Latest / Outdoor Journal Radio: The Podcast / Episode 224: Northern Ontario Walleye Fishing Gets Serious
Transcript
- 0:17This episode of Outdoor Journal Radio is brought to you in part by the Invasive Species Center, protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species.
- 0:27Freedom Cruise Canada, rent the boat, own the memories, and JMB Cycle a Marine, your home for all things power sports, boats, and equipment.
- 0:48There they are.
- 0:49There they are.
- 0:52Hi everybody, welcome to the program.
- 0:54I love that on the road again.
- 0:55It's a great, I like the little version we made.
- 0:58It makes me feel good.
- 1:00As you can see, a little different setup uh for this episode.
- 1:03Nikki V will be joining me today.
- 1:05Couldn't get rid of him.
- 1:06I tried, but hey, you can keep me in the corner for so long.
- 1:09Uh Dean Taylor on the board as per usual.
- 1:12You'll be uh joining us uh in and out of the program.
- 1:15We're coming to you from uh Timmins, Ontario, because we're covering a rather uh interesting event.
- 1:21It's the Timmins Walleye Championship, which is a local event here that's been going on for a number of years.
- 1:27And uh for the next two days, the um the champions who have kind of this is all leading up all summer long.
- 1:35They've been competing in events, I think 20 or 25 events.
- 1:38Uh, I think the North Ontario Walleye Trail, I think it is, the NOWT.
- 1:43And so they um they compete to uh to see who can get the most points.
- 1:48So that the final events, which is the one that we're gonna be covering here this week, uh, we're gonna get a championship.
- 1:54And the reason we the reason we have the boat behind is a Princecraft boat because one of the lucky winners is going to take a Princecraft boat home.
- 2:02So it's not just a small little uh local tournament we're talking about.
- 2:06I think they're giving away two boats.
- 2:07Two boats.
- 2:08Two boats.
- 2:08Well, we're gonna talk about that in uh the segment later on in the program.
- 2:11First of all, let's get down to some business.
- 2:14Some business.
- 2:14Uh the business is uh these goodies that Nikki's got.
- 2:18The store.
- 2:18The adjunct store manager is come is coming to you now live from JB.
- 2:22And I gotta say, you guys have been just great.
- 2:26These, I think this might be the last one left.
- 2:29So that bad.
- 2:31I might be out of all truckers, all my whites, all the sandwich bills.
- 2:35I got my flex fits.
- 2:36You guys are loving, you're gonna really like what we have going for the new species hoodies because you just saw the final versions.
- 2:44I just got the final versions as recording three days ago.
- 2:48And um, if you like this, you're gonna love the next one.
- 2:51So stay tuned for that.
- 2:52The store shop.fishandcanada.com or fishandcanada.com, up at the top of the page, you'll see up to 50% off.
- 3:00Click there.
- 3:00That's your gateway, your portal to your next fishing sweater.
- 3:03Oh, did you like that?
- 3:05Spin on my new spin.
- 3:06Come on now.
- 3:07Uh the fish and can show now airing in its 40th season on Global Television Network, Coast to Coast to Coast, uh Sportsman's Channel and uh World Fishing Network WFN in the U.S.
- 3:17Uh 40 seasons.
- 3:18We're actually here a bit twofold.
- 3:21First of all, we're covering this event uh that I just spoke about, and we're gonna be uh getting into more detail here shortly.
- 3:27But we are also on the tail end of another shoot that we just finished in the area, and uh the two young guns of the company did their first uh solo.
- 3:38That was cool without parental guidance, may I add.
- 3:41Dean and I, if you guys remember last season, this season now, yeah.
- 3:44I guess season 40, uh the pipes to enforce some where I had a segment and Dean had a segment, and my granddad had a segment and Pete had a segment, but me and Dean never had a segment together, and now instead of a segment, we got a whole episode.
- 3:57Uh, I think you guys are really gonna like it.
- 3:58We just have some fish that I have never seen before, and I got to see them in quantity.
- 4:05So I think uh I think the audience is really gonna like that.
- 4:08Dino, how how did you find the experience?
- 4:11I thought it was good.
- 4:12I mean, Nick and I have done that um on other shoots.
- 4:16I think we aired part of it at Snoggy before.
- 4:19Um, so Nick and I have been on the boat a lot together, so it didn't feel um as new as I guess you'd expect for that to be like our first time on.
- 4:27Anyways, it was great.
- 4:28I was fortunate enough to be the lone audience member watching it all live unfold.
- 4:33So um it was great.
- 4:36All right, Lisa listener feedback in response to a podcast, uh the Northlander podcast.
- 4:42Oh, that's with uh Minister Vic Fidelli.
- 4:45Yes, sir.
- 4:46Yes, sir.
- 4:47Uh Frontier Fishing with Ryan MACD.
- 4:51What's he say?
- 4:52He says, uh, we took the polar bear express to Moussany back in the 1990s, and that trip resonates with me to this very day.
- 5:00I can uh absolutely agree with him because I did the same trip in the 80s, so uh I know what he's talking about.
- 5:08It was a while ago.
- 5:09Uh when we got off the train, it was like uh we took a step back in time in the Wild West.
- 5:14It absolutely is.
- 5:15Uh, it was a pretty wild place back in the 1990s and would absolutely love to go back someday uh to see how much it has changed.
- 5:22Well, you know what, that whole area has not changed a whole lot.
- 5:26Um it might not be exactly the way you left it, but it's not too far off from it.
- 5:31The the nice thing is that you can now access that train, uh the Polar Bear Express, um, by using this new Northlander Northlander, which which was uh off rails, if you will, for about 14 years.
- 5:45Yeah, give or take.
- 5:46So it's back.
- 5:46Uh I think it'd be a fun trip to take.
- 5:48Oh, it's great.
- 5:49But I don't know whether you could deal with it because you're kind of totally off-grid.
- 5:53Once you hit that that stretch going north on the polar bear, I think in the last few days I've been doing just five with being off.
- 6:00Either way, you know what?
- 6:00I'm gonna give you guys a little story time.
- 6:02You're gonna like this because I didn't.
- 6:04So we uh day one, Monday of that shoot we were just talking about.
- 6:08I go to help dock the boat, and I need to bend down to grab the boat.
- 6:12And my phone is sitting in this little pack I got on my chest, and I forgot to zip it.
- 6:17And my brand new iPhone 17 just went boop and I missed it by maybe a quarter inch and it fell 13 feet deep.
- 6:27I hunted it with a magnet.
- 6:29We tried with an Aqua View, it's gone.
- 6:31And you know, I'm gonna do a little rant on Apple because I paid for Apple Care and they won't cover it.
- 6:35Uh, the moral of the story?
- 6:37Zip your pants.
- 6:38No, the moral of the story.
- 6:41Zip your mercy?
- 6:43No.
- 6:45You don't need your phone.
- 6:46You don't need your phone out on the boat.
- 6:49That's the moral of the story.
- 6:50I know, but you know what?
- 6:51I did because if I didn't have that phone, we wouldn't have fixed the Garmin.
- 6:54We'd never been able to talk to Pete to find that the remote in the rod locker, Peter.
- 6:59True.
- 7:00And yeah, no, you know, I think my connectivity helps us out every now and then.
- 7:04All right.
- 7:05Um that was conservation corner time.
- 7:09That's right.
- 7:09That's right.
- 7:10You want to do it?
- 7:11I don't have it memorized, but I can give the listeners a gist.
- 7:13What's the gist of it?
- 7:14The gist of it is we need to be worried because Armadet Armageddon is coming in the form of a grass carp.
- 7:20And if you see one, get it out of the water.
- 7:22Call the MNR, report it to invasivecarp.ca.
- 7:26Get on this because they eat what?
- 7:28It's like six times their body weight or sixty times of their body weight.
- 7:3240% of their body weight daily in aquatic vegetation, and all the little fishies that you don't like, they live in those.
- 7:38And the fishies that you do like hunt in those, and if they're gone, there's no more fishies.
- 7:42So we need to be on this active conservation, get rid of these things.
- 7:46Unfortunately, the folks here in Timmins don't have to even worry about that.
- 7:49No.
- 7:50But the folks back home gotta worry about it.
- 7:53I gotta worry about it.
- 7:53Absolutely.
- 7:54You gotta worry about it.
- 7:55It's something to worry about.
- 7:56Hey Anglers, want to turn your next catch into a competition?
- 7:59Well, check out Anglers Leaderboard, the new fishing platform that lets you track your catches, join friendly competitions, enter tournaments, and see how you rank against others in your region.
- 8:10Use your phone and the photo measure board to automatically detect length and species.
- 8:16No more guesswork.
- 8:18Whether you're fishing for pleasure or to compete, ALB makes every catch count.
- 8:23What's your ALB score?
- 8:25Well, get Anglers Leaderboard today and start climbing the ranks.
- 8:29Visit Anglersleaderboard.com to learn more.
- 8:33This episode is brought to you by Sale.
- 8:35Sale is proudly Canadian and stocked with over a hundred Canadian brands you know and love.
- 8:40From rods and reels to sonars to kayaks and every last lure you've seen on the Fishing Canada show, Sale has all the gear to get you on the water.
- 8:47Drop into one of 12 stores across Ontario and Quebec and talk to the real fishing specialist or gear up online anytime at Sale.ca.
- 8:57Sale, the ultimate destination for your outdoor adventures.
- 9:01The news brought to you by, uh incidentally, uh JB, uh your outdoor superstore.
- 9:08Uh I've been saying the world's largest Princecraft Mercury dealer.
- 9:14And nobody's challenged.
- 9:15No, nobody's challenged me for it, so I'm going to stick with that.
- 9:17Although uh the folks here at JB say they are the largest in Ontario and possibly Canada.
- 9:24And by extension, because Ontario is bigger than most countries, well, no, I won't argue that you know, biggest in the world, landmass GPS.
- 9:32My argument is Princecraft, a Canadian built product.
- 9:38They're I'm not I'm not even gonna guess at this one.
- 9:41I'm gonna tell you that they sell more boats in Canada than they do any place else in the world.
- 9:47So that being said, they're the biggest Princecraft dealer in the world because the most Prince Crafts are sold here.
- 9:53So that's simple math.
- 9:54That's how I'm thinking about it.
- 9:55I like that.
- 9:56I like that math.
- 9:57All right.
- 9:57Uh, in the news, uh, lone star ticks found in Ontario.
- 10:01For those of you who are into uh following the whole tick scenario, just to set this straight, the Lone Star uh tick is not the one that we've been talking about for years that carries Lyme disease.
- 10:13That's a black-legged tick.
- 10:15This is different, and you know, I'm not gonna say it's not as dangerous, it might be worse, in my opinion.
- 10:23Really?
- 10:23Yeah, but I'll go into it and then I'll give you why.
- 10:27So if you are bitten by one of these, what happens is that you become basic, and I don't want to simplify it, but you you become allergic to red meat.
- 10:37Yeah, because Alpha Gal syndrome.
- 10:40I know an awful lot of vegetarians that would high-five themselves listening to that.
- 10:44I think, I think the Lone Star Tick is a vegan agenda and a plot, a bio-engineered vegan plot to get me to stop eating steak.
- 10:53But I'll tell you this, I would rather be sick every time I eat than forgo that.
- 10:58I can't do it.
- 10:59It's not happening.
- 11:00Dean, how should how worried should we be about this uh critter?
- 11:04I don't, I mean, at this point, I don't think it's I don't know.
- 11:08Like they found them in in small pockets of southern Ontario as of this recording.
- 11:13Um, I still don't think they're the most prominent, like uh they're not gonna spread like deer ticks, I don't think.
- 11:18Um it's just another kind of wrinkle in this whole thing.
- 11:23That's pretty much all it is right now.
- 11:24But and if I'm not mistaken to identify this one, they're more of a red burnt orange rust colored tick, if memory serves.
- 11:32Yeah.
- 11:33But um what do we got here?
- 11:35Climate change.
- 11:36Oh, climate change is why they're coming up.
- 11:38We're getting warmer.
- 11:38Well, they're moving from the whole yeah, we're getting warmer, so they're able to live here.
- 11:42That's not good.
- 11:43Uh they um are repel the you can still use your deep products that you would use for for just about any other uh insect to repel them.
- 11:53Um but once again I want to stress this this is not a Lyme disease carrying tick.
- 12:00And I don't think that this tick can lead to the public health uh crisis that Lyme disease can lead to the black legged tick.
- 12:13Yeah, because that obviously could you get more ill.
- 12:15Yep.
- 12:16Quality of life.
- 12:17I'm just wondering, the permethrin, would that work on keeping these guys at bay as well?
- 12:21Permethrin is God's gift to mankind.
- 12:24I'm currently covered in it.
- 12:26I know you every article in my clothing.
- 12:28Thank you, Pico Source Supply.
- 12:30Uh, if you are bitten by a tick, by the way, whether it's the black-legged tick or the lone star tick, uh, it's important that when you're removing it, that you're very careful.
- 12:39Use a use a pair of tweezers if you have them handy.
- 12:42Try and keep as much of the tick that you removed in a bag so that you can send it off for analysis to find out if in fact it is carrying one of these uh bacterias.
- 12:53Um because without it, it was when we got bit, it was only third, we had to do three tests at 33% success rate of its right.
- 13:01So if you have the tick, you keep it.
- 13:02You'll be way more reassured that you don't or unfortunately may do have Lyme.
- 13:08Yeah.
- 13:09Uh, if you don't have the tick, you gotta get jabbed a whole bunch, go in a whole it's not fun.
- 13:13Uh great story, Dean.
- 13:15Thank you.
- 13:16That's all available at fish and can.com, by the way.
- 13:19Uh, in the what do we got?
- 13:20Fan fan question.
- 13:22The fan question, uh Nick.
- 13:24Submitted by JMG1910 via YouTube.
- 13:28YouTube.
- 13:29It's gonna be contender.
- 13:32Is it isn't the YouTube?
- 13:33It's just contender, yeah.
- 13:34Contender it is.
- 13:35So let's see.
- 13:36JMG.
- 13:36Now, do I uh did I get uh the information right?
- 13:40Somebody was pissed at me because you were very dismissive.
- 13:43Well, I was he felt possibly dissed, not at the denial of the I believe it's Nigel.
- 13:50No, not Nigel, Nigel was a winner.
- 13:52I can't remember.
- 13:52Oh, Jesus Up Northman.
- 13:54That's it.
- 13:54That was it, M58 or something.
- 13:57If I recall, all I did was I said that it was uh You just went no you you you there you didn't give him a fair thought process and it was short, so I feel like you know he wasn't offended per se, but he just didn't like the way that it wasn't handled with the right your regular plum.
- 14:16Uh, I see.
- 14:17So maybe I could I could I could fix that now or or or make it a public apologize.
- 14:25No.
- 14:26Well, that's okay then leave it a no.
- 14:28Sorry about that.
- 14:29Whoever that back to JMG, because I haven't even read his question yet via the YouTube.
- 14:34Oh, he said This is interesting.
- 14:38Why don't you guys ever measure fish?
- 14:42It would be nice to know how big the fish are.
- 14:46Mr.
- 14:46Viola?
- 14:47Well, the floor is yours.
- 14:48I I gotta be honest with you.
- 14:50Uh earlier in our careers, Pete and I used to kind of weigh uh big fish or measure long fish on a regular basis.
- 14:57And um and that's cool.
- 15:00There's there's nothing wrong with that.
- 15:02Uh just we found now that there's really no need anymore, certainly for us.
- 15:08Not to say that there isn't for you or you or you, but for us, it's I think we've measured enough fish and weighed enough fish that we don't need to do it anymore.
- 15:18Not that we don't enjoy it, uh catching big fish, but but it's just not the same.
- 15:23No, you can pretty much eyeball it with we're pretty good at that.
- 15:27And you know what?
- 15:28We're also we did a whole episode with measuring fish with Anglers Leaderboard.
- 15:32Yes, right?
- 15:32Like, you know, but measuring fish is is great for when you really need to know or want to know.
- 15:37But I think a lot of the time when we're out on the water and we're we're we're filming and we're trying to produce the most utmost of content, the the size doesn't matter necessarily to us.
- 15:49If it looks good, it looks good.
- 15:51If it don't, it don't.
- 15:52I did matter to you guys shooting that episode.
- 15:55That was special.
- 15:57That was special, and they're gonna see why because that was a cool fish.
- 16:01Uh it was tell them, Dean.
- 16:03You want to tell them what it was?
- 16:03Give them a little hint.
- 16:04Well, we're gonna do a whole episode on that.
- 16:06Okay, all right.
- 16:06We'll we'll get to that then.
- 16:07That'll be next.
- 16:09So um, yeah, so we we we just don't do it anymore.
- 16:12But I guess we could you could if you so let us know in the comments.
- 16:18Let us know.
- 16:18Do you want us to measure or do you just I think most people I think most people are probably more prone to say, well, just eyeball it.
- 16:27Yeah, just eyeball it.
- 16:28I like that math better too.
- 16:30Alrighty.
- 16:31Uh so this uh this tournament we're here, the tournament itself, uh, the NOWT North Ontario Walleye Trail.
- 16:41Um coming it's all coming to a head, baby.
- 16:44It's coming to a head over the next two days.
- 16:45We'll find out.
- 16:46We'll be crowning two champions, actually.
- 16:48One one in each division.
- 16:50Um championship class right and the uh sportsman's class.
- 16:55And what is the difference?
- 16:57So the difference is the championship class is what I believe, as Rob explained it to me, that would be considered your pro-angler.
- 17:04So these are the people who qualified.
- 17:05Yeah, this is like you know, you had to go through a couple different tournaments, you had to win, you had to, you really had to put the work in for it.
- 17:12Not to say you didn't have a sportsman's class, but you really did for the championship class, and that's why the prize is what it is.
- 17:19And the sportsman's class?
- 17:20The sportsman's class is from what I can understand a little more, you just want to be in a wallet.
- 17:25It's a wallet tournament.
- 17:25It was open entry.
- 17:26It was open entry.
- 17:27Limited to 30 boats, but you could enter the draft.
- 17:29You could actually enter for it, whereas the other guys had to qualify.
- 17:32Exactly.
- 17:33So you still gotta, you know, pay your entry fee and get in and get your bow and get your team or the or partner, I should say.
- 17:39But the sportsman's class, you really had to be the best.
- 17:43And so the uh uh NOWT champions, which are the more elite level, if they're gonna be.
- 17:55They're the ones who will be winning the Princecraft Hudson, yes, with uh the boat armor on it on the trailer, all supplied by J and B Cyclo Marine.
- 18:04Nice.
- 18:04I know it's a beautiful looking boat.
- 18:06We got to go take a sneak peek at it yesterday.
- 18:08Nice, and it looks good.
- 18:10Okay.
- 18:11Um, the sport and the sports class they get.
- 18:16Do we have here?
- 18:17I don't have it here.
- 18:18I got to see it.
- 18:19It's a tenner, Princecraft.
- 18:20Oh, nice black, all supplied again by J and B cycle marine.
- 18:24Nice.
- 18:24It's a nice, just it's a great boat.
- 18:27You know, communities like this, Timmins, I'm talking about now, uh, and they all have them.
- 18:32They all have their J and B cycles.
- 18:35Because these the operations like the one that we're sitting in today, they're like they are the hub for outdoors people in that in the in whatever community they live in, they are the hub.
- 18:47This store that we're sitting in right now, approximately uh, I believe it's almost 16,000 square feet.
- 18:54You could airlift this store and put it in any community, any urban center, you know, places that have got millions of people living in, and it would have the same, the same because it is their magic.
- 19:07I just was supposed to say this place is magical.
- 19:09It reminds me a lot of the old pictures of Barclays.
- 19:13Yes, right?
- 19:14The office I learned to walk in.
- 19:15Yes.
- 19:16Um you know, make it a little more take away the cabin feel and put in some red, and there you go.
- 19:21Like we're we're here.
- 19:22It's the place fantastic store.
- 19:24Folks in Timmins are lucky to have one.
- 19:26I walked around this place for a good hour before recording, just smiling, looking at things, going, wow, wow, wow, because there's just a lot of stuff here.
- 19:34It's really cool.
- 19:34And what's nice too, and not to knock this new world that we live in where everything's online and you can order anything you want.
- 19:44You can buy anything you want online.
- 19:46The nice thing about places like this, J and B, is that it's here.
- 19:51Everything is here.
- 19:52You can walk in and touch and feel, touch, feel, try out.
- 19:55Now back the back of the property is overwhelming.
- 19:59I've never seen so many boats and motors and it looks like a uh a military base full of side-by-sides, boats, everything.
- 20:08There's a fleet, there's an entire fleet of vehicles behind us.
- 20:12Uh if you're ever going through bear uh through uh Timmins or Sudbury, where they have another operation like this in Sudbury, uh, it's worth uh getting off the main uh path and stopping in for for a bit because it's it's a destination, it's not just a retail store.
- 20:28It's a place to go just if you just want to go.
- 20:30It's it's cool.
- 20:31It's really cool.
- 20:32Speaking of going, my friend, we got some uh fishermen to go record.
- 20:36No kidding, that's gonna be fun.
- 20:38That's gonna be really fun.
- 20:38The way in is starting uh in about an hour and a half, yeah, even sooner than that.
- 20:43Yeah, so we want to get down to the way in and make sure we uh talk to all the guys.
- 20:47They must have had a rough day out there because it was.
- 20:49Well, the weather change is weird.
- 20:50This morning it was overcast, looks like it was about a poor rain, blown a gale, could barely even get the bird up, and now it's sunny and beautiful.
- 20:58All right, that are it.
- 20:59Uh coming to you uh, we'll call it live.
- 21:02Why not?
- 21:02I like it live.
- 21:03We can do that.
- 21:03We'll do it live.
- 21:04We'll do it live.
- 21:05Uh from JB Cycle and Marine in Timmins, Ontario.
- 21:09Headquarters to your outdoor adventures uh for the entire crew.
- 21:13Uh, and by the way, I I would be remiss if I didn't mention we had some additional help on the crew today, along with uh Nikki V and Mr.
- 21:23Dean Taylor on the board.
- 21:25Um Renee is helping us, and she is a uh she's just gone through for this type of work.
- 21:34Film film and studies at uh Film School Toronto, I believe that is.
- 21:38Yeah.
- 21:39Uh she was a great help here.
- 21:40She, if you want to come and meet her here at the store, you can come to JMB Cycle.
- 21:44I'm sure she'd be more than happy to tell you about her experiences uh in the outdoors and also here in the production business.
- 21:51Uh so that are it, folks.
- 21:52I want to thank everybody for joining us once again.
- 21:54Don't forget fishingcanada.com, the gateway, the portal to your next fishing adventure, and also where you can get all the goodies in this wagon.
- 22:02Buy more sweaters.
- 22:04Talk to you next time, folks.
- 22:13This episode of Outdoor Journal Radio has been brought to you in part by the Invasive Species Center, protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species.
- 22:23Freedom Cruise Canada, rent the boat, own the memories.
- 22:28And JMB Cycle a Marine, your home for all things power sports, boats, and equipment.
- 22:35We interrupt this program to bring you a message from Anglers Leaderboard, an AI-powered platform built for today's anglers.
- 22:41Use your phone and the photo measure board to automatically detect length and species, log catches, and track your stats over time.
- 22:49Whether you're fishing solo or joining a regional tournament, ALB helps you stay organized and competitive.
- 22:55Head over to Anglersleaderboard.com to learn more and start using ALB today.