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August 19, 2025 53 mins

Host Jerry Ouellette welcomes Angelo Viola, founder of the Outdoor Journal Radio Network, to mark the 100 episode achievement while giving listeners unprecedented access to the world of outdoor media.

The conversation begins with Jerry's practical outdoor wisdom—using coffee grounds to repel garden-raiding skunks—before diving into the remarkable journey of creating a podcast network dedicated to all things outdoors. Angelo reveals that fewer than 1% of podcasts survive their first year, making Under the Canopy's century mark truly exceptional. Together, they explore how the network has grown to include specialized shows like The Ugly Pike (dedicated to muskie fishing) and Diaries of a Lodge Owner, each serving distinct yet interconnected outdoor communities.

Most fascinating is Angelo's behind-the-curtain look at producing "Fish’n Canada" as it enters its 40th broadcast year. The average 22-minute episode requires five full days of filming and two weeks of post-production with up to twelve people involved—a staggering commitment that explains the show's enduring quality. We learn how drone technology has transformed outdoor filming, now comprising nearly 20% of all footage, and how fishing preferences have evolved across Canada (with walleye dethroning lake trout as the most popular catch).

But beyond the technical aspects, both hosts share their deeper mission: inspiring people to reconnect with nature. As Angelo eloquently puts it, "If we can influence one person to take that step that's keeping them from connecting and enjoying what we take for granted, we've accomplished so much." This philosophy fuels everything from their choice of destinations to filming techniques—all designed to help viewers emotionally connect with outdoor experiences they might otherwise never encounter.

Whether you're a longtime listener or discovering Under the Canopy for the first time, this landmark episode offers rich insights into the passion that drives outdoor media and the dedicated people behind it. Subscribe now to join a growing community of nature enthusiasts and never miss an opportunity to learn from those who've dedicated their lives to sharing the wonders found under the canopy.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's
Favorite Fishing Show, but nowwe're hosting a podcast that's
right Every Thursday, Ang and Iwill be right here in your ears,
bringing you a brand newepisode of Outdoor.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
Journal Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Now, what are we going to talk about for two
hours every week?

Speaker 5 (00:20):
Well, you know there's going to be a lot of
fishing.

Speaker 6 (00:22):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.

Speaker 5 (00:33):
We're going to be talking to people from all
facets of the outdoors, Fromathletes All the other guys
would go golfing Me and Garthand Turk and all the Russians
would go fishing To scientists.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
But now that we're reforesting- and everything.

Speaker 6 (00:44):
It's the perfect transmission environment for
life.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it, and whoeverelse will pick up the phone.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Wherever you are, Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to
answer the questions and tellthe stories of all those who
enjoy being outside.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts.
As the world gets louder andlouder, the lessons of our
natural world become harder andharder to hear, but they're
still available to those whoknow where to listen.

(01:28):
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal

(01:53):
applications used by Indigenouspeoples all over the globe.
After nearly a decade ofharvest, use, testimonials and
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession and I now
spend my life dedicated toimproving the lives of others
through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the

(02:14):
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld world.
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.

(02:35):
So join me today for anothergreat episode and hopefully we
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
We can inspire a few morepeople to live their lives under
the canopy.
All right, as always, we wantto thank all our listeners
across Canada, the States,switzerland, ghana.

(02:56):
It's just, it's great to haveall those listeners in Canada,
the Bahamas, trinidad and Tobagoand all around the world.
We really appreciate youlistening and, as usual, you
know if you got a question, askit.
If it, if you want to show, letme know we'll see what we can
do to put it together.
But I gotta tell you same asusual, this morning now out with
my chocolate lab gunner, and hehad a good swimming weekend up

(03:20):
at the lake and which is greatand he loves it and he just goes
and with that heat that we'vebeen having, it's kind of the
humidity has been very high.
It just goes down and swims.
But sometimes and I'm going tohave to get this checked out,
because we had John Bell on theshow a while ago and I talked to
John about it and guess what?

(03:40):
Gunner ends up with a hot spotfor those people who knows what
a hot spot is.
And guess what?
Gunner ends up with a hot spot.
For those people who knows whata hot spot is Now, a hot spot
is kind of like it's actually adisgusting looking sore on the
dog that just kind of leaks oilout it and they call them hot
spots and very, very painful forthe dog.
And then poor Gunner, hestarted just like his

(04:01):
predecessor Strider, and when hegets down to the lake and in
the water too much he up withthese hot spots.
So john bell suggested I getthe water tested.
But you know, josh is our son.
Josh is now back from thebahamas with his girlfriend
casey, and benny has gone home.
But I gotta tell you josh wasdown there and he says you think

(04:21):
it's hot up here, oh my.
He says you want to walk arounddown there and you're looking
from store to store to go to goin, not to shop, but it's a ploy
down there to get people to goin just to cool off because it's
so hot that you get heat strokeso quick down there because the
temperature is so hot.
Now some of the other stuff isagain.

(04:43):
We had a skunk in the yardproblem and I mentioned this on
a number of podcasts in the pastwhere all of a sudden, we get
these skunks in the yard andthey're coming and digging and
looking for stuff, and I kind offound something that seems to
work.
So I went around to the coffeeshops, I picked up bags of old
coffee grounds and threw themaround same as always.

(05:05):
Guess what?
Now, three, four days later, noskunks around.
They don't seem to like thescent of coffee, I guess.
So they just stay out of theyard and you throw the coffee
grounds around that actuallywork as fertilizer, but it has
an added benefit of chasing theskunks away.
Well, at least that's what I'mthinking.
It's my story and I'm stickingto it.

(05:26):
Whether it's true or not, Idon't know, but it's an
interesting thing.
And every time we see a skunkaround and we start putting the
coffee grounds around, no moreskunks.
So guess what?
My mother just is around goingto coffee shops today because
she's got a skunk in herbackyard and she's going to try
it in her yard.
So we'll see if it's workingelsewhere as well.

(05:47):
Now, some of the other stuff aswell.
My living apothecary is doingvery well.
So my mints out there that aregrowing, my sage and lavage,
which is kind of topped outLavage got pretty big.
It was about seven feet thisyear, which is pretty tall.
But I know I've given a numberof seeds to a number of
individuals because for thosethat haven't tried lavage, it's

(06:07):
a great celery, it's like apeppery celery.
But for those that enjoy herein Canada we have these Caesars
the stalk of the lavage isactually hollow and they use a
lot of the stalks in specialtyplaces as straws that give that
celery taste to the Caesar andit's a great thing.

(06:28):
A little something a little bitdifferent.
But the mullein, the thyme, therosemary, the lemon balm and
all are doing well.
Now one of the questions that weget all the time is you know,
and I have to tell you, I waswith the college president,
local college, I'm on the boardof governors for the local
college and we got discussingabout the podcast and the

(06:51):
questions came up about you knowwell, how do you get your shows
and stuff, because you're doingone so often and things like
that.
And I said well, they kind ofspur each other on.
And I have to tell you the lastone for those that listened
last week and heard Andalyn fromthe Cambridge Butterfly
Conservatory, we got into adiscussion about fireflies, and

(07:12):
fireflies are on the declinebecause of guess what?
Probably it's an environmentalthing.
But the biggest reasonfireflies are on decline is
mostly because of the light, andso fireflies attract mates by
flashing this light.
But when all of a suddenthere's all these park lights
and everything else on, it'staking away from that mating
ability from fireflies.
End result was we had adiscussion about it with Anne

(07:34):
Dillon on the CambridgeButterfly Conservatory and she
sent me a link about fireflyresearch and I'm now working to
get this individual on a podcastto talk about fireflies and
what's happening and, quitefrankly, the information I saw
that I was linked to was quitesurprising.
I didn't realize there was thatmany strains and they can
identify fireflies by the typeof blink that they do with their

(08:00):
light.
So different fireflies producedifferent or attract different
strains of fireflies based onthe light that they produce or
the strobe that comes out in thecolor, which was really
interesting.
But you know, here we are andwe're over a major milestone
right now with the podcast, andI got to tell you we're over 100

(08:21):
podcasts now and it's goingvery well.
It's doing well, we're gettinggreat shows, great results all
around the world and the onething is I guess only about 1%
of podcasts actually last year,but we're well over the 100
number mark now of podcastsbeing out there and I wanted to
bring back the person whoinspired me to get involved and

(08:43):
the person responsible for thepodcast, and bring back Angelo
from Fishing Canada.
Welcome back to the podcast,ang.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Hey, buddy, how you doing?
Man, I'm okay.
How about you?
I'm doing good, Doing good.
I was just so.
I was sitting there listeningto you and I think I've told you
this before Boy, you are thebest Roseanne Rosanna Dana, next
to Roseanne Rosanna Dana.
I've ever heard.
Like you can do this man, youcan pull this stuff off Like you
just go and you go and you.

(09:12):
Oh, no wonder people lovelistening to you, buddy.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Well, it's.
Sometimes it's like, um, I tryto imagine myself sitting with
somebody when I'm doing aninterview and people wonder well
, what about that?
You know I, well, I don't know.
And so I asked the questions alot of times of what somebody
else would ask and it's uh, thatwas one of the things that
people like is that you askthose questions and then some of
the people we interview say,you know, some of the questions

(09:38):
are kind of good and I said,well, I'm asking because the
average person has no idea.
I mean fireflies, I.
I'm asking because the averageperson has no idea.
I mean fireflies.
I just talked about Andrew.
Did you know about fireflies?
I?

Speaker 1 (09:47):
didn't know about fireflies.
I used to be a big.
I probably did my part inreducing the overall global
firefly population back in the60s and 70s, because as a kid I
just loved going out and puttingthem, capturing them in jars,
and obviously they would die andand I would just keep
collecting and I I wasinfatuated with that whole thing

(10:10):
and it wasn't until later inlife that you know, of course, I
learned what you were justalluding to, and that is that
that whole process of light ispart of their mating ritual.
It's not part, of, it's themost essential part of fireflies
being able to perpetuate theirkind if.
If they can't do the lightthing, they can't reproduce.

(10:30):
So that's right yeah now.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Yeah, I didn't.
I didn't know until we hadandaline on that.
Actually, fireflies eat slugsand snails I didn't know that,
so that's.
That's the main food foragebase.
So if you want to reduce slugsin your gardens and things like
that, fireflies is one of thebest things to consume them,
because they kind of bore rightin and consume them and things

(10:54):
like that.
But I had no idea about thatstuff.
I didn't come on to talk aboutfireflies and slugs.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
I came on to congratulate you and your
listenership too, by the way,because without them, of course,
those of us in theentertainment world whether it's
podcast or television orwhatever we do we wouldn't exist
without our folks that aregiving us their valuable time by
listening to the program andsubscribing and all that stuff.

(11:21):
So congratulations to you andyour listenership on making it.
You know, beyond just amilestone, but you mentioned
that less than 1% of thepodcasts that go to air every
day survive to last a full year.
Yep, and I think if you digdeep into those stats you'll see

(11:43):
that it's even less than that.
So you're past that 1%, brother, and great job.
Keep it up.
Your audience loves you.
I think you add a wonderfulelement to the Outdoor Journal
Radio Network which, by the way,as you know, is ever evolving.
It's a moving target and it'sconstantly changing as we try

(12:05):
and better understand whataudiences would like with
regards to the outdoors.
But keep it up, man.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
Doing a great job.
Thank you very much, weappreciate it and, of course, we
very much appreciate ourlisteners.
I was in Halliburton a week agoyesterday and one lady comes up
and she says you know, I listento your podcast.
Great job.
I really appreciate it and Idon't know how I got onto it,
but it's one I really enjoy andwhen you hear that sort of

(12:34):
things in rural Ontario, it'snice to hear and it's
appreciated.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
I think podcasts are unique in that sense because I
mean, you know, my background ismainstream broadcast and
terrestrial radio.
I've been doing it for most ofmy adult life and it's all well
and good.
But podcast gets us into littlecorners of the world that
traditional broadcast justdoesn't reach, just doesn't

(13:02):
reach.
Yeah, when you talk to somebodythat lives in one of those
little corners of the planet andthey tell you that they listen
to you, it's a pretty upliftingexperience, isn't it, to know
that you're there in that cornerof the world with them.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, I just kind of look at them and say why, what's
the reason?
What is it that appeals to you?
Tell me so that we can provideit and make other people have
the same sort of feeling.
But maybe Angie I'm not surejust to re-familiarize a lot of
our listeners with the network,kind of give us a breakdown of
the network or how we started,if you want.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
We started podcasting a few years ago as the Outdoor
Journal radio podcast, becauseoriginally Outdoor Journal was a
radio.
Actually, before it was a radioshow it was a TV show.
But we transitioned into radioand did live radio for the
better part of 20-some-odd yearsI think 26 years.

(14:04):
Then we transitioned from radioto podcast and then we had so
many friends and people in thebusiness that hooked up with us,
and yourself being one of them,saying hey, you know, I'd kind
of be interested in doing apodcast.
And here's my idea.

(14:24):
What do you think Would it work?
And so we started thinking well, why don't we make it a network
and allow anybody with anyoutdoor interests and pursuits
to kind of hook up with anetwork whereby, once in, they
could then move along thattimeline?

(14:45):
And, for example, diaries of aLodge Owner comes into mind,
steve.
Yeah, steve, Totally differentconcept than yours, but it's not
unusual for some of hislisteners to gravitate over to
yours and for some of yourlisteners to find some of his

(15:05):
topics interesting.
We've had Eating Wild that waswith us from the beginning, who
now have gone in a separatedirection.
A great program and thatinitially started as a wild game
At least that was my vision ofit, because a wild game

(15:25):
preparation program, becauseAntonio is an exceptional chef,
and I thought, well, you knowwhat, let me talk to him and see
if he'd be interested inpodcasting.
And he was, and he did, and hecame on board.
But, you know, as he grew intothe network, he thought he would
like to take it in a slightlydifferent direction, which was

(15:46):
fine, but it just didn't, youknow, fit into what our idea was
.
You know, listen, make nomistake about it, the network is
filled with personalities andcharacters because, at the end
of the day, that's really whatwe have to offer the audience.
They need to connect with youguys, the hosts of the shows.
That's the most important thing.

(16:06):
But more important, not asimportant as that I also like to
think that we do offer them anarray, a diverse array, of
options on the network.
And so what happened with EatingWild is that they wanted to go
into a genre that we already hadcovered with somebody else.
And so what happened withEating Wild is that they wanted

(16:27):
to go into a genre that wealready had covered with
somebody else.
And so, you know, we amicablysaid, hey, you know what?
That's not what the networkneeds.
It might be what you need, butunfortunately it's not here at
the network, and so we agreed todisagree on that and Antonio
and his crew went in a separatedirection, which is I wish them
nothing but the best.
It just didn't fit into what wewanted.

(16:49):
And we wanted that wild game,that culinary prepare.
You know, jump out in the fieldand get that rabbit and skin it
and bring it to the fire, andyou know, let's do a Cacciatore
wild style, you know.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
Right.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
And so they didn't want to do that.

Speaker 4 (17:09):
Right.
So, yeah, well, I had Antonioon for a show and we talked
about medicinal herbs to cookwith and the benefits of things
like rosemary for memory andbasil for anxiety or people with
sleep problems and things likethat.
So when it was actually wasvery well received, good guy, I
really like him.
Oh, I love him, I love him.

(17:29):
Yeah, you've got Frank as well.
The ugly pike.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Ugly pike.
There's a little niche, that isa specialty area that we felt
we needed on the outdoor journaland that worked out extremely
well on the outdoor journal andthat worked out extremely well
and you know he's got a veryhardcore loyal following and you
know, same with that.
We always hope that maybesomebody from that group

(17:58):
gravitates over to Under theCanopy or to Diaries of a Lodge
Owner or to Outdoor Journal, youknow, and says, hey, you know
what, this isn't bad either.
I can sort of add it to my listof things.
Lodge Owner or to OutdoorJournal, you know, and says, hey
, you know what, this isn't badeither.
I can sort of add it to my listof things that I'm interested
in.

Speaker 4 (18:09):
Yep, and everybody has a different release day.
Ours, under the Canopy, isMondays Yep, and so what are the
release days for the others?

Speaker 1 (18:19):
We're out on Thursdays.
I know that with OutdoorJournal, I think Wednesdays is
Diaries and the rest of them.
I'll be honest with you.
I'd be lying to you if I knewthat's a Dean Taylor question.
Of course Dean is our backboneto the network.
He's the guy who scheduleseverything and used to produce

(18:43):
it all too, until we got toobusy with it, but he still has
his finger on the pulse of theactual distribution of the
network.
So I think we have somethinggoing on every day of the week.
That was certainly the goal atthe onset of the network concept
.
Is that every day, Mondaythrough Saturday, I believe, we

(19:04):
had something dropping.
That was new.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
So just when we started off, you know I
mentioned about asking questions, so our listeners would
understand.
Maybe you can explain what anugly pike is.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Great question.
You know, and I'll be honestwith you, that's what drew me to
Frank and Chris in the firstplace.
I didn't know them personallyand it might have been a TV
thing that they originallycontacted us for.
Whatever it was, what intriguedme about them was the title of

(19:40):
their program.
So the Ugly Pike is a muskie.
They always referred to amuskie as an ugly pike.
Okay, but their program is allabout muskie fishing hardcore,
unadulterated muskie fishing.
It's just for the purists.
But it doesn't mean that thenovice muskie angler can't get

(20:04):
something out of an episode,because one thing that they do
really well is not forget thatnot everybody is at the same
level of muskie fishing as theyare.
So they do get guests andthemselves do take the time to
explain some of the vernacularand some of the patterns and
some of the things that only amuskie fisherman can understand.

(20:26):
They do dumb it down for us andallow us into that magic world
as well.
Yeah, they're just incrediblyinsane muskie anglers, as
probably every real seriousmuskie angler is.
Because you have to be insane,you're going after a fish.
That the chances of you hookingup with a muskie angler is
because you have to be insane,you're going after a fish, that
the chances of you hooking upwith a muskie every day that you

(20:49):
go out is like almost zero,almost zero.
So think about that.
Here's somebody who goes outwith that in mind, that the
chances of me hooking up with mytarget is almost zero.
Right, so start from there andwork down the road.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
It's what they call the fish of 10,000 casts.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
Exactly, there's a reason they call it that.
So, with that in mind, youspend thousands of dollars on
the pursuit of this elusivecreature and, yeah, if you're
not a little bit slightlyoff-center, you're not a serious
muskie fisherman.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
So I'm sure my son Garrett, who's on the podcast
with us all the time, and hisgirlfriend Brittany Brittany
would probably appreciate, alongwith Garrett's mother, my wife
Diane.
Is there some way that we canblock the ugly pike from him
listening to it?
Because I got to tell you.
I come home and oh, what's that?
That's a new muskie lure.
How much is that?

(21:52):
One Five hundred dollars forone lure, handmade lures, and
he's getting 10, 15 of these ata time and it's just like, wow,
I can't.
What do you do with them all,Garrett?

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Hey, I know guys in that fraternity that have got
$1,000 lures that they wouldnever put in the water.
Yeah, okay, that's how insanethat whole activity is, and for
those of us who aren't in thatcircle, we find some of these
movements really tough tobelieve.

(22:25):
Yeah, it goes on every day,right?

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Well and they do well .
Frank and Chris do well attheir job and attracts a lot of
people and, from a parent'sperspective, they sell a lot of
product for my son who's makingthose purchases all the time.
Look at this, dad.
I said when are you going touse it, garrett?

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah right.
Wouldn't dare put it in thewater because it's so expensive.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
Well, that's exactly it.
What do you do if you lose it?
You bring it.
You come with a scuba set justto look for it in case you break
the line.
So tell us, Ang.
This is a busy time of year,though, for you as well, with
the TV show.
A lot of listeners may notunderstand what happens now and
so and it's a big milestone forthe TV show as well it's 40

(23:11):
years, right.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Congratulations on 40 years being on our 40th years,
our 40th year anniversary.
Uh, as far as the field workgoes, it'll be.
It'll start broadcasting injanuary of 26.
Uh, first saturday of january26 will be the debut for the
40th season which we're workingon.
Um, yeah, yeah, to say it'sbeen, we're kind of in the

(23:35):
middle of it, to say it's beenobviously a milestone season.
We all feel it, we sense it, weknow that we're working on
something totally different thisseason even though you know a
lot of this stuff, we're stillgoing through the same motions
every day.
It just feels different.

(23:55):
We hit 40 years of continuousbroadcasts in the television
industry.
We don't, you know, we stilldon't realize it sometimes just
how big that is.
There have been a handful ofCanadian productions in any
genre, not just outdoors orfishing in particular, but in

(24:16):
any television genre.
There's been a handful ofCanadian productions that have
accomplished that, and sometimeswe forget that because it's
fishing and not, you know, asitcom or a comedy series or any
of that stuff.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
I'm going to play this one up a bit, but come on,
Ang.
I mean, how long does it taketo film a fishing show?
I mean, you go out in half anhour and you got a show done,
right?

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, right Jerry.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
I'm leading you out.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Clearly you haven't been on a shoot, jerry.
Clearly you haven't been on ashoot, jerry.
So we, over the course of theyears, we like to look at data
and calculate stuff, and one ofthe things that one of the staff
around here came up with a fewyears ago was which was a
surprise to me, by the way, thishappened about seven, eight

(25:07):
years ago, because we get sointo it, and you know the old
proverbial you can't see theforest for the trees.
Well, we get so deep into thewoods that we can't see the
forest for the trees.
I really had no idea until thisparticular individual brought
it to my attention just how muchgoes into each episode, and so

(25:32):
he collected the data over anumber of years and came up with
an average.
So here's the bottom line,here's the story here.
So the Fish and Cajun show,which is 22 minutes long if you
eliminate all of the commercialbreaks, we deliver 22 minutes of
finished production product toGlobal Television Network every
week.
And in order to get those 22minutes, we average five days in

(26:05):
the field, and our days startat sunup and they generally are
not over until the sun iscompletely gone and we can't
shoot anymore.
And we do that for five days iscompletely gone and we can't
shoot anymore.
And we do that for five days.
Then that product comes back tothe studio and it's handed off
to the post-production team atthat point who then, over the
course of that cycle, will spendanother 14 days on the

(26:25):
post-production part of that 22minutes.
So, when it's all said and done, at the end of the year, nine
people some years as many as 12people have worked on that 22
minutes and it's taken thecompany the better part of a
full month of production time,both field production and

(26:49):
post-production.
And we repeat that week in andweek out.
We're on 52 weeks a year andhave been, like I said, this is
year number 40 that we'reworking on now and when I tell
that to people, they're alwaysjust absolutely amazed.
Hell, I'm amazed when I listento that.
Yeah, the show that you watchSaturday morning where you've

(27:10):
got a couple of guys or one guyor whatever happens to be there,
you know, basically leading youto believe that they just got
into their vehicle and drove tothe lake and, wow, look at that,
fish in, fish in, fish in.
And well, I've had a good dayand it's time to go home.
Not like that at all.
We have people, jerry, that whenwe talk to them at live events

(27:33):
we still have people.
And keep in mind our audienceis almost four generations old,
but three solid generations old.
We've had people from each oneof those three generations still
come up to us and say, man, youguys, I don't know how you do
it.
I, you know, I've been fishingall my life and you guys, like
you guys, go out and the fishare just jumping in the boat.

(27:54):
How do you make it so easy?
And then I have to tell them,chances are, we probably spent
five days making it look easy.
So it's not what people think.
I mean, there's been programson TV and God love them, because
everybody has their own shtick.
And that's not what the Fishand Cannon Show is about

(28:17):
originally and certainly notwhat it has evolved into and not
what it's going to be in thefuture.
Our intent is to depict as bestwe can the many wonderful
opportunities that are availableto, I'll say, most of us Right

(28:37):
that have a passion and a lovefor the outdoors and fishing and
sometimes they just need thatlittle extra nudge, that little
push off the couch to go and tryit.
And that's what we try and doon the Fishing Canada show.
Last thing we want to do ismislead people into thinking
that, wow, that fishing is realeasy, man, just get in a boat.

(28:58):
22 minutes later you're headinghome because you had a great
day.
That's not the case at all.

Speaker 6 (29:15):
Back in 2016,.
Frank and I had a vision toamass the single largest
database of muskie anglingeducation material anywhere in
the world.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Our dream was to harness the knowledge of this
amazing community and share itwith passionate anglers just
like you.

Speaker 6 (29:27):
Thus the Ugly Pike podcast was born and quickly
grew to become one of the topfishing podcasts in North
America.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
Step into the world of angling adventures and
embrace the thrill of the catchwith the Ugly Pike Podcast.
Join us on our quest tounderstand what makes us
different as anglers and touncover what it takes to go
after the infamous fish of10,000 casts.

Speaker 6 (29:48):
The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing.
It's about creating atight-knit community of
passionate anglers who share thesame love for the sport.
Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an unwavering
spirit of adventure.
This podcast will bring peopletogether.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our
angling adventures.
Tight lines everyone.

Speaker 6 (30:08):
Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
And now it's time for another testimonial for Chaga
Health and Wellness.
Okay, we're here in Lindsay,ontario, with Rusty, who's up
from California and visits usevery year, and Rusty has been a
faithful Chaga user for a longtime.
Rusty, maybe you can just tellus about your experience with
Chaga.

Speaker 5 (30:42):
Well, I feel that it's had a significant impact on
my health and well-being.
I believe in what I'm doing.
I think that Jerry is veryknowledgeable on it.
If he says something, I takethat very seriously.
He has spent most of his life inthe health care field and

(31:03):
certainly knows what he'stalking about, and I like to be
around people like that becausethat's what keeps me healthy.
And I'm 80 now and I'm going totry to enjoy what I, what I've
created with the motorcycle, andone thing another which will
require that I live for at leastanother 10 years to get back

(31:25):
what I've invested in my healthand wellness.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
So so you're seeing a , you're seeing a big benefit
from it an overall healthyenvironment and when you go back
to California next month, youactually take quite a bit with
you back to California, don'tyou?

Speaker 5 (31:41):
Oh yes, we're going to be there for eight months and
we don't want to run out, so wetake it back and we take it
every day and you know, like Isay, it's not a problem for me.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
Right, so how do you take it, rusty?

Speaker 5 (32:01):
I put a teaspoon in my coffee each morning when I
brew the coffee and I put it inas the coffee's brewing.
I put that in with it.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
Oh, very good.

Speaker 5 (32:11):
And I put a little bit of cinnamon in with it too,
right.
And then I sweeten my coffeebecause, to take the bitterness,
a little bit of bitterness, Iuse a chaga and maple mix.
Very good that you make up forthose that want to be well and

(32:32):
stay well.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
Okay, well, thanks very much.
We appreciate you taking thetime and sharing your Chaga
experience with you, and we'llmake sure you have a safe trip
back to California.

Speaker 5 (32:41):
Sure enough, all right.
Thank you, jerry, yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Thanks, Rusty.

Speaker 5 (32:44):
Thanks, sir, my pleasure.

Speaker 4 (32:54):
We interrupt this program to bring you a special
offer from Chaga Health andWellness.
If you've listened this far andyou're still wondering about
this strange mushroom that Ikeep talking about and whether
you would benefit from it or not, I may have something of
interest to you about and,whether you would benefit from
it or not, I may have somethingof interest to you.
To thank you for listening tothe show, I'm going to make

(33:18):
trying Chaga that much easier bygiving you a dollar off all our
Chaga products at checkout.
All you have to do is head overto our website,
chagahealthandwellnesscom, placea few items in the cart and
check out with the code CANOPYC-A-N-O-P-Y.
If you're new to Chaga, I'dhighly recommend the regular
Chaga tea.
This comes with 15 tea bags perpackage and each bag gives you

(33:42):
around five or six cups of tea.
Hey, thanks for listening Backto the episode.
So if it takes an average offive days from sunup to pretty
much sundown, how many days doesit take to do a musky show?

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Well, you know, as you may have noticed, as some of
our audiences have noticed, wedon't do very many musky shows,
okay, and we learned a long timeago that you have to put
yourself in the position ofsuccess more often than in the
position of failure.
Right, and when you're talkingabout a production crew, it's

(34:23):
not just a guy or two going outfishing.
We have people that their jobis to be able to document and
depict what we do out there andput it into a nice, entertaining
, well-packaged, visuallypleasing episode of the Fish and
Canada show.
So we try and put ourselves ina position to succeed Muskie

(34:46):
anglers.
As I just told you a fewminutes ago, they go out on the
water knowing full well thattheir chance of making contact
with a muskie today is almostzero, right, almost zero.
Yep, we can't do that.
So every once in a while weforget that, and every once in a
while and usually that once ina while is probably every four

(35:07):
or five years, probably everyfour or five years when we're
sitting around the table at thebeginning of our cycle, we say,
man, we got to get a musky showin this year, and so you know a
couple of us, yeah, that's agreat idea.
We haven't done musky for thelongest time.
Let's do a musky show.
And then somewhere in the next12 months, when we've gone out

(35:29):
to try and do a musky show, wesay who the hell suggested that
we should do a musky show?
Exactly, having said that, wedo, every once in a while, hit a
home run.
We've been very fortunate tohave probably, I'm going to say
a half a dozen, and this is inthe 40 years, to have a half a

(35:51):
dozen, and this is in the 40years.
Okay, to have a half a dozenreally, really outstanding musky
episodes, and I can.
I know each one of them.
I have each one of them likepermanently stamped on my brain
because they were so hard toproduce, right, and because we
got so incredibly lucky that wedo have them, but but no, a few
apart between and.
And the other reason we don't doit is because not everybody is

(36:11):
going to go out musky fishing.
No, well, if, if you get it, ifyou get one when you're, you
know it's as an incidental catch, when you're walleye trolling
or casting for small mouth bassor whatever, you know those
stories that we hear about.
Where somebody is, you knowthey catch a musky inadvertently
?
Yeah, that that's, that's aptto happen, but very few of us

(36:35):
actually have the fortitudebecause that's what it takes to
say I am going out muskiefishing.
It's a small group of hardcorepeople.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah, do it yeah, so muskie, what would be the most
popular fish that uh people liketo watch on your shows on?

Speaker 1 (36:54):
So that's kind of changed over the years.
We track that annually andwe've been tracking it since
2012.
Okay, it was the first timethat we started using that stat
in our data collection, andCanada as a whole has gone
through a bit of a cycle.

(37:15):
It used to be, believe it ornot, lake trout and I'm talking
nationally.
Oh, okay, really Lake trout itwas the number one when people
were asked anglers were askedwhat fish turned your crank.
Basically, it was lake trope,by far.
And then, um, I'm going to sayI'm gonna say in the oh, 2018,

(37:42):
ish, okay, uh, that shifteddrastically to walleye, yep, or,
depending what part of thecountry you live in, could be
dory, could be pickerel, okay,by the way, by the way, I'm
going to do a t-shirt.
It'll have a question on it andthat is when is a walleye?
Not?

(38:02):
Oh, no, when is a walleye apickerel?
And on the bottom is it readswhen it's a pike, because the
true definition of a pickerel isa pike.
Yes, chain pickerel, yeah,right, so, anyways, that's just.
I digress.
But so then walleye reallybecame huge across the nation

(38:24):
and lake trout dropped to numbertwo, and then it dropped to
number three and now it'sprobably number four.
We haven't looked uh in thispast 12 month cycle, but a
strong number two now isdefinitely a combination of bass
, um, both largemouth andsmallmouth, and um the trout

(38:46):
family, other than lake trout,has moved it to number three and
that includes all of the othertrout species.
You know, salmon uh, regionally, can play a big role in the
favorite fish, for example, youknow, obviously out on the west
coast it's the only fish rightthat even makes the the needle
move on the meter uh.

(39:06):
But here in the great lakesnear home salmon have played a
major role.
The Great Lakes salmon, thefreshwater salmon, have played a
pretty big part, but never havethey gotten into the top four.
Always been five or six downthe line as far as favorite, I
would have thought.
But without question, walleyeis king right now.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
I would have thought, when all the derbies were on
the salmon derbies that theywould have probably been peaked
at that time because people wereout en masse and you know, here
in Oshawa you go down to theOshawa Centre and they'd be
giving out weekly awards at thebig mall here and things like
that.
I would have thought that wouldhave been a time when the
salmon and salmon fishing wouldhave been peaked in this area.
But obviously not.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
It's all about critical mass, buddy, just like
anything else.
When you had all of those boatsfishing the Great Lakes, in
particular Lake Ontario,especially during the salmon
derby, et cetera, if you had allthose individual anglers that
were involved in that, you mighthave 300,000 people, right,
okay, as far as the Canadianangling community, at that time,

(40:09):
when this Great Lakes salmonfishery was at its peak, we were
selling 6 million fishinglicenses in Canada.
So just to bring it all intoperspective, right, 300,000, 6
million.
So that's the disparity.
By the way, that's sincedropped drastically.
Okay, we now have, I think thelast census told us we had 3.8

(40:33):
million licensed anglers, and Ican kind of explain that.
Two parts.
Number one part is that a lotof people my age and beyond all
of a sudden discovered one dayhey, I don't need a license
anymore because I'm 65.
That's right, and that was ahuge group.

(40:53):
You know that six millionnumber that we had in the 80s
and 90s.
A lot of them were getting upin age, yep, and so now they're
called the baby boomers.
Right, now we've all eclipsedthat 65 year period that we used
to think was old, now that's.
We look back at that, say, wow,that was a good.

(41:16):
I was young back then.
So we don't have licensesanymore and I'm talking about
people my age, um, but we stillmake up a big part of the
angling community in thiscountry.
Yep, and as we've been droppingoff of the census because we
can't be identified anymore,because we don't need a license,

(41:37):
it's been a disproportionatenumber that's been coming in at
the bottom end.
So a lot more of us have turned, have hit the 65 plus, but not
an equal amount has come in tobuy up those licenses that we
used to buy.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
right, exactly so, and it's an age thing, obviously
yeah, well, there's been quitea few changes, you know, having
been the minister.
Now we see that the regulations, uh, printed in in mandarin and
chinese and things like that,because of the number of influx
of of immigrants that are comingin, that are fishing and making
sure that they can understandthe regulations, because it's as

(42:17):
clear as mud those regulationsstill to this day.
Oh, boy.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, you know, you'd almost think and you were a
part of this, so maybe I'mtalking to you now You'd almost
think that you went out of yourway and paid consultants to make
the regulations unreadable,totally dysfunctional, because

(42:42):
when I read them I say okay,somebody went out of their way
to make me have to go from pagefive to page 51 and then back to
41 and then 32 in order to getit.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
You know.
So I don't know, I don'tunderstand how they come up with
those regs.

Speaker 4 (43:02):
Well, not only have the regs changed that much, but
the technologies that are outthere.
I imagine the technologies foryour fishing show has changed
quite a bit, for, like drones,for example, that give a
different perspective whenyou're fishing out there and you
utilize a lot of those newtechnologies, which is which is
great for, like you mentionedabout visual visual presentation
for people.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, drone drone has completely changed the way we
uh, the way we design ourepisodes.
I think somebody made a pointlast year somebody from a
technical aspect on our stafffigured out that 18% of our
visual assets on on an episode18% is collected from our drones

(43:47):
.
We have three drones that wefly, so that's almost 20% of the
show is shot from drones,whereas you know, I don't know,
six years ago it was 0%.
So that's been a hugetransition for us.
It's changed the programcompletely and from an audience
standpoint, it further connectsthem to the adventure right,

(44:14):
because up until then theycouldn't sort of get that big
view.
Oh yeah, we did yep.
And by blending drone footagein with on boat camera work, it
really, I think, allows theaudience to come into our boat
with us every Saturday and kindof experience what we're and

(44:35):
listen.
That's always been our goal.
Our goal has not been to teachpeople how to catch fish yep,
that's that.
The television show is not theright platform because it's in
22 minute bits.
It's impossible for us toeffectively teach people 22
minutes at a time without havingeach show interconnected.

(44:56):
Our shows, our episodes, all ofthem are designed to stand on
their own, so we can do a littlebit of teaching, but that's not
the intent of the show.
The intent of the show is toallow people to live vicariously
through us.
Most of the places that weshoot the shows probably will

(45:21):
never be visited by most of ouraudience.
We know that.
But we're hoping that allowingthem to join us on the boat
every Saturday and experiencethe emotional part of what
fishing is about and theoutdoors in general is about,
we'll spur them on to going outand doing it themselves.
A lot of our audience membersdon't fish on a regular basis.
In fact, I'm going to tell youat least half, if not more,

(45:45):
slightly more than half, havenot fished in the last five
years.
They had a connection, maybe asa child.
They have a family memberthat's connected to it, but they
themselves don't.
And we're hoping that byproducing this wonderful little
22-minute piece of entertainmentthat is designed to get them to

(46:08):
smell what we're smelling andhear what we're hearing and
enjoying the moment like we are,we'll spur them on to say hey,
you know, I got to do it.
I got to take my son out, I gotto take my dad out, my daughter
, I got to get out there, I justgot to do more excuses.

(46:28):
I just watch these guys havethe time of their life.
Why can't I do it?
I can do it, I will do it.
I'm going to do it.
That's kind of the concept ofthe Fishing Canada show.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
Yeah, I got to tell you, ange, when we ran the, when
I had the privilege to be ableto run the kids' fishing days,
the biggest comments that I hadcome forward were from single
parent moms that would come upand say you know, when I was a
little girl, my dad used to takeme fishing all the time and I
look forward to this to be ableto take my kids all the time.
And we really just want tothank everybody and you know you

(47:00):
were part of that and so manyother groups participated in
showing people how to fish andmaking the rods and reels
available, stocking the pondsand all that kind of stuff,
which was really good to seethose individuals to get out
there and spend that time to getout fishing and which is just a
great way to enjoy things.
Guess what Out there under thecanopy right.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
You got it, buddy.
That's what this network is allabout.
If we can, if we can influenceone person, just one person,
with all of our products that weproduce, if we can, in my mind,
if we can influence one personto take that step, that one step
that's keeping them fromconnecting and enjoying what we

(47:44):
take for granted.
We've accomplished so much.
We've accomplished so much.
Yes, we've accomplished Our jobis done for that one day, yep,
right.
And that's the way I feel aboutour product, all of our
products, whether it's thepodcast, your podcast, the TV
show.
To me, our focus should all beabout one thing, and that is

(48:08):
let's make sure that we are theconduit that brings that one
person who has not introducedany of our products, brings that
one person to what we call homeand allows them to go through
that portal and experience whatwe take for granted and then say
hallelujah.

Speaker 4 (48:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Why do I wait so long ?

Speaker 4 (48:28):
Exactly, exactly Well .
Congratulations on 40 years ofproviding that experience for
people out there through thetelevision network and giving
that people the opportunity tolive vicariously through you and
getting out there and fishingin one way, shape or another.
And you know, personally I wantto thank you for making me a

(48:49):
part of the network.
I enjoy coming and doing thepodcast and it's yeah, it's a
lot of work to try and give someof the audiences something that
they want to listen to outthere.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Let me just interject too.
I wanted to mention one otherthing before we go here.
I want to all you guys areworking so hard producing your
shows and I know what goes intoit and I know it's a labor of
love, but I want to just sendthis out to anybody that might
be listening that maybe has aproduct that kind of connects

(49:25):
with our type of audience.
Producers like Jerry, believeme, are doing this for nothing,
but as we grow, I would like tothink that there is some reward
for all of this hard work and Iurge anybody that is in a
position to maybe get involvedwith Jerry's show, with Under

(49:48):
the Canopy, and maybe become anadvertiser or a sponsor or
anything along those lines.
I urge you to reach out to him.
This man works harder thananybody else alive and he's so
passionate about what he doesthat it'd be great to think that
somewhere down the road thatthis tree that he has planted

(50:11):
and is nurturing and raisingwill bear some fruit.
Of course, that fruit is in theform of support.
If you want the program tocontinue, if you want to be able
to listen to it from whereveryou're listening to it, some
support, even little support,like subscribe, would be a huge

(50:32):
benefit.
Pass this on to somebody andinfluence somebody else to
listen to this podcast would beincredibly beneficial to the
product.
So don't think that you can'tmake a difference, because any
of those moves I just suggestedcan move the needle for Jerry's

(50:53):
show and I think if you enjoy it, if you love it, let them know.
Nothing like love makes youwork even harder than you
already are.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
Well, we appreciate all the support that you're able
to provide out there Ange, inmaking these things happen.
I mean here in your recordingstudio, using your equipment and
being able to provide someentertainment for the audience
out there.
And I think the response thatwe get from people like I just
mentioned about the personHalliburton really loves their
show they get out there and thatsort of thing it's.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
You know I enjoy doing it and we hope to continue
doing it and remember Gary, allyou need to do is influence
that one person to take thatlast step.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
Yep, To get it right, absolutely, absolutely Well,
ange.
Thanks very much.
We really appreciate the updateon what's happening.
Congratulations on 40 years.
Thank you for making us a partof your network and we're going
to continue to work hard andprovide some information for
things that are happening outthere under the canopy.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
thanks, ang and congratulations on episode 100
brother appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
Ang.
Thank you, take care.
Yep, bye for now.
How did a small-town sheetmetal mechanic come to build one
of Canada's most iconic?

Speaker 2 (52:14):
fishing lodges.
A small-town sheet metalmechanic come to build one of
Canada's most iconic fishinglodges.
I'm your host, Steve Nitzwicky,and you'll find out about that

(52:39):
and a whole lot more on theOutdoor Journal, Radio Network's
newest podcast, Diaries of aLodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to
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 1 (53:00):
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 5 (53:10):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that's might be for more
fishing than it was punching.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
You so confidently.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
You said hey, pat have you ever eaten a drum?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.
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