114 Days as a First-Time Fishing Guide on Haida Gwaii
Season 2 of the Wild Ways Podcast is here, and we're back to weekly episodes.
After eight months off air, here's where I've been. This spring I got the chance to go to Haida Gwaii and spend the summer as a fishing guide at one of the best-known fishing lodges in Canada. I'd fished the ocean my whole life, but I'd never been paid to take people out.
That turned into 114 days of 14-hour days, big kings, orcas right beside the boat, and sea lions that will steal a salmon right off your line. This episode is the whole story, plus what's coming this winter on the trapline.
Listen to the episode
In this episode
Getting dropped into a remote lodge and learning the water in the first 10 days
Why guiding is a marathon, not a race, and how I got through the grind
What guides actually celebrate (it's not how many fish you kill)
Orcas, humpbacks, salmon sharks, and the sea lions that "nuke" your fish
What I learned from guests, many of them CEOs and business owners, after 30-40 hours on a boat
Going off the grid: from 5-6 hours of screen time a day to 15 minutes
The 2026 season report: Chinook, coho, halibut, ling, and where the big kings have gone
Would I go back?
What's next: a full winter on the trapline, documented
Chapters
0:00 Cold open - sea lions
0:20 Welcome back - Season 2
0:50 Guiding on Haida Gwaii
2:16 Getting there & the first 10 days
3:24 A marathon, not a race
5:28 Chasing big kings
6:34 Adventure every day on the water
7:32 The guests
8:50 Off the grid - no screens
9:54 2026 season fishing report
11:30 Orcas, sea lions & salmon sharks
13:44 The other guides
14:33 Would I go back?
15:49 Takeaways - discipline
16:22 Winter trapline plans
18:34 Wrap-up
Next week: we're talking trapping and getting ready for the winter trapline season.
Watch more on YouTube at Wild Ways Podcast and Lyman's Wild Ways, or follow the podcast on any app through the podcast feed.
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