April 2, 2025 • 74 mins
Ever had that perfect fishing moment slip away? Now imagine it happening on international television.
When British angler Matt Hayes and German social media star Babs Kijewski arrived at Chaudière Lodge in 2015, Steve Niedzwiecki was determined to showcase the best of Ontario's Upper French River for their series "Castaway Canada." What unfolded instead was a masterclass in Murphy's Law and human dynamics pushed to breaking point.
This episode pulls back the curtain on what happens when the cameras stop rolling during outdoor TV productions. From a massive television crew that occupied three cottages to the unbridled enthusiasm of an influencer who couldn't resist casting even when explicitly told not to, the behind-the-scenes tension is palpable throughout Steve's retelling.
The heartbreak is visceral as Steve recounts not one but two trophy fish—a monster muskie and a 40-inch northern pike—that were hooked and lost before cameras could capture the action. The resulting friction aboard the boat reached critical mass, culminating in one host being effectively "grounded" to her cottage for the remainder of the shoot.
Beyond fishing drama, Steve also touches on the devastating ice storm affecting southern Ontario and shares thoughtful reflections on the upcoming Canadian federal election. But it's his candid analysis of how negative energy spreads that provides the most powerful takeaway from this unforgettable shoot gone wrong.
Whether you're a fishing enthusiast, a content creator, or simply someone who appreciates genuine stories about human nature under pressure, this raw account of missed opportunities and clashing personalities offers invaluable perspective on what it truly means when we say "the one that got away."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I've got these guys on a spot.
The fishing has been more thandifficult.
We've got a beautiful,beautiful northern pike and,
like I mean, the whole situationhas just gone atomic.
This week on the OutdoorJournal Radio Podcast Networks,
(00:28):
diaries of a Lodge Owner Storiesof the North, it's another
episode of Behind the Rod.
This time two outstandinganglers from the UK team up to
do a cross Ontario tourhighlighting the most amazing
and iconic places in theprovince.
And it was my pleasure toshowcase the Upper French River
(00:50):
with Matt Haynes and BabsKiewski on their television
series called Castaway Canada.
On this show I talk about thespring ice storm affecting
southern Ontario and yours truly, the national election that is
looming large and the importanceto get out and vote, and, of
(01:11):
course, I recount the eventsbehind the scenes in the filming
of episode six of seven in acrazy cross-province tour.
And what an experience it was.
So perk up those ears.
This behind-the-scenes peek isoff the rails.
(01:31):
Folks, folks, welcome toanother episode of Diaries of a
Lodge Owner, and I'm your host,steve Niedzwiecki, and looking
forward to getting back into thesaddle after missing last week.
This week Willie is under theweather.
You know, when you live up inKenora, with the cold and
(01:53):
everything else, it's inevitablethat you end up catching
something, and I think he's gotstrep throat or something that
is keeping him from talking.
So it's difficult to do anepisode of Diaries without being
able to talk.
So that's totally cool, brother, you get better and we'll get
(02:16):
you back on sometime in the nearfuture.
But today is a great day andI'm going to be digging down
into the old memory banks onceagain.
We've got a behind the scenesin the episode.
It's actually episode six ofCanada Castaway with Matt Haynes
(02:39):
and Babs Karowski.
Oh, I said that wrong, sorry,babs.
She really gives Matt a hardtime about it too in the show.
But what a wonderful experiencethat was.
And we'll get into that alittle later on the show.
But first I want to potentiallyapologize.
(03:00):
You know I've got.
Anthony Mancini is our producerand Dean Taylor, as you all
know, is one of the main magicmen behind the scenes and I am
currently sitting in my kitchenbecause I'm out of my studio.
(03:23):
Upstairs.
We had a epic well, I don't evenI'm going to call it infamous
ice storm in the Shelburne andsouthern Ontario area over the
past weekend and I am stillwithout power while it's now
(03:43):
going on.
I am still without power whileit's now going on.
We're going on three days andHydro One has updated our
reconnection to unknown.
So I think that's probably abad thing.
Not only a bad thing.
They're calling for anothermassive storm.
(04:08):
They're saying I choose not tobelieve it, but you never know
for tomorrow, which is today ifyou're listening, so we'll find
out about that.
I may be without power for Godknows how long, but I'll tell
you what this ice storm was.
(04:30):
Something else, and I do likeexperiencing weather and weather
events.
I like snowstorms.
You know it's just and and, aslong as you're not driving,
obviously.
(04:50):
Um, the odd time when, when abig storm rolls through here,
I'll go outside and just standin it just to feel the force and
and what goes on.
And and I've witnessed twotornadoes that come through.
Well, I saw the second one.
(05:10):
The first one I didn't see, Ijust saw the aftermath.
The first was in 1985.
And a tornado ripped through.
I guess it's my hometown.
We lived outside of the town ofGrand Valley, ontario, but in
85, there was a number oftornadoes in southern Ontario
(05:32):
that did a ton of damage, namelyin Grand Valley Ontario, a
little bit of damage inOrangeville, ontario, and Barrie
was another place that wasaffected greatly.
But I'll tell you what.
These ice storms obviously nottornadoes or anything like that.
(05:57):
They're never good and they cando a lot of damage.
But I would take a snowstormover an ice storm every day of
the week.
You know when the ice starts toform on the trees and you know
it can be pretty.
But, man, that beautiful sightturns into horrific aftermath.
(06:20):
And you know we lost our hydroSaturday night and I thought, ah
, you know, we'll get hydro bythe morning.
Well, the morning rolled aroundand things started.
I heat the house with wood, sowe're never really worried about
heat, but we've got fridges andfreezers.
So I pulled out my generator at5.30 on Saturday morning and,
(06:45):
needless to say, say aftersitting for so long, the um
float pin in the carburetor wasseized and I and um, you know I
was pulling the carburetor off,this thing out in the uh, out in
the back air back deck area anduh, the point of this part of
the story is we were kind of atthe height of the storm, in that
(07:08):
things had not started meltingyet and the ice was still
accumulating on all of the treesand the ground and everywhere.
And you know I don't live in abush per se, but I am in farm
country and there's a lot oftrees and bush close and every
(07:31):
couple of minutes you would heara crack and then you'd hear all
of the ice shattering as thetree fell and branches were
dropping.
Like I say, we're going onthree days without power where
I'm at now and um the uh, thedevastation it does to these big
(07:51):
old trees.
I got a, I got a hard maple outin my backyard on the fence
line and um, uh, every crackthat I heard.
On Sunday morning I was peekingaround the corner to make sure
that big old boy was stillstanding and he made it.
I went out and I gave him a hugafter it was all over.
But you know we've got anotherstorm coming this direction and
(08:15):
hopefully it won't freeze.
It'll either be snow or rain.
That ice in between is crazy andsome of the big trees that you
lose is a shame.
A couple of my buddies havemaple bushes out on their farms
and good, healthy, big maplesthat were able to withstand the
(08:41):
weight of the ice Because theywere at the edge of the bush.
Um, the, the weight, just torethem right out of the ground by
the roots and um, it's sad tosee, especially when you've got
all your uh, all your maple sap,uh, buckets, um, um, uh, pegged
into all those trees, and thenthe next thing you know, you
(09:02):
lose your, your sap, you loseyour trees, you lose, you lose a
, you lose a bunch of of reallyawesome I don't want to call
them creatures, but trees, thatand those hard maples, they,
they, they're hard, they resist,but when they do go they take
so long to grow again, like Imean, you don't.
(09:25):
When you lose a big tree likethat, you don't see another one
growing in your lifetime.
But anyway, enough of that.
And with all of these thespring storms and weather, we've
got another spring storm herethat's taken the province, storm
(09:51):
here that's taken the province,and really it's something that
I don't typically dabble in.
But we've got a national federalelection coming up and you know
, I do have my choice and that'snot what this is about.
This little monologue here I'mgoing to go into isn't so much
about who I think should win.
(10:13):
But this is one of thoseelections where I said to a
friend of mine over the weekend,it's becoming fairly
Americanized, where there's alot of discussion from both
(10:34):
sides about what the other sideis doing wrong and not so much
how they're going to fix all ofthe issues that have been
presented to us Canadians andall of the negative impact that
(10:55):
we've felt over the last numberof years in our economy and
everything else.
Um.
So really, what I want to say,number one, most importantly to
a lot of people there were a lotof really really great people
(11:16):
who fought and died to give usour freedoms, to give us the
right to vote, and theysacrificed the.
They give the ultimatesacrifice without thinking about
it, and to not vote is one ofthose things that really you're.
(11:43):
It's disrespectful, it'sdisrespectful to the people who
fought for our freedoms.
So get out there and vote, andthe excuse of well, I don't know
who to vote for, that's noexcuse.
You get out there and vote.
I remember the very first, umfirst time that I was able to
(12:05):
vote, my grandfather, grampsNidzwicki.
He fought in the Second WorldWar and you know the story that
I heard and he wouldn't talkabout the war really at all to
me, wouldn't talk about he.
(12:29):
Wouldn't talk about the warreally at all to me, but um, he,
um, he and and again this iskind of family lore and and uh,
he never really spoke much of it, but um, apparently he ended up
in uh Auschwitz and um was, uhwas somehow broken out.
They got him out of Auschwitz.
He was as a prisoner andstraight from there went to
(12:53):
England and fought for theBritish and the story goes, and
he was bald as a pool cue, likeI mean he well, I shouldn't say
that the top of his head wasbald as a pool cue.
He had, I guess what you wouldcall it these days is a skullet.
But the story is he lost allhis hair while he went into that
(13:18):
concentration camp and lost itovernight.
Concentration camp and lost itovernight.
And anyway, when I come of ageto vote, he sat me down and he
said Steph Joe, you go vote.
He didn't tell me who to votefor and at the time I just
(13:40):
followed my parents who, funnyenough, were liberal, and I went
and cast my vote and then inthe next election I ended up
voting green because I wasconcerned with at that time I
(14:02):
think it was the ozone layerproblem or story or whatever,
however you want to spin it.
But it's funny how that neversurfaces anymore.
But anyway, and then after thatI started to educate myself.
(14:24):
And after that I started toeducate myself and I really got
out and every election I madesure to go and vote, because I
couldn't imagine being in acountry where you were so
(14:46):
oppressed that there was no vote, that you didn't have the
freedoms that we have today,although some of them are under
attack.
So it's really important to goout and vote.
And the other thing, too, as alodge owner or former lodge
owner and business owner, thepolicies that our government put
(15:10):
forward and pass are so, so, soimportant to the success of
your business.
And one of the successes that Itook advantage of was a
government grant and, funnyenough, the Conservatives were
(15:31):
in power at that time andthey're typically well, they're
more Conservative.
They try and balance the budgetand look after big businesses
and you know there's people thatagree, disagree.
There's two sides to every coin.
(15:52):
Right, and I took advantage ofa grant called a Young
Entrepreneur Grant and, becauseof my age at the time and the
fact that I owned a business, Igot an infrastructure grant and
that really set me up forsuccess and it was a great
(16:13):
success story and whether or notStephen Harper was the
architect of that.
He was the one that was inpower at the time, and so you
know, and when I mentioned theAmericanized election, the one
(16:35):
thing that is so, so, so, verydifficult today, and I'm just
going to pose the situation andhow how I see it, you can make
you, you can draw your owndecisions.
(17:07):
I'm not.
I, for one, am fairly skepticalof sources that get paid by one
side or the other, and ourlegacy media is a place, and
what I mean by that is CBC andCTV and all of the traditional
(17:31):
legacy media sources.
They're paid for by thegovernment and it's kind of hard
sometimes, although I'm goingto give them credit.
The last little while there hasbeen, they have carried some of
the stories that are affectingboth sides and I'm saying both
(17:56):
sides, because there's not theNDP in this country right now
are negligible.
They might not even be a partyby the time this is over with,
and my prediction is the BlocQuébécois are going to hold more
seats than the NDP when thechips fall.
(18:16):
But as a business owner, it'simportant to understand the
policies and the agendas of thetwo parties, the liberals and
the conservatives, and we have aliberal leader who is the
(18:36):
sitting prime minister inKearney and he wrote a book that
basically lays it all out forus and that book, like a lot of
the ideologies in that book, areI don't agree with, but I'm not
(19:05):
going to point them out.
I just want to point out thatyou should go and read it, and
I'm the one, the one.
It's educating yourselfhonestly.
It's educating yourselfhonestly and that is what you
(19:28):
need to do.
And it's not a long book andit's called Values by Mark
Carney, and you can see that hehas a bit of a globalist view,
which means I don't believe hehas the Canadians' best interest
at heart.
On the other hand, you've gotPierre Pauliev, and Pauliev is
(19:55):
the conservative leader.
A lot of people are comparinghim to Donald Trump, because
conservatives in this countryare more like the Republicans
and the liberals are like theDemocrats.
But I would caution you on that.
Again, educate yourself, go outand see what his platform is,
(20:23):
what his plan is, and educateyourself.
That way.
People always, they always saywell, you know, he's a career
politician, and that very wellmay be true politician, and that
(20:49):
very well may be true, and andthe other thing like and again,
it very well may be true, andmost people that get into these
positions are career politicians.
There's really only one that Ican think of that that isn't a
career politician, and that's MrTrump, next door, and I'm not
sure whether that's good or badfor us, although I think that in
(21:12):
his mind, he's doing the bestthat he can for the United
States, and how can you blamehim on that?
But again, you need to removethe whole Trump and tariffs
thing away from this election.
Please look at the people thatare running and the parties that
(21:35):
there are, and it's a two-horserace, two horse race, and any
vote that is cast for one or forneither of the two horses does
(21:56):
affect how the other one does.
They're votes that are dilutingthat race.
And again, if you're for theNDP, that's great.
Cast your vote, understand theplatform, understand our
economic position, understandwhere we are as Canadians.
(22:17):
What are the things that matterto you most, whether it's the
cost of housing, whether it'sthese tariffs?
But again, honestly, folks,these tariffs are a smokescreen.
Donald Trump, in my opinion, isusing this as a negotiating
(22:37):
tactic and guaranteed it doesn'tmatter who wins the election
and who becomes our primeminister.
The minute that that personfalls into that seat, there is
no more, there will not be anymore of the elbows up baloney
(23:00):
and we're going to fight theUnited States and this, and that
Our prime minister is going toget on a plane, go down to
Washington and they are going tonegotiate NAFTA III, and that
is the bottom line.
You cannot fight the UnitedStates.
Their economy is 10 times oursize.
(23:20):
They actually have a military,which we don't, and has, you
know, in the last number ofdecades, our military has
degraded to the point where youknow we just don't have one.
And no disrespect to all of thepeople that are in our military
(23:40):
right now, but I am sure if youask those people if they need
help, they're going to say yes,we need help, and it's important
to understand the tariffs, andall of this rhetoric is just a
smokescreen.
Dig down into the values of eachone of the parties and vote for
(24:04):
the person that you feel isgoing to make the biggest
difference in your life.
Okay and um, uh, for me, uh,and you can take it for what
it's worth.
I am not, I don't want toinfluence anybody on making
their own decision, but for me,making their own decision, but
for me the best vote isConservative and Pierre Pauliev.
(24:27):
And enough of that stuff.
I've always tried to stay outof the political realm on this
program and that is it.
That is the last that you'llhear of policy unless it
directly affects the lodging oroutdoors industries.
(24:52):
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Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's Favorite,
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right.
Every Thursday, angelo and Iwill be 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 5 (26:01):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
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Speaker 1 (26:48):
So Behind the Rod and this Behind the Rod is going to
be one of my more favoriteBehind the Rods Because in 2015,
I believe I got a call fromJimmy from Jimmy Greyston and he
told me that there was atelevision show Actually it was
(27:13):
a limited mini-series that wascoming to Canada and the hosts,
matt Hayes and Babs Kiewski,were coming.
Babs was from Germany, matt isfrom England and they're going
to come and they're shootingsome of the most iconic or the
(27:38):
most iconic places in Ontarioand the French River in
Chaudière Lodge made the radar.
And that was really, reallyexciting to me because at the
time I was in like my fifth yearand really we had started to
(28:00):
gain traction through thetelevision model that I was
employing, simply because Ididn't have time to do shows
with a young family and beinggone for all of the summer and
into the fall and I was relyingon TV and it really was at that
(28:26):
point in time, it was reallygaining traction and I was
excited to have to have aforeign television show and it
was going to air in somethingcrazy like 126 different
countries.
So Jimmy said would you be ableto accommodate and the the
(28:48):
television show and I and youknow me I was like, yes, jim,
absolutely name the time, tellme what you need and it's done.
So he did, and I was a littlesurprised.
The first, the first thing, thatum, that um, uh, I don't want
to say caught me off guard, butwas different.
(29:09):
And at that point in my careerI was, I was very used to
dealing with television shows.
We probably already had in theneighborhood of 10 to 12 shows
shot at Shodier and I was veryused to the North American TV
shows, namely Fish in CanadaYou've heard the Behind the Rods
(29:34):
that included, like I said justtwo seconds ago, I will repeat
myself Fish in Canada and AngeloViola and Peter Bowman, bob
Izumi, charlie Ray you know somany of these North American
(29:56):
shows Jim Sarek from MuskieHunter and for all of the other
ones I'm forgetting, I apologize, but the biggest difference
right off the bat was the sizeof the crew.
And with this television show,castaway Canada, the crew and um
with uh, with this televisionshow Castaway Canada, um, the
(30:16):
crew was big, it was really big,um, like three cottages full
big, um, they had, um, um, theirtwo hosts, um, and and again,
they had never really teamed upwith each other before.
Babs, I'm sure, was like asocial media influencer and she
(30:43):
was young, beautiful, and Ithink that at that point there
were a couple of of televisionshows who were looking for, uh,
looking to open up the, the um,um, the niche to a younger
female audience, and they weretargeting these, these people,
(31:04):
and um, babs was one of them, uh, from Germany and um, uh, so
there was Bab, there was herboyfriend, who was like an agent
of hers, I guess, I don't know,didn't really see much of him.
He just kind of hid in thecottage for the week.
There was a producer, anexecutive producer, matt, two
(31:32):
cameramen and they even had aguy that was there specifically
and solely used for time lapse,with the, with the cameras and
and man.
They did some pretty cool stuffand and I will, I'll just as,
as we're, we're getting intothis you can go and watch this
(31:53):
episode on YouTube.
Like I said before, it's six ofseven and if you go to YouTube
and Google Matt Hayes, castaway,canada, all seven episodes will
come up and they're longerepisodes, like for TV.
They're longer episodes likethey're the for tv they were
(32:13):
meant for, they were ourepisodes and um, uh, here,
without the commercials, you'reabout 46, 47 minutes for each
one of them.
So, yeah, google, matt hayes,uh, castaway canada, episode
number six, and you're going tofind us.
So, anyway, they had thismassive group of crew and when
(32:44):
they got there, well, actuallyit was just leading up and I
don't remember who.
It might've been Jimmy, itmight've been, I forget who had
mentioned it to me.
Have been Jimmy, it might havebeen, I forget who had mentioned
it to me, but they worked fromnorth and they headed down to
the south.
So we were the last stop, Ithink they.
I think they did one moreepisode on Rice Lake or
something like that.
(33:04):
But originally I was slated forBath and, looking back on it and
thinking about it, it must havebeen.
I don't know why I didn't takethem back into Marshy Bay,
because that was my go-to spot.
Maybe it was before I knewabout it, but I don't think so.
(33:26):
Anyway, I was slated for Bathand a day or two before they
arrived I got word that the twochutes that were north, one was
Canora, on Lake of the Woods.
There was another one onanother famous muskie lake, but
(33:47):
they had not caught a muskie yet, and because the French river
is one of those destinationplaces for large muskie.
Um, they wanted to do, theywanted to catch a muskie, and I
was like, oh my God, take a deepbreath, because muskies,
(34:10):
nevermind catching them oncamera.
Um, muskies, never mindcatching them on camera.
Muskies are just a difficultfish to catch.
And he wanted to catch one on afly rod which, like I mean, I
didn't have much experience.
Well much, I had zeroexperience on catching muskie on
(34:33):
a fly rod anywhere, anddefinitely not on the Upper
French River.
At least, I kind of knew wheresome spots were and I had some
good guides, actually, thelegend Pete Stefanik, he made an
appearance in this one.
But so, anyway, they arrive.
(34:55):
I'm thinking, okay, let's justtry and get.
I wasn't going to say anythingabout muskies, but the first
thing everybody's talking aboutis hey, you know, can you catch
muskies this and that?
And I said, well, yeah, you cancatch muskies this and that,
everything else.
But I talked them into um,going out and um, let's just get
(35:17):
the bass segment done first andsee if we can get some nice
fish, and and then we'll work onthe muskies.
Well, this was another show,unlike the azumi show, where we
hit, the conditions bang bang onand the weather was perfect.
The fish cooperated and it waslike easy.
(35:37):
This was another typical oh myGod.
The cold front moved in, we hadweather all over the place.
You know, just like typicalbaloney, like when you go on a
fishing trip and the first thingthat the lodge owner says to
you is wow, you should have beenhere last week.
(35:58):
The fish were on fire.
And you're thinking, oh well,what about this week?
Well, we got weather coming in.
You know it could be tough, butthey're out there.
Anyway, it was one of those.
So we went out and we fishedreally hard for the first couple
of days and, honestly, um, outof all of the television shows
(36:20):
that I shot, this show isprobably the weakest in as far
as um, as far as fish caught,and and big like.
We caught fish.
We caught some, like I, I well,there's two instances we're
going to talk about but, um, wecaught enough fish.
We caught lots of little fish,that's what I'm trying to say.
(36:42):
And little fish make for a shitshow.
Um, so we, we, we caught a tonof little fish.
We got one nice large mouth andwe had two encounters and Babs,
I'm sorry about throwing youunder the bus, girl, but the and
(37:03):
you got to watch this show LikeBabs is high strung,
ridiculously high strung, um,ridiculously high strung.
Uh, she, she had a wonderful,wonderful personality for a
YouTube influencer.
Uh, and um, um, I think that atthe point where, where I run
(37:28):
into them and and knowing whereI run into them, and knowing
that, after coming off of ourlast shoot of the year last year
and being gone for three weeksand understanding how grueling
three weeks of travel could be,these guys did eight weeks, they
(37:53):
did eight weeks of travel couldbe.
Uh, these guys did eight weeks,they did eight weeks of of
travel together and, um, we were, we were, in the end, parts of
the of that travel and, um,tensions were, were, were
evident.
Uh, they were.
You know, like I mean, you getyour producers, you get your
(38:17):
camera people, you get yourhosts, you get your boyfriend,
you get all kinds of thesepeople living together in close
quarters, traveling, notsleeping the way that you would
normally sleep, working longhours and long days.
And man, oh man, did it evermake for an interesting behind
(38:39):
the scenes?
And I think, matt, this isbringing me back to the point,
my point with Babs being aYouTuber, I don't think he knew
what he was getting himself into.
Again, an absolutely gorgeousgirl, but just off the wall she
(39:03):
was, and you go on, go watch it,you'll see what I'm talking
about.
But like we had squirrels atthe lodge and she would walk
down the path and Matt and I'dbe heading to the boat and we'd
look around and we would, andBabs would be gone and she would
(39:23):
be running across the propertychasing squirrels, and she was
and and Matt's like hey, hey,babs, what are you doing?
And she, she called themshivils, I'm chasing shivils,
and and um, and then he wouldrein her back in and we get in
the boat.
Anyway, after two days of hardfishing for bass, um, I took
(39:49):
them to a spot that I call DollyParton's tits, and that's a
spot where it's good for walleyein the evening and they're two
big rock piles, so you canimagine where the name come from
, and they're kind of located ina spot, in a position that
reminds me of breasts, anyway.
(40:11):
So we were there and we werefishing these big rock piles for
smallmouth and dozen babs hookinto a big muskie and she had it
.
She was only using bass gear,but she got it up to the side of
the boat fairly quickly.
(40:32):
Like it hit right at the sideof the boat.
I saw it come in and it grabbedthe I think she was using like
a long A bomber.
It was a crankbait of some sortor whatever it was.
It was hooked right in theoutside of the mouth.
She couldn't have hooked it anybetter, but it was on bass gear
(40:54):
gear and this thing went for amonumentous run.
Um, and the whole time I wassitting there and I and I was
trying to coach her because shewas tightening the drag and I
and I kept saying, babs, don'ttighten the drag, don't just let
it go, let it go, don't tightenthe drag, because obviously,
don't tighten the drag, don'tjust let it go, let it go, don't
tighten the drag, becauseobviously if you tighten the
(41:16):
drag too much, that fish is sopowerful it's just going to
break the line, like like, likenothing you know.
And um, she and I and I said ona couple of occasions and Matt
is I, like, I mean his eyeballswere like saucers and I again I
(41:39):
said, babs, don't do that, don'ttighten the drag.
And, as I'm saying, don'ttighten the drag.
She gets all excited.
She's like she's so excited itwas.
It was great to see thatexcitement.
And Matt.
Matt said don't, don't do that,babs, listen to Steve.
And she grabbed the spool andstopped the spool with her hand
(42:04):
rather than let the fish pull,drag, and it just broke off.
It broke off in a massive swirlat the side of the boat and I
remember looking at Matt becauseI knew it was going to happen.
(42:26):
And I, like I as a lodge owner,when you're out and you're
fishing with a television show,the pressure that sits squarely
on your shoulders is huge.
Number one, because they'retouting you as a world-class
(42:46):
guide and folks, you know asgood as I think I might be, I
you know, I I was a lodge owner,uh, not a world-class guide.
I wasn't on the water every day.
I knew where there were fish, Iknow how to fish, but
world-class guide and lodgeowner are two different things.
Um, but I had to wear that hatand I wore it.
(43:10):
Um, I wore it proudly and Iwore it to the best of my
ability.
And short of going up there andtackling her to get her to not
lose that fish, she just was ina one-track mindset.
And when I looked at Matt I waslike, oh, buddy, I'm sorry.
(43:32):
And he's like wasn't your fault.
And then he told Babs, you know, he said he, in not so many
words, said listen, from now on,when Steve or I tell you to do
something, you are going to takeour coaching.
I tell you to do something, youare going to take our coaching,
(43:54):
because this is the differencebetween an outstanding show and
a show that's not so outstanding.
And she, you know, giggled in ayou know 20-something-year-old,
beautiful influencer girl wayand went on about fishing.
And then we actually made amontage of that situation.
(44:20):
So we kind of they have all ofthe live footage that they got
when Babs lost the fish,although they did edit out my
voice sayings don't do that,babs, stop babs.
You know, because you can'thear that they edited that out,
(44:40):
um, and then, um, once it hadbroke off, um, um, the producer
who was in the boat and that'svery unusual, the only time it's
ever happened where we would bedriving around with a producer
plus the two hosts plus acameraman.
We set it up so that they tookfacial shots of us after the
(45:05):
fact, when it was, and we'resupposed to recreate the look on
her face when she lost thisfish.
And, having rewatched it, Ididn't do such a great job.
I could have really embellishedit to make it look like how I
felt, but it was crushing to seethat fish go.
(45:31):
But anyway, and so you know,the day ended.
We had some bass and everythingelse, and I actually borrowed a
buddy of mine, tony's boat, todo this, and it just so happened
that he had bought his boatfrom Ange and the Fish in Canada
(45:55):
television show a couple ofyears prior to.
So it was a Fish in Canada boatthat we were fishing out of.
So, interesting enough, whenyou watch it, you'll see that
it's still wrapped and it hasthe the Fish in Canada logo on
the side of it, which was great.
A little bit of a plug in therefor my brother, ange.
But we finished up with that day, went back, you know, and come
(46:18):
up with another game plan, andwe decided that I was going to
take them back into a placecalled Clearwater Bay, and I
knew in Clearwater Bay thatthere was one big northern and
it was.
There's a in the backside.
There's basically kind of twobays in the back of Clearwater
(46:40):
with a point that comes out intothe middle of the bay and the
one on the as you're going in.
The one on the right is abigger bay, it's deeper, it's
got a bunch of rock shoals thatcome out from the North Shore
line and we fished bass in there.
We got a couple of nice ones onthe inside of that point that
(47:12):
was created by the two bays thatcomes out into the middle of
the clear water and it wasaround that point, but in the
left side or the southern bay,and it was really shallow in
there and in the back of itthere was an old duck blind.
Really shallow in there and inthe back of it there was an old
(47:35):
duck blind.
But, um, so we went in and wefished, uh, we fished that other
bay, um, for the bass first,and, uh, we kind of come up with
this game plan and I didn't, uh, you know, to be honest with
you now thinking back on it um,we had decided to go back in
there for bass to try and catchthe, the, the, the lunker, to
complete that part of the show.
And, um, it wasn't until I gotin there that uh, and started
(48:00):
fishing that I that I remembered, um, I was a week or two or
however long prior to uh, thismoment, I was in there and I had
been guiding a couple and wehad a massive northern come up
on us on the other bay and Isaid to Matt I said, hey, listen
(48:23):
, matt, I'm pretty sure thatthere's a northern pike and it's
a really, really good one inthe bay right next to us here.
Do you want to go after it?
And he's like oh yeah,absolutely, let's do that, let's
go after it.
So, anyway, we pull up, I throwthe trolling motor down and
(48:46):
Babs is the one that's going togo after this northern.
So she's at the front of theboat and as I'm pulling the boat
around with the trolling motor,I'm sitting in the, in the um,
um at the cockpit and I'm justrunning it with the uh, with the
key fob.
I pull up and the producer sayshey, steve, just, uh, just hold
(49:09):
on, um, um, I've got to, I'vegot to switch the battery out of
my camera.
And I said, yeah, no problem.
And I had already explained toeverybody what the situation is
as I'm coming around the point.
It's beautiful, it's flat, andBabs is on the front of the boat
(49:31):
.
I'm explaining to Babs and toMatt.
There's that weed line that youcan see right there with the
pencil reeds and then there'ssome lily pad out front.
It drops off into a deeperchannel that runs kind of come
out of those, out of the infront of the lily pads, over by
(49:57):
those pencil reeds and this andthat.
And then the producer's likehey, steve, just hold on, I got
to change my battery in thecamera.
Or the producer said thecameraman's got to change the
battery in the camera.
The cameraman didn't say thatand he made a very, very clear
point of looking to the front ofthe boat and saying Babs, do
(50:20):
not cast, babs, do not cast, wedon't have the camera.
Well, I'm on spot lock.
I'm not really right, I'm notreally close enough to the spot,
but what does Babs do?
(50:40):
You're right?
Yeah, are you thinking it?
Yes, yeah, I was.
I wasn't thinking it until Isaw Babs turn around after, like
I don't even know.
The guy was still, he hadn'teven reached for the battery,
(51:00):
and I'm seeing Babs crankingback to make a cast and I'm
still not thinking that.
You know, like I mean, the guylooked her in the eyes and said
Babs, do not cast.
Well, I'm going to give Babsthe benefit of the doubt, I'm
(51:21):
going to say that she thoughtthat the producer said Babs,
cast away.
You know, have fun, just catchwhatever you want and we'll see
what we can do about getting iton camera.
I'm not.
Anyway, babs casts and Matt, assoon as she cast, said Babs,
(51:46):
what are you doing?
Like, what are you doing?
And she turned around.
She didn't say anything and shegot two cranks into the
retrieve and the water exploded.
It was like epic.
It was epic.
(52:11):
And now the producer is losinghis mind, like losing his mind.
The cameraman is so disgustedwith what's going on in front of
him he drops the camera righton the bottom of the boat and he
said what do you want me to dowith this now?
What do you want me to do withthis now?
(52:33):
What do you want me to do withthis now?
And the producer, betweenyelling at Babs and then telling
the cameraman to get thebattery in the camera, and me
thinking, oh my God, they'regoing to blame me.
I'm the one that pulled in and,having said that, it wasn't
(52:58):
until I stopped the boat rightwhen I got word that we got to
change the battery.
And Matt is livid, livid, and Ithink there's a lot of tension
already built up amongst thegroup because of the strain of
(53:21):
travel and shit was comingundone in the boat in front of
me.
I didn't know what to do.
I did not know what to do.
And then Babs is up there andshe's squealing and she's
dancing around and making thiswhole scene like she's on camera
(53:44):
, knowing full well there is nocamera.
So now I'm trying to bring thetemperature of the boat like
from the temperature of thesurface of the sun down to
something that's manageable.
And I said to Babs Babs, listen, just keep tension on the fish,
(54:08):
let it run a little bit, butkeep it out of the weeds, just
keep, just leave it in the water.
And she's like no, no, no,we're going to of the weeds,
just leave it in the water.
And she's like no, no, no,we're going to hurt the fish.
We're going to hurt the fish.
I'm like Babs, the fish will beokay, let the cameraman get the
battery in the camera and leavethe fish in the water.
(54:31):
Let him just be away from theboat, let him settle down and
it'll be fine.
It's better in the water.
No, no, no, no.
And like a defiant person Idon't even know how to describe
(54:53):
it.
I don't even know how todescribe it.
She put a show on of the likesto this day I've never seen.
She run around the front of theboat from side to side,
fighting this monstrosity of afish, and we didn't get a
measure on it.
(55:14):
But this fish would have been.
I think it was probably closeto a 40-inch northern.
It was the showstopper, otherthan you know, the massive
muskie that all we saw was theswirl and the big run and the
(55:34):
nightmare.
But it was a beautiful northernand she's up there running
around and the more she hootsand squeals and laughs and
reacts to this fish, the moreupset the three men in the back
of the boat get.
(55:56):
And at that point I said Babs.
And now, after trying toexplain to her, just take a
breath, let's get this on camera, let's, you know, let's make
everybody happy and let's get agood show.
She starts yelling at me togive her the net and I don't
(56:22):
know what to do.
I looked at matt, I looked atthe camera guy, I looked at the
producer, I looked at babs andagain she's like steve, steve,
give me the net, I need the net,I need the net.
And I looked, looked at Matt.
I said Matt, what do you wantme to do?
I don't know what to do.
Buddy, there's very fewsituations in my life that I've
(56:43):
been in and I don't know what todo.
Okay, but I'm in one of themright now.
What should I do?
So, matt, disgustedly, hereached over, he grabbed the net
from under my chair and hethrew it.
He threw it to the front of theboat.
He didn't even get up and giveit to her, he just tossed it.
(57:07):
She grabbed this net, pulled in, got the Northern.
Hey, I'm going to give hercredit.
She got the northern into thenet.
She got it at the side of theboat.
And now again, I'm trying tofind ways to bring the
temperature in the boat down.
So I'm like, okay, I'm thinking, how can we salvage any of this
(57:33):
?
So the thought come to my mindWe'll get some stills of it,
we'll get some stills of it,we'll get some stills and maybe
they can get her holding thefish on camera.
And the cameraman, he's like Imean, he's not even, he's still,
he's disgusted.
He's got to the point where thecamera's on the floor of the
boat.
He's sitting in the chairbehind me with his arms crossed.
(58:01):
So I'm thinking stills.
So I'm like, okay, babs, justleave it in the net.
And she again she's like no, no, no, no, we're going to hurt
the fish.
We got to release it, we got togive blah, blah, blah, blah.
So I'm like, okay, whatever.
So she unhooks it, picks thenorthern up, and now she's
(58:23):
wanting to get pictures of thisfish and she's holding the fish
at a full arm extension over theside of the boat because she's
worried if she drops it it'sgoing to bang its head on the
floor.
And I said, babs, for the loveof God, pull the fish inside the
(58:44):
boat please.
And she's like grab the camera,grab the camera.
And none of the guys in theback are even open to
entertaining anything to do withthis fish.
Now, and I've got these guys,um, on a spot.
The fishing has been more thandifficult.
(59:06):
Uh, we've got a beautiful,beautiful and, like I mean, the
whole situation has just goneatomic.
Anyway, as I'm sitting in well,actually standing in front of
(59:28):
the steering wheel pleading withher to bring this fish into the
boat, and nobody's doinganything in the back and she's
squawking while this northerndecides to kick and kick it.
Does it kicked so hard Ithought it near pulled the
fingers off of Babs, out of thegill plate, and, as she lost
(59:55):
control of this big, beautiful,unbelievable, show-stopping
piece of awesomeness when you'rein the television business, it
did a somersault in the air andsmashed its head off the gunwale
(01:00:15):
of the boat and ended up backin the French River and swam
away.
And now she's making the same.
Oh, oh, we lost it.
Oh, and the guys in the back ofthe boat.
I got the feel that this isn'tthe first time that's happened.
(01:00:38):
Well, I know it wasn't thefirst time because I was present
for one of the times and it wasone of the most uncomfortable
situations that I've been inever really situations that I've
been in ever really Like.
There was a lot of nasty thingssaid and Babs was told to sit
(01:01:05):
down and I was told to leave,take us back to the lodge.
Babs is going in, and afterthat Babs never come out of the
cottage cottage, I don't evenknow if she come down to eat and
they were there for two moredays.
Um so, and both side like I meanBabs was was nothing short of
(01:01:35):
obstinate and I want to give herthe benefit of the doubt and
say that maybe she didn'tunderstand because English is
not her first language, but sheunderstood just about everything
else I said.
And it was almost like I don'tknow if anybody out there has
(01:01:56):
ever experienced buck fever.
If you're hunting and a buckwalks out and you just go into
like a trance.
Well, babs seemed to get buckfever with every fish she caught
, which is great in a sense.
But, man, if you watch theepisode, think about having a 45
(01:02:27):
to 50 inch muskie on that showand a 40 inch northern and then
think about how much that wouldhave changed the show and how
much it means to.
Number one, the province ofOntario.
Who's paying these people to behere to promote our wonderful
province?
Number two, matt Haynes, who isthe celebrity angler from
(01:02:49):
England who is footing the billto produce this show.
Footing the bill to producethis show?
The lodge owners in Ontario andeverything else that trickles
down from that and it was reallyhard to watch.
(01:03:10):
And boy oh boy, those fellasdidn't have anything good to say
about working with a personlike that.
And again, I think it all boileddown to a combination of things
.
Babs, she was who she was.
She wasn't doing anythingdifferent than what she would do
(01:03:33):
as an influencer different thanwhat she would do as an
influencer.
She wasn't very good at takingcoaching advice.
I'll give you that.
And then you've got a bunch ofguys who take their job very
seriously, take their job veryseriously, travel with a huge
(01:03:57):
entourage of production crew andunderstand the costs and how
difficult it is to produce ashow like this, and understand
when you miss out on theseopportunities.
You only get one shot and wesquandered two and those were
the two best options.
(01:04:17):
Those were the two best momentsthat we squandered and I don't
like I say it was heartbreaking.
It was heartbreaking on allfronts because I know that after
the fact, babs felt terrible,not to mention the fact that she
(01:04:39):
got grounded and got sent toher room and the guys were
devastated.
Like it just changes the wholeand we didn't at that point have
a real good fallback for a show.
And those moments change thefeel of the, of the, of of being
(01:05:12):
there.
Those moments change.
Those moments of intensenegativity do nothing but
attract negative thoughts andfor the rest of that day the
crew was, they were done Like.
I mean, all they could talkabout was how bad that was and
every terrible situation that'shappened to them on this whole
trip and you know it's just andthat's a lesson for you that
(01:05:36):
negative attracts negative andunfortunately, it all started
with Babs trying to be positivebut really attracting negative
by totally ignoring the help andadvice of the people that were
around her and were put there tohelp her.
(01:05:56):
Um, but anyway, that was that.
So we were left with a verydifficult road to to climb and,
um, our last shot, uh, was uh,uh, I said listen, um, I got to
put you out with a musky guide.
I said, listen, I got to putyou out with a musky guide and I
(01:06:16):
had Pete Stefanik.
The legend was available forMatt's last day.
So we got Matt out with Peteand, with high hopes, we put the
pair of them together.
But, alas, it was not meant tobe and Matt came to Ontario,
(01:06:42):
traveled from north to south,caught absolutely wonderful,
wonderful fish, differentspecies, but he left the muskie
in the water and that was alwaysa sad thought for me.
They spun it pretty decently,but unfortunately it's one of
(01:07:10):
those shows that I was involvedin, that I was super excited
about and, um, I wish I could, Ihad another shot at doing it
because, um, we just, uh, wejust missed our opportunities.
Um and um, the twoopportunities that we talked
(01:07:31):
about, um, they were.
They were big ones, there's nodoubt about it.
Those were big ones.
Even getting one of them in theboat would have made all of the
difference.
But it turned into more of atravel and tourism episode and
that's not what I had envisioned, but it is what it is.
I learned a lot.
I learned a lot about peopleand it was so much, like I mean,
(01:07:57):
I remember thinking in the boatand listening to everybody and
feeling the um, the frictionthat, uh, that was present.
Um, and I remember thinking,man, this is like running a
fishing lodge, like I mean, whenyou get, when you get a bunch
of people who live together andwork together for long periods
(01:08:21):
of time, um, the the inevitablythis stuff comes out and, um,
it's uh, it was uh, it, you know, uh, and you got to understand
how to deal with it, at leastfor me and the lodge.
I had a lot of experiencedealing with with, with that
(01:08:41):
type of thing and with people'segos and and how people interact
with each other and and some ofthe warning signs and
everything else.
But when you're on a eight week.
You know, trip, that isimportant and there's no space,
no time, no room for recovery.
(01:09:05):
It was one of those behind thescenes that I'll never forget
and unless you hear this recount, you would never know by
watching Well, actually youwatch it.
It you'll see some of thelittle things that, uh, that I
picked up on.
Uh, after I watched it, after Ire-watched it, um, that matt
(01:09:27):
says about babs, that, uh, that,um, kind of that, that, that
we're foreshadowing the, theevents and of what happened.
So it was, it was, it's aninteresting one and it's one
that folks, I would, I wouldhighly recommend you go and
watch.
And that there you have it.
(01:09:51):
Another behind the rod, and theywere, they were wonderful
people, all of them, babsincluded.
I had an excellent time andunfortunately, two of the most
memorable parts of that serieswere were two negative ones, but
(01:10:12):
I truly am grateful that theycame.
I got to meet them andhopefully at some point our
paths will cross again.
But I think folks thus bringsus to the conclusion of another
episode of Diaries of a LodgeOwner, stories of the North.
(01:10:33):
And folks, don't forget to headover to fishingcanadacom and
get into those giveaways and foranybody that wants to partner
up with a wonderful podcast.
We would love to have you onand build up a wonderful
relationship and again I'll signoff.
(01:10:54):
Thanks, guys, love you.
Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
Don't forget to vote.
Bending my rock, stretching myline, someday I might own a
lodge, and that'd be fine, I'llbe making my way the only way I
know how.
Speaker 3 (01:11:31):
Working hard and sharing the north with all of my
pals.
Working hard and sharing theNorth with all of my pals.
Boy, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a lodge and lived mydream.
Speaker 5 (01:11:48):
And now I'm here talking about how life can be as
good as it seems.
Yeah, back in 2016, frank and Ihad a vision to amass the
single largest database ofmuskie angling education
material anywhere in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this
amazing community and share itwith passionate anglers just
like you.
Thus the Ugly Pike podcast wasborn and quickly grew to become
one of the top fishing podcastsin north 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
(01:12:25):
different as anglers and touncover what it takes to go
after the infamous fish of 10000 casts the ugly pike podcast
isn't just about fishing.
Speaker 5 (01:12:33):
It's about creating a tight-knit community of
passionate anglers who share thesame love for the sport.
Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an unwavering
spirit of adventure.
This podcast will bring peopletogether.
Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our
angling adventures.
Tight lines everyone.
Speaker 5 (01:12:50):
Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts now on Spotify, apple
Podcasts or wherever else youget your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
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.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
(01:13:26):
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,
my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
(01:13:49):
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
going to take you along with meto see the places and meet the
(01:14:12):
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
I've got these guys on a spot.
The fishing has been more thandifficult.
We've got a beautiful,beautiful northern pike and,
like I mean, the whole situationhas just gone atomic.
This week on the OutdoorJournal Radio Podcast Networks,
(00:28):
diaries of a Lodge Owner Storiesof the North, it's another
episode of Behind the Rod.
This time two outstandinganglers from the UK team up to
do a cross Ontario tourhighlighting the most amazing
and iconic places in theprovince.
And it was my pleasure toshowcase the Upper French River
(00:50):
with Matt Haynes and BabsKiewski on their television
series called Castaway Canada.
On this show I talk about thespring ice storm affecting
southern Ontario and yours truly, the national election that is
looming large and the importanceto get out and vote, and, of
(01:11):
course, I recount the eventsbehind the scenes in the filming
of episode six of seven in acrazy cross-province tour.
And what an experience it was.
So perk up those ears.
This behind-the-scenes peek isoff the rails.
(01:31):
Folks, folks, welcome toanother episode of Diaries of a
Lodge Owner, and I'm your host,steve Niedzwiecki, and looking
forward to getting back into thesaddle after missing last week.
This week Willie is under theweather.
You know, when you live up inKenora, with the cold and
(01:53):
everything else, it's inevitablethat you end up catching
something, and I think he's gotstrep throat or something that
is keeping him from talking.
So it's difficult to do anepisode of Diaries without being
able to talk.
So that's totally cool, brother, you get better and we'll get
(02:16):
you back on sometime in the nearfuture.
But today is a great day andI'm going to be digging down
into the old memory banks onceagain.
We've got a behind the scenesin the episode.
It's actually episode six ofCanada Castaway with Matt Haynes
(02:39):
and Babs Karowski.
Oh, I said that wrong, sorry,babs.
She really gives Matt a hardtime about it too in the show.
But what a wonderful experiencethat was.
And we'll get into that alittle later on the show.
But first I want to potentiallyapologize.
(03:00):
You know I've got.
Anthony Mancini is our producerand Dean Taylor, as you all
know, is one of the main magicmen behind the scenes and I am
currently sitting in my kitchenbecause I'm out of my studio.
(03:23):
Upstairs.
We had a epic well, I don't evenI'm going to call it infamous
ice storm in the Shelburne andsouthern Ontario area over the
past weekend and I am stillwithout power while it's now
(03:43):
going on.
I am still without power whileit's now going on.
We're going on three days andHydro One has updated our
reconnection to unknown.
So I think that's probably abad thing.
Not only a bad thing.
They're calling for anothermassive storm.
(04:08):
They're saying I choose not tobelieve it, but you never know
for tomorrow, which is today ifyou're listening, so we'll find
out about that.
I may be without power for Godknows how long, but I'll tell
you what this ice storm was.
(04:30):
Something else, and I do likeexperiencing weather and weather
events.
I like snowstorms.
You know it's just and and, aslong as you're not driving,
obviously.
(04:50):
Um, the odd time when, when abig storm rolls through here,
I'll go outside and just standin it just to feel the force and
and what goes on.
And and I've witnessed twotornadoes that come through.
Well, I saw the second one.
(05:10):
The first one I didn't see, Ijust saw the aftermath.
The first was in 1985.
And a tornado ripped through.
I guess it's my hometown.
We lived outside of the town ofGrand Valley, ontario, but in
85, there was a number oftornadoes in southern Ontario
(05:32):
that did a ton of damage, namelyin Grand Valley Ontario, a
little bit of damage inOrangeville, ontario, and Barrie
was another place that wasaffected greatly.
But I'll tell you what.
These ice storms obviously nottornadoes or anything like that.
(05:57):
They're never good and they cando a lot of damage.
But I would take a snowstormover an ice storm every day of
the week.
You know when the ice starts toform on the trees and you know
it can be pretty.
But, man, that beautiful sightturns into horrific aftermath.
(06:20):
And you know we lost our hydroSaturday night and I thought, ah
, you know, we'll get hydro bythe morning.
Well, the morning rolled aroundand things started.
I heat the house with wood, sowe're never really worried about
heat, but we've got fridges andfreezers.
So I pulled out my generator at5.30 on Saturday morning and,
(06:45):
needless to say, say aftersitting for so long, the um
float pin in the carburetor wasseized and I and um, you know I
was pulling the carburetor off,this thing out in the uh, out in
the back air back deck area anduh, the point of this part of
the story is we were kind of atthe height of the storm, in that
(07:08):
things had not started meltingyet and the ice was still
accumulating on all of the treesand the ground and everywhere.
And you know I don't live in abush per se, but I am in farm
country and there's a lot oftrees and bush close and every
(07:31):
couple of minutes you would heara crack and then you'd hear all
of the ice shattering as thetree fell and branches were
dropping.
Like I say, we're going onthree days without power where
I'm at now and um the uh, thedevastation it does to these big
(07:51):
old trees.
I got a, I got a hard maple outin my backyard on the fence
line and um, uh, every crackthat I heard.
On Sunday morning I was peekingaround the corner to make sure
that big old boy was stillstanding and he made it.
I went out and I gave him a hugafter it was all over.
But you know we've got anotherstorm coming this direction and
(08:15):
hopefully it won't freeze.
It'll either be snow or rain.
That ice in between is crazy andsome of the big trees that you
lose is a shame.
A couple of my buddies havemaple bushes out on their farms
and good, healthy, big maplesthat were able to withstand the
(08:41):
weight of the ice Because theywere at the edge of the bush.
Um, the, the weight, just torethem right out of the ground by
the roots and um, it's sad tosee, especially when you've got
all your uh, all your maple sap,uh, buckets, um, um, uh, pegged
into all those trees, and thenthe next thing you know, you
(09:02):
lose your, your sap, you loseyour trees, you lose, you lose a
, you lose a bunch of of reallyawesome I don't want to call
them creatures, but trees, thatand those hard maples, they,
they, they're hard, they resist,but when they do go they take
so long to grow again, like Imean, you don't.
(09:25):
When you lose a big tree likethat, you don't see another one
growing in your lifetime.
But anyway, enough of that.
And with all of these thespring storms and weather, we've
got another spring storm herethat's taken the province, storm
(09:51):
here that's taken the province,and really it's something that
I don't typically dabble in.
But we've got a national federalelection coming up and you know
, I do have my choice and that'snot what this is about.
This little monologue here I'mgoing to go into isn't so much
about who I think should win.
(10:13):
But this is one of thoseelections where I said to a
friend of mine over the weekend,it's becoming fairly
Americanized, where there's alot of discussion from both
(10:34):
sides about what the other sideis doing wrong and not so much
how they're going to fix all ofthe issues that have been
presented to us Canadians andall of the negative impact that
(10:55):
we've felt over the last numberof years in our economy and
everything else.
Um.
So really, what I want to say,number one, most importantly to
a lot of people there were a lotof really really great people
(11:16):
who fought and died to give usour freedoms, to give us the
right to vote, and theysacrificed the.
They give the ultimatesacrifice without thinking about
it, and to not vote is one ofthose things that really you're.
(11:43):
It's disrespectful, it'sdisrespectful to the people who
fought for our freedoms.
So get out there and vote, andthe excuse of well, I don't know
who to vote for, that's noexcuse.
You get out there and vote.
I remember the very first, umfirst time that I was able to
(12:05):
vote, my grandfather, grampsNidzwicki.
He fought in the Second WorldWar and you know the story that
I heard and he wouldn't talkabout the war really at all to
me, wouldn't talk about he.
(12:29):
Wouldn't talk about the warreally at all to me, but um, he,
um, he and and again this iskind of family lore and and uh,
he never really spoke much of it, but um, apparently he ended up
in uh Auschwitz and um was, uhwas somehow broken out.
They got him out of Auschwitz.
He was as a prisoner andstraight from there went to
(12:53):
England and fought for theBritish and the story goes, and
he was bald as a pool cue, likeI mean he well, I shouldn't say
that the top of his head wasbald as a pool cue.
He had, I guess what you wouldcall it these days is a skullet.
But the story is he lost allhis hair while he went into that
(13:18):
concentration camp and lost itovernight.
Concentration camp and lost itovernight.
And anyway, when I come of ageto vote, he sat me down and he
said Steph Joe, you go vote.
He didn't tell me who to votefor and at the time I just
(13:40):
followed my parents who, funnyenough, were liberal, and I went
and cast my vote and then inthe next election I ended up
voting green because I wasconcerned with at that time I
(14:02):
think it was the ozone layerproblem or story or whatever,
however you want to spin it.
But it's funny how that neversurfaces anymore.
But anyway, and then after thatI started to educate myself.
(14:24):
And after that I started toeducate myself and I really got
out and every election I madesure to go and vote, because I
couldn't imagine being in acountry where you were so
(14:46):
oppressed that there was no vote, that you didn't have the
freedoms that we have today,although some of them are under
attack.
So it's really important to goout and vote.
And the other thing, too, as alodge owner or former lodge
owner and business owner, thepolicies that our government put
(15:10):
forward and pass are so, so, soimportant to the success of
your business.
And one of the successes that Itook advantage of was a
government grant and, funnyenough, the Conservatives were
(15:31):
in power at that time andthey're typically well, they're
more Conservative.
They try and balance the budgetand look after big businesses
and you know there's people thatagree, disagree.
There's two sides to every coin.
(15:52):
Right, and I took advantage ofa grant called a Young
Entrepreneur Grant and, becauseof my age at the time and the
fact that I owned a business, Igot an infrastructure grant and
that really set me up forsuccess and it was a great
(16:13):
success story and whether or notStephen Harper was the
architect of that.
He was the one that was inpower at the time, and so you
know, and when I mentioned theAmericanized election, the one
(16:35):
thing that is so, so, so, verydifficult today, and I'm just
going to pose the situation andhow how I see it, you can make
you, you can draw your owndecisions.
(17:07):
I'm not.
I, for one, am fairly skepticalof sources that get paid by one
side or the other, and ourlegacy media is a place, and
what I mean by that is CBC andCTV and all of the traditional
(17:31):
legacy media sources.
They're paid for by thegovernment and it's kind of hard
sometimes, although I'm goingto give them credit.
The last little while there hasbeen, they have carried some of
the stories that are affectingboth sides and I'm saying both
(17:56):
sides, because there's not theNDP in this country right now
are negligible.
They might not even be a partyby the time this is over with,
and my prediction is the BlocQuébécois are going to hold more
seats than the NDP when thechips fall.
(18:16):
But as a business owner, it'simportant to understand the
policies and the agendas of thetwo parties, the liberals and
the conservatives, and we have aliberal leader who is the
(18:36):
sitting prime minister inKearney and he wrote a book that
basically lays it all out forus and that book, like a lot of
the ideologies in that book, areI don't agree with, but I'm not
(19:05):
going to point them out.
I just want to point out thatyou should go and read it, and
I'm the one, the one.
It's educating yourselfhonestly.
It's educating yourselfhonestly and that is what you
(19:28):
need to do.
And it's not a long book andit's called Values by Mark
Carney, and you can see that hehas a bit of a globalist view,
which means I don't believe hehas the Canadians' best interest
at heart.
On the other hand, you've gotPierre Pauliev, and Pauliev is
(19:55):
the conservative leader.
A lot of people are comparinghim to Donald Trump, because
conservatives in this countryare more like the Republicans
and the liberals are like theDemocrats.
But I would caution you on that.
Again, educate yourself, go outand see what his platform is,
(20:23):
what his plan is, and educateyourself.
That way.
People always, they always saywell, you know, he's a career
politician, and that very wellmay be true politician, and that
(20:49):
very well may be true, and andthe other thing like and again,
it very well may be true, andmost people that get into these
positions are career politicians.
There's really only one that Ican think of that that isn't a
career politician, and that's MrTrump, next door, and I'm not
sure whether that's good or badfor us, although I think that in
(21:12):
his mind, he's doing the bestthat he can for the United
States, and how can you blamehim on that?
But again, you need to removethe whole Trump and tariffs
thing away from this election.
Please look at the people thatare running and the parties that
(21:35):
there are, and it's a two-horserace, two horse race, and any
vote that is cast for one or forneither of the two horses does
(21:56):
affect how the other one does.
They're votes that are dilutingthat race.
And again, if you're for theNDP, that's great.
Cast your vote, understand theplatform, understand our
economic position, understandwhere we are as Canadians.
(22:17):
What are the things that matterto you most, whether it's the
cost of housing, whether it'sthese tariffs?
But again, honestly, folks,these tariffs are a smokescreen.
Donald Trump, in my opinion, isusing this as a negotiating
(22:37):
tactic and guaranteed it doesn'tmatter who wins the election
and who becomes our primeminister.
The minute that that personfalls into that seat, there is
no more, there will not be anymore of the elbows up baloney
(23:00):
and we're going to fight theUnited States and this, and that
Our prime minister is going toget on a plane, go down to
Washington and they are going tonegotiate NAFTA III, and that
is the bottom line.
You cannot fight the UnitedStates.
Their economy is 10 times oursize.
(23:20):
They actually have a military,which we don't, and has, you
know, in the last number ofdecades, our military has
degraded to the point where youknow we just don't have one.
And no disrespect to all of thepeople that are in our military
(23:40):
right now, but I am sure if youask those people if they need
help, they're going to say yes,we need help, and it's important
to understand the tariffs, andall of this rhetoric is just a
smokescreen.
Dig down into the values of eachone of the parties and vote for
(24:04):
the person that you feel isgoing to make the biggest
difference in your life.
Okay and um, uh, for me, uh,and you can take it for what
it's worth.
I am not, I don't want toinfluence anybody on making
their own decision, but for me,making their own decision, but
for me the best vote isConservative and Pierre Pauliev.
(24:27):
And enough of that stuff.
I've always tried to stay outof the political realm on this
program and that is it.
That is the last that you'llhear of policy unless it
directly affects the lodging oroutdoors industries.
(24:52):
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Every Thursday, angelo and Iwill be 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 5 (26:01):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
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Speaker 1 (26:48):
So Behind the Rod and this Behind the Rod is going to
be one of my more favoriteBehind the Rods Because in 2015,
I believe I got a call fromJimmy from Jimmy Greyston and he
told me that there was atelevision show Actually it was
(27:13):
a limited mini-series that wascoming to Canada and the hosts,
matt Hayes and Babs Kiewski,were coming.
Babs was from Germany, matt isfrom England and they're going
to come and they're shootingsome of the most iconic or the
(27:38):
most iconic places in Ontarioand the French River in
Chaudière Lodge made the radar.
And that was really, reallyexciting to me because at the
time I was in like my fifth yearand really we had started to
(28:00):
gain traction through thetelevision model that I was
employing, simply because Ididn't have time to do shows
with a young family and beinggone for all of the summer and
into the fall and I was relyingon TV and it really was at that
(28:26):
point in time, it was reallygaining traction and I was
excited to have to have aforeign television show and it
was going to air in somethingcrazy like 126 different
countries.
So Jimmy said would you be ableto accommodate and the the
(28:48):
television show and I and youknow me I was like, yes, jim,
absolutely name the time, tellme what you need and it's done.
So he did, and I was a littlesurprised.
The first, the first thing, thatum, that um, uh, I don't want
to say caught me off guard, butwas different.
(29:09):
And at that point in my careerI was, I was very used to
dealing with television shows.
We probably already had in theneighborhood of 10 to 12 shows
shot at Shodier and I was veryused to the North American TV
shows, namely Fish in CanadaYou've heard the Behind the Rods
(29:34):
that included, like I said justtwo seconds ago, I will repeat
myself Fish in Canada and AngeloViola and Peter Bowman, bob
Izumi, charlie Ray you know somany of these North American
(29:56):
shows Jim Sarek from MuskieHunter and for all of the other
ones I'm forgetting, I apologize, but the biggest difference
right off the bat was the sizeof the crew.
And with this television show,castaway Canada, the crew and um
with uh, with this televisionshow Castaway Canada, um, the
(30:16):
crew was big, it was really big,um, like three cottages full
big, um, they had, um, um, theirtwo hosts, um, and and again,
they had never really teamed upwith each other before.
Babs, I'm sure, was like asocial media influencer and she
(30:43):
was young, beautiful, and Ithink that at that point there
were a couple of of televisionshows who were looking for, uh,
looking to open up the, the um,um, the niche to a younger
female audience, and they weretargeting these, these people,
(31:04):
and um, babs was one of them, uh, from Germany and um, uh, so
there was Bab, there was herboyfriend, who was like an agent
of hers, I guess, I don't know,didn't really see much of him.
He just kind of hid in thecottage for the week.
There was a producer, anexecutive producer, matt, two
(31:32):
cameramen and they even had aguy that was there specifically
and solely used for time lapse,with the, with the cameras and
and man.
They did some pretty cool stuffand and I will, I'll just as,
as we're, we're getting intothis you can go and watch this
(31:53):
episode on YouTube.
Like I said before, it's six ofseven and if you go to YouTube
and Google Matt Hayes, castaway,canada, all seven episodes will
come up and they're longerepisodes, like for TV.
They're longer episodes likethey're the for tv they were
(32:13):
meant for, they were ourepisodes and um, uh, here,
without the commercials, you'reabout 46, 47 minutes for each
one of them.
So, yeah, google, matt hayes,uh, castaway canada, episode
number six, and you're going tofind us.
So, anyway, they had thismassive group of crew and when
(32:44):
they got there, well, actuallyit was just leading up and I
don't remember who.
It might've been Jimmy, itmight've been, I forget who had
mentioned it to me.
Have been Jimmy, it might havebeen, I forget who had mentioned
it to me, but they worked fromnorth and they headed down to
the south.
So we were the last stop, Ithink they.
I think they did one moreepisode on Rice Lake or
something like that.
(33:04):
But originally I was slated forBath and, looking back on it and
thinking about it, it must havebeen.
I don't know why I didn't takethem back into Marshy Bay,
because that was my go-to spot.
Maybe it was before I knewabout it, but I don't think so.
(33:26):
Anyway, I was slated for Bathand a day or two before they
arrived I got word that the twochutes that were north, one was
Canora, on Lake of the Woods.
There was another one onanother famous muskie lake, but
(33:47):
they had not caught a muskie yet, and because the French river
is one of those destinationplaces for large muskie.
Um, they wanted to do, theywanted to catch a muskie, and I
was like, oh my God, take a deepbreath, because muskies,
(34:10):
nevermind catching them oncamera.
Um, muskies, never mindcatching them on camera.
Muskies are just a difficultfish to catch.
And he wanted to catch one on afly rod which, like I mean, I
didn't have much experience.
Well much, I had zeroexperience on catching muskie on
(34:33):
a fly rod anywhere, anddefinitely not on the Upper
French River.
At least, I kind of knew wheresome spots were and I had some
good guides, actually, thelegend Pete Stefanik, he made an
appearance in this one.
But so, anyway, they arrive.
(34:55):
I'm thinking, okay, let's justtry and get.
I wasn't going to say anythingabout muskies, but the first
thing everybody's talking aboutis hey, you know, can you catch
muskies this and that?
And I said, well, yeah, you cancatch muskies this and that,
everything else.
But I talked them into um,going out and um, let's just get
(35:17):
the bass segment done first andsee if we can get some nice
fish, and and then we'll work onthe muskies.
Well, this was another show,unlike the azumi show, where we
hit, the conditions bang bang onand the weather was perfect.
The fish cooperated and it waslike easy.
(35:37):
This was another typical oh myGod.
The cold front moved in, we hadweather all over the place.
You know, just like typicalbaloney, like when you go on a
fishing trip and the first thingthat the lodge owner says to
you is wow, you should have beenhere last week.
(35:58):
The fish were on fire.
And you're thinking, oh well,what about this week?
Well, we got weather coming in.
You know it could be tough, butthey're out there.
Anyway, it was one of those.
So we went out and we fishedreally hard for the first couple
of days and, honestly, um, outof all of the television shows
(36:20):
that I shot, this show isprobably the weakest in as far
as um, as far as fish caught,and and big like.
We caught fish.
We caught some, like I, I well,there's two instances we're
going to talk about but, um, wecaught enough fish.
We caught lots of little fish,that's what I'm trying to say.
(36:42):
And little fish make for a shitshow.
Um, so we, we, we caught a tonof little fish.
We got one nice large mouth andwe had two encounters and Babs,
I'm sorry about throwing youunder the bus, girl, but the and
(37:03):
you got to watch this show LikeBabs is high strung,
ridiculously high strung, um,ridiculously high strung.
Uh, she, she had a wonderful,wonderful personality for a
YouTube influencer.
Uh, and um, um, I think that atthe point where, where I run
(37:28):
into them and and knowing whereI run into them, and knowing
that, after coming off of ourlast shoot of the year last year
and being gone for three weeksand understanding how grueling
three weeks of travel could be,these guys did eight weeks, they
(37:53):
did eight weeks of travel couldbe.
Uh, these guys did eight weeks,they did eight weeks of of
travel together and, um, we were, we were, in the end, parts of
the of that travel and, um,tensions were, were, were
evident.
Uh, they were.
You know, like I mean, you getyour producers, you get your
(38:17):
camera people, you get yourhosts, you get your boyfriend,
you get all kinds of thesepeople living together in close
quarters, traveling, notsleeping the way that you would
normally sleep, working longhours and long days.
And man, oh man, did it evermake for an interesting behind
(38:39):
the scenes?
And I think, matt, this isbringing me back to the point,
my point with Babs being aYouTuber, I don't think he knew
what he was getting himself into.
Again, an absolutely gorgeousgirl, but just off the wall she
(39:03):
was, and you go on, go watch it,you'll see what I'm talking
about.
But like we had squirrels atthe lodge and she would walk
down the path and Matt and I'dbe heading to the boat and we'd
look around and we would, andBabs would be gone and she would
(39:23):
be running across the propertychasing squirrels, and she was
and and Matt's like hey, hey,babs, what are you doing?
And she, she called themshivils, I'm chasing shivils,
and and um, and then he wouldrein her back in and we get in
the boat.
Anyway, after two days of hardfishing for bass, um, I took
(39:49):
them to a spot that I call DollyParton's tits, and that's a
spot where it's good for walleyein the evening and they're two
big rock piles, so you canimagine where the name come from
, and they're kind of located ina spot, in a position that
reminds me of breasts, anyway.
(40:11):
So we were there and we werefishing these big rock piles for
smallmouth and dozen babs hookinto a big muskie and she had it
.
She was only using bass gear,but she got it up to the side of
the boat fairly quickly.
(40:32):
Like it hit right at the sideof the boat.
I saw it come in and it grabbedthe I think she was using like
a long A bomber.
It was a crankbait of some sortor whatever it was.
It was hooked right in theoutside of the mouth.
She couldn't have hooked it anybetter, but it was on bass gear
(40:54):
gear and this thing went for amonumentous run.
Um, and the whole time I wassitting there and I and I was
trying to coach her because shewas tightening the drag and I
and I kept saying, babs, don'ttighten the drag, don't just let
it go, let it go, don't tightenthe drag, because obviously,
don't tighten the drag, don'tjust let it go, let it go, don't
tighten the drag, becauseobviously if you tighten the
(41:16):
drag too much, that fish is sopowerful it's just going to
break the line, like like, likenothing you know.
And um, she and I and I said ona couple of occasions and Matt
is I, like, I mean his eyeballswere like saucers and I again I
(41:39):
said, babs, don't do that, don'ttighten the drag.
And, as I'm saying, don'ttighten the drag.
She gets all excited.
She's like she's so excited itwas.
It was great to see thatexcitement.
And Matt.
Matt said don't, don't do that,babs, listen to Steve.
And she grabbed the spool andstopped the spool with her hand
(42:04):
rather than let the fish pull,drag, and it just broke off.
It broke off in a massive swirlat the side of the boat and I
remember looking at Matt becauseI knew it was going to happen.
(42:26):
And I, like I as a lodge owner,when you're out and you're
fishing with a television show,the pressure that sits squarely
on your shoulders is huge.
Number one, because they'retouting you as a world-class
(42:46):
guide and folks, you know asgood as I think I might be, I
you know, I I was a lodge owner,uh, not a world-class guide.
I wasn't on the water every day.
I knew where there were fish, Iknow how to fish, but
world-class guide and lodgeowner are two different things.
Um, but I had to wear that hatand I wore it.
(43:10):
Um, I wore it proudly and Iwore it to the best of my
ability.
And short of going up there andtackling her to get her to not
lose that fish, she just was ina one-track mindset.
And when I looked at Matt I waslike, oh, buddy, I'm sorry.
(43:32):
And he's like wasn't your fault.
And then he told Babs, you know, he said he, in not so many
words, said listen, from now on,when Steve or I tell you to do
something, you are going to takeour coaching.
I tell you to do something, youare going to take our coaching,
(43:54):
because this is the differencebetween an outstanding show and
a show that's not so outstanding.
And she, you know, giggled in ayou know 20-something-year-old,
beautiful influencer girl wayand went on about fishing.
And then we actually made amontage of that situation.
(44:20):
So we kind of they have all ofthe live footage that they got
when Babs lost the fish,although they did edit out my
voice sayings don't do that,babs, stop babs.
You know, because you can'thear that they edited that out,
(44:40):
um, and then, um, once it hadbroke off, um, um, the producer
who was in the boat and that'svery unusual, the only time it's
ever happened where we would bedriving around with a producer
plus the two hosts plus acameraman.
We set it up so that they tookfacial shots of us after the
(45:05):
fact, when it was, and we'resupposed to recreate the look on
her face when she lost thisfish.
And, having rewatched it, Ididn't do such a great job.
I could have really embellishedit to make it look like how I
felt, but it was crushing to seethat fish go.
(45:31):
But anyway, and so you know,the day ended.
We had some bass and everythingelse, and I actually borrowed a
buddy of mine, tony's boat, todo this, and it just so happened
that he had bought his boatfrom Ange and the Fish in Canada
(45:55):
television show a couple ofyears prior to.
So it was a Fish in Canada boatthat we were fishing out of.
So, interesting enough, whenyou watch it, you'll see that
it's still wrapped and it hasthe the Fish in Canada logo on
the side of it, which was great.
A little bit of a plug in therefor my brother, ange.
But we finished up with that day, went back, you know, and come
(46:18):
up with another game plan, andwe decided that I was going to
take them back into a placecalled Clearwater Bay, and I
knew in Clearwater Bay thatthere was one big northern and
it was.
There's a in the backside.
There's basically kind of twobays in the back of Clearwater
(46:40):
with a point that comes out intothe middle of the bay and the
one on the as you're going in.
The one on the right is abigger bay, it's deeper, it's
got a bunch of rock shoals thatcome out from the North Shore
line and we fished bass in there.
We got a couple of nice ones onthe inside of that point that
(47:12):
was created by the two bays thatcomes out into the middle of
the clear water and it wasaround that point, but in the
left side or the southern bay,and it was really shallow in
there and in the back of itthere was an old duck blind.
Really shallow in there and inthe back of it there was an old
(47:35):
duck blind.
But, um, so we went in and wefished, uh, we fished that other
bay, um, for the bass first,and, uh, we kind of come up with
this game plan and I didn't, uh, you know, to be honest with
you now thinking back on it um,we had decided to go back in
there for bass to try and catchthe, the, the, the lunker, to
complete that part of the show.
And, um, it wasn't until I gotin there that uh, and started
(48:00):
fishing that I that I remembered, um, I was a week or two or
however long prior to uh, thismoment, I was in there and I had
been guiding a couple and wehad a massive northern come up
on us on the other bay and Isaid to Matt I said, hey, listen
(48:23):
, matt, I'm pretty sure thatthere's a northern pike and it's
a really, really good one inthe bay right next to us here.
Do you want to go after it?
And he's like oh yeah,absolutely, let's do that, let's
go after it.
So, anyway, we pull up, I throwthe trolling motor down and
(48:46):
Babs is the one that's going togo after this northern.
So she's at the front of theboat and as I'm pulling the boat
around with the trolling motor,I'm sitting in the, in the um,
um at the cockpit and I'm justrunning it with the uh, with the
key fob.
I pull up and the producer sayshey, steve, just, uh, just hold
(49:09):
on, um, um, I've got to, I'vegot to switch the battery out of
my camera.
And I said, yeah, no problem.
And I had already explained toeverybody what the situation is
as I'm coming around the point.
It's beautiful, it's flat, andBabs is on the front of the boat
(49:31):
.
I'm explaining to Babs and toMatt.
There's that weed line that youcan see right there with the
pencil reeds and then there'ssome lily pad out front.
It drops off into a deeperchannel that runs kind of come
out of those, out of the infront of the lily pads, over by
(49:57):
those pencil reeds and this andthat.
And then the producer's likehey, steve, just hold on, I got
to change my battery in thecamera.
Or the producer said thecameraman's got to change the
battery in the camera.
The cameraman didn't say thatand he made a very, very clear
point of looking to the front ofthe boat and saying Babs, do
(50:20):
not cast, babs, do not cast, wedon't have the camera.
Well, I'm on spot lock.
I'm not really right, I'm notreally close enough to the spot,
but what does Babs do?
(50:40):
You're right?
Yeah, are you thinking it?
Yes, yeah, I was.
I wasn't thinking it until Isaw Babs turn around after, like
I don't even know.
The guy was still, he hadn'teven reached for the battery,
(51:00):
and I'm seeing Babs crankingback to make a cast and I'm
still not thinking that.
You know, like I mean, the guylooked her in the eyes and said
Babs, do not cast.
Well, I'm going to give Babsthe benefit of the doubt, I'm
(51:21):
going to say that she thoughtthat the producer said Babs,
cast away.
You know, have fun, just catchwhatever you want and we'll see
what we can do about getting iton camera.
I'm not.
Anyway, babs casts and Matt, assoon as she cast, said Babs,
(51:46):
what are you doing?
Like, what are you doing?
And she turned around.
She didn't say anything and shegot two cranks into the
retrieve and the water exploded.
It was like epic.
It was epic.
(52:11):
And now the producer is losinghis mind, like losing his mind.
The cameraman is so disgustedwith what's going on in front of
him he drops the camera righton the bottom of the boat and he
said what do you want me to dowith this now?
What do you want me to do withthis now?
(52:33):
What do you want me to do withthis now?
And the producer, betweenyelling at Babs and then telling
the cameraman to get thebattery in the camera, and me
thinking, oh my God, they'regoing to blame me.
I'm the one that pulled in and,having said that, it wasn't
(52:58):
until I stopped the boat rightwhen I got word that we got to
change the battery.
And Matt is livid, livid, and Ithink there's a lot of tension
already built up amongst thegroup because of the strain of
(53:21):
travel and shit was comingundone in the boat in front of
me.
I didn't know what to do.
I did not know what to do.
And then Babs is up there andshe's squealing and she's
dancing around and making thiswhole scene like she's on camera
(53:44):
, knowing full well there is nocamera.
So now I'm trying to bring thetemperature of the boat like
from the temperature of thesurface of the sun down to
something that's manageable.
And I said to Babs Babs, listen, just keep tension on the fish,
(54:08):
let it run a little bit, butkeep it out of the weeds, just
keep, just leave it in the water.
And she's like no, no, no,we're going to of the weeds,
just leave it in the water.
And she's like no, no, no,we're going to hurt the fish.
We're going to hurt the fish.
I'm like Babs, the fish will beokay, let the cameraman get the
battery in the camera and leavethe fish in the water.
(54:31):
Let him just be away from theboat, let him settle down and
it'll be fine.
It's better in the water.
No, no, no, no.
And like a defiant person Idon't even know how to describe
(54:53):
it.
I don't even know how todescribe it.
She put a show on of the likesto this day I've never seen.
She run around the front of theboat from side to side,
fighting this monstrosity of afish, and we didn't get a
measure on it.
(55:14):
But this fish would have been.
I think it was probably closeto a 40-inch northern.
It was the showstopper, otherthan you know, the massive
muskie that all we saw was theswirl and the big run and the
(55:34):
nightmare.
But it was a beautiful northernand she's up there running
around and the more she hootsand squeals and laughs and
reacts to this fish, the moreupset the three men in the back
of the boat get.
(55:56):
And at that point I said Babs.
And now, after trying toexplain to her, just take a
breath, let's get this on camera, let's, you know, let's make
everybody happy and let's get agood show.
She starts yelling at me togive her the net and I don't
(56:22):
know what to do.
I looked at matt, I looked atthe camera guy, I looked at the
producer, I looked at babs andagain she's like steve, steve,
give me the net, I need the net,I need the net.
And I looked, looked at Matt.
I said Matt, what do you wantme to do?
I don't know what to do.
Buddy, there's very fewsituations in my life that I've
(56:43):
been in and I don't know what todo.
Okay, but I'm in one of themright now.
What should I do?
So, matt, disgustedly, hereached over, he grabbed the net
from under my chair and hethrew it.
He threw it to the front of theboat.
He didn't even get up and giveit to her, he just tossed it.
(57:07):
She grabbed this net, pulled in, got the Northern.
Hey, I'm going to give hercredit.
She got the northern into thenet.
She got it at the side of theboat.
And now again, I'm trying tofind ways to bring the
temperature in the boat down.
So I'm like, okay, I'm thinking, how can we salvage any of this
(57:33):
?
So the thought come to my mindWe'll get some stills of it,
we'll get some stills of it,we'll get some stills and maybe
they can get her holding thefish on camera.
And the cameraman, he's like Imean, he's not even, he's still,
he's disgusted.
He's got to the point where thecamera's on the floor of the
boat.
He's sitting in the chairbehind me with his arms crossed.
(58:01):
So I'm thinking stills.
So I'm like, okay, babs, justleave it in the net.
And she again she's like no, no, no, no, we're going to hurt
the fish.
We got to release it, we got togive blah, blah, blah, blah.
So I'm like, okay, whatever.
So she unhooks it, picks thenorthern up, and now she's
(58:23):
wanting to get pictures of thisfish and she's holding the fish
at a full arm extension over theside of the boat because she's
worried if she drops it it'sgoing to bang its head on the
floor.
And I said, babs, for the loveof God, pull the fish inside the
(58:44):
boat please.
And she's like grab the camera,grab the camera.
And none of the guys in theback are even open to
entertaining anything to do withthis fish.
Now, and I've got these guys,um, on a spot.
The fishing has been more thandifficult.
(59:06):
Uh, we've got a beautiful,beautiful and, like I mean, the
whole situation has just goneatomic.
Anyway, as I'm sitting in well,actually standing in front of
(59:28):
the steering wheel pleading withher to bring this fish into the
boat, and nobody's doinganything in the back and she's
squawking while this northerndecides to kick and kick it.
Does it kicked so hard Ithought it near pulled the
fingers off of Babs, out of thegill plate, and, as she lost
(59:55):
control of this big, beautiful,unbelievable, show-stopping
piece of awesomeness when you'rein the television business, it
did a somersault in the air andsmashed its head off the gunwale
(01:00:15):
of the boat and ended up backin the French River and swam
away.
And now she's making the same.
Oh, oh, we lost it.
Oh, and the guys in the back ofthe boat.
I got the feel that this isn'tthe first time that's happened.
(01:00:38):
Well, I know it wasn't thefirst time because I was present
for one of the times and it wasone of the most uncomfortable
situations that I've been inever really situations that I've
been in ever really Like.
There was a lot of nasty thingssaid and Babs was told to sit
(01:01:05):
down and I was told to leave,take us back to the lodge.
Babs is going in, and afterthat Babs never come out of the
cottage cottage, I don't evenknow if she come down to eat and
they were there for two moredays.
Um so, and both side like I meanBabs was was nothing short of
(01:01:35):
obstinate and I want to give herthe benefit of the doubt and
say that maybe she didn'tunderstand because English is
not her first language, but sheunderstood just about everything
else I said.
And it was almost like I don'tknow if anybody out there has
(01:01:56):
ever experienced buck fever.
If you're hunting and a buckwalks out and you just go into
like a trance.
Well, babs seemed to get buckfever with every fish she caught
, which is great in a sense.
But, man, if you watch theepisode, think about having a 45
(01:02:27):
to 50 inch muskie on that showand a 40 inch northern and then
think about how much that wouldhave changed the show and how
much it means to.
Number one, the province ofOntario.
Who's paying these people to behere to promote our wonderful
province?
Number two, matt Haynes, who isthe celebrity angler from
(01:02:49):
England who is footing the billto produce this show.
Footing the bill to producethis show?
The lodge owners in Ontario andeverything else that trickles
down from that and it was reallyhard to watch.
(01:03:10):
And boy oh boy, those fellasdidn't have anything good to say
about working with a personlike that.
And again, I think it all boileddown to a combination of things
.
Babs, she was who she was.
She wasn't doing anythingdifferent than what she would do
(01:03:33):
as an influencer different thanwhat she would do as an
influencer.
She wasn't very good at takingcoaching advice.
I'll give you that.
And then you've got a bunch ofguys who take their job very
seriously, take their job veryseriously, travel with a huge
(01:03:57):
entourage of production crew andunderstand the costs and how
difficult it is to produce ashow like this, and understand
when you miss out on theseopportunities.
You only get one shot and wesquandered two and those were
the two best options.
(01:04:17):
Those were the two best momentsthat we squandered and I don't
like I say it was heartbreaking.
It was heartbreaking on allfronts because I know that after
the fact, babs felt terrible,not to mention the fact that she
(01:04:39):
got grounded and got sent toher room and the guys were
devastated.
Like it just changes the wholeand we didn't at that point have
a real good fallback for a show.
And those moments change thefeel of the, of the, of of being
(01:05:12):
there.
Those moments change.
Those moments of intensenegativity do nothing but
attract negative thoughts andfor the rest of that day the
crew was, they were done Like.
I mean, all they could talkabout was how bad that was and
every terrible situation that'shappened to them on this whole
trip and you know it's just andthat's a lesson for you that
(01:05:36):
negative attracts negative andunfortunately, it all started
with Babs trying to be positivebut really attracting negative
by totally ignoring the help andadvice of the people that were
around her and were put there tohelp her.
(01:05:56):
Um, but anyway, that was that.
So we were left with a verydifficult road to to climb and,
um, our last shot, uh, was uh,uh, I said listen, um, I got to
put you out with a musky guide.
I said, listen, I got to putyou out with a musky guide and I
(01:06:16):
had Pete Stefanik.
The legend was available forMatt's last day.
So we got Matt out with Peteand, with high hopes, we put the
pair of them together.
But, alas, it was not meant tobe and Matt came to Ontario,
(01:06:42):
traveled from north to south,caught absolutely wonderful,
wonderful fish, differentspecies, but he left the muskie
in the water and that was alwaysa sad thought for me.
They spun it pretty decently,but unfortunately it's one of
(01:07:10):
those shows that I was involvedin, that I was super excited
about and, um, I wish I could, Ihad another shot at doing it
because, um, we just, uh, wejust missed our opportunities.
Um and um, the twoopportunities that we talked
(01:07:31):
about, um, they were.
They were big ones, there's nodoubt about it.
Those were big ones.
Even getting one of them in theboat would have made all of the
difference.
But it turned into more of atravel and tourism episode and
that's not what I had envisioned, but it is what it is.
I learned a lot.
I learned a lot about peopleand it was so much, like I mean,
(01:07:57):
I remember thinking in the boatand listening to everybody and
feeling the um, the frictionthat, uh, that was present.
Um, and I remember thinking,man, this is like running a
fishing lodge, like I mean, whenyou get, when you get a bunch
of people who live together andwork together for long periods
(01:08:21):
of time, um, the the inevitablythis stuff comes out and, um,
it's uh, it was uh, it, you know, uh, and you got to understand
how to deal with it, at leastfor me and the lodge.
I had a lot of experiencedealing with with, with that
(01:08:41):
type of thing and with people'segos and and how people interact
with each other and and some ofthe warning signs and
everything else.
But when you're on a eight week.
You know, trip, that isimportant and there's no space,
no time, no room for recovery.
(01:09:05):
It was one of those behind thescenes that I'll never forget
and unless you hear this recount, you would never know by
watching Well, actually youwatch it.
It you'll see some of thelittle things that, uh, that I
picked up on.
Uh, after I watched it, after Ire-watched it, um, that matt
(01:09:27):
says about babs, that, uh, that,um, kind of that, that, that
we're foreshadowing the, theevents and of what happened.
So it was, it was, it's aninteresting one and it's one
that folks, I would, I wouldhighly recommend you go and
watch.
And that there you have it.
(01:09:51):
Another behind the rod, and theywere, they were wonderful
people, all of them, babsincluded.
I had an excellent time andunfortunately, two of the most
memorable parts of that serieswere were two negative ones, but
(01:10:12):
I truly am grateful that theycame.
I got to meet them andhopefully at some point our
paths will cross again.
But I think folks thus bringsus to the conclusion of another
episode of Diaries of a LodgeOwner, stories of the North.
(01:10:33):
And folks, don't forget to headover to fishingcanadacom and
get into those giveaways and foranybody that wants to partner
up with a wonderful podcast.
We would love to have you onand build up a wonderful
relationship and again I'll signoff.
(01:10:54):
Thanks, guys, love you.
Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
Don't forget to vote.
Bending my rock, stretching myline, someday I might own a
lodge, and that'd be fine, I'llbe making my way the only way I
know how.
Speaker 3 (01:11:31):
Working hard and sharing the north with all of my
pals.
Working hard and sharing theNorth with all of my pals.
Boy, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a lodge and lived mydream.
Speaker 5 (01:11:48):
And now I'm here talking about how life can be as
good as it seems.
Yeah, back in 2016, frank and Ihad a vision to amass the
single largest database ofmuskie angling education
material anywhere in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this
amazing community and share itwith passionate anglers just
like you.
Thus the Ugly Pike podcast wasborn and quickly grew to become
one of the top fishing podcastsin north 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
(01:12:25):
different as anglers and touncover what it takes to go
after the infamous fish of 10000 casts the ugly pike podcast
isn't just about fishing.
Speaker 5 (01:12:33):
It's about creating a tight-knit community of
passionate anglers who share thesame love for the sport.
Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an unwavering
spirit of adventure.
This podcast will bring peopletogether.
Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our
angling adventures.
Tight lines everyone.
Speaker 5 (01:12:50):
Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts now on Spotify, apple
Podcasts or wherever else youget your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
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.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
(01:13:26):
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,
my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
(01:13:49):
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
going to take you along with meto see the places and meet the
(01:14:12):
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
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