The Complete Angler Podcast: Episode 8-Jay Siemens

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.
Our guest this week is one of the most active YouTubers on the planet.
This past winter, with travel restricted, he focused on how-to ice fishing videos.
Because of that, his YouTube channel subscriptions more than doubled to 85,000.
While he spends time in front of a camera, his work behind the lens is the most impressive.
In 2018, he launched his own production company, Thrive Visuals, specializing in the outdoor world.
Jay Siemens.
Jay, first of all, I’d like to thank you for coming on the show.
Thanks for having me.
This is good.
Normally, we see each other at sports shows, but now we haven’t seen each other in a little while with the state of the world.
No kidding.
How’s the pandemic affected what you do?
This is the longest I’ve gone without fishing in Manitoba, I think.
Like, I haven’t been fishing or hunting in Manitoba since maybe October, November.
Wow.
So, yeah, it’s been different.
It’s been a lot more fishing.
I live in Kenora, Ontario, and it’s been a lot more in my backyard, but luckily, my backyard’s pretty good.
But, yeah, it’s been less big trips, which is normally, you know, part of what I do.
But it’s been great.
No complaints.
Well, let’s talk about that, first of all, because you’ve been doing at least one video a week, how-to, mostly driven, right, on your YouTube channel?
Yeah.
No, it’s at the start of the ice season, I did a how-to ice fishing series.
And I heard the statistic was that I think 30% new license sales this year, there’s that many people getting into fishing.
Right.
So, I was like, well, there’s so many people getting into it, and a lot of fishing resources are good for people that are, you know, deep into it, and they’re trying to take it up to the next level.
But I was like, well, we need some content for just people that don’t know the difference between, you know, an electric auger and a gas auger and all that stuff, different types of shacks.
So, that was something that we set out to do early in the season, and I think the feedback was good.
I think it was great.
I really enjoyed it.
It was well laid out, really well executed.
I mean, we try and do that on the Hooked platform as well, because of the really demand for information out there with all the new people that are involved in the sport, both fishing and hunting.
Yeah.
So, are you going to do any hunting how-to?
Oh, well, my next trip is going to be a turkey hunt, so I don’t know how much how-to it’ll be or if it’ll be more of just telling a story of the hunt.
But, yeah, no, hunting is like something that I only got into in the last two to three years, and now I kind of got the bug, so.
Well, let’s talk about your early days.
How did you actually get into this whole situation that you’re in now?
Oh, well, if we go way back, I think we may have guided at the same place you guided at Eagle Nest, right?
Eagle Nest Lodge?
That is correct.
Back in the day?
What year did you guide at Eagle Nest?
I was there in 1982, 83, and 84.
Okay, I missed you by a bit.
I think I was there in 2008.
Well, I think you’re a little younger than I am, Jay.
Yeah, I love it.
So, how did that go?
How did you like guiding, first of all?
Guiding was fantastic.
It was like, I go to be on the water every day.
So, for a fisherman, to be on the water every day is, you know, it’s a great experience.
And it’s also a different, it’s something to get used to when you’re not fishing.
Everyone thinks, oh, you get to go fishing every day if you’re a fishing guide.
But, no, you’re teaching people to fish and watching them fish, too.
But I think from, like, the standpoint of becoming a better fisherman, like, guiding makes you go on the water every day, no matter what the conditions are.
Because if you’re just going fishing with your buddies on the weekend, you might be like, oh, the weather’s not great this weekend.
I’m going to take it off.
But when you’re a guide, you have to go no matter what.
So, I learned lots there.
And then I guided there for a couple years, northern Manitoba for a couple years, and then in Saskatchewan.
And then, kind of in that whole period of me guiding and getting more into fishing, I was like, how can I take the best fish picture possible, right?
And so, I was like, you know, getting a better camera.
I remember getting my first Canon Rebel, my first DSLR.
And that kind of, you know, opened my eyes to the world of photography.
And then I was like, I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school.
So, I was like, well, I’m going to go to a photography school in Winnipeg.
It was a one-year course.
I’m like, even if I don’t pursue this as a career, I wasn’t looking at it as a career.
I thought, you know what, something to do for a year and then better than me just being a fish bum all year.
So, I enrolled in the photography school and I was ready to go.
I think it was like three days before classes were supposed to start.
And I was on a fishing trip with Aaron Wiebe and he showed me, he pulled out his laptop at the end of the fishing trip.
He’s like, I want to show you something.
And he showed me this pilot episode for what was called uncut angling.
It didn’t have a name at the time, but it was a fishing show that he had filmed two pilot episodes.
And he said, this is what I got.
I want to go in on this full time.
Do you want to drop out of school and start filming the show with me?
And I didn’t really have any video experience, just a bit of photography experience.
So, I was like, yeah, let’s do it.
So, I remember calling my parents and being like, yeah, I don’t think I’m going to school anymore.
I think I’m dropping out and calling the school.
And three days before school started, I said, yeah, I’m withdrawing my tuition and all that.
So, that was kind of the start of filming on the road with Aaron Wiebe, which was called Uncut Angling.
And we did YouTube, we did TV for a year.
And yeah, that was a pretty pivotal point.
Now, that was back, I think it was 2011, was it, Jay?
Yeah.
Yeah.
2011 fall.
I think that was in August when I dropped out of school.
And then September, we hit the road and started filming.
So, it’s, yeah, it’s coming up on 10 years, which is wild.
It does not feel that long ago.
I remember talking to you at the Winnipeg Boat Show when you and Aaron were first getting that together.
And I’ll tell you a funny story about Aaron.
When he was in grade nine, he requested that he come to MidCanada video with me to see me put together the complete angular television show.
So, I had Aaron in the studio for a day at MidCan.
That’s awesome.
Yeah, we had a great time.
And it’s great to see both you guys doing so well in the industry.
Well, thank you.
Yeah, it’s crazy because, yeah, like I remember Aaron telling that story.
And it’s always a, you know, it was a dream for both of us to be in the fishing industry in some way or another.
We didn’t know what that would look like.
But, yeah, we’re very, very blessed.
That’s for sure.
Well, it’s amazing how the industry has changed.
Back in the day when I got into it, we went the same route.
We went guiding at Eagle Nest.
Yeah.
And then I went the tournament route.
So, I fished tournaments and did well at that and managed to get some sponsors.
And then I had a production company out of Regina approach me about doing the television show.
Yeah.
I did have some broadcast background to begin with.
So, that really helped.
And I had writing background.
I had written for the free press.
So, all of those things came together.
But the world has changed quite a bit, hasn’t it, Jay?
It’s not so much about, it’s more about the moment.
Because YouTube and everything has changed the world.
It’s changed a couple different things.
I was working on another project, kind of a behind-the-scenes look into what it is to make YouTube videos.
And something that’s so noticeable is when you started, you needed, you were probably filming on tape cassettes.
And the camera probably cost $50,000 that the videographer was using.
And, like, the barrier to entry was so huge to get into it.
And now it’s like the cell phones these days probably take better footage than the video cameras back then, right?
And it’s just, like, if you have a laptop or a phone, you can shoot and edit your entire project on your iPhone, which is wild.
So, now all of a sudden you have all these people creating content that normally couldn’t get into it before, which makes a little more competition and maybe more saturation.
But it also allows for, like, there’s so much more creativity.
And with that is people want to see their content right away.
When you filmed fishing shows, it was probably, it got released 6 to 12 months after you shot it, probably.
That’s correct.
Something like that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And now people want it right away.
They want it shot yesterday and edited today and online tomorrow, you know?
And it’s an interesting world for sure.
And it’s currently, like, it’s constantly evolving, just all of it, what people want to consume and how they want to consume it.
So, just to give you an idea, back in the day, it was $110,000 a year to produce that 13 episodes.
Wow.
Yeah, that’s an investment.
That includes, you know, buying airtime and stuff like that.
I mean, you don’t have to buy airtime anymore.
You have your own channel.
You put it on YouTube.
And that’s the beauty of it, is what I love.
Because I’ve done a lot of commercial videography and, like, stuff for clients.
And it’s like, okay, it needs to be two minutes long.
We want this song used.
It needs to hit these points.
But when you do YouTube, it’s like, okay, well, you can do whatever you want.
There’s no rules, right?
So, that, I think, from a creative standpoint is a lot of fun because you can play around with ideas that you may – and that’s what makes Aaron Weeb so good is because he just has a wild mind.
And these ideas that he has, he can turn them into videos.
And, you know, it could be, you know, catching a musky with strands of his beard or his hair or whatever it might be, right?
And stuff that you would never think of typically.
And with YouTube, you can just do that.
Well, I don’t think, Jay, you should sell yourself short either because I’ve seen you in the field.
I’ve seen your work.
You’re incredible at what you do as far as capturing images.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, I don’t know.
Like, I’ve always tried to – I feel like I’m kind of a videographer.
I was kind of a videographer first.
I don’t know.
And I was a fisherman first.
But the videographer side is something that I like to lean into a little more.
So, that might be drone footage or slow-mo stuff.
Or that’s something that I feel that I’m able to do because that’s what I kind of have my training in.
So, I love to, you know, show off the beautiful locations I might be at or, you know, just get artsy with it, right?
Well, talk about that.
You’ve got your documentary at Wollaston got nominated for the Fly Fishing Festival this year, right?
Yeah, that was pretty cool.
That was something that was kind of a bucket list thing was to do it like more of a produced documentary-style film.
And I got it at Wollaston.
That was the last place I got it at, northern Saskatchewan.
And I had been in chats with the owner.
And he’s like, I really want to do a fly fishing film.
But the story was never really there.
And then, finally, we had a story of this 70-year-old widow named Mary.
And she came up there and fly fished.
And she held her own with all the boys.
And it was just like, it’s such a cool story because she lost her husband.
And they used to come to the lodge together.
And instead of her just stopping that as a yearly trip, she kept coming and learned how to fly fish.
And, you know, catch this huge pike on the fly.
And just telling the story of how fly fishing was such a big piece to their family.
So that was, oh, that was probably like 12 days of filming, all trimmed down into 10 minutes.
And, yeah, the film got accepted into the tour.
So I’m very proud of that piece.
And that’s something, that was more of a passion project.
Like, that’s something different than the day-to-day YouTube stuff.
That was more of a, you know, I spent weeks on that one video.
And it’s something I can look back on and I’m pretty proud of, so.
Well, let’s talk about where people can find all your stuff.
Like, where could they find all the work that you do?
Probably the easiest is if you go to jseemans.com.
It’s kind of got links to everything.
Or if you just go on YouTube and type in jseemans, then you should be able to find most of it there.
You’re pretty easy to find.
Yeah.
Now, you’re over 40,000 subscribers now?
Actually, when I started, when this winter started, I was right at 40,000 in November.
Yeah.
And now I think I just crossed 80,000.
So this winter was wild for YouTube growth.
Yeah, it was just, I think people were just, a lot of people were locked up and wanting to watch ice fishing content.
And so I saw a lot of growth there.
Well, I’ve seen a lot of growth in your work as well, Jay.
You did an excellent job all winter.
Yeah, no.
You know, the video that I, the YouTube video that I liked of yours probably, and I want to talk about 39 hours after this, but I want to, Cormorant Lake, when you went up there with your dad.
Yeah.
And I had fished it many years ago, but we were out kind of tooling around for walleyes.
And then when I watched the video, one of the things that I got from you was your passion for catching pike.
Like guiding for pike, catching pike, especially in late summer.
Yeah, I mean, I think, I think as a, I’ve probably got it for pike more than anything else.
And pike don’t maybe get the attention that they should.
But yeah, like pike fishing in the spring, when you can see them in the shallows and you can sight fish them, that’s probably the most fun.
But when you get into that late summer period and they’re in the thick weeds and they’re fat and hungry, like that was a lot of fun.
So it was, it was, it was really cool to take my dad and that’s been, that’s been a goal for him.
He’s, my dad has taken me on so many fishing trips over the year and years, and now I get to take him.
And he says, I want to catch a master anchor pike.
I want to catch a 41 inch pike.
And I haven’t been able to do that with him yet.
I caught a 41 inch pike on that trip or 42, but he, he caught his handful of 39 inches.
And so it’s kind of an ongoing thing now to get my dad is 41 inch pike.
So.
Yeah.
That was kind of funny because you kept measuring them.
That was 39, 39, 39.
It was pretty funny.
That was a great video.
It’s great to see you that you’re bringing your dad along.
Let’s talk about 39 hours.
How did that all evolve?
Oh man.
Well, I would give, yeah, a lot of credit to almost all the credit to Aaron on that.
He, he had been brainstorming competition and he’s just so well connected with, he has so many
fishing friends from all over Canada and North America really.
And he was watching a series by a European YouTube channel called candle gratis.
And they have a series called fly versus jerk.
And essentially it’s a similar layout to 39 hours.
There’s a bunch of different teams of two anglers each.
And some teams were fly fishing.
Some teams were using spinning gear and based on a point system, they had their contest.
And Aaron was like, I wonder how we can do that in North America, but make it a multi-species
type deal.
So yeah, the first year, I think we had four, we had a team in Saskatchewan team, Manitoba
team in Ontario.
And I was a cameraman for the Saskatchewan team in the first year.
And, um, it went, it went really good.
And it kind of got a little bit of a cult following and, uh, people, people kept asking
when is, when is season two going to happen?
When is season two going to happen?
And, uh, I don’t think people realize the legwork that goes into something like that,
especially the editing work.
So now with me having my own production company and having a guy that edits for me full time,
I, I was, Aaron and I were constantly talking about it.
I was like, well, can, can I help you with season two and, and have a bigger role in,
in helping do the backend stuff?
And he said, yep, yeah, let’s do it.
So we added, uh, another team in the States.
I ended up fishing it instead of being, uh, instead of being a cameraman, but all that
being said, it was, uh, we changed the format of it.
So now instead of fishing 39 hours straight, it was split into three 13 hour chunks.
And that allowed for more fishing during the daytime and not fishing during night.
So I forget how many species of fish we caught at the end.
I think it was 20, 29 species of fish or something between our team.
So it was a pretty cool showcase of everything that, you know, the Midwest has to offer.
So, um, well, I haven’t, I haven’t missed one of them.
They were fantastic.
So much fun.
I really enjoyed the format.
Is there any possibility that you’re going to do another one?
Uh, you know what, there was some talks, um, before, before restrictions got bad.
And it’s, it’s something that it probably takes six to 12 months to plan.
So until, until, you know, travel restrictions, he’s up a bit, I don’t think it really makes
too much sense to plan it, but it’s something that is definitely in the back of my head.
And, and I know that there’s definitely a, a number of people that would love to see a
season three.
And I had a lot of fun doing season two.
It, uh, I couldn’t have been much happier.
I mean, aside, I mean, obviously, obviously us winning was a nice bonus, but even beside
that, I just wanted everyone to catch big fish in it for, to be an entertaining show.
Right.
I mean, that, that was my mindset as, as a producer.
And, and I mean, the Conrad’s catching that gigantic brown trout, the Conrad brothers
from Saskatchewan caught a near world record brown trout on film.
It’s like, you, you can’t write that stuff.
Like it was, we couldn’t believe it when we heard that happen.
So there’s, there’s some cool moments in season two.
And I think when you, when you push people to compete like that, then that’s when you,
you get some pretty special moments because everyone’s trying as hard as they can on the
best spots that they have.
And yeah.
So you people out there listening, do not miss that 39 hours.
It’s a, it’s great.
And that brown trout was pretty special.
Yeah, it was really, really good.
Um, you mentioned it and, uh, having done television for 15 years, how about a big shout out for
Nick ends?
I mean, the editor is, is so key in making you look good.
Right.
Jay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nick, uh, Nick, I think he, I think he spent a thousand hours editing season two of 39 hours,
which is just like that, that may have done some brain damage to him by the end of it.
Cause that was a lot of staring at the computer screen, but yeah, that’s, that’s the thing
about, about this line of work is, um, everyone wants to be out filming all the time,
but the editing is, is such a big component of it for every day on the water.
There’s probably three days of editing.
So, um, yeah, I actually, uh, I got a new editor, Brandon out of Kenora.
So now, um, he lives not too far from me, which is, which is super convenient.
And he’s an outdoorsman himself as well.
So Brandon’s been helping me out this winter with, with YouTube stuff.
And, uh, yeah, I’m, I’m so thankful and lucky to have, have people helping me out.
Cause if you want to put a video out, you know, once a week, you need to have, have someone
editing essentially to do that yourself is, is pretty tough.
Clayton Schick, who makes amazing content, he’s doing all the editing himself.
And I know how much work that is.
And for him every day is either shooting or editing.
Yeah.
It’s a lifestyle almost.
Yeah.
So back in the day when I was doing my show, um, I worked with film crew productions at
a Regina, uh, Jack Tunnicliffe was, uh, the producer.
He bought the first nonlinear production suite in Western Canada.
Wow.
So I had to go to Regina.
That’s where all the equipment was.
So we got there.
He had downloaded all our footage on, on the nonlinear suite and it all crashed.
Oh no.
So I was there for three days and we didn’t get anything done.
The new nonlinear suite kept crashing.
So I had to finally said to Jack, I got to go home.
So things are a little easier nowadays, aren’t they Jay?
They are.
There’s, there’s still that same fear about, um, losing footage.
I had a hard drive on me the other day.
I plugged it in and just didn’t power up.
So now I sent it off and hopefully I can recover it, but that’s the fear.
It’s just like, everything’s on this little micro chip and, and, you know, you’re, you’re
hoping it’s, it’s going to all be there when you come back and put it on your
computer, but yeah, in general, being able to backup footage and, you know, now that you
can store stuff in a cloud server and upload it online as a backup.
And even just having my videos on YouTube, if I lost all my hard drives, all those best
moments are on YouTube.
That’s the best of the best, right?
All the raw footage.
If I lost it, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but, uh, it’s, it’s a different age.
Okay.
Well, we’ll get away from the technical stuff.
Let’s talk, let’s talk about the fun stuff, the fishing stuff.
So what are some of your most memorable trips?
Most memorable trips, uh, last March, right before, right before lockdown started, uh, my
wife and I, Sam, we, uh, we got an opportunity to go to the Amazon, to go to Brazil and to
go peacock bass fishing on a, on a floating lodge there.
And that was, that was something that was pretty wild.
Something that was bucket list and it’s just a different world there.
I mean, those are some of the hardest fighting freshwater fish I’ve ever experienced and just
the scenery and just all of that.
And then another trip that Sam and I did was to the Yukon and, uh, got to teach them how
to fly fish for Arctic grayling on these untouched rivers and saw moose and just that that’s
probably one of the, I don’t know.
One of my favorite parts of, of what I got to do is just the amazing locations, places that
I would have never dreamt going and, you know, experiencing just more of more of the world,
even Manitoba with all the travel Manitoba related work I’ve done.
I’ve, I’ve traveled almost every corner of the province and it’s, it’s a pretty amazing place.
So you’ve managed to, uh, make your passion a full-time job.
Isn’t that special?
Uh, I, I have to pinch myself sometimes if, if 12 year old Jay knew what was going on now,
he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t believe it.
Yeah.
It’s just like, sometimes when I’m having a tough day or I’m like, you know, getting
frustrated with editing or something isn’t going right.
I’m just like, I am still living my dream and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
You know, there’s always tough, there’s always tough days, you know, there’s stuff’s crashing
or, you know, maybe you don’t get the bite, but it’s like, uh, I’m, I’m a very lucky dude.
So I remember people, uh, recently asked me, Don, when are you going to retire?
And I say, why would I retire?
Yeah, exactly.
I don’t consider it a job.
Yeah.
It’s, it’s, it’s what I love to do.
So that’s how many, how many years did the show run?
15, 15, 15 years.
That was a good run.
Um, we had it a little bit different because we had to find a broadcaster, not a, not a
YouTube channel that, um, you know, um, places where we could get broadcast, but got, became
very expensive.
And one of the biggest things change in the, in the industry was in the CRTC, the Canadian
radio and television commission said, uh, we’re not allowed any in a show plugs of product.
You couldn’t mention anything by name.
Oh, wow.
So we lost about two thirds of the Canadian television shows at that time.
And it was interesting because it wasn’t the same playing field.
Uh, for example, American shows could come up and they could talk about anything they
wanted and we couldn’t.
So, um, that was one of the reasons that I got out of the industry, but, uh, yeah, that’d
be tough with sponsorships.
If you can’t mention the product.
Yeah.
Especially, you know, when you’re looking at a cost to do your show of a hundred thousand
dollars a year.
Um, so anyway, it’s great that everything’s changed and there’s so much more venue and so
much information out there for the public and, and, uh, it’s great.
So Jay, what does the future hold?
What is the future hold?
Um, well, I’ve got a kind of a new passion project, which is called catch and cook.
My buddy, Josh McFadden and I from Winnipeg, we, uh, we started a, a fish breading company,
fish and wild game.
So it’s, it’s, uh, it’s something you can coat your fish in, coat your venison in whatever,
whatever you might want chicken.
And, uh, it’s kind of just, I don’t know, Josh and I are always eating shore lunch.
I’m always eating fish when I’m out there.
And it’s like, well, I’d kind of like to share, share what we’re working on.
So Josh had a recipe that he’d been tinkering with over the years and we got together and
it’s like, well, we should try to bring this to market.
So that’s what, that’s what we’ve been playing with.
And we got some new products coming and it’s just, it’s a, it’s just a fun thing to incorporate
into what we’re already doing.
Um, you know, Josh is quite, quite the chef and he’s always posting recipes and cool behind
the scenes of his cooking endeavors.
So, um, yeah, it’s just something, something that we can make our own and who knows where
it’ll go, but the support so far has been fantastic.
So working with catch and cook and yeah, I think the focus is just making, making YouTube
videos that I’m, that I’m proud of and kind of seeing where that goes.
You know, I, I normally don’t plan too far into too far into the future.
So we’ll, we’ll see what happens.
So where can they follow you again on social media, Jay?
If you go to jayseemans.com or just type in jayseemans on YouTube, uh, you, I should
pop up.
Well, I think so.
Jay, I really want to thank you for coming on the show and, um, I want to congratulate
you on all your great work and your success.
Thank you, Don.
You, uh, you’ve been inspiration to many Manitoba anglers that’s, you know, it’s possible
to make a living in the industry.
And, uh, I’m like, I know Aaron and I were inspired by you and I’m sure there’s, uh, many,
many more that have been as well.
All right.
Thanks, Jay.
Thanks, Don.
Thanks for tuning in.
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