February 04, 2025
By In-Fisherman Staff
Some of the top muskie minds in the business come together at a legendary destination in Ontario—Andy Myers Lodge. Renowned and lifetime muskie guide and fanatic Steve Jonesi joins legendary muskie angler Steve Herbeck along with Andy Myer's lodge owner/operator Julian Kalka hosted by In-Fisherman's Digital Content Manager Thomas Allen. The group talks about the history of AML and the unbelievable fishing available at this incredible destination. You'll love this episode and will likely put AML at the top of your bucket list, if it's not already there.
Truncated transcript:
00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:18.000: Your listening to In-Fisherman Storyline. North America's top voice in multi-species freshwater angling. Here is your host, Thomas Allen.
00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:36.000: Alright, hey welcome to another edition of In Fisherman Storyline. And hey, we're on the road again. This is a road trip edition. If you remember back a few episodes, we have created little buckets, if you will, of different destinations and different directions that we want this to go.
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00:00:36.000 --> 00:01:02.000: And we got a special one for you today. We're in Northwest Ontario, east of Kenora. About how far we used to go? An hour? About an hour. About an hour. And we're at Andy Myer's Lodge. And I got three special guests tonight. We're going to get some stories. We're going to hear about Eagle Lake. We're going to hear about muskies. We're going to hear about everything else that is swimming in this lake. And probably dig into a little bit of history.
00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:31.000: But we'll kind of go around the room here. Steve Herbeck. Is that right? You got it. Okay, but see, I got to ask because he goes by Herbie around here. As a legendary guy, he won't acknowledge being a legend, which we've already talked about, Steve. Being a legend is something other people consider you. And then across from him is Steve Jonesi, a long time friend of mine. I think we talked not too long ago. We're looking at 25 years of knowing each other. Yeah, it's been a long time.
00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:57.000: Steve is one of the greatest, greatest musky guides in Iowa. I know a couple and they're all top shelf. But Steve is from Cedar Rapids. Rightish? Okay. North side of Cedar Rapids. Yep. And next to me is Julian. And Julian, I'm not going to try to say your last name. Do that for me. Kalka. Kalka. See, you did. You said it right. I just want to make sure I said it right. So we've got a rowdy bunch.
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00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:16.000: We're going to talk about fishing and talk about Andy Meyers Lodge. This place is so cool. I've been to my job has afforded me some neat destinations. And this is absolutely tops. This main lodge is fantastic. The accommodations in the cabins are wonderful. The dock is convenient and there are big fish all over the place.
00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:36.000: So, Steve, I want to start with you because there's a little bit of a backstory. I want to kind of get through. I said 25 years we've known each other and it was actually my very first outdoor gig. It didn't last very long for me, but we started. We got to know each other, met each other at Gander Mountain in Cedar Rapids.
00:02:36.000 --> 00:03:02.000: Right. Remember those days? You went and opened that store together. What did you do there? I was the original fishing manager there. And then left, came back and was hard lines manager. So, I worked with the hunting department, worked with the fishing department, scheduling all sorts of, you know, retail duties, I guess, retail management. So, yeah…
Click here to listen to the entirety of Episode 19.