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Why Nature Builds Confident Kids
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Jun 7, 2025
Thank you to the sponsors of today's episode! - The Invasive Species Centre: Protecting Canada’s land and water from invasive species - SAIL: The Ultimate Destination for your Outdoor Adventures - J&B Cycle and Marine: Your Home for all things powersports, boats, and equipment - Freedom Cruise Canada: Rent the boat, own the memories In this packed episode of Outdoor Journal Radio, the crew welcomes back one of Canada’s most beloved outdoor voices - Kevin Callan, aka The Happy Camper. Known for his wilderness wisdom, boundless energy, and hilarious storytelling, Kevin joins Angelo, Pete, and Dean to talk ticks, trout, and the transformative power of time spent in nature. At the heart of this episode is Kevin’s brand-new children’s book, A Spark of Courage, a deeply personal and inspiring project that tackles childhood anxiety through the lens of outdoor adventure. Kevin shares how the story was inspired by a real-life student who found confidence and calm through wilderness travel, and how the illustrations, created by a quiet artist with a powerful story of his own, bring the book’s emotional journey to life. With subtle lessons in survival skills, poop jokes for the kids, and genuine reflections on mental health, this book is already making waves in classrooms and scout halls across Canada. But as always, things don’t stop there. Also in this episode: The unspoken horrors of ticks and Lyme disease A record-breaking pink salmon run on the Fraser River — what it means, what we don’t know, and how hatcheries are changing the game. Listener feedback from a striper angler on the Miramichi, and a scientific breakdown of salmon declines in the Maritimes. The great rainy-day fishing debate: brave the storm or hit snooze? Whether you're a parent, a paddler, or just someone who appreciates a good campfire story, this episode is a reminder of how the outdoors can teach, heal, and humble us, sometimes all at once.
View Video Transcript
0:05
[Applause] this episode of Outdoor Journal Radio is brought to you in part by the Invasive
0:12
Species Center protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species freedom
0:18
Cruise Canada rent the boat own the memories jmbb Cycle Marine your home for
0:25
all things powersports boats and equipment and sail the ultimate
0:31
destination for your outdoor adventures [Music]
0:37
uh thank you thank you thank you thank you very much appreciate it it's always
0:42
nice getting a It's about time we got that right you know it took us 40 years to get it but that's okay that's all
0:48
right sometimes good things are worth waiting for uh welcome to the program uh Peter Bowman Angela Biola the rest of
0:54
the group come on now we'll introduce you later yeah they probably they probably know the group by now I would
1:00
think right unless it's new viewers and listeners then they wouldn't know the group so wonderful program a good friend
1:06
of ours Kevin Kalen the happy camper will be join give me a hell yeah i'd give a hell yeah for Kevin Callen for
1:12
sure be joining us shortly he of course uh is uh outdoorsman extraordinaire we
1:18
talk to him periodically especially after he's been on a crazy expedition usually has to deal with frigid cold
1:26
winter temperatures camping on the ground in the middle of some godforsaken part of the world
1:32
um he'll be joining us shortly uh he's uh unveiled a brand new book yeah
1:37
interesting i you know he writes so many I don't know where he finds the time but anyways he's a prolific book writer this
1:45
one's a he's kind of retired now though isn't he now he has time for uh this is a kids book and um called the a spark of
1:53
courage which we'll be talking about here very shortly but first but first la
1:58
premier la the premier subject uh
2:04
shop.fishingcanada.com if you haven't been there lately you need to get there stuff like this right here uh they now
2:11
are apparently giving you extra reasons to go with discounts that will be well I
2:19
just recently found out that if um folks
2:24
listening to this program because obviously it's the only way you can get that is on this program if they listen
2:29
to the bonus code that we give out to enter you into the contest get
2:35
additional coverage that's right you're going to read that in a minute coming later you knew that e coming later um
2:41
that you can use that bonus code now not just to enter the wonderful uh array of
2:47
prizes but you can actually use it on the shop uhfishingcad.com to get
2:53
discounts no way don't know why give me a hell yeah don't know how much uh it's
2:59
a mystery prize right Dean it's a mystery yeah the store manager hasn't revealed it to us he hasn't revealed it
3:04
well if he hasn't revealed it to you then nobody knows no any like any approximations you know no no you guys
3:12
can't give it to me it's just truly unknown like he works in mysterious ways we 5% 10% i don't know 11 and a half% oh
3:20
I was Well I'm looking at the manager i hear I see like 10 fingers up in the air there's a bunch of he can't
3:26
even count the 10 he can't well at least he's he's being trying to be honest anyway oh he's got one finger pointing
3:32
at you right now sorry he counts that one uh if you do use the bonus code which
3:39
we're reading it later on I guess i think we should read it now you want to do it now the people are all excited waiting for it you don't want to have
3:46
them wait like a little bit longer and get No cuz I have a feeling later we won't do it for some reason i have a feeling wow dean you're so you're
3:52
lacking like pessimistic like if there's one trait that Dean holds highlight it's
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the pessimism there's no doubt about it there's a bunch of and that too okay well this week's bonus code is for
4:05
the this new uh addition to the contest and plus our fishing Canada contest is
4:11
courage all capitals c o u r a g e
4:17
courage come on now type that into the bonus code section and you'll get your bonus entries and I have the automatic
4:25
shop like the the discount is done if they type it in there you you go there you you that is awesome yeah thank you
4:32
Mr i I do have a question yes on that why is it all capitalist why does it
4:37
have to be uppercase i think it's just just you'd have to ask the manager the
4:43
manager is technology is it like what's the reason for that technology and it excludes the people that don't like to
4:49
listen to you say that i like that you're kind of weeding out the the ruffians and you know they got to listen
4:55
carefully they got to that's skill testing that's you know takes a lot of skill to hit the cat all uppercase there
5:01
you go uh new feature on Fishing Canada store uh go check it out and that
5:07
courage you know where that word came from right that's uh like originally is a Latin it comes from the Latin word of
5:13
uh kurajjo is that is that the way you say i'm just throwing that out there i'm
5:18
just throwing it out there is it a derivative of that it could be a derivative of rage there's rage in there
5:25
i don't know if I like that or not rage rage in the cage and piss up on the stage there's only one way to bring the giant down
5:31
come on now somehow it could be who knew listener feedback Mr bowman listener
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feedback let's get to it uhhuh v this is from Statal at
5:46
State help me out boy stately stately elms stately elms stat statal
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stately stat stately stately elms stately stately elms elms stately elms
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those are the nice big beautifulms trees that you see in front of the big mansion piss elm my dad used to call them piss
6:06
elms i don't know why they stately they're stately stately elms which state are they from
6:11
come on now that's a good question yeah yeah american trees uh-huh stately elms
6:18
via YouTube so this qualifies uh stately for something doesn't it not no
6:24
we are all over the place stay Albums in response to our striper episode on the
6:30
Marrami um do you want to go through the whole thing or you want to kind of It's a long one but basically he's saying
6:37
that uh he um he fished it he had an opportunity to fish the mirror machine
6:42
right and and when all was said and done they were trolling basically the first time he's ever tried it they landed 92
6:50
stripers in 7 hours and that's pretty good isn't it and it was a horrible day but that's pretty good bitten by the
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horrible rain that's damn good and they were trollling trollling we've never trolled for them i know and I bet you
7:01
it's deadly imagine running boards out there you got boards whatever oh my god
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we've never trolled for you you got the those walleye deep diver cranks we need to make note of that cuz you and I will
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forget somebody needs to make note of that just before the trip boys say "Pete bring your boards." That's all you got
7:20
to do and then then we're we're good uh he goes on to say "As a biologist and local I appreciate you giving background
7:26
on the decline of the salmon which we talked about in that episode." Yeah yeah in depth right it's a nightmare scenario
7:34
and uh um they're disappearing at an alarming rate from the watershed all over the Maritimes only hanging on and
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he's he appreciates us not pinning it on one source no so we try to you know we try to see every angle of the the demise
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of it and it's not just here either it's not just in Canada no exactly they're having problems globally with with
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Atlantics yeah yeah yeah it's a shame it's too bad it's a great fish but anyways it's a it's a it's a very nice
8:02
Thank you uh stately elm yes stately statement it's a stately statement yeah
8:08
yeah conservation Corner that's it moving along cons i want to get to to the happy camper cuz he makes me feel
8:15
good he makes me happy he's the one thing in this world that makes me happy conservation Corner grass carp brought to you by the
8:21
invasive species center these don't make me very happy these guys right here but you know what no you can be happy in
8:26
knowing that there is a mechanism in place to try and help no no but but if
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if there weren't no grass carp around we wouldn't have to even worry about a mechanism they wouldn't have to worry about that well you know what I mean so
8:40
it's not it's not it's you know uh anyways needless needless to say uh we
8:45
need to be vigilant we need to stay on top of this best way to do it is to go to asiancarp.ca a wonderful website that
8:52
will give you everything you need to be armed when you go out fishing the next time to to identify identify these fish
8:59
and possibly be able to do something about that any little bit you just
9:04
report that fish you take a p keep it take a picture report it i'm telling you what you're doing a lot of good out
9:10
there for sure uh grass carp ascarp.ca is the place to be in the news
9:17
in the news in the news uh brought to you by J&B your outdoor star come on now j&b Cycle
9:25
and Marine j&b Cycle and Marine ontario is the largest Prince Mercury dealer did
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you know that before now well yes because last week we said it and the week no last week you weren't here oh
9:35
the week before we said it well I heard I heard that podcast you heard damn good podcast buddy lake Simple oh my god i
9:42
like that stuff i'm going to stay away more often i like that if you're looking for a prince graph boat motor trailer
9:47
package or anything to do with such uh item uh you need to go to
9:54
JB not J&B which is their actual name but JB cycle uh um.com look at you look
10:02
it wasn't even written here i know it's not written there i know i just went by memory wow on that wow
10:09
j I knew that was coming i could just hear it in my ears even if you want to you know what maybe if you want to compare you want to look at you know
10:15
you're buying a boat package somewhere else uh you want to see what the largest dealer in the nation has to say about it
10:21
it's got pretty good place to go yeah wow why not compare why not uh
10:27
so in the news brought to you by JB Cycle uh historic historic run expected
10:33
on the Fraser River of that little critter called the pink salmon pink salmon the pink salmon pink salmon yes
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yes indeed they're they're expected uh to see 27 million pinks returned up the
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Fraser this year potentially the largest run in record keep since record keeping began so they are always in it seems in
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the news pinks Pinks are I think people that are in the salmon business probably look at pinks as the canary in the cage
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they're that was an indicator right if the pinks are running if the runs are good it's going to be a good year if not
11:07
oh boy we're in big boooos do they do they not run every two years or is it every year i thought they were on a
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two-year cycle the fish itself is on a four-year cycle no no the up the river
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so I remember fishing the Campbell and I thought they said that there was this was the year for them and they didn't
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come the next year and the year they come the second year i think what they do much like this one see this 27
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million they're going somebody's going to go let me write that down when this 27 million because in whatever that
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cycle is 3 years four years that run coming back should emulate that 27
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million right because they don't come back every year you know that that's what I'm saying that's what I'm saying they don't come back every second no no
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no the individual fish don't come back every year but new ones do come back
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every year right right it's the the ones that come in of this 27 million are
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coming in to spawn right right they won't come back for two years you're going to have little little bitty pinks
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spawning there so those fish that spawn you won't you won't get them up here for
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another four years but there's another cycle that's coming in next year and
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next year so they're in a fouryear like like the shinook yeah three to four as
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many I've even heard as high as five to be honest with you wow i thought they were different than the interesting note
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here it has nothing to do with this story there was a huge collapse of the Pinks oh 15 years
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ago or so where they they missed an entire season season yeah the entire So
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the world ended right there at all the the counters right it was like 20 million or something that they were expecting and none of them showed up so
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there was a big to-do about that and and then did they figure out why basically it was the sky falling right did they
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figure out why uh they were still trying to figure out why when a year later Oops
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oh here they are they're they were they are look at that so anyways so pink
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salmon I believe to people listening here now I'm not a salmon expert but I believe of the eating world they're more
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canned salmon than than anything you got your shinooks and your Atlantics your Pacific Atlantics for selling the big
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fillets and the nice big pieces and the steaks right more than anything the pinks cuz they're smaller too right they're we did that in uh Campbell and
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they were nice up to like four pounds or something like that they were fun that's the only time I ever fly fish too so that's why they're considered
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Yeah why they're not looked at as maybe it's taste yeah maybe t Dean do you know
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about table fair do you know about the taste it's kind of like chum salmon where like dog food and cat food and
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anything canned they kind of get roped into in Is that just because of the taste i don't know i don't know why
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necessarily i think it's just a size thing more than anything well there's 27
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million coming up there i mean there's a lot to to can there a lot of meat to get canned that's for sure but that's one
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river but that uh that floating down the Campbell we did with these with these salmon was
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snorkeling and all that that was so neat eh that was a great And then that in the float tube and all that and and they're
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scrappy little buggers they are fun to catch they have them in Ontario do they in Susan Marie I think there's pinks
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along there too yeah and Atlantics too so make a great They make a great fishery you know a fun little fishery to
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go after them so well it'll be interesting to see hopefully the boom is good and it doesn't affect you know hopefully they're not eating everything
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else out house and home and you know so this August or September uh if you're out in the Fraser River
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area expect to see 27 million pink salmon that'll be the peak the peak of
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their run go do it again tonight just put the old snorkel and wet suit on there and start taking a look that's so
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cool seeing them down there it's freaky
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um yeah it's a great story by the way we didn't really do it complete here we butcher up everything we're good we're
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good butchers an speculation can us for Christ sake all kinds of speculation is as to why the the the runs are you
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know have such drastic changes yeartoear climate obviously is the one that
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everybody seems to lean on yeah it's a big one eh at least it seems to be i didn't know about this so the
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Russian and Alaskan hatcheries producing 16% of pinks have helped populations
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grow so those escapees that be would that be escapees or something like that or do they they don't just raise them to
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release them do they maybe that's what this would imply i mean that's what I would read there i'm surpris Canadian
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hatchery uh contribution is negligible so we're not doing it we're not raising enough ourselves but uh the
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Russians and the and the Americans the Americans the North the Northwest Americans yeah they're uh contributing
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to the pink population yeah good for them i guess maybe unless it's too much have we beat this one to death Dean or
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would you like this oh you guys did I How bad one out of 10 Dean is it bad have you got any comment Dean on this
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it's dead it's dead is there going to be any YouTube is there any YouTube comments going i can see him you know
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when he gets all this stuff done he looks like "Oh this is going to be a great story the guys are going to love this." Wow let me add some extra points
16:25
here and give him he has like eight pages and we just just boot it out of
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the park on the first punch you know I thought the one thing that I thought of is that I know Chum are becoming more
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popular down like in the States because the other like steelhead and salmon runs
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are so bad so be I could see maybe guides trying to take advantage of so
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many pinks being in the area i don't see why not because they are pretty cool looking they have the big hump they're
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great little fish you could probably rippers you could convince some people to go out for them i'll tell you on a fly in a river
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I don't know man i that's got to be hard to beat tough to land and And remember
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how far they'd run down and they were fish this big we have to follow them yeah we had to chase them down the river
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that was great and the bears were on the shore bears walking the shore they were spooky that was weird they were spooky
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the whole trip was so exotic so cool we got cornered by one time a bear we were
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on a little wee point oh boy yeah and we remember you know having at it and all
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of a sudden I turned around and there's a bear and he's got us cut off from from the mainland and he's just sitting there
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staring at us just tongue would lick his mouth every once in a while you just
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look around yeah you know he's not going to kill you cuz he's got so many salmon there to eat but you're still intimidated we were
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already figuring okay how do we deal with that where are we going to run to can we swim across can we beat him up with a fly rod yeah yeah god that that
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was cool that was great it was a great track all right uh fan question of the week
18:03
come on now this one is the one right is this is the one that's brought to you by
18:09
fishfindermouse.com this is the one that has all the dollars attached to it isn't
18:14
it oh yes giveaways yes this is the one okay yes all Well it used to be all the
18:19
dollars now it's some of the dollars is that correct is normally correct but again this one just like last week it
18:25
came in from email the YouTube people are slacking unless we can talk to the store manager
18:32
and at some point and see if YouTube is the spot he's busy with the
18:37
discounting up discounts i think he's totally consumed right now we could we
18:42
could throw a real wrench fund wrench into it and say this one is you got to do it by email would he be would he be
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able to stay stay up on that the manager no I doubt it now it's too much for him oh it's too much that's too much it's
18:53
too much because it'd be nice to throw out an email this time YouTube next time and then whatever next time god no it's hard snail Mail send us a letter here
18:59
with a picture of yourself no uh this one is submitted uh did I mention it's uh sponsored this segment is brought to
19:06
you by fishfindermounts.com you did mention that because if you're looking for anything to do with uh
19:13
outfitting your boat with electronics uh you need to go to fishfindermounts.com probably first
19:20
check it or after I guess during maybe you know all of the above my friend
19:25
because they will have everything you need to make that installation uh perfect absolutely perfect in terms of
19:32
mounts yes especially transducer mounts my god did I mention they've got the
19:38
best they have on that in that website man oh man anyways uh this uh uh
19:44
submission fan question by Jake Moresy via email of course as we just mentioned it could have been YouTube and he could
19:51
be in in contention right now for a huge coupon for fishingcanada.com the store mhm or shop
19:58
at Mhm but he didn't he sent it via email that's fine that's good we'll read it anyway some people uh Hey guys big
20:05
fan of the show i've noticed you don't often film rainy
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days which I get might be tricky for the cameras and camera ops they're kind of
20:16
wimpy in that sense uh but be honest do you actually think fishing in the rain
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is worth it or is it totally fine to just hit snooze and wait it out what a
20:28
great question see I'd have I'd have I'd have awarded that one the big bucks that would have been a good one for Baky Brew
20:34
yesterday yesterday's rain I'd have hit the snooze button all day long i doubt it i doubt it so here's what happens
20:41
normally here's what happens normally first of all uh Jake you'd be right in
20:46
assuming that uh cameras camera operators uh all none of those do well
20:52
in the rain or the cold or the wind or the sun or anything that is not optimal
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you know room temperature beautiful conditions uh all that stuff so so when you throw
21:04
rainy days into the equation Yeah no they're that's that's an exception that was a show that's a grab off of a show
21:09
but that that fish when it started raining was on a GoPro basically no real
21:15
camera no no camera there and that stuff however here's what happens on Fishing
21:20
Canada shoots normally what happens is we get up in the morning it's pouring rain you know first of all we have to
21:28
console the the boys and you know and uh
21:33
make them make them breakfast bacon and eggs or bring them you know some hot coffee yeah oh hot coffee for sure you
21:41
know just because maybe a cappuccino martini or something like that to keep them because they know they're not going
21:46
out for a beer and then we have to stroke their egos and say "Hey listen no you can't I wouldn't go out in that
21:51
stuff if I were you either i mean that's just awful and are you are you good you're okay?" Yeah well we'll Okay we'll hang around
21:59
here maybe play some cards or something and once we've got them settled in cuz
22:05
we have to settle them they're a little little off their game we have to settle them in make sure they're all wrapped up
22:11
blankets and stuff and everything else and then Pete and I get in the boat and go fishing for the day it's generally what happens what happens we have GPS in
22:19
hand and and we go mark a bunch of way points and and try and find them and uh
22:24
and and is it worth it i I can I can think of a handful of cases in the 40
22:30
years we've been doing this had it not been for the rainy day had it not been for the fact that you and I were able to
22:36
go out and hunt we wouldn't have gotten a show the next day when the sun did
22:42
come we say kind of save the day right so for sure it's certainly worth it in that sense should the average person go
22:49
and expose themselves to torrential downpour for eight nine 10 hours to fish
22:55
probably not depends how hardcore you are that's all right because it's not I mean let's face it most people will tell
23:01
you it's not fun it's cold miserable wet damp um just totally uncomfortable yeah if
23:09
you dress for it though you dress for it you're and you you really want Let's just say this as an stated with that one
23:16
trip that's not the the only trip that happens a lot fishing in the rain can be excellent just stay away from lightning
23:23
stay away from thunder so if it's straight rain and you feel like going out and you are dress right for it go for it because fishing in the rain uh is
23:30
can be fantastic i I I I I don't think I I can honestly
23:36
say I don't believe it's better or worse i think it's fishing and I think that I
23:44
can honestly say I have I cannot recall going out in the rain one day and saying "Oh my god this is the best fishing I've
23:50
ever had and it's due to the rain." No mhm no i think I think you go either way
23:56
in that but the experience of fishing in the raid if you don't mind it Yeah is pretty cool especially when you get in
24:04
the middle of like horrendous downpours oh no yeah you got to go underneath a a guy's dock or something like a boat
24:09
house or something like that and another thing about about fishing in the rain is a lot of people they only have Saturday
24:16
to go fishing or whatever if Saturday's the only day you can go fishing and it's raining you either suck it up or and and
24:23
go or you stay home and most people that really want to get out badly they'll go for it so sometimes you have to fish in
24:28
the rain right so a word of caution if it's really bad and you don't have automatic billagege pumps in the boat
24:34
pretty good idea to go check that BGE every once in a while and flick that switch up yeah good idea remember that
24:40
one one time on an old boat of ours yeah for sure all right time to bring on our
24:46
guest before we do that uh this segment is brought to you by Sale the outdoor store it is home for all things fishing
24:53
of course we tell you all the time it's more than just fishing but if you are into fishing rods reels line lures uh
25:00
footwear footwear for for anglers clothing of all types uh it is the place to be
25:08
absolutely and if you can't be there uh you can certainly visit it online it's sale.ca
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sale.ca and they have everything you need and I understand there's discounts to be had there too discounts not to be
25:20
confused with sales and sale right that gets very confusing for guys like us so discount's a good way of putting
25:25
it and uh Kevin Callen no stranger to the program uh the happy camper uh
25:31
YouTuber extraordinaire and uh never seen him not happy either by
25:37
the way that's That's why they call him the happy camper you could can't be a pissed-off happy camper well you got some people you know you can be happy
25:43
most of the time even comedians get pissed off now and then don't they but Kevin doesn't uh winner of several
25:49
national magazine awards listed as one of the top 100 modernday explorers now
25:55
that that's by Canadian uh I'm liking that uh geographical society uh author
26:00
of a new book that we're going to talk about but first uh let's bring him on to the show welcome to the program once
26:05
again my friend hey how you doing going great buddy we're doing great yeah no just let you
26:13
know I I visited my daughter a couple weeks ago in Hamilton she's going to university there and um we're driving to
26:18
Tim's and uh some guy cuts me off so I give him the bird and uh he he slams the
26:24
brakes on and his entire family rolls the window down hey you're the happy camper come on really and I said to him "Yeah
26:32
I'm not happy now buddy." Oh my god that's great oh my god and your daughter
26:39
was like "Sylvester like that cartoon puts a bag over her headers." No kidding ah that's a great story um so
26:47
he does get pissed off every now and then he does get a little bit you know just edged a little bit edgy edgy i don't blame him getting lots of cut offs
26:53
lately to himself so you know congratulations on the new book by the way uh wonderful we'll talk about that in a moment it's called the uh A Spark
27:00
of Courage wonderful read uh even better illustration it's fantastic but uh what
27:07
have you been doing all winter i bet you've been snuggled up nice and warm in your your cabin all toasty waiting for
27:14
the snow to go no tents involved no cook stoves involved right no no i No i mean
27:21
I've been been working a lot cuz I last time I talked to you I left the college i don't teach there anymore and um
27:27
because they got rid of so many environmental programs and so I'm on my own i'm full-time happy camper should have done it long ago but I miss the
27:33
students incredibly to be quite honest yeah but yeah so I've been riding and traveling and uh doing my own thing uh
27:39
um and getting out more to be quite honest i Yeah this winter winter it was a weird winter for us here in Kingston
27:46
though like I don't know about you guys but yeah it's kind of weird um but I'm learning all about this area i don't
27:52
know anything about the the front neck area and I started uh going fishing for
27:57
uh black crappy i I never did that before um uh there's no trout stream that I know of well I I I found a few
28:04
north of here but it's so cool to searching for them and not know anything
28:10
i knew all the places right so I went last week i went last week to find one and I found it and I caught Brook this
28:16
big nice okay okay there's like fantastic very exciting but to get in
28:22
there I first of all I did like three days of work of um you know looking at Crownland Atlas looking at like uh all
28:28
the other websites to find out what when stocking was put in and then um I went down a road and then went down another
28:34
road and I was okay it's got to be in here probably people go here by sewing machine in the winter time so I'll just bushwack in forgetting it's north front
28:42
neck so by the time I got back two things happened one was um I went to get my gear and I went to open my car door
28:49
and sure enough my keys are gone so during the bushwack of two and a half my keys fell out of my pocket so then I had
28:57
to go find them and I actually did find them but because I searched for them I came back my dog was full of ticks um I
29:03
was full of ticks and um well there was just let's just say there was one under
29:09
my undercarriage oh wow yes so I panicked i panicked i panicked um when
29:15
everybody would panic and I got tweezers and by trying to get it out and I didn't get out i stabbed myself and blood was
29:22
spurting out like like and got fainty and
29:28
um only you hit that big only Kevin
29:35
uh story what what what kind of ticks are we dealing with here uh actually the
29:40
good thing is the ones on me were dog ticks with the the white tag in the back yeah right but in the house after the
29:47
dog got in um some um blacklegged ticks were found and they're the ones that Lyme disease and she's had she had Lyme
29:53
disease and all the other ones last year she got sick um yeah you guys got Lyme disease once didn't you yeah that was a
30:01
I put it so far behind me I don't even remember it oh that's all bad that whole
30:07
tick thing is disturbing it's very especially when he what Kevin just said back back in our younger days we'd walk
30:13
through the bush and it was never an issue or at least we didn't think there was an issue and nobody seemed to get you know the lime disease but but you're
30:19
covered in you and your dog are covering them now and some of them are blacklegged ticks yeah some biologists
30:25
just said the other day that actually they're finding Lyme disease in all the tick species like the dog tick as well like Thunder Bay they did a study in
30:32
Thunder Bay and I've always went picone you get ticks on you but it's like whatever more ticks you pull off more
30:37
whiskey you get at night at the campsite exactly but uh but now they're finding they have Lyme disease as well and that's a little scary i I believe that
30:45
uh the reason we hear about it more now is obviously because of our communication networks right but I think
30:52
like you put it it's not that we didn't get sick we just didn't know i because I
30:58
the reason I say that I swear I had Lyme disease when I was like 20 4 25 maybe 26
31:07
you can't get that off chicks buddy yeah you got to get it off ticks not chicks okay oh man well I know he's like that
31:14
uh No he was like that i'm trying to be serious it's trying to be trying to be serious around here is pretty difficult
31:20
Kevin at best time but bear with me we're fishing we were in the boat
31:25
fishing i I swear David Thompson the great explorer I think he died of Lyme disease because I think he came back and
31:31
got really sick and nobody knew why i think a bunch of other people back in history had it but they didn't know right so uh but what I was going to say
31:38
is I I went through it for about a year and a half not quite two years and
31:44
sicker in the dog my doctor did everything checked everything there was no The word Lyme disease the phrase
31:49
didn't even exist right yeah they said limes limes disease but now in retrospect you know years and years um
31:58
being close to it um I had everything i had the classic Wow everything that that
32:04
you hear about now I had but fortunately for me I was able to however don't know exactly how but was able to get out of
32:10
it uh we know people we have a very good friend who's been she's gosh she's back
32:16
at it again right yeah she's been under its grip for god the better part of 15 maybe 20 years now and she's been
32:22
fighting it yeah really fighting it too so so it it affects people in different ways but I think it's always been there
32:28
we've just never known kevin you said your dog had it correct so she had the
32:34
um the new one too i forget pronounce it there's a new uh disease that takes carry um what's the name of it um I did
32:41
I the the vet told me the other day though you can use Natropel which I didn't know um and as long as long as
32:47
the dog doesn't go in the water cuz it actually kills fish natural repellent what that that repellent um but at least
32:53
she can use something now she can't take the oral meds because she actually well she gets sick from it so I have to put
33:00
that little drop something on the back of her neck and yeah the thing about ticks too is like my dog has really
33:05
thick fur so they crawl around the house for a couple days i know right or you
33:10
also after getting ticks you get what I call tick syndrome meaning that you go to bed and you you swear there's a tick
33:16
crawling on you or I was in the car at Tim Horns the other day and I swear there was one under my undercarriage again and I was You got a problem with
33:22
this undercarriage you know no it's the people in Tim Hortons that have a problem with him in his undercarriage
33:28
grinding away there what the hell is this coffee doing to this guy the great thing about that is I wrote a wrote an
33:34
article the other day for it and I didn't want to use the proper term for that undercarriage so I looked up to the sorus um and I found nine different ways
33:40
to actually say what that was oh god i was going to ask you what what the symptoms of your of your dog wondering
33:47
because my dog has been acting weird lately and now you guys just rang a bell to me that maybe it might be was there
33:52
any the same symptoms as humans or what is it yeah yeah sore joints which I missed because she's 11 years
33:59
old and runs a lot cuz she's half border collie but and also um uh then she got you know poops big time and vomiting but
34:06
also then she didn't eat and she's also half uh golden retriever when she didn't eat something's wrong something's wrong
34:12
right okay yeah but it cost $1,400 for the by the time they found out what was wrong with her yeah I figured that it's
34:18
crazy like I mean now it's it's almost to the point where like you got to do a lot of research and a lot of
34:24
preventative maintenance on you your pet and your neighbor before you go out to
34:29
the outdoors for God's sakes you know and by the way you're in a hot bed around the Kingston area oh yeah it's
34:34
always been at the very top of the list if you look at the map that shows all of the hot areas for ticks you're right in
34:41
the middle of it yeah and the scary thing about that is here I am spending my entire life promoting people to go
34:47
outdoors right by the third day going into certain trout lakes um by the
34:52
fourth day I told my partner "I want to go i want to go yeah well yeah yeah it's
34:58
true that is true it's a different mind frame nowadays crazy crazy crazy and the worst part about the diseases is they
35:04
still don't know about it no they really don't well they know more today than they do yeah but still it's like like 1,400 just to diagnose it where
35:10
they can My wife went to the doctor yesterday oh yeah you got that you know what I mean on on humans it's a it's a
35:15
trial by by error right the dart board yeah you have three trials uh and if uh
35:23
two out of three are positive then they start thinking you have Lyme disease two
35:30
out of three wow you know the worst part of it this entire thing is when I went out again I I I
35:37
look like a geek i actually had completely you know um ga beige uh shirt
35:45
trousers and then my socks up to my knees uh and um I I one of those hoodie
35:51
things like it look like an alien what' you do with the What did you do with the undercarriage
35:56
i even sprayed it okay well that's good that's good you got to put a little spray on that every once in a while okay
36:02
the wife likes that one it gets a nice a nice scent to it and like that it's like how do we get on to this
36:12
[Music] there we go uh that won't stop us now will it we'll still get out there by the way you know what what's really good uh
36:18
if you are spending a lot of time out there uh it's very expensive uh there's
36:24
a thing called rhino I think it's rhino skin it's a a
36:31
microscopic thin material like it's so thin you can almost see through it and
36:37
they make total body wear out of it right top bottom socks uh uh you name it
36:43
you if if you're going to be spending the night out there and you know that you're in a tick infested area probably
36:49
a good investment to to look at really yeah and it doesn't that doesn't overheat in the summer no no no it's
36:54
it's fantastic yeah and it's tight fitting around all of your openings right yeah um your wrists and and
37:01
whatnot but uh very comfortable interesting and apparently ticks cannot
37:07
penetrate it so they say well but it's worth a try it's worth a try it's
37:12
see-through uh it's not see-through but if you hold it up to the light it's very
37:18
see-through but otherwise you know it comes in black or white and it's colored
37:24
uh but but ultra thin like microscopic thin you know every time every time I
37:30
think I I don't know what to do for my next video you guys help so much look at There you go there you go Kev
37:38
let's talk about this wonderful wonderful book you children's book yeah that that probably is are do you deal
37:45
with ticks in it by the way there it is uh no that's that's the second copy I'm going to the second ser of the series
37:52
okay uh you know I I did talk about a serious thing it's a really good story to tell you guys and everybody out there
37:59
so what happened was uh my I was on my 20th book and my daughter she's going through actually university for English
38:05
lit i was Why are you going through English literature your dad makes no money oh I know that and um so she said
38:12
"For my 20th book I should do a kids book." And I said "Well why would I do a kids book?" She goes "You always want to do a kids book." And if you 20th book I
38:19
might as well do it so I went "Okay." And she goes "Also it should be about someone with high anxiety going into the
38:25
woods and then halfway through their their trip in in nature the the anxiety
38:31
goes away right?" And we all know that that you calm down and you are you are there's no facade and cool that same day
38:39
I got um a note from a illustrator uh Cliff Mardle and didn't know him and he
38:45
did a whole bunch of um illustrations of bunch of us uh just and he you know did a cartoon character of me and I went who
38:51
are you but good stuff so I contacted him and um because of AI he was losing
38:57
money in his job in TV and I said what are you doing now and he goes well I wanted to write a kids book but I don't
39:02
have a writer i went here me do me yep and uh so I I gave him the concept of of
39:09
it and yeah he went for it and it's this book hits so much but here's the kicker
39:15
so I went to my regular publisher and you know done a bunch of books with them and they loved his work but they're like
39:20
yeah we don't get this idea of a kid going in the woods and calming down for anxiety i can't see that selling that's
39:26
not a thing i went really and I went to a bunch of other publishers even Scholastic the Kid kids
39:32
publishing and the same thing same answer we don't see the selling and I went "You know what you're wrong i've been doing this forever i've been
39:38
dealing with kids in the woods and I see it magically transformed them." Um so I created Kevin Kellen books and I went
39:44
"If you don't listen I'll just do it myself." And you know I sold my house last last year and moved so I invested
39:50
some money into this book and uh I've been on the road the last three weeks and it's selling and everybody's loving
39:56
it because the concept of of it is you look at the cover and there's Paul with with a hoodie on yeah and if you really
40:03
there's a whole bunch of weird stuff going in that book right and halfway through um the animal characters uh it's
40:09
not Uncle Roy uncle Roy takes him on a trip and he's the catalyst of making the trip happen but it's the animal characters that are actually um helping
40:16
him learn his skills and then he's feeling confident about himself and then halfway through the book you see the hoodie not on his head and he at the end
40:24
of the book he doesn't want to go home he wants to go on another trip wow fantastic cool wonderful now is it
40:30
written um in in a language that very young kids can can grasp it or
40:38
is it something more of an adult reading to a kid kind of thing no so it's written for 6 to 12 year olds um I'm
40:46
finding a lot of four and 5 year olds are really liking it i'm finding a lot of parents are liking it because before they go on a trip with the kids uh
40:52
Scouts Canada and Scouts US just contact me and they absolutely love it um they they're starting reading it in their
40:58
meetings um because there's a lot of skill set in there like how to tie knots and how to um you know how to light a
41:04
fire and stuff that but it's all indirect what's really cool too is that the car ammo characters are my my buddies I go out on
41:11
can ships with but they didn't know that so there's the bear the chipmunk the the um awesome yeah and they they went to my
41:19
signing my opening launch signing and they found out that was them and they're like "Oh that's not me that's not the
41:25
bear." Yes you are exactly oh that's cool how long did it take you to put it
41:30
together yeah that's two years two years yeah yeah uh basically because writing a
41:35
children's book is a lot harder than writing a book book um because you have to write it to the audience and you have
41:42
to go back to your childhood and and you know talk like they talk and and
41:47
communicate like they communicate oh yeah yeah and there's a lot of humor in there all subconscious and there's like
41:52
lot finding Waldo like there's all these camp gear that they have to choose what to take on the on the trip um and yeah I
41:59
didn't think it was going I thought it would be pretty easy i thought we'd write it in like a couple months and then off off we go but uh and then also
42:07
the artwork u which is really good cliff did an amazing job but it's it's very
42:12
very like a little shadow here a little shadow there and uh you guys will love this i finally said to him after two
42:18
years I went "Look I just finished a road tour all across Canada speaking and
42:24
I didn't have the book the book needs to be out man." like forget forget yeah and uh so yeah
42:31
once again it went out and it was fine the the good thing is to watch a kid read it or watch a parent watch the kid
42:36
read it uh that's happening to me now the last few days I've been getting bunch of notes from people and um just
42:44
wondering why there's no other book about this and I'm thinking that's a good question you you go to a a kids
42:49
bookstore and try to find out or find a book about high anxiety going into nature like there is really Yeah you'd
42:56
think that would have been written you know I mean but I guess not a lot like Kevin said you know a lot of adults a
43:01
lot of us don't see it don't understand it we did we did some research with Coleman years ago about that very
43:09
subject um and there was science at the time and I'm sure there's more of it
43:14
available now uh mostly from the US where kids that had some sort of um you
43:21
know ADD and and all that stuff uh they they ran some tests by putting them in
43:27
green spaces uh the amount of medication that they could cut back on and not have any
43:35
effects to the point where eventually medication was removed and as long as exposure to the outdoors was made
43:42
available on a regular basis kids actually dealt with their anxiety in a totally different way and to your point
43:48
I mean this this book this book is way overdue because uh I I dare say most
43:54
parents today not our ages but you know younger parents have no idea that this
44:01
place is out there within grasp where they can take their kids and and
44:07
actually watch an improvement over them they have no no concept of that at all
44:12
maybe this book will will open that door yeah and it doesn't happen to happen to to real young kids it can happen to
44:18
teenagers too right it can be 16 17 year olds you get them out there and all of a sudden the whole world changes get them
44:23
off that phone for two hours in a row it's like whoa i don't even know if it's that because I'm trying to think back to
44:29
the studies back then i mean I I don't
44:34
think connectivity was the issue it was just getting into those green areas just
44:40
spending time in those green areas the mind is different he's going different yeah something happens with the brain that
44:46
leads it in a different direction dean do can we get this slide up that I my favorite slide of this whole book kevin's book kevin you're going to love
44:52
this slide you know you know the slide this one here no not that one right there for the audience for the YouTubers
44:58
that are looking there an read your your line over there uh you got to be kidding
45:04
there's no way I'm going to poop in this thing i will just hold on to it till I get home then the bear is sitting on the
45:11
pooper says "Nothing like some quiet time on the thunder box." Toot bap pop
45:16
that's That is so Kevin that is so us out in the field that his hands over there gonna hold her in for as long as
45:21
he possibly can and he's done it many times as long as he can and that's either I was saying it's a combination of Dean and I dean would be the guy
45:28
reading on the on the pooper and I'm the guy making all the noise on there so it's it's so on the in the field right
45:34
there it's perfect there's so many um hidden gems in that book too uh if you look at the bear the the bear is
45:40
actually reading one of my books top 70 kuru book oh god is that right yeah oh I
45:46
messed in the head i got all these weird jokes happening throughout the book just Yeah and a lot of lot of poop uh humor
45:53
um I even when when I did I was signing the other day I asked the one kid "If you found out how many times you see
45:58
toilet paper in that book I'll give you a prize." Oh wow wow that's awesome and there's five why
46:06
should you give the answer no that's 5* 2 minus three yeah uh so safe to say
46:15
Paul is a not a real person that you
46:20
fashioned this from or this is a fictitious name and in person or no uh
46:26
no it's not actually um so to me Paul is a young kid that I taught in 2016 i
46:33
taught uh youth at risk for many years and I remember Paul his name wasn't Paul um but he sat in the front row with a
46:39
hoodie on and didn't say much of anything had a lot of issues and then we we spent all the time outdoors all the
46:45
time on on on uh in the class and about two weeks into the semester he took the hood off and then I met him the other
46:52
day and he's a fisheries biologist oh that's awesome yeah but uh the uh the
46:57
artist also has his rendition um it's his brother so uh he's uh he has a
47:03
brother they're both adopted and his brother has um mental issues um and
47:08
we're used to wear a hoodie and now he's getting better because of time in the outdoors so so him and I really were in
47:14
cahoots with the character and uh Uncle Roy everybody thinks I'm Uncle Roy i'm not uncle Royy's just anybody everybody
47:21
out there has an Uncle Roy every uncle is just Uncle Roy well let's
47:27
go what's your problem let's go um I'm in there i I'm the one paddling with a whole bunch of youth uh in in a canoe uh
47:34
group uh that they pass by and then Paul is like "Why are those why are those kids having fun?" Because he's not used
47:39
to being out there yet he's not comfortable and if you look at it later it's me but well I looked at the artist i was like "I look old." You made me
47:46
look old duh if the shoe fits huh oh how much um is
47:55
there in this book uh that deals with survival or is this just strictly a
48:00
story that you're hoping will expose kids to just sampling the outdoors how
48:06
much of it could somebody take and actually apply it to survival in the outdoors at a younger age obviously yeah
48:12
but every third or fourth page there's a there's a a scene where Paul learns by
48:17
the the animal characters helping him how to light a fire how to tie knots how to put a tarp up how to get not get lost
48:23
um etiquette too there's even there's a scene where they're portaging there's a whole bunch of signs in the trees saying
48:29
what you should do proper out there and one is don't poop on the portage which is quite funny but so it is a learning
48:35
uh as well as just a storyline i wanted to do that because that's my thing like the habit camper i do all these tips and
48:41
tricks right and when we were writing this uh and I I said to Cliff I went "Well how about we throw in some stuff so the parents can actually go with the
48:47
kids and say "Well this is how you do this." So when we go out you can do this and that's what I really really want them to do because then they remember
48:54
guys when you started fishing and when you started camping you know we all didn't know what we're doing but then when you started learning those skills
49:00
you weren't really spooked to be out there anymore you actually enjoy yourself for sure no doubt and and and
49:07
uh portaging and camping is probably the most important one that you do that and
49:12
because at first you're right the I remember the very first time that I agreed to go portaging in Delgangquin
49:20
Park with a couple of guys that were a couple years older than me and had gone through it a few times i was
49:27
scared shitless really i had no idea i'd never done it before right and I had no
49:33
idea how how I I was going to cope with it i think it was five nights in the
49:39
woods right and it's not just having a campsite off of the road you know close
49:44
to a camp that you're you're going across a land and across a lake and then you're in this case every day we were
49:50
moving to to our end spot and then when you get there you're moving back right
49:55
uh I had no idea and boy the things that you learn along the way and the confidence that you build that you can
50:02
use later on in life or outside of that situation but in everyday normal
50:08
day-to-day activities the confidence that you can build by doing a hike like
50:13
that is just phenomenal and and I and I and I'm by the sounds of it this book is
50:20
going to hopefully inspire u kids their parents families to look at it as a
50:26
serious serious alternative to what we have gotten ourselves locked into in
50:31
life you know and and use it use it wisely i think it's fantastic do you do
50:36
you mention Alangquin Park in the book at all no actually but the landscape is is based on tmogamy u because the
50:43
illustrator which you know obviously we chose the landscape uh that's his favorite place is tomogy um it the
50:49
landscape to me looks like a gonquin and whatever it's all boreal forest but uh
50:54
yeah uh that it's a really good question you know the funny thing is so cleiff love the guy he's amazing uh he's very
51:00
quiet very shy and didn't want to do any of the media stuff um uh and but he did
51:05
go to one of the book signings and then someone asked him about the book and he started telling me sto telling them
51:10
stories I didn't even know like I wasn't I didn't know it was based on tomogene i didn't know that the front cover was
51:15
actually his brother and I was like look at him like you maybe would have told me that before yeah no kidding no kidding
51:23
i'm assuming it's doing well yeah it is actually uh it's a it's when it's been
51:29
out for three weeks I've sold over 2,000 nice it's on all the stores like Amazon and um Chapters Indigo um and what I
51:37
really want though is that's that's great it's my 20th book i I know that whole routine but I I really want to get
51:43
into the into the schools and I really want to get into um the scouts and cubs and girl grades um yeah and hopefully
51:52
we'll do another one uh it's a lot of work doing a kids book but I really want another one and I'm thinking the idea
51:58
would be that uh a young girl takes her mom out or her aunt out whatever on a
52:04
trip the adult doesn't know what they're doing and the young kid teaches yeah that would be that would be great that
52:09
would be fantastic good for you man um you said you're going into Aangquin Park
52:14
next week no I'm going tomorrow i'm going tomorrow tomorrow where whereabouts uh well yeah first of all
52:22
I'm so excited because I should never be going now i should have gone two weeks ago and everybody out there listening
52:29
would understand this we've always gone the second week of May because you know that's when they're hitting right and
52:35
the bugs aren't out yet and my buddy Mr mcbride if you're listening out there Mr speedman he had to take a holiday with
52:41
his wife and we couldn't go until now oh boy and uh so uh we're going and I'm
52:47
taking um my partner's um a son Jesse he's like 27 or something his first backcountry trip and he came over to get
52:53
some gear last night and uh I I gave him a bug jacket and he goes "Do you think we'll need this?"
53:00
Oh my god so my uh my buddy just went up to his cottage last weekend which is not
53:06
not as far not to yours and on latitude and he said he said they're horrendous
53:12
right now they are horrendous he said the worst he's ever seen them so there you go yeah the mosquitoes I don't get
53:18
it the mosquitoes the other day when I was just out for a day trip i've never seen mosquitoes that bad now i don't get
53:24
it's been a weird like you said it's been a weird winter and even a stranger spring and right now it's weird for that
53:30
matter and obviously it's playing right into the bugs wish uh list for
53:37
temperatures and climate and all that stuff it's perfect for them and they just Oh it is and they're even saying now that we have new mosquito species uh
53:44
in Canada because they're they're coming north oh great oh really that's what we Hey Boba there you go buddy hey Bob's
53:51
happy look out he's looking at him right now
53:57
no I'm going to that the only I said I said "Guys the only way we're going to catch trout right now is we have to go deep so bring the lead core." Um we're
54:04
going into the Tim River uh Roseberry and all those lakes but there's some side lakes I know where you bushwack in
54:10
and they're not part of the caner route and I I know that they have trout um and of course I'm not going to tell you what
54:16
lake those are but uh but we're going into those but the other thing is I said we need to do a river whether nipping or
54:22
the Tim uh and we're going to do the Tim uh we did the nipping a couple years ago because they're going if we're going to
54:28
catch trout it's going to be on the river system because they're holding in the holes right right whereas right now on a lake it's it's a hit and miss if
54:34
you're going to catch them maybe because the weather is being is going to be that bad we we'll catch some but it gets it
54:40
gets progressively but you know what it's difficult to predict what what the weather's done to them i mean we can we
54:46
can assume like you just assumed it might be the opposite for all you know you might get in there and because of
54:52
what's gone on in the past four or five months climate wise maybe the opposite is true who knows what's a bug hatch
54:59
like this like this mosquitoes and blackflies what are the Does the at least the brook trout do they get feeding on whatever they can't i've
55:06
heard there's quite a bit of feeding on them but then I've been in situations where the
55:13
bugs were were so bad that you you'd swear the the the fish would just be
55:18
feeding like crazy on even when they're on the surf but no at all to to to
55:24
Kevin's point they were deep so who knows who the hell knows it all depends like I I know I know roseberry they it
55:31
all depends if they feed on cisco or minnows or invertebrates so cuz last
55:36
year we were on um oh lake we're on Ralph Bice Lake and we we caught lake trout um out in the middle that were
55:43
white meat so they were eating minnows and more fat and then along the shoreline we were catching them with
55:49
pink meat which are eating invertebrates and we got them at good time because they're mixed everywhere the fish were
55:55
everywhere uh so where where we're going I don't know and that's the thing like uh I don't know what to try first but
56:01
it's always the first person to catch a fish then you start looking at their lure well you know you've got at least one of
56:08
the right one there i'll tell you what though i'll tell you what this this this
56:13
might be something for you um I recently went fishing and I for for trout uh rainbow
56:23
and specs and surprisingly enough I did extremely
56:28
well with minnow baits hard baits uh not so much spoons and not so much spinners
56:35
but uh I had those Yuzuri um either the pins minnows or the little the square
56:41
back square back yeah yeah they were smacking the hell out of it so well
56:47
that's good i pack some of those what are they called storm that just little jig yeah no not a jig these are these
56:53
are like a little minnow bait you know think think of the old repella yeah right oh right yeah same idea and a gin
57:02
i've always done well with that there you go so pack a few of those in lie of uh a pocket full of those EGBs but they
57:09
might come in tomorrow what time do you leave uh I leave at 4 in the morning they
57:14
better come in tonight anyways um and you're going in for how
57:21
long uh five days five days okay nice and then right after that I go I do I'm
57:26
doing a whole bunch of trips i I'm doing I'm going up to Lake Superior this is kind of cool uh job because again I I'm
57:31
not teaching anymore so I'm taking all all these other jobs and I'm going to Lakespare along the north shore uh for a
57:37
week with uh in a Voyager canoe with 10 uh strangers uh they just basically they
57:44
paid to be with me in a canoe with a guide and I guess I got to tell some stories or something and um which which
57:51
you guys were really This couldn't be good or bad great oh yeah we've been there we've been there and and yeah the
57:59
it's it's usually a 50/50 uh coin toss on how it's going to turn out and when
58:05
they're good they're great but when they're bad when they're bad they're real bad right and the thing is the problem with that is you're going to be
58:11
stuck with them for the duration it's not like you can say it's been nice knowing yeah I think I got it no you're
58:17
there for the whole the whole deal so no in the same boat too like it's not just
58:22
canoes it's a voyure canoe sitting beside the looking at the guy and I got a
58:28
feeling they're going to be good on a good side when they're doing that they're going to avoid your canoe they're going to like Superior they're
58:33
going with Kevin Cal the happiest camper of all campers i can't see them all being too negative you know what I mean there's got to be a there's got to be
58:40
another There's always one my friend well it's still going to balance good for Kevin I think and you guys are going to pitch camp at night to get out and
58:48
put up uh tents and sleep and then get up in the morning do it again and so on and so on yeah and we're going up to
58:55
Dennis Falls which you remember Water Walker Bill Mason film uh where he was sketching his paintings falls that's
59:01
where we're going and I've been everywhere in in this province but I haven't been there i don't know why so I
59:06
thought good uh I'm going to to northern Quebec again i went last year to a Pemkin National Park and amazing fishing
59:13
amazing really lake no kidding
59:21
for walleye or for a pike or what well no more walleye and bass small mouth
59:26
bass were like monsters my rod snapped at the base really went in not the tip
59:33
the base it snapped at really cuz we're heading up that way I believe right right
59:39
when you're on Lake Kip what they do is they the small out in the middle of the lake they they go in herds and they
59:45
slurp oh don't tell us that do not tell us anything like that because it's it's not our favorite way of catching them
59:51
honestly oh it is trust me he's looking at me like I'm a weirdo cuz I'm lying like
59:58
helicopen area one year and it was just mayhem you know 90 ft of water on the
1:00:04
surface pretty much yeah yeah i didn't know they did that i I I was out last year and I saw this i went "Well those
1:00:11
are walleye eating makeflies maybe." Like I don't know and um like in the middle of nowhere like you're not along
1:00:17
the shore or shaw or whatever and I simply just cast it now the fun part was about this fishing rod though so my
1:00:23
buddy I gave him a whole bunch of good camp gear when I had a yard sale when I moved and I said don't give me any money
1:00:28
but just give me a really good fishing rod i I don't really carry a good fishing rod because usually they break and um so he got me this really
1:00:36
supposedly really expensive fishing rod and I took it on that trip and it snapped the first fish thank thank
1:00:41
goodness I had another rod oh my god and I looked at the camera i I didn't put this on on social media or whatever but
1:00:46
I I got B-roll i looked at the camera you are a cheap son of a
1:00:53
expensive ride okay i know they were slurping up and I just casted into the the slurps and boom boom boom it was
1:01:00
amazing but the great thing about Lake Kibwa is that Lake Tmog is nice but right across
1:01:07
from the Quebec border you've got a lake the same size that would take you 10 days to paddle around it all crown land
1:01:14
and um you you've got amazing fishing and you see boats but in the distance not nothing like Tommogamy oh good good
1:01:22
to know hopefully we'll hit some of that surface action oh my god those twitch baits oh my god oh my god top water
1:01:30
twitch baits jerk bait just keep going keep going how big were the walleye uh good size but but but the range back
1:01:37
and forth that's it was a good healthy uh population but only on some parts of Lake Kipoa um like there was bass in the
1:01:44
north end um but you'd have to go well where I caught them was down by the the
1:01:49
central part of the um oh the the eastern side of of the inlets and um you
1:01:54
know what how I found them i watched the the people from the the lodges go out fishing it's the best way best way to do
1:02:00
it yeah why not and and I don't know the last time I talked to you but last year I went to a pathway i told you about
1:02:06
that the far northern trip I did by um James Bay where I almost died no oh do
1:02:12
tell okay I'll do this quick version of it um you and I we all have to have a
1:02:17
whiskey during this conversation about this trip of course but it was a um a trip my buddy planned that I didn't know
1:02:24
about because 10 years ago we did the Venus Lakequin and he went and didn't like it so he goes "Okay when we're 60
1:02:30
we're going to do a trip and you don't know anything about it." So Explore Magazine I write for them they said that's a good story i didn't like it i
1:02:35
want to know where I was going but we headed north and just watched the video on my Casey Happy camper that it's hilarious i I had a blindfold on me
1:02:42
driving north and so we get to Red Lake and then I'm Well where are we going to Red Lake uh and we flew to a pas which
1:02:48
is a provincial park uh up in near the James Bay lowland and it was 250 km
1:02:53
north in the bush plane we flew in that bush plane the beaver uh beaver for two uh and a half hours
1:03:00
wow that's a long Imagine being a plane that that long and then there were forest fires coming and I didn't want to
1:03:05
be there i said there were last summer the end of the summer they were evacuating people we were flying into it and so uh
1:03:13
so I looked at my buddy and I I was like "You're an idiot." Like look you're an idiot um and then so the pilot couldn't
1:03:19
land on where we're supposed to go so we landed on another uh lake and the lakes don't have names up there well they do first Nations people have names so we
1:03:25
landed and then uh he said "Well I have a map showing you know there's some portagees here back in the day." I went
1:03:31
"Okay." And the pilot goes "Well I've never been here good luck pal see you later see you in 16 days." And left we
1:03:36
get to the first portage and this is a fast version of it there were no portages and it took us get this get
1:03:43
this it took us 16 or six sorry six days to go four kilometers oh my god that's
1:03:50
thick cuz we had to cut our way there was no portage wow oh my god and then then I thought well if this was a First
1:03:56
Nations portage it had to been here and we're cutting alder and stuff i went I went to Andy i went there's no way there's no way they went here i went up
1:04:02
to a ridge on I think day five and he goes "Well that's not where the lake is." I went "I'm just getting all these
1:04:08
alders." And then I looked up on a birch tree about 6 ft above me my head there was a there was a blaze a portage blaze
1:04:14
and I went this was a winter route because the snow would have been that high and wow so that's how we got out we
1:04:21
had to start walking the ridges and then so this will just blow your mind so this I did not put a line in the water until
1:04:27
day eight of this trip what did you do for food we went to places that nobody
1:04:33
has been for that that the history shows that the canoist that went to a pathway two two ways to define this one is um uh
1:04:41
the outfitter we finally got to the outfitter uh big hook uh outfitting fantastic guys they actually saved our
1:04:46
buns and um they uh they said you came from the the south east nobody comes
1:04:52
from Oh my god and I go how many canos go here well the last 13 years there's
1:04:58
been two groups in that park and then when I got back Ontario Parks sent me a note saying "Can you write up a report
1:05:04
about that park?" Cuz we haven't been there yet wow what did you do for food you
1:05:12
couldn't I dehydrated all I was quite I was quite proud of myself i dehydrated enough food actually too cuz it was
1:05:18
early September so it was getting cold up there and um it fit all in one barrel plus a couple things of whiskey but we
1:05:25
got close at the end I had a just a wee drram left of whiskey i was That's not good that's scary when you get to that
1:05:31
point how was the fish you said you did get fishing though did you get some fish yeah so once we got we got settled what
1:05:37
what what happened was we finally I I finally said to Andy look like we're we're we're being silly white man here
1:05:42
right now we're we're trying to push to get somewhere we were supposed to do 127 km loop we've gone 36 km in in in in a
1:05:50
week and a half like we have to chill and just and then we got windbound for 4 days on this one campsite so we couldn't
1:05:56
even fish from the boat we had to fish uh from shore but yeah walleye and pike walleye and pike walley and pike great
1:06:02
fantastic great adventures man if you're listening to this and have never done anything like that before uh go to uh
1:06:09
the YouTube the channel what's What's the name of the channel uh Casey Happy Camper don't do this you'll die there
1:06:15
you go that's the channel you need to go and check this out if it doesn't inspire you to get together with your buddies
1:06:21
and go and and experience some of this true Canadiana it's uh nothing will uh
1:06:26
buddy we got to run i really appreciate you taking the time especially the day
1:06:32
before you leave on a big trip i know how much stuff's got to be prepared uh let us know how you do best and and best
1:06:39
of luck in that book by all means that's uh that looks fantastic i urge anybody
1:06:44
uh listening that's got kids wants to uh give them a really good read and experience uh what we talk about on a
1:06:51
regular basis that's a spark of courage a spark of courage thank you my friend
1:06:56
be safe there it is we'll talk to you we'll talk to you when you get back i
1:07:02
hope I catch the biggest fish let us know buddy good luck take care bud oh
1:07:08
man sometimes I look at him and I say he's got the ultimate life right then he
1:07:14
sees you on TV he says "God damn that Angelo's got the ultimate life." Exactly uh check him out on YouTube wonderful
1:07:20
storyteller great outdoorsman i did not know he was
1:07:26
voted in the top 100 i didn't either all right um on that note we're running into
1:07:32
some overtime issues oh no we've got to run don't forget fishingcanada.com the gateway to portal to your next fishing
1:07:39
adventure and uh get on there often and win some of the goodies that are up for grabs on behalf of the entire team Boba
1:07:46
Nick Dean Peter I'm Angel as well thank you for joining us i'll get you next time
1:07:53
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