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LIVE from Nordic Point and Lumberjack Lodge | Outdoor Journal Radio ep. 125
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Dec 2, 2024
Ever wondered what it takes to film a fishing show in the wild, unpredictable outdoors of Northwestern Ontario? Join us as we kick off our on-the-road outdoor journal radio podcast series from the stunning Sturgeon Lake, staying at the beautiful Lumberjack Lodge. Angelo Viola and Peter Bowman, along with their dedicated crew, share the exhilarating start to our 2025 Fish'n Canada broadcast season. From recounting our scenic drive and overnight stay in Wawa, Ontario, to the incredible fishing adventures at Nordic Point Lodge—known for its exceptional hospitality and mouth-watering cuisine—we bring you along for a journey where comfort and good food play a crucial role in making these trips unforgettable. But it’s not all smooth sailing; our adventures come with their own set of challenges. In this episode, we explore the cutting-edge technology that enhances our fishing experiences and the unique benefits of bringing your own boat, motor, and trailer to navigate the diverse lakes of Northwest Ontario. We dive into the dual perspective view offered by our new live scope and blue water transducer setup, while also sharing our gritty reality of facing unpredictable weather and strong winds. Despite the rough conditions at Nordic Point, our determination to keep filming showcases the resilience required to tackle nature's elements head-on. Get ready for an adventure filled with innovation, perseverance, and the raw beauty of outdoor fishing. Listen to our Podcast, Outdoor Journal Radio: The Podcast ► Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3J0klPY ► Apple Music: https://apple.co/3CtzZkp ► Subscribe http://bit.ly/youtube-fishncanada Don't forget to leave a COMMENT and give us a LIKE if you enjoyed what you saw. SUBSCRIBE for new videos and episodes released weekly! CONNECT WITH US -------------------------------- ► WEBSITE http://fishncanada.com ► FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/FishnCanada/
View Video Transcript
0:02
oo baby where did you get that yeah that's
0:08
new for you it is right welcome to the show and as you can tell by Willy's
0:13
voice there this is the first of a series of on the road again Outdoor Journal Radio podcast coming to you from
0:20
uh fishing Canada locations where we're shooting the new uh I guess it's 2025
0:26
broadcast season yeah yeah I would have said 2024 because but you're right right
0:31
seon we have to think ahead uh I'm Angelo viol he is Peter Bowman we have baa behind the camera and Dean Taylor
0:37
over there on the board and our lovely friends from Wisconsin us here give me hell yeah hell yeah you're going to see
0:43
people walking in and out of the set we are uh on location at Lumberjack Lodge on Sturgeon Lake uh that is an absolute
0:52
we're going to talk about it later but it's an absolutely stunning stunning location everything about it is
0:58
including the fishing way including the fish we're in the front office so if you see people wandering in and out signing
1:05
up uh don't worry about it it's very cool we told them they could do that yeah we encourage it so this is uh the
1:13
tail end of a by the way we're in Northwest Ontario Just to let everybody know that this the location we're at
1:19
right now uh on sergeon lake is Northwestern Ontario so it's a long haul for it's is pretty funny we have the the
1:26
people from Wisconsin have a 9-hour drive to get here we're fromt we have an 18-hour drive to get here just let you
1:33
know so you could drive across half a Europe in 18 hours yep but that's what
1:38
we do for fishing folks and and we encourage all of you to to wander out of
1:44
your comfort zone I know we talked a lot of people all the time and and say yeah well you guys go up to Northern parts of
1:49
the country especially Northern Ontario and it's just too far to drive but you know the two days we spent getting up
1:56
here are all going to be part of the adventure and the journey of course we are for instance our
2:02
stopping point is Wawa Ontario everybody knows Wawa it's a great little town Great Northern Ontario Town stay
2:07
overnight go for a little dinner in the town and then take off the rest of the home of the giant goose in case you come
2:15
on now but anyways we're on the tail end of her now uh we're down the home stretch we've got uh another going home
2:23
tomorrow two days well we're heading we're heading home tomorrow it'll be a couple days before we get there and um I
2:30
got to tell you it for the first shoot of the season um it has already been a full
2:36
season worth of Adventures and we're going to share some of those things with you The Good the Bad and the Ugly yeah
2:42
we've had them all no doubt about it uh our trip started out to a wonderful place called Nordic Point Lodge which
2:48
you're going to see on I think the very first episode of the fishing Canada show for the 2025 season and uh it's a unique
2:57
uh operation to say the least it's uh owned by uh Willie Pelosi and his wife
3:02
Christa uh wonderful host by the way fantastic fantastic I got to tell you maybe some of the best food oh yeah
3:10
their chef what was his do you remember his name I want to say Chris Dean Garrett Garrett yeah maybe
3:16
something like that Garrett I'm sorry if I called you Chris Garrett he was so good man his food was oh my God you know
3:24
it's funny because I think food is one of those components when you're a spending time at places like this I
3:32
think it's one of those components that is I'm going to say a must you know if
3:38
you're doing the American Plan thing right yeah it's a yeah but a place like this where stay out now they don't do the American Plan it's housekeeping and
3:44
then but still become food becomes a must because you got to plan all your trips will does both he does housekeeping and American plan they got
3:49
a great main Lodge that you could eat in and dine in but you can also he has cabins where you can cook bring your own food in too so and that's all part of
3:55
the game you choose you you choose your poison and go from it one of the you unque features of that uh location as
4:02
well as this one that we're on today on uh on Sturgeon Lake um is that they're
4:08
both Drive TOS which is kind of cool awesome bring our boat right and that's
4:14
the big thing uh this this is uh a rubber tire trip which I think everybody
4:20
should experience I mean the flyings are great don't get me wrong they're spectacular in fact the Nordic Point
4:25
Lodge offers a flying opportunity as well as a drive to but come on now uh
4:31
yeah exactly because our very own Dean Taylor experienced it give me a hell
4:36
along with Steve n wikii uh also co-host along with Dean of that uh episode of
4:42
the fishing Canada show which you'll see later on in the season and they uh they got uh selected to be the Flyin
4:48
participants while Peter and I uh took the Princecraft and put it in uh the
4:54
lake there and uh spent three days Lake pero Lake per Lake spent three days um
5:00
which we'll uh detail here in a moment that's a that's a big thing for for Northwest
5:06
Ontario you're going to see so many people most people are going to bring their boat motor and trailer package up
5:12
with them they're going to tow up behind them and you see like in this parking lot here this whole place we have right now everybody every Camp every Cottage
5:18
has a boat motor and trailer they don't even I don't even know if they rent boats here or not they probably do but at Will's place you definitely can rent
5:24
boats but you see so many people just bring them up I remember going to like especially the musky lodges in Northwest
5:30
antario they are just loaded with the best of the best packages you know what I mean all the 20 21 Footers 22 Footers
5:36
and the hardcore guys and and girls going out there nowadays and uh it's just a great way as an says the rubber
5:43
tire drive to these lodges on the best lakes in the world so you see it a lot I would highly encourage if you should
5:50
decide to make the track to Nordic Point Lodge and if you own your own fishing
5:57
boat I would highly encourage you to consider bringing it up with you because
6:03
then you get the opportunity to fish one of the literally hundreds of lakes all
6:09
within an hour to an hour half an hour and a half drive from n that's a great
6:14
point right and and you can literally fish a different Lake every day of your stay and they're all spectacular Lakes
6:21
they all have different species you can Target species or you can spend a half a day here and a half a day there go
6:27
speckled troat fishing in the morning and fishing uh uh or bass fishing or pike fishing or lak Road fishing in the
6:34
afternoon that's a good point if you don't have your boat it's still a great experience a wonderful experience
6:41
because will has some boats in some of those Lakes I believe he got his main
6:47
boats he's got his main boats on the and they're all nice big 18t boats they're beautiful and he's got little boats 14f
6:53
Footers on his out Lakes but you don't have that ability to drive to other lakes and put your trailer your boat there so that's a big thing you know
7:00
that's not huge some people don't care they just want to come up and not bring a boat up and that's perfectly fine you know convenient so it's up to you but
7:06
you're missing out I got to tell you miss note in the opportunity to to skip and hop around um so we came up here
7:13
with our Prince craft our big 21 foot uh Princecraft the Expedition 200 and it
7:19
this was its maiden voyage for uh this year uh we were excited to come up here
7:25
because we were trying out some new toys first of all let me just uh give a shout out to a new sponsor of this very uh
7:32
show in fact Dean am I correct a sponsor of the network or just a show no just the show just a show thank you uh so um
7:41
we want to a big shout out to the folks at fishfindermounts.com
7:47
hell yeah hell yeah and we uh we hooked up with these guys because we found
7:53
their their stuff online and we said oh my God we have got to hook up with them
7:58
and start using and some of their their goodies they make the highest quality
8:04
most I the slickest looking amounts for
8:09
electronics not just fish finders but just Electronics in general that you will ever ever correct see correct and
8:16
they're they're one of our main things we do in these fly ends is we still like to bring our our Electronics in they
8:21
make a portable kit like no other they have a 30 amp hour battery pack you can run USB out of you can do all kinds of
8:27
stuff and then it it powers 9 it's garment for days so it's a it's a total
8:33
and then with their mounts on with their mounting and it's perfect it's just I can't wait to use it but the main uh one
8:39
of the main reasons we wanted to use this episode as an opportunity to play
8:44
with some new toys because with their uh mounts their fish finder mounts and
8:50
transducer mounts we were uh blessed with the opportunity to try something
8:57
totally out of the box we used um the conventional Liv scope transducer the uh
9:04
LVS 34 in its normal position in other words looking straight ahead up and
9:11
downward and on the other side of the boat on one of the most robust uh mounts
9:17
I have ever seen in my life we've got this big um XR
9:24
62 which is a blue water or saltwater version of the smaller 34 but the big
9:32
difference is that it will shoot Beyond 300 ft Beyond 300 ft which to me when I
9:39
first heard about it I I couldn't even believe that there was that kind of technology so he said well what if we
9:44
what if we Mount them we'd heard a few uh guys on the uh on the internet that had tried it played around especially
9:51
fishing Pros on the bass circuits that had tried mounting two 34s one in
9:56
perspective mode and one uh looking straightforward um but there was some
10:01
interference correct uh and it just Sho the same signal there was frequency problems frequency problems yeah so we
10:07
said well why don't we try mounting this big 62 with this 300 plus foot range put
10:15
it on perspective mode on the end of this big pole and uh the 34 on the other
10:20
side and shoot them uh at the same time shooting the same direction on two
10:25
screens and basically we're thinking in terms of in our minds an overlaid view
10:31
right because you can see one Happening Here one happening here this one is giving you the the North and South
10:37
positioning of that fish or whatever and this one's giving you the East and West so now you kind of draw them together
10:44
and it should be the answer to all of our fish catching problems yeah good luck with that it did
10:52
work the system did work now we're just getting used to it obviously we've had two shoots to do it with and you know like six days in the water whatever
10:58
playing with it and all that it does work but it takes a lot of getting used to it it's a lot of you know a lot of signal going out there and you a lot of
11:05
interpretation especially in that perspective M you seeing 10 and some odd degrees of of picture we keep it
11:12
pointing straight forward for the most part on our boat and use a trolling motor just to go along because usually that's our casting range anyways like
11:18
that and then if you see something you can always turn the life scope plus to you know towards the what you see and
11:25
you'll pick them up like that so it's cool it's really neat by the way we were using the also brand new uh technology
11:33
for us the new uh Kraken U Garmin Kraken um engine at the front the electric
11:39
motor and normally uh it was designed for boats like ours with big deep hulls
11:44
it's got long shaft it's got everything that's required for a big aluminum Hull
11:50
but one of the real cool features about it is that Garmin made it so that you could actually uh hook a Liv scope cable
11:58
through through the shaft and down into the head of the engine so you don't have all of that wire cable hanging out on
12:05
the outside now for us that's not how we hooked it up because of these new poles
12:10
um and we wanted the mobility factor that the poles give us so when the engine is on lock the electric motor is
12:16
on Lock and it's trying to keep you in position we're not losing the picture
12:22
that we're uh focused on so it it's once again this was all stuff we wanted to come up here and try out for the first
12:28
time you know also we tried out something new is the echo map Ultra 2 units uh they now are you're able to
12:35
record on them so today we wrote we were recording on our phones the screens and hopefully we'll be able to show that on
12:40
the on the show if it turns out well it was cool but that is the perfect scenario and having this is by the way
12:48
our 39th year of heading out for the first shoot
12:53
of the season so we're a bit experienced thank you we are uh experienced at uh
13:00
things uh and all those things happened on this trip so we're going to share
13:05
some of those things with you because a lot of you folks think that we go out and it's just beautiful the sun is
13:10
always uh shining there's never any wind the fish well we know them all by first
13:15
name so when we come up the lake jump in the boat for us we don't have to do anything uh
13:22
not and these past 10 days or any oh yeah indication we started rough for for
13:29
sure first two days we started really rough give us a at Nordic point so we get there and right off the hop in the
13:35
morning we're having breakfast in the lodge and we look out and it's about a 20K constant win in the morning which is
13:41
not that's not too bad but 20 20K with you know 30k gusts or something like that by the time we hit the water there
13:47
was at least 30k constant like throughout the the entire day and ended up being three days but the best part
13:53
was the lodge owner will said it's never windy up here it's never windy up here we put our boat in the water 3 days and
13:58
we we got the not beat out of us I mean no matter how big a boat you got in that stuff it is rough and in being rough and
14:05
you're driving in we we we said The Show Must Go On so we hammered through all these waves it's not you know it's not
14:11
the best thing for your boat I mean if you can avoid it you should avoid it but sometimes you got to do it first uh the
14:16
first problem was uh a fuse holder that we have for for our LVS 62 Liv scope XR
14:23
it busted the Garment unit punched in and busted the fuse holder so we had that we had to go back to the Dock and
14:30
we didn't know that that's what had happened by the way no we we were out in the water trying to figure things out figure things out figure things out and
14:35
we finally went back to the dock and I said you know what there's only one thing left answer before we take everything apart maybe there's something
14:40
gone off the fuse and U and that was it the fuse holder was busted and it just separated a little bit so we lost power
14:46
to that so we jury rigged that up fixed it up and then we got that done that day was good after that that day was smooth
14:52
and then we went on to day two and uh what was it oh yeah that that day we started to hear our our plate for so the
15:00
Garin Kraken that he's talking the Garment Force Kraken that an just talking about it's mounted on a plate on the top of our bow in the prince craft
15:06
and in that on that plate you have to attach it to the front the front gunnel along with the hood built onto the
15:12
Princecraft so you got four bolts on there and you got four bolts across there well the water was so rough that those four bolts we had out in there
15:19
literally pulled out ripped the threads and pulled out of the top of the boat so now the Garment
15:24
is up and down on the bracket we going to lose it to the point the bracket which is in steel probably yeah is warp
15:31
as plate is warping up like that so again we had to come back in 30 40K wins
15:36
and like that put her on the trailer got to Will's uh shop and we literally replaced all three of the bolts three of
15:42
the four with big quarter 20s or whatever they were with better threading better bolts and etc etc so that we lost
15:50
basically two half days out of that whole thing right there so and don't forget we lost a few parts off of our
15:55
new uh fishfindermounts.com h all the waves we lost we lost a very
16:01
important component a little spring pull and yeah so it was uh the wind always
16:06
kills you you're making it sound honestly you're making it sound almost
16:11
tolerable It was intolerable we we dealt with it and went back in the water each
16:16
day no we didn't go back after the patrolling motor thing no the the fish fer day we did but yeah we did by luck
16:22
too by the way when we came back fortunately we had another one of those boxes um um on on our portable Garmin
16:31
unit that we tried we thought it was the Box what was that box called uh gls10 gls10 because that's a signal that we
16:38
were getting um anyways bottom line is we inter we we we swapped it out put a new box in wired it up that still didn't
16:45
work and it was hours before we discovered that uh it was this broken fuse that P to but anyway so so that's
16:52
the technical part uh in terms of problems now normally what happens on shoot one of the year there's always
16:59
little things that we forget you know mostly gear personal gear so somebody will you know forget the a pair of uh
17:07
you know waterproof Footwear the rain jacket or usually it's kind of personal
17:12
gear like that well guess what we were out um headed out on day one through
17:19
these massive waves we got out of the waves into a little Back Bay before we lost the
17:26
electronics I got a big wall on no no no no no oh we knew we didn't have it
17:32
before we left oh remember we Bor the day before we borrowed one from a guide
17:38
that's correct from uh Johnny Little Johnny at uh at Nordic Point Lodge we
17:43
forgot our net we literally forgot our fishing net you know what I mean so it's like you got a whole list and I didn't
17:48
even look at a checklist I was so we were right to the wire wiring up our boat fixing up our boat and getting it
17:53
ready to go and I just we threw stuff in safety's in good the boer's in good all
17:59
that kind of stuff there was another problem then we ran out of battery too ran out of battery so then we forgot our
18:04
net so we said well just know to leave well you got a net and they yeah they grabbed it up a gues boat so the day one
18:10
we had a net with us on day one right but we didn't do any fishing because of all those problems that we just alluded
18:15
to so day two now the problems are fixed we get out to our spot that we wanted to
18:22
fish day one and uh we get into a big walleye by the way the walleye on on
18:28
Nordic point at Nordic Point Lodge on Pearl Lake are just breathtaking but anyway that's a whole other story
18:35
anyways we get into this W and and then I'm saying get the net get the
18:41
net I went back to get the net and the net wasn't there and I said you know probably probably probably said [ __ ] or
18:48
whatever or something and the Net's not here what do you mean that not here I said the net is
18:54
not here so one of the guides that night either took it back or somebody took out
18:59
of our boat because we borrowed it and put it back I guess where they belonged thinking that we didn't need a net for the rest of the trip or whatever I so I
19:05
go to handland this wle it's 24 in for sure at least I'm going to hand land this fish and and it's on a drop shot so
19:11
I'm trying to pull the line let it go pull the line and I'm trying to to Gill the fish I couldn't get anywhere near it cuz
19:17
water water's CH we were in R ridiculous wind and and Pike will play the game
19:23
he'll open up for you w they they got nasty stuff on there so finally just just about to get it and the line pops
19:30
Walley takes out well we saw the fish the camera saw the fish so you will see it on that whole sequence we got on on
19:36
on on camera so so we cons we consoled ourselves uh of of the bad luck The
19:42
Misfortune that we had had up until now and I I think two or three casts after
19:49
that we went back we went back so that was where working the trolling motor the Kraken was anchored we were working into the wind we said let's go up around now
19:56
and we'll cast with the wind so we dro the power poles down on the other side of that then then n started casting and made a cast two three casts later I said
20:02
I got another big one get the net oh yeah we don't have the net okay don't worry about it and and I'm dragging this
20:09
fish in of course the wind's blowing one way the waves are blowing the other way this thing felt like it was a
20:15
monster I get it close to the boat and I realized I had hooked into a net a
20:22
landing net a landing net half a landing net basically a landing net without the screw in handle so and it's literally
20:29
the same net that I forgot back at the office it literally it's just old grungy it had moss on it it looked like a old
20:36
snaap and turtle's body or whatever like that so we started laughing and and what are the chances and that's what we used
20:41
for the rest of the trip that was our landing net for the rest of the trip so there's a little small it looked like a throat net we were dipping up no hand
20:47
hand gripper on it and oh my God so i' hadd forgotten about that oh my God uh
20:54
anyways I don't want to make it sound like and that's all on camera too you got all that on camera that will'll make the fish and Canada television show for
21:00
2025 for sure so just you'll see it it's pretty cool pretty funny at the end of it all uh we uh we had to we couldn't go
21:08
out the third day on the main Lake cuz the winds were just terrible so was even worse worse yeah if that like it was
21:14
Unreal so we headed out to um a couple of areas that had U we we were told had
21:20
some big Walle in small small much smaller Lakes the wind wasn't as bad we could work the the fish uh fairly easily
21:28
yeah this was all this was all in the dren area like basically if you look at a map you see dren Ontario this this is
21:34
kind of the area uh that we were in so and in this Lake uh we'd never been on it before very small body of water uh we
21:42
just started playing around with the with some some stuff and bottom line is on the episode you'll see we ended up
21:49
catching two beautiful walleye we learned something from one of them we
21:55
learned we were shocked from the biggest of the two because we were under the belief as Mr
22:02
Taylor behind me uh Dean was uh that in fact I think Dean did you just not
22:08
publish something recently about the mail Walley being under I published something last year and actually on the
22:14
episode that I shot was Steve uh I mentioned it in the boat which you probably won't now see on
22:20
the no you put it we'll put that in our show he like wrong answer so you know
22:27
every EXP ERT that we've ever talked to about walleye including uh Dr Cook just
22:32
lately though we've never heard of this before right until this year or last year they all made a statement that we
22:39
took as gospel and why wouldn't we and that is that generally the male of the
22:45
species of w I'm talking about now um will will very seldom exceed that 18in
22:51
length 17 18 in so generally the smaller of the two that you catch will be a male
22:57
and the bigger ones will be female well let me tell you uh you'll see it on the show we caught a huge
23:04
walleye and it turned out to be male because it was spewing Milt everywhere
23:10
on the boat I mean it was just spewing it so it must have been at a time that was well past uh you know posts spawn
23:17
the water temperatures made no sense as to that fish having you know uh Milt in it and etc etc but I mean the water was
23:25
well it was 50s it was in the mid-50s while I at 44 is you know what I mean usually and they're done so we we
23:32
figured that fish is just done it canceled it spawn it didn't get a chance to have fun with his with his woman and
23:38
the and and the herum and and he just took up and they'll basically absorb it or I guess they spit it out like stress
23:45
I've never seen a fish do that so but it confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt
23:51
that you can get uh male walleye growing beyond the 24 23 24 25 inch yeah anyways
23:59
that's what we learned from that and then another beautiful walleye immediately after that uh two lake trout
24:05
which shocked the hell out of us yeah in 10 to 15 ft of water trolling in 10 to 15 ft of water and a pike a scarred up
24:12
ugly ugly scarred up beat up post bond Pike so it was a and then to complete
24:17
the Partridge in the Paar tree theme we caught a small mouth as well so a couple of small M so it was a great all on a
24:24
little tiny Lake uh in a matter of a half a day all of this stuff happened so that's fun and that's so much fun taking
24:30
your boat put it on the trailer picking a lake talking to some locals and going and dropping it in sometimes you just
24:35
find the pot gold at the end of the rainbow we didn't catch a lot of fish there but they were all quality it was a beauty little lake so but we had some
24:42
Intel we had real good Intel we didn't pick it they didn't yeah don't throw dirt out or anything it was a big fish
24:48
lake and uh not big in quantity but certainly big in quality and uh thank
24:54
God that the wind was blowing hard that day we probably would have never could that's for sure so so I just finishing
25:02
up the Nordic Point Lodge trip um I do want to State again uh the ownership of
25:09
that camp is in good hands with uh will and Christ uh they are uh I think uh
25:15
twoyear owners I think of the operation and he's will is gungho like he is he
25:21
wants to make this large of success so he's working hard at it in terms of location as Pete mentioned uh Dryden was
25:28
the closest uh yeah you drive west of gyden what's the what's down Dean what
25:33
was that little town we went North at it's a little we where Bobby's Bait and Tackle is and all that stuff people
25:39
anybody listen know yeah what a classic place I canot think of the name if you ever driving by Bobby's bait and tackle
25:47
on the highway that Peter's going to give us uh the name up Highway 17 Highway 17 you have to stop in it's an
25:54
absolute must is it ear Falls no ear Falls was further north than where we were so I'll get her boys keep talking
26:01
you have Bob Pete and I first stopped in the bobbi's about uh oh I I'm going say
26:06
Vermillion Bay Vermillion Bay I think it was Vermillion Bay that's it yeah uh we
26:11
stopped in there about 15 years ago for the first time and uh experience it man
26:16
I'll tell you it's it looks the same today as it dides it looks like they got a great uh selection of baits in there
26:23
it's half the store is tackle store the other half's everything else right yeah uh convenience door whatever and it's
26:30
yeah it's a great little spot you have to stop in at bobes for sure if you're up in that area so now we move from
26:35
there uh I think anything else on that Dean you got anything to add to that well Dean's fly out oh and that he got a
26:42
30in walleye want to talk about that one yeah B how about you you got anything to
26:47
add to that I see you're searching there for information anything you like to add to that no I you're good no well was
26:53
good all right uh Dean what do you got yeah me and Steve were able to fly out so we actually I don't know if we
26:59
mentioned this here yet but we were with the same guys from TD that we were the year before Oh we hav't mentioned we
27:06
didn't want to mention those guys from the ER charity event thank you yeah so we had them back so Steve and I were
27:12
kind of on like entertaining Duty uh for them so we went out with Will and we
27:17
scouted some spots yeah well we were beating ourselves up guys had it made we added we were in a pontoon boat lay down
27:24
great Princecraft 20 foot pontoon boat that would been nice to have in that Lake I'll tell you no kidding anyway
27:31
sorry Dean yes so we went out and scouted in that the the winds were were horrible obviously for us as well but
27:37
that pontoon boat's amazing in it where did we get that pontoon boat cuz that didn't just that is from Nester Falls
27:42
Marine ah they they very nicely donated that boat for the shoot for us so we're
27:48
definitely going to give them a shout out as well as Princecraft you know to show another model of Princecraft boats but that was so nice of them to do that
27:54
for us so you know as we get older you would think that they would uh extend uh a pontoon boat to us to use a Tron 25 to
28:02
28t and it actually worked amazing like that the mount that we got the portable one from Fishfinders mounts.com yeah I
28:09
think I was able to extend that to like 9 ft oh wow so we had live scope off the side of a pontoon which is pretty
28:16
amazing yeah and use clamp to the side to the big yeah it was super easy and then use the magnet uh oh that's cool
28:23
back yeah yeah it was it was amazing so we were able to find a bunch and then we did a Shore lunch for the boys they had
28:29
never had a Shore lunch before so Steve Le led the way there with the recipe from Shier and uh we did a northern pike
28:37
which none of them even knew you could eat so that was kind of cool to show them uh yeah they were raving about it
28:43
that night when we got back to camp and we always kind of say that like you know you can't tell the the the difference between them and Walley but uh Steve
28:50
fileted the Pike and I fed the walleye and I left the mudline in the walleye cuz they were so small and I didn't
28:56
think it mattered and they said they could tast the difference between Pike and wal and they like the pike like way
29:01
better that's crazy there you go another another proven fact right we all we can
29:07
prove it so many times amongst ourselves amongst our friends just people have to try it I know I'd forgotten this now but
29:13
now you mention it um just want to remen It Again part of this trip was due to
29:19
the Eric lindross Easter seal charity that uh Peter and I attended um and
29:26
donated uh this wonderful prize Nordic Point Lodge um prize for four they they
29:34
they auctioned it off at the auction and and these four uh gentlemen that we had
29:40
out last year they bought it bought the year the trip two years ago they bought it again this year great guys and it's
29:48
uh uh Scott and Brian and help me and Andrew and and Mike and Mike and uh they
29:55
spent a whack of money that all went to the lind Ross charity to uh to be a part
30:01
of this and just wonderful guys well done guys unbelievable it was a good time they're just super guys man we had
30:07
a little Jam night there singing songs you know it was all it was good and a
30:12
surprise to us we had no idea that this was going to happen till we got there
30:18
that another winner that had won his uh trip to Nordic Point Lodge on fishing
30:25
canada.com yep cont P awesome guy what a
30:30
super guy my God what a nice guy and he was the guy who gave us the intel on this other little Lake that was nearby
30:35
by the way just a shout out to him we appreciate that uh but yeah he just showed up because he lives in Dryden and
30:42
he thought he would come in and say hello and let us know that he's going to be going up later on to actually take
30:47
his trip that he won on on the contest so yeah he's he's Aid he's a he's a nut
30:52
and he he works for what do you call the firefighting the Airborne firefighters
30:59
or whatever it is like that he drove us by he showed us the planes and all my God what a sight next time we were by we
31:04
got to go and shoot that for sure how many uh entries did he have 2100 entries
31:10
2100 he earned it entries so if you think you know by putting in a 100 entries to win one of the prizes on
31:18
fishing canada.com is a lot think again it's like keep working people keep
31:23
working having said that in all fairness to that we've had people that have won $5,000
31:28
Garmin units with just a couple of entries so it's it's a matter of uh the lock right but yeah but he worked for it
31:35
and he got it yeah good for him anyway so yeah so that episode with Dean and Steve will be coming up uh this year I
31:42
don't know what number it will be when I say this year I mean 2025 broadcast season and uh I know Pete and I are
31:48
looking forward to checking it out can't wait to see the footage back at the at the shop too so then we got on the road
31:54
on the road again we did mention Dean's 30 and W right uh Dean did catch a 30-in Walle apparently apparently yes said
32:03
they say they have the videotape to prove it boa says maybe maybe not so we'll see and and a mess of other fish
32:10
that they ate for Shor lunch so there you go there you go uh job well done Dean so we moved on and uh that finds us
32:17
here at Lumberjack Lodge so we punched in the coordinates as we
32:24
were leaving Nordic Point Lodge punched in the coord that we had for this place and they were
32:31
relatively vague right the address often very often these addresses in Northern Northwest Ontario are weird just weird
32:38
this was - 599 I think is what it was is that right Dean or something like that right
32:44
close it didn't even have a real it just kind of took us to the most nor Northern point of the highway yeah and we're
32:49
looking for the lodge so anyways we punched that in and it's perfect it goes just right past the lodge actually but
32:56
right to the lodge but a little bit past little past we went to the extreme North End of sturgeon which is 60 M off of our
33:04
Mark and uh we finally decided you know what I think we're not in the right area
33:11
here we we we did to our detriment we saw one little sign that was a a turn
33:17
sign or whatever it says Nordic or um Lumberjack Lodge 1 kilometer we thought
33:22
but we're going by our GPS we're thinking and we thought that it's the North End of the lake the whole thing was all about something weird going on
33:28
there why is that so we're looking for 1 kmet from there there's no road so we just kept going we were looking
33:33
meanwhile it's supposed to be 1 km that way but anyway so we kept going and uh and we finally land this we just said we
33:40
okay guys we're got to tap out here this is something there's something wrong here there's nothing nothing even close
33:45
to Lumberjack LOD and we turned around at a and we were in the middle of nowhere just to make it perfect no cell
33:52
zero cell anywhere so we turned around started heading back and I remember um
33:57
two to the other side of the road I had seen a a driveway with some kind of a
34:03
sign in the back it didn't really catch the sign cuz we were focused on looking for something on this side of the road
34:08
anyways um we drive back and I pull into this little off thee beaten path dirt
34:16
little driveway and there's this I'm going to say decrepit because that's the only way I can describe it now the folks
34:22
who are listening to this um maybe are involved but I you might have something
34:27
to disabled that but a decrepit looking little building that had all of the windows we just won't say any names
34:33
that's all to this place to this facility all of the windows were had these white looked like rubber white
34:42
solid blinds all of the windows and and and some of them the glass was broken
34:47
all closed too obv all closed they were all they were all drawn and on the back side opposite the road was the word
34:53
office on the side of the building right so but clearly this office was not
34:58
operational no right clearly so we continued uh driving down this this
35:04
driveway and through uh some some trees and stuff and we went into a clearing
35:10
and the minute we got through guys came out of the woodwork it was like it I
35:15
don't know it was like rats scovie it was like a movie it was Unreal
35:20
guys come out of everywhere the woods the the the ouse the kind of like a movie called Deliverance very much like
35:26
a movie called that's what we were think I teed up the music here and it's not playing for some reason but it'll be
35:34
imp and they were all looking like hillbish I'll be honest with you and they just said whoa whoa you can't you
35:42
can't go you can't go in there I jammed the brakes on and uh here we go there it
35:50
is that's what we thought was [Music]
35:55
happening o I like the way did and uh the the leader of the bunch he come over
36:01
to the window I was kind of afraid to put the window down but anyway so he what you all doing here I well we're
36:07
we're looking for um Lumberjack Lodge which is somewhere around here never
36:12
heard of that oh um wow uh it's supposed to be just like here somewhere on
36:19
Sturgeon Lake and by now his buddy's walked down the mechanic and the guy's got pipes on them bigger than Dean and
36:24
looks like Arnold schwarzeneger it was scary and uh he says you know the guy I was talking to
36:32
did Bill you ever heard of this place they're looking for is no just like that
36:38
yeah we knew right then and there we got to get the hell out of here fast so so he says so I said okay well all right
36:43
we're just going to turn around no you can't go any further this just back we're up from here so we literally had
36:50
to do some maneuvering and get that boat you know we've got the the the bridgecraft hanging on the back and so
36:57
we did bit of maneuvering managed to get it Jack knifed almost had going back to they have these
37:05
Boulders marking the driveway like that like decorative there's so there's a granite rock about that big and I look
37:11
and I said oh [ __ ] I got to move that thing so they're if I don't lift that these boys are rednecks are going to
37:16
probably feed off of me so I picked it up just like a tough guy okay okay and put it over there he backs it up and
37:23
meanwhile I'm walking with a bad back for 3 days later after doing it oh my God clearly we had interrupted something
37:30
that was going on weird and clearly they did not want anybody there and clearly
37:36
uh although there was a sign out front that identified this place as a fishing
37:42
and hunting uh Outfitter clearly that was not their main occupation so we got a
37:50
little lucky managed to get the hell out of there it was weird um half hour later we found this place thank God Heaven
37:56
compared to that place um have been here ever since um the the
38:02
lake we've mentioned is called Sturgeon Lake the big lake 50 miles 50 plus miles
38:08
long so it's a big body of water for sure and no the wind did not follow us although it got a little the first day
38:15
first day the highlight of the first day the first evening when we got here we
38:20
were asked if we wanted to uh go on a bit of an adventure by uh Allen uh one
38:27
of the uh oh my God here we go I forgot about this you forgot about this well I didn't forget about it but I just I'm
38:33
trying to put it out of my mind Alan and Patrick said you guys want to go on a bit of an adventure we said sure I said
38:40
they had this place called jackpot which is a a little Bay off the main
38:46
Lake and they they said um have you got paddles in that big Princecraft boat we
38:53
said well no we don't have paddles we have the emergency we got electric motor paddles oh no you'll need paddles where
38:59
we're going we're thinking we got to paddle a boat I'm thinking how the hell you going to paddle a 20ft boat with a 250 in the back honestly I thought they
39:06
didn't know how to use their electric motor yeah that's what I thought right but anyway so we drive we follow them in
39:12
their boat and we get to this little back uh bay and head up this channel to
39:19
a little little it's it's not even a little creek it's a little narrow dump
39:24
out area for jackpot dumps out into the main Lake coming through but but not much of it it's just all boulders and
39:31
and stuff a little tro Little Brook tro Creek yeah exactly but you could see that the other side it opened up into a
39:38
a bay and they proceeded to put their boat which was got a 17 footer probably right
39:45
yeah 17t boat and but before they went in there was a couple of boats coming out little little 12T 14t tinnies and
39:54
they were on their way out and they were banging rocks and clanging and almost F
39:59
like it was it was C that's not where we're going that's not where we're going
40:06
surely the guy anyways these little boats came out and uh so uh Allen and Patrick moved their boat in they got
40:12
through decently they still had work they had to work but we saw what the paddles were for and they have to push off the Rocks they get the Rocks you got
40:19
to avoid the Rocks you're using your TR trolling motor and the paddle on the front guy and the back guys's keeping
40:24
the back end back and yeah you're maneuvering through b like Boulders not
40:29
like bad badass Boulders God all I'm thinking okay is it would we be are we
40:36
going to feel embarrassed if we now say to the guys guys just kidding we don't want an adventure we don't want to go
40:41
into jackpot uh it's a brand new boat it's a $100,000 rig you we can't you
40:48
can't ask us to Portage it over rocks for God's sakes that was going through my mind but then it's heavy boat too by
40:55
the way it's we found that out through this trip it's how heavy it is but then vanity took over and I said hey we can
41:02
do this we're the fishing Canada guys I mean yeah if anybody can maneuver and Portage a boat through tight quarters
41:09
and and whatnot it's going to be us good God Almighty sweet Jesus what in
41:17
the world made us do that they going to call that place crackpot not jackpot so
41:23
we got stuck halfway up uh had to get to the boat we this is literally portaging
41:29
a 21 ft aluminum boat motor all the
41:34
equipment and everything else in this thing yeah it's a beast and we pushed and hul and we couldn't get through so
41:40
finally uh they threw us a life rope right yeah they were ahead of us kind of
41:45
jammed in a spot so they were good good and they had gotten through already and floated a rope down to us on a on a one
41:53
of those flotation bumpers bum bumpers tied a rope to it and they're float because the water the little stream is
41:59
one way to go one way to go right he going right down right to us thank you very much so uh Pete tied that to the
42:05
front of our boat and uh they pulled we pushed uh we trolling Kraken motor
42:11
cracken trolling motor was doing its thing cracking all right it was really cracking on those rocks anyways uh we
42:17
got through and I'm thinking this is not good how the hell are we going to get out but actually you thought we were
42:24
going to get out easier because the the current was going down right like that worse we did a couple of hours worth of
42:31
fishing and got a bunch of fish T like I mean for somebody with a smaller boat it's a great place to go over and catch a bunch of fish not for us anymore any
42:38
so we tapped out on that then the trip back was even worse let's just say that like I don't know how long it took us it
42:43
was it was horrible it horrible let's put this to you though the uh the pr the brand new Princecraft is no longer brand
42:50
new yeah she got on it well um broke in and we will
42:56
be visi a paint and body shop when we get back just buffer up a bit right buffer up the new paint job would be
43:02
good Tony if you're watching uh yes you will get a discount don't worry about it uh so anyway so that was kind of the
43:09
start the first evening and um what are the mosquitas and blackflies too just to
43:14
add to that when we're going back through that cranking on those rocks and getting that boat maneuvered we also have mqu and blackflies too so like you
43:21
would not believe yeah uh so anyways so uh we get a good night's sleep and get
43:27
up next morning head out start pounding away uh at fishing and um had some
43:34
wonderful opportunities I just want to tell you one side story though because it it has a lot to do with the ending of
43:40
how this episode is going to uh finally shape up uh one of the side stories that
43:45
we had heard about coming up here is that there was a wonderful uh Reclamation program that happened in the
43:52
mid90s on uh one of the rivers called Bell River river L the Bell River um and it was
44:00
originally uh there was a gold mine uh somewhere around the Bell River
44:06
Upstream that uh was mining gold and a couple of other minerals silver gold
44:13
zinc copper yeah there was about five there five things they did anyways for for some time they did the mining and um
44:22
the um runoff from that activity typical old School industry right goes anywhere
44:29
it leeches into Lakes Down Fields whatever right so and uh they completely
44:36
wiped out all of the fish walleye that were using the Bell River as you know
44:43
the spa pretty much the south end of the lake right is kind of divided so they pretty much devastated the whole South
44:48
End of the lake so um and it wasn't until the mid 90s that the local businesses the mr&r and Lodge owners
44:56
alike uh decided to do something about it because what was happening is the North End of the lake was still
45:01
flourishing it had a wonderful walleye fishery but the South End uh was completely wiped out so all the poor
45:09
Lodge owners including this place you know had to send their guests yeah minimum 30 m run and then
45:16
yeah uh which in small boats is a long run so they decided to take on this project rehab the uh the river uh clean
45:23
it all up first of all uh the mine had uh since moved to another part of the
45:29
lake obviously using more modern uh technology to to do their mining um they
45:35
were under complete uh scrutiny by that point uh for they and they actually
45:41
rebuilt they didn't just clean up they rebuilt the spawning area they literally rebuilt a perfect spawning ground for
45:47
these wall to come back and they did a great job of it and over a 7ye period I believe they dumped 13 million uh
45:54
fingerlings uh in Walley uh back into the Bell River and lo and
46:00
behold they're back Bell they're back we went in there and it's a it's still a
46:05
run from from this uh part of the lake not yeah not too bad but it it's it's a good it's a good run but anyways we ran
46:12
up there and to be honest with you when we first saw it we thought uh I don't know I'm not sure but was we were there
46:19
we committed to it we went in yeah we crapped a couple of smallies way out in the front of it and we're thinking oh
46:25
maybe if it's if there's a couple of small m here it might get good up by towards the Rapids area we little did we
46:31
know it was a Mecca we timed it so perfect it was just unreal unreal for
46:36
well Walley Smallmouth Pike got a few Pike in there not much and and yeah it
46:42
was just soer yeah we even caught an caught a sucker in there great big common so the I we were kind of putting
46:49
together a theory because the walleye are done their
46:54
spawn and so they're not in their spawning for sure even though that that is their spawning area uh Smallmouth
47:03
have not started spawning yet based on the water temperatures that we're seeing Pike are well done Pike are totally long
47:11
and yet they're all in there and I mean they are jammed in it's like it's like
47:16
somebody put them in there with a shoehorn that's how many fish are jammed in this one tight little area and an
47:24
interesting H thing happened the first couple of hours that we were there Pete caught this this pretty large Northern
47:32
and he was wrestling with it on the deck of the boat to get it freed up and then release the fish but we noticed that now
47:38
the deck of the boat was covered in tiny little eggs fish eggs fish eggs but tiny
47:43
tiny clear little fish eggs they were not Pike eggs yeah and it wasn't the color was weird the transparency was
47:50
weird on them you know they're almost translucent and whatever and then we thought about it afterwards knowing there we thought we saw soccer you can
47:57
see the ptal fins and suckers are different than a Walle there you can see the shapes of them if there's suckers in there and all these fish are eating
48:03
sucker eggs which they do maybe they were sucker eggs at that thing regurgitated we thought first you know
48:09
it was a female that spewed them out but but in retrospect we think that's she was eating those eggs and she spit them
48:14
out in her boat exactly so that is cool and from that point on we started looking at it through different eyes
48:21
different uh set of glasses because we realized that most of these fish were up here probably eating sucker eggs it
48:27
happens all the time by the way in the northern in the northern part of Ontario with Brook tro I've seen it with Brook
48:33
tro we've seen it with Walley Pike these suckers is first the the Walley and Pike go in first and the suckers stay behind
48:39
and they get all their eggs and then all of a sudden it's a shift and these guys go in to spawn and then all of a sudden
48:44
the the Walley bike are eating their eggs so it's pretty cool the way it works it's a kind of a neat little and
48:50
it happens it's it's just part of uh part of the game they get used to it every year they follow them in the spring both both species so we just
48:57
wanted to let you know about that because um what we experien and what you're going to see on that episode of
49:03
the fish and gas show it you're going to look at say oh my God like how does how
49:09
do how fortunate are these guys to be in that kind of a fishery but we want to preface it by saying what you're going
49:15
to see on that episode we think was isolated to a particular period of time
49:22
sure so I don't want anybody looking at this and because we're going to give you the actual coordinates of where we
49:29
caught all of these and I'm talking a ton of fish probably as many fish as we've ever caught on a on an episode all
49:37
in one spot yep y yeah but I I don't want to disillusion you thinking that
49:43
you come up here and you go to the Bell River and you're going to experience the same thing because we just hit it yeah
49:50
it's all about timing timing when those spawning suckers are gone you watch almost everything will be gone there might be the odd little smly or
49:56
something in there with the these fish just don't belong there they have no business allt deep you know it's three
50:03
foot it's a a span of about 100 yards maybe 150 yards and 3 ft deep that's it
50:09
and it's loaded loaded the rest of the lake is fantastic as well but you know your typical uh
50:16
Lake where you've got to find uh find areas that's got one or two fish and then move one to two fish move but boy
50:22
there's just a ton of fish ton of fish uh we have never been on on this Lake before but I can tell you uh with to G
50:30
gorgeous Lake and there's Lakes out here as well too so a great lake too so once again uh it's called Lumberjack Lodge um
50:37
on Sturgeon Lake there are probably four or five lodges on this end of the lake from what we could tell uh Mar this is
50:44
the best one though oh Mark and Stephanie um childr that that operate
50:50
and our part owners of this place we've been to literally hundreds of lodges in
50:56
are 40 years in the business and I got to tell you uh and I said this on the
51:02
fishing Canada episode that you'll see this has got to be in terms of the way
51:07
it's managed and the way it's built the attention to detail oh my clean um new
51:15
it's outstanding it's so good it's probably in in that top 15 to 20 that we've ever been to by far um by far so
51:22
we just want to mention that a shout out to them for being such wonderful hosts also as we said this is a housekeeping
51:28
Lodge they do not do the American Plan here you bring your food you do you cook your food and all that which is not a
51:33
bad thing it's a good thing for more people so um it's it's it's a contrast from where we were at Nordic Point Lodge
51:39
which has you know five star cuisine as far as I'm concerned right um so anyways
51:45
um just wanted to share those things with you we'll be doing hopefully uh one of
51:51
these every time we hit a new location we're off to the Northwest Territories give me a hell yeah we had one more
51:57
mishap here the other day we were running all our ging units on and we fish for fish forever fish forever all
52:03
of a sudden low battery warning went down to 11.9 11.1 then it went to 10.9 I said
52:10
uhoh boys I've seen this before she ain't going to start and sure as hell we put
52:16
the ah lesson to be learned from that what is the lesson to be learned from that those little battery boosters not a
52:24
charger just a little battery booster uh I think ours is I don't even know what the amperage is of it does there's
52:30
doesn't matter 79.99 made by NOCO one the the best ones are made by noo NOCO put that thing on
52:38
at first we tried it wouldn't work there's a little power boost on the button on it hit that Merc
52:46
started right up and it was uh good to go for the rest that was another mishap we had on there they should also almost
52:51
be mandatory on any any they're great those things you should have in a truck a car or whatever and in boat and
52:56
they're not they take no room as they say they're inexpensive they're this big they take no room at all so yeah they're
53:02
absolutely fantastic um so anyway we're going to we're going to try and do these reports from every uh venue that we are
53:09
going to be producing a fishing C episode this year may I inter I I would appreciate that we slayed these Bell
53:17
River fish on Yuri crank P shallow crank bait CU we not often we
53:22
get to I mean sometimes when you're Walley fishing you got to run live bait you just didn't literally have to we ran
53:28
yui crankbait shallow divers and honest to God it was Mayhem they just crushed
53:33
him like crazy so I have to put that plug in for yi it's been 20 years I can tell you it's been
53:40
20 years since we had an experience like that on um crankbaits and or you know
53:46
jerk baits yeah do you remember it was on LAX oh was it LAX where we no it was
53:52
in uh Winnipeg or Winnipeg Manitoba we wer we thr don't you remember I was
53:59
throwing a ripin red fin oh wow remember no that that hump the walleye on that
54:06
hump got me oh my God but anyways it's so much fun when you can throw hard
54:11
baits like jerk baits like crankbaits rattle baits to walleye Smallmouth Pike
54:16
oh my God it's so much fun so you'll lose some to the pike but it's fun so that are it uh hopefully you enjoyed
54:23
this rather different episode of Outdoor Journal radio um but like I said we will be doing
54:29
these from every location that we can in between we'll also still be producing our regular um version of the show where
54:37
we'll have a guest three days at home between trips I don't think so where we'll have regular guests uh of course
54:43
uh Dr Steven Cook will be doing fish talk with the doc um on a few of them
54:49
along with uh some other exciting guests that our producer Dean Taylor has got
54:54
lined up for us right de you know come on now that's it all right uh don't
54:59
forget fishing canada.com uh the Gateway the portal to your next fishing Adventure the contest we just talked to
55:06
you about a couple of winners that we uh we spent some time with this week uh why don't you be one of them and win uh that
55:13
uh if not jackpot the pot of gold how's that on fishing crackpot crackpot on
55:19
fishing canada.com when you're there you might also want to get some lovely swag from the store I see buas you can go to
55:27
shop. fishing canada.com as well so either one of those will'll get you there thank you Clint on behalf of the
55:32
entire crew uh vaa behind the camera Dean on the board as per usual uh my
55:38
co-host Peter Bowman Viola thanks for joining us we'll catch you next time from On The
55:43
Road Again
55:50
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
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