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Welcome to The Complete Angler, your source of information on the outdoor industry in Central Canada.
With over 35 years in the field, host Don Lamont covers topics and issues with industry leaders and influencers to bring you up to speed on what’s happening in the outdoor world.
And now, here is your host, Don Lamont.
Keevin Erickson is a passionate hunter and angler.
He has a love for filming, photography, and writing.
His extensive experiences in Manitoba’s wilderness have ingrained within him a deep love for this province and its wilderness.
This love of the outdoors, along with his desire to use social media, has made him famous.
Keevin has almost 300,000 followers on his Hunting the Interlake Instagram account.
Hey Keevin, I appreciate you taking the time to come on on The Complete Angler Podcast.
I know you’re a busy guy.
First question for you, how long have you been with Huntfish Manitoba?
Yeah, thanks for having me, Don.
So, yeah, my roles with Travel Manitoba is a huntfish consultant.
So, I lead the marketing side of the huntfish division for Travel Manitoba.
And I’ve been doing it now for about five years, and it’s been a pretty fun ride so far.
Well, it’s a really cool title, and I’ve known you for a while, and you’ve done a hell of a job.
So, how did you get that position?
What led up to it?
Well, I’ll make a long story short here, but when I was going through university, in which I took environmental studies with a focus on wildlife management,
I started an Instagram page, it was called Hunting the Interlake, and I grew it to a pretty large proportion.
At the peak, it was over 350,000 followers, and I was marketing for all kinds of outdoor brands.
And without even knowing it, I was kind of giving myself a self-taught marketing degree, and that combined with my university background,
it was kind of a perfect catalyst to this position when I applied and got the job.
And, yeah, five years later, and it seems like it’s gone by in a blink.
Well, I wish I knew you about 35 years ago with those kind of numbers.
I could have used a little help on the complete angler, I can tell you.
Congratulations, you know, that’s something, Keevin, I didn’t even know.
Yeah, yeah, it’s, I don’t do a whole lot with it now.
The style of Instagram now has changed a lot, so it’s a little bit more difficult for individuals to market that way.
But it was a lot of fun, and I was able to pay my way through university by clicking buttons on my phone,
which is a pretty unique thing to be able to say.
Well, that’s really cool.
So, give us some background of where you grew up and where you developed a passion for hunting fish.
Yeah, so I grew up in Lundar, Manitoba, and both my parents are from here as well.
Both come from a farming background.
So, naturally, I was in and amongst the cattle growing up all the time.
And my dad’s always been a very avid hunter and stuff, so I was introduced into that at a very young age.
And our farm and the land around it has some excellent hunting opportunities.
So, the natural progression as I grew up, I started doing it on my own and started to really be incredibly interested in animals and their behaviors
and just getting to learn them and observe them in the wild.
So, it’s been kind of my addiction growing up.
And then, you know, fishing has been more secondary for me growing up.
I did the odd trip here and there with my dad growing up, but it wasn’t really until my, well, I was about 18 or so,
I started to, I would drive out to Lockport and go catfishing and stuff.
And then, my love for angling really started to grow.
And then, with this job, I’ve got to experience some of the best fisheries in the province.
And I still think that one of the best in the province is the one in my backyard here at Lake Manitoba.
But it’s a pretty untouched gem.
It’s unbelievable.
Of course, we won’t tell anybody about that.
We’ll just keep it your secret.
Yeah, we’ll keep that between us.
But, you know, we were talking about two weeks ago on, you know, about the situation,
about how many different lodges and outfitters we’ve been to.
And I think you’re about one of the only, you and Marcel, your partner in crime there at Huntfish,
probably have, in five years, you’ve probably matched my 25 years of the places you’ve gone.
How is that part of your job?
Yeah.
So, a big part of what we do at Huntfish Manitoba is we create content for lodges and outfitters
through our partnership program.
So, we offer partnerships to lodges and outfitters that they buy into through Travel Manitoba.
And Marcel and I hit the road or the airplanes and get to the lodges and outfitters and create
content for them with the specific goal of using it for them to be able to market themselves,
as well as for us at Huntfish Manitoba to use to market them through various campaigns that
we run throughout the year and get some U.S. hunters and anglers into the province.
How successful has it been?
It’s been incredibly successful.
And obviously, there was a little blip during the years of COVID there.
But even last year alone, we’ve seen U.S. angling license return to pretty much exactly what
the 2019 levels are.
So, we’re pretty excited for 24, 25 and seeing that number perhaps exceed the 2019 levels
and kind of a good indication of a full recovery of the industry.
Well, I hear it was pretty crazy on Lake Winnipeg this last ice fishing season.
Yeah, I heard it was great.
I’m sure the warmer weather down south helped a lot.
But everyone knows those greenbacks and perhaps we take it a little bit for granted as Manitobans
with how easy they are for us to access.
But when you see the thousands of U.S. license plates heading out onto the lake every day,
it really puts in perspective how special of a fishery we have in our backyard here.
Well, let’s switch over to hunting a little bit.
What is your favorite passion as far as hunting is concerned?
What is your favorite species?
Luckily, there’s a lot of seasons that don’t directly overlap with each other.
So, I get to experience them all pretty passionately.
But definitely taking the cake is elk hunting for me.
There’s nothing quite like having a conversation with a thousand plus pound animal with 14 knives
on its head to call it in the close range.
And you get to learn their language a little bit and react to what they’re saying.
And say something different and, you know, get them in real nice and close.
So, there’s really nothing that can match the sound of a bull elk bugling at daybreak.
It’s something I look forward to every September.
That would make your heart beat.
So, do you have a decent population of elk in your part of the world?
Yeah, you know, like all across the province, elk numbers have been very positive.
I know throughout the interlake, the recent aerial studies of them suggested that the population
had almost doubled since the previous time they were surveyed years before.
So, it’s an indication of a healthy population, which is directly correlated with the increase
of agriculture across the landscape, providing some awesome food sources for them.
But a close second to elk for me is whitetails.
I spend a lot of time in the whitetail woods throughout October, November, and even in September
in archery season at times too.
So, I get to spend a lot of time chasing those things around.
And I’ve been looking for their antlers quite a bit these last couple weeks as well.
Okay, cool.
So, do you actually have some really good-sized whitetail in your part of the world?
Yeah, I mean, there’s some really significant age classes coming into maturity right now.
We did see a little dip in the population with the cold winter we had in 21, I believe.
And we’ve seen some of the mature deer didn’t quite make it through the winter.
But those ones that did are now coming back into maturity.
So, I think this coming whitetail season is going to be pretty extravagant across most
of the province with a lot of good mature whitetails around.
Well, that’s good to hear.
Let’s switch back over to fishing for a little bit, you know, on all your travels.
And so, you know, we did a, in Manitoba, I should say we, Manitoba did a big change with
the Manitoba recreation angling strategy.
So, we’ve, no more trophy fish are being kept for walleye limits, et cetera, et cetera.
But the other bonus was open season.
So, the only closed season we have are lake trout at certain times.
And walleye, I think it’s what, what’s the opening this year?
May the, do you remember?
May 11th?
Yeah.
The Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend is always how I remember it by anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, we’ve done a really good job of trying to make our resource in Manitoba sustainable.
You know, and it’s been a fight.
I mean, it’s not always gone easily.
But how would you compare us, hunt fish-wise, with the rest of North America as far as resource?
Well, the resource is phenomenal and the investment and changes that the government and the wildlife departments have made into our resources has been, you know, second to none.
And a lot of revolutionary stuff that, you know, really puts wildlife first and preserves that experience for future generations.
Like you say, no more keeping of the trophy fish.
It’s, that conservation-minded approach is going to be the way of the future.
And I look at this as we’re leading the way with that.
So, now that you’ve been in this position five years, what’s your favorite part of the job, even?
You know, there’s so many things that are exciting.
Of course, heading out on the road to all these lodges and outfitters and getting to know them and their story and learn their product and their experiences.
It’s hard to beat that.
We recognize we’re very fortunate to see all the corners of the province like we do.
But, you know, just being in the industry, getting to know people all across the industry from yourself and Kevin at Hooked Magazine and, you know, all the Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters, the MWF, everybody’s such great people.
And just to, you know, get to know, it’s kind of a comforting feeling knowing who’s at the top of the industry and the industry’s in good hands.
Well, that goes back to the meeting we had a couple of weeks ago regarding stakeholders, right?
So, you mentioned all the key stakeholders, Manitoba Wildlife Federation, Travel Manitoba, Manitoba Lodge and Outfitters, and so on and so forth, as well as everybody else that has a stake in this industry.
It’s important that we stick together and we move ahead and make sure that we protect what we have because we do have a pretty special resource in this province.
Definitely, definitely.
So, I want to ask you two things.
First of all, I want you to give me your favorite fishing experience and secondly, your favorite hunting experience.
Yay.
So, fishing first.
Yeah, I’ll start with the fishing.
I mean, I might get a little long-winded on the hunting one, but I’ll try to keep it to the toner back.
You know, it’s hard to really pick one.
I would say, in general, this past winter on Lake Manitoba, I got to spend so much time on the water in my ice shack.
You know, and the walleye fishing has just been fantastic.
It’s a really good age class, you know, that, you know, 16 to 20-inch walleye.
And, you know, there’s a whole bunch of that real mature class coming up, too.
There’s a pretty good amount of 24, 25-inch walleyes.
We’ve seen 29 and a half come out of here this winter.
So, I think any time I’m spending on Lake Manitoba, it’s got to be some of my most memorable.
But, you know, heading up the last summer, we went up to the North Seal River system at Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge.
And I caught an Arctic grayling.
And that’s been something that’s kind of been on my bucket list for many years.
And catching that fish and knocking it off the bucket list is pretty special, too.
Have you ever caught a Nordic shark?
I have not, no.
And it’s pretty limited opportunities apart from a stock lake that I know of in the ducks there that there’s been some publicity around.
But other than that, I haven’t had the opportunity to.
Yeah, that’s always been on my bucket list.
But unless you go up to, you know, way up north, those opportunities do not exist.
So, plumbers up at Great Bear Lake, there is the opportunity there.
So, it’s very limited.
And it’s certainly not in Manitoba, like you say, unless it’s stocked.
So, let’s go to your favorite hunting story.
And don’t worry about the time.
We’ve got plenty of it.
Well, you know, I spend so much time in the woods.
There’s so many great experiences.
One that really sticks out to me.
Well, actually, let’s do two that really stick out to me.
A couple years ago, I wasn’t hunting elk, but I was just calling and trying to get some video of some elk during the rut.
And I was able to call in a pretty nice bull elk, a 7×7 bull elk, and to, you know, about four or five feet away.
And it finally stood there, realized something was a little bit wrong and ran away.
And then I stopped it, and he turned around and bugled.
And I played around with him for about another five or ten minutes.
So, I was able to film that on my phone while I was sitting there.
And I posted it on TikTok, and it amassed more than 10 million views on TikTok.
So, it’s pretty neat to share an experience like that to the world and showcase what a cool animal an elk really is.
So, that was a very memorable moment for me, for sure.
And conversely, a couple years ago, not last season, but the season before, I was able to close the distance on a really mature whitetail that I had been after for over three years at that point.
And had some shed antlers off of it, and was able to rattle it in the middle of the bush and got it with my muzzleloader.
So, those are two of my most cherished memories in the outdoors, that’s for sure.
Well, I think nowadays, more and more people are a little more inclined to consider, especially after COVID, that hunting is not necessarily a bad thing.
Especially when you harvest the meat, and you enjoy the animal, and you enjoy the experience.
It’s not necessarily all about the ability to harvest an animal, it’s the ability to go out there and enjoy the whole experience.
Just like you talked about, like calling in that elk to five feet, you said?
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, it’s pretty exhilarating.
But that being said, too, with the harvest comes the processing of the animal.
And I love to process all the meat myself and, you know, do all sorts of different things, grind it up, make it into sausage, pepperoni, like roast steaks and all that kind of stuff.
And, you know, over the years, spending a lot of time with Josh McFadden, as many people know, he’s a very talented, self-taught chef, and he specializes in the outdoor food and cooking world.
And so I’ve got to spend a lot of time with him and watched him cook, and I’ve picked up a few things of my own over the years.
So it’s been, it’s only further enhanced the experience of hunting and fishing, is being able to have a little bit of a culinary background and prepare it and share it with people.
You know what, I’ve tried a few of his recipes as well, and they’re absolutely fantastic.
Now, Josh is part of your team, is he not?
He is, yeah, yeah, he is.
His title is our social media specialist.
So he does, he does a lot of our social media posting and stuff like that.
But he also does some great content creation of his own.
As, as you know, he’s very talented behind the lens of a camera.
So he provides a lot of awesome strategy and content and pulls together different types of reels and stuff that work well on the trending short form videos on social media and all that kind of stuff.
He, he keeps us, he keeps us at the top with, with content and, and we’re really lucky to have him.
Now, the third part of the team and last but not least, well, I wouldn’t say he’s last, but he’s right there as Marcel, who I have had on the podcast before.
And so I’ll put a link to that so that people, if they haven’t heard the podcast I did with Marcel, will have an opportunity because he is a great videographer, is he not?
Oh, he’s, he’s incredibly talented.
And, and we, we are very, very fortunate to have him on the, the Huntfish Manitoba team.
He’s a, you know, self-taught videographer and it’s, it’s only been in the last, you know, six, seven years that he’s been like really getting into this, the, the, the photos and video side of the industry.
And, and what he’s doing now, he’s gone from that to literally one of the best in the business across North America.
Like his, his, the quality of his work is phenomenal and, and it’s really formed the identity of Huntfish Manitoba is the quality of content that we’re able to, to put out thanks to, thanks to him.
Well, I think judging by what you just told me about your social media following, I think you might have the Midas touch.
10 million on TikTok, give me a break.
I’ve, I’ve seen some cool stuff in the outdoors that not a lot of people get to see.
So when I, when I can capture it on, on video, it’s, it’s pretty interesting sometimes for, and you can see it go viral at times like that.
Well, the world needs to see that.
So what does the future hold for you, Kiva?
The future, I think we’re going to continue to grow this, this Huntfish MB brand with, with Travel Manitoba.
It’s kind of grown into its own animal of its own, its own beast.
It’s its own beast.
And, and, and, and, you know, it’s the, the, the support from local Manitobans to every province and state.
The brand is recognizable.
We work with such a, a talented group of influencers from our YouTube guys in, in, in Manitoba.
Like, uh, um, with Jay Siemens coming to town, Clayton Schick.
And we’ve got folks like Nicole Stone outdoors down in the South.
And we’ve got Jason Mitchell and, uh, um, Canada on the rough.
We’ve just got a, an awesome team of true professionals that do amazing work for our province.
And, and working with folks like that just brings the, brings our brand into the forefront.
And it’s helped our, helped us grow and promote Manitoba.
Well, that’s great.
Well, congratulations on all you do.
And, uh, well, I look forward to, I think we’re going to spend a little time together this summer.
I might catch a fish or two in my boat together.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to that.
Yeah.
So keep up the great work.
I really appreciate, appreciate what you’re doing there, Kevin.
Yeah.
Thanks a lot for having me here, Don.
It’s, uh, it’s been a lot of fun.
Thanks for tuning in.
Visit hookedmagazine.com to subscribe to the complete angler and never miss an episode.
With over 35 years in the field, host Don Lamont covers topics and issues with industry leaders and influencers to bring you up to speed on what’s happening in the outdoor world.
And now, here is your host, Don Lamont.
Keevin Erickson is a passionate hunter and angler.
He has a love for filming, photography, and writing.
His extensive experiences in Manitoba’s wilderness have ingrained within him a deep love for this province and its wilderness.
This love of the outdoors, along with his desire to use social media, has made him famous.
Keevin has almost 300,000 followers on his Hunting the Interlake Instagram account.
Hey Keevin, I appreciate you taking the time to come on on The Complete Angler Podcast.
I know you’re a busy guy.
First question for you, how long have you been with Huntfish Manitoba?
Yeah, thanks for having me, Don.
So, yeah, my roles with Travel Manitoba is a huntfish consultant.
So, I lead the marketing side of the huntfish division for Travel Manitoba.
And I’ve been doing it now for about five years, and it’s been a pretty fun ride so far.
Well, it’s a really cool title, and I’ve known you for a while, and you’ve done a hell of a job.
So, how did you get that position?
What led up to it?
Well, I’ll make a long story short here, but when I was going through university, in which I took environmental studies with a focus on wildlife management,
I started an Instagram page, it was called Hunting the Interlake, and I grew it to a pretty large proportion.
At the peak, it was over 350,000 followers, and I was marketing for all kinds of outdoor brands.
And without even knowing it, I was kind of giving myself a self-taught marketing degree, and that combined with my university background,
it was kind of a perfect catalyst to this position when I applied and got the job.
And, yeah, five years later, and it seems like it’s gone by in a blink.
Well, I wish I knew you about 35 years ago with those kind of numbers.
I could have used a little help on the complete angler, I can tell you.
Congratulations, you know, that’s something, Keevin, I didn’t even know.
Yeah, yeah, it’s, I don’t do a whole lot with it now.
The style of Instagram now has changed a lot, so it’s a little bit more difficult for individuals to market that way.
But it was a lot of fun, and I was able to pay my way through university by clicking buttons on my phone,
which is a pretty unique thing to be able to say.
Well, that’s really cool.
So, give us some background of where you grew up and where you developed a passion for hunting fish.
Yeah, so I grew up in Lundar, Manitoba, and both my parents are from here as well.
Both come from a farming background.
So, naturally, I was in and amongst the cattle growing up all the time.
And my dad’s always been a very avid hunter and stuff, so I was introduced into that at a very young age.
And our farm and the land around it has some excellent hunting opportunities.
So, the natural progression as I grew up, I started doing it on my own and started to really be incredibly interested in animals and their behaviors
and just getting to learn them and observe them in the wild.
So, it’s been kind of my addiction growing up.
And then, you know, fishing has been more secondary for me growing up.
I did the odd trip here and there with my dad growing up, but it wasn’t really until my, well, I was about 18 or so,
I started to, I would drive out to Lockport and go catfishing and stuff.
And then, my love for angling really started to grow.
And then, with this job, I’ve got to experience some of the best fisheries in the province.
And I still think that one of the best in the province is the one in my backyard here at Lake Manitoba.
But it’s a pretty untouched gem.
It’s unbelievable.
Of course, we won’t tell anybody about that.
We’ll just keep it your secret.
Yeah, we’ll keep that between us.
But, you know, we were talking about two weeks ago on, you know, about the situation,
about how many different lodges and outfitters we’ve been to.
And I think you’re about one of the only, you and Marcel, your partner in crime there at Huntfish,
probably have, in five years, you’ve probably matched my 25 years of the places you’ve gone.
How is that part of your job?
Yeah.
So, a big part of what we do at Huntfish Manitoba is we create content for lodges and outfitters
through our partnership program.
So, we offer partnerships to lodges and outfitters that they buy into through Travel Manitoba.
And Marcel and I hit the road or the airplanes and get to the lodges and outfitters and create
content for them with the specific goal of using it for them to be able to market themselves,
as well as for us at Huntfish Manitoba to use to market them through various campaigns that
we run throughout the year and get some U.S. hunters and anglers into the province.
How successful has it been?
It’s been incredibly successful.
And obviously, there was a little blip during the years of COVID there.
But even last year alone, we’ve seen U.S. angling license return to pretty much exactly what
the 2019 levels are.
So, we’re pretty excited for 24, 25 and seeing that number perhaps exceed the 2019 levels
and kind of a good indication of a full recovery of the industry.
Well, I hear it was pretty crazy on Lake Winnipeg this last ice fishing season.
Yeah, I heard it was great.
I’m sure the warmer weather down south helped a lot.
But everyone knows those greenbacks and perhaps we take it a little bit for granted as Manitobans
with how easy they are for us to access.
But when you see the thousands of U.S. license plates heading out onto the lake every day,
it really puts in perspective how special of a fishery we have in our backyard here.
Well, let’s switch over to hunting a little bit.
What is your favorite passion as far as hunting is concerned?
What is your favorite species?
Luckily, there’s a lot of seasons that don’t directly overlap with each other.
So, I get to experience them all pretty passionately.
But definitely taking the cake is elk hunting for me.
There’s nothing quite like having a conversation with a thousand plus pound animal with 14 knives
on its head to call it in the close range.
And you get to learn their language a little bit and react to what they’re saying.
And say something different and, you know, get them in real nice and close.
So, there’s really nothing that can match the sound of a bull elk bugling at daybreak.
It’s something I look forward to every September.
That would make your heart beat.
So, do you have a decent population of elk in your part of the world?
Yeah, you know, like all across the province, elk numbers have been very positive.
I know throughout the interlake, the recent aerial studies of them suggested that the population
had almost doubled since the previous time they were surveyed years before.
So, it’s an indication of a healthy population, which is directly correlated with the increase
of agriculture across the landscape, providing some awesome food sources for them.
But a close second to elk for me is whitetails.
I spend a lot of time in the whitetail woods throughout October, November, and even in September
in archery season at times too.
So, I get to spend a lot of time chasing those things around.
And I’ve been looking for their antlers quite a bit these last couple weeks as well.
Okay, cool.
So, do you actually have some really good-sized whitetail in your part of the world?
Yeah, I mean, there’s some really significant age classes coming into maturity right now.
We did see a little dip in the population with the cold winter we had in 21, I believe.
And we’ve seen some of the mature deer didn’t quite make it through the winter.
But those ones that did are now coming back into maturity.
So, I think this coming whitetail season is going to be pretty extravagant across most
of the province with a lot of good mature whitetails around.
Well, that’s good to hear.
Let’s switch back over to fishing for a little bit, you know, on all your travels.
And so, you know, we did a, in Manitoba, I should say we, Manitoba did a big change with
the Manitoba recreation angling strategy.
So, we’ve, no more trophy fish are being kept for walleye limits, et cetera, et cetera.
But the other bonus was open season.
So, the only closed season we have are lake trout at certain times.
And walleye, I think it’s what, what’s the opening this year?
May the, do you remember?
May 11th?
Yeah.
The Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend is always how I remember it by anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, we’ve done a really good job of trying to make our resource in Manitoba sustainable.
You know, and it’s been a fight.
I mean, it’s not always gone easily.
But how would you compare us, hunt fish-wise, with the rest of North America as far as resource?
Well, the resource is phenomenal and the investment and changes that the government and the wildlife departments have made into our resources has been, you know, second to none.
And a lot of revolutionary stuff that, you know, really puts wildlife first and preserves that experience for future generations.
Like you say, no more keeping of the trophy fish.
It’s, that conservation-minded approach is going to be the way of the future.
And I look at this as we’re leading the way with that.
So, now that you’ve been in this position five years, what’s your favorite part of the job, even?
You know, there’s so many things that are exciting.
Of course, heading out on the road to all these lodges and outfitters and getting to know them and their story and learn their product and their experiences.
It’s hard to beat that.
We recognize we’re very fortunate to see all the corners of the province like we do.
But, you know, just being in the industry, getting to know people all across the industry from yourself and Kevin at Hooked Magazine and, you know, all the Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters, the MWF, everybody’s such great people.
And just to, you know, get to know, it’s kind of a comforting feeling knowing who’s at the top of the industry and the industry’s in good hands.
Well, that goes back to the meeting we had a couple of weeks ago regarding stakeholders, right?
So, you mentioned all the key stakeholders, Manitoba Wildlife Federation, Travel Manitoba, Manitoba Lodge and Outfitters, and so on and so forth, as well as everybody else that has a stake in this industry.
It’s important that we stick together and we move ahead and make sure that we protect what we have because we do have a pretty special resource in this province.
Definitely, definitely.
So, I want to ask you two things.
First of all, I want you to give me your favorite fishing experience and secondly, your favorite hunting experience.
Yay.
So, fishing first.
Yeah, I’ll start with the fishing.
I mean, I might get a little long-winded on the hunting one, but I’ll try to keep it to the toner back.
You know, it’s hard to really pick one.
I would say, in general, this past winter on Lake Manitoba, I got to spend so much time on the water in my ice shack.
You know, and the walleye fishing has just been fantastic.
It’s a really good age class, you know, that, you know, 16 to 20-inch walleye.
And, you know, there’s a whole bunch of that real mature class coming up, too.
There’s a pretty good amount of 24, 25-inch walleyes.
We’ve seen 29 and a half come out of here this winter.
So, I think any time I’m spending on Lake Manitoba, it’s got to be some of my most memorable.
But, you know, heading up the last summer, we went up to the North Seal River system at Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge.
And I caught an Arctic grayling.
And that’s been something that’s kind of been on my bucket list for many years.
And catching that fish and knocking it off the bucket list is pretty special, too.
Have you ever caught a Nordic shark?
I have not, no.
And it’s pretty limited opportunities apart from a stock lake that I know of in the ducks there that there’s been some publicity around.
But other than that, I haven’t had the opportunity to.
Yeah, that’s always been on my bucket list.
But unless you go up to, you know, way up north, those opportunities do not exist.
So, plumbers up at Great Bear Lake, there is the opportunity there.
So, it’s very limited.
And it’s certainly not in Manitoba, like you say, unless it’s stocked.
So, let’s go to your favorite hunting story.
And don’t worry about the time.
We’ve got plenty of it.
Well, you know, I spend so much time in the woods.
There’s so many great experiences.
One that really sticks out to me.
Well, actually, let’s do two that really stick out to me.
A couple years ago, I wasn’t hunting elk, but I was just calling and trying to get some video of some elk during the rut.
And I was able to call in a pretty nice bull elk, a 7×7 bull elk, and to, you know, about four or five feet away.
And it finally stood there, realized something was a little bit wrong and ran away.
And then I stopped it, and he turned around and bugled.
And I played around with him for about another five or ten minutes.
So, I was able to film that on my phone while I was sitting there.
And I posted it on TikTok, and it amassed more than 10 million views on TikTok.
So, it’s pretty neat to share an experience like that to the world and showcase what a cool animal an elk really is.
So, that was a very memorable moment for me, for sure.
And conversely, a couple years ago, not last season, but the season before, I was able to close the distance on a really mature whitetail that I had been after for over three years at that point.
And had some shed antlers off of it, and was able to rattle it in the middle of the bush and got it with my muzzleloader.
So, those are two of my most cherished memories in the outdoors, that’s for sure.
Well, I think nowadays, more and more people are a little more inclined to consider, especially after COVID, that hunting is not necessarily a bad thing.
Especially when you harvest the meat, and you enjoy the animal, and you enjoy the experience.
It’s not necessarily all about the ability to harvest an animal, it’s the ability to go out there and enjoy the whole experience.
Just like you talked about, like calling in that elk to five feet, you said?
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, it’s pretty exhilarating.
But that being said, too, with the harvest comes the processing of the animal.
And I love to process all the meat myself and, you know, do all sorts of different things, grind it up, make it into sausage, pepperoni, like roast steaks and all that kind of stuff.
And, you know, over the years, spending a lot of time with Josh McFadden, as many people know, he’s a very talented, self-taught chef, and he specializes in the outdoor food and cooking world.
And so I’ve got to spend a lot of time with him and watched him cook, and I’ve picked up a few things of my own over the years.
So it’s been, it’s only further enhanced the experience of hunting and fishing, is being able to have a little bit of a culinary background and prepare it and share it with people.
You know what, I’ve tried a few of his recipes as well, and they’re absolutely fantastic.
Now, Josh is part of your team, is he not?
He is, yeah, yeah, he is.
His title is our social media specialist.
So he does, he does a lot of our social media posting and stuff like that.
But he also does some great content creation of his own.
As, as you know, he’s very talented behind the lens of a camera.
So he provides a lot of awesome strategy and content and pulls together different types of reels and stuff that work well on the trending short form videos on social media and all that kind of stuff.
He, he keeps us, he keeps us at the top with, with content and, and we’re really lucky to have him.
Now, the third part of the team and last but not least, well, I wouldn’t say he’s last, but he’s right there as Marcel, who I have had on the podcast before.
And so I’ll put a link to that so that people, if they haven’t heard the podcast I did with Marcel, will have an opportunity because he is a great videographer, is he not?
Oh, he’s, he’s incredibly talented.
And, and we, we are very, very fortunate to have him on the, the Huntfish Manitoba team.
He’s a, you know, self-taught videographer and it’s, it’s only been in the last, you know, six, seven years that he’s been like really getting into this, the, the, the photos and video side of the industry.
And, and what he’s doing now, he’s gone from that to literally one of the best in the business across North America.
Like his, his, the quality of his work is phenomenal and, and it’s really formed the identity of Huntfish Manitoba is the quality of content that we’re able to, to put out thanks to, thanks to him.
Well, I think judging by what you just told me about your social media following, I think you might have the Midas touch.
10 million on TikTok, give me a break.
I’ve, I’ve seen some cool stuff in the outdoors that not a lot of people get to see.
So when I, when I can capture it on, on video, it’s, it’s pretty interesting sometimes for, and you can see it go viral at times like that.
Well, the world needs to see that.
So what does the future hold for you, Kiva?
The future, I think we’re going to continue to grow this, this Huntfish MB brand with, with Travel Manitoba.
It’s kind of grown into its own animal of its own, its own beast.
It’s its own beast.
And, and, and, and, you know, it’s the, the, the support from local Manitobans to every province and state.
The brand is recognizable.
We work with such a, a talented group of influencers from our YouTube guys in, in, in Manitoba.
Like, uh, um, with Jay Siemens coming to town, Clayton Schick.
And we’ve got folks like Nicole Stone outdoors down in the South.
And we’ve got Jason Mitchell and, uh, um, Canada on the rough.
We’ve just got a, an awesome team of true professionals that do amazing work for our province.
And, and working with folks like that just brings the, brings our brand into the forefront.
And it’s helped our, helped us grow and promote Manitoba.
Well, that’s great.
Well, congratulations on all you do.
And, uh, well, I look forward to, I think we’re going to spend a little time together this summer.
I might catch a fish or two in my boat together.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to that.
Yeah.
So keep up the great work.
I really appreciate, appreciate what you’re doing there, Kevin.
Yeah.
Thanks a lot for having me here, Don.
It’s, uh, it’s been a lot of fun.
Thanks for tuning in.
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Keevin Erickson is a passionate hunter and angler with a love for filming, photography, and writing. His extensive experiences in Manitoba’s wilderness have ingrained within him a deep love for this province and its wilderness. This love of the outdoors along with his desire to use social media to tell about has made him famous with almost 300,000 followers on his Hunting the Interlake Instagram account.
As an experienced outdoors enthusiast, Keevin enjoys big game hunting the most, with the pursuit of elk and whitetail deer at the top of his list. He is also a passionate angler and spends his free time on the water or the ice across the province, with his home waters of Lake Manitoba being his favourite.
Keevin also loves to share his hunting and fishing stories across various platforms in hopes of teaching and inspiring the next generation of outdoor enthusiasts. Whether in the woods, in the field, on the water, or the ice, Keevin’s enthusiasm for the outdoors is contagious.
You can find Keevin on these platforms:
https://www.instagram.com/huntingtheinterlake
https://www.youtube.com/@HuntingTheInterlake
