Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Hi folks and welcome to week 6 of Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
I ended up finishing up middle of the pack, my angling skills were not on par with the people that were left in the competition. After being Culled, we had to remain in North Bay, so I ended up fishing a day with Judy Wong and Mark Anderson what an amazing experience! Judy was a hoot and smart too, little did I know at the time that she just won the Ladies Bass Masters Classic down in the States; yes it’s a big deal! I also met some of my best friends that week, Jay Cooper, and Mark Plaunte I even got to hang out with Roland Martin one of the original bass anglers and T.V hosts. He was a great and very interesting guy. One night we headed out to parking lot where over a couple of beverages he showed me the finer points of flippin and pitchin’, all I can say is “what an experience” probably one of the anchoring moments in my life leading me down my path. Thanks to the Fishn’ Canada Guys for that!
That fall at the Shelburne curling club one evening a friend of mine came up to me and said that a man was in today and was looking for a guy to host a T.V. called “Good Curling”. Well Gordy let the fella know that one of the club members was just on a big T.V. show for fishing and would be perfect for the job! I on the other hand didn’t believe what the guys at the club were saying I just figured that they were playing with me. But after the game that night sure enough there was a strange fella waiting to meet me. He was big had a bushy beard and a NBC hand bag. For sure the guys were messing with me now! He introduced himself to me as Paul French, (he looked like Mike Moore) I in turn introduce myself as Elvis and everyone giggled. He began to explain himself and the T.V. show and by the end of it I realized that it was a legitimate story. I ended up landing the host job for “Good Curling”. Unfortunately the project didn’t get funding and was put on the shelf before it started.
A couple of weeks later I was riding with a guy by the name of Glenn Berry, I met him just before the Last Cull, he mentored me leading into competition, when it came to fishing rubber (Berkley power slugs) Glenn was the man!. We really hit it off and became Bass Fishing Tournament partners. It was during this car ride that the idea of producing a fishing show was born. We talked long and hard about what we liked in fishing shows and how we should produce ours. We felt in the reality television age, a show that would follow two guys one who was a fire fighter and one who was a steel worker, their families and all of the things it takes to become successful tournament anglers would be a great idea. It then dawned on me that I knew a producer by the name of Paul French. I setup a meeting between Glenn, Paul and myself to talk about our ideas. Now to make a long story short, Paul liked the idea and we gave the show the name Fish Fever we shot close to 100 hours of footage that season, but nothing really came of it. Glenn was forced to pull out of the project, Paul ended up in a divorce but my dream was still alive. The first thing I needed to do to keep it going was buy a boat so I did I bought an 18.5’ Skeeter with a 150 Yamaha. I then needed to find a guy who would want to fish with me, someone who is skilled and wanted to give the T.V. thing a shot. Jay Cooper was my obvious choice he is a great friend whom I met on the Last Cull he’s a smart very intelligent angler, as well as an outdoor writer and artist. Paul got a job at a film school in Toronto and hooked us up with a young guy in the producing program by the name of Darian Irani things were progressing again and we logged a ton more hours into the Fish Fever project but still have not made a lot of meaningful progress.
I always knew I wanted to have an occupation that had me outside something to do with nature that is why I went to Sir Sandford, but I didn’t really find that job, ended up in the steel fabrication business and that was that. Well there came a time a year or two ago when I was in the middle of a 36 hour shift (that is straight no sleep) when I realized that my job, my steel business was just poor. I decided that I was not going to die young because of it so I began to look for something else. I looked for northern property, I looked at getting into Farming, I even looked into Beekeeping (very cool by the way) but it wasn’t until one night while on line I found a Royal Lepage sight that sold only fishing lodges in Ontario I then knew, what I wanted and that was a lodge. All of the things that I have done up until now in my life can contribute to my dream! The first thing that I did was e-mail Coop (Jay Cooper) and ask him if he wanted in on the dream, he said he would love to but couldn’t make the jump, but it was that night in my mind I became a lodge owner………………….
Written by:
Steve Niedzwiecki
Chaudiere Lodge.
Find a new installment every Monday evening.
Michael Hanley on February 20, 2010
Hi Steve,
I met Crystal [hair stylist] today and she told me about your expedition, congratulations, what an undertaking in the the best part of Ontario.
We are moving camp this year, mid september, after 30 years on the Sag, north of Port Loring. There are between 12 to 16 of us that go in from Thursday to Sunday with 3 or 4 of us going in Wensday. We have always done the housekeeping route. If your interested, please send me a price per head for accomodation, boat motor gas and bait.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Michael Hanley a Shelburne lad
admin on February 23, 2010
Ahh Crystal, what a great Girl I love you Crystal, that sounds like a great time and I will be in touch and thank-you for reading my diaries!
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admin on March 11, 2010
Thanks so much it is great to know that you are enjoying them!
admin on March 11, 2010
Thank-you I really appreciate you taking the time to read them.
Steve
admin on March 11, 2010
I am glad you are finding them helpful.
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