EP 504. On Cloud 9 in Alberta

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to Mojo’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, where today I have reached way up to Alberta with my buddy Ben Commodore of Cloud 9 Outfitters, which is a part of the Ranchland Outfitters team. Ben, how the heck are you, man?

Ben Commodore: I’m doing fantastic, Ramsey, how you doing?

Ramsey Russell: Good. Good to see you and see you all. I saw all of you all at Delta Waterfowl Expo recently, man. What was it like to leave the Great White North and come down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana?

Ben Commodore: Biggest takeaway: humidity. It was hot. That was my big one. Thankfully, it was inside, but it was like, you open that door to the convention center at the end of the day, and you walk out to go to the car, and it’s just like walking into a wall.

Ramsey Russell: Walking into a big, wet wall. It didn’t make your hair frizz up or something, did it?

Ben Commodore: No. Humidity, Heat. But you know what? It’s nice to go to those things and see the shows. I went to the very first one in Little Rock. I didn’t go to the second one. And, you know, we were just talking before recording, but the difference in the culture and the love for duck hunting. The further south you go, I like to tell people up here that don’t get it. The further south you go, it becomes more of a religion. Duck hunting is a way of life, the season revolves around it, and it’s really neat to go down and see all that and experience it, whether it’s the carving and the calling and all the companies you see online these days. It’s really cool to go and experience that, especially as a kid from Canada.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I saw you there, and I gotta say, of course, the whole Ranchland family. But I also saw you at Safari Club International. You all exhibit at Safari Club International each year also.

Ben Commodore: Yeah. And that, I mean, that’s a totally different, as you know, that’s a whole different crowd. That’s a whole different feel. But yeah, trying to get your feet in and kind of network with people like yourselves in the industry, but also, you know, reaching different clientele, reaching different people. At Delta, for me, especially, there were quite a few guys that are coming this year, and it was just nice to be able to talk with them face to face before you’re sharing a blind, because a lot of your conversation, if not all of it, is over the phone, right?

Ramsey Russell: So, absolutely. My buddy Greg Moolah is going to be up there hunting with you all this year, and he’s a huge fowl supporter. Great client of ours, become a great friend.

Ben Commodore: Yeah, he’s excited. His group is excited. His daughter, actually, that’s how I met him, was through his daughter’s company when I had my youngest, and she gave me a bunch of stuff for Bennett. And he’s finally starting to fit it now. But yeah, Greg’s a heck of a nice guy.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. You know, when I go to a show like Delta Waterfowl Expo, it is as much about just shaking hands and meeting people and talking. I’m not there to sell anything. I’m just there to engage people, man. It’s my people. It’s a bunch of duck hunters, you know, and I love it. Now, are you born and raised in Alberta? Is that where you’re from, Alberta, Canada?

Ben Commodore: So I live here, unfortunately, and this is kind of a friend of your Canadian listeners are going to just laugh at this, but unfortunately, I grew up in Ontario and moved out here. Now, my wife and I have lived out here 13 years, I think it’s been, we’ve been in Alberta now, and this is home. I mean, Rob and I have had that conversation. I’ve had it with plenty of other people, and you couldn’t pay me enough to go back. This is home. This is a sportsman’s paradise. I love every bit of it out here.

Ramsey Russell: But there’s some great duck hunting and a lot of great duck hunting and goose hunting in Ontario, too. But it is different. That’s where your capital is. Your capital is a lot like my capital the past four years, to put it mildly.

Ben Commodore: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I don’t even know if we want to go off the rails down that one. But you’re not wrong. The biggest thing for me, Ramsey, I’ll be honest with you, and I saw a thing today, actually, a guy said it, “Field hunting’s for lazy people.” I don’t know about you, but I love driving into the field, dropping the trailer door, going, “We’re killing a bunch of ducks in this spot today.” And there’s a saying I have with a very good friend of mine. He was the best man at my wedding. And we firmly believe that hunting greenhead ducks in a field is the sport of kings. And I couldn’t agree more with that statement. I’m not big on water hunting. I’ve had too many close calls later in the year. Just scary stuff happened with a dog that just, I’m so turned off of water, and something about the scouting and everything that goes into hunting them in a field, it does something to me that water doesn’t.

Ramsey Russell: I do like dry field hunting, but I’ve hunted them in agricultural fields. I’ve hunted them in marshes. I’ve hunted them in big open water. I’ve hunted them in all the different scenarios, and I don’t think I could pick any, to include flooded green timber, I don’t think I could pick any one type way to hunt a mallard duck and want to do it every single day. But to your point, I do think that being able to drive when the fields are dry, which they mostly are that time of year in the fall, out to the “X” and put out decoys with the Turtle box playing music in the background, and the ground’s lit up like a stadium, and put them out just right, get stubbled in and everything comfortable, I’m not muddy, I’m not nasty. I’ve got on my field boots, my nice warm clothes, and crawled into a blind. That’s about as comfortable a way, that’s as close to sitting in my recliner and killing mallard ducks, and lots of them. And I will say this, too. One of my favorite aspects of hunting ducks on the prairie, on those dry fields, is hardly anywhere else consistently do I hunt, especially mallard ducks, and see the abundant clouds of ducks working. I’ve hunted with you all sometimes that we just don’t fire into the flock, why? Let them break off and come back in smaller groups, right? But whether you do or you don’t, it’s hard to say this, man, because it’s a heck yeah when you call the shot, I’m up and shooting. But just to be that close with all those mallards on top of mallards on top of mallards landing right there at your feet is just spellbinding. And you don’t, you don’t see that in a lot of other situations.

Ben Commodore: No. And I think the other thing that draws me to the field hunting more over the water is the ability and the opportunity. I mean, you can get a much bigger mixed bag of duck species over water. But I love ducks. I really like goose hunting just as much, and so the ability to, you can find a field that’s got some speckled bellies, that’s got some snow geese, and has some ducks in it, and you’re going to be able to harvest and have a hunt where you’re changing your calls out, and you’re able to attack and target all varying species of geese and ducks. And I think the water side of it, you can get geese over water. I’m not saying you can’t, but I feel like it would be a different situation than the field hunting that we get to experience.

Terry Denmon’s Recommendation: Alberta Dry Field Hunts.

What hunt would we recommend somebody leave their familiar territory, you know, their backyard, to do? And Denmon’s answer was, go to Alberta and experience dry field hunts.

Ramsey Russell: Terry Denmon and I did a podcast with Delta Waterfowl at the expo, and we were asked the question, as people that travel around and do a bunch, you know, what hunt would we recommend somebody leave their familiar territory, you know, their backyard, to do? And Denmon’s answer was, go to Alberta and experience dry field hunts. And when I was asked, I said, I won’t disagree with that. But I would suggest, just to be the outlier, that most people from Alberta, Saskatchewan, clear on down to Mississippi, Louisiana up in the hubs, unless you’re somewhere on the west coast or east coast, you don’t get to experience sea duck hunting. And if you want to step out of familiar backgrounds, and I’m not a huge fan at all of sea duck hunting, I do it, I like it, it ain’t my favorite, but it is so different than anything else, we’re going to do over water or over land in the duck hunting world. I recommend it, and the species are different and everything else. But I do get asked, to Terry’s point, I do get asked a lot of times by people that are wanting to spread their wings and go hunt different areas, like, where should they go? What would be a logical first step? Okay, I’ve hunted here in my backyard. I’ve hunted some surrounding areas within commuting distance. I’m ready to do a big trip. Where should I go? Should I go to Argentina? Well, hell yeah, you ought to go to Argentina. It’s amazing. But truthfully, my own personal way of how that little circle got bigger and bigger, it started in the deep south, and then it went right to Canada, to the headwaters of the migration. And to me, that’s a very logical step because it’s going to be different in a lot of different ways than what you’re used to. It’s going to be better. It’s going to be probably, especially if you’re a deep south hunter, you get to kick off the season at a different time of year, so you get to add a few days to your total year hunt. And it’s just, it’s awesome. And then from there, boom, Mexico. Same species, different experience. So now I’ve hunted the coast, I’ve hunted the headwaters, I’ve hunted the in-between, the middle ground, and then maybe you’re ready to start going and seeing some of the rest of the world. That’s just my logical order and sense of things. But I do put Canada high up on the list. And I’ve since been able to hunt not just over water, Ben, but big water, you know, for what a lot of Alberta and Saskatchewan and you all’s neck of the woods and the prairie has got to offer for mallards and snows and specks and Canadas and cacklers. Canada’s also got to offer for freaking divers. I mean, redheads and canvasbacks and bluebills. And that’s a big thing unto itself up in that part of the world.

Ben Commodore: And that’s something that, you know, there’s plenty of opportunity on the diver stuff. It’s just, you know, for me as a business standpoint, as an outfitter, a lot of guys, they’re coming to Canada. They want mallards, the pintails, they want the big numbers, the big volume at their feet. That’s what they’re looking for. And, you know, for me to turn around and say, hey, you guys want to go try and shoot some divers, they’d say, man, I could have gone to the east coast of the states and done that for a lot, you know, reasonably cheaper, or, you know, it’s not what you expect when you come to Canada. And that’d be the hard sell, I think.

Ramsey Russell: Well, let me ask you this question, and I ask a lot of my outfitters up in Canada this all the time, or people I know in that business. You get a group, and I’ve hunted with you all lots of times and know what the program is, but you get a group, especially from the south, and they show up. What do they want to shoot the most?

Ben Commodore: Ducks.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it ain’t the geese. It ain’t those, my greater geese. It’s not the snows. It’s not even specks. They want to shoot those mallards.

Ben Commodore: Southern boys, for sure. It’s mallards. Interestingly enough, this year, a couple different groups, big Canadas are like, we’ll shoot duck. You know, we know that’s part of the program, but our big target, because I always ask guys when they call and they say, hey, I’d like to book a hunt. When’s the best time? Well, that depends on you. One, the first question I always ask, do you care if the duck has color on the head or not? Some guys do, some don’t. They want a green-headed duck. Okay, well, now we’re talking October. Do you have a species of goose that you’re after? Or November, for that matter, because I’ll go that late. Do you have a species of goose you’re targeting? And if they start getting specs and snows, then I can kind of pinpoint them that way. If they say giant Canadas, okay, why don’t you come see me in November? Yeah, let’s go shoot them in November in the snow. And we’re going to get you greenhead ducks. But, yeah, the most overwhelming majority are, we want to shoot greenheads. Pintails they like. But they also realize, you’re not putting one of our pintails on a wall.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. And, you know, I don’t, I do prefer when the birds are colored up a little bit later in the season. But I just, I like the decoy ducks. But you know what? What brought me to Canada are the geese, the migrator Canadas, because down in my neck of the woods anymore, if we’re shooting Canada geese, they’re all resident birds. And I like to shoot those migrators. I love to shoot the cacklers. But, you know, really and true, what I have absolutely fallen in love with, and where was I? I was just, I was over in Europe getting asked about this just recently, some European hunters that want to come and experience this. But my favorite is snow geese. I love the snow geese, and I’m sorry, I cannot think of anywhere else that I have hunted lesser snow geese, a better place to hunt them than prairie Canada, your neck of the woods in the fall and again in the spring. It’s just something about it. I know there’s timing issues among the different seasons, depending on what the ice line’s doing and the migration is doing, but it’s just, and I don’t care that the bag limit is not truly unlimited. Twenty’s plenty. Those birds come in, I mean, both in the spring and the fall. When I’m shooting in Canada for snow geese, I’m using a 28-gauge. The birds are coming in, they’re decoying. None of these 70, 80-yard shots, praying and praise, you know, I mean, they’re coming in, and I love them.

Ben Commodore: So the nice thing about Alberta, in Saskatchewan it’s a 20, we’re 50. So it is almost, not quite unlimited. But you start getting to that, you start getting close 50 per day.

Ramsey Russell: That’s a lot of birds.

Ben Commodore: Well, and too, so myself and then Chinook, which is also part of the Ranch Land family, this year, both of us, back-to-back, like within a week of each other, put over 400 down in a morning hunt this fall. So for you, like you say, there’s nothing short of spectacular on the snow goose stuff. And for people that experience that, it’s like, it blows your mind. You just can’t comprehend it.

Ramsey Russell: You had the snow geese for a long time. I called Rob Reynolds back in, gosh, it was December, and I had heard a rumor that there were still snow geese up there. I called him to confirm, and when I answered, he was kind of huffing and puffing, like he was working. I said, what are you doing? He said, man, I’m walking out of the field with a bunch of snow geese on my shoulder. I said, dude, it was December 18, and you all had just smacked a bunch of snow geese. You all just limited out on snow geese. That’s unheard of. Those birds should have been in the deep south by then. Last year, you know.

Ben Commodore: Yeah, we actually had some kicking around after the season closed on December 23. We still had them. Last report I saw was January 15. There were still thousands of them around. Some of the birding Facebook groups and birders were posting about them. I was like, holy smokes, that’s late. They’re not making it all the way to Arkansas at that point, they’re just going as far south as they need to and turning around.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right, yeah, they’re going to stay as far north at that point as they can. I was shocked because when I was up there, I hunted with Rob last year, late October, early November, and it was cold, buddy, It was cold. I’m talking ten degrees cold with the wind blowing. Those were the mornings you’re glad to have a layout blind around you, you know what I’m saying? To keep the wind and cold off you. And gosh, the snow goose hunting was epic. But that first day, we didn’t see many after that. It’s like they left. I think they just flew an hour south to where you are, you know?

Ben Commodore: Yeah, they flew down to us and I think shortly after you left, Terry and the Mojo guys came in, and we had a hunt with them. We shot 60 bonus snow geese in the morning after an eight-man limit of ducks. And it was, you know, they just stuck, we had him around, they were kicking around then the black particular pod of snow gees, I kept hunting those same ones for a couple of weeks. Let them rest, they’d pick a new field, let them relax. Then we’d go again because they weren’t leaving, they weren’t losing the water.

Ramsey Russell: Right, right. So what brought you from Ontario to Alberta 13 years ago? What was it, it was a  goose hunting, dry field? What are we talking about here?

Ben Commodore: Chasing an electrical ticket is what first did it. I’ll give you the short version or quick version of my history. In Ontario, at the time, 12 years old was when you could legally start shooting. My dad died when I was eleven. None of his buddies really stayed in touch with me. They all promised everything, but nobody ever called to take me hunting. About 21, I was 21 or 22, met my now wife and decided I wanted to get back into hunting. Of all things that got me back into it, it was a turkey. Started turkey hunting, saw the turkey, and fell in love with it. Got all my dad’s guns back, as that was the agreement with his hunting buddy, as long as I had the thumbs up from my mother, I was good to have them. Got them all back and just took a nosedive into hunting. Well, that summer, I got offered an apprenticeship in Alberta to become an electrician. That moved me out here, and I had to learn how and where to hunt. I essentially self-taught myself duck hunting through trial and error, YouTube, the whole nine yards. And it’s just kind of taken off to the point where I’d eat all my vacation time to go guide and work for guys, take unpaid time off, and extend it so I could just be in it. For my wife and I, our life has become completely surrounded and obsessed around the idea of duck hunting, to the point that where we live and where she chose to take a job centered around where the better duck hunting in the world was. We’ve got five labs. We planned when our son, and now our second, is on the way but we plan both around. So we wouldn’t have a kid during the season.

Ramsey Russell: Is she a waterfowl hunter also?

Ben Commodore: She grew up as an anti, believe it or not. She grew up as a city girl in Toronto, Ontario. And she will now shoot ducks.

Ramsey Russell: I would expect nothing else from somebody who grew up in Toronto. Do you think she kind of grew up like that because she wasn’t around people that hunted? Like, when you’re so far removed from it, it’s easy to be against it because you don’t know anything about it.

Ben Commodore: And it’s the idea of, you know, if you really care about them, how it’s that whole dichotomy of, “How do you shoot something that you love so much?”

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Ben Commodore: We talk about that all the time about the dollars that hunters give back into conservation. You’ve talked about that plenty. But I think that was a lot of it for her. Once she started to understand the process, the dollars, and saw all my volunteer time with Delta and Ducks Unlimited, what really kicked it off was getting our first lab, Minnie. For her to see, okay, it’s more than just shooting, there’s a passion here. For me, it’s dogs and training them. Seeing that dog, and knowing the Labrador exists to retrieve ducks, and we’ve also allowed them to be fantastic companion animals, but the core of them is to hunt ducks. To see a dog in its element. And then for her to come out and enjoy it. The very first duck hunt I took her on, we went hunting with a teacher at one of the local colleges that teaches the fish and wildlife program. Walking back to the truck after we shot a six-man limit of ducks in 45 minutes, she turned to him and asked, Carrie, was that a good hunt? He starts laughing and says, there are guys in the States that would give anything to experience that. She goes, well, that was my first one. I hadn’t told anyone it was her first hunt because I didn’t want them to single her out and say, oh, Heather, go ahead, this one’s for you. She hates that stuff and specifically asked me not to do that. So, yeah, was that a good hunt? Yeah, I’m pretty sure that was a good hunt. And for her to see how passionate I am. That’s the biggest thing for her. Will she hunt? Yes, she’ll come out and hunt. Now that we have Bennett and I’m not going to put ideas into his head or push him anywhere, but if he’s a duck hunter, seeing that relationship and where I’d like it to go, she totally gets it. She understands it completely, supports duck hunting, and I’d even go as far as to say she’s an advocate. When she’s talking with coworkers or people she went to school with, she’ll actually correct them and say, “Actually, that’s not correct. Duck hunters actually hunters in general are the number one providers of conservation.”

Ramsey Russell: They absolutely are. And, you know, the irony of an anti-hunter around Toronto, and I love to hunt with friends, over around Toronto. I just love to hunt up there, you know, when I’m passing through, every time I stop, I fall in with them, and we have a wonderful time. They deal with anti-hunters, but the irony of an anti-hunter in the big, sprawling metropolis of Toronto is that, that big, sprawling metropolis is taking huge bites out of the habitat and out of the resource daily. It’s just absolute, it’s just, it’s leaps and bounds. I mean, they’re gobbling up all this habitat for ducks and geese. Don’t worry about the guys going out and shooting a few. Why don’t you worry about, you and your neighbors, your civilization, killing thousands or millions of them over time and displacing them. That’s the real irony of it all to me.

Ben Commodore: It’s not lost on me. You know, one thing that’s funny, my stepdad grew up in one of the suburbs of Toronto, and we talk about it all the time. The Toronto airport changed and moved the migration pattern. So that migration pattern moved over to what is now downtown Toronto, and those skyscrapers then pushed it and moved it again, further east. There was talk at one point of putting another airport on the east side of Toronto, and they kiboshed that. And it was because of the migration of the birds. And they’re like, look, you pushed these birds east twice already, you’ve moved their path significantly. Enough is enough. We’re not doing it anymore.

Speaker_A  : Yeah, but, you know, like, that’s the stuff I think that people don’t think about in the city, because they don’t see it. It’s not, you know, it doesn’t sound or look as gruesome. Whereas we’re out there shooting these things, how could you, right? So, yeah, yeah. I’m just grateful that she had enough of an open mind, because, I mean, obviously, I don’t think the relationship would have existed. We probably wouldn’t have gotten married if she was an anti. And for her to be open to the idea of, okay, let me learn about this as opposed to just shutting it down, which I’m very grateful for.

Ramsey Russell: So, you move out to Alberta, become an electrician, and become an avid, avid waterfowl hunter. How did you transition into Cloud 9 Outfitters?

Ben Commodore: It’s been a lot of planning and years of, you know, talking about it and kind of goal planning and one day I’d like to do this. How do I get into this, and trying to learn the ins and outs and the rules up here, because it’s different than just getting a business license and going, as you know. And I actually met Rob, it’s been three years, four years ago now, when I worked for Dive Bomb, and we went and hunted with Rob. And he kind of planted the idea a little bit, and we stayed in touch, continued talking. And then from my end, I’m a huge relationship guy, I’m big on building relationships. And, you develop relationships with the outfitters down here, and at some point some of these guys, they’re getting older, they’re going to want to retire. And you start, you know, you ask them questions, and one thing leads to another, and, yeah, Cloud 9 kind of came about as people were retiring and opportunities presented themselves. And Rob and I further continued our conversation and building our relationship, and, yeah, the rest is kind of history at this point.

Ramsey Russell: Well, what’s it like as an avid, avid hunter like yourself that enjoys it? Enjoys it for what it is, enjoys going out and hunting with your friends and your family? What’s it like all of a sudden to become an outfitter, a guide? Is it everything you dreamed it would be, or what is the difference in perception and reality?

The Overlooked Work Behind a Successful Outfitting Operation.

And I’ve learned a lot of that from Rob as well, just in the way that he carries himself, Rob and his wife, Lori, and how they conduct business, and what they do, and the amount of effort, energy, and detail that gets put in behind the scenes that nobody ever sees, unless you don’t do it.

Ben Commodore: I think the perception is that I get to hunt every day, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. That couldn’t be. I probably hunt less than I do, I mean, relatively, people are like, oh, come on. But I’m a part of the hunt, I’m a part of every aspect of a hunt, or some parts of a hunt, every single day. You know, I was just talking to one of Rob’s guys, actually, just the other day. He was getting excited and asking me how everything was going, and getting ready, and I just said, this is the stuff that people don’t see from an outfitter. And I’m sitting here doing data spreadsheets, importing everybody’s information for licensing and all that. And so there’s that back end of it. And then you’re learning the ins and outs of business and filing taxes but I think on the – once the clock hits and we get going, and we get started, and September 1st, when the clients, the first group of clients are ready to rock, it shifts, and you just get to do. I’m fortunate and blessed to be able to do what I love every single day. And for me, one of my favorite things to do is scout. I thoroughly enjoy scouting. For whatever reason, I feel like, I’m not a gambler, I’m not an addict in the gambling world, but I feel like it’s the same thing of, like, you get a field, I don’t know who this landowner is. I’ve got to find him before somebody who may have his number beats me to it. And that rush that I get trying to track down the landowner, and when you get that permission, there’s just that high of, like, yes! got it. So, for me, yeah, it’s everything that people think it is, but it’s also a lot of what they don’t fully understand and know goes into it to be a successful outfitter. And I’ve learned a lot of that from Rob as well, just in the way that he carries himself, Rob and his wife, Lori, and how they conduct business, and what they do, and the amount of effort, energy, and detail that gets put in behind the scenes that nobody ever sees, unless you don’t do it.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. I agree entirely. A lot of people, they want to be duck guides until it’s time to do real duck guide shit, which is a lot of that back end. It doesn’t matter if you’re working, I guess, selling insurance or any other kind of administrative job. If it’s a business, there’s a lot of administrative back end. The details have to be taken care of, or it just doesn’t work. There’s a lot of details. It’s not just going out, laying out the decoys, having fun, and scouting. There’s a lot of real work that goes into it.

Ben Commodore: There’s one thing that I kind of learned as I worked, because I’ve worked for other outfits, not just, you know, when I first started, worked for different outfits, not ranch land. And one thing that I learned very early on, and I’m sure you see it every day, all the time, and Rob and I talk about it all the time as well is ego. And keeping an ego in check. And I feel like that’s the biggest thing that.

Ramsey Russell: The outfitter’s ego or the client’s egos?

Ben Commodore: The outfitters. And that’s the biggest thing that, I think to being a successful outfitter. You know, there’s this idea that laying in the field and that’s the easiest part of the operation as an outfitter. And I think the good outfitters understand that you need to be in the truck more than you need to be in the field. As important as it is to build relationships with clients, you need to be there when you’re eating breakfast and having dinner. You need to have people that you trust, that you can put in the field, that are competent and able to engage with a client because you have to put out fires. Whether it’s dealing with other outfitters in the area or getting permission, I often say the last place I need to be is sitting in the field because I can’t do what I need to do sitting in the field entertaining clients.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. That’s exactly right. How important is it that you have a great staff, and what do you look for? What do you all look for in putting together a staff? What do you look for in somebody you’re going to hire to be a part of your outfit? What are the qualifications? What makes a great staff member?

Ben Commodore: I think the first thing that comes to mind initially when you ask that is passion. That’s a big one. And also honesty and just a, you know, team player. We can teach anybody to scout. You can teach anybody how, you know, if they’re passionate and dedicated and want to do this, they’ll learn how to scout, they’ll learn how to call, they’ll learn how to take clients. You can teach all of that. But I think, for me, it’s people that are passionate. And then conversely, I think a lot of business owners, whether it’s an outfitter or otherwise, fail to swing and miss but it’s how you treat your employees that matters the most. This doesn’t work without employees. I’ve tried it. Trust me. It doesn’t. You try to scout, you try to hunt, and you try to get permission all at the same time. You can’t do it. And so I think that this idea that, you know, it’s, oh, they’re just a scout, or, oh, they’re just this or that, they’re a part of your team, and they’re an integral part of your team, and no one person is more important than the other. And that we’re all in this together. We all have the same goal to ensure that the clients are going to have a great hunt, a great experience, and that the outfit has a good reputation and a good name, both locally and internationally amongst clients. And so, yeah, I think honesty is a big one for me. I feel like I’m almost too honest to a fault sometimes my wife will tell me that, but I’d rather be known for that than anything else. And I think that, the biggest thing, and I’ve kind of impressed this upon my staff, I will take care of you, just tell me the truth every single time. You know, did something go wrong, there are issues, clients are saying one thing. What was the truth? Were there birds in that field? Did you just pick a field because you had nothing? If there wasn’t, that’s okay. Just tell me now. I’ll deal with it, but don’t lie to me. Stuff like that is important and again, from my end, it’s how I treat the clients. When you’re on little sleep, you’re stressed. Everything that you can think of is going to go wrong at some point. And how I respond to that with my staff, because it’s not their fault. They’re trying hard. They’re working hard, too. As long as they give me everything they’ve got, I’ll take care of them and make sure they’re looked after.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Ben Commodore: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And conversely, what constitutes a good client?

Ben Commodore: That’s an open question. You know what? I don’t know that there’s a bad client. I mean, I think the unsafe client. I should say that, like, the guys that are coming to party. Great, Just give me the heads-up on that and let me know. And I tell guys all the time, like, you know, if you guys are drinkers, let me know. I’ll tell you where the alcohol stores are on the way. You know, I give the safety speech, make sure that whoever’s taking them in the field knows the safety speech and is monitoring guys. And it’s like, guys, if you want to drink, that’s great, but we’re not taking guns out if we’re drinking.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Ben Commodore: And so I think that just as long as everybody’s on the same page and understands that if you’re here to hunt, we’re here to hunt, and that’s what we’re doing, and we’ll make sure that you’re looked after. But yeah, I think just, you have to read each client, and you have to put different hats on. I mean, I’ve got a couple of windows here just off the top of my head where I’ve got some blue-collar boys that also work in the industry selling duck and goose calls, and then right behind them is a group that’s going to fly a private jet up. And so you have to also, not only me as the outfit owner, but the guides, have to be able to swap hats in a hurry because, not that you’re going to treat them differently, but just the conversation is probably going to flow a lot differently between the two groups.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. And, you know, as somebody that’s been in the business for a quarter century, most clients, and I’m talking 99.9% of anybody that goes anywhere to hunt anything, they’re good people. They’re just good people. But what’s always blown my mind is how subjective the personal duck hunting experience is. I’ve had four guys go to a lodge and talk to them independently or send them a post-hunt survey or something like that. They all had a great time, yada yada. But the comments are like they went on four different trips. You know, one of them carries on and on about the food, one of them talked on and on about how great the guides were, and somebody’s on and on and on about the number of birds. And it’s like, what they got out of it, what they wanted out of it, was totally different than what the next guy’s may be. And that always keeps you on your toes if you’re in this business, you know, because you want to make everybody happy. And we’re selling experiences, not dead ducks, but dead ducks are a part of that experience. Boom. But it’s just so personal. I always wished I sold light bulbs because everybody on Earth expects the same thing out of a light bulb. On and off. That’s all we expect of a light bulb. But when it comes to a duck hunting experience, there’s so much nuance in what people expect of it, you know, and that’s just kind of hard to do except to do your best.

Ben Commodore: Yep. I had an individual tell me once, and I’ve never forgotten this, the sooner you learn as an outfitter, the sooner you learn you’re in the hospitality business and not the killing business, the better you’ll be.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. That’s right. This is a hospitality industry. Absolutely, it’s a people business.

Ben Commodore: 100%. And, you know, you hire the people to take care of the killing, and that’s ultimately, you know, what I’ve hired. I’ve got scouts and guides. Your job is to make sure that we’re killing. I’ll help with that, but I’ve also got to be the one that greets them when they show up on their first night. And I’ve got to have that hat on for greeting. I’ve got to have the hat on of, you know, the HR lady or the team, to say, here are your licenses, let’s get all that signed it. Organized all that. And then you’ve got to handle it when something goes wrong with the chef or anything else. Now I’m the bus. I’m the Uber driver or Uber Eats to go pick up something at the grocery store. There’s all sorts of things.

Ramsey Russell: The toilet backs up. I mean, it just goes on and on because it’s life. But isn’t it fun? It’s like, you know, things aren’t always easy around here. I mean, planes don’t fly, or flights are delayed, and things will get off track. But that’s when I shine. That’s when, indeed, I feel like we do our best because we’re there. We’ll try to get this thing back on track. You know what I’m saying? And I think it keeps life interesting. You know what I’m saying? I think it keeps life interesting. I’m just not the guy who could sit in one particular duck blind for the rest of my life and be happy. I like the diversity, and so I like a diverse set of challenges, fixing problems.

Ben Commodore: Well. You know what? You don’t know who you really are till shit hits the fan. Pardon my French. But you don’t know who you are until everything comes to a head, and you’ve got to figure it out. You know, It’s ten minutes to legal light. Birds got bumped out of that field, or it’s half an hour. Birds got bumped. Where are we going? What are we doing? Who’s got what? We’ve got double permissions. We’ve got a truck that’s broken down. I’ve got somebody’s scout car with a flat tire. What are we doing? Oh, and by the way, clients are on their way back to have something to eat at the lodge. What are we doing? And how do you handle that? And how do you prioritize that? Like, I don’t know, what do they say? Diamonds are made under pressure? So, yeah, like, you know. There are so many things that go into this, back to the original point of, like, is it everything or not? From what I’ve learned, and I’m far from learning everything, but from what I’ve learned and watched specifically with Rob, if you’re going to be good at this, you’ve got to be able to handle everything life throws at you and just be calm, cool, and collected and not get bent out of shape.

Ramsey Russell: No, you talk about diamonds made under pressure, but it’s also the old adage that life is 10% what happens and 90% how you react to it.

Ben Commodore: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: You know what I’m saying? And that can be on all sides of the equation. Things happen, and we have to react. We have to be prepared to react. Boy, I tell you what, get on a plane to travel anywhere, and you better take a chill pill and just go with the flow man. Ooh, get in that Zen. Because things can turn out not as planned. Just about every time you fly anymore, there’s going to be a wrinkle somewhere, and you just have to go with it, man. You can’t just quit. You’ve got to keep moving forward. And I do believe everything happens for a reason. I really do. If you’re working with the right people, like yourself and many others, it’s all going to work out in the end. You know what I’m saying? I believe that, our buddy Terry Demon, talked about there really isn’t such a thing as good luck. It’s just hard work. You make your own luck in life. The harder you work, the luckier you get. And no truer words have ever been said. A couple of questions is, I learned, as we were warming up for the interview, that in addition to being an outfitter, you also have responsibilities with Ducks Unlimited Canada. What do you do out in the field with them?

Ben Commodore: I take care of wetland restoration here in Alberta.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Ben Commodore: Yeah, so kind of the scope of my role, it’s kind of three avenues to it. The first one being the wetland restoration. So right now, it’s kind of historical, what would be a historical wetland that a farmer has drained, whether on their own or through government programming back in the 1970s and 1980s. So we approach them with the idea of what we’re doing, “Hey, we’d like to put a plug in there to stop that from draining, so that when we get a snow melt or rain, it’s going to hold water.” So that’s one avenue I take on. Second is signing up land under conservation easement to ensure the protection, to ensure that the land’s never broken, never touched. And then third would be through our forage program, where there’s incentive for farmers to seed some sort of grass crop, whether alfalfa or whatever that is.

Ramsey Russell: Heck, yeah.

Ben Commodore: And the idea is, a lot of it is for the pintails, ensuring that the pintails have plenty of opportunity to hatch, as well as every other species that’s going to utilize it. That’s kind of the three cores of my job. Basically, it’s just landowner relationships, finding our target areas that make sense both financially and duck-numbers-wise, in terms of what DU has determined as our duck production areas, high duck production areas, bang for our buck value on dollars. And then, like I said, building relationships with landowners. So I started in January and I think this year, some of it will roll into next year at this point. But I’m on pace to do about 270 acres of restored wetlands. The idea is, let’s restore them. And as a duck hunter myself, you know, I selfishly look at places and go, does that make sense to restore that wetland? Is that in a prime area? Is that in an area that has other water around? So if it’s not full, if it’s a dry year, are those ducks still going to return and be able to access water in the same area? I think that helps a lot in what I’m doing. Plus, you know, I remember in the interview having that conversation, and one of the questions, I’ll never forget it, that they asked was, “Can you give us an example of when you were told no by a farmer or landowner and how you handled that situation?” My response was, I’d probably be a pretty crappy duck hunter if I couldn’t get over a no from a landowner.

Ramsey Russell: I heard that. That’s a good answer, too, isn’t it?

Ben Commodore: It is. They started laughing. They’re like, yeah, that’s a good point.

Ramsey Russell: Have you seen, in the last 13 years that you’ve lived in Alberta, have you seen landscape changes? I feel like in the 20 some odd years I’ve been off and on going up through Alberta that I’ve seen a decline in a lot of those wetlands you’re now restoring, those habitats you’re now restoring. I’ve seen all of Canada convert increasingly towards a monotypic landscape of agriculture. And it’s not just Canada. It’s all the way from there down to the state of Mississippi. It’s been a massive conversion in North America, to such a point. But I know that there are variations in environmental conditions that affect waterfowl productivity. But at the end of the day, we need nesting grounds, we need habitat for the wintering grounds and the flyover areas. And I’ve just seen in the last 20 years a noticeable decline as I drive around and visit places, a noticeable decline of habitat being converted and such, that I tell you that any issue affecting North American duck hunting today, be it waterfowl productivity, somewhere to hunt, overcrowding, whatever you want to call it, it all boils down to a lack of habitat, an increasing lack of habitat. And that’s why I’m such a huge supporter, Ben, of Ducks Unlimited because they are doing something about it, man. They’re going up into those prairies and trying to hold the fort, and I support it wholeheartedly. But have you seen in the 13 years that you’ve been an Alberta resident, have you seen a decline?

The Decline of Wetlands: A Cycle Linked to Climate.

Obviously, the closer you get to the major cities, naturally, you’re going to see that. Like we talked about with Toronto, I do think that there, you’re starting to see landowners, especially in Alberta, because of how heavy ranching it is.

Ben Commodore: I think, yeah. And I say yes and no. I think it depends on the area. Obviously, the closer you get to the major cities, naturally, you’re going to see that. Like we talked about with Toronto, I do think that there, you’re starting to see landowners, especially in Alberta, because of how heavy ranching it is. You’re starting to see them realize that there is value in those wetlands, both from a, obviously, for their cattle, but, you know, they’re allowed, like, so under the wetland agreement that we would have them sign, the landowner, if they restore that wetland, we don’t tell them how to manage their land. They know how to manage their land appropriately. They’re the farmer. For some of them, they’re three and four generations deep. But one of the things that we do and some of these guys will do in a drought year, you can hay that. That’s fine. You can go ahead and hay that because no farmer is going to sign on if I just say you can never touch that in a dry year. They can’t seed it, but they can hay it if grass grows. And I think some of them are really starting to see the value in having water for cattle, but also understanding the importance of it. And you’re starting to see this change with the younger generation of farmers that are coming in with this mindset shift, that they understand the importance that wetlands play not only in drinking water but in floods and drought situations and preserving water. And the younger, the new up-and-coming farmers, like the 20- to 30-year-old guys that are taking over for mom and dad, really do value it. And some of them have had the opportunity to hunt. Believe it or not, I have one friend in particular who’s taken, he likes to say he’s 24, he’s retired from waterfowl hunting and guiding because he’s taking over the farm. His dad’s getting older, and he’s like, I got to learn the ins and outs. I don’t know how to seed, and I don’t know how to harvest because I’m always gone chasing birds in the fall and in the spring. But for him, he would be someone that, without a doubt, wetlands stay on the landscape. Wetlands stay because they’re important. And so, yeah, I think the long, the short answer is yes, we’ve seen a decline. And I think a lot of that has to do with just the cycle of where we are in this certain climate where we’re in the drought right now. You know, Rob likes to say it’s cyclical. Give it ten years, give it five years, give it 20 years. We’ll rotate through it. And when I sit down on the Ducks Unlimited program and look at our mapping system, and I can go back, you know, 10-15 years and look at the, and I can even then order prints that are from the 1940s when they used to do the flyovers. And I can historically see the change in the landscape. You know, before, we were flying planes all over the world back in the 1940s, and, I mean, we still had planes, but not to the extent we do now. And before the climate change motivation, you can see the adjustments in the change, and you can go, yeah, that was a year we had lots of rain. That was a year we had lots of drought. And I think it just depends on where you are and the level of rainfall that they got. Certain areas this year that were dry last year are full of water, and vice versa.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. Speaking of habitat, what are habitat conditions this year? I know we were going into the critical time dry. It was dry, but now, then I heard it got wet, and I’ve heard, we were talking about our mutual friend Kara out there talking about the late hatches. And let’s go into this subject right here about just what’s going on. What can we expect this coming year? What are you seeing at ground zero in terms of habitat conditions that might affect the fall flight or anything else this year?

Ben Commodore: I think overall, a lot of what we’ve had, the rain, the water level has been better than it was last year. We did get way more rain than we did last year. So I think at that key breeding time, they had lots of water. Whether the ducks got to nesting right away because of the volume of rain and water, that’s a whole other conversation. And that’s, you know, talking to Kara about what she’s seeing and with her connections through the banding programs and stuff, there’s a question that the second hatch might have been a little late or even the first hatch, and so there’s just questions around molting and when the ducks, are they molting, have they molted. It doesn’t seem like they’ve quite started molting. So then there’s the idea that some of these ducks are going to be late. Is it just the hens, Is it the drakes as well, So I think overall, the habitat, the water, we’ve got it, the water’s there. Even Saskatchewan’s the same thing. That’s what I’m hearing from my colleagues with DU over there. They’ve got lots of water, everything’s looking good. Definitely not perfect, but it’s significantly better than last year, and I do think you’re going to see more ducks this year, what we would love, I mean, we’d love to see that number go up 40% from last year. I don’t know if that’s the number we’re looking for, but the wetlands and the habitat look good, In short.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, if you’ve got climatic events, and I know this is important, but if you’ve got climatic events that put that kind of water, the thunderstorms that put that kind of water on the landscape, what does snowpack and ice matter?

Ben Commodore: That’s the most important, I think, the snowpack and what we get. I often say I’d love by the end of March to have 10 feet of snow on the ground and just let it melt, because that would be, I mean, the farmers, they would get big-time delayed, but I think it would do wonders for our wetlands on that slow melt. The last few years, it seems like we just have not been getting the same snow that we’re used to getting. We did have a bunch, but we get a southern Alberta and portions of central Alberta get, and even Montana gets the same thing. We get a weird weather phenomenon that if you’ve never experienced it, it’s really, people are like, “There’s no way.” It’s called a chinook. And so it comes in warm air, comes in off the mountains over 12 hours. We’ll go from, and forgive me to try and do this math quickly in my head, from Celsius to Fahrenheit, but we’ll go from, you know, say, minus ten to 50 degrees in a 12-hour span. It’ll hold for three days and then 12 hours later we’ll revert back to what it is. So we’ll get mid-winter, we will get runoff and melt, then it turns into ice, which I don’t think really helps a ton because it just sucks in and then freezes, and you don’t get that slow runoff. But yeah, that seems to be the big conversation, the big consensus. I mean, the last big snowpack we had in DU, we talked about it all the time, is 2016. And you can see that historically on the data, it’s like 2014 had some water. Oh yeah, you’re looking at the 2016 map because that wetland is full. We’re seeing it. We’re seeing the ditches are full that are draining out of it. And then we get into 2018, 2019. Oh yeah, there’s, we just did not get the snow.

Ramsey Russell: Do the hard freezes and the ice just create some kind of hard pan or something that’ll hold the water longer? Is that what’s going on? Is that the difference?

Ben Commodore: I think so, and I think, too, it’s just when you have middle of summer and you lose a foot or two foot of snow, it sucks into that ground and you don’t replace it. Well, now it’s sucked in because of some areas. A lot of these wetlands have a lot of alkali in them. You’ll drive by, and you’ll see they’re just bare white. I’m sure you’ve seen that driving across the prairie, and that really just sucks in that water. And I think it’s just, we don’t get the slow steady, we just get a flash, we’re going to melt it, and then it freezes over. And then maybe, again, I’m not a biologist. There’s probably a biologist sitting here or somebody that knows way more than me on this going, I have no idea what you’re talking about. But you get that level of ice, you know, it refreezes, that melt refreezes into a level of ice. And then when everything warms up again, and you get that sun, now you’ve got more absorption into the atmosphere as opposed to in the soil because the ice below that snow is not melting.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Wow. You were telling me before we recorded about finding a blue-winged teal nest with 20 eggs on it. What’s going on? What do you think’s going on with something like that? That seems like an awful lot of eggs for a single duck to lay.

Ben Commodore: I said to my wife, that poor woman. But you know what I mean, I sent you over the picture, and it’s, I mean, I don’t imagine that it’s something else that came and nested. They all look like blue-wing teal eggs. I was on a DU project. It was for our summer meetings. We happened to see it, bumped her off, and went over just to cover it back up again and happened to count them and like, holy smokes, those are all teal eggs. So I mean she’s going to have a, that would be a good hatch and as long as she didn’t have any predation on her, certain there’s 20 more blue-wing teals coming your way.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. Won’t that be nice?

Ben Commodore: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: What’s going on with the, I’ve heard that there’s been some license changes in Alberta. What’s going on?

Ben Commodore: So kind of what it sends right now. And I pulled it up to make sure that I didn’t butcher the wording because I wanted to make sure I got it accurate. So right now we’ve got it set as there’s two for the non-resident. It’s classified as a non-resident alien. So someone that’s not Canadian, and there’s two different game bird licenses. There’s a guided license and an unguided license. And why is that doing that. Essentially now, yeah, if you’re contracting an outfitter or a guide for your game bird, then you must purchase the guided non-resident alien game bird license. And then if the second option, if you hunt birds without the service of an outfitter, you must purchase the unguided non-resident alien game bird license. That game bird license is valid so you have to pick three WMUs to hunt in. So it’s valid in three WMUs, and for seven consecutive days, a person may purchase two of the unguided game bird licenses during a year.

Ramsey Russell: So I can go guided for 7 to 14 days, or I can go unguided for 7 to 14 days, or I can go guided for 7 days, unguided for 7 days. But total 14 days.

Ben Commodore: 14 days is kind of what it says here in terms of, can you buy both licenses or do you have to buy one? That I don’t know. I had sent an email off to get clarification on that because these, I mean, these regs just came out. What are we now? They came out a week and a half, two weeks ago maybe. So it’s still very new, and I think there’s a ton of questions. As an outfitter, you know, I was able to answer how I purchased and do how we do the unguided or, sorry, the guided licenses, but still trying to kind of work through, what the details, what they’re looking for and how to navigate it. I think it’s the unfortunate part with our regulations being that they always come out 1^st of August. So it doesn’t give you a ton of time to kind of get ready and understand. It’ll be nicer if they came out in June, but they never do so.

Ramsey Russell: But it’s not a mandatory draw like Manitoba. It’s not a draw.

Ben Commodore: Correct.

Ramsey Russell: I can still buy over the counter. I’ve just got to pick and choose.

Ben Commodore: You just have to pick your three WMUs, and you have to stay in those three.

Ramsey Russell: Where is this coming from? Why is it going to, let’s say, 14 days? And somebody else told me that, that next year it might be as few as six days. Where’s this coming from politically, do you think?

Ben Commodore: I think, I mean, it’s hard to say exactly. I mean, I know with Alberta, a lot of it has to do with just kind of trying to preserve resources, preserve what, you know, and, and put a value on what we’re doing. I think if I was a betting man, based on the structure of this, I would think that the provincial government probably looked at something like North Dakota and South Dakota, their hotspots, their target spots for a lot of freelance. And I’m guessing they looked at that and went, okay, what’s their system? What’s working down there for them that, you know, and so how do we implement something or how do we do something to curtail it? I’m guessing Manitoba kick-started a lot of the conversation when they changed it, and that brought it, brought it forward. And it seems that Alberta is usually faster responding than Saskatchewan. So that makes sense that Alberta was the second one to make a decision.

Ramsey Russell: What problem are they trying to fix? Ben, if you had to guess, is there a problem? Or, I mean, what are they trying to prevent or what are they trying to fix?

Ben Commodore: I think they’re looking at one. They want to collect data because there’s a lot of conversation that you hear guys talk about, whether it’s illegal guiding. One of the other conversations that comes up is, you know, when an individual, even at seven days, the argument on seven days is you need a few days to scout. But what happens to the birds? You know, when a guy’s up here for three, four, five weeks at a time, where does all the bird meat go? So there are questions surrounding that. I feel like that’s what the government’s trying to figure out and trying to, you know, as you and I talked about off-air before we started, the importance of how Canada looks at hunting and the Canadian resident having an opportunity to hunt and that they don’t ever want to limit that. I’m guessing that in certain areas there’s been a lot of pressure from resident hunters saying, hey, you know, we’re seeing a lot of influx of American freelance hunters coming to the area, and whether it’s access to land changes or whatever happens. So I think there’s a lot of that and just trying to manage and control what they can control. It’s kind of like that, like we’re just throwing stuff in the dark, maybe. I don’t know what their end goal is or what the long-term run is with this, but I think it’s a step off the heels of Manitoba. And my understanding is that Saskatchewan has something they’re working towards as well. And I feel like Alberta just didn’t want to be the last egg to fall.

Ramsey Russell: All the states, all the flyways, all the provinces are starting to have this conversation. You know, everybody’s starting to have this conversation about protecting the resource, managing the pressure. You know, there are other conversations from sources I would describe as misinformed that Canada’s killing too many ducks. And, you know, if you say, well, I mean, there are a bunch of outfitters and there’s a bunch going on. And, I mean, we kicked off this episode talking about the amazing hunts that are in Alberta. But if you look at the harvest data and you start talking to the scientists, boy, Canada has got a lot better harvest data than we’ve got here in the United States. It’s very trustworthy. If you look at the harvest data over the past 20 years, Canada’s killing fewer ducks than they’ve killed in forever. I mean, but, you know, it’s really a very, very terribly small amount relative to the United States of America, the ducks being harvested in a country that’s producing well over half of the North American population. So it’s not just the harvest, it’s other things to play. And that’s what I was just trying to figure out, you know, preserving the tradition, preserving the local hunters, giving a place for them to hunt, and just trying, everybody’s just trying to get their hands on what we’ve got and how we’re going to manage this thing moving forward, is what it sounds like.

Access, Wetlands, and Accommodations as Key Factors for Hunting Destinations.

But over, you know, 3, 4, 5, 6 years, you start to see a pattern. What is happening there that’s encouraging all of these guys and girls for that matter, to come and freelance in this area? Why this area? What is the hotspot here? Is it access? Is it wetlands? Is it accommodations? What is the answer? And then it allows the government to then go, okay, well, how do we help other areas to encourage hunters to go to other areas and spread it across the province? And I’m just spitballing.

Ben Commodore: Yeah. And I think, too, like something that with the three WMUs and the ability to track, so then the government can look at and go, okay, well, these three WMUs in particular here were one, two, and three that were all high priority that this is where most of the freelancing wanted to go. What is that? What are those counties in those WMUs doing? Or what’s enticing? You know, not year one, you’re not going to get these answers. But over, you know, 3, 4, 5, 6 years, you start to see a pattern. What is happening there that’s encouraging all of these guys and girls for that matter, to come and freelance in this area? Why this area? What is the hotspot here? Is it access? Is it wetlands? Is it accommodations? What is the answer? And then it allows the government to then go, okay, well, how do we help other areas to encourage hunters to go to other areas and spread it across the province? And I’m just spitballing. I mean, as you know, government, you never know what the government’s going to do until they do it. And sometimes they don’t know until they do it. But I feel like with this, it gives them significantly more data than they will ever have had in terms of where hunters are going, how long they’re staying, are they doing seven, you know, that one hunter goes and he stays in the three WMUs for 14 consecutive, or does he go 7 days here and then go 7 days somewhere else? What’s the reason? What time are they coming? So it’s going to give them more information, and then they can hopefully help manage population. Maybe they start sending some of that information over to Ducks Unlimited and say, hey, you got a lot of freelancers coming to this area, whatever you’re doing here with wetlands, you know, let’s try and do that elsewhere, too. Yeah. So that’s my hope as a duck hunter, first and foremost. That’s what my hope is, is that they’re going to use this information to help increase duck production in the prairies. And then from there, it’s just ultimately, you know, like I said, it’s the resident and ensuring that the resident has the ability to hunt as well. And I feel like there are a lot of guys that were complaining about that.

Ramsey Russell: So I want to end on this note. We talked about what amazing hunting it is. And it is. You know, I don’t know if you knew this. Getducks.com was born in Alberta, and it was born not far from where you all are. Kind of down in the south, yeah, kind of down in the southeast portion of Alberta hunting with an outfitter 20-something years ago. That’s just where this whole genesis of mine began. And I love that part of Alberta. I love the funnel it represents in terms of geese and ducks. I love everything about Alberta. And I’ve had a great time every time I’m there. But the hunting is amazing. Everything’s great. Yes, everybody ought to go check it out. But I want to move into just a different little topic about your business, which is going to be like the food and the accommodations, the other variables. Ranchland does it right. What I’m trying to say. Is you all’s meals and lodging and stuff, is it very comparable to what Ranchland Headquarters does?

Ben Commodore: Yes, sir. Yeah. And that was part of doing this. And, as you know, how Rob does high-end all the way through, it has to be first class. And that was kind of the. Now, do I have his wife as a cook? Absolutely not. But we find the cooks, we find people that are good. And yeah, in terms of the lodging and in terms of the accommodations, everything is what you would expect at Ranchland, is what you will get at any of the three outfits that are underneath the umbrella.

Ramsey Russell: Do you all use the same bacon recipe they do?

Ben Commodore: That was a hard one to get out of Lori. The big one, the big question is the brown sugar gravy. You had that?

Ramsey Russell: I have had that, yeah.

Ben Commodore: Yeah. I went to Ranchland when I was there last year, helping Rob a little bit, and I was 20 pounds down. And I tell you, after two weeks, that 20 pounds was back on.

Ramsey Russell: No, you’ll put it right back on. It’s not the place to go on a diet there. They feed you good, and you play hard, you eat hard, you sleep good. And because it is a total package experience, isn’t it?

Ben Commodore: Yep. Everything’s included. When you book, just pack a duffel bag and get yourself to us. We take care of you once you’re there.

Ramsey Russell: What would be just, I almost asked you this when we were talking about the client part of it earlier. But, you know, showing up to a trip like what you all do is really pretty painless packing. Check the weather. Bring according layers, bring a headlamp, bring some gloves, some warm boots. Bring a shotgun if you want to. But, I mean, really, really and truly, I just got to show up, with some warm clothes.

Ben Commodore: You just show up, we take care of you. Yep. And that’s what I tell guys, you know, check the weather a week before. Start checking the weather. You can text me if you want, but I’m just going to send you a screenshot of my weather app from where I’m sitting. So, you know, a lot of guys ask, do we need to bring waders? No, just bring your boots, dress warm, dress accordingly. The most important piece of the camo that you wear is the hat on your head, just to make sure it’s blended in. I mean, wear camo, the rest of it’s fine, but the hat is your most important piece. You know, once you’re here, we take care of you. We’ll make sure you’re covered from the time you arrive to the time you go. And, yeah we take care of all. Just come on over and see what it’s all about.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, I’ll be there for sure. I’m going to try to jump in with Mojo this year. We always have a great time up there. Tell everybody how they can get in touch with you, Ben. Just anybody listening, how they can go to U.S. Hunt List, look at the Alberta outfitter, that’ll put them in the Ranchland. But tell them how they can connect with you and with Cloud Nine directly.

Ben Commodore: Cloud Nine directly. So for me, just cloudnineoutfitters.com, with an “s” on the end, and it’s the number, not the word “nine.” Got all my contact info, everything there. Yeah, reach out, shoot me a text, give me a call, number’s on the website anytime. And, yeah, love to have you guys, have anybody out next year. Be fun.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, habitat conditions are good. We dodged a bullet this time. Bird numbers are great. Attitude’s good. You told me today it was already cooling off, and I said, what do you mean it’s cooling off? You said, it’s 77 degrees. Oh, that ain’t cool for Alberta, but it’s getting there.

Ben Commodore: It’s coming. You can feel it. It’s coming. It’ll be here. It’s a gloomy day, feels like it’s going to rain. Temperatures dropped from where it was. I mean, just last week we were pushing 100, and yeah, it’s coming. Duck season’s right around the corner.

Ramsey Russell: Fall is already in the air.

Ben Commodore: Football’s on TV, weather’s starting to change, dogs are getting antsy. It’s go time.

Ramsey Russell: It’s go time. Good, good note to end on. Thank you, Ben. I appreciate your time, folks. You all been listening to my buddy Ben Commodore, Cloud 9 Outfitters, part of the Ranchland Outfitters family. First-class hunt all the way. First-class hunting experience all the way. You all connect with him or go to ushuntlist.com for more details. See you next time.

[End of Audio]

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