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Eating Wild
Hosted by three hunting and fishing buddies with a lifetime of culinary experience between them, Outdoor Journal Radio's Eating Wild podcast brings folks from all walks of life to the boat, tree stand, and kitchen to tell the stories and answer the questions around the pursuit and preparation of wild fish and game.
Eating Wild
Episode 64: The Moose Is Loose Pt 2
Have you ever wondered how to balance your passion with family commitments? Moose, our passionate and intriguing guest, shares his journey of doing just that with his love for fishing. From the excitement of upcoming tournaments to his heartfelt involvement in charity events such as the preseason pike tournament and the retreat at French River's Camp McIntosh, Moose's stories brim with enthusiasm. His tales of fishing with kids, the nuances of bait scents, and the ever-present debate between bait profile versus colour are sure to resonate with any fishing enthusiast.
Tune in to hear about my personal story of choosing between a retreat and a promising job opportunity, which led to working with notable figures like Jeff Wilson. The anticipation surrounding fishing tournaments, including Team Canada's representation and renowned anglers like Jeff Gustafson, adds an extra layer of excitement. We even share some humorous anecdotes involving mistaken identities, making this segment both entertaining and insightful. The camaraderie among anglers at the MLF Championship and Moose's entrepreneurial journey from the food industry to the printing business paint a vivid picture of resilience and creativity.
Moose also takes us on a culinary adventure with his Mediterranean-inspired shore lunch recipe, perfect for an upcoming fishing trip. His pan-fried perch with a unique tangy, sweet, and savoury sauce, paired with a cinnamon and clove brown rice dish, showcases his culinary flair. This episode is more than just about fishing; it's about passion, family, entrepreneurship, and the simple joys of life. Join us in the studio with Moose and Christopher 'Showtime' Johnson as we share laughs, smoke cigars, and celebrate the bonds we've formed along the way. This episode promises warmth, connection, and inspiration from the fishing community.
Follow Eating Wild on Instagram! To reach out to the boys, drop us a line at eatingwild@odjradio.com
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Speaker 3:Welcome. Welcome back to another episode of the Eating Wild podcast. I am your host, antonio Smash Malecka, and I'm joined by my co-host, christopher Showtime Johnson. Folks, if you listened to last week, you enjoyed part one of our interview with the moose. This is part two. Folks, this is part two of our interview. We sat down with moose and you know we just started talking and, to be honest, this guy is probably one of the most interesting guests we've ever had on our show. It had to be a two-parter and sit back, relax. If you listen to part one, you're really going to enjoy part two, and we dive deeper into things with the Moose. So sit back, folks, relax and enjoy part two of our interview with the Moose.
Speaker 7:Yeah, no, life's busy, life's busy. I'm blessed in many different parts of my life where my wife's just as crazy about fishing as I am Nice. She saw the passion before she was around. I've known her for years so when she came into my world I said there's two things that are never going to change A, it's my love of the sport and b my love for you and the kids. Right, that's not going to change. You take one of those away from me, everything will change. And and it was just that you know, so she's cool with it. Um, it can be tough, obviously, but she gets it like.
Speaker 7:This is my only hobby. I don't do anything else. I I work, I eat, I entertain, and when I say I entertain, it's because I'm entertaining other people in my boat. This is why I don't have a bass boat. I have a multi-species boat. I'd rather have four people in my boat than one. I want to share the experience of that hook set that catch that like. I want to high five you when you catch a two pounder. It doesn't matter, you caught a fish like. For me, it's the excitement, the adventure, what's at the end of my line? You know that's.
Speaker 2:That's really what it's all about for me. So what tournaments? Do you have anything coming up at all that you're involved with?
Speaker 3:oh man, oh boy, oh boy we got a big one, you know what man I, I when I when I was talking to moose last week, we were setting up the show and we originally had this podcast slated for tomorrow. Okay, and with your schedule, my schedule, we're like we've got to make sure we make time for Moose and he texted me. He's like can't do Thursday, got to talk with Bob Izumi and doing another podcast tomorrow and this is all about the tournament that Moose.
Speaker 7:What tournament is this? Canada Bass, oh, okay, but before all of that, our charity tournament stuff. I want to quickly touch on that. Yeah, go ahead, because there's so much happening with BASS and all these different clubbies and organizations and the CSFL and they run 30 tournaments a year and we try to stay involved with everyone. But preseason we do a pike tournament. We try to get involved with the CSFL and sort of bring people to that event along with the Perch Festival. So our charity tournament is the pike tournament at the beginning, is the Pike Tournament at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year we do a gathering. So we pick a lodge this year It'll be our third time going to the French River, camp McIntosh and the OFC Nation, so a combination of CFN and OFC. We bring 30 people up to the lodge, we fish, we have a blast, we eat, we laugh, we teach, we give some stuff away and just have a good time. That sounds awesome. That's our charity thing. And that's happening in September is our retreat. But in September there's also Canada Bass. Right, I didn't know it was happening in September.
Speaker 7:I got a phone call from my buddy, joe hey, bruce, how's it going? You gotta love joel ford. He's a gem. He's got stories for days and he's a stick and a half. And joel absolutely loves the fishing industry and he's he's bent over backwards for the industry but he sees a void. He saw a void four or five years ago and said some things need to change when it comes to tournaments. So he put this thing together and he's working with other groups and organizations and countries and all of a sudden Canada Bass was a thing Like it became.
Speaker 7:You know, at first they got a lot of flack because they were handpicking anglers to fish for Canada. It was like well, how do you determine who is the best angler without actually having a tournament? So at the time I think it was Team Mexico was throwing an event. They wanted a Canadian team. There was no time for a qualifier. So I think it was Bob Izumi had just handpicked anglers and said we're going to Mexico, we're going to fish for Team Canada. Then they had a qualifier, created a team. Then they had a qualifier, created a team. Then they had another qualifier, created a team. All of a sudden they're traveling to Portugal and they're going to. So cool, it's the wildest thing. Portugal, mexico, the USA we had one here in Cornwall.
Speaker 7:So Canada Bass started to grow some legs and between Joe and Bob and the whole board and brent and and dave chong and all these guys, um, they're bending over backwards working hard because they want to see bass fishing on the olympic stage. So that's the all that's. The ultimate goal is to bring bass fishing to the olympics. In the process, there's all these events happening all over the world. Why wouldn't we be involved? Canada Bass is hosting this year in New Brunswick the Black Bass Championships. There's 11 different nations coming.
Speaker 7:I got a phone call asking me if I can help out. Sit on the board. That's something Media director or arts director. I'm helping, joe. You can't say no to these guys. They're just, they're gems. How do you say no to Bob Azumi? How do you say no to Joe Ford? I need your help with some graphics. So I created the logo for them five years ago, but along with the logo, I created a whole, basically a whole look at a brand, a website and images and backdrops and banners and so on and so forth, and they never used it and I never understood why. It's because they just never got my email. So, really, so years later, he's like man, I need abnc. I said, well, you're in luck, I have that all oh, yeah, yeah, so it's just a perfect fit, good timing.
Speaker 7:They needed some help. I had the time and I said, yeah, let's do it without checking with my partners, because our charity or not a charity, but our retreat is happening at the same time, oh man. And so I called him back and I said hey, man, I'm not going to be able to do this. And he's like really? And I was like, yeah, I was like I'm taking 30 people to the french river. I've done it for three, four years. I can't miss it. A for them and b I enjoy it. Yeah, yeah. So I called scotty and I was like scotty, uh, no, I'm back in, it's all good. I I canceled the job. And he's like are you insane? He's like what's wrong with you? What do you mean? He's like you're gonna cancel an opportunity to work with those guys on something that could be absolutely incredible in the future to go to the French river. I was like yeah, man, I got 30 people relying on me.
Speaker 7:Yeah, yeah, it's so cool of you. He's like go, I can't, I already can't. It's fine, don't worry about it, I'll get them what they need and we'll we'll go from there. He's like no, no, no, I'm not telling you. I was like I've already filled your spot.
Speaker 5:He hadn't, but he said I've already filled your spot.
Speaker 7:I need you to go to this. This is a great opportunity for you. You're always doing everything for everyone else. This is a good opportunity for you and so far it has been an incredible opportunity just to work alongside of you know names like jeff jeff wilson from, yeah, new brunswick. Yeah, the marimper Cup thing. Yeah, I cannot wait to go and do that.
Speaker 2:That's so cool, you know it's guys like that.
Speaker 7:So opportunity came up. I took advantage of it.
Speaker 2:And yeah, here we are. You're going to have a busy.
Speaker 3:September. Well, here's the thing, like, let's talk about some of these teams. Like you were talking about it on the phone last week and you were dropping some names. So Team Canada, let's talk about that because we have some sticks happening right now. You mean me and you right, we're going. I had to pull out Siege what? I got injured, you're just telling me now I got injured man. My doctor said nope, I'd love to see you guys at the qualifier.
Speaker 2:Can we get a hall pass that goes right to the end?
Speaker 7:The qualifiers are in November Bay at Queenie Come to the qualifier.
Speaker 3:I don't know if my casting finger is still broken. Siege, you know the story that I told you happened to me in the Bahamas. Yeah, here we go, here we go. I told you, man, I can't do it. Get back to the Blues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, here we go, here we go. I told you, man, I can't do it. Get back to the question. So how's the Canadian team? We're not on the Canadian team.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying, listen, we got some sticks and I'm surprised Moose isn't in this tournament because from what he's just been telling us, but who is representing Canada for this tournament? Now you're putting me on the spot.
Speaker 7:You don't have to talk about it.
Speaker 2:No, no, there's lots of guys here he's pulling out his real thing. I'll pull up the list While he's pulling that out CJ.
Speaker 7:Sometimes, as you might know, sometimes, if you forget someone. A freshman can be very sensitive.
Speaker 3:Yes, not to call you any of the boys sensitive, no, no, you just want to make sure everybody's, but just off my head, cj, and I'm going to ask you this In your mind, who would you pick? Your team Canada? Your Tiger Woods at the big tournament for USA or your Mike Weir for Canada? Who are you, off the top of your head, picking to represent Canada? You're the captain, cj. What's my name?
Speaker 2:The Johnson brothers, my name is Chris Johnston CJ.
Speaker 7:How many times do you get mixed up?
Speaker 3:Our episode two of our podcast. When we had CJ start, we had more ratings than you would believe. Everyone's like, even Pete Beaumont Beaumont. Pete Beaumont, he was like how do you know, Chris Johnson?
Speaker 2:I get people sliding in my DMs all the time wanting me to sponsor tournaments and ask me for merch and all that stuff. I should get Chris on here with you guys. Oh yeah, that'd be great. But yeah I would. I would go with the Johnson brothers. They are doing well and that's I'm not being they were invited out.
Speaker 7:So there's there's people that qualify for it, there's people that are just automatically given a ticket because of, I guess, status. Then there's people that are given the opportunity because they've their tournament series. So the cool part about Canada Bass now, let's say you win the Kawartha Cup, you'll get an invitation to fish Canada Bass.
Speaker 7:If you win whatever else, any major tournament series where you win something, you'll get an invitation to go and fish Qualifier in November. Anybody can fish it. So the Johnson Brothers did get an invitation but they have other tournaments and other things going on at the time so they couldn't make it. The cool part about it is we have the one and only jeff gustafson oh god, what does? Mercer call him the the white, uh white white lion white tiger?
Speaker 2:yeah, I can't think it's snow leopard, the snow leopard, snow leopard.
Speaker 7:So you got god, it's no leverage. So you got gussies coming, canadian Snow Leopard Gussie's coming up, cooper's coming up Again, and those two in a boat. There's something to be said about the other nations, though, when I saw these guys fishing Cornwall. Don't discredit Team Mexico, team Costa Rica. How about the States? Is the States in the tournament? Of course they're a stacked team.
Speaker 3:Are the.
Speaker 7:Martins brothers going to be part of that, so Scott Martin's going to be there. Oh boy, hamner, oh.
Speaker 2:Hamner, he just won the.
Speaker 7:Classic. He's going to be there. But I mean, as far as Team Canada goes, adam AJ or Adam Howell yeah, oh God. Adam Foster, ben so I can't pronounce his last name, ben they're brothers from New Brunswick, I believe. Oh, that's cool. Bob McMillan, brent Valer, cooper Gallant, corey Gaffney Another stiff, dave Chong he actually won. Yeah, so yeah, that list is huge. Jason Hare, jason Hines, jeff Gustafson Never heard of that guy. Joey Ford is actually an alternate. Jonathan Phil Curtis, bob Izumi Never heard of him. I'm sure I'm forgetting and missing a whole bunch of guys, but BI, are you crazy? A lot of really good sticks. A couple guys are currently fishing in the MLF Championships and the Toyota Series and all that. So some of the names you may not recognize, the faces you might recognize, but they're good sticks. Oh yeah, they qualify to be there, that's so cool.
Speaker 3:It's pretty neat, moose, what's your title at this tournament? Like, what is it that you are? Because obviously it's a huge opportunity, like you said, to be just around those names alone. That's like the NHL, right there. Media arts director. Media arts director. Media arts director.
Speaker 7:Wow, everything you see visually videos and signage and posters and stage and flags. Between myself, joe and Adam and Brent, we designed the whole thing top to bottom. The coolest thing was just a screenshot of the tournament site and it's like, okay, this is where it's going to be Start designing. It's like, okay, I want to put a stage here, I want banners here, I want this, I want this, I want this, I want to put a stage here, I want banners here, I want this, I want this, I want this, I want this. Now we've got to create it.
Speaker 3:You're not going to believe this. I'm dropping news, I'm fired up. Do you know that we will be represented at this tournament in a I'm going to say in a big part of this tournament. I'm hoping you guys come, okay, odj, outdoor Journal, outdoor Journal Radio Network, the Fish and Canada team will be there. Mr Angelo Viola, mr Pete Beauregard, dean Taylor, they're going there. We're there, siege, we're there. The boys are representing. We're there in spirit.
Speaker 7:But I'll tell you right now they're coming down, they're going to be hosting, so Aurora Productions is going to do the lives, yeah, so it'll almost be like you know, fast live kind of thing. There'll be an hour or two every day where you know there's a panel, people are talking. I'm pretty sure Pete. Pete and Andrew are both on that panel to chat. They're there to film a show. There's a lot happening behind the scenes that a lot of people don't know about. You know the logistics behind it. It's busy, especially with 11 nations and five of them barely speak English. Picture those conversations. Oh wow.
Speaker 2:So how many people are per team representing the company or not company, the country? So is it a boat of two anglers per country? Two?
Speaker 7:anglers. So I think Team Canada's got eight boats. I think everybody's allowed up to eight boats.
Speaker 2:I believe that's what. So is it the combined? Obviously the combined weight within each boat. There's a point system, okay, there's individual pricing, and then there's a point system for the overall. So this kind of sounds like the olympics, right? So there's, each country there's. Is there going to be like gold, silver? Yeah?
Speaker 3:yeah, I don't know what gold painter pictures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're there. You can really see what they're up to with this and I love it it's cool it's really well if we're crying. I love they have break dancing in olympics now why is it their? I?
Speaker 7:wasn't sure if anybody was gonna go there. I'm gonna tell you right now I was in it, it's no longer in.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's not. They took it out well. After that australian dancer went on the stage. It's the biggest meme on social media right now. You know they want to get into the women's costume.
Speaker 3:You're right but fishing should be there. Man, let's talk about that, because I'm gonna say right now I don't have much time to watch the Olympics, obviously, but whenever the runners were going, you had the 100 meter, the 200, then the relay. Those are things that in my mind it's like okay, I got to watch it. It's one of those epic events at the Olympics you got to watch. I wasn't able to watch the beach volleyball, but I'll tell you something If fishing was part of the Olympic siege, no matter where I am, I'd DVR it, I'd tape it, because I would be glued, especially if Canada, with those names, are going out there. I'd be freaking out.
Speaker 2:It'd be so awesome. I guess it would all depend on what country it was at and what species you're going after, right, because not every country has bass.
Speaker 7:I think what the ultimate goal is. You have to have a specific number of countries participating in an event. I don't know if an event 25 or 50, right, but there has to be a certain number of countries to compete in that event, right? So currently, I mean, there's there's teams from south korea, there's teams from japan they're not coming this year, but the numbers are getting up there but there's some countries that don't even have bass right, that are competing. Oh, that's cool, you know what I mean. So these guys love bass fishing. They go to the States and they go here and they go there.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about that. If you talk about bass fishing in general, like the tournaments now, before all you saw was the American flag and we love our friends over in the States. But now you see Canadaada, australia, japan and they're all chinese.
Speaker 7:They're all sticks, too sticks. Yeah, the chinese team is not to be messed with and they bring so much enthusiasm.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Yeah, yeah mexico like.
Speaker 7:I had the pleasure of meeting those guys a handful of times and I hung out with them at the mlf championship years ago, colby, so my little tournament partner. He qualified to go to the MLF championship so I took him down there. I wasn't even fishing and he was fishing as a co-angler and I bumped into those guys Greatest guys you'll ever meet. And the English is broken, yeah, but the common, the common passion, right, it's crazy. It's crazy great group of guys and it's like come to mexico anytime, my door's open so you're gonna be the one with the creative uh my there's.
Speaker 7:So there's a there's an arts director which is adam foster, and I'm working just under him, sort of helping him make sure everything's in place, so that, uh, so I'll be running around, you know, posting social media videos, just little clips of behind the scenes. Uh, I sort of fell into a role. I'm uh I'm on the board with the boys now and sort of helping them organize the event, and then I'll be hosting on the main stage with jeff wilson so that that kind of goes into his uh a segue of what moose does for a living okay, let's talk about that.
Speaker 3:Buddy br2, huge man, br2, I love that name. Well, br2, like we're, we're we're my last name, right, bird two yeah, bird two, that's, that's good. And and the fishing industry is a big, obviously, supporter of br2. And and it goes back to you talking about tournament fishing and what how he started, how do you find time to be this entrepreneur fish? You know, like I'm just blown away by your story in general and then him coming out with me today on set. This guy could be working for me tomorrow. I can probably be one of the best people on the team. You, just you have this natural passion for everything. It seems you do so, br2, you know, you, you you use, obviously, you're in the fishing industry as well, but it's not the only thing that br2 does, right? No, no, we cover a wide spectrum of services and it.
Speaker 7:It just it got to the. So I graduated. So after having that chat with dad are you going to stick with this food thing, or you know? Uh, I said no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take off and I'm gonna do at the time, computer graphics, computer web design, multimedia, computer design was a big thing years ago. Everybody was building websites and you got to learn html and xhtml and graphic design. So I went to school for graphic design, uh, and I did three years of that. Sorry. I went to school for advertising and I had two years of that, dropped out and went and did graphic design and I did three years of that. I was on the six-year program because molson canada made me the campus representative. So here I am, working for Molson Canada and trying to go to school, and you know they give you an SUV full of booze and you can host parties. I'm familiar with those programs At the university pub.
Speaker 7:So, there was a lot of first year and second year were just a write-off. So, anyway, I went to school for that, got a job in Toronto working for Mega Wraps and then working for the Pita Pit oh no way. And I flooded a Pita Pit and they fired me. And then I went to Mega Wraps and that guy sold something like 120 different stores and then disappeared and took everybody's money. So Mega Wraps went under Holy smokes. So then I just said you money? So Magraph went under Holy smokes.
Speaker 7:So then I just said you know what, I'm going to find something simple and I want to stay at home, I want to stay local. So I started working part-time at a local print shop and I just created a relationship with these people and I liked the vibe and everything was new, different every single day, new faces, and I had full creative design of everything, vibe and I. You know, everything was new, different every single day, new faces, and I was a full creative design of everything. People come in with nothing and I would create a brand, I would create a look, a feel, I created companies and, uh, so about six months in I had the opportunity to have my own store and the people I was working with they. They said you know we're thinking of franchising, are you interested? And dad had always said to me do not go down the franchise road. He said just don't do it.
Speaker 7:And I did it Always do the opposite, always do the opposite, and so I opened up my first print shop in Oshawa and it was great. My business partner was a little bit older than me, didn't really have a good idea of, didn't have a good business sense. He didn't. He wasn't an entrepreneur you know where's the money. He didn't understand that you had to build the business, build the clientele. And because I'd already been working from home doing design work and freelance and that I already had a clientele base, and because I'd already been working from home doing design work and freelance and da da da, so I already had a clientele base. So about a year in the print shop's doing great, he thought, you know, he needed to make more. So he ended up buying me out and it was probably the best thing he'd ever done for me because I wouldn't have been able to get another franchise. So he bought me out. I couldn't work in the industry for a year, for one year contract bullshit, non-compete. Yeah, yeah and um. So I took a year off and
Speaker 7:I fished more. I got to know a couple guys in the fishing industry. They started asking me for this and that. So I was working from home as a print broker basically, and I would feed. The only way I could stay in that industry was I'd have to feed that print shop work. So I fed that print shop work. He couldn't keep up with it. He shut it down. Six months later six months in a day I walked back in, talked to the landlord. I said all the equipment. I know he owes you money. Here's the money he owes you. All the equipment, everything that's in this building is now mine. He said cool, get it out of here tomorrow. And I said well, can we sign a six month contract? He said I've already got a new person coming in. So I took all this equipment, threw it into my house and I was operating from my house for a bit.
Speaker 7:The original store that I was working part time in they had just had two or three kids they were their family was growing. They couldn't keep up with the business. I was outgrowing my basement, you know business and I needed a shop. So I was shopping, I was feeding them work because I couldn't keep up with it and he said you know what? Do you think about taking over the store? Why don't you buy my store? Let me look at your numbers. We went back and forth and you're gonna think at this point point I was eight years in. I'd known these people for eight years. They were like family. You know what I mean. And I looked at the numbers. Everything jived and I said cool, we came up with a price and I took over. They were supposed to be there for three months. I had eight employees, I had multiple machines, computers and rooms. It I had eight employees, I had multiple machines, I had computers and rooms. It was a big production. Overhead was massive. It was a big facility. They disappeared after 30 days. They took my money and ran, but I didn't pay them the full. So they showed up at the 60-day mark looking for payment and I handed them a piece of paper that said that he owed me money and I said if you don't pay, I'll see you in court. I never saw them again. That was it. They took me for a lot of money.
Speaker 7:Lesson learned do your deep ranging? They were driving around in an $80,000 car that belonged to the company. They had a portion of their house that belonged to the company. There were so many things that went wrong and these people, I found out two years later, were the biggest scam artists in the country and there was a big thing written up about them. They came out of uh, I think it was hall um huge scam artists. They were, you know, claimed to be bible thumping church goers. Oh, big fraud, like it was red flag after how I didn't see it. Something like $1.2 million. They had scammed from myself and other people 10 other people over a period of time and court cases.
Speaker 7:Anyway, long story short, I managed to get what I can from that business. I had repo guys showing up and what was listed as an asset was no longer an asset and I had a $200,000 machine that I relied on because that's what fed my business those envelopes that you get from the bank with your name on it and it's an insert. I put a piece of paper in it and an envelope at one end and it would come out printed, labeled and ready for mail at the other end. So I relied on the banks and I relied on the CN Tower and the Sky Dome at the time, or the Rogers Center. We used to do all their training manual. We did big jobs for big companies and and they took all that away from me because of all the shady nonsense.
Speaker 7:So there was a rebuilding process after nine years eight, nine, ten years and I thought you know what I'm going? To keep it simple, I gave everybody a bonus. I said sorry, guys, I got to let you go and I left the business with my head down and I was defeated. You know what I mean Like as an entrepreneur. You don't want to. I was defeated. You know what I mean Like as an entrepreneur. You don't want to. I was defeated. It was days away from bankruptcy. It was like it was a dark, dark time in my life and I was young you know, and I used let's face it, family helped me out.
Speaker 7:I was going out of university and college. Family helped me out. I used family money and I'd let them all down, and you know, over over a 10 year period. How did I let this happen? You know, over a 10-year period, how did I let this happen? And just one day, light bulb went off and it was like reach out to those that actually care. Reached out to a handful of people. All of a sudden, cn Tower came back, rogers Centre came back.
Speaker 7:At the time there was a place called Keyscan that do the passes for, like the doors Keyscan, yeah, yeah. So Keyscan Canada. We used to do all their English, french and Spanish manuals. So those were my cash cows. I call them. That was what. It didn't matter what was going on in the world. Those four or five companies would keep me afloat and thank God you're back and let's get the ball rolling. And so they sort of got me back up and running, made some contacts and kept it simple, hired one other person and the woman that used to work for me got pregnant. So she was working from home doing sales and it just it all worked beautifully. Home office kept it simple. A couple pieces of equipment for some, like you know, last minute, on demand type of stuff. And that was it. That's how BRT printing was born.
Speaker 3:I got to tell you something, man. So just listening to the story and I can't even preach this enough, because I'm an entrepreneur and you've had, you've had films right. I'm an entrepreneur and you've had, you've had films right this Moose's story is so similar but yet different from having a franchise myself. Like I said, my family was in the pizza business, I was, I was into the franchise, I lost, went on my own, I lost, I was down living at my in-laws house. I'm not here to paint a sad story for everybody, because it ends up being beautiful in the end, but I can't preach this enough. If you don't lose each, if you don't learn how to lose period, you'll never win Right. And I think I think the thing about what shows you the kind of character that Moose has and I'll bring myself into this and you and Hookset and Top Dog, because we're all you know, we're all entrepreneur, we're all in business. You just got to believe in yourself, what you're capable of doing, I guess, and trust in yourself. You get the shit kicked out of you. You get up and dude the story.
Speaker 3:Your story is so insane that it goes beyond fishing. It goes beyond fishing. It goes beyond fishing. It goes beyond what our passions are. It's about family. It's about what he said. He cares about two things, and if you put it out there for his wife, these are the two things that I love to do. Don't take it away from me. If you stick to what you truly believe in and what you believe in yourself. Guys I mean, we're sitting in a room right now having some cigars. I just had the best day of my life of moose. You know, I think it all. It all ends up here. Siege, your, your path is going to end up somewhere, and I think having moose here just to hear his story is incredible. Brother, you are probably one of the most interesting people I've ever sat down and talked with, and the fact that that you know you, you share the same passion we do we're. Maybe we're not as gifted on the water as you are from the sounds of it.
Speaker 3:You know, Siege is a stick. I'm going to say that you know Hooksett, and then Top Dog and myself, we know our way around the waters, but your story is intriguing. It's one of those things that it's. It's, you know people listening right now. It's so cliche, it's cliche, you never give up. I guess you hear that all the time I gotta get you to make me.
Speaker 7:They're building blocks, that's all it is. Yeah, anytime, and it's the same thing what we were talking about earlier. Yeah, you know, you're learning from your, your experiences on the water, you're learning from your experiences in life and everyone, and you see it all the time and people say it all the time, but but it's actually when you implement it, when you actually do it. Yeah, you know, I'll do the same thing, they say. If you do the same thing, you get the same result time and time and time and time again. You're a bit of a psychopath. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you know in your heart of hearts that that one time everything is going to change, yeah, that's it, it's over. You're. These are all the learning curves. Yeah, I have to fail in order to succeed.
Speaker 2:100 I'll give you a cliche. Uh, a lot of my friends. They hate getting skunked on the water. They're pissed everyone does. I always treat it as a learning experience, because I go home pissed off and I'm like I should have done this. I oh, I didn't even think about doing that. And then I go back to that lake and I'm trying different techniques and I know obviously getting skunked on the water is not as impactful as what happened to you in tone. I've took my L's in life and it just makes you more grateful when those days come and we all do it when we're younger. You know what I mean. I think everybody takes the losses in different ways.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's just what you get out of it. You know what I mean. A lot of the times it could be people telling you something that triggers a thought. Yeah, last night I said to keith how's your season going so far? I was like dude, I'm having a horrible season. Awful season. I've I've done well in one event.
Speaker 7:Every other event where I thought I was going to do well, or I was pumped about it, or I just haven't, I haven't performed, I haven't done what I was supposed my jaw, I failed at my job, I sucked at fishing this season, right, and this is my biggest season to date, because there's more eyes, yeah, there's more pressure, yeah, there's more happening. So like and I'm not doing anything different than I did last year you just need to slow it down. Yeah, slow it down and and take note of what you're doing and don't do it again, right, okay? So give me an example. And he broke it down. And I've never I've pre-fished with cooper before, when you know we're fishing the Canada, us walleye or a clubby or just fun fishing. And he says if you go out and you pre-fish and you catch nothing, and you go to a tournament and you catch 20 pounds. What was the difference?
Speaker 2:right, if you figure that out, you'll be successful on the water every single time you go up yeah, I've seen so many times when he did really well and his pre-fishing was terrible, and he's just like what the hell, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do well? And the next thing, you know, bam, bam, bam and it's, it's crazy.
Speaker 7:I say with a classic yeah, I thought he had 14 pounds, every time 19 and change, 19 and change.
Speaker 2:We went insane and I think there's a theme with this podcast and I think it has a lot to do with, like, I mean, with the word passion and we keep talking about passion. But you know, I see the passion in you, moose, and I think that's why people always kind of remember you. They see the passion, right. You kind of stand out and guys like Cooper, like I know. A friend of mine, a co-worker, put me on him years ago. His name's Peter Cito, I don't know if you're familiar. Yeah.
Speaker 8:I know, peter Cito, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So he put me on. He said there's this upcomer kid that he's in Canada and he's going to be at Fish with them. His name's Cooper Collant and I'm checking out his stuff and he's doing on this kid and what I see about him is this the passion, too, is like when he's done doing these tournaments, he's filming with you guys and he's going around, he's not stopping fishing, like I mean you would think after all this tournament run that you just chill, but then he's chasing musky and he's chasing sturgeon. You know what I mean. So it's just, you see the passion and a lot of people always say to me like it takes more if you have the talent.
Speaker 7:But I think you can have the talent, but if you don't have the passion, you don't Like. I mean, you could be less and know how to cook and play specific sports and they're just, they're good at what they do, but they're just like man. Now I want to do something, now I want to, yeah, yeah, and it's just like you're wasting that talent. Dude, you gotta, you gotta put more effort into it.
Speaker 3:It just comes naturally I think dough is a big thing of it too, siege, because, let's be honest, we've been now this is, we've been doing this podcast for over a year and I could see how, you know, money is always it's. You're driven by money, right? Everyone goes up it puts on your shoes. Every day you're going to go to work. I still do it because I love cooking. Every single day I'm on this microphone because it's my. I absolutely love doing this podcast, this microphone because it's my. I absolutely love doing this podcast.
Speaker 3:But, you know, sometimes I could I see how people can go out there and put everything. They got moose, like, hey, like, think of yourself. You put everything, you put 150 in everything you do, but then you're not rewarded by the dollar bill and and then that, I think, siege brings you down right. It could, like you know, let's say, fishing, it's not really this. You know sport that you know produces huge, huge amount of dollars. It's not the nba, you know you're not in canada, not in canada, but you just make some good, you make a good living. You win a few tournaments here and there. Yeah, um, not in canada not in canada.
Speaker 7:No, no, I hate to say it. I hate to say it, but like, if you're, if you're in it for the money, yeah, you need to be 100 devoted to it. You need to be a cooper and want, you need to be the johnsons you need to be, you need to be invested. 100, that is your. You eat, sleep, breathe, wake like that. That's it. All you're doing is that if you go into this with the intent of making money and you're disappointed and you never do it again, you weren't really into it, right? You can't go into it thinking you know it's about the money, it's not about the money. Money comes and goes, man, and I've said it time and time and time again money comes and money goes. Everything in between lives with you. Forever, right, forever, it really does. Yeah, right, if I did anything, because I was chasing the almighty dollar, no, yeah, I did it because I enjoy it.
Speaker 2:I do it because I like it, and then the money comes, you know.
Speaker 7:And if the money comes, great. If not, I'll figure out a way to get them. Yeah, I I'm not on this planet. I'm not here to work to make money to live. I'm here to enjoy myself. And if money happens to come along and people say, oh, you say that because you come from money or you got money, absolutely not right. I'm the average joe. I'm just like everybody else. At times I'm working paycheck to paycheck. Yeah, may have savings, may not, it may not. Do not worry about the money. The money will come Right. If you put the money on the back burner and everybody thinks I'm crazy if you put money on the back burner, it will somehow. Someway, someone will provide it.
Speaker 2:That's so crazy. Yeah, that's well said. And back to, like, I mean, the Canadian anglers, like you said, the Canadian scene for fishing. You can't really make a living for the tournament. I don't think so. I don't think so either. And then there was all those naysayers that said when, like, the Canadian sticks crossed over, they're like, okay, they'll do good on the northern swing of the tournament with the northern legs. Proved them all wrong. Proved them all wrong.
Speaker 7:How exciting was that to watch? Proved them all wrong.
Speaker 5:How exciting was that to watch? They're like this is the Northern Swing.
Speaker 2:They'll win those, but wait till. It's, like you know, in Florida or whatever, in all these different areas, that they're not going to. They're not going to catch and it's hold my beer. I mean it's so cool and it's yeah, it's crazy.
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Speaker 3:Well, we've taken a lot of time out of Moose's day. He's been with me all day, siege. We got to get a question of the day and I know you talked about this question. You said we're going to wait till Moose is in studio with us because I believe it is fishing. It's a fishing question from one of our listeners and you know, whenever it's food related, you know I'm in there. I'm answering the question, usually when it's a fishing question.
Speaker 3:I do have my input, but I always hand it over to you. But what do you say? We put moose on the spot here and get a question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is organic. We have been planted the seed, so this is comes from anthony grades in peterborough, ontario.
Speaker 3:good day good place, johnson brothers yeah.
Speaker 2:So he says help, maybe this is from the johnson, you never know. Yeah, covered up. So he says hello, eating wild podcast crew. I love your podcast, especially the fishing banter. So he likes the chirps, loves it, everyone loves the chirps. Oh boy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my fishing buddies and I have a debate and would love to take, would like to hear your input. What is your take on bait scents? Do they actually work or is it marketing hype? So I think he's getting into like the sprays and all that stuff, salts and the brines and salts and the brines and salts and the brines, and I guess we could like I mean, I was a naysayer on it before and then I saw it worked firsthand. What is your, my take?
Speaker 3:before Moose steps in here. Here's the thing. I would say this again I've fished with a lot of different people. I grew up fishing in the rivers. You know a lot of people would say you got to use fresh roe. Now people are using beads with scent Guys trolling on Lake Ontario. They would prefer to use, you know, real meat. Some people are brining their meat. I would say personally Siege, the only thing, the only evidence I have, and I'm going to go back to lake st claire with you, musky fishing. The day that I missed your, your 50 plus, was the worst day of my life, but you made up for it. So that's another podcast. I missed hooking, I missed netting that 50. Even we had cousin glenn in the boat. Anyways, that day you, I had the white perch on yeah, the zombie perch.
Speaker 3:It's called the zombie perch and you handed me over this stick that looked like it was lip gloss and you said smash, I'm going to put a little bit of blood on that perch. And you took it, you put the scent on, you put it right underneath my white shirt. I'll never forget it. Two casts in, I got a 48. Yeah, I got a 48. Yeah, I got a 48. And and to me it was like the coincidence, or did she just give me the lip gloss that made me perform here? I don't know. So I'm gonna say my great question was it a placebo? I'm gonna say that, uh, with my the evidence that I have, yeah, I think I think okay, so I think you gotta go with smash.
Speaker 2:Smash says uh yeah, you got the check mark. What do you? What about you moose? What do you say?
Speaker 7:oh boy, so I'm on both ends of the spectrum, yeah, okay, uh, I've talked to a lot of very smart people about this and some would say it makes a huge difference and some would say it doesn't right. Some would say it depends on the species and some would say it doesn't matter the species. I would say it depends on the body of water, whether it's salt water or fresh right salt water, 100 right I agree that makes a difference.
Speaker 7:Agreed, fresh water. On the other hand, there's the almighty debate does it work? Garlic, does garlic work? Yeah, clove, does clove work? Uh, what is it that? Licorice, yeah, yeah, black licorice, yeah, work. Salt you know salts?
Speaker 7:I think it all depends on how the bait is presented, where it is in the water column and for how long. Yeah, if I have scent on my bait, or if it's soaking or in a brine or whatever and it's moving through the water column, is it dissipating? Is it? Is it dissolving quick enough to be in that water column for long enough for that fish to notice it? So many different factors. But if you go to science and again, you'd see it from bait fuel, queens university, I sat in the boat with the guy that created, you know, bait fuel.
Speaker 7:That came up with the formula, had me convinced. It's phenomenal, it's amazing. I didn't believe after he explained it to me. Scientifically, science does not lie right, it works. I'm trying myself. So me and three kids, me and the two kids side by each at the dock let's try this bait fuel. You cast, you cast, you cast. We're all using the same bait, same place, same everything. One bait is more productive than the other. Okay, let's change it up. One bait is more productive than the other. Let's change it up. So, time and time and time and time again, after 100, some odd casts bait fuel, in my opinion, works very well. Okay, very well. The oils that we have on our hands. Some guys would laugh at you and be like, oh, after smoking a cigar, don't touch your smoking a cigarette or you're filling the boat with gas or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, does it make a difference?
Speaker 7:in my head it, does Right, and Cooper laughed at me. We had this conversation. It's crazy how much we've talked to him. Last night and I said to him I'm like him, like dude, there's just something. I'm at the point now where I'm washing my hands with bait fuel, I'm spraying my baits with garlic. I'm not touching them and I'm catching more fish.
Speaker 7:But if I do touch a bait, like I have to go back to the bait fuel and he says it's all in your head. He says the scents work. Yeah for sure, he says, but you touching a bait is not going to make a big difference. Yeah, so you've got the pros and these guys that are seasoned anglers you know he's younger than me, but he's very well versed and who's telling you it doesn't make a difference? Then you got the guys that are science and educated, and this, that and the other thing. Or tell you that it doesn't make a difference. Right, in my opinion it makes a huge difference.
Speaker 7:If I'm drop shotting a bait and I haven't sprayed it with a garlic scent, or if I don't have bait fuel on it or that bait stick, that bait fuel makes I notice a difference. If I'm casting out to a fish and that fish darts over on my life scope and looks at it and turns did I like? Did I? I'm going to spray it. So I bring it up, I on my spray, that same fish will dart over on my live scope and smash it right. Okay, maybe it was a fluke. Try it again. Okay, maybe it was a fluke. Try it again. Every single time I've sprayed my bait with garlic or put beet fuel on it.
Speaker 3:I've noticed a difference okay that's huge man, that's that's, that's that's. I mean. There's science, there's there's feel, there's it's in your head. There's so much to think about, yeah for my personal experience that bait is soaking, it's not dragging it's not
Speaker 7:moving, it's soaking. Now berkeley has a bait that you know you could fill the body with, yeah, and as it moves it releases yeah. Is it gimmicky? Probably Possibly. I was thinking of doing a bait years ago, calling it gourmet baits and scenting it with. We used to fish with chicken fat for Lakers in BC, scenting it with like a chicken scent, a garlic scent, a saffron, a this or that, you know. Just because we, as the anglers, we are the ones that are buying these baits. So gourmet baits scents. I'm gearing it towards the person buying it, not the fish, right, but what actually and truly does work is things that sit in place.
Speaker 2:In my opinion, if they're moving, you don't need the scent that's what I was going to say in my personal uh with with sense before I thought it was I. I took marketing as well. I know there's a lot of marketing in it but uh, with reaction baits like you you know your jerk bait, spinners, cranks I don't think there's really a big need because they're just reacting, whereas the finesse like you were talking about. I'll give you a prime example. I was in a Parry Sound area two weeks ago and it was a hot time of the day, you know. The fish died down on reaction baits and I was doing the more finesse and I was using shout out to Berkeley. But I was using their flatworm with a max scent and they have a little craw as well and I was paying three or four of them and all of a sudden the craw, the Canadian, the little trooper on a nethead shout out to them. On that I didn't want to talk about.
Speaker 7:On the podcast because that's my secret weapon.
Speaker 2:But you got it, we're not talking brand new.
Speaker 7:You should see xo's new one. Oh, I'm a big fan of them as well. So cooper actually developed a new little split tail and oh, really tail as well. Like there's something to be said about small and this yeah we can go forever. Let me ask you guys a question yeah, profile or color, what's more important?
Speaker 3:you want me to answer first each. Yeah, I gotta go color and and the reason why I'm going color is because, okay, first of all, everyone knows smash as a fisherman I am not a technical fisherman, siege, you know this, hookset knows this. You're the food guy and you show up for a good time. Listen, I fish, I'm a stick. I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 7:I pop you do it's because of the food background. That's why you say that that's what it is.
Speaker 3:This is what it is. I've owned the muskie trophy three years in a row. I was already interviewing Moose. Moose asked me a question. Sage, you want me to answer it. It's a problem. I feel like I'm sitting next to Lou here.
Speaker 2:I got to get in on that.
Speaker 3:Well, the chirps are good, but I'm pissed off now, okay. So here's the thing. Here's the thing Again. I am not like you and Lou and even Dan Dan is like you when, and and lou and and even dan dan is a very technical fisherman. I'm just bringing in the forest kids here, okay, the guys that we grew up fishing with, um, you know, together, and I would say I had more and I'm gonna go back to lake st clair because we fished that. You know, it's been about 15 years straight and when I I'm you know this siege about me the colors, if I hook into one fish and shout out to waterwolf louis, mike, um, shadzillas. If I got the pink panther and I put it on and I'm casting the pink panther and I hook one fish, I have a problem changing, and it's not about if that you did surgery on one of my shadzillas because, you brought it out, the hot knives, and it's only because of that color what happened.
Speaker 7:Moose, I love it.
Speaker 3:I ended up buying four more of the same color. Now my tackle box looks like the rainbow and I have a problem with sticking to colors. You know this about me. And it's like if I'm going to fish a Zara Spook, I got to use baby bass. Why? Because that's what I've. It's like if I'm gonna fish a zara spook, I gotta use baby bass. Why? Because that's what I've. It's been productive for me. If I'm fishing musky. If I'm fishing uh, bulldogs, it's orange and black. If I'm fishing like, I have these colors that are in my mind because it's a confidence it's a confidence bait moose.
Speaker 3:I don't know what else to say. Like. Like to answer your question for me. I'll let you you go next, but it's got to be color. Just to answer the question quickly, it's color for me.
Speaker 2:So the question was so this is a great question from this guy. Anyways, in Peterborough, what's his name? Again, sorry, anthony Graves. Look, we've gone off on this. This is fantastic.
Speaker 2:So, moose, your question was if it was the profile, profile or the color, or profile. I used not to say one is better than the other, but what do you? What do you lean more towards, profile or color? See, I used to be all about color, but I am. I am leaning more now towards the profile and saying that uh, back to using those little berkeley, uh, crawdads, and when I caught four or five bass and all of a sudden they would die off and then I put a new one on, back to the sense. All of a sudden they started die off and then I put a new one on. Back to the sense. All of a sudden they started hammering again.
Speaker 2:I compare it to like a dog that always sniff something before it eats. So that's why I was. But I I'm all about profile and I always used to be a big profile guy. The bigger the better. I'm learning my personal experience. Moose, you can touch on this's. You got to get back to the roots and go smaller. I think I don't know, what do you? What do you think it's a good question, this is great tough question.
Speaker 7:So, working with, working with guys like jp multiple boat shows, he put it very. He put it so simply like his at the boat show. He used to do this seminar. He's changed it up a bit but he'd do this seminar about the profiles and the bits If we were sitting here. We just finished eating a ridiculous meal, yeah, and we come back here and we're chatting, we're having a couple of drinks and some smokes. If somebody puts on some peanuts, you grab one or two. Yeah, it's just some chocolates. You can grab one or two. Yeah, yeah, yeah it some chocolates. You can grab one or two.
Speaker 7:It's almost like a snack for these fish. So it's not necessarily a big profile bait. They're not going to eat it, they're just not hungry. But if you present them with something small that might annoy them, you can get a reaction bite. Or you can get a bite just because, hey, I'm just going to eat it because it's there and the way he put it was, I was like, yeah, it sense to me that sounds. I have such a hard time throwing anything over three and a half inches. Wow, anything. And for multiple species, and not to say that, how many times have you caught a musky bass fish All the time, all the time. You're not going to go musky fishing with a three and a half inch split tail or paddle tail, but think about all those times where you've caught a giant fish on a tiny bait. It's just a snack for them, that's all it is.
Speaker 2:That's a good term, because, think about it, tony, like he said, if I walk by here and I see a bowl of chips, even though I just went to the kegger, I went to the kegger.
Speaker 7:I went to the kegger. I just had a kegger classic and I. I like it. It's going to take a bite. I like it. Here's another one for you quickly? Okay, Listen, we could do this all night.
Speaker 2:This will be a two-parter. This will be a two-parter for sure.
Speaker 7:What do you got Eyes or no eyes? Oh, on the bait. Yeah, as a human being, what's the first thing you do? When you walk by someone? You look in their eyes. Or when you walk by someone, you look in their eyes, or or like eye contact is huge. So, and I don't know if this has ever been studied or proven, but to me, like I carry the googly eyes from the dollar store and I glue them onto my baits, no way I have a thing with eyes, like my baits have to have eyes. If my bait locks eyes with another bait or another, like their eyes are, I don't know what it is, but, as as me, being a human being, if I lock eyes with you, we're creating some sort of a connection. Either I'm gonna eat you, kiss you or push for you.
Speaker 3:I love it. Punch me in the face yeah, what eyes. This is crazy because we're. We say this all the time. We learn every. I'm learning a shitload right now, but I've never even thought of that.
Speaker 2:No, and we're hearing more from our listeners. Like people, some people are saying go big, go big, go big and you get bigger fish. But it's been proven for us.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I got to mean I got a muskie on a net rig on sturgeon with Taro a month month ago.
Speaker 2:My home waters are the niagara river. My parents lived when. Did it change? What's that? Or is it changing, or are we the ones changing? I think we are the ones changing. Like we used to go big, the rods had their pool sticks, not even just for musky, for bass, yeah.
Speaker 7:And now foreign swim bait for a huge profile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how everything's micro and micro, and then the rods are actually parabolic and you're actually not losing fish on crankbaits anymore because we're not ripping the trebles out of their mouths with these medium heavies we use. So is it that?
Speaker 7:the fish are adapting or they're. They've seen all the big profiles and they don't want the big profiles anymore.
Speaker 3:But have you heard of moose? Have you heard anybody? And I'm just going to bring up bodies of water, different waters, and I'm talking ontario here. Have you ever heard of anybody catching a monster musky on georgian bay with a small lure?
Speaker 2:because I haven't well, what do you mean? What do you that the biggest record came out of georgian bay with the guy uh, walleye fishing. Yeah, really, yeah, yeah it's dead, unfortunately.
Speaker 3:Oh, that was uh. Uh, it was Dog's. What's his name? Portuguese guy.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, this is old school. Frank talked about it on the ugly pike. The guy was walleye fishing, and get this. It was during a big musky tournament that was going on on Georgian Bay and there happened to be a walleye guy in a little tenor wearing a yellow rain jacket, popped. I don't know. I'll say the the. The dimension is wrong on this. I don't want to butcher it but it was a big.
Speaker 3:It's like the record. Well so. So bodies of water, obviously don't you know. It's proven.
Speaker 2:Smaller baits will always work I think the big baits will too, I think. But I think moose has really opened my mind here and he has when he did that. I like how you did that analogy with food, because, as a human, I sold that from JP.
Speaker 7:Thanks buddy, oh, thanks JP.
Speaker 2:Go to tactical videos. But no, that's a great point and I think we get caught up in a lot of it. The bigger the better, and I don't know, man, I am really going to look at my tackle box when I get home a little bit. There's so many different.
Speaker 7:And we can sit there and break it down. There's so many different techniques that will all catch fish. Water temperature makes a huge difference. Water clarity makes a huge difference. Time of year makes a big difference. There's a bay on Stony, so I've got a cottage up on stony. There's a bay on stony that I could fish every single month, catch nothing other than june. In june I will catch five after five. I took four kids out, I took four kids out and they all got their personal best on the same day. It was absolutely amazing. That's awesome, you think.
Speaker 3:I'm a god. I look amazing.
Speaker 7:We all caught five pounders and I know to go there in June because June, for some reason, water temperature clarity I don't know if it's whatever is in the water that's clearing it up between May and June. And there's just something about that time of year and that bay and that water temp, right, and if you think about this summer compared to last summer, I went back to that bay same time June. Second week in June water temperature was a little bit higher, the fish were a little bit harder to catch. It all depends on what you're throwing, how you're throwing it and basically water temperature. Really Water temperature plays a huge role.
Speaker 7:You could throw a big bait and this is proven, this is known, you know, if there's tons of videos out there, something along the lines of there's a cold front, you and the water pressure, you're slower, you're deeper, you're higher, you're faster. All of that makes a difference. But if it's a small profile or big profile doesn't make a huge difference when the conditions are perfect, right. But if you want to catch numbers, the smaller you go, the more productive you'll be.
Speaker 2:And it's true, because even the smaller baits, sometimes I get frustrated with the smaller baits and and this is being selfish is you gotta, you gotta, sort through the two pounders, because the two, two pounds and then you'll get the big ones. But, like I mean, a lot of times when I throw the larger bait I do get confidence. I'm be like, okay, the two pounders going to exist on us, but then they prove me wrong and I catch them. But yeah, especially for kids, you put those little micros.
Speaker 7:How many kids have you taken out? Fishing and all of a sudden they're like they're catching giants, not paying attention.
Speaker 3:No, my daughters all the time. My daughter snapped her Barbie rob three weeks ago.
Speaker 5:Right off my dock.
Speaker 3:It was the craziest story. I'm with my kid and my daughter. You know she brought her friend to the cottage we're on scoogog and they said, daddy, me and my friend want to go fishing. I said, okay, we're going off the dock and they're casting out crappy stuff with a bobber. They got their little Barbie rods. That's the magic word. Next thing, you know, this is how I got the scar on my knee.
Speaker 3:By the way, folks, okay, I went to the Bahamas with a four-inch scar from my kneecap from smashing it on my dock because my daughter's friend's fishing rod was bent over. And I'm looking over. I'm like you got something there. She's like it's really heavy. And I'm looking at the lines'm like you got something there. She's like it's really heavy and I'm looking at the lines.
Speaker 3:Each it's just ripping and the sprod almost ripped out of her head and I see the red tail. Red tail comes right out and I jumped from one side of the dock to the other and I got these pull anchors on my dock and I tried to jump over it and I slit my kneecap about four inches, bleeding everywhere. My wife comes running out. Oh my God, there's blood everywhere and I'm trying to grab the rod off of this poor girl. The fish comes right underneath the dock, snaps the rod, snaps the line off and there's blood everywhere. My adrenaline is just popping. I wish you had a GoPro. Oh my God. And she looks at me. She's like that fish was big I'm like yeah I've never that was a musky.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah it was a musky and I'm losing it. There's blood everywhere and, uh, you guys are big musky guys. I love musky fishing we, we.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've always been a bass guy and then when I got mixed into this group, they got me into, you know, the, the pike and musky, and then then, at the same time, I got them into bass. So it's just a good blend. You know, I got you guys in the crappy and crappy, crappy.
Speaker 3:I got these guys in the spring. We got, we got multiple trips. Now, moose, we got a crappy trip. We got a belt yeah, we got a belt that we all. We have a tournament every spring. Um, you know the bass fishing with cj? Uh, we fish french river a lot. We fished the French river Bay of eights Like we we've, we've done it all, but I, I would say we've all changed our tune in the past three years. Because of this podcast. Because of the podcast, we're fishing with more people like moose and Taro, and, and, and we've been mixed up with some of the greatest, like social media fishermen guides. You know, kyle Moxon, simon Berf, like Andrew Walker, just posted a picture with this monster monster wearing our hat, which was pretty cool. Yeah, and you know, we're starting to turn into multi-species fishermen and I'm enjoying fishing much more.
Speaker 7:And nothing against. There's nothing better than multi-species that we're. I'm enjoying fishing much more and and and nothing against. There's nothing.
Speaker 2:There's nothing better than multi-species. That's what I wanted to ask you for suckers or whatever anything that would.
Speaker 7:The tug is the drug.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I said that back in the day and it's stuck and that's what I wanted to ask you is I'm seeing, because back in the day you're very similar to um, I believe that ages as us, and with a young family, Either you were a musky guy, a pike guy or a bass guy or a walleye. There was no like you had the odd people that were multi-species, but I almost want to say there was hate out there. Like the bass guys would be like oh stinking, you know musky or snot rocket and I get it. I've lost expensive jerkbaits to pipe using. But but I'm seeing more of a trend now. You could correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm seeing on like socials and all that there's not just a one dimension fisherman anymore, like there's a big, like respect for all species.
Speaker 7:The younger. The younger the angler, the more I mean. Let's face it, we all started on a river or on a pond.
Speaker 2:Pond yeah.
Speaker 7:Whether you're steelhead, rainbow salmon, whatever that type. A lot of guys started on the rivers and whatever you were catching in the rivers, that's what you fell in love with. Then you sort of transition into this world of bass, because that season is just they're plentiful and they're not easy to catch, but they're catchable, yeah. And then there's the perch, and then so it just depends on how much you you, how much time you put into a species. Right, a lot of the old boys who just love walleye and live for walleye and walleye is all they know how to fish for it. Yeah, that's what they're all about and I've been on boats with those guys are like oh shit, you're you're fishing for bass like I would fish for walleye right like yeah, sometimes I
Speaker 7:go walleye fishing to catch bass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it just for me. Being a multi-species fisherman, I was introduced to the sport at a young age. I was, I fished for it all. Yeah, I could throw on this lure and catch this fish. I can throw on this lure and catch this fish. I could throw on this lure and catch this fish. Or I could throw on this lure and catch all fish. I want to catch all fish, and that was it. Muskie is something new to me. It wasn't until the road trip, the first road trip. I wasn't a big muskie guy. I didn't have muskie gear. I wasn't a big muskie. I was always a multi-species fisherman. But I didn't go to target muskie Right, found it difficult, I didn't know anything about it.
Speaker 7:Greg Attard, cooper and Colin, they sort of like planted the muskie bug, yeah, and then you know, my partner in crime, shannon, loves muskie fishing. She loves, oh, really Loves, musky fishing. She loves, oh, really, really, that's so cool loves it. Sean, uh, sean quinn, the canadian rod father, there he's, he's, he's a musky freak. Right, buys and sells baits. And this guy, the other thing is he's got to have this musky freak, uh, my buddy gallo.
Speaker 3:But we went on a we went on a blue collar, blue collar, yeah, yeah you haven't had a chance to go fishing with that guy, yeah yeah whether it was walleye or salmon.
Speaker 7:yeah, dude, that guy's a gem, yeah, a gem. Him and andy are are on a different level, right, but anyway, long story short, they, they, they've. I've just found a new love for musky fishing, yeah, and it's hard to walk away from it because I know now I get the musky bug. Yeah, but I'll always be a multi-species fisherman.
Speaker 2:The worst part about multi-species fishermen is having the rods on the boat. You know you'll be on a musky spot and you'll be like, oh, look at that bay over there for larges. Yeah, you know, sometimes I wish we were just pike anglers and we were just Back in the day, that's what we did.
Speaker 3:We always brought them, we always had a musky rod on the boat.
Speaker 3:We had so much shit on the boat, I know, and it's like you know, and Hook's at fishing with Dan. I've shared a boat with him my whole life. Yeah, the boat's a mess, right, and it's only because you don't know what we're gonna like. What do we feel like today? Oh, you just said it let's look at those lily pads, get a frog. Let's go and and I think that's the best part about it, though, right, I really do like targeting one species like we used to do back in the day it ruined us, yeah there was a day where, if we went up to the french river and we didn't see one musky, oh my god, it was the end of the world.
Speaker 2:Lou would have the tantrums and then we have a chef like antonio. We're fishing muskie all day and I'm like let's get some walters. Yeah, you know, and he what he can do with that it's the best part, brother, the one question I have for you, moose, is when you're a multi-species fisherman. Now are you going out on the boat and just being like, okay, today I'm chasing this fish, or are you just being like on the water and being like you know what I'm going to go for? Maybe this, this and this, yeah, or?
Speaker 7:are you just…. If I'm fun fishing, I sort of…. A lot of the times I'm not very selfish, right, a lot of the times I'm taking people out. Yeah, I want them to catch. Yeah, I'm taking people out, I want them to catch. Depending on your age, depending on your skill, depending on what you want to see, I can take you out to catch fish. Whether it's perch, crappie, bluegill, sunfish, it doesn't matter If I hand you an ultralight and we're catching bluegill you know what I mean.
Speaker 7:I chase fish as they come into season. Ice out perch. You cannot keep me off of lake simcoe. And and again, it was jp who got me onto that. I would never go and fish for perch, like ah, perch fishing, that's for wussies, yeah. And then all of a sudden I was like whoa, this is ridiculously fun, like it was fun with the kids on the dock, but now I'm chasing giant birds, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I think it got you guys onto that bug seat. Oh, he did. I always chirped. I always chirped panfish. Like I don't get it, man, I do it with my daughters, you know. And then he's like, listen, we're going to go up and we're going to next thing, you know, we, next thing, you know, we go up there. I didn't take it seriously. We ran a tournament and we had so much fun and then, plus, having Antonio as the chef, we were making tacos.
Speaker 3:Crappy tacos.
Speaker 2:Next thing, you know I'm buying a St Croix panfish edition 500 series Shimano Vanford and I'm into it, like you said. So you do a lot of fishing, whatever's kind of like the bites on.
Speaker 7:So, like perch, when ice is out, as soon as that season opens, for as soon as I can get out for pike, I'm on it. Yeah, because I know it's productive, I know it's fun and I love fishing for pike. Ice out, perch, I'm out, I'm all over it. Right, as the fish come into season, walleye, as they come into season, it's always the best where I find that I sort of drop off like you won't catch me fishing for pike this weekend, next weekend, it's not gonna happen. Yeah, because I know the bass fishing is phenomenal, right. The walleye fishing is fun morning and evening.
Speaker 7:As of last week, the salmon fishing is on fire. Yeah, incredible, right, but you talk to the salmon guys. Salmon fishing has been on fire all season long. I'm hearing when I live and when I can get to a boat launch and where I can take my boat and the time and salmon is incredible, you know, 60 feet of water. I'm in Bowmanville, oshawa, newcastle. That's close, it's quick, it's easy. I get the quick bug I can have. You know, I can watch someone's reaction. That's what I'm doing, yeah, yeah, last two weeks of august, first week of september, all I'm doing is salmon fishing for fun. Tournament fishing has just always been vast, because there's no walleye tournament there is, but there's not.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I mean. So it just, I follow the seasons and I follow the fish, um, and I love them all equally yeah, yeah, oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Man well, we gotta, we gotta wrap this up what do you got to tell you we can do another hour of this, but I got to end the show. We always end the show talking recipe of the day. We're talking food. We got Moose, who's a multi-species angler. He knows his way around a kitchen. I got to ask you this. I got to put you on the spot. Recipe of the day. Moose is taking his boys out fishing, but you guys are targeting a shore lunch. You're targeting a shore lunch, walters, crappie, whatever you want. I want to know what are you packing? What are you going to blow everyone away with? What species are you targeting? What's your favorite fish to eat? Freshwater, okay. And what are you making for the guys? We're coming on your boat and we're expecting a shore lunch? Putting you on the spot, brother, what are you making for us? What you're?
Speaker 7:no pressure, I know right, you've had, you've had a shore lunch before, you've had a breaded fish, you've had the garlic and the, the parsley and the lemon and the lemon. You've had all that. But I would go down the route of and my mother is a genius when it comes to this Mediterranean-style cuisine Very herbal, very, you know, there's a lot of herbs and spices and fresh vegetables and it's sort of almost like on the cusp of vegetarian. Right, she makes this dish and it's very simple. There's three spices and it's not even a battered fish, it's a flour fish, it's flour, okay, flour oil.
Speaker 3:So I would pack flour oil coriander parsley, garlic, salt pepper, lemon butter, Coriander Love that.
Speaker 7:That's one of my favorite spices, the main ingredient in that sauce is vinegar, wow, vinegar, and sugar and sugar. Okay, I know where you're going, and so you pan fry the fish. Uh, pan fry the fish, it's nice and crispy, and you just lay this vinegary. It's like a sweet, savory, salty, pickly, full of flavor sauce. It's just phenomenal. I can't get enough of it. I love it. Have you made this dish for the boys before? I've made it for a few people. They like it. It's an acquired taste. Right as soon as you throw in like coriander and parsley or not parsley, sorry cumin, coriander and cilantro people are like oh, soap, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, um, cumin, coriander and and cilantro. People are like oh, so you know, yeah, yeah, of course, either you love it or you hate it you know what I mean?
Speaker 7:I've made it for a few people. Uh, well, mom's made it for a few. We bring the fish home, she'd make it for us, uh, and they love it. But that I, I, I go down that route. We've all had the breaded fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that, I love that. But yeah, I would say perch with a simple crunchy panko-style beer batter, something like that. They're just little meat sticks of just deliciousness.
Speaker 3:We got to post this recipe. We're going to actually get you to give us this recipe. Dial it in. We're going to post this on the Fishing Canada website. You're going to check it out. You're going to hit the recipe under the Eating Wild in. We're going to post this on the Fish and Canada website. You're going to check it out. You're going to hit the recipe under the Eating Wild podcast. We're going to get Moose's recipe up. You're going to have it with cinnamon rice.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's not stopping, it's got to soak up the juice.
Speaker 7:If you look up Mediterranean cuisine, any seafood style dish, it's like a clove and cinnamon rice, right. So you make rice the traditional way, right? Um, this might sound crazy to someone who's italian, but you put that like angel hair type pasta. You pan, fried in butter till browns, so caramelizes the sugars, right, becomes a little sweet. Then you throw your rice in. You cook your rice traditional way and then you close, you throw in two cloves and cinnamon. It becomes becomes like a brown rice. Wow, that's what they eat with a lot of seafood dishes, whether it's calamari or fish or shrimp or lobster. Brown rice, clove and cinnamon. Jesus Murphy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see, I'm a chef and I'm learning every day. Yes, you are, I'm learning every day. Bro, can you imagine we pull up and do a shore lunch and we've got this beautiful cinnamon brown rice and this beautiful Mediterranean dish over pan fried perch? People are going to think we're nuts. I want to try that. I want to try that. I think the people listening want to try that. So we've got to get that up on the Fish and Canada website after this episode.
Speaker 3:This is part two, by the way, folks, because we've been taking, we took a lot I've been taking. Moose has been checked in for over eight hours with Smash already. Does it feel like you've known Moose all your life? I do, and the people listening are going to be like, wow, this guy's incredible story. Brother, I wish you all the luck on this tournament coming up Both tournaments, huge tournaments and I just want to say thank you for taking the time. Tournaments and, um, I just want to say thank you for taking the time coming to our shop in studio hanging out with me for the day feeding the army on gen v and, uh, it was a pleasure having you. How can people reach out to you? I know your socials are popping, but how can they reach out to you with your br2, just to get to, just to follow you? Man, how can they look at you?
Speaker 7:BR2 printing Moose BR2. You'll find everything there. Phone numbers I don't hide nothing. Phone numbers, message Doesn't matter who you are and what you're asking and what you need. Send me a message, I'll get back to you.
Speaker 2:And don't let the listeners know we might have eating wild BR2 hats coming.
Speaker 7:Oh, you just did it, I did it, I did it Right when I almost hit the pause button, brother, you dropped the news.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tell everyone listening before we end the show, what's happening. We got Moose here. We got you.
Speaker 2:We are teaming up with BR2. It's our pleasure to team up with a guy like Moose and we're going to have some really cool eating wild gear down the road. That's the number one question. We get all the time.
Speaker 3:I was just going to tell you, man, we've been getting questions about our knives. We're almost sold out, by the way.
Speaker 7:We're sold out. You guys haven't seen those. You're sold out, really yeah we're very close.
Speaker 3:I held that knife. By the way, Moose is going to be sampling the E-Dub knife very shortly, but you you know merch. Merch has always been something that we've been getting a lot of questions. And where can we get an edub hat? Where can we get a t-shirt?
Speaker 2:we're flattered, man, the fact that we have so much demand for this. It is flattering, and I think we have to go to the e-commerce. Eventually we're gonna, and right now most people are sliding in our dms buying knives and all that stuff, but maybe that's something we can talk to you about.
Speaker 7:We'll make them available soon and, yeah, there'll be a fair price and there'll be the og logo, and then, you know, maybe every season we come out with a new shirt or yeah, we're gonna have to have an e-commerce store.
Speaker 2:It's growing so fast and and we're we're honored.
Speaker 7:It's a beautiful thing, honestly what like sitting on the outside watching you guys do what you do. Um, I see your passion. I understand what you're doing. I absolutely love it. I think you guys are not beginners. You've set a bar. You do it with class. I love everything about it your stories, who you guys are, how you guys got here and what you guys are going to continue to do. I'm super pumped to watch it all go down.
Speaker 2:Did you put him on payroll? Because that was beautiful. I'm blushing right now. I'm blushing, I'm blushing.
Speaker 7:This guy's been in the business forever and he's seen it all. It's true, man. It's true. It's not because of who you've partnered up with, it's not because of what you say. It's because you're real, you're straight up.
Speaker 3:Appreciate that man, you know what I mean. You get the sugar coat.
Speaker 7:We're sitting here having drinks and cigars and telling life stories, and that's what it's all about. Yeah, that's awesome, well said brother.
Speaker 3:Well said. Well, listen, man, this is uh smash malecca, uh. I'd like to thank our guest again, moose, and of course, my beautiful co-host, christopher showtime johnson. That, by the way, people him being in studio. It's not easy. It's not easy for you to come down from london all the time. I think our guests are getting really used to you coming here hanging out with me smoking a cigar having a dream on the cigar I'm gonna have to give you guys to go cigars, by the way.
Speaker 2:But yeah, but yeah. It's great to be in studio, as always, and any chance I can have to sit by one of my best friends is fantastic, and I consider Moose one of our great friends now too. And yeah, man, thanks for having me once again. I love what you did the place, man. You kept the fridge full for me and cigar cigar cutter and uh torch lighter ready for me.
Speaker 3:Thanks, buddy all right guys. Thanks for listening. This is antonio smash molecular checking out of your coach. Start that lovely tune, siege. It was a pleasure, buddy, ciao, get the net.
Speaker 2:We'll be right back.