Today's guest is Gord Pyzer. Gord is widely known as Canada's most scientific fisherman. He's now the Fishing Editor at Outdoor Canada Magazine, and the Field Editor and Television host for In-Fisherman Magazine. But before that, with a masters degree in resource management, he worked for 30 years as a senior manager with Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources. He was inducted into the Canadian Angler Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in 2015. As you'll soon find out in the episode, his reputation as the "most scientific angler" is well deserved. Even if you're not very into fishing, (like me,) His deep understanding of these fish and their habitats, alongside his obvious passion, will leave you laughing in amazement.

Timing:

1:33 Start of interview
5:19 Lesson in Persistance
12:18 Getting to Know the Fish
17:04 Making a Living From Fishing
21:20 Sustainability
35:46 Gord's Best Fishing Stories
43:00 Gord's Definition of Success
54:14 Life Lessons from Fishing

The Golden Nugget of Wisdom:

The main lesson I learned looking back on my conversation with Gord Pyzer, revolves around humility and mastery. I went into yet another interview EXPECTING a professional to agree with and elaborate on a lesson I recently learned. But I quickly realized the lesson I learned was personal circumstance, and not an overarching blanket lesson for everybody out there who wants to learn how to fish. Let me explain.

As I discuss in the beginning of the interview, I recently caught my first fish ever. It was the last hour of the last day of the trip when I caught it and I instantly thought: FISHING is just about PERSISTENCE. I didn't give up so I was PROUD of my persistence, of my grind it out mentality.

But as soon as I brought it up with expert fisherman Gord Pyzer, he laughed and told me gently that it's actually quite the opposite of persistence. That if he hasn't caught anything in the first 20 minutes, he's outta there! His years of studying fish inside and out has led him to become so efficient in catching fish that he says he catches too many!

Looking back on it, the lesson here is that you CAN'T SHORTCUT mastery. When you first start learning a skill, you may THINK that you've discovered the secret, but really you've just made a little bit of progress, you've taken one step on a long, long journey. You think it's persistence, but as Gord teaches us in the episode: it's about studying and understanding the migratory patterns, the temperature preferences, the feeding habits, the biology, the circadian rhythm, and the never ending list of complexities for every single species of fish that leads to success. And this takes YEARS to learn and apply, not days and a few hundred casts.

Music:
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