tour, who wanted Raub to run the tour for him. After managing the tour for a couple of years, Gary called Raub and offered him the opportunity to guide in Saskatchewan. “This, to be honest, was out of my league at first but an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.” After duck season would end in Canada, he would make his way back home to Colorado to train his dog, hunt, and do odd jobs to pass the time until the next duck season. He guided with that outfit in Saskatchewan for 3 years before taking a break from guiding up there. In April of 2017, he got a job training labs for Flatlander Kennels, a hunt test kennel located in Bayard, NE. The owner of Flatlander Kennels, Chris, owns and operates Duck Haven Outfitters in Baynard, NE where Raub works as the only guide. This will be his third season with them. He adds, “We’re a small outfit but we do a hell of a job. We try to just run one group at a time, but if there is a big group, we will split them up into two. Chris the owner will take a few guys out, and I will take the rest, we average about 1200 birds a season.” After the break from guiding in Canada, he was experiencing ‘North of the border duck depression’. Raub wanted to get back across the border and in 2019 he had the opportunity to work with Prairie Sky Outfitters where he still guides today.

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The Great Debate 

We all have this internal debate with waterfowl hunting for us, our buddies, and even some outfitters. What bird is your favorite to hunt? Some love Geese over a dry field, some love mallards in the timber. I tried to trick Raub into siding with one or the other but like the typical hardcore waterfowler, his answer was “It depends on where I am. If I’m in Nebraska, there is nothing better than mallards on the river. If I’m in Canada, I got to give it to the cranes in stubble fields. They are so huge coming in and come in slow, typically relaxed, and are great decoying birds. If you can get ‘em feet down about to land in the decoys before calling the shot, because those birds are so big and awkward, they can’t get away. It takes them so long to gain elevation and fly away.” You can tell from talking with Raub he is pretty passionate about cranes not sure if it’s the way they decoy or the way they taste, as he confirms they really are the ribeye of the sky.

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COVID-19 and Guiding

We all know this COVID stuff has affected everyone from coast to coast and the rest of the world, and now with fall on the horizon and the faint sound of ducks quacking and geese honking getting louder. The big question is if the borders are going to open. There is still some unrest with booking a hunt and traveling during this time. I spoke with Raub about this and he gave us some interesting insight. There are some pros and cons if the border doesn’t open, as Raub said, “If the border doesn’t open and all those outfits up there don’t have any clients from the states, which are 90 % or more of the clientele that travels up there, it’s going to hurt the Canadian economy and small business because they are going to lose out on all the money from those hunters.” On the positive note, tons of birds are not going to get killed in Canada, which means more birds coming across the border into the states. After talking to the owner of Prairie Sky Outfitters Raub mentioned “Canada has pushed the border closing to August 31, which is the day before the season, the boss wasn’t very optimistic about the season. He said there is still a chance, but we still have to sit around and wait to see what the government decides at this point.” It is even affecting some of the operations on this side of the border as but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Duck Haven Outfitters has not booked as many hunters as they would like by this time, but he went on to say, “I do not think we will have a problem filling the schedule for this season.”

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The next time you’re second-guessing about going on an afternoon hunt, or even into a field you scouted that you may not have high hopes for, just remember that hunt Raub Gliatta experienced on a fall evening in Saskatchewan, and the first volley of 40 cranes coming feet down, frozen over the decoys. That could be you. If you need help with finding a trusted outfitter, then I recommend booking a guided waterfowl hunt this year through Split Reed. Have a sandhill memory of your own and want to try a great crane recipe?! Simple Sandhill Crane. Be sure to check out tons of other recipes here!