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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 124: How An Oil Patch Mindset Rebuilt A Northern Fishing Lodge
A hot-tub sunrise under northern stars. A beached fuel barge after the dam closes. Guests stepping off rocks because the docks aren’t ready yet—but they can see the heart and the plan. We sit down with Willie “the Oil Man” to unpack the real work behind Two Rivers Lodge’s first season and why oil patch grit translates surprisingly well to backcountry hospitality.
We start with the bones: levelling a tired lodge in careful stages so doors swing and windows seal, rebuilding docks and cribbing, and keeping operations running when shipments depend on ice and wind. Then we get into the hard part—fuel. When water levels dropped and stranded the barge, Willie’s crew built a workaround fleet: slip tanks and 50-gallon drums, rolled aboard an old Crestliner that itself had been stolen years ago and tracked down by serial number. The fix now is smarter, not harder: partner with the White Dog community, haul fuel across a short ice route, fill on-site tanks, and downsize to a 40 kW generator that matches real loads.
The fishing is the reward and the engine. Sitting where the Winnipeg and English Rivers meet, Two Rivers taps a rare network that connects Lake of the Woods, Rainy Lake, Lac Seul, and Lake Winnipeg. That current brings forage and mixed DNA lines—blond and barred muskies, waves of walleye, and pike that behave like far-north fish. We share numbers days that blend 30–40 pike on swimbaits and jerkbaits with 75–100 walleye, a season top-end walleye around 31–32 inches (including one on fly), and muskies to 51 with a push to weigh fish for truer benchmarks. It’s a fishery built for both stories and stats.
Business-wise, we’re honest about bookings and strategy: target roughly 20 guests per week, keep quality high, and pick shows where a lodge stands out—oil and gas, marine, even PGA—so corporate groups and serious anglers find us without the brochure parade. And yes, there’s an oil patch story you won’t forget: a lost flip phone, a murky water tank, and a duct-taped “scuba” plan that delivers laughs and life lessons about improvisation.
I just got my new phones. I went into Esteban and got this new phone. So my first phone call was from Olivia. Well, don't I go to answer? And I'm on steel stairs, walking, and it's on my waist, clipped. So I go to grab it, pull it out, out of my hand, bumbling into the stairs, into the water. And at this point, they're like a thousand boxes, right? I'm like. I told the drill the Derekat, sorry, and the one rough deck, I said, go down and grab half-inch line, goggles, duct tape, knife, whatever else you think we're gonna need, and we're gonna make a homemade scuba gear.
SPEAKER_06:This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Networks, Diaries of Eli Jonas, Stories of the North. We're catching up with an old friend and familiar voice to the Diaries family. Willie the Oil Man. From the bush to the boats, Willie wraps up his inaugural season at Two Rivers Lodge, reflecting on the highs, the challenges, and the moments that make a season in the north. One you don't soon forget. On this show, we dig into Willie's season in review at Two Rivers. The fishing, the guests, the wins, and the lessons learned along the way. But we also rewind the tape for a few oil field stories where long hours, tough conditions, and bigger-than-life characters help shape what he brings to lodge life today. So grab a coffee, settle in, and get ready for a conversation that blends northern lodge life with oil patch grit. Here's my conversation with Willie the Oil Man. Welcome, folks, to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North. And it is a great day. We are going into the holidays, and the holidays would not be complete without this monster of a family member. Diaries family member, Willie, the oil man's with us today. Willie, what are you doing up there?
SPEAKER_03:Hey, Stevie, how you doing down there? Doing good. Good, good, good. Ah, not much, man. Just kind of having my coffee here and uh getting getting in podcast mode. I uh I just got out of the hot tub. You know what, Steve? I like to go for morning hot tubs. It's my thing. Just got out of the hot tub under the under the beautiful stars, and then I have a shower and start my day.
SPEAKER_06:That's a great way to start the day.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, man. It's it's pretty uh it's the ultimate relaxation to sit out there at like minus 10 when the snow is coming down and you're looking over the lake, and it's like, oh, up here it's not like it's like I see stars for five miles, right? Like it's dark. When it when you want to talk dark, like it's I don't live in Kenora, I live on the outskirts, right? Like it's freaking dark where I live.
SPEAKER_06:So I can't imagine. Krista must have the best, uh, the best morning. Oh, yeah, for sure. He gets to see you almost naked, right? Oh god. Like, I mean, that's uh I'm telling you what. That's the way to start a morning, brother. What a what a thing. Never mind the stars.
SPEAKER_08:The moon I can look aboard.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, yeah, no, it we uh we just got our day going here and we were uh we were heading to the big city of Winnipeg today, like I mentioned to you, but now there's a we got a little bit of an ice storm rolling in and about 30 centimeters of snow tomorrow, so we're gonna kibosh that and um I am going to think take my daughter shopping in town here.
SPEAKER_06:Gotcha.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because Winnipeg's what about three and a half hours from where you two and a half, two for me, two and a half. Two and a half, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, that's uh that's a good idea. Uh so how is the weather up there this year? Like, I mean, down here in southern Ontario, man, we've had a good old-fashioned winter so far. Like it got cold in beginning of November, started snowing the second week of November, and it hasn't thawed at all.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we uh we've kind of had the opposite. We've had a a couple dustings of like two centimeters, three centimeters, but you know, not really even enough to stay. That was early, and then um, like in November, and then it locked up. It got minus 30 to minus 32 here for about five days, and then it was minus and then it stayed consistently minus 20. And then finally, yesterday, so it was like our deep, our our deep cold hit 32, but uh it consistently stayed minus 20, which is great for making ice, right? Like yeah, this time of the year when you have no snow and you can hit minus 30 before Christmas, that ice will lock up, and that's awesome. That nice dark, you know, black ice. Yeah, yeah. So that's been good. We're looking at just getting our big first dump here. Um, as I said. Besides that, I mean the weather's been pretty good. We haven't had any you guys have had all the issues down there from from pretty much Thunder Bay, east and south, and then out west by like Saskatchewan, you know, and um BC. Nothing really here.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, that's good.
SPEAKER_03:I know I was talking to Wayne Clark uh yesterday, our buddy Wayne there that flies out of Vermont Bay. Um, he is actually putting his shacks out this week.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's got six shacks and he's he's like, yeah, man, I'm ready to go. I got eight eight, ten inches out there.
SPEAKER_06:Is that is that early?
SPEAKER_03:Super, yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say that's uh that sounds like we've I've been fishing, we've been fishing muskies into December before.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You know, like we're um I know we're a little late. What are they, what, uh 18th today or something like the 17th, 18th, but like yeah, still that's we're late.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I'll tell you what, the or early, sorry, early. Yeah, the the ski hills down here are are happier than little piggies and poo-poo.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's good. Well, yeah. Blue Mountain and those kind of ones, yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah, they've been making snow now for almost a month. And uh typically uh we're uh we're hoping for a white Christmas, but uh we're gonna get a couple of warm days coming up here this week. Uh, but to be honest with you, I I'd much prefer to have it cold. I don't like this weather at uh right around zero plus two plus three little bit.
SPEAKER_08:It's bad for driving, it's bad for the roads. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah, it's uh it sucks that. But um, it hasn't been. We're gonna get a little bit of that, but it looks like it's gonna get cold after the fact. So hey, uh the weather forecast has been good, looks good, ready to rock and roll this winter.
SPEAKER_03:Nice, nice, nice. Yeah, you guys have been getting pounded. That's uh everything I've been hearing. So yeah. Um, well, that's good. That's uh that's good. It's gonna be nice. What do you got planned for the holidays this year?
SPEAKER_06:Well, you know, the uh not a whole lot, which is great. I um we're just gonna hang out around home and uh and uh spend time with family, and uh and uh that's that's really about it. So uh and that's the way I like it. I much rather have it uh uh no travel and and all of that stuff, uh, you know, poker game lined up and yeah, maybe head down to Oshawa and uh and uh spend the night down there with uh with uh Ange and the boys, and uh yeah, that that's that's all good. So um how was your season? Good. Yeah, your two rivers season.
SPEAKER_03:Good season, yeah. It was good. Yeah, it was really good. We um no, it was really good. We uh we got everything up to speed, like I was telling you before. We got everything back to date there. We've we've uh uh I mean it's the the cabins were were already a lead. The lodge is great, uh grounds are good. Uh everything's good. We're in we're in winter mode now. I'm getting into uh like brochure mode.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You know, it's they're starting to go out. Jerry Kruzak there, my my dear friend from Winnipeg. Like you met up at Vanity, he's been doing all my stuff, and he just made my new booth display. Uh I gotta go pick that up in Winnipeg, so that's nice. Um that's kind of the mode we're in now, right? Now, and we're waiting for the ice to freeze up. So Adam's really, we're really just waiting on on ice and then waiting for Christmas to go by. It's really a stagnant time for the next two weeks. Like my phone rings every day for bookings, you know. But I mean, that's just really it's just the daily, the daily, right? But um, nothing really on that end right now. Everything's pretty relaxed on that end.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, that's good. You're first see it, you know, first seasons for startups. Um, although this was uh a fairly established um um um resort as far as the infrastructure goes.
SPEAKER_04:Correct.
SPEAKER_06:Um was uh there it's not easy. It's even though the infrastructure's there, it was those first startups are are are tough. Um, what was one of the more challenging things that you uh that you guys did this year? Like, I mean, I saw lots of pictures of all kinds of different things. You were lifting barges off the bottom of the lake, you were building uh your lifting your deck. Like, I mean, that deck was uh was uh in rough shape when you got up there. Uh was there any issues with guests? Uh uh uh crazy stories. What with give us the uh two rivers year in review?
SPEAKER_03:We um okay. Well, we uh I would say let's start at let's start at some uh I guess at some uh the hardest job that we did. Let's say I you know one of the hardest jobs we did this year, actually, until the deck was a lot, leveling the lodge to get it started because you gotta be careful. Um, you know, you can't move too much at one time, you gotta be careful. Yeah, um, you know, all the bobcat work.
SPEAKER_06:I'll tell you what, it was so out of level that uh the doors wouldn't open and the windows wouldn't close.
SPEAKER_03:Correct. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:So you can't. Well, and it's gonna take years.
SPEAKER_03:Like it's still it's still like like it's like walkable, but I mean like you can still see in the upper corners where you still gotta come up six, seven inches. Like we only came up a few, right? Because it's you gotta be careful. Um so like, but it's it's definitely ready to go and stable, obviously. But I mean, like it's common, it'll take some time. But so there was that, you know, getting all the docks and the cribbing done, but the hardest part was fuel.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:When the barge, yeah, because when the barge was sunk and then we brought it up, and then we got locked out with the fire, it the as soon as they locked out the fire, they shut the dams down, right? Because there was no there was no hydro down there. So now everything is like everything is stagnant and the water just drops. Correct. And it wasn't safe, right? Like you could have a you could have a hydroelectric fire at the at the dam and nobody could be there, and it's just another it's another reason to be fighting more fires than they needed to.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So the proactive approach was be would be no, don't do it. So at that point, the water drops. Well, now when we show back up, like whatever it was, June 11th or 12th or whatever, we finally got in there, the barge is on the sand with three feet of water on the back end of it in the water. And it's like, well, we're now we're so no big deal. We we we bought slip tanks, uh, and our a friend of mine, Mark Zerbowski, with Morgan Fuels here in town. He had like 50 drums, and he gave them to me. And uh, that's what we're gonna haul this winter with all those barrels, but uh at no cost, he's just like, here, man, I know you need these. So he's my fuel guy, and uh, we would fuel barrels, put them in the boat, like log them up in, and roll. We have a log, it's like a ladder, right? Yeah, he logs on the other side, you put it in the water, lubricate it, slide it in the water, and then you just slide it on the rail of the boat, and the barrels will roll right up like nothing, right? That or you know, Adam's. I just have my shoulder rebuilt. I'm not strong like Adam anymore, like my oil man days, but uh he's still got some vibrancy in him, so he can still lift 300 pounds. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_06:Wow, a 300-pound barrel is a tough lift.
SPEAKER_03:He uh he was putting he was putting him in the bow of the boat by himself when I was watching him. Wow. So um, yeah. Up onto his belly, onto the side of the boat, roll him into me, and then I'd guide him down together. Nice. But yeah, so we did that, and then we bought some slip tanks too. So we actually had a fuel boat. So we have the barge, and then we have a an old crest liner. So we uh here's a good story. I'll tell you a funny story. I'll stop, I'll stop mid mid this is a good one. So this little crest liner we have for hauling fuel now. Okay, it's just like a great, great haul on it. Um 200 Honda on the back, you know, it's got a little bit of bottom end issues, but like runs good. Um so we put the slip tanks in it, right? Because it's like a garbage boat kind of thing, right?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But anyway, so this boat, it wasn't mine when we got the lodge. This boat was stolen from the lodge being shut down for five and a half years. Somebody had gone up to the lodge, right? I'm guessing in the winter time, and probably just hooked onto it with something and dragged it because on the snow you can pull a boat pretty easily. Yeah, um, and they took it and they got it to town somehow, and it was sold in town to two people. Well, and this is all I found this out after. So I get a call one day from a friend of mine, and he's like, Hey Willie, I know that there's might be a boat at this guy's potential property that used to be owned at your lodge, and I think it might be stolen. And I'm like, Huh. So I reach out to to uh to the the gentleman there that um uh Mr. Williams and ask him about this, and he's like, Yeah, this that sounds right. So he sends me all the serial numbers, and I have all of the history on everything that he that came with this bankruptcy. So I'm looking at it all, and I'm like, okay, well, this is the serial number and this is the boat. So, okay, well, let's go check it out. So here's me, right? And you know, and if anyone doesn't know what I look like, you've probably seen me on Steve's old cover when I was co-hosted with him, but like, you know, I'm five foot nine, 290, like I'm 275. I ain't running away from anybody. I'm the linebacker, right? Like I'm not creeping in there, you know what I mean? Like, I'm a bull in a china shop, right? Yeah. So, so Krista is in our suburban and we drive to this property, and and it's like a dead end road, kind of like Friday the 13th, creepy ish. Yeah, so we turn around and the guy's property's on the right, and I'm like, Oh, there's the boat right there. I'm like, okay, I gotta take a picture of it because I gotta give the cops the serial number.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Right? So I'm playing repo man here. So I'm like the repo man. I'm like, babe, I'm gonna hop out, I'm gonna run over, take a picture of the serial number if I can find it, if it's not if it's not cut off yet or scratched off. And uh, but make sure the cars and because I don't know this person, right? And this even though this is in the US, we're rednecks up here, right? Someone guys running around on some guy's lawn. A guy would shoot at you, right? Like I could see it happening, right? Like, yeah, especially if you're looking at something like his vehicles and then running away, right? Yeah, so sure enough, I find so I I I go down the side of the hedge of the fence, right? Like I'm freaking Tom Cruise and mission to talk with. So I get down there and I crawl across the grass like eight feet. I swear to God, I crawled. I crossed like eight feet of the grass, and then I get to the back of the boat and I'm like, okay, there's the serial number. So I take a picture and I'm looking at my phone. I'm like, oh, this is it. This is the boat. I'm like, awesome. So I get up and I go back to the vehicle. Well, here I am. I go to grab the door handle, and sure enough, it's freaking locked.
SPEAKER_07:No.
SPEAKER_03:And here's my wife sipping a coffee, BSing with my sister-in-law, blah, blah, blah. Like, she's the worst, the worst getting away driver in the world. I'm like, I'm like, if we were gonna be on World's Toughest Criminals, we would right now, for sure. Oh yeah. So I'm like, Crest to open the door. I'm like, I'm like, oh my goodness, is this guy gonna come from behind me, right? And give me one in the back of the head, right? Like a punch or something, anyway. So we ended up getting away, getting the number. We went to the cops and gave them the serial number. And sure enough, a week later, I got a phone call and I went and met the guy to pick up our boat.
unknown:Nice.
SPEAKER_08:I got it back.
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh, he's like he bought it off somebody. He's like, I would have laughed if I saw you. He's like, Bob, he was nice to the cops, so he bought it off somebody legitimately. So that guy actually got screwed. Yeah, so he actually was the one that got screwed because he got he paid money for something that was stolen, right? But it is what it is, right? I can't, it's not on us. Um, yeah, so that's the story behind our garbage bar fuel boat back up.
SPEAKER_07:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:So so I would say, so back to the original um question is I would say that was our hardest job because hard, there's hard physical, and then there's hard mental, and then there's hard logistically, and then there's hard all of that, and that was hard all of it because we're trying to put guests. So again, we didn't just open this camp again from a five and a half year poop show, right? It was a mess, yeah, as you know, right? So not only did we do that, you know, we generated staff, yeah, yeah. And then and we operated. Like I operated nine days out, I didn't even have docks. And the guests would get off on the rocks like short lunch. Nice, but they knew we were trying, and they knew they saw the bones and the cabins, and they're like, we know that this is gonna be the next big thing up here, and yeah, and and uh that was the hardest part. So imagine doing all that, and then in the background, going like, okay, so I gotta it wasn't like food, like food, whether it was the Cisco order originally that comes to the landing, and we have to get it and bring it up there, yeah. It's a lot of work, but or the girls, uh, Krista or Um, Adam's wife and Denise bringing out things to the lodge or other friends and family. That was a lot because you had to coordinate that with everyone. It's not like they can just drive to the landing and then open your back door and put in the freezer. Correct. And then you got stuff that's frozen and you got stuff that's meat and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's a lot of planning to continuously plan that when you're operating and rebuilding. So like it was a trifecta there. And that was the toughest part was fuel. And any, you know, it it really was. It was the tough this year. So that's why this year, as we talked about on the last podcast, we're gonna go across. Our plan is to go across on the ice.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, we've talked to the community of White Dog up there, Wabamas, is the local reserve up there. Um, and the chief chief Rolly has been uh great enough to let us use the north end of their property on this road to come in. So I only now I gotta haul probably from one end of your subdivision to the other. That's it. That's how far I gotta haul it across the ice. Yeah, like I would say two kilometers tops.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. So that's awesome. And how many barrels are we gonna do? So now my friend Mark.
SPEAKER_03:What's that?
SPEAKER_06:How many barrels are you gonna stockpile over there?
SPEAKER_03:So we're not so I have two 1,000 gallon tanks at my diesel generator. I have two 750 tanks for storage. I have, and I have four 500s for fuel. So I'm going to fill. We have 50 barrels. So we're gonna fill all let's we'll probably do our diesel first. We'll do the diesel run first. Fill the jennies, fill all the power mobility, and then maybe leave 20 barrels there of diesel, you know, yeah, yeah. And then we will use the remaining barrels to fill the gas, yeah, and then leave those full as well. So everything on location, I think, is 202,000 gallons I'll have on location of diesel and fuel plus whatever I have at the 50, the 50-50 gallon drums.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Wow, that's pretty, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03:Now that should get me through my season.
SPEAKER_06:You think that'll get I was just gonna ask.
SPEAKER_03:It'll be pretty freaking close. Like, even though so uh looking at my fuel costs and everything from this year, like going through that stuff now is is big for me because now I can see roughly what what we spent, but at the same time, I need to put another month onto operations on top of that. And the good but here's the good thing: even though we didn't run heavy, the power bill will still roughly remain the same because I have a 60 kilowatt generator, I only need a 40. Actually, we're bringing in a new 40 watt this this spring. Uh because the 60 is too big, like um, but we had all the air conditioners going, all the big giant freezers, the coolers, the refrigerators, all that stuff was going. Um so besides a couple extra staff cabins, that's all that's gonna be added to load, right? So amperage drawn shouldn't go up too much, which which will increase our power on the generator, right? So yeah, yeah. We should be good there.
SPEAKER_06:That's great. Yeah, but that was the biggest job. That'll be a huge headache off the off the plate for a year two.
SPEAKER_03:Buddy, if we can go, if we can show up there with fuel filled for the season, um, we're gonna haul that generator out. We're hoping in the first of March and install it so we don't have to do that in the spring.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, yeah, we're in really, really good shape. I have I have one tank under cabin six that uh the fiberglass poop tank.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:The black water tank. That's that's it has a a uh hole in the cuff, a crack. So we're just gonna buy a new tank and we're just gonna haul it across the place. It's not worth screwing around with the repair.
SPEAKER_06:I'll tell you what. I I repaired the shit tanks of Chaudiere for years and uh finally just said I'm getting new tanks and and dealt with that because it's uh that's a that's a pretty shitty job, literally.
SPEAKER_03:Right? Right. I don't do I don't do poop very well. I don't do shit very well. I yeah, I can handle guys bleeding on me on the drilling rig.
SPEAKER_06:I can handle guys puking, I can but but when you fall in the uh shit ditch at the uh at the drilling rig, that's a problem for me. Drilling rig, yeah. Yeah, waist deep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's funny. I was actually thinking, I was saying to Kristo before I come on the show here, I'm like, I gotta tell some good wild oil field stories today. Yeah. That's something we gotta get into after for sure. Uh yeah, so we're just about ready to do that. We're getting ready for the shows. Like I said, Jerry's got my booth ready. Um, we're going January um to Chicago. Myself and Krista. So we'll be at Chicagoland from I believe the 21st to like the 25th, 26th. Yeah in that area. Um yeah, we're gonna uh we're gonna come home and book, book, book. I don't go back out down until March. We go to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Minneapolis in March. Um I'm pretty full. I'm getting full. Like I'm I'm 70, 70 to 76 in that range. I don't, you know, it depends on the numbers you float with deposits, but like in that range for fill capacity already.
SPEAKER_06:That's great.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, we're gonna average. I'm averaging 20 guests a week, right? I don't want to be any higher than that. Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm averaging 15 guests a week. We try, we want to try and stick around 20, is where we want to stick. But for my from May 15th to September 5th, that's my average right now. So that's pretty good.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:100%.
SPEAKER_03:I actually sent you my numbers. I want you to take a look at them here sometime.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah, I will for sure.
SPEAKER_03:You're you're a bit of a geek, so I love that about you.
SPEAKER_06:You've yeah, well, I like that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_03:You're not just a pretty face if these viewers can see all that.
SPEAKER_06:No, it's uh that's my biggest asset, but uh you know, I'll uh I like looking at those numbers. I uh I did a lot of uh number crunching and dreaming and uh manipulating and everything else when I had the log. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Make those uh get uh more bums and beds. The more bums and beds you can get, the better.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, speaking of, you're coming up here this next year, hey? Yeah, yeah, you guys are coming up to film again. I was talking about Carol, Miss Carroll is uh the province of Ontario has been grateful enough. They they they're gonna we're gonna do a film, we're gonna have fish in Canada up here. And I was talking to Pete and he was saying, um, Mr. Bowman, and we were thinking maybe August, September, we'd like to do a he wants to think to do a wall and a big pike shoot. Like so we can get because we got them big pikes suspended, right? That time of the year, and yeah, it's a crazy fun bite when you can like pull a swim bait or pull a rip a jerkbait right over top or a tube. Yeah, yeah. And watch them on the live scope come up and smoke it. Oh, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_06:That's very cool.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we were catching like 30 or 40 pike a day in that style, plus 75 to 100 walleyes on the boat. It was nice.
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SPEAKER_02: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 Oulette, and I was honored 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. 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_03:Yeah. That was our biggest. That's a great one. Our biggest walleye was 32. That's gonna be the average, like 31, 32. But I I mean, as the big one a year, we get many around that 26 to like 30 and a half, I guess you'd say.
SPEAKER_06:No way.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's on my brochure. Wait till you or on my banner, actually at the show. Wait till you see it.
SPEAKER_06:Like did we catch her on the fly?
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right down um bottom end of the Winnipeg River there. Right where it right where it kind of moves in between those islands right down there. Yeah, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_06:So your your name is two rivers. It's the Winnipeg River, and what's the other river that converge right there?
SPEAKER_03:The English.
SPEAKER_06:English. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So it's the only body of water that that connect all of the major tributaries in northern Ontario and Canada, really, right? Like, like central Canada, the major tributaries are Lake Winnipeg, Lake of the Woods, Rainy Lake, and Lac Sewell. And those rivers meet, this is where they converge to go north to the out to the Lake Winnipeg and then up to the basin. Right. So it's pretty cool that that um that you have that accessibility, right? It's that those different kinds of water coming together. The different DNA strain is cool too, right? Like I know Laxuel, uh, you know, they're there that area up there, the English River North, and Lake of the Woods being they put out two different DNA strains of muskies, right? You're gonna have you're gonna have blondes that are big, big coming out of Lake of the Woods, and then you have stripes that are big, big coming out of Laxuel. And that's why, for one, though, the fishery is is is is amazing because of the current and because of the different varieties of structure I have, and and all of those reasons. But the cool thing to me is you have the ability always to produce gigantic correct, it's not just a one in the shot in the dark, one or two that that might grow in a lake. When you have that much moving water and that much accessibility, they can move into your system or out of your system at any time or be fry. The fry the DNA fry end up in there, and then all of a sudden, right? So, which is what I think happens with our pike facility. Like, our pike fishing is spiss. I never seen anything like it. Like, it's going up where you guys go into Yukon and north and northern northern Saskatchewan, northern northern Manitoba, that's where it would compare to us. But like for 50 minutes north of town, yeah. I don't know where you can go and catch that many pike in a day, and majority of them be over 33 to 35 plus.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, that's uh that's tough, right? Yeah, but and and you know what? It's hard to find places where you get numbers and size when you're talking northern pike. It just is, unless you're talking, you know, the McKenzie River on Great Slave Lake, or you're talking uh uh those lakes in northern Cisco.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly, Knee Lake Lodge or something like that. Our buddy West Woman there, right? Like something like that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that's great. Now we've heard your walleye, we've heard your northern, we've heard your small eyes. What was the biggest muskie?
SPEAKER_03:Uh 51 was the biggest muskie. We got lots around the 49 and 50 range, but 51 is the biggest. We didn't get one bigger than 51. And I'll be honest. Uh so Adam was pushing this year on Lake of the Woods and our system late, late in the year. He fished right till freeze up to try and get a 55-56, because that's his personal best now coming on to 55. Yeah. We didn't get it, or he didn't get it this year. So um maybe next year. But he didn't we didn't put enough focus on the our system late in the year either. Like there was like there's many days, like many days where we would see 10 to 15 muskies, many muskie fitch catch three to five, you know, maybe catch one, right? But whatever. But late in the year is when you want to when they put that big feedback on, when you want to try and get them big, big girls that come out of the deep and yeah, are gonna hang with them whitefish and Cisco's. And we just to be honest, our year was so busy, we just wanted to get out of there at the end.
SPEAKER_06:And oh wow, for sure. The two happiest uh times of year for a lodge owner is opening and closing.
SPEAKER_03:Right, you know, it's just the way my lifestyle the last five years hasn't been exactly like routine, right? Like I built I've built and sold out of or sold off two businesses that are going on my third in the last six years. Yeah, like Lake Fisky Adventures was three years, Nordic was like two and a half, yeah, you know, and then this that's been constant built. So I'll be glad when this is done so I don't have to build anymore. I can just that gets that gets old. It does.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, and and you know, back to the size of the muskies. Uh Pat and I were talking this year, and um I'm going away from length and width, uh girth. I I I I'm I'm all about weight.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:It's uh I'm gonna I'm we're we're gonna get a a proper a proper net to weigh them, and um um that's what I'm interested in now. Uh you know, the length in the girth is is good, but I want to know how heavy they are. And there's there's ways to weigh them now. Like, I mean, you get a good scale, you get a a nice uh hoop net uh or just the mesh and and weigh them.
SPEAKER_03:Um because uh is there not a net out there, Steve? I mean it might be a million-dollar idea that has a thing built into it.
SPEAKER_06:Now, Peter and I were talking about that at our Christmas party the other day, and um I think that there is, I think that there is a net that has a scale in it, but I don't know. And I'm not we need to invent one. Yeah, yeah, there you go. The million dollar idea, the diaries of a lodge owner dip net and scale.
SPEAKER_05:Right, hoop net scale.
SPEAKER_07:Oh well, yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_03:How's uh how was your fall? And your or I know you how your fall was. How was your getting into winter? I know you were up at your camp for a bit. Did you get her closed down? Did you get everything done up there?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, we did just in the nick of time. Uh Kyle and uh Kyle Guerron and Matt O'Brien uh were up at the cottage for the month of November uh guiding muskies, and um, and they did very well. Um they did they did extremely well. Kyle um uh I caught the the heaviest muskie that uh that I've caught. Um uh and uh um Kyle smashed that one out of the water with one of his guests. But um yeah, no, they did well, but we got her the What was your biggest this year? Like um uh roughly By weight, I'm not sure, but it was like uh 53 by 25 or something like that. Oh wow. Um yeah, it was a good one. It was a good, but you know, there's there's there's so few and far between. Like, I mean, I've I've never seen one that big. I've never seen one that big. But um um we got her shut down in time, but um the month of November, man, oh man, it was cold. It it locked up the the water at the cottage froze for a week. Oh no. Oh yeah, yeah. And they had the they had the uh the water on, um, but being up there and never having to deal with the cold, they didn't know how much to put on, and I kind of steered them in the wrong direction. And I thought that um all of my hot water lines were running inside the cottage, and I I said, uh, don't worry about turning the hot water on. It locked up first, and then yeah, it locked up for a week. Uh um, but um it thawed. Uh, we had a we had a warm enough spell for three or four days that uh that uh well, I don't even know if it was three or four days, but it it thawed out. So we got the water running again for the last week and a half that we were there, but that last day, um, which would have been it wasn't even the end of November, uh, the colds uh run the boys out. And uh Scotty uh and I were up there uh uh working away, and uh, I think the 27th of November was the day that we shut her down, and um the main line going to one of the bunkies uh froze as we were doing it. So we managed to blow it out. We managed to get her get her thawed, but uh we were just in the nick of time, man.
SPEAKER_05:Wow, that's close.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, good feel. Just in the nick of time. So we got her all shut down and and uh uh I think we averted um uh damage. So uh, but you never can tell until you open in the spring.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, for sure. Yeah, you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:I always say you you you you find out how well you did uh uh closing in the fall when you open in the spring.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, for sure. I was pretty proud of myself the first my First two years at Nordic. The first year I had three little three little breaks outside, none inside. Second year, I think we had we had two and one was inside. But for 17 cabins plus all those buildings we had, it was good. I think when I yeah, I don't think the next year it was wet so good, but I wasn't there for that one. I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah. No, um I uh I'm excited here for uh I'm excited for the shows. I'm excited for that. I'm excited to get down.
SPEAKER_06:That's nice. That's nice. Um, you know, you've got uh your your kids are in a a place where uh you don't have to constantly be fathering and and uh Krista's uh is uh in a place where she can go with you and you can go on the road and do some shows. Like, I mean, that's a that's a dream, man. Because um uh for me, shows really weren't an option because Melissa was working and and um by that time it was like you've been gone for six months, it's your turn. And I get home and uh I couldn't very well go and do the shows, but um uh they're not huge anyway, Steve.
SPEAKER_03:Uh for that again, like I say, like I'm gonna do business without them. It cr yeah, it's lots. Like I say, I'm I mean, I don't even to be honest, I could I'm not full already, and I'm not even into this third week of December here, right? Like I have five months of selling. Um I think we're more doing it to be on if you want my honest answer, we're gonna just do it to flex. Yeah, reasons and and be like, we're here and we're ready to to be available for any clients that uh that that want to come check us out.
SPEAKER_06:Um there's that small advertising, it's networking.
SPEAKER_03:That's network, that's right. It's that's really it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. Yeah, 100%. And if you've got the opportunity and the means to do it, by all means, you gotta you you do it because it doesn't hurt.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I'm selective too, right? Like, I'll be honest. Like, there's uh there's a couple circuits. There's there's one down in the states called the All Canada Show. And uh the guy that you they switched the guy out this year that that's running it now, thankfully. Uh the guy that ran it before was not good. He was horrible. I I left the show. Um oh really he he actually not I didn't leave in the middle of the show, I just didn't go back, but I he actually walked up to my wife at the booth our first year at Nordic, and I couldn't believe it. My sister-in-law was there, Krista and my and my uh cousin, my sister, my wife's cousin, first cousin, Kirstie. Um they were down there because we were building at the lodge, right? Yeah, and he had the audacity to come up to my wife and say, you know, it's selling three women in a booth might not be the best idea in the lodge industry. You might be out of your realm. And my wife kind of looked at him like, Man, you don't know who you're talking to. So really, why don't you shut it and walk away? And that was uh that put a bad taste in my mouth. And and here's the other thing is I find a lot of them, I and the reason I'm selective too is the five and a lot of them are just boot kickers. I mean, like, and that's not a rude statement, but I mean, I'm there spending money. I'm there spending money uh to get in front of these people. I'm spending money to get to the show. Like an average show, let's say, is between$500 to$2,000 for your booth. Okay, you got one day of travel down and one day of travel back, three to four days at the show. So now you're five to seven days away from home, hotels for those five to seven days, plus food. You're never really going alone. You got to have at least one more person, or you'd be cooked, or you're losing business because you can't stand, even though I can sell snow to Eskimos to five people, and once there's still two more people that are getting neglected, and that's why my wife is there, and or someone else, too, right? And yeah, um, so like it ends up costing money, and for one, that's you know, that's one of the reasons we didn't go as much before, and and and and we will continue. We're not ever gonna do a heavy show load, but the ones that we want to do have to be quality, like Chicagoland puts off a four-day show. Um, it's$1,500 for my booth. The guy was great to deal with. He's he's he's constantly pumping the show. They put 200,000 people through the doors, right? That's something you gotta look at. When I I I know it and it sounds bad because I am not blue-collar guy originally, right? But I don't want to go to a show where they're letting somebody in free and for a Labat Blue and a free piece of fish at a shore lunch, and then walk around and collect brochures. I I love that, and I love that people are getting out, but for me, it's gotta be a percentage thing. Yeah, and you gotta make the money, right? So being in those places where your percentages are more high probability, like I was saying, I think back my first year in Nordic, I did a power power networking and marketing with you, and that was huge, right? Like being in a place where where if if if okay, so I'll use the oil and gas show. Okay, that's what I'm going to. I'm going to the oil and gas show and I'm going to the PGA show in Florida. Okay. Next year. Yeah. Dallas, Texas. Houston, Houston, Houston, Houston, Houston. Gotcha. Uh, and then we're gonna go to New Jersey. So completely different realms, but areas where there's generated cash always for sure. Yeah, and these shows aren't outdoor shows. One's a boat show, one's oil and gas show, one's a PGA show. And when my booth is there with uh, so what I have is I just have three roll-ups that go in the background, and then I have my two TVs with my video looped that Ryan Bonnen just shot for me, right? Um, playing in the background, table in front and some brochures. It's a very simple setup, but it looks clean, it looks great, it's easy, and it sells everything I need. Um yeah, so when I do that, I'll have that, I'll have that set up. I can I can move it around.
SPEAKER_06:It's it's very little competition at those shows for you.
SPEAKER_03:And what happens, correct, is that's where I'm going with this. Is what happens is everybody that comes in that door, maybe there's five percent, like we've talked about, that are into fishing. But if that five percent of a hundred thousand people or two hundred thousand people is into fishing, when they see my booth, I'm the only fishing guy there. They're gonna stop. 100% they're gonna stop, right? Like, as long as it's the same clientele that you I'm roughly put in front of, I can make that happen. So that's where I find it when you're growing, that's where I find now. I'm at the point where I'm I'm not really growing right now. Last even at Nordic, I wasn't really growing the last. I had clientele. Yeah, we just gotta stabilize it and then continue to roll with it and then just top up, right? Yeah, that's how I see it, and that's kind of where we're at right now.
SPEAKER_06:Well, and the nice thing about those types of shows, um, you've got a good opportunity to sell corporate packages as well. And at the Toronto Sportsman Show or at the other sportsman shows, there's there's zero. Well, I shouldn't say zero, because it's never zero, but there's not a whole lot of opportunity to sell corporate groups, right? And corporate groups are great. Absolutely. So, yeah, but uh what what would a a diary show be without a couple of uh a couple of uh oil man stories?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yes, I was uh saying to my wife this morning, I gotta have a couple good ones for Stevie today. Um so let's talk about cell phones. Cell phones, right on. Here's a good one. So this is back when the flip phone first started coming out.
SPEAKER_06:You remember like oh yeah, I had one, a TELUS flip phone, right? Like it looked like a phaser, you know, like the little uh the little uh phaser from the uh from the original Star Trek.
SPEAKER_03:Correct, correct.
SPEAKER_06:Their communicators, correct.
SPEAKER_03:And so those phones, they were indestructible. Indestructible, but they were horrible when it comes to waterproof. I remember that. So I'm uh I am going up the I just got my new phone. I went into Estevan, got this new phone. Get back to the camp and I set it all up, like charge it and put the little leather case on the end of it.
SPEAKER_06:And yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But they even had a little remember they had like the belt holders that everybody back in the day, if you're cool with a belt holder, right?
SPEAKER_06:Like, yeah, whatever, right? Yeah, it was like having a holster for a gun. That's right. We couldn't do that in Canada, but it made us feel good with the uh my wiener got bigger for sure when it was on my waist, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, for sure. So so we uh, anyways, I'm I'm I'm all ready to go and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go up to the dog house here. I go to walk up the stairs, and my first phone call was from Olivia. You might my daughter, Olivia. So my first phone call was from Olivia. Well, don't I go to answer the phone? And I'm on steel stairs walking, and it's on my waist, clipped. So I go to grab it and pull it out, out of my hand, bumbling into the stairs and into the water. And at this point, they're like a thousand bucks, right? At that point, I'm like, oh my goodness, right? So so into the tank, my new phone goes. Well, all my crew is just hysterically my driller, my assistant driller, there, they're all in the dog house waiting for me to come up, right? Because they're they're sitting there having coffee and smoking darts and waiting for me to hang out with them. So they're laughing at me because it's now in the water. Well, I'm like, well, screw you guys, you're not gonna laugh at me. You're gonna go diving for it. And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, we're gonna see how waterproof it is. So, and we had nothing to do. We were slow drilling, right? Time to kill. So we made a work make word project. So I told the drill, the Derekhand, sorry, and the one roughneck, I said, go down and grab a half-inch line, some goggles, duct tape, knife, whatever else you think we're gonna need, and we're gonna make a homemade scuba gear. So, sure enough, the boys come back 20 minutes and they're jacked up, right? They're like, oh, this is so funny. I can't believe Willie's gonna do it. They're gonna do it. So I was making the keg one, but then I'm like, I'm gonna go in. This is kind of cool. So we made two masks. I had one on, and then the roughneck right beside me, he had one on, right? So they're strapping us up, they're taping, taping the the uh mask to my head. Nice. I got a bella clava on, and then I had the mask over, and then the tape was wrapped around the belaclava so it wasn't on my on my pear. Yeah, and then they took the half-inch line and put it in the end, and we taped that right in your mouth. Absolutely, yeah. So here we are, now we're ready to go, right? Me and Ryan was the kid's name, so me and Ryan are ready to go.
SPEAKER_06:How deep is this tank?
SPEAKER_03:Well, that depends on the rig, but this one was like five cubic five cubes. So I would say five cubes, maybe it would be like 12 feet high by like 20 feet wide by like 10 feet wide.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so you're going down.
SPEAKER_03:If you had a steel container on the back of a transport truck, yeah, roughly that, maybe a little shorter.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So and it's it's full of water that gets pumped around, but it ain't clean water, right? Like, I mean, it's clean it up in fresh water, but no chemicals or nothing, but but it's coming from a giant slough down the road getting dumped in by a water truck, right? So whatever. So, anyway, so into the ladder we go and down we go, and so we're kind of laughing, and the boys are just there taking pictures. I don't know, all right. So I was okay, Ryan, let's go. So I'm I'm I I go down and I go out and I hit the bottom. I'm like, okay, I can touch bottom. I felt around, I couldn't feel nothing, came back up. He went like three feet down. He was chaos, right? So we we fixed his thing, and then I'm like, okay, well, I touched bottom and I think it went in over here. So let's go over here and we'll start like a flank, and then we'll we'll go to the bottom and then we'll kind of push together, right? Yeah, well, you can't see. So we go to push together when we're on so the kid can't get down. I grab his arm and I pull him down. So he he I I ended up asking him after he couldn't go down because he was because he couldn't see. So he didn't know how close he was. He didn't want to swim into the bottom, right? Into the bottom, right? So when I had his arm, I just kind of guided him as he swam down. So we get down and I'm trying to like so again, I'm a big dude, so I'm floating at the same time. I'm trying to stay down, yeah, right, which is tough enough for me. And the kid, so the kid flails, Ryan flails his arms, and he must have grabbed when he flailed, it grabbed my mask and it rips the mask off my face. So now I'm in 12 feet of water, giant slew water with bugs and mud and cow patties, and it's in my mouth, filling my mouth, right? Like just trying to spit it out, but then swim to the surface at the same time. So I get up there and the boys see me with like this half ripped off bella clava with tape all stuck to my face with one eye. Nice. So Ben I'm spitting up this this crappy water. Oh my goodness. So the best part, though. So, like, not even half a second later, after I'm spitting up, Ryan comes up and he had the phone. No way, he's like, I got her. So we tried to dry it out unsuccessfully, it never worked. Blah blah blah. Long story short, but man, it was awesome going in that tank and seeing the boys, right? Just just we spent three hours screwing around with that make word project, right? Yeah, and it's something I'll never forget, and then I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_06:That's awesome. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That water taste, that water tasted like craft. Oh, oh man.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, I guess so.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, when he ripped that mask off my face and my mouth started filling, I was like, whoop, whoop, sorry, yeah. No, that's great. Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah, those days were fun. I missed those days. That that crew I had there, I they used to have, we would have like, so picture this. So we'd be slow drilling on a day like that. We'd have all these bit hands out there, and um, and they'd bring um, they'd bring their their secretaries or or whatever, right? And we'd have they'd bring meats, big steaks, and lobster, and they'd because they're trying to sell us stuff, right? And it's the oil industry, right? Everyone watches land, man, right? Like, it's no joke, right? Like, it's a it's a you know, 400 billion dollar industry, you know what I mean, right now in Canada, and we're not even operating, right? Like, yeah, so there's a reason that that's all money is there, right? And and and and so those days were awesome, man. Like, we would have the barbecue pit pulled out, the guy would show up with um you know some good looking ladies. I would let's just say that, and in in oil field outfits, safe for this location. Yeah, and there'd be four or five, you know, big coolers full of meat, right? And the guys would come down from the rig, one rough hand would take one barbecue, and the other rough next, sorry, would take the other one. Motor hand would be whipping up salads, and the boys would love. I missed those days, right? There'd be another time they the boys would be those crew, that crew would be doing that, the other crew would be having the working on their dirt bike on the drilling floor, you know what I mean? Getting it ready for the end of shift so when they were done working, they'd go dirt biking with the I don't know. Those days were fun, you know. It was yeah, things were different then, and and uh the world was a little different, but that's one thing I missed out there being with those guys for sure. Yeah, yeah, all that camaraderie.
SPEAKER_06:Wow. I think you found a pretty good business for camaraderie as far as uh a replacement.
SPEAKER_03:But I've been fortunate with men like you, yeah, to be friends with.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, absolutely. Well, listen, Will, um I really appreciate you coming back on and and uh getting caught up with us. And uh, and uh uh if uh if we don't uh see you before Christmas, uh Merry Christmas, brother. Um it's that time of year, and and I love uh I love saying Merry Christmas to everybody that I can say Merry Christmas to, and you're right on top of the list.
SPEAKER_03:Brother, Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family. And uh we uh we probably won't see you before then. I definitely will talk to you. I might even talk to you Christmas Day, but uh I hope you guys continue on that amazing path you're on. And hopefully I plan on coming down maybe mid-January sometime, right before my show in Chicago, right?
SPEAKER_06:So if I do, then we can hook up for a live uh for a face-to-face podcast.
SPEAKER_03:We we should do that. You know what? We're gonna bring on, we should bring on uh one of my guys who was in my wedding, Brad Nielsen. I was talking to Brad, and he's he's one of my ex oilman partners. And uh, we should do just an oilman episode, and Brad would have the family roaring on here. So all right on. Well, let's bring him on.
SPEAKER_06:Let's plan on uh let's plan on doing something like that.
SPEAKER_03:That would be a good time to do it. Well, let's uh keep in touch, brother.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, thank you, Willie, and folks, thank you for getting to this point. We really appreciate it here, and uh, without you, I wouldn't be doing this. And uh thank you to uh our uh producers, um Anthony Mancini and the famous Dean Taylor. Uh and uh and also thank you to Angelo Viola, Peter Bowman, and the Outdoor Journal Radio Network. Um, these uh these guys make uh this job that I do seamless. And uh head on over to the fishingcanada.com website. Uh it's Christmas time. There is so much stuff there to uh to to to to choose from. There's great gifts and free giveaways. And there's nothing wrong with those free giveaways, folks. And uh thank you to uh Uh Willie, you can uh you can while you're here give props to our good friends uh uh up north there at uh Red Lake.
SPEAKER_03:Hey Andrew at Lakeside Marine. Yeah, we uh we want to say thank you to Andrew. Merry Christmas to him and his staff for sure. Andrew is has the best customer service in northwestern Ontario. He might be better than me, to be honest with you, at my lodge. And and uh I love him. I just bought another fleet of boat and G3 boats off him with Yamaha 60 horses decked to the top. He's delivering them right to me in the spring. Uh like I say, I'm still two and a half, three hours from him now, and I'm still going to him. That's how consistent he is. So head on up to see Andrew in Red Lake, Lakeside Marine, Lakesidemarine.com, and uh he'll help you out. He's the man.
SPEAKER_06:Nice job. I might have to take a uh clip of that and uh and use that uh in the future episodes. But uh no, that's awesome. Thank you, Willie. Thank you to uh Andrew up there. Uh and uh thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner. Stories of the Norse.
SPEAKER_05:I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm. I'll be though you ever saw been reeling in the hog since the day I was born, bending my rod, stretching my life. Someday I might on 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 my plows. While I'm a good old boy, I bought a lodge and live my dream, and now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of muskie angling education material anywhere in the world.
SPEAKER_00:Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this amazing community and share it with passionate anglers just like you.
SPEAKER_04:Thus, the Ugly Pike Podcast was born and quickly grew to become one of the top fishing podcasts in North America.
SPEAKER_00:Step into the world of angling adventures and embrace the thrill of the catch with the Ugly Pike Podcast. Join us on our quest to understand what makes us different as anglers and to uncover what it takes to go after the infamous fish of 10,000 casts.
SPEAKER_04:The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing, it's about creating a tight-knit community of passionate anglers who share the same love for the sport. Through laughter, through camaraderie, and an unwavering spirit of adventure, this podcast will bring people together. Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our angling adventures.
SPEAKER_00:Tight lines, everyone.
SPEAKER_04:Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_09: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, Ans 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?
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of fishing.
SPEAKER_09:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch. 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_01:All the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garchomp Turk, and all the Russians would go fishing.
SPEAKER_09:The scientists. But now that we're reforesting or anything, it's the perfect transmission environment for line. To chefs. If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for you will taste it. 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.
SPEAKER_07:Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.