Episode 152: A Three Cent Part Cost Me The Fish Of A Lifetime

One violent headshake, one flash of a giant’s eyeballs, and then the hook comes flying back at us. That’s the kind of moment that turns a regular day on the water into a permanent memory, and it’s where this chapter of Diaries of a Lodge Owner starts: with the fish that would have changed everything on tournament day. 

We walk through a Gloucester Pool bass tournament run that had first place within reach, right down to the current in the channel and the exact piece of cover that begged for one last cast. From there, we get practical about the details that matter in bass fishing: how a Senko falls, what your line tells you, and why circle hooks can betray you when the hook size is wrong. If you’ve ever lost a big largemouth at the boat and replayed every decision, you’ll feel this one. 

Then we head to Lake Nipigon for a speckled trout story that ends in the worst way: a loaded rod that suddenly goes dead. It’s a deep dive into trolling spoons, barrel swivels, line twist, and the painful truth that a 3 cent snap swivel can undo thousands of dollars of gear and the opportunity of a lifetime. The lesson that follows is simple, brutal, and useful everywhere: your system is only as strong as the weakest link. 

We also shift into the memories you measure in meaning, not inches, including a New Brunswick striped bass trip with family, reflections on loss, and why big water like Lake Nipissing demands respect. If these stories spark one of your own, share it with us. Subscribe, leave a review, and send this episode to a friend who still talks about “the one that got away.”

Transcript

The Strike That Still Haunts

SPEAKER_04 0:05

I threw my four-inch Senko in there and I let it sink and I'm watching my line, and all of a sudden it didn't just go doink and start to move. It went sideways. Like I mean, it went sideways. Fast. I flipped my bail, and with these circle hooks, you don't set the hook, which I didn't. I pulled up the slack. This fish pulled really freaking hard, like pulled drag going sideways. I was bent over, it was screaming drag, it jumped up out of the water, shook its head violently, looked us both in the eye. I could see its eyeballs for crying out loud. And spit the hook back in my face. This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Networks, Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North. I'm back with part two of the fish I still think about. Yes, the same idea, but a new bend in the river. On this show, we get into a few more memories that stayed with me, whether it be a lesson, a laugh, or the people I was with. But these are the ones when I close my eyes. I can still sometimes feel like I'm there. So sit back, close your eyes, and maybe these stories of mine may spark a few stories of yours. The kind you measure in meaning and not inches.

Part Two Of Unforgettable Fish

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Folks, welcome back to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, and I am really excited to be with you again. Um, the last episode was a great one for me. I hope it was for you. We talked about three of my um, I don't want to say core memories, but three of the fish that I still think about. Um number one was Rayburn's Muskie, and then there was Eric's Laker. Um and then my first Muskie, who I foul hooked and uh took me for the biggest ride of my life today, I think. Um partly because of the equipment I caught it on and the foul hooking and everything else. But it was it was a um doozy to say the least. And um that was with my good buddy Glenn Berry. And um uh another fish that um that I remember vividly um and still think about a lot today, maybe for the wrong reasons, but um it again involves Glenn.

Tournament Day On Gloucester Pool

SPEAKER_04 2:58

And um after the last call, um and Glenn and I's um um first meeting, we fished tournaments together. And this was a fish on tournament day back in oh, probably about 2005. Um we were on Gloucester Pool, and I don't know for those of you who aren't familiar with Gloucester, um Gloucester Pool is a very it's a fair-sized body of water, it's um uh on the Trans Severance, so you can you can go through it uh through uh a series of locks. And um one of the locks on um on um uh Gloucester is called Big Shoot. And um uh I was familiar with Big Chute because good buddy uh Scotty Hamp um had a cottage there when we went through high school. So I um I was up there uh fairly frequently uh um in those summers back in high school. And the bass fishing up in his Wii Channel off of Gloucester, um, just out uh of Big Chute was great. And um I was excited when Glenn and I, this is years later, and after um Scotty's parents sold the cottage, um, but we were doing a tournament on Gloucester. And um I said to Glenn, I said, I know up by Big Chute real well. And Glenn said, Oh, I like that area too. Um, so we went up to to to Big Chute and we fished in that area out in front of the chute, and then the channel that goes to the um, let me think here, the west of uh of Big Chute back in there. And uh we did well. We caught uh we caught a bunch out in the in the lake, and honestly, I don't remember where we caught them, but we had a bag on us. Like we had one of the biggest bags of fish, and the way the tournaments work is um um you're allowed um uh basically uh let's see, well, it's your five biggest fish. So you're allowed six, uh, but you have to be able to cull uh a fish. Anyway, our combined weight was was really good. Like, I mean, and we had fished Gloucester before and all in these tournaments, and typically if you can break 20 pounds in five fish, you're doing really good. And and we were we were there. Um, and um there's a a a wee channel uh that goes uh between um the main body of Gloucester and then the channel, which is almost a 90. You drive in, you make a hard turn, you drive out, and you make a hard turn, and then you're basically in the bay where big shoot is. In that channel, at the end of the day, um, we were finishing up in the back, it was getting on. You have to be back by three o'clock. You're you you get a one-pound penalty for every minute that you're late. So you you do not you're not late because the difference between the winner and the loser is measured in ounces, not pounds. Um so it was getting on in the day, and um, we were leaving that that area by the big shoot, and we were coming through that channel, and uh we were kind of fishing it, and I said, Glenn, let's I I gotta fish that tree. There was uh it was a fairly steep rock face, but there was this like uh a log or a tree, or the it was it was coming in off of a rock. I I don't remember exactly, but there was cover right there in the middle of this channel, and the channel had some fairly significant current in it.

Circle Hooks And Senko Details

SPEAKER_04 7:10

And I said, okay, and I was using a um a circle hook. And what a circle hook is, is it's a hook that um that you it it the the it's it's in a a circle shape, and the um the the hook tip is bent uh and and I'm talking like uh a sixteenth of an inch on the tip of the hook is bent in, not 90, but maybe on a 60 degree bend in. And it but it's it's bent in uh noticeably. And what that does is when the the fish um bites and gets that hook in its mouth, you're not supposed to set the hook, you're just supposed to to to start to reel and pull uh against the fish or let the fish pull against it, and and that turns into the fish's mouth and sets the hook for you. And um, they were new in all the rage. And uh I was using a fairly small circle hook for whatever reason. I I'm not sure. You know, it could have been something as stupid as it was the only one I had in my box. I don't, I don't know. I was new to tournament fishing back then. So anyway, we go through this channel, and it's like Glenn and I are on a high because you know, we had never won a tournament together, and we weren't sure if this was going to be it, but we knew we were in the running, and um, I cast my cinko. I had a four-inch uh black Gary Yamamoto cinko wacky rigged on this circle hook, and I tossed that circle hook right out in like I mean, I hit my mark, and those those um Senko's are a spot specific bait. Yes, you can drag them, you can twitch them back, you can do whatever you need to do with them between A and B. But bottom line is they're a spot-specific bait, and most productive when you can put them in a place where you think that there is a fish. And the most productive that I am with those Senkos is the first. Well, if the water is 10 feet deep, it's the first 10 Mississippi when I hit that water, because that's the spot that I think that there's a fish, and I count that down so it sets the bottom, and once it hits the bottom in the spot that I think, then I leave it there for another, well, and and I I'm counting down about uh one Mississippi is somewhere close to a foot. And um, I let it set on the bottom for that much longer, and then I pick up for weight, and I slowly pick up and hopefully that there's weight. But by the time I'm picking up and looking for weight, that's the the the 50% of the chances of catching a fish on that cast have evaporated. What I'm looking for is while that I'm counting that 10 Mississippi and then the following 10 Mississippi, I'm looking for my line that's resting nice and and um it's it's looped like side to side because it settled in the wind on top of the water. And now it's just sitting there. I've not touched my real handle, I've not even closed my bale because I want that bait to fall where I put it and then stop. And and you know, that that line is is sometimes it'll be it'll straighten out as it's falling, and you'll see that the the wee wake lines off of the line are showing that your line is slowly moving towards that bait, and then everything stops and nothing is moving. And then all of a sudden, dwink, that bait on the end of your line gets picked up and it starts moving, and those little lines start to move again on the wake of your line, or if it's coiled up a little bit like a snake, it starts to straighten out and it starts moving, and that's when you know you've got a fish on there, and then you reel up your line nice and tight, and then you feel the weight, and then you reel down to that line again, and then you set the hook, right? Well, on this day in particular, I hit my mark. I knew there was like a crotch in the tree that was over top of the water, and it was it it was big enough that it was giving substantial, it could give substantial cover to a big fat bass, and there was enough water underneath it that it wasn't all like it it had lots of room underneath this cover to be comfortable.

The Giant Bass Spits Free

SPEAKER_04 12:43

I threw my my four-inch Senko in there and I let it sink and I'm watching my line, and all of a sudden it didn't just go doink and start to move, it went sideways. Like I mean, it went sideways fast. I flipped my bale, and with the circle hooks, you don't set the hook, which I didn't. I pulled up the slack. This fish pulled really freaking hard, like pulled drag going sideways, and Glenn and I watched as this giant come out from underneath that tree. It had, I was bent over, it was screaming drag, it jumped up out of the water, shook its head violently, looked us both in the eye. I could see its eyeballs for crying out loud, and spit the hook back in my face. Gone. That was a very memorable fish because that was the difference between a first place and a third place, and big fish of the day. That fish was by far the largest largemouth that I've ever had on the end of my line. And it was in a tournament. It was in a tournament that I had it on my line. It clearly, clearly dwarfed big fish of the day. We lost by I think it was three or four ounces, and our smallest fish, which that one would have replaced, was like just barely two pounds. This one, if it wasn't six, it was eight. We lost by those three, four ounces that would have put us on top by two or three pounds, like an epic bag of fish. And with that and that little circle hook coming back in my face, my heart broke. Not only did my heart break, Glenn's heart broke. And the worst part was that little circle hook was still on my line, and we he said, What kind of hook were you using? I said, I was using one of these circle hooks. And he looked at it, and the little prick was like microscopic. It was so freaking small. And I had caught two or three of the of the fish in the bag on it that day. Like, I mean, it it's not like I didn't catch three and a half pounders with that hook, but that hook, that small hook was the reason that that gargantuan largemouth that would have given me my one and only, my Glen and I's one and only win in our tournament fishing history, um, spit that hook because it was too small. And uh Glenn, who was my mentor, much like Pat was Rayburn's mentor, he very, very nicely under the circumstances, um, showed me the flaws in my way and how if I was to be using a circle hook for this type of fishing, it needed to be about three times the size. And that he doesn't like the circle hooks at all, he uses the wide gap hooks, um, which I still use to this day. I use the the wide gap hooks um for both um wacky and for weedless rigging. Um, sometimes I'll make an exception for wacky, but it's always a big hook. Um, and uh because I can't get that lesson out of my mind. It was a heartbreaking lesson. Um, although we still got third, we cashed in some money. Um, but it would have almost been better not to even have caught that and saw that fish because it really took away from what we had achieved, right? Uh, the fact that we got third. If we if we hadn't have seen that fish and knew that we were gonna win first and big fish, and God, I as as God is my witness, um, that fish there there was it it left no question in our minds, zero, because when we saw it, it was twice the size of our biggest fish. And no, and and the big fish of the day was no near, nowhere near that big. So the whole the whole experience was was um it was a uh a real memorable, memorable fish imprinted on my mind forever.

Lake Nipigon And A Spotted Giant

SPEAKER_04 18:17

Much like another fish that I that I caught. Well, I caught another fish that I had on. Uh, this is the Nippigan, the famous Nippigan um um speckled trout fish, speckled trout story with my buddy Mario Giardnazzo on our four on our four or fourteen-foot um um um aluminum boat when Captain Dan pulled us out onto Lake Nipigan and and uh we lived on his cabin cruiser, and he pulled four boats, two 16-footers that that Ray and Rick brought up, and two 14-footers that he supplied for us. And Mario and I went out onto the lake the day that it was rough and everybody hid in the river. And um, Mare saw this fish, saw it. And I've told this story before too. Um, saw the fish, uh, because the way that we fish is the water is very clear. So if you can see the bottom, you're in about 15, 16 feet of water. Well, Dan would say stay in 15, 16 feet of water, just so that you can see the bottom. But sometimes that took us, you know, 40 feet from the shoreline. And the guy that was driving would troll a spoon. Um, or um, yeah, we always trolled spoons, troll a spoon, whether that was a the fable delphin, which you know you'll never find him now. Uh, it was uh some Swedish dude who died and took the patent with him. And Captain Dan sent us on wild goose chases all the time to try and find these things. But anyway, that little Cleo, whatever. You troll those, and then the guy in the front at that point was casting marabou jigs into the rocks, and that was Mario's job. See, we had jobs, right? So I was driving and trolling, Mare was casting and retrieving, and any of the ones that Mare didn't get, I had a shot at because he would pull them out of the rocks. And Nipigan, typical shoreline, there are these massive boulders that break off the shoreline and and and slide into the water. So like there's boulders from the size of from uh the size of a five-gallon pail to boulders the size of a house. Like some of these were just, it was awesome. Like uh I felt uh a few times like I was in awe, and I've never seen that that kind of structure before. But anyway, Mare's casting this this marabou jig at the shoreline, and I'm trolling away and it's rough, and you know, we're working together, and Mare starts yelling, Steve, Steve, he's Italian, eh? I got I saw the biggest speckled troll I've ever seen, Steve. Oh my god. I'm like, Mare, settle down.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

No, you don't understand, Steve. This was a 10 bounder. I I kid you not, it was right here.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

I saw it come out. It was the biggest speckled troll I ever seen. And as he's going crazy, I mark it on my little sonar, my set my second portable sonar. I lost the first one and shit my pants over, by the way. You'll have to find that story in the archives. I marked it and I said, Mayor, I just marked that fish because it there was no fish around. I was just, but I marked one fish and I said, I'm gonna get your fish. Oh, Steve, you. Usually he says, No, fuck you, that's my fish. And this time he said, Oh, Steve, I hope you get that fish. I really hope you get that fish. And as he's saying that, bang, I get a hit. And it's a heavy hit. And I got Mario's fish on my line. And he just lights up on fire. He's like, Oh my God, oh my God, you got it.

SPEAKER_03 22:26

Yeah, you got it. You got it.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

And I'm reeling this fish in, and it is heavy. It's fighting hard and it's pulling drag, and the water is rough, and we're close to the shore. And I'm trying to deal with getting the boat control. So I'm not backing the boat into the waves because the waves are coming over the back and I'm trying to drive forward. I'm fighting this fish. Mario's got the net. And as God is my witness, just as this fish is going to come into sight, just as we're going to see this fish. And it was it was so rough. I was still sitting down. Mario was kind of on his knees with the net over the side of the boat. And I've I've got the rod loaded up. It's not pulling drag, but I'm loaded. And I'm just I'm pulling against current. I'm dealing with the waves. And my rod, that loaded rod, goes and straightens right out. Like, I mean, it just everything, everything went away. The weight, the everything. Everything went away. I said, no. Mario looked at my rod and he was like, oh no, no, no. He was up more upset than I was. I was pretty upset. And I'm like, I lost it. I lost it. And uh I reeled in my line, and right away I said, no, buddy, it broke me off. Because you can tell, you can feel the bait. If the bait had to come out of its mouth, the spoon, I would have felt the spoon flutter, the vibrations. I felt nothing. Pulled my line out of the water.

Snap Swivels And Line Twist

SPEAKER_04 24:20

And um my snap, my my little snap swivel. Because you need a snap swivel when you're fishing with spoons, especially because they spin. While a snap is the little steel clip that you clip to your um your spoon. And the swivel is uh it's like a little barrel, and it's got uh little knobs that fit inside the barrel and little um eyelets so that the snap hooks onto one eyelet on one side and your line ties to the other, but they're able to spin freely inside that barrel. It's called a barrel swivel. And what that does is it allows your your um your spoon or spinner to spin without spinning your line. So your line can stay straight and inside that barrel and behind, it'll spin for you. And and what that does is if you don't have that barrel swivel, your line is going to twist and twist and twist and twist and twist and twist. And all of a sudden, I'm not sure how many of you have fished a lot in the past. I'm assuming all of you. Um, but when you have that situation where you cast out and all of a sudden your line just twists and bunches up and goes into like this gnarly ass of a knot, that is from line twist. That's from using a bait that has spun and your line has spun with it, and it's coiled and coiled and coiled and coiled and coiled, and it has that spin in your line, and it's very difficult to get rid of. The only, the only way, and this is a Peter Bowman trick um to get rid of that line twist, is to um take the the line off, uh like cut your bait off and let all of that line out behind the boat when you're trolling, like or moving. Let it all out free without having the um your bait or a swivel or anything on it. And hopefully, once you let it all off your reel and let it drag in the water, it's corrected itself. The spin has come out, but it cannot come out when it's wrapped around your your reel. So if you're in a bind sometime and you've got terrible line twist and nothing to put on it, but you need that rod. That is one method that I've seen the great Peter Ballman, and I say I uh and and when I say great, I don't uh I don't take that for granted. He really is amazing. Um that's the only way that potentially you could fix that line. And I have we have fixed line doing that, right? Take the bait off, empty line, and just get it in the water and spool it all the way out, let it run behind the boat in the water while you're moving, and we're talking like two mile an hour, like a slow, like a troll, and then reel it all back in and hope for the best. Uh, if that doesn't fix it, you're fucked. Anyway, that fish.

Your Weakest Link Costs Everything

SPEAKER_04 27:54

I learned a huge, huge lesson. And it's a lesson that I that I have applied to everything. Um, and that lesson is your system is only as strong as the weakest link. Because when that line come in and I thought it was broke off, guess what? It wasn't broke off, my recent snap swivel opened and straightened out. I spent, you know, back in the late 90s, early 2000s when we were taking these trips. Actually, this one would have been uh probably 2004, 2005, because Eric wasn't on. I spent, you know, eleven hundred dollars on the trip itself, which back in those days was a lot of money. Spent $300 on booze, spent another, you know, average rod, $150, real, another $150, $300 a rod. Uh, you know, you got six rods, got all the line, you got all the all the baits, you know, back then four or five dollars each, four or five dollars each, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All of this money on the best, the best line, uh, the the the the best baits, the best everything, portable fish finders. And I lose the fish of a lifetime because of a three cent snap swivel. Well, the next year and every time I put a snap swivel on, they're not three cent snap swivels, they're three dollar snap swivels. Because you're only as strong as your weakest link. And that I apply to business, I apply to anything. And, you know, when somebody's asking for advice or talking about something, or you know, um anytime you want to come and put in a little piece of advice, that one fits everything. She's a great one. And feel free to use it. That's free right from here, right from the heart. Welcome 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_05 31:23

Hi, everybody, I'm Angelo Viola. And I'm Pete Bowman. Now, you might know us as the hosts of Canada's Favorite Fishing Show, but now we're hosting a podcast. That's right. Every Thursday, Ann and I will be right here in your ears, bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Hmm. Now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of fishing.

SPEAKER_09 31:45

I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.

SPEAKER_05 31:50

Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors.

SPEAKER_09 31:55

From athletes, all the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garchomp Turk, and all the Russians would go fishing. The scientists. But now that we're reforesting or anything, it's the perfect transmission environment for line decisions.

SPEAKER_06 32:10

To chefs. If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for me, you will taste it.

SPEAKER_05 32:16

And whoever else will pick up the phone. Wherever you are, Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

New Brunswick Stripers With Family

SPEAKER_04 32:39

I took mom, dad, and my my uh youngest son Mikey to new uh uh to New Brunswick to fish the striper cup. Um this would be this isn't too this might be 20 2020? Might be 2020, right before COVID, I think. Um maybe it was after. I don't know. I don't know. But we had shot a show down um down there uh with uh um um during uh it wasn't during the striper cup, but it was in the fall for stripers, and um it was unbelievable. The striper fishing was something that I had never experienced, and um I wanted to um I wanted my my I wanted everybody to experience it, you know, my mom, my dad, I wanted everybody, my kids, but it turned out the only the only people that could go were mom and dad and Mikey and I, which was perfect because that was that was um a um that was a that was a perfect team. You you were it was a maximum of four, I think. And um we go down there and we didn't catch anything big. We we we didn't. It this memory is it's not about the fish at all. Uh it's about being with Mikey and my dad and my mom and doing something. And and Pete and Ange were there. Um we we um had dinner with them and spent some time with them. They fished on uh they fished um themselves. Um and um it was just uh unbelievable. There were there was there was um a morning where we went out and Mikey and dad had a double header. Um that picture still pops up in my memories. And um it's uh it's a great one. It it is a great um memory because you know, with dad passing and um, you know, there there's no more memories to be made that way. It's these ones that um that I'm very thankful for, you know, um those those memories and that day, like I mean, there's still there's still times when I close my eyes and uh I can hear his voice, you know, um on the boat with Mikey. And uh though that those are those are so precious, right? And uh for for those of you out there, it's so important to be making memories with with people, doing the things that you love, whether it's fishing or whatever it might be, because my dad was not a big fisherman, you know, he started me fishing just kind of because I I loved the river. Um it was it was uh um uh it was something that that they would do with me because I grew up in a time where you know dad worked, mom didn't. Um mom was very young, she was seven, uh 16, and dad was 20 um when they had me and they were married. So it was a different time. Uh money was tight, and um, what mom would do and dad would do with me for entertainment, they'd drive me down the road to the river to tribute to a tributary of the grand river and some uh parts of the grand, and I would play in the river. We didn't have a pool, we didn't have anything like that, but we had the river, and I loved it, right? So as far as fishing went, um, dad that was the extent, that was the extent of dad's fishing. Um was just going down to Dirkin Bridge and throwing a uh bobber, a sinker, and a hook and a worm or whatever we could find, um, and put it on the hook and catch catfish mainly and chub down uh uh under the bridge. And um they were wonderful memories. So to take him to to um New Brunswick to fish the mirror machine for stripers with Mikey and my mom, that was something special. Another memory I have from that trip in particular. We got out, it was windy, windy, windy. I can't remember what was going on, but uh uh I think somebody got mom got snagged, or somebody got snagged, and it was a it was an intense moment. I was uh um the the there was uh potential. Oh, I think I got beached. I got beached. There was a a sandbar back in the uh in the river, and I knew it was there, and but it was so windy that uh somebody ended up getting snagged, and we uh we ended up uh I had to run the boat, and um, I remember mom getting excited and me having to tell her to sit down and and uh um and in those situations dad never said a word. He'd just sit and he'd watch and he'd grin. And um Mikey, he just do the kind of same. And uh somehow a rod got broke and we ended up getting out, but uh that was uh that was another uh another uh I I don't call it a mishap. It was a a memory that I uh I think about fondly because uh it uh it happened on the mirror machine, right? So, you know, there's there there was that uh that memory.

Lake Nipissing Safety And Stubbornness

SPEAKER_04 38:55

And another memory that uh that really sticks out, uh, and I think about it a lot, um was um um and I thought about it uh this week when uh when I went fishing with Rayburn, you know, and and to be honest, Rayburn's a little bit stubborn. So um I have uh I got a lot going on here, you know, between bees and um and uh um my mother-in-law is selling her house and Melissa needs things done and and everything. And um um Rayburn decided that he was gonna go to the cottage this weekend because uh one of the rental people canceled last minute. The cottage opened up uh for the week and uh he wanted to go up muskie fishing. So he said, I'm gonna go up muskie fishing. I said, Okay, no problem. Who are you gonna go with? And he said, Well, I talked to uh I was uh he wanted me to uh talk to Kanger because Kinger had mentioned wanting to go at some point this summer. So I uh I talked to Kanger, but he wasn't able to. And then uh Rayburn uh talked to a couple of his buddies, one of his work buddies, uh um um our um uh my nephew Troy. Uh, but everything uh everything kind of fell through. Troy was in right until the last minute, and then he couldn't go. And and I didn't, I said to Melissa, uh, I didn't particularly want him going by himself because you know what? Lake Nipissing is a big lake. We've got a 20-foot Alaskan Lund, which is a great boat, but you know, there's there's I would say two percent of the things that can happen out there, I'm not even equipped to deal with. Actually, I should say I am equipped to deal with it because I know enough not to go out there. Um five percent um uh there uh of things that can happen out there, you need to be a very seasoned boater to to control the situation. And and and all I'm talking about is is storms. Um Lake Nipissing is a very big, shallow lake, and it can blow up very quickly. And um uh, you know, things can turn turn not nice. Uh, I I didn't think he in in any of these, well, there's always a situation that that uh less than one percent that uh that you could lose your life. Um and maybe not even maybe a little higher than that. But anyway, my point is I didn't want Rayburn going up by himself because I knew he was going to be going out onto Lake Nipissing. Um, so anyway, I said to Rayburn, I said, okay, but while and it was Melissa, I had already talked to her about it and said that I wanted to go with him. Um, but Rayburn didn't know that. And then Melissa said to me, um, okay, well, maybe you should go with Rayburn, which is perfect. You know, I I worked really hard to plant that seed so that Melissa would think it's a very good idea for me to go with just reason. All of uh everything that I said is absolutely right. Um, so now I have Melissa telling me that I should go, which all you fellas out there know is perfect. It's perfect. Anyway, I tell Rayburn, I say, Hey Bud, I'm gonna come with you tomorrow. And he has this whole young man temper tantrum about how the only reason I'm going is because mom wants you to go, and you know, it's all about how he's um uh old enough and he can handle it himself, and I don't want you doing something you don't want to do. Meanwhile, I'm thinking in my head, dude, just settle down. I always wanted to go, it's just that you know, I uh I need to go under the the the blessing of mom, and I now have it. If you were gonna go with somebody else, then I it was good, but now I have the blessing to go, me, and I want to go. Well, it took me. Well, he left me. The little prick left me in the morning. I had all my stuff ready sitting at the door, and I said, Okay, bud, I'm coming with you. And he gave me this whole no, you don't the only reason you don't want to fish with me. The only reason you're coming is because mom told me, told you that you have to come with me. And I was like, Rayburn, no, I want to go fishing. He's like, Well, get in the car right now because the the the the major is at one o'clock and we've got to be on the road. By eight o'clock, and uh, or we're gonna miss it. I'm like, okay, I have everything packed right here. Just give me two minutes. I gotta go and have my morning sit down. Well, when I was having my morning sit-down, which was um uh sped right up, like I mean, this is a record-breaking sit down. And I get up off the toilet, clean myself, rip out into the front hall. Melissa's standing there. I look out the door, I go to pick up my stuff, I notice that his car was gone. I look at Melissa and she said, He left you. I said, What? She said he left you. I'm like, you have gotta be kidding me. So I sat down and sent him a couple of texts, and I had to leverage my um um my fatherly um leverages and um asked him politely to come back and pick me up, and I wasn't sure he was gonna. I uh I wasn't sure he was gonna turn around. He got halfway to Alliston before he turned around, but he finally turned around and grabbed me and then took me to um took me with him to the cottage.

Picton Walleye Nights And Dad

SPEAKER_04 45:21

And um I thought about this situation with my dad, and it was not really anything like that at all. My dad, he was he worked really, really hard. Um, every we didn't, like I say, it we didn't have much. My grandparents came from Poland, they bought a farm just outside of Grand Valley where dad was raised. Um, he got dad got uh an acre off the south corner of the farm, and my uncle got an acre from the north corner of the farm. And um dad worked for they built a house in '76 and worked really hard his whole life, paid it off and made a a good life for himself and my mom. And um uh we didn't get a whole lot, but we got everything that we needed, and we got a ton of love. And um I used to love going to Picton, and this was from about 1993, 1992 was the first time I went with Ray and Eric uh Poole. Like, I mean, those were my fishing guys, though the the those guys were the ones that introduced me to fishing that wasn't standing on a bridge or on a shoreline. They introduced me to fishing out of a boat, and that was a whole new world. And we would go to Pickton, Ontario in the fall because um um Ray's brother-in-law found out that they were catching walleye off the docks there, and not just walleye, like big walleye, uh, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 pounders. Glenn, um, although he wasn't in our core fishing group, caught two over 16 pounds in one night off the docks in Picton. And I'm I I know that there's a bunch of people out there that are gonna say, no, that's bullshit. Well, call it what you want, but he did. And I don't talk about Picton very often because uh I myself have caught so many walleye over 10 pounds, nobody would ever believe me anyway. But that's what Picton was for years. We would go and we would stand on the dock at night, we would fish from it was it was the most epic fishing trips because this is the way it would work. Back when I was in school when we first started high school, well, it was later in high school, but still, and progressing through my working years, right up until about well, Eric died in 2003, and it was already starting to not be the same. I would say right up until about 2000, um, and all through the 90s. In the fall, we would uh leave on Friday afternoon, get off from work, get off from school, get off from whatever. We would leave Friday afternoon so that we were in Picton and checking into our hotel room. Typically, in those days, we stayed at um uh uh the uh tip of the bay hotel. It's not there anymore. It's a bunch of doctor's offices now. Um, but we would stay at Tip of the Bay Hotel and uh we would check in, we would get there um in time for the hockey game, and we'd watch the hockey game and play poker. And after the hockey game, we would go out at like 10:30, whatever, and fish until 3:30 in the morning and catch monsters, giants, like they were all giants. If you caught one that was six pounds, you thought you thought maybe I should bring that home and eat it, because that is as small as they got there at that time of the year. And um, we would go to sleep at 3:30, wake up at 11 o'clock in the morning, play poker until uh we got uh we got tired at uh had dinner at six. Sometimes we go out and have a little pre-game, uh, a pregame fish till the start of the hockey game, come back in, um, uh watch the hockey game and back out and do it all over again, and do that for three or three days, you know. Sleep, poker, pregame warm-up, uh hockey game, fish until 3:30 in the morning, and then sleep again. And honestly, there was nights where we would catch 300 pounds of walleye and release it all. I kept one the very first year, but um, it uh it was awful. It wasn't even, no, you couldn't even eat it. My dad, who loves fish, wouldn't eat it. Um, but um it was all catch and release, but they were giants. They were giants. Anyway, dad knew I loved this, and um I wanted to go with dad. You know, I wanted to take him down there, but he could never he did never get the the time off. But there was one time where I said, Dad, why don't we go to Pickton? Let's just go. Let's go tonight. We'll fish, we'll fish tonight, and we can either stay in the hotel or if if you want, we'll you we'll drive home. And he said, All right. And um we jumped in the car, I grabbed rods for us and drove all the way to Pickton from Grand Valley, which is like a four-hour drive. Um, and we fished and it was cold, it was late. I'm not even sure, to be honest with you, thinking back on it. I don't even think we could fish because it froze up in the bay that day. And we drove all the way there, and dad he didn't question anything. He drove me there, we talked the whole way, and then um um I am 90% sure that it was froze, we couldn't even fish. Um, and then we we sat on the dock, I showed him where we fish, and uh he drove me all the way home. And the worst part is is I slept most of the way. I was so tired, I couldn't even imagine how my dad did it, but he did. He did, and he did it for me. Yeah, and that's that's another really important memory. That's uh that's a um a non-fish, uh, but a fishing trip that I that I think about often. Yeah. And I hope that you guys have those. I hope you have them. And listen, if you don't, get out and start making them because it's so important. It's so important, and not just important for you, you know. Like that core memory for Rayburn. Wow, what he's done with that from that big muskie that he caught. Yeah, those are those are core memories. And uh again, I hope that I've uh opened your mind and and uh and uh uh nudged a few of those out because um that'd make me feel great.

How To Reach Us And Wrap

SPEAKER_04 53:14

Anyway, listen folks, if you've got any uh comments, uh questions, ideas that you want to reach out to me with, you know how to get me. It's steve.n at fishingcanada.com. Um let me know what you think. Uh everything is welcome. Um also refer these uh these stories out to people. Um bring more people into the family. Like and subscribe and all of that, uh all of that stuff. Really subscribe, I think, is all that uh that you can do. Uh you can make comments maybe somewhere out in uh pog podcast world. Um, but uh yeah, all that stuff is is uh great and it really helps me to uh to keep the ship uh uh going forward or or like my old man used to say, keep the big one forward, you know. So it keeps it helps. And uh thank you to uh the producers here, Anthony Mancini and Deany Martini. He is the best. We always come up with a new nickname for Dean Taylor. That's right, the the famous Dean Taylor. Thanks, boys. Really appreciate uh everything that you do here for me. And head on over to fishingcanada.com. There's always wonderful things that you can buy in the store, and there's always something that you can enter or draw to win, and uh it's all they're always great prizes. So uh head on over there and do that. And uh again, thank you very much for getting to this point and night night nix in, by the way. And thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, Stories of the North.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm.

SPEAKER_02 55:15

I'll be the whole you ever saw. I've been reeling in the hog since the day I was born.

SPEAKER_03 55:21

Bendin' my rubber, stretching my line. Some day I might want to lodge and how to be fine. I'll be making my way the only way I know how. About a lodge and live my dream. And now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 56:05

Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of musky angling education material anywhere in the world.

SPEAKER_06 56:13

Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this amazing community and share it with passionate anglers just like you.

SPEAKER_07 56:20

Thus, the Ugly Pike Podcast was born and quickly grew to become one of the top fishing podcasts in North America.

SPEAKER_06 56:27

Step into the world of angling adventures and embrace the thrill of the catch with the Ugly Pike Podcast. Join us on our quest to understand what makes us different as anglers and to uncover what it takes to go after the infamous fish of 10,000 casts.

SPEAKER_07 56:41

The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing, it's about creating a tight-knit community of passionate anglers who share the same love for the sport. Through laughter, through camaraderie, and an unwavering spirit of adventure, this podcast will bring people together. Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our angling adventures.

SPEAKER_06 56:59

Tight lines, everyone.

SPEAKER_07 57:00

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

SPEAKER_00 57:12

As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear. But they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Oulette, and I was honored to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as Chaga, a tree conch, with centuries of medicinal use by indigenous peoples all over the globe. After nearly a decade of harvest, use, testimonials, and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession. And I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. Find Under the Canopy now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.