There’s one young entrepreneur in Norway Bay who is doing what many adults can only dream of, as he combines his passion for sport with money-making opportunities.
Starting out with a simple aluminum boat and electric motor three years ago, Noa Hill would take younger kids out onto the Ottawa River and teach them how to fish.
Every summer since, his selection of equipment and his own expertise would grow better, allowing him to offer a bit more to his customers.
However, beginning this year, 15-year-old Hill decided he wanted everything to grow bigger. So, he made a few changes: he brought in a trusted friend as a co-worker, enlisted his cousin to design a website, and even bought a bigger boat.
Now, he offers his experience on the river under the name of Norway Bay Fishing, and well, Hill describes what he does best.
“It is basically just a fishing charter business,” he explained. “Charter meaning I take people out fishing, whether it’s kids, adults, elderly, it doesn’t matter – any age. If they’re amateurs to fishing, we will teach them how to fish, teach you everything you need to know, [like] how to tie on a lure, how to spool your rod, how to cast, how to reel in a fish properly, everything you need to know about fishing. But we also take people that are experts at fishing.”
For those who have been fishing their whole lives, Hill offers a more tailored trip. If the customer hasn’t had the chance to catch a muskie, he can take them out to some of the best spots on the river to do so. The same goes for walleye, pike and the whole offerings, but muskie tend to be the popular request.

One such request came recently when he was booked by two men who had been regularly fishing off the Norway Bay Pier.
“They wanted to go and catch a muskie,” said Hill. “I said, ‘Well, alright, we can try.’ Every time I take someone out muskie fishing, I can’t guarantee a muskie – they’re called the fish of 10,000 casts … We can go out four hours and not see anything or we can go out and get two or three.”
Sure enough, these two were not having much luck with Hill during their three-hour trip. Disappointed, but not discouraged, they were trolling back with just five minutes left on the clock when the customer’s line grew heavy. There was something on it and it was putting up a fight.
As the top water lure drew closer to the boat, they caught a glimpse of the prize. The muskie jumped straight out of the water and was hooked on, and the fishermen’s excitement grew.
Then, it was gone. The fish, estimated to be around 46”, had snapped the line and escaped. Nonetheless, Hill sent his customers home with a story to tell.
It’s that level of excitement that Hill loves so much about the sport and combined with his own passion for fishing, has kept customers returning each year.
One such story began when he first started offering his expertise to the younger kids in the Bay. Hill had taken a seven-year-old out and together they caught a pike.
Now that Hill had all of his new equipment, including new rods, technology, and a new boat complete with a 40-HP motor, that same customer returned this year and brought along his friend.
“We went out fishing and they booked an hour, and we caught eight fish, from bass, pike and walleye,” said Hill. “It was a great day [for] fishing … And then, the dad calls me that night and he asks, ‘Are you available tomorrow morning? They want to go back out.’”
For Hill, he knows the allure to children and adults alike. He knows there’s a certain level of excitement that comes with pulling a fish out of the river, especially the more monstrous the fish appears.
“A lot of kids catch bass, mostly sunfish,” said Hill, of the young ones casting off the pier. “But to hook into a pike, just a normal-sized pike, that has teeth and it’s scary, more powerful, they love that.”
It’s very much what got him into the sport, too.
Starting out at two-years-old, his dad taught him how to cast his first rod off the end of the dock at their cottage in the bay. As he returned each summer, he’d grow a little bolder, until at eight, he began taking the row boat out himself into a canal near their cottage, and he’d soon land pike after pike.
Soon enough, he was the big fish in the little canal and his curiosity with the entire world of fishing led him into researching extensively on the internet.
“My dad, he’s not the biggest fisherman, so I had to take my passion to the next level,” said Hill. “The way I did that was all through the internet. I did tons of research on all sorts of fishing during the spring, summer, fall … I watched tons of YouTube videos. YouTube basically was the one who taught me how to become really good at fishing.”
It was soon after this that he got the confidence to start the chartered trips when he was just 12.
“When I was 12 years-old, I had a little aluminum boat, and a little electric motor,” he said. “I thought, ‘Okay, I want to make a few bucks and I want to buy some stuff, but how can I do that?’ I just thought, what’s a good way to make money, [because] I don’t want to actually work.”
He’s kept that mentality going every summer since and it’s an attitude that helps keep every trip exciting for the customers and their guide.
But what about his work has made him so successful as a guide? Well, having done the research on what should work best, he has taken every opportunity to discover what actually works for him.
For example, having learned that muskies like to hide in weed beds, he took to the river to find such spots. Then, he would keep an eye out for other fishermen, especially the ones reeling in something big, and commit those spots to memory, too.
But he doesn’t reserve his research and tech use for his days on land. Hill often refers to apps on his phone for the locations of potentially disastrous rocks and varying water depths, something he has studied so well, it seemed like he had committed the charts to memory.
Also, he admits, he’s not going to waste his time casting into the same spot over and over again.
Hill is a constantly moving fisherman, who prefers to troll about than waste his time in one location.
“I’m not a person to wait around,” said Hill. “If I’m in a spot and I cast somewhere, I’m not going to cast there again because I know there were no fish, so I move on.”
One of his favourite methods, especially with customers eager to catch lots of different fish, is to ride the break line close to the pier. Especially with bigger groups, he explained, this is an opportunity for everyone to catch something. Hill will have the customers rotate turns on the rods he’s set up and often enough, this will lead to much excitement.
But, he highlights, he doesn’t leave his customers in the dark with how the outing was so successful. Hill always prefers to explain what he’s doing and why, for an all-around better experience.
“Everytime I go out fishing, no matter who it is, I always try to explain almost anything I can,” said Hill. “Like why we’re fishing here, what we’re using, what the fish are doing. From boat to fishing to tackle to the weather and people enjoy that.”
At just 15, this first job he’s carved out for himself has proven quite lucrative, allowing him to afford better equipment each year. He’s confident in his ability, emboldened by repeat customers, and appreciative of the community, from whom he’s only heard good things about his work.
But as he grows older, he knows there won’t be a college or university program that lets him sit on his boat and cast a rod all day, so he keeps his expectations tempered. Hill has ambitions of going into graphic and web design, like his cousin, who designed the website norwaybayfishing.ca for him.
Still, Hill has hopes that he can continue to offer his chartered trips every summer, with a goal of expanding his customer base further out than to just the bay. Targeting the Ottawa area initially, where he spends his winters further studying fishing online, he knows there’s potential for the trips to appeal to people the world over.
“I want to find a way to bring people from even around the world,” said Hill, of his aspirations for the business. “I want to be able to provide almost like a few overnight things, provide meals, everything. You can charge over a thousand dollars if it’s a group of people.”
How does he plan to do this? Through his ever-popular muskie trip.
“That’s where the big money’s at,” he said. “There’s rich people that want to catch a muskie. They’ll do anything they can to catch a muskie.”
For now, as the season winds down and high school starts up again, Hill will be found out on the river during weekends until the ice starts to form. Not a fan of ice fishing (too cold and too much sitting in one spot) he’ll then anxiously await the big thaw, so he can get his boat on the water and continue doing what he loves.
“I hope to be doing this fishing every summer because it’s making me more money than I would just working at McDonald’s,” said Hill.