What's up guys? Welcome back to Vagabrothers.
Right now we are off the grid
in the Canadian wilderness
hundreds of miles from the nearest town.
Travel Manitoba has invited us to
Lake Aikens Wildernest Lodge
to go on a fishing adventure and experience
the best of Manitoba's nature.
But getting here was an adventure in itself.
Excited, Brother?
I'm excited. I am not the biggest fisherman.
My brother is quite enthusiastic,
but I'm quite the amateur.
I'm pretty excited to go up there and just be in the wilderness.
Aikens Lake is a wilderness lodge.
It's going to be pretty cool.
We'll be there for the next three days.
What about you, Alex?
A bunch of big fish in these lakes
and not a lot of people to fish them.
So we should have pretty good luck.
Ready, Bro? Let's do it. Let's go.
Hello. Thanks. Oh, hello.
That already was an awesome experience.
This is some Indiana Jones stuff.
Pretty awesome arrival.
How often do you get to fly in a float plane, Bro?
Not often. But you know what, dude?
I'm always just humbled by the vastness
of Canada's nature..
We're going to get settled into our cabin
and then see what the day has to offer.
We should still start with coffee, though
because it's early.
Oh....nice.
Hi. My name is Pit and we're at
Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge in Manitoba, Canada.
This lodge started after the Second World War.
It was a war veteran coming back from Europe
that built the lodge.
Our family is fifth generation owners now.
We're right in the middle of the boreal forest
We're a proposed UNESCO World Heritage site.
There's no road access.
A lot of people who come up here are
hardcore fishermen or fisherwomen.
They're just looking for a good time being able to
unwind for three days and unplug from the world.
Well. We have landed,
we've checked in, and now we are
getting ready to head out onto the lake.
We are prepping the boat.
They've got all the fishing stuff for us.
It's going to be fun.
I think we're going to get into it.
Our guides Justin and Derrick have shown us a cool spot.
Derrick, have you done this before?
Yeah, I've done it a few times.
Pretty high. He's a badass.
Didn't know that came with a free colonic.
[Laughs]
Oh, that was so fun.
Way bigger than it looks.
My feet sting a little bit.
My arm kind of stings....but
I'm a happy camper.
All right, guys. Right now we're pulling up to
these pictographs. Native American pictographs
that are drawn right here at the water's edge.
I was told the other day by a guy that studied
that there's only one member
of the tribe that could do them.
And it was the medicine man or the medicine woman.
And basically, these were her visions for the area.
Right here you can see that there's a canoe.
Over there you can see the outline of a wolf.
Two ears.
What I find the craziest about these is
that you can still
almost feel
the energy.
It's definitely cool.
There have been people living here for over 10,000 years
and even though today is a nice sunny day,
you can imagine living on this lake
in the middle of winter would be
a different experience entirely.
No way.
Guys, well as you may or may not know,
depending on how long you've been a Vagabuddy,
I am a bird nerd.
Huge bird nerd.
And the king of all birds...
the king and queen, if you will are the
bald eagles, especially here in North America,
and we have just had
the most amazing up close and personal
encounter with this pair of bald eagles.
Incredible.
Bald eagle...symbol of the United States
very present here in Canada.
All right guys. Well it's about 5:30
and 5:30 around these parts
means cocktail time.
Can I have a gin and tonic?
Sure.
That was easy.
We're going to grab a couple cocktails,
get some dinner, and then we're going to head back out
onto the lake and try to catch some fish.
Cheers. Cheers.
Let's do it. Back on the lake.
Sunset.
It's the perfect time to catch a big one.
We shall see.
We've just nibbled a little dinner,
and now the fish are nibbling. So...
We're going to go let the fish nibble on our baits
Take that how you will.
What are we fishing for today?
We're going to be fishing for walleye
What makes it so good to fish here?
Just so much structure in this lake that
it holds an amazing amount of bait fish
and then that turns into holding a lot of
game fish, as well.
You want to know why I like fishing so much, Mark?
Let me guess....
because you can just sit on your butt and
drink beer all day.
And be outside.
I know you too well.
That's why we have Derrick here
catching all the nasty stuff for us.
See, I told you Alex. Caught you again
talking about your accent.
We get outside of California and you start
talking like Matthew McConaughey
wherever we go. Hey, Brother
Why don't you just pipe down there?
I'm snagged again.
I got something, and it is not a rock.
I might have to get out of my chair for this one.
Beautiful.
I should probably mention right now
that I really don't like touching fish.
It's kind of a phobia of mine.
Time to touch it.
Yeah, I'm going to do it.
Hey, Bro.
Can you snap a Tinder photo for me?
I need a new profile pic.
Badass fish.
Boom. Marko: 1
Alex: 0
Oh....Got one.
This is another really nice walleye
It's about 24 inches.
Can you just tell me and clarify real quick.
What is bigger? 24 or 25 inches?
I believe 25 is slightly bigger.
This fish is a little fatter.
Sounds about right.
Sounds like a pretty accurate statement.
Wasn't that smooth
That's one way to do it.
See you tomorrow.
We're getting an early start tomorrow.
6:30 coffee comes to the door.
7:00 breakfast; 8:00 on the water
Hopefully catch some lake trout tomorrow
Well the hard work paid off.
[Laughs]
Derrick totally caught this one.
I'm just trying to steal the glory.
Whoooo
A monster.
This thing weighs a ton
Now we're going to go for just a couple
choice fish that we can land,
catch, fillet, and cook tonight.
This is where lunch is.
Four fish. We're going to cook it two ways.
Nice little fire here, looking over the lake.
This is called a shore lunch.
Derrick is a Michelin starred backwoods chef.
This smells amazing
Enjoy, Bro.
Cheers. Bon appetite!
So good.
Well guys. It's been a fun couple of days,
but unfortunately our time here at Aikens
is coming to an end.
We've had so much fun.
It's been beyond relaxing.
Honestly, to be at a nice little
set up cabins in the middle of nowhere
with pretty much your own private lake
Doesn't get much better than that.
Plus the fishing was incredible.
The scenery is amazing.
The food was on point.
And just generally good vibes all around.
This has been my first official fishing trip
of my life.
I am definitely pretty much a city slicker.
To be this far out in the wilderness has been
a new experience for me.
I think the highlight for me was simply
arriving on a float plane
and just seeing the float planes come in and out
of this lodge in the last couple days has been really cool.
Cliff jump was fun.
Seeing the pictographs was awesome.
And finishing the trip with the shore lunch.
It doesn't get better than that.
I want to thank Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge
and Travel Manitoba for bringing us out here.
We're about to hop on a plane and fly back
down to Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba
to do some more exploration.
So stay tuned to see what we get up to there.
In the meantime, remember, stay curious,
keep exploring, and we will see all of you Vagabuddies
on the road. Peace.