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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 77: Year in Review pt. 1
We reflect on an incredible year filled with memorable fishing experiences, storytelling, and community connection. Join us as we share our highlights, lessons learned, and exciting plans for the year ahead.
• Sharing our Sportsman Show experiences
• Recap of our successful giveaway and community engagement
• Building a friendship with Rick Payne, our giveaway winner
• Adventures exploring the Northwest Territories and the Mackenzie River
• Insights gained at Brabant Lodge and fishing techniques
• Adventures in catching and releasing fish sustainably
• Memorable mishaps and laughs shared on the lake
• Looking forward to exciting fishing trips in 2025
This episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner is brought to you by Nordic Point Lodge a luxury outdoor experience with five-star service. It's a very cool experience to be on the boat and watching a raw episode of the fish in canada television show unfold in front of your eyes the day that I did it with you and dean, it was the coolest thing I've.
Speaker 3:I can say it was in the top five coolest things I've ever experienced in my life, just because I learned so much this week on the outdoor journal radio podcast networks.
Speaker 2:Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North. Our Merry Christmases have been said. Santa helped us out last week with our intro, which was totally exciting for me. It was an honor to hear from Santa. And now it's Happy New Year's time. So here is a heartfelt Happy New Year's to all of you, our Diaries family. And with that comes our year in review On this show.
Speaker 2:Will and I look back on the year that was, tell some great stories from behind the scenes, share some memories and have some laughs. So if you like great stories, folks, grab your horns and noisemakers and let's bring in the new year together. Here's our conversation on the year that was. Welcome, folks, to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North. And this is a big one. And it's a big one because it's a first for me. It is the New Year's Year in Review and I've been involved in a lot of these with the Fish in Canada television show and the Outdoor Journal radio podcast and even back in the old Outdoor Journal radio days. But this is a first for Diaries and Willie and I are real excited to be here with you today and taking uh, taking a look at this past year.
Speaker 3:Good morning, willie morning folks, morning stevie, morning everybody. How was uh? How are we today?
Speaker 2:might not be morning when you're listening, but it's morning for us ah, it's morning for us.
Speaker 3:You know, I bet you a lot of listeners do listen in the mornings. I'm guessing this is like a drive to work, flip on steve and will's tranquil voices and relax you all the way to work, or it stresses them the fuck out and they still just love us anyways, because we're crazy yeah, well, I like, I mean it.
Speaker 2:Uh, it also could be a um, you know, an evening listen. That's very sensual and you know they're using our voices to feel good. You know that's a horrible sign. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, however you're using this, folks, we love it Nice, nice, well, awesome.
Speaker 3:This is yeah, I'm excited to do this one the Christmas special last week and now a little year in review, you know, and you know it's been a wild year.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, but like.
Speaker 3:I know, personally and business-wise between me and you it's been wild. I know the podcast has been wild. Your fishing episodes have been wild. You know it's been lots of traveling going on and I even got you on the old horse and got you back tournament fishing. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like it was 2024 was a fun year. Why don't you start off, stevie, and talk about your year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I certainly will, and this year, uh, for me, was a great year, um, uh, we started off, uh, january and actually I'll start with the um, with the sportsman show, uh, um, because, uh, that is where, uh, where, we met you will, willie? Well, I met you at the Sportsman Show a year prior to. Yeah, we met the year before and we started our advertising campaign together right after the Sportsman Show this year, I think.
Speaker 3:No, no, we started January.
Speaker 2:Maybe it was before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did two episodes before and then you were addicted to Willie and you were like, oh, I got to have this guy. Yeah, yeah, you're before.
Speaker 2:And then you were addicted to Willie and you were like, oh, I got to have this guy. Yeah, yeah, you're right, You're right. So we started that advertising campaign and that giveaway was a great giveaway. That was awesome. Yeah, Rick Payne actually won that giveaway.
Speaker 3:What a crazy thing. Hey, let's talk about that for a minute. So the giveaway folks was like we gave a trip away for Nordic on the Fish in Canada on the Outdoor Journal, radio Network Stories of the North or Diaries of the Love Journal, stories of the North. Then it was also promoted on Fish in Canada. There was a shitload of people that went on that uh giveaway like I can't remember what dean said, but the numbers they said were wild, eh yeah, the numbers were outstanding and rick pain ends up with, so the guy ends up winning.
Speaker 3:it is like and this is no BS, he's like what? 20 miles from my lodge?
Speaker 2:As the crow flies.
Speaker 3:Like I don't even know how that's possible.
Speaker 2:You know he yeah how many entries did he put in, did he say oh yeah, like I mean, rick was one of the top entering people. He was up over 2,000 entries. Like he was, he rocked it. There was every extra ballot he got he worked for and put it in the hat and you know what it paid off because that was an outstanding trip and we got to know Rick and Rick turned out to be an absolutely phenomenal guy Great guy.
Speaker 2:We had him on our show yeah, works with the forest firefighters. Actually he's the guy when it comes to fighting forest fire in Ontario. Actually, he's the guy when it comes to fighting forest fire in Ontario. And not only that is an outstanding moose hunter and caller. And he ended up building a relationship with you, willie.
Speaker 3:Why don't you talk a little bit about that relationship? It was crazy about that relationship, yeah, no, it was crazy. So when Rick came up after he had won the trip, he'd won the trip and he reached out to me and we'd spoke on the phone and I thought it was completely ridiculous that he was that far, that close to me and you know one community over, being Dryden, you know, and he's the head fire dispatch chief for all of northern Ontario. You know he's he's. He was a really interesting guy, I thought. But then I remember you and I think we were like it was some kind of chaos we had going on when we shot the show that that's coming up here in January that you guys shot, and Rick kind of was in the background and he had some suggestions and I was like this, this guy's, this guy's smart, like I, like him and and I really I just listened kind of. I kind of stand back and watch people a little bit. I'm a people watcher and I'm pretty good at reading their body language and I just really liked Rick right off the hop. So I approached him. You know like you want to come guide. You know you're an outdoors guy, you work for the M&R. You know you're following the Fish and Canada show and the Outdoor Journal Radio Network and our podcast.
Speaker 3:I took a shot in the dark and he said yes, and he was great. The guests love him. You know it took a bit to learn the lake but he's great. He actually went out. He called me the other day. He went out and he bought Willie. I bought a live scope. He says Nice, oh yeah, he's any days you've got for me on the water this year I'm there, willie. I'm like, okay, buddy, thank you. Well, and then it went one step further than that. So he guided. I think he did like 10 trips for me this year.
Speaker 3:You know he was busy, yeah, but then yeah then I remember you, you were up on the family, your family trip, and he came into camp and he was doing some kind of moose calls. I didn't hear him the first time I heard him that was for the fish in canada.
Speaker 2:No, he came back.
Speaker 3:The second time. I didn't hear him the first time. You guys, you guys all did, and I don't know where. I think I was dealing with something at the lodge, but I wasn't able to hear him the first time and I just heard everybody say how good he was. So when I think you, you and melissa were on the flyout, I think, with the kids and he came into camp and he was showing me and I was like fuck, this guy's really really good, like I don't even know what good is, but I imagine that this guy's really really good, like I don't even know what good is, but I imagine that this guy is really good.
Speaker 2:It sounded impressive, yeah.
Speaker 3:And yeah, so he ended up doing a couple moose hunts for me this year too. So, yeah, crazy story, I mean like how that came full circle for him winning the trip to, you know, and that was kind of our introduction, you know, a couple months before that, and then kim coming full circle and now he's working for us or working for yeah well and and, uh, that, um, that moose calling that he was, that he did when, um, when I was there on the shoot with angin, pete and dean, um he did, he did a whole compilation of different moose calls and he built his own moose call.
Speaker 2:It's this big carbon fiber. I think he was making it a carbon fiber or fiberglass, I'm not sure which one, but it's a massive horn that he built and it's awesome. It can take a beating. He just throws it over his back and trudges through the bush with this thing. And what a great, a great caller and interesting guy he's. Actually we had him on, I had him on the show.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love that story he told.
Speaker 2:Quite a while ago. Yeah, yeah, and he's, it was a great show.
Speaker 3:It was like episode 30 or something like that right around there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and he's got great stories and you know you really should give that a listen, folks.
Speaker 3:I love when he's explaining the moose calls, when he's like you know, if you want him to just come and look at you, you do this, and then if you want him to come and get a little frisky, you do this. Yeah, it just makes me laugh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know he's a wonderful guy. Thanks, rick, it was a great. That was a serendipitous win for you and a win for us as well. So that was great and actually that was the first Fish in Canada. Shoot for us was Nordic Point, which will be airing, by the way, on the first Saturday morning in January, I believe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what Dean said.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's that one, and then from there we started down the road of shoots this year, and this year was a fairly great year for me as far as shoots go. I saw the Northwest Territories for the first time. We got back, we got fish in Canada back into the Northwest Territories. That's awesome. And yeah, we fished the Mackenzie River at Brabant Lodge and I did one podcast there and um uh, a second as well, but that second one's still in the can because uh, the um, the generator, um, at uh, brabant Lodge the day that we were shooting. Well, actually it was um, it was a small generator because the big generator was out, you know, but it was okay when you're up in the wilderness like that, and it was a fairly small group too. So I think there was our crew and then one other crew we were the first group in and there was issues with the main generator well, the backup generator and the main generator so we were on the third backup generator.
Speaker 2:The portable and when we were doing it it let go or broke down or whatever, and we didn't end up finishing it. But I've got to talk to um, talk to peter, uh from brabant, and uh, get that one finished up because there were some great stories in that. But uh, where did you guys fly in there, steve?
Speaker 3:like. So I, I, I folks remember this. I told a story a long time ago I think, like the second podcast. I was shot with you or something like that, and it was I got I had to sleep in that steel seat can because the chopper couldn't come back and get me that night. So so all of that area that I was talking about, we were, we were northwest of the mackenzie river, on the mackenzie delta, so so we went in, I think I told you in the yellow knife, and then we helicoptered out to a place called Wrigley, and Wrigley is right on the, on the Mackenzie river. It's a town, it's a, I think it's a, a native community or an Inuit community right on the river. And then we choppered Northwest into the Delta, up where this, where the, where the bitumen was. So where did you guys go when you were up there? Like how did you get in there? Because that's a really fucking desolate area, like of canada yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what we did was, um, we flew direct from toronto to yellow knife, which was great air canada, they've got a direct flight out there now. So, yeah, and that was, that was awesome, we didn't we. It didn't work out that we could catch the direct flight back, but, um, we, uh, we flew straight into, uh, yellowknife and then from Yellowknife, um, we, uh, we jumped on an amphib, so, uh, uh, a plane with wheels and pontoons. And um, no, no, sorry I'm wrong we, uh, we got onto a small, uh commuter jet, so, um, there may have been enough room in there for 20 people and flew from yellowknife to Hay River, but you don't have to make that flight all the time. No, that's a connection.
Speaker 2:We just had commissioned with the territory to do some shooting in Hay River and promote that little town. And Hay River's actually on the south side of Great Slave Lake, the Yellowknife's on the north side, Hay River's on the south side, southwest corner really, and then from Hay River we took the Amphib and flew directly to Brabant Lodge on the McKenzie and they're right at the mouth of the McKenzie river, basically on great slave Lake.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, so you weren't too far.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I yeah we weren't too far Like to get out to great slave Lake. You could do it by boat, but Peter doesn't do that anymore. They used to go out and do it but it's like a, you know, a four hour trip to get out to where they would fish and then they'd have to come back and Great Slave Lake is like an ocean, folks. I believe it's the second largest lake by water mass in the world, freshwater, second to a lake in Russia, second largest lake by water mass in the world Freshwater, second to a lake in Russia. And I had no idea, me being a fishing Canada guy, how deep. I couldn't believe how deep this lake is Like. Do you know how deep the Great Slave Lake?
Speaker 3:is no, I don't. I've fished Slave and I've fished Great Bear. I've fished both. Oh, that's awesome, but I never. But no, steve, I never. What is it?
Speaker 2:There are areas in Great Slave that are over 2,200 feet deep. It's like the ocean.
Speaker 3:That's crevasse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is shit down there that we have never seen. Wow, yeah, yeah. But so anyway, peter, in that, in the podcast that I did, that we haven't, that we haven't released yet cause it's not finished he tells, told a story about he guided for Brabant before he bought it and when he was guiding for them they got out to this area that they like to fish on the lake and then the weather blew in and he said they barely made it back with those, with their people, he, they, they were in you know 10, 12 foot waves in 16 foot aluminum boats, you know, with 40s or whatever. I got to get that podcast done because it's a crazy crazy story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, give them a call and finish it up and then just get the boys to edit it together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it took them. Yeah, for sure. On this day in particular, it took them like nine hours to get home.
Speaker 3:And the water there is all. It doesn't matter if it's summer. No, it's freezing all the time.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's never warm, it's always cold.
Speaker 3:Yeah, always yeah, but and then Not great pike fishing, though you said, eh Like in the same. Oh, that's what we went for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we went for was the pike, and I'll end with that. But we also fished grayling and the grayling fishing was pretty cool. We just anchored, like with the boat we would put it on anchor into the current and the current is two to four mile an hour, like there's some serious current ripping through there, and we were fishing four feet of water like you could see the grayling ripping beside the boat like it was.
Speaker 2:It was like you ever caught them um, I actually caught grayling, uh, for the first time in 2019, when we were shooting with Earth at Northern Rockies Lodge and we did a fly out and I got some grayling with Earth.
Speaker 3:That's cool. I've never caught one.
Speaker 2:But these grayling were really big, like the grayling with Urs. They were smaller, like maybe pound, pound and a half, and on the fly, mind you, and it was like a river runs through it. We were in our hip, waders, standing in a beautiful stream, and Urs showed me how to efficiently cast with, uh, with the fly rod and and I caught uh grayling on the fly, but this was, um, we, uh. I was in the boat with ang the one night in particular, and we were using these micro yozuri, um, uh, crankbaits, and I'm telling you they were tiny, like maybe three-eighths of an inch long, smallest ones we could find, with a single cywash hook off the back of them, and um, um. I figured out that, um, because we were trying to cast them and uh, and retrieve them, but the current was so strong and and they weren't, they just weren't reacting to it. So I was basically just trolling, but we weren't moving.
Speaker 2:We were anchored in the current and the current was carrying the bait back and as soon as you flip the bail, then your bait's working in the current and I would just keep that bait running back and sometimes you could see them. But you know what? It was funny if you could see them, they weren't. I couldn't, I couldn't get them to react to the bait. It was always way back behind the boat and we caught um three or well, I caught personally three or four that night, and ang did the same or better, and pete and Dean were in the other other boat. Um, and they did fairly well too, but um, and I don't even know if we shot that, like I don't think we shot that, but um, it was, uh, it was a great evening and there at in June, man it's, it's it's daytime and evening all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, exactly, you know yeah, it's like 22 hours, 23 hours of sun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it got dark. Well, it didn't get dark the sun. We had a sunset at 1230 and that sunset ended at 3 am, when the sun come back up.
Speaker 3:It is the craziest thing, like I remember coming out of the bar and we'd come in from the rig and before we went back to Edmonton. I remember coming out of the bar and in, uh, you know, we'd come in from the rig and before we went back to Edmonton I remember we stayed in town for a night the yellow knife and we'd come out. It was called the raven, was the bar, and we'd come out of the raven at. You know, back in the day, you know early 2000s or you know late 90s. It was like two in the morning 2, 30 in the morning, right bars closed, what's freaking broad daylight? Right, it was like two in the morning 2, 30 in the morning, right bars closed, what's freaking broad daylight, right, it's like it is the craziest thing. When you first come out you're like is it really 2, 30 in the morning? Like yeah, yeah, it's it right.
Speaker 2:It takes a bit to wrap your head around it for a while well, when we were in yellow knife, when we landed, like when, before we headed out, we spent a night in yellow knife. So we went to the um. We got there. Everybody's excited, you know, like I mean, it's the beginning of the shoot, it's a new place, it's uh, I had never been to to yellow knife and uh, we got checked into the hotel and um started walking downtown and this would have been probably about 2, 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 3:Oh nice.
Speaker 2:Nobody had really eaten anything because it was all travel. And we're walking down the street and Ange is like, well, you know, I think it's probably time for an honest bunch of fellas to grab a bite to eat. And we were like, yeah, that's but sounded good to me, right, because I was hungry. Anyway, as he's saying this, we're walking down the street, I look to my left and I see this kind of restaurant-y looking place and the name of it was Harley's.
Speaker 3:Oh, Harley's Hard Rock Saloon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And I'm saying, and Ange is like wow, I'm a bike guy, heck yeah.
Speaker 2:And we're like, yeah, yeah, you know what, they probably got good food in there. So we all decide, yep, you know what, Although this place looks a little bit rough on the outside, we're going in there for lunch. So we walk in and there's a girl behind the bar. There's a girl sitting on a bar stool at the bar and two older gentlemen sitting there, and the place is empty, other than that. But it doesn't look like a typical restaurant. So we're standing there and I'm looking around and Pete's looking around and everybody Dean and Vova and Ange and I see at the front of the bar there's like a little stage, Tiny little stage, yeah, a little stage and a pole. And I said to Peter I said, geez, you know what, If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a stripper.
Speaker 3:You're going for fever sandwiches, buddy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Peter says yeah, you know, maybe, but I don't know, because the stage was small and it had like a bench all the way around the outside of the outside wall.
Speaker 1:It was like a hockey rink.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with tables all out there and there wasn't really a pervert's row Like I mean, it was just kind of a place. Anyway, didn't really look like that. And the girl behind the bar, she sees our confusion and she says, hey, what are you doing? And Peter says, oh well, we were maybe looking to get a bite to eat. She said, well, you can get a bite to eat here, but you got to order what did she say order Uber, not Uber Eats.
Speaker 3:Uber Eats to the dollar. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And Peter said, oh, and now Peter's in a conversation, so we're all just kind of standing there and she's like, yeah, what do you think this place is? She says something like that and Peter said I don't know. She says, well, you see that pole up there there's firefighters upstairs. They use that pole to get downstairs. This is where the firefighters come down. Peter's like he starts laughing, right, because obviously there's no hole in the roof. And she said no, there's no firefighters, it's the strippers. And she said there's no firefighters, it's the strippers. And uh, she said there's, there's no girls gonna be stripping until I forget what time six o'clock or some, some damn thing. But we were like I know you know what, maybe we'll get. Uh, we'll get. Uh, oh, she wanted to sell us drinks. Oh, yeah, um, but uh, without the food, we just, we just took off and uh, and laughed I forget what she said that is the funniest thing ever.
Speaker 3:So the night that we were there in town we ended up there in the same kind of scenario. Not for food, we were just like kind of a shock and awe of the size of that little place. I actually bought a sweater and I think I still have it like tucked away from that place just like as a memory and it. It was crazy man, like I think. The guy said they flew up two dancers and they did male strippers in there too once a week. Oh really, oh yeah, because there's lots of females that work at them, gold mines up there, or diamond mines up there, right Tons, yeah, so they have the females for six days a week and the males for one day a week and they just fly them in from edmonton and vancouver, the guy was telling us that's crazy well when we got off the plane at the at the airport, peter and I uh, you know, after flying, like us older fellas got to take a leak.
Speaker 2:So walk into the bathroom. Peter's standing at one of the urinals. I, uh, I, I pull up to a urinal and then Pete starts laughing. He finishes up, he's washing his hands and he starts laughing. He's like Steve, steve, look at this.
Speaker 2:So I look over and there's this plastic like a bin stuck to the wall in the airport, full of condoms, and it says right on it it says there is a syphilis outbreak in the Yukon, use protection, or something like that. I took a picture of it because my buddy well, actually he's a very good friend of my younger brother His name is Davey Zettel and he's head of infectious diseases in the territory. So I took that picture, not thinking I was going to use it. And when we walked by, when I figured out what Harley's was, I texted Davey. I said, davey, I was at Harley's last night, should I be worried? And I texted him a picture of the syphilis outbreak sign from the airport. He was laughing, yeah, and he said nah, I think you'll be all right. Oh, yeah, yeah, it was hilarious. We didn't go, but yeah, no, I sent you'll be all right.
Speaker 6:Oh yeah, yeah, it was hilarious.
Speaker 2:We didn't go, but oh God, that's funny. Yeah, no, I sent him a sign. We actually hooked up with Davey at a restaurant there. It's really a wonderful city, yeah it's super cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they have like a. There's like the business end of it, then there's like the casual end, you know, and then there's like the business end of it, then there's like the casual end, you know, and then there's like the, I know, like towards, like I guess it would be like the East end of town. It's like that's where, like the true, the actual North story. So there used to be stores. I don't know if you know this, but in the North here where I am, there used to be like there's one. There's an old, abandoned one about 40 miles northeast of my house, up the grassy highway. It's called on the way to Maynard Lake Lodge and it's called the Northern Store. So it was, that's all it was called.
Speaker 3:And it was in every northern community, like in Black Lake, uranium City, you know what I mean the Hudson Bay. You know all those places had this one store and they just shipped across the north. Well, it had everything. Right, it was like a. It had everything for the outdoors, plus food and supplies, you know, I mean like a home hardware, but with groceries, I guess. Um, super unique, but anyways, they had one of those on the other side of yellow knife and there was all the outfitters and all the canoe builders, the float plane places. You know it was really. It was a cool town.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, well, it almost reminded me being right on the shore of Slave. It almost reminded me of an Eastern Canada feel. You know, and um, the, the people there were were outstandingly friendly and just proud of their, of their um city and and uh, it was a. It was a really great experience. For those of you who have never experienced, uh, the, the North, like that uh, great slave and uh and yellow knife are, are a wonderful destination and brave ant lodge, like I mean, the.
Speaker 2:It's got a world-class dock. Like I mean, the chef there fished every day off the dock. We were there for I think it was four, four full days and in that time he caught two lake trout off the dock. One was 13 and the other was 14 and a half pounds. We did a podcast, it was probably 45 minutes long, and we did this podcast standing in one of their boats tied to the end of the dock and we fished that 45 minutes and probably caught I don't know 15 northern pike and they all were, between you know, 28 and 38 inches long right off the dock. Wow, and and that brings me to the, to the, the, the the best part about that trip and that was the, the Northern Pike fishing was outstanding, Like I mean we.
Speaker 2:I don't think we broke 50 inches, but we come very close man, that's a big pike yeah, oh yeah, and peter was upset because he he said no, no, the like, we we break 50 all the time and, um, we were a little bit early I think, but the way that they fish these these northern pike in the summertime, peter and I were like my God, we have to come back because I love largemouth bass fishing and all of you out there know Peter is a bass fishing fanatic and the way they fish these northerns and the Mackenzie River is very. It's an interesting river because it is massively wide and hugely long. But where we were closer to the Delta, while we were still four, five, six miles away from the mouth, but it was shallow, average depth was probably 10 feet and um, uh, not much deeper than that really, uh, and there's lots of places right out in the middle of the like. There's one um bay. They call that, I think they called it Beaver Bay, um, but anyway it was, you know, five, four, four miles wide and 18, 20 miles long. Just in this one bay and out in the middle there were shoals that were three feet, like you know, the deepest I saw in that bay was 10 feet. So there's these.
Speaker 2:In the summertime we were fishing like. At that time we were the first group in, so we were early spring, which was for up there is like second week of June, yeah, but we were fishing a shoal that had a ridge across it and dropped into deeper water and did well there. Well, we fished everywhere, but that's where the concentration of the fish were. But in the summertime, when these big, huge fields of weed grow, they're fishing and flipping like two and a half to three ounce flipping jigs off of like big, big flipping sticks, they're flipping them into the weed clumps and patches For pike and they're catching 50-inch northern that's awesome Flipping a two-and-a-half-ounce jig head. That's insane, it's ridiculous, I couldn't imagine. And when we talk about flipping folks ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I couldn't imagine. And when we, when we talk about flipping folks, we're just basically a flip is is a you're, you're a flip or a pitch, they're two. There's little nuances that are different, but the same it's, it's the same thing. You're just taking that jig and you're, you're pitching it like 10 feet in front of the boat.
Speaker 3:Did you guys film this Like I was fishing?
Speaker 2:at like 10 feet in front of the boat.
Speaker 3:Did you guys film this hey?
Speaker 2:Did you film this? No, the weed bed hadn't grown. This is their summer pattern.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is how they're fishing in the summer we were there right first thing in June.
Speaker 3:So that's why, peter and I were like oh my.
Speaker 2:God, we've got to come back, right back yeah.
Speaker 4:But, it was ridiculous.
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Speaker 3:You went from northwest territories, brayley, brace lake, and I think you guys had some time off. Where did you go? You went you talked about out east before. I think that's where you went next, didn't't you out east?
Speaker 2:Well, we were at you. Then the boys went and did another leg of the trip. I flew home. I didn't do that leg of the trip, oh yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Then we went to Northwest Territories and that was a 10-day shoot, but you know there was shooting. Hay River was a day, maybe. Yeah, I think it was a solid day. Three days of travel, it was only really. It turned out to be like four full days at Brabant. We did that, um, so that was the territories. Then, uh, we did Lake Obabaca. We did Lake Obabaca and that was a great experience for us. Ang didn't come on that shoot, it was just Peter, dean, taylor, myself and Vova, our camera guy, voldemir Babushkin. Great guy, love that guy. Yeah, great guy, love that guy, cool guy. But so Obabaca was interesting and awesome for Dean and I, because I think this probably was one of the first shoots that Ange wasn't on and Pete didn't go on camera. Dean and I we shot two shows there. Dean shot a Lake Trout show, a solo, and I shot a Smallmouth Bath show a solo.
Speaker 3:Yes, this was your first appearance, so I remember us talking about this. On the way to Vanity yes, yeah, I had done which.
Speaker 2:by the way, congratulations to you and Dean.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome Like what a great step for you guys. Yeah, yeah, it was great. And that solo. Now, when you think about solo, it wasn't just Vova myself on the boat, although that's the way that we frame it in the picture, but Peter was still on the boat, he was the. I guess you was still on the boat.
Speaker 2:He was the uh, he was the um. I guess you would call him a director. Uh and um, dean was on the boat as well and um, uh, just because you know what are we going to do, leave Dean, or, when Dean's shooting, leave me back at the uh, at the cottage, fishing off the dock. You know what I mean. So, um, and it's always good to dock. You know what I mean. So, um, and it's always good to to be a set of ears. Um, when you're listening to the episode as it unfolds like it's, it's a very cool experience to be on the boat and watching um, a raw episode of the Fish in Canada television show unfold in front of your eyes the day that I did it with you and Dean, it was the coolest thing I've.
Speaker 3:I can say it was in the top five coolest things I've ever experienced in my life, just because I learned so much it's yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So we did that on Obabaca, and again, that's the fishery there. They've got lake trout, which was closed for over 20 years due to overfishing, and most of that overfishing was ice fishing oh yeah, okay and and they, they, they've just reopened it. After God, I don't know. It's over 20 years and the lake trout fishing is pretty spectacular. We got wow, you'll have to tune in.
Speaker 3:Is it catch and release now, Steve?
Speaker 2:What's that?
Speaker 3:Is it catch and release now?
Speaker 2:Yes, catch and release. Good, good, 100%, yep, yep, catch and release. And then the smallmouth fishery. There is stupid, like it's ridiculous. Average fish is three pounds. And then it's hard, like I mean we had a harder time getting on to the bigger fish, but we finally found them and it was an open water bite, them, and it was a. It was an open water bite Like uh, um, the biggest smallies that I saw were were. It was actually um, uh D.
Speaker 2:I shot the the bass show first because we figured, you know, bass is probably going to be easier and, uh, we'll get it out of the way quicker. And then, uh, and then, and then turn it over to Dean. So when we turned it over, it was late afternoon on one of the days and we were right out in the middle of Obabaca and it's like an hourglass shape, so there's like a northern basin and a southern basin, and we were up in the northern basin, right out in the middle of the lake in like 140 feet of water, and while they were shooting, you know, to monkey around, there's always a new lure or there's something going on. It's not just like I don't, I wouldn't be fishing for lake trout when Dean's on the front of the boat fishing for lake trout. It just doesn't work that way. So Peter handed me this Yozuri, a new bait that's hitting the market this year and it's like I don't even remember the name of it, but it's like a countdown. You remember the countdowns, yep? And they're basically just a bait that sink and they sink at a rate that is consistent and you can count and watch it fall. So if you watch it fall down to a foot and you count that one, two, three, it's dropping one foot, two foot, three foot. Well, this thing was like a countdown on steroids, man, like it drops really, really quickly and they're small.
Speaker 2:This one, the one I was using, was about maybe an inch and a half long and it would drop a foot as fast as you could count One, two, three, Like it was falling fast. And the thing with this bait is it falls horizontally. A lot of these heavier, like a jigging kind of bait, like that it falls either end first or nose first, like tail first or nose first, and then just kind of spirals straight down. They've designed these so that they fall horizontally and they kind of shimmy. It's a much more natural fall and anyway. So I'm messing around with this thing, casting it out as far as I could, and just kind of daydreaming a little bit. And you know, as I'm reeling this in, I'm looking and the water there is clear, like you've got a clear sight down at least 15 feet and it's just like glass. And I'm looking down and I'm watching this bait coming in and all of a sudden there's a smallmouth. And then I'm like, oh my God, there's a smallmouth and it's almost like it's a dream.
Speaker 2:Know, I didn't even believe it 140 feet of water and we're like in the middle of the lake, like we're three kilometers well, probably a kilometer and a half to two kilometers from shore in every direction. And uh, I'm like I said peter, and you can't make any noise because you never know when Vove is going to shoot. So I turn around, I'm punching Peter and he's like what? I'm like look, and I'm pointing over the side and I'm shaking this bait. Well, by the time Peter looks over the side, there was like six. You know how small most school up yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I had just shot this show and all six of these fish are bigger than any of the fish that I caught on camera.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Of course, right Always the way.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it was crazy. It was an awesome experience and a great fishery and the facility is immaculate and Scotty and Jill look after it. For Craig Purcell and it was. They did a wonderful job, highly recommended. That's awesome. And then from there the next trip, next shoot was actually the Chaudière Lodge, my old place. So Peter and I went and shot at Chaudiere and it was the same kind of deal, like I mean it's for whatever reason.
Speaker 2:The Upper French River is a wonderful fishery, but anytime I've been shooting on it and this goes back to all of those shows that uh that we've done with uh, that I, that that I did with Fish and Canada and with Charlie Ray Fishful Thinking and with whoever it might be, bob Izumi Um, it was always a bit of a struggle, although the show with Izumi, that one, wasn't a struggle.
Speaker 2:That was a show that come off the way that it should. But typically and there have been a few Fish in Canada shows that have been bing, bing, bing, but I think it's more in my mind because there's so much stress about trying to get a show shot when it's your place, right, but this one, we wanted to shoot a smallmouth here as well, because out on Lake Nipissing, if you hit it right and the smallmouth fishing is wicked, like it is wicked there are some big smallies out there, but Nipissing is so big, yeah, that if you don't hit it and the it's, we were fishing a post spawn and, um, as they're moving off of the beds, if you don't catch them when they're, when they're in that, um, that first stage, that um, that uh, uh, the the first um areas that they move out of those spawning grounds. Once they move off of those, they spread out all over the place and they're just tough to find.
Speaker 2:Well, we missed it. We missed it by a day. Matt O'Brien, we just had him on. He was a guide for me back in those days and he still guides there today. And he was like, oh my God, last week we were catching like 60 fish in a half an hour and they were all schooled up while they just weren't there.
Speaker 3:That's always what a guide will say.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure we should have the top.
Speaker 3:You know what we should do. Sorry to cut in here, but you know what. I've talked about it with Dave a hundred times and we've almost made them up. But we need to do it. We need to make up the top ten guidelines and the top ten guest lines. Put them out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry to interrupt you, but that would be a good one on a t-shirt, that would be funny it would be because I as a youngster going, I didn't go to American Plan Lodges, but we went to some housekeeping places and I remembered all of the oh, you should have been here last week the Mayflies, the Mayflies.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, you should have been here last week. The mayflies, the mayflies.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, it was great. And then, well, and then, you know, we fell back onto the old faithful on the French, which is the largemouth, and basically in a day, day and a half, we put together a large mouth show. But the one funny thing I don't know, I don't think it's going to make the show, but Peter had caught, oh, I think he probably caught half a dozen, maybe not quite, maybe between four and six drum, and they were good-sized.
Speaker 2:Drum, or sheep's head is the slang term for these fish. But we were fishing this one spot that typically holds big smallmouth and Peter gets into this awesome fish and it's pulling and folks, they fight like a freight train, these drum, because they're shaped like a dinner plate. And Pete gets this fish up to the side of the boat and we see it's a drum and it's like, oh man, and anyway. So there's a little bit of a letdown. He gets it into the boat and we're, anytime we catch a fish, even if it's not something we plan on catching, we always go through the, the um, um, the shooting part of side of it, and if not for anything else, just practice at least for me it's practice, um, talking on camera and addressing the audience and you know, and then that way, after that, after I do that, vova can kind of critique and coach and say, you know, don't hold the fish like this, hold it like this or talk about this.
Speaker 2:Well, anyway, peter's got this drum and it's big. It's probably I don't know 12, 13 pounds, maybe 14 pounds.
Speaker 3:That's big man.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and he's got it by the lip because the drum you can hold them by the lip. They look like a cross between a bass and a carp. They're not the most pretty kind of fish and they've got an asshole on them the size of a tuna, you know, and um, um, the, the, the. So we're, we're standing there and we're kind of we're shooting and and I'm practicing and you know, not thinking it's going to make the show and the way Peter takes the hook out, it was a jig A lot of times. If you just pull that jig around so that it's off the top of its beak, he had caught it right in the top of its mouth, so the jig head was kind of over the top.
Speaker 2:Well, if you just and and lightly give that, turn the jig head down and just pop it like hit it with your hand and it'll pop it right out real quick, well, peter does this. He puts the jig head up and he pops the jig head, but he hits this drum right on the end of the nose and and this fucking thing started shitting everywhere, like I mean, it was like a goddamn fire hose coming out of this toonie-sized hole on the belly of this drum and it's pointed in every direction except for at Peter, and it starts shitting and Boba's shooting and I'm like holy shit, pete, you hit it right in the nose. Now it's shitting everywhere. Fucking shit's down here, it's shit on my boots, it's shit on the floor. You can't be knocking them like that if they're going to shit like this, like I mean, it's a goddamn mess.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, and Peter starts laughing.
Speaker 2:I said the only thing that in this boat that doesn't have drum shit on it is you.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, that's awesome man, that's awesome, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So Peter's like oh my God, we have to use that. We got to talk to Ange. Maybe we can beep out the fucks and the shits and stuff. I'm like, oh yeah, no, it was a beauty I had one time.
Speaker 3:This is a similar story and I've got to throw it in here because it is a beauty. So Greg Thompson is this guy's name, but he's like when I started Lake of the Woods Fishing Adventures he was like my first guest and like my first big client and he knows everybody on lake in the woods. He's a winnipeg guy. Comes here. He's the guy who gives me who I trade my leaf tickets with every year and I take them out, uh, for the jets game there that guy gotcha, but he knows everybody that comes from like.
Speaker 3:So it'd be like toronto to the muskokas, right same thing as as winnipeg to Kenora on Lake of the Woods, right. So he starts hooking me up with these people, right, and so on and so forth. And so the second year I knew him, I had a group of like 12. So I had two contract boats hired, plus myself, because that's what I would run like, seven guide boats a man a day, and I only had me, right, and everyone else was contract, right. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So we go down, so it's walleye opener and this was the. It was late, like it was late, late, late, late, late. So they were still spawning. So we go all the way down Lake of the Woods towards the French Narrows. You know it's like a 40-mile run, but I know like it's going to be hammering down there, right. So we get down there and we catch a couple big females right away, like I think they were like 27, 28. And I'm like, well, let's go get some eaters. So we crawled back up into kind of the pebbly, kind of shit, really shallow, and we started hitting little ones. Well, these little males were, they were full of semen, like I mean, like you couldn't, so I just bought my boat, so my Illumicraft is brand new and I have guests in the boat. Well, every time they catch a fish, it's coming all over my boat.
Speaker 3:Like a hose A bucket and I'm like and we're talking like 40, 50 walleyes, Like when I got back it looked like a cum dumpster. When you got back to the fucking boat launch, I was so disgusted.
Speaker 2:Chris, is like what happened to your boat, like somebody dumped cream all over your boat.
Speaker 3:And that's what it was, the funniest. So then. But then you get the idiots in the boat, the gas right there, like, oh, I'm going to get you, no, I'm going to get you. And.
Speaker 2:I'm like stop, stop.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that would be me. Yeah, it was funny as heck, yeah, oh yeah, sorry to interrupt you, I had to throw that in there. That was a good one.
Speaker 2:No, no, not at all. Well, you know, the year in review is a big one.
Speaker 3:I think we probably should cut this one off here and we'll do a second edition, because I don't even talk about anything. What's going on? What we did this year at the lodge.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right. So, um, folks listen, thank you for for tuning in to this point. Um, tune in next week and, uh, we're going to pick it up right off where we left off here. And uh, and we're going to pick it up right off where we left off here and continue the year in review. It's a big year, so you know what it deserves. Two shows, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Our story deserves two shows, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Wow, there you go, but thank you, folks, for listening to this thus far and we look forward to seeing you next week as well. And for those of you out there who are looking to partner up, we've got a wonderful deck put together. You can reach out Will is typically the best guy to reach out to for that, but feel free to reach out to me as well and listen. This one is going to drop on New Year's Day, so, from our hearts to yours, we hope that you have an extremely prosperous and awesome 2025. And go on over to fishingcanadacom. Get into those entries. Get as many entries as you can on the giveaways. I know that we've got a Garmin unit up there right now. There's always great stuff. Head on over there, get your ballots in the box and do a little bit of winning for me. And thus Will, I think, brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Speaker 1:Stories of the North. I'm a good old boy, never meanin 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.
Speaker 1:Someday I might own a lodge, and that'd be fine. 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. I bought a lodge and lived my dream, and now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems.
Speaker 6:Yeah, 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. 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 6: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.
Speaker 7:Hi everybody. I'm Angelo Viola and I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast. That's right. Every Thursday, ang and I will be right here in your ears bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Hmm, now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 4:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
Speaker 7:Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors, from athletes, All the other guys would go golfing Me and Gart To scientists. To chefs. And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you are. Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside. Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.