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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 150: A Fire Chief’s PTSD Recovery Through Fishing
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The hardest part of emergency calls isn’t always the chaos you can see. Sometimes it’s standing beside a wife, a son, or a loved one who’s begging you to fix the unfixable. Fire Chief Mike Sutton joins us for a raw, honest talk about nearly 30 years in the fire service, the weight that builds call after call, and the moment he realizes PTSD, anxiety, and depression have finally caught up.
We start on the lighter side with muskie fishing, missed strikes, and the mental discipline it takes to stay sharp. Then Mike takes us back through his path from Guyana to Sault Ste. Marie, football and university, and the career pivot that led him into firefighting. From fire hall humour to the brotherhood support that keeps crews moving, we look at what the job gives you and what it quietly takes.
Mike opens up about grief after losing a fellow firefighter, the guilt of being off work, and the slow, brave work of recovery including exposure therapy and rebuilding trust in himself. We also dig into why fishing and the outdoors feel like real therapy: the calm of water, the focus of casting, the connection of being in a boat with someone who gets it. Along the way we talk about peer-support efforts like Green Ops, and the big idea Mike can’t shake, creating more pathways for first responders to heal through time on the water.
If you know someone who needs this conversation, share it with them. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what role the outdoors plays in your mental health.
Helplessness Beside The Loved Ones
SPEAKER_10In the later years, I was a captain, right? So I'm no longer doing the CR. I'm standing beside this left woman. Trying to talk them through it or console them, trying to pull them out of the room. And that's where I was helpless. I want to help people. Yeah. And I don't know how to help this person. I can't. There's nothing I can do to help what they're going through right now. Just trying to explain things, trying to get their mind off it. It didn't help them and it didn't help me, and just just this helpless uselessness that just ate away at me.
Why The Outdoors Can Heal
SPEAKER_06This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast, Networks, Diaries of the Lodge Owner, Stories of the North. Today we come together as a family to talk about the healing power of the outdoors. And it is my pleasure to introduce to all of you Fire Chief Mike Sutton, a remarkable man with a heart as big as all outdoors, a sharp mind, and an incredible work ethic who has spent nearly 30 years serving and protecting others. On this show, Mike shares how the weight of those years eventually led him to face PTSD, and how fishing became an important part of finding his way forward. But Mike's story isn't only about his own healing. He also wants to help others step outside, get onto the water, and discover the peace, purpose, and connection that the outdoors can provide. So, as the Diaries family, we want to explore what can happen when strong people find the courage to speak honestly, accept support, and help one another heal. Because sometimes fishing is about far more than catching a fish. It can be a pathway back to hope, community, and others. Here's my conversation with Fire Chief Mike Sutton.
Meeting Fire Chief Mike Sutton
SPEAKER_06Welcome to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner. And I am very excited to have Mike Sutton on with me. And Mike is a very interesting and special fella. I met him at the um spring fishing show this year and uh was compelled to introduce him to all of you. Welcome to the show, Mike. Thank you, Steven. Yeah, yeah.
Muskie Fishing And Staying Sharp
SPEAKER_06So listen, I uh I know you were out fishing yesterday. Um uh what uh how did you do?
SPEAKER_10I mean, I caught fish, but none of my target species, that's for sure. I was hoping for muskie or walleye. And I caught a bunch of bass and a bunch of bluegill. Um and it was, and then you know, I was I was telling you, it's probably just as well I didn't catch any muskies. The water's getting on the warm side. So uh I did miss one that smashed my top water and just what sent it flying.
SPEAKER_06But uh the um sometimes those strikes are are uh are better than actually catching it. Yeah, for sure. You probably near shit your pants. Well, only because I got a bit complacent.
SPEAKER_10It'd been all day, right? And that was that you know that perfect dusk sort of golden hour, and I've been casting, casting, casting, and then uh not really paying attention. I just kind of heard the boom and looked over, and the lure was 10 feet that way, and the fish was five feet the other way up in the air. I was like, what the I know.
SPEAKER_06Well, it's funny you say that. One of the um, one of the most important things as far as muskie fishing goes is uh in my opinion, is managing that complacency. And uh I'm probably one of the better uh examples of being way too complacent. Um, you know, I'm a social guy, you get in a boat with people. I'm I'm focused on catching fish, yes, but I'm also excited to be um uh spending time with other people. And, you know, I have had so many big fish come to the side of the boat following my bait, and I'm already in my back cast for the next cast. You know what I mean? Just not watching that two, three feet behind the bait, not doing a figure eight every time you come to the boat, just it and and it's that complacency. You know, I I watch unbelievable musky anglers. Pat Tryon is one, and um they don't miss those um those opportunities.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, I'll say I'm I'm pretty good at keeping up with the figure eights and and watching them. Uh you know, the complacency here was I so far away from the boat, so I was almost kind of not required to sort of concentrate so much. But yeah, you know, and even if I was paying attention, it wouldn't have mattered because it never even bit the bait, it just kind of hit it, right? So whether I was paying attention or not, it I had no chance of getting that bitch. So that's that's I'm that's my story of sticking to it. I was gonna lose that fish anyways. It wasn't my fault.
SPEAKER_06Right
From Guyana To Sault Ste. Marie
SPEAKER_06on. So listen, Mike, tell us a little bit about yourself. Um, how did you uh become uh interested in fishing and and what did you uh um uh where did you go to school, grow up? What what did you do for a living? You know, you're still a you're a young man, so give us a little background. You only say I'm a young man because I'm the same age as you, roughly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_10I think I'm a little bit older, to be honest. I just turned 53 two days ago. The day I was fishing was my birthday. It was my birthday trip.
SPEAKER_06Well, you look like you're 30. I wish I looked like you.
SPEAKER_10I look like I'm 15 most of the time, so so uh about myself, man. I don't know where to start. I mean, if you want to start, uh Did you grow up in Ontario? I did, but I was born in South America. I was born in Guyana, which is funny. You started out the story about a guy fishing in Guyana. He's like, he caught this giant catfish in an English trap, and he made all the F and shot the thing or something like that. The turtle, yeah. The catfish they caught and they shot it.
SPEAKER_06No, it was a turtle. Uh, that was um uh my my old boss's uh Pete DeCourcy's father-in-law. Oh, okay. And um uh he would come in and and he was a heavy smoker and a big socializer, and he always told us about this story.
SPEAKER_07And he said, I remember a time in Guyana. We were down by the water, and the natives caught this big turtle. It was beautiful. It was a stunning sight to see this magnificent animal, and they rolled it on its back and ate the fucker.
SPEAKER_10And I can believe that because I've seen it firsthand when visiting down there where we were at a like a fish camp and we looked around the corner, and there's a poor turtle getting butchered because you're about to put it in the soup like you can't eat it. Yeah, you know, now in the middle of North and they gotta survive.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_10So yeah, so I started in Guyana, but I left as a baby. My mom was from Saskatchewan, my dad was from Guyana. So I moved to Saskatchewan for a couple years before I was even three. Um, the bit in Meadow Lake where my brother was born, and a little bit in Saskatoon. Um, and then we moved to Sault Ste. Marie when I was three years old. So I pretty much grew up in Sault Ste. Marie. That's where my dad got a job. He was a pilot. My mom was a teacher. Nice. Um, he just flew like uh Northern Ontario, um, twin otters and dash eighths just all those small northern Ontario towns. Um Yeah, like I guess I could say my dad got me into fishing, but it all he did was like take a like send me, give me an inch, and I took 10,000 miles. But like I guess my mom says he uh he caught a fish when I was really small, maybe even in Saskatchewan. I think it was in Saskatchewan, and I guess I just was in awe staring at this thing, and I didn't know what the heck was going on. But uh, and then as I got older, he took me a couple times with these family friends. That was a guy I mean actually as well, that ended up moving to Sault Ste. Marie. And we go camping and go fishing a bit. But then I just latched onto it. Um, you know, I was I remember I'd go like I was in the winters, I'd go skiing with my friends. Uh there's a there's a ski hill about 40 minutes outside Sault Ste. Marie. And I'd say, oh no, the fishing shows. I forgot the fishing shows. So I I knew so much, I could literally call my parents from a payphone, put in my quarter, and say, uh, mom, dad, can you tape uh channel three from eight to nine, eight to eight thirty, channel six from eight thirty to nine, channel eleven from ten to eleven. And I knew every show, you know, it was like in fishermen, baba Zumi, Kane Sport Fishing, you know, the every every I just the whole I knew the whole list by heart, and I could have them recording for me on the VCR back in the day and uh watch them that night, watch them all, and I saved them and rewatched them, and I just became a freaking fishing lunatic. Like I'm so like addicted to it. Like it's it's it's crazy. And then once I you know, when I got older, I'd drive my bike area in in Tucson Mary. I'd drive my bike uh two hours like downtown to like the St. Mary's River goes through town and fish down there, or go up north, there's a little um local park that had little uh little speckled trout in it. Um and then once I could drive, it was game on and I was I had a canoe I'd put in top of my minivan and go out fishing, whatever. Yeah, yeah. And then as I got older, I I knew a lot of friends growing up that were into fishing, and as I got older, it kind of it kind of faded a little bit. They got busy with work and family and stuff like that. And me, it just got more and more and more. I could, you know, afford a boat, I could afford more a taco. Then I got into musky, and I'm oh my god, this talk about affording this buying more stuff than you could possibly imagine that at cost. Oh yeah. And it just, you know, it just went insane.
Football, School, And A Career Pivot
SPEAKER_10And and like the only kind of drama I had was when I was in school. I went to uh I went to uh University of Guelph. Uh I was taking environmental science. I thought it was gonna be uh some kind of like uh like nature, you know, petty shark. Fishing wildlife specialists. Well, not even just fishing, wild, just animals in general. But I did have a specific, I actually wanted to take um marine biology because I was so Jack Gusto was my hero growing up. I you know, I knew I had all his books and I loved the ocean. And I thought I'd head that way, but then I realized, you know, this it wasn't it wasn't looking like that. Like the jobs weren't like the the the glamour jobs you see and TV and stuff like that. It was gonna end up being like you know, in a lab code with test tubes or something like that, which would have drove me crazy stuck in a lab all day. You know, no offense to people that do that, good for them, but I couldn't do it. Um so I was actually having uh lunch with just uh a friend, and I was like, I don't like my program, don't like where it's going, you know, don't know what I'm doing. Um, you know, and the main reason I even went to university was to play football. So I was a football player. I love I loved football. So I went to football. Yeah, I went to play football, but I kind of had to work out getting a degree or she couldn't play football. I mean if you got fucked up, you couldn't play anymore. So I did I had to concentrate on uh my schoolwork. But, anyways, uh yeah, my friend said, you know, why don't you be a firefighter? And I was like, uh that's a good idea. And uh I sort of I always kind of wanted to do it as a young kid. I don't think I remember the show Emergency from way back in the late 70s. That was like my favorite show growing up. Ironically, one of those that started that show just died this past week. But um, yeah, so I loved that show and I wanted to be a firefighter. And then I kind of kind of faded away from that, and my eyes went bad, you know, and you had to have good vision to be a firefighter. But then they uh little uh laser surgery came around. So I got one. When this friend of mine said wanted to be a firefighter, I like literally booked an appointment like months later to get my eyes fixed. So that I could, you know, no shit, try to be a firefighter. Like that was what I did.
SPEAKER_06So your buddy says, Was that your friend? Was that your friend later? Your your friend, whatever. And and you in that moment, uh and I'm interested in this. So because when when I was uh a sheet metal mechanic and um I realized I hated that job. Um I can and and no disrespect to all the sheet metal mechanics out there, um, because it is a good job, just not for me. And um I had that aha moment when I knew that I was gonna be a lodge owner. Like I that that thought crossed my mind and I grabbed it and I knew that that was for me. Is that what it was like for you when you heard somebody speak those words to you?
SPEAKER_10Yeah, pretty much because it helped that I did kind of have that um idea passed in to do it when I was younger, which kind of had to which faded away mainly because of the eyes and because of football. I couldn't go to you know college for fire fighting and play football. And football was so big and still a big part of my life. I still love football. Like you know, I coached it, I played it, I played fantasy football, I do all that stuff. It's almost on par with fishing. It's it's just under fishing, you know. Yeah. Uh but then when this kind of came around, we're like, I can still do it. I did I did my four years of football, you know. That's you know, that's nearing its end. Um, I don't really have a degree I want, but I can still do this. And at the time, um, it wasn't impossible to get hired without having gone to a fire college or getting a fire program type degree. It was the competition was there, but it's now it's insane competition. You need you need a resume like this full of stuff to even get looked at to get hired in places now. But back then, you know, just the fact I had a science degree, I still had a degree in science. Um, I was a very and I still am I'm a very jack of all trades. Like I have a I've done a little bit of everything. I've been everywhere, I've done everything. Like I think I've been to like 20, 28 countries now. Like, you know, I've had I had like 10 different kind of part-time jobs throwing up. You know, I was tree planting, I was worked at a fish hatchery. I I caught minnows for uh the MR study. You know, I was in the I was in the mil uh military reserves for a couple years. Like I had just this big mix of stuff. And I think the fire department liked that. Like that, you know, I was I was an athlete, so I knew how to be a team player, you know, stuff like that. So uh and I think I was pretty much that in itself is a great resume. Yeah, and I think it was I'm pretty much the last person I know of that got hired anywhere without you know going to like a fire school or being a volunteer firefighter.
SPEAKER_06You got hired without going to fire school, yeah.
SPEAKER_10And that was 1999, so that was uh a long time ago. So that's not happening in 90 days.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, before we uh explore your your firefighting career, because I want to, that's it, that's a very interesting topic. Um, what is one of the or a couple of memories that you have from your previous jobs or countries or any, like I mean, you're well traveled at that point in your life. What is one or two things, and it can be anything, that really stick out that are memorable anchor moments in your life. Do you have a uh uh one or two of those?
SPEAKER_10Well, I mean, I probably jumped to some of my travels because they're pretty, they're not only uh amazing, they're just like the the opportunity, like the the chance I had to go. That so many people in this world don't get to go do stuff like this. Um, I do say I travel a lot, but I am proud to say I did travel most of Canada before I started going outside of Canada. So now I I take my parents for that. My parents kind of nourished my adventurous spirit, especially with travel. Like we did coast to coast drives, like almost when I was like six, we drove to the west coast, and when I was eight, we drove to the east coast. And then when I was nine, we drove to Florida, and like you know, stopping all along the way. So we saw these massive roads that saw
Travel That Opened The World
SPEAKER_10everything. Now when I was 15, which is a defining moment, uh and my brother was would have been 14. Uh, I had one, I had one brother growing up. We're very similar, except that I'm more of outdoorsy and and uh individuals. Like I'm not sure. Not you. No, no, I'm more into snowboarding and like surfing and rock climbing or walks. I don't know this one. He's he's more just like sort of team sports. Now he's a runner. He runs. He he lives in Florida and he runs. Nice crazy. If you ask me, it's more crazy than being a muskie person. So um, yeah, so when we were 16, um uh our parents took us to Africa. Um my mom's good friend growing up was out to the high commissioner to Kenya, which is kind of like the ambassador, like a uh Really? The uh the Commonwealth version of an ambassador is uh High Commissioner. So we kind of been to the Royal Stream, got to stay in the High Commissioner's house, you know, had butlers and chauffeur and all that stuff, but which was cool. But then, you know, we went on a bunch of these like safari trips, and uh, you know, we you know, her paying these she driven around and saw all the big animals, all the lions and zebras and elephants and you know, all the really cool stuff. And my mind was like, wow, I can't believe I'm here like all the stuff I've watched on TV my whole life. Like this is yeah, I may have saw a lion try to hunt a warthog and miss, but it was super cool to see her chase down this warthog and the himpos, you know, was literally tearing people apart when they get near them, like seeing all this really cool stuff. So that kind of like put this in my head that you know the uh the rest of the world is accessible to me at some point. Yeah. So that was a key point that you know I can see this, see the world. So when I the that year I finished university with my degree, um I'd already applied to be a firefighter in the in in the in the Sioux, Su St. Marie. And I I I'd made it uh to the waiting list. So I was on this waiting list, which is good for I think at the time it was good for two years. So it was still no guarantee to get hired, I'm just on this list. Um and uh so I'm like I should you know get out there and do stuff. And you know, in case I get hired, you know, I may not be able to travel as much once I work or whatever. Uh so I'm like, I'm gonna go to I because I worked in um tree planting and I spent a couple winters working in Whistler as a seabunk. Yeah, met a lot of Australians, piles and piles of Australians, especially Whistler. So I had you know, Australia in my head, and I'm like, I'm gonna go to Australia. Like it's it's easy, it's English, it's very similar to Canada, you know, really similar and all that stuff. And I was taking the scuba diving and big into surfing. I'm like, that's a place I can do both of those things. You know, I love these things. So I started planning to go to Australia. Um and you know, my dad was like, yeah, I think you should stay here and keep working on your resume and getting better so you can get hired at firefighting. And my mom, God bless her heart, was like, just go, go. You may never get a chance. You know, when I when I was your age, I just plan to travel out in the world and do and see all this stuff. But Guyana was my first stop, and I met your dad, and that ended my travel thing. It was like, take take advantage of this and go for it. I was like, okay, good for her, God bless her. Um and yeah, so I was there for six months. Um, I you know, I I worked on a I traveled, just traveled around the first sort of month, and then uh the four months in the middle, I worked on a scuba diving boat on the Great Pierre Reef. And that was Don Cousteau. Every day was just like Christmas. It was like, what? I'm here like this is this is wild. Like it's unbelievable. Like the stuff I saw. And then what I thought was so good at where I was scuba diving, as I sort of left that job of sort of starting heading back south to get ready to sort of leave. I I volunteered on these other dive boats where you you you volunteer, but then you get to dive for that. So it's like uh probably a three-four thousand dollar like four-day live-aboard dive trip that I got to do for free because I was washing some dishes. Like it was more than worth it. Yeah, perfect. And and that diving, what I thought was so amazing where I was working was garbage compared to what I saw in these places because we're just going where no one goes. Like it's it's more luxury trip going out to remote areas, and like and it pretty it almost ruined diving from it. I can't really dive anywhere else because nothing kind of measures up to this, dude.
SPEAKER_06It's it's yeah, it was unbelievable.
SPEAKER_10And just uh the flora and fauna or the different species everywhere and seeing dolphins from the boat all the time and manta rays and so many fish, and you know, turtles and sea snakes and all the super cool stuff. Like the only drawbacks, I was never fishing. I think I fished one night, I think, where I think a shark almost pulled me in the water because she's got like a hand line. I just started against the place and just kind of doing this. Like, oh I just got yanked. And uh I learned by but like grabbing by the belt and that held me in as the line sort of snapped in my head. I'm glad it caught you. Um I mean, then it could have been a giant grouper or like or something like that, but I mean uh there was a lot of sparrows around, so yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But a specific moment it within that Australia trip before I was on a dive boat was I was out surfing and uh a bunch of dolphins were like surfing with me on the wave. And that was just like I love dolphins, I love the ocean, and it was almost like a euphoric moment. I was like, oh my god, there's dolphins on this wave with me. Like it was like who can who can say that? Like Surfer scans. Yeah. People that don't surf, like they're like, wow, like you're just hanging out with wild dolphins or surfing. They you kind of look, they kind of turn and their eye kind of eyeball looks at you like as they're going by and stuff. It's just the guy's kind of peer into your soul. It's it was that's amazing. It was really cool, really, really cool.
SPEAKER_06Right on. And then you come home and uh you start your as I was leaving Australia.
SPEAKER_10I was saying I hit New Zealand for a couple days um or a couple weeks, maybe even a month. You know, I kind of had an open-ended ticket. So I get to New Zealand, I just land the next day. I get a call from my mom saying the fire department department wants you home for an interview. So I didn't have a job, but they wanted another, they wanted to interview like the top five choices that were on this waiting list. And I was like, oh my God, I just got to New Zealand. And they're like, they want to hear like ASAP. I was like, oh my gosh. So I called, I called the chief and I said, hi, it's Mike Sutton, and I'm calling you from New Zealand. Any chance I can get a you know, a couple days leeway here before I can do this interview, I'm like, I had a long way to go. And I kind of just got here and he's like, all right, how about, you know, on this day, which was I think it was eight days, eight or nine days away. I was like, okay, thank you. I I appreciate that. I will I'll I'll be there. Absolutely. Yeah. So I I raced through New Zealand. I literally I hitchhiked from one end of the country to the other, you know, saw a bunch of cool stuff, jumped on a plane, and you know, flew home the next day have an interview and didn't get hired. So I went tree planting again, spent another two months in the bush with the bears and the bugs and the drama of tree planting. Up uh, you're out um I could imagine the drama of tree planting. Like west of Thunder Bay, Uppsala area, Ignace, like out there. Um, and then uh I come home, I come home for tree planting, and I'm at my friend's camp or cottage called down here, which is um my favorite
Tree Planting Grit And Getting Hired
SPEAKER_10places in the world. It's just outside Sault St. Ray on St. Joseph's Island, just the north end of the North Canal.
SPEAKER_06So the tree planting's got me intrigued when you say drama, because I wonder if it's like the drama that you have at a fishing lodge. Is it all relationship-based, or is the drama like you've you're living in tents and you're put in these extreme conditions and you're out planting in the bugs? And like what is some of the drama?
SPEAKER_10It is all that. It's uh there's relationship drama for sure. Um, I do know a couple um couples that are still together after they nitrink planting. It's uh it's a very uh intense relationship area because you're kind of stuck in this middle nowhere. You know, the bugs are driving your carrot crazy. I don't know how relationship it's all you're all dirty and messy though. Disgusting smell. But um uh I used to swim every day. Like we'd we'd start um end of April, early May, and the water's like probably like you know, yeah, five four degrees. And uh, you know, and and I'm jumping there swimming every day because I could not handle it, I couldn't sleep with all that slimy funk on me, whatever. So I always swim. Yeah, yeah. What time of year? But some people didn't and they just freaked. But yeah, but the drama's like relationship drama. The work is hard, so people are getting frustrated. They're not, you know, if if you don't, if you're not good or not fast, you don't make money getting paid per tree, right? Like you know, five to ten cents per tree. So if you're not good at it, you're you're losing money. Like you're paying a camp fee because you're paying for your wasting time and all that stuff. You gotta pay a certain amount per day for camp costs. And if you're not planning, you're not making any money. So people get frustrated for that. Sometimes their land is good, sometimes it's bad. You know, a whole pile of rocks or a whole pile of other trees in the way, and you know, screefing. You gotta kick the top layer of kind of like dead stuff on the top. You gotta get that away to get down to the good stuff. And and you got to keep a quality up, or else you don't get paid for your trees. You gotta replant, and then you're getting you're not getting paid to replant because you've already planted the same tree twice, you know. You know, and then there's conflicts with your crew boss and yelling at the tree runner, and then you know, and then the you know, the generators are in the gas and everything goes dark while you're eating dinner, and you know, it you know, there's just yeah, but the the bugs are probably basically bugs, but like you just mean like when when when bugs are intense, oh yeah, they will drive the most sane person absolutely insane in seconds. Like when you can't swat fast enough you swathered you swatting over here, there's three more buttons over here, then you're swating here, and you know, oh yeah, you look like a monkey dancing, it's it's it's driving you insane. Like, and so now when I get you know, there's a couple bugs around, people are like, Oh, these bugs are so bad. I'm like, give me a break.
SPEAKER_07You have no idea.
SPEAKER_06Oh, that's hilarious.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, so I I I just came back from tree planting and I was at my friend's cottage, and we were sitting there, and I was sitting across from an NHL hockey player that we came to know that had married a girl from the Sioux. Um, and we're just sitting there, you know, having a drink. What was his name? Uh, Jeff Toms. Um, he played he he was a he kind of played for a bunch of different teams, but his highlight is he assisted or no, scored the goal for Brian Bellows, whatever, 1,000, 10,000, whatever significant point. Jeff scored the goal that Brian uh got these hits on. Brian Bellows was the hell of a big one. He was one hat-trick, he was playing for the Islanders at the time. He scored a hat, he scored a hat-trick, and then he was on the bench, started talking to his teammates, and the fucking after the game, his wife and kids went to meet him, and his son was like two, and he wanted to pick up my mother hat trick, and his son just goes, huh? And grabs his nose.
SPEAKER_07Oh no.
SPEAKER_10So yeah, so I'm sitting there with Jeff and my best friend Doug and another another guy, and uh um Doug's mom says, Oh, your the phone call is your mom, whatever. And I pick up the phone and she's like, Oh, I'm looking for firefighter Sutton. I'm like, What? Yeah, is Firefighter Sutton there? I'm like, mom, what the heck are you talking about? She's like, fire department called. They just hired you. No way. So I literally like dropped the phone. And you're probably getting an idea of my lunacy here. I dropped the phone and literally ran two laps around the car like a maniac. And then sat back down. And I was like, to the guy, like, I just gotta hire, it's gonna hire. And the guy in the from the NHL, Jeff, looks at me and goes, Oh man, you're so lucky. I've always wanted to be a firefighter. Who's playing the NHL? And then fast forward, um, probably How old were you at that point when you I was 25. Nice. Soon to be 26, a couple weeks before 26. Yeah. So fast forward 10 years later, I've I've left the Sioux. I I I because uh my wife from Southern Ontario, she tried living in the Sioux, couldn't handle it. So we moved closer to her friends and family down here. And uh Jeff, that same NHL player, got hired as a firefighter in the Suz A Marine and it's retired. No way. So I mean sort of leaving kind of opened up a spot for him down the line to get hired.
SPEAKER_06That's awesome.
Lodge Sponsor Break And Network Teasers
SPEAKER_06Welcome 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_00As 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.
Fire Hall Life And Dark Humour
SPEAKER_06So tell me a little bit about your firefighting experience.
SPEAKER_10I mean, I don't know where you want to go with this. Um, you know, it's you go where you want to go. I mean, it's you know, it's I I I love being a firefighter. Um, I still love it. I think it's the best career, especially for someone who wants to do other stuff. Whether you want to work on the side, which lots of guys do, lots there's lots of like carpenters and plumbers and electricians and landscapers, and because you have the a great schedule that you can work on your days off, which are usually in in chunks, right? You work certain days on and a whole bunch of days off and then certain days on because you're working a 24-hour shift. So you rack up your your yearly hours pretty quick, you know, in condensed form. So yeah. Um, so if someone wants to fish or hunt, it's it's perfect. And you get to go out on weekdays when everyone less people are out there, um, it it's fantastic. Um, the job itself, you know, you feel uh um significant in that you're helping people in their in their worst days, right? So and that's that was kind of the more my basis to first get into before I kind of knew what it would be, was I just I just liked helping people. Um it's it was just kind of my thing. And I still do that. Like if I'm driving around and I see someone pulled over, I like immediately slow down. You know, you need help. Or you know, if someone's in a store and I see them, I look around confused. I'm like, Do you need help? Like it's like I just naturally want to help people, um, which comes to play later in my story here. So um yeah, so it's you know, and you've you've you know it's it's it's uh very like uh not to be uh sexist, but it's very brotherhoody, right? You know, there's lots of females there now, but it's uh you know, that's it, and your brothers and sisters now, um, which is more and more common because you have to. Um yeah, because you depend on each other, right? So it's a lot of like joking around and teasing, and sometimes that's one borderline um bullying, but it's it's it's it's uh you know, teasing and it's in uh it's it's almost a way to deal with the stresses and the pressures is you you joke about stuff. You see some terrible, terrible stuff when you crap jokes about it. Like, oh see that that was I'm gonna make some disgusting joke, and I was sort of laughing, but inside you're like, that was bad. Um, but it's kind of a way, a way to deal with it, right? And um, you know what I'm kind of getting at is I lasted uh 25 years of doing that, and I couldn't uh take it anymore.
PTSD, Loss, And Stepping Away
SPEAKER_10Uh so yeah, so presently I've been off work for two and a half years uh due to PTSD, uh, along with uh anxiety and depression. Um a major factor in this, which I've talked to you about, um, is uh passing of a good friend of mine that was also a firefighter who was also uh struggling with PTSD. Um so he was off work for a bunch of years, kind of came back, then had to go off again after seeing some brutal calls, like two two calls in a row, which are absolutely awful. After he was already traumatized. Um so he was off for three or four years from that, and then he got diagnosed with the cancer, which um took his life. And um, from the moment he died, I just wasn't the same. And um, it lasted a year after he died, and then I said I can't do this anymore. And I'm still working on that. Um, I'm you know, getting this close, the like sort of trying to go back, the first steps of going back.
SPEAKER_06But uh, we'll see how that goes and if I'm even ready for that. It's a very difficult thing. The first responders, um, you guys have such a difficult job to do. Um some very good friends of mine are our first responders. Uh, one in particular, Glenn, and uh he's retired now. Um, and he worked down in uh Brampton um at a couple of the uh um uh stations down there. And um this really doesn't apply to him so much, but um the one the one common factor um that that kind of he would talk about that I saw um as as a lodge owner was alcoholism. And uh there's a lot of a lot of uh people that are in those situations where they see all of these terrible things. Now, obviously, a lodge owner doesn't see any of that and drinks for different reasons, and I'll get into that. But um I think that uh from what I've heard, because I'm not a firefighter, but a lot of people try and deal with certain situations in different ways. And um and alcohol was always one that seemed to um be part of it. Uh with a lodge owner, like I mean, there's no PTSD. There's no, you don't see people dying in car accidents and burning in fires and property lost, which is all horrific. I don't even I don't even know how you you put yourself in a frame of mind to deal with that stuff on a day-to-day basis. Like for me, I just don't think I could do it. I I it it it is there there is there is no uh shame in in being in a position where you have a hard time with that because anybody that's human has a hard time with that stuff. With a lodge owner, it's you know, it's opposite. Everything there's stresses, right? There's the stress of keeping people happy. Um, but and and then all of a sudden, you know, everybody's there on a party and and and the guy starts drinking uh as a lodge owner, and then he becomes an alcoholic. And I see that all the time. All the time. But for this situation, um, I just I feel for you and uh I know I know exactly what you're talking about because Glenn um would always tell me stories and and uh how they would joke and try and it's a it's a it's a defense mechanism, I think, to try and protect yourself, to put up a shield emotionally. And um uh I totally, totally feel for you because some of the things that Glenn told me, you know, he would say it's fine if it's an adult. But as soon as children are involved, he said that um um you just you have no idea emotionally what that does to somebody, what that does to a first responder when they have to have their own kids, especially.
SPEAKER_10It's it's it's an extra that's right. That's right. Now, do you have kids? I do. They're 17 and soon to be 15, boy, boy older, well younger. Yeah, um, and I'll be honest, I I didn't have the the child calls. Um, like I've had a couple like medical calls where the is a little bit unknown, so I was a little bit worse. I'm not the parents took him away. Don't really know what happened to me, don't really get an update. So that was a little worse troubling. But what I was hinting at earlier about the wanting to help people, the uh the thing that's that really broke me was when it wasn't so much the person sort of uh dying on the floor, which we're we're working on. Yeah, it's the wife or the the child or the loved one standing there crying like out of their out of sores, like, do something, do something's it gonna be okay, like oh that's it. I'm not looking in the later years. I was a captain, right? So I'm I'm no longer doing the CPR, I'm standing beside this loved one, trying to talk them through it or console them, trying to pull them out of the room. And that's where I was helpless. I want to help people, yeah, and I don't know how to help this person. I can't, there's nothing I can do to help what they're going through right now. If I was doing the actual CPR, I actually have I feel like I'm actually trying I'm doing something to help. Talking to this loved one, whether what I was saying was helping them or not, I don't know, but it didn't feel like it to me. I'm way more of a hands-on person than that. Like if I'm putting water on a fire or like cutting open a car or you know, lifting a collapse of something or other, I feel like I'm doing something I'm helping. Just trying to tell the wife, oh, we're doing all we can, and what they're doing now is this, and you know, and you know, just trying to explain things to try and get their mind off it, it it didn't help them and it didn't help me, and and just just this helpless uselessness that just ate ate away at me. And that was on top of the other stuff I was seeing, which I didn't think was really bothering me, but I'm sure it all added up, you know, all the really crappy stuff I saw. But the the the the direct stuff I saw wasn't as sharp and painful as the like intangible help being able to help this wife whose husband is dying on the floor right there. Like that that that was the hard part of which um and other people have they they felt a similar way, but I think more cases that of guys I've talked to and women um are you know seeing like the dead person or the blood or the this or I couldn't get that person out of this thing, you know, that those those kind of things, which is been not as significant with me as as the other thing I explained there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's a it's a it's a feeling of helplessness.
SPEAKER_10Exactly. Exactly. That's the term I use. Helpless and useless at that time thing.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Which really you're you're not, but you're right. It doesn't matter what you say or how much you actually help that person in hindsight, in the moment, there's nothing you can say to console somebody when their loved one is dying on the floor. It's just it doesn't it it doesn't even compute for that person, right? And I'm sure, I'm sure that um um the the words that are coming from the loved ones, um some of them are directed in the wrong direction and they cut like knives. And I totally understand um you being a shield for the guys that are and girls that are working on these people, and you're taking all of the cuts.
SPEAKER_10It's a little more funny you say that because you described perfectly my very last call. Um my I was a captain, so my crew members are doing the CTR and someone on the floor, and we're in like a little tiny, almost like one-room apartment, maybe floor. And I had my back to the door, which was closed, and uh the the son, Adelaide son, came in, literally kicked the door in behind me, hit me the gate, hit me with the door and screaming and yelling at us. And so I literally protected protected them from him getting to them to my my crew on the floor, and then lucky the cops had already arrived there. So they they kind of pulled them back out and sort of talked them down. But the way my heart like jumped through my head, like it was just like one of those, it yeah, and then I came out of there, we were there probably another 20 minutes, and the person passed, unfortunately. Um, and and as I was walking out, I saw that same guy that kicked the door in and his sister just bawling. I was like, oh my god, you're okay. Um, and they were walking back to the truck, and my coworker, good friend, said, uh, that didn't go so all so well for you, did it? And I was like, no. And he already knew I had been struggling. He's I I told sort of a couple people I kind of circled trust and sort of told them what was going on. And he's like, That that wasn't good for you. And I'm like, Nope. He's like, You want to go see the chief? And I was like, uh yeah. So we drove we were at we have two stations in Aurelia. So I was at the the north, the smaller one in the state at the main hall. So we drove down to the main hall. And I literally just plan to go in there and say, um, you know, I am struggling, you know, you know, just so you know, like I'm I'm not having the best of time at work right now. And you know, I just one would fill him in. I was in therapy at that point, you know, I was trying to, you know, do stuff to to work through it. Um and uh I walked into his office and started telling him, and he just said, just go home. Don't come back until you're ready. Like he was I I have to thank him. Ironically, he was from Brampton he came from he's a chief came up from Brampton. Um yeah, and I didn't really know him. Like he didn't know me personally because he'd only been there a couple of months. Um but for how uh sympathetic and understanding he was, I'm um forever grateful to him. And uh he was just so like matter-of-fact, like you know, yeah, we'll take it from here. We got it covered, just take all the time you need. We're not gonna push you or whatever, and just go on. And that was two and a few years ago, and I haven't been back. I've finally been able to go back in the hall in the last couple of months. I've been making part of my treatment is uh exposure therapy at the college. So I actually go to places that were uh troubling for me. So I worked my way up what's called like a hierarchy of like demons that were sort of easier to the harder ones and the fire almost the top. So I've been able to handle going back in there um for the last couple months, which is you know, steps in the right direction of going back. But uh we'll see how that goes in the next couple months as we kind of start that process.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Are your are your good friends still there?
SPEAKER_10Oh, yeah, most, yeah. Yeah. And they've been, I have to say, like a lot of my um issue has been uh guilt. I feel very guilty being off. Yeah. Um from even like comparing myself to other guys, I know that guy sees some terrible crappy. He's still working, how come I can't? Like, you know, I just feel guilty. Or I know these people, guys, girls are still going to see terrible, terrible stuff, and I'm not. I get to stay stay at home. Like, like, how is that fair? Like, um, so I mean that's I no matter how many people tell me therapists, whatever, say, oh no, don't worry about it. You take care of you. I can't shake that guilt.
SPEAKER_06It's just how I am, I think. That's but but the thing is, I don't think that you should be feel guilty about feeling guilty. Yeah. Because feeling guilty is a natural thing, especially when it's bred into you as a person who first and foremost got into this um um position because you want to help people. Um, it's it's uh uh being a firefighter is about being a brotherhood, sisterhood, um, and and that feeling of not pulling your weight or not helping them to to to do their job, that is a natural feeling, I think. I don't think you're ever gonna get away from that. Um you might, um, but I think that you need to understand that they understand what you're going through. There's nobody in the world right now that understands better than they do. Right.
SPEAKER_10And that's the point I was gonna try to get to is that um even in my head, I had like even certain individuals like, uh, that person probably thinks I'm a wimp or I'm you know, I'm skipping out, I'm having a holiday, or you know, talking crap on my back. And everyone I've talked to um has said nothing of this sort. They're all 100% supportive. And they're all like, don't worry about it, man. Like we we got this covered, don't worry about us, you worry about you. And they've always said and done the right thing, um, which which is and I think very helpful in uh almost relieving, you know, hearing people say that. But no matter how much they say it, I still have this guilt I can't get rid of. But they are they're doing their their part, they're doing the right thing. It's just me that having a hard time uh contemplating it.
SPEAKER_06Listen, at the end of the day, too, you put in a lot of time, number one. And and I think that that um they're they're very sympathetic and understanding because deep down for them, I think that they feel they could be one incident away from being in the same position, right? And and that's just the way this job goes. Uh people like Glenn, um, he retired at um 58, 59. Um he was he was a guy that was very good at compartmentalizing a bunch of things. He played hard. Um, I love the man. He's he's amazing. And um, like I mean, the there's no right, there's no wrong. Um, and I just think that you are doing exactly what's right for you, and there's nothing wrong with that. And it's gonna come with those feelings. And and you know, you just um you work with work with what you got, and if you can go back, that's that's great if that's what you want. And if not, you know, you're you've gotta do what's best for you, in my opinion. Yeah.
SPEAKER_10I will say the uh like the support, um, understanding like the the breaking of the stigmas is a thousand times better now than what it was, you know, 10, 15 years ago. And that I think was part of uh I guess the burden I was taking on in that my friend Rob, who passed, he was the first of us to kind of go through everything. And he he had to kick and scratch and fight for everything. Like he was doubted by everybody, challenged by everybody, you know, all that stuff. And then what he did um made it easier for all of us after him. Like he was a trailblazer for this. He took he took the brunt of all the crap so the rest of us could have an easy path to getting the support um that we need. So um Well, God bless him. Yeah, I thank him every day. And I miss him every day, but um he went through a lot. So the rest of us don't have to.
SPEAKER_06Like yeah, yeah.
Fishing As Therapy And Green Ops
SPEAKER_06And those are all good things, those are great changes. So you had talked a little bit about um having a uh working with a program. Now you have to remind me. Um for fishing and um um firefighters and um is there something that you were working with?
SPEAKER_10Yeah, I wasn't working with them. I I I know them. They've uh they've talked to me. Um I see them at different events. I see I've seen them. I first met them online, I think. They were uh Who is that? It's called Green Ops. Gotcha. And I think it's primarily post-military guys, but they also support first responders and they try to organize um like fishing trips for military and first responders that are suffering from PTSD. So they just kind of um they like link up uh certain charter captains or guides or whatever that are willing to kind of donate a trip, and then they do some kind of internal raffle and like pick a first barn to go on these trips. And um, and I I've never gone, which is fine. But um, the very first time I talked to them, I went to the the Muskie Brawl, which is a giant Muskie tournament on Lake St. Clair in the fall. Um my friends Dave Gray and Graham Early, hey boys, how's it going? I organized that it's a fantastic event. Um but in the pre in the whatever the pre-days coming up to that, this green ops group, I saw them on the Facebook page saying we're looking to sponsor a first responder and pay their entry fee for this um tournament. I just said I'm a first responder, but and I wasn't even off work or I might maybe started sort of my noticing a bit of the PTSD and stuff like that. But I was just like, yeah, I'm a first responder, but you know, pick somebody else. Like I'm I'm here, but there's there's gotta be other people that deserve this more than me, sort of thing. And they like, no, here you go, we're gonna pay for we're paying for you. I'm like, come on, there's gotta be like I have a good job, I can afford this. Like, pay for somebody else that that that needs this. Like, nope, it's you, we're paying for you. I'm like, oh right, thank you. And then I get there and I meet the guy, you know, our all hugs and like we've been desk friends forever. His name's uh Jason Anderson. Um, and uh he gives me uh the coin, the challenge coin for drinking. So if you meet another green ops guy and they challenge the coin, they owe you a drink, sort of thing. Um and they gave me, and I guess some other um, I don't think were tackle shop owners or just other fishermen or other first responders, like they've given a couple lures. It's like, dude, give this guy some lures too. And they gave me, you know, another $100 on lures too. I was like, wow, this is not expecting anything. So I just got like $300 worth of stock, you know, entropy in the lure. So like this is awesome. And so now I mean every chance I got it, kind of like talk them up to people that might be uh interested, you know, and I'm always sharing like in their posts on Facebook and stuff like that. So it's just because I've I I've noticed fishing is the best therapy for me, anyways. Or anyone who's in the fishing or in the outdoors, like there's no better therapy than being out on the water, whether you're in a boat or on shore, and you know, hear that kind of that water splashing, you hear the birds, you know, catching a fish, you're with friends, or you're alone. Not nothing is compared, no matter how much therapy, you know, but it's been thankfully, you know, covered by WSID and stuff like that. But I mean, the amount of money that goes into that therapy is yeah, the fishing is priceless compared to that. Like it's it's done way more for me than you know, therapy's been great, and I my therapists are amazing. Yeah, but tissue is the thing that's helped me tell me even before I went off, like it's the only thing kind of keeping me on the straight and narrow forever until you know it it kind of was too much and I broke. But up until that point, it was keeping me going like for a year.
SPEAKER_06Listen, let me ask you a question. Have you ever thought about um starting a business, organization, something in the realm of you know, combining fishing with people that are struggling, similar to yourself and and and your friends that that are first responders? Like, I mean, I look at you and again, I'm gonna say it. You're young, you you're you're um physically strong, and um, you're full of passion. Um, is there something there somewhere where you maybe take that turn and and you focus on helping people that um need help? And that very well could be um something that helps your healing process as well. Well, 100% I've thought of that.
SPEAKER_10Thousand percent. Um, I would love to do that. Uh my problem is the um I don't call it the logistics or the hoops or the you know, whatever you gotta jump to to set this stuff up because that's I'm not I don't have the business mind for that or the the legal stuff or whatever. I just want to finish. Like um, you know, so I yeah, I'd love to do it. I'd probably need lots of help from someone. Um, even my wife, my wife is uh like a PR genius, so she could probably get me rolling once once it uh if if and when it happens, but I I it's hard to like take those first steps to get it going. Um I have heard of a organization that does that type of thing, a little bit different than the Green Ops, it's more um you know, taking people fishing. It's called mindful fishing. Um, I forget the name who runs it, but uh, I think it's more Eastern Ontario, so it's it's kind of fun. Like I probably should have linked up with her and and been like an associate of hers, but it's uh kind of far. Like over near Ottawa. So they have like tournaments and get togethers and stuff like that for sponders, which is also fantastic. But I just I I I have a hard time getting getting my feet moving to doing this stuff. I just want to fish. So but you saying that, I did take friends like Rob, for example, and another friend that ended up quitting firefighting because he couldn't handle anymore. He's he moves out west and doing something completely different. I took both of them fishing and they both said this was amazing. You don't know how much this helped me. I was like, Well, I know exactly how much it helped you like if it's like because it's helped to me too. So yeah, so uh um it's fair.
Building A Fishing Mission For Others
SPEAKER_06Might I suggest a first step, okay? Um go to your your um station, talk to the captain, and say, listen.
SPEAKER_10I am the captain.
SPEAKER_06Um I am the captain now. You're the captain, okay. So who in the in the province could you talk to that might know people that are struggling? Oh that are in a position within the the firefighting? If you could talk to that person and say, listen, I want I've got a guiding service, but the service is more set up for um therapy. Um this is therapy that's that's that's not um um medically proven, but I am telling you that this is therapy that is proven through myself and how I feel. And it's a it's uh something that I'm offering. And um uh would you know how we can? I don't want to charge these people that that um need help, but is there a way that you know? So maybe this is an administrative person within the um firefighting union or however that works, but ask them, is there a way that we can fund this so that I'm that I can pay for my expenses and make a little bit of money? Um and um uh help firefighters because I know what they're going through. I've been there and I know that I can help. Um maybe that's the the the route that you start on. And if you only if you if you get two or three people or whatever, and they go out with you and they come back and they start talking to other firefighters, and they're like, hey, listen, you gotta go out with this mic guy. And I know you've never fished before, but it just it it freed up my soul, man. Like, I mean, just the day in the boat, um it it was it was unbelievable. And then all of a sudden, um, potentially you can be part of the therapy for the PTSD that you're dealing with, with all of the other doctors and and things. Um, I know that you're not a doctor per se, but if enough firefighters um go out with you and feel like they've that you've made a difference, that is the only thing that you're gonna need. Somebody will fund it. And um I think that I think that that's the first kind of question because you you have authority in that in in this area. You you you see how this side of the thing of of the um health um mental health therapy works, right? You've been doing it for two and a half years and you said it yourself. It's great. It's it's it's very helpful, it's amazing, but pales in comparison to being out on the water fishing and and being with my in nature and feeling all of the stuff that that you get from being in a boat by yourself or being in the boat with someone who cares for you. And um I truly believe that that's how you get rid of that guilt. That guilt will disappear when you start helping people. And and instead of being the person that helps um the the the people that that firefighters help, you're the person that looks after the firefighters, right? And there you go with thinking you've got it in you. That's right. That's right. That guilt disappears, it disappears, right? Just because you're not the captain in the station anymore, I think that the value of what you could provide for firefighters in need in particular, um, far outweighs you being a captain. I think that I think that what you have to give is um is is huge. So and and and if there's anything that that I can help support you in doing that, uh I'm here for you, brother. Okay, wow. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. And uh, you know, you never know where these conversations are gonna go on diaries of a lodge owner, right?
SPEAKER_10And who knows someone might hear this. I like doing it. Someone might hear this and it might might just be the perfect ears I need to hear, and you know, help you get things going like yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Because um, like I mean, I've I've I've met you on a couple of occasions and we've talked a little bit, and uh um you are a very genuine, awesome dude. And um I really uh I really enjoy um talking to you and and hearing your stories, and I'm sure the rest of the Diaries family um absolutely um did as well. And uh some of them are probably falling in love with Mike Sutton, firefighter. What the the surfing firefighter.
SPEAKER_10Surfing fireman. I use the inappropriate term fireman surfing fireman, the old old school term. It should be surfing fireman, but uh it was surfing fireman a long time ago, so I just thought of that. Well, you see how uh you met me and saw me as whatever a real person. I I can only say the same for you. Like I'd only met you two minutes. We were talking, and you're already giving me a big hug and like you know, supporting me and very sympathetic of the few things I sort of said to you. Um, which was yeah, I've talked, told a lot of people my some of my story, and even people I know, they don't immediately give you a big hug, and you did. So that just says a lot about you as well. So I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_06Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_10Thank you. Any last thoughts, brother? I don't know. I can probably keep talking forever. If you want to talk about fishing or football or travel, I could keep on going, but I don't want to put your listeners through a whole full.
SPEAKER_06No, you know what? Um we are this is not gonna be our last um our last uh uh podcast. We're gonna have you back on because um, you know, my uh my youngest son Mikey just got back from France on a 10-month uh student exchange. Um, and he's just turning 19 at the end of this month and uh is planning a uh a world uh tour starting in September that uh um is is starting in Peru and going through Australia and uh possibly New Zealand and then uh north through uh Indonesia and uh Thailand and Philippines, um uh China, and uh he's talking about the Eastern Bloc of Russia, which um I'm not uh I'm not very uh fond of that thought, but uh unfortunately um he's now an adult. So so what I say really doesn't matter. I can help coach, but um he's gonna do what he's gonna do. So you're you're traveling and the fishing. Well, we're we're gonna get into another podcast that definitely is the lighter side of things. And we'll revisit um we'll revisit um the uh the idea of guiding or or or helping or whatever and see how that's going. And uh you never know. You never know. But I want to really thank you today, Mike, for coming on and being so open and honest and and frank with with all of us because it's not easy. Um I, for one, know it's it's not easy. And I so appreciate you and uh and uh love you and whatever support I can give, um, uh we're here
How To Reach Mike Sutton
SPEAKER_06for you. And uh if there's anybody out there listening, um, did you want to give uh uh an email or something for people to reach out if they can if they have ideas or or want to help?
SPEAKER_10If it's it's Instagram and and email are probably the best, and they're both surfing firemen. It's either surfingfireman at gmail.com or surfing fireman on Instagram. Either way, reach out to Right on.
SPEAKER_06It's the Surfing Fireman. Cool. Right on. Totally appreciated.
SPEAKER_10Thanks, brother. All right, thank you so much. And uh I appreciate you and uh so honored to be on here and uh happy to spread a little bit of my story and be happy to spread more if it's uh people are interested.
SPEAKER_06Thank you folks as well for listening and getting to this point. Really, really appreciate it. And without all of you, I couldn't be doing this and and spreading amazing stories uh of people. And uh listen, um head on over to fishingcanada.com. You know, I always talk about it. Uh there's uh uh always something great there. Uh you know, there's a 16-inch Garmin Live scope screen. Uh uh and uh all you gotta do is get your votes in. You can vote as many times as you want, and you can win, just like our firefighting buddy Rip Payne up in Kenora. Uh we love Rip, great friend of the uh show, and uh and uh a wonderful contact that was made. Only because he won a trip that uh we were giving away uh through Diaries of a Lodge Owner, and uh Willie the Oil Man provided it through uh uh the uh lodge Nordic Point at the time, and um it was uh it was a match made in heaven for everybody. So you may be the next Rick Payne out there. Get over there, check out the store, and uh uh uh I love ya all. Really, I do. And um uh again, thanks, Willie, for your support. Two Rivers Lodge. Always appreciate it. And thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North.
SPEAKER_09I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm.
SPEAKER_08I'll be the all you ever saw, been reeling in the hog since the day I was born, bending my rug, stretching my line.
SPEAKER_09Someday I might on a lodge and I'd be fine. I'll be making my way the only way I know how.
SPEAKER_07And now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Hi 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 gonna talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of fishing.
SPEAKER_01I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 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.
SPEAKER_01Me and Garchom Turks, and all the Russians would go fishing. The scientists.
SPEAKER_05And now that we're reforesting and letting things, it's the perfect transmission environment to line with these if any game isn't cooked properly, marinated or you will taste it.
SPEAKER_02And whoever else will pick up the phone. Wherever you are, Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_03Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of muskie angling education material anywhere in the world.
SPEAKER_04Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this amazing community and share it with passionate anglers just like you.
SPEAKER_03Thus, the Ugly Pike Podcast was born and quickly grew to become one of the top fishing podcasts in North America.
SPEAKER_04Step 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_03The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing, it's about creating a tight-knit community of passionate anglers who share the same love for the sport. Through laughter, through camaraderie, and an unwavering spirit of adventure, this podcast will bring people together. Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our angling adventures.
SPEAKER_04Tight lines, everyone.
SPEAKER_03Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.