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Toronto’s Hidden Fishing Gem: Inside the Franklin Fishing Club
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May 17, 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 This week on Outdoor Journal Radio, Ang returns fresh from a visit to the Franklin Fishing Club, just 40 minutes from Toronto, and the crew sits down with General Manager Kevin Johnston to talk about the experience. They dive into what makes this private club so unique, covering everything from country club-style fishing and urban escape to early morning sessions before work, fish hatchery operations, and how clubs like Franklin are managing fish genetics through selective catch and release. Plus: how private clubs can help get kids into fishing, why they use punt boats, and plenty more insider stories from this hidden Ontario gem. To never miss an episode of Outdoor Journal Radio, be sure to like, subscribe, and leave a review on your favourite podcast app!
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 yeah we're back baby
0:38
you betcha uh welcome to the program uh Peter Bowman Angelo Biola and the rest
0:43
of the crew you'll meet them here in the next few minutes i'm sure they keep popping in and interrupting us but we'll
0:49
try and keep them at bay at least they're being busy they're they're staying busy right or looking busy man you know well yeah you I think you
0:56
taught them i think you were you they they uh they're they have been taught by a professional wow yes if you're if
1:03
you're looking busy you'll stay in that job forever doesn't matter what you doing that's right right you betcha what
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a day I had yesterday i want to share with you guys here in a moment i've been waiting for this for our guest coming up
1:17
here in a few minutes uh is from the legendary Franklin Fishing and Outdoors
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Club come on now uh here in southern Ontario and I had a chance to and you know I've I've known about them for it
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seems like the whole hundred years that they've been in existence but I started talking to
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them I'm going to say in the late 90s on uh Outdoor Journal Radio when it was a
1:42
radio show that's where I heard it from because I I know the name but I've never Yeah and we used to have him on the show quite regular uh John Witters our
1:49
producer he was completely enthralled with them although I think he was getting like some He's probably got a
1:55
free membership for but Exactly because I used to say to him "Johnny Johnny Johnny like why do we
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have the Franklin Club on the show again weren't they here like didn't we have them on last week?" That's going to be
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happening again now and Dean's getting the membership
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i love it good work Dino well I um I was invited to go and I don't know why I've
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never gone before to be honest with you but but anyways yesterday I went because I was invited by a couple of folks uh
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Marvin Gist I want to mention him and good friend TJ Romanelli they invited me
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to go and experience this with them but the way they did it was to give me send me images of the last time the two of
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them had gone this club and you know there's fishing clubs which are basically uh hatcheries with with stock
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ponds there there's a lot of them around uh not to belittle any of them i think it's it's wonderful but uh you seen one
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you've seen them all you know but when they showed me the uh stock that they
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were fishing that convinced me I need to go check this out these are not little trout that you get at a trout pond right
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these are gigantic rainbow trout that we live a lifetime to connect with and and
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they was they were telling me you you every cast you get one of those i know yeah okay you know how many times I've
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heard that but uh I went is it literally every cast uh pretty much or like there
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are lols what I found uh what I found is that there are there'll be a 10-minute
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lull and then of like no fish yeah i think what happened the way I I kind of
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figured it out the the the the fish that you're fishing for that you're fishing
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from shore first of all so so the you can see them you can see them when the sun and the clouds all work out for you
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i mean you can see them anyways I think what happens is after you get four five six seven eight out of out
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of there because it's mayhem i got to also tell you this these fish have got to be supercharged with some special
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food which I want to find out uh from uh uh Kevin here because they're feeding them something that I've never seen more
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explosive hits on baits than what these things were doing and the minute that
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they connect they're straight out of the water 4 feet 5t and they're fat so when
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they splash down on the water the whole lake can hear them oh nice it's crazy but anyways after four or five of those
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that you get out of this this school it tends to spook them a little bit and
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they and they move and but 10 minutes 5 10 minutes later it's filled up again
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you see them coming back in again i don't know it's the same fish or maybe they're circumventing the lake or whatever doing a circle like Lake Erie
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walleye sort of thing exactly and anyways so they they come back and then
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you do your five six seven eight all hell breaks loose and and then they move and another bunch
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comes in crazy that's crazy or it's good that they don't all that you don't get them every cast and that's a good thing
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you do for that for that L crazy pre-law you know you cast you're with that fish
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for I don't know five six seven minutes but by time you get the fish to be able
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to land it is because we're using really light line light equipment so you can't
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horse them in and I have you couldn't anyway these things are insane i've never seen I know I fish for steel head
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in BC i've fished for rainbow and everywhere i've never seen fish like this wow they're nuts they're insane so
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they've got to be fed something that we we got to get superb super protein super
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carb combo it It's a crazy experience i'm glad I did it now I'm going to be one of their best ambassadors because if
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you ever need a fishing fix if you ever want to bring a kid to an environment
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where they will get completely locked into fishing this place is it and it is remote it's 45 minutes from where we're
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sitting right now but you might as well be in the boughels of northern Canada
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somewhere wow cool so can't wait anyways he's coming on it was established in 1909 by the way uh Kevin Johnson will be
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joining us here shortly nice fantastic in the meantime uh I don't know how many you noticed but I've got the Fish in
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Canada throwback original the OG the OG og is that what they call it yeah well
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kind of okay the OG uh Fishing Canada logo with the catcher limit but limits
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your catch and I was watching our very first episode the other day on YouTube
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no way and I had forgotten shame on me and it was it was
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the very first episode because we talked about covering uh this season where you know here's what we're going to do and
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one of the episodes is going to be you know the 1986 Probass Classic that you were in and Reno was in
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um and we used this on that show so I thought we had
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started this e a few years into the Fishing Canada show but we used it on
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the very first show i as I can remember as long as I know you I remember that saying i I don't know when when you
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started it but that seems right apparently on the very first episode seems right cuz I think you guys brought that in so quick like it was just it was
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in the day of catch and keep and kill and eat everybody had that and there's a bit of tournament stuff going on the US
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had more tournaments but so that's what you guys brought it in and uh stuck stuck to it I love it go check it out
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you want to see the very first episode it's on YouTube now on fishing Canada now uh this is what you will get if you
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go to fishingcanada.com or the store uh shopfishingcanada.com Chop dot
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fishing need the dot come on we got to be specific if we're going to get them there we got to give them the right see the color of that rainbow on that
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beautiful That's the color of the rainbow trout in the Franklin fishing club got the green back like that too
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exactly like that you see that vibrant blue or whatever you call it underneath underneath the red that's what really
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Okay every one of them every single one they are like a painting that was that
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was cloned they they painted this beautiful fish and then they said "Okay we got to make another 10,000 of those."
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And they just cloned them that's awesome anyways it's a beautiful hoodie um but there's that fish in the trout in
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Franklin you can wear that hoodie exactly but there's a variety of species i think we have eight or nine how many
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species now Nick seven species i said eight or nine or
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seven yeah that might have come out of his bum because I think you surprised him on that on that question i think there's more than seven
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uh so we have eight so I was correct in saying eight we have two different walley oh all right thank you Nick go
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back to what you were doing now um and a variety of other things including
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Fishing Canada uh uh logo swag if you want to be a part of the or what Mr bman
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has got soon we will have we're going to start introducing some new items along
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the same line as the uh um what's our um that's a bunch of shirt um in
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commemoration that's a bunch of that's the one that's the shirt but there's going to be some some new shirts coming up soon these I'll tell you what
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folks these hoodies right here this hoodie is sometimes you buy hoodies you have to have a t-shirt on underneath
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this sucker you don't want to wear a t-shirt underneath they're so comfortable like I'll wear listen to like summer time cuz it gets too hot
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because like right now I'm just sitting here just like I love this hoodie it's like swear to God you feel like a baby
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wrapped up in a wonderful little fleece blanket well that's it i never thought
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of that i love it listener feedback time we got
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a guest that's waiting for us listener feedback russell Harris 694
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694 uh via YouTube yes sir and uh he says "I respond uh uh I
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respond to episode 123." That's a spelling error i know but Dean said he's
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going to give them to us without any corrections so I'm going to read them that's Dean yeah that's my error that's Dean spelling error he didn't write that
10:23
see on mine it's good though you guys got a bad version oh so it was you dean's got a a pen marked end in there
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mine's perfect all right uh in response to episode 123
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uh they're spraying what on our crown land Mark that's great uh so he goes on
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to say "Back in uh early '7s I was pulling pickro."
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Out of lake trout in Trout Lake in North Bay wow pick up there there's small
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mouth bass there and there's walleye too yeah well there's walleye too yeah so they got both species
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sorry there Russell Harris uh their gills were half white from pollution i
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showed my dad and we took them to the nearest conservation office since then I refuse to eat fish from southern Canada
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he didn't does he not say what they said to him uh now I won't touch the fish or birds in the subarctic in North Man
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North Manitoba because the amount of pollution and out of control fertilizer and pesticides that have gotten into the
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rivers wow i I I mean it's got a point i mean there there's definitely that going
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on everywhere a little overkill yeah i mean that's it depends on your attitude
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if you were going to fish eat fish and wildlife every day you might have an
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issue if that you know if that's the case or something like that but I don't know maybe the odd meal you know the odd
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picker i I still like in Lake Ontario I'll still keep a pike or a walleye from
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Quinty every now and then i don't do it on a daily basis it's better than stuff like you're getting in the store and I'm
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sure it's all better than that anyways well who knows store the store that's what I was going to say the the whole point there is you don't know what
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you're getting in the store yeah at least you know what you're getting if you catch it yourself right and yes you
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don't know what the water that's housing that fish is like in terms of pollutants
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for sure i mean if there's farmland around yes fertilizer and pesticides is definitely getting into the wershed i
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mean if there's you know there's hillsides that drop into creeks and goes into lakes etc so he's right on that too
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um because there are certain areas that are are really bad but I mean when you're saying subarctic to me northern
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Manitoba if there's any place to c to eat a walleye I would say northern man and a nice snow goose meal I' I'd be
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eating it from there my I'd have no problem with that but okay so here's my problem with what you just I was listening to you and and sometimes
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sometimes I do listen to you not very often because it messes my head up but every once in a while stuff gets it's
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working so you're saying that in uh those areas where you've got farmlands because the
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chemicals uh that they spray on the produce and the earth on those farmlands
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will somehow leech into the watershed which in turn will contaminate the fish
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that we consume right contaminates the water and the fish live in the water so well it makes perfectly good sense you
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actually not very often but you made perfectly good sense to me he doesn't treat me very well everybody yeah
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everybody thinks we're buddy buddies but you know what deep down inside he hates my gut so that was very logical however
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however I wonder if Russell Harris
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6994 has ever given thought to the vegetables that he's consuming that get
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directly sprayed with those chemicals and pollutants that Mr bowman saying
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he's and he's right that's leeching into our waterways which will eventually possibly pollute some of these fish the
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pickles that Russell would like to consume what about the cows that are eating all that stuff that the cows that
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are eating that get into the meat there it gets in there too it gets in everywhere anything we eat it gets into
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so you see if you here's my little stupid theory in that is that I actually
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believe although it could be bad in the long run but we build up an immunity a
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little bit of an immunity and when we're when we're taking these little bit of stuff here from the Bay of Quinny for instance I'm eating these fish from
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there yeah they're not perfect but if you have a meal every now and then I think you build if you don't have an
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immunity immune system you're going down hard or harder than anybody you know what I mean so um I can't I wouldn't
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block it right out myself and I'm not kidding it just dawned on me i think vegetables are the ones that we should be the most worse because they're
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getting the first shot everything else is leeching down and gets a partial shot it's downstream this is right on it
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that's right that's right i just speaking to you va doesn't care he doesn't care one bit see
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that's that's the narrowmindedness of a guy like Vulva i'll eat all those veggies give me all those pesticides
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every day in fact that's all I eat that's all I have right there but that's okay that stuff those chemicals are good
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see Vulva but Vulva is different because I I get what he's saying there's a whole more there's more to it than just pest
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no but I understand but but but but we should be concerned i mean if if if we really if we take the time on this the
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valuable time on this program to discuss the possibility of chemicals leeching
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into our waterway which possibly could could contaminate Russell's
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pickrol then why the hell don't we take the time to talk about where the source of this contaminant is coming from which
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is in on the fields and in the in and the vegetables that they're growing and
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if you another thing if you want to want to fight the battle even more after after you have that pickrol a nice shot
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of whiskey a nice Canadian whiskey that alleviates a lot of stuff in your system burns it straight up trust me on that
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one the beer center the beer that you have before the you eat it is kind of you know loosening things up and then
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that whiskey kills it all so uh hopefully Russell we haven't hurt your feelings but No Russell we agree with
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you to an extent right we just haven't stopped a little overkill that's Artic
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in Northern Manitoba good for you though good for you he tweets his own conservation corner speaking about
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problems this is a problem right here folks brought to you by Invasive Species Center come on now uh we're talking
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about the grass carp that fell right there fell you sound like
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Steve that fell right there that fell right there he come over here a long
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time ago uh one of four species of invasive Asian carp that is potentially
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uh contaminating this is contamination right here never mind Russell's pickrol hey they're they're going to eat the
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contaminated weeds yes they will do that yes they will they can absorb some of that and some of our good fish maybe uh
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in fact they could consume up to 80% of their body weight in those contaminated
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weeds 40 40% that's okay it's a lot well if there's two of them there'd be 80%
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wouldn't it isn't that the way that works that's the way it works additive god well it's no laughing
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matter though this is uh Thankfully these carp have not taken hold yet in our waterways but there is evidence that
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they will and are we've yet to see do you think we're going to see one in our day you're I don't think this year I
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have a feeling that by the time we're done fishing ever you think so wow for sure for sure wow well we'll be able to
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identify them because we know what they look like we downloaded the apps and Oh yeah go ahead somebody yesterday at
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lunch a scientist we were talking about the goih as the invasive species right i
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won't share that with you now okay but I will at some point soon all right might be i reached out the other day i think he's going to be up on the podcast
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pretty soon so Oh is he uh what a fascinating gentleman that guy was good anyways uh what we can do uh we need to
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be vigilant obviously we can't keep our heads firmly buried you know where in
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the in the sand in the sand thank you Mr b i was I was You're going
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somewhere i was grasping you're going further south in the sand what we need to do is learn to identify
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such grass carp and report them when you see them uh if you catch one
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inadvertently there's a whole process protocol on uh the site it's called
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asiancarp.ca but there's a whole protocol there on what to do if you were to incidentally catch one of these
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things which is probably pretty rare pretty rare but maybe one listener of all our listeners for the millions and
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millions of people listening right now there might be one that gets uh There you go you know that catches one and knows what to do download the reporting
18:55
guide the images and you'll know what to do where do they get that asiancart.ca thank you very much you're welcome all
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right in the news this one is a bit of a shocker uh this is brought to you by J&B
19:07
your outdoor supererstore uh JMBB Cycle and Marine uh Ontario's largest
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Princecraft and Mercury dealer uh where they've been driven to service
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you since 1970 uh get your complete packages there they have all kinds of other stuff but
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outboard motors boats trailers pontoon boats pontoons combos you name it you
19:30
name it they got it they got it uh they bring you the news each and every week
19:36
on the show i was just talking to Rob the other day weren't we Dean just How's Robbie doing doing good good doing good
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such a nice guy uh he wants us up there we're gonna go up there and and do some uh Well we're going up in the fall well
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that's what we we figured but we didn't we look at that schedule Dean and it didn't quite work out or something well
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they have a tournament there that um they have a tournament in Timmans a walleye tournament that they wanted us
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to be a part of that we'll be not in person part of this year but next year
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at the championship I think you'll see us there that's right big event and talk
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about pick rolls boy you'll find pick rolls there that's right lots of pickles pick country right there uh-huh more
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than Trout Lake has i'll guarantee come on now you betcha uhhuh uh in the news
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uh potential decline of walleye and lake projected a projected decline because
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Lake Erie is is without a doubt it's a no it's a bordering body of water US and
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Canada but let's just say even in North America it has in my opinion the highest
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walleye population of biggest by number yeah by number of of walleye it's an
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incredible fishery in that it just keeps getting better and better and better
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however uh oh right now they're talking about this projected decline in the
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population so um the population right now I think is 80.9 million is that what
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they're saying or that was in 2024 i remember reporting back once again way back in the day but I remember uh that
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apparently if you would fly over Lake Erie this is now in the um mid 2000s
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like 2005 2010 if you were flying low over
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Lake Erie it looked like oil slicks and these were giant schools of
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walleye it look like oil slicks moving around Lake
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I believe it i believe it cuz when you talk about you know that's 81 million basically that's a lot of fish that's a
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lot of fish and that was in 2024 they're going to talk about the decrease this year at the end of the year I'm assuming
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is to 77.4 million now it doesn't sound like a lot but it is a lot you know what I mean that's a lot of it's a a a big
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enough decline to probably show some concern i'm not sure well you know what
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the M&R there are thinking or both DF DNO and M&R are thinking this is a
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foodbased decline foragebased decline it's no surprise I mean it should have
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in fact they probably could have written a book on it when you have that many
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predators in a body of water is growing and growing and growing and they're not doing any bad yet then all of a sudden
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yeah the food's got to run out something's got to give right something a drop and and that's the and you know
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what when when something like this happens Lake Erie always has had as an
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talked about in the past and still right now has always had great potential to produce walley so even if these declines
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happen so this might not be the only year it happens right this could be another four or five years and everybody's starting to say "Oh the sky
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is falling the sky is falling." And then it goes to like the Bay Quinny did there's no "Oh my god we're in dire straits." But it it will come back
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eventually you know what I mean it's just a matter of nature taking care of business really is what it is it's a fascinating uh piece to read uh our very
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own Dean Taylor has assembled all of the facts no Dean lots of facts yeah tons of
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facts and it's all available at fishingcanada.com under the news interesting read news very interesting
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read the numbers are breathtaking when I look at these numbers I I equate them to walleye i Oh my god i can't even imagine
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what that biomass would look like you know you know the the the charter boat business out there is on fire right now
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just on fire for walleye crazy as it was on Lake Ontario for salmon fishing
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and then all of a sudden Yeah things kind of tipped to the side a little bit and that whole thing came down crashing
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down so hopefully that's not what's what this implies hopefully it's just a a
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temporary little blip they're natural the the salmon thing was they're introduced right so there's that
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difference we can hope that uh the naturals take over still all righty fan question of the week
23:58
brought to you by fishfindermounts.com fishfindermounts.com hearing that word a
24:05
lot lately i had an experience with that yesterday where I was fishing and we'll
24:10
talk about the fishing part of it later later on but this gentleman uh approached me that recognized me from
24:16
the show and he says "Hey hey got a minute i want to talk to you i got five boats i got five boats four of them
24:24
haven't been on the water in four years." Damn i hate when you want to talk to me about that no no no i want to
24:30
talk to you about that rig you guys got you got that that printer you want to buy a rig is actually
24:38
that rig you guys got that Princecraft rig he said "Well I got one almost like it it's not a Princecraftraft but it's the same rig and I want to outfit it
24:44
just like yours." Uh so I got the Garmins uh but but I need to How do you
24:50
how how are you mounting all this technology on that boat i wanted to do the same thing so I explained it to them
24:55
what we did and we had the this transducer there that one there that one there and this one here and and uh and
25:02
uh then you know you need these poles these special poles for them he said "Well where do I get
25:07
those?" Well they're fortunately for us it's a Canadian company so we're not dealing in US uh to bring them into the
25:15
country they're made in British Columbia and they're called fishfindermounts.com he said "I know i
25:20
want to know the name of the company." Yeah just go to fishfindermounts.com to get those okay
25:26
all right about two minutes later as I'm explaining the piece is what was the name of that company again no he's one
25:33
of those guys yeah fishfindermounts.com [Applause]
25:38
yeah that's their website yeah that's their website yeah all right about five
25:45
minutes later what are they called oh my god this drove me crazy i said to Peters
25:50
this would have been a perfect fish riderbounce.com commercial it just was you just made it i'm sorry if I did that
25:57
all right anyway that was my my experience yesterday that's good cuz that happens a lot
26:03
that's cool all right carry on submitted by Northern Northern Pog plugg is that
26:10
right northern Northern Pog yeah via YouTube so via YouTube there this is a question so this
26:18
qualifies Dean for the for the buckaroos yeah it does perfect now there's a little caveat here today this this the
26:24
buckaroo's thing isn't it i don't know we have a little reduction there's something we got word from above that
26:30
there's been a reduction in the in the prize this is to show you how you think Angelo You think Angelo runs the company
26:37
no there's one above him that our bosses have sent down word that it's now cut in half you can't do that there's nothing
26:45
wrong with 50 bucks that's reneggging it's inflation the the election just went on and all that stuff now the
26:50
inflation's starting to happen right i think we should have her on the podcast to explain oh we need the countest on
26:56
this uh show in fact she should have been the one breaking this news we
27:01
should have recorded a piece that would have been the best have her in there in English and French both official
27:07
languages well there you have it right from St i
27:13
mean think about that it's still a damn good price of course a great deal you get this thing you get this basically get a hoodie for almost free I'd say not
27:20
quite but you know close close quality hoodie it's like getting it free the quality
27:27
and the price don't don't match um there you go so 50 buckaroos on
27:33
Fishing Canada's store by the way we're going to add some exciting new products coming very soon
27:40
nice i think the Northern Plug without even reading this the Northern Plug should get it because he's he's he
27:45
obviously got a kick in the butt right a damn it's 100 down to 50 no no no he's got to go through let's be nice to him
27:51
okay let's uh let's see what he says okay all right all right i'll read it out there with big EOS so the uh pike
27:58
and musky and the chain picker the real pickrol the real pickle uh folks are dialed into the moon and weather
28:05
patterns absolutely we use So he's a musky guy probably we use wind weather
28:11
lunar tables and apps to hopefully improve our chances of knowing when to be on the prime spots what new apps
28:18
tables websites could you suggest that would up our chances as we plan our trips what indicators from the apps like
28:25
weather patterns wind direction do you rely on prior to getting out on the water and then Pete yes Pete you need a
28:31
a water gun on FNC1 to defend yourself from the Karan do warriors
28:37
dude I love that i'll be I'm going to be if you can find me a nice powerful water gun that uh a water cannon oh my god you
28:44
know those like water cannons it's like a fire hose just blow them right off the dock oh my god just set it right up on
28:51
the deck of the boat and say "Okay let's dance oh my god I love that." Anyways we
28:58
I don't know about new apps but I I before the show I just started looking at what I what I have in my phone here
29:04
the one one of the main ones that we use because we're Garmin guys is uh Active Captain that's great and it's it's got
29:11
everything but it's got a great mapping uh app that you can have on your phone so you can actually download the areas
29:16
and get your one foot contours etc etc so if you're a Garmin user Active Captain is highly recommended it's
29:23
mandatory basically um I have one Musky Metrics that I just downloaded it's funny you asked this a couple of weeks
29:29
ago just basically again the musky stuff most musky guys will know this kind of stuff um my weather apps I just use Acue
29:36
weather i find it to be the best one one that one or two that Dean and I and an all use is either windy or windfinder
29:44
those two are essential for for when you're going now the the windfinder I
29:49
use kind of just as a quick chart okay that's going to be a good day it's not too windy it's coming from the northeast and it's only a 10k whatever the windy
29:56
app um you and they're free um you can look on a map and it actually shows you
30:03
the direction of the wind coming down so these little arrows showing it and it changed through the day change as the hour goes you can change it and and you
30:09
see the way the wind changes that's a big deal when you're going fishing you know what I mean and that's not just for
30:14
uh aiding you in catching bigger fish it's aiding you in getting out you know what I mean there's a lot of times we'll
30:19
see this water and we're going to go to a big body of water and we want to fish the northeast corner but oh my god there's a 30k wind going to be pounding
30:25
in there all day so it makes it makes you you know you help your decision on where you're going to go or where you're going to go in that lake or et how you
30:32
going to fish it i mean you might still go yeah uh sometimes it's inevitable you're still going to go but how you
30:37
going to fish it even like where you're going to put the boat in and everything if it's pounding on the launch versus a
30:43
nice calm launch you can get out in the other one I have that I use is and it's just kind of a moon app only it's called
30:49
the moon and it gives you everything you didn't know about the moon i have no idea about 80% of the on this on
30:54
this app but it does give you the moon phase right off the hop and stuff like that the lunar tables probably and
31:01
there's lots of apps that have that the musky apps all do that too so lunar tables are vital for musky fishing yeah
31:06
see that right there you got the good bad and no good and all that stuff so musky musky anglers have this down more
31:13
than anybody and unlike us Lugans these guys these these musky fishermen
31:20
actually plan their trips around these peaks unlike us we say "Oh I wonder what
31:26
the moon phase Oh it says we shouldn't be out here anyways okay let's let's continue fishing." No they plan their
31:32
trips around that we just look at it as well incidentally what's what's the moon what's the moon looking like today it
31:40
doesn't change whether we're out there or not right but musky anglers yes yeah we don't take advantage of like even the
31:46
moonrise and moon set in each day we should be doing it more for all other species not just musky right for big
31:51
pike and walley etc etc we don't do it as much but uh but they are you know I I
31:57
was told by um an old-timer one time that the moon phase and in particular
32:03
solun uh phases affect big he was a hunter
32:08
affect big animals more so than tiny animals what do you mean well it just
32:14
seems from my experience it just seems the bigger animals in other words the
32:20
trophies in that particular herd or species is affected more speaking of the
32:25
Gais there she is um the bigger of the species are
32:32
affected more by the sun and
32:37
the moon positioning yeah on Earth don't know why he wasn't able to explain it to me well that that equates to the musky
32:45
world those guys aren't out for Yeah that's what I mean they're not out for a 36 inch musky they're out for a 48 to 57
32:53
inch musky they want the giants out there you know over 50 is the number and they That's the ones those are the guys
32:59
and girls that stick to that table like you know like glue they just say "Okay." And yet nobody has been able to explain
33:06
to me in all these years I've been in this business exactly what is it that
33:11
influences I can understand saltwater species because obviously the moon is
33:17
everything to a tide but in freshwater where it's been proven without a shadow
33:22
of a doubt that most uh isolated freshwater lakes have are have no tide
33:29
influence at all and nobody's been able to explain to me exactly how the moon would influence say
33:36
a giant uh uh musky on Eagle Lake right right perfect example on the St lawrence
33:43
maybe maybe but on Eagle Lake nobody's been able to and and I've asked a million
33:49
people about this it's I think it's way beyond the human scope yeah because I So
33:56
my wife works for the police department and it's not I'm not bullshitting here
34:02
on a full moon crime is ridiculous see I don't I don't It's like there there's activity level going on more than than
34:10
like I don't understand why that would be but I think there's when you look at a full moon if you see you see you feel
34:16
really good really really good or whatever you know oh my god I'm having a great day physically you look at that moon phase or look at that time i'm
34:23
telling you is more or is it the opposite is it because
34:28
we're we're attributing it to oh there's a full moon oh no wonder no wonder that
34:33
guy did that meanwhile that guy would have done that or he did it last week when there wasn't a full moon you know what I mean i'm telling you i'm telling
34:39
you we're all affected everything alive is affected by it somehow i don't know how but I think we are all affected by
34:45
it maybe we're were the segment brought to you by sale
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your home for all good things outdoors including uh mostly for fishing i'm going to talk about this one rods reels
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and tackle and line and anything fishing that beautiful combination right there hunting and fishing i guess there's
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other stuff too right a ton of clothing obviously if you have a bid there ton of clothing as well uh sale your outdoor
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store if you don't have one uh near you uh then simply go to sale.ca that's s a
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i l.ca for all your outdoor needs
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and I got my outdoor needs all looked after yesterday yes do tell yeah where
35:30
were you where were you our guest uh his name is Kevin Johnson uh he is general
35:36
manager of the Franklin Fishing Club actually it's Fishing and Outdoors Club is the way is it listed I believe and it
35:43
was established in 1909 holy crap and still going and still
35:50
going looks brand new i was so impressed uh welcome to the program Kevin
35:55
thank you for having me oh our pleasure man what a thrill you know I and I think I had a chance to tell you this
36:01
yesterday uh I've had folks from the club on the old radio show uh years ago
36:07
several times and I was every time I remember every time that that uh that they were on I was so excited I kept
36:13
saying I got to go check this out got to go check it out i hadn't been there oh this is your first trip the first trip there i thought you had been there
36:19
before for some reason no wow and I got to tell you Wow that's the only thing I could see do we need to have like a a
36:27
work uh what do you call it oh a little excursion excursion once a month or
36:32
through the summer or whatever you know what I mean just a field trip yeah maybe that you know I'm sure everybody here would be happy with that so Kevin uh
36:41
first of all welcome to the program it's a pleasure having you here um you've been there how long managing the club uh
36:48
almost six years now six years i joined the club in 2019 okay uh you went from a
36:55
member to the manager is that what it was is that the position actually uh the previous manager who had been here for
37:02
35 years unfortunately uh was not feeling well and I came in just to help
37:07
him for a couple of months and uh unfortunately he passed away quite suddenly wow and then uh I became de
37:15
facto general manager wow so I uh jumped in and started doing the job oh
37:22
fantastic man okay uh just to bring folks up to speed uh the Franklin Club
37:27
fishing club outdoors club uh is a uh memberowned
37:33
um club fishing club you know private private club private club yeah that's a private club and it's a memberowned
37:41
uh the only way I can describe it is for those of you who golf think of a just
37:48
about to say that you're going on a golfing outing right and you you you plan on spending the whole day out uh
37:54
golfing and at the end of your your golfing day you go in and have a wonderful meal have a shower clean up
38:01
change your clothes uh have a wonderful meal and then at the end of the day at the locker room and everything like that
38:07
everything everything that's awesome blows my mind that is awesome you still
38:12
got to be pinching yourself when you wake up in the morning and say I'm working in this place this isn't work
38:18
yeah it's it's pretty nice to be out in uh such a beautiful scenery uh it's a
38:25
real privilege and the nice thing is is that we're also under an hour from downtown Toronto
38:32
right so we do have we do have a lot of members that come up from uh Lawrence Park Riverdale and they'll
38:40
come up in the morning at 5:00 a.m and fish for a couple hours and then head to work as well oh wow well it's that close
38:47
right that's awesome think about it yeah that'd be a great start to the day do your shower there it's 45 minutes from
38:52
here from where we are right now think about that if you wanted to have an early morning fish Yeah and a breakfast
38:59
you just run up there get out there have your thing and and the environment
39:05
itself I mean the fishery we'll talk about that in a minute but the environment that they've built there it is so pristine and natural like you
39:12
swear you're in the middle of nowhere really okay i mean is it is it like a
39:18
golf club in there in that you'd have to go with a member or join could you go with as a a guest to it's a private uh
39:26
members club and it's a lot like a golf club where there's an equity purchase in the corporation and then you have your
39:31
yearly dues on top of that there's also lots of things to do here for uh the
39:36
non-angler in the family which is the nice thing right it's not just for the angller in the family it's for the
39:43
spouse and for the kids for the grandkids tell us about some of those
39:48
uh which part oh okay so there's uh about 3 km of walking trails
39:55
uh we also have uh three campsites that are included in your uh membership that
40:03
are not any any extra cost we also have a a cottage on the property that we rent
40:08
to members we also have uh fully functioning dining room like you mentioned uh a deck and then we also do
40:15
a lot of member events so throughout the year we'll do uh special occasions the
40:20
obvious ones you know Mother's Day Father's Day uh Easter but then we also do uh have a really big party in the
40:26
fall for October Fest we do lobster fest in the summer we do lots of lots of uh
40:31
member events it's fantastic the other thing I I need to mention is that included in your membership we have a
40:38
pro program so a lot like a golf club you have a golf professional here we have fishing professionals where
40:45
included in your membership you can have casting lessons uh guided fishing uh and
40:50
just general instruction which uh is included in your membership so there's that too i think the guided part might
40:57
be a bit of a stretch like anybody who needs guiding up there there's something wrong okay is it that good well I'll
41:03
tell you what we did just for fun we went to the extreme far end of the property uh when we got there typical
41:09
like a lake get as far away got away from the boat launch as far as possible so we went to the extreme far end
41:15
started there and like a cazillion fish were sitting in this little finger that
41:21
uh that a dam dumps into you can you can see the fish oh you can see them everywhere and um and so just for fun we
41:29
said "Let's fish our way back and just walk." And you're walking the bank right yeah okay and everywhere we stopped
41:36
everywhere we stopped it was fish after fish after fish and I'm not talking
41:42
trout pond fish okay what most people You're thinking little 12 14 inches
41:48
exactly these are mutants these are beautiful big gigantic rainbow trout
41:55
full color it's just spectacular and those fish by the way holy mackerel like
42:02
what do you feed those things the minute you get them on the line they are airborne and they're up four or five oh
42:08
my god it's crazy and it's just rainbows uh you got specs as well right that's
42:15
correct so one of the things that makes us uh unique is that we have a fully functioning uh hatchery on the property
42:23
so all the fish that we stock in our lake which we stock uh approximately 15,000 a year
42:30
uh we produce on the property from our own broodtock so our fish are raised
42:36
exclusively for the Franklin Club and exclusively for uh sport fishing by the
42:42
way I had an opportunity to have a little peek at that uh uh broodtock holy
42:48
smokes the mamba bears are pretty good yeah wow yeah but not only that you
42:53
could see where their offspring get the color because every one of those
42:59
gigantic uh spawning fish that I saw yesterday they were full color full bloom i've never seen anything like it
43:06
you know our our um uh steel hair our rainbow trout hoodie how brilliant that
43:12
color on the embroidered logo that's what it is oh that's cool crazy how old
43:17
are those those broodtock those those big fish that you keep for breeding how old would they be or what age range do
43:23
you keep them at so we if we see a fish that we like obviously uh for like color
43:30
size things like that good genetics we'll pull them out at about uh we won't stock them we'll put them in our brood
43:36
tank at about 2 and 1/2 years and then we keep them for about 5 years cool and
43:43
then at the end of their uh lifespan which is about eight years we uh release
43:48
them into the lake so last year we released I think 20 12 to 15 lb
43:55
brutetock rainbows into the main lake oh yeah and then we put uh little uh
44:01
tags on them so that when members caught them they let us know and then we have a little bit of a fun competition of who
44:08
caught the most nice and then we have a prize like Jennifer 2 or something like that it's a lot of fun fantastic that's
44:15
awesome um so over a hundred years this before we get there I want to talk about
44:20
the specs because I was um surprised to be honest with you that they were specs
44:26
when I first saw them as I told you Pete they looked like u um a little lake
44:32
trout you know long thin a bit of a head on them uh no real coloration uh other
44:39
than you know the the typical spec leading edge on that uh dorsal fin or
44:44
the uh fins other than that you would never know that they were spec yeah now
44:50
somebody told me that they were natural fish
44:57
uh no no okay so those were all there are there are some natural occurring uh
45:04
brook trout okay in our uh facility but
45:10
uh 90% sorry in our waterways uh some of the brook trout do propagate okay but
45:18
I'd say 90% of them come from the hatchery okay cool is there a reason why
45:23
they're they're sort of a bland looking silver fish well I it depends on if you
45:30
catch a female or if you catch the male right i mean the male the female is a lot not as colorful but the males are
45:37
obviously a lot more colorful so also depends on time of year and things like that so I'm assuming you have it's a
45:43
springfed lake as well then if this if brook can spawn in there it must be spring fred I believe uh so it's our
45:51
lake is supplied by three creeks essentially and then there's also spring
45:57
about four springs in the in the main lake okay yeah it's beautiful water you look at the
46:03
water and say "My god this water like those fish have got to be smiling down there cuz it's just the perfect
46:09
perfect." Yeah uh environment for those fish it's fantastic yeah one of the things that Oh
46:16
is it surprising uh is that we stock 15,000 fish in a 22 acre lake and we
46:24
don't feed them after they leave the hatchery they all Oh wow oh
46:30
they all fend for themselves so and they do really well and they grow in the lake
46:36
i thought I because of the size of those fish i thought you guys were on some super high protein program every day so
46:44
those are natural in terms of feed that's right once they enter the lake
46:49
once we stock them we don't feed them anymore how big are how big are they when you put them in the lake
46:54
uh the rainbows uh 14 to 16 in and the brook
47:00
trout 12 to 14 wow and then they f for themselves so they grow to that size
47:07
naturally that's right what's What are they feeding on like what's the natural forage uh mostly
47:16
uh freshwater shrimp scuds I think okay uh crayfish also is another big uh food
47:24
source and then the regulars like leeches and things like that wow mayflies cats there must be a nasty food
47:30
base in there it must be just unreal it's like unbelievable mcdonald's French fries there everywhere when you see when
47:38
you get to certain strategic areas and depending on how the sun and clouds and all that when you look down on this
47:44
water it's just polluted with big rainbow trout so so now know and and all
47:51
this time I thought boy they must really have to bring the feed bag bringing trucks of food in every because that's a
47:59
lot of uh mass there to feed and now you're telling me they feed naturally i can't even imagine that and they live
48:06
for years in there right they don't die off in a year these fish keep growing in years wow that's so cool they do really
48:12
well actually they really uh this year they wintered very well uh the before we
48:19
even stocked uh our members thought that we did stock cuz the all the fish had big fat bellies on them so there's a lot
48:25
of food source there uh which is really surprising but it's a very special area we're kind of at the
48:32
bottom of a valley and uh it's a lot more like a rainforest than it is uh a
48:39
lake cuz it's a really bountiful place for insects and things like that i guess it be like a gathering there's a certain
48:45
amount of cannibalization going on is that possible uh no I don't think so no
48:51
i mean there's uh 14 in man that's a meal isn't it if it was Yeah but you see the size of these that 15 he said or 17
48:58
pounder might take a shot of one yeah that's right they're huge shiner and
49:03
things like that in there as well wow that's You said uh you said that they survived the winter well so does your
49:09
pond ice over with these springs etc on that or is it open partially or what
49:14
happens to the winter uh obviously depending on the weather uh this year we had a really good year
49:21
and I would say it 90% frozen over okay but it's also it's not like a lake in
49:27
the sense that uh there's a lot more flow so it has to be very cold and then
49:32
if you do get some really good ice we do have ice fishing in the winter as well that's what I heard that's cool that'd
49:39
be that'd be amazing ice fishing dean would go crazy in there
49:44
that would be a fishing definitely proverbial fish in a barrel that's I did some ice fishing for Rainbow years ago
49:51
and it was fun it was in it wasn't like that but it was similarish very small
49:56
body of water and it was fun fishing for those guys under the ice so that very aggressive fish i love it yeah uh now
50:04
one of your members or certainly one of the people that I was with uh yesterday mentioned that you also have a a small
50:12
isolated population of largemouth in there yes wow yeah there's also uh
50:21
Yeah one of our one of our staff members has pulled out I believe a five pounder
50:27
that's what I heard well this is a Mecca that's what I heard it's all in that one little corner that you can see from the
50:34
from the main body of the lake from what he was saying where all the reads are and there's a little point coming off
50:39
there too well so they the the large mouth segregate from the Oh if you were a large mouth believe me you would find
50:46
a hiding spot of this because those trout have got to be intimidating as hell yeah I would think so but you know
50:52
a 12-in brookie if it's stocked and a 5B largemouth he'd eat that in a pretty quick hurry too you know what I mean so
50:59
well obviously if they're 5 pounders in there they're they're eating something good jeez imagine if they stay in there for another 10 years oh my god they be
51:06
giants canadian record any idea how they got in there were they planted no I
51:11
think it's just naturally occurring really there's also uh there's perch people pull pulled a 12-in perch as well
51:18
oh my god all right so there's food factory there's food for sure so they
51:24
could come in from the creeks too maybe he said three incoming creeks maybe somehow or birds or whatever before you
51:29
go in there speaking of the creeks do any of the rainbows try to escape into the creeks go back up oh yeah the answer
51:37
is yes right oh yeah but they can only get so far
51:42
like our uh all the water in our lake comes down off of the oak ridges marine mhm so the sources for those streams are
51:50
maybe a kilometer or two away ah okay yeah so they they get very shallow very
51:56
quickly yeah I got you but in that kilometer apparently they're good creek fishing oh yeah
52:03
is that all in your property as well or is that done going on to other you know uh we own our major source of water so
52:12
we have a another property that uh has this 4ft wide stream on another 70 acres
52:20
so it's protected our water source which is good okay uh what's the total acreage
52:25
for the club uh 260 acres wow wow and
52:31
and it's totally in the middle of nowhere in fact I heard yesterday speaking to some of some of the folks
52:37
there that a lot of the local communities like around they don't even know it exists wow cuz it's so tucked
52:44
away it's not like you're driving by it like it is people are wondering why is that not built up yet what's going on
52:50
that's all they're doing and they keep driving past it's it's it's an incredible which brings me to another point I want to make it's probably one
52:56
of the best kept secrets in the GTA in terms of a fishery is that Oh I agree is
53:01
that purposely done that way or or by accident or or by design uh
53:08
I Well since I've been here it hasn't been on purpose okay so my goal is to
53:14
make sure that anyone who's interested in you know a really quality fishing club knows about us um
53:22
no i wouldn't say that's not on purpose okay all right but we are we're at the end of a dead end road as well right oh yeah i mean you're right there's no one
53:29
ever going past us no and uh actually most of the new members we get are from
53:35
our current members bringing guests here right so there's that i'll tell you how
53:40
obscure this place is okay on my GPS on
53:45
the truck it wouldn't find it oh really under the name Franklin Club or Franklin
53:52
Fishing Club or Franklin Fishing and Outdoor Club my GPS would not find it i
53:57
I had to pinpoint where it was on the map yeah and navigate to Oh no kidding
54:03
so this is an incredibly well-kept secret we need We need I love breaking
54:10
secrets out okay we need to break this out and tell the masses because uh there's also opportunities here I think
54:17
and I don't know whether you've already started working on them Kevin or not but there's a great opportunity that we have
54:25
you have as outdoors and angling community to introduce young folks to
54:31
fishing for the first time this would be the ide if you want to get a kid 10 12
54:36
13 14 years old completely wired up on the outdoors and fishing i swear to God
54:43
I would not take him anywhere else now that I know this exists I would not take them anywhere else on the planet this is
54:50
where you want to be because there's so many other things that I in the
54:55
wilderness up there that you can get involved in with the kid that it's not just fishing right so you don't have to
55:01
keep them on that the end of that rod they can run around they can do stuff they can But the best part is when they
55:07
hook up holy mackerel you are it's insane yeah it's insane that'd be good
55:13
for a kid just to get that feel get the excitement get to know what's the you know what's what's possible out there
55:18
it's not that that's not a realistic fishery in the world of lakes but it doesn't matter but that's how you get started exactly i I love that i got to
55:26
go out somewhere else i got Because I used to do that with my dad like he we did do a couple clubs or ponds or private areas but we used to do the
55:32
brook trout stuff on the creeks after that and then you know what I mean it was it was really cool you got a story don't you you're laughing at something
55:38
dom my dad uh one time he took Reno and I out and it was a small little pond
55:44
somewhere around here and uh I guess he had heard about it from people at his
55:50
work or something said "Hey you want to take you should take the kids fishing to this pond it's fantastic." But they neglected to tell him that it's an
55:56
expensive it's an expensive undertaking so anyway so we get in there and uh we
56:03
just start boom boom no they were all small literally just like boom boom boom boom and and of course dad typical
56:10
Italian right we that's food we need to take all that home catch them all so we
56:16
had this garbage bag full of these fish and when we went to to cash out kind of
56:22
thing and the guy whoa uh you know you have to pay by the inch
56:31
and at the time and I don't remember the amount but it was It was ridiculous bankruptcy time that's
56:37
how Oh my god did Damiano arm wrestle him so he was fighting shock but anyways
56:44
uh do you do stuff like that at all uh or is this strictly Hey if you're not a member or a guest of a member um no
56:52
there's no special program for you so we do some
56:58
uh outreach with uh one of the schools in York Region
57:03
uh where we bring out like 16 people from their outdoor class and they bring
57:10
guides and we do uh some fishing for the day there's that we also have uh kids
57:17
lessons for fly fishing with uh a pro for members nice so yeah it is it is something that we do do maybe not our
57:24
sole focus but our we really want to grow the sport okay and expose a lot of
57:30
people to it and it's a thing that you can do outside with your family with your spouse it's Yeah it's great yeah do
57:39
you have a limited number of memberships available like you keep a cap on it like
57:44
how does that work yeah so we top out at 200 200 and we don't go
57:50
any higher than that we're not able to uh currently we're at
57:55
about 180 okay so there there is room okay uh for some growth but uh it's been
58:03
pretty we've had a really brisk season with new members this spring in
58:08
particular and uh it seems the word's getting out and we're becoming more
58:13
known as uh you know a recreation option in the GTA mhm it's it's unbelievable is
58:20
there you guys just said and maybe you don't want to say but I don't think it matters 65 km north of downtown Toronto
58:26
is there a town close by like where what area is it in ish so uh the easy way to
58:32
think of it is we're 15 minutes east of New Market ah I would
58:37
think most people know where New Market is yeah yeah pretty much north a little bit to the west but pretty much north
58:44
from us yeah it's crazy wow beautiful road you don't have to take the 407
58:49
which I did going up but coming back why am I doing that beautifully paved roads all the way up like this gorge i'm
58:56
telling you it's it's an outing to die for if you're listening to this and you
59:03
want to get started on uh on your fishing season in the right direction I'm not suggesting that you necessarily
59:10
buy a membership we'll get into that in a minute what that entails but find out who does have a membership and bring you
59:17
in there yeah yeah now I saw on the on uh the picture you showed me or something that there was boats there too
59:22
it's not just shore fishing is there boat fishing too explain that yeah yeah so we have about 20
59:30
uh 20 foot long punts see I told you they were keep long holy crap it's like
59:36
the British style uh very flat and uh very heavy i weigh about 250 lbs and I
59:43
can stand on one end and jump up and down and you can't flip it for fly fishing it's perfect it's a great base
59:50
the the only thing I uh would say it it it's a waste of energy to be honest with
59:57
you because there isn't a a bank on that property that I I would bet
1:00:05
you could not make a cast or two or three or four when those fish are in that vicinity that that you couldn't
1:00:11
catch fish so absolutely and I also believe I told somebody this yesterday the problem with the boats is that you
1:00:18
know you want to get away from shore so you're out fishing out in the middle of of this water when all the fish clearly
1:00:24
you can see them all the fish are cruising the shorelines right oh really feeding whatever they're feeding on and
1:00:29
you know you mentioned perch i wouldn't uh rule out the possibility that they're
1:00:35
offering a little bit more food base than we think in this conversation right
1:00:40
uh perch are very prolific as you know um and uh man they're they every fish
1:00:46
loves eating them nutritionally speaking they're at the top of the food chain is there you you made it sound like you're
1:00:51
making it sound like every inch of shoreline is accessible for fishing off of because you don't need to go boat
1:00:57
then because is there spots where you can't get to with the There are a few go ahead go ahead and then it also depends
1:01:03
on the time of year right so in July August the north end of the lake warms
1:01:11
up a little so they go uh closer to the the the water sources right where it's
1:01:17
cooler right right and then that's when it's probably a bit better to take a boat right okay and then also on a boat
1:01:23
you can be uh a little more secluded a little bit more by yourself mhm i know I
1:01:30
have one member he says when he gets out on that boat he can uh kind of trick his mind into thinking that he's in like
1:01:36
northern Ontario somewhere yeah yeah I can see that kind of pretty easy to do yeah is there is there are they rowboats
1:01:42
or electric motor robbo right cool yeah we don't have any uh uh motorized
1:01:48
uh boats on the lake yeah okay all human powered yeah cool yeah I didn't get a
1:01:55
chance yesterday um but uh I would have loved to have
1:02:00
seen the hatchery and the way you process the fish and stuff i would imagine speaking from to some of the
1:02:07
folks who I was with I would imagine that it's quite a an advanced
1:02:12
uh hatchery system that you have and my the reason I asked the question is do you share some of this uh information
1:02:20
research technology with other hatcheries uh with uh Ministry of
1:02:26
Natural Resources is there or is this pretty much the proprietary
1:02:33
uh Franklin Club uh hatchery well we are
1:02:38
a egg to market operation yeah so we do it all
1:02:44
from end to end uh the hatchery was built in the 70s
1:02:49
um we do have some associations with other hatcheries in the area uh but we
1:02:56
do it all for ourselves we have uh three and a half full-time staff that
1:03:02
run the hatchery and the grounds our uh hatchery manager has a degree in biology
1:03:07
and our both of our assistants have done the aqua culture program
1:03:15
uh one at Sanford Fleming and the other one in Nova Scotia Delhausy so we've got
1:03:21
a lot of uh horsepower down there so to speak yeah I understand you get a lot of uh
1:03:28
new uh students just you know year one year two in their training that they
1:03:34
they they rush to you guys this is the place apparently among that group that
1:03:40
this is the place where you want to start sounds like biology i didn't want to be there it's it's perfect
1:03:47
one of the things here is that if you are working on the hatchery you are using all of your knowledge uh because
1:03:54
we're such a small operation and we do everything there's not one thing that you won't touch so a lot of times if you
1:04:00
come out of an aquaculture program uh and you go to like a a really big operation like a factory operation
1:04:07
you're going to be feeding fish for the first you know two or three years right and not really involved in the technical
1:04:13
aspects of of rearing the fish but here you're going to do everything and you'll apply all your knowledge so that's why
1:04:19
uh it's a really attractive place for someone who is just starting out
1:04:25
and you'll have a big impact on on the end result right yeah good training right yeah you know people may look at
1:04:32
you and say "Man he's got the perfect job." But I'll bet you you're no different than a lodge owner you know
1:04:37
lodge owners for the most part they get into that business because they say "Man if I could ever get into being a lodge
1:04:43
owner I'll just spend the rest of my life just fishing." Think about it you're probably the same way when was
1:04:48
the last time you had a chance to cast something out in that water uh it's been
1:04:53
a while it's a you know the hatchery uh keeps us very busy uh and it's essential
1:05:01
not essential it is farming right right so there's always something to fix
1:05:07
something to improve something always breaking you know a lot of times I'm out here at 2 a.m uh the power goes out we
1:05:14
have to you know we have generators on the property but there it's always a going concern i never thought about that
1:05:20
yeah power would be would be critical wouldn't it unbelievable how about vandalism like you get And I don't mean
1:05:27
vandalism in a nasty sort of way but I know as a kid you know we we weren't uh
1:05:32
above uh sneaking a cast or two in areas that we weren't supposed to i can see
1:05:37
you and I as kids you need an electric fence around that sucker because we'd be in there otherwise does that happen uh
1:05:44
it does but we have uh security on the property yeah I met one of them first
1:05:50
thing I first as soon as I set foot on the property I met one of them that's right lots of cameras and things like
1:05:57
that but I mean it happens we're very secluded are all of our borders uh it's
1:06:02
not an easy place to get into that's for sure speaking of vandalism we'll go into this stealing part here what about
1:06:09
ospreys and and birds like that birds of prey that like their fish dinner so
1:06:14
there are a lot of them here so we also have about six bald eagles that call our
1:06:22
lake home oh yeah and I don't know how many osprey uh lots of blue herand i
1:06:28
always argue that we should get a tax credit for feeding them but in my opinion it it adds to the for sure the
1:06:36
beauty of the place right yeah yeah you can see this wildlife happening you can see an eagle you know in the morning
1:06:41
come taking a fish and uh happening right in front of you right wow
1:06:47
for an eagle to find this place and and make it home it's like they died and gone to heaven he'd never leave you see
1:06:53
that he'd do the first pass over there and say "Okay honey we're moving into here there's where we're building our
1:06:58
home big pine tree up there the highest point and look out fish." Like it's it would be just incredible he'd be on a
1:07:04
total fish diet he wouldn't even look at a rabbit anymore mink what the hell i don't want that oh my god that
1:07:11
would be something else eh heaven anyways I I got to tell you you you speaking of heaven you got a little
1:07:16
piece of heaven there i want to ask one more question you say it's open 365 days a year you got rainbow brook trout and
1:07:22
some largemouth bass which I'm assuming you can fish for any of them do you have to abide by closed seasons in Ontario or
1:07:29
is this because it's a private club open all year for open all all species is open all year for all species okay
1:07:37
because we own the entire shoreline and then we're stocking it with our own fish
1:07:42
that's interesting really interesting that we've asked that question several times right on private property i just
1:07:48
wonder you know I mean obliged to somebody says take a cast i can't i'm not in season it doesn't matter here
1:07:53
bochain i think we had the same thing in Bshain they had certain regulations so the large mouth being natural are they
1:08:01
still like we fish them right now is not it's preseason right now no i mean you you don't uh purposely go out and catch
1:08:08
bass right here with a trout fishery okay they don't they don't even like Nobody touches them yeah so opening day
1:08:16
you and I know where we're going god especially one of those boats we up
1:08:21
there okay get them on top you know what what what we uh when uh I was planning
1:08:28
to come up and and uh spend some time with you guys yesterday one of the things that we thought we we we
1:08:34
said you know we should bring up some technology like our our uh forward view live scope units just to see what the
1:08:41
image would be like with all those fish in the water column and then I said "Oh that's ridiculous." But it would be an
1:08:47
interesting it'd be cool just to see the the mass that you've got in Right on
1:08:52
perspective mode looking down you would see thousands maybe in one space well you can see it with your eyes so So
1:08:59
what's below that is un I mean wow what's the deepest point
1:09:05
uh about 13 ft 13 yeah okay that's what I I thought perfect perspective we could just get in there and take a bank you
1:09:11
could see the whole That'd be cool top to bottom yeah yeah you could get that range set up proper wow that'd be cool
1:09:18
that'd be insane that would be neat we may be uh coming up to visit you as
1:09:24
you get amazing we'd love to have you that'd be great so um All right so how
1:09:29
can folks get more information how do you have days where you uh invite prospective members who are maybe just
1:09:36
you know thinking about do you have days where they can come in and sample what you you have and that kind of thing well
1:09:41
you can you can come in for uh a tour okay uh and you can have a look at the
1:09:47
property and then maybe wet a line for a little bit and kind of taste our uh our
1:09:52
offering by the way I have to stop you there speak about taste your offering and this is also why I thought they got
1:10:00
to be feeding them something special here not only because they're giants but we had an opportunity to sample them at
1:10:07
lunch uh from your dining room yesterday oh my god you know how I I'm not a big
1:10:12
trout fan right in terms of food I would eat this every day nice every single day
1:10:18
like whatever those fish are are eating it's special is all I got to say
1:10:24
and that uh that um and I forgot but they said "Yeah we'll give you the recipe." You you you have this this
1:10:32
trout sort of um creamy whatever it's called uh that you make oh trout moose
1:10:39
trout mousse that you make locally oh buddy really
1:10:45
really that is like that should be on a shelf in a grocery store called the
1:10:51
Franklin Club M uh trout mousse our uh our chef uh
1:10:58
Suzanne makes that in-house with our fish from the hatchery and she smokes
1:11:04
them in house as well and we also make that available for members say if you're going to wait want away for the weekend
1:11:09
it makes a really good hostess gift oh really unusual you know it's fantastic i got to tell you did you
1:11:15
try the smoked or No did you try that too we had smoked we had the mousse we had the We had this wonderful baked uh
1:11:22
Oh it nice i can't say enough about what I consumed in terms of quality yesterday
1:11:28
at this place it was phenomenal great great bonus to the package right there so so so somebody can come in they can
1:11:35
take a tour like you said wet a line maybe grab lunch or whatever the case is
1:11:40
and then they can uh basically sign up to become a member at that point go
1:11:46
ahead so if you come out for a tour and think you would like it mhm uh there are
1:11:52
several options okay so you can join as a trial member which is what most members uh new members do so you uh join
1:12:02
as a trial for a year and essentially you're paying all the member dues but
1:12:08
you're not outlaying uh the share price or the initiation fee right so you try
1:12:15
it out for a year like if it works for you and your family then after that year you can convert to either a full
1:12:21
membership which you pay the share price and the initiation fee and continue
1:12:26
paying dues or you can go to a three or a fiveyear financing program
1:12:32
wow and and how does the share thing work like what's in it for them like what this equity buy what what explain
1:12:40
that to us so you're buying part of the corporation and essentially it's worth
1:12:45
there's a share price so then it's a piece of equity that you could sell
1:12:51
privately uh to uh someone that's approved by the club as well at say at
1:12:59
the end of your membership uh you'd like to leave you can turn it in for a credit and then all your dues would be taken
1:13:06
out of that credit until you reach zero and that would be the end of your membership wow that's interesting so as
1:13:14
the value goes up like is it valued evaluated every year or how does that work uh the share price is set by the
1:13:21
club oh it's set by the club okay cool by the way they got this great bar that
1:13:26
has little lockable oak looks like oak i know exactly all these little doors i
1:13:32
know what it is it's not for your shoes is it no it's not for your shoes it's behind the bar so you can bring if you
1:13:38
have that special bottle of uh scotch or wine or whiskey or whatever you can lock
1:13:43
it in behind the bar and when you come to the bar for for your lunch or dinner
1:13:48
you say "Bartender uh number 32." He pulls it out it's fantastic i was so
1:13:54
impressed with what you guys have got there just blew me away one last point I want to make cuz I know about this now
1:13:59
but we got to move yeah is uh is that is not It sounds like a fly fishing club but it's not just fly fishing correct
1:14:06
they have fly fishing lakes right so you can do but you can bring spinning gear gear in and all that stuff right Kevin
1:14:13
yes yeah okay so on uh there's three waters of wa sorry bodies of water
1:14:19
there's the two fly fishing only ponds and then there's the main 20 acre lake
1:14:25
and that's been casting and fly fishing uh and we're single barless for both
1:14:31
okay cool okay cool yeah excellent uh very impressive
1:14:37
it's all I got to say i urge anybody that uh that's listening to this that just wants to see how a private fishing
1:14:44
club should be operated you need to go to the Franklin Club go in and just be
1:14:49
one of those guys that goes and checks it out um just to have a peek around it is absolutely fantastic 65 kilometers
1:14:57
from Toronto from downtown Toronto it's with an hour's drive anywhere in the GTA
1:15:03
maximum maximum so if you're interested in membership it's uh the
1:15:08
franklinub.ca and there's membership information there or you can email emma
1:15:13
e mmmathefranklin club.ca to book a tour and come out and see us and uh we'll
1:15:20
walk around have a chat and uh see if you want to join the club how long would they have to What's How long is the tour
1:15:28
uh about 30 minutes perfect okay we'll walk you around 30 minutes to an hour yeah we'll walk you around the property
1:15:35
show you the hatchery nice nice and remember everybody there's only like 20 spots left so it's not like it's
1:15:41
hundreds of spots they're going fast yeah for sure there you go all right buddy listen thank you very much uh for
1:15:47
the experience first of all yesterday and thank you uh for coming on the program today i wish you the best of
1:15:52
luck uh you don't need it cuz you got a gold mine sounds like it fantastic man
1:15:58
uh keep up the good work thank you very much gentlemen have a great day you soon
1:16:03
uh Kevin Johnston general manager for the Franklin Fishing and Outdoors Club
1:16:08
uh interesting place canada's oldest I believe over 100 years in existence wow
1:16:14
and you know I was going to say it looks I I I wouldn't be doing it justice if I said that but you feel the history of
1:16:23
the club yeah yeah when you walk it you you know and you the pictures you showed me just in that bar itself that oak or
1:16:29
whatever is very even on the trails you can you you sense it the big trees and
1:16:36
you know it's not a new operation you could tell this has been there since the beginning of time yeah and then of
1:16:41
course when he just blew my mind by the way when he said that they're naturally feeding there is I would have bet
1:16:47
everything I have yeah really that feeding program that they've got there is like top notch pellets but I but
1:16:55
little more than pellets because they're just too big and energetic and and
1:17:00
colorful and all this stuff i thought they'd be more than just pellets but I had no idea that they're foraging
1:17:07
naturally in this body of water that's cool the competition that they must be under oh yeah and that's why the
1:17:14
fishing's so good right like these fish are constantly I'm thinking
1:17:19
now stressed in the sense that they've got to find something to eat because there's a thousand of their buddies
1:17:24
doing the same thing all around them true yeah wow it's cool what a great
1:17:30
experience check them out uh the Franklin Club uh as I said my GPS wouldn't even get me there so go online
1:17:37
they have uh directions and all that stuff uh the ice fishing is intriguing
1:17:43
that's really cool sure that's really cool something we might want to sample that thinking fun uh by the way I want
1:17:50
to interrupt this uh program with today's weekly special code and guess
1:17:56
what it is kitties rainbow rainbow that's R A I N B O W capital
1:18:04
letters or not i'm I never got qualifi do we have It's all capitals it has to be all capital it's all capital has to
1:18:10
be all caps there you go you just got it from the boss r A I N B O W Rainbow uh
1:18:17
take that and go to the bonus section of the contest and plug that in there and
1:18:23
you get 10 free entries sweet 10 free entries you know what we should do by
1:18:29
the way before I sign off maybe you can help us on this i think we should see if we can give away a membership to the
1:18:36
Franklin Fishing Club how cool would that be holy crap what a prize that
1:18:41
would be i think Okay I'm in for that we got to change the rules so that you and I Dean and Yeah we could all try and get
1:18:49
that one anyways for the time being uh head on over to fishingcanada.com go to
1:18:54
the contest section enter the word rainbow in the special bonus area there and you will get 10 free entries in
1:19:01
whatever it is we're giving away cuz we're giving away stuff every day constantly and then some uh that are it
1:19:08
for us i think we covered it all Dean yes sir that's it we're in good shape y perfect we're out of here on behalf of
1:19:14
the entire crew uh Bulma over there Nick over here Dean over there uh he's Peter
1:19:20
i'm Angelo thanks for joining us next [Applause] [Music]
1:19:30
week this episode of Outdoor Journal Radio has been brought to you in part by
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the Invasive Species Center protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species freedom Cruise Canada rent the
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