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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 125: Bears, Bait, And Betting On Yourself
Forget the neat arc of a nine-to-five. We sat down with Kyle Satchery, a small-town barber who spends spring and summer trapping live bait and guiding bear hunts when the weather turns, to unpack a life that moves with ice, bugs, and bookings. From black ice and first-snow days to crappie dinners snuck in before a niece’s skating show, Kyle’s world is built on grit, logistics, and quiet pride.
The bait business gets real fast: acquiring a long-standing operation, coordinating with fewer trappers as demand grows, and keeping lodges stocked when July heat spikes minnow mortality. Kyle breaks down the science—cold well water, aeration, sedation to reduce stress, and slow acclimation—and the human side, like explaining why surface water kills fish on the dock. He shares GPS-driven leech runs at 3 a.m., chest waders under bug suits, and the hum of mosquitoes outside a pickup at night. It’s a tour through the unglamorous details that keep anglers smiling and shops open.
On the guiding front, we map a full week: fishing mornings at lodges with great walleye, bass, and muskie water, 2 p.m. pick-ups, and careful sits until dark. Kyle explains why he moved from ladder stands to big wooden platforms, why clients sign a simple shot-discipline agreement, and how conservation-first rules changed camp culture. The stories hit hard—a boar drops, cubs scale trees beside a hunter’s stand, and a sow tests his ladder for hours while he shakes in the dark; a veteran misreads a bear at last light and rewrites his own rules to avoid repeat mistakes. These aren’t tall tales; they’re field notes on judgement, safety, and humility.
If you love northern Ontario, live bait, big bears, and the problem-solving behind every “we got it done,” you’ll feel at home here. Tap play to hear how collaboration beats undercutting, why better tanks save money, and how patience makes ethical hunting. Enjoy the ride, then subscribe, share with a friend who loves the North, and leave a review to help more folks find the show.
So what had happened was the brother in the tree, he had a sow with uh with two cubs in front of him, and down the hill came this nice boar that he wanted to shoot. So he said, Well, he figured I'll shoot the boar and the sow and the cubs will run off. Perfect, right? Wrong. He shot the boar, the cubs went up both trees on each side of his tree stamp. So now he's in the middle of these this clump of three trees. He's in the middle tree, and he says, There's a cub to my left at my eye height, and a cub to my right at eye height. And both of them are looking at me talking to Mump. So he says, now the Sal is high alert from the gunshot, from the boar playing. And it's coming over and and dealing with the cubs. Well, at this point, the cubs have caught on to him, so they're talking to the mum. So he says, Well, the sow is climbing his ladder of his tree stamp. No, the Sal, keeping it down. Well, this went on until like 11 at night.
SPEAKER_03:This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Networks, Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North. We're sitting down with someone who's built a life around seasons and the risks that come with them. He spends his winters behind a barber chair, his spring and summer out in the bush collecting and trapping live bait, and his spring and fall guiding bear hunts. It's not a nine to five, and there are no guarantees, just long days, shifting seasons, and the constant pressure of making it work. And it is now my pleasure to introduce to all of you Kyle Thatchery. On this show, we talk honestly about what it takes to choose self-employment when the income isn't predictable and the margin for error is thin. Kyle breaks down the realities of running multiple seasonal businesses, the physical and financial risk behind live bait harvesting, and the responsibility that comes with guiding bear hunts. It's a raw look at what happens when you stop playing it safe and decide to bet on yourself. So settle in, pour a coffee, and join us for a conversation about risk, resilience, and building a life that follows the land instead of a paycheck. Here's my conversation with Kyle Satchery. And folks, before we get into this conversation with Kyle, I just want to take a minute and wish all of you a very, very Merry Christmas on this Christmas Eve. It is a exciting, exciting day for a lot of people. And uh be safe out there, folks. Drive safe. Make sure if you're indulging in a few bevies, uh, that you've got yourself a driver, or Uber, you know what? You just player safe. Have fun and Merry Christmas to all. That's right. Merry Christmas. Welcome folks to another episode of Diaries of the Lodge Owner Stories of the North, and we have a wonderful guest on today, a familiar name and voice, Kyle Satchery. Kyle, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Steve. Yeah, no problem. I hear that uh you've got a snowstorm going on up there. We were just chit-chatting uh leading into the uh uh the intro.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we're getting hit with the first major one of the year. We've had a little bit of snow to this point, but uh it's starting to look like northwest Ontario up here now. I think you were talking with Willie, I heard, and uh he was saying that he had to cancel some stuff because of the storm was coming. So lock us in here for a few days.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but you guys have had a lot of cold weather, and um uh you've got black ice up there already.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. I was ice fishing on Monday on uh Wabagoon, and we had uh probably about a foot already of nice ice. So hopefully the snow won't mess it up too much.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. The well it other than driving.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, you get sometimes it'll crack it and you get lots of slush, but we should have enough uh we should have enough snow now, or ice now that uh snow hopefully won't be too bad, especially the little eggs. If you gotta just a skim ice and then the snow gets on there, the the slush is so bad you can't even go ice fishing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's uh that sucks. But uh, so how did you do?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, we caught enough crappies for uh supper. I only had about I was going to my uh niece's uh skating rehearsal or not rehearsal show for uh Christmas. So I had a couple hours, and the wife uh was pretty adamant she wanted to feed a fish. So we got I think I got six crappies there in a couple hours, six eaters anyway. That was good enough for me.
SPEAKER_03:That's awesome. That's awesome. So just to remind the Diaries family, you are a fairly uh um um a fairly well uh what is the word I'm looking for? You have had a ton of different um um jobs and businesses. You're a barber, you're a bait man, you're a bear uh guide, you are uh a man of many men. And um um how how are the businesses going? And which ones are you operating? Are you still cutting hair on the side?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I still do uh I still do all three, although uh the hair hair business definitely gets kind of kicked to the back burner come springtime. Um much to the dismay of uh the men of the community because I'm the only barber in town. So I get uh a lot of uh crap talking coming my way during summertime when I'm not there just because I'm out trapping and stuff. Guys are starting to get the gist of it that I'm just I'm not if I was around, I would cut their hair. I'm just not there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So it it takes a bit of ride on the back burner there in the summertime. Um, but yeah, still operating all three. This time of year, it's nice to have all three because I can uh I can you know operate the hair business while I you know it's not so busy with Minos right now, uh with all the lodging being shut down.
SPEAKER_03:In the summertime, do you uh have uh do you employ anybody to look after it while you're uh while you're working on everything else?
SPEAKER_02:I wish I could. I wish I could. Um I've tried in the past to uh to train some guys and it's just never worked out. Um in a perfect world, I'd love like if I if I had a young kid that was willing to go to barber school and and kind of take over, that would be that would be fine with me. Um because yeah, like I said, in the summertime I'm so busy that uh if I didn't have to go in into the shop, I wouldn't complain, that's for sure. Yeah, no doubt. But uh, but like I said, it's nice to have this time of year. And I made a lot of relationships through the shop that actually have helped the other businesses, so so it's nice getting in there. But uh I definitely prefer to be out in the woods and and doing that stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. So there's not a lot going on for uh for us up here, so it's nice to have it gets pretty cold, and uh hair grows um uh 365 days a year.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, absolutely. The only problem is it seems to grow more in the summer. Everybody wants their hair short when it's hot out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's true. I never thought of that. You know, half has started a trend. Yeah, you know, warm is not cool. No, no, you know, no, but uh how's the bait business? How how was your uh 2025 year?
SPEAKER_02:It was it was really busy. It was really busy. I think last time I spoke with you guys, it hadn't uh we were in the process, but we hadn't really mentioned it yet. That we were uh we bought out one of the other uh decent-sized bait companies um in the area. Um the the Berniers, JD Bates, it was called. Um, they had been around since uh it was we we bought it off of Joe and Deb Bernier, but uh they had been in business since actually Ken Bernier, his dad, was kind of one of the I would say almost origin original bait trappers uh in the area all over Northwestern Ontario. And uh they had been in the business for, geez, almost I think 50 years. So they were looking to get out of it. And uh uh we kind of we we bought bought them out and uh which which I mean them getting out of it was gonna increase the business anyway, but then um with kind of buying them out and buying all their equipment and stuff, that definitely helped where they were they were sending guys our way. Um so so that definitely uh increased the business uh quite a bit. Um that's great. Yeah, and then just the market in the area just keeps growing and growing and growing, and and um there's just there's just seems to be less and less trappers and that's a good thing for your business, right?
SPEAKER_03:Your your uh customer base is growing and your competition is shrinking.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and we've been pretty good where we we get along good with most of the guys around, so we've been trying to work with a lot of the other trappers to just it works out better for us if if all of us kind of work together. Absolutely falling. Um, you know, there's dealing like the the day-to-day dealing with the uh the lodge owners and the the the the tackle shops and stuff isn't something that a lot of the other trappers want to do anyways. So yeah, we've kind of worked it out where a lot of the guys would rather just you know go trap their minnows, bring them to me, or um yeah, we take that way, you know you're not dealing with the the day-to-day headaches that come along with you know, there's a thunderstorm, so people didn't use any minnows, so now all these minnows are sitting there and stuff like that. And yeah, anyway.
SPEAKER_03:What are some of the day-to-day issues that you have to deal with?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I think the trappers like it too because because me and my business partner trap at the same time, we kind of know, you know, what they're going through. So we work with both sides, and and uh it's worked out really well where I think a lot of the trappers enjoy it just because they kind of know with us, you know, we're not gonna uh we try and make it so everybody is making money, everybody's happy, um, and then we're not trying to undercut each other. And and in the end, I think we all end up doing better off um just just by working together. And and uh it's it's kind of funny when every once in a while the the tourist camps will try and lie on by who will give it to me for less, and they don't realize that we're working together anyway, so they call him and he calls me and he's like, Why is this guy calling me? And yeah, and uh so it's just nice having those kind of relationships with the other trappers, and we're trying to just continue to grow those as kind of we grow the business.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, that's that's uh that's a that's a wonderful business model for sure. Um, and um it it goes back to the old adage, all ships rise with the tide. And uh when you build those relationships solidly with people and um uh everybody is is um is doing well with it, um you can't ask for anything better. And you know, for when you're in business like that, sometimes you can make more money at the detriment of somebody else, but that's not a sustainable way of doing things, especially in a small community, right? So for you to go out and be able to um help people uh make money, take some of the burden from them that they don't want to have to deal with, and they're happy to leave some some uh uh you know some uh skin on the bone uh for you. And uh it's it's just sounds like it's a wonderful um business you've got on the go there. Good for you. Um any uh any any crazy stories up there this year when you're out in in at uh three o'clock in the morning trudging through the the bush at uh sunrise.
SPEAKER_02:Uh we definitely had a few a few good ones between the the bears and the minnows. Um the one that I was talking last night with uh with my business partner, just if making sure I didn't forget anything.
SPEAKER_03:And the the one that both of us thought of right away was we had a we thought one of our bear hunters died this year, which is now we're we're jumping from the minnow and bait business over to your um the the bear guiding business.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I have some, I mean we have lots of like 3 a.m. getting up to do leech run stories and and you know um checking leech traps by headlamp so that uh people have leeches because I'm I don't know if it's the same in the south. If if people don't have leeches up here, it's like you know, World War III.
SPEAKER_03:Uh really like that's funny because uh I owned Chaudiere for 10 years and um I didn't even use leeches. I had leeches every once in a while, and people didn't even want them. It was it was um worms and minnows.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, yeah, here like where I am in Sulacote, everybody just wants minnows, but uh anywhere kind of south or west of us, they want leeches, and and when you run out, it's it's like guys are the the price of leeches come July. I swear every day it goes up five bucks a pound because every shop is calling us and saying, Well, I'll give you what do you what do you charging? Oh well, add 10 bucks to that. Add 10 bucks to that. And and uh so it ends up where like you know, my business partner works for hydro, so he was getting up at 2 30 in the morning, going out in the dark with a headlamp and uh and checking leech traps just to kind of keep us uh in in stock because he'd come in from the bush at, you know, he'd get in at 5, 6 a.m. before work, and his wife would be going out at lunchtime to bag up the leeches to send them off to Red Lake or uh Falls and all these different places just because everybody was out and we had them. And and um so he was going out there and he actually ended up, he had thank God for technology, he had the when he would set the traps, because you kind of do like uh different pattern, like an S pattern. You're not you know just going around the shore in a circle. Um he had made uh uh used an app to follow his uh GPS coordinate because that was that was the only way he could find the traps in the morning because you're just using a little tiny float on the leech traps, right? They're not very big, it's just yeah, all it is is uh pool noodle sliced into like a one-inch you know width uh uh circle. So he was yeah, he had to have he had his phone mounted in the canoe so that he could follow the line so that he would stick with the trap uh or the traps because he said some of the times when before he started doing it, he would go back to the pond to set it the next night and uh he go, man, half the traps were still out there because I missed them. And uh and he said I was still getting lots of leeches, so I figured I was doing good. So he said he started using the app just because he goes, You don't realize how dark it is at three in the morning. Yeah. When you're trying to find these little, you know, two-inch green circles amongst all the other weeds. Um that was a good one um for trapping. We actually had uh one of the new lines that we we bought off the Bernie's had a uh had golden shiners, which we had never had before. Um, so I actually hit a golden shiner run this spring where I was like I was filling the boat with these things like uh I've never seen so many before. And and there was more than a few times where I'd get to the truck with them, and I'd one of the first time I had to call my my dad, which doesn't happen very often anymore, and I was like, How how many of these can I take in this tank? And when I told him how many I had, he's like, Yeah, you're already probably too far. Yeah, uh, so I'm like, Well, I'm gonna put, we have this stuff, it's called Trank, Trank, and uh it just basically uh mellows the minnows out. If you use a lot of it, it puts them right to sleep. So I think, well, I'll put some of this in there, and and I I ended up showing back up, and uh one of my bear hunters who had already tagged out was at my house, and and uh he's like, Oh, how's trapping? I go, here, look at this. And I opened the lid of the this big, you know, half of my truck box is a tank. I open it, and it's like minnows from the bottom of the thing all the way to the top. And he he couldn't believe he's taking videos, sending them back to people. And and uh, I guess in Minnesota where he's from, golden shiners, he goes, You'll pay 18 bucks a dozen for them because they're they're a specialty or whatever. And meanwhile, up here, guys don't really like like a lot of the lodges and stuff don't like them because they don't live as well as some of the other minnows. Yeah, and they're they're pretty hardy for a shiner, but I mean you're not gonna keep them for two weeks by any means. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That was always my issue uh at the lodge. I I I didn't have a proper tank. I tried all kinds of things. Um, you know, I pumped fresh water from the lake through a 45-gallon drum and then back out into the lake, which ended up that was about the best method to keep them alive. Um, but I was drawing cold water from the uh from the bottom, and and it was a cold water tank, which is what you need. I also used a freezer. I put uh a freezer on a timer and uh put an aerator in there. But as soon as the problem the problem that I found when you have those those minnows, you can I could keep them for quite a while, two, three weeks sometimes, depends, days, whatever, shiners, whatever I was getting from my supplier. Um, but as soon as you pull them out, and if you use if you use warm water, uh they wouldn't last. Like if you just use surface water, they wouldn't last. And um, as soon as people bought them on the dock, uh, I'd have I'd have the dock hands with the um with the the um your minnow buckets, and uh you put a dozen minnows into the minnow bucket, and as soon as they dropped it off the side of the boat, they all died off the dock. Yeah. Right. So after July, I just I just told people, nah, you know what, we don't have minnows, but minnows don't work here after July. You know, which was which was somewhat true.
SPEAKER_02:Like, I mean, the worms, um, the worms really took over in the summer, but and I think that's part of the reason some of the guys up here want the leeches um come come July, because that's when it gets tricky to to keep the minnows alive, right? Yeah, uh we deal with it every year where the lodges think we poison the minnows or we're selling the minnows that are dying. It's ridiculous. Well, and and part of it for us is like we have, you know, we've spent a lot of the capital with really nice tanks that run fresh well water, that's ice coal, and the minnows will be living great for us, and then we bring them to you and they start dying, and it's our fault. And it's kind of like, well, I don't want to tell you to go buy a you know a$5,000 minnow tank for your 50 dozen minnows or 100 dozen minnows you're running through your your camp every week. But at the same time, it's like I also can't take you fresh, you know, new minnows every time 20 dozen die because you know your tank isn't the best for for that time of year. Because come July, it's you know, even in our in our big tanks, we're losing minnows. You know, like it's just they're they're coming out of really warm water, they're going into a truck tank that's you know kind of cool water, and then they're going into a a tank in the in the holding facility that's really cooled water, and then we're trying. At the same time, we're trying to slowly warm them up as we bring them back to you. Yeah. It's just a lot of confusion.
SPEAKER_03:That whole temperature thing is a nightmare. Um I even I built a cage that I uh sunk off the side of the dock, about a uh a two-foot by three foot cage. And um for a while I was going out and and um and getting my own minnows. There was a couple of beaver houses and stuff, and I would just go out and you know, with a sane net and uh try and get my own minnows. But the amount of work that you've got to invest into trying to net trap whatever your own minnows was ridiculous for me. I just finally said, yeah, no, we don't do minnows. We don't do minnows.
SPEAKER_02:I don't realize a lot of the time what goes into it. Even I think, you know, in my hair business, I hear it all the time from the locals that are going into the tackle shop that I provide minnows with that, oh, it's crazy, it's$650 a dozen, or I I don't even know what the price is, but something like that. And and every time I and of course, right away they say, Man, I go out to my camp and I throw a trap in the beaver pond right before it, and it's full of minnows. I don't know why your camp and do it. Well, and that's why I say I go, okay, so you you drove 45 minutes one way, you know, you spent a couple hours of your time, you spent 30 bucks of your gas to get three dozen minnows, which was great for you. But I mean, if I drive that far and I only get three dozen minnows, it's like it's a waste of my time. So a lot of these guys that I think they think it's a lot easier, and and and usually when they're doing that, it's always May long weekend when the minnows trap really good. So we we set our price prices for in the summer when the minnows aren't trapping really good. Yeah. And uh and you have to know all the little tricks, and and you're out there getting eaten alive by the bugs, and you're up at 3 a.m. Like I was those are the things that the guys always forget about when they're just going to their little pond down the road from their house and thinking it's all easy.
SPEAKER_03:And so when you're trapping, um what are you doing to um to combat the bugs? Because there's gotta be times up in your area where they are horrendous.
SPEAKER_02:They're almost always horrendous. Just get like worse some years, like even in a good bug year, they're not it's it's not good on the ponds. Yeah. Just I mean, you're you're you're the middle part. That's where the bugs grow, right? They're all marshy, boggy swamps. Um, so we're we pretty much run um like bug suits uh all till July. I mean, we get pretty used to getting bitten a lot, so by July we can kind of tough it out. I know uh when you take our buddies that don't trap, they still think we're crazy. And we're always using the American, like we always make sure our Americans bring us the the illegal bug dope that's got the stuff on the country.
SPEAKER_03:100% deed.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. I remember the first year my business partner started, he was like, ah no, I work for hydro, it's not that big a deal. I'll just go with the you know the eight percent stuff or whatever. You go, I don't I don't want cancer, you know. That stuff causes cancer. I'm like, man, I used to say the same thing, and then it gets to a point where you're like, Well, I'm gonna die of blood loss, so I might as well double cancer in order. And uh and then yeah, most but most of the time we just use uh bug suits, and then yeah, you just cover up. Luckily for us, like you're almost always in chest waiters, which when it's hot isn't isn't that nice, but uh the bugs can't bite through it.
SPEAKER_03:So that's true.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I spend a lot of time in my underwear and chest waiters, and then with a black bug suit over the top half, and uh yeah, and so those black clothes, though man, they're like pigs, they'll root right in underneath your clothes, and man, they're you gotta have everything closed up and uh and then like I say, instill layer on the bug dope just to uh just to get that's probably the worst part of the whole whole thing, is especially that you know, end of May, start of June when the bugs are awful. That's the uh and it usually coincides trapping's not that good at that time of year either, so you're getting eaten alive and and trapping isn't the greatest.
SPEAKER_05:Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But uh but yeah, that's about all we can do, and then just tough it out. There's been a couple years where they're so bad that I mean you can't even leave the truck without a without a bug suit. It's it's crazy how bad they can get out there on the ponds.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I can't I can't imagine. We had uh we had an experience on a fly out uh or a fly-in, I guess I should say, where the um the bugs were just horrendous. And and and thankfully it wasn't black flies. Well, it was black flies too, but they weren't, it was the mosquitoes and the um the the horseflies, not deer flies, them big horseflies. Yeah, they it was it was crazy how it can get up there. And and not much wonder, you know, at that time of the year you see a lot of moose on the roads because those bugs, they just drive the moose out of the bush.
SPEAKER_02:They're just looking for anywhere they can get a little wind. Yeah. I was trapped in leeches uh this summer, and and a lot of times, like some of the leech bonds are 45 an hour away. And uh, so I will just sleep in the back of my truck. I have an in little inflatable that goes around the seats and makes a it's not comfy, but it gets the job done. And I was laying there talking to the wife, uh before you know, just waiting to go to bed in the back of the truck, and she could hear on the phone the the bugs humming outside of my truck. I'm just sitting in the back seat and she's like, How do you sleep with that? And I'm like, You kind of get used to it, where it's kind of like a a sound machine, but I'm like, the the the shitty part is when you wake up at three or four in the morning and you have to piss, and you're wondering, like, should I just piss my pants? Or do I go out there? Because I mean, I've tried it where you're out there and you're trying to pee and you're trying not to smack your junk because there's so many bugs landing on the little piece of open meat there that yeah, sometimes it's like, well, this gator egg bottle seems a lot better than going.
SPEAKER_03:Take the wide uh the wide mouth jars. Yeah. One liter jar.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I don't know if I need the wide mouthers, but we just as long as we have some sort of jar reality.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I don't need the wide mouth for that either, but it just makes us feel that it's not quite uh as much of a mess.
SPEAKER_02:That's true. That's true.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, oh yeah. I would not like I when we were on that trip that I told that I had just mentioned um at uh Quant Lake, um I I have a sleep machine and it was hot. And uh the the uh gas ran out of the generator. And I I'll never forget this story. Like, I mean, I uh I I I snore. And I snore a lot and loud. The so I I went and got the sleep apnea machine, and they give me this special device and all this stuff, and it it really saved my marriage, to be honest with you. But um uh the boys, Pete and Ange and and uh Dean and and everybody else on the crew that we travel with, a lot of times we're sharing rooms or whatever. So the first thing that they they ask me is uh, did you remember your machine? I'm like, yeah, I got it, I got it. Well, we were at this cabin and we all had our our own little room, but it's uh, you know the the old trapper's cabins where there's uh the walls, but the roof is all open, yeah, right? Anyway, we had the generator running for my machine and it run out of gas in the middle of the night. And um, we had to have um, you know, those bed uh nets, like the princess nets to keep the bugs off of us. Yeah, I see. They were so like and we were very diligent on opening and closing the door like uh as fast as you could get in and out. And uh we still had to have these nets over top of the uh of the the beds. And I was um uh I was on a um an air mattress, maybe. I can't remember, but it was so hot. And um uh I was sleeping when the generator went out, obviously, and um I started dreaming that um that I was smothering. Like I was in the middle of this intense dream, and um I I remember dreaming that this demon or whatever it was was smothering me. And um uh I was uh I was awoken by Ange in his underwear standing there shaking me, yelling, wake up, wake up! And uh he said, Oh my god, I have never heard any kinds of sounds come from a human being like what you were making. And I thought you were dying. And I said, I thought I was too. But I had that stupid mask on in like 32 or 33 degree heat outside at midnight, and then I had to go and um gas up the generator. So I had a pair of I put my jogging pants on, I put my shoes on, I put the bug the the whole bug jacket on, and I went out to to gas up this generator, and it the mosquitoes were on my bug suit so thick, uh, and they were biting through it, by the way, um that I couldn't see. I had to keep on swatting the the bug net um around my face so I could see and um to get but and then get back in there. And oh my like I say, it it was it was an experience I'll never never forget.
SPEAKER_02:Everybody should have to experience the bugs that bad sometimes just to appreciate when you don't have the bugs, because I know my wife always says when she comes traveling with us, she's like, the prices of minnow should be double for all the blood you guys have to give out here. I I took her last year and this one pond, I don't know why, even in a good bug year, it's just awful for bugs. And we went there in July, and they were like, you couldn't we were trying to load up the boat, and finally I told him, like, you just sit in the truck and I'll get you when everything's ready, you run down and we'll go. Once we're out in the lake, it shouldn't be too bad. Well, we get out, you know, kind of just putting out with the 15-horse motor on this boat, and they're so bad it's like a wall around the boat. So finally, like she's trapping me enough. I told him, like, okay, you're gonna you set the traps, put the bait ball in, and then just hand it back to me, and I'm gonna drive the boat wide open around the lake so the bugs can't get us. And then when you give me a trap, I'll I'll just put it out as we're going. And she thought I meant we would stop. Well, we did this whole lake at you know, it's a little 10-foot boat with a 15-horse on it, so we're flying at like 20 kilometers an hour, 20 miles an hour, and and she's handing me these, and I'm just throwing them out and she's just laughing. And we go out the whole lake, and uh and she does all 15 traps and we're coming back, and she's like, Are you gonna slow down? I'm like, Yeah, well, we get to shore, I'm like, just hang on to the sides of the boat because I'm gonna drive this thing right on shore so that I can just pull it up. We're gonna run to the truck and get out of here. And she said, when we got to the truck, she goes, I couldn't believe that you were just tossing the traps out of the boat going that fast. But she goes, the whole time you were driving that fast, you could just see a black cloud behind us like bugs. And she goes, I was just glad you weren't stopping because I figured as soon as you stopped, they were gonna come into us. I said, Yeah, that's why I just we just kept going. I'm like, just be glad you don't have to come with me when I check them because I have to go slow. Yeah.
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SPEAKER_03:So now that we've uh we've uh explored the the uh the bugs in the wilds of the north, uh tell us a little bit about how your uh the um uh bear guiding business is going.
SPEAKER_02:It's good, it's good. Actually, I just finished booking for 2026. We we haven't had any openings in a couple years, and then one of our big groups uh they had had a few other trips booked between them. So they decided to take a year off, um, which opened up some tags for us. Yeah. Um so we actually just just uh filled those um uh last night, actually. And filled most of in the process of doing a little advertising, we filled what was left of 2027 for the most part. So so things are good there. Um how many tags?
SPEAKER_03:Uh how many tags do you have in your unit?
SPEAKER_02:We have 13 right now between our units. Uh, we're working on buying another unit that I think will have about four. So uh we're hoping to add that, but that's dealing with the MR and everything is always tricky to get all that stuff worked through. So we're just dealing with all the logistics of that right now. But 13, to be honest, is probably enough. It it's uh makes for a busy couple of weeks trying to to get the all the bears knocked down.
SPEAKER_03:And yeah, yeah, no, for sure. And uh the um your uh bear stands are uh second to none, I hear.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. We uh we keep trying to get rid of all of our uh ladder stands and we're replacing them all with with big wooden stands, which everybody seems to really like.
SPEAKER_03:For sure. I I think um, and correct me if I'm wrong, but is the demographic in um in the sport of hunting getting older? Uh or are you still seeing uh a lot of young people? Um You know what?
SPEAKER_02:We get a good mix. We get a good mix. We don't actually have a lot of like old, old guys. We do have a few, right? But uh it's a pretty good mix, right? From we got guys that are probably 35, um all the way up to you know 70. Um lots in that 40 to 50 range seem to kind of be where guys like to shoot bears. I think below that, those guys are deer and elk still kind of and then as they get older, they want to knock a bear off the list, and then um so so we get a pretty good mix. Um where I mean we've been lucky where, like I said, a lot of it had just been repeat year over year over year, where we're only kind of having four or five new guys a year. Um but uh yeah, it's a good mix. Um, and it's nice having the mix because we do still have some ladder stands, so we try and send the the younger guys into the metal stuff and then keep the older guys in the cozier, uh stands.
SPEAKER_03:Um so tell me what does a um um a bear hunt with you look like from start to finish? Um am I um uh am I staying at somebody's place? Uh do you set up that part of it uh for accommodations? Do I just stay in town and buy my own food and go out in the day? What does the package look like?
SPEAKER_02:So with the bear hunts, uh I take care of of pretty much everything. You you'll stay at we run the hunts through two uh two different lodges, Deer Path Lodge uh uh in Hudson and uh Pine Sunset Lodge in Denorwick, both of which are on phenomenal fishing lakes. Um Deer Path is on a trout and bass lake, and uh Pine Sunset is on Denarwick Lake, which has walleyes, crappies, perch, uh bass, pike, uh muskies. Uh I think I've said everything. Um but uh so basically outside of your food, we take care of everything. The law uh uh Pine Sunset Lodge does do a dinner night, one of the nights while you're there. Um usually it's chicken or ribs or something like that. Yeah. Um they just do it at the lodge for everybody that's staying there. Um and then so you take care of your meals. A lot a lot of that is because you're hunting. Um, so basically we pick you up at around two o'clock every day. Uh so a lot of the guys will fish all morning and then come in for lunch. After lunch, we show up, uh, we take you to the stands, and then you'll sit right till dark, which that time of year is probably like nine o'clock-ish. Yeah. And and then we're bringing you back. So by the time you get back, it's 10 at night. Yeah, and I mean we do have one of our blocks is an hour from the lodge. So I mean, that one is like 11 at night. Um, so if you did, if you were eating at the lodge, you'd it'd be too late to eat at the lodge anyway. Um we tell all the guys conducive to a meal plan. Yeah, so we tell a lot of the guys like pack a bunch of lasagna, you know, type meals, uh stuff that you can just throw in the oven. And when you get back, you can eat it and it's warm and it's ready. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. We do a muskie hunt up at uh up at uh the cottage um every year, and that's how we eat. It's all crock pot. It's all, you know, you put in a roast in a crock pot in the morning on on low, and and it's money by, you know, well, it gets dark um uh at that time of the year around five o'clock. So um it's it's money by 5 35 whenever we get in, and uh, and and there's no preparation at all.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so that's so so that's why we have everybody just do their own food. Um, but outside of that, we take care of everything. Um we have multiple uh baited stands for each guy. Um so if you're not seeing stuff, we we move you around um to to try and get you better better action. Um and we recover the bear, uh, we uh field dress the bear, we deal with all that. We have a butcher. Um that if the guys want their bear butcher, we can take it to the butcher. Um obviously that's an additional charge, but um it's he's to be honest, he's very reasonable for for how much of a pain it is to skin out a bear. Yeah. Most of the guys end up just sending it to him. Um Um and then uh so so from that end everything's taken care of. We do have um like times where uh we might have guys drive themselves. Uh some guys might want to drive themselves just so they have a vehicle there. Um they do get one or whatever. Um the story I was talking about where we we were worried a guy might have to get into that story. So that was because we had let uh he he had been coming. Um that fella hunts at our our deer or sorry, our pine sunset baits. Um, and uh he had been coming since before we took it over from uh actually the old launch owner. So they're pretty familiar where most of the stuff is. Um so they we had a group of eight in that week. So he they had said, ah, just tell us where to go, we'll drive ourselves um and we'll just hunt the stuff closer to the lodge. So we had uh usually we're still close by, but we had I think five hunters left, including uh him and his name's Jeff and his brother. So he said, Well, we'll go to those two stands close to the lodge here. They had been having good action. And and we said, Okay, well, we're gonna take the guys to the far stands. Are you okay with uh you know putting yourself like we'll help you get into the stand, but can you get yourself out of the stand and uh back to the lodge? Everything up, yep, no problem. We've you know they've been that's how they used to do it before we took it over, so he said, not a problem, don't worry about it. Yeah. So how old were where is this gentleman? Uh he would be in his 50s, I bet. Gotcha. Yeah, like and he, like I said, probably came, he's probably come close to 10 times to to the lodge.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so fairly familiar.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he was at a stand that was new, uh new to him. Um, he might have sat there once or twice before, but it wasn't uh one of the original owner's stands. So it was a little new to him. But I mean, from where you park the truck, he was sitting in a tree 50 yards away. From where a regular person would park their truck, where I drive my truck, it's like five yards away. But most people aren't gonna want to go down the last 50 yards of the road off of the main road. Um, so anyway, so we're we're leaving this far block, and uh, I think we had gotten one or two bears, so it was, you know, we're coming back in the dark like 11 at night, and we hit the service hill, and both of me and Damon, the other uh the my my business partner, our phones start just going off. And we're like, well, uh-oh, this can't be good. And uh so we check, and the the guests from the other group who who we had their their buddies in the back of the truck were telling us that uh the the other two, Jeff and his brother, weren't back at camp yet. And now they're hunting 20 minutes from the lodge, so they should have been back 45 minutes ago. So we're going like, okay, well, maybe they just got one and they're trying to deal with it without us, or you know, who knows? So we're trying to be positive. Well, then, you know, we go another 20 minutes down the road before we're gonna hit service again. Well, then we hit service again. Same thing, our phones start going off. So Damon looks um and he goes, Okay, the brother's back, but he doesn't have Jeff. And uh, and now our other guests are going off, like, can you believe he left his brother in the woods? So now we're like, man, now they're fighting at camp about like why would you have his brother? Do you want us to go get him? And and so we're like, oh my God. Of course, we're thinking the worst, right? Like uh, he fell out of the stand or he had a heart attack, or yeah, yeah. We're thinking, like, oh god, what we're screwed here, what's going on? And so then now again, we have to go another 30 minutes without service, and uh, and we're gonna basically be almost at the lodge when we get service. So we're freaking out. Like, we're like, my god, like how you know, we shouldn't have, I guess we shouldn't have left them, and and um so you're thinking all kinds of things, right? Yeah, and and like I said, our hunters are arguing with the other guy. He's going, man, the stand's 40 yards from the truck. Like, why didn't you go get your brother? Like, what if what if he did fall out of the tree, you know? So they're fighting with the brother, and so we get there and we're trying to piece the pieces together. Well, the the brother had left uh because they were fighting. Well, I guess while he was driving back to look for his brother, his brother had gotten a text through to him. So what had happened was the brother in the tree, he had a sow with uh with two cubs in front of him, and down the hill came this nice boar that he wanted to shoot. So he said, Well, he figured I'll shoot the boar and the sow and the cubs will run off. Perfect, right? Wrong. He shot the boar, the cubs went up both trees on each side of his tree stand. So now he's in the middle of these this clump of three trees. He's in the middle tree, and he says, There's a cub to my left at my eye height, and a cub to my right at eye height. And both of them are looking at me talking to mom, and he goes, Meanwhile, this bear died like right there. And of course, you know, if you're not familiar, when a bear dies, it makes a what's called a death moan. So it's you know, moaning and so he says, now the sow is high alert from the gunshot, from the the the boar playing. And it's coming over and and dealing with the cubs. Well, at this point, the cubs have caught on to him, so they're talking to the mum. So he says, Well, this sow is climbing his ladder of his tree stand. Oh no, at the sow, keeping it down. Well, this went on until like 11 at night. So he was in the stand the whole time, and he said, Every time he tried and come down, the sow would run him back up. So it turned out to be a good thing that the brother never walked in. Um because he said he's like, I don't want to shoot the the sow, but he said, like, he's like, I would shoot shots, you know, just into the woods uh behind her. And he said it I finally stopped because he said it was just making her matter. And these cubs wouldn't come down. He goes, There I am in the tree for three hours. Be like, please just climb down. Yeah. And uh well, and the and the sow wouldn't leave the cubs. Yeah, and and he sells bear bait in Wisconsin and and does some bear, like he bear hunts a lot. That's what he hunts for mostly. Um, and he's telling us when he got back, he's like, I've never been that scared in my life. He goes, I I've never shaken like that. He goes, There was an hour period where for the whole hour, he goes, I couldn't have climbed down if I wanted to. He was loud as no way. And uh he goes, I was just shaking. And he goes, I guess when his brother was yelling at him, he was trying to yell back at his brother to to come in with a gun to see if that would maybe scare her off far enough that that uh like a gun in a light to try and yeah get him out of there, but they couldn't hear each other. And uh he was so shaken up that he never even went in. It was a nice bear. He's like, No, you guys go get it, just bring it back. I don't care, I don't want a picture with it. I don't he goes, I'm not going in there again. And uh he this was, I mean, we like 11:30 when he got back there, and he was still shaking. Like, and he said this has been from like five o'clock on, and uh so we had never had anything like anything like it. And I don't know what this guy has with uh with stuff like that happening to him, but uh he was the same guy that a few years ago they were we were looking for a bear that his brother had shot, and uh we're blood trailing it, and he was like, Oh, it's a nice day. I'm just gonna sit in the box of the truck here. Well, he ended up laying down in the sun in the back of the truck, and he said he was just about to doze off, and he said, I thought you guys were back and something was messing with my foot. He looked down, there was a small bear sniffing his foot. No way. Well, we're we're parked right beside the bait in our truck, right? There's probably bear bait in the box. So he goes, Yeah, here's the bear sniffing my foot. He goes, I woke up and you know, almost crapped my pants. He said, I'm yelling at the bear, and the bear's kind of looking at me like, what the heck? Yeah, that's not what I expected to be. Yeah, he's got a knock for being in the middle of uh the crazy, our our crazy bear stories, this fella.
SPEAKER_03:That's cool, that's great. Wow. That's uh that uh I I don't know how I would react stuck in a because you never want to be between uh a mud uh uh a sow and the cubs. And he had he was between the cubs and the sow underneath. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It was uh I couldn't imagine. And I mean it made of course he didn't know what had happened. Like he said, finally the sow had left you know long enough that he just ran out to the main road. He's like, I have no clue where they are. So then, of course, me and Damon have to go in and we're kind of looking around like, well, where is she? Yeah, and we're trying to deal with this bear. So if I don't think I've ever been so worried, you know, dealing with a bear in the bush. One of us was just on high alert with the spotlight, just scanning 360, while the other guy's trying to gut it and throw it onto the quad and get the heck out of there.
SPEAKER_03:Were the cubs uh out of the tree at that point?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they had gone out of the tree, and that's when he snuck off. Oh, gotcha. Yeah, he said they finally climbed down after he's I think it had been like three or four hours of uh him being stuck there with them. Wow.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I think did he take any pictures?
SPEAKER_02:He said he like he's like, I was so freaked out. He goes, There was no point where I ever even thought of it. And he goes, and then it got dark. So he goes, I could just I knew they were there because I'd shine the light on them. But he said, if I shined the light on them, they would you know cry and then the mum would get mad. So he's like, I just sat there shaking.
SPEAKER_03:No way. So uh aside from that, um, what was uh some of the nicest bears that you harvested this year? Did you get any cinnamons or blondes or anything like that?
SPEAKER_02:I don't think we got any color bears this year. Um we got a lot of uh white blazes. Some big big bears with white blazes. The year before we had gotten two or two, two cinnamons, um, which were both real nice. Um, but we get mostly uh ones with the white blazes. We get a lot, like I think 50 or 60 percent of them almost have white blazes that we end up getting. Um so we got some really nice bears with with white blazes. Uh the biggest bear uh was just over 400 pounds. Uh that's a good size bear. Yeah, yeah. We've been getting lucky the last uh I think it's three years in a row now. We've gotten one over 400, which in the spring is, I mean, that bear come fall time's gonna walk around at probably like he might even push 600.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Usually they can add up to you know a third or more of their weight in this in the summer because they don't think they're pretty lean come springtime after they've been sitting in the dens all winter. Yeah. Um so we've been pretty happy with that. Um last year.
SPEAKER_03:And just give the folks an idea of the physical size of a bear that in the in the fall is 600 pounds and in the spring is four. Like uh, what can you compare it to to size?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, the easiest way for a lot of people is so a bear that size on average is gonna be over seven feet from nose to tail, which is measured uh square. Um so if you can imagine, like when we skin out the bear, uh, or actually the easiest way, when you're looking at that bear standing there, from the tip of his tail to the tip of his nose is I think the one this year was seven foot two inches. Wow. So then if you think about if he stands on his hind legs, that's gonna be uh that's gonna be ten feet tall, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because he's got the extra two feet for his back hind legs. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's that's bigger than I expected.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So any we always tell guys, any like uh a bear over 300 pounds in the springs, a good bear, most of those bears are gonna be probably over about six foot four in that from nose to tail. Yeah. Um, and then they're gonna be like they're when they're standing there. If you can imagine a 55-gallon drum, their back is gonna be level with that drum if it's standing up. Wow. So they're I mean, they're big, they're they're a big bear. Not all our bears that we get, obviously, are that big. Um but uh uh uh for the most part, I would say I think we average about 70% of them are 300 pounds. Yeah, and I would say the ones that aren't 300 pounds are uh usually the the hunter didn't really care if it was 300 pounds. If that if that makes sense. You know, a lot of the guys are just it was a big black bear and I shot it and they don't care that it was only 200 pounds. Or um, we always joke that the happiest guy in camp every year usually shoots the smallest bear.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, because it's his first or whatever, whatever it might.
SPEAKER_02:He just got excited, and and even like this year we had a guy, it was his, I don't want to screw this up, but it was like his, it was between his 65th and 75th bear that he had harvested. Um, so a very, very avid bear hunter. I can't remember how many times he had been to Canada, but I do remember he he quit using a gun after his 40th bear. So now he just uses either a muzzle loader or uh mostly archery. But uh this particular time he was muzzle loading and and we went in to get him, and uh he goes, Man, I just I just shot the biggest bear you guys are gonna see this year. And he had passed, he actually passed the 400 pounder the night before. So we were just like, oh my god, what are what are we about to get our hands into? And where we put him was a the pictures were this huge, huge bear. He had been there for a few years, and um he uh ended up um like he was shaking so bad we couldn't we had to help him walk out to the truck and and he had he had just shot it. So uh he said uh like he's like let's just give it a little time. It was a big bear. Um, but he goes, it was it was huge, and and he goes, I'm just shaking so bad. So we're like, okay, we take him to the truck and we'll we'll go pick up. There was one more hundred to pick up and then we'll come back. And so this whole time he's just going, like, my God. And he's telling us the story and everything. And so we go in and and we get to the, he's telling us, okay, it was at the barrel, so we're standing there, and I look over, I go, Well, it's right there. He had thought it had ran up this hill, and but I could see it well right away. It it I mean, it was the 150-pound bear. Like it was the smallest one we had gotten all year. No, but he goes, That can't be my bear. I'm going, well, unless somebody else was in here with a muzzle loader. Look at the hole in it, it's definitely your bear. And he's sitting there and and he just he couldn't figure it out and figure out what had happened. And and uh so and we're of course, you know, trying to be like, hey, whatever, you know, it was getting close to dark, and and you know, they look big, especially when they come out, they have all their winter fur, right? So they're fluffy. And he's going, No, this is my 70th bear. I can't be making those mistakes. So so long story short, we drop them off, and the next morning I'm I'm talking with the the head of their group, is a guy who's hunted with me for 10 years now. And and John goes, Yeah, he's pretty uh he's pretty worked up about that bear. He goes, he wants you guys to know that from now on, you guys are gonna pick him up a half hour earlier than everyone else. He's not he goes, he's not sitting the last half hour anymore. He doesn't trust, he's blaming his eyes, it's his old eyes. Oh yeah. And so he goes, Yeah. So then later that afternoon, he's telling us, he goes, yeah, when I come back in uh 2027, I want you guys to pick me up at sunset, not at, you know, the not don't give me that half hour after sunset until the end of legal shooting light, because it must be my eyes that that caused that. Uh it I I would never make that mistake.
SPEAKER_03:Well, the ego is uh is a tough thing to deal with, you know.
SPEAKER_02:I was like, you know what? At least you were willing to admit that you obviously made a mistake and try it, try and change something because we get a lot of guys that they screw something up, and it was, you know, we had we had a guy the very next day he wounded a bear uh with his bow and he had taken a shot that we told him, you know, when when the hunters come in, we make them sign a contract that basically says you're only gonna take a broadside shot, you're only gonna shoot when the bear's at the barrel, you're not gonna go looking around without us. You know, pretty basic stuff. Um, but just because we get a lot of guys, they get excited, and I think it's from a lot of them are deer hunters. If the bear is like behind the barrel looking at them, they get nervous, like, oh, he's on to me, he's gonna leave. I gotta shoot him now. And we always tell him a lot of times you just gotta let him come in. And you know, we set up the stands and the baits um so that the bear has to come in broadside for the most part. Yeah. Every once in a while, they do something silly and and and find a way to not be. But for the most part, they have to walk in broadside. So, anyways, this fella took a shot that that we would have liked him not to take. And uh instead of uh like we tracked it and and we could tell that night that the bear, you know, he was just moving too good and had gone too far that that we weren't gonna find him. But we told him we'll go in the next day and we'll we'll take another look. Um and of course he had every excuse in the book. And then we come to find out that he was trying to tell the rest of the guys in camp that it was the the stand was too close. Um, and that was the problem. And thank God we we have pretty good guests that have hunted with us for so many years. The same guy I was talking about that was telling me about the other guy wanting to uh not hunt the last half hour. He he goes, Yeah, I stood up at Stopper and I said, Mark, you took a shot they told you not to take. And if you can't hit a bear at 15 yards, what what do you want them to do? He goes, You can and he said, In our group alone, we've killed four bears out of that stand. So he goes, It's obviously a good working stand. He goes, The only difference is the other four of us waited till the bear got to the barrel. Like, yeah, and uh so he he had all sorts of reasons that we we you gotta change this and you gotta change that. And I go, Well, I think if you would have just waited to make a better shot, you would have probably had a better, uh, better chance of getting that result. Yeah, yeah. So it's neat to see both sides of it. Everybody's always got an excuse. Oh, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_03:And then um, if you wound a bear, is that your huntover?
SPEAKER_02:For us, yeah. Yeah, we'll let you sit there again for that bear if we think we can trust you um to only shoot that bear. Yeah. Um, and that's kind of like a judgment call we make at the time. Yeah. Because we've had guys, we used to let everybody sit there, and then we had one guy that uh decided to take a shot at another bear and uh and actually ended up wounding it too. So so that uh that ruined it for everybody. The old bad apple ruins it for everybody's story.
SPEAKER_03:Ah, for sure. Did that guy come back the following year?
SPEAKER_02:Uh you know what? He was back this year, actually. He was with uh he was the brother in the the crazy story.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, Radon.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, he was back. So he and to be honest, he still thinks he did nothing wrong. Um, but whatever. That he does he did get a chuckle that he said, or his brother got a bigger chuckle when we started with the contract. He goes, This is for my brother, isn't it? And I said, Well, if the shoe fits, wear it, I suppose.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, no, that's for sure. And no problems with him since.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no, he was actually uh he was really good. And and he said, like he kind of, you know, he he knew, and he just said like the old owners didn't really care if you shot 10 bears to get to get one. So they kind of were uh the old school meat meat hunter owners, you know, the lodges that are are selling like you know, you can come up and keep 50 crappies a day. There they were that kind of owners where the new owners are kind of progressing towards the the conservation side, I would say more, which I think is probably prominent in the lodge business, at least in Ontario now. I think it is now. I think the meat hunters are kind of dying out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that for sure.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, with the money you're spending to come up here, at the end of the day, if you're doing it for meat, like you know, like a lot of our hunters say, like, for what they pay for the bear hunt, they could buy a beef cow back home. So, you know, it's a lot of what you can say it's about the meat, but at the end of the day it's it's uh more about the enjoyment and the the uh the fun of it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. Well, with the price of beef uh these days, things might change. But uh that's true. You never know. You never know. But uh listen, Kyle, thank you so much. Um uh now just before we sign off, uh how can people get a hold of you, whether it be a lodge owner up north uh looking for bait, or a uh uh a person looking for a bear hunt, or how can how can people find you?
SPEAKER_02:So I can always be reached at my cell phone, uh, which is probably the easiest, which is uh 807-738-2512. You can call and text me there pretty much 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Uh, I answer. And um, and then uh otherwise we run most of the hunting stuff through Up North Outfitting, um, which is uh our our outfitting business. We run uh we do deer hunts, bear hunts, and then uh the bear hunts is what I run. My dad takes care of most of the deer hunting stuff. Um, and then uh we do do some moose stuff off and on when we can get the tags. Um so that that's on Facebook, uh Up North Outfitting. Uh and we we're posting there pretty regular. But for the minnow stuff, it's easier, yeah, just to call me at the at the phone number. Um the name of that business again. Uh it's Mickle Creek Bait Company. I think if you Google MCBC or MCBC Baits, it it comes up now on Google. Um and then guys can reach me there all the time. Beautiful.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. No, listen, thank you so much for uh for joining us again. Um I always love to uh to follow back up and see how your season went and what uh interesting things happened and and the Diary family, I'm sure, is the same. Um and uh hopefully we'll uh we'll uh get you back on here um in the new year in the springtime and uh and talk about how the the bug season. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Anytime, uh anytime you need uh yeah, a bug tracker, you guys can just give me a call and we'll we'll catch in with the bug report.
SPEAKER_03:Nice, nice, right on. And listen, Merry Christmas, brother. Merry Christmas to you too. Yeah, it's that time of year. And and folks, thank you so much for getting to this point. Really appreciate it. And um uh thank you to our uh our fine producers and crack uh research team uh over at uh over at Pine Post and and uh the Outdoor Journal Radio Network, um Anthony Mancini and Dean Taylor. Um and uh uh thank you as well to Lakeside Marine in Red Lake, Ontario. Uh that is the place you need to be if you're anywhere close. Uh the uh service is uh is outstanding. Uh and uh head on over to fishingcanada.com where you can get in on a ton of giveaways. And it is Christmas time, folks. There is a huge assortment of Fishing Canada uh gear and and everything else on the website. So don't hesitate to buy some Fish and Canada Christmas presents. I know I always enjoy those when Santa leaves them for me under the uh under the Christmas tree. So, and uh night night, Nixon. And on that note, thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North.
SPEAKER_04:I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm. I'll be the whole you ever saw. Been reeling in the hog since the day I was born. Bendin' my rug, stretching my mind. 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 of my pals. About a lodge and live my dream. And now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07: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, Angie 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 gonna be a lot of fishing.
SPEAKER_06:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to cod them, and they were easy to catch.
SPEAKER_03: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_00:All the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garchomp Turks, and all the Russians would go fishing.
SPEAKER_06:The scientists. But now that we're reforesting and letting things, it's the perfect transmission environment for line with these.
SPEAKER_07: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. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_01: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.