Episode 125: Bears, Bait, And Betting On Yourself

Forget the neat arc of a nine-to-five. We sat down with Kyle Satchery, a small-town barber who spends spring and summer trapping live bait and guiding bear hunts when the weather turns, to unpack a life that moves with ice, bugs, and bookings. From black ice and first-snow days to crappie dinners snuck in before a niece’s skating show, Kyle’s world is built on grit, logistics, and quiet pride.

The bait business gets real fast: acquiring a long-standing operation, coordinating with fewer trappers as demand grows, and keeping lodges stocked when July heat spikes minnow mortality. Kyle breaks down the science—cold well water, aeration, sedation to reduce stress, and slow acclimation—and the human side, like explaining why surface water kills fish on the dock. He shares GPS-driven leech runs at 3 a.m., chest waders under bug suits, and the hum of mosquitoes outside a pickup at night. It’s a tour through the unglamorous details that keep anglers smiling and shops open.

On the guiding front, we map a full week: fishing mornings at lodges with great walleye, bass, and muskie water, 2 p.m. pick-ups, and careful sits until dark. Kyle explains why he moved from ladder stands to big wooden platforms, why clients sign a simple shot-discipline agreement, and how conservation-first rules changed camp culture. The stories hit hard—a boar drops, cubs scale trees beside a hunter’s stand, and a sow tests his ladder for hours while he shakes in the dark; a veteran misreads a bear at last light and rewrites his own rules to avoid repeat mistakes. These aren’t tall tales; they’re field notes on judgement, safety, and humility.

If you love northern Ontario, live bait, big bears, and the problem-solving behind every “we got it done,” you’ll feel at home here. Tap play to hear how collaboration beats undercutting, why better tanks save money, and how patience makes ethical hunting. Enjoy the ride, then subscribe, share with a friend who loves the North, and leave a review to help more folks find the show.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:05):
So what had happened was the brother in the tree, he
had a sow with uh with two cubsin front of him, and down the
hill came this nice boar that hewanted to shoot.
So he said, Well, he figuredI'll shoot the boar and the sow
and the cubs will run off.
Perfect, right?
Wrong.
He shot the boar, the cubs wentup both trees on each side of

(00:29):
his tree stamp.
So now he's in the middle ofthese this clump of three trees.
He's in the middle tree, and hesays, There's a cub to my left
at my eye height, and a cub tomy right at eye height.
And both of them are looking atme talking to Mump.
So he says, now the Sal is highalert from the gunshot, from the

(00:50):
boar playing.
And it's coming over and anddealing with the cubs.
Well, at this point, the cubshave caught on to him, so
they're talking to the mum.
So he says, Well, the sow isclimbing his ladder of his tree
stamp.
No, the Sal, keeping it down.
Well, this went on until like 11at night.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11):
This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast
Networks, Diaries of a LodgeOwner, Stories of the North.
We're sitting down with someonewho's built a life around
seasons and the risks that comewith them.
He spends his winters behind abarber chair, his spring and

(01:32):
summer out in the bushcollecting and trapping live
bait, and his spring and fallguiding bear hunts.
It's not a nine to five, andthere are no guarantees, just
long days, shifting seasons, andthe constant pressure of making
it work.

(01:52):
And it is now my pleasure tointroduce to all of you Kyle
Thatchery.
On this show, we talk honestlyabout what it takes to choose
self-employment when the incomeisn't predictable and the margin
for error is thin.
Kyle breaks down the realitiesof running multiple seasonal

(02:13):
businesses, the physical andfinancial risk behind live bait
harvesting, and theresponsibility that comes with
guiding bear hunts.
It's a raw look at what happenswhen you stop playing it safe
and decide to bet on yourself.
So settle in, pour a coffee, andjoin us for a conversation about

(02:35):
risk, resilience, and building alife that follows the land
instead of a paycheck.
Here's my conversation with KyleSatchery.
And folks, before we get intothis conversation with Kyle, I
just want to take a minute andwish all of you a very, very

(02:58):
Merry Christmas on thisChristmas Eve.
It is a exciting, exciting dayfor a lot of people.
And uh be safe out there, folks.
Drive safe.
Make sure if you're indulging ina few bevies, uh, that you've
got yourself a driver, or Uber,you know what?
You just player safe.

(03:20):
Have fun and Merry Christmas toall.
That's right.
Merry Christmas.
Welcome folks to another episodeof Diaries of the Lodge Owner
Stories of the North, and wehave a wonderful guest on today,
a familiar name and voice, KyleSatchery.

(03:41):
Kyle, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me, Steve.
Yeah, no problem.
I hear that uh you've got asnowstorm going on up there.
We were just chit-chatting uhleading into the uh uh the
intro.

SPEAKER_02 (03:54):
Yeah, we're getting hit with the first major one of
the year.
We've had a little bit of snowto this point, but uh it's
starting to look like northwestOntario up here now.
I think you were talking withWillie, I heard, and uh he was
saying that he had to cancelsome stuff because of the storm
was coming.
So lock us in here for a fewdays.

SPEAKER_03 (04:10):
Yeah, but you guys have had a lot of cold weather,
and um uh you've got black iceup there already.

SPEAKER_02 (04:17):
Yeah, yeah.
I was ice fishing on Monday onuh Wabagoon, and we had uh
probably about a foot already ofnice ice.
So hopefully the snow won't messit up too much.

SPEAKER_03 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah.
The well it other than driving.

SPEAKER_02 (04:31):
Yeah, well, you get sometimes it'll crack it and you
get lots of slush, but we shouldhave enough uh we should have
enough snow now, or ice now thatuh snow hopefully won't be too
bad, especially the little eggs.
If you gotta just a skim ice andthen the snow gets on there, the
the slush is so bad you can'teven go ice fishing.

SPEAKER_03 (04:49):
Yeah, that's uh that sucks.
But uh, so how did you do?

SPEAKER_02 (04:53):
Oh, we caught enough crappies for uh supper.
I only had about I was going tomy uh niece's uh skating
rehearsal or not rehearsal showfor uh Christmas.
So I had a couple hours, and thewife uh was pretty adamant she
wanted to feed a fish.
So we got I think I got sixcrappies there in a couple
hours, six eaters anyway.
That was good enough for me.

SPEAKER_03 (05:13):
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
So just to remind the Diariesfamily, you are a fairly uh um
um a fairly well uh what is theword I'm looking for?
You have had a ton of differentum um jobs and businesses.

(05:34):
You're a barber, you're a baitman, you're a bear uh guide, you
are uh a man of many men.
And um um how how are thebusinesses going?
And which ones are youoperating?
Are you still cutting hair onthe side?

SPEAKER_02 (05:50):
Yeah, I still do uh I still do all three, although
uh the hair hair businessdefinitely gets kind of kicked
to the back burner comespringtime.
Um much to the dismay of uh themen of the community because I'm
the only barber in town.
So I get uh a lot of uh craptalking coming my way during

(06:12):
summertime when I'm not therejust because I'm out trapping
and stuff.
Guys are starting to get thegist of it that I'm just I'm not
if I was around, I would cuttheir hair.
I'm just not there.

SPEAKER_03 (06:21):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (06:22):
So it it takes a bit of ride on the back burner there
in the summertime.
Um, but yeah, still operatingall three.
This time of year, it's nice tohave all three because I can uh
I can you know operate the hairbusiness while I you know it's
not so busy with Minos rightnow, uh with all the lodging
being shut down.

SPEAKER_03 (06:40):
In the summertime, do you uh have uh do you employ
anybody to look after it whileyou're uh while you're working
on everything else?

SPEAKER_02 (06:47):
I wish I could.
I wish I could.
Um I've tried in the past to uhto train some guys and it's just
never worked out.
Um in a perfect world, I'd lovelike if I if I had a young kid
that was willing to go to barberschool and and kind of take
over, that would be that wouldbe fine with me.
Um because yeah, like I said, inthe summertime I'm so busy that

(07:10):
uh if I didn't have to go ininto the shop, I wouldn't
complain, that's for sure.
Yeah, no doubt.
But uh, but like I said, it'snice to have this time of year.
And I made a lot ofrelationships through the shop
that actually have helped theother businesses, so so it's
nice getting in there.
But uh I definitely prefer to beout in the woods and and doing
that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 (07:28):
Yeah, yeah.
So there's not a lot going onfor uh for us up here, so it's
nice to have it gets prettycold, and uh hair grows um uh
365 days a year.

SPEAKER_02 (07:41):
Absolutely, absolutely.
The only problem is it seems togrow more in the summer.
Everybody wants their hair shortwhen it's hot out.

SPEAKER_03 (07:48):
Yeah, that's true.
I never thought of that.
You know, half has started atrend.
Yeah, you know, warm is notcool.
No, no, you know, no, but uhhow's the bait business?
How how was your uh 2025 year?

SPEAKER_02 (08:04):
It was it was really busy.
It was really busy.
I think last time I spoke withyou guys, it hadn't uh we were
in the process, but we hadn'treally mentioned it yet.
That we were uh we bought outone of the other uh decent-sized
bait companies um in the area.
Um the the Berniers, JD Bates,it was called.
Um, they had been around sinceuh it was we we bought it off of

(08:27):
Joe and Deb Bernier, but uh theyhad been in business since
actually Ken Bernier, his dad,was kind of one of the I would
say almost origin original baittrappers uh in the area all over
Northwestern Ontario.
And uh they had been in thebusiness for, geez, almost I
think 50 years.
So they were looking to get outof it.
And uh uh we kind of we webought bought them out and uh

(08:50):
which which I mean them gettingout of it was gonna increase the
business anyway, but then umwith kind of buying them out and
buying all their equipment andstuff, that definitely helped
where they were they weresending guys our way.
Um so so that definitely uhincreased the business uh quite
a bit.
Um that's great.
Yeah, and then just the marketin the area just keeps growing

(09:10):
and growing and growing, and andum there's just there's just
seems to be less and lesstrappers and that's a good thing
for your business, right?

SPEAKER_03 (09:21):
Your your uh customer base is growing and
your competition is shrinking.

SPEAKER_02 (09:26):
Yeah, and we've been pretty good where we we get
along good with most of the guysaround, so we've been trying to
work with a lot of the othertrappers to just it works out
better for us if if all of uskind of work together.
Absolutely falling.
Um, you know, there's dealinglike the the day-to-day dealing
with the uh the lodge owners andthe the the the tackle shops and

(09:49):
stuff isn't something that a lotof the other trappers want to do
anyways.
So yeah, we've kind of worked itout where a lot of the guys
would rather just you know gotrap their minnows, bring them
to me, or um yeah, we take thatway, you know you're not dealing
with the the day-to-dayheadaches that come along with
you know, there's athunderstorm, so people didn't
use any minnows, so now allthese minnows are sitting there

(10:10):
and stuff like that.
And yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_03 (10:13):
What are some of the day-to-day issues that you have
to deal with?

SPEAKER_02 (10:17):
Yeah, and I think the trappers like it too because
because me and my businesspartner trap at the same time,
we kind of know, you know, whatthey're going through.
So we work with both sides, andand uh it's worked out really
well where I think a lot of thetrappers enjoy it just because
they kind of know with us, youknow, we're not gonna uh we try
and make it so everybody ismaking money, everybody's happy,

(10:38):
um, and then we're not trying toundercut each other.
And and in the end, I think weall end up doing better off um
just just by working together.
And and uh it's it's kind offunny when every once in a while
the the tourist camps will tryand lie on by who will give it
to me for less, and they don'trealize that we're working
together anyway, so they callhim and he calls me and he's

(10:58):
like, Why is this guy callingme?
And yeah, and uh so it's justnice having those kind of
relationships with the othertrappers, and we're trying to
just continue to grow those askind of we grow the business.

SPEAKER_03 (11:10):
Yeah, well, that's that's uh that's a that's a
wonderful business model forsure.
Um, and um it it goes back tothe old adage, all ships rise
with the tide.
And uh when you build thoserelationships solidly with
people and um uh everybody is isum is doing well with it, um you

(11:31):
can't ask for anything better.
And you know, for when you're inbusiness like that, sometimes
you can make more money at thedetriment of somebody else, but
that's not a sustainable way ofdoing things, especially in a
small community, right?
So for you to go out and be ableto um help people uh make money,

(11:58):
take some of the burden fromthem that they don't want to
have to deal with, and they'rehappy to leave some some uh uh
you know some uh skin on thebone uh for you.
And uh it's it's just soundslike it's a wonderful um
business you've got on the gothere.
Good for you.
Um any uh any any crazy storiesup there this year when you're

(12:21):
out in in at uh three o'clock inthe morning trudging through the
the bush at uh sunrise.

SPEAKER_02 (12:27):
Uh we definitely had a few a few good ones between
the the bears and the minnows.
Um the one that I was talkinglast night with uh with my
business partner, just if makingsure I didn't forget anything.

SPEAKER_03 (12:41):
And the the one that both of us thought of right away
was we had a we thought one ofour bear hunters died this year,
which is now we're we're jumpingfrom the minnow and bait
business over to your um the thebear guiding business.

SPEAKER_02 (12:55):
Yeah, I I have some, I mean we have lots of like 3
a.m.
getting up to do leech runstories and and you know um
checking leech traps by headlampso that uh people have leeches
because I'm I don't know if it'sthe same in the south.
If if people don't have leechesup here, it's like you know,
World War III.

SPEAKER_03 (13:13):
Uh really like that's funny because uh I owned
Chaudiere for 10 years and um Ididn't even use leeches.
I had leeches every once in awhile, and people didn't even
want them.
It was it was um worms andminnows.

SPEAKER_02 (13:30):
Okay, yeah, here like where I am in Sulacote,
everybody just wants minnows,but uh anywhere kind of south or
west of us, they want leeches,and and when you run out, it's
it's like guys are the the priceof leeches come July.
I swear every day it goes upfive bucks a pound because every
shop is calling us and saying,Well, I'll give you what do you

(13:50):
what do you charging?
Oh well, add 10 bucks to that.
Add 10 bucks to that.
And and uh so it ends up wherelike you know, my business
partner works for hydro, so hewas getting up at 2 30 in the
morning, going out in the darkwith a headlamp and uh and
checking leech traps just tokind of keep us uh in in stock
because he'd come in from thebush at, you know, he'd get in

(14:12):
at 5, 6 a.m.
before work, and his wife wouldbe going out at lunchtime to bag
up the leeches to send them offto Red Lake or uh Falls and all
these different places justbecause everybody was out and we
had them.
And and um so he was going outthere and he actually ended up,
he had thank God for technology,he had the when he would set the

(14:32):
traps, because you kind of dolike uh different pattern, like
an S pattern.
You're not you know just goingaround the shore in a circle.
Um he had made uh uh used an appto follow his uh GPS coordinate
because that was that was theonly way he could find the traps
in the morning because you'rejust using a little tiny float
on the leech traps, right?
They're not very big, it's justyeah, all it is is uh pool

(14:54):
noodle sliced into like aone-inch you know width uh uh
circle.
So he was yeah, he had to havehe had his phone mounted in the
canoe so that he could followthe line so that he would stick
with the trap uh or the trapsbecause he said some of the
times when before he starteddoing it, he would go back to
the pond to set it the nextnight and uh he go, man, half

(15:18):
the traps were still out therebecause I missed them.
And uh and he said I was stillgetting lots of leeches, so I
figured I was doing good.
So he said he started using theapp just because he goes, You
don't realize how dark it is atthree in the morning.
Yeah.
When you're trying to find theselittle, you know, two-inch green
circles amongst all the otherweeds.
Um that was a good one um fortrapping.

(15:40):
We actually had uh one of thenew lines that we we bought off
the Bernie's had a uh had goldenshiners, which we had never had
before.
Um, so I actually hit a goldenshiner run this spring where I
was like I was filling the boatwith these things like uh I've
never seen so many before.
And and there was more than afew times where I'd get to the

(16:00):
truck with them, and I'd one ofthe first time I had to call my
my dad, which doesn't happenvery often anymore, and I was
like, How how many of these canI take in this tank?
And when I told him how many Ihad, he's like, Yeah, you're
already probably too far.
Yeah, uh, so I'm like, Well, I'mgonna put, we have this stuff,
it's called Trank, Trank, and uhit just basically uh mellows the

(16:23):
minnows out.
If you use a lot of it, it putsthem right to sleep.
So I think, well, I'll put someof this in there, and and I I
ended up showing back up, and uhone of my bear hunters who had
already tagged out was at myhouse, and and uh he's like, Oh,
how's trapping?
I go, here, look at this.
And I opened the lid of the thisbig, you know, half of my truck
box is a tank.
I open it, and it's like minnowsfrom the bottom of the thing all

(16:46):
the way to the top.
And he he couldn't believe he'staking videos, sending them back
to people.
And and uh, I guess in Minnesotawhere he's from, golden shiners,
he goes, You'll pay 18 bucks adozen for them because they're
they're a specialty or whatever.
And meanwhile, up here, guysdon't really like like a lot of
the lodges and stuff don't likethem because they don't live as
well as some of the otherminnows.
Yeah, and they're they're prettyhardy for a shiner, but I mean

(17:08):
you're not gonna keep them fortwo weeks by any means.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (17:12):
That was always my issue uh at the lodge.
I I I didn't have a proper tank.
I tried all kinds of things.
Um, you know, I pumped freshwater from the lake through a
45-gallon drum and then back outinto the lake, which ended up
that was about the best methodto keep them alive.
Um, but I was drawing cold waterfrom the uh from the bottom, and

(17:36):
and it was a cold water tank,which is what you need.
I also used a freezer.
I put uh a freezer on a timerand uh put an aerator in there.
But as soon as the problem theproblem that I found when you
have those those minnows, youcan I could keep them for quite
a while, two, three weekssometimes, depends, days,

(17:58):
whatever, shiners, whatever Iwas getting from my supplier.
Um, but as soon as you pull themout, and if you use if you use
warm water, uh they wouldn'tlast.
Like if you just use surfacewater, they wouldn't last.
And um, as soon as people boughtthem on the dock, uh, I'd have
I'd have the dock hands with theum with the the um your minnow

(18:22):
buckets, and uh you put a dozenminnows into the minnow bucket,
and as soon as they dropped itoff the side of the boat, they
all died off the dock.
Yeah.
Right.
So after July, I just I justtold people, nah, you know what,
we don't have minnows, butminnows don't work here after
July.
You know, which was which wassomewhat true.

SPEAKER_02 (18:44):
Like, I mean, the worms, um, the worms really took
over in the summer, but and Ithink that's part of the reason
some of the guys up here wantthe leeches um come come July,
because that's when it getstricky to to keep the minnows
alive, right?
Yeah, uh we deal with it everyyear where the lodges think we
poison the minnows or we'reselling the minnows that are
dying.
It's ridiculous.

(19:05):
Well, and and part of it for usis like we have, you know, we've
spent a lot of the capital withreally nice tanks that run fresh
well water, that's ice coal, andthe minnows will be living great
for us, and then we bring themto you and they start dying, and
it's our fault.
And it's kind of like, well, Idon't want to tell you to go buy
a you know a$5,000 minnow tankfor your 50 dozen minnows or 100

(19:27):
dozen minnows you're runningthrough your your camp every
week.
But at the same time, it's likeI also can't take you fresh, you
know, new minnows every time 20dozen die because you know your
tank isn't the best for for thattime of year.
Because come July, it's youknow, even in our in our big
tanks, we're losing minnows.
You know, like it's just they'rethey're coming out of really

(19:48):
warm water, they're going into atruck tank that's you know kind
of cool water, and then they'regoing into a a tank in the in
the holding facility that'sreally cooled water, and then
we're trying.
At the same time, we're tryingto slowly warm them up as we
bring them back to you.
Yeah.
It's just a lot of confusion.

SPEAKER_03 (20:06):
That whole temperature thing is a
nightmare.
Um I even I built a cage that Iuh sunk off the side of the
dock, about a uh a two-foot bythree foot cage.
And um for a while I was goingout and and um and getting my
own minnows.

(20:26):
There was a couple of beaverhouses and stuff, and I would
just go out and you know, with asane net and uh try and get my
own minnows.
But the amount of work thatyou've got to invest into trying
to net trap whatever your ownminnows was ridiculous for me.
I just finally said, yeah, no,we don't do minnows.

(20:48):
We don't do minnows.

SPEAKER_02 (20:49):
I don't realize a lot of the time what goes into
it.
Even I think, you know, in myhair business, I hear it all the
time from the locals that aregoing into the tackle shop that
I provide minnows with that, oh,it's crazy, it's$650 a dozen, or
I I don't even know what theprice is, but something like
that.
And and every time I and ofcourse, right away they say,
Man, I go out to my camp and Ithrow a trap in the beaver pond

(21:13):
right before it, and it's fullof minnows.
I don't know why your camp anddo it.
Well, and that's why I say I go,okay, so you you drove 45
minutes one way, you know, youspent a couple hours of your
time, you spent 30 bucks of yourgas to get three dozen minnows,
which was great for you.
But I mean, if I drive that farand I only get three dozen

(21:33):
minnows, it's like it's a wasteof my time.
So a lot of these guys that Ithink they think it's a lot
easier, and and and usually whenthey're doing that, it's always
May long weekend when theminnows trap really good.
So we we set our price pricesfor in the summer when the
minnows aren't trapping reallygood.
Yeah.
And uh and you have to know allthe little tricks, and and
you're out there getting eatenalive by the bugs, and you're up

(21:55):
at 3 a.m.
Like I was those are the thingsthat the guys always forget
about when they're just going totheir little pond down the road
from their house and thinkingit's all easy.

SPEAKER_03 (22:04):
And so when you're trapping, um what are you doing
to um to combat the bugs?
Because there's gotta be timesup in your area where they are
horrendous.

SPEAKER_02 (22:18):
They're almost always horrendous.
Just get like worse some years,like even in a good bug year,
they're not it's it's not goodon the ponds.
Yeah.
Just I mean, you're you'reyou're the middle part.
That's where the bugs grow,right?
They're all marshy, boggyswamps.
Um, so we're we pretty much runum like bug suits uh all till

(22:45):
July.
I mean, we get pretty used togetting bitten a lot, so by July
we can kind of tough it out.
I know uh when you take ourbuddies that don't trap, they
still think we're crazy.
And we're always using theAmerican, like we always make
sure our Americans bring us thethe illegal bug dope that's got
the stuff on the country.

SPEAKER_03 (23:04):
100% deed.

SPEAKER_02 (23:05):
Yeah, yeah.
I remember the first year mybusiness partner started, he was
like, ah no, I work for hydro,it's not that big a deal.
I'll just go with the you knowthe eight percent stuff or
whatever.
You go, I don't I don't wantcancer, you know.
That stuff causes cancer.
I'm like, man, I used to say thesame thing, and then it gets to
a point where you're like, Well,I'm gonna die of blood loss, so
I might as well double cancer inorder.

(23:27):
And uh and then yeah, most butmost of the time we just use uh
bug suits, and then yeah, youjust cover up.
Luckily for us, like you'realmost always in chest waiters,
which when it's hot isn't isn'tthat nice, but uh the bugs can't
bite through it.

SPEAKER_03 (23:40):
So that's true.

SPEAKER_02 (23:41):
Yeah, I spend a lot of time in my underwear and
chest waiters, and then with ablack bug suit over the top
half, and uh yeah, and so thoseblack clothes, though man,
they're like pigs, they'll rootright in underneath your
clothes, and man, they're yougotta have everything closed up
and uh and then like I say,instill layer on the bug dope
just to uh just to get that'sprobably the worst part of the

(24:04):
whole whole thing, is especiallythat you know, end of May, start
of June when the bugs are awful.
That's the uh and it usuallycoincides trapping's not that
good at that time of yeareither, so you're getting eaten
alive and and trapping isn't thegreatest.

SPEAKER_05 (24:17):
Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (24:18):
But uh but yeah, that's about all we can do, and
then just tough it out.
There's been a couple yearswhere they're so bad that I mean
you can't even leave the truckwithout a without a bug suit.
It's it's crazy how bad they canget out there on the ponds.

SPEAKER_03 (24:29):
Yeah, I can't I can't imagine.
We had uh we had an experienceon a fly out uh or a fly-in, I
guess I should say, where the umthe bugs were just horrendous.
And and and thankfully it wasn'tblack flies.
Well, it was black flies too,but they weren't, it was the
mosquitoes and the um the thehorseflies, not deer flies, them

(24:53):
big horseflies.
Yeah, they it was it was crazyhow it can get up there.
And and not much wonder, youknow, at that time of the year
you see a lot of moose on theroads because those bugs, they
just drive the moose out of thebush.

SPEAKER_02 (25:08):
They're just looking for anywhere they can get a
little wind.
Yeah.
I was trapped in leeches uh thissummer, and and a lot of times,
like some of the leech bonds are45 an hour away.
And uh, so I will just sleep inthe back of my truck.
I have an in little inflatablethat goes around the seats and
makes a it's not comfy, but itgets the job done.

(25:28):
And I was laying there talkingto the wife, uh before you know,
just waiting to go to bed in theback of the truck, and she could
hear on the phone the the bugshumming outside of my truck.
I'm just sitting in the backseat and she's like, How do you
sleep with that?
And I'm like, You kind of getused to it, where it's kind of
like a a sound machine, but I'mlike, the the the shitty part is

(25:50):
when you wake up at three orfour in the morning and you have
to piss, and you're wondering,like, should I just piss my
pants?
Or do I go out there?
Because I mean, I've tried itwhere you're out there and
you're trying to pee and you'retrying not to smack your junk
because there's so many bugslanding on the little piece of
open meat there that yeah,sometimes it's like, well, this
gator egg bottle seems a lotbetter than going.

SPEAKER_03 (26:12):
Take the wide uh the wide mouth jars.
Yeah.
One liter jar.

SPEAKER_02 (26:17):
Well, I don't know if I need the wide mouthers, but
we just as long as we have somesort of jar reality.

SPEAKER_03 (26:22):
Oh, I don't need the wide mouth for that either, but
it just makes us feel that it'snot quite uh as much of a mess.

SPEAKER_02 (26:28):
That's true.
That's true.

SPEAKER_03 (26:29):
Yeah, oh yeah.
I would not like I when we wereon that trip that I told that I
had just mentioned um at uhQuant Lake, um I I have a sleep
machine and it was hot.
And uh the the uh gas ran out ofthe generator.
And I I'll never forget thisstory.

(26:50):
Like, I mean, I uh I I I snore.
And I snore a lot and loud.
The so I I went and got thesleep apnea machine, and they
give me this special device andall this stuff, and it it really
saved my marriage, to be honestwith you.
But um uh the boys, Pete andAnge and and uh Dean and and

(27:13):
everybody else on the crew thatwe travel with, a lot of times
we're sharing rooms or whatever.
So the first thing that theythey ask me is uh, did you
remember your machine?
I'm like, yeah, I got it, I gotit.
Well, we were at this cabin andwe all had our our own little
room, but it's uh, you know thethe old trapper's cabins where

(27:35):
there's uh the walls, but theroof is all open, yeah, right?
Anyway, we had the generatorrunning for my machine and it
run out of gas in the middle ofthe night.
And um, we had to have um, youknow, those bed uh nets, like
the princess nets to keep thebugs off of us.
Yeah, I see.
They were so like and we werevery diligent on opening and

(27:58):
closing the door like uh as fastas you could get in and out.
And uh we still had to havethese nets over top of the uh of
the the beds.
And I was um uh I was on a um anair mattress, maybe.
I can't remember, but it was sohot.

(28:19):
And um uh I was sleeping whenthe generator went out,
obviously, and um I starteddreaming that um that I was
smothering.
Like I was in the middle of thisintense dream, and um I I
remember dreaming that thisdemon or whatever it was was

(28:41):
smothering me.
And um uh I was uh I was awokenby Ange in his underwear
standing there shaking me,yelling, wake up, wake up! And
uh he said, Oh my god, I havenever heard any kinds of sounds
come from a human being likewhat you were making.

(29:03):
And I thought you were dying.
And I said, I thought I was too.
But I had that stupid mask on inlike 32 or 33 degree heat
outside at midnight, and then Ihad to go and um gas up the
generator.
So I had a pair of I put myjogging pants on, I put my shoes

(29:26):
on, I put the bug the the wholebug jacket on, and I went out to
to gas up this generator, and itthe mosquitoes were on my bug
suit so thick, uh, and they werebiting through it, by the way,
um that I couldn't see.

(29:48):
I had to keep on swatting thethe bug net um around my face so
I could see and um to get butand then get back in there.
And oh my like I say, it it wasit was an experience I'll never
never forget.

SPEAKER_02 (30:06):
Everybody should have to experience the bugs that
bad sometimes just to appreciatewhen you don't have the bugs,
because I know my wife alwayssays when she comes traveling
with us, she's like, the pricesof minnow should be double for
all the blood you guys have togive out here.
I I took her last year and thisone pond, I don't know why, even
in a good bug year, it's justawful for bugs.

(30:27):
And we went there in July, andthey were like, you couldn't we
were trying to load up the boat,and finally I told him, like,
you just sit in the truck andI'll get you when everything's
ready, you run down and we'llgo.
Once we're out in the lake, itshouldn't be too bad.
Well, we get out, you know, kindof just putting out with the
15-horse motor on this boat, andthey're so bad it's like a wall

(30:47):
around the boat.
So finally, like she's trappingme enough.
I told him, like, okay, you'regonna you set the traps, put the
bait ball in, and then just handit back to me, and I'm gonna
drive the boat wide open aroundthe lake so the bugs can't get
us.
And then when you give me atrap, I'll I'll just put it out
as we're going.
And she thought I meant we wouldstop.
Well, we did this whole lake atyou know, it's a little 10-foot

(31:08):
boat with a 15-horse on it, sowe're flying at like 20
kilometers an hour, 20 miles anhour, and and she's handing me
these, and I'm just throwingthem out and she's just
laughing.
And we go out the whole lake,and uh and she does all 15 traps
and we're coming back, and she'slike, Are you gonna slow down?
I'm like, Yeah, well, we get toshore, I'm like, just hang on to
the sides of the boat becauseI'm gonna drive this thing right

(31:30):
on shore so that I can just pullit up.
We're gonna run to the truck andget out of here.
And she said, when we got to thetruck, she goes, I couldn't
believe that you were justtossing the traps out of the
boat going that fast.
But she goes, the whole time youwere driving that fast, you
could just see a black cloudbehind us like bugs.
And she goes, I was just gladyou weren't stopping because I
figured as soon as you stopped,they were gonna come into us.

(31:52):
I said, Yeah, that's why I justwe just kept going.
I'm like, just be glad you don'thave to come with me when I
check them because I have to goslow.
Yeah.

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SPEAKER_03 (33:56):
So now that we've uh we've uh explored the the uh the
bugs in the wilds of the north,uh tell us a little bit about
how your uh the um uh bearguiding business is going.

SPEAKER_02 (34:08):
It's good, it's good.
Actually, I just finishedbooking for 2026.
We we haven't had any openingsin a couple years, and then one
of our big groups uh they hadhad a few other trips booked
between them.
So they decided to take a yearoff, um, which opened up some
tags for us.
Yeah.
Um so we actually just just uhfilled those um uh last night,

(34:31):
actually.
And filled most of in theprocess of doing a little
advertising, we filled what wasleft of 2027 for the most part.
So so things are good there.
Um how many tags?

SPEAKER_03 (34:43):
Uh how many tags do you have in your unit?

SPEAKER_02 (34:45):
We have 13 right now between our units.
Uh, we're working on buyinganother unit that I think will
have about four.
So uh we're hoping to add that,but that's dealing with the MR
and everything is always trickyto get all that stuff worked
through.
So we're just dealing with allthe logistics of that right now.
But 13, to be honest, isprobably enough.
It it's uh makes for a busycouple of weeks trying to to get

(35:06):
the all the bears knocked down.

SPEAKER_03 (35:07):
And yeah, yeah, no, for sure.
And uh the um your uh bearstands are uh second to none, I
hear.

SPEAKER_02 (35:16):
Yeah, yeah.
We uh we keep trying to get ridof all of our uh ladder stands
and we're replacing them allwith with big wooden stands,
which everybody seems to reallylike.

SPEAKER_03 (35:25):
For sure.
I I think um, and correct me ifI'm wrong, but is the
demographic in um in the sportof hunting getting older?
Uh or are you still seeing uh alot of young people?
Um You know what?

SPEAKER_02 (35:40):
We get a good mix.
We get a good mix.
We don't actually have a lot oflike old, old guys.
We do have a few, right?
But uh it's a pretty good mix,right?
From we got guys that areprobably 35, um all the way up
to you know 70.
Um lots in that 40 to 50 rangeseem to kind of be where guys
like to shoot bears.

(36:01):
I think below that, those guysare deer and elk still kind of
and then as they get older, theywant to knock a bear off the
list, and then um so so we get apretty good mix.
Um where I mean we've been luckywhere, like I said, a lot of it
had just been repeat year overyear over year, where we're only
kind of having four or five newguys a year.

(36:22):
Um but uh yeah, it's a good mix.
Um, and it's nice having the mixbecause we do still have some
ladder stands, so we try andsend the the younger guys into
the metal stuff and then keepthe older guys in the cozier, uh
stands.

SPEAKER_03 (36:37):
Um so tell me what does a um um a bear hunt with
you look like from start tofinish?
Um am I um uh am I staying atsomebody's place?
Uh do you set up that part of ituh for accommodations?
Do I just stay in town and buymy own food and go out in the

(37:00):
day?
What does the package look like?

SPEAKER_02 (37:03):
So with the bear hunts, uh I take care of of
pretty much everything.
You you'll stay at we run thehunts through two uh two
different lodges, Deer PathLodge uh uh in Hudson and uh
Pine Sunset Lodge in Denorwick,both of which are on phenomenal
fishing lakes.
Um Deer Path is on a trout andbass lake, and uh Pine Sunset is

(37:25):
on Denarwick Lake, which haswalleyes, crappies, perch, uh
bass, pike, uh muskies.
Uh I think I've said everything.
Um but uh so basically outsideof your food, we take care of
everything.
The law uh uh Pine Sunset Lodgedoes do a dinner night, one of
the nights while you're there.
Um usually it's chicken or ribsor something like that.

(37:48):
Yeah.
Um they just do it at the lodgefor everybody that's staying
there.
Um and then so you take care ofyour meals.
A lot a lot of that is becauseyou're hunting.
Um, so basically we pick you upat around two o'clock every day.
Uh so a lot of the guys willfish all morning and then come
in for lunch.
After lunch, we show up, uh, wetake you to the stands, and then

(38:09):
you'll sit right till dark,which that time of year is
probably like nine o'clock-ish.
Yeah.
And and then we're bringing youback.
So by the time you get back,it's 10 at night.
Yeah, and I mean we do have oneof our blocks is an hour from
the lodge.
So I mean, that one is like 11at night.
Um, so if you did, if you wereeating at the lodge, you'd it'd

(38:29):
be too late to eat at the lodgeanyway.
Um we tell all the guysconducive to a meal plan.
Yeah, so we tell a lot of theguys like pack a bunch of
lasagna, you know, type meals,uh stuff that you can just throw
in the oven.
And when you get back, you caneat it and it's warm and it's
ready.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (38:47):
Yeah.
We do a muskie hunt up at uh upat uh the cottage um every year,
and that's how we eat.
It's all crock pot.
It's all, you know, you put in aroast in a crock pot in the
morning on on low, and and it'smoney by, you know, well, it
gets dark um uh at that time ofthe year around five o'clock.

(39:07):
So um it's it's money by 5 35whenever we get in, and uh, and
and there's no preparation atall.

SPEAKER_02 (39:16):
Yeah, so that's so so that's why we have everybody
just do their own food.
Um, but outside of that, we takecare of everything.
Um we have multiple uh baitedstands for each guy.
Um so if you're not seeingstuff, we we move you around um
to to try and get you betterbetter action.
Um and we recover the bear, uh,we uh field dress the bear, we

(39:42):
deal with all that.
We have a butcher.
Um that if the guys want theirbear butcher, we can take it to
the butcher.
Um obviously that's anadditional charge, but um it's
he's to be honest, he's veryreasonable for for how much of a
pain it is to skin out a bear.
Yeah.
Most of the guys end up justsending it to him.
Um Um and then uh so so fromthat end everything's taken care

(40:04):
of.
We do have um like times whereuh we might have guys drive
themselves.
Uh some guys might want to drivethemselves just so they have a
vehicle there.
Um they do get one or whatever.
Um the story I was talking aboutwhere we we were worried a guy
might have to get into thatstory.
So that was because we had letuh he he had been coming.

(40:26):
Um that fella hunts at our ourdeer or sorry, our pine sunset
baits.
Um, and uh he had been comingsince before we took it over
from uh actually the old launchowner.
So they're pretty familiar wheremost of the stuff is.
Um so they we had a group ofeight in that week.
So he they had said, ah, justtell us where to go, we'll drive
ourselves um and we'll just huntthe stuff closer to the lodge.

(40:50):
So we had uh usually we're stillclose by, but we had I think
five hunters left, including uhhim and his name's Jeff and his
brother.
So he said, Well, we'll go tothose two stands close to the
lodge here.
They had been having goodaction.
And and we said, Okay, well,we're gonna take the guys to the
far stands.
Are you okay with uh you knowputting yourself like we'll help

(41:12):
you get into the stand, but canyou get yourself out of the
stand and uh back to the lodge?
Everything up, yep, no problem.
We've you know they've beenthat's how they used to do it
before we took it over, so hesaid, not a problem, don't worry
about it.
Yeah.
So how old were where is thisgentleman?
Uh he would be in his 50s, Ibet.
Gotcha.
Yeah, like and he, like I said,probably came, he's probably

(41:33):
come close to 10 times to to thelodge.

SPEAKER_03 (41:36):
Yeah, so fairly familiar.

SPEAKER_02 (41:39):
Yeah, he was at a stand that was new, uh new to
him.
Um, he might have sat there onceor twice before, but it wasn't
uh one of the original owner'sstands.
So it was a little new to him.
But I mean, from where you parkthe truck, he was sitting in a
tree 50 yards away.
From where a regular personwould park their truck, where I
drive my truck, it's like fiveyards away.

(42:01):
But most people aren't gonnawant to go down the last 50
yards of the road off of themain road.
Um, so anyway, so we're we'releaving this far block, and uh,
I think we had gotten one or twobears, so it was, you know,
we're coming back in the darklike 11 at night, and we hit the
service hill, and both of me andDamon, the other uh the my my

(42:21):
business partner, our phonesstart just going off.
And we're like, well, uh-oh,this can't be good.
And uh so we check, and the theguests from the other group who
who we had their their buddiesin the back of the truck were
telling us that uh the the othertwo, Jeff and his brother,
weren't back at camp yet.

(42:41):
And now they're hunting 20minutes from the lodge, so they
should have been back 45 minutesago.
So we're going like, okay, well,maybe they just got one and
they're trying to deal with itwithout us, or you know, who
knows?
So we're trying to be positive.
Well, then, you know, we goanother 20 minutes down the road
before we're gonna hit serviceagain.
Well, then we hit service again.

(43:02):
Same thing, our phones startgoing off.
So Damon looks um and he goes,Okay, the brother's back, but he
doesn't have Jeff.
And uh, and now our other guestsare going off, like, can you
believe he left his brother inthe woods?
So now we're like, man, nowthey're fighting at camp about
like why would you have hisbrother?
Do you want us to go get him?
And and so we're like, oh myGod.

(43:24):
Of course, we're thinking theworst, right?
Like uh, he fell out of thestand or he had a heart attack,
or yeah, yeah.
We're thinking, like, oh god,what we're screwed here, what's
going on?
And so then now again, we haveto go another 30 minutes without
service, and uh, and we're gonnabasically be almost at the lodge
when we get service.

(43:44):
So we're freaking out.
Like, we're like, my god, likehow you know, we shouldn't have,
I guess we shouldn't have leftthem, and and um so you're
thinking all kinds of things,right?
Yeah, and and like I said, ourhunters are arguing with the
other guy.
He's going, man, the stand's 40yards from the truck.
Like, why didn't you go get yourbrother?
Like, what if what if he didfall out of the tree, you know?

(44:05):
So they're fighting with thebrother, and so we get there and
we're trying to piece the piecestogether.
Well, the the brother had leftuh because they were fighting.
Well, I guess while he wasdriving back to look for his
brother, his brother had gottena text through to him.
So what had happened was thebrother in the tree, he had a
sow with uh with two cubs infront of him, and down the hill

(44:29):
came this nice boar that hewanted to shoot.
So he said, Well, he figuredI'll shoot the boar and the sow
and the cubs will run off.
Perfect, right?
Wrong.
He shot the boar, the cubs wentup both trees on each side of
his tree stand.
So now he's in the middle ofthese this clump of three trees.

(44:50):
He's in the middle tree, and hesays, There's a cub to my left
at my eye height, and a cub tomy right at eye height.
And both of them are looking atme talking to mom, and he goes,
Meanwhile, this bear died likeright there.
And of course, you know, ifyou're not familiar, when a bear
dies, it makes a what's called adeath moan.
So it's you know, moaning and sohe says, now the sow is high

(45:13):
alert from the gunshot, from thethe the boar playing.
And it's coming over and anddealing with the cubs.
Well, at this point, the cubshave caught on to him, so
they're talking to the mum.
So he says, Well, this sow isclimbing his ladder of his tree
stand.
Oh no, at the sow, keeping itdown.

(45:33):
Well, this went on until like 11at night.
So he was in the stand the wholetime, and he said, Every time he
tried and come down, the sowwould run him back up.
So it turned out to be a goodthing that the brother never
walked in.
Um because he said he's like, Idon't want to shoot the the sow,
but he said, like, he's like, Iwould shoot shots, you know,

(45:56):
just into the woods uh behindher.
And he said it I finally stoppedbecause he said it was just
making her matter.
And these cubs wouldn't comedown.
He goes, There I am in the treefor three hours.
Be like, please just climb down.
Yeah.
And uh well, and the and the sowwouldn't leave the cubs.
Yeah, and and he sells bear baitin Wisconsin and and does some
bear, like he bear hunts a lot.

(46:18):
That's what he hunts for mostly.
Um, and he's telling us when hegot back, he's like, I've never
been that scared in my life.
He goes, I I've never shakenlike that.
He goes, There was an hourperiod where for the whole hour,
he goes, I couldn't have climbeddown if I wanted to.
He was loud as no way.
And uh he goes, I was justshaking.
And he goes, I guess when hisbrother was yelling at him, he

(46:38):
was trying to yell back at hisbrother to to come in with a gun
to see if that would maybe scareher off far enough that that uh
like a gun in a light to try andyeah get him out of there, but
they couldn't hear each other.
And uh he was so shaken up thathe never even went in.
It was a nice bear.
He's like, No, you guys go getit, just bring it back.
I don't care, I don't want apicture with it.
I don't he goes, I'm not goingin there again.

(47:00):
And uh he this was, I mean, welike 11:30 when he got back
there, and he was still shaking.
Like, and he said this has beenfrom like five o'clock on, and
uh so we had never had anythinglike anything like it.
And I don't know what this guyhas with uh with stuff like that
happening to him, but uh he wasthe same guy that a few years

(47:20):
ago they were we were lookingfor a bear that his brother had
shot, and uh we're bloodtrailing it, and he was like,
Oh, it's a nice day.
I'm just gonna sit in the box ofthe truck here.
Well, he ended up laying down inthe sun in the back of the
truck, and he said he was justabout to doze off, and he said,
I thought you guys were back andsomething was messing with my
foot.
He looked down, there was asmall bear sniffing his foot.

(47:43):
No way.
Well, we're we're parked rightbeside the bait in our truck,
right?
There's probably bear bait inthe box.
So he goes, Yeah, here's thebear sniffing my foot.
He goes, I woke up and you know,almost crapped my pants.
He said, I'm yelling at thebear, and the bear's kind of
looking at me like, what theheck?
Yeah, that's not what I expectedto be.
Yeah, he's got a knock for beingin the middle of uh the crazy,

(48:04):
our our crazy bear stories, thisfella.

SPEAKER_03 (48:07):
That's cool, that's great.
Wow.
That's uh that uh I I don't knowhow I would react stuck in a
because you never want to bebetween uh a mud uh uh a sow and
the cubs.
And he had he was between thecubs and the sow underneath.
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (48:25):
It was uh I couldn't imagine.
And I mean it made of course hedidn't know what had happened.
Like he said, finally the sowhad left you know long enough
that he just ran out to the mainroad.
He's like, I have no clue wherethey are.
So then, of course, me and Damonhave to go in and we're kind of
looking around like, well, whereis she?
Yeah, and we're trying to dealwith this bear.
So if I don't think I've everbeen so worried, you know,

(48:46):
dealing with a bear in the bush.
One of us was just on high alertwith the spotlight, just
scanning 360, while the otherguy's trying to gut it and throw
it onto the quad and get theheck out of there.

SPEAKER_03 (48:57):
Were the cubs uh out of the tree at that point?

SPEAKER_02 (48:59):
Yeah, they had gone out of the tree, and that's when
he snuck off.
Oh, gotcha.
Yeah, he said they finallyclimbed down after he's I think
it had been like three or fourhours of uh him being stuck
there with them.
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (49:11):
Yeah.
I think did he take anypictures?

SPEAKER_02 (49:14):
He said he like he's like, I was so freaked out.
He goes, There was no pointwhere I ever even thought of it.
And he goes, and then it gotdark.
So he goes, I could just I knewthey were there because I'd
shine the light on them.
But he said, if I shined thelight on them, they would you
know cry and then the mum wouldget mad.
So he's like, I just sat thereshaking.

SPEAKER_03 (49:35):
No way.
So uh aside from that, um, whatwas uh some of the nicest bears
that you harvested this year?
Did you get any cinnamons orblondes or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02 (49:47):
I don't think we got any color bears this year.
Um we got a lot of uh whiteblazes.
Some big big bears with whiteblazes.
The year before we had gottentwo or two, two cinnamons, um,
which were both real nice.
Um, but we get mostly uh oneswith the white blazes.

(50:08):
We get a lot, like I think 50 or60 percent of them almost have
white blazes that we end upgetting.
Um so we got some really nicebears with with white blazes.
Uh the biggest bear uh was justover 400 pounds.
Uh that's a good size bear.
Yeah, yeah.
We've been getting lucky thelast uh I think it's three years
in a row now.

(50:29):
We've gotten one over 400, whichin the spring is, I mean, that
bear come fall time's gonna walkaround at probably like he might
even push 600.

unknown (50:37):
Wow.

SPEAKER_02 (50:40):
Usually they can add up to you know a third or more
of their weight in this in thesummer because they don't think
they're pretty lean comespringtime after they've been
sitting in the dens all winter.
Yeah.
Um so we've been pretty happywith that.
Um last year.

SPEAKER_03 (50:55):
And just give the folks an idea of the physical
size of a bear that in the inthe fall is 600 pounds and in
the spring is four.
Like uh, what can you compare itto to size?

SPEAKER_02 (51:09):
Well, I mean, the easiest way for a lot of people
is so a bear that size onaverage is gonna be over seven
feet from nose to tail, which ismeasured uh square.
Um so if you can imagine, likewhen we skin out the bear, uh,
or actually the easiest way,when you're looking at that bear
standing there, from the tip ofhis tail to the tip of his nose

(51:32):
is I think the one this year wasseven foot two inches.
Wow.
So then if you think about if hestands on his hind legs, that's
gonna be uh that's gonna be tenfeet tall, right?

SPEAKER_03 (51:44):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Because he's got the extra twofeet for his back hind legs.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's that's bigger than Iexpected.

SPEAKER_02 (51:55):
Yeah.
So any we always tell guys, anylike uh a bear over 300 pounds
in the springs, a good bear,most of those bears are gonna be
probably over about six footfour in that from nose to tail.
Yeah.
Um, and then they're gonna belike they're when they're
standing there.
If you can imagine a 55-gallondrum, their back is gonna be

(52:16):
level with that drum if it'sstanding up.
Wow.
So they're I mean, they're big,they're they're a big bear.
Not all our bears that we get,obviously, are that big.
Um but uh uh uh for the mostpart, I would say I think we
average about 70% of them are300 pounds.
Yeah, and I would say the onesthat aren't 300 pounds are uh

(52:38):
usually the the hunter didn'treally care if it was 300
pounds.
If that if that makes sense.
You know, a lot of the guys arejust it was a big black bear and
I shot it and they don't carethat it was only 200 pounds.
Or um, we always joke that thehappiest guy in camp every year
usually shoots the smallestbear.

SPEAKER_03 (52:58):
Yeah, yeah, because it's his first or whatever,
whatever it might.

SPEAKER_02 (53:01):
He just got excited, and and even like this year we
had a guy, it was his, I don'twant to screw this up, but it
was like his, it was between his65th and 75th bear that he had
harvested.
Um, so a very, very avid bearhunter.
I can't remember how many timeshe had been to Canada, but I do
remember he he quit using a gunafter his 40th bear.

(53:22):
So now he just uses either amuzzle loader or uh mostly
archery.
But uh this particular time hewas muzzle loading and and we
went in to get him, and uh hegoes, Man, I just I just shot
the biggest bear you guys aregonna see this year.
And he had passed, he actuallypassed the 400 pounder the night
before.
So we were just like, oh my god,what are what are we about to

(53:45):
get our hands into?
And where we put him was a thepictures were this huge, huge
bear.
He had been there for a fewyears, and um he uh ended up um
like he was shaking so bad wecouldn't we had to help him walk
out to the truck and and he hadhe had just shot it.
So uh he said uh like he's likelet's just give it a little

(54:09):
time.
It was a big bear.
Um, but he goes, it was it washuge, and and he goes, I'm just
shaking so bad.
So we're like, okay, we take himto the truck and we'll we'll go
pick up.
There was one more hundred topick up and then we'll come
back.
And so this whole time he's justgoing, like, my God.
And he's telling us the storyand everything.
And so we go in and and we getto the, he's telling us, okay,

(54:30):
it was at the barrel, so we'restanding there, and I look over,
I go, Well, it's right there.
He had thought it had ran upthis hill, and but I could see
it well right away.
It it I mean, it was the150-pound bear.
Like it was the smallest one wehad gotten all year.
No, but he goes, That can't bemy bear.
I'm going, well, unless somebodyelse was in here with a muzzle

(54:52):
loader.
Look at the hole in it, it'sdefinitely your bear.
And he's sitting there and andhe just he couldn't figure it
out and figure out what hadhappened.
And and uh so and we're ofcourse, you know, trying to be
like, hey, whatever, you know,it was getting close to dark,
and and you know, they look big,especially when they come out,
they have all their winter fur,right?
So they're fluffy.

(55:13):
And he's going, No, this is my70th bear.
I can't be making thosemistakes.
So so long story short, we dropthem off, and the next morning
I'm I'm talking with the thehead of their group, is a guy
who's hunted with me for 10years now.
And and John goes, Yeah, he'spretty uh he's pretty worked up
about that bear.
He goes, he wants you guys toknow that from now on, you guys

(55:36):
are gonna pick him up a halfhour earlier than everyone else.
He's not he goes, he's notsitting the last half hour
anymore.
He doesn't trust, he's blaminghis eyes, it's his old eyes.
Oh yeah.
And so he goes, Yeah.
So then later that afternoon,he's telling us, he goes, yeah,
when I come back in uh 2027, Iwant you guys to pick me up at
sunset, not at, you know, thenot don't give me that half hour

(55:58):
after sunset until the end oflegal shooting light, because it
must be my eyes that that causedthat.
Uh it I I would never make thatmistake.

SPEAKER_03 (56:07):
Well, the ego is uh is a tough thing to deal with,
you know.

SPEAKER_02 (56:11):
I was like, you know what?
At least you were willing toadmit that you obviously made a
mistake and try it, try andchange something because we get
a lot of guys that they screwsomething up, and it was, you
know, we had we had a guy thevery next day he wounded a bear
uh with his bow and he had takena shot that we told him, you
know, when when the hunters comein, we make them sign a contract

(56:32):
that basically says you're onlygonna take a broadside shot,
you're only gonna shoot when thebear's at the barrel, you're not
gonna go looking around withoutus.
You know, pretty basic stuff.
Um, but just because we get alot of guys, they get excited,
and I think it's from a lot ofthem are deer hunters.
If the bear is like behind thebarrel looking at them, they get
nervous, like, oh, he's on tome, he's gonna leave.

(56:53):
I gotta shoot him now.
And we always tell him a lot oftimes you just gotta let him
come in.
And you know, we set up thestands and the baits um so that
the bear has to come inbroadside for the most part.
Yeah.
Every once in a while, they dosomething silly and and and find
a way to not be.
But for the most part, they haveto walk in broadside.
So, anyways, this fella took ashot that that we would have

(57:15):
liked him not to take.
And uh instead of uh like wetracked it and and we could tell
that night that the bear, youknow, he was just moving too
good and had gone too far thatthat we weren't gonna find him.
But we told him we'll go in thenext day and we'll we'll take
another look.
Um and of course he had everyexcuse in the book.

(57:35):
And then we come to find outthat he was trying to tell the
rest of the guys in camp that itwas the the stand was too close.
Um, and that was the problem.
And thank God we we have prettygood guests that have hunted
with us for so many years.
The same guy I was talking aboutthat was telling me about the
other guy wanting to uh not huntthe last half hour.
He he goes, Yeah, I stood up atStopper and I said, Mark, you

(57:59):
took a shot they told you not totake.
And if you can't hit a bear at15 yards, what what do you want
them to do?
He goes, You can and he said, Inour group alone, we've killed
four bears out of that stand.
So he goes, It's obviously agood working stand.
He goes, The only difference isthe other four of us waited till

(58:19):
the bear got to the barrel.
Like, yeah, and uh so he he hadall sorts of reasons that we we
you gotta change this and yougotta change that.
And I go, Well, I think if youwould have just waited to make a
better shot, you would haveprobably had a better, uh,
better chance of getting thatresult.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's neat to see both sidesof it.
Everybody's always got anexcuse.
Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 (58:39):
And then um, if you wound a bear, is that your
huntover?

SPEAKER_02 (58:43):
For us, yeah.
Yeah, we'll let you sit thereagain for that bear if we think
we can trust you um to onlyshoot that bear.
Yeah.
Um, and that's kind of like ajudgment call we make at the
time.
Yeah.
Because we've had guys, we usedto let everybody sit there, and
then we had one guy that uhdecided to take a shot at

(59:06):
another bear and uh and actuallyended up wounding it too.
So so that uh that ruined it foreverybody.
The old bad apple ruins it foreverybody's story.

SPEAKER_03 (59:16):
Ah, for sure.
Did that guy come back thefollowing year?

SPEAKER_02 (59:19):
Uh you know what?
He was back this year, actually.
He was with uh he was thebrother in the the crazy story.

SPEAKER_03 (59:24):
Oh, Radon.

SPEAKER_02 (59:25):
Yeah, yeah, he was back.
So he and to be honest, he stillthinks he did nothing wrong.
Um, but whatever.
That he does he did get achuckle that he said, or his
brother got a bigger chucklewhen we started with the
contract.
He goes, This is for my brother,isn't it?
And I said, Well, if the shoefits, wear it, I suppose.

SPEAKER_03 (59:42):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, no, that's for sure.
And no problems with him since.

SPEAKER_02 (59:49):
No, no, no, he was actually uh he was really good.
And and he said, like he kindof, you know, he he knew, and he
just said like the old ownersdidn't really care if you shot
10 bears to get to get one.
So they kind of were uh the oldschool meat meat hunter owners,
you know, the lodges that areare selling like you know, you

(01:00:09):
can come up and keep 50 crappiesa day.
There they were that kind ofowners where the new owners are
kind of progressing towards thethe conservation side, I would
say more, which I think isprobably prominent in the lodge
business, at least in Ontarionow.
I think it is now.
I think the meat hunters arekind of dying out.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:27):
Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that for sure.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:31):
I mean, with the money you're spending to come up
here, at the end of the day, ifyou're doing it for meat, like
you know, like a lot of ourhunters say, like, for what they
pay for the bear hunt, theycould buy a beef cow back home.
So, you know, it's a lot of whatyou can say it's about the meat,
but at the end of the day it'sit's uh more about the enjoyment
and the the uh the fun of it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, with the price of beef uhthese days, things might change.
But uh that's true.
You never know.
You never know.
But uh listen, Kyle, thank youso much.
Um uh now just before we signoff, uh how can people get a
hold of you, whether it be alodge owner up north uh looking

(01:01:12):
for bait, or a uh uh a personlooking for a bear hunt, or how
can how can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:19):
So I can always be reached at my cell phone, uh,
which is probably the easiest,which is uh 807-738-2512.
You can call and text me therepretty much 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
Uh, I answer.
And um, and then uh otherwise werun most of the hunting stuff
through Up North Outfitting, um,which is uh our our outfitting

(01:01:43):
business.
We run uh we do deer hunts, bearhunts, and then uh the bear
hunts is what I run.
My dad takes care of most of thedeer hunting stuff.
Um, and then uh we do do somemoose stuff off and on when we
can get the tags.
Um so that that's on Facebook,uh Up North Outfitting.
Uh and we we're posting therepretty regular.
But for the minnow stuff, it'seasier, yeah, just to call me at

(01:02:06):
the at the phone number.
Um the name of that businessagain.
Uh it's Mickle Creek BaitCompany.
I think if you Google MCBC orMCBC Baits, it it comes up now
on Google.
Um and then guys can reach methere all the time.
Beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:23):
Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah.
No, listen, thank you so muchfor uh for joining us again.
Um I always love to uh to followback up and see how your season
went and what uh interestingthings happened and and the
Diary family, I'm sure, is thesame.
Um and uh hopefully we'll uhwe'll uh get you back on here um

(01:02:47):
in the new year in thespringtime and uh and talk about
how the the bug season.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:54):
Anytime, uh anytime you need uh yeah, a bug tracker,
you guys can just give me a calland we'll we'll catch in with
the bug report.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:01):
Nice, nice, right on.
And listen, Merry Christmas,brother.
Merry Christmas to you too.
Yeah, it's that time of year.
And and folks, thank you so muchfor getting to this point.
Really appreciate it.
And um uh thank you to our uhour fine producers and crack uh
research team uh over at uh overat Pine Post and and uh the

(01:03:25):
Outdoor Journal Radio Network,um Anthony Mancini and Dean
Taylor.
Um and uh uh thank you as wellto Lakeside Marine in Red Lake,
Ontario.
Uh that is the place you need tobe if you're anywhere close.
Uh the uh service is uh isoutstanding.

(01:03:45):
Uh and uh head on over tofishingcanada.com where you can
get in on a ton of giveaways.
And it is Christmas time, folks.
There is a huge assortment ofFishing Canada uh gear and and
everything else on the website.
So don't hesitate to buy someFish and Canada Christmas

(01:04:06):
presents.
I know I always enjoy those whenSanta leaves them for me under
the uh under the Christmas tree.
So, and uh night night, Nixon.
And on that note, thus brings usto the conclusion of another
episode of Diaries of a LodgeOwner, Stories of the North.

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:26):
I'm a good old boy, never meaning no harm.
I'll be the whole you ever saw.
Been reeling in the hog sincethe day I was born.
Bendin' my rug, stretching mymind.
Someday I might on a lodge andthat'd be fine.

(01:04:51):
I'll be making my way, the onlyway I know how.
Working hard and sharing thenorth with all of my pals.
About a lodge and live my dream.
And now I'm here talking abouthow life can be as good as it

(01:05:15):
seems.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:05:23):
Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Viola.
And I'm Pete Bowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Angie and I willbe right here in your ears,
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm.
Now, what are we going to talkabout for two hours every week?
Well, you know there's gonna bea lot of fishing.

SPEAKER_06 (01:05:44):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to cod them, and they wereeasy to catch.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:49):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors.
From athletes.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:56):
All the other guys would go golfing.
Me and Garchomp Turks, and allthe Russians would go fishing.

SPEAKER_06 (01:06:02):
The scientists.
But now that we're reforestingand letting things, it's the
perfect transmission environmentfor line with these.

SPEAKER_07 (01:06:14):
You will taste it.
And whoever else will pick upthe 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.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:33):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Oulette, and I washonored to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.

(01:06:55):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced to thebirch-hungry fungus known as
Chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by
indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
After nearly a decade ofharvest, use, testimonials, and

(01:07:16):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession.
And I now spend my lifededicated to improving the lives
of others through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.

(01:07:37):
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Underthe Canopy podcast, I'm going to
take you along with me to seethe places, meet the people that
will help you find your outdoorpassion and help you live a life
close to nature and under thecanopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.