Untamed Pursuits
Embark on a wild adventure like never before with the groundbreaking podcast, "Untamed Pursuits."
Join the intrepid duo of renowned author and outdoor enthusiast, Ridr Knowlton, alongside the seasoned professional fishing guide, Jamie Pistilli, as they traverse the globe in pursuit of the world's most exciting fishing and hunting destinations, and the fascinating creatures that live there. From the lush rainforests of the Amazon to the icy depths of the Arctic Circle, each episode promises heart-pounding encounters, captivating tales, and invaluable insights into the natural world.
With Ridr's profound storytelling and Jamie's unparalleled expertise, prepare to be transported to the front lines of adventure, where every roar, splash, and rustle ignites the senses and leaves listeners on the edge of their seats. "Untamed Pursuits" isn't just a podcast—it's an adrenaline-fueled odyssey that will redefine your perception of nature and leave you craving more. Buckle up for the ride of a lifetime!
Untamed Pursuits
Episode 11: Our Favourite Pursuits Pt. 2
Have you ever felt the crisp air of fall and felt an excitement you couldn't quite explain? Join Ridr and me, Jamie, as we embrace the changing seasons in this thrilling episode of Untamed Pursuits. We kick things off with Ridr's nostalgic tales of dove hunting in the Southeast, blending them with the kickoff of college football season and sustainable hunting practices. As someone who’s new to the hunting scene, I'm eager to share my growing passion for the hunt and the harvest, which promises to keep you hooked from start to finish.
Next, imagine the camaraderie and excitement that comes with wing shooting. From the teamwork between hunters and their dogs to the thrill of combining fishing trips for stripers and redfish with quail hunting adventures, we paint a vivid picture of these outdoor escapades. Ridr and I also share the humour in preparing for the season with our less-than-athletic pets, capturing the essence of what makes these outdoor adventures so bonding and memorable.
Finally, we dive into the exhilarating world of big game hunting and fishing. Relive the intense 45-minute battle to reel in a 32-pound Atlantic salmon, and explore the legendary fishing grounds of Canada's Gaspé Peninsula. Our conversations shift to the challenges and strategies of whitetail deer hunting, where we emphasize the importance of game management and the satisfaction of tracking mature bucks. We round out the episode with heartfelt discussions on the balance between hunting for food and trophies and the joy of connecting with nature through these age-old traditions. Join us for a celebration of the passions that bind us to the wild.
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 2: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 1:My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in all those bass in the summertime, but that's might be for more fishing than it was punching.
Speaker 4:You so confidently?
Speaker 1:you said hey Pat, have you ever eaten a drum? Find Diaries of a Lodge Owner now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 5:Welcome to another episode of Untamed Pursuits. I'm Jamie Basile here with Ryder Nolton on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network. We got another show here. Man, this is I'm super pumped. The water, the weather, everything's starting to get cooler. That only means good things. That means that prime time is coming, and I'm here with Ryder. What's going on, man?
Speaker 4:Oh, my God, it is such a great time of year. There's a chill in the air. I actually my wife had a sweatshirt out this morning and I want to say it's been like 95 degrees in the Carolinas, you know, for the last couple weeks and it was a little chill in the air this morning. We're working our way through pre-season, which takes forever, my god. The NFL pre-season takes forever, but we're working our way through it. But, most exciting, my favorite sports of all to watch on TV is college football and that is finally, I think, starting this weekend. So this is my favorite time of year, jamie, for so many reasons. I just love it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the sports are on TV. Boat traffic starts to ease up a little bit, and then I'm not a hunter, but my hunting buddies are starting to pack up and get excited. I know you're part of that boat too.
Speaker 4:It's all starting and you know we have I don't know if you guys, I don't know if you guys have a lot of dove hunting up in Canada, but here in the southeastern US that's a huge season for us. You know is dove season and it's such a great season and you know, not only is it super sporting, super fun, and if you have the talent, like some of the guys you know on our podcasts that are such amazing chefs, they could do a great job with dove. But you know you can actually really enjoy them. Throw a couple of jalapenos and some cream cheese in there, you can enjoy them. But it means it's the beginning of the fall sporting season.
Speaker 4:And you know, I can remember, you know, as a young guy I'd go out there with my bucket right and sit on the corner of a sunflower field and just wait for some doves to come in, and I'd have my little AM radio and turn it on the Georgia Bulldog channel and I used to start off the season every college season I would just start off by listening to Georgia football on the AM radio, sitting on the corner of a sunflower field, and I just it's just nothing like it, man, and that first day that feels cool and for us it was today. You know, today, like I was like Ooh man, you know fall's coming and um, that first day just kind of starts that excitement. And you know, for us, your role from dove season and then you get into, you know, right around the corner, you know you start thinking about getting out and you know, start and start thinking about whitetail. So it's such a great time of year.
Speaker 5:I really need to get out hunting. I love animals, I love seeing deer and moose and everything else. Never harvested an animal in my life but at the same time I love eating them and I love appreciating them.
Speaker 4:You know, I think for me the two parts of it that I think you would find interesting is is first of all the eating part. You know, if you're like for us, I grew up on a small farm in central New York and we literally we're a self-sustaining farm, meaning we ate vegetables that my mom would grow and we ate meat that my dad would hunt. You know he would hunt deer if we were lucky Usually it was rabbit and you know and turkey. But we were hunting for food, not for trophies, we were purely hunting for food. We'd go down and fish and chase bluefish on the outer banks a couple times of the year and haul fish back, you know, but we were doing it for for subsidence. But if you, you know, if you learn about the eating side right, you know the, the, the, the providing side of the importance of proper game management, you know. And waiting for that buck to grow and get old, you know, let that buck mature, let that buck spread his genes, and then you know, when that buck is old and passes prime and I mean maybe sometimes those antlers have even receded for a year or two you know, that's such a great deer to take and when you really think about that right, the proper game management being so selective, you know, selective, maybe, passing up animals and waiting for the right one to take. You couple that with the providing part and it just adds a whole new element to hunting. That to me so fulfilling and so cool and candidly interesting and challenging.
Speaker 4:But I'll tell you, you and I were talking about on the last episode, we were talking about such a fun topic which is our favorite species to pursue as fishermen or hunters or just as sporting people, and we had been going back and forth on some fantastic species, mostly in the fishing world. And since you brought it up, I'll tell you a type of hunting that is one of my absolute favorites, and I mentioned dove already, I guess. But maybe that could be a cool way for you and I to you know, for me to introduce you to the world of hunting. But wing shooting, I love wing shooting and by wing shooting, you know, maybe it's dove hunting.
Speaker 4:For us in the southeast, a lot of it's quail hunting. You go out to the Midwest, you get into pheasant, you go up to the Northwest, you get into chukar, I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And then of course, you know, maybe the arguably the most legendary of all are the great. You know waterfowl, you know beltways of, you know the East Coast, and then you know down the Mississippi and the flyways as you work your way West, all of which kind of go through the legendary, legendary areas of Canada, saskatchewan and other areas. And so you know.
Speaker 4:I'm in a couple, all of those different types of hunting, whether it's quail, dove or waterfowl, whatever it is just into wing shooting man. And that's what I think you and I need to do. I think you need to come down. We've talked about the striper trips we can do down here in the Carolinas. We've talked about redfish. Why don't we come down, spend a day or two maybe chasing stripers or redfish, and then you and I'll go try to sneak up on a quail or two. And then the great thing is, you know, that afternoon you put it on the grill and you've got some of those delicious. You know it tastes like chicken, some of the most delicious meat you'll ever have.
Speaker 5:If it tastes like chicken, I'm in, that's for sure. Now, if I can shoot anything, that's a whole other ballgame. We're going to do some safety lessons.
Speaker 4:first, pal, we're going to put you in a lot of orange. You're going to look like a giant pumpkin. By the time I've got you wrapped up in hunter orange, you're going to look like a glow stick.
Speaker 5:I'll be the big Canadian with the Jofa hockey helmet going through the forest, exactly.
Speaker 4:Exactly, man. You know it's so funny. We talk about the different things about these pursuits we do right, and I mean this whole show is Untamed Pursuits and the thing, one of the things that I just love about wing shooting is the interaction in so many cases with the dogs. And people talk about the relationship of a hunter and their dogs and there's nothing. It's a special connection that unless you've seen it or if you've done it yourself, you just can't appreciate. You know how incredibly connected and tight and loving these relationships are right between these hunters and their dogs.
Speaker 4:You know, and whether it's a retriever in the world of duck hunting or a pointer in the world of quail hunting, or even just you know, god, your best friend, that you end up screaming at in a dove field because it's retrieving everybody's birds instead of yours. You know it's just getting out and watching these dogs work. And as we're getting into the fall and you know the days are starting to get a little cooler, you know the days you can actually drink coffee outside. You know it's I'm starting to see videos, you know, on Instagram with my buddies who are working the dogs, getting them in shape. You know you can tell they're getting ready for the season. And it's so cool, man, seeing a really well-trained bird dog work the field or retrieve a bird or follow instruction, you know, and it's just such an amazing thing I think I think it, I think you would enjoy that. You know, jamie, probably as much as tromping through the woods trying to, you know, shoot the gun.
Speaker 5:Do the dogs get excited that they know that it's that time or like, hey, things are cooling down. I got to start stretching and get to work.
Speaker 4:They are more, you know, they're more excited than the people I mean you think Maybe I need to trade my doodles in Like the doodles that I have.
Speaker 5:I don't think they can they, they, they look at squirrels. They hate squirrels and that's what they do. But I love those dogs that can actually focus on hunting. It's such a cool. I love dogs more than anything Probably more than most people, but I got to say that a dog that is a hunting dog. I've got a couple of buddies who hunt and it's so cool to see the dogs do their job right, like there's nothing better.
Speaker 4:There's nothing better. And they love it. And they, they, you know they're, they, they're athletes. You know these dogs are finely tuned athletes. They've been, you know, getting ready for the season. I'm laughing because I think of the words finally tuned athlete, so you have doodles, right? Well, so we have two giant fat round English bulldogs and you couldn't take. I mean, when you really think about it, you and I have no business being on a podcast talking about sporting dogs, because neither one of us, my God, talk about the two least credible people on the planet to be talking about sporting dogs.
Speaker 4:And I'm looking at my two dogs and they, literally they're laying over there. I don't know if they look more like a watermelon or just two kegs of beer on the side. One of them's got. You know, I'm not. I gotta go and make sure one of them's still alive. I love our dogs. I love them to death. But my God. So we have two and they might, throughout the course of an average day, between waking up, going outside, eating and then napping. The rest of the day they might move 12 to 15 feet throughout the entire day, but our younger one actually made the effort to try to chase a rabbit out of our yard the other day which was such a big deal because English Bulldogs don't do that and he lasted about three steps and then, I think that, wore it out for the day and the rabbit, of course, played with him and realized that you know, this thing's not at risk.
Speaker 5:But yeah, man, you and I have no business talking about sporting dogs. No, that is for sure right. But dogs of all kinds are some of the most amazing beings, so I wish my dogs hunted. They're actually one of my dogs, hartnell, who's named after the nhl scott hurdle has killed probably 15 rabbits oh, there you go he's it's it's, it's, it's um, it's working right.
Speaker 4:I mean, he's, he's, he's providing, he's, he's contributing. Contributing, that's the word that I'm looking for.
Speaker 5:He's contributing I, I think if my dogs hunted and I hunted, I'd love, I, I'd love going for long walks and and to be the productive walk where you can catch dinner, I think that would be even better.
Speaker 4:Well, I tell you I love it. I'm going to put you know, we had a great show recently talking about species and you know, and it's so fun to talk about because there's just so many different angles and things you can think of. But you know, I just I love bird hunting and I do love quail hunting. In the southeast it's such a tradition. The dogs are a huge part of it, the habitat's a huge part of it. You know, so much of our land in the south has just been developed and to find real quail habitat is very rare. Most of the quail that you know you're going to see have been reintroduced in some fashion. But you know, if I really have to say what my favorite is and it lines up with this time of year, man, it's early dove season. I just, I love it. It's the first hints of cool air getting outside for the first time, sitting on those beautiful sunflower fields. You know, doves come in and they're so challenging you don't even think of them as a challenging bird. But they move and they, you know, they dodge and it's a hard shot and anyways, it's such a challenging bird. But I think mostly for me it just means the beginning of the fall sporting season and I just I'm going to start us off today.
Speaker 4:Favorite species to hunt or fish for and I'm going to say a dove hunt for me, man has got to be way, way up near the top. How about? How about you tell us? We talked about gosh, we talked about tarpon, we had a great talk about tarpon. We talked about some cool species like gar. You know tough species, you know permit and cool unusual species like gar. And then, of course, we had fun talking about you know brim and crappy. What would be another species, jamie? What's? You know brim and crappie? What would be another species, jamie, what's you know? Tell us another one of the fish that just you love going after, whether it's the way you fish for them or the fish itself.
Speaker 5:I think in the fall I do, we do the animal guys trip down to Gas Bay for Atlantic Santa, oh wow. And they are kind of like a muskie where when things go right they're great, when things don't go right they can be some of the most humbling fish in the water. So I think Atlantic salmon so many great trips. I've had trips where you don't catch fish for six days and then I've had down there if you get two fish you're done fishing.
Speaker 4:Now when you say that because, man, I want to dive into this, I can't, let's take a second here. Can you think of? Can you name a more legendary? I mean it's the fish of kings. Can you name a more legendary fish on fly than the Atlantic salmon? I don't think I can. I mean, I know there's history with trout fishing that goes back forever, but at the end of the day, if you really want to dive into the history of fly fishing and the lure of fly fishing, I mean, man, I don't know that I could name a more legendary to fish left fish to go after than the Atlantic salmon. Can you think of one? Or?
Speaker 5:more legendary to fish, less fish to go after than the Atlantic salmon. Can you think of one? No, and I think that's what gets me so excited. We drive about 12 hours to go fish for four days and then drive back 12 hours. Right, but those days in those waters, you never know, and I've had trips where it's humbling you might get one fish over three or four days. Yeah, um, a couple years ago I hooked the biggest salmon I've ever caught and released, which was about 30 pounds, oh my goodness. And that was in the first 10 casts and I was done like it was like I was just kind of soaking it in, yeah, and I waited.
Speaker 5:I was watching my partner cast and the guide was like we're going back for lunch in half an hour. You should have a couple more casts and the next cast. I caught a 32-pattern, oh my God, and the fight was 45 minutes. Get in the net, get a photo and then fish is done. The guy's like you're done, you can't fish anymore.
Speaker 4:Oh, dude, that's a. It's a fish of a lifetime. How in the world are you you're fighting that fish that long? I mean, that is such a hard fish to get, were you? Were you enjoying the fight or were you like, scared to death because I've had fish that I've wanted so bad that I, in all honesty, have have not enjoyed the fight. I've just been scared to death. I'm going to lose it. What is it like having an Atlantic salmon? I've done it with plenty of Pacific salmon. I've never caught an Atlantic salmon. What's it like having an Atlantic salmon fish of a lifetime, on for that long and just hoping to God you don't wrap up on something?
Speaker 5:It's funny In our last episode I was about to chime in with this, but there's certain fish species, whether it be a permit, a tarpon, when you hook the fish that you're trying to catch and they're on the line, you almost don't even enjoy the fight, you just go don't come off, don't come off, don't come off, don't come off. And you know, compared to other species that you've caught a thousand times where you're enjoying the moment of the catch. Yes, certain fish. You do not. You enjoy it, but it's more stressful going through the don't come off, don't come off, don't come off, like Atlantic salmon is one of those fish right?
Speaker 4:Oh, absolutely. Yes, I could totally see that. Yeah, Especially when they jump a couple times big runs, but to get a big one on like that, oh my God, like you said, you're not having fun, you're just, oh God, get this thing in, get this thing in the net.
Speaker 5:And the big one that I had ran, ran, ran and then it decided to go deep and it just sat on the bottom and the rod's bent and you're sitting there going no, he just says, or she says no, not moving. So you just wait and wait and wait and then all of a sudden the fight's on again, tries to get away and you finally get it in the net. The guide and everybody else that you're with just totally rejoices that. Yeah, we did it.
Speaker 4:Man, I want to let's. I could ask you questions on this all day. So and I'm going to, I'm going to show my navity here with, with some of these Canadian waters, gaspé Peninsula Is that? Am I saying it correctly?
Speaker 5:Yeah, for sure. I've been talking to a guide up there who's a legendary French Quebecois guide. We're going to try to get him on the show. We got to make sure we get hit. The satellite phone and the moon is aligned to the two satellites and they don't get the greatest cell coverage up there, but this guy is a legend, so we'll just throw a little teaser up there.
Speaker 4:But some amazing people. When you talk about driving 12 hours, is that where you're going?
Speaker 5:Yeah, we're fishing Gaspé, about driving 12 hours. Is that where you're going? Is that we're fishing gas bay? So there's a lot of the matapedia, the cascapedia, the grand cascapedia uh, some legendary waters like and if you look at some of the people that fished in there, it's, it's such a cool place to fish um. The bonaventure river also, we fish is one of the cleanest, clearest rivers in all of canada. It looks like you're picking it up is.
Speaker 4:I was gonna ask you yes, is that the one? So I've seen pictures of of um of men and women fishing in these canoes and it looks like the canoe is floating in air. And is that the bonaventure?
Speaker 5:exactly the place where it's. When you're standing in there, you just and something about salmon fishing, I'm sure it's like just when, when you're in the woods, right near in the right woods, where there's trophy whitetail or you know moose or whatever, you know you're in the right spot, and something about standing in those rivers that you know catching or not, you know that you are in some religious water.
Speaker 4:It is man, it is, it's religious water. It's hallowed grounds is what it is.
Speaker 4:I mean the history. You know, growing up in central New York and you know this, my family was, you know, early outfitters and fly fishing guys in the Catskills, right, and their history of trout fishing in the Catskills is phenomenal. It just, oh, my goodness, what a great history. But at the end of the day, I just I can't imagine a fish.
Speaker 4:I love the old books, you know. I could get a leather chair and a glass of scotch and a good fire and I could look at the old books with the black and white photos all night long and, just, you know, and have a slow burn and log and I could. That's's about, that's just a great night, right, and some of the coolest books that I have seen are the old, old, legendary stories of these rivers, these legendary salmon rivers, and you know whether it's, whether it's Canada, and then you can go across, right, you know, you start thinking about the legendary rivers of Scotland, iceland, obviously, you know, being on the forefront of so many discussions about all that, norway, of course, being famous. You know what, if you had to, specifically looking at Canada, you just listed a whole bunch of them Are some of those? As you said, some of those really are hallowed grounds, right, hallowed waters.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and and and being a part, I got friends right now that are in Iceland that are totally having an amazing salmon trip, like the. I just got a ping of my phone as I made the mistake of looking to the left and I just saw a photo. I'm going to have to check that a little bit. But the fish are biting in Icelandeland too, right, and I think a lot of people don't realize the atlantic salmon go from, you know, greenland all the way back down to canada, right. So, and the everybody says, hey, how did it taste? It's like no, we, we let it go.
Speaker 5:Well, why would you let a salmon go? And it's hard to explain, like the stuff the grocery store a lot of, it is not very great eating, right, depending on on the farm that it came from. But the, an atlantic salmon, a pure atlantic salmon that has gone to greenland and back, is one of the most amazing fish you've ever held. Like it's, you hold it and it's pure muscle. They've swam 5,000 kilometers. Yeah, no, perch has done that, no, muskie has done that.
Speaker 4:And bright chrome right, Just bright chrome coming in off the ocean. It's just an incredible fish.
Speaker 5:And then in the fall when we go, they get, uh, they start to get darker and the males get those big pipes kind of like, you know, brown or whatever. Oh yeah, those are some cool fish too. So we got a, we got a trip planned in a couple of weeks and uh got a guide lined up. Hopefully we can uh, maybe when I'm down there we'll do a live from there and call you in and and we'll hear some questions and some stories.
Speaker 4:They got those guys got stories, dude, I love it I love it and I, you know, and, and if you're into flies too, you know. The other thing about salmon fishing is is the fly patterns. Again, I, I can't think of a more legendary fly pattern than some of the right and some of the salmon flies. I mean, they're just pieces, they're literally works of art some of them. And anyways, man, that's going to be such a great trip and and and and it would be great to, obviously, obviously I'm going to be following that closely with you, but how cool it would be to try to, you know, do some type of a show, um, just you know, while you're out there on one of those rivers, this is, you know, gonna be incredible the, the, the crazy thing when you're, when you go on those trips, I always overload and flies.
Speaker 5:Right, oh yeah. But like with all things, you show up with 800 flies. You know five fly boxes and the guide goes hey, what do you got? You open everything up and they go oh wow, it's a blah, blah, blah. It's a blue charm and that's a red frances oh yeah, that's nice. And then they, they go oh yeah, nice. And they look at it for two, three minutes and then they go.
Speaker 4:No that's great, and they pull one off their hat. I've got. I got a few of my own exactly.
Speaker 5:They pull one off their hat and they go. We're going to put this on. I know, I just spend I won't even tell you how many hundred bucks.
Speaker 4:Oh no, yeah, you just dropped $350 on flies. They're going to just stare at you on your shelf when you get back home. Thank God, they're pretty, you can look at them.
Speaker 5:These are nice.
Speaker 4:We're going to slang something else. Oh my god, there's so much truth to that. I used to do a lot of salmon. I've done a lot of pacific salmon fishing. I've never in my life gone atlantic salmon fishing and and. Nor have I gone steelheading and and and talk about two legendary fish that you can go after in canada that you know. So those are top of bucket list for me. But um, I you know when you're you fishing it for the. You know for the Pacific salmon.
Speaker 4:You know, if you get up into Alaska, for example, you know part of that trip is going to be an overnight. It's going to be a day in Anchorage only waiting for those bush planes. And you, inadvertently, there's two or three really dangerous fly shops in Anchorage and I can't tell you how many times I've been. I've gone into those shops with buddies or my dad in the old days, you know. And you just walk out with, you know, $200 worth of salmon flies and within moments at the. You know, within moments, on the side of the river when you're getting in the, you know the old aluminum boat with your guide and he looks at him and goes, yeah, cool man, they look great and, like you said he plops one. He's got one stuck under his seat, you know, on the boat, and he just pulls it out and throws it and you end up fishing with that one fly all day. This is so true.
Speaker 5:And the fly they tie on has got like half a feather.
Speaker 4:And like it's all beat up to shit, beat to it. You fish for it all day.
Speaker 5:I trust your brother but okay, whatever You're the guy, I get it, I love it, I got uh. I get people show up with bait sometimes and I look at their baits and it's like oh, it's so good, it's so true, it's so true.
Speaker 4:And those are the things you don't talk about. You know, when you go home, that's like, it's like you hope, you hope that one just like skips under the eyes when the credit card bill comes in. You know, and you know it's like that unspoken purchase, you know, you just kind of roll with it.
Speaker 8:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they're 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. 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 8: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 Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: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, ang and I will be right here in your ears bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week?
Speaker 1:Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 3:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors, from athletes, All the other guys would go golfing.
Speaker 1:Me and Gth and Turk and all the Russians would go fishing To scientists. Now that we're reforesting and letting things breathe, it's the perfect transmission environment for life To chefs.
Speaker 3:If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated, you will taste it.
Speaker 2:And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you are. Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside.
Speaker 4:Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, well, I'm going to take you. So we're talking about Atlantic Salmon, legendary game pursuit of Canada, and I'm going to roll directly into my next one, which is another legendary sporting pursuit in the lower 48, of course, but also in Canada big time. And that's just the classic white-tailed deer. You know, I get I've been so lucky and I get to go hunting and fishing in so many neat places and I get asked I was like you know what, at the end of the day, what's your favorite? You know, if you could only do one hunt specific to hunting, if you could only, you know, do one hunt each year, what would it be? And without any question, you know I would go whitetail deer hunting. And if somebody asked me where I would do that, you know there's so many great places, my gosh, you know you think about, you know, you know, gosh, the Midwest of the US. You know as good as it gets anywhere. You got some amazing whitetail hunting now in the southeastern US. You know, with really improving genetics, some obviously legendary hunting out west, and then, at the end of the day, you've got the biggest deer of them all. Which are those monsters? Just, those monsters up in Canada, you know, and each of those deer is different. You know, a big deer in the southeast might weigh 150 pounds and a big deer in Canada might weigh, you know, over 300 pounds. They're just different animals. But I think, if I had to limit myself to one hunting experience a day, I just I can't imagine anything more challenging and exciting and fulfilling than the good old whitetail of North America. You know, at the end of the day, man, it's just, it's right there in your backyard.
Speaker 4:You know, it's funny, jamie, as I talk about, I've been doing a lot of stuff, as you know, I've been doing a lot of stuff in Africa, right, the last couple of years. And as I talked to some of those guys you know about, hey, man, what's the most challenging animal to hunt? You know, when they talk about, you know what does that mean? Is it the most dangerous? No, no, not the most dangerous, right, you know, if you talk about dangerous hunts, you could get into, obviously, you know, the big five dangerous animals of Africa. You could talk about coastal bears, you know. You could talk about some of the physical challenges of mountain hunting, blah, blah blah. But if you're saying no, not dangerous, but challenging, what's the most challenging animal?
Speaker 4:And it's incredible how many big time international hunters I talked to all come back to white-tailed deer. You know they've hunted stuff all over the world and they're like, at the end of the day, man, a mature white-tailed buck that knows that area, I don't. You know there isn't a more challenging animal anywhere on the planet than a wise old, mature white-tailed buck, that same one that's sneaking into your backyard, you know, right outside of Ottawa. I mean, it's just, they're such an incredible animal.
Speaker 5:I've never hunted. But at the same time, every January, february, the family we like to go looking for sheds and that's the way we hunt kind of fine. So we got six antlers in the house that we found. I remember my daughter one time we did this probably three mile hike, we were out all day and it was cold and we stopped for a break. And she looks down and she goes dad, why is there an antler right beside?
Speaker 6:And that's what we're looking for right and she lifts it up, she goes.
Speaker 5:I got an antler right beside and that's what we're looking for, right? And she lifts it up, she goes I got an antler like oh great, right, so we're all happy. And then she puts it down right beside the matching pair, like both of them were within three feet of each other. I don't even know how that's so cool, so you know. So some of my shed hunting friends out there Justin Hoffman, who's got, I think, like 100 antlers Right. So that's my little. I love following them, you follow the scat and you follow the trails and like I can understand how a deer you know a deer hunter would be so fixated on where are they going? What are they doing? There's the does and they're it's, and they're such a beautiful animal and they're delicious too.
Speaker 4:Sorry for them no man, they check all the boxes. They are, and they're such a it's, they are such a challenging animal, you know, and you and you really think about all the dynamics of a, of a of an old buck, right, we talked earlier whether it was this show or the last one you know we talked about. I think it was this one. We talked about selective hunting, right, and just what does that mean? Well, it means targeting those older animals, targeting that older buck that, ideally, is past his prime, you know, and letting those two-year-olds and three-year-olds go and you know, and ideally targeting, maybe that you know, surely four or five, or maybe, if you're really lucky, a six, seven-year-old buck. And these animals are so smart and they're so sensitive to human pressure. I remember when I was just learning about deer hunting, I was so lucky I had lots of really good mentors my dad was a great mentor, my grandfather, but also just friends, you know, that were really incredible. You know, woodsmen that didn't just understand deer but they understood the woods and you know. And they would talk about the importance of how you move through the woods and how do you approach your stand. You know how do you approach your stand to make your entry into the deer's domain invisible, so the deer doesn't realize you're getting in there, and the importance of that. You know an old buck's going to know something's not right. And you know we talked about, you know, fun fishing trips where you know, like gar fishing, where you know you're going to get a second chance. Well, I can tell you, buddy, you know, if that old buck gets a whiff of you or realizes you're there, he's gone. He surely, in the best case he's going nocturnal, he's more likely gone for the whole season. And it's such a challenging, you know, such a challenging game and it does, you know it brings you into a total immersion of their environment.
Speaker 4:I remember, you know, as a young guy, learning, you know, making mistake after mistake and trying to learn and luckily having very patient mentors. And one season I would have been probably I don't know in my teens, I guess maybe late teens. I had, you know, gone out early season. I had patterned certain deer, meaning I'd gone in the woods and I had found sign, scrape marks. You know this is probably pre-rut, you know, finding scrape marks and trail marks, rubs, things like that, that you know that there's a buck work in the area, maybe set up some cameras. In other words, I had found a buck that I had patterned and I wanted to now start to try to hunt and I would go out in the early morning and I would come back in midday and then go back out in the afternoon.
Speaker 4:And as I got older I realized that if you're rut hunting, sometimes at the end of the day that's an all day sit. You go out in dark and you stay till dark. But in those days I was learning. And after doing that for a couple of weeks not a couple of weeks, after doing that, let's say for a week I started getting lazy. And since I'm a bow hunter a lot of times in those in that case I was bow hunting I was bringing a climber out right To get, you know, close to a trail that I could effectively get a decent bow shot. And I said you know God, I hate dragging this damn you know climber in and out every time. I'm going to just leave it.
Speaker 4:Well, sure enough, one of my mentors saw this and he said you know he goes, ryder, you know, if somebody went into your house and moved your living room chair from one side of the room to the other, would you notice that? And I'd be like, yeah, of course I would. He's like, well, that's what you just did in that buck's living room. You know, you just you just left a chair in that buck's living room that wasn't there before and of course he's going to notice that and you've just screwed that up. That buck knows you're there now, man, and you might as well go find another one.
Speaker 4:It was such a good lesson and it just shows you the layers and the depth you know of of whitetail hunting and and and. So it's just, it's, it's. You know it's such a great another great tradition, just like salmon fishing. You know incredible history passing down generations. What a great thing to teach your kids. But whitetail for me, man, way, way up near the top, and what's great is it's something you can hunt right here in, whether you're in Canada or North Carolina. You can, you know, you can spend time in the woods hunting whitetail.
Speaker 5:So, ryder, when you're hunting deer let's say you're looking for deer to harvest because of the antlers and the trophy, is there a difference in the meat between like a I don't know like a two or three year old compared to like an older one? Is there like a ideal spot where you want, if you want to eat it to harvest or if you want to eat it for trophy?
Speaker 4:You know I love the question because something that I used to hear a lot again growing up in central New York, you know we surely did, and a lot of our neighbors were hunting for food and in many cases it was important food, not just enjoyable food, but important food, in other words, filling the freezer. And you know so. You know when you're that's, you know when you're substance hunting. That's one thing, but one of the sayings, you know, back in those days, back in the 80s, let's say, it was the first question you would get. If somebody said, hey, man, I saw Buck. Today, the very first question you would get was how many points was? You know? Was it a? You know, was it a six pointer, eight pointer? Did you see a 10 pointer?
Speaker 4:And what's so interesting is that that is not said anymore because it, or at least it's not as common. I mean, I'm not saying you don't still say it, but but it's way more common for folks now to start thinking about how old was that deer? You know, when you start hearing people say, man, I saw a great buck, but you know what? It wasn't quite there, you know, I'm going to let him go another couple more years. And how cool is that? You know, and not a long time, you know, if you just think of the last 20, 30 years, 20 years, the evolution, you know. If I think about, you know, living in the Southeast and the hunting magazines in the Southeast, you know, a hunting magazine showing a big buck, you know, in the mid 80s or early 90s would look very, very different than a buck on the cover of that magazine today. The buck today would be way bigger because people have started to realize the benefits of letting those deer grow and waiting for that mature animal. So you know, I think, to answer your question, I think it probably depends. I think there are situations where, if you pattern an incredible buck, in other words a giant buck, a buck of a lifetime, I have a good friend who's an incredibly serious deer hunter who, as we speak, is patterning one of the most incredible bucks I've ever seen in my life. It would you know, and he's hunting in Kansas and it could you know, if he has a, if he's lucky as heck and he has a chance to see this buck during the season, he'll have hit a home run and if he's lucky enough to get a shot, it could become a legendary deer. That person's going after the biggest buck he can find. He's, in essence, hunting His whole season, will be hunting that one animal and it's the biggest buck I've probably ever even seen a photo of. So in that case you're going after the biggest animal you can. Most people you know.
Speaker 4:If you're hunting, if you have a hunting lease or you have your own land, most people today really are wise to the benefits of proper management and letting certain deer grow and get older, so they might not be hunting the biggest deer. You might have a great big three-year-old. You're like, no, I'm going to let that one go, and you know. And yes, it can mature more. Can the antlers still grow? Yes, but you know, you might have an old buck. Maybe you've got a six, seven-year-old on the property. That's might've even come. The antlers might've come down in size. You know, when a deer gets to that age probably peaks around what six, maybe six years old, you know, and then as they get a little bit older, the antlers actually shrink and in that case you might have a hunter not necessarily going after the biggest animal, but they might be going after the oldest.
Speaker 4:You know, and that's what I love to see.
Speaker 4:You know where you really see hunters becoming selective and targeting the proper animal to take out of a herd, hunters becoming selective and targeting the proper animal to take out of a herd. And then part of that, as you think about game management, you know, is balancing the herd. And there are definitely situations where they have doe days, you know, and you need to manage doe populations. And so, as far as eating, you know all you know, venison. It all depends how you cook it at the end of the day. But you know, you know. But as far as eating goes, you know, I don't know, I'd be, I probably would much rather, you know, throw the tenderloins of a you know a three-year-old dough on the grill than a you know a seven or eight-year-old buck. But you know, it's just, I just love the fact and you start to realize wow, they're. You know, you're not just going out there and shooting a deer. There's a tremendous amount of thought, preparation, you know, in some of this. You know it really. You know, you know the approach to hunting today.
Speaker 5:But I guess it depends if you're looking for food or if you're looking for the trophy. I totally think that's cool how I have a bunch of buddies who deer hunt and they're like I'm going to let her go and hopefully we'll find her next year. Then you get to wonder how far is it going to stray to another property, somebody else going to harvest it, like wow. At the same time, if you do get that animal, it could be the one animal in your whole life that you've always wanted to target.
Speaker 4:Right it's so cool and it's heartbreaking. You know, if you pattern a deer and you, you know you work it, especially the deer you let go. You know if you find a giant three-year-old and you let it go and it makes it to next year. You know some of my favorite pictures and you'll relate to this as an antler hunter. Some of my favorite pictures are you know, are hunters, men or women that go out there and they get that six-year-old buck and the picture is them with that. You know they've got that big, mature. You know six-year-old antlers and then next to it they've got the sheds from five-year-old and four and then three.
Speaker 4:And you know, know, and it's so cool, talk about. You know proper hunting. You know when you get to see somebody lined up with the sheds that they found in the same deer and you can see the growth patterns, you can see the consistency. You know it's the same animal, it's just continue to grow until they finally harvested it. You know, at the right age and it's such a you know that's a really, really cool shot when you can see the same. You know they've patterned it and then God forbid, what a heartbreaker. You do that for three or four years and you know, and it walks into a neighboring property and gets shot by a neighboring club.
Speaker 3:Just a heartbreaker, but anyhow you guys have huh.
Speaker 5:I guess it's like fishing and somebody else catches the fish. You've had a couple follows in this spot. What are you going to do?
Speaker 4:There's nothing you can do. It's nice to get to see, let's pull it back to fishing. Tell me I love the variety of these fish. So Atlantic salmon tough to beat, King, you know it's the fish of kings. Tell me another favorite, you know, if you really had to kind of whittle it down, what's another favorite species of Jamie Pistelli?
Speaker 5:I think I don't harvest a lot of fish but when I do, I think the walleye, especially up here, and the last couple of years they've been all over the map. So certain rivers you catch them deep 30, 40 feet. The Ottawa has been really weird the last two years. We're catching them in five foot or under, even while fishing for other species. So I think walleye I've got a whole bunch on the fly this year too, which is really cool, just throwing streamers like you're fishing for pike, and then the walleye are crushing it, which is cool. And then regular spin outfits too right, like crankbaits, and they'll eat anything Bottom bouncers, worms, and they're so good eating. So they're one of those fish that are great. You think of Canadian fish?
Speaker 6:I think I was going to go brook trout.
Speaker 5:That might be another episode, but for sure, the mighty walleye.
Speaker 4:How, if you're thinking of some of the greatest fish to eat and there's lots, don't get me wrong. I mean, you and I could do a show just on our favorite fish to eat, but I don't know. I mean, at the end of the day, man, you'd be hard pressed to find a better tasting fish than, oh, my goodness, Walleye. Are you kidding me? What a fantastic fish fry. I mean, that's as good as it gets.
Speaker 5:Especially get out on a lake where there's loads of numbers, where you know you're like, like you said, with the deer right, like you're you're harvesting, they set up these limits, um, you know, slot limits to let, I think, primarily the fish are at least going to spawn at least once. And then the big, big ones, like the. I think a lot of people don't realize that a lot of the fish out there, and I'm sure the animals too not all humans grow to six feet, well, just all, like not all muskies grow to 50 inches. So the greatest brood stock, the breeding stock, it's very important to let those fish go, let those animals go so they can reproduce and create future generations for everybody else, right. But that being said, those you know inner slot fish, they've they've bred once and they sure do taste damn good in the old prior taste?
Speaker 4:damn good, tell me. Um, so do the walleye. I saw some pictures. You and I saw some pictures that Pete posted. Pete had gone walleye fishing, maybe, I think, at the front end of the summer, and he was catching some of those amazingly colored fish. They almost they weren't just this dark green, you know what I mean. It was like a dark green brown, it was almost like light greens and almost yellows. Do the, do the are, do the walleye, really vary that much in color? These were. He was catching some of the most spectacularly colored you know walleyes, surely. But some of the coolest looking colored fish you know I've seen in a long time Was that. Are they different in different places? Fish, you know?
Speaker 5:I've seen in a long time was that are they different in different places? Yeah, that's for sure. Like, if you look at the ones in manitoba, they're like white and green. Um, you know, northern quebec they're like super gold and dark, and there's even some spots that we've caught the blue walleye. They have like a really big blue tinge to them too. So they're such a cool fish and I think a lot of people think of them as a finesse fish where, at the same time, you know, the biggest one we caught last year was just under 12 pounds. That was on the Rideau River, like downtown Ottawa, and it ate a 12 musky bait Right.
Speaker 4:So they're not necessarily a finicky. You caught a 12 pound walleye. Yeah, my God, I didn't know they got that big.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they do Like from from Ottawa. I think one of the greatest spots is the Bay of Quinny, which is between Ottawa and Torontoonto, just off belleville, and they get the huge fish from lake ontario. Come in and you know you get double digit fish. People don't even look twice you know, I think there was a 17 pounder caught last year and some massive, massive fish right. So those are not the good eating ones, but if you're looking for a fish for a photo, wow, that's the place.
Speaker 4:All right, well, I'm going to roll this then from Walleye. I'm going to roll right into related fish then, because it's one of my favorite and you're going to laugh, man, but it's my favorite fish picture. All the different fish that you and I talk about, including those gorgeous brookies, you know, and the clowned up colored brookies where they're bright red, bright orange bellies. But I love, for some reason, I love the old bronzeback smallies. I love a picture of a big smallmouth and there's those stripes and the green I don't know what it is, but there's something about that that just catches my eye If I'm flipping through a magazine or I'm flipping through Instagram and somebody's holding up a, you know, a big three-pound smallie, four-pound smallie, and it's just got those the sun, if the sun's hitting it right, I think it. For me, anyways, it's my favorite freshwater for sure. Freshwater fish picture.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're amazing, they fight so damn hard you know, it's a great fish and and and you know I was telling you earlier, you know I was heartbroken because we had a good Somali trip lined up and and you know, one of those big hurricanes it just came through the southeastern US you know, flooded us out and we couldn't go. We were going to fish southwestern Virginia and just got dumped on I mean geez, I think the river levels bumped up like four or five feet in about two days. It was just crazy. But you know, I just I absolutely love it.
Speaker 4:And what's interesting down here, I want to ask you, timing-wise down here, you know we've got kind of that spring. You know what is it? Pre-spawn march maybe you know that's such a great time to go if you're trying to get bigger fish. That's gonna be a lot of heaving of streamers, things like that. But what we were trying to do was go in the summer and hit that top water action where you're getting some terrestrials and you know whether it's grasshoppers or for us even even some of the cicadas, you know, as you're looking at your smallie season, I guess. Two questions I'd be interested to know do people call you for smallmouth trips or do you kind of add that to other species? And then, if so, what are your like? What are the? I know you guys have a tighter window, probably up north, right that that are your prime times. What are the prime times to be fishing up near Ottawa for smallmouth?
Speaker 5:Our season up here. Unfortunately it usually opens the third weekend in June, so we got June, july, august, September, october and then it's done right. So prime time kind of, whenever you can get out, but usually, depending on on weather, get a couple windows where where it's really good. I love, you know, around early season they haven't seen a lot of baits, haven't seen a lot of flies right, and then, like with most species, muskies and everything else, I love that period in in early september when people start putting their recreational boats away and the boat traffic has dropped by like 60 percent. I think that's that's a prime time for me, when it's just a little bit more of the nature part. Especially some of the waters we fish here are close to urban, you know communities, and when the boats are gone just feels like a little bit more of an adventure, a little less pressured.
Speaker 4:Do you have clients that are calling you for specifically for smallie trips, or are they mostly focused on muskie and then, hey, you know, maybe we'll try for some smallie. Or do you have folks that are targeting smallie?
Speaker 5:Yeah, we get people that hey, like to go bass fishing, whether it be smallies or largemouth, yeah, and then a lot of people just say, hey, I'm happy to catch bass, pike, walleye, just whatever. And there's a lot of areas we go to that if people are casting a streamer or throwing a shallow running crankbait, they can catch either or any of the species right.
Speaker 4:Well, I know we're getting close to the end of the show here, but I got to end it with one last question for you. So if you had to pick one part of Canada that you think is the best smallmouth fishing and I know you got to be careful because you fish the Ottawa, but maybe pick two or three, you know what. What are your top two or three areas in Canada you know that you just think are just the price? If you had to, if you're going to do one Canadian smallmouth trip, where would you be focus?
Speaker 5:that's a simple answer. I'm going to go with two. I'm going to go Lake Simcoe uh, just north of Toronto, some gigantic fish. And then, without a doubt, the mighty St Lawrence River. St Lawrence, right now there's huge Gobi populations. The bass have turned into gigantic footballs and a lot of the bass guys out there. Before you know, a five pound fish was like crazy, but now you know a five fish fish tournament guys are pulling in 30 pounders. You know 30 pound bags with you know six, six pound average of fish. Right, so you get a six pound smallmouth.
Speaker 4:That's an insane fish, so absolutely huge, yeah, yeah, the st lawrence is is crazy.
Speaker 5:Congratulations to mr chris johnson out there. Canadian boy, you just uh brought in, uh, the bass master angler of the year. Maybe, a, chris, if you're listening, you want to come on the show, we can talk. Oh, yeah, that is a good, but uh, yeah it. There's some absolutely crazy huge fish on the St Lawrence. I think maybe next time you're up here, ryder, we'll have to take a dip down and go explore that way.
Speaker 4:Dude, I love it. I love it. Well, listen, I could keep talking about species and you know favorite spots and favorite species forever, but I think we're about out of time. Man, I think we need to probably wrap it up for the show. But God, what a fun topic. Yeah, man, I think we need to probably wrap it up for the show, but God, what a fun topic.
Speaker 5:Yeah, man, always good catching up, and we got some good guests coming in. We're going to be talking some salmon, we're talking some West Coast fisheries. I think we got an MMA guy that wants to come and talk fishing too. I love it. I don't want to let the can out of the bag and then one of our I think one of our brothers from the network is going to join us too and talk about a couple things too. So we got a whole bunch of great guests out there, and thank you so much for listening to Untamed Pursuits on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network. I'm Jamie Basile here with my great co-host, ryder Knowlton, down in the Carolinas. Dude, always fun, always fun. Thanks for listening everybody. Hey, cheers, have a great night.
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