EP 514. Powder Morning Hunting the North Platte River Nebraska

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast where today we’re reaching way the heck out in Western Nebraska, out in the Platte river territory, talking to the owner of Powder Morning Hunting Company, a new USHuntList Outfitter, Mr. Coy Fisher. Coy, how the heck are you, man?

Coy Fisher: Good, Ramsey, thanks for having me.

Ramsey Russell: Oh man, I’m glad to be here. Tell me, kick off this way right here, introduce yourself. Who are you and where are you from?

Coy Fisher: Yeah, my name is Coy Fisher and I’m the owner of Powder Morning Hunting Company. We’re located out here in Sydney, Nebraska, Western Nebraska, just about 3 and a half hours northeast of Denver and about 2 hours east of Cheyenne, Wyoming, grew up in Cheyenne, went to school there and grew up hunting ducks and geese in the Goshen Hole area of southeastern Wyoming, which is near Torrington, Wyoming and that’s on the North Platte river, right on the Nebraska Wyoming line and that’s kind of where I got started in the waterfowl hunting, it was a passion of mine growing up and that’s where we had really good goose hunting and duck hunting right there on the river and like I said, grew up in Cheyenne and ended up going to Metro State and played college baseball in Denver, graduated in 2005 and one of my really good friends, his father had a pretty good sized big game outfitting operation out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It’s called Timberline Outfitters and my friend gave me a call and said, hey, you want to be a professional guide? And in Wyoming you need to be a licensed professional guide. So we had to take the test do the CPR requirements and things like that. So really put me into that world and at that time they had a really good leasehold to that, really and at that time it wasn’t as big of a operation as far as hunting outfitters there in Wyoming and so I got started there in 2007 and just graduated from college and that’s where I learned from the owner of Timberline on the basics of what’s important for clients and not only on the hunting side, but on the hospitality side and that’s kind of where we base our main focus at Powder Morning is more your experience, the hunting comes, but our main thing is just making sure that you’re happy, everything is good and you’re spending money to come out and enjoy yourself and that’s our main thing. And so anyway, fast forward a little bit, I was guiding from 2007 to about 2014 and I got into the oil and gas land business and they moved me up to Western Nebraska and didn’t really have much hunting out here and so what I thought is, well, I guess I better start my own business and have some people pay for it so that I can have some hunting and found some folks down on the North Platte Valley there and they had a beautiful lodge and talked to them and try to figure out a way to get them some revenue through some bookings and in the off season with hunting and so not only did they have the lodging, but they also had some really good hunting leases and we started out with mule deer, started out very cheap on the price, it’s kind of funny looking back and that was in 2015, just how cheap we were on our mule deer and whitetail hunts and –

Ramsey Russell: How cheap were you?

Coy Fisher: $2,200 for a 4 day, 5 night and I mean –

Ramsey Russell: Terribly cheap.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. And so that was kind of – But just over the years didn’t touch that money and just kept getting more leases and getting more leases and from there we started building a good reputation and clientele and mostly friends that wanted to come back and hunt the sandhills of Western Nebraska and so as we grew as part of our deer hunting leases, we were also getting waterfowl leases and really good upland pheasant hunting leases and with Western Nebraska, we just have so many species that most places don’t have, like you, kind of how you mentioned we were where the Midwest meets the West and so we’ve got those that ag coming into the border of Wyoming that adds that extension of species with whitetail and even elk are down here really good upland bird hunting and then in my opinion, some of the best mallard duck, winter duck hunting in the country right here in the North Platte Valley and that’s kind of how we transition.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I want to go back to Cheyenne, Wyoming. First off, you ain’t wearing a cowboy hat, I thought everybody in Cheyenne wore a cowboy hat, you got a cowboy hat?

Coy Fisher: No, I’m not a cowboy, so I don’t want to be stepping on any toes there.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, man, when I think of, like, Cheyenne, Wyoming, growing up in Cheyenne, I’ve only passed through there, going from one place to the next. It’s amazing, wild west country. I mean, when I just squint my eyes and imagine seeing covered wagons going through there and cowboys and Indians, all that good stuff, it is truly the American West, but a lot of the people I know and a lot of the local tradition revolves more around, like you started off the mule deer or the pronghorn or the elk and it’s like, I know folks, they don’t talk about it much, I know there are a lot of waterfowl, I know they waterfowl hunt. But how does somebody like yourself growing up in Cheyenne, where elk and mule deer and whitetail predominate the hunting culture, how does a guy like yourself, a young man, get into waterfowl hunting? Did your dad or friends, how did you fall into it like that?

Coy Fisher: Yeah. So, my family, I guess you could say I had a pretty blessed and entitled childhood. My great grandfather started a big contracting company and so being kind of the good old boys of Cheyenne, Wyoming, my great grandfather, Leonard Fisher, found some people that own some river ground in what they – once again, it’s called the Goshen Hole and it’s where one of your other outfitters, WyoBraska, is based out of –

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Coy Fisher: And basically, that area is just a small little extension, I’m a big land guy so if you just look at maps, it’s just a small little indention that goes into the state of Wyoming about probably 75 miles before it hits those mountain ranges, that is just like Nebraska. It’s a lot of river, irrigation canals, lots of pivots throughout that area, there’s lakes and it’s just a little spot in Wyoming that is known for its great waterfowl hunting and it was only an hour north east of Cheyenne, Wyoming and so we had a little farmhouse up there, had a farm of about, I don’t know, 300 acres and it was really good pheasant hunting and goose hunting right there and then you go up another bit, about another 25 minutes, right up to Henry, Nebraska and that’s where the North Platte River was and it was, once again, I just missed these old days, but there was a place called Little Moon Supper Club and it was just like where the good old boys, I mean, they had the best steaks, they even, I remember the thing that my grandfather would always wanted the king crab legs and I mean, this is in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska and all the duck hunters would come congregate at this little supper club called Little Moon and that’s just what I grew up doing was mostly waterfowl and upland and basically from God, 5 years old to 20 years old.

Ramsey Russell: Do you remember your first, like the first duck you ever killed? Do you remember that day, back in the day? Where were you hunting? What was the setup? Who were you with?

Coy Fisher: So we had –

Ramsey Russell: I’m assuming it was a mallard duck.

Coy Fisher: Yep. Well, God, I mean, we always did the early duck right there on the lake, they had a really cool Bass Lake right there and me and the landowner’s kids, we all had single shot 410s. I could barely cock that, it was so hard to cock that, I just remember I had to take 2 fingers to pull that thing back. But all of us just had single shot 410s and typically we’d wait for him to land so that we could get our ducks. But yeah, it was either a mallard or a bluebill or widgeon, I can’t remember but it was some of those early ducks and that was up there at Little Moon, right on the Platte River. So yeah, it was –

Ramsey Russell: Did you grow up? Did your dad, your granddad, the folks you were hunting with to date, were they also pheasant hunters and big game hunters?

Coy Fisher: Yeah, so we always did the elk hunting, it was always a big deal for us, in early October, rifle elk, we always would head west and go up to either Laramie Peak or even up towards, like, Jackson Hole and that was something I really miss even to this day, because in Nebraska it’s – You kind of lose those easier tags as far as elk and antelope and things like that, but no, predominantly we were more Midwest type hunters where it was mostly pheasant and mostly ducks and geese, we had labs, so that was where I got my first taste of watching those boys, they all shot over and unders and then I remember some of those guys they’d bring in with the big 10 bangers gas, powered 10 gauges, you don’t see those very often.

Ramsey Russell: That’s crazy. I mean, I remember those days that the old timer shot 10 gauges and I remember having one 25 years ago, shot it for a season and mostly at Snow geese and got rid of it. I’m just too dang much and I remember about buying, I may have bought one or 2 boxes of 3 and a half inch Magnum 12 gauge in my life and that one I wouldn’t cut out for that neither, that’s back in the old days, so you grew up in Cheyenne hunting and pheasants and ducks and deer and whatnot like that and did you go to college before you went out to Sydney? Is that how you got into that field? What was your major? What is a major that gets into a lot of the stuff you’ve been involved with as a land man and stuff? What did that involve?

Coy Fisher: Well as most people say you go to college, but that’s most of the time you come out, it’s not what you went in for.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t understand that.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, well, what actually happened, it was kind of a sad story. I went to school to take over my family’s construction company and 2009 hit recession and I remember we were bidding up against like 22, 23 companies and it was just like not going to happen. It was a really bad time and I’m glad I got to see it that, like how bad it can really be out there early in my career and so anyway, I moved back to Denver, I just had a business degree from Metro State after I got done playing college baseball and didn’t really know what to do. Well, we were at Frontier Days, if you ever heard of Cheyenne Frontier Days, it’s the biggest outdoor rodeo and I was hanging out with some of my buddies and I said the oil and gas business is really going off and there’s all these landmen that are making all this money and doing land acquisition and getting overrides on some of these oil wells and I didn’t know much about it except for I loved land and anyway, one of my good friends his dad was a top landman in Houston, Texas and he was at Frontier Days Motley Crue’s plan and I was like, there he is, I better start feeding him some beers, talking to him –

Ramsey Russell: Motley Crue, the band or Motley Crue on the loudspeakers.

Coy Fisher: Motley Crue, the band. We were at Frontier Days at a night show and anyway, it’s just kind of a funny story. And anyway, I just kept bugging and bugging him and he says he starting Sydney on Monday and that was in 2010. And I’ve been in the land business ever since.

Ramsey Russell: Cabela still have been in Sydney at the time you moved there? Because, I mean, I’ve, beautiful country, but it’s not big metropolitan areas and I’ve heard a lot about Sydney, Cabela’s moved in, they started to scale and it became, like, unbelievable. I mean, like a very small, big city with a lot of business. What year was it they pulled out that they, Cabela’s disassembled and pulled out?

Coy Fisher: I mean, they were slowly starting to sell off bits and pieces. I got, like I said, I got here in 2010, it was still booming, there was no talk of them selling out or anything, so I got to see the good times. It was really cool because oil was really booming and Cabela’s was doing really good. So there was a lot of young people in a small little town of 7,000 people, a lot of money, beautiful homes and then they had that I guess, I don’t know what minority owner that bought that 9% of the stock and basically it transitioned it over time, it is kind of a planned deal, you want to talk about really sad. I mean, this place had its own like, bubble world out here. I mean –

Ramsey Russell: That’s what I’ve heard. Like, how was it a bubble? Cabela’s is there, they’re the largest outdoor retailer on earth. And all their people are there, people, I mean, they’ve got executives coming from California and New York, boom with expertise to come to this little town of 7,000 in the middle of the prairie, what was it like? What was this bubble like?

Coy Fisher: I mean, if you think about it, I mean, this thing started back in 1957, I think and it really hit, like, the peak in the early 90s. Like, I remember hearing just stories of the 90s and you want to talk about duck hunting back that, once again, good old boy stuff, up and down the North Platte River, they had leases all up and down there, they’re pushing all that type of retail for waterfowl and you got all these executives from Cabela’s up there and it was just the best time I think, for the outdoor industry, I would say, but I mean, if you think about it, I mean, people started back there in the 80s and 90s and they were married, having kids, getting divorces, having more married, there’s just the whole like, world there. One guy, I think, is trying to write a book called the Forgotten Generation of How many people were Cabela’s kids, isn’t that amazing?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Coy Fisher: So it was really cool to see, but I mean, I’ve got a picture of Zillow when they sold out that, I mean, the entire town was for sale.

Ramsey Russell: The entire town, every house. That’s crazy. That is at – were the Cabela’s themselves from that part of Nebraska?

Coy Fisher: Yeah, they’re from Chappell, which is just down the interstate about 30 miles east.

Ramsey Russell: No comparison, but it kind of sort of, it reminds me that Delta Waterfowl, not Delta Waterfowl, Delta Airlines is from, originated as a crop dusting company in little old Monroe, Louisiana and their biggest highfalutin meetings are not taking place in Atlanta, it’s taking place in Monroe, Louisiana. That’s where all the executives fly in for their annual meetings, but that must have been something else when Cabela’s was in this middle of nowhere and every single house was for sale, whatever, what’s it like now after Cabela’s?

Coy Fisher: It’s evened out. It started to, after the acquisition of Bass Pro and all those houses were for sale, a lot of retirees from Colorado came up because Colorado is getting so expensive, so a lot of those houses got –

Ramsey Russell: Colorado is getting pretty woke, yeah.

Coy Fisher: So, a lot of people were moving out and then Covid hit and even more people were moving out, buying cheap real estate and as I told you, I was in real estate, I wish I would have bought about 10 of those houses, it’s just, I mean –

Ramsey Russell: Eyes on 20-20, yeah.

Coy Fisher: And now it’s kind of even out a lot of those Colorado people that Nebraska is just not for them and so a lot of people have moved back to Colorado, just a lot of change, just a lot of transition in these early 2000s, man, it’s – Who knows what’s going on with the world right now, but with the ability to work from home.

Ramsey Russell: Well, that’s good.

Coy Fisher: Really good.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s just it, you can work nowadays, you can work from anywhere you’re sitting as long as you got connectivity and even the new trucks and stuff have cellular connectivity all the time, I’ve got, I can go log into wifi in the middle of nowhere, just right there in my truck and that makes a huge difference in mobility. What’s it like? What is it like, you talked about Colorado versus, say, Sydney, Nebraska, what is it like in Nebraska? What’s it like living in Nebraska?

Coy Fisher: I personally think it’s the greatest region in the greatest country in the world.

Ramsey Russell: It’s conservative. I know that, it’s one of the big red states out in the middle, the flyover country. It’s got a lot of hunting and fishing, a lot of agriculture, a lot of cattle. So people are pretty much connected to the land around Sydney, I mean, it’s just like every other little flyover state in the Midwest, just boom, we live close to land, we hunt and fish, we accept it.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. Well, ag is obviously the main deal. I used to be a farm manager for a company out of Omaha and yeah, I mean, I’d say probably everybody’s, even the banks and the insurance and all the service industries are pretty much coming off of ag in this area. Hunting’s a thing, but it’s not as big as you would think out here, farmers and ranchers they, when you’re out there all the time and I’m starting to experience this and you see these animals, you start getting used to them and it’s not as big of a thing to you when you’re out there every single day. So a lot of these guys don’t really care about hunting, now they care about making sure that their crops are up, make sure their fences are good and hoping to make it through the year. Because this business is extremely difficult, I mean, when you’re looking at 2 to 5% profit margins on your wheat crop and you have about 4 to 5 different things that could go wrong, everything from saw fly to freezing to mosaic virus that could kill all your wheat, it’s a really hard business and so that’s the priority around here, not so much hunting, so I guess that’s where I can.

Ramsey Russell: I see the same thing when you get up to Canada or Canada come to mind because right about the time the snows and the geese and the ducks are all starting to come off the Arctician stage before flying south, that’s harvest season and those guys don’t give 2 flying flips about hunting, man. They’ve got stuff to do, they’ve got their living to make and it’s it really crazy how you go look at a section of wheat or to the horizon of wheat, that crop, it’s just, it’s a very thin margin. That’s why they’re having to scale so big and it just adds more work and more things to do, they don’t care much about that hunting and fishing at all. But you do, tell me what you’re doing before we jump off into the hunting and fishing part. Tell me a lot of what keeps you busy still in the land man business, we were talking about that last week.

Western Nebraska’s Energy Landscape: A Focus on Fossil Fuels, Wind, and Solar.

So along with Ag and hunting out here in Western Nebraska, we also have some really good fossil fuel and other natural resources for that are all doing well for all the different types of energy companies, wind is a big thing out here, obviously we’re windy, solar starting to come on, we’re hoping to get net metering here soon.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. So along with Ag and hunting out here in Western Nebraska, we also have some really good fossil fuel and other natural resources for that are all doing well for all the different types of energy companies, wind is a big thing out here, obviously we’re windy, solar starting to come on, we’re hoping to get net metering here soon so that we can become one of the largest solar producers out here in the West and then I’m currently working on a extremely large project on carbon sequestration. I’m doing all the land acquisition, I’m not going to mention any company names, but yeah, we’re pipelining 99% carbon from ethanol plants out in the Midwest via existing natural gas pipelines, some of the largest pipelines in the country out west to Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska to inject into porous formations that can hold that carbon with a cap rock over the top to help with sequestering what they say is too much carbon in the atmosphere, which leads to global warming. I don’t have an opinion on it, I just do the land acquisition. But that’s what they’re focusing on and it’s not in the millions, it’s in the billions of dollars on this project.

Ramsey Russell: Wow, there’s that, I mean, sticking it – So see when I think of carbon sequestration, I’m thinking of down here in the deep south, trees and they’ll pay, I guess you call it a rental easement or it’s some kind of easement to where my trees are growing, they’re sequestering carbon boom, they’re writing checks, thank you. But what you all are doing is piping it in from other states and putting it in voids in the earth and tapping it in there, wow.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. So that’s kind of the different thing is there’s 2 different things, you got the Ag side that you hear of carbon credits and so what that means is they’re going to farmers and these farmers are signing up part of these programs to get so much dollars an acre, but they’re having to do different operations to their land to get that money. So then you’re kind of under control by these companies that you sign a contract to on the carbon credits and you get paid, what we’re doing is a different deal, this is more of a geological type of oil and gas based prospect that we’re working on, it’s different, we’re injecting into the ground.

Ramsey Russell: Take carbon producing fossil fuels out and put atmospheric carbon back in, that’s basically what that is, isn’t it?

Coy Fisher: Yeah. Basically, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: There’s not a lot of trees, there’s a lot of grasslands out there in your part of the world and there are, you say there is carbon sequestration credits for managing grasslands?

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Can they still hay it and graze it and all that good stuff?

Coy Fisher: Well that’s the thing is there’s gears, there’s going to have rules, there’s going to be stipulations on what you can and what you can’t do, this new ranch that I just acquired for hunting that they’ve been, they have me doing their consulting on the carbon credit side on the grassland management and basically it’s how you rotate your cattle and there’s different things and I mean, what if the federal government comes and says, well, you can’t move your cattle over here, well, my cattle do need the sustenance to get to that weight and they start, so it’s kind of a balance and I don’t know if we’re going to end up going with that program, even though it’s a lot of money up front, but it’s just –

Ramsey Russell: Putting the government in your back pocket is a problem.

Yeah

Ramsey Russell: That carbon sequestration is always, it fascinates me because like yourself, I don’t really have a hard and fast opinion on global warming except for the fact the Earth has had a carbon cycle since forever, you think about the, where’s all the Arab Emirates out in that big old sand dune where all the oil comes from? The OPEC countries is all sand dunes and they’re pumping all this oil. Well, where’d the oil come from? It came from decayed vegetation and animal life because 20,000 years ago, that part of the world was a lush tropical jungle and there wasn’t anybody running up and down the road in a diesel truck then, you see what I’m saying? There’s things beyond my control and Daddy Bush, W.H Daddy Vice President of Reagan, back when I was in college he was a man, a staunch Reagan Republican and it shocked me as a college kid and a lot of people when a part of his presidential platform was environment and unlike all the greenies and what we think of as environmentalists today, radical folks, he came out and just said capitalism has environmental solutions and to his point, carbon sequestration, it’s brilliant. The whole business and the economy of carbon sequestration is great. The EPA can say, this company can’t put out as much atmospheric carbon out of its smokestacks. Well, they can offset that output with carbon credits and carbon credit price goes up because it’s traded at some point in time, you say, well, crap, it’d be better just to refabricate the smokestack than offset it with carbon credits. They sell their carbon credits, build a new plant. I mean, it works and it reduces atmospheric carbon. It’s a great system and everybody creates a lot of economy throughout the – from Nebraska to all over the country to do this business. I think it’s wonderful.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. And back to your point on our opinions of what’s going on with the climate, I’d probably say you’re probably one of the number one people that can see because you travel so much and the way I’m starting to look at what’s really happening with say our current region on what’s going on is watching the wildlife. What is happening with migration patterns? What is happening with our local pheasant population within a decade? What is going on with the deer? What is happening with EHD due to drought or are our deer coming back because of the mild winters and wet summers? But I mean, like you, I mean, obviously I just had a guy up from Louisiana the other day and we were talking about the Louisiana coastline down there, what’s going on? That’s pretty gnarly.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, it’s bad.

Coy Fisher: That’s unbelievable. So, I mean, there’s things out there that I totally, like, I’m not some sort of climate denier and I think that there’s things going on, but to your point, I think especially the farmers and ranchers and especially the sportsmen are doing everything they possibly can to make this thing work because if not, then we don’t got it for the next year and so I think that anything that we can do to make sure that we’re sustaining these resources, it’s beneficial, especially for us.

Ramsey Russell: I want to get into talking about hunting and fishing, but while we’re talking about this carbon stuff, I’m not a smart guy, but I do have an imagination. And geological history shows that places like all them OPEC countries were once lush tropical rainforest that produced all this oil we’re doing and if you look at parts of North America, the deserts, well, you can go look at the seashells in some of these land formations around the country and realize that at some point in time in history, a million years ago, it was underwater, maybe it was underwater before these ice caps up north existed, the Earth has got its own little cycle and maybe we in our activities impact that cycle, maybe we’ve got inputs or outputs, but I don’t think it really matters, it’s going to do what it does, you know what I’m saying? And I’m powerless, one time somebody, a lady, tried to get me into an argument up in Alaska, she was not from Alaska, she was from way down south in California and tried to rope me over a cup of coffee into getting into an argument over and I just held up my hand and said I’m not saying that it’s real or it’s not real, I’m just saying I’m a duck hunter and I’m completely powerless to do anything about it, I’m going duck hunting, that’s all I can say about it. I mean, we’re completely powerless. We could make a rule, this crazy administration we’ve got in power right now, they could pass a rule that we all got to ride bicycles to work. Well, India and China’s going to still crank up their production. So, I mean, what are we really changing at the global level? Nothing. I mean, there’s nothing what we can do.

Coy Fisher: These wildfires, I mean, it’s putting more carbon into the atmosphere than LA puts out in 20 years.

Ramsey Russell: Well, disking soil to plant crops put generates atmospheric carbon. There’s a lot of different sources of it. But anyway, you grew up hunting and fishing, you’re a land man and you decided, you’ve been in the guiding and outfitting business for about 10 years and you decided recently to form Prairie Morning Hunting Company. Let’s talk about Prairie Morning Hunting Company. I’ve hunted that area, I’ve hunted some of those properties, I’ve hunted some of those habitats. It’s an amazing part of North America, I’ve had people call and say if you had X dollars, where would you think about buying land as a duck hunter? And I’m thinking, man, somewhere up in that part of the world where I’d be looking. Of course, it’s a big landscape and there’s a lot of big landowners that own a lot of tracts of land out there, but nonetheless, that North Platte River and those associated tributaries and those habitats are pretty amazing. It’s pretty amazing what it represents in terms of hunting and fishing. I say hunting, not just waterfowl, there is a lot of waterfowl, a lot of mallards, a lot of Canada geese, but there’s also a lot of deer and pronghorn and mule deer and whitetails and turkey hunting, it’s an amazing part of the United States, really amazing. So what compelled you into Powder Morning Hunting Company? I know you touched on it previously, but when was it that you just said, man, this is my direction. What was it in your life that you saw an opportunity or compelled you into this business in addition to what you’re doing in the land area.

Navigating Public Land Hunting in Nebraska: A First-Hand Experience.

When I moved to Nebraska, I didn’t really have any place to hunt and so we ended up going to a public hunting area and we went and did the whole scouting thing the night before and we saw a pretty good buck and this is just a real short story, got there at about 03:00am the entire parking lot was full.

Coy Fisher: Well, when I moved to Nebraska, I didn’t really have any place to hunt and so we ended up going to a public hunting area and we went and did the whole scouting thing the night before and we saw a pretty good buck and this is just a real short story, got there at about 03:00am the entire parking lot was full, we started walking through the dark and you could just hear people all around us and sun started coming up and you could just see orange hunters all around this, like, bowl and this whitetail starts walking down through this bowl and it sounded like World War III. And right there I just sat down, I didn’t even shoot and I was just, I was so blown away at the public land hunting of Nebraska that I said, I got to find something for hunting and since I had a guide background I just started knocking on some doors and found the right group and I have a land background, so the way you work it is wildlife management, take liability off of the landowner, try to help with building up that tract of land with food plots or blinds or biggest thing is just making sure that you’re keeping trespassers off of it and making sure that no one gets hurt on their land because they could potentially sue that landowner if they get hurt on that land, even as a trespasser.

Ramsey Russell: Wow, that’s crazy.

Coy Fisher: So, we indemnify all of our landowners through our wildlife management program and I report just like I did with farm management, just like I do with oil and gas on and we talk with our landowners throughout the year. And basically they’re good friends at this point, we’ve been going almost 10 years with them and it’s kind of funny you try to get some leases and it’s always kind of a hard no. And you get discouraged and things like that and then, if you – In my belief, if you keep on doing things right they kind of start coming to you and anyway, we had about 270,000 acres and I got a call last year –

Ramsey Russell: 270,000 acres?

Coy Fisher: Yeah, we had about 270 and that was for more just deer and deer, antelope and upland, I never really had a ton of good goose hunting and duck hunting down here. We tried, but it was just, it was difficult to really put together a good operation with not as many blinds and pits that I felt would put out a good product. And so, anyway, we ended up getting another ranch this year, it’s about 156,000 acres, 14 miles of river, 13 miles of creek and so now we’re up to close to over 400,000 acres of managed leases here in Western Nebraska.

Ramsey Russell: How big an area? I mean, 400,000 acres. I can’t even do the math off the top of my head, that’s 100, that’s over 100 square miles as it is, but I know with different properties, you could be stretched out pretty far. I mean from the furthest property to the closest property, that could be a lot more than 100 miles.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. Hour and 15, hour and a half to the farthest point from the lodge, which, that’s not the best thing for clients, but that’s just how it is, our units are so huge up here and we’re talking deer hunting that you just, you got to do what you got to do, because there’s big bucks up there, too. But you got, now I got ranches that are 15 minutes, 10 minutes from us now, so it’s really –

Ramsey Russell: How scattered out are the waterfowl leases within that area?

Coy Fisher: So, waterfowl is all right there at the new lease. So far this away is going to be 20 minutes to those west leases. So I’ve got 2 tracks on the North Platte, I’ve got 4 miles to the west and then I’ve got 10 miles to the east and the new bunkhouse is right there on the east, so, I mean, we can be in the pit in 5 minutes.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Coy Fisher: Which is really nice.

Ramsey Russell: 16 miles. Is that what I’m saying? You all got about 16 miles of north Platte River frontage.

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Is all of that North Platte River hunted or is any of it haunted just seasonally or used a sanctuary?

Coy Fisher: So along the new lease, there are some private leases that we didn’t get and so you’ll have a few personal hunters out there on their leases, but most of it we have got as part of our operation and we will manage those accordingly to resting the way that we should. But right now, we have so many locations, I’ve got 19 blinds and pits right now with another 6 above ground, 7 man wood box blinds along a new DU easement, you got to see this easement, Ramsey, it’s unbelievable. Ducks Unlimited came in and took out about 3 miles of slew, hot water slew, took out all of the cattails and then they put in what they’re called rock chucks and it’s like a dam kind of and it’s also a bridge, but it keeps the water flowing through so that it keeps these hot water slews if it gets too cold from freezing up.

Ramsey Russell: So the water, they’ve got these structures in here, the water’s moving, but it’s also pooling because it’s slowing down.

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: So if it gets too cold, the water’s still open because it’s moving and because it’s warm. But it’s still got some deeper areas, we’re not talking about just a few inches deep, we’re talking about – Yeah, I got you. Wow.

Coy Fisher: And I mean, just that one little area, I mean, it’s probably about a mile wide, maybe a mile and a half wide. But there’s these 3 slews that they cleared out and –

Ramsey Russell: They just reformed them, they didn’t really clear them out, they just reshaped them to be more functional for waterfowl. Wow.

Coy Fisher: Exactly. They just totally, I mean, the amount of money and time they put into this thing and I don’t think it’s ever been hunted. I mean, I think the prior outfitter hunted it a little bit, but it wasn’t, this is the first year that they’ve got this thing cleared out and open to where these ducks can really pile in there, it’s not full of cattails.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Coy Fisher: And so, yeah, I’m really excited about that location.

Ramsey Russell: See, I don’t see how you would hunt. I don’t see how you could cover and hunt that many acres anyway, I don’t see how in a season, if you got hunters every day, how you could hunt all of that area. I mean, because even if you say, well, most of my waterfowl hunting is right here, if you got 400 something thousand acres, you’ve got to have those little potholes and streams and ponds and wetlands and creeks and drains somewhere throughout the whole thing that will attract a duck every now and again. You like to be stalking around hunting pronghorn or mule deer and come across a mother load of ducks just sitting around, is that possible?

Coy Fisher: Yeah, absolutely. Like Some of my northern stuff, where a lot of my pheasant hunting is, I’ve seen some of the – I mean, you’d never even think it’s duck hunting up there, I’ve seen some of the biggest night duck feeds tornado and down into those pivots up there and we’ve never even thought about hunting up there.

Ramsey Russell: Speaking because that big tornado somewhere up there, somewhere right there central to your property, somewhere there is a state or federal or private inviolate sanctuary that I myself, I have seen videos of unimaginable numbers of mallards that show up, when they show up and that’s it, that’s their stopping point, that’s their winning terminus. I want to say that the estimate I heard that sounded well informed was 3/4 of a million mallards somewhere sitting up there that will come off of that sanctuary and feed and utilize some of these areas around the landscape, but that’s an inviolate area, that is their wintering grounds, that just blows my mind because you all are a long way from Mississippi, if we’re waiting on ducks to come, those ducks ain’t coming south.

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: But anyway, where would that area be next to you all? Are you familiar with that property or what I’m thinking of?

Coy Fisher: Yeah, it’s on us, on my east stuff. It’s all state refuge.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Coy Fisher: And we have to be 100 yards or 330ft off of the main channel. We can’t hunt the actual river on that side, now I’ve got other stuff that we can hunt, the actual river from –

Ramsey Russell: Well, that area they’re laying up on, that’s the actual North Platte River. So, it’s a state refuge designed to hold those ducks and geese.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, especially geese. That’s why I think it’s become some of the best goose hunting in the country as well because they didn’t used to have geese back here in Western Nebraska like they did, you always hear everyone talking about the mallards, but they just didn’t have the geese. Well, now it’s kind of flip flopped, well, not flip flopped because the ducks are still here, but it’s definitely evened out. I mean, the past last year the geese didn’t make it down, this is just the reality of some of the stuff, obviously every waterfowler knows that. But one year we’ll have the ducks come down and one year we’ll have the geese come down and then another year we’ll have them both come down.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Coy Fisher: But in 2022 and 2020, I’m sorry, 2021 and 2022, we shot 1500 geese each year and we were 10:00 o’clock every morning taking naps at the cabin it was just slam dunk every day. Last year was completely different, but the ducks were down and we had some really good duck shoots last year and I don’t know what’s going to happen this year with how mild everything is, we’ll see what happens.

Ramsey Russell: It’s hard to say, on the one hand, it’s miles north of you, I talked to some boys up in Saskatchewan and Alberta yesterday and it’s in the 80s, which is right here in Mississippi, it’s in the 70s. They’re calling for snow up in New York and Ontario already, freeze warnings. I mean, so who knows? I know that talking to my buddies over there at WyoBraska, but Mojo and I hunted with them last year and it was 80⁰, 85⁰ in the afternoons, it was hot for a December, for a week before Christmas, it was hot.

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And nonetheless, we did shoot some ducks and geese, but it wasn’t right and I know talking to Michael and JJ, they had a record number of ducks because the ducks came and they had a record low of geese just because of the weather. And it’s normally they’re used to shooting, man, they’ve got a stretch that North Platte River, not only is it a femoral artery of birds coming through a migration corridor, but like you’re talking about the old days with geese, you all have got that state sanctuary you’re talking about, they’re hunting adjacent to a 15 or 20 mile stretch of landowner cooperative that just shuts the river down to hold those birds. I mean, it’s amazing, the forethought of something like that, that you can get a group of landowners together to cooperate and do that just in the benefit of waterfowl is part of what makes that entire region so amazing, because hunting pressure is killing a lot of the country and so to have a landholding like you’ve got next to some of those key elements, it bodes well for the duck and goose hunting.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, absolutely. I think more and more you’re seeing people not only, I mean, they’re kind of getting out of the hunting up here more and more. Not only that, because leases are getting to be so expensive, but also they’re just not getting the shooting that they’re getting and so what I tell them is come hunting with me, we’ll set out the dec’s, we’ll take care of you and come up 3 or 4   times and you’ll usually be money ahead, really it’s –

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Coy Fisher: But yeah, to that point, especially right where I’m at on my east stuff, there’s only 3 major landowners right there and we’re one of them, we’re the largest one. But the one to the east and the one to the north, they basically don’t even hunt. So, I mean, our hunting is just, I mean, it’s some of the best, I think, in Western Nebraska, if not the country and time will tell and see how it goes and we’re excited to put together our plan and take it slow.

The Impact of Weather on Waterfowl Hunting in Nebraska.

Nebraska, for the average guy to come from Mississippi or North Carolina and go out to Nebraska and hunt, that’s kind of daunting because there are a lot of big landowners, access is going to be a problem.

Ramsey Russell: You kind of bring up a point. I get asked this quite a bit, I mean, because we, for a quarter century have marketed our hunts and the hunts we broker worldwide to real duck hunters. Real duck hunts for real duck hunters and real duck hunters will ask the question, I’ve been asked it recently, I’m a real duck hunter, I don’t need a guide. Well, you’re really not paying, even though I’ve got a lot of close friends and clients and everybody else that skill set varies, their ability to call and scout and locate and play the game, it’s something you learn in time and hunting with a capable staff on the right place can help hasten that process, wing you along, but on the other hand, really and truly, let’s take your location, for example, Nebraska, for the average guy to come from Mississippi or North Carolina and go out to Nebraska and hunt, that’s kind of daunting because there are a lot of big landowners, access is going to be a problem, so you’re going to end up on some public areas that are kind of like a deer hunt you described, there’s going to be a decoy spread around every bend of the river or wherever you hunt out on the lake and if they’re even using that part of the world because of the hunting pressure, so really, truly what you’re really paying for when you buy a quote, guided hunt, unquote, is not so much ducks on a strap as an experience and access, that’s just it for me to come from Mississippi to hunt near Sydney, Nebraska, I’m not pulling a trailer. I’m not bringing all this stuff, I’m not bringing my decoys, I’m not burning tanks of gas every day, going scouting and knocking on doors and getting turned down because one man, one landowner, owned 156,000 acres and his grandkids hunted. I’m setting up shop where somebody’s already rolled out all those amenities and got it taken care of, that’s what I’m really paying for. I bring my duck call, I bring my dog, I bring my shotgun, I bring my shooting skills, I bring that kind of stuff, right? That’s what we bring, that’s really and truly why the outfitting industry brings such a great service to the public, it lets us from other places access certain place we want to go visit. I just want to throw that in there.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, I agree. I mean, we’re boots on the ground. We know where they’re at, where they’re hitting, my main job is to make sure that those pits and those blinds are clean capable and warm mostly and make sure we got the dec’s. I mean, I’m not going to be the one to say that I’m the greatest waterfowler in the world, I mean, that’s the biggest thing with ducks and geese is you got guys from down south, you got guys from up north, some of these California guys I hunt with, they’re amazing waterfowl hunters.

Ramsey Russell: You better believe it.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. And so, it’s just not something I’m interested in getting into and saying I’m, listen to me because I’m the best but the biggest thing is I’m here to provide your experience, I’m here to provide your comfort. and we’re going to – We got a place to go. I got a place for you to go and I’m going to do my best to put you on the birds and my biggest thing is if you’re a client coming out, we’re not here to just, yeah, once again, just fill those straps or kill the biggest deer if you have a good attitude, it always seems to work out, man. I mean, that’s my philosophy and –

Ramsey Russell: Most duck hunters do, because isn’t it kind of cool? Chef Jean Paul and I were talking about this the other day, how you go to different places and it’s so different, but it’s all the same whether you’re talking people or food or camaraderie or duck camp and isn’t it kind of cool that folks from California, folks from Maryland, folks from Mississippi can all convene somewhere along the North Platte River in Nebraska and we’re all duck hunters, we all get along and have a good time, share and borrow from each other’s culture and food recipes and atmosphere and just have a great time in a duck blind,  that’s what I love so much about this. What are the 3 landforms that the Midwest joins the Wild West? What are those 3 principal landforms with the Sandhills and the North Platte River Valley.

Coy Fisher: And then the Wildcat hills, high plains, yeah, kind of combined right there.

Ramsey Russell: It all combines right there at this location. So, I’ve got all these funnels and all these habitats and all this ecological diversity going on and what are the habitat types? Now I’m getting a little more specific within that North Platte River Valley that you all are waterfowl hunting, I know you’ve got the hot springs when things get cold, you’ve got different, the warm water sloughs, you’ve got the river and breaks and water bodies when that’s where the ducks want to be and then you all are hunting a lot of pivots, irrigated agriculture.

Coy Fisher: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: Are all those habitat, those waterfowl types close together? More or less?

Coy Fisher: Yeah. So that’s kind of the key formula is the feed, the water and then the different places that they can go, which also include in the Sandhills, thousands and thousands of above ground aquifer ponds that no one talks about, everyone talks about the North Dakota potholes and things like that, we have that same thing in Western Nebraska and no one even knows about it. I mean and right there at Lisco, where we’re at, if you go up just about 40 miles up into the Sandhills, we have a ranch called the Avery, and it looks like an oasis in the Sandhills, just full of alkaline lakes that in the early duck openers, it’s one of the best mixed bag hunts you’ll experience as far as –

Ramsey Russell: I’ve heard that from people, yeah.

Coy Fisher: Teal, pintail, widgeon, gadwall, mallards, even some redheads and canvasbacks, spoonbills –

Ramsey Russell: Is that where you all do a lot of your – like, I know you all kick off your early blue winged teal season in early September, like the 1^st weekend.

Coy Fisher: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: And is that where most of that takes place, up in that Sandhill region in those alkali ponds?

Coy Fisher: Yep. And we just got done last week, we had a pretty good hunt, once again, I think the weather’s not quite where there weren’t as many and we’re about 50-50 on the blue wing, green wing and we had a good shoot last week, I had some archery antelope guys in and then I always do a early teal dove shoot because the doves are thick, yeah. And so we got after that, but yeah, everything’s up north on that early duck stuff and it’s one of my favorite times because it’s the beginning of hunting, you got football coming you got dove poppers and it’s one of my favorite times, good weather.

Ramsey Russell: It’s my official new year September, you all can have New Year’s Day and the ball of New York and all that stuff, I’m all about the September 1^st, Labor Day weekend, that’s when it kicks, that’s when my new year starts, absolutely. So you all do have a great teal season up there in the Sandhills.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, it’s solid because it’s, they’re all – So these lakes are in the middle of nowhere, so they have to stay there and they’ll jump from pond to pond a little bit, but they’ll pop back over and we typically, sometimes it’s stupid, we’re done by like 08:00.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. And then go dove hunting that afternoon, I did not, I’m surprised to learn you all have got a big dove population up there early season.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, till about, we got about one more week and then they’re gone.

Ramsey Russell: Walk me through just from September through I guess mid to late January, walk me through the phases of you all’s waterfowl season, like timing wise, what’s the timeline for your seasons?

Navigating the Duck and Goose Hunting Seasons in Nebraska: Key Dates and Strategies.

And then, yeah, just keep pushing through the year through November, I feel like the ducks are really starting to pop it about Thanksgiving, we always do a good field duck shoot right at Thanksgiving morning and that’s always fun.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, we got 2 zones and zone 2 is the northern part of the state and that’s those early teal and then early opener. October 5^th is zone 2 opener and we got camps, probably 2 weekends of camps there which is a lot of fun and then opener is October 22^nd, I believe October, I’d have to check the guide again but yeah it’s like October 22^nd or 24^th is zone 3 down on the river and that’s going to be more early duck as well, you’ll catch a few mallards but it’s not our prime time for hunting at that point, there’s a lot of water open and those ducks still haven’t been pushed down from up north and then November, like early November, mid November is when I have my big deer camp and I’ve seen the goose and duck hunting, unbelievable, mid November, not a lot of people talk about mid November, but I’ve had some of our best goose shoots in mid November, especially on the river. And then, yeah, just keep pushing through the year through November, I feel like the ducks are really starting to pop it about Thanksgiving, we always do a good field duck shoot right at Thanksgiving morning and that’s always fun. Then December, the weather really starts hitting, that’s when we’re doing our muzzleloader deer, but that’s when I’m seeing a lot of ducks coming down, you’ll start seeing the big migration of greater northern geese coming down and then, yeah, December 15^th to January 15^th is the month that you really want to pack in there and we just go balls of the wall and see what we can do and we got so many locations that we know where they’re going to be at, we scout it and we get a game plan the night before and see what we can do.

Ramsey Russell: When does the duck season end?

Coy Fisher: January 25^th, something like that –

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, late year. And I guess by the time in a normal cold winter, that Christmas, new Year, that time frame there, I would guess that you all are really focusing now on a lot of that skinny water, that warm water, those warm water sloughs that don’t freeze.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. And this new lease that we got, it’s amazing, some of these creeks are no bigger than 10ft, 15ft wide and they’re covered in Russian olives and these mallards drop out of nowhere, 20 yards in front of your face and it’s some of the best hunting and it’s all like, right along in that Ducks Unlimited area that we were talking about.

Ramsey Russell: Is that what they’re eating or Russian olives that time of year? Is that how they’re sustaining themselves through the winter?

Coy Fisher: No, that’s just where all that water is.

Ramsey Russell: A lot of cover to get out of the wind.

Coy Fisher: A lot of cover, yep, just get down in those – get out of the elements and no, they’re eating all the corn.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s something, I want to shift gears briefly and talk a little – Well, yeah, before I shift after the duck season, after January 25^th, you all also have a very late Canada goose season, I know you all are shooting cacklers and Canada geese up until what, 9^th or 10^th of February?

Coy Fisher: Correct.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, that’s incredible. And by then, those birds are stuck. I mean, they’re there, they are boom, stopped down into the landscape, flying from the water to the corn every day, aren’t they? I just know from talking to a lot of folks up there, namely WyoBraska, my son went up there and hunted with them a few years ago, they all took 28 and 20 gauges and it was some of the most amazing goose hunting on earth was right there, that late in the season. Is that a big time of year for you all?

Coy Fisher: I haven’t pushed it a lot at that time, I’m getting pretty burned out, but no, we got about 2 weeks that I do a discounted, because those birds have been shot at, they’ve been around, so I kind of discount it. No, yeah, we got about 2 more weeks after duck that we can fill those camps but yeah, I’ve got some great, especially west towards Scotts Bluff, Bayard area in those pivots, we’ve got 6, 5 to 7 man pits, underground pits over there and that’s where we really –

Ramsey Russell: Heated I hope, for a southern –

Coy Fisher: Absolute man, I’m going to keep you warm, Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Now, I want to shift and talk about the big game, you talked about pronghorn in September and you all have got an amazing white-tailed and mule deer population out there, I mean, good bucks. What are some of the biggest whitetail and mule deer you all have seen, score wise or killed?

Coy Fisher: Well, I can tell you Powder Morning’s largest mule deer is a 213 and 3/8 new shot just north of one of our duck leases, new duck leases and it’s 13^th all time in the state of Nebraska and then our largest white tails are 197 and 1/8 whitetail, it was shot up in the Sandhills back in 2020, no, I’m sorry, 2019 and I had him on trail cam and yeah, that was a big one too, but we we’re not a trophy opera operation, we’re more of a just good deer, good size, try to take based off of the age of the animal, then size, I call a lot of deer bronze bucks that have good genetics but are only 2 and a half, 3 and a half year old deer that just shouldn’t be shot.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Coy Fisher: Especially mule deer. Mule deer are the green head of the big game world, right now. Everybody wants a mule deer.

Ramsey Russell: Absolutely.

Coy Fisher: Anybody will pay whatever for a mule deer. Especially the fact that our tags are basically over the counter and so my big game books really quick and we just got so much ground that it’s like hunting, I mean, you’re asking to try to figure out the size of our leasehold, it’s half the size of Rhode Island.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Oh, it’s massive.

Coy Fisher: We got a ton of ground and we try to just hunt because what happens is if you don’t see them in that 1^st camp, that 2^nd camp, hunters are pushing them onto us and we’re not – and our big thing when we guide is we don’t push our animals like you got to know what you’re doing when you guide, you don’t want to just run up there and shoot and knock everything out, we try to be very systematic about how we’re taking –

Ramsey Russell: Well then how do you hunt mule deer and whitetail? I mean, is it spot and stalk? Is it sitting and just looking at crossing areas or what?

Coy Fisher: Both. Our rifle hunt is mostly spot and stalk. We just get up on a hill and glass, you just glass because they’re rutting, that’s the other crazy part about Nebraska is you’re hunting mule deer in the rut, like it’s like unheard of and so a lot of these deer are just moving and then on the whitetail side, especially with this new lease, we’re going to be a lot of tree stand and box blind sitting, hunting on edges of pivots. I got archery guys coming in next week and a lot of them, what we do is we hunt around the pivots where they funnel.

Ramsey Russell: Yep.

Coy Fisher: Because they’re living in the corn and so you got to just know where they’re going to be coming and just be patient and we’ve been very successful that way.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, it’s needle in a haystack, deer could hide a lot of places 400,000 acres. I don’t know how you’d cover it all, I just don’t, even with binoculars, I don’t know how you’d cover that much with just a relative few amount of people. I just don’t see how you’d cover it, I just can’t imagine not seeing during the rut a buck that nobody’s laid eyes on just comes out of nowhere, he could have been just a half mile away or a mile away and just come chasing does and nobody, heck, we see it on our little property. And not near as big as what you all are covering that, it’s no telling what’s going to step out during the rut, it’s no telling what’s going to step out. You talk about managing for a mature buck profile, not necessarily antlers that opens up, that really leaves the hunters a lot of flexibility. If a guy’s all in on shooting a sure enough trophy, he can hunt him, but if a mature buck comes along and he’s happy with shooting that buck, he can too. I guess you all are going to about on whitetail and mule deer, about 5 and a half years old is what I’d guess you’re looking for a 5 year old buck.

Coy Fisher: 4 and a half is one of the –

Ramsey Russell: 4 and a half.

Coy Fisher: Kind of the bottom that we’re trying to take.

Ramsey Russell: Just average. So everybody listening that might want to come out there and whitetail deer hunt, they don’t think everyone’s going to be a 200 inch deer and guys that shoot them deer know better, but what would be the average Boone and Crockett rough score, the gross score of a 4 and a half year old whitetail or mule deer out there. What can somebody expect?

Coy Fisher: 140, 150.

Ramsey Russell: 140, 150?

Coy Fisher: 155 is what we trying to – Yeah, we shoot a lot of those 3 and a half, 4 and a half year old bucks that are in that 155 to 165, good mass, big belly, good shoulders, just a takeable deer. Nebraska is a weird and people will probably not like what I’m about to say, but it’s kind of a harvest state and what I mean by that is we got one week to hunt rifle and so you get thousands and thousands of people that come out here and even locals too, you wouldn’t believe how many 2 and a half, one and a half year old deer I see get shot.

Ramsey Russell: I’m from Mississippi, I can imagine, yeah.

Nebraska’s Draw System: A Shift Toward Managing Waterfowl.

It has the Ogallala Aquifer underneath it, that’s the largest fresh aquifer that’s bubbling up to the surface. So these animals can sit on a hundred thousand acre ranch that no one’s ever going to see them, they’re going to have plenty of feed, water and breeding ground to create a whole new generation.

Coy Fisher: And so I think that’s just kind of the mentality in Nebraska, I don’t know, I think they’re kind of moving away from it now that they’re going to a draw system, trying to push more towards like South Dakota and Kansas are 2 neighbors to the north and the south, but I don’t know, I personally like our system the way it is, I’m seeing a lot of good deer still getting shot because what I still believe is I think we have some of the best populations in the country and the reason for that is because of the Sandhills. The Sandhills are 100, 200 mile area of basically nothingness, but it’s nothingness that is some of the best habitat in the world. It has the Ogallala Aquifer underneath it, that’s the largest fresh aquifer that’s bubbling up to the surface. So these animals can sit on a hundred thousand acre ranch that no one’s ever going to see them, they’re going to have plenty of feed, water and breeding ground to create a whole new generation.

Ramsey Russell: Those are surprisingly productive soils where they’ve got the mineral and everything else they need coming through the plant, the browse to produce, all they need is age structure, that’s all they really need to get nice size deer.

Coy Fisher: And that’s just talking about the mule deer, you talk about whitetail, start getting into the Midwest, you’re starting to push into eastern Nebraska, that’s just as good as western Iowa, northeastern Missouri type genetics on the whitetail and so we’re seeing a lot of these deer following the corn belt out west and we’re seeing some big whitetail coming down into these Sandhills and it’s just a really amazing place.

Ramsey Russell: I see what you’re saying by harvest state, if I lived out there and had my cameras out and found a buck that I named, I could go after him, archery, muzzle loader, rifle and then it’s over. I could camp out on that deer but if the average guy coming to hunt a rifle hunter, I’ve got a week and you’re in the rut, so I’ve got to decide, know when the deer steps out, yep, that’s my deer this year, boom, just hope he’s mature enough to get that age profile going.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. And that’s not my term, Ramsey on the harvest, that’s just the reality of what Nebraska is as a big game management state and that’s fine because here’s another thing I was saving, I bet I had probably 10 deer in that 155 to 165 class whitetail up on one of my ranches, I was saving them, I was like, okay, we’re going to grow these deer, they all died the next year from EHD and Bluetongue.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Coy Fisher: So it’s just a hard reality on what’s going to happen out there and that’s just the way it is.

Ramsey Russell: Yep. You’ve talked a lot about the experience, you and I talked a lot about this when we were signing up and I love to hear this with a prospective outfitter because there’s a million different reasons the ducks or geese may not cooperate, if I’m going to book a trip, we talked before the show, I’m going to come out there and see you at the 1^st of the year, no idea, it could be 80⁰, it could be -42⁰, we have no idea what it’s going to be, there’s a million different reasons, but there’s more to it than just that, I mean, all things equal, it’s a duck hunt, but then it comes into everything else. You talk a lot about the lodging and the amenities and the food and the hospitality, could you elaborate on some of those aspects? Regards Powder Morning Hunting Company.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. So right now, we’ve got 3 lodges that we have, we’ve got a West Cabin and we’ve got the East Riverview Lodge, right now we rent that lodge, it sleeps 24. We’re working on trying to acquire it full time for as we move forward, but we got that on a rentable basis and it’s beautiful, really great place and big open entertainment area, pool table, big screen TV, really nice kitchen, we do home cooked meals and we always try to satisfy our clients with if they have any food allergies or anything like that and make sure that they’re kind of getting what they want. We always have plenty of food and then most of our rooms are 2 to a room and we have Wifi in all of our lodges, that seems to be the number one question when everyone shows up, which I’m the same way I got out of my Wifi and a lot of guys, it’s amazing, once again, you can work while you’re hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Speaking of which, I got to say this, I can remember fairly recently, 7, 8 years ago, good friend of mine, great outfitter down in Argentina, had a flat screen TV, 30 of them throughout the lot, every single room by everything, but the bathroom, he had a TV, he was so proud of him, like, you don’t have Wi-Fi, you got to have Wi-Fi –

Coy Fisher: Oh, you didn’t have Wi-Fi.

Ramsey Russell: Forget the television, man, we got to have Wi-Fi. I said, I don’t understand, I don’t speak Spanish, I don’t know what they’re saying on the TV, I need Wi-Fi, man. But anyway, go ahead, that’s a really big deal today.

Coy Fisher: It’s a big deal and so the new bunk house, it sleeps 6 and then I got another trailer down where the guides sleep, it sleeps 5, but that’s what I’ve been working on the past this whole summer is this new bunk house and it was pretty rough when we first got it, but now we’ve got beautiful hardwood floors, Wifi, big screen TV and it’s just right at location it’s great and so, yeah, that’s the biggest thing and then meals are all home cooked and just want to make sure, that’s the number one thing that I do not skimp on, I’m going to have so much food, you’re going to get sick of eating, it’s the cheapest, best thing for a client, its food –

Ramsey Russell: That’s a part of vacation, is eating.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, man.

Ramsey Russell: What are some of the house specialties? I’m guessing you all got some big old thick bam size Nebraska steaks, but what are some of the house specialties I could expect to eat up there.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, so we’re pretty American, but I always do a spaghetti night, lasagna night, we have a – it’s called Lazetti, my wife makes it. It’s kind of like lasagna and spaghetti, it’s really good, Texas toast, salad, chips and dip and then I always have Gatorade, lemonade and water stacked up there so you can drink, she does like an Asian night, like really good, like orange chicken and different things fried rice, I love my taco nights, shredded chicken, pork, we’ll do like kind of like street tacos, that’s pretty good. I do like a chicken thigh with mushrooms and jasmine rice.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Coy Fisher: And that’s like one of our camp favorites, that’s what I open up my deer camp with and put this really good mushroom sauce on a chicken thigh and with jasmine rice and it’s pretty delicious and then I just found this gal, she makes these authentic enchiladas, she’s got –

Ramsey Russell: Oh, boy.

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: That’s going to be my favorite night right there.

Coy Fisher: Oh, man, these enchiladas, put that green chili on, they’re delicious.

Ramsey Russell: It’s funny talking about Mexican food somewhere like Nebraska or Wyoming, but some of the best, I never forget pulling into some little Mexican restaurant somewhere out through that stretch one time and the lunch special was hot tamales, I’m from the Mississippi Delta, dude, for them to say they got the best hot tamales was almost fighting words and it was out of this world, it was like a 3^rd generation Mexican Hispanic restaurant, it was some of the best hot tamales I’ve ever had. But anyway, that’s a big deal out there.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, we’re definitely not to the point where you see some of these duck lodges with the cute little fish with sauce –

Ramsey Russell: I call it edible art.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, we don’t got that yet and I don’t know if I’ll ever go to that. But yeah, mostly just hearty good meals, man, pitting the breakfast or breakfast in the pits, one of my favorite things.

Ramsey Russell: You all do that, don’t you? You all cook breakfast out on those, that’s got to be good on a cold morning, waiting on the birds to get up and fly and come into these areas, that’s got to be good smelling pancakes and eggs and bacon and I don’t ever get tired of it.

Coy Fisher: Yeah, well I think it’s the best too, it’s a good time saver because you’re not screwing around, messing around in the morning getting breakfast, like get your coffee get taken care of at the restroom and let’s get to the pit and then we’ll get cooking and see what’s happening, you just don’t want to miss that morning flight.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. Well, it sounds like you all got a great menu. I’m honestly, that sound like my kind of menu, that’s the kind of food I think most of us eat is just good old home cooked meals, man, that as somebody that travels a lot and I travel a lot, man, that’s what I miss the most are home cooked meals, that’s what I miss the absolute most are just good home cooked meals, so your wife does all the cooking?

Coy Fisher: On our big camps, yeah, we, on our smaller camps like, I got 2 elk hunters coming in this weekend, I’ll handle everything, it’s pretty easy, but when you start busting into 16 guys in camp, we got to – She earns her money for those cooking –

Ramsey Russell: I bet she does. I guess you get, man, cooking for 16 people to lick, do you all ever cook the game, the waterfowl, anything like that?

Coy Fisher: Yeah. I love especially guys that aren’t going to they’re probably going to donate their meals or donate their meat, I always ask if we could throw on a tenderloin, wrap it in some bacon and kind of compare it with the T bone or the rib eye and see how it fares or really good appetizers or cut up some duck on with some garlic and butter and guys like heat mat or pheasant, so yeah, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Well, Coy, I appreciate you, I’m going to definitely, we get off, we wrap up and I’ve started laying out my schedule and I’ve got a big old hole around New Year’s that ought to be some pretty decent hunting that time of year, huh?

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Where would be the best place for me to commercially fly in to meet you, Sydney?

Coy Fisher: Denver.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. Most guys I could fly into Denver, rent a car, drive a few hours and be there at camp ready to roll, Denver’s easy to get into too, that’s a big airport, you can fly there from anywhere.

Coy Fisher: Yeah. And you can always, I got guys that always ship their supplies sometimes first and then fly in, I always send a welcome pack with directional and equipment list and then also I’ll send you a pin to get there. It’s really easy and yeah, we don’t have a whole lot of issues of getting guys to camp.

Ramsey Russell: That’s good. Well, Coy, I appreciate you coming on and those dates I’m looking at, for anybody listening it might want to join me those days I’m looking at would be that 1^st week of January, plus or minus a little bit. It may be a little bit before New Year, maybe a little bit after, I’m sitting here looking at my calendar and I’m thinking 3^rd, 4^th, that timeframe, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, that would give me the week between Christmas and New Year’s to do what little bit of deer hunting I do and hang around in my own personal camp, that’s the time of year our rut hits and  if I’m not going to hunt before 5 days for deer at my own place, that’s the time you all want to be there because really, truly, no telling what’s going to step out, it’s just no telling, it could be one of the deer everybody’s been hunting or it could be one of the deer that nobody’s ever laid eyes on before and I just, I like to be around that time of year, but I want to come up there and visit you, I want to come see you and I’d invite anybody listening, how many people could you take? That time of year?

Coy Fisher: We can take up to 6 guys on a camp, lodging wise, we can do about 12 for 2 camps.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Coy Fisher: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Run a couple of different groups. Well, I would just hope if any 2 or 3 or 4 folks want to take a break from down south, go find some ducks up in this part of Nebraska, let’s go do it, but I’ll see you regardless, Coy, I guarantee and I appreciate you coming on board, I’m excited to have you on board with the USHuntList Powder Morning Outfitters, Wyoming Waterfowl Hunt, excuse me, Nebraska Waterfowl Hunt got the best of me, we were talking about Cheyenne earlier, we’re talking about Nebraska and I will be there. Folks, if you all are interested in checking out Coy, go to USHuntList.com or go to POMO, that’s kind of an abbreviation for Powder Morning, pomo.com. Coy, is there any other way they can get in touch with you?

Coy Fisher: Yeah, just pomohunting.com and then you can call me, it’s on our website and we can get that booked and typically, we just need a deposit and that’ll hold your days and we’ll get with you and let’s go hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Coy, thank you very much. Folks, thank you all for listening to this episode of MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere Podcast where we’ve been visiting with Coy up there at Powder Morning Hunting Company, check it out, ushuntlist or pomohunting.com. See you next time.

[End of Audio]

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