Episode 129: What Happens When Experience Outweighs The Catch

What if the secret to a thriving lodge isn’t the bite count, but the rituals that make strangers feel like family? We share how a northern fishing lodge shifted from “catch-first” to “community-first” using simple, repeatable traditions that turned a good trip into a must-return experience.

It starts with jam nights—live music that melts social barriers and gives everyone a reason to linger. Add in a Thursday shore lunch that’s pure theatre: guests donate their morning catch, watch skilled hands fillet it, and see it transformed over roaring pans into a feast of fish, fries, and donuts. We talk candidly about staff morale in tight quarters, why clear boundaries preserve trust, and how a little constructive friction—like centralizing the best internet—can pull people together without forcing it.

Then we scale to yearly anchors: a Canada Day fireworks “blaze of glory” launched from a floating dock, complete with a whistled O Canada that carries across the river, and a massive community fish fry that pulls in cottagers, yachters, and locals with live music and valet mooring. These traditions forged real partnerships on the Upper French River, made the lodge a landmark, and built the kind of loyalty that fills the calendar. We close with Thanksgiving: a long table of staff, family, and guests that marks the end of the season with gratitude and the best turkey dinner the team has perfected all year.

If you run an experience-based business—or want your camp, club, or company to feel like a place people belong—this story is your playbook. Learn how to design rituals that lower walls, lift hearts, and keep people coming back together. Enjoy the episode, then subscribe, share it with a friend who loves the outdoors, and leave a review to tell us which tradition you’ll start next.

Transcript

Setting The Theme: Traditions Matter

SPEAKER_02 0:06

For this fish fry, we had four, five, six, seven, seven to eight pans going all at once. Just think about the logistics of feeding like four making four hundred plates between like two o'clock in the afternoon and seven at night. And that's basically what it was. Um, it was crazy, but it was it was a lot of fun. And again, it it was all about building relationships with people and people in this instance that don't necessarily know your business. And that tradition brought that community into my business, and the relationship that was built from that tradition was huge. It was huge and and um uh very satisfying to meet the people on the river and um hear their stories of the river and have them spread their stories to my guests that were staying. It's just it was a win-win for everything. This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Networks, Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North, we're diving into traditions and how those little things turn our outdoor adventures into unforgettable memories. Let's ask ourselves the big question: do these things really matter? Spoiler alert! They absolutely do, and they're the heart of what makes us feel like we belong. So grab yourself a seat at the Thanksgiving table and let's explore how these touches create a big sense of community. This is your lodge, and we're in this thing together. Welcome back to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North. And today I want to kick things off with a question for us. How do the traditions we create actually shape the heart of an experienced-based business? Think about the moments that have stuck with you from the places you visited. Was it just scenery, or was it the quirky little things and traditions that make you feel like you're part of something unique? Again, we ask Do those traditions matter? Can they turn a simple stay into a memory that we will cherish? Are these traditions just a nice to have? Or are they the secret gradient that sets your experience-based business apart? Let's explore this thought together because that is what I provided for years. It was a fishing lodge. And when I first bought that lodge, I thought it was all about the fishing. I thought that I had to make sure that every guest that came filled their boots with fish. And quickly, especially at that time when Lake Nipissing and the upper French River was going through a change with the fishery, and things weren't as easy as um as I was led to believe they were to catch fish. And again, it goes back to not knowing a huge body of water, and 90% of the fish live in 10% of the water. So very quickly, I realized that I needed to have multiple angles, and I needed to sell an experience, and that experience wasn't just fishing. So through different means and falling into some things and not even really thinking about traditions, but now having the benefit of looking back at a 10-year um data set, traditions for me um were very important. And and there were two types of traditions, if we're if we're really gonna sit down, have a conversation, and analyze this thought. Um, the first type of tradition were weekly traditions, traditions that everybody that come to the lodge, for the most part, if you stayed for those things that were happening, um, they experienced. And first and foremost, for me, um, I didn't even know that this was a tradition. It was just something that I really enjoyed. And um, in doing so, we did it a ton. And it wasn't structured that it was a specific day, it just happened. And that tradition, and really after thinking about it, it was a tradition. And probably the most important one were jam nights, and those jam nights, um, they became something that um everybody that experienced those jam nights um remembered them, talked about them, and a lot of people returned just for them because it was a way that number one, um, anytime you've got live music and it just it lightens the atmosphere, the mood, and and hand in hand, it builds relationships, not between me, the singer, or Pat or whoever the other staff members were that were jamming with us and guests for that matter. Well, it built relationships everywhere in our little weekly lodge community, and those relationships are what drove the rebooking for the business. And I in the beginning, I didn't realize how important that tradition was until you know, you get people asking about it and hey, I heard about the jam nights, uh, when's there gonna be a jam night? And um they those jam nights were anytime anybody mentioned a jam night, it was happening. Um, if somebody came to me and said, Um, there's gonna, hey, I heard about the jam night, or hey, last year we did the, you know, or I would get to know the guests that came and were people who were musicians and they enjoyed those jam nights, and I loved spending time with those people. There were so many guests. I played with um musicians and just fostered a love myself for music. I could always kind of sing, and and you know, as I get older, my voice is has um has gotten weaker, uh, unfortunately. But there was a time when I could sing. I and and I I loved it. I can still sing a little bit. My range is just really um has really narrowed. Uh, but it doesn't matter. Again, those jam nights, that tradition was one of the single, like I said off the top, one of the single most important traditions that I could have brought to the experienced-based business that um that I could have ever done. And that ingredient really started to um turn the thoughts in my mind that this has to be a fishing lodge. You have to catch fish. The only thing you can market is how many fish can you catch in a day, and and how big are they, and and um all of this stuff that is so focused and pinpoint pinpoint focus on just that one part of a experience that that you know in in years past when the fishing was was um crazy and and outstanding and whatever, and the the appetite for just coming and fishing, and that appetite has changed, by the way. Um, people love to fish, but that demographic is is changing, and it's not just about the fishing anymore, it's about the experience. And the first thing that started to shift my thoughts to building an experienced-based business were those jam nights, and it was um it was very funny how not only are you building the relationships within the business, right? And once you start building relationships, not just between the owner and the staff and the and the guests who are singing, but you bring people together and those people who are just sitting there enjoying the music and having some drinks and and uh and relaxing and and leaving all of the stresses of the real world back at home in that atmosphere during the the music, those people are starting to build relationships with each other that normally they wouldn't have the opportunity to build, right? You have if you have a um uh a fishing lodge and you're giving people meals and people come into the dining room. If there is not a um spatula or a uh spoon to stir those people up and force them or push them together so that they can interact, they won't. It's uncomfortable. There are few people that they'll come in and uh and they just love to interact with people. One of my my longtime guests, still a guest, 40 almost probably 50 years now, Chris Shock. Chris was a guy who who was one of those people who just always um um interacted with everybody because he took ownership of the lodge. And that is exactly what you want your guests to do. You want your guests to become family and to take ownership of what the lodge is and what the experience you get and and take ownership of how you can help to make that experience better. And Chris was one of those guys that would say, Hey guys, I'm going fishing out here. Anyone that wants to come, just follow me. And for people that that didn't want to to do the guide thing and didn't really know the water or didn't have a guide because they're we're all booked, could jump in a boat, go follow Chris, and it was a great experience that he took upon himself to provide. But there are very few of those people. So during jam night, you get these people and they begin to interact and they begin to build relationships, friendships. And the the the nice thing about the music to my ears, as any lodge owner, is when everybody is is coming to the end of their stay, and typically it's a Saturday to Saturday, and everybody spends that time together, and you get two groups that that met that didn't know each other before this experience, and they come together and they're asking me now about next year, and you have one group say, Hey, are you guys gonna come back next year? Well, you know, we hadn't thought that far ahead, but maybe are you? Well, yeah, yeah, we're we're gonna come back. Um, well, why don't we come back at the same time? You know, we had a great time, jam nights, and we did this and we did that, and we shared a guide, and and um why don't we come back together? Well, yeah, that's a great idea. Okay, let's do it. Let's go and talk to Steve and we'll book a time. And all of a sudden, now you've got people that created a relationship together during their stay that you have sparked because don't don't kid me. I I'm not kidding you when I say people need that spark. Most people need to be brought together, and that spark needs to be created. Cupid, if you will. I was the Cupid, right? And I would see groups and people that I knew or um got to know, and I would say, Hey, you know what? Um, I know you were talking about a guide, and you know, even if they weren't, I would, I would, I would convince somebody that a guide was a good idea, and I would say, and there's another group, another couple, another this, and they would like to share one, you know, that cuts the cost down. I could care less about the cost. The cost never meant anything to me. The guides were a tool to bring people together. And I would get people together, and then because knowing that if they create a relationship, the chances of a rebooking is higher. Not only that, not only that, more importantly, when you build relationships with other people, that is part of your experience, that is part of the experience that I wanted to bring together. And like I say, those jam nights were key when it comes to bringing people together. And I don't know if this this is a tradition or not, but um the other the other little nuance that um that I also did and purposely did to um bring people together, I didn't have internet at every cottage. I always had very fast internet at the main lodge. So if people wanted to use their phones or or internet, and and the cell service was very spotty on the island. So, like, I mean, the only place that you could really come to to get great internet was in front of the cottage, out on the out on the uh um the the big rock overlooking the river, or inside the main lodge. And you would have all kinds of people in there on their phone doing whatever, doing whatever. And sometimes they would intermingle and sometimes they wouldn't. But it always brought people together. They would see other people. They would, it's just part of that building relationships within your lodge community that week. And um, jam nights were were a huge tradition, and a tradition that made a huge, you can see the impact that that tradition, and truly it was a tradition. Again, some weeks um there could be six nights. Every night was a jam night, some weeks it was two nights, some weeks it was three, it was one, but I guarantee every week I was there, there was at least one jam night every week. Whether it was just me and um uh uh a couple of the staff, Pat was a was a great jammer, JP Bushy. He was another guide that I had for a little bit. He was a wonderful uh uh guitar player. Well, you know, he was as good a guitar player as I was, but um he had a great voice and a wonderful repertoire of of songs, right in my wheelhouse, too. Like that classic country, um 90s country, like it was uh, but again, it was the tradition of bringing people together, and sometimes, whether there was guests there or not, that tradition also helped to bring the staff together and to boost staff morale, and that was another thing that that these jam nights really helped with because with the staff, you know, you're number one, you're on an island in the middle of the French River. You're you you you very rarely get off the island while we're working during our season. Um, we work long hours together, and we're living in quarters that are fairly tight. Like, I mean, um, there was an there was a room for every staff member, but it's in a building and it's like a dorm and you share a bathroom, you know. So, well, the girls had a bathroom, the guys had a bathroom, but still, it was tight quarters. So when you work with people long hours, and then the other hours you're living together in tight quarters, there was it was a wonderful way to incorporate the staff in a respectful way. And we had rules. Um, you know, I would say that um if you're of age, uh, you could have a couple of drinks. And I always had a soft curfew for staff, uh, unless you had a day off um of midnight. And that soft curfew was, you know, midnight is coming. Say goodnight to the guests, whether it's 10 to 12, quarter after 12, you know, off you go back to the the staff and get some sleep. Because, hey, fate, let's face it, everybody's getting up early. And um, you know, I wanted the staff to be number one, respectful in public. So, you know, it's a couple of drinks. There's no public drunkenness. And um, I wanted them to, and this is a this is one of those things that um there are different um thoughts on on the um we'll call it uh fraternization of staff and guests. And um I had I've I learned over the years that you have to draw very, very clear lines. And those lines for me that worked for for my business, where um I wanted the staff. to to get to know the guests um on a on on um we'll call it a friendship level a professional friendship because they're part of the experience as well these people are are part of the guest experience and when the staff is happy their experience um um if they're happy if the staff is happy with their experience your guests are going to be happy with the experience they're getting because if you've got staff members that aren't happy it comes through to the guest and those negative vibrations bring everybody down so those stringent lines in the sand that I drew number one no public drunkenness number two no interaction with guests uh other than in public places down on the dock public place great spot to interact with guests um number two jam nights great spot to interact with guests um I would talk about uh social cues right sometimes guests aren't interested in having um uh off the clock staff members around right so I would talk about the social cues um I would uh uh the soft curfew um and and those really were the lines the biggest line public drunkenness and right there with it no interaction with guests in areas that are not public i.e the cottages if guests are having a party in the cottage staff are not allowed to go into the cottages and have a party with those guests whether they're invited or whether they're not that was a recipe for disaster right and like I mean I don't mean to draw um a line between um male and female staff but this is one of those places where the the the the the female guests uh were more at risk for um things to happen that were adverse to the business and I'm not even talking about big things right I'm talking about anything where all of a sudden you you have um um awkward feelings between people so when you're in public space pace spaces great it's controllable not in so those that was the those were the two biggest lines right and then the curfew and the curfew was simply I don't want people up late when you have to work early in the morning and that makes all kinds of sense um and uh uh again so that was a little that's a little um aside from those traditions but very important how that tradition that one jam night tradition fostered relationships between everybody between staff between um management me and my staff between the staff and the guests it between guests intermingling with each other um it was a it was a huge huge thing um another weekly tradition that uh that we uh that that I always employed and this was one that um that um didn't do much for my staff because it was a lot of work but it was something that I would not let go of because I felt again it was very important to do this once a week to bring people together for an experience and that was our shore lunch we did a weekly shore lunch I believe it was Thursday actually it's been you know while I was thinking about this concept for for the uh podcast um uh I I uh I'm moving farther and farther away from those days and I and and I had to think about it um the day that we did it but it was it was Thursday I'm sure it was Thursday um but we did a fish fry and that um experience was a great experience it was and it was more for people that didn't take guides and there were quite a few of those of those guests who just came um I was affiliated with RCI which is a um um uh a timeshare deal that that's a whole different conversation for another day but basically they were a um a booking agent for me and a lot of the people that come through there were more ecotourism um based people they weren't uh really looking for um a fishing experience they they did come for fishing and a lot of them would take a guide for a day uh but a lot of them wouldn't and the experience of a shore lunch was something that um people loved and it was it was it was an area where I could um I could let the staff be showmen it was all about showmanship for the chefs and for for the the the um the girls the the waitresses and and the dock hands and all of that stuff um and and what we did was I would tell and the dock guys would tell everybody would tell like I mean the the once we built in these traditions everybody knew what the tradition was and we always would spread the word about you know a jam night or Thursday is fish fry day and we have our fish fry down on the uh down at the shoreline and the owners previous to me built this beautiful stone um fire pit but it was really two stone walls basically lined up um uh and they would have been maybe eight feet long and in between the stone walls they put um um round uh schedule 40 pipe and it was those two two stone walls were about a little bit bigger than a foot apart so there was a space running right down the middle of these two stone walls halfway up when they built it they put pipes in all the way across the um the middle and that's where you would put your wood then at the top they put pipes all the way across the top to make an area where you could set frying pans big big frying pans like they're uh you know uh three feet in diameter the big shorelunch frying pans and then we the the top was uh an area that you would set all your frying pans and um uh the you had overall this whole fire pit was probably about four feet wide and uh we would build the fire underneath put all of our frying pans on top we could get about four of the frying pans across the front and we would stand up there the chefs would be cooking the guides would be cooking I would be up there cooking sometimes depending mingling around we had a big long table and I would have the um the the um um servers and housekeepers all they would set that table up with um um burgundy uh uh tablecloths that we use up in the main lodge and we would set out all of the um uh the dishes and and it wasn't like we had paper plates and this is where this is where it turned into you know a lot of work for the staff but we did it and the staff as much as it created work they I think a lot of them loved it we had a lot of fun doing it and that table was set up so that it was full um cutlery and proper plates and um the all of the the drinks that you would have normally got in a in the at lunch um you know cans of pop in a cooler uh we had all of the iced tea the the unsweetened iced tea made and um it was just a a presentation down at the shoreline that really was in line with the same presentation we were giving in the main lodge but out in the open right at the water and these big frying pans and fire and smoke and um and and not only that um I would have to get I would have to get um um manage the fish so we would and and I wouldn't buy walleye um it was always hey listen guys um and a lot of people it the the whole demographic changed um and it it was changing fairly quickly when I bought from the meat hunters to the experience based um um people that were that that that wanted the experience and and really weren't just coming to um get meat right uh it was turning into the experience so a lot of people weren't taking their fish home especially after about year three or four and that could be because um as a business we kind of changed the focus on on that but to the the the the actual people were changing and a lot of times the only fish that people would eat were fish that they would bring in and say and donate it to the to the um fish fry and I had to make sure that we had enough licenses to cover the fish that we had in the freezer and a lot of times I would always uh let people know that we're going out on Thursday morning hey it's fish fry day any any northern pike especially um because that took the pressure off the walleye um and northern in my opinion I've said it if I if I've said it once on this um on on our on our episode on our podcast I've said it a thousand times um I love northern pike to eat and it's fairly abundant uh in uh uh on nippissing in the upper French river and again it took the pressure off the walleye um and um I would tell people bring in a northern you know bring in bring in uh your walleye as long as they're legal bring in perch and people would bring their fish in on that Thursday morning our dock hands were always trained in um filleting fish so we would we would fillet those those fish that people brought in and they could watch that process if they liked um and then they they would know that the fish that they caught was um was donated to a greater cause and and they felt again it's one of those relationship building traditions that bring people together because they're coming together for a common cause we're feeding each other and um and and then they could watch that fish go from the live well to the dock hand to filet's to the chefs and into the fish fry and and that experience alone for people was was wonderful. A lot of times I'd bring the guitar down I'd start to play you know and uh and and it just it turned into an afternoon I'm not gonna say party but an afternoon get together that people always talked about people asked about it after they experienced it once you know they would rebook and they would ask about the Thursday shore lunch are we having the Thursday shore lunch and and the answer for me all the time was yes 100% the only time that we didn't do it was when the weather wasn't permittable and um and that was that was always the um that was always the uh I'm gonna call it not a conflict but discussion for the staff if it at all looked like we were gonna get rain and listen um rain does not mix with hot oil okay um and and I always aired away from the side of caution because at all costs I wanted to have that fish fry and if it looked like um there was even a possibility that we were going to pull it off I wanted it pulled off but again you have to remember we were loading up the back of the golf cart we had a little a box like a like a Wii truck box on the back of a golf cart that I had fashioned and put on it. We were loading that up with all the dishes all the cutlery all of the um uh food from the kitchen which was uh batter um it was uh carting down the oil for the pans it was um um making the uh the the dough or the the I guess you'd call it batter too because we did donuts in the oil after we were done cooking the fish and the fries which was another whole part of the showmanship um we're carting all all of the the the um jugs of juice and water and pop and and um the tablecloths and like I mean it was a production right and um um the staff always wanted to err on the side of caution way to the side of caution because it's honestly it it it was way easier to do just a lunch normally in the dining room me on the other hand I was I was erring on the side of no caution at all throw it to the wind it's an experience we need to give our guests and um sometimes it backfired on me but like I mean I remember one time uh I think it was uh Philly Phil Phil Schamficy he was the head chef and a wonderful head chef again I'm I'm gonna hey Philly Phil if you're listening um we need you on here um but that's beside the point um it was Phil myself and um a couple of the um the the guides and whoever was down there cooking and it was one of those weeks where it looked like you know we could get rain but the weather guys never write don't worry about the weather it's not gonna rain well we got neck deep in this fish fry and it didn't just it it it rained and um to give you an idea of what happened after the rain started um what you have is an open fire with flames that are licking around the outside of these massive pans full of boiling oil and um then you get the rain and the raindrops start falling into that pan and we all know what happens when you put um your wet chicken wings or frozen fries into um uh the deep fryer what happens when water and oil mixes hot water or hot oil and water and those raindrops they create the oil uh steam and splatter that starts jumping out of the pan well when you've got hot oil that's very close to ignition okay and you've got an open flame licking around the side of these four pans well in a in a split second I don't want to call it an explosion because it wasn't an explosion it doesn't explode but we had a inferno um out of four pans and as the uh the the harder the rain fell the higher the flames went to the point where Phil and I backed off and Phil looked at me he said uh what do we do now and I looked at him and I never uh like I mean hey i you've got probably let's say three six nine 12 liters of boiling oil on fire and uh flames that were 10 feet tall and uh i just looked at him and I said stand back and let's watch the show and that's what we did what it was like I mean there's nothing else you could do the fire was huge it was it was so freaking hot even standing there and then all of the guests are are looking at this inferno like I mean the area that we're doing it there was one wee uh red pine behind the pit that was maybe 10 12 feet tall one of those one of those really old dudes that grow on the rock and and they never grow like they're a hundred years old and the rings of age in those trees are so close together you can't even see the rings uh but as far as being under a canopy we were wide open so there was no risk of of anything happening or anything catching fire but it turned into a a a a spectacular display of of of uh of inferno rage and um again another thing that people talked about for a long time but it created the issue now everything's wet now we have to go back up to the the main lodge now Philly Phil he's gotta he's gotta try and put something together for lunch we ended up going up and probably I don't remember off the top of my head but it would have been tomato soup from a can and grilled cheese right but you know what it was one of those things you live you learn you you you you move on and and um everybody for lunch that day uh sure they got um um tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches but nobody complained everybody talked about the fire though so it was um that was another one of those experiences when you're in the wilds of northwestern Ontario you Any gear you can trust, and a team that's got your back. That's Lakeside Marine in Red Lake, Ontario, family-owned since 1988. They're your go-to pro-camp dealer, built for the North. From Yamaha boats and motors to everything in between. We don't just sell you gear, we stand behind it. Lakeside Marine. Rugged, reliable, ready.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

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.

Cottagers’ Fish Fry And Community Links

Thanksgiving: Season Close And Gratitude

Traditions Beyond Lodges And Final CTA

SPEAKER_02 42:14

That's one, the weekly tradition. The other traditions were yearly traditions. So not everybody got to experience them, but a lot of people would book around them. And you know, one of those experiences was Canada Day. For me, Canada Day was important. It was one of those things where we brought, you know, Canadian and American guests together for a celebration. And we always celebrated Canada Day by a fireworks display. And and that tradition went on every year that I owned the lodge. And every year it got bigger. And again, it was about um building relationships with people. It gave people the the opportunity to come out and watch the fireworks display. And um and we did a pretty good job. It wasn't long. It wasn't long. I would, I would, um, um, I would usually spend about in the beginning, a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars by the by the last you know, three, four years, I was up around three thousand dollars in in fireworks. And I never and and all I bought, I would go to those um fireworks trucks that you see out in the parking lots at you know, Walmart and Orangeville or Alliston or whatever town, Perry Sound, whatever town I was going through, and I saw these, you know, these um bulk fireworks trailers and parking lots, and uh I would only buy the boxes. I wasn't interested in all of the Roman candles and the round ones and all of that bullshit. I bought boxes, and uh you can get quite a few boxes for three grand, especially when you go in and um you you you don't tip your your uh your hand and you start uh asking how much is each. If I buy, you know, 10, uh, how much is that? Uh if I buy 20, is there, you know, and you start, wow, you know, I just talked to the guy last week and uh at a different truck and blah blah blah, and you kind of work your magic and whatever, you can get a lot of fireworks for three grand. And and what we would do is um, and and Peter uh bowles, uh, he's guiding for Shaudiere now, but at that time he was uh he was a dock hand uh for me. And um uh I remember every Canada day um what uh what the process was is we would drag out a floating dock beside one of the older Alaskan boats. So we would tie a dock to the Alaskan, and um because it's you know big and and um and uh um the aerodynamics or hydrodynamics of having a dock tied to the side of your boat and trying to pull back it up and get it to the right spot, it takes time. Um and and uh we would uh we would tie this floating dock to the side of the Alaskan and we would drag it out into the middle of the river in front of the lodge. And inevitably it would take us, and you'd have to wait until it was dark. I didn't spend three grand to do this thing at nine o'clock at night when it's twilight, and you don't get the full effect. That ain't happening. So we would wait until it was dark. While on Canada Day, the that time period in the year coincides with the height, and I mean height, of the mosquito season, and the worst time of the day or evening to be out in mosquito season is at dark. And I'm gonna tell you, man, those trips dragging that that dock out to the middle of the the river in the dark, going slow, and the the the mosquitoes were horrendous. Horrendous. But anyway, I would have this boat, and and Pete always loved it, and whichever other dock hands were were there, um, getting them organized. Like I would just bring all of the boxes and and I would tell the boys, okay, we got to get them organized. And and they knew how I wanted to make these um fireworks events. Part of it was the fact that the mosquitoes for us were horrendous. And the mosquitoes for all of the guests standing on the dock were no different, right? So, my theory, no matter how much money I spent on on fireworks, we would line those those boxes up on that dock. And um, the goal was to let them off as fast as we could. So it was it was a blaze of glory. I think we would like I mean, probably the longest um fireworks display that we ever did might go, maybe go five minutes. Maybe. And that was because we lit them off. We would we would line up six in a row and light them all off at the same time. Once there was like, once they were done and we knew that they were done, we'd move to the next row. Because you can't light the front six and then light the next six uh or eight or ten in a row because they were just stacked too close on the dock to you would be literally lighting the next ones right beside the ones that are going off, which probably wasn't a good idea, and we never did. But there would have been, you know, three, four, five seconds in between each lighting period and the last lighting period. Like I say, we would try and get 10 of those boxes to go all at the same time with that torch, just and then we would lie on the bottom of the boat because they were going off beside the boat, right? Uh, like I say, um we all wear safety glasses, we all wore, you know, our our protective gear, you know, work gloves or whatever for the lighter, and and uh and uh and there were never any mishaps other than the first year when we were lighting them off on the island and uh one of the uh one of the Roman candle things fell over and we were blasting fireworks into the bush, which is a huge fire hazard, you know what I mean? We were all there to go and check and make sure, but that's when the idea came, hey, maybe it's safer to let them off in the river, and um and we moved out. But and then the other part of the tradition, uh, my grandma Nidzwiki, when I was when I was young, they they were farmers, and um she had uh milking cows, probably, I don't know, half a dozen dozen at most milking cows. And every day she'd go out into the back of the barn and she'd uh she'd yell, Cobas Co, Co, Co, na, na, na, na, na, na, and bang on a bucket, ding, ding, ding. And then she'd whistle, and she'd whistle with her fingers by making them into a circle and putting her fingers in her mouth, right? So I was always intrigued. I'm like, Grandma, how do you do that? And she taught me and I learned. I messed around and she showed me and I messed around until I could whistle and I could whistle well. So part of that tradition was before we lit the fireworks off, I would stand up in the boat and I would whistle, oh Canada. And I did not a bad job. Like, I mean, you could tell, you can you knew exactly what it was, and it was loud enough that from you know, the middle of the river, which is uh a couple hundred yards or more, you could hear it clear as day. So the tradition was we'd pull those fireworks out, I'd whistle uh oh Canada, we'd blast them off as fast as we could in a blaze of glory, and there were a couple of like I mean, there were a couple of those, like we didn't stretch it out at all, and there were a couple of uh of fireworks displays, although short, were very impressive. And like, I mean, part of that tradition also built relationships with the people in Do Keys because now um we started having um members of the community wanting to know when the fireworks display was going to be, and a lot of them knew, well, it's on Canada Day. I never wavered from that. It was always Canada Day, and um a lot of the people from Dokeze would get in their boats and drive over and and watch us with our fireworks, and and they would gather at some of the um some of the cottages that are right in that area, and they would watch the fireworks. So it was one of those things that I was building a relationship, not even really knowing until after the fact with the people in Dokis. And then, you know, they would they the odd time somebody would come up and thank me. Hey, that was a great fireworks display. That's awesome, you know. Which was another great spin-off from a wonderful tradition. The other tradition that we did yearly was the Upper French River Cottagers Association Fish Fry. And uh again, this wasn't so much about making money, it was about building relationships with the cottage community and all of the people on the water. And because, you know, I was a member and still I am a member of the community that lives and and um uses the upper French River, whether it's seasonal, whether it's not seasonal. And um it was a wonderful way to bring all of our all of our people together. And um uh I had also uh made inroads with um the yachting community in North Bay. Um just by, you know, once you once you're in the business, you get these calls and and um I was providing a um uh wonderful meal service, and I was and I was open, I had it open to the cottagers. Well, the word spread. So I started to get people coming and wanting to come to Chaudiere for a dinner experience where they would drive around and we would pick them up at the dock, bring them over, and then they would buy dinner and then go home. Well, this got uh word got out to um the yachting community. So every once in a while I would have people um sail their yachts uh and sailboats um to from the uh yacht club in North Bay all the way through Lake Nipissing and up the upper French River, and then they would moor out front of uh of Chaudiere, and then they would have uh uh dinner. So I put together a um uh uh yachtsman deal where it included dinner, um mooring, which was free, which is just parking. Um, and parking was just throw your anchor out in front of the lodge and we would come and pick you up. And a lot of them had dinghies. Um, so it was dinner, mooring for the night, and breakfast the next morning. So for the cottagers association, um, we had all of the the yachting people, we had that community coming out, we had all of our um all of our upper French River um members and any any uh people on the river that heard about uh uh the fish fry. And we had uh some locals from Do Keys, and we built this whole um fish fry day. And what that fish fry day was exactly what I told you about the Thursday fish fry. The only thing was we um I I it was it was a a pain in the ass because this one was uh I made it a dinner. And um a lot of them uh I was doing the Fish in Canada television show and um um the uh Cooper Tire events. There were two of them that lined up perfectly that I lined them up so that I didn't have to do a dinner. This was the dinner. Um, but we had like probably well, parking was an issue. Like, I mean, you got all these cottagers coming to Chaudiere to the lodge, and uh, they're all in boats. And I've got all of my boats. There's not much docking. So the way we solved the parking problem was uh I had the dock hands basically um doing valet parking. Um, and uh that valet parking was mooring your boat. So if a a guest would come in, they would park out in front in the in the the water, throw out their anchor, we would they would anchor their boat so it would just float out in the in the uh in the river in front, and then I would send one of our boats out. The dock uh hands would pick the guests up out of their boat, into our boat, we would bring them in. Uh because we like I mean, the one year we did almost 400 meals. Um, so that was a ton of meals, and um, the other thing that we did with that was um I provided um entertainment and um Bud Rostoul, um, who is a um a local musician and owns the Dokis Marina, and I had a relationship with Bud because that's where all of the guests park. And in the early days, Bud would come over and jam with me and and and uh he really become part of that tradition until he had kids. Um and um so that um band, Bud's band, which the the the guys were phenomenal, by the way. Like, I mean, they're they are um they are extremely good and in the area well-known musicians. So Bud would come over and play, and um we made a whole uh it wasn't a festival, but it had a festival feel, right? Everybody's there mingling, and you know, the place is chalk-packed with people, and we've got um not only the the the the four pans on the uh outdoor uh um uh the the the the stationary outdoor fireplace, we'll call it, but we built another one, two, three, maybe four more fire pits, the same way we would build them out on the um out on the river when we're doing guides. We built those fire pits all at the shoreline. So at any one time for this fish fry, we had four, five, six, seven, seven to eight pans going all at once. Um, because to feed four, like I mean, just think about the logistics of feeding like four, making 400 plates between like two o'clock in the afternoon and seven at night. And that's basically what it was. Um it was crazy, but it was it was a lot of fun, and again, it it was all about building relationships with people and people in this instance that don't necessarily know your business, that wouldn't necessarily um wouldn't necessarily uh come to to your your place, right? You've got cottagers who own cottages there. Why would they want to come and spend um time at Chaudiere? It's not even a thought. But you put this together now, all of a sudden, my my um meal, uh, my um uh river guest, we called them, our river guest for dinner uh side of things, ballooned, right? Because all of a sudden you get all of those people that um have cottages, they're now at Chaudi Air, they see the facility for the first time, they walk into the dining room, they're like, Oh my god, this place is uh this is like way nicer than I would have expected, a fishing lodge. And um they want to do something nice, right? Not only that, I'm building a relationship so that people um know the name. So if my guests are out and say they get lost and they pull up on a uh on somebody's dock and they say, Hey, I'm uh I'm uh staying at Chaudi Air. I have no idea, bud, where I am. Can you help me? All of a sudden, you get people not only knowing where you are, you've built this relationship that that um that is a um, you know, it's a it's a um a great relationship because we're we're providing a service on that day, we're giving great food, and we're not only and and there was no charge or cover charge to get in to see the music or whatever. That was just you buy your meal and it's there. Now those people are are more than happy to help. Um the Chaudière is part of their of their community, and believe me, all of those people up there on the Upper French River are a community. They they we look after each other. There was a forest fire this year. I I'm I I think I talked about that earlier that I come upon. And um within half of an hour, I bet you, and and this was uh I saw the fire, I thought I could put it out. Maddie, Violet, and um um a couple of their friends, Erica and Leah. Um, we were in the boat coming home. I saw the smoke. We drove into this bay and there was a fire. I had them empty our cooler thinking I could maybe put it out real quick. And before we got the boat parked, there was a 60-foot pine tree that just exploded in flames. And um, that was a crazy event. And um within uh a phone call, well, I had to actually go around to the cottage that was closest and most threatened by this fire, um, and tell them to call Riverview, call um Doki's Marina, and call 911. And um um I saw Corey, uh guide for Chaudiere on the way back in and told him um uh go get your fire pump. We got to get back. And by the time I got back to the cottage, grabbed my fire pump and got back to the site where the fire was, I bet you there was 20 river get uh river um cottagers, people that were from the river, people that were from Do Keys, people that were out there, 20, maybe 30, and probably 10 fire pumps all fighting this fire. Uh, so that's the kind of community that that's up there. And that tradition brought that community into my business. And the relationship that was built from that tradition was huge. It was huge and and um uh very satisfying to meet the people on the river and um hear their stories of the river and have them spread their stories to my guests that were staying. It's just it was a win-win for everything. And then the last um um yearly tradition that well, there were many, but the last one I'm gonna talk about because um uh we're we're we're we're going on on this. But uh the last one, and again, um the common theme for tradition is relationship building. And uh it was Thanksgiving. It was Thanksgiving. Um, and um, you know, when you own a lodge, a tourism operation, um, an outdoor business, um, the end of your season is uh a very happy time. The beginning of your season is a very happy time. And then, you know, you get yourself into these dog days, I would call them, which is, you know, the last third of your season where, you know, you're you're tired, you've been working, you're you're you're focused on on, you know, you're doing your your the the damnedest that you can do to hold everything together and provide the experience that um that you provide for everybody. And we were very good at that. Um, but there are dog days. Don't don't uh don't uh kid yourself here. And um Thanksgiving was the mark that we we did it, we made it. And uh that Thanksgiving meal, we always did Thanksgiving on Monday. Um, all of our guests would leave that Monday uh uh evening. No, we did um our Thanksgiving on Sunday for the Thanksgiving, and then the Monday was the last day. That's when people would get up and and uh if they wanted to fish for the rest of the day, I would say, no problem, you guys can fish until whenever you want, and we'll take you home. There's nobody coming in. So, like I mean, as long as you're in before dark, so that we can uh that we can get your you you over to the marina before before it's dark, I'm good with that. But that Thanksgiving meal was a traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was turkey, it was stuffing, it was cranberry, it was all of the the traditional Thanksgiving, and all of my chefs were outstanding at cooking it because the other tradition that we had, and I've talked about it in the past and how it came about, but we did Thanksgiving every Sunday at the lodge for our meal. So by the time Thanksgiving really rolled around, the boys were great at it. It was an outstanding meal. I still think about those meals to this day, and not only that, uh the the fond um memories and feelings that I have for those days, um, that really was was um really what keeps that alive. And the key was I brought everybody together because at that point, um all of the staff is there, the ones that made it. And the that's a big deal. It's a big deal for a seasonal business to have staff make it the whole way. Um, so that needed to be celebrated. Um, I would have my family up because we were closing the next week. So mom and dad, uh, Grammy, Aunt Heather and Uncle Charlie, uh, Uncle Barry and Aunt Beth, um, all of you know, my brother's uh sister, whoever, whoever was available to come and give me a hand to help, you know, um, a couple of my dad's buddies and my buddies, um, you know, Scotty Hemp and Bill Bocher, and and the list goes on and on and on. So all of those people were there. And then I had my guests as well. And Thanksgiving, although it was busy, it was never full. And um, what we would do for that Thanksgiving meal is I would have the staff push all the tables together and everybody would sit. Guests, staff, family, you know, Melissa and the kids were always there. Uh, we still do our our our Thanksgiving tradition at the lodge all the time. Um, it's a it's a it is it is the one thing that um everybody in the family, I'm not I'm not gonna say is expected, but never, never misses. To the tune that, you know, I had to forego our last shoot last year fishing tuna, bluefin tuna off the coast of Nova Scotia, off the coast of Canso, Nova Scotia, because that is the tradition that cannot be broken. And um, as hard, I've never fished bluefin tuna off the coast of Nova Scotia. I watched it this summer, and that made it even harder to say, I'm sorry, I can't do that. Um, but that tradition has lived on from the lodge and it got its roots there. And it was about relationships and celebrating the year end and celebrating the staff that made it happen, and celebrating my family who was there and was the rock of uh of of that held me together to give the experience that I I wanted to give to all of my guests. And um, that tradition was uh one of my favorite uh uh traditions, and um that was again so important to the relationships that um you know you build between your family, like so many families when you think like think about your aunts and uncles. How close are you to your aunts and uncles? Think about your great aunts and uncles. How close are you to those people, if at all? And that tradition for me brought those people into my life, and um I am very, very grateful for that. And not only that, to share those moments with the staff and to to have my family um really understand how important those staff members uh are to our life, never mind the business, just our life in in general. And uh it also helped for uh retention of those people because when you make people feel good about what they're doing and feel appreciated, hey they're gonna want to come back, right? And that really wasn't the intention, but that's what happened, right? And and so from my perspective, the traditions that you create one thousand percent have a direct impact and are the difference between, you know, just another trip and what sets you outside of all of the rest, what puts your product and your experience above all else, those traditions are a key factor. They just are. And although I'm applying this to the lodge business, you can apply this to just about every other business on the planet, traditions. I facilitated some of those traditions for the construction industry, for the aggregate industry. There were companies that built a tradition at Chaudiere. They would use the experience that I was providing, and they would use that experience to bring together different companies. The companies that I'm doing, if I'm an aggregate company, I do work with trucking companies, I do work with these companies, I do work with with uh concrete companies, I do work with all of these people. They would create a tradition to bring all these people together in one place to foster relationships and create an experience that turned into a tradition. And um and it doesn't have to be that. You can take uh uh businesses, uh the the experience that you want to give, you might want to create a tradition where you're taking your your your top selling agents to uh NASCAR once a year, you know, that is a tradition. Traditions are extremely important in family, in business, and in life in general. And um I want to thank you folks for getting to this point. Um again, uh without you guys, I wouldn't be here. And um like, comment, and hey, tell people to listen if you enjoy this. And uh don't hesitate to reach out to me with your ideas, your thoughts. Um, I love hearing from all of you. I love hearing from the family. And you know how to get me. I'm Steve.n at fishingcanada.com and head over to fishingcanada.com now that we're talking about it, and and have a look at what's going on over there. Our new season has kicked off. Um, the uh Buck Lake show aired last Saturday. Uh, and folks, if you haven't seen it, um, it is one of uh honestly the best walleye episodes that I think um I've ever seen in any fishing television show or any previous walleye show that we've done. Um, and Peter stole the show. The man is a genius. Again, I uh in a past episode I was talking about how Dean and this was Dean and I's time to shine, and uh, and uh we uh we ended up dropping the ball. And go back and listen, you can figure out you'll you'll hear the backside of that story. But um thank you, Peter, for picking up that ball and uh doing it in totally uh non-traditional ways. Um, and um uh uh I'm talking about non-traditional shooting ways to to patience and fishing and and uh Pete, you are the man. That is why you are Peter Bowman and Dean and I are not. So watch that episode. You can see you can go and uh and uh load that up on YouTube. It's it's there as all of our episodes uh that air uh from the new season on Saturday. They hit the uh they hit YouTube on Monday mornings, so you can see them there as well. Um and uh again, thank you to producers, uh Dean and uh Anthony Mancini. Uh, you guys are awesome. And uh the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network. Um, we are a wonderful team. Um head on over and and uh and throw some of uh some of our other podcasts on. Um and uh thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:38

I'm a good old boy. Never meaning no harm. I'll be the only you ever saw. I've been reeling in the hog since the day I was born. Stretching my mind. Some day I might want to lodge and how to be fine. I'll be making my way the only way I know how.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:56

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_05 1:17:10

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. Tight lines, everyone. Find UglyPike now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:40

Hi, everybody, I'm Angelo Viola. And I'm Pete Bowman. Now, you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast. That's right. Every Thursday, Ang and I will be right here in your ears, bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Hmm. Now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of fishing. 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. All the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garchomp Turk, and all the Russians would go fishing.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:19

The scientists. Now that we're reforesting or anything, it's the perfect transmission environment to line.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:26

The chefs. If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for me, 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.