Doc Talks Fishing Podcast

20 Episodes

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#20 || Dr. Heidi Swanson: Turnover – What It Means and How It Affects Fish

2024-11-0501:01:21

Send us a textTwice a year—spring and fall—lake turnover disrupts the waters and drives anglers crazy. To help us make sense of this phenomenon, we’re joined by Dr. Heidi Swanson, a distinguished fisheries scientist and the inaugural Jarislowsky Chair at Wilfrid Laurier University. Heidi is also the adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Swanson’s work with cold-water fish is legendary.In this episode, she’ll explain how, in lakes that stratify, the thermocline acts as a ‘glass ...

#19 || Dr. Bruce Tufts: Do Fish Scents Really Work?

2024-10-2201:11:58

Send us a textDr. Bruce Tufts is a comparative fish physiologist at Queen’s University where he specializes in fish olfactory senses. On this week’s podcast, Bruce explains how fish use their keen senses of smell and taste. Using hundreds of captive fish, Bruce and his team undertook countless feeding trials to isolate the specific molecules that flip the switch and convince them that your bait is real. And what about garlic and coffee, do fish really find them attractive? Does ga...

#18 || Dr. David Philipp: A Once in a Lifetime Smallmouth Bass Discovery

2024-10-0858:36

Send us a textDr. David Philipp is renowned for his work with smallmouth bass - especially their reproductive ecology. But the Director of the Fisheries Genetics Lab at the Illinois Natural History Society, adjunct professor at the University of Illinois and Chair of the Fisheries Conservation Foundation encountered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on Opinicon Lake, in southeastern Ontario, when Covid rules closed access to the fish during the spawning season. How the bass responded has not o...

#17 || Danny Swainson: Are steelhead doomed?

2024-09-2401:06:55

Send us a textBiologist Danny Swainson says steelhead on the west coast have so many nutrients available to them once they hit the ocean that they can grow to 15 pounds in three or four years. But something is happening to them once they enter salt water and it is frightening. Are steelhead different from the rainbow trout in the rivers? What are the survival bottlenecks they are encountering in the ocean? How many adults are returning these days to spawn? What are tracking studies telling us...

#16 || Brian Chan: Triploid Trout - Are they the future of stocking?

2024-09-1052:20

Send us a textRenown biologist, Brian Chan has spent years managing the trout fisheries in British Columbia. You'll be amazed listening to Brian explain how the province produces triploid female rainbow and brook trout that grow twice as large and live twice as long as diploids. There is a reason the trout fishing spotlight is shining so brightly on British Columbia these days. Brian even shares some of his stillwater trout fishing secrets with us. Hold onto your hats, folks, this one is amaz...

#15 || Steve Quinn: The Lateral Line, A Fish's Sixth Sense

2024-08-2755:24

Send us a textBiologist Steve Quinn has a foot in the world of fisheries science and fishing itself. The longtime bass editor of In-Fisherman Magazine has authored numerous research reports and served in various capacities for the American Fisheries Society. Steve joins Liam and Gord on this week's podcast to reveal how fish use their lateral lines to communicate with each other, hunt and capture prey. They can even detect the vortex left in the water by a fleeing baitfish (or your lure) and ...

#14 || Christian Therrien: How Ciscoes Change the Life History of Predators

2024-08-1301:12:20

Send us a textCiscoes —also known as lake herring and tulibees— are so favoured by walleye, lake trout, northern pike, bass and muskies that they seem to have a target painted on their backs. Absolutely every predator fish devours them every opportunity they get. Dr. Chris Therrien —who is known as The Cisco Kid— sits down with Gord and Liam on this week’s podcast to explain how ciscoes can totally change the lake dynamics and life history of predators. Prepare to be dazzled as Chris explains...

#13 || Dr. Sean Landsman: Magnificent, Mysterious, Magical Muskies

2024-07-3001:25:45

Send us a textRenowned muskie scientist, Dr. Sean Landsman tells Liam and Gord on this week's podcast that he has observed muskies doing some mighty strange things. Using bio-loggers equipped with pressure sensors, Landsman says he is surprised at the number of muskies that frequent deeper water, lay on the bottom of the lake and suspend in the water column? Do muskies have different personalities? Do they learn? And do they adjust their behaviour based on fishing pressure? The author of Proj...

#12 || Becca Perry: Set Your Sights on Whitefish

2024-07-1659:26

Send us a textFew fish baffle anglers more than lake whitefish. They're found in countless numbers of lakes, often offering up staggering populations of big hard fighting delicious fish. But in other than a few well-known lakes in the winter, whitefish remain an enigma. Rebecca Perry is an instructor at Saskatchewan Polytechnic, who has studied lake whitefish extensively. She talks with Gord and Liam on this week's podcast and helps us unravel the secrets to locating and catching whitefish th...

#11 || Barry Corbett: Tracking Bass Throughout the Seasons

2024-07-0201:10:31

Send us a textImagine surgically implanting radio tags inside 38 smallmouth bass and then tracking them on a daily basis for up to five years. The details you would learn about their habits and habitats would astound you. Well, that is what OMNR biologist Barry Corbett did on one million acre Lake of the Woods, in one of the most monumental bass tracking studies in fisheries science history. Barry shares what he learned with Liam and Gord on today's podcast and it will take your breath away.

#10 || Dr. Paul Cooley: The Incredible Walleye / Shiner Connection

2024-06-1801:07:35

Send us a textAny day now, an amazing pre-summer peak walleye pattern is going to explode. And it is based on something few anglers understand — the shiner spawn. Dr. Paul Cooley is the fisheries scientist who discovered the phenomenon on massive Lake Winnipeg — but it happens in every lake where walleyes eat shiners — and he tells the boys where you’ll find the fish bunched up big time. Are you ready for this: the best fishing occurs in waist deep water on the same sand beaches where e...

#9 || Baccante, Whetter and Pyzer: Walleye Tactics, Tricks and Presentations

2024-06-0401:09:30

Send us a textNick Baccante, the Senior Research Biologist in Ontario's renown Walleye Research Unit, recently shared some amazing early season science secrets. This week, Gord and Liam take Nick's walleye words of wisdom and show you how to prepare a foolproof game plan to put more and bigger fish in the boat. Jump in with the boys and learn how to combine state-of-the-art science with cutting edge walleye presentations.

#8 || Tom Brooke Jr.: The Allure of Crayfish

2024-05-2101:11:35

Send us a textThere are 669 different species of crayfish, including 400 varieties in North America. And every fish finds them finger licking good. Especially, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleyes, yellow perch and trout. Liam and Gord spend an hour brainstorming with crayfish biologist, Tom Brooke Jr., discovering what is happening on the bottom of our favourite lakes, rivers, reservoirs, pits and ponds. Did you know that crayfish don't lay eggs? That they range in a rainbow-like array...

#7 || Bev Ritchie: The Walleye / Mayfly Miracle

2024-05-0758:33

Send us a textIf you fish for walleyes (bass, trout, pike, perch, even muskies) you won't believe what you're going to learn from biologist, Bev Ritchie, who discovered that the magnificent hexigenia limbata hatch so heavily in even numbered years - like this year — that the walleyes go berserk devouring them. There are as many as 120 mayfly nymphs crawling around every square metre or yard of lake bottom and the fish pounce on them and eat them almost exclusively when they're about to hatch....

#6 || Nick Baccante: Spring Walleyes

2024-04-2301:13:02

Send us a textNick Baccante helped write the book on walleyes, studying the popular sport fish as the lead Research Biologist in Ontario’s esteemed, Walleye Research Unit and as the Fish and Wildlife Section Head, for the Peace Region in British Columbia. Nick joins Liam and Gord on this week’s podcast as they talk about early season walleye behaviour and fishing strategies. Do you know why you typically catch more small male walleyes than large female walleyes when the fishing season opens?&...

#5 || Dr. Bruce Tufts: Why Big Fish Matter

2024-04-0901:00:35

Send us a textLiam and Gord sit down this week with Dr. Bruce Tufts, who heads up the prestigious Freshwater Fisheries Conservation Lab at Queen’s University. Tufts explains why big walleye, bass, trout, northern pike and muskies are the rock stars of the fishing world. A 12-pound female walleye, for example, lays exponentially more eggs than three four-pound female walleye. The eggs are bigger, more nutritious, more viable and hatch earlier leading to the best year classes. And that is just ...

#4 || Rob Swainson: Saving Brook Trout

2024-03-2601:15:46

Send us a textIf we’re lucky we get the chance, once or twice in our life, to cross paths with someone who changes the course of history. In Rob Swainson’s case, it is the celebrated brook trout fishery associated with Lake Nipigon, the Nipigon River and the north shore of Lake Superior. Gord and Liam interview the man this week, who wouldn’t accept the fact that a world class fishery was doomed. Under Swainson’s leadership the brook trout fishing has sprung back to life. How did ...

#3 || Chris Therrien: The Incredible World of Lake Trout

2024-03-1201:09:53

Send us a textGord and Liam sit down this week with renown lake trout scientist, (Dr.) Chris Therrien, who has spent years studying the habits and habitat of lake trout. Chris shocks the boys explaining how cold water loving lake trout will venture to feed into the last place you'd ever expect to catch them — hot shoreline water in the middle of summer. He also spells out why he would never fish for lake trout in a lake that didn't offer ciscoes as the principal prey species. And are you read...

#2 || Kamden Glade: What do Muskies Eat?

2024-02-2701:07:24

Send us a textUnbelievable ... amazing .... mind-boggling. Choose whatever superlative you want to use and it is appropriate for this week's guest, Kamden Glade, who works for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Kamden studied the diets of muskies (northern pike, walleye and largemouth bass) using gastric lavage - the same technique employed in hospitals. Kamden joins Liam and Gord on this week's podcast and explains what muskies eat in different lake settings and whether or not th...

#1 || Jeff Matity: The Fascinations of Burbot

2024-02-1601:08:15

Send us a textThis week Gord and Liam sit down with biologist, Jeff Matity to discuss the amazing underwater world of burbot. Did you know that burbot communicate with each other when they spawn? And that the non-breeders guard and protect the spawning grounds against intruders. We also examine the ways you can use this cutting-edge science to increase your catch of burbot — you can decoy them using muskie baits — and land more of the fabulous freshwater cod every time you go fishing. W...

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