Episode 87: Betting It All on Crow Rock - One Man's Leap into Lodge Ownership - Diaries of a Lodge Owner

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's amazing just to be able to be so diverse in what
you're offering clients.
And that's the thing.
Like people, everybody getsstuck into their same thing.
You know, oh yeah, we catchthem here.
This is where I go every time.
But to be able to take someoneand put them in something that's
totally foreign whether it'sstructure, you know, current
water clarity, fish species Tobe able to do all that within

(00:30):
one day is something that youjust can't do in many places.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast
Networks Diaries of a LodgeOwner Stories of the North.
On today's show, willie and Ihave the pleasure to talk to a
great young man who has justjumped off the cliff, so to
speak, and become a new lodgeowner.
He is someone who I connectedwith right away because he

(00:57):
reminded me of the person I waswhen I bought the Chaudière
Lodge.
Even though his journey is justbeginning and mine has come to
an end.
We are just on different partsof the same road, one that is
definitely less traveled.
The parallels between us don'tstop there.
He's the same age as I was whenI started, and his burning

(01:22):
passion for creating outdoorexperiences to share with the
world is hot and infectious, andyou can't help but love this
guy.
And it is now our pleasure tointroduce to all of you the new
owner and operator of Crow RockLodge, sean McGaughy.

(01:44):
Of Crow Rock Lodge, seanMcGaughy.
On this show we talk about whatled and motivated Sean to jump
into the northern tourismindustry.
Willie and I tell some storiesand share some advice that we
learned from our experiencesowning a lodge, and tossed in a
few well-placed stories.
So, folks, if you ever wonderedabout what it takes to jump

(02:06):
into fishing lodge ownership,and if you have what it takes,
this one's for you.
So strap up, hold on as we walkdown a couple of paths that
have led a few of us to the sameplace.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Here's our conversation with Sean.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
McGaughy.
Hello folks and welcome toanother episode of Diaries of a
Lodge Owner Stories of the Northand today is going to be an
amazing episode.
We've got Willie the Oil manhere with us.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Hello Willie.
How's everybody doing today,Stevie?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, everybody's good on this side.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Diaries family Diaries family out there.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yes, and we've got Sean.
And Sean, pronounce your lastname for me again, because I
don't want.
I want to make sure that we getthis right.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, it's a bit of a tongue twister, but once you
get her, it's okay.
It's Sean McGaughy.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
But McGaughy, wow.
Hey, listen, when you grow upwith a last name like Ned Zwicky
.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
I got it.
Yeah, that's it Close enough.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
And Sean folks out at Diaries, our Diaries family.
I just I want to tell you frommy perspective why this is an
exciting episode for me to do.
Because as I sit here on thisside of the mic and we've got

(03:42):
Sean on the other side I'mbasically looking at myself,
although I wasn't as slim andgood looking as Sean is when I
was 33, 34 years old.
Sean has just bought a lodge upin Kenora on Lake of the Woods
called Crow Rock Lodge, and he'sdoing it basically the same way

(04:04):
and the same age that I did.
So I'm really excited to diveinto your story, sean.
So let's start kind of from thebeginning.
You're a young man and wheredid you find the love for the
lodge business and fishing andhow did this adventure start for

(04:30):
you that's led you to justbuying a lodge?

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, no for sure.
First off, I'd like toappreciate you guys having me on
Looking forward to it.
Got to watch some of the lodgeones and there's some cool
stories on there, so it's niceto be able to jump in and add my
story into the pile.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
And uh, good to hear, good to hear good to reach out
and meet everybody for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Uh, my story is kind of unique.
I kind of have got a lot ofdifferent aspects into it.
So my family history we'vealways been a very outdoor
oriented family.
My dad, he actually is abiologist by trade.

(05:18):
He's got his master's degree infisheries biology and he did
his.
He actually just retired thisfall, but he did a full career
at the super cool mnr.
Yeah, so he did the biology partfor the better part of his
career and then as he gottowards the end um, he's always
been a kind of hands-on guy andhe transitioned more to wanting

(05:42):
to be out in the field, more sohe actually actually towards the
end of his career he jumpedover to the conservation side
and started off as just aregular patrolling conservation
officer.
But as he progressed hebasically turned into oh, he'll
be pissed, you know he'll beupset that I can't remember the

(06:03):
exact thing, but he basicallyturned into an investigator side
of it.
So it was like the bigger hedealt with all the bigger stuff.
He wasn't out there checkinglicenses, he was building the
big cases and stuff along thatline.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Chasing down poachers .

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, so obviously from the time I was a really
young guy, we were always superoutdoor oriented, and I mean
from the time I could fit in hisbackpack he was hauling me
around fishing and huntingeverywhere.
So he, my family history isactually from southern Ontario.

(06:41):
They're all kind of based northof Huntsville in that carney
emsdale area and my dad reallybeing so outdoor oriented before
, basically when we were born,he started moving us further
north and north and north and um, you know, when I was really
young we spent a good littlestretch in ignace and then he

(07:04):
just kept going to the Gracelandand we got to Lake of the Woods
and that was it.
I remember, you know, Iremember being very young and
obviously real estate wasdifferent than what it is now up
here, but I remember we had a.
He was looking at a place onthe Winnipeg River and the house
was like, ah yeah, out of placeon the winnipeg river, and the

(07:26):
house was like, oh yeah, andthen there was a hundred yard
stretch between the house andthe river and it was all like
tag alders, 20 feet high, andthe previous owners didn't even
have a trail down there.
And I remember him hauling medown to the water and we
bushwhacked down and got to theedge of the water and he's like,
yep, we're buying it.
So that that was the initialhow I kind of came to kenora.
And then obviously you knowpretty much my whole middle

(07:50):
schooling heist.
Like you know, we came when Iwas probably like 10, I think we
moved to kenora and so I'vealways had that outdoor side of
it and then kind of the coolside of it was my best friend
growing up.
His family is one of these, uh,original lake family like

(08:14):
commercial fishing families thathave been on lake the woods.
So I got to expose, I gotexposed to lake of the woods
through that family, a lot of it, and uh, and who's that?

Speaker 4 (08:24):
I don't know who that would be.
Who's that?
Those the bouchers?
Oh, the bouchers.
Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's how I kind of got my foot in the door, um with
that, and so I've been able.
You know, from a young man Iwas exposed to kind of both ends
of the blade, if you could saythere was, you know, my dad with
the uh, you know the biologyend of it and that science.
And then I was also.

(08:50):
I spent all of my time runningaround with this family on the
lake and they were traditionallylike commercial fishing family
on the lake.
So I mean, their knowledge isno one knows Lake of the Woods
better than those guys do.
As far as the north end of thelake Far superior than most yeah
.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Let's talk a little bit about that.
Like that experience must havebeen great, and for a commercial
fishery, I'm assuming that itwas walleye they were targeting.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, so basically from really around the time when
I first started hanging outwith them, they were in the
process.
Their commercial fishinglicenses were bought out, so
they weren't I've done throughthat.
We would do like side licensesand stuff, like growing up I was
always.
We always worked as kids, likethrough that family, so we

(09:37):
weren't at school, we were, thatwas like our fun, but you're
still technically working, so wedid get to do a bunch of the
commercial stuff and that was.
That's a side that people don'tunderstand unless they see it
firsthand.
And unfortunately, thecommercial fishing industry as a
whole is nothing like what itused to be anymore.

(09:59):
Um, it's really it's fallencompletely to the wayside.
Um, but yeah, so I got exposedto that kind of end of it.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
So what was one of the most interesting things you
saw out?
There when you were when youwere doing that.
I can imagine, like I'massuming, that they're using um
uh gill nets for the commercialfishery.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Um, yeah, like I said , the lake of the woods license
wasn't uh active when I was withthem, but we did.
We used to do one every fall upon cedar and peral, like where
will's?

Speaker 4 (10:35):
got experience.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
We do a white fish quote yep, we do a white fish
quote up there every fall, so Igot to spend fred, does it up
there now that old, that old boyout of yeah, yeah that's.
That was.
That's a cool lake.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
It's funny you know, buddy, there's a lot of big fish
up there.
Man, I'm telling you, likethose guys, the more that they
look at it like I've seen fishon the live scope there, dude,
that I'm like, yeah, it'sprobably a 20 pound red horse
sucker.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
that lake has the biggest red horse suckers I've
ever seen anywhere.
Honestly, you'd think they're abig goldfish when they come up.
You're like what the heck isthat?
We put one on a certified scaleand it was 20 pounds.
No, oh yeah, moss, like thescales are that big around on
there.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
Let me hop in here quick with a story.
So last year at the lodgeJarrett, so my chef, jarrett
Machete, him and we hired hisboy, rudy, and Rudy was our
dockhand and he's like, rudy's,like a really unique individual,
let's put it that way.
He is an awesome kid but he isunique.

(11:38):
So anyways, him and Jarrett gowalking down to the dock.
They're going to take a couplecasts.
You know, father and son.
Well, they see these red horsesuckers swimming in the sand.
Eh Well, rudy gets the goodidea to go and net them.
Well, he goes, and it was justso stupid.
He goes to jump off the dock.
The water is only like eightinches deep and he took like a
jump, like he was jumping in 30feet of water With this net.

(12:05):
This head jumped down sixinches of water, hit the water
like his ankles just shattered,fell right over in the sand and
the sucker pile sean just likedown towards the waterfall and
I'm like oh fuck.
Well, that was the rest of time,boys anyways, it was a good
story to see my chef and his sonjumping in the water after
those suckers of pro is funnylike that.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
But yeah, so it was.
Like it was cool to just beable to experience all that
stuff from both sides.
Like even being a young guy, Iremember I got to like do all
the neat stuff with my dad,whether it was stalking walleyes
out of a turbo water, likeopening the door and pulling the
chute and let, because theyused to be a lot more active and

(12:44):
you know the ministry as awhole.
There was a lot more programsand I remember like tagging,
yeah, tagging, and stalking andstuff along those lines.
Like I have great memoriesgrowing up of doing that and
then kind of circling backaround to the you know, the
other family that I had theprivilege of running around with
.
That's where I really learnedthe art of Lake, of the Woods,

(13:09):
because it's such a complex anddiverse body of water and it's.
It's an interesting beast tosay like it's changed so fast,
especially when it comes to theshoulder seasons and the ice.
Whereas, know, I remembergrowing up we you know you never
really see the people runningaround like you do now.

(13:29):
So you know I've got fantasticmemories and life skills that
those guys taught me, especiallywhen it comes to ice conditions
and everything along thoselines like you can't learn that
stuff in a book.
Someone has to physically showit to you.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
That's invaluable.
Yeah, you know this.
This past year at the lodgesean, we but me and holton I
pulled him out of school for ayear and a half because they
didn't have a teacher up there.
Well, I don't want to give youa long story about it, but they
just didn't have anythingavailable for his grade and uh.
So I homeschooled him and youknow what man.
That year and a half he grew asa man and an individual.
Educationally he was allstraight a's and b's like he

(14:07):
normally would have been inschool, but he learned more
about life and becoming a humanand a man, being around
everybody at that lodge, than heever would anywhere else.
So sorry to jump in there, butit was your like.
The lifestyle you grew up inwas awesome, you know, no, and
it's that's.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
That's the thing.
Mean it was always.
Don't get me wrong.
I mean I'm sure I increased myparents gray hair count
substantially when I was ayounger man, because it was.
It was a very addictinglifestyle to be around, and it
was.
It was when I got to the highschool age.
I just my mom she's a, she's ateacher by trade and she ended

(14:44):
up like doing the principalthing and the vice principal and
she would just like shake herhead at me Like you know you're
not going to school, you're outmessing around on the lake with
those boys and you know what it?
Uh, don't get me wrong.
Like we live in an age nowwhere education is like a
pivotal part of you know youneed to do it education is like

(15:07):
a pivotal part of you.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Know you need to do it, it's, but it is a pivotal
part.
But I'm going to jump in herereal quick because I've got kids
now, um, that are that range inage from 19 to um, uh, 13.
And um, I've like high schoolis a, is a must, obviously, um,
but there are so many and I'vebeen, I've been telling my kids
you know, you got to startthinking young what you want to

(15:30):
do, because I bet you, 80% ofthe people that go to college
and university never use whatthey learn.
And there is a number of peoplethat need to do college or
university for what they want todo, but that number is so much

(15:51):
smaller than it could be.
And or, or, or, taking a trade,going out and working in in the
trades, and and, and learningthat stuff at a younger age is,
um, is a path that I think fartoo few of our of our young

(16:16):
people are thinking about andtaking right.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
So and it's it there.
There is a in time like I canvividly remember.
You know, kind of through thelater part of my high school
education, you, him, I was likedad, I'm, I'm not, I'm not going
, like I'm, I'm going to workand I'm going to guide the rest

(16:50):
of my life.
My dad, like his, his father wasa selective hardwood logger
from down there in SouthernOntario, Like they would
manually, like everything wascut with chainsaw and skid out
of the bush and a lot of it wassold to furniture.
And so, you know, my dad grewup in a real, like you know, a
blue collar working household.

(17:11):
And you know we had thisconversation and you know he
said you, you can make your owndecisions.
But he said you're not.
There's going to be no freerides.
You're either going to schoolor you're working.
And so, you know, I made thedecision at a young age that I
wanted to.
You know, I just I could seewhat I could accomplish and you

(17:31):
know that's the way I wanted togo and, to be honest, it, uh, I
don't really I've never felt.
You know, they always sayhindsight's 20 20, but I still
wouldn't change my decisions ifI could go back in time.
You know, that being said, Ialso, as a young man in

(17:52):
northwestern Ontario, I meanbasically I've always kind of
prided myself on my workmanshipand so along those lines.
And so, you know, from a veryyoung age, I made a point, I put
my head down and I was like,hey, we're going to do this,
we're going to work.
And you know, that was alwaysthe thing, because you'd see
guides and stuff.

(18:12):
They'd guide through thesummertime and then in the
wintertime they'd whatever, theywouldn't work or you know,
along those lines where I alwayshad to be doing something
because I had this drive that Iwanted, always wanted something
else on top, and so really myguiding started off.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
So is that what you did right fresh out of high
school, when you made thatdecision that hey, I'm going to
work?

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, what was?

Speaker 2 (18:41):
the first job, it was guiding.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
You know, what.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
What did you do?

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Right out of high school, because I have a January
, an early birthday, so I was 18and I was in high school, my
first.
So I would guide in the summertimes when I was younger, just
kind of casually, sort ofcasually sort of.

(19:09):
And then my first full job wasI took, I got a job doing forest
firefighting and I moved towawa.
I left school because I was 18.
I moved to wawa and moved intosome like dingy mouse laden,
basement, flooded apartment andI was just in heaven because so
my dad, my dad went, did all ofhis post-secondary education in
Thunder Bay and so he gotthrough that, all that like

(19:33):
north shore trout fishing andall the streams, like I have
great memories that we used togo to Nipigan like every June
and we go stay in a motel andfish the river and like so one
of his best friends is is gourdellis.
So you know, I just was alwaysaround these guys and so I was
like, oh, I'm going to walla,I'm gonna go fish streams for
the summer.

(19:54):
And so I did that and really Ijust couldn't be away from the
lake, like from lake of thewoods, long enough.
I just it was don't get mewrong, it was amazing and there
was fantastic life experiences.
At the time british columbiawas burning up with all those uh
beetle kills, those invasivebeetles, so basically I got to

(20:16):
spend the whole summer flyingaround a helicopter bc so that
was pretty awesome.
And then, uh, yeah, basically,when I came.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Let me stop you there , let's talk about that.
That sounds like a wicked um uhexperience.
Yeah, and you know we've hadforest firefighters on um and
talked about that, but I'd loveto get your perspective yeah it
was, um, you know it was.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
It was really a great experience and it's it's funny
like I talk to thesefirefighters now and they seem
like they're struggling to getpeople to work for it, and at
the time I mean there was nobetter way, whether you were in
Ontario or shipped away on someproject fire, I mean, for

(21:02):
somebody that loves the, theoutdoors, it was the ultimate
experience.
I mean I had a little pack rodthat would fit into my fire bag.
I sacrificed extra pairs ofsocks and underwear so I can
haul more tackle, because, youknow you're, you get 50 pounds
or whatever it is, and I waslike, yeah, clothing can be
reworn, but I gotta have fishinggear.
So yeah it was who needsunderwear?

(21:23):
oh yeah, it was commando's thebest way anyway I'd tuck my
stuff in a stream and hang it upon an old jack pine to dry out
for the day.
We're good to go, but oh yeah,getting like free rain on all
those streams and stuff, and itwas.
It was awesome.
And the thing in bc, likecentral bc, water's so hard to
come by.
We'd set up these biginflatable pools and the

(21:43):
helicopters would like bucketout of these glacial streams and
dump into these pools and likeinadvertently they'd suck up
trout like rainbows out of thestreams.
They didn't go away oh yeah,there'd be trout swimming around
in the pool, so I'd be barreledin there just peeling them out,
and we'd be having trout on thefire for lunch.
People looked at me like I wasnuts, but I was like hey you

(22:04):
guys want to get a free drive,mri, go ahead I'm gonna have
fresh rainbowyeah, no doubt that's awesome,
but yeah, and then like so thatwas kind of my first real job
per se.
But like I mentioned before, itwas I just couldn't be away
from the lake.
I just just had grown into thislake kid and that's all I

(22:26):
wanted to do was be on Lake ofthe Woods and really I started.
I guess my first full time jobwasn't on Lake of the Woods, it
was at a place called East HawkLake, which is just east of
Kenora, and it was like a flyfishing oriented lodge.
It's a pretty neat spot.

(22:47):
But, um, I worked there.
For where's that place?
Is it past ted's place there?
Yeah, it's like where you knowwhere they built that new
overpass.
Yeah, like it's called hawk.
Hawk lake lodge is the actualterm for it, but everybody calls
oh yeah, everybody everybodycalls it East Hawk because
there's West Hawk on theManitoba border.
But yeah, and the you know, thiswas like two owners ago or

(23:12):
three owners ago.
Yeah, it would have been.
It would have been neat tospend more time there.
Spend more time there, uh,unfortunately, uh well, put it
in layman's terms my best friendwho, like, introduced me, his
family, he actually passed awaywhen we were 18 and so he passed

(23:33):
away when I was at that lodgeso I had to.
I got the call that he'd beenin an accident and passed away
and I was guiding and my guests.
I was like guys, I go Like,basically my brother just passed
away and like yeah, no for sure, yeah.
And I got back to the dock andthe owner at the time he's not
associated with the placeanymore, but you know, I got to

(23:54):
the dock and I was just 18 and Iwas like crying and like messed
up and he's like, well, he'slike you gotta, you can't leave.
I was like, oh sorry, I'mleaving that was uh, so I after
that, um, that led me into theplace.
So I came back and kind ofcentered myself for a couple

(24:15):
weeks and then we've always hada close family friend have been
the clinton family that owns ashrapids lodge on lake of the,
and yeah, that's pretty much howI started on.
Lake of the Woods was at AshRapids, so it's kind of on the
west end of the lake and theirbig selling features.
It's right at the mouth ofShoal Lake and you know, at the

(24:38):
time I was just green behind theears, showed up with my one
ugly stick and that was it, abox of jigs, and just wanted to
learn.
And Shoal Lake was.
I mean now there's mappingoptions and like everything has
changed so much about all ofLake of the Woods.
Now we have such great mappingand everything that.
But at the time I mean Iremember showing up and I was

(25:03):
just like this little kid showedup and all these guides were,
you know they've been there for20 years, most of them all from
the Shoal Lake community.
And here I come up the docklike OK, here we go.
And you know it was.
I had this like paper map.
Obviously there was no GPS oranything.

(25:23):
And Andrew goes.
Well, I'm going to put you with, uh, with this guy.
He's been coming for like 20years.
Basically, you just gotta drive.
He'll tell you where to go.
Um, his name was Terry McBrayer, he's from.
Kentucky.
And, uh, that was the beginningof an amazing friendship.
But first day Terry goes.
He looks at me, he goes boy,you ever been to the big water?

(25:45):
And I was like no, sir, I'venever been into Shoal Lake.
He's like, well, buckle up,we're going for a ride.
I was like, oh no, so the farend of Shoal Lake actually goes
into Manitoba.
And as we're driving, he looksback.
He goes you got a Manitobafishing license.
I was like, no, sir, I don'teven know how to get there.
He's like I'm going to show you.
And we take off and like you'venever been on Shoal Lake, when

(26:07):
you come out of Shoal LakeNarrows across the middle, you
can't see the far side, it'sjust ocean.
And I remember, just like atthe back, like just shaking like
a leaf, there's just reefseverywhere.
Terry's up there doing thisleft, left, right, and we get

(26:29):
like halfway there and there'sthis narrows.
And he goes boy, right, rightin the middle.
You just gotta line her up.
I'm like, okay, so we line itup.
And I'm like, right here, terry, oh yeah, you're fine.
Her pow.
We freaking cracked a reef withus 50 horse, it was a brand new
boat motor too.
No, gagged it.
And on the rev limber, I'm like, oh my goodness, I look back, I

(26:49):
trim it up, whole bottom end'sgone, everything.
I'm just like well, basicallyjust shaking.
And terry looks back, he's like, huh, I guess those canadian
rocks move.
I was like I don't know, terry,oh no, so we, we actually.
I paddled us over to a cottagethat was nearby and luckily

(27:10):
enough the guy had a phone, soof course I had to call andrew.
I was like andrew, we're, we'reout by hell, diver off,
dominique.
I said we hit a rock.
He's like well, put a prop on.
I was like, well, there's nobottom man, so nothing to put a
prop on.
Sorry, was like well there's nobottom man, so sorry, brother so
he brings another boat so weswitch into the other boat and

(27:32):
can't make this story up, so offwe go again.
So we go fishing around andwe're having.
I was like, oh, and out there,it's just crystal clear water.
And terry showing me all thesespots, and there's back then,
like the pressure was so minimalcompared to what it is now,
like there's four pound schoolsof four pounders swimming around
and he's like, well, get yourrod out.

(27:53):
I was like, no, no, I'm justhere.
He's like no, no, we're fishingokay.
So we ended up we were havinglike the best day.
So we head off back to thelodge and, uh, you know, I was
always very adamant about likeboat control and it's one thing
I always like preach to youngguides is like being mindful of
boat control, like with yourguests casting and everything.

(28:15):
And we get back to dock andTerry gives me the nod.
He's like, oh, yeah, we'regoing to have a good run
together.
And I was like, ok, so the nextday we come down and morning,
mr sean, you ready.
I was like, okay, terry, whereare we going today?
And we take off the oppositedirection and we're on lake of
the woods.
So there's a map, at least apaper map.

(28:35):
So I'm running around with mymap and he's giving me the left
and right and we come up to thisnarrows line it up with this
pine tree and that one.
over there I'm looking at themap on my knee and it's blowing
around.
I'm trying to not make it soobvious that I'm completely lost
.
Yeah, right through here, rightthrough here, there used to be
an old lady lived up there.

(28:56):
We'd trade her crappies forcigarettes and I was like, okay,
we go running through this backbay.
I remember looking down and I'mlike this is shallow, like
there's rocks everywhere andTerry's just doing this on the
bow, little left, little right.
Sure enough, ker-pow.
We smack another one, wholeskag this time and hurled one
blade of the prop over.
So I had another prop.

(29:22):
So, yeah, two days, two bigrock smacks.
So I switch the prop on and wefish the rest of the day and I
get back and I remember we idledin the dock and andrew's stand
there and he goes oh, you didn'thit anything today.
And terry goes no rocks, just abig turtle got the best of us.
We hit one of them, big dangsnappers.
He says like, glaring at me,I'm just like I don't know what
to tell you.

(29:42):
Yeah that was my first two daysever guiding on lake of the
woods double skaggers oh no, oh,that's awesome yeah but it was
uh, that was the beginning of agreat thing.
I uh kind of on and off workedfor andrew and tannis for 10 or
12 years and through that kindof once I got my foot into the

(30:04):
door and especially theclientele, especially all of
like may and june.
First half july there it wasall mostly guys fishing small
mouth and through that like fishdoing it all the time.
That's where I really got myfoot into the door.
As far as, like the fishingpeer group, canora is really

(30:24):
neat in the fact that we havethis unbelievable bass
tournament scene and we've justpumped out world-class anglers
so really like that's, you know.
Then through that I startedhanging out with jamie bruce.
Like we became best friends andfished together like all the
time.
And then, you know, I got metup with Gussie and just like

(30:45):
through that.
So I just had this awesome peergroup around me and you know
both of those guys have been cannever thank them enough for
everything that they've shown me.
You know, gussie, when I reallydecided that this is what I
want to do for a living andguide full-time, g gussy kind of
took me under his wing and, youknow, allowed me to be a part

(31:07):
of, like all of his fall huntingand wolf guiding in the winter
time and everything, and reallyopened my eyes to that kind of
the upper echelon of the fishingcommunity.
So I got to meet all thesegreat people and, you know, be
part of all these like Linderphoto shoots and then, yeah, I
mean just kind of grew fromthere and really just went all

(31:30):
into it and got to see, you know, the amazingness that can be
what it is to fish inNorthwestern Ontario and yeah,
so kind of through that I mean Idid, I did the lodge guiding
thing and then eventually gottogether enough money, bought
myself a big bass boat and thenfrom there bought myself a big

(31:55):
Alumacraft and started doing myown guiding thing.
And yeah, but through all that Imean it's the thing with Kenora
.
You know there's lots of youngguys coming up and everybody,
you know there's lots of youngguys coming up and everybody,
this new age that we live intowith social media and youtube
and all along all these otherthings, there's so many more

(32:15):
avenues now for people to beinvolved in the fishing industry
.
It's not just a cut and drylike guide or not guide, but the
one thing that people like,especially, especially young,
young people coming up.
I mean there's no better way toget your foot in the door than
to go guide for one of thesemain base lodges around Canara,

(32:35):
whether it's on Lake of theWoods or any of the surrounding
bodies of water.
Especially in the age we livein now, with cost of boats and
cost of fuel like you get, youknow you can run around in a
lodge boat, you know you're notbuying your own gas, you're
making a really good wage doingit and you're just.
You're building the skills thatyou can't do anywhere else Like

(32:57):
and you get to see if you likeit.
That was the thing, like youknow, during when I was full on
like guiding every single day.
I mean I remember on likeguiding every single day.
I mean I remember, you know I'dput 800, a thousand hours on
like a 60 horse yamaha tiller ina year.
And you know, andrew always hadthis joke.

(33:17):
He'd be like yeah, okay, sean,here's your new boat for the
year.
The next year it'll be a rentalboat because you'll have so
many hours on it.
But that's the thing, like Icouldn't, I couldn't have ever
afforded to do that by myself.
Or, you know, know, gain, theand the other it's, it's so much
more diverse than just catchingfish.
Like, sure, catching fish is ahuge part of it, but the skills

(33:38):
that you need dealing withcustomers and you know reading
situations and building, youknow your repertoire of your
skills dealing with people,that's where you, that's where
it's cut and dry.
I mean, some of the best guidesthat I can think of aren't the
best anglers, like some of thetimes.
Sometimes the best anglers maketerrible guides.

(33:59):
They're just not.
You know, it's either their wayor no way and they're not
people.
So that was.
You know, I got to grow in thataspect and then that led me
further down the line, obviouslyworking my way up with Andrew
and Tannis at Ash Rapids.
You know I got moreresponsibility, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Well, when you show that kind of integrity, an owner
, and being able to speak fromthe point of view of somebody
who owned a lodge for over adecade and dealt with guides all
the time, the way that I couldtell who my best guides were was

(34:43):
in my dining room and talkingto people who were out on guides
.
My dining room and talking topeople who were out on guides
and um and and.
When they come in and thefishing wasn't the first thing
that they began to talk about,or they didn't catch many fish,
but they had so many otherthings to say, like how

(35:04):
wonderful the day was.
We went and did this, we sawthe osprey Abby come and grab a
carcass.
We saw this, we did that.
The guide was this, the guidewas that right.
And those are the things.
It's not just catching fish,it's the experience of being out

(35:25):
in an absolutely beautifulplace in the world and there are
a ton of them in this province,from north to south and to be
able to give somebody anexperience that the memory lasts
a lifetime, or it changes whothey are, or it lasts long

(35:47):
enough for their children thatthey say Mom, dad, when are we
going back to Shodier?
When are we going back to CrowRock Lodge, mom?
You know what I mean?
And those are the.
That's the, just like you said,it's the experience.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Like.
The other thing that peopledon't understand is like how
diverse your relationshipbecomes with these people.
It's not a simple like they'remy client.
I mean, when you think of someof these people coming for
generations and that's yeah, youknow, that's the part that
really excites me going intothis crow rock venture is the

(36:24):
repeat clientele.
There is nothing I've ever seenand it's not only just you know
, the first generation, theolder guys coming on their trip,
there's like three, fourgenerations.
You know, you talk to me.
They've been coming every yearfor 35 years.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
It's got to make you feel good knowing that you've
got that kind of clientele,because I know when I bought
Chaudière I had none, I had zero, like I mean I had.
Well, I shouldn't say that.
I think I had about 12 peoplethat were returning guests.
It was very depressed that wayand it was scary.

(37:04):
It was scary and to be able tostep into a business where
you've got a very strongreturning guest base is awesome
and key.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Crow Rock has been.
You know, it's funny likegrowing up here, it's always
been there.
So the Dasik family that hasowned it.
They've owned it since I wantto say the 40s, so there's like,
and they've owned it since Iwant to say the 40s, so there's
like, and they've built thisamazing place.
And as far as lodges go on thenorth end of the lake, I mean,
in my opinion and I've workedfor pretty much all of them over
the years in one sense oranother there isn't really a
spot that I haven't guided foror worked for, and Crow Rock has

(37:45):
always been this kind of upperechelon of what you know.
Everybody else should set theirstandard to be like, whether
it's accommodations or guidestaff or boats or anything along
those lines, or food.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
Yeah, they kind of have it all.
They're steeply raked on thelake, it's awesome to go into it
to go into it.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
When you're in the wilds of northwestern Ontario,
you need gear.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
You can trust and a team that's got your back.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
That's Lakeside Marine in Red Lake, ontario,
family owned since 1988.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
They're your go-to pro camp dealer, built for the
north From Yamaha boats andmotors to everything in between.
We don't just sell you gear, westand behind it.
Lakeside Marine Rugged ReliableReady.

Speaker 5 (38:51):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Ang and I willbe right here in your ears
bringing you a brand-new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm, Now, what are we going totalk about for two hours every
week?
Well, you know, there's goingto be a lot of fishing.

Speaker 6 (39:12):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.

Speaker 5 (39:18):
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.

Speaker 6 (39:30):
To scientists.
Now that we're reforesting,it's the perfect transmission
environment for life To chefs Ifany game isn't cooked properly
you will taste it.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
We've got a good base and feel for who you are and
who you, who you and why you'rethere and how you grew up.
Now let's talk a little bitabout, well, first of all,
something that's reallyimportant to this type of
venture your relationship withyour wife and how you met her

(40:24):
and where this is taking you,and let's really get a an idea
on how you got here.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
now let's talk about the lodge yeah, so I mean, my
wife is amazing in her supportand you know what she does for
our family.
We actually met really young.
We met at a hockey tournament.
Like she was playing boyshockey at a hockey tournament

(40:54):
and yeah, I was 18 at the time,so it was like a tournament in
somewhere in Manitoba, somesmall town, and I was 18 so I
could like drive myself and goplay in this tournament and yeah
, she was like on our team andthat's kind of how we first met.
But, um, yeah, I mean she'slike she's one of the most
competitive, competitive peopleI know.

(41:15):
So it works out.
That's awesome.
Yeah, like when it came togetting into fishing and
tournaments, like she wants tofish more tournaments than I do.
Like it's just like every timeshe's like sending me a poster
of some tournament and so that's.
You know, fishing and huntingwas kind of always our thing and
you know, just through that Imean, we kind of progressed.

(41:40):
Um, what really kind of kickedoff the lake thing was I mean,
obviously, like traditionally Iwas always on the lake guiding
throughout all summer and youknow that was a big part of the
beginning of our relationship.
But then really, you know, oncewe got married and we started
having kids.

(42:01):
You know, there was a pointwhere I needed to be more, I
needed to be at home more, whenwe had the younger kids, and so
you know, so right now I've gota four-year-old and a
two-year-old.
So basically, for the last kindof four years, um, I took I,

(42:22):
you know I still always guidedthrough the summer, but I didn't
.
I wasn't guiding full time.
Um, when I came to town, um,the, the couple that we're
partnered with in this venture,they own a number of existing
businesses in Kenora and they'realso like super outdoor
oriented family but they ownit's called Redden's and pies,

(42:43):
so they're they're like, well,redden's used to be a fishing
camp.
They're like third generationinto it now, but it's
transitioned more to seasonalcampsites, but there still is a
fishing aspect to it when itcomes to other cabins and stuff.
But the skills that I've builtup over the years of just being
doing lodge life, for all thoseyears when I kind of came to

(43:04):
town, um, we actually just liveddown the road from their
business and their home and sowe'd always came to town.
We actually just lived down theroad from their business and
their home and so we'd always.
You know, we kind of knew eachother and you know, when I made
the decision to kind of come totown full time, you know Carlton
and Leanne were gracious enough.
They kind of reached out andsaid, like you know, why don't

(43:26):
you come work for us?
We're right at home at home,like you can be around for your
kids, etc.
Because how it used to work wasI would guide all summer and
then in the winter time I wouldalways work with the other
family that I was talking about.
So the winter time they do allthe ice roads and a whole bunch
of barging and lake work on.
So I would, that was what Iwould do, so it would, and with

(43:47):
that comes like the extendedwork hours too.
So I'd work all summer guiding,which is for people.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Extended work hours.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Extended work hours and then all winter and but that
was the thing.
I just built up all of theseskills and got was shown all
this stuff firsthand.
And so then I made a decisionthat you know I needed to be
more, be around more for my kidsand my family.
So Carlton Leanne were graciousenough, they offered me kind of

(44:14):
a position.
I don't even know really whatmy position was, Just kind of
running their campsite and doingall the maintenance and stuff
along those lines.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Just down the road from you.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, and they also had a pretty big retail store
there too, road from you.
Yeah, I also got a pretty bigretail store there too.
So I also part of that.
You know there's they selltackle and fishing and guns and
ammo.
So I kind of did all thataspect of form as well too.
But you know, the lodge thingwas always it was always a pipe
dream of mine.
Um, you know, it was alwayssomething that my wife and I had

(44:46):
talked about and you know it'swhat we dreamed about doing and
you know we were actually wewere looking at doing it and
kind of just humming and hawing,but you know today's age and
you know the cost of living andeverything along those lines.
I mean really, you know we gotto the stage where it was like
you know, this is what we wantto do, but you know, I don't

(45:09):
know if we can do it.
And then, yeah, so what I didwas we started up like a
business, like a legit business,and I was running all my
guiding through it, and then Iwas also doing property
maintenance, because canora hastons and tons of seasonal
residents, kind of like whatmuskoka has for toronto.

(45:30):
Canora is like that forwinnipeg.
So I was doing all this on theside while doing my nine to five
.
And then, uh, yeah, I mean,really, we just started talking
with carlton leanne and Ibelieve the conversation started
off is there was like a fly-inplace way up north, like kind of
just an outpost, and Carlton'sbig into hunting.

(45:51):
And you know I haven't beendoing it the archery moose thing
as much as I used to do, but itwas a huge portion of I used to
guide every fall for it and wewere just like joking around
like oh, wouldn't that be asweet spot to get for moose
hunting.
And then, you know, throughthat it was kind of.
I said, well, you know, andthey asked me you know, would

(46:12):
you like to partner up with us?
And I said, well, I said, to behonest, the way that I foresee,
you know, the market andeverything changing.
I said really, I think you know, if I'm interested in investing
in a place, it would be on Lakeof the Woods.

(46:43):
And you know, obviously that was.
That's a whole different animal, different animal in itself,
because once you put your toeinto that door you're, you're up
in this whole different echelonof you know.
You're playing in the bigleagues at that point.
And you know we kind of kickedit around and we were looking at
some places.
Point, and you know we kind ofkicked it around and we were
looking at some places and thething is, on the north end of
the lake around canara, there'sjust not a whole bunch of main
base lodges.
If you go down towards sunarosand ester falls and morrison
there's a lot more, but up onthe north end around canara

(47:04):
there's really not that many.
And, um, yeah, just one thingkind of led to another and the
way it ended up was we got atoenail in the door at crow rock
and, yeah, progressed fromthere and you know, kind of got
to the stage of holy cow, we're,we're looking at buying crow

(47:28):
rock lodge, which really hadnever worked yeah, and it's to
be honest, it really hadn't everbeen on my radar and you know,
I remember I vividly.
I was like holy cow, like thisis actually, this is gonna
happen.
And then came like the shockvalue of oh, we got to make this

(47:48):
happen, so we need to find somemoney.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yeah, so oh, yeah, well like I mean, we actually
are gonna do I, uh, when Ibought chaudiere, I begged
borrowed, stole, you know, toget the money that I, that I
needed to get into the game.
And back then, you know we'retalking 2010, 2009 actually and

(48:16):
my house, which is like I don'teven know what the hell it's
worth today.
But let's just say, houses backthen down south here were worth
, you know, $300,000,000,250,000, and I jumped into this
business that didn't haveanything for 750,000.

(48:37):
Like I mean, yeah, it was bigmoney and putting your balls on
the line is not an easy thing,and and I remember and I'm not
sure if you experienced this,and and and maybe not because I
was on my own other than thefact that I borrowed $100,000 on
a line of credit from my momand dad, so it wasn't just my
house that I would lose, it wastheir farm too.

(48:58):
But I remember when I actuallysigned the papers at the
lawyer's office here inShelburne oh yeah, the lawyer
was, his name was John Timmermanand I had done my due diligence
and I had formed a corporationto buy the assets only of

(49:24):
Chaudière Lodge.
Like I didn't actually buy thecorporation.
The old owner released all ofthe assets from his corporation.
He kept the corporation.
I formed a new corporation andthen that way I was in my mind I
was isolating my house, which Ihad already mortgaged to the
tits to to put, uh, oh yeah, Ihad a hundred thousand.

(49:48):
My house at the time was worth,you know, 250,000.
I took a hundred thousanddollars out of it, uh, in equity
, to throw into the pot.
Anyway, I'm sitting there withJohn and he throws this bit, and
I borrowed um like 450,000 froma mortgage broker who charged

(50:12):
me $32,000 for the right toborrow that 450,000 at 10%.
And I'm sitting there in frontof John and the stack of papers
like it took me near an hour tofill them out and uh, I'm
signing, and signing, andsigning.

(50:33):
And then, you know, I, just tomake myself feel better, I
looked at John.
I said so, john, the um, thecorporation's responsible for
paying this money back, right,and I had already, like they had
given, the mortgage broker hadgiven me the money.
They took the $32,000 out ofthe 450.

(50:55):
So I only got 450 minus the 32.
And so like 18, 418.
And he said, yeah, yeah, that'sright.
And I kept signing away.
And now I'm thinking to myself,well, worst thing is like I
mean, if I don't make it, thenyou know the corporation's
liable.
I'm not liable.

Speaker 6 (51:18):
And about five minutes later, as I'm signing.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
John, in his lawyerish way, leans over his
desk, pulls his glasses down atouch, like this, and he says
but Steve, you are thecorporation.
And those words hit me like afreight train.

(51:42):
I'm like I started sweating andI started to feel a little bit
sick and I'm like, and in mymind I'm thinking, fuck, I can
still back out here.
You know, maybe I should justget up from the table.
And then the other guy on theother side of the shoulder is
like, yeah, but what are yougoing to tell Melissa, my wife?

(52:04):
What are you going to tell herthat you just lit $32,000 on
fire because I was not gettingthat back from borrowing the 450
.
I pay the 450.
I could pay the 418 back andthen probably get sued by the
old owner because I'm I'mbacking out before like I had.

(52:24):
We had already agreed on a dealand, um, if not for the 32
grand, I think I probably wouldhave um pulled the pin on it, um
, but wow.
I was, I was shitting, I my, Ididn't eat for for a week.

(52:44):
And when I left the office, inmy head, that voice in my head
was screaming so loud and it wasthree words, and it was
piercing, like I've never, ever,had this sensation, this
feeling, this, this, this,whatever you want to call it

(53:08):
before.
And those three words and itwas over and over, I couldn't
escape it was what have you done?
What have you done?
And then I'm trying to reasonwith myself Well, you know, this
is not.
And you had, there was there, Ihad like three people booked.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
The time for reasoning is over now Time for
selling.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
When you signed those papers with the lawyer and
you're putting your balls on theline, what were your feelings?

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Yeah, it was.
You know the big.
The best way I can break itdown, like for people from the
outside is talking about it isone thing, but when the pen hits

(54:13):
the ink and it all comes, thetrain comes to a screeching halt
and you got to look theheadlight dead in the eye and
it's really the best thing frommy point of view was having like
so much support from my wifeand both sides of our family,
and then you know my CarltonLeanne family.
I mean for people to take, youknow, put that amount of trust
in you.
I mean, don't get me wrong likewe we've got every single penny

(54:37):
that we own and a whole bunchof pennies that we don't own
into this.
So it's there's a lot ofpressure when it comes to that
side of it.
But really the thing throughthis whole deal that gets me so
excited is, you know, theproduct that's already there.
I mean crow rock is amazing andit's.

(55:00):
It's really neat to see so manyof these lodges.
Um, you know, as everythingchanges and everything gets more
expensive to run and fuel andinsurance and everything, like a
lot of these places are,whether they're selling off or
whatever is happening to themturning into family communes and

(55:22):
yeah, like it that's.
the other thing is a lot ofthese places are getting older.
Like there's Like there's noway to put around it.
Like you know, a lot of theseplaces are older.
You know the buildings, stuffRun down.
Yeah, so to be able to comeinto a place like Crow Rock,
where it's such an amazingfeeling when you stand there and
look at it and you know I don'thave this undying desire to

(55:46):
just level every cabin and startagain, you know, like the
benefit of the Dasik family isthey put a lot back into the
place and it shows like it's.
You know, as far asaccommodations go on the North
Dent Lake, it's amazing, it'sand it's just even like little
things that people don't thinkabout that as an owner, are

(56:07):
daunting.
I mean, every guest cabin hasone of those new heat pump units
so they all have ac.
Like that's huge.
You wouldn't think about thatlooking at a place, but you know
to be able to offer that's hugeyeah yeah, offer guys air
conditioning while they're uphere.
Is, you know, for us?
I mean we go to camp for theweekend if it's plus 30, you're
like, okay, I sleep with thewindow open and a fan going and

(56:28):
probably won't sleep that well,but you know, to be able to have
all those little odds and sodsput together, you know they've
done expansive renos andeverything's fantastic so it's a
how many cabins you got outthere sean?

Speaker 4 (56:43):
uh, there's nine.
Tell us about your property, alittle like when it comes to
those cabins, and tell us howmany people you can sleep in.
Yeah, like I mean.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
I'm looking at your website right now and your main
lodge looks gorgeous.
Yeah, um, like I mean the, theaccommodations and and folks out
there.
Um, you gotta check this outand and I see I see something
that that again is somethingthat again is like home for me,

(57:13):
and those words are privateisland.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
So we also.
We have so the main base lodge.
The main base lodge operatesonly under the American Plan
platform, so everybody eats inthe lodge.
We have an amazing culinaryexperience there.
It's whether people, a lot ofpeople, come off the lake,
whether they're surrounding, youknow, property owners, etc.

(57:39):
There's a pretty prevalentrestaurant business.
It's there.
But when we have, uh, you know,with our american plan, that's
one thing we really prideourselves on.
Is, you know, with our Americanplan, that's one thing we
really pride ourselves on, is,you know, the culinary side of
things.
So we have, yeah, so thatthat's fantastic.
So we have around 48, we cansleep at the main lodge.

(57:59):
And then we also have thatprivate island thing you're
talking about.
That's our outpost camp, wecall it.
It's pretty much like half akilometer away, just around the
corner, and that's a big, and sothat one it's got all the
cooking accommodations,everything set up in there, so
guests can either choose to dotheir own meal plans at our

(58:22):
outpost.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
How many cottages do you have there?

Speaker 1 (58:26):
It's one big one, perfect.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
That's the same deal that I had at Chaudiere.
I can't believe the mirrorimage of this.
So the outpost.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
It'll sleep eight to ten, depending on how you know
if you sub in couples or kids oranything like that, but you can
put eight single adults inthere comfortably and it's you.
You know, it's set up with itsown power system, everything,
etc.
So we have the benefit of beingable to offer kind of a diverse
um, you know, if people arelooking to not do the american

(58:59):
plan the outpost is, we call itsunset point.
It's uh, it's a really goodoption for that.
The other really neat, diversething that we have that really
we're the only kind of peoplethat are prevalently doing it on
the north end of Lake is wehave a really big portage lake
aspect to it.

(59:19):
So we've got boat cash rightson seven lakes that are on the
western peninsula of Lake of theWoods, which are, you know,
within a five to 15 minute boatride from the lodge, and then
guests walk up into these lakesand they're amazing.
I, I get I had the experience, aprivilege of, when we were
younger kids and running aroundthe lake.

(59:40):
I mean, we never, we didn'thave big fancy boats or anything
.
You know, we had a 14 footerwith a.
You know, we graduated to a 15and we were big dog and we'd all
sit three of us on the backseat so we could get a whopping
20 mile an hour, whatever.
And people looked at us funnybecause there'd be three kids
sitting on the back seat of atenor, but it was just so we
could go a little bit faster.

(01:00:01):
But so we we grew up fishing alot of those lakes and they're
they're beautiful when you getin there.
They're crystal clear, allsurrounded by cedar and, of
course, like so many of thesesmall lakes in northwestern
ontario, yeah, the fishing isfish in a barrel and what are
some of the species?

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
are you, are you into specks and walleye and and
northern's back in their lakes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Um, six of the seven are smallmouth and obviously
pike, because every piece ofwater has pike in it.
Yeah, but the big draw forthose portage lakes is the
smallmouth fishing and it's.
It's a crazy experience to bein there because the water's so
clear like it's.
It's awesome.
You know you pull into a bayand you can, you whip your jerk

(01:00:48):
bait out and you watch like 25three pound smallmouth all come
flying out in a big wolf packand it's like yep, these things
haven't seen a bait for 12months.
Yeah and we also and then we dohave our one bigger lake.
It's got insane walleye fishingon it, so guys will go in there
and walleye fish.
But I mean we're blessed withlake of the woods, uh, and just

(01:01:11):
how diverse the multi-speciesangling is, so it's pretty tough
to beat lake of the woodswalleye fishing right now.
Um, you know, I've spent all ofmy guiding career per se on
lake of the woods and personally, I mean it's kind of a
contentious topic but I don'tthink that I've seen it any
better than what it is right now, whether it comes to numbers or

(01:01:34):
big fish.
Um, so yeah, really, when itcomes to our portage lakes, a
lot of the guests are going inthere to smallmouth fish and
it's just a very intimate likeyeah, you're the only boat on
this lake and it doesn't matterif it's windy because they're.
You know they're small, narrowlakes and you know guys can go
in there and fish top waters thewhole time and some people love
, love doing that.

(01:01:55):
And then how can you not?
Yeah, like I can remember goingin there and you know we we'd
go in there and push a boat inthe water and you know we didn't
.
The motors would be chained upbut we'd be paddling around and,
yeah, you'd go catch a hundredsmallmouth in a couple hours,
like, okay, that was cool yeah,like I was just talking to a
gentleman this morning.

(01:02:16):
he's been coming for like 20years and he was telling me that
last year there was five ofthem five of them in our one
portage lake and they startedfishing at 10 in the morning and
they were back on land by likethree 30 and they caught 430
small mouth or something likethat.
I was like oh, wow, so but yeah, it's, it's a really neat

(01:02:39):
different thing.
We offer that isn't.
You know, you can't really doit anywhere else off of Lake, of
the woods, and our guestsreally love that aspect of it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Yeah, but then we also.
So, can they just drive outthere by themselves, or do you
actually book them into the lakeand then take them out there?

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Yeah.
So if, guys, you know whatthey'll do is on a standard
booking, say if they're here forfour or five or six days, most
of them will.
Some guys just exclusively fishthe portage lake, that's all
they come for.
They just every morning youdrive them over, drop them off
and they go up and cause that'sthe thing, you don't really need
a guide in there, cause youknow you're just that's, that's

(01:03:17):
a small little lake.
You got your six horse puttingaround and you know they're not
going to hit anything.
Or you know they just fish thewhole lake and lake of the woods
, you know, intimidating in anaspect for people that aren't
familiar with it, because youknow it is a big giant body of
water and there's lots of stuffto hit.
Um, now we have the benefit of,thanks to johnson outdoors and

(01:03:40):
lake master mapping they'vethey've poured a huge investment
into remapping lake of thewoods.
So I, uh, you know I'm foreverindebted to those guys for
sacrificing all those have youever seen those guys in town,
Sean?

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
They have those boats with like triple aluminum hulls
.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
I vividly remember the first year they were mapping
, like remapping all of Lake ofthe Woods.
The guy Jaden Simons and I wefished KBI together for years.
We were like way down the lakeand we were fishing along the
shoreline and there's a reef andI've known been there since I
was a kid.
I actually I remember because Ihit it at one point.

(01:04:19):
We were duck hunting and wewere not looking where we were
going, we were looking at theducks and I always remember
those oh yeah, you never forgetthe ones we hit.
But we were fishing along thisbank and at the time lake master
was remapping all lake of thewoods.
So you'd see, they'd have 14,15 boats all lined up at the
motel every night.
And this guy's, you can seehe's running his grid and he

(01:04:41):
idles past us as he's and I said, oh, there's, there's a reef up
there.
And he looks over at me and hegoes we've been mandated.
He says our policy is we breakour stuff, so you don't have to.
And sure enough, he idles longright over thompson.
He's like yep, it's there, youwere right and I'm like as far

(01:05:03):
as lake of the woods goes now.
I mean now with don't get mewrong we've always had decent
mapping, but now it's on a whole.
You know you can be confidentin running around now on our
Lake Master maps.
Before I always told people,you know we had the old
Navionics and blue chart dataand it was good for navigating.
But I always told people ifit's less than 10 feet on the

(01:05:24):
map chip, don't trust it.

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
Yeah, exactly, I've seen those guys for years down
there, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
Like that early early 2020.
I've seen those guys for yearsdown there oh yeah, Like that
early 19, early 2020.
I can't believe, I could notcomprehend the actual number of
man hours it took to map thatwhole thing.
It's funny, one of our gueststhat comes to Crow Rock, he's
retired now from Hummingbird buthe was breaking down the amount
of data storage they had tohave available for those guys,

(01:05:55):
of data storage they had to haveavailable for those guys and it
was.
They had a whole truck of harddrives and it was an
insurmountable amount of data tolike, comprehend and they're,
oh yeah, insane.
But that is, that's such a coolthing now.
And, um, you know, circling backto the state of the fishery
that lake of the woods is in now, it's insane and I've got to

(01:06:16):
witness highs and lows of thefishery.
I mean, obviously we had thatbig smelt boom that everybody
kind of got their feet wet intoand that really kicked off.
You know, the Lake of the Woods,smallmouth, craze in my mind,
especially when it came to thetournament side of things.
But you know, so I got to be apart of that and I was there and

(01:06:37):
witnessed it firsthand at itspeak.
And but you know, to see itwhere it's at now, I mean
especially when it comes to bigfish, like you know, the proof
is in the pudding when itespecially when it comes to the
tournament side of things onlake of the woods.
I mean kbi, which is, you know,the biggest team's tournament,
one of the biggest in northamerica.

(01:06:58):
I mean, you got jeff gustafsonwho's like he's won the bass
master classic, he's one of mybest buddies, but you know, if
you're betting on someone to winkbi, I mean he's always going
to be up there but he's neverlike a for sure, like you got to
catch him, catch him to hangwith the big dog there's a lot
of tight anglers out there.

Speaker 4 (01:07:17):
Yeah, that's the thing I mean.
There's a lot of good fish,yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
I mean, you know, and it's neat to watch how the
fishery has changed from thetournament side of things when
it comes to bass fishing.
You know, growing up when wewere younger, we were just large
mouth crazy, because everybodyhad it in their mind that you
had to catch large mouths to winany of these tournaments and
hindsight's always 2020.
But I probably should havespent less time flipping and

(01:07:42):
frogging to catch three largemouths and sure probably just
spent more time fishing smallmouths, because don't get me
wrong, and frogging is so muchfun, yeah no, it's.
This this year was was, you know, a kind of fun revamp of that,
because we had a huge cold spellduring kbi and you know I
remember floating in the bay andlike the tournament has really

(01:08:05):
transitioned to a lot more smallmouth oriented.
But you know, my partner and Iare floating in the bay and I'm
wearing like a snowsuit andgloves in august like freezing,
and we look at each other likewe're going fishing for black
bass and yeah, you know, justwent on a whim and fished old
memories and somehow got 18pounds of large mouth like, okay

(01:08:25):
, they do still exist nice thenpromptly fell on her face for
the next two days becausethere's no way you'd repeat that
again.
So it was uh.
But even like, when it comes tothe walleye fishery, I've had
the the benefit of being exposed, you know, through my peer
group of friends through themidwest and the states.

(01:08:46):
Uh, I've had the benefit.
Of these guys have kind ofopened my eyes to the all these
new walleye techniques and likehow effective and how big the
fish are like.
So one of my best friends namedDan Fuller.
He's from Bemidji and he'salways kind of been into the
tournament walleye scene and nowhe's transitioned, uh, he's got

(01:09:10):
onto this train.
He's an amazing talented guywhen it comes to boat rigging.
So obviously with this age welive in, with new sonar and how
complex these boat rigging isagain yeah, I mean so dan fuller
.
Like you know, I met him throughgussy years ago.
He came up wolf hunting with usand we just our friendship grew

(01:09:30):
from that.
But he's always kind of been atthe forefront, like if I have
any boat questions that's theguy I call.
So you know he started comingup and fishing with me and he
left his full-time job and hasjumped both feet into this boat
rigging game and he started thisnew thing it's called black
sheep outdoors and, like youknow, he sends me all these boat

(01:09:53):
riggings he's doing every day.
He's rigging boats for all thesewalleye pros and it's insane
the graphs, the batteries, thewiring, the quality of stuff
coming out of his shop.
I'm just like holy cow.
No wonder you almost puke whenyou look at my boat.
But yeah, through that he'salways been in the the

(01:10:14):
tournament walleye fishing thingand we had this discussion a
number of years ago and it washe's like, hey, let's fish that
walleye tournament and I waslike, oh yeah, I'm in, like I
want to do that.
And you know, growing up withkind of the guiding
traditionally guiding walleyeson lake of the woods, and you
know a lot of the local anglerson lake of the woods here I mean

(01:10:36):
our walleye fishing isn't supercomplex just because we have
the benefit of having such anamazing fishery so you know, I
grew up like well, I jigging aminnow bud jigging a minnow,
like that's it.
We'll go catch a hunter and haveshore lunch, and and then I got
to start fishing with thoseguys and it just exploded my
mind of what the options are andwhat it's turned into now as

(01:11:00):
far as big and the success, the,the difference in success and
how you know I've been doingthis, this walleye thing, and
it's kind of honestly my passionlittle project right now.
I always go through stages of,like my fishing like, yeah, you
know, five, ten years ago I wasall gung-ho, all out muskies,
that's all I did, yeah.

(01:11:21):
And then, you know, I got intothe bass fishing thing and did
that more and more and now, likethis walleye thing has been my
new bread and butter that I'vebeen infatuated with and, yeah,
like the amount of big fish inLake of the Woods, like people
just don't realize how amazingit is.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
So last year, and when we're talking big, are we
talking like 32 inch, like 14pounders or?

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
Here's the best way I'll break it down, like last
year in the tournament.
So I pre-fished for two daysand then two days of the
tournament.
I think we had 34 fish over 28inches.
The second day of thetournament we had four 30 inch
fish and we still got.
And we still got.

Speaker 4 (01:12:10):
Fifth, like no shit.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Yeah, I was gonna say you probably didn't crack off I
was like, oh yeah, so the firstday we had a 29 and three
quarters.
So how the format works nowwith the rig change, you get one
big fish that you catch, photorelease, and then you have your
four, your unders, your slotsand yeah, so we had a 29 three
quarters and a pretty good bagof slots.

(01:12:33):
And then the second day we hadlike a 30 and three quarters and
another like decent bag ofslots and yeah, still got fifth,
like you got to be, yeah, andthat's the thing Like.
And then from the guiding endof it, I mean I can take people
out right now and just theskills that I've learned through

(01:12:56):
these guys, I mean it seems anendless amount of fish between
26 to 29 inches.
I mean obviously those30-inchers are still 30-inchers,
like there's no guarantee to it, but yeah, it's amazing to see
the fish.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Well, that's like trying to guarantee a 50 inch
muskie, like a 30 inch, a 30inch walleye.
Once you break that three, zeroman, that that that is a big,
big walleye yeah, and then itlike when it comes to this catch
photo release format.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
So it's you know your weight and then they, they're
your length and they give you aweight associated with it.
Like I said, that last day, thetournament, like the second day
, we knew we had to have thebest day of walleye fishing for
the year.
So we just leaned on big onesfor most of the day and yeah,
I'd say like, oh yeah, we caught4, 30 inches on the last day

(01:13:46):
yeah, yeah 30, a 30 and aquarter, a 30 and a half and a
30 and three quarters.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
Are you also taking the girth to get your, to get
your weight?

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
So that canora wall I opened format is they base
their weight just off of alength measurement.
That's bullshit.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
You tell him.
Steve says that's bullshitbecause mine's way fatter than
yours.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
Yeah, and Lake of the Woods is a whole there's.
It's so diverse in thedifferent bodies of water.
They're all interconnected.
Because that's the thing likeyou can get, you could catch a
snake skinny ones.
Yeah, you get to like thedirtier portions of the lake.

Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
You get a 27 incher that weighs like nine pounds
like yeah, fucking nine yeah,it'll be gotta get the girth in
on there to make it fair yeah,no, it's uh.
Listen, I'm five foot seven at275 man I'd be winning the derby
with my body winning thoseright you gotta yeah, you're a
trophy brother, and every whichway you look at it my trophy is

(01:14:48):
some guy, yeah, and like the.

Speaker 1 (01:14:51):
The nicest thing about, you know, going into this
this season with crow rock isto be able to have the
confidence in the state of thefishery that it is right now and
to be able to like that's thebiggest thing I just to be able
to market that and open people'seyes and that the nice, the
nicest thing is how prevalentcatch and release has become,

(01:15:14):
especially when you get into,like, the trophy class fish.
Um, you know I've I considermyself growing up through you
know, that transition period oftime of like how good fish
handling has gotten.
And you know, even when I thinkback to when I first started
guiding and you know I look backat the point of my life where I

(01:15:36):
was all in on the musky side ofthings, I mean you know I look
back and old, you know I can.
I've got old Polaroid pictures.
Or you know digital camerafolders that I keep fired up and
you know you look at people.
You know you got a 50 incherand they they're holding it
vertical and it's like now youwouldn't dare take that picture.

(01:15:57):
Put that on your website, no,or?

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
the old pictures when I bought chaudiere of guys
standing on the dock with like30 walleye dead right in front
of them and they're all like armin arm or hanging.
Uh, I've even got some oldpictures from the you know the
20s and 30s, where guys had umbars strung up on the dog every
lodge had the muskies andnortherns had.

(01:16:21):
They were all lined up like Imean, I don't know what they
were.
I guess they were eating them,but I don't know you know you
wouldn't dare put that out therenow it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
It's so cool to see that.
And Lake of the Woods is soamazing in the fact that we have
true trophy quality fish ofpretty much every species, every
species.
I mean you know you can go likeyou know I always call it the
big seven Like you can gocrappies, smallmouth, largemouth

(01:16:51):
lake, trout, pike, muskies,walleye walleyes yeah, walleyes
like and that's the thing to beable to have all of that at your
disposal, I mean really, andpro rock as a whole is
positioned so strategicallyplaced, like in what I consider

(01:17:13):
the best area of lake, of thewoods.
I mean you're the center of thelake man, like you're north
center I can be in lake troutcountry and 15 minutes we can be
in the turbulent, dirty waterthat has all the current, where
you know it's the best muskyfishing around, and whether it's

(01:17:33):
you want to catch smallmouthvertically over the bow deep
water or you want to catch themin six inches of water up in the
rocks and the reeds, and youknow it's it's.
It's amazing just to have beable to be so diverse in what
you're offering clients.
And that's the thing.
Like people, everybody getsstuck into their same thing.
You know, oh yeah, we catchthem here.

(01:17:54):
This is where I go every time.
But to be able to take someoneand put them in something that's
totally foreign whether it'sstructure, you know current
water clarity, fish, species tobe able to do all that within
one day is is something that youjust can't do in many places.
And you know the species thatare in Lake of the Woods,

(01:18:17):
whether they be natural orwhether they be introduced um,
yeah, I mean there's nothing,there's nothing like it, really,
that you can offer.
So it's uh, and to be able tohave that in your repertoire,
that's the biggest thing is.
You know you can't be closedminded in what you're targeting

(01:18:37):
from the guiding point of viewor the lodging part of it,
because you can do so much andbe in so many different places
and it's.
It's such a neat thing to beable to take somebody that's
been coming for 20 years and putthem on their head and spin
them like a top and they look atyou like where are we?
Like oh no, let's go on thesame lake yeah, yeah well, I am

(01:19:00):
so excited for you, sean.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
I really, I really am your enthusiasm with, with this
, uh, with this lodge and andyour body of water just bleeds
from you.
And throughout this wholeconversation I was trying to
think about something that Icould give you a little piece of

(01:19:23):
advice from my point of view,having been in your shoes and
kind of knowing how you feel atthat point.
And the one thing that comes tomy mind and I'm not sure if
I've told the Diaries familythis story or not, I know,
willie, you haven't heard thisstory, but when we were talking

(01:19:44):
about your outpost lakes, Iasked you a question and that
question was do you take yourguests out there or do they go
there by themselves or whatever?
And you said you go and takethem and drop them off.
And I had a lake like that.

(01:20:05):
The name of that lake was thenatives called it Eshe Lake, and
it was just a real same kind oflake that you're talking about
and it had very few northernsbut it was full of largemouth
bass and you were talking about.
And it had very few northernsbut it was full of largemouth
bass and you were talking abouthow you know lake of the woods
is, is big and can beintimidating, and you know the
old adage 90 of the fish live in10 of the water.

(01:20:27):
Well, the upper french riverand lake nipissing is exactly
that.
And I'd have guests that wouldcome in and they would have a
difficult time, like theywouldn't want to really take a
guide, they want to go do itthemselves.
They'd head out on the riverand they wouldn't be very
successful and I would say,listen, I would sell them on a

(01:20:48):
package out to Esche.
Well, I had this one father andson who wanted to do Eshay, and
great guys, and I took them outto Eshay and I would take them
out right after breakfast.
So you know, our breakfast was7.30 until 8.30.

(01:21:10):
So they'd be out there by aboutnine o'clock and I'd carry over
the nine nine and throw it onthe boat that I had back in this
wee lake and they'd fish untilfour and I'd go pick them up.
Well, on this day and this iswhere the advice as a lodge
owner comes shit just some daysgets wild, it gets out of hand.

(01:21:33):
You get doing things, you know,like the shitter in the Blue
Jay Cottage bus, and you got togo out there and you're fixing
something and then the chef hasan issue, or the hydro goes out
or God knows, or there's a boatthat comes in, or the food order
comes in.
There's just so many movingparts.

(01:21:55):
Well, on this day in particular, dinner came and one of the
girls and I always told thestaff you know, our job is to
look after our guests, we lookafter our guests.
So the guys on the dock, youknow, after dinner we would
always track where our guys aregoing to go.

(01:22:16):
We had a whiteboard andeverybody that left the dock
they put what direction theywere going, what part of the
river they were going to be on,what time they were expected to
be back, so that if they didn'tshow up, we at least knew which
direction to go and startlooking.
And very rarely it happened.
Well, this this day inparticular, violet, my one of my

(01:22:40):
, my housekeeper servers, cometo me and she said Steve, jake
and Danny aren't back yet andit's really, it's really strange
that they're they're not backand I and it didn't, I didn.
Really strange that they're notback and I and it didn't, it
didn't even dawn on me rightaway.
I'm like, fuck, I forgot them, Ileft them out there.

(01:23:02):
It was like seven o'clock,dinner was over.
I already went through thedining room.
I'm like, oh my God, I forgotthem, I left them out there.
So I said, oh my God, violet, Iforgot them.
I left them out there.
So I said, oh my God, violet, Iforgot them.
I got to go.
I got to go, I ripped down tothe dock, jumped into the

(01:23:23):
Alaskan and ripped out to Eshe.
I run over the portage, it'slike I don't know like 80 to 100
yards over the top of a hilland the boat's back, the engine
and everything.
They already carried it out tothe dock and they're not there.
I'm like, what is going on?

(01:23:44):
And now I'm really, I'mpanicked.
I'm like, oh my God, and I'myelling their names out into the
bush and I'm walking aroundyelling for them Because I know
that they're like I mean, thisis an isolated area, like you
can't even get to the lodge fromwhere.
This is Like, unless you'regoing to swim, you're not going

(01:24:07):
anywhere.
So I'm yelling and then all ofa sudden, I hear Steve, is that
you?
And I'm yelling.
And then all of a sudden, Ihear Steve, is that you?
And I'm like, yeah, I go overthere.
Well, they had built a shelterfor the night and they were like
we didn't know what happened.
We weren't sure if you forgotus or if there was like some
sort of a tragedy or somethingor whatever.

(01:24:28):
I'm like, no man, I am so sorryI forgot you.
I'm like, what do you say?
Like you can't make up a story.
I would never make up a storyanyway.
Like I mean, my memory's notgood enough to fabricate shit
and try and keep it straight.
I can barely remember the truthhalf the time.
So I'm like, yeah, I'm so andanyway, and they were good about

(01:24:53):
it, they were, they were reallygood about it.
I took them back.
Obviously, I didn't charge themfor the for the day.
I'd give them a free guide thenext day and.
But so the moral of the storywhen you're dropping people off
out there, make sure that you'renot the only one that knows
they're there.
All right, I changed my wholeprotocol when it come to that

(01:25:17):
lake and I had my lead hand onthe dock.
I put him in charge ofscheduling what was going on
with that one lake.
So there's a little tidbit ofinformation that may come in
handy someday and save you a tonof embarrassment.

Speaker 1 (01:25:39):
Hope I don't forget that we run the format like you
discussed at the end.
There we have a lead dockhandthat if guys are going to the
Portage Lakes they take themover.
I mean, sometimes they do takea guide to the lakes and it all
depends on guest preference.

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
Some people just don't want to run the boat At
the end of the day, justremember when shit happens and
you're the one that's in themiddle of the shit and
somebody's want because I knowby talking to you and listening
to you, you're like me, you'relike Will You're there for the
guest?
You want to make sure that theyhave an experience of a

(01:26:17):
lifetime.
And when a guest asks to dosomething right, like hey, maybe
I could do something differentyou say, oh yeah, eshay Lake is
a great spot, you can go andcatch and everything else.
And your dockhand is going andhe's splitting firewood on the
other side of the island andthere's nobody down there to

(01:26:38):
deal with it.
And you say, ah, don't worryabout it, I'll do that.
I'll get you out there.
Make sure you let somebody knowright.
Because stuff like that happensand it can happen pretty quickly
, yeah, and that's so.

Speaker 1 (01:26:52):
I had to.
We didn't touch on this Stuff,like that happens and it can
happen pretty quickly, yeah.
So we didn't touch on this, buttowards like kind of the end of
my full lake career, like whenI was guiding full time, I
actually did.
I guess, it'd be like five,four or five years.
I managed another lodge that iskind of in that central area of

(01:27:13):
the lake.
So you know you talk to guestsand like oh yeah, it must be
nice, you know you get to fish.
all the time I was like, no, youdon't get to fish.

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
No, guiding is not fishing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:23):
No, but even just like the managing aspect.
Yeah, for sure, and at the timethat was, you know, obviously
someone else owned property, soI was the manager, and you know.
That's the thing.
There's so much more thathappens in a day, Once all the
guests have their breakfast andthey're gone in the boat.
That's when the stuff gets thefan.

Speaker 2 (01:27:45):
That's when you got to take the garbage out.
That's when the fuel order'scoming in by barge.
That's when the food order iscoming in and you've got to
bring it over by boat.
That's when all of the repairsare happening.
That's when all of yourhousekeeper servers are cleaning

(01:28:05):
the cottages and making sureeverything is good.
You know there's so manydifferent aspects about this
business in particular and we'regoing to have to have you on
again and talk about that.
But listen, I'm very excitedfor you.
I'm so happy that Will shookthe bushes and found a wonderful

(01:28:32):
young gentleman like yourselfto join us here on Diaries of a
Lodge Owner.
And I'm sure that all of ourfamily who have got to this
point and folks thank you somuch for getting to this point
we really appreciate it.
They're falling in love withyou, with you and and uh, it was

(01:28:53):
, uh, it was very wonderful.

Speaker 1 (01:28:58):
Yeah, we're, we're super excited going into this
and, you know, to be able tohave that foundation that's
already in there is such a greatfeeling but at the same time,
like the most pivotal part ofthis entire industry is the
relationships you build withguests and everything along
those lines.
So you know that's coming intoit.
Um, you know, obviously, whenyou're dealing with changing of

(01:29:20):
hands of any business thatyou're emotionally invested in,
especially as a guest, you can,you know.
So that's been such a big partof my winter so far has been
getting personal and getting toknow all these guys.
Obviously there's no substitutefor shaking hands on the dock
and getting the, you know, thefirst real introduction.
But that's moving forward.

(01:29:41):
I mean this place, its rootsare, it's a fishing lodge,
pure-blooded, like that is thebread and butter of crow rock,
and so we're really lookingforward to, you know, our
existing family and clients, butat the same time, what we can
accomplish with the long-termgoal and push this even further.

(01:30:02):
So you know, whether it's Ialways try to make it's funny my
wife was like, going through myphone the other day she's like
you realize you're averaginglike five and a half hours a day
on your phone, I was like, yeah, no, I'm aware of that, so
whether it's talking to you knownew people right now though
buddy is pump those tires, man.

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
That's if I can give you any advice in the small
amount of time, sean, that I wasout there.
You know so far is is just pushit, man.
You know you, and if you needto have any questions or we can
help you at all, me and Steve inthat aspect, just let us know
we, we.
I think you're amazing dude.
I I've heard about you foryears, I've seen you with you,

(01:30:41):
know mutual people we know andas soon as I heard that you
bought that place, I was likethat is exactly.
it was a match made in heaven,and I'm so happy for you.

Speaker 1 (01:30:59):
Yeah, no match made in heaven and I'm so happy for
you.
Yeah, no, we're really lookingforward to it and it'd be, it'd
be so neat to see what we can,where we can take this place
because, you know, I, with myexperience and, like I mentioned
earlier, having the benefit ofworking in one way or another at
majority of these places on thenorth end lake over the years I
mean I can pick and chooseeverything that I like and
dislike and to be able tocombine all that into one place
amazing and to be able to putthe work into it and, you know,

(01:31:21):
have the confidence that it'sgoing to succeed and to be able
to expand it even further andthe benefit of no ceiling,
absolutely no yeah you know theprevious ownership.
They lived in the states in thewintertime, in the off season,
whereas, you know, myself and myfamily, I mean we're moving out
there as soon as the ice comesoff and I'm gonna, I mean we

(01:31:42):
we're always on the lakeregardless, so I'll be freezing
in out there.
So you know that that secondpart of the season that a lot of
people don't get to experience,the fall on lake of the Woods
too, like that's going to besuch a neat thing to be able to
market and bring to people.
And we have the benefit in themodern age, of this digital
marketing age that we live in.

(01:32:02):
I mean it's transitioned somuch from going to, you know, go
into fishing shows, et cetera,and you know my existing
relationships with everybody inthe industry.
We've got a whole bunch ofreally neat stuff teed up for
this first year, whether it'svideos and promotional stuff.
So it'll be, it'll be cool tosee the media that's coming out

(01:32:23):
of Crow Rock this year and we'rereally looking forward to it
and even from the Canadianmarket.
I and that's the thing you know, given the fact that we have
the diversity in ouraccommodations where we can
offer, you know, the full,all-inclusive plans or we can
offer the outpost for peoplelooking to just pay a nightly
rate and bring their own gear.
So it'll be awesome to be ableto push everything further and

(01:32:47):
further and expand.
I mean the fall muskie fishingon lake of the woods is it's
like a woods it.

Speaker 6 (01:32:52):
There's nothing that you know.
It's insane.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
So to be able to have a place for people to come up
and stay, because a lot of theseplaces don't stay open all that
late into the fall, so be ableto do that, and then you know,
your waterfowl hunting, yourdeer hunting, like everything
all associated with that.
We're really looking forward toit.
And you know, like I saidearlier, I appreciate you guys

(01:33:15):
getting me on here today and, uh, looking forward to the future
and, like I said, either one, ifyou guys want to come out and
hang out, we'll definitely getsomething together here for sure
, but uh, yeah, me and kristawill be out for dinner, for sure
.
We'll be supporting you on that,on that new patio you're
building, for sure yeah, yeah,that's the project of the week,
but yeah, no, it's going to begreat and it's going to be

(01:33:38):
really fun to see what we can doat this place.
And yeah, it's going to begreat.

Speaker 2 (01:33:44):
Well, thanks again, shamagahi and Crow Rock Lodge
Folks, we thank you guys formaking it to this point.
Our, our awesome family, um,you know, we also, we also and
and this is something that Ishould be mindful of to do more

(01:34:05):
often and, uh, it is to thankAndrew over at Lakeside.
Marine, um're a great supporterof Diaries and for anybody else
out there looking to partner up, give us a call.
We've got a great deck and wealways look to forge wonderful

(01:34:30):
relationships with people.
Don't hesitate to reach out.
You can get willie at, uh,sunset limo.
Is that the one we're going touse, willie, or?
willie, that's my, that's mylife now, baby info at sunset
limo at uh, give that uh thatone out info at sunset limo.
Dot ca stevie oh, perfect,thanks, buddy.

(01:34:51):
And and everybody knows thatthey can get me at steven at
fishincanadacom.
And, speaking offishincanadacom, folks, head on
over to the website and checkout the latest episode of the
fish in canada television show,which hit the airwaves on
Saturday and that was Peter andI revisiting the Chaudière Lodge

(01:35:17):
, which was the place that Iused to own, and it was a bit of
a surreal, awesome feeling anda great episode.
We had a sheephead shit allover the boat and it actually
made the show, because I didn'tuse the F word, it was just shit

(01:35:37):
and we beeped it out and it wasa wonderful little sequence.
So check out the Fish and Canadatelevision show this weekend
and next, this upcoming weekend,I'll be fishing smallies at
Lake Obabaca Lodge and that'snot my first, but it is one of

(01:35:57):
the rare hosted episodes whereit was just me, me and the fish
folks.
So check that out and head onover and get your name in all
those draws.
You know we talk about themevery week and every week people
are winning.
So folks, check that out andagain, thank you.
Without you guys, without thefamily, we would not be here.

(01:36:21):
And again.
Thus sadly brings us to theconclusion of another episode of
Diaries of a Lodge OwnerStories of the North.

Speaker 3 (01:36:33):
I'm a good old boy, never meanin' no harm.
I'll be all you ever saw, beenrailin' in the hog Since the day
I was born, bendin' my rock,stretchin' my line.
Someday I might own a lodge,and that'd be fine.

(01:36:57):
I'll be making my way the onlyway I know how, working hard and
sharing the north With all ofmy pals.
Well, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a lodge and live mydream, and now I'm here talking

(01:37:20):
about how life can be as good asit seems.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:37:30):
Back in 2016,.
Frank and I had a vision toamass the single largest
database of muskie anglingeducation material anywhere in
the world.

Speaker 8 (01:37:38):
Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this
amazing community and share itwith passionate anglers just
like you.

Speaker 6 (01:37:44):
Thus the Ugly Pike podcast was born and quickly
grew to become one of the topfishing podcasts in North.

Speaker 8 (01:37:50):
America.
Step into the world of anglingadventures and embrace the
thrill of the catch with theUgly Pike Podcast.
Join us on our quest tounderstand what makes us
different as anglers and touncover what it takes to go
after the infamous fish of10,000 casts.

Speaker 6 (01:38:06):
The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing.
It's about creating atight-knit community of
passionate anglers who share thesame love for the sport.
Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an unwavering
spirit of adventure, thispodcast will bring people
together.

Speaker 8 (01:38:20):
Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our
angling adventures.
Tight lines everyone.

Speaker 6 (01:38:25):
Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
Wherever else you get yourpodcasts.

Speaker 7 (01:38:36):
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 Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.

(01:38:58):
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
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
After nearly a decade of harvestuse, testimonials and research,

(01:39:20):
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
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm

(01:39:45):
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people.
That will help you find youroutdoor passion and help you
live a life close to nature andunder the canopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.

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Episode 87: Betting It All on Crow Rock - One Man's Leap into Lodge Ownership

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 87: Betting It All on Crow Rock - One Man's Leap into Lodge Ownership