Travis Bader: I'm Travis Bader, and this is the Silvercore Podcast.
Silvercore has been providing its members with the skills and knowledge
necessary to be confident and proficient in the outdoors for over 20 years, and
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Visual Artist and Adventure.
Just shy of 20 years traveling the world as the creative director,
cameraman and editor for Jim Shockey.
Welcome to the Silvercore podcast, Jesse Reardon.
. Jesse Reardon: That was a good intro.
Hey,
Travis Bader: you.
Well, it's almost like I practiced
Jesse Reardon: it, right?
Nice.
No, that was good.
Just shy of 22.
Travis Bader: Just shy of 20.
Yeah, we're gonna say 20 years.
But you, you made sure to correct me on that.
You said?
No, I was 19.
Was just shy.
Jesse Reardon: Just shy.
Yeah, just shy.
And I think Bojo, uh, Brian Witkowski, he, he made 20 years.
Uh, he was Jim Shockey's other.
He was Jim Shockey's.
Uh, Cowboy.
He's a real cowboy.
Yeah, he's a real cowboy.
. I was just learning
Travis Bader: to be a cowboy.
Just learn in.
So it's funny, uh, going back, what was it, 2018?
I think it was around there, 20 20 18.
2019 was when I first kind of Really You came on the radar for meme.
Yeah.
And that was when, uh, uh, my wife and I were doing some videos for
April Voki in doing some, uh, my wife's a chef by trade and she's doing
cooking videos, and I watched a lot of YouTube and picked up a camera.
I'm like, I could figure this out.
I, I, I can do this video editing.
And started learning how to use Premier Pro.
And you came back with a whole bunch of tips and suggestions, but I was,
uh, pretty chuffed when you're like, man, his, his cuts are on point.
I think that was the one compliment that you,
Jesse Reardon: oh man.
That was nice.
No, I
Travis Bader: don't remember that email.
No, it was good.
Well, I think he came through, uh, April and over to me.
Jesse Reardon: Oh, no.
, constructive criticism.
That's right.
We'll call it.
. So,
Travis Bader: uh, but you, holy crow, you've been doing the whole video
thing for a pretty long time with a, with a legend, with Jim Shockey.
Yeah.
Did you want to talk about how you got into that?
Cause I think it's kind of a neat story.
Jesse Reardon: Yeah.
A little bit.
Um, so yeah, roughly I helped put together with Shocky's team of course,
because Takes a team, takes a village.
Yes.
Like three, three over 300 episodes was Shocky for sure.
But Wow.
Um, definitely, um, crazy humble beginnings because I was
actually, uh, born and raised in Calgary as a kind of a city kid.
Uh, kind of more like sports and, uh, hockey.
Sports and wanted to be in the outdoors, but never, never got out there.
How come,
Travis Bader: how come you weren't outdoors?
Was just like a family thing or family
Jesse Reardon: didn't camp and, uh, . Yeah.
I was kind of right in the city, close to downtown Calgary and it
was hockey and soccer and school.
Yeah.
All the, all the kids at school and a bit of dirt biking, but you know,
um, yeah, my dad, he, he wasn't, you know, like, it just didn't work out.
Like they didn't do that.
I hear ya.
Fishing though.
Fishing.
But my dad, my dad's idea of fishing was getting together with
his buddies and drinking some beers and handing me a fishing rod.
But because of that, and also when I visited my grandpa in
Ontario, he'd, he'd drive me to lakes and hand me a fishing rod.
So because of that I loved fishing, so.
Right.
That was the one thing I really loved was, was fishing, but never, never hunting.
So Yeah.
Never hunting.
Yep.
But anyways, yeah, I moved to, uh, Vancouver Island and my dad
was here and I got a job at a t-shirt shop as a graphic designer.
And, uh, one of Shockee guys came in looking for jackets To get embroidered.
Yeah.
For his, uh, rogue gr route, vin territory he had bought in Yukon.
and he was talking about, he had a TV show and it was, uh, a hunting
show and he was traveling to Russia and all these other places.
And I thought, oh, that's kind of cool.
I had a website up at time and I threw him a business card right in
there and . Yeah, I was, I just, yeah.
It was interesting how it all transpired because Shocky looked at it, I guess,
and he, he saw something, but I stayed on a sidekick and I remember the first
time I watched Jim Shockey's, uh, dvd.
That was a weird day.
But
Travis Bader: correct me if I'm wrong, your website wasn't videography.
It was photography, wasn't it?
It
Jesse Reardon: was like I had photos, like we, I took a year.
Media course.
So you did, uh, six weeks of video and we did six weeks of Adobe
Photoshops, six weeks of logo design.
Okay.
It was like the, uh, G three s G4 Max had just coming out.
They, they had like, it was all just getting going.
Digital editing.
Mm-hmm.
. So I don't pronounce my ngs, it's my accent , but, uh,
editing, digital editing, yeah.
So something happened there, but I stayed on this guy.
I saw Shocky's first, uh, dvd and I, he, it looked pretty,
uh, cheeseball, I thought.
Kind of a little bit weird.
I remember seeing some clips from that.
Yeah.
It was different.
Yeah.
But it was, uh, there was this young man, Cody Robbins, who's a hardcore hunter.
He's got his own show.
He might've heard of it.
I dunno.
Cody.
Yeah.
Perhaps Lived the Hunter or something.
. Um, yeah.
Yeah.
He was doing the show at the time and, um, somehow I got invited to go
to Saskatchewan and live with Cody.
live at Cody's.
Travis Bader: You just got the invite.
Jesse Reardon: He's like from Jim Bisson to go.
Cuz they were, Jim was an outfitter for a whitetail out there.
Ah, okay.
So I got the invite to go live at Cody's for a month and just follow him
along like, cuz Cody's running around filming hunts and editing the show.
He is always late on his
So I was there to help.
Right?
Yeah, yeah.
And live with Cody Robbins.
That's
Travis Bader: pretty cool.
For a month.
Was it?
Sounds cool to me.
You tell me.
Was it cool?
Jesse Reardon: Yeah, it was cool.
I learned a lot.
No, it was good.
It was really good to, uh, yeah, a lot lot happened that, that month
and actually that month is when I, so cuz Cody was so busy with Whitetails
and with Jim's outfit in area and for Whitetails that Shockey was doing, uh,
he'd got drawn for this random, uh, elk hunt in Wyoming and he needed a camera.
Okay.
So I was like, yeah, I'll go to Wyoming.
Okay.
So every weekend, cuz Jim would have to come back and say hi to
the Hunters or something like that.
Yeah.
On the weekends, wait, he had to come back on the weekends and say hi to the hunters,
do all the dinners and all this stuff.
And then he'd go back hunting for three days in Wyoming.
So he needed cameraman.
So I went with him on those for three weeks.
We went for like four day hunts for elk with his muzzle lo muzzle loader.
Yeah.
Just drive back and forth from driving back and forth, listening
to, to him sing . Is he a good
Travis Bader: singer?
Jesse Reardon: He's not like, he's not bad.
Depends who you ask.
Like if you ask him, he's pretty, he's pretty good.
His, his song did make number one Blues or something Very cool.
Yeah, he, he sung that to me once too.
He's sung me every song.
Yeah.
He sung me good.
The his Grass is Greener song.
When, um, when I retired from the, the Shocky Show.
. Long
Travis Bader: story.
That's pretty cool.
Sounds kinda like a family environment really.
Yeah.
. Jesse Reardon: Yeah, totally.
He, he became kind of like a, what do they call it?
Like a surrogate, surrogate father.
I call him more surrogate Grandpa . I'm sure he
Travis Bader: loves that surrogate great-grandfather Custer's.
Jesse Reardon: So, no, he, he's awesome, you know, mentor all these things.
Like, he taught me a lot.
Taught me how to hunt for sure.
Cuz I was just a city kid who, who liked to fish.
But, um, hunting and all that, I, I had no clue.
And when I went on that trip in Wyoming, like day one, we, I found
out we were riding horseback.
Right.
Travis Bader: And have had you ridden a horse
Jesse Reardon: before?
Well, like, mm, honestly, come to think of it.
And not much.
No.
Like it's Calgary stampede I used to see.
Okay.
and they'd ride the horses there.
And the Bronco I always liked to watch, you know?
Sure, yeah.
But you know, no, no, I
Travis Bader: hadn't.
So aside from watching other people ride horses at the
Jesse Reardon: Stampede, that was honestly, I don't recall child, no
childhood memories of riding a horse . But I hopped on there with the Cameron,
just, you know, whatever, figured it out cuz it was like, had no choice.
So.
So
Travis Bader: what, what kind of camera were you bringing with you?
Jesse Reardon: I was, uh, back then it was Cannon XL one.
Cannon xl.
H one.
Like the first xl, or they had the GL two glt.
It was still standard def.
Was
Travis Bader: that your camera or did they provide no shock?
Jesse Reardon: He provided, yeah.
Okay.
He provide the tapes and everything, the batter.
The, the tapes, the light that I was supposed to have.
Cody, thanks for reminding me.
. Yeah.
Cody . Yeah, it was, it was a good, uh, it was a good trip.
It was like, I learned a lot, but it was back to camp and I got to
know Shocky the whole time and I tried to prove myself right.
So I had my, like my Cannon camera or whatever my, you know, film camera, took
pictures and I'd go back to Cody's and
Travis Bader: edit.
And Was it hard to prove yourself?
Did that, was that an ongoing process?
Jesse Reardon: Well, they needed a guy for sure, but it was, yeah, it was like I had
to prove myself to Jim that I wasn't gonna like, cuz shockey's the real deal, like
when he goes on these trips, the rougher the better, the more hungry, the better
the crappier, the weather the better.
Like, he's a serious, I'm like, you know, he like, the last trip
I did with him, you said 10 days.
We were there 21 days
Travis Bader: and you'd never really camped or been outside before this.
Jesse Reardon: Oh, for that one?
Y yeah, I mean, No, I, I remember camping rarely as a child.
Yeah.
Travis Bader: And now you're out there 21 days, not only taking care of yourself,
but having to capture everything.
Take care of the equipment, I'm sure.
Right?
Yeah.
That to capture everything on video
Jesse Reardon: and photo.
Yeah.
That one was a little cushy cuz we went back to like, uh, they had like a barn.
Okay.
Kind of set up with bunk beds.
But you, you know, it's like a outfitter camp I guess.
Yeah.
So you'd go back to a nice warm dinner and I, I learned about that whole cuz when you
go with an outfitter, it, it's, you, you do become friends and uh, you get to know
these people out on the bush really quick.
Right.
If you go with unguided hunts.
And I learned about the camaraderie.
Yes.
Oh yeah, I did.
So it was, uh, it was a good learning experience and I was working with
real cowboys out out in Wyoming.
It was, was it Wyoming?
Yeah, it was, it was insane.
Travis Bader: Just pretty cool.
So you just jump in and you're now all of a sudden filming a shows you had
other people besides you helping film it?
Or were you just kind of.
Jesse Reardon: It was, it was time to, uh, Cody needed a second
cameraman cuz Cody was getting busy.
Um, he was, yeah, he was too busy.
He was getting burnt out because, you know, traveling the
world and whatever was great.
So I got the, uh, I got invited to this 45 day trip, which was pretty wild.
It was Turkey, Tanzania, and, uh, Spain.
Yep.
Wow.
Anyways, it was all new to me.
I remember my, my first time in Spain, like on a mountain and trying to film Jim,
you know, get the shot, nail the shot.
And then, you know, of course you'd look down and it's like, oh yeah,
when you're filming and moving you gotta wa you gotta always look down.
You gotta watch your, watch your step man.
Yeah.
Because it could happen quick.
Like, people, like we are in some dangerous territory.
So just like, just being aware of everything.
Travis Bader: I guess it's pretty easy to get stuck in the viewfinder.
Jesse Reardon: Yeah.
Oh yeah.
And also, um, yeah, and that's another thing.
You're looking through this little tiny viewfinder back in the day.
Yeah.
And then Shocki always loved to review the footage.
That was like pretty immediately.
Well, like with the, yeah.
I mean, sometimes with the tapes.
Yeah.
We were always careful.
Mm-hmm.
, there was one guy who, he was just so pumped about his footage
and then he reviewed it and then the next day, Recorded over it.
Travis Bader: So one thing that's been interesting, like in the Shocky
shows is that he will, he'll release the blemishes as well, right?
Yeah.
He'll yeah.
He's got the hits, but he'll also have the misses in there.
No, that was good.
Which is it, it brings it into a level of reality for the people who are watching.
Yeah.
Where quite often it was always like you'd, you'd see somebody on TV and
it was, they're always successful.
They're always making hits.
Totally.
And I thought that's kind of an interesting way to approach it.
And I think that probably is paid in part to the success that
the, that the show see would see.
Yeah, totally.
Jesse Reardon: And that's, I came on like.
Uh, late part of Season two and Shockey's for Jim Shockey's Hunt
inventors that went on for 17 seasons.
And one thing I did like about the shows besides the, uh, the Looped one
song, weird song throughout the whole song or throughout the whole show.
Yeah.
Which I was like, oh man, it's gotta go.
It's gotta go.
Was uh, he was real, like it was, it did tell the story of the Hunt.
It did tell the, the, the, if he didn't get one, if he did get one.
Mm-hmm.
Um, you know, I remember, yeah.
He had to.
Yeah, I, I appreciated that about, and that's what Hunt was good about,
hunt adventures, is that we, he would literally bring back the footage.
Yeah.
Here's the, you know, 10 tapes from this trip to, you know, wherever
Spain, we need three episodes.
Figure it out.
Travis Bader: Were there other people that were kind of vying for that position and
you just kind of got in or were you just kind of like right place, right time?
Jesse Reardon: Yeah, I was, it was kind of right place, right time, I guess.
But I was kind of, uh, it was like an opportunity that I heard, like
he came into my work looking for jackets and he talked about this cool
show we had that he just started.
And I was like, oh, that's, I was just kind of, I'd just moved to
the island and it was just kind of there, you know, taking up a seat
and I just saw an opportunity.
But yeah, it, it just right place, right time.
And then also just jumping on opportunity, but also staying on it, like being
persistent once you, um, have an in just, and then improv yourselves by,
yeah, earning and respect, I guess.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you often get people asking, like, how, how do you break into the industry?
How do you get in and do this?
I
Jesse Reardon: have had people ask me, and it is just, if, if that
opportunity Pres presents itself Yeah.
You gotta jump on it.
You know, like, I remember sitting on, uh, the ferry like I was today.
Yeah.
Heading Su Saskatchewan with Jim Bien, his, uh, sidekick, his right hand man in
2004, thinking like, okay, here we go.
I got four weeks to prove myself.
Otherwise I'm back at the t-shirt shop.
Right.
, I don't know.
And he didn't
Travis Bader: wanna go back
Jesse Reardon: to the T-shirt shop?
Not really.
I could go back to Calgary.
I was thinking about going back to Calgary, maybe moving out east.
Yeah.
I wanted to do something kind of, I've always wanted to do
something in the fishing industry, like some sort of TV show.
So Yeah.
Still in the works.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's see what happens.
Yeah.
Okay.
Never know.
Yeah, I was, I remember, um, uh, listening to, uh, Jim say, you
know, people asking like, how, how do you get into the industry?
How do you get in and do this?
And he said, just want this and do it.
Mm-hmm.
be in there and do it.
Want it more than anything else.
How do you do this?
What the, the podcast is Silver Court.
The le, every like, you know, it's a similar thing.
Just want it and do it.
I, I saw something that I was, I felt that I could be good at.
Mm-hmm.
and that was mm-hmm.
, I started doing the gunsmith thing.
Mm-hmm.
, originally it was Silver Court Gun Works and before it
became Silver Court training.
And you know, people who follow the show know that I named Silvercores
after my grandfather, silver Armino, who was a police officer, Vancouver police
detective, and my other grandfather, Cornelius Beder, who was a entrepreneur
and he had a large bakery in its day and did well for himself with that.
Yeah.
He was, uh, apple Fritters Macon.
Yeah, he, he would brag that he was bigger than dad's oatmeal cookies.
I don't know if that's a big brag or what, but, uh, for him it was
one of the things that he'd say.
And, um, I, so I, I, I wasn't doing well in school.
Yeah.
I, I figured, you know, I,
Jesse Reardon: why weren't you doing well in school?
Travis Bader: Probably because that whole, possibly because of that whole
ADHD thing that we talked to about, on the drive over here, you learn
different, learn a little bit differently.
Um, approached life a little bit differently, approached challenges
a little bit differently.
Got into a fair bit of trouble in my youth, honestly.
Yeah.
And, uh, ended up going to a number of different schools because of that.
, not of my own accord.
It's all an
Jesse Reardon: alternative high.
Back in my day.
Alternative
Travis Bader: high.
Yeah.
Uh, I think at the end it was, uh, 1, 2, 3.
1, 2, 2 different elementary schools, uh, five different high schools.
And I remember grade seven, the teacher's like, you know, Trav, honestly, I
should fail you, but I don't want to see you back in the class again.
So I'm giving you just enough to pass.
It gets you into high school and I think high school will figure you out.
. And that was probably a good thing on her part because yeah, I don't,
I don't see it helping anybody having me repeat that grade.
And then, uh, you know, I graduated with honors.
Yeah.
At grade four I had straight A's.
Yeah.
Just because, uh, different teachers, different teaching styles.
By the time I came to graduation, I was going to, um, the worst rated
school in British Columbia at the time.
Yeah.
I think it's much more better rated now, but I mean, it had problems.
Jesse Reardon: It was worse than Central Memorial in
Travis Bader: Calgary.
Well this was Princess Margaret Secondary in, uh, in Sury.
Oh, good Old Sur Boy.
We have one of those too.
Yeah.
Uh, good old Princess Margaret's secondary PMs, everyone would lovingly call it.
Wow.
Um, and crazy.
I was there going to Siku, uh, doing night school at Semi Amu.
and I ended up at Seattles grad, and then I would just go across the street
to the college and or the university college to whatever it is now.
Quine.
Mm-hmm.
. I talk to my teachers, what worked, what work do I have to show you in
order to get a good grade in this class?
Yeah.
They tell me, I go across the street, I do all the work, and I go to the
beach and I get all my schooling done within an hour or two in the morning,
which is just the different way that their mind works and brain works.
So.
Totally.
And yeah, I So,
Jesse Reardon: and you were recently diagnosed with, yeah,
I recently diagnosed with adhd.
I had to go get checked out, you know, to just kind of prove to
myself that I probably did have it.
Did you
Travis Bader: feel you
Jesse Reardon: had it and you're like, okay.
Oh yeah, I was always there.
I was just, you know, I always kind of blamed it on my childhood,
but it was, it was actually, I had ADHD as well for full on.
But you know, thank goodness cuz um, if we didn't have people with a adhd, I
don't think anything we could get done.
Travis Bader: So Sean Taylor, ex JTF two Joint Task Force two Canada's
Elite Special Forces tier one operator, talking with him a couple days ago on
the phone and brought up the ADHD thing.
We're talking about that and mentioned, you know, when I was a
kid, I was on an experimental program.
I was on the highest dosage of Ritalin in the province.
They could only prescribe certain amount per pill.
So they said, well just take a whole bunch of pills in the morning and a whole bunch
of pills in the afternoon and we'll just, we'll keep upping it until we kind of
find the optimal threshold and then we'll ease it back, I think was what the, yikes.
Right?
And he says, uh, you.
What a shame it is that, yeah, they approached it.
So it was grade three when I was diagnosed that they approached it
saying, okay, we've got this problem.
It's adhd, but here's some ways that we can work with it.
As opposed to saying, Travis, you've got this gift, it's called adhd.
Yeah.
You're gonna have so much energy and so many different interests, and it's a gift.
You're gonna look at things differently and look at all these great things
that we can and find a way to work with it, as opposed to always growing
up thinking, I remember the kids, they would call 'em smart pills, right?
Oh, Travis is taking us smart pills.
So when I came into grade, Eight going into high school,
I'm like, forget it, I'm off.
I'm cold Turkey, taking myself off.
Yeah.
I didn't like the headaches, the appetite suppression and you
know, even just going outside,
Jesse Reardon: there's a bit of a stigma attached.
And yet Oh yeah.
I don't know much about it in terms, cause I've just been diagnosed,
so I've been doing my research.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I, I did try medication, so.
And how'd that work for you?
It helped me, it did help me focus.
Yeah.
But, you know, it just, and cuz of that stigma attached, it made me uncomfortable
based on my family upbringing, but also by, I did like, uh, I don't know, I'm
still kind of experimenting with my, what, what's the right, you know, because
honestly it did help me, uh, focus.
Travis Bader: Sure.
I found that it would numb me.
Right.
And it, it made me feel like not me.
And while it might.
focus, perhaps it also came with the headaches and the sensitivity
to light and all these other things.
Mm-hmm.
, I don't, I don't know what medication they put you on, but I just didn't like
the feeling of needing something else.
Yeah.
I agree.
I, I'd rather find a way, you know, I was always raised Trav,
you're a, you're a square peg and the world's around hole and Yeah.
The world's gotta figure it out.
How to work with you.
Yeah.
Which is totally backwards.
Yeah.
If you're a square of pig and the world's a round hole mm-hmm.
, it's up to you to figure out how to work yourself with the rest of the world.
Totally.
And so it wasn't until I was, and I think that was probably why I got
in a fair bit of trouble mm-hmm.
in my youth and.
And, uh, luckily got things kind of sorted out.
Yeah.
By the time I started long roundabout here, Silvercore Gun works and Yeah.
Yeah, it was,
Jesse Reardon: um, and soundness of mine is good.
What's that?
Soundness of mine like when you have a clear head, it's, it's nice.
Even with adhd, that's what we get out in the bush too.
You know, you go, you go into Yukon for 20 days and Well, isn't that interesting?
Some, some of the best soundness of mine, you get
Travis Bader: out there.
Isn't it interesting how being out in the ocean, being out in a, on
a lake up, the mountainside in the bush, in, in the woods will bring a
level of clarity to an individual.
It turns off all of that white noise.
Mm-hmm.
Totally.
That you'd otherwise have if you're in the city all the time.
Mm-hmm.
, I find, I find if I've been in the city for a while, it'll take me a little bit.
Kind of reached that point of just being present, let's say.
Oh, yeah.
Uh, sometimes all I hear is all the, all, all the thoughts, all the arguments,
all the battles, all the, uh, ideas, and they're just popping and going and
yeah, several days into it, all of a sudden everything's calm and it's clear.
I'm sure you would find it something similar, just well
Jesse Reardon: recording on some of those trips.
You're kind of self-reliant a bit and you're kind of part of this team.
And if you're roughing it with the boys for 10, 12, 20 some
days Mm, yeah, it gets it.
It's hard out there sometimes, but you come back missing those moments.
and you, you, you, I used to call it a spa for men out there, spa for
Travis Bader: men, . Okay.
I love it.
Yeah, because you come back mentally refreshed.
Jesse Reardon: Oh yeah.
It's the best.
You, you just like, it's, uh, you, you figure things out, out there,
Travis Bader: they call it, uh, you've heard of type one and type two.
Fun.
Yeah,
Jesse Reardon: so I think so.
Travis Bader: No.
Okay, so you're saying, oh, it sucks.
It's hard when you're out there, but you look back and it's awesome.
Right.
Oh, there you go.
People would say, Hey, that's type two fun.
Yeah.
Type two fun is where.
, uh, you're, you're working really hard and it, it, it's a difficult time, but yeah.
It's one of those core memories that you carry with you after type one would
be like, okay, I'm on a rollercoaster.
It's a lot of fun.
Yeah.
But you don't look back and say, those were the days.
Right.
And buddy of mine started talking about type three fun.
Oh yeah.
I thought, well that's interesting.
What's type three fun, right?
Yeah.
This is, uh, uh, David, he's, uh, a big lead in the, uh, new
website we're actually putting out.
Yeah.
This is type three fun.
That's, uh, when it really sucks.
Yeah.
When you're doing it, but later when you look back on it, it still really sucks.
right there, there is that type of type three fun.
Jesse Reardon: I put that in, uh, Yukon Uncharted season two.
Yeah.
What was that like?
. That was a hard push in the wire, our area for some reason.
Yeah.
Everywhere we went, we weren't seeing moose.
And the other guy was seeing moose at our same . The rookie, the rookie guide.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
Wh why do you think that was?
Just,
Jesse Reardon: I don't know, luck of the draw.
Yeah, just kind of half It was just, and then we had bad weather and stuff for
like five days just sitting in the rain.
It was a hard push.
We weren't, we, you know what?
The problem was there if you ask Shocky and we weren't spiking out, um Mm.
It was just would've been a little harder on the clients and . We would've
had that really spike out there.
And so you, you'd take your camp with you, and that's, that's well number one
thing I learned with Jim is take your camp with you and you just keep moving.
Travis Bader: How, how long will you dedicate to an area.
, me or Jim?
Well, okay.
Well, you filming Jim
. Jesse Reardon: Oh.
He'd dedicate his life to an area,
Travis Bader: if you could.
So if it wasn't being productive, he'd just keep working it, or
he'd spike out again from there.
Oh, he'd
Jesse Reardon: figure it out.
He'd figure out the best way to hunt that area, for sure.
Yeah.
Or we'd just move on to new area.
If that area wasn't for moose, like Yeah, you'd fig you'd, you'd
find you'd find the biggest moose.
What
Travis Bader: sort of things would he be looking.
For moose.
Sure.
Let's say for moose, if he's going out into an area and
Jesse Reardon: he says, oh, he is getting the high points and he is
looking for, for antlers to start.
Yeah.
But he is also, it's all in season and everything.
He knows his, I mean there he hunt, he, he really knows that area out.
Uh, I can't say the name, but we, I went there for the first time with them.
Actually, when he bought the area, he, we went there . Oh man.
Yeah, we went to that camp and had been attacked by Grizzly bear.
I didn't know we were just setting up this camp.
So now this campus is camp now.
Now it's like Deputy Boo.
But I went there day one with him and I remember laying in that, that shack
thinking, oh boy, three weeks of this like, . I was like in the fetal position
thinking, here we go with a grizzly
Travis Bader: bear on the prowl
Jesse Reardon: outside.
Grizzly bear on the prowl.
The camp wasn't set up and me and Jim had like four or five days before, uh,
the client and his dad was coming in and that was fun filming his dad though.
I was like that.
Travis Bader: Okay.
So those, those are neat.
So his dad and his father-in-law?
Yeah.
Hal Lynn.
Jesse Reardon: Hal Lynn.
Yeah.
Travis Bader: Man, that was huge.
There
Jesse Reardon: are a couple cool cats.
Hey, they're really cool cats.
And that was a good story behind that because we, um, yeah, we got 'em together
for Whitetails and, uh, . I can't tell how we filmed that first episode, but after
that we were like, we gotta do, it's like the idea was stemmed from grumpy old men.
Like Yeah, get these two guys out.
And they were having a contest.
Yeah.
And for them they were, they were both hardcore meat.
They like everything good about hunting is what they worked . So they, they
take the first thing that's legal, like legit . But, um, that's what
made it good was they were kind of like old school meat, meat hunters.
And that's what it's all about with hunting, is you're, you're
getting meat for the family.
That's how they grew up.
And yeah, honestly for me, like working all that time got me into hunting and now.
I don't buy meat.
And actually I, you know, I try and get a blacktail every year if I can.
And yeah, last year we got our first bear, so, you know, it's nice your
first bear, you know, I can, and I got friends who do get farm animals so I
can do trades if I get a blacktail.
They're not very big on the island.
But yeah.
So, you know, I'm not hardcore hunter, but I definitely have a passion for
wildlife and, and uh, you know, I tend to get myself in trouble when
I'm hunting cuz I try and film it and then I'm, I spook off and I
Travis Bader: actually shot that.
Okay.
So that's gotta be damn difficult trying to film your own hunt.
Yeah.
Film your own
Jesse Reardon: hunt.
Travis Bader: Tell, tell me, how do you go about filming your own hunt?
What are you looking for in shots?
Cause there's a lot of people who, uh, are getting, the cameras are getting better.
Your phones have cameras.
Oh man.
Phones are amazing.
Yeah.
Go.
and, and people are putting out content of their own on YouTube and
Instagram, like from a profe season to professional's perspective, what are
some of the go-tos that you'd be looking for for basic shots and composition?
Well, I mean,
Jesse Reardon: ultimately, again, what's made Jim Shockey, sun Ventures,
or most of his here is good, was just you're telling the story of the hunt.
Mm-hmm.
. And if you're telling the story, you're gonna document the day.
And the biggest thing is, uh, , I mean, you gotta have an eye for it too, right?
Mm-hmm.
for storytelling.
But if you're, if you're filming a hunt, the biggest thing
is to commit to your shot.
You're not, cuz you, people, I people come show you footage and it's like,
Hey man, I got this deer, blah blah.
Watch the footage.
And it's like, it's all over.
Boom, boom, boom.
Like, where's the shot?
Well, yeah, I got it.
And then the camera's off and it's like right into the ground, you
know, like, so if you're filming, uh, one of the biggest rules was don't.
Don't get involved in the hunt.
You're like Shocki used to describe it as you're like filming your kids' graduation.
You're just gonna film them going up.
He's gonna get the thing, you're gonna film them, so you just
can't get too involved in.
naturally you get involved and mm-hmm.
, you miss your shot.
Or cuz if you don't get that harvest shot, unfortunately in a, in a hunting
show or a fishing show, you're kind of
Travis Bader: Yeah.
In trouble.
Well, it makes telling the story a lot different.
Yeah.
Jesse Reardon: And it's not, we're not trying to glorify
it, but it's part of the, it's unfortunately, it's part of the show.
And what, again, hunter Ventures, it was always clean and we always did
a good job of being very ethical and respectful of the animal and stuff.
Travis Bader: Would you ever have to try and reshoot
Jesse Reardon: and recreate So yeah, that's called, uh, B-roll.
So often we would, you, you'd get B-roll.
But in, and Shocky always taught us, and what I always try and go
for, it's called running time.
Right.
So for that moment it's running time.
So the idea is, so you go in, like if I was filming you right down on a
stalk, Uhhuh , I come in kinda wide.
Right.
Okay.
Come in wide and then we see the animal over say 50 yards.
So I'm kind of, you're, I see you setting up.
So now I'm still wide and then I could maybe go medium over the shoulder.
Yeah.
And then I'd maybe pin it at full zoom.
Yeah.
Hold that shot.
And then if I know like maybe you're there for a minute, we're
talking, you don't have time, then you'd come back wide maybe.
Okay.
The idea is you just hold that shot and you'd take the shot and then
there was a bit of a science to it, cuz you would, after the, after
the shot, you'd stay on the animal and then come back to the hunter.
But Okay.
Often we would take B-roll because um, lots of shows use that and
that's, um, what we didn't like about the shows was maybe the fake stuff.
Right.
We always tried to make it real because it was hunting so it was real.
Right.
So we'd use, usually I'd use B-roll cuts for, um, cuz we had no
time, like it was 22 minute show.
Right.
Two segments and everything.
So it's like, you know, I could, the one moose scent we did, it was 15 minutes.
The stock Right.
Run in time, but I could only use two minutes or three minutes.
Travis Bader: Right.
So would you have to.
be like, oh, hold on, stay back, stay back.
I gotta get into position.
Okay, now you walk through or you just, you're literally the fly on
Jesse Reardon: the wall.
No, you're like, you're like nothing.
If you're a cameraman, you're the guy who usually gets in trouble
for spooking the animal, right?
So you just stick to the, often you try and get in position, you
know, but you can miss the play.
You gotta, it's, we call it reading the play.
So again, as a cameraman, you wanna read the play.
So the moose is going this way so naturally and you can compress the shot.
Or if you gotta stay tight to the hunter, that's another big thing too.
So
Travis Bader: would you ever catch crap
Jesse Reardon: for Oh, man.
Yeah.
Lots . There's always, always Cameraman's fault.
Never Jim.
That's right.
Never.
Yeah.
Travis Bader: I saw a note on there.
It says, you know, Jim never makes
Jesse Reardon: noise.
Jim never makes noise.
No, no.
, we'd be wearing the same thing, but . It's always cameraman.
No, it was, uh, yeah, you, you, you'd screw up, I mean, naturally you got
noise cancellation headphones often.
Mm-hmm.
or whatever, and you're walking around with a camera trying
to nail the shot they call it.
Yeah.
And then you're trying to read the play and compress the shot and give
it, you know, his show was filmed in a way that had the hunter in frame with
the animal versus like he used to call.
we used call bad wildlife footage.
I mean, lots of shows, which I'd watch shows and be like, man, that's
like Planet Earth right there.
Like, cause it's tripod, wicked lens.
Hmm.
And they're nail on the shot.
And they had another guy made with a cameraman or with the hunter.
But ours was always like totally gorilla style, like rogue.
Travis Bader: It was nuts.
Would you catch, I should imagine catch heat from different environmental
groups or people who were perhaps anti-hunting and then, I mean we were
Jesse Reardon: always pretty good because Shockey was super careful
with that and he was pretty legit.
But I'm sure I know he had issues for sure.
And it was unfortunate.
And honestly for myself, I went in green, like my first trip to Africa.
. I was on Big Five Hunt.
I was like, this is ridiculous.
Like, what are we doing?
This is crazy.
Yeah.
But you learned a lot.
And honestly, you know, people say you're killing these animals in
Africa, but actually those hunting dollars were saving the animals.
And until you're on foot there, you don't legit see it.
And I, I, I could legit see that hunting was actually helping conserve wildlife.
Right.
But I went in totally green thinking.
I don't know man.
Like I, I'm just here to film and tell stories.
Cause I, I loved that, that idea, you know, telling
stories with video and photo.
But I was, I was nervous going to those countries and it was awesome
because I, I got see that Samon,
Travis Bader: Tanzania, I'd love to go to Africa.
Buddy of mine used to be a pH professional hunter in Africa.
And actually he's been on the podcast before.
He is also was bodyguard for Oprah Winfrey and her crew.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Pretty cool.
Fellow . And, uh, so he's trying to line up an African hunt.
Yeah, I do it.
But he talks about, you know, when he first came over here and a buddy of
his, who was also a, I think he was buddy, who was also a pH in Africa,
and they're like, we want to do, we want to do a guided hunt in Canada.
I mean, world renowned, maybe we'll do a moose hunt and mm-hmm.
So they go out to the.
Uh, guide.
And they didn't bring sleeping bags.
They didn't bring, they didn't ba they brought their, I think they brought their
gun in a backpack and whatever they needed for their hunt, not expecting it to be so
different than what it's like in Africa.
He says, you know, they got people who will wash your clothing for you.
They're making your drinks for you.
They got all your bedding is being turned out.
It, it's apparently a completely different
Jesse Reardon: world.
Oh yeah.
No, Africa was, um, like the, the main Safari camps had, they had
full teams there working for sure.
Did your laundry and stuff like that.
But, but Shocky, of course, we'd go out and like seven days and like, we'd
set up, uh, mosquito net tents mm-hmm.
And like sleep by Hippo Rivers and Crock Rivers.
It was insane.
Actually.
I remember waking up with a spider in my tent.
I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool.
I could hear the hippos.
And then I woke up next morning.
My whole face was like big, big, big sting mark on it.
And oh, the pH had a scorpion on his, uh, In his area there.
It was in his area there.
Okay.
It was just, it was, it was, it was.
He always loved roughing it, so, but those Africa camps
were so, yeah, they were good.
Travis Bader: I, yeah, it could be scary.
Like, I've seen stuff with, um, tiny, I don't even know what those
little dug dugout kind of canoes are cold over there, but, uh, yeah.
Pros.
Yeah.
Jesse Reardon: Yeah.
Looking for Crocs.
Yeah.
Man.
And Crocs, we did that.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
And the Crocs are larger than the boats that you're
Jesse Reardon: in.
Oh yeah.
It's, and it's a legit fishing community and you know, we get in
these boats and it's, uh, yeah.
It's, it's funny at the time is it though?
You know, but , like it's legit and all the guys are laughing at you, but
these guys do it every day, right?
Yeah.
So they're happy.
And then I remember we got a crock at that one.
That one lake.
And you know it, we took some meat back and cooked it, but the whole village
got the meat and took the leather every square inch of that gets used there.
Travis Bader: Wasn't there a hippo charge as well that you
were supposed to be in front
Jesse Reardon: of?
Yeah, hippo charge.
Hippo charge was good.
So tell me about that.
Uh, yeah, it was good.
There's always, uh, we were actually after hippos, and again, I'm like, you know,
that's weird around hippos, but when we did get Hippo, that hippo fed literally
a little village for a month, right?
Mm.
They used again, every square inch of it.
Yeah.
But it's just, uh, the, the rulers never get between
hippos and, uh, land and water.
Okay.
So we, we kind of walked around looking for hippos on land.
Yeah.
Filmed a couple.
They were a little small.
Jim was after a bigger bowl.
Hmm.
And then I was just filming them, walking away.
There's these awesome white birds, you know, I was like,
oh, that's kind of a cool shot.
And I could hear stuff all of a sudden in my headphones on the left side, I was
like, oh, that sounds like a something.
And I hit pause with, on a full zoom on the, uh, camera.
Yeah.
Anyways, the hippo came flying out and I hit record as I was
running back and pulling wide on the, those old tape cameras.
Yeah.
And yeah, I almost smoked them, but it would've got me, cuz
technically I was the fourth guy.
They all moved and he went there.
I don't know.
I dunno.
Maybe it would've got me, I would've hopefully jumped outta
the way or someone would've shot.
But who knows?
It happens quick.
Like yeah, the charges happen quick.
It happened with an elephant as well.
Yeah.
Um, that was insane.
Yeah.
And again, hunting elephants.
Yes.
Really bad.
And it's very restricted and stuff for sure.
Um, but yeah, we just happened upon 'em and it was just bad place, bad time.
And they're very aggressive.
So the pH had to step in for us, which was unfortunate.
And, uh, a couple other charges.
Uh, hunting, uh, the, yeah.
Elephants in, uh, jungles of Cameroon too.
Travis Bader: Got, I remember seeing some video footage.
I, I
Jesse Reardon: jumped back pretty hard on that one.
Who, what's that?
The one in Cameroon.
I jumped back pretty hard on.
Yeah.
Just, it was just a random Yeah.
Bad incident.
But yeah.
Travis Bader: I remember seeing a video footage you and a blind
and it was a Oh, with the Lion?
Lion.
Oh yeah.
And you could like, hear the breath
Jesse Reardon: of the thing.
Oh yeah.
That was insane.
So like, you're hunting whitetail, you'd get in in the dark, right?
Yeah.
So we did that with the lion and yeah, the lion came in and was
roaring around our, the area.
And then he walked right up to our blind.
You could just see it like right when it's starting to get bright, like almost
you can hear the birds coming, you know?
And yeah, he walked right up to the blind and Jim and the pH
said, Jim said, don't f and move.
I was like, Ugh.
And that's the only time I felt, uh, true fear actually in my life.
Cuz um,
Travis Bader: walk me through it.
What was it like?
True fear, the
Jesse Reardon: whole experience.
Oh, I was, I was done.
I just, all I could see, I, I couldn't hit record cuz you'd see
the light and it was too dark.
Anyways, cameras didn't pick up, but the line came right to the blind.
Like, here's the opening of the blind.
Right?
Yeah.
Like, and my tripod camera's right there.
So I just hid behind my, um, camera and I was like shaking like this.
And then the lion, um, he circled us and the hyenas had eaten
in the corner of the blind.
So we had all these trees there and he is going through it and he's kind of,
and he is like roaring right there, like crazy, crazy psycho line, right?
I, I was just shaking.
Jim's like, like I couldn't move cuz he is literally got five zippers, right?
Yeah.
That's all he has to do.
Anyways, then he went out and went off and ran off and was freaking out in the trees.
It was, yeah, it was quite an experience.
. No kidding.
Yeah.
Opened
Travis Bader: my eyes.
I, I've been deer hunting and had mountain lion not that close.
Oh, wow.
Not that close, but heard it off.
Uh, I, I never saw it, but I could hear the thing.
The screech.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
And it just kept doing it and doing it and doing it.
And I'm sitting there in the, uh, in the freezing cold sitting there waiting.
I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna be, I'm gonna sit still.
I'm not gonna keep making my deer noises anymore.
And, um, uh, but you know, you're, you're there with the rifle and I've
got a sense that this thing's probably about 50 yards out on me, and it
was just kind of doing its thing.
Yeah.
I wasn't feeling, um, like, and it was pitch black, right?
Yeah.
But, uh, early.
. Yeah.
I wa I wasn't feeling, I'm sure what I would be feeling if that
thing was inches away from my face.
Yeah.
And all I've got between me and it is a camera.
Like do you have a firearm with you?
With you?
No, but
Jesse Reardon: I had like, like the guy I was with, Mike fell, he's like next level.
So you're, yeah.
He's right there, there with a el, like he's there with an elephant gun and shock.
He's there with a mu loader.
Right.
Um, yeah, I just, I, yeah, I've never, I always felt comfortable
filming, even like, uh, in the Yukon filming moose and stuff.
I'd always felt comfortable behind those guys.
Yeah.
Mojo shocky.
Um, yeah.
But I, yeah.
Other people, when I go film, like friends and stuff, I'm like, I
should probably have a rifle with me.
. No.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
Well, they're pretty well accomplished in what they do.
Yeah.
So you get this footage, not only are you like creative director,
you're cameraman, then you gotta go back and edit it, it all.
Okay.
Jesse Reardon: So at this is what happened.
So it was in Africa and had all these close calls, like Yeah.
Had the elephant thing and had the, uh, almost got eaten by a lion.
Al you know, pretty close calls, you know, did the lake swam with the, the Crocs.
Um, meanwhile my wife was home pregnant with our first child.
Hmm.
So I'm like, so
Travis Bader: your head's there.
Jesse Reardon: Oh yeah, my head's there, but it's the 45 day trip too.
And we were hunting red stag in Turkey and there was like hunting dinosaurs.
It was crazy.
They were like running deer.
And anyways, it was, it was a good push.
I loved it cause I wanted to travel on like the best job ever.
But when you do have, uh, family and.
And, uh, responsibilities.
Mm.
You have to kind of, uh, yeah.
Figure it out.
So that's what I did.
I, I called.
Yeah, we, that's when, um, I said, we need to get a new cameraman on
board and I gotta focus on hunt veers.
Right.
Gotta answer your
Travis Bader: question.
Well, I was just talking about the editing, I guess.
So you had a new cameraman on board
Jesse Reardon: and you're Yeah, so I, I focused more on doing how and lens Okay.
And North America stuff.
I'd film like a little bit, like local trips.
Mm-hmm.
, but going on the dangerous stuff I focused on, uh, just edit.
So basically cameraman would.
You know, Jim would go on these trips and he'd come back and we'd
figure out how many episodes we had to make out of that footage.
Um, back then it was, um, we went from 13 shows a year to 26 shows a year to 20
shows a year, and he was on for 17 years.
Like, that's more in mash?
No, I don't know if MASH was longer than that.
I, I'm trying to think of an old show he'd like, like Mash or
Travis Bader: or like, I think MASH was pretty long, wasn't it?
I don't know.
Married with children.
What would he watch?
Probably, probably more than Married With the children.
Yeah.
I
Jesse Reardon: don.
Um, Al Bundy, but it lasted 17 years.
And
Travis Bader: was it four touchdowns to the single game
Po Kai ? Was that what it was?
Or was the three touchdowns, I dunno,
Jesse Reardon: anyways.
Yeah.
But yeah, edit editing was, um, it was, it was a, you know, that's where
you sit down, you get, you gotta be a healthy, try to stay healthy cuz
I, I, I preferred be in the bush and filming or being out there.
Um, but I also pretty picky editor, um, in terms of telling stories
and just like really chopping down footage and using the good stuff and,
um, entertaining people and telling stories with good music and good cuts.
Yeah.
So
Travis Bader: when you're looking, so good cuts, uh, Establishing shots, wide
angle, uh, zoom in stuff like I, I watch.
Yeah.
Like we're looking around the studio here.
We got a couple little cameras and the camera front and Yeah.
I've tried my hand at doing some filming.
I realize that there's way better people out there at doing that, but I'm sure
if I got some basics of, um, like we did a, a rafting trip down the Thompson,
me and a couple of friends, and we, um, I got a whitewater raft, another
fells, um, did some search and rescue.
So we borrowed their, uh, their rowing frame for it.
Yeah.
And we spent a week just going a hundred K down the river and Sweet.
Yeah.
It was a, uh, where's the
Jesse Reardon: footage?
Travis Bader: Well, it's, it's sitting on my hard drives.
Right.
. Nice.
So actually Cannon had lent me a, uh, a camera at the time.
What?
Yeah, they, they're just based outta here in, in Richmond.
They're, oh yeah.
Nice.
So they're like, oh, you gotta check out this new R six camera and Oh, nice.
I was like, no, no, no.
I, I've been using the 5G Mark four and I had the 5G Mark two before
and said, no, this new digital one, you're really gonna like it.
I don't think they knew I was gonna be taking it for a week,
just floating down a river.
Yeah.
Uh, and then I took it into the Yukon and we took a little
boat down Tesla and, oh, Tesla.
Yeah.
That was, uh, I did do got a nice
Jesse Reardon: moose.
Yeah, I did a Tesla.
I filmed the Tesla moose hunt.
Did you really?
Last year.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
So in 2021.
Yeah.
So buddy of mine, actually, he's just recovering right now.
He's, um, uh, gave us all quite a scare.
He is a helicopter pilot and, uh, yikes.
Uh, anyways, um, a few months ago, he, um, Yeah, I guess it's about a
month and a half now, two months ago.
Um, he's lives in the Yukon.
He was, uh, taking his quad home on the side.
I guess he figured he'd make a splash in the puddle.
And next thing you know, he cracked his skull open.
His, uh, uh, punctured his lung.
Oh, man.
Um, had broke, broken clavicle.
Yeah, no, they had had him intubated for quite a long time and we, we weren't
too sure kind of how that work out.
But, uh, anyways, he's, he's in the recovery stage right now, but
he's helicopter pilot and he says, you know, I've, I've seen this,
um, Uh, cow, moose and previous trips and there's a certain area.
Yeah.
Why, why don't we just take a, our, my little uh, 16 foot Lund
with a little 60 horsepower, two-stroke outboard on this thing.
And uh, we'll take it from the Yukon down to the BC side where you're at and Nice.
Yeah, it was my fast
Jesse Reardon: down the Tesla Uhhuh . Oh,
Travis Bader: nice.
Yeah.
It was the fastest, uh, moose hunt I've ever done.
We got, uh, the hard, hard part was getting all the way out there.
Yeah.
Cuz that lake can pick up.
And, uh, I went up there with my wife and with his partner and he
set up a little camp on a tiny island as our bear protection, even
though a bear could swim over there.
No problem.
But hopefully, hopefully it's a bit of, uh, A deterrent to dispute it.
Oh yeah.
And uh, we're finally, we get out there, we got everything set up we're doing,
just sitting on a little island scope and like, is that a moose over there?
I don't know.
Let's go over.
So we'll do a little, took the boat over to, we call it the mainland and Yeah.
Stocked on over.
Sat down and watched.
No, no, it's not a moose.
Okay.
Waited four hours out.
Waam moose.
There we go.
Cow bull.
Wow.
Yeah.
Nice.
Yeah.
So that was, uh, and that was a long shot.
I probably shouldn't say how long that was on uh, o on the air, but that was
the, uh, the longest shot that I've taken an animal from . And um, it was, um, I
don't, had we known, we had it ranged.
Yeah.
One, one in the party, I won't name names, ranged the.
Uh, arranged the moose and, uh, in inappropriately, maybe they
picked up on something else.
Yeah.
And uh, my wife who spotted it says, well, it's a bit far from me.
I'm like,
Jesse Reardon: probably the cameraman messed it up.
I think it was a cameraman.
Just always blame on the cameraman.
Yeah.
Even if you don't have a camera man.
Actually, I think the person's name is Jesse.
Yeah.
Everyone's a cameraman.
, they messed everything up.
Just use an iPhone.
Travis Bader: Ah, damn camera man.
But that's cool.
Yeah.
Anyways, I look at him, I'm like, ah, looks a little further.
I'm gonna aim higher.
And I just, um, uh, maybe it was luck that I, that I hit it, but, um,
Jesse Reardon: how, how was the pack out?
Travis Bader: Uh, it was, uh, it was a few trips out.
Yeah.
Uh, we were able to, cuz we got that.
Got it.
Uh, got it out, took care of it in the morning.
Yeah.
Um, uh, got it out onto a tarp, dragged all the, the guts away from it in
the hopes that anything, any predator coming by will maybe want that.
Right.
Yeah.
Um, and then made a little, couple fires around it and do our best to
get our scent all over the area.
Yeah.
I come back in the morning, took care of it.
Cuz I mean we were in, you know the area, it's grizzly
Jesse Reardon: country.
Yeah.
First grizzly I ever filmed was on a, on a kill.
That was intense.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
Yeah.
Tell me
Jesse Reardon: about it.
Yeah.
We were with muzzle loader and with a rifle backup and yeah.
It was just the grizzly was sitting there.
Uh, he had, he'd, he'd at that point buried it Okay.
And he could sense us.
So he was sitting there, uh, pounding it mm-hmm.
and he was just sitting there looking out drooling like crazy
cuz he could sense us in there.
And we were in high willows.
Yeah.
Trying to find a, a mound to kind of get a good shot at him.
About 80 yards.
Yeah.
That was intense.
80 yards on the grizzly.
Yeah.
That was the first, first, uh, thing I ever filmed.
First animal I'd ever filmed.
Shock he.
. Travis Bader: Yeah.
Did it go down right away?
Yeah.
Jesse Reardon: Okay.
But pH that was intense.
80 yards is close on it.
Cruise.
Yeah.
Especially with the muzz loader.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
. But yeah.
Uh, you talked about long shots.
Like we always tried for filming.
It was always trying to get close as Right, like tried to keep
it under a hundred if we could.
Cuz we were used to kind, it was kind of like muzz or distance.
Right.
We always tried to try, tried to get to under a hundred except for when
all of a sudden I'd be filming with like a guy with a client and we're
suddenly, they're like 250, 300.
I'm like, dude, we could have
. We
Travis Bader: got, we could have
Jesse Reardon: got closer.
Yeah.
He was coming down to us like we, the winds, you know?
Yeah.
I was always thinking about filming.
Right.
Not hunting until I finally had put, picked up a rifle or a bow myself.
Travis Bader: So yeah.
Jim got you into hunting.
Totally.
What was your first hunt you did with him?
First hunt I did with Jim?
Yeah.
Would would that be your first hunt?
Jesse Reardon: No, no.
I started, he just got me, he, he opened my curiosity to it.
Okay.
And he kind of, uh, helped me appreciate what it was actually about.
Okay.
It was about, you know, going out, having fun.
Um, you learn a lot about the dudes or the, the people you hunt with or the, the
late, you know, your wife or whatever.
Yep.
You learn a lot out there about each other, and your, the phones are way,
the screens are way, and you work for your, for what you, you know,
you work for what you bring mm-hmm.
and you use all the meat, all this stuff.
It was all about that.
So, yeah.
And for me, I've always liked fishing and I, you know, if I catch a salmon,
if I catch a aling cod, if I get a cod on the island here, I'm gonna keep it.
And if I, I usually wanna catch a bigger fish.
Sure.
So it's like, you know, some people want to get a bigger deer.
Okay.
Yep.
You know, they.
They're not necessarily trophy hunting, they're just, they want to enjoy,
like, why would you end your hunt?
Or why would you end your, if fishing open for three months, a year, why would
you like be fished out or hunting it?
Like, you know?
Right.
It's nice to enjoy the hunt and, and I get, it's all about meat and
getting the meat, but it's, uh, yeah.
I don't know where I'm going with that,
Travis Bader: but I, I, well, the actual pulling of the
trigger, that's, that's that.
Jesse Reardon: And yeah.
And there's a lot of responsibility that goes once you do pull that trigger.
Right.
You
Travis Bader: can't call that shot back.
Can't call with shot.
You gotta make sure it's an ethical shot.
You gotta make sure that, uh, you're gonna be able to retrieve and in, in all
Jesse Reardon: the wrecks, deal with everything you Yeah.
Deal with it and make sure everything that you can use gets used and,
but it's a good way to eat.
Travis Bader: It's a fantastic way.
Some of the best meals are just sitting around the campfire.
Yeah.
With a cast iron, some butter and tenderloins and Yeah.
Jesse Reardon: So it's just, it's natural.
Good way to eat.
So yeah, it's almost like, uh, eating healthy in terms of meat.
Travis Bader: But you did a film hunt with Jim, didn't you?
I
Jesse Reardon: did.
So that Shocky finally let me, um, he almost let me hunt
a whitetail like years ago.
Yeah.
Because back then we used to film, um, cameraman and other people, like
kind of that worked with Jim just hunted in Whitetail cuz you could
get a whitetail tag pretty easy.
Right.
So I got one, one season, didn't get anything.
Anyways, he let me, uh, he let me shoot a caribou in the, in the covid year.
And that was a nice fucking caribou.
That was a nice caribou.
It was a Jesse Bowl.
He called it The Jesse Bowl.
Yeah.
Jesse Bowl.
Which is like a, just a nice respectable animal.
Yeah.
, the whole hunt.
It's not a Jimbo.
No, it's not a Jimbo.
I heard about the Jimbo.
He almost put me on a Jimbo.
Yeah.
Actually he did.
Yeah, but wo Joe.
Got it.
Yeah.
It was like a 4 0 4 24 or something.
Yeah.
Mountain Caribou.
Yeah.
But mine was like a nice, Jesse Bulls, like a . Not that you score stuff, but
you know, I, I brought home that meat, the Caribou, and then wo Joe, uh, let
me bring home half, uh, his moose.
So That's okay.
Good stuff.
You know, I'm not, I'm not definitely not a hardcore hunter, but, uh, I
just, you know, enjoy being out there.
It's a good, uh, good thing for the head.
Where was the caribou?
The kids Caribou's Yukon.
Okay.
Up at Jim's camp.
Um, yeah, it was really good.
It was a nice bowl.
It was, yeah, it was nice.
Didn't let me shoot it.
And then we, uh, did a couple episodes on the Shock Therapy with that.
Yeah.
So when Hunt Ventures ended, we, we kind of wanted to, um, figure
out a way to conserve the footage and, uh, you know, rehash it.
So we came up with this concept.
Doing like a podcast like you're doing.
Yeah.
But um, bringing back old guests that were part of Hunted Ventures Yukon
Uncharted, uncharted guides, people that in the industry, and they sit
there and talk with Jim and they rehash the footage that we had on file.
How's Shock Therapy going?
Pretty good.
I think it's going in the season three maybe.
Yeah, I did most of the season one and then a bit of season two I ended my, uh,
career with on, uh, the, I wanted to do the last four Todd Bisson in episodes.
Yeah.
So I did those.
He was Todd Bisson, the guy, the cameraman who filled in when I kind of stepped
down when I, um, started having babies , and, uh, yeah, that was, that was good.
I, I did wanna do the Bojo episodes, but I didn't quite make it there.
Travis Bader: That looks like a, a tough show to edit.
Yeah.
Just because it's cut after cut after cut and then find the right clips to
put in and, and then cut, cut, cut.
Jesse Reardon: In the end, it looks really simple, but.
No, you can keep it super simple, but if you're really trying to, you're basically
trying to match a visual to almost every clip, every two to three seconds.
And then you have to search for it all.
Yeah, search for it.
And then you get to also, we on those, we'd cut into the, uh,
actual episode really quick.
Mm-hmm.
and some of the older shows you're dealing with mixed audio.
Other ones, you're not dealing with mixed audio.
So like you have four channel audio where you could separate the music.
And then other ones you're bringing in music Right.
Attached to like, it's old school, you know?
So
Travis Bader: as, as cameraman, are you also the audio person?
Jesse Reardon: Well, yeah.
For Shocky, for those trips you were, because you were just
like, it was just one cameraman.
For some of the other stuff it was two, but all you just had wireless mic and
shotgun, or you always listen on he.
So yeah, they all for Wow.
For audio guys it was a disaster.
Yeah.
So eventually, like I used to do everything and then like no audio,
like I just submit with my audio mix.
And then eventually we got a audio guy to start mixing the shows.
Yeah.
And then he'd provide us with the, you could separate all the wave files.
Yeah.
So you could separate the mix, you could separate sound effects.
And so I'd get that in the end.
Plus you get the stereo mix, you
Travis Bader: know, very first good stuff.
Episode of the Silvercore podcast that I recorded, it was all single track.
Jesse Reardon: Oh, it's all like, everything's mixed in
Travis Bader: stereo mix stuff.
One single track.
We had three people.
Uh, it was, uh, myself, a couple friends, Paul and Nick, and they're
both retired Vancouver for police.
And when one was talking, the other one was sitting there
breathing in the microphone.
And I couldn't get rid of that because I.
I had it all on one track.
And so right after that I'm like, forget this.
I gotta go out and do multi-track.
Yeah.
But when I first started editing, I know one fellow in particular, visually
you could see on the wave form.
Mm-hmm.
, every time that he would talk, you'd go, oh, no.
Like before he 20, youd see his little tick mark.
Mm-hmm.
. So I'd go through and I'd, I'd remove all the ticks because I wanna make sure that
my guest comes across in the best way or someone's got a lot of ums and ahs.
I'd go through and edit all of those out and fade 'em.
It took forever.
I have a secret for that.
. Okay, let's hear it.
I'm not, I don't do it anymore, but
Jesse Reardon: what's the secret?
Oh, I have to cut out so many ums and ahs still.
What's the secret?
I'm obsessing.
It's those little markers you get.
Oh yeah.
Travis Bader: You can read an, um, you
Jesse Reardon: just mark it, mark the heck of that, that timeline.
Then you go through and chop off the heck of it, and then you go through
delete it all, and then you just take that timeline and you sink it down.
Yeah.
It's a nightmare.
But I mean, I've created a lot of crazy sentence sentences, uh, chopped stuff up.
It's not, I, I wouldn't say edited is very fun.
I'm trying to look at new, uh, new things to do now.
Yeah.
Well,
Travis Bader: um, I guess what I was getting at was, did you find
yourself doing a lot of things that later on you thought like,
why the hell am I doing this?
Like, for me, I would, I would very carefully edit the audio so that no
one could hear where those tick marks, where the ums were or anything else.
So you could see an, um, it looks like a fish.
Yeah.
Essentially in, uh, in audition or in your wave form.
Mm-hmm.
and I'd, and I'd scrub 'em all out.
, but my style changed.
Yeah.
And I figured I'll just talk better and I'll train myself to stop doing that.
Yeah,
Jesse Reardon: nice.
But then you get random guests who say, um, um, um, or they
have a word whisper or something.
Yeah, word whisper.
Yeah.
But yeah, you get, you get kind of good at your craft and I just got
fast that no one I, I got fast cuz so after we had a bunch of cameramen
and you know, Matt Zil really took on seven, eight years of filming Shocky.
Yeah.
He's probably like, he's like, he's probably the goat.
Yeah.
He's, he's next level.
He's got a wicked uh, yeah, he's really good.
Anyways, so you get used to working with the camera has footage, right?
Yeah.
So you get really quick at your job, you get really quick at chopping Jim up, you
know, but when you get the random guy.
, then
Travis Bader: it's, you just
Jesse Reardon: have a, that process that just
Travis Bader: What about a 32 bit float?
Is that, uh, something you use in your
Jesse Reardon: audio or No?
I, I, I send my audio to the audio guy now.
Oh.
But I do get smart.
I don't like, I still for, for sh the show I did.
Yeah.
Okay.
So he'd get the final, next, Mixo is perfect for tv.
Awesome.
So he'd blend everything nice together.
Yeah.
But I'd still get a good blend.
But to me it sounded good.
. Travis Bader: Yeah.
What, what would you tell somebody if they want to go out there and start kind
of filming their own, any equipment?
What are the, what are the must haves?
Jesse Reardon: Hmm.
Well, definitely good gear for the weather.
Travis Bader: Okay.
, like a GoPro there.
Waterproof
Jesse Reardon: or, well, no.
Yeah, so I mean, yeah.
You know, GoPro, I didn't use much.
I mean, if you can get a good GoPro mount for sure.
Set that up as a wide angle, but.
Honestly, you could, you could, honestly, the iPhones are so good
these days, but I wouldn't say that.
But it depends.
If you're a Cannon guy, Sony guy, I use the Sonys now.
So the Sony a S 73 is pretty good.
And yeah, Sony FX six and Sony Fs, this and that.
Just cuz
Travis Bader: you got into their system.
Jesse Reardon: Yeah.
Rid that.
But the biggest thing is just documenting and telling the story.
Mm-hmm.
. And then when you see the wildlife, don't spook it and, uh, try and
capture the best of your abilities, but the B and getting good audio.
So you need, you need that wireless mic.
Yeah.
And you need sound bites in, in the field.
Like if you got, if you're doing it properly, like if you went on
the Yukon, you could sit down and interview everybody now, right?
Mm-hmm.
. Or you can sit down and interview during the trip.
Now you got stuff to put your footage on with music.
Right.
Otherwise you don't have good audio, good talking.
You got just, it's like a montage at that point.
That's a good point.
You gotta tell a story.
That's a good point.
You gotta interview and then if you get, if you interview
while they're out there mm-hmm.
. while you're getting the reels where they come back.
It's kind of contrived reality
Travis Bader: where it's a brilliant point.
I don't know why I didn't think about that.
So I got a whole bunch of footage without any interview on it.
So you Yeah, you, how are you gonna make I'm not gonna do, that's why it's sitting
Jesse Reardon: on a hard drive.
Yeah.
So if you have sound bites, sound bites are good.
Yeah.
That's what you need sound bites.
Okay.
But good quality, like this is good sound bite.
Yeah.
But if you have a wireless mic on somebody out there, but it, yeah.
Travis Bader: I got lab mics.
I just have to bring
Jesse Reardon: them, bring 'em and then just sit down during
the day or whatever and say, Hey guys, I just wanna interview you.
Huh.
Downtime or whatever.
Or get 'em to do a diary
Travis Bader: camera every day.
I wonder if there'd be any interest in that.
I mean, I was just doing it for my own personal interest and nothing
that I think, yeah, I probably would.
Who knows?
I'll uh, play around a bit, maybe get
Jesse Reardon: an interview cuz then you had
Travis Bader: sound bites.
That's a good idea.
So what's the craziest Jim Shocky story that you're allowed to share?
Jesse Reardon: Mm.
I think Cody Robbins, he, uh, he was at Bear Camp and he brought his underwear.
. Like he had his Bear Camp underwear and he like, I think he wrapped Jim's pillow in
it when Jim came back from Bear Camp Kind.
Oh my God.
It was like a two week old pair of underwear and he put it in
Jim's pillow and I think Jim might have slept on it for a few days.
So , no, I don't have any crazy gym stories.
I mean, kind of a couple funny ones, but I don't know if I can tell 'em.
Yeah, they, he was, he was class act though.
He was always good.
Um, I was always panicking about missing the shot and stuff like that in Turkey.
I remember waking up to him saying, are you on him?
I was like, what?
You, you woke up?
I woke up.
Cause it was totally jet leg and we were, they were pushing bush and for
Turkey and yeah, get these deer out.
I'm like, that's not gonna, we're not gonna get a deer.
We haven't seen a deer in five days.
Anyways, I just fell asleep and I just wake up to Jim saying, are you on him?
Are you on him?
I'm like, what?
The good answer is yes, I am.
So yeah, there's a couple good stories, but um, . Yeah.
I really liked the, uh, Howell and stuff was my favorite stuff
to film, and it's fun to watch.
It was fun to watch, and they were genuine.
Um, I learned a lot from them and yeah,
Travis Bader: it was good.
They seemed to really like each other.
Jesse Reardon: They did, and they, we'd, we kind of feed 'em a
bit of, kind of bit of lines and they'd roll with it, but Okay.
But , they were just, they were just, they were very humble man.
So yeah, that's what made 'em legit.
And they, and they loved, uh, the outdoors and hunting, even though
they hunted in their jeans and.
Lumber
Travis Bader: jacket more edible, have been taken in blue jeans
and plaid jackets and have in any fancy goretex, I'm sure of that.
Totally,
Jesse Reardon: totally.
And, and so now I'm working on, I've done a bit of work with Manny
Wild, which is a, a new TV series.
He's going to season two right
Travis Bader: now.
Tell me about that one, because I, I've been seeing that in the periphery.
Guy looks pretty hardcore.
Jesse Reardon: He's totally hardcore.
He is legit.
Yeah.
He's, uh, I think he's Greek and he is from, uh, Australia.
Born and raised in Australia, but he is like a restaurateur.
He had like Michelin star restaurants and Wow.
He, guidance services and all that.
And so he fishes and hunts all around the world, but at the end of each chef.
So he, he cooks at like master chef, like Gordon Ramsey style.
That's cool.
On the spot.
That's really cool.
And it's good.
And he's, and he is legit.
So he's doing that.
And I've been, I was able to go film, uh, in the Idaho with, uh, Chuck Liddell.
Yeah.
Which was weird.
Yeah.
Uh, Rocky Mountains.
Yeah.
Chuck Liddell horseback.
And that was, that was pretty funny.
. Travis Bader: I, I like that whole concept of, uh, incorporating the
food, the cooking part into the Yeah.
The hunt, because that's, that's such a big part of the conversation
when it comes into hunting.
I know Kevin Cowin and Paul Rodowski, they've got a show,
uh, from the Wild mm-hmm.
and it's, um, it's a really good one.
And they got, uh,
Jesse Reardon: is that the one that's on
Travis Bader: your link tree?
You got it.
Yeah.
And Les Strode.
Um,
Jesse Reardon: yeah, that's, that show looks really good.
It's awesome.
I, I only saw the trailer cuz I just saw it like
Travis Bader: yesterday.
I love those yesterday guys.
They're su, super down to earth and, uh, Chris Paul Rogowski,
he's got, um, uh, I don't know if it's a Michelin star, but it's an
award-winning, it's a Rouge restaurant.
Um, an award-winning restaurant.
He's a chef and yeah, of course everyone knows the survivor
man, Les Stroud and yeah.
Kevin Cowin.
He use beautiful cinematography that he puts together.
Yeah.
Jesse Reardon: So it's like the Yeah.
The, the look and feel.
That show is epic.
So those guys are using good cameras, like so they're documenting the
outdoors with Yeah, but don't,
Travis Bader: don't at the cameras.
Honestly, I talking with Kevin, I, I don't get the sense that they're
going too crazy with the cameras.
Like they got, you know, got a couple good cameras out there.
It's, but it's about the shot composition and about, uh, having a good eye for it.
Yeah.
Which he, he does,
Jesse Reardon: right.
Just like, and then telling the story with the editing too, right?
Yeah.
And they have interviews.
They have interviews.
Look at that trailer.
It's all interviews.
Yes, they do.
They have interviews.
It's interviews with music, and then smart, the nice cuts on top.
Travis Bader: So having that food portion of the whole thing, I think
reaches just a, a primal level in people, but a much wider audience as well.
And it introduces the concept of hunting as opposed to co-opting that
responsibility onto a butcher or, or an ABA avatar or somewhere else.
Mm-hmm.
, uh, of the more intimate relationship with the food essentially, and
that whole story that goes with it.
I really like that concept.
So I'm
Jesse Reardon: No, it's a good concept.
And honestly like, um, I came into this green, right?
Yeah.
I liked fishing.
I just go to the store and buy my meat.
Yeah.
Um, my wife's a vegetarian.
. She's not like hardcore vegan, like, but yeah, she's a vegetarian,
but she eats, uh, like fish.
Okay.
Um, but she gets it.
Yeah.
Like she understands why hunting is good.
Yeah.
And it works if it's done.
Uh, not a, like, you know, all these guys think of hunters as
these typical crazy rednecks.
Yeah.
Sorry, I shouldn't say that.
They're shooting their guns off and drinking beers, you know, I mean,
there, there are those guys out there.
It does happen.
But that's not a hunter.
No, no.
That's just someone partying and having fun who's allowed to have Right.
But, but yeah, it's, yeah.
It's all part of clean eating really.
And it's, um, I think it's pretty cool to see these cooks,
like you mentioned, do that.
Yeah.
Like, cuz I love cooking.
I, you know, my, I'm always getting in trouble for like, using extra ingredients.
I'm like, well we have cilantro, we have this one we're not throwing on.
It looks good too.
Right.
So it's nice to Yeah.
So I, I can get behind someone who's do has, you know, That behind it about
getting the animal and then showing a wicked meal you can make with it and, and
then using it, giving it to the community.
Travis Bader: I, I think that's the vehicle to the masses.
Mm-hmm.
, I mean, for those who would be, uh, anti-hunting or against hunting.
Yeah.
And rather than always preaching to the choir.
Yeah.
That food section.
Uh, Hank Shaw, I don't know if you've ever, uh, read some of his stuff.
He's got a James Beard award-winning website.
Uh, no, I'll check it out.
Blog.
Yeah.
He's, uh, hunter Angler.
Gardener Cook or Chef Hunter Angler Garden.
Yeah.
Honest food.net, I think is what his, uh, website's called.
Yeah.
Um, does a fantastic job.
Him and his and his partner, Holly, just both photographing
and documenting, writing about the process of procuring wild food.
It, and I think it's popularity that he has there is because it's not just about
hunting, it's not just about fishing.
It's not just, but it's about that whole process and how we're connected to it.
Yeah.
Jesse Reardon: It's kind of a lifestyle too, right?
It's a lifestyle choice.
Like some people aren't into it.
Like, trust me, I love going to Costco.
Sure.
The steelhead there is great.
Yeah.
and it's farmed, but I don't know.
, is that bad?
I think it's farmed.
I don't know.
But it's good.
It's like good steelhead, but I can't, I can fish steelhead on
the island, but I can't keep 'em.
Right.
So anyways, but I, I, I don't mind going to, yeah, I, I don't mind going to
get, you know, salmon flas or something like Costco or Meat flas, but you
Travis Bader: talk about the lifestyle, but I think everyone's got a lifestyle of.
eating and drinking.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah.
Right.
Jesse Reardon: They, they want, but they, they can just go to the
store and buy the meat and Yeah.
And then they're like, well, I can't believe you'd hunt, like you'd shoot that.
I'm like, well, it's like you just went like, can I see your freezer?
And you're like, where'd you get this?
Like, where'd that come from?
And Right.
What someone had to shoot things like, they didn't have that freedom
of life that these wild game have.
So it's tricky.
It's a tricky one to sometimes work with.
Um, yeah.
Travis Bader: So where do you see yourself
Jesse Reardon: in the future?
Well, you know, I had, I've always had this concept in my head.
I, I, I don't quite know how I'm gonna pull it off, but I've made TV for
lots of years and, and, uh, worked for these guys making their shows
or helping 'em make their shows.
But, you know, I've always kind of had in the back of my head some sort
of phish and show idea, but I just, ah, just don't know if, uh, you know,
the, the logistics of, uh, of getting something going are, are tricky, but,
You know, like I, I remember growing up fishing a lot, right.
And, uh, everyone usually when Yeah, like fishing, fishing with my dad.
Yeah.
Right.
And again, fishing with my dad was more my dad drinking with his buddies,
and I'm holding the fishing rod.
Unfortunately, for me, that's what it was.
Right.
And, uh, I also just went back to Ontario this summer and I revisited some of
the spots my grandpa used to take me.
Mm-hmm.
, but he'd, he always packed a fishing rod.
He'd throw me at a lake, he'd throw me at this.
He'd say, just go fish.
Yeah.
So I didn't really learn.
So then I had kids and I was like, man, take my kids fishing.
This is awesome.
Yeah, yeah.
But I quickly realized I, I really didn't learn much from my dad.
I didn't really learn how to fish.
Right.
So, fishing with dad is the kind of concept and telling people's stories of
how, because how did you learn to fish?
Travis Bader: Well that growing up we had a, um, we call it a
commercial fly fishing lodge.
It had a commercial license on it.
Yeah.
But it was never run commercially.
It was, um, uh, a geological lawyer, uh, who was good family friend, a uh, fellow.
He owned a sporty goods store, stored other one owned, I think it's we Canada's
largest, uh, um, brokerage company.
And, uh, . What did the other one do?
I forget.
Anyways, there's, there's four of them involved and they're, they're
family friends and invite us up.
And then at one point, one left and, uh, gave us the opportunity.
My family bought into a fly fishing lodge, so Oh, sweet.
But for me, fly fishing was, you put the fly on the end, or if nobody's
looking, you put like, I don't know, a, uh, a treble hook or a,
uh, a spinner or something on there.
Yeah.
And you just troll behind the boat with your fly rod out there.
Yeah, that was fly fishing.
I had no real idea how to cast properly or how fly fishing's an art.
Oh, totally is.
And it's only in recent years that I've really started to, uh,
kind of learn more about that.
Yeah.
But.
Like most things, if you're gonna learn to hunt, you're gonna learn to fish.
It's going to probably because a family member most likely has
taken you out and shown you.
Yeah.
And previously it was a male dominated activity.
Yeah.
And so it was usually like a father or an uncle or grandfather would take you out.
Now it's the both for sure.
Yeah.
I mean, like one of the best anglers of the world we know provoke.
Yeah.
You got it.
Right.
Jesse Reardon: That's where I learned about fly fishing cast, cuz
we went to film her, the idea was to film her teaching how to cast.
Right.
Cast.
Remember that?
And man, that was, uh, next level.
That one.
Yeah.
And we filmed for three or four days and we finally put it out.
She was six months pregnant or something too.
Wow.
But um, yeah, it's uh, definitely an art.
And I mean, the idea for a fishing show, I, I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna
pull it off, but in my brain I'm, I'm starting in Hai Gwaii and I'm going to
newfound and learned to fish with my kids.
Travis Bader: That'd be an amazing show.
Yeah.
Are you
Jesse Reardon: kidding?
Needs to be filmed too.
And the thing is, I know how to film it.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
And the story behind that.
Yeah.
Because you have that background where you wish you knew how to do it.
Only
Jesse Reardon: we had sponsors.
Travis Bader: Just need a couple
Jesse Reardon: sponsors.
Huh?
I don't know how to do it.
No.
I'm think honestly thinking about sell my house and do it.
Yeah.
But don't tell my kids.
Well,
Travis Bader: honestly, what do they say if you build it?
They'll come.
Jesse Reardon: Yeah, I could always come back to the island in year if didn't
work out, but I'll have the footage.
Travis Bader: If you have that feeling in your heart, that little
Jesse Reardon: province, you try the lake, river Ocean along the way, you're
Travis Bader: gonna regret it.
If you don't, can you imagine?
Yeah,
Jesse Reardon: that would be Haua.
Hit Newfoundland at the end.
Have you fished Haua?
Uh, I went on a boat once with a friend of mine yet.
Yeah.
And we tried fishing.
Didn't catch anything, but I did deer hunt there.
Yeah.
Travis Bader: Yeah.
That was awesome.
I hear it's on scene.
I've never been, I'd love to go there.
They're allowed 10
Jesse Reardon: tags, but there's deer every.
Travis Bader: Is it 10 or 15 ? It's crazy.
The number might
Jesse Reardon: 15 and it's not, they're not, there's a lot of deer there.
Yeah, I did Hawaii too.
Filmed an axis.
Deer hunting.
You've accessed in Hawaii.
Which island?
Uh, Maui.
Okay.
With Shane.
Dorian.
He's a pro surfer.
That was a movie's wild that I'm gonna have to watch that one.
That was one of the, uh, I'd like to re-edit it.
I didn't edit it.
No, but it's fine.
They did great.
Yeah.
. But I think MAF said there's so much footage.
They did a great job considering all the footage that was given to them.
MAF said,
Travis Bader: um, yeah, access Deer.
Is that difficult to, to do for a non-resident?
Like if I wanted to?
Uh,
Jesse Reardon: I think it's pretty, I don't know.
I, I, I think there's a bit of logistics, but not bad.
You, you need permission on you.
You might have to go with an outfit or some sort.
Right.
Okay.
Or you need permission through someone you know who has a far, like, we're
on some wicked huge chunk of land.
They don't have it
Travis Bader: beside ton of access to you over there, do they?
Jesse Reardon: Yeah.
Do they, there's like 60,000 on Maui.
Travis Bader: Is there?
Really?
I, I know nothing about 'em.
I just, it's like
Jesse Reardon: Salt Spring Island with 60,000 deer on it.
Oh
Travis Bader: my God.
They'd be getting So over here you've heard about the guys that come with a
helicopter and they'll do culling for
Jesse Reardon: Uh, yeah.
Unfortunately.
But yeah, they have to do it.
You
Travis Bader: do?
Yeah.
For the non-native
Jesse Reardon: dear in, I'd love to go hunt fallow deer in Sydney.
That'd be fun.
That'd be
Travis Bader: cool.
Yeah.
They typically get guys out of New Zealand to do it.
Yeah.
And I
Jesse Reardon: worked with a lot of Kiwis.
Are you allowed to say that?
Yeah.
Kiwis they call sells it.
Yeah.
Travis Bader: Yeah, they're awesome.
Funny.
A buddy of mine, he says, you know, I don't know why they keep getting the Kiwis
to go and do this cuz we trained them on how to do this back in the seventies.
Yeah.
The Canadians trained the Kiwis apparently on the, uh, shooting from
helicopters back in the seventies.
Huh.
And uh, recently speaking with them, uh, cuz there's some more work in
progress, I'm like, hold on a second.
Why, why don't we have Canadians in there?
And they said, well, we put it out to tender and we only had five
different companies come on back.
And not one of 'em was Canadian.
Huh.
Interesting.
. It's like, well, if I knew about that, I probably would've put a bid in even
though, oh, uh, my, my shooting from helicopters is pretty limited by limited.
I've never shot from a helicopter , but
Jesse Reardon: I think it's probably an art for sure.
Travis Bader: Well, I, we used to have to take a helicopter into the cabin.
Yeah.
First of season, get all the old stuff out, new stuff in,
cuz it was flying or hiking.
And I'd always try and talk the pilot into just, can you let me jump into the lake?
Can I just like, can you hover over and just let me jump in?
And he's like, Nope, it's okay.
What if I put a rope and I just kinda lower myself down?
That would be okay.
Right?
Nope.
So my dream of jumping out of a helicopter is still unfulfilled.
I might have to, um, it might happen.
It might, you need to put your mind to it.
I'm gonna put it out there.
Maybe
Jesse Reardon: we can rectify that.
Yeah, I get that sponsored and the, and then the trip from Haida Gwai,
Travis Bader: Newfoundland.
That's maybe you just jump out of the helicopter out in Haida Gwaii and
Jesse Reardon: then Yeah.
Start there.
Yeah.
There you go.
I'll do, yeah.
Didn't.
Will Smith bungee outta that?
Did he I think he buned out of a helicopter.
I've
Travis Bader: never had anyways, burning desire to bungee jump.
No, I meer It just doesn't seem to have any level of practicality behind it.
Uh, no.
Jesse Reardon: Yeah, no.
Not now that I'm 43 with kids.
, Travis Bader: nothing makes you recognize your own mortality like having children.
Right.
Jesse Reardon: Dear goodness.
Yeah, totally
Travis Bader: full on.
So they're gonna be getting older.
Yeah.
Uh, you're gonna have to get on this show
Jesse Reardon: pretty quick.
Well, they're so my oldest, he's learning the hunt.
He's got a hunted license and stuff, so.
Yeah.
I mean, that's what I mean.
That's like, I gotta jump on this.
Yeah.
And I'm gonna, I, you know, It's a crazy idea in my head because my, when I moved
to the island, my dad's buddy, his name was Dave Plumer, we'd always go out on
his boat and he was like the old guy who like fixed his own stuff and then
his boat always was gonna break down.
It was always like a problem and always, always, always.
But he taught me how to fish for cod out here.
Pretty good.
Yeah.
You know, I've gotten good at fishing cod and stuff, but I've never, it'd be
fun to just document me with the boys starting one and hitting like every,
not every, but hitting spots in each province along the way and really trying
to fish and learn from the locals.
Like giving it kind of that Canadian local, like find the hardcore
guy or the right this like, you know, indigenous groups or Yeah.
Whatever.
Yeah, exactly.
Along the way.
And then work with them for a few days fishing, learning their
ways, and then, oh, lot fish.
And then go to next province.
And that's all the crazy road trip
Travis Bader: and stuff too.
We should talk after this recording because I might
have a, uh, contact for you.
Yeah, we should.
Yeah.
Um, do you have tips on, uh, fish and link?
Jesse Reardon: Uh, , uh, people.
It's my ADHD . I go fishing with guys and I'm like, you gotta fish those
hard, uh, the good hard reefs for sure.
Yeah.
I mean, lots of guys catch 'em really deep too.
Yeah.
The big guys really deep, but 2, 2, 200 plus reefs.
But I always like to fish those, uh, reefs at like, um, 30 to 65 or 65 to a hundred.
Yeah.
Um, but , my adhd, like, I'll drift a spot really quick on my,
I'm like, oh, there's noling here.
And we'd come back real quick now and we'd try another reef, trying another reef.
The guys like, they always freak out that I'm moving too quick.
Yeah.
But I, I learned from the old guy, Dave Plumber, like, he's like, oh,
there's no fish here if you're, if you don't bite the first 20
minutes or 10 minutes or whatever.
I've heard the
Travis Bader: same thing.
Right.
Jesse Reardon: Just move.
Like it's linger aggressive.
That's right.
If you're in that hole and it's, you give it a couple whirls.
But yeah, I don't know.
I'm impatient, I guess.
And that's what I learned big saying I learned about hunting was, uh, patience.
Okay.
Travis Bader: So, um, Uh, still hunting, uh, laying up, um, stalking.
What, what do you find to be out of all?
Like, if you were just a kind of, you, you've been on so many different
hunts, so many different animals.
Jesse Reardon: Wow.
The hardest thing to do is, and shockey's, I always think
of sh what would Shockey do?
But, uh, the hardest thing to do is just sit and wait for
the animal to come to you.
Mm-hmm.
, because you know it's gonna pass through at some point.
If you sit at the wind and blah, blah, blah.
Often we would, sometimes, cuz you know, you're gonna make a bunch
of noise on the stock or whatever.
Like, sometimes you just gotta figure out or hope for the best and
set up, wait for it to come to you.
Travis Bader: And how long will you often wait for?
Oh
Jesse Reardon: man.
Me or you or Jim?
I'm a little impatient.
He'd wait, he'd wait, he'd wait 21 days if you wanted, like, yep.
Oh yeah.
Travis Bader: Okay.
Yeah.
So, so, uh, not me buddy of mine says, well, let's go for a.
and he says, I haven't, I haven't gotten a bear before.
You wanna go in a bear hunt?
I'm like, sure.
Not a problem.
I mean, there's some, there's effective tactics to getting
bears said can be spot in
Jesse Reardon: stock,
Travis Bader: especially Right.
Spot in stock, right?
Yeah.
I mean, uh, just,
Jesse Reardon: or depends on the animal, on the weight thing too.
Yeah.
Because spot and stock is awesome.
Yeah.
Travis Bader: So, but he's from the UK and has a background in, um, hunting
deer in the, in, its, uh, you know, you're, you're deer stalking, right?
And you're, you're walking around for these things, which is awesome.
Which, which is awesome.
But it, it was a, uh, I said, well, I'll come on with you.
We can try it out.
Right.
It was a different sort of approach to bear hunting that, um, it was interesting.
And finally we're like, you know, like, what would you do if you saw one
just as you're coming around a corner?
Because the thing will take off on you.
Yeah.
Will you have time to identify it and see if that's when you
want, if it's got cubs or not?
I'm like, for me, I, I prefer to, I'll walk a logging road because.
Springtime they're gonna be out there or you'll be in an area
where they're gonna be Yeah.
Likely and just set up and wait.
Maybe use a predator call and have your head on a swivel
. Jesse Reardon: Yeah.
Spot in stock bears was, I filmed a lot of those Hunts up
island cuz Jim was a outfit.
E outfitted north, northern island.
Okay.
And uh, yeah, those were um, yeah, lots of spot in stock and just getting
high up glassing, watching the, the big deactivated logging roads.
Mm-hmm.
looking for that sign.
Yeah.
You know?
Sure.
But for bears it was always good win.
Yes.
And uh, yeah,
Travis Bader: it was always good.
What was your favorite thing to film?
Jesse Reardon: Well, I gotta say film and moose and Yukon is up there.
The right is pretty unreal.
. Yeah.
But honestly, I think it'd be the same with elk.
That's why there's crazy elk.
I didn't get many on many good elk hunts where I had like, good, like,
ru and animals come, come to you.
Mm.
I love the blacktail on the island because there is some big bucks
out there and, but they're just so nocturnals, they're just hard to hunt.
But, um, yeah, moose was pretty epic.
Yeah.
Africa stuff was cool, but, um, you know, jungles of Cameroon was pretty intense.
The bongo, that was a, that was a really cool hunt.
Yeah.
Bongo, it's, they're cool looking animal antelope.
Yeah.
Really cool animal.
Yeah.
Little stripes in the North America.
It's definitely
Travis Bader: moose.
Moose, eh?
Mm-hmm.
. Well, I think, uh, so the, the closest thing to a Yukon moose hunt would be the
Tesla one, but just on the BC side, um, I'd love to do a full on Yukon moose hunt.
Yeah.
Maybe I should, uh, I should look at that for, uh, next season or two.
See what we can do.
I had,
Jesse Reardon: I filmed for, uh, uh, Yukon Harvest.
Okay.
It's on aptn.
Yeah.
I filmed one of the hunts for that.
Yeah.
On the Tesla there.
And, uh, that harvest shot was a disaster.
But I In what way?
. . Like, well, , yeah.
It was not, not the best.
It was from the boat on, on a river, which is legal.
And yeah, I, everything was done legally, of course.
Um, but the boat, the guide got excited.
So the, and we're drifted on a river, right?
So he is not, the boat is turning.
Mm.
so the hunter's even going, he's moving with, so I'm
Travis Bader: trying to get outta the way of that
Jesse Reardon: muscle.
And I'm also trying to Oh yeah.
Also trying to film the, uh, thing.
Yeah.
. Anyways, it was a good story.
It was a, it was a 13 year old boy.
It was, uh, his first moose hunt with his father and this mentor, and it was a,
for the native Native, it was very, yeah.
That's cool.
It's really cool.
Series Yukon Harvest.
Travis Bader: Huh?
Is there anything that we should be talking about that we haven't covered yet?
I think we've been pretty good.
Jesse Reardon: Hey.
Yeah.
You know, I think, I feel.
Travis Bader: Okay.
Well I'm gonna Thank you.
I'm gonna throw some links up to some of the videos if people want to see
more about you and some of the work you've done and yeah, some of the
stuff with, uh, shock therapy and, and Jim Shocky and I'll put it out there.
If the listeners, anyone has ideas of, uh, perhaps sponsors for Jesse,
if they'd like, if they'd like to see a, uh, yeah man, I'll film it.
Cross Canada fishing trip.
Cuz personally I think it sounds fantastic.
There are so many people
Jesse Reardon: go with the boys
Travis Bader: learn to fish, right?
So many people who want to learn how to hunt or fish and they
never had that opportunity.
Yeah.
But with today's day and age of YouTube and social media and the rest, yeah.
It's kind of like that teacher that you never
Jesse Reardon: have.
Well, I was gonna kind of do some YouTube, uh, posts as I go through.
And also like when I'm in these crazy pockets where there's like an epic
little fishing community, I'm gonna find the father son duo and I'm gonna
spend a day with them and learn why.
You know they're in that area and they go fish with them
for they document their date.
That's amazing.
And then they teach my boys, and then they teach me ultimately
to teach my boys how to fish.
Right.
That's amazing.
That's where we learn from our dads or grandpa,
Travis Bader: sorry, family dads.
Yeah.
Jesse, thank you very much for being on the Silvercore podcast.
Yeah, thanks
Jesse Reardon: for having me.
Sorry it took to you so long and I picked the worst day in DC to be here.
No, I mean, it's supposed to get worse tomorrow.
Hey, it's minus six here guys.
You guys in Alberta got nothing.
. Travis Bader: Yeah, right.
Jesse Reardon: Thank you all.