Here we are week 13, and this week was as much about the steel business as anything.  Finally the equipment is sold, this is a major step it frees up some money not a whole lot, but some for the lodge fund and I need it in there believe me!  

Without a shop or equipment the thought of not being a steel fabricator anymore has really hit home and it makes me smile.  I will miss the people that I have met in the business and there were a ton of really good ones, thanks to the guys who I shared the shop with, Damian Huckle owner of Firewerx a machining and plasma cutting company and Cole Beadon owner of U-Spar who hand crafts carbon fiber sail boat masts they are of a quality second to none!  It has been my pleasure working with you guys and I look forward to seeing you at the lodge.  And as far as the steel work itself goes, it is something that I am really good at and would be happy never to do again.  And now I can focus on Chaudiere.  After looking at the reservations I realized that I need to really work on bookings, especially May.  My strategy moving forward is to clean-up the webpage by clarifying and fixing grammatical errors, but more importantly I need to organize the mailing list that we have built so far with the draw.  I need to combine the fishing show ballots with the online names and send out an introduction video clip via e-mail introducing myself and giving an additional discount on the May Day deal of $888.00, which is an all inclusive week stay in May.  I am thinking making it an unbelievable $788.00 knock off another $100.00 dollars.  It really doesn’t leave much in the way of profit to be honest if I don’t get at least 65% occupancy it hardly pays the bills.  I am also going to do a 4 day all in stay for $499.00 and a 3 day for $399.00 per person.  My intention is to bring people to the lodge and once I get them there we will make sure that they see what the new Chaudiere is all about. Our guests will leave so impressed with the outstanding vacation that they will start spreading the word and may even return again this year.  Word of mouth is a very important tool.  

The thing that I have had the most difficulty figuring out so far is the price point.  I have reduced it quite a bit from the previous owner but it has been a tough road as far as bookings go.  Now being new, I really don’t know where I should be at this point but I know that I have a ways to go, but I think it is more an advertizing problem than anything.  I still have over a month to opener and I plan to have and outstandingly successful opening and would love for you guys to be a part of it! Give us a call, we are going to be drawing the winner for the three day all inclusive trip for two on opening day and it will be put on video and up loaded to the website.  It would be great if there was a bunch of people to watch that, not to mention take advantage of the out of this world Pike fishing! With some Walleye to go with it! 

I have been chomping at the bit waiting for the ice to melt so we can get across to the island.   I phoned Riverview Marina last week to find out if the ice was breaking up with this warm weather.  Lenard figured that it would be middle of April and said he would call as soon as it was out.  Well we had a big wind on Good Friday and the ice is gone!  And now the opening can begin.  As soon as I got the call I planned in my mind that we would get there this week but it is looking more and more like that is not going to happen.  I have a ton of marketing to do (see above) and Thursday Mel is going out with her sister and Dad to a concert for her birthday I will have the kids and then Friday is her Birthday,  and with me going north soon I want to do something nice for her, and there goes this week.  I still have to get a couple of friends organized to come with me anyway to look at some of the projects that need done so I am pushing for Monday on that. 

So back to the marketing drawing board, I will finish the website today and shoot the introduction video offering the new may deal and hope for the best.  At $788.00 I can feel confident that I can’t go any cheaper for an all inclusive week (doesn’t include alcohol) so if you want to see the video of me sign up for the draw, it is on the home page at the bottom in the scroll window, scroll to the right to find the giveaway and click on it, you never know you may win! And that page is www.chaudierelodge.com 

Thanks again guys, I really appreciate you sticking around and for next week I will have some spring pictures to post!  Looking forward to it and a safe week to all!   

Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge. 

Find a new installment every Monday evening.

Ontario Fishing Lodge

Hey its week 12! I really appreciate you guys being here and look forward to your feed back! 

So a quick re-cap with the marketing plan; first we redesigned the website, then I took the search engine optimization seminar, which gave me the www.fishfever.ca website that you are all visiting.  I then leaned on some of my friends and colleagues for guidance and partnership which brings me to what I am going to explain now, how to use what I learned at the SEO seminar. 

The search engine optimization seminar was really helpful.  Now let me boil it down to the bare bones, they taught me how to utilizing free community websites like Facebook, scribd, twitter, and forums to get your word out, but importantly make contributions to the community you have become a part of.  For instance these diaries are part of the plan, I am having a great time sharing my thoughts and experiences with you guys for me it is almost therapeutic and hopefully I am giving you something that you enjoy.  But if you all notice at the bottom of each article or blog, you will see a link that says Ontario fishing lodge and if you click the link…. Yes it will take you straight to my Chaudiere Lodge website.  This serves two purposes; first and most obvious it gets you to my site, which is very important to me because I want you to book a trip.  Secondly, that link is like a bread crumb which will be found by the Google critters that live in cyberspace.  When they find that bread crumb or link, Google associates Ontario Fishing Lodge with my website which is www.chaudierelodge.com and boosts my ranking on Google, getting me ever closer to the coveted number 1 spot for Ontario Fishing Lodge.  These bread crumbs can be left on most of the above websites, the more you leave behind the higher your Google ranking.  The key is to make sure that you actually contribute to the community rather than spam it. 

Next, we then had brochures printed, and a good friend of mine Cole helped me crafted letter of introduction (which I will also post) and we used them in a mailing drive.  Jerry provided us with a list of 600 names and addresses, Melissa and I sat up together for three or four nights in a row and hand wrote out all of the envelopes, she did 5 to my 1!  And then my buddy Hawk stopped in after curling one night and helped us fold and stuff.  It was actually a lot of fun, Mel and I got some much needed time together as we worked and watched one of our favorite shows criminal minds.  It was really nice to spend some time with my sweetheart, we have not had enough time together lately, believe me! 

We then did the Toronto Spring Fishing and Boat Show at the International Center in Mississauga.  It was a great experience, I had no back drop no booth nothing but got a good idea from Graham Bristow from The Anglers Pro Shop in Orangeville who also put in a Muskie guiding booth (check him out at www.ontariomusky.com he is one of the best and will be doing some guiding from the lodge as well) he showed me the banners he was having made as was just going to fix them to wooden frames, so that is what we planned to do as well.  I figured I would make my frames out of aluminum in the shop, but thankfully on the Wednesday before the show friends of mine gave me a pop up wall meant for tradeshows and it worked awesome, I then only had to make the small frames.  If not for Scotty and Johnny Boy it would have been another all nighter and even at that I don’t think I would have been ready!  Thanks boys I owe you one. 

As far as the show itself, one thing that I had been thinking about, and some people had mentioned, was having the presence of an attractive girl in the booth with us.  Now Mel would fit the bill but with the kids she couldn’t make that kind of commitment.  So a friend of mine suggested that I give a certain Sonja a call, she has been a friend since high school but more recently a purchaser at one of the companies that supplied material to my steel business. Now Sonja also is quite attractive and to top things off is an angler as well.  So I gave her a call and she agreed to give Ray a hand out of the goodness of her heart.  She worked the Saturday to the Monday with Ray and I and she did a great job.  And for that I want to thank Sonja and her husband Jay. The thing that gave us un edge at the show was the 3 day all inclusive draw, (This draw is independent of the Fishn’ Canada one so if you have not entered go to www.chaudierelodge.com and click special offers and scroll to the give away!) it made the difference between a busy booth and one that was not.  It give us that hook to draw people in, a reason to yell across the aisle and say “hi fellas would you like to get into a free draw for a 3 day all inclusive stay at our Lodge”.  The draw served two purposes, first it gave people a reason to come over to the booth so we could give out literature and talk about our product and it also gave us a ton of e-mails for a mailing list.  You would not believe the amount of skeptical people that would not even look or think about signing up for our draw, even after we make our intentions clear.  We guaranteed that we would not give away or misuse the e-mails in anyway the only thing we will use them for is lodge updates and upcoming special offers, you can remove yourself from the list at anytime, but man some people were downright rude.  Now on that note Mel and Hawk came down on the Sunday and signed up to some draw which ended up to be a scam, everyone got a call and they wanted credit card numbers.  It really pissed me off it made me and every other honest guy at the show look bad, I guess you can’t blame those ones that were skeptical after all.  All in all the show was a success.   

And lastly and most recently, this past week a friend that I met for the first time at the fishing show, who just move into my home town of Shelburne, who just started curling at the Shelburne curling club, who since the show has curled on my team, who has two of his friends that just moved outside of town, all of which are Muskie Hunters and fish the water at and around my lodge!  They have caught a ton of just massive fish, gave me the pictures and helped me crafted a half page ad for Muskie Hunter Magazine.  Yes the preceding may have been a run on sentence but what are the chances of that?  Coincidence I think not!   We are really excited about the Muskie Hunter ad and it will be in the June/July issue of Muskie Hunter Magazine, check it out. 

Victory!! I think that does it, welcome to the present! it is March 29 and it is 6:40am and now I have got to decide if I should go to bed for an hour of sleep or should I just have a shower make breakfast and start another day…………….. Guess I better jump into the shower.

Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge. 

Find a new installment every Monday evening. 

Ontario Fishing Lodge

Welcome to week 11! Time is evaporating and so is the ice! And I would love to see you guys at the lodge this summer.  And here is to you guys for sticking with me Thank-you. 

Now for the game plan, manage the lodge and the steel business, not an easy chore.  It has been much more difficult than I anticipated, keeping on top of the steel business and coming up with a game plan for the lodge.  First I needed to figure out what to do with the steel business, one of three options came to mind.  Sell it as a business, keep the EAP Enterprises Corporation and liquidate the assets (equipment) or keep it and take on a partner.  Being a one man show, keeping it or taking on a partner was not a profitable idea so I filed that idea under G in a hurry.  So I knew I needed to sell it one way or the other. 

As for the Lodge I took position on December 1, 2009 along with the burden of carrying it over the winter, for two reasons first it gave my offer the strength needed, I was weak in other areas and that made up the difference.  Secondly it gave me control of advertizing and booking’s which I felt was very important for the up and coming season.  

Now I feel it is time to bring you all up to present day, I will do this by explaining what I have done so far as a marketing strategy for the Chaudiere Lodge, and it is as follows; 

First I had the website reconstructed, and man what a huge undertaking it is a ton of work and an ongoing process that can become quite expensive, unless you have people that you can trust in place doing the work for you, and I do, thanks to Justin Popovic and Teddy Payne!  I then took a course in search engine optimization with Justin being one of the lecturers.  This course was great it explained a ton and gave me a good working knowledge Google.  As a direct result of that and with the help of Justin and Teddy we have we have taken the Chaudiere Lodge site from page 30ish to page 2 and sometimes 1 under the search words “Ontario fishing lodges” and “Ontario fishing” “Upper French River” is one we are working on as well as “Ontario Muskie fishing”.  The internet is by far the most important tool in marketing that I have and is the one where we are focusing on the most. 

I then leaned on a lot of my friends for advice, guys like Cam Brownson now the host of the Angler and Hunter T.V. show, and one of my college friends.  Also I spoke with Andy Pallotta of the CSFL, and the guys from the Fish’n Canada Show, and a number of other accomplished business people.  I have listened to all of them and tried to take in all of their advice; it is a really tough thing!  But it is what I need and has been extremely helpful.  But to be more pointed, I met with Angelo Viola, Peter Bowman and Mike Miller and we talked about my new way of life and came up with some marketing strategies.  First of which I provided an all inclusive week trip for 2 to the lodge for them to use as their grand prize for a contest that they are running on The Out Door Journal Radio Show on the FAN 590.  You can listen to the guys on Saturday mornings from 8:00am to 10:00am they talk about fishing and outdoors issues, it really is great listening, tune in if you get the chance you will enjoy it!  

Having them talking about the contest and mentioning the grand prize has been a great way to get exposure in one of the markets that I have chosen to target hard, the GTA.  It is a huge market full of great anglers, one that I hope to tap into, so to all of you anglers the contest is still ongoing, tune in to the FAN on the am dial and win!  I would love to see you!  Also the guys have been gracious enough to agree to do a shoot at the lodge this summer, which I am very excited for.  It is not something that will help with bookings this year but will be an absolutely awesome tool for next year and I am so very thankful for their help and I am happy to call them friends.  

While we are on the topic of the Fish’n Canada fellas I feel it necessary to break the time line and fast forward to this past Thursday.  I had the pleasure of taking them down to the Leafs game against the New Jersey Devils.  We had great seats 13 rows up and again I leaned on another good friend of mine, he has a great job at the ACC and I had prearranged with him a tour of the building which was awesome!  As a true blue heart and soul Leafs fan it was a real treat for me to be cruising the halls of the ACC on game night, especially with Angelo, Pete and Mike!  It really couldn’t get better for me and they really enjoyed it as well, Mike really knows his stuff when it comes to the NHL and Angelo is a huge Leafs fan one of the blue blood brothers and Pete is just a hoot it was right on.  The best part for me was being up in the Foster Hewitt Media Gondola, I got to finally meet one of my hero’s, Joe Bowen, Voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and after all of these years we meet and I didn’t even give him a card!  We walked by Andy Frost in the hall and I said “Hi there Andy how are you doing?” like I knew him, and he replied in his thundering radio voice “Not bad, not bad and you?” That was it but it was great!  We met the fella that plays the organ and runs the sound effects booth, a really nice guy and saw all of the video editing rooms which were interesting.  Overall it was a really great night and the Leafs won in a shootout to cap it all off!  Now I have to thank Brendon for the tour you are a consummate professional and it shows in every way the guys were totally impressed and I want to let you know that you really helped me out brother!  I also want to thank the Toronto Maple Leaf Team for not *hitting the bed it was a great game and as a Leaf fan I am feeling some controlled optimism for next season. 

Well so much for bringing you up to speed I guess week 11 will be a day late (sorry) and a dollar short.  I will do my best to bring us to present day in next week’s addition.  Thanks again for sticking with me, I am enjoying this more and more each week but I can’t wait to actually be talking about the Upper French River Fishing!  I also welcome any comments; I am new to this and would love the feedback.  I am looking forward to next week where we will pick up on the marketing plan……………..     

Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge. 

Find a new installment every Monday evening. 

Ontario Fishing Lodge

I must apologies for being late on this one, being a Father comes with responsibilities and  last night my little sweet heart Maddy who is 11 months old had her first ear infection and I spent the night cuddling a sore wee girl.  Anyway let’s rock week 10! 

Well I drew a deep breath and thought I had to phone Brian, the news was crushing but in the face of adversity we brain stormed some more ideas.  With support from some unlikely sources we creatively come up with a new offer, it was something that we felt may work.  Brian then re-crafted the deal and everyone involved knew it was my final offer one without conditions.  

I didn’t hear back until late the next morning, but Mel’s aunt’s common law husband John called.  I had sent him my business plan to look over and asked for his advice.  He is a very smart man who I respect and has done well in life.  We began our conversation and before I could tell him that I had already removed the conditions on the deal, John told me he thought that to make this business work in the weak northern tourism industry, I would need a miracle and that he thought that there would be a 20% chance of survival.  Well I can’t tell you how I felt knowing I was committed, so I told him that I had already removed my conditions and It was done on my end.  He understood and wished me luck and offered any help that he could.  After hanging up I was left in thought; I like John, I think he is a wise man and I know that he will help however he can but the thing is, he didn’t see what I did in Chaudiere, he didn’t feel what I did in Chaudiere and after thinking about it, it became so clear to me that it was in the good Lords hands now, and I prayed for him to take my family and I down the right path.  I studied the area and business and I believe in Chaudiere.  Words don’t do the potential of this awesome place justice, it will be hard work for my family, staff and I but we are strong and we are and will realize its potential.  Now on the other hand I gave the same business plan to another of Mel’s Uncles who has brilliant business mind and he thought that I had did a hell of a job and that it looked like a great opportunity for our family.  We found out that afternoon that we were the new owners of the Chaudiere Lodge and we were ecstatic. 

The next step was a major one now that the offer was accepted and conditions were removed the papers needed to be signed and the money needed to be transferred.  This day is one that will live forever in my mind.  I don’t know how many of you have been in a situation where you have “put it all on the line” or another good one is “bet the farm” but sitting with John my lawyer, pen in hand looking at a mountain of documents to sign while he explained each and every one, it wasn’t until we came to where I needed to sign the “big one” the one with the numbers that it hit me. I will never forget John speaking the words “and you personally guarantee” at that moment I honestly was thrown into an out of body experience.  To see my face at that point, in that moment in time, I don’t know what you would have seen, man my mind was in overdrive all I could think was “what am I doing?” “Is this the right move for my family?” and I signed and it was done.  The next three or more days were sleepless the resounding “what have I done?” rang in my head, and then I realized that I have a huge family that loves me, there is no one on the face of the earth who has better friends than I have and I have what it takes to do this, the best part is I love it!  Dad told me “don’t look behind now choose to be proud” and at that point my focus changed I decided that I would not spend one ounce of emotion or time on the past I chose to be proud and focus on the future. 

Now for the game plan, manage the lodge and the steel business not an easy chore…………..      

Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge. 

Find a new installment every Monday evening. 

Ontario Fishing Lodge

Here it comes yes you got it; Welcome to week 9!    

Now back in the real world my investor and I wanted to get together talk numbers.  We set a time and Mel and I sat down with him and his wife and looked at the supplied financials.  After we finished it really didn’t look good he was not impressed at all and didn’t feel that the potential was there, fair enough but I did.  I began to turn over stones dig holes basically rack my brain trying to find a way to make this work.  I saw huge potential in this opportunity and was not going to give up on it.  

A couple of weeks went by and as things settled my potential investor and I began to talk again. As well, things on the lodge front were changing the other deal had become unstable leaving a window of opportunity allowing the potential to put in an offer on Chaudiere.  With the new news we had another meeting this time including my parents who became involved and it was stated by them and my potential investor that I needed to do some things moving forward.  First I needed to put together a sound business plan for Chaudiere complete with projected revenue for the next three years.  Second, I needed to get insurance policies for life and critical illness, large enough to cover all investing parties including myself and name everyone as a beneficiary and lastly secure the additional financing.  All of these requests were very wise and necessary, the other key point coming out of this meeting was we all decided that we were going to put a conditional offer on Chaudiere, one of the conditions was financing though  basically a back door.  

The next morning I got on the phone with Brian Dykstra and I believe I put together the best deal that was possible and ended up with an accepted conditional offer, but to make it work my time frame to close was extremely tight and my list of tasks were daunting, a ton of work, hours really and between running EAP and this I didn’t really sleep.  But it was my baby I felt that I was crafting the path for my future and I did it, the financing and business plan that is.   

That left the insurance policies now I am a fairly young guy, I have always had a family doctor and any time I have had problems medically I go to the doctor that is a good thing, I know that but I have high blood pressure (now controlled with meds) and have had a few minor things along the way but do you think I could get life insurance?  It is stupid the hoops that I had to jump through, and the time it takes to get the stuff and how much more it costs if you have had a couple of issues.  The worst part about it is if I had have never went to the doctor before my health in way worse shape but because there is no records, getting insurance would have been a cake walk. For those of you out there who are still young and healthy or haven’t been to the doctor in ten years, LISTEN go get life insurance before you go to the doctor! 

Now I am only a day, one day away from the dead line on this deal.  It has cost me literally hundreds of hours over the better part of six months and I need to firm up in 24 hours or the other offer comes into play.  I still have no insurance which is the last requirement needed to satisfy my potential investor who is now out of the country and has not given me the green light on anything!  You guys ever seen that degree deodorant commercial with the stress meter well mine was on the verge of busting the old hypertension was running hot.  Now with less than 18 hours to go I made contact with him and I found out that after reviewing the numbers again he felt that it was too much of a risk and that he really was not comfortable to invest in this venture and was worried for me.  Well the stress meter broke.  Fair enough, he is at a different stage in life he is older and financially comfortable, to be honest if the tables were turned I would have done the same thing.  Now what………………………………….     

Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge. 

Find a new installment every Monday evening. 

Ontario Fishing Lodge

First I want to thank-you guys for sticking with me; I really appreciate it and hope that you are finding enjoyment in it.  Welcome to week 8! 

Enter Brian Dykstra……….. 

Brian up until then was just a name, one of those goofy head shot real estate pictures on the internet.  Mike felt that with his knowledge of the business, he was best suited to construct and put me into contact with the right people I needed to finance the deal.  So I did what Mike said I gave Brian a call.  He sounded like a very genuine guy and we connected right off the bat, in our first couple of conversations we covered his past and life experiences.  I realized that he knew Chaudiere well and actually sold it to Jerry when he bought it from Tony.  When I felt comfortable with him and his expertise, we started talking numbers and how a deal of this magnitude gets put together.  It was all new to me I had never bought a lodge and up until this point my house was the biggest acquisition for Mel and I to date and that was only in the neighborhood of 190k.  I am not from money, Mom and Dad gave us four kids everything we needed, taught us well and always supported us, but never in a million years until now, had the idea of me securing and spending this kind of money even crossed my mind!   

Now please don’t be offended if I am vague on the numbers, for me I really don’t care who knows how much I have invested and the chance that my family and I have taken to have a shot at my dream.  Not many people actually get a chance to position themselves to chase a dream, I have and I really have my wife to thank as well as my parents.  There are other people involved and out of respect for them I am going to do the best that I can to give you an accurate picture of the systematic process that we went through in acquiring Chaudiere without divulging any numbers.

First I must say that Brian was great through the whole process and assured me that he would be there for me as a resource long after the deal was done, and it would not have happened if not for him, and on that note we begin.  Mel and I had a sum of money in the bank that we had taken out of the equity of our house; as well I had cashed all of my RRSP’s, luckily before the stock market crashed.  We did this because at the time we had verbally agreed to purchase a 100ac parcel of land that was very close to my parent’s farm.  Our intention was to build our dream home there.  Unfortunately the guy that we were dealing with was quite a bit offside and backed out of the deal at the last minute, leaving Mel and I holding this pile of cash and a broken dream.  As you can imagine I was irate, I had paid the taxes on the RRSP’s and was now paying interest on this money sitting in the bank doing nothing for us, but that’s another story all together.  But in time that money became our starting point in the Chaudiere deal, I knew that I needed a partner and realized that I also needed to go to a mortgage broker.  But first things first, the lodge was being offered for sale as a corporation and owning a corporation of my own I knew that I really had to investigate that carefully. 

As I moved through that process I really learned a lot about corporations, even though I already owned one, EAP Enterprises I found that there is a ton of stuff involved with them.  All I want to say after spending literally weeks of Mikes and My time, bumming as much free accounting advice as I could, it became crystal clear to me that I needed an asset deal, something clear and concise.  And as fast as I asked for it, it was done.  There was a bottom line offer from the other side, clear as day for all interested parties in the world to see and I was not ready to move, I didn’t have my financing in place not even close.  I had been focused on one aspect of the process and when I come up for air realized that I needed an investor to make the deal happen and I didn’t have one in place.  

In passing I had mentioned to a family friend a few weeks prior that I was serious about buying a lodge and at the time he seemed interested.  Well now I really needed to feel out just how interested he was.  After several meetings with him and going over the books and the numbers provided, we decided that he needed to see Chaudiere after all you need to see what you are investing in.  But with him being a very successful business man already, and the schedule to go with it, we couldn’t find a time when we were both free.  He then had to leave the country and was not going to be back for three weeks, he had not even seen the place and was in no shape to commit (understandably so). And my concern was that I had just cleared the water (the corporation situation) for all of the other piranha’s to attack what I felt was my amazing opportunity.  

Brian and I stayed in touch and just before my potential investor returned home I got a heart breaking call from him.  He explained that a conditional offer had just been accepted on Chaudiere. I felt my heart break, I had worked so hard on this deal and I felt it was the path in life.  He tried to tell me not to worry, that it was a conditional offer and sometimes deals of this size don’t work out, but I didn’t want to hear it, not in that moment, not at all. 

My potential investor made it back into the country and I had not been in touch with Brian. I was so turned off with what had transpired that I didn’t want to even talk about it, but I called him anyway. Things had not yet firmed up on the deal so there was still a flicker of hope.  I managed to re-focus and motivate myself I setup a site visit with Brian and my potential investor.  We left Shelburne on a cold fall day with my bass boat in tow.  I was really excited to see the place again, and for the first time after hours spent on the phone I met Brian, the man behind the voice.  I have got to admit he didn’t look like his on line picture, he is a mountain of a man and not what I was expecting at all, but we hugged and everything was good.  We all got on to my bass boat and away we went.  When we got to the Island everything was closed down for the winter so it was hard to really get a good picture of Chaudiere. But when we left there was optimism with my potential investor and I remember vividly feeling that I knew that I was going to be coming back, it’s hard to explain but it felt good, almost like déjà vu, even with all that was going on with the other offer, this place felt like home and that was another cementing moment in this journey…………….. 

Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge. 

Find a new installment every Monday evening. 

Ontario Fishing Lodge

Hi folks and welcome to week 7 of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, this diary is really what is keeping me in tune with how fast time is flying by, it excites me and scares me all in one big rush! 

The Next 5 months proved to be a rollercoaster of emotion, there were times were I was unsure of what I was doing.  Early on in the process I involved a good friend of mine by the name of Mike Scace, he is an extremely smart individual and is involved with a large down town real estate firm.  If there was anyone that knew the value when it came to things like this it was Mike and he would tell me what he thought no matter what.  So with Mike acting as my agent, Andrew Gee another friend of mine and I we set off to see Chaudiere. 

We all met at a small bar in Mactier Ontario, it was a Saturday and we were going up for one night only, I had just fished a bass tournament over on Lake of Bays and had my boat in tow.  Well I can honestly say that for most of the drive including picking up the guys it rained harder than I had seen in a long time, but once we hit highway 64 things cleared right up.  We ended up being about an hour late and couldn’t find the boat launch and had Jerry Noel the owner waiting for us for who knows how long.  I had full intentions on dropping my boat into the water and had it backed down the ramp and almost off the trailer, when a harsh voice yelled “Hey, you’re not going to put that boat in the water are you?” I looked up to find it was someone from the lodge boat, I said “well ya, I kinda had planned to” the same harsh voice replied “I guess you don’t like that stainless prop too much then!” at that point I thought, I do like this stainless prop… a lot and replied “I have my GPS with the nav chip I should be fine” he replied back “No you won’t you should park it and come with me in this boat”  in no mood to argue and a little spooked by the thought of smashing my prop, I parked it and left all of my gear (Thousands) unlocked in the boat on his assurance that it was fine and jumped in the boat with him. 

The first thing I noticed was the boat we were in, it was a fairly new boston whaler it was a really nice boat, we talked a little but I really didn’t get a good feel for the man, I like everyone but things just weren’t starting off the right way. When we got to the lodge my first impression was a little mixed the docks were very nice the lodge had a nice cozy feel but I really didn’t love it.  Jerry offered us a beverage and he grabbed himself one as well, we talked but to be totally honest with you I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open for the conversation!  Finally he showed us to our cottage and we turned in for the night.  But before we went to sleep we had a couple of drinks and I really got a good idea of what Mike and Andrew thought of the place.  They were really imprested, felt that it showed better than what they were expecting, and at that moment I remember looking around the cottage and thinking, what a nice cottage I could easily bring Mel and the kids here to stay a week, and that is saying something!  I think it was then that I realized it was the feeling from Jerry that was turning me off and not the lodge at all.  The next day we again talked with Jerry and after walking the property and looking in all of the buildings and cottages we run out of time to do anything else, we had lunch and headed out. But I have to admit that lunch of macaroni salad and a chicken wrap really was the best salad and wrap I ever had, memorable. 

We hoped into the Boston whaler once again and Jerry took us to the boat launch.  When we left neither one of us really knew how to read each other but it was what it was.  For me it was worth the trip to Chaudiere, I had a long chat with the boys on my way home and really felt that there was potential there, but a ton more work would need to be done. 

After about a week had passed, Mike called me he said that he had been in touch with the real estate agent representing Jerry.  He had been dealing him a lot and he felt that he was a very intelligent guy that knew the business well.  At that point Mike did something that I didn’t expect, he suggest that I take him on as my agent as well.  Again I was a little taken back with the thought and to this day if you asked Mike I’m sure he will remember the conversation and me being a little off for a split second.  A few thoughts went through my mind at lightning speed… Does Mike not want to represent me? Does he not have the time? Can I trust someone else to do this for me? How can this guy represent me and Jerry? And then I took a deep breath and re-focused and realized that Mike always has my best interest at heart, if he felt that this move would be in my best interest, than it is, in my best interest.  After all I trust and love the guy, so I asked him the name of the man who was going to be representing me and he said Brian Dykstra. 

Enter Brian Dykstra……….. 

Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge. 

Find a new installment every Monday evening. 

Ontario Fishing Lodge

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.

Ontario Fishing Lodge

A couple of weeks later Melissa picked up my mail and there was a letter from Fishn’ Canada in it. She called me right away at work and told me that I had been chosen to be one of the 50 contestants of the Last Cull! It was one of the most exciting moments in my life to that point. After getting off the phone with Mel I called Ray and told him the news. He for the first oh, five minutes didn’t believe me but with my persistence and excitement he came around. My Mom and Dad were over the moon for me too after all their little boy was going to be a movie star!!

That night I went over to Rays, Ev (Ray’s wife and Erik’s mom) was so proud and started to cry she always makes me feel awesome. Ray and I marveled over this piece of paper like it was magical and after reading it for the tenth time, we found in the fine print of the final 50 contract there was an invitation for volunteers for the week. Well there was only one thing we could do and that was call and get Ray booked for the week and that is just what we did.

The anticipation leading up to the show was almost unbearable; I researched it Ray lent me his boat to pre-fish Lake Nipissing and to use for the week. And what a week it was in short I made it about half way through didn’t win anything physical but what I took home with me from that week was priceless, I met friends there that I still keep in touch with today including the hosts of the Fishn’ Canada Show, Mike Miller was my tournament partner! The guy has won more fishing tournaments in Canada than anyone else! And I got to fish with him.

I am going to take the time to tell you a little about that day, it is worth the time. The names were drawn and the teams were set on the eve of the tournament phase of the show. I ended up being paired with Mike Miller and at the time didn’t really know how successful he had become as a Canadian tournament angler. I was standing beside a guy by the name of Steve Bates and he was the first to tell me that I had just drawn one of the best anglers in the in Canada and that if he could pick anyone it would be Mike. Well, now my excitement was almost uncontrollable and back at the compound (the college campus were we were staying) we had some time to spend with our partners to discuss strategy. Knowing who I was fishing with I asked Mike to look at my gear and suggest what I should use and what technique that he felt would work inside our game plan. At this point I expected to get some of the secrets that the greats have had locked up for centuries and he looked at my gear dug through the thousands of dollars of stuff and pulled out a bag of hot pink Gambler Flappin Shads, suggested that I rig weed less and I should through it out the back of the boat all day. He suggested that I get some rest because we had a run in the morning. I agreed and as I fell asleep I wondered if he was messing around Pink Eh?

The next morning we woke to find that the weather was crazy, Reno and Angelo talked about pushing the tournament back a day but decided to blast off out of a different location on the south side of the lake, it was more sheltered over there. Mike did not like this change at all and I realized why when we blasted off, our long run turned into literally a 200 yard run we were blasting off on top of our spot! We towed the boats for 45 minutes away from North Bay just to blast off right on top of our first spot. That didn’t stop us though we went right to it a point at the mouth of a small creek and began to fish. Mike had us in less than 6” of water at the bow of the boat and was flippin into cattails and I had the most beautiful field of lily pads out the back of the boat you ever did see and yes, I through a hot pink gambler!

For the first couple of hours things were very slow I noticed that Mike was focused on one log in 4 to 5 feet of water tight to the cattails but it was shallow all around it. I am not going to say he was cursing, but he was defiantly wondering loudly and frequently, about where the fish that lived under this stick were and why are they not hitting! In my eyes the stick wasn’t much, I would have not even given it a second though but we beat the hell out it for 2 hours and carried on into the creek. Time was marching on and tension was building and at what seemed like the worst time possible, the camera boat pulled up and put a camera and crew member on board with us. Well like someone turn on a light when that camera came on Mike in his first cast hammered a 2 ½ pound largemouth and on his second consecutive cast caught another largemouth the same size brought it in smiled at the camera, the crew told us that we were awesome and left, unfortunately so did the fish. We didn’t catch another fish for at least an hour or so.

Throughout the day we stopped at that stick an easy 3 to 4 times, we go from one spot to another and back we went to one spot got stuck and through a rooster tail of mud of absolute magnanimous proportions caught a limit, small but a limit and left to go back to the stick. With an hour left we got there and Angie Douthit and Andre Bertrand were fishing our stick. We hung around the perimeter hoping that they would move off it but they were stuck like honey to a blanket. We hit another couple of spots quick but that was our day. We weighed in and got our total weight but weren’t allowed to tell anyone because “this is reality T.V you know” and went back to the compound. Knowing that we were on the bubble, the anxiety was huge I wanted to make it to the next round and so did Mike. At the banquet hall that night the standings were announced and we made it! I was going on to the next round along with Mike. The best part of this story, the winning team didn’t have a fish in the boat at noon the tournament ended at 3:00 the majority of their big fish were caught in the last hour of the day and you know who won……. Yes you guessed it Angie and Andre on Mike’s stick………….. 

Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge.

Find a new installment every Monday evening.

Ontario Fishing Lodge

My two college years flew, they were over in the blink of an eye, I headed back home to try to find a job in my field and honestly I looked for a little bit but the sheet metal shop was calling.  I had worked there the past couple of summers and the money was good it was somewhat close to home and convenient so I went back.  Before I knew I was making more money there than I could ever find doing something related to my college degree, I was trapped.  I guess I shouldn’t say trapped but I spent the next 15 years of my life working as a sheet metal mechanic/welder fitter a job that I didn’t like but the money was good. I really can’t complain about those years I went to school and was licensed, I was paid well met and learned from ton of people.  One of those people was Dale Kilby, he was bar none hardest worker that I had ever seen.  He was reckless no doubt but he thought me how to get the job.  His loyalty to me as a friend is something that has to this day never wavered and I want to thank him for that.  His loyalty to the company was second to none, both employers knew this and took advantage of it, but all employers would.   

I also had the pleasure of learning from a true genius and old world student by the name of Gilbert, an Italian fellow who at the time would have been in his middle to late 50’s.  He was a fountain of information and I quizzed him daily about work, current events, politics, religion and life in general and looked forward to talking to him every day.  But the one thing that kept me in the trade, commuting to Brampton (an hour drive from home) and putting up with the job was the fact that I got to work with Erik Poole.  He and the other guys made it tolerable Erik was truly a friend that I can honestly say was one of a kind.  He knew I wasn’t happy doing what I was doing and was the first person to plant the “start your own business” seed.  We worked together, played together and holidayed together, not many people could have spent that much time with another person, but we did and I loved every second of it.  Then on February 7, 2002 it all came to an end, as fate would have it, a time line of events were strung together leading to a fatal car crash taking Erik and changing me and countless others forever. 

In the spring of 2003 while driving home from work I heard about a reality television show on Toronto Sports Radio The Fan 590.  It was being put on by the creators of the Fishn’ Canada television show and called The Last Cull.  I quickly took the contact number down, with the grand prize being $50,000 dollars and a pilot for your own T.V. show I needed to win. 

Erik and I had always talked about having a fishing show and this seemed like the perfect opportunity!  I called the number right away and to my surprise I had Peter Bowman (one of the hosts of the Fishn’ Canada show) on the line!  We talked about the Last Cull and I found that I needed to send in an audition tape of me doing something memorable and eye catching. There was already a ton of entrants so I needed to be outstanding to have a shot at being chosen.  The dead line was 4 days away and I knew that I wanted to somehow incorporate my guitar, but I only knew how to play 3 songs and none of them had anything to do with fishing. 

I got home that evening called my girl friend (now my wife) told her the situation; I procrastinated about it for 3 days. On the eve of the dead line I went to Ray’s (Erik’s Dad) house to figure things out.  Once there we sat down with another buddy, Wayner and the three of us brain stormed a solution… and what a solution it was.  First of all it was decided that my dress would be critical, so I put on my Toronto Maple Leafs jersey which was a must, my cowboy boots, hat and a pair of blue jeans and I looked good boy!  We then decided that if I was going to play the guitar we needed to pick one of the 3 songs I knew so we took the Dukes of Hazard theme song and re-wrote the words to make a fishing song.  The first verse went something like this;  

“I’m just a good old boy, never meaning no harm.  I’ll beat all you ever saw, been reelin’ in the hogs since the day I was born” and so on. 

Once we had the song wrote and it was brilliant! I then needed to sing it, well what a task that was trying to sing different words to a song that your mind already knows man what a chore! Wayne ended up holding 2’x 2’ signs behind the camera so I could read the words and it still took literally hours to get something even close to usable down.  Not confident with what we had produced, but no time to do anything else I hand delivered it to the Fishn’ Canada guys the next day. 

A couple of weeks later Melissa picked up my mail and there was a letter from Fishn’ Canada in it she called me right away at work and ……………….    

 Written by:

Steve Niedzwiecki

Chaudiere Lodge. 

Find a new installment every Monday evening. 

Ontario Fishing Lodge