Episode 91: Planning Your Ultimate Canadian Outdoor Experience

From the moment a float plane touches down on a remote lake to the camaraderie of sharing stories around a community dinner table, the outdoor adventures waiting in Canada's wilderness create memories that last a lifetime. In this captivating episode, Steve and Willie draw on their extensive experience as former lodge owners to guide you through planning the perfect outdoor getaway.

Now is the crucial time when savvy adventurers are finalizing their bookings for the upcoming season. We break down the full spectrum of experiences available—from high-end executive lodges with helicopter access to budget-friendly Crown Land camping where you're completely self-reliant. Each option has its unique appeal, whether you're seeking isolation on a fly-in lake that sees fewer than a dozen anglers per year or the social atmosphere of an American Plan lodge where lasting friendships form over shared meals.

The logistics behind these wilderness experiences are fascinating. We reveal how outfitters maintain dozens of remote cabins, flying in everything from propane to fresh produce, and the extraordinary measures taken to ensure guest comfort in the most isolated settings. You'll hear firsthand accounts of soaring through mountain passes in float planes, watching forest fires from the air, and experiencing the world's largest tides in the Bay of Fundy.

Beyond fishing and hunting, we explore the growing interest in ecotourism—northern lights viewing, wildlife photography, hiking pristine trails, and even astronomy experiences under unpolluted skies. These diverse options reflect a deeper truth: what draws us to the wilderness isn't just the pursuit of fish or game but the immersion in nature's majesty and the connections formed along the way.

Whether you're a seasoned outdoor enthusiast or planning your first wilderness adventure, this episode provides invaluable guidance for creating an experience tailored to your preferences, abilities, and budget. The wilderness is calling—what kind of adventure will you choose?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
you know, I agree, steve.
I think that's one of the oneof the best parts about
traveling, too is is the diverseareas and the diversification
of what you can do, like thatthe fishing doesn't have to
always be.
You can still go to the samelodge, yeah, or the same outpost
or the same, and support thesame people you have, but maybe,
instead of utilizing theirbodies of water that they offer,

(00:27):
right then, maybe you bringyour own boat and you go on
adventure.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
This week on the Outdoor Journal, radio Podcast
Networks.
Diaries of a Lodge Owner.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Stories of the North.
It's a great day, folks.
Willie has made the long trekfrom the great white north down
to the wonderful balmy minus 10of the south in Shelburne, and
we are sitting here togetherlooking at each other face to
face, and you know there'snothing better than talking

(00:59):
about planning outdooradventures, planning outdoor
adventures On this show we coverall aspects of outdoor
adventures, from fishing tohunting to ecotourism.
So, folks, this is a great one.
If you're planning youradventure, it's a must listen to

(01:20):
.
And now Willie, let's bring himin on this podcast.
Will, how you doing, brother?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Good, Stevie, how you doing today buddy.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
I'm doing great.
It's a real pleasure to sithere and talk face-to-face.
I can hug you and I can reachover and give you a wee peck on
the cheek when I want to, and,folks, we've got a great one
here.
We were brainstorming togetherabout what we were going to do

(01:51):
and how we can help people out,and from both of our backgrounds
being former lodge owners andlove the outdoors and have had
the pleasure of taking part innorthern adventures, southern
adventures, um, and you knowwhat now's the time to plan

(02:12):
right.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well, yes, it is stevie.
That's the time of the yearwhere we're actually running
even later into the year, now,where we should be.
You know, right now is the timewhere people are actually
booking.
You know a lot of people havealready spent the last you know
four, six weeks, you know,scavengering around the web and
looking, going to shows andasking their friends advice on

(02:33):
where they've been in the past.
And it's the time of the yearto get that, get those holidays
booked.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, Well, those shows are big, right they're,
they're, they're where peopleand and they're not quite as big
as they used to be 30 years agobecause those shows were key
for people planning.
I know, when I first starteddoing shows back in 2009, most
of the people were still comingout to shows, walking the aisles

(03:01):
with all of those booths, theones we set up.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
A bag full of brochures.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
A bag full of brochures, a bag full of
brochures.
I for one, never really mademany sales at shows.
I wasn't a great seller in themoment because I'm not good at
pressure sales, yeah, yeah, andI found that the pressure sales
part of it I was outgunned.

(03:26):
I would have people come andstop at the booth and they'd say
so, how's the fishing?
And I would always tell themyou know well, the fishing's
really good.
You can catch anywhere from youknow 50 to 100 walleye, but you
need to take a guide.
And always the big question waswell, how big are they?

(03:49):
And I could say you knowthey're.
Well, you know the average sizeis, you know 18 to 20 inches,
but you get a lot of smallerones and you might get lucky and
catch something between youknow 25 and 30 inches long.
But everybody wanted aguarantee, absolutely.
And then they'd walk from mybooth across the aisle and there

(04:14):
was another high-pressure guythat would guarantee the moon
and the sun and the stars.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Hold it up or hold the earth up, rotate it, spin it
at the same time.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, and they would end up with the booking.
But I did get a lot of bookingsafter the fact.
Yeah, and another key thingthat people like to do is
they'll go to these showsalready, knowing that they're
going to go back to where theyalways go.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Or the same couple destinations, for sure.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
And they want to visit with the owners.
Yeah and um.
And then you get the peoplethat, uh, fill that bag full of
brochures, whether it be, youknow, um, uh, before christmas
show or or a new year show or ora show that's going on right
now in the spring, and then theygo home for easter, get
together with the family that'sgoing on right now in the spring
and then they go home forEaster, get together with the

(05:05):
family that's right yeah spreadall those brochures out on the
table and have a big discussion,yeah, on where they were gonna
go.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yep, you know it's uh , the shows I think have as
we're on this topic have changed.
I think that I think the showsnow and we've talked about this
before, steve, where it's, Ifound you know I was a decade
later getting into the businessand I find you still have the I
call them, you know, the bootkickers, where they know where

(05:34):
they're going right, but theyalways just want to see what's
out there and have a comparison.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
And price a lot.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Correct, correct.
Yeah, yeah, and facilityupgrades too, and you know new
areas, maybe somewhere theyhaven't heard about.
But I find the networkingaspect of it, even for those
lodges, that was the biggestpart of my show.
It started out the networkingfor myself and Krista to make

(06:00):
our brand, but it really wasn'tguided through the guests, it
was guided through thenetworking of even the other
lodges.
You know, I remember being atthat show and Melanie from Herst
Air was right across from meand you know, oh, mel's a
sweetheart, she's a beauty,she's a hardworking lady.

(06:21):
They got a great business upthere salt of the earth people
and she would.
But I would watch them, youknow, because I am that high
pressure sales guy, right, Ilike clothes, I'm a clothes man,
that's my deal, right?
Is you know?
If I get one on the line, it'scoming in the net for sure.
Yeah, and you know, I wouldwatch how, who and how she was
dealing with people per se, whoand how she was dealing with

(06:42):
people per se, and I would feedoff that as to what they were,
the energy coming to my tableand as the show went on, these
shows, I could see that theywould watch me and they were
like man, this is working thisstyle of a tactic right.
Or to use the information of adifferent style of choice and to
network the connections betweenthose lodges and you was super

(07:03):
great, I found.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, and you, it was super great.
I found well and, and you speakof networking, that for me was
was key, and and my networkingwas networking with a lot of the
outdoor writers, uh, televisionshows and and all of those
people, which was very coolbecause I really loved watching

(07:29):
the fishing shows, the Fish inCanada's, the Real Fishing's,
the you know, charlie Ray andFishful Thinking, and that is
where I met all of those peopleand I would always introduce
myself to them and say, hey,listen, my name's Steve.
I just bought a lodge up on theupper French River and if

(07:50):
there's any way that I can helpyou guys out, whether it's, you
know, you need a giveaway for acharity function or all of that
stuff, I would throw that outthere.
And that is how I built thetelevision network that I was
able to put together and it wasreally what ended up driving my

(08:15):
business.
I know all of you folks outthere, the Diaries family know
that in my decade tenure, thatin my decade tenure I had
upwards of 30 differenttelevision shows shot at the
lodge and it was well different.
There was 30 different episodesshot at the lodge, like for one

(08:37):
Fish in Canada.
I think we were up to 13episodes or 14 episodes in my
tenure and that was really thedriving factor for for the
success of my business, and thatall started basically at those
shows.
Yeah, the other key networking,um, um, uh piece of the puzzle

(09:02):
for me was getting to know allof the people in.
A piece of the puzzle for mewas getting to know all of the
people in in tourism ontario,yeah, um, in otmp and uh, the
the getting to know the jimmygrayston's and and uh, knowing
how, understanding how that partof the business worked.
Uh, because out of all of thoseshows that I had shot, I didn't
reach into my pocket to pay fora television show.

(09:26):
I just supplied everything thatthey needed their
accommodations, their food,boats, guides, you name it,
whatever it was.
If they said they needed theyneeded it, I made sure it was a
work together relationship.
Absolutely Right and and thatturned into a, a huge, uh, a
huge advantage for for mybusiness.

(09:46):
But um the so the shows are keyfor the networking part of it.
That was the biggest part of it.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
well, that's what brought us together.
Yeah, like that that it reallyis, and I mean like I know.
So, like that booth and you'veseen my nordic booth, like it
was, it was gorgeous, we had abeautiful backdrop and it was
simple beautiful backdrop.
We had two TVs on either side,you know, I think it was a
little 32 inches, yeah, but wehad, uh, jay Siemens there had

(10:16):
hooked us up with Ryan Bonin, asI'd said before, and he had
that video, that our promotionalvideo playing.
So we would, we would plug itin and just we would start one,
let it run for two minutes andthen we would start the other TV
.
So you would constantly, whileyou're standing at my booth,
you're looking at this one goingoh, that's a great looking
booth.
Oh, wow, we can go and look atthe Northern Lights office, oh

(10:37):
wow, oh, look at the swimmingbeach.
There we were covering allaspects.
It was almost informationoverload and at the same time
you have this 250-pound guy, youknow, putting everything in
front of your face and trying totake that booking.
You're right, man.
The television show aspect, thepodcasting, the YouTubing, you

(11:01):
know, with Brucey and with guyslike Jay, yeah, Jay Siemens.
All of those.
They've been great networkingdeals that we've been able to
find.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah, 100%.
And then there's also thenetworking with your guests,
like little Nixon that I met atthe last Sportsman Show, who
listens to diaries as he fallsasleep.
Hey, little buddy, how youdoing?
Have a good night's sleep,brother.

(11:32):
That was one of the bestexperiences for me.
And then Nixon's dad sent me aDM I think you call him on
Messenger, yep and he said thatit was a really, really

(11:52):
wonderful thing that when wementioned Nixon and that, what a
great story.
Well, those are the things thatyou know keep us motivated to do
that kind of thing and and youknow I mentioned that I'm I've
got a new hobby right.
I've been, I've been buying upsome, some guns, hunting rifles

(12:16):
and different things no handguns, that's not something that I'm
into, but hunting rifles.
And and I had a guy that I metat at Chaudière after I sold it,
yep, in passing, and he come upto me at the at the sportsman
show, rob, and said hey, I heardyou're, I heard you're buying

(12:39):
older guns from estates and youknow when people don't want them
anymore.
I've got a few and actually wewent and met Rob last night.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, what a great guy.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Excellent guy, yeah, and I purchased some hunting
rifles from him and we went onfrom there.
So that was great, because it'sa I you know, I love, I love
hunting rifles.
They're great projects, they're, they're mechanical, they're

(13:10):
it's just, it's and, and Iforgot how much I loved hunting
yeah, for sure, for sure, I tohop back here.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
You know you're talking about that, the the
reasons that we continue to dothis and and you like the Nixons
and the Robs, and you know Ihad my first experience actually
with my son and I haven't toldanybody this on the air yet, but
I was my boy Holton he was.
I picked him up in Port Perryfrom visiting some family and we

(13:39):
were cruising back up north.
This was a couple of months agoand everyone you know I'm a big
Buffalo B.
Everyone you know I'm a bigbuffalo bills fan.
I'm a huge bills fan, go billsmafia.
But uh leave skull baby go leaveskull go leave skull as well.
Yeah, so we uh anyway.
So we had stopped in north baybecause I wanted to watch the
football game.
We hadn't, you know, he wanteda little rest and a stretch.

(13:59):
So, you know, he went for aswim and I figured, well, I'm
gonna go for a quick smoke glide, you know.
So I went for a swim and Ifigured, well, I'm going to go
out for a quick smoke line, youknow.
So I go outside and, sure enough, I'm standing there and this
other gentleman's down there andhe's looking at me and I'm
thinking what's this guy lookingat right?
Because he says are you Willie,willie the oil man?
I said, yeah, are you readingmy neck or what do you mean?

(14:21):
Like, do I know you from thepast?
He's like no, I'm a Diaries fan, I'm part of the Diaries family
, and it was so great to hearthe positive feedback about what
these men and women andchildren have learned from our
show and that they can just sitback and relax and and enjoy it.
I think that was that was myfirst experience like that, so
it was kind of seeing Rob lastnight was kind of a full circle

(14:41):
thing too.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, it, it's, uh, it's wonderful that you folks
are out there and uh, and welove hearing from you and and uh
, you all know how to get intouch with us and and, if not,
just listen to the end of thisepisode and we'll tell you where
to find us.
But um, back to the gun.
Sorry, buddy, I didn't mean tono, no, that's, that's perfect.
Um, and and speaking of oflearning, one of the things like

(15:04):
, uh, like we mentioned off thetop of this show is now is the
time to plan your outdooradventure.
Yes and um, why don't we talk alittle bit about what's
available and, uh, what we loveto do, and uh, and and give you
guys out there listening someideas of what you can do in this

(15:27):
country, this beautiful,beautiful country of ours, to
experience the outdoors andmaybe do some things that you've
never really thought aboutexperiencing.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, like there is so much you know.
So the you know the shows are aone direction to get you, to
get you looking.
You know there's the interweb,as we all know.
You know there's word of mouth,there's the TV shows, all the
things we've talked about.
But even all of that, there isstill so much more that we have
to offer in Canada that you knowsome, some experiences here

(16:04):
that we're just going to go over.
You know, I'll just startfiring some out there, yeah
let's talk about the mostisolated ones.
Yeah, so you know your flyingback lake outposts are going to
be.
You know your most remotetargeted places.

(16:25):
You know your, your WayneClarks uh, who could, who, who?
You know Wayne is more of aservice at your.
Do it your own kind of thing,um well, and a lot of these
isolated fly-ins.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
We're talking about flying in in a float plane,
which for for so many people outthere even myself, like the
first time I had the pleasure offlying in a float plane just
for a quick ride when I ownedthe lodge, because we would have
float planes frequent the lodgeand drop off guests.

(16:59):
So I was in a float plane oncethen, but it wasn't until I
started with the Fish and Canadatelevision show on a more
full-time basis in 2019 that Ireally got to experience an
amazing float plane adventure,and that was with Urs at
Northern Rockies Lodge in BC, inNorthern BC, and the whole deal

(17:26):
with that was we stayed at hisbase camp, which was beautiful,
on the Alaska Highway on MonchoLake, and basically Moncho Lake
was the landing strip, and thenevery day we were there I think
we shot four days we would jumpon a plane and fly into a new

(17:50):
lake and in the northern Rockiesyou don't fly over the Rockies
to get.
You fly through the pass, youfly through the Rockies and just
the experience of a float plane, never mind the fishing, never
mind everything else that goesalong with it.

(18:10):
The experience of being in afloat plane is so absolutely
breathtaking.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Absolutely.
It really is a second-to-noneadventure when it comes to
fishing and hunting and theoutdoors in general.
It's something that everybodyhas to do once in their lifetime
.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Absolutely, and there's places that are
accessible.
Like you mentioned, melanie,off the top from Hearst Air
she's got a bunch of wonderfuloutposts.
We shot a show for her aboutthree years ago it was, and we

(18:50):
flew over the forest fires thatwere burning at that point, and
to see forest fires from the airwas crazy and just-.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
I've never seen that.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
That would be cool.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Describe that for me Like what it was like going over
it.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, you know it was .
There's always a front on thesefires, right, but when you're
in a plain and you're inNorthern Ontario, you really,
unless you've experienced it,have no idea how vast.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
The province is and for as far as you could see, you
could see black and burnt andthe fire would.
Sometimes it was like a tornado.
Like you know, some spots areleft totally untouched, yet
everything around it is burnt.
And to watch that and then wewere also watching the water

(19:40):
bombers at the same time flyingand dropping loads of water on
top of these fires, and it wasan unbelievable experience.
Wow, same like with Earths, wewere flying over glaciers to get
to some of these lakes.
Oh, that's cool.
And the one day it was my turnto sit in the co-pilot seat.

(20:05):
Yep, and I remember flying overa glacier and then looking out
on my right side and seeing thiscavernous wee lake right in the
crotch of two big mountains andthinking, wow, that would be an
interesting lake to get down to.

(20:26):
And in my mind I'm thinking Ibet you nobody's ever been down
there.
Like you can't land in that.
And all of a sudden the planetook a bank to the hard right.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
You were kissing the side of the window a bit.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Well, we flew across the side of the window a bit.
Well, we flew across the sideof the one mountain and then
made a hard.
The bank turned into what feltlike to me a nosedive, like I
mean, I have it on video but thephone just doesn't do it
justice.

(21:01):
We were probably on better thana 45 degree angle, heading
straight down towards this lake,and I said to Urs I said we're
not going down, there are we.
And he said we absolutely are.
And I was like all right, andthe water was flat as piss on a

(21:25):
plate Wow, like flat.
And then we turned and bankedtowards the sun and the
reflection off of the water,with the surrounding.
I didn't know where the waterwas.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
That's dangerous.
I'll tell you a story after.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
Yeah, earth was beautiful, like to the point
where the landing was so smooththat I had to ask Earth if we
were on the water.
Yet you know so theseexperiences are outstanding.
That's awesome, and so you havean experience with this, with

(22:05):
this.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, I got a story.
It wasn't me, but I uh, wetalked about him last night.
Quick, there, tinker um oh yeah, gentleman, tinker.
So back when I started guidingand he's up in canora, he's in
nester falls.
Yeah, it's called tinker'splaces and, uh, katie and dallas
mossbeck, uh, they run it nowand they run it, so it's kind of

(22:25):
a it's a drive-to experience soyou can drive to it, you can
fish on Lake of the Woods, butmajority of their business is
flyouts.
So it's kind of a differentsetup it's like Craig Purcell,
he's got Nestor Falls Correct.
It's a base and then they flyout from the base every day.
Yeah, which is super cool.
So the old tanker there, anyway, he started this business, you

(22:48):
know, just like your old guy.
You know he was born in a gunnysack on the trail, right?
Yeah, I don't think he's everleft Karaskan Lake, still to
this day.
They cook on like awood-burning stove, they bake on
it, his wife, the best breadyou've ever had in your life.
But anyway, so this guy, hewould, um, he did a lot of

(23:10):
flying over the years, you knowfrom, from building his own
planes to, you know, to to nowwe're, we're this amazing
businesses they have.
But he would tell me stories.
I spent 60 days in the bushwith him at Kariscon Lake and,
uh, he taught me things and toldme stories that I could never
imagine hearing, and his was oneof them.
So his brother had passed andwe were in the plane when Anna

(23:32):
asked him you know, tank, howdid your brother die?
And I knew it was in a planecrash, but I didn't know how.
So the story goes is he wascoming into a back lake, like
you're talking about piss on theplate kind of scenario the
water, no wind, the water isdead calm and everything on the

(23:53):
shore is a reflective of thatshore.
So he was coming in and he hadthe reflection was misguiding
and he toe-tipped the water.
He didn't flare in time and theplane caught and tumbled over
and over and over.
And this guy was like.
This family has an extensivehistory of flying, yeah, so that

(24:17):
stuff can happen to anyone.
So old Tink taught me, everytime a plane and I would see him
every time a plane would comein, it didn't matter if it was 5
in the morning or eight atnight, he would go out in the
boat or I would go out in theboat and we would rip around the
bay for five minutes, just rip,rip, rip, yeah, and all that
would do is create a wake andenough of a wave that that pilot

(24:38):
was safe to land, right.
So just a little story to throwin there, just uh, it was.
It was pretty wild hearing thatfrom them that that had
happened, you know.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's for sure.
So on these type of adventures,we haven't even talked about
the fishing or anything likethat, or the hunting, but it
goes without saying.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Oh, when you're in the back, when you're in places
where people go once a year,maybe even once.
I know Wayne has places thatpeople go every five years.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah well, between Wayne and Craig up in Nestor
Falls and Kenora and Tinker,there's got to be close to 200
outposts between those guys.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Just between the three of them.
Just between the three of them.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yes, it's insane Because I know Craig's got 20
anyway.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
You know it's horrible for me to say this, but
I don't really know the exactnumber of outposts.
I should ask Dave McLaughlinhere while I'm at these meetings
, because he would know thestatistic and we'll get it back
to you folks, because that wouldbe a good one to know how many
outposts and how many actuallodges are actually out there
right now operating?

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Absolutely.
Well, how many does Wayne haveoutposts?
Well, he said 40.
And that's ridiculous post.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
he said 40 that and though that's ridiculous, 40
cabins on 40 different lakes,right, yeah, it's like to
service, that to serve.
So anybody who hasn't been on aback lake adventure like this
and on a float plane, so your,your, your.
Your cabin is always run by agenerator.
Um, solar power, I guess, nowsome of them.
Um, you know, you got to havethe resources to dock your plane
.
Yeah, you know, you got to havea dock system built out there.

(26:09):
That's positive.
You got to have some kind ofseptic field or an outhouse.
That's serviced, yeah, for theclients.
You got to clean it, you got tomaintain it, like all of that.
And logistically it's not easyto do because you're not like I
was at Nordic and you just backup to the door with a Cisco
truck.
Yeah, everything has got to beflown in right.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah, yeah, Like I know.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
So there's that part of that flying outpost back like
experience.
But then there's the executiveone.
So I'll use my buddy, joshMcElishan from Maynard Lake as
an example.
So Maynard is, it's a five-starplace.
You know it was one of mycompetitions.
Yeah, great guy, great facility.
But so his place?

(26:51):
You fly out of a place calledRiver Air downtown Kenora.
A gentleman named James owns it.
So the guests come into Kenora,they fly into Winnipeg or they
fly into Kenora on a private jetor they drive to the airbase
and then they mount on the planeand head out to Josh's.
So when you get there you knowhe has 20 staff ready.

(27:13):
You know, just like you did atChaudière, but off a plane.
Everything comes in Every timeguests come in, food comes in,
every time guests leave, gasfuel barrels go out.
You know it's a constantlogistical nightmare for those
guys.
An outpost is one thing.
Having an executive place whereyou have to have the upper
echelon service and style,that's a completely different

(27:35):
thing.
And they're out there, thosefive-star places in the
backwoods as well.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Yeah, I know the logistics of having a five-star
on an island and bringingeverything in by boat.
I couldn't imagine thelogistics involved with a fly-in
.
It would be, and that's why alot of those experiences are so

(27:59):
expensive.
For sure, for sure, right.
Yeah, these experiences we'retalking about are a little more
on the expensive side.
Now, with the outposts that youcan fly into and you look after
yourself, you fly in your booze, you fly in your food, you fly
in all of the stuff, they're alittle bit more reasonable as

(28:19):
far as price goes, correct.
But, and listen, folks, thefishing on these lakes are all
outstanding and you just talk tothe operator and they'll be
able to tell you what kind ofexperience they have.
And you can choose.
Do you want to catch a thousandwalleye in a week, or do you

(28:39):
want to catch, you know, acouple hundred, really, really
big ones?
Yeah, or you want a northernpike experience, or you want to
go for a multi-speciesexperience.
Like, the experiences that youcan have in this type of
industry are endless.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, and you know there's, and
not just the hunting and thefishing as you brought up at the
start of the show.
There's, I know, withDestination Ontario right now,
that's a huge push forecotourism.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah we're going to talk about that.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, but there's flying back like places that you
can do that now, Very cool.
You know that's super cool.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
So we'll move on to a different type of experience in
the fishing world, and that isbasically the same experience
we're talking about with theoutpost where you look after all
of your own gear and food, andthat's basically called a
housekeeping plan.

(29:39):
And the housekeeping plan againis something where you can
drive to or boat to.
I know Terry, at the ToqueOutdoor or the Toque Wilderness
Lodge Tilted Toque, sorry, terry.
Tilted Toque Wilderness Lodgeon the Upper French.
River.
Yeah, yeah, that's ahousekeeping facility where you

(30:05):
basically bring your own boatand you bring your own food and
Terry supplies you with acottage.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
So it's a drive-to destination where you bring your
boat.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
You can bring your boat, you drive to the Doquese
Marina and then you boat out tohis lodge, which is super cool.
Yeah, again, it's another greatexperience.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Same as a back lake, but you have the convenience of
having your own boat and you'reclose enough to shore if you
need to be.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
for whatever reasons you need, yes and it's not quite
as isolated as a back lake,because you're on the Upper
French River and there's acouple of lodges there.
But these housekeeping dealsare more economical, for sure,
when it comes to pricing, rightright, and they're also great
experiences.

(30:49):
So you've got your housekeepingaspect of it for for those and,
and they are more economical,but a lot of people they like
doing it themselves.
Yeah, right, yeah, there's acomfort aspect of having your
own boat and knowing where yourgear is and feeling comfortable.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
I know I'm like that for sure I know if I go fishing
with you know, or if I'm goingto go traveling somewhere, I
really, you know, I love theexperience of being having the
catered to aspect of itsometimes, but I really would
much more rather have you knoweven my equipment in their boat.
At least I have my stuff thatI'm comfortable with.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
I know, and that's always an option, and for me, um
, the, the uh outdoor experience, having my own boat is is
awesome, but um, uh, I'm not.
I and I like cooking too, andas long as you get a group where
where I can cook and you canclean, I'm good with it.
But as soon as the tablesswitch and I'm the cleaner and
dishes and everything else, c2aproblemas.
I'm not.
You know, I'm a bit of a, I'm abit of a pig, are you?

(31:57):
Well, I shouldn't say I'm a bitof a pig, but I and I'll do my
share.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
I know you've got a freaking beautiful home here and
an amazing place.
I think you're one of thecleanest men I've ever seen Well
no, it's my wife.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
You should see the cottage after I'm there for a
couple of weeks by myself.
But that and so thosehousekeeping experiences are out
there, and there's places whereyou can rent a boat and do the
housekeeping thing as well, andthere's hundreds of them,
thousands of them Thousands yeah.
Out in Ontario from right, fromthe south all the way to the

(32:32):
north and from coast to coastAll the way across Canada yeah,
like you know New Brunswick, youknow BC Saskatchewan, they're
everywhere.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Yeah, all these amazing places, and you know, uh
, I agree, steve.
I think that's one of the oneof the one of the the the best
parts about traveling, too, isis the diverse areas and the
diversification of what you cando, like that the fishing
doesn't have to always be.
You can still go to the samelodge, yeah, or the same outpost

(33:01):
or the same, and support thesame people you have, but maybe,
instead of utilizing theirbodies of water that they offer,
right then, maybe you bringyour own boat and you go on
adventure.
You know, like Ang and Pete didwhen they came to Nordic.
We focused for three, four dayson our lake, but we also spent
two days banging around otherlakes, right, and you were on a

(33:21):
back lake with Dino there.
You know, to me that's awesome.
And if people can diversifylike that and keep that in your
mind, folks that, just becausethat's on the brochure, ask them
.
You know, is there a spot I cango catch a lake trout?

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
You know, is there a spot I can take the ATV and go
down the back and go catch aspeckle?
You know, because thereprobably is.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, for sure, and you know I'll, I'll go back to
the fly in real quick and tell astory.
So I've I've had the pleasureof now with Fish in Canada, uh,
experiencing um a lot of theseback Lake adventures.
But, um, when you had Nordic, I, uh I had such a great

(34:04):
experience when we shot for youlast, uh, last spring, that uh,
I said, well, uh, I'm going tobring my family up for a holiday
.
And, um, uh, we had planned andI didn't tell um, my wife or,
or, it was my three kids, myoldest, rayburn, was, uh, that
was his cottage week with his uhgirlfriend and cottage week

(34:26):
with his girlfriend and herfamily up at our place.
So he didn't come, but I had therest of the family there and we
planned, you and I, to takethem on a fly-in because I
wanted to give them theexperience that I was getting
and show them what I do when I'mtalking about this stuff, and

(34:48):
to get them into a float planeand to fly them out to a lake
where you know there was nocottage or anything, there was
just boats out there.
So it was just a day trip.
And you can experience thoseday trips in a plane and go out
and hit this lake and to get mykids and my wife in a float

(35:13):
plane and fly them out, and itwas a quick flight.
Yeah, you know, like I think 15minutes or something, yeah 15,
20 minutes there and back.
It was really a movingexperience for me to see them
experience something sowonderful.
That's awesome, you know, andthat'll be a memory that we hold

(35:33):
for a long time.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
I remember the kids getting off the plane when you
came back and the smiles were sobig.
I don't think I'll ever forgetthat and that was wonderful,
that you got to do that and youknow your whole.
We were so fortunate to haveyou come up there and just to
hang out.
It was fun.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
Man, yeah, we had a great we ended up going to a
birthday party.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
We went bowling, remember, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
We took all the kids up to Red Lake and went bowling
for my son's birthday.
And yeah, it was a great thingwas we didn't tell them.
I told them that we had a guide, yep, and we walked down to the
dock and the plane was sittingthere.
I made sure that the plane wasalready there before I brought

(36:16):
everybody down and just to seethe look in their eyes and it
was a little bit of fear andexcitement and everything else
when I told them that we'regoing on that.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
That was a great part .

Speaker 2 (36:35):
When you're in the wilds of Northwestern Ontario
you need gear you can trust anda team that's got your back.
That's Lakeside Marine in RedLake, ontario Family owned since
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Speaker 3 (36:56):
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Speaker 2 (36:58):
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Speaker 4 (37:18):
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 Gerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.

(37:39):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
It came from my time in thebush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
After nearly a decade of harvestuse, testimonials and research,

(38:02):
my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
life dedicated to improving thelives of others through natural
means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.

(38:22):
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or

(38:42):
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
Now why don't we talk about something that is right
up our alley and that is theAmerican Plan experience?
Yes, and I'm going to explainthe American Plan experience,
because when you're an American,you understand what the
American plan is, and theAmerican plan was born because

(39:11):
so many of our friends from downsouth would come, but it just
wasn't feasible to bring yourown food, like I mean, if you're
coming from Texas, you'reeither flying or you're driving.
You don't want to bring yourown food.
A lot of times you don't wantto bring your own food.
A lot of times you don't wantto bring your own gear, although
a lot of people do.
You don't have to.
But the American plan is a full.

(39:35):
I called it an all-inclusive sothat a lot of Canadians would
think the housekeeping planmeant that you got housekeeping,
which is the opposite, and theAmerican plan it just wasn't
well explained, so I called itan all-inclusive.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
I did the same thing.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, the only confusing part with an
all-inclusive is when you thinkall-inclusive, you think that
your booze is included.
So that was something that Ihad to be very diligent on with
the website and just lettingpeople know that, yes,
everything is included, but notyour guides, not your alcohol.

(40:20):
And, having said that, you gotguys like Ted Putnam up at Hawk
Lake where you can get thosepackages, where your booze and
your food and your guides andeverything is included.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
He would be the same as me or Nordic, but he would be
the drive-to scenario for you.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
So the all-inclusive or American plan was what I
specialized in offering.
Inclusive or American plan waswhat I specialized in offering,
and it's one of those thingsthat I, over the years, I did.
When I was younger, the groupthat I run with, we really

(40:59):
didn't have a whole lot of moneyand we always opted for the
housekeeping plan just becauseit's cheaper.
But the one thing that I foundafter years of doing it was you
know, by the time you look atbuying all of your food, by the
time you look at cartingeverything to wherever you're

(41:20):
going to go, by the time youfactor in, you know well.
So by the time you factor in,you know well, we've got to take
time out of our fishing day togo in to cook dinner.
And then you know, inevitablythe dishes all get piled up and
by Wednesday of your trip, threedays into it, you got a mound

(41:42):
of dishes that prevents you fromhaving your next meal because
there's nothing clean and you'vegot to take two hours to clean
out of your time.
I just I loved the all-inclusiveaspect of it because you know

(42:04):
you wake up in the morning, yougo down to the main lodge.
There's the social aspect ofmeeting everybody.
That that's there because it'sa meeting place.
You know when you're in ahousekeeping scenario you kind
of keep to yourself in yourkitchen, in your cabin, it's not
at the lodge there's not muchsocializing unless you really,

(42:24):
you know, you reach out to theother people that are there and
you run into them on the dock orwhatever.
But when you're in an Americanplanner all-inclusive package,
everybody gets together formeals.
So you go down, you wake up,you have your shower, you head
to the lodge, you have yourbreakfast everybody's there, you
know people are talkingbreakfast everybody's there.

(42:46):
You know people are talking.
And when you've got great hostslike like yourself you're you
always see the host at the meals, absolutely.
And and that person I called itthe heartbeat of my business
because I would bring peopletogether.
That's where you would say heyguys, there's going to be a jam
night tonight.

(43:06):
We're going to be playing somemusic and come on down and sing
and drink and you know we'regoing to have a great time.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
You know what we would do.
Let me throw this one in there.
This is something I've neverheard any other lodge doing and
I don't think you saw me do it,but we would do.
I actually went and got aguitar because you suggested
night and then we had you guysup there, the fishing canada
guys, but we actually after thatwe started doing a seminar once
a week, so one of my guys sojohnny, my guide or little
johnny, would come in for likehalf hour 45 minutes and we

(43:33):
would post it on the whiteboardand just tell people around camp
and they'd come in for aninformation session on, on
crappie fishing or on, you know,on, uh, whatever the case may
be, the topic of the angler onthe water that day or the
species and just a little bit ofinformation.
And guests love that.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Oh for sure they did Well no, it's a great point,
because that is something thatwe did at Chaudière.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Oh, you did, eh I built a big dock house.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
We called it down at the dock where I had a store and
I had a nice a, a nice sizedroom in the uh, in the in the
dog house and um Pat Tryon wasone of my guides in particular
and we would uh, we would do uhonce a week maybe, once you know
it was.
It was something that wheneverwe had time, we would throw it

(44:19):
on the whiteboard and we woulddo just that Uh and um myself.
Um, anytime guests were inbound, I would not so much a fishing
seminar, but I would meeteverybody on the dock and then,
as they were coming in, I woulddo a seminar style information.
You know, this is the mealtimes, this is our main lodge,

(44:41):
show them around.
And it was a time and this wasone of the things that I love
doing, because I had a wonderfulstaff of dock hands and the
rule was from the point that theguests hit the dock in Doquese
where we would pick them upguests don't touch their gear,
right?

(45:01):
Oh no, the dock hands would goand they would grab all the gear
either if, and a lot of peoplewould already have everything
unpacked and on the dock, butthe point that we made contact
with them.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Nobody touched anything 100 catering for sure
and um.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
So when they hit the dock, I was there to then take
them.
The boys would, we already knewwhere they were going, what
cottage and everything else.
And I would say, hey, folks,how you doing.
I introduced myself and, um, Ialready knew where they were
going, what cottage andeverything else.
And I would say, hey, folks,how you doing.
I introduced myself and Ialready knew who they were.
And the boys would take all oftheir gear to the cottage and I
would say, listen, the guys aregoing to lock after your gear.

(45:37):
We're going to get you allmoved in, but in the meantime,
come on with me and I would showthem the lodge, give them the
lay of the land.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Orientation kind of thing.
It was an orientation.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Exactly, and that's another key ingredient in a
successful business right,because the more that you can
make somebody feel comfortableand the more information that
you can give them face-to-faceand personally, the better it
was Absolutely Right.
Face and personally, the betterit was Absolutely Right.
So the whole experience withthe American plan was my kind of

(46:14):
feel right, very, very social.
Yeah, whether it be like, I say, we would do campfires and sing
around the campfires, we alsodid every week a shore lunch
down on the dock where everybodywould get together and we would
provide fish and then we wouldalso take we would let everybody

(46:37):
know.
You know, thursday is our shorelunch day.
Any fish that you catch onThursday morning, feel free to
bring them in, as long asobviously they're in the legal
size limits and follow the rules, and we'll cook them for you
right at lunch.
So you know, those days werealways awesome.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Those are fun.
We used to do a fish fry onThursday nights and we wouldn't
do it every week.
It would depend how busy wewere and it would depend on the
style of clients, because wewere a hybrid camp right.
So we'd have more.
Some weeks I'd be heavier withthe housekeeping end.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Some weeks I'd be heavier with the American plan,
right.
So when we were heavier withthe housekeeping plan, I would.
There's this old native fellow,Fred lives in Eagle River down
by Eagle Lake Lodge, and I'd godown there and I'd buy whitefish
off them.
Yeah, you know, it was like 100bucks for whitefish.
And then we'd, you know, we'dfry them up on our big barbecue
pit outside right and Johnnywould dress up in his cowboy hat

(47:33):
.
We'd have some old countrymusic playing, but everybody in
camp would come together.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
And it was an amazing .
It was an amazing time.
You're right, that was one ofthe funnest experiences having
the lodge.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Well, and all of those experiences, aside from
the fishing, are where the magichappens in the business.
Yes, yes.
Right, because I would.
My goal was to bring peopletogether and the music to my
ears was you know, typically atrip would go from Saturday to

(48:06):
Saturday.
So on Friday night at dinneryou would get people who had
groups that would meet eachother and everything else, and I
would always my heart wouldjust glow when you hear two
couples sitting that started inseparate tables and are now
sitting together, because thatwould often happen, or you know,

(48:29):
whether it's two couples or agroup or whatever, they want to
sit together.
And then the conversation turnsto hey, this was great, what
are you guys doing next year?
Are you coming back?
Yeah, and then they say well,we've been coming back.
We've been coming here for youknow, the last 10 years.
Oh, really, well, what week doyou come?

Speaker 1 (48:49):
This is the networking part of the
experience, well, yeah, that'sright.
So you get.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Then you get people saying, well, okay, well, why
don't we book this?
We'll book the same week and,and they would book to come back
to your place together andthat's just.
You know, another booking thatyou don't have to move and shake
for, and those bookings are theones that that are are the best
, because they're they turn intoyou know, two, three, four,

(49:19):
five, six years of people.
Coming back to the point wherethis one group I had a group
from Texas.
I love them so much.
Actually I took my family downto Texas and we stayed with Ty
and Sonia and unfortunately lastsummer Ty passed, which was

(49:41):
heartbreaking, and you know wewent.
I took my son to Texas and wespread some ashes about a month
ago.
That's awesome.
But on one of those trips theyhooked up with a couple from
Illinois and they've been, theybecome such good friends that

(50:06):
now they spend winters theydrive from Illinois to Texas and
they spend their winter livingwith them in Texas.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
No way, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Yeah, and they met it's so crazy that that came
together from dining at ChaudierLodge, yes, from your
hospitality.
Bringing people together iswhat developed that.
You know what that brings?
A shiver, yeah, it's beautiful,yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
And they're such great people.
I love them all, and those arethe things that make this
business such a special business.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Absolutely.
I got a good story here.
So my first American plantexperience ever wasn't in
Ontario, it wasn't, you know, aback league fly out for walleyes
or anything.
You know the standard.
It was Ontario, at LangaraIsland, it was called.
So it was in northern BC, offthe coast of Masset, it was

(51:05):
called.
So we were going salmon andhalibut fishing and grizzly we
were watching, and it's up inthe area where they have them,
blonde grizzlies, what are they?

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
So I was jacked.
The oil company had us all setup, we had a great year with
Chevron and they decided to takeus out there.
You know, this was likemid-2000s, I mean like 2005,
2006.
So we flew to Vancouver fromCalgary, into Terminal 2, got on

(51:39):
a small plane you know a little20-seater Ting Air up to Masset
, got on a small plane you knowa little 20-seater Ting Air up
to Masset, and then from Massetwe helicoptered out to a ship.
Now, the ship was anchored offof the side of an island.

(51:59):
You know, it was 50, 60 feet ofwater and it was anchored there
.
Um, so it was a super cool thing.
It's the only time I've everbeen in.
I've been in lots of choppers,but a chopper going to a fishing
lodge and and again, this is myfirst american plan experience,
right.
So I'm already thinking likethis is swank.
I'm kidding, this is cateredright.
Here we're, uh, you know we'rein the helicopter and on the

(52:21):
planes.
We're, you know we're havingsome juice and a couple beers,
and so, yeah, anyways, we get inthis chopper and we land on a
helipad on a ship.
We get out and do ourorientation and I'm looking
around and it's just beautifulPeople are bringing us food and
they'll ask it if we want drinks.

(52:42):
It's like being at Earl's on aFriday night and I'm looking
around and it's so majesticthere's eagles flying, there's
beautiful steam coming off therainforest trees on the coast of
BC and then I know we're thereto whale watch and to see these
grizzlies and catch a couplesalmon and halibut.

(53:04):
And you know, the trip wasamazing.
You know there's lots.
I think I've told a few storiesabout that trip on here, but the
bottom line is when I got tosee how the service level could
be, it really blew me away.
Like I was really blown away bythe, you know, every night

(53:26):
having a four course meal, youknow, and the guides to the
level that they took care of me.
You know, back then I was justtournament fisherman, I was just
green tournament fisherman, youknow.
So this was a whole new realmto me and I'll never forget it.
It was kind of what got me, youknow, growing up with in that
part of my life, with mygrandfather being at his place

(53:46):
and always being in that fishingworld and having that desire to
do that, but I knew nothingabout it.
That was the first time in mylife I'd actually seen that
American style of plan and went.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
I like this yeah this is nice, this is, this is
exceptional well, funny enough,um, I, I had never had an
all-inclusive or American planexperience until after I bought
the lodge and that, I think,helped me become successful,

(54:16):
because I had an idea in my mindabout how I wanted my guests to
be treated and I brought thatidea to Chaudière and it turned
out to be a very successfulexperience.
So there's again, folks, there'sso many different experiences

(54:42):
out there that you can have, andthat kind of brings us to what
you alluded to earlier.
And you know, when we thinkoutdoors, we think hunting, we
think fishing, but now there's ait's not even a movement, it
was always there, but we'vegiven it the name of ecotourism,

(55:04):
and ecotourism is everythingoutdoors that really doesn't
focus on fishing and hunting.
And there's so manyopportunities out there and a
lot of them you can combine witha fishing or a hunting
experience, with a fishing or ahunting experience, and I think
probably for anglers and huntersout there, whether you think

(55:29):
about it or not, the drivingexperience behind that is the
immersion into nature and all ofthose experiences that you get
when you're out there, whetherit be seeing the northern lights
or, you know, the night skiesthat are absolutely stunning,

(55:54):
with no light pollution.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Blueberry picking.
You know how many people fromthe south I get up north and
they're like at the TorontoSportsman Show.
When I was there, as you weresaying, I didn't sell a lot of
fishing trips because it wasn'tthe focus there.
Bear hunting was big there butthat ecotourism was huge.
I got a couple guests out of itbecause they wanted to come up
and they'd never picked ablueberry strainer before and

(56:17):
they never went out to a patchon a quad with their family and
picked a gallon of blueberriesand ate them fresh.
You know, or the like you'resaying, the Northern Lights, or
the just the hiking.
You know, going to a beautiful,going for a beautiful hike in
the bush and seeing a beautifulwaterfalls and you know.
Those are what.
Those are the things.
To be honest, I don't remembera lot of the big fish stories

(56:40):
you know and that you forgetabout the gaps in there and the
hunts.
It's the experiences with yourfriends and family in those kind
of environments that I remember.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Absolutely.
You know, one of the thingsthat I had investigated but
unfortunately I didn't implementand implement was I wanted to
put a telescope like anobservatory where you could put
you know 10 people inside thislittle building and you would

(57:13):
have TV screens and you could.
It was linked to NASA and allof these stellar events that
were going on.
They would give you coordinatesto punch into the telescope and
you could sit and and and lookat it and and oh, that's go on a
stellar adventure, right?
yeah, and at the time, you know,for me, I like capital was one

(57:36):
of the things that, um, that I Istruggled with in the beginning
, but it wasn't that overlyexpensive I think to put one in
on the island was about sixtythousand dollars and um, but I
always thought, wow, what anexperience for people to go on a
, on a stellar cruise.
Yeah, you know what I mean.

(57:57):
You get into this, thisspaceship on on an island and
and you, you're, you're going ona stellar adventure that's
super unique.
So there's there's stuff likethat.
There's also, you know, like uhgoing and and experiencing wolf
calls or seeing nature um sled,dog sledding dog, that's a huge

(58:18):
one up by, up by andrew and redlake or sue, lookout um.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
I up in Sioux Lookout here with some other business
doing some work and I saw twosled dog teams mushing and it
was super cool.
I was like man, if you're fromToronto or if you're from Texas
or Minneapolis when are yougoing to see that, Unless you're
watching Disney's Iron Will?

Speaker 3 (58:40):
you're not seeing that Super cool.
I'll tell you.
One of the things on my bucketlist is to go pan for gold.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Oh, speaking of, I saw a panning for gold kit at
Canadian Tire the other day on.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
It was on sale.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
It was like a starter edition.
I thought about you, bro.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
Well, the funny thing , my buddy, Ray Poole, back in
the day this is probably in the90s there was a TV show where
these guys would go out and theywould pan for gold and this and
that and we got all pumped andI built a sluice box.
I was a sheet metal mechanic.
I built a sluice box.

(59:14):
We never used it.
It was probably about threefeet long and I made it out of
aluminum.
God, it was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Is this like your forging box downstairs?

Speaker 3 (59:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you should see this
forging box folks.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
Steve has this grad.
It is epic.
Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
There's a lot of hours in that thing.
Yeah, man, I looked at the, Iwatched Forged in Fire, I looked
at their forges and I thoughtI'm going to make one of.
Yeah, there was probably.
All in all there was 80 hoursof work.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
And I was impressed that you did all the machining
and the lathe work.
When you were telling thatyesterday and describing it, I
was impressed.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was an adventure that I haven't
made a knife yet, but I enjoyedbuilding the forge.
Yeah, I got to get Mikey, myson, on that.
He was the one that was reallywanting it.
My daughter, maddie, is theonly one that's really attempted
to make.
Actually, I shouldn't say thatmikey did make one knife, yeah,
so him and his buddies got overthere and made a knife, but it's

(01:00:10):
, you know, it's.
It's those outdoor adventuresand the photography too oh yes,
photography hunts.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Yes, I sold one this year.
Actually, there is one going upto nordic this year oh really,
yeah for bear yeah, there was.
There was a guy who wanted tobear hunt, uh, and he actually
his wife talked him out of bearhunting and talked him into just
the photography part of it,because she is a she's actually
a professional photographer downthe states.
Yeah, so they're going to go upthere and sit in the stand here
in the fall for three days andthey're going to fish for the

(01:00:38):
off hours, but the morning andthe evening, when they're you
know, when the bears are moreactive, they're going to sit up
there and we're going to baitthem to come in, just so they
can get some amazing images.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Yeah, that's, that's super cool.
There's there again like I meanthere's so many things and then
we haven't even covered thecamping side of things.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
No, exactly, you know , there's so many.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
There's so many experiences and a lot of people
think, well, I got to go to acampground.
Well, that's not true.
No, you, you can.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
You can camp on crown land anywhere, and explain what
crown land is for the peoplethat don't know, Stevie.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
Well, crown land is, is land owned by the crown and
we're, we're, we're, um, um, uh,it goes back to our association
with the queen.
But it's government land thatnobody owns, that we all can use
.
And whether we talk about usefor hunting, for fishing, for

(01:01:31):
camping, crownland is land thatis there for Canadians to
experience and to use and youcan go out there and you can
camp.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
So what you're saying is there's.
You know, if you had a map andfor the people that don't know,
you can actually look at an arealet's say Bancroft, ontario and
find where those crown landareas are, on a lake or on a
river system or even just in thebush and you can take your own
camper truck box up there oryour own RV or your tow behind
trailer and just go do your ownthing, fire up the generator and

(01:02:05):
stay in the bush fires withyour family for a few days.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
Yeah, or be more adventurous and go and park
somewhere and throw the pack onyour back and go and experience
nature with very little.
The only thing when you'retalking about using Crownland is
you always use the go with theintention to leave it in better

(01:02:33):
condition than when you gotthere.
So you know when you've got tobe careful of fires and you need
to respect the fire conditionsand check that, because with
forest fires and hot summersthere's fire bans that they put

(01:02:53):
on.
So you got to be mindful offire bans and if there is a fire
ban, you don't make a fire.
If there's not a fire ban, youcan have fires, but you need to
make sure they're out and youneed to pick up your garbage and
all of that stuff.
Yep, be very respectful of theland and the land will respect
us back for generations,absolutely, and you know there's

(01:03:21):
a ton of different guys thatjust and girls that go out by
themselves and live off the land, for you know, two, three days,
four days a week a month.
There's like Survivorman.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Yeah, algonquin Park is one of those areas close to
here where you, I know I grew uplike the Bancroft area.
Like I said, I grew up inCoburg but my Bancroft area my
grandfather was spending so muchtime there we would go up to
Algonquin Park and that's onedown here.
That's really close to everyone.
You can just throw a couple ofcanoes and kayaks on the top of
your SUV or car and go up to thepark on Highway 60 and find a

(01:03:56):
great lake to go into andportage a couple back back and
you know that's very inexpensive, oh for sure, to do right and
and at the same time, it'ssupporting the province and and
canada and and getting you thatthat quick little uh outdoor
adventure that you need to, yeah, fill that need at the time and
that's a provincial park.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
That's a little bit different than crown land,
correct?
And I think there's a, there'ssmall fees that you that you
would pay to the park and andjust like that yeah but the nice
thing about a park like thatand Algonquin is one of the
largest and it's a place whereyou've actually got a place that
you can park your vehiclesafely Not that it's not safe to

(01:04:34):
park a vehicle on a roadsomewhere with Crownland, but
you know it's managed.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Yes, yeah, right, monitored and managed.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Monitored, managed, and Algonquin is a great option
for people that want to juststart and dip your toes in this
camping idea.

Speaker 6 (01:04:52):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
Right.
So again, it's one of those.
Our province and our country isawesome, country is is awesome.
And and you know, I'm going tothrow one more um experience
that I had, um, uh this past uhyear, uh, and it was a shoot
that we did uh in Nova Scotiaand uh, we went and uh stayed in

(01:05:20):
the little town of economy.
We were in a bed and breakfastand we had a guide by the name
of Greg Beliveau and we wereright on the shore of the Bay of
Fundy Actually, it's the MinasBasin, which is a little, well,
a little.
It's a big bay in the back ofthe Bay of Fundy and we stayed

(01:05:40):
at this little bed and breakfastand Greg took us out striper
fishing and, for those of youwho don't know, the Bay of Fundy
has the largest tide in theworld and when we were there the
tide was like 55 feet.
That's insane, the water.
And every 12 hours the waterwould go out and the bay would

(01:06:02):
be near empty and then it wouldcome back in and it would be 55
feet high and and and it, it.
You know, some days we were, wewere leaving at like 11 o'clock
in the morning and had to beback by, you know, four o'clock
in the afternoon and the, thecurrent in that that, the, the,

(01:06:25):
the, the, the tide would create,was ridiculous.
Um, we'd go out, just a suction.
Eh, oh, it was.
It was crazy.
So we were fishing stripers andnot only like we didn't, we
didn't get to, to, to, toexperience this situation, but
there's sharks out there, greatwhite sharks, and they'll come

(01:06:49):
up and eat your stripers andthere's so much there and the
landscape was ridiculous.
And the one thing I'll neverforget I was the guy that I'm a
farm boy, so I'm fairlyproficient at backing things up
in the vehicle.
So you know, anytime Pete orAng or you know they're the

(01:07:16):
pilots of the FNC or whateverboat we've got and we drug our
boat out there, whatever boatwe've got, and and we, we drug
the, the, our boat out there, um, uh, on this day in particular,
we were, we were in, um, uh,greg's boat and I was, um, I was
backing in his boat and therewas one ramp that we used and,
um, the water was it.

(01:07:39):
It was like a football fieldaway from and it was a fairly
steep incline right.
So I backed the boat in,dropped Greg off in his boat and
I drove the truck near afootball field, away from where
I put the boat in.

(01:07:59):
I jumped out, I had it parkedand Greg's yelling at me no,
Steve, my geez, you gotta pullher up a little higher.
I'm like, pull it up a littlehigher.
The next platform, the nextplateau, geez, you gotta get her
up there.
I thought, hmm, okay.
So I pulled it right up, gotinto the boat with him and I

(01:08:24):
said how come so far away?
He says jeez, jeez, if you hadleft her there she would have
been underwater.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Oh, because the tide?

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah because we were going out
the tide was out.
Yeah, it was low tide when wewere going out and we were going
to fish, the high tide.
And, sure enough, when we weregoing out and we were going to
fish, the high tide, and then,uh, and, and sure enough, when
we got back, um, you could seewhere the tide had come up and
left all of the debris, like thewood debris and everything else

(01:08:54):
, and it was just the, the, theheight of it was ridiculous.
And when you're in the boat onthe water, we we're fishing, um
and uh, the we were fishing cutbait, so that's just, uh, that's
like dead mackerel or herring,and and you cut, uh, you cut
chunks like, uh, a square, outof these fish.

(01:09:16):
You'd either use the head sideor the tail side or cut the head
and the tail off and use themiddle, but they're chunks that
are like uh, two, three inchessquare.
Really, you put them on a bighook and then he's got clip
weights, yep and um, uh, and andit's on a slide.
So you're, you would drop yourbait down to the bottom and then

(01:09:37):
it would, you, you would, um,you would let the bait slide
through the bait.
You wanted to try and keep yourweight on the bottom and then
you would let the bait kind ofslide through the slide on the
line.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
So kind of like a drop shot, but a lot bigger in
the weight.
So if the drop shot was gettingtaken by the current, it would
just slide through.
It Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
similar.
Well, what it is is, you've gotyour hook, you tie that.
Well, first of all, you putthis it's just a snap clip on a
ring and you put the linethrough the ring so that that
snap will slide up your line anddown your line, yep Right, and

(01:10:19):
it'll stop at the hook.
But then you clip weight ontothat snap ring, so when you drop
the weight down, it allows yourline to slide through the
little eye so that you're, youcan feel the bait, you can feel
the fish when they nibble.
And these, these stripers, theyreally, even though they get up
to like 45 pounds, 50 pounds,it's almost like a walleye bite.

(01:10:44):
But so when you start and thetide's ripping, we were using 32
ounces of weight.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
That's crazy.
Like a pound, that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Of weight and they're like banana weights.
Yeah, they were like discs,they were like big discs Catfish
ones yeah.
And they would go up inincrements of like five ounces,
three ounces, two ounces, halfan ounce, and when the tide was
ripping, we'd have like a 10ounce, a five ounce, a five

(01:11:19):
ounce and a five ounce on therejust to get it to sit on the
bottom.
Wow.
And then you know, as the tidestarts to slow and you get slack
water and and listen, when thetide was ripping, we were
fishing a spot that come up into, you know, at high tide it
would have been, you know, 60feet of of water.

(01:11:42):
And when that tide rips it wascreate, because it was a bit of
a hump.
It was creating, like this umwave on top of the water okay,
yeah and it's.
It's such a weird feelingbecause the boat's not moving,
but yet I was trolling muskybaits with the boat being, uh,

(01:12:03):
in in place dragged with thecurrent, the current wow yeah,
you're talking like I forget thethe stat, but it was like a 15
mile an hour current orsomething crazy wow at when it
was at its peak.
And then it turns slack.
Your boat starts to driftaround and then it spins the
other way when the tide's goingout.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
Right and um, the the experience of and it and it can
be very dangerous, Like when wewere out there, like if, if, in
slack tide, if you're notcareful and that rope gets
caught up on something right onthe back uh, gunnel or whatever
and the tide turns real quick.
There was one boat that calleda mayday because they got hooked

(01:12:51):
up on the back of their well.
When the boat spun, theiranchor rope got caught on the
bottom end of their engine.
They didn't realize it and thenwhen the tide started going
back out, the bow wasn't intothe tide, the stern was, and it
pulled slack and it pulled theback of the boat under the water

(01:13:13):
.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Right, so it's something that Did they just end
up cutting it, or what?

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
Well, they didn't have time, oh it happened that
quick Well yeah, and it was like, well, they didn't have time,
oh, it happened that quick.
Well, yeah, and it was like Imean it was a smaller boat, but
it's something that you want togo with a guide like Greg from
Bass Barn Charters andexperience with him, and he was
using a boat called a CoastalVokey, made in Newfoundland Cool

(01:13:42):
, and it's like a really bigBoston whaler but they're
extraordinarily heavy and itcuts through the waves real good
.
Because I'll tell you what usanglers talk about confused
water, when you get wind fromdifferent directions and then
you get tight to a shoreline orthrough, you know, off an island

(01:14:06):
where waves refract off ofdifferent sides and you get
these rogue waves or you knowwhere way two waves collide and
and it's just, uh, it's, it'sconfused water.
The water there was was crazywhenever we were going through
islands and stuff, but what anexperience it is to fish the Bay

(01:14:26):
of Fundy.
That's super cool.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
I'm actually me and Krista are going to go.
I was telling you we're goingto go out there this fall,
because I've been out therebefore with work and just
traveling around for fun, butnever to experience everything.
And Krista, now that I got hertraveling, she's a traveling
addict, right yeah, and she'snever been to the East Coast.
So we're going to go out there.
I'm going to go hook up withGreg and go fishing with him
this fall, for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:14:49):
Economy.
Nova Scotia is where we stayedand I'll tell you what, as
amazing as the experience thatwe just talked about sounds, the
most extraordinary part for meis the people out there.
Extraordinary part for me isthe people out there, like, just
to give you an example, wedecided to stay.

(01:15:14):
It was a long haul for us.
The shoot.
We started in New Brunswick fora week, then we went to Nova
Scotia for a week, then we werescheduled to come back to New
Brunswick for another week and,um, we got to Nova Scotia and,
uh, wanted to stay an extra daythere.
And, uh, at the time it lookedlike the bed and breakfast that
we were at was booked for thelast day.
And, um, the, the locals therewere like ah, don't worry, uh,

(01:15:38):
I've got a, I've got a, I've gota.
Uh, a place over here.
You know I got a trailer.
I'll tell you what.
I'll stay in the trailer, youguys can have our house.
You know, like, and just whenwe're done fishing, you know
we'd be sitting out andbarbecuing at the place and

(01:15:59):
people would just stop by andpull out the guitar and have an
impromptu party.
What an awesome.
Oh, the, the hey guys, um, thewhat a beautiful country we have
oh the this.
It is such a wonderful,wonderful country, um, which
brings me to my last point,which isn't really an experience

(01:16:19):
, but I I really want to remindpeople of the importance of our
next and upcoming election andto make sure you get out there
and vote and do your research,not only the legacy media, but
go outside the box and find outwhat Canadians are saying.

(01:16:42):
And don't forget the last 11years and where we're at now and
just simply ask yourself are wein a better shape now than we
were then?
And maybe do we need a change?

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
And even in this direction, in the travel and
tourism area, are we better thanwe were before?
Do you know what I mean?
Like absolutely when it comesto traveling and finances, can
you afford where you used to beable to afford to go to these
places a little more, steve?
Do we want to get back to that?

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
I, I certainly do, and I know all of the lodge
owners and and people that areproviding these experiences
definitely need support and I'mjust not sure that that support
has been there for the last, uh,the last 10 years, correct?
I agree, you know, I agree.
So a lot of good folks foughtand died to give us the right to

(01:17:34):
vote and it is so important, nomatter who you vote for or how
it goes down, get out andexercise that right that those
people died to give us.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
It matters.

Speaker 3 (01:17:49):
A hundred percent.
Absolutely, it matters,absolutely.
So, on that note, I just loveto to thank all of the people
that support us, you know.
Andrew um, up there in Lakesidemarine, uh, wonderful uh
business and great uh uh, he'sso good with the community.

Speaker 1 (01:18:10):
I just bought andrew.
I just bought a side by sidebecause I had to.
I left my side by side at thelodge when I got out and, uh, I
needed a new one, so I boughtone off andrew.
The guy drove it two hours tobring it down to me.
Man pulled it off the trailer,check the oil, make sure
everything was great.
And he's the owner.
He texts me at 6.30 in morningWillie, I'm here, you're where,

(01:18:31):
I'm outside of your garage.
You can't beat that kind ofservice.

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
That is the difference.
That is the difference betweena successful business owner and
and somebody that that struggles.
And hey, thanks, andrew, you'redoing a great job.
Yeah, and folks, don't forgetto go over to the fishing
Canadacom website.

(01:18:56):
Get in on all those freegiveaways.
They're, they're always there.
Garmin is is a wonderfulsupporter of that.
You never know what you'regoing to find.
Check out our episodes from thelast year.
They're all on YouTube, whichyou can access straight from the
com fishincanadacom website.
You can check out the episodethat we did with Greg Beliveau

(01:19:20):
on Bay of Fundy.
You can check out all theseother wonderful places that
we've been Lake Obabacal Lodge.
You know all of the awesomeadventures that we talk about.
You can see Nordic Point withWillie and I and Dean and Ange

(01:19:40):
and Pete.
They caught it the net, oh whata story yeah that's a great
story, folks.

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
I love that.
Ange is going to have thatforever and remember it was at
my place.
I love that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:49):
Yeah, you need to check that one out.
Quick synopsis Peter forgot.
The net felt real bad, and theyended up catching the same
style of net that had been onthe bottom of the lake for God
knows how long.
Yep, and so they had a net.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
Within cast and when you watch the show.
It was not meant to be.
It was meant to be.

Speaker 3 (01:20:20):
It wasn't scripted.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
That's what I was trying to say.

Speaker 3 (01:20:22):
This is something that wow and even like I mean
you'd have to be brilliant totry and think of doing something
like that Right, and nevermindfinding a net covered in algae
and moss that that would looklike that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:39):
I know, I know that net coming out of the water Save
little Johnny and Pete's ass.
Oh yeah for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
So listen folks again .
Thank you so much for listeningNight night, nixon.
And thank you, rob.
We'll see you again next time.
And folks.
Thus brings us to theconclusion of another episode of
Diaries of a Lodge Owner.

(01:21:06):
Stories of the North.

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
I'm a good old boy, never meanin' no harm.
I'll be all you ever saw, beenrailin' in the hog since the day
I was born, bending my rock,stretching my line.
Someday I might own a lodge,and that'd be fine.

(01:21:33):
I'll be making my way the onlyway I know how, working hard and
sharing the North with all ofmy pals.
Well, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a large and lived mydream, and now I'm here talking

(01:21:56):
about how life can be as good asit seems.

Speaker 6 (01:22:02):
Yeah, back in 2016, frank and I had a vision to
amass the single largestdatabase of muskie angling
education material anywhere inthe world.

Speaker 5 (01:22:14):
Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this
amazing community and share itwith passionate anglers just
like you.

Speaker 6 (01:22:21):
Thus the Ugly Pike Podcast was born and quickly
grew to become one of the topfishing podcasts in North
America.

Speaker 5 (01:22:28):
Step into the world of angling adventures and
embrace the thrill of the catchwith the Ugly Pike Podcast.
Join us on our quest tounderstand what makes us
different as anglers and touncover what it takes to go
after the infamous fish of10,000 casts.

Speaker 6 (01:22:42):
The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing.
It's about creating atight-knit community of
passionate anglers who share thesame love for the sport.
Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an unwavering
spirit of adventure, thispodcast will bring people
together.

Speaker 5 (01:22:56):
Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our
angling adventures.
Tight lines everyone.

Speaker 6 (01:23:01):
Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.

Speaker 7 (01:23:12):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, ange and I willbe right here in your ears
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Now, what are we going to talkabout for two hours every week?
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.

Speaker 6 (01:23:33):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.

Speaker 7 (01:23:38):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors, from athletes, All theother guys would go golfing Me
and Garton Turk and all theRussians would go fishing.
To scientists.

Speaker 6 (01:23:52):
But now that we're reforesting and letting things
breathe.
It's the perfect transmissionenvironment for life.

Speaker 5 (01:23:58):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.

Speaker 7 (01:24:04):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.