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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 137: How A Remote Fishing Lodge Gets Spring Ready
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The season doesn’t start when the first guests arrive. It starts when you look at snowpack, water height, and a dock system that can swing by feet, then decide how you’re going to make it safe, simple, and fast for everyone walking down to the boats. Willie the Oil Man joins us with a full spring readiness download from Two Rivers Lodge, including what he’s changing on the docks, how he thinks about access for older guests, and why the smallest fixes often prevent the biggest headaches.
We also get into the unglamorous part of lodge life that keeps everything alive: fuel and freight. When ice conditions and current make winter hauling risky, you need a Plan B that still protects the operation. We talk barges, staging, long runs to fuel up, and the surprising math behind paying for a helicopter sling to move barrels quickly. Along the way we detour into a Louisiana fishing trip and a fascinating breakdown of how offshore platforms stay in position, which somehow loops back into what it means to manage risk in the outdoors.
From there, it’s the business side of running a fully booked fishing lodge without leaning on trade shows. Willie shares why he’d rather spend that money on guest comfort upgrades like new duvets, better coffee systems, and simple food touches like always-on homemade soup. We finish with staffing philosophy that applies to any service business: hire for character and consistency, screen for real red flags, and remember that the best guides create an experience first, fish second.
If you enjoy behind-the-scenes lodge owner stories, remote lodge logistics, fishing guide culture, and customer service that actually works, subscribe, share this with a fishing buddy, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
Cold Open And New Staff
SPEAKER_04To be honest, that's what I'm most excited about. Is I've brought in some new talent, and I got to tell you, I have a lot of talent on that staff. You're gonna come up and do some guiding with me. I got Gussie, we got Brucey, we got some some we got some talent that are that's gonna support us, and uh we're happy. I'm excited for that. It's it's it's a really it's a really cool thing for me uh in this experience. I love it.
March 4th And March Forward
SPEAKER_08This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Networks, Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North. We're joined by the wild yet stately, Willie the Oil Man. Willie's been a cornerstone in prepping Two Rivers Lodge for the busy spring season. And he's here to share some behind-the-scenes insights on how we get everything staffed and ready to rock and roll. On this show, you'll hear us dive into Willie's approach to making sure the lodge is fully booked without even needing to hit the trade shows. It's all about the balance of preparation, a loyal team, and the kind of reputation that keeps the lodge buzzing with guests. So join us for a conversation that's all about the heart of lodge life. From springtime readiness to the art of building a family of returning guests. This episode with Willy the Oilman is packed with insights and stories that make our Diaries family what it is today. Here's my conversation with Willy the Oilman. Welcome, folks, to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North. And I am uh I'm really um pumped because today we have an old friend back who uh has told me we've got lots to talk about, and that is uh none other than Willie the Oil Man.
SPEAKER_04How you doing, Willie? Good brother, good, happy to be back. Good to see your smiling face over there.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Well, you know what? Uh today is the uh the most powerful day of the year. Uh the most um uh let me let me just see.
SPEAKER_04Let's hear what you're yeah. What do you what do you got on the brew there? What's going on?
SPEAKER_08Uh it's the most powerful day of the year, and this comes from my father-in-law, Alan Nixon. God rest his soul. Okay. And every March 4th, uh, this was a um uh uh um a day that he would go and and and call all of his buddies, and he'd wish them a happy March 4th. And it's it's one of those things where you know um uh uh it's the strongest day of the year because it's March fourth.
SPEAKER_07We're gonna March 4th.
SPEAKER_04March March forward.
SPEAKER_08Yes, March forward, by you, and since his since he passed now, and and he passed in 2013, uh, there's um uh one of his his buddies um always always texts us at on on March 4th. And um it's great. So we are uh we are podcasting on the strongest day of the year, buddy. So uh let's uh let's get her get the get a move on.
SPEAKER_04Well that's good. We got some horses on this and powering forward. So that's uh it's a good day to shoot a podcast, then, eh? It's good.
SPEAKER_08Oh, it's a great day to shoot a podcast.
SPEAKER_04Awesome.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and just while I'm on that, I I really, I really should mention uh Al buddy's name. And uh that's Todd Jefferson and good old Toddy boy. He uh he always uh he calls it the most commanding day of the year. Um so thanks, Todd, again for another year of uh of uh honoring Alan Nixon.
SPEAKER_04Happy March 4th. Yes. So buddy, what's going on? You look good, you look healthy. Oh, well, thank you. Uh it's good. Melissa hasn't kicked you out of the house yet. You don't look like you're living on the streets, so she's good.
SPEAKER_08No, no, no. Uh I did spend uh I did spend uh some time on the couch the last uh couple of nights just because uh my sleeping machine is is uh messing up on me and uh I've been snoring so loud or the machine's squealing or something's going on. And yeah, you know, I gotta get down and and and get a prescription for another machine because they're not cheap in this the in this economy. So, you know, other than that, everything's been good. I I'm still in the house. I've got my dog house uh above the grudge where I spend most of my time. You've you've uh you've I've slept on that couch, yeah. Yeah, you've been here, so you know, not a bad place to hang.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, when me and you fish the vanity. So picture this, picture this, everybody. Me and Stevie. So we have the same I'm very a very congested man like him, but I don't have that issue, but I do snore. Well, holy might. It was it was two battling oxes in hot cabin or in that hotel room for a week. We were fishing that tournament, eh?
SPEAKER_08Oh, yeah. I just made sure I fell asleep first every night.
Spring Weather And Water Levels
SPEAKER_04It was awesome. I would just oh man, I'll never forget that. That was a fun time. We had a really good time, so that was fun.
SPEAKER_08That was a great time.
SPEAKER_04Good memories, anyways. Good memories.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, wow. Tell that tell me, uh, are you uh is it as warm up there as it is down here? Like today is uh is a beautiful day, man.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, actually, so to be honest with you, it's kind of just snapped the cold up here uh in the northwest. It's it's like two degrees, uh, which is lovely for this time of the year. You know, but we're gonna I think it looks like long range, it's gonna level off at like minus 10 in the evenings and like minus two during the day, which is great, right? Like, you know, everything will kind of melt a little bit slower as we're coming into spring here, which is lovely. We'll still get a couple little dumps, but my water height is looking exactly where I need it to be for beautiful for for my barge and my good uh good. It's really hard with our dock system, right? Because I actually have docks and lifts here in Kenora coming out to kind of fab or engineer some kind of cable wave. Because my dock, like our water fluctuates like 15 feet.
SPEAKER_08And you're talking at two rivers.
SPEAKER_04Uh two rivers, yeah. So it's it's just something that's always on my mind. And this year it's gonna end up looking like it's gonna be a normal to a little bit of high water, which is we like high water where I am. Um not too high, but obviously enough that we can float everything, right? Because we can also come back there, and if it's a dry, if it's just been cold and we haven't got a lot of snow, or if you get a fast melt with that you know, low accumulation, it's it's a problem, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_08So to get boats in and to the dock and everything. Well, even last year, those pictures that you showed me when you were uh fixing that main dock of yours, you were standing underneath the dock on dry land.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so we were that's the lowest I've ever seen it myself in all the years I was there.
SPEAKER_08So Which worked out real good for dock repair.
SPEAKER_04Oh, it did for sure, absolutely. And now we can we actually built a crib under there, right? So if if the water does not drop down or does not stay up, we're gonna have to build a secondary crib. So then we can put stairs because it's too, it just gets to be too much of an angle, right? Like, and majority of my clients are from 60 and above, they really are. So um, that's an issue. So that's why I'm gonna bring in this docks and lifts. Uh the guy's name is Greg that that owns it, runs it out here, and he he's an engineer, structural guy, so he'll look at it, and I think what we can maybe do is have like two if we build the stairs underneath it, and then always have a secondary dock clip. So we can unhook the dock from the dead bolts up top, slide it down, right? Like unhook the chains from the weights, slide everything down, and then just clip it in a bottom one in the secondary crib. So have a primary crib and a secondary crib, right? And then we should never have an issue. And then we're gonna tie it, we're gonna tie it with line. So we're gonna drill and hilti into up the bedrock, and we're gonna put cable, half-inch cable, and torque it on. So, like back on the drilling rig, everything would be tied down with cable, right? Just in case you have wind storms, right? So, so we'll do the same kind of concept, right?
SPEAKER_08So yeah, now that secondary platform or staircase uh at uh at normal water, will that be underwater?
SPEAKER_04So normally, yes. Correct, correct. So the the the we we we are hoping to be able to stick with the first one, and we'll know because once it hangs up on the stairs, we know it's time to unclip, slide down.
SPEAKER_09Oh, I see, yeah, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So it'll take a half an hour to do, but you get the guests out fishing, and then the boys that are on shore will go to a bit longer instead of it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it sounds like a pretty good system, as long as uh um the only the only pain in the ass is that secondary staircase will be underwater in normal years. And then when you want to go to use it, you'll have to clean it pretty good because it's absolutely pressure wash it, and but it is only gonna be six steps, right?
SPEAKER_04Two, two, and two. So that is good, you know, an hour's worth of scrubbing on there, get everything cleaned down, and we'll put some re put some uh some roofing tape. So all over our property, everywhere you walk, is um I got roofing material, like just strips of it cut.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That the underlay roll. So it's just you know, strip after strip. So just to prevent a slip and a fall, so yeah, no, no, you gotta have that for sure.
SPEAKER_08Uh, like I say, I remember the very first year I bought Shaudier, the water was probably I don't I don't know if there was ever a year since that the water's been that low. We've had low water, but not that low.
SPEAKER_04And um uh on of course the first year you buy it when it tests your luck, right? Like cheaper. Yeah, yeah.
Dock Engineering For Safer Access
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and then on the main dock, um the we have uh two we had two floating wings with ramps, just like you were talking. Well, when the water and and and it was low water right from the beginning, so it just didn't they let out all the water in the in the fall on Lake Nipissing, which is typically what they do to make room for the snowpack and uh and spring to fill it back up, but it didn't fill up and it just kept on going down because of you know, we were losing water through uh uh evaporation and all that shit. Yep. So um um the the floating main dock where we would pull um the well I had crib docks where we would park the boats, um uh just finger docks that went out from the shoreline on cribs, and uh they were unusable for the guests. Like I I I inherited the lodge or bought the lodge with um 14 cedar strips, and you had to stand. So to give you an idea how low the water was, those docks where we were parking the cedar strips, if I stood on the bench seat in the middle of the uh of the boat, the dock was just above my belly button. So yeah, you'd have to you'd have to kind of climb out of the boat to get onto those docks, and I didn't have parking enough on the main dock to have people park there, so I had to have the guys on the dock, they would pull the guests into the floater on the main dock, the main T dock, which was it was a big dock, 12 feet wide. And but um the water got so low that my ramp wasn't long enough, and it was like a 45-degree angle. Yeah, so I ended up having to um improvise, and I found what I did, I didn't realize what it was at the time. It was just a big plank, um, probably a foot, foot and a half wide, and um long enough that I put the plank from the main dock down to the floater. I nailed it into the main dock, left it underneath. So, because the you need to, you can't you if the dock moves around, it has to move, right? Yep. And um, everybody that year drove up to the the little floater dock, which was maybe you know 20 feet. Then the dock hands would help them out of the boat there where it's regular um uh uh to the to the water, and then they would have to hold their hand as they walked the plank uh up onto the main dock. Yeah, that plank I found out later was a was uh the original diving board from Shaudier from the 50s, but that old diving board come in handy, I'll tell you what.
SPEAKER_04Fantastic.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah, and then the dock guys would drive the boat back to the uh crib docks, tie them to the cribs, and then climb out, right? Because you couldn't have guests climbing out.
SPEAKER_04No, no, for sure, for sure. Wow, that's crazy. That's uh well, we're hoping that we're in a good scenario. I think we are going to be. I think we have enough um snowpack. Yeah, and I think we kind of have enough big enough plan. I think we're kind of set for no matter what, right? Like if we're if we're good if we're low, we're good if we're high. We've already came up with a plan too because because we weren't able to get all of our fuel in because of the we didn't have as cold of a winter, um, and there's current in my system, so we couldn't get everything over.
SPEAKER_08Um did you get anything over?
Fuel Runs By Barge Or Helicopter
SPEAKER_04Uh we had to cut some stuff out there. Yeah. Yeah. But it was just too slush, it's just too soft. It wasn't worth the risk.
SPEAKER_09Oh, really?
SPEAKER_04Um, yeah, so so we got everything staged, and um if I have to, I'm gonna float a dock over and we're just gonna put it on the dock, like you know, barrels on the dock and float them back. You know, it's only gonna be it's only two and a half kilometers from the act from the new landing that we have. Or helicopter, I'm in. I talked to a guy um with the helicopter unit here, and he'll do a contract for a pretty good price. Really? Yeah, it he could sling 70 barrels in for me in two hours.
SPEAKER_09Wow.
SPEAKER_04So if you have two guys on the beach, two guys here, and you have two nets, right? And you're just putting four or five barrels in at a time, and it's just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And it was gonna be like, I think like four grand, 3,700 bucks.
SPEAKER_10Yeah.
SPEAKER_04To be honest, to have all my life blood out there for the whole year and never have to worry about it for the rest of the year, it's freaking worth it.
SPEAKER_08Oh, for sure. Now, how the lodge owner mind is is triggered here. How long would it take you to move those barrels by boat? Like if you you've got your barge, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but I so if I if I do that, if so if we have the barge, we'll just do it all in one shot. That's different. Like it won't we won't do that if we have the barge. Yeah, I'm using this as like an extreme if I had to. Yeah, that's what I would do.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, but um, but the barge has got to go so that bay will be too shallow. So we're gonna have to go down to the community of white dog. Um we'll have to go to see Chief Roley, and we'll I think we'll be able to pull up there. Um and we'll get fueled. So what we'll do is we'll put the five hundreds on the lot on the barge. We'll fill all the five hundreds with diesel. It would be, I would say it's a two and a half hour barge run down there. So we don't have motors. There was motors on that barge when it sunk, but we cut them off.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And uh right now we're just gonna tie a boat to it. So we're just gonna touch that's what they use. That's tugboat style.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, tugboat, or I've seen them push those big barges too. Sometimes it's easier to push them.
SPEAKER_04Correct, yeah, yep. So um that's the plan. Um do the diesel first and then uh come back, dump all the diesel, and then go back and get gas, get all our barrels, put them on there, and then bring them back. I'd actually like to do a third run.
SPEAKER_08You've got 500 gallon tanks that you would fill on the barge.
SPEAKER_04Correct.
SPEAKER_08How do you get that off of the barge on the oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04You have a bobcat on the island, right? So, like so the bobcat has an extension arm, it'll reach like 10 and a half, 12 feet.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So you put the grapple arm out, and and we can actually have we have ramps, so they're like, Man, they gotta weigh a ton apiece. And then you pick up these massive ramps with the arm, put it on the barge, right? And then you drive up the ramp onto the barge, yeah, right? Flip around in the bobcat, turn it, and then you pull them off the ground, bring them into the barge, yeah, and then here you there you go, and then and then uh that's cool. Yeah, we're I to be honest, I think we're gonna get rid of the bobcat and we're gonna go with a with uh with a hoe. Like uh that secondary mini hose size, you know, the one that'll reach like 12 feet, 14 feet, good enough size bucket. Because because a bobcat's great, but you can't dig deep with it, for one, and you can't extend. So it's just got a lot of lift. We don't there's not nothing that's heavy there, really, right? The the that that the excavator couldn't lift.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And it's lighter, a mini X is lighter than a bobcat, right? So um we're thinking about going that direction.
SPEAKER_08As long as it lift those five hundreds full. Correct.
SPEAKER_04That's all we need. That's right. That's right. So yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, so that's uh that's kind of getting all lined up right now. I'm I'm uh I'm getting ready to go on a fishing trip, actually. I'm going um I'm going down to Louisiana.
SPEAKER_08I'm gonna you're gonna stick your hands in the catfish's mouth, jump in the in the rivers. Hillbilly hand fishing.
SPEAKER_04There is no good doing that, buddy. Yeah, I think you should do that. Steve, there's no way I'm sticking my hand in a four-foot hole, not knowing what the heck is gonna bite on to the other end of my house. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08With my luck, I'd come out with a baby gator.
SPEAKER_04So, yeah, anyways, I'm gonna head down and um one of my guests, his his close friend, his name's Captain Ron, and he is right where the Mississippi dumps into the Gulf. Okay, probably about 50 miles to the west towards the Mexico side, obviously. Um and the red, the giant bull reds, redfish, yeah, are are running right now there. And it's like apparently it's like it's like it's a bucket list for me, but it's like pound for pound, one of the toughest fish to fight on the planet, those those redfish. Really?
SPEAKER_09How big do they get?
SPEAKER_04They get them like they're like they get up to like tarpon size, you know, like 40, 50 pounds. Majority of them, you know, they're gonna be around that 10, 12, 15 pound mark. Yeah. Um, but we're hoping to get some big ones. So we're gonna, there's two ways we fish them. We fish them shallow, you know, three, four feet of water. You spot fish them, sight fish them, and you kind of kind of cast to them, which is sick.
SPEAKER_09Fantastic.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And then the other way is to go out to the oil rigs, out to the jack up. So remember, I was telling I've said in other episodes how the different styles of rigs are. Well, a jack up is basically a drilling rig that's anchored to the floor of the ocean, right? It touches the floor, and and they jack the level off of that, right? So, like the those big reds will congregate around them like a shoal for small mouth. Same principle. That's where bait congregates, that's where algae's growing, that's where plankton's growing, blah blah blah blah blah. So it's cover. I'm pretty jacked up to go and do that, man.
SPEAKER_08Like, I'm like, you're gonna stand on the deck of the uh jack up and and or you're gonna be in your boat around.
SPEAKER_04Which is which is kind of cool.
How Floating Rigs Hold Position
SPEAKER_08Yeah, that is that is really cool. So you're gonna be hanging around a bunch of these uh uh oil rigs uh off the coast of Louisiana, down by Corpus Christi, yeah, yeah, fishing for these red fish.
SPEAKER_04Buddy, I can't wait. Like, such an interesting, unique thing. Like, okay, so think about this. Think about this. That drilling rig, okay, so that one's touching the floor. A majority of them don't anymore.
SPEAKER_08So, how do they get the oil out of the ocean floor?
SPEAKER_04So they're so they're still on a pipe, like they're still they're still connected to uh to um a casing that goes down to a BOP, right? You have to have a BOP down the stack, right? So they're connected, but so here's what happens is there's an engineer, and here's here's his or her actually women females, they're gonna be honest with you, are the best in the world. They're like crane operators. The best crane operators in the world are female because they don't panic like me and you, they don't have testosterone, like they don't get that jacked up, right? And and and it's not a sexist comment, it really just is, right? It's got it's a proven thing. Data. So this these engineers, here's their job. So this picture this giant you know, it's two football. Stadiums the size of it. NFL football stadiums. And that's the platform. Correct. You know, there might be there might be 150 to 180 people living on there. Right?
SPEAKER_08And that is being supported solely by the casing.
SPEAKER_04That's supported by the water, so it's like a ship.
SPEAKER_08Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04But so here's what I'm saying is so it's this person's job. So that casing, okay, is maybe 18 inches, it might be 20 inches, it might be 60, whatever. Let's say 20-inch casing, okay? That casing, it's actually not holding it up. You can't have it holding at all. No. You actually have to stay completely surrounded around the circumference of the outside of it.
SPEAKER_08Because you rise and fall with the water.
SPEAKER_04Correct. That's called the annulus, and that's where the the mud has to come back up where you're drilling, right? When you're drilling down there, it's got to come back up somewhere. The cuttings. That's where that comes, up the annulus, it's called, okay? That's that that small gap in between these. Okay. And they're looking at every time the current changes uh under like a quarter mile an hour in that ocean, they have to make a movement. Every time it rises or lowers with the tide, a quarter inch or sixteenth of an inch, they have to make a movement, right? Like so they have to play the weather, the tide, the waves, and the current, and they gotta hold that thing in place with all of it's a just basically like a giant office full of computer. It looks like NORAD, right? Yeah. And this this super geek, this hyper intelligent person, is in there, and that's all they're doing all day, and they're just gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_08Okay, so let me get this straight. You've got this um this massive um drill rig platform, right? And it is floating on the ocean surface. Correct. And in the center of it, you have your your um your your drilling um bit and your drill string. Yeah. The string.
SPEAKER_04It could be on the side. On some of them, they're on the side.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Okay. And then you've got your your um uh casing around that. So you're drilling, and then the the mud is coming back up between the drill and the casing, and you got some super geek, like you say.
SPEAKER_04Way more intelligent than my dumbass, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_08Extremely intelligent person driving that platform.
SPEAKER_04And you gotta be, I'm talking like the annulus, the biggest annulus I've ever seen is a quarter inch, and that's a big one. I'm talking majority or between a sixteenth.
SPEAKER_08And the annulus is just the space between your string pipe and the and the that's right, where the mud comes back up through.
SPEAKER_04Correct, because the because when it comes down through the inside of the top drive, like so that what's driving the drill bit up top, right? Yeah, the motor source, it gets pumped through there all the way through the center of the drill string. It goes through a bit that's the muzzle, but has jets in it. Remember, we talked about that?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, yeah, it's just cleaning that bit.
SPEAKER_04Correct. It's just just like just like when you're on a mill in a lathe and you're drilling a bit through steel and you gotta take the temperature away. All those cuttings gotta go somewhere. Well, normally Steve Ditswicki just goes and blows the cuttings off the table. Yeah. Well, you can't do that when you're six miles underwater, right? So that so the force brings those cuttings back up that level.
SPEAKER_08I just can't believe that it's not done by AI or computers or something to drive that.
SPEAKER_04Well, they're well, it it it's I mean it's I guess it would be because it is to an extent, but it's such dude. Think about the power. Like when you stand in the ocean and the waves bring you in and the waves bring you out, yeah. And you're 165 pounds, just imagine something that's 300 tons trying to control that over a small tiny radius in a hurricane with all of those with in a hurricane.
SPEAKER_08Really, in a hurricane. I know. It's it I can't even wrap my mind around it. It's crazy. I thought that um I thought that that uh it would have been all well. I guess it it must there must be an autopilot, and there's people.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, for sure, absolutely, right? And and for those standard times, but but there's absolutely but there is times in a shift, yeah, times in a day where there's definitely a lot more watchover and control than a well, there's got to be somebody there just in case the autopilot breaks down. Correct. Right? Correct. That's crazy. It's cool, man. So I'm excited to go and sit there and I'm gonna fish right under this person now. Uh and I'm hoping my big giant redfish runs into the drill string and they're like, hey, that's only the oil man.
SPEAKER_07Don't worry.
SPEAKER_08Welcome to Two Rivers Lodge, where we know that our hard work and determination creates your best experiences. You'll arrive as a guest but leave as family. Surrounded by a multi-species fishing mecca, like no other. Our elite cabins and professional staff are ready to make your stay unforgettable. Experience the difference. Because at two rivers, every cast is a story, and every guest is a part of the family.
SPEAKER_05Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of muskie angling education material anywhere in the world.
SPEAKER_01Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this amazing community and share it with passionate anglers just like you.
SPEAKER_05Thus, the Ugly Pike Podcast was born and quickly grew to become one of the top fishing podcasts in North America.
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Fully Booked Without Trade Shows
SPEAKER_04I'm supposed to be in Minneapolis, but uh I sold out, dude. I don't have any room. I have two weeks. I have two weeks left at the end of September where for my hardcore people and my musky people and my that's it. I don't have a I don't have anything. I don't have I don't even have room for family.
SPEAKER_08I'm physically that's uh that I I I get 450 guests. Wow. Good for you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's uh last year being the soft opener, so this is year really year two, but really I'll be honest, we signed this deal on May 11th. I'm not we're not even a year in yet. To be honest. So that's where we're sitting, and um because of that, I had to call the show and say, like, I don't I I'm not gonna go sit there. It's gonna cost me five grand, right? Like, so we've already paid for the show, so I said, but let's just put it over to 2027, let's bump it over that and the I the Cedar Rapids, Iowa one, because I'm like, well, I don't want to sit there and have to tell people, yeah, I have this amazing place, but I can't do nothing for you for a year and a half.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
Upgrades That Improve Guest Comfort
SPEAKER_04To me, it'd be kind of again, they're mostly about networking. I've done enough networking, my name is big enough, so I don't feel that was the need. It was more just to maybe fill up those last couple spots, but you know, it's a good it's a good problem to have. So, you know, I got I got Brucey. We're on board with Brucey, um Jamie Bruce there as one of his top elite sponsors again. He's gonna be shooting YouTube videos. I got fish and cat. You guys are coming out to film. Um, you know, we're partnering up with Steve here again on the podcast as a major sponsor. Um, right away, you're gonna hear hear our uh amazing commercials with him. I mean, I just have so much invested in it right now. I'm like, damn, that's that's the show is kind of secondary to anything I need right now. So, and that's not a shot, it's just I don't want to spend five grand to go. I I actually would rather what I did actually was I took that five grand yesterday, I brought all new duvets for my lodge. Nice, all brand new duvets, they're nice quality, they're warm, they're cool when you're cool, it need to be cool. Um and Q regs. So, because I used to deliver coffee to my my guest cabins every morning. Yeah, but not that it's ever a pain in the butt because it's a cat, it's a guest, but it does consume a lot of time at 5:30 in the morning. When on those days when I got lots of people there, I could be putting my time into something else.
SPEAKER_08So, or the staff could be so well I used to do that too. Um, and I would have coffee crafts that uh like a thermos, the fancy looking thermos, and I'd go out and we'd set them at uh the uh in the screen porches of all of the uh cottages and stuff. But sometimes people would wake up and they wouldn't drink it at all because it was cold. Well, that's it.
SPEAKER_04I don't want to wait. That's the biggest thing. I don't want to waste.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, or wake people up.
SPEAKER_04Correct, correct, right? I mean, so quite a bit. I mean, like, so I I I actually companied or uh partnered up with um um the company Van Hoot that that's in all of these stores. I reached out to them and they're like, Yeah, we'll give you an awesome unit for your lodge, no cost, you just run our coffee the whole time. I'm like deadly. Um, so I've got a brand new coffee maker going in the lodge through them. I I bought the cure eggs, I'm putting them in the cabins and um just those little things. I'm able to use that money for that stuff instead of yeah, you know, it's instead of going to the show and standing there saying, Hey, I don't have nothing for you, right?
SPEAKER_08That's that uh uh this isn't just the coffee, but this is something that I always did. Um, and it's and I don't know how many people who own fishing lodges feel that they are big enough or have enough leverage to do this. And you just said you partnered with Van Hoot, yep, and they gave you a coffee maker.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_08A lot of people, I think they just don't they don't think about that stuff that they can do that. And I did exactly the same thing. I partnered with a company, they gave me one of those nice um um uh fancy coffee makers that you could make uh uh cappuccinos, espresso, hot chocolates, and hot chocolates, all of that stuff, right? Yep, and um, and then all you you've got to use their product, obviously. But um uh it it's it's very worth it. And you usually get a deal to buy the the product on top of them giving you the machine.
SPEAKER_04To be honest, it's a no-brainer, absolutely. It's all I mean at the end of the at the end of the uh the when I my my machine does done using or I need another one, I'll swap it out. Or let's say whenever I sell this place or I give it back to them. Big deal. Yeah, and it's like I know it's it's a coffee maker. I don't have any ties to it, right? So um, yeah, it's uh that's gonna be cool.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, coffee makers, barbecues. I'm just trying to think of other products that uh that um small business owners, well, and and it and it's not even just lodges, right? Um, that's one one uh little tidbit right there that uh people that have businesses and need equipment can can uh think about doing. Maybe it doesn't fit your business model, but hey, if you haven't thought of it, maybe there is a fit there. So you just uh that's a great little uh little nugget.
Simple Food Touches Guests Remember
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we um I've kind of made um when I was down on the beach there a few weeks ago, I uh I took some time to myself and went on to Mexico and I um I made my first order for Cisco kind of thing, and then then the other third uh third-party supplier we use for food, um, you know, got them approved by my chefs. I got the chefs, I actually bought real yesterday I bought them a really nice KitchenAid um mixer. Mixer. Yeah, buddy, a 10-quart one at um at Costco in Winnipeg. It was$315. It's regular$699.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. I was like, Yeah, those are those are outstanding units, too.
SPEAKER_04Those little things like that. This year we're gonna have, so hear me out on this. You're the you know, I I look at you as the lodge, you're my guru, Steven. You're my right, you're my essence when I need my energy, right?
SPEAKER_08I can I can essence you. Oh god.
SPEAKER_04So people don't ever want to hear that again. So here's my thought. I bought a soup pot. And summertime, you know, probably those end of June, July, starting of August for that, you know, two months, the soup pot might not be that hot unless it's a rainy day. But staff will always have it. What I'm gonna do is my my both my chefs, my breakfast chef and my my night executive chef, they both bake and they both bake soup custom. Like they love doing it. Yeah. So each one is gonna just take, you know, you do these two days, I'll do these two days, and we'll just flip back and forth. They're gonna work together. And um, so every day I'm gonna have soup, just a regular bowl on. Yeah. And um, that's gonna be, I think that's a touch, right? Like, I think that's something that someone's a lot of times, if it's crappy, guys will fish in the morning or they won't even go and they'll just stay in there. Maybe two of their buddies went and they're in the lodge and they're having a you know, having a coffee and doing some work on their computer or talking to a family member, and they're like, yeah, we'll go have a bowl of soup, and they can just get it, right?
SPEAKER_08It's well, you know what? Um, having a homemade soup out in the main lodge available as if it was coffee is a wonderful idea.
SPEAKER_04And I can piggyback all of so here's my here's where I'm getting the guru for you for guru guru. I need I piggyback my menu off a four-day menu. Okay, sorry, a three-day menu. So three days, three days, and then turkey dinner every Sunday. Okay, I did turkey dinner last year every Sunday, just like you did, and I loved it. Everyone loved it, I'm keeping it. So um in that so what in those times my food will roll into itself, but my my when I do have What do you mean your food will roll into itself? Because it'll have I'll have a three-day switch, right? So one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. It's just a rotating menu because the guests are in. I'm not running a seven-day menu, I guess. What I'm used to doing. And in doing this, I can have all of those leftovers.
SPEAKER_08So in seven days when I yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right?
SPEAKER_04So that's kind of my plan.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, in the seven days, uh, if I'm a guest uh or I'm a guest coming for a week, correct. Uh, I'll see the same meals twice.
SPEAKER_04No, you'll see them and then you'll have a turkey dinner.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, the six. So you're you're on a three, you've got three different meals, and then you and then you've got um and then uh and then it's the same three meals that follow.
SPEAKER_04Correct. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. So on say Monday you've got uh steak night, Tuesday is duck confie, and Wednesday is um uh lasagna, and then Thursday would be steak night, uh Friday would be duck confie and then lasagna.
SPEAKER_04Correct, yeah, but I and I have two choices each night. So either a prime rib or perfect stuffed chicken, right? Uh stuffed the fairy chicken.
SPEAKER_08So chicken supreme, whatever.
SPEAKER_04Correct, right? So those six items on my menu beat me pretty tight there. So I think it's gonna be kind of cool. I think it's something something I've never done. So what do you think? It's a good idea, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Oh yeah. Uh the soup.
SPEAKER_04Well, how just having it all the time ready.
SPEAKER_08Like yeah, 100%. Uh like I mean, but uh what I would do, I wouldn't even bother putting bowls there. I just use your coffee mugs.
Swag Orders And Early Spring Access
SPEAKER_04Well, that's no bigger soup. Actually, what I got was mason cups with handles. Yeah. So yeah, because exactly. So it's kind of a cool touch. All of our glasses at the lodge actually are mason jars.
SPEAKER_09Yeah. Oh, I like that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's cool. It's nice, yeah. Oh, yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_08I'm I'm the cash for jars guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's my dirty little secret. I don't tell anybody.
SPEAKER_10Yeah.
SPEAKER_08I collect, I collect old uh jars, beavers, Hamilton Glassworks, all kinds of uh all kinds of stuff like that. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, so what else do I got on the go? I got uh our good friend Timmy Dawson there at Campus Crew. Yeah, who's making all your swag and who's making all my swag. He um he made me some beautiful fish towels. Actually, he made me both. He made me he made me an eyeglasses wipe on a on a pin, on a clip. So if somebody wants to just clip it on their coat, right, for when they need to clean their glasses and they're fishing, they can do that. It's the microfiber cloth. He made me those, and then he made me these beautiful fishing towels, like a normal fishing long black towel. So I'm gonna lay them on the guest beds. I think I've told you this one before. So there's those just got complete, which is nice.
SPEAKER_09Nice.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Ordering all my staff stuff and all my swag. I got that just about going in here. That's after I get off the podcast, I'm gonna do that.
unknownPerfect.
SPEAKER_04And I think I'm pretty much ready, dude. Like we're we're we're singing, man. We're ready to go. We're we're chomping at the bit. Like, am I all I'll probably be in the my lodge three weeks before anybody here because I got you have the Winnipeg River and the English River. They're both powerful bodies of water pumping out of dams. Like uh uh, and we got the plow. So we're just gonna take we're just gonna plow out the road underneath the dam. Uh take the side by side with the G3 on it and go. We don't we're not taking in the big boats, but we can take the little boats over and a little and a generator and a barrel of fuel, and we can at least fire some stuff up and get raw, rocking and rolling, cleaning, all that spring opening.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I love that time of year.
SPEAKER_04My fall, it's one of my favorites. That that in the last part of the year, the fall, I love the fall too.
Why Spring Opening Feels Electric
SPEAKER_08Yeah, 100%. No, I'll just psychology uh psychologically, you know, in the springtime, you're firing up, it's time to make some money, it's uh it's time to show people wonderful experiences. You go up and you're working outside in the north and the the air and the the smell of the spring. And you know, down in southern Ontario here, um, springtime is a wonderful time for me. Like uh as a uh a kid who grew up on a farm, you get those first couple of days once the the snow has melted enough that the the soil and ground starts to become exposed and you can smell that earthy clean smell. Well, uh in the bush, it's the same. You get that that really clean air and and the uh the smell of the uh trees and the pines and the cedars and all of that stuff. And you start hearing the days are getting longer, the days are getting warmer, like today uh is a beautiful day. I've got my windows open, right? It's just such a and then again back in those days, my family would help me open. So it was uh it was a time when I got to see on a on a it was like taking an extended holiday, uh like a 10, 14 day trip with my grandma and and aunts and uncles and mom and dad and and uh all of the and friends and stuff.
Building A Guide Team That Clicks
SPEAKER_04And your staff, right? Like that's to be honest, that's what I'm most excited about is I've I've kind of put together a new I have half my staff from before, you know, some of the people had uh everybody left Nordic that came with me, that was with me over there. You know, we had one guy, he went down south, we shipped him down there with you. We had another another couple friends of ours. We hooked up with jobs, and then uh the rest of them kind of came back to work with me. Um, but I've brought in some new talent, and I got to tell you, I don't ever, I don't, I don't, I don't have a problem finding people, and I don't know if it's just me, but everyone complains about getting staff. I've never had that issue, and you've known that since I've met you.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, but I have so so I'll go down the list here. So I've got this buddy Ghee, who's been, he worked up there for me before, Ghee the newfie. His wife, Joanna, she's my uh, she's my kind of ladies manager, I guess you could say. My uh I don't have any male staff on the shore except for my cook. Um so uh she kind of manages all the housekeeping staff and the uh laundry room and the waitressing stuff, the bartender, that kind of stuff. Uh she's actually my rock man. She's she is the the best worker I've had since I started in the lodge industry.
SPEAKER_08That's great.
SPEAKER_04Dennis is a very close second, like Dennis would be right there.
SPEAKER_08Up there is out there with you.
SPEAKER_04He's coming up this summer. Yeah, to do a little bit of dock hand in the groundswork with me. Yes. So uh yeah, so Ghee, Joanna, we got the old boy Dennis doing a little bit of work on shore. But then I'm like, I need I need that like university age young man or young lady who wants to learn dock hand or come up in the guide world. And I found a beauty. Uh his name is Caleb Johnson out of Alberta. He's from Edmonton. And this kid is uh he's starting to be a YouTuber, like a Jay Siemens kind of a YouTube fisherman. He likes to go out and and shoot his own stuff. He's he's got talent, he's he's great with people. By watching, I watched two of his videos, and I'm like, this kid is fantastic, and he's a young man. And uh he reached out to me and he was super excited to have a chance to come up and guide at such an elite place. So um we've brought him on. He's gonna be my my senior dock hand and my slash uh guide trainer for the year. Super excited to have Caleb on. And then our next step up the ladder, I hired a female guide. Her name is Paige. Uh Paige is from Central Ontario. Uh she's living in Thunder Bay right now. She's worked for the MR uh on the fisheries side, biology side for a while. Hyper intelligent lady, great stick, great fisherman, and uh knows her way around a boat. Last year, well, this is how impressed I was. She spent four months out on Superior last year controlling the boat for the for everyone. And I'm thinking, man, if you can handle it in that, if that's some big water, and if you can handle graphing out there, you're okay to come on my little river system, right? So um, so Paige, she is our our our rising female guide. She's a full-time guide. Um I hired another man named Scott Smith. He's down down uh Angus way and Pete's way.
SPEAKER_09Oshawa.
SPEAKER_04Yep, just outside. He's uh he's a fly fishing specialist. He spent some time in Wyoming. Um he's worked with uh with well one of one of my friends um at Hawk Lake there, Ted. Yeah, Teddy. He worked for Ted over there for years. Yeah. At Ted Putnam. Yep, great, great place at Hawk Lake Lodge, fantastic environment. Um a lot of fly fishing they do over there. They're they're orvis endorsed as well. Yeah. And uh, which is which is where we're trying to hold that staple and that edge on the on the fly fishing end up up at uh two rivers. So we hired him, and he's gonna be a fantastic addition to our team. He's uh he is a beauty when it comes to personality and and fishing, fishing tactics and and teaching. He's a he's a great teacher, which I love. I love my I don't care really how good of a fisherman you are. It doesn't really mean nothing in the guided world. Um, it's you know, I love people that I love people that no matter what, their energy stays the same and their positivity always is upbeat. And it doesn't matter if they're down 6'3 and they're fishing slow and they're getting poured on, and the guest is a butt head in the boat because you have those people, and they come back and they're like, Yeah, my day was good.
SPEAKER_08Oh, yeah, well, that's what I want. The greatest guides are the ones that provide a great experience, has nothing to do with the ability for the guide to catch fish, other than they need to use that as a tool to provide a great experience.
SPEAKER_04Correct. Like you would say, I remember you, and I learned this from you actually. I learned it from you, and I remember Ange saying it too. That when when that guest comes in, probably the one of the last things you want to hear about and gonna hear about on a great guide's boat experience is the fishing. Yeah, they're gonna talk to you about this and the crazy, amazing shore lunch and the feeding the baldy, like you say, all of those, the hieroglyphics that you'd show them up at the French River. And um, I remembered you teaching me that, and I remember like that's what I would do, but it just came natural to me. When you're doing it in the boat, it's one thing, right? That's why I was such a good guy, and it just came natural to me. But but to teach your staff to do that is a completely different thing. So um I'm excited for that with with those two individuals. And then we went up the line again, and we have um gentleman named Christian. He's coming, he's a mechan mechanic for uh out in Labrador, uh Quebec boy, kind of from the Nufie Coast there area. He's coming out, he's guided actually up here before when it used to be T2 Island Lodge. Yeah. Uh so he used to be an ex-guide up here. He's coming back with me, which is nice. He's bringing his wife, she's gonna be a fantastic addition to our team. Um Mark Lalon is coming back. Mark's got 19 years guiding up in the area. So he was with me last year, Mark. Uh he's a fantastic guide. He's he's the guy that every day he just it's like having Adam, my new partner, when he used to guide for me at the other place, right? Like you just go, right? Like, just here's your guess go. You don't have to ever worry about nothing with him, um, which is fantastic to have. So, you know, Johnny, Johnny's uh Johnny's kind of you know how it goes, right? Johnny's close to the he's in Winnipeg, so he's getting, he's got a kid, he's getting older, his wife's probably wanting to grow up a little bit.
SPEAKER_08Oh hey, it's uh it's it's uh guiding is a difficult life for people that have families because it's uh I don't want to call it transient, but um you it it is definitely absent from home.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Yep. So so I've kind of made a deal with Johnny. He's actually moving, he's working for a house mover right now, uh doing a manual labor job. I'm super proud of him. Uh he's not just sitting there on EI or I'm happy for that.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_04First time I see Johnny go out of his way to make his mark on his own, and and I don't want to intrude on that. That's that'll never be me. Um, but I want him up there when I have big groups. So we've kind of made a deal that he's gonna come guest guide for all my important groups. Johnny's been there. Johnny came the second year I guided up there. You know, I kind of trained him a bit up there, right? So he knows that water as well, if not better than I do. Um, so that's great. If you now if you you know, you sit back and you look at that, like I have I have a lot of talent on that staff. You know, I got, and then my you know, we got you're gonna come up and do some guiding with me. I got Gussie, we got Brucey, we got some some we got some talent that are that's gonna support us. And uh we're happy, we're excited. My staff's looking up, and so I'm excited to get to my lodge and have my staff unite. Um yeah, I'm excited for it. It's it's a really it's a really cool thing for me uh in this experience is it's I love it.
SPEAKER_08Staffing is always something that I um I really enjoyed, you know.
SPEAKER_04Um but you always maybe that's why you or I never struggle with that, because you never struggled either with staffing. And no, maybe that's why. Because you enjoyed what you're doing, finding it.
SPEAKER_08I always found staff, but there were there were times, and I don't care how good you are, you might not have had this issue, but um when you're when you've got a large staff living in tight quarters and working long hours together, they're inevitably you're going to run into um um character differences, and uh you're going to run into situations where you feel like uh Dr. Phil half the time.
SPEAKER_04Oh, buddy, I've had to and you as you have, I've had to, I've actually I actually had to fire one of my best friends, and uh um it just came down to a personality trait with him at work versus I've worked with him for years. Yeah. Um Little Johnny, but he's still one of my close friends. Yeah. Um, but but I couldn't have him working with me anymore. He just it's different being someone's boss when you know them versus knowing them personally, right? And and um and with we actually, you know, that to me it's not a shot. I'll be honest, that's that's that's an oilman thing way before it was a lodge thing, right? It's just there's a time where it comes in an oilman's career too, where where if you can't keep up with what's going on, you get told. Yeah, and you just gotta you're going to the shack to work an office job because you can't hold it anymore, right? And that's just it's kind of like playing on an NHL team. If you're not fast enough, it doesn't matter. You're gonna get Tavaras down the lineup, yeah. As far as it is, but eventually that's and that's just part of progression, right? So um, yeah, I know I know exactly what you're talking about. I I'm I'm I don't think I'm gonna have that issue this year. I don't, I haven't had it since my first year when Nordic knocked on wood.
Screening Hires And Reading Red Flags
SPEAKER_08Um because that's what I but one of those things that um you don't have a whole lot of control over. You have some, yeah, like I mean, uh But not all not enough. Not enough. Like I mean you can try and mitigate those problems by making sure that um that um you have a very uh um uh a very um tight uh set of guidelines and rules because a lot of times staff um uh issues or arguments or disagreements can come over um um arguments that are are because of vague rules and vague procedures and some somebody wants to do it their way and that's not the right way, and you know, so I found that one way to try and mitigate those um those those issues is to walk a line is to make sure that everybody had a very clear understanding of where their responsibility started and ended, and that that can help, but that doesn't help truly personal issues, correct? Right, right. But you always try and mitigate, you know. Oh yeah, buddy. So listen, where where do you um where did you find most of your staff? Like that's a that like I mean when you're talking about staffing, um how did you find them? Was it word of mouth? Is it um Khajiji? Is it uh um uh Indeed?
SPEAKER_04It was a little bit of so it was kind of a little bit of everything. So Indeed, I did find my two new staff on Indeed after I probably had 300 resumes and I probably only contacted about three people.
SPEAKER_08How do you go through them all? Like, what's your project?
SPEAKER_04If they had something come up, if something came up that that that was a red red flag to me, I just and that's just how I am. I know it might not be a good idea. No, no, no, but it's but I'm just that I'm not that liberal guy. If there's something that I see is a red flag, it's a red flag.
SPEAKER_08It's interesting to for people to understand um how you process them so that when they're applying to jobs like for at a lodge, how do you properly apply? So, what are some of those red flags?
Finding Staff Through People Watching
SPEAKER_04So uh consistently changing a facility every year is a red flag. Um I I like to have people that that that like to give their time. So I'll really look at something like um did they do any charitable time? Really? Did they, yep, absolutely, because that's a character trait, right? That's something we used to look for on the rig all the time. Will someone go out of their way to help somebody? Will someone go out of their way at work or on their personal time to help somebody? When do they do that? That's important when you have a job on the line that somebody can save your life, right? So I kind of look at that. Um I don't really the last to be honest, the last thing I look at is their fishing capability, right? Because we can teach that, everything's different. I I um the way that they the way that they lay out what they're saying, so like is it somebody who's really detailed for the position I'm looking for, or is it somebody who's just a bullet point kind of person? Am I looking for someone like that in this position, right? Um so I guess that's what if you're gonna apply for a for a lodge manager on site or a guide manager, you're gonna want details of what you've done and where you've what you've seen and the things that you're capable of. If you're just a dock, and bullet points are acceptable, and that shows me that you understand your what your role is to kind of think, right? So um customer service is a big that's that's our biggest thing, as you know, right? Like I don't care, I can't control the fishing, I can't control the weather, I can't control any of that. I try to control it all, but you know what I'm saying? Customer service is is what you can control. 100% correct, and all the time, like and and and it and it does not matter.
SPEAKER_08So any business that does not focus on that is a business that is missing the boat, and it that's that's uh that's that's logic.
SPEAKER_04And there's a lot of them out there. I got friends that are still running them and and they're full, don't get me wrong, but I I but there's lots of them still that are operating like that. Yeah, lots. Um yeah, I guess those would be kind of kind of red flags right off the hop. Um things that I would look for, I guess, if not really necessarily more of the red flag, I guess, would be the consistency of switching jobs and stuff like that. But um, but there's detailed fine points that I would look at for the position I'm I'm I'm trying to trying to hire for. Um so indeed was helpful a little bit. Um I um I would shut them down as soon as I hired after I don't just let them sit open, you know, to keep bundling up. I don't want to keep anyone's hopes up. If I'm looking for someone, I'm looking for them, right? So um I'll do face. I'll back you know, I'll go on Facebook and I'll check out their stuff and I'll you know, I'll just see what they're all about, right? Um I've had quite a few word of mouth. Um quite a few. With we eat with guests too. I I gave you no Orlando Zeka, one of our our um friends on here, the show that we interviewed. Orlando was a guide up at Anderson's for years, you know. He's he's um there's been some changes, and he's um he's had a couple guests that he's not guiding anymore. That um personal guest that he used to take out and he sent them up to my lodge, right? Um those references. I've had a couple references through people like him for employees as well, which is great. That's you know, to me, those are good, those are key because that shows you that you're doing your job, that other people are looking out, going, man, you should go work for this guy, it would be good, right? And not everyone thinks that, right? There's a lot of people that think I'm an asshole a lot, just like you, right? There's a lot, but but you know what? I didn't get to where I was by not being that way sometimes, right? And or being stiff, and and um I can see that if that's a respecting to me, if someone's saying go work for that guy, it's a good thing. I look at that like that so cool. Um so yeah, I guess that we've kind of had a little bit of um help in all directions. I I'm always looking. Like if I'm at, I'll be honest, if I'm at a Tim Hortons, if I'm at a music store, if I'm anywhere and I see somebody that I know is if I'm looking for a dock hand and I'm in the city of Winnipeg and I see a college kid that's working at a store and he goes out of his way to help an old lady hold that door and she drops her coffee and he wipes it up and blah, blah, blah. I'm gonna go to that kid and say, hey, bud, listen, I owe this is what I do for a living. Here's my card. If you ever want to do something different, Krista always laughs at me. She thinks I'm crazy. She's like, these people aren't gonna. And I'm like, I did that all the time. No, but you know what? The one out of ten that does is gonna be a beauty client or a beauty client or a beauty guest.
SPEAKER_08I um uh or employee.
SPEAKER_04Or a worker. I'm sorry, worker.
SPEAKER_08I uh I I did that. I one of um one of my um uh best um well one of the hardest working uh girls that I hired uh come from um I forget what store I was in. Um was a grocery store maybe or whatever. I saw her working there and um her demeanor and uh and and uh the way that she spoke to people and the helpfulness. Uh I I that's what I I would do that all the time, just like you.
SPEAKER_07That's uh just like you.
SPEAKER_08I guess that's a that's a a a low-end form of headhunting, you know. Um yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah, and and and those can be the best ones, you know.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, absolutely. No, for sure. And that well, that's like you say, that's headhunting. That's that's picking, that's what I'm doing when I'm looking on going through these resumes, but you're seeing it in acting, yeah, right?
SPEAKER_08So it's it's well you get to feel it, you get to feel what the person is like because the you can you can see a lot on an on a resume, or you can you can see even more on a Facebook post or page, but in person you feel what those people are like, and that is the most important. So yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure.
SPEAKER_08Absolutely like so. You're almost ready to rock and roll here um on the uh the the strongest day of the year. Uh I can't believe that you're booked out, man. That's the that's that's amazing.
SPEAKER_04I'm booked out, buddy. I'm gonna like I say, I'm gonna continue. We're gonna continue the last little push here. Me and Adam are heading down to Louisiana, and then uh I'll probably do a podcast down there, Fritz. Yeah, I probably Captain Allen. We should maybe get on him on here. It'd be kind of fun to be kind of cool. He's a he's a lodge owner down on the bayou. It would be kind of cool to you.
SPEAKER_08Once you get down there, we'll uh we'll uh uh we'll get uh a bit of a uh a multi um guest show.
SPEAKER_04We're doing a catfish boil. Maybe what I'll do is I'll get him to sit around with me while we're doing the boil while we're cooking. We'll see uh maybe we can chat with old Steve. Yeah, we'll figure something out.
Charity Trips And Final Thanks
SPEAKER_08So anything else new before we uh before we sign off?
SPEAKER_04Um you know, two things I just want to mention here quick. Um I uh we do a lot of charitable work, Steve. I uh everywhere I can. Um and Team Jack, the Rex Burkheads Foundation there out of uh Nebraska, down where the Corn Cuskers when he used to play down there. Uh he linked up with them years ago. We've heard him talk about them on this show. Um well this past year, that young man Jack has passed.
SPEAKER_08Oh, that's too bad.
SPEAKER_04Um and it's uh it's something that I want to continue doing. Me and Krista and uh and Adam and Denise. Adam's my partner, right? We've we've we he feels very much the same. So we uh we donated some stuff to their gala, a nice trip for someone to bid out of Nebraska, and it made a buttload of money for um for the children's brain brain uh cancer foundation down there, which was a big deal to us. Um and then we started working with a charity here in Winnipeg, basically doing the same thing. So um their gala is coming up here next week, and I'm gonna head over to that and uh hopefully we can make a couple grand for those people and uh drive drive forward from there. It's kind of fun when you uh it's kind of fun to have have those those people up to the lodge after they've been on a trip like that, and usually they're part of the societable charity in some way, shape, or form. Um, and uh it makes my day every day when I see those people having fun and happy. It makes me realize that's why I love doing this, just like you did. And uh it's not about the money for me. Yeah, I've made lots of money in my day, it's about a lifestyle and and uh and I love every minute of it. But yeah, I just wanted to mention those two.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, no, I uh that charity uh work is is awesome, especially when you have such a wonderful vehicle to to do it with, like a lodge. And um, I was always very active with um with uh Dougie Poirier. Uh he did a um uh ice fishing uh tournament on uh Lake Simcoe called Perchin for MS. And uh good old Dougie uh loved the man. Um and we uh we did a lot of work together and um to to build those relationships and to to to know you're actually helping people on the front line is uh is a wonderful way of doing things. So good on you, buddy.
SPEAKER_04It's powerful for sure. It did put stuff into perspective. I know that's what it does for me. It it really puts life into perspective for me. Yeah, yep, it does. Yeah, yep.
SPEAKER_08No, absolutely. Well, listen, Willie, thank you again for your time. And um, we will talk very soon, maybe from uh from uh Louisiana. Um, and uh I know I'll talk to you before then, but uh for all the folks here, uh thank you very much for for joining us. Really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04Awesome, buddy. Take care, have a good one, and we will uh see you on the backside.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, thanks. And listen, folks, thank you very much for listening to this point. Really appreciate it. And if you like the content, uh subscribe, give us a like, uh uh do all that funky stuff. And uh head on over to fishingcanada.com uh where you can uh check out all the giveaways and and there's a ton of wonderful content there. Uh uh Pete, Ange, Dean, uh the whole crew do a wonderful job with that. And uh thank you again to our producers Anthony Mancini and uh Deany Martini Taylor. Appreciate it. His nickname changes every week.
SPEAKER_04Dancing Dean. I just saw Dean's last Lake Tro video from last year up at uh what's it called? Man, I was watching the flex bringing in that like 38 instrument. I'm like, Dean, slow down on the screen, brother. You're gonna cry. I know.
SPEAKER_08Well, Dino He's got pipes back in. He's a sleeper boy. I tell I tell him all the time, man.
SPEAKER_04He is uh he is uh he's a beauty, some yeah, some young ladies at the happy woman.
SPEAKER_08Oh dude, I told him he should be going on those uh TV shows, you know, the reality TV shows like uh The Bachelor and all that shit. Correct. Yeah, yeah. He's got pipes on him like a python. Sometimes I'll sometimes I'll be sitting in the boat and we'll be fishing together and I'll look over and I'll see Dean. He's you know, he doesn't he doesn't strike you as a really big dude, right? But then I'll look at his arm and I'm like, wow, that's impressive. T-shirt, like you know, his arm's going purple because his t-shirt's so tight around his bicep. Anyway, oh Danks to you, producer, fellas. And I and you know, Anthony is one of the one of uh, he's a great guy, but I've never met him in person. So I don't know, uh I don't know what Anthony looks like to comment on his biceps. Anyway, thank you, folks. Um, and uh uh you know how to get a hold of me, steve.n at fishingcanada.com with your thoughts, your comments. Always love to have uh have uh have that coming in. And thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North.
SPEAKER_07I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm. I'll be the only you ever saw been reeling in the hog since the day I was born, bending my rod, stretching my life. Someday I might on a lodge, and I'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 plows. While I'm a good old boy, I'll buy the lodge and live my dream, and now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Welcome to Two Rivers Lodge, where we know that our hard work and determination creates your best experiences. You'll arrive as a guest but leave as family, surrounded by a multi-species fishing mecca like no other. Our elite cabins and professional staff are ready to make your stay unforgettable. Experience the difference. Because at two rivers, every cast is a story, and every guest is a part of the family. 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.
SPEAKER_06That's right. Every Thursday, Ann and I will be right here in your ears, bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio.
SPEAKER_08Hmm. Now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week?
SPEAKER_06Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of fishing.
SPEAKER_02I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors.
SPEAKER_03From athletes, all the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garchom Turks, and all the Russians would go fishing.
SPEAKER_00To scientists. So now that we're reforesting or anything, it's a perfect transmission environment for line disease.
SPEAKER_01To chefs. If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for you will taste it.
SPEAKER_08And whoever else will pick up the phone. Wherever you are, Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside.
SPEAKER_06Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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