Diaries of a Lodge Owner | Podcast Guru

Details

In 2009, sheet metal mechanic, Steve Niedzwiecki, turned his passions into reality using steadfast belief in himself and his vision by investing everything in a once-obscure run-down Canadian fishing lodge. After ten years, the now-former lodge owner and co-host of The Fish'n Canada Show is here to share stories of inspiration, relationships and the many struggles that turned his monumental gamble into one of the most legendary lodges in the country. From anglers to entrepreneurs, athletes to conservationists; you never know who is going to stop by the lodge.

Recent Episodes

Episode 154: What Happens When You Stop Chasing Perfect

A lure that pops, walks the dog, and then dives a few feet under the surface sounds like marketing, until you hear how it was actually built. My guest Steve Waters takes us from a kid carving a jitterbug-style bait out of a broomstick handle at an Ontario campground to launching a real Canadian fishing lure brand with thousands of finished baits sitting on a pallet in his garage. If you care about bass fishing, topwater retrieves, or lure design that solves real problems on the water, this on...

50 MIN

Episode 153: Sell The Experience

A great business can fail for a painfully simple reason: the owner forgets what they are actually selling. Sitting on the island on the Upper French River, we talk with Michael Scates about the moment that made that lesson impossible to ignore and why “features” like cabins, boats, square footage, or even fishing are never the full product. What people buy is confidence, an experience, and the feeling that the person across the table is real. We rewind to the early Chaudiere Lodge days, when...

111 MIN

Episode 152: A Three Cent Part Cost Me The Fish Of A Lifetime

One violent headshake, one flash of a giant’s eyeballs, and then the hook comes flying back at us. That’s the kind of moment that turns a regular day on the water into a permanent memory, and it’s where this chapter of Diaries of a Lodge Owner starts: with the fish that would have changed everything on tournament day. We walk through a Gloucester Pool bass tournament run that had first place within reach, right down to the current in the channel and the exact piece of cover that begged...

58 MIN

Episode 151: The Fish I Still Think About...

A muskie over 50 inches on a rod that holds about 30 feet of line sounds like the start of a disaster, but for me it becomes one of those rare nights that never stops replaying. I’m sitting alone with a handful of fishing memories that refuse to fade, the ones tied to a person, a place, and a feeling that hits you years later when you least expect it. We start on the French River with my son Rayburn, and the moment that helped turn him into a full-blown muskie fanatic. The gear is improvised...

74 MIN

Episode 150: A Fire Captain’s PTSD Recovery Through Fishing

The hardest part of emergency calls isn’t always the chaos you can see. Sometimes it’s standing beside a wife, a son, or a loved one who’s begging you to fix the unfixable. Fire Chief Mike Sutton joins us for a raw, honest talk about nearly 30 years in the fire service, the weight that builds call after call, and the moment he realizes PTSD, anxiety, and depression have finally caught up. We start on the lighter side with muskie fishing, missed strikes, and the mental discipline it takes to ...

71 MIN