Ep. #5 - Meat Church Takes On Canada

A two-week Canada trip sounds simple until you’re four hours north of Edmonton with no cell service, a truck dashboard in kilometers, and a bear stand that feels close enough to hear every breath. Matt walks through the full Alberta black bear hunt from camp logistics to the ethics of targeting mature boars, including how baiting setups help you identify a bear clearly and avoid shooting a sow with cubs. Christian Brewer joins with questions, jokes, and the kind of real family banter that makes the stories land, especially once the bourbon gets poured.

Then we get into the part most people debate but few actually do: turning wild game into food you’re proud to serve. We talk bear meat misconceptions and beyond and the specific methods of cooking that make it shine, including Jen Rivet’s smoked and braised bear ham that eats like pulled pork. Then, Matt breaks down our new recipe video, bear guisada, with extra tips on the seasoning, browning, simmer time, and why it tastes closer to beef than anyone expects.

The second half shifts to British Columbia and the West Coast Fishing Club at Langara Island in Haida Gwaii, that Christian was lucky enough to go on. We relive salmon trolling with barbless hooks, deep-water halibut battles, ugly-but-amazing ling cod, and the lodge experience that somehow delivers five-star meals in the middle of nowhere. You’ll also hear about Matt's experience cooking brisket on Traegers on a remote island, a fish-and-chips batter mistake we will never forget, and the perfect last-day fishing doubleheader that ends the trip.

If you enjoy hunting stories, fishing tactics, wild game cooking, BBQ technique, and practical recipes you can actually use, subscribe, share this with a buddy, and leave a rating and review.

Transcript

Welcome And Trip Overview

Matt 0:00

Hey everybody, I'm Matt with Meat Church, and welcome to episode five of the Meat Church Podcast. In this episode, we're gonna talk about my two-week adventure to Canada where I hunted bear, did a ton of fishing, brought it all back to the States, and cooked it in recipe videos for you guys. Flew up to Alberta, went to Edmonton, rented a truck, drove about four hours north to meet up with longtime friends of mine, Johnny and Jen Rivet, to go bear hunting. The week after Cam Haynes was in the same bear camp. Super exciting, had success, brought the meat back to the States. But before I did that, I went back to Edmonton, flew to British Columbia, into Vancouver for my fifth year on the West Coast Fishing Club Beef Barbecue and Bourbon Trip, where it's a guest chef event where I cook two meals with a really good buddy of mine, Danny, from uh Jacobs Co. in Toronto. Do a ton of fishing while I'm on that trip. I've obviously also brought all of that fish back and can't wait to tell you guys about it, tell you a little bit about how we cooked all these various proteins, how we cooked the meals while we were there, meals we had in bear camp, talk about the hunt, talk about the fishing. And uh, was lucky to be joined on the second half of my trip, the BC leg uh, by my oldest son Christian, who happens to work at Meat Church. So let's talk about this episode's guest. So Christian is the longest tenured employee at Meat Church. Uh, when he came back from college, started working part-time for Meat Church, packing orders in our guest house, and has worked his way up the ladder. He's a director at Meat Church. He's responsible for all of our direct-to-consumer business, uh, meaning Meatchurch.com. Um, he's also responsible for Meat Church Barbecue Supply in downtown Waxahatchie, amongst um frankly, anything else I ask him to do, to be uh real honest with you. So without further ado, the most famous guest we have had thus far in this studio, Christian Brewer.

Christian 2:22

Wow, the professional titles, mama. I made it. Now, you know, sorry Jerry Jones couldn't be here today, but I'll have

Bourbon Pour and Family Banter

Christian 2:28

to fill in the void. Here we go. Let's talk about this trip. Well, before, hold on, you're already taking sips. Can we get some uh bourbon rolling or this?

Matt 2:36

All right, so we're two minutes in. This is a record to be asked for the bourbon. And for those of you that don't know, um, Christian's hobby is to lift my bourbon when I'm not around and uh you know put it on his own social media. But um it's actually really cool. We've uh we enjoy a bourbon habit together. Christian has gone with me numerous times uh to Kentucky to Buffalo Trace to to pick out barrels, which has been pretty cool to do together. So why don't you tell us what you've picked today? He ran to my collection and and made a selection. What'd you pick?

Christian 3:07

Well, you know, it's been a tough year. It's uh we're in the middle of June. You're still here, so my uh bourbon borrowing has been a little slim. But today we're gonna go to the book.

Matt 3:16

Normally I hop out to uh our Florida house by now, but I've stayed in town to work a little bit longer.

Christian 3:20

Usually you're gone, so I'm I'm hurting a little bit, but uh we we got a good one. We got the Weller single barrel today.

Matt 3:25

Um I let you go in and pick whatever bottle you wanted, and you certainly picked what should be a banger.

Christian 3:30

Cracking the top.

Matt 3:30

So you want to get after this? Why don't you go with a fresh crack?

Christian 3:33

Am I a guest or am I?

Matt 3:34

You're a guest. I'm gonna let you open it. I've also have a gift for you here.

Christian 3:37

Oh wow.

Matt 3:40

Kevin Van Dam, guest on the podcast. I can tell you that this is what he calls his kryptonite bottle, so it is his favorite. This one right here? Yep. Weller single barrel.

Christian 3:50

So appreciate the pour, sir.

Matt 3:52

Kevin would be highly jealous of this right now.

Christian 3:54

Doesn't feel like I'm stealing when you pour it for me.

Matt 3:58

Alright, cheers.

Christian 4:03

That does smell good.

Matt 4:04

For those of you, oh my god. I'm just gonna be honest with you. I'm taken by how good that is. Oh man. I haven't had um Weller single barrel in a long time, and that was good. That is so good. That that actually like floored me. Like, that's not for show. That's that was good. Man, single barrel, this one's clocking in at 97 proof, super easy to drink. Man, this isn't a bourbon show, so sorry. I guess we'll get into talking about Canada, but there was a lot of bourbon on the trip. I enjoyed that. Oh yeah. We'll get we'll get to that later. Um Okanagan spirits, good friends of ours that that provide all the spirits for that that trip, Tyler and his sister. So we'll definitely talk about that later. But all right, well, we're gonna do this in chronological order.

Alberta Bear Hunt Logistics

Matt 4:50

So so again, I had a I had a two-week trip to Canada, which I don't know how your mom let me get away with that, but anyway, she's a saint, so that's why she promptly went on her own vacation the day I got back. She's out of town at the moment. She comes back today. I haven't seen her in three weeks. So I wouldn't be surprised if while we're doing this podcast, I get a text that says she's extended her trip another week. But but we'll see. Good for her. So two-week trip basically broken into two parts for those of you listening. Uh, my first week was in Alberta on a bear hunt, solo in bear camp with friends, and then the second half, which you were on with me, was in BC fishing. And so um, man, I mean, let's just I'll give I'll give everybody a quick overview, and then you can ask whatever you want about bear camp and we'll get in conversation about fix it fishing. So uh longtime friends with Johnny and Jen Rivet, I think they're some of the most well-known bear outfitters in the world, and uh not to name drop, but I already mentioned that Cam Haynes was in camp the week before me, shot a huge bear over seven feet, and um they regularly guide Joe Rogan. Uh Joe shot his first bear in uh a stand with Johnny. Uh they have guided Luke Bryan, uh Zach Brown numerous times.

Christian 6:02

Yeah, some big names.

Matt 6:03

They actually told me that uh Jelly Roll was supposed to be in the week before me, but he had some stuff going on, and uh that that news just came out this past week, so now we all know what what that was about. But anyway, they're they're amazing humans. I know them through working with Traeger. Uh years ago, Traeger signed all these outdoor people as ambassadors, and the rivets are the ones I'm like, man, they're way off the grid people, and they use this smoker that you know you plug in and they love it. And their house, their bear camp was just loaded with Traegers everywhere from griddles to smokers. But anyway, I went there um hunted Monday through Sunday night and had success on my third day, uh, which was amazing. Um super memorable trip. Shot a big black bear, could have shot an even bigger one the last day of my hunt, and I passed on it because I was hunting a particular blonde bear. Yeah. Uh which I just learned as I walked in here the next week, someone got lucky on the blonde bear, so he won't be there waiting on me next year. But anyway, um had a great hunt, you know, was in camp with a group, the two different groups, two guys from Salt Lake City, uh, Jared Engage, a doctor, and his son-in-law had big time outdoorsmen, had a great time with them. Then the the bow rack from Oregon, amazing family. It's Cam's where Cam um bow shop that he goes to. Um, everybody had success. So uh everybody shot bears. Uh Jen Rivett cooked bear for us on the last night. So super memorable.

Christian 7:35

You have to go with that. So you took one out, but talk me through this. Like you're pretty off the grid. You know, these hunters are very off the grid, but you're in Alberta, Canada. Talk me through the process. Like, how are you deciding, all right, this is the one I'm gonna take? Where are you at? You know, do you have like obviously you don't have sales service. You're looking around, you see anybody, do you hear cars, highway, anything? Like, so I flew nowhere.

Matt 7:58

I flew into Edmonton, and uh I love Canada by the way. I've got you know, I played hockey since I was most of my adult life from like 19 on, so a lot of Canadian friends, and um, you know, always had a huge love for Canada and the outdoors, like particularly, you know, not not a big city guy necessarily, but I flew into Edmonton, then rented a truck and drove four hours north. I remember texting you guys, my family, and I'm like, I don't know how my cell phone's working. Like, I feel like I passed two gas stations in four hours. Truck is in kilometers. I don't know what the hell a kilometer is, I've no idea how fast I'm going. I actually got a speeding ticket. Yeah. Um running from the law? No, mandatory breathalyzer. Oh man. I was like, but yeah, it was at the end of my bear hunt. I was on the way back, and he's like, Have you had any alcohol in the last two days? And I'm like, Johnny didn't drink. I'm like, I didn't have alcohol in a week.

Christian 8:50

Yeah.

Matt 8:50

Um anyway, so four hours north. I'm I mean, I really only went through like two itty bitty towns with a gas station. Uh, you have to get liquor at a liquor store, which you know, so got to their place, their farm, and uh it's I mean, from my mind, it's in the middle of nowhere. The closest grocery store is 30 minutes, there's nothing around, it's completely beautiful. Um the hunting is wild.

How Bear Baiting Really Works

Matt 9:16

Like basically what would happen is Johnny would get his F-350 with a flatbed trailer with a side-by-side on it. We would go to load up bait, so you bait the bears. What are you using? So you know, some people are like, Why are you baiting bears? And I learned so much on this trip. You need to shoot mature boars only. And why? Well, if you saw a big bear and you shot it, and if it was a sow, they came out of hibernation in April, you've just orphaned their cubs. So if you bait them, obviously it's what you know, way to get them to a central area, but it you can visually sex them. And so, you know, I was hunting at 15 yards, and what we would do is we would fill these 55 gallon drums with oats. So let me let me explain it. So we'd go drive, we would go, we'd load up the baits and the side by side, and we would drive out to a spot, public land, and we would take all the bait, put in the back of us side-by-side, and we'd drive off the road mile, two, three, whatever, and we would open up a 55-gallon drum, we would pour a trash can of oats in it, we would pour some used cooking oil in it, and we would do that three times till the drum was full. We would put maple syrup in it, and I'm talking like Aunt Jemima maple syrup, put the lid back on it, there's holes in the barrel, so that's your main thing. Uh Johnny would often hang a rotted beaver from a crossbar, which they pay these trappers to get these beavers and they put them in drums and they are rank. Hang that up, and then they had a bunch of five-gallon buckets of icing, and so we would put icing on trees, which made it great to sex them. So bear comes in, bear stands up to lick the icing. You can look down and see if the bear's got a pecker and balls or not, and it's that simple. That's what you got to do. So, you know, you see this big bear come in, and you're, you know, you're just like looking, like, yeah, where's the junk? Um any honey hog on that icing or what? Yeah, so uh one day I, you know, as I do, I rolled in with honey hog and sprinkled it all over the icing, and naturally this bear comes in, and I'm not worried about hunting, I'm worried about Instagram. I'm like, oh, these bears love honey hog. So did that anyway. You would you what we would do is we would we would do that at one setup and then we'd drop off a hunter and we'd do that two and three times, and man, we were out there. Like one time we drove side by side for like an hour, and it's like muddy roads because beavers like dam up the roads, and I mean you're working. And this is still public land. It's public land, but I didn't see anybody. Wow, like, dude, we are out there. I mean, the last two days I was hunting this particular bear, my phone didn't work at all, and uh didn't work at all. I had it above my head on a pack, and you know, my mom starts calling me, and somehow the ball went through, and I'm like, bro, I'm not answering my 74-year-old mom right now on this bear hunt.

Christian 12:03

Let me stop you right there. Nana, if you ever call me any time of day, any time of night, I got you. Roll tide. I I wanted to text her back call, Christian, because I knew you'd answer.

Matt 12:13

But love my mom. But yeah, so ton of work. So to answer your question, I mean, we're looking for a big boar. And so Johnny sat with me the first few hunts to teach me how to sex a bear, and then um of course the one time he doesn't sit with me, a bear comes over to my tree stand and starts to come up my ladder.

Christian 12:31

What was going through your mind? That you you look down, you see that bear start sniffing paw by paw. What are you thinking?

Matt 12:38

I mean, they say they're just curious, but he's also showed me videos where one swiped at him, so they are generally curious, but you know, one swipe and it's ain't like I'm picking up the phone to call anybody. So um, yeah, I was a little nerve-wracking. I mean, one bear over I did a 12-hour set, and this bear came to the ladder three times. They're super smart. Like they come in to the area to eat and they don't even look at you, and they know you're there, and they just nonchalantly walk over. And you know, I've put some of these videos on our Instagram, and just the bear just stands up and you know starts to cape take a couple walks up the rung. They can walk up the ladder like a human. And by the way, on one of the game cams where I was hunting, I never told you this. One night we saw a bear in the seat of the stand where I was sitting, one on the ladder and two on the ground, there's like four in the picture. So I know those bears know how to get up there, but I just talked to it like normal because I'd watch Johnny be like, hey, you don't want to be up here, and you know, you're trying to like negotiate with them. I don't know. I just to a degree follow what he taught me. But what's pretty wild, you know, if you sit in a stand for twelve hours, you gotta pee. Yeah. And they had told me you can pee a time or two, they don't mind it. Well, I had peed off the side of the ladder, and that same Sal that kept trying to come at the ladder, she came over and laid in my pee on her back, scratching her belly for like a minute, which they all thought was hilarious. They said she liked my pheromones or whatever, but anyway. Mom, ignore that. Yeah, we don't need any of that, all right? But I even saw I even saw a uh I mean, I'll tell you the thing I was most impressed with. These mamas 24 hours a day trying to keep their babies alive. So this Sal comes in with three cubs, another bear comes in. I watched her run her cubs atop of this tree that had to be a hundred plus feet. It was so tall. And then she's pushing 400 pounds and she ends up at the top of the tree. It was it was the most enjoyable hunting I've ever had in my life because I got to see all kinds of cool stuff and get video of all that. And yeah, I videoed so much that I'd have a battery pack, even though my phone wouldn't work. I had to have a battery pack with me. So I I got like six hundred bear videos on my phone, but the one checking you out, you didn't that's not the one you dropped, right?

Christian 14:49

No, that was the CSR.

Matt 14:50

Yeah, luckily she she went on. Yeah. Just interesting. But here's what's crazy. We're so far north, it was getting dark at like 10 30 at night. So you could hunt till it was like 10 25 or something. So we could hunt till like 10 50 or and I mean by the time we picked up our three hunters, drove back to camp, we'd usually eat dinner at 1 30 in the morning. That's crazy. But I shot my boar at almost 10 p.m. It was nine. I looked at my phone, it was like ten call, ten o'clock at night. Um and it went fifteen yards, and Johnny and I went to load it up in this side by side, and I struggled. That's hard. Yeah.

Christian 15:34

What's that saying you got you or you got that buddy that said didn't go twenty-five, didn't go twenty? What was it?

Matt 15:39

Well, Rutt Daniels didn't go twenty. We definitely made him a video. I was I was definitely stoked. That's awesome. Took it back to camp and processed it up and crazy. I brought this because in case it came up. So the Montana Knife folder knife came out. Um the day I shot the bear, this was dropped, and I already had it. And Johnny and Jen have it. So the three of us used our folders to scan that knife, and look, I subbed the blood on it.

Christian 16:07

You should you should probably clean that down just a little bit. That's pretty cool, but I can it's been a while. Yeah. Okay, alright. Anyway, speaking of recording, right? You just whipped a knife on me, we're good.

Matt 16:20

All right. But how to make, you know, it was amazing. It was super memorable. I learned how to skin a bear. It went like it went six feet ten square. The one I passed on later definitely would have been bigger, but I was very happy with it. You know, we uh quartered it out, pulled out the back straps, put it in a they gave me like a cheap igloo cooler, so I put tape over it and wrote Canadian Yeti. Yeah. That was pretty cool. And uh

Bear Cooking Safety And Favorite Recipes

Matt 16:45

carried it like luggage. Yeah.

Christian 16:46

So what's the uh remind me the why uh the wife's name again of the outfit? Um Jen? Jen, what's her go-to bear recipe? So y'all get y'all get back. It's obviously late. Yeah. What's she doing? You get this bear, she's looking at you, all right. Here's what my go-to recipe for bear.

Matt 17:03

So Joe Rogan last week on his podcast called Jen, a gourmet bear cook, and uh it was the first time anyone had like properly cooked bear for me. But she took a bear ham and she marinated it for I think two days, and I know she's done up to four, but it was pineapple juice and water were the liquids. Um she used brown sugar, whole peppercorn, and some jalapeno slices, and basically covered this back ham. It was a small it was a smaller bear. I think it was someone's bear that had been harvested in camp and they happened to have the meat. So she marinated it for two days in that, and um, I would say like basically kind of made pulled pork. So she she pulled the ham out of the marinade, put it on the traeger, pretty low temperature. I've posted a video of this on Instagram. Yeah, I think it was 180, and she did it overnight. And um she took all the marinade juice and put it like in an enameled Dutch oven and let it stay in there as well. So if she ever wanted to baste, uh she had that. She put jalapenos on the ham and uh had that liquid sitting there cooking all overnight. And basically the next day she increased the temperature. Um, she put it uh in a container with a bunch of the liquid she poured. The next day she poured a bunch of that brazing liquid back into a pan with it and then braised it and then cooked it until it was tender. So, key thing for everybody, you've got to cook bear past 165 degrees, they can have uh trichnella and you can't see it with a human eye, but they say up to like 25% of Alberta bears can have this, and if you don't cook bear past 165, um you'll get you'll get sick and have like flu-like symptoms forever. Like I believe Steve Renella has it, and you never truly get rid of it uh until the zombie apocalypse, at which point you'll have the last laugh of the zombie that kills you. But so you know, when you're brazen it, you're cooking this bear at over 200. So she it ends up, you know, basically being you know the the equivalent of like pulled pork. And so, you know, pul oh she put some holy voodoo in the marinade. So I took them, took them a bunch of meat church season. There we go. So we had pulled bear um on the last night of our hunt. We had it last night of our hunt, we hunted Friday, I left Saturday. We had bear at two in the morning, and uh I was leaving out I think at six a.m. Yeah, I left at six, so got me a quick nap before we came back. But I shared bear there by in camp and the first bite I took, I was like, it tastes like beef. So it was a big misconception that you can't eat bear and that bear meat sucks, and you know, there's people on my social like unfollowing us because I was hunting bears, just ignorant people. Yeah. But it was delicious. I heard Cam Haynes on that same Rogan podcast say that natives used to covet bear meat, and the only reason they shot deer were for the hides. So it was very good. That's I've never heard that before. That's pretty interesting. Also heard that you know, I learned there's a difference in these are inland bears and uh coastal bears um, you know, you don't want to eat because or they're not as good because they eat a lot of rotten fish, and so that comes through in the meat. But you know, these bears are eating other mammals, they're eating, you know, like uh moose calves or other bears or deer. They're eating, you know, forage, um they eat ants. So they ate icing with honey hog on them. Yeah, you know, they're eating. Probably their favorite. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't the one I p shot uh did not have any of the icing. He was he was stupid. Uh no, he just went a big boy. He went for the beaver and for the barrel. He wasn't there long. I got squared up now. That's about his business. Handle business, yeah. But very fortunate you know, and I brought it I brought it back, right? I've you know this. I brought the bear meat back. Yeah, the Canadian Yeti. I brought it back and uh I did a test run. I thought I'm gonna make Carnegie soda with it. Made some this weekend and then uh How'd that go? You lose a finger? Yeah. Just about uh I got sloppy. I was dicing tomatoes and on a wet cutting board and I made a rookie mistake and I almost cut the tip of my thumb off. I got real close. That Montana knife though. That was my chef knife. There you go. And the only reason my thumb is s is the only reason the tip didn't come off is because I went through the nail. Golly, that makes my stomach flip. Your mom was not happy at that.

Christian 21:17

But anyway, show must go on. So you shot that bear, you know, you've been mule deer hunting, deer hunting, all of that. I might be spoiling something, but have any consideration of a big game rub, anything like that, wild game rub?

Matt 21:32

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Christian 21:34

Anything of the sorts? You working on it?

Matt 21:36

We've been working on it for a while, and I really would like to put it out this fall just because such an outdoors man hunt all the time. Yeah, I feel like I mean You got plenty of meat for it. I use our holy cow, yeah, and I use our Blanco on game, which works great, but it would obviously mean a lot to have like a Texas y game rub. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, the if people could see the freezers here. I have three wild game freezers here, they're all To the top. I need more room. Don't you dare open it. Yeah, don't put your own stuff in there, you'll you'll lose a finger. But I'm I'm excited. So this podcast is dropping on a Monday and on Wednesday, bear guisada will drop. And I I start the video saying it's carning guisada, and in I waited until I get into it and say I also I I do I use bear meat, you can use beef.

Christian 22:19

But you brought some to the office too, me and Kate had. It was really good. I didn't expect that.

Matt 22:24

Go on, go on.

Christian 22:26

No, no, no. I I didn't expect like the sauce, the meat itself was so tender. I was expecting something a little chewy, a little tough, melted in your mouth. It was great. If I could have had the whole bucket, I would have had the whole bucket. Appreciate that. Compliment. Compliment to come by with my family. Not as hard as as mom, but I give compliments when you know when they're deserved. And that was I did tell your mom I'm excited for her to get home and have it because I was like, it was it was good.

Matt 22:52

I actually had she'll love it. I really think she'll like it. I think she'll like it. I had uh I had Carnegie soda at your place today. And what is that? Two amigos.

Christian 22:59

Two amigos? Yeah, your high school place. Throwback biggest burritos in Waxahachi.

Matt 23:04

Shout out to Amigos and Waxahatchie, my favorite. I've always called Hole in the Wall, but it's not a hole in the wall, it's a really nice restaurant now. In high school, when you went, it was a hole in the wall. Oh yeah. But then they got in a really nice building. But took your sister there today. We had uh I had two Carnegie Sada tacos, and I was like, this is what made me fall in love with Carnegie Sada. I've said it in a bunch of videos, and I'm telling you, this bear guisada is banging. And if people if you didn't know it was bear, let's ask the people behind the camera, did it taste like bear to you guys? Couldn't tell? They're shaking their heads now.

Christian 23:35

If you didn't tell me it was bear, I wouldn't I wouldn't have known. It was just damn good. That's that's all it was. Bear meat is better than beef.

Matt 23:43

Ooh, hot take. The only thing I'll say is like I've got the back straps. Yeah. And you can't cook that like a like a whole tenderloin or a steak because you can't I like my stuff medium rare, pushing more towards rare. You can't do that with bear. So I'm gonna, you know, my mind has been going crazy on what can I do? Things that are gonna be pulled that are, you know, 200 degrees work. I'm definitely gonna make a bunch of bear jerky. Johnny made a bunch of bear jerky when Luke Brian played in Calgary and he said he took it on the bus and it and before they got off the bus, Luke and his boys had eaten it all. Destroyed it. Yeah. So that's next. Um but yeah, I'm super stoked for the video. I'm sure it won't do well because it's bear guisada like from a clicks perspective. But it's just like we say about fish. I don't care. We gotta have it. You know, if you know, you know. And it was super delicious. So that's really cool. Southwestern flavors. Let me let me talk about it real quick. So I um cubed, so I took a shank. So it was the smallest thing I had, because I have the two back hands, the two front shanks, the back straps. I took a shank, just knifed all the meat off of it, cubed it up, seasoned it with blanco, browned it in a Dutch oven, removed it, then I sauteed one onion, one bell pepper, seven cloves of garlic, all diced. Then I added four Roma tomatoes and a piece of my thumb. Hold the thumb, please. Then I added in holy cow, our Texas chili seasoning, cumin, tomato paste, cooked that for a couple minutes, two tablespoons of flour, a couple minutes, one cup of beef stock, added the bear back in after a couple minutes, like enough bear enough more beef stock to cover it, and I simmered it like all day. You know, it only took two hours. I tested it. It was probably like an hour and a half that the bear was over 200. I was like, I'm letting this roll. And so I turned it down low, watched the World Cup, came back, um, had a few sample bites. I pulled it off and I put it in the fridge, went to bed, the next day got up, put it back on the stove. It was done. But like it's just like chili, like putting chili in your refrigerator, make it better. I put the quiz soda in the fridge in the pot. I got it back out, let it simmer for hours, then I ate it.

Christian 25:53

So I probably had it what hours after you brought it out that next day? Yeah. And it was that good. It's good. You should have brought it for the whole office. Like I was going to do it.

Matt 26:03

Yeah, I'll have to do that because it'll be cool to share it. Like I cooked that and then it's just like the whole time, I'm not being weird, you're just thinking about all the effort to go through and you know, the travel. Yeah. Um the work to like when Cam Haynes FaceTimed us, he went into like how much work it was going to be and to appreciate it and to help one another. It was like super rewarding. Um and I almost like didn't make it. My my first leg so there's no direct flights from D FW to Edmonton. So I had to fly I fly American normally, so I had to fly United and I was going to Denver, and my first flight was so delayed because the plane coming in was late that I think my connection was an hour, and my flight was like an hour and a half late. I'm like, I'm not gonna make my connection, which means I'm gonna miss a day of hunting. And so I'm on the plane, I'm all telling Tracy, I'm like, I'm not I just this sucks, I'm gonna miss my connection. And then I realized the plane that I was on, the physical plane, just happened to be the plane that was gonna go from Denver to Edmonton. So I was good. Nice. Got to Edmonton, went to my hotel, had two old fashions, went to bed. Rest is history. What would you say? I ain't mad at that. No, I ain't mad at it. There we go. Okay, so let's wrap up the bear. Let's talk about where you come into the trip so you can

Fishing Lodge Travel And First Impressions

Matt 27:17

talk more. You don't have to listen to me the whole time. So this is my fifth year uh of going with the West Coast Fishing Club on this trip. And the way this started, Tuffy Stone called me, my buddy, several years ago. I was I don't know why I can remember this, but I was sitting at 7-Eleven getting gas, and I remember he said, Matt, what do you do in September? Blah blah blah. And I'm like, I have no idea. It was like six months in advance. And he's like, Well, I cooked this thing in Canada, I can't make it this year, and it'd be perfect for you what you do. Um, I'm gonna refer you if you want to go. And I did and made lifelong friendships with all these guys there. Um, the other chef, Danny McCallum from Jacobs and Cohen, Toronto, his Sioux chef Massimo, Derek that works at the West Coast Fishing Club, puts it all together. Um, Danny's buddy Brandon Wedlock and his dad, actually on the original trip. Uh, a guest on the trip, Michael McClellan and his dad, also his wife. Um, we all became such tight friends. We meet up once a year for another trip. Uh, Brandon and I have like a really cool hockey rivalry. We can talk about that later. Yeah. Brandon, big team Canada guy. So we're all really good friends. So basically, this is my fifth time to go on this bucket list trip where it's five days. You get yourself to Vancouver, and then you end up getting on a private charter to fly to Massett, hour and a half trip. And then you take like a 20-minute helicopter ride to Langara Island. It's in Haidaguay, British Columbia. First time I went, I looked at the land and I was like, this is like the Netflix show alone. Oh, yeah. You are out there. Nothing out there. Nothing. Nope. Other than another fishing lodge. Just for everybody at home, is I cook a dinner, Danny cooks a dinner, and then there's a night that we call stations night where we have we each cook a smaller thing, like I did grilled oysters, Danny did Tartare, um, Chef Blaine and his crew at the clubhouse. I mean, this trip is like you're in the middle of nowhere, but it is five-star service.

Christian 29:13

All the way around. There's they did not miss anything at this lodge. Anything you could think of, they had it, it was there. Anything you could want, it was there. It was amazing.

Matt 29:24

Everything from they have a crazy wine cellar to an amazing pro shop with like Patagonia and Arterics and Yeti and um the food is unreal, the service is unreal, you're there for five days. You basically fish. I'm just setting this up, then I'm gonna really want to let you talk about it. You your opportunities to fish from seven to noon. You can take a noon to two break for a lavish lunch, or you can stay on the water. Then you can fish two to seven, so it's ten hours of fishing a day, and then you have dinner like eight to whatever cocktails with everybody. There's a massage therapist on site, two hot tubs, unbelievable scenery. The fishing's world class. So salmon are starting to migrate down. It's the first land that salmon get to on the way down from Alaska. Unbelievable. Um, and so your mom has gone with me four years in a row, and she's like, somebody else needs to experience this. But she had to stay home and take care of your little sister's volleyball. Ava's qualified for national, so she's getting ready to play in indie next week. So uh you got tagged in.

Christian 30:22

And that was awesome. Thank you, mom. Cheers to you.

Matt 30:25

Yeah, don't worry about me. It's fine. Just thank our.

Christian 30:27

No, no, cheers to you, mom, because everybody knows that's your ticket. I appreciate it. So I just want your take.

Matt 30:34

Like, I didn't script this, so I just figured we'd just talk about this because we can get into the fact that there's three types of fish you can catch: salmon, ling cod, halibut. Spoiler, we limited on all of them. We brought it all back. This past week, I recording cooking videos. I have already recorded in the bank bear, salmon, halibut, ling cod. There's your next four meat church videos. Bang, bang, bang, bang. And uh they are all unreal. Like unreal. Like it's amazing. So uh, but all right, so that's the business aspect. Yeah, you got to help me cook, but more importantly, we got to fish together, had a great success, amazing ending, by the way. So just give me your rundown. Because by the way, these people at home, West CoastfishingClub.com, ask for Derek. You can go fish for me next year. We'll be back. It's an early June trip. Like, meet church people go on this trip every year. So book it, it's bucket list. Uh, it's not super cheap, but it's I'd say it's worth every penny.

Christian 31:31

I'm saving now because I know mom's not going to miss two years in a row. Derek, if you got any coupons, let me know. I'm there. But that that trip from top to bottom is just like I said, they didn't miss anything. Everything was thought of, every detail was planned. It was amazing. But just the aspect of getting there is mind-blowing. Like I I don't do helicopter helicopters, I don't do heights. I'm a big boy, I like to keep my feet on the ground. So flying from Dallas to Vancouver, Vancouver was awesome, by the way. We'll touch on that at the end of the trip because we had the first night there, and then the last night there was pretty awesome. Um but getting from there to uh uh was remind me of the Massett. Masset, and then from Massett to the island in the helicopter, there like you you hit the nail on the head. There is nothing out there.

Matt 32:19

And they put you in the I don't I I don't know what you call it, it's not the jump seat, but you got to sit next to the pilot. You had the prime seat.

Christian 32:26

I had shotgun, baby. I had shotgun. I'm gonna call it shotgun.

Matt 32:29

Yeah, you did it.

Christian 32:29

You had shotgun in the heli. And uh the helicopter was shaky. It it was shaky. I was expecting a smooth ride, and like I said, I need my feet on the ground. So the second that bad boy started jumping up and down, all right, I'm ready to go.

Matt 32:42

Shout out Heli Jet, they do a good job. But those, you know, helicopters look like the opposite of modern, so they're got although that one looked pretty modern. Yeah, no, yeah. But yeah, you did good. I forgot about the heights thing until we were over the ocean and thought hopefully you make it.

Christian 32:54

Yeah. Um, but that was really cool. I mean, just flying into the to the island. I I wish they would record that for their website or their social media, however they do it, because the way you come in, it's just nothing, it's ocean and trees. There's nothing out, no buildings for as far as you can see. When you come in, you almost circle the island and just kind of just fishtail into a landing pad right there at the lodge where everybody's sitting there, they're waving at you, welcoming you. It's it's something out of a movie. Like it's if I can think of anything, it's Jurassic Park. Yeah, that's true. Where they just land on a helipad, you're in the middle of nowhere, and you're surrounded by nature.

Matt 33:30

And beautiful nature.

Christian 33:31

Yeah, absolutely. Next level. I've never seen anything like that. From the oceans to the mountains and the weather, and you know, the bald eagles and the fishing that we had. I mean, it's next level.

Matt 33:40

Bald eagle level, sea lions, humpback wells, orca, aka killer wells, sit cadir. Will you ever pay for a well watching trip in Hawaii ever again?

Christian 33:50

No, no, they're everywhere. I mean, that was crazy. Just sitting there hanging out, drinking beers on the boat. But you know, just back to the experience of the lodge, like the first thing I recognized was you and the boys. Like you saw you saw Danny, Derek, Brandon, Massimo, all those guys, and from there you knew these guys got a connection. Like, yeah, you've been going there for a couple years, and you've seen them, you know, on and off then and there, but that was cool to see everybody light up and be like, oh, we got the boys back together again.

Matt 34:21

Like we've we've flown to Toronto to go to a Stars Leafs game. Yeah. You know, Brandon's family has had Leafs tickets since the 20s, and then I work for the Star forever. So I took them down the locker room to meet the boys. Um, we've eaten at Jacobs and Co. Everybody met up to go to an Eric Church concert this year. We couldn't go because of volleyball. Um, but we're on a group text that goes all day every day, and it's awesome. Just all good people.

Christian 34:45

That's awesome. But that that was the first thing that stood out to me. Just all the boys, and that that's when it clicked. I said, Oh, this is yeah, we're here to work, but this is a boys' trip. Let's turn it on, let's get to drinking, let's get to fishing, you know, the shit talking. Sorry if this isn't whatever. The shit talking starts right then and there, like it's on, you know, and you can feel it and you can see it, and it's all lighthearted, and everybody's having a good time. That was really, really cool to see.

Matt 35:11

And you got to meet so uh the two owners of the lodge, Brian Grange and Brian Legg, and Brian Legg and his wife Diane, lovely people. It's love them. They've been on every trip that we've done. It was Diane's birthday, which has like become the tradition at the beginning of the trip. They had a bunch of their family, their son and daughters and their spouses. So that was super cool. They treated us to the first night in Vancouver. We you referenced this earlier. Uh, we got to go to Hawksworth to eat. David Hawksworth, famous Vancouver chef, also does an event with the West Coast Fishing Club in a few weeks, a culinary event. But we ate at his restaurant, private dinner. Really, really good. Crushed us. Yeah. Unreal. And one thing, if you're gonna be around the legs, you're gonna have world-class wine. Good wine. You become friends with Diane, then you get to drink Diane's wine. Shout out Diane. Sweet, sweet lady. Happy birthday again. Keep the party going. But you know, it's it's amazing because they own the lodge, they live in Toronto. Yeah. And they come over, they've been on every one of the trips that we've been on, uh, which is super cool. They're just like normal people, very successful, but normal, amazing humans, and they built an amazing lodge, but that sets the tone. And then we gotta get into fishing, so yeah. Um, you know, give me your impression. So I all I tell you is like you gotta dress like you're going skiing, snow skiing. You've got to have a base layer. You know, basically I go in a base layer, or like merino world base layer, and then I wear like a long sleeve shirt, I wear a hoodie, and then you get in Sims, you know, rain gear head to toe. And they deck you out.

Christian 36:39

They they have all the outer gear is taken care of.

Matt 36:41

You just need the stuff to keep you warm. Yeah, they got, yeah.

Christian 36:44

Exactly. So, you know, you you've got all your cold weather gear, you get out there, you're on the water, you know, you're not protected by walls or anything, which the wind's hitting you, and you if it's rough, like your guide will take you around and you will hide behind some water, but you're out there and it's an island, so the good news is the great news about their fishing is if it's windy, they can use the island to protect you from the wind.

Matt 37:05

They can use the other half of the island, so that's good those guide staff's awesome. Yeah, they did they did a really good job. Cohen, our guide, was awesome. Hey, let's Cohen Obuk. So just got off a junior hockey career. Yeah, we were his first trip ever. Dude leads us to tagging out. Yeah. Twenty years old, turns twenty-one on the trip. Yeah. I took him a plate on the second night, right? Second night. I I made sure to always order extra beers for our boat to give Cohen at the end of the night, and then I took him a plate of barbecue, which we'll talk about in a little bit, on his 21st birthday. I'd never been up to where the guides stayed and took a golf cart up and showed up, and there's like my longtime friend Jace Wingate and you know, everybody, all the guides. They lost their minds, didn't they? Seeing you come up and they're like, oh, let's go. I was like, you only turned 21 once, and Kieran and you know, Screamer, and everybody else was like, Oh, where's where's mine? But anyway, those guys are awesome. What a job to go spend your summer guiding. I mean, I'd probably lose my mind come into September, but anyway. But make the most of it. Back to we're on the boat, so we're all geared up. Yeah. You get on this transport, you drive down the hill, you go to your boat, we meet Cohen, we go out.

Christian 38:18

There's no time to waste fishing. Like we get there and you are on the water. Um I mean, you can't you can't you can go get a massage if you want, but we're there to fish. Yeah, we're we're there to rip some wood. And so we we get out there and he he's really good, you know, young kid, and he he wastes no time. Um he gets out there, takes us to where we need to go. I think the first day we didn't talk about it, but we had a flight delay, and Brian was Brian was about to shut down an airline by single-handedly. Yeah, you know, flight stuff happens in travel. We got we got through it. But we got out there and uh we we tried to make the most of that first day and you know, get a lay of the land and everything, and I was just blown away by the landscape. I I'll talk about it 50 times on this. You can cut it out, but it was amazing. I've never seen anything like it. Um mountains, you know, water, beach, and then you've just got pillars of rock single-handed, like standing solo by themselves. It's just ridiculous. Um that was the first day, and then you know, you get back and then the lodge puts on their dinner, and amazing dinner by Blaine.

Matt 39:17

Yeah, Blaine and his crew, amazing chefs, like Uti, longtime friend, dude to go on this trip, he's an amazing cook, and his girl Kenya, the guy gotta be like the most talented pastry chef ever. Their whole staff, like they crush you with a meal that you're like, how are we getting this level of food here in the legit middle of nowhere? It's crazy. Blows your mind. You know, they have Traegers there that we arrange to get them, but they go to Vancouver and they get on a barge and they barge for days up there. Like it's it's a process. But I'm blown, I'm with I'm blown away by the meals. Like you're sitting there eating it and you're like, this is five star.

Christian 39:52

Yeah. It's crazy. They again they miss zero details. And the food that's just they overwhelm you with it almost. And there's nobody leaves hungry. It's ridiculous, it's awesome. They hit every check, they check every box on the mark, so it's awesome.

Matt 40:08

So we stay up late, we have bourbon by the fire. It didn't get dark till like midnight.

Christian 40:12

Pretty much 11, 11, I think I timed it 11:51

Salmon, Halibut, And, Ling Cod Action

Christian 40:15

is when it finally got dark. Insane.

Matt 40:18

Crazy. Up early at 6 to be on because we don't want to miss out, be on the boat at 7. So let's talk about getting in the fish. So you're fishing with the way this works, I always get asked. You're fishing with down riggers, um, you know, 40, 60, 80 feet down, big cannonballs, and you're trolling, or using cut bait herring, herring, and uh, you know, just trying to find bait and and get lucky. And so you're using barbless hooks. So, you know, you don't set the hook, but you gotta yank the rod out of the rod holder and you gotta keep keep that rod tip high and keep the tension on or that salmon's coming off. Yeah. So, all right, give me your reaction. You jump on the first salmon.

Christian 40:57

Yes. That like that right. You've never done this. You've done no, no, no, no. Anytime I've done anything outdoors has been with my good friend Drew Morgan. Um, always down here in Texas, duck hunting, fishing, deer hunting. So it's everything I know here, but when you get up there, it's a different, different game. No, you know, it's a hookless barb or a barberless hook. Yeah. Um so you get up there and that that rod goes off, and that's the first one of the day. And the captains always go crazy because the rods are going to the you're just like, oh shit on, fish on, yep. And start up your beard and you go around and you freak out, yeah. You don't know what you're doing, and you see that and you just react. And so y'all walked me through it, which y'all did a great job. You know, again, barbless hook. So you pull it and you're just sitting there, rod tip up, and you're reeling you. If it runs, you let it go, and that fish will go.

Matt 41:45

And you actually have no choice because I remember the first time Derek took me out, he was like, All right, look, man, when this fish goes, when this salmon goes to run, you let it go, or you're gonna bust your knuckles. When it goes, you ain't stopping it. Yeah.

Christian 41:56

I'm I'm hard-headed, so I didn't learn the first time, but that second time it got me, I was like, You want to run, go ahead. Yeah. But no, that was an awesome feeling. Yeah, it's first fish of the day, first fish of the trip, and for us on our boat anyway. And it was bringing it in, it was awesome. So you get that feeling, and you're like, all right, it's on. Let's do it, let's get this going. And then you realize, oh, we got a big ocean we're fishing. Yeah. And you better lock in because it's gonna be a long day, and not every rod's gonna go off every 30 seconds. Sometimes you gotta you gotta grind it out.

Matt 42:28

Your first one was a 14-pounder, I think. And you they feel like they're a hundred. They do. When they first get like they're beautiful fish, got it in. It's it's crazy. So the the DFO changes the rules fluidly, but this trip it was you could get two salmon. It's a salmon lodge, so that's what you're there for. Oh, by the way, you know, you can also fish Ling Cod and Halibut, but you can get two salmon. So, you know, we got a good one, gonna get it in the boat, get on the board, and then keep on. But they're definitely super cool fighting that fish. You landed your first one, you didn't lose, which was awesome. Got a good fish in, and uh, it's super pretty when you get it back home. They they they process it. They they now they do their own processing, they can cut it into one-pound packages. I used to have to bring it home and used to be you got one side with a tail on to identify the species. Is it a Chinook or a coho, which is King or Silver in the States, and then the other side was cut in half. And um, you know, I frequently serve those to the Dallas Cowboys or my family. I like the tour of the tail on though. The cowboys love it. Yeah, yeah, especially when our boy Jalen Tolbert was here now with the Dolphins. Like he was like, You gotta bring some of that Canadian salmon. But missed that guy. Hope he does well with the Dolphins. I know, I was I know. So you can get two Chinook, three Koho. This time of year the Koho are just I didn't see any yet. I know Brandon caught three this time last year, but um anyway. So we got those out of the we got one salmon right off the bat, and then I'm a big I love Ling Cod and Halibut. They're bottom fish, much different, they don't fight. And so we immediately the next day said we're gonna go on the we're gonna go on that program. We're gonna go target big halibut and these ling cod and we're gonna get those out of the way then we'll spend the rest on salmon fishing so uh we looked at the weather found a calm day went out to what I call the Halle grounds kind of far out and you know you can this year you can catch a salmon up to 112 centimeters can't keep as big as you can keep from Alaska but I'm okay with that because big fish breed big fish so from a conservation perspective I just want a nice one let them go and uh boy those are tough they we we we hook on them pretty quick but oh they they bite like crazy but then it's like I describe it as like trying to pull up a barn door from the ocean floor.

Christian 44:37

You say that I say a bed mattress from the ocean floor. I mean they bite and you're boom lets go.

Matt 44:45

And then you you were reeling and reeling and ready to tap we were catching the halibut in 420 feet of water so you're reeling forever. Forever where the salmon were in 40 60 80 and now we're in 420 for these halibut.

Christian 44:59

And so after that that first or second one like you're excited to get bites but come that third one or when you're about to limit out you're like Yeah we had a good one and then we needed another one and I remember we were like I don't care what this next one is this we're taking this one home.

Matt 45:13

I don't care if it's 10 centimeters we're not doing this again. You had one that was about to tip over the boat and that thing was massive. I forgot about that yeah. So my first year I caught a 155 pounder and crazy this felt heavier and I fought it and I would I would get two reels on it and it run out four. Like it it was gaining ground quicker on me than I was on it. And once I determined we weren't on bottom and fought it for I don't know 30 40 minutes I was still like a while yeah yeah we're gonna be we only had two hours and I'm like we're cutting this thing. Yeah. So you know we couldn't have kept it anyway it would have been a great story but got our halibut then we moved over Ling cod program. Same thing fish and bottom a little different place. Ling cod is the ugliest fish I've ever seen in my life. Yeah like Meatchurch video wise um I I intended to make fish and chips with it because it's epic fish and chips um but that's not the direction we went we actually ended up doing that with uh with halibut but Derek told me that he loves to make fish tacos with the ling cod so that's what we did. So we grilled them on a Traeger but super ugly fish. Did that for the video? Yeah we brought it back with this past week uh or this week I took like an entire fillet and we oiled the grates on a Traeger at 425 we grilled the Ling cod hot on the flesh side season it with blanco because Derek I'm trying to do what Derek does. Derek's like I look he goes I season it with the blanco and candidate call it blanco. So flesh side down for I think it was about four minutes to get some nice grill marks and then when it releases fish spatula underneath flip it over on the skin side and then cook it until it's done which I was going about 135 140 pull that off I put fresh corn tortillas on the Traeger like I buy the par cooked ones so we can cook them on the traeger bring them out. I made a slaw like a Chipotle mayonnaise slaw with red cabbage and carrots and and so I had fresh corn tortilla lean cod with blanco slaw um avocado unbelievable to me it's like the fish taco of the summer.

Christian 47:19

I gotta figure out how I'm missing these video shoot days.

Matt 47:28

It's probably not going to be successful. Can we jump on that? We skipped over the halibut by the way hold on I gotta tell a story I

Fish Recipes And A Batter Disaster

Matt 47:34

gotta tell this story. I gotta tell I'm gonna I'm gonna tell this story. So I said we were gonna do fish and chips with Lane Cotton because that's what it's really good for. Well at the lodge on lunch I have an amazing menu and Blaine has fish and chips on the menu. And last year I told your mom I was like this is the best fish and chips I've ever had in my life. So good. And she loves fish and chips like we love fried fish. So last year I was like Blaine will you give me this recipe which of course he will he's a love Blaine. He's awesome gives me the recipe and um you know the key is it's not just flour it's rice flour, potato flour, potato starch, whatever it's a it's a certain mix of that with seasoning in it and fried a certain way. Well I'm just gonna say this because it's funny. We go to do the recipe video and I pour the beer in the battery and it's like I didn't pour that much beer in it and it's like it's so runny and I'm like well this is weird. Like why is it so runny? And so I'm like I don't know. Anyway, I I get it right and then I go to fry it and we're shooting this and I'm noticing a lot of stuff is like the batter's coming off and so I'd fried some of this in Canada and not much batter comes off and I use a little technique you'll see in the video when it comes out to get the excess off but not that much comes off. So I'm seeing stuff fly around the pan and I'm like spidering it out and then I pull the fish out and I'm looking at it and fish and chips should look like tempura battery it's like a case. Yeah. Well this look like catfish. Well what'd you use? Well it looked it looked like cornmeal and I'm like something's not right and I'm telling my crew oh you know so I finish it up and then by the way there's some pieces that are a little more cooked than others and you know we don't fake anything in our videos it's all real. So I take the fish and I take I take a little bite because we didn't cook that much. I was in a hurry I was getting a haircut on this shoot day. Oh of course this hair and barbecue guys gotta maintain it. How to take the Lambo into the shop. There we go. So I had to be done with this video at noon. And I was like guys we got to move we got to move. And so I didn't cook that much because I had to go. So I took a small bite of this fish not that big a bite and uh I remember looking at them going I mean I don't know if it's gonna work or not I I don't know. Y'all finish up. So they're taking pictures while I'm going to get my hair cut. I'm 10 minutes down the road and Chef Gavin calls me and goes I figured out what you did wrong. I said what he was like that wasn't all purpose flour in the mix. And I said well what was it? He said it was powdered sugar. Oh so in the kitchen we have all of our containers of our dry ingredients sugar and I did grab the container and I gave it to Don and I didn't open it and he scooped it. He pre-portioned my team's awesome they portioned everything out and neither of us realized it was powdered sugar.

Christian 50:11

Mossimo Gavin said he took a bite and it was sweet so he knew and then Mossimo and Danny would be letting you have it right they know they know how can you pair powdered sugared fish with wine you can't.

Matt 50:26

So the good news is I came back from my haircut and we reshot it. And we got it right and it looked way better. But Danny tried to make me feel better. He said at Jacobs and Co one night a cook looked at him and said I can't fire the crime bruise and he's like what do you mean you can't fire he's like it's not torching and he went over and looked at it and he's like it's because you put salt in it instead of sugar oh man. Anyway so when the uh halibut comes out fish and chips probably and we skipped right over the salmon by the way hot honey salmon coming on meat church's uh that speaks for it coming up that speaks for yourself honeyhog hot in chef jay's fire honey on a cedar plank let me tell you something that I wish I caught more salmon yeah seriously yeah super super super good um it'll make a salmon lover out of anyone it's like my buddy Justin Martin says it'll make you take shit back you didn't stole. There we go. There we go I like that but okay so we um so we end up getting our three ling cod. We get our two howl it each by the way so we come home with um two five seven seven fish each which was the limit you actually you actually got me on total poundage but let's talk about the ending of the trip. So we're we're down to the last afternoon. Yeah actually hold on that day we we're catching ling cod don't we're cooking that same day aren't we okay don't you have your event that night which one was um my barbecue event yeah yeah yeah yeah you want to talk about first dinner go for it so first dinner so I gotta cook I cook a traditional family style barbecue served served family style for everybody to share on my night uh which was the second night of the trip yeah which I mean we're so remote it's gotta be a challenge in itself being able to cook brisket on this island while you're fishing how are you making that happen? Great question. So Chef Blaine's super good to me he sourced all the beef from Creekstone in Kansas and it's a big deal you can't just order six briskets they made it they had a minimum so we had to order like beef plate ribs and you know all kinds of you know skirt steak and just other things that he could use throughout the year in order to get me a brisket that I would deem appropriate. Having been there a number of years one time they got some random Canadian briskets one time we got some Australian Wagyu and it's definitely better to cook something I'm comfortable with it's butchered a certain way um so that you know I mean sometimes we've opened up briskets and they're funky like really odd shapes. But he got me Master Chef Red Label Creek stone brisket that were awesome. You know there's 50 people per trip that come in. You're cooking for a little more than that because there's some staff and whatnot but I cook six briskets so the night we got there after we ate dinner I jumped in the kitchen and I trimmed them all because I'm picky. Udi's been helping me for a few years and he's definitely gotten really good at it but I'm obviously very picky on my brisket shape so I trimmed them up and then we used my overnight brisket method. You know something I created years ago. There's two Traeger uh Woodridge smokers up there. They're on their second iteration of Traeger since I've been there. They actually use these Traegers every day through the season they wear them out that's cool. But yeah so I did my overnight brisket method um uh around midnight one night just because it was late after our dinner after I was trimmed and seasoned slathered in yellow mustard seasoned in holy cow uh we put them on Traegers at about 200 degrees or so super smoke all night. So got up in the morning they were getting really good bark and I just slightly increased the temperature I think to 225 to let them continue through lunch so we went out and fished and uh Udi kept an eye on them but didn't have to do anything and we came in for lunch. I checked them out they looked good I chose to wrap them in butcher paper took my butcher paper up I've done I've done a mix of like foil boat method or butcher paper depending how they're looking at that elevation and just kind of where we're at so I did butcher paper wrapped them up at lunch increased the temperature to 275 and went out to fish and um Udi was nice enough to pull them for me. He he knows barbecue he knew when to pull them that way we could keep fishing. So once we came in he had pulled them and they were sitting on a speed rack resting and then um I looked at them they looked good so we put them in the auto sham at high 140s and they just hung out till dinner at 830 and uh we have a video of one that we sliced that it was one of the six was like one of the best briskets I ever cooked in my life.

Christian 54:55

It was absolutely hammered the guests with me it was yeah ridiculous.

Matt 55:00

What all do we have we had we served the guests briskets mac and cheese five cheese mac and cheese? Five cheese mac and cheese grannies cast iron cornbread uh sweet saw we made our pit beans something else um what other meats we have we have our saucy barbecue chicken which everybody loved um we did pulled pork so you've got to mix you know you got this is like half Canadians half Americans so we do Texas things but we do you know I'm from the South so some of Granny's side recipes and then usually we got some South Carolina guys so um trying to do some pork also just kind of mix it up and then we hit them with our banana pudding it was so good. The week our banana pudding video came out on YouTube crushed by the way it like set records. But we had no vanilla wafers there. So Kenya the pastry chef made me homemade vanilla wafers. And she killed it. They're unbelievable you couldn't tell the difference. Like they were spot on. No they were better.

Christian 55:57

Yeah they were better than what you can buy on the store so um I was like licking my bowl. So so much meat like needless to say everybody went to bed early that night couple drinks and they crashed and you hammered them with food.

Matt 56:09

Yeah I didn't think about that it was the earliest night and it's because everybody was in a meat coma. Yeah yeah it's no exaggeration. And then obviously we have Danny's dinner that is special it's like Danny brings in all this wagyu like crazy wagyu like one year he brought beef that they had won at an auction and it had its own certificate. Like if you go to this thing and he's he's crushing truffles and $1200 tins of caviar and like you're getting spoiled. Like it's wild. Thank God I went before him because you can't follow him he's so talented dinner's so good.

Christian 56:37

And what I love about Danny like he's a chef but you know you get a you get around a bunch of these people and they critique so many things to the point where you stop enjoying what you're eating but Danny takes it the opposite direction. He takes it to where he makes you envision what you're eating and enjoys it to the next level. Yeah. So that was really cool. You know I'm not you know not saying that I'm focusing on the negatives of things but it was really cool to see a different perspective of how you cook things how you prepare it how you serve it and how you're enjoying it and how you paired it with wines like really really cool.

Matt 57:11

I enjoyed his take on things yeah I look I get nothing for saying this I tell people like I will buy a plane ticket to go eat somewhere that's no joke you should buy a plane ticket and go to Jacobs and Co. Let me repeat that you should buy a plane ticket to go to Jacobs and Co in Toronto. I have a couple buddies that play for the Buffalo Bills. Reed Ferguson longest tenured Bill deep snapper is now making his permanent home in Buffalo and he's driven up. Yeah people a lot of people from Buffalo drive up because was it Shiloh Sanders his latest guest uh no shador Shador Sanders just coming in but he he gets the who's who like he get he gets the who's who of like Drake goes in all the time whatever none of that matter but it's a when I went the first time um really nice restaurant but they built a new one that's attached to the arena where the raptors and the and the leafs play it's sick like it is insane. It's it's it's unbelievable. So it's really cool. Definitely go for that. But all right so Danny has amazing dinner and then um you got to film like Stations Night which I decided I would do grilled oysters which I thought was neat.

Christian 58:11

A massive hit. Yeah a lot of the staff was I noticed was Australian too I don't know what the correlation is between that specific lodge and Australians but I'd say majority of it was Australians and the second they saw the oysters their eyes lit up.

Matt 58:25

I didn't know that no they absolutely the wait staff the kitchens everybody uh Oscar my boy at the bar shout out Oscar saw the oysters and was like need that need that yeah they have a lot of uh temporary work or you know workers for the season I guess that came from Australia that were all awesome obviously I love their accent yeah it's funny they love our accent we love their accent yeah yeah it's I mean you play on each other it was it was really cool I don't think we have an accent which I would say we do but I told the guys I was gonna get on the fish radio and I was gonna say something like oh they'd know it's you with your accent I'm like that's funny to hear yeah calling Derek with the what was it the snack boat? The candy boat the candy boat Derek Nyros likes to eat and uh I was gonna order a case of coffee crisps for Derek um it would have been believable. Yeah he's known to order a dozen breakfast sandwiches um yeah love you Derek but no the oysters like how you had it set up and everything was just it was beautiful you know not to cut it short or anything but you had your oyster you dressed it with everything and then you set it what did you set it on top of so that was uh a Kenya creation but I had said give me trays of salt or rocks to place the oysters on right it's great when they're rocked you shuck them so you keep all the brine in it you don't want to fall over yeah you've seen me do it with salt all the time so after they're cooked also the oyster's hot when it's grilled so putting on a bed of salt people can deal with it. But I don't know if Blaine or if Kenya came up with it but she made something that they called a sea foam but it was egg whites and salt and it was really thick. So imagine whipped cream but much thicker so we would spoon that onto the plate and then the oyster would just sit on it and I would have to tell everyone like don't eat the cream. Don't eat it.

Christian 1:00:07

But people did and some people did you know the oysters are great but then you did have those couple people that dipped into that a little bit and they didn't have you know the greatest things to say about it but you did warn them.

Matt 1:00:18

You gave them warning salty. Yeah but it it was actually beautiful like I was like that is I've amazing that's how talented Blaine and staff are yeah but I mean it's my simple grilled barbecue oysters off meatchurch.com which is a beautiful oyster typically a little bigger than like a you know like a cold water small PEI oyster so a big oyster you know thrown on the grill immediately hit with compound butter which has meatchurch honey hog in it and some scallions at a minimum you can put other things in it but that we put a dollop of that on there by the time the butter melts the oyster is pretty much cooked you want to look for the oyster to be puckering up just a little bit then we immediately topped it with homemade toasted bread crumbs so or panko we threw fresh Parmesan on top of it I put a little squirt of barbecue sauce which is why I call it a grilled barbecue oyster so we used our sizzlin salvation sweet heat sauce a little bit of scallion to make it pretty and bro they got inhale. Yeah it's so good.

Christian 1:01:17

The line like just demolished them you I mean multiple times you had to tell them hey just give us a second we'll get these going.

Matt 1:01:23

Because you can only make so many at a time to keep it there's a family there from Alabama the guys his daughter is a collegiate swimmer and he was like my daughter says I need to make these now I said well tell me church.com it's it's easy to make they were awesome too they were really cool to talk to super everybody there's so cool like I hate to say this but in the very first trip I went I was told a lot of these people you know probably have money but you would never know it that it's I don't know self-made whatever but everyone is like the most amazing people. But you know what I ate that night I think Danny served tartare and he had some like really nice caviar and people were scared of it. I wasn't scared of it.

Christian 1:01:55

No I had four servings myself.

Matt 1:01:57

Oh you only had four you had more than that I felt

Doubleheader Finish

Matt 1:02:00

bad I probably had twelve yeah I felt bad for having four that was my dinner yeah it was so good I ra raw raw meat and fish eggs it's my jam can't beat it no not when it comes from Danny no absolutely not super super good so then we get the the last day of fishing right oh yeah we gotta tell that story so then the the last the next to last shift we were like alright we need three salmon yeah and we ended up getting one late the bite got slow that was at the very end of the day that was the next one and we're like we got to get one because you can only get one per day each so on the last day we can only get two and we had three tags left. So we ended up keeping like an 11 pounder you know great eating fish not big in terms of poundage and then the next day I'm gonna let you tell a story we go out we had morning fish got a bunch of bikes we actually lost fish for the first time ever but we think it's because they were small they were shaken which we're not used to losing fish um so we got down the last afternoon we go in for a we cut our lunch in half Cohen had a game plan and it shocked me it's not what I thought he was going to say he said we're gonna go to Gunya we're gonna fish the slide and I was like okay because he had gone into some other people and said all right we're looking for some size. Yep and I think Kieran told him that's what you should try. Try it out and so we did. I was saying never guide your guide so we trusted our man we had two rods with downriggers and a back rod which had done nothing the entire trip but you got to run it and then lead us through the play by play.

Christian 1:03:39

Yeah so I mean exactly how you said it Cohen took us out to the slide and you know slow day a frustrating day honestly all those fists shaking off and we had multiple bites. Like it wasn't one here two there we had a ton of bites I'd say eight to ten am I exaggerating there? No that's it was yeah there was a lot of bites. It was a ton of bites and so they all shook off and we're we're looking to Co and like man what's what are we doing wrong? And he's like dude nothing like you rod tip up everything's right they're just smaller so they're probably just shaking it so like okay we're frustrated he's not showing anything you know he's staying positive the whole time which now looking back now I truly appreciate so we got that short lunch we go back out he tells us hey we're going there you know first time there I don't know anything about it you might have some thoughts on it but we go and we're fishing it and you know we've got the back rod the two side rods and everything and we're playing it slow it's starting to rain and it's it's starting to weigh on me now like okay we we gotta get these two fish.

Matt 1:04:37

I think you were asleep at one point go ahead.

Christian 1:04:39

I took a couple naps and yeah I took a couple naps um but then I I wake up you know I shake back and I'm drinking a couple beers and I'm sitting and you got your back to the engines and I look to you and I'm like I'm not exaggerating or anything I'm I'm not back rod back rod but I see it kind of wiggling I'm like hey hey check check that right there and you turn around oh whoa you pull it and it's it's fighting in your back rod is 10 pulls out so it's not very deep.

Matt 1:05:09

It's shallow and it it took off.

Christian 1:05:11

Yeah and it it's running and I'm like oh here we go here we go you got one all right I'm I'm good with this and you're telling me like hey it's it's fighting and so I turn around just to get my phone to record you and I see the right rod go off and I'm like oh here we go. So I pull it and fighting and I hear you I hear Koma go, yeah, yeah yeah and then we have the infamous double header. Yeah double header. And we have to have this to end the trip. We have to have it. If we lose it you know we've got what a couple hours left an hour?

Matt 1:05:41

We got a few we got a few we did catch we went in earlier in the afternoon oh yeah yeah yeah we went we went in a little early but yeah.

Christian 1:05:46

So we're you you you're fighting that you're letting it run and I see that one and I'm you know I cannot let this go. I can't let I can't let it mess up.

Matt 1:05:53

When you get fish on you usually pull the other rods up so that the fish don't get tangled in the lines and you can move around so Yeah, so Cohen had pulled the right one up, you're on the left, I'm on the back.

Christian 1:06:03

And so we're going and and yours is further out. So I'm I'm go ahead and working mine. I'm pulling, I'm fighting it, and I finally bring it, you know, I don't know what you call it, port side I don't know. The side of the boat for the people here in Central Texas. Um and we get it there and you're s you're still going. And so Cohen's like, that's a good fish, we're bringing that on. And so boom, nets them, brings them on.

Matt 1:06:25

Yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna let mine stay out. I kept my odd tip up. I'm like, you get yours in because yours was closer. Like you get yours in, and uh and then I'll try to keep mine out here at bay while you get that one in so that we can try to land them both. Which you did. So I'm not even looking. The fish comes in the boat. Normally we discuss are we keeping this or not, you know, when it gets near the boat. This one, we're like, because it was a double header and they look decent, we're like, we're keeping them, we're ending the trip like this. Yeah, beautiful fish. This works.

Christian 1:06:49

And so I I'm able to bring mine in, you know. Cohen brings it on, and I'm like, healthy. And good fish. The biggest one, you know, Sam and I had, yeah. So Cohen's like, let's bring it on, you want to keep it? And I was like, no question, let's do it. Boom. Bam, whacked him. And so you're still fighting yours, you're bringing on yours on, and I'm like, all right, we gotta get this on, we gotta get it on. And you you do it, you bring it, you fight it from both sides of the boat, don't you? Yeah, it wasn't it running? Yeah, he ran.

Matt 1:07:14

He ran. I knew he was good because he ran immediately. I mean, it wasn't wasn't the biggest one I've caught, but ended up being 20 pounds, uh, but he ran. He did nothing but run from the beginning. I was like, this is gonna be a good fish. Yeah, and but that was cool. Like, ran, ended up fighting them all three sides of the boat, came in, and then we were all high five, and we were like, this is the perfect ending to this trip. Like, we're keeping these.

Christian 1:07:34

You can't ride it better than that. Doubleheader to finish the trip. Like, I I had no expectations going into this whatsoever. And to do that, honestly, sorry book ending.

Matt 1:07:43

Like Cohen was like, Hey, do y'all want to keep fishing for fun? And I was like, American pastime catcher and lease? Nah, we're in this trip like it is right now. Let's go drink. So he says, Let's go over to what was the name of the rock now? Um Oh my goodness, I can't. It's not Pil Pillar. Pillar Rock, Pillar Rock, Pillar, yep, yep, yeah. So let's go to Pillar Rock, take our pictures, and so we back in the boat to one of them. There's so many picturesque areas. Backs in the boat, we get our fish on the back of the boat, take our picture, we're super stoked. Beers never tasted better. No. It was awesome. Went in early, you know, packed up our stuff, went to the bar, but he's out still grinding their fish out. We're at the bar chilling with our tags filled.

Christian 1:08:22

Oh, yeah. At one point you played uh bartender. No, Derek played bartender, you played waiter. I did.

Matt 1:08:29

I I didn't really remember that until you showed me the pictures that I come out with um, you know, so they have amazing liquors here, and you know me, I was like, Well, I want Buffalo Trace old fashions, and so I paid extra for the BTL fashion, and I kept ordering them. So I remember coming out, I don't remember, you showed me the video of me coming out with a trail. I mean, I've done that in my life, but nobody said no to them. They were super good. They went down so smooth. They were so good to us. We we came home with like awesome swag, a ton of fish. Like you'll see, it'll be enough fish to last you for the year because there's so much of it. And obviously, like we said, we already cooked it in our videos, and I'm pumped because the fish is so good. Yeah, it really is. And the fact that they process it in one pound packages like makes it so easy. Because yeah, like Tracy's not the biggest salmon fan. She loves the two white fish. So if I want to have salmon and I can pull it out and I can eat it, and I can make her chicken or steak or you know, whatever. But yeah, super, super memorable trip.

Christian 1:09:25

It really was. I'm so grateful for it. You know, to be a part of that, it was just I can't say thank you enough. Thank you, Mom, for giving up your ticket. Thank you, Ava, for playing volleyball and letting mom give up the ticket. That was seriously the guys are awesome, the staff was amazing, the owners great, every part about it. I can't I can't.

Matt 1:09:45

Everybody's awesome, right? Like, yeah, like um Tucker, um, you know, I introduced you to is like manages the dock now, was an amazing guy. I'm like, you used to standing here on the dock, you know, like keeping track of everybody's fish. He's like, that's weird. And DJ, one of my favorite people, he's been there 34 seasons. That's crazy. He's the only guy I think. He fishes with nothing but spoons. I mean, I think Chris Cornell would call him the spoon man. And uh he was ripping him too. He's a stud. Yeah. Like you just like there's a couple guys that you should just follow if you're a new guide and they're gonna they're gonna kill it. But uh Screamer, I think, like is you know, head guide, amazing guy. Um we gave him your meat shirt shirt that has your your uh lab Levi on it, because he has his lab Lucy on the boat. But Lucy was a good girl. Screamer's really good at getting eagles to come by, like bald eagles. Like the first bald eagle I ever saw was at all. But yeah, I mean he you'll if you go on this trip, like you're gonna see bald eagles, they're gonna they'll come eat off your boat. Um, we saw the least amount of whales I have seen, yeah, but we saw enough. Like I don't need to see them all day. But like last trip, a whale you know, we I've saw whales fully breached, but a whale smacking his tail for like a show, like forever. You see a a rock full of sea lions, it stinks, but it's like super cool, yeah, loud, and it's it's insane. Canada is beautiful.

Christian 1:11:09

It really is.

Matt 1:11:10

I mean, I jokingly wish it was the 51st state. It's not gonna be, but I I kid, but it's I I can't say enough good things. Everybody treats us with it's amazing, they're so good to us. The comments on social media media, they're so welcoming. Yeah. I hate the tariffs and you know, I don't do politics, but yeah. I don't have to be.

Christian 1:11:27

Friends took your jersey well, you know, your gold medal and everything, Brandon. We gotta end talking about that.

Matt 1:11:32

So I mentioned earlier, Brandon, uh, you know, big lifelong Leafs fan, obviously. So, you know, we've had this rivalry forever uh between Canada and USA hockey, super friendly. But back at Four Nations, we made a bet. If uh if Canada lost, he had to send me a case of keg seasoning. If the U.S. lost, I had to send me a case of seasoning, which I had to do. Um he actually bought our master's hat, shipped it to him due to the time it takes to get the. Gave me hell for that. Yeah. He got it after the masters was over. But he was riding my ass during the Olympics. And if you know me, uh you know I'm a huge hockey fan. And so we were in New Orleans for one of Ava's volleyball tournaments when US won, and I went on a rampage. Little does he know, and I bought a full-ass wardrobe of USA hockey stuff. I had a USA hockey shirt for every day. I had a USA hockey hoodie. Um, I'm friends with Bill Garrin, the US GM, also the Minnesota GM. I had a USA hockey shirt from when he played for USA hockey that I cooked my brisket's in that shirt. Yeah. And um this is the best. So for my dinner, I'd kept this part secret. I I was I had bought a jersey, and he doesn't know this. I bought a Jack Hughes jersey. And uh he Brandon walks into the dinner and I've arranged to get every so you introduce your dinner in two places, but I've arranged to get everyone together so that Brandon can see me in this jersey. And Brandon walks into the dinner in a Team Canada shirt, and I'm like, this is perfect. Perfect. So what do I do? I reach into my Yeti backpack, I reach into my Yeti Panga.

Christian 1:13:10

Oh yeah.

Matt 1:13:17

And I put on my Jack Hughes jersey in the middle of the dining room, which is pretty epic, by the way. And people loved it. But I wasn't done. I wasn't done with the jersey. Oh, did they love it? I was so caught up in the moment. I didn't. Brandon.

Christian 1:13:30

Yeah. It was it was split. I do know some reactions.

Matt 1:13:34

I do know that the Canadians got upset as a trip one. I'm like, okay, we get it. You've worn nothing to USA stuff. But I wasn't done with the jersey.

Christian 1:13:40

What else did you have? Well, I mean, you're not A little over the top.

Matt 1:13:45

You're not completely trolling until you have your gold medal from the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics. This thing's legit, by the way. This has got to be like that. Bro, this almost almost like broke my teeth. Um eBay. Billy G was proud of this, but wore this to my dinner. Amazing.

Christian 1:14:07

Oh, he fell right into it. Right into the team Canada shirt, and you having your speech prepared and everything. Like you could I recorded it, but you could not have written it better. We went out on the deck. We'll definitely throw the picture up for this.

Matt 1:14:20

Like we went on the great sport, Brandon. Took a photo because I love Brandon, bro. I love Brandon like a brother. Yeah. Uh met his dad on the first trip, and Brandon has come back solo ever since. Uh, I mean, his dad, great guy, but it's it's super cool. So uh he's awesome. Amazing dude. Yeah, we'll definitely hang out in the offseason trying to get him down here. I want I want the Canadian crew to come down and stay in Fort Worth. Yeah.

Christian 1:14:40

I mean, you could hit it, like I was telling them, you could hit it with the perfect timing in October. You can hit stars, yeah, cowboys. Hell, you could probably hit the Mavs. Yeah, trip. Well, nobody's trying to see the Mavs train right now. Yeah, yeah.

Matt 1:14:53

I'll let you go to that game.

Christian 1:14:54

I'd say the Rangers, but oof.

Matt 1:14:57

Yeah. Rough. You never know. But man, that was a great trip. I think we've covered everything. Yeah. It was a good trip. I'm glad you got to go. I tell people it is a bucket list trip, and I often say the term bucket list is thrown out a lot, but it is. Like you should take your dad, take your brother, take your son. You'll never forget it.

Christian 1:15:13

I won't. I truly won't. And cheers to that. Thank you so much.

Outro

Matt 1:15:17

Thank you for listening to the Meet Church podcast. Be sure that you like and subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and mark your downloads to automatic so that you can listen on the go. If you liked it, leave us a review and a rating. We would appreciate it. And we'll see you guys next time.