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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 93: The Art of Shore Lunch
There's something magical about outdoor gatherings—those special moments where food, nature, and companionship blend together to create lasting memories. In this episode, Willie the Oil Man takes us deep into the art of the shore lunch, a beloved Canadian tradition that transcends simple outdoor cooking.
Willie shares decades of hard-earned wisdom on creating unforgettable wilderness meals. From selecting the perfect shoreline spot (flat, safe, with a beautiful view) to handling hot oil safely over an open fire, every detail matters when cooking outdoors. You'll discover ingenious hacks like replacing metal pan handles with wooden shovel handles to prevent burns, and using burlap sacks to store used cookware.
The culinary secrets come thick and fast: why beer-battered fish needs cooler oil, how to achieve that perfect golden crust on your potatoes, and unexpected alternatives like wild rice pilaf that can elevate a standard shore lunch into something extraordinary. Beyond technical advice, Willie weaves in personal stories—both heartwarming and cautionary—that bring the tradition to life, including a poignant moment teaching his young son to build a fire during a father-son outing.
At its heart, this episode celebrates the deeper meaning behind outdoor gatherings. Whether it's an elaborate shore lunch for fishing clients, a simple picnic with family, or even just coffee shared with a spouse on a dock, these gatherings create the backdrop for our most cherished relationships. With summer approaching, Willie urges listeners to create these experiences with their loved ones—teaching children outdoor skills, sharing stories around a fire, and forging connections that will outlast any meal.
Subscribe now to hear more stories from the north, and share your own shore lunch experiences with us online. What outdoor cooking traditions do you cherish with your family?
you know, this was a an episode I've been wanting to do for a while. You know, get out there and gather outside with your families. We're coming into summer here. Get the barbecue going, you know. Take the portable barbecue and if there's nothing to do, just take the portable barbecue and go for a boat ride with your kids. Teach them how to make make a fire. Teach them how to cook shore lunch.
Speaker 2:You know, this week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Networks, diaries of a Lodge Owner, stories of the North Folks, it's all Willie today, and he is talking about something that he specializes in and that is the shore lunch. On this show he talks about how, where, when and how wonderful it can be to spend time with people that you love and show off skills that they never knew you had. So grab your chef hat, fillet knife and with we Willie, the Oil man, sitting on your shoulder whispering in your ear yes, you too will be equipped to pull off the best shore lunch on the planet.
Speaker 1:Here's Willie's explanation, and coaching on how to do a shore lodge. Hello folks, and welcome to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North Willie the oil man here. It's a beautiful day in northwestern Ontario. It's that time of the year where, like I'm looking out my living room window over Black Sturgeon Lake right now and I see, you know that really dark looking ice. You know, the water from the trenches below is just about to come up. Everything on the shore is receded. I can actually see I'm sitting here and I can see a couple bass spots that you know, my early season stuff that I like to throw into starting to open up here and yeah, it's beautiful up here today. So, you know, plus five and we're running solo.
Speaker 1:Stevie is a busy man right now with getting ready for spring and the Fish of Canada show and he's got a couple things on the go. So we decided to fire up a podcast here and talk about an amazing topic we haven't really discussed before here and talk about an amazing topic we haven't really discussed before and that is outdoor gatherings and shore lunches. You know we've always touched on these topics but we've never really done a detailed show on them and I think myself and I know Steve would second this that. You know, your gatherings, whether they're with your family or at a reunion, or at your lodge or at your camp, are super important. They're the times where the memories are made and the jokes are cracked and the, you know, the funny stories come out and the guitar starts playing and the amazing. You know the wine flows and the food adventures and the. You know the culinary taste experience, whether it be, you know, on the side of a rock, on Lake, of the Woods, you know, or on your deck, you know, in the Muskokas. You know there's food and gatherings. Outdoor gatherings is a huge thing. So today, that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about the who's, why's, where's, what's, when's of a proper shore lunch. We're going to go over some outdoor gatherings. We're going to tell some stories and, of course, everyone knows Willie's a bit of a safety. Yeah, so let's kick it off with the. You know an outdoor gathering, you know it can be as small.
Speaker 1:As you know I've had, you know, some of the best times of my life with some of you know, the closest people in my life. You know I'll use Kyle McMahon as one, me and Kyle. You know we used to. You know we used to go out ice fishing and we'd pull up, you know, to a spot and fish for a couple hours and sure enough, you know, willie or Kyle would get hungry. So we'd just fire up a couple logs on the shore and, and uh, kyle would always have a chunk of moose meat or a chunk of bear. You'd have a chunk of something that he'd taken harvested from the from the season prior and, uh, yeah, we just wrapped it tinfoil and throw it in the fire, you know, and you know, in the coals, and just let it cook while we were, while we were fishing. You know what from from those experience to the. You know, like I, the coals, and just let it cook while we were fishing. You know, from those experience to the. You know, like I've hosted shore lunches, you know, of 60 people. You know, on Lake of the Woods.
Speaker 1:There's so many different ways you can do these shore lunches and gatherings. You don't really need to have a shore lunch. You can do an outdoor gathering. You know outdoor gatherings are huge. You know an evening drink, you know, on the beach or your dock, you know. If you don't drink, you know I'm not much of a drinker Myself, me and Krista, we don't really drink alcohol and you know we like coffee. You know coffee is our thing and you know those gatherings where we, you know you can have them with your sister-in-laws or your family, your friends, and you know workers or clients. You know sometimes, just, you know, a hot pot of coffee or a warm hot chocolate. You know that's as much of a gathering as any.
Speaker 1:So let's start with. You know the kinds of gatherings you can have. So I'll give you guys an example. You know, I just said you know it could be just a couple of men or a couple of ladies out for you know a fish or a hunt or a walk in the bush, and you want to pick that spot and just fire some food. Right, you know there's that. There is the. You know a picnic. You know there's the picnic gathering Down at the beach.
Speaker 1:Everybody's done that when they were a kid, right, you know your mom or your aunt Betty, or you know Grandma Doris. You know she'd pack up a little lunch kit and you know, nowadays it would be a Yeti Everyone's got the Yeti or the knockoff Yeti and pack it up and we'd all hop in the family car and head down to the beach and have some fun, and you know that would be the centerpiece of our time, you know, and it was fun, you know I remember out of all those things I don't remember how many times I jumped off the dock and did stupid things, you know, like with your family or your buddies, when you were down there with Grandma, but you know what you always remembered that amazing lunch and the fresh bread she made, and you know the glass of iced tea on the beach. You know those things. We should, you know you can, you got to remember those things and those, those, those draw us back for sure. You know you could have.
Speaker 1:You know your dinners, just big gathering dinners on your decks of your cabin. You know I I actually here's here was probably a very unique one that maybe people, maybe some people, haven't done and you should do is a pontoon boat gathering. So when I owned Lake of the Woods Fishing Adventures, it was actually a daily occurrence for us and my staff, occurrence for us and my staff. What we would do is when you showed up for your first night, you know, because you'd been traveling all day and you were tired. And last thing you want to do is cook and, if you know, at our place obviously at this point it was an American plan place a week did that for you, you know, but you didn't want a heavy meal. A lot of times you traveled all day, you're just right.
Speaker 1:So what would be more perfect than getting off your private jet or getting off your commercial flight in Winnipeg and being shuttled to Kenora, driven to Kenora, picked up, and then you show up at Lake of the Woods Fishing Adventures to a 32-foot pontoon boat, you know, with lots of seating for everybody in your group, a little bit of music going in the background and we would cruise the islands of Lake of the Woods the interior, you know by Kenora Bay and close to town. I mean, we would take an hour and a half beautiful sunset cruise and of course that still wasn't the kicker, you know, the highlight of the night was the meal and we would have a meal prepared. We used to have a lady God rest her soul. She's passed now. She used to make our pierogies here in town. She used to make a pierogie and sausage tray for us. Carol Lampshire was her name.
Speaker 1:Amazing food, you know. And then Chef Wrigley, or, you know Chef Machete, you know two of my old chefs. They would, you know, whip up something during the day or prior, and we'd keep it warm. And you know we would serve that right on the pontoon. And I'm telling you it was an amazing experience. I know majority of my people um, you know, asked for it constantly, over and over and over, because it was a private setting. You know you could. It wasn't really. The meals were always amazing and the meals were the centerpiece, but everything put together made that atmosphere and that gathering, you know outdoor gatherings.
Speaker 1:So there's, you know, there's, a few examples of, of different styles of gatherings that you might not even think of, that you've had your whole life since going to that picnic on the beach or, you know, just throwing a chunk of meat on the on the grill there with your buddy, or having a big family adventure, or doing a pontoon cruise. You know there's, there's so many ways to explore culinary arts while you're, while you're in the bush, while you're at your camp, while you well, you just need some time with your wife. I know there's lots of times where we have a crazy life. You know, like you know, I have five kids from the age of 10 to 22. You know, I'm married, we have a couple of businesses, properties. You know I have four dogs. My life is chaos and sometimes my best gathering is just with my partner going for coffee. You know, I think that that's.
Speaker 1:You know, these gatherings are huge and I think it's a big. It's something that we've kind of gotten away from and if we haven't gotten away from it, even when you do it you don't think about it and it's sometimes something to come back and reflect on. So, yeah, all types of gatherings. There was all types of gatherings. You know, we've kind of went over a few now and that's probably got you thinking, like, you know, did you know what were my gatherings like? What have they been like in the past or what could they be like in the future?
Speaker 1:Um, let's focus on shore lunches for the purpose of the show being more of a, an outdoorsy cabin law. It's a diaries of a Lodge, it's a lodge show. So let's talk about that. And you know there's lots that goes on and goes in to a proper, professionally done show ranch. Now, whether you're, you know, a weekend fisherman or a, you know, a warm weather gentleman or lady that likes to cook outside, these tips and these tricks and whatever we're about to go over will be important to you. You know there is a lot of detail that some don't have to go to because we might have to attend to some clients, but, you know, majority of the time it's the same basic principles and the same basic rules and I hope you guys learned something from this.
Speaker 1:So the first thing I would say that I have written down and that I look for in a shoreline spot is a flat cooking surface.
Speaker 1:So if I'm cruising in my aluminum and I'm cruising a shoreline or I'm looking at an island and you know I don't want a steep area that you have to continually climb up and down for your gear. You want to try. You want to have an area where you can pull up with your boat, you know, put your bum on the front of the boat and swivel your hips around and just stand on the sand or stand on the rock or stand on the ground, whatever it may be. You don't want to have a point where your boat's, you know, right up in the air for one because you're going to fill the back of your boat up. A lot of people don't even realize they're doing that they got the back of the gun all under the water and you're up for shore lunch and you probably by this time when you notice you got the fire three-quarters going and you're just about to warm up your oil and all of a sudden you look back and half your boat's underwater and you're like why?
Speaker 1:Why? Well, because you dipped a little too deep right and you started coming over and you don't realize that those tiny little, even when you got out, you might've been, you know, half an inch below or above the back of that gunwale. The water line was below and being that. So it only takes a couple of wakes from a passing boat to start spilling over and then all of a sudden, your weight ratio goes up and boom, she's down. So just something to pay attention. You know, when you guys are pulling into shore, be careful of that. That's one little tip and trick that I've had to learn over the years. I know, um, but yeah, a flat surface to cook on. So that's what you're looking for a flat surface to pull up on. And even more important, because when you're cooking with oil, or even if you have a picnic basket and you're having just a cold store lunch, you don't want to be tripping, you don't want to have hazards for your clients or your friends or your children or your wife. So pick a spot, that's. You know it looks. You know there isn't trees falling all over it. Okay, it looks flat here, but there's uprooted trees and a storm's gone through and blown a bunch of branches all over, it's probably not the best spot. You know you might want to pull up to that one, clean it up one day and then return to it, you know. Or send your if you're a lodge owner, you know, send your guys over there with a couple chainsaws and some axes and get it cleaned up, you know, prior to going there. Those are the three major things that I look for. Just initially, pulling up to a shoreline spot Flatten this to cook on, flatten this to boat on, sorry, to park on and extract your people from the boat and a safe, clean area so there's no hazards. I uh, shoreline spots you. The other thing you want to look for I guess it would be secondary, but it's kind of important is the view. The view you don't want to forget that. You're trying to set a moment, whether it be.
Speaker 1:I know I've had father-son intimate moments with my son, as in teachings, intimate teachings with him about becoming a man. And this day and age is different for these kids and I make sure that my children I'm old school and they're raised in the old school teachings they live a new school lifestyle. But I think my children I'm pretty sure Stephen can relate too. He's kind of an old school gentleman, as everyone knows, and our kids, I guess, kind of. They always have those thinkbacks of time right and bring them back to level, I think. And one of those times was with my son, you know. I was teaching him to start a fire and we had a great time. We started that fire out there. We ended up doing it. We actually didn't do a shore lunch, we did a cold lunch, we just sat there on the shore. But the whole thing I remember from that trip is looking out at the lake and just seeing my son as a young man growing into a man is looking out at the lake and just seeing my son, you know, as a young man, growing into a man, with that smile on his face, to be with his father, and it's something I'll never forget. And it was the scenery.
Speaker 1:So make sure when you're picking these spots, guys, you pick a spot based on that. You want a spot for the amazing scenery you want to be able to see. You know if you're used to being there and you know the area, you know there might be uh eagles feeding eagles at lunch. That's a huge thing, you know you might be able to uh, to do that, or some otters. You know you got to be careful. You don't want wildlife coming around. You don't want, you don't want to be baiting bears into your shoreline spot, but just try and be mindful of that. Maybe you know when you're pulling up, you know it looks like, oh, this could be a beautiful setting here. On top of that, there's a beautiful family of loons that have been going by here and you know something to look at. So keep that in mind. The view, the area, what you're going to look at, that's all important. Whether it's a small offshore lunch or a small cold lunch or a big corporate gathering or an efficient lunch, it's something that you have to think of.
Speaker 1:Safety, safety, safety is a big one. I, I, I just can't say enough of the these amazing places we have and and the beautiful nature that we live in and get to. We you know it's it's amazing that we get to even utilize these things daily and we need to take care of them. And the biggest safety concern with any outdoor event coming up here is forest fires. Um, I know around the gta a lot of our listeners down there. You know it's a little. It gets dry down there, um, pretty quick you get a little bit of humidity. Um, it gets really dry up here in the north really fast. Um, our air doesn't have as much moisture in it as it does to the south and we find that here it's. You know, come, come fourth week of july, third week of j. You know we're already into firefighting season.
Speaker 1:You know, ricky, or Rick, there over in Dryden, one of my old guides and a guest of the show, an actual winner of the show. He is a M&R Forest firefighter. He's a manager, a dispatch manager, a dispatch manager, operations manager, and those top time of the year from him is crazy and he told me that majority of the time it's just from carelessness, just from that. You know, like I'm saying that, that you know you go and you have that intimate moment with your, with your child, you know, for their, or you have a great shore lunch with your guests and everything's going great, but you forget to put the last dose of water on the fire. You know, and that's a major thing, you got to make sure that for one, that your fire area is safe, make sure it's away from everybody, make sure that the wind, you know, that's another, obviously, when it comes to picking your spot, you got to have a non-windblown point or island or piece of shoreline because you don't want the wind blowing in there at 40 kilometers an hour when you're trying to warm up oil and with a, a fire for one, for two, your fire is then out of control, right, and we don't want we don't ever want a guest or a person or a family of the diaries of a lodge owner show to to to have an incident because their fire was out of control. And that's huge, right, wind is a bigger one.
Speaker 1:Fireplacement is huge. The kinds of wood you burn is big. You know, you really got to watch that. Right, we primarily just burn birch, but you start getting into hardwoods that burn hotter and softwoods that don't. You know, I've been at short lunches before. Guys have been cooking and they're firing wood in there and and they can't figure out. You know, flames is real, flame is real orange and it's real big, but they can't figure out why they can't get any heat to their pan. Well, besides the wind, you know.
Speaker 1:Two is if you're not burning the right wood, it's not going to be consistent. Right, if you're drying, wet, you know if you have half a log, half a stack of dry wood and half a stack wet wood and you want to throw it in there together. It's going to be inconsistent. You're going to have hot spots and cold spots in your fire, right? All that matters when it comes to cooking. And then it kind of gets. Then it gets to the point of irritation if you can't keep consistent, right. So you want to be sure, when you're setting up for your, for your short lunch or your outdoor gathering like I said, even if it's at your, your cottage at the lake and you have a uh uh steak pit outside that you do fires on for your fish or your meals you try to want to stay consistent with your wood, stay consistent with the kind, stay consistent with the nature of it being wet, dry, how it's cut, is it full logs? Is it quartered logs? That stuff matters. So just keep that in mind. That's a little tip that might get you guys through when you're having a struggle with a fire, because it's happened to all of us.
Speaker 1:I've had to learn Many of times. I can think of one story. I was up on Swan Lake. It was called northwestern Ontario. I had a couple guys from Tennessee in my boat and we actually didn't have my boat that day. We actually took a buddy of mine's tiller boat and it was a smaller lake and we back-laked into it and I had my little shore lunch bag. After I'll tell you what was in my shore lunch bag or what all goes into one, but I had my little shore lunch kit and bag and everything. We had a couple walleyes and a crappie or two and we'd pull up to the shore.
Speaker 1:You know I had a great little spot picked, caught, my boat. There was enough room. Make sure there's enough room for everybody. That's the other one. You don't want to be cooking right on top of everybody, on your guests or your friends or your you know. You want to have an area they can sit down or be away from you. So anyways, we're all cooking and they were actually sitting on over to the right.
Speaker 1:I always bring some fold-out chairs in my boat so my guests have a comfortable experience, or my family. You know that's a good little tip too. Three or four of those little ice fishing or deck chairs or camping chairs that fold up and stow away your boat. They can save your butt lots of times on a long day. Keep them in there, but anyways, yeah, so we pull up and or sorry, we get it all set out and and the guys are having a beer on the shore and I'm starting to get the oil going, the taters, and for the life of me I can't get my potatoes to cook past like three quarters done and it's not. And I know the problem, it's not hot enough, but I didn't take the time to. I took the problem it's not hot enough, but I didn't take the time to.
Speaker 1:I took the time to find a good spot. I thought for the look and for the statue, but I didn't think about the cooking and I ended up burnt. I had to use twigs, I had to use birch twigs and by the 50s, you know, and 100s to keep this thing going, hot enough, because I couldn't find any wood. All the wood around there was rotten, for within, like man, it had to be 100 yards. Me in a circle, you know. Everything was rotten and I'm guessing it was an old swamp that had dried out, but uh, and not rotten that you could burn. It was like that brittle, you know, like bugs had gone in it. When you picked it up it was dust. So so I ended up burning birch twigs and I got through the shore lunch, but it took a lot longer.
Speaker 1:I learned a valuable lesson and it taught me, you know, to start looking into what do I need for the woods, what do I need for the fuel for my fire? Am I going to be able to make it consistent and am I going to be able to make sure that it's safe and again put out your fire? If you think your fire's out, dump three more pails on it. You never, never, never can, you can't put it out enough. It's something that you have to do and you have to be over excessive about it. But yeah, that was just a little story of an incident I had. You know that went wrong. You know, we, we were, I recovered and made lunch. You know, I don't even know if the guests knew. Well, they knew it definitely took an extra 45 minutes and it should have. You know, and and they saw me cooking with twigs, so I'm guessing they figured it out. But don't let that happen to you and make sure you got the proper wood around.
Speaker 1:I know one of my old guides, maurice Woodland, and no, no BS, that's his name, morris Woodland. Like the most, the most you know barren land human name you could ever have. You know he was like born on a gunny sack in Newfoundland Island there. But anyways, old Morris, he had a little 120, still saw. The thing couldn't have been any bigger than a 10-inch hummingbird fish string, maybe 12-inch, you know a graph and he would shove it up under the front of his boat. One little thing of chain oil, a tiny little thing of fuel and uh, yeah, he would be able to zip off any shorelines anywhere because you have that little saw and you can rip it off that or keep a little hatchet. You know a little, uh, 13 inch hatchet with a three and a halfinch head on it. It's just perfect to put in your boat and keep tucked away. So yeah, as we, you know, that was just a little story.
Speaker 1:You know, we've kind of went over some the basics of some short on cheer, you know, and so let's talk about I guess you know the safety part we've gone over. Let's talk about what you're going to do out there. You know what are you, we got everybody. We got a great spot picked. Excuse me, folks, I got a bit of a cold. We got a great spot picked. We have lots of wood, we found we have a little fire made. You know everybody's sitting on a chair. You know 25 yards away from us, you know having a having a pop, looking at the water and enjoying. Oh look, there's a couple of loons that just swam by and everything's going great. So what do you do? You know some, some and this is no joke, I'm some of our listeners have probably never done a. They've done lots of picnics and outdoor gatherings, but they've probably never done a shore lunch. And I'm talking so.
Speaker 1:A shore lunch is in Canada. It kind of stands behind the motto of fish, potatoes, beans and a vegetable. That's the. You know, that's the baseline, usually right. So, um, some people don't like fish, so they would throw in chicken and you'd have chicken strips, um, or some kind of of, of, of, of vegan, uh, or, or veggie option, um, or veggie option. I've seen them all done in the past. Excuse me, so what? The Shore Lunch consists of those things. I mean, it really can be whatever you want, but that's the basic Canadian Shore Lunch, stereotypical when it comes to what's in, what you're going to eat there, like the breadings.
Speaker 1:You know, batters there is so many different kinds. I know Jay Siemens, a friend of the show. You know he has a brand called Catch and Cook. If anybody hasn't tried it, please go onto the catch and cook website. Uh, I think, sale actually. Uh, the store sale sells it as well. Um, many stores up here sell, we sell it and uh, it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1:He, he, um, he's got a gluten-free option. He's got a hot and spicy. He's got a crunchy. He's got an original. He's got a lemon-free option. He's got a hot and spicy. He's got a crunchy. He's got an original. He's got a lemon pepper. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. I can't say enough.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so myself, personally, I like a light beer batter, I don't like a heavy beer batter. You know I make one of the, as far as I'm concerned, I make one of the best beer batters around. You know, cowboy Johnny, he was another one that made a good one but I don't use a thick batter. A lot of my guests they don't like, or a lot of people I've had, when they bite into the fish, they want to taste the fish. They don't want to taste four inches of batter and then half an inch of fish. They want to taste two inches of thick fish with a quarter inch of batter all the way around it. So I've gotten my recipe down to doing that. You know I've had a little bit of dill. You know, um, some garlic salt or garlic powder, whatever I have that day. Um, you know, maybe a little bit of a uh, a lime zest. Like I shave a lime or sorry, a lemon on the outside and kind of just give it a tiny bit of lemon on the top and uh, yeah, that's I.
Speaker 1:I just I I mix my batter up, I just throw up a warm beer and I never run a cold beer, I always run a warm beer. Um, just because you're gonna end up putting into warm oil anyway. So you want to try and have it room temperature if you can, to start off your base cooking and it helps your product, like your catch and cook. It binds better to your meats or your protein when it's at room temperature and that was taught to me by Chef Machete. If anyone wants to know, so yeah, you know, there's, there's, that's my favorite, but there's, you know there's. There's crumbs, you know. So you can use corn flakes. You can buy a thing of corn flakes from the store and smash them up, shred them up, and you know you can use that as your. That's one of my favorites as well. Just some cornflake cum, just basic, you know. So what you do there is you get a little bit of milk or carnation milk and an egg and you know, mix it together.
Speaker 1:You know you have to have a recipe for it. But you know, I usually mix a half a can of milk, one egg, mix it up and then I dip, I wash, it's called washing. When you dip your fish, it's called washing. So I wash my filet in the milk and egg onto the pan with the catch and cook crunchy. Let's say, one side on one, I press it down, put it on the other, give it a press down, you know. And then I usually sit it in my pan.
Speaker 1:I know some guys. I know my buddy Kyle. He likes to, he loves to double dip his. He loves, he likes to crunch, you know. Or he likes to batter, you know, he's very proud of his batter, right so, and it's one of the best out there. So when you get one, you like, you know, do a double dip, you know. I think Jay does that on some of his YouTube shows too. He'll do a dip and then he'll double, you know, back into the milk and then back into the breading. So so far we've seen you got beer batter, you got a breading or a coating.
Speaker 1:You know there's lots of rubs, like a barbecue smoke rub or a barbecue fish rub. You can put rubs on your fish for sure, just cooking it with oil or butter sorry, butter and salt, a little bit of lemon juice. You know Sometimes that in a pan with just a plain filet, that's the healthiest way to have it, you know. That is just you and your fish right there. Or your protein Blackened. Blackened is a super popular. Blackened is pretty tough, I know I'm not a perfectionist at it, you know.
Speaker 1:I know I've seen a couple guides that I know that are deadly at it. I'm not a perfectionist at it, you know. I know I've seen a couple of guides that I know that are deadly at it. I'm not one of them. I can cook, you know I can do it, but I'm not good at it and that basically consists of you throw a shitload of butter in your pan and you slap the filet to it which has some seasoning on it Usually it's like a C cajun or a barbecue seasoning or a rub and basically you just sear it to the pan till it's blackened and then flip it and do the other side. Um, like I say, I'm not the best on that one. You might want to look up some recipes on that, but um, what I'm getting at here, guys, is. There's several, several ways Like I'm not even close to the amount of ways that you can cook your fish or your meat of any kind at your shore lunch and prepare it.
Speaker 1:I think that it's a super fun thing to do. I know when I was learning my beer batter, I did it when I was with Lake of the Woods Fishing Adventures and it took me oh jeepers. It took me like I don't even want to know how long months and months and months of screwing around to try and get what I thought was the perfect coating and mixture. And I feel I got it, the perfect coating and mixture, and I feel I got it for myself. So don't be afraid to do that. You know trial and error is okay. You know sometimes you spit a piece of fish out if it doesn't taste good, but you'll figure it out, yeah. So try and have a.
Speaker 1:The other thing is too for your guests is try and have an idea of what you know.
Speaker 1:If you're cooking for yourself and your family and you know what they want, that's one thing. But if you, if you're a lodge owner or you're getting into the lodge industry and you and you have clients coming up, you know, just ask them. You know we usually, at breakfast or the night before, you know, we always ask them you. You know, what kind of fish would you guys like today, you know, with your shoreline. So then that you know my guide, could you know, john was my, my guard manager. Johnny would go down and you know he would let the boys know. Okay, when you're packing your shorelines kit today, this group wants this group, this group wants this and this group wants this. You know, giving them that option is huge. Versatility is getting this key and big right. So there's people coming from all over the world to come to these fine establishments that we're running. We want to be able to offer them a lot of variety and a fantastic meal at Shore Lunch.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that was kind of make sure that you always know what they want. So now we're cooking their shore lunch. No, we got. We got the batter. So let's say, on this particular day we picked a beer batter to do. And so now I'm at the point I got my fire going. You know it's safely away from everybody, the wind is going in the right direction, it's not too big, it's not out of control. Got wind is going in the right direction, it's not too big, it's not out of control. Got my fire going, so I'll put my pan on.
Speaker 1:So pans are really important. You don't want a thin pan, you don't want an overly thick pan. You want to have a pan to meet the size and demand of what you're cooking and where you're doing it. So meaning the size of your fire For one. You don't want a tiny and you got a 24 inch pan. You know is basically. You know you want to fit the size of your meal to your pan. So get a normal size skillet, you know if it's just a couple of years, and then stage up from there.
Speaker 1:You know, um, gloves, extreme heat gloves are key. I always have them in my boat always. I always have at least one and then a regular glove. But it's good to have two extreme heat gloves like a welding glove. You know, you buy it, you put them in a bag, in a gunny sack and you throw them up under your boat and you forget about them. But when you need need them. They're huge.
Speaker 1:You know when your fire's pretty hot, the pan's warm and you know you want to dump your oil a little quicker because you want to get out there and fish or there's an incident that's happened and you got to get going. You know you still have to follow through all those steps, stages for safety and make sure everything's out. But that's one that you can eliminate by going. I don't have to burn myself on this pan. I don't have to pick it up in a b2i. I don't have to pick it up and move fast with it to drop it. I can pick it up and walk cautiously and calmly to the point where I need to either drain my oil in a glass jar or I dump it down a crevice or I, whatever you end up doing but to to me fire, fire.
Speaker 1:High heat gloves are important.
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Speaker 4:Tight lines everyone find ugly pike now on spotify, apple podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts here's another trick for you.
Speaker 1:So again, my uh k Kyle McMahon, one of the best guys I've ever met in my life and to this day he is kind of a standalone when it comes to his service and quality of product he puts out there. So he taught me a trick about changing my metal handles and or your aluminum handles on your pans to a wood handle. So what we would do is or what he would do, and what he taught me was he would take a shovel handle, so your regular four foot shovel handle, four and a half foot, you know. He'd have a couple older ones. He'd saw them down to, you know, two and a half, three foot lengths, whatever he thought was comfortable. Some had longer handles, some had shorter, um, and he would. What he would do is he would cut them and then he would angle. Cut them to fit the angle of the metal piece coming off of the frying pan. Then he would drill pilot holes through the wood and through that metal hinge and then bolt them together with stainless bolts.
Speaker 1:So why did he do this? In theory, if you think about it right now, his pan, you know, yeah, the handle might catch on fire if you put a torch to it and lit it on fire for five minutes straight, but his fire is never going to do that, because by that time it's way out of control. So now you have a handle that's always cool. You know, you can still wear your heat gloves as a precaution, uh, for if you spill oil or if you whatever. But now you have a handle that you can pick up at any point and it's always going to be cool. Uh, longer shaft too, makes a big difference. When you can stand comfortably, without kneeling and without getting down, you know, like you're in a full squat. That's not comfortable. That's not how you should cook. You can go off balance fast. You can fall on fire fast. That's important. So try and stay up. Have a nice long handle so you can control your short lunch when you're cooking. That's a good tip. Change out your handles for wood handles. It'll save you.
Speaker 1:Another one that Kyle taught me right away that same day is burlap sacks. Go to the dollar store and a burlap sack you can buy three for a buck fifty. Those, you know, those six foot long ones. Five foot long ones are three feet wide. But those things, the grease doesn't go through them, the oil doesn't, and I don't know what it is, but you put that frying pan. When you pull that frying pan off, you dump your grease and you can wipe it out all you want. It's black as the queen of spades. And so you take that pan, after you clean it up, and you put it in one of these sacks and I'm telling you right now, it won't leak through the black. It's amazing. You just put it in this little, in this sack, twist it up and throw it back in your boat. You know it's awesome. Good, those are two good little tips for you guys.
Speaker 1:So now that we got, we got our pan on the fire, we got some oil in it. You know we always use canola oil to cook our fish, so in goes the canola oil and you know we kind of let it warm up and I would say a couple, three, four minutes into the warm up, what I do is take a potato and just put one potato in there. You know what I'm talking about a full potato, a chunk that you've cut up. When you're cutting your potatoes, folks, that's another one, you guys. So you have your tray of potatoes there.
Speaker 1:A good tip don't have your potatoes over three-eighths of an inch. I know that sounds crazy to put a tape measure there and go. Are they three eighths? But if you look at the width of your knife, usually that you're cutting with and go double the width of your knife, that's usually around three-eighths. That was just a little trick that Tinker taught me back in the day and the reason for that is you don't want your chips too thick, whether they're chunked or chipped or flat or dollared. However you're cutting your potatoes, you don't want them thick because for one it takes longer to cook and your guests are sitting there waiting for two. They don't cook properly all the way through. You don't have that nice golden crisp on the outside but the nice soft on the inside and that's how you want them.
Speaker 1:So three-eighths of an inch. You know, usually just slice off the end of the potato, like a dollar or half your potato, and then, you know, quarter. A bit simple, but yeah, so you throw a couple, throw one potato into the oil. You know you'll see it kind of bubble in and bubble in and once, once that potato rises, um, you know, you're good, you know it'll. It'll kind of elevate off the bottom like a pierogi when it's boiling. You know, it'll just elevate just a little bit, you know, and the and the oil at that point should be really clean. The bubbles in the oil, the oxidization will be really clean, and that's how you know you're ready.
Speaker 1:So take your potatoes at that point and what I do is obviously we have them in oil at the lodge, we cut them at the lodge, put them in like an old glass jar not an old one, but a glass jar and then we fill the water slices with, or potato slices with water, and the reason we did that is to keep them fresh. They won't go black, they won't go bad. So when you're in your boat, you keep them in your cooler. Cooler, right, um, you get out a short lunch, take your lid off and you dump the water out. Strain the water all out of the potatoes. You do not want to throw those potatoes in there with water in there. Please do not ever put water in your hot oil pan, you know, um, it's just a recipe for disaster and you're looking for an emergency room run.
Speaker 1:So so, yeah, we um, we drain out, and what I would do to put my fries in the fire is I always had a mesh scooper, you know, like the french fry mesh scooper. Everyone's got one, everyone's seen them. Um, I used to take my french fry scooper and I would put it right above the oil and I would take my, let's say, my little jar and I would pour the fries into the strainer. So then they were just above the oil, sitting on my strainer, and then I would just drop them in. I wasn't flipping them in, I wasn't just opening up a bag and dropping them. I wasn't having my hands near it so it would splash on me. It was very simple pour them into the, pour them into the um strainer it was just elevated of the oil and put them in safely. So now you're cooking away, you're cooking your potatoes and your taters are going to take 15 minutes, 18 minutes, 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:So you get about. I always found when you get about three quarters done your potatoes, maybe 90% done, even a little further, that's a judgment call. But throw in your onions, you know, always have an onion to go with it. Onions make a huge difference. In short, lunch potatoes, especially with fish, you know, a little bit of onion, sometimes some peppers, red and green peppers, yellow peppers. You know, in a fall day it really spruces up your presentation right to a to a to a client. You know seasoning salts. So we always use Lowry's. That was always my go-to. But there's a million different seasoning salts that you can use.
Speaker 1:Peppers, you know whatever you want whatever you got, you know sea salt, or you know Stevie uses sea salt, um, but yeah, so, whatever you, uh, whatever you want to fasten your fish with your fries sorry is, is is wonderful Just make sure you have it there and ready, um, but yeah, so your onions, throw them in the fire or in the pan, you know, just a couple of minutes before, so they kind of bake in with your, with your fries, you know. And then, uh, I start scooping. When everything's nice and crispy, brown, your judgment call again how far you want them done. You'll be able to tell. If they're, uh, if they're extra crispy, you're going to tell. So you know, take those, put them in a, in a nice bowl with some paper towel and and, uh, let the oil drip off of them and just fold them up and keep them warm, you know, um. So now we're ready for fish.
Speaker 1:So a couple things. If you're gonna cook um again. If you're gonna cook black and you don't need oil, so you're gonna, you're gonna let your oil cool and then you're gonna dump it. If you're going to cook black and you don't need oil, so you're going to let your oil cool and then you're going to dump it. However you're going to transport it or where you're going to dump it Fish with a coating you're going to drop a little bit of temperature from your you know you're going to be like 355, 360. You know, that's what my buddy, josh, always taught me and I think he was one of the best at cooking fish that I've ever met all around and and yeah, that's the temperature he would run. Um, obviously you can't check your tech, you're not going to check your temperature consistently with a thermometer out there.
Speaker 1:But you just get to know it over time. You know roughly where you're sitting. If you need to add a little bit of flame, you'll boost her up a bit, you know. If you need to take it back, you just set the pan over to the side for a bit, let it cool for a bit, right? So most cases you can just take your fish and put it in after your fries. If it's, if it's a crumb, if it's beer batter, this is a big tip.
Speaker 1:Beer battered fish need to cook in cooler oil. Um, I cook my fish uh like 15 degrees cooler than in uh for beer batter. And johnny cowboy, johnny taught me that it's. It's just, you know you, you don't want to cook the outside batter too fast because the inside won't cook and it'll actually cook the inside of the batter to the point where it won't heat through. So make sure you have a. Uh, you don't want it cool, but you want a consistent cook with a beer batter. The other, you know the. You can just let it buck. You know you got that 350, 360.
Speaker 1:You can throw in 20 pieces of fish if they're in a coating, right, you know, they're not going to stick together, they separate. Beer batter kind of has a sticky feeling to it. It'll stick to other pieces. It'll stick to the bottom. The hotter it is, the worse it sticks to. So just keep that in mind. You want to have a little cooler water, of that Cooler water, a little cooler oil.
Speaker 1:When you're doing your beer batter fish strokes. So after the fish is done, you know you cook your fish for a couple of minutes and, uh, that's again just a choice thing. It could be, you know, I like my fish cook. I do three, four minutes, that's it. Well, some people do five minutes aside and they overcook it to them and that's just how they like it. But, um, that's a a for you thing to figure out, you know.
Speaker 1:So now we got our always take, always take paper plates, you know, because you can burn them right. I would. I remember the first lodge I worked at t2. It was the stupidest thing I ever saw in my life. We would, we would take and I'm talking like man probably 30 dishes between like the silverwares and the this and the that and the lids. And then I'm like this is crazy that when I get back at the end of the day I spend 45 minutes washing dishes, or at lunch right, instead of just burning my stuff.
Speaker 1:So nowadays, like everything you get, so, like your forks and spoons and knives can be wood. When you're done, throw them in the fire. The other thing is is it stops animals from coming around, right? It doesn't. The you burn that stuff off, nothing's going to come around your shoreline spot, you're not going to come back the next day and it's going to be tore up by a bear and and and there's going to be a fox constantly sitting there watching your 50 seagulls, you know, shitting all over your shoreline spot. Just burn everything and whatever you can't burn if it's plastic, if it's not biodegradable, bring a garbage bag, take it with you, but paper plates is a key, you know. So, yeah, you know, serve your clients.
Speaker 1:However, you may have a good tartar sauce, have good sauces in general, right, people like Frank's as a hot sauce and, you know, have a good tartar sauce, have good sauces in general, right, people like Frank's as a hot sauce. And and, uh, you know, people love tartar, tartar, tartar. Jared Machete, chef Machete man, he made a good, freaking tartar. Oh man, I know my old partner, dave Johnson. I would go to shore lunch with him and he would take. It was the most ridiculous thing I would bring. You know, a mayonnaise jar. You know of tartar sauce. Well, that's a lot of tartar sauce for you know five, six guys, seven guys. I would have to bring a second one for Dave because he would eat like a mayonnaise jar of tartar sauce for himself. I don't know how he did it, but yeah, you got to have a good tartar sauce. That's key Fixings, you know.
Speaker 1:Know, we got potatoes. What else goes with it? Beans is huge. Right, like beans is a canadian shore lunch thing. You know you get a nice. You know, honey glazed or a or a hickory bean. You know just the heinz cans and open the can, peel the little, the what's it called, off the label and just take that can and set it on the edge of the rock by the fire. You know, a couple inches away It'll heat up. Right, you let that cook all lunch. It'll warm up. You turn it once in a while. You know, use your heat glove after and you grab the can and portion it out. You know, now you've got a little bit of beans.
Speaker 1:You know, for another side, I've seen lots. You know I've seen salads. You get the odd green thumb that wants a bit of a salad out there, or somebody who's, you know, like Steven right now, who's on a bit of a health kick and don't want a Caesar salad or a tossed salad or something which is great, you make that at the lodge, you get the shelter. You make that at your home before. Like I said, if you're doing the picnic and that's what the wife, if the wife's a vegetarian, make her that salad, throw it in your cooler in your boat, right, you don't have to have the same presentation, mix it up. But I think honestly, the best I love the fries, the best as a textbook Canadian short, but the best tasting short lunch I ever had.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't mine, I put it on, lakewood fishing convention did, but I didn't cook it. I cooked the fish but it was a rice pilaf and the guy's name was Scotty. I can't remember for the life of me Scotty's last name, but he worked for Brian Gustafson at Sports Headquarters for a while and he's an American, lives in Canada here now and he guides quite a bit. Great fisherman, beautiful human, but Scott. He came out and did some contract work for me and it was the first year I had Lake of the Woods Fishing Adventures going. So I was really like whatever we can do to be next level than anybody else. I want to be. I want to be different than everybody else. I don't like being anything like anybody. I like being different. I like my presentations to be different. I like to learn and be a standard.
Speaker 1:Scotty shows up to Shore Lunch lunch and he really impressed me. He, um, he made a rice pilaf. So he took wild rice, a beautiful pan of wild rice. We cooked it up a little bit, a little bit of canola oil, so it didn't stick to the pan. And and then, you know, he added peppers, a little bit of spice, mushrooms and, uh, you know, those little little mini corns. Um, it was just amazing. And, uh, he got it all ready. A little bit seasoning that he had, and and, uh, yeah, so we had fish, a beautiful fish, with a rice pilaf, a cucumber salad and some beans.
Speaker 1:You know, you think about that and it was no difference. It was just a little bit of adaptation and stepping out of your comfort zone. But sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone makes something, and I'll tell you that rice pilaf made it for me. I started doing it when I saw Scotty do that I stole it from him straight up, like I, not the way he did it. I did it a little different but I used it at my lodge on several, several occasions. So thank you, scotty, for that. I appreciate that. But yeah, that's just a little more insight on. You know, you don't have to do everything the same. You can switch it up a bit the same. You can switch it up a bit.
Speaker 1:Um, I hope everyone got a good walk through of that short lunch. You know that's a basic short lunch day to day. Um, you know, again, the gatherings is what we're here to speak about. A short lunch is part of those gatherings. You can do this for for dinners, uh, breakfast man, there's nothing better in the world world than eating crappie and eggs or walleye and eggs. I love that, like Krista laughs at me, but I'll catch a couple walleyes and I'll leave them in the fridge overnight and I'll cook them at 6.30 in the morning, you know, with some eggs and a little bit of Frank's hot sauce. You can't beat that. Can't beat it, folks, you can't beat it.
Speaker 1:Let's tell some stories, some shore lunch stories. I've had some interesting shore lunches. Here's one story I'll tell you. This wasn't a good one, but it was, uh, probably the most memorable one I've had. Um, one of our guides actually uh, daryl Fekete was his name, uh, one of the best guides I've ever met. Great, great human with the guests. He really knew that uh, the camp life in and out. You know he'd be doing it, for he's got to be over 20 years now, but when I knew him he was about 20, 18 something. Anyway, daryl had.
Speaker 1:Daryl had been walking, he had picked up the short on Japan after it had cooled a bit, and was walking to a bush area to get rid of the oil and, unfortunately, one of the young guides I won't say his name the day before had dumped his oil and so, instead of, he had went to the same area to dump his oil, but instead of going into the bush line or the crevasse that he should have, he just dumped the oil on the rock, which was lazy and stupid, and Not only for the fact that, for one, it's by the water. For two, it's killing ecosystems that you don't know are there. For three, it's a hazard for everybody else now that's around there, because as soon as that oil touches there and it gets slick, you're done. And sure enough, daryl didn't know. And Daryl walked down there and he had a 36-inch pan full of oil and, man, he slipped and I'll never forget the look on my face and I saw the oil, slow in motion, come up and it tipped out the back of his pan and down the handle and it was running. It ran down his shirt, inside his shirt and inside his heat glove and I remember him pulling it off fast, immediately, and I remember the skin coming off with it, layers of it.
Speaker 1:I was sick and if you want to see a tough one of you know you spend a lot of time in the bush like this guys like myself, you know seasoned men and you want to, you want to make your guts turn. You hear a man that that's that age screaming for, for, for, bloody murder because he is in so much pain and, uh, it was a horrible thing anyway. So we we wrapped his arm because you didn't want to touch it, but you had to keep it out of the elements and keep it without getting infected. So we just wrapped it in a small towel and we just one guy held Daryl close to him and the other guy kind of held him from walking because he was going to pass out and we got him to the boat, put him on the deck of the bow of the boat and ripped him into town. You know, remember, town ain't like driving from, you know, yonge and Front Street to the hospital there. You know what I mean. You're talking an hour and a half to get the guy by the time you boat get in a car. Now you're there or you have to fly on a helicopter or a plane into the hospital. He was in pretty bad shape. He ended up making it through. He's got use of his arm and his hands and got some bad scars and a wild story.
Speaker 1:But that incident was completely preventable by just stopping the laziness and just thinking right Like, take that next step and be sure that you do it properly. You know that was a good one. I know. Here's another one. Here's a me story. Here's a.
Speaker 1:Here's a a mess up story that I had in my in my young guiding days. It was my first year and, uh, little Johnny who, little Johnny everyone knows, has been on this show before. He was one of my guides at Nordic Point. I worked together with him at mainer lake and at t2. You know we've been friends for for a decade now. I love johnny and uh.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so I was on, I was working at t2 island lodge and when I was up on the eagle's nest end of the lake they called it and I was at my shoreline on the mainland and Johnny was over on a little island, I think, having shore launch, you know, a couple hundred yards away we could just see each other's fires kind of thing, and um, I had, I'd fired up my fire, got everything going, just went through the whole spiel that we did, and all of a sudden the wind roared up out of nowhere and I mean like and I'm talking like it went from like 5k gusts to like 55, 60k kilometer wind gusts in like 10 minutes. So and I was halfway through my cook and I was like man, this is not good. So I'm trying to like deflect the wind and I kind of made a semi little thing to put there to block the wind and none of it was working and sure enough, a couple minutes later the wind got so extensive it actually pushed the log on my fire and my pan tipped and my, the fire went into my pan. So here I am. I'm like you know, this is my first year guiding and Johnny I'd actually been training Johnny a bit on the lake, but Johnny had guided before, so he saw it. He came rushing over and, uh, gave me a hand. We put it out safely.
Speaker 1:Um, nothing happened, um, because everybody was away in the proper areas they should have been. We were on a flat spot. It was good, you know. Then we had a couple I was kind of going through a couple f-bombs and Johnny was having a bit of a laugh and and um, but the main thing was we were okay, but that happened so fast and it wasn't a fault. You know, we was doing everything we could to prevent it from happening and what I should have done is just shut the shore lunch down. I should have just taken the pan off the fire and put it on the rocks and said folks, unfortunately we're going to have to wait a bit or we're going to have to. You know, this is not safe. And I didn't whine and I didn't do that. I was more worried about what the experience is like. And they got their experience because they got a good story. But anyways, that one that was a screw up of mine and I learned a lot from that one. That was really the story that taught me on my fish guiding days not just shore lunches on my guiding days that I need to dictate what happens out here, not just the guest experience. The guest experience is number one, but the guest experience and safety is number one of number one, and that's where I learned that things can wait.
Speaker 1:And remember that, guys, you know, being a being a friend, a father, a lodge owner, um, or a guide, you make those calls right, especially at that shore lunch. You know, like make sure you see a guy. I see this all the time. I don't know, and everybody listening to this has probably seen this, but I constantly get guests at shore lunch and they want to peel their shoes and socks off and they want to dive in the lake and I'm like it's great, do it, but do it safely.
Speaker 1:The worst thing you can do is take your shoes and socks off and step on one of those rocks. Those rocks that are under the water you know right where you pull your boat up are like they're the most slippery thing on the planet, of the earth. I think, like you slip on them and it's like it's like a slippery slide. You know when you're jumping out of your boat or when you're helping guests out, do not ever get them to step on wet rock. Don't ever do that. It can go really bad really fast. I've seen lots of people complete their legs, go right out from underneath them, smack their head off the rock or smack their back off the rock or go sideways. Splits fall in the water. Take your time, look at your footing and when you're going to jump in the water, make sure it's deep enough and you're not walking in the water on slippery rocks. Look out for your guests.
Speaker 1:It's really hard to watch out for all these things at Shoreline, you know so, or at your outdoor gathering. So you got to be diligent. Sometimes you even got to. You know. Be proactive before and take a look at your surroundings and go okay, so this is an unsafe area. This is an unsafe area. This is potential for a hazard, right? So? And make sure you let everybody know that prior to yeah, good fist story, good short lunch stories.
Speaker 1:Man, I've got a million short lunch stories. I got a million. I've done short lunches. Before the biggest short lunch I did, willie Ratchery hooked me up with the group and they were, uh, actually really interesting people. They, they were the original creators of the Coleman stove and the Coleman out-deer camping line for, like you know, back in the 40s and 50s, and they sold it to Canadian Tire and now they own this massive camping outline outdoor brand. And, um, the gentleman's name is Rob and he's a client of mine and rob, um, you know, he brings 60, 65 people to a show lunch every year and, uh, I've done it a couple times. I've taken chef machete out there, I've taken kyle out there, I've taken my kids out there to serve. You know, usually I hire a couple servers from town. You know, um, we put a little bit of razzle a little bit. You know, take some, take some sushi out there and you know, kind of kind of freshen it up a bit. But those are some good ones too. I really like those ones we had. Uh, that's that short lunch actually.
Speaker 1:We it's this leads into my story as I was talking. So we're on that short lunch and there's this gentleman named tim and he's a Tim's one of these guys that he's. He's, he's kind of like Willie, willie, the woman here. He's kind of got a. You know, he's a loud, big mouth kind of guy, aggressive, and uh, he decides there's a rope swing and he's gonna swing on this rope and in front of the rope I know there's a sandbar and I also know that it was one of the record low years for water on Lake of the Woods. Of the history of fucking Lake of the Woods. I know that. I'm watching them and I'm just before I'm. I'm like Timmy, it's not a good idea, timmy, the water's too shallow. Timmy, don swing on that and he lets go of the rope and he flies out about 10, 12 feet horizontally and he starts going and remind me folks, he's only six, seven feet in the air, he's not 30 feet in the air like a cliff jumper. No, he swings out on the rope and lets go and he thinks he's going to hit the water and he puts his ass down and wham, he butt crackers it right into the sand. He was only up to his hips in water, like there was like eight inches of water. And the short, he was okay, he was laughing. The short lunch spot just erupted in laughter. It was one of the most comedic things I've ever seen in my life. And, yeah, something that I probably. It was one of the most comedic things I've ever seen in my life and, yeah, something that I probably should have been more diligent on watching him because he could have got hurt, but at the time it was funny and we made way with it.
Speaker 1:Well, folks, I hope you you know this was an episode I've been wanting to do for a while. You know, get out there and gather outside with your families. We're coming into summer here. Get the barbecue going. You know, take the portable barbecue and if there's nothing to do, just take the portable barbecue and go for a boat ride with your kids. Teach them how to make a fire, Teach them how to cook short lunch. You know, take a peanut butter and jam sandwich. You know, you don't have to have a hot lunch all the time for your short lunch. You can have a cold short lunch. Take a cheese and meat tray and some fruit and veggies. But do it safe, be diligent and have fun. Those are the experiences people are going to remember the rest of their life. So make sure you get out there and do it.
Speaker 1:Coming into the end of the episode here, I want to talk one more quick thing about. You know, this week we're coming up to is our voting week. Please, everybody, get out there and vote. Whether you vote, no matter which way you vote, that's your right. Whether you vote, no matter which way you vote, that's your right. But especially this time in our country and this time in the world, we need to speak our voice and if you've never voted before, please go out and do that. It doesn't take anything, you know it's all you have to do is show a piece of ID and say what you believe in. It's in a private area, but please get out there and use your right and your choice to vote and try and make some positive change here going forward in this country, and you know what that's bringing us.
Speaker 1:To the end of our episode here getting close. We want to say thank you to all of our episode here getting close. We want to say thank you to, you know, all of our amazing sponsors. Lakeside Marine Andrew up there has just gotten dialed in here for spring. He's got loads and loads of brand new boats and brand new motors coming in. Please go on there and check them out. He's got a ton of FX guard gear you can buy online. He actually gets custom stuff done, you know. Get up there and see him, get online and take a look at Lakeside Marine out at Red Lake lakesidemarinecom. Call Andrew Johnson today please for your next deal.
Speaker 1:Who else do we got to thank here? We got to thank Garmin. Garmin is amazing. Garmin does amazing things for the Fishing Canada show and the Outdoor Journal Radio Network podcast network, and you know, get on Angie Peet's website there and fishingcanadacom. Take a look. There's contests consistently on there. You know. I know when I had Nordic Point I gave away a trip. I gave away a $5,000 trip and a couple won it from up in the area, and these things are real. I've met a trip. I gave away a $5,000 trip and a couple won it from up in the area, and these things are real. I've met a few people now that have won garments off there. I just met a gentleman who won an electric, an outboard motor, seven and a half horse Merc. So get on there, get in those contests, you know. Check out the rest of the outdoor journal radio net podcast networks, podcasts they're all amazing. Everybody out there has got a story and folks. Thus concludes another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner. Stories of the North.
Speaker 2:I'm a good old boy. Never mean to no harm. I'll be all you ever saw, been railing 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 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 5:Yeah, 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, Ange 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 5: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.
Speaker 4:All the other guys would go golfing Me and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 5:To scientists.
Speaker 4:But now that we're reforesting and letting things breathe, it's the perfect transmission environment for life.
Speaker 3:To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated, you will taste it.
Speaker 5: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.
Speaker 6: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 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.