Welcome to Episode 15; we are stoked to have made it and even more stoked to have you here listening. We are launching a brand new format with this episode. We will give you some significant updates on Spoke Hollow and the Lo Salvaje food truck with the new platform. There is a Mention of Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundations Stewards of the Wild. We check in with Basheer Benhalim from Hunters of Color to discuss his deer camp. We answered some listener mail and covered outdoor news before interviewing Joseph Berney of Flylords.
The Joseph Berney Interview Highlights:
This interview is a must-listen for anyone passionate about fishing, conservation, and embracing the great outdoors. Take advantage of the wealth of knowledge and inspiration it offers!
Find Josh on Instagram or Twitter.
Presented by:
Spoke Hollow Outdoors - find them on Instagram or Facebook.
For more great BunkHaus content, check out:
BunkHausPodcast.com | Youtube | Instagram
Welcome to Episode 15; we are stoked to have made it and even more stoked to have you here listening. We are launching a brand new format with this episode. We will give you some significant updates on Spoke Hollow and the Lo Salvaje food truck with the new platform. There is a Mention of Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundations Stewards of the Wild. We check in with Basheer Benhalim from Hunters of Color to discuss his deer camp. We answered some listener mail and covered outdoor news before interviewing Joseph Berney of Flylords.
The Joseph Berney Interview Highlights:
This interview is a must-listen for anyone passionate about fishing, conservation, and embracing the great outdoors. Take advantage of the wealth of knowledge and inspiration it offers!
Find Josh on Instagram or Twitter.
Presented by:
Spoke Hollow Outdoors - find them on Instagram or Facebook.
For more great BunkHaus content, check out:
BunkHausPodcast.com | Youtube | Instagram
Yeah, I mean they said. They said I do kiss the bride in like 20 whistlers flew right over. You said I should have, I should have ripped out a, cut him. It's like my, my buddies dipping his new bride at the end of the aisle.
Josh Crumpton:Welcome to the Bunkhouse podcast broadcasting from the confluence of outdoor recreation and nature connectivity. I'm your host. Josh Crumpton, founder of, spoke all about doors and most of a hay food truck. My life as a rancher, guide, foodie and conservationist has provided the opportunity to meet some really great people, and the bunkhouse is where we get to introduce them to you. Here we are, episode 15.
Josh Crumpton:It's December and the holidays are upon us. Most hunter seasons are in full swing or maybe even wrapped up by now. Either way, best wishes to my camo and blazed friends nationwide. Shout out to all my winter anglers up in the northwest swinging for them steelhead. I hope to join the ranks of y'all someday. A little special love for my Arizona amigos. The Mearns quail season opened a few days ago. I hope your long walks with dogs are rewarded with fantastic flushes. Remember, if you visit Arizona, respect the resource and be kind to the locals. Later in this episode we visit with my friend Joseph Bernie from Fly Lords.
Josh Crumpton:But first let's check in on some of the Spoke Hollow updates. The far west Texas quail opener was a banger. On opening day we observed at least 27 coveys and counted an estimated 780 birds. I gotta tell you I had some of my best hunts ever During the opener of 2023 2024. I am saying it was fire, fire, oh my gosh, I don't know. I can't even begin to explain how amazing the birds and the dogs and everything were out there this year. If you've been thinking about coming out to far west with us to hunt, this is year to do it. Get off your butt, hop on the phone, give us a call, let's roll. In November, the Dallas chapter of stewards of the world Invited me to speak about adult onset hunting at their State of Conservation Dinner. The stewards program membership consists of some of the most dynamic, successful and extraordinary young professionals I have ever met, and the conservation world is lucky to have the program among its championing organizations, and the Dallas chapter is definitely one of the shining stars. The chapter raised an estimated $36,000 for adult mentorship programs. Many thanks to the sponsors and volunteers that made it happen.
Josh Crumpton:Lo Salvaje, my food truck out at desert door distilling, is doing amazing. We launched a fall menu with some exciting new items. One of them is the Rackhouse dog. Chef Jesse Griffiths has knocked it out of the park with this one. Get this, our Rackhouse dog is a bacon wrapped bison hot dog topped with wild boar, chili, colorado onions, tomatoes, escabeche, jalapeno salsa and our salsa especial. You know that good, good stuff we serve on top of the now guy burger. The whole dang thing is served inside a refried bean layered potato bun, and if you're not already headed towards Driftwood to get one for yourself, then I don't know what to tell you.
Josh Crumpton:BIPOC in the outdoors. What's going on over there? My main man, Basheer, an ambassador for Hunters of Color, hosted his first learned to hunt event in West Texas, near Sheffield at the beginning of December. The hosted hunt was in collaboration With Backcountry Hunters and Anglers of Texas. It sounded like a huge success, but you don't have to take my word for it. Let's hear what Basheer has to say.
Josh Crumpton:Hey josh Basheer, what's going?
Basheer Benhalim:on buddy, not much how you doing today.
Josh Crumpton:I'm all right In the Bunkhouse was just talking about your event this past weekend.
Basheer Benhalim:Yeah, man, we had a great time. We had a camp of about 14 out in west Texas Right on 14 14. Yeah, we had a five new hunters and then some guides from Texas BHA, and then, you know, just camp staff to run camp and make it make it run.
Josh Crumpton:Was this the first HOC hunt ever in Texas?
Basheer Benhalim:This was the first hunt, every HOC hunt ever in Texas.
Josh Crumpton:Congratulations, buddy.
Basheer Benhalim:Thanks so much. Man felt felt really big to get it done and uh, I'm especially getting it done safely. So we had a great weekend. You know, folks shot some some nice deer and Met some management goals of the property that we were on. So that felt nice to contribute in that way and, yeah, I mean it was, uh, it was really neat to see folks Having that experience and being in a part of Texas that they hadn't been before.
Josh Crumpton:But what was maybe your key, biggest takeaway from the weekend?
Basheer Benhalim:My biggest takeaway was it was just allowing others to to teach and to learn right. You know, we had a great group of guides and mentors that really looked at knowledge sharing and also hearing and learning from from the folks that were doing this for the first time, you know, was the kind of coolest moment was, you know, saturday night. You know, we had a lot of deer and the deer cooler, and it was time to get to work and I think folks didn't really anticipate the amount of effort it might take, because I hadn't done it before and we worked pretty late into the night. Um, but just seeing, you know, seeing five deer cut up at a time is, uh, you know, interesting to see five different techniques and Some, some strategies and people jumping in and people asking questions that you know Maybe don't come to you right off the back because you've done it a number of times, and so that was, for me, the real highlight of the weekend.
Josh Crumpton:Well, this is the first of the building of of the community here.
Basheer Benhalim:Yeah, this is the the first time in which we as a HOC community came together and and spent time together and in a non sort of like fun, you know, a non social event, right? Uh, so that was pretty neat to see that happen as well. We had folks from golly, from all the way from Amarillo all the way to to Houston and San Antonio, so it was a really a pretty broad spectrum of people coming out of our you know our large cities and some of our smaller cities as well. What's coming up next? So we've got, uh, you know, the hunt with you guys coming up next. We Spoke Hollow, super excited about that, uh.
Basheer Benhalim:And then we have a duck hunt and, uh, another deer hunt, meal deer hunt, and then we'll we'll close out the well, we really won't close out the season. It'll be an odd ad hunt in february, uh. And then we got kind of a hunt that we're working on. It's gonna be, I would say, a first opportunity. We're really excited to partner with some of our you know, government entities on this one. So We'll be doing a turkey hunt in the spring and at location to be disclosed very shortly.
Josh Crumpton:Man I'll be. I can't wait to hear about that turkey hunt and I can't wait to see the rest of it unfold. Looking forward to having you guys Out here at the ranch to Enter the Uplands with us. Thanks for taking the call. Look forward to seeing you out here soon, Basheer.
Basheer Benhalim:Yeah, absolutely great, catching up, josh.
Josh Crumpton:You've got mail. Abby from San Antonio, Texas, asks what type of shotgun do upland hunters prefer? Well, Abby, that's a great question. And though I can't speak for all upland hunters, most of the people I've hunted with over the years prefer a double-barreled shotgun. Primarily, we shoot double-barreled guns because they're the best tool for the sport we pursue. As for the specific reasons, most importantly a double-barreled shotgun allows for two different chokes and shot sizes. A good working example is hunting West Texas where the birds like to run and flush at a distance. I use my modified choke with number six shot for the first volley and a full choke with number six or maybe even number five For my follow-up shot. Another reason is that break-action shotguns provide superior safety when navigating unstable terrain because of the ability to break open the barrel. Also, after taking a shot, it's most easy to break the barrel and grab my shells and neatly tuck them into my vest, therefore not creating litter. Semi-automatic and pumped shotguns tend to toss shells all over the landscape and they can be hard to retrieve. I'm not saying impossible to retrieve, but hard to retrieve. And my final reason is a very personal one. I just think double-barreled shotguns look cool.
Josh Crumpton:Have a question you'd like to have answered. Shoot me a dm on instagram at texas_ josh, or an email, josh@ spokehollow. com. Let's take a peek at what's coming across my news feed a couple of key things that recently caught my eye. So here we go with in the news, wolverines make the endangered species list. Some folks out west see this is a significant win for the wolverine and the climate. In contrast, others fear that this listing will lead to tighter federal controls and claim that the data supporting the impact of climate change on the wolverine is to imprecise. Either way, the wolverine is, for now, listed and protected. Back in September, Texas Parks and Wildlife doubled down on protections for alligator snapping turtles, upping the existing reward for those reporting alligator snapping turtle poachers From one thousand to two thousand dollars.
Josh Crumpton:Here are a few fun facts about alligator snapping turtles. These massive turtles can weigh up to 200 pounds and reach 31 inches long. Alligator snapping turtles are like the vultures of the waterways, cleaning and clearing them of dead and decaying animals. Each summer, the young of these turtles act as a significant food source, supporting fish, raccoons and many other bird species. In turn, the hatchlings that survive into adulthood Take their place as apex predators in their domain, enforcing population control and maintaining balance in the food web. Paul Crump, a herpetologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, says "the high survivorship and long lives of adults makes the population of alligator snapping turtles Very sensitive to the removal of even a small number of breeding adults. That's why texas prohibited the collection of these species back in the 80's and why we need the help of texas who work and spend time on the rivers in east texas to reduce poaching. We want to keep this species around and help maintain Healthy rivers and streams. If you see anyone or know of anyone who may be poaching alligator snapping turtles in the great state of texas, please reach out to operation game thief at 1 800 792 game. That's 1 800 792 4, 2, 6, 3.
Josh Crumpton:As I said earlier, Joseph Berney, with Fly Lords, visited the ranch. We talked duck hunting, training dogs, fly fishing, making podcasts, Trout Unlimited, Fly Lords, the worst hunt that I have ever guided and southern traditions. For those of you who don't know Joseph, he's a very kind hearted guy, born with the gift of gab and a desire to create connectivity while supporting conservation. He's a dude among dudes, a good friend, and I'm excited for y'all to get to know him better. Well, there's no better time than the present. So, as we say at the bunkhouse, let's get this thing started. So I'm here with Joseph Bernie the Bernalator, the Bernisler man. Joseph is with Fly Lords. I am with Fly Lords. Yeah, previously he was with Trout Unlimited and he did an internship with us where he made some pretty big contributions. Thank you for those. Thank you, and I'm stoked for you to be here. You came for duck hunting, is that right this time?
Joseph Berney:Yeah, around duck hunting. Are we saying we're, I'm here to duck hunt? Are we just going to like actually tell the truth? I mean, I'm here for a wedding.
Josh Crumpton:Oh, I thought it was duck hunting. It's a wedding, because you texted me and you're like the ducks are flying good, so I thought you were going to.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, I mean they said. They said I do kiss the bride in like 20 whistlers flew right over. You said I should have, I should have ripped out a cut them. Cut them, take them. That's what I'm like my, my buddy's dipping his new bride at the end of the aisle.
Josh Crumpton:Cut them I mean I think, at a.
Joseph Berney:Texas wedding. Some people probably would have perked up at that, but I definitely would have.
Josh Crumpton:Where are they? You know, rowdy, rowdy would have. He would have been like let's do this. Yeah, you know, no, it's funny. You came down for this wedding and and I'm sitting there with some people and you send that text A bunch of bunch of birds just flew over as my friend kissed the bride. That's a hunter, that's a hunter.
Joseph Berney:The original plan was. Before the original plan was, I was going to drive down here for the wedding and I was going to try to meet you in West Texas and then bop over here and bring my dog, because my poor dog hasn't even seen Like a real, a real hunt. I feel like hunting in Western Colorado, like right on the continental divide, like he gets lucky if he, if he sees one good volley and then we hunt with another dog so he has to share retrieves. But he loves that one retrieve, he loves it.
Josh Crumpton:You know, if you bring him down here, he won't leave with you. It'll be like I don't really want to go with this guy. He's like there's a lot of birds down here in Texas.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, there's a lot of birds down here. He figured out the grouse thing the other day, so that's. I mean we got a really early snow up high and that kind of shuts down the grouse hunting and I'm I'm totally still learning on all the, all the things water fowl upland. But I'm like obsessive, like OCD, whenever I find like when I found whitetail hunting like it was, it was fly fishing in high school and college it was, it was archery whitetail and when I graduated from college is now I'm I mean I don't live by like good whitetail. I mean people are gonna be like, oh, you live in like the best part of the world for elk and mule deer. I could care less birds About the birds.
Josh Crumpton:That's kind of. I love birds. I was into deer for a little bit when I first started hunting and ultimately I wound up really loving birds, it's funny. So we've known each other a couple years now, going on two years.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, I mean just when we were doing trout week. Yeah, first time, and there was something to do with the Gwatt Gwatt to you.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, it was something like that, right, and then we didn't wind up doing that, though.
Joseph Berney:No, we did talk on the phone for probably like three hours Me pacing around my backyard of my first house in Colorado.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, I think that's right when you got Sam.
Joseph Berney:He had just turned. He would have just turned one.
Josh Crumpton:You were like we were. We were going to talk about trout and then we talked about bird hunting. The whole time I think, yeah, and dog training.
Joseph Berney:I had no idea Like. I had no idea what I was doing with, like training a dog.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah.
Joseph Berney:I always tell people I got. I got really lucky. I have a dog with good, good genetics, good drive. The story of how I got him is crazy.
Josh Crumpton:I don't think I know that story.
Joseph Berney:Well, so like everyone else, during covid, I wanted a dog. Everybody wanted a dog in covid Is that. Is that news to you? That?
Josh Crumpton:that is to me. It was like so everybody's going to stay home and all want dogs. I didn't know that.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, I got a kid during covid.
Josh Crumpton:So, let's go ahead, I'm sorry, I interrupted so like everybody. Okay, so like everybody, during covid, you wanted a dog.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, don't have a dog when when you're in college. It just happened to be the really the correct situation for me to be able to actually like pay attention to a dog at a good house. See, our fenced in my roommate has a beautiful, amazing boykin who we raised like our junior year of college. College we like kind of took a village on that one. I mean any bird dog. It's like high energy.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah.
Joseph Berney:And it just was the right timing and I was working down in South Florida all summer. I was like, well, my grandmother always had labs. She had black labs or or yellow labs. And from there I just like it's like oh man, I like I'll just split the middle, let's get a chocolate. And I found I did a ton of research and because, like with with any like bird dog hunting breed, you have to be really adamant about, like, where you're getting your dogs from. Because there is like when you tell someone I mean especially on a college campus like I'm buying a dog, they like look at you like you're the devil, like why don't you rescue? Hmm, because I want to hunt my dog, like I'm sure they're like you can train a rescue to hunt. I was like, are we? Am I going to spend 30 minutes explaining this to you?
Josh Crumpton:Or can you also train a toddler to retrieve? You should probably just have a kid instead.
Joseph Berney:But anyways, there's no short stories with me. I end up finding a shortage of stories either. There's no shortage of stories. If you want no shortage of stories, you should talk to my granddad, but I think everyone can relate to that. Yeah, the pop of stories are never ending, but I remember this one time, that's how they all start. Yeah, I remember this. One time, me and my friends jumped off a bridge naked and scared the death out of you there?
Josh Crumpton:No, you weren't there. Nevermind, that's a story for a different thing.
Joseph Berney:So you get this dog when did?
Josh Crumpton:you get the dog from.
Joseph Berney:So I found this breeder in in Cartersville, georgia, recommendation of some friends and Ballywick retrievers, and I messaged them and was like hey, I like I saw you just had a litter. I know this is probably a long shot. There's no, like, no way you have availability, but this is who I am Like. I'm a fly fishing guide all of my. I'm in school at Georgia. I really would like this dog to be like my adventure partner. I'd like to try to train it how to hunt and this is kind of who I am and I get a call the next day. So, wait, we used to. You were still in school. I was still in school. Okay, I was in between my junior and I was some. It was summer of between my junior and senior year of school.
Josh Crumpton:This is.
Joseph Berney:COVID summer. Yeah, okay, I pick, I end up, they call me back and they're like well, we have like a year long waiting list, but last night we had someone drop out of a mail and we told ourselves we can go through this whole waiting list process. Or if someone within like 24 hours happens to reach out and they're a good fit for they call them one of our kids, we'll give them the dog.
Josh Crumpton:I hope no one on their waiting list is listening to this, because they're not going to like that.
Joseph Berney:Like they have a waiting list and like they're like, yeah, we just like, we just said, like this is how it's going to go. I sent them the money immediately, yeah, and they said you like, we'll be doing like the whole thing with the paint on the ears and whatnot, to decipher the puppies so you can see as they grow. But like you're getting the last, like you have the last choice, like you're getting the last mail, okay, so their puppies are growing. I'm like man, the green or purple dog, look like. I'm like you're getting the photo updates. I'm like, oh, the green or purple dog, it's like, but it doesn't matter, like I'm going to show up there and the dog that's there I'm going to get what I get.
Joseph Berney:They grow a little more and they grow so fast. At that stage it's like, oh, that green puppy is cute Like, and they're like showing the videos and he's not like. He's not like bossing the other dogs around, like all the things. Like you try to like in that time period you're trying to take in as much information as you can and you don't know whether it's right or wrong, but you're just like using every possible resource you can to like judge what's the dog I pick and whether it was like Orvis or Gundog mag or like all these other publications and like all these like things I've been seen and reading about, like this dog's kind of in the videos and everything kind of adding up to and he's I just couldn't tell, like you can't tell if they're like how big they are really compared to the other letter, but he definitely wasn't like the biggest dog.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah.
Joseph Berney:And I was like I really want that green dog and like the pickup process starts happening and are you seeing the dogs disappear? No, no, they just like oh, it's just like happening. It's just happening because they do it over two days, okay, and so I was the last person on the second day and I roll up and they've got him out like playing in the yard and it's the green puppy.
Josh Crumpton:Oh nice, so worked out. You got the dog that you wanted.
Joseph Berney:I got the dog. I got the dog I wanted. He was like run to the. I mean, he's a smaller.
Josh Crumpton:American. So where'd you go to school? Where are you living at this point in time?
Joseph Berney:I went to University of Georgia. Good dogs.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah.
Joseph Berney:In this point of time. I'm pretty happy we just absolutely handed it to Ole Miss last night to date, when this podcast is being recorded. I was. I was the guy at the wedding sitting there with my phone at the dinner dinner table watching the game and then I lay in the ducks. Yep Watching ducks in the game the ducks and the dogs. Just two of my favorite things.
Josh Crumpton:Be mindful of that if you're inviting Joseph to your wedding.
Joseph Berney:Just don't have a wedding during college football season. Like it's really that simple. It's like you're in the South, like why would you or if you, I mean, or if I guess for them, like they all went to a school. That football was like I went to Baylor. But if I'm getting married, like it will, it will be on Georgia's bye week if it's, in the fall, 100 percent. But I live in Colorado now. I live in a town called Carbondale.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, how'd that happen? So we're going to fast forward. You got your dog. You struggle through all the struggles that people struggle through while trying to have a dog and go to college. I'm sure that that pose challenges.
Joseph Berney:It was not that bad. I mean, it's like I did. I only had class two days a week and the other and I've made my schedule that way so I could guide on the weekends. Ok, so you're guiding, so I'm guiding up in North Georgia.
Josh Crumpton:Where? What water ways were you?
Joseph Berney:on the private waters. Well, captain, you can roll a photo carousel of like Siquewee fit. People love to make fun of Siquewee, but I loved it. It's a great way one to learn how to deal with people. Like guiding is. I mean you guide hunts and fishing, all of it like you learn a lot about how to handle people.
Josh Crumpton:The hard part is not learning the technical skills. The hard part is people.
Joseph Berney:You know personalities and then, like, learning how to fight big fish is actually a really interesting thing and you have a controlled environment up there. But I end up getting the job at Fly Lords because I had met Jared I'm friends with this girl, Heather Harkavy.
Josh Crumpton:Before you go there, I want to talk about your internship at Trout Unlimited.
Joseph Berney:Yes.
Josh Crumpton:So you, how did you wind up interning with Trout Unlimited, were you part of your Costa? Five rivers.
Joseph Berney:Yes, I was looking at colleges. That was one of the. I mean I was obsessed with fly fishing. I mean I'm still obsessed with fly fishing, it's just salt now. But I kind of found out about it because I was like searching well, there's clubs in college for everything. I bet there's a fly fishing club. So I looked that up and I found TU Coast to Five Rivers. So I there had been a good club. And what happens often with TU Coast to Five Rivers is there's a passionate group that kind of pushes through school, they graduate, the club dies. So that happened once and this guy named Guy A guy named Guy.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, the guy.
Joseph Berney:I think he works. I think he has a podcast for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Josh Crumpton:Oh really, yeah, he's a beast. What kind of podcast is it? Do you know the name?
Joseph Berney:I think it's the science podcast oh cool Of sorts. He's so smart. He started that club back up and as a freshman they were doing club officer elections. I'm always someone that likes to like dig my feet in and get involved with things I'm passionate about, and I was the vice president my freshman year.
Josh Crumpton:Oh cool.
Joseph Berney:And then end of sophomore year. Junior year I was the president of the club.
Josh Crumpton:Okay, how many members was it?
Joseph Berney:There were about we went from having maybe like 20 people in our like group chat to like 130 in a year.
Josh Crumpton:In the time that you were there.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, and it's, I think, one of the larger, like T-U-Coast five rivers clubs in the country, and it's not even on Troutwater.
Josh Crumpton:I think that's the one. Is that the one that?
Joseph Berney:The Embrace stream. That won. No, we won the Silver Trout award.
Josh Crumpton:That's the X3 this year. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, so Guy accepted that with our club advisor Jay.
Josh Crumpton:Oh, that guy, that guy, I just that's, there you go.
Joseph Berney:That guy guy.
Josh Crumpton:I didn't talk, but I saw him at at CX3. And that's. I think that's the one that Emily Omby is part of too from Nintutla.
Joseph Berney:Ung has a club too. I mean the University of North Georgia, Maybe that's where she is, which is where she went.
Josh Crumpton:Is that where she is? Okay, yeah.
Joseph Berney:They have a great club too and they're closer to Troutwaters. But this smaller school, I mean Georgia, has a total student population of 30,000. So I mean to get 130 students, like it's great. It's great. So that was fun. Was the president. And then, as the president, like each year you get, like you get a little more access, like you have a meeting every like every month with the coordinator and each year they look for a communications intern. So prior to me was I think the first communications intern was Dan Zass, who actually is a Fly Lords guy, and then after that was Libby Glasser. She's awesome. She ran the Five Rivers Club Five Rivers program until just a month ago. She went back. She was an intern, went to Bass Pro, came back to Five Rivers and I think she's back at Bass Pro again.
Josh Crumpton:I think that's what I heard. Is Bass Pro.
Joseph Berney:But she's awesome and then it was me and each intern gets to do like a whole project and that they're passionate about, did you just say she's awesome.
Josh Crumpton:And then there's me, you did. You're like I'm just kidding, but so you came after her when she was not the communications intern. You were the communications intern afterwards.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, after she graduated school, and then my second semester doing that, we brought on another intern named Cliff Watson. He is awesome as well.
Josh Crumpton:So communications intern. What does that mean? What were you doing?
Joseph Berney:I was running the Five Rivers to you coast of Five Rivers Instagram. I was helping plan meetings and organizing certain things like across all the clubs, like the presidents of all the clubs meetings, and then the biggest thing I did was run the with Andrew the coordinator, we ran the. What was it called? It was a nationwide like clean up, like stream cleaning competition. We had the coolest art made for it too. Who did the art? Slacker Tide Can't remember the name of the. Is the program still going? No, it was like a one time like it was based off a grant that that TU got. Oh man, I really wish I could remember. He'll come to you.
Josh Crumpton:You can just Tourette's it out in the middle of the show. When it comes to you, Just blurt it out.
Joseph Berney:But then I also started. I also started the emerging podcast and that was that was hard Me. It's really hard to like get something like this off the ground and to learn how to interview someone effectively, and I'm probably the worst person to be interviewed because I'm like thinking about what you might be asking next. I'm not just like sitting here having a conversation. That was really like my first episode. Actually, if you look at the chronologic chronological order of the episodes, it's not what we like. Chris. When I interviewed Chris Wood was after the Pebble Mine episode, but we wanted to kick it off with Chris Wood which is probably good because I got the Pebble Mine episode out of the way where I didn't know what I was doing, which was still really great and then got to interview, like Chris Wood, he's a good interview.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, he's amazing. He's an excellent speaker.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, he and he's like so and he like cares too. It's not like he hops on and like kind of goes through the motions, answers your questions. I mean I've listened to a few podcasts with him, though he's definitely got like his stories down, Like the story of how he like got into Curious about Conservation, like going. The salmon, the salmon story, yeah, I mean, but it's genuine, it is.
Josh Crumpton:I mean, it's the truth, it's a story, it's how it's working on. It's really cool, but he does a lot of, usually before he shows up places. Chris Wood knows who he's talking to when he shows up. That's what I'm always impressed about is when you meet him. If it's a planned meeting, he will know things about you.
Joseph Berney:Yeah.
Josh Crumpton:Alrighty, he takes the time to do his research which is good.
Joseph Berney:I think that's important too. If you're like that's something I learned when I was doing the podcast is I wanted to. I didn't want to just like hop on and ask a basic set of questions. I did a lot of like pre before that and then figuring out like the post production stuff and mixing and how to record things off of like the zoom call, and it's like I just kind of used YouTube and taught myself and then had some really fun guests.
Joseph Berney:I mean the goal was to have younger people or influential people in the conservation fishing space. Like had the back before or I guess it was when outside was still running it, but like had Paul Nicoletti on there who was OG fly fishing film tour and then was at Sims but this was pre-Sims. And like we had Casey Sheehan and we had Jared, which is kind of which is how I met him. Oh, that's awesome, he's an alumni of TU Coast of Fiverers. And then I passed the podcast, like I graduated from school and I passed the. What was cool is the last episode I got to do was I got to sit down in Colorado with Cliff, the other intern, and Andrew, who was the coordinator at the time, and get to like do a wrap up after we had done a fishing trip and that was kind of my last thing and I was off to full time work.
Josh Crumpton:The CX3. At CX3, the emerging podcast received an award this year.
Joseph Berney:Really it did. The person running it now is an absolute beast.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, she's the one who received the award.
Joseph Berney:What I think is cool is like now it's more the direction they've the interns that have taken it over now is it's interviewing a lot of students and a lot of young conservation staff, which is kind of the like initial goal. I think the heavy hitters that were on it the first year kind of set the stage of like why why young people are important to conservation and the future of our fisheries.
Josh Crumpton:It's a good podcast. I haven't listened to enough of them. I listened to a few of the early ones after I met you, but I don't like podcasts, so I feel like you drive enough to where, like that's, you would be a frequent podcast. I listen to a lot of audio books and I talk on the phone a lot when I drive.
Joseph Berney:Yeah.
Josh Crumpton:It's usually that's like when I catch up with people. Those are my like long, you know, deep dive conversations. I could probably record a podcast.
Joseph Berney:You don't talk to people. You visit with them.
Josh Crumpton:Well, I drive. It is visiting. It's visiting Someone that is such a.
Joseph Berney:Texas. Is that a Texas term? Visiting like visiting with people.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, I guess we say that and I feel like that's, is that not outside of Texas?
Joseph Berney:No Cause we definitely say You're the only person that said that to me, until this weekend, when the brides aunt came up to me and was like you'll need to visit with my father. He's he loves fly fishing. You'll need to visit with him.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, no, we say I kind of did a double take.
Joseph Berney:I was like I've only heard one person say that and it's like, yeah, we need to visit on that, or you need to like, yeah, yeah, I love it, it's good.
Josh Crumpton:I mean, I guess maybe that is a Texas thing, but I think that that you know that's different than talking to. It's like we. It's a deep level, like we're going to. We're going to sit down and jaw wag, is my friend Chris, chris Cantrell, likes to say, but I, I visiting is, I think, more intentional than jaw wagging. Even it's like you're you're going to get intimate. You know, jaw wagging can just be like I'm just it's kids say very superficial. Visiting is like you're going to get to know somebody in the conversation. You're going to talk about meaningful things. So after emerging and after your TU internship, is that the end of your senior year? Yes, you graduate and just pack your stuff and move to Carbondale. Is that how that went down?
Joseph Berney:I mean almost that I I, a good friend, heather Harkavy. She runs. She's the executive director of fish for change, which is a really, really cool nonprofit like student program in fishing. I really wanted to actually intern for her and set it to you that's okay. But her and I became fast friends, as many people do with Heather, and she now is the lodge manager at Abaco Lodge with her boyfriend Brett. That's cool.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, she's also still doing fish for change, but she told me she lives in Carbondale too before she moved to Abaco and she's like, oh well, like I heard Jared's hiring, it's like oh great, I interviewed him for a podcast like a month ago. So I send them a. I'd write up a cover letter, which is a when you're applying to a job, like write a custom cover letter for the job you're applying to. So like write a cover letter, submit my resume and email him and said thank you, like I'd already thanked him and I think I think for every guest I had on the podcast I would I would write a hand written note and I'd tie a fly and I'd put it on the corner and I'd send it to him.
Josh Crumpton:That's cool.
Joseph Berney:Thanking them for coming on the podcast. Jared's probably be like you never sent that to me. I'm pretty sure I did, probably got lost in the mail. But I emailed him is like thank you again for coming on the podcast. I graduate in May. I'll do anything. Here's my resume and cover letter Like look forward to hearing from you. And they did. They were hiring. I went through the most ridiculous interview like and knowing Jared now and how he like makes decisions, everything's very much by committee, which is really like, really fun to work in a place where everyone's opinion matters. But my interview process was long so I'm like all right, I don't even know if this is going to happen. And actually in an interview he's like all right, well, you would you move to Carpenter, colorado? And I was like I have no idea where that is, but yes, like sure.
Joseph Berney:That sounds great, like I. Then, after the call, after I had agreed to it, I looked it up on Google maps.
Josh Crumpton:And then learned how expensive it is to live there.
Joseph Berney:I also did the. I also like what's funny is Jared kind of sees me as like a hard negotiator and I mean that's kind of like part of my job. I have to be Like, but I was so excited about the job he's like offered it to me. He's like this is how much I'm going to pay you and I was like, yes, like on the call I wasn't. I didn't do the whole like let me think about it. I'd accept the job offer to Flylord's, moving out to one of the most expensive places in the country and everything. And I like the next week like packed up U-Haul and moved out to, like drove out to Colorado and you lived in Georgia your whole life to this point in time, my whole life and you.
Josh Crumpton:You're pretty close with your family.
Joseph Berney:I have a modern family.
Josh Crumpton:You do.
Joseph Berney:But I'm close with my family. Definitely. The house I lived in from when I was born until I was in high school was like like I walked through the woods to my granddad's house. He's a very important person to me and spent a lot of time over there.
Josh Crumpton:Your mom had a restaurant. My wife said that she ate at your mom's restaurant.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, before I was born. No, so the restaurant was before I was born.
Josh Crumpton:My mom's an amazing cook. My wife ate at your mom's restaurant before you were born. Correct, good Lord, you're making me feel old Jesus, joseph, jesus, joseph. Mother of Mary.
Joseph Berney:She had a restaurant called Travian in Decatur, georgia, and she's an amazing cook, but it was like a French bistro homemade cookies every day, like it was kind of like I heard it was excellent. Yeah, the cookies got put in the newspaper. But yeah, I mean, family is really important to me.
Josh Crumpton:Here's the thing it's like. So you bring up, like in Texas we're visit, like we visit with people, but the Southern and particularly the Southeast is full of customs and culture and I feel like my friends from the Southeast. Really there's a decorum, for instance, sending a handwritten thank you note with flies, tight in it, the suits that you wear to things knowing how to swing, dance, like these are all sort of like I miss it so much, sort of this thing.
Joseph Berney:And like I went to a wedding in like coastal Georgia earlier this year.
Joseph Berney:And like going to the like welcome party for the wedding and everyone's in there in their slacks and they're like bright button downs, and it's like a summer there was like a spring wedding on the end coastal Georgia and it's like you're wearing loafers and khaki slacks, a nice button down and a blazer and everyone's the and then the like the women wear like flowery dresses, like people just kind of carry themselves a certain way, and I'm not saying that people in call it like out West don't do that, but like you can walk into any like.
Basheer Benhalim:Colorado, Colorado just got their.
Joseph Berney:Michelin guide. You could walk into one of those restaurants that got a star and a T-shirt.
Josh Crumpton:And yeah, no, colorado is not. The West does not carry the same way it does the Southeast. It doesn't have the cultures and customs and I think it's that's part of what the West is. That's part of what the West is is people running away from culture and custom. I mean, that's how the West was founded, was people who were like, oh my gosh, here comes progress. I got to go a little further West.
Josh Crumpton:Oh my gosh, here comes progress, and each that's further and further. Until they hit the Pacific Ocean they were like oh shit.
Joseph Berney:And then Then they got really messed up, then shit got weird, then it was like here it comes.
Josh Crumpton:Well, and that's why the culture of, like California, the far West, is like as anything goes as possible and as out there as possible, because those are where you're non-traditionalists are, and if you look along the Eastern Seaboard, that was your traditionalists. They stayed through, roots down, built a lot of culture and a lot of tradition, and anyone not anyone, but many of the people that meet there, including yourself, are very tied in that decorum, and so I was. Where I was going is yeah, you answered the question that you already that you miss it.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, I do miss it. Oh, excuse me, that's last night's whiskey. I mean, I'm crossing my legs because I'm going to be dealing with the dads later. You know what the dads are.
Josh Crumpton:No, I don't know what the dads are, oh boy.
Joseph Berney:I can't imagine it's an acronym.
Josh Crumpton:It's yeah, acronym, acronym, each one of the letters, yeah it's an acronym for day after drinking shits.
Joseph Berney:That's terrible.
Josh Crumpton:That's the worst. That's the worst too. Is that rum Like it's raining? That's grand marnier.
Joseph Berney:Do you?
Josh Crumpton:need some rum. No, I need rum. Yeah, we can get you some rum. How about that frigate 15? Yeah, I'm going to drink some of this. Will it whiskey? No, I can't do it. It's lunchtime now.
Basheer Benhalim:I think we're, I think we're at the midday point.
Josh Crumpton:You know it's 1148.
Basheer Benhalim:Yeah, it's fine, we're solid.
Josh Crumpton:I guess where I'm going with this is my observations of you as a person are.
Joseph Berney:Oh boy.
Josh Crumpton:That you are a people person, that the community you surround yourself with you is very important to you and your family is really important to you, and I think that's probably where the foundation of how everybody else you treat that you come into contact with is probably based upon your family interactions.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, I mean. Well, my favorite thing is, like is is connecting people. It's like my favorite thing to do. I get that. That's. That's another thing that I get from my dad 100% and like you can kind of pick apart, I feel like a lot of the things like you realize, like as much as you might not want to be like your parents, you can pick apart the traits that you got from each of them.
Josh Crumpton:You're going to wind up like your parents, yeah.
Joseph Berney:Just by observing and being around it, my dad could talk to a brick wall Like he's going to be, like he could be friends with, with anyone. So I got, I got a lot of that. So I love, I love people.
Josh Crumpton:I like to tell all my best friends that I totally get along with everybody. I could be friends with anyone. I'm glad we're best friends. I mean the most asshole people. I love them. You know who you are. I'm talking to all of you guys. So now you're in Carbondale, You're going to wind up back in the Southeast at some point in time.
Joseph Berney:I love Colorado and, like I said, I, if I get by a house there, I'd live there forever. But I told Jared, like a month into working at Flylerts, it's like, hey, if you ever want to open an office on the East coast, it's going to be Charleston and I will open it. Like just tell.
Josh Crumpton:I will move.
Joseph Berney:I will move that day. I love the low country and it's driving this ninstome Like the holidays, when you have to figure out what your dog's going to do. The boardings of dogs is expensive.
Josh Crumpton:You don't have to tell me. There's so many dogs.
Joseph Berney:I board dogs, boarding dogs paying for boardings expensive boarding dogs and I feel like and I feel like you're not, like you're kind of cheating the dog a little bit, depending on where it's going to go, like I could drive him to Denver and drop him off at Valhalla and he's going to have the time of his life and it's going to be with birds, and he's going to be with birds and other bird dogs and I'm going to hang around and talk about perfection.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, he's never going to want to come home with me they're going to be like oh man, did you see the? You see the wings on that pheasant? Yeah, man, I saw the wings on that pheasant. That was, that was rad. Did you see the way it took off? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Basheer Benhalim:So is that? What Can you imagine?
Josh Crumpton:like a bunch of bird dogs just hanging out. They'd be like, you know, one of them be like yeah, yeah, yeah, I totally pointed that thing. Man, I pointed it hard. Did you see me? I was over there pointing it. I was just pointing it. The other guy's like yeah, yeah, yeah, I flushed it. It was a fucking. It went straight up in the sky. Did you see it flapping?
Joseph Berney:Yeah, yeah, that was my. I'd love to hear him talk, For sure. I want to be like. I just want to know. I want to know what Sam is thinking when we're in the duck blind Cause why did my dad miss that bird?
Josh Crumpton:Why did my dad miss that bird?
Joseph Berney:He doesn't need to talk English for me to know. Like that's what he's saying, cause if you so he's so stoked like you, you pulled Pip or Rowdy or any of them out of their kennel right now, like and you were wearing like your rain upland gear this morning they're like oh yeah, it's like it's happening Like I pull out Sam's vest and it's like he starts vibrating and he starts like doing that number and that won't stop until we're done that little like like soft, like stoke Mm-hmm man.
Joseph Berney:But I'd love to hear, like, what he's actually thinking, or when he's like with the other bird dog. It's like, do they like give each other shit, do they? They probably do, they probably do. They're like. It's like, how come you I beat you to that bird?
Josh Crumpton:Not. How come? Why are you so slow? I totally beat you to that bird. Why are you so slow? You had to back me. How was it pointing at my asshole? You were just looking at it all day long. That's how you are, because I'd be fighting the birds first.
Joseph Berney:How do you think? I wonder how, like the pointer, what the pointer says to the flusher, because the flusher keeps getting all the retrieves it's like.
Josh Crumpton:If it's an English setter, they're like, yeah, I didn't want that in my mouth. Anyways, those are gross, those are gross.
Josh Crumpton:Hey look, I found something for you to put in your mouth lab. Here it is. I'm pointing it, I feel like my pointers, when the labs are in front trying to find the bird. The labs are like kind of nose down using their nose, and the pointers already kind of like got like I think by this point I've already figured out where the bird is, and so, like Rowdy's like doing circles trying to get the bird, he's, like you know, full blown and the pointer's like it's freaking right there bro, it's right there, bro, it's you know.
Josh Crumpton:And then finally he flushes in there like thank god, thank god, the dog found it. Or I've been out with some flusher's that have a hard time finding birds, and I definitely oh man, I don't think I've told you this story. This is a good bird dog story. I love bird dogs.
Joseph Berney:So that was my nickname in high school Bird dog, one of my teachers. He nicknamed me bird dog. What did?
Josh Crumpton:you bird dog on.
Joseph Berney:You must have been like into like Well so no, he, uh, this guy was amazing, dr G, he had this vet club. Okay, like coveted most coveted club in high school. A vet club. Yeah, I neutered animals as a high schooler who knows if it was legal or not? But like I neutered his great, I neutered his great Pyrenees.
Josh Crumpton:I don't, I don't know if this is legal, but it's pretty rad.
Joseph Berney:Pretty rad. So but the point of the nickname thing he was a nickname, like there's nickname people. Yeah, that was like, I guess, bernie, bernie, bird, dog Bird dog, bird dog.
Josh Crumpton:I like that. Bird dog, bird dog, that's pretty good, yeah. So I have these, this couple. They asked me they come to hunt and they're like can we use our, can we bring our own dogs?
Joseph Berney:Oh great.
Josh Crumpton:And I was like, yeah sure, what kind of dogs are they? They're like they're monster landers, and I'd never really hunted with a monster lander at that point in time, and so what does a?
Josh Crumpton:monster lander look like. Well, here I'll. We'll look one up real quick and I'll show you one. But I'd never hunted with one. So these, so this couple brings these two monster landers, pretty dog and I go out there to hunt with them. Neither one of them have E-collars on. They've got bells and so, right from the beginning, soon as the dogs hit the ground, mom, dad, son, all give the dog a different command. Oh, god.
Josh Crumpton:I'm like, oh boy, here we go, dogs tear off into the, into the field and just start bumping birds everywhere. So we start hunting and the dogs are bumping everything as we go.
Joseph Berney:Yeah.
Josh Crumpton:And the mom's yelling at the dad and the dad's yelling at the mom and the kids yelling at the son and the kids yelling at them both, and they're all yelling at the dogs. I'm just like what planet have I landed on? And after their dogs have bumped every bird out of shot range for a while, I'm like, hey, do you guys want me to get my dogs? And maybe like if I bring my pointer, they'll back my dog and we can kind of like work on them getting steady. Mostly I'm like maybe we can just shoot a bird out here.
Joseph Berney:So you're like you're politely telling them like let's get my dog. Yeah, this is very early on in my career. Guiding. That's such a Now I would just say I think you should put your dogs away if you don't want to, I don't even know if there's an equivalent to that in fishing, where it's like, maybe it's like I want to like. If you're no, there's no equivalent to it.
Josh Crumpton:The equivalent is like I'm only going to catch a fish on a dry fly.
Joseph Berney:On a dry fly when you're on the San Juan, yeah exactly.
Josh Crumpton:And you're like at some point in time you're like I think maybe we should put some nymphs on. Maybe let's just throw a nymph rig.
Joseph Berney:Maybe let's get in the game.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, exactly, and that's kind of where this was. It's kind of like could we tie a dropper to your dry? That's where I was at. I was like I understand that you want to shoot these birds with your dogs, but maybe we should bring a dog that this might actually happen with. So my dogs come out and it is just like immediately my dog slams a point and like stands there and is waiting for us and their dogs are like off running I don't know 50 yards behind us somewhere doing some BS and the couple's like man, that's amazing, how do you get them to do that? And like in the best part is it's bells. There's fucking bells going all over the space. I'm like at first I'm like you see that E-collar on them. It's a good step. So my dogs are on point and we kind of get to a little bit of success. We have a couple of flushes where we actually make the whole thing work and then we finally like get to this place where we're out.
Josh Crumpton:One of my dogs is on point and this monster lander takes off into the woods and there go the bells and it's like just going off into the woods and the dad is like screaming at the dog and the son's like I'm going to go get the dog. And the dad's like don't you fucking go get that dog? And the son's like fuck you, dad. And this is literally what's going down. I'm just like holy shit. And the mom's like don't you fucking talk to him that way. And I'm like holy shit and like the son is like screw you and just like walks off into the woods after the dog with his gun.
Josh Crumpton:Now, at this point in time, at now in my guiding career, the brakes would have been pumped on this whole situation Like a long, long time ago, packed up and the party would have changed or something, or those dogs have been put away, anyways. So the son's marching after the dog. I've got a dog on point, literally five feet in front of us. I've got a couple shooters there. I know where the son is. He's back like safe direction away from us. I'm like, hey, look, I'm gonna. You know, we wait like five minutes. The bells stop, they disappear. I'm like, hey, I'm just gonna flush this bird real quick. And the dad's like oh fuck you to me.
Josh Crumpton:He's like I need to get my dogs in on this party. And I'm like, okay, we'll get your dogs in on this party. He's like I'm going to get my son. I'm like, okay, so his turns, start to go and get his son. He's starting to march off into the woods with his gun. I was like, hey, I'll take your gun from you, sir, go ahead, you go find him, whatever you know. At this point I'm so over the whole deal. So dad goes off into the woods I hear him cursing and then finally comes back with the son the son's back, the dad's back. I hand the dad his gun the dog's back. I've had to reposition my dogs, like we're now talking about 10 minutes plus.
Joseph Berney:On point.
Josh Crumpton:On point. And this tap and I'm just letting them reposition, let them reposition, let them reposition. We have these like bob whites, they're just like pinned.
Joseph Berney:Yeah.
Josh Crumpton:And like and the and my flushing dog is like losing his mind. They're all. All the dogs are looking at me like what the fuck is this like? Who are these stupid dogs? What's up with these people? What are we doing? Like I don't understand this whole part. They're like that is one of those times where I could look at my dog's eyes and I could see that they were judging me and they were like where did you bring us and what is this dumb shit.
Josh Crumpton:So the dad gets the monster landers there. I like turn, I'm like OK, are you guys all in? The monster lander runs in and blows the birds out before anybody's ready, right there in front of 15 minutes, for this dog to get brought in to flush the birds before everyone's ready. So anyways, I don't know where we started with that, but I think the point was that that was the one point in time that I could see and I could hear everything going through my dog's head and it was all like we hate you and we hate this.
Joseph Berney:Sometimes you have talkative dogs like Sam's talkative. He lets you know, he lets you know with his eyes, he lets you know with his body language. It's hilarious. I mean he like, like you, know 100 percent what he's, what he's feeling, and his feeling storms you.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, so you got a story.
Joseph Berney:Well, I mean where I figured out like how he could judge people was like we were in college. There was this girl that came over that, like wanted to say hi to one of my roommates or something, was in town. We knew she was like crazy and Sam would not go near her. And not 20 minutes after she left, one of our good friends who he hadn't met yet, walks in the door immediately like pumped and like all over her.
Josh Crumpton:It's like hmm, this is a really good tool. So you left Trout Unlimited. You finished your internship at Trout. Unlimited and you moved to Carbondale and you're working for Fly Lords and you were probably you were aware of Fly Lords before you started working for it, I'm sure, yeah when I was in high school they did this thing like early Fly Lords, Jared, do that people take over, like the Snapchat?
Joseph Berney:Do you know what Snapchat is? Or is that too old for that? You've got kids.
Josh Crumpton:I know about Snapchat. You've got kids, that probably only communicate via Snapchat. I know about.
Joseph Berney:Snapchat, but you used to be able to take over the Fly Lords Snapchat. I did that as a high schooler a couple of times. Oh, you did. And even this is actually a really funny story. And Jared still has the email in his, in his, like in the Fly Lords at gmailcom email which doesn't use anymore. But for those who like might just for some reason want to email him, cause I just dropped his email but the email's not in use anymore but we have access to it, Like as far as like what the emails he got were when I was in college, when I was in college.
Joseph Berney:they were doing a trip to Cuba and they were looking for some people to fill spots. I think the operator of the lodge wanted for them to come down and film, wanted them to bring some paying guests. So they put out, like when you do something like that and when you're filming, we've learned like and by. We like Jared and Max, like. So Jared, the founder, max, our creative director, have gone all over the world filming and have become really good at getting into like a lodge operating as normal business and them still getting the story in the place and the people without interfering with other people's experiences. This lodge just wanted, like us, to bring down people we knew, okay. So they put out like a casting call kind of. But just like come to Cuba with us.
Joseph Berney:Okay, there was nothing about on this advertisement that you had to pay $4,000. So I get, I put in like an application, I get an email from Jared, I get picked and I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to garden of the Queens, like with fly lords, this is going to be amazing. And I get to the bottom of the email and it's like yeah, so you just need to pay for it, for grand, and you'll be able to come and I was like like maybe if I, instead of like using my guide, tip money as like drinking, like beer money, and just saved it, maybe I would have had like four grand laying around. But not many college kids have four grand laying around.
Josh Crumpton:No.
Joseph Berney:And so I like sent this email back. I have the whole, like Jared pulled up the whole chain one day and it was this whole chain of me being like well, you had your opportunity to go to Christmas Island with the Geobass guys, and like that was, I was like kind of like leveraging his story a little bit to try to see if I could finesse my way onto this trip. And if you've had, did you ever see a Cuba fly lords film? No, no, oh, it didn't happen. It didn't happen. They couldn't find anyone.
Josh Crumpton:Cause he probably had everybody else saying the same thing. Maybe, like I don't know, I'm not going to play $4,000. But yeah, that's pretty funny.
Joseph Berney:But so I was familiar with fly lords. Like when I was getting into fly fishing, I had like used every online resource I could to learn about it, and fly lords was the main main one Instagram page, everything. And here I am. I think we talked earlier about like how I applied and somehow got hired out of college.
Josh Crumpton:I know that part of your responsibilities is doing the men of fly fishing calendar, but outside of that, what else do you do at fly lords?
Joseph Berney:The men of fly fishing calendar. We're going to do that for April Fools. You just gave us our April Fools, you're welcome. You're going to be in it.
Josh Crumpton:Josh Crumpton Trout.
Joseph Berney:Unlimited board member.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah Well, I'm wearing a brook trout pattern banana hammock. If I'm in it, that's what's happening, matthew can you push up?
Basheer Benhalim:No, I don't need, I'll just sit here and take a photo.
Joseph Berney:You know it's my official titles brand partnerships director, but I mean we're small, like I don't know what people's outside perception of fly lords is, but it's it's small, there's not a lot of us and everyone kind of just does what needs to be done to achieve, kind of, the goals of the business. I mean, jared started this thing when he was in his in the basement of like well, no, in his college dorm room. It's like one of those stories, but it's like every the same mindset kind of exists still. Like we have titles. I think most of my job is working like any magazine relies on advertisers to to get paid.
Joseph Berney:But our thing is like, no matter what we do with someone, whether it's Sage or Orvis or Sims or Yeti, like we want, even if it's like an advertiser wanting to work with us, it's the the content still needs to be authentic and organic looking and and accomplish our mission. Like our anything needs to be either inspirational, educational or conservation focused. It has to be one of those three things because our mission is to inspire people to get out in the outdoors and to conserve those places. So if it's not inspirational, educational or conservation focused, like, those are the three things that come out of that mission statement and I mean there was a time when Fly Lords was a lot of gripping, grins and stuff like that and some people still see it that way. But I think internally we're all really committed to making sure that like the sport grows and expands and like everyone is able to enjoy it or learn about it like you don't need.
Joseph Berney:Like you don't need I mean, I didn't have grandparents or parents that fly fished or hunted, like I kind of just all figured it out through friends, through like YouTube, through reading a lot Like.
Basheer Benhalim:I'd sit and.
Joseph Berney:I'd sit in class in high school.
Josh Crumpton:Nah you don't go to TikTok for your instructionals no I have some young guys who work for me, but that's what they do. They're like. I like a lot of good stuff on.
Joseph Berney:Instagram Realists. That's instructional, yeah, but I do think like that's where, like, you can find a lot of information. The information might not be 100% true. That's why you have to go to a bunch of different sources, but our goal is to have as good of information on whatever you're looking for as far as, like, fly fishing goes, like available.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, the organizations evolved a lot, it seems like really pretty heavily over the past like three or four years and really the past two. Yeah seems to have changed a whole lot. I'm surprised to hear you guys are small. I always thought that you guys had like a 10 story building in downtown.
Joseph Berney:Denver with a private stream running through it no no, when I so, when I moved to Carbondale, it was man. I'm trying to think of how many actual full time people there were working for it. Honestly, might have just been like truly like full time, like on a con, on a contract. Maybe it it was really Pat Perry myself, will's Donaldson and Jared, who's the founder, and Dan Zasorsky, like, but Like. There's a lot of people that aren't full, like like fly lords is the only thing they do, right, but it was me, jared and Will's, living in the same house, working in that house, all the same, friends. Small town Carbondale sticks.
Josh Crumpton:Six thousand people, yeah, work together, play together, yeah, and live together.
Joseph Berney:I mean that that was really really cool experience. We were very close. Our friends hated it because work never stopped, but then eventually we all moved out of that house. We have an office now. It's in Basalt, colorado. It's right on the frying pan river, which is pretty cool.
Josh Crumpton:Speaking of a fly shop tour. That's where you're just, you're just coming off your stint, is that correct?
Joseph Berney:Yeah, I love fly shop tour. How was it? Well, you love it, it was you still love it and you just finished your leg of it.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, I finished my leg of season two.
Joseph Berney:This one was special. I was in my home state. I was in my home state which was really interesting because, like last year, I did Wyoming and Montana Incredible, like getting the fish, the snake through the park. Because in that period of time there was like a lawsuit going on where you could film in national parks if you're a low like, if you're low impact, which we were. So we like fit it, like we just perfectly timed it to where we were allowed to film in, like Teton, is it the Teton? Teton? Yeah, grand.
Josh Crumpton:Teton National Park. Yeah, and we're literally like floating.
Joseph Berney:You're catching native, native Snake, river cutthroat trout and like the grand is staring at you and it was incredible and those like new experiences drove a lot of stoke. I'm a pretty even keel person. You've seen me like get really excited about snake, get really excited about something, but there's a lot of times where I'm like you shot a blue quail. Yeah, there's a lot of times, and most of the time I'm like it's genuine, but I'll just be like that's funny, or oh, that's like, oh, that's really cool.
Joseph Berney:And I like this year on fly shop tour and junior Della tour and Marcus Missola who were the camera people through South Carolina, we're like I'm Joseph, that's cool. Yeah, that's really fun. This has been a great time. It's like I'm sorry I don't get like if I get like super, super fired up about something, like like it wouldn't be genuine to me, but like I like that new experience was was that the first time you fished out there?
Joseph Berney:I'd fished in Wyoming before, but all the fisheries I fished in Wyoming and Montana when I went to those states were totally new. So I go to Georgia, which is my home state. It's it was really interesting to try to like stay really excited and stoked to show people my home state when I was so comfortable I'd fished all those. You'll see, like when we go fish for Shull bass with Unicoi I get like super fired up because I'd never done that and but then like we got to highlight some certain things that were really like highlight my home fly shops and like the whole thing with fly shop tour is there's nothing. There's nothing like that anymore in the outdoor space. It seems like REI and shields and Bass Pro and Cabela's and like Dick's sporting goods, what it like Academy it's. It's really hard for an even Walmart, it's really hard for a small specialty retailer to survive.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, it is, and you got to do it with culture. Yeah, culture and community.
Joseph Berney:So the cool thing is like getting to highlight these shops not only is like a place of retail, but they're a cornerstone of their, their community and, like the conservation efforts they support and the community they fostered through tying nights or whatever they do, they're a hub for Like-minded people in a community.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, the good ones seem to be places where you want to hang out and you want to spend time.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, the really great shops and in the cool, like we had this idea, like last year we put together a fly shop tour. Like in like a month, oh, like we fund it all, like we don't make, like we don't make money on that project, like it's so expensive to put on and we like, but it's so important to tell those stories.
Basheer Benhalim:Yeah, and I think like Rockies was cool.
Joseph Berney:That was really hard. There's a ton of fly shops. And then the south. I was like, oh, this is gonna be a piece of cake, like we're just gonna the whatever shops exist, we'll just plan it out, and I know most of the shops anyways being from down there. And then I realized it hurt even more to miss shops this year Because I know, like I have their cell number. Like we had to miss Boone With Carolina. Just with how the tour went. We had to miss like the flat, like I can. I can riff off the names.
Josh Crumpton:Is this your? Is this your open apology to them?
Joseph Berney:I think I've called all of them personally, though.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, that's good, because I've heard it's been a big talk.
Joseph Berney:Oh yeah, I'm sure water cooler.
Josh Crumpton:Fly lords. Hate me. I don't know what I ever did to Joseph, no right.
Joseph Berney:But the events are really cool like that. That's a really fun part of the whole thing. To see the community come out and raise money for a local nonprofit like we're not Fly lords, isn't cool enough to like go somewhere and like, oh, come meet the fly lords crew. It's like no, we're just normal people that like fishing and like to tell stories. Like there's no, like there's no reason. We should just like, oh, meet and greet fly lords.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, Great. That's why you have this great fundraisers and stuff.
Joseph Berney:Well, it kind of comes back to everything we do has to align with the mission.
Josh Crumpton:I think there's definitely people who would want to meet you guys and ask you questions. I think there's definitely, yeah, that high schooler that wants to go to Cuba, that would like to come and see you guys, thinking they're gonna go to Cuba and then be told that they can but yeah, I'm four thousand dollars.
Basheer Benhalim:That exists.
Josh Crumpton:He's out. Do you have some dollar figures of conservation dollars raised that you can release?
Joseph Berney:Over last, over last season, or you can do that last season. Last season was last season was probably over 14 grand.
Josh Crumpton:That's great, yeah, and all going to like local specific projects speaking of new things, you went and shot with my friend, steve, who has been on the podcast, but that podcast may or may not have aired when this podcast is, I don't know. You could get a podcast with Steve on it Steve Irwin, who does the astrophotography classes here at the ranch, and it was his first time shooting and so you get to kind of be part of first time shooting shotgun. You get to be part of that. And then his wife, d, and him wanted to extend a new experience to you by letting you try D's motherfucking.
Joseph Berney:Fluffy. So we have some fluffy cakes here. You're gonna see, like on the. I've been eyeing this up, yeah, so these are these are you know.
Josh Crumpton:So we were talking about how you could call this a marshmallow, but it wouldn't do it justice. And this is the caramel version, and I've had a moor caramel caramel, tomato, tomato, I can't even ask Google that.
Joseph Berney:It'll tell you both are right caramel was a pecan or pecan it's pecan pie. Oh shit, really it's Pete. This is it's pecan pie.
Josh Crumpton:It's it's a pecan Georgia. Georgia, let's eat these. Okay, yeah, let's try me. Just staring at it, look, but like okay, all right, it is a fluffy cake, not a marshmallow. I just won't let you know, it's not a marshmallow, oh.
Joseph Berney:We're doing ASMR.
Josh Crumpton:In Matthew's ear. Matthews, matthews, face Damn right, I need some whiskey with this.
Joseph Berney:No, I need I need.
Josh Crumpton:I need an. Is hit me.
Joseph Berney:I need an espresso. Oh yeah, that'd be good to oh.
Josh Crumpton:With whiskey. Oh, what do you think about fluffy cakes? Are you coming to D's motherfucking? Fluffy cakes and whiskery. So whiskery, a whiskey distillery.
Joseph Berney:How do you say distiller? How do you do distillery? And in fluffy cakes, what's the word combined?
Josh Crumpton:a Fluff fillery a fluff fillery, a fluffer, a fluffery? Yeah would, if I worked there, would I be a fluff boy Get fluffed. I'm just saying I think we're we're teetering on a wrong industry here.
Joseph Berney:Yeah anyways delicious.
Josh Crumpton:But next year we're gonna podcast during during the season. Maybe we could do a podcast while we dof hunt. Oh yes, catoly, there's so much downtime in between.
Joseph Berney:It's Mike us up, matthew.
Josh Crumpton:Yeah, trademarked dove, dove cast the thing is, it's gonna be it's gonna be Half the time, because I'm definitely bringing my Definitely bringing my dog.
Joseph Berney:Oh, so you can be trying, trying to control your dog, the whole pot, the whole podcast, all you're gonna hear in the background. Sam shut up.
Josh Crumpton:Sam. Quiet that's funny, okay. Anyways, it's been a blast literally having you here and I'm looking forward to fly shop tour being able to see it in 2024.
Joseph Berney:Yeah.
Josh Crumpton:I'm looking forward to us hunting together this season, hopefully getting to record a little bit more, checking in with you again, and thanks for being here, joseph.
Joseph Berney:Yeah, thanks for having me. And if you want to follow along, go go watch season one fly shop tour. Do it. Go watch all the fly lords films. Go when they're Our film tour film comes out, you should watch that. That one's pretty good. I'll do it. We're all doing Rachel Finn. Rachel Finn is the best person in the world. That's how I want to end the podcast, like she's awesome. Go watch Rachel Finn. Rachel Finn.