Up next in 10
Does Timing Matter in Walleye Fishing?
216 views
Jun 27, 2025
- 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 on-the-road episode of Outdoor Journal Radio, Ang and Pete broadcast from the legendary Hawk Lake Lodge in Sunset Country, Northwestern Ontario. Joined by owner Ted Putnam, they explore whether moon phases and timing actually impact your odds of landing trophy walleye. This episode dives deep into why Hawk Lake is widely considered the best trophy walleye fishery in the world, how a strict catch-and-release policy has transformed the fishery, and what makes this lodge more than just another remote getaway. Plus, hear about massive lake trout caught right by the dock, backcountry lakes with untouched fish populations, and a late-night bite that has to be seen to be believed. You’ll also learn how eco-tourism and stargazing might be the next big additions to this already world-class experience. Whether you’re chasing personal bests or just want to fish Northern Ontario in luxury, this episode has it all. Topics Include: - Moon phases and trophy walleye success - Why Hawk Lake's management strategy works - Exploring remote outpost lakes - Lodge life and luxury in the wild - Fishing stories from the road - Grass carp and invasive species alerts
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 and JMBB Cycle and Marine your
0:25
home for all things powers sports boats and equipment yeah baby
0:32
they are cheering it they're cheering us from everywhere buddy they wrote that song for these shows right here let me tell you mister it's kind of weird
0:39
having you like next to me like that i kind of liked you way over there you come on you want me right in the same
0:44
seat as you Oh yeah i want to rub up against you like Siamese twins we're like Siamese twins bro welcome to the
0:50
program outdoor Journal Radio the podcast uh on the road again as the uh
0:56
song would imply come on now for those that can hear it for those that can hear it because some YouTubers are not going
1:02
to be hearing that if you're on YouTube you didn't hear anything you didn't hear it sorry about the Sencio uh I'm Angel he is Peter Bowman that's
1:09
Dino our ustrious producer and over there we have uh our two production
1:15
folks and look at them going they're on the road again they've been on the road again for years very special guest today
1:21
too he's milling about he's milling about but he's running away right now but we're going to get him back don't you worry uh Ted Putnham will be joining
1:28
us soon from Hawk Lake Lodge because uh kids what you see behind us is nothing short of a little piece of heaven it's
1:35
called Hawk Lake in northwestern Ontario and we have been saying it for years and
1:41
we're going to show you exactly what we mean on the uh Fishing Canada episode
1:46
that we'll be producing from this shoot we're going to show you why this is the walleye capital of the world bar none
1:55
you want a big big big old walleye this is the lake to come to for sure but I'm sure Mr putnham will have all kinds of
2:01
things to tell us about that we are in Sunset Country by the way in Ontario here right north of Ontario it's called Sunset Country we'll give Jerry a little
2:07
plug there apparently Mr putnham is going to give us the question of the week i can't wait brought to you by
2:13
fishfindermouse.com indeed Mr putnham I can I can only imagine what
2:19
his question's going to be i think it'll be a good one teddy's good man he's uh he's a beast depending on the happy hour
2:25
situation is it a happy hour no but we could probably make it i'm Teddy can call happy hour anytime he wants right
2:30
you know that right so uh so uh unlike the regular non on the road again
2:36
podcast this one will be loosely formatted we won't have the usual stuff but we do have to mention uh one thing
2:42
and that is fishingcanada.com the gateway the portal to your next fishing adventure and once there
2:50
might you might pick up a little merch a little bit of swag maybe while you're at it and if you don't go there you could
2:55
go to shop.fishingcanada.com if you want to just you know go straight to the buying part i like that when they
3:00
do that well you know what or go both right why not some of the lovely uh garments you'll see we are sporting one
3:07
style of them right here beautiful fishing can wear it loud and wear it proud folks if you don't have it the
3:13
boys are wearing the old school thing right now bova's wearing a nice beautiful little I don't even know if we're selling that dressy number dressy
3:20
number look at him he's a handsome package I'll tell you so we've had the pleasure of being up here for a few days
3:25
now and uh a couple of things I have to point out first of all yes sir do say
3:30
first of all I have to uh reiterate that this may be the finest
3:37
forget this forget this for a moment if you could ever forget Hawk Lake but if you could put Hawk Lake away and
3:44
transport this structure over to my left and put it on any other body of water it
3:52
would still be the legendary Hog Lake Lodge i don't care what lake it's on uh to say that it's uh it's one of the
3:58
finest um I I hate calling it u a hotel
4:05
on on water but it is like being in a hotel it's that the service is that
4:10
incredible the amenities are resort maybe uh the amenities are beyond belief
4:16
it's second to none there there's no there's no skimping here with Ted and the team ted says "Okay I like that i
4:23
want that." And that's what's going to happen for everybody here and it's it's it's that good it really is little wonder that just about anybody who is
4:30
anybody in the fishing game uh in our industry has been here at least once oh yeah if not more times uh the legendary
4:37
Al Linder was here with the cone last year that's how we found out about this
4:43
place i watched in fisherman when he was back in in fisherman I think even was that long ago and I saw a hawk lake lodge and they were just catching tank
4:48
walley and I thought wait a minute we got to look at this and that's how we found it so and then since then everybody's been here it's just an
4:54
incredible place it's just that good the fishing now if we want to talk about fishing I think if you are looking you
5:00
know we often talk about putting yourself in the ideal position to get a
5:06
trophy fish let's call the walleye in this particular case you know whether whether you're following the moon phase
5:11
which we don't do enough of or salooner tables which we don't do enough of any of any thank you whether you're
5:17
following any of those uh I know a lot of people do and and I encourage you to do that by the way one of the keys
5:24
though it's not just uh that you need to fish the primary lunar phase or solunar
5:29
phases but you need to put yourself in an ideal spot to get that trophy fish
5:34
and we've always thought that hey if we were going to follow that rule which we
5:40
don't uh we need to do it on Hawk Lake and guess what this time we have
5:45
absolutely we've put ourselves during the full moon period um opening season
5:51
on the best walleye fishery on the planet so we'll see what what we make of it in the weeks actually for you the
5:58
television audience you won't see the net result of this for how many months is that do you know six months six
6:05
months that's it that quickly wow the boys got their work cut out for editing and all is it almost Are we halfway
6:10
through the year it'll be July by the time this comes out mackerel okay oh my god 6 months you'll see the uh the
6:17
results of our quest here at Hay Lake Lodge h Lake why did I say that you did that before hawk Lake Lodge the
6:23
uniqueness to Hawk Lake to everybody listening those that have never visited Northwest Ontario northwest Ontario is
6:30
obviously one of the walleye capitals of the world the entire earth but a lot of the lakes here are you're going to catch
6:38
tons of 12 14 16 18inch walleye that's just the uh most of the like KB Lake for
6:44
instance you go to KB Lake and any of the lodges there you're going to catch a 100 fish in a day you're not going to do
6:49
that here you know you don't you don't concentrate on catching 100 fish you catch you concentrate on catching a 30
6:54
inch or bigger walleye you know and the and the chances are very good every day that you're here you know what I mean so
7:01
some you know some days you might not get you might only get a couple of five pounders or something like that but then
7:06
all of a sudden it's going to turn on it's going to be mayhem and just the average is is big here that's the
7:11
difference with this lake it's just big fish and pike and lake trout and smallmouth bass too they're and they're
7:17
all big here so I was going to say though so if I'm not somebody that is you know in the quest for a personal
7:24
best or giant fish I just want to go out and fish and have fun right are you saying that this type of fishery is not
7:30
necessarily where you want to be no because you you got small mouth that you're going to catch 100 small mouth in a day open all year by the way right you
7:37
got pike you got lake trout we just just we just started fishing the lake right here for the first time in three visits or whatever we went out there and right
7:43
off the lodge here and a caught one we lost one and caught one within an hour so like that a nice one i want to
7:49
mention that too because it's really important this is not much different than any other lodge in that most of the
7:56
good fishing happens right here in front of the lodge because everybody ourselves included uh first thing you want to do
8:03
when you get in the water is you just want to take off you want to head out there into the wilderness and you should
8:09
hell yeah but there's no fish around a boat launch that means that every fish that lives here never sees anybody on
8:16
top of them so we changed that up yesterday and holy mackerel there are more giant fish and talking to the staff
8:23
here at Hawk Lake because they don't obviously have a lot of time to go out
8:28
and fish all day long but when they do get a 10 or 15 minute break they just go right here on this reef right in front
8:34
of this this veranda that we're on this point right here and they get 26 27 28
8:39
inch walleye give me a hell yeah yeah I'd say hell yeah on that one i would say that for
8:44
sure but not us no we run all the way down to the very end you know what
8:50
though don't make Don't be It's kind of a misconception this is not a big lake
8:56
this is a nice This is a perfect size lake that you can cover in one of Teddy's boats uh or you bring your own
9:02
bring your own boat to or whatever like we bring ours obviously because he's got a launch here but it's not a huge lake so you can cover the whole thing in a
9:08
4-day trip you know you you got north to south and then the little arms that go up and down too so it's a perfect size
9:13
lake and it's perfectly laid out this is a big basin out here right in front of us and then if you go down to the south that goes into these arms it's still
9:20
deep but there's like channels and it's very smaller always there's lots of protected water it's got it all we'll
9:25
talk to Ted about this uh in depth uh in a few minutes but I just want to point out you mentioned uh the satellite uh
9:32
fishing opportunities the uh outback lakes that are available here we're looking on the map uh this morning at
9:38
breakfast i just cannot believe the amount of accessible fishing that there
9:43
is u off of this lake and I you might say to yourself I know I do well why in
9:48
the hell would I come all this way and then not stick to the main feature which
9:55
is Hawk Lake because the other I don't know 20 or so opportunities that are 20
10:01
minutes away half hour away from what we've heard i've not experienced I know you did once right on
10:08
when it was small oh yeah they're just it's perfect uh they're they're breathtaking so perfect you drive your boat up to the shore you got a little uh
10:16
landing point portage point whether or not portage is a landing point and you park your boat there you walk in with your gear and then you put another boat
10:22
in the water and another lake and uh have at her and have at her we're going to because in a couple of minutes we'll
10:27
bring the man on himself who is going to tell us uh a lot more than what we're uh
10:33
unveiling to you about this incredible opportunity now it is a little bit far i don't want to be negative but we got to
10:39
throw we got to find some negative things about this place um and it's not
10:44
negative to me because I also drove my family down to Disney many times when
10:51
they were growing up and it's about the same drive yeah you know and we used to make a trip of it so this would be no
10:58
different and I'm talking about uh folks who live in the GTA or thereabouts it's
11:03
funny we talk to a lot of like the guests here are mostly American guests and they all drive less than we do we're
11:09
in Canada driving to Canada and they drive like 10 hours less than it's crazy
11:14
it's hard to believe i think a lot of them you know 10 10 to 12 hour drive is a kind of an average I guess around here
11:21
so we were talking to people today from Kansas and they're from all over the place that was a long drive for them too
11:26
i spoke to a couple of guys yesterday they've been coming for 30 years they they're in their third um ownership of
11:34
the lodge that they they've been here through yeah you know that's dedication and that doesn't come by luck or by chance that
11:42
comes with having an operation u that just beckons you to come back you have
11:47
to go back and that's what this is this is one of those few places I think anywhere not just here in Ontario or
11:53
even Canada for that matter um one of those places that there's a little bit of magic that we you you really can't
11:59
put your finger on it but there's a little bit of magic happening here that just grabs you by the soul and and and
12:06
says "You got to get back." Or better yet you got to bring somebody here that that that has never been here before
12:12
like a family member friend i think you should buy this place you and Stephen should team up and buy this place yeah
12:17
well we'll talk we'll see we'll see maybe sell it to you for a good deal i've got a thousand bucks on me so we'll see when he comes on maybe the man's
12:23
maybe he feels like selling right now who knows um
12:28
do you know the uh the uh Invasive Species Center uh sent us a note here
12:33
while we're on the road we we communicate with them while we're on the road we do yeah they get a hold of us and they have a new ad there for you
12:39
brand new come on there's some new wording come on now well let me just tell you folks uh we're talking about a
12:45
beautiful pristine part of the world wilderness galore uh you would think it's it's oblivious to anything touching
12:53
it and destroying it but there is something out there that we have to keep an eye on all the time not that it is anywhere near where we are right now but
13:01
there's there better not be in this lake that's exactly it's called the grass carp and the folks from Invasive Species
13:07
Center want to remind you that uh you as anglers we as anglers have to do our
13:13
part and that is be vigilant keep an eye out for this critter it hasn't taken root yet in Canada although there are uh
13:19
a few cases and there's DNA evidence where uh we might start thinking it's
13:24
already here in the Great Lakes but uh in the meantime what we need to do is
13:30
stay on top of things make sure that we can identify it when we encounter if and when we encounter it in the field we
13:35
know uh and are equipped to deal with it properly which would be in your case i'
13:41
I'd get a hold of Asiancarp.ca i thought you were going to get the bunker oh no i'm changed i'm a changed
13:47
man now yeah wow do tell well because when I get in a northern environment I breathe this fresh air down in southern
13:53
Ontario that's just It's not this right it's not this you don't look out and see this anywhere right so and then I start
13:59
thinking about my billy club my baseball bat my shotgun whatever you know I just get these odd thoughts going through me
14:05
then I come up here and it's okay okay we'll just we'll just Asiancarb.ca that's all uh for those of you who are
14:12
tuning in maybe for the first time and haven't heard this wonderful message for the last I don't know how many years have been Dean it's been like 120
14:20
episodes oh my god uh let me remind you one more time uh the danger with grass carp if they get into our environment is
14:26
they consume a large amount of vegetation they up to 40% of their body
14:32
weight each and every day and some of these critters can grow up to 80 pounds so you can do the math because I can't
14:38
uh but that's a lot of hay it's a lot good old weed bed so it doesn't take long for them to completely devastate an
14:46
environment an ecosystem for that matter if uh they do get in so with your help
14:51
with our help and with the help of Invasive Species Center we can possibly do something to keep them at bay there
14:58
you go come on now uh our next segment is brought to you by fishfindermounts.com
15:04
uh coming to the show will be Ted Putnham momentarily owner of Hawk Lake Lodge this episode is brought to you by
15:12
Sale sale is proudly Canadian and stocked with over a 100 Canadian brands you know and love from rods and reels to
15:18
sonars to kayaks and every last lure you've seen on the Fishing Canada show sale has all the gear to get you on the
15:24
water drop into one of 12 stores across Ontario and Quebec and talk to the real
15:29
fishing specialists or gear up online anytime at sail.ca sail the ultimate
15:35
destination for your outdoor adventures this episode is brought to you by Angller's Leaderboard and its
15:41
photomeasure feature angller's Leaderboard makes every catch count by integrating seamlessly with our patent
15:46
pending AI enabled fish measurement board now you can automatically measure catch length and detect species in
15:52
seconds just by using your smartphone camera it's fast accurate and reduces handling so now you can release
15:59
healthier fish and keep fishing for the big ones learn more at angles leaderboard.com all right uh before we
16:05
move on I did make one mistake i was very proud of myself when we went to that quick little break because I thought "Wow we got through all that
16:12
with no script no nothing." And look at me go not look at you go uh that segment
16:17
that whole part of the show was brought to you by BB BB B JNB Cycle and Marine
16:23
not to be confused with JB Cyclemarine.com or just cycle.com they
16:29
got so many monikers hard for me to keep track especially when I don't have it written in front of me they are the largest prince grabbed mercury dealer no
16:35
way in Canada ontario for sure well Canada maybe
16:42
might have something to say about Canada we did say Canada let's get specific on that sure why not well you're doing
16:49
you're doing the you're doing the sound effects open so I have to do some of my own but that was very well done because
16:55
of that because of your statement he a real you know personal one in there and now without further ado the man himself
17:02
has finally joined us uh his name is Mr putnham i call him Ted he lets me He
17:09
lets me call him Ted owner of this great establishment uh Hawk Lake
17:15
teddy teddy my man teddy you have a lot of energy for 9 in the morning i'm
17:20
impressed for an old guy well I wasn't going to say that but that too that too
17:25
uh welcome to the program i don't think you've been on uh Have you been on our podcast before i've been on the podcast
17:30
but not the video part i'm always calling in cuz you know I live in the States obviously you don't so uh first time uh what city what town i live in
17:37
Boston boston there's a bunch of [ __ ] yeah let's not go too far there Dino uh we have by the way he's out of
17:44
control most of the time so do excuse us in advance for anything he might say that offends you noted i love that when
17:51
Ted and Angelo get together because Angelo's a diehard Leaf fan Ted's a diehard Brewing fan and And because you
17:57
two just you buttthead so so perfectly together it's so much fun what you did
18:04
better he doesn't understand ted it's it's a good it's a good rivalry and it's this is something to banter about i mean
18:10
there's no fun to watch you know it's entertaining okay forget it okay Dean
18:15
just scratched that we'll just get rid of that video come on now i I'll I'm going to put Speaking of that then let I
18:22
wasn't going to say this but I would like to take a little wager oh my god
18:28
if you would take it if you would take it I would like to put a wager on i don't know a friendly amount you pick it
18:35
uh that the Leafs will win the cup before the Bruins do there's a bunch of [ __ ]
18:41
you know normally I wouldn't take that but because the Leafs pretty much always choke I'd be happy to take that back
18:47
even though the Bruins suck right now it's still kind of a done deal you guys you just you just can't can't make it
18:52
happen oh it's so painful so true if only you knew every time you send me those little you know nasty things when
18:59
we get out we lose and get we're out of the playoffs it hurts so deeply truth hurts i'm sorry buddy it is what it is
19:05
anyways I'll tell you what doesn't hurt is being here at Hawk Lake Lodge and I know we probably you it sounds like
19:12
we're overstating it but I've yet to bring anybody up here we've got some crew members uh that are up with us that
19:19
have never been here before that's correct and I had been uh telling them and bestowing upon them the virtues of
19:25
this wonderful place and they thought quite frankly that I was overselling yeah just another lie every single one
19:30
of them has said "Oh my god you're absolutely bang on." Uh congratulations
19:36
again for just running one of the I don't know the premier lodges certainly
19:42
I'll go on a limb and say the very best walleye uh lodge that we have ever ever
19:48
seen and been to and hats off to you man i appreciate that uh that takes a lot of
19:53
work from a great team of which we have the best team I've ever seen in my 35 years of working in the business and uh
20:00
you know it's not just me it's everybody it's everybody how does a Bostononian kid end up here well I mean just like
20:08
you said Canada has some of the best fishing in the world so if I'm going fishing I'm going north and I was
20:13
boopping around from place to place in the 90s and the 2000s thinking "Wow this is God's country up here." You know I
20:19
had a midlife crisis i said "Why am I not up here full-time?" And uh at the age of 40 I decided to throw everything
20:26
caution to the wind and let's just go buy a lodge having no idea what I was doing you'd never owned a lodge before
20:31
not in a million years you know I had no idea what I was getting into and that's a different podcast had you been here before oh I had been here i was a guest
20:38
and you know I just I just it it looked like a great dream what what was the fishing like when you first came here
20:44
but compared to now it was very good but uh the walleye fishing wasn't really promoted all that much because people it
20:50
was sort of an afterthought it was always a big bass fishery really when I started catching really big fish I
20:55
realized we had something magical here and as we've talked on other podcasts immediately I went to catch and release because I wanted to enhance that and 15
21:02
16 years later I mean look what you got oh my god your average is ridiculous this wild yeah it's crazy i do want to
21:08
touch on this for not to be negative but I do want to touch on this for just a moment because we talk about this
21:15
operation a lot um and sometimes with the scientific community especially they
21:22
say well you know I don't know that type of management
21:27
might be a little bit a little too tough you know where you've got a an absolute
21:33
nokill policy in fact just to bring that full circle uh if somebody wants to have a shoreline here walleye shore lunch
21:40
they can but it's not local walleye i don't know where he gets them i don't know what I don't even want to know uh
21:46
but he will fly walleye into your your shoreline and you'll have a great
21:51
walleye shoring lunch so he doesn't even doesn't even keep fish to to entertain
21:56
and influence the clientele by by consuming them at Shoreld so talking to
22:02
the scientific community they're saying "God man that's that might be a little too strict you know cuz you have to kind
22:07
of manage you have to put and take and keep it balanced and and we always say I we get it but you can't argue with
22:15
success." And we're telling you that that that is one hell of a successful operation he's got and the fish keep
22:21
getting bigger stronger and more how do you explain it it's actually pretty simple uh you know
22:27
there were there scientists around in the 16 17 1800s where they were all managing the fisheries and had limits
22:32
and all that stuff no I mean if a fishery in general should be able to manage itself uh then you introduce man
22:39
and you can even make a you sound like our previous prime minister who said uh the budget will uh balance itself yeah
22:46
okay i'm not going to go there thank you very much not in these political times yes but the fishery should better manage
22:52
itself so I we I took a hands-off approach and uh the results really speak
22:57
for themselves and I've been doing this 15 years now and as you know in one of the prior podcasts I track all of these classes of fish and you can see how
23:05
they've just come back and rebounded and last night when you were fishing when we saw you guys fishing you noticed that
23:10
gosh we're catching smaller fish now there's there are all these healthy classes of fish coming up i didn't really do that the fishery did that
23:17
right the all I did was just put the limits in place so we kept putting them back it's pretty simple uh so to all
23:23
those scientists out there that say we need to be calling fish doing this and that well I'm sorry i just don't agree with that that's just a bunch of BS
23:29
how's that worked sorry Dan how's that worked throughout all your smaller lakes too is it the same thing everything goes
23:36
back no but I mean is it still a great fishery every lake you have absolutely now we only have three or four walleye
23:41
lakes of the 20 plus lakes we have right and those are uh those are the ones I'm really kind of taking a keen eye to yeah
23:48
the smallmouth will take care of themselves as long as a predator fish i.e pike right you know they're doing just fine right the pike get big the
23:54
walley excuse me the smallmouth aren't stunted and it works where it doesn't work is if you just got a smallmouth
24:00
lake and they go berserk and they're you know then they are stunted right so they all take care of themselves really so I
24:05
just really concentrated on the main lake and because I wanted to see how big a trophy fishery we could sort of create
24:13
and it's crazy i mean the average size walleye the average is like 24 and a half inches that's the average size fish
24:18
we were doing that last night they were honestly up until last night we've often
24:24
said to ourselves when we come up here how is this even possible there are no small fish we We know basic science you
24:31
have to have small fish first in order to grow them into large fish well here we had never seen a small fish yeah we
24:37
we had honestly had because as Ted just said 24 in average is kind of the norm and they're eating real good here the
24:43
small fish cuz yesterday ants got one with a minnow in his mouth that big there's a story to that one they're
24:48
laughing because there's a good story to that one but we'll leave that that's a different podcast that's right easy there guys that's right um so I I've
24:56
asked you this before i'll ask it to you of you again what's the next step where
25:03
do you go from here you've obviously created a very You created a unicorn in
25:08
terms of I think uh a drive to fishing experience
25:14
i think I'm safe in calling it a unicorn there's nothing that we certainly have ever experienced this close where do you
25:20
go from here or are you just content now i I did it i polish it every day and I
25:25
admire it and I'm good with that or are you looking to No no i think uh if
25:30
you're going to be successful in any venture you do you you shouldn't rest on uh your laurels i always want to make it
25:36
better always so yes I've done everything I possibly can to make it better but that doesn't mean there aren't other things so interestingly
25:43
enough we send out uh you know questionnaires to everybody that comes up here and the first thing I ask is
25:49
it's not did you have a great time or any something like that which is very common i said what what would you like
25:55
to see you know so this is you know this is for everybody so we get lots of ideas and that's all I do all winter you know
26:01
I go through the ideas with my wife and some of my senior staff and we decide well what's what's the next step what's the next evolution so for example we've
26:08
got an old building here that uh is kind of dormant and we're thinking of creating a stargazing place we're in a
26:14
big high power telescopes where you can come out at night and look at the stars you know with really cool monitors and
26:19
stuff where you can where the things will automatically adjust to Mars or whatever it is like how cool would that be while having an after-dinner cocktail
26:27
so we're always thinking of things like that like something that isn't really the norm but be kind of like a wow or a
26:34
cool factor that's all I do i love cool factors the the cool factor too and what you're talking about right there with
26:40
the stars is in Northern Ontario where we are here people have no idea from the south how the stars it just the sky on a
26:46
clear night is ridiculous it's stunning it's lit up and is you just see millions upon millions of stars just by vis you
26:53
know by your eye naked eye and northern lights too and the northern lights which a lot of people in the southern states have never seen northern lights yeah
26:59
yeah a lot of people here don't when I say here I mean in Ontario don't realize that we have them here in Northern
27:05
Ontario right they think it's an NWT and beyond um yeah cool how about uh I know
27:13
that Dean Taylor our producer is into uh
27:19
Of course he can push that button of course we're getting there Dino we're going to be dead on
27:25
uh he's all about physical fitness and all that and it seems to me you have got the perfect landscape to build some kind
27:33
of a trail that folks can either hiking trail well hiking but maybe even a little more aggressive type of thing
27:40
that's interesting because that's that's getting pretty big nowadays it's called echourism that's huge and I got a few of
27:45
my colleagues in the Manitoba area that are doing very well that's something we are definitely considering where you
27:50
don't have to fish to experience all everything around you in fact most fisherman up here the fishing is almost
27:56
secondary so why not talk about little echoourism side of it where you're going out maybe you're sleeping in a yurt you
28:01
know you have a naturalist with you you're pointing out all the wildlife of which it's everywhere the flora and the
28:06
fauna uh that's something that is probably coming within the next 3 to 5 years where we're going to expand that business you know go out in a canoe on
28:13
one of these lakes and just look at the beavers and you know and look for moose and bear and and I think that is is the
28:19
next wave of this tourism industry up here in the north a good friend of ours actually he was an
28:24
editor and still is uh working with Pine Post Productions our mother company um
28:30
he just uh took that direction too and he has built a uh a little bit of an eco
28:36
deal happening just outside of Toronto but he's putting uh little domes domes
28:42
these sort of glass panel domes where people can sleep out under the stars and
28:47
they still have running water and air conditioning and all that stuff right So it's uh it's that that movement is upon
28:54
us it's huge it's huge um okay let's now get back to what those folks really want
29:00
to know talk to us about the U opportunities here what is prime season are we in what you would consider to be
29:06
prime season right now in the in the month of June well that's a loaded question i mean you're talking about
29:12
prime for walleye well I don't think I'm going to come up here for you know I might I might go and take advantage of
29:19
your humongous uh vast uh smallmouth bass fishery that
29:26
you've got i might do that but I'm not going to come here for that let's be honest or your pike fishing let's be
29:33
honest i'm coming here for your walley fishing okay all right so when's the prime season yeah i mean obviously it's
29:38
from the open which is mid late May till probably mid July when the water gets warm now that being said because you're
29:45
not catching lots and lots and lots of big fish you know a good day is a dozen really big fish 26 plus you can pretty
29:51
much do that all summer long so what happens is you go smallmouth fishing in August and as you guys experienced last
29:56
night and you get into a spot for an hour and a half two hours every night it doesn't matter if it's August or it's June those fish are going to come
30:02
shallower on the fl so uh to say that we that you have to come in June just to
30:07
catch big walleye it's sort of a misnomer i I don't agree with that at all uh you can come almost anytime i
30:13
mean you've got 18 hours of daylight and if you catch the right spot at the right time it doesn't matter when you're here
30:19
it really doesn't and as you noticed if I go fishing I go fishing at night and for like an hour and I'll go catch seven
30:25
or eight fish and boom you just made my day you know so I don't have to hunt and fish all day long i just go hammer them and then come back and go to bed now
30:31
that is absolutely no [ __ ] okay let me let me put that right on
30:37
uh Teddy for the last two or three trips up here has been saying "Yeah you you guys are doing good but you're missing
30:42
the real bite you know it happens at 9:30 at night and it happens in this one
30:48
spot and you know like you're there for maybe 27 minutes and then you're back
30:54
home." Yeah okay Ted well we got a show to shoot Ted we'll see you tomorrow anyways last night we thought we'd
30:59
finally take him up on it mhm and uh Wow yeah wow there you go in fact I had to
31:05
call you guys over i'm like "Guys here we go they're biting i'm not making the scrap." They came in early yesterday
31:11
boom wow by 10:00 it was all over lights out let's get back for a nice uh uh
31:17
soothing whirlpool on the veranda by the way every cabin here has got Am I right every cabin has a hot tub personally
31:24
like where do you get that another thing that people You can do if you're a real diehard angler and you want to get the
31:31
big walleye you split it up you do walleye early morning late evening and if you want to fish all day the smallmouth obviously walleye is tougher
31:38
through the midday right the sun blah blah blah blah blah but then the bass fishing usually gets better or as good
31:44
right throughout the whole day so you could literally catch 30 or 40 bass per angler and get a trophy walleye in the
31:49
morning trophy walley in the evening you'd have one stellar day every day you know what I mean like that's the way it works here that's the draw and if you
31:55
can go pike fishing or go lake trout fishing you have one lake that has tons of crappie we had a guy here last week
32:00
the Jason Halen who caught 50 crappie in a day on one of the outlakes and they were like 12 to 15 inches long they're
32:07
dinner plates just crushed it wow so you don't have to be looking at one species you can mix it up and have fun and
32:13
experience the whole gamut here and not just sit here and hunt trophies all day and there's no extra cost to go to the
32:18
outlakes correct you just got to sign up it's all inclusive you're the only boat on those lakes you just sign up and away you go wow which is kind of fun that's
32:24
That's cool you mentioned about the self-imposed management tools that Ted has in place
32:29
uh a total release fishery um have you ever had anybody that wasn't aware of
32:37
that until they got up here and then all of a sudden it became a problem well when I first did the self-imposed thing
32:44
15 years ago uh I had to get the word out pretty quick um and so yes in the very beginning but now it's all over uh
32:51
the website for for one two I make it abundantly clear that when I'm communicating with new people but
32:57
honestly between you and me you being a little older it's a different generation right that generation back in the 70s
33:03
and 80s are used to keeping fish this generation they're just here for the experience to catch the fish so it's not really much of a problem and every once
33:10
in a while I get a call and people are like "How many fish can I take home?" And I said "Well this isn't the place for you." And I'll happily recommend
33:15
them somewhere else but people are here just to have a great time anywhere up here and and a lot of the lodges are the
33:22
same way which is nice to see absolutely dean did I mention this segment is brought to you by fishfindermouse.com by
33:27
the way you did mention that but I appreciate you doing it again no I'm just saying because I see it here i I did a handwritten note because I got no
33:32
notes today as you may have noticed even though we're on the road i thought it would be nice to have something that we could go by but I kind of did it myself
33:38
i took it upon myself wrote I just noticed it and I just Every now and then you do it by yourself right well listen
33:44
you mention age you're never too old to do that to write stuff down yeah exactly by yourself absolutely for yourself by
33:51
yourself son it's amazing how you make it through the day here Ang i'm just shocked oh you haven't seen half of it
33:57
my brother hey anglers why not turn your next catch into a competition well check out Angller's Leaderboard the new
34:04
fishing platform that lets you track your catches join friendly competitions enter tournaments and see how you rank
34:11
against others in your region use your phone and the photo measure board to automatically detect length and species
34:18
no more guesswork whether you're fishing for pleasure or to compete ALB makes
34:24
every catch count what's your ALB score well get Angller's leaderboard today and
34:30
start climbing the ranks visit anglersleerboard.com to learn more we
34:35
are we are uh leaving here today this is our last day unfortunately but we are moving on uh to our next shoot cedar
34:41
Island Lodge cedar Island Lodge all part of the 40th anniversary season that we
34:47
uh commence January 8th I believe dean that sounds right yeah January 8th of
34:53
2020 can't be the first Saturday the eth I was I was guessing you could have like
34:59
god forbid for you to agree i was counting i went to school in Napony and there's not very many equations I got
35:04
right what if I Okay what if I had said the fifth and I said that very possible if this five and seven first week does
35:12
that work for you the eighth is not right all right incorrect sir can somebody uh in our maybe Nick or Va can
35:18
look that up for me and just look it he's on something something.com there i'm not sure what it is
35:26
uh and we will be moving on it's all part of our 40th anniversary which uh is quickly uh a lot too quickly some people
35:33
might say uh coming on to us 40 years 40 years doing this impressive doing what
35:39
you love you realize you're blessed right oh I realize I'm blessed wonderful good for you it's been uh it's been an
35:46
unbelievable ride and if if we were to say honestly does it feel like 40 years
35:53
i I don't think any of us can really Oh my god no um there are days we have our
35:58
days like everybody else's you know it's like some days feel like 40 years some of them
36:04
but uh so you'll see this uh the episode we produce here this week you'll see it
36:10
probably in the first two or three of the new series and what we're going to try and do with places that we've been
36:16
to uh previously I think most of them are uh experiences that we've already had Dean for this majority there's a few
36:22
outliers but cuz we want to do kind of a um a walk back through history with the
36:28
Fishing Canada show and the lodge and the operation to see where it's come and where we've come from and and sort of do
36:35
a a neat little package for the 40th it's going to be fun we're looking forward to it and uh then we can start
36:41
our next 40th that that uh Whoa whoa did I say that now uh I I throw that at you
36:49
because I understand you uh have uh the question of the day for us a question of the week for us that you'd like to Well
36:56
that's actually a good segue and actually I thought it was what I do this is this was not planned but I was going
37:01
to ask after 40 years what's the best part some of your fondest memories is it
37:07
being on the road with the crew who many of which who I assume you treat like family is it seeing new places
37:14
when you finally walk away from all of this whenever that is guys what are you going to remember uh the most what are
37:20
your fondest memories great question i'll I'll just I'll start
37:25
by just saying the the exotic locations that we end up at that I would have never been you know never been to any
37:31
other any other career any other lifetime or whatever like that so these like this going to BC going around the
37:38
entire country it's just I don't know you can't I can't make one memory i can make them all great memories but it's lo
37:44
the locations for sure on those exotic or away shoots or you know like coming to a place like this and catching 30
37:51
plus the first day we were here the first time we ever visited here we got 30inch walleye you know what I mean like on a small lake like whoa you know what
37:57
I mean so that's the to me that's the mine is totally different uh I probably will quickly forget all of those but you
38:06
hit it when you asked the question it's the those little uh tiny any single
38:12
frame events and episodes that have happened in the 40 years because we were
38:18
in this business because we were at places like this uh those special moments that you can never replicate
38:26
under any circumstances you'll never be able to replicate and certainly in my mind uh and we we talk every every time
38:33
we go on the road we remember something that happened 20 years ago 25 years ago and we just both start laughing and I
38:41
think to me that's what it's all about the people that we've met the the experiences that we've had because of
38:47
this wonderful industry um you you can't replicate it you they're real they're
38:53
and they were all organic they just happen from one to another it just happens you know that's what it's all
38:59
about and I'm in the same boat i'm in the same boat last year we spread one of my longtime guests ashes in one of these
39:05
lakes because it means such it means so much to the family and to that fisherman and woman and and you're a part of that
39:12
i mean that's what it's all about at the end and you you you're right in the middle of that and it really it's very touching to see which is wonderful uh a
39:19
lot of humorous things happen a lot of tragic things happen um one that now will be in my datab bank to recall
39:27
hopefully in over the next uh I don't know how long can I live Ted another 30
39:33
uh at this rate I don't know hopefully you make the summer
39:38
uh I will now remember standing in one of the uh cabin 2 here at uh this
39:46
wonderful establishment standing at the uh bar area sink area and Ted was there
39:53
with the rest of the crew and they were frolicking and having fun and laughing may even there may have been some
39:58
libation involved in that i'm not sure beverage i think there was a beverage there and uh maybe uh Nick had uh who
40:07
was out with Dean all day in the boat had had a sunburn okay a bad sunburn and
40:13
Nick doesn't burn he told me this doesn't burn because Pete and I say "Hey you might want to put some spread some
40:19
lotion." I don't burn i don't burn that's cool so anyways Nick was uh sitting next to Ted and and I'm not
40:26
saying this to be like I'm just cuz you ask what what all of this means to me
40:31
that's what it means right so anyway so Nick is telling Ted about his burn and
40:36
his legs especially his knees and stuff are all red and he said how much it burned and stuff and I was listening and
40:43
Ted's kind of acknowledging it and stuff and then all of a sudden Ted is laying he's got these beautiful leather
40:49
loungers I guess you'd call them when he was sort of laid back on his lounger and all of a sudden he throws himself up and
40:54
I think oh where he's going he's going for a leak yeah he's So what's he do and he hauls off
41:03
and slaps Nick on the leg of where he's burnt oh not my finest moment god no but uh
41:11
not fun moment but it's done it had to be done you asked there's some tragedies and there's some that was one that will
41:18
permanently I saw it all i saw it unfold that it was That's funny i just heard And then Ted ran for his life yes i I
41:24
hid in the bathroom at that point nick was not a happy capper that would hurt i've had my back slapped when people uh
41:30
have tried to have fun with me when it's been burnt and it's not pretty but anyway it it was just one of those things question to Teddy ted now Ted for
41:38
those people that don't know we've known Ted for quite a few years now does Ted get anything for that question of the week by the way does he get He gets a
41:43
hat yeah he gets a hat i don't get a fish finder or anything yeah exactly no no we don't uh he's been chincing out
41:49
lately i've noticed he was giving away boats and motors and stuff earlier on and now he's down the hats yeah we have
41:55
a live scope on the website soon you can enter that there you go that's great thanks keep an eye out for your name
42:00
good so Ted is a a world traveler an angler that likes to experience the
42:06
world for different species in that is there a place that you've never been to and you really want to go fishing and
42:11
for what species oh goodness of course there's dozens of places what do you got what's the number one numero okay well
42:17
the nice thing is like I now do hosted trips in the offseason where I'm going to these places and taking my guests which is great you know I go to
42:22
Patagonia and Venice for reds and Montana uh up there has to be probably
42:28
in the Amazon for peacock bass top water like the big big fish never done that that's on my list uh New Zealand Lake
42:35
Topos there obviously i probably the sea shells uh a little saltwater flat
42:41
fishing um yeah I'm trying to knock those off my bucket list and uh so I do
42:46
two or three hosted trips a year just trying to knock that off with my my friends and my my guests here and uh hopefully I'll do that until uh till I'm
42:53
no longer here right on buddy thank you notice he said friends i don't remember oh maybe you did i never got an invite
42:58
to any of those just saying well you're you're too busy in Vegas there buddy hey somebody's got to go down there and do
43:03
it don't blame me okay don't blame me for that uh the Amazon peacock thing you
43:10
have to do because we've been fortunate to do it a few times and oh boy does it put us watching those takes looks
43:17
amazing oh yeah and the whole experience you know what I mean eating something that you think might be from the jungle
43:23
you're not sure what what you're eating even but it's all delicious one of those trips we um stayed on a I'll call it a
43:30
house boat only because that was kind of the configuration but an old dilapitated uh aluminum rig of some kind maybe 40t
43:39
in length and that was your that was home base that was your It's where you slept where you It like It was the whole
43:45
deal on hammocks on hammocks up on the upper deck and you float down the Amazon right yeah what a great experience that
43:53
was and you just tow the boats behind you and every day you're at a different spot yep yeah I'm with you that that's where I'm going i can't wait anyways
44:00
good for you guys uh Teddy we unfortunately we have to leave man we
44:05
got to go seems like you just got here honestly it seems like you've been here forever um I do want to tell you that
44:11
that you um your your staff uh hasn't although some of the faces have changed
44:17
their uh habits have not and uh the staff is man they're they're my family
44:23
they are something else they make sure that they look after every possible need they anticipate needs which is kind of
44:30
cool a lot of places are not good they're good at following up if you ask but but u lack anticipation here it's
44:38
one of the things that stands out they anticipate what you're going to ask them and they've already got it for you so we
44:45
have a whole database on everybody that walks in here what's their favorite drink what kind of linens do they like are they early or late to breakfast do
44:51
they come in for lunch do they like shore lunches what kind of fish do they like to catch and how do they like to catch them uh and that just makes it
44:57
easy so when you walk in everything's ready to go that's awesome down to do you like diet coke or coke at dinner for
45:03
example and then that'll be on your table cool and you and by the way I just want to mention not that it's important
45:09
uh but the the there's a complimentary bar here open all the time we Yes open
45:14
bar that That's a nice draw that is a great just because you get to tell fish stories from the day it's a lot of fun
45:19
they meet new people perfect i'll bet you get a lot of intel through that i get all my intel absolutely well what
45:25
what were they going where were they going what were they fishing you get all the intel i got 20 likes going things change on a daily basis and you like
45:31
that's how we communicate so the next time we see you up here my friend uh we'll probably just need to come for one
45:36
night uh we don't need all the other time we need one night only we'll be going out to your spot we'll be leaving
45:42
here at about 9:00 p.m getting to our fishing grounds uh 10 minutes later and
45:48
by the time we get rigged up it'll be 9:28 and by that time it will be mayhem with
45:56
gigantic walleye i'm in hey we don't need anything else what else do you need to come up here for well hot tub until
46:02
then exactly uh fantastic no words no words it's good to have you guys back it
46:07
really thanks for having us congratulations on your 40 years you should be very very proud of that we are
46:13
we are absolutely proud uh we will run into you uh I'm sure at some of the events that we both participate in maybe
46:19
we'll see you down in Vegas sometime oh be careful what you ask for i'll show up i will show up thanks Teddy talk to you
46:26
soon thanks guys on that note uh we got to call it quits cuz as uh we said before we are on the road and we're
46:33
going to leave here and go on to our next adventure we'll be there approximately 3 hours from the time we
46:38
leave here if all goes well we gas up maybe maybe grab a little lunch along the way yes sir well the boys got to eat
46:43
for sure right yeah we do know the boys like to eat though and I don't mind having to fit in there every now and then too so uh and Dean are we doing a
46:50
podcast from our next location yeah the next time the audience hears from us we'll be there no kidding on that 30 mm
46:56
rain day we're going to do it probably cuz it's going to come and by the way uh we forgot to mention uh the lovely the
47:02
talented Dean Taylor was out fishing this week and he got two gigantic fish
47:08
he got a big uh walleye that was last night but you also got a really nice lake trout as well and both of them in
47:15
the same spot with the same bait same spot uh no different baits oh was it bottom bouncing for lake trout like
47:21
everyone always does in 23 ft of water in June and then uh of course why wouldn't you yeah a big walleye and a
47:28
bobber later on so and Nick was with you he caught a couple of smallmouth bass in that hidden little lake that's just
47:34
around the corner top water fishing like he should be uh and all was good the
47:39
team all did well want to thank everybody uh for joining us once again uh the entire crew we've got Dean Taylor
47:45
we got Bova nick of course uh our good friend and owner of uh Hey why do I I
47:51
say it all Hawk Lake did you ever watch the movie Ted
47:58
of course that's a That's a great movie i love that movie brother i love that movie that's really good thanks
48:05
everybody we'll talk to you next week [Music]
48:10
[Applause] [Music]
48:15
this episode of Outdoor Journal Radio has been brought to you in part by the Invasive Species Center protecting
48:22
Canada's land and water from invasive species freedom Cruise Canada rent the
48:28
boat own the memories and JMBB Cycle and Marine your home for all things
48:34
powersports boats and equipment [Music]