Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #115 - Professional Fishing Guide Kyle Callbeck

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

Originally from Hillmond SK he's a professional fishing guide up in the North West Territories who has travelled the world catching fish as he goes. He also has travelled across North America driving truck, has driven the ice roads for a seaosn & has been to Tomorrowland. Simply put one interesting guy.    Let me know what you think     Text me! 587-217-8500

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tale of the tape. Originally from Hillmont, Saskatchewan, he is a pro-fishing guide in the Northwest Territories, has caught fish all over the world from New Zealand, Thailand to the Northwest Territories, has driven truck all across North America. And frankly, he's just one interesting

individual. I am talking about Mr. Kyle Colbeck. So buckle up. Here we go. This is Kyle Colbeck and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast. Got Mr. Kyle Calbeck joining me. Hello. He has no idea what he's in for folks. Never listen to a podcast in his life. This is going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Well, essentially, all we're going to do is sit and have a conversation. That's it. Perfect. Yeah. So you you drive trucks. Listen to talk radio, but can't be convinced to put on a podcast. It's not that I can't be convinced. I've never tried it.

I guess maybe I'm lazy. I don't know. What's your favorite talk radio? What are you listening to these days? Honestly, it's not a common thing, but it's whenever I do listen to it, it's fine. I don't really have any sort of preference. You're not really a talk radio again. I guess not I'm not totally sold on it.

No. It's not an everyday thing. He goes, I'm a talk radio guy. Well, now he's saying he's not a talk radio guy. Well, you know, you're a big hunter guy, fishing guy. Yeah. I sound like Don Cherry there, right? Yeah.

Guy. Anyways, I think, as far as podcast go, like I was saying, you can, like literally pick anything you want. Boom, there, on your phone. Right. Have the most interesting guy on the other side of the planet. telling you about catching some walleye wherever. Right. Wrangling it in.

Yeah, I got to give it a try. I sound like a complete moron when I'm talking fishing, aren't I? Well, let's talk about you a little bit. Yeah, sounds good. Well, give the listeners a little taste of Mr. Cal Caldback. What you originally from, well, we grew up from the same place, home on Saskatchewan. That's right, yeah, yeah. Yeah, down on the four mile and went to school there.

and I don't know. I don't know. You're not a typical, I mean this in the most positive way, maybe you are typical, I don't freaking know. We all grew up playing hockey and living, breathing, dying, senior hockey, whatever hockey it is. And from a young age, that ain't you. No, I did Tom Thumb and that was the end of it for me.

I hung up the skates there. You remember what that was about? You're just like, screw this ice. I guess it just wasn't there. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. It's not that I didn't like it. It's just didn't have any sort of drive, no passion for it. So. Would rather take a chisel to the ice than skate on it. Because I mean, I've heard stories about you coming back from being up north where all you do is fish, you get home, you say, hey, hey, everyone. Okay, I'm heading out to Turtle Lake and do some more fishing. Yeah. What the heck is it about fishing that you enjoy so much? Man.

Geez, I don't know if I could put any one thing that's, I like being outside, always have. I guess they're just, you know, you try to convince yourself that it's just a stupid fish. It's just, you know, some cold-blooded idiot creature. But sometimes it doesn't really, you don't really want to admit that sometimes when they're hard to catch. I don't know. Sometimes there's a bit of a challenge there. and I guess that's what I like. Oh, you got an uncatchable fish out there that you're waiting for?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's a couple that they've crossed my path that have been. Snap lines, that kind of thing? Yeah, or just, you know, come up and almost take, but don't. And those are the kind of fish that wake you up at night. The old lady, you fidget around that fish again, hunt. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, seriously. Man, yeah, there's been a couple.

So it really gets your blood going when you're out on the lake. Yeah, you know, it's, I've kind of bounced back and forth between being a hunter and a fisherman pretty much my whole life. I was really into hunting when I was like from, say, eight to 12, 13 back fishing. Then I did a hunting stint again. But the thing with hunting and fishing, you can be a hunter who fishes or you can be a fisherman who hunts. There's a difference there. And I love both, but I have to admit that I am a fisherman who hunts. Oh, so you're the guy who puts fishing in front of everything.

Yeah, yeah, I guess. I guess. So you're constantly on the look then for the new frontier, the new lake, or do you go back to the same hole after the same hole? Well, you can you can you can you can kind of plateau in a way if you just kind of keep going back to the same old stuff. I think you should always I think with anything a guy should always be trying to improve. So if you just keep doing what you know, you know you may not you may get to a point where you're not improving anymore. So I always like to I kind of like to get my ass kicked and I actually really like to get skunked because that means there's more to learn.

that's that's another thing I really like about it there's more to learn I'm gonna enjoy this ass can kick you or ass can kick you fish can kick your ass geez one not even at one pills in your hand I can't get it straight what is this is this regulation 5% yeah I don't know I got it at Tate's so old Robbie yeah that's right

so fish you think fish can kick your ass yeah I mean you know you think you know it all and then you go out somewhere and then you pound the water for 10 hours and you don't get nothing. So I mean, obviously I don't know at all. And now, and now you got to go back. Yeah. Like if you don't catch something, you're going back.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's always like, fish are always biting. That's whatever, that's been my philosophy, my whole life. They're always biting. So if I don't catch any, that's because of me, not because of the fish. So what do you do the next time you go, oh, wait? Man, you go home and you think about it.

You think about it on the drive home? I don't know. It sounds insane, but it's just, it really is like it's just such a huge part of my life. So I guess I have time to think about it. Does it really sound that insane? You know, me and your brother, Jaden, were talking earlier. And he goes, you know, we have our differences. And I was like, oh, what do you guys argue about?

And he said, well, he likes to fish. And I like to chase the puck around the rink at late hours of the night. And I'm like, well, is it any more insane that we play a game where it's grown men with kids at home? and no fans in the stands and we're out there whacking and fighting and calling each other whatever to chase a little piece of tin that... That's right.

A normal person would think you're insane. Well, I tell you what, people from not this area probably do. I mean, Saskatchewan's kind of a senior hockey hub, but after that, you get a further away. Everyone's kind of like... Yeah. I think it's interesting.

I think you've got to have something that gets you up and, you know, and gets you going. Guaranteed, yeah. Yeah, you've got to have something no matter what it is. The old podcast, Cal Nichols, if he ever listens to this. You know who Cal Nichols is?

Actually, no. He's a guy from Paradise Hill who owned a business, St. Walbard. They've retired his jersey there, even though he never played for them. But he helped save the Eminton Oilers. Okay. He's my, what is it, my Great White, the one that got away, the one that hasn't, that still haunts me at night, gets me up and wake up. Cal Nichols.

The Great White Buffalo. That's right, Great White Buffalo. There you go. Yeah. Well, the guy's super successful from our area. Can't get them on. Is that right? Yeah. So I get it. You got to have something that drives you. That's right, yeah. So where have you been? I mean, like you've caught fish all over the bloody world.

Trying, yeah, yeah. I mean, so I guess I just, it all started out and just kind of any family trip. It was always we had to camp somewhere where there's somewhere to fish, blah, blah, you know, so. Started off innocently enough and then got my license, started doing longer trips, started fishing in Manitoba and stuff, you know, in high school and fishing northern Alberta, blah, blah, and one thing leads to another and I'm working at a fishing lodge in the Northwest Territories and I've been there for five seasons now. Blah, blah, I'm fishing. Yeah, okay.

Let's go back here. So you start venturing off to different lakes and fishing by yourself after growing up as a child of fishing. Are you going by yourself? You taking guys with you? Or is there, is it a little bit of each? In those earlier trips, it was mostly with, excuse me, mostly with a couple of buddies or, you know, two of us or whatever. So, yeah, guys from high school or guys from work or whatever. And is that still the case taking guys? Do you like a solo adventure? I like both, but for different reasons, you know, I like the social aspect of fishing, for Sure. I like the, yeah, I don't know.

That Pilsner's getting down. Yeah, yeah, I'm gassing up here, holy. But I also like, when you're doing it by yourself, there's kind of a pressure goes away where you can kind of do whatever you want. And again, it comes back to trying out different things and seeing what works, what doesn't, because I, again, I don't like,

I don't mind being skunked. So it's nice to try things to see how I can't catch fish. I like the social aspect, but I also like doing it alone. So when you try, say you're trying things and you get skunked, what are some things you've tried out on the boat by yourself to try and liver fish? So obviously the best time to do this and was when the fish are going crazy, which can seem counterintuitive, but when the fish are not biting, it's probably best to stick to what you know works.

So when the fish are really going is when I'll try things that are different. I'll do, you know, maybe try hooking two lures together or trolling really fast, six, seven, eight miles an hour. Maybe I'll try jigging in a spot I haven't done or I don't know, just any sort of way that I can vary it up from the norm just to see. And then if it doesn't work, if you're pounding fish and then it all of a sudden stops, obviously, no, that's probably never going to work if you're out there on the best day possible. What's the best thing you've tried that you thought this will never work and it worked?

Well, I actually can't take credit for it, but the first year that I was guiding, the 2016 season, a guy who was up there who's actually a good buddy of mine now, we took, well, he took a believer, which is a musky crankbait, a musky is like a, it's like a jack, it's like a pike. It lives out in the east. They get really big. The world record is a little over 70 pounds or somewhere around there, depending on who you ask. There's a lot of fish tails and stories and things with that.

But it's a musky crankbait, the believer, and it's 13 inches long. It's adjointed, so there's two pieces to it. He cut the back piece off the believer and put on a 16-inch curly tail grub. So hopefully people can understand. understand what I'm saying, but hooked together, you've got something that's about 27 inches long. Which is ridiculous. It's insane, yeah. I thought right away, I mean, I don't know, maybe, but he'd been guiding for a few years before me.

Can't hurt. And he built a couple of them. We took him out, and man, they were. They slay big trout. So what's the biggest fish you ever caught? Actually, that was this last summer up there. There's two lodges that were bouncing back and forth on. The guy I worked for bought a lodge from the bank that hadn't run in like nine years.

So we were there doing some rentos. This is in the southeast, northwest territories. Yeah. And we... That's a lot of directions. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's holy... That is the entire compass.

Yeah, there you. Yeah. Anyway, we were out there this summer. It was early August. I got a 35-pound lake trout there, so that was pretty cool. What do you do after you catch the biggest fish of your career? Man, I'm almost jaded because the fishing up there is just insane, pretty much anywhere in the Northwest Territories.

Well, that's because nobody wants. It's pretty untouched. That's right. So I've been pretty jaded. You know, we all get a lot of 22, 25, 28 pound fish. So it's cool to be able to do that. So it takes a lot to get me excited now. But, man, after that one, my knees were shaken.

And I, like, I had to sit down. It was wild. Did you enjoy a few sasperillas that night? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. As long as the sasparillas are around in Guideland, they're the saspirals are going down for sure do you ever run out of sasperillas while you're in guide town oh yeah yeah yeah sometimes everyone's a little twitchy till the plane comes in

you hear anything no no you sure yeah got the shaky hands or whatever what uh what took you up north like did that you just stumble on that you know it was always something that i wanted to do when I was probably from 15 to 17 in high school, I bet you I applied to, honestly, no word of lie, I bet you I applied to 80 different lodges in Saskatchewan, trying to be like a dockhand for the summer. And no one would hire me because all of the seasons in Saskatchewan start before, they start before school lets out in the summer,

and they end after school starts again. So they wouldn't hire a high school kid because I'd have to miss school. They want someone for the whole season. So my brother's wife, Kelly Carruthers, Kelly Calback now, her sister, Brittany, went up there the year before me. And this was in 2016 or she went up in 2015. This is obviously thinking back when the patch was like really slow. I had a good job here, but it kind of dwindled down. a you know six to eight hours a day wasn't really what it used to be and uh so i said hey would you put

in a good word for me and she said yeah of course and uh rest is history and so just loving it up there yeah it's awesome man it really is yeah i can i can be picky about a couple of things like it at the end of the day it is still is three and a half months in the bush and you're you're ready to go at the end of it but it it's it is awesome I love it well what's what's some of the you know you're talking to a guy who hasn't been in the bush and like you know I love everything about my life but there is some you know would it be fun to go up north for a couple weeks sure I think I think it sounds very adventurous and fun so what are some of the things that are just like stick out like man this is unbelievable well um I guess

One thing that takes a bit of getting used to, because of the latitude, we're far enough north where we've got about a two-month... Geez, I've got to slow down. Or speed up, one of the two. Yeah, one of the two. Because of the latitude, in the summer, we've got about two months of... It doesn't really get dark. The sun does barely set, but... Does that fuck with your head?

It does. You got to... Especially when you've got to get up in the morning. You've got to make sure that it's dark when you go to bed, so lots of... a tin foil on the windows for sure but it's beautiful like it's great on 12 o'clock at night it's like daylight doesn't that mess with your brain a little bit i'm used to it now but when if you've never seen it before yeah it's it's a lot like it just feels like yeah i love a long day but i still like the sun to go down and get dark you know yeah it's a little light outside but you put the

blinds up and you know it's kind of like whatever it's like you know like when you go to a hotel in the city and the lights never go down it's irritating but you're like it's still night time right you look out it the sun ain't up that's right you're telling me the sun never goes down so you can't even just be like it is 10 30 at night because it's kind of over there it's like if i didn't have a watch on i wouldn't have a clue no yeah that's right yeah yeah yeah around like june 21st you go in you go to bed at say midnight the sun is about 15 minutes away from setting and then it rises again at 3 o'clock in the morning so just goes out of sight that'd be cool to see though it is it is cool yeah it's kind of a kind of add something to it and then you kind of get the flip side later on like

because we fish into September and the days get so much shorter by the time we leave there in September there are quite a bit shorter than they are here So it's dark at, I don't know, 730 or something. And again, because of the latitude, you get so much for Northern lights. The Northern lights up there are just insane. Well, explain insane to me because, I mean, if you take a person from, let's think about this, who was, crap, I'm forgetting right now, who, Scott Hartnell from Lloyd. Yep.

Plays, played for the Philadelphia Flyers. used to take kids from Philly and take them to, I want to say Minnesota. And that would be the first time they'd ever seen the Northern Lights. Right. And I went to school in Wisconsin, which is right beside Minnesota. And I always thought that was lack of a better term, Patrick Crazy. Like how haven't you ever seen the Northern Lights? Right.

We come from a place where on a good, heck, tonight might be a good night to see the Northern Lights. Absolutely. It's almost prime conditions. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But you're saying they're insane. It's insane to the point where there's like a market. for the tourism in the Northwest Territories for that.

There's, there's an Asian, there's, I want to say there's something like 50,000 Asians that go through Yellowknife, which is a town of about 25,000, every winter, just to see the Northern Lights and the quality of them. Isn't there good luck in that, though? Don't they believe something along the lines of, I'm sure I've heard this before,

making babies? Making babies under the Northern Lights, right? Right. I have heard that too. I've heard conflicting stories on that. Oh, you're saying it's bullshit. I'm not saying it's bullshit. I always thought that too, and I have heard that from pretty much everyone.

But so I don't know. I have heard from a couple operators up there that maybe it depends on their nationality. They deny that. They say it's just, they just go to look at it. I don't know. I say China must be a pretty boring place. If you fly halfway across the world to look at that.

but I mean, it is good. It is really good. Think of a place with billions of people, though. Yeah, you'd be ready to get out. You know, you've got to kind of remind yourself at times that we're pretty spoiled. We really are. You know, like, the things we got going on here, don't get me wrong, there's some frustrating stuff going on. But at the end of the day, like, go down and see my in-laws in Minnesota.

Love going down there. And Minnesota isn't one of the busiest states. But the one time, we drove four hours across to, Wisconsin, see one of my wife's friends, well, high school, college friend, right around American Thanksgiving. And I believe it was the night before American Thanksgiving that we were driving back. And it was bumper to bumper traffic for four hours, not like, like stressed me out. And I drive all the time. Except the drive from Lloyd to Eminton is almost a joke when you've done now that you've experienced something like that. No doubt. Well, you've taken a

truck all over the place. Yeah, yeah. Cruised around a few places in a truck, for sure. Where is the sketchiest place you've been in a Sammy? You mean like... I mean like traffic? Like what did I do coming down here with a big rig? Not like holy crap, they're shooting up cocaine, not cocaine, heroin or... Not like that. Not like that. You're talking traffic. I'm talking traffic, not Hasting Street in Vancouver. Have you taken a truck down the Hastings Street? I have. I haven't been down Hastings itself, but I have drove all over Vancouver in a truck with a Super B, which is two trailers together, of course.

So that's got to be up there for sure. That's insanely busy out there. It's actually, you know, the lower mainland doesn't even really feel like Canada. Like, it's, it's different out there for sure. But, yeah, I don't know. I've been turned around a couple times, especially when I was younger. I got lost in Regina once. There was some really tight corners.

A couple of fingers coming out the window and stuff, but I survived. So there's been some close calls, but it's been pretty good. I would definitely say Vancouver's been the worst traffic, though. Well, we just came back, I went, just came back from Vancouver. And I was saying, Dad's a guy who's driven all across Canada and a semi and through all types of weather and everything else, right? And we got talking about driving, like, can you imagine driving a semi down this place? Like the traffic there is unbelievable. It really is.

And there's, what do you do, right? There's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do. You're in God's hands at that point. That's right. Literally. Throw on some talk radio, throw on a good podcast and just enjoy all the fingers coming at you. That's right.

Act like they're waving at you, but they're not. They're not. No. They're pissed. Oh, yeah. Yeah. betcha. Have you, have you, uh, you've hauled on the ice roads, haven't you? I did do a season on the ice road, yeah. What was that like? Um, this will probably surprise you. Um, of all the kinds of

trucking I've done, that was easily the most boring job I've ever had. Just because of speed and safety and, yeah, I'm, I do like safety for sure. I think it has a place, but the safety up there is insane. It's over the top. And also, like you said, the speed that when you're going loaded up to the mines, you're allowed 25 kilometers an hour until you get to the halfway point, which is called Lockhart Lake. Then you're allowed to do 30 kilometers an hour for the final half of the trip. So if you're listening to slow down to 30 kilometers an hour and see how fast you're going, man. Yeah, and do it for 17 hours. 17 hours?

Imagine driving to Edmonton at 25 kilometers. is an hour. That's what we're doing. So how far is it? How it's about 225k's to divek yeah. So what do you do? Just camp out on the ice? You can camp at or just put it on autopilot and go for a nap. You can camp at the halfway point Lockhart Lake. There's a big there's a camp there you can go in get supper, you can park there or you can park at the mine. They want you to park at lock hard but what I would always do is I'd go all the way 17 hours up sleep there and then you've got an 11 hour day coming back because when you're empty you can do 60 which after doing 25 for a day feels like your Mario Andrety man it seriously it's like almost too much it's scary

serious holy shit yeah yeah so it was I don't know it was a good experience I don't know that I'd do it again maybe if I had my own truck but I wouldn't do it as a driver wouldn't do it as driver no no because you're supposed to get rich but you don't just like most other kinds of trucking they they tell you promises and it never comes through yeah never comes through so there's one big company up there that I won't name like if you look it up you'll you'll know who it is but they're probably listening this podcast right now saying yeah you won't name that's right but but But they kind of control it now. And yeah, the rates have just gone down a lot.

So it's not, you would make more money here as an oil hauler than you would on the ice road. And you'd have 10 days off here a month versus two. You get two days off a month? The way the permits are there, they let you work every day. 16 hours is legal. They will let you work every day as long as you take every 15th day off. Oh, man. You want to talk about being out in the book?

going a little catty. That's right. How do you survive that? I don't know. How do you survive that with the old talk radio or something to get you through it? What are you doing in the truck for that one? Well, there was, I did have talk radio. There's XM because you don't get any radio stations out past Yellowknife.

But head XM, there's a couple of stretches there where even you can't get satellite radio along the line. But what everyone was doing then, I don't know what they do now. But once you get into a big lake, like for instance, McKay Lake, it's about three hours to cross. You just get one of those, you know, those old like flip-up DVD players with the TV built into it. Put her on the dash. You're only got 30. If you bump anything, it's not like you're doing any damage anyways. That's right.

Yeah. And it's so funny because of the way, just from the pressure of the trucks driving over the ice all the time, the you as the road as the season gets on the ice gets more and more stressed it's safe the guys come out and flood any big cracks like they do at the rink or whatever right any any damage they look after but just the pressure of all the trucks driving on it you will get like big chunks of ice like the size of a suitcase and they'll like spit up onto the surface of the road while you're driving yeah it'll like come up behind someone or come up you know 50 yards ahead of you because of the wave or whatever rain, so you just dodge it and keep on going.

It sounds sketchy, but they wouldn't let us do it if it wasn't safe. It looks insane, but... Did you ever catch that on a video? You should have had Snapchat and that. I never seen it, but you do see little like pops of snow and stuff. So what they do, the greater comes along. Oh, it's a big 50-pound chunk ice in the way. So he blades it off to the side of the road.

And then it snows and fills that hole in with snow. So you're driving along, driving along, watching the TV on the dash and you drive into like a divot boom TV goes flying your lunch goes flying coffee's everywhere

a couple of choice words oh yeah oh man yeah that was that was insane so do you just like buy a full set of the Gilmore girls or something and just like

man I got 17 hours I'm gonna power through seasons one through eight of this and something like that yeah I don't know what was your go-to What did you? Well, what I was doing, what I did for a while, I did regional in Western Canada with a Super B flat deck. So we hauled anything, we held basically from Canora, Ontario, west to the coast. And we went everywhere. So I hauled anything from lumber to steel to shingles. It was kind of you name it. So I was hitting truck stops pretty much every day. And if you actually want some cheap movies, truck stops are not a bad place because you can just go. So they have like the three for three for, three for, five or something, you know, you go and pick it up with the Flying J.

So I actually had a quite a collection. And Flying J down here in Edmonton, they got a great movie selection. That's right. No joke. Sherwood Park. Check it out. So what? You're like, oh my goodness, they got what in?

And you're just like, that's it. Yeah, because I'm not picky. It's like, whatever. It's just something to pass the time. You're probably a better movie connoisseur than anyone out there. Maybe used to be. I don't know. I'm not a big TV guy now.

We don't have TV at the lodge, so. So you read, you drink? You just, you smoke? No, not really. I mean, I do when I'm drinking. Yeah? Yeah, but it's like whatever. Yeah, yeah.

So, I don't know. I stay busy. I fish. Do you enjoy that when you go up north and, like, technology is just pretty much useless? Yeah, like, we do have Wi-Fi there, which is actually nice. Like, that would be a long time to be completely disconnected. But it is, yeah, it's nice not having no TV and, you know, basic. Like, we eat good meals, but, like, as far as snacks and stuff go, that's all pretty basic.

It just kind of goes to show you how little you need to get along. As long as you've packed enough Pilsner. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I'd hate to see what that plane looks like. One little duffel bag and then the back is just green. That's right, eh? It's actually kind of sad because all I do drink, his pill, but up in the territories, nobody touches it. So you go buy at the liquor store,

and it's probably been sitting there for like two years. It's still taste good. It's not bad, but it's no, it's not like it's from dates, that's for sure. You just bought a plane. I did, yeah. Is that something you've been doing? Like, you've been just, did you just, yeah, screw it. I'll go buy a plane or you've been flying lots? I got my license. I finished my training in June of May of 2016. So I've been flying as a licensed pilot since then. June 2016. So essentially four years.

Yeah, I guess. Go over four years. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. What was the first time by yourself? Because I assume at the beginning, you're flying with somebody, just like you would.

But eventually they've got to go, here's the keys. We'll see you later. Yeah. Don't crash. Exactly, yeah. So I think it's a minimum, 25 hours of dual instruction so you're with an instructor and then there's I think how many hours 25 of dual you you here so you need a total of 45 hours in an airplane minimum to get a pilot's

license 25 of those need to be dual and 15 need to be solo so you've got to make you up your 10 hours some other you know way yeah doesn't that seem not like a whole lot it took me two years to do it So I mean, So it is a lot. Yeah, when you're paying $165 an hour, you know. Oh, geez.

Yeah. Okay. Like, I don't know. It's, it, honestly, I thought it would be more too.

When you say it like that, oh, it's 45 hours. Oh, you could bang that out in 10 days. Well, yeah, like I just, I go,

well, for four, for an hour, he's not making you, okay, we're going to pull up, and then we're going to land. And then we're going to pull up,

and we're going to land. Like, he doesn't do that. He makes you take off, and then you fly a little bit? Yeah, you fly around, you practice stalls and like emergency management. A lot of it is like engine outs and stuff like that.

But there is like what they call circuits. So you land, go up, turn around, come back, you know, touch and goes. Do that 10 or 11 times in an hour and that there's your hour. Okay, so let's go. Let's fast forward then. You get through all that. Now it's your first time. Here's the case.

I assume the heart had to been just a, hammering man because it's no joke right like it's up to you you're a thousand feet in the air so but at the same time so fucking cool yeah it was it was cool that's something that you never forget where did you fly i got my license at border city aviation in lloyd but where was your first solo trip like could you fly only so far from there or yeah usually as a student like you'll just do kind of local stuff um a lot of it was just circuits so just right there at the airport um i did do one of my cross-country trips. You've got to do a couple of cost countries.

One of them for sure has to be alone. It's been a few years. But yeah, at least one. I went up to St. Paul, over to Vagerville, and back to Lord. Landing in St. Paul or just over, over and back? Land, get off the runway, come back on, take off. Land at Vagerville.

Same thing. Back to Lord. What's a St. Paul airport like? It's quiet. It's quiet. Can you get Betsy to move? I need to land this thing. That's right.

Yeah, no, it was something. Yeah, I haven't been back since. So you bought a plane? I did, yeah. So where are you, you just want a tour? Yeah, I mean, the kind of flying I want to do is, again, it rolls into fishing. I want to ice fish with it, and I want to put floats on it and take it to lakes and take it up to the lodge and do all this. And, yeah, you just can't really do that with a rental.

They don't put skis on them. And, I mean, if you're going to be taking a plane off an airport, it may as well be yours, right? I mean, I don't know. What is it, what is a plan? I feel like I'm a complete, nutter moron on this. Somebody's going, yeah, we know. But what is the plane cost? Is that a big, like, we talk in like 100 grand?

We talk in 20 grand. Yeah, again, there's so much that comes down to what you want, and they always say to, like, fit it to your mission. So if you want to fly to work in Calgary every day and, able to make it back through the rains and whatever blah blah storm clouds and whatever yeah you're probably more in that 125 plus range but if you just want to dink around like me and fly around when the sun's out um you can get into it for honestly anywhere from 15 to 50 000 no shit yeah yeah it's reasonably affordable if you want a plane with duct tape on the wings 15 grand here you go i got something for you that's right here comes college

That's right. Yeah, so. But yeah, no, mine was definitely lower end on the cost, but that's what I want. It makes it more like a motorcycle or something, then something a guy can afford to dink around with and not do anything crazy with, but. I shouldn't say you're the only guy.

I do know one other guy with a plane, but it's just not very commonplace. Dad had his pilots license. Right. But it seemed like everybody back in the day had their pilots. I would agree, yeah. Now it's, Wow, how many people you know that have a pilot license?

You probably know a couple. Well, I know a couple, but they're all involved there, right? As far as buddies, I don't think anybody. No. We all think it's crazy. You're doing what? Well, Saturday, I'm just going to grab on my plane. I'm going to fly over here and land it on the water.

Yeah. Fucking insane. Try it out anyways. Yeah. Probably try a new style of fishing where you just dangles a line out and I'll troll along that way, see what I can get your fish. Yeah. If I can catch one out of the airplane.

Hell, I might come to watch that and just film it. Yeah, there you go. Try a new, you probably have a couple new forms of wakeboarding behind that. I probably already done that before. Jump in, we'll try her out. How about, you know, I think it was, hmm, could have been Lance, can have been Darcy.

Somebody told me that you've been to, and now I'm going to torture this. Driven all night to get to not a Led Zeppelin concert, but something along that lines. Allison Chains. Allison Chains. And then you've been to Tomorrowland. Yeah, kind of the full spectrum there, right?

I kind of like that. I enjoy the, as I look at both my hands, I enjoy the full spectrum. But that's opposite hands. Yeah. I mean, I guess the only further you get is maybe like you went to a piano, you know, opera house. Yeah, never been there, no.

I bet she you'd enjoy it. Yeah, probably. Hell, I probably enjoyed it, as long as they sold the Cold Pilsner and probably sit there and let tickle the ivory, right? Yeah, see you there. Yeah. What was tomorrow land like? It's, it was nuts.

We, 2013, we went there. It's a, well, yeah, it's a huge music festival in Belgium. They, at the time, they sold 200,000 tickets for a three-day event. So it was 200,000 people there over three days. And they got about 15 stages going. They got every kind of electronic music that you could imagine. I don't know. It was just kind of something for everybody.

And yeah, it was nuts, man. It was cool enough that we went back the next year and did it again. Wow, that was like the PG version. There's only like 200,000 people. air and like insane it was nuts yeah it was like just oh light shows and you know what drew you to go to tomorrow on what was it like it's not like you drove over to regina and went to craven right like and did that no you flew across the world and like what was it about tomorrow on oh man i because they put out a big after movie every year after it.

And I think we just, a few of us seen it on YouTube because I think there was four of us that went. And we just were like, man, we should check that out. And it's so hard to get tickets there. Like in 2013, the first year we went, they sold 200,000 tickets in less than one second. Completely sold out. One second. We had like four laptops and three phones. going and we got through on one of those devices to buy four tickets for us think about that it was

nuts that hurts my brain i know yeah it was crazy so and we'd never done anything like that before we were just you know i don't really listen to a bunch of electronic music anymore but we were just getting into it at the time and yeah it was nuts it blew my mind honestly it was crazy what was what was the part that blew your mind the most? Was it just the people? The people and the setup? Yeah, there's like, you know, pyrotechnics, I guess, and just like lights and noise. It was like insanely loud and just the party. Like I was 23 at the time. So I was, you know, ready to, ready to go. What was, you know, we've all been to a very good party. Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay. gone to the house party you've gone to the concert you've gone to a good party everybody has

a good party boom something pops up in your mind yep Kevin Ritchie's house grade 12 couldn't get in the house here in Lloyd fantastic shout it to Kevin Ritchie if you ever listen to us right it was it was fantastic right but somehow I just know that is not tomorrow land yeah paint a picture for me as a guy who will never go to tomorrow land but has seen the after hours video of like the shenanigans that go there and I'm like, holy man, this seems insane. Right. Yeah.

It's, um, oh, man. The first year we went, we were, there's like camping on site and they put up rows of like identical tents. It was like, because it's all like, I don't know. It was like a forest sort of themes. It was like mushrooms and ferns and shit on these tents. All of them, there's like probably 10,000 of them there. for people to stay in and they're all identical.

So you've got to remember your row and you got to do this while you're loaded too. You come back, you've got to remember what row you're in and you got to remember how far down you are. So like you get back, I got back one night with Ryan golfers. We were staying in one tent

and there's this guy passed out and I go, hey man, like you're in my tent and you've got to get out of here and he's got a French flag. It doesn't speak English. He's like, oh, it's like, oh, it's like, gets up, runs away, leaves his shoes, he leaves, and I start looking around. It was his dead. It wasn't mine. I was

the next row over. So I ran this guy out into the bush for nothing. So hopefully you made it back. I don't know what happened. But just the people, man, it was people from all over the world. A lot of Europeans, the Belgian residents get priority. They get like an extra 10 minutes to buy their tickets because it's held in Belgium. So a lot of Europeans, I mean, like I was single at the time, there was some girls there. Like it was, it was insane. It was just, it was all just over the top. Imagine, I don't even know how to put it into words. You know, you're a guy who's, who's, you know, we were talking before we started, you, you've, you've gone different places. You freak out in one place where is like my dream place to get to.

Which I wanted to do, and then it just hasn't happened yet. But you've been to New Zealand. I have been, yeah. A couple times. Twice, yep. Mm-hmm. And you just, how did you pick the spot? Did you just, yeah, we're going to go here, or did you have a connection there?

Well, how it started a guy that I guide with. He went there, came back, we guided the season together, and he was like, man, it's nuts. Like, you'll love it. because obviously, well, maybe not obviously, but there's a lot of rivers there that are full of some very big, very nice trout. And me being a fisherman and him too. You went to New Zealand to go fishing?

Of course he did. Yeah, of course. So he's like, you got to check it out. And not only that, it's just awesome. People are great. It's pretty similar to Canada culture-wise. And Amber, my girlfriend, she wanted to go too. and we're like, well, let's check it out.

And it turns out it's actually really easy for Canadians under 35 to get a visa to go there. So we pretty much just paid the 200 bucks. And we were there. So I should do it here in the next less than a year, 34. Yeah, do her, man. After next year, it's going to be a pain in the ass. That's right. Yeah.

How long did you go to New Zealand for at a time? We went there for, I want to say, five months from, January to May the first time came back went guiding and then pretty much went straight back my dad lives in Thailand in the winter so stopped there on the way spent 10 days in Vietnam and went back a second time did you fish in Vietnam oh yeah what's fishing like in Vietnam it's not it's not like here it's not like I wouldn't even chalk it up to little fishing lake it's pretty quiet like there's a lot of people right and there's no limits so there's not really a lot of fish left what do you little babies that little tiny fish

there's some i i honestly didn't do a bunch of fishing in vietnam but we fish in thailand all the time and a lot of that is just stocked ponds where they'll stock them with tilapia which you can get at super store they spawn like three times a year they're really prolific once they're in somewhere you can't clean them out so we we fish like that quite a bit there go back to new zealand for me I'm bouncing you everywhere. The lizard's probably like, man, this is hard to fall. You're in New Zealand. You're in New Zealand for five months.

You work? The first time we went, we didn't really work a whole bunch. So what the hell did you do for five months? Drive around, fish, check some stuff on. It's an island. Man, I thought the same thing. From the north tip of the North Island, there's two main islands in New Zealand. From the north tip of the North Island to the south tip of the South Island is 1,600 kilometers. Oh, okay, okay

The farthest you can be from the ocean On either island is 120 kilometers I thought, man, we're gonna have this case in a week This is gonna take no time at all Until you go there and the mountains and the hills And like you're not doing a You're not doing 110 kilometers an hour anywhere in New Zealand You're doing more like 40

Beautiful Oh insane Like you think like Banff or Jasper is Crazy. Not even, man. The mountains are just so much more rugged, so much more. It's insane there. It's beautiful. So it brings me back. So you went five months without working. So you just tour around, enjoy life. Toured around a bit. Yep. I did end up getting, because again, I'm a truck driver and I was like, well, maybe I could do some driving over here. And I ended up getting my New Zealand class five, which is equivalent to Canadian class one. and I hauled some grapes for the wine harvest over there because New Zealand produces a lot of wine.

So you're hauling grapes. How was that? It was nuts. You haul it in an end dumps. So they just, the harvesters kind of come and shake them off the vine and spray them into your thing. But a lot of them are into the bin,

but a lot of them are broken. So it's, they move around quite a bit. It's quite watery. Grapes? Yeah, you need a sealed end gate so they don't leak out of the back. And it's really,

it's like hauling water. in an open trailer. You've got to be very easy on the brakes. You can't accelerate very fast. Yeah. Yeah. While you were driving that, were you going,

well, this is one for the resume. Yeah, that's right. I did think that. I was like, maybe that would be interesting to someone at home.

Did you try a couple of the grapes? Did you hop over the back and? Oh, man, I ate grapes until I started to look like a grape. How good were they, were they compared to our grapes? There's,

well, there's wine grapes. And then there's table grapes like we eat. Wine grapes all have a lot more sugar in them. So that alone makes them, I don't know, I think, taste better because there's just a lot more flavor there. And they're not like as watery. But they're insane, man.

Straight off the vine. I've never, like I'm from Saskatchewan. I never had grapes in the vine. And we have potatoes and meat. That's right. That's what we eat. Yeah. Yeah.

Wipe a steer out in the fall time. That's it. Yeah. You ever think of moving back here? To the Lord? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I love the community here and I love, you know, I like going to the rink, he and everybody, I like all that stuff, but there's just, I don't know if there's a whole

lot for me here. Like, I'll never haul oil again. Those days are behind me and you found what you like. You like the touring, the guiding the. Yeah, I guess I just kind of. I don't know. I just try to make it so I don't have to work my ass off to make it. You know, I try to, not that I'm lazy. It's just I'm, I just don't want to sit and haul oil and then be 50 and, you know, I don't know what I'm trying to say. I just don't know that there's much for me here.

I get what you're saying. I think a lot of people would like that. But it goes back to the thing I have on the wall, right? Like, it's a quote for. from Joe Rogan podcast. Mm-hmm. It says, nah, now I got to turn around. It says,

whatever time you have a tech like you're trying to save the world. And what he was talking about was chasing your dream. Mm-hmm. For Joe Rogan, he started to his comedian, and,

you know, he works his way. And now he's getting, you know, like a hundred million dollars to do a freaking podcast, which just blows my mind. Right.

And they get talking about, you know, if you were to do that at 50, right? He goes, well, if I did it now, because he's 50

or he's 50, two or three. He's like, it wouldn't work. And the woman's like, well, why? And he's like, well, I got kids. I got a wife. I got bills. I got all this stuff.

Right. Which makes me have to sit and a Sammy and work 12 hours, 16 hour of days, and go back home and do it over and rinse and repeat because I need that income coming in. And when you need that coming in, you can't see around the problem because the problem is just like crashing on.

you every single day. Right. Need to get out there and make the money. Yeah. So I definitely almost, well, I did get sucked in for a while and then just started doing this and it's, yeah, it's been good. It's been kind of refreshing and everyone that I work with up north has, it's kind of cool to see that because it's you just meet people who are kind of of the same mindset. It's like I don't really, not lazy. Don't get me wrong. I do like a, you know, 12 hour day. Like I'd like driving and hauling whatever but yeah I just don't want to it's the type of work is what you're after right that's right yeah I think yeah yeah guaranteed I mean God I kind of want to see the northern lights up north though they're nuts man it's colors the colors dancing blues purples yellows reds

whole sky moving over the swirling around it's insane it's nothing like you've ever seen here it's great can have 50,000 Canadian is hauling ass up there this year. That's right. We can't go anywhere else. Yeah, hopefully you come up. We didn't really operate this year, so we need somebody up there. Are you excited?

You're excited to get back up there? Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. It's great. It's nice to have a breather, but it comes up fast. Like, we'll be back there before I know it, so. Like, you're on the bird. Where do you fly to Hamilton?

Fly from Yellowknife. But where do you, do you drive to Yellowknife? I drive there, yeah, just because I got, quite a bit of shit. Quite a few of the guys fly, but I don't like, I like the drive. How far of a drive is Yellenay from here? It's about 1,800 kilometers from Lloyd. Yeah, that's a haul. Yeah. I used to do it in a day back when I was 19 and living there, but I don't do it in a day anymore. That's too much. What is the, what is, what is like the major thing when you come back from there to here?

I sound like a complete moron to people up way up north, but I feel like you're coming back to civilization, even though that's not true. What's the one thing down here that you're like, oh, hell yeah, I get to do this? Well, there's really nothing, because we get separated from Yellowknife because we're 200 kilometers away, right?

The fishing lodge is a long ways. So even coming back to Yellowknife is a huge, like, culture shock, which sounds crazy because Yellowknife is not a place where you get culture shocked. But, you know, just being able to go to like Tim Hortons or, you know, liquor store or, you know, whatever, go to Walmart. It's like you kind of feel bushed if you stay up there for three and a half months and it's like. And that's what you do is stay up there for three and a half months. Yeah, yeah. What day of the three and a half months do you just know that you're going to start going a little batty?

We call it strange hog. We fly up there in the beginning of June Guaranteed by the 1st of August Like people are starting to get a little snippy With each other Oh yeah Yeah because it's a lot right It's how many I should have went deeper into this

Now you got me thinking about this Like how many people are at the camp Staff? Yeah About 15 15 of you Living up there for 100-ish days Yeah 100 and 110 yeah

And how are off their new guests coming in? Every six days. So you get a new group of rich people coming up there because this isn't a, this isn't like you pay 200 bucks and get on the train and what you're there. That's right.

Yeah, no, it's pretty, it's pretty, uh, you got to be committed for sure. How are, how are those guys? How are your clientele? Are they awesome? Are they like, or is there certain ones that are great? Some weeks are longer than others, for sure. Well, I mean, that's, but you can have,

that's anyone's job yeah right you get you get certain but overall it's good overall they're great guys yeah yeah it's one thing that's surprised well no no i won't say that a lot of guys are a little bit inexperienced but i only say that because i fish 200 days a year i live for it and a lot of these guys have real jobs and lives and stuff right and they only fish six days a year and that's with me so it's it's easy for me to be a little bit too critical and i i i i do remind myself of that. Oh, you didn't know about the 27-inch freaking lure? What are you been doing?

Yeah. And they really, you know, it's just a vacation for them. So as long as they're having fun, then it's all good, right? It's, that's really the most important thing. Have you had anyone out there that you're like, holy crap, that's so-and-so from so-and-so-and-so. I haven't taken, I better think here, I don't think I've taken anyone like famous or anything like that. No, no. Just a lot of it's, you'd be surprised.

Like some guys are not super loaded. They're just, they take a week off every year and that's what they spend their money on. Yeah, they like going remote and fishing and getting some big fish and everything else. Yeah, yeah. Some of them are pretty blue collar, honestly, like comparable to people you'd meet here for sure. You want to talk about blue collar. I saw, maybe a red collar, I saw a picture today of you with a deer strap to the front of your hood and a camper on the back. And I went, I thought I'd only see that in Wisconsin.

I remember driving by that and being like, what the hell is that? Yeah, yeah, no, that definitely happened. Anything and everything. You know, we talk a lot about your travels in the fishing, but you're hunting and, you're hunting. escapades are pretty funny too. Like, I mean, you just, you had no room. You didn't want to jam the deer in the...

Basically, yeah, what it was, I was up hunting. I was moose hunting in the late season, so this is middle of, towards the end of November, up north of Paradise Hill in the Bronson Forest. And I woke up, it wasn't, I can't remember why, but I decided not to hunt the last night, moose hunting. I was going to drive back to,

turtle ford country and hunt some deer because I had to work the next day. So I drive back and I was staying in a three quarter ton with the truck camper on the back. Like you said, drive back, not thinking, end up shooting a pretty nice deer and walk back to the truck to go drive over to it and load it. And it's like, shit, there's a truck camper. Didn't even think of it until I got back to the truck. You're too damn excited. Yeah, I was like, what am I going to do now? So I ended up dragging it over those cages that they put around old wellhead, so nobody runs them over.

There's like little rectangle things. I drove to a lease and nose the bumper up against one of these cages and basically wrestled the deer up onto the hood and tied it down with some cord I had. You know, that would have been a great video. You should have, I mean, nobody's ever going to think of this, but you're like, this is probably the most ridiculous thing I've done in my life. I should probably videotape it. Like that's, there's this guy out there, freaking. Yeah, man. He was an act for sure.

So. How about hunting? Where, where, you know, up north do you go hunting as well then? Or are you just around here? Because you said you're a fisherman, if you were to put it, you're a fisherman who's a hunter. Yeah, a fisherman who hunts. Yep. So we don't hunt up there at all, no.

It's different in the North Forest Territories. It's not like a reserve, but the native people there have kind of like the rights to it. It's not a real reserve, but kind of in a way. And there's not really that much to hunt there anyway. There's not that many moose. There's almost no caribou left. So, yeah, just don't do it.

So what's the predominant wildlife you see up there? Bears. Bears and moose are reasons. common, but not as much as the bears. See lots of those. Black or like grisly? Blacks, yeah. No gris there.

For some strange reason, there's gris north, southeast, and west of there, but not there. I heard a story about you today. Did you? I'm about holding a door back from a bear. Oh, no. Is that true? It is true, yeah. You sure?

Pretty sure. Because I almost called bullshit when I heard it. I'm like, oh, yeah. Yeah, holding the door and the bear's scratching. Well, let's have it. Yeah, it was the week off, how they used to schedule it. This is at the fishing camp? This is at the fishing lodge about three years ago.

So there's a cabin that the native community, there's a small village at the south end of the lake of about 500 people. And Laclamard is about 80 kilometers north to south. So they built a cabin at the far north-west corner of the lake to stop out overnight on their way to their caribou. hunting grounds in the wintertime. So there's a cabin up there, which we use quite often just for shore lunch. And if it's raining, jump in there, jump out of the rain, blah, blah.

So we decide that we're going to spend the night, me and someone else, we go up there. Because this is the, oh, again, yeah, this is the week off that they scheduled. So there's no guests. It's just the guides. And so we go up there, two of us, cook up some pierogies, catch a couple fish, you know, it's all good. go to bed 6 o'clock in the morning

I wake up and there's something like brushing and it's funny they put a door like a real door on the cabin but they didn't put a door knob so there's just like a hole for the doornaub to fit into and I like am looking at that

and it's starting to get light and that hole just turns black you can't see outside anymore oh okay there's no door lock obviously like it doesn't latch so they've just got a chunk of hockey stick about six inches long nailed to the door jam with a nail so you can turn it sideways keeps the wind from blowing it open I'm looking at that hockey stick and he

pushes on the door and like bends that nail half open thankfully I had a gun with me so I jump up out of bed in my underwear slam the clip in it and go and put my arm up against the door and this bearer still doesn't know that we're in there and he gets up, we've seen the tracks from the mud on his paws later, he gets up and starts like pushing on it like this, pushing me back, trying to get in. So I start hammering on the door, and peer through the hole, and he's backed off, he's on the deck now. So I open the door and he kind of somersaults back, scream at him, and he takes off.

I didn't know what, I'm glad he took off because I would have to shoot him. I'm glad I didn't have to. so it's like oh wow that was crazy so go back to bed 15 minutes later there's a little gap in the plywood beside my head where they put the walls on and I look and there's like four claws coming through the wall coming at me he's trying to pull the piece of sheet of plywood off me pound on the door again or pound on the wall and he takes off and he never came back he came back came back I couldn't believe it came back and Right beside your head. Right beside my head. I could see his claws coming through the plywood. I'm sorry, Lammer.

When you told me, I was like, I don't know. Holding the door. Seems like it's straight out of a movie. It was, man. It was insane. It's another story, eh? Well, well, that's what you live for, right? You live for a good story.

That's right. We all live for a good story. Guaranteed. Yeah. Stories in Pilsner, that is. Amen. So you're in New Zealand. And COVID-19 breaks out.

Right. So, yeah, the second time we went there, which was this last time, we showed up in late November or maybe early December. We pretty much worked the entire time. I drove. I was working for a guy that I met the time, the grape harbors before. I was hauling, I was driving from the very top of New Zealand down to Auckland and another town, Hamilton, hauling produce, watermelon, blah, blah. This, all this COVID stuff starts happening and it was like almost surreal.

Like I think everybody could agree, but it was just such a crazy reality of what was happening then. And flights were getting canceled and things were happening. And, you know, the Canadian government put out a notice to Canadians, get home, we need you back. and we were in the middle of the grape hauling season. I told my boss, I was like, hey, like, I hate to skip out on you and leave you short, but like, if I don't go now, I don't know that I'll be able to go. And he's like, he was pretty understanding.

Yeah, take off, go. So we left on super short notice and flew from Wellington up to Auckland and made it home. Yeah, flew from Auckland to Los Angeles up to Calgary and drove home from there. What was the airports like? When we were still in New Zealand, Wellington and Auckland, it was, this was just before the crash. So it was actually like packed.

There was people everywhere trying to get home, doing the same as us. And yeah, I remember the first time I saw a person wearing a mask was in Wellington Airport. And I, you know, just shake your head like, what are you doing? Like this is strange and like obviously now it's par for the course, eh? Yeah, I'll always remember that. We were like trying to check in and I seen some woman walking around wearing a mask. Yeah, it became the new normal, I guess. It's pretty, what do you think of it now?

Because I mean, like, now that it's, I don't know, it's, it's the new normal, right? Like back then, I mean, sitting here, it was not. We're in the Saskalta finals and the games get canceled. Think about that. Yeah. Like, think about that. We're supposed to be going to St. Walberg of all places.

And they're telling us you can't play because people are going to be there. You're like, the heck is. No, when COVID knows better, it don't want to go there, right? It doesn't want to go to home on Saskatchewan, right? Like, I mean, but that is, that's exactly fact. Yeah. yeah I mean it's it's nuts and you know it's obviously gotten as time has gone on it's been harder and harder to keep people on board with it like you can you talk to anyone and there's

more and more people saying oh it's a hoax it's uh and I think that's just because it's been too long you know everybody was on board with it right away so I don't really know what to say about it it's uh it's hard because in the beginning everybody was on it and then things come out and now you have information coming from every which way saying it you name it they're saying it that's right but the longer you go and have things like well you can go to Walmart and get groceries and there are people running everywhere some of them supposedly you're supposed to all have masks but you don't all have mass no and then you tell a rink where you could spread people out.

No, you can only have this amount of people in there, and it's as big as Walmart. Right. Somebody's going to pick me apart on that, but you know what I mean. Yeah. And you're like, but over there, they're doing that. Why can't we, right?

Doesn't it function with the same rules? It's a disease. It's a, right? Yeah, a lot of it doesn't make sense. A lot of it, but that's more than likely. The people at the very top don't know how to handle what the hell is going down. Yeah, yeah.

Guaranteed. It's maybe it's some complacency or, I don't know. Maybe they're sick of it too, trying to like make everything work. I think a lot of it's just these crazy like blanket regulations in it. They just, there's that overlap where it doesn't really make sense. Oh, no, it's trying to paint everything with one brush. Yeah. And then you go to Hillmont, Saskatchewan and you've painted it with the same brush.

You're like, we're Helmont. Yeah, no, we social disdistance. at all times like just let us have our bar back open and and let the kids skate and we'll be happy that's right you just take your crazy and go somewhere else that's right right like we didn't have to follow anyone else that's exactly it would be going on that's right yeah yeah and that's yeah that's it man like you like you said it's it's just going to be the longer it drags on the the fewer and fewer people are going to be on board with it because what's you know when are we going to go back to normal and what do we need to go back to normal I don't know

I understand that people are getting sick and that sucks. But it's like, yeah, I don't know. I don't want to say that that's not important. But it's like, I don't know. When do we go back to normal? I don't know what normal is anymore. I know, right? You know what's crazy about it is, would it start March?

Mm-hmm. We're in a month seven. Right. Like seven. Like, holy crap. Mm-hmm. Like that is a long ass time Tell me about it

You know I can only You know We were talking at the start You were saying With uh It sounds crazy that you think about fishing When you come home

You know and you're thinking about it But right now they're like impacting senior hockey Well you can see from the room I enjoy some hockey And to think Hillman may not have senior hockey this year because of this just absolutely blows my mind that you can't have a group of guys

go and play a game of hockey and it hurts my brain. Right. Yet, I don't know. Man, that's a dark rabbit hole. Oh, man, yeah. There's no easy answer. I guess we'll see what comes of it, but it just sucks that everybody's kind of sitting around waiting

for something to change. and there just doesn't really seem to be any parameters or guidelines of what that's going to be. You're just excited to get back up north where they probably think about this less than anyone. That's right. Well, I mean, we didn't operate this year because the border is closed. So hopefully next year is a different story. You know, that border closing. Think about that.

Like that is almost hard to fathom as well. You know, and saying that, people are still crossing it, though. They are, yeah. You know, like you can still go across border. Mm-hmm. I don't really know the ins and outs, but I think if you fly, it's supposed to be easier. There's supposed to be ways around it.

Like, I don't know. It's that self-quarantine for two weeks that kills someone. Yes. I mean, doesn't actually kill someone, but you know what I mean? Like, how do you take a week vacation and then? And then turned into three. Yeah. Right?

Like stuck at home where you can't see anyone? That'd be brutal. Oh, my God. I had to do it when I came back from New Zealand, but I just went to the lake, so it wasn't bad. I could fish, but I mean, if you're sitting at home? You quarantined by fishing? Yeah.

Of course you did. Guaranteed. Where's one place? I was wondering this. I interviewed Judy Reeves. She was in the perfect storm. Was out on fishing boats out on the East Coast, and West Coast, for that matter.

You know, when I heard you love fishing so much, have you ever thought about, like, ocean fishing, deep sea fishing? Like, are you like... Like commercial fishing? I don't know. Sure. No. No.

I like it to be fun. So when it's not fun, it's not good. Do you go fishing on the ocean, though? Well, in New Zealand, I did. We're a long ways from the ocean here, so I don't really get the chance. Yeah, the grass is an ocean out here. That's right. What's the biggest fish he caught down in?

No, not the biggest. what is the most unique fish you cut down in New Zealand? Hmm. You had to have cut. There was some weird stuff that I didn't know what it was. Like, I don't know. I'm pretty good at identifying stuff. But there was a few where I was like,

I don't even know what this is. But they've got like the snapper down there are kind of different than the ones they get in BC. They're like a little bit more pink. We've got a great big, almost like flat forehead. And I don't know, it's hard to describe. They're a very odd-shaped fish, very deep-bodied and very compressed. And those are kind of crazy.

Cut a couple, got a shark. Cut a shark? Yeah. Yeah, night fishing. We were waiting to catch the ferry, actually. The ferry from the North Island to the south leaves from Wellington. So waiting for the ferry and caught a shark. So that was kind of cool.

Like, how big of a shark be talking? He was about a 36 inch. I think of like jaws and like eating your boat shark. No. We need a bigger boat. No. Nothing that impressive. No, no.

He was like a 36 incher. It's called a carpet shark. He lives on the bottom. It was like. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. He's got a shark name, but he's a puppy dog at heart. Exactly. He was just looking for a friend. I thought he'd be good eating, but he wasn't. He was terrible. You hate him? Yeah, I did.

Yeah. We were pretty limited budget. remember like that first time we went there we didn't have a lot of money so first time you went to new zealand you ate that that's what you're talking about yeah i bonged them for sure what do you taste like oh man it's you're just kind of tasteless it was a nice white meat but it was just soft and yeah it was just shitty i don't know there wasn't really much to him oh you but you know i've eaten some odd things in my time in your travels you've definitely eaten you've definitely eating some odd things.

Now, a shark off that, you know, fair. What's the most, what's some odd things you've eaten? The first time I went to Thailand, we went downtown. There's like kind of a touristy area down at the beach and the guys are down there selling grubs and grasshoppers and scorpions and crickets and all that shit. And I mean, and ants, I mean, you got to try it, right? You got to do it once. So did you try them all?

tried them all okay so you got ant grasshopper scorpion and like some kind of grubs okay and grubs and grubs okay and the grubs i don't know that i'd get them again but honestly they weren't bad weren't terrible like they'd be juicy wouldn't they well they deep fry the shit out of oh yeah so all you taste is grease yeah some seasoning salt you know i mean it might taste like rink fries i don't know what are they deep fry on a scorpion Right? Like a scorp- You said a scorpion, right?

Yeah, yeah. What the heck? They just deep-fried the scorpion? The whole thing, yeah. Honestly, of the four, that was the worst by far because it's too thick to get crunchy. It was like still juicy inside. It was just disgusting.

And, of course, us being stupid, the way it works in Thailand, you get a price for something before you get it. Because if you don't, then it costs whatever he wants. Right? Right. So we didn't.

NASC and it ended up costing, I think it was like 200 bought a piece, which is like $8, which is like, you could buy like, you could buy like four beer with that. This little bastard cost me four beer. Yeah, and it was terrible. Isn't that crazy you could just eat a scorpion? I don't know where they get them or like, I don't know. I'd like to know how that, like. Stinger off? Like, is he like flayed or something?

You keep the stinger. Like that's what you hold and then you eat the rest and rip it. it off. No shit. Brutal, man. It was insane. Wouldn't do it again. Wouldn't do it again?

Wouldn't recommend it? No. Listen to you listen to this. You travel there when the borders open up. You try a scorpion. You report back because no way can you hear that not try it. That's right.

Oh yeah. I mean, I wouldn't stop you, but I'm not going to sing the praises. What's your favorite animal to hunt? Moose. Why a moose? It's just Moose are just

kind of a solitary animal and I don't know they don't follow trails they don't they just kind of like to be alone so you can't hunt trails you can't hunt them on bait piles like you got to go in the bush

and find him and then you got you and him have to cross paths it's just kind of a one-on-one sort of game bow gun I have bow hunted I haven't

I haven't bow hunted since I started guiding because to be good with a bow, you've got to be using it all the time. When I was bow hunting, I would practice four days a week, so every second day. And I think you just kind of have to do that or else you, at least I noticed, I wasn't as good. And I don't think it's fair to an animal to throw arrows out of it that you can't hit, you know. I hope no one ever hits me in the guts with an arrow. So, so yeah, I haven't bow hunted since I started guiding, but I have bow hunted a lot. the past. That's an interesting comment.

Hit an animal in the guts with a bow and you're not dropping it. I don't think that's cool. I wouldn't want that to happen to me. That's fair. And hunting being what it is, I mean, sometimes it happens, right? But you do your best to avoid it. Put it down quick. Yeah, I don't think that you should shoot at anything unless you know you can kill it.

know you can kill it I don't know that's just me you know a moose is maybe I used to tree plant only for a very brief time but I did tree plant

and a moose is maybe the most graceful animal for its size that's seen out in the wild guaranteed like the big sucker was the only reason I heard it tree planting

like think about that I'm all in the middle of the wilderness by myself sitting there tree planning going away. There's nothing else out there. No. And the only reason I heard it wasn't because of the mom going across the front of me.

It was because of the young one bawling behind trying to keep up. Right. And I was like, what? And I looked. And the big one was like, I don't know, 20 feet ahead of me, just like. Right there. So graceful going through the bush. It's crazy.

It is. You look at a moose and he almost looks like he's made of spare parts. He had a big gangly nose. Yeah, yeah. You know, he doesn't look like he's graceful at all, but it's perfectly adapted to the places they live. I think he's a pretty animal, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah.

It's kind of nice that we got him down here. It was so rare even 10 years ago. Now they're kind of everywhere, so it's cool. What do you make of that? That there's just everywhere? Migration? I guess, yeah. Like, they've even got them, like North Dakota's even got a season now from Moose in Canada, moving down south.

So I don't know what to explain it. Some guys say it's wolves chasing them. But I don't know. I'm not sure. Have you ever hunt wolves? Never. Never. You can in Saskatchewan.

They're a big game animal. They're a big game animal. They are. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard they're tricky. Yeah, I think they're very smart. Yeah.

We used to have them. Well, they still have them. Who am I kidding? I used to live on an avage outside of Dryden. And wolves were there like coyotes are here, right? You know, at night, out of the farm. You have the coyotes, and they call them, whatever. We're not a big deal.

Like, I mean, who out here is scared of a coyote? Nobody. They're just here. Yeah. But there it was wolves. That's nuts. It is an eerie, eerie feeling. Yeah.

To wake up to the wolves howling and they're, you know, on the other side of the fence from the place. No doubt, man. Yeah, that's nuts. It's been a while since I've been to Dryden. That's out there. Would you go back? Driedon? Yeah.

Ah, you know. I loved my time in Dredden. Yeah. I had a lot of fun in Dredden. I lived with a really, really good family there. I think that probably, you know, obviously helps the memories of it. But there's something about that area. That's where I tree planted.

Something about just kind of being out in the wilderness. I mean, it's a town of city, whatever you want to call it, of 8,000, 9,000 people. Maybe it's a bit more, maybe it's a bit less. Yeah. But realistically, it isn't like it's Emmington or something, right? No. And it's secluded. Yeah.

There's nothing wrong with that. No, it's in the bush. It's actually a nice country, for sure. Oh, a beautiful lake there. Got a little bit of an ice road in the wintertime. You can skip across the lake and pop to the other side. Perfect. Yeah.

Yeah. We did some good ice fish in there. I could imagine, yeah. Yeah. No doubt. Well, I've kept you here. You know, we've been going out. it for an hour and 20 minutes.

We should do the crude master final five. Just a quick, we'll see if I can cook up five questions for you. Sure. And shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonald, if you're listening. I was going to ask you if you would take a rod or the gun, but you've already explained that you're the fisherman. So would you take a lake or the river? I'm definitely more at home on a lake

So I think I'm better at fishing on lakes But again it comes back to I kind of like getting my ass kicked Because there's more to learn So I do like fishing rivers But if I want to go somewhere and just kind of settle into Just settle into it and go and do it It's definitely a lake for sure Definitely a lake?

I kind of like the more to learn I think that's a That's something for life You just got to keep learning. Yeah. Whether you're talking about fishing, you're talking about anything. Anything, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you could take, I'm probably going to get you in hot water here,

but if you could take one person go fishing with you, who would you take? Oh, man. Bagger. I don't know. Honestly, I couldn't. Honestly, yeah, I don't know. If I had to pick one person, I think I would just rather. That's a terrible, terrible question.

I would, I, I, because I really enjoy going alone. So I think I'm most comfortable there. You enjoy going alone fishing. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. What is it about being alone that you enjoy so much? You can just go and do it and you don't have to worry about, you know, like if I take you out and we go to somewhere and then we go two hours or four hours without catching. anything just because I'm dinking around well it's like well I should get my shit together and we

should go somewhere where we can get something when it comes down to like big fish or like hard to catch fish sometimes you're only getting one bite a day in 10 plus hours right so you don't know me very well you take me anywhere and we pack up with those I'd probably just enjoy it phone don't work perfect and like I don't think this get any better I don't even have my rod in the water. It's just like, yeah. Well, maybe it would be good then. I don't know.

No pressure. That's what you like about it. That's right. And not even no pressure, not having to worry about it. Yeah, and just being able to experiment and try different things. But isn't that the fishing guide party? I guess, yeah. Because I got to assume your brothers hop in.

I mean, sure they want to catch fish, but same token. And it's like, I don't know. I've been in a fishing boat lots with the old man. And if we aren't catching anything, it's still enjoyable. Yeah, that is true. Yeah. Yeah. So I think you're right.

It's probably rubs off just from having the pressure because when you pay $4,500 for six days, you want to be catching fish pretty constantly. Yeah, yeah. I can understand. So, I mean, I guess that probably just comes home with me. If you could go fishing anywhere that you haven't been, Where do you want to go? I would really like to fish on the Tree River in Nunavit and also Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories.

Why are those two places? The tree river is full of what you call Arctic Char. So it's kind of a relative of brook trout and lake trout and things like that, Splic, things. So the Arctic Char, when they're in their spawning colors, they're dark green on top and like a fire orange belly. They're just, the spawning colors are insane on them. They're beautiful fish, really hard fighting. And Great Bear, I mean, Great Bear's just got Lake Trout,

but they're the biggest in the world, like 40, 50, 60 plus pounds. Holy crap. Yeah, it's insane. A few of my buddies guide there. I do not guide there. I'm about 200K south of there, but they get some. beautiful fish.

Have you ever thought of a guide in there? No, no, no. I like where I'm at. And, you know, the guys who come to fish with us, they're not looking for that. Because on Great Barre, you don't really get the action that we get. We can get my personal best day on Laclamart, we got 18 lake trout over 20 pounds. And we went for short lunch. So you're talking about like a six and a half hour window of like fishing.

Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty good. You know, that was awesome. So we're lucky we get some pretty good ones. Lots in that 20 to 35 pound range. I ask this of all, my guess. But if you could do this, pack of case Pilsner, sit down, talk with anyone. Who would you want to sit across from?

That's a good question. Yeah, geez, I guess it would be like maybe just someone, maybe not even anyone in particular, just someone that you could, learn something from, you know, like someone that's done something that you want to do. Like maybe a guy who has been on some into the tree river, maybe someone who's, you know, been moose hunting in the Yukon or just some, I just like interesting people, man. I don't know that I've got any one person in my mind, but I just like talking to, I just like talking to interesting people. It's cool to get a good story, I guess. Maybe that's not the answer you're looking for, but

I'm always finding curious who people find interesting. Yeah, yeah. No, nothing really off the top of my head, but there's, yeah, people who do cool stuff, I guess. Final one. Shout out to Lance and Jaden. If, now that Lance has kind of fulfilled a forward role, I'm sucking it in the hockey world.

Got to get one hockey question, him. and Jaden I should back this up it was like game four of playing with both of your siblings and geez how does this even go

Lance gets in a fight get sucker geez I can't even remember and off went the Mitz and Jaden lights a guy up or they're both lighting guys up who am I kidding your two brothers like to throw the Mitz they're fun to watch like they go now if we had

a line of callback, callback, callback, sticking you on a forward line, don't care if you're a goaltender or a defenseman. Are you the first guy in to the fight, or are you the third guy into the fight? I'm the third guy. I'm not even going to lie. Guaranteed, yeah.

No, just stand back and let it unfold, see what happens. Jane's got this. He's got two guys. It's all good. Yeah, I think it'd be Lance first, but who knows? Maybe it depends on the situation, but it wouldn't be me. Hey, man, I appreciate you coming and sitting down

and a man who never heard a podcast finally on a podcast, so that's cool. Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate you having me. Well, I appreciate you bringing me some Pilsen surgery. It's been pretty fun. Guaranteed, anytime. Cool. Well, thanks again.

No worries, man. Hey, folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time.