Diaries of a Lodge Owner

The fastest way into a fishing guide career is not a perfect resume, it is getting yourself into the right lodge and proving you belong there. Around the table at Two Rivers Lodge, we sit down with three working guides, Rick Payne, John “Cowboy” Jomban, and Caleb Johnson, to talk about how guiding really starts: nerves, rough water, limited gear, and the moment you realize you are responsible for...

A fishing guide’s job is not just finding fish. It’s reading people, managing pressure, and turning a tough bite into a day your guests will still talk about on the drive home. Around the table at Two Rivers Lodge, we trade honest stories about guiding in Northern Ontario, learning unfamiliar water near Kenora, and the moment you realize you’re not “just a fishing buddy” anymore, you’re responsibl...

You can own a lodge, hire great guides, and still feel your confidence wobble the moment you step onto a dock where nobody cares about your past. At Two Rivers Lodge, I’m back in the boat as a working guide, staring at new water, new electronics, and guests I’ve never met, asking myself the only question that matters: do I still have it?  I talk through the real difference between “helping out” an...

Lodge season does not “start” so much as it hits you all at once. Early June brings that first real wave of guests, the scramble to reopen cabins and docks, and the reality that Mother Nature controls the schedule, especially when you are running an island lodge on the French River. We talk through what those first days actually feel like, from the excitement of opening to the gritty details that...

He wasn’t flashy. He didn’t say a whole lot. But he always had my back and that kind of fatherhood changes everything. After losing my dad just days ago, I sit down for a raw, personal reflection on grief, gratitude, and the lessons that still guide me as a lodge owner, a parent, and an outdoorsman. I talk about what it meant to take the leap into lodge ownership when the timing felt impossible, t...

A thousand-foot gill net can hold a whole day’s worth of truth about a fishery and Paige Drew has lived that reality on Lake Superior. We sit down with Paige and Caleb Johnson, two newly minted guides at Two Rivers Lodge, and talk honestly about what it means to earn your place in a lodge family when the season is just starting and the water is still near freezing. The conversation starts where mo...

Spring at a Northern Ontario fishing lodge can feel like two different worlds at once. We’re watching flood water threaten roads and docks around the French River and Lake Nipissing, while up near Kenora the ice is still hanging on and every plan depends on wind, rain, and when the system finally opens up. That push and pull sets the tone for a candid lodge-owner conversation about preparation, ri...

The best ice seasons are not always the ones with the most chaos, they are the ones that run smooth from first hut to last pullout. We’re back with Donny Crowder of Hotbox Huts to debrief a Lake Simcoe winter that started early, stayed stable late, and gave his crew something rare: time. Time to stage “Hogtown” properly, time to avoid panic days, and time to connect with clients one-on-one so fami...

Your body already knows how to come back to centre. The problem is we rarely give it the right signal, long enough, often enough, to override modern stress. We talk with Spencer DeLeal, president of Art of Living Canada, about how rhythmic breathing and mindfulness can help reset the nervous system when life starts to feel like constant fight or flight. We dig into Sudarshan Kriya, a structured br...

Spring up north doesn’t arrive politely. It shows up when the ice starts talking, when a route that was open yesterday is suddenly blocked by a drifting plate, and when a lodge owner has to decide whether “maybe we can make it” is actually worth the risk. It’s just you and me for a straight, practical run through the shoulder season on the French River in Ontario. I share a real late ice-out story...

One mistake can end a survival challenge. One accident can erase weeks of memory. One loss can change the shape of a whole family. We’re joined by Joe Robinet, a Canadian bushcraft and camping creator who helped define outdoor YouTube long before it was a career path, and he brings a rare mix of hard-earned skills and hard-earned perspective. We talk through Joe’s early life in Windsor, Ontario, c...

The season doesn’t start when the first guests arrive. It starts when you look at snowpack, water height, and a dock system that can swing by feet, then decide how you’re going to make it safe, simple, and fast for everyone walking down to the boats. Willie the Oil Man joins us with a full spring readiness download from Two Rivers Lodge, including what he’s changing on the docks, how he thinks abo...

What if your walleye box held the key to your next muskie? We sit down with veteran multi‑species guide Patrick Tryon to unpack a hard‑won breakthrough: when walleyes get picky, the jig colour they favour often maps directly to the belly colour that triggers muskies. It’s not a theory born from luck—it’s the product of years of obsessive journaling on Lake Nipissing and the Upper French River, con...

A chance phone call, a cedar boat, and a river that never leaves your blood. That’s how our friendship with Omer began—he arrived from Israel with no rods, no experience, and a map in the glove box, then asked to stay and help. What followed were seasons stitched together by wood smoke and fish fries, a duck hunt mishap that blew a hole in a boat, and a brutal late‑season muskie run where ice form...

We walk through the mental weight of winter for lodge owners: the quiet that stings, the bookings book that judges, and the systems that turn that silence into strategy. We share hard-won lessons on deposits, pricing, grants, staff processes, and the habit of steady focus. • winter as a pressure chamber and planning window • buying the lodge and rebuilding lost goodwill • honest marketing versus h...

What if the fastest way to get better at anything isn’t a “secret spot,” but a better way of thinking? We welcome muskie guide and entrepreneur Pat Tryon for a wide-open conversation about the habits that turn long slogs into sudden breakthroughs: studying structure, compressing the search with smart tech, learning shoulder-to-shoulder with experts, and keeping your ego out of the way when the pat...

Some memories hook you for life. We dive into how a childhood spent on a riverbank grew into a mission to help families create those same anchor moments—first casts, first fish, and traditions that bring everyone back to the water year after year. We share a weekend at the Spring Fishing and Boat Show that sparked it all, highlighted by a dynamic father–daughter seminar with Angler & Hunter TV...

The moment your phone loses signal and the shoreline comes into focus, something shifts. We dig into why that feeling matters—and how an outdoor lodge can design for it—by drawing a hard line on connectivity in the cottages while keeping smart tech where it helps. The main lodge becomes a social hub for quick check‑ins, photo sharing, and serendipitous conversations. Cabins stay quiet on purpose,...

The story starts before dawn and doesn’t end until the last plate is stacked. We open the door to real lodge life: the 5 a.m. kitchen huddles, the dockside calm for nervous boaters, the septic fixes nobody sees, and the dining room standards that set the tone for trust. It’s everything you don’t find on a brochure, told with the momentum of days that never quite go to plan—and the mindset that ref...

What if the secret to a thriving lodge isn’t the bite count, but the rituals that make strangers feel like family? We share how a northern fishing lodge shifted from “catch-first” to “community-first” using simple, repeatable traditions that turned a good trip into a must-return experience. It starts with jam nights—live music that melts social barriers and gives everyone a reason to linger. Add i...

What if your lodge’s past was the strongest marketing you have? We sit down with Willie “the Oilman” to unpack how a northern lodge thrives today by selling a lifestyle, telling its origin story with pride, and using trade shows as a stage—not a hard sell. We start where many operators wonder: do trade shows still pull their weight? Willie explains the shift from booth-first selling to a blended s...

The floor may be buzzing, but the best trade show wins often happen in quiet moments—over a handshake, a shared story, or a thoughtful follow-up that arrives right when someone is ready to book. We open up about the early missteps, the pressure to sell fast, and why we chose a different path built on trust, clear expectations, and experiences we could control. Rather than pushing deposits, we focu...

Ever seen a town pop up on a frozen bay? We sat down with Donnie Crowder of Hot Box Huts to explore how a three-hut hobby became “Hogtown,” a 52‑hut ice fishing village on Lake Simcoe built around safety, comfort, and catching more fish. An early cold snap laid down a rare shelf of white ice, and Donnie explains how that milky layer creates low light cover in three feet of water—turning the shallo...

Forget the neat arc of a nine-to-five. We sat down with Kyle Satchery, a small-town barber who spends spring and summer trapping live bait and guiding bear hunts when the weather turns, to unpack a life that moves with ice, bugs, and bookings. From black ice and first-snow days to crappie dinners snuck in before a niece’s skating show, Kyle’s world is built on grit, logistics, and quiet pride. The...

A hot-tub sunrise under northern stars. A beached fuel barge after the dam closes. Guests stepping off rocks because the docks aren’t ready yet—but they can see the heart and the plan. We sit down with Willie “the Oil Man” to unpack the real work behind Two Rivers Lodge’s first season and why oil patch grit translates surprisingly well to backcountry hospitality. We start with the bones: levelling...