Thank you to today's sponsors!

- The Invasive Species Centre: Protecting Canada’s land and water from invasive species
- SAIL: The Ultimate Destination for your Outdoor Adventures
- J&B Cycle and Marine: Your Home for all things powersports, boats, and equipment
- Freedom Cruise Canada: Rent the boat, own the memories

- Anglers Leaderboard: Real-time AI angling platform where everyone is welcome, and every catch counts!

- Silverwax: Proudly Canadian since 1999

It is the Outdoor Journal Radio holiday special and the final episode before the Christmas break. Angelo Viola, Pete Bowman, Dean Taylor, and Nik Viola sit down for a wide-ranging conversation that previews the upcoming 40th season of The Fish’n Canada Show and reflects on the stories, debates, and moments that shaped the year.

This episode includes a full breakdown of Season 40, with behind-the-scenes insight into upcoming destinations, fishing tactics, and what viewers can expect when the new season premieres in January. The crew also dives into listener feedback, conservation issues, invasive species concerns, and the ongoing debate around tournament fishing formats in Canada.

Along the way, the conversation covers Saskatchewan’s expanding wild turkey plans, water quality and fish consumption concerns, pro-am tournament structures, technology in fishing, and how the sport continues to evolve. It is a candid, unscripted holiday episode filled with fishing culture, industry insight, and classic Outdoor Journal Radio humour.

Whether you are a longtime fan of The Fish’n Canada Show or a new listener looking to understand where the show has been and where it is heading, this episode offers a rare look behind the curtain during a milestone year.

Thank you to today's sponsors!

- The Invasive Species Centre: Protecting Canada’s land and water from invasive species
- SAIL: The Ultimate Destination for your Outdoor Adventures
- J&B Cycle and Marine: Your Home for all things powersports, boats, and equipment
- Freedom Cruise Canada: Rent the boat, own the memories

- Anglers Leaderboard: Real-time AI angling platform where everyone is welcome, and every catch counts!

- Silverwax: Proudly Canadian since 1999

On today’s episode of Outdoor Journal Radio, Ang and Pete sit down with Mark Melnyk, host of The New Fly Fisher, for one of the most in-depth conversations ever recorded about the show’s past, present, and future.

Mark opens up about the passing of Colin McKeown, how he stepped into the host role, and the massive behind-the-scenes workload that came with running a long-standing fly fishing institution. He also shares travel stories from Canada’s far north to Patagonia, explains how fly fishing documentaries are made, and reveals why guides are the real stars of the sport.

We also get into:
• The origins of The New Fly Fisher and Colin’s legacy
• How Mark developed the show's modern documentary style
• Shooting fly fishing in remote, untouched waters
• The insane logistics behind international fishing trips
• Why 4K YouTube episodes changed everything
• Mark’s early days with TSN, OLN, WFN, and “Reel Fishy Jobs”
• What fans can expect in Season 25

Whether you’re a fly angler, a fan of outdoor TV, or just love behind-the-scenes filmmaking stories, this is a must-listen episode.

Thank you to today's sponsors!

- The Invasive Species Centre: Protecting Canada’s land and water from invasive species
- SAIL: The Ultimate Destination for your Outdoor Adventures
- J&B Cycle and Marine: Your Home for all things powersports, boats, and equipment
- Freedom Cruise Canada: Rent the boat, own the memories

- Anglers Leaderboard: Real-time AI angling platform where everyone is welcome, and every catch counts!

- Silverwax: Proudly Canadian since 1999

On this episode of Outdoor Journal Radio, Ottawa is dealing with a stormwater pond overflowing with goldfish and we brought in Dr. Steven Cooke to help us figure out what the hell is going on. Are goldfish spreading across Canada? Can they survive winter? And what should we do about them?

We also dig into a surprising new concern with round gobies and their link to botulism in birds, how smallmouth bass behave when ice forms, and why Ontario’s salmon have dropped from forty pound giants to fish half the size. Grass carp updates, wildfire impacts, and a behind the scenes look at Canada’s fishing tourism industry round out one of our most loaded episodes yet.

If you fish the Great Lakes, chase bass, love salmon, or care about invasive species, this is the episode you cannot miss.