Episode 109: The Return of Willie?

The legend returns! After mysteriously disappearing, Willie "the Oil Man" has resurfaced at Two Rivers Lodge in northwestern Ontario. This episode reveals his ambitious journey of resurrection—transforming an abandoned fishing resort into a premium wilderness destination.

Willie walks us through the extraordinary challenges his team faced: a main lodge sinking into the water, wildlife reclaiming the buildings (including bears using the shuffleboard table as a toilet), and devastating forest fires that nearly derailed the entire project. Yet through ingenuity and determination, they've created something spectacular. The elite-level cabins have been restored to their former glory, while innovative techniques like using airbags to re-level a massive lakefront deck showcase their resourcefulness.

What makes Two Rivers truly special is its unique location at the convergence of four major Canadian watersheds—creating a fishery that produces trophy specimens across multiple species. Willie shares stories of incredible fishing success: 74 fish before 10:30am, northern pike exceeding 40 inches, and muskie adventures where first-time anglers are connecting with multiple trophy fish in a single day.

Perhaps most remarkable is the appearance of an extremely rare albino beaver on the property—considered by local indigenous communities to be a powerful spiritual sign of protection and good fortune. This extraordinary encounter happened just days after the team had disposed of a damaged taxidermy specimen of the same rare creature that had been in the lodge.

Rather than maximizing capacity, Willie is deliberately keeping Two Rivers intimate—focusing on exceptional experiences for a limited number of guests. It's a philosophy that prioritizes sustainability, conservation, and creating authentic connections to this special wilderness environment.

Ready for your own northern adventure? Experience the resurrection of Two Rivers Lodge firsthand—where wildlife, walleye, and Willie await to create memories that will last a lifetime.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
I always watched this property.
I never really understood how,when it closed, how it didn't
get taken over, because it's,you're right, like these, my
cabins are.
They're elite.
I mean elite, truly Elite, likea lot of people say, their
cabins are good, and our cabinsat Nordic were good.

(00:27):
Our cabins everywhere are good,these ones.
There's a step, and it's Ithink it relates to what you
used to say Angelo would tellyou right when he would come to
your place.
When you walk in a cabin, youwant it to feel like it's brand
new, and I really get thatfeeling here at Two Rivers Lodge
when we do that.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast
networks diaries of a lodgeowner stories of the north.
Well, folks, the question roundhere has been where in the
world is we Willie the Oil man?
Well, we've tracked him down atTwo Rivers Lodge on T2 Lake in
northwestern Ontario and havecaught up with him to find out

(01:11):
what he's been up to lately.
On this show we talk about himjumping right back into the
northern hospitality industrywith Two Rivers Lodge, the
challenges and triumphs his crewhas faced so far and how close
fire came to burning it all down.
So, folks, hold on to your fireextinguishers.

(01:35):
Willie may catch fire, tellingstories like only Willie the Oil
man can, and I may need a handputting him out.
Here's my conversation with WeeWillie the Oil man.
Welcome folks to another veryspecial episode of Diaries of a

(01:57):
Lodge Owner Stories of the Northwith our guest back from the
unknown, willie the Oil.
Man, how you doing, brother, hoo, hoo, hoo hoo.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Good man.
That was a fantastic intro.
I'm good man.
It's been a long time since Igot to see your handsome face
and chat with you and ouramazing Diaries of a Lodge owner
, stories of the North, friendsand family.
So, yeah, yeah, buddy.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah.
So listen, you had a bit of alife change that saw you and as
all of the Diaries familyprobably has realized step back
a little bit from the podcast.
So why don't?
And I haven't said a whole lotabout it?
Yeah, because I wanted to savethat so everybody could hear it

(02:56):
from the horse's mouth.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yes, well, I, yeah, you know I.
First of all it was.
Everyone knows, the lastepisode I was on here was with

(03:19):
Krista and we and we kind of dida revelation into something
that had fallen into our lap andand we've decided to take on in
our lives again.
Up at Two Rivers Lodge, northof Kenora, I'm actually sitting
right now on the deck lookingout over the water right now
shooting this podcast and, uh,I've been out.
We've been up here seven weeksstraight now, just, uh, going as
hard as we can.
Um, and yes, and obviously Ihad to, uh, you got to make some
choices in life and this waswhy I was really saddened to

(03:42):
step away for a bit.
But you know, hopefully in thefuture we can, we can hop back
in or I'm always here for a, fora podcast with my brother,
stevie.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Anyway, oh yeah, 100, 100.
So you're.
You're now involved with um TwoRivers Lodge and I had the
pleasure last year when I tookMelissa and the kids up to your
place for a holiday.

(04:10):
Yeah, the Nordic visit, yeahyeah.
I ended up having theopportunity to go and have a
look at this place.
It wasn't called Two Rivers atthe time, but when I looked at
it I couldn't believe that aplace that hadn't been run for
over five years, I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, five and a half yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I couldn't believe how beautiful the
insides of the cottages were.
Now you can imagine well.
You know very well now that theground had been overgrown, as
you can imagine, being left forfive years to nature.
But the potential in thatmoment that I saw got an

(05:05):
opportunity to work with thisproperty.
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat it is now.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
So, as everyone knows , the place used to be called
Titu Island Lodge.
You know, steve, what you justkind of led into there was.
You know what you saw here, forthe bones was something that
I've seen for years.
This was the first spot when Istopped tournament fishing and
this is where I went guiding.
This is where I cut my teeth.

(05:36):
You know all those stories thatI've told on here over time
right of me and Dave's growthinto Nordic and the special
people that I've met and thethings that I've grown into do
especially, you know you'd beworking with yourselves now at
the, at the channel, here alittle bit.
And when all these amazingadventures I've had all started
here and I I always watched thisproperty.

(05:58):
I never really understood how,how it, when it closed, how it
didn't get taken over, becauseit's, you're right, like these,
my cabins are.
They're elite.
I mean elite elite, like a lotof people say.
Their cabins are good and ourcabins at Nordic were good.
Our cabins everywhere are good,these ones.

(06:19):
There's a step and it's I thinkit's.
It relates to what you used tosay Angelo would tell you right
when he would come to your place.
When you walk in a cabin youwant it to feel like it's brand
new, and I really get thatfeeling here at Two Rivers Lodge
when we do that.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Listen, those, those cottages.
To be honest with you, I kindof got that feeling after they
had sat for five years.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
You know, they're very, very well appointed.
They've got a bathroom forevery bedroom, air conditioning.
They're really truly some ofthe nicest cottages that I've
ever seen.
Yes, you know, and I haven'thad the pleasure of going to

(07:11):
Lodge 88.
And I know they've gotbeautiful cottages At Obabaca
Lake Lodge or Lake Obabaca Lodge.
They have extremely beautifulcottages, but the cottages at
your place at Two Rivers arejust as nice as any place

(07:33):
anywhere.
Yep, they really are, oh forsure, and and that's that's
something that, um, that Nordicdidn't have Yep.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
And and Nordic had, we had to build it in that big
cabin right.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
In that big cabin.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
You're right, but that's it right, like it wasn't,
they were good.
But you're right, steve, theyweren't.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, they weren't elite.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
No no.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Now, now Two Rivers, those, those cottages, they're
elite, they really, they reallyare.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
You know, this property is so like as I sit
here and look around.
You know this property is solike as I sit here and look
around.
You know, like we, like stevewas saying, um, you know, when
we came here, it was wheatfields.
You know it was, yeah, you know, four foot high straw grass and
there was actually bogs, um,reed bogs.
That because all the waterunder the buildings and all

(08:21):
across the property that havebeen laying stagnant for so long
started.
It started to change, likemother nature would take it over
, right, and and it's amazing tosit here and now see the beauty
that that was always here.
You know it's, uh, we've done alot of all the wood.
We know there was a lot of woodrotten that we replaced the
spongy, but there's a lot ofthings that we were able to

(08:42):
salvage, like, like, we broughta 4,000 PSI pressure washer in
here with the proper tip and wewere able to save all of the
decking, all of the railing, all, and bring it back to pressure
treated color.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
It looks new.
I thought, oh my God, where didyou get the money to buy all
that new lumber?

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Right, cause it would have been, it would have been a
hundred grand to do all thatwood.
Like it's insane the amount ofwood that's around the property.
Like every cabin has their ownwalkways, special walkways and
railings, and for safety, yeahno.
So we just pressure washed it.
And then Chris took this stuffand it was like a it's a, a,

(09:29):
just a natural um inhibitor forfor wood.
So it just brings out theessence in the wood and then
we're gonna, we're gonna leavethat for the year and then in
the springtime the guy told usthen to shellac it, give her
another pressure wash and thengive it a shellac and then it'll
be sealed and we'll be good fora decade, right?

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, perfect, that's perfect.
So what are some of thechallenges to what you've done
so far?

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Oh, I don't even know where to start.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Opening up the can of worms.
I'll start.
I wasn't sure that you weregoing to be able to salvage the
main lodge.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, so the main lodge we did it was as you saw.
It was, you know, falling overforward pretty much and to the
side.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Off the cribs.
It had been built on cribs.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Correct cribs and then cribs on the back and rock
on the front.
But what had happened was sonow, over time, being here and
seeing things, what had happenedwas the high water year that we
had back in 2020, 2020, Ibelieve, maybe 2021, the water

(10:38):
up here in the northwesternOntario was the record it's ever
been.
So, as I'm sitting here nowlooking at my deck, the water
was halfway up the door of mybait house, like there's a
watermark there prior, and wenoticed it at the lodge on the
rock piles.
So what had happened was thewater had actually lifted.

(10:58):
It was.
The water has enough force andit lifted the front of the lodge
off of the pins, just like thedock and the deck.
That's an insane amount ofweight.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, it's buoyant.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
No, you're right.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So that's what happened, so wewere able to.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Gotcha, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
We were able to repin the front half and then that
was able good enough tostabilize the back half of the
jacket yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, you lifted the front, got it on the, on the
pilings or on the sonotube or onwhatever again, and then you
were able to fix it from theback.
That's great.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Absolutely, that's awesome.
That was the first part forsafety.
The back, that's great.
Absolutely, yeah, that'sawesome.
That was the first part forsafety.
Um, there was some roofingissues right over time that a
lot of uh, you know some.
Actually this is a good one forfor for the listeners here.
So and something we've nevertalked about is steel roofs, and
it's something I just really Inever had had an issue with it,

(12:01):
but I had here.
So over time, now time now, thesteel roof, you know you get a
little bit of, let's say, youget some water that freezes
beside one of those quarter inchhead bolts that you drive in
and then it freezes and then thenext year it gets trapped again
and it freezes it more andpresses it and over time they
actually will press out of thetruss for where it's screwed

(12:24):
into on the roof.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
So the screws pull out.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Correct and so we had several.
I bet you we did 2,000 roofscrews that we replaced and
caulked all over the camp.
But the main lodge was theworst because when it sank it
obviously also pulled tin off ofthe structure, pulled it loose,
incorrect.

(12:47):
So yeah, that was a lot of work.
We got that done.
And then the inside of thelodge, like the inside of the
lodge looked like the cabinswere elite.
I couldn't believe it.
But the lodge had animalsliving everywhere, like there
was, like there was bears,martins, squirrels.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Oh yeah, there was bear shit all over the all over
the shuffleboard.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
We found right.
Oh yeah, we found six deadcormorants in the chimney.
So they go.
This isn't, and I didn't knowthis was a thing right, I had to
talk to the m&r and find outwhat the heck are.
These birds dive bombing ourchimney.

(13:31):
So like it's a beautiful stonefolks, it's a beautiful stone
chimney or a fireplace in themain lodge, right by the kitchen
, just like steve used to haveand he would talk about
chaudiere.
Um built very, very similar.
So what had happened was isthey they will actually try and
find a cave or a crevice orwhatever to nest.

(13:54):
Well, it's like a minnow goingin a trap once they go in, they
can't turn, they can't get outso then one goes in, and then
two goes in and three, so thewhole bloody flock flew in my
chimney, no, yes, and decided todie.
So we had to pull them all out,all these dead bird carcasses.
And then we completely, uh, welike, obviously, we bleached

(14:16):
every part of the lodge.
We had to steam, cleaneverything, new carpet, um, you
know.
And then, and then, from thereit was, then it was just
cosmetics, right, like, uh, youknow, putting up a new TVs and
getting the bar, the bar topwe've actually left.
So the bar top was so beautiful.
I remember I was guiding, so Iwould back in the day, I would
guide during the day and I wouldbartend at night.

(14:38):
Um, being a social butterfly, I, I and I didn't want to go to
bed, I didn't want to sit in mycabin, not you, willie.
No, no.
So I, I decided, you know Iwould always bartend at night
and get to know the crews and alittle more and who I wasn't
guiding, um, and it was probablyone of the best decisions I
ever made.
Looking at my future now, um,but yeah, so I would put that

(15:01):
time in.
And um, so this, this beautifulbar top, showed up the last
year that I was ever guidinghere.
No-transcript, um, so we'vedecided to leave.
So it actually says T2 IslandLodge in it, but it's so
beautiful, steve.
Um, we've decided to leave thatas the lodge because, you know,

(15:23):
there was a lot of memorieshere of that place.
Yeah, the clients are going tocome back here because of the
family occasions and eventsthey've had here, uh, in the
amazing times.
So we wanted to leave somethingand I think that's important to
recognize the old place likethat.
The history, yeah, yeah, we gota new pool table in there, the

(15:43):
shuffleboard.
We rebuilt the shuffleboardtable that the bear was using as
a toilet.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, no shit eh.
Lots of shit.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Lots of shit, yeah, lots of shit, oh man, yeah, lots
of shit, lots of shit, oh man,yeah.
No, there was, the main lodgewas a big one.
So there's, that was a hugeproject.
Another one well, there's twoactually.
The one would have been thebarge.
I spoke about that last in thatepisode with Krista the barge,

(16:12):
so after the fire locked us out,I don't know if we ever talked
about that I'm not sure you didokay.
So so folks remember, I, I, we,we floated the barge and and, uh
, we got it up, um, salvageable.
Well, what had happened was isa fire had ripped through
northwestern ontario.
As everyone knows, this fireseason's been devastating all

(16:34):
over canada.
Um, horrible, um.
But so we, yeah, when thishappened, the um, the water, we
couldn't get into camp.
We were locked out of camp.
So we, we signed the deal onthis camp.
We get locked out of campbecause of the fire, um, and
what had happened was theycouldn't operate the dam, steve,

(16:54):
so the water levels had dropped.
So the barge now is sitting onsand because now the water level
is so low from no rain thissummer, we have to wait for it
to come back up.
Yeah, so that's one that we gotto deal with.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
I wondered why the water levels were so low.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, that's pretty much how it.
If it would have started outthe season, we also had a really
really light winter, right.
So, yeah, all of it combinedhas just made it to the point
where it's.
You know, I think we're justdealing with it.
For now we've been, we've beenhauling fuel back and forth with
a crestliner boat that we gotgoing here, that that was just
sitting here, so we have a fuelboat now instead of the barge

(17:33):
temporarily, but it seems towork, yeah.
But I guess the next biggest onejob we've had in an obstacle
was the deck.
Like the dock, so there was nodock system.
It was torn out, obviously fromthe high water and the ice and
the neglect, so there was thatportion of it.

(17:53):
We actually went and bought abrand new set of docks from a
place called Docks and Lifts inKenora here Fantastic to deal
with and they were like.
It was reasonably cheap, it wasa good deal.
So we installed and built ourown cribs, obviously, which
helped, and we could do all themaintenance and installation and
the low water made it easyenough.
Correct, absolutely, yeah,that's actually been awesome

(18:14):
because we can set it easyenough.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Correct, absolutely, because, yeah, that's actually
been a been awesome because wecan set Blessing in disguise.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Well, we got.
I have a thousand pounds ofweights on each dock set because
I can lock down to rock and Ican lock.
We actually bought cement saunatubes and poured them with with
arms handles, right?
So yeah, chains crossed on thethe end.
These docks aren't goinganywhere, right so, um, but, but

(18:38):
that was one portion we got in.
Um, but the deck.
So there's a folks as I'mlooking, there's a, a deck
that's 70 feet by 50 feet.
You know it's a dance floor.
Um, when you come up off mydock, it's like our beautiful
sign is there and then you, youknow they have this big,
beautiful landing so people cansit out there on the chairs and

(18:59):
lawn chairs.
We do a bunch of shore lunchesout there.
We have a little bar set upthere now like a picnic table
with a top on it, so then youcan sit down there in the
evenings and have a cocktailwith your wife or your son.
So, but that when we showed up,it was like a spaghetti string.
You remember seeing it, steve?

Speaker 2 (19:16):
It was it was.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
It was 20 feet in the air, broken in half.
None of the piles were there.
The cribs were all ripped outand it was the same thing.
It actually lifted the waterweight, lifted the wood and the
deck, the boathouse and all ofthe cribbing.
All the rocks fell out, right.
So think about it you lift thetop and all the cribbing rocks

(19:39):
fall out of the bottom and thenit sets back down and it just
goes like it goes wherever?
yeah so that was a bit so whatwe did there.
We did a unique thing there.
So we um, you got to be reallycareful.
It's not something I recommend,uh, to just anybody, but we
used airbags.
So I, a friend of mine, codyCharlebois uh, he is a bait

(20:04):
outfitter, he's like a Wayne,he's like the Wayne Clark of the
Kenora area.
Wayne, you know, wayne is theDryden Red Lake area, over where
Nordic is.
This guy is the.
He is the man when it comes tobait and flying, one of the best
pilots you'll ever meet.
But he had a set of airbags.
He had two of them.
So what it was was an airbagfrom a transport truck with

(20:25):
welded plates on the bottom andthe top.
So what we decided to do is wepicked each corner and we slowly
jacked it up with the air, okay, and started pulling out rock.
So the the danger is, whenyou're pulling out these rocks,
you're only supporting a certainsection, right.
So, like the weight is so much,you got to be careful.

(20:47):
So as we were lifting, we werepulling out rocks and then so we
would pull a couple rocks andnow we can get now we can get a
small crib built under there tosupport and then another small
crib to support and then, oncewe had enough small cribs to
support, then we built smallcribbing to jack off of, because
then you had to have to jack upbecause it's 10 feet in the air

(21:08):
.
Right, you got to jack offsomething, yeah.
So we were able to then jackoff these mini cribs, take the
weight off of the airbags andre-level it.
We had to make all new wood,like we have.
You know that people have thespindles, the log spindles four
inches down wide.

(21:29):
We had to rebuild all that andthen, like you said, we pressure
washed that decking and itlooks brand new.
But that was a lot of work.
That was a week-long project.
That.
And then, like you said, wepressure washed that decking and
it looks brand new.
Um, but that was a lot of work.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
That was, that was a week-long project yeah, I don't
doubt it, I couldn't believewhat you did with it.
It looked like it was new.
Yeah, you sent me pictures whenyou guys were doing that and I
thought, oh my god, that thatand and the final product was
amazing, thank you.
Like, honestly, what you didwith that deck from what I saw

(21:59):
to what is there now forrelatively not a lot of
investment is amazing.
Like it really, truly, you'vedone a wonderful job with that.
Well thank you, buddy, becauseit looks awesome, thank you, and
like I mean it looks awesome,thank you, and like I mean it is
massive, it is a huge deck.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Oh yeah, it's gorgeous, it's.
We've actually done so,something we've.
So here we used to do our shortlunches on the lake all the
time and and that's lovely, it'sgreat.
You know, the guides hate italways, right, cause they got to
take all the gear.
But we we have such a dancefloor down there and the way you
look out on like there's no onehere, like this isn't like um,

(22:42):
like Nordic, where I was off thehighway and you still it was
secluded, but not like this,like here we're a boat into a
fly-in, so I'm 30 miles fromanybody, um, so we can sit here
in tranquility and have shorelunch on our deck and what we've
been trying to push that more.
For one, because of the forestfire severity right now.
For two, because I've noticedover time the clientele that I

(23:07):
have.
A lot of them like to go back orthey use the washroom after, or
they want a fresh drink andthey're old.
So it's nice.
A lot of times we come backhere.
We do our shore lunch on thedeck.
We got a little shore luncharea built off the back now with
a lean-to steel roof, so ifit's raining even we can cook
there.
The guests can sit out even ifit's raining.
They can sit out under thepavilion out there we built on

(23:29):
the deck and enjoy it, and thenif they request a short lunch on
the rocks, you know we'll go dothat, but it's been really
handy to have that for thatpurpose as well.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
That's awesome.
Yeah, like I mean.
And you speak of the forestfires like they have been pretty
devastating up there this year,right?

Speaker 1 (23:47):
It's crazy, man.
It's like you know.
God bless guys like Rick Payne,you know that are out there
doing that job.
It's a forgetteless job.
You know that are out theredoing that job.
It's a forgetteless job, youknow, because everyone thinks
you can just put out a fire likejust drop water on it.
Yeah, yeah, just like that.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Well, and you know it's such a freaking nightmare.
And listen, mr Carney, ifyou're listening out here, let's
not talk about carbon neutralbullshit.
Okay, let's get serious aboutputting some money into the M&R

(24:26):
and really look after ourforests out there, like I mean,
they need cleaned up.
You talk about our worldburning and carbon.
Well, listen, let me get on mysoapbox this time, and what you
need is you need to pay guyslike you just mentioned.
You know you need to pay all ofthese forestry workers to get

(24:52):
out and clean up all of the dead.
Bush Do prescribed burns.
We have left so much fuel inour bush for years.
And I know, you know guys likeRick can't say nothing because
their job is on the line, and Itotally understand that.
But guys like me who have beenup in planes and have seen all

(25:15):
of the shit that is left out inthe bush to burn Like come on,
come on, prime Minister, giveyour head a goddamn shake and do
something with our money.
Create some jobs, get out thereand clean up our bush and stop
telling these goddamn lies.

Speaker 5 (25:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Okay, yes, the climate's changing, yes, there
are wildfires that no doubt areworse than they have been in
years.
The legislation and they've cutso much job, so many jobs, out
of our, our, our Bush and our,our natural resources, that this

(26:00):
is the biggest issue.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Absolutely.
I agree a hundred percent.
I mean, like, if you thinkabout this and it's something I
think about now all the timesince I've seen this, you know,
I've fires have always beenaround up here and I've always
been the Bush guy and and.
But Fires have always beenaround up here and I've always
been the bush guy, but to thepoint where it was two miles
from my camp.
And when I sit here right nowand you see the devastation,
it's crazy.
And here's how I look at it nowis, everywhere has a natural

(26:26):
disaster of some kind that couldtake form.
You know, the southern UnitedStates has hurricanes,
california and the coast hasearthquakes.
Right, there's volcanoes incertain areas.
Our natural disaster issue isfire.
Yes, if we're not careful, it'slike that fire that burnt here
was 65,000 hectares.

(26:47):
That's insane, that's huge.
Like I think the one right nowin Newfoundland is like 110,000
hectares.
It's something like that.
Like, yeah, we shouldn't behaving those and and all of that
, mr Carney, when that fuckingshit burns and it goes up, that
ain't good for our environmenteither.
So I agree a hundred percent,brother.

(27:08):
I think we there's a lot ofproblems that could be solved by
just just spending our moneyright people to work putting
people to work in the bush.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yes, never mind this bullshit out in nova scotia,
where they're outlawing peoplefrom walking in the bush and
charging you twenty fivethousand dollars this is a free
country.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Did you hear about that?
Yes, this, that's what youshould be able to do.
That's how.
That's how people made theirway around the country for the
last freaking 150 years, right?

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yes 100%.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Like I don't know, maybe I'm really good, maybe I
walk so goddamn fast.
The friction off my boots aregoing to cause a fire, I don't
know.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, this is, it's insane.
Please, let's stop the insanityhere.
Yeah, like honestly.
Yeah, I agree that whole NovaScotia thing.

(28:00):
Now I'm really worked up.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Oh folks, hold on the gangster's back baby.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Oh yeah, the policies and the sheer stupidity that's
going on around this country isso upsetting and I understand
that forest fires are a problem,but the solution is not
painting a blanket of people,everybody in the whole province

(28:31):
and saying you can't walk in thebush, yeah, Okay.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, exactly the bush.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yep, okay, yep, exactly, come on.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
I don't care.
If you want to charge people$25,000, $50,000 for having an
open fire or smoking in the bush, yeah, absolutely.
Take some of our taxpayingdollars and hire some people to
police the area, absolutely,absolutely.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Create some jobs here , maybe, but don't take your
freaking free rights away to goto police.
The area, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Absolutely Create some jobs here maybe.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
But don't take your freaking free rights away to go
walk in the woods.
No, that we pay taxes for everyday.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Don't tell me I can't walk in the bush on Crownland
when you're charging me more taxthan most countries in the
world.
Right, like, come on yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
And you're wasting money on bullshit.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Anyway, folks, I think we beat the hell out of
that one.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
We covered that topic very well oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
Oh it's good to be back, buddy.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
It's good to be back with you.

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Speaker 2 (31:18):
Okay, so listen, yeah , we've talked about your
journey a little bit so far.
Yeah, why don't we talk aboutyour fishery?
I've seen on Facebook and yourFacebook presence is freaking
great Good, like you work thatFacebook well Good, but I've
seen some freaking hogs.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Oh buddy.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Like and and and every aspect.
So let's talk about the speciesand the average size and what
you're getting them on and justtell us, tell us, what's going
on.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
So.
So I'll start with theuniqueness of the body of water.
So there is, if you look at amap of Canada, you know, and
especially the central part ofCanada where I am now, there's
three, four main bodies of water.
Okay, one's half in the US, butso Rainy Lake, which is half in

(32:10):
the US, lake of the Woods,which is majority a Canadian
lake, lake Winnipeg, which is amassive body of water, and Lac
Seul, which is three quartersthe size of Lake of the Woods.
Those four bodies of water areabsolute fish factories, you
know like, and everyone knowsthat there's some of the.

(32:31):
You know most of the TV showsshot now are in Northwestern
Ontario or out here.
You know there's a lot ofpresence on those lakes.
Most of the TV shows shot noware in northwestern Ontario or
out here.
You know there's a lot ofpresence on those lakes.
Well, the reason for that isthe fisheries are good.
The fisheries are really good.
Yeah, well, this body of water Isit on, so I sit on T2 Lake,

(32:52):
and T2 Lake is fed.
It's the dump-in portion forthe English River.
So the English River starts atLack Sewell, past Nordic, where
I was, you actually drove over,we went up to Bowling there and
Red Lake there and we drove overthat bridge near Falls.
That's the starting of theEnglish River.
So that river comes downthrough Maynard Lake and Oak

(33:13):
Lake and makes its way down hereand it dumps in on the east
side of my island.
The west side of my island iswhere the Winnipeg River exits
and goes up to Lake Winnipeg anddumps into there.
The south end of my lake iswhere Lake Winnipeg enters from

(33:37):
Lake of the Woods, which is fedby Rainy Lake.
So this is the only body ofwater in Canada anywhere that
connects those four majorfisheries and those four major
watersheds, and they're alldifferent One's sandy, one's
clear water.
They're all different, onesandy, one's clear water.

(33:58):
You know one it's.
They're all different and herethey converge and I think that's
what makes this such a crazyfishery.
So we'll start there.
The second thing is no one'sbeen here for five and a half
years.
Right, like you get locals, youget locals.
There's a little tiny guy uphere.
He does a little.
He's a great guy, ed priest ishis name.
He does a little bit of bluecollar stuff, kind of like the,

(34:18):
the housekeeping stuff at nordicthere.
Um, yeah, you know he does thatkind of thing.
He has the odd meals, great guy, but he's a smaller outfit, um,
he, so they're not going tofish it out, you know.
And then I'm pretty far north,that you know you don't get a
lot of locals.
You get get the odd one, butthat's it.

(34:39):
So the fishery has been leftalone.
On top of that, everybody herepractices safe conservation, so
as in a conservation license,and you're only allowed one
walleye a day.
That's it, that's what you eatfor your shoreline trade.
It's, it's, it's, it'sprotected, is what I'm saying?
You know, kind of similar againto what we did did over there

(35:01):
at Nordic.
Um, but yeah, that's what Ithink makes it a great fishery,
those things combined.
So what's been going on in thefishery?
So I'll just give you a fewlittle stories here to to make
it relevant.
Just give you a few littlestories here to make it relevant

(35:23):
.
I had a 88 year old grandfather.
He, um, he brought his son, whowas about 60, and his grandson,
who was 11, and the grandsonwas one of these kids if he
wasn't catching fish, you'regonna know about it as a guy
like right meow, oh yeah, it wascoming right.
So and I know because I've hadthis gentleman on my boat a few
times and uh, they're, they'relong-term guests of mine.
I do all my, I do a lot of workwith them at sunset great

(35:44):
family, they're actually.
They're actually canadian,they're from ottawa and toronto,
this family nice, um, so theydid.
They came out for a trip, likethey do every year with me, and
decided to check out the newplace and the first morning they
went out.
Adam called me adam, who was mypartner, adam brow, who is

(36:06):
probably the best guide I'veever met.
I, I, you know, I I was a goodguide, but I wasn't his kind of
good, you know.
Um yeah he's next level, like um, but he goes out with adam and
he calls me.
He says you wouldn't guessright now what we're at for
numbers.
And I threw a guess at 50 and Iwasn't close.

(36:26):
I threw a guess at 60, I wasn'tclose and this is for half a
day 74 fish in the boat by 10 33in the am when he called me.
And he had this little young mancounting every one, trust me,
every one.
So a numbers game has been sothat's been a staple.
We haven't I haven't fishedwith a live minnow here Like we

(36:48):
can fish with live minnows.
We use salted shiners, plastics.
You know, we haven't reallycrawlers, we don't really have
an essence or a need to.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yet yeah, which is super fast and they're hard to
keep alive, so why?

Speaker 1 (37:03):
right, like I'm not gonna lose 10 dozen a day if I
don't have, or five dozen day ifI don't have to.
So, um, to me, though, that'san standalone thing.
You know, if you can go out andyou could fish, for I've went
out with my childrenspecifically, and I've caught 20
walleyes on plastics in 40minutes Now, and I mean, like,
these are quality fish.
I'm talking, I'm not.

(37:24):
You know it's hard.
You get your 14s to 16s they'reall over the place, but, like
I'm talking, quality, solid, 18to 25 inches, consistently, and
then every, you know, once in awhile, you throw in the 27 to 32
class.
You know that's our biggestthis year already is a 32.
Yeah, it's just insane.

(37:47):
And then, so that's our walleye.
Fishing has always been knownfor that.
I believe that's the reasonit's like this.
It's a standalone when it comesto walleye in this general area
.
There's a few other placesaround here that would compare.
You know your Maynard Lakes,and there's a couple that are
high quality, like this.
When it comes to that, I wouldsay, though, that our fish are

(38:09):
river fish.
River fish fight, differentthan lake fish.
These fish are solid, they'restocky, you know, they're that
beautiful gold that everyoneloves to see, but so that's a
portion.
We have an obscene amount ofsmallmouth bass.
Obviously, being in this area,smallmouth bass isn't targeted

(38:32):
as heavy.
You know, you get them up to 21, 22 inches here, right, nice,
yeah, yeah, yeah, it's cool.
The uh, so it's bass fishery.
The pike fishery is outstanding.
The pike we just put a 42incher in the boat yesterday um
42 inches and it was pushing.

(38:53):
It was pushing 20 plus.
It was pushing 20 plus.
It was fat.
It was fat, I would say anaverage northern here would be
33 to 34 inches.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
That's an amazing average, which is pretty good.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
When you're talking hammer, handles and all that
stuff, that's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, yeah.
What's your biggest northern sofar this year?

Speaker 1 (39:18):
42.
That's the biggest one so far42.
We've had them 40.
We personally caught them up to47.
Yeah, but that's personally.
That's without a guest.
Yeah, it's wild and now.
So here's the kicker.
We get crappies in here, youknow.
You get perch for all that kindof jazz too.

(39:38):
Sturgeon fishing here is youcan't fish sturgeon, but there
is an obscene amount.
They actually the Emanartastudies all over this portion of
the rivers and it's prettyawesome because you do hick into
them and get the odd one.
And it's pretty awesome whenyou see a six, seven foot
sturgeon come up after an hourfight.
And this gentleman or this ladyhas just conquered a dream

(40:02):
they've had Right.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
So no doubt.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
But on top of that, the king again are muskies, and
so when I, when I guided hereSteve, it was it was a 20 minute
run, 25 minute run, to the areaof the tributary where you
could actually fish muskies andand be consistent in seeing fish
and putting fish in the boat.
Yeah, it was down south by thewhite dog dam, we call it, uh,

(40:29):
and that's kind of where mylanding is.
When you, when you come inthere, you park there and then
we boat you in or you fly in.
So that's where that is.
We have been catching muskieseverywhere Out in front of our
lodge on shores that we've neverseen them up in the northern
parts of the dam in abundance.

(40:50):
You know, adam went out one day.
Adam went out with a lady.
Her name is Beth Workin.
She's been a guest of mine foryears too.
Super fun lady.
She's one of the mostintelligent people you'll ever
meet.
She's a scientist down inMinnesota, and her son his name
is Aaron Super nice man as well,great fisherman Never caught a

(41:13):
muskie.
Neither one of them Never threw.
They throw for pike all thetime, you know.
So they can throw a baitcasterbut never thrown muskie baits,
and you know there is adifference, right?
And your tactic of your eightand your inlines and all that
stuff.
Well, these folks went out fortheir first time muskie fishing
with Adam.

(41:35):
They saw 15 muskies and theyboated four.
Wow, biggest, yeah, right,biggest was 46.
I mean, oh, that's great,that's an insane day Like that's
.
If you tell a muskie fishermanthat they're like man, that's a
gold mine.
Besides putting a 50 plus inthe boat, that's a gold mine,
right, yeah.
So so for us, now that me andAdam are back here, we're
looking at this, going like thisis amazing, because the fishery

(41:57):
is now in all aspects, Betterthan it ever was.
And in every I can truly say inevery species.
You know we could compete withthe best of the best of the best
in every species.
100%, that's awesome, yeah,100%.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
If not be the ones that are being chased.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
That's great, and right now you're only doing
you've limited yourself to onegroup a week.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
You know, yeah, so obviously, when we took this
over being, you know, it waslike Mother's Day, and then we
got in here in late June or midJune I guess it was we and we're
, you know we're a couple ofyoung families.
You know I'm, you know I'm only45, right, and and you know I I
, because I've been, I've donethese lodge builds over the last

(42:49):
few years and and made somemoney.
I was not, I'm not a rich manby any means.
So we some money, I was not,I'm not a rich man by any means.
So, yeah, we had this.
We had to kind of piecetogether what we had and put
what we had and could invest.
Um, but, yeah, like the, the, uh, the, where were you going with
that stevie?
Get back to me, get back to me.
I was thinking about somethingelse there.

(43:10):
Get back to me.
Yeah, I just looked at, I knowan eagle just flew.
An eagle just flew in front ofme and I was looking at atlantis
.
It's like taking out a squirrelhere.
So, and it's nice into my headwhere were we going?

Speaker 2 (43:21):
no, no, no, I was just saying so.
You're, you're, you're onlytaking one group a week.
Sorry, right now yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
So we, the reason, we , we sorry, so, yeah.
So when we had to start outlike that, we wanted to generate
a little bit of revenue.
You know, yeah, to help buildCorrect, because we had to keep
climbing that mountain to getthrough.
So we rented out two cabins, socabin one and cabin two are all

(43:51):
our cabins are elite, but thereare two most prominent ones on
the point.
All our cabins are elite, butthere are two most prominent
ones on the point.
They.
They have been, they were theeasiest to get ready to as well.
So so what we do now is you know, adam does all the guiding.
You know I've been doing thecooking and the chef and I got a
little bit of, you know, a food, a food finger.

(44:12):
So I, I, I've been doing thatuntil we can get up.
You know a Jarrett Machete inhere, a professional guy next
year, uh, but uh, yeah.
So we've been, we've beentaking these little groups,
we've been full, full, exceptfor this 10 day period here
which we've we've um left thegap to continue getting some
things done around camp.

(44:33):
We're going to do some filmingnext week for a promotional
video.
So we took that period to dothat.
But on top of all that we'reactually going to.
I know this sounds crazybecause everyone's you want to
make money here, but we're notgoing to do what was here before
and we're not going to do whatI had done at my other places
and try and max everything out,because the more overhead I we

(44:58):
got to find a fine line betweenget putting too much out in my
in costs, being where I amlogistically, and, and and and
not having enough, right.
So we've decided to keep camp at25 people.
We might push 30 for now, forthe first couple of years.

(45:19):
We don't want to get too bigand have, you know, not be able
to handle it and those things.
So we're going to run fivecabins for the first year or two
.
We have a giant cabin, it'scalled the Fort.
It has eight bedrooms.
It sleeps 16 people.
Now that one isn't going to beopen.
We're going to work on it nextyear because it's such a project
.

(45:40):
But that'll be our nextupbringing, right, if we can
handle what we've got, thefishery we don't want to burn a
fishery out, you know we don'twant to.
Yeah, and and I don't, to behonest, I don't want to have 25
30 staff here, you know, just toget by.
I want to try, and you know wewant to run with the, with the
family model, like we've alwayshad, um, and have the right
pieces in the right place.

(46:01):
So, yeah, that's how we've beendoing it and that's our future,
right?
We want to, we'd like to stayin that class and and put the
focus on the clients, put thefocus on the resource and and
actual lodge and and just makeit about the next 20 years being
our family here.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you, 25 to 30 people is a lot
of people.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
That's a, that's a.
That's a handful.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Brother, as long as I'm not, as long as I'm not,
corporate America in the end,that's all I care about.
I want to make sure that thiswas just like you had.
It was love and passion, andyou hang it when you hang it up.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
That's what it was, you know, and that's yeah.
My other experience did didn'tturn out that way, but this
one's going to.
Yeah, yeah, that's, that'sgreat, that's great, and um,
it's, um, it's, it's great tohear your voice.
So what else is new going on upthere?

Speaker 1 (46:54):
oh, oh.
What else is new up here there?

Speaker 2 (46:56):
was something going on there.
You were looking out to theside there looking at something
with that eagle Something wasgoing on.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
It took out a squirrel, so there's eagles
everywhere here and I'moverpopulating the squirrels.
I've been trying to take themout with the 22 like crazy, but
they reproduce like wild boarsand rabbits.
You know what I mean.
So yeah.
So an eagle come off this treeout here and tackled one at this

(47:22):
rock on the other side.
So that's why I was like ohshit, and I was honestly, I just
like slipped my mind there.
So that was like, wow, you know, there's been, oh, wildlife.
Yeah, what cool this and thisyou sent me that really cool
picture video.
Yes, so, okay.
So we have lots of big bears uphere.

(47:47):
You know wolves Actually wolveshave been really cool.
We saw a seven pack of wolfwith two little baby pups and
they were all walking a linegoing down the trail to the
beach bud and it was one of thecoolest things you'll ever see.
You never see pups with thepack and they were getting.

(48:08):
You could tell they weregetting taught right.
Yeah, it was cool.
You know, there's moose up here.
We've seen a couple moosealready, some deer, but what
Steve's talking about is it wassomething really special and it
is so back when the lodge was afreaking mess, you might not

(48:28):
have seen it in there Maybe youdid, but there was a stuffed
beaver and that beaver wasalbino, okay, so a white beaver
with red eyes.
Yeah, dna pigmentation kind ofdeal, um, pigmentation deal, and
it had.
I don't know the story behindit, how it ended up there, but

(48:50):
it was stuffed and it was inthere, so it was destroyed
because whatever was living inthere thought it was a real
beaver and decided to tackle theshit out of the stuffing Right.
Whoever ate it would have beenbunged up for a week.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Oh yeah, Full of cotton batten.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Right, right.
So we've had three or four bigfires down by the beach to get
rid of all the dry shit that washere over the years, right?

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Just burn and burn to get rid of things that you can
burn.
So that was one of them.
We had to get rid of it becauseit was destroyed, so we threw
it out.
Two days later and this is Istill can't even believe it Two
days later, we're down on thedock and we actually just put

(49:40):
the weights in the water.
So that's what we were justchecking to see the stability,
and, sure enough, this brownbeaver comes, walking out of the
woods, down its path and intothe water.
Yeah, and right behind it comesanother albino beaver, Two days
after we burned it.
No bullshit, man, I can't evenbelieve it.

(50:01):
Like it's such a rare thing inthe world and we have one here,
Not alone do we have one.
We just got rid of one that wasstuffed in the lodge and now I
have a real one.
So he actually sat out here forlike a week straight and he was
playing like an otter on hisback, playing with with um birch

(50:22):
twigs.
I have videos of it.
Really cool, One of the coolestthings ever, man.
I wish, I wish we had a way topost it for for the people here
to see.
It would be super cool, becausemaybe on the Instagram or
something.
I can send it to you and youcan post it.
It would be cool for them.
Yeah, yeah, it would be cool forthem to see, because, folks,
it's something that you maynever see again in your life.

(50:42):
It's that rare.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Oh for sure, Like I mean, you sent me a short clip
of this thing via text and Icouldn't believe it.
I was on a shoot with Peter,because he sent it to Pete the
same day.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Yep, yep.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yeah, we were up in Tumiskaming.
Yeah, and we get this videofrom Will showing an albino
beaver, which is verymind-blowing.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Well, here's the other significance to us.
So there's all of these amazingthings, but so we live, or we
live.
That's how much this place ishome.
Now we live.
So we live here at the lodgeand it's just north of some
Aboriginal lands and a reservecalled Wababasong, and

(51:33):
Wababasong means white dog.
Okay.
So these folks are, they're inthis area pretty heavily.
We actually have them coming uphere on the 28th of August when
we're doing our filming, andthey're going to bless our
property, they're going tosmudge our property.
They're going to come and do adance.

(51:53):
We're going to have a beautifulspread dinner outside and and
welcome the property to theirarea and or back to it, and and
we're very happy to do that.
And and inside of this, Ireached out to the local reserve
to find out what thesignificance was of this beaver,
cause there had to be yeah andthey wanted videos.
They were like, please send.
The significance was of thisbeaver because there had to be

(52:14):
yeah and they wanted videos.
They were like, please sendthem to us, please.
Like it would say.
It was a really rewardingfeeling for them to see that, to
get them excited over.
So the meaning of a white beaveris is it's, it's like a, it's a
good presence.
It's a.
It's a.
It's a clear path forward in inin your future, and it's a.

(52:35):
It's a.
It's a.
It's a clear path forward in inin your future and it's a.
It's a.
It's a very positive, karmatic.
Um, I don't know how you wouldsay that.
You know what I mean.
It's a positive enforcement forour property is what the belief
is, yeah, and it will protectus.
It'll protect our area and ourpeople and our lodge from

(53:00):
negative vibes out there, andthat's what the beliefs are to
the Aboriginals.
Right, and what a strongfeeling to hear it from those,
those folks I have.
No, uh, unfortunately I'm not.
I'm just a silly ukrainian guy,right, I don't have the
education and the know how.
I wish I did know more about itand I intend to learn more as

(53:22):
I'm up here.
But, uh, yeah, what a beautifulthing, it's awesome oh,
absolutely.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
It's great you shot it with your camera and not the
22 to stop it and put it back onthe wall.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Yeah, they came here and shot me.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Oh yeah, yeah, no doubt.
But yeah, something like thatis so cool.
It's money.
It's money Anytime I hadwildlife interacting with guests
in a positive way.
It's money, right, yeah, that'sfreaking cool.
That's freaking cool.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
So now, what's been going on with you?
What have you been up to?
What's on your plate?

Speaker 2 (54:01):
You know I'm well into season 2026 of shooting for
the Fish and Canada televisionshow.
We've got a shoot coming uphere on, not this week that
we're in, but next week.
So we leave Sunday for NovaScotia.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
I was going to say you're back just again, right?

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Yeah, yeah, this one we're not even fishing.
We're actually shooting afestival in Wedgeport, nova
Scotia, where they are hostingthe oldest fishing tournament in
Canadian history and it's atuna tournament, really.

(54:45):
Yeah, there's this big festivalthat we're shooting and I'm
pretty sure that somebody isgoing to be nominated to get on
one of the tuna boats and steamlike 18 hours into the North
Atlantic and shoot on that boatfor a couple of days and come

(55:10):
back and it's looking more.
It's in some of the roughestwater on the planet and it's
looking more and more like thatguy could be me.
Oh, that's awesome.
I know that's awesome.
I volunteered, like.
I mean, the question is, doesanybody get seasick?

(55:32):
I said no, they said perfect.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
You're in.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
You're in.
So we'll see.
We'll see.
And then, tragically, as a lotof you have heard and maybe some
haven't, ange's youngestdaughter, abby Viola God rest
her soul passed last Sunday andthat has been a very difficult

(56:04):
time for everybody, as we canall imagine, and you know we've
been working through that, beingthere for Ange and Nick.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
The whole Viola family.
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
The whole Viola family.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
God bless you guys for being there for your support
.
That's such a tragic thing.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
Abby was such a sweetheart.
She was unbelievable and Iloved her.
We would go over to Ange'splace and pull out the guitars
and I mean, abby was a fiend.
All she wanted to do was partyand sing, and it didn't matter
whether it was country or oldrock and roll or you name it.

(56:53):
She was, she was, uh, she wasright there partying and, yeah,
she loved her mom and dad somuch and and uh, nick, um, so
you know it's, it's uh, that'sbeen, uh, that's been weighing
heavy on everybody obviously.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Absolutely.
I'll give everybody my regardsdown there, please, and you know
, wish Nick and the Viola familyGod bless them.
And keep your chins up here andforward boys.
And she was going to be lookingabove wishing you the best.
You know that always.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
Oh yeah, for sure, and you know I've been busy at
the cottage.
We did our annual family tripup there for the beginning of
August.
We do a beginning of Julyfamily trip, a beginning of
August family trip, and that'sbeen.
That just come to an end.

(57:49):
And uh, you know I've beenworking on getting this bunkie
uh finished up and and, uh, Iactually guided for a couple of
days and uh, you know it, uh,yeah, it, it worked out real
well.
Um, I, uh, I, oh yeah, yeah, ahundred percent.
And um, I guided out of theirboat because my oldest son,

(58:11):
rayburn, was up there fishingfor muskies and you know he had
my boat and reserved it.
Oh, yeah, he had it reserved,you see.
So I guided out of Shortier'sboat but I put LiveScope on the
Alaskan.
Oh yeah, what a game changerman Like I mean, it's a game

(58:37):
changer when it comes to that.
It's crazy.
You know I'm going to have theisland pretty much ready for
operation here, coming into thefall and working on the old
honeybees and keeping themworking hard.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
You got the garden going, you got the garden going.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Yeah, the garden my tomatoes this year.
For the first year in aboutthree, I've actually got two
ripe tomatoes that don't haveblight and it looks like I'm
going to get a decent tomatocrop.
But three weeks ago I left, youknow, on that shoot in
Tamiskaming and then wentstraight to the cottage and I
haven't been back since.

(59:22):
Well, actually, the first timeI've been back home was two days
ago and I didn't put my wateron the timer.
So the last three weeks havebeen very, very dry and hot and
the cabbage it bolted.

(59:42):
So there's some things that Ithink are going to do good, like
my tomatoes and potatoes.
I'm going to get lots ofpotatoes, but just about
everything else is gone to shit.
Well, you know what?

Speaker 1 (59:57):
You take the good with the bad brother and every
year you just roll with it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
Oh yeah, that's the facts of life, baby, you take
the good you take the bad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
So this bunkie here.
I remember I missed out lastyear on a trip and I might have
some time this fall, so I'd liketo be a passenger in that
bunkie house if you ever got aninvite.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Yeah, yeah, 100%, Absolutely 100%.
And then we may have to checkout Two Rivers Island Lodge this
fall.
After you close up for a littlebit of muskies too.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Well, it sounds like we should get up here and do
some tubing.
For sure, that's what we shouldbe doing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Oh yeah, tubing eh.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Yeah, so that's the big thing up here right now is
the big tubing no shit oh.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
What about bondies?
Are they floating the tubes?

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
No, they're dropping them, but we kind of finagle
them our own right.
Throw some blades on them, throwa little bit of dust a little
razzle and dazzle, but actuallyso, adam, he'll have one.
He'll have a tube in the boatready to go all the time and
it's sitting behind him.
And when he's fishing likeyou're talking with the live
scope, like he'll be fishingwalleye, walleye, walleye, and

(01:01:09):
all of a sudden, right, he'llsee 30 feet out oh, there's a
big northern or a big muskiecreeping in, and he'll grab that
rod, pitch that tube out, giveit to a guest man and 90 of the
time it's on oh, no shit oh yeah, man, it's like because they're
coming in to hunt.
Well, now they see this dead,this dead fish fluttering down.
Man, it's game over, right?

(01:01:31):
Yeah, Hook line and sinker whenyou see them on the live scope,
right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Oh man, I got some baits for you.
There's these.
My buddy, paul Fisterio, ismaking these.
They're like a bait.
They're like they're a baitthat it's almost like a bulldog,
but it's a cross between abulldog and a tube.

(01:01:55):
Okay, yeah, and it's acombination bait and they're
doing very good on them and Ithink that those would be
awesome.
It's kind of like a Medusa.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Yeah, you got to link me up with them and we'll bring
them up here and try them andwe'll put them in our store
because we got same as Nordic.
We got a little store up hereand the tube bodies work really
good in the Northwestern Ontario.
I'll put it that way Nice, Ican't wait to get you up here,
buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Oh, me too, Me too, and on that note, my buddy is
there.
How can people best get a holdof you to get their spot booked
at Two Rivers?

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Because you know things are limited right now
they are, we're actuallyslamming for next year, Like I'm
already pushing 25% occupancyalready for next year.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Yeah, it's really good.
So wwwtworiverslodgenet, wedecided to go with net.
So com was taken years ago andthe guy won't give it up.
So Adam says to me Willie, netfor fishing.
I'm like that's such a greatidea.
So tworiverslodge, as in T-W-O,tworiverslodgenet, will at

(01:03:09):
tworiverslodgenet, will attworiverslodgenet.
You know I really miss doingthis every week.
Folks, everybody, our fans thatdo email me and have emailed me
still.
You know, johnny and all thoseguys are there.
Please say hi to everybody andhi everybody, and if anyone
needs to reach out to me, pleasefeel free.
I got a couple of guys hereSteve lined up for you for some

(01:03:29):
shows here, so we'll talk soon.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
Perfect, yeah, 100%.
Thanks, brother.
And thank you to LakesideMarine, a good buddy of yours up
in Red Lake, for supporting theshow.
Really appreciate all of thatsupport.
And folks if you're in the areaAppreciate all of that support.
And folks if you're in the area, their customer service is
second to none, as Will has saidand I'm sure he'll confirm

(01:03:54):
right now.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
I am still.
I am an hour and a half fromRed Lake and Kenora's 50 minutes
and I'm still going up there.
I just bought another boat,some motors, trolling motor we
just Adam just bought a brandnew 200 tiller off him.
Yeah no, his service is elite.
He's a fantastic human and theyknow what they're doing up
there.
So I will always continue to goback there until there's a

(01:04:20):
change.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Yes, thanks, Thanks to them so much.
We really appreciate thesupport and we appreciate all of
you out there listening.
Thank you so much to getting tothis point of the show.
We really appreciate thesupport and we appreciate all of
you out there listening.
Thank you so much to getting tothis point of the show.
I really appreciate it.
Willie appreciates it.

(01:04:42):
Thank you Like.
Subscribe.
Thanks to producer AnthonyMancini and Dino back at the
Fish and Canada headquarters.
And hey, folks, there is somebig stuff going down over at
Fish and Canada right now.
We've got some big ticket items.
I don't know if they've hit thegiveaways yet, but make sure
you're going over to check.
Get your name in the hat.

(01:05:03):
There is some big stuff goingon, so you're going to want to
go over there.
And again, thank you all.
And night-night little Nixon.
You remember Nixon?
Eh, Willie, yes.
And thus brings us to theconclusion of another episode of

(01:05:24):
Diaries of a Lodge OwnerStories of the North.
I'm a good old boy, nevermeanin' no harm.
I'll be all you ever saw Beenrailin' in the hog Since the day
I was born.

Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
Bendin' my rock, stretchin' my line.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
Someday I might own a lodge, and that'd be fine.
I'll be making my way, the onlyway I know how.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
Working hard and sharing the north With all of my
pals.
Well, I'm a good old boy, I'llbuy the lodge and live my dream
with all of my pals.
Boy, I'm a good old boy, I buythe lodge and live my dream.
And now I'm here talking abouthow life can be as good as it
seems.

Speaker 5 (01:06:21):
Yeah, as the world gets louder and louder, the
lessons of our natural worldbecome harder and harder to hear
, but they are still availableto those who know where to
listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's

(01:06:43):
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
Rather, it came from my timeinto the woods didn't come from
politics.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by

(01:07:03):
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
After nearly a decade of harvestuse, testimonials and research,
my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
life dedicated to improving thelives of others through natural
means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the

(01:07:25):
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
On Outdoor Journal Radio's,under the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.

(01:07:46):
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show.

Speaker 3 (01:08:03):
But now we're hosting a podcast that's right Every
Thursday, Angelo and I will beright here in your ears,
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
Now, what are we going to talk about for two
hours every week?

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Well, you know there's going to be a lot of
fishing.

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors, from athletes, all theother guys would go golfing Me
and Garton Turk and all theRussians would go fishing To
scientists.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
But now that we're reforesting and letting things
breathe.

Speaker 4 (01:08:38):
It's the perfect transmission environment for
life.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
To chefs.
If any game isn't cookedproperly, marinated, you will
taste it, and whoever else willpick up the phone.
Wherever you are, outdoorJournal Radio seeks to answer
the questions and tell thestories of all those who enjoy
being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.