Untamed Pursuits

Episode 4: Mailbag Day

• Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network • Episode 4

Share episode

Ever wondered if being a full-time fishing guide would make the hobby feel like work? As it turns out, it’s a blend of passion and challenge, and we’re diving into that reality in this thrilling mailbag episode of Untamed Pursuits. You'll hear a collection of listener questions and stories that bring laughter and insights, from the quirky guest screening process involving fast food favorites and Rush songs, to Ryder's touching recount of his early fishing memories in central New York.

Hold onto your hats as we recount some of our wildest outdoor mishaps! Picture this: a routine deer scouting trip in Georgia spirals into an unexpected hog hunt, complete with a chigger-infested aftermath that had us scratching for days. Alongside these tales of adventure, we explore memorable guided fishing trips, including a bachelor party incident that ended with an unplanned first aid session on the boat. These stories showcase the unpredictable and humorous side of outdoor pursuits, reminding us why we love these adventures so much.

Ever tasted the delectable flavors of walleye or mahi-mahi right after a fresh catch? This episode also delves into the culinary delights of fishing and hunting, and the excitement of targeting species from Atlantic salmon to baby tarpon. Ryder shares insights from his book "The Guides: A Collection of Untamed Stories," celebrating the art of storytelling and its impact on conservation efforts. Join us as we wrap up with reflections on chaga mushrooms, the joys of lodge ownership, and the profound connections we make with nature. Get ready for laughter, camaraderie, and a deep appreciation for the great outdoors.

Speaker 1:

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

Speaker 2:

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

Speaker 1:

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

Speaker 2:

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 1:

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.

Speaker 2:

Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our angling adventures. Tight lines everyone.

Speaker 1:

Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to Untamed Pursuits on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network. I'm your host, jamie Pestilli, and I'm here with my favorite person down in the Carolinas, ryder Knowlton. How are you, ryder? Hey Jamie, how's it going? Oh, things are going awesome, man, it's my favorite day of the month. You know what day it is, ryder?

Speaker 4:

I have no idea what day is it today.

Speaker 3:

It's my favorite day of the month you know what day it is, rider?

Speaker 4:

I have no idea what day is it today.

Speaker 3:

It's mailbag day we got mail. Mailbag day. Yeah, we got mail. That's fantastic, that's great. We got uh all via the, uh, the interweb, at our instagram account, uh, just at untamed pursuits. So, if you're out, you got a question for a future show. Or, hey, if you're a fishing guide with some great stories, our screening process is pretty rigorous, but if you can get through that, we'd love to have you on the show. So, mailbag day.

Speaker 4:

Mailbag day is a big day for us and the screening we ought to talk about some of the screening process requirements we have, which we're going to dive deeply into. You know what favorite fast food chains you enjoy? You know what your favorite Rush song is? There's going to be a lot of you know heavy duty Q&A on that screening process.

Speaker 3:

You had to go Rush, eh, bruce Brixey. Oh yeah, all right. Do you want to read the first one, or do you want?

Speaker 4:

me to go. We've got some good ones here. We've got some good ones here. I've got here's one. Here's one for you, Jamie, this is coming from. This is an interesting question. So here's a question from Kentucky, Kentucky, and it says yeah, and it says do you enjoy fishing as much being a full-time guide? That's an interesting question.

Speaker 3:

The answer is yes, I love fishing. I think one of the reasons why I became a guide was because I enjoy netting a fish as much as being the person on the reel, so I get just as excited. A big muskie hits the net. I still shake like I did. This is my first one, so I love to share that with other people. But yeah, as a job I did some television stuff. At times it was a little frustrating and I was wondering. I started to resent fishing a little bit. You know it's tough when you're doing TV and you get to a lake and they're like wow, we have the biggest sunfish. I'm like I don't want to fish for sunfish, you know, and you're stuck fishing for. You know I don't mean to shame the sunfish, but sometimes you're filming. You got to film for something that you don't want to catch.

Speaker 4:

Well, for the TV shows you've got, there's an expectation right Of a certain you know, like you said, a certain type of fish, a certain size fish. You know you're trying to get it for the show but that doesn't always happen. You know that's not necessarily fishing. You know you can't always predict it.

Speaker 3:

No, and there's some magic tricks that some of the TV shows do, but you know, basically that's one of the. It's like the original reality show, right? It's TV, it's what happened on a trip. So sometimes you have good days, sometimes a little tougher right, and then you kind of adapt from there.

Speaker 4:

I got to think you, like you said, I got to think you can really get a lot from the excitement. You can sense and feel the excitement of your clients, you know when they're, when they hook into a fish. For some people it might be their first fish. For some people it might be their first time on a certain species, whatever it is, maybe it's their biggest, like I know, for me, you know this, but you know I've caught my biggest smallie with you, you know, and that was a big deal for me. And and so you, um, I gotta think you, just you know you pull from that excitement right Of whoever's on the boat. It doesn't have to be you nailing that fish.

Speaker 4:

No, I've had some extremely uncomfortably long man hugs in the boat with grown hairy men that are just so you know, so happy with a big fish or a first fish or watching their kid get a fish, but maybe even a few tears probably first fish or watching their kid get a fish, Maybe even a few tears probably that's good stuff.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to throw one your way here from Illinois. Another American listener. You're bringing them in. What is a rider? What is your earliest fishing memory?

Speaker 4:

Oh, my goodness, Let me think that's an interesting one. So I grew up on a small farm, an old family farm in central New York. I think I was the fourth generation from our family on the farm and our waters, our main fishing waters we would get up to the Great Lakes every once in a while, you know, would get up to Ontario, maybe once a year, obviously, you know you get up to the Great Lakes every once in a while, you know would get up to Ontario, maybe once a year, obviously, you know you get up to Pulaski and you know, and there's the big, you know the King Salmon Runs and things like that. But really our home water was the Susquehanna River and it's not the sexiest water in the world to fish, although if you're a carp fisherman or in those days, a lot of bow fishing for carp in those days, a lot of bow fishing for carp. But my earliest memories are probably fishing the Susquehanna and we were, believe it or not, fishing it for walleye and it had a decent walleye fishery and those were early, early memories.

Speaker 4:

The other thing we did, the farm that I grew up on was a self-sustaining farm, meaning we ate what we grew. We ate what my dad would go out back. We had. You know, we had 40 acres out behind the barn and on our 40 acres, depending on the time of year and the day, you might get lucky and get a deer, a turkey, a squirrel, a rabbit, a grouse. You know, you never really knew, but we would eat whatever. You know, whatever my dad brought back and then, of course, whatever we grew in the garden.

Speaker 4:

But a couple times a year we would go down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and this is what you know really got me connected.

Speaker 4:

And of course we now live in the Southeastern US, but in those early years we would we meaning my extended family, uncles, aunts, uncles, grandparents, we would all pack up, head down to the Outer Banks for the big bluefish runs, you know, and this was back in the 70s and 80s where there were just epic runs of big giant chopper blues hitting the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Speaker 4:

These are 10 to 20 pound fish, just, you know, crashing the surf, and we're out there in big, you know, big waders and heavy waders, blue jeans, flannel shirts, heben Hopkins plugs, you know, and just pulling in as many bluefish as we can, and then we would bring them, haul them up, you know, fill them up, fill up freezers and haul all that fish back to the farm and we would eat bluefish for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next six months. But that's what we did. We tried to live off the grid and for the most part we did for a long time, and those are probably my earliest memories, freezing my tail off on the beaches of North Carolina in November and April for bluefish and then floating the mighty Susquehanna for walleye.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's awesome. Some great early memories there.

Speaker 4:

Oh, it's good stuff and you know it's. What's. What's neat is, then, it it's, you know it takes you on a course through your whole life and it's just, you know it's it's. That's the beauty of what we do in the outdoor world is these things you can learn from your, you know, if you're lucky, learn from your, you know, uh, your dad or your mom or an uncle or a friend or whoever it is, maybe a grandparent, and it can really take you on a great you know great journey through life, and then you can then, in turn, share it with other people, which is great. All right, hey, I've got a good one here. Here is here. This is. This is a good, good, kind of early question for you, jamie. Here's one from from North Carolina, my home state. This must be one of my buddies, and this is Jamie how long have you been guiding and how did you get involved with the podcast? That's a good question.

Speaker 3:

Ooh, that's a great question. That's a loaded one. So, to start, I've been guiding full-time for eight years. Yeah, it's flown by Each year. I keep learning more and having some great times with that. What was the other?

Speaker 4:

question. And then, how did you get involved in the podcast? Because you know you brought me on board, but how did you get connected with a podcast?

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, our first podcast um brad and I, basically during the pandemic, you know, we had these small circle of friends that we got to see, so we were part of a. We'd spent a lot of time in the boat when we could get out and, uh, you know, not being able to talk to people, we just kept sharing stories and stories. And then it went from there and you know, I'm friends with, uh, pete bowman, you know, fished with the ang and pete a couple times on the fish canada show and kept in touch. And uh, one day pete was talking, he said, hey, we've got this network. Have you ever thought about having a podcast?

Speaker 4:

so threw some ideas around and, uh, you know, that's that's, that's history, and I remember when you and I were fishing the first time, had you done a show with those guys? I'm trying to think back then.

Speaker 3:

I think you might have maybe done a show or two with those guys, right With Ant and Pete yeah, we did one for trout up in Quebec and then the other one we did was for Gar on the River. Oh yeah, so that was, yeah, probably a year before we fished.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I got to think that Gar in the River makes a great show. It's such a visual thing. You guys probably got some pretty cool footage of that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you can find that. Maybe, if I can find that link, I'll put it in the comments section. Oh yeah, I got to screen these questions. Make sure they're appropriate.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, let's limit this to appropriate questions.

Speaker 3:

Oh no, oh man, I can do a whole episode on answering this question. This could be like that Tom Brady roast, but it'll be the Jamie T roast. Nice, oh boy. Have you ever been hurt hunting or fishing?

Speaker 4:

Oh my gosh. So the answer to that is many times. And so the question is which story do I bring up? I think I would tell you this, that about four or five years ago we used to have a hunting lease. So of course we live in the, you know, in North Carolina, but I used to have a hunting lease with some buddies in Georgia, kind of central eastern Georgia, and we used to hunt deer and turkey down there. But we were along a river called the Alcovee River and that area was known to just be loaded up with wild hogs. You know, and just you know, lots and lots of pigs and hogs, and of course there's no season on those.

Speaker 4:

And I'm a bow hunter, you know that's my favorite kind of hunting to do, is bow hunting. And so I remember pulling into the lease one day, going through the gate, you know, locking the gate behind me and driving up the long dirt road. We had kind of a, you know, a little cabin back, tucked back in there, and about 200 yards past the gate I come around a little bend in the road and there's a dozen hogs right in the gravel, you know, right in the gravel road in front of me, and hogs can smell real well but they don't hear real well and they don't see real well. So if you've got decent wind you can do it's really exciting spot and stock hunting. And of course it's an evasive species that repopulates gosh, I think. Just you know what is it. It's three to four months before a hog gets, you know, mature enough to reproduce. It's an amazing, quickly reproducing animal and so and it has, and it's great meat. You know these are the smaller ones especially. You know, literally it's like getting pork chops from the grocery store.

Speaker 4:

So I stopped the truck and I got out and I started stalking him with my bow. Hogs moved off into the woods a little bit. I follow him off there and this is in the middle of summer. This was a scouting trip. I was literally going down there to put up cameras and start scouting before deer season and as I'm walking I snuck in on the hogs and got a shot off and got a, you know, great size eating hog 40, 50 pound hog.

Speaker 4:

But in doing so I get back to the truck and um and and head out and and I completely forgotten that time of the year our woods in Georgia are absolutely infested with chiggers and I don't know if you guys have chiggers or not. I know that the ticks get up North, but I don't know if you guys get chiggers. And I don't know if you guys have chiggers or not. I know that the ticks get up north, but I don't know if you guys get chiggers or not. No, no, oh, my goodness.

Speaker 4:

So I get back home, I clean the hog, I get back home, and one of the rules of thumb is if you're out in the Georgia woods, of course in the middle of summer, you have to check your body for ticks, and you really need. If you're smart, you'll kind of wash off your legs and stuff in case you get into chiggers. Well, holy smokes, I of course hadn't done any of that, and around the time I was ready to sit down and grab a beer and start watching TV that night, I could feel it happening. And so what a chigger is is a little insect that burrows into your skin and then lays an egg and then, eventually, the little critter comes back out. It's harmless, it doesn't hurt you, but that's what it is, and it creates this little itchy red lump that is literally a critter in your skin, and there's nothing you can do until the darn thing hatches and leaves.

Speaker 4:

Well, jamie, I must have,000 of them on me, because there wasn't a square inch of my body between my big toe and my belly button. That wasn't. I looked like a topographic map of the Rocky Mountains. There wasn't an inch of my body between my toe and my belly button that wasn't absolutely just riddled with these giant lumps from chiggers. And the worst part was, of course, I'm there scratching and itching. I'm like, oh my God, this is.

Speaker 4:

You know, I knew the next couple of days were really just going to be brutal because there's nothing you can do. But the worst part was was my, you know, my compassionate wife, you know, took one look at me and she goes, and she knew that with chiggers, that means there's a critter in your skin. And took one look at me and she goes, and she knew that with chiggers, that means there's a critter in your skin. And, needless to say, I got kicked out of the bedroom for about the next week and I was out sleeping with the dogs until the, you know, all the chiggers got out of my legs. So yeah, I've been, you know, like anybody. Listen, if you spend a lot of time outside, you're going to get dinged up a little bit and I've been dinged up plenty of times but I think that the infestation of chiggers was probably one that'll stick out, you know, for a long time.

Speaker 3:

Well, that is a good one.

Speaker 4:

She still reminds me when I come in to this day. She's like when I come in from being out in the woods. First thing she says when I walk in the house is hey, have you checked yourself for ticks and chiggers? You know there's nothing I can do about it.

Speaker 3:

Well this, have you ever hurt yourself thing? I laugh because I got hurt at the Nordic Spa. So of course I've hurt myself fishing. Of course you have.

Speaker 4:

Hang on, how do?

Speaker 3:

you hurt yourself. At the Nordic Spa I slipped in one of those little sauna rooms and I put, oh no. I put my arm right across the coals, oh no. And then I ran to the counter and I, you know, and she gave me sunscreen to put on it and then I had a crazy huge welt on my arm and, uh, a friend of mine, who will remain nameless, rolled a golf cart the day before and broke his arm. So he called to tell me, you know, obviously with his left hand and he says that's one of those injuries.

Speaker 4:

You know that you need to come up with a different story. Rather than I slipped at the spa, I mean it's gotta be one of those where I was like you know I was throwing, I was throwing wood on the campfire and you know, and burn myself on the campfire or something that's it's worth worth coming up with a better story.

Speaker 3:

I think when I made fun of the guy for rolling the golf cart, I'm like you, guy for rolling the golf cart. I'm like you hurt yourself playing golf and then, sure enough, the next day I'm spa guy.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, you know what they call that man. That's called karma.

Speaker 3:

Oh, for sure.

Speaker 4:

And that's the first thing I thought of him laughing, you know. But the last time I got, the last time I remember getting like physically hurt, was because of my father, my 80 year old father, and he and we still fish together as often as we can and darn it and you'll appreciate this because I know you're a big-time muskie guy Darn it if he didn't. You know he even these giant tube sock flies which you and I are both very familiar with, and he throws a big. He's a lefty and throws a big left-handed back cast and comes forward right over the middle of the drift boat and absolutely impales the musky fly right into the back of my skull with a forward cast. I know you've probably had that happen many times, but yeah, that was my last one. That was my father. Even at 80 years old he can still lodge a musky fly into the back of my skull With enough power to really sink it in there. Oh yeah, sink it right in, sink it right in. Good, I've been hooked.

Speaker 3:

You know, I got hooked at camp last year. Kid was not paying attention and I got a hook right through the hand. So I did that line trick where you push down on the barb and then you wrap, braid, a line around the back of the hook and then you bend it down and then pull. Yes, I've seen it online. And then, for you know, I had all these kids like what are you gonna do? And I'm trying to be cool about it and I'm like I'm just gonna do the line trick, but I'd never done it before. And spencer, the guy that I was working with, he's like just get ready, one, two, and he pulled the hook and didn't hurt at all. Oh no kidding, it actually worked, it worked. So it's like a good party trick if you really get desperate for some, for 20 bucks, you know.

Speaker 4:

But yeah, that's the, that's. That's later in the evening that party trick comes out oh for sure I.

Speaker 3:

I got hooked my my infamous um injury, which was like a viral fishing video. Um, I was doing the kayak fishing show with jim sammons and it was like we're. We had one day to catch a muskie and started six a six am and then, sure enough, I caught a fish at 8 30 that night after non-stop gas, gas, gas, gas, you know. But anyway that we get the fish boat side. And we got sponsored by boga grip, those lip grippers, which I'm not a huge. I'm not a fan of lip grippers, uh, at all. I don't think they're very good for the fish. That's a whole other story.

Speaker 3:

But, um, so anyway, because they gave us one, I thought I gotta use this thing. And we're in a kayak too, right. So I go to land it, the jumps, the hook goes right through my thumb, and now I'm in a kayak and I'm attached to a muskie through my thumb. Oh my gosh. So it's thrashing away and I'm swearing every you know word in the book. And then finally we get it and fishing was tough. So we started putting away our stuff to kind of paddle back to the launch and you know, sure enough, I put my hook cutters in my bag behind me so I had to yell for somebody to get them and brought it over, cut the hook out and uh, yeah, that was like a little viral thing. I remember I did a speech at the uh boat and sportsman show here in ottawa and uh, I was talking about safety and muskies and how dangerous they are.

Speaker 3:

And so there you go and some guy goes don't be like that idiot in a kayak that got hooked to a muskie. And then you know people that knew that was me. We're all laughing and I thought, oh yeah, I'm like, I am that idiot. That would be me. I didn't mean to call you an idiot, you know. I was that day.

Speaker 4:

I got to think. So let me ask you then, like, over the years, have you, have you? I got to think you've probably seen a hand or two get it pretty good from a muskie, or at least from a pike, right? Is that something you've seen over the years?

Speaker 3:

I've been really lucky with guests. Whoa geez I I oh no.

Speaker 4:

I've had one, yeah, I don't want to be superstitious.

Speaker 3:

We got to be careful here. We got two superstitious guys knock knock, yeah right but okay.

Speaker 3:

So I've never had a guest get hooked in the hand, but my favorite injury story of all time is not me. Sorry if we're veering off here, but this is funny. The uh, I had these guys in the boat and it was a bachelor party. So they show up and you know, since it's a bachelor party, they didn't consume any beverages on my boat. I don't allow that, but there was something a little off about these guys.

Speaker 3:

Anyway, we're out and we're in the west end of Ottawa, so there's lots of sailboats, it's kind of like a little regatta and there's people everywhere. So we're just kind of chugging along and Buddy stands up and then trips and falls and sits on a treble hook oh my gosh. And he gets two in his ass oh no, not two of them, past the barb, you know what I mean. And then the other one's poking through his jeans, so it's pulling the hooks and the flesh away from each other and he's just screaming and screaming and screaming. And I'm laughing I think it was like my second year guiding right and he's like get me back, man.

Speaker 3:

I got to drive to the hospital. I'm like man, if you sit down, you're going to sit to the. You'll stick to the seat and you're not going anywhere. So anyway, next thing, you know, I tell him he's like how are we going to get them out? I'm like I'll do it right. So anyway, I got this. Guy's pants are down. I'm holding his ass. There's all these boats going by, so I ended up pushing one through and then I cut the hook and I did that to the other one. He was yelling and screaming. It was awkward. After that You've seen a little too much of your client out on the water.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, but you've shown that you are a full service guide, you know and you do provide first aid services, fully trained for any situation.

Speaker 3:

Never thought I'd be holding another man's backside in the boat. No, not in the. I want to be a guide handbook.

Speaker 7:

Oh, my God, oh, it's good stuff. What brings people together more than fishing and hunting?

Speaker 6:

How about food?

Speaker 7:

I'm Chef Antonio Muleka and I've spent years catering to the stars. Now, on Outdoor Journal Radio's Eat Wild podcast, Luis Hookset and I are bringing our expertise and Rolodex to our real passion the outdoors.

Speaker 2:

Each week we're bringing you inside the boat tree stand or duck blind and giving you real advice that you can use to make the most out of your fish and game.

Speaker 7:

You're going to flip that duck breast over once you get a nice hard sear on that breast, you don't want to sear the actual meat. And it's not just us chatting here. If you can name a celebrity, we've probably worked with them and I think you might be surprised who likes to hunt and fish. When Kit Harington asks me to prepare him sashimi with his bass, I couldn't say no. Whatever Taylor Sheridan wanted, I made sure I had it. Burgers, steak, anything off the barbecue. That's a true cowboy. All Jeremy Renner wanted to have was lemon ginger shots all day.

Speaker 8:

Find Eating Wild now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts. 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, ange 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?

Speaker 6:

Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing.

Speaker 7:

I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch, yeah but it's not just a fishing show.

Speaker 8:

We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors, from athletes, All the other guys would go golfing.

Speaker 6:

Me and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go fishing To scientists.

Speaker 1:

But now that we're reforesting and letting things breathe, it's the perfect transmission environment for line fishing To chefs.

Speaker 7:

If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated, you will taste it and whoever else will pick up the phone.

Speaker 8:

Wherever you are, outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside. Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 4:

Alright, let's see I've got a good one here. Oh, here's one. This is an interesting one. Here's one from Georgia. Here's another US listener, and Jamie have you ever fished in the US before and, if so, where? That's a good one.

Speaker 3:

That's a great question. I've fished, actually just Florida, lots of Florida Head down there. Oh, my in-laws lived there for a couple of years, which was great, and then Florida is one of those places as Canadians that we just go to, you know so it's always just.

Speaker 3:

Florida. But I had a great trip with the boys in the Keys. We were catching tarpon off the off the bridges. And then, uh, buddy Gio, we used to go, uh, shark fishing off the bridges down in the keys. That was an absolute blast, right. Uh, caught some nice sharks and stuff that way and you know just the regular snook. I love snook fishing off the dock. Got a buddy on the West Coast, we go to his place a couple times and snook fishing at night is just that's so much fun.

Speaker 4:

It's so much fun. And you know that West Coast of Florida, I just can't imagine a better place, I can't imagine a better place to snook fish than the West Coast of Florida. All the way down, I mean you, just you get up into the Sarasota area, venice, sarasota, and of course that's famous for great big fish, and but all the way down through into the Everglades, you know, um, you know down into the, you know the, almost all the way down towards Hell's Bay, through, you know, the Shark River and Lossman's River and he just, of course it's just endless mangrove edges and and you know, snook fishing in West Florida is just one of those. It's such a cool thing to do, it's such a fun thing, it's got to be one of my favorites.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, me too. That's we can agree on that one.

Speaker 4:

Tell me about your experiences. So shark fishing in the Keys, you know you get off those bridges and the cool thing about that is you just never know. You know you hear that click right, you know, and then click, click, click and you just you have no idea. I mean, you have no idea what you might have on the other end of that line Could be a great big grouper, could be a great big shark Tarpon. You never know. I mean that is really exciting, especially with a kid. What an exciting, you know gosh, what an exciting thing to do.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and you can go by and see sharks, you can see gigantic sea turtles and rays, and you never know what's going to be coming through. And if you stay there long enough, the changing tides and stuff, different creatures kind of come through at different times. Oh, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4:

Oh, that's cool. Well, you could spend a lifetime fishing. You could spend a lifetime, you know, fishing Florida specifically, and just only touch the surface. You know there's just there's so many layers to fishing in that in that state and so many different habitats it's. You know, you could. You could have a numerous shows just on that.

Speaker 3:

I've never bass fished in Florida. I know it's famous for its giant largemouth, but always. You know we do have largemouth here, obviously not as big as Florida, but I always try to go for something different, you know.

Speaker 4:

You know it's a really cool way to do that. So Florida is famous, you know. Florida is absolutely a famous state for largemouth bass, one of the really interesting fisheries in Florida, and of course people that fish it know it and love it. It's just such a it's almost like stepping back in time, but you know. But the St John's River comes into the Atlantic Ocean in Jacksonville. That's the main river that comes into Jacksonville and then flows out into the ocean. And what's unusual about the St John's is the headwaters are to the south. So in other words, it's a river, you know, and for us that's not usual, right, you know, and so at least on the East Coast it's not as typical. So it's a river that flows north and you can, you go through these incredible, you know ecosystems as you work your way from the really the source waters, right, that are down past Orlando, all the way north up and then up eventually into Jacksonville, and you go from those headwaters where it's just beautiful, tannin-clear, tannin waters where you get into you're talking about sunfish earlier and you get into the brim and sunfish species and redbreast and then of course, the big shad runs that happen in the spring.

Speaker 4:

But as you get up towards Jacksonville you get into just some incredible classic cypress, lily pad, largemouth bass. You know water and you know if you're. You know, yeah, there's famous, there's famous lakes for sure. You know bass fishing in Florida and you can't go wrong with that World class to. You know bass fishing in Florida and you can't go wrong with that world-class, to say the least. But river fishing on the St Johns for largemouth is kind of a cool experience, man. Next time you're down there and you get a hankering to try largemouth in Florida. That's a different kind of trip and a really cool trip.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that sounds awesome. I have peacocks on the brain too. I'd like to head down to the south Miami area, down to Miami and the canals, for sure. Yeah, oh boy, getting me all fired up, I'm all excited, oh yeah, all excited to cast. All right, what else we got here? Oh, this is one. Hey guys, what is your favorite fish and game to eat? That's from Mandy in London. Oh, that might be our first overseas.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, that's cool. That is super cool. Now does Fast Food? Can? Is she asking what our favorite, because Taco Bell for me is going to be right at the top of that list, or I'm assuming she's focused on wild game and fish?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm thinking, I think that's it. But we can go fast food. Maybe another time Chick-fil-A yeah.

Speaker 4:

Well, I'll throw out one, and this will be near and dear to your heart. But I just can't imagine a better tasting fish than a walleye fish fry. I just, I mean, there's lots of great tasting fish, but for me that's got to be fish, but for me that's, that's got to be top three.

Speaker 3:

You know, that's got to be up there yeah, I uh walleye or black crappie, my two favorite fish to catch locally. Oh yeah, they're delicious too, but you know anything in in uh batter and oil and a little bit of a little lemon. It's hard to screw that up right, it is hard to screw that up but I tell you.

Speaker 4:

So go ahead, keep going oh, sorry, in the ocean.

Speaker 3:

I think I love grouper snap, fresh snapper and grouper like.

Speaker 4:

I always go down a restaurant down there always grab a grouper sandwich, so good yeah, you know, you know, I think you know, as a fly fisherman, most of what I do, almost everything I do, is catch and release and you and I talk about that all the time and we're always careful about not only supporting that but also trying to keep the fish in the water the best you can and all those things.

Speaker 4:

But I tell you, if there's one, there is one, there is a fish that I'm going to bring home my limit every single time and that is, you know, schoolie size, mahi-mahi, school or dolphin, whatever you call it. You know, you know we call them dolphin down here, but offshore of North Carolina and not far. I mean, you know, if you go 20, I think the last big, big day we had, we were a good ways out, we were 40 miles out, but you know, 20, 30 miles out from the Outer Banks and you can get into these algae lines and on a fly rod, on an eight-weight fly rod, just have amazing trips. You know, catching these schoolie dolphin and man, there is nothing like bringing the dolphin home and you know, putting on some Cajun, you know, blackened spicing, spices on them and then wrapping them up as fish tacos. That to me you get a Corona ice cold Corona, you know, with a lime and about a, you know a half a dozen Mahi fish tacos.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 4:

That's just a great meal.

Speaker 3:

Oh, absolutely. And what about game? What's your favorite meat to enjoy?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, you know, to me the best venison and I say this probably generically, but you know elk meat is really hard to beat and we're always really good. I mean, heck, I grew up on a farm where we literally grew up eating deer. But you know, elk meat is so good and it's just to me it's got a better flavor, it's not as gamey you can get into some really great cuts, so to me it's tough to beat. It's tough to beat an elk. You know you and I've talked about a lot of things.

Speaker 4:

You know a lot of different trips around the world and there are, you know there is game that stands out you know as just some really, you know, special and uniquely good. And you know I've had the chance to do some sustainable hunting over in Africa and eland. You know which is their big animal. That's almost like a moose, that's the largest antelope over there, but very similar meat to the bison over here If you go out you can get yourself a bison burger, for example, and it's leaner, healthy meat. In Africa that would be the eland and that's just known as just little milder and just fantastic, delicious meat. So I'd say here in the US, probably elk for me.

Speaker 3:

Oh wow, I do enjoy venison as well, but I'm going to have to go with moose. I love eating moose. Oh yeah, it's been a while I haven't had any. I guess all my friends suck at hunting, or that or nobody wants to share. I haven't had moose in many years, but I do remember it vividly and I can almost taste it right now.

Speaker 4:

Moose is so good. I hunt with a good buddy of mine, bruce Ambler, out in BC and and when Bruce and I hunt together he always, you know he'll get a moose each year and and he'll make his own moose sausage. And when we head out into the, into the field, you know he throws a great big moose sausage in the back of the pack and that's kind of our food for the next couple of days. And and uh, yeah, I got a lot of great memories and out in the field, you know, uh eating, uh eating moose sausage for sure.

Speaker 3:

Oh wow, Yummy, yummy, yummy. That's good stuff.

Speaker 4:

Good stuff. Here's a question Um, this is an interesting one. When am I going to get the rest of the yard work done from this past weekend? That question, I believe, is probably from my wife, so I think we probably need to skip past that one. There's a little angry face at the end of the question too. Not even a question mark. We're going to bypass that one immediately. Here's a question from Tennessee. There's a good sporting state. Okay for Jamie. This is always a fun one. Man, we could talk about this one all day. What is your favorite fish to go after?

Speaker 3:

Ooh freshwater, I'd say Atlantic salmon or muskie.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, you can't go wrong and talk about two. Well, what's interesting is so let's think about those two fish, because those are legendary fish, those are mystical fish. Right, those are fish of journeys, not as a day of fishing. So when you say those two, what is it? Is it the challenge of doing it, or do you just love targeting them? What about musky and Atlantic salmon? What makes those your favorite?

Speaker 3:

It's a challenge. Atlantic salmon on a fly Wow, they fight so hard, they're great. And then musky. It's more of the hunt and the chase, so I think it's a combination of both, you know? Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, what about?

Speaker 4:

you. You know, if I had to, if I had to fish for just one fish for the rest of my life, I think I would probably. My favorite of all would probably be baby tarpon. And by baby tarpon I mean younger fish. That means that's a five to a 40-pound fish, you know, and you know a 20-pound tarpon looks, acts and behaves and the whole interaction, the cast, the take, the whole experience of fishing for a 40-pound tarpon is no different than a 140-pound tarpon. But I just love getting back in the creeks and the mangroves, you know, and making those little roll casts to a rolling fish, you know, and a lot of times in those situations that's a 20 pound fish instead of 120 pound fish. And that's my favorite, you know I could. I could cast that at 10 to 20 pound tarpon the rest of my life and be totally happy. So I'd say that's, I'd say that's probably number one for me.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, saltwater tarpon is one of the greatest fish I've caught as well. I've only caught them over 80 pounds. I've only caught three. I would love to catch one of those juveniles. And they jump like crazy too. Eh, oh for sure, yeah.

Speaker 4:

Awesome fish. I've got a good one here for you. I'll be interested to see how you answer this one myself. Here's another question Must be a friendly listener from North Carolina For Jamie what are your favorite areas in Canada to fish? Now, obviously you're biased from Ontario and the Ottawa system, but I'm kind of curious to see where you go with this one.

Speaker 3:

Oh boy, I've had the opportunity to travel to many Canadian provinces. Something spectacular about the Yukon area. It's kind of like Alaska just the huge mountains and the pristine clean, and then the fact that you can fish till midnight because it's light, that's nice. And then, I think, the other side of the country. I love fly fishing for Atlantic salmon in Gaspé. It's so many famed rivers and so much history behind them as well, so it's nice to be in that water. I could just cast all day knowing I'm not going to catch anything, and it's just something about being in that water Still special, yeah, Special water.

Speaker 4:

Have you ever fished? You know I, I have never. I've never been up to gas bay, as you know, and and that's a bucket list for me. And you see these pictures of those trying to think of the name of the river, that's so clear. You see, you know, you can almost see the canoes. It, Um, you see, you know you can almost see the canoes. It looks like the canoes are floating in air. You know you get some of those salmon rivers up there, yeah, the Bonaventure.

Speaker 4:

Bonaventure. Yeah, yep, yep, incredible. Yeah, what a spot you do um. One of the trips I know that you guide um and and you know from time to time you'll go up and you'll guide and talk about a bucket list trip for me someday is I know you've done some of the big brookie trips. Is it Newfoundland or Labrador? I know you've done a couple of those.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I did, labrador. I worked one summer up in Labrador and it was an unbelievable experience and every single day there was at least one five-pound brookie cobbler there, and the coolest part about it is, you know, one of the guys there was, you know, was flipping rocks and trying to match the hatch. But I'm kind of a predator fly angler right, I like the muskies and the pike, and so the cool thing about the brook trout down there is they will actually eat gigantic topwater mice pattern flies, oh wow. Which is like not only are you getting this super amazing, gorgeous, you know my favorite Mother Nature's favorite paint job, but they're five pounds, you know, like oh.

Speaker 4:

Imagine catching a brook trout on a mouse. Fly Holy cow.

Speaker 3:

And you're stripping it quick and they just come and totally smoke it and then a lot of big, big moving water down there and you're fighting these fish. It's awesome, it's like it's like you're salmon fishing, but it's it's for the world. You know some of the best brook trout in the world.

Speaker 4:

Let me ask you this is going to be kind of a specific question, but I am curious. You know, if you think about the famous brook, trout rivers, you know, and of course, down in the US you know, there's some real classics up in Maine, the rapid river system and so forth, that are heavy water, you know heavy, rapid water and it makes for quick, you know. Quick drifts, right, you know, and tough casting when you're going up to those places you're talking about. Is it similar to that, is it? Or are you getting into stretches where you can? Maybe, you know, is it a little calmer conditions? You know, casting to some of those brookies.

Speaker 3:

Some of the you know a lot of hiking water up there where you'll hike through trails and then come out and kind of wade and then other sections. You know the guides have canoes and they kind of when they get in the really shallow water they'll, you know, push the guests through and then continue to paddle down. So yeah.

Speaker 6:

So cool.

Speaker 3:

No big motor really around the brookurch. It's more like you're fishing for salmon. It's awesome, oh yeah.

Speaker 4:

Very cool Someday man.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely Put it in the van.

Speaker 4:

We'll get in there, we'll put it on our van tour when we buy our 78 van, we're heading north and six miles a gallon.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, absolutely, and six miles a gallon oh yeah, absolutely, and there's only the floor.

Speaker 4:

There's only floor in one half the side of it, only for the other sides, completely rusted out with a piece of plywood red flintstone yeah, yeah, sounds like the car is exactly like my vehicle in high school we'll need to see a picture of that, oh boy.

Speaker 3:

Last question I have here from Eric in Nova Scotia what are your top three favorite lures or flies?

Speaker 4:

Oh man, that's a good one, well, I guess. So let me answer it a couple different ways. You know my just purely reminiscing and thinking about childhood. You know I'm going to throw a Hopkins plug on there because that's what we used to cast at those bluefish. And to this day I still have the old you know. You know coffee cans from my grandfather full of the old Hopkins plugs and I still, to this day, love pulling them out, pulling them out and feeling the weight. You know, as a fly fisherman it's so odd to hold one of the big, heavy old spoons you know from the 70s and 80s, but I still love doing that In the fly fishing world. That's interesting. I think I got to go with some of those.

Speaker 4:

You know big terrestrial patterns. I just don't know how you get more fun than that. You know it's. You know the little caddis are fun, Obviously, the little. You know the little delicate roll cast we have down here for some of the mountain brookies. But at the end of the day, man, I just if you, there's nothing like putting on a great big grasshopper pattern when the when the big trout are coming up eating big terrestrials and just heaving it and just watching a long drift and you know, and just seeing a big trout nail it, I think that would be. I think just big terrestrials are pretty tough to beat and what's so cool is nowadays the construction of them. I mean, it's amazing. You know, I dabble in fly tying but I have friends who are actual artists, right, you know, and it's amazing what you know, what, what tires today are creating and you know, and how they are replicating these, these, these different critters. How about you? What's? What are your favorites?

Speaker 3:

Oh boy, I, I think fly fishing wise. I always love just a classic deceiver, oh yeah.

Speaker 4:

Can't go wrong.

Speaker 3:

Can't go wrong with a deceiver or some variants. Now they got these, you know, cool jointed ones and it's really neat, the like you said. The technologies come and then a lot of the synthetic fibers are a lot lighter and you know they don't hold water as much, so that's pretty cool. Um, and then I guess, lure wide. Um, I like classic dive and rise jerkbaits, yep, and also square bill crankbaits. Those are probably my other two. If I was to pick three, that's what I'd be.

Speaker 4:

Are you still so? You know, as a guide and just seeing the, you know the different situations that you do do you have go-to lures and plugs that were fished 20 years ago that you're still using today, or is the new construction so much different? I mean, are you still pulling out some of the old stuff from the bottom of the tackle box and using it I've been using.

Speaker 3:

I have certain musky baits I've been using for 25 years and they're still holding strong. Some of them I've repainted, some of them are just have no paint, but it's cool. And then when I look at them, triggers all these stories and it's. You know, when you lose a expensive lure is one thing, but losing one that has a lot of history with it, I think, hurts a lot more.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, no for sure. I remember foul hooking a big salmon one time and losing the. In that case it was a fly that I think my dad might've tied, but I remember just watching it, you know, swim off. There's nothing you can do and all you can do is kind of salute, you know, and say, well, it's a good end to it. You know that was probably an appropriate end to it. But yeah, you know some of them, you know you. You do kind of you hate to see them go.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, for sure. Oh, hey, guess what? Somebody, somebody must be listening live, even though this is not live, but we can pretend it is. We just got a message from michael in washington. Doesn't say if that's a state or city, but uh, rider. Um, that's a question for rider. Rider, when did your book out and how did you decide that you wanted to write a book on fishing?

Speaker 4:

oh, oh, man, well, I appreciate that question. Yeah, so my book is called the Guides, a Collection of Untamed Stories, and it came out in about a year and a half ago, two years ago, late 2021. But it was a work in progress. For a long time I've been so lucky to have friends in the hunting and fishing world that live in these crazy remote places all over the world, and I've spent a lot of time with them out in the field, and so over the years, you just hear these great stories, and I learned really early that their stories are way more interesting than my stories, and so I just started taking down notes. You know, I'd kind of sit around the campfire and listening to these guys in Alaska, you know, or down in the jungles in South America, or over in Africa, wherever it is, you know, and just listen to these incredible stories of these guides and outfitters that you know that live there year round. You know, at the end of a fishing trip, you and I are coming home, but you know, at the end of a fishing trip, you and I are coming home, but you know these, these folks are, these folks stay out in the bush, and, and so I did that for years and years and I kind of, you know, came up with this giant pile of notes and eventually typed it up and it eventually turned into the book. And that whole process was gosh. It was probably a 10 year labor of love, but but it turned into a, into a, you know, effectively a collection of these stories of people that you know that live these incredible lives, and you can't make these stories up and and uh. So the book was.

Speaker 4:

The book was published back in 21 and I made the decision when, when the book came out, I made the decision that, um, a hundred percent of the proceeds were going to be donated right back into conservation.

Speaker 4:

And so, when that's what we've been doing ever since yeah, we just sent out our third check, as a matter of fact, this year, and most of the proceeds we've done different groups. One of the main groups that's been getting the benefit is a group called Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, which is a fantastic group out of South Florida working very hard on habitat protecting, fisheries and habitat of South Florida, working very hard on, you know, on habitat protecting, fisheries and habitat of South Florida, promoting the importance of clean water in the habitat and understanding how all that affects. You know the domino effects on the Everglades and the Keys and so forth, so it's a great group very focused on conservation, and so I'm really proud that you know that all the proceeds from the book have been going into. You know great causes that support everything that you and I love doing and Ryder, how would somebody?

Speaker 3:

are the books still available?

Speaker 4:

Oh for sure, yeah, yeah, we, for a super brief period of time not long, like kind of, you know, don't blink long, like kind of you know, don't blink long but for a brief moment, about a year ago it did hit top 100 on Amazon in both the hunting and the ecotourism categories, which was great because it meant that, yeah, I loved it, because it meant that it wasn't just, you know, sports people that were reading it, but it was also folks that you know that might not be into hunting or might not be into fishing, but just really love a good story. So it's super easy to get on Amazon. My name is spelled R-I-D-R. There's no E, it's kind of an unusual spelling, but the name of the book is the Guides, a collection of untamed stories, and then you just put in the author's name, ryder Knowlton, and it'll pop right up on Amazon.

Speaker 4:

And then very, very proud that Sporting Classics, which sells some great, you know, classic hunting and fishing books, they also sell the book. So those are the best two spots to go. And, of course, random fly shops around the world carry it as well. So it's going to a good cause. Carry it as well, so it's, it's, it's going to a good cause and and it was a great experience doing it so well.

Speaker 3:

The mailbag was a good one this week. Yeah, that was a good one. I guess our, our um from instagram are both of ours. If you go, uh, to untamed pursuits on instagram, you'll find both mine and riders account there. So if you want to see some photos and some other things and some past tales and maybe some photos of the fish that we spoke about that we have in there or whatever but yeah, they're both in there and please send us some more mail. It was a very funny day. I haven't laughed that long.

Speaker 4:

I want to find out how my wife got a hold of this, because I promised you the question about when am I going to get to the rest of the yard work. I know where that's coming from, so I'm a little we've got to. What we need to do is do a better job of screening the questions before they get to us.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I'm glad all the rivers that you mentioned earlier on that I didn't have to read them or spell them.

Speaker 4:

Exactly. Yeah, oh, it's great stuff. Q&a is always fun, man, mail day is always a fun day.

Speaker 3:

Yeah Well, Ryder, thanks so much for an awesome week again and thank you everybody out there for listening to Untamed Pursuits proudly on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network.

Speaker 5:

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 Ouellette and I was honoured 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.

Speaker 5:

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.

Speaker 6:

How did a small town sheet metal mechanic come to build one of Canada's most iconic fishing lodges? I'm your host, steve Nitzwicky, and you'll find out about that and a whole lot more on the Outdoor Journal Radio Network's newest podcast, diaries of a Lodge Owner. But this podcast will be more than that. Every week on Diaries of a Lodge Owner, I'm going to introduce you to a ton of great people, share their stories of our trials, tribulations and inspirations, learn and have plenty of laughs along the way.

Speaker 8:

Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along trying to figure out how to catch a bass and we both decided one day we were going to be on television doing a fishing show.

Speaker 4:

My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in all those bass in the summertime, but that might be for more fishing than it was punching so confidently you said hey, pat, have you ever eaten a drum?

Speaker 6:

Find Diaries of a Lodge Owner now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.