Episode 93: The Art of Shore Lunch

There's something magical about outdoor gatherings—those special moments where food, nature, and companionship blend together to create lasting memories. In this episode, Willie the Oil Man takes us deep into the art of the shore lunch, a beloved Canadian tradition that transcends simple outdoor cooking.

Willie shares decades of hard-earned wisdom on creating unforgettable wilderness meals. From selecting the perfect shoreline spot (flat, safe, with a beautiful view) to handling hot oil safely over an open fire, every detail matters when cooking outdoors. You'll discover ingenious hacks like replacing metal pan handles with wooden shovel handles to prevent burns, and using burlap sacks to store used cookware.

The culinary secrets come thick and fast: why beer-battered fish needs cooler oil, how to achieve that perfect golden crust on your potatoes, and unexpected alternatives like wild rice pilaf that can elevate a standard shore lunch into something extraordinary. Beyond technical advice, Willie weaves in personal stories—both heartwarming and cautionary—that bring the tradition to life, including a poignant moment teaching his young son to build a fire during a father-son outing.

At its heart, this episode celebrates the deeper meaning behind outdoor gatherings. Whether it's an elaborate shore lunch for fishing clients, a simple picnic with family, or even just coffee shared with a spouse on a dock, these gatherings create the backdrop for our most cherished relationships. With summer approaching, Willie urges listeners to create these experiences with their loved ones—teaching children outdoor skills, sharing stories around a fire, and forging connections that will outlast any meal.

Subscribe now to hear more stories from the north, and share your own shore lunch experiences with us online. What outdoor cooking traditions do you cherish with your family?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
you know, this was a an episode I've been wanting to
do for a while.
You know, get out there andgather outside with your
families.
We're coming into summer here.
Get the barbecue going, youknow.
Take the portable barbecue andif there's nothing to do, just
take the portable barbecue andgo for a boat ride with your
kids.
Teach them how to make make afire.
Teach them how to cook shorelunch.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
You know, this week on the Outdoor Journal Radio
Podcast Networks, diaries of aLodge Owner, stories of the
North Folks, it's all Willietoday, and he is talking about
something that he specializes inand that is the shore lunch.
On this show he talks about how, where, when and how wonderful

(00:50):
it can be to spend time withpeople that you love and show
off skills that they never knewyou had.
So grab your chef hat, filletknife and with we Willie, the
Oil man, sitting on yourshoulder whispering in your ear

(01:17):
yes, you too will be equipped topull off the best shore lunch
on the planet.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Here's Willie's explanation, and coaching on how
to do a shore lodge.
Hello folks, and welcome toanother episode of Diaries of a
Lodge Owner Stories of the NorthWillie the oil man here.
It's a beautiful day innorthwestern Ontario.
It's that time of the yearwhere, like I'm looking out my

(01:46):
living room window over BlackSturgeon Lake right now and I
see, you know that really darklooking ice.
You know, the water from thetrenches below is just about to
come up.
Everything on the shore isreceded.
I can actually see I'm sittinghere and I can see a couple bass

(02:09):
spots that you know, my earlyseason stuff that I like to
throw into starting to open uphere and yeah, it's beautiful up
here today.
So, you know, plus five andwe're running solo.
Stevie is a busy man right nowwith getting ready for spring

(02:31):
and the Fish of Canada show andhe's got a couple things on the
go.
So we decided to fire up apodcast here and talk about an
amazing topic we haven't reallydiscussed before here and talk
about an amazing topic wehaven't really discussed before
and that is outdoor gatheringsand shore lunches.
You know we've always touchedon these topics but we've never

(02:56):
really done a detailed show onthem and I think myself and I
know Steve would second thisthat.
You know, your gatherings,whether they're with your family
or at a reunion, or at yourlodge or at your camp, are super

(03:26):
important.
They're the times where thememories are made and the jokes
are cracked and the, you know,the funny stories come out and
the guitar starts playing andthe amazing.
You know the wine flows and thefood adventures and the.
You know the culinary tasteexperience, whether it be, you
know, on the side of a rock, onLake, of the Woods, you know, or
on your deck, you know, in theMuskokas.

(03:48):
You know there's food andgatherings.
Outdoor gatherings is a hugething.
So today, that's what we'regoing to talk about.
We're going to talk about thewho's, why's, where's, what's,
when's of a proper shore lunch.
We're going to go over someoutdoor gatherings.

(04:10):
We're going to tell somestories and, of course, everyone
knows Willie's a bit of asafety.
Yeah, so let's kick it off withthe.
You know an outdoor gathering,you know it can be as small.

(04:36):
As you know I've had, you know,some of the best times of my
life with some of you know, theclosest people in my life.
You know I'll use Kyle McMahonas one, me and Kyle.
You know we used to.
You know we used to go out icefishing and we'd pull up, you
know, to a spot and fish for acouple hours and sure enough,

(04:59):
you know, willie or Kyle wouldget hungry.
So we'd just fire up a couplelogs on the shore and, and uh,
kyle would always have a chunkof moose meat or a chunk of bear
.
You'd have a chunk of somethingthat he'd taken harvested from
the from the season prior and,uh, yeah, we just wrapped it
tinfoil and throw it in the fire, you know, and you know, in the

(05:20):
coals, and just let it cookwhile we were, while we were
fishing.
You know what from from thoseexperience to the.
You know, like I, the coals,and just let it cook while we
were fishing.
You know, from those experienceto the.
You know, like I've hostedshore lunches, you know, of 60
people.
You know, on Lake of the Woods.
There's so many different waysyou can do these shore lunches

(05:43):
and gatherings.
You don't really need to have ashore lunch.
You can do an outdoor gathering.
You know outdoor gatherings arehuge.
You know an evening drink, youknow, on the beach or your dock,
you know.
If you don't drink, you knowI'm not much of a drinker Myself
, me and Krista, we don't reallydrink alcohol and you know we

(06:05):
like coffee.
You know coffee is our thingand you know those gatherings
where we, you know you can havethem with your sister-in-laws or
your family, your friends, andyou know workers or clients.
You know sometimes, just, youknow, a hot pot of coffee or a
warm hot chocolate.
You know that's as much of agathering as any.

(06:30):
So let's start with.
You know the kinds ofgatherings you can have.
So I'll give you guys anexample.
You know, I just said you knowit could be just a couple of men
or a couple of ladies out foryou know a fish or a hunt or a
walk in the bush, and you wantto pick that spot and just fire

(06:55):
some food.
Right, you know there's that.
There is the.
You know a picnic.
You know there's the picnicgathering Down at the beach.
Everybody's done that when theywere a kid, right, you know your
mom or your aunt Betty, or youknow Grandma Doris.
You know she'd pack up a littlelunch kit and you know,

(07:18):
nowadays it would be a YetiEveryone's got the Yeti or the
knockoff Yeti and pack it up andwe'd all hop in the family car
and head down to the beach andhave some fun, and you know that
would be the centerpiece of ourtime, you know, and it was fun,
you know I remember out of allthose things I don't remember

(07:40):
how many times I jumped off thedock and did stupid things, you
know, like with your family oryour buddies, when you were down
there with Grandma, but youknow what you always remembered
that amazing lunch and the freshbread she made, and you know
the glass of iced tea on thebeach.
You know those things.

(08:01):
We should, you know you can,you got to remember those things
and those, those, those draw usback for sure.
You know you could have.
You know your dinners, just biggathering dinners on your decks
of your cabin.
You know I I actually here'shere was probably a very unique

(08:25):
one that maybe people, maybesome people, haven't done and
you should do is a pontoon boatgathering.
So when I owned Lake of theWoods Fishing Adventures, it was
actually a daily occurrence forus and my staff, occurrence for
us and my staff.
What we would do is when youshowed up for your first night,

(08:51):
you know, because you'd beentraveling all day and you were
tired.
And last thing you want to dois cook and, if you know, at our
place obviously at this pointit was an American plan place a
week did that for you, you know,but you didn't want a heavy
meal.
A lot of times you traveled allday, you're just right.
So what would be more perfectthan getting off your private
jet or getting off yourcommercial flight in Winnipeg

(09:13):
and being shuttled to Kenora,driven to Kenora, picked up, and
then you show up at Lake of theWoods Fishing Adventures to a
32-foot pontoon boat, you know,with lots of seating for
everybody in your group, alittle bit of music going in the
background and we would cruisethe islands of Lake of the Woods

(09:37):
the interior, you know byKenora Bay and close to town.
I mean, we would take an hourand a half beautiful sunset
cruise and of course that stillwasn't the kicker, you know, the
highlight of the night was themeal and we would have a meal
prepared.
We used to have a lady God resther soul.
She's passed now.

(09:58):
She used to make our pierogieshere in town.
She used to make a pierogie andsausage tray for us.
Carol Lampshire was her name.
Amazing food, you know.
And then Chef Wrigley, or, youknow Chef Machete, you know two
of my old chefs.
They would, you know, whip upsomething during the day or

(10:21):
prior, and we'd keep it warm.
And you know we would servethat right on the pontoon.
And I'm telling you it was anamazing experience.
I know majority of my people um, you know, asked for it
constantly, over and over andover, because it was a private
setting.
You know you could.

(10:41):
It wasn't really.
The meals were always amazingand the meals were the
centerpiece, but everything puttogether made that atmosphere
and that gathering, you knowoutdoor gatherings.
So there's, you know, there's, afew examples of, of different
styles of gatherings that youmight not even think of, that
you've had your whole life sincegoing to that picnic on the

(11:03):
beach or, you know, justthrowing a chunk of meat on the
on the grill there with yourbuddy, or having a big family
adventure, or doing a pontooncruise.
You know there's, there's somany ways to explore culinary
arts while you're, while you'rein the bush, while you're at

(11:24):
your camp, while you well, youjust need some time with your
wife.
I know there's lots of timeswhere we have a crazy life.
You know, like you know, I havefive kids from the age of 10 to
22.
You know, I'm married, we havea couple of businesses,
properties.
You know I have four dogs.

(11:44):
My life is chaos and sometimesmy best gathering is just with
my partner going for coffee.
You know, I think that that's.
You know, these gatherings arehuge and I think it's a big.
It's something that we've kindof gotten away from and if we

(12:07):
haven't gotten away from it,even when you do it you don't
think about it and it'ssometimes something to come back
and reflect on.
So, yeah, all types ofgatherings.
There was all types ofgatherings.
You know, we've kind of wentover a few now and that's
probably got you thinking, like,you know, did you know what
were my gatherings like?
What have they been like in thepast or what could they be like
in the future?

(12:30):
Um, let's focus on shore lunchesfor the purpose of the show
being more of a, an outdoorsycabin law.
It's a diaries of a Lodge, it'sa lodge show.
So let's talk about that.
And you know there's lots thatgoes on and goes in to a proper,

(12:54):
professionally done show ranch.
Now, whether you're, you know,a weekend fisherman or a, you
know, a warm weather gentlemanor lady that likes to cook
outside, these tips and thesetricks and whatever we're about
to go over will be important toyou.

(13:15):
You know there is a lot ofdetail that some don't have to
go to because we might have toattend to some clients, but, you
know, majority of the time it'sthe same basic principles and
the same basic rules and I hopeyou guys learned something from
this.
So the first thing I would saythat I have written down and

(13:36):
that I look for in a shorelinespot is a flat cooking surface.
So if I'm cruising in myaluminum and I'm cruising a
shoreline or I'm looking at anisland and you know I don't want
a steep area that you have tocontinually climb up and down
for your gear.

(13:56):
You want to try.
You want to have an area whereyou can pull up with your boat,
you know, put your bum on thefront of the boat and swivel
your hips around and just standon the sand or stand on the rock
or stand on the ground,whatever it may be.
You don't want to have a pointwhere your boat's, you know,

(14:20):
right up in the air for onebecause you're going to fill the
back of your boat up.
A lot of people don't evenrealize they're doing that they
got the back of the gun allunder the water and you're up
for shore lunch and you probablyby this time when you notice
you got the fire three-quartersgoing and you're just about to
warm up your oil and all of asudden you look back and half

(14:40):
your boat's underwater andyou're like why?
Why?
Well, because you dipped alittle too deep right and you
started coming over and youdon't realize that those tiny
little, even when you got out,you might've been, you know,
half an inch below or above theback of that gunwale.
The water line was below andbeing that.
So it only takes a couple ofwakes from a passing boat to

(15:05):
start spilling over and then allof a sudden, your weight ratio
goes up and boom, she's down.
So just something to payattention.
You know, when you guys arepulling into shore, be careful
of that.
That's one little tip and trickthat I've had to learn over the
years.
I know, um, but yeah, a flatsurface to cook on.
So that's what you're lookingfor a flat surface to pull up on
.
And even more important,because when you're cooking with

(15:34):
oil, or even if you have apicnic basket and you're having
just a cold store lunch, youdon't want to be tripping, you
don't want to have hazards foryour clients or your friends or
your children or your wife.
So pick a spot, that's.
You know it looks.
You know there isn't treesfalling all over it.
Okay, it looks flat here, butthere's uprooted trees and a

(15:54):
storm's gone through and blown abunch of branches all over,
it's probably not the best spot.
You know you might want to pullup to that one, clean it up one
day and then return to it, youknow.
Or send your if you're a lodgeowner, you know, send your guys
over there with a couplechainsaws and some axes and get
it cleaned up, you know, priorto going there.
Those are the three majorthings that I look for.

(16:17):
Just initially, pulling up to ashoreline spot Flatten this to
cook on, flatten this to boat on, sorry, to park on and extract
your people from the boat and asafe, clean area so there's no

(16:37):
hazards.
I uh, shoreline spots you.
The other thing you want tolook for I guess it would be
secondary, but it's kind ofimportant is the view.
The view you don't want toforget that.
You're trying to set a moment,whether it be.

(16:59):
I know I've had father-sonintimate moments with my son, as
in teachings, intimateteachings with him about
becoming a man.
And this day and age isdifferent for these kids and I
make sure that my children I'mold school and they're raised in
the old school teachings theylive a new school lifestyle.

(17:22):
But I think my children I'mpretty sure Stephen can relate
too.
He's kind of an old schoolgentleman, as everyone knows,
and our kids, I guess, kind of.
They always have thosethinkbacks of time right and
bring them back to level, Ithink.
And one of those times was withmy son, you know.

(17:42):
I was teaching him to start afire and we had a great time.
We started that fire out there.
We ended up doing it.
We actually didn't do a shorelunch, we did a cold lunch, we
just sat there on the shore.
But the whole thing I rememberfrom that trip is looking out at
the lake and just seeing my sonas a young man growing into a

(18:05):
man is looking out at the lakeand just seeing my son, you know
, as a young man, growing into aman, with that smile on his
face, to be with his father, andit's something I'll never
forget.
And it was the scenery.
So make sure when you're pickingthese spots, guys, you pick a
spot based on that.
You want a spot for the amazingscenery you want to be able to

(18:26):
see.
You know if you're used tobeing there and you know the
area, you know there might be uheagles feeding eagles at lunch.
That's a huge thing, you knowyou might be able to uh, to do
that, or some otters.
You know you got to be careful.
You don't want wildlife comingaround.
You don't want, you don't wantto be baiting bears into your
shoreline spot, but just try andbe mindful of that.

(18:48):
Maybe you know when you'repulling up, you know it looks
like, oh, this could be abeautiful setting here.
On top of that, there's abeautiful family of loons that
have been going by here and youknow something to look at.
So keep that in mind.
The view, the area, what you'regoing to look at, that's all
important.
Whether it's a small offshorelunch or a small cold lunch or a

(19:10):
big corporate gathering or anefficient lunch, it's something
that you have to think of.
Safety, safety, safety is a bigone.
I, I, I just can't say enoughof the these amazing places we

(19:36):
have and and the beautifulnature that we live in and get
to.
We you know it's it's amazingthat we get to even utilize
these things daily and we needto take care of them.
And the biggest safety concernwith any outdoor event coming up
here is forest fires.

(19:56):
Um, I know around the gta a lotof our listeners down there.
You know it's a little.
It gets dry down there, um,pretty quick you get a little
bit of humidity.
Um, it gets really dry up herein the north really fast.
Um, our air doesn't have asmuch moisture in it as it does

(20:17):
to the south and we find thathere it's.
You know, come, come fourthweek of july, third week of j.
You know we're already intofirefighting season.
You know, ricky, or Rick, thereover in Dryden, one of my old
guides and a guest of the show,an actual winner of the show.
He is a M&R Forest firefighter.

(20:41):
He's a manager, a dispatchmanager, a dispatch manager,
operations manager, and thosetop time of the year from him is
crazy and he told me thatmajority of the time it's just
from carelessness, just fromthat.
You know, like I'm saying that,that you know you go and you
have that intimate moment withyour, with your child, you know,

(21:02):
for their, or you have a greatshore lunch with your guests and
everything's going great, butyou forget to put the last dose
of water on the fire.
You know, and that's a majorthing, you got to make sure that
for one, that your fire area issafe, make sure it's away from

(21:24):
everybody, make sure that thewind, you know, that's another,
obviously, when it comes topicking your spot, you got to
have a non-windblown point orisland or piece of shoreline
because you don't want the windblowing in there at 40
kilometers an hour when you'retrying to warm up oil and with a
, a fire for one, for two, yourfire is then out of control,

(21:49):
right, and we don't want wedon't ever want a guest or a
person or a family of thediaries of a lodge owner show to
to to have an incident becausetheir fire was out of control.
And that's huge, right, wind isa bigger one.
Fireplacement is huge.
The kinds of wood you burn isbig.

(22:11):
You know, you really got towatch that.
Right, we primarily just burnbirch, but you start getting
into hardwoods that burn hotterand softwoods that don't.
You know, I've been at shortlunches before.
Guys have been cooking andthey're firing wood in there and
and they can't figure out.
You know, flames is real, flameis real orange and it's real

(22:33):
big, but they can't figure outwhy they can't get any heat to
their pan.
Well, besides the wind, youknow.
Two is if you're not burning theright wood, it's not going to
be consistent.
Right, if you're drying, wet,you know if you have half a log,
half a stack of dry wood andhalf a stack wet wood and you

(22:57):
want to throw it in theretogether.
It's going to be inconsistent.
You're going to have hot spotsand cold spots in your fire,
right?
All that matters when it comesto cooking.
And then it kind of gets.
Then it gets to the point ofirritation if you can't keep
consistent, right.
So you want to be sure, whenyou're setting up for your, for
your short lunch or your outdoorgathering like I said, even if
it's at your, your cottage atthe lake and you have a uh uh

(23:22):
steak pit outside that you dofires on for your fish or your
meals you try to want to stayconsistent with your wood, stay
consistent with the kind, stayconsistent with the nature of it
being wet, dry, how it's cut,is it full logs?
Is it quartered logs?

(23:43):
That stuff matters.
So just keep that in mind.
That's a little tip that mightget you guys through when you're
having a struggle with a fire,because it's happened to all of
us.
I've had to learn Many of times.
I can think of one story.
I was up on Swan Lake.
It was called northwesternOntario.

(24:05):
I had a couple guys fromTennessee in my boat and we
actually didn't have my boatthat day.
We actually took a buddy ofmine's tiller boat and it was a
smaller lake and we back-lakedinto it and I had my little

(24:25):
shore lunch bag.
After I'll tell you what was inmy shore lunch bag or what all
goes into one, but I had mylittle shore lunch kit and bag
and everything.
We had a couple walleyes and acrappie or two and we'd pull up
to the shore.
You know I had a great littlespot picked, caught, my boat.
There was enough room.

(24:46):
Make sure there's enough roomfor everybody.
That's the other one.
You don't want to be cookingright on top of everybody, on
your guests or your friends oryour you know.
You want to have an area theycan sit down or be away from you
.
So anyways, we're all cookingand they were actually sitting
on over to the right.

(25:11):
I always bring some fold-outchairs in my boat so my guests
have a comfortable experience,or my family.
You know that's a good littletip too.
Three or four of those littleice fishing or deck chairs or
camping chairs that fold up andstow away your boat.
They can save your butt lots oftimes on a long day.
Keep them in there, but anyways, yeah, so we pull up and or
sorry, we get it all set out andand the guys are having a beer
on the shore and I'm starting toget the oil going, the taters,

(25:31):
and for the life of me I can'tget my potatoes to cook past
like three quarters done andit's not.
And I know the problem, it'snot hot enough, but I didn't
take the time to.
I took the problem it's not hotenough, but I didn't take the
time to.
I took the time to find a goodspot.
I thought for the look and forthe statue, but I didn't think

(25:51):
about the cooking and I ended upburnt.
I had to use twigs, I had touse birch twigs and by the 50s,
you know, and 100s to keep thisthing going, hot enough, because
I couldn't find any wood.
All the wood around there wasrotten, for within, like man, it
had to be 100 yards.

(26:12):
Me in a circle, you know.
Everything was rotten and I'mguessing it was an old swamp
that had dried out, but uh, andnot rotten that you could burn.
It was like that brittle, youknow, like bugs had gone in it.
When you picked it up it wasdust.
So so I ended up burning birchtwigs and I got through the
shore lunch, but it took a lotlonger.
I learned a valuable lesson andit taught me, you know, to start

(26:35):
looking into what do I need forthe woods, what do I need for
the fuel for my fire?
Am I going to be able to makeit consistent and am I going to
be able to make sure that it'ssafe and again put out your fire
?
If you think your fire's out,dump three more pails on it.

(26:57):
You never, never, never can,you can't put it out enough.
It's something that you have todo and you have to be over
excessive about it.
But yeah, that was just alittle story of an incident I
had.
You know that went wrong.
You know, we, we were, Irecovered and made lunch.
You know, I don't even know ifthe guests knew.

(27:18):
Well, they knew it definitelytook an extra 45 minutes and it
should have.
You know, and and they saw mecooking with twigs, so I'm
guessing they figured it out.
But don't let that happen toyou and make sure you got the
proper wood around.
I know one of my old guides,maurice Woodland, and no, no BS,
that's his name, morrisWoodland.
Like the most, the most youknow barren land human name you

(27:43):
could ever have.
You know he was like born on agunny sack in Newfoundland
Island there.
But anyways, old Morris, he hada little 120, still saw.
The thing couldn't have beenany bigger than a 10-inch
hummingbird fish string, maybe12-inch, you know a graph and he
would shove it up under thefront of his boat.

(28:03):
One little thing of chain oil,a tiny little thing of fuel and
uh, yeah, he would be able tozip off any shorelines anywhere
because you have that little sawand you can rip it off that or
keep a little hatchet.
You know a little, uh, 13 inchhatchet with a three and a
halfinch head on it.
It's just perfect to put inyour boat and keep tucked away.

(28:27):
So yeah, as we, you know, thatwas just a little story.
You know, we've kind of wentover some the basics of some
short on cheer, you know, and solet's talk about I guess you
know the safety part we've goneover.

(28:48):
Let's talk about what you'regoing to do out there.
You know what are you, we goteverybody.
We got a great spot picked.
Excuse me, folks, I got a bitof a cold.
We got a great spot picked.
We have lots of wood, we foundwe have a little fire made.

(29:14):
You know everybody's sitting ona chair.
You know 25 yards away from us,you know having a having a pop,
looking at the water andenjoying.
Oh look, there's a couple ofloons that just swam by and
everything's going great.
So what do you do?
You know some, some and this isno joke, I'm some of our

(29:36):
listeners have probably neverdone a.
They've done lots of picnicsand outdoor gatherings, but
they've probably never done ashore lunch.
And I'm talking so.
A shore lunch is in Canada.
It kind of stands behind themotto of fish, potatoes, beans
and a vegetable.

(29:58):
That's the.
You know, that's the baseline,usually right.
So, um, some people don't likefish, so they would throw in
chicken and you'd have chickenstrips, um, or some kind of of,
of, of, of vegan, uh, or, orveggie option, um, or veggie
option.

(30:18):
I've seen them all done in thepast.
Excuse me, so what?
The Shore Lunch consists ofthose things.
I mean, it really can bewhatever you want, but that's
the basic Canadian Shore Lunch,stereotypical when it comes to

(30:41):
what's in, what you're going toeat there, like the breadings.
You know, batters there is somany different kinds.
I know Jay Siemens, a friend ofthe show.
You know he has a brand calledCatch and Cook.
If anybody hasn't tried it,please go onto the catch and
cook website.
Uh, I think, sale actually.

(31:03):
Uh, the store sale sells it aswell.
Um, many stores up here sell,we sell it and uh, it's been
fantastic.
He, he, um, he's got agluten-free option.
He's got a hot and spicy.
He's got a crunchy.
He's got an original.
He's got a lemon-free option.
He's got a hot and spicy.
He's got a crunchy.
He's got an original.
He's got a lemon pepper.
Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic.
I can't say enough.

(31:28):
But yeah, so myself, personally,I like a light beer batter, I
don't like a heavy beer batter.
You know I make one of the, asfar as I'm concerned, I make one
of the best beer batters around.
You know, cowboy Johnny, he wasanother one that made a good
one but I don't use a thickbatter.
A lot of my guests they don'tlike, or a lot of people I've
had, when they bite into thefish, they want to taste the

(31:50):
fish.
They don't want to taste fourinches of batter and then half
an inch of fish.
They want to taste two inchesof thick fish with a quarter
inch of batter all the wayaround it.
So I've gotten my recipe downto doing that.
You know I've had a little bitof dill.
You know, um, some garlic saltor garlic powder, whatever I
have that day.
Um, you know, maybe a littlebit of a uh, a lime zest.

(32:16):
Like I shave a lime or sorry, alemon on the outside and kind
of just give it a tiny bit oflemon on the top and uh, yeah,
that's I.
I just I I mix my batter up, Ijust throw up a warm beer and I
never run a cold beer, I alwaysrun a warm beer.
Um, just because you're gonnaend up putting into warm oil
anyway.

(32:36):
So you want to try and have itroom temperature if you can, to
start off your base cooking andit helps your product, like your
catch and cook.
It binds better to your meatsor your protein when it's at
room temperature and that wastaught to me by Chef Machete.

(32:56):
If anyone wants to know, soyeah, you know, there's, there's
, that's my favorite, butthere's, you know there's.
There's crumbs, you know.
So you can use corn flakes.
You can buy a thing of cornflakes from the store and smash
them up, shred them up, and youknow you can use that as your.

(33:20):
That's one of my favorites aswell.
Just some cornflake cum, justbasic, you know.
So what you do there is you geta little bit of milk or
carnation milk and an egg andyou know, mix it together.
You know you have to have arecipe for it.
But you know, I usually mix ahalf a can of milk, one egg, mix
it up and then I dip, I wash,it's called washing.

(33:42):
When you dip your fish, it'scalled washing.
So I wash my filet in the milkand egg onto the pan with the
catch and cook crunchy.
Let's say, one side on one, Ipress it down, put it on the
other, give it a press down, youknow.

(34:02):
And then I usually sit it in mypan.
I know some guys.
I know my buddy Kyle.
He likes to, he loves to doubledip his.
He loves, he likes to crunch,you know.
Or he likes to batter, you know, he's very proud of his batter,
right so, and it's one of thebest out there.
So when you get one, you like,you know, do a double dip, you
know.
I think Jay does that on someof his YouTube shows too.
He'll do a dip and then he'lldouble, you know, back into the

(34:27):
milk and then back into thebreading.
So so far we've seen you gotbeer batter, you got a breading
or a coating.
You know there's lots of rubs,like a barbecue smoke rub or a
barbecue fish rub.
You can put rubs on your fishfor sure, just cooking it with

(34:50):
oil or butter sorry, butter andsalt, a little bit of lemon
juice.
You know Sometimes that in apan with just a plain filet,
that's the healthiest way tohave it, you know.
That is just you and your fishright there.
Or your protein Blackened.
Blackened is a super popular.

(35:12):
Blackened is pretty tough, Iknow I'm not a perfectionist at
it, you know.
I know I've seen a couple guidesthat I know that are deadly at
it.
I'm not a perfectionist at it,you know.
I know I've seen a couple ofguides that I know that are
deadly at it.
I'm not one of them.
I can cook, you know I can doit, but I'm not good at it and
that basically consists of youthrow a shitload of butter in
your pan and you slap the filetto it which has some seasoning

(35:37):
on it Usually it's like a Ccajun or a barbecue seasoning or
a rub and basically you justsear it to the pan till it's
blackened and then flip it anddo the other side.
Um, like I say, I'm not thebest on that one.
You might want to look up somerecipes on that, but um, what

(35:58):
I'm getting at here, guys, is.
There's several, several waysLike I'm not even close to the
amount of ways that you can cookyour fish or your meat of any
kind at your shore lunch andprepare it.
I think that it's a super funthing to do.

(36:19):
I know when I was learning mybeer batter, I did it when I was
with Lake of the Woods FishingAdventures and it took me oh
jeepers.
It took me like I don't evenwant to know how long months and
months and months of screwingaround to try and get what I
thought was the perfect coatingand mixture.
And I feel I got it, theperfect coating and mixture, and
I feel I got it for myself.

(36:41):
So don't be afraid to do that.
You know trial and error isokay.
You know sometimes you spit apiece of fish out if it doesn't
taste good, but you'll figure itout, yeah.
So try and have a.
The other thing is too for yourguests is try and have an idea
of what you know.
If you're cooking for yourselfand your family and you know
what they want, that's one thing.

(37:01):
But if you, if you're a lodgeowner or you're getting into the
lodge industry and you and youhave clients coming up, you know
, just ask them.
You know we usually, atbreakfast or the night before,
you know, we always ask them you.
You know, what kind of fishwould you guys like today, you
know, with your shoreline.
So then that you know my guide,could you know, john was my, my

(37:23):
guard manager.
Johnny would go down and youknow he would let the boys know.
Okay, when you're packing yourshorelines kit today, this group
wants this group, this groupwants this and this group wants
this.
You know, giving them thatoption is huge.
Versatility is getting this keyand big right.
So there's people coming fromall over the world to come to
these fine establishments thatwe're running.
We want to be able to offerthem a lot of variety and a

(37:47):
fantastic meal at Shore Lunch.
But yeah, that was kind of makesure that you always know what
they want.
So now we're cooking theirshore lunch.
No, we got.
We got the batter.
So let's say, on thisparticular day we picked a beer

(38:07):
batter to do.
And so now I'm at the point Igot my fire going.
You know it's safely away fromeverybody, the wind is going in
the right direction, it's nottoo big, it's not out of control
.
Got wind is going in the rightdirection, it's not too big,
it's not out of control.
Got my fire going, so I'll putmy pan on.
So pans are really important.
You don't want a thin pan, youdon't want an overly thick pan.

(38:33):
You want to have a pan to meetthe size and demand of what
you're cooking and where you'redoing it.
So meaning the size of yourfire For one.

(38:55):
You don't want a tiny and yougot a 24 inch pan.
You know is basically.
You know you want to fit thesize of your meal to your pan.
So get a normal size skillet,you know if it's just a couple
of years, and then stage up fromthere.
You know, um, gloves, extremeheat gloves are key.

(39:19):
I always have them in my boatalways.
I always have at least one andthen a regular glove.
But it's good to have twoextreme heat gloves like a
welding glove.
You know, you buy it, you putthem in a bag, in a gunny sack
and you throw them up under yourboat and you forget about them.
But when you need need them.
They're huge.
You know when your fire's prettyhot, the pan's warm and you

(39:43):
know you want to dump your oil alittle quicker because you want
to get out there and fish orthere's an incident that's
happened and you got to getgoing.
You know you still have tofollow through all those steps,
stages for safety and make sureeverything's out.
But that's one that you caneliminate by going.
I don't have to burn myself onthis pan.
I don't have to pick it up in ab2i.
I don't have to pick it up andmove fast with it to drop it.

(40:03):
I can pick it up and walkcautiously and calmly to the
point where I need to eitherdrain my oil in a glass jar or I
dump it down a crevice or I,whatever you end up doing but to
to me fire, fire.
High heat gloves are important.

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another trick for you.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
So again, my uh k Kyle McMahon, one of the best
guys I've ever met in my lifeand to this day he is kind of a
standalone when it comes to hisservice and quality of product
he puts out there.
So he taught me a trick aboutchanging my metal handles and or

(42:42):
your aluminum handles on yourpans to a wood handle.
So what we would do is or whathe would do, and what he taught
me was he would take a shovelhandle, so your regular four
foot shovel handle, four and ahalf foot, you know.

(43:02):
He'd have a couple older ones.
He'd saw them down to, you know, two and a half, three foot
lengths, whatever he thought wascomfortable.
Some had longer handles, somehad shorter, um, and he would.
What he would do is he wouldcut them and then he would angle
.
Cut them to fit the angle ofthe metal piece coming off of

(43:23):
the frying pan.
Then he would drill pilot holesthrough the wood and through
that metal hinge and then boltthem together with stainless
bolts.
So why did he do this?
In theory, if you think aboutit right now, his pan, you know,

(43:43):
yeah, the handle might catch onfire if you put a torch to it
and lit it on fire for fiveminutes straight, but his fire
is never going to do that,because by that time it's way
out of control.
So now you have a handle that'salways cool.
You know, you can still wearyour heat gloves as a precaution
, uh, for if you spill oil or ifyou whatever.

(44:05):
But now you have a handle thatyou can pick up at any point and
it's always going to be cool.
Uh, longer shaft too, makes abig difference.
When you can stand comfortably,without kneeling and without
getting down, you know, likeyou're in a full squat.
That's not comfortable.
That's not how you should cook.
You can go off balance fast.
You can fall on fire fast.
That's important.

(44:26):
So try and stay up.
Have a nice long handle so youcan control your short lunch
when you're cooking.
That's a good tip.
Change out your handles forwood handles.
It'll save you.
Another one that Kyle taught meright away that same day is
burlap sacks.
Go to the dollar store and aburlap sack you can buy three

(44:47):
for a buck fifty.
Those, you know, those six footlong ones.
Five foot long ones are threefeet wide.
But those things, the greasedoesn't go through them, the oil
doesn't, and I don't know whatit is, but you put that frying
pan.
When you pull that frying panoff, you dump your grease and
you can wipe it out all you want.
It's black as the queen ofspades.

(45:09):
And so you take that pan, afteryou clean it up, and you put it
in one of these sacks and I'mtelling you right now, it won't
leak through the black.
It's amazing.
You just put it in this little,in this sack, twist it up and
throw it back in your boat.
You know it's awesome.

(45:30):
Good, those are two good littletips for you guys.
So now that we got, we got ourpan on the fire, we got some oil
in it.
You know we always use canolaoil to cook our fish, so in goes
the canola oil and you know wekind of let it warm up and I

(45:51):
would say a couple, three, fourminutes into the warm up, what I
do is take a potato and justput one potato in there.
You know what I'm talking abouta full potato, a chunk that
you've cut up.
When you're cutting yourpotatoes, folks, that's another
one, you guys.
So you have your tray ofpotatoes there.
A good tip don't have yourpotatoes over three-eighths of
an inch.
I know that sounds crazy to puta tape measure there and go.

(46:14):
Are they three eighths?
But if you look at the width ofyour knife, usually that you're
cutting with and go double thewidth of your knife, that's
usually around three-eighths.
That was just a little trickthat Tinker taught me back in
the day and the reason for thatis you don't want your chips too
thick, whether they're chunkedor chipped or flat or dollared.
However you're cutting yourpotatoes, you don't want them

(46:34):
thick because for one it takeslonger to cook and your guests
are sitting there waiting fortwo.
They don't cook properly allthe way through.
You don't have that nice goldencrisp on the outside but the
nice soft on the inside andthat's how you want them.
So three-eighths of an inch.
You know, usually just sliceoff the end of the potato, like

(46:55):
a dollar or half your potato,and then, you know, quarter.
A bit simple, but yeah, so youthrow a couple, throw one potato
into the oil.
You know you'll see it kind ofbubble in and bubble in and once
, once that potato rises, um,you know, you're good, you know
it'll.
It'll kind of elevate off thebottom like a pierogi when it's

(47:17):
boiling.
You know, it'll just elevatejust a little bit, you know, and
the and the oil at that pointshould be really clean.
The bubbles in the oil, theoxidization will be really clean
, and that's how you know you'reready.
So take your potatoes at thatpoint and what I do is obviously
we have them in oil at thelodge, we cut them at the lodge,

(47:38):
put them in like an old glassjar not an old one, but a glass
jar and then we fill the waterslices with, or potato slices
with water, and the reason wedid that is to keep them fresh.
They won't go black, they won'tgo bad.
So when you're in your boat,you keep them in your cooler.

(47:58):
Cooler, right, um, you get outa short lunch, take your lid off
and you dump the water out.
Strain the water all out of thepotatoes.
You do not want to throw thosepotatoes in there with water in
there.
Please do not ever put water inyour hot oil pan, you know, um,
it's just a recipe for disasterand you're looking for an
emergency room run.

(48:20):
So so, yeah, we um, we drain out, and what I would do to put my
fries in the fire is I alwayshad a mesh scooper, you know,
like the french fry mesh scooper.
Everyone's got one, everyone'sseen them.
Um, I used to take my frenchfry scooper and I would put it
right above the oil and I wouldtake my, let's say, my little

(48:43):
jar and I would pour the friesinto the strainer.
So then they were just abovethe oil, sitting on my strainer,
and then I would just drop themin.
I wasn't flipping them in, Iwasn't just opening up a bag and

(49:05):
dropping them.
I wasn't having my hands nearit so it would splash on me.
It was very simple pour theminto the, pour them into the um
strainer it was just elevated ofthe oil and put them in safely.
So now you're cooking away,you're cooking your potatoes and

(49:25):
your taters are going to take15 minutes, 18 minutes, 20
minutes.
So you get about.
I always found when you getabout three quarters done your
potatoes, maybe 90% done, even alittle further, that's a
judgment call.
But throw in your onions, youknow, always have an onion to go

(49:46):
with it.
Onions make a huge difference.
In short, lunch potatoes,especially with fish, you know,
a little bit of onion, sometimessome peppers, red and green
peppers, yellow peppers.
You know, in a fall day itreally spruces up your
presentation right to a to a toa client.
You know seasoning salts.

(50:08):
So we always use Lowry's.
That was always my go-to.
But there's a million differentseasoning salts that you can
use.
Peppers, you know whatever youwant whatever you got, you know
sea salt, or you know Stevieuses sea salt, um, but yeah, so,
whatever you, uh, whatever youwant to fasten your fish with
your fries sorry is, is iswonderful Just make sure you

(50:30):
have it there and ready, um, butyeah, so your onions, throw
them in the fire or in the pan,you know, just a couple of
minutes before, so they kind ofbake in with your, with your
fries, you know.
And then, uh, I start scooping.
When everything's nice andcrispy, brown, your judgment
call again how far you want themdone.
You'll be able to tell.
If they're, uh, if they'reextra crispy, you're going to
tell.

(50:50):
So you know, take those, putthem in a, in a nice bowl with
some paper towel and and, uh,let the oil drip off of them and
just fold them up and keep themwarm, you know, um.
So now we're ready for fish.
So a couple things.

(51:11):
If you're gonna cook um again.
If you're gonna cook black andyou don't need oil, so you're
gonna, you're gonna let your oilcool and then you're gonna dump
it.
If you're going to cook blackand you don't need oil, so
you're going to let your oilcool and then you're going to
dump it.
However you're going totransport it or where you're
going to dump it Fish with acoating you're going to drop a

(51:32):
little bit of temperature fromyour you know you're going to be
like 355, 360.
You know, that's what my buddy,josh, always taught me and I
think he was one of the best atcooking fish that I've ever met
all around and and yeah, that'sthe temperature he would run.
Um, obviously you can't checkyour tech, you're not going to
check your temperatureconsistently with a thermometer
out there.
But you just get to know it overtime.

(51:53):
You know roughly where you'resitting.
If you need to add a little bitof flame, you'll boost her up a
bit, you know.
If you need to take it back,you just set the pan over to the
side for a bit, let it cool fora bit, right?
So most cases you can just takeyour fish and put it in after
your fries.
If it's, if it's a crumb, ifit's beer batter, this is a big
tip.

(52:14):
Beer battered fish need to cookin cooler oil.
Um, I cook my fish uh like 15degrees cooler than in uh for
beer batter.
And johnny cowboy, johnnytaught me that it's.
It's just, you know you, youdon't want to cook the outside
batter too fast because theinside won't cook and it'll

(52:35):
actually cook the inside of thebatter to the point where it
won't heat through.
So make sure you have a.
Uh, you don't want it cool, butyou want a consistent cook with
a beer batter.
The other, you know the.
You can just let it buck.
You know you got that 350, 360.
You can throw in 20 pieces offish if they're in a coating,
right, you know, they're notgoing to stick together, they

(52:55):
separate.
Beer batter kind of has asticky feeling to it.
It'll stick to other pieces.
It'll stick to the bottom.
The hotter it is, the worse itsticks to.
So just keep that in mind.
You want to have a littlecooler water, of that Cooler
water, a little cooler oil.
When you're doing your beerbatter fish strokes.
So after the fish is done, youknow you cook your fish for a

(53:18):
couple of minutes and, uh,that's again just a choice thing
.
It could be, you know, I likemy fish cook.
I do three, four minutes,that's it.
Well, some people do fiveminutes aside and they overcook
it to them and that's just howthey like it.
But, um, that's a a for youthing to figure out, you know.

(53:40):
So now we got our always take,always take paper plates, you
know, because you can burn themright.
I would.
I remember the first lodge Iworked at t2.
It was the stupidest thing Iever saw in my life.
We would, we would take and I'mtalking like man probably 30
dishes between like thesilverwares and the this and the
that and the lids.
And then I'm like this is crazythat when I get back at the end

(54:01):
of the day I spend 45 minuteswashing dishes, or at lunch
right, instead of just burningmy stuff.
So nowadays, like everything youget, so, like your forks and
spoons and knives can be wood.
When you're done, throw them inthe fire.
The other thing is is it stopsanimals from coming around,
right?
It doesn't.
The you burn that stuff off,nothing's going to come around

(54:24):
your shoreline spot, you're notgoing to come back the next day
and it's going to be tore up bya bear and and and there's going
to be a fox constantly sittingthere watching your 50 seagulls,
you know, shitting all overyour shoreline spot.
Just burn everything andwhatever you can't burn if it's
plastic, if it's notbiodegradable, bring a garbage
bag, take it with you, but paperplates is a key, you know.

(54:48):
So, yeah, you know, serve yourclients.
However, you may have a goodtartar sauce, have good sauces
in general, right, people likeFrank's as a hot sauce and, you
know, have a good tartar sauce,have good sauces in general,
right, people like Frank's as ahot sauce.
And and, uh, you know, peoplelove tartar, tartar, tartar.
Jared Machete, chef Machete man, he made a good, freaking
tartar.
Oh man, I know my old partner,dave Johnson.

(55:10):
I would go to shore lunch withhim and he would take.
It was the most ridiculousthing I would bring.
You know, a mayonnaise jar.
You know of tartar sauce.
Well, that's a lot of tartarsauce for you know five, six
guys, seven guys.
I would have to bring a secondone for Dave because he would
eat like a mayonnaise jar oftartar sauce for himself.
I don't know how he did it, butyeah, you got to have a good

(55:34):
tartar sauce.
That's key Fixings, you know.
Know, we got potatoes.
What else goes with it?
Beans is huge.
Right, like beans is a canadianshore lunch thing.
You know you get a nice.
You know, honey glazed or a ora hickory bean.
You know just the heinz cansand open the can, peel the

(55:55):
little, the what's it called,off the label and just take that
can and set it on the edge ofthe rock by the fire.
You know, a couple inches awayIt'll heat up.
Right, you let that cook alllunch.
It'll warm up.
You turn it once in a while.
You know, use your heat gloveafter and you grab the can and

(56:16):
portion it out.
You know, now you've got alittle bit of beans.
You know, for another side, I'veseen lots.
You know I've seen salads.
You get the odd green thumbthat wants a bit of a salad out
there, or somebody who's, youknow, like Steven right now,
who's on a bit of a health kickand don't want a Caesar salad or

(56:37):
a tossed salad or somethingwhich is great, you make that at
the lodge, you get the shelter.
You make that at your homebefore.
Like I said, if you're doingthe picnic and that's what the
wife, if the wife's a vegetarian, make her that salad, throw it
in your cooler in your boat,right, you don't have to have
the same presentation, mix it up.
But I think honestly, the bestI love the fries, the best as a
textbook Canadian short, but thebest tasting short lunch I ever

(57:02):
had.
And it wasn't mine, I put it on,lakewood fishing convention did
, but I didn't cook it.
I cooked the fish but it was arice pilaf and the guy's name
was Scotty.
I can't remember for the lifeof me Scotty's last name, but he
worked for Brian Gustafson atSports Headquarters for a while

(57:22):
and he's an American, lives inCanada here now and he guides
quite a bit.
Great fisherman, beautifulhuman, but Scott.
He came out and did somecontract work for me and it was
the first year I had Lake of theWoods Fishing Adventures going.
So I was really like whateverwe can do to be next level than

(57:45):
anybody else.
I want to be.
I want to be different thaneverybody else.
I don't like being anythinglike anybody.
I like being different.
I like my presentations to bedifferent.
I like to learn and be astandard.
Scotty shows up to Shore Lunchlunch and he really impressed me
.
He, um, he made a rice pilaf.
So he took wild rice, abeautiful pan of wild rice.

(58:09):
We cooked it up a little bit, alittle bit of canola oil, so it
didn't stick to the pan.
And and then, you know, headded peppers, a little bit of
spice, mushrooms and, uh, youknow, those little little mini
corns.
Um, it was just amazing.
And, uh, he got it all ready.

(58:30):
A little bit seasoning that hehad, and and, uh, yeah, so we
had fish, a beautiful fish, witha rice pilaf, a cucumber salad
and some beans.
You know, you think about thatand it was no difference.
It was just a little bit ofadaptation and stepping out of
your comfort zone.
But sometimes stepping out ofyour comfort zone makes

(58:51):
something, and I'll tell youthat rice pilaf made it for me.
I started doing it when I sawScotty do that I stole it from
him straight up, like I, not theway he did it.
I did it a little different butI used it at my lodge on
several, several occasions.
So thank you, scotty, for that.
I appreciate that.
But yeah, that's just a littlemore insight on.

(59:12):
You know, you don't have to doeverything the same.
You can switch it up a bit thesame.
You can switch it up a bit.
Um, I hope everyone got a goodwalk through of that short lunch
.
You know that's a basic shortlunch day to day.
Um, you know, again, thegatherings is what we're here to
speak about.
A short lunch is part of thosegatherings.
You can do this for for dinners, uh, breakfast man, there's

(59:36):
nothing better in the worldworld than eating crappie and
eggs or walleye and eggs.
I love that, like Krista laughsat me, but I'll catch a couple
walleyes and I'll leave them inthe fridge overnight and I'll
cook them at 6.30 in the morning, you know, with some eggs and a
little bit of Frank's hot sauce.
You can't beat that.
Can't beat it, folks, you can'tbeat it.

(01:00:00):
Let's tell some stories, someshore lunch stories.
I've had some interesting shorelunches.
Here's one story I'll tell you.
This wasn't a good one, but itwas, uh, probably the most
memorable one I've had.

(01:00:21):
Um, one of our guides actuallyuh, daryl Fekete was his name,
uh, one of the best guides I'veever met.
Great, great human with theguests.
He really knew that uh, thecamp life in and out.
You know he'd be doing it, forhe's got to be over 20 years now
, but when I knew him he wasabout 20, 18 something.

(01:00:42):
Anyway, daryl had.
Daryl had been walking, he hadpicked up the short on Japan
after it had cooled a bit, andwas walking to a bush area to
get rid of the oil and,unfortunately, one of the young

(01:01:04):
guides I won't say his name theday before had dumped his oil
and so, instead of, he had wentto the same area to dump his oil
, but instead of going into thebush line or the crevasse that
he should have, he just dumpedthe oil on the rock, which was
lazy and stupid, and Not onlyfor the fact that, for one, it's

(01:01:29):
by the water.
For two, it's killingecosystems that you don't know
are there.
For three, it's a hazard foreverybody else now that's around
there, because as soon as thatoil touches there and it gets
slick, you're done.
And sure enough, daryl didn'tknow.
And Daryl walked down there andhe had a 36-inch pan full of

(01:01:50):
oil and, man, he slipped andI'll never forget the look on my
face and I saw the oil, slow inmotion, come up and it tipped
out the back of his pan and downthe handle and it was running.
It ran down his shirt, insidehis shirt and inside his heat
glove and I remember him pullingit off fast, immediately, and I

(01:02:15):
remember the skin coming offwith it, layers of it.
I was sick and if you want tosee a tough one of you know you
spend a lot of time in the bushlike this guys like myself, you
know seasoned men and you wantto, you want to make your guts
turn.
You hear a man that that's thatage screaming for, for, for,

(01:02:40):
bloody murder because he is inso much pain and, uh, it was a
horrible thing anyway.
So we we wrapped his armbecause you didn't want to touch
it, but you had to keep it outof the elements and keep it
without getting infected.
So we just wrapped it in asmall towel and we just one guy
held Daryl close to him and theother guy kind of held him from

(01:03:01):
walking because he was going topass out and we got him to the
boat, put him on the deck of thebow of the boat and ripped him
into town.
You know, remember, town ain'tlike driving from, you know,
yonge and Front Street to thehospital there.
You know what I mean.
You're talking an hour and ahalf to get the guy by the time

(01:03:25):
you boat get in a car.
Now you're there or you have tofly on a helicopter or a plane
into the hospital.
He was in pretty bad shape.
He ended up making it through.
He's got use of his arm and hishands and got some bad scars
and a wild story.
But that incident was completelypreventable by just stopping
the laziness and just thinkingright Like, take that next step

(01:03:45):
and be sure that you do itproperly.
You know that was a good one.
I know.
Here's another one.
Here's a me story.
Here's a.
Here's a a mess up story that Ihad in my in my young guiding
days.
It was my first year and, uh,little Johnny who, little Johnny
everyone knows, has been onthis show before.

(01:04:07):
He was one of my guides atNordic Point.
I worked together with him atmainer lake and at t2.
You know we've been friends forfor a decade now.
I love johnny and uh.
But yeah, so I was on, I wasworking at t2 island lodge and
when I was up on the eagle'snest end of the lake they called

(01:04:27):
it and I was at my shoreline onthe mainland and Johnny was
over on a little island, I think, having shore launch, you know,
a couple hundred yards away wecould just see each other's
fires kind of thing, and um, Ihad, I'd fired up my fire, got
everything going, just wentthrough the whole spiel that we
did, and all of a sudden thewind roared up out of nowhere

(01:04:51):
and I mean like and I'm talkinglike it went from like 5k gusts
to like 55, 60k kilometer windgusts in like 10 minutes.
So and I was halfway through mycook and I was like man, this
is not good.
So I'm trying to like deflectthe wind and I kind of made a
semi little thing to put thereto block the wind and none of it

(01:05:15):
was working and sure enough, acouple minutes later the wind
got so extensive it actuallypushed the log on my fire and my
pan tipped and my, the firewent into my pan.
So here I am.
I'm like you know, this is myfirst year guiding and Johnny
I'd actually been trainingJohnny a bit on the lake, but
Johnny had guided before, so hesaw it.

(01:05:35):
He came rushing over and, uh,gave me a hand.
We put it out safely.
Um, nothing happened, um,because everybody was away in
the proper areas they shouldhave been.
We were on a flat spot.
It was good, you know.
Then we had a couple I was kindof going through a couple
f-bombs and Johnny was having abit of a laugh and and um, but

(01:05:56):
the main thing was we were okay,but that happened so fast and
it wasn't a fault.
You know, we was doingeverything we could to prevent
it from happening and what Ishould have done is just shut
the shore lunch down.
I should have just taken thepan off the fire and put it on
the rocks and said folks,unfortunately we're going to
have to wait a bit or we'regoing to have to.
You know, this is not safe.
And I didn't whine and I didn'tdo that.

(01:06:18):
I was more worried about whatthe experience is like.
And they got their experiencebecause they got a good story.
But anyways, that one that wasa screw up of mine and I learned
a lot from that one.
That was really the story thattaught me on my fish guiding
days not just shore lunches onmy guiding days that I need to
dictate what happens out here,not just the guest experience.
The guest experience is numberone, but the guest experience

(01:06:41):
and safety is number one ofnumber one, and that's where I
learned that things can wait.
And remember that, guys, youknow, being a being a friend, a
father, a lodge owner, um, or aguide, you make those calls
right, especially at that shorelunch.
You know, like make sure yousee a guy.

(01:07:04):
I see this all the time.
I don't know, and everybodylistening to this has probably
seen this, but I constantly getguests at shore lunch and they
want to peel their shoes andsocks off and they want to dive
in the lake and I'm like it'sgreat, do it, but do it safely.
The worst thing you can do istake your shoes and socks off

(01:07:24):
and step on one of those rocks.
Those rocks that are under thewater you know right where you
pull your boat up are likethey're the most slippery thing
on the planet, of the earth.
I think, like you slip on themand it's like it's like a
slippery slide.
You know when you're jumpingout of your boat or when you're
helping guests out, do not everget them to step on wet rock.

(01:07:45):
Don't ever do that.
It can go really bad reallyfast.
I've seen lots of peoplecomplete their legs, go right
out from underneath them, smacktheir head off the rock or smack
their back off the rock or gosideways.
Splits fall in the water.
Take your time, look at yourfooting and when you're going to
jump in the water, make sureit's deep enough and you're not

(01:08:06):
walking in the water on slipperyrocks.
Look out for your guests.
It's really hard to watch outfor all these things at
Shoreline, you know so, or atyour outdoor gathering.
So you got to be diligent.
Sometimes you even got to.
You know.
Be proactive before and take alook at your surroundings and go
okay, so this is an unsafe area.
This is an unsafe area.
This is potential for a hazard,right?

(01:08:28):
So?
And make sure you let everybodyknow that prior to yeah, good
fist story, good short lunchstories.
Man, I've got a million shortlunch stories.
I got a million.
I've done short lunches.
Before the biggest short lunchI did, willie Ratchery hooked me

(01:08:49):
up with the group and they were, uh, actually really
interesting people.
They, they were the originalcreators of the Coleman stove
and the Coleman out-deer campingline for, like you know, back
in the 40s and 50s, and theysold it to Canadian Tire and now
they own this massive campingoutline outdoor brand.
And, um, the gentleman's nameis Rob and he's a client of mine

(01:09:11):
and rob, um, you know, hebrings 60, 65 people to a show
lunch every year and, uh, I'vedone it a couple times.
I've taken chef machete outthere, I've taken kyle out there
, I've taken my kids out thereto serve.
You know, usually I hire acouple servers from town.
You know, um, we put a littlebit of razzle a little bit.
You know, take some, take somesushi out there and you know,

(01:09:32):
kind of kind of freshen it up abit.
But those are some good onestoo.
I really like those ones we had.
Uh, that's that short lunchactually.
We it's this leads into my storyas I was talking.
So we're on that short lunchand there's this gentleman named
tim and he's a Tim's one ofthese guys that he's.

(01:09:54):
He's, he's kind of like Willie,willie, the woman here.
He's kind of got a.
You know, he's a loud, bigmouth kind of guy, aggressive,
and uh, he decides there's arope swing and he's gonna swing
on this rope and in front of therope I know there's a sandbar
and I also know that it was oneof the record low years for

(01:10:17):
water on Lake of the Woods.
Of the history of fucking Lakeof the Woods.
I know that.
I'm watching them and I'm justbefore I'm.
I'm like Timmy, it's not a goodidea, timmy, the water's too
shallow.
Timmy, don swing on that and helets go of the rope and he
flies out about 10, 12 feethorizontally and he starts going

(01:10:37):
and remind me folks, he's onlysix, seven feet in the air, he's
not 30 feet in the air like acliff jumper.
No, he swings out on the ropeand lets go and he thinks he's
going to hit the water and heputs his ass down and wham, he
butt crackers it right into thesand.
He was only up to his hips inwater, like there was like eight

(01:10:58):
inches of water.
And the short, he was okay, hewas laughing.
The short lunch spot justerupted in laughter.
It was one of the most comedicthings I've ever seen in my life
.
And, yeah, something that Iprobably.
It was one of the most comedicthings I've ever seen in my life
and, yeah, something that Iprobably should have been more
diligent on watching him becausehe could have got hurt, but at

(01:11:19):
the time it was funny and wemade way with it.
Well, folks, I hope you you knowthis was an episode I've been
wanting to do for a while.
You know, get out there andgather outside with your
families.
We're coming into summer here.
Get the barbecue going.
You know, take the portablebarbecue and if there's nothing

(01:11:40):
to do, just take the portablebarbecue and go for a boat ride
with your kids.
Teach them how to make a fire,Teach them how to cook short
lunch.
You know, take a peanut butterand jam sandwich.
You know, you don't have tohave a hot lunch all the time
for your short lunch.
You can have a cold short lunch.
Take a cheese and meat tray andsome fruit and veggies.

(01:12:02):
But do it safe, be diligent andhave fun.
Those are the experiencespeople are going to remember the
rest of their life.
So make sure you get out thereand do it.

(01:12:23):
Coming into the end of theepisode here, I want to talk one
more quick thing about.
You know, this week we'recoming up to is our voting week.
Please, everybody, get outthere and vote.
Whether you vote, no matterwhich way you vote, that's your
right.
Whether you vote, no matterwhich way you vote, that's your
right.
But especially this time in ourcountry and this time in the
world, we need to speak ourvoice and if you've never voted
before, please go out and dothat.
It doesn't take anything, youknow it's all you have to do is

(01:12:48):
show a piece of ID and say whatyou believe in.
It's in a private area, butplease get out there and use
your right and your choice tovote and try and make some
positive change here goingforward in this country, and you
know what that's bringing us.
To the end of our episode heregetting close.

(01:13:09):
We want to say thank you to allof our episode here getting
close.
We want to say thank you to,you know, all of our amazing
sponsors.
Lakeside Marine Andrew up therehas just gotten dialed in here
for spring.
He's got loads and loads ofbrand new boats and brand new
motors coming in.
Please go on there and checkthem out.
He's got a ton of FX guard gearyou can buy online.
He actually gets custom stuffdone, you know.

(01:13:32):
Get up there and see him, getonline and take a look at
Lakeside Marine out at Red Lakelakesidemarinecom.
Call Andrew Johnson todayplease for your next deal.
Who else do we got to thank here?
We got to thank Garmin.
Garmin is amazing.
Garmin does amazing things forthe Fishing Canada show and the

(01:13:53):
Outdoor Journal Radio Networkpodcast network, and you know,
get on Angie Peet's websitethere and fishingcanadacom.
Take a look.
There's contests consistentlyon there.
You know.
I know when I had Nordic PointI gave away a trip.
I gave away a $5,000 trip and acouple won it from up in the
area, and these things are real.
I've met a trip.
I gave away a $5,000 trip and acouple won it from up in the

(01:14:13):
area, and these things are real.
I've met a few people now thathave won garments off there.
I just met a gentleman who wonan electric, an outboard motor,
seven and a half horse Merc.
So get on there, get in thosecontests, you know.
Check out the rest of theoutdoor journal radio net
podcast networks, podcaststhey're all amazing.

(01:14:33):
Everybody out there has got astory and folks.
Thus concludes another episodeof Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Stories of the North.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
I'm a good old boy.
Never mean to no harm.
I'll be all you ever saw, beenrailing 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.

(01:15:10):
I might own a lodge, and that'dbe fine.
I'll be making my way the onlyway I know how, working hard and
sharing the North with all ofmy pals.
Well, I'm a good old boy.
I bought a lodge and lived mydream, and now I'm here talking

(01:15:37):
about how life can be as good asit seems.

Speaker 5 (01:15:39):
Yeah, 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.

(01:15:59):
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 4 (01:16:05):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.

Speaker 5 (01:16:10):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors from athletes.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
All the other guys would go golfing Me and Garth
and Turk and all the Russianswould go fishing.

Speaker 5 (01:16:22):
To scientists.

Speaker 4 (01:16:23):
But now that we're reforesting and letting things
breathe, it's the perfecttransmission environment for
life.

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.

Speaker 5 (01:16:36):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.

Speaker 6 (01:16:53):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.

(01:17:14):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
After nearly a decade of harvestuse, testimonials and research,

(01:17:37):
my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
life dedicated to improving thelives of others through natural
means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm

(01:18:01):
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people.
That will help you find youroutdoor passion and help you
live a life close to nature andunder the canopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.