Episode 89: From Winnipeg to the Tundra - How Lake Trout Changed My Life

Deep within Canada's Arctic territory lies a world most Canadians will never experience - a place where snowmobiles are purchased at the grocery store alongside milk, where polar bears rip steel doors off community freezers to steal walrus meat, and where lake trout grow to mythical proportions. This is the world Justin Jenkins has embraced, splitting his life between Winnipeg and remote Nunavut communities where he works in mental health.

Justin's journey north began with a childhood fascination with lake trout after watching fishing shows featuring these mysterious cold-water giants. What started as an obsession evolved into a life-changing decision to move to Baker Lake, Nunavut - not for the quick money many southerners seek in northern jobs, but for the fishing opportunities and deeper connection to community.

The conversation paints a vivid picture of life in Canada's most remote territory, where communities exist as islands with no roads connecting them to each other or the rest of Canada. Everything arrives by annual sea lift or expensive air freight. Yet within this isolation, Justin found purpose, describing how working in these tiny communities feels meaningful compared to southern life where one feels like "a grain of sand on the beach."

Wildlife encounters feature prominently, from Justin's strategies for avoiding polar bears (more common in his current community of Chesterfield Inlet on Hudson Bay) to fascinating insights about barren-ground caribou and Arctic char. Particularly compelling is the contrast between southern conservation narratives about declining polar bear populations and the observations of Inuit elders who report seeing more bears than ever.

The episode culminates with incredible fishing stories only possible in the Arctic - catching 70-80 lake trout in three hours, hand-wrestling a massive Arctic char, and landing a 46-inch lake trout that fought for 50 minutes during never-ending daylight. Justin's YouTube channel "Assorted Meats" captures these adventures, including fishing with unconventional items like tampons and sunglasses.

As climate change transforms the Arctic faster than anywhere else, Justin's stories preserve a moment in time while honoring the resilience of communities that have thrived in this challenging environment for thousands of years. Join us for this remarkable conversation that will change how you see Canada's true north.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
I can't see myself ever not continuing to go back
up there.
I just love it, man.
I love the slower pace of life.
I love being a part ofsomething that's like bigger
than my own little bubble.
You know like it's justfantastic.
It feels like you're genuinelymaking a bit of a difference in
a world where maybe down southyou kind of just get like a
little bit of a grain of sand onthe beach sort of thing.
It's very, very different,different and I love it.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
This week, on the outdoor journal radio podcast
networks diaries of a lodgeowner, stories of the north.
Willie busts off them trainingwheels and takes the helm of the
good ship diaries and chatswith another fine young
gentleman from Winnipeg whosepassion for helping people has
taken his life north, way northnorth, to Nunavut, where he

(00:52):
works with isolated communitieson mental health.
This puts him in a place wherehis other passion has blossomed,
and that is massive lake troutand a successful YouTube channel
.
And now it is Willie's pleasureto introduce to all of us
Justin Jenkins On this show.

(01:13):
Willie and Justin talk aboutwhat life looks like for the
Inuit, climate change in theArctic and how it is affecting
the people and wildlife whoreside there, in particularly
the polar bears, and, of course,his passion for the outdoors
and chasing some of the largestlake trout on the planet to

(01:35):
share with all of us on hisYouTube channel Assorted Meats.
So if you're interested inextraordinary places on Earth,
the people that live there andhow they survive, this one's for
you.
So relax, take it all in,because these two beauties are

(01:55):
going to draw a spectacularpicture of a faraway place on
the movie screen in your mind.
Here's Willie's conversationwith Justin.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Hello folks, and welcome again to another episode
of Diaries of a Lodge OwnerStories of the North, willie the
oil man.
Here I'm running a solo showtoday.
Mr Steve is a busy man, as youcan all imagine, getting ready
for the spring fishing season,and we got a really, really

(02:30):
special show today, one thatI've been trying to shoot for
about a month.
It's all the chaos in life, andthe man that I'm just about to
introduce has been travelinglots, he works lots and he
actually is a YouTuber himself,so it's been a little bit of a

(02:52):
challenge here to line up withhim, but we got him here today.
He's in Winnipeg, fresh out ofthe Arctic.
I want to welcome JustinJenkins to the show.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Thank you so much, buddy.
We finally did it.
Against all odds.
We're here.
Right Felt like Mother Naturejust didn't want this to happen.
But we persevered, and that'sall that matters.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Man, it was crazy.
I can't.
We've had some wicked weatherand some shitty incidents and
lots of traveling and you beinghalf the time I've been trying
to get a hold of you.
You know you're up in the inthe remote arctic and uh, so
this is great, that's awesome.
Thank you very much for coming,my pleasure man, thank you so
much for having me so, justin,you, uh, you know we're going to

(03:38):
dive into everything here whenit comes to the ins and outs of
you and your and your, yourpodcast and your career and your
, your the crazy Laker fishermenyou've become, um, but I think,
uh, let's start out from like Idon't really know you.
You know I know a lot of thepeople, you know, I know we know
a lot of the same people, but,uh, you know, I don't really

(04:00):
know you.
Perhaps, where did you, uh,where did you grow up?
Tell me, your, me, your story,and uh, tell me how you got into
where you're at now.
Kind, of?

Speaker 1 (04:06):
yeah, yeah, for sure, man.
Um, so yeah, like you said, myname's justin janken.
I'm a lifelong fisherholic, youcould say, and now kind of
part-time, semi-professional uh,internet fishing, idiot, I
think would be the best way toput it.
Uh, yeah, born and raised inwinnipeg, I kind of grew up
fishing the shorelines of theRed River, lake, winnipeg.
I spent a lot of time in thebackwoods of the eastern region

(04:28):
of the province.
Somewhere along the way, prettyearly in the journey of my
fishing journey, I developed apretty potentially unhealthy
obsession with lake trout.
I remember back in the day as akid just watching the you know,
like the, was it saturday orsunday morning fishing shows um

(04:49):
of dudes catching these huge,huge lakers in like the way up
north and there's like deep,cold water, such like mysterious
fishing, and I just found it sofascinating, you know, um, so
some.
So, along the journey a littlefurther, this obsession started
sinking his closet to be deeperand deeper.
It ultimately led to me packingup my whole life and moving to

(05:11):
a tiny little town up in Nunavutcalled Baker Lake about five or
six years ago.
I think you're pretty familiarwith that town yourself Now you
know, like a lot of people.
They move up to the north aslike a quick get rich, quick
scheme sort of thing.
And I certainly could have donethat.
But just the way that I'm wiredI just couldn't not try to

(05:33):
capitalize on all the fishingopportunities.
So I went and bought myself abrand new ATV from the grocery
store, brand new snowmobile fromthe grocery store.
I actually have a receipt manof when I bought my snowmobile.
It was like a snowmobile, somemilk, a cat, 140, 20 pounder
propane that's so awesome yeahokay, hold on a minute, let's

(05:57):
back up a minute here.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
Let's back up.
So you so winnipeg, that'swhere you grew up, that's where
you cut your teeth, and so um,eastern Manitoba is like.
So, folks, all you guys know,I'm in northwestern Ontario, up
by the Kenora, which is right onthe border there of Manitoba.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Used to be Manitoba.
Used to be Manitoba.
You were once one of us.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
I was.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Was I, and I don't know if I don't think it was in
your lifetime, but Kenora, onceupon a time, I think, was a part
of Manitoba, as far as I know.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
This is new to me.
I did not know any of this Ireally like.
I grew up in Peterborough, butI've lived here for a long time.

Speaker 6 (06:32):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
My wife has lived here her whole life and I did
not know any of this Educate meFact check, maybe Fact check,
maybe Fact check.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
I might be just making things up.
I do that once in a while, butI'm pretty sure, let's do it,
okay, cool, so yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
So where he's talking about folks is right on the
border of Manitoba and Ontario.
There's some lakes there, youknow.
There's Falcon Lake ProvincialPark, I guess, or what's the
provincial park there?
West Hawk Provincial Park.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, well, that's all in the Whiteshell, oh, okay,
yeah, so the Whiteshell kind ofencompasses that whole area.
So above, like north of theWhiteshell, there's Nopaming
Provincial Park and those areboth like two super awesome
shield-y areas.
Like Winnipeg is a flat, dumpyprairie city, but you go an hour
, it's like the armpit of Canada, it's totally the armpit of

(07:21):
canada and it's uh.
But it's weird because you golike an hour, hour and a half to
the east and it's likebeautiful canadian shield,
coniferous trees, just like it'slike a different country, never
mind like being in the sameprovince.
You know it's, it's wild crazy,crazy.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
well it's, it is a beautiful area there, I know
that for sure.
Yeah, yeah, awesome.
So so you cut your teeth there.
You know some bass, I'mguessing, some walleyes, some
pikes you know, and then you gotinto this obsession with lakers
.
Yeah, did you so?
Your first lake trout?
Yeah, tell me where you caughtyour first lake trout.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Silver Lake, boy Silver Lake.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
Buddy, that's my backyard.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, no, that was where I went.
I remember I went out with abuddy, like I always had the
fascination with lake trout.
They were just a little bitinaccessible, I guess, like are
harder to access, for sure.
I was probably 15 or 16 yearsold.
I went out with a guy whobrought us to Silver Lake and I
think I caught 10 lakers thatday.
Nothing huge, maybe like a30-incher being the biggest one
it for me.
That's where I started likelooking where am I going to go

(08:23):
to get bigger ones?
you know that's awesome and thenI fished lots of lake of the
woods as well.
You know caught some prettygood ones in lake of the woods
uh, some big fish in lake of thewoods yeah for sure, for sure,
and it just, it just wasn'tenough.
It needed bigger and better.
Just chasing the dragon, youknow that's so.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
That sounds like my whole career absolutely man
that's awesome.
So, yeah, up to the Arctic youwent, yeah.
So what took you?
Obviously you were up there andyou did your fishing deal and
you had a career up there.
What do you do for work?
Or, sorry, what did you do inBaker Lake for work and do you
do the same thing now?

(08:57):
Can you tell me a little bitabout that, Justin?

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah, I still do it.
I work in healthcare, in likethe mental health field, so I
basically just help peoplewithin the communities with
mental health stuff and it'sit's a lot, it's a big, it's a
lot to dive into, but basicallyjust like mental health and lots
of like counseling and helpingpeople, you know.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Cool, nice, nice and you're, that's pretty awesome.
And so you're like, you're inthe community like an up there
it's pretty remote.
I mean, everybody in thecommunity knows each other.
I know you heard Justin sayearlier.
You know we kind of chuckledand I have a little relationship
with Baker Lake.
I drilled up there for likealmost three months running

(09:42):
around up there and it's a wild,wild place.
Man Like I, I've, I know I'vetold some stories on here before
about it was a little West.
He wasn't in Baker Lake, it wasmore towards Cougar Looktuck.
You know the, the, what arethey?

(10:02):
The Wolverines digging the densand y and geologists putting
shitter on top of it.
And you know I've had a couplestories I've told on here, the,
the diaries family know them.
But um, there it's an, it's acrazy place.
Is where I'm going with that.
You know it's the stories thatyou hear from people and the
things that you see are moreextreme than any, I don't think,
anywhere else on the world Idon't.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
I think so.
Like it's honestly, I try tothink about it and like people
who lived historically innunavut might be like the most
resilient people, like likeinuit.
They might like how do yousurvive in a place that's minus
50 all the time, sometimes withlike three months of straight
darkness, without technology?
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
Like like where else on earth?
Because you're?

Speaker 1 (10:43):
close to hudson, like it's not.
It's not dry yeah, especiallybaker lake is is like quite
muskeggy and stuff.
So it's like it's inhospitableterritory, man, and it's just
like it's nothing but admirationfor a new that have survived
how, I don't know how many years, but like thousands to hundreds
of thousands sort of thing,right like no for sure.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
And I and I think and that's where I'm going with
this conversation is, I thinkthat I personally think, buddy,
I know from watching you overyour years.
I've watched you from the start.
I watch everybody because I tryand support everybody.
I mean, even if I'm washing thedishes, I'll have somebody
going in the background just tomake sure that they're getting
some views right, appreciate it.
But I'll have somebody going onthe background just to make

(11:25):
sure that they're getting someviews right, appreciate it.
But I was really intrigued withyou and I, because of the fact
that you do so that you decidedto stay there.
Now you told me the story andyou know you had that choice to
make your quick money and leaveand you chose to stay with that
community.
That tells me a lot about yourcharacter as a human right Like
that you're.
You're, that's not.
That's a very non-selfish thingto do as a young man in his,

(11:48):
you know, late 20s, early 30s,when you got the world by the
balls.
You know what I'm saying as perse.
So props to you for that.
That's awesome that you stayedup there and helped those
communities out, man thank you,buddy.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
I genuinely love being up there, like even so, I
lived there for like three yearsfull-time, um, and for the past
two or three years or so I'vebeen doing kind of a 50 50 split
, so like I can't see myselfever not continuing to go back
up there.
Um, I just love it, man.
I love the slower pace of life,I love being a part of
something that's like biggerthan my own little bubble.

(12:19):
You know, like, like you said,everybody knows each other.
People knew me as like thatdude with the red beard that
fishes all the time.
You know, it's just it's, it'sjust fantastic, it feels.
It feels like you're genuinelymaking a bit of a difference in
a world where maybe down Southyou kind of just get like a
little bit of a pebble or agrain of sand on the beach, sort
of thing.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
It's very, very different.
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
That's, that's deadly .

Speaker 4 (12:45):
Thank you, and so are you still in baker lake or have
you?

Speaker 1 (12:47):
I'm in a different community, another community now
.
Yeah, I'll go back to bakerlake once in a while, but
primarily now I'm set up on aneven smaller community right on
the hudson's bay.
It's called chesterfield inlet.
Baker lake's about 2 000 peopleand chesterfield inlet is maybe
350 people.
So it's very, very, verydifferent, like slower pace of
life.
The grocery store is muchsmaller.

(13:07):
Uh, you know, like you're notable to get everything you want
to get up there, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Like so you might not be able to get produce for a
week.
Let's talk about that.
Because you were, you let'sbring in the uh.
So you were at the stores nowin your community, in these
communities in the north yeah,you bought a snowmobile or a
quad there before I can'tremember what you said and your
milk on the same receipt.
Yeah, you know, we know it'ssuper remote to get things there

(13:34):
.
Tell me about that.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
So I guess basically they just like they haul in a
certain amount of snowmobilesand ATVs each year because they
know people are going to buythem.
People are like people are hardon machines up there and like
how could you not be?
Like they drive them.
Like people a lot of peopledon't even own, uh like a
automobile, like a car or truckor anything.
They just drive to work everyday on their atv or on their

(13:55):
snowmobile.
Like I've seen guys with, uh,do a little ski, do plug.
I have no association with themor anything.
But like those the ace engines,man, I've seen like 40 000
kilometer ace engine snowmobilesthe newer ones there that, wow,
are brand new.
Like like they, they they'rerunning perfectly fine and um
see, yeah, they get, they getthem up there and people just

(14:17):
buy them.
Sometimes people you knowchange them out every couple of
years and stuff.
So that's kind of the play.
They subsidize it a bit soyou're not paying a astronomical
amount more because it is a lotto like.
If you want to pick somethingthat the grocery store doesn't
have, it's going to cost you alot to ship it in.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Um for sure, right, if the fees to get those?
I know our good friend of oursand he's a he's a friend of the
show and a sponsor of our show.
Uh, red lake or lakeside marine, sorry, up in red lake there,
red Lake there, andrew Johnson,the amount of money that it
costs even them in Red Lake toget things shipped there he was
talking to me about was insane.
I couldn't even imagine goingto where you are.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
I guess it's important to mention, like just
for context, that Nunavutthere's no roads that go to or
from Nunavut.
Everything that gets to Nunavuthas to be either flown or
boated in on a sea lift everysummer.
Even that gets to Nunavut hasto be either flown or boated in
on a sea lift every summer.
Even amongst there's I thinkit's 23 communities in Nunavut
and none of the communitiesconnect to each other, so each
within Wow, I did not know that.

(15:13):
Nunavut's a third of Canada'sentire landmass size and there's
23 communities spread acrossthe third of Canada and I think
the total population last Ilooked was maybe 60,000 people,
so it's so sparsely populatedthat it is incredible wow, I
didn't know that you couldn'tget to I, I and this is my

(15:36):
ignorance from down here, right?

Speaker 4 (15:37):
so, like when I was up there drilling, yes, I would
never leave town and we would, Iwould hell you in and out, um,
but when I was in the north, tothe west, like you know, we
would always be sort of yellowknife, obviously, yeah, yeah,
and then, um, go north,northwest or east, um, wherever

(15:58):
we were going at the time, butlike we had roads, yeah, we had
ice roads still, yeah.
So my, I, I just assumed thatthat's how it was and I was
never, I never would have.
You know, when I was a baker, Iwas downtown, yeah, so I never
went outside.
I did not know that.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
That's the craziest thing If there's there's a few
communities that have like amine attached to them so there
might be like an hour to twohour road going up to a mine,
but that's as far as it goes.
Like there's trails, likepeople go amongst like from
baker lake to chesterfield torankin inlet on a like three,
four hour snowmobile ride to getback and forth.
But it's yeah, it's all boat orfly or snowmobile trails and

(16:34):
that's pretty well it.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
Think about this.
So if you live downtown torontoand you live on, you know Yonge
and Spadina and you're orwhatever, and you're going to go
to work, you're probably goingto get up, go to the sub subway
right underground.
No, you don't need anautomobile every day.

(16:57):
Most people downtown Toronto ordowntown Vancouver or Montreal
don't have cars anymore.
You get up, you know your thing, go to work that way.
Or you get on your, you knowyour electric moped or your,
whatever they have now, and dothe same thing and I guess
really, if you think about it,you step back.
That's the same thing as whatthey're doing up there.
They don't need cars, a lot ofthose people.

(17:20):
They just use their sled ortheir quad or their side by side
and it's a standardized thing,right, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
And you can't use your like.
You can't use a pickup truck togo off in the tundra and hunt
caribou to eat.
So, it almost doesn't makesense to buy a vehicle.
Like it's nice to be in a warmand closed truck, but it's far
more practical to get yourself asnowmobile than it is to get a
car or truck.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
And when you're up there, do you travel by that
means?

Speaker 1 (17:48):
most of the time I did in Baker Lake Working in
mental health.
They give us a vehicle to use,so I had that, like I had access
to that to get to my job andstuff.
But I love that aspect of itLike being able to like jump on
a snowmobile and go to thegrocery store pick up my
groceries.
Of it like being able to likejump on a snowmobile and go to
the grocery store, pick up mygroceries, hang them off the
handlebar and whip home was justit's like a feeling of like

(18:09):
liberty and freedom that I justjust can't really explain it.
You know, super cool and that'sso awesome.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
that's it's just talking to you, justin.
It's just, I've thought aboutso much of it because I, because
I've personally been up thereand experienced it, uh it, but
not to the extent you have andnot in the conditions you have.
You know I was spoon-fed by anoil company.
You know what I mean Lobster ina camp.
You know I was pretty much awimp when I was up there, right,

(18:37):
yeah, so cool, so cool.
I admire you for that lifestyle.
Tell me some stories from townyou must have.
Like, what about polar bears?
Is there?
Obviously you have polar bearissues being right on Hudson.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
In the new community?
Yes, I certainly do, and that'schanged my outlook a little bit
.
In Baker Lake it's, I thinkit's 350 kilometers inland, and
I've heard one story of a polarbear making its way to town in
Baker.
But in Chesterfield it's on thebay, like you can throw a rock
and hit Hudson's Bay from myoffice window.
First time I went up toChesterfield I watched a polar

(19:14):
bear swim across this littlepond from my office window.
Apparently there's like while Iwas there a polar bear snuck
into town and ripped like atwo-inch steel door off the
community freezer and stole allthe walrus meat, left the char,
left the seal.
It handpicked the walrus andtook off with it.
What it's incredible, it's likea real hazard and I feel it.

(19:38):
In Baker Lake I had big oldmusk ox balls.
I could go camp out on the landwith just my dog.
Worst thing that could happenis like a stray grizzly which is
rare or a wolverine coming, butI felt okay with that.
But in Chesterfield, right onthe bay, it's scary man.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
That's crazy.
So hold on, let's stop here fora minute, because you said
something that I haven't heardsince like 2005.
And probably 90% of guests havewould have no idea that there's
such thing in canada calledbear and grizzlies, and they're
actually very predominant.
So we would have training fromthe oil company on wolverine

(20:16):
safety, polar bear safety andand bear and grizzly safety, um,
which is crazy.
So you, you guys, do get themthat far east as Baker, yeah
yeah, not so much in town.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
It's rare to come to town, but there's a lake just up
the Kilon River, about 80kilometers or so, and apparently
they get them there and theyare huge opportunistic bears.
I would imagine that they wouldbe more a risk than your bear
that has an abundance of food toeat, right like these bears.

(20:50):
What are they eating up in thearctic?
I don't understand how youcould sustain, sustain such a
huge animal with nothing notrees, no like not a lot of you
know like berries or food to eat, so like they're probably
trying to take down caravans.
It's not even shrubs to walkaround I remember hearing a
story.

Speaker 4 (21:09):
This is a story I heard from an Inuit guy.
We were in Wrigley, northwestTerritories, going up to
Kogaluktuk.
We had just stopped for a fuelup.
The guy was BSing us.
We were having a cigarette onthe tarmac.
He was telling me that there'sthese people that just got back.

(21:29):
The plane couldn't come in andget them and they got stranded.
They were geophysicists, ohyeah, and they couldn't get back
to get them overnight and therewas one little bush within like
miles of them.
That's all there was.
Yeah, and they somehow theystayed on that bush and they

(21:51):
walked around it to try and keepthe sanity.
So they didn't, because theythought they were going to get
eaten.
Obviously, right, like in themiddle of the tundra, it's crazy
tasty white guy, pasty whiteguy walking around, all smelly,
right, absolutely it was nowhereto run to in the middle of the
dark, right.
So they just huddled aroundthis bush and they walked and

(22:13):
walked and they just talked, andtalked and kept their and
stayed warm, yeah, and they justkept their sanity that way
until morning, until somebodycame back and I was like fucking
thinking that I'm like man.
I've been in some really crappysituations, but I don't think
I've ever had to talk myself offthe ledge to walk around a
shrub for 12 hours in darkness.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Something doesn't eat me alive.
It's so different, right,because down here, down in the
south okay, I'll just mentionthis first little disclaimer
that if I ever mention the southor the north, anything South of
Nunavut, it's the perception inNunavut that anything South of
Nunavut is called the South, andI've said that before around
some of you Northwestern Ontariopeople and some people got

(22:54):
pretty pissed with me, gotpretty offended, so my bad for
that.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
Tell them that this is not the North compared to
there I'm not sure what wordatlas they're looking up, but
they're wrong.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
I know, I know.
So if I ever see the South I'mnot talking about Texas, I'm
talking about like anythingSouth of Nunavut.
But that's the deal.
Like in the South you get stuckout in the bush or whatever,
like there's nothing that'sgoing to sneak up on you in your
sleep and eat you to death,like literally look at you as
prey, you know, and I think it'sweathered me a bit like because

(23:27):
now, like before, I haven'tgone up to nunavut.
I'm sure if I had a machinebreak down in the bush I'd
probably be stressing a bit.
But it's like now.
It's like might have to walkback 15, 20 kilometers, but I
could do that without dying,it's gonna be okay at the end of
the day, whereas in nunavutit's like maybe not, though like
you might not be okay.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Like so crazy, so crazy, so in um, like like it's
a daily thing or a week whatever.
However often they're in town,what do they do?
Do they do like they do you seeon these shows, or is that all
bs?
Like like, do they trap them ordo they just flush them out of
town with like bear bangers?

Speaker 1 (24:02):
it's not, it's not it's not, it's not every week or
anything.
It's like it's kind of rare ishlike okay it's not like you're.
You're passing polar bears intraffic on the way you work, but
uh, but they don't.
Usually it's a that's some hotlead to, if they're in town,
that they're pretty problematic,pretty problematic and they're
probably a high risk.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
So they they're probably too close at that point
.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, and there are tags too, like like polar bears
are hunted by inuit.
Like sustainably right.
Like they have a certain amountof these communities oh, yeah,
yeah.
Yeah, I've eaten polar bearmeat before and I did not like
it.
It's pretty rough yeah, ittastes like uh the, I don't know
.
It's a very fishy, rough redmeat.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
I wasn't a fan huh, wow, that is stupid.
I've never heard of anybody.
I didn't know they hunted them.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
I thought it was I did not know that.
It's funny because you talk toanybody from down south and the
perception is that there aredwindling populations, that that
, and that they're like superhigh risk.
But like you talk to any inuitelder, they say that the
populations are crazier thanthey've ever been and that they
are like problematicallyabundant now.
So I don't know if it's likemaybe the ice is melting farther

(25:10):
out in the bay or in like off,like you know, pushing them
closer to shore, or if theperception of the south is just
not quite accurate.
But you know, who are you goingto believe?
A science science person or,like a dude?

Speaker 4 (25:21):
that's a group of people that live in the guy
that's lived there and rightlike could weather that and
survive survive these conditionsfor thousands or whatever, of
years.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Right like they, they know what's up.
They're pretty, pretty dumb,insightful people that's so
awesome.

Speaker 4 (25:37):
and while you said, I remember I heard you say a few
few minutes ago, when the polarbear stuck in the freezer and
stole all the meat.
Yeah, not all the meat.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
It took the walrus meat.
I guess it has a fancy forwalrus meat Left some delicious
arctic char.
The community freezer is justlike a freezer that everybody
has access to within the townand you can just store your
frozen food there and people cancome and take some if they need
or whatever.
There was tons of meat in thereand it took all the walrus meat
and left the other stuff.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
That's great.
Now have you eaten, walrus?

Speaker 1 (26:12):
I haven't eaten walrus.
I haven't eaten walrus.
I've had seal.
Didn't love it.
I've had beluga whale, whichwas a very interesting
experience.
It's like, yeah, it's quiteinteresting.
It's like fishy rubbery, likethe skin is like eating like a
wallet.
It's very, very strong, but themeat, it's okay.

(26:34):
You put what do you call thatstuff?
Soy sauce on it.
It's not bad.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
Well, they're known.
What are belugas?
What else are they known for inthe food world?

Speaker 1 (26:43):
I'm not too sure I.
What are belugas?
What else are they?

Speaker 4 (26:45):
known for in the food world.
I'm not too sure there'ssomething.
I think the Asians eat them forsomething.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Probably.
Yeah, it's called muck tuck,beluga vaginas or something
Beluga nuts or something likethat.
I'm going to pass on that one.
Yeah, oh man, that's so cool.
The primary hunt is caribousand muskox and those are like
number one and number two mostdelicious red meat I've ever
eaten in my life, really.
Yeah, barren ground caribou isincredibly delicious man, like I

(27:17):
know the woodland caribou.
A lot of people say they're nota big fan of woodland caribou,
but the barren ground caribouare just a different creature.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
Well, it's different.
I can see they're eating pineand yeah, exactly the areas of
that, yeah exactly exactly, yeah, oh that's awesome.
I'm gonna have to try that oneday.
I'm a big guy I have myselflove moose and elk, so I have
some steaks.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Maybe next time you're around I'll hook you up.
I got caribou and muskox well,I'm trying.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
I'm trying, I know, for like probably like a year
and a half now, we've beentrying to hook up a little acre
fishing together, but I've got acouple lakes out here I want to
take you into next year, let'sdo it we're at the end of the
year now, but yeah, yeah, I'mall in, sweet, I can't wait for
that man, uh, yeah.
So you're up in the arctic now,you're, uh, you know, you're,
you're, you're doing any work,you're, you know?

(27:59):
You've told me a little bitabout the scenario up there and
and the adventures tell me aboutthe fishing fishing is it's
incredible, man, like it's uh,it's so different, like so.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Now, now that I'm back here doing 50 50 split,
it's a hell of a lot harder tofilm fishing content when you
don't have a giant 50 by 80kilometer puddle in your
backyard that is just full ofdumb, hungry lake trout that
I've never seen a lure before.
It's it's, it's incredible.
Like I've had days where I'vecaught 70, 80 lake trout from

(28:33):
the boat in three hours and likeaverage size being like a 12
pounder, just absolutely.

Speaker 7 (28:39):
Yeah, that's insane.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
For a little while there in Baker Lake I did a
little I don't know a littletheme of fishing with ridiculous
items like ice fishing withstuff.
So I yes, we're trying to thinkof the most stupid thing I
could use as a lure and see if Ican catch a lake trout and I
want a pair of sunglasses, pairof sun pit viper sunglasses?
how about a spoon?
A teaspoon I used like a plateof my youtube channel is called

(29:05):
assorted meats and that's a longstory how that name came up
back in high school so I triedfishing assorted meats youtube
channel.
That's awesome that's's justinjake and assorted meats if you
want to look it up but everybodylooked that up and like that
and that is so awesome yeah, wehave to dive back into how you
got that name.
Sorry to interrupt you yeah, Iwas hoping you were gonna ask um
.
So I got, yeah, made a plate ofmeats.

(29:27):
I used some pepperon, somesteak, chicken drumstick, all
sorts of stupid things, andLakers ate all of it.
I used the live GoPro camera.
What the hell did?
I use A tampon.
I posted a picture of a whitetube jig and somebody commented
that looks like a tampon.
So I thought challenge accepted, boy.

(29:48):
And I strapped it to a big jigand caught uh, caught a laker
with it so like hopefully, pitviper, at least gave you a pair
of glasses, oh, they hooked themup.
They sent me a bunch shout outto pit viper.
They gave me a little packageof glasses to make a lure and
yeah, it worked.
Dude, the lure looked insanelike the no, I, buddy, I've.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
That's why I was labeled them off.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
I've seen, bro, I've watched all your stuff that
means so much, but I thinkyou're funny as shit.
That means so much.
I'm honored dude no, totallyman.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
I remember when I actually know, when brucey was
up doing the the flay fishingcontest at the first show and I
remember him talking about onhis episode, you guys hooked up
and yeah, when he was up at mylodge having dinner one one time
him and him and Brian Gustafsonand their old ladies came up
just to kind of do some PR stuffand sign some autographs with

(30:40):
my people and awesome, um, Ijust asked him like did you,
when you were in Winnipeg, didyou meet Todd Jenkins?
And he's like that guy is afucking funny dude.
I know I'm trying to accomplishthem because I'm like I think
me and him would have a lot ofgood fun, fun together.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
I do think so, man, we're gonna make it happen 100%
well, that's awesome, man,that's so.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
You're Lakers, you're fishing with different cool.
So the theme of fishingdifferent stuff super cool yeah
you're catching tons of fishbecause they're like they're
just and you're a stud Betweenthe two.
That's awesome.
What's your big like?
What's a big like down here?
Obviously everyone's like yeah,I want to get a 40.

Speaker 6 (31:19):
Yeah, 40's it.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
What's a big trout up there?
Are you hitting?
Are you wanting to target 50s?

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Well, I mean yeah, always.
So the biggest I caught wasactually in Cambridge Bay.
It was a 46-incher.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
I'll tell you a little bit of the story, and
Cambridge Bay is where.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
They're pretty close to Kukluktuk.
Actually it's in the sameregion.
I think it is east, I don'tknow how far.
Pretty decent, yeah.
So it's up there.
It's in the 24-7 sunlight belt.
So I guess for anybody who'sunfamiliar, the farther north
you go, the bigger the disparityin length of days in summer and

(31:58):
winter.
So once you get to a certainpoint, winter can be darkness
for like two months and summercan be daylight for two plus
months.
Um, oh yeah, it's a wildthought.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
I mean, it just brings me back to my oil field
days and it makes me want tojump off of Derek.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Dude, but it's tough.
It's tough in the winter.
I've never actually experiencedfull darkness in the winter.
I've always stayed south enoughbut I have experienced full
sunlight in summer.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
And it's wild dude.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
When I was in Cambridge Bay I had my work
contract extended a week and Iwent and stayed out in a cabin
for like seven days or so six orseven days, yeah.
And I bought an ATV from a guyfor 500 bucks.
It had no suspension.
It was propped up by like a twoby four.
I had to spark the solenoid tostart it.
It was rough and it was still500 bucks.

(32:49):
And it was still 500 bucks.
But like, the money I got outof that ATV is like you can't
even put a price on it.
Like I would go fish as long asI could until I got tired no
concept of time.
Like when I couldn't keep myeyes open anymore.

(33:13):
I'd rip back to the cabin,sleep for however long I could,
with my eyes covered up becauseit was still bright as day out,
and just do it over and overagain.
I took that ATV up and down thecoast of the like of the ocean,
arctic ocean.
Um caught.
I caught a like a huge, almostlike 25 pound char with my bare
hands.
It was so fat from eating.
Tell me the story, what?
That's?
Super cool, bro.
So there's this.
There's this place called LongPoint.
It's like a big sandy pointthat sticks out, it's just
outside of town a bit and charjust like lap the shoreline back

(33:38):
and forth, back and forth, andI saw this huge char just kind
of like sunning in the shallows.
It was just swimming along soslow, so fat, and I cast so many
spoons at it and it wouldn'teat, which I later found out was
because it was like fat to thepoint of dying almost.
So I wait, so it would just goback and forth all day.
So I like it was in july, sothere's still like ocean ice

(34:01):
pushed up against the shore.
So I waited on this big icebergfor it to like swim in front of
me and I jumped off the icebergand I pinned it down to the
floor of the ocean like in, like, like maybe like two, three
feet of water, and I grabbed itand I wrestled it up you croc
wrestling char Dude, honest toGod.
And it pooped out like fivepounds of food, like there's no
way it lived after because itwas so fat.

(34:22):
It probably had some sort oflike internal issue.
Yeah, pooped all over thisiceberg.
I posted a picture of it.
It took over this iceberg.
I posted a picture of it.
It took me like two hours tophotoshop all the poop out of it
because the picture lookedhorrible.
Um, yeah, that was like 25pounds or something.
It was like 36 and a half inch,char, oh, my goodness,

(34:43):
absolutely nuts.
So I caught.
I caught.
That was like day one, um,maybe day three.
I went to this.
The guy that sold me the atvtold me that there's a sandy
beach up around this littlemountain, that there's a sandy
beach up around this littlemountain that there's big fish
that always follow in likefollow baits in, but never eat.
So I, uh, I drew on my icefishing techniques that I
learned from fishing lakers downsouth, using like a piece of

(35:04):
cut bait, so I caught a.
I caught a like a cisco alittle while before and I cut it
into stakes and I just bombedit out in this little skinny
lake, probably like a Cisco alittle while before.
And I cut it into stakes and Ijust bombed it out in this
little skinny lake probably likea kilometer long by half a
kilometer wide, yeah, yeah, andjust like sat the bait there
Just like a big octopus hook anda piece of cut bait and caught
a 46-inch laker at like midnightin like perfect sunlight, and

(35:31):
30 minutes later I up like a 43inch laker, do the exact same
thing, like back to back.
It was absolutely nuts, manthat's super cool.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
And to do it there, yeah, from an area where they
said they don't eat.
Yeah, to have it and to do itin 24 hours of daylight.
That's so awesome it was.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
It was such an amazing.
It's like.
It's like think about how muchpeople would pay to have an
experience like that.
And I paid 500 bucks for an ATV, you know.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
No, what you said is absolutely true, man.
Good respect to you, man.
These are things that you'renever you know.
Your grandkids' grandkids aregoing to tell about grandpa.
I never thought of that, that'sso crazy.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
That's absolutely awesome to hear.
That's amazing.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
Man, that's so cool, that's fun.
So those are your biggest trout.
So what do you think thosetrout weighed?

Speaker 1 (36:18):
The one I did the.
I girthed it.
I can't remember the.
I think it was like 26 inchesand I think it was just over 40
pounds, and the smaller onemaybe 30 or so.
They're like super, superdecent fish.
Um, there's a.
There's a place in baker lakethat I fished once and I got
some pretty big ones, maybe likea 35 pound, 42 incher.

(36:38):
It's like a set of frozenrapids that's uh, it's up the
thilon river there.
I mentioned that a little bitearlier.
It's a video that's availableon the frostbite channel.
So it's these rapids like 13,14 feet of water that are
anywhere else in the world.
They'd be wide open year round.
But it's these rapids like 13,14 feet of water that are
anywhere else in the world.
They'd be wide open year round,but it's so cold there that
they freeze up in the winterthere.
So lake trout, I guess, areprobably eating like grayling

(37:00):
all winter in the fast movingwater and people catch like
absolute monsters there.
Yeah, on the frostbite channelthere's a super.
I mean not to toot my own hornwho's frostbite?

Speaker 4 (37:15):
I know who frostbite channel.
There's a super I mean not totoot my own, but pretty damn
good frostbite.
I.
I know who frostbite is, but Iknow you're part of them, so you
and you know jay's been on hereand all the boys have been on
here.
So, yeah, tell them aboutfrostbite and pump the tires a
bit.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
So frostbite is a company started by two guys that
basically got their claim tofame from youtube alex parrick
and aaron weeb, uncut anglingand ap bassing.
They uh started up a icefishing company, put out great
like super, super nice icefishing rods, great lures, reels
, accessories, all that stuff.
Um, I work with them.

(37:39):
Um, they support my channel andI've made a few videos for
their channel and one of themwas at this setting that I was
talking about there.
The uh it's called, it's a.
I'll try to say it.
There's a.
You got to use like a usedifferent syllables and like
different pronunciations forinuktitut words and the spot's

(38:01):
called with your.
I can't people and people innunavut are probably laughing at
me right now trying topronounce that.
But uh, but yeah, frozen rapidsand like people catch like 46
inches all the time.
I got three over 40 in like anevening there.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, it's during the fishingderby weekend too and I decided
I'm not gonna.
I'm not gonna enter the fishingderby.
I'm using these bougie, youknow sonars and all this new

(38:23):
technology from the southernworld.
I don't want to take money awayfrom an inuit for, like you know
who's from there winning thederby I would have ended up
winning first and second placeand I would have won like eight
grand and I like but I mean, Imean giving me the had I known
that I might have made a fewdifferent decisions but, eight
grand's a bit, eight grand's abit of money that might make me

(38:44):
uh, reconsider my morals oh,that's awesome man.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
yeah, that's awesome man.
Good for you, that's so awesome.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
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Speaker 4 (40:33):
Tight lines everyone find ugly pike now on spotify,
apple podcasts or wherever elseyou get your podcasts so when
you go up, are you, are you upthere for like a month at a time
or, like you say that you're onlike what's your rotation or
what is your lifestyle like whenit comes to that time period?

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Nowadays it's six weeks on, six weeks off, which
is pretty nice.
I don't have kids or anything,so it's super doable.
It's honestly nice to get away.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
Are you?

Speaker 1 (41:06):
married.
Justin, I'm not married.
No, I have a partner, though.
She's pretty supportive andawesome.
Does she go up there with you?

Speaker 4 (41:12):
She doesn't.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
She hasn't been, but they have a grant, I guess or I
don't know what you want to callit, but a program for employees
that work with the governmentin Nunavut that you can bring up
a family member, a loved one,and they can come stay with you.
So she's planning on it.
I'd like to get her out there.
Um, just, it's just somethingthat you can't explain with
words and I'm sure you canattest to it that like there's
something different there and itjust I can't even tell you what
it is, but it's different, it'sjust a different world it's

(41:41):
magical, I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
Right like I mean, I felt that, I know that, I felt
that it's.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
It's sad because like what percentage of the
population of canada do youthink has been to nunavut before
?
Like what percentage of thepopulation of Canada do you
think has been to Nunavut before?
Like what percentage of thepopulation doesn't even know
Nunavut is separate fromNorthwest territories.
Now it's kind of it's wild andit's like a sportsman's paradise
dude, the best hunting and thebest fishing, like on par with
NWT, or better I would say, likein Chesterfield what do you get

(42:09):
there?

Speaker 4 (42:09):
So tell me.
So that's pumped their tires abit for an minute.
So like you're getting biglakers, we know that you're
getting char, so are you gettingregular, like the silver char?
Do you get them pumpkins too?

Speaker 1 (42:19):
you get the, so they, they go orange like that when
they're spawning in likeseptember, october, sort of
thing so the silver ones aretypically like the straight
chrome ones.
Those are typically the onesthat are in the ocean.
I guess maybe char are a weirdfish man.
They're like a confused salmon.
So they spend most of theirlife in fresh water in like the
little lakes and stuff, and thencome spring with the ice melt

(42:43):
they make their way all the wayup from their little their fresh
water wintering spots all theway to the ocean.
They feed like primarily alltheir diet for the year in like
a two, three month period andthey come back from the ocean
back up to the freshwater areasspawn in the fall and then just
winter out all winter.
So, uh, when they go to theocean they're silver like chrome

(43:07):
, super powerful, crazy like thecraziest fighting fish I've
ever caught in my life and inthe fall they're bright orange,
super, super deadly looking Wow.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
That's so beautiful.
I saw Jay just put out.
One of you know him and hiscooking buddy there did a video
there when they went up toAlaska.
I've never seen that before.
I didn't realize they went thatcolor.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Dude.
So there's a weird thing Likethe char from like Tree River
and Alaska and stuff.
They look very different fromthe char in Nunavut, like they
look like a Dolly Varden butpeople swear they're not Dolly
Varden, they're char.
But they look like a wholedifferent species.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
You'll have to send me a picture of one, let me see
what they look like.
I will picture one let me seewhat they look like.
I will, I will.
Yeah, so you got.
So you got these char.
Yeah, you got insane graylingfishing, I'm assuming yeah, so
the best in the world probablyum and big, like like what's an
average grayling to a biggrayling?

Speaker 1 (44:01):
just so folks know um , I, I honestly it's so hard to
want to fish for grayling like Ilearned how to fly fish there,
I did it.
Um, but it's like when you havebig lakers and char around,
it's like, do I really want tocatch this little purdy purple
thing with a big long fin?
Yeah, it's cool, but uh, well,I mean I don't like fishing for
lake trout food, you know, itkind of feels wrong.
But I would say a biggrayling's like 16, 18 inches

(44:28):
and a huge one is like maybe 20.
Hard to say, like I neverreally looked at them like I
would a lake trout likemeasuring every inch and trying
to get the weight of it andstuff.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
What about walleyes?

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Nothing, not a.
Thing.
No walleyes no pike, no pike.
I thought there'd be pike still.
So there's a lake west of BakerLake called Gary Lake, and it's
several hundred kilometers westof Baker Lake called Gary Lake,
and it's several hundredkilometers and that's the only
pike that you can get in thatregion of Nunavut, I think.
In Arviat, which is thesouthernmost community in
Nunavut, I think, you can getpike on a bit of a jaunt, but

(45:06):
for the most part there's nopike.
They should call them likeNorthwestern pike, not Northern
pike, because they don't comeour way anyways.

Speaker 4 (45:14):
Crazy, crazy, crazy.
I didn't know that.
I thought that.
I know that when I was in myportion of the territory well,
not over by Baker but to thewest portion and up they had
pike over there Because I'd getthem.
I'd get them in Wrigley in thatarea, like we'd fish them out
there.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Like that's nwt though yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nwt has great pike it's weirdthough, like they kind of seem
to stop where the trees stoplike, at least in terms of like
the nunavut area, like where thelakes that have them near
nunavut is kind of like wheretrees are poking out.
Interesting.
Huh, yeah, it's strange.
It's strange I don't know whythey wouldn't like, maybe lack
of like vegetation or something,I don't know.

(45:53):
Like I'm strange.
I always thought that therewould be because, like casbah
and stuff have great pike andthat's partially in new nevette
and yep, you know it's supermagellan I I remember we were.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
We were on our way up there and we stopped.
This time we were flying fromSaskatoon up to Yellowknife, we
were coming across and we had tostop in Stoney Rapids Black
Lake area.

Speaker 7 (46:22):
Yeah, I've heard of it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Black Lake.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
Northern Saskatchewan .
Right by Uranium City inNorthern Saskatchewan.
Yep, yep yep, and we had stoppedthere and we ended up getting
weathered in for a couple ofdays and I decided to go walking
.
You know, I just wentbushwalking and there was a few
times where I was like like youcouldn't hear, you couldn't hear

(46:46):
nothing.
You know what I mean.
Like a mosquito would flap itswings and you'd be like whoa,
what is that?
Right, like it's reallymajestic once you get that far
north and it's hard to describe.
You know how beautiful it is.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
I'm super jealous, buddy, that you get to be up
there all the time a super bigtrip is go, look, go to like a
community in nunavut ornorthwest territories, zoom in
on it and then zoom out and seehow long it takes you to find
something like anothercivilization.
Literally they say the finalfrontier, quote unquote, and it
is that there is nothing.
You are plopped into the middleof nothing.

(47:23):
It's incredible that peoplesurvive in little communities
like that.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
When in the summertime do the lakes get
semi-warm, like I mean, or notalways 50 degrees?

Speaker 1 (47:35):
it's, it's.
It doesn't get like baker lakegets a little bit warmer, being
a bit more inland and stuff likeyou'll get 25 high, 20 low,
like high 20 degrees celsiusdays, but it's just such a big
lake and that it's so cold likeice is on the lake till part,
sometimes till july, like earlyjuly, so you only get a very
short summer, um, and it's notenough to like cool, like to

(48:01):
warm up the huge lakes.
I'm sure the smaller lakes willget yeah yeah, you know a little
bit warmer, but for the mostpart you can catch lake trout in
under 10 feet of water all yearlong is it.

Speaker 4 (48:10):
Do you prefer um fishing lakers, open water, or
do you prefer doing it throughthe ice?
I've seen you do it both, but Ireally have only known you to
be, you know, the laker ice kingin the north.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
That's what I call you that's the biggest, that's
the best.
I couldn't wish for a bettertitle.
Man, that's what I was.

Speaker 4 (48:28):
I've been waiting, I've been thinking about that
the whole time I appreciate thatso much.
I don't think I've ever seenyou put a small fish on the ice,
even when you were down in lakeof the woods.
You're screwing around thosefew times.
It's always 30 plus inches.
I'm like man, this guy's got atalent like you get spoiled or
get weathered.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
I don't even know if you want to call it spoiled,
because like now, it's likefishing down here.
It's like like, oh, a 33-incher, oh, that's unfortunate.
Like it's almost like although,to be fair, in northwestern
Ontario those Lakers fight poundfor pound, harder than any
Laker I've ever fought in mylife.

Speaker 6 (48:59):
Like a 33-incher down there Straight up man.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
I don't know what's the deal with them, but they are
like juiced up, like you getthe odd one from Nunavut in
northern Manitoba that fightslike that, but for the most part
, dude, it's not even comparable.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
Like a 40-incher up there.
I sent you those two picturesof those.
I'm not going to say the lake,just I want to keep it Lake X
for my boy, kyle, but those twopictures I sent you were
back-to-back days.
Oh, yeah and yeah.
So we got that.
That one was a 39 and a half,one was a 40 and 40 and change
amazing dude, that's a biganywhere, like when it came to
fats, 40 like lakers.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Lakers hit a certain point where, like even down here
, like you can get 45s and stuffoccasionally in northern
manitoba and a 45 up there is afreak.
You know, like I said, mybiggest I've caught is a 46.
So like it's all relative, youknow it's just Sure.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
Well, I know that that those.
So Kyle recorded those catchesand I remember watching the
video.
So one was a lady from Texasand her husband that are clients
of mine.
The other one the next day.
His name was Mark Eastlings.
He was a buddy of mine.
He's actually one of myinvestors.
Great dude, you know, bigcountry artist, guy and dude.

(50:15):
His fight was like 23 minutesman.
Like it was just like thatsounds longer.
I was catching a giant whitesturgeon out in BC after my
wedding this fall To say that aLaker can put up a fight like
that is pretty wild.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
It's absolutely crazy and I'd say most Lakers in
northwestern Ontario are likethat.
They're all so charged up.
I've had a handful in Nunavut.
My biggest one that I caughtthrough the ice was 43.5 inches
and I caught it just an hournorth of Baker and I fought it.
I was recording it.
There's a video of it.
It was 50 minutes long thefight.
I thought it was like a90-pound lake trout because it

(50:53):
fought so hard.
Every other one is like 15minutes might be like a long one
.
This one took me for 50 minutes.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Dude the whole time, listen.
I've caught some big fish intournaments and I've lost some
big fish.
I know there's been a coupletimes in my fishing career my
semi-amateur fishing career thatI've had big fish.
Where I in the fight, you'relike fuck, I just closed my eyes

(51:20):
and I'm just like please justmake this happen hey god, you're
like hey god, it's no matterhow talented you are like, you
still always have the the factor.
Absolutely, dude.
Tell me when you're catching a43 and a half pound Laker and
it's your fucking PB through theice oh my God man there has to
be a point after 50 minuteswhere you're like, oh my God,

(51:42):
that was insane.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
So of that 50 minute fight, I probably could include
five minutes of it, because theother 45 minutes were cringy me
freaking out like shaking andsaying absolutely embarrassing
things and that's coming from aguy who doesn't get embarrassed
by anything.
It was, it's incredible, it'suh, it was horrifying.

(52:04):
I was so afraid.
Um, it was big, but I thoughtit was a lot bigger just by the
way it fought compared to otherlakers.
But yeah, yeah, it's it's.
It's a dopamine rush that likemaybe hunting.
Where are narcotics like whereelse do you get something like
that in this world?
You know?

Speaker 4 (52:22):
no for sure, I agree, man, it's man.
So I'm a big, I'm a.
I like finessing big walleyes.
That's my thing.
I don't care catching bigwalleyes that's my thing.
I don't care if catching bigwalleyes to me trolling.
I like finessing them.
I like to know consistently youcan catch a walleye between 28
and 31 inches.
Oh, hell, yeah, that's the keyor muskies.
That's my big thing right nowand I just started getting on

(52:44):
the muskies.
The last you know, I put a51-inch tiger on camera, ryan
Bonin, actually.
So Ryan Bonin, the guy thatkind of helped Jay get going
there.
Okay, he shot my video with hisfamily up at my place at Nordic
when I had it, and the fourthday I ended up putting a 51-inch

(53:05):
tiger on camera.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
And it was like, buddy, it was crazy.
It was like the Babe Ruth, youknow I could see it coming and
I'm like it was crazy.
It was like the the babe ruth,you know I can see it coming and
I'm like get the net.
Kyle, kyle's like man, youdon't even have it hooked.
I'm like get the net.
This is coming in the boat, youknow, and it's like four inches
from me, flared its gills and Ijust gave it two pops, I hooked
it, turned its head, it was inthe net in like four seconds

(53:29):
that's so but you know what Imean.
Like it's those big fish seeing,I love that.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
Oh, I feel like that's the only thing that can
compete with laker ice fishingin the summer version, you know?

Speaker 4 (53:39):
yeah it's the only thing that I was going with.
That is that's my two things.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Yours is the lakers, but you know they really compare
like in it, like in terms of,like the effects on your mind
and your like brain and stuff,the dopamine, the like sheer
excitement of catching one fishor even seeing a fish you know
it's.
Uh, they're very close to like.
I haven't done a lot of muskyfishing but I'm thinking that
it's the play for me comesummertime you got to get out

(54:06):
here and I'll take you out my205 dude and we'll go put me in
coach, I am so in a couple manon me put me in coach, I'm all
in yeah, we'll do that for sure.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
You have to let me know one time when you're
getting back from the, from thegrind up there when you go back
up.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
You gotta be, gotta be going soon eh, so I planned
this perfectly, this, uh, theschedule for this year.
I um caught like I'm right inthe middle of like ice fishing
primetime here in the south, uh,and I'm going back up april 15,
uh, april 13th, the monday,whatever it is around there, and
I'm up there till the justafter the may long weekend and

(54:41):
that's basically like mid-aprilis when it starts hitting
primetime for noon of it.
Like we'll still, I'll still befishing if into june, if I end
up staying a little later but uhso yeah, april 15th till May
20th, whatever the long weekendis- Then you'll come back here
and it's just Wally opener.
Absolutely dude, exactly.
And then Muskie's next, andit's a dream.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
That's awesome.
That's deadly what I was goingto ask you.
So we talked briefly about yourYouTube channel, which I
followed.
I think it's amazing.
I think it's super cool.
I love your logo.
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
I made that thing.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
I think it's so I love your logo Assorted Meats.
I love the name.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
Here it comes, here it comes.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
How long have you been up and running now and
what's your plans for the future?
What do you got coming out?
Tell the people what they canexpect.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
So I have.
I think I started it in 2019.
I'm just kind of dawdling atfirst and you know I work a
full-time job and making contentis a grind.
Um, so I wouldn't say I've doneit anything close to full-time
yet, but the plan is to just,you know, keep, keep, keep, keep
doing it, keep showing,partially Nunavut, partially
down South.
Um, you know I want to starttraveling around North America.

(55:56):
I've had like it's, it's wild.
I don't have a huge YouTubechannel, but the amount of
people that reach out and ask meto come fishing with them is
just amazing, amazing and like,if, like, I could genuinely come
back from these six-week tripsand go a couple places in the
six weeks and, you know,experience different parts of
the country or the continent and, like film, cool variety of

(56:16):
stuff.
That's so awesome.

Speaker 4 (56:18):
It's real man.
It's honestly, you'll be singleby the time you do that, but
I'm probably you know, she'spretty good girl.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Aja, shout out to aja , she's pretty fantastic lady.
Aja, shout out to Aja, she's apretty fantastic lady.
She's so supportive, she helpsme with.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
What's your significant other's name?

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Aja, that's a beautiful name, isn't it right,
isn't it?
It sounds almost like Indian orsomething, but it's not.

Speaker 6 (56:36):
She's Polish, so I don't her parents must have just
really liked the name.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Yeah, she's a keeper man.
Good for you, buddy, good foryou.
Does she fish with you?
She's not an outdoors woman,but she'll come and she does it
once in a while, which is nice.
It'd be hard to have asignificant other that always
wants to come every time,because that's where I go.
I like fishing alone a lot,that's where I do my best work,
that's where my best thinkingdoes and reflecting and like
self, self-care and stuff.

(57:08):
So it's nice having once in awhile some companionship, but
like it's nice to also have myown thing and that's the problem
I have is krista.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
So I started out when I met krista she was like she
thought that's 100 and noignorance to her, because this
is I understand.
She wasn't around fishing, soshe just thought you know a jig
and a minnow or a pickerel rigand a minnow was fishing, that's
all there was right, no matterwhat kind of boat you had or
what, yeah, that was fishingit's so wild like she's.

(57:36):
She's sitting there doing shows, she's doing podcasts, she's
selling this.
She's.
She's like this is a lot biggerthan I ever thought.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
The depth and complexity to fishing that
people don't really understand.
I feel like fishing is becomingsuch a popular thing.
It's the cool thing to do thesedays and it certainly wasn't
when I started, but it should be.
It's so complex and such anamazing thing to do with your
time Exactly, and I just don'tthink people understand it.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
No, they don't.
And well, that's.
The problem I have is, everytime I want to go do it and
she's like, oh, now I've createda monster because now she wants
to do it right, just tell heryou're going pickerel rigging
and throw a jig I'll tell you aquick story here.
So we, uh, I told her I'd tellyou the story because you're the
when we watched.
You know you're our Laker guythat we watch, right, I

(58:26):
appreciate that.
I remember the first Lakers sheever caught we were in
Corkscrew Channel.
Oh yeah, just past Clearwaterwhere you can actually start
fishing.
The buoy Past, that red buoy,yep, yeah that was my first spot
too.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
First make it a good spot.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
You swing to the left of that red buoy and there's
two little islands right, yep,right out in front of those
islands there's a reef thatcomes up from like 50, 60 feet
to like 38.
We were sitting right on theside of that reef and I had my
little pop-up out there.
We were, you know, we had abait out for lakers, in case one
come by, but we were perchfishing because there's a

(59:04):
massive perch in Lake of theWoods, right?
Oh yeah, so we're jumbo perchfishing and I don't know we must
have caught like 15 or 20.
They were on the ice and we'regonna have a good feed at fish
tacos kind of thing.
And yeah, and I'm like, okay,babe, reel up, and she like
whips her bait.
So we're using, like I'mtalking like uh, 13 fish and

(59:25):
tickle sticks kind of stuff.
Oh yeah, she just startscranking her little bait up.
Well, it must have had enoughflash that.
This, like man, it was a goodsize.
It was, like you know, 29, 29and a half inch yeah but it
grabbed it right at the bottomof the hole, like, like right
before it came out and oh andshe had never even seen this.

(59:50):
Yeah, so she just looks at meand she wants to throw the rod
because she has no idea what'sgoing on.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
It's malfunctioning.

Speaker 4 (59:56):
Yeah, there's a Russian submarine.
She grabbed my bait and it'sswimming away, totally so.
Anyway, she fought it andfought it, and fought it.
We finally got it up and thenher hands got a little sore so I
uh, so I took over.
We ended up getting this thingout.
That was close 30 inches andman, it was a you know, it was a

(01:00:16):
beautiful lake trout and agreat fight.
And that was her firstexperience and ever since then,
now she's laker hook.
Like every time we go out onthe ice road, it's like we're
gonna go down to clearwater bayyeah, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Honestly, though, if you if like, have you never had
you never experienced fighting alake trout before, or see one
on the fish finder, you'd thinkthis, this can't be right.
Like walleyes, don't do that,perch, don't do that.
But like the way they charge upout of bait and the way they
just dog, it's like they're notlike any other freshwater
species at all.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
Let's explain, explain it to the to our diaries
fans out there, justin, whatyou?
The crazy thing that, what youbecause I know what you're
talking about when you'rewatching them on the garment or
not, or you're just your flasheror whatever, you're fishing
with them.
You know, like, tell them howthey feed and tell them what
they're, you know how they chaseand maybe give some details
there if you don't mind, likewith, with laker fishing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
It's just like it almost looks like.
If anybody can like, like,think of a time where they've
experienced like, likeinterference on their flasher,
where those lines are just likeflying up, a laker will chase a
bait like that fast and youthink that's what it is like at
first with an untrained eye.
But it's a laker charging.
They'll charge like 60, 70 feetsometimes to come in and smash

(01:01:24):
a bait which is sickening whenyou're fishing other stuff.
It's like this walleye won'tmove 10 feet.
What do you?

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
mean, and a lake trout will charge like 80 feet.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
I know like come on, man, you can see this.
I know you're called a walleye.

Speaker 4 (01:01:37):
It's so amazing how they fish vertically through the
column or they feed verticallythrough the column.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
A lake trout will pick up a one foot piece of
candy on the bottom of the lake,or you can catch it 90 feet
above you in the same cast atthe surface like like, yeah,
like you, you can fish lakersdirectly on the bottom, and
there's been more than five, Iwould say, times where, like you
know, you drop a new lure downthe hole and you want to see the

(01:02:03):
action of it right below thehole.
Do like.
You go to do that and a hugelaker comes and smashes it, like
with its, with its dorsal fin,scraping the top of the ice.
Like what are you doing there,bud?
They're just, uh, they're.
They could be anywhere.
They can charge so fast.
I'd like to get a reading onlike the mph they're.
They're putting down chargingafter bait, because it's
probably faster than I can run.

(01:02:23):
That would be a really coolthing to know probably like
maybe you could calculate thatwith like a filament of a sonar
or something.
See how many feet it travelsupwards at your bait.
That would be challengeaccepted.
I'm gonna try to do that thereyou go, I'm gonna.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
You know what now I'm gonna.
I'm gonna talk to angins.
I know he introduced me.
So I have silver pike in.
I'm sorry I had when I hadnordic.
I had silver pike in my lake,oh nice yeah, but they were like
they were starting to breed inthe abundant.
They kind of I'm not sure ifthey'd slowed down or dissipated
a bit, but regardless.
Anyway, we got one that wasreally big and I took the

(01:02:57):
pictures that the sportsmanshowed it and I'm like you know
what do you think this is?
Because it looked like agrayling.
I'll send you the picture thisis because it it looked like a
grayling.
I'll send you the picture.
The whole body looked like agray.
It wasn't like a pike at all.
It looked like a stub nose pikebut a grayling skin and super
it was all purple and blue, umsilver underbelly.

(01:03:19):
So, anyways, he took me to thisfish biologist and, uh, he told
me that it was a skinpigmentation issue, basically a
DNA issue.
And if they were breeding, thenit's like an albino moose
breeding with another albinomoose.
They would just continue.
So we were really hoping topush that.
Anyways, it died off, but asuper cool thing you know to be

(01:03:39):
able to do.
So I'm going to talk to Ang andsee if he can hook me back up
with that guy.
Yeah, ask him if they've everstudied that before.
See if he can hook me back upwith that guy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Yeah, ask him if they've ever studied that before
.
Man, we could do it.
We could do it.
Record the flasher fish finderwhatever device you use, and you
could calculate if it tracesyour bait up 100 feet in.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
However, many amount of time, however long a time,
it's just the speed too rightVersus the distance, exactly,
exactly.
That's wild man.
This is a project.
See, there you go, heck.
Yeah, put me in, coach, I'm onit, brother.
I want to say you know, Ireally want to have you back on
the show.
I want to hear some morestories about the Arctic up

(01:04:19):
there.
There must be some more crazythings.
I know we've talked about lots,but I'd like to hear more
someday.
I'm going to have a millionquestions for you, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Hey, I got notes here .
I didn't even come close togetting through all of them.
I took a couple notes ofstories and stuff, so I'd be
happy to come back.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
I had a great time bud, I would love to get you
back on the show.
Let's do that.
Let's get you up north for yoursix weeks and then, when you
get, you know what we up thereto do one while you're in the
Arctic.
I think that would be supercool for our fans.
They would love to hear that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Sounds good, man, I'm going to break 48 inches lake
trout this year.
There's a lake that's 50kilometers west of Chesterfield
Inlet and I've seen threeconfirmed 48 inches in the last
maybe five or six years Picturesand everything.
48 inches, 48, man.
I don't know, this lake is likea little, I guess it's a lake

(01:05:07):
that char used to winter andthese Lakers are just eating
char.
And you know char like salmonor like rich, fatty, high
calorie fish.
But he caught a like a 44, Ithink it was, and it had like a
five, six pound char, halfdigested in its gullet it.
So we're going there, we'regoing to camp out and uh log
some content and stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
So I'll have some 48 inch stories for you hey, the
diaries of a lodge owner,stories of the north family want
to hear about them.
They want to uh, they want tobe there when you, when you
break your record, your pbimagine, imagine on air hey
brother, I, uh, I appreciateeverything.
Um, folks, I want to thank youto getting this point in the
show.
I want to reach out to LakesideMarine, our friend Andrew

(01:05:52):
Johnson up there.
I know right now they'resmoking busy getting ready for
spring.
We're going to have Andrew onhere right away to go, you know,
do a little spring episode onsome openings and some boat
openings and, you know, quadmaintenance and so on and so
forth.
But uh, get online, take a lookat them at lakesidemarinacom.
Uh, get on over to the fishingcanada website, folks, and take

(01:06:15):
a look at all the giveaways theyhave there.
You know garmin is alwaysputting up a panoptix.
You know it's, uh, it's, it'sstill unbelievable to me.
If I, if I was able to, I wouldbe on those things every week
putting in filling out umapplicator forms to be able to
win that contest, like for abrand new garmin live scope.
Get in there, folks.

(01:06:35):
Fishingcanadacom.
And I think that's it.
Mr jenkin, it's beena pleasurehaving you here.
I really appreciate it it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Pleasure's all mine, buddy.
I had a great time.
We'll talk soon.
Do it again.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
Awesome For everybody out there.
Diaries of a Lodge owner.
Families and friends.
Have a wonderful rest of yourday.
And thus concludes anotherepisode of Diaries of a Lodge
Owner.
Stories of the North.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
Stretching my life.
Someday I might own a lodge,and that'd be fine.

(01:07:30):
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 good old boy.
I'll buy the lodge and live mydream.

(01:07:54):
And now I'm here talking abouthow life can be as good as it
seems.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:08:04):
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 will be right here in
your ears bringing you a brandnew episode of Outdoor Journal
Radio.
Hmm, now, what are we going totalk about for two hours every
week?

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
Well, you know there's going to be a lot of
fishing.

Speaker 5 (01:08:25):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.

Speaker 7 (01:08:30):
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 Garth and Turk and all the.
Russians would go fishing.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
To scientists, but now that we're reforesting and
letting things breathe, it's theperfect transmission
environment for limestone.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.

Speaker 7 (01:08:56):
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 6 (01:09:13):
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.

(01:09:35):
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,

(01:09:57):
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

(01:10:22):
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.