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Diaries of a Lodge Owner
In 2009, sheet metal mechanic, Steve Niedzwiecki, turned his passions into reality using steadfast belief in himself and his vision by investing everything in a once-obscure run-down Canadian fishing lodge.
After ten years, the now-former lodge owner and co-host of The Fish'n Canada Show is here to share stories of inspiration, relationships and the many struggles that turned his monumental gamble into one of the most legendary lodges in the country.
From anglers to entrepreneurs, athletes to conservationists; you never know who is going to stop by the lodge.
Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Episode 62: On The Water With Jay Siemens
What if your passion for fishing could turn into a thriving career on YouTube? This week on Diaries of a Lodge Owner, we sit down with Jay Siemens, a YouTube fishing and outdoor sensation, to uncover his remarkable journey from lodge guide to digital media star. Jay shares heartfelt stories about his early days with Uncut Angling in 2011, how his grandfather ignited his love for fishing, and the transformative moment when he embraced photography, leading to the birth of Thrive Visuals. Together, we laugh and reflect on our guiding days, pulling back the curtain on what it takes to create captivating outdoor content.
Have you ever wondered what makes a great fishing guide? It's not just about catching fish—it's about people skills and creating unforgettable experiences. Jay recounts valuable lessons from his guiding days, highlighting the importance of adapting to different guest expectations and the mental game involved. From learning not to out-fish his guests to understanding the diverse needs of those seeking relaxation or adventure, Jay's insights offer a fresh perspective on the art of guiding. We also discuss the evolution of guiding techniques and how young guides at Nordic Lodge are redefining guest interactions.
Join us as we explore the origins of Uncle Mark's Outpost and the unique DIY fishing adventures it offers on Lake of the Woods. Jay shares the logistics, challenges, and creative techniques behind producing high-quality fishing content, providing a glimpse into the meticulous planning required. We also touch on the collaborative efforts with tourism agencies and lodges that elevate these adventures.
This episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner is brought to you by Nordic Point Lodge a luxury outdoor experience with five-star service.
Speaker 2:I think what I like about YouTube is there's just, there's no, there's no rules, and that's what I love. And you know I don't really like the title. I don't want to say I don't like it, but people like you're a professional fisherman. I feel more like a producer that happens to fish this week on the Outdoor Journal radio podcast Networks.
Speaker 1:diaries of a lodge owner stories of the north. Will and I are excited to have with us today one of the most popular YouTube and social media anglers on the planet. He's a young gentleman, great father with a young family and outstanding videographer, but he's an oak in the industry. He has spent his life fishing, and over half of it online, in a place where it is extremely difficult to survive. Starting as a lodge guide before he could drive, he quickly found himself involved in the production of Uncut Angling in 2011, cutting his teeth as a cameraman, producer and finding himself occasionally in front of the lens. His hard work and expertise helped garner over 200,000 subscribers and over 45 million YouTube views. Now on his own, after forming his production company Thrive Visuals in 2018, he is focused on his own YouTube channel with over 200,000 followers, 400 videos and multi millions of views. His success is driven by his passion for fishing in the outdoors, and his love for teaching and crafting videos has proven to be an unwavering force. And for this YouTube Titan, there are no limits.
Speaker 1:And now, on behalf of Will and I, I am excited to introduce to all of you Jay Siemens On this show. Jay shares some details about his path to YouTube fame. What motivated him in his journey. We all tell some great guide, lodge and outpost camp stories and learn what it takes to create the absolutely awesome content we all enjoy on the Jay Siemens YouTube channel. So if you have ever wondered what it takes to become a YouTube fishing and outdoor sensation and want to look behind the scenes, Look no further. This one's for you. Here's our conversation with Jay Siemens. Welcome, Jay. On behalf of both Willie and I, it is an absolute pleasure to finally have you on Diaries of a Lodge Owner. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I know you reached out a few months back, maybe almost a year back, and I didn't do a good job of following up, but now we're here and we're chatting, so looking forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, don't worry about that. With kids, I know how busy it is and wife and everything else and you're living an extremely busy life and I'm so thankful that Willie has now come on as a co-host of Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North and we finally got this set up. That's great. It's good to have some Kenora stories of the North and we finally got this set up.
Speaker 2:That's great. It's good to have some Kenora blood on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Well thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:There's the man of the hour right there, that's when you're supposed to jump in and say something. Smart Willie.
Speaker 3:I am, I am, I am. I am Sorry, I was just fiddling with my phone there. We got a big bear down at camp right now pushing about 400 pounds. Jay, a big cinnamon bear. I left camp today for like three and a half hours. I haven't left in like, besides coming into town that one time this summer, I haven't left in three months. I leave for three and a half hours and the guy shoots the best bear of the summer of course of course right, that's the way it goes.
Speaker 3:That's the way it goes no, thanks a lot, jay, for coming on. And you know, like we man, you're the king of youtube, fishing brother, and, and, and uh. It's recognized all over north america and the world. So we, uh, we're very fortunate to have you today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for coming on well, thank you, I think I think the term king is a little over the top. I think there's, there's I'm lucky to be one of the people that have uh made a go of it in this, uh, in this unique time we live in, that, uh, people are able to do that, um, that people are able to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit, because I've been blessed with the opportunity to have worked, and still work, with the Fish and Canada television show, and Ange was one of the pioneers in television and, much like yourself, you're one of those pioneers in YouTube and, if I have done my research correctly, it was 2011 when you started your YouTube videos, uncut Angling and that really, in my opinion for YouTube, is its infancy and you've managed to stand the test of time. So, before we get into that, jay, where did the love of the game is what I'm going to call it, but really it's the love for photography and capturing the perfect shot and fishing? Where did that start?
Speaker 2:I mean, love for fishing came from my grandpa. You know my my dad liked fishing but it was never his thing to to take me out. It was me, more so, taking my dad out fishing. But I guess what kind of set the bug was. We would do a yearly trip to white shell provincial park with my family and my grandpa found a resort that he liked and they went there for every year same cabin for 30 years, sort of thing. And that was just a week I looked forward to and you know a lot of that.
Speaker 2:Fishing involved trolling, you know Len Thompson, five Diamond Spoon and catching little pike and if we were lucky we'd catch a walleye and it was amazing. And you know that's just where my love of fishing began. You know where the photography part creeped in was later in life. So I mean I had, you know, the from 13 to I guess 16 is when my, you know, passion for fishing really blossomed. And then, when I was 16, I started getting into and this feels weird because it doesn't feel that long ago, but I guess it is 15, getting into, and this feels weird because it doesn't feel that long ago, but I guess it is 15, you know 18 years ago.
Speaker 2:But the phishing message boards. This was pre pre facebook and there was phishing message boards. There's a couple in manitoba I grew up an hour south of winnipeg in manitoba and there's these manitoba phishing message boards and that's where people would post their phishing reports. You take some pictures, post a report, you'd share info. And there's this guy on the message boards. His name was Aaron Wiebe and he would post just the most outlandish stuff. He'd always be going on these crazy adventures, catching big fish, stirring the pot everywhere in between, right. So I just like I followed him, I idolized him, him and his buddy, chris Thole. They went on these adventures and it just so happened that I kind of had an opportunity to fish alongside aaron. He had a derby on his farm pond and, uh, a little ice fishing derby, and that's kind of where I met aaron.
Speaker 2:Once I met aaron, then I, you know, we started chatting and he told me about all of his summer spent guiding at different fishing lodges in the north, and that's really where I realized that, hey, I could actually, you know, make a living, obviously I, I had the, the dream. Oh yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have a tv fishing show when I'm older, right, which is like it's the same thing as like saying, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be an nhl player. It's like you say that when you're young, not really knowing what that means. Yeah, but then I then when, then, when I got to be 16, 17, I'm like, okay, this seems like a more realistic thing I'm going to. I'm going to work at a fishing lodge.
Speaker 2:Aaron guided at lodges. He was able to help me with some referrals and some places to start guiding. So between Aaron and a couple other you know people in his friend group I I got set up with my first guiding gig and that's kind of where my eyes were open to lodge life and everything that goes along with it and the life skills, and I could talk for hours just on. You know what being a guide and working a lodge has taught me.
Speaker 1:But well, let's get into it a little bit, because that is that is a topic that I have experienced a little bit from, not from your perspective, but from the perspective of a lodge owner and I know, with my guides it was something that was always I'm not going to call it a struggle, but managing the people and personalities and really trying to work with the guides to have everybody work together with different personalities and on the same body of water and and try and and teach or convince or convey that all boats rise with the tide right. So I understand that and we had the A spots where guides really like to keep to themselves. But you know, as the owner, I told all of the guides you need to. You need to tell me where you're catching your fish. I'm paying you. I want to know what's going on out there. I want to know what's going on out there. And then some of them I knew were 100% honest with me and I would never give away those spots, although on the Upper French River it's pretty tough to keep them hidden from guests who are on the water and they see the guide boats and they go there.
Speaker 1:But you know, it was more for me. I wanted to tell people how to catch fish and even if you didn't book a guide, if the guides were on the dock, I wanted the guides to make sure that they were available to teach and to coach and to socialize with these people, because the guides were selling themselves and that's how I played it. You know these people that haven't booked a guide before. It's your opportunity to tell them about the fishery and how to catch fish. And if you're not soliciting because guests pick up on that real quick they will book a guide. And when you work together, fishing gets better. And I'm just. I've talked to a lot of different guides on this show and I'm interested to hear some stories on where the situations that you were in as a new guide or in these environments. Were they cooperative, not cooperative? Were there pricks that you remember or was it like? Tell me a little bit about your guiding experiences oh man, um yeah, I've got.
Speaker 2:I've got definitely just a flood of stories and memories that come back, because it's an interesting time too. It's. It's uh, you know, when you I started guiding, I remember it was summer of of grade 10. My parents dropped me off at the first lodge I worked at. It was called Eagle Nest Lodge on the Winnipeg river. I didn't have my drivers yet. They dropped me off to guide for the summer. I didn't even have my drivers and I had a lot of experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had a lot of growing up to do and, and I think, something that people don't realize I've heard this from a couple of different lodges but you know, you can teach somebody the fishing skills, but you can't teach somebody the people skills.
Speaker 2:So it's just anyone can learn to be a fisherman, some people that are, uh, socially unaware. That might be a tough thing for them to fix, which that sounds kind of harsh, but like it's. And we can go deeper into this. But just guiding is so much of a mental game and it's so much more than catching fish and I think when you start guiding you think it's all about catching big fish. You think that's what every guest wants. They want to catch big fish. The more you guide, the more you realize that isn't the case. So I remember coming in for, you know, my first couple of days of guiding. Specifically, a story that sticks out was one of my first days of guiding. We went into this Creek and we're seeing smallmouth bass all over the place and these guests are kind of, you know, struggling to catch them. They don't really care that much, they're just there for a good time. But all of a sudden I'm like back trolling the boat and I'm like sniping the fish in front of them. I caught two or three trophy bass and I'm like, guys, this is so good. And then the end of the day we come back to camp and the owner and the lodge or the guide manager sits me down. They're like, jay, like you shouldn't be out fishing the guests they're paying to be here and here you are standing in front of them catching fish and I'm just like, oh yeah, that that doesn't seem great, right, but in my mind the boat caught a bunch of big fish. They saw big fish, Isn't that great? But it, you know, that's just one scenario that sticks in my mind.
Speaker 2:But just, it was a lot of growing up, being a guide and, like you said, dealing with different personalities. You're dealing with all the different staff and you're dealing with different guests. And there's guests out there that want to be pampered. They want their bait put on, they want the fish to be pampered, they want their put on, they want the fish to be unhooked, they don't want to get any slime on their hands and that's great. You know a lot of these lodges. They're paying a good chunk of money to be there and that's what. That's what should be done. But then there's other guests that are going to give you a hard time and they're going to raz you and they want you to feel like you're their buddy and that you're cracking jokes back and forth and you're making fun of them and they're making fun of you. They'll make that comfortability.
Speaker 3:Aj say that again. They'll make that comfortability right.
Speaker 2:Try and make the situation a little more at ease for you as you're learning and, yeah, their experience as well, right yeah, and just learning how to interact with all of these personalities and realizing that you can't treat Jim the same as you treat Bob right, and learning how to do that. Not that I'm a different person, I'm just treating them a different way in that situation. And then, with all of that too, it comes the first couple years, like I said, being so bent out of shape about Big Fish. And then you realize, no, it's the customer experience. I've had crews that want to have a three-hour short lunch. They want to have a nap afterwards, they want to go see a scenic spot, see a waterfall. They might just want to catch their first fish, or they want to learn how to fly fish right.
Speaker 2:Another story that sticks out in my mind is this guest that wanted to catch fish on the fly rod, but he couldn't be bothered to learn how to fly fish. So he said, jay, here's what we're going to do. You're going to stand in the front of the boat, you're going to sight fish these pike, you're going to set the hook and then you're going to hand me the rod and if you've ever sight fished for pike, the best part is seeing that strike and setting the hook. The fight's good, but it's just like all the lead up to it. So, like I, I had four days in the boat with these guys. It was so enjoyable because he was happy I was getting to cast and hook these fish right and it was just like a unique thing. If he wanted to learn how to fly fish I would have taught him, but this is exactly what he wanted from that trip and that's what we did. So it's like just realizing it's not about the guide At the end of the day.
Speaker 2:I don't know how your lodge does it or how nordic does it. Every lodge does step different. Some places they have like a creel where they write down all their fish at the end of the day. Some places they have like a round table where they share. Unfortunately, you know, whether you like it or not, it turns into an ego thing with which guide is catching the biggest fish or the most fish. But that doesn't correlate to a successful trip. But I'm sure you know. You've seen that time and time again.
Speaker 3:You're so right, jay. It's so funny you bring this up right now. I have two young gentlemen. When we bought Nordic, they came with the lodge. You probably met them last year when you were up there with Ryan Jackson and Zach. You know. They've been there since they were, you know, just about 13 years old and now they're. They have their driver's licenses and they're. I've had them guide and they've probably done 20 trips for me now and you know, to watch the evolution of because and I didn't start, I don't know if I've never told you this, but I I didn't start my guiding like you guys, like you did right and I don't think, steve, you just guided on the side, correct for your, for Chaudier, when you were there listen, I, um, I was the owner of the Chaudier Lodge for 10 years and, um, I guided when two situations happened number I overbooked my guides and I had to jump in.
Speaker 1:Or, number two, one of my guides didn't show up and I had to cover for him. And that's that's when I guided. And the worst part about that whole thing was I could be, you know, out three days in a week, or I might be going out in, you know, and haven't been on the water for a month.
Speaker 1:And, uh, when, when the guests get in the boat with the owner, they're like oh my God, I'm going to I'm fishing with Steve Right and and the, but I, I, I learned very quickly that um, that and Jay, you hit it on the head. And for all the aspiring guides out there, from the point of view of a lodge owner who's been there and hired people, and I've talked to thousands of guests who have been out with guides, and the key number one is finding out what your guest expectations are for their experience and, number two, doing everything that you can to make it happen. And the best way and I've said it before and I'll say it again I could tell who the best guides were by listening to my guests in the dining room at dinner and when they would tell me about their day and the fish they caught or the fishing was about the third point that they got to.
Speaker 3:That is the mark of a great guide that's when you knew the guy did his job, absolutely, absolutely experience yeah, so you're guiding now and um, um.
Speaker 1:At that point, how big was photography in your life?
Speaker 2:Um, I really only started playing with a little more, yeah, when I started guiding, I guess, when I was around yeah, 16, 17, you know playing that. That's when digital cameras became a lot cheaper and it was just like, you know, I'd have one in the boat and I'm always taking pictures of the guests fish, right. So they want a good fish picture. And that's where it's like I was fishing in the off season. You know, when I was back home in high schools, every weekend was a fishing trip, right, and it was just like I want to take the best pictures possible. And then I'm at the lodge and it's like, hey, I want to learn how to take Northern lights pictures, I want to take wildlife pictures, take better pictures of the fish. So that was kind of just. You know the thing that happened. So I, you know, guide summer grade 10, summer grade 11. Then all of a sudden it's like okay, jay, what are you doing when you graduate from high school? And I'm like I don't know what I want to do, I'm going to take the year off. So I took a year off and I did it kind of across Canada, not across Canada, but across Western Canada, sort of road trip with my dad and we went fishing all over the place. And then it was time to, you know, figure out what I was going to do with with my life. And I wasn't ready. I didn't know yet what I wanted to do for sure. I liked guiding, I liked something fishing related, but I was, like you know what? I liked photography enough, uh, I, you know, gotten a little bit better at it. I'd been, you know, shooting some side gigs and stuff at home and I was like, okay, well, I'm going to enroll in photography school and there was a photography school in Winnipeg and got accepted into it, got an apartment in the city.
Speaker 2:Everything was kind of lining up to start that September. And, um, I think school is supposed to start. I forget the exact dates. I think September 23rd school is supposed to start and I was doing like a last hurrah muskie trip on Lake of the Woods. So September 20th I'm on Lake of the Woods. It was like my last day.
Speaker 2:So three days before school is supposed to start, it's my last day of my week-long muskie trip and Aaron Wiebe calls me up and he's like hey, are you still on your muskie trip? Can I come join you for a day. So he drives out from winnipeg, hops in the boat, fishes with us for a day, my buddy kevin and I. Then we get back to the cabin and he pulls out his laptop and he's like can I show you something? And I'm like, sure, yeah, like what's going on?
Speaker 2:And aaron and I dabbled with some filming the previous years, like playing with gopros and headcams and just messing with filming, but nothing ever happened. We, we, it's not like we're going to film a show, we just been messing around with things. And, um, he pulls out the laptop and he's got two pilot episodes filmed for this fishing show that he had two other buddies filmed at. One was a stock trout ice fishing show, the other one was ice fishing for crappies. And he shows me these two episodes. I'm like, man, this is, this is great. Like you're good on camera and this is cool.
Speaker 2:I'm like you know what's your plan. He's like, well, I got some funding, I want to go ahead with this and I want to hit the road and start making YouTube videos. I'm like, okay, that's great. And he's like, okay, do you want to drop out of school? And I'm like are you, are you for the road? You know I can, I can make it happen.
Speaker 2:So I I was just like, okay, well, photography school is always going to be there. But you know, remember the story previous where I'm like I idolized Aaron from the fishing forums and stuff Like Aaron was the best fisherman I knew. I knew his drive and his passion and you know if, if you've seen Aaron's videos on kind of angling before, you know his personality, he's, he's one of a kind. So I was like I need to say yes to this. Yeah, if it happens to last for a year or two years or three years, that's great, but life is too short. School's going to be there. And I called my parents Exactly yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I called my parents and they're like they couldn't have been more supportive, incredible parents that I have and they were like yep, I think you should do it. You can go back to school. Then they told me they're like okay, well, we set money aside for your you know tuition for the first year, which I luckily got back. And they said buy camera gear, whatever you, whatever you need. You're not getting more money If you want to go back to school. This is it. You can call this your education fund.
Speaker 2:And I was like, okay, so I, you know, put it into camera gear and, uh, september 2011, we hit the road and I was just talking to to my wife yesterday and I'm just like my life has not been normal since 2011 and it's crazy because it's like I've been YouTube, doing YouTube for a couple years now. It's like soon it's going to be I've been doing YouTube for half my life. Like it that's uh, that's 13, 14 years of YouTube and I'm 32 years old. Like that's, yeah, pretty wild to think about because it feels like YouTube was just starting. It still feels like YouTube is just starting, like it's just gaining traction. But, oh man, it's uh, it was very interesting in those early days, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:Jake, something I've always wanted to know in the time that I've heard of you and competed against you and got to know you a little bit. Third party is you must have a great love for teaching, like. I know. Where I was going with my story was, as I love now, stepping back instead of competing in tournaments and competing against your buddies and and I would rather watch people learn, and just for days, with not even picking up a rod. Is that something that you get out of the youtube? Part of it, I mean because? Is that a progression maybe from guiding to you? Do you enjoy that part of it or what? Where does that follow in your, in your genre?
Speaker 2:I, I like the teaching. I think there's that angle that I've, you know, said before, is, like you know, for myself it was my grandpa. For some people it might be their dad or their mom or whoever it might be, might be that influence that got them into fishing or hunting or whatever their hobby is. Not everybody has that and it's just like what if I could be that person to somebody? Right? And I know that YouTube is a resource where people learn. So it's like it's the teaching part and it's just the inspiring part.
Speaker 2:Sometimes people come up to me and I just had a guy come up to me in the marine store the other day and he's just like man you like, inspired me to go ice fishing on my own. And it's like cool, because I know that going ice fishing or going hunting or all these things, it's like it's intimidating. You know, when I got into hunting only a few years ago, to go and do it on my own was incredibly intimidating but also very fulfilling. So for me, or for you, it's second nature, it's I'm just going to go fishing, I'm just going to hop in the boat and do that stuff, and that's something that you know I want to make approachable for people. Right, that's a part of it, so I like the teaching it's a part of our heritage really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and and something that I believe that most people should experience yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, as far as you know, catching a fish, cleaning a fish, cooking a fish like that whole experience is so out of this world for some people. They're like you you just caught your own fish and you're eating it now, like you know, for us we just take it for granted. And I never want to take that for granted because I know I'm, you know, privileged to do what I do. And uh, yeah, it's, it's, we're lucky that we live in a place that it's so easy to do as well well, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And um, speaking of experience, um and experiences, I have not had the pleasure, but I know that Ange and Pete and the crew have had the pleasure to spend some time out at Uncle Mark's outpost and there's a very interesting story behind it and I don't know it. How did Uncle Mark's Outpost? Because you're involved in that, so you also are a lodge owner per se right, so how did that come about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would have. I've been around so many lodges, worked at many lodges traveled to. I don't been around so many lodges worked at many lodges traveled to, I don't even know how many lodges. I would say that I would never want to own a fishing lodge. I just know it's a lifestyle. You know, I know everything that goes into it. I'm like I don't want to touch that, I don't want to be anywhere close to that. Nothing wrong with it. I just realize it's a lifestyle and I'm just not ready to commit to that lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Right, um, it was, I'm trying to think, you know, a couple of winters ago, and uh lives three houses down from me. His name is Scott green. He was a good friend of mine, one of my first friends when I moved to Conora. Um, and he's just a dreamer and a schemer very similar to me and he, you know, we're sitting around having some drinks and he's just a dreamer and a schemer very similar to me. And we're sitting around having some drinks and he's like yeah, so my buddy Spencer and I we bought this piece of property down Lake of the Woods. You should go in with us. You should be like the third owner in this. We're going to build a little trapper's cabin out there, maybe a tent or something. And I just kind of brushed him off. I'm like, oh, scotty, I don't need another project, right? So God pushed off a couple of months. Then we're chatting and he's like Jay, you know, do you want to, do you want to go in with us and buy this property?
Speaker 2:And it was, it was a cheap, lot as cheap as you're going to get a property on Lake of the woods. It was boat accessible 20 miles. So I know how much work boat accessible places are. Um, I still was just like unsure of it. And then he's like, well, you know, I think you should, I think you should see where it is on the lake. You know, come check it out. So I'm trying to think the timeline of things.
Speaker 2:But but basically I went and you know I'm I love Lake of the woods, it's my favorite Lake, and I actually spent some time and I don't know if I visited it or just spent some time looking at where it was and I was like man. It's kind of like smack dab in one of my middle, one of the one of my favorite parts of the lake, like right in the middle section. You can get muskies within. You get a muskie off the dock, you can catch walleyes off the dock. Everything you want is within. Like, once you're down there, you can stay down there. You don't have to travel far, so far. So, knowing where it was on the lake, that was like, okay, you've got my, you've got my interest now.
Speaker 2:So at that point it was, you know, talking to my wife. She's like, yeah, we should do that, let's, let's buy the lot, we'll put a little cabin. And originally it was like, oh, yeah, let's spend, you know, 15, 20 grand and and go three ways and put it, put a little tiny a-frame there, a little trapper's cabin or something. That was the plan and it was cool because it's like I've always wanted to own a little piece of property on lake of the woods. We didn't have these grand schemes. We were like it's just, it's, we're gonna own this property. If nothing else, yeah, we're gonna use it. It'll be a business investment. Whatever, the property never goes down on the lake, right? And? And then my mistake not my mistake, however, you want to view it. Your dreaming, yeah, was making a YouTube video and being like, hey, we want to build a cabin here. What do you guys think? Does anybody want to be involved? And that's where things just exploded.
Speaker 1:So it started from a YouTube video.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah, and it was, it was. It's wild to watch it because it's just like, yeah, I mean it's, it's all documented, you know called building an off-grid outpost and there's, you know, now there's 27 videos to it, 27 chapters, and chapter one was us snowmobiling there in the winter trying to find a trail into this property. There's some sketchy ice with current and stuff. So finding a trail in there, getting there, dreaming where this cabin was going to be or whatever we were going to make, but then also putting a shout out to the world. That's the thing about YouTube is you never know who's watching or what's going to happen. So putting a shout out to the world and being like, hey, we want to build something. If anybody wants to be part of it, you know, come on down, bring your money. Well, not even bring your money, it's like, bring your skills, your dreams, and that's what it was. Yeah, and your help, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I never really realized you know who's watching the videos, right, the spread of. You know, when you upload, you see numbers. You don't always see these, these people and these skills and the personalities and the heart behind all these, these analytics, right? So all of a sudden I get this message and the first message that that really I remember just getting flooded with messages and having to like pass them to Scott, and I'm like we need to sift through these and figure out, you know, how we can get as many of these people as involved as possible.
Speaker 2:And one of the first ones was a guy named Joel Trombley, out at North Bay, and he said, hey, I'm an architect, let me design something. So that's where it got way bigger than we planned, this little A-frame. So you know, to expedite the story a bit, joel plans this place. It's big. All of a sudden we get, you know, a solar company on board and lithium batteries on board, and all of a sudden, this thing is just turning into this much bigger cabin than we ever imagined. Right, it goes from this little like you know one bunk bed to, all of a sudden, it can sleep nine people and it's got an incinerating toilet and running water and a hot shower and full solar. You know everything right. So it was, uh, like the most fulfilling project I've ever been part of and I have no regrets on doing it, but I will never build another cabin down the lake again that's awesome I would totally, I would totally agree, man, any kind of.
Speaker 3:I would never do what I'm doing right now either again well, you're, you're doing it. Two years of your life. I bet jay. That is was like on top of your chaos and starting a family and your youtube channel and your tournament fishing and you're like to do that in the amount of time you did. It was wild. It was Watch it go down.
Speaker 2:It was. It was, I think, we. My boy, hannon, was born on June 10th and we broke ground on June 14th or 16th and you know I recruited these guys to come. They drove 14 hours to come help with this cabin. I got to show my face. I'm not going to be the jerk that just disappears, right. So I remember, like Hannah's not even a week old, I'm like Sam, this sucks. I got to go down to the lake, down the lake for the day, to the outpost, and I got to go, you know, help the guys out and, and you know, show some love and my support. And Sam was supportive of it and she was rightfully so.
Speaker 2:Like a little bitter at the start about just the timing of everything, and I was too. I was like I didn't expect this was all going to happen at the exact same time, but it happened and now Sam loves it down there. We don't spend as much time down there as we want, but I mean the cabin finished last spring. There's the video. I don't know what number. It is, probably like 25 or 24. I forget what it is. It's like the guests are coming and I remember Sam came down and we're on our hands and knees, scrubbing the cabin, getting it clean for the first guests ever, and it's literally like the floors are wet and the guests show up and we're just like, oh my gosh, we did it. And that was our first year.
Speaker 2:First year we ran, you know, maybe 60, capacity, 50, and this year I think we're probably up to 90 or more than 90 so we're, we're very happy about that and um, yeah, it's just, it's just a cool spot you're, you're so remote, in the middle of nowhere there and learning the whole off-grid thing. Like, for me, I love learning and as much as I love teaching, I love learning too. I never want to be stagnant, so just being around all these trades, learning how building works, um, not trying to screw too much up myself, like the few times I actually did stuff, they went horribly wrong and like I tried to install one water line and I ended up drilling into another one and there's water gushing in the wall and that never made a video but it uh, you should have it was a humbling experience, yeah.
Speaker 2:So anyways, the cabin is, the cabin is complete. There's you know how it is, there's always projects you can do and yeah, and things to add to it. But now it's just refining our system, figuring out how to make it a better, a better guest experience, and just trying to share Lake of the Woods with as many people as possible and pay off the debt.
Speaker 1:Wow, I got to tell you, one of the greatest critics on the planet told me about your spot on the planet, told me about your spot, and this is a man who refuses to shit in a in a outhouse. And Ang, viola and Ang told me about this place and he is like oh my God, you've got to have Jay on. This is when the original phone call started and Ang was like you have to have Jay on. Like I mean, there is this magic toilet that you shit in and it incinerates and you cannot smell a thing. Like I mean, when we're out on on shoots, ang carries those um matches with the little bird on them, the little red bird or whatever, and they sit in the bathroom and when you go you gotta strike a match because apparently, well, my shit doesn't stink, I don't know about anybody else, but you gotta strike a match and the sulfur smells. Apparently, I don't know, fixes everything.
Speaker 1:But he was just enthralled about this, this toilet, and the, the, the and the one thing that he always talks about. And, um, he did when I owned Chaudiere. It was the thing that he constantly would coach me on and he always referred to Lodge 88. And his thing was when I walk into a cottage, I want to feel like I'm the first person that has walked into this room. I want it to be clean. I want it to smell good. I want to feel like it has never been used. And that is what he said about your place when he got back. I didn't hear about the fishing.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming it was good it was a little tougher when they went. They just hit a tough time a year on some transition. But it's funny you mentioned the toilet because that was something that we wanted to figure out a system In your plumbing, yeah, yeah, and the thing is we didn't have a septic field out there, so a septic field is a whole other beast. It's more permits, it's a lot of money and we're already trying to do things on a budget. So septic field was kind of off the list but something we thought about in the future.
Speaker 2:An outhouse was something we built right away that you just need, right, yeah. But then we're like, okay, we bought a composting toilet and I have a buddy, troy Mansfield. He does a lot of. He just outposts and owns Winoga Lodge in Sioux. Lookout there and he told me he said he said he's probably installed five or six composting toilets at various lodges in his days. He said he's helped remove every single one he's installed, he's pulled everyone out and they're just so much work. Like if you're not familiar with it, it's just you have to crank the wheel and you have to add.
Speaker 2:It's just so much right. So I did some research and I found the Cinderella incinerating toilet. If you guys have an off-grid cabin, this is a plug and they're not asking me to plug, but it's just like it has seriously been one of. Like Ang said, one of my favorite things about the cabin is when we you know, we stay there in the winter time. Right, you don't need running water, it doesn't stink, it uses propane and you don't have to worry about a septic field. It's absolutely incredible. So this incinerating toilet it burns everything up.
Speaker 1:It's an expensive toilet You're about $5,000 for the toilet but it's all cheap, versus $40,000 for a septic field and a year of permitting.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when Ang reached out to us, I was talking to Pete, I think, and Pete told me the situation. I said, you know, and just like, hey, I want to come, but I just I don't want to use an outhouse and I'm like that's fair. So I was like, guys, this is something we should probably get eventually. So, uh, yeah, the Cinderella incinerating toilet. I can't recommend it enough. It's pretty maintenance free and I think you know I forget. I think they said like 20 uses. 20 uses will burn down to like the size of, uh, the ashes that would fill a, you know, a coffee cup sort of thing. So we'll have guests use it for an entire week without having to empty it. I think they said 80, 80 flushes uses a 20 pounder propane.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, that is fantastic, that is awesome. And, like I mean, for anybody out there listening, it is, by the sounds of it, a wonderful alternative to a septic, because, again, there is a shit ton of permitting with the MOE and upkeep and you know, it's not like it used to be. You could bury a 45-gallon drum and then run a couple of pipes out of it out the back. You know, that's fantastic, very cool, uh. And and for anybody out there looking to to um experience, um, uncle mark's uh outpost, um, where can they find it? How can they get a hold of you? You know, uh, what's the best way to go about that?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean best ways to go to unclemarksoutpostcom. It's, yeah, links to all my videos there. So if you want to get a very in-depth look of the cabin and how it's built, you could watch all you know 27 videos, have a marathon before you book. But uh, yeah, it's. Uh, you know it's. It's set up more so like a do-it-yourself outpost style.
Speaker 2:We do have the option that people can, you know, hire a guide if they want a guide, can meet them there and that sort of thing. But I would say the majority of guests will take their own boat. There's, you know, docking for like four 20 foot boats. Most people are familiar with lake of the woods, are competent enough boaters that it's not a big deal. There's good mapping on lake of the woods so they'll boat down from canora or the northwest angle in minnesota or sunaros on East. They boat in there and they just do their thing for the week.
Speaker 2:There's other people that they don't own a boat, so we have a bunch of like fishing kayaks down there so we can actually shuttle them down, we drop them off and, like I said, the fishing is good enough. Some of the most impressive fish have been caught with inside of the cabin there, the muskies and the pike that have been caught right with inside a cabin. So some guests, which I wanted this as a lodge owner, was you don't need a boat If you want to shuttle down there. There's four pedal drive. You know kayaks, which are sweet fishing kayaks and you can go fish. So we've had like a family that came down there and they just fish out of the kayaks. They rented a guide for a day or two. Theyed all the kayaks, the rest and they they came from, I think, wyoming and they didn't have to bring a boat, which is pretty cool that's awesome but we don't.
Speaker 2:I I know there's the whole game of boat rentals. That's not something I want to get into, because you a lot of liability and people like to hit rocks too. Oh yeah, people don't always. I'm sure you've got stories, is you know? People will hit rocks and they are too proud to tell you they hit rocks.
Speaker 1:And I don't know if it's proud. Yeah, exactly, well it's. It costs money too. I, uh, I do have a few stories Um the year that, um, um, I bought the Chaudière Lodge. I had no idea what I was getting into.
Speaker 1:I was a sheet metal mechanic and I bought a place that had a marina, a kitchen it was full American plan, the hotel side of the business and it was the lowest water year um in decades. And um that first year all of the regular guests were going in places where they normally could go but they couldn't. This this year in particular, and I stopped counting at 200 props that we went through. Now, at the time I was just taking my welder guy that fixed props on Highway 69 there. He had a lot of business from me and I had to buy like it was ridiculous the amount of props that I went through and bottom ends.
Speaker 1:You know, everybody knows the story that I told about Dick from New York with the bottom end. I won't tell that because everybody's heard it before and if you haven't, go back in the history and listen because you'll find it. But the boat renting game is a very difficult game, to the point where, as a lodge owner, I created my own insurance policies in-house to try and cover damages and I was scared to death that when somebody hit a bottom end, that when I charged them, they would be so disappointed with the trip and everything else that they would never come back. And you know, it was just. It was. It is a. It is a, an animal and when you own a lodge, it's an animal that you have to deal with.
Speaker 2:We're trying not to deal with it, though that's I mean, though that's I mean.
Speaker 1:but again you've got one building and it's an outpost and you're already at 80 to 90 capacity. So, folks, if you want to get in there, you gotta, you gotta, call now. Um, but those, I've watched a few of your, of your, your um youtube videos out of those kayaks. In particular, there was one where your wife caught a big brown in those kayaks and you had your Garmin, the panoptics, on there and doing the. You know the screen and screen on the editing, which is beautiful and we're going to get into talking about that very shortly.
Speaker 1:But those kayaks are a great solution for that, especially when you're in a spot like I mean, on the Upper French River to get largemouth. We're driving 30 mile an hour for 40 minutes to get to bays where you catch a largemouth, like I mean. You're not taking a kayak that far. It'd take you five hours to get there. You know what I mean. But, by the sounds of it, where you are it's a perfect situation, almost like a fly-in experience with a boat to access. So yeah, the boat thing, um, as a former lodge owner, was a nightmare.
Speaker 3:And the other nightmare when we're talking about it's a nightmare. I'm dealing with it right now.
Speaker 1:I got two and and we'll at Nordic point. You got to deal with it because you rent boats, you have guides, it's just a. It's just a, a part of the business, just a part of the business.
Speaker 3:It's one of the highest maintenance parts of my business, right, and I don't mean like money-wise maintenance that's the portion of it, like Steve was saying in his first year but the maintenance of the amount of time that you spend with them, not just teaching them how to use it and teaching them you know the accessories and everything. It's the troubleshooting when all they have to do with you know they, they don't know, and it's not an all they have to do things. That's what my guides say all the time. All they have to do and I'm like, well, they don't know that you have to educate, right. So so when we educate them, you know that takes time, right, so that's. But that time takes money, right, so that's something I've learned.
Speaker 1:But that time always saves money too, because when you're educating them on how to, Like we've had.
Speaker 3:I don't think you know this, steve, but we've had zero bottom end losses in two and a half years at at uh you should have said that.
Speaker 1:Knock on that wooden head of yours right now.
Speaker 3:Well, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Well, that that education part is one of the most important parts. And when you want to talk about maintenance, um, try maintaining 14 cedar strips. Like I mean when I bought Chaudière, it come with 14 cedar strips and two 20-foot Alaskan Lund boats as guide boats and work boats and everything else, and like I mean holy, oh shit, balls of fire. There is no boat on the planet that carries maintenance like a cedar strip. I thought they looked beautiful and the guests loved them because they're nostalgic and they're quiet.
Speaker 1:When you tip your beer bottle, one guest told me over in the in the boat aluminums are too loud when you tip your beer bottle, like well, you shouldn't be drinking in my boats to start with. But you know, and the man hours that went into those boats every year was ridiculous to the point where there's still a few left there. But every time one was done we sank it and you would not believe how hard it is to sink a cedar boat. I mean we chopped holes in it in the one because we wanted to sink it out in the middle of the bay and use it for some structure, and chopped holes in it and filled it with rocks, man, and it finally went down After that experience, when guests would come back and say we were scared, our boat was going to sink, I was like, hey, this boat is never, you might get wet.
Speaker 5:And hold on, but it ain't ever sinking. You know what I mean.
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Speaker 1:Listen, I uh, I really would love to to ask you, uh, jay, about some of the finer points of what you're doing now, because I've again, I've been blessed to have worked with some of the best editors and camera people on the planet with the Fish and Canada television show, and I truly believe that the product that Ang puts out and that we supply to the global television network as far as fishing shows on television go I don't know if there's a better product out there and I watched the video that you put together it was like 48 minutes and it had me the whole way through and that was the one that you shot from Monroe Lake Lodge and the use of so many different things within that. I'm going to call it a television show because it's not a typical YouTube show where they use those, um, those quick cuts and, uh, you know the I think they call them snap cuts or jump cuts the the combination of things like your slow motion and close-ups, the use of your drone footage and the photography in that piece that you put out, in my opinion, was nothing short of stunning the close-ups and slow motions of these northern pike inhaling, and I'm not just talking the one perfect shot you had. I don't even like I mean I lost count there must have been 50 or 60 or 70 shots of these fish in shallow, clear water and you can see the way that Northern Pike are reacting to your baits. And you've, you've, you've cut them all together, from the drone to the, your head cam to your the, the cam in the boat to you know.
Speaker 1:It was an intricate dance that you made me feel with again another technique that we don't use because it's just not something you would put on TV. But you had the intimate feel of you know, the selfie kind of holding and talking to the camera shots, and you seamlessly work that into some of the nicest I'm going to say, like the new fly fisher really serene feel, and the shots from above the water and into the water, the quality is unbelievable. So tell me a little bit about how many guys and I think, from watching the video, there were four of you but how do you put that together? And in the post-production, how long does that take?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thank you. That was quite the synopsis of the video. I think what I like about YouTube is there's no rules, like when we filmed Uncut Angling back in 2011,. We did YouTube for a couple of years and then, aaron, we cut it all for TV and there's all these parameters to make it a 22 minute show. Youtube is just there is no rules. Um, and that's what I love, and you know me being, you know I don't really like the title. I don't. I don't want to say I don't like it, but people like you're a professional fisherman, I feel more like a producer that happens to fish, right.
Speaker 1:Well, after seeing that, I would agree.
Speaker 2:I mean it's you can. I'm always experimenting. I'm like, what do I want to watch? Right, and for me, there is a YouTuber out of Toronto that I gained a lot of inspiration from in my early days. His name's Peter McKinnon and he does photo and video tutorials and just but he mixes. He mixes the vlog style with the film style and the slow motion and the beautiful color grading and I was just like man, I want to take that to fishing, cause there's people doing the vlog stuff and I was getting into it. But I love the film style. So, like that one, I call I call it a film, like it's a Pike paradise and then behind it it's a motion picture. Call it a film like it's uh, pike paradise and then behind it, motion picture, really, um, so like, then I incorporate voiceover.
Speaker 2:I remember, you know, a couple years ago I did a trip to the yukon and I'm like I'm gonna try to make this more like a film. I could splice this into seven different videos. Each day could be a video and that could be my trip, but I'm like I want to try combining it all into one, which feels riskier sometimes, but with that Monroe film it was myself and my summer intern, hayden Matisse, and uh Travel Manitoba has a has a videographer they have on on staff as well, who is amazing, marcel Laferriere. He does, um, all their hunting fish stuff. So basically it was. You know, I was filming some stuff myself, but basically it was hayden and marcel that got a majority of those shots, um, and it's it's not just rolling into a bay and going fishing to get some of those shots.
Speaker 2:There is a lot of a lot of planning that happens and that's something I learned from the earlier days with uncut angling and aaron is just like he would be in the bay. He would see the fish on the electronics or ice fishing and see it on his flash or underwater camera or whatever. He would not take a cast or catch a fish until the camera was rolling. He had the most self-control and I've I've heard stories of other fishing shows or people I've worked with and it's like I, I'm filming them, I don't have my gear ready yet, and they just start fishing, right, um, and you might catch the biggest fish of the day, and it's like, well, what's the objective, guys, we're trying to make a film, right? So there's that level of patience and self-control and I think that's a barrier for a lot of people when they get into filming is they just want to go fishing. And I want to go fishing as much as anybody, but I want to get the shot more than I want to go fishing, right?
Speaker 2:So there's some times in the film when you watch it and it's me talking Hayden. I'm like, hayden, are you ready, are you on the fly, are you on the fish? Because it's like I'm not going to take that cast, I'm not going to twitch that fly until I know he's ready, cause we rolled into the first bay named Pike Bay and there's Pike all over the place and we catch a couple and we're getting good shots, and you know, then we switch it up, we get the drone. So, anyways, we finished fishing that first bay and I'm just like that footage. We just got right there.
Speaker 2:I could spend a week and not get that footage. We got in our first hour in that bay. I said, hayden, you don't realize what we're getting right now. And then we went to the next bay and the next bay and the next bay and the stars were aligning right. It's like you need flat, you need sun, you need the.
Speaker 2:It had been a cold front the week before. The guys that were in camp before didn't do that great. We got into camp flat, sunny, hot, the bays warmed up and it was was just like what are you going for? Right, because we could be up there five days and there could be bad weather. So it's like you said, once you found the fish, it's like okay, well, let's try to get a couple drone shots, try to get some fish eating. Okay, let's try to get a couple topwater eats. Okay, let's try to get a couple fly, whatever it might be. But it's always checking the boxes and in my mind I'm just trying to be like how is this going to piece together with voiceover and editing? You can kind of you know that tells the story gaps and help tell the story.
Speaker 2:but I didn't know when I, when I put that video together, um, basically, how that video worked was, you know, this is. This is the process these days. Is, um, either, brandon, my lead editor, will take it and he'll edit it to 90 95 completion, I would say. On average, a day of fishing is probably a day and a half of editing. So if it's a seven day shoot, you know, you're probably 12, 10 days at least of editing in there. So this video was, yeah, six days of fishing. And then Hayden, the guy that was up there on the trip with me, he did the first pass of the editing. So he goes through it, chops it down, puts a lot of it together, gets it probably good to 75%, right. Then he'll hand it over to Brandon, who's just got a little more experience, time, right, and Brandon will get it probably up to 90 or 95%. And then I'll come in, I'll take it and I will write my script, do the voiceover, we'll start putting that in.
Speaker 2:I don't even know the hours we put into this one. I sometimes I'm like is it, is it worth putting this much time into it for something on YouTube, right? Yeah, well, the YouTube is less. But if, let's say, it was a fly fishing film tour submission, or if it was one of 13 TV shows, I would be fine to put in more time. But with YouTube there is a balance of speed and quality.
Speaker 2:Not that I want to cut corners and do something poor, but at the end of the year I think last year, you know we made, I think, 74 videos or something like that. Yeah, so you can't. If you want to nitpick and be a perfectionist, you could spend three months on one video, right, yeah, I just don't have that luxury and I just I know that a steady stream keeps the machine rolling and more opportunities and all that stuff. So we put a lot of time into this one. And I know myself I love slow motion, I love the Eats, I love the cameras I bought. Specifically, they film 240 frames per second, so your eyes typically see and what you watch is 24 frames per second basically.
Speaker 1:So you're seeing 10% normal speed, right, yeah, so you could film 4k and have better resolution, but I would rather film 1080p and get the slowest slow motion possible especially when you're on youtube, like you don't need that high quality, the highest quality, and I gotta tell you, those pictures on YouTube that I watched were stunning quality to me. And the slow motion, just the slow motion, and the color, like I'm not sure if you went through a color correction process with that or not, but the color of those fish and the water and some of the shots that you took of, just you know, the spray of the water coming off of the boat or, and then you'd cut to an eagle and then you'd come back down to the fish and it was, it was just, it was just really well done. And I'm wondering and I guess it's, it's easier when the fish cooperate, but to get those eats, to get those shots of those fish eating and there was at least one, maybe two, where you got it threefold you had that shot in slow motion, you had it from the air and you had it from your hat cam and to combine all three of those shots together is something that is so ridiculously difficult to try and pull off. Um, like, I mean, what was the? Like you there? I, I know the fish were cooperating, but still you've got to think about the lighting and where is the sun and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1:So did you use the drone to pick out those fish and then position yourself, get the camera ready and a lot of those shots. I felt like I was like a foot away from those eats when they ate those baits. I felt like I was afoot, like I was right in. I could see their eyes as clear as day or they'd be opening their mouth and I could see the gills down their throat, which was just freaking awesome. Now did you line those shots up and I know, tell me about them, because I was really impressed.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you. Yeah, so it's interesting, like, a lot of the time when I'm seeing those fish in the bay and this part I don't always show is I will tease them as close as I can to the boat. So if it's a big fish, like if it's a real big fish, I'm just going to catch it. But a lot of those fish they're not huge fish. Some of them are good size, but some of them are smaller size fish. But it doesn't matter when you're watching it in slow motion, right? So I'm using the lens for a lot of those strikes as a 70 to 200 millimeter. It's on my Sony and so it's a pretty good zoom range. Yeah, and I am teasing that fish as close to the boat as possible. So I'm I'm sometimes reeling in the crankbait, the top water, whatever I'm using so fast that the fish cannot keep up, and then when it gets within 15 feet of the boat, I'll stop it, let the fish eat it, which?
Speaker 2:is just like I saw that I'm doing that for the filmmaking aspect of it, not from the fishing aspect. If I wanted to, I could slow it down and that fish would eat it 60 yards out, right. So that's part of it. There are those situations where we would put the drone up and you cruise over a bay and it's just like, okay, the pike are loaded. You know, I'm gonna hover the drone there and we'll take some casts and see like, like, make sure the lure is underneath the drone. So sometimes I would cast out. Hayden is a really good drone pilot. He would find the top water and then follow it in. And then I'd cast and I'm like this you don't hear in the video either. I'll cast. I'll be like okay, hayden, you got it. He's like yep, and then I'll start reeling. So there's, there's a lot of planning on that, yeah, and then as well, like with the lighting sometimes, but at the end of the day, it's like oh wow, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and at the end of the day too, it's like it's a fine line because you want to catch fish and and you know the lodge owner there he was he was worried about us catching trophy size fish. You know, obviously you'll want to catch big fish and there was like after the first day. He's like, well, did you guys get any trophies? I'm like, no, we didn't, but we got the craziest pike footage I've ever seen. And he's like, but did you get any big ones? I'm like, no, no, just trust me, like it's good, it's good. Like this is I. I think people are going to resonate with this footage and I just know that it got me excited, right. So I think back to that conversation of people think it's all about big fish and that trip we caught one trophy pike but the amount of, you know, 36 to 39 inch pike were like as good as I've seen. Yeah, why, like I, I would say this all the time that you know, like in manitoba they have the master angler program where it's 41 inches.
Speaker 2:I would take a fat 40 incher on a top water rather than a skinny 41 trolling where I'm not seeing it right, like there's just those situations where it's not all about the trophy and the amount of top water eats and the other thing in that film that I don't think I mentioned a couple of those fish. There's one specific scene where we pull into a bay and it's some of the closest it's with this red and white, uh, it's called the whistler fly and your buddy down in Texas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go, and it's some of the some of the closest eats, where it feels like he's right in front of you. That is the same fish eating the fly like five different times. So I would throw the fly out, he ate it. I wouldn't set the hook, he'd spit it out. And this fish is so uneducated, I'd throw the fly out again. He'd eat it again He'd spit it out. I'd throw it again, he'd eat it. That same fish ate it five to eight times. And it was like whatever, a 27 inch pike, but it's just like. If you have the self control to not set the hook, you get these crazy good shots.
Speaker 2:Keep in mind, if that was a 45 incher, I would have slammed that thing between the eyes and I would have been holding it up right, but you know it's, it's I. I understand the value of getting the shot at the end of the day. How many pike do you need to hold up right like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:It's more than a hero. Hole the fishing.
Speaker 1:Well, it was a video that inspired me and I thought, oh my God, I've got to go up there and catch northern pike, like that.
Speaker 4:It's a sweet spot.
Speaker 1:I know I've done it before and I've been lucky enough to be on Nipigan in McIntyre Bay and some of the creeks running in and the northern fishing was outstanding. But we were there and only for a day. You stop and do that and then you move back out and fish for lakers or specks really. But it was a wonderful video. And that leads me into this question Do do you do many shows or many videos for lodges?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I do, I work closely with you know Manitoba Tourism, Ontario Tourism and other tourism agencies too. But those are the two Manitobas supported me basically since the start of my youtube channel. So they will, you know, help set me up with lodges and and make it possible they support my youtube channel. So through different ways, sometimes it's recommendations I have on lodges I want to go to, sometimes they have recommendations so that in that way I've been able to see a lot of manitoba. And now now last year I've started working with you know Ontario Destination, Ontario and Northern Ontario.
Speaker 1:Carol, the Queen of Ontario.
Speaker 2:Carol's the best.
Speaker 2:And so yeah, I've gotten to know her very well over the last few months year and we're just planning some more shoots. Right now I might be headed out east to do some musky fishing yet before the season's over. But you know, I like the part of working with tourism and lodges too is it's a bigger purpose than just, you know, catching a fish. It's helping somebody with their business and putting bodies in beds, right? I think sometimes what I do it's a double-edged sword.
Speaker 2:There's definitely times where I've filmed videos on certain lakes through lodges and people are like I can't believe you filmed on this lake, I can't believe you brought publicity to it, and I said, hey, man, that's your fishing hole, which I appreciate. That person's making their livelihood off of it. Like, put things into perspective. Right, there's always the double-edged sword and that's why I like to educate and teach proper fish handling and catch and release, because I think you know these, you know I think that's that's what we need to do to keep these fisheries going. But it's like I want fishing to be shared and you know, sometimes people get selfish about their, about their spots and locations.
Speaker 2:And it's like I I want to. When I, when I film a video at a lodge and then I talk to the lodge owner a year back and or a year after and and I hear the feedback that it booked trips for them, that's like the best uh feeling, rather than a hundred thousand views. Right, like, getting views is great, but does that convert somebody staying at that lodge? Does that actually affect? You know, I do like the fact that a video entertains people and that's a huge part and it teaches and inspires. But on the other side too, it's like I want to help somebody with their dream of it might be a fishing lodge or you know, so it's.
Speaker 3:I've seen, I've seen both sides of it you know, jay, like there's, there's uh, I'll jump in and tell a little story up just based on that. Here is, you know, our short dealings together. You know, with you introducing me to Ryan everyone out there, jay's I had Ryan Bonin, a gentleman that Jay had worked with before years ago and was friends with Jay. Jay was too busy to come into our place. We needed it done kind of fast and it kind of wasn't what he was into at the time and he referred us to this gentleman, ryan Bonin, and that promotional video is one of one of the best I've ever seen and he is, he's the best.
Speaker 3:Like he, you know, as, as we were talking here earlier, steve, you know, like, uh, same context, angelo, you know, came right out and he was like who are they? Who are these guys? Like, yeah, I need to meet these guys? Right, and this was, you know, and and I want to thank you very much for for sending ryan our way, and now we've developed a friendship with him and his family and and, uh, I tell you he was incredible to work with. Like what a what a magnificent photographer yeah, he's the man he's.
Speaker 2:He's a big mentor to me, he's. He's the guy that I, you know, one of my closest friends, that I see the least, but he was a mentor to me. He was filming Dave Mercer's Facts of Fishing for seven years and, uh, we were, we were video friends and I would ask him questions when I was just getting into unkind angling stuff and he was filming Mercer's show and we were Facebook friends for a lot of years and and then you know, obviously now real life friends and he's like one of my closest friends and he lives, you know, 20 hours away, but, uh, he's, he's one of the best shooters and his daughter's got an awesome YouTube channel Avery Rose.
Speaker 3:She's lighting it up too, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's cool, it's. It's just, you know we're, we're all in this together and it's like you know, I couldn't, I couldn't make that shoot work and I wasn't doing as much of that trip. But yeah it's. The fishing community is small, so it's like uh we all got to get along.
Speaker 1:All boats rise with the tide, boys. All boats rise with the tide.
Speaker 3:Exactly, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, that's um, that's awesome, and um, uh again, jay, I uh, I really appreciate you coming on. Willie, do you have any parting thoughts?
Speaker 3:No same as before. Jay, I think that I've watched you grow from the start in the background and I just admire you a lot in your career and as a human and as a man, and I think we wish you the best and I hope to see you up at our place soon to come and come and shoot with us. We would be greatly honored. And, yeah, good luck with the new baby coming, and that we just were thankful to have you.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you guys for having me and we'll. We'll do it again and, yeah, I hope to make it up to Nordic and just hope I can keep making videos and as long as people are watching them, I'm going to keep doing it and I'm just uh blessed to to get to do what I do. I still pinch myself all the time. It's uh, it's my 12 year old dream, so it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Wow, when you get to do what you love, um, those are the. Those are the things that really stick, um, and as long as you love it, jay and I can certainly tell by the quality of what's going on you will always be watched and you will always be where you want to be and it is a great story. And it's one of those things where, when you believe in yourself and you do not give yourself the option to not succeed, you always will make it. And, coming from a guy who mortgaged everything on the dream of owning a lodge and having it work, because I knew that it was going to work, and there were hard days and I'm sure you've had hard days, because it's not easy I, I've been there, I know, um, but when you, when you believe and you love what you're doing, it always unfolds in a positive way.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate what you do and I thank you again. Thank you guys, no problem. And I also thank all of you out there listening the Diaries family. Thank you for getting to this point and for all of you out there listening the Diaries family, thank you for getting to this point. And for all of you out there, head over to fishincanadacom. There's wonderful giveaways. We've also got a great group of podcasts on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network. Give those guys a listen. And again, if you love our content I know I love all of you Like subscribe Any questions you have. You know you can get us at steven at fishincanadacom. And thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Speaker 3:I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm. I'll be all you ever saw, been reeling in the hog since the day I was born, bending my rock, stretching my line. Someday I might own a lodge, and that'd be fine. I'll be making my way, the only way I know how. Working hard and sharing the North with all of my pals. Well, I'm a good old boy.
Speaker 1:I buy the large and live my dream.
Speaker 3:And now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 7:What brings people together more than fishing and hunting? How about food? Yeah, real passion, the outdoors.
Speaker 6:Each week we're bringing you inside the boat tree stand or duck blind and giving you real advice that you can use to make the most out of your fish and game.
Speaker 7:You're going to flip that duck breast over. Once you get a nice hard sear on that breast, you don't want to sear the actual meat. And it's not just us chatting here. If you can name a celebrity, we've probably worked with them and I think you might be surprised who likes to hunt and fish. When Kit Harington asks me to prepare him sushi with his bass, I couldn't say no. Whatever Taylor shared and wanted, I made sure I had it. Burgers, steak, anything off the barbecue, that's a true cowboy. All Jeremy Renner wanted to have was lemon ginger shots all day. Find Eating Wild now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts Apple.
Speaker 4:Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts. As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honoured to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal use by Indigenous peoples all over the globe.
Speaker 4:After nearly a decade of harvest use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people. That will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature. And under the canopy Find Under the Canopy now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.