Claim OwnershipDiaries of a Lodge Owner
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© 2026 Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Description
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.
156 Episodes
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The hardest part of life in the North isn’t the weather, the long days, or even the problems that show up at the dock when you’re already running flat out. It’s realizing you can’t hold on to every season forever. This goodbye is personal, bittersweet, and honest: a final reflection on what a fishing lodge on the French River in Ontario can create when you do it with your whole heart. We talk about the mantra that guided us through chaos and calm alike: they come as guests and they lea...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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