Episode 63: The Moose Is Loose Pt. 1

Ever wondered how a unified champ and a nurse balance their lives while finding time for a thrilling weekend getaway? Join us for an unforgettable adventure in Niagara Falls, where we spent an action-packed weekend with our families and none other than Cody "The Champ" Chovancek and his inspiring partner, Danielle. Hear the delightful story of Antonio's daughter, Chloe, who hilariously questioned Danielle's fighting skills based on her attire, sparking laughter and bonding among our group.

Our journey didn’t stop there. We trekked to the iconic Bass Pro Shops in Niagara and crossed paths with a seasoned waterfowl hunter, only to find ourselves somewhat let down by the fishing section but thoroughly impressed with the hunting gear. From there, we headed to the casino, where the blackjack tables tested our luck. Our evening wrapped up with an engaging dinner with Cody, which filled us with anticipation for the upcoming musky and hunting seasons. Moose also shared his fascinating transition from the professional culinary world to reigniting his passion for fishing, narrating a unique blend of culinary skills and fishing adventures that highlighted his entrepreneurial spirit.

The episode takes a deep dive into the essence of outdoor adventures and how they enrich our lives and relationships. Moose's journey from Scarborough to British Columbia, interwoven with spontaneous connections and lifelong friendships, sets the stage for a thrilling narrative. You'll hear about our RV road trip to Lake Nipigon, complete with wildlife encounters and epic fishing tales, and the growth of the Ontario Fishing Club—from a humble gathering to a thriving community. We wrap up with Moose's incredible balancing act in the competitive fishing world, as he juggles organizing and competing in tournaments with grace and perseverance. Tune in for a heartwarming, humorous, and exhilarating episode that celebrates the joys of outdoor escapades and the bonds they forge.

Follow Eating Wild on Instagram! To reach out to the boys, drop us a line at [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

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Speaker 5 (00:53):
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?

Speaker 4 (01:12):
Well, you know there's going to be a lot of
fishing.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be, and
how to catch them, and theywere easy to catch.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
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.

Speaker 6 (01:28):
Me and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go
fishing To scientists.
But now that we're reforestingand letting things breathe.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
It's the perfect transmission environment for
line fishing.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
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 welcome back folks.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Welcome back to another episode of the Eating
Wild podcast.
I'm your host, antonio SmashMaleca, in studio, joining me.
My beautiful co-host, we gotChristopher Showtime.
Jansen Guess, who's back?
Guess, who's back in studio?
Siege man, we just had a crazyweekend together, brother, we're
getting used to being aroundeach other way too much.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, and I'm really liking it and the fact that we
have families with daughtersthat are the same ages Kind of
crazy.
So we did a little NiagaraFalls trip.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
And not only did we do a Niagara Falls trip, folks,
but we had a special guest meetus for dinner.
Oh, the champ, the champ, theunified champ, cody Kovacek took
time.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
He was on the water, yeah, man, and we put together
that he signed the contract, ourcontract Eating while contract.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Official E-dub and it was awesome to meet Danielle.
Yes Is his partner, yes, andboy does she pop.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I can't believe it, man.
She's a petite.
You know young lady?
And then we watched her YouTubevideos of her fighting Holy.
You know young lady?
And then we watched her YouTubevideos of her fighting Holy
smokes.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
She'd take both of us bud.
You know what the crazy thingis.
One, there's a quick story yougot to say about what your
daughter said to her because shedoes not look like a fighter at
all.
Not at all, not at all.
And she came and your daughtersaid to you, or said to her,
something about her skirt.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
So she mentioned her skirt.
Chloe complimented her on herskirt and then later that day on
way home, she's like daddy, shegoes.
You know, you know that onegentleman that was there, he's a
fighter.
I'm like, yeah, he goes.
Does his girlfriend fight too?
And I'm like, yeah, she's a.
She's a nurse by day and afighter by night.
Yeah, yeah, and she goes.
She can't be.

(03:57):
I'm like, why can't she?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Cause she was skirt.
Yeah, and I'm like mydaughter's, like she's so pretty
, yeah I'm like what?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
just because she wears a skirt, she can't fight.
Look at you, tony.
You wear skirts every fridayand you gotta you know what.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
You better take that comment back.
You know what I mean.
Let's be honest, and peoplecan't see us right now so they
don't know what I'm wearing.
But that's another.
That's another topic.
But listen, the champ webrought him in.
It was so great to sit down.
He literally got off the waterfrom a bass tournament.
He did, and he drove as quickas he could back down to niagara
to meet us yes, and thenearlier that day the girls went

(04:30):
shopping.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
What did we do, bud?

Speaker 3 (04:32):
you know what we got to get into it.
But I'm wondering if we shouldget into it with our in-studio
guest.
Uh, but we went to bass proshops niagara first time for me,
obviously it's in your neck ofthe woods and uh, boy was I I
don't want to say disappointedbecause I don't want to talk bad
about bass pro.
I grew up going to bass proshop.

(04:52):
Every time I got a gift card.
It was like christmas for me,but a little bit on the
understock and heavy on the basspro shop gear.
Uh, hunting is hunting, wetalked about it.
Hunting is hunting, that great,great quality hunting stuff.
Their apparel was great.
But fishing wise, I was alittle disappointed, I would say
.
But I mean, what was your takeon it?

(05:13):
Siege, we talked about it.
I mean it's.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
We're not hiding anything here no, we're not, and
and no discredits of bass proshops.
But I think we've been spoiledto him because we go these
mom-and-pa local fishing tackleplaces, you know where it's kind
of like cheers when you go in.
Everyone knows your name.
You know what I mean.
You can't beat that vibe.
You go to these big box storesand it's kind of.
You know, it is what it is it's.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, I would say it was my first time in bass pro
for only a half an hour yeah,does that make sense to you?
and half of that time we we meta gentleman that was 75 years
old who we talked about at thegun shop and he was talking
about waterfowl and this guy,you know, popped 100 million
ducks in his career.
We got kind of all choked uptalking with him because it was

(05:56):
cool to hear his stories.
But other than that Siege, Imean, we walked out of there.
I had nothing in my hand and Ihad $1, hand and I had a
thousand dollars worth of giftcards.
I looked like a lunatic.
I had this big stash of BassPro and I didn't buy anything.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
I'll paint a picture for our listeners.
When Tom was walking into BassPro shop, his one leg was
limping just because in his leftpocket there was a thousand
dollars worth of gift cards ofBass Pro.
And it wasn't like they wereall hundreds and twenty fives, I
think, they're like tens.
So this guy could have made itrain with bathrobe.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
It felt like Santa Claus.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
You walked out with what A bag of beef jerky.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
Beef jerky because I had to try the new jalapeno
flavor, beautiful, yeah.
And then you got me my guncleaner from my Benelli.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Shout out to G2 gun cleaner.
That stuff's amazing.
And then I walked out with apair of not a pair one of the
six packs of hunting socks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Cardinal, youknow what Tone?
Maybe we have everything.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Possibly.
I mean, we're up there in agenow.
I'd say we're at least middleage.
Now we do have, I mean, ourtackle box, our rod, like we
have enough stuff for the restof our lives.
I don't even think I needanother rod or reel or my boat's
decked out as much as it canmean hooks at you know, our boat
.
We got all the new, latesttechnology.
I don't even know, like I waslooking at the new live scope

(07:09):
stuff and yeah.
So you know, technology changesyearly.
Yeah, it was cool to see it.
But then I'm thinking about it.
I'm like, do I really need tobuy anything here?
So I, I didn't spend a dollarand our, our wives stayed at
those outlets for another fivehours.
So what do we?
We do Me and you got in the car.
You called up Wendy, come getyour keys.
My wife comes out, grabs thekeys, we head back to the casino

(07:31):
.
And that was a mistake, siege,because if the listeners
remember, back when we went overto Windsor, when we fished the
Detroit River, when we went outwith Simon Berth in April, right
, we had to pull Lou Top DogPereira from that craps table.
So it wasn't like we didn'tplan on going there.

(07:55):
We were going to go play a fewtables, but me and you got
murdered at the blackjack table.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
We did hey Falls View Casino.
Your limits during the day, $25per hand is ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
Come on, Come on man.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Go to 15.
We saw empty tables sittingthere.
If they would have put them to15, you know it would have been
better.
But yeah, we had a good time.
The girls were shopping and wewere at the sports bar and then
we were playing a little bit ofcards.
But, kids, if you're listening,gambling's terrible.
Don't do it.
Booze and gambling don't do it.
Don't do it, don't be like usso we, uh the girls, come back.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Great, we met cody the champ kovancek for dinner.
Um, you know some crazy thingscoming up with, uh, with the
champ we're going to talk about.
Um, you know, we got muskyseason, big fish season around
the corner, hunting seasonsaround the corner, and we're
excited.
But I don't think I'm even moreexcited than to talk about who.
We have Siege we have in studioagain.

(08:52):
What's going on here, brother?
This is huge for me becausewe've been talking about this
guy a lot.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
We have and we have.
I guess what?
Do they call it A bromance?
Yeah, it is a bromance.
Since the sportsman show Iguess what it is and we met this
gentleman and man.
Our listeners are in for it.
This guy, he's not new to thescene and I'm not aging him by
any means.
I think he's around the sameage as us, but he, I'm surprised

(09:18):
we haven't met him earlier withthe circle we have, and we have
always heard his name and allthat stuff.
Well, we.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
we've had quite the day already and we're going to
talk about it, because he camedown early to the Gourmet Craft
and Catering headquarters and itwas.
You know, we'll get into it,but he said the same thing.
He's like how did we not meeteach other five years ago?
Right, you know, and it's crazyhow the fishing brings us
together.
But yet when you hear thebackstories, there's so many

(09:46):
similarities and it's a pleasureto introduce our next guest.
Folks here live in studio atthe Eating Wild Podcast Studios
in Oakville, ontario.
We got Mr Moose.
Moose is loose Moose.
Thank you for joining us today,brother, and making the trip
down to sit down and chat withus today, brother.

Speaker 7 (10:04):
It was a pleasure, man.
It's been a fun day so far.
I mean watching you run aroundand do your thing and the
catering and the food.
It's really nice to be back inthat atmosphere.
You know talking to peopleabout food and watching them
pile food on their plates andopening up.
You know chafing dishes andreplacing sternos and that's

(10:26):
where I grew up, man.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
I got to tell you, siege, when Moose came, we had
415 background.
It was on Gen V today, ifanybody watches the Amazon show
the Boys, this is the spinoffGen V season one.
We're on season two right now.
He texts me.
He's like I'm coming in at 1255.
Right, okay, we're at UFT inToronto and I'm with Chef Craig.

(10:48):
Everyone's heard Chef Craig onthe podcast this guy's nuts.
And I looked at Craig.
I said Moose, my podcast guestMoose, is coming here right now
to set to help out with ourservice.
That's so cool.
And Craig says to me well, well, he's got five minutes because
the crew's breaking at oneo'clock.
That's correct.
I went outside, I spoke to thelocations guy.

(11:09):
I'm like, listen, you're aboutto see a guy pull up in an suv.
You park his car.
He's gonna throw the keys atyou because he's got to come
help me.
He's like, sir, he's got to gopark at tech land.
I'm sorry there's no spot forhim.
So I'm a nervous wreck, yeah somoose pulls up we're down to
three minutes at this threeminutes left, I I jump in
moose's car, we go park.
So happens that uh, uh, one ofthe drivers we were following

(11:32):
him, I don't even know what thatguy was doing over there.
We jump out of moose's car, wego up to the driver, we're like,
hey, man, can you take us backto the lunchroom?
He's like, sure, we hop in.
I haven't even had aconversation yet with moose and
he's jumping into a fire.
I don't even think he knew whathe was walking into.
And the moment he walked incraig sees him.
He knew he was coming because Itold craig he was coming apron.
He says grab an apron.

(11:52):
That's craig.
Grab an apron, buddy moosedidn't hesitate.
Siege, yeah, didn't hesitate,fuck jumped on the line with us
and next thing you, within threeminutes, those people started
coming through and people arelike excuse me, sir, can you
tell me what this is?
Moose is like absolutely, yougot butter chicken here.
We had rice.

(12:13):
Is this vegetarian?
It's actually vegan.
Like you, tell him the menuonce and you could tell that
this guy's backstory.
He's got food in his blood, sowould he been hired today?
Craig, the moment he left,craig's like sign this guy, get
him a contract.
Oh, hear that, moose.
He was cleaning shafers.
We were answering questions andthen we had one of the biggest

(12:34):
producers, dops.
Franco, good friend of mine,shout out to Frank came up to us
and we're shooting shit withthis guy and Moose is talking to
him.
It's like Moose knew him too.
You know five years workingwith him on Star Trek Discovery
back in the day.
So you know, moose, you justjumped right in, brother, and
thank you for coming.
Now we got to talk about yourbackstory for our listeners
because you know, you say thename Moose and you said it

(12:56):
already.
Our good friends at ExtremeMarine there's only one Moose.
There's only one Moose inOntario.
There's only one moose inOntario.
There's only one moose.
And then people listening ifyou don't know who moose is,
we're going to get diaried intoit.
So, moose, let's go back to theearly days, because obviously
food has been a part of yourlife before the fishing.
We'll get into the fishingfolks because this guy is, you

(13:20):
know, he's not only a stick, buthe's been around the industry
for a very long time.
But you know, let's talk aboutthe roots.
Brother, where did you start?
Where did the food backgroundand your actual worth ethics?
Where did this come from?
Because it's crazy, brother.

Speaker 7 (13:30):
You know what?
I've got photos of me.
I was maybe one.
Everybody keeps saying I wasborn in a convection oven.
You know my dad obviously beinga chef and teaching all over
the world.
Really, we sort of followed himEverywhere he went.
We followed, Okay, Years andyears and years ago.
It all started in Egypt,Alexandria, along the coast,

(13:54):
right on the waters.
Dad would take me out fishing.
I was young, young, young one,two, three like there I am on
the beach with him.
He's hand lining, you know, onthe coast of Alexandria, Egypt,
Wow.
And in the afternoons I was inthe kitchen with him.
Mom, we all lived on the resort,Like I grew up on a resort my
whole life, whether it was inAlexandria or in England or

(14:19):
Spain or France.
We went all over the place.
He taught in France, he taughtin Spain culinary arts and we
just sort of followed.
And next thing, you know, we'rein Canada.
I was six years old at the timeand he was working downtown
Toronto and we were living inScarborough Good old Jane and
Finch and from there I grew upin a kitchen, I grew up around

(14:43):
food.
My dad, my uncles, all of them,everybody was involved within
the culinary arts world.
So all I knew was food Rightand it just sort of flourished.
From there we got to know somepeople.
We moved out west.
I started working with dad in akitchen, I did my culinary arts
program and that was it.

(15:04):
My love of food has always beenthere since I was a baby.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
What a great guest for us.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
It's crazy you know what you got to hear this story,
siege.
So let's backtrack now to March.
Yeah, and we're at the TorontoSportsman Show, correct?
We're there at the you know,fishing Canada booth with all
the boys are there?
Viola and Bowman, top DogHookset.
We had Jay Siemens was therethat day joining us and it was

(15:29):
really cool.
And Moose comes in and he'stalking with Lewis and you know
what do you guys do?
And you know, obviously we'refairly very new to the podcast
world.
Not too many people knew who wewere and we just started talking
about food and and and becauseof our spices right it was all
about our spices and moose wastelling me about his you know

(15:51):
his father and with the frenchculinary background, that he had
this and that, and I showed himour lose a jerk seasoning right
and I said this is for you,buddy.
We had a great conversation andI said this is for you and I
want you to try it.
Give me your honest opinion.
Obviously, he knows his wayaround the kitchen.
The next day, siege, we'rethere four days.
The next day, moose shows upwith a Tupperware with the jerk

(16:13):
chicken that he made using ourspices.
Oh, it's delicious.
And everybody was around ourbooth and we weren't selling it,
but everybody.
Next thing, you know you, yougot people got sauce all over
their face.
You got, you know, frank fromthe Ugly Pike.
He's eating jerk chicken.
Lou's eating jerk chicken.
Lou's handing out theTupperware.
He's like you guys got to trythis, you got to try this.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
I saw some old lady put some in her pocket.
I was five minutes too late.

Speaker 7 (16:36):
They had just finished three or four pizzas
and I walk, yes.
And I thought nobody's going totouch this.
Are you nuts?
Everyone went nuts.
Everyone went crazy for it.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
It was crazy.
It was like Halloween andeveryone was just grabbing
chicken.
It was trick or treat Everyonewas just chicken.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
People were signing.
Pete Bowman was like what'sgoing on there?
He's signing hats and he's likewhat's going on?
In that corner we had all thepeople around us because they
thought that we were likechicken for people and the best
thing is Antonio, like he knowsobviously the cooking world and
he knows the fishing world aswell, but not as not that much,
right.
So he's like yeah, this guy, youknow, he thought you were just

(17:12):
showing up at the show as uh, asuh, not a fan, but just as like
like grazing like he was, andthen, and then we had the April
Marine girls with us, who we hadon our podcast the week before,
and it was cool because we gotto be there when they actually
went up to moose and said youknow, congratulations, yeah,
you're, you're gonna be part oftheir team and we were there for

(17:34):
that, so it was turns out he'sin.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
I'm like tone, he's boys with cooper.
I see him on videos all thetime.
He's been in the industry forlong.
You're like buddy.
I just thought he was a reallycool guy.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (17:45):
I just lay low, man, I you do the background, I lay
low, I do my thing.
Yeah, the girls from ImperialMarine, they were great they
were.
We've been talking forever andit was at in your booth there
like congratulations, you're theOntario ambassador, so we had
to.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
It was the eating wild effect here.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Maybe we were there for the signing.
Yeah, it was huge press forpress report live from the
eating wild booth.
But then then we start hearingmore about Moose and what he
does and you know.
So you left, obviously, thekitchen food industry.
I know you went to school forculinary arts and stuff and you

(18:22):
are quite the entrepreneur.

Speaker 7 (18:24):
I know what I had to make a decision.
My dad was the one that kind ofhammered it into my head.
He grew up in the kitchen.
It was really tough back in theday to make it in the culinary
arts world.
Once he got to a specificposition he looked at me and
says is this what you want to do?
He says I know how much youlove it and you do great work.
Is this what you want to do?
He says I know how much youlove it and you do great work.

(18:45):
Is this what you want to do?
You've seen the life I've ledand the traveling and the this
and that, and I looked at himand I said no, it's not.
I love cooking way too much tosacrifice everything, like it
was different 20 years ago thanit is now, and I think the best
thing I could have done wasleave the culinary arts world

(19:07):
and venture off into somethingelse.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
And that something else is another eating wild.
Thing.
What do we do, tom?
We cook we fish.
Guess what?
We pop and cook.
Siege, I'm so curious as to howyou got into fishing that world
.

Speaker 7 (19:21):
Well, the fishing thing started again with my dad
back in the day, right, but itwasn't until, oh geez, I was.
Uh 16 years old buddy of minesaid come up to my cottage.
I said sure, we went up to thecottage.
He says you like fishing?
I said I love fishing, uh, andI had made my own.
You remember, gimp, back in theday girls used to make
bracelets oh, yeah, yeah so Iused to make my own lures at a

(19:41):
gimp.
No, that was what I did to killtime at home.
Right, right, right.
And he says, yeah, come up tothe cottage, we'll go fishing.
I said absolutely.
We went up, I caught some fishon my own new lures that I made.
I was all pumped and that wassort of what really sparked the
love of the sport was I can makesomething and catch these fish,
and I can.
It was just the adventure ofwhat's next.

(20:03):
And so my buddy Scotty wasreally the guy who, like, got me
into fishing again, just kindof revamped that love of the
sport.
So every weekend we were on abody of water, on a river or
just somewhere, just casting aline.
It didn't matter what we werefishing out of, it was just
let's see what we can catch wow,that's crazy how it starts.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
it's always the one friend that sort of introduces
you to a body of water.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, yeah, your father, your uncle.
We've had guests on the showMoose, where it was their
grandmother that got them intohunting.
Yeah, you know, and it's just,there's someone that plants that
seed and we always.
It sounds a little cliche here,but always bring kids out 100%.

Speaker 7 (20:45):
Bring kids out, you never know.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
You never know.
And look at Moose here.
I mean, now he's the journeybrother.

Speaker 7 (20:52):
This journey is insane.
It's all about the journey.
Regardless of where you are inthe world, you meet people with
the same interests.
You're going to learn so muchIf you're on a body.
I met a guy five years ago.
I was in Florida for my buddy'skid's baseball game.

(21:13):
He was youngest pitcher to everget drafted to Team Canada, and
so I went down there to takesome pictures and have some fun
with him.
I'm going to go fishing for acouple hours.
I met this Spanish guy on thepier.
We're like this right now.
He wants to come up here andspend time with my family.
Come down, my wife misses you,great guy, and it was fishing

(21:33):
that brought us together.
So, regardless of where I goaround the province, around the
country, it's insane to me thenumber of people that I come
across that are like you'reMoose right.
I'm like, yeah, I watch yourfishing stuff.
I'm like that's crazy, likeyou're Moose right.
Yeah, my dad taught you andthis is a crazy story.
I grew up in Scarborough, movedto British Columbia, I'm living

(21:55):
in this small town, fairmont HotSprings Resort and I'm living
in this small town, which is aresort, but it's a tiny little
town schools in infirmary, bc onthe columbia river, columbia
lake.
We're in the columbia valley,about an hour and a half outside
of banff, alberta.
We live there.
I work on the resort in thekitchen with my dad.

(22:17):
I got to know some people.
Whatever we end up leavingthere we're, we moved to alberta
and then we move back hereyears later.
I take a bunch of guys outsnowboarding and I said to to
one of the guys you know what?
I'm going to go visit somefriends in Fairmont.
We only had one vehicle.
You guys keep the car, don'tworry about it.
Everybody hitchhikes aroundthere.
Oh yeah, yeah.
So I'm in the middle of theRocky Mountains and I'm
hitchhiking.
I'm going to go highway andsome lady picks me up, drops me

(22:48):
off 15 minutes down the road.
Another guy picks me up, dropsme off 15 minutes down the road
and I'm hitchhiking, hitchhiking.
Nobody's picking me up.
I look like this, obviously,but nobody's picking me up.
All of a sudden it starts to geta little darker, a little
darker, a little darker.
Finally, this SUV stops andnobody knows I'm in town.
This SUV stops, door opensMoose, get in.
What you got to be kidding.
So I run in.
I don't recognize a soul.

(23:09):
I get in the car.
I'm like, how do you guys knowmy name?
Oh man, my dad taught you andthis, that and the other thing.
We were looking at photos andvideos.
We had a I didn't know this kidfrom Adam Right and his dad
taught me in culinary arts, inculinary school.
They found me on the side ofthe, the, the trans canada
highway, picked me up and tookme all the way to my destination

(23:30):
, no, middle of the rockymountains, mental, and from
there and my wife jokes about itall the time I can't go
anywhere without beingrecognized for something and I'm
like I don't see it.
She's like we're at the airportand people are stopping you.
Oh, moose man.
Yeah, we went to high schooltogether, almost.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
We went to elementary school, the elementary, but it
was always something there'sonly one moose, but that's got
to be a compliment for you,rather, because you're doing
something right and and thereason why I say this is because
we, we know we meet a lot ofpeople day in and day out in our
career especially.
You see, you're on the road,you, you're.
You know people know you allacross Ontario for what you do,

(24:06):
and me, obviously, being on filmsets every day.
You know there's hundreds andhundreds of people.
But when somebody can recognizeyou hitchhiking on the side of
a road, you've got a problem.
You are probably really toonice.
You're doing something rightbecause the day you left the
sportsman show Moose, I got totell you, buddy, it's like,

(24:29):
obviously, with the way thatMoose looks, if everyone doesn't
know how Moose looks, you gotto you know, simply just go on
his socials, you'll see theMoose.
He's always, you know, he'ssupporting the white beard.
Not too long ago I saw that.

Speaker 7 (24:40):
I didn't get rid of that, yeah, he got the full
white beard going.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
It's crazy man.
So it's got to be complimentarybecause you're a super nice guy
, you're well-connected, likehe's here in my office before we
come, his phone's ringing.
It's JP to Rose.
Say what I'm like what Hisphone's like yeah, say hi to
Smash.
It's JP to Rose.
I'm like who gets a call fromJP to Rose?
I want a call from JP to Rose,yeah.
Yeah, just hung out today onset with tone and I'm just like

(25:07):
it's crazy man and and yourjourney is incredible moose.
And one thing that I I really,after you left the show and I
was looking through your socialsand I was looking at your story
, it was really cool to see thatyou had that really cool thing
going on with cooper gallant andyou were, you were the chef bro
.
You were cooking up a storm,yeah, and we got to talk about

(25:28):
that.
It was something that you, um,you guys were traveling,
obviously.

Speaker 7 (25:32):
yeah, we were in an rv, in an rv and you, you were,
you were chef brother, yeah youwere, yes, chef, for years we
talked about, you know, justrenting an rv and getting a
couple buddies and going, and Ijust bought the boat, I just
bought the lund.
Yeah and uh.
I said, dude, this has got tobe the year like we, we need to
rent an rv, like you're gettingbusier and busier with fishing,
I'm getting busier and busierwith my shop and everything else

(25:55):
, and let's just grab an rv nextmonth and go.
Where are we going?
I said I don't know.
Ask your brother, I don't wantto plan anything other than
getting the rv and the food.
That's it.
That's like you, antonio yeah,and and that was it.
Let's just do a road trip, let'sgo.
We wanted to do originally wewere going to do 14 days and try
to go as far north as possibleand come back.

(26:16):
Then his brother was like no,no, we can only do 10 days, you
got to think of this and that.
So Cooper and I are a bit offree spirits I'm a bit of a
gypsy, right, yeah, yeah, andCoop loves to travel and loves
the adventure and the chase andhis brother sort of brought us
back to planet Earth and waslike, realistically, let's
figure out gas and time.
So we did 10 days, we didOntario, we dragged the boat

(26:38):
through the whole province andwe met a whole bunch of really
cool people that were doingreally cool things.
Some guy was walking from oneend of the province to the other
to just prove a point, and thiswas at the same time the truck
thing was going down and comeback.
So he was walking from BC orAlberta to the Capitol and we

(27:00):
met him along the way and heardhis story and just, we met some
really cool people.
So here we are, the four of us,in an RV and we're stopping at
every body of water that we canfind, just to fish, fuck and man
, the scenery, the people.
The experience was unbelievable.

(27:21):
And I looked at him and I waslike I think we're onto
something.
We need to do this again.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
So, Moose.
So every lake you were going toI was a big fan of that, it's
the journey, was it was calledno, the road trip, the road trip
, yeah.
So every to tell our listenersevery lake you were going to,
you were targeting differentspecies, Different species yeah.
So what was on the?

Speaker 7 (27:41):
original list.
So originally my idea and hisidea were very similar.
And then when we sat down andput it all together, him and his
brother had been talking aboutthe same thing for years, right,
but his brother knew a fewpeople along the way and said,
okay, let's target.
Since it's the end of theseason, let's target.
You know, lakers and Muskie wasthe first trip.

(28:05):
And so we went to Nipigon.
Yeah, and I had never been toNipigon.
Yeah, and I had never been toNipigon.
He had been there, his brotherhad been there once, and then
the other two boys had neverbeen there.
And when we got there we were soremote.
There's two boat launches onthe whole lake and it's a giant
lake.
We're the only people at thislike campsite type of thing and

(28:27):
we get out onto this lake andthere isn't a soul for hours.
So cool, no reception, nothing,and it was just you and the
fishing.
And we stumbled upon somethingwithin the first five minutes
and, dude, we were catchinggiant lake trout as if they were
smallies in like three feet ofwater.
What Three feet of water?

(28:47):
We were catching giant 35 toour biggest that day was 39 inch
lake trout.
So when they're in the threefeet of water could you pretty
much sight fish for them.
We were sight fishing for laketrout.
Oh, buddy, it was unbelievable.
I've never even heard of that.
It was one day before the seasonclosed.
Oh, wow, so we had gone.
It was the end of, uh, end ofoctober or end of.

(29:12):
It was either end of october,end of september, but it was.
I will never in my life forgetthat day.
We didn't know what to expect.
We didn't know what we werefishing for at the time.
We knew we were going to targetlake trout, yeah, but I'm sure
there was going to be smalliesand walleye, and and and and.
Then, soon as we stumbled uponthe lake trout and three feet of
water you want to talk about agood time?
Oh, you could.
It was.

(29:33):
It was crazy, it was insane.
The first fish that so coopcaught the first fish and
there's a reaction on his face.
I've never seen that.
When the lion's just screamingyeah, that says it all.
Yeah.
And then every fish after thatwas bigger and bigger and
stronger and bigger and biggerand bigger and bigger.
And then just some of thethings that happened through it,

(29:55):
like watching the wildlife, themoose, just yeah, yeah, you
know.
Watching bears swim alongsidethe boat yeah, that was the
coolest thing it was.
It was you.
You cannot if you've never beento lake nipigon.
Yeah, you can't explain it.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
You need, people need to experience that lake and the
cool thing was you would, uh,since you're like our version of
antonio, you guys would getlike a walter here and there or
whatever.
Yeah, and next thing, you know,um, I'm speaking for you, um, I
shouldn't, but I apologize, butthey would be in an rv and

(30:29):
they'd be.
Obviously you're going throughall these crazy roads to boat
launches and you and you wouldsee moose just moving, all the
moving camera and the guy'strying to make a dish, but he's
got it down pat, he's just likestirring stuff up.

Speaker 7 (30:45):
He's like all the boys are like all fired up and
then, yeah, man, so with the,with the lakers that we were
catching, all the boys are likeall fired up.
And then, yeah, man, so withthat, with the lakers that we
were catching, all the whitefishwere mixed in between.
All was the white.
So the lakers are out spawningdoing their thing and the
whitefish are running aroundeating all the eggs, right?
So we caught in, we, I caught awhitefish, or no, I think it
was greg that caught the whitefor the first one.
Anyway, I said you know what,let's keep this one.

(31:06):
This is going to be dinnertonight.
So, and we were making our wayup to canora to meet up with
jeff gust, or, uh, not jeffbrian gustafson, okay, uh, owns
lake of the woods outfitters outthere.
We were staying at his placeand we were going to do some
musky fishing and, uh, so it wasabout I don't know 8, 30 at
night.
We got back into the rv, packedit up, boys, you, you hungry,
yeah, let's eat.

(31:26):
And here we are on this bumpy,dirt road doing 80.
And I'm cooking in this likemobile kitchen.
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (31:34):
It was an experience, but it was a blast.
It was a blast we had.
I think the first night we hadfish, second night we had
meatballs.
We did bacon and eggs forbreakfast.
But we were always on the goand we were well fed.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
I don't even think.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
I'd be able to do that siege.
When I saw it I thought of you,antonio, and us as our group
for the Eating Wild podcast.
We always had that same passionto get an RV and tow a boat.
We've always talked about itand then when that popped up the
road trip I didn't even knowwho was in it whatsoever.
I'm like I got to watch thisjust because we always talk,
always dan dan always says it's.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
It's one of those things where we're gonna take
our families.
Let's go across canada, we'regonna fish all these remote
lakes like moose is talkingabout, and the fact that he got
to experience that be the campchef, be the popper, you know
they're catching fish like crazy.
Yeah, and the company was agreat the company was I'll tell
you.

Speaker 7 (32:27):
It's two different worlds when you go with two or
three buddies and when you gowith your whole family in the
case, oh yeah it's toocompletely different forget the
fishing it's all about theexperience at that time.
But it's all.
You know the bugs and I'm tired.
Oh yeah, I'm bored and so, buthonestly, that was.
That was just something that Ithink everybody needs to do.

(32:48):
Yeah, rent an RV.
And at the time the boys werelike, where are we going to get
an RV?
And I was working on an RVsponsorship at the time and it
didn't pan out.
But RVZ man, rvz cost me athousand bucks for the RV.
Wow, it was another three grandfor gas and propane.
Yeah, so for four grand, thefour of us had 10 days that
we'll talk about for the rest ofour lives.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
I got to ask you driving the RV with the boat,
did that ever?

Speaker 7 (33:12):
get a little sketchy.
The first 15 minutes on thehighway dragging a boat is a bit
sketchy.
Especially, the RV we had wasnot the nicest and we had to go
to Ottawa to get it.
So at the time there was no RVsavailable in the area so we
actually left my house in Oshawa.
I was living in Oshawa at thetime.
We went to Colin's house,bowmanville, to pick up Coop,

(33:33):
colin's house in Newcastle,drove all the way to Ottawa to
pick up the RV and then wentnorth.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
So Colin is Coop's younger brother or older brother
?

Speaker 7 (33:41):
Colin's Cooper's older brother.
Okay, cooper's the youngest.
He's a good stick too.
He's a good stick too.
He's a good stick, he knows hisstuff.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
He really does when it comes to salmon and trout and
he's really good with.
Does he do a lot of the filming?
Yes, oh, really good at that.

Speaker 7 (33:52):
Phenomenal videographer and photographer.
I mean, the whole family isjust blessed with skill, right,
you know Cooper with his fishingand videography and Colin with
he's a very smart guy and heloves the outdoors Him, loves
the outdoors Him and his wifeboth.
And he's an incrediblecameraman Incredible.
We were actually last night.
We were sitting around at myshop and we were watching season

(34:13):
one, episode one, season three,episode one, and then we just
watched the Outer Banks episodebecause we're planning on an
Outer Banks trip.
So, oh, did you hear that Tone?

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Yeah, we're dropping that.
What's going on?
Are we dropping that Because?
There was three seasons of.

Speaker 7 (34:27):
Road Trip.
Four seasons of the Road Trip,okay, and I believe this one.
I'm not 100% sure, but I thinkthis one's season five, episode
one.
I don't know how he's got itnumbered, but that's exciting.
Yeah, I was involved with a fewof the episodes and then him
and Colin took off with it andthey dude off with it and they

(34:55):
dude, they went to some prettywell.
There's one episode where theywere catching bluefin tuna.
Oh, it was in south carolina ornorth carolina or no, it wasn't
even south carolina, it was inum somewhere in new york.
It was awesome.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
you didn't even see the tuna, but the footage itself
of just fighting that giant oh,it's crazy, man, I've, I've
been blessed to go out tunafishing myself, marathon hump
and it's it's.
It's crazy because you know youcould be like coop is amazing,
obviously bass fishermen, butyou know to be well skilled and
and going out to the ocean andsaltwater fishing it's a totally

(35:23):
different animal.
Yeah, and you know I don'tthink anyone really can can
experience it you in their mind,unless they actually go do it
themselves.
You know what I mean, siege,and it's one of those things
like when I I remember fishingwith you know I'm going to drop
the fishing fire stuff again.
But you know, when we hadCameron Jordan okay, this guy's
a pro bowler monster, newOrleans Saints and to watch him

(35:46):
struggle, siege, to bring inthat tuna fish and it probably
wasn't even as big as the onethat you know the boys were
getting out in New York, butit's a different animal, man.
It's like bringing in a 25 poundsalmon from like 400 feet of
water and it doesn't give up.

Speaker 7 (36:01):
They're just so strong Saltwater fish and even
if you've never saltwater fish,it's very basic, there's not
much to it.
If you can drop shot or if youcan, you know, any sort of
bottom fishing, that's saltwaterfishing is very, very, very
basic, right, unless you'regetting into the trolling and
the kite fishing and theballoons and yeah, yeah, you

(36:22):
know what I mean like there's alot to that side of the world.
But uh, we went down to floridaone time and I went to a local
tackle shop.
I'm like, hey, I'm from canada,I don't know anything about
saltwater.
Guy was like, oh, you're fromcanada, come with me best two
days of my life.
I didn't know this guy fromadam stayed at his place.
He took me out snook fishing.
We went trolling, dude, and Isaid to him I go, my goal this

(36:46):
week is to catch a tarpon.
Oh, he tried so hard.
Oh, he did.
We didn't get into any becauseit wasn't tarpon season, right,
but I still haven't caught atarpon and I will eventually.
Oh, buddy.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
That's crazy.
Tarpon fishing is one of thosethings too.
You just said it, you got toget them.
We fished under the Seven MileBridge seven mile bridge in the
florida keys, which is worldrenowned for tarp.
And yes, we went um.
You know, I brought jessewinchester he played for the
ottawa senators and ericabranson was playing with the
florida panthers at the rightand he's still playing.

(37:17):
He's still with columbus andsean and I took these guys out
to the uh, seven mile bridge,florida keys.
Right, you got to go right whenthe sun's going down, right, and
the current, the currentchanges from the Gulf over to
the Atlantic, so you have to bevery careful.
You got to anchor down almost,almost underneath that bridge,
but the current is insane.
Like if you hook into a tarpon,you'll notice these guys

(37:39):
dropping these massive buoysdown almost to mark their spot.
Right, but literally it's.
You have to get on, like whenJesse hooked into that first
tarpon.
You know it's a tarpon becausethey jump 100 feet in the air,
yeah, but your reel startsscreaming and right away Sean's
like drop the marker, gets ontothe wheel and starts driving.

(37:59):
And when you're going throughunder those undercuts, under the
bridge, it's so dangerous, yeah, you can literally smash into
the wall if you're not.
So you got.
You got the fish going, youradrenaline's going, you're,
you're got.
Your captain is the mostimportant person on the boat
when you're tarpon fishing andyou, once you get out and out of
the, out of that current, youfight that fish siege.

Speaker 7 (38:20):
The undertow and the, the, the.
It's insane.
You know what?
You know who can have you everhand fed the tarpon?
Yes, hand feeding the tarpon.
It is wild.
Wait till wait, till jp comesto see you guys, he'll he.
Just that's what he loves to do.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, he's a goat oh, he's a goat technical video.
Uh, goat of how to.
Yeah, he is this.
He, like I was telling youearlier, moose, he, he dumbs it
down, but at the same time, youcan relate to him and ever since
, he's the encyclopedia offishing yeah, I was like 16, 17

(38:59):
watching the guy and it's just,it's just amazing.

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Speaker 6 (40:04):
How did a small-town sheet metal mechanic come to
build one of Canada's mosticonic fishing lodges?
I'm your host, SteveNiedzwiecki, and you'll find out
about that and a whole lot moreon the Outdoor Journal, Radio
Network's newest podcast,Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to

(40:27):
introduce you to a ton of greatpeople, share their stories of
our trials, tribulations andinspirations, learn and have
plenty of laughs along the way.

Speaker 5 (40:38):
Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass and we both decided
one day we were going to be ontelevision doing a fishing show.

Speaker 6 (40:48):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that might be, for more
fishing than it was punching.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
You so confidently?

Speaker 6 (40:57):
you said hey, pat, have you ever eaten a trout?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.

Speaker 7 (41:08):
You know what was cool is he saw something back in
the day.
I've never been one forsponsorships and I don't go
asking for nothing.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
I see it I want it, I buy it.

Speaker 7 (41:17):
That's how I operate right and with the old C thing
and when it all kind of gotgoing, I'd see him at the trade
shows and we knew one another.
He says what are you doing?
I said not much.
He says giving a lot of gearaway.
I said all Shimano gear.
You got a sponsorship.
I said no.
He says well, let me help youwith that.
He called, he made a couple ofcalls, and some guy calls me and

(41:40):
he says what are you doing?
I go nothing, I'm just doing mything.
Man, like people, support me,support back.
Yeah, uh, well, stop stopbuying those reels, like I'm
gonna.
I'm gonna send them to you.
If you're giving them away toyour followers, I'm gonna send
you.
That was the coolest thing tome.
Someone saw and the value inwhat I was doing and it was jp
out of all people, right, man, I, I grew up watching, yeah, yeah

(42:01):
, and he was I.
He was the reason why I endedup getting my sponsorship with.
Uh, shimano Mahoney called meup and said listen, how many
reels did you buy?
I said I've given away 10.
He says, all right, I'm goingto send you 10 reels.
He says don't buy them.
You know, we'll give you asponsorship.
Just help us out and we'll helpyou out.
And that was the first timeanyone had ever reached out and

(42:22):
said hey, like we like whatyou're doing, can we like what
you're doing?
Can we work together?

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Is that when you were doing the OFC?
Yeah, yeah, so the OFC was.

Speaker 7 (42:31):
it was by accident, we sort of stumbled upon it
about 12 or 13 years ago.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
So that's Ontario.

Speaker 7 (42:37):
Fishing Club, ontario Fishing Club and the Canadian
Fishing Network was doing thesame thing.
So there's two guys, scotty andRed, who were absolutely
hilarious Filipino guy and a big, chubby white guy and he's a
gem, he's like a big teddy bear.
At the same time, jeff and Igot the Ontario Fishing Club

(42:59):
Facebook page going.
They were doing this thingcalled the Canadian Fishing
Network.
I got a phone call one day froma buddy of mine.
He says do you want to gofishing next weekend?
There's a group of guys thatare going to a lodge and I said
I'd love to.
Who are these guys?
He says I don't know them.
He goes.
I got a message from some guysaying we're going to a lodge
and the more people we have, thebetter the discount.

(43:19):
Yeah, cool, where is it?
He says French River, say less.
Didn't know a single personthere.
It was me, a buddy and someother guy that he met through
Facebook.
Yeah, so at the time mygirlfriend, my mom, like where
are you going?
I was like I don't know fishingwith a bunch of dudes.
Have you ever met them before?

(43:40):
I'm like no, we're just goingto meet up at a lodge and fish.
Like sounded odd, right, likeokay, you're not coming back, or
if you are, you're going to be,you know, weird for life, kind
of thing.
But so we get there and I meetthis guy and he's like, hey,
welcome, blah, blah, blah, thisis the French river.
This is who this person is.

(44:00):
That person is, uh, we call wecall ourselves the Ontario
fishing club, because there's no.
At the time there was nothing onFacebook where you can
communicate with other fishermento just share your experiences
or, you know, get some areaswhere you can go and fish or
direction or nothing.
There was nothing like thatbefore.
No, I was like that's kind ofcool.
I'm like have you started aFacebook page?
He's like, well, we're onFacebook, but we're just the

(44:21):
fishing crew, we call each othercool.
By day three we had come upwith the idea of the Ontario
Fishing Club.
Jeff and I Drew out a logo anda napkin and I'm like this is
awesome, this is fun, this issomething different.
How many people do you thinkyou know can come on the next
adventure, kind of thing.
And it was always about gettingothers involved and, obviously,

(44:44):
getting a break at some ofthese lodges right.
So it started with 28 and thenit got to 40.
40 became 80, 80, 80 became 120, 2000, 2000 became four and it
just started growing.
Amazing.
And I looked at it and I waslike, dude, like we've got a
pretty cool following.
And this is before.
Social was social.
Yeah, yeah, again we're goingback 15 years.

(45:06):
You didn't care how many peoplefollowed you, you didn't care
who was watching your videos,and we still don't.
To be honest with you, we justdo it because it's fun.
Jeff man, we got like 4 000followers.
This is pretty cool.
We should like do a hat withthe logo or a shirt.
Sure, did a hat, did a shirtsold out, did a hat, did a shirt
sold out, cool.

(45:26):
Well, let's do the trade show.
Let's set up a booth and getmore followers and sell more
apparel to fund events.
The events were charitytournaments.
Jeff's company used to host acharity tournament every year on
Sturgeon Lake.
50, 60 people would show up.
We'd fish for two days.
Everybody would walk away witha grab bag.
What a blast it was.

(45:47):
Then it got bigger and biggerand bigger and bigger and bigger
.
Next thing, you know, we're atI don't know 40, 50,000
followers right and we'rethinking that's pretty cool.
But at the same time, those twoguys that we were telling you
about, we start seeing them atthese trade shows.
So first trade show we did wasthe Spring Fishing and Boat Show
with Andy Pallotta Didn't knowAndy.

(46:09):
You show we did was the springfishing boat show with andy
palotta.
Didn't know andy.
You know andy had.
I'd called him.
I said I need a booth.
He says who are you?
What are you doing?
Oh, we're just a local fishingclub.
Blah, blah, blah.
Uh, facebook, online socialthing.
Cool, I'm gonna set you up witha space.
Um, who are you?
What's your story?
I've heard your name a coupletimes.
He says this is what I do.
He says oh, you want a bar.
I said said I used to.
The bar burned down, we'll getinto that.

(46:34):
I heard you do karaoke.
I said yeah, I've hostedkaraoke before.
I need to do karaoke on aSaturday night at the show.
Can you host it?
Sure, why not?
So here I am meeting this AndyPallotta guy that everybody in
the industry knows.
I don't know him.
I don't know him.
I don't know who he is.
Big, chubby Italian guy, lovesto eat and talk.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
That's all I thought Sounds familiar.

Speaker 7 (46:51):
Instantly became brothers, like he was like an
older brother to me, like he wasjust.
He's one of those charactersyou can't help but fall in love
with.
Yeah, he'll drive you nuts,he'll drive you bananas, but you
can't help but fall in lovewith him, give you the shirt off
his back, kind of thing.
So anyway, I've got jeff who'swho's my buddy and but he's not

(47:13):
much of uh.
At the time I owned a bar and Iwas into the, the party and fun
.
Well, we all did that right likeyeah, yeah, yeah, the simple
party and fun.
Yeah, yeah, I had to be theresponsible one at the bar.
Yeah, uh, and I meet andy andI've got jeff and jeff goes to
bed and andy wants to do karaokeand scotty and red are there
and I'm like scotty and red gocanadian fishing network good to
meet you guys.
And then it sort of clicked.
I'm like you guys are doing thesame thing we're doing, and so

(47:37):
why compete when all we're doingis trying to grow the industry,
bring more people into it,educate, empower, that sort of
thing you want, want to worktogether?
Sure, it sounds like fun, whynot?
So we set up a couple of events.
We set up a couple of lives.
We started doing lives beforelives were even a thing.

(47:58):
Oh, really, facebook had justintroduced Facebook Live and you
can actually like bring insomebody right from the messages
.
Yes, yes, it was before reallyanyone was doing anything.
We were just doing these livechats and it was like let's just
have some fun with it.
And every month we were doingthis thing called a tackle box
giveaway and people weredonating and you know, they'd
give it to us and we'd give itaway and we weren't reaping any

(48:21):
of the benefits.
You know people think, oh,you're getting so much free
stuff.
We're like no, we're not.
We're giving it all back You'redoing it for the passion, yeah,
so Scotty and Red are doingtheir thing, jeff and I are
doing our thing.
And then we partnered up andcreated the OFC Nation.
So it was.
You know, you can go ahead anduse my network and I use your

(48:41):
network and together we are anetwork.
And it was something thatnobody in the industry had done.
Nobody ever plays nice togetherin the pond, and from day one
I'm not going to mention anynames, but from day one somebody
was like, somebody approachedme and was like listen, man,
like you've grown a followingand you're sharing it with
someone.
Why it's never going to work.

(49:03):
It's never going to work.
I'm like, see, that's yourmentality, that's your way of
thinking, and I personally thinkthat we proved the industry
wrong 12 years ago, where youtook two people who were doing
the same thing, who wanted thesame outcome, and we managed to
make it work, and it's workedflawlessly, beautifully.

(49:25):
So, years later, those peoplethat told us they would never
work, you know they're, they're,they've changed their tune and,
yeah, they adapted and and andyeah, and here we are the ofc
nation.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
So I've been on the page several times when I like
about the pages, uh, with thesocialists is.
I've been a lot of groups withinstagram and facebook, but I
always see a lot of hatred.
I hate to say you shouldn't seeit in the fishing world, but
it's a very positive communitythat you guys have and I see
people sharing like you knowwhat's biting down at, you know

(49:58):
scugog or you know sturgeon, andpeople are showing.
I just got this one yesterdayand there seems like it's a real
, and it's all ages too, I'mnoticing too, too, it's not just
guys in their 40s like us, andthen it's just like younger guys
getting into it and I have totip my hat to you because you
were the pioneers of that andyou know I think so.
I think so in ontario.

Speaker 7 (50:18):
There was groups, I think there was groups around
they just.
But at the at the time theywere um, where were they like uh
, what do you call them?
Vlog or not?
Vlogs, uh, forums forums at thetime, forums was a thing, but
again, we had no tolerance forBS.
Yeah, we had people that wantedto be involved, so we had

(50:39):
moderators, people following thepage, and don't get me wrong-
We've had a fair share of crazy.
I've had people show up to myhouse at all hours of the night.
Oh my goodness, I've had peopleshow up to my house at all hours
of the night.
I've had court cases with youknow psychopaths, people that
just seem to think that I owedthem something.
You know what I mean.
Like, all of a sudden, I'mseeing packages of baits on on a
shelf at a local tackle shopwith my logo on it.

(51:01):
I'm like well, who gave youpermission to use my logo?
Like no man, you can't do that.
Like I'm sorry, you know, andit just weird, odd things would
happen.
But we try to stay simple.
We cater to the average Joe andthe weekend warrior.
Yeah, there might be tournamentguys, there might be, you know,

(51:22):
pros, but at the end of the dayit's not about one product or
one person, it's the wholecommunity.
Whether it be salmon, pike,trout, crappie, bass, smallmouth
, largemouth, doesn't matterwhat you fish for, it's all
about the whole community.
So right, and I hope thatthat's what we sort of have

(51:43):
taught a lot of people along theway.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
But yeah and then uh, after that, like I mean you did
that and then you kind of gotinvolved in, like you were in,
tournament fishing.
You're quite the stick.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
Like we're not even talking about this guy's talent
on the water.
We know about the talent offthe water.
Yeah, but you know there's astat you talked about right
before we started, you got todrop it.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
So this could be fake news.
We have a little segment on theeating wild podcast fake news
or not, fake news or not?
So we had some, uh, we had aigenerate some facts about you.
Oh, so this might be ai fakenews.
So it's saying that you havebeen fishing competitively for
over 12 years.

(52:27):
Yes, sir, so that's so, that'snot 15.
Ding Ding, we got one right.
So, and then last year a littlebird told me, you fished over
24 tournaments last year, 26actually 26.

Speaker 7 (52:39):
So that is big news, if you count my own charity
tournament.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Yeah, and we have to talk about your charity
tournaments and we have to talkabout what is the Kortha Cup?
Yeah, quartha Cup.
We fished this lake beforeAntonio.
Yeah, what lake is it?

Speaker 3 (52:52):
Tone Is it the home waters Close to Sturgeon, oh
buddy Sturgeon Lake.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Mr Moose had a.
Well, I'm going to let you tellthe story about it.
So yeah, he's got the QuarthaCup.
And what was your partner'sname, dan?

Speaker 7 (53:06):
risotto the gooch.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
The gooch, he's a legend legend yes yes, and
there's a story behind that too.
So let's, before we get thestory about the gooch, let's,
let's hear about your day likeit was a two-day tournament,
three-day tournament the soandy's so andy csfl pro series
or the pro tournaments, uh, cupcup series sorry he calls them.

Speaker 7 (53:28):
They're all two-day tournaments.
So right, kawartha cup uh, Ithink last year was kawartha cup
, quinny cup, bronzeback cuphe's got four or five of them.
But uh, we fished the kawarthacup.
It's two days and uh, yeah, wekilled it.
Man, it was awesome.
It was awesome.
We didn't think we were.
We didn't think we were, wewere actually gonna win it.

(53:48):
Yeah, like, we're on stage anddan kind of mutters to me he's
like holy shit, I think we'regonna win no way.
And um, yeah, so for day one,we've we fished.
So rewind, two weeks before wehad a clubby.
So, uh, we run.
I, I I'm involved with a groupof uh guys that we call each
other the, the durham anglers.
Okay, small a group of guysthat we call each other the

(54:10):
Durham Anglers Okay, small,elite group of guys.
We just want to have a goodtime.
I got invited into it as aboater and we mix it up.
Every week or every event, wetake someone out who's not a
boater, like a non-boater, okay.
And we mix it up blah, blah,blah.
We take someone out who's not aboater like a non-boater, okay

(54:32):
and we mix it up blah, blah,blah.
So the Durham.
Anglers had an event there twoweeks before and myself and my
tournament partner, colby Bakeryoung guy, 16 years old at the
time that's so cool.
We won Right and everyone waslike, how'd you pull it off?
I'm like, I don't know, I justwon, I don't know, it just
happened.
It's good feeling, this greatblah, blah.
You know the kid was over themoon.

(54:53):
It was incredible.
The next week we had anothergathering.
I think it was like 30 boats,just for fun.
We won again.
Oh wow, it's cool.
The following week was going tobe the core of the cup, but
originally I was supposed to doit with my little buddy, colby,
and he wasn't available.
And I got talking to Dan andDan's like, do you want to fish

(55:14):
it with me?
And I'm like I'd be honored.
Dan Risordo is a stick in hellLike dude, this guy.
He's a gem of a human being.
For one, for two.
I fished beside him, side byside, throwing the exact same
bait.
One of those guys.
And it's just like there's one,oh, there's another, yeah, oh,
there's another.
And I'm like dude, I like whatis it like?

(55:34):
They see my bait and your bait.
They're like, oh, that one saysgooch on it.
Yeah, he says you want to fishtogether.
I'm like, absolutely, you justwant to fish with me because I
won two weeks in a row, yeah,you got the hot hand.
So I was bugging him about that.
But, um, I was pumped to fishwith Gooch because, a I would
learn a lot and B he's a goodbuddy of mine.
So we get out there and we'refishing all my water and it's

(55:59):
not producing any fish.
And he looks at me and he'slike are you sure you caught
these fish in this lake?
I was like no, I'm like, justgive me an hour, give me two
more spots, we'll be good.
I'm like, just give me an hour,give me two more spots, we'll
be good.
We get to the last spot, wefinally catch one fish and it
was about 1130.
We had two fish in the live.
Well, so I'm sweating and Iinstantly was like man, I let

(56:20):
this guy down Like I'm fishingmy.
Okay, let's try A, b and C hisspots.
We go here, we go there.
Nothing, nothing, nothing,nothing, nothing.
It's about two o'clock andwe've got two fish in the boat
and I'm thinking that I, we,that's it, we've lost this.
And so he turned.
I turned around.
I was like I'm sorry, man, Idon't know what's going on.

(56:42):
I was so bummed out I know howthat is so bummed out.
And he looks at me.
He goes what are you sorryabout?
He's like I've had anincredible day.
He's's like dude, I haven'tstopped laughing all day.
And he's like are you having agood time?
I was like yeah, I'm having agood time, I just want to catch
more fish.
He's like so, get up here andcatch more fish.
We got an hour left.
There's no way.
He's like ah, anything'spossible.

(57:03):
Pick up my rod.
I cast out boom, now we gotthree.
I look at him.
I'm like whoa.
He casts out boom, now we gotfour.
And he looks at me.
He's like I need a five pounderout of you by the end of the
day.
I was like we got half an hourleft.
He's like check-in is likeright there, like five minutes
away.
Not even I need a five pounderout of you by the end of the day

(57:27):
.
I'm gonna do a, you're gonna dob, I need a five.
And I remember making that cast, thinking I wonder if this is
gonna be the one and I look downand isn't there a giant smallie
behind my bait?
Like I mean giant to the pointwhere, like I'm already on my
toes, I haven't even hooked intothis thing and I'm like, oh

(57:49):
please.
And I'm like Dan, dan, dan, Igot your five pounder baby and I
brought this thing into theboat and he's squeezing my face.
We're jumping up and down likecrazy, holy crap.
Like we just caught, like we got19 and a half pounds within a
matter of like.
I looked at him and I was like,wow, I was this close to giving

(58:12):
up.
And I got up and made a coupleof casts and boom, okay,
fantastic.
So I think we were sitting inthird place after the weigh-in
and I looked at him and I waslike like third's, pretty good
start for day two.
Yeah, yeah, do we fish the samewater?
Do we go back to the waterwhere we thought there was fish?
Let's see how it goes in themorning.

(58:33):
So we start off right off thehop in the morning One, two,
three, four, five.
We got five before nine o'clock.
Amazing, no pressure.
We've got good weight, but it'snot good enough.
There's three bag killers.
So he looks at me and he goes Ineed one five-pounder out of
you today.
Another nickel.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
Right and I go man that's a lot of pressure.

Speaker 7 (58:54):
Yeah, man, and he's like one five-pounder.
I was like I need a six-pounderout of you, Just joking around.
Right, he goes no problem,Makes a cast Boom Six-pounder.
You gotta be kidding me.
He pointed, he pointed his shot.
This is also a guy that I he'sthe only one I know to catch a
685 or 675 on that body of water.
Giant fish.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Any lake that's a giant fish, but that lake
especially Two years ago.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
He brought in a largemouth Unreal.
So let's just paint a picturehere.
I'm with you, siege, we'refishing, we're in a tournament,
we're in third spot and I lookat you and I say, siege, I need
you to point your shot.
It's not happening, no, butlike it's not happening because
I don't think that could everlike the story is insane.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
It's insane.
I have a similar one.
I'm not going to go on about,but Louis, if you're listening,
you know the pike tournament andhe need.
I was like moose and I was just, I wasn't having fun and I just
started thinking about numbersand the fish we caught and I was
down and out.
I was just being a little Bword and he's like what's wrong
with you, man, suck it up, let'shave some fun.

(01:00:01):
It was similar to you.
We had an hour left before wegot to the weigh-in.
It was a pike tournamenttournament and he had a nice
size pike come up on his topwater.
It missed it and I threw backwith the chatterbait and it
ended up being the kicker fishwe needed.
And it's just like you said youwere beating yourself up and
your, your co-partner, bringsyou back down.
You just had fun, yeah, and andthat's that's insane.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
It's crazy how tournament fishing can really
really it messes with your head,messes with you mean hook set,
so mean.
It's funny because we were ohmy god, you mentioned that that
pike tournament mean hooks thatwere right close to you guys you
got, you were down.
You were pissed, I was, and Iremember it was close to the
south shore.
Yeah, and those pencil weeds.
Yes, you guys were castingthose pencil weeds and me and

(01:00:43):
dan were like, hey, we got ourfive, yeah, we're going.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Yeah, and you were, you were down yeah, you were
down in her voice and then hervoice on the water is uh is a
nasty thing and you came back tothe launch and you guys were in
the money.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Yeah, you guys were in the money.
I was like what happened?
You're like crazy story lukecatches we see that.
I follow it up with achatterbait bang.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
You guys got that big fish, yeah it was like he was,
uh, like a you know the thebulls coach of the day.
What was the bulls coach backin the dynasty days?
Jackson jackson jackson and hecompared me to jordan, which I
should have been more of apippin but uh he pointed and
yeah, and like moose was saying,it's just, I think when those

(01:01:22):
we're not big tournament guys,moose, but uh, I'm always the
fun going, relaxing guy, buttournaments bring something out
of me where I'm just like Idon't.

Speaker 7 (01:01:31):
The competition is just yeah, and I'm the same way.
So when I'm on the boat andI've got Colby, 16 years old,
good kid, all he wants to do isfish.
He's on the spectrum of, youknow, autism versus disability,
like learning disability kind ofthing, or at least that's what
his parents would tell me.

(01:01:52):
But he's a like I don't see itat all.
When he's in the boat with me,he's smart, well-spoken and he's
sharp, and I'm always thepositive one.
Come on, buddy, it's all good.
You know what you lost it?
No big deal.
It happens every day.
So here I am on the boat withDan and Dan's talking to me as
if I was talking to Colby, andI'm down Like I'm on a boat with

(01:02:12):
a guy that I look up to and Idon't want to let him down.
So at this point we needed onemore fish After the six.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
After the six, you need another one.
You still haven't gotten thefive that he asked you to bring.

Speaker 7 (01:02:26):
I haven't gotten the five that he asked you to bring
no, so we needed one more fish.
We didn't know this until after, but we needed one more fish.
And I'm fishing, fishing,fishing, fishing.
And so he says, what were youcatching him on?
Last week I was catching him ona spy bait.
Oh nice, really.
I go, yeah, it was on this bodyof water.
I was like, yeah, so I pickbehind my spy bait and I'm like

(01:02:52):
this is it.
And in my head it was like it'shappening right now.
There's the five.
This is all we need to win.
Please eat my lure.
And you know, a spy bait.
Now, slow and go, slow.
And so I'm slow, rolling, andnow I'm at the boat and I'm
wishing I had props on the backto take me backwards.
I'm playing every scenario.
What happens if it dives down?

(01:03:12):
Do I drop the bait?
It comes up and swipes at it.
Well, don't I set hook beforethe fish is even on my bait and
I looked at it.
No, throw my bait back into thewater and I just opened my
spool and this thing comes rightback up Sucks it in gotcha
bitch sorry and that was it, andthat was it again brought it

(01:03:35):
into the boat.
We didn't find out until after.
We didn't even need that fish.
We would have won thattournament with four fish.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
No way, that's awesome for you to throw back
like that.
That reminds me a lot of muskyfishing, but to you to throw
back and open your bail, whereasa lot of guys would have got so
upset that that fish missed andthey would have thrown their
rod down and you know, you know,pull their hair out.
But for you to throw back, goodon you.

Speaker 7 (01:04:01):
And you know what that came from If you watch
season one, episode one of theroad trip.
Right, there's a small clip andit's myself and Greg Attard,
who's a phenomenal, really goodphenomenal stick, incredible
muskie fisherman and incredibleguide.
We're at the front of the boatand we weren't targeting this

(01:04:23):
species and we were fishing forLakers.
And he turns to the camera tosay something.
His bait's out of the water andjust his like muskie instincts.
He hears a splash.
We see it, I see it at thecorner of my eye, you see it on
camera and it was a beautifulbrookie, beautiful.
He drops his bait back in thewater, starts to figure eight,
and doesn't he hook the brookieon a figure eight, on a figure
eight.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
So the fact that he figure eighted.
That's because of the musky,that's musky mentality.
Like you're obviously a muskyfisherman, you're a great stick
Right away.
Your instants are great Getback in the water.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
I think it doesn't matter, a fish is a fish and
they have that same instinct,like we've joked around, when
Crappy comes streaming in thespringtime, comes screaming in,
and we'll do that oval andthey'll hit it.
But that instinct is, you know,that's incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
So so you guys, you guys won the tournament, so we,
we ended up winning thetournament um over the moon.

Speaker 7 (01:05:18):
You know I'm, I'm.
What was the final weight?
Uh, 20, Jesus, 21 or 23.
I can't remember the exactnumbers, so it was three weeks
in a row.
It was 19 and 21, or 21 and 23.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Yeah, A sturgeon.
Yeah we're talking Kawarthaslakes, and no disrespect to the
Kawarthas, but as everyone knows, it can be a tough fishery.
And to have a bag like thatwhen he's talking about five and
six pounders and these are allsmall at least Moose, yeah, yeah
.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
But you know, siege bass opener scugog me and you
fish the scugog river.
Yeah, hookset, dan Martins andLewis Top Dog, we get nickels,
we do.
We get nickels on jerkbaits.
That's one of our fun, like oneof my favorite trips that we do
.
They're there, they're there.
There's a lot of pressure,there's a lot of pressure.

(01:06:08):
I will say that you know theone thing I will say again you
know Scugog, as everyone knowslistening to this podcast, my
home waters, my cottage is onthere.
I've been fishing it now eightyears.
I don't fish it enough.
I admit it.
I've talked about it a lot onthis podcast that we don't get
out enough siege.
But I do hear stories fromlocals, my neighbors, that they

(01:06:30):
got 20-pound bags.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
I believe it?
Well, there's always this myththat back in the day it was a
lot better.
But for Moose to say he fishedthis tournament last year, it
was last year, right, moose?
And he's getting fives and six.
So it's, they're there, they'rethere.

Speaker 5 (01:06:46):
No, they are, they are.

Speaker 7 (01:06:47):
This year is completely different.
Like I'm sort of I'm blessed ina way where, like I'm your
average angler you know, I lovetournament fishing because I
like to compete yeah.
But when I'm watching theseguys and I know who's going to
bring in a bag and I know who'sgoing to catch them and I know

(01:07:09):
who's going to come in with somebig numbers and the lakes this
year are nowhere near asproductive as they were last
year, I wonder what that isnowhere near like, not even
close.
Like for a lake like balsamlake.
For to win a tournament onbalsam lake with 14 or 15 pounds
is insane, yeah.
But then you know, last yearthey were 19, 20 actually the
mcdonald's.
This year, balsamam Lake, theywent back-to-back both days.

(01:07:31):
I think it was 19 and 21 or 19and 22, which was huge weights
for Balsam, big weights forBalsam.

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
I got to ask you this .
So you guys finished first, wasanybody even close to you guys?
Were guys getting 18, 19 pounds, or did you guys just rip
everything apart?
I think I don't know if it wasthe Joey's, so Joey T and Joey D
.

Speaker 7 (01:07:52):
I think they came in second or third, I can't
remember who it was, but we were.
We won it by four and a halfpounds.
Ooh, I think that's what.
Like I said, we didn't needthat last fish, you didn't need
that kicker.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
Yeah, you didn't need that fish, you didn't need that
fish.

Speaker 7 (01:08:06):
Well, we didn't need that last.
I think we won by four and ahalf pounds.
I could be wrong.
I got to look at the numbersbut yeah, it was wild.
It was wild.
But it goes back to that wholeinstinct Get your bait back in
the water.
That fish could still be there.
And then there was a handful ofpeople.
Jp always taught me that Getback in the water.
You know what I mean.
You miss a fish, don't reel in,slow it down, let it drop, let

(01:08:28):
it die, let it think it's harmedTopwater.
You get hit.
Don't pull it in, let it sit.
The longer the better.
It could have gone down.
Looked back up, oh yeah, Iinjured that bait fish.
I'm going to go back up and eatit.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
So you're quite the tournament fisherman, but at the
same time you put ontournaments.

Speaker 7 (01:08:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
On tournaments.
Yeah yeah, this guy does it allWell.
I'm trying to figure this outbecause we haven't even gotten
into Moose's business here.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
We haven't gotten to his business.
We haven't even gotten to hisbusiness.

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
He's fishing 20,.
There's 52 weeks in a year CJ,I know and he's big Wait time
out.
He's got a family too.
Yeah, no, I get it.
I get it.
They say how do you have timeto do a podcast when you're
going nuts every day at work?
And you figure it out, you findtime.
But the passion that this guyhas you find time to be flexible
.

Speaker 7 (01:09:14):
Holy smokes.
There's definitely going toneed to be a part two.
Stay tuned.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
Part two is coming right up folks.

Speaker 5 (01:09:29):
We've got the stars lined up.
They're coming out ready toplay.
We'll be right back.